January 23, 2012

Live up to Your Potential!!!

Letters this week from:

Rachelle Miller- (Nanny) Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and sweet words. I am glad to hear that you are enjoying married life and that you are living happily. Thank you so much for your example. You are the best. I love ya.

  

Emails from:

Grandma and Grandpa Clegg- I got both of your emails! Thank you so very much. It is such a treat to hear how all of you are doing. I hope that all the computer problems were able to be solved. I love you both more than I can say. Your examples speak so highly of the blessings of Gospel Living. May you continue to be blessed. Have a great week and stay warm and dry!

Aunt Julie- Thank you so much for the inspiring letter. Thank you for sharing the story about the young missionary in the ward. Missions are not easy in the least and often times missionaries do feel like there isn’t a soul out there that wants to listen. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is still true. Thank you for your testimony. Please tell all the girls I love them and to keep being superstars in all the things they do! I will try to send a little Argentina sun your way. Love you Aunt Julie.

Cass!- Hey Squirt... Thanks so much for the address. I will be dropping a note in your direction. Yes, I remember very well the feeling of leaving and all the farewells and friends leaving. It is a bitter sweet time. I hope that you and Ash and Sadie are rocking life at BYU. I love you very much. Hope you are enjoying your hamsters every Sunday night. Have a great week and keep living the dream. Love you Cousin!

  

And of course the mighty faithful Residents of 380 East... haha!!  Thank you all very much for your letters!! I feel the prayers of everyone and am so grateful for the wonderful people that I have been blessed to know. You are all my inspiration...

   

Well, I can picture what this last week was like for all of you in my head. I remember the winter weeks filled with endless Basketball games, late nights, and busy times. It sounds like everyone is doing really well in school and that everyone is progressing nicely. Sounds like you have gotten a lot of rain / snow!

This week was pretty great week. I seriously love my new companion a ton! We laugh a lot but work a lot too. It is quite a change with four in our house now, but we are getting along. We have been like this for a week now. Today I went to a least four rent places and all of them said to come back in March. This place is like the Disneyland of Argentina sometimes. There are so many tourists here for the summer!!

I am trying to think of some of the highlights of the week and the first one that came to my mind is this one...

 Last Monday our appointment for an investigator fell through and so we were knocking doors and doing the normal “plan b” things. We walked past a house that I recognized from a few months back, and I realized that it was the house where Gaston, the twelve year old boy that was killed had lived in. (Burglers broke into his home when he was home alone and killed him) I recognized it because they had police outside for several weeks. We walked by and at first I was a little tentative to knock on the door. But then I said to my companion "We are going to try something a little bold here¨. So we knocked on the door and out came Gaston’s Father. We talked to him for a while and at first I played dumb... then we got talking about Gaston and he got very emotional. We asked him if we could come in and say a prayer with them and they let us. We taught a little about the Plan of Salvation and it was a really emotional time for all of us. We invited them to Church and set a return appointment. She was just leaving for the city and they didn’t come to church this last Sunday, but we are going to pass by them some more. More than anything it was just really humbling to enter that house and feel the pain that they were going through. I hoped we helped them in some way. They seemed really grateful and were very emotional. Your prayers in their behalf are much appreciated.

This week should be a great one. Gishermo and Yeal are getting baptized . Gishermo is a man of gold. He cries every Sacrament Meeting and is so humble. His wife passed away last August and he suffered a stroke and is recovering well. It is cool to see because we found him through street contacting his son. Elder Ochsibein and Elder Holmquist our teaching him now since there are four of us now we have divided our investigators, but I feel a lot of love for him. Yeal´s family is slowly reactivating also. It is great to see the change in his family. We also found “Lisette” this week. She is 23 and has a three year old kid who is just awesome. She is in the divorce process - which is rare here. Normally they just stay married if they separated and they having a court case over the children. She is very humble and we taught her all the lessons in one week. Her date is for the 11th but she is progressing so well and so we may change it to sooner. It is great to see some success and we are excited for the future. Alejandro will not quit smoking, mostly I just think it is because his heart really is not too much into this but hopefully it will change. We fasted for him and helped him with a plan and a goal and he is working with the members. Desires are powerful and can be good or bad.

We had interviews with President Defletson this week. (Mission President)  It was so awesome. He talked to us for two hours before the interviews but it felt like two minutes. I just soak up every word from him. I love him so much. He is a very inspired person and I love the things he talks about. I will never forget the things that he has taught me.

Some fun things about this week. Contacting two men on horse back in the street. Elder Yarger loves horses.

Elder Yarger and I in our matching "get ups" to go exercise

We also had a branch activity and I taught the branch how to play “signs”. The cousins would be proud!!  (It was taught with great difficulty!) I died laughing because we were playing with four elderly women and to watch them try to play and remember everything was just too much. Oh man -I will never forget that. I was crying. I wish you all could have seen it.

