transfer!

First the news: Sorella Jacobson is off to Milano 1, where I'm pretty sure Rachel (Noteware) spent half her mission, and I'm getting Sorella Simkins. She's been in Rimini, which she opened for sisters two transfers ago, so I think this is her 10th transfer. Prez was trying to give me some info on her and basically said that she's an all star, she works hard and then he paused and said, "Well she's just like you." I'm just hoping she thinks my jokes are funny.

It's been kind of a funny week, with lots of good byes and getting ready for change. I'm nervous to see Sorella Jacobson go, but am fully aware that I'll grow infinitely more with a new companion, and I want to be so much better than I am.

Excited about Ian's job interview and future, LOVE the zombie ducks and all the pictures, Dad. Glad the b-diddy was a success, glad your healing, Momma, even if it's not as fast as Wolverine. Since I have the Birkies I can probs live without Chacos. Thanks for cancelling that credit card Dad...so much stress relieved.

We had an awesome lesson with Paolo and his family Sunday evening on the Plan of Salvation. Paolo is interesting because he had a baptismal date with Anziani maybe a year and a bit ago and baked out last minute because didn't feel ready. The Sorelle found his cousin-in-law right before Christmas at the bus stop. They're from Brasil and I don't even know who all lives there, but we taught Francesco, the cousin, his wife Valchiria, Paolo and his girlfriend Tatiana all together for the first time since I've been here. They're impossible to commit and we've been trying to figure out what we need to teach them or what problem we need to unearth so they understand why we're there teaching them these things. Paolo has said that he'll get baptized when he knows it's right, but then didn't read the Book of Mormon this last week at all. I know we shouldn't drop them and I'm hoping my new comp can bring a fresh view and help figure it out. Anyway, the lesson went so well and there was a really special spirit there and I taught more then I ever have with them and felt confident and just loved it. We brought the third oldest Botta (they have 7 boys) Davide, who's 19, leaving to serve in England next month, and he bore two really great testimonies about our purpose to be here and be happy on the earth and why he wants to make it to the Celestial Kingdom to be with his current and future families and Heavenly Father. After the lesson Valchiria had made us a cake because Sorella Jacobson is leaving and we all just sat around this big table in the kitchen eating cake and drinking tea and learning Portuguese and laughing at who knows what, it was a pretty awesome moment.

We finally saw Jessica our other Brasilian again, who can't talk with vegetables in hand. We just stopped by and she was finally home. We read a bit about hope in Ether 12 and Romans 8 and she wanted us to write down the scriptures so she could go back and read them and I'm just happy to have seen her.

This morning we taught one of our less actives, Cynthia, who is this beautiful and hilarious african woman, who is more or less active again, as of maybe 9 months ago? not sure, but her friend Isaac who is a new convert was there and we were talking about faith and he was talking about how there are people in his country who sell medicine, and 85% of peeps believe that the medicine will work, and so it does, but the other 15 don't and have to go to the real doctor. I just loved that example about how we have to really believe in these things for them to change our lives. We can read and pray all we want because someone told us but if it doesn't mean anything to us it won't change us.

Ok, calling it quits for today, we're working this morning so we can spend this afternoon and tonight at the Capelli's, I'm excited. Sorella Capelli even asked for the afternoon off for Sorella Jacobson's last night in Bergamo.

Troppo amore, non ci sono parole, ma magari ci sentiamo prossima settimana,

xoxoxo

sorella bush

buon pasqua!

Hey peeps,

I hope you all had a lovely Easter. We were fed to the max. First lunch with a family and the wife is from Peru and we ate Peruvian food, and a cena with a lady from Bolivia who cooked up some great pasta. Plus there was lots of colomba, the Easter dove cake everyone eats, and I'm still recovering from how much we ate. Plus Sorella Capelli, one of my fav human beings game us big chocolate Easter eggs that we've started working on slowly. Don't worry mom, I'm being taken care of.

