Sczesliwego Nowego Roku!!!

Hey Family :) - So good to hear your voices! Goodness gracious- you all sound like a little piece of heaven. Ha, I wish I could've talked to you guys all night, and I could have. Spencer kid, your voice is so deep now lol. I think it's hilarious. Maybe I just haven't heard it in so long it seemed really deep, I dunno? Sarah and Annie, you sound pretty much the same- so happy and so good. I loved talking to you all. Dad...I mean "Your Honor" - I can't believe your going to be a Judge so soon! That blows my mind! Are you excited? I'm sure it's a bummer to have to say goodbye to the lack of work and good family time, but I can imagine your excited to tackle this next part of life. It'll be SWEET! to hear about :) Who's in the Bishopbric now? Ma, you sound way good :) It was funny, right when I heard your voice, it was like I talked to you on the phone everyday ha. Funny eh? The days do fly by here....I know that before I can even realize it I'll be back home, so I really do need to make the very most of this I can- I loved one time this week Elder McRae said, "I'm almost at my year mark! That's ridiculous!" and I asked him "Why?" and he replied. "Cos that means I have less time left on my mission! And less time to learn Polish!" Ha i love it :) I want to hear ALL about Christmas, and ALL about your awesoem Ski trips! Be safe, ya hear? Good :) This week, since I've talked to you has been a bit slow. It's WAY tough to meet with people because all of the Holiday madness that is going on, so that was a tad discouraging...and it has been wicked cold still- today we were blessed with some sunshine :). But we spent some time contacting and tracting, with no major success, BUT we tracted some craaaazy houses. I'm talking, ancient looking, and feeling. One of the apartments consisted of a narrow, spiral, old wood staircase, with small little flat landings with a couple doors. It had an eerie feel to it and when we finally went outside, we felt like we had jumped back into the future. Some of these apartments are just...old and European. The elevators here are a trip to...we must ride one when you come, just to experience it lol. A lot of them haven't changed since communists times...very small, and very rickety feeling. We did get to serve quite a bit this week. We helped Richard and Asia deliver some packages the ward had put together for some members. It was sweet! This one lady, Janina, is one of the funniest ladies I've ever met in my life. She has droopy, dog-like cheeks and is addicted to TV- stayed up til 6 in the morning watching the American Elections. And her laugh is so funny! So silly....o jeez, I'll have to record it somehow. SO - Elder Mehner and I went over there (cos we had to split up and we just changed it up) and she was not expecting us, so when we rang her apartment, she got way excited and let us in, but she had just woken up. We went up there, gave her her package, and than said we had to leave. She said "ok" and then continued to talk for 5 more minutes. We tried to leave 6times! and eventually had to resort to walking towards the door. And she finally let us go, but only after bestowing some cookies and candies :P She is so cute and kind and she's a less-active lady the Zone Leaders meet with- hopefully she comes back to Church soon.We had a meeting with Irina, in which we gave her son a guitar to borrow, to try to get him hooked on that, and Elder McRae gave him one of his ties, to wear to Church. The meeting didn't go the best , mainly because her dog was running around with his cast on, trying to bite everything. Eventually I took it in my arms and held him kinda like a baby...and he calmed down and the lesson finished decently. Irina drove us home and then we hadn't heard from her since that day, cos she was going to her boyfriends family's house for Christmas. We wanted to set up her Baptism, but she wouldn't answer her phone on the 26th or the 27th and we were a little worried...so yesterday, before we tried to call her, we prayed that she would answer, so we could get it all set up. We called- and she answered! It really was pretty amazing, cos we had been trying pretty persistently, and the Lord helped us out there. :) We got everything all set up, and he baptism will be the 3rd of January. And it will actually happen! I will tell you all about it- we want to have a member baptize her, because then she will always have a solid friend in the ward- the person who baptized her, even when we are gone. That is one of the major problems- less - actives are way to common here, so we;re working on building the members relationships. So yeah for Irina :) Please continue to pray for her. We had a great meeting with Edyta and with Tomek. The spirit was quite strong on both meetings, but Edyta's I particularly enjoyed, because I feel like she actually has the intent to learn and to change. Not that Tomek doesnm't, I just truly feel the sincerity in Edyta. She's a very kind and calm, mild person, but very funny at the same time, and she wants to be good. She holds us in such High esteem- we told her how Poland kind of feels like home now and she replied "I bet every place can feel like home when you have the kind of Spirit you both have." It was humbling and for sure too generous of a comment- but something to live up to undoubtedly. She will be baptized soon, no doubt there :)Church was awesome this Sunday - Elder Whipple, Antczak and Sis. Thacker all bore their testimonies and it was way good. I was very straightforward and I understood it all :P (I feel like i'm actually starting to see how all the grammar works a lot mroe fluidly...I can understand a lot more, even if I don't necessarily know the word...and I'm starting to get into learning the deeper harder words, so I'm feeling good there). Brat Hapgood, a member of the Mission Presidency spoke next. That man knows deep doctrine...and it's great to hear him speak. Very powerful. Primary was so funny and just good. There were only 3 kids there- the Banks kids and one Polish/Mongolian boy who left 10 minutes into it with his mom. And Sis. Banks is the Primary president, so it wasn't too hard. We played a game of memory and sang tons of songs- I play on a little electric piano in there. Sis. Banks told a great story about how she lost her wedding ring in a lake, right around the same time her husband had Cancer and was possibly going to die. (He is stil alive and is the Mission Presidency.) She searched so hard for it, and prayed and knew that the Lord could help her, and he did. She related it to the Parable of the Woman seraching for her valued coin in her house, or the Lost Sheep and then again to the Prodigal son. She said how she knows that however lost we are, or how we feel that sometimes we mess up too bad, the Lord always welcomes us back and is so so happy to see us. It was powerful for me. I feel like a lot of people forget that aspect of our Loving Father. Sidenote- this lady really reminds me of Aunt Jolene for some reason...it's nice :)Well I have to go- got cut on my e-mail time a bit, cos have to take a Zone Leader to the Train station. But I love you all so much. That phone call was the best and I can't wait to hear about your trip! And tell me about Christmas! and what you got and what you all are up to! And Spence, fill me in on life man. I don't want to have to wait to years to know what's going on. Ya know ; ) Your my best friend kid. I love you family. So darn much. The work is going on good here in Poland. I feel like we're doing good things here. I love it. I rejoice in the people i get to work with cos I know you would love them all. I look forward to e-mailing next week :) Milosc! - Starszy Michael Joseph Rushton Junior :) (still Spartacus!) p.s. Happy 2009 :)

It's Christmas time...in the city:)

