Thanksgiving!

Videos of the Week
A Savior is Born 

IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT A SAVIOR

Hello!
This week was crazy because I don't remember most of it. We were so busy preparing for our mission meetings we had last week and this week. The most important thing I've learned this week is Christ. Seems silly right? Being a representative of Jesus Christ is why I'm here. But that main purpose of missionary work often gets overshadowed by teaching x amount of lessons or accomplishing this or that. When in reality we are called to invite and help others come unto Christ. As we have been talking and teach we make everything about Jesus Christ. When you talk about the Word of Wisdom you may just say what you can and cannot partake of but when you discuss it by focusing on Christ and what He wants us to do, it makes it so much more powerful. In Idaho there are numerous amount of people that just want to tell us how wrong we are, instead of sitting there and trying to prove a point, we focus on Jesus Christ, on His teachings and on what He has commissioned us to do. People cannot fight against the truth of God. I love seeing people change because of our Savior. I attached two videos and I Invite you to watch them. They explain the need for a Savior and what life would be like without one. I am grateful for our Heavenly Father's willingness to send His son to save us, to make us free from bondage!
Anyway back to the week. We had Thanksgiving at the Klingers house! It was such a great feast! It snowed most of this week and I have frozen a little bit! It is quite strange to wake up and walk outside to 4 degree weather! We had a few lesson this week but the most memorable experience was with a man named Keth. We started teaching him after we randomly knocked his door a few weeks ago, and since then he has come to church and read the Book of Mormon.  This last week we took him on a tour of the church building. Now Keth belongs to another church but is one of the most open minded and willing people I have met. He is sincerely seeking the truth and the change in him is fantastic to witness. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and diligently asking for an answer! Please keep him in your prayers! And lastly, with Elder Fontes going home in a few weeks I have been pondering what I want to become when my mission is over. I know I have to start now if I want to accomplish any goals in the next 9 months and I decided this quote is the best way to summarize my goal.

"Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work; I want you. All of you. I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man but to kill it. No half measures will do. I don’t want to only prune a branch here and another there; rather I want the whole tree out. Hand it all over to me, the whole outfit, all your Desires, all of your Wants and Wishes and Dreams. Turn them all over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self in my image. Give me yourself in exchange I will give myself. My will shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart."

I hope to one day be like Nephi in Helaman 10:5 of the Book of Mormon
" And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will."

I hope that my will, my everything can become exactly what God wants and needs it to be!

I know God loves us and we can overcome anything If we allow God into our lives and do what He desires us to do!

I love and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Rush

Thanksgiving Day

My Angel friend Barbie Stoddard made banana cake for Elder Rush and Elder Fontes from their ripe bananas. Made this mama's heart sing.

Valley Center,

Pocatello on Thanksgiving day!

Where Can I Turn For Peace?

Strengthened by the Atonement of Jesus Christ - Elder Dallin H. Oaks


Hello!
I hope you had a Good Week!

I am doing well. I have been learning a lot. I hope I can remember what I need to and apply it. I have really been focusing on what I want to accomplish for the next year. I don't want to get to the end and not do everything I can. I think I have been focusing on it because Elder Fontes goes home in a few weeks. 

This week was good!

We had people from the mission department in Salt Lake City come and tour our mission! Tuesday they came out "teaching" with us. We expected to have them teach with us but they just sat there and took notes! So based off all their notes we had a 6 Hour meeting with half the mission. They just threw a bunch of new mission changing information at us. It is enough to say that my mind was blown with all that information!
Later on in the week I met a very handsome Elder named Elder James Warren Harding IV

he is so cool and is royalty and heir to the throne he is rad.

And he is a goober...if you cannot tell.

Crazy story, we were trying to find this investigator that we had not seen in a while. So we stopped by his house and he answered the door. Now he lives on the top floor of an apartment complex. We talk to him and ask if he still wants us to come over or if we are just annoying him. He told us he wants to meet with us so we ask if we could read the Book of Mormon with him. He said it was down stairs in the basement. We followed him down there and he runs across the room kicks open the other door and bolts it. He was gone and we have not seen him since. It was pretty fun. His friend told us that his roommates are using us to threaten him. Weird stuff.  

