Yep Costco!

Well fortunatly today, went really well. That is we woke up on a p day, got dressed and drove to Costco... Yep Costco. Thank goodness. It felt like home, its been a long time since I´ve been there. The only problem is that it is my week to buy the food. My companion started throwing food in the cart like it was black friday, and when all said and done we came out of there at 1300 pesos, like 100 dollars. Well he will be doing all the shopping for this month, but we shouldnt need much, So thats nice. But we got a pizza while we were there, they also have jalepenos in the mexico costcos, so the pizza was way good. Mostly everything there is like the states though. Except in spanish, and usually the brands arent as nice.

Well this week has been good, I got my first letter here in TJ actually 2 from gramsy and one from you guys, and my package from Deb. Thanks debbie everything is great. My feet feel alot better with the orthotics, I actually havent tried out the new shoes yet, I´m to proud of how they look haha, but I´ll break them in this week. They are sweet though. and how do I use the powder? I´m not really sure what to do with it. Mix it with water or just put it on my feet. Fortunatly I´m pretty used to blisters by now but I¨ll start to try to change that. I have had blisters on my feet since the first week here, and they just keep coming. But hey I´m not here to be comfortable and live like a king, The Lord is my strenght and really my feet don´t hurt much, I´m blessed by God that everything is going well. This week also, I´m guessing there is flees in my bed, or something like that. One of my shoulders has like 30 bites on it, and they itch like the dickens. I´ve been using alittle bit of lavender oil on  them but mostly just ask god that they don´t itch... and they don´t usually. So today, I´m washing my sheets, thank goodness... Ahh man, I just remembered I forgot to wash my towell :(.

We also went and did some service this week, there was a cement floor like 30X20 that a inactive member wanted torn up. So we went over there to do it. It wasnt bad, but the only tools we had were a shovel and a pick(well an oversized piece of rebar) so it took some serious work to get it all up. And I was the only one strong enough to actually tear apart the concrete.(Because only my companion and 2 kids were helping) and I was also the only one that knew how to use a shovel. So I did alot of work. But I enjoyed it all. My companion started working, and he hasnt done much before so he got 12 blisters on one hand haha how terrible eh:). But the service went well.

This week had its ups and its downs though. We had a date for baptism with a man (30 years old) for this wednesday) but a couple days after we tought the law of chastity, he chikened out. He says he doesnt want to give up the women, he name is estephan, its wierd because he quite smoking and drinking and everything... well in time I guess. The good part is that one of our investigators that we have had for 6 weeks now, Christina we went over there yesterday, and brought along a member. They both got along really well and she opened up to him, something she wouldnt do for use. Her doubts about bap. were that she didnt´want to quite dancing and didnt want to get married was fast. She thought that, we didnt dance and that if you were mormon you needed to get married way soon. haha, well after explaining that this isn´t the case, she will be baptised this wednesday. hopefully along with a girl named chuwe, like chewey, its a little wierd thats the nik name for Jesus. hmmm, how respectful.... Anyways, her records are lost so we will baptise her again haha caching caching haha:)

Anyways, to end the letter, I´ll do it with the wildlife here. This week I was futunate to see the beuatiful wildlife of TJ in its natural habitat. That is as a dog crossed the highway it was struck by a car, and as it flew about 100 meters, The person in the car began to honk at the dog like it would help it in the air.. well thats one habitat. The other was the nice cat that was under the car, as two dogs began to prowell, they cornered the cat, and as one grabbed it by its head the other by its feet they started to yank and yank, the cat screaming, and screaming. and then... the silence.. hmmm the beauty of animals living there lifes right here in TJ. man they are blessed.

