THE REASON WE SERVE MISSIONS

"This was the most specialist thing I have ever experienced"

I wanted to share what Elder Rushton wrote to his mom so you'd know how special this was to him

We just finished our baptism, oh my gosh it was so amazing mom most incredible moment of my life!  Seeing her with her cane barely crawl herself down into that faunt and me being 

able to help her in and then baptizing her was so incredible the spirit was so strong nothing compares!

Hello everyone,

     So this week was a very long week idk why probably because it was slow but it was a great week!  First of all we have been slaying mice in our trailer the war has begun haha and there going down!  We started out by spending last monday night in gallup for a zone conference!  It was awesome!  President and sister Batt were there it was a great training and learned a lot of new techniques to use while we are teaching!  I hated being in gallup it was way too big of a city and i just wanted to get back to the rez so bad haha!  We found this old  lady who really wanted to learn but we couldnt teach her cause there was just one little problem she only spoke navajo!  So we took a member out with us and he translated everything haha it was definately different but it was a really cool experience!  We had exchanges this week elder beck came here from many farms and stayed with me because we had to do some baptismal interviews!  We had some great experiences and taught some of the best lessons since ive been here!  This morning we had a baptismal service for one of our investigators we have been working with for so long!  She is so incredible i have seen her faith grow so much from when i first got here!  She had a coffee problem and really just couldnt quit it at all many missionaries have tried everything with her she just couldnt but for some reason me and elder fonnesbeck were prompted to set a baptismal date with her and see if she would accept!  Well she did and from that day forward she never drank a sip of coffee it was the most amazing experience i have ever seen in my life!  So today was her 61st birthday so we had the baptism in chinle since you know we dont have a building or anything but i had the privelage to baptize her i was so honored to do that she is such an amazing lady!  being down in the faunt and watching her walk down the stairs with her cane and seeing her struggle and helping her into the faunt was one of the most spiritual moments i have ever had in my life it almost brought tears to my eyes!  Nothing was gonna stop her because this is what she knew the lord wanted her to do!  Being able to do that was incredible the feeling everyone talks about when they talk about the warm hearted feeling in the chest from the holy ghost that was exactly what it was like!  Incredible moment that just assured me that im out here for a reason and that is to bring my brothers and sisters closer to christ and to never give up no matter what kind of problem people have in there lives with the power of the preisthood and the holy ghost anything is possible!  Love you all have a good week!

Love Elder Rushton

"Tilly only 21 more months till we are together again!"

Elders 1 Mice 0

Overlooking Canyon De Chelly

Cole and his Companion

Hello,

So pretty much just another week on the rez haha sometimes i have to like check myself and remind my self im a belegana (white person)  i honestly sometimes think im navajo! haha When i see people of my fellow color out here its like what they heck are they doing on the rez? haha oh shoot im white too!  I am loving it!  I think Elder Swett is really starting to get used to things haha especially after this week!  We knocked on this guys door and haha it was actually last week!  It was Elder Swetts first door he has ever knocked on haha this guy answers and invites us right in were like oh hey cool!  We walk in and sit down on his couch he then goes into his bedroom to get something he comes out with some paper and some kind of weed haha!  He rolls it right in front of us lights it up and smokes it right in our face!  The whole time Elder Swett was trying to teach him haha im trying to give him the nudge lets get outta here!  He began to tell us these stories how he tried to hang himself a month ago from the ceiling fan and how he failed at it so thats why god wants him to be alive at first i was like whatever dude then i looked at his neck and his neck had a huge scar all around it then i knew he was serious!  I was like Elder Swett we gotta get outta here haha he was so focused on trying to teach the guy!  Lets just say you can only teach by the spirit and if the spirit is gone there is no point of teaching!  We should have never have even walked in it was bad but hey its all a learning experience haha!  So our nice little camp trailer (NOT)  has had quite the week we opened up the cupboard where we keep our toilet paper and for some reason all of our toilet paper was shredded so i sat there and thought to myself hmmm what the crap?  Boom popped right into my head it has to be a mouse!  So the next day we open the silverwear drawer  and a mouse was right there it freeked me out so bad haha So we pretty much washed everything in our drawers and are keeping all of our silverwear on the kitchen table until we can get some traps today!  It isnt fun! We had stake conference this last weekend it was really good it was in chinle and we had a general authority come Elder Foster!  He was a great talker really motivated!  He talked about the importance of family and the importance of communication in family it was an amazing thing and that is exactly what the people down here needed to hear it was really good!  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Rushton