I know this week will be great!

I love and miss you all!

Elder Rush

Where Can I Turn for Peace Lyrics

1. Where can I turn for peace?
    Where is my solace
    When other sources cease to make me whole?
    When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
    I draw myself apart,
    Searching my soul?

2. Where, when my aching grows,
    Where, when I languish,
    Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
    Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
    Who, who can understand?
    He, only One.

3. He answers privately,
    Reaches my reaching
    In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
    Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
    Constant he is and kind,
    Love without end.

A Missionary sandwich!

Elder Rush and Elder Fontes

One Exhausted Elder Rush!

Hello Everyone!

So today I won't be emailing because it is not our Preparation Day. This week is transfers and today through Wednesday we will just be doing transfer stuff. Taking missionaries places, taking luggage, make sure everyone has a place to live and the areas that need a car that they have cars! We will be taking our preparation day on Saturday and I think we will have another one on Monday! Anyway things have been good! Super busy! I will tell you all about it on Saturday!

I had a dream this last week and I have been writing my dreams down and using my journal more! I had a dream about the family and Valley Center but it was called Pocatello. Anyway we were doing transfers and I saw the whole family walking down the street. I really wanted to go see all of you but I couldn't because I was a missionary still! It helped me realize how much I miss all of you! I am grateful for the chance to help families be together forever! I miss you to the moon and back!

Love,

Elder Rush

This last week was insane!
It has gone really fast but it seems like it has been going on forever.
Monday we had to pick up all the missionaries that were going home. We
drove around the mission getting people and on the way back to
Pocatello we ran out of gas! That was fun. We just waited 20 minutes
for some missionaries to bring us gas. The rest of the day we spent in
meetings and getting things ready for the missionaries to fly home
Tuesday morning!
Tuesday we went to the airport at 5:30 so we could have all the
luggage ready for the 7 AM flight! That was a long day. At noon we
were able to pick up the new missionaries. The rest of Tuesday was
spent doing orientation stuff like that.
Wednesday was transfers. It went pretty smoothly. We made it half way
through the mission without any problems such as people forgetting
things but on the way back we had a few hiccups, which meant we had to
drive back up to Rexburg from Pocatello! That was a lot of driving
that day!
Since then we just had meetings with the new missionaries and we have
not had much time to go out and proselyte.
However there are two cool experiences we had with the little time to
proselyte. Both had to do with the power of reading your scriptures.
1. One of our investigators that we had not seen in a while randomly
texted us and asked if we could come over and teach her. We decided to
sit down and read the beginning of The Book of Mormon with her. We
read 1 Nephi 1 and everything just applied to her and what she had
been going through the past couple of weeks. It was awesome to just be
reading scripture and to feel like it was talking directly to us! I
definitely have a testimony that the scriptures are given to us for
our own betterment but we have to be willing to study them out!
2. We had another investigator we had not been able to get a hold of
recently. We knocked on his door and as we turned to leave he opened it so
we went in to talk to him! The once open minded person we were
teaching was closed off and not really willing to listen. He had a lot
of people tell him he was crazy to meet with us and why he shouldn't.
He had some strong words to share with us but we just sat there and
listened while he vented. (It was awesome to reflect and see that a
week earlier we pointed out to him that people would try and stop him
from meeting with us and the next day that started for him.) So we
proceeded to show him that what was happening in his life was what we
warned him of the prior week. He told us that this was the most miserable
his life had been for a long time. He told us he was not reading his
scriptures daily or praying or keeping the commandments we had taught
him about. We talked to him about the eternal happiness that comes
from keeping the commandments of God. We shared the experience Joseph
Smith had during the First Vision.