Well peace, love, and Well I pray lots for all of you

Elder Rushton

Peace, Love, and The gospel is true

Alright, This time I did it right. We had two baptisms this week, They both went well smooth. The first Christina, was way ready. And it was way cool to Baptize her, The other good part was that she only weighed like 100 pounds so, I was a nice break from the other one. Fortunatly when god thows you down, he is always there to pick you back up to.
       I wish I had some stories from this week, or some stories about our investigators but we have none 0 zilch nada. And its hard, we knock alot of doors but need to knock more, and we do alot of walking but need to walk more. The area is huge, but the best place we think to find people is on the other end of the area, Its the poorest part, The people don´t have shoes, they steal electricity with barb wire wrapped around the electrical lines, and they don´t shower are clean anything. So it is perfect for finding new people. .. We hope. This week went well over all though. We had a day were we went to help out a different area, all of the zone was there and we went and knocked everything, it was actually way fun. I was with an Elder from Cali. Elder Mayo, and though he was alittle wierd, He trusted in God aton and so we got along well. Thats one thing that drives me crazy in my companionship right now. Is that we don´t pray... ever. like twice a day. So I pray alot in my head but we would have more success for sure if we used God more. but my companion is good. And I´ll be switching to a different one in 4 weeks here. So I don´t have to much more.
       Our other investigators are Melissa and Zochi, and one more in that house hold that I don´t know her name. Mellisa is 16 and has a kid, the other girl is 17 and has 1 kid, and lost 1 kid. That is pretty normal for TJ, If you are 17 and haven´t had a kid its pretty unuasul. And its not really frowned upon to be 16 and pregnant here, so people don´t tryto prevent it from happening. They don´t have plans for there lives so they figure way not have a kid. Its pretty lame, after that they can´t do anything. Anyways, the lessons with them have gone well, but they always have stuff to do on sundays so we arent making any progress with them. We have one date for baptism Juan, but he is pretty scared for some reason to be baptised, also another investigator is Maria Montiel. She is the mother of a member, and wants to be baptised, then the next day no, then yes, no yes no. So its been a struggle with her. And so we don´t teach Juan or maria much. There are other people her prepared to be baptised we just need to find them. That can be pretty hard though.
     The other good.... terrible part of this week is that it has been 110 degrees here, most the week. Not sure why people keep saying that the sun is exploding or something like that. but it is hot... hot hot... and I always were glasses, I have worn contact 2 times in the last 4 months. But with the heat and so much sweat they don´t stay on my face very well. But life is great. Oh and no I haven´t gotten anymore letters, but no worries they will come. But could you guys attach the picture maddie took of the BNTfl. temple in an email. And get Isaac to send me some pics of me and will climbing mountains and stuff. That one is important. The kid is doing good but keeps asking for them.
   Anyways, sorry the letter is short today, Life is good, and Im happy and healthy.

Peace, Love, and The gospel is true

The kite graveyard, Christina, and Yep its all true, Christ lives and reigns

Peace, love, and Mexico.... hmmm

Well another good week here in Terrazas. Lovin life here actually. Elder Ventura is way cool and so I´ve enjoyed the time we have had a companions. He is old so he knows alot and comes from oxaca and it seems like a pretty sweet place. He had a pretty hard life growing up but is a convert to the church 10 years back and no has a way strong testimony. When he grew up he didn´t have much money so somedays for food his dad would just put serrano peppers in water and some salt and lime juice like a broth. So we eat that at the house pretty often. It burn like the dickens but its pretty good. After we ate all the peppers he drank allitle of the juice, so just to be dumb (and I mean really dumb) I put the rest of the juice in my mouth and gargaled the peppers haha. Man those peppers burn. But its fun, people think I´ve got mexican decent because I like peppers. then I tell them that my father told me it would grow hair on my chest, nd I wanted to be a man. (Well I´m trying)

This week we had a bunch of highs and a bunch of lows. We found a new family that has 4 kids and the dad. They are all way excited to hear more. It actually turned out to be a funny week because we didn´t contact we had 14 new investigators with 12 contact, when we need to have 30-60. but because our numbers where good the leaders couldn´t chew us out haha. We worked hard but we just didn´t contact, in all honesty its feckless. Thats why they are switching it. ( they haven´t switched us over to straight member referals yet) We have been working with a bunch of people this week we had 12 that promised to go to church, and had rides for all twelve. Sunday morning came and we headed out to visit them before church, and one by one they all fell through. out of 12, 2 came to church. what a terrible ratio. But one of them is Broulio who we are going to baptise at the end of this week. A way cool kid, and way strong in the gosple so far, he read aton of the bofm and the pamphletes and stuff. I´ll be happy to see him baptised. Thats the power of the holy ghost...and a girl friend that a way strong member to drag you to church:)

Hmmm well someguy just came in the computer room and smashed a computer???? not really sure his purpose but he it was pretty weird. Just ran in grabbed a computer and threw it on the floor???? Mexico??? what ever happened to logic????  This week another lame thing happened to. We were sitting there at our desk studying when all of the sudden, we got a phone call asking where we were. Then the zone leaders told us they forgot to tell us but we had a zone conference with the assistants and the president. and it started 10 minutes ago. Well? thanks guys. We called up a member and fortunatly got there quick but still pretty lame. The conference went well, alot of it was on shutting our hearts, 4 missionaries got sent home this week. pretty lame to see people make bad decisions especially on the mission. They lose all there blessings and share a bad image of the church. in Mexico they leave at 18 for there missions and its suprising but that extra year cuts down alot on their maturity. So in the mission here you see that the people from the states have better leadership and follow alot better. Not always the case but usually.

