Merry Liberian Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all...

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. My companion and I got fed a lot! There was a lot of rice and chicken and potato salad and soft drink. I could hardly walk by the end of the day. I also got to talk with my family which made me so happy! Next year hopefully we will have a Christmas with everyone at home! I was really happy and I'm excited to be going back pretty soon... I'll be coming back in February. Still not sure on the date! I'll let you know. I'm excited, but I still love serving here and being around the people. But my time is definitely coming!!

We had our Christmas party yesterday and it was really nice. We played some games, had some Christmas songs and presentations and whatnot. We ate a lot of food there as well! I don't need to eat for a few days now. The mission gave us these really cool gifts as well! A mission key chain and pen and little flash light thing (could be useful for when the power goes out). They did a really good job I think everyone had a lot of fun. 

That's my short letter for this week! Yesterday they also had the runoff election so we should finally find out who the president of the country will be soon! Just so happy for this thing to be over. I'm tired of hearing about all this political stuff going on. 

Much love,

Elder Bush

Party!

Hey everyone how's the body? My body is doing alrigh o. 

So this week was pretty good. I always feel like there is so much stuff going on and then when it comes time to email nothing really happened. We had some fun this week though. We had two different parties that we attended. The first was on Saturday where the stake put on a whole Christmas devotional thing that was fun. Probably not as spiritual as the one at home might be, but definitely a cool experience. They did a lot of cultural dances and stuff as well which I loved! Took some pics and videos. 

Our landlady who we rent the apartment from had her graduation party Sunday after church. She just got her master's in something I don't remember. But they had their party in our compound (they also live there) and it was no small thing. The woman talked for probably over an hour about all her life's accomplishments and whatnot. It was her day though so no problem. They had tons of food and drinks and everyone in the community came to be a part of it. They did a really nice job and spent a ton of money. This is one of the nicer apartments that I've been in. 

Well, aside from that I don't recall too much stuff happening. Love you all!

Elder Bush

Me and the grad party

Grad party

Me and my companion

The capitol building (our apartment)

Walking about in my area

Exchange with Elder Stitcher

Small Kona! 

Small Kona again

Human baby stroller Amaka

Felix house! (we eat there every Thursday)

Me and my companion :) Elder Udo

The first three are myself and Elder Edemenang

This was my last district before 3 elders got transferred

Myself and Elder Jensen

Men in the Apartment

Men in the Kitchen

The bush near our apartment

Elder Beinbein!

Basketball near mission office

Royal Grand with my companion!

Monrovia!!

Oh, Hey Neighbor

Hey fam!

Just wanted to let you know that I love all of you very much. THe time continues to run down and I'm just amazed each day that I've been on my mission for this long. Can't say it has gone super fast, but it is still moving. Next week will mark 2 months till I go back, but who's counting?

This week was alright, a little stressful like it always seems to be, but not a bad thing. Helps me to focus on the work. I was blessed this week again to be able to meet with another Area Seventy personally. Elder Vinson came to Liberia to create the Paynesville and Caldwell stakes and I got to be in our MLC meeting with him. It was really cool. He read the dedicatory prayer of Liberia with us and it was incredible. The church is true o!  It was quite a spiritual experience. At the end he said well we have gone long and I haven't eaten all day so I think we should end here. I got to talk to him afterwards a little bit too and he is just a really normal person. He told me of a time when Elder Stevenson came to this mission last year. He was sick so Elder Vinson gave him a blessing. He said he was nervous blessing an apostle because he had never done that before. I think I would be nervous too.

So after the meeting we went to the assistants apartment to sleep because it was too late to go back to our apartments (Elder Vinson could only meet with us in the afternoon, we usually have MLC in the morning). So while we were there we were all just talking and Elder Weber started asking me some questions about BYU. He went there around the same time that I was going there. So he asked me where I lived in the fall and I told him I lived in Heritage Halls. Him: Which building? Me: 15. Him: Hm, I think I was in building 15... Which floor? Me: Third floor. Him: Woah! (moves backward a little bit) I was on the third floor! Turns out that not only were we in the same ward, but we were basically neighbors, were on the same side of the building and everything. We never even knew each other! He knew all of my roommates because the following semester one of my roommates became his home teaching companion. Never knew me though. It's funny too because we both kind of had the same philosophy in the ward. Show up, don't say anything, avoid giving talks or lessons, eat the food at activities and leave. Probably why we didn't know each other. Could have been really good friends though sadly. Just wanted to share that with you.

The rest of the week was fine. Trying my best to keep moving forward with strength. The area is not very easy but it will continue to progress. This woman named Kona that we are teaching is still giving us a hard time on Sunday. We went there to teach her from the Book of Mormon. In my opinion her problem is that she is not willing to be baptized again because she was baptized in her church. So even though she is praying, she is not praying with real intent because she doesn't intend to act upon that answer and accept the invitation to be baptized. Moroni tells us that a prayer without that real intent profit a man nothing and God answers none such. Just trying to encourage her to read and pray, but I don't believe she can reach that answer until she is willing to act upon it.

Aside from that everything is good. My stomach is doing alright... We still here.

Love you all!

Elder Bush

We Can Be Busy!

Hey my people. I'm doing my best not to think about home, and since we have about a million things going on right now it is making it a little bit easier. We are just constantly having meetings and things going on that we have to attend to. It makes me stressed at times but I guess it is better than being lazy and not having anything to do. The area is a little bit slow so all the attention on other things is not really helping. 

Is it getting close to Christmas? I couldn't really tell because nothing looks like Christmas here. It's really hot all the time and everything is just dirty. No Christmas lights or trees or anything. It's not really their fault though these good people don't have any money. The election nonsense is still going on as well so no one wants to spend their money because they are afraid that something could happen after the election actually ends. It's pretty sad.

Anyways, my week was alright. I feel like time is going to start moving a little bit slowly because I can actually see the end of the tunnel... Maybe. We have recently met with a man named Mohammed who is progressing pretty well so far. He is from a Muslim background and grew up in Sierra Leone and is really interested in the gospel now. He's heard some interesting things from different people but he wants to see for himself. We gave him a baptismal date for the 31st of December. If we can meet with him enough, he should be baptized on that day. Unfortunately, a lot of the people that we are able to meet with frequently during the week are not really progressing. Those that are can be difficult to meet with so we are trying to find the best way to adjust ourselves to be able to meet with them. Small small in this area. 

As for me I'm doing well. My stomach has been giving me small problems, but recently I've been feeling better. Everything will be fine in a few months?

I hope everything is going well and you are enjoying the Christmas season. 

Appreciate all the Savior has done for you. 

Love you all,

Elder Bush