The Rush, has left the big buildings :P

Dearest FAMILY! I'm writing to you from Warszawa for the last time in probably a good while! And it has been an amazing week to say the least :) It's been jam packed with Zone Conference, and TRANSFERS!!!!! SO here is the news....the second city for Elder Rushton.............is......................BYDGOSZCZ!!!!!! Haha i'm imagining you reading this outloud and getting to the climactic part and then not really knowing how to say that city's name lol. One would say it BID-GO-SH-CH. And I am so darn excited!!!! President called us Sunday evening and let E.McRae know that he would be going Zone Leader over the South Warsaw Zone (so he's living just where our Zone Leaders used to live, on Kabaty). And then he asked to talk to me, and told me I would be going to Bydgoszcz with Elder Dan Jones, as a Zone Leader. Which is pretty crazy stuff. Thus far in my mission Zone Leaders have been the people I've looked up to because their so wise and teach so well and speak Polish so well...and I don't really feel like I'm close to that level that my Zone Leaders are, but I know the Lord will qualify me, for sure. President told me he has complete faith in me and I know that It'll just be amazing. Part of being Zone Leader is the perk of going on exchanges with the District Leaders in the Zone- the cities in my zone are Gdansk (Elder Meachem is District LEader there now for the last two months of his mission!...and it's ridiculously beautiful there) Poznan, and Szczecin. It's the North-West zone, and I'm stoked out of my mind. Gooooooodness gracious :) I'm way excited to just be in Bydgoszcz cos I've heard just the greatest things about it- word on the street is that the Branch there is the most self functioning Branch in Poland (without Americans and whatnot). It's a small guy- not half as many people - only 360,000. Tiny compared to Warsaw. I'll know that city so well, makes me smile just thinking about it :) It's just an added privelege and responsibilty to be Zone Leader up there, and to tell you the truth, I think I'll learn more from all the District Leaders I'll be with than they'll learn from me. Maybe that's how the Lord Planned it eh :) My comp, E.Jones, was here in North Warsaw my first two months. He's a way nice guy, he was E.Daly's companion in the MTC lol. My excitement is uncontainable at this moment ha.It's been an amazing week, but a wierd one with the thoughts of leaving Warsaw on my mind. This place has been my home. I'm been here In Warsaw for so long, and I'm so comfortable with the Branch, the members there and I love em so much, leaving feels like leaving home again. That whole anticipation I had when I first got into Poland rises again into my stomach everytime I think about jumping on a train and heading to my new home. It'll be such an experience. I truly do feel so blessed, to have been here for as long as I was, and to go somewhere as amazing as Bydgoszcz. Mmmm just the sound of it...Bydgoszcz. One More time. Byd. Gosz. Cz baby. We've had a couple of amazing experiences this week that were great to have this last week here to say the least.First off we had this amazing lesson with this lady and her daughter. Jola and Natalia, respectively. I believe I talked about them last letter, but to recap, we had tried to get in touch with them so many times and after many mixed up phone numbers, conversations with Jola's mom, and a lot of phone tag, we finally talked with her and she was SO happy to meet with us. We finally made it out to her house and they truly were kind as could be. She has probably the nicest apartment I've seen yet in Poland, and she invited us in and we just talked. She brought out her Book of Mormon from when the missionaries had visited with her Four years ago and asked us about it and we talked about it. And about Joseph Smith. It wasn't the most formal lesson, but the Spirit was there and I knew right then that these people will be Baptized. I don't know how soon it will be, but It will happen. As we left, we set up a time to come back, which is tomorrow. She's making us soup :) She gave us these Capri Sons as we left (another sign that she is chosen, jk :P) and we just rejoiced as we left. Such a good feeling :)Tomek continues to progress; I truly do feel love for the man. He is so good hearted and wants to do the right thing...it's just hard to know when someone isn't going to be willing to do the truly hard thing and make the big changes...for Tomek that change is going to Church. I'm really glad E.McRae is going to be here to watch over these investigators. Gives my heart comfort.By far the craziest thing of the week was when we ran into Edyta this week. I'd