Dearest Family, How on Earth are you :)
I can't believe it's Christmas time already. Almost 6 months ago I was sitting with you in small and very comfortable Murrieta...and now I've almost been in this country for 4 months. It's unreal!! Time truly does fly by and I couldn't be happier being where I am right now. I miss you, family, so darn much. Every day I think of another awesome Christmas memory or I think about what my little siblings are up to. It makes me smile to think how well you all are doing and how happy you all are. :)
Spencer- solid job on the grades kid- holy snap :) Rockin. I can't imagine what it's like to worry about grades again. :/ Have fun at your soccer tournament little brother. I love you kid. I am so excited just to hear your voice. Sarah! You sound like you had the greatest time at your party and that all is well. Love you little sister so much. Can't wait to speak! Annie, I love you oodles! And i know all is well, can't wait to hear from you too :)
I got your other parcel ma- thank you so much! I didn't open up any of the presents yet, but we will on Thursday morning. I look forward to them :) Sorry I opened the first one lol. I couldn't resist! I haven't gotten Grandma Dianes, but I could get it tonight- the office Elders are bringing them to the Chapel, whereI will be.
The weather here is wicked cold lately. But no snow!! Grandpa told me it snowed in Vegas...but it won't snow here! lol. It poured rain today for a lot of the morning, but it died down as we played Capture the Flag. I was muddy as could be :P
I am so excited for this Christmas week :) Last week, we achieved the District Standard of Excellence. Our district had 1 person baptized, 2 people with baptismal dates and then several other solid numbers that I don't know off the top of my head...but we got it! It was great :) We have been working consistently hard for the past month almost and recieved all the numbers necessary for the Standard...and with the Zone Leader's investigator, Artur, it was completed. We went to his baptism last night and it was amazing. He was so confident and ready for it, i was amazed. It was my third baptism in Poland and the man was just commited. He was smiling and so happy before the meeting started, and only continued to show his excitement. He is as normal as could be (cos sometimes there are not so normal investigators...) and as he got in the baptismal water, he took some of it and threw it in his own face and hair, to get used to the water. Ha it was hilarious :P Then Elder Fuller baptized him, and it was amazing. :) That night, Elder McRae and I did family night with a very strong member who is divorced from his wife, and has two children. He only can be with them on Sunday- they go to Church, and on this day the baptism as well, and then we had family night. After a turn of events, I had a guitar there at the church, and the man, before we had started, asked me to play for his sons so they could "be infected" with the desire to play music. I played "When I Baptized" and sang it in English, and then we all sang it in Polish. We stayed and helped with the rest of Family Night and I was pleased to have helped- he was so gracious and grateful that we had helped. His sons names are Mateusz and Moroni. True story. This man really loves the gospel and it was obvious as he so earnestly desired his children to have it's goodness in their lives. It taught me something to say the least.
This week, we hope to reach the Companionship Standard of Excellence. It'll be hard for sure, but I know we can do it, with a lot of praying and hard work and dilligence. I feel like Elder McRae and I are really getting good and making goals and following through with them. I truly feel like we're being effective tools for the Lord and I am so thankful for that. We had 9 sit down meetings this last week and one with a member present. It's not 15, but we're making our way there.
Real quick concerning my compy Elder Jacob Rey McRae -I learn something everyday that i'd like to become better at. He is so diligent and working and truly wants to do the most effective thing. He reminds me a lot of you Dad in that sense- thinking of the best plan, being super prompt etc. I definitely need to take advantage of the time I have with him to learn these things. We get along better than I though possible- we both love to cook delicious food ALL the time! Today we made biscuits and gravy. Delcious as could be :P We're making Cinnamon rolls on Christmas day :) Can you send me our recipe for Coffee Cake ma? And other delicious recipes you have? lol.
Ok a little more about Christmas time - I'll talk to you all on thursday, so for now I'll just give you all the random things for an update. Christmas time is a big deal here to say the least. As it gets closer and closer, people are putting up Christmas Trees EVERYWHERE. Right in the Church Parking lot, there's just a big Christmas tree. Huge! It's kind of funny, but I love it :) There's lights up everywhere and no one really wants to meet until "po swietach" (after the holidays!). Here, they believe in Santa Clause, but his name is Mikolajki (nicholas in Polish) and he looks exactly like our Santa ha. The biggest celebration though doesn't happen on Christmas Day, but Rather on Christmas Eve. I have no idea why. But they party it up Christmas Eve way more than Christmas day- and the tradional food for Christmas is Carp. Yes, CARP. Their like the bottom-feeder lame fish of the world and here, they it eat it up. I had heard before that people buy them live and then just keep them in their bathtub until Christmas... but i was skeptical, until this morning. At Carrefoure (where we shop) there was a mini-pool thing, and it was filled with water and CARP swimming everywhere! So crazy ha. So they eat carp on Christmas day. I don't know if I'll be eating any, but well find out won't we? We've been invited to a little party on New Years Eve (Wegilija) at the Nobozny's (Richard and Asia) and earlier that day we'll be delivering packages of goods to those that do not have much this Christmas. That night we have to clean out an old apartment and then we're eating a grand ol dinner- and going to a midnight catholic mass for "culutural purposes". It'll be a good Christmas Eve :) And Christmas is pretty open- no one at all will be out on the street during Christmas and we're actually not allowed to work that day. We were invited to an investigators house...but he lives 4 hours away, so that couldn;t work out - but there's a party at the 1st Chapel with all the missionaries starting at 2. It should be fun :) It'll be so good to be able to talk to you. I'll tell you the time and number at the end here so you can call! WOOO!!!!! O goodness I look forward to that. :) It'll be a good Christmas away from home. I do miss you all very much, but I know I'm here doing what the Lord wants me to do and I am grateful for the bit of time I have to give it my best and try to become a pro at this missionary thing :)
Our investigators are doing very well :) Irina will get baptized next Sunday on account of the fact that no Polish people would be there on the 23...because that is the day the cook from the moment they rise til they go to bed that night. Yes ha. So next Sunday. She was supposed to go to Church yesterday and then to this baptism, but couldn't cos her new dog broke his foot or some part of his leg. And she had to take him to a vet and it was terrible. Elder McRae was cursing that dog up and down the wall :P Not literally...you know lol. We have a new man- Jacek- who is very promising. He says he believes the Book of Mormon is true and essentially already believes all we do, except he prayed to Jesus instead of God. At the end of our first lesson, he prayed to God. We think we're going to try to give him a baptismal date :) Edyta is doing good. We're fasting for her today- we taught about tithing and the law of the fast and she said that she would fast with us today as to help her stop smoking. I have faith that it she will become baptized. She does know that it's true. She just needs a little leap of faith. Our other new investigator is named Lukasz. And he's the man! Young guy, but really cool and speaks English. He';s the one who invited us to his house.
Ok, i've written tons I feel like and I hope your not bored yet. Dad to answer your question, I played quite a few Christmas carols and then hymns from the hymn book for everyone and then I played that arrangement I made up for "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and sang it with Elder Gonzalves. I play Piano all the time everywhere. For the baptism I played the Piano. Everywhere lol. I love it. I can sight read oodles better. But i still mess up here and there :P I've had at least 3 members ask me to teach them Piano and Irina wants me to teach her Guitar. We're actually trying to give one of Brat Herman's old guitars to Irina's son to try to get him hooked on that instead of video games. It could definitely work :)
All is well here in the European front (I live in Europe> how wierd is that lol?) And i can't wait to talk to you. All is so good here. I feel like I never tell you enough, but my e-mails are always novelish, and I do need to wrap it up. I love you all so much.Life is good. The Gospel is true and I know we can always do something to become closer to God. I feel so blessed to have the Gospel in my life, but still know I have so much more to learn and realize for myself. But i do realize this- that Christ was born and died so that we could be clean from our sins- he suffered so that we could be happy and eventually perfect. Our Father in Heaven loves us so much and has given us this Gospel so we can be as happy as possible. That is His plan in a nut shell and I love telling people about it. I can't wait to talk to you all. :)
CALL AT 5:45 P.M. POLAND TIME. My Zone Leaders and Elder Antczak tell me that should work for sure. You can try a little Earlier just to make sure lol. If it doesn't work - you can call President Engbjerg or something. But it should most definitely work. :) So excited!!! Woo :) The call should be right around an hour long...not crazy long, but we'll make it good :) Merry Christmas Family and Friends who read through my long long letters. I love you all and miss you tons- even if I haven' had the time to write you back - I will :) Wesolych Swiat!

Starszy Michael Joseph Rushton Jr.

This week has been something special to say the least. I feel blessed beyond measure for several reasons-

Sweet Family of mine -It is so good to be sitting once again in this library and typing to you the weekly update. I had a nightmare last night that I only had 10 minutes to e-mail and it was MTC stlye, with the counter on the upper right hand corner- and for some reason, my time ran out without me every writing or reading one thing, and It was TERRIBLE!!! But it was only a dream :) And I have a very happy, satisfied grin on my face as I write to you :) The Christmas spirit lives on in Murrieta. I love hearing about it so much; it makes me feel like I'm there for a little bit. HA I love how there are christmas lights on the house!!! It's the best. Ha, it's been a while poppa- i would tell you it was only two years...but you know I'm a missionary and I can't tell those kind of white lies ;) The tree looks so good, and you all look so good. Those pictures were AWESOME! I loved them :) Every body looked so good- the Rushtons, the Stratfords (from what I saw), Rachel and Gram and everybody! Mmmmm I love just thinking about you all in that house that I love so much- it's a lot of love there. That is for sure :)I recieved your package this week, and I'm sorry but I opened them!! I couldn't resist. It was too happy for me not to open them. And we put them to good use- we made the best chocolate cookes in the world and gave some to the Hermans and to the Zone Leaders. And people love us. Cos we cook like women. It's the best ha. The package made us both SO HAPPY though. We went to sleep with dreams of sugar plum fairies and dove chocolate and Cheez-itz. True signs of Love. ANd my Christmas CD is so good too. Thank you family :)I wish I could have been there to here the rockin Battle of the Bands and the Christmas choir concerts, but another year, I will hear them. Those are good times. Enjoy them :) I'm so proud of you, siblings, for all your doing. With everything. I just showed everyone sitting around me your pictures, and said "These are my siblings, aren't they awesome!!!" And everyone agreed. :)This week has been something special to say the least. I feel blessed beyond measure for several reasons- there were just some crazy amazing highlights that I would love to recall for you, that have brought me some serious Christmas Joy.First of all- last week we started off the week with zero's as our numbers for two days straight. We felt like dog doo doo cos we knew we could do much better than that, in spite of the fact that we still got District Standard of Excellence status numbers. So this week we decided those days of Zero's would NOT happen. And they did not. We DESTROYED! the first three days of the week as a district and a companionship and after just three days, we had achieved the numbers for the Standard. And we were ecstatic. In one day we had a Lesson with a member present, 2 other lessons taught, 2 referals contacted and 3 new investigators. Which was SUPERB for us! Ha I can imagine that may not seem like a lot compared to my cousin who is rockin it in Chile, but it was pure bliss for us and we were and are still ecstatic. We plan on getting the district numbers for this entire month. And we are well on our way. :) I have now doubt that the Lord is leading us along as we have this desire to work hard and find the elect. To teach lessons and find those to teach is an amazing thing, and with the Lord's help, it is actually amazingly fun work. True story ;) On the day mentioned above, we met with Edyta. We taught the Word of Wisdom, because we discovered last meeting that she smokes and drinks coffee. So we taught her the Word of Wisdom with an amazing Member on the lesson. She committed to living it and said that she would first tackle not drinking coffee and then not smoking, because she didn't know how she felt about stopping smoking. The lesson was powerful and the spirit was so strong. On Saturday, there was the ward Christmas party for Warsaw II Branch. AND IT WAS LIFE-CHANGING!! We as missionaries...Elder McRae and I actually lol...came up with a Presentation for the spiritual ascpect of the meeting and were scrambling at first to get it done. As the Party started, people kept coming through the door. Elder Bulkley (the Branch President) and the Relief Society ahd excpeted 60 people to come. More than 100 showed up! And miractulously we had enough food. 9...I repeat, 9 of our investigators were there and we talked to all of them, and they all enjoyed the party so much. The Presentation we put on consisted of reading out of 3 Nephi and Luke 2 with sinigng interspersed. Elder Gonzalves and i sang "Do You Hear What I Hear?" as a duet to an arrangment I had created for us to sing at the Christmas Party at the Mission home ( which I will get to lol ). It was amazing/butt-pucker terrifying to look out and see 100 people, several of which were here to experience the Church for the First time or were investigators. I felt so happy and blessed to be able to play and sing and share that with them. I can't tell you how much music has been blessing my life here. It's amazing :) I feel more and more surely that the Lord put me here for a reason. The Party, needless to say, was a success. We met with Irina again and finished teaching her all she needed to know. It was an amazing meeting and all went very well. She is an amazing woman with such an intense desire to make sure her son has a good life that she runs around and busies herself to death. But we finally found a chance to meet last night after the Christmas Fireside broadcast. It was a great meeting! She is hilarious too lol she accidentally said the Lord's name in vain a couple times and didn't even think twice about it, and that worried us, so a few minutes later on the Tramwaj back towards Praga Elder McRae asked "So how's saying 'O my goodness!' going for you?" And she replied "O it's going so good! I only just say O my goodness, or O gosh! That's a good one...."and going on lol. I think it's one of those things that people don't even realize they are doing. They don't realize what they're really saying. It's like if someone told you that cracking your knuckles or flexing in the mirror *spencer cough cough* was a sin. Sometimes it might just happen, cos it's a habit ya know ? ;) Her Baptism wil be on the 23rd of December, so I can tell you all about it 2 days later!!!! The Christmas Party at President's was amazing. So much good food and games and it was just amazing it be in a home like that. We went running in the morning and performed a little skit. We wrote new lyrics to the song "Sadie Hawkins Dance" the Chorus went
"Christmas Party's here,
Favorite time of year,
Merry Christmas - HO HO HO!
Time to re-energize
Our missionary lives
There's nothing better
Did my girl get her letter?" :P
We got second place ha. Must be a seasonal Rushton disease ha jk. Not that funny lol. I think we;re going to be having Christmas at Richard and Asia's house- we don't know exactly what will be going on, but we;ll find out. I don't know when you'll be able to call! But i will find out! I'll have specific details next week for sure. I am SOOO excited to actually talk with you all!! it'll be so so nice! Goodness I love you family. I can't think of too much else. I got really nice e-mails from Grandma and Grandpa Rushton and Grandma and Grandpa Diane and Buck and from Uncle John. I look forward to speaking with you in a little over a week. I have to go now, but hopefully this weekly update has been sufficient. Life is so good here. Elder McRae and I still get along so well. He was thrilllllled with his Stocking :) He loved how you wrote it McRae and not Mcrae. "THEY EVEN PUT MY R BIG!!! DID YOU TELL THEM TO DO THAT?" :PI Love you and look forward to our next conversation. Enjoy your week Spence, Sarah and Annie. I think about you all the time and love you more than anything. Annie I will tell you alllll about Christmas here in the next e-mail! It's pretty crazy! :) But they do have it :)I love you once more. Talk to you in a week. Your red headed son is thinking about you.- Starszy Michael j. Rushton. :)

