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