Elder Bednar - "This is not about iPads."

Hello everyone.

We got to hear from Elder Bednar this weekend, which was all we had hoped for it to be. The whole mission came together for the event, which is a thing that literally never happens, so it was so crazy to see all the missionaries in the whole mission together instead of just a half or a quarter or something. The whole event reminded me a lot of Alma 17:2, where Alma and all the Sons of Mosiah finally meet up back together again after splitting up 14 years prior to go among the Lamanites to preach the word of God, and they're all just filled with JOY. Not only are they seeing their friends after such a long time, but it was magnified because they had all been serving God and had seen miracles and were all still faithful. It felt like that seeing everyone. It was so cool.

The six Alpine sisters from the MTC -- reunited.

Our conference was incredibly interesting and beautiful. It was almost completely unscripted -- Elder Bednar would pose a question and ask people to just answer it -- and not to try and guess what he was thinking, but really answer it for ourselves. The poor office Elders were practically running laps getting the mics to everyone. But I got the opportunity to contribute and he listened to what I said and responded to it, which was cool. But one of the first things Elder Bednar said was simply, "This is not about iPads. Let me repeat. This is not about iPads." That seemed a little odd at first since this meeting wouldn't be occurring if we weren't going to be receiving iPads, but we talked the whole time about our purpose as missionaries, and partly how we can use this new and beautiful new tool to help bring even more people closer to Christ. They asked everyone to bring questions we wanted answered (like you would for General Conference or something,) and I got mine answered, which was cool.

So, iPads. They aren't here yet, but they're officially coming. There is this whole thing with how they'll come in phases (when we receive them, they will be more for scriptures and media usage, but we won't be on Facebook in the beginning, for example.) Also, the more-media-for-missionaries program (my name, not the church's,) is still very, very new -- so they told us that they're still testing how this is all working. So we're not exactly sure how they'll be implemented, or how we'll be trained -- but it's all new and exciting and I'm glad that I get to be part of this really cool step in hastening the work of the Lord. But one kleinigkeit (little thing): in Europe, the iPads won't actually belong to us. They'll be the church's, and we'll get to borrow them, and when we go home they'll go to other missionaries. So it's like using the laptops in high school, which I thought was great. I think it will help people take even better care of the iPads since they belong to the church.

That whole beautiful weekend was by far the most exciting part of the week, although some other fun stuff happened. Like, I did something super scary and went to a German doctor! I'm fine, I just needed a prescription and they wouldn't fill my American prescription at the Apotheke (drug store), so I had to go and get it converted. But man, did I not know medical-vocabulary. That charades doctor's appt. was pretty funny. And Sister Bishop and I got lost in this tiny dorf (village) because we didn't have adequate maps but then randomly found a castle, so it was fine. (what the heck, Germany? I love this place.) And we got stood up for an appointment with someone but when we realized that she wasn't coming, we ordered some Pommes for an Imbiss (snack) because we were starving -- and ended up having a half-hour conversation about the gospel with this man who was in front of us in line. All over a dish of french fries. And I realized that the food-stuff I miss most from America is super random. Like, someone asked this week if we wanted anything from base, and do you know what I asked for? Cream of chicken soup. Half of the delicious recipes ever made need cream of chicken soup, and we haven't seen it. Cracks me up.

But to end on a more serious note, there was a really beautiful topic of conversation at Mission Conference that I wanted to share. Media had been a large topic, and an Elder (who was about to go home,) asked how he should respond when he encountered Anti-Mormon and false information about the church on Facebook and other internet sites. And Elder Bednar talked about how the absolute best thing to do was to ignore it - and just fill the internet and the world with light. And it made me think a lot about life itself. If you're in a dark room, can you just take out the dark? Of course not. It's physically not possible. What you do is light a candle and fill the room with light - and it shuts the darkness out. And that's what we should do as missionaries, as parents and children, friends and disciples of Christ every day. 

Have a light-filled week!

Sister Bushman

Helping Hands

Hello, world!

