June 13, 2016

Hi all!!

Well it sounds like it has been a crazy busy but awesome week at home. A little like that here.  It was a pretty good week! We had exchanges with the Elders in our zone this week and last week so it flew by. This week was the best week of the transfer work wise for us.  We have put lots of hard work into this whitewash to get this area going again and we are seeing the work really pick up. 

Transfer call came out and I will be staying with Elder Jorgensen here in DC3 North for his last transfer. We are pumped and will be a great time. But there are lots of changes going down in the mission.  We transferred out half the zone and in the DC 3rd Ward that has 12 missionaries we lost 8. So we are pretty sad to loose guys like Elder Cowan. So we will find out tonight where everyone gets placed and we heard they are re-aligning zone boundaries so we will have changes coming this week for us. 

As far as the mission president change, the official change off day is July 1st. So as you can imagine we are crazy busy to get that all prepped. Along with the potential to be adding another stake to the mission, (which still is up in the air I guess?) the Zone Leaders and APs will all have their hands full for these next few months. But the mission I think is getting more excited for the changes even though we will miss President and Sister Cooke so much! 

Like you Dad I was mindful of Grandma this past week.  Wednesday's was the missions temple day and it was easy to think of her with it being the year mark of her passing. We all miss her so much, but I'm so glad to know she is still part of our lives. It was a great blessing to be in the temple since that is the place that allows our eternal family to happen.   

I'm glad it was such a great week at home with having Garret back! I'm sure it is a little surreal at times but I'm way happy for you guys! Yeah having Garret home has made me miss home more these past little bit.  Kinda hard knowing the rest of the family is now together but I'm glad to be here and next summer will great!!  Sounds like the homecoming went great! Did you guys by change record Garret's talk to send? If not its all good.

Let me know how Youth Conference goes! Sounds like it should be tons of fun!! Also if you guys have any pictures from the week you should send those.  I can't watch the videos until I get to a computer so I haven't seen anything from Garret getting back yet. 

Love and miss you guys!!

Love 

Austin 

The crew got all back together for the temple trip!

McDonald, Me, Jenks, & Mellen

It was like 3 guys birthdays this month so we all saved up and 

went to Texas Roadhouse.  It was amazing!! Ahh just like home.

The aftermath....

June 6, 2016

Okay so sorry for how late or a reply it is from me!! So today was the Zone Activity, a PDay where Elders and Sisters can get together and hang out.  So we have been crazy busy today and I have just been able to get to the computers and be able to write. 

So this week was a pretty rough one, no lie. It had quite a bit of rough stuff happen and then there wasn't really any great stuff to counteract things. But I mean that is just life, there are ups and downs even here out on the mission we are going to have some tough times. I am looking forward to this new week and to try to get things turned around. This Saturday will be the transfer call out of staying/going. We are safe to bet that I will be staying here for another one with Jorgensen. We also have the temple trip this Wednesday, I was looking through the pictures you have sent and noticed the date of Grandmas passing, and that will be this Wednesday. I thought it was pretty special that I will be able to be in the temple to mark that date. I will for sure be thinking lots of Grandma and all of you that day.

I figure I will end by sharing a pretty cool experience I was able to have this week. It was for sure the highlight of the week. On Saturday we went on exchanges with the APs for the day and I went with Elder Tanner. The mission had gotten a call requesting a blessing for a man who was in the hospital, the area was in NE DC where sisters cover so President asked if we would go cover it. So we went to visit a man named Allen who is from Virginia. His wife is a member but he has been investigating for a while. He has Multiple Sclerosis and it has worsened having him bedridden in the hospital. When we entered the room he just brightened and was so glad to have visitors, he was very thankful for the blessing and the spirit was very strong as Elder Tanner gave the blessing. After we ran to the car to get him a Book of Mormon, pamphlets, and copies of the Ensign. He said he was excited to finally have something to do that was worth his time. He is a golden one, he may not be able to be baptized in this life but he will accept it in the next life. He kept thanking us and telling us to not get discouraged with the work and told us that we had brightened his day and to try to come back and visit.

Like you mentioned in your letter, we never know the good we do throughout the weeks. There are things that may seem normal to us that go noticed by others. I am glad to try to do the best I can every week to help others. That really is all we try to do everyday, is help all those around us. The people here in NW DC may be some tough ones to love, but I do.

Have a great rest of the trip! Take more pictures and send them! I will see them tomorrow on my new iPad hopefully!!

