WE talked about baptism and then asked her if she would be baptized. She said, yes, of course. !

Dear Family who I love so darn much - I got to say I've been thinking alot about you this week :) Simply happy thoughts and just little things remind me of us all being together and more often then not I experience things I wish you all could be here to experience with me, but hearing from you today is all I could ever ask for. You all just make me happy as all get out and I'm super glad and thankful I have the chance to write you now. Fam, i'm feeling really good and I have a big smile on my face as I write this cos I love you so much and just want you to know that life is so good here in Poland and your letters are the BEST! I'll do my best to answer all your questions, but firstly- SO JEALOUS of SYTYCD and so glad you loved it. Annie you are too cute, just imagining ou sitting there with binoculers glued to your face made me smile SUPER big and laugh a little. I just got your handwritten letter annie and it was SO GOOD!!! Thank you sugar :) Ma, Pop SPence and Sarah thank you so much for the E-mails, they are the best :) Sarah you are so ridiculous, i love it. You make your brother proud :) ;) TO answer a few random questions- I do get quite a bit of e-mail, mostly from you, stratfords and a few missionary friends- just got one from Jimmy, but i'm only allowed to e-mail family, so yah. Can you get his address for me ma? I have Jake's and am so stoked to read his e-mail and write him back :) I got SO MUCH mail at Zone conference, everyone wanteed to hurt me :P But more on that in a few :) Um, for package- I'm not sure lol O~!! Some nice pens. BLue Pilot G-2 .5 mm pens would be amazing. Just a few or whatever :) Ok now onto the weeks events, i know I probably forgot some things, but I'll answer most of the other questions in this next chunk...and so it begins: This week was amazing to say the least, for a few reasons. FIrstly, the weather was dismal on monday and tuesday, rainy and such, but the rest of the week has been Beatiful! I mean sun shining, but not too hot, o man! It was so nice that today (this is the best:P) we went running with the President ( Elder Henrie and I, the APs and the other Warsaw District Leader and his comp.) for like an hour through the forest. It was awesome! ANd THEN he took us to get hot chocolate and ice cream at this E. Wedel chocolate resteraunt thing. The place blew my mind- they had a huge menu, it was the nicest establistment i've ever been in- so posh. The "drinkable chocolate" (hot chocolate) was so rich and delicious and they had EVERY flavor! and then we got ICE CREAM too! O my goodness, we were all freaking out because it was seriously that good. (ma could you actually send hot chocolate too:P) And President just payed for us all. He is such a generous man :) I think Dad would really like him a lot, he's just got a great personality that's so easy to get along with and yah. :) So that was quite the experience. It's great being around President and the AP's so much. They are all in my ward, cos they recently moved the mission home to the south side of Warsaw, therefore they are in our Ward now. Reason number two for it being a great week: We taught a lot. And we taught a lot of really interesting people lol. WE taught a tibetan man named Aszan, who was a monk for fourteen years! And now owns his own tibetan store and everything here in warsaw. He wears the monk gound dress thing and all. He is a super spiritual guy, but believes in reincarnation and a few other road blocks lol but we have faith :) We taught a nigerian man named Mike who speaks perfect English and is going to school here. We met with him on monday night after He led us to his house way way out there in south Praga (still Warsaw, but a few bus stops and another half mile walk past the last tramvaj stop). WE entered the house to find an older man in a Berkley Sweatshirt preaching to 3 other Nigerians in this quaint little room. Mike sat down and started praying, so we did too :P It was something else, like a really southern "praise the Lord!!" feel and it was good though. WE agreed with everything he said and then we taught what we additionally believe. The man in the Berkley sweatshirt, who happens to be a Pastor who started his own church here, was the only one with any problems with it at all. Mike said he'd read everyday if he could :) We've also been teaching POlish people too haha. I we met with Edeta again, and we had a member on the meeting. HE taught a lot which was great and I actually understood a whole lot. She loves the charitable service we do and wants to pay tithing lol. She has a great heart, hasn't read much and isn't totally sure about it, but i really do have a lot of hope for her. We also taught Irina :) O holy smokes Irina. Elder Broadbent and I had contacted her when we went on exchanges and we finally got her to come to church last week ( i think i wrote briefly about it) . (and She gladly came, it was simply the first time she had time) and she absolutely loved it. Sister Enjbjerg and the Branch presidents wife, Sister Bulkley talked to her (she's Ukrainian, moved to Poland 14 years ago and speaks Russian and English and Polish perfectly) and they all got a long so well. She seemed to really grasp all the concepts we were giving her and just embraced it. She completely believies in God and we met with her just two days ago again and she was way excited to meet. We taught her the 3 lesson (skipped number 2 cos we were really feeling 3) and she just seemed to love talking about everything and she accepted everything. WE talked about baptism and then asked her if she would be baptized. She said, yes, of course. !!!!!!!!!!!&!T!(&!**)&!! We were so excited for her and she was too- President suggested in an interview to make the mood light you tell them how it would go and even demonstrate...and so I did, showed her exactly how she would go under and everything and the mood was light and brimming with the spirit :) ANd she seems so excited and President is way excited and he wants us to teach her at the mission home?!?!?!?!??! Yah. How flippin cool is that? O i'm so excited fam!! Here where missionaries may not baptize, the Lord has led us to Irina and now she has a baptismal date. And i'm a month in the country in 2 days. Can you even believe i've been here a month already? And to tell you the truth, I feel like it's another home for me. I love it here. More and more everyday. But so darn excited for her- her date is October 25 or right around there. :):) Another reason this week was amazing : Zone conference. It was so neat to gather with our Zone and just get an extra boost of energy and inspiration. And I got 13 letters. 13!!!! Holy mackeral. :) 3 from jake ( i will be writing him back today, he is the best man, goodness gracious i miss him a lot), 2 from Christine, 1 from Angie, one from Grandma Diane (it was so nice) 1 from Grandpa (dearelders do work, i only get them once every month though,,,and i don't know how reliable they are even lol. But they seem to work?) one from a friend from college, Jillian and then from the fam :) The day was a mega boost all in all. We heard from the Elders leaving and it was interesting to see how each of them finished their missions. The outlooks they had and etc. I'm excited to see what i'll be like in a nother how many months lol. We also had a "buki- break" which is like a massive sandwhich, cracker, cookie, juice, yogurt fest where you eat til you explode...people can't distinguish who is who because they have so much food everywhere (not really :P) but it was magnificent. Polish food is life-changing, I look forward to making it for you :) Zone conference truly was amazing though, THe Engbjerg's have so much insight and wisdom and drive and hope and faith and we all took alot from it I think. I gave the Opening Prayer, a missionary in Henrie's group (Beaty's trainer) commmented that my Polish was sounding really good :O (:P). It's tought, but i feel like I'm trying and the Lord will only continue to help me as long as I try and listen and do my best. It has been one spectacular week, to say the least. Elder Henrie and I have gotten into a few arguments about stupid random stuff here and there, but today our companionship is even stronger then it ever has been. We're laughing a lot and it's all good. It sometimes gets worse before it can get better eh? He is a good cook ma, lol not quite like SPencer. I think he just picked it up out here and who knows, maybe my Trainee (someday) will say, "Shoot ma, Elder Rushton is like Betty Crocker." :P I introduced him to Tuna Melts. I said, my mom makes some mean tuna melts, and now we eat them often. Think of you ma often as I do. :) On the subject of food- just stuff you'll think is funny- the milk here (mleko) is in boxes and doesn't need to be refrigerated. Jacked full of preservatives lol. They have normal milk, but a lot of people just by this DHT milk and it just sits out. Tastes alright too lol but it's just way funny. I've been loving my Jogabella yogurt (banana flavor and Kiwi flavor are definitely favorites :P) on my pancakes. I think it's even better then maple syrup lol. We eat rice, with boiled milk and cinnamon and sugar. Major polish thing, majorly good lol. O yesterday at Church we had break the fast with the whole ward and that was amazing. SO much food lol. Sacrament meeting is so amazing here. Half the people speak Polish, have only English and so there's always translation going on (either right up there in front of everyone or through real headphones and such). And you can really feel the spirit of these members. Dorota, a 17 yearold girl who is strong as all get out, bore her testimony about sharing the gospel and how easy it is and important it is. She is amazing. We teach her the recent convert lessons every tuesday, for only a couple more weeks now. She made me a CD with awesome Polish rock music, like Super cool lol i can't even listen to it, but Spence I'll send it to you and you better be CAREFUL WITH IT! But she would always sing this song called "Feel the Rush" to elder Daly when he was In Warsaw and she knew about the who Sydney thing. So she sings it all the time stil and it's great. I wish you all could see everything here. It's so different yet so much alike. :) Papa, my apartment (my digs :P haha) is totally cool. Not ritzy or anything but i'm way satisfied. I sleep super comfortably every single night without fail. Our kitchen is TINY but the rest is great. WE have a washer, not dryer, but a drying rack :) Good iron and ironing board. IT's good stuff. Our shower is like a meter off the ground lol (I'll send pictures way soon) but it's great! My jacket is totally good, waterproof enough and i'll buy gloves soon. I'm pretty good at making sure i'm warm enough :) If i'm not i take care of it. No worries at all :) I use my umbrella most of the time, so the gloves are probably mroe a of a deal then my jacket being water proof. My umbrella is quite beastly. lol Ok well i have to go now, i hope this e-mail will by sufficient. I loved yours so much. You feed my soul with every single word you write, no matter what it is. And i love you more then i can say. Keep being strong, working hard and having fun. Your letters are just the best I hope you know how much I appreciate and love you and think about you. I'd be lost without you in my life and soul and heart. Can't wait til our next communication :) :) :) :) :) - your Polish hot dog, Starszy Michael Joseph Rushton Jr.

