Hello Everyone!
I hope you had a great week!
This week zoomed by like always! We were busy busy busy. We have so many people to talk to and meet. We were given a list of people to meet in the ward and so we began. We met a lady named Elaine. She is a non member that recently lost her Mother. Her mother was raised LDS and left the church when she married Elaine's father. About 20 years later Elaine's mother had a dream. In her dream, her deceased father came to her and said "you need to go back to church" So after that she became activity in church for the rest of her life. I thought that was a cool story. So Elaine told us this and we told her that she can be with her family forever, that they can be sealed in a Temple of our Lord. You could see that that sparked an interest in her. She said "I won't join your church but you can came back anytime and talk to me about it."That was a cool experience to find Elaine. The week before we were walking by her house and felt the need to go knock her door even though we did not know who lived there. So I took the second stop at her house as a sign that God wants us to teach her! Southeastern Idaho is very unique. It has a LOT of Mormons and it has a lot of less active Mormons. So we meet many people that want to came back to church but have not gone for years. One of these guys is Craig. Craig has been letting us come over and teach him. The other day we were stressing the importance of scripture study. He said he does not read much because it is confusing. So we read 2 Nephi 2 with him. He was confused but we broke things down for him! We invited him to read the rest of that chapter and we would follow up with him the following day (Sunday). We will get back to Craig in a second. Yesterday we gave talks in the Rockland Ward. The population signs says there are 295 people there but the average attendance is 400. HAHA it was huge! The chapel was full the over flow was full and the gym was full! HA but it was a great experience. Now back to Craig. Sunday night we asked him if he had read the chapter. He said, "You know what, I did. And I feel good." We talked about how the scriptures strengthen us against trials. He said that he has been in a funk for the past 3 years and He felt that the daily scripture study will help him get out of it! It was awesome to hear!
Well I hope you have a great week!
I love all of you!
Love,
Elder Rush
It has been so hot here we decided to sport the possibility of proselyting in shorts!
Goofy Elder Rush and Elder Price! They make me smile!
This is what happens when you tract in Idaho!
(We ate half of it before the picture was taken!)
I received this email from Elder Price's sweet mom. Burst my buttons with joy!
"Your son is literally God sent to our family and to Austin. We were told by MANY people he was the best missionary in the whole mission and that he was hand picked for my son. I would love to share his whole story. Call or text when you have time. :)"
So this mama called Elder Price's sweet mom Allison. She told me Elder Price had been called on a mission to Ohio 5 years prior. Because of anxiety, depression and other things, he ended up not going. 4 years later, he decided he needed to serve a mission, so he started the process again. They had him do lots of extra things in order to put his papers in. The missionary department had his papers for a very long 6 months. The family kind of figured by this time he would not receive a call. Their Stake President then called them in to meet with him. They were told about the Trial Missionary Program where Elder Price would serve for 3 months as a missionary in the Idaho Pocatello Mission. If after that time his trainer and the Mission President gave the ok, he could get a call to a different mission and go to the MTC for training. So his parents dropped him off at the IPM mission home with no training, for his new adventure. Needless to say, Elder Price was nervous that he wouldn't know how to do what he was suppose to without any training. While there, he was told by the assistants to the President and the others that his companion was the best. That's where my Elder Rush comes into the story. All my boy wanted to do was train missionaries. He had the privilege of training another Trial Missionary for 6 weeks a year ago, and loved every minute with Elder Duff. When he was asked to train his last 6 weeks in the mission, he was thrilled to say the least!
Elder Price's mom said she knows her boy was sent to the IPM when he was so my boy could help him. That Mitchell was hand picked for her boy. Oh how that made this mama's heart sing and her eyes drip!
I'm so thankfull for the many touching experiences I have had through the service of my amazing Elder Rush. His whole life he has been such a strength, but these last almost 2 years have blessed my life in ways I can never express! I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that trusted me enough to send me my angel boy! I'm one blessed mama!