talked about Edyta tons, earlier, but her time was completely consumed with taking care of her heavily drug and achohol addicted cousin. For the past two months, since right after new years, we had 1 phone conversation, where she told me the above info, and that was it. A week ago, she called out of the blue. She told us that she thinks about us all the time and that she really does want to meet, she just is so busy with her cousin and it's putting a heavy burden on her. We understood, and I told her that I probably was leaving Warsaw, and she said we would meet before I left. We told her we would call on the 10th and set up. It broke my heart that we had not met in so long, becaus Edyta is such a quality person. She is sympathetic, has so much love in her heart and truly wants to just be a decent person and it's impossible for me not to admire that. Sooo--story two begins.We're contacting down this street, and we stop this Older, heavy-set man dressed nicely, and started to talk to him. We told him that we wanted to give everyone the chance to read the Book of Mormon and that it was even for free, but we had to meet first. For some reason, the man truly wanted the Book of Mormon right at that moment. We said we'd give it to him after we met. The man started to get frustrated. I saw out of the corner of my eye, a woman standing there a few feet off. I turned my head and found that it was Edyta! Just waiting for us to finish the conversation. With each passing minute she came closer and eventually she was there, talking to the man with us. The man was getting SO frustrated that E.McRae would not give him the Book of Mormon for free, right than, and I was confused, cos the man was dressed nice and seemed like a very dignified character, but boy, was he just persistent. I felt like we should just give it to him, but E.McRae was worried we'd look like fools after persisting on meeting first. I was lost with what to do. Edyta pulled me aside and said "I think maybe, if you have one, we should give him one. I think he could use it." I agreed and went and gave him the Book of Mormon, the last one we had on ourselves, which we had been saving for a lady with whom we were meeting with that day. I let him know the situation and told him, that he really needs to read this book. He said he would, 100 percent. He told us how he had been poor as can be, not even any socks or shoes on his feed and that he doesn;t take anything free for granted. He told us with tears in his eyes. Edyta understood him really well and sympathized with the man and we consoled him and he eventually left. It was really so strange, and there's even more to the story but already this page is so long lol.Edyta talked to us more and said she had spotted us because of my Red hair and had come over to say hello. She texted us a couple times over the next couple of days, just reflecting on that experience and I texted her back, adn we communicated a little more that way. It was such a pleasure to see her and I hope E.McRae gets to meet with her some more- she will be baptized. The last visit at the Herman's was grand. They gave elder McRae and I both these really nice books about Poland and fed us Spaghetti and PIckle soup. Delish :) I do love them. I'll see them again, no doubt in my mind. I think Ola Herman wil lbe baptized very soon. :) We spent Saturday with Artur, taking him to Sports Saturday and then to a Baptizm. It was really good for him, just to get away from video game land and playing some sports. He loved it. It was really good for him. Irina came to church on Sunday and I told her I was probably leaving. She was quite sad and I was quite sad to say goodbye. She will remain active, i hope and pray. She's an amazing lady, she is. We met with another past investigator, Lukasz, the young cool kid. It went really well, McRae will teach him still too.Tonight, we're going to see Phantom of the Opera, in Polish at the Theatre here. And Tomek is going with us! ha how cool is that!?!?!? We bought tickets a few weeks ago and our whole district is going. So excited! I'll let you know how it is :) I hope i understand some things lol. We're working during the day to compensate for our Play at night. Very neat :)I've got to leave you all now. I love you so much and you all sound so amazing. I love this gospel and the work I am so blessed to be able to do. SPencer and Annie, I hope you have the best bIrthdays in the World. I can't believe how old you are. That is insane. I'll be thinking of you all day :) Can you all do me a way important favor? Send me your ultimate ultimate favorite scripture that just inspires you. To next week :) SO much love.Elder Michael Rushton :)