Hello on another beautiful P-day - I wish you could see the smile on my face just thinking about you all reading this :)

Dearest family!
Hello on another beautiful P-day - I wish you could see the smile on my face just thinking about you all reading this :) You all crack me up. Your letters are like unto a delicious hot glazed paczek (donut thing) filled with warm, runny chocolate. Spencer, It was great to here from you kid. I love you and miss you so much. I have a picture with you wearing that super rad red and white beanie in my scriptures and I sometimes just look at it and remember how amazing you are. I love you kid. I miss you all the time too and know that I pray for you and thing about you always. I loved you wrote about the purchasing of the TV- it seems pretty accurate ha Dad had a feel we needed a new 52 inch plasma screen tv hahaha I laughed out loud when I read that. That is so ridokulous father, what has gotten into you ;) I love it so much. And you played video games on it ha. I so look forward to that when i come home. Mama, thank you so much for the letters. They were amazing and I greatly anticipate the packages! I got one from Grandma and Grandpa Cohen and it was great! So nice of them, we our thoroughly enjoying it :) Mom, i love your spiritual insights so much, thank you, they are amazing. Sarah, thank you for the letter. So good, I look forward to your letters every monday so much. I'm so proud of you :) Annie, I love you so much and hope to hear from you soon, thank you for the little note :)
That is so great you all are serving so much for Christmas. It is the best feeling ever- I always love that feeling. When you help someone for the better, it's priceless. Just last night, we had to call a man in the ward who is from the Congo, Africa. He bore his testimony in church about how fast the church is growin gin the Congo and he was very excited, except not everyone in Church shared his enthusiasm necessarily. Anyways, we called him and said that we really enjoyed his testimony and are excited for him. He laughed so heartily and was so pleased, he made us feel like a million bucks, just for a simple, "Thank you so much for your Testimony." It's amazing what a little bit of kindness can do. I'm proud of you, my family, for that. :)
This week has been a beautiful one. It started out really tough and the first couple of days ended with zero's - no new investigators, no meetings- kind of frustrating. But we really wanted to do better and I know the Lord has blessed us for that. We took numbers last night from our entire district and discovered that we essentially achieved the District Standard of Excellence, minus a baptism. And a baptism is a thing that can't be rushed exactly, so we were quite pleased and thankful with the blessings we recieved. We're trying to achieve it everyweek now and that way, when someone is Baptized, we will have it :)
Speaking of Baptisms, three people got baptized on Saturday and Elder McRae and I had the chance of accompanying one of our Investigators, Tomek (Toe- meck), to the Baptism. Tomek first met with the missionaries a year ago, with Elder Whipple. Who is my Zone Leader now. He is what some might say an Eternal Investigator, and in this whole year he has not once been to Church. But we know that he really does want to learn. He is intruiged by the Church, not because it's simply interesting but because he knows it's true. So he came to this baptism at the Warsaw 1 chapel. It was beautiful. There was a talk given by a missionary who taught the woman being baptized, and Tomek was riveted the entire time. When the actual baptism happened, I swear I saw him cry. We happened to be on the same tramwaj home and he was in such a good mood it was amazing. He set up with us for another meeting right then and it is only a matter of time until he is baptized. :)
Earlier this week we had a meeting with Edyta scheduled. It was scheduled for 17:00 and at 17:20, she was still not at the church and we were worried. If Edtya was ever late at all, she would always call or at least text as she was running to the door. But today, nothing. We texted her and called and didn;t hear anything until the next day when she texted us and said she couldn't explain why she couldnt' make it, but said that we could meet on Sunday. We were concerned, but had hope all woudl be ok. She came to Church on Sunday with a big smile on and she completely enjoyed it. She apologized to us at least 8 times at church and I think we finally convinced her that it was really just fine :) She is amazing. One thing about the Baptism that I mentioned earlier is that the lady baptized gave such an amazing testimony at the End. It was full of conviction and truth. I think Edyta is developing that Testimony. She needs to read more of the BOM, but I know she knows this is true. Just like Tomek, who can't let go of the missionaries after an entire year, even after a time of the missionaries trying to let go of him. These people know there is something different. And i love to tell them what it is :)
We met some really cool people this week- I have hope for several of them. We have tons of meetings planned which is SO GOOD! So pray that they all go through :) The Christmas party at the Engbjerg's is this Friday and then the Ward christmas party is on Saturday. Yah baby :)
Dad, I think I did just discover food ha. I don't know what happened. I'm making a recipe book of all the delicious things i've made and will make. It'll be LIFE CHANGING. Ha :P I want to take pictures of all the city, and I will, but I think I need a new camera. I know your probably horrified to read that, but mine sucks up battery wicked fast and is a sharp pain in my behind. So maybe I'll send it home and purchase one out here? I think it's worth it to have really good pictures to send home...what do you think? Let me know and I'll make whatever it is work :) There is so much to photograph though. I feel like I really know Warsaw now. Like when you come pick me up in an all too short time, I wil be able to show you the GREATEST places in Warszawa (Varshava) :) It is beautiful here. I do hope to see a new city soon, but honestly, I love it here so much. It's home in Poland. It's all I know lol.
Life really is good here :) It's getting colder and colder, but it really is enjoyable. I stay plenty warm- I look forward to the warm socks though lol that is for sure. My beanie is rad and keeps me warm. It gets dark SO early though. Yesterday the sun was setting at 14:30. That is early my friends. People are still pretty willing to talk though, unless it's snowing or raining, which we haven't had much of either lately so :)
Today, just barely we went to the Zoo here in Warsaw. And now I look forward to the San Diego Zoo a lot lol. It was crazy that they even had a Zoo here. The San Diego zoo makes this place look like a Prison. It's kinda sad actually. Props to the San Diego Zoo animal lovers for giving them good places to live ha.
O! Irina's son. Is addicted to video games and she;s really been worrying about that. She took him to a Psychologist yesterday. Elder McRae and I winced when we heard that, but hopefully it went ok. We're trying to get him a Guitar from Brat Herman and then get him addicted to playing the Guitar and being awesome instead of Video games.I think itll work. He's such a nice kid. We're still working with Irina, she;s so hard to meet with cos she's got such a tight schedule. but this week we should be meeting with her so she can get Baptized the 22 or 23 of this month! :)
Ok, last thing- and than I will wrap it up. Brat Herman told Elder Fuller on a lesson that he has talked with his daughter in the last 5weeks more, than in the past 2 years, "all because Elder Rushton played Death Cab for Cutie on the guitar" :P When we went to Brat Herman's house, we found out he had translated I Will Follow YOu Into the Dark into Polish! How cool is that?!??! Ha :) He really is one amazing man and I love him so much.
Ok family. I will let you go now. I love you so darn much and I know that you all are doing amazingly. I look forward to Christmas Day so much and look forward to next monday as well. Have an amazing week, play some video games for me on the big screen :P :P and yes. Kocham was. I love you all.
- your red headed missionary. Michael.

P.s. To call on Christmas day- you all have to call my cell phone lol. So the Number is 048-022-665-300-821. I think that should just work? I'll double check it of course. So for now that is the number, but if it needs to change I'll tell you before Christmas :)