This week was SO FUN because we were outside a whole lot. Spring has finally full-on sprung here in Germany, and it is beautiful. There are simply flowers everywhere. Beautiful yellow dandelions, other yellow flowers, purple, blue...my favorite is that there are these mini-daisies that just pop up EVERYWHERE. There are flowers covering lawns, on the U-bahn tracks, everywhere. There will even be full-on daffodils and tulips that just casually pop up in the middle of peoples' yards, but that's not a problem here. People freak out about flowery weeds in America, which I now think is really silly because it's much prettier when they spring up EVERYWHERE. :)

Man, I love Germany. I had a moment of freaking out this week because I realized really how close it is until I go home. All of my freaking-out-about-going-home moments in the past have always been about being a missionary. I just don't want to take off my tag. But this week it was like "I cannot imagine never living in Germany again." So I guess I'll just have to come back some day. :)

Man, Sister Bishop is so fun. She loves "adventuring," so we trekked up to a schloss (castle/palace) last week. She's definitely making me more adventurous. She backpacked around parts of Europe one time. I'm like the least-spontaneuos person on the planet, but I've been starting to put a lot of things in my 'Für Später' (for later) box so I can be cool one day too, haha. :)

But we also got to be outside this week because we had a service project! We've been stoked for a while because we got to wear jeans and the super cool "Mormon Helping Hands" vests and pick up trash around the city. It was a combined activity of both Stuttgart wards (English and German speaking,) so we deep-cleaned the Stake center and cleaned up outside a bit. Sister Bishop and I brought pass-along cards with us and were able to talk to a few civilians, who saw us all cleaning, about who we were and the gospel, so it was super cool. Right after that we had a BBQ with the American ward, and all my dreams came true. They had pulled pork. I repeat: they had pulled pork sandwiches. I forgot how much I miss barbeque! But then at the same time, some of the American food seemed super weird to me. I'm just not used to it anymore. So funny!

There was a day this week when we literally didn't have anytime to eat dinner - but a member of our ward had recommended an ice cream place somewhere near, but not on Königstraße, and so we figured that we could just eat ice cream for dinner real quick. But we couldn't find it...and were in a time crunch. So we started using it as a way to start contacting people...but it was really funny because some people saw that we had Books of Mormon and as we would approach they'd just say "Nein" and walk away...but we were like we literally just want to find this ice cream place!

It was pretty funny.

Speaking of funny things, Sister Bishop and I were talking this week and had a really interesting conversation. Basically, the church must be true, because the whole story of the Restoration is kind of a crazy story. Like, we walk into a stranger's home for the first lesson and throw all this talk about angels and golden plates and prophets and visions at them and ask them to get baptized, and we're just these 20-ish year old American kids with broken German. Like, what on earth? Yet people feel the Spirit, and find that the Book of Mormon is true, and many even get baptized. If this message wasn't true, there is NO WAY that this would work. Interesting to think about, ge?

Sister Bishop and I are pretty busy this week - we have like, 3 or 4 teaching appointments scheduled for each day until Friday when we're going to MÜNCHEN! We're so excited to hear from the General Authorities that are coming. And, of course, the announcement of technology would completely change and update our missionary service 180 degrees. So let's go!

Love,

Sister Bushman

Shelley's mom here -- more photos of beautiful Stuttgart:

Bushman 'n' Bishop

Hello!

This was a week of some changes, mainly in my companion - which of course affects everything else. But I'll get to that in a second. Stephan got the Gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday - on April 12th. It dawned on me a little ways back that on April 12th, 2003, I was baptized and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. And now, here in Germany, 8 years later was Stephan. It was the most beautiful coincidence. He said he has just felt this warmth since he got baptized. It's the coolest, most beautiful thing. 

So I'm half of a week into a new dawn and a new age with Sister BISHOP. She's from Colorado, was at/will return to BYU after her mission, and just finished 6 months in her first area, Graz. It was fun since we've tausched before and could just kind of jump in because we half-knew each other already. On her first evening here after I picked her up from the train station and we took her stuff home, I took her to Königstraße, the big center shopping-street of town so she could see it and we could start contacting, and then took her to Udo-Snack, this corner-in-the-wall, where-all-the-hipsters-go burger joint Sister Threlkeld and I were told about by some Americans a few weeks ago. (We're super obsessed with it.) And we just sat down next to this fountain with our burgers and had this heart to heart about what we want out of this transfer and where we feel we are as missionaries and where we want to go and who we want to become. It was a super great way to start the transfer. Also, she has an excellent vocabulary (something I struggle with) and I'm decent with grammar (something that's hard for her,) so we're going to help each other out a lot. :)

Sister B & Sister B!