We have Hobo Spiders, they have Tarantulas!

Coles shirt from our Missionary Mom get together, it has all the moms from Idaho's hands on there!

Breathtaking 

Hello Everyone,

So we dropped off Elder Fonnesbeck and picked up my new trainee his name is Elder Swett he is from Evanston, Wyoming.  He is a really nice kid.  It was weird sitting in the trainer/trainee meeting and it felt like just yesterday that i was in that meeting!  Anyway so i picked him up and brought him back haha boy was that fun sitting there watching him looking around like where the heck am i going! haha I remember thinking the exact same way he was!  Just a little bit of culture shock!  He is getting used to things though!  We spent alot of time this week out tracting we knocked on this one door and man these guys were so cool!  Ill tell you what this is probably one of my favorite new families they invited us right in and the first thing they said was sit down and have some cookies haha so we sat down and got talking i cracked a stupid joke about one of there goats outside haha it was so freeking tall tallest goat ive ever seen haha i dont even remember what the joke was about but it had to do with yao ming haha they cracked up so bad haha it was so random too it was halarious but they were so cool and i know that they are ready for the gospel and that they need it in there lives!  I cant wait to go back and teach them!  Its so cool cause i know that there are so many families that are out there and we just have to find them!  Im really excited to see what this week brings!  love you all have a good week!

Love Elder Rushton

At a Cross Country Race this week with some very important people to Elder Rushton

Hello Everyone, 

So this week was well pretty busy we did a lot!  We had the chance to go to a cross country race and support one of the peoples kids that we teach it was really really fun and it brought back some good memories!  We also got to meet a lot of people there!  I think these people really like it when the "elders" as they call us come out and support community events!  Its a good way to meet and talk to new people!  Earlier this week we had the opportunity to help another help train his horses man was that scary! haha Elder Fonnesbeck just about got trampled,  it was lots of fun too though!  So every thursday we have our district meetings in chinle and we always go to pizza edge (a pizza place)  so it was like the busiest day there and me and elder fonnz were the only elders that were in the pizza place and everybody else was navajo!  We didnt mind that but all of the sudden we here this guy just yelling at us and he comes walking straight up to us!  Anyway he is a Galane (means drunk in navajo)  He was highly intoxicated haha thats all im gonna say!  He starting cussing us out and i mean dropping swear words like no other and he is right in my face!  Everyone in the resteraunt is watching! I wanted to just punch the guy in the face so bad but i new i had to hold back "be christlike"  man was that one of the hardest things that i have ever had to do was to just sit there and take it!  I never said a word back to him just stood there biting my lip nodding my head!  Anyway general conference was amazing its so true you never really realize how powerfull our apostles and prophet really are until you are a missionary!  Saturday morning during our studies our phone calls and we both look at it and it say President Batt of course we throw it back and forth at each other saying "you answer it, no you answer it!" haha so finally we answered it president began to tell us the transfer news so here you go!

Looks like i will be staying in Lukachukai!  I will be training a new missionary which is really scary because i just barely finished my own training that day!  Anyway im really excited and cant wait!  Elder Fonnesbeck will be going to Monticello, UT!  Anyway its been a really really good week i love you all and i hope all is well back home hope you got all those taters harvested haha :)

Love Elder Rushton