p.s.s. Elder McRae and I are going to make Funnel Cake right now!!! :P

This week truly was amazing.Each week always holds something amazing and new

Rodzina, jak kocham was :)
Family, how I love you all. Thank you ma and pop for your awesome letters. I got one from Grandma and Grandpa Diane this week as well as from Kory. He had some fever and was in the Hospital for two weeks, but he says hes doing great now. You sound like you have had quite the amazing week and I am so glad to hear it. Thanksgiving was better than I could have ever expected, but I thought about you quite often. I love those family parties so much - playing video games, having Uncle John come over, the morning before and staying up waaay to late playing video games. Having the whole family there, eating til we have to just lie down and let gravity help our stomachs out. Talking with Grandpa Rushton. Watching home videos. How fun and amazing is our family :) I guess it takes awhile to truly appreciate all you've been given eh? :) I'm so glad you're enjoying your time off work Pop and Mom you sound like your doing so good, staying up and helping children with projects as usual :) Thank you for sending the package, I so greatly anticipate it! Spence- that is amazing about football. You little stud muffin you. I really miss you brother. (In this store today I saw Fable 2 came out and it's two player. I thought, "Spencer and I are going to play that together after I get home." And we will :)) I so look forward to Christmas phone call, just to hear your voices. Sarah you sound amazing as usual. Dad told me you were laughing to the point of peeing your pants when you saw his picture with Headgear. hahahah It makes me smile so big just thinking of you laughing, I love your laugh. :) Annie, I wish I could see you right now, just being your amazing self. Singing me a song or dancing- I look forward to dancing and singging with you someday again :) Sorry- got side-tracked for a moment. I can't help it, I kinda like you guys.
This week truly was amazing. Dad, I never realize that I'm so upbeat and such...but I really have all the reason in the world to be. Each week always holds something amazing and new. Really amazing, 24 carrot gold investigators are not found on the regular here. But they exist, and we really have to work to find them. I love reading Ryan's letters...they tell such a different experience and that's part of the beauty of the mission. I'm so glad Ryan has the chance to teach so many people, I wish I could see him going at it in Spanish ( which I no longer understand, at all ). We definitely do not teach as many people here- maybe because they are not as humble as those in South America, or because the concept of God is so difficult for people to believe here, I'm not sure, but I know they exist and we can find them.
I, like you Father, am always looking for new ways to contact. It's tough because there's never clearly one winning fashion. It changes from season to season, daily sometimes, and you must always try new things. We do tract now that it's starting to get pretty nippy. It's not traditionaly the most effective, but it can definitely work sometime.
We actually had a little miracle last monday after we tracted an entire building. Everyone lives in apartment buldings, so we got into this building and went to the 9th floor and went to knock on Mieszkanie 99. Before we even could knock, this lady from the stairwell started saying that EVERYONE in the building was Catholic and didn't want what we were selling. We still knocked on every door from 99 to 45 (on the first floor) with zero success. It was a little bit of a downer and when we left, we had only spent a half hour there. We still had 2 and a half hours to work that night and it felt like it just might go on forever. So we caught a tramwaj and picked this street, Nowy Swiat, to contact. We talked to 4 different people. We set up with 2 of them, and got 2 other numbers. The 2 and a half hours went by in the BLINK of an eye. It was amazing to me.
Ma- we teach English every tuesday and it's so great! We have 7 or 8 people that come every week and they love it. We teach really basic things and just have fun with it. This last week, Brat Herman's daughter came and completely loved it! It was a break through for sure. :)
Our meeting with Brat Herman and his Family was amazing. They fed us the best Tomato soup in the world- we made them cake and than they made US cake. It was amazing. We played Guitar and sang, we even sang primary songs and it was just an enjoyable, happy evening. We ended with Prayer and Brat Herman was happy as could be. He said next time we will start and end with Prayer. Eventually we will teach a lesson and yes. Slowly but surely :)
WE met with Edyta this week and asked her to be Baptized. She did not give a straight answer, but she has the desire to. She smokes and feels that she is not quite ready. We are going to meet wiht her this week and she will be at Church on Sunday, we hope. She is so chosen- I know she will accept it :)
Last high light meetin happened last night, at President's house :) It was a little hectic cos of different things, and we didn't end up making it out there until 8 20 at night. And Irina was concerned cos it was so far away, but we had the lesson- taught her the 10 commandments and the Word of Wisdom and it was so powerful. I could write essays on that lesson :) She had said the Lord's name in vain a couple of times and when we talked about that Article, she simply said "Well what should I say instead?" She just had the desire to change. She wasn't embarrased, she just wanted to do what was right. She's a bold lady and when we talked about the Word of Wisdom she had some concerns, but in the End she committed to live it gladly. The meeting was full of the spirit and I felt so blessed to be there. President drove us home and said that he was so impressed with us and it felt so good. He told Irina we were two of the best missionaries in the mission - granted he may say that about any missionaries, but I don't know. It felt great to hear it nonetheless :)
Thanksgiving dinner. I have not seen so much home made food in one place in my entire life. I ate family, until I almost EXPLODED into a thousand tiny pieces of turkey potatoes and cinnamon flavored yams. It really was tremendous. I don't think I've ever been that full in my entire life- but when all you can eat turkey, gravy, potatoes and pie presents itself, you must partake. :P There house was gorgeous and it was a little taste of being back home and that was one of the best tastes of the night :)
The weather is getting chilly and Christmas is around the corner. They are really going to the 9's here in Warsaw and I think this is the place to be for the Holidays. Elder McRae and I will for sure be together for another month (there wa s a small chacne we wouldn't be) and I am SOO greatful. We have so much fun together, yet we work so hard. I love it. I'm staying warm for sure. I could use some more garment tops ma. That would probably be the best :) My Scottish sweater keeps me very very warm and my jacket thrown in the mix makes it so I'm always warm. I do need glvoes still but my pockets work for now. :)
Papa I love that you made me work hard. Mom I love that you made me work hard. As you wrote about what you talked to those young men about I couldn;t help but think how grateful I am to know what it means to work hard. I end everyday ready to collapse on my bed. It's a prize fight to keep my eyes awake during my prayers. I wake up the next morning ready to go and give it my all and I love it. The Lord has blessed me with so much and I know that this time is sacred. Never again will I be able to work like this and in a way it scares me. We are so productive, we love the work because we know it is true. We know how happy our lives and our families are. We know that every question in life can be satisfied through the Gospel. We know how this gospel and can change a life around and I'm dying to see the gospel work in these people's lives and I do more and more everyday. It's sometimes hard to see...but than I remember little things that people say and little ways that the Lord reminds me that these people are feeling the goodness of his Gospel. ANd it is all I need.
I thank you so much for your support and prayers. I love you so much. Thank you so much for the letters and for the Christmas package. Life is so good. Live it to the fullest. Remember how blessed you are and how much the Lord and your son and brother loves you. I know my letter was a little jumbled this week, and there is more to tell than I could ever write down, but that's why we have countless hours of story telling while I make you Polish dishes after the mission eh? :) Smile for me and live life in such a way that you make God grateful that he gave you such amazing and able bodies in such a beautiful living atmospheres. I know you all are making Him proud every day. I know it :) Talk to you in a week :)

so much love, Starszy Michael Joseph Rushton Jr.

p.s. Mom- the phone call info will come by President. He'll e-mail you and let you know how it works. I think you get to call our cell phones (which we do have pop ha. I never answered that for you. Next week I'll elaborate.)

This week was truly a beautiful one. For starters- it snowed. A lot.

Dearest family, whom I love so much-
It sounds like your week was pretty much fantastic. Sarah's party sounds like it was LEGENDARY!! Ha I can imagine Spencer just standing there, wanting to be Super Wedgie Man or something. I love that Dad had to play too! I know he loved it :) You all just sound amazing. Annie's play by play was so good- thanks sugar :) And Spencer I'm so glad you gave it your all on your school work as well as in other areas. It's the only way to go. Suck the marrow out of life, or don't suck at all...:P ha. That so doesn't work, but I'm leaving it :P I just wish I could see your faces right now to see how darn well your doing. I didn't get to see the flash card yet cos it didn't work on my camera, but I will soon :) Very excited to see it. You're going to have such a great time on thanksgiving! I love thanksgiving with you all - but no worries- I will be eating TURKEY and GRAVY and other AMERICAN DISHES at this famiies home from the ward. They're AMERICAN and invited us over FOR dinner! ONLY CAPITAL LETTERS CAN EXPRESS MY JOY!!! :) It certainly doesn't even begin to replace Thanksgiving with the family, home and xbox, but it's start ;)
This week was truly a beautiful one. For starters- it snowed. A lot. It's stayed Autumn for so long, but the Winter finally conquired and it conquered hard. lol. It's beautiful though. It snowed Saturday afternoon and than BLIZZARDED all Sunday morning during church. It was great :) We had a meeting Saturday night at the church with the missionaries in our district/area (8 of us) and then we when came out, these little kids who live in the same building started throwing snow balls at us. So we threw them back. And than a giant snow ball fight broke out at like 9 at night and it was the greatest. These little kids threw their hearts out - the littlest one was like 4 and he was determined to DESTROY Elder Whipple (who is a beast of a man). I laughed my heart out and it was just fun. Maybe they will come to church with their Parents :)
We are determined to get the Standard of Excellence here in our little district. We are so close! - we're all trying so hard and we know that we can do it. We just have to push a little harder all around - with our work and our investigators. At district meeting, Elder McRae and I prepared a motivational speech - I played inspiring music and helped him write the speech. It was a major success - Elder McRae delivered with power and he had some good material - one of the line was "Rocky Balboa once said, ' Yo Adrian!' and then he said..." haha. The district was laughing , but more so they were phsyched to get the Standard :) I honestly feel like I've been blessed with the best district ever. I love every single missionary in it - everyone wants to work hard and are so down to Earth and make me want to work harder and do better. It's a blessing to say the least - I would be satisfied knowing my entire mission would be filled with very very similar districts. Zobaczymy (we'll see ) :)
On Wednesday we had Zone Conference. Elder Kerr- a member of the 70, came and spoke to us. Elder Engbjerg and he had served in the same mission - He trained at just 2 months while President was an AP. Nuts eh? He was an incredibly charismatic man who was just full of the Spirit and he truly inspired us all to work hard - plan hard and to me he was a prime example of somebody who the POlish people would want to listen to. I know I can muster up that charisma somewhere in my body ha :) I think I do a decent job, but there's always room for more. He talked about planning a lot and how meticulous planning leaves for few mistakes and greater success and It was all around amazing. I sang in a musical number with a few other missionaries- way fun :) I also got the CD ma and the Package. Thank you so very much :) It was perfect. THe gold fish was SUCH a good call. MMMM. Pop tarts and Mac and Cheese are so appreciated. And hot cocoa has been thoroughly enjoyed :) Thank you mother and family also for the awesome letters :) I loved them :)
Our investigators are doing so well, but we've been struggling with finding time to meet with them. We stay in contact by phone- but that doesn't leave a lot of room for teaching, which needs to happen! They are so golden and ready for baptism, they just need to be taught a little bit more. We think we're giving Edyta a baptismal date very soon, on wednesday if we can :) We're meeting with Irina at President's house this next Sunday. I know it'll all go well :) We found a couple new people who are looking quite promising- we'll be meeting with them this week as well. Brat Herman's daughter- the older one- said that she would love to come to English class and even dinner afterword (we make as missionaries with a couple of the menbers who come to English) so that was a break through. At the end of our meeting this weel (which ended with family prayer) he again expressed how grateful he was and how happy he was. It's priceless to see his reaction.
We gave three blessings this week. I actually gave one to a sister - Sister Castleton who speaks Polish wicked good and is just an amazing missionary, reminds me of Sarah - and then we participated in one for Asia and then another one for a man named Krzystof (which is a normal Polish name :P) who is a member. I had to annoint the oil in Polis h lol. That was a trip, McRae had to give the actualy blessing in Polish though - talk about a major butt-pucker moment ha. It was truly a blessing though to be able to particpate in all of these, I particularly felt blessed with words to say for Sister Castleton.
Elder McRae is from Idaho, has a farm and is a very hard worker- was before the mission and is still now. Really nice and goofy kid - i have no doubt you all would love him. He has an Older brother who got back from Russia on his mission and he gave his Homecoming the same day Elder McRae gave his farewell. I am so glad I have a year to hang out with you little brother. Goodness. But he is the man. We cook and eat SOOO GOOD! And work out so hard too. I'm a very happy human being. We made scones and this muffin cake and chocolate chip cookes and those brownies you sent ma (SO APPRECIATED) and it is just the best. We're making home made chicken noodel soup this week and some other crazy desert. Cookings a blast and it's so fun making random things. Love it.
Pop, in terms of staying warm, I'm doing pretty good. My upper body is aces - I just need some good warm socks and some good gloves, which I will buy very soon. I wear thermal garments, a sweater, suit coat, scarf, beanie and huge coat jacket. It's pretty warm :) The mesquitos are frozen to death now and everything else is way good. OOOO I could definitely use some whitening strips ma. That would be a good thing for the christmas pack. Preferably ones I can do in 5 or ten minutes and not a half hour....but either way is definitely possible. O and my retainers if you want to send those. Who knows if they'll fit :/ It's worth a shot though. My teeth still look way good and healthy. Just trying to preserve them lol.
Well I think that is pretty much everything amazing that happened this week. Life is so good. I love serving with Elder McRae and I am truly happy as could be. I love you all so much and i Can't tell you that enough. Please be safe and take care of yourselves and have so much fun this week with thanksgiving. I think about you often and love you so much. Remember the Lord in all you do, remember how blessed you are to have what you have. Remember how much your Father in Heaven loves you and please remember the people of Poland in your prayers. I can't tell you how much I love being a missionary- preaching to people and telling them that I know this message is true- that God loves us and has given us so much and simply wants us to be happy- that he has a plan for us that has been revealed. It's amazing. Once again, I love you :)
-Starszy Michael Joseph Rushton Jr.