It still kind of feels like a super long tausch, though. Like, where's Sister Threlkeld? Haha. It was sad to say goodbye, but I know I'll see her again so It wasn't really SO sad. That's why we have skype, oder?

Saying goodbye to Sister Threlkeld at the Bahnhof

But in the days leading up to Sister Threlkeld leaving...the scripture "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die" has never felt so real. People were super kind and everyone wanted to have Sister Threlkeld and I over before she left, so we did a lot of eating this week. We also learned how to make Maultaschen!

One of the farewell dinners with the Stuttgart District

So Maultaschen is this German yummyness which is basically like biggish raviolis stuffed with meat and spinach and onions and garlic and stuff. Then you eat them with a bit of broth or cooked up with eggs.  We had had an appointment a few weeks ago with this lovely Schwäbisch woman who made us homemade maultaschen...mannnn it was good. And she said she would teach us how! So we learned! It wasn't super hard, but it takes a little time. But we made this little assembly line and made them. I can imagine myself after the mission just setting up camp in the kitchen with "The Sound of Music" on and just churching them out (even though schwäbisch food doesn't really mix with an American musical about the Austrian alps...but it's fine.)

Making Maultaschen . . . 

. . . and eating Maultaschen

I've been thinking a lot about finding people to teach recently. There are lots of methods - but I mean the old-school plain-Jane just talking to people on the street and on the Bahn and this and that or whatever. I have a theory for myself as far as finding goes. When you just start out, the first 10 people you stop make you want to barf. It's just hard. Then, if you talk to those 10 people about Christ, then the next day it's only 8 people you have to talk to before you feel totally comfortable doing it and it's easy. Then if you succeed, the next day is 6, and then 4, and then 2, and then you reach the point where you just wake up and go talk to people without feeling even a hint of hesitation or anxiety. But if you don't hit that 6 or 8 people, then the next day it goes back up to 8 or 10 people you have to talk to before it's not uncomfortable. Like, it's like getting a huge icy snowball rolling. If the finding snowball is rolling, then everything is great. If you get lazy for one day, it's that much easier to be lazy the next day...and then it's hard again. I'm so happy that the vast majority of the time the ball is rolling, and it's easier. Missionary work is more fun that day. 

Next Saturday we're going to München (Munich) AND STAYING THE NIGHT and then SEEING ELDER BEDNAR. And some other really cool General Authorities. It's basically 99.8% sure that it means that we're getting IPads. Or, at least the announcement is happening. I wonder what it will/would be like incorporating them in. In the next transfer? Next 3 months? Would some zones get it and then others? What about IPad training that would definitely need to happen? No idea. It will be fun to see what happens, though. Also the WHOLE mission is coming together (not just half like Mission Tour,) so I'm really excited. There will be very little time to actually track down friends and take pictures and catch up I think, but it will still be nice to see people. It makes me think of Alma 17 when Alma and all the Sons of Mosiah meet up after splitting up completely and venturing out into the unknown of the land of the Lamanites to preach, especially with my MTC group. I just loved (and love) those sisters that I came in with - I imagine in December when our time is really up a great joyous reunion - and we'll know that we've all grown so much and seen so many miracles since we all left each other and ventured out into our own beautiful corners of this beautiful part of the world.

Ich habe euch Lieb! Sehr schöne Woche. :)    (I love you all.  Have a lovely week.)

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Bushman

Shelley's Mom here -- more pictures from the past week:

One last hug with Sister Threlkeld

Sister Threlked on the train . . . on her way home to America.

With Sister Zaugg, one of the senior missionaries

Beautiful Stuttgart at night

Taufe!!!

Dearest family, friends, etc, - 

This week was incredible. The main thing that pops out is STEPHAN GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!! I haven't really talked about many people who I've met in specifics, but Stephan said I could share his story with you. :) Sister Threlkeld and I actually met him together - just at the U-Bahn station. I remember the day super specifically; we had been struggling to find people to work with and I remember resolving personally that that day I was going to spend absolutely every minute I could speaking with every person I could find. (Well, it wasn't that perfect - but I certainly tried,) and while waiting for the Bahn we saw this man who had a Raiders hat and a camo jacket - looking kind of American. He saw us looking at him and he actually talked to us first - and we ended up talking about the gospel and giving him a Book of Mormon and inviting him to learn more! In our first lesson we brought up baptism and how it's the first step in a life of following Christ, and how to know if the things we were saying were true, he needed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. 

