April 16, 2012

To the best!

HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY TO GRANDPA DAW!!!  I love you!!! Thank you for your life and example!!

Emails from:

Jay Newman- Thank you so much for your great email. I look forward to reading it this evening. It does seem like just yesterday we were in Helaman Halls studying Preach My Gospel. Thank you so much for that great blessing. I love you Jay and am sure grateful for your example. I hope that you studies are going well. Thank you so much for your email and have a great day.

Crystal Cox- What a great picture that was of you all" Thank you so much for your email. You are so sweet and thoughtful. I look forward to reading your email this evening. You are so special! I love you and please tell all of your family the same...

And the Faithful Family!!

First off, I have to say that I broke into tears with that picture and news that Zach Ingraham was baptized. That is about the best news of my mission. What a great decision he made. Please send him my love and happiness for him.

Thank you so much for all your emails!! I am looking so forward to reading them. From what I skimmed through the letters it sounds like everyone is doing well.  Brennen that picture of you with your Drivers Permit is awesome! What a handsome man!! Congratulations!!!

This week was wonderful. On Monday we left at two in the morning for Bahia Blanca and it was just such a great conference. I learned so much. I will always be grateful to my mission president for teaching me about one word, and that word is VISION. He is a man with a great vision of what this mission can do and become. I will miss him terribly when he finishes in July. I also was able to see my trainer Elder Perez and a whole bunch of other zone leaders that I have had and have loved so much. It was a great experience.

The picture is of me with one of my first zone leaders Elder Ramirez. When we got back on Wednesday we had a great district meeting and then on Thursday and Friday I was on splits with the zone leaders in their area. It was great.  I learned a lot from our zone leaders. On Sunday we had a special conference. Elder Avila of the Seventy came and it was amazing. I learned so much. He is such a great person. Sergio and Maria were in the church and they had a great experience. They have dates for the 12^th of May.  I hope they can get married and make this step. Elder Avila had a great talk - it was simple and about Christ, but I learned a lot and was grateful for his message. We also had an interview with President yesterday. It was a busy week and I feel like I was hardly in my area at all this week, but Elder Knuteson is highly capable and he did a good job with splits.

So Mitt Romney is the man. Santorum dropped out huh? I don’t know if I believe it. I am excited to see this. Get ready for the battle. When I was in the zone leader’s area we had a lunch with the most amazing family. He was a stake president and had been to Idaho - Rigby, and American Falls. That was a small world experience. But he taught me something in that time. He has two kids who are going to BYU and all of his kids speak English perfectly. He taught me that education is the key to vision and that education opens doors to all sorts of potential. He knew all about every candidate in the race and it was neat. He almost cannot see now, but you can feel the power of his life in that house. He knows what it means to keep temple covenants and he has an extremely happy family.

I am grateful for families who help us get a vision of what we want in life.

Dad- I am very excited to read your letter. Thank you so much for that picture. That was so great. I am also very glad to hear that Scott Hall the Man has returned with Honor! What a wonderful friend he is to our family, and a fighter. I am jealous of all the hikes that he is going do this summer at the fish. I know I will still have the blessing to walk more though. Ha-ha. I hope all of the preparation is going well for the season. How are snow levels up there? Sounds like a high LDS crew this year. That will be fun. Young adults will be rocking. That is a great blessing. Oh, Elder Henry here shares a love for Coldplay, today in the supermercado a song came on called Charlie Brown. It was an interesting sound. It is funny because every time I walk in a supermercado I always tease the Elders that a Coldplay song will come on. God gives you what you want when you put him first in your life. Even if it is just something as unimportant and small as that. Psalms 37:4-5   I love you so much Dad. I am eternally grateful for your example. I cannot sing Hymn 137 in Spanish without choking up. I remember the plaque that you gave Grandpa and Grandma. You will have to look up the hymn number to refresh your memory. I love you Dad. Have a great week and a safe preparation for the season. Sounds like it will be a good one.

Mom- You are so sweet to do all that you do. I feel so bad to ask for anything from you all. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and kindness though. Sounds like you are doing very well and are very busy. I loved to hear that you are listening to the Conference talks – on your phone- technology is wonderful! That will be a great blessing for you. What do you need to do for Prom this year? That will be a fun time. I am sure excited for you. You love all that stuff. I appreciate so much your little updates and everything about home. More than anything your prayers. It is amazing to me that I feel closer to you all now then before and we are, let’s just say, right around the corner from each other. I love you Mom. Thank you for being who you are and doing what you do. Your legacy will echo on for eternities. And you are just getting started...Have a great week. I love you.

Mikesell- The big Senior prom. You better be home by midnight... haha. I am excited for you. It will be a great time. I am glad that you had such a good week last week. That is so awesome that you are graduating with the can nurses degree. I am so proud of you. You have a great ability to manage time and I have always loved that about you….among a thousand other things. I was thinking about you today as the other Elders took a nap and I had about an hour to ponder and to read my Pat.Blessing and the scriptures. I am so grateful for the example and best friend that you are to me. You have quite the exciting couple of months coming up.  You have to keep me updated. You are going to learn much about yourself and what really is important to you. Keep working hard and remember what things will give you eternal life. That is what our vision should be. I sure love you. You are beautiful.

Brennen- The man with the wheel permit! What a stud. I bet you are pretty excited. Thank you so much for your email. I was thinking about what you said. That is a very profound question. Mom always says “fake it until you make it”. The more you try the easier it will become. Pray for help. That is something that I have found works. Put yourself in their shoes and see life through there perspective. Have you read “The Noticer” yet? Also there is no greater book than the Book of Mormon. You are such a wonderful man Brennen. Hey this week I wanted to tell you about, or maybe just put a thought in your ear about doing Student Council. It is a great experience and I would highly recommend it. It is really something quite simple also. It is something that I would encourage you to do, and not let fear of failure or something like that holds you back. You have much potential as a leader. I love you brother and you are so special. I am happy to hear of the person that you are becoming and the kindness that you show to all people.

Alex- Man, I heard today that BYU has the record in NCAA tournament history for the biggest comebacks -that is sweet. I sure love you! It sounds like you are doing well and I am glad to hear that you are reading the Book of Mormon. I sure miss you buddy. Keep making the best decisions and doing the right things. You are a spectacular person and the world is yours to conquer. Go get life my friend. I love you and miss you like crazy. No, I am pretty sure I could not dunk it right now. My life consists of walking, my lunges, pushups and sit-ups in the morning. All reflexes’ are gone for now. Have a great week buddy. Keep doing the best you can. I love you.

Harrison the man!!! I miss you buddy. Sometimes just I picture what you look like and I bet you are growing so much. Are you doing well in school? How your friends are? Remember that you don’t have to follow your friends if they are doing something they you don’t feel is right. You can be super Harrison and do things the best way, and that is the HARRY WAY! Keep being a great kid little bro. Lots of kisses and thanks for saying your prayers every day. You are the MAN!

McCall!  I am sure excited to see this picture you drew for me. I love you McCall and I just hope you know how much. I am so grateful to be your brother. You are so special. I hope that you do really well in your last month or so of school. I love you so much. Keep being super girl. You need to tell me some funny stories and things you say ok? I love you!!

This week after the conference we got back to Santa Rosa at about midnight and after I was in bed I couldn’t sleep very well. For some reason as I was laying there I had the weirdest thoughts of time and how I don’t have much left. It was like a panic attack to work harder.  Time is moving and I know soon we will be together. But I am so grateful to be here. I promise to bust it more that ever right now. May Heavens richest blessing be yours. Thank you for your prayers. I love you all more that I can say!!!

Elder Austin