p.s. I might be the one Baptizing Irina. "You found her!"- elder Henrie's words :P

This week flew by..my district is so cool...its starting to get REALLY cold

Hello my super rad family :) Goodness gracious. How much do I love your letters? I cannot express it properly in words, but i will try. THey are the best in the entire world, and I can't even tell you how much they mean to me. Just to hear how you all are doing and how good you all sound! I think about you all the time. This week a few members wanted to see pictures of my family and so I got to use my snazzy book :) It was so good. Goodness, you guys are the best. I look forward to coming into this library and writing you so much, so thank you :) Before I shoot into the weekly update, i did take out way too much money lol. More than I meant to for different reasons, so i have about 200 zlots left over in my room. I spent about 100 on ties ( seriously, the most beautiful ties in the world) and then 300 on the coat, which was a good deal i think. I bought it from this store, C&A, i think they have some in the states although i've never heard of it in my life. But it's pretty snazzy looking, i think the little siblings would approve as well as the parents lol. It's p-coat-ish, black with charcoal gray cross-stitching. Keeps me super warm. Ok here is the weekly update- mama, i'll answer your questions in detail the best i can :) This last week just flew by. I say I look forward to e-mailing you on monday, and that could not be more true, but i only have time to look forward to it for like half a day, cos the week just soars by. The week started out slow investigator-wise, it's starting to get REALLY cold and raining quite often, so people aren't dying just to stop on the side-walk and chat, which is a shame. When it was sunny we would walk around for hours on end just talking to people- one day we walked for about 4 and a half hours i think, just talking to people. My feet were sore to say the least ha. So we have been trying to contact, and we do whiteboard as often as we can. Usually once everyday- we just post up in a busy, crowded area like Centrum (i'll send you pictures soon :O) and it is so much more effective, because hundreds of people walk by, we have four missionaries all talking to four different people and in terms of effectiveness it just blows the pants off of anything else. And we get to all be with eachother which is nice. We all love our companions, but it's nice to talk to the other missionaries to for sure. So we did quite a few of those this week- got a few numbers and that was good. We have district meeting everyweek, which is so cool. We read the Dobra Strona and than have a spiritual thought, christ-like attribute and language lesson and of course a snack :P My district is so cool. The Zone Leaders are as goofy as could be and i love em. Elder Gardner tells me we're going on splits soon- so i'm excited for that. We're all working for the district standard of excellence, which is the set numbers that President set up for a certain district to be deemed excellent- some prize is associated with it; i think pizza with president or something lol. But it would just be great to get the standard. President has promised that if we study PMG 15 minutes personally and as a companionship and apply it to our lives, every companionship will baptize monthly. Which is a darn big deal for Poland. I feel like I haven't given you a very good idea of what a normal day is like so i'll do my best...i have about 25 minutes left, let's make em worth it lol. We wake up and excersice til 7, shower and eat, get ready and are do personal study by 8. Companisionship study is at 9 and language study at 10. We're out of the house at 11, either to go contacting or to a meeting of some sort. We catch the tramvaj to the metro if we need to go any where out of Centrum or Praga area. I still love riding the trams and metros. They are so darn cool lol. Ok so we work at something til any time from 12-2 and then break for lunch for an hour. (This week I went to that milk bar, I believe i told you about. You go and order something from the menu, good thing i can't read it for beans, netiher can Henrie very well lol, so we just pick something. WE can find our way around the soups and stuff, but the main deals, lost as can be. It's pretty cheap and you just eat your heart out with real Polish food. Like pierogi, or I had these Pierogi Leniwy (lazy pierogi) which are just cooked dumplings with butter and sugar and o so good. Ok moving on) Then we work again til dinner at around 6 or sometimes not til 8 and then we just stay in. We plan every night at 9. write in our journals and just chat. Saturday night is date night. we Plan during the day and then we drink Ginger Beer (its way intense stuff, sooooo gingery!!!) and play guitar and just talk. Did i tell you Elder Henrie has a guitar!? It makes me pretty happy, i will not lie, lol. Even though I barely play it, it's great just to touch it everyonce and a while. :) At 10:30 my head hits the pillow and than I am out like a light. It's insane, working all day is toughh work and when that night comes i just pass out. We didn't gain many more new investigators, but we met with a few older ones a one even came to church. Don't have much more time, but i'll tell you about it briefly. First off, we we're supposed to meet with Ryszard and Grarzyna this wednesday. We were 5 minutes early and were about to go into this store to look for things to make pizza and we saw Ryszard. He said "hej" and then went in to look at the beer selection. We waited for him outside, but as he came out, he turned the corner and literally started running. Yah, I was a bit shocked, as was Henrie. So two days ago, we are coming home and as we get off the tramvaj on our stop, i see them both sitting there. We stop and say hello and Ryszard is so embarrased he won't even look at as and Grarzyna was pretty drunk. So we told them about church the next day, wrote it on a card and gave it to them. I was so shocked to see them and i had kind of given up hope, but the chance that we would see them just made me truly feel like the Lord wanted us to run into them again. Especially cos Elder Henrie refused to give up hope on them, saying we would see them again and they would come to church and such. They didn't come to church, but I felt the Lord's hand in that, and i think we may see them again, or if not they will some day see other missionaries. We did have this lady though Irina, who Starszy Broadbent, the AP and I contacted. She came to church yesterday because she wants her son to be baptized into a church and she does not like the catholic church. She speaks English and is actually from Ukraine. Well she came for the whole thing and loved it. We talked with her afterword and she said she felt like this was the church for her, that she felt like people cared about her ( sister Enjbjerg, and the Branch Presidents wife were talking with her like crazy ) and she said as we read Moroni 10 that she felt more spiritual and was excited to meet well. I know i didn't convey it very will jsut here, but she is totally ready and knows she has to read and follow these commandments we have in the church and I think she may get baptized. That was too exciting, such a faith builder and spirit=-raiser :) We met with Edeta pop. She is aces. So normal and solid. We're meeting with her this Saturday i believe and teaching her again. I could see how deeply she was thinking about everything and she knows it's true. :) Those expreiences have probably been the highlighht of my week for sure. They were too awesome. Missionary work is certainly tough here- we are kind of like those early missionaries in England ma. We're small here and we have so many people to talk to. And there are so many good people here in Poland. And I know they wil listen. Our goals are not crazy high at all, 1's and 2's most of the times for numbers day to day, sometimes higher, but we are sersious about them and do our best to meet them. Ok i'm sorry this letter wasn't the greatest and I have to go, but real quick your letters were so great! Spencer, So proud of you kid with school and music and sports. JV is the best, seriously. :) And Sarah, you goal scoring machine you! Snap!!! I love you so much, keep smiling and being the amazing sister you are :) Annie, you are so amazing, i'm so proud you tried out for the play! THat's not easy stuff, takes lots of guts. YOur going to rock that orphan part out of the park!!! :) My siblings, you are my best friends and I love you so much. Parents I love you so much. Mom and Dad, your letters mean so much I can't even tell you and just thank you for your support. I'll be more detailed and ask any questions you want to and I'll answer them. I will get all my mail in 5 days which will be great :) And i can print out these e-mails, i love reading them half way through the week again. Well i'm doing great! Loving it so much out here. Studying every day is the best. THe language is so so hard, but i get more and more everyday. I can communicate decently and i even bought my own stamps yesterday. I iron my shirts every day cos we dont'l have a dryer and it's all just going so well. lol I'll end the randomness and just let you know i know this church is true. The book of mormon is too amazing and I love reading it more and more everyday. I know i'm preaching truth and happiness and am so happy doing it :) WIsh grandpa the happiest for me! I'll write him tonight. I love him so much, him and grandma and all my family honestly are too darn amazing. I am so blessed :) Have fun at that game! Imagine your eating some awesome kielbasa instead of an american hotdog :P :P I love you!!!! Do poniadzialek :) P.s. I live on 3 Maja in Praga. If that helps at all to google earth it :) It's a nice little place lol. Poland in the rainy season is beautiful as well :) Ok love you all, :)