Love you!!

Austin

On Memorial Day, pday, we walked downtown and walked 

by the Memorial Day parade

This is JS.  He is the mission executive secretary and we call him John the Beloved because he is just amazing.  He was a pretty wealthy lawyer so he takes a group of elders out to lunch about once a month.  Then he's always there for us with anything we need.  

May 30, 2016

Hi all!

Well I'm gonna keep it short as I'm sure you will have a busy day. I hope you all had a safe travel and good trip down there. How's the Spanish for you Dad? Mom how confused are you? We went to a Spanish baptism yesterday and it was all over my head haha.

Well I'm glad to be remembered and missed as you did all the mulch and truck runs! It sounds like it was a great week with Alyssa's graduation, the rugby games and everything else.

It has been another pretty good week.  We have been crazy busy, like always. So Wednesday we had our last Zone Conference with Pres Cooke and it was a very mixed feeling moment. But it was an amazing day, the Cookes both had amazing talks. Then I felt like the training Elder Rowley (one of the Rockville ZLs) and I gave went really well. It was a lot of fun. They then ended it and had all the missionaries leaving in June and July bare their testimonies.  And that was like the roughest time. Cause the July group has a ton of friends like Elders Tanner, Porter, Jorgensen and then Coombs. And man I lost it. I was crying when Coombs was talking.  It just hit how soon they will all be gone. But hey life goes on. 

I'll speed through the rest of the week to keep it short, we had some great lessons and really were able to work in our area. Then Sunday was another hilight of the week. After church we were able to go to a Spanish baptism in our zone. We are trying to go to all of our Zones baptisms to support the missionaries. And it was so sweet to see all the Spanish sisters just crying during the service. It means so much to all theses missionaries as they put all they can into this work. They are all amazing and I love them. If only sometimes they could see what they are doing from a different perspective.  I think lots of missionaries, myself included, get caught up trying to be prefect and we are too hard on ourselves. But from my perspective I see all the missionaries just trying so hard, and it's rough to see them get so discouraged sometimes with how tough this mission can be sometimes. But they are all great.  Love them and they will keep doing amazing things.

After the baptism was the non spiritual hi light cause we got to go to a BYU FOOTBALL FIRESIDE!!! It was so awesome!! We just found out last week then got to go.  And you'll see all the pictures.. It was Taysom, Coach Sitaki, Coach Niumatalolo (Navy Coach), Vaa Niumatalolo (Son of Coach, BYU line backer) and Coach Detmer. Let's just say me and Jorgy were on Cloud 9!! Like I miss football so much and all those guys were so cool to the missionaries after the fireside!

Well I hope it is an amazing week with Garret!! Send all the pictures you take. It is amazing it is already time for him to be done. I love you all, and miss you! Take care and have a great week!

Love you!!
Austin

                         Vaa                                                           Coach Detmer

                                

Bronson Kafusi was there too since                              
     he's playing for the Ravens                                      
                                                                                            Coach Niumatalolo

                                  

                  Coach Sitake                                                    Taysom
   

May 23, 2016

Hi all!

It was another great week out here on the East Coast.. Elder Jorgensen and I are so busy it is ridiculous. We try our best to squeeze in time to focus on our area and do missionary work.  But at the end of the day I am always happy to know I helped the missionaries in the zone to do their best work. Like the scripture you shared last week Dad, it's by the small and simple things, that we do everyday that will end up creating the great things.

Sounds like it has been a good week for all back home. It has been super rainy here like back home. I check the weather app in the morning and it's been raining about the same here. We have had about 5-6 days of rain this past week!

It was a pretty good week, we had our regular meetings on Tuesday. Then Wednesday we had to work on moving in more senior couple apartments. We have a big turn over this summer of senior couples so we have been taking about a day a week to start moving them in and get it prepped for them to show up.

Thursday was our last interviews with Pres Cooke! He leaves in about 4ish weeks, it's so crazy!  Since it was his last he took FOREVER with people. The Zone Leaders kinda run the interviews for him so we had to be there the whole time.  So we were at the stake center from 11:30-5:30.  Only like 2 hours over schedule haha. But I am so grateful President puts in that sacrifice to talk to all of us. It was great to sit down with President, he talked a lot about my responsibilities the next year and how he has a group he's selected to really be the group Pres Johnson can lean on and how I'm part of that group. It was super humbling and exciting but also a little nerve wracking. But it's going to be fun!

