Abbey's letter April 21, 2014

Hey Family:) I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter. It sounds like everyone was spread apart this year for Easter.
We were able to share the article the Living Christ with a lot of people this week. I am going to try and memorize it again. It states so plainly what we believe about Jesus Christ as Latter Day Saints. I think that everyone should have it in their home.
This week we did lots of finding activities. We have a potential named Pier that we have an appointment with next week so that is really exciting. He is the one that chain saws bears out of logs of wood and then sells them. The ward council teases us that he is the man with the chain saw and a hockey mask. They think that is pretty funny. We also are going to start teaching a part member family in the ward. His name is Louis and his wife is a member and just moved in our ward. We get to start teaching him this week so that is really exciting. We dropped off a book of Mormon that we had marked all of our favorite scriptures in for Kelly. We hope that will help her to learn more about the gospel since she hasn't been able to meet with us. Don is doing good:) He is tanning away in Florida and will be home in another week.

On Saturday we had a pancake breakfast and Easter Egg hunt that the primary put on. We had two non member families come so that was exciting. They had a little petting zoo, with goats and chicks. It was really fun. Yesterday we went to the Faber's for Easter. There son left for his mission two months ago and is serving in Atlanta, Georgia. They have one other son who is 15. They are all converts and were sealed in the temple last June. None of their family are members. Sister Faber's brother and her 3 cousins, one of them with his family where also there. We had some good ham and potatoes and cake:) Sister Faber loves bunnies and her house is normally decorated with bunnies. But yesterday it was even more decorated with bunnies. There was probably about 300+ statues of bunnies of all shapes and sizes! And I'm not exaggerating! There family was very nice and we had a few good conversations about the book of Mormon, and the atonement. We had dinner and then we played Base ball. I faced my fears and played. I''ve already broken my nose twice in my life now so what do I have to lose, right? And I got a home run! It was really fun. Sister Faber gave us lots of left over cake which I had for breakfast this morning, it was yummy:) They had an Easter Egg for us and that reminded me of home so that was fun.
I just watched this video and it is really good! You should all watch it. Someone was saying in church yesterday that the church bought out the advertisement banner on you tube yesterday to display this video. So everyone who logged onto you tube yesterday saw this video being displayed. The church is so cool!
http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

I have really come to realize that our only purpose as individuals who have the truth of the gospel is to bring others closer to Christ. There are many who know the Savior but are not of our faith. And then there are many who have no idea of the sacrifice that was made for them. They have no idea that they can build a strong relationship with a man who is the reason that we will all live again. The reason that there is a stronger push to share the gospel with those around us is not to increase the numbers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but rather to prepare individuals for the Second Coming of the Savior so they will better know him when he comes again. Just like you said in your letter to me for Easter Mom.

Sister Watts older sister used to baby sit for this family that lived down the street from them. Her sister had to come home from her mission for a few months for a surgery and was home for Christmas so she went to visit them. They have a three year old little girl and had just had a baby boy two days earlier. They night this woman went into a coma in her sleep. She had been on life support since then. She passed away about three weeks ago and left her husband with two little babies to take care of. She was just becoming receptive to the gospel. This life can be so short sometimes. Maybe she just needed to live long enough to bring those two little babies into the world.

A woman by the name of Sister Willis gave a talk on the atonement for Sacrament meeting yesterday. She referred to having a relationship with the Savior and taking full advantage of the atonement as the logo from the office supply store. The one where you press the button and it says, " That was Easy." She said that with the Savior whenever we need the atonement, its as if he is saying, "I got you covered." She said that when we accidentally say something mean to a friend and they get offended, the Savior says, "I got ya covered." When life doesn't go as planned, he says "I got ya covered." When loved ones die, he says "I got ya covered." When loved ones have health problems that set them apart from others, he says "I got ya covered." When we have feelings of doubt or pain, he says "I got ya covered." When we make mistakes and need to make changes, he says "I got ya covered."

I don't feel like I got as many opportunities to share my testimony of the our savior Jesus Christ, this Easter season as I would have liked. So I want to share it with you. The biggest blessing of my mission has been the building of my relationship with my Savior Jesus Christ. My trainer, Sister White, shared a quote with me from a general authority. Who said that if you were the only being on this earth who needed the atonement he still would have done it. The atonement is not a one size fits all type of thing. It is very individual and binds us with our savior Jesus Christ.I always knew since I was a little girl that Jesus Christ lives and that he is the Savior of the world, because that's what I was taught. But I don't really think that I felt it until I have come on my mission and spent my days testifying of him and trying to convince people that he does live. I know that he loves me. He knows my strengths and my weaknesses. He knows all of my mistakes and things that I have overcome. He knows what makes me happy and what makes me sad. He knows what my desires are and who I can become. He knows when I feel defeated and when I feel triumphant. He knows how to comfort me, and how to push me in directions that make me stronger. He knows that sometimes we are weak. Sometimes we fall short. Sometimes we are just plain tired and don't want to try anymore. And he understands because he is merciful. I know that he lives. Because I can fell him near me. I know that all good comes from him and every being on this earth has his light within them. I know that he will come again. I know that he wants us to be joyful and enjoy life. I know that everything will make sense one day. I know that families can be together forever. I know that ours will be together forever. "No Empty Chairs" We will all get there together. I can't wait until we will all be together again and Marissa will have gone through the temple so that we can all go together. I am such a baby. Here I am in the library crying and people are looking at me like I am crazy:) I sure do love you guys. I am grateful for all of your support and love. I am so grateful for each one of you. I sure love my family.

