corrispondenza settimanale

Guys, life is crazy. I have a baby.

A teeny baby missionary that speaks almost no Italian and is kind of lost all the time because I am manic and drag her all over the place. But somehow she loves me, and feels the luckies to have me as her trainer. Not sure how I tricked her into that mentality. BUT life is so good. It was a rough start. To be honest her Italian was worse than I expected and I was so overwhelmed not knowing how to help her. I talked to the capi zona Saturday morning and then we had a nice little chat and got on the same page and things are going so much better. She's ready to work; it's just going to take us a while.

I was so sad when Sorella McNamara left. I transfer is TOO short to be with someone. I didn't really want to imagine being in Varese without her. But Sorella Beutler really needs me so I transitioned faster than I ever have. For the record I'm just making my way along the Wasatch front. All my comps so far are from Springville (Beutler) Provo (McNamara) Orem (Bunker) SLC (Jacobson) and Bountiful (Simkins) holy smokes. There was a sister from Minnesota that just went home, so now I'm holding down the whole midwest on my own.

Ha. I think so far the coolest thing about training is I've seen so clearly how much I've grown since I got to Italy. My abilities to just talk to people and express myself in Italian, to know how to small talk, to teach the gospel simply, to look at everyone around me in giro and see them first off as children of God who need what I have. My main goal this transfer is to really work on my finding work. To not be scared to talk to people for all the irrational reasons that pop into my head but to let the love that I have for these peeps thanks to Heavenly Father cast out my fears. I just want to be busy all the time. All of a sudden I love making calls because it keeps me focused on my purpose and filling up my time.

I really don't want to waste any of my time here. This is transfer 6! Can you believe it? After this only 6 more... aiuto! I was sitting in the Milano 2 chapel with all the trainers on the left side of the room and looked over at the right, where all the babies sit and I thought, "Wasn't I just there!?"

We went to Milano for a sister conference yesterday and I was being all pensive on the train (after talking to this super rad girl, Elisa) about how quickly the present becomes the past. Bergamo is my past now. Jacobson, Simkins, McNamara, all the past. And before I know it, Varese and everything and here that I love so much will be the past. So I need to live it up. Talk to everyone, love them tell them why these things are so important to me.

At the end of our conference yesterday we had time for a baby testimony meeting and I literally felt like I was going to explode. It felt so good to bare my testimony for reals. It felt like ages since I had been able to really express everything that I was feeling and learning and living and I felt like words were just flowing out of my mouth and I could have talked forever about how much I love the gospel, how real it is, how logical. God is my Father, what could be more beautiful. Even if I've never felt more raw and imperfect as I have as a missionary how incredible to know that it's all because to Him I'm worth changing, I'm worth making better.

And how so many things in the world that seem so important, aren't. How I don't care about hardly anything besides my peeps here. I care about how Senia feels when she reads the Book of Mormon and how Nishta knows that God listens to her prayers and the light that is growing in Luca and the joy that he radiates. There is nothing more beautiful than watching people change, continue on the process of becoming who they have the potnetial to be, all through the doctrine of Christ. Gah! It's too good.

Sorella McNamara and I would always joke that we were living in an 80s computer game, our life is not real, sometimes you have a glitch and end up waking in place for a minute, and you have to wade through the peeps/lemmings that won't give you the time of day (or that fall and splat when your ladder is too short...remember lemmings!!? Best game ever!). Everyday I'm amazed at how beautiful life is, at how guided we can be when we look for the Spirit. How God truly wants each of His children to be happy. A punto! We are all eternal beings. Love that.

Okay, I'm scared to reread this totally missionary email, ha, so I'll just send it off. We're off to go hike with Gabriele, Luca and another member. I'll send some pics when we finish up email when we get back.

Love to err'body!!

xoxo

sorella bush

ferragosto

Hey guys, sorry for the delay. Yesterday was ferragosto and the city was basically shut down and everyone went to the lake. Internet cafes are once again open and the universe is in balance.

Beautiful beatiful things are happening in Varese! Seriously, I couldn't be happier. We are finding amazing people literally everyday and the people we have I love and want to be friends with forever and are coming to church. What more could I ask for?

