The Golden Week

Heeeello my Family :) It's good to be writing you on this Wednesday morning. It's so good to be back in my Katowice, with my District, at least for the day. Tomorrow, I'm going back down to Warsaw for the Standard of Excellence Dinner, from when Elder Hughes and I achieved it. So that'll be nice- it's kind of a drag leaving the area again. But, i'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited for Sister Engbjerg's cooking ha. I read your letters on my train back to Katowice last night, and you all sound like you're doing wonderful, per usual. It's wonderful to know that the Lord is blessing you all down there every day, just as he's blessing us up here. I think your prayers are coming through, for sure. This last week has to be the most amazing one we've had as a companionship, and I feel as if it's got to be one of the coolest weeks I've had my whole mission. So much good happened. :)It's strange, because I think of my life in week-periods, starting from Monday to Sunday...and here i am writing you on a Wednesday, so I'll do my best to remember all the goodness, but I surely will miss some. First of, we finally achieved our goal of 20 lessons. We actually had 26 lessons this week. Which is a whole lot of lessons in my eyes. When I first got into the country, 15 lessons was, sincerely, legendary. Now, companionships all over the country are getting 19, 18, 20 and this last week we got 26. We were kind of freaking out :) The Lord blessed us so much with these amazing investigators. We couldn't have been happier with these meetings we had as well. So many of them were epic, golden and will be left as standards of what a meeting can be like, for me. We visited Ela 2 times in the week at her little shop at NeoNet, and they were good little meetings. THe second of the meetings, actually ended on a slightly bad note, as the Director of her company walked into the store, gave us a slightly terrifying look, and then shook Ela's hand. I figured that was our cue to leave, and we did with a nod and a small smile from Ela. The abrupt ending was only disconcerting because we were in the middle of a concern she had that was taking some time to properly explain...I was kind of bummed as we left, but I knew it would be ok. I called her that night and she set up willingly for the next day. I asked her if everything was ok with the Director, and she said, it was more than ok- she had recieved a raise!! Very very cool. We drove up there the next day (meaning we sat on a bus freezing our bottoms off, a lot) and walked to the place we had last met Ela. This was a big deal, because often, it's hard to start and end with prayer in Ela's store, and these outside the store meetings are when we can really sit down and talk and pray. So, we went there, and across the street, Carlos drives up, with Ela in the passanger seat and Nathan, their three year old kid who is cute as can be, was there. They told us to jump in, and that they had a surprise for us. "Do you like Batman Elders?" Carlos says. "Is he one of your favorite Super Heroes?" We agreed that Batman was incredibly Boss (really cool). So, we arive at this place called 'Pizza u Batmana" Pizza at Batman's. It was quiet, we went in, they ordered pizza for us against our protests. We started with Prayer and had a fantastic lesson with Ela. She used to be a Jehovah's Witness, but because of things that happened, she believed the insitution was not God's. She loves being around us, and loves talking to us. She is so open to the Spirit, and knows the Book of Mormon is from God. She considers the truths as we present them to her and she feels they are true in her heart, and then we find in the scriptures, the foundation for the Doctrine, and it is just an amazing thing teaching her. The Spirit was so strong and our joy was full sitting there with that little family who are truly on the road to becoming an eternal unit. They understand what it means to love eachother and are just truly progressing. Ela has such pure intentions it is unbelievable. We left the meeting with a deal to do that every Saturday with them (such an amazing way to spend the Saturday evening) and on the Bus home, we didn't even feel the cold. We were so happy and so glad that the Lord had blessed us with such people to teach. Sorry that was so long, but it was epic!We met with Sebastian, Ania's son and he has decided to prepare himself for baptism for the end of November. He has lots of week, lots of changing to do, but he sincerely is changing and that is amazing. We're working with Ania a lot. She has been struggling here and there with understanding the changes she has to make as a member of the church. We're trying to help her the best we can- and I think sometimes we don't give her enough slack- I just so badly want her to be able to be accepted into the Branch and excel here as a human being, as a member of the church. It