p.s. Christmas package- Cheeze itz, pop tarts, chocolate chips, CD's, anything you can think of :) A1 sauce? ha i don't know/ Brown sugar would be great too. Lol So random. Anything is so greatly appreciated. Love you :)

I know I'm supposed to be here without a doubt. Just last night as I called Irina, one of her last sentences was "thank you for taking care of my fam

Hej family :)
Sweet e-mail time, how I love it so. You all sound too amazing. Spencer that is SOO rad about your victory (aka the sound trash kicking) of Vista. I love it ha. Thank you for writing me brother, I love you kid. Sarah, you sound so busy but I can only imagine how well your doing with everything. You are so amazing- as you always have and will be, thank you so much for the letter, I love you siostra . Annie I can only imagine how well you are doing! How is you play going? GIve me some news sista! Love you sugar. Parents your Hawaii trip sounds and looks SO amazing. The Spoks as we would say here in Poland :P I loved the pictures and descriptions so much. Ha my favorite pictures were of you swimming in that little waterfall whole deal. You looked like you were enjoying yourself so much and ah it was so good. I especially enjoyed the very attractive man in the back of the picture where dad is lifting up his fists in the victory dad pose (haha I loved that so much). I want a body just like that. :P
It's so strange to see you swimming to lol cos the very thought of getting in any body of water right now sounds like a quick and imminent death, it is getting so cold now- it's supposed to snow in the next couple of days lol. Elder McRae is counting down the days so he doesn't get eaten by the mesquitos in our house (we live so close to the river we get a decent amount. My record is 11 bites in one night, now that's a hard one to beat :P) But regardless of the cold, life is so good here in Polska. This week in particular has just been amazing. It was my first week with Elder McRae and I just love being around him. He's so easy to be around - I loved Elder Henrie, but McRae and my personalities, interests, everything, just meshes. It's great :) We've been cooking up a wicked storm, we made our own maple syrups and have been having the equivialent to a McGriddle from mickey d's every other morning for breakfast. And smoothies. Cuz he has a blender ha. I LOVE it!! On Saturday we made fried bread with grilled chicken and cheese sauce. Life changing. It's so good to eat good :P And what's even better is that we work out hard core every morning. I feel like I have my own personal trainer now ha. So the companionship is definitely enjoyable in the Home life sense.
It definitely stretches to missionary work to though. We have set some lofty goals, but we know that we can reach them as we continue to try and work dilligently. He is such a hard worker and I'm greatful for that. It was difficult a little bit this week, because we worked SO hard I felt like, but our numbers didn't exactly reflect it completely. We had at least 9 meetings set up with investigators and I think we got flaked every single time. But the Lord completely blessed us for our dilligence yesterday as we had all three of our progressing investigators at church (Irina, her son Arthur and Edyta) and it could not have gone more smooth- all of them left with the deep intent to return the next week. I was happy to say the least :)
One of the major highlights of our week was a meeting with a member named Jan Herman. He is in his early 50's i would say and the father of 2 daughters (11 and 17) and has a wife, but he is the only Member. He is smart, nice and has been a member for the past two years. He is very energetic and has an obvious love for life and the church - he plays the guitar and loves music. Elder Henrie and I had been meeting with him every friday for the past three weeks and then Elder McRae and I went to visit him this Friday again. Usually we go in, sit down, drink some tea and give a short spiritual lesson and talk about different things and it's always so enjoyable for us and him. His family is always there, and one time his wife actually talked with us - she was soooo darn kind and amazing, but is a catholic, like all the Polish-born people are. This time we came in and it was just us and Brat Herman for awhile, but then, his wife and youngest daughter came in. And then his older daughter. His wife prepared open-faced sandwhiches for us and we ate and talked and I even played the guitar for them and the feeling of love and the spirit was so strong. I was in blissful peace being there. I could tell this wasn't something that happened terribly often, even in their little mieszkanie. When we finally left, Brat Herman walked us to the Tramwaj, and told us how thankful he was for that meeting. That his family hadn't been together like that with the missionaries or any other time for quite awhile and that he feels we are the key to opening his family up and even to the gospel. Just seeing how happy he was gave me so much joy and I just felt so much love for them. It was amazing. He insists we come back every friday and this next time he wants to have a little concert ha :) I love it. Yesterday at church, Brat Herman was ordained and sustained as Second Counceler in the Branch Presidency. I almost cried, I think just cos I was so happy for him and have so much hope for his amazing family.
Another major activity of the week was less active work. We have a list of 40 + less actives who we need to contact and we spent a lot of time on that - on Saturday we went with Richard from the ward and tracked down quite a few of them. To see if they even exsisted, etc. Yah lol. It was good though. The less actives are so important here- they knew what it was like to feel the gospel once, we just need to remind them. On Sunday, one of the less actives came up to elder McRae and said, "Elder McRae, I came to church because you Called me." How RAD is that? It's ridonkulous. That's what it is. The Lord has certainly blessed us this week :)
Mom, about the Atonement, it's been really neat having the chance to study it more. Just studying the Book of Mormon every morning and PMG is such a strength. I can so obvioiusly feel the Book of Mormons power as I read it, it's there- undeniably there. But as I studied the Atonement I truly gained a greater understanding for what Christ suffered and how important it is to take advantage of it. I wrote an entire paper to presidnet about it, but one thing that really struck me was how truly amazing it is what he did for me and I grateful i am that I simply have to take advantage of it. I think of favors people have done for me that I could not have done for myself- like mom turning in a paper for me, dad consoling and talking with me, Jake or John or Jimmy at school selflessly doing something for me that I could not have done for myself, with a smile on their face. And I know how immeasurably my gratitude is when these things occur. And then I think of Jesus paying for my sins, so he could know what I've felt and so that I can be clean from them. So that i don't have to remain in sin or wallow in my sadness, but I can be free- because of what he did for me. He has done something for me that no one else could have done and he did it willingly and all I have to do is take advantage of it and repent. It's truly amazing it me when I think about it in this sense.
Well life is so good here, I can't even tell you. A few things to answer...the package from Joni did come!! I didn't get yours yet ma, or the cd, but I should this wednesday at Zone Conference. For Christmas stuff, I really do not know lol. Some chocolate chips, brown sugar...that would be amazing ha :) And maybe some money left in here to buy some extra ties and a shirt or something? Peanut butter is beautiful, OOOO!!! My christmas cd that I made up at college last year. The one on my iTunes on the laptop. Titled the greatest christmas mix ever...or something like that. It has relient k singing jingle bells, coldplay singing have yourself a merry little christmas...that Cd. lol Please send a couple copies, it's free game on the Christmas music :) AND JIMMY's Letters!!! please send those. I'm dying to hear how he is doing. And tell Joni how much I love that shirt. IT is the bomb diggidy. ha.
I know I'm supposed to be here without a doubt. Just last night as I called Irina, one of her last sentences was "thank you for taking care of my family" and I thought that I'm not even doing all that much, but we are sharing this gospel, sharing this precious fruit that is "sweet above all others" and I know that that is so important. I pray I get to see her and Arthur get baptized this first week of December- that is what we are pushing for :) I love preaching this gospel and speaking Polish. McRae doesn't speak as well as Henrie, and he doesn't know South Warsaw all that much, so it's forced me to step it up in language and direction senses and it's been sweet :) I feel like I could actually navigate myself through a city in the States now ha.
My family, I love you more than I can say. You fuel me and I appreciate your prayers and thoughts and love. Please pray for Irina Arthur and Edyta and for us as we work out here. It means the world to me. I love you so much. Til next week :)

- Elder Michael Joseph Rushton Jr.