We got a new mission leader from Mar del Plata and their family is so awesome. He sacrifices so much for us. He comes down all day each Wednesday just to do visits and help us. He knows what it means to honor covenants. I love their family and I am going to have a very hard time saying goodbye to them some day.

All four of us gave talks this Sunday and it went well. I talked on President Monsons message and the ABC´s (Pretty great Brennen huh!? :)

Please send my love to the Lott’s and I will keep Elder Lott in my prayers. I hope that all is well... What a strange thing to happen. (Austins dear friend from Jerome is serving in England and has a blood clot...is being sent to SLC for testing this week) I did not see it coming at all. Please keep me posted.

Out Mission President has challenged us to memorize one scripture a day. It has really helped with my teaching and my study of the scriptures. I am really learning the importance of studying the scriptures for our investigators to apply in thier lives.

Dad-

I hope that you time in Utah today goes well and that the roads are all dry. That is great that you are going to Logan. It is really good to keep your options open for Mikesell and to have a second route. I hope that you are able to have a great week and do the things that you would like to do. I sure miss you Dad. But I am very grateful for this time. Thank you for the revelation and ideas that you receive each day to guide us kids. I think back on the one-on-ones we have had, the interviews with each of us kids, and moments like that...Those types of experiences are what keeps a family strong and centered in Christ. Thank you Dad. Have a wonderful week. You are looking great in all your pictures!   You are the man. Hey what’s up with Romney? Apparently there was a newspaper article down here about it?? I love you! Have the best week of your life!

Mom-

Hey there Sunshine- It sure is great to get your emails!! I loved what you said about “leadership” and I look forward to reading more tonight. Sounds like you had a good week filled with a lot of ¨things¨. I am glad to hear that you were able to stick to the basics and your ¨guns¨ through all of the games and hectic schedules. I don’t know how you keep it all together…you are amazing! I loved hearing how you are playing the piano a lot. That is a great blessing. To answer some of your questions - Yes I am feeling great - No, I still have not found my scriptures. I ordered some here from the mission office so no worries about anything. I will be fine and I am grateful for the experience. Mom - I sure love you so much. I hope that all is well for you. Hope you get that get-away with Dad soon! Thank you so much for your prayers. Keep up the great work! I love you Mom!  You are the best!!  (-Just got your email back to me in response about Romney- Thank you so much for your update! Your phone telling you when you get an email comes in handy!)

Mikesell-

Sounds like you are keeping busy but happy! I hope that Logan / Utah State recruiting today goes really well. Good to keep your options open until you hear from BYU. What a long day for you and Dad! Leave at 4am! What a great time to spend with Dad. I hope that everything is going well for you. You are in my prayers and thank you so much for your goals you sent for the New Year. I loved them. Have a a wonderful week and keep up with the good work. You are my hero. I miss you a ton. We are never far in spirit. God bless you sis. Watch an Andy Griffith Show for me when you have time…?

Brennen- Hey you stud muffin. I enjoyed hearing about Seminary.   Absorb every bit – it is truly a wonderful time of life. Those are the best moments of the school day.  You are blessed to have such an awesome teacher! Mikesell says the same thing in her letters. Jerome is blessed to have such a great man!! Mom told me about the Fireside. That sounds like a very great broadcast. I love Elder Packard. Thanks for sharing those ABCs from President Monson’s Message. I hope that you are enjoying the basketball life!! Some of those days you get tired of the same things but work hard and enjoy your time with the team and play hard. Did you read that talk this last week from the Priesthood session? Has Mikesell taken you out to lunch lately? I think you two should go to El Sombrero this week. That place is good and they have cheap burritos. Good luck with your games this week - it sounds like everything is going well. Keep smiling and naming 5 Things you are grateful for every day. You have loads of potential so go kill it man! Thanks for being my bro.

Alex- Hey stud muffin how is your life? Thanks for your email I love hearing from you. I hope that you have a really great week! I miss you buddy. Keep doing good stuff. How is your calling? Are you being a good Deacons Pres? You pulling straight A´s? Good luck on the court this week. I love you bro. Keep being  a stud and treating people like you want to be treated. That will bring you more success then any thing else in you life. Love you Alex! Drop 30 for me this week!

Harrison- Man I just love you so much. I miss you buddy. I loved the picture of your bball team that Mom sent. I hope that you are having fun. Have a great week and good job on your reading. You are doing awesome!! Less TV and more books means a world of success. I love you Harrison!! Thanks for your prayers.

McCall- Hey you old 6 year old! I will send you birthday letter tomorrow. Hopefully it will get there by your birthday Valentines girl! I hope that you had a good week. Sounds like you are doing really well in school. Thata girl! I loved your bball picture Mom sent.  I sure love you Cally. Keep being awesome and dong good things. Give all the siblings a big KISS for me.

I love you all and am so grateful for your examples. I challenge you to live to your potential. I know that we can do more and we can at the same time have gratitude for the blessing and abilities we have. That is how you dominate life. Please send my love to all. Have the best week ever!

Love,

Elder Austin