March 13, 2017

Hi all! 

Well the week here was another good one! We have a lot of people we are working with, none of them are really progressing as fast as we would have hoped. But it's all good because we are definitely seeing miracles happen in their lives and they are progressing at their rate as fast and they should be. So one of the main people we are working with is a girl named Tiara. She's 23, lives with her boyfriend Jeff and they have a little girl named Brie. So she had been contacted by some previous missionaries but they never got back in touch with her, so when we got to the area we reached out and have met with her about twice a week since we got here. And they are doing awesome! We mentioned to her the need to get married last week and she totally understood and we are going to help out with that. Then we talked to her about Jeff (the boyfriend) starting to take the lessons with her and she said she talked to him this week and he told her that yes he would take the lessons and he wanted to get baptized with her!! All because she retaught the Plan of Salvation to him and he was told they could be a family after this life. Then to add on top of that we were over there last night and were teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson to her and had asked some question about baptism and her reasons was something along the lines of "well yeah I need to get baptized again because my last one wasn't official cause only this church has the priesthood in it". We were blown away and super pumped because she totally understands! Now we just need to get them off of work on Sunday's to church. 

Another solid couple we are working with is George and Susan. Problem is Susan lives a few weeks in Philly then comes back here for a week and goes back and forth for work. So we meet with George mostly, but we got to meet with them both this last week. And as we were reteaching the restoration they asked some awesome questions and they are solid! Then George expressed some concern because he's been investigating another church and before we could say anything, Susan chimes in and says "well just so you know when I get back living here full time in a couple weeks this is the church I'm going to go to. This is Gods church." So awesome. But then.. they didn't come to church either! Ugh.. struggle of the area at the moment is getting people out to 9:00 church. 

Other than that the area was really good too. The director of Visitor Centers around the world was in the mission this week so they called a full MLC including the District Leaders. It was fun to attend MLC again and get to take part in the meeting. Plus of course was getting to see all the friends! Great to see Elder McDonald, Florence, Cowan, Jenks and everyone else! Such a solid group at those meetings!

Well hope it's a great week back home for you guys this week. Time is just continuing to go so fast. Love and miss you guys tons!

Love,

Austin 

March 6, 2017

Hi all!

My back has gotten progressively better, the mission made me go get it checked out this past week, and it's just some muscular strains. So nothing seriously, and by the start of this week I think I'm near 100% again. Sounds like it has been a good week, first off HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lindsey!! So crazy you are turning 16 and driving! I left and you were in middle school, now I'm coming home and you're going into your junior year. 

I'll send a picture of what our area boundary is. So in our mission you almost always are assigned to just one ward. So we serve the Montgomery Village Ward, so yes our area is called Montgomery Village. Or everyone here just calls it Mo-Vill.... this place is amazing!!

First off the Stake President is in our ward and he is super missionary minded. His goal before he is released is that through missionary work and reactivation, that we add 2 wards to our stake. So he is super awesome and wants to work with us.  He called us on our first day to welcome us to the ward! Like who does that?! I've never had that happen before. As well Bishop was talking to us and talked about how they had just cleaned out the membership records and because of that felt like they were doing the work to show they Lord he can trust more members to this ward. And guess what? He has!! Since getting to this area it has been miracle after miracle. Elder Strubell and I just get in the car sometimes and look at each other like "what just happened??". Last week I talked about all the referrals that feel into our lap, and it kept happening this week. We showed up day one with a few okay Investigators. In a week and a half we now have 1 baptismal date, 2 progressing Investigators, and 3 others we are working with. Plus the 4 people who have gotten baptized in the last couple months. Keep in mind that this is the smallest ward boundaries in the Stake. Plus we had 2 more super solid Headquarters referrals this week. The work is just falling into our lap at the moment, I'll share one experience from this week to show that.