I had the pleasure to take the Brand new missionaries out on the Rynek for their first-ever taste of contacting, just like I had done 2 months ago. It

Hej Czesc moja rodzina :)
How amazing it is to write to you on this beautiful monday afternoon her in Poland. It's a national holiday here - Dzien Niepodlegosc - Indpendence day for the Poles, so the Library we usually e-mail is closed. So I write to you from a small internet cafe in the metro station in Centrum and I am so happy to know you will be reading this soon. You all sound so amazing. Ma and Pop I'm so glad you all are in Hawaii safely and enjoying yourselves. I can only imagine how nice it is. Goodness :) :) :) Spence- I love you kid and I so wish I was there just to hang out with you. Just know I think about you all the time and it brings me so much joy just to think about you and Sarah and Annie at home, enjoying yourselves and having fun with Grandma and Grandpa ( tell them thank you so much! for the way nice e-mail, I loved it and it was so good to hear from them). I recieved an E-mail from Grandma and Grandpa Rushton and they sound so good. I am so glad to hear from them after the craziness that's been happening. Love them so much. And I pray that Grandpa Cohen recovers quickly from his eye surgery. I love Grandma and Him so much and hope they know that. Well you really do all sound like gold. I love just hearing from you every week. Just makes me smile so much. Mom you are so funny- I know you are just loving Hawaii right now ;)
This week has been sooooo!! crazy, but I've truly loved it. Firstly, Elder Henrie (my Old companion), Elder McRae (my New companion) and another Elder (status unimportant), had to drive to the Czech republic to get their Visas re-stamped for certain reasons. So they drove to the Czech on monday and I stayed with Elder Jacobs ( who's companion was Elder Harvey, who is now DL in Bialystok) and Elder Meacham (who's companion is now Branch President in Szczecin) in their apartment. They were supposed to drive there and come back, but that didn't work out for some reason. So they came home and I stayed with Elder Jacobs and Meacham again. That evening we found out Meacham was going to be one of the new AP's. So he left and then it was just Jacobs and I, while Henrie and McRae worked out their legal stuff with the Office Elders. What eventually happened was that Elders McRae and Henrie flew to England, got their Visas stamped again and flew back into Poland. It took four days for all that to happen and that whole time, I wore the same suit, washing my garments every0night ( i had a spare pair ) and it was so great. It was so nice hanging around an older Elder for awhile. Elder Jacobs goes home in 6 weeks so it was fun getting to know him a bit better.
McRae and I finally got together Thursday evening, but before that, I had some really cool experiences. First of all, I had the pleasure to take the Brand new missionaries out on the Rynek for their first-ever taste of contacting, just like I had done 2 months ago. It was amazing- I was kind of scared, cos I had to be big dog Polish speaker man senior companion kind of deal, but it worked out so great. I took out three different trainees and they thought I was a Polish ninja. Which is not true. But i spoke well enough to trick em :P I can decently communicate and I think they had a great experience. I took and Elder Holden out, and an Elder Brown. They were with the same Bulgarians I was with in the MTC and therefore they knew who I was. And the Bulgarians had talked me up way big and it was way funny ha. But Elder Brown and apparently the entire new group had read my First e-mail from POland cos Mom e-mailed Elder Brown's mom? Or something like unto that. I wasn't surprised for one second, but It was pretty funny :) Anyway, the whole experience was just amazing and I was so lucky to be able to go. It let me know that I actually could Preach this gospel to people in the Polish language and communicate in a way that they don't look at me like i'm a crazy. Which is an AMAZING feeling, let me tell you :)
Another great experience I had with Elder Jacobs was meeting with a member couple in the Branch - the Neto's. It is an African man who speaks fluent Polish and his Polish wife. They are two of the nicest, most amazing and spiritual and humble people I have ever met and I just loved them. We talked in Polish for a bit and then we read the Book of Mormon in English so that they could practice their English. Jacobs asked me what chapter we should read and I chose I believe it is Mosiah 27 where Alma the YOunger and the Sons of Mosiah see the Angel. Goodness that chapter is so probably wrong- but we read it verse by verse and than we talked about it in English. I was blown away by their English and it was so great to be able to discuss the gospel in English for a little bit and share some deeper insights. Both Brat and Siostra Neto are just amazing and intelligent people and I love hearing everything they have to say. Brat NEto always has the best stories and it was just such a pleasing expeirence. Elder McRae and I set up a meeting with them again this next week :)
So on Thursday, all the Transfers actually went down. The dworzec - train station - was just packed with people in whiteshirsts and ties - it looked like the Businessman convention, or if you were a mormon- the Missionary convention, which it kind of was. We all waited for missionaries to come and go and It was great to see all the missionaries I had never really seen before. I had to stay at the dworzec (dvozets...the z is like the last syllable in garage) almost all day because elder Jacobs left to Lodz at 12 and then I was without a companion lol. So I was at the Dworzec with and I met my entire new district and I was so stoked, because they seem like the greatest people in the world. Sister Squires is now Sister Castleton's companion and that basically rocked my socks. It was so good to see Sister Squires, felt like a dream actually cos I hadn't seen her in so long - and now here she is, in this same internet cafe as me ha. She Said Elder Tanner is doing good and that is so good to hear. Cos I miss him a lot and can't wait to hear how he's doing.
So after a long while and a couple random trips helping people, Elder McRae and Henrie finally return from the Airport after Flying to and from London. I meet them at the Dworzec right as Henrie's train is about to take off. So i say goodbye to him and then McRae and I turn to head home. As we turn around, Edyta is right there, because she had talked to Elder Henrie the day before, as he had called her to tell him he was leaving. So she happened to be in Centrum and heard them announce the train leaving and I guess she just popped down. She bought us some really nice and delicious candy and asked if she was allowed to give it to us (so nice :)) and we said of course, if she wanted to. She seemed so happy and she really is just such a nice person. :) I thought it was a good omen for Elder McRae and I.
Speaking of my new Companion Elder McRae. He is the man and I love him. We already get a long so well and i feel so blessed. The kid loves to work out, he brought a BLENDER to make SMOOTHIES with the declicious fruit they have here. He is so happy all the time- he wakes up and is just happy. It's not hard to get used to that. :) He is such a hard worker and is just as ambitious as I am with sharing the gospel with EVERYONE we see. I know for a fact that this is going to be one rad-sauce transfer for sure :)
We went to town on our apartment and cleaned it to the nines. We did a 10 dollar job on it...pop if you remember that story, I don't know if you will, it just popped into my head :) But we really did a number on it in addition to decorating it so it truly looks like a home. It looks so beautiful now. Our kitchen is gorgeous now. I can actually walk on our kitchen floor without worry of catching some disease :P. It's great. We're just kind of a lot a like and it's great :)
My zone is amazing. Elder Antczak, who is one of my favorite Elders here, is now training and it's been great talking to his trainee cos I remember how it was to be a trainee. I just love my zone. Amazing people.
Ok I have to finish this up- cos I'm actually timed here. But I love you all so much. Enjoy yourself and truly remember how much I love you and how important this gospel is. I love you all so much and think about you often. Be happy, and pray often for help whenever you need it and please don't stop praying for the people here :) SO much love.
- Starszy Michael Joseph Rushton Jr.


p.s. The election, happened without me even knowing it. Another story for another day. So crazy!!

Polska!!! ( with a few last MTC pics)

Dorota came to our party, and dressed up as me. Dyed her hair red. Stole my name tag. Everything. It was so amazing :)

