Big spiritual festival

 This week turned out to be a great week, Elder Villalobos left on Tuesday. We drove to Grandrapids to drop him off, and the Mexican jacked most everything from our house, he took hand soap, hangers, and my freaking weights. All this I figured out after he was gone. Well along with those things, as we sat at the Stake center, he also took our keys. so about 20 mins down the road he got a call from us, he had to ask his new bishop to turn around and come back, and on top of that while they came back the car was so heavy with his stuff that they broke the bishops shocks in the car. It sounded terrible when they came back :) It's rear end was practically dragging on the ground.

 

      After that we got Elder Martin, who is a great guy. He is from Reno, Nevada, he has 2 transfers left on his mission, and he just came from being the zone leader. So its good to have him around. He is also a convert to the Church. He converted a year before his mission, after not believing in God and after his converstion found his real father and learned that that whole side of his family is part of the church. So its a pretty cool story, and a very strong testimony of the truthfullness of the church. It's cool cuz he also is affiliated with bountiful. His companion in the MTC is a MaKay, so he may actually move in with them after the mission. They have a daughter Bridgette, she works down at Ski n See. anyways a great family and fun to know the world is a small place. Anyways he is a great Elder and really helps out the work here aton. We suprisingly do pretty well with Spanish, being three gringos and everyone is suprised that we speak so well. But we get alot of practice, thats the secret. Yesterday we knocked for 5 hours and had 5 let in lessons. during this time we dind't run into anyone that was white. It was a pretty fun day.

 

      This week as far as spiritual stuff, there was no one moment that really was crazy spiritual. The whole mission is kinda just a big spiritual fesitval. If you get what I'm saying. But there was two different lessons taught this week that I thought we kinda special. One was after tracting for 3 or 4 hours in the freezing cold, and having a nasty mist in our face all day. We got to this house, and the guy wouldn't even come down the stairs, he was yelling from around the corner, Elder Draper said something that didn't even make sense, and overall it was a terrible door aproach... but then all the sudden something we said changed the guys mind, he started asking interested questions about the church and we ended up teaching a great lesson with him. The spirit works magic. The next one the same type of thing happened. It was yesterday, we had been tracting all day and actually were having great success, but we came to this door and on it it said. Nacimos y moririmos Catolica, we were born and we will die catholic. We kinda laughed and joked about how this would be a fun door. But after we knocked, everything fell into place, the guy became sincerly interested in what we had to say and let us in. And by the end of the lesson he said if he found out that what we taught was true, he would be baptised. If you rely on the spirit it will guide you in all things. Thats the lesson to be learned here.

 

      Now for the funny stuff of the week. So yesterday, we are tracting and I start the aproach and just basically introduce who we are and what we are doing. Then Elder Martin talks about Christ, and as this is going on we are just holding a normal conversation with the man. Well we look at Elder Draper kinda saying "hey man your turn" with our eyes, and Elder Draper starts in " So this book has a promise that all those who read it ...." I look at Elder Martin to see if I missed him introduce the Book of Mormon... Nope he had the same confused look as I did, as I looked at the man, he was even more baffeled then the both of us. Thinking what in the world is this guy talking about. Finally Elder Martin looks at Elder Draper "so what book are you talking about","well the Book of Mormon of course, ohh wait did you not talk about the book yet." haha then he went into this bad explanation about how when people talk spanish he tends to sleep :) Way to show your interested Elder Draper. It was pretty funny and we had a good laugh.

  

       Next item of bussiness. We were giving a blessing to this lady who had been in a car crash and was also going through some other problems. So Elder Draper was going to annoint and I was going to seal it. Well I don't know why but Elder Draper put his hands on Sister Hardens head. Got half way through the annointing and started to laugh, just a little bit. Sister Harden reached up on grabbed his hands on her head, trying to (i guess comfort him) and he started to laugh histarically, still trying to say the pray though. Haha it was a disaster :) It was the most random thing and it was hilarious. We had him say the anointing again latter and we did the blessing but still haha it was a good moment and a good memory.

 

     

       Lifes great, I'm loving serving and I hope everyone is doing great. I love you all tons, and hope to hear from you all.