We weren't quite sure what to expect because you start teaching people all the time - but then in our next appointment he said he had read and received a sign that it was true, and Sister Threlkeld and I'll never forget the words he then said: "I think it would be okay if you baptized me." We were pretty surprised but so happy for him that he wanted to make that commitment. He's come so far since we met him; it was such a blessing to have the privilege of teaching him - and beginning to end! It's strengthened my testimony watching him strengthen his. He said that his life has completely changed and he's been able to do things he never even thought were possible, (like stopping smoking after 30 years!) 

Elder Sharp, Stephan, Sister Bushman, Sister Threlkeld
at the Taufe (Baptism) 

This was the first baptism I've ever had to completely plan, and it's amazing how many little things have to come together. Luckily Sister Threlkeld is better in pressure-situations than I am, (although I've become so much calmer in stressful situations thanks to her - thanks girl!) and everything came together beautifully. Lots of people came, the talks were lovely, and Stephan asked if Sister Threlkeld and I would sing, which was way fun. (We did "Ich bin ein Kind von Gott" ["I am a Child of God"] because what else do you sing at a baptism? :)) The one almost-hiccup was with filling the font. Our cool GML/Ward Mission Leader got there a few hours early to fill the font; we heard it takes about 1 1/2 hours. Well, we showed up after it had been running for about an hour (and there was an hour left,) and there were six inches of water at the bottom! Ahh! So the three of us worked together and filled up all the huge cauldrons we could find in the kitchen with water and dumped them into the font. It was taken care of in a half-hour, no problem - so it was kind of fun participating in such a classic "When I was on my mission..." story of filling the font by hand.

Right after the baptism was General Conference! Can you talk about a big day? In Germany because of the time difference we just watched the Women's session on Saturday afternoon, and then the morning session live that evening. Then on Sunday the men watch the Priesthood session, we watch the Saturday afternoon, and then the Sunday morning live that evening. I still haven't seen Sunday afternoon. But I digress. What was your favorite talk of Conference? From what I saw, I really loved Elder Michael T. Ringwood's and Wilford W. Andersen's talks. I want to be more Shiblon-y. Also, how about those NEW TEMPLES?! Sister Threlkeld and I were crossing our fingers for Vienna, Austria, but the whole chapel gasped at Bangkok, Thailand! So cool! (Mom - I guess we'll just have to go there and go to the temple and eat Thai food, huh? :)) All of the missionaries were laughing though because so many talks had a focus on strengthening families and the blessings of marriage and stuff. It was making all of the missionaries feel a little trunky. Haha! Everything in it's time. So that was pretty funny.

But another crazy thing. Right after the Women's Meeting this woman who I didn't really recognize came up to me and was like, "Sister Bushman. I have a surprise for you! Follow me." And took my arm and started walking with me out of the chapel. (I'm thinking "what the heck?") Then we make it outside and THERE IS SISTER FREIMANN. What on earth?! Then of COURSE I realized that the woman was Sister Freimann's mom and of course we screamed and hugged and it was just so random, but her grandpa lives near Stuttgart so they were there to visit him - and she didn't want to tell me so that it would be a surprise. That little sneaker! :) She told me and Sister Threlkeld that she was wearing her dirndl the next day, so obviously we participated. (Even if dirndls totally aren't a thing here - they belong in Bavaria. Or Austria. Whatever! :))

Sister Threlkeld, Sister Freimann (her first companion), and Sister Bushman

Holy cow, I didn't even mention the fact that we got TRANSFER CALLS! I was a little nervous because things have stayed the same (and going into calls we were pretty sure that they were going to stay the same) for like, 4 months - but I get to work with the lovely Sister BISHOP! Who I totally have tausched with before when I visited Graz! I really, really like her already and was actually kind of secretly hoping that we could be companions, so I was just floored. Obviously it's going to be hard to say goodbye to Sister Threlkeld (we've both come SO far together,) but it's nice to know that I already know/like my next companion. It takes the stress off of things. :)

