Elder Rushton Christmas morning rocking his Life Eternal shirt!

Sparkling apple cider on Christmas - BOOM BABY!

Hello Everyone,

So this past week was a great one!  Christmas was awesome it was so fun to be able to talk to my family!  It's crazy to see how different home is from when I left!  My little bro Cody doesn't sound like a girl when he talks anymore and now he taller then me!  My sister is really really pregnant and that is really weird to see as well!  Anyway its really nice to be able to catch up I love those skype calls home!  So Christmas Eve is the best time to be a missionary!  Both Christmas Eve's I have been out I have told my self today we are going to be like Christ and serve people all day!  So that is exactly what we did!  We went around asking everyone we knew if we could help them that day and lets just say wow we chopped a lot of wood!  And man was that fun!  I loved being out there doing that for those people!  You could tell it meant so much to a lot of them!  Just the simple fact that they didn't have to go out and chop would on Christmas was enough to put a smile on their face!  Since I have been on my mission I have been able to come to realize what the  true meaning of Christmas really is!  I would be lying if I told you I didn't like getting presents cause I do!  But man the happiness that comes from doing something nice for someone else on christmas is far beyond the happiness that comes from opening presents!  Anyway it was a geat christmas!  It was a slower week a lot of people were out of town and stuff for the holidays but we are hoping to get back at it this week!  Love you guys hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Rushton

Hello Everyone,

So this week was a lot of fun!  I forgot to mention the mission christmas party that we had last week!  We had the gallup zone and the chinle zone get together and we had a fun little christmas party!  President and Sister Batt were there we had a little meeting in the chapel to start and then we went into the gym and started to play games!  It was a good time and a lot of fun i got to see some elders that i hadnt seen for a while there!  I had a blast!  So then this week on sunday me and Elder David walked into church and the second councellor in the brach presidency told us we were going to be speaking today haha that was a fun experience haha of course me being senior companion Elder David made me go last haha but we both gave great talks on christmas and it was a lot of fun! I also  had the opportunity this week to go to Tohlekai on exchanges!  Tohlekai is a little rez town right barely above gallup! I got to go with Elder Lowe down there while Elder Vickers came to Sheep Springs!  I love Elder Lowe and Elder Vickers they just understand exactly how to be a missionary they work hard and they have a lot of fun while they are doing it!  I love those two Elders!  Me and Elder Lowe had a great day!  It was freezing down there that day because it had just snowed that morning!  We had a full day tracting in the mud driving in the mud and almost getting stuck in the mud it was a blast! Elder Lowe is from Preston, ID so me and him get along great!  I love Idaho missionaries haha Anyway that exchange was great and we both learned a lot! Me and Elder David have stared this new thing where we have been going to the senior citizens center ever friday it is where all the seniors get together and just hang out all day and then they go back home anyway so this week we went and shared the christmas story with them it is so funny how much those old ladies love us!  We got done with the message and some of the ladies dont speak any english they only speak navajo so they didnt understand it so on lady stood up and started shouting SING, SING, SING haha before we knew it all of them were shouting it was like a riot it was so funny!  So we started singing silent night and joy to the world and jingle bells haha it was so fun they started to sing with us!  We have already seen some great things come from going to the senior center we ask a lot of the old ladies if we can chop there wood and then we go to there house and they introduce us to a lot of there families so then we can meet and teach more people it has been great!  It was a fun week im excited for christmas!  Anyway i hope you all have a great christmas take care and have fun!

Love Elder Rushton

Hello Everyone,

So this past week was a blast!  I am loving it here in sheep springs!  I do miss winslow, when your a missionary you say goodbye alot, and I think I'm getting used to leaving areas!  So this past week we had a district meeting!  It was so fun afterward we had a district lunch and we all brought something and we ate together it was a lot of fun!  We each got to know one another very well that was also the same day as my bday!  So my bday started out great i got a call from President and Sister Batt telling me happy bday and they even sang to me they are so awesome i cant imagine them doing that for every missionary they are great!  Then that night we had a branch dinner it was so fun we had a good turn out probably close to 80 showed up!  They sang to me at the dinner as well so i was well taken care of!  It was a great week! Lately we have really been focusing on the HE IS THE GIFT INITIATIVE!  The video that the church has came out with is simply amazing!  It is intended to bring the true meaning of christmas back into the world today! Christs birth trully was a gift from our heavenly father to us and that is what we celebrate!  If you havent gotten a chance to watch it got to christmas.mormon.org or type in he is the gift on youtube and you will find it! We have been sharing those card s with everyone we see! It has been very fun!  Anyway it turned out to be a great week and we had a lot of fun!  Im getting to know the area a lot and im also loving the people!  Take care and thanks once again for all the birthday wishes you guys are awesome :)

Love Elder Rushton

Cole's Countdown Christmas Tree from Mom!