First la famiglia Ortiz. We taught the most incredible law of chasity lesson Tuesday night. At the end I just told them how much I voglio them bene and how living the comandments will davero bring them a lasting happiness they can't imagine.* We invited them to get married and baptized and they're thinking about it.  At the end we were drinking some aranciata chatting it up and Alfonso just says to himself  "sposarsi" as if he had never thought about it before.

During the lesson Senia said "Okay...so if someone wants to be Mormon they have to per forza be married." I said "If you live together, yes." She made jokes about her sleeping on the couch. Anyway...I'm praying my face off for this family.

Then there's Luca. I don't really know what to say. He's so great and I just feel lucky to be one of the missionaries to teach him/just talk to him because I don't feel like I teach him much of anything.

Next is Barbara. The sorelle found her daughter Giulia on the bus right before I got here and we finally got to go teach them last week. Super rad Italian family who are just interested in everything. But Barbara is straight-up elect. There house already has a beautiful spirit because they are such good people. We taught the restoration and came back this week to eat lunch and teach the plan of salvation. Barbara is ready to come to church and read the Book of Mormon and check out the website because she wants to be informed. But the more we teach her the more she expresses all the things about catholocism that she's never really jived with. We're going back when Giulia gets home from France so we can see them together in about a week.

Then we have these two Albanian girls we found this week. First, Gina. Sorella McNamara stopped her in front of the post office talking about the family, and we ended up talking about the purpose of life and she said "In fact I've been kind of confused lately, all the trials we live and what it's all for," I summed up the premortal existence, our goal to return to heavenly father in three sentences and she said Ma che bello! non ho mai pensato cosi! It was one of those moments where I felt like the spirit just put the right words in my mouth because it was something I had never said before and just came out for her.

Then a few hours later we met Suarda, also from Albania, who told us she was an atheist and we had an awesome discussion about prayer and God. She's totally open to the idea, just doesn't really know anything. We'll see her again tomorrow.

That night we were off to do casa and long story short, I felt like I had to talk to this lady at the bus stop and she royally blew me off. The other lady nearby started laughing because it was so absurd.  So we laughed and started talking, she took us home to meet her 13 year-old daughter.  They're Hindu and the mother wants the daughter to come to English class. We taught them the restoration and the daughter walked us to the bus stop. On the way she tells us that her Mom doesn't know, but she believes in Christ. We're giving her a Book of Mormon Tuesday.

Then we got off to our casa spot and Sorella McNamara rang the citofono and this little 4 year-old girl was talking to her and finally opened up. We find their door and the mom answers. I tell her how God always answers prayers and ask if God has ever answered her prayers and she lets us in. We teach the Joseph Smith story and we're going back tomorrow to give her a Book of Mormon.

Another favorite is the lady Fransisca (from the Domenican Republic) we met walking by the lake in Gavirate. When we had our follow up appointment she took us to the house she works at and we taught the Italian lady she works for too. Then we went back tonight to find 4 other dudes from the DR who are friends of the son of Fransisca who had been doing some house work and taught them about the Book of Mormon. Two of them were super interested and gave us their numbers to track them down because they had to scapare. All from little Fransisca, the very last person we talked to two weeks ago. Enough miracles for now? What say you?

Basically I feel like I'm finally back into my stride that I reached in Bergamo. I feel like the Lord is guiding us to find the right people, I feel like I'm getting better as a missionary and a human. I love this place and all the people here, davvero. I had a great chat with President today at interviews about hell being when you die meeting the person you had the potential to be if you didn't follow through and we talked about that for the mission too. I told him today was my 9 month mark and I was in shock and I've been thinking about what I need to do make sure I'm the best missionary I can be when I finish. And he more or less told me he was proud of my work, I just need to keep on doing what I'm doing and get better every day.

I'm reading Talmadge's Jesus the Christ these days and it's been really beautiful to study the example of Christ as a teacher and just focus on my work being to love these peeps, because when you do everything else falls into place.

Vi voglio troppo bene,

sorella cespuglio

ferragosto - an August holiday where everyone chills.
I voglio them bene - Proof that Whitney is forgetting how to speak English.  Basically this sentence says she loves them and knows that they'll truly be happy.
aranciata - really good orange soda
sposarsi - to get married
per forza - a must-do
ma che bello - How beautiful, I never thought of it that way.
to do casa - go talk to people door-to-door
citofono - intercom outside a flat of apartments
scapare - take off
davvero - truly

lugano

I really don't have tons new to report on.

