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. :)>