Sunshiny Wielkanoc‏-April 7, 2010

Dearest Fam -
The sun is shining this beautiful morning, I'm wearing a short sleeved shirt, and am happy as can be. The snow has finally gone away (I can't even express to you my shock when I found out that Winter lasts into April...I could've sworn it was a November - January thing ha. Sweet ignorance in California) and we are happy as can be. Today is the last day of Easter here in Poland. The streets are generally empty, and people are enjoying their last day of freedom before heading back into the real world. Easter in Poland - Wielkanoc- is one of the most celebrated holidays in the country. They have quite a few traditions associated with it, of course theirs Wielki Piątek (Great Friday? I don't know what it's called in English), and then on for the three days of Easter, there are Soldiers in most of the churches standing guard at an altar, or a table with a figure of Christ on it, symbolic of the roman soldiers who watched Jesus' tomb for the 3 days he was actually in it. In churches all over Poland, families bring Easter baskets with eggs, pieces of bread and other random food articles, to the Priest who blesses them sprinkling water over them with this kind of broom-looking thing. Way interesting. People break eggs together and wish eachother happiness, joy, and so many other things. Poles really love to wish each other things. It's one of those things that was probably very strange to me a year and a half ago, but is now pretty much normal. When you have a birthday, and a Pole finds out he turns to you and just starts wishing you "All the best! Health, happiness, many women, a large family, success, and may you always be happy throughout your days!" It's kind of overwhelming. But kind. So that is Easter in Poland for you.
I spent mine watching beloved General Conference for 8 hours, which was incredible. And also a lot of conference, but I very much so did enjoy it. The talks are always so uplifting and leave so much to be applied in our lives so that we may become better sons and daughters of our Father in Heaven. It's amazing how much the Gospel just makes sense. The Gospel really does lead to happiness. The principles and doctrines taught lift up our hearts in joy and cause us to do our best to become the best we possibly can. At one moment in conference, it was just so clear to me that this is what people spend their entire lives looking for. There is no other institution quite like the true Church of Jesus Christ on earth. It is His, for us on the Earth to have direction, peace and joy.
I loved the talk about Patience, and Elder Holland's talk as well was very powerful. He is one of my favorite speakers. I love giving his talks to our investigators. They're face melters. In a good way ha :)
Last night at 10:00 we watched the last session with President and Sister Engbjerg at their house. My eyes were fighting sleep real good, but it was so nice. I drank Elderberry juice. Who knew there was such a thing as an Elderberry. They are pretty amazing :) Elder Hales was President's mission President- he got so excited to listen to him. It was neat to see.
I'm so glad you got to watch that video. It seems like I recorded that forever ago. I do love being a missionary with all my heart. It's like Elder John told me- he wanted to be a doctor because he loved the feeling he had of helping people, and doing good. There's nothing quite as fulfilling as getting to know these people, praying for them, and doing your best to help them become closer the our Father in Heaven. I'm glad I could be in that room with you for a bit. :)
It's true, what Jake said in his letter. The longer I'm out here, I don't really feel more distant from you all. We do a good job of staying in touch through E-mail. I've really barely had a chance to miss you, I've always had such a good chunk of you in these e-mails :) I do miss you though, and love you.
The week was a solid one. We were able to teach quite a few lessons, and meet with some prime people. Tomek Procheńka is doing so well, and will surely be baptized. He has an amazing testimony of the Gospel and simply wants to do what the Lord desires of him. In June he will be baptized, when he can start coming to church every week. He has a strong testimony however, of the truth of this Gospel.
Sylwek is struggling. The tradition of Easter was too great for him to pass up, and as a result we've been out of contact for a few days. He testifies of the truthfulness of this church and the Spirit he feels, yet he lacks the courage to step away from tradition and towards the truth. We're trying to be patient with him, but we feel that he lacks sincerity. We'll see.
We took over one of the sisters investigators, Marek. He comes to church every Sunday, to institute and English class. He is a good investigator who also has a testimony, but is afraid of the pressures of his peer group and his family. I'm excited to meet with him though, he is a very good man. About 28 years old.
We met with Irina this week, and she seems to be doing so much better. It takes time for her to understand gospel concepts, but she understands that she needs to come to church, and she;s promised she'll make the extra effort. The Lord will bless her no doubt- sometimes it takes a bit for recent converts to see how the Lord is, how much He loves, and how much he desires to bless us, but that is very much dependent on our obedience. She is so funny, and I love her. I hope to see her come every week to church.
Elder Mehner and I went out to go on exchanges with the Elders in Białystok- Elder Holden and Elder Allred- this last Friday. It was our first car trip together, about 2 and a half hours away, we drove out in the morning and really enjoyed ourselves. The highways in Poland are kind of ridiculous. Often they are one lane going both directions, and if you want to pass a car, you have to wait until theirs a break in oncoming traffic, and then put it into Sports mode and burn past the car. It's insane sometimes and I was terrified to do it at first, but now it's a piece of cake :P
The Elders out their are doing very well- theirs only two of them, which can be hard, but they really are working hard and have some prime investigators ready for baptism. There are so many ready for baptism in this mission, they just need to show the extra Faith and do it! Pray for them and us to know what to do to help them. Any missionary advice is always readily accepted.
On our way home, we drove to a referral we had received who lived out in the boones. I was afraid to see what the place looked like, but I was pleasently surprised to see one of the nicest mansions I've seen in Poland. The man opened up the door, and I said "Are you Mr. Karol?" He answered in the affirmative. "We're here to give you a Book of Mormon." He got a smile on his face and let us right in. His family was there for the Easter Holiday. They were so kind to us- they gave us tons of food, even Caviar. Ridiculous. They were apparently referred by the man's sister who is a member of the Church in Las Vegas. The older couple, the man who we were referred to, wasn't incredibly interested, but the Son in law seemed to be- we hope he'll give us a call. He's a surgeon working here in Warsaw. That would be an amazing miracle.
I've got to think about this whole school thing and it's freaking me out a bit. I really don't think I want to be an English major anymore. I'm leaning towards...something else. I'd like to take a couple History classes, and (you're going to think this is strange, but) I also want to take a German class. I'm determined to learn German and Spanish in the next couple of years. I'm going to try to earn money to study abroad in Austria in a year. I just came up with this in the last 4 days ha. I'm leaning towards being an optomologist, or some other doctor, or studying business. I'd like to shadow a couple doctors when I come home, and businessmen. So, I think it'd be good for me to take an economics class or something business related to see if I like it or hate it, and on top of that, I could take a history class (in case I want to be a history major...?). I'll have to look at the different classes and send you a seperate e-mail with more clear thoughts on the subject. But I really do want to take a German class. If you could sign me up for a German class and a Polish class, that would be neat. If the Polish isn't legit, I'll drop it. It's so strange to have to think about this kind of thing.
I'm got to wrap this up, but I love you family. Seeing that little family ice-cream eating get together made me so happy. I do have the best family in the whole world. Thank you Grandma Rushton for you're kind and loving words in your letter, I appreciate them so much. Thank you Grandma Diane so much for the card and present. I appreicate you're support very much. It means tons :)
Have an amazing week and pray for us here in Polska. There is so much yet to be done, and we're trying to think in which way we can best motivated and help the mission soar a bit higher. I love you all. Talk to you in a week :)

Elder Michael Rushton

p.s. I'll be in the Office most of the day, so if you want to let me know what you think about my crazy educational ideas I'd love to get some feedback. Thank you mother and father.