Goodness gracious great balls of fire. My family it is so good to be writing you again! Again, as always, your letters just lift me up and make me smile so much. No matte how long they are are whatever, they are just the best. I can imagine every little scenario so vividly I feel like I'm experiencing it with you. Like when Judge Rushton took a dip in the golfing creek, I felt the chill of the water, the pain on my knee and the steam of frustration and string of angry sounding words running through my head (;P). Really though, I live for your stories. You all sound amazing per usual, which brings me so much joy :) This week has been an amazing, eventful one to say the least. So much has happened and my mission life is definitely in for a little change- so I will fill you in on that :) Before I do - Pop congratulations on finishing out work. That is unreal!!!! You are a Judge in Murrieta. Craziness. So amazing. I am sorry you hurt yourself (even though I made fun of you) and I hope your feeling a lot better and getting ready for Hawaii, which will be crazy. Mom you are so funny ha :) You will love Hawaii- relax, drink lots of Pineapple juice with the mini umbrella things in the edge of your glass. I feel more relaxed just thinking about that. :) Crazy to think you'll be reading this in Hawaii, i love it. This week really has been amazing for quite a few reasons. The most crazy and anticpated part has certainly been transfers, but other then these Transfers, we've had some pretty amazing experiences. First off, we had Halloween this week. Spencer- I like you missed the day of Halloween. On the 31st of October I was hanging out in my apartment, making some Polish dish to eat lol. But the next day, was the Day of the Dead. November 1st is one the most celebrated holidays in Poland and at night, everyone brings candles, lights them and puts them on the graves of their ancestors. Everyone has work off- everything is closed except for McDonalds and it's a very special day for them. Irina, who is not Polish, wanted us to come to her house during the day to visit for a bit because she is usually to busy to have us over, but she had this day off. So Henrie and I met her at a Tramvaj stop, caught a bus together and went to her house. We taught the Plan of Salvation with this little Wood puzzle I bought off of Elder Maxey in the MTC and it went super well. Her son only speaks Polish so we did it in Polish and he really seemed to grasp all we were saying. We hadn't taught Irina this yet either so that was really great- both really ate it up. We asked if they would read the Book of Mormon together and they agreed. The meeting was just so light and comfortable and I truly did feel the Spirit there. I left the puzzle for Arthur to look at, cos he seemed pretty enthralled with it. Elder Henrie and I really taught in unison and it just felt good. We caught a bus back feeling really good. (quick flashback to the next day) At church the next day Irina said that her and Aurthur went over it that day again and that he explained everything to her. It was just so great. MM!! Just knowing that she realizes that this is important and wants to truly know it and be apart of the Lord's church truly brings me joy :) So after Irina's house we headed back home and then to our Halloween party with the Other Elders and Sisters at the Church. No one is outside on the Day of the Dead and it's disrespectful to talk about other religions over the graves of these Catholic People for various reasons- so we had a Halloween party. I threw together a cheap Raggedy Anne and Andy costume ( i was Andy ) and it was awesome. ALl the missionaries were dressed up- Elder Meacham and Jacobs went to the nines as a hillbilly couple. Elder Meacham was wearing a mini skirt...and a bra. And makeup. (and Elder Mecham just got called to AP hahaha). Jacobs drew some hardcore tatoos and had a pretty nice mustache drawn on to his face. It was hilarious and so nice just to enjoy each others company. We carved Pumpkins (the most deranged looking Pumpins you have ever seen...i really missed Bates Nut Farm right about then lol) and ate food and just enjoyed ourselves for a couple of hours. Then we got dressed, cleaned up and went to this gigantic cemetery and the place was just packed. People everywhere. It was like disneyland. But it was a Cemetery. There were candles everywhere, some graves only bearing one or two, some 30 to 70. It was quite a sight and I really enjoyed it. The graves were so ornamental and carefully carved and very epic looking. I kind of want to go back to look at it during the day- but it's an interesting concept to go and remember all your deceased ancestors on one special day. Literally going to where there bodies lay. It's probably a good time to remember all your anscestors and all they've done. The contrast is crazy from the states eh? We go to graveyards on halloween and get the geebers scared out of us, but they parade around it to merely remember. I love experiencing such a different culture. It's always an adventure :) Last Night, Sunday, transfer news was getting pretty tension-y. Everyone really wanted to know where they were going and I really wanted to know too lol. In a world where not a whole lot changes except for the person you are with 24 hours a day and the other people in your zone, transfers are a BIG DEAL. You all would get the biggest kick out of the value that comes with any sort of information about Transfers. The Office Elders are informed a good week and a half early as well as the AP's, and they relish in this fact. It's better then gold. So Elder Henrie and I were separated because he had to drive to the Czech republic for legal work. And so I had to go stay with Elder Jacobs and Meacham. After a string of events, we were driving home to Elder Jacobs apartment with the Office ELders- holders of all knowledge- and then they just told me. Elder McRae is going to be the new Warsaw South Central District Leader, which was Henrie's position. And I am staying In Warsaw as his companion. Elder Henrie is heading to Krakow as DL and I'm actually way stoked to get a new comp. Everyone says that McRae is just rad as can be. I'm looking forward to getting to know him to say the least. A lot of my zone is changed. Elder Mecham is in an AP trio now and Sister Squires, from the MTC group, going to be with Sister Castleton who is in my District. We definitely lucked out and I have a feeling this Transfer is going to blow by quicker then the last one. Which is kind of hard to believe. But i am very excited :) So this Letter has been pretty Random...and I have to add a few things that were Hilarious. Elder Henrie bought a skateboard this week...and skateshoes and a new jacket. He spent about 1000 zloty. Blew my mind lol. We went running in the morning...I went running in the morning and he skateboarded ha. He is one crazy kid. I wonder how lugging that around is going to be lol. I really am just so stoked for all the changes. Change is good and I'm just excited to see how it all turns out. I know it probably seems like I'm hiding all feelings of discouragement from you cos I don't often write about bad things that happen- but honestly, not too many truly discouraging things happen. Sometimes it's a bummer when people don't want to talk with us, but to tell you the truth, I am honestly really happy here. I know that the Lord will not give me anything that I cannot handle and I know that each challenge is just a learning experience. I am most certainly not perfect and I'm not Mr. Sunshine 24/7, but I do smile, quite often, I love so many of the Elders here and I know the Lord helps me through my problems. I just want you to know that I am so happy. I'm so happy being here doing this work. I'm so happy with the people here and am so blessed to be here. I love everything about POland. It's where I'm meant to be right now and though I miss you, my family, more than anything in the world, I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love you all so much. Life is so good!!! And we are so blessed. I know I am so blessed to have you all. To have the support of two beautifl little sisters who are amazing as all get out ( i brag about you both all the time) a brother who makes me proud every single day and two parents who love me and are there for me and think about me all the time and want nothing but the best for me. Thank you so much family. YOu don't even realize how amazing you are to me. Can't wait to hear form you next week :) Parents, enjoy the Hawaiian weather and just enjoy yourselves. You so deserve it. :) - Starszy Michael Joseph Rushton Jr.
p.s. For halloween, Dorota came to our party, and dressed up as me. Dyed her hair red. Stole my name tag. Everytihng. It was so amazing. :)

This is a beautiful park that Mike first visited with the President.

This week has been so good, I must say. One of the best ones i've had.. O!! I am officially the 2nd Branch's Pianist

Hello my flippin awesome family :) :) Goodness you guys make me smile SO MUCH!!!!!! Just reading your e-mails and looking at the pictures were amazing. I cannot even believe that about Grandpa and I will certainly be fasting for him. He sent me an e-mail this week. An observation with a bit of his own words and it means the world to me that he takes the time to do that. I pray with all my heart he heals completely and that Gram feels good. Let her know how much I love her and am praying for her. Please keep me posted for next week. You all sound like 3,000,000 zloty (that's 1,000,000 US dollars right now, the exchange rate is off the charts, so I took out 300 zloty while it's through the roof....hope that's ok??? I have 500 zloty out now from home funds so I definitely won't be needing to take any more out for a good while. That was a long paranthetical phrase...) Seriously though, so amazing. Those pictures were just the cherry on top of my gelato, to see you all smiling and happy. Spencer, stroking his chin in one of those pictures, wearing my sweater :P haha. Sarah and Annie looking beautiful as ever and Mom and Pop looking so good. Just this morning I was looking at a picture of you all and got tears in my eyes cos you all are just so much support to me. So much love and excitment and I can't thank you enough for all of that. I'm so glad you got the card! AND SOOOOO EXCITED to get it back and see a video of you! Goodness, so stoked! THese next batch of pictures will be of the ridonkulous meter. (pop, how do you even say ridoculous??? hahaha :) ;)) No you are right papa, my area is quite beautiful and I'm way blessed. The weather too has been just to die for. We played soccer again today for p-day. Amazing. Mom, for the package, maybe a Single's Ward CD? or RM soundtrack and also some cookie or brownie mix or something sweet. I crave sweetness all the time now. I think it's a disease. The best disease ever!! Ha :P I'm still skinny, no worries. And my man chest muscles are finally developing. About time huh ma :P O last thing, Sarah, your halloween costume is EXACTLY how the Larry's are here. Everywhere. That was priceless ha :) This week has been so good, I must say. One of the best ones i've had. Irina's baptism did not happen yesterday i'm sad to say, but it will be going through by the end of next month, which seems like a major long time away, but it's a great reason why it's next month. She teaches English classes in the city ( we teach her in English, she loves English with all her soul), and she has to work on Sunday. After coming to church for the times she did and meeting everyone and just loving the experience and feeling, she decided that she needs to change her work schedule so that her and her son can come to Church every single sunday. How awesome is that? This schedule change doesn't kick in til the end of november and she wants to have a good half of a day for the day she's baptized, cos she wants it to be a special thing, as it should be right? So unless we can convince her to do it earlier it'll be at the end of Novermber. We're really anticipating it :) She's been so busy we havent' had time to teach her everything but we're making sure it will all be taught, no matter what in these next couple weeks. She really is amazing, and I have so much hope that all will be perfect. Edyta, our other amazing progressing investigator, texts us all the time asking us gospel questions and such. We met this week with a member, Asia, on the lesson and they chatted it up! The whole time Edyta asked questions and Asia, like the pro return missionary (in England) she is answered them so much faster then we ever could have. She's a natural born Pole and is just awesome. So that was a score. We have lots of hope for Edyta as well. She always feels like she's not a good enough person, but she's just the meekest, kindest, outgoing good hearted lady you'll ever meet. Pop, we've been working on meeting with the members more often and it's been great. This week we met with a man, Brat Herman, who's wife and daughter are not members. He is the Sunday School President and is solid in the gospel. So we met at his house, had some tea ( Strawberry Vanilla, the best tea known to mankind, ma I'll be sending you some. We'll drink tea together all the time after the mish ha :) :)) and taught a small lesson about the Atonement. It was so great just talking and hearing how passionate he was about it. I'm getting to the point where I can really start to express myself and people Understand me so that is awesome. His wife is too darn cool and we hope she'll want to hear this gospel as well. Speaking of the language...ha. It is a toughie!!!! So many things just lack sense. And at the same time it makes a lot of sense. I really do love it though. Elder Henrie says that I have a real lack for understanding, which I don't know if that is true...I guess for two months I get the gist pretty good. But this thursday, on a whiteboard, I talked to this guy, told him a bit about our gospel, he had some questions about the sacrament and I answered them, all in Polish. He agreed to meet with us and we're meeting tonight in Centrum. BY MYSELF!! Ha I was stoked. No doubt I made mistakes left and right, but he seemed genuinley interested in every word I said, as oppose to those who have a smirk on their face because I sound like a goofy american who can't speak POlish. Lol it was priceless for me. I hope it goes through, and if not It was a testament that I can do this :) This week on Thursday there was a leadership meeting for ALL the leaders in all of Poland Warsaw misson, so they all came to Warsaw on Wednesday night from wherever they were serving. An Elder Hedges calls up Elder Henrie wednesday morning and says, "Hey can Elder Daly and I come stay at your place tomorrow night before the meeting?" The answer was of course! So Hedges Daily and two more Elders, Whipple and Thomas, all stayed at our house. It was madness, but awesomeness. Daly and I chatted a lot. We like the same music, he sings great, we played guitar, I taught him a song. We all stayed up pretty late talking ( the first time in forever i've seen past the minutes of 22:30) but it's tough with 6 guys in one small apartment. We all started to crash, and it happened to end up with Elder Daly and I * wait for it* *wait for it* on the exact same bed. We bonded ha. :P It was a pretty fun evening though. The next day Elder Rasmussen and I went on exchanges and that was a blast. HE's a tall skinny, really really nice guy who's been in the mission about 10 months. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, we worked hard, had a good meeting and talked to a lot of really sweet people. :) I'll for suire send pictures of the members on this next card. We have one more lesson with Dorota which is a bummer. She says Elder Henrie and I are her very favorites. I taught her a bit of a Ben Folds song and she kept messing up. She said I was so patient which was good cos we just taught her a lesson on Patience ha. She's great. O!! I am officially the 2nd Branches Pianist. I don;t know if I ever really said that. But I am. I play in Church every sunday and I think I'm getting WAY better at Sight reading. Last sunday I played HIgh ON a Mountain Top :) and rocked it! I've destroyed a few songs, but considering i'm the only one who can play, they really don't care. They thank me from the pulpit every sunday :) Food wise, we make home made hot cocoa from the famous E.Wedel chocolate here. It is to die for. I'm SOO excited to cook for you all when I come home. We'll rock some major Polisj feasts for sure. :) Ma, don't worry about the package, you are the best. The fact that you write me twice a week and then hand written letters is just amazing. The package is great whenver it comes. O!! Some mac and cheese would be amazing. Gram sent me some and it's been a sweet quick meal :) Ok that's it though that list sounds so good :) One last thing that made this week so good was that I got 4letters from Jakey boy, Ang Christine and Tay. MY friends are the best. Tay wrote me back even when that whole mail lameness didn't work out. So amazing. I haven't even had time to write back any of my amazing friends, yet they still write me. They made my day to say the least. And i am setting apart time next p-day to write them back :) I love them so much. Family I'm doing so good here :) I miss you all the time but I love it here. I'm happy and I will not lie, some days are really tough, but I know that they will all end in a smile and that you all are praying for me. I am so blessed to have the family I do. Stay strong, read Alma 40 i believe it is when Alma is talking to his son Coriantumr. It reminds me of ma or pop lovingly giving me important guidance. It's the best :) The Book of Mormon is brimming with power and is so important. I love reading it every morning. Transfers are next week. Craziness is going down. Elder Gardner is going to be Branch President in Szczeczin. So new zone leader here. And possibly Henrie is out. Who knows?!!! I love you soooooooooooooooooo much I can't even express. Til next week. :) Starszy Michael J. Rushton. p.s. Ryan sounds like he is having one trippy experience. So excited to hear more. Hope he knows I love him and can't wait to talk in real life someday lol. Love you cousin. Rock the work out there. And don't get bit by a dog. In fact buy a good beating stick or something, I'm freaked out for you lol.

