Hello dear ones,

So glad to hear that you are all doing well. Sounds like it was a wonderful week. Sounds like a lot is going on...which doesn't surprise me.

This week has been a really good, really busy.  Monday and Tuesday we were in Tandil and Olvarria delivering all of the house things. Wednesday and Thursday we were able to work in the area. Hermano Moran is doing really well. I am excited for him... his granddaughter went to church and there is a lot of reactivating, and baptizing to be done in this family. I am super excited to try and work with them. On Friday we went to Santa Rosa.... it was Elder Costanzi`s birthday. He really enjoyed it. The conference went really well and I was able to see the family Ose and you won`t believe it....the Garcia Family!!! Sergio was in the hospital and we went and visited him. We just talked for a while and it was a great time. Sergio asked for a blessing. They are doing well and have bought a car! Sergio is working to recieve the Melchesdik Priesthood.  It was so nice to see them! We had a great zone conference!! I talked to Elder Yarger, who I just love to death.  His Dad has recieved a calling as Stake Patriarch. It was just so great to see him.  We then returned by bus to Bahia and got here at three in the morning. Saturday we passed transfers and then did some preperation with buying the tickets and orgaizing the houses and worked in our area. 12 Elders are leaving and we are getting 14 tomorrow. Which makes the mission have 218 missionaries. They are telling us that we will grow up to 250. Presidente and Hermana Parreno were in Buenos Aires for a Mission Presidents conference and they had some great experiences with Elder Oakes and Elder Bednar that were really fun to hear. I love them both so much. I am doing well... I just want to invite people to Christ and nothing else. Thanks for your prayers and your support. Tonight we have the final dinner with these 12 elders.   Tomorrow we roll to the airport in the morning to see them go, and then at 7 we go to recieve the new missionaries. Wednesday is the trainer conference and then Thursday life should start to be normal again. My companion and I gave a talk yesterday in church and it went well we have a wonderful ward.  I would love more time to work with them. We are doing all we can and the Lord is blessing us a ton.

Dad- I saw this profile on Mormon org and I firgured that you have to know this guy, check out the link. How are you doing? I am sure glad that you went to State in Lewiston with the team. That is wonderful.   I love you Dad. Thanks for being who you are. Have a great week!
http://mormon.org/jason/

Mom- I love you. Thanks for everytihng. Thanks for taking such good care of me. I loved your stories of following your promptings. You and President Monson. Honestly Mom, to answer your question about Christmas I dont ask or need anything for Christmas. Whatever money you would spend , you can use your creativity and serve someone... or save it for a family activity or something. The only thing I want  is a hand written letter from everyone with three things that they are doing to do before July to get better, serve, or grow. I love you so much Mom. I'm glad you got to teach seminary those two days. I wish I was in your class! Thanks for teaching me so much with your huge example. You really are the best. Have a great week. Enjoy the ward there in Jerome this week and tell everyone that I love them.

Mikesell- I am glad that you have found the  problem with your shins! That is wonderful I am so glad that you are having so much fun and that you did so good on your math test. You are diong so well!! What a girl! I hope that you are enjoying your dates every weekend. Sounds like this one guy is pushing. More than three dates if they are returned missionaries means that they most likely will ask you to marry them. haha, kinda of a joke, and kind of not.  I love you Sis. Keep strong. Keep being excellent! Enjoy the full moon!

Brennen-  That is funny about what Bridon said. I love you buddy. Keep being a light in  school and making good decions. Go domn the court this year. I love you Brother. Thanks for being the man.

Alex- I hope that you are doing really well with Ball and everything. I love you man. Keep reading the Book of Mormon. I love you Buddy. I miss you.

Harrionson- The man! I love you and hope that you are excited for Halloween. Who are you going to be? I love you man.

McCall- Will you send me pictures of your Halloween? I love you Call. Keep being so nice to everyone and giving Harrison kisses. I love you.

I love you all so much. This week I learned the importance of studying the scriptures and not just reading. It has been so busy that I have been trying to just get in time to read the scriptures and I learned how I need to study. I am so grateful for the schedule of missionaries. I love you all. I love Heavenly Father. I love this work and I am grateful. Have a great week. I am sorry for the rushed letter. Its just one of those busy weeks again.
I love you with all of my heart!

All my Love,

Elder Austin

Hello Wonderful Family,

Sorry that I could not write yesterday. Since I wrote yesterday I literally have been driving and driving. Out of eight Elders here in the office only four can drive and so it was my turn to help out the housing Elders. We went to Olvarria and Tandil. It was a  great! It is a pretty drive with blue sky, green grass, pretty sunshine and 17 million cows. I feel quite comfortable. I saw Elder Yost and that was nice.