 

 Peace, Love, and hey sometimes you make mistakes

Sincerly your finest Elder,

Elder Rushton

Another week in the neighborhood.

April 16, 2012

Hello world,

     Another week in the neighborhood, and I guess I'm still feeling good. Honestly not much happened this week. We had transfer calls. And I knew I was getting my visa to Mexico. I figured that the Pres. was holding on to it so that I could keep my companions from killing each other and then he would send me out of here at my 6 weeks. Well transfer calls came around. Good ole Pres gave us a call, a very good sign seeing as that means someone is leaving, as I look over Elder Villalobos is doing his crosses properly coined ( wallet and watch, spectacles, and testicales) go thru the action and it may make sense. And I just anticipated the great news. Well President Hess unfortunatly said "Elder Rushton you'll be staying in Holland" replay "Hallelujah"(enthusiasticaly) "What was that","Hallelujah"   "Hmm well, Elder Draper you'll be.... and Elder Villalobos you'll be transfered to Hart where Elder Martin will be replacing you"    For one I've never met some one so dry, and for two I lose Elder Villalobos tomorrow and instead I get Elder Martin, who only has 2 months left, so most likely he will be looking for home. But hey I'm sure it's exactly what I need.

      The work for some reason this week, didn't go at all like planned. We dropped aton more investigators and one of our investigators with a baptismal date is headed to Texas today. So that was a total bummer, he will get baptised but not till he returns. But hey I think tonight will be good. We have 3 dinners planned, and 2 people taking dessert to our house tonight. So I'll be fed for the next week. Althought, I really do need to go to TJ before I put on anymore weight, IDK if I actually have put on weight yet, but I will if I don't do something about my health here. I havent been worried because I thought I was headed to Mexico, but it doesnt look like that. Everyone in the Mission messes with me saying that I'm stuck here forever and I'll never leave... :P Well I love it here, but Holland I here is number 1 for mesquitos in the US so I want to get out of here.

       Alright, so as far as fun stuff this week. Saturday, three different churches got together and put on a festival. One of our investigators helped put it on so we voluntered at this festival. Me, Elder Villalobos, and Elder Ferons served food for a couple hours. It was a riot, there was band playing and different talent acts going on, I served chicharons, frijoles, and sausage in a broth. It was actually  pretty good. But all the workers loved us, and so did the people there. When we started you could tell alot of people were hesitant that we were there. People hate, Hate, HATE Mormons around here. But after awhile people started asking us questions and warming up to us. I think it will help out our work alot. Most people at the festival live in a small community that we are knocking right now. And I think we did a pretty good job. Plus right before we went to Kohl's, Elder Draper had no pants. So like always I went and checked out the shoes. IDK if Sammy ever reads these but remember those really ugly high tops that were leather and had fur on the cuff. Well... for my family they will remember, I tried to steal them back at home... Kinda but got caught haha. I used a coupon that was not valid apparently, well I found this coupon on the counter then tried to use it... so that was the bad part. Back to the real story. The lord blessed me for my service, and knowing that I was in a dire lack of shoes. He gave these to me for 14 dollars. They are prettty ugly, so by that they are really fly :)

       Next thing after the festival, I was in the restroom and Elder Ferrons threw wet towels over the stall while I was sitting there. So later outside, he was in the car, I took the squirt gun from the trunk and squirted him with it. As I went to put the squirt gun back. He put the car in reverse ( angry at me) and slammed me, pinching me between his car and another car. Overextending my already shattered knee. So obviously I was angry, or furious. Fortunatly I was also wearing Christ't name on my shirt. So as he got out of the car, instead of taking his life. As i had planned, I just let it go. But later that night I got thinking about it. And this is my message for the week. That each sunday we take upon the name of Christ and covenant to always remember him. We always need to make our actions reflect that. I hope I can remember that more, especially after my 2 years is up. But really just pretend you are wearing his name on your chest, and then live like he would want you too.

      Peace, Love, and Telliride Colorado is Beautiful I'll be taking a trip there :)

Elder Rushton

Oh and I caugth my self a great looking frog last night :) and made a nice cage out of some ktichen pots. Well Elder Draper like always decided to do his own this and slept on the couch, well God gave him a good wake up call when little froggy jumped out of his cage and on to Elder Drapers face haha. He has now been release in to the pond no worries, and the frog is still in the pot in the Kitchen.