Today is beautiful. I'm camped out at the Bishop's house, they live up in the mountains, and after a few days of cold rainy weather everything is beautiful and green. We took a baby hike along a river while waiting for the wife, Sorella Botta, to get home, and then discovered that they have a trampoline up behind their house. Only 1 and it's already one of my fav p-days.

Other news would be that it's almost certain Sorella J will be transfered next week, leaving me in charge of Bergamo, caspita. It'll be a rough transition but I keep reminding myself that change brings more growth and that's what this is all about really. It'll make my Italian improve too, which I'm not opposed to.

This is going to be short because I'd rather ghetto chat with dad, but Marisol and Giovanna are still doing well, pian piano. We're working with some new less actives that have started to show tons of interest in coming back to church. Monday we met with one of our new converts (who was turning 10 that day) at a park with his grandma, who is maybe the Bolivian version of Grandma Sandi, and we drew the 13 Articles of Faith with sidewalk chalk and ended up having way more fun that planned. I'll send a pic next week. Then we headed over new centro before our lesson and earlier in the day I had said how I wanted to see Leonela, my fav older lady from English class, and there she was on a park bench! So we talked to her for a while and she was asking all these questions about what we believe, and you could tell she appreciated the fact that we would even take the time to listen to her.

I'm capo this week so I've been conquering my fear of the phone, including a nice little chat with the bishop's wife Monday night on how to make a pasta with a special cheese she gave me. I love that I'm known among the ward and missionaries for my love of cheese, being outside, and style, ha.

I think I may wrap this up so I can kick it with the Botta family, and eat some lunch. Much love, as always.

xoxo

sorella bush

sono contenta

Hey err'body,

Here are all the reasons why I am ever so content.

1. I just bought a pair of wonderful birkenstocks that are now on my feet that I will be wearing quite regularly.

2. I am sipping some san pellegrino aranciata.

3. We are doing our e-mailing in the church so I'm playing some conference right now too.

To answer your question about General Conference, they broadcast it in the church, but we only got 3/4th of a session between Saturday and Sunday evening, which would have been the morning sessions, because of our various appointments. Dad, do you think you could fandangle a CD or something with conference talks, because reading them is nice but I missed listening.

4. Today we went to Lecco. There's a senior couple here in Bergamo that got here a week or two after me. They're in charge of checking apartment conditions in the area and loved Lecco and wanted to take us before Sorella Jacobson is transfered, so the got permission from the Prez and we had a little day trip. It was rainy and misty but I loved it. It reminded me of and made me miss England. Everything just barely turning green with granite mountain jutting into the lake with these tubling clouds. It was pretty majestic.

5. Yesterday we had an awesome first lesson with a man named Rohelio who's Filipino. We had a blitz last week, where two sisters from Milano came to work with us. The Sorella Jacobson and Maciel had a lesson fall through so they did some casa and found a small palazzo where they both felt pretty confidently that they would find someone. And ecco, here comes Rohelio. We taught in a funny mix of Italian and English but mamma mia he is so great. He told us about how he's been praying for more faith. We talked a bit about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon and just tried to get an idea of where he was. He asked all kinds of great questions including if we believe people can really repent and be forgiven. When he said the closing prayer he thanked God that He had sent to him Sorella Bush and Jacobson. He wants to come to church and read the Book of Mormon and I'm excited to go and see him again.

6. We're going to go see Marisol tonight and have dinner with her and she is still just so awesome. She's progressing slowly, but she is for sure progressing.

In other news...The musical fireside that we had Friday went so well. Our pregnant less active/new convert Marlin came with her fiance which was so so good, because she's been kind of too embarassed to come to church, so we were happy to just get her in the building. We went to their new apartment yesterday and they're both way more receptive to have us come and talk with them and the made us lunch and we just talked for a while.

Giovanna came to conference with us Saturday. I taught her during the blitz and she opened up even more and told us about how she fears she isn't getting any answers to her prayers because she doesn't desire it enough. I'm so glad I'm not 14 anymore, but she really is in gamba. Since we've started teaching her even her Italian is getting better and the Spirit is working in her life. I asked her why she thaught we keep coming back to her house and she was like, uh I don't know, because you want me to know God? And I said Yes!! Pian piano.

