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

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

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

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

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

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

I did get Grandma/ the Lepori's package last night and it was HEAVENLY!

Hello Family of mine :) Your letters are the best. Case closed. I just eat em up like candy and I look forward to them so much I can't even tell you. I just hope you know and truly grasp how much you mean to me. I think about you all the time and as I was looking through the pictures mom sent me, I saw an old one of all 6 of us, when annie was just a baby strapped onto Dad's back and Sarah in his arms and Spencer and I were tiny and then I have a picture right in front of the MTC - both of them are in my scriptures and every morning I look at those pictures and they make me smile so big. I love you guys so much. And I love writing these letters in response to your amazing ones and hopefully give you a good idea of what is going on here as we preach in this crazy city :) Before i shoot into the updateage- I did get Grandma/the Lepori's package last night and it was HEAVENLY! Brownie, cookie mix, peanut butter, mac and cheese, candy and some contact solution, I am a happy missionary to say the least. MMM so good! I had peanut butter on my pancakes this morning- reminded me of Spencer and ma slappin that stuff on there, good memory :) Ma any thing you want to put in there is totally good. The cookie mix is a major good move lol. I appreciate it so much. Spence, so sweet about those CD's! Keep the list comin, I expect it to be crazy awesome and crazy long lol. And random request...but can you Spence give me the lyrics for Drops of Jupiter? I've been trying to remember them and it's driving me nutso!!! :P Ok....haha. Sarah, you are a trooper with the soccer games. That sounds like a tuffy, I'm super proud of you for even going that hard. That takes guts and I know you wouldnt give anything less. That is so unreal that John and Troy are leaving and that Phil and RJ wil lbe in the MTC. I'm so excited for them. It's the best. :) Snap they are going to LOVE IT!! So good to hear about RJ's fairwell. And John will do great :) And Troy, I never told him how darn excited I am for him and proud I am that he's representing the European continent with me. He wil be in the same hall that I was in the MTC. Troy my brother, if you get this, or see this just know we're a few small countires away and I will see you on the flip flop :) OK! I'm sitting here writing this in pretty grubby form lol. We just played soccer and ultimate frisbee at this beautiful field- HUGE trees everywhere and all sorts of different colors: reds, oranges, red-oranges, greens, yellows, all that fall beauty. And the weather was just superb. Blue sky. I loved it so much. (and our team dominated....) It was just what I needed though- it's great to go run your brains out after a week of not so much physical exertion. We work out everymorning and even ran on friday...but it's not the same as the beautiful game of Piłka Nozna (soccer lol). And here I am in my dirty, sweaty glory lol. (i've dried off no worries). This week has been a good one for sure. There was one day where I was feeling pretty down, for no good reason, we just walked for like 4 hours and no one at all wanted to talk with us :( But other then that, we worked diligently and it always goes smoothly and quickly when you're doing that. Just like Grandpa said, just like Pop said. Spence, rule of thumb, even if Dad seems like he's being too protective, whatever, he's right. I know this for sure now lol. One tuesday we had to clean out this apartment that President decided to close (I think he's going to open up a new area and won't need that apartment or something). So Elder Gardner, Meacham, Henrie and I all went over there right after study and started to clean that junk yard. Dad would have lost it. :P Just so much old useless junk left by missionary after missionary after missionary. Old ties that you would have to pay me to wear, dirty crusty towels, Liahona's from 1998 (i don't even know how they got there) ajd other random junkola. It was good though- we got down to business and cleaned away. It was sweet talking to Meach and Garder. I love em a lot- just super cool guys who are there for you when you need em. We had to go there two days in a row for a couple hours each to get it all cleaned out, but I was happy with how it looked by the end of it. We ate at an awesome milk bar (which isn't a flat rate ma lol sorry forgot to asnwer that one, you just pay for which things you want, it's just cheap and declicious) and I was a happy camper. We've been meeting with a less active member, Leszek, and a recent convert, Dorota (who I think I've told you about) and we met with both of them this week, which was good. Leszek has a thing about being late to church . If he's 15 or 10 minutes late, he has to leave after sacrament meeting cos he thinks everyone's judging him and such, which isn't true. But it's hard to convice him of that. We had a good meeting, in which I was really struggling to understand everything cos he talks really lazy Polish...his words all slurred together and I was just really tired, so that was a bit frustrating, but it was good. Our lessons with Dorota are always awesome cos she's always calm and understands everything I say and even if I