Watah Watah

Hey Everyone!

Sorry about last week, I wasn't able to email because I was too busy having tons of fun so don't worry about me. We went and played basketball in town at an indoor court and it was sweet. It was just a concrete floor and the hoops were kind of crumby, but I was just so happy to play that it really didn't matter. Later that day we went to one of the nice beaches (Some of the beaches are used as bathrooms and garbage cans :/ ). I just relaxed and it was supah sweet. 

Anyways! Happy Birthday last Monday to my best bud Brandon Dizon! Hope you had a great day my man :)

This week went by fast. One of the first weeks where I felt like the days really just flew by. Each one of the missionaries is getting interviewed by Mission President for some good reason that I can't seem to remember, and ours was on Thursday. Our Mission President is super sweet and the interview was nice, I enjoy talking with him. 

We had 3 baptisms this week! This week included Brother Wah, the guy who lives really far away in Jacob's town and is at church every week. I really loved seeing him get baptized. He gave his testimony after and I could really see how much the church has changed his life. It made me so happy to realize the difference that I can truly make in someone's life if I just give the Lord part of mine. He talked about how he was before the church and now how much better his life is now that he has accepted Christ in his life and knows that the church is true. I won't be surprised if he becomes a leader in the church soon, at least in Liberia. He's fairly intelligent and reads plenty of things so I believe that they will need him to lead quickly. We also baptized two young boys named Cephus and Meashel. They're both great kids who always come to church.

In every aspect it's crazy to be here. This week at church I was feeling disappointed because we only had 9 of the people that we're teaching come to church. I was thinking, wow we should have like 20 every week why were there only 9 that sucks... But then I thought how in most missions having 9 of the people you're teaching come to church is nuts! Unless maybe you're teaching a whole family, but these are 9 separate people. Nevertheless, we still feel that we can improve greatly so we're going to try really hard again this week to get more people to come. 

In other news, I was able to get a hold of some clippers this week so that I could cut my hair. Yeah, I cut my own hair and honestly, it's really not that bad. The cool part was that one of the other missionaries in the apartment asked me to cut his too... And he's African. Yeah I'm legit. I'm already planning how I'm going to start my barber shop when I get home because I figure by that time I'll be a pro so get in line to get your hair cut. $100 LD a person (Like $1 US). 

Besides that, life is pretty good and the rain is starting to fall. It's not as crazy yet as I know that it will be, but just wait small and it will be here soon.

Another thing that is cool is that I'm really starting to understand almost everything the people are saying now. A lot of people have told me that I'm speaking Liberian English now too which is cool. I can recognize them saying words now that I wasn't able to hear before so I'm feeling good about that.

This upcoming week a lot of things are going to happen because my training is going to end so look forward to my email next week! And I'll try to send pictures then too.

One more thing, please keep my mother in your prayers, she got in a little trouble this past week while cutting with a saw so just remember her when you pray please.

Love you all!

Elder Bush

Mother's Day

This week was sweeto!

So another great week from the happiest place on earth! Liberia is still wonderful and this week I even got to call home on Skype to see my family. It was really great to see them and talk to them so now I can refocus and get back to work. Because I talked to them a lot I think I'll make this letter shorter and just try to send some pictures for you guys.

This week we had a zone training and we were pretty busy, I honestly don't remember much from this week which is weird. I am pretty excited because one guy that we've talked to a bunch of times finally came to church and apparently even has desires to be baptized!

We had one baptism this week and her name is Tenneh. She is 25 years old and in the tenth grade. Yes, in high school... Liberia is sweet. But she's really great and my companion and I love her of course.

That's about all for now but I will share some pictures hopefully! 

Okay I lied they say it's like 40 cents for each picture I want to send so I'm still having trouble with the pictures... I'll try again next week sorry!!

Oh lied again I might get to send some!! Or maybe just one...

Love you all!

Elder Bush

This one is me and my companion at church! Hope it comes through and I hope you enjoy :)

The Results Are In

Alright this week was full of surprises and sweet sweet things so buckle up. 

First of all Happy Birthday to my beautiful little niece who turned 1 yesterday! Miss that cute chubby little thing.

Okay so lets start with Tuesday. Tuesday we went to the mission office because one of the people that we're teaching needed a special interview with mission president. A few things happened while we were there. First off, I got to weigh myself. Now, before I left I had gained a little weight since I knew that I was going to Africa so I got up to about 205 maybe even 210 pounds. Yeah, fatty right? Well on Tuesday I found out that after two months in Africa I now weigh 180 pounds. Sweet right? They should make a Biggest Loser Africa Edition. The only problem would be that they would need to take Doxy so they wouldn't get malaria, sleep under mosquito nets, and probably die of heat exhaustion but besides that it's a really god idea honestly. Next, I got a package from my sweet sweet mother who sent me some treats and I even got a little surprise thing that has been great and I will use on Mother's Day!

So that was really cool and then on Wednesday we had Zone Conference. There were only two zones at zone conference because the mission is expanding but it was still fun and of course I enjoyed it and they have some nice food and drinks for us. 

After that I think it was a pretty normal week until today when we went to a place called Red Light to buy some things. Red Light is just a place where a bunch of people come to sell all kinds of things from food to watches to jerseys to really anything that you can think of. If you look hard enough, you can find pretty much anything there and its usually pretty cheap if you bargain and make them realize you've been in Liberia for a little while and won't pay too much for some stuff. Today I found G2 Pilot pens which made me super surprised but also really happy because I was running out and they're my favorite pen so I bought a bunch. There is a kinds of cool stuff there.