One more great thing was Sunday evening we had a dinner with our three older ladies that come to English class every week and are so funny. Dinner was good except for this seafood salad thing at the beginning that had like whole baby octopuses in it. I felt like I was eating aliens and wanted to die. But we laughed so hard. We were at Virginia's house with Angela and Leonela. They made Leonela sit at the head of the table and she just kept accidently saying the funniest things and we would laugh so hard and then by the end of the night she would just look at us and start laughing.

She seems a little bitter about life but now she has a Book of Mormon and I'm hoping we'll be able to keep seeing her outside of English Class. Angela got into Buddhism somewhat recently and talked to us about that for a bit which was cool and Virginia has been taught the lessons before and is kind of a space cadet. Her house is full to the brim with books and I fear for her life everytime she drives anywhere.

Life in Bergamo continues to be crazy and great. The days are long but the months are short and whenever we have a hard day I just remember that I get to go home and go to bed at the end of it and that my time already feels like it's flying here. May 16th will be 6 months. Oh my h-face.

Lots of sacci of bene coming your way. Keeping you all in my prayers and going a little crazy that we still don't know about Ian's call. My guess is it will come today and I'll have to wait until next thursday to know because we have a conference in Verona wednesday.

xoxo

sorella bush

Non posso parlare con le verdure in mano!

Alice, you are mine...

Hello my lovely family. I just love your e-mails like a motherless child.

Today's subject is from our sultry brasilian investigator Jessica. Mamma mia, lei mi fa ridere come non posso dire, but only when she's not around. Last time we were teaching her some dude called her, and she answered and was trying to explain why she couldn't talk and he wasn't listening. So she started lying about being at the supermaket and finally held the phone in front of her face and said non posso parlare con le verdure in mano!

I've had a wicked cold this week and my scruffy sick voice is perfect for imitating her and it looks like in my effort to ditch this American accent I've been adopting her Brasilian inflections. Oh well.

All is well in Bergamo, as always. We're off to citta' alta to meet the GANS, Italy's version of YSA so this will be super brief.

If you haven't sent my box of tricks I would send it to Milano, it will get there much faster I hear. Which reminds me, I feel I should say the mail here is piu o meno un casino. Of all the letters I got this week some were post marked from Feb 27 and some March 21 so moral of the story, Amelia, is sooner or later you'll get my responses, sometimes the post just has a mind of it's own.

Things are crazy here. We were in Milano yesterday for a sisters-only training so I've finally met all the sisters and got to see my MTC peeps. Friday night we're having a musical fireside organized by our bishop's wife (for missionary purposes) with all kinds of great music, mostly not churchy. We've been super involved in because Sorella Jacobson is an h-ing amazing piano player. We either talk to or see Sorella Botta every day, and it should be a fabulous evening with lots of potential peeps to contact and show that it's toats cool to be a real person and read the Book of Mormon too.

I've started reading the gospel of John in my effort to be more well versed in the Bible and he is the man. Obvi all the gospels are great because it's the story of Christ's life but he just has a way with words. And I can't remember of I already told you this, but we've been talking a bit about the end the book when Christ comes back and they've gone back to fishing because they just didn't know what else to do and I just feel like it is such a beautiful story and Christ tells them that when he asked them to leave their nets it wasn't just for awhile, it was forever. And I've been thinking about what that means for us as members. We've decided to follow Christ and it's not just for a while, for when it's easy, it's for ever. And the clock is almost out but the best way that Christ says we can love Him is to feed His sheep. It doesn't mean we need to convert everyone we know, but I feel like we need to be an example, not be afraid to talk.

Love you!!!!!

xoxoxoxo

sorella bush

Piu' o meno un casino = More or less a gamble

Citta' alta = lit. high city, Upper Bergamo

Lei mi fa ridere... = She makes me laugh more than I can say

Non posso parlare... = I can't talk to you with vegetables in my hands!

