Chosen heir to witness for His name

Alright, I'm here haha

    Now what.

 This place is crazy, not like Michigan thats for sure. Right now I'm in some little store paying for the internet, I only have a minute so this wont be to long. But this place is great, I love it here. My companion is Elder Morales, he was one of the AP's and now he has 3 months left on the mission. Right now he is the district leader. Sorry if I spell alot wrong also, everything is underlined in red and the keys all have pop in them so they are hard to push. Im in an area in TJ called Tarazas, there is 100 missionaries in TJ so its pretty likely to be sent to one of the areas. I wish I could send pictures but we can't really get our cameras out to take pictures mine is hidden away in the house. Right below the shattered out window haha. No worries everything in our house is bared up now. And so is the church. Way different then the states. The church has big gates around the entire thing haha. Crazy. It is the only nice building here, and its way nice. We live away from most the trouble but our area is huge so we walk miles and miles and miles everyday again its the biggest here. Everywhere there is garbage graffiti, everything has big gates and spikes. The dogs are all dead, or dying. Really though, Their is quite the share of dead dogs in the road haha. Spiders are... everywhere in the house, because really there is no way to keep them out, and we don't have anything to put clothes in so I live out of my suitcases.

On the bright side, this place is sweet. I arrived and the president is way nice and I was the only person who could talk to him... no one else practiced spanish. So it was good, I got to know him pretty well. It's funny there is another kid from Bntfl. here. Elder Benjamin Mills. I played football with him. He is an AP right now. We eat at 2 with  a member which saves me money cause we really don't eat dinner. So I'll lose some weight and breakfast is a bowl of cereal.

As far as the people here they all speak spanish... so ... no its actually coming along well. I zone off quite a bit. But I know what they are saying and if pretend they are aliens and do alot of hand signals and move my mouth really big. No haha I actually do pretty well, there is times where I have no idea whats happening but for the most part its not bad. I can get my point across and so that is nice. It'll take some time but it is coming along.

We white washed the area (they brought both elders out and put in 2 new elders) so we don't have aton of investigators. But the 2 they gave us were both pretty good. 1 cool moment this week was we were in a lesson with Marie Montiel and she in the past didn't want to get baptised. We talked to her about it and she said it was just to soon and she needed to know more. So I asked her to have faith because we did and if we all got down on our knees right then and she prayed about it she would know it was right..... Bam and then tit cam to pass. She got up and said she felt all calm and nice. Thats a pretty clear answer, She will be baptised the 9th if all goes right. We have one other ready for baptism the 9th also which will be pretty cool, I hope they both make it.

As far as funny moments this week go. IDK sorry, its just been all good. this place is way different way dirty, gross smelly, hot, dangerous, foureign and most of all it is ready for the gospel, the people here need it and are just waiting for us to bring it to them. What an amazing experiane and opportunity I have at my finger tips to be the person these people need. To preach the word of God and share the light and love of Christ. This is the best place in the world because this is where I was called. Chosen heir to witness of his name.

I love you all tons and hope that life there is great

Peace, Love, and if anyone has a daughter around the age of 17-22 :) I'm only just a email, plus a couple week away.

Andrew Rushton

av. sonora #3805

 local 7 y 8 fracc. chapultepec campestre c.p 22420

Tijuana Baja California Norte

Parents if you would please put my San Diego Address with that also. Just in case there are in women out there :)

Again with love,

Elder Rushton

Out of this place. !Viva la Mexico!

As I get home from work thinking to myself, I'm so tired, I worked so long, and I just want a good beer, a smoke, and to watch some TV. I take off my sweaty shirt and let my hairy, and I mean chubakka type hairy, belly fall over the top of my Camo pants, I grab a cold one from the fridge, pop the top, lay back and salavate at the mist off the top of my beer. I flip the TV on, and "WAP, WAP, WAP,WAP,WAP,WAP" Who the heck would knock so freeaking loud and so many times. Great now I have to drag my fat but off this couch. 'Who is knocking anyways, is 6 in the freaking after noon and a million degrees outside... Oh great I don't even have a shirt on... ahh whatever, lets just see who it is. As I open the door... You must be freaking kidding me, what are these 2 kids doing with white shirts and ties, and what does his name tag even say... Is that spanish, who do they think they are

"Hello sir, I'm Elder Rushton and we are miss....."

haha You must be kidding me, missionaries

"Well hey, I'm already saved so have a nice day"

"I'm baptist and I'm staying baptist"

Slam!!!!