Cole just loves Elder Carpenter, this was taken the day he died!

The Sheep Springs Church and Elder David.  Cole's home is behind the church in the fenced area

So happy to be back with my Navajo people!  I love them so much!

Hello Everyone,

So this week I spent my first week in Sheep Springs, NM it is so cool hereIi honestly love it!  I think I pretty much prayed every single day since I left Lukachukai that one day I could go back to the rez and finally it came true!  Its so weird to think about how I would rather be here in a one gas station town with almost 300 people in it rather then being in a big city!  I love the kind of work that goes on here, I definately love the people!  I remember my first couple of nights in lukachukai were tough I felt like I couldn't relate to the culture or the people.  I remember praying that the Lord would let me love these people and love the reservation.  Well he sure did that!  Its so hard to explain I just love what goes on here, the people are always so easy to get along with they will do just about anything for you!  The dirt and mud and everything that goes along with the rez is so fun to me i just love it here!  Anyway this week we were able to teach about 17 lessons which is the most since I left Lukachukai!  We were super busy and I can't wait to be able to try to keep reaching above that!  This area has a lot of potential to be even greater then it already is!  So funny story for this week, we were at a house somewhere way up near the mountain in a place called Naschitti!  Anyway Elder David says I know a shortcut we can take that we can get back to Sheep Springs with less miles haha so I'm like oh sweet alright lets take it.  So were driving down this dirt road and we go about 4 miles and were eventually just going up the mountain when the whole time I'm just like man I hope he knows where he is going haha we eventually end up way on top of the mountain and that is when I say Elder David are we lost???  he says ughhh ya!  haha I'm like oh shoot, cause by this point it is getting dark!  Anyway so were on a little tiny dirt road way out in the woods and its pitch black and im just trying to take whatever dirt road I can find that will take me north because I know that the main road that goes up the canyon is somewhere north!  So we are just taking every road that we could find anyway we came to a split in the road andI took a left well we followed that and we ended up in some sheep camp with no way out.  Anyway long story short we finally got out haha it was a fun experience but man I don't know about anymore short cuts with Elder David haha anyway I love where I'm at and I'm excited to start this new transfer.  We have an awesome district and its gonna be a fun one!  

Love Elder Rushton

Hello Everyone,

 

So this past week flew by!  It was transfer week which is always a weird week!  Anyway we received news on transfers a little bit early on Saturday!  Both me and Elder Gnehm received a call from President Batt!  I found out that I would be getting released as a Zone Leader which is sad I will miss all the fun things we did MLC, exchanges, zone conference training!  But on the other hand I am really going to like just focusing on the area a lot more and not being so busy all the time!  It has been an awesome 9 months.  I was blessed with some great zones and some great missionaries to work with!  It wasn't easy but it definetly helped me to become a better missionary!  Looking back I just have to give thanks for the time the Lord let me be in there!  I am now going to be a District Leader of the Sheep Springs, NM district I am super excited because that means that I will be going back to the rez.  I have missed every second of not being on the rez!  When I was in Lukachukai, AZ I loved the Navajo people so much I loved the kind of work that went on there and I am so glad to be able to be going back!   It is definetly something me and Heavenly Father have discussed many times!  :)  So as for Elder Gnehm (my old companion)  he is going to be staying in Winslow and training a new missionary which means there will not be zone leaders in Winslow anymore they are moving the zone leader area now to Holbrook!  Where Elder Chipman will be zone leader again and also Elder Cook!  Some crazy things going on this transfer but it is always exciting!  So as for Thanksgiving on Thursday we had a great one!  We were invited to 3 different dinners, the first one we went to was amazing we were really hungry and we ate a lot and it tasted really good!  At the next dinner we kind of went and picked and chose what we wanted to eat, and by the third dinner I honestly just ate a salad and a roll! haha Anyway I'm excited to see what this new transfer brings and the opportunity to go back to the rez! However I am going to miss Winslow, AZ so much I have loved being here,  there are so many amazing people I have met that will continue to be my lifelong friends!  I will never forget the miracles  have seen the gospel bring to the people here in Winslow!  Winslow will always have a special place in my heart and for that I am truely gratful!

 

Love Elder Rushton