[nessun soggetto]

I loved your e-mails! Glad everything is healing on your end, Mom, and to answer your question I should be in Bergamo hopefully 2.5 more transfers. And Dad, I loved how I can actually understand when you write in Italian now. We drove by some little donkeys last week so don't worry, I have connections if the sacchi di bene become too much.

Last Pday we ended up driving over to San Pellegrino which (who new?) is a little frazione by Bergamo. No wonder I got addicted to buy bottle of San Pel this summer, I was preparing myself for Bergamo. But it was a beautiful drive through the mountains that made me think of Grandma Sandi and the Alpine loop. We had tried to go to the cemetary but of course it's closed Wednesday afternoons. So we ended up going on our nice little drive with Fratello Fichiera and his step daughter Nichole, who I am helping with her Math. He's one of the members who's teaching us Bergamasco and is just so cool. I'll send pics next week when we're at our normal internet point and can upload pictures.

It's been kind of a funny week and half. Lots of our investigators are out of town and we've been having trouble finding new peeps to teach, but we've been teaching tons of new converts and less actives, which is also important. And we've actually been having some good success getting people to come to church. One lady even came to an appoitment to teach with us.

We had a really great zone training with the Pres Wolfgramm last Friday and I am just so grateful to be here as a missionary. Even if there are days when no one really wants to listen to us or appointments fall through, I just know this is where I should be and I'll never have a time like this again, where my life is so simple but so focused, where the spirit is always with me because I'm working to bring happiness to others. I can't imagine my life without this time. I was talking with Nichole last night after a math session about prayer and knowing that Heavenly Father is always listening us without judgement and I was telling her about how neat it is that this is my job, to have conversations like this, to help people realize who they are and who they can become. I love it.

Spring is coming which I am super happy about. My companion loves basketball (barf) so I agreed we could play with the Elders today, but I'm just happy to be outside. It's easier to be happy out working when there's sun and the magnolia trees are blooming and when you're happy it's easier to stop people and start talking to them.

We had a neat experience on the tram the other day (I kind of hate that I just used to phrase 'neat experience' but anyway...) We sat down in a seat with two seats facing us and both internally made the goal to talk with whomever sat across from us. A man sits down and starts talking on the phone in Arabic. We both assume that he'll be Muslim and not really have any interest but Sorella Jacobson starts talking to him anyway. Turns out he is Muslim and has no interest, but he's nice we finish talking to him and meanwhile a little in front of us there are 4 dudes sitting. They have cigarettes tucked behind their ears and just look kind of like hood rats.

One of them keeps looking at us, and gets up and sits in the 4th seat of our little spot and we both assume he's got some scherzo planned, but he instead asks Posso verdere quel libro? He starts flipping through the Book of Mormon and says how he heard us talking to this other guy and wanted to hear more. He's read the whole Bible but really isn't convinced by it and wanted to know how it was different than the Bible. I was so surpirsed I kind of babbled like an idiot, but we got the point across and gave him the book and got his number for the Anziani (we gave them at least 4 referrals last week, lucky dudes). It was kind of a perfect example of what Pres Wolfgramm says, of being in the way so we can get out of the way. If we're where we should be doing what we should be and we're in the way, that God can help us get out of the way and see what His real plan is for this moment.

Also I think I told you about Marisol last week, who we ended up teaching about the atonement. Well we say her again Sunday night and made sure her husband would be there and brought the Bishop and his wife. We were there for ever, like 2 hours, but it was an awesome lesson. I'm now best friends with their 6 year old daughter Alessia and we were able to read about Moroni and the Title of Liberty and talk about how the gospel gives us what we need to defend our families.

They got out a lot of their concerns and the Bottas were able to say all the right things to help them see how the gospel can help them. We invited them to start praying as a family, and they were a little worried, especially because their 18 year-old son has started doubting that there is a God, but we talked to her on the phone yesterday and followed up and she said they've been praying together and it's already made a world of difference.