Brian Williams-Thank you so much for your letter. It meant so much to me and it is a great treasure. I am thrilled to hear that your family is doing so well. Have a great week and thanks so much for your wonderful example. I love you all and thank you so much for your prayers. Hope Jerome´s Bball team is looking good this year. Thank you for taking the time to write to me.

I am also thrilled to hear that the temple open house is going well Grandma and Grandpa Clegg. I hopé that you enjoy such a special time. What a wonderful blessing!

Last week was a great week.... Actually even though I had a surprise trip to Mar Del Plata on Tuesday and Wednesday to do zone conferences up there because the Elder Gravelle, the other assistant, wasn't feeling very well... we had some great success in the area. We found this awesome and really sweet couple Jaun Carlos and Ana. They have four kids that are doing really well. They are thinking baptism and are really good people. I love talking to good people... it make me so happy. Also we are working with a less active family that have a brother in law who is not a memeber...well they are not married... but that doesnt stop us. I am excited I have a lot more desire to work in my area and  that is what makes me most happy. This office stuff is not my style, but I love it, and am grateful to learn that now. And I am learning so much and don´t want to sound ungrateful at all. It such a blessing to serve so many missionaries. On Friday we go to Santa Rosa to give the last Zone Conference.  This week is also transfers and so Sunday- Tuesday will be crazy but I love transfers and seeing the Elders leave... and the new energy of the missionaries. I think we are receiving some from Colorado... I am not sure what mission, but I will sure ask them if they know Elder H. Clegg!!

I hit a a wrong key and half of the email that I wrote just got erased.... haha. So I will try to put it in next week.

Mom and Dad- I am glad you enjoyed the time at the fish and that you are doing well. It is a lot of work to get moved out and all of the vehicles out. Good luck teaching seminary Mom those two days.  I love you both so much and thank you for your great letters. Have a wonderful week and thanks for your prayers.

Mikesell- I am glad you are so doing well and enjoying school. Keep hitting the books hard and enjoying your many dates. I love you sis. Keep being a capa.

Brennen- I am so glad you will be getting your license this week or so. That is wonderful. Enjoy it and I hope that baball goes well. Tell Coach Messick hello for me. I love you bro.

Alex- I expect a report on your stats every week. I love you buddy and amd glad you are doing well. Keep being the real deal.

Harrison-  I love you little man, I am glad that you are so happy and doing so well. Have a great week and remember that I love you more than anything.

McCall- You are Harrison looked so great out there on the docks. You are so tall. I hope that you have a wonderful week. Happy Halloween. What are you going to be this year?

Well I love you all so very much. I am so grateful for prayer and the power that it brings us. Keep doing miracles there in JTown....


All my love,

Elder Austin

Good Morning to the best family in the world!

I am going to be outside the office this morning and tomorrow helping the Elder who is charge of the housing deliver microwaves and some other items throughout the mission. I will really try to write sometime today, but if not I will write on Wednesday.

I saw about Shalice's baby.... please send my deepest love to her and Trevor and the family. What a blessing the Gospel is. The Atonement will carry them through this very difficult experience. So glad you could go to the funeral Dad, Brennen, and Alex. Family is everything!

 I have had a great week. This week is transfers and so it will be a busy one. The mission is the greatest blessing of my life.

 I love you all so much. Thank you for your prayers and your great example.
Alma 11:9-11
D&C 82:3

Yesterday was Mothers Day here. I am so grateful for you Mom, Grandma Daw, Grandma Crouch and Grandma Clegg. Some of the most amazing women on planet earth.

Have a wonderful Monday and know that I love you all so much. I love our Savior and Heavenly Father. Keep being good examples!

I will talk to you soon.

All my love,

Elder Austin

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for your letters. I really enjoyed the emails from Papa Arlen and Grandma Crouch and also from Grandma Clegg. Thank you so much for taking the time to write and for your prayers.

Sounds like you are all had a wonderful week and that it has been a beautiful fall. I am glad that the closing of Redfish was smooth and that you will be all under the same roof here very soon. I bet Mikesell just loved her time at home and I am sure that was a very good weekend for you all. That is so great.

