I Made a Promise to Be Happy for the Rest of My Life!

Hello Everyone! 

Hope you all had an amazing week! I know I did! I made a promise to someone that I had to be happy for the rest of my life, so wish me luck! 

Let's see this last week was pretty exhausting but there are so many miracles that happened that I forgot them all and will probably just write about 2. Yesterday Elder O'Brien and I followed the example found in Alma 17:3

 But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God. 

We ran from appointments, talked to everyone, and were able to teach 6 families effectively. I felt the influence of the Holy Ghost all day. Elder O'Brien and I were super pumped.

It has been crazy, there have been many changes in our zone lately, missionaries have been going home, which is very sad :(  But it has helped me recommit myself everyday to my purpose of serving the Lord. :)  I was reading in the Book of Mormon about Captain Moroni, who was a stud muffin as this scripture says:  

Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men. 

Captain Moroni Is a great example to me and I hope we can all strive to be like him!

I encourage you all to read Moroni 10:3-5 in the Book of Mormon and do as it directs. I know the book has changed my life and it truly does testify of Christ!

I love you all! Take Care

Elder Rush

Here are the verses in Moroni Mitchell is referring to:

 Moroni 10: 3-5

 3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truthof it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

Harmonica playing Elder O'Brien with my "Stud Muffin"

Zone leaders van, nice arm Elder Rush! Love my boy!

People are Always Watching; Week 21

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well! 

This week was full of adventure. So it is a goal as a mission to teach 20 lessons a week and it is not a easy thing to do in some areas. Since I have been here in Pocatello we were lucky to teach 10 lessons. Elder O'Brien and I have been working our tails off and this last three weeks we have taught 21, 20 and 20 lessons. We are so exhausted every night we hit our beds and sleep like rocks. I love it!

We were teaching this family and the husband never sat in on our lessons. He has had many bad experiences with Mormons and does not really like us. But the other day we got a call from his wife saying he had prayed and was told by God he needed to be baptized. It was pretty cool! 

 Another cool experience was we're teaching this lady who was a claimed Atheist but she came to church and now she wants to come back again! EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!

 Oh Boy I am very grateful for the the opportunity to serve a mission. I love learning about the Gospel of Jesus Christ everyday!

 So this week I was thinking about the example we are to people even when we do not think people are watching. So in the Book of Mormon, one of the Prophets, Alma is teaching his son to choose the right because he has lead people astray by making mistakes, so people do not belive in the words of Alma.

 11 Suffer not yourself to be led away by any vain or foolish thing; suffer not the devil to lead away your heart again after those wicked harlots. Behold, O my son, how great iniquity ye brought upon the Zoramites; for when they saw your conduct they would not believe in my words.

People are always watching our actions and words and habits. It is important  to remember that as we conduct ourselves.

I love you all. Take Care

Elder Rush

Elder Rush with his district.

Adorable Elders!

Transfer Calls! and GuessWhere I am Going!

Hello Everyone! 

I miss you and love you all so much.

So this last week was transfer calls and it turns out I am staying here with Elder O'Brien! I am excited to be staying here in Pocatello. The work has really picked up and we are so busy that we are running to appointments. I think one of my favorite experiences from this week is that we had 3 new investigators come to church this week. Here is how we found them. We were tracting some apartments so knocking door after door. And this lady answered and told us she was not interested but would listen to what we had to say. She told us she was atheist. From that we taught her and slowly she changed from atheist to agnostic and now she is coming to church! It is super awesome. Anyway I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission and it is going so fast!

I was reading in Alma chapter 39 verse  8:

But behold, ye cannot hide your crimes from God; and except ye repent they will stand as a testimony against you at the last day.

I have been thinking a lot about repentance lately. It truly is a gift from God to be able to find relief from the mistakes we make in our lives everyday. Our Father in Heaven wants to forgive us and HE will. Turn to Him and our Savior in times of trouble and weakness.

I love you all!

Elder Rush

Mitchell said he fed his new four legged friend bacon and he won't leave him alone now.

Kaelie wants to make Mitchell's new friend a collar with a tie and name tag, "Elder Meow"

Love my kids!

A quick e-mail to me from my favorite Mitchell. He touches my heart!

Hello mom!

 I am doing well just exhausted. There is no catching up on sleep when you miss it and we are very very busy. Elder O'Brien and I are staying here in Pocatello, so I will be here for 6 months after this transfer! CRAZY!  But I love you mom, I hope you are doing well and thanks for being an awesome example of service to me.

Happy New Year From Pocatello!

Hello Everyone!

 Thank you for the updates and please keep sending them! I love hearing about how you are doing! Oh and Happy New Year! What are some goals you have for this year?

 This last week was crazy with the holidays and everything but we were about to teach many people. Last night, Sunday night, it was 8pm and we needed to be home by 9. We wanted to teach 3 more people that night and all our appointments had cancelled. So we prayed and asked our Father in Heaven to help us find 3 people. After that we walked down the street and felt impressed to stop at a few houses so we did and we ended up teaching 4 lessons! It was pretty cool. 

Really I have been thinking a lot about time. It is crazy that I will be out 6 months next month. In 2 Peter 3:8 it tells us that 1 day of the Lord's time is a 1000 years of our time. So that means my mission is only 3 minutes in the eyes of God and if you live for 90 years then that is 2 hours and 15 minutes in the eyes of God. We really do not have that much time here on this Earth. We need to make the most of it. We need to do our best everyday and truly need to prepare to meet God in this life. This quote has helped me focus on my goals. 

"We don’t have to be fast; we simply have to be steady and move in the right direction. We have to do the best we can, one step after another...The only thing you need to worry about is striving to be the best you can be. And how do you do that? You keep your eye on the goals that matter most in life, and you move towards them step by step...That is easy enough. We don’t have to be perfect today. We don’t have to be better than someone else. All we have to do is to be the very best we can." -Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

I invite you all to focus on goals this year that will help you become a better person and allow you to help others.

I know a goal I have is to read the Bible and Book of Mormon all the way through this year.

I hope you are all in good health and doing well. Continue to read the scriptures  and pray everyday. This next week is transfers so I may be leaving Pocatello.

Love,

Elder Rush

In another email,  Mitchell said he was unable to attend my cousin, Bill Haskett's funeral which was  in one of his wards, because he was on splits in another area. He actually had a car, he was not walking. He said the funny thing was as they were driving he recognized grandpa's car in front of them. He saw grandpa but didn't think grandpa saw him.  Im sure my dad was on his way delivering the homemade bread and jam he had for Mitchell. My parents spoil my boy! I wish he could have attended the funeral to meet all my family. I would say next time, but 2 funerals in 5 weeks time are more then too many!

Relaxing time!

Nerf war!