Final funny story. There's a less active family we visit that's in the other ward but it's all women so it's hard for the Anziani to go see them. A mom, two daughters and the 8 year-old daughter of one of the daughters. Anyway, Claudia is the little one and she is so funny and is always so excited when we come and at the end of our lesson she wanted to read us a story from her Children's version of the Bible. So she was reading to us about when Moses got the 10 commandments and she starts reading the commandments...but the book changed them! The funniest was instead of keeping the Sabbath day holy, they wrote to celebrate religious holidays. We were all kind of confused for a minute and realized what it should have been and then started cracking up. Welcome to Italy where you only need to go to church on Easter and Christmas.

Ok, I'm singing Adele at a ward talent show Friday, what? So I gots to go practice.

Love you all! Thanks for everything and your prayers and being so great. I was cracking up reading Dad's e-mail and informed my companion that there is no doubt I'm in the right family.

So excited for Ian! Every week I hope to hear where he's off to.

xoxoxoxoxo
sorella bush

-----

Sacchi di bene = lit. "bags of good," colloquialism for lots of love. I told W. we were sending "bags of good" to her, maybe five or six, and that she might need a little donkey to carry them around.

Anziano/i = Elder/Elders

Frazione = township

Scherzo = joke, prank

Posso vedere quel libro? = Can I see that book?

belle ragazze, forza! forza! forrrrzzaaa!

That's what a nice man driving by said while we were running nice and early Monday morning and we've been laughing about it ever since.

I can't believe Canoecopia has come and gone. We were SO busy this last week (we taught 27 lessons), and this week, we really don't have time to see all the people we need to, so it wasn't until the night time when I was getting ready to sleep and I thought "Right now, hundreds of people whom I love are in the Alliant Energy Center, what?" It didn't seem real at all. I guess the other side of the world just feels kind of far away sometimes. Ha.


I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to make a disc of pics but I'll keep trying to send a few every week. Including pics for mom of our apartment, this week I send our bedroom pics. Also pic of our first cannoli break and my fav lego man.

ANYWAY...

Bergamo is so great. I think Spring may actually be here, no more back and forth warm and cold. And our ward is so solid. Today we're going to go have lunch and grab a kebab with one of the Young Women, 17, who is struggling a bit, and I'm going to help her with her math class (in Italian), we'll see how that goes.

We got to teach one of our investigators, Marisol, that we haven't seen in a bit because of work on Monday and she and her family are having some serious trials right now and we ended up scratching our original lesson plan and just talking about the atonement and I had this little moment of revelation and recounted the story of Ammon and Aaron out doing missionary work both of them ended up teaching kings how accepted their message and were willing to change, but Ammon's success came pretty quickly while Aaron was first imprisoned. Sometimes we have to wait in our version of prison before whatever is next, but there's always a way out. Hopefully that makes sense.

Remember the lady we met in the Kebab shop? Irma. We'll we go and teach her and her daughters, 14 and 18 every Saturday. Irma is usually a little distracted but wants to listen and has good comments. Giovanna is 14 and has never really gone to church. Irma's been here for a while but it was only 10 months ago that her daughters came over from Bolivia, and while they were there with Irma's sister they never really had any religion in their lives. The 18 year old, Faviola, is the most engaged I think. She's having a bit of a hard time moving to Italy and having all new friends and stuff so this week we're going to try and bring Nichole, who we're having lunch with today. But the point of this poorly told story is I feel like I finally got through to her this Saturday.



We were waiting for Irma, because she's kind of a space cadet, and I was asking her about music and we were talking about Rihanna and she started telling me how much she like Justin Bieber and started playing One Less Lonley Girl on her phone and I was singing along and then I started translating the lyrics for her a bit. They've been struggling to read the Book of Mormon so after that we read 1 Nephi 1 together, stopping and talking about what we were reading and why it would be important and when we committed them to read at the end of the lesson, she said she would right away, so quickly in fact that her Mom was surprised: Wait, what did you just say? I just have a good feeling about her and I'm glad I was able to show her that you can be a real person and listen to real music or whatever and have God be apart of your life. I feel like too often missionaries forget to be real people and make real connections, but people have to see that they can have a testimony of the gospel without being a cyborg.