Other bummer of the week, we have a 15 yr. old girl that has a kid and her husband but they aren´t married, she is named korina. and yeah we have taught her alot. this week I was way honest with her, and I laid it down like it was, She is scared to talk to her husband about marriage because he always says he doesn´t want it, so I told her just that, she took it way well and they both a progressing aton. But once again they didn´t come to church, we waisted a ton of time with them and so it was a huge let down. We had a family home evening and watch other side of heanen. All in all I was way bummed out. Of all the people I wan´t to see baptised right now it is her. Its just lame to see that they don´t have dreams or ambition in life, and the gospel changes all that.

Ohh haha, well my story for the week. We contacted a girl named natalie, as we sat outside her house, she appeared to be way interested. Even as the 7 people inside smoked weed, she stayed outside and played with her kid. We taught her a bit, and had huge hopes. She seemed golden, come to find out we went with her neighbor yesterday, and she said that natalie had passed by asking for me, said I was handsome and that she like me aton. When we found out about that, we laughed aton. It happens alot down here, but we´ve never fallen for it before. (and we thought she was golden) well another investigator dropped. Unlike alot of elders here, I´m not into baptising like that haha:)

Love you all
Peace, love, and Mexico.... hmmm

Sorry

Hey pops, I love you. Sorry That I didn´t write yesterday, we didn´t have anytime. we actaully were out of the area all day. In the morning we went to the offices to have a leadership training conference for Elder Venture, then after we went to sears, Were I bought a new suit. For 70 It was originally 200 So I was happy about that. Its pretty good looking. To get back to our area we took a 2 hour bus ride, and we had an interview with somebody from fuentes for a baptism. It went really well, As my companion did the interview I talked to the mother and allthough she isnt taking the lessons right now I had a very, very spiritual lesson with her. She was  crying and I was  close. This week, has been the best week in along time, and unfortunatly I don´t have time to write about it :) but I love you guys. We went to the ground breaking ceremony of the temple, it was 100 degrees and we were outside in the sun standing there for 5 hours, so that part was bad but the spirit was way strong there, and I gained a stronger testimony of temples. From there we went and had a lesson with 2 people Korina and Edwardo she is 15 with a 1 year old girl. They love the church and want to change but are scared to get married. So we talked alot about marriage and i was impressed to talk about temple... wham another huge spritual moment in the week. I don´t know if they felt it like I did but I was close to tears there too. Temple are the house of God... Case Closed. I love you all and so sorry that I don´t have time to write, I´ll try to get you a letter this week, I´ve been working on one for grams for 3 weeks now. I´m really bad at writing letters, It takes me along time haha. cuz I write for like 10 min 10 different days haha. Oh and I actually I´m getting letters now. I got 3 more this week, and a card from grams. Love you gramsy.
Peace love and Sorry :) but I´m working hard

Hey you out there in the cold.

Greasy food, wahoo!

Baptism

Nefi and Elder Morales

Well he died, Elder Morales, yep is gone. So now I have Elder Vintura, another elder from the offices, He just came out of the hands of the president. So I´m starting to catch on... The president sending the best Elders here, because I´m the worst and he is trying to get me to be better, or something like that. So hey I´ll work harder right :) No I´m working hard, and actually I´m on the good side of the Pres. So its just good luck that I got another good Elder. And by that I´mean God is watching out for me and love me tons haha.