Abbey's letter April 14, 2014

Hey Family!!! Many exciting things have happened this week:) On Monday we took our trip into Boston with Don! We went to a few museums and then we walked around Boston. We met a few girls from California who were visiting the area for spring break. They are LDS and are planning on serving missions after they graduate from High School. So that was really fun! Then we went to dinner at a place called Durgin Park. And Don tried to get me to eat sea food! But we settled on Pesto and chicken pasta. So that was good:) First time I met Don it was 11oclock in the morning and he fed us shrimp cocktail and Eggnog:( And he kept giving us more and more! And he refuses to take no for an answer. I was sick all day after that. With Don the more you eat the more he likes ya. He has already said how sad he is that we wont be able to enjoy cookies together in the spirit world because we wont have arms so we wont be able to grab them. Only comment he had after we taught the spirit world. I think Don is the reason I have gained 15 pounds mostly on my rear end. I have already had to put up 4 skirts that don't fit anymore because they are too tight and a little too shapely for a missionary:) So we enjoyed dinner and then...... Don set a baptismal date:)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He will be getting baptized on may 10th. Even though he did have an alcoholic beverage with dinner he did set a date:) Crazy guy. So now we just need to work on that one. He has been investigating since September:) But he has come to church every week since then. He sure is quite the guy. I am so excited that in a year Don and his wife will get to be sealed together. I feel like they are family I have really gotten to know them. I think that I am going to face my fear and do a musical number at his baptism. Time to face my fears right! Don and I have already decided that we are going to be neighbors in Heaven:) I sure love that man.
On Wednesday we had a sister's conference. All of the sisters met in Weston for the day. The conference lasted from 9 to 6. It was a long day but it was really good. We learned a lot about how to work with members, and helping them feel comfortable and realize how they can do missionary work. I feel like it was a day of spiritual uplifting, and reminding us that we are daughters of God. And that the Lord is grateful for what we are doing. At the end of the day our President said he wanted "to pray over us" (in his Texan accent). So he said a prayer before we ended the meeting with a song and a prayer. It was a really spiritual experience. He is such an amazing man. There are a lot of sisters in this mission who have and still do struggle with many things and have been asked to go through a lot. It has really opened my eyes to many things. I was able to see all of my old companions which was really fun. We had a few workshops that we rotated through. Our mission Doctors wife gave one on feeling the Holy Ghost. And how important it is in our life. She went over the restoration and how lucky we are to get to have this knowledge and proclaim it to the world. Not many girls in the world have gotten this opportunity. It was a good reminder not to take it for granted and to love every moment of it. We had another one on coming into our selves. Sister Packard's parents the McBride's were called to this mission. So sister McBride gave this conference. She talked in detail the process of how a little caterpillar can become a butterfly. And that at the beginning they were just a simple unattractive little caterpillar. She said that some of us have not yet become butterflies and that we need to allow ourselves to grow and become a light and become who we are who we want to be. She is such a cute little lady and she kept saying that she wants us to look in the mirror and say, "I'm a beautiful butterfly" All i could think of was the little caterpillar from a bugs life saying, "I'm a beautiful butterfly." So funny. It was a really good workshop. So I decided right then that I was going to do a musical number at Don's baptism. It was a really good day:)
This week was full of trainings with district mtg on Thursday and then Zone meeting on Friday. We were able to take a group of people that are working towards the temple to the Hartford temple site on Saturday. They have pictures of what all of the rooms will look like. It was a really good experience. They asked a lot of questions about what goes on in there and all made goals of when they want to go through and get there endowments taken out. It is amazing how you can feel the spirit just on the temple grounds when there are just piles of dirt.
I am learning to find comfort, joy and , accomplishment in the small things. We had many less actives come to church on Sunday. We had 7 there which is a big deal. We are starting to have the young women come out with us on splits:) We were able to get phone contact with all three of our investigators who have dropped us recently. James, Hailey, and  Gary. We went to find a man who lives on a certain street this week and so we went tracking. The first door we knocked on, it was a woman who has two kids and is pregnant with her third. She asked us questions and invited us to come back after we shared the message of the restoration of the gospel:) That was really exciting. Don't know if we will ever find the man who lives on that street that we are trying to find because there are about 200 plus apartments and homes but maybe we were meant to find her:)
We found out today that his 96 year old man who we were working with just passed away. His nephew who lives in Georgia just joined the church and he is the one that referred Theron to us. He was the sweetest old man and loved the bible. His mom used to have the missionaries over for dinner all the time. He told us that if we brought him a large print book of Mormon he would read it. We just got the book and were trying to get a hold of him so that we could drop it by this week:( Makes me really sad but I guess this means that is probably now an investigator in Heaven. Who knows maybe Grandma and Uncle Donny will get to teach him. He was such a cute old man:( Makes me really sad. But his neighbors mother who is his good friend happens to be the sister of a man in our ward. So now we have a connection and maybe they will be able to get his work done for him when they are able to. We are going to try and see if we can help out with the funeral in any way.
AHHHH I just realized that today is my 8th month mark:) So crazy!!!!
I sure love you family:) Life is good. I am so grateful for my mission everyday and can't imagine what life would be like if I didn't come. I wouldn't have met all of these wonderful people. Who are now such a big part of my life. I know that this is the Lord's church and that he is so mindful of each and every one of us. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and the did restore the priesthood and all the truths of the gospel. I know that we are never alone when we are serving others and are testifying of Christ. I know that the Holy Ghost can bring greater knowledge then any worldly knowledge. I am so grateful for this gospel and everything that it is to me. I love you all. I hope that every one stays safe. And that everyone is happy and enjoying life because life sure is wonderful. Have a wonderful week.
Love Sister Abbey Lou Rushton
p.s. "I'm a beautiful butterfly" lol