Holy mackeral I have been living in Poland for two weeks now

My dear family - Holy mackeral I have been living in Poland for two weeks now, just about. I can't even believe that. Part of me feels like I've been here for at least a couple of months, and than I talk to a Pole or think about finding my way through the underground metro links and realize that I have so much to learn, and so much time to do it :) Which i am quite thankful for. I am so glad to be sitting here and writing to you- everyday at least 300202340302304 billion things happen that i want to tell you about, so this opportunity is the best to me. I wrote you a hand written letter to top off last weeks- talks about right when i got here and a few other things. I think this one will tell everything else you want to know- and so much more :P (Including when Rushton met Daly - sweet mercy lol) I feel like i've really become adjusted to this crazy metropolitan life pretty quick- i don't almost eat it everytime i get on the metro or the tramvaj (tram), I don't get sucha big kick out of the awesome scary-movie-theme sound that happens whenever the metro wheels hit the metal, and my neck doesn't hurt anymore from looking up at all the HUGE buildings. :P To answer your question papa- it's definitely like the heart of San Fran feel, not so industrial but very metropolitan. There are malls everywhere and large department buildings and public transportation is na pewno the way to go. There is a single metro track that runs all through warsaw, and than countless numbers of tramvaj and busses that you can jump on, so it doesn't take very long to get anywhere to be honest. It's pretty awesome that way. We just buy a "bilet" for the month, costs about 78 zlots, and than we're good for all modes of transportation. It's pretty rad to me, little kid from murrieta who's never ridden on a tram except for at the Wild Animal Park. I kinda love being in this Big city atmosphere, surrounded with so many people. There are countless opportunites to preach the gospel- that is for sure. It's certainly a city of sin and satan does a good job of inflitrating everthing he can. - pornography on cards that people put under wind-shield wipers that end up on the floor, so you can't look down much while you walk. It freaked me out at first, but now it's just something you avoid doing I guess. Elder Smalley takes em of the car and crumples them up. I kind of loved watching him do it that first day we got here- righteousness, crumpling up the vileness that is satan and his evil ways. We have much work to do, and we are working very hard to do it. I love being out here more and more everyday :) Elder Henrie is one good kid. I understand your concern papa about him only being out here 4 months and he of course has tons to learn. But he understands people and talks well- he holds conversation and is diligent in his study and work. Polish is stinkin hard. I can't imagine any other language being quite so complicated- they just say things so so so so different than in English with different verb and adjective endings to boot. Like you can't say please bless us with strength and peace and health. Polish you say, we ask you so that you can bless us by the means of health and peace and strength. And it's sadly, more complicated than that even sounds because of the endings and such you have to add on. But i'm catching on! Really- Elder Broadbent was blown away with me when we went on exchanges (which was RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME by the way). I don't understand everything- i will never take my english vocab for granted again- but i'm learning more words and picking up the grammar day by day, line upon line, precept upon precept. It's just a big puzzle that i will unravel- just you wait. ;) Elder Henrie is from Arkansas and used to be a punk rocker, wait lifting fiend lol. He's a super nice kid and has definitely felt like he's been changed since being out here. We work hard together and he pushes me hard. Sometimes i want to slap him because he asks me to translate stuff i do not know when we're studying, but it'll help me in the end, and it helps me work on my patience and such. So killing two birds with one stone, eh? :P He cooks great and is showing me what there is to know about this here crazy town. I'm starting to gain my bearings and no where to go, where the church is, what stops to get off on, where the best Paczki is (donuts that taste JUST LIKE krispy kreme, but with polish awesomeness insinde- toffee filling, chocolate, you name it- the polish got the pastry thing down :P) and all the jazz. :) K i'll give you the weeks crazy stories and happenings as best as i can remember! lol. Monday before i wrote you i did play sports with our zone, including Elder Harvey. He's a super nice and way cool kid. I didn't even realize THAT was Elder Harvey- he is so cool- showed me some awesome jazz lines on the piano that i think will for sure use in post- mission songs lol. That night we came home late from shopping and were starving, but decided to go kontactowac for a half hour before we had to come in. I said I wanted to get one number. Elder Henrie prayed that we would get a number. We walked in this park by our house ( i guess it's not wierd to stop and talk to random people in big cities when it gets dark here, go figure lol) and talked to this one man. He listened but didn't want to talk much more. This smaller, nice looking lady walks by next and we stop her and start talking. She was so nice and ELder Henrie and her talked for a good little while and I understood enough to know that she felt that Poles say ther're religious but don't walk the walk. We talked to her about our church, about the KM and asked if we could meet. She said YES! My heart almost exploded. We set up the meeting and just saturday met with her. She listenend and i could tell she was thinking about it all very deeply. I can tell she likes us as people and we already set up another meeting in two weeks cos she has work or something or other. I am so excited though, her name is Edeta. Amazing nice, normal person who is searching for God. And we're helping her find Him :) On wednesday I went on splits with Elder Broadbent- one of my favorite people ever. He taught me the value of stopping everyone and talking ot everyone. It was good to see someone else's style of contacting- cos that's what we do if we're not whiteboarding - tracting does not go over well here in warsaw i guess. But we worked hard all day and whiteboardedin the afternoon with the APs who are also two of my favorite people. It was pretty awesome. Whiteboarding can be super effective- we write a quesiton on the board like "What makes you happy?" Or "Who said this? a.Elvis, b. THe Pope, c. Ronald McDOnald. d. Jesus" etc. We ask people the question and just contact as they walk by- i talked bymyself to a man for 30 minutes from a whiteboard (not much came of it, but he like me and i gave him a good impression.) That day we got four numbers and wanted 5- right as we were going home on this bus, we started talking to this guy who had heard about us and read "Nefi" and we thought we'd for sure get his number. So we stayed on 3 stops past where we had to get off. And no number was obtained- so we got off, and saw the bus we needed to catch 20 feet in front of us. We took off running, literally 200 yards, sprinting, and made it to the bus stop across the street. I felt like such a hardcore missionary- it was beautiful. :) ON Thursday we had a meeting with someone Elder Broadbent and I had contacted. It was far away in the poorer part of Praga (which is an area in Warsaw, very very close to Centrum, which is the Broadway equivalent, the dead center. We were heading out there and he had no phone, so we had to rely on our direction skills. We made it to bulding 1 on the street he lived on- he lived in bulding 125. We asked a lady if our thinking was right and she said yes and gave us a RIDE down to his apartment. Which was a miracle- we were already 10 minutes late and this lady just was willing to give us a ride because she was concerned for our- well being, she was super nice and we gave her some flyers and such. We made it to our meeting on time and taugh Ryszard and Graszyna the first lesson. THey ate it up and were asking when they could come to church. Score!!! That night we white-boarded and i got my first number by myself from the young kid named Jan. It was pretty amazing :) I'm going to skip to saturday for hte last little bit i have to write- craziness ensued on this evening. Sunday we were to have our big district meeting, which is the equivalent of Stake Conference. All the surrounding districts outside of warsaw were coming in, but for some reason, I did not know this. So we're at compiling meeting, which we have every saturday with our zone, and some ELders from Bydgosz come on, one wearing a name tag reading Elder Daly. Everyone looked at me and started making wierd faces and the AP's were like " What are you going to say? Say something your making it awkward!" :P But i knew that wasn't Daly. I didn't really consider the fact that Daly might really come in just 10 minutes. So everythinks that I think this guy is Elder Daly, and we start compiling meeting. 10 minutes into the meetin, all the other non-warsaw Elders come in, including the real elder Daly, wearing Elder Whipples name tag. I knew it was him, he knew who I was, but he didn't i knew he was who he was. Whoa. So he introduces himself, he's a super cool kid, says he's Elder Whipple yada yada. !0 minutes later, someone just yells out "O come on Rushton and Daly talk to eachother!!" So they pull out two chairs facing eachother. I sit on one, the fake Daly sits on the other and they start throwing down questions, who had the best first date, who'd you meet her, etc. It was insanity and they all were eating they're hearts out. I entertain it for a few minutes, then i turn my chair towards Daly, and say I just want to talk to him" and everyone says " OOOOO!!!!!" Haha we chatted for a bit and it was all good. It was a tad awkard and i felt bad, but it was just funny and good. We had a good little talk and i think the next time we see eachother we'll be aces :P District conference that next day was amazing :) So many Polish memebers in one chapel made me smile. I particpiated in a musical octect and we sang your favorite hymn Pop :) It was so great- met so many new elders, saw the people from my launch group. Great experience :) Well i have to go! I love you all so so so so much! YOu all sound so good :) So glad you all got the card! Mom i'm glad your class is going so well and thanks so much for your insights, i love them so much and i just love hearing from you. I love how that song makes you think of me, i think about you often :) Pop thanks so much for writing me- i loved hearing about the activity and hearing about how you are doing and your quesitons. We went to this tie store- the man who owns it is best buddies with President and they are suuuper classy and just amazing. YOu would love them so much. I'll be sending some home na pewno :) Spencer you rock star you!!! I am so stoked to hear this and hear about it Sarah you sound so awesome, so awesome!! and Annie i love you so much!!! I love you all so much i'm sorry i have to jet!!!! I LOVE YOU So SO MUCH AND KNOW THIS GOSPEL IS TRUE! - your son and brother and missionary.Starszy Michael Rushton

