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