Monthly Archives: July 2013

Subject: The Last Letter Of Elder Rushton Date: July 29th, 2013

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Erik by Graffiti in Detroit, Michigan

Erik by Graffiti that reads “The Dream Is Now”

Well, I’m all packed and ready to go. It seems surreal that the day is  finally here when my mission ends. Tomorrow I’ll head to the mission office, go through the job and marriage seminar, go to the temple, stay at some other missionaries apartment and then travel home Wednesday, I can’t believe the day is finally here.
 
This whole past week flew by. We had a lot of members that wanted to have us over for my last week so that took up most of our evenings. I also had to run errands throughout the week to get everything done that I needed to – dry cleaning etc. We also had a couple good lessons thrown in the mix plus three investigators and five less-actives at church. So I’d have to say that all in all it was a pretty great and eventful last week.
 
It’s been said that when your mission ends the people around you make a bigger deal out of it than you do. Not to say that I’m not excited to come home, but that statement is pretty true haha. I can’t tell you how many members at church yesterday gave me their advice on school, marriage, work, kids etc. I also haven’t had to keep track of how many days I have left on my mission because everyone else does it for me. I’m excited but I think I did a good job of containing my enthusiasm and focusing on finishing my mission strong. It really was a great two years.
 
Well, I guess I don’t have much else to say. I’m going to go fishing, hit a dinner appointment and that will round out my last day in Flint.
 
Well, see you on Wednesday!
 
Riders Under Satan’s Hand!!  (A silly Seminary joke about the Rush concert on Wednesday July 31st, 2013!!)
 
-The Original Elder Rushton
—
Elder Erik M Rushton
 
 

 

Last Week!

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Jill Rheaume and Erik Rushton

Erik with his Aunt Jill.

Whenever I’m in a dangerous part of Michigan I always joke about having to go to the ER for a gunshot wound. It’s a joke I’ve been telling since before my mission began. Well I finally made it to the ER, but with pneumonia.

So here’s the short version of my journey. Two Sundays ago I started feeling sick. On Tuesday I got permission to call the mission doctor and he diagnosed me with strep over the phone. By Friday my strep felt fine but I still had a fever of 103 degrees so I went to an urgent care. That doctor found nothing and said give it more time. On Saturday night I woke up at 3:30 and knew I was going to have to go to the ER. I had Elder Smith call the mission president (I couldn’t talk at all) and we went it. They did a chest x-ray on me and admitted me into the hospital with pneumonia. I spent two days in the hospital and was let out Tuesday morning. It was the only time I’ve missed church as a missionary! I had a lot of visitors in the hospital and I even got a phone call from some members I knew in Howell which I was grateful for. It  really broke up the boredom of just sitting there looking out the window. Jill (my Aunt) came by on Thursday after I was out of the hospital and it was fun seeing her again.

Needless to say, my sick week was very unproductive. I think I left the house three times that whole week. This week was much more productive. We had a good amount of new investigator lessons and we had two members give us two awesome referrals. I’m kind of sad I won’t be here to watch them progress. Hopefully this week I can help give them a big push in the right direction and help them prepare to be baptized after I leave.

It’s weird to think that this is my last full week as a missionary.

There were times I never thought the end would come! It’s strange to think that I’ll never be doing something like this. I’m really glad I came and it was a great experience. That being said… I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was super excited to come home! I’m looking forward to hanging out with everyone again!

Well, other than that there’s not much more for me to report on. Next week’s email might be even shorter!

—

Elder Erik M Rushton

July 16th-Spending a Couple Days in the Hospital

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Hurley Hospital Flint, Michigan

Erik had a nice stay in Hurley Hospital

Erik didn’t get P day this week.  He was in the hospital in Flint Michigan.  He kept getting sicker and sicker all week and then went to the Insta-care last Friday.  They thought he just needed to wait it out and stay on his antibiotic but by Sunday morning, Erik’s companion knew he needed help.  He was coughing and couldn’t breathe very well. They called the Mission President and he told them to go to the Emergency room.  Erik was admitted to the hospital on Sunday morning with Pneumonia.  The mission President called us and told us that he had been admitted and gave us permission to call him!

We called him Sunday afternoon and he didn’t sound very good. He said he was on oxygen and an IV (the first of 2) His spirits were good but he was tired and no appetite.  He has had many visitors including the Mission President and his wife.  We called him again on Monday and he was feeling a little better.  Today, Tuesday, he was released in the afternoon to go home.  He found out that one lung was 2/3 full of fluid and the other was 1/3 full!  It’s good they had him in the hospital!

He has to go back in 10 days for another chest x-ray to make sure the fluid is gone, but he is not taking pain medication any more and his fever is gone.

Thanks for everyone’s prayers on Erik’s behalf.  We are grateful for his Mission President, his companion and those in his ward that came to check on him.

2 more weeks and he will be home!

Firework or Gunshot? Letter from July 8th 2013

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Elder Erik Rushton and his companions

Erik and his companions model their fashionable ties

Dear family,

I feel like absolute crap today. Why did I have to get sick the last month of my mission!?! Saturday morning and afternoon we had two service projects and I started to feel bad at the end of the second one. I thought it was just a bit of heatstroke because it was 95 degrees with 70% humidity, but then it stayed through Sunday. Then this morning I woke up with a fever that I wasn’t very happy about. So hopefully it passes quick because we have a ton of stuff to do this week.

