Train tracks and the quick return

Rodzina Moja Droga, I was just thinking the other day, I bet when I get home, if I put all my letters into normal book size pages, I would have a couple novels that will rival the 4th Harry Potter in size. Take that JK :P
Fam, i loved your letters today so much. You all sound like your doing so well. It's a cloudy day today in Bydgoszcz- been a bit rainy and even a tad snowy this morning still, but Spring is on the verge of conquering this drawn-out winter season. I've never had to deal with Seasons quite like this- I so look forward to the spring and summer, missionaries talk about it with such fondness, I swear it must be the greatest place on this entire Earth. We'll see ha. I can't believe you got contacts Annie! That's so impressive you can handle that responsibility lol, I can imagine you look so beautiful with those long eye lashes or yours :) Spence, thanks for the Letter brother :) I love you kid- keep that media list up, PLEASE! These bands sound so amazing. Send me a recording of that new song asap eh? Sarah, mom tells me that your loving the new soccer team. So good to hear :) I can only imagine how busy you are with everything, going hard with school and soccer and being awesome, I imagine it wares on a person after awhile ;) > I loved reading that e-mail from Jimmy. Goodness I love that kid. He sounds like he's doing so good. That'll be so fun, training. What a lucky kid, whoever gets to get trained by my Jewish brother lol. Before I shoot into the the bulk of it- that is so great that Gram got the package back! AMAZING! So good to hear, I felt so bad, but now so good lol. I do have some conference talks, but I would love some more. Especially from this conference coming up- It looks like I'll get to watch one session, and I;m not sure what session that will be. I'm really excited for it though :) And for birthday, I would really love just some money....that sounds probably lame, but I would really like to purchase a couple things. So some money would be wonderful :) I got your package Mom and it was AMAZING. That was an ideal package, for sure. The cereal was a magnificent surprise, didn't even see that one coming lol one bit. O! It would be really rad if you could send some CD's of my band. I would love that. A couple people out here would love to hear some of it. Yup, that's about it :) Mom and Pop I love your letters so much. Every week they give me such a boost, and give me such hope and advice and everything- I don't know if you aim for that, but they make me feel so connected to you, my family who i love so darn much. So, since I started writing this and to this point, it is snowing blizzard status. I'm glad I'm inside. This week has been one crazy one, I will tell you. In the first 6 months of my Poland experience, I spent a total of 6 hours on a train. Just in this last week and by the end of next week, I will have been on a train for 24 hours. An entire days worth of time on a train. Nutso eh? So Thursday was the day of Zone Leader Training in Warsaw and we had to leave Wednesday late afternoonish- it takes 4 hours to get from Bydgoszcz to Warsaw. On wednesday, we had district meeting, and then we met an investigator at McDonalds (his name is Maciej, cool guy, but now crazy interested). Zaneta, the member who I talked a lot about last letter, works at this same McDonalds. We grabbed a couple of letters from her, because we told her we were going to Warsaw and she prepared some letters for us to give to Elder Whipple and Thomas and Edmunds, the elders who taught her. WE then RAN, full on SPRINT to our home, grabbed everything we needed for out night in Warsaw, and then SPRINTED to the bus stop and jumped ont the bus that would take us to the Train Station. We really didn't anticipate that we would have so little time...and thus the running. By the time we made it to the Train Station, we had negative 40 seconds to catch our Train. We SPRINTED to what looked like a good platform (we'd never ridden the train in Bydgoszcz lol) and saw a train there. We asked the conductor man who was about to get on the train, "Does this go to Warsaw?" "Yes it does." "SCORE!" We jumped on and it took off. Miracle lol. > Four hours is a long time. But for some reason time flies on a train, we chatted, listened to music (thanks to my iHOME thing) and enjoyed the ride. That night I got to stay with Elder McRae and his new comp. Elder Lehnig. Who is German and ridiculously hilarious and cool. He doesn't speak amazingly good English, but he is the man. > The next day Training was really enlightning. A lot can go into training a Zone. We were really informed on how this ZL thing is supposed to be done, and there's a lot that can go into it. IT's a fine balance between being "the man" and not taking any control at all. I'm still trying to find the right balance. We learned tons, about finances, all sorts of "how to lead" guidelines that were very enlightning, but bottom line was that it was our job to motivate our Zones the best we could. They even used the phrase that we were Mission President's of our Zone. Way intense stuff. I've certainly been racking my brain, thinking of ways to be a more effective and a better example to my Zone. I liked something that you said Ma, about trying to be a better person for the next 7 days after you take the Sacrament. I feel like it's a slow process but as I set those small, but important goals, Ill become who I want and who the Lord wants me to be. > President took us out to eat at the reseraunt at the bottom of the Marriot hotel. I sat next to E.Antczak and there was a huge screen with Professional Soccer on it. My cheeseburger had guacamole on it. Such an amazing meal lol. President is one generous man, I'll tell you. He's so ready to build you up and he's so genuine about it too, really amazing. I rode four hours back that