Cole, Elder M :), and President Batt

Cole at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Chapel in Tsaile, AZ

The President of the Navajo Nation, Elder Webb, President Batt, and many more very special people!

Cole somehow finds a way to secure a dinner invite after wood hauing!  (Thanks Shantel!)

A little too common site for Elder Rushton lately

Hello Everyone,

So yet another crazy week on the Rez haha but man it just becomes funner and funner!  On tuesday president batt held a district leader training in farmington!  Every district leader in the mission was there!  After the training i felt so much more comfortable i knew a lot more then i did before going into that meeting!  

On wednesday we were going to another lesson in lukachukai and we were on a dirt road driving along and we pass a truck parked on the side of the road!  Not thinking anything of it we just pass it as we passed i saw a girl laying on the ground and a guy kind of over her like talking to her!  So we Just passed by but the whole time my gut was just telling me you have to go back you have to go back!  This whole time Elder Manumaleuna didnt even see it he was zoned out!  So Im just sitting there in silence and the holy ghost is slapping me in the face telling me GO BACK GO BACK!  Haha so finally i flip around and we head back. When we pull up we see the truck parked in a totally different position the guy is now in the truck and the girl is on the ground rolling around in pain!  As we look closer we see tire tracks over her legs?  HE RAN HER OVER!  The whole time were freeking out We got out and asked the girl if she needed help she told us to call an ambulence so we did! (2nd time ive dialed 911 in the last month) haha So finally what next?  So the guy that is still in the truck gets out like he is gonna be coming over to talk to us and man he is hammered so drunk!  he steps like three steps out of his truck and all of the sudden he hurries turns around and reaches back into his truck at that point we were not sticking around to find out!  We were out of there after we left the ambulence pulled up so we went back helped her out and they took her to the hospital we were with the cop for the next hour or so filing a police report and giving him a detailed description of the guy!  He was able to catch the guy that did it by the end of the night and everything returned back to normal!

On to a good experience so saturday we were able to have the ground breaking ceremony for the new church building!  That was an awesome occasion!  These people deserve a church building so much!  It is going to help this town so much!  It was a great thing we had our mission president show up for it,  the navajo nation president was also there (ben shelly) There were lots of great talks given!  This area one day will blossom as a rose just like it promises in doctrine and covenants 49:24!  The work is moving right along and it is only starting to begin!  I love you guys have a very fun safe week!

Love Elder Rushton

New Companion, New Truck!

Hello,

So it has been going good settling back into things with my new companion!  Seems like i have been through this routine a couple times now haha all in the same area!  I love it when elder manumaleuna just always asks the question how in the world have you lived in here for this long haha Idk! 

Last week our young womens and young mens leader held a party for there quorums!  We invited all of our investigators we have been working with!  They were the only ones to show up!  An activity like that with 5 investigators there and no one else i thought that was really cool to see!  They have been coming to church and are really enjoying it!  

I have been thinking back throughout my mission and all that has gone on so far!  It is so weird that that much has happened in such a short amount a time!  A mission is unlike anything else its so much different then anything i did before!  Some nights i find myself staggering in the door so tired, but i never realized that i was that tired until i get in the door!  I can see the lord giving us strength each and everyday!  I can promise that when you are out working hard and giving it all you got!  You are having so much fun!  That is when time begins to fly as well!  

Anyway i love you guys have a safe fun week!

Love Elder Rushton

Small Hogan

 H

Lukachukai District

District Leader and New Companion

Hello Everyone,

So this past week was so crazy its hard to even remember what went on!  We dropped Elder Maynard off on sunday and he flew out monday morning so he is sitting somewhere down in that warm weather!  I picked up my new companion yesterday his name is Elder Manumaleuna he is from Hawaii! He is such a cool guy i know we will get along great!  He is loving having to get used to the camper trailer and not having a church haha and only having two gas stations in our whole area!  So i was called as the new district leader of our district which was really scary at the time i felt like i just barely got here haha and now im already becoming district leader!  But when president told me that he not once said im calling you as district leader he said the Lord is calling you as district leader!  When he said that i knew it was going to all be alright!  Im excited for the call we just barely got 2 brand new missionaries in the district yesterday who just barely got off the airplane so it will be exciting to be able to train them!  I love you guys i hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Rushton

One of the few missions where everyone drives a pick up truck!

"My beautiful Lukachukai Mountains!"

So this week was good!  We were able to visit a lot of people and get a lot of things done!  It seems like right when things are settled down on the rez and everything is going ok all of the sudden BOOM out of no where something happens that just freeks you out!  haha So this week we were out with one of out favorite members ryan and we were trying to visit anyone we could but honestly no one was home or everyone just didnt want us over so we gave up!  On our way to take ryan back we passed a drunk drunk drunk guy staggering on the side of the road!  He looked like he had his "buddy" helping him out!  But as we passed i looked in my rear view mirror and i see the guy he was with shove the guy up in the air and into the ditch and then he jumped on top of him and just started punching the guy left and right and kicking him right in the back!  So the whole time me elder maynard and ryan were like oh crap what do we do what do we do so we sat at the gas station and thought about it because we didnt know if the guy had a gun or knife or what so after a couple minutes we just decided to go back and try to save this guy!  So we pull up and right when we pulled up the guy that was beating him up ran away!  So we got out of the truck ran down to the guy!  It was so scary we honestly thought he was dead he was just laying there motionless!  He wasnt moving at all!  He was bleeding really bad down his face you could see a layer of skin folded back over his eyes and just blood everywhere!  His knee bone was broken and sticking out of his pants!  It was just ugly we thought for sure he was dead!  So we walked up to him yelling sir sir are you alright?  Still there was nothing.  So we shook him a little sir sir are you ok!  And out of no where we here a gasp for air!  I think he was unconcious!  But we woke him up called the cops and we were able to get him to the hospital!  Idk what happened after that but it was weird because we knew for one reason or another we were there to save that guys life that night!  That explained why no one was home!  It was a really scary experience but really cool to be able to do that!  If we didnt he would have either gotten beaten up until he was dead or he would have laid there unconcious until the next morning and froze to death!  It snowed a foot that night and there is no way you could have seen him from the road so he definately would have froze!  I hope everything is well back home!  Happy birthday to my little bro this week be sure to wish him a happy b-day  Feb 7th! 

Love Elder Rushton