A Tough Week and Zone Training Dated October 18, 2013

Hey Mom!  

I got your letter at the beginning of the week and I enjoyed it.  Don't think that your boring me with your daily life, I love hearing about it.  Also, don't worried about rushing to write me, I understand that you're busy and tired.  Just promise that you won't slack or be lazy in writing me.  Remember how I used to get excited when I got something in the mail?  It's like 10x's more exciting now!  Don't deprive me of that happiness!!!!  When I talk to older missionaries, they say they wrote and got letters a lot during the beginning of their missions, but now its very rare.  I don't want to be like that!  Let's make a promise to write AT LEAST once every two weeks, okay?  GOOD!  I sent you a letter earlier this week, I hope you enjoyed it.

This week has been a tougher one for us in regards to lessons, but we're still trying!  We have a Nigerian investigator named Fernandes.  This week he fixed us some spicy African chicken with some other weird stuff.  I had the intestine, and he made me eat it.  It was .......chewy.  He's a really good guy, it's just harder for him to believe in some stuff like Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

There's a family in our ward called the Haji's  It's a single mother with three boys, but all of them are in their 20's.  One of them is married (he's our Bishop),  one is about to get married, and the other still lives at home.  The son who is engaged is trying to get his fiancee' interested in the church, so he invited us over for a family home evening for the whole family.  Me and the three brothers got along very well so we always laugh and joke around.  It makes me wish I had a brother.  I blame you guys for that!

We also had something called Zone interview training this week.  That's when President Brown comes down and interviews us individually while the zone leaders train us.  I love President Brown.  He's such a loving and caring guy.  You can tell he really cares about every single missionary.  He said I'm doing great and gave me some good advice.  Since it was a zone activity, I got to see Elder Benesch!  It's always a good time when we see each other, laughing and joking.  I might not see him for a while because we might get moved.  Who knows where I might go!!

Alright, that's it for me.  I'll try to do journal letters next week.  I hope you, Dad and Maggie have a good week!  Love and miss you!

-Elder Austin