just takes some time, to really change. She's coming along though. Martyna - the amazing 18 year old new convert from march of this year, has been having some troubles herself. Her homelife is as disfunctional as they come, but she rises above it. Sometimes it brings her back down, she doesn't feel she can escape her circumstances, but we know she can. She has so much aspiration to succeed in life, and to be a good person and to help everyone; sometimes she just forgets how much the Lord is grateful for that and how far she has come. We had an amazing lessons this last Sunday with her where she listened as we taught from a talk from 2006 conference. It was powerful, and emotional. The next day she sent us a text, how she had quit school the last week, but went back after the lesson we had. We had no idea she even quit. She helps us and the branch and so many other people so much, and just deserves to feel happy. As Zone Leaders, we're responsible for helping our Zone perform their best in their respective cities. So, we had a mega exchange down their with the Assistants, Elder McRae and Elder Hughes, and then Elder Brown (who was trained in Kielce) and I went down there. So every single missionary was on Exchanges down there. The point was to excite and revive the teaching pool, and it was a major success! The Lord blessed everyone so much that day (Monday) We worked hard as we could and everyone was so blessed. I think we were all blown away with what had happened. At the end of the day, there were about 30-35 contacts made, several of them seeming solid as can be. The Kielce Elders were so excited at the end of it, and we were all giddy ourselves. It was wonderful to serve one day in the city that Elder McRae could never stop talking about. He loves that place- and now I know why! We ate at this milk bar, called TEMPO, and ate Placek po Węgiersku (Potatoe pancakes after the Hungarian Tradition...meaning Gulasz sauce was poured all over it with chunks of Roast beef!). Elder McRae also never could quite stop talking about that food ha. It was scrumptious. I wanted to eat three of them. But I didn't, no worries ;PWe've been visiting Gosia, Ania's daugter in the Hospita quite often this week. She's there for this skin disease she has, it's a bummer. But we go out there, share a scripture with her, keep her company and laugh a bit :) She really is like our Sister. We gave her this little notebook, and wrote in it "Times when I have seen the Hand of God in my life". We told her she has to write three things each day, that in someway testify of God acting in her life. It's been great:) Everytime we would come over, we would write our 3 things too. She's doing well. Just dealing with the troubles of being a 14 year old girl in Poland. Not always easy stuff, but nothing the Gospel can't help.The week was fantastic as can be. I loved every day of it. It was so busy and so full of good meetings and conversations and insights, I was eating it all up. I've been studying lately from the New Testament and I love it so much. There are so many amazing insights that I can't get enough of. It also says some way confusing things too though ha. One concern that Ela had, was that it says that women need to cover their head when they pray in public (Corinthians 11)...it's pretty blatant, and I was so confused as what to say to her. There's tons i couldn've said, but she was pretty confused...because it said it right there in the Bible. So she wouldn't prayer at first when it was Carlos, Elder Strobes and I. So I read farther where it says that a woman's hair is her covering and showed it to her, and she said that made sense- next meeting she prayed for us! And she prayed so well! It feels like my own family being with them a bit. I think that contributes to my love of teaching them. :)Well Family, I love you so much. Sorry the letter's so random. Sometimes there's just too much to say ha. I love being here so much. I love preaching the Gospel, and I know without a doubt this is what the Lord wants me to be doing here.Have a marvelous week, enjoy yourselves and remember who you are. Every day's another chance to be better and grow stronger spiritually and be a better person. I love y'all so much. Have a wonderful week! Pray for us here in Katowice, and like Spencer always tells me, Change some lives down there. z miłościąElder Michael J Rushton Jr. :) p.s. I got an awesome tape in the Mail from Christine- it was hilarious. And Elder Broadbent spoke to me in Polish in it and I almost wet myself.

Polska Zima The Polish Winter

Dearest Family of Mine :)
I don't even know what it is anymore lol I am just tired these days. I think I'm getting old! :P This has been one incredible, and very fantastic week to tell you the honest truth. On more than one occasion this week, I was left thinking to myself how amazingly grateful I am to be here, working with these people. It's the best!
