This week was awesome!  I think i am finally starting to get used to everything!  Through the ups and the downs i really am enjoying it. I am just staying positive about everything and it really helps. Elder Fonnesbecks birthday was last thursday i made sure he got to blow out a candle haha i was going to sing him happy birthday but i dont think he wanted that haha! So i just gave him a hostess cupcake with a candle sticking out! Sacrament meeting yesterday was well a lot different haha we worked so hard during the week trying to get people to come and it finally payed off we had close to 50 it was awesome to see!  Yesterday we went hiking it was so beautiful!  The red rocks and the waterfalls and everything was so awesome!  Unfortunately the post office is right next to the high school gym and just about everytime i walk passed i hear the sound of basketball!  Shoes squeaking, ball dribbling, scoreboard buzzer.  Its so terrible i want to play so bad!  I finally get to today the whole district is getting together and were playing in chinle together! I forgot to tell you guys that Elder Yazzie is in my district haha i love him!  Here is a cool story for you i guess back when president kimball was the prophet he spent a lot of time down her on the reservation!  He said that satan presided so strong through here because he said that the gadianton robbers spent most of there time here and mostly right here in Lukachukai he said this is where they had there last stand! I thought that that was really cool! I will be honest that first week i struggled really bad but honestly i pulled out my patriarichal blessing and read it and it helped so much!  I know exactly why im out here and ever since then i havent looked back i really am enjoying it now a lot. We had our first flat tire this week haha i guess the day i got here they put four brand new tires on the truck and well that lasted about 2 weeks haha. Its awesome and amazing you guys. Enjoy back home love you guys!

Love Elder Rushton

Hey,

Im doing ok it has been a really long week.  We flew in monday we got to spend some time at the mission home in farmington!  We met Pres. and Sis. Batt. really really nice people im in good hands!  We stayed that night at a members house!  we got up early and met at the stake center and there we got assigned our new companion and our new area!  My new companion is Elder Fonnesbeck and he is from rigby idaho he has been out for six months he is only 18 also haha kinda weird two 18 year olds roaming the mission feild together.

I was assigned to the Lukachukai, Arizona part it also takes in the towns of tsaile and wheatfields haha i mean it is dead center middle of the reservation.  I am living in an RV camp trailer how lucky am i? haha its rough it has been really hard!  Its so sad here a lot of the people are so poor!  There houses are no bigger then my bedroom.  I really am in another country!  There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE  they are all so skinny!  Its so sad you will see the dogs eating roadkill on the side of the road because they have nothing else to eat!  Its been a huge culture shock! Like i said its been really tough but im still having fun! I have already had some pretty crazy experiences haha We were out knocking doors a lot this week and we came up to this one house started walking up there and all of the sudden two big black dogs start taking off towards us i mean im already halfway back to the truck haha (just like the bear incident mom and dad) but my companion like was inches away from getting bit! Another crazy experience we had is we were out in the middle of no where only house for miles but we decided to knock on it! So we meet this guy and we begin to tell him how we have this message about Jesus Christ and he said he was willing to listen! haha on one condition we had to get naked with him crawl in the sweat lodge and smoke some peyotte I mean come on haha  we meet every sunday in the schools auditorium for sacrament we dont have a building we just have one ward here and a whopping 15 people showed up to sacrament yesterday lets just say we have some work to do!  Im just trying to make the most of it! 

Love Elder Rushton

First Companion Elder Fonnesbeck

Cole and Elder Fonnesbeck with President and Sister Batt.

Things are great!  I will admitt it yes i am ready to get out of the mtc haha this gets old real quick but its still has that same spiritual feeling that i had the day i walked in!  I get released zone leader tomorrow me and elder anderson!  We are flying out monday morning!  We are leaving the MTC at 3:30 in the morning haha oh boy thats going to be a long day!  I have had a great week we took part in a couple preisthood blessing that some elders in the zone needed!  That was so spiritual having like twelve worthy preisthood holders with there hands on one elder it felt so powerfull which is what the preisthood really is!  I can not wait to be out in the mission field getting in the regular mission groove! i was able to email today because the branch president let us kind of have half a pday today since we leave on our pday! I was able to meet elder christiensen from the district movie series this week he works at the main MTC and he taught one of our seminars on wednesday really cool guy!  Tell my little buddy Chase "poulter" thanks for the prayers they sure have helped :) Thank you mom for all the packages me and our district love you Cleve and Marlene i love you guys too thank you so much :)  The letters have really helped it I love letters so much guys! Hope you enjoy that new Iphone of yours mom  i sure miss it! 

Love Elder Rushton

MTC pictures

MTC apartment pics

First Email from the MTC July 8, 2013

So the drop off was hard i miss my family i cried i will admitt it i cried bad i cried the night before when i said goodbye to my best friends kade and kade that was hard! but from the second that  i have walked into these doors at the mtc i have been fine i prayed for the strength to be able to get over this and be just fine and that is exactly what the lord gave me!  the spirit is so strong with us here it is so awesome!

I became companions with Elder Logan Anderson from rexburg he was madisons qb he is awesome we get a long so great we have so much fun together! I have learned to love  all the elders in our district we are all here for the same goal and that is what is so cool! the first night we were interviewed by our branch presidency which is mostly like a bishop rick for missionaries! after the interview they called me and elder anderson to be zone leaders haha which was crazy so basicly we are in charge of 30 missionaries and we get 15 more this wednesday! so basically we make sure they are alright and make sure they are in bed at night we check there rooms and stuff! It has been such hard work this work is so hard i would take johnson farms work anyday haha no but i love being the instrument in the hands of the lord and i love how the spirit is constantly with us! Food is alright we just have a lot of the same stuff everyday unlimited pop i love it haha on the fourt we got to stand outside and watch the stadium of fire firework show it was awesome we watch the movie 17 miracles before that and had a devotional from someone who talked about the trials this country has had the spirit was so strong there once again! When i am studying here i learn so much more to when  i am studying back at home!  It is so hard to be in a classroom all day! but as you look around you cant complain because all the elders are right her with you doing the exact same thing! i love my district and i love being zone leader what a great opportunity it has been! i should fly out monday not sure though! one of the thing we have been practicing is we teach the investigators just like we will in the mission field they are good i think that they are honestly actors and the church hires them to come in they ask the hardest questions anyway me and elder anderson have beeen teaching marco he is a 20 year old college soccer player who has no family it is so hard we honestly love marco so much and we pray for him every single day and treat him like he were a real investigator! We want to get him to commit to baptism before we leave so hopefully we can do that befor next monday love you guys have a great week i know we will here at the MTC just know the church is true and i am not out here for fun i am out her because that is what the lord wants me to do!

MTC drop off

Cole was dropped off July 3rd at the MTC. Cole will do a wonderful job on his mission.