It's Christmas time...in the city:)

Dearest Family, How on Earth are you :)
I can't believe it's Christmas time already. Almost 6 months ago I was sitting with you in small and very comfortable Murrieta...and now I've almost been in this country for 4 months. It's unreal!! Time truly does fly by and I couldn't be happier being where I am right now. I miss you, family, so darn much. Every day I think of another awesome Christmas memory or I think about what my little siblings are up to. It makes me smile to think how well you all are doing and how happy you all are. :)
Spencer- solid job on the grades kid- holy snap :) Rockin. I can't imagine what it's like to worry about grades again. :/ Have fun at your soccer tournament little brother. I love you kid. I am so excited just to hear your voice. Sarah! You sound like you had the greatest time at your party and that all is well. Love you little sister so much. Can't wait to speak! Annie, I love you oodles! And i know all is well, can't wait to hear from you too :)
I got your other parcel ma- thank you so much! I didn't open up any of the presents yet, but we will on Thursday morning. I look forward to them :) Sorry I opened the first one lol. I couldn't resist! I haven't gotten Grandma Dianes, but I could get it tonight- the office Elders are bringing them to the Chapel, whereI will be.
The weather here is wicked cold lately. But no snow!! Grandpa told me it snowed in Vegas...but it won't snow here! lol. It poured rain today for a lot of the morning, but it died down as we played Capture the Flag. I was muddy as could be :P
I am so excited for this Christmas week :) Last week, we achieved the District Standard of Excellence. Our district had 1 person baptized, 2 people with baptismal dates and then several other solid numbers that I don't know off the top of my head...but we got it! It was great :) We have been working consistently hard for the past month almost and recieved all the numbers necessary for the Standard...and with the Zone Leader's investigator, Artur, it was completed. We went to his baptism last night and it was amazing. He was so confident and ready for it, i was amazed. It was my third baptism in Poland and the man was just commited. He was smiling and so happy before the meeting started, and only continued to show his excitement. He is as normal as could be (cos sometimes there are not so normal investigators...) and as he got in the baptismal water, he took some of it and threw it in his own face and hair, to get used to the water. Ha it was hilarious :P Then Elder Fuller baptized him, and it was amazing. :) That night, Elder McRae and I did family night with a very strong member who is divorced from his wife, and has two children. He only can be with them on Sunday- they go to Church, and on this day the baptism as well, and then we had family night. After a turn of events, I had a guitar there at the church, and the man, before we had started, asked me to play for his sons so they could "be infected" with the desire to play music. I played "When I Baptized" and sang it in English, and then we all sang it in Polish. We stayed and helped with the rest of Family Night and I was pleased to have helped- he was so gracious and grateful that we had helped. His sons names are Mateusz and Moroni. True story. This man really loves the gospel and it was obvious as he so earnestly desired his children to have it's goodness in their lives. It taught me something to say the least.
This week, we hope to reach the Companionship Standard of Excellence. It'll be hard for sure, but I know we can do it, with a lot of praying and hard work and dilligence. I feel like Elder McRae and I are really getting good and making goals and following through with them. I truly feel like we're being effective tools for the Lord and I am so thankful for that. We had 9 sit down meetings this last week and one with a member present. It's not 15, but we're making our way there.
Real quick concerning my compy Elder Jacob Rey McRae -I learn something everyday that i'd like to become better at. He is so diligent and working and truly wants to do the most effective thing. He reminds me a lot of you Dad in that sense- thinking of the best plan, being super prompt etc. I definitely need to take advantage of the time I have with him to learn these things. We get along better than I though possible- we both love to cook delicious food ALL the time! Today we made biscuits and gravy. Delcious as could be :P We're making Cinnamon rolls on Christmas day :) Can you send me our recipe for Coffee Cake ma? And other delicious recipes you have? lol.