Hey, Mikey.. nice apartment. Look Grandma, oranges.

Mike is front of his church building, which is the bottom of an office building, I think, but not sure

She raved for a good 20 minutes about how Jewish I looked and then when I told her my grandfather is Jewish, well that just tickled her pink ha

Hello my family, goodness it is so good to write again :)> Everyone says I write a ridonkulous amount of wordage, so forgive me if I wax long, I just love writing to you whom I love so darn much, knowing that these words I write right now at 15:36 in Warsaw, Poland, will be read by you relatively soon. It makes me smile just thinking about it :) I appreciate you all writing to me; it's the best hearing from you, whatever you have to say, I love it all. True Story. :)> Well it is a absurdley beautiful day here in Warsaw and I am just loving it. Warsaw is great because there's only crazy tall buildings in the main parts of the city, so on the outskirts, where our church is and this library for example, you can see the clouds and the sunshine and just soak it all in. I love it too much, reminds me of just walking around murrieta ha. We played a little basketball today and then snagged some food from a little sklep (store) right by the chapel for our branch, and then we headed here to e-mail ( which is like a 1 minute walk from the chapel). P-days are great to rejuvinate. We go go go all the time, pushing yourself to new levels and trying all sorts of new things that are out of your comfort zone, it's nice to go through around a ball for awhile and just enjoy being outside. And then you jump back into the pushing yourself, and it's just like Zhang Lao Mu said in his last e-mail, Carpe diem, suck the marrow out of every moment. I think that's the way to happiness in every situation, and i've certainly seen it proven since i've been out here :) Ok sorry to go all Yoda on you, sometimes it just happens :P > This week has been a rockin one to say the least :) It had it's ups and downs and Pop, it's like you said, I feel like it's been so much longer then a week since i've last heard from you, but right now looking back, the week went by in the blink of an eye. The dichotomy of time man, gets me everytime lol. > We did a couple whiteboards this week when the weather permitted...and even then it rained on us, so they weren't terribly productive. Elder Henrie got a couple of good numbers from pretty promising people and I had a few decent conversations and got to teach a bit in Polish. (I realize I never tell you all the randomness that happens so I'll make an effort to do that as well.) We always have a couple of drunk men come up and try to talk to us in English, and you can just smell the alchohol, and that's pretty bad...and occasionally a Larry (drunk/homeless man) will come up and talk to you and those are always interesting conversations lol we try to avoid them as much as possible. It's an experience for sure lol.> This week was full of really good meetings. Like the Ukraine mission we've been challenged to have 15 sitdown lessons a week which may not seem like many, but here it is a challenge to say the least. But we're working towards it and we feel way good with our efforts. We met with a member couple, RIchard and Asia, on tuesday night and taught them a lesson in Polish so they could critique us and such. They both speak English and Polish as well as I speak English, so it's a very accurate and extremely helpful system in terms of really getting a grasp on which words are the best to say and in what sense is a word really used. So we taught them and they gave us great feedback. I was quite terrified at first to be honest, but Asia (Ah-sh-uh) said my accent was better then her husbands (who is a return missionary and has been living in Poland for the past who knows how long) so that was a major compliment. We took RIchard with us on a meeting the next night with a stubborn investigator who wanted to meet to show us where the Bible and Book of Mormon disagree and it was great to have a member who really knew his doctrine and really knew his Polish. The Investigators name Is Wojtek and I think he just doesn't take it seriously enough...I do think though that his heart can be softened if he'll let himself have hope that this could be true. > We had a great meeting with this random man who we met while waiting for a tramvaj. He just came up to us and started asking us about our church, very friendly guy. WE asked if we could meet and he said yes. I was shocked and felt like that was a new level of the Lord guiding his elect. So we met with him and I really thought I grasped almost all of what he said...questions about the authority of our church, the Ksienga Mormona and how he felt that it was true, just like he felt the Bible was true. So I was feeling good when our meeting ended, and then Elder Henrie gets on the phone...and I ask who are you calling? He says "I have to ask President Bulkley if we can marry someone in our church? He wants to be married here.'" Elder Rushton : "Wait, what?????" Haha it was pretty funny and a good reminder to stay humble and never stop learning. > SPeaking of the language, it is still coming. Every day I realize how much I have to learn and that it'll only come surely and slowly. But i do understand so much more everyday, which is a major blessing. It's just a different language- you say things so much differently then you would in ENglish, so translating over isn;t exactly a piace of cake. One example is the word "how". When you ask "how can I do this better?" You cannot simply say the word for "how" and then slap on the rest of the sentance. You have to say "In which way..." and then throw the rest of the sentance into crazy cases. It's a toughie ha but I love it. Elder Henrie has such a desire to speak the language beyond mere missionary standard and I want to do the same. It's completely possible and it would be the best :)> We had one of our last meetings with Dorota, the young active recent convert of almost a year and it was so great. She expressed how hard it is to feel like we always have enough faith and how easy it is to feel inadequate, and I just felt like I could totally relate and I told her that the Lord knows she is trying and for the love of Peter she is one of the strongest members in this entire country and the Lord is thankful for that. I always choke on the Polish whenever I really want to say sometihng, but she understood me completely :) She is amazing and I'm thankful for her dedication. > O also Elder Gardner, one of the ZL's and I went on exchanges. I went to their apartment and that was a kick. He's a way good guy, I'm lucky to have the people I do here in the Zone. :) > One last thing...I'm sorry this one's been random, it's hard to organize everything that's happened in a week sometimes lol. WE met with one of the first members here in Poland, Sister Ada Bednarska. WE meet with her weekly and give her the Sacrament and then chat for awhile. She's nearly 84 years old and is a bit senile...but she's still surpisingly sharp and it's fun visiting with her. I showed her my pictures in my handy dandy family book (thank you mother :)) and she loved it so much. She raved for a good 20 minutes about how Jewish I looked and then when I told her my Grandfather is Jewish, well that just tickled her pink ha. She is a crack up and loves this gospel. And she gives us cookies (one time one had a maggot crawling out of it...almost upchucked when I read Todd's letter lol).> One last last thing- our apartment was looking pretty grubby, hadn't been deeply cleaned in quite awhile, so Elder Meacham, one of the ZL's tells me that he has a surprise for Me and Henrie and he needs to borrow our keys to put it there. So yesterday we give him the keys after lunch, and don't return till after dinner time. When we get home, the place is just spotless. Cleaned to the 9's. Dad would have been proud. ELder Meacham, Gardner, Jacobs and Harvey completely cleaned our apartment and I am eternally grateful for it to say the last. IT was one of the nicest things in the world. > Well family, sorry for the length, I just want to fill you in the best I can :) I am a happy kid to say the least. Uncle John wrote me a great letter this week and gave me one piece of advice that I loved. He said that it's when we try to hold on to who we were or the things that made us happy that we feel down. I can't tell you how true I feel that is. I love Jake's desire just to be changed by his experience in the MTC and i'm trying to have the same desire out here. I just feel that when we push ourselves, and just enjoy everything we do, no matter what it is, we'll be happy :) I'm doing so good here in terms of health and happiness, i'm never cold, i'm just fine there :) I'm good on the Money, stil have 200 zlots of home funds in the apartment. All is well, we're busy and we love it :) Elder Henrie is a great companion and all is so well. YOu all sound so great. I looked at those pics of Sarah and you look so old child!!! And i've barely been gone lol. IT's good though, you llok so good out there sugar :) Spencer that is so rad to hear about your friends, they sound rad as could be. YOu sound so good too. Pleas keep me posted. Annie feel better baby, i love you all so much :) I pray for you everyday and think about you all the time. Just know I love you and thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts and existence in my life. I so look forward to writing you back next week :) > > your red headed son, brother missionary> > Starszy Michael j Rushton jr. :)>