February 24, 2015

Favorite Things and Little Miracles

This week was as busy as ever! Lots of lessons with investigators and members and we feel pretty satisfied with the progress of everyone right now. Just about all of our investigators are progressing at the moment, and that makes for 2 stinkin' happy missionaries over here in Leeuwarden.

Some of my Favorite Things of this Week...


♥ Sang to Oma Brandenburg- Our Branch President's mother who is very old and very weak. She is not able to see but we get to sing to her every Thursday and it is one of my favorite things ever. A lot of the time she is asleep or doesn't talk to us very much so we just sing a few songs, but this week she was awake and so talkative. She loved every Hymn we sang, and kept telling us it was Mooi (beautiful).

♥ I touched a violin this week. Borrowed it from the Branch President's daughter and took it the the Geertsema's house to play it but it was terribly out of tune and the strings wouldn't stick every time I tuned them. Still a work in progress, but I'm hoping I can play something! Everybody here has got the lovely talent of the piano and I want to play some music!

♥ We bought ourselves flowers this week. They make our apartment smell so good and we get happy everytime we come home and see them. We also bought flowers for our next door neighbor (we live in an apartment complex with people 55 and older). She loved the flowers and we got to talk to her for about an hour about religion and her life. It was really cool that we had the impression to take her flowers because she had been having some medical problems and lots of pain. She just needed someone to talk to! She is really sweet and we're planning on visiting her again. You are never to old to learn about the gospel!

♥ We looked up a past investigator that lived in our apartment complex and she has also been going through some medical problems  She is also really old and wearing out, but she knew that we love to talk about Jesus Christ, and would like us to come back another time when she was feeling better. It was really sweet because we asked her what we could do to help her, and she said- "I don't know is there anything that comes to your head?" We offered to sing for her or do some service but for her a prayer was enough. We got to go in for a minute and pray with her and it was really special.

Miracles of this Week....


Our lesson with K. went so well. He is our investigator that is married to a member, and he's been having a hard time following through with our commitments, and it seems like he's been doing everything just because his wife does, but this week he actually read Enos like we asked him too! It was really cool because this was his first chapter ever in the Book of Mormon to read, and when we asked him what he learned, he had so much to tell. He related himself to Enos and knew that he needed to have more Faith in his life. He knows that he needs to study in order to increase in knowledge, and he even came to 2 hours of church on Sunday with his wife. SOO good. This was the first time in a while that we didn't have a joint teach for K., but it was amazing to see what we could do as missionaries because we were listening to the spirit. I've learned a lot this week about not talking too much and letting there be silence even if it is awkward at first. The spirit can teach better than I can, and I am so thankful for that.

Contacting people on the street actually works! We had someone else come to church! We got a call 15 minutes before church was supposed to start and it was a young guy from Africa- who's lived here for 18 years- wanting to know what time church started. He said he had been invited a couple weeks ago and wanted to come. It threw us by surprise, but we were so excited! We had handed this guy a mormon.org card a few weeks back and he was following up on it. He came to Sunday School and Sacrament meeting which was supeeeer cool because we had a big Farewell that was happening. Our little church building was crowded with lots of visitors and young single adults from all over Nederland coming to see the farewell of a girl going to Scotland and Ireland on her mission. It was an exciting day for our Branch to have so many people at church.

I've decided that if I had to choose one thing that I've learned on my mission so far it would be that things take time. We have to have patience for things to happen and it won't all happen in one try. We have to take things step by step just like it tells us in 2nd Nephi 28:30. This applies to anything we do in life. It applies to me personally as a missionary trying to learn the language, trying to be full of all of the gospel knowledge , and trying to grow in Christlike attributes etc.. It also applies to my investigators, and it has been really special to be able to share this knowledge with so many of them. Christ doesn't ask us to be perfect right away, and there is no way we can be perfect in this life, but we have the ability to make certain decisions and do small things that will add to the bigger picture. Soooo... the next time you get overwhelmed with a big task that lies ahead of you, or you get frustrated with something you are lacking in, remember the wise words in 2nd Nephi 28:30. Line upon line... precept upon precept...."Pretty sure this is not my first time sharing this, but I love it so much!

♥  ♥  ♥

One more thing. . . Yesterday was crazy and that's why I'm a day late with my email. We went to the Baptismal Monument in Leeuwarden with our whole District. I think I already told you about this a few weeks ago since this was my 2nd time to go, but it marks the spot that the first baptism in Leeuwarden occured. It was really special to go because only the missionaries who serve in my district get a chance to go. This time we had a picnic and cleaned the monument and the area around it. We pulled out weeds and moss around the stones, and scrubbed it real good with some nice toxic soap. There are 12 people in our district including Elder and Sister Romig so we all had a good time together. Go check out the Romig's mission blog to see pictures! The weather was sooo beautiful and warm at first, but by the time we left we were freezing cold :)

Pictures aren't letting me send on our churches computer for some reason. I'm so sorry. I have really so many that I will have to send next week.

I love you family! Thanks for your prayers. I can feel them! Also, thank you for being so strong in the gospel. I am gaining a stronger testimony of the plan of Happiness that Heavenly Father has for us and I am so happy to know we will all be there in Heaven together :)

Enjoy this week! It goes too fast! Transfer calls happen next Sunday.... Ahhhhhhhh.

Love youuuuuuuu

Leifs,
Zuster Bush


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