Rejection once again

A day and a life in the eyes of some one we knock into to.... Everyone we knock into. The same old baptist, drunk, I've already been saved junk :) But Some times we get blessed. Actually this week we got blessed.

We had one day that we picked up 3 new investigators. It was sweet. I had 2 pretty fun moments this week. One it was the end of the day, both of us were starving and walking to McDonalds just trying to get some food in us. We were about a mile away, and we were walking across a rail road track. I looked down the track and saw 4 guys standing down there. Not thinking much, I kept walking then, thinking I can't just leave them there, I told Elder Welch we were walking down the track. He gave me a crazy look and told me it was one of my "revelations" again, mocking me. As we got up to the guys one latino was off talking on his phone and then there was 3 guys smoking and I'm guessing homeless. Talking to them was going no where, they just wanted to know when the world was ending. But I turned to the latino and when he got off the phone picked up a conversation with him. By the time I left I had taught him the first lesson and he was way excited about it. He had Mormon friends down in Mexico. I don't know if anything will come from it but It was a cool experience.

The next day was half mission P-day, we drove a couple hours in the morning played football, kickball, and ran around. All the missionaries learned that we weren't in shape. And by the time we got home me and Elder Welch were tired... dead tired. We changed and went to a members house for diner. As mine and Elder Welchs muscles ached and killed we sat at dinner, hoping we wouldn't have to walk home. But right before we left, and right as they offered us a ride. I had the feeling we should walk home. So I said we were alright. We started walking home and each person that rejected us as we walked Elder Welch would turn and smile "sick revelation bro" haha laughing at me. Well at the very end of my faith and being turned down by everybody, We entered into our apartment parking lot. This black guy got out of his car, looking completely uninterested and like he had seen us a million times. Honestly not really wanting to talk to him, but wanting to be able to say I tried when I asked God for help that night, and that I had done what I could. I turned to him, striking up a conversation. We taught him a couple things about the church, one being the word of wisdom. The conversation just went that way and the spirit directed it. So we took it that way. He loved it, asked us if we could talk again and unfortunatly he got called in to work when we had our last appointment with him but he seems like a miracle to me.

I love you all, I leave to TJ tomorrow in the morning, My bags are packed and I'm ready to go :)

I'm done with this place, Leaving Michigan behind. Forever... Until me and Sammy come back :) Right Sammy, You'll have to show me the good side of this place.

Peace, Love, and I'll miss the people, can't say much for the place

Elder Rushton

I'm finally out of HERE!!!! TJ here I come.

Travel Iterinerary check, Mothers day phone call check, P day shopping check, P day emails check, Missionary work check, Door knocking check, Finally have a car check, using tons of faith check, being in line with God check, Working hard check, .... check,...check... check...check.................

. Any succes [ ] Hmmm nothing for that box eh, The week went well, the work went well, the people are nice, and yet nothing...nothing is happening in Owosso Michigan, The whole town is on a slippery slide..... more like a very bumpy, moist, warm road... to hell. The one uplifting thought, is that there must be somebody we are supposed to find, or else we would be here, and there must be something good about the town or else God wouldn't have kept it around.

        

      So for those who read this letter and aren't in my family, I talked to my parents for a while yesterday, it was great to hear their voices, and because I talked to them on the phone there really is no new update sorry...

     No I think I can scrounge something up, this week we did have one pretty cool moment. Which I think is this week but maybe I sent it last week to... not sure. An Investigator named Bob Tracey, he has been meeting with the Elders for 2 years now, and honestly has gone no where. But me and Elder Welch started really working him hard, trying to see if, by being persistent and more then anything, not answering his questions in full but showing him where he could find the, we could change him. He smokes alot, doesn't have a job, has a warrent for his arrest, drinks easily 4 pots of coffee a day(48 cups, 5000mg of caffeine) isn't married and on top of all this said, he doesn't have a desire to quite anything and he told us last week that he didn't even understand why coffee was bad. We have been trying to work with him so that he will have a desire, and Last time I told him that as he changes the little things in his life first, the spirit will be with him more, and then he will be able to feel guilt for his sins and also be able to change them. Well we left last week, and on the weekend he shined us, but then Tuesday we went back, and he completely surprised us. We started talking to him, and just casually he threw out that he had completely stopped drinking coffee. He says that he had the worst headache ever but, it really is a miracle for him to be able to do that. He also says that he will get married. I won't be around to see any of this, but it is sweet to see that he wants to change.