Besides that, it's been a pretty crazy week. I swear, the weather almost killed us. It had totally become warm, and then on Tuesday we had the craziest winds and rain I've ever experienced, ever. Like, cyclone scene from Wizard of Oz conditions. The wind snapped my umbrella! I still tried to use it anyway - even though the jagged metal kept getting caught in my hair and it wasn't actually helping and the locals of Malmsheim, Germany were laughing at me. Whatever. I eventually threw it away - right next to another Regenschirm [umbrella] that had kicked the bucket. Then, the next day we literally experienced total gray skies, hail, a complete stunning double rainbow, and beautiful blue skies and sunshine within 10-15 minutes. Why are you trying to kill us, Deutschland? (But it's fine because I still adore you. :))

I also really wanted to share a sweet experience we had this week with this girl we met. We had had a "power hour" as a district (where we all go hard with finding for an hour at the same time,) and talked to this girl who looked a little distressed. We found out that she's actually homeless right now and is about to get deported. We met her in the park a few days later and she started to tell us about everything that was going on - and just started to cry. Sister Threlkeld and I were just speechless; we didn't know what to do or what to say. After a few minutes of silence I went over and put my arm around her, and she just kept crying. And after a few more minutes, I opened up in the Book of Mormon to Mosiah 24:10-16, (which I've probably shared with you 1,000 times,) because during a certain painful season of my life I remember it being one of the only things in the world that brought me comfort. I tried to just tell her about how much God loves her and how Christ understands what she's going through perfectly because he literally felt it - and how with some patience and faith and trust in the Lord, it would work out. Some day, eventually. And while there was literally nothing Sister Threlkeld and I could really do to help - the Spirit was really strong and it really felt  like we were helping. And I was so grateful for that moment and just pray that her life will be blessed. I'm never going to forget that hour close to Hauptbahnhof.

By the way, how was your Easter? :) We did a lot of Easter contacting this week, understandably. We gave a lot of the #BecauseHeLives cards out (mormon.org/easter) which was really cool - but then on one day when the weather stopped freaking out for 10 seconds and the weather was shining we decided to mix up our contacting for a while. Downtown there is a beautiful Schloss [castle] next to this giant duck pond. There are a lot of ducks, and some swans. But we saw the weirdest birds I have ever seen. And we couldn't figure out what they were. So we asked random passers-by. Nobody knew. Somebody please solve the bird mystery for us, because we still want to know.

How they decorate for Easter in Germany

Any guesses?

I've never been somebody to be really good at change. It's amazing that I came on a mission without having a total panic attack. But isn't the whole Gospel of Christ about change? Just putting off the natural man a little more and a little more until we're that much closer to becoming what Heavenly Father wants from us? 

I love you so much.

Sister Bushman

#WeilErLebt

Yello!

This was a long week, but not because it was out-of-the-ordinary busy or out-of-the-ordinary hard. It was just long. Maybe we've been working too hard or something though, because I've had only half of my voice today and yesterday and the day before! I've been pretty hoarse, but it's fine. At least I have Holunderblüten Ricola bonbons. Mmmm. 

Anyway but this week I had this really crazy experience while trying to do some contacting on a train. I sat down across from this lady but couldn't really figure out how to start talking to her - but the lady next to me had the most fabulous missionary boots, ever. My boots totally died so I asked her about them, and we struck up a conversation. Then, the lady across from me was like "excuse me, may I ask where you're from?" and I said the States and then all of us were talking and she said that her 15 year old is doing a member exchange with this lovely family in Utah (who happen to be Mormons,) and they have a daughter on a mission so she saw my tag and knew who I was and is so excited to tell them all that they she met a missionary! It was the craziest thing. 

Speaking of crazy, Sister Threlkeld and I keep meeting people who are like "The Book of Mormon?! I've been trying to get my hands on one of those for years! How can I get one?!" And we just kind of look at each other and smile and are like "we can help you out!" Haha. It's seriously happened like, 4 times. What the heck? Way cool, though.