So yesterday we were sitting in sacrament meeting and we get a text from Pres Arnold (Stake President) asking if some people who had just walked in were our Investigators. We told him we have never seen them before and he texts back to tell us we need to go talk to them after because him and bishop both don't recognize them. So after the meeting we wait like 15 minutes to talk to them because SO many ward members are going up and asking who they are and introducing themselves. (Go Mo-Vill ward!) Then we talk to the Mom and come to find out they are looking for a church and a member in the ward had mentioned ours so they came to come check it out. Now we have an appointment with a family of 4 tonight. It has been amazing here. We have dinners this week with both Pres Arnold and Bishop so I'm sure we will plan out even more how to keep getting the work going here. It is amazing to see what happens when the ward is engaged and cares about missionary work. Also don't forget that even though you live in Utah there is still missionary opportunities to be found. We all can play our part in the work.

Well that's a wrap, I'm glad the plans are getting more in place for this summer.  I love you all so much, and miss you guys! 

Love,

Austin

Remember Dipo? This is him and he's doing great so far? Two lessons in and he already

says he takes his BOM with him everywhere so he can read it as much as he can!

This is Matilda's (recent convert) super cute nephew.  He's glued to the 

missionaries when we come to read the BOM with her.  

February 27, 2017

Hi all!!

Well it has been quite the week! The mission had a huge transfer with a lot of people getting moved. But so far I have really loved Montgomery Village. The area it self is pretty small, but there is quite a bit going on here! It is also super diverse here, we have an investigator from Nigeria, recent converts from Sierra Leone, I met a member from Sri Lanka and countless other places. It is amazing! I'll get to all of that later..

Sounds like it was an awesome week back home! I am so glad that the approval came through and you finally got to tell the kids about the trip to pick me up! I'm glad everyone is so excited, I know I am! The Johnsons are super excited to get to meet everyone. Also I saw the Morgan's yesterday, they attend the YSA branch in our building up here. I just can't get away from them haha. But they said they want to do at least lunch with the family when we are here. I said we would for sure do something with them! Awesome to hear about Alyssa's call! Sounds like she is really excited for it and sounds like it will be a great mission. Kinda sad I'll miss her with getting home after she goes to the MTC but she will do great! 

Okay so more for this week. So first and foremost I'll get this out of the way...so I threw my back out really bad this week. I feel like such an old man! So I went to put some clothes in my dresser on Friday and it just felt like someone stabbed me in my left lower back. So I collapsed and it took a couple hours to the point I could get back up. It was terrible! So we got slowed down pretty bad. I shuffle like an old man at the moment and Sister Johnson has told me we have to limit our walking so we can't go tract or do much besides walk from the car to appointments and go to set meetings. Other then that I have to lay on the floor of the apartment with a heating pad on it and do these back stretches. So it's been frustrating, especially with white washing the area here. It felt like we were really going to finally get things going. But the Lord has looked out for us. He knows we want to work so despite not getting to go find people ourselves he's done it for us.  Since getting to the area we have got 6 Church Headquarters referrals, 3 investigators who have moved from other areas to ours, and a guy who stopped us when we walked out of our apartment and told us he use to meet with the missionaries and he wants to start meeting with us again. Incredible! Truly the Lords work, and he will make sure it keeps going even if I currently have the back of an 87 year old!

Sister Johnsons says she thinks I've had a subluxation.. she explained it but it kinda went over my head. Basically all I know is my back hurts haha. But we might be going in this week to get it checked out, so I'll keep you in the loop of what we decide and what happens. 

Sunday we had a Stake Missionary meeting and this Stake is awesome! One of the better missionary Stakes in the mission I would say. After the meeting I asked President for a blessing for my back, and that was an amazing experience. Highly recommend getting a blessing from your mission president. Just so many things I needed to hear besides things about my back. It was kinda frustrating though when he said "take care to listen to the medical help you will receive and do not push yourself too fast too soon" So now I've been told by both my mission president and mission mom I need to take it easy for a little bit... So we will see how it goes. 

This area is going pretty good! They have had 3 baptisms already this year, but sadly that was most of their investigators, but we have been having a lot of success so far. Last night we taught a new investigator who was an online Bible referral who came here from Nigeria only 3 weeks ago! His name is Oladipupo, have fun pronouncing that haha. But we call him Dee-Poh for short. He is super solid and said he knows he will get an answer when he prays about the Book of Mormon.  We are going back this week to see him. It was a great way to end a frustrating week of not getting to work the area as much as I would have liked.  But I 'm really seeing that everything will work out and we will still meet the needs of the people in this area. 