     Besides that, for those not on the phone yesterday, I weighed myself last night, and I'm up 20 pounds, I'm 190.... whats up haha. Some is muscle, most is fat. From my knee surgery I still have alot of easy muscle to put on in my legs, so biking and walking have put some muscle there, now for the rest of it all though.... most definitely fat. Which is probably a blessing though. I'm sure its just God protecting me from..... My ridiculously good looking .... haha, no its more like God punishing me for not eating right. Yesterday, I ate 6 deep fried Hot dogs, on Hamburger buns (pretty good actually) and aton of fries.... then some ice cream just to make sure everything went down smooth.

    TJ I can't wait for you, I don't want to be feed, I want to only speak Spanish, I don't want to have to explain all this anti-Mormon everything, and more then anything.... You know what... I love it here, I was meant to be here. I just hope I got what I need out of it. I hope I changed the lives or planted the seeds only I could, and really I hope that because of my experience here I'll be a better missionary in Tijuana.

     Oh one more thing, We get the car for 2 weeks then walk for one. Our area is so big though, that just to get the car takes up 100 miles. Then this month the President needed us to drive a couple places to pick up stuff for my Visa. Like Detroit. So we have no miles. And are out of the car for the rest of the time we have it. haha.

     About Detroit, its sweet. The City is crazy and way run down. It looks totally ghetto and nasty, but its a pretty cool city. People are actually generally pretty nice, but all in all I would hate to live there. But the Stadiums are sick. We went past Ford Stadium, Comerica and the Red Wing Stadium.

Peace, Love, and Life is about to Change in Mexico.

Elder Rushton

Shine on

May 7, 2012

Allright,
   This week I haven't got much to say, sorry. To start, I'm doing great, but this area is just sooo slooow. We have like 5 investigators that love to shine us, and ask the same questions over and over again, and so we see them when we can, but this bishop wants us to push less active contacting alot more. So its great to do it, but honestly its not the missionaries work, if the ward did its job we wouldn't have to do it. But its been good talking to them all, although its hard to please both the bishop and the mission president with these demands and the amount of work to be done here.    This coming week though we finally have the car, and so we hopefully won't do anything in owosso and instead go knocking out in the country were it hasn't been worked over a thousand times. This area is funny, people will see you from a mile away and start pulling all their kids inside. Hey Hey people, I was sent from God... but It's cool I was just trying to save your soul, its not like the most important message in the world that I carry or anything.... Kids these
days... What are they thinking???   Me and Elder Welch make the best of it though. We have fun and keep high spirits. The Bishop is probably the best man I've ever met, he is constantly going out seeing people, so of course I'll do what he
asks, and there are alot of good families around here that love the missionaries. Some times to much but me and Elder Welch are working on that to. Everyone around here, I mean everyone is always asking "Where's Elder Coolbear, When do we get to see him""When's he coming back""Man I love Elder Coolbear" Well guess what people just because
you had an Elder that would spend hours at your houses playing cards, watching tv and being your best buddy, doesn't mean he was a good Elder.... Sorry that one has been getting on my nerves :)  Past all this, Life is great. Me and Elder Welch work hard and although the week was slow we had a good time. We got in a couple games of Monopoly, suprisingly quick games, like 30 mins. Which I gave up my journal time to do. I honestly had nothing to write, but past
that, and the food. Which we get a freaking ton of.... I am most deffenitly going to get fat in the next to weeks before I head to TJ. In the words of Cody Ballentyne "I'll send a picture once I can find some baby oil and a speedo" :) haha, see Gramsy he isn't perfect :)OK... He is.  Oh one other thing I love, people here think they are master hunters, then once you start talking to them they bait all there dear, and they chase everything else down with dogs.... Hmmmm seems like
more work going to the grocery store and buying meat there then walking out side and shooting the dear at my feeder.
   Sorry no spiritual thought from the week, 24/7 here is spiritual but nothing really stook out sorry.   Well I love you all, to the moon and back.    Peace, Love, and people have no idea how much better Utah is.

     Elder Rushton

Sometimes the Lord puzzles me.