Goodness gracious i have so much to tell you family! July 8, 2008

CZESC my ridiculously awesome rodzina :) I just read all your e-mails, which i loved darn much (it is like sweet mana to my soul, in all seriousness :)) I just love em. I am now writing you back from this little, but very well kept library in Warsaw, right across the street from our chapel (which is a rented out floor of a building, but it's very nice, i'm so STOKED to tell you about church!) Goodness gracious i have so much to tell you family! and i'm hoping i'll get it all down. It feels like SO much as happened since i've been here, so wish me luck. Here i go: After I got off the Phone with you, we snagged some pizza and jumped on the plane to Vienna. It was long, but it was good. Had a few airplane meals and slept a few hours, but finally we got into Vienna. I was freaking out with excitement right about here and everyone was pretty tired. We barely had time to get through customs and go to the bathroom before we were shuttled to our plane. We flew Polish Air into Poland. And right about there I just stood in awe and amazement. I was getting on a Plane to go to Poland. And I did. We got situated in our seats and the directions for seatbelts, non-smoking blah blah came on in Polish. Didn't understand hardly anything. Just talking at light-speeds and i loved it haha. We talked to a man going to the Czech republic before we got on and he spoke some Polish to us which was sweet. When the Polish directions came on he looked back and was giving us all the thumbs up ha bless his soul. We all broke out our POlish language materials right about then so we could talk to the flight attendents as they walked by. They came by with juices and i think they're supposed to be able to speak English as well as Polish and we were obviously American. So she asked us what kind of juice we wanted, and we answered like Pros and Polish lol. After she chuckled for a sec she poured us come Polish juice (which is RIDICULOUSLY tasty. Like holy smokes- i'll go on a juice rave in a bit.) I was just contemplating the fact that i was going to arrive in Poland in less than an hour and meet my mission president and find out where i would be assigned and who i would work with- everything. We finally arrived, took us awhile to get our luggage and everything ( we are surrounded by Polish people at this point ) and we walk out of the baggage claim. There were a bunch of people there waiting for whomever they were picking up, but out of the corner of my eye I saw this white thing bobbing up and down. As i turned my head i realized the bobbing thing was one of the AP's (Starszy Smalley) and the office Elders with the President and his Wife. I was told in the MTC that the mission president knew where he was going to place you within the first 30 seconds of meeting you, so i was kind of freaking out, but trying to play it cool ha. So we President Engbjerg and Sister Engbjerg and all the Elders there to greet us and it was too rad. President is one of the nicest men i have ever met in my entire life. We briefly talked and than walked over to this parking structure across the street and threw our luggage in one of the "Transporters" (name of the car). The Elders jumped in with the AP's Elders Smalley and Broadbent (i love them both so much already) and the Sisters went with President. We came out of the Parking garage and onto a main road and my eyes just shot open, taking in this city of Warsaw. It is something else. And as i sat in that car, taking in all of the Polish signs i couldn't read and all the people walking on the streets, i was in awe. I was actually in Poland, driving down a street in the capital. It looks very modern in most of the city, but with green everywhere. Big trees and just streaks of grass here and there, it's beautiful in a different way. I was chatting up a storm with the AP's and kinda felt bad cos no one else was really talking ( i think a couple of them were sleeping cos they couldn't sleep on the plane) but i was just asking them lots of random questions and was so excited to experience this new culture. We drove though a few of the main parts of the city, which isn't saying a lot cos this city is much bigger than i comprehend i think. But the car ride was super enjoyable. I was shocked that the Elder Smalley, who was driving, did not crash cos the traffic laws seem nutso to me. Like the streets don't follow any normal straightness parameters like they do in the states ( in cali at least). They just go every which way, if that makes any sense. But he drove great, and we survived. We made it to the Rynek and it was beautiful. I was in shock and awe to say the least. I can't remember how many times i just looked up at the buildings and said, "How beautiful is this?" The Rynek is the old town center of Warsaw and they rebuilt all the buildings to look like before WWII. They are a sight to see, let me tell you. Just beautiful. The center of the Rynek is just littered with beautiful colored buildings and is a major tourist spot. But i just loved being there. I contacted with Elder Gonzalves, who is the trainer of my Trainer. Cool eh? That was something else. We would be walking and he'd stop someone and say who we were and than that i was going to tell them about the BOM. Major butt-pucker moment. I did my very best and felt a thousand times more comfortable by the end of it. I also contacted with Elder Smalley for a bit and then with Elder Broadbent. I got to the point where i would stop people and it was a great feeling. Just being in Warsaw contacting. Wowza. And i'm so glad you got to see pictures of it :) Elder Broadbent is one of my favorite people i've met. He's got red-hair and is just a solid funny kid and it was great contacting with him. I stopped this young guy, Filip, and i taught him and Elder Broadbent was saying "YOu are the man! You just taught that guy all by yourself!!" And Broadbent got his number and everything, it was awesome :)I'm going to have to be more brief or i'm never going to get everything down i want to :( BUt continuing on. :) We went to presidents house and chad an amazing experience, and I'm going to condense it so i can give you a bigger schpeel about being in Warsaw and such ( :( sorry) But we got to know the Mission President very well, we went running with him both mornings we were there through this beautiful little forest and that blew me away. We ran by this old Palace and by a catholic church and by the nicest McDonalds i have ever seen in my entire life. lol. President treated us to great food- Polish breakfast is spectactular. THe juices blew my mind - banana, cactus, pineapple, apple juice that taste like the green jolly ranchers, black currant, peach juice, all of this spectacular juice and meat and cheese on these little rolls called Buka. O goodness, it was spectacular. :) We had a testimony meeting after the second day, which was our tour day where we went back to the Rynek and to Lazieki (Wah -zank - ee) park, which was also beautiful- i took tons of pictures (Sarah your e-mail wish will come true:) ) We had an interview with President and i enjoyed mine so much. I loved talking to him and he said he thought he knew he my trainer would be. I was excited to find out :) THe next day we did. It was a very cool experience. I can't elaborate for times sake, but my trainer turned out to be Elder Henrie. He has been in the country for four months and he is a super nice guy. We get along so well and i love it. And i was told i would be serving in Praga area, South Side Warsaw. Ok i really have no time to write so this is going to be quick- forgive me :( We came back to our Apartment in the South Side, which is right by the huge city center, Centrum. And it is so intense to live right there next to all these huge buildings and yah. So different than Murrieta, but i'm getting used to it and learning to enjoy it more. Our Apart. is way homey, and i love it already. Elder Henrie is supposed to cook for me for the first month and he's been doing a great job. I've been eating way good and will contiue to for sure :) We're going shopping right after this and than going to do a white board meeting :) I've been out contacting in the city, had meetings with the members and with a less-active- no non-members yet. But there will be :) Church was awesome :) Goodness, i played Piano for sacrament meeting and for Primary. Our branch is the international Branch so people speak both Polish and some speak English.It was awesome :) I was in Primary too, playing for the little kids. IT was the best :) Ok i really have to go. I will write more next week and you can ask all the questions you want. I know i proabably didn';t asnwer so much you wanted to here. But next week i will. I love you all so much i cannot even express. Thank you so much for your letters mother and father, spencer sarah and annie. They are the best. Keep going hard in football and soccer and dance and that is so rad about going to Hawaii :) I"m way jealous. I love you all more than i could ever say. Just know i'm happy and working hard and think about you all the time. Til next week :)Starszy Rushtoni don't have much more time to write but have so much to tell you :( I'll just have to write a letter or someting:(

Provo MTC

Another week down here at the MTC, one more to go!!!