We had a couple cool things happen this week with contacting member referrals and finally getting in contact with some part member families we’ve been asked to go by. The Canfields, our senior missionary couple, have done a great job in helping us track down some less-active and part-member families. We’ll be meeting with two of the part-member families this week and they both are super awesome and want to come back to church. They both have kids that have yet to be baptized so we’re going to have the primary help us out a ton. The primary presidency in Flint are really awesome and I’ve loved working with them all.

Thursday was a sad day and a fun day all in one. We got a call from our Bishop informing us that our ward mission leader’s wife had passed away the night before. She went to Arizona about a month ago because he had retired and they wanted to move out by family. He had to stick around for a bit to pack up and sell the house and was planning to leave at the end of July. Anyway, we usually have our coordination meeting on Thursdays but obviously that wasn’t going to happen. We still decided to get all 9 missionaries together to go and visit our WML and we all signed a card for him. It was a good visit and he was glad to see all of us.

Thursday evening we went over to the Smith’s house for a bbq dinner.

We also fried up the fish we caught on Monday. Did you know Bass has 20g of protein in just two ounces?? David Smith is a pretty good cook too so dinner was really good.

For the 4th of July we had to be in by 7:30 so we obviously didn’t get to to any fireworks. We did get to play the fun Flint guessing game “Firework or Gunshot?” It’s a fun game and your answer is only confirmed by if you hear sirens or not, and you only hear sirens if someone dies haha.

Saturday morning we went to a members house and helped him cut and haul wood. With all the tornado warnings and sever thunderstorms that were coming through last month, he had two trees downed on his property. After that project we went to meet a part-member family The Canfields, introduced us to. We stuck around for awhile and helped them level some of their land for a swimming pool they were putting in. It was a lot of digging and we were so sore the next day!

Sunday was my last fast-sunday as a missionary. I wasn’t planning on bearing my testimony because I had done it last week for missionary sunday, but in the end I was pressured into it by a few members of the ward. I bore my testimony about the blessings of a mission and talked about how everything at home has just been working out for me since I came on a mission. I haven’t really had to worry about school or money or anything to much and I know it’s because of my missionary service.

Plus I talked about how awesome my parents are in taking care of everything for me 😉

 

Well, I think that’s about all the time I have today. Now I’m going to go home, hit the drugs, and crash out for the next few hours until our appointment at six.  I can’t believe I only have three more emails to write after this. I’m not trunky. I’M NOT TRUNKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

-The All Original All American Elder Rushton

 

P.S. You know, with all this news about planes and helicopters crashing left and right, I’m not so sure about flying home anymore 🙂

 

—

Elder Erik M Rushton

July 1st letter: Subject: Investigator Slurpee Finding

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We had a pretty good week this week in terms of missionary work.
Slurpee’s helped me find another prospective investigator! On Friday we decided to hit 7-11 to end the night and on our way out of the store a guy who had been outside smoking asked if we were the Mormons. When we told him yes we quickly put out his cigarette and apologized for smoking in front of us. We got to talking and we found out that his grandma was a member and that he really hadn’t felt comfortable in any church except the Mormon church. We set up an appointment this week with him and his girlfriend so hopefully all goes well! That’ll be the second investigator I’ve found through that 7-11.
 
So this morning we had an activity at the stake center with our whole zone and that was pretty fun. Elder Smith and I didn’t stay for long because we brought an investigator with us. The coolest thing about the Grand Blanc stake center is that it’s on a huuuuuge amount of property and has it’s own lake. And I mean it’s a pretty serious lake. Our investigator always wanted to go fishing there so we figured that this would be the perfect opportunity. At first we were only catching smaller Blue Gill fish, but then we decided to try an experiment. I took my knife and murdered some Blue Gill in our bucket, then we started fishing with fish heads! It took a bit, but we ended up catching some pretty bigBass. Elder Smith caught a huge one that’s probably at least 10 inches long.
 
Unfortunately missionaries aren’t allowed to handle fireworks… But we can watch other people handle fireworks! Things are gonna get crazy out here in Flint! People have been shooting off fireworks for about a week already ha-ha. At first we thought they were just normal gunshots (I never thought I’d ever think a gunshot was normal…) but it turns out it was just fireworks. We got invited to the Smith’s house for the 4th of July and that’s where we’re going to fry up all the fish we caught today. We’re also going to be blowing up a watermelon that we didn’t cut up and eat fast enough.
 
On Friday we had our chance to meet the new Mission President, Pres.Gerber, and his wife. It was a pretty fun meeting and he is a pretty cool guy. I wish I would’ve had the chance to serve under him longer than I will. Because this Sunday was the 5th Sunday we had a special sacrament meeting all about missionary work. All the missionaries got up and introduced themselves with a short testimony. Apparently I did a good job in not letting people know how soon I go home because I got a lot of looks when I said I go home in 31 days ha-ha. One of the recent converts got up and shared his conversion story and then a former missionary that served in the Flint ward spoke. All of that was followed by our mission president who ditched his own ward on his FIRST Sunday in Michigan to come to our meeting. It was pretty cool and everyone enjoyed it. Plus we had 3 investigators there so that was awesome!
 
Well I hope you guys are having fun and getting ready for the REAL
party to start when I come home. Don’t get to excited!
 
-The Original Elder Rushton
 
Get me Austin’s mission field address as soon as he gets
out because I have something I want to send him.
—
Elder Erik M Rushton