don't know the word, she knows enough English to help me find one that works. She really is rad and this is the last month we get to teach her, cos she'll have been a member for a year, which is just crazy and so awesome. While on the language subject- it's certainly coming. I can keep a decent conversation going as long as we don't get really deep into a subject other then religion lol. The verbs are just way tough to get a grip on, but I'm getting there. I don't feel like I'm behind, so i'm not necessarily worried. I have 4 scriptures completely memorized, I have to do 5 more by the end of the month! That'll be a challenge, but I can do it. lol. Some Poles talk crazy fast and use words I feel I'll never understand, while some poles speak slower and have a clear accent and I understand almost every little thing they say. Our investigator, Edyta who is unreal ( i think I accidentaly called her Edeta before ), talks in a very calm and clear way and I understand 95 % of what she says and it's so great! Cos I can add feed back and share my experiences and feelings and help teach. It's a major bummer for me where I don't understand the conversation enough and have to just sit back and watch Henrie teach, so that's a major driving factor for me to learn quicker. Edyta though really is superb. We had such a good lesson where she talked about some things in her life that were pretty personal, just things having to do with family and such and we talked for a good hour and it was just a great meeting. She really enjoys the gospel and I know she feels the Spirit of calmness and joy when she meets with us. She's such a pleasant person on the whole, it's so easy to talk with her- she laughs and is open to everything we say and just truly contemplates it and I love teaching her for that reason. Just something I've been thinking a lot about this week is how we don't need to convert the whole city of Warsaw or Poland, just those that are ready to here the gospel and who are ready to live this gospel and be happy. That one tough day was so tough because no one wanted to listen. The favorite Polish phrase when we try to stop them is "nie mam czasu!" I don't have time! And it's so frustrating because it would take two seconds to hear the glory and power of this message of joy! But the fact is that the Lord will help us find the elect and he will help the elect find us. I feel like the Lord answered my prayer and gave me hoep and strength as I read the scriptures this morning. I want to say it was Ch. 27 in Alma where Ammon rejoices and boasts in his Lord. He says so many amazing things there that just lifted my spirits through the roof, but one thing that he said was that he wanted to go among the Lamanites that he might find joy in bringing "some" unto the knowledge of their God. And I realize how the Lord has already blessed Elder Henrie and I with Irina and Edyta and we even have a few other investigators who could be promising. But we have these people who are really interested and we will find joy in bringing them into the fold of God as well as whoever else is willing to listen. I hope that all made sense :) I just know the Lord is happy with us and will help us as long as we work hard and are obedient remember what we are preaching. I just rememberd this, but I was touched by President SMith's words pop, that is too nice of him to say that about me. I'll do my best to live up to it, not necessarily to be a leader, but an example and to work my hardest and if leadership is in there, i'll gladly try my best. The rest of the week was mixed with whiteboards and contacting as well as some legal work. Legal work is pretty crazy here in Warsaw, but it's going pretty smoothly. I should be all legal and all is looking good in that sense. The office Elders are awesome, they work it all way well. Elder Gonzalves, one of the Office Elders, is my Grandfather...the Elder who trained Elder Henrie ( my father on the mission lol) . He was also the first person to take me on the Rynek to contact my very first Poles lol. So that all is going well. This e-mail may not be as stellar as the last one lol but I'm trying. O this Sunday was great :) I was in Primary again playing for the little children and I loved it. There are more American kids then Polish kids there, because the Americans parents work at the embassy or have other work her. They split off at the beginning and I was with the English Kids first half and Polish kids second half. Primary is a trip and i respect all who endure it lol, cos it can be brutal. The Polish children are hilarious and I love em. There were only 2 little boys there on Sunday and one of them is named Adam. He's 5 years old and smart as a whip. They were learning I am A Child of God and the kid would rephrase that song in every way humanly possible and it was hilarious :) Well family, I have to go sadly. I just can't tell you enough how much I love you and I much strength you give me. I think about you often, what you're doing, what you're up to, everything and I love hearing from you and I just love you. Ma i'm so glad your feeling better :) I love you! Spence, i'm sending my card home today or tommoorow so hopefully it'll be there in a week :) Hope you enjoy :) Talk to you in a week :) thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts. Suck the marrow out of life :)- your son and brother, Starszy Michael Rushton

Elder Harvey and his Whiteboard Art--

...as I sat in Conference I had this feeling overwhelm me like nothing I have ever experienced in my life..

