Again, again, and again...

   Well its p day again, and again its 5 in the morning and I'm freaking tired. Whats up around there? so Finn is walking around now? I miss that little punk. Well the days get better and worse here. It really isnt bad here, I know I make it sound that way, but overall its fine. just long. my comp this week went crazy for a couple days again. He said we could no longer go with anyone but our companions to anywear. so basically if me and another kid in the district both had to go to the bathroom we would have 4 elders in there and 2 just waisting there time. It started making me pretty angry, he was wasting everyones time. Anyways we had a friendly chat, he calls it a fight and the problem is solved now. Today was temple day so that was way nice, I love being able to go to it. For temple breakfast I got steak keish with gravy over top of it and a blueberry waffle. mmmmmm. pretty tasty. I now do my hair with a beautiful part and I comb it over but Im getting a haircut later today so I will see if it lasts this way. Not sure yet but for now I'm liking it its pretty fly. I got way sick this week, and had a bad fever, it kinda stunk, Id be sitting in class freezing then sweeting, then just generel pain all over. But fortunatly it only lasted for 2 days and on sunday the branch pres sent me home to sleep, so I went to bed around 12 in the afternoon, and told my comp to wake me up at 1 at 6 I woke up and found that I had slept through basically the whole day. Best day at the MTC :) haha JK.

 David is a floor above me and a friend from viewmont is in the room next to me so thats nice. I get to feel close to home sometimes with them. It's wierd this week I was thinking about home allittle and ofcourse I miss it but not all that much, I know im supposed to be here. But the things I miss the most is mommas cooking and playing raquetball with pops or from some weird reason doing service or working with pops. Although hopefully in 2 years you forget that so I can pretend I hate it again. Richie came in yesterday hopefully I see him tonight. I think there is like 15 kids from Bntfl. here right now so Its fun I get random hi's from all of them.

    As for letters thanks everbody I love you tons. today I hope to get some letters out to people, aunt Debbie, your amazing and I love the Icecream :) your lucky I have a fridge though haha, oh yeah I make aton of friends and then still all there stuff when they leave so right now I have a fridge and am getting another one in a week I think. So as for women at home righting me I basically have no hope for anyletters so I've taken matters into my own hands and I'm soliciting to the sisters so I can get there friends at home. We will see if i get any cookies out of it, Ill keep you all posted. I was in line for a plate of rice because there was no salads this day and I asked the sister for 2 egg roles she sayed it would be a dollar more, so obviously I responded, well if i can't get an extra egg role can I get your email. I got the egg role, so I'm guessing the answer was no haha, I find fun things to do here to :)

     Momma, we bought my shirts 3 months before the mission with a 16 and a half inch neck, I can no longer do up the top botton. since day one here I've been introuble about it but hey what can a man do. the shirts are just to small. haha I'm guessing Ill lose some muscle around my neck soon though so no big deal.

 You guys should go on google earth and street view TJ and south of it, its crazy. that place is straight ghetto. Kinda excited, really excited. Oh I lost 6 pounds in 2 days when I was sick, mostly because I didn't eat but now I'm back down to my normal weight haha, I eat only salads and I still put on weight here, I think a good amount is muscle but not all of it I'm sure.

     Elder Noriega, just an elder I chill with here is gettng surgery today, so last night I gave him a blessing, but the branch pres of his branch was there. I didn't remember what I needed to say so I asked the branch pres and he just told me to say what the lord wanted, which is normal for the middle but for the beggining.... It was freaky, he was just like the lord will tell you how to start it out, good thing that there was an elder there to help me cuz the lord wasnt speaking very loud. haha no the blessing went well, and it was a good experience, basically the branch pres said that as long as were are acting in our preisthood and making an attempt at it the lord doesnt care what we say, he understands our desires.

  Real quick just a cool thing in the scrips this week is  in genesis 17 I think, or something like that, look in JST for a translation in early genesis verses 3 through 7, its so different then what the normal verses say its amazing, and in the JST it says that people thought that Abel was Christ and attoned for their sins. :) kinda cool, and really wrong haha. love you all, peace love and go with God

Elder Rushton

Well...