Sure love you guys!! Hope you had a good weeks and I'll talk to you soon! Love and miss you!

-Austin 

Two of our recent Converts nephews

Goodbye Annapolis District.. 

February 20, 2017

 Hello Fam. 

Well I can match your uneventful week.. until we had interviews, but I will get to that later. Well most of the week was spent like we normally do, knocking on doors! But we did finally get to run into a referral from the neighboring wards Elders. So we taught him.. only to find out that he's not too interested in the church cause he's gay. Dang it.. so close. 

But I'll get to interviews now cause that's the good stuff. First off President and Sister Johnson are the best. Both of them expressed how much they missed me, since now they don't see me as often as they use to. Made me feel good haha. And Sister Johnson just wanted to chat so I swear our "interview" aka talk with Mission Mom was like 30 minutes when they are suppose to be under 15. She just wanted to talk and talk and I had no problems with it. It was great! Plus it's so weird, I'm now at the point where it's okay for them to ask me what my plans are after the mission haha. So I guess I really am getting closer and closer to this summer. 

Anyways.. so I sit down with President and after some small talk he just says "I'm thinking about shutting your area down" and I was so shocked, it was crazy. Basically he sees that the reason things aren't working out here is the ward isn't engaged at all, so he thinks pulling missionaries out for a little bit and making them share a set of elders with another ward will wake them up and get them going with the work. So looks like I'm leaving.. he described what my new assignment would be, but I don't know where it is yet. So we get called mid day today so I'll email when I find out where I'm heading!

Also we had Why I Believe last night and as always it was the best. Getting to see all the mission friends always makes for a good pick me up!!

Even though this transfer has been one of the toughest for me, just no work and knocking on doors all day everyday, I truly feel like I've grown and learned a lot. I feel like I've learned to live and rely on the atonement daily now. How to use it in my life on a daily basis. I truly can say our Heavenly Father is mindful of us when we struggle, if not more when we struggle. So we will see where the mission takes me next, not too much time left so gotta make the most of it. 

Love you all so much!!

Love,

Austin 

I am heading to Montgomery Village Ward which is around Gaithersburg MD. I got re-called as a District Leader and I'm with Elder Strubell (think back to the old football days with Coach Rice. It's that Strubell. He then went to Westlake. So I've served around him and he seems like a pretty good guy!). From what I've heard it's a pretty good ward and stuff is going on there so we will see!  I've heard it's a slower area, but nothing like this. So it will be good! I'm excited to be a District leader again, I only got 1 transfer before I got called as a Zone Leader so it's cool get a chance to serve as one again. 

February 13, 2017

Hi Momma! (and rest of the family)

Well this week we were able to see some progression in the area. Small! But still progress. It's been a lot of work but we are seeing little bits of pay off. So there is an 11 year old girl who hasn't been baptized that we finally have got on a regular meeting schedule. Her Dad was baptized a few years ago and sadly it's her lifelong member mom who's been holding off on her being baptized. She's such a sharp little girl, it's fun to teach her and hopefully we can get her family more active in church and get her baptized. 

Also we tracted into a family this week!! It was incredible. Like tracting actually works (sometimes).. as most of us know it is like the lowest yielding form of missionary work. But it worked this time! So we met Jess who's mid 20s and has 2 little kids and one on the way. We asked if she had a few minutes for us to share a message about Jesus Christ and she said yes! So I asked her what role religion has played in her life and her response was she was trying to get closer to Christ and that she was spiritual not really religious because they were looking for a church. But wait! It gets better!!! So after what turns into a full on 20 min lesson on her porch she asks us "can you come back and teach my husband too?" Uhhh.. yeah. Yes. We can do that. Then on top of that says "probably Monday nights are best, we decide those nights he will make sure he's home for dinner with the family". REALLY?? They are Mormons and don't even know it! So we are really excited to get back with them hopefully this week!

Transfers are next week so we will see what happens, we have interviews this week so maybe President will let some things slip and give me some idea of what will happen. I got the package this week! It was great!! And I even hung up the banner before you asked. Hope you all have a great week, love and miss to all!

