June 9

Hello!

I am going to tell you about my crazy, exciting, good week. (Hm, what
week isn't some sort of crazy? I don't think I have started any of my
emails with "yeah, it was just an average regular week". At least,
since my being a missionary, it seems like our regular is not what a
regular week used to be to me or most haha).
We had the car last week and it was so nice, but now this week will be
even harder to get back on the bikes because it has been getting
warmer and warmer - wait - I mean hotter and hotter. I have never been
terribly good at staying hydrated but I have to make sure now. Also,
we'll have to think of creative ways to be out of the heat as much as
possible like staying under the shade of trees along the Greenway
instead of on asphalt which reflects the heat twice as bad.
Ok, so on Saturday we finally had a solid service project to work on.
Brother Hansen's neighbors needed help with their bushes and creating
a garden area in the front of the house, and so Brother Hansen invited
us and the elders to help with that and to fellowship. So the four of
us with the help of two of the kids shoveled rocks for about four
hours and dug up the yard, clay and grass. Well, for Ostin, one of the
boys who is probably 6, we were just digging up dinosaur fossils of
course. It actually was a ton of fun - our elders are hilarious and
fun to be around, the kids said the funniest things, and (Camille and
my other siblings will like this) we tried singing the rap/song from
the movie Holes, haha! :) Ostin was trying to be all grown up and when
the Hansen's daughters, about the same ages, came over I just hear him
loudly say, "Ladies! This is a construction site, NOT a playground.
You need to go back for the playground" I laughed so hard and it just
made my day.

Gah, I am already tired of typing (pecking) because this teensy iPad
keyboard slows me down. :P Ok, I'll share just a couple more things
though, the highlights of my week.
I saw lightning bugs for the first time ever! They really exist, haha.
My whole life I have only seen them in animated things so it was
almost like they were myth. It is super neat, they really are
fluorescent.
We have a new couple we are teaching from Liberia, Africa. Louis and
Mirene, and our first lesson went well but then the second one was
crazy and somehow turned into us bearing testimony but Mirene was so
fired up about the Bible and wasn't open to the Book of Mormon that I
think everything we tried explaining or bearing testimony of went in
one ear out the other. I hope the next lesson goes over better, but we
do have a continuing appointment with them so that is good.
We had lunch with Sister Schilling this week, she is our stake and
ward Geneology person. And she was so wonderful to spend a couple
hours with us to show us the basics of family history and
familysearch.org. It was a good time and I found some fun stories that
someone put up of Hazelton and Maria Campbell.
And now my favorite part of the week: We got in with Garrett and Jodi
yesterday to teach! We explained for Garrett the what, why, how, and
who of the Priesthood. Our ward mission leader, Brother Arias was
there with us and contributed so wonderfully and shared how Priesthood
blesses his family and life. Then in the end we invited him to pray
about being baptized this month instead of waiting for Jodi so that he
can progress to being ordained to the Priesthood and baptize Jodi
himself and bless his little baby girl. He still is on the fence! But
said he would pray about it now that he knows about the Priesthood and
have an answer by the end of the week. If you would like to, please
pray that he can receive the answer that Heavenly Father desires of
him and that he will move forward.

That's all I got today. Enjoy summer break everyone, but don't have
too much fun! ;)
Love you all,
Sister Rust

I am in my 9 month!!! I can't believe it!!!
We have transfers tomorrow but Sister Gunther and I are staying, yes!!
:) We get so nervous as transfers approach because we love being with
each other and we work well together and we love University City ward.
We found out we are getting a second set of elders though so we'll be
back to three companionships again and then maybe we will all stay for
a while. I think the members are wondering why there have been like 6
different sets of missionaries come through in just 4 months, that's a
lot of switching around.