Love again

Doing the exact same stuff.

April 9, 2012

So this week,

                                                              was another week in Holland, Michigan.

                                                                                                                                                              with this same to Elders

            Doing the exact same stuff.

No this week was pretty good. To start, we changed our aproach alittle bit and decided to do more lessons on the door steps when we knock into people. If they are willing to listen they might as well hear a message right. So we slaughtered this new neighborhood we are tracting in and got 39 lessons for the week. Which is also a district high. But this new neighborhood everyone is white so basically we will be turning them all over to the other missionaries soon... hmmm bummer.

     The rest of the week not sure what happened so I guess I'll just walk you through a normal day. Or what was supposed to be a "normal day. Saturday was here and gone in the wink of an eye, but it left me taxed for the day. So just like everyother night I knelt and prayed, then flopped down upon my not so cumffy, not so soft, plastic, and short by about 2 inches air mattress. After recounting all the experiances and doing a mental cleanse of my body (thanks Deb) I finally fell asleep. Well maybe asleep, because just like everyother night, I toss and turn on a squicky plastic bed that doesn't breath at all below you. Leaving the top half of me like frozen chicken and the bottem like I'm on slow roast. And yet still as I sleep the morning always comes to early to the shreakingly anoying alarm, that sounds off yelling with trumpets in the background "Good Morning".... its a paradox, it tells me good morning while it only makes mine worse. Getting up out of bed, I head to the living room to plop back down on the coach, grab my rubix cube and begin to wake my mind with its bogaling colors.  As i do this Elder Draper, gets out of bed, lays down on the coach and goes back to bed, a pretty usual routine, that keeps him asleep till a while past study time, but because he did, at 6:30 get out of bed, he fills justified by sleeping on the couch.

     Now Elder Draper getting up so that he can grab something out of the bathroom, begins to grumble and Elder Villalobos said something that apparently didn't sit to well with him. At the same time, I put the phone, with that alarm still turned on under his pillow. Elder Draper already mad laid back down, and as the alarm went off acouple minutes latter. The phone left the palm of a steamingly mad Elder Drapers hand, to Smash against the window.  Sorry we actually have to leave soon appartently so I'll summerize the rest.

    The rest of the morning went well until we got to talk to the bishop, Elder Villalobos not agreeing with what he said exploeded and next thing we know we've got an Elder and the Bishop yelling at each other.

    After church we went to a penticostal branch, because of an investigator. Wow I've never been somewhere that honestly preached the word of God from the mouth of Satan, but I found it. The pastor tore apart the Mormon and Cathlocs and said that Mormons have no Martyrs. HMM he never really did his reaserch did he. Well we left before the program finish, not wanting to hear anymore. Later that night we went on trade offs. And Elder Draper took the bike keys on accident. So me and Elder Villalobos had to ride attached together everywhere we went. Pretty dope, and when we went and taught this man we asked him to pray and he broke out in full out song. Us laughing so hard we were crying, at the end of his pray we had to come up with the excuse that it moved us to tears. I love all of you and hope you have amazing days this week :)

What is wrong with Missionaries?

April 2, 2012

Well this week has been pretty good. Nothing really new to be honest, sorry. But overall it has been good. Today is P day, but also we have appartment checks coming up and they told us we needed to do an overhaul, so as me and Elder Draper cleaned all day, Elder Villalobos wrote letters, I was ready to kill him, this week with him has been kindof a pain. I'm ready to bounce out of Michigan and go were I'm supposed to be :) No he is alright, but the longer your with some one I guess the more you notice how wrong they are. But hey that means I need to work on my self to I guess. So yeah, I did a crazy amount of cleaning today. Threw away over 4 years of old food, pans, couches, and old missionaries crap. I was sick of it all :) so I figured I would change it. It looks way good now.