Then I spent a good portion of the rest of the week plunking away in spreadsheets for a Stake Coordination meeting that was held yesterday.  It's a monthly meeting where we go over the missionary efforts in the stake with the Stake Leaders and display numbers, progress, stuff like that. It's pretty labor intensive for us, but like before. Anything that helps the zone keepin on!

Also getting ready for Zone Conference this upcoming week. We are combining with the Rockville Zone so I'm giving a workshop (lesson) with one of the R-Ville ZLs on the importance of using the Book of Mormon as missionaries when we teach. He's another young guy like me (1 transfer older) so we kinda got hazed into having to do the ZL workshop haha But it's all good. I'll have to send you it next week after we put the finishing touches on it. We will be using just the normal paper back copies we pass out for free as we teach trying to help missionaries see that it is simple for us to teach out of the scriptures. We are super excited of how its pulled together.

Well I hope you have great weeks! It's so crazy how soon you'll be down picking up Garret, he has served a great mission! I'll look forward from your next email coming from Argentina! Tell the littles not to party too hard while you're gone 

I love you guys! 
Love,
Austin

Only one picture from the week.. There are some benefits to driving a mini van haha. 

We can load it up into the party van! After meetings on Tuesday we loaded 

up the zones elders and went to get papusas (spell check?). It was a great time haha!

May 16, 2016

Hi Fam!!

It's good to hear from you all!! It's crazy that it's only been a week since we talked. It's been a pretty good week though. Ups and downs but over all really good. Thanks for sharing that scripture, I think it really helps. Sometimes it's tough in the calling because of how much miscellaneous things we do. We have so much less time, but I also
like that fact because it makes the time that we do have a lot more concentrated. Sometimes it might just be a few minutes here and there but we make the most of it.

So this week was a pretty good one, Tuesday we got to go do a big service project for the Salvation Army. It was at their drug and alcohol rehab facility and we planted a huge garden for them and laid mulch. As sad as it is for me to say. It was slightly fun to do yard work. Slightly! But it was super cool to look around and see the entire zone giving this service. We are now the go to people for SA doing service.

Because of the service we bumped meetings to Wednesday that week and they went super good! It's nerve racking to be in change of the meetings but they went well. Then Thursday we thought we would finally get to do missionary work but we got called to go move in a new senior couples apartment. Friday was a huge planning day for Zone Conference.

Saturday was for sure the highlight of the week! So here in DC more than almost any mission I think we have to truly be ambassadors for the church. It was a huge open embassy day where people can tour embassy's and we got permission to go with a member because it would be a good opportunity to get the badge out there and the churches name. It was European Union, so we saw Spain, Poland, Lithuania, Great Britain, and Italy. They were so sweet! And as you will see from my pictures they had some SWEET cars on display at the Great Britain and Italy ones!! It was so cool!!

Sunday we got to go check on people and I've never been so happy to just go check on random people. I would not recommend white washing ZLs.. Not a great combo. Oh and then last night was Why I Believe and that's where I ran into Alysha (cousin). So no one even told me that she had an internship out here!! But I guess she started meeting YSA missionaries and asking if they knew me. So most the YSA come to Why I Believe, so she came with some people and we ran into each other.

Have a great week!! I love and miss you!!
Love,
Austin

We have a sweet grilling patio at our new apartment

Embassy Cars!!

                    

May 9, 2016

Hi everyone!

My new assignment is I've been called as a Zone Leader and will stay in the DC 3rd Ward.  I just bumped up to the North Area. I will be serving with Elder Jorgerson who is going home in 2 transfers. I'm excited but also really nervous. But all is going to be great.

Like you all said, it was so awesome to talk to all of you!! I love now normal it feels to talk to you! We don't miss a beat.. It was awesome to hear from everyone and all the littles individually. You all sound like things are going good and life is plugging along.

It was a good week for you guys. Really I was kinda selfish with Mother's Day. All I was thinking about was talking to you guys and finding my wallet. I didn't think about Grandma until sacrament meeting when a lady was talking about how Mother's Day can be tough for some people. So I thought lots about Grandma during church but I'm
so glad that we have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. As a missionary I love being able to teach people about where all of their loved ones are. As hard as it is being away from Grandma and all of our other loved ones we will be with them again, it's one of our most beautiful gospel doctrines.

