Austin's Missionary Journal

Hey, family! Happy Thanksgiving! Also, happy start  of  the Christmas Season! Glad to see nobody had any tragic Black Friday accidents! I'm glad to hear everything got moved out  of  the house okay, right on schedule and everything! It is great when people you know pitch  in  to help when you need it. I've already had a few experiences myself over here. Heh, while I might not have been there to move stuff out  of  the house, I've been having plenty  of  times where Elder Hansen and I help move furniture  from  one member's home to another already, so don't be thinking I skipped out  of  the manual work. All jokes aside, Thanksgiving was great, even over here. That morning, our Ward Mission Leader had us over for breakfast, which was fantastic (Also his two little girls just happened to be watching My Little Pony that morning as well, which was fine by me!  Don't worry, it wasn't anything new). But then we went ov...

Hahaha, oh what fun it has been to log onto this library computer and find more letters than just   from   Mom and Dad. It's great to hear   from   everyone else... well, almost everyone! But wow, I'm already moving on to week 5 out here. It's hard to believe I'm almost at the end  of  this transfer, and even harder to believe I've been away  from  home for more than a month! Part  of  me hopes the rest  of  the time here just flies by and I can come back home to everyone, but another part  of  me that can only happen if I turn my focus and actions towards the people out here. I've been trying my best to do that, so I guess I'm starting to see one  of  many  of  the benefits  from  it. Hey, Eric! Great to hear  from  you. Haha, but sorry, I had no luck whatsoever  in  finding you  in  that crowd... maybe if you held up your tuba a bit higher, but then that'd ...

  Hey everyone! You may have already noticed this, but this week I took the liberty   of   sending this email to everyone   in   our immediate family, so you don't have to worry about them getting it, Mom!... Though then again, I think that kind   of   complicates your pre-set list   of   people you forward my emails home to a bit. Oops, I regret nothing! So this week actually was a bit  of  a slow one, surprisingly. I think it had to do with the fact that we hardly have any investigators to begin with, and finding new people to teach is really difficult  in  an area where they're so spread out like this one. I thought it was kind  of  ironic, but just yesterday at church, one  of  the men  in  Elders' Quorum said tracting was one  of  the least effective ways to find new investigators. The reason why that's ironic is because here  in  the Wa-Tac, Tracting, or how we call i...

Hey everyone! Guess what? I actually have a full hour to write emails today, so now I can throw  in  everything I want to  in  this letter! YAY! Well, second week is gone already out here  in  the Key Peninsula area, and I'm extremely glad that it went quicker than my first week here. Just comes to show a mission always starts out mind-numbingly slow but picks up the pace the farther you go. Ha, reminds me  of  my companion, Elder Hansen, when he describes his mission experience so far. He's been out here for a year and a half already but he says "The first month was slow, but then the second one kind  of  picked up a little bit. Then the third month came, and the next minute I looked at the calendar a whole year had gone by and it was already Summer again." Elder Hansen is great, and I'm thankful that I could have him as my trainer/first comp. He's  from  Arkansas, and he's super obedient to the mission rules. He's a good exam...

Oooooooof, it's been too long since I've written home. the last time I did was two Friday's ago. But now that I've finally reached my first Monday here, my first P-day, it's time to remedy that. Hey family! As you guys can probably guess, my P-Days are now Mondays. It's barely been a week since I arrived here  in  Washington, and boy let me tell you guys, it's been a doozy. Now where do I start? Well, I guess a good thing to do would be telling you where exactly I am. I've been assigned to serve first  in  the Key Center area  of  the Tacoma Mission. My whole area is a big peninsula right above Tacoma. If you look on a map, it's a pretty big area, but everyone tells me there's only about 300 houses with people living  in  them. About every square inch  of  this place is covered  in  green! It's a wonder that's there's even a town here... though I think a community  of  hermits would be a better description. Seriously,...