You all sound amazing. That's way exciting it's going to rain down there soon. I love how exciting it is - rain in California ha. Tomorrow it's supposed to snow here, and be 0 Celsius. Which is 32 degrees Farenheit. Then I'll be really grateful for the busy-ness which we've been blessed to have ha. We all have a bad feeling this Winter is going to be about two times as cold as last winter. I'm no meterologist, but last winter was really mild, and this summer was practically perfect. I hardly was ever ever "too hot". So logically, this winter is going to dominate us all ha ha.
But, you all really do sound wonderful. For some reason, the cold weather setting in reminds me of being around you, at Grandma Diane's house in Reno drinking hot cocoa ha. Or us having Fondue Christmas. Good memories : )
Just last night we had somewhat Surprise interviews with President Engbjerg, and from what it sounds like, our District, that pretty much is in love with itself, will stay together even past this transfer- in other words, we'll be together for the holidays! Which would be wonderful. It's always nice to have a really good, fun, hardworking district for the holidays. I'm banking for it. Elder Strobehn and I, Elder Brown and Elder Anderton and Sisters Rouse and Brown. It's good stuff :)
My interview with President was a good one.
President really is such a kind and caring man- he took us out to get some Kebabs- even though it was late and he still had so many things to do for today. He really is so loving and caring- it's an amazing example for us missionaries and especially for those of us who are supposed to be leaders and ministers to the missionaries we're to care for. President did say something that I'll remember- he said that I didn't ask for this position that I've had, and when I first got here, I wasn't ready for it, and I perfectly knew it ha. But the Lord has qualified me and with every trial, helped me grow into the missionary I need to be. He's one amazing man of God.
President was down here in the first place, because we had District Conference here in Katowice, and it was one of the greatest Sunday meetings I have ever attended here in Polska. There are only 2 districts in Poland- so all missionaries and members in Katowice, Wrocław, Kraków, and Kielce came to our little chapel in Katowice and the place was packed! Packed with tons of love and excitement and my heart yearned so deeply that every sunday would be like that one. Someday it will. We're doing everything we can so it'll be like that.
The talks were unbelievable. This man, President Pawlik, is phenomenal. He is Polish, and I'm positive I've talked about him- but he gave an amazing talk, and Elder Strobehn ate up every minute of quality talk we heard that day, because we had 2 of our very key investigators there. Dominik Rędziński was there, as well as Ela!!!! Carlos' wife! She, Carlos and their son Nathan had all come. And we were ecstatic because of that. She seemed to just eat it all up, and I have no doubt it was probably a bit hard for Carlos to hear, because they talked so much about being active and going to the temple. Carlos has a lot to learn before he can go to the temple, but I know he and his fiancee will and it will be a beautiful day! Their 3 year old child, Nathan, sat quietly through the entire 2 hour meeting. So amazingly well behaved.
In fact, every person we are working with in that city, Tarnowskie Góry, came to the conference- as well as that young Mariusz, the one I made the doctor comparison about. Yes :) sooooo good!
There's been a push to get 20 lessons. Our mission, in general, spends waaaay too much time on the street contacting and knocking doors, instead of teaching. We're trying to make the ultimate move to teaching more than we're finding. This last week we got 18 lessons. 2 away! Just yesterday, we had exchanges with the Assistants (Elder Shettel was with me, and Elder Hughes with E. Strobehn) and we started our week with 8 lessons. In one day! We're feeling that we;re going to get that goal this week. If every companionship could pull close to 20 lessons everyweek, it would set such a supreme standard for these new missionaries who come in. That's kind of how it works at first...you come in to the mission, and adjust to how the goals and norms are. If the norm is 20 lessons, by golly, you will get those 20 lessons. So, that's what we're going for. And the Lord is certainly supporting us in it.
We're meeting with tons of less-actives and new converts, as well as our steady investigators. No incredible developements with those investigators yet. We're going to try to give Baptismal dates to as many as possible, so we'll see how that works out for next week.
