January 2, 2017

Hi all,

Happy New Year!! It is so crazy that we are now in 2017, officially out of my only full calendar year as a missionary (that we lovingly call our Dark Year hah) but it is so weird to now be in the year that I come home. It was such a weird thing to hit me when I was ironing my shirt yesterday morning. Our New Years was about as eventful as a missionary New Years can be... had to be in by 5pm, got some pizza, and caught up on some much needed sleep. 

This week was a good one, Tuesday we had interviews with President Johnson. I kinda got screwed out of my interview though because some other missionaries were struggling and needed to talk to him for a while, but it's all good. We had a really good quick talk and he said I'll be getting a new companion and stay in the area. It was a really cool experience when he told me it took him 3 days to fully decide to move me to this area and said he knows I'm serving where the Lord needs me. He's the best, I'm so glad I have a good relationship with President. 

Rest of the week was a kinda weird middle of the holidays, no one really wants to meet and you get a ton of "come back after New Years" so we just did what we could, and still had some good lessons and even picked up a new YSA investigator we are really excited about. 

Sorry for the not so exciting email. Hopefully this next week will have some more exciting things to talk about. Sure love and miss you all!!

Love,

Austin 

Finally got a picture with Anwar, thought you guys would like to see him!