 Hey everybody, hows life where ever your reading this? Thanks for all the letters, family, cousins, more family, and friends they are a nice break from everything here. Even though I got so many on tuesday I didn't have time to read any until last night. so I stayed up and read letters then I couldn't go to bed just kinda sat there, finally I get to bed and I wore this chick lotion, sensual amber to bed (an elder has it) and I woke up having nightmares so I didn't get back to bed forever, now it 5 in the morning and I'm officially tired. Momma thanks so much for the bread, everybody thinks it is amazing. I told them if they sent thank yous theyd prolly get more. Any ways over the last week has been pretty good. It's kinda hard to diferentiate each week, they are basically the same. But hey on thing, I gues I never told you is the lady on the phone was wrong, I'm here for 9 weeks not 6 so I've still got a little while, departure date is the 28 of feb. So I think this week, hopefully it isn't in my last letter, Ive been studying isaiah 22 lately, and verse 24 didn't make alot of sense. so I translated it from the spanish bible because it is more correct then the king james and It cleared it up so much. It was kinda cool. Other cool thing is the songs of whoever that are in the bible. Saloman. the JST of it says that its not inspired writing, basically its just in there. haha well I wont use that for inspiration. Its been a good week here, Jordy wants to know about the food here. basically I hate the food here, nothing can compare to mommas cooking so its pretty bad, frozen, re frozen not natural haha :) I just eat salads but even their salads are unhealthy, I think I've put on a couple pounds, some in muscle hopefully none in fat. I still look aight. Though on wednesdays and sundays there is Ice cream, I always tell myself no but end up eating 3 or 4 bowls anyways :) Right now I'm looking at MNT. Timp with snow on it and extremely jeaulous of anyone that is not in a cage and has the freedom to go do something, It looks like a sweet climb in the winter, kinda sketchy but Its going to happen in 2. along with a trip to somewhere in sur america to go backpacking, your all invited if your inshape and pay for my ticket. Thanks aton. Johny I love you man, thanks for the letters, and way to go to the temple, heres a question you can think inside the temple, what power does the knowledge of the endowment give you. Anyways I love you all tons. Peace, and Go with God

Kick back and Relax

Thank goodness its p day, the week really hasn't been bad but having a p day is always nice. Though waking up at 5 in the morning on a  p day kinda stinks. I'm feeling pretty good here, IDK if I told you last week my shoulder was messed up, but my shoulder is messed up. Im not sure whats happened to it, but it kills. Sometimes I can't lift it over my  head, and in the morning when I get out of bed I have to put it down on my side and roll over because i can't raise it and I can't push my self up with it. But I'm hoping its still just something small, its weird cuz i swear it all started after I got my typhoid shot, that thing is crazy caustic haha. This week has been really good though, tuesday elder neilson came and talked to us for devotional, it was a good message way over the head of most missionaries here ( it was on the abrahamic covenent) but I enjoyed it, he went into the talk excepting we knew alot about it already, I think I did miss the first 5 mins of it, I don't sleep well at all  here so I fell asleep in the beggining. Really though, its terrible I just lay in bed all night, I even took some melatonine another elder had and i was just crazy tired but I still didnt fall asleep, Its pretty lame but what can I do, no big deal. the language is going bettter, I speak relatively decent now. Its nice to be able to say what you want sometimes, and every once in awhile I can actually say what I want, but still its mostly just navagating around the language. Sorry if not all this makes sense Im kinda tired. and its 5 30 in the morning, I'm doing my laundry right now.

    My comp is kind of a bugger, he wont say that he has anything wrong with me or that I've done anything wrong but he went and told the branch president alot I don't know what he said, and I'm guessing its not all true because I got called into a one on one with the branch pres and right off the bat he said "elder you just don't give a damn" I didn't know what I did, except miss my 1030 curfew twice and that was by like 10 mins. So I was kinda shocked, it was weird. So I talked to him for a while in a room and by the end he was like, your nothing like your companion says you are, youll be a great missionary, just keep working hard. And throughout the week I've had teachers pull me aside and tell me I've been a great influence on my district and stuff, and that they are impressed with me. So yeah my comp kinda pisses me off. But I've got to love him, and spend all my time with him, so I'll just continue to do my best.

      So this week there was a thread hanging from one of my pairs of pants so obviosly I pulled it out. next thing I know I now need to go get my pants re hemmed. woopsy, also I need to buy more soap for laundry and envelops and stamps. Its probably cheaper for me just to buy the stuff here then for you to send it to me. But I enjoy all the letters I get. Thanks to everybody that writes. and I actually have become really close with alot of elders on my floor. so I know have a ton of food. and the ones that are leaving let me go through there stuff before they went so I got what I've needed. hopefully this week I can score some laundry soap. Unfortunatly they are all leaving next week, which is kinda lame. except maybe my work out and matte buddy will stay cuz of a hand thing he may need to get takin care of. We drink matte everynight its actually really good now, in the beggining i thought it was giraffe poop now Its kinda good. Collin proly nows what it is but basically its this grass that you put in a cup and drink it out of a straw that has little sifters so the matte doesn't go up it. Its different but good. hopefully I can buy a cup in mexico but IDK its kinda a argentine thing.

