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