Hey Family:)
It was so good to get to talk to you all:) It is really rejuvenating as a
missionary when you get to talk to your family and hear their voices. I am so
grateful for modern technology!! I don't really have much updates since we were
able to talk on the phone on Sunday. But, my companions name is Sister Malola Vaai. The
first thing I ever said to her when I met her was, "How do you say your name."
lol poor girl. She is from Samoa. This is her fourth transfer on the mission and
her second transfer on the Island. She has a twin sister who served a mission in
Australia. She is an incredible missionary and has such a sweet
testimony.
Nantucket is so different from Ellington, but I love it. I met some amazing
people in Ellington. I grew a lot in that area. And I am going to miss all of
those wonderful people that I was blessed to meet. There is such a spirit of
missionary work there and the ward is so unified. All of them give up so much of
their time for their kids to grow up in the gospel.
It is a blessing to get to see the church at very beginning stages here in
Nantucket. Sometimes it feels like I am serving a foreign mission. It is so
different here from anywhere else that I have ever been. Lacy is doing really
well. We are hoping to set her date for either the end of May or the beginning
of June. She has three little kids. She has gone through a lot in life. The twig
members have said that her countenance has completely changed since she has
started to come to church. With our lesson with her on Thursday we taught about
keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and the blessings of baptism. She was so excited to
get to keep the Sabbath day holy when we told her how much it would mean to her
girls and how much it would bless their lives. She kept saying that she didn't
feel ready for baptism yet and wanted to make sure that it was right. She came
to church on Sunday and pulled my companion and I aside and said that she felt
really strongly during the Sunday School lesson that she needed to be baptized
and she wanted to tell us right then so that she could always remember that it
was on Mother's day that she decided to be baptized. She had such a light about
her and was so happy. Since there are only 5 other people at church they all
over heard and pretty soon we were all hugging and crying:) It was a really
sweet moment. Chelsea is the one who met her and introduced her to the gospel.
Lacy just kept looking at Chelsea and saying, "What if I had never met you."
Chelsea grew up in Rigby, Idaho and came here after high school because it was
the farthest away she could get away from Idaho with still being in the US. She
met her husband here who is from the Dominican Republic, and now they have
Emeron who is 5 and Grayson who is 5 months old. They moved back to Nantucket
about a year and a half ago. Her husband is not a member but he comes to FHE
every Wednesday night. And they have us over for dinner every Monday night. We
share a lesson in the car when she takes us home and last night we talked about how the Lord has answered her
prayers through Lacy joining the church and that her and Ozni will be blessed
because of it. Even though she has been praying for her husband her prayer was
answered in different ways.
The Millsteads are the family that we live with. They moved here from Texas
5 years ago when he got a job offer here. They were the only members here as far
as they knew so they got permission to hold sacrament meeting in their living
room every Sunday. And that is how
our little twig got started. Sister Millstead said that she felt like they were
crazy to leave a ward where their son could go to Seminary to go somewhere where
they were the only members and they wouldn't be able to attend a ward or branch.
But she knew that they needed to come.
From there they found Michael who is an excommunicated member and they have
been meeting in his home up until a month ago when we started renting a building
out. Rosie called two months ago when she heard the church was finally on the
island. She is from the Philippines and came here to work as a house keeper and
left her family who she was sealed to in the Philippines. She has been looking
for the church here for 14 years. Xandra is also from the Philippines and served
her mission there. She has been here working for 3 years and also just recently
found that the church was here a few months ago.
President put sister missionaries here last Summer. And about a week later
the Millsteads son who is now on a mission invited his friend Grace to church.
Grace, and her mom and her fiancee started to investigate the church and have
been investigators ever since. It is a good reminder that the Lord is mindful of
every living soul that lives on the earth. No one goes unnoticed, not even on an
island that is in the middle of no where. And we also have Geoff who is
investigating. He is a single dad with a little girl who is 8 months old. And
then we have 8 less actives on the island. One of them lets us come to her home
once a week to teach them primary. Zach is 10 and Aubrey is 8. They know so much
about God and Jesus Christ already. It never ceases to amaze me how fast kids
pick up the truths of the gospel even if it wasn't always talked about in their
home.
That is our little twig here on the island. We have FHE together every
week. It is humbling to see how much every one hear sacrifices for the gospel to
be here on the island. The Millsteads sacrifice many hours a week to host the
church for all of the other members here. They are the pioneers here for the
gospel on Nantucket. This is the first time that there has even been public
services for the church here on the island. It may take quite a few years but we
hope that one day it will be its own branch. We just got to get some more
priesthood holders so poor Brother Millstead doesn't have to be the only
one:)
We are really excited for Lacy's baptism. I don't think she realizes that
she is a pioneer here:) She will be the first one to ever be baptized on the
island. She is such an incredible women and is going to be such a blessing to
the members here. There is such a spirit here on the island. In church on Sunday me and my companion and I were
teaching the Sunday School lesson
and we had 5 people in our class, since Sister Millstead was teaching primary to
Emeron. But there was such a spirit of unity in that room. We meet in a hall
that is used for meetings for the island and the church rents it out on Sundays.
You could hear people through the room banging around and getting things ready
for an event. But the spirit was still there and it still felt like church. I
really know that the church is the same where ever you go. It was fun to see
Brother Millstead up there conducting the meeting all by himself. And when
Chelsea was leading the music he would hold her baby for her. We really are a
family here:)
I know that the Lord is mindful of each and every one of us, the worth of
every soul really is great in the sight of God. Even though it was hard to leave
Ellington I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. This is where I need to
be. I love you family and hope that you have a fantastic week.
Love Sister Abbey Lou Rushton
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