Sister Bushman & Sister Threlkeld with copies of the Book of Mormon

We have approximately a bazillion plans for this week because Sister Threlkeld is going home soon so there are lots of people to say goodbye to and lots of ends to tie - but we will be fed a lot this week, so that will be fun. We also have a lot of appointments with new people we've found. Finding is a huge focus right now which I think is great. So many people don't like finding, but if you get yourself to a place that you like finding, then everything in missionary work gets better. Stuttgart is on fire right now. I heard that it's the top-baptizing zone in the mission, and last week we broke the zone record for number of lessons taught in the zone in a week - the record (for the past 5 years or so) was 86 and we taught 95. It was so cool! Stuff is getting done!

One last ice cream cone with Sister Trelkeld

And I got to go on Austausch with Tübingen sisters this week. I actually got to go there this time - the last 2 tausches (exchanges) I stayed in Stuttgart. There's a drift (three sister missionaries) there right now so I exchanged with Sister Ahlm and Sister Baugh. Tübingen is this little charming college town, so it was fun to visit somewhere new. And, Sisters Baugh and Ahlm are both super great missionaries so I picked up little ideas from both of them of things I could start doing in my own work, so I'm excited to try those things. And I gave them tips on dritt life because been-there-done-that. :)

Sister Baugh, Sister Bushman, & Sister Ahlm in Tubingen

I was actually thinking a lot this week about how international my mission is. Like, it's so international. It's the "Alpine German-Speaking Mission" but it should be the "Alpine International Mission" because that makes a lot more sense. My favorite contacting strategy is talking to people about where they're from, because so often it's not Germany. And, a lot of the times I have friends serving in their home countries, so it's great to make a connection. The only downside is that you're always calling around the zone for that one language of the Book of Mormon that you need and don't have. This week was Turkish. Thanks, Ludwigsburg Elders for waiting for us at the Bahnhof to give us a book even though we were late...

Have you seen the Easter Campaign from the church? I swear they're just getting bigger and better and more beautiful each Easter and Christmas. We have all these passalong cards that link to the website with the video that we have been sharing with people, but we actually saw the video for the first time during church on Sunday (find it here - http://www.mormon.org/easter) and I almost cried. What struck me is how many clips they use of different people where they're going through some kind of trial. I think everyone can relate to at least a few of those frames. And He carries us through it all.

Happy Easter; He lives; Write down some questions going into General Conference this weekend. I can't wait to watch. 

Love,

Sister Bushman

Shelley's Mom here:  A few more photos.  In the forest . . . and enjoying German bratwurst.

Half Way & Making Progress

Guten Morgen!

I hit my HALF WAY WITH MY WHOLE MISSION mark this week. It was really weird. I almost completely forgot; I guess it's good to be wrapped up in the work, but then all of a sudden it's March 19th and you've been out since June 19th and it's just like where did all the time go. So weird. Honestly in the beginning I started to panic a bit with those "I haven't done enough!" type thoughts, but then I took a step back and thought about how at the beginning of my mission when I prayed, every third word was "um". And it was hard for me to roll with the punches of missionary work. And now, I don't have the most eloquent vocabulary, but I can say a unique prayer each time I pray, I can talk with people, and if things don't go according to plan, I can usually stand back up and just go with plan B. So it's been good. :)

Hitting the "Half-Way" mark

But that obviously doesn't mean that it's always perfect or I always know what to say. I had a really interesting experience talking with this woman on the S-Bahn this week. I complimented her earrings to start chatting and she was really nice. She saw that I was a missionary and we started talking about the church and what we believed. It started okay, but she soon started to tense up and started firing questions at me - none of them were too difficult, simply things that need discussing. She'd fire a question, and another, and without letting me respond to the first question fire a third question and ask why I hadn't addressed her first question, and then tell me that it was because I didn't know the answer, and there simply wasn't an answer. (Even though the Gospel gives answers to such questions.) Turns out she was an Evangelical priest. She told me she used the "Comparative Historical Method" (I think she called it that) of studying the Bible - and told me how I really should do the same because she had learned so much from that way. She told me about how she had been able to pick apart the Gospels of Luke and Matthew and this and that and this and that...I left that S-Bahn completely drained. It reminded me of the Book of Mormon when it talks about the people who will "draw near to [the Lord] with their lips, but their hearts are far from [him]." Obviously scripture study is important. I'm not saying that we shouldn't study the scriptures. But holy cow - it was like she had picked apart the Bible so much that she didn't even pay attention to the doctrine anymore. It was crazy how much the Spirit wasn't there when we were talking. 