     Sorry if the letter doesn´t make alot of sense, its been 110 degrees here the last couple of days and 90 degrees in the nights, So I havent slept... at all, I sit up in my bed all night and absoulutly roast myself to death. Fortunatly the president gave me permission today to buy a fan, so Hopefully its better tonight. I also went to the offices and got more letters :) I think I´m actually all daught up. I got letters that were sent in august... no way crazy huh. Its weird though cuz I got some letters from august but your letter that you sent three times. I got the pouch but not the other one. Oh and if you put together a package would you send me vitamins. I have looked everywhere for vitamins, and there are none. not even in costco. The people have no idea what healthy is here. I´m dying because I eat the exact same chiken with out any vitamins everyday. But this week I actually went to the house of sister verlinden, she is one of the sister couple missionaries in the mission, and invited us over before Elder morales went home. and we ate salad, and brussel sprouts. mmmm felt like home. It was way good. She is sweet, and knows 6 languages, and is from sweden, she is like 77.

     allright, off the part of my letter that makes alittle more sense.  So last week, we had what we thought was a disaster happen. One of our investigators came home drinking and hit one of his kids, and so his wife. or partner left him. his name is Ivan. Well he moved out of the home, and they fixed their relationship. It was the first time that he has drunk in 6 months and hs actually has a way strong testimony of the chruch. He has been going for along time now. But because he wasnt married he couldn´t get baptised. Well with this fight he moved out, So this Saturday we got the chance to baptised him. He is going to get married in 1 month and it really is a blessing from God that all this happened. I won´t attribute the abuse or Drinking to God but everything has an order, and God is behind it all. Its absulutely amazing to see the hand of god placed in all thing.

     as far as news goes that as new as it gets. Elder venturi or something like that, is pretty cool. and It´ll be another great experience to be with him. Elder Mills the assistant here, is returning to Bntfl. this week. so with some luck youll run into him and he´ll tell you how it is. Benjamin mills, look him up on facebook and say hi.


Pictures,
baptism
Nefi a youth here, and Elder morales
and the next one... well thats my food, and there is just way to much grease here.

Peace love and Yellowstone sounds sweat right now.

Everything is Alright!!

By 6 oclock in the afternoon we had worked with to members all day, passing by all the lessons we were going to have, only to find empty houses, and shattered hopes. So as we rode the calafia ( bus but more ghetto ) up to the zone leaders area, I was a little bummed out. Seeing that we had 0 lessons for the day, and Elder Morales was going to leave the sector to give a baptismal interview for other missionaries. My day was going down hill fast. As we arrived at the stake center more bad news came. The other missionaries were going to be late. Waiting there for 30 minutes, I devised a plan to leave with a member back to the area to work alittle more before the night closed out. Yet once the other missionaries came they just wanted to sit and chat. Wasting more and more of my time. Honestly I was feed up. To watch as the leaders, my example waisted time. And when I told them our situation they said no worries. There are exeptions.  Well taking control of the situation, I told them there was no exeptions and that I was headed back to my area to work, and I took a member with me. As there was no Calafia back to my area, we started the trudge home. and just as I entered Real de San Fransisco I realized that I didn´t have the phone nor anyway to communicate with the other Elders. Well going on pure faith I figured God would handle it. We left to go see the appointments we had in this area. First door...empty...second house...empty....third appointment....gone...so on and so forth. As we passed by the appointments we had finding no one to be home. My hopes only sank deeper and deeper, fearing I had done wrong and acted off of my emotions and nothing more I felt like I had failed big time. So seeing as everything had gone bad I figured I´d try to get ahold of Elder Morales to see how to meet back up. Well the same thing happened over and over again. The phones didn´t have minutes. The members werent home. Until litteraly we had but one option left, that was the house of Ivan Peredez. whose partner´s mom just showed up from Hondurus. As we entered the house, they also had no more minutes. But out as we turned to leave. The mother in law came out of the other room. and asked us to give her a blessing. She was really sick with pneumonia. The coolest part was that she said she had started praying 10 minutes before we showed up. And she said the whole time whe was praying that we would come. God works... and when he wants to he works fast. His children are important. and sometimes to help them he lets his missionaries have terrible days :) but in the end he knows they will be extremely grateful and very proud to be used as his hands and trusted servents here on the earth.

    The lord is there, God is your father, and never... never doubt in his love nor eternal grace.
     Im keeping it short, just the spiritual this week. Hopefully you guys can imagine how impressive, and amazing our God is.

