A New Chapter in the Mish :) May 12, 2009

Dearest Fam- It was indescribably amazing to talk to you. Just to hear your voices and hear how your doing. I feel the exact same way that you were saying ma, and pa, and what Spence said. I feel like we do have amazing communcation- I feel well connected to the family and informed, and I love it. I always print out the letters...I think I'm the only one who does it lol. But I love to read them mid-week when I have a minute or two before studies. They always bring a smile to my face, and give me a boost to go hard, to give it my best, and give it what I can, while I'm out here. It's a blessing beyond comprehension that I have you fam, to support me. To give me these letters every week, filled with smiles and love. It sounds cheesy, but it's true- I can feel them when I read. It means so much. :) It's also a good remimder that The Lord blessed me so much- he no doubt expects just as much in return. You all sound brilliant. I loved your song so much Annie. You keep on writing music eh? We can play in a band when your in high school ;) I love hearing about your love for soccer and for music and life. Your amazing my red headed sister :) Sarah, I loved hearing your WAAAAY too grown up voice. :P You are so yourself, it makes me so happy. I'm proud of you sis :) You are going to rock that song! I wish i could help you as well. But you will do great. Just sing it like you mean it and it'll be great. :) Spencer kid, you can't talk to me on the phone any more- just hearing your voice made me cry ;) I love you so much brother. You know I'm so proud of you. Just stick it out when it gets tough, we will be at BYU together :) Ma, thank you for the mini PMG's. That will be great! They are a coveted item here in the mish. I'll make good use out of it. And an english one isn't necessary lol. It'll be good for me to just do everything in Polish. :) Thank you again so much :)Well Family- after the Phone call, I pulled it together real quick, surprisingly so lol, and we went to this meeting. The girl Aleksandra, who I talked with on the Train to Poznan, was there and we had a way good meeting. E.Jones her and I walked around Centrum, to the Church, showed her the building, taught about the Church, she showed us where she went to high school, and we gave her a Book of Mormon. It was way amazing- cos Jones was convinced that it was going to be a Date thing. Cos that happens sometimes on accident. But it totally wasn't- when I gave her the Book of Mormon, she said thank you so much. I pray she reads it- she would be an amazing member of the church. On the bus ride home, Jones said " She is SOOO Cool! So cool!" Ha it was a success. We'll see what happens :)I got a couple of other good stories, but before them, Transfer news is officially out. It was hilarious, because President usually calls Leadership on Sunday night to inform them of new positions and whatnot, so by P-day people already know everything, but because of Mothers day, President didn't call at all. So last night, people were freaking out, cos no one knew anything at all. Nothing. It was hilarious. President decided to make the calls last night though, and soon enough we figured out what would happen. I will be for sure staying here in Bydgoszcz (haha you guys did a good job guessing, I was impressed ;)) but with a new companion. His name is Elder Hughes- he's a year and 4 months in the country (same group as E.Jones), and has a reputation of being a hard-worker, very obedient and is a very good speaker. We are going to see some amazing things :) I know I will learn a lot and I just know the Lord will bless us. Bydgoszcz will be on fire baby. :) E.Jones is going to South Warsaw ZL with Elder Lehnig, who was just with E.McRae. I am ridiculously jealous of one thing though- E.McRae and E.Antczak are TOGETHER as ZL's in Katowice. Which is ridiculous. haha. Two of my very Favorite missionaries together. In the Deep South lol. I'm way excited for them :) So E.Jones and I met with Marek, with the Baptismal date. He was supposed to get baptized this upcoming Saturday, but he was not quite ready. So we met yesterday, had a very straight forward and good meeting- we went over the Baptismal Interview Questions with him, and he decided that he will for sure get baptized on the 6th of June, with the other man with a Baptismal date, Zbyszek. It'll be a great day :)One of the most interesting experiences of my Mission thus far was meeting with a deaf man, named Irek. He's 22 years old, and has been deaf since birth. He speaks Polish Sign language, and during our meeting, we wrote back and forth on paper. It was intense lol- I had to think really fast in Polish- luckily Jones did most of the writing, but it was way good :) He's a member already- was taught by E.Guinn, but he's less-active. So we're trying to help him out. He's a good kid- just struggles