This morning we went to Lugano. Hello Switzerland! I now have a few useless franks jingling in my pocket.

We just have baby miracles everyday. I'm working on my issues that I have with talking to strangers. We need new investigators so I'm trying to start talking to everyone again. I'm pretty sure it's going to be hard for me for the next year, but so it goes.

One cool story, we were tracking down some less active members and walking by some nice houses, and we heard something rustling. Turns out it was a turtle hanging out in this yard. Sorella McNamara said we need to tell these peeps their turtle has escaped!  I said I bet they have the situation under control, and then thought about how we really should take any oportunity to talk to peeps. We circled the house looking for the door bell.

Finally found it and this lady comes out, informs us it's her pet and he hangs out all day in the yard.

We tell her we're missionaries and that God loves her.  Find out her grandparents were members of the church and she has a Book of Mormon she found in their bookshelf. Set up a return appointment. Went and taught her the restoration. It was actually pretty sad because she went to a super tradtional catholic funeral the day before and almost didn't let us in because she said she already had her religion and she was comfortable with that. I get us in so we can at least give her some basic info. She opened up a lot about trials in her life and it broke my heart how confused she was. Thinking God is a God who likes to be hidden and not respond to us when we have need because we might not be worthy of his love and how we have to go through other people to repent and it was just way sad. There was a nice spirit at the end as we tesitified of the true nature of God and she said that sometime we could come back.

Basically everyone peaces out for the month of August. We keep getting numbers from people who tell us to call in September. In the mean time we're on the hunt everyday for the peeps God is preparing for us.

Oh.  We went to a chocolate factory in Svizzera.

Well, I love you. Getting ready for Milano 3 to blitz us tonight, get to see Sorella Forbes again, hip hip!

xoxoxoxo

sorella cespuglio

campo dei fiori

Dear famiglia,

Okay, my email has to be shorty shorty because we got back from our hike up on Campo dei Fiori with Gabriele, whom Dad now knows, and his bestie Luca who is one of our investigators. Things are great right now but I have to tell you last week was hell. So many creepy men in giro giving me a hard time. And always me, never my comp. I ended up calling Sorella Wolfgramm at the pinnacle of it all for a bit of a motherly pick-me-up and it did wonders. I also asked a ward member for a blessing and between the two of them I was reminded that all of this was coming from the devil, that I have a work to do in Varese and he's doing everything he can to make me feel down.

 

 Now I never felt unsafe, but it was so frustrating because I just felt empty and unable to do my job. But now I'm loving Varese more than ever. The creepy dudes are still all over, I guess they love red hair, but I've decided to not let in bother me and there you go, it doesn't bother me. Our Albanian capo distretto called the Albanian creepy dude that had given me trouble and had him apologize to me on the phone. So great.

 

I skinned my knee.

Glad you guys made it to Utah, I'm excited to hear about your adventures!

Our beautiful family came to church for the first time on Sunday and I was beyond happy. Then we spent the afternoon with the Bulgarian family we're working to reactive who are such wonderful people. Good things are happening here and were starting to explore other cities in our area besides Varese.

Okay, I have to run and thrown on my skirt again and head to our evening appointments, maybs I'll have time to write more later.

But I love you all!!!!!!!

ciao tutti!

I write to you from Laveno at a member's home. We decided to make lunch for a sorella here to surprise her for when she gets home from work. So her son, who teaches with us a lot, has been hanging outside while I cooked moroccan stew and now we're waiting to surprise her and eat lunch.

I'm slowly getting more used to being here. Since I last wrote we've done a ton of finding work. I'm a little tired of it to be honest. Had some good days and some not so good days. But we decided it's time to leave Varese and work the surrounding towns. The Anziani knocked this place dead so we feel really good about doing work outside of the main city. August will be interesting because everyone is leaving for vacation. We keep finding people and they're like call me in September when I get home again.

I also finally got to teach Luca Sunday night, a solid investigator the Sorelle have been teaching for a while. He's been pretty much taught everything but is still working on understanding better the atonement, the priesthood and a couple other things. So we just get together and talk about his different questions. He's super rad and I'm sure teaching him will be one of the highlights of every week.