     I know there is something I'm suppesed to tell you but I'm not sure what it is. oh one thing is that I want some pictures. lots of pictures. mostly of family and cousins and stuff but also get isaac to get me some good ones of me skiing and some other good ones of stuff off my computer. Everything you say around these places people ask for pictures for. So it would be nice to have some. I think that that is basically it. I think that I have more friends coming in this week, hopefully I do. But I'm not sure and if I get sent a package sometime make some of it healthy. I'm trying not to gain weight here. the food gets gross after like 3 days so now I only eat salads and lots of desserts haha but so far I haven't put on any fat weight but I actually have got alittle bigger here. I now do my curls with 50s 3 sets of 10. The food I'm guessing is roided up. I love you all, send me letters. everybody. and cool fact that you proly all already know but, some may not. It says in the scriptures that Isaac, Abraham and Jacob are already exalted and now sit upon thrones. So they are already gods. kinda cool, again I love you all.

Ahhhh the Lord's Work!

Well it has been a couple days since I got to write last but nothing has realy changed, I'm glad jordy got her email I didnt know anyones email. Thanks for the dear elders, they got to me and I finally got a letter from will. Well overall it has been a pretty good week, Sunday here is really nice, I enjoy just being able to kick back and listen to the firesides, although I ended up alseep. The language is coming along well but slow, its a little nerve racking mostly just because I want to be able to say a lot of things and can never figure them out. Our progressive investigator we challenged to baptism, which is kinda cool. Really fake but kinda cool, if nothing else it gives me something to smile about once in awhile here. But this week has gone by way fast, I just keep doing what is right. My compainion will make sure I'm doing that and I look foreward to gym and the cafeteria. I'm going to start to diet now, well atleast not eat as much. last night I had 3 entrees and 2 bowls of icecream. and if there isn't ice cream I usually get atleast 2 bowls of cereal at dinner. But I only get an hour to excercise so I need to cut back. for gym I just lift with Elder Noriega he is a pretty cool guy, then after I do abs or pullups back at the dorm and before I take my shower at night I jump rope. It keeps me sane here. Well I wish I had some sorta really spiritual thought but I don't. The MTC really isn't all the spiritual, its mostlty just learning. and we learn all the principles very briefly because thats the way we are going to teach them. I'm sure that in devotional there was something but I'm so tired all day every day that I can't not sleep in there, its hard. Elder lane last night, started talking in his sleep and said something like sorry, so sorry this is not for me, this is not for me, sorry. As he walked out the door and closed it behind him. I told my compainion just to let him go haha but my companion is as straight as they come and went and got him. My companion hates me, he is totally opposite me, but he doesn't have the man in him to confront me about anything. So I'll just let him do his thing. He's not bad but he is just really strict, I get introuble if I'm one minute late and if I get a drink he walks across the hall with me still studying to keep an eye on me. I think he just needs to slack back a bit. But right now it's really early and thats the best time because he hates the mornings and doesn't talk at all. This week in personal scripture study I've been looking for temple stuff in the scriptures. It has been really fun, I'm so glad its p day and I get to go, oh and I found people here who are more like me. So I kick it with them whenever possible its nice. And I talked to a guy who loves TJ and says the best things down there are deep fried cheese filled shrimp or a fish hot dog. IDK what to think but they both sound amazing. Ohh I'll share one thing I read last night that I thought was kinda cool. Do you know who baptised Adam? it says in the scriptures, in like moses or something IDK that the spirit of god picked him up and immersed him in the water. The other cool things I've learned are about temple covenents. You would be suprised how many scriptures have references to the there is one were when christ comes to the americas he enters the temple at Bountiful and its cool because in there if you look for the right words it talks about some stuff we do in the temple. But if you haven't gone through the temple it means basically nothing. Sorry random thought and I can't share it haha. Oh another thing that was cool, was that when christ came to americas people came up and thrust there hands into his side and touched his wrist and hand. Christ decided to keep these marks on his body until the milenium where he will have his scares removed. kinda cool. anyways just a token of knowlede :) haha love you all at home. and can't wait to see my buds coming in the MTC it is fun catching up with the ones that are already here. keep sending letters and I'll try to take pictures to send home but IDK we will see haha. Peace, Love, and Do the Lords Work

Elder Rushton