Czesc Rodzina! Another week down here at the MTC, one more to go!!! Holy smokes, i'm not going to lie to you, i'm getting a tad nervous to head out into POland and truly test myself, but i think my excitement is getting the best of me for sure:) I cannot even wait just to see what it looks like, smells like, feels like to be in Poland, to meet our mission president and say hello to all the Elders there, even Elder Daly :P It'll be the best and i know the plane ride wil lbe filled with anxiety and probably several irregular heartbeats, but i know when i walk off that plane i will be ready to get to work. Goodness i can't even tell you, being here for 9 weeks is a very long time, but i've grown comfortable here and now i'm having to leave again. I have a feeling a lot of my mission will be like that. Our teacher, Brat Fox was telling us a story about a family he taught last night and how it wasn't hard for them to except it was true, it was getting them to know it to the point they would change themseleves. As he was telling it the entire room was quiet and i felt the Spirit very strong. I think i could read every single Missionary's mind in that room- we were all thinking about the people we were going to teach and how it was going to be a type of battle between us, the Lord's soldiers with our gifts and influence against the Satan's devices, his sins and evils. It was a soft spirit and it was comforting, because it made me realize how deeply i will feel for these people, how bad i wil lwant to help them and how the spirit will guide me in ways i never knew possible. I always worry i won't have the Spirit whispering in my ear like some people do...but i feel like He will help me as i strive my hardest and show my faith through my actions and intense desire to help. I'm just so darn excited, i can't even express it. It's been a great last part of the week- the first part being filled with sickness which threw me for a little bit of a loop- it was difficult to focus very hard, i couldn't participate in my daily workout routine, i didn't want to eat very much- but now i'm right back to 100 percent and feel so great. It's a blessing to be healthy enough to walk and work and i realize that even more now. So i've made a renewed effort to learn all the important words and verbs and grammar concepts i feel will help me talk to people right when i get there. It certainly is the epitome of pushing yourself farther than your limits- i just barely speak Polish, but i know i'm going to be contacting and teaching these people, and that is a miracle. Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke to us at a fireside on tuesday in regards to the Sacrament and the Spirit. It was a beautiful talk- Timmy was sitting right behind me and the Spirit was strong. I was also still quite sick, but i enjoyed it nonetheless. it was crazy to see a General Authority so close to us. An experience i'll remember for sure. Jimmy left this last week, the night Dallin H. Oaks left. I cried my eyes out as i bid one of my best friends in the entire world goodbye for two years. It was such a support having him there and i continue to pray for him and can only imagine how well he's been doing this last week. Also got another letter from Jake, i'm writing him back today, i love that man so much and to get his letters lift my soul. I'm so excited for him, my brother to the end, to get in here. SOrry for the randomosity- going through all i want to tell you! This week in the TRC we taught this old gypsy Polish lady. We call her the Pani (mam in polski) and the first few weeks we were freaking out we'd have to talk to her, and now Starszy Tanner and i taught her the Plan of Salvation in Polish. It went very well and i was happy with our performance, no doubt we made several mistakes, but she understood us and that is what matters for now. :) We were also released as Zone leaders which was wierd/really really nice lol. I gone to a meeting every tuesday and sunday for the past 8 weeks, but no more lol. I love our Branch Presidnet, he is such a common sense kind of guy and he gave Starszy Tanner and I a major compliment as we led in this last group of Newbies saying " Listen to these ELders, they're the best we have in the Branch. " Touched me deep. Well i'm going to see if mom wrote anything else critical. I love you all so much and am so excited to go to Poland. I love this work, i love learning about the Gospel and about POland and i pray for you often. Thank you so much for your letters, i love them so much so so soso ssos sosososososososososo much i can't properly describe (obviously :P). Look forward to talking to you on the phone, so excited!! Talk to you very soon! Love you with all my heart and soul, Starszy Rushton :) FLight PLans for the Poles ! -Lv: SLC 8:40 Am (9/1) - Ar. Wash D.C. 2:54 Pm (9/1) Those are delta air, these next two are Austrian Air - Lv. Washington DC 6:00 PM (lots of time to talk eh:) ) - Ar. Vienna, Austria 8:40 am (9/2) -Lv. Vienna Austria 10:15 am - Ar. WARSAW POLAND 11 30 am. : :) :) How crazy is that!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm way excited to see austria for just that time.

Jak sie macie? How are you all? It's been a great week here at the MTC

Czesc rodzina :)Jak sie macie? How are you all? It's been a great week here at the MTC. I've been staying productive the best i can, which is pretty easy when you have so much to work on. I will never take for granted ever again how many words i know in English. I can walk into a room and put a word to everything there in English- i dream of being able to do that in Polish lol. But the Polish is coming, this is for sure. I love it more and more everyday. I'm trying to broaden my vocab - once i know a word or a verb it's pretty easy to incorporate it into my speech. That's how i most effectively learn the lessons - instead of memorizing them as a script, i just memorize the verbs, and important vocab and than try to express it the best i can lol. As you can imagine it's a little rough sometimes, but yes, it works for me and i feel like i'm actually teaching as opposed to just spilling out memorized script :) Another batch of elders just left last night. Every group that leaves makes me feel like i've been here for ever and that my time to leave this training groud is soon approaching. It's pretty surreal thinking that i've been here as long as i have. To think i came in July 2 and now it's August 19th. Wowza! I think we'll be getting our flight plans this Friday! I am way excited to say the least :) Pretty soon i'll just be writing these from Poland. O my gosh my heart just skipped a couple beats thinking about it :P So in regards to everyone who came in to the MTC- it was so great to see THe Payne's, it was a lot like seeing family. Gave darrel a big hug and shook Patty's hand lol. Little mikey was looking not so little- that boy is growing up :) And than it was so great to see Tim. I've seen him a few times since and he seems to be doing great. He says he enjoys the atmosphere and the schedule, a lot like what i said. And than I saw Ryan the morning before he checked in and whatnot and it was amazing :) I was getting some fruite and was cream-cheesing my bagle when i heard a "Mike!!!" behind. And i just left my tray there, half cream-cheesed bagle and all, and ran over and gave me cousin a hug. It was like something out of a dream and i started to cry about unexpectedly cos it was so good to see such a familiar and loving face. So we ate breakfast together and i bore my testimony to him in POlish and we talked about some random things and it was just great :) But i didn't see Ryan since that morning which was a bummer. BUT than just yesterday Jimmy comes up to me and says, guess who i just saw walking into our building, ,and i was like, who?? And he says, Ryan!!! He lives on the first floor! So last night i went down and said hello to him and he seems like he's doing great. His entire room is on an English fast, so they're definitely delving right into it :) But he seems to be doing just great. I'll certainly be talkking to him more now. Jimmy leaves today i think. I just realized he said he leaves on Tuesday...which would be today lol. So i need to track him down before he heads out to Chicago. I'll miss that kid, it's been great being with him and being able to talk to him.

Life at the MTC marches onwards, ever onwards. And i can still say that i love it August 12, 2008

Hej czesc! Here goes the weekly report :) Life at the MTC marches onwards, ever onwards. And i can still say that i love it. THere were a couple times during the week where i was feeling like i wanted to just blow this popsicle stand and head to Poland (and it was always during a meal time or before a devotional or sometime i wasn't working). The second i start to work and start to learn more about the POlish language, people, culture or the Gospel, i feel beyond good. Polish continues to grow on me. It's a challenge, and that;'s part of the reason i love it. We taught our first lesson in POlish this last thursday and it was craziness ha. It was certainly trying, not to say anything at all in English. We made it through though, talking slowly but getting across our points. Starszy Tanner and I were both a little nervous- but i feel like i said mostly everything i wanted to say. THose all - polish situations are great because you find out what words you don't know perfectly and what words you really wish you knew. I forgot the verb "to translate" right as we got the the part where i wanted to bear testimony that Joseph Smith translated the BOM. So i had to say something like God helped Joseph smith read the brass plates and than write them in english on paper...it was kind of terrible but it worked lol. We had to teach to four people- three of them were fluent Polish speakers, and this one Elder who we "taught" went to mexico or somewhere on his mission - he said "Tak" a lot :P THe Zone is great. There were a couple problems during the week between district leaders and we had an opportunity to put our leadership skills to the test. It's also been a trial getting everyone to bed on time- not everyone feels it's important and even if they do - it's just hard to do. Elder Tanner and I have been doing our best to get everyone in bed by 10 30 - but it doesn't always work. One companionship experienced a problem where one elder was adamant about getting to bed exactly on time- the other wanted to write in his journal. At about 10 40 i came by and told the elder writing to go to bed, as i was doing so- his companion stuck his head out the door and said "your 10 minutes late!" pretty upset. I told him just to go to bed and i'd take care of it - he replied - "Fine, It's on your head now". Yah lol a was a little thrown off but it's just a difficult thing to deal with - we'll get better :) We leave in exactly 3 weeks from yesterday. How crazy is that!!!! Polska here i come :) The BUlgarians are the best- they think i'm they're big brother- a few of them swear i'm at least 25. Elder McKEe, this great kid says "when i grow up, i want to be Elder Rushton" :P :P :P They are too funny and just great to get be with - we have amazing games of soccer everyday, makes my heart beam with joy ha. I have to head out, and i'm out of time. But i love you all so much. I feel your support and cannot tell you how incredibly greatful i am for it. I've been reading grandpa's book - i'm about half way done- and i can jus see that i'm going to have some great experiences to write home about and i am so excited. I'm only in the MTC and i already feel like i have so much to write about- Elder Tanner is continually shocked at how much i write :P I just like to write ha. Ma, elder tanner says hello :) I love you all so much. Talk to you next week :) z milosc. Starszy Rushton