In other news- Andrzej Pappelbaum is baptized :) Hallelujah! I took a 7 1/2 hour train to Bydgoszcz (SOOOOOO LONG) and spent the night in my old apartment. I picked up a couple things I had left there, which was good- and we headed to the chapel Saturday morning to prepare everything. The baptism went perfectly. We went to the swimming pool, the members were very supportive- Andrzej has shown his dedication, going to church every week since I've left. It's pretty amazing.
As we went into the pool, he was very relaxed. It was silent as I said the prayer and laid him under and pulled him back out. I asked him how he felt, if it was good. He said "I'd like to do it one more time!" He was so happy :) He gave a solid testimony at his baptism and I was so happy to see him finally through the gates. He has the Priesthood and he is going to be a good member of the Bydgoszcz Branch. It was so good to see the man in the first place, and to see him baptized was just priceless. I had to literally run to the Train station to make my train back to Warsaw, where the Assistants drove us all back to Katowice for District Conference. I was in all three of my cities in one day. Ha :)
I feel so much responisiblity for these people we're teaching and helping them know for themselves that this Gospel is true. These investigators we have are such quality people and would honestly change the church here in Katowice, that it stresses me out sometimes that we're not doing everything we can. I think about them all the time- more than I have ever have so far in my mission. Each has their own life and own challenges in getting to know the truth and we're really trying our best. Slowly but surely, they will know it's true.
I can't really think of what else to write. Ha that's a first. :P All is good, and I love you all so much. I'm so glad I can share my experiences with you all. They mean the world to me, right now especially. The weather is dropping, but to be honest, I like it. It makes me feel kind of hardcore, doing our duty in the face of harsh weather and incredible odds, but nothing that the Lord's power cannot overcome. I know I am weak. I know there is so much I need to become better at. Everyday of my life I am painfully aware of my imperfections, but I know that as I rely in the Lord, have faith in him, he will help us do everything we need to, especially out here on the front lines of His army. It's a privelege to be here. I try to never let myself forget that.
Have a magnificent day my family, and always remember how blessed we are. I always remember what you are careful to repeat to me Father- where much is given, much is expected. There's always more we can do in our respecitve lives and I just pray I can always remember that.
Once more, I love you. I don't think I can say that enough. I know this Gospel is God's. This is His only true church on the Earth, and I know it is here that we can find the most happiness. We can't just do it halfway though- it's like a diet, or workout, or any plan for improvement. Anything done halfway, will only give you half or less of the results, but doing it all the way can give you the change you never thought was possible. The Gospel is the Lord's plan of improvement and perfection for us. Anyone who lives it like it should be lived will know that 100 percent, if they already didn't before.
Ok, enough preaching from this missionary ha. Smile for me and enjoy the California snow. I'll enjoy the Polish winter, and will be, as usual, praying for you and thinking about you. Pray for our investigators and these members here in Katowice. So much love.
Elder Michael J. Rushton Jr.

p.s. Thank you Grandfather for you words of wisdom and inspiration. I appreciate it so much. :)
p.s.s Thank you so much Jakey boy and Kor for the letters. You don't even know how cool I felt with those intense Asian envelopes and writing. Jake, your letters are always the bomb, no matter how much is writtten. Kor, I'm doing men's chorus and you have to do it with me ha.

