My sister Heidi was kind enough to meet Tyler at the airport today. She has flying privileges and so she was able to get past security and meet Tyler. Julie and I got to talk with him for about an hour before he boards his plane. Heidi was able to snap this picture of Tyler while he was eating Cafe Rio and talking to us. Enjoy. More details to follow and pictures.
We weren't expecting to hear from Tyler this week until he got to Portugal so imagine our surprise when we got this short email from him.
Ola familia! Well today is my last p-day in the MTC. It's crazy to think that is has already been six weeks. I feel like it has only been one week. I miss you guys a lot and think and pray for you all the time. Tomorrow I leave for Portugal and I am so excited and nervous. I have a lot going through my head. I am also really excited to fly. Most people say they hate it, but I don't. I think it is really cool. I will admit that it will be a long flight though, several hours of flying like 20 to 22. I can't wait to call you guys tomorrow, I think I will be able to call around 11:00 am. Plus I think I can call you again in Texas so that I can talk to Jordan and Lauren as well. I really want to talk with them as well. The language is good, I can speak and almost have a conversation in Portuguese now. I will probably speak some to you guys on the phone. :-) I don't have much time on the computer today so it will have to be short. Oh, I think it will take between 7 and 10 days for a letter to go from Portugal to Utah. Just thought I would let you know. I love you guys so much and pray and think about you all the time. Remember your prayers and put all you fe em Deus (faith in God). With all my love, Elder Rusnell I'm sorry for the delay in posting Tyler's most recent letter. I've been traveling for work and sick so I'm a bit behind. This week I had the special experience of live emailing Tyler. I was fortunate enough to catch him online and so he and I were able to email back and forth a few times. What a special treat it was to be able to talk (email) my son. I wanted to reach through the line and hug him. Anyway, as you'll read in just a minute he is doing well, loving the MTC, but is ready to go to Portugal. For those of you that don't know when Tyler says he was able to HOST again it means he was able to be a welcoming missionary for the new Elders entering the MTC. Also, you'll see that Tyler and the other Elders have not lost any of their playful spirit. Enjoy and thank you one and all for your loving support. As a bonus he sent us some more photos. Ola como estas?! Eu sou muito bom! Life in the MTC is just grand. Things are going really good over here. Ok so last Tuesday we had Elder Richard G. Scott come and talk to us for our devotional which was so amazing! We had an Apostle come and speak to us!! It was one of the most spiritual things I have ever attended. What made it even better was that his talk was on the same topic as my farewell talk (Recognizing Answers to Our Prayers). It was just amazing to hear and see this apostle who was called of God. When he first entered the room everyone stood up and as soon as I saw him I could feel the spirit just hit me. It was such an amazing experience to feel the spirit from his presence. He had such a strong spirit. I actually think we might hear from another one tonight but idk yet? Cross your fingers cuz I hope we do.
This week I got to host again which was really fun. I even got to host for one of my friends from Davis, which was awesome. I had so much fun hosting him and showing him around the MTC. I have also been progressing in teaching lessons in Portuguese. From looking back from where I have started I have learned a lot of Portuguese. Something cool we did this week was that we got to Skype a member in Portugal and got to talk with them and ask some questions. It was a good experience to see what the actual language sounds like. I don't know if you got my letters yet but I sent one to everyone in the family. I got my flight plans Friday. I will be leaving on Sep 30th in the morning. First I will fly to Dallas, Texas, and then from there I will fly to London, England, then from there PORTUGAL!!! It’s about a 20-25 hour flight plan which is going to be VERY long. So exactly a week from today is when I leave to Portugal. Sunday was just awesome as it always is. We got to watch the temple re-dedication which felt like a spirit overload. I could feel it so strongly and especially when the Prophet said his prayer I got teary eyed. I have never heard him say a prayer before and boy was it powerful. We also went on a temple walk Sunday which we always do, but this time it was really cool. It was kind of raining outside and so the clouds where really low and they were covering the mountains. I got some cool pictures of them. Sunday was also a sad day because it was the last day for four amazing Elders: Elder Johnson, Elder Mechem, Elder Hayes, and Elder Lindsey. They are all going to Brazil. I will really miss them. They are such good friends to me and have always made me want to be a better missionary. Ok funny story. So we have this little thing we do whenever we are done eating our meals. We flip our cups upside down when there is still liquid in them and if you do it right you can flip it upside down and the liquid will stay in the cup and not leak out. It’s pretty cool. Well one day I did it and apparently I did it to hard and when I hit it on the tray the glass shattered and exploded, it was awesome and scary at the same time. Don’t worry I didn’t get hurt or anything, only a few small cuts and scrapes on my hand. Haha well I learned my lesson from that so I won’t be doing that again anytime soon. I had a pretty good week felt the spirit a lot, spoke a lot of Portuguese, I’m learning fast. I love you