May. Already! Kurcze‏- May 5, 2009

Hallo Fam! I'm glad you loved the letter last week. :) Always makes me smile to see that. I swear, the second I see your e-mails open up it's like nectar. I just take it in, word by word. It means the world that you'all write me every week. I just wrote in my journal last night, "I miss the fam something fierce, but I wouldn't have it any other way right now. I know this is where I should be." THe mission is truly just flashing away before my eyes. I can't even believe it somedays. It's already May. I swear Christmas was 4 days ago. I get to talk with you all this Sunday. SOO Darn excited! Ok...so I just looked up and saw that y'all have church at 1 PM, so I'm thinking you can call at 8:00 AM your time? It'll be 5:00 PM here :) It'd be perfect! Sweetness I look forward to talking to you all :) Just do it the exact same way as last time, except my number is 665 300 846. I can't remember exactly how you did it last time, but I'm sure you do. You can try it Saturday night your time at around 10- 10-30 PM to make sure it works and to tell me if 8:00 is too early for you lol. IT'll be 7ish here in Poland in the Morning, so that would be great :) SO EXCITED! OKKKKK! This week in the Sunny Land of Poland was a good one- a tad slow, but good. I'll be honest, I feel like this transfer has been one of the more difficult ones in terms of finding promising people and having good lessons. We've been in a little bit of a drought- but this last week and the arising week have given me some solid rays of hope for sure. This is the last full week of the Transfer. Already 2 months in the town that you call B. I love that ha. I think I'll be staying here for sure for at least another 2 months, which I am more than happy about. I feel like this place is for me. The members are amazing here- the most genuine and so darn dedicated. There have been a lot of crazy people baptized here in Poland, which only brings burdens, often, to the Branches they belong to. But in Bydgoszcz, they really have the cream of the Crop, which is necessary. We need the help here as Missionaries. I can't even express what a good solid member can mean to a missionary.There is this member here. Here name is Ewa. She is the bee's knees because she is young, cool, and gladly helps out with missionary work. She isn't one to hit on the missionaries or anything like that (which is a common case)- she's there to talk and support and be our friends and whatnot, but right there to help with missionary work. It's a blessing in deed. There are tons of Older members like her who are ready and willing and they make this Branch amazing. I honestly think it is the most fluidly run Branch without any help from the Missionaries or Americans. This week...goodness gracious last week was so darn busy I can hardly remember what happened this last week. Ok...this week. We had interviews on Wednesday- first was District Meeting, and then Interviews later that day. We had a bit of a miracle as E.JOnes and I hit the streets for 40 minutes before President came for Interviews. Jones and I just walked a couple blocks near the chapel talking to everyone and we talked to some brilliant people. This one woman in particular, was so kind. She didn't give us her number, but she works in a shop down the street from the Chapel and said she would love to talk sometime- she's very open to relgion and is searching for truth. I look forward to talking with her again. We, in that time, got 4 numbers, and a new investigator - we've called a few of those numbers since then and they've set up with us for this next week. Definitely good news- I feel like it was more success than Jones and I had seen together period. Interviews were good and short. President didn't tell me Straight that I was staying in Bydgoszcz but he seriously implied that I will still be a Zone Leader and I assume it'll still be here in Bydgoszcz. We'll see :) Elder Clause of the 70 will be coming through the Mission this month and it looks like we'll be having a Zone Leader Traning meeting with him. SOunds intense and like an amazing experience. President took us out for Chinese Food afterward- sadly I had eaten an entire Pizza by myself 2 hours before and by the end of the night, I was sure that I was going to blow. lol. I didn't though. Very kind and giving man to say the least :) (Polish Chinese food is aight...but GOODNESS, PEONY is Gold baby). Thursday was the B-day. A wierd B-day to say the least. I forgot it even was my Birthday til I was in the Shower for 5 minutes, it just dawned on me. I said to myself, "You're 20 years old. You old fart." And that was about it :P It was a good day. We ate Manekin (the amazing Nalesniki place) and did a lot of walking around Bydgoszcz. I'm growing to love this city more and more. It's got a real good feel to it. O! This man Grzegorz set up with us, which is a miracle. He's the man who let us in while tracting! I forgot to tell you this last week- but I saw him on the Train ride home from Warsaw. I didn't recognize him at first, but he smiled and said, "I had you at my house once." I smiled and said "Grzegorz." And we talked. He offered to give me a ride home, and he was going to, but when we got out of the Train Station his Car had been hauled away ha. He was kind of embarrassed - I took a bus home and we said goodbye. I called him Yesterday and he was way excited to set up again. So this Wednesday I'll be over there :)I went on exchanges with E.Adams- he's the District LEader's companion and E.Jones was with the District Leader (E.Schoenrock) so we were together. We had a great day- We walked everywhere, talked to tons of people and had a couple of really good conversations with people. Talked to this one way eccentric lady and her boyfriend- both in their 50's. The lady was trying to figure out if we were Jehova's Witnesses or Catholic, because apparently to her those were the Only religions that existed in Poland. She said... "We pray to God...and you pray to....who?" and her Boyfriend said "There's only one God! Kurde" lol. E. Adam's and I laughed real good lol he just seemed genuinley frustrated ha. :PThis last weekend was a holiday. 3ego Maja. Their Independance day. Flags everywhere. It was neat- I had flashbacks to 4th of July and I remembered when we put the Flag in the front of our house. It means so much more to me now.We met with Marek again- he seems to be taking it in pretty good. I felt way good after this last one- but then he didn't show up to Church. I don't know what to do with the man. I want him to realize the importance of it- not just to get baptized out of pressure or anything else. He's hard to read in General- i think I knows the Book of Mormon is true, but just doesn't have that rock solid conviction. I dunno- still working on it. Keep praying for him :)Well I think I've got to wrap it up- I want to send you a few pictures :) I took the one in my sweatshirt this morning so you could see what I look like ha. Just got a haircut yesterday lol a tender mercy that the Lady used scissors the whole time. ha :PI love you fam. I'm sorry this letter isn't the most exciting, but the next one will be better- a good week is ahead of us here in Bydgoszcz, I know it. The Gospel is true. The scriptures are one of the greatest ways to strengthen your relationship with God. THey have SO MUCH power it is amazing. I love reading them more than I ever thought possible. So much truth. Given, right to us. Sometimes it's hard to see people turn down something that is so obviously true to me. I love being here. It's flying by too fast. I'm not the missionary I need to be yet, but I'm trying my best. I love the people here and it's simply a blessing to be on a mission.Talk to you on Sunday! Have an amazing week :) Starszy Michael J. Rushton Jr.