Zion In Poland

My family :)The temperature is dropping by the day, and we are very grateful that they have turned on the heating wall in our apartment. One of our walls, has boiling water running through iit, that is supposed to heat our entire home ha. I have a feeling I'm going to be spending many a study and evening huddled against that wall. You all sound amazing per usual, which is so good to hear. I know the Lord blesses you all as I do what I'm supposed to do. As if I didn't have enough motivation to do the Lord's work, that adds a bit for sure : ) Keep on smiling my fam and doing what you're doing, cos it looks like it's working. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to be better ha, cos that is without a doubt one of the Gospel doctrines that have become ingrained in my mind. Tomorrow is always an opportunity to be better then we were yesterday. Oh how grateful I am for that! For myself, and for my investigators. I'm sitting in this little internet Cafe, in the smokers section, and I tell you I miss my little library is Bydgoszcz and Warsaw. It's a bit hard to focus, with the smoke and music, but it's ok. Aside from the internet situation, there is no where else I would rather be than sweet Katowice. It is my little piece of Paradise these days.We are incredibly busy- I think more busy than I've ever been my entire mission- these days. We are always either meeting with investigators, less actives, new converts or the occasional member to try to get referrals and build them up. It's the best way I've see yet to do missionary work lol. That is the main reason I haven't done white boards lately- they are still used far and wide in the Mish, but I can't complain. :) Lately we've been making bi-weekly trips to a city an hour away, called Tarnowskie Gory, to meet with a few investigators who are making serious progress, as well as Kazimierz, the member out there who feeds the missionaries almost every sunday, but makes them stay for like 4 hours...if you remember me mentioning him. We randomly pop in on him, and make sure we're out of there after an hour, and he can't complain, cos we didnt' have to go out there in the first place, and we can actually talk about spiritual things! Which can also be hard with him. The few investigators we've been meeting with out there are truly miracles- there's Ela, who is Carlos' fiance- i talked about them last week. But this week when we visited them, we had an amazing chat with her in her shop, and she listened so intenetly. It's hard to properly explain to you the range of people we work with here- I think only a missionary could understand...but Ela, is such a quality, salt of the earth woman who could be just a solid anchor in the church, that teaching her brings us immense joy. During our lesson with her, she asked about the Book of Mormon, where do we have it from and so forth. We had such a pleasant little lesson there, and after explaining it, she said "So, one has to read, like the Bible, to find out if it's true or not." We confirmed the statement and she accepted the invitation to read. We got a text a couple days later from Carlos that read "‘God. Jesus Almighty. Ela read now says Mormon book is truth she wants you to visit her always in Neonet.’ We got that sitting on our old beaten leather couch during study. We wanted to hug eachother, but because it was cold and we were still tired, we just cheered really loud and smiled a lot. ha. : ) :P They had plans to come to church, but couldn't make it, which in the end we were grateful for. I'll explain the full background of that last sentance after I explain Dominik Rędziński, the other investigator up there, who Carlos also has led us to. He used to be a punk- which has a different connotation here in Poland. They're the kids who wear really ghetto tight clothes, on the bridge of being gothic-like. They go around for fun asking for money and beer and on their off-hours, they usually do drugs and what not. This kid has changed his life 100 percent and doesn't want anything to do with the former life he's had. He's stopped all substances save it be cigarettes, which he has to quit this week. His desire to change is true and powerful. He accepted a baptismal date for the 24th of October. This is the same kid who came last week with a bloodied eye. He came again last week, and luckily isn't messed up from the experience. I mean-Church was a bit of a disaster, to put it lightly. Fast and Testimony meeting went so darn well at first, with some really poweful spirit-filled testimonies. Then Michał, the kid who sends missionaries wierd texts and isn't all there in the head, got up and started sermonizing for a good 10 minutes. Half way through his sermon, and old member...i'm not sure if he's still a member, but lately he's been coming to most activites...raises his hand, as if it were an open forum. Luckily the member sitting next to him reminded him that we don't do that, that we can't just commetn on a testimony! So MIchał finished and than that old member gets up and starts saying "My testimony is going to be a bit different then your'all's..." and it went down hill from there. He then opened up the forum for comments if any one wanted to better understand his philosphies. Then a new convert, Krzystof, yells from the back of the sacrament room, that we don't want to comment on his philosophies, just hear his testimony. They debated, yelling across the room in the middle of Fast and Testimony meeting, until the man at the pulpit felt that maybe it wasn't the right place for that kind of talk. All the missionaries were staring at eachother with really really