Elder Yazzie, Chris, Elder Rushton, Elder Gnehm

Very special day for both of these two!

Christmas Parade in Winslow

This picture was taken of Chris before his baptism.
Cole couldn't help but notice how happy he is and how he just glows!

Hello Everyone,

 

So this past week was awesome!  We had a Christmas parade here in Winslow!  It was huge the entire reservation comes down and it was just fun!  We ate some fry bread and just had a good old time!  There were so many vendors!  Selling everything from fry bread to Native American art!  It was cool!  Anyway it was funny, so the parade happened on Saturday morning and one of our investigators Chris who was supposed to get baptized that night was gonna help his daughter in her float and everything!  So his daughter was on the dance team and they danced in the parade!  Anyway all of the sudden we see Chris driving the NICE Ford Raptor down the street pulling the dance teams float!  I couldn't believe the smile he had on his face!  Anyway to be able to get baptized and drive a Ford Raptor all in the same day that is a dream day haha!  Anyway so on Saturday night we were able to hold the baptism for Chris.  Man he is an amazing guy who has came a long ways! I have seen him change his life around and become better father and person!  Anyway I had the opportunity to baptize Chris which was such an honor having him chose me to be the one to do it!  As Chris was coming down into the font he was crying and man at that moment there is no better feeling then watching your investigator come down into the font with that broken heart and a contrite spirit!  (Mosiah 18)  He is going to be such a help for the church he is already involved in the young mens!  He is a great guy and has become one of my life long friends!  It is amazing the people you meet on your mission and the relationships you gain with them!  I can't imagine what my life would be like if I didn't serve a mission!  I know that I was sent to the four corners area for a reason!  I love what I am doing and have learned so much! 

 

PS look at Chris's picture in the Ford Raptor haha look at that smile that was a couple hours before his baptism, he is just glowing!

 

Love, Elder Rushton

Hello Everyone,

 

So this past week was pretty good!  I had the opportunity to go one exchanges with one of my favorite elders that I have met on my mission Elder West he serves in Leupp, AZ with Elder Patterson and they are some great elders!  They have sure changed Leupp around and turned it into a great area!  Elder West is going home here in 2 weeks and it was nice to be able to have one last great day with him!  Its crazy thinking that when I got to Winslow Elder West had about 6 months left I'm about to my 7 months mark and about to be exactly in his place when I met him!  Its crazy how time fly's out here when your not paying attention to it!  Anyway things are going great here in Winslow according to plans we are going to be having a baptism this Saturday we are really hoping things go through!  Yesterday the entire state of Arizona got to watch the new Pheonix temple be dedicated!  It was an awesome thing!  It was now my 2nd temple I have seen dedicated on my mission the first being the Gilbert, AZ temple!  It was such a neat dedication! My favorite part of it all was watching the Prophet (President Monson)  at the cornerstone celebration as he put the mortar on it he was laughing and smiling and joking around with President Uchtdorf he cracked a couple of jokes and he was just being his self he then  went over to the crowd of people and chose 2 kids to come and help him it was so awesome man I wish that could have been me when I was little!  But it was good to see President Monson so happy and energetic it just reminded me that I need to stay that way too and try to stay away from being boring!  Anyway it was a great week and had a lot of fun!

So this past week was pretty good! There wasn't much that went on we went on exchanges with the Greasewood Elders so I was able to spend the day with my good buddy Elder Thompson from the MTC which was really fun we actually had a very productive day.  we picked up 3 new investigators on that day and 2 of them actually seem to be really solid!  We are scheduled to be having a baptism on Nov 22nd and as of right now we are still good for that!  He is an awesome guy who is really converted!  It has been an amazing thing teaching him!  He did have a few word of wisdom problems and so we were a little bit concerned about teaching him because of the last word of wisdom lesson we had didn't go too well anyway we had to do it so we did!  It turned out great he told us he would live it and stop doing everything he was!  You could really just feel the spirit from him knowing how converted he was instead of justifying things or trying to go around it.  He submitted to the will of the Lord and that is how you can tell how he is converted!  He is a great guy and we are super excited for him!  We also held aZone Training this week I did a training on being a consecrated missionary.  I have no clue!  i always told myself i would never train on obedience but when I sat down to write up my training the spirit was telling me to train on it so bad so I did!  I used a talk called "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary"  by Elder Tad Callister it was a great talk!  It went well and everyone learned a lot from the zone training!  Anyway things are great, thanks for everything and have a great week!

 

Love Elder Rushton

Sometimes if we try to do things on our own, its like chasing a pig!  With everyones help its easier to catch!

Elder Rushton with a couple of his favorite Trick or Treaters!!!!!  (So cute!)

Hello Everyone,

 

So this past week was great!  On Monday we had to drive to Farmington, NM once again for an MLC meeting!  We had to drop Elder Yazzie off in Greasewood that day with the Greasewood Elders!  It was weird driving the rest of the way without Elder Yazzie!  We just missed him haha!  Anyway we had a great MLC on Tuesday  we discussed many things and you always come away from there spiritually uplifted!  Tuesday night we decided that instead of driving all the way back to Winslow, AZ we were just going to stay with the  Wide Ruins and Sanders Elders and then go with them to there district meeting on Thursday!  So we did kill two birds with one stone!  We spent all Wednesday with those elders and met a lot of great people.  There are some awesome people in the Wide Ruins/Sanders area!  At there district meeting we had some fun, Elder Young was teaching at the district meeting did one of the best trainings I've seen yet on my mission and it was so fun!  He borrowed a pig from someone down in sanders brought it all the way to Holbrook and put it in a pen!  Well we had Elder Thompson my good MTC buddy (who is now in Greasewood)  get in the pen and try to catch the pig!  haha!  It was so funny watching him dive all over the ground and not being able to catch it at all haha!  To make it even better we told Elder Thompson it was going to bite him haha and he looked a little scared!  Anyway the training was on working with the Ward and Stake leaders!  So when Elder Thompson was in there trying to catch it himself he wasn't able to he tried and tried but he couldn't catch the pig!  Then we put a Elder Quorum President in there and they came close but the still couldn't catch the pig!  Finally we had to put a Bishop in there, so there were three elders in the pen and they caught the pig!  It was awesome we had a blast and it just goes to show that when you work with your ward leaders you can get stuff done!  Anyway Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference they did a special broadcast for the state of Arizona so we got to hear from President Uchtdorf and also Elder Christofferson, Sister Mckonckie was also a speaker and also Elder Bradley Foster of the Seventy who I met in Chinle when he was visiting that Stake Conference.  It was a great Stake Conference!  We also found out some cool news our
Stake President who lives here in Winslow, President Hancock, has just been called as a Mission President!  He has no clue where yet, all he knows is that he will be a mission president in June 2015.  I know him and his wife will do a great job together wherever they go!  I'm hoping for the Pocatello, ID Mission so I can pay him a visit when I get home!  Anyway it was a great week!

 

Love Elder Rushton