Abbey's letter January 6, 2014

I hope that everyone's 2014 has been a good one. This week has been a slower one. We had a big snow storm on Thursday and Friday. Today it is about 50 degrees and all of the snow is gone. They red dotted everyone in the mission on Thursday which meant that we were unable to drive. So a lady in our ward by the name of Sister Bare picked us up and took us to her house and we spent the day there. Luckily Thursday is our day that we do all of our planning for the week! Sister Bare loves the missionaries. We do our laundry at her house every Monday. She is a sweet lady. And her house is a home away from home. Gary is still struggling and we are very worried about him. It is hard when you cannot control someone's agency. Don is doing well. He comes to church every Sunday with his Wife and Grandson. He is the most giving person that you will ever meet. He reads everything we ask him to read and keeps all of his commitments, he even payed fast offerings this past Sunday. But he still plans on dieing catholic! Crazy guy:) He will come along soon I think! That is my dieing wish right now, to get to see him progress towards baptism. We were able to have dinner with the Devaux's this week and teach Kelly the restoration. She enjoyed the lesson and had a lot of questions for us. 

Something that I realized this week while studying the Book of Mormon is that many times when a missionary is asked if they believe that there is a God, instead of saying yes, they simply say, "thou knowest that there is a God." What a simple testimony that everything that has ever lived in this universe testifies that there is a supreme being and creator. And there is no way that we can ignore or deny the fact that he lives. 

Another thing is that in Alma chapter 11 verse 37 it talks about how we must inherit the kingdom of Heaven, and be worthy of it. How amazing it is that we have the chance and ability in this live to become like our savior Jesus Christ and be worthy of his kingdom. And that it is a very real and reachable goal. A member in our ward has this silhouette of a chair on their wall that says no empty seats. I have really come to realize that the only way we can inherit the kingdom of Heaven is by helping others to get there as well. Life is so wonderful and I know that God lives. I know that he has restored his true gospel again on this earth as he has done many times before. God is a very merciful God. I love you all and pray for you often. I hope that you all have a very good week. 

Love Sister Rushton

Abbey's letter January 1, 2014

Hello Family!
Sister Barney and I will both be staying in Ellington for this
transfer. We are happy that she gets to stay. It is hard to believe
that it is already 2014. Looking back on last January, 2013 was a very
long year!!! It is crazy to think how different life is now! I have a
feeling that 2014 is going to be a great year. It was so fun to get to
see everyone on Christmas, and to get to talk to you! I sure do love
my family:) On Christmas after we were done talking to you, we went to
Susan's house. There were about 60 people there and it was one big
italian party. Susan's aunt is very into family history work so we
were able to help her with that, which was exciting. We had about 4
times the amount of clothing on as any of the other girls our age
there. They were so intrigued by us and couldn't quite understand how
we could give up tv and radio for a year and a half:) They are a fun
family and we had a good time getting to know them. There a lot of
good people in this world. It was the first time in my life I was
every offered a beer other then at resturaunts. We were able to teach
the restoration to Tariq and Taraja. They have such sweet little
spirits. We talked to them about prayer and Tariq explained to us how
we can recieve answers and know that Heavenly Father is there. We
committed them to pray about Joseph Smith and ask Heavenly Father if
he really was a prophet. They were so excited to do it. I sure do love
those little kids. We moved their baptismal date up to January 25th.
They are so excited to be baptized and are so ready so we figured
there was no point in waiting a month and a half. We had dinner with
the Freshetts this week, a part member family. And taught them the
restoration through this cup demonstration. The wife asked alot of
questions and was eager to learn more. They invited us over for dinner
again so we are hoping to teach them the plan of salvation next time.
There are so many people here that are at the beginning stages of
learning about the gospel and we are excited to get to work with them.
I am honestly pretty grateful that the holiday season is over so that
people's lifes will get back to normal and it will be a little easier
for them to find time to meet with us. Al Waite( the man that looks
like a mountain man in the pictures I sent home) got his temple
reccomend this week. What a blessing. I am excited for this new year,
and for the spirit of improvement that comes with it. This area is so
different from my last one and I am learning many new things. I am
working on continuing to put myself out of my comfort zone to improve
the work. The Lord works in mysterious ways but I have come to know
that he very much knows what he is doing. Every soul truly does have
great worth in the eyes of God. Something extaordinary is happening,
and I really do feel that something even bigger is about to happen. I
love this gospel, and I know that this is God's work. I love you all!
Have a fantastic week!