"15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed
to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled
down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had
scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power
which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over
me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness
gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed
to sudden destruction.

16 But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of
the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very
moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to
destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual
being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had
never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I
saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the
sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy
which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two
Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing
above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and
said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"

We related to him that following God's path is not easy and we will
have many things that try to stop us from following it. As we read the
scriptures, pray and attend church we will have the strength to do
what can be very hard at times, that is choose the right. I have a
deep love and testimony that the commandments are not meant to stop us
from having happiness but they are there to keep us safe and happy! I
love God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know with all my heart that
God has restored His church through the Prophet Joseph Smith. And if
you are not sure ask the ultimate source of Knowledge and that is God.
If you ask with a sincere heart and real intent He will manifest the
truth unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost!

I love you!
Elder Rush

Excerpt from

Personal Peace: The Reward of Righteousness

By Elder Quentin L. Cook

We all long for peace. Peace is not just safety or lack of war,
violence, conflict, and contention. Peace comes from knowing that the
Savior knows who we are and knows that we have faith in Him, love Him,
and keep His commandments, even and especially amid life’s devastating
trials and tragedies. The Lord’s answer to the Prophet Joseph Smith in
Liberty Jail brings solace to the heart:

“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions
shall be but a small moment;

“And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high.”19

Remember, “God is not the author of confusion, but [the author] of
peace.”20 For those who reject God, there is no peace. We all
participated in the councils of heaven that provided for moral agency,
knowing that there would be mortal pain and even unspeakable tragedy
because of the abuse of agency. We understood that this could leave us
angry, bewildered, defenseless, and vulnerable. But we also knew that
the Savior’s Atonement would overcome and compensate for all of the
unfairness of mortal life and bring us peace. Elder Marion D. Hanks
had a framed statement on his wall by Ugo Betti: “To believe in God is
to know that all the rules will be fair, and that there will be
wonderful surprises.”

What are the sources of peace? Many search for peace in worldly ways,
which never have and never will succeed. Peace is not found by
attaining great wealth, power, or prominence.22 Peace is not found in
the pursuit of pleasure, entertainment, or leisure. None of these can,
even when attained in abundance, create any lasting happiness or
peace.

Emma Lou Thayne’s beloved hymn asks the appropriate questions: “Where
can I turn for peace? Where is my solace when other sources cease to
make me whole?”23The answer is the Savior, who is the source and
author of peace. He is the “Prince of Peace.”24

How do we stay close to the Savior? Humbling ourselves before God,
praying always, repenting of sins, entering the waters of baptism with
a broken heart and contrite spirit, and becoming true disciples of
Jesus Christ are profound examples of the righteousness that is
rewarded by abiding peace.25 After King Benjamin delivered his
stirring message concerning the Atonement of Christ, the multitude
fell to the earth. “The Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they
were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and
having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they
had in Jesus Christ.”26Repentance and living righteously allow for
peace of conscience, which is essential for contentment.27 When there
has been a major transgression, confession is required to bring
peace.28 Perhaps there is nothing to compare with the peace that comes
from a sin-wracked soul unloading his or her burdens on the Lord and
claiming the blessings of the Atonement. As another favorite Church
hymn puts it, “I’ll drop my burden at his feet and bear a song
away.”29

My heart rejoices when I realize that in our day tens of thousands of
young men, young women, and senior missionaries have accepted the call
to be emissaries of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. They are taking
the restored gospel of peace to the world, one person and one family
at a time—a work of righteousness to bring this peace to Heavenly
Father’s children.

The Church is a refuge where followers of Christ attain peace. Some
young people in the world say they are spiritual but not religious.
Feeling spiritual is a good first step. However, it is in the Church
that we are fellowshipped, taught, and nourished by the good word of
God. More importantly, it is priesthood authority in the Church that
provides for sacred ordinances and covenants that bind families
together and qualify each of us to return to God the Father and Jesus
Christ in the celestial kingdom. These ordinances bring peace because
they are covenants with the Lord.