night with Elder Meacham, who was going back to Gdansk. He's a former AP and pres wanted him there. We had a good ol ride :) > Saturday, after we tried to plan and traveled a little way to set up with an investigator, we got on another Train to Warsaw for our District Conference. The conference was amazing. So many members in one building, it truly was powerful to behold. Almost every member in there had converted and changed their lives to be a member of the Church. I saw Irina there and we had an amazing talk, that was priceless for me. She looks like she's doing so good :) I also saw Tomek on Friday night walking to the chapel in Warsaw. He went to the District Conference Saturday night Session. That was a real treat for me too- I love that man, he looked like he was doing so well. I said, President will let me come down when you get baptized. He said he'd look forward to seeing me there. I know he'll get baptized sooner than later. > Sister Banks, the member with whom I worked in Primary down in South Central also was there. Her Husband was the District President and he got released, because their family is leaving to go home soon. Sis. Banks came up to me and thanked me, with tears in her eyes for how much E.McRae and I had done for their family. Primary and such is not the same in Poland as it is in the States, and she was just really grateful. Said if we didn't do another thing in our mission, it would suffice that we had changed their life. They are truly amazing people. I felt so honored and grateful to hear those words. > President Ford of the Area 70 and his wife spoke- also very powerful. He had an amazing spirit to him.> I saw Brat Herman as well and he is doing so well. It really was just a blessing to see all these people who have been sucha big part of my Mission, my life out here in one place. Even though I've only been gone for a week, it felt like a long time reunion. Kinda funny eh :) > That has mostly been the highlights of the week. It's just been so different and we haven't had the greatest amount of time to just get out there and Work- I look forward to things calming down a bit so that we can get back on a normal schedule. > In terms of my Zone- my Zone is the shizzle. Everyone here truly are amazing. There is so much potential from all these cities and I love having the chance to talk to all the district leaders at night and hear all the good things that are happening. No one from my Group (MTC) is in my Zone lol. Not one. Someday I'll serve around em. Cities in my zone - SZCZECIN - a little border town in the north west, next to Germany. They have some beaches up there - it's not particularly beautiful I hear, but it's one of the newest cities. Opened right when I got here. POZNAN - I don't know much about it, but I hear it is amazingly pretty. GDANSK - is the city most north. It is on the beach and is the gem of Poland. People go there to vacation. It's called the trzymiast- tri city, cos there are two other big cities right by it- missionaries are in them all. One of them, Sopot, is supposedly like a Cali beach city. I'm stoked to see that :P My new district is so cool. Elder Schoenrock is my district leader- he's in Elder McRae's group and is one funny kid. A really nice kid too. But this is a snap shot of him- I'm making Biscuits and gravy this morning for us all and I ask him "So, How's the morning been?" reply- "Crappy. I woke up, man." :P He's always jokin around and keepin the mood light- but knows how to work too. Elder Adams is his companion and he is the man. McRae and him were Companions before, and he actually trained E.Beaty. Really nice kid, bought a Larry some bread, simply because he doesn't think that anyone deserves to go without bread. E.McCuistion and Kalian are in Torun, an hour away but still in my District. Kalian is old in the mission, McCuistion is a bit more than a year and two months in the country. Their are way nice too. McCuistion plays music and is way smart. Really good at the language. My comp and I are still getting along well. He really is a great guy. Teaches well, really organized. I go on my first exchange this next week- Elder Meacham's Trainee is coming here tommorrow. My first full day as senior companion ha. Wish me luck eh :P JOnes is going to Gdansk. I'll get to go next month. I look forward to it. But tomorrow is the exchange and that'll be a kick in the pants too :) That is about all of it for today :) It's still snowing harder and harder lol. Someday I'll see the sun, maybe ha. I love it here though. So much :) I can't even tell you. I feel like this is the place for me. I'll be sending some pictures soon for sure. One thing I'd like to share, just from reading in the scrips this week in 3 Nefi, it's interesting how Nephi, upon preaching with the power and authority of God at it's full power, only convinced a handfull of people unto repentance and baptism, but those handful were like rocks. I feel like that is how it is right now- slowly there will be more, and more and eventually there will be stakes and a temple here, but for now, those who are ready will be converted. I know there are those who are ready everywhere on this Earth. Just got to work to find em :) I love this Gospel so much. I love you fam so much. It's so amazing to see all my friends on missions- I love reading their letters so darn much. So much. I'm way stoked Kellen is heading out soon, I can't believe I've been out so long. I can;'t believe Josh is gone in practically no time. Unreal. So darn cool :) I love you fam. SO much. Keep praying, keep being happy and know how much the Lord loves you. AND PLEASE SEND ME YOUR FAVORITE SCRIPTURES!!! lol. > Starszy Michael J Rushton :) p.s. I have to go to England next P-day because of legal work, so I don't know if my E-mail will be there next p-day, if it's not it'll be just a day late. I'll explain that later :)