Peace, Love, and I got 4 letters from my fam, one from becca, 1 card from gramsy and 1 package from the angelbuers :) the first mail so far in TJ haha. just 3 months late :) I love you all tons. and I loved the letters

X Marks the Spot

JULY 30  (sorry I forgot to post TR)

Allright, well I just read through my email, and well all is well but I feel terrible about Taylors mom, so hopefully this email will stay positive but I´m not sure. To start another week down, and I just passed my 7 month mark, so thats pretty cool I´ve been out for a little while now. Still though I´ve got aton more left, which is good, I love being out here. The life here is good, actually great. And fortunatly it hasn´t been terrible weather here, so its been allright. As far as your letters go I haven´t recieved anything. Not really sure, maybe you send them to the wrong place, or they really are on a slow boat to china. But Yeah I haven´t got any. Some post cards froms gramsy, and 1 letter from the family. So I´m alittle bit out of the loop, not really sure whats going on at home. But I´m hopeing everything is going allright. Dad that stinks about the computer, I wish I could have been home to save it for you. And Z I´ll deffinetly be smaller then you when I get home so, take it easy on my, all the times I hit you were out of love :)

     Well this actually happened acouple weeks ago but I kept forgetting to write it to you guys, Everything is in my journal no worries, I write in it every day. But we were with an investigator and she has been saying no to praying infront of us for along time. And usually if they don´t pray in front of you they don´t pray at all. So we were talking to her for awhile then I pulled out a scripture in 2 nephi 32 That talks about pray and that when you feel like you shouldn´t pray or don´t want to pray that comes from the devil. Well woops, she was pretty silent. But we thought nothing of it. The next time we passed by she wouldn´t come out, and her mom kept saying oh no worries there was just a misunderstanding... We didn´t know what happened. This kept going for a couple of days, then finally she came out one day, and said what happened, and that after I said that she started to feel way guilty... I felt kinda bad and appologized to smooth everything over. In the end everything was allright, but It taught me alot about the spirit and how much guilt it can bring to someone. It was a bad experiance for her, but it was a good one for me haha woops. ( her name is xochi)

     Next story this week we went to the birthday party of one of the members, his name is cristofer and he turned 14. He is way cool, actually his family is way cool. And his parents will be getting married in september so that his dad can be baptised. Which also is way cool, I´m way glad to see that he will be getting baptised. He has a big testimony and really is trying to change his life around, and strengthen his family. Well while we were there we had some fun. I put a battery and a transformer on my tounge, nose, ear, hand, and well yeah you get the point. It was pretty fun, hurt like the dickens but it was fun. No one else would touch it haha. But I started to talk to a man there, he is the brother of the dad. and really I don´t know his name. Well he grew up in guatamala, in the church, was always helping the missionaries, and had a strong testimony of the church, he still has all his stuff from the book of mormon, to his other papers, and cherishes all the memories... But somewhere he went astray, He came to TJ and attended for three months then switched to an apostolic church, he still has a good knowledge of the gospel but has denied all of his testimony of it. Anyways, he is a way chill guy, after I talked to him, I went home and prayed for him, thinking that it would make me feel better about his situation, i still felt terrible and way sad for him. Well in the end, I didn´t sleep at all that night, all night long I sat up thinking about him, I don´t think I have ever felt so sad for someone else, or myself for that matter. I am close to alot of people here, and care for there salvation. But for some reason his soul and his salvation really worries my, I´m not sure what to do about it. He doesn´t live he, so I¨ll just keep praying. But I¨m hoping for a maricle, It absolutly chrushes me to see that someone could forget what once was true and head down the path that will only bring them misery and hurt.

      Last story.... We had been walking for what seemed like forever... Really we had been trying to find a referal for over 3 hours, and had walked over all this mountian to try to find the street. The problem is that the entire colony were this person lives, is illegal, and huge. So there really are no streets, just legends of names, and badly written treasure maps. So as we looked for x marks the spot, in the 110 degree weather, sweating like a pig.. or better yet, like an animal that actually sweats. We came to the top of a house ( being on the top of a mountian) Wanting water, we knocked... and they let us in. Her name is Corina, she hates people that preach, she never lets them in. She doesn´t like to listen to things about god and she is fine with her own ways. Yet when we knocked she felt something different. She let us in, she liked what we said, and now is through 2nd nephi in just 2 weeks of knowing her. Maricles happen, and this is a maricle. She´ll be baptised but unfortunatly she needs to get married first. So she is getting married in september and I´ll baptise her then. God is here, he is preparing the people, He loves them and has sent me to find them. I hope I´m making him proud.

Peace, Love, and My family rocks