A Christmas Eve Message to Gladden the Heart and A German Christmas Celebration

Howard and I received this email as we sat around our Christmas tree with our other two kids, Stefan and Dara. I was missing Elder Lusk so much and then this message popped up. It was our Christmas miracle message.

 

 

Dear Brother and Sister Lusk, 

Today our family was honored to have your missionary son and his companions in our home for a little traditional German Christmas celebration. You should experience him in the mission field. He radiates the spirit and excitement. You can be very proud of him. As they came in, shared, sang and prayed with us, we felt the enormous spirit of these great young missionaries.

 

Thank you for sharing him with us. We pray that that you will feel the spirit of Christmas in a special way this year as your son is powerfully sharing the gospel.

 

Merry Christmas and God bless you.

 

With much love

 

Elder Kopischke

Missionaries and Lifelong Friends

Beautiful Layton, Utah

Somebody Snitched on the Mission President?, A Steak Dinner,and A Samoan Barbecue

Hey guys! Things are going good here in beautiful Tooele. I got your letters and packages, so I'm excited for Christmas. We picked up our packages at the USLCM 2013 Christmas devotional/dinner/party that was held in Kaysville. We had an area seventy come speak to us, then had a really nice steak and potato dinner that the relief society from a stake in Kaysville cooked for us (Kaysville is in Davis County, and a lot of people there own Lamborghinis and hilltop mansions. After dinner we had a variety show that included President and Sister Hansen singing a duet of "I'm Gettin' Nothin' for Christmas". President Hansen is a very loving, but serious man, so it was awesome to see him wearing a Santa hat singing "...somebody snitched on me!"  

This week we also had a baptism of a part member family named the {}  this week. They're a great couple and it was awesome to see them baptized. We have a baptism coming up this week of  two kids who are part-Samoan. I like their family a lot, too. It's great to be around Polynesians again. There's no where near as many as there are in SLC, but there's a couple Poly families. In addition to their baptism on Saturday, I'm also excited for the after party the family is doing where they're having a Samoan barbecue. Should be a lot of fun!

Tell everyone back home I love them. As always, if there's any other questions you have, let me know. I'll leave you with my testimony that this work is amazing. The Atonement is real and the church is true.
Love, Elder Lusk

A companion from Germany and Five Upcoming Baptisms

Tooele is beautiful. It's in it's own little valley on the other side of the Oquirrh mountains, to the west of the Salt Lake Valley. It is pretty remote, and out there a bit, but I like it a lot. The people here and pretty chill. We've got five people on date (from two different families), so that's pretty exciting. There's a lot of work here. I'm in a three-way companionship right now with a guy named Elder }{, who was trained by Elder }{, my trainer,  about a year before I was, and Elder }{, from Frankfurt, Germany. They're pretty solid guys. Speaking of Germany, I just talked to the lady here at the family history center, and she said the last name 'Lusk' comes from Alcese-Lorraine, the area in between France and Germany. She's a professional, so I'll take her word for it. Pretty cool, eh?

Beautiful Temple Square in Salt Lake City at Christmas!

Go West, young man (to Tooele), "When Thou art Converted, Strengthen Thy Brethren", and Ridiculous Amounts of Green Jello

So I can't believe this, but the transfers already here. We got transfer info and I'm moving again. I'm going out to Tooele! (pronounced tow-ella) That's pretty crazy. I feel like I just got here, and I love Layton, but I guess I'm needed elsewhere. I've heard Tooele is legit. I'm excited for it. I'm going to miss Layton and all the great people we're working with up here, but I'm ready for an adventure again. 

As for miracles this week, we were out Saturday night with a guy named Elder {}. He's a senior service missionary who works in the Salt Lake area LDS addiction recovery program, but spends seven days a week proselyting with missionaries from the Salt Lake City mission, the East mission, and the Provo mission. The guy's only been a member of the church for six and a half years and has spent the entire time he's been a member working with missionaries, first in his home area in Southern California, and then the past year and a half as a service missionary here in Utah. He's a recovering alcoholic, and committed to sobriety the day before Bud Light with Lime got released (nice timing!), but managed to stay strong and has been sober for close to seven years now. He' s absolutely amazing. This is my third time I've been out proselyting with him. Everything he does is amazing. The spirit is really strong around him, and we always get really good work done with him. 

Oh yeah, and Thanksgiving was good. I had a lot of turkey and a ridiculous amount of green jello, so it was all good.

So that's what's going on right now. I'll definitely send pictures next week and tell you how Tooele is. I know this work is amazing, and I bear testimony that the atonement is real and that it's powerful and it really works. The church is true.

Love, 

Elder Lusk