Love,

Austin 

P.S. Well.. just kidding. Jess just texted us and said she talked to her husband and they aren't interested in having us come by. So I dunno if they googled the church and got anti-ed or what. But that was a huge bummer, I was so frustrated cause I felt like it was finally our break.. but nope. That's the tough thing about educated people is I feel like we leave them with stuff and before we come back they have googled and tried to do research which doesn't lead them down good paths. , so I guess back to work to try to find someone again.

February 6, 2017

Hey Fam,

Yes I'll make sure to say thanks to Sister Joyce for ya! She has a missionary out right now so I think it's some sort of motherly guilt that has her taking such good care of us haha. I saw the Morgans at church yesterday since they were up visiting the YSA group of midshipmen and we had a good time chatting about the new Ward boundaries and the changes in the Stake back home. 

Freaking Tom Brady, I hate that guy. Gotta respect how good he is though, that's an amazing come back. The evil empire continues to reign. And isn't that the first Super Bowl to go to OT? Oh well, back for the next one! Was there any good commercials this year? 

Well our week was just like the past ones.. lots of door knocking and lots of walking. I've taken up singing "Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, aaaand waaaaaalked..." Well more like muttering it under my breath when we get to a good sized hill haha. I found a quote in the BOM institute manual while I was studying last week that I've tried to really focus on. It says, "most people are about as happy as they make their minds up to be" -Abraham Lincoln. So I've tried to do that, even though the work is really hard here, just be happy and decide to be. But I think I might hint at President that I wanna go back to DC to end my mission. I just really wanna feel like I sprinted through the finish of my mission and at the moment it feels like I'm running in sand. But we will see what happens.. 

I've really tried to focus on the fact we all serve in our own ways to help in the Lord work. No one will serve in the same way, I've thought back a lot on the things I've been blessed to be able to do so far. I talked to Ismael on the phone last night for a few minutes and that was a huge reminder of the good things that have happened out here. Most of all I've seen myself grow a TON since I first got here and and was being trained by good old Elder Coombs and I've thought a lot about a line in my patriarchal blessing that says I would be led and guided by righteous examples before and during my mission. I'm sure grateful for guys like Coombs, McDonald, Jenks, Cowan, Florence, and all the other friends I've made out here who help me through the hard times. I'm excited for what these last few months hold in store. I know just like life the mission has its ups and downs, but like the quote from Abe, we can decide to just be happy though it all!

Well not much more to say for the week, I finally took a picture with Elder Gregson I'll attach. I sure love and miss you guys!

Love,

Austin  

Yup. See that, Yacht club. That's the type of people who we get to try to talk to. Know how many of them are interested in the gospel..? Not many. 

January 30, 2017

Hello Hello!

Yes the birthday was a good one! Elder Gregsons birthday was actually the 26th so we had back to back bdays! Pretty cool! We had a full mission Conference on it! (Changes they made with the schedule just give us more flexibility with getting out the door sooner if needed. Basically just give us more agency haha. Only bummer is now only 30 min lunches) But it was great to see everyone! I of course sat with Elder Florence and McDonald. Plus a ton of other guys! After the broadcast we went and got lunch, so that was great! And that evening we went over to the Joyce's. Like you said they took real good care of me. She really did make the apricot cake! Her boys were pretty hesitant until they tried it and they really liked it haha. It was so great it was a big reminder of home! And yes I got the packages, thank you so much!! The Navy zip-up is awesome!! And thanks Mom for ruining my diet I had tried to start last week.. 

Rest of the week was kinda busy for once, mostly with meetings. Tuesday we helped a family in the ward move into a new home within the ward boundaries. It is always nice to get a break from knocking doors but picking up heavy things haha. Then on Thursday was had Zone Conference, if was so weird to not be in charge of it and running around making sure everything was set up and all. But kinda nice to sit back and relax a little.

Other then that, it was another week of just hitting the pavement. We are still just trying to find people to teach, so we just gotta keep putting in the work to find them. Hope it's a good week back home and Dad has safe travels back. Sure love and miss you guys tons!

Love,

Austin 

Elder Shirley and I share a birthday 

Birthday lunch with Elders McDonald, Florence, and Cowan. 

(McDonald and Cowan are companions right now!)

 

JS, what a guy! He came to the broadcast with a box of chocolates and wished me a happy birthday. He's such an amazing man, he's the best!