wide eyes, and hurting inside that we had investigators that day. And to put the cherry on top, this member, who has been a member for 15 years, but is sitll grasping some Gospel topics, gets up and starts out condemnig the testimonies given that day, saying that were from the devil, and that we should all consider reading the gospel. He said stuff like, I don't know if I'm going to survive this church, and so forth, and Elder Brown and I wanted to get up and tell him to sit down. Oh it was a painful one :( Luckily, our investigators didn't get too turned off by the whole thing. We had an investigator class just for them and taught the plan of Salvation, and that made it all a bit better ha. It was a rough day, but was made better when we watched some conference. Oh i love conference! Because of our ridiculous e-mailing situation, I only got to watch about 6 talks- 3 of them from the Priesthood Session, and a few from Saturday morning and Sunday morning. I loved President Uchtdorf's Dad, about work and learning. I know you would be loving that one. It was so good. Spoke right to my soul :) I loved President Eyring's too. He's probably my favorite speaker. Lot's of power. It made me probably the trunkiest i've been to see that conference center and the power of the body of the church. It's a different thing working at the roots of the church here. It gives me a brand new and everlasting appreciation for the early church members and pioneers. It's amazing how much faith they had and how much they had to have endured to build the church into the insitution it is today. It is undoubtedly from God, and it must be built with the power of God. That is without a doubt. WE're going to download the rest of the talks onto EldeR Strobehn's iPod and listen to them for Comp study and during meals and such. I look forward to that. We had a district leader meeting this week- Elder Strobehn and I invited all District Leaders into Katowice and we had a good 2 and a half hour meeting with pizza at the end. We used this talk called Creative Leadership by something Sterling..i don't konw if he was a General Authority or what, but it was amazing. The talk inspires me so much to be a good leader, to be an inspiration for others and so much more I can't really expound upon because of time limitations, but I want to send tthe talk to you if i can find it online. The District leaders are really good missionaries and want to do what's good here, but a lot of them have serious struggles with small cities, not a lot of investigators. I feel crazy blessed to be here in Katowice with the investigator circumstance we've had. Elder Strobehn did nothing but walk streets in this small city that Elder McRae opened up, Kielce, before he got here,. He's eatin it up. :0Got to go! But real quick, we had an amazing little branch activity where we went to these mountains, and walked straight up the face of them. That was a LEG MURDERER. SO HARD! But so fun at the top. We had to carry little Michał, ania's son, the whole way. It was intense. At the end we resorted to carrying him like the anciet indians carried their pray, me and anderton carrying an arm each, and Brown carrying his legs. so funny :P It really was fantastic though. It took practically the whole day- Ania's whole family was there and it was a good experiecne for them all. I have such high hopes for this family. They need to all get baptized. It is the only way they are going to find true happiness in this life. The only way these kids are going to have the lives they deserve to have. I love em tons.So much is happening I don't even know what to write about these days. But I am so happy to be here, to be in this district. I love them all so much. Elder Brown is the man- we're way similar when it comes to music and we want to play some music together up at the Y and the whole district just is focused and wants to do what's right. It's pretty much the best place in the world, wherever you are, when you district has that unity and power. Fam I got to leave you. I', sorry for the slightly scrambled letter. All is so well here and I am so grateful to be serving where I am, having the burden to help these people progress. We have a couple investigators here, Piotrek and Tomasz in particular, who could be Branch Presidents, and they have the desire to learn. I feel a huge burden to help them progress the best they can. We need soem more solid leaders here. The church needs to grow now adding really strong and amazing members, so it can grow a lot and grow quick later. I cried when President Monson annouced temples in those 5 places- I wanted him to say Poland so bad. And i know he will soon. We just got to do our part so that the work isn't hindered in any way. I love you family. I know this Church is true. It is the way to happiness. We need to always change for the better and thanks to the Gospel and Atonement we can. We are so darn blessed to have that knowledge inour lives and family. I can't express how blessed we are in our family. People here in Poland think that kind of family only exists in movies. I feel guilty a lot of times talking to these young kids because the direction they lack I was blessed to have. So i'm doing my best to do what the Lord expects from me. I feel that is a lot. Have an amazing week and keep on smiling and doing everything you can do be the best you. I love yuo all more than I can say. z miłością ogromnąElder Rushtonp.s. This Friday I'm going to Bydgoszcz to and have the chance to Baptize Andrzej on Saturday. He hasn't missed church once since he came that last time i Was in Bydgoszcz :) -----Original Message-----From: