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My hammock

 Super cool house destroyed during the war

 Weird Spider?

ScHoolboy Q

Hey Fam, what's up?

This week was a great and normal week. Nothing too eventful happened but the area is beginning to improve small small. 

On Tuesday we taught a few people, but there is one woman named Elaine that we teach that just gives us hard time. So many Liberians love the Bible, which is great, but sometimes they interpret it so differently that it no longer makes any sense. Basically, her and her man's claim (don't think that they are married) is that all we need to do to be saved is just believe in Jesus Christ and everything will be cool. She just got really confused because I asked why she goes to church then and why she doesn't go to the club... If all we need to do is just believe then why not just do all manner of wickedness and it's all okay. She's just really confused but we are trying to be really patient with her.

On Wednesday we had interviews with Mission President again and that was really great. We didn't really get to teach that day, but we did get to sit in air conditioning in my old chapel so that was sweet! I miss Paynesville.

Nothing really significant really happened on Thursday or Friday that I remember. On Friday we teach this guy who lives near the beach and there is a little shop that sells bread and fried egg and it is arguably the best part of my week every week and I want to go there every day. It's so simple and yet so relaxing and wonderful I can't properly describe it to you.

Saturday, one of the boys that we are teaching called me Schoolboy because I was wearing my glasses so I told him to just call me ScHoolboy Q, hence the title. He will actually call me Elder Bush don't worry. 

Finally on Sunday a member of the branch gave us a big dinner with lots of rice and cake that made me happy. The people are so sweet here I love them so much. 

Sorry this letter was so lame I just forgot everything that happened during the week! I promise to make next weeks letter much better. 

I'm happy and healthy and working hard! I love the work even though it isn't easy but I am learning so much and I truly love my Savior Jesus Christ. Life is good :)

Elder Bush

The sweet bread and egg stand!

 

  Children that won't leave me alone...

 Beautiful beach. This is in my proselyting area...

 Me on a rock on the beach :)

 Jogging in the morning

Sweet signs in Liberia... Hope you can read them! Not really sure why Hippos are used? Seems a little derogatory if you ask me but I didn't paint them.....

The Big ONE

So, this is the one. The one year mark... Nothing was the same. Actually everything is the same nothing really changed.

I can now officially count down the months instead of counting up. That's coo.

So this week was a much better week than the first week. There were so many improvements from our lessons, to the service on Sunday and even to the apartment which we hesitantly call home. Let's start with our lessons.

As companions, we discussed how we could invite the spirit more into our lessons because we felt that there was a lack thereof. We decided that we really needed to focus on the people that we are teaching and less on the things that we have to say. One of the ways that we went about doing that was by truly focusing on listening to those that we are teaching and not thinking about what we want to say in response. I feel that I have gotten a lot better at that and I tried really hard to focus on others more this week. (I also feel that this will be a valuable skill to possess when I get married in the very distant future.) I thought we did a really good job of that and also extending our commitments more genuinely and lovingly. I thought we made great strides this week and all of us noticed the difference.

Aside from that, church was way better on Sunday. The generator wasn't working which actually made things kind of nice because it was easy to hear and the talks and instruction had sound doctrine. That was nice.

Our apartment got so much cleaner this week which made me so happy. Going to college and being on my mission has made me to be a much cleaner person because no one else cleans up and I hate when things get so dirty! I hate the filth. We got some clean water in our tank this week and I actually had some help cleaning the apartment! We cleaned up the kitchen, the bathroom, the back patio, the various rooms and just everywhere I guess. It looks so much better and it just makes me feel good. Thought I would let you know.

On February 18th, my one year mark, we had a little bit of fun in our compound which got a little dangerous but everyone is fine so it's cool. Some people came and cleaned up a ton of stuff that was in the compound and put it into a big pile. So, since we have 7 stupid boys in the apartment and one super cool one with great ideas (that's me) we decided to burn it all! So that's what we did. it got super huge and threatened a nearby guardhouse, but ultimately it was a success. I enjoyed it. I also made a cake and shared with the rest of the apartment.

Besides that, everything is normal and cool. I run to the beach every morning. Yeah, take that winter. It's beautiful, but I can't go swimming so that is super sorrowful. That's about it. It's very hot here. Every day.

Love you all, have a great week.

Elder Bush

1. One of my companions in our beautiful area

2. Super nice hotel/restaurant that we went to on P Day

3. Helping recent convert cook

4. Sweet fire

New Area, New Life

Well my friends this week was possibly the most interesting week so far on my mission and I don't know where to start. So let's start with the new apartment and area. 