I think that's all for now. Much love, obviously, especially for the alien in mom's foot. I'm excited to see your new boat dad, but I mean, if you want, go ahead and send me pictures of things besides boats.

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!

sorella bush

Ok, hi everyone, how are things? I loved your e-mails, sorry I usually forget to respond directly to your questions, but yes Mom, we go running in the mornings, it's a dream with this Spring weather we've been having.

Hooray for Kristina! Kiss her on the cheek for me, as we Italians do, you know. And Ian sounds so good, I am so glad! E, you will love being a missionary and you will be so much more prepared than I was. I guess I can wait a little longer to find out where you'll serve, ha. Also tell Emma that my soul is rejoicing that she's back where she should be doing the things she knows will make her happy. Tell her if she writes me a letter I'll write her.



Most exciting news would be the baptism we had on Saturday. Anna is a dream. She was so excited and so prepared and ready. When she came back and sat next to me after the actual baptism she said, "Sono nuova adesso!" And when she bore her testimony there was this confiedence and strength about her that I've never seen. She's grown so much in this time we've taught her and I'm so excited for her. Whenever I call her she says how happy she is to hear my voice and just says the cutest things.



Things are crazy here right now. We literally don't have time to see all the people we need to. Between new convert and less active lessons and the SIX families we're teaching and other people it's mad. I just wrote President Wolfgramm to ask for bikes because we waste so much time waiting for buses to go here or there. The Lord is seriously blessing our work right now.

We found a Yugoslavian family at a park last week who we went to see last night and we were kind of scared to go see them because they were kind of intense and the mom asked us for money a couple times because they're both out of work with three kids, but we went to see them and met their 10 year-old daughter and 7 year-old son. They were super engaged the whole time and really want to come to church. The parents were a little more distracted, I think mostly just because they're having a hard time right now, but I'm praying they come to church on Sunday and when we go back to teach them Sunday night the start to see how much the gospel can bless them. The mom loves that my name is Bush. When Sorella Jacobson called to see if we could come over yesterday she said "E Bush viene anche?" and Sorella said "Si, non riesco uscire la casa senza di lei." When we sat down she was joking about my name again and how honored she was to have the daughter of President Bush in her home. Ha.



Also, this is sort of premature, but I'm wondering if, when you start to think about the end of my mission and coming to Italy, what Sorella J is doing is going home and getting released and then flying back with her parents and one sibling two weeks later for three weeks in Italy. I know it would cost more, but if we start planning for me to come home first and get released, it really would make everything a lot easier, just ponder that.


Advice for my padawan/little bro. Prayer is so real and so powerful. Preparing for and then leaving on your mission, never feel like you need to do anything alone, the Lord is ready to help you with everything.

We had a lesson with the daughter of my favorite family who's less active this week, and I had a really cool experience where Italian all of a sudden was easy. The Holy Spirit was there and I was saying the things she needed and was ready to hear, about using the atonement to slowly, today, start becoming the people we want to be, and I didn't know all the words right away but as I talked my voice just smoothed out, like a real conversation. Teaching with the Spirit is everything, not just because we can't know exactly what a person needs to hear and he does, but because the Spirit can help us with something as little/huge as speaking in another lanuguage, so that someone can hear and learn the things that will help them.

We're off to hang with some members in the other ward for a bit. Happy P-day to me! We've gotten home late the last two nights and I'm exhausted and ready for a few stress free hours.

Much love to you all and everyone at Canoecopia, I can't think of anything witty for you to say to Kevin Callan so that's your job.

xoxo

Sorella Bush

Sono nuova adesso = "I am new again."

E Bush viene anche? = "Is Bush coming too?"

Si, non riesco... = "Yes, I can't seem to leave the apartment without her."