Austin's Missionary Journal

Hey, Family! Ah, man!!! The new house is almost finished?! That's crazy! I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's all done and moved  in . I'll need pictures! Lots  of  pictures!!!... or I could just wait until Mother's Day when I call home to see the place. Either way, I hope everything goes smoothly during the closing and move- in ! This week has just been horrible when it comes to seeing our investigators. We weren't able to meet with any  of  our investigators, save for some short contacts and phone calls with them. Probably the most stressful night this week was Thursday night, when  all   of  our appointments fell through and we were left trying to figure out what else to do. Those kind  of  nights are pretty rough. But thankfully for the month  of  March, the Brownsville Ward is shooting to have every family have the missionaries over to work out their individual mission plans and goals. Each family will sign up ...

Hey Family and Friends! This week has been exhausting!!! I'm am literally aching, and I really haven't done anything too strenuous or physically demanding at all this week... well, besides missionary work. But that still wouldn't make any sense because I don't think I'm working any harder than I did last transfer. This past week I've been super tired, esspecially while working. I have been going to be earlier a few times this week, which seems to help a little bit, but it immediately gets just as bad later on... Maybe I just need to get to bed at 9:30 every night. We'll see if that helps. Anyways, besides it being tiring, this week went fairly well. Unfortunately, Harrison still doesn't want to commit to being baptized. We met with him on Friday night and reviewed the Restoration  of  the Gospel with him again, this time having him explain it to us. I think it really helped because during the lesson he had a vague idea  of  what it all was and meant, but...

Hey Everybody! Man, it was cold this week! But through the struggles the weather presented, I learned something: Snow is fun; rain, I can deal with; but rain when there's snow already on the ground, complete and utter misery. Never before have I gotten my shoes completely soaked through and have my toes become numb like I've been walking through the snow  in  bare feet. Yeah, this week was pretty hard. It snowed until Tuesday afternoon, and then after that it continued to rain. But even then the snow stuck around until about Friday, which was surprising considering how much it rained. During this whole week, it's been nothing but dark and cold, and it seemed like everyone we talked to felt that; There was hardly anyone who even wanted to carry a conversation on the doorstep. But finally Sunday came, and how glorious it was: ​It was so bright and sunny, I could barely see because my eyes were so used to the gray, cloudy days. It felt so nice to work out  in . Made me excit...

I looked out the window, and what did I see? ​Snow! Snow Everywhere!! It started last night, raining while we were out working, but the rain gradually became snow as it fell. It had been snowing for a couple  of  hours when we turned  in  for the night, and it kept coming throughout the night. And it is still snowing as I write this now. This morning we couldn't actually get out  of  the driveway because a tree had fallen over  in  the night, blocking the driveway right before it reaches the road. However, our landlady had a chainsaw, which she allowed us to use, and we got it all chopped up and moved  in  a few minutes. My week went pretty well: Monday: Usual P-Day, hung out at the church, played some games. We played Dodgeball and I still can't throw a ball very well. But everytime I tried, I just laughed it off and kept going. It was fun. Tuesday: It was a good day  of  work. The Silverdale 2nd elders came over for exchanges...

 Hey Everybody! So a lot  of  cool stuff happened this week. First off, this week on Wednesday, there was a world-wide missionary broadcast.  In  it, they changed quite a bit about the missions everywhere. The change is meant to make the schedule more flexible and adjustable to the needs  of  an area/mission, so now there's really going to be a lot  of  differences between missions  in  different countries and how they work. We only saw minor changes over here though. For one thing, we no longer do our planning for the day the night before. Instead we do it  in  the morning before we start studies. Now between 10 to 4, we work  in  proselyting time, as well as companionship study, language study, 12-week, and all that stuff at whatever time works best for us. With these changes, the church is trusting us with our agency to decide what will work the best for productivity. It's an interesting change. P-Days got cha...

  Hey Family! I'm glad to see everything back home is going good. The house is looking awesome, and all the little kids are looking as adorable as ever. I'm really glad to hear that Eric is active  in  his ward now, especially after this week. This week we've been spending a little time trying to visit less-active members, and  in  every single case I notice that these people aren't... joyful. They're either just content, or they just look like they could care less about the world. I know I wouldn't want to be like that. This P-Day a few members who are part  of  the Navy, took our zone on a tour  of  an Aircraft Carrier. It's the USS Nimitz, which is  in  port for renovations. It was super cool. I got a lot  of  pictures. It was really awesome to see a giant ship like that and see how the Navy lives on deployment, but I was the most interested  in  everything about the actual aircrafts onboard. ... Unfortunately...

Ha! I knew it was going to happen sooner or later! A new baby on the way! Congratulations, Ryan and Tia! I'm looking forward to seeing a new niece/nephew by the time I get home! Life sounds a bit crazy for you two right now, but I'm sure you'll be able to handle it all. I'll keep you guys   in   my prayers. This week was pretty fun, although I don't have a lot  of  time to email today. It's zone activity, and we've arranged with members to go to the naval base and take a tour  of  an aircraft carrier at port. It's exciting, I can't wait to see it! So, I'll tell about all the highlights this week: -Our mission president gave us permission to go see one  of  our investigator's basketball games. His name is Harrison, he plays for Olympic High School, and he's a super solid investigator. He's been taught everything, but his only problem is that his girlfriend doesn't want to marry outside  of  the Catholic faith, and Harrison is curio...