Elder Austin's Journal Letters from December 8-December 15, 2013

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Holy Cow, today was a crazy day!  Church was kinda sad because I treated it like my last Sunday in Clondalkin.  Saying goodbye to the members I've gotten to know for 4 1/2 months is very hard.  We took pictures and said some goodbyes.  Later tonight we headed in and waited for our moves call.  So you'll probably know already by the time you get this..... but I'm going to Scotland!!!!   The area is called Stranraer on the Southern tip of Scotland.  My companion's name is Elder Spackman.  And guess what?  I'm Senior companion.  Ahh, so many emotions going through me at once.  It makes me tired, so goodnight.

Monday, December 9, 2013

It wasn't P-Day today, but we email anyway to get that out of the way.  I told you all about where Im going and who I'm with.  Later tonight we went over to a member's home and watched the Christmas Devotional.  If you haven't seen it yet, you should.  It's awesome!  Russell M. Nelson's talk about becoming little children really nailed it home.  I love Jesus and I love Christmas!  I had to say goodbye to some more members today and it was really sad.  I leave tomorrow night so I don't think I'll be able to see them all before I leave.  I'll call all of them so I can at least say goodbye to them. 

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Today, was filled with visiting and saying goodbye to members.  A sad day!  I didn't get to see them all, so that didn't make me very happy.  I almost teared up when I was talking to them on the phone.  They all told me how they loved me and how they will miss me so much.  Ugh, this stinks!  The zone leaders picked me up and took me to their flat so I could stay the night there.  I take the bus out of Dublin tomorrow.  I'm gonna miss the big city.  It's Christmas time so there are lights and trees all over the place.  Oh well, new adventures to be had!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

So this morning we got up at 5 to get ready to leave.  There were about 7 elders sleeping there because they were leaving with me including Elder Benesch!  I don't know if I told you this, but he's serving in the same zone as me .... Again!  I just can't get rid of him!  Hopefully we'll serve together soon.  My bus left at 7 am for Belfast.  From Belfast we took a bus to get on the ferry over to Scotland.  I love the Ferry because they have good food.  From the Ferry, I took a bus to Glasgow where my companion picked me up.  Did I mention we have a car?!  No more buses!!  We got back to our flat and had dinner and planned for the rest of the night.  The flat is nice and roomy.  I hope this is a good transfer! 

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Alright, my first day in Stranraer!  Since we have a car, we see so many more people.  Elder Spackman took me around to most of the members so I could meet them and get to know them.  They're all very nice people and I'll get along with them.  I'm not joking when I say this, but we have one lady in our branch who has a beard!  I think she may have hirsutism so she has a little chin hairs, it's hilarious.  Other than that, it was a pretty normal day.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Our area is really big, so sometimes we have to do a little bit of driving.  There are a lot of less-active members so we are doing a lot of work with them.  The drives along the coastline are absolutely beautiful!  Did I mention that the car is a stick shift?  Elder Spackman taught me today and I picked it up pretty fast.  I still have some trouble with certain things, but I'm getting hang of it.  Today was basically visiting some more people so I can get to know them and so I can get to know the area.  They are all very nice and they feed us well, so I'm not complaining!

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Being a leader is hard sometimes, but I'm getting the hang of it.  Right now with Elder Spackman, I'm stressing personal obedience to the mission rules.  We are taught that personal obedience effects our spiritual conviction.  His last companion wasn't completely obedient and didn't work very hard so I'm gonna change that!  We are getting out there and not wasting a minute of the Lord's time.  Being an example is where it starts so I'm trying my best to do that.  Right now we're doing so much less-active work and that is what our day consisted of.  Hopefully, we can inspire these members to come back to church!!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

This Sunday was a little different to what I'm used to.  It's a really small branch so we don't even have a church building.  We meet at a day center in the middle of town.  Even though it's not an official building and it doesn't even look like it, I could feel the Spirit during the sacrament.  You don't have to have a big chapel with lots of people to have a spiritual experience at church.  All you need is a couple of faithful people and the correct authority to feel the Spirit and renew your covenants.  This branch is struggling because of the people that keep falling away, but I made a goal with the Lord today.  I said that I will try my very hardest to help this branch take a step forward and contribute to the Kingdom of God.  Failure is not an option.

Love you!!

Elder Austin's Journal Letters from November 25 - December 1, 2013

Hi Mom!

Monday, November 25, 2013

My second favorite day of the week - P-Day!  My favorite part of P-day is probably emailing and see how life is over in the States.  I get emails from you, Dad, Erin, a couple of girls, and some friends.  From time to time, I talk with Will, Cade and Jake.  Can you believe Cade is almost done with his mission?  I don't know if you know this, but today is my 4 month mark.  Time goes by so fast!  Today for P-day we went to the stake center to play sports.  Other than that, nothing happened missionary-wise.  It was a good start to the week.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Today, was kind of disappointing.  We had appointments all day long, but all of them fell through.  We planned on getting three new investigators, but we ended up with 0.  I sometimes think that people set appointments with us, thinking that we won't actually come.  Ahh people are dumb sometimes!  Oh well, tomorrow is another day. 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Today was a better day than yesterday.  Thank heavens!  We started off by having lunch at a member's house.  It was nothing social, but it was nice not having to make anything.  After that, we headed out to Ian's house.  We taught him about the priesthood and showed him another Mormon Message.  You should look up "Sanctify Youselves".  It's really good!  Later tonight, we went to a less-active's house for dinner.  They're Nigerian food.  It was chicken, rice and some other vegetables.  The mother and father were less active, but the kids aren't baptized so we're going to talk to them about that.  Hopefully that will get their family back on track!