guys so much and think, miss, and pray for you guys every day and night. I want you guys to know that I have a testimony, and a pretty big one. It grows everyday here at the MTC. I know that God loves us and so does Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith did translate it and was called to be a Prophet of God. This Church is true and is such a blessing to me in my life. The scriptures are also a great blessing in my life and I know that if you read them every day you will receive wonderful blessing. I know this to be true because I am living it in my life. If you aren’t reading your scriptures every day I advise you to do so. Even if it is just a chapter a day, God will recognize your efforts and bless you for them. I love you guys so much and hope you are living Christ like lives. Remember stay strong, stay focused, and have faith. With all my love, Elder Rusnell This week was amazing. So many things have been happening. For example last Wednesday my district and some others got to host the new missionaries. That was such a cool experience. So what we do is pick up the new missionaries from their car help get their luggage, let them say goodbye to their family. Then after that we take them to the front office where they get their name tag, room keys and all that fun stuff. Then after that we go to the bookstore and grab all their books and language stuff (if they were speaking a language). I got to help Elders who were going to Texas, England, Ohio, Japan, and the Philippines. It was really great to talk with them and get to know them a little bit. We also got three new missionaries in our zone that day. They are really cool guys. Their names are Elder Geddes, Elder Bodiley, and Elder Noys. They are all going to Brazil. So they are just waiting for their Visa so they can go to the Brazil MTC.
So one day I went up to one of my teachers and asked if I could have a little more help on learning the language. And what we ended up doing is getting me my own tutor. He is SO SICK! His name is Brother Lempel and he served his mission in Portugal. Same place I’m going. I had my first lesson with him yesterday and I learned so much just in that one hour. He is going to help me every day. He told me he was exactly in my position when he was in the MTC. I believe that with his help and my dedication to learn the language I can learn it in no time. It’s hard to believe that I have been here for 4 weeks. That means I only have 2 more weeks and then I’m in Portugal. I am so excited to go. I have heard so many awesome things about Portugal and its making me want to go even sooner. So for tonight's devotional I think we are having one of the 12 apostles come and speak to us, which is getting me really excited. If so I can’t wait to listen and take notes of what he has to say. Obrigado (Thank you) so much for that letters and packages of cookies I loved them. It was nice to get letters from Ellie and Lilly. They are so cute. I miss playing with them. I will have to write them a little letter back. Okay speaking about those cookies that you guys sent me. I shared them with my district and my teacher Brother Belchior. He especially liked the cookies. He didn’t have lunch that day and so when I offered him a cookie his face was super happy. He took about three cookies and just shoved them is his mouth. After he swallowed he said "thank you so much I felt like a starving African kid" He can say that because he is from Mozambique which is in Africa. He is so funny. I love having him as a teacher he makes it so fun to learn and he has the coolest stories form his mission. So one day we had some time to take a little break in our classroom and we decided to take a nap. Well, I was the only one that fell asleep and they ended up taking pictures of me it was pretty funny. I will put the pictures up on Dropbox soon. So a couple of days ago brother Belchior was teaching us and he had his personal computer with him. His computer got a virus on it I guess and he was joking that Satan had taken over his computer and that he was fighting a battle with him. He ended up winning. Another funny story about him is that I have a Portugal flag and I’m having people sign it and I asked if he would sign it and he said yes. He went to go write "Stay Holy" but ended up writing "Stay Holly" it was awesome. He makes me laugh. Sorry for not writing a lot of letters home is hard to find time to write letters. We literally have no time we are either in class studying or being taught by our teachers or eating our meals, did I mention studying? We do a lot of studying its insane. But I promise you letters are coming, it’s just taking time :) Thanks for all the prayers I can feel them every day and I thank you for that. I love you guys so much and think and pray for you every day. God is real he loves us and wants us to be happy. If you ever feel down you can always turn to him because he is always there for you. I love you guys. With all my love, Elder Rusnell So once again we couldn't wait to get another letter from our boy. As you'll read below he is doing incredibly well and is challenged in all the right places. The language is hard for him as we felt it would be, but he is exercising such great faith and has such an amazing attitude. You know Ty he has a smile on at all times and goes at everything with love and excitement. It gives us more joy than we can express for the love and support you have shown him. He greatly appreciates the cards, letters and goodies you've sent him. Thank you. Enjoy. Ola family. How are you? I’m doing fantastic. I am having a blast down here. This week has been such an amazing experience. I have felt the spirit so strongly in this week then any time before. I can feel my Heavenly Fathers love towards me every day. There have been lots of things going