Sister B & Sister T -- wearing out their shoes on the pavement

But like, there's also been some good and fun moments - like, last Thursday (?) I believe. We were a little frustrated because we had been trying to do some finding that afternoon and it was totally fruitless. We were at the Bahn stop waiting to go home when Sister Threlkeld and I started looking at this huge ad for Tarzan the Musical that's apparently in Stuttgart or coming to Stuttgart or something. Sister Threlkeld was like, "Wait. How can he have long hair, but no beard? Gorillas don't shave!" And I guess it had been a long day because we were like cracking up at this and I saw this man a few paces away from us so I asked him what he thought about the monstrosity and then he started laughing too, and then we got talking, and he said we could come visit him sometime. It was really cool! And pretty funny. 

We also got the oppotunity to go to the Relief Society activity this past week - it was the cutest and most fun activity, like, ever. The whole purpose was that they wanted everyone to get to know each other better, so everyone brought 3 items that represented them and put them in a bag with an explanation of why those items were meaningful, and then someone would show all the items, read the papers, and then ask "Who am I?" It was so fun. Everyone was just laughing and smiling and I learned a lot about everyone. This is what I did:

- I really love musicals and theatre. I've been in over 50 musicals and plays. (Theatre mask necklace)

- I love Disney! My favorite Disney films are Tangled and Pocahontas. (Deutsche Disney CD)

- One of my ancestors was one of the 3 first people ever to be baptized into the church in Germany. (Das Buch Mormon)

Sister Threlkeld and I struggled to come up with stuff, because as missionaries we mainly own scriptures and clothes. Haha. Not much else...so it was hard to come up with knick-knacks that represented us in our past lives.

After that we all got food and split up to these tables where there were different questions ("What's your favorite dessert?" "Any hidden talents?" "What does your name mean?") And we would chat and answer questions and then rotate and it was just really fun and well done.

While on that note, I just want to shout from the top of the Swiss Alps that I am literally like, obsessed with all the members of this ward. But not in a weird way. (Maybe weird?) Whenever we're invited anywhere or run into random people on the Bahn I'm always like "Sister Threlkeld! She's like, my favorite member of the whole ward!" And Sister Threlkeld is always like "...you said that about this guy and that guy and the other person too." But it's totally true. I wish I could just take every person by the shoulders (mainly the members of the Relief Society and Young Women) and be like "do you realize how wonderful you are?!" and shake them until they get it. But that just got a little weird.

I sang in church yesterday! Sister Threlkeld is going home in like, 2 weeks so we wanted to take advantage of having 2 (at least slightly) musically inclined people together one more time and do a musical number. To make things simpler, she played and I sang. (We were also trying to use it to motivate a friend of ours to come to church...) Getting up in front of people used to never make me nervous, but I was shaking! I definitely was a little shakier than I would have like to have been, but that's okay. Someone afterward told us afterward that they felt the Spirit, and that was our goal, so that was nice. :)

Man. I can't believe Sister Threlkeld is going home in 2 weeks. We've been together for so long, I don't remember what it's like being a missionary with not Sister Threlkeld. I feel like we've come SO far together. It's been fun.

Anyway. Before this gets even longer. Sending love! Muah!

Sister Bushman

20!

Yello!

Sister Threlkeld and I both started new years this year! I started a new decade, personally. I kind of feel weird about birthdays because I feel weird when people make a huge fuss about me but people have made a fuss about me and Sister Threlkeld together this week, so that has been really fun. On Thursday we had lunch with our distrikt at Milaneo, the magical mall that requires a compass to navigate, basically. It was super fun. Sunday, (my birthday,) Sister Threlkeld made me pancakes and I opened up my package from home (thanks, Mom!) before heading to church. Everyone just loved on us the whole day - a woman in the Relief Society made us both cakes and sang happy birthday to us, (except it sounded more like "Börstday" because Germans don't use the "th" sound and it was wonderful), and the Bishop even announced that we both had birthdays over the pulpit in Sacrament meeting. Ha! Lots of people were very kind. And we were invited over - where there was even MORE cake AND Wiener Schnitzel. Man, I love that stuff. By the end of the night I must have been sung happy birthday to at least 8 or 9 times, ( even if 3-4 of those times were Elder Sharp & Elder Ridd.) :) All in all, I feel really spoiled with the love from the people here in Stuttgart and from the people at home who have been kind enough to send me little notes. I love ya!