"Elder Rushton, your Visa has arrived, you'll be leaving the 21st of
May. Until then we need you in Owosso, Michigan, to keep it open. The
Zone Leaders will be there to pick you up in 2 hours so be packed and
ready to go. You'll be white washing Owosso with Elder Welch, are you
O.K. with that"

Well....my mind was blown Elder Welch, Tijuana, Visa, Owosso.... 2
hours. "yep President Hess, what ever you need I'm your man"
Frantically jumping up and down in success, and at the same time
grabbing everything I could to throw in my suit case. So as I did my
Victory dance, power punching and drop kicking most things in the
direction of my suit case, I quickly gathered everything together just
in time for, well not the zone leaders but our lunch appointment.
Because the President had given what he thought to be a generous
amount of time to pack. What he didnt know is that I had lunch in a
half hour so I was fantically "packing" or more poperly termed
stuffing anything that seemed to be mine into my suit cases, and trust
me if packing can be working out. it was. If I did that everyday I
could be on a 10,000 calorie diet and still end up losing weight. Youd
be impressed. For those of you that have seen over the hedge, I was
that squirell and I was jacked up on Mountain Dew... Well out here
really just Jesus I guess.

I'm now in Owosso, Michigan. With Elder Money Monson Welch, born and
raised in B town Bountiful, my man, my fellow champion on our Bantam
Football team. Reunited after years to teach, preach, and set up the
lords offense here in this podunk, red neck, blue mans, town. Love it.
Elder Welch's companion headed home because he got home sick a couple
days out, so to keep the area open, why not use our handy dandy ....
extra piece of meat just hanging out, and not sure what to do with ...
Elder Rushton! It's pretty sick here though. We are White washing the
area, meaning that both of us are brand new to the area. So we now
have a couple days in the area, but still its a pretty big change. We
got white washed in because in the past this area has had problems
with Missionaries just staying at members homes all day.

    So here we are. Lovin it, life is great. We don't have a car, so
we walk aton. And the area is huge. Like 30 miles, so we have a car
one week then the next week nothing. So really its pretty hard to get
alot of lessons, which is pretty lame, and feels like we arent doing
enough here. But we really are working hard, and the best that to 4
month missionaries know how haha. But yeah its kinda lame. We will
walk 2 hours to someones house for them not to be there, so we walk
down the street another half hour to another shined appointment. I
guess it really is though up to the lord, we just have to got to rely
on him. I think this next week will be way different, so next time I
should be able to report good things. We have a couple Investigators
that have been investigating for 3-5 years, so I've been way straight
foreward with them. And honestly I think we can get these cats
baptised. But hey never know.

    We have an investigating family that has given us so much food.
So last night I made myself a nice breading for some Waleye fish and
mmmmmm mmmmmm  good, man I should have gone to colunary school, IDK
why I ever thought surgeon... OK I do, mainly the money... haha no but
I really do love cooking. just not cleaning up, but hey there are some
good things about getting married right. :) just wanted to make sure
you guys didnt think I've changed much out here. I really have though
and it's way fun to be able to see, and just be thankful I'm not where
I was before the mission.

   Little spiritual thoguht. This week we had an investigator, the
same one that gives us the food. Brother Geren and his family, come to
church. The service was really long, there was 2 girls that got up and
talked about family relationships, then the father got up and he has
dislecsia (how ever you spell that, learning Spanish your English goes
to pot) so his talk was really hard to listen to, really jumbled and
also he muttered and stuttered alot. The last talk of the service was
the Stake Pres. Well he did a pretty good talk and one that I could
actually listen to. Well later that night I got the chance to see
Brother Geren again, and I asked him about the service (kinda nervice
thinking he wouldn't like it) but he said that it was a great service,
especially the talk by Brother Rivers and his family. It's absolutely
amazing what the spirit of the lord can do, what a blessing and one
that we look over often. The chapel and the sacrement service really
is an amazing thing and something that carries the spirit very highly,
sometimes in our busy lives and also because of being able to be there
and feel the spirit alot. We become dull to the whispers and pricks of
the spirit. Don't ever become complasent with God our your spiritual
standing.

Oh and to answer a question from an admiring fan ( just for you ) we
are allowed to listen to MoTab, any classical music before 1900, the
EFY songs and CD's, but when it comes down to it, really it is if the
music is condusive to the spirit or not. But my favorite, is Mindy
Gledhill, that girl can sing.

I love you all if you want to send a package this is my new address,
I'll leave may 21st though, and if you want to send me letters you can
send them there or to the mission office. Just if I leave and you send
them to the mission office they will be forewarded to me.

1155 N. Chipman St. #11
Owosso Michigan
48867

Peace, Love, and Miracles Happen

Elder Rushton