Also this week I went on splits with Elder Draper and a new elder, Elder Christiansen. We went out to Grandrapids, and it was great. I kindof lead out as neither of them were very confedent or competent :) but it was great. I was able to do my own thing, and kind of step out from what my trainer taught me. I got to make alot stronger invitations, and gave alot of trust in the lord. It worked great though, I got one guy to pray for the truth infront of us, and promising him he would recieve it, he did. And haha I made this girl kneel with us one her front porch :) (what is wrong with missionaries, we really are wierd) it was pretty funny but I enjoyed it. It made her really show that she wanted an answer and was willing and humble to recieve one. One problem around here is satan has such a hold on people, as Nephi says, Satan teaches a man not to pray, So many people aren't willing to pray or are scared to do it.

       So now quick story time before spiritual stuff. This week we were headed to an investigators house to return his machette he loaned us. So me on my bike, Machette in hand riding down the street, figured I'd have some fun. Well seeing Elder Draper just aways ahead of me, I slowly aproached, stealthly crouching down on my bicycle and leaning way out in front of my bike, one hand steadying the Buck Tweed, 2 speed, Crime stopper, star hopper bicycle as the other gripped my shinning ( very rusted ), sharp ( very dull), dubbled edged, golden hilt sword (in reality, no edge, decaying wooden grip, and hard to call it more then a flattened piece of metal). Well sneakily I edged closer, narrowing the gap between me and the victim. as I rode Elder Draper caught a sniff of the mischief and turned his head ever so slightly, as to see me from the edge of his vision. seeing me, my bike, my sword, and lastly my intentions he quickly speed up. Me having no reall power in the tetering possition I was in, leaned alittle harder peddled a little faster and tryied to make up the distance I could. But as my mind and legs raced... My bike couldn't keep it's cool and decided to give up the ghost, and as the front tire drastically veared from course, I realized very quickly my buck tweed bicycle was in for a crash landing. Leaping into the air. Throwing myself forward and away from the bicycle, I layed out in a perfect horizontal posistion as I went over what I wanted to do next. Seeing the glimmer of the edge of my sword, and seeing the ground coming ever closer. I acted quickly and out of most sheer response from being very season in the art of crashing, seeing as I never land really anything on skis. Well with one triumphant movement, I tossed the sword to the side, slapping both palms to the ground, I twisted and flipped, corkscrewing my back to the ground. Bouncing once, then twice, then finally skidding to a stop. I got up on my back. Looked around, and walla I looked great felt great, not a scratch on me. And bam, I guess since the last time I crashed a bike and broke out my teeth I learned a thing or two.

    Well now alittle bit of spiritual stuff. Mostly just a couple thoughts from conference. So listening to conference and specifically the talk by President Monson, I started to think about the 13th chapter of first nephi. Were Nephi explains how an angel showed him how satan had taken control of men, by using the bible and taking out many of the plain and precious things. Now looking at this day and age, Satan has done that with alot more than just the bible. Look at all our time, taken up by the media, work, and life. Look at all our peace taken up by phones, internet, and instant demand. Satan takes the simple, plain, and precious things and by tweaking them he makes us follow him. As we lose our time, we can no longer be with our family, or be in the quite to hear the whisperings of the spirit. As the peace is gone from our lives we no longer can meditate on the lord, and as Satan does this, the worst part is we don't realize and we let him. Just as everyone here in Holland that says there is no way Satan has taken anything from the bible, people thinking that these things could in no way be influenced by Satan. And true there is good that comes with them, but it is only as we take that good and control it that we can stay away from the chains of Hell and the influence of darkness. One other thing is about the priesthood, it is really a simple principle, just one I had overlooked I guess. The preisthood as Elder Bednar mentioned is to bring to pass eternal life and salvation. So as we use the Priesthood, to bless others lives, we are helping them with there salvation. Anything done with the priesthood, backed by good is for the saving of man and his eternal life. Kinda cool :)

 Anyways I love you all tons. I'm jelous of all the snow you guys have, this week it actually got way cold, but it is way hot again now haha :) so lifes good, and I'm going forth in the work. I got both packages and I love them :) thank you, this morning I made myself a Smoked steelhead, green onion, creamcheese Omlet. By far the best thing I've eaten in 3 months. I actually do pretty good cooking, I may not have done it much, but I watched enough on the cooking channel and I've seen you do it momma. Thank you all so much for the support and love out here. It helps aton.

Peace, love, and reread conference :)

Elder Rushton