Celebrating Sister Threlkeld's birthday on Thursday

Celebrating Sister Bushman's birthday on Sunday at home

Celebrating both birthdays at church

Celebrating both birthdays at a member's home

But sitting in Relief Society/FHV yesterday, I figured out something way cool. I've looked through my family history before, and found out that "Bushman" used to be "Bussmann" when they were still in Germany, a few hundred years ago. (Or something.) I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't "Busch" or "Buch" or something, because I couldn't find a translation for "Buss." Bummer. WELL. On Sunday in FHV we talked about Umkehr, or repentance. The teacher started the class by talking about how another, older word for "Umkehren", or "to repent" is "Bussen." I was so stoked! So I guess the name used to translate out to repentant-man or something like that. Or maybe not. But I'd like to think so. It reminds me of Alma the Younger. 

Speaking of Family History, Sister Threlkeld and I planned to do something fun last P-day - we had heard about a Bible museum! Well, that sounded perfect. We showed up and found out that it wasn't really a museum - but more of an archive for family history research. Perfect! They had all these super cool old church records (and even a few Bibles.) I held a church record (births, deaths, marriages) from 1711! And I found this super cool braille Bible from the 1800s. It had raised bumps, but just spelled out the words anyway, so I could read it. They had all these flyers everywhere for family history research...so we're going to go back this week and leave some Family Search cards. :)

We also had Zone Training this week! I love Zone Training, this one especially. It was really well prepared and I felt super spiritually super-charged afterward. We then had a finding day! It was actually my first finding day I've ever been on on my whole mission, and I'm almost half-way done. I have no idea how that happened. Basically finding days are when all the missionaries in a zone get together and contact super hard in an area and try and find a lot of potential people to meet with for the missionaries of that area. It's also fun because you get to go on splits with other missionaries! I worked with Sister Priest, who is in her first transfer. It was SO fun, and we ended up finding a couple cool people. Sister Threlkeld and Elders Sharp/Ridd all think I'm going to train next transfer. Nobody really knows - it would be fun to full-on train, but it also sounds really scary to take the full-on lead for a companionship. It really eased my fears though, because Sister Priest and I had a lot of fun and did a lot of work. So either way, I feel a lot better about it. :) But HOLY COW were we dead at the end of the day. We went so hard for those few hours that that night when we made it home, Sister Threlkeld and I just crashed. Easily one of the most tiring days I've had on my mission. But it was great. :)

Also at Zone Training the Zone Leaders told us that we were going to start weekly "power hour" in our zone, which was a thing in Wien Zone slightly before my time there. Basically, there's one hour every week where every companionship prays together and then tries to talk to as many people as possible in their own areas. Then the Zone Leaders send out a text to everyone about how many people were found within that hour. We did it for the first time this week and it was so fun! It's comforting to know that everyone is doing it at once. It was super motivating to talk to people on the finding day because you could see other people out of the corner of your eyes sometimes having great conversations with people. Sister Threlkeld and I found a few people in that hour...but we could have talked to more people if we hadn't been warding off a drunk guy who was following us all like "Morrrrrrrrmoooonen misssssssssssionarrrrrinnnennnnnnnn"... haha. We've seen him before. We lost him eventually.

I really, really wanted to talk about the power of the Book of Mormon this week. People always talk about the power of reading it (especially for people who never have before,) but I don't think I ever really even got a glimpse of it until this week. I don't know why, but we ended up reading Alma 32 where it talks about faith a lot this week. When we were reading it with this one man, after reading a certain verse he exclaimed "That finally answered my question!" We read the verse with him again, and honestly, I don't see how it solved the concern he had. But it did. As we read in the Book of Mormon (and other scriptures as well) it opens our minds to revelation, which is so personal. We also read Alma 32:26-27 with this lovely woman in the ward whom we stopped by on (we had had an appointment nearby) and she talked about how it reminded her of her conversion story. It was really beautiful.

To the moon and back!

Love,

Sister Bushman