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Another day of people dodging our appointments.  Ahh, I hate this.  It's not that I'm sad or depressed, it's just a little frustrating.  We did get to see a less-active family that we haven't seen before.  Basically, the husband was baptized, so the family did too.  So when the husband fell away, the family fell away too.  It's like teaching an investigator whose already baptized.  We did spark some interest in them so it might be good.  Other than that, nothing really happened.  Hopefully, this week gets better. 

Friday, November 29, 2013

Gosh people need to stop dropping our appointments!  We have so many potential investigators, but none of them will turn into investigators unless they follow through with their appointments!  Two more people dropped today, but one actually followed through!  Her name is Tola and she has been taught before.  The lesson went good, but the tricky part is getting her to church.  I hope she comes, but she doesn't want to upset her other church.  I have to stay positive.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Guess what today consisted of?  More people dropping appointments.  Being discouraged and sad is not my problem, it's frustration.  I'm concerned for the welfare of these people, but I can't help them if they don't have the desire.  I'm sorry I don't have many life-changing stories to tell you about.  I will keep trying though.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

It was a busy Sunday, but a good one.  We had two investigators at church today, so that was exciting. A couple of babies were blessed so the chapel was packed.  One of our investigators named Serghei is going through a hard time.  He told us today that his family is tearing apart and they aren't doing pretty well.  We taught him that God loves him and that He can help in these hard times.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and he read a lot of it during church.  I hope he can find happiness in the gospel, he really needs it.  We might not know what he's going through, but God does.  And He's the one that can help the most!  Tell Dad I said Happy Birthday!  Even though it was a hectic day, I was thinking about him all day long.  There's a letter coming to him too!  That's all for me this week.  

Love You!   Elder Austin

Elder Austin's Journal Letters from November 18 - November 24, 2013

Hi Mom!

Monday, November 18, 2013

Ahh, P-Day at last.  It's a day where I can rest from all the stress of missionary work.  We emailed, got lunch, and just walked around Dublin City Centre.  We don't  have to do anything special, to me it's fun  hanging out with other missionaries.  They're starting to put up Christmas decorations in the city and it's beautiful!  I can't wait for Christmas.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Today wasn't too eventful.  It sucks when you don't have any investigators to teach.  I don't know why, but people were so mean today when we were tracking.  I did a good job not getting discouraged, but now I gotta work on using it as motivation.  I'm sorry I don't have much to write about.  I'm really trying my best to find people to teach.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Today wasn't too bad.  Again, it's just a lot of knocking on doors and talking to people on the street.  We did get a new investigator though!  His name is Sergei and he's from Maldova.  Maldova is right next to Russia and was part of the old Soviet Union.  He speaks Russian and his English isn't that good so that might be a problem.  We'll just have to teach simple and clear.  He has a beautiful chocolate lab and she loves me.  She reminded me of Maggie.  I miss my puppy!  So overall, today was  a good day!

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Today was a really good day!  We had something called Zone conference where we all gathered together as a zone and get instructed by our leaders and President Brown.  They spoke on a lot of good stuff like how we can help investigators in the conversion process.  I love conferences like this because I get to see a lot of missionaries that I don't get to see often, including Elder Benesch!  After it was over, we went on another exchange.  I was with Elder Frost from Copenhagen, Denmark.  It's kind of nice not having an American companion because it shows that the church is all over the world.  We tried visiting some potentials and did some simple tracking, but nothing too big came out of it.

Friday, November 22, 2013

We had Elder Frost for the first part of the day.  Our appointments fell through, but we met some good people on the street who seemed very interested in our Church.  We exchanged back and then headed out to the furthest part of our area.  Out there we had dinner with a member family who is from the Ukraine.  The mother and father moved to Ireland about 15 years ago and that is when they met the missionaries.  They now have two teenage daughters and one little boy, and they are all active in the Church.  Their family is a lot of fun and they made us some good food!  It was a good day.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

I guess when you have a couple of good days, a not so good one comes up.  All of our appointments fell through today.  It was kind of disappointing, but since that happened, I decided we should go visit some of our less active members.  One of them was James Lennon who I told you about before.  He needed us because he got drunk last night and had a bad night.  We helped him out and had a little lesson on repentance.  The next one was Grace Slater and she REALLY needed us.  Her daughter has a giant tumor on her back and she's going to get surgery soon.  We offered and she accepted a blessing.  Even though all our appointments fell through, we were needed elsewhere.  Experiences like that help you understand a little bit about how God works.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

In the mornings for my personal study, I've started to read "Jesus The Christ" by James E. Talmage.  It is an amazing book and I highly recommend it.  It's a long book and it might take my entire mission to read it, but it's great and I love it.  You should read it!  It covers ALL doctrine about Jesus Christ and why he's important to us.  I learn new things everyday from it.

Well Sundays are always great.  A lady in our ward spoke about how miracles and ministering of angels still happen today.  I love small wards like this because I really get to know everyone.  Later tonight, we headed to a young married couple's house in our ward.  They have a 3 year old girl and she is the cutest thing ever!  We had a good lesson and then headed for home.

Love You!   Elder Austin