Elder Skyler Rushton riding the ferry.
Hello everyone! It was another incredible week here on Vancouver Island and it has been HOT! We went into a water advisory thingie for the city of Nanaimo yesterday because it hasn’t rained in almost two weeks. For here, that’s insane. There are no sprinkler systems because it’s supposed to be wet, and Vancouver Island is classified as a rainforest! But we actually almost spent no time in Nanaimo this week for exchanges! It literally almost felt like a vacation–we were in Port Alberni, Powell River, Courtenay and Richmond on the mainland this week! Richmond was for a meeting, but the others were all for exchanges with the Elders there! Monday, we drove into the Alberni valley where it is beautiful. We had P-day there, and lunch with a family named the Householder’s. They were from Utah, and knew a family member of mine named Steve Rushton–it was crazy! We also went to Cathedral Grove where they filmed Star Wars for P-day–legit!
After the exchange in Port Alberni, we drove up and took the 2 hour ferry to Powell River. No killer whales this time sadly, but the weather was prime for sailing. The exchange there went great, and Elder Swallow and I got to follow up with some people WE met last time we were there. It was sick! They were all totally interested! Miracles followed us around all week.
We travelled back from Powell River and met up with the Courtenay Elders for a bit, then finally headed back to Nanaimo Wednesday night. We had mission coordination so not a lot got done, then the next day we had weekly planning so still less got done. Then, we had to travel to Richmond for a day and by the time we got back Saturday morning, we had literally only worked in our area for maybe one day. We have something called the standards of excellence which is a mission goal for every companionship to hit. It takes into account member present lessons we teach, our quality gospel conversations (QGC’s), baptismal dates, investigators at church and new investigators we find during the week. There is a number associated with each of those, and if you hit four of them you make the standards. So, we were gone almost all week by Saturday, so we had almost no numbers for our area. We prayed, game planned a bit and then went out to hit the pavement. That’s when the blessings started flowing in. We hit the standards that night. HUGE miracle! God is so good. Just goes to show you that when you are doing what the Lord wants you to do, he will take care of you.
5 out of the 8 companionships in the zone hit standards which were tied for the best in the mission. So that was sweet. We had our favorite investigator couple come to church for the first time yesterday and they really enjoyed it! They are amazing. I’m running out of time this week, but suffice it to say that this was one of my favourite weeks of my mission. This is a promised land and being on a mission is the best thing I’ve ever done. I love you all so much! This gospel and church is so incredibly true! Read your scriptures and pray every day so you never lose your way! Have a great week
–Elder Rushton The Third
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