I'm glad it was a great week for all of you!! It was amazing to talk to you guys yesterday. Like I said yesterday if time goes as fast as it has been I will talk to you guys really soon! 

I love you all!!  (Jacob 4:7-8, I read it this past week and it's a good one!)
Have great week!

Love,
Austin

Austin told us about his wallet experience in his mothers day call.  He had lost his wallet on Saturday.  He woke up Sunday to an email from a young male that had found his wallet and searched on social media to locate Austin. This is quite remarkable because it is well known in his mission that if you loose your wallet in downtown DC the odds of getting it back are near impossible. This young man wasn't going to be home Sunday to meet up with Austin so he left it out on his porch under a flower pot. Austin was relieved to get it back with all the money and credit cards included.  Austin left him a note and a Book of Mormon in return.  

Mine and Cowans comp ties and hat.

Me & Elder Jorgerson (Jorgy) at the Visitors Center

May 2, 2016

Hello Familia!

It's been an eventful week! It started with Elder Cowan getting the call to train on Wednesday and then Saturday the call saying I'm leaving the area. It has been the fastest transfer of my mission here in DC.. But it's was tons of fun. Sad to go but excited to see what the next transfer holds.

So with leaving I don't know my schedule. But let's plan on that call schedule unless I really can't make that work I will email you mid week! So unless I tell you otherwise that will work.

I'll run through the week pretty quick.. Wednesday we were able to go to the temple. I sat next to Elder McDonald of course to extend the streak!  I love the temple. It was so great to be in there again. As we go into the Celestial room President and Sister Cooke are always there to great us. When I walked in President grabbed me into a hug and then said "Be ready. Get prepared, you'll be great". So I've kinda been flipping out trying to figure out what that means. Elder Coombs knows the transfer board since he is serving as a traveling AP, and said I will love my new area and comp so we will find out tonight!

We had some other pretty cool experiences this week, example we had a surprise baptism. It's a long story... I will talk about that in our call home! But I wanna share this experience Elder Jenks and I had on Saturday. So Elder Cowan (comp) and Elder Chapman (other roommate) are both training so Elder Jenks and I got to go on exchange together!! We were so pumped. So we thought we would be so busy but all our appointments in both areas fell through. So what did we decide to do?? We walked the mall! We both have been super stressed about getting transferred (again) and just needed to talk. Plus we are the only missionaries in the world who can be the churches public representation on the National Mall. So we started at Union Station, walked to the Washington past the Smithsonaisn, up to the White House, and then back up to Union on the other side of the Smithsonian's. Long
walk. But It was so cool, plus we talked to some members and then a few contacts as well.

So as we walked past the Capitol I got a call from some Spanish Sisters saying they had a referral that wanted to be contacted that day. But it ended up being in Elder Jenks area. But since we were on exchange we were good! So we ran back to the apartment to eat dinner and laid down to take a quick nap. We ended up over sleeping by 20 min and got over to the address. Then we ran into a few catch up that all worked out. Then we finally met Samuel. And he is one of the most prepared investigators for the gospel I've ever taught on my mission. It was one of the most spiritual lessons I've taught, and Elder Jenks and I teach really good together. He ended up going to church with the Capitol Hill guys yesterday and is really set.

This experience was so amazing as all the little details that needed to line up. Samuel calls the Spanish Sisters and they don't know exactly how he had their number, our schedule was open to meet, we over sleep which if we had left on time he wouldn't have been home yet, and even other details that had to line up. I know us meeting
with him was designed by our Heavenly Father to happen exactly how and when it did. It was an answer to a lot of prayers, his seeking the gospel, mine and Jenks finding our purpose of why we did just 6 weeks and then leaving in our areas, and even the Sister who got the call. When I called her after the lesson to tell her how it went, She told
me how this was an experience she has been praying for since she got in the mission as a Visitor Center Sister. There are other details about this that I can elaborate more on when we talk on Sunday!!

Overall it's been a great transfer here in DC 3rd South. I'm glad for the people I've serve and got to serve with. I can't wait to talk to you guys on Sunday!!

I love and miss you guys!!
Love,
Austin

Elder Jenks and I on our National Mall proselyting walk.. Right before this picture we talked to a 

Secret Service officer who is a member in Virginia.

Our baptism of John! Like I said it's a long story so I will fill you in on our call home

Ceasar!! He is a mission legend.. He loves the Elders and has us over for lunch tons. One 

of my favorite people I met in DC 3rd!