Ok a little more about Christmas time - I'll talk to you all on thursday, so for now I'll just give you all the random things for an update. Christmas time is a big deal here to say the least. As it gets closer and closer, people are putting up Christmas Trees EVERYWHERE. Right in the Church Parking lot, there's just a big Christmas tree. Huge! It's kind of funny, but I love it :) There's lights up everywhere and no one really wants to meet until "po swietach" (after the holidays!). Here, they believe in Santa Clause, but his name is Mikolajki (nicholas in Polish) and he looks exactly like our Santa ha. The biggest celebration though doesn't happen on Christmas Day, but Rather on Christmas Eve. I have no idea why. But they party it up Christmas Eve way more than Christmas day- and the tradional food for Christmas is Carp. Yes, CARP. Their like the bottom-feeder lame fish of the world and here, they it eat it up. I had heard before that people buy them live and then just keep them in their bathtub until Christmas... but i was skeptical, until this morning. At Carrefoure (where we shop) there was a mini-pool thing, and it was filled with water and CARP swimming everywhere! So crazy ha. So they eat carp on Christmas day. I don't know if I'll be eating any, but well find out won't we? We've been invited to a little party on New Years Eve (Wegilija) at the Nobozny's (Richard and Asia) and earlier that day we'll be delivering packages of goods to those that do not have much this Christmas. That night we have to clean out an old apartment and then we're eating a grand ol dinner- and going to a midnight catholic mass for "culutural purposes". It'll be a good Christmas Eve :) And Christmas is pretty open- no one at all will be out on the street during Christmas and we're actually not allowed to work that day. We were invited to an investigators house...but he lives 4 hours away, so that couldn;t work out - but there's a party at the 1st Chapel with all the missionaries starting at 2. It should be fun :) It'll be so good to be able to talk to you. I'll tell you the time and number at the end here so you can call! WOOO!!!!! O goodness I look forward to that. :) It'll be a good Christmas away from home. I do miss you all very much, but I know I'm here doing what the Lord wants me to do and I am grateful for the bit of time I have to give it my best and try to become a pro at this missionary thing :)
Our investigators are doing very well :) Irina will get baptized next Sunday on account of the fact that no Polish people would be there on the 23...because that is the day the cook from the moment they rise til they go to bed that night. Yes ha. So next Sunday. She was supposed to go to Church yesterday and then to this baptism, but couldn't cos her new dog broke his foot or some part of his leg. And she had to take him to a vet and it was terrible. Elder McRae was cursing that dog up and down the wall :P Not literally...you know lol. We have a new man- Jacek- who is very promising. He says he believes the Book of Mormon is true and essentially already believes all we do, except he prayed to Jesus instead of God. At the end of our first lesson, he prayed to God. We think we're going to try to give him a baptismal date :) Edyta is doing good. We're fasting for her today- we taught about tithing and the law of the fast and she said that she would fast with us today as to help her stop smoking. I have faith that it she will become baptized. She does know that it's true. She just needs a little leap of faith. Our other new investigator is named Lukasz. And he's the man! Young guy, but really cool and speaks English. He';s the one who invited us to his house.
Ok, i've written tons I feel like and I hope your not bored yet. Dad to answer your question, I played quite a few Christmas carols and then hymns from the hymn book for everyone and then I played that arrangement I made up for "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and sang it with Elder Gonzalves. I play Piano all the time everywhere. For the baptism I played the Piano. Everywhere lol. I love it. I can sight read oodles better. But i still mess up here and there :P I've had at least 3 members ask me to teach them Piano and Irina wants me to teach her Guitar. We're actually trying to give one of Brat Herman's old guitars to Irina's son to try to get him hooked on that instead of video games. It could definitely work :)
All is well here in the European front (I live in Europe> how wierd is that lol?) And i can't wait to talk to you. All is so good here. I feel like I never tell you enough, but my e-mails are always novelish, and I do need to wrap it up. I love you all so much.Life is good. The Gospel is true and I know we can always do something to become closer to God. I feel so blessed to have the Gospel in my life, but still know I have so much more to learn and realize for myself. But i do realize this- that Christ was born and died so that we could be clean from our sins- he suffered so that we could be happy and eventually perfect. Our Father in Heaven loves us so much and has given us this Gospel so we can be as happy as possible. That is His plan in a nut shell and I love telling people about it. I can't wait to talk to you all. :)
CALL AT 5:45 P.M. POLAND TIME. My Zone Leaders and Elder Antczak tell me that should work for sure. You can try a little Earlier just to make sure lol. If it doesn't work - you can call President Engbjerg or something. But it should most definitely work. :) So excited!!! Woo :) The call should be right around an hour long...not crazy long, but we'll make it good :) Merry Christmas Family and Friends who read through my long long letters. I love you all and miss you tons- even if I haven' had the time to write you back - I will :) Wesolych Swiat!

Starszy Michael Joseph Rushton Jr.