Moja (my) Droga (dear) Ciotka (aunt) & Wutek (Uncle): August 5, 2008 (letter to Matt and Rachel)

Kim & Mike,
We got a letter from Mike a few days ago; here it is, raw & unedited (sorry for any typos, I'm tired):
Moja (my) Droga (dear) Ciotka (aunt) & Wutek (Uncle):
Hej Czesc! What is up my awesome aunt and uncle? How goes life in beautiful Redondo Beach? I can only imagine how great you all are doing. Tell my little cousins hello and that I love them. I don't even want to think about how old they're going to look when I get back. Goodness.
Life here at the MTC is awesome. They feed us well, I get to play soccer almost everyday, my teachers are the best, and there's just a great spirit here.
Thank you so much for the letters. I appreciate them so much. Matt - I've been reading the Ksiega Mormona at least 15 minutes everyday out loud with my comp and it has for sure helped. I'm starting to catch little words here and there and it's just great practice for my mouth & brain to lock in those sounds. I love the Polish language though. It's pretty tough and there is so much to memorize and remember it gives me a minor panic attack just thinking about it (ha), but I just love learning it. It's pretty crazy about them not sending anymore North American missionaries to Russia, eh? I know most of the last district to go to Russia - we play soccer regularly lol. I'm glad there's no problems with the other Slavic countries for sure. I hope things change in russia very soon. Do you think it ever will?
Rachel, I went to the Health Center recently and the lady at the back desk (where you used to work) completely remembered you! It's pretty amazing. She had nothing but good things to say; she said you were one of those "memorable ones." Ha. I can't remember her name, but she was very sweet-looking, had brownish hair...I wish I had more to describe her. : She's super nice and definitely remembers you is the main point, ha. I'm so glad you loved Ender's Shadow - it is soooo good, eh? Ha, yes, you'll have to let me know how you like the rest of the Shadow books. you still have to read Speaker for the Dead. So good. Keep me posted on your book reading.
I just re-read your letter - swimming lessons sounds pretty hilarious ha ha. I can see the drama of having to jump from the side of the pool. It's hopefully become more fun for Natalie since you last wrote...lol but maybe not. It's funny how things like swimming lessons can be such scary things to children. Wasn't Rich afraid to swim in the ocean forever? Kind of random - lol.
Well, I pray you are all doing well. I always love hearing from you both, it's so great to know how you are doing/what you are doing. I love you all so much. Thank you for the support.
Your Polish nephew,
Starszy Michael Rushton

It has been a great and beautiful week at the MTC.

It has been a great and beautiful week at the MTC. Difficult per usual, but very enjoyable. Our district keep growing closer and closer. Seems kind of inevitable...spending 14 hours a day for 5 weeks with the same people. At least we don't want to hurt eachother yet eh? :P
So 20 new missionaries came in last week and they are phenomenal. So much excitement and passion for the work. Their's a group going to Las Vegas ( not elder Tanner's side of town though). The district leader is this Australian Elder who is funny as all get out. He shows intense respect for his zone leaders, but is so overly complimentary (in the most sincere way) it makes me laugh. One night as i come to make sure they're all in bed, he says to me "Now i don't want to scare you Elder Rushton, but do you know what the Mantle of the Priesthood is? Cos I can see it upon you. It's just amazing to see you and Elder Tanner and know your only 19." So great, so nice, gives me a whole (underlined) lot to live up to, so i'll be doing my best. :) THe New BUlgarians are great kids as well. They all love to play soccer which is great. All the Russian- speakers i've been playing with are leaving to Ukraine and the Baltics- it's sad to see them go, but these new guys are great. SO much fun to have and be around. The Foreign elders, from Elder Oviervliet (Oferfleet) from the Netherlands and elder Hanninenennenenennen (something like unto that (i can't say it very well)) from Finland. Finnish i've learned is in fact the Hardest language in the world, followed by Navajo, Japansese, Mandarin...another language i can't remember and then Polish. Ha. I think they are all about the same level of ridiculously hardness. I feel blessed to be learning the POlish though. It goes well with my brain, the letters and words seem to click pretty well- far more than Navajo, japanses or another asian language would, i feel confident of that. Every day i get more excited to head out to Poland and just try to talk to people. And tell them about the gospel and how it can bless their lives. We just learned that the people of Poland drink Beer like it's water- like beer isn't even alchohol. I can just imagine in it in their McDonald's soda dispensers. It'lll be hard for people to accept that they can't drink beer, but those who are ready to hear it wil llisten.

Czesc! Life in the MTC is marching on, dobra (good) per usual

Moja Droga Rodzina :)
Czesc! Life in the MTC is marching on, dobra (good) per usual. Just went to the temple again, i learn to love it more each time i go. It's very enjoyable for sure- the new branch of elders wanted to go with us at the 7:20 session, but they changed to slow and missed it, had to go to the 7 40. I felt bad for em, but it's only 20 minutes i guess.
I just got your dear elders from the 25th and on yesterday because of Pioneer day and such. I truly love your letters, they just give me energy to go on and focus hard so i can enjoy them at the end of the day. And ma, your gospel principle lessons are great to hear, don't even worry ha :):) You guys sound like your doing great, even with the bit of craziness going on down in southern california. I'm so glad to hear that Grandpa is doing better, makes me so happy. And hope he's not to phsychologically frazzled by the rolling car incident, i was on the edge of my seat reading that one ha. I hope grandma doesn't feel too bad, the Lord is obvsiously looking out for them, knowing she does her best. Wish them a happy anniversary for me. You sound like your doing great. I shared some of your mission experiences, dad, and scriptures you and ma always taught us in a sunday school meeting i taught last sunday. It went way good :) The new group of Elders, 8 elders and 4 sisters, are going to West Virg. and Indiana. They are great, the district leader is Elder Wright and he is this Boistrous hilarious kid. Twenty years old i think, and he looks older. But he says he thought elder Tanner and I were at least 21 when he first saw us. Ha but that's how it is in the MTC; when you first get here everyone seems to be so much older than you. I think it's because they feel so comfortable in a situation you have been anticipating your entire life...they just appear to be more wise and relaxed ha. I remember i completely felt that way.
So glad to hear RJ is feeling better. I was in shock when i read that and have been praying for him since i heard. I think it is a miracle that they found that ulcer...maybe it was meant to happen. I don't know, i can imagine he's in a lot of pain, but i know he'll be out in the field soon enough. Tell him i love him will you? CRAZY about Phil's mission call! ha so great though, he deareldered me and said he's pretty darn excited :) I'm stoked for him, when does he come in? Glad to hear your rockin the soccer spencer, that's my bro! I've been rockin it up here too...i;ve been playing almost everyday, hanging with the foreign elders haha.
Speaking of Foreign elders - the Bulgarians left this morning at 5:45. I;m going to miss them so much, they are so great and i know they are going to rock Bulgaria. So we get 10 new Bulgarian elders this wednesday and 10 other new elders going to LV, NV and Minnesota i think? But 2 of the Bulgaria-bound elders are foreign. One from finland and the other from the Netherlands. I hope they are of the athletic mind set so that we can play some "sickgnar" soccer. BUt we;re meeting them tonight after our fireside, so i'm pretty excited. It's going to be crazy with all these new elders running around, the Polish are officially going to be the Oldest...how strange! I feel like we jsut got here. But the elders who got here a week after we did, who i still call the newbies ha, are leaving today and tommorow. Maxey left yestderday morning. Crazy eh?!? But he's out in Spokane right now, preaching the gospel. So i'm happy :) I bought his converter (a very legit converter)and a POlish wood display of the Plan of Salvation (also legit) for 20 bucks...so there's one less thing i need to buy in Poland eh? It's great to see all these Elders who are so excited to get out there and serve, i can;'t wait to hit Poland!!!
To answer some questions - i do get your e-mails mother but i'm so pressed for time i can't really respond...i made some time before to actually write down the basic things i wanted to say so hopefully this letter is a little more organized. Maybe next week at 10:15-20 Utah time you can be on and we can e-mail back and forth a bit eh? THat would be great :) We usually go to the temple, eat and then come e-mail. I look forward to calling you all from the airport, i can't wait to hear your voice, just for a bit :) Regarding Elder Daly- don't even worry ma haha. I'm not worried at all, i hope i didn't make it seem like those elders were threatening- they weren't i think they just got a kick out of actually seeing the guy they;d heard so much about. I'm really not worried, i think we'll be best of friends, i hope haha. I like Spencer's take on it, good thinking Spence ;) O and spence i can't wait to listen all the bands your writing down, and i'm SO JEALOUS you saw Griffin HOuse even on TV. Goodness. lol. O i got dearelders from the cousins, tanner and nathan which was so nice. Tanner ended his 7 line letter, which i thoroughly enjoyed, saying - this would be longer if i didn't have to type it haha :P I love it. And nathan was pounding with personality, it was great to read!
Polish update- It is going great :) I let myself get discouraged sometimes cos it is so darn hard, but i honestly think i'm doing pretty good. I can remember so many words, i can talk pretty well. I can actually communicate at a basic level with my teachers. I was teaching Siostra Brown how to pray and we got into conversation well enough so she could ask "Why do we pray to God and not Mary?" And i tried to answer in Polish...ha i really didn't have a great answer in English so it was hard to say in Polish, but i've been doing more research ha. We got our new teacher this last week, Brat Ipson. And we set some pretty awesome goals...he's a great teacher. All of these teachers are just so good. They are inspiring, i think i'll probably want to teach at the MTC when i get home. IT just seems awesome.
I probably won't write you a 7 page epistle today- i can never get back to the cousins and friends when i do, but i'll write a decent length one for sure :) I love you , Dad mom spencer sarah and annie so much i can't even express it. I know this church is true and it love being hjere more than anything. Please keep keeping me posted. I love hearing from you, even when you have nothing to say, i don't even care. and Ma i really do love hearing your gospel lessons, they are great :) You all are so amazing. I love you so much :)