My new apartment is one of the best and one of the worst apartments in the mission. It has a very large compound in what seems to be a fairly safe area. It is not far from the beach and me and two other missionaries in the apartment actually run to the beach every morning for our exercise which is pretty cool. Two of the missionaries have washing machines which they let others to use and we have pretty reliable current in the apartment from around 7 PM to 6:30 AM every night/morning. Now here are the bad things: The apartment is disgusting because no one cleans up after themselves and it gets dirty extremely fast. I think I did the dishes every day this week and I'm very sure that when we get back tonight I will do them again. The septic tank started leaking again today and it smells so bad. But those things are really not that bad, the real problem is the water. The water that comes from the tank outside is super dirty and can't be used for like anything because of how gross it is. The mission keeps saying they are going to fix it but apparently they've been saying that for like 2 months now so we'll see. So we fill up buckets of water using the water filter from the sink to take bath. Every night and every morning. The internet cafe is nice though. Honestly the water thing is already starting to bother me less I took a bath in the dirty water the other day it won't kill me. I'll probably start drinking it too soon just for good measure. 

The area is pretty cool and we are working on that one small small. It is a little bit far from the church and we had a difficult time getting people to come from there this week but we will continue to improve. My last week in Upper Caldwell we had 27 investigators at church and this week we had 2... Small small. 

My companions are really cool and they make things really fun so I'm really happy about everything even though having a threesome is kind of strange. We worked hard this week and I felt like there was some considerable improvement within the companionship even in the small week that we had together and I think that we will continue to move forward that way. 

I think it was on Wednesday we passed by this guy that was trying to give us a hard time. He called us over and asked if we were saved. We were like well we're trying you know. And he said show me in the Bible where it says we are trying to be saved. I was kind of confused. He then told us that we needed to know Jesus for ourselves before we started going around deceiving others and told us to go and read John 3:16-18. I told him he should go and read St Jude 1:10-11... I let my emotions get the best of me because that scripture is not too nice but I was pretty upset. I was honestly a little disappointed in myself for letting it get to me but we actually passed to him later in the week and said hello and he seemed to be happy when he saw us so I don't know. 

The worst part of my week ironically came on Sunday. Church is in this small little house that is inside a compound not far from our apartment. The small house is not really the issue I was actually okay with it but it was my first time in one like that. The disappointing part came from the branch. Let's just say that there were a lot of things said during the service that were not in line with the teachings of the church. That really bothered me. I won't go into detail but let's just hope that they make some improvements in the future. A lot of the branch members are super sweet though and we got a referral from one man which was also nice. We're fighting it! 

Today was super fun though. We stopped by my old area today because we needed to go there for something and I met a man that I used to teach when I was first in Paynesville. He was so happy to see me and he said, "You were the one that brought me into the church! My son is baptized and me and my wife will be getting baptized on March 18th!" While we were teaching him, he and his wife were not married and are now finalizing their marriage certificate and will be baptized on the 18th of next month. So wonderful to hear what small thing the Lord can help me to do can make such a big difference in someone's life. We also went to a super nice hotel today and had some really good food. 

I'm really learning so much about myself and what I can truly do for the Lord on my mission. I've been feeling so much of the Savior's love for me lately and what a positive influence I can be for others if I am obedient and study the scriptures every day. I love the scriptures so much. 

Quote of the day: "A wise man learns from the mistakes of others, a fool by his own." - Benjamin Franklin

Love you all so much sorry this was so long!

I forgot to put new pics on my flash so you will get newer pics next week.

Love,

Elder Bush

 

Don't Tune

Whenever you surprise a person in Liberia or scare them you tell them, "Don't tune, don't tune mah man." Kind of like, don't get afraid or something you know. So I know I didn't send a letter last week but don't tune my man everything is okay.

Last week in the café the internet stopped working and then the power went out and it was getting late so we just went back to the apartment and I didn't finish what I had started but that's okay. I'm not dead. IN FACT, I have some news!

I have been transferred and I'm already in my new area of Thinker's village. I am now in a threesome or a tripanionship with Elder Mineer from Utah and Elder Eguko from Nigeria. I just got here today so I really don't know too much about the area or anything but it is really close to my first area so I will probably see a lot of the people that I used to teach before so that's kind of fun!

I was definitely a little sad to leave the branch in Upper Caldwell because I really began to love the branch and all the progress that we were making and the people that we were teaching. However, I am really excited to start in this new area and get to know a new branch. I guess I had to allow someone else to enjoy Upper Caldwell branch at some point. A lot of people were sad, or at least acted like they were sad when I told them that I would not be there again. I'm sure they'll be fine!

So these past two weeks have gone so fast! We had zone conference and some trainings that have really helped me to strive to be a better missionary. Elder Obasohan and myself were really working hard to teach a lot of different people and expand the area and missionary work. This gone Saturday we had a baptism for two people combined with 3 children of record which was a real struggle but eventually turned out alright. I have confidence that the branch and the missionaries will take care of them.

This morning when the couples came to pick me up I realized I have acquired too many things... People have just given me some things and I have yet to get rid of some others but small small. When they took me to my new area they went a super long way because they needed to drop off another missionary somewhere else but it was the coolest drive ever. It was like we were just straight in the jungle and everything was beautiful and green. Africa is dope. I would attach pictures but I forgot my usb in the apartment so next week.

Other than that I don't think there is really anything else to talk about... Everything is going fine and I'm sure that this area is going to be really sweet. Both of my companions are cool and I'm excited to serve with them. I'm healthy and happy and love all of you!

Much love,

Elder Bush