Okay...love you guysss! be good!

salve tutti!

OK, so I am stealing a quick 20 minutes to email you a real letter that is not wallowing in depression. After a week of trying to love being here it all of a sudden worked. Varese really is beautiful. These lakes and mountains are not what I imagine when I think of Italy but it keeps the weather cool and reminds me of my green home. Yesterday we also had a really great zone conference that was exactly what I needed and I'm ready to work. I know tons is waiting to happen in Varese and that there's a reason I'm here. I know what my weaknesses are and what I need to change and I'm ready to do everything I can to change the work here so that when it's time for me to leave I'll be leaving the same amount of work I left for the sorelle in Bergamo.

We're teaching a beautiful family. Dad is Italian, mom is from Santo Domingo and her son who's 11 just got here two weeks ago, so doesn't really speak Italian yet. Last night we taught the plan of salvation and talked about how families can be together forever and there was a beautiful spirit. He understands everything we teach so well and she's starting to as well. They both are happy to have us there whenever we come and this week we're planning on bringing some members and I feel like that will help them a ton, see the gospel being lived by real people. He's read the begining of the Book of Mormon and told us he would try and start praying more, that it probs would be a good idea. I told him it would.

Other beautiful peeps we started teaching this week. A half moroccan half egyptian muslim we stopped on the street and a Congo refugee who speaks decent italian and has been here for 5 months. Both of them came to their second appointments having written down all the things they understood about what they read and all their questions. It was so rad. I invited our muslim to get baptized when he knew it was all true and he was like you know, maybe I'll get there, we'll see, pian piano. But he prayed and it was beautiful. 

Right now we're focusing a ton on finding new people because really they have one awesome investigator who should get baptized soon and another young kid from El Salvador, but we need people to teach. It's funny because I feel so comfortable teaching whoever wherever whenever and Sorella McNamara feels so awkward teaching, but she's great at just walking up to people and telling them God is their father of the family brings us more happiness than anything else, which is something I have to fight with myself a bit more to do. I know all my fears are unrational because who cares what any of these peeps that I'll never see again think about this funny american talking about God, but I still find it to be a bit tricky. But I'm getting better! And that's what it's all about.  

At the end of Zone Conference we watched Eryings talk from conference called mountains to climb and at the end Sorella Wolfgramm talked about the part where he talks about his mother's battle with cancer, and if a woman that good needed that much polishing what was in store for him. And Sorella Wolfgramm said isn't it beautiful that the Lord thinks you are worth polishing. And I like that. Obviously I've heard a thousand times that trials are what later bring the blessings, but it felt more real yesterday. There is a reason for all of this. All the mountains I'm climbing in Varese are tailor-made for me, which is beautiful thought. I'm ready to climb, espesh since it's likely I'll be training here next transfer. I'm ready to get my feet planted firmly and do some growing so that the work only gets better every transfer.

Last night we came home and did 10 minutes of yoga on the roof before planning. We live on the 10th floor and there's a sneaky door out to the roof. The sky here is beautiful, usually with fatty clouds sitting over Como. It felt good to stand still and be, let me feet stand firm and get ready for everything that awaits me here. I'm ready to really love my comp, this city, the members and all the people we meet everyday and that's the only way to cast out my fears. Love!

Hope you are having a happy Saturday, maybs a bit of farmer's market?

Love you all!

sorella bush

no time for email this week...

I had to go back to Bergamo today to get my permesso card saying I can legally be here so today is a lot of trains and waiting in hot rooms full of foreigners. I'm hoping tomorrow to have time to email you. Varese is beautiful. I'm in love with the mountains and lakes and our baby branch.

Not so in love with the work yet but I'm trying. Turns out I'm bad at transitioning, and not much is happening so we've got a lot to do. I love you all and will try and write you a real letter tomorrow. New address is:

Via Rainoldi 19
Box number 56
21100 Varese
Italia

I saw Sorella Simkins and all my Bergamo peeps are happy and well and Lulu is getting baptized Friday.

Keep praying for me, these next few weeks are going to be interesting...

xoxoxo

sorella bush