Hey there Fam!!!! Goodness it's so good to communicate with you all. Always is every, week I look forward to it and when I read your letters I simply wish they would never end. I love everysingle word so much and I feel your love and prayers everyday I'm out here, and I truly mean it. When I have a bad day or even moment I think about you and you just make me smile, and you don't even know it. That's a pretty amazing power. :) Before I shoot into the answering of questions and such - SPENCER YOU ANIMAL!!!! AHHH!!!!!H!H!H!IHOIUGH!OH!OH!H!! Goodness that is TOO DARN COOL! Jestes najfajnieszy rockstarem zawsze!!!!!! (You are the greatest rockstar ever!) O goodness kid when I read your letter (first as requested) I just flipped. I am so happy for you and so glad you had that experience. There is really nothing quite like being up on that stage showing off our own creations and the fruits of your own hard work and I'm just so stoked - you even used my dance moves! I can see Phillip flipping out (who i will write back today and I love him) Goodness I love it, just the mental picture of it all gives me the wiggilies. 500 bucks. Snap kid :) So darn cool. It's a good feeling to do it all, the football and the rockstarness eh? So rad kid, you always make me proud, this is simply a moment of uber proudness and happiness for you :) How cool is that? Jeez, ok. That is so amazing that Karrie had her babies. I'm so happy to know that and can't wait to see them. They'll be considerably bigger when I actually see them, but I'm just way excited for when that day comes :) And I love that the Rushtons use my letter for FHE. I'll try to maintain the FHE material lol I didn't know it was FHE material to begin with, that's a major compliment. I got a letter from Kels last week and it was super duper nice, i appreciated it a lot :) Spencer you pronounce Henrie like Henry, just like a boys name. lol. He's from Arkansas. I know, I forgot Arkansas was a state too...:P Pop the Wistula is the River right to the right of our aparment. TO the left of the River is Centrum and all the mainpart of the city. Praga is to the left and is not as urban, but more old fashioned. THere's a beautiful park there though that we contacted through, so gorgeous. I forgot I was in a huge city. The river is kinda just there as far as I know. Point of reference. And i need to check on the Warsaw Ghettos. I know my street is one of the streets that was never destroyed and played some role in the uprising. On the safety topic, I always feel safe, there were a few times when i first got here I was a little skeptic, but I feel way good now and always do. It's a thousand times safer then chicago, lol this is for sure. ANd the Nigerians were totally harmless and we really are all good. We're safe and I'm pretty paranoid about going into unsafe situations and such so I'm pretty good about making sure all is safe and good. And my coat is way good. THe concern is most definitely warmth, not wetness. It rains off and on all the time, but the umbrella does a great job of keeping me dry and my coat doesn't soak right through or anything, it's way solid. :) Elder Tanner is in Sosnowiec and I have not heard one thing about him. I'm dying to though lol I will for sure in the next month :) OK, the weekly update!!! It's been quite a different week this week for quite a few reasons so I may not have quite as much to say, but I'll do my best. Who am I kidding, I'll find things to say, I always write way too much :P Elder Henrie caught a pretty bad cold/flu thing this week which forced us to stay in pretty regularly for the majority of the week. I wanted to die lol. It's not fun being inside all the time, but at the sime time it was a good week for adjustment for quite a few things. I can cook like a madman now. I made all our meals this week - that crazy rice soup stuff, kasza manna (cream of wheat stuff), pancakes, crepes, tuna melts, pasta with kielbasa, the works baby. YOu can call me Chef Boy-ar-dee or however you spell my name. lol. That was good and I got to clean a lot. Our aparment can fall into dirtiness pretty easily considering we;re barely there and when we are there, we're studying diligently, eating or sleeping. So it was good to do a solid cleaning of the whole thing. Pop you trained me well. :) ( Elder Gardner wants you to know he loves you all. And so does Elder Meacham. Lots of love, from my awesome zone leaders). So that was a bit of a trial though. It's been so easy being out there and working everyday, and being inside you feel unproductive an such. But Elder Henrie needed to heal and so I made the most of it. I studied a lot, got a lot of my Trainee checklist done ( every trainee has to do it in their first two months ) and it gave me a lot of chances to serve and help Elder Henrie, which i needed. It's sometimes tough getting a long perfect all