Temples are where many of these sacred ordinances occur and are also a
source of peaceful refuge from the world. Those who visit temple
grounds or participate in temple open houses also feel this peace. One
experience preeminent in my mind is the Suva Fiji Temple open house
and dedication. There had been political upheaval resulting in rebels
burning and looting downtown Suva, occupying the houses of Parliament
and holding legislators hostage. The country was under martial law.
The Fiji military gave the Church limited permission to assemble
people for the open house and a very small group for the dedication.
The members as a whole were uninvited due to concerns for their
safety. It was the only temple dedication since the original Nauvoo
Temple that was held under very difficult circumstances.

One person invited to the open house was a lovely Hindu woman of
Indian descent, a member of Parliament who was initially held hostage
but was released because she was female.

In the celestial room, free from the turmoil of the world, she
dissolved in tears as she expressed feelings of peace that overwhelmed
her. She felt the Holy Ghostcomforting and bearing witness of the
sacred nature of the temple.

The Savior is the source of true peace. Even with the trials of life,
because of the Savior’s Atonement and His grace, righteous living will
be rewarded with personal peace. In the intimate setting of the
Passover chamber, the Savior promised His Apostles that they would be
blessed with the “Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost” and then uttered
these important words: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”30 Then just before His
Intercessory Prayer: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me
ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of
good cheer; I have overcome the world.”31

Eliza R. Snow penned this concept beautifully:

Lift up your hearts in praise to God;
Let your rejoicings never cease.
Though tribulations rage abroad,
Christ says, “In me ye shall have peace.”32

I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love,
Elder Rush

One exhausted Elder Rush

                                          Pictures sent to me by My Idaho Angels!

Miracles Continue to Happen Everyday!

Hello! 

Hope you are all doing well!

Miracles continue to happen everyday here in Idaho!

This week was pretty busy!

The coolest thing happened on Tuesday though. We were out knocking doors in an apartment complex and an 18 year old named Zach came up to us and just started talking to us! We set up an appointment for that day! We taught him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He just took it all in and asked amazing questions that just blew my mind! At the end of the lesson we felt it was necessary to ask him to be baptized on November 15th and he said yes! Since Tuesday we have seen him everyday. We taught him and he just absorbed everything like a sponge, we took him to a baptism on Saturday and the whole time he just wanted to get up and tell everyone how he felt. We told him to wait a day since Sunday was Fast and Testimony Meeting. Zach got up in front of the whole ward and spoke for 10 minutes telling everyone how he felt and what he knew to be true! He is so awesome! It was definitely a miracle from God to send someone so prepared to receive the restored gospel. The best part is that it is happening all over the mission! God is good! 

Oh and for Halloween we were locked in a church building from 6 to 9 and we got to watch the Cokeville Miracle! It was A GREAT MOVIE! One of the best I have seen. If you have not seen it I HIGHLY recommend you see it now! I hope to visit Cokeville while on my mission!

Lately I have felt like I was plateauing as a missionary not really changing. However I was really just going down hill slowly. One day I was just kinda doing a self evaluation and realized how far off I was. As I took the time to be more willing and humble to open my heart to God and recognize what He wants me to work on, things have changed. I feel more aware of my weaknesses and how much I need God! I have been lucky to gain a stronger testimony of the reality of prayer. It literally is a communication between us and God. He wants to hear from us, He wants to help us but we have to ask. Just as we communicate often with earthly friends we need to communicate with God. I know that as we focus on the importance of prayer and importance our relationship with God, we will see the things in our lives we need to change to receive more happiness! I know that God loves us and cares about each of us as individuals! I hope we can all come to that knowledge through prayer, scripture study and devotion to God!

I love you!

Love,

Elder Rush

Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer

I'm so happy to see my Elder Rush still has his goofy side. The picture brightens my day! Love elder Rush and Elder Fontes's weapons!

Elder Fontes and Elder Rush with the Nelsons

The Snake River