with being deaf I believe. I can't fathom the struggles of being Deaf. He loves the scriptures and the Liahona and has a testimony. It'll be good to work with him.I went on exchanges with E.Whipple on Friday. E.Whipple, with E.Meacham die in two days. On Thursday, the boys are going home. I can't even believe that. I love those guys so much. They both have been a major part of my mission- E.Meacham one of my close friends, and E.Whipple one of my mission heroes. The man just taught me so much about missionary work and how it should be done- he was all against drama and unneccesary fretting over the little things, but was all about getting THE WORK done and helping these people. People called him Daniel (Whipple) the Baptist cos he Baptized so many people lol, even people he didn't teach. It's kind of funny :) But we had a great day. Drove to Walcz and taught Fabian. The kid is amazing. He should be coming to church this next weekend, which'll be great. He asked us tons of questions about the Temple- he had read some article that just slammed the Temple and it was a crazy conversation, but he come to a solid understanding, that someday he will understand the Temple better lol. He was way sad to say goodbye to E.Whipple, who had talked to Fabian on the phone even while I was in Warsaw. He was comforted, that I would at least be staying lol. :)We met some amazing people this week- I was with E.Loosli (who is barely 2 months in the country) on exchanges when he came down here. We worked WAY hard and it was amazing. Got 5 solid phone numbers- got flaked twice, but it didn't matter. It was a beautiful day for sure :) Got some rain, which we haven't had in a long while. E.Loosli is a good kid- all the newbies are amazing, as far as I can tell. They have that new excited blood pumping through em. They're humble cos Polish is redonk, and their ready to work and learn. It was a pleasure- second time as senior companion on my mish ha. We met with Grzegorz- I told you about him, with the huge library in his house, saw him on the Train, offered to give me a ride, his car wasn't there lol. Well we met with him. It was a great meeting, and he still wants us to come to his class to show them what it means to be involved in something. He knows that the youth lack direction, lack purpose, lack drive, and he is impressed with us. He is so "sympatyczny" - which means likeable, and people say it all the time to describe someone we would describe as "funny" "cool" "easy to be around" - they just say, "sympatyczny". Grzegorz is sympatyczny- so genuine and so learned. I think Grandpa would love to talk with him- there would need to be some translation and I don't know if I could translate such a convo without some serious gift of tounges- but he just pulled out all these books that went along with our conversation. He likes to just talk about religion right now, and doesnt' really want to come to church, but I hope someday he will see how important it is and will accept the Gospel. We'll see eh :)I'm trying my best to get a better Grasp on the basic truths, in terms of finding scriptures and ways of explaining them in such simple terms that NO ONE can mis understand what we're saying. SO many terms that we use have become dilluted and don't mean anything, such as Priesthood, authority, baptism, sacrament- all of these are things that exist already here, but in incomplete ways- and it's not always easy getting these people to understand it. I'm trying my best though and I have no doubt I'll get to pick up something amazing from E.Hughes. The Zone is doing amazing. 2 baptismal dates in Szczecin and Two here. We just need a couple from Poznan and Gdansk, and the whole Zone will be set to baptize. I know we can do it. Well family, I'm excited for another 7 weeks here in Bydgoszcz at least- this transfer is a shorty. It ends the first of July- I know that E. Hughes and I can make the most of it. It'll be AMAZING. Pray for us, for our success, pray for me to have faith, and to speak Polish well lol. I love you so much. I would love to have that DVD of Dad's enrobement and maybe Spencer's band again. It meant so much to be able to hear your voices and chat for a bit. Life really is so good hear. I love being in Poland, in Bydgoszcz. I love writing you letters. Someday we'll reminiscse about the Letter-writing days. :) Have an amazing week. Smile and know that I'm smiling thinking about you all and working in the service of the Lord. Remember how blessed we are, and at the same time how much the Lord expects from us. I think we can appreciate life at it's fullest when we do that. But then again I'm just a 20 year old walking the streets of Bydgoszcz ;) I know this is true. I really do. I love you fam with the fullness of this heart of mine. To next week :) To your birthday ma, and then your's pa- sweetness. Love you :) Starszy Michael Joseph Rushton Jr.