the time, just being around someone 24/7 isn't easy, and being able to serve them makes it a 1000 times easier. We had a few whiteboards sporadically throughout the week , which I was super greatful for. It was so nice to just get outside and work a bit. Sometimes we have to get creative one our whiteboards cos not everyone wants to stop and talk to random peple with a whiteboard, but if the questions is interesting, they're all over it. So one question was who would win in a fight, Batman, Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, Voldemort, Jack Sparrow or Moses? And Elder Harvey drew pictures for them all (I laughed so hard I was crying when he tried to draw chuck norris...it was like chuck norris from mexico after living of Krispy Kreme). But people stopped and it was good. I think I would have been 100% against that question the first day in here, but you learn to realize that you have to try different things and you'll find different peopl. Another question we asked was "What kind of music do you listen to?" And that one was a winner big time. I was on fire that day to, stopping everyone and just smiling and talking to anyone who would stop. I truly do love just talking to people especially about the gospel and even though I have a lot to learn, the Polish is coming and I can say most gospel centered things pretty proficiently. Still have so much to learn though. ON that day though, the elders we whiteboarded with, Garling and Bishop (both very old in the mission) came ot our house for lunch break. Elder Garling said I was doing good cos I wasn't afraid and was willing to talk to whoever. He said I was already a good missionary and that got me burning to be even better. You see a lot of missionaries kind of sputter out a lit bit and it's way easy to. It's easy to talk to every third person or only the nice looking ones or only the pretty girls. And you do have to discern to a point, but you just got to try to talk to as many as you can. I don't know, at least that's how I understand it right now. :) So it's been a good week though, despite being inside a whole lot. Conference made any sadness 100 percent better though. O sweet mercy!!! Conference is on a way different time schedule lol. We watched saturday morning on saturday night at 6, Priesthood at 11 Am sunday and Saturday afternoon at 2. Sunday morning was at 6 and Sunday night was at Midnight lol, we didn't get to see that one. But every session was just amazing. I was riveted like never before and it was just an experience I've never quite had. Every talk had such a strong and powerful spirit to it and there was so much to be grasped from the words of all these inspired people, so obviously form the apostles and Prophet. I loved having Irina there for the Saturday morning and Sunday morning sessions. After we had taught her about prophets and modern revelation she has the chance to see it happening right there. In abundance. And i could tell that she really enjoyed it. We taught her about tithing Sunday evening before the session and she is a single mother of 1 son and isn't exactly in finacial soundness, but she listened and had concerns, but said she would pray about and think about it. And I felt the concern of her heart and knew how tough it seemed, but as I sat in conference I had this feeling overwhelm me, like nothing i have ever experienced in my life, that this is the way to happiness and though there are things that may be tough, you do them because you trust the Lord and know he will provide. He asks us to do these things so he can bless us 10 fold anything we would have recieved otherwise and I just know this church is true. It's true, as I preach to these people and see what they have and what they lack I realize exactly how much this Church means to me. How blessed I've been to be raised in truth and righteousness and I am eternally thankful for that. Dad, I can see how you studied those conference talks so diligently. I ate them up like the sweetest polish pastery. They just offer so much, and there is so much to learn. This conference was the first time I just soaked up every single word spoken. Yesterday I watched 6 hours of conference lol. THat is a lot of conference, but when it's the words of the Lord and when you're so desperately desiring these people around you to know what you know, there is never enough conference. :) Hopefully that all made sense and I explained it ok. With Irina we do have a lot of work to do, but I feel confident that all will be well. I know the Lord will help her as long as she's willing to listen. WE're meeting with her at Presidents house on friday :) Neat eh? Well Fam, i've got to wrap this up but I just want to say how much I love you all. Ok I have to go now, i love you all again so much. Talk to you in a week, look forward to it already :)- Starszy Michael Rushton :) :)