twoja Misjonarz,

Starszy Rushton :)

p.s. Tell jake i didnt' get his letter! BUt i'm writing him soon! Thanks so much :)

July 22, 2008

Droga Rodzina :)
Czesc wam! Life at the MTC continues to march on and it is going as well as ever. A few rough spots here and there, but i can honestly say I am happy to be a missionary and so happy to be here. I just got back from the temple (for the first time, it was closed like you heard from Bro. Matson haha), which was so great :) We went early, caught a 7:20 session. The provo temple truly is beautiful, i really enjoyed just being in there and enjoying the calm and beauty of it all- i still think the LA temple is my favie. And the morning just got better, because we ate in the temple cafeteria and i stuffed myself to the bursting point. Fed both spirtually and physically in the same building- this Church has got it down pretty good :P So i'll try to remember all the questions and answer real quick - i got my glasses fixed a couple days after they broke- my comp was so excited to take a drive out of the MTC into the "real world" that he was a driving force in making the appointment. But they fixed it for free- so nice of them :) The package was great! Love the food, it's going to be hard to eat it all, but everyone enjoys it. The brownies were great! a lttle soft in the center, but very enjoyable, thank you my little red headed sister. i loved the picture as well.
I was so scared at first reading through the letter about grandpa- i'm glad he's doing well, please keep me posted. I love hearing from you guys- from everyone. It never ceases to make me smile. Especially when i'm having a hard day it's just the best to get a letter and look forward to reading it in the comfort of the dorm. I love you guys so much- sometimes really wish i could call just to say hello and let you know how i love you. But MTC news coming now-
The Polish district is still running strong. We love the language- sometimes the elders have a serious lack of desire to work- it's kindof easy to get discouraged when your supposed to memorized the entire first lesson in Polish, the entire case chart and 20 vocabulary words every day on top of it all. It can be a major bummer sometimes when you think about it all- but i like to just step back and think how we've only been here 3 weeks....not even three weeks yet and i can already pray, testify that God lives and loves us, ask questions, read the Ksiega pretty darn good...don;t understand all that much :P, but i definitely feel like the Lord has been blessing me and the other missionaries in our work. The language will come as long as we continue to work. The more i learn about Poland the more excited i am to go. We hear all about the food, whicih despite popular belief seems to be DELECTABLE. I very excited for that. And the country just seems beautiful and the people so kind. I'm brimming with excitement. I'm so jealous of the Bulgarians- they;re leaving this next tuesday. The Elders we came in with, going to Billings Montana, left this morning. That was a shocker. I couldn't even believe it. They are such great guys and i really grew to like them. We're closer to the Bulgarians cos we live right by them, our class room is by their's, we eat every meal with them, have gym with them. It's great haha. BUlgarians are speaking pretty well- you can see the determination of certain elders and the fruits of their labors- Elder Duffield, the BUlgarian district leader, can really speak Bulgarian well. Well, he knows a lot of words at least. I want to be able to understand a good amount of Polish and say the basic things i need to before i leave- i feel like i'm on my way.
Random side note - I got a dear elder from Ryan and it was the best. I loved hearing from him, he's becoming a great writer and it just made me smile. Also the letter from Jolene a while ago was so funny, she said how she feels liek i'm telling about Hogwarts or the Wonka Factory- and in all actuality it is a pretty intense, different "magical" experience here. I though the comparison was pretty good :P It was so good to hear from Spencer too- i'll write more in the hard copy- k back to MTC.
Elder Maxey is no longer in our district- but he is at the MTC which is a great thing. We had had a pretty intense interview in which i felt that he had given up and really wanted to go home, but i talked with him for a while and told him how much he would be missing out and how much we wanted him to stay- so he has been switched to the Spokane WA mission with the new batch of missionaries that came in last week. It's always wierd seeing a new fresh batch come in cos you know that was you two or three weeks ago, though it feels like an eternity. It's so true what Dad says about the dichotemy of time and it's most apparent here- I can't believe i've already been here 3 weeks, yet the days go by very slow most times, yet again when the next Sunday comes you can barely believe it. It truly is great though. The structure here is set up for major success for anyone who will take it seriiously. You learn, you eat, you learn more, excercise, read scrips, write in journal and sleep. It can get really difficult and it;'s sometimes easy to get down. But i know I have the support of my family, friends and the Lord. And that' always keeps me going. I'm determined to learn this language and learn this gospel. I want to be like Abinadi. I've loved reading about him this week. How his simple, yet powerful and unwavering testimony , even in the face of a fiery death, would be the result of so many conversions. He touched one willing soul who than had a son who had friends who were all eventually willing to submit to the will of the Lord and convert more than i can imagine converting. I want to be like him- to have an uinmovable and powerful testimony.
My time is running low and you'll have to forgive my spelling and frazzled writing, this timer is stressful. I can't really reply to e-mails, so dearelder is probably best and i do a whole lot of letter writing on tuesdays so i'll do my best to catch up to everyone. Life is great here and the Lord's missionaries are ready and willing to work. So many amazing young men and women it makes me happy.
I love the letters from the family- from everyone they just make me explode with happiness. TO hear about everyone, keep me posted about Grandpa and tell him I love him so much and appreciate all his observations and letters and let him know i've been reading his book and loving it a lot. I can;t think of much else to say except thank you for the support and love. I love your insights and scritpures mother. They are so great :) they make me smile and think as i read them, wherever i may be. I love your words of encouragement dad, they mean so much. I love hearing anything (underlined) from you siblings! I love you guys and think about you so much. Keep praying for me- i need all the prayers i can get. Ja wiem kosciol jest prawdiwa.