Another thing I keep meaning to mention is the jerseys that I see, mainly the basketball jerseys is what I find interesting. I've seen people wearing Allen Iverson, Kevin Love, Kevin Durant on the SuperSonics, Steve Kerr, and plenty more. Just super weird and random jerseys that I really wish that I could find. 

Anyways, we didn't get to teach as many lessons this week because we had a lot of things going on but I'm actually really happy with the progress we're making. We had a lot of people come to church this week and there were two particular people that we just started talking to that I'm really excited about. 

I'm sorry that I didn't share many spiritual experiences this week but I promise we had some and we taught a good amount of people. 

There is one thing that I wanted to share though from a lesson we taught the other day to get an idea of how some people in Liberia are. We were teaching a man and talking about God. We asked if God and Jesus Christ are the same person (we believe that they are two separate beings; see Matthew 3:16-17 and plenty other verses in the Bible). He answered that he thought they were one person. My companion began to say that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are actually two very different beings, but before he could finish the man said, "Okay correction, no problem." I don't know why but it was just so funny to me. They are very accepting of the gospel at times which is really sweet. 

So plenty of things to share and say but that's all for this week! Hope you are enjoying the month of May because April went by fast!

Oh, also I'll be videoing home with my family on Mother's Day probably around 6 or 7 in the morning California time so if you want to talk to me I'm sure you could go there early in the morning and see me! 

Love you all, talk to you soon!

I guess no pictures again this week but I'm going to try next week!

Elder Bush

             This was taken at Zone Conference by another Elder. Sweet matching ties!

Mind and Body

So this week of course was an interesting one once again!

I'm basically on the biggest roller coaster in the world here (even though the people have probably never even heard of a roller coaster before). I have some of the highest highs and lowest lows I think out of anyone I know, but mostly I enjoy. 

SO here's the thing. I won't go into too much detail, but I'm sure you all have great imaginations so you can infer what has happened. My stomach has not felt too well this week. Yeah, you knew it was going to come at some point but you hope it never comes. Luckily enough for me though, The Lord was merciful upon me and helped me to have the strength to go out and teach every day this week. However, as soon as we returned to the apartment the pain returned but that's alright. Today I'm feeling much better and I'm hoping that will be left behind me. I'm thinking that all of my little afflictions are in the past now. 

So onto the good news! Remember that crazy guy who I talked about who had the orphanage and claimed to be an apostle that we were going to? Yeah, well we stopped going there because he wasn't a member and it kind of hurt my heart to see those sweet children living in such poor conditions. I do think that God recognized our efforts though because when we were walking back from that place one time a man named Brother Wah stopped us. Now, Jacob's Town is about a 40 minute walk from the chapel and so when he stopped us we didn't really think much of it. We gave him a pamphlet and invited him to church but we didn't even take his number because he lives so far away. We are very foolish people obviously.

Brother Wah has now attended church the past 4 Sundays. We walk to his house every Wednesday and Friday (because we're not allowed to take motor bikes anymore) which is still about 40 minutes each way. It is totally and completely worth it. This man reads everything that we give him (which is also rare because most people have a hard time reading so they don't try) and he truly understands it and accepts it. He is the best person you could ever wish to teach on your mission and is just a perfect investigator in the church for missionaries and I love going to see him. He has even told us that someone called him one week and said something was wrong with his car on Sunday, but he came anyways because he knew it was just the devil trying to keep him from getting closer to God. Then the next week he couldn't find his keys so he broke the lock on his door because he didn't have time to search and so that he could get to church on time. He then replaced the locks later. Yeah, he's awesome. He's a sure baptism and I'm so excited for it.

In other news, the rain hasn't started except for once at night but I know that it will come some. Probably a week or two away now. We have rain boots and an umbrella though so I'm really excited. Again, they say at times it will rain for 7 days straight, day and night. So pumped.

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures that I was able to send last week! I was really relieved that I finally got to give people an idea of what kind of area I'm in. It's super cool and I thank God every day that I'm able and physically fit enough to serve in such a remote, but incredible place. I truly feel blessed.

Oh! Also, last week I found Ramen Noodles and that made me really happy. I made them today and I'm pretty sure that ants had gotten in them but I think I picked them all out so... It's probably fine. If not, well they probably have protein so that's cool. 

Hope you are all doing well and I encourage you to keep sending your love I like hearing from you!

I guess pictures aren't working right now so I'll try later.

Elder Bush

A Portion of Letter to Dad:

The people that I meet are so amazing. Everyone here is so kind and willing to listen to our message. Even if they aren't interested they still are willing to listen. Luckily we get the generator to be on until 5 in the morning so we have fans on at night (I have 2 :)). However, since one Elder left at the transfer I get up at 5 to turn it off every morning. I think about how early you get up each day and how hard you work. I try to do that as best as I can but man I get tired. We walk probably around 5-10 miles a day because we aren't allowed to take bikes anymore.I always get up on time though because of your example.

 The Book of Mormon is so true and I miss going to our home ward. Church here is good but its very different. It doesn't feel like I'm truly at church. I don't know how to explain it though it just is.

 I miss the temple a lot and often wish that I could go there because it brings such a feeling of peace that I wish I could always have with me. 

I'm so happy that I'm able to do missionary work here. These people love me so much and it makes it so easy to show my love back to them. Especially the children. They all make me smile and are so beautiful. The work is hard sometimes, but its so sweet and Liberia is the best mission in the world and I'm so blessed that the Lord trusted me enough to send me here. I often wonder why God blessed me so much in my life, but I'm so glad that He did!