on this week. So this week our zone leaders got their visas and are now in Brazil. I was so excited for them they will be amazing missionaries. So because they left we had to get new zone leaders so 2 Elders from the other district became the new zone leaders. We also changed our district leader as well. And guess who it is, my companion Elder Lee. He is going to be a great district leader and I’m going to help and make sure he is successful. I don’t know if I told you this in my last e-mail, but we have two new teachers. They are just absolutely amazing. Their names our Irmao Read, and Irmao Belchiore. Irmao means brother in Portuguese. Irmao Belchiore is a native and he is from Mozambique. They are such good teachers. I know that they really do care and love me. They know I’m struggling with the language and are working one-on-one with me so that I can learn it faster. They are amazing people and I am very grateful for them. So we have gym every day and every other day we go and play soccer out in the field across from the temple. It’s so pretty. Soccer is so much fun and the other day I had the sickest shot ever! Jordan would have been jealous. So I kicked the ball from about the middle of the field and it went top 90 to the left of the goal and the keeper missed it and it went in. Is was so awesome. I also go to gym every other day and workout. Elder Lee was on his school’s football team so he is showing me some workout techniques which will get you "big and strong". Elder Lee is just awesome. He is a big example to me in my life and I am to him. We are basically best friends now. Last Sunday was my first Fast Sunday in the MTC. It felt like torture! They didn't have any breakfast or lunch, all that they had was dinner that day. And you know what made it even worse? I was stupid enough the night before to only have an apple. I had totally forgotten that it was Fast Sunday the next day. But I survived, I always survive. During our sacrament meeting we had our fast and testimony meeting which was amazing. I was able to share my testimony with everyone and it felt great. I was also able to bless the bread during the sacrament and the prayer was in Portuguese. My branch president came up to me after sacrament was over and told me that I did an amazing job on the prayer and that he was very proud of me. That put a huge smile on my face. Yesterday was Elder Littlefield and Elder Knight’s last day. They left this morning. They were amazing zone leaders. They were such an inspiration to me and made the MTC so fun. Hey thank you guys so much for the letters and packages I really do appreciate them. It’s just such an amazing feeling when I get mail, it lets me know that people are thinking about me and love me so much. I also got a package from Bappa & Nana Rusnell. They gave me lots of yummy treats and Nana gave me some art supplies so I can draw. I’m really happy about that. I’m having such a great time in the MTC I’m learning lots and I’m coming closer to my Heavenly Father every day. I love and miss you guys so much and think about you all the time. I can’t wait till next P-day to tell you more of the amazing things in my life. I love you guys with all my heart. Love, Elder Rusnell So Tuesday has become our new favorite day of the week. I can't think of anything exciting ever happening on a Tuesday, but now that we get an email from Elder Rusnell (Tue is his P-Day while in the MTC) it's the best. It is amazing to me how long a week actually is. It seems like forever since we've heard him. He is doing great as you'll see from his short email. He sent some great photos that show he loves what he is doing. Enjoy, we sure did. Thank you to those of you that have written Tyler or have sent him packages, we greatly appreciate your love and support of our son in whom we are well pleased. Enjoy.
Well today is my 2nd P-day and I'm as happy as ever!!! Its been going by so fast. My friend gave me the perfect example of what the MTC feels like. He said "Days feel like weeks, and weeks fee like days" Elder Knight. This morning we had to send off another Elder to Brazil at 5:00 in the morning. I'm going to miss him he was super fun and a really good friend to me. Thank you guys for the letters and packages and from other people as well I really enjoy getting stuff from you guys. This past week has been very hard but yet very rewarding. The language kinda go to me and I broke down a little bit but with the help of my district, friends, and teachers I was able to get back on my feet and be as positive as ever. It's coming a lot faster and I can feel the spirit helping me every step of the way. Its a really cool experience to almost hit rock bottom to now feeling the spirit everyday and doing very well in the language. I am so grateful for the Lord in my life and for all the things He has done for me and for everyone on this earth. Its so good to hear that Jordan & Lauren are enjoying school that is muito bem (very good). Its so cool to hear how Jo is still kicking butt in soccer I'm so proud of him. Everyone here is like my best friend now, I get along with everyone and we always have a ball and laugh our heads off. Every time our zone is in the showers we always sing songs from Disney to Les Miserables . It's so fun and then every once in a while we will try to sing a hymn in Portuguese. We aren't the best of singers but we are pretty good. I'm so glad that I am out here serving a mission I know that's what the Lord wants me to do and I'm proud to be a follower of Christ. I miss you guys and hope the best for you. I love you and so does Heavenly Father. Love, Elder Rusnell |
Elder Tyler RusnellServing a full-time church mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Lisbon, Portugal. Archives
March 2016
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