z milosc,

Starxy Rushton

July 15. 2008

Czesc Rodzina! In one day it will have officially been the two week mark, which is crazy to think about. Part of me feels like i've been in here forever ha. But i'm still loving it and things are just as good- even better- then the last report. I'm going to try to remember all of your questions, i don't have too long and i'll for sure write you another hard letter today so if i don't hit everything, przepraszam. Week two has been a bit more intense then week one. Brat Fox and Siostra Brown are throwing language functions at us left and right. In a few weeks we're supposed to be able to teach the first lesson in Polish (my butt puckers a little every time i think about it) and so until then we have to work on memorizing all the words and verbs required to do so. So that's a lot of work. More about Polish to come. The district is growing closer and closer. We hit a couple rough patches through the week, but i feel we're closer then ever right now. We have a renewed intensity to study as much Polish as we can and we're working on memorizing at least 20 words a day. So i carry this little ring of cards with the polish word on one side and english on the other. The stress of it is finally setting in i believe - it is not easy to learn a foreign language in 9 weeks, but i truly believe (and am working as hard is i can so that) i will be able to have a good grasp on at least the basics. Elder Tanner and I are still doing great. We have awesome companionship prayers every night and morning and we work well together. Elder Maxey is so much better- no more trips to the sick bay. (we've been to the sick bay so much we know the receptionist and the nurse who works with her - Ellen is the receptionist. She gives us popscicles and suckers- it's great :P) But he may be moved to a different mission cos he's missed so much and what not- i tjhink he could totally stick it out, but it's not really in his hands anymore. The other elders are hilarious. Elder Hobbes (in greater detail for dad) - we call him Hobbesy- He plays violin and piano so that's good. Elder Beaty he's the youngest of his family and he is a really smart kid i really like him. Very nice overall and tries really hard. Ex. of personality - Siostra Brown was teaching us the first lesson (we were pretending to be investigatrs)and she asked us if we believe in prophets. Beaty says "I believe Mohammad was the last prophet." and she said " Well you are wrong" very blaitantly and after further verbal exchanges, elder Beaty pretty much looked like a goober and we constantly remind him of how Siostra Brown told him how it was. HE takes it well though. Elder Tanner is in the middle of 6 (not sure if he's third or fourth...) but he's a good kid. Very laid back and for the longest time he would say "that's so serious", with a negative connotation, about everything...i thought it was pretty funny considering we're doing the Lord's work....kindof serious i would say ha. Food is still great. Hobbesy and Tanner love the "Muffin Top" cereal. For 6 or 7 meals straight Hobbes would have Muffin Top with whatever else he was eating. I tried one bowl and it was good - Blueberry muffins in a bowl (looks like Cinnamon toast crunch} but i definitely couldn't eat a bowl for every meal, two days in a row. There's lots of studying and lots of eating- it feels like that's all we do sometimes, but it's all good- the eating is a good break from the studying and vice versa :P I've been ballin' it up every day for gym- cousin trevor would be proud of me. Some of these kids are pretty darn good, but i usually can hang with em. Soccer they don't allow us cleats, thus me playing more basketball and kind of becoming addicted to it. Polish- Brat Fox interviews us every week and mine was yesterday. He told me that my reading was great- he didn't notice one mispronunciation- and that i should be grateful to my Father in Heaven that i could remember so many words and recall them so quick. And i do feel very blessed- i love Polish, it sounds so rad and the letters and words just make sense in my brain. Just before our interview Brat Fox talked to us in Polish for about a half hour; we were talking about which Dental School he should go to and he was explaining everything in Polish, and of course i didn;'t understand much. But i was super determined to understand as much as i could. There was a whole lot of "jak sie mowi" (how do you say) and "co to snaczy?" (what does that mean?) going on ha. But i love it. Everyone in the district is doing great. They are catching on very well. I love it so much. I have a couple good stories that i'll write in the letter home.Elder Tanner and I are going to be called to be Zone Leaders this sunday which is craszy. The Bulgarians - who i love because they are so nice, so fun to be around and just interesting guys- are leaving so new ones will come in and yeah. It'll be a crazy experience but very good :) I look forward to leadership, even though it is often stressful and hard. I know it'll be a good opportunity for service.Time is running low- tell everyone - uncle rich, aunt jolene, Alo, grandpa, matt- everyone thank you for the letters i've recieved. It's been the best. I love letters so much! Even if it's a simple hi this is what's going on in my life. You don't know how much i appreciate your support and love. I feel it everyday and it keeps me going. Thanks ma and pa - spencer , sarah and annie for your letters and the cookies!!!!! They are the BEST! And the guys love them - Bulgarians love them especially :P I sat on my glasses so i'm going to see if i can get them repaired. I'll wrte about it in my letter. I love you all so much!! I can't even tell you. YOu are the best and you give me energy and strengty. Brat- means brother- Siostra - sister- Matka- Mother Father- Ojcem 0 gotta go! Love you Czesc!!!!

CZESC RODZINA!!!

CZESC RODZINA!!! There is so much to tell you about and not so much time here on the computer, but I plan on writing you a ginormous letter later today while i do my laundry and such, so no worries if you don't get all the scoop you hoped for :) Before i launch in, i want you to know how much i appreciate your letters. Every little word means so much to me. I think i've recieved the most mail so far and i can't tell you how much i appreciate it. I look through the mail and see those letters addressed to Elder Rushton and it just makes me so glad and happy. I know you may not always write so frequently, but please do let me know what's going on, i loved hearing from Spencer and Dad and Mom and i hope to hear from Sarah and Annie some more. Matt, Grandpa, Christine and Kellen all wrote me as well, which was so nice. OK sorry for the ramble- MTC EXPERIENCE begins now. I found out immediately after leaving you that Starzy Tanner would be my companioon and i was so glad to hear it. We started talking and have got along perfectly thus far. There are 8 missionaries in our District. Starzy Tanner and I have our own room, which is SHO sweet. The other three Elders, Starzys Hobbes, Beaty and Maxey, all share a room. And then we have three sisters who are so sweet and awesome- Siostras Harth (say it like heart, she's from Germany and this is her first time in the states! So crazy), Garder and Squires. The district rocks, we're really growing to like eachother - struggling through this language definitely makes it easy to bond. More on the Language in a sec. So, i'm district leader. Like dad was when he got to the MTC :) I just read his letter telling me that last night and it really touched me ( i wait to read all my letters til right before bed, I sometimes can't help the tears cos i love em so much and it makes me think of you guys, not in a homesick way, but just an "i really really love my family" way.) It's hard being responsible for my district and still keep up on all the studying i have to do. But it's rewarding for sure. They really emphasize leadership alot here and i'm trying my best to be a righteous one- it;s hard to balance being too hard, but still making sure their living up to their potential. They are honestly amazing missionaries, all of them, but some of them do struggle a bit sometimes. Like Starzy Maxey went to the hospital last night because of chest pains and headaches he was having, and his companions, bless them, went along willingly. They didn;'t get back til 2 last night, so the Zone leaders and I thought it was fine if they slept in an hour or two later. But - i get to check the mail because i'm district leader which is a good perk. After lunch and Dinner Starzy Tanner and I go check - he kinda loves it and so do i. Polish - Polish is so crazy. There are so many complexities to the vowel and consonant sounds, and basically every word i thought i knew in Polish i was saying totally wrong. I can say several basic phrases and i'm getting better at remembering vocabulary. I'm learning to pray and testify, and ask for referalls. On thursday we have to greet someone, testify and ask for referals in Polish, and then ask if we can teach them the first lesson in English. I'm not going to lie, i'm a little scared for that. But i think we'll rock it just fine. I really do feel like i'm progressing well. I;ve been reading out of the Ksiega (you say it Ka - Shayne - Ga) Mormona out loud with Tanner, like matt suggested, and it's been great. I can pronounce most every word and i LOVE IT. Polish seriously is the best. It's really hard and different...we have 6 different cases which means words like "who and what" can take on 6 different forms, and nouns change their ending and such; I'll explain it better when i understand it better :P. Food is great, waking up early is great. I do pushups and situps everynight and use this ghetto rubberband thing they provide to do a resistance work out. So that is good. I already feel and look more in shape then i did when i left. We excercise everyday and it's good. I'm running out of time so jsut some last stuff! My floor is great. I'm on the fourth floor. So i have to walk up four flights of stairs several times a day- but our floor is great. In our Zone we have the Bulgarians who have been here four weeks and wil lbe gone in another four or five- they are so nice and really made us feel at home when we got here. Their crazy goofy and such i'll write mroe in my letter...which probably won't be as ginormous as it would have had i not said so much here ha.My teachers are so amazing. Siostra Brown and Brat Fox. They have such powerful testimonies and you can feel it when they teach. I have learned so much about Poland and the language and the gospel- i'm so stoked to head out there.I'm going to wrap it up here, but i'll write more- i don't think i'll be able to check this again, so just dear elder me what other questions you have and i'll let you know ASAP! I love you all so much and can;'t even explain the experience i'm,having. It's the best and the spirit is so strong alll the time. I love it and i love you all more than anything. You're the best.much love,Starzy Rushton