This week was a truly wonderful week. I have been spirtually fed to the max. With General Conference last weekend and then listening to and particpating in four zone conferences in the week... I am super pumped to be back in my area and apply more of what I learned. I feel a little more focused in my area and and super excited. I met a whole bunch of new Elders. I got to see Elder Yost - he is doing wonderful. He had a baptism yesterday and will baptize next week also. His zone leader told me that it is impossible to not love that kid. He is right. Elder Gravelle and I were able to be with President and Hermana all week and we both got our fair share of driving in. It was wonderful to see some more of the mission. I can not tell you how much field there is with cattle. It is insane. It makes Idaho looks like nothing. It just is flat pasture forever in all directions. We went to to only mountious part of the mission in Tandil and is was pretty there. I learned so much from President and Hermana. They are such wonderful people and I am so blessed to learn from them. The conferences went well and it was fun. We slept in the car one night and in the zone leaders houses the other nights. Our mission has so many great elders. The focus of the zone conference, that we focused on was based on planning and setting goals and using time wisely. President talked about the importance of following the spirit and working with members. Hermana, she is a trained motivational speaker, I am sure. She talked about dreams and her dreams to baptize thousands in the mission...and she is serious. We are working our tails off to baptize 1000 this year. It is reachable but everyone in the mission has to baptize instead of only the same handful that are baptizing. Mosty, we need to become the type of Elders that can baptize every week in the mission. DESIRE.
A very spritual experence that I had was the oppurtunity to visit the Peñalva family and Estefenia Gomez in Nechochea and see a less active family that is coming to church now and the District President. The Peñalva family is struggling, we all cried and they were very shocked when they realised that it was me knocking their door. They havn't been very active in the church and that has been hard for me. Member help is so essential in missionary work. We had a good lesson and I did all that I could do to help them. I hope they start coming again. They are so close to breaking through. Please remember them in your prayers. I am super grateful for the families that stay active in the church after baptisim. It is not a easy thing. I invite you to visit and establish relationships with any new converts in the ward.  Estefenia is doing great - she is growing in the gospel and her sister is going to church everyweek. A missionary got back to our ward yesterday he is doing well. I am not going to lie, that adjustment looks really tough. Not going to think about it.Lots of miracles happened and it was a great week. Betty will getting married within the month and she is super happy. We had a new investigator Fabian in chruch who had a really great experience. He is great and we have a lesson with a member tonight with him. The ward is great here, we have built a good relationships with them and I love them all. There is a family in our ward that has ten kids, they are all married and grown up all our active, bishops, high coucil members, but the father is inactive. I watched as the 8 brothers blessed a baby yesterday and was so grateful for the power of the priesthood and BROTHERHOOD in our lives. I love the relations of brothers. I am grateful Dad, for your example of that with your brothers.....and the love that I have for Brennen, Alex and Harrison. You are studs and I love you.

Dad- Thanks for your great email. I am praying like crazy for the States. Oh man it is so huge what is happening. I think it is a blessing I am not there becuase I would be going crazy. Keep mentally sain and I will be praying for you. Tell Art and Jane hello for me. I am glad that the Fall has been smooth. I love you Dad. Thanks for you great example. Keep winning.

Mom- I am so sorry I forgot to tell you last week that I did recieve the package... with all of the traveling it slipped my mind. Thank you so much!! I loved the pictures and thank you for your thoughtfulness. I love you. What was your favortie GC talk? I am glad you enjoyed teaching seminary. I am sure you influenced and inspired many kids....you always do!!!  I love you....

Mikesell- It is so great to go home your first time. I went to Muldoon the first time. That was good stuff. It is hard to drive away but you fill refreshed and ready to attack it again. I love you so much Mikes, thanks for your photo. That was great. ha ha. I imagine you all grown up and a college woman. Keep loving it and doing good things. Thanks for being the best sister ever. I love you.

Brennen- Hey stud. How is those jumping stilts going? Are you gettting pumped for bball? How is your team looking this year? Will your coach be Mr. Sharp? That will be a great year!  I love you Brother. Thanks for being awesome. Keep strong and active. Have fun  at Sadies. Don't make too many girls cry. I am excited for you to be a Priest and we can bless the sacrament together up at Stanley. Love you Bro.

Alex- Hey my man, third place huh? atta boy. This morning we ran to our Bishops gym and worked out and we are going to start doing that more....it felt really good. I love you Alex. Keep being a great kid. Exceed your vision. Love you man!

Harrison- How are you buddy. I sure love you. how is summit? Sounds like you are making some great friends. Harrison the friends that you make are so important....the most important thing...so choose buddies that do good things and do excellent things. I love you buddy!! Keep up the good work.

McCall- Hey there toothless, just like that dragon. I love you Cally and keep being a excellent girl. I love you more than you know.Keep being wonderful. You are beautiful!


I read in Moroni 10: 30-34 this week and I loved it.

LOVE CHRIST WITH ALL YOUR HEART, MIGHT, MIND, AND STRENGTH=
BE PERFECTED BY HIS GRACE.


May Heavens richest blessing be yours and know how much I love you and pray for you.

Keep on the sunny side and enjoy the Fall!!

Love,

Elder Austin

Let the mission madness begin... I am super excited and I can feel the excitement down here from up there, well and the members here are also really excited too!!

Grandma Clegg- Thank you for you email and for your prayers. I am excited for the experiences that you will have and are going to have during the course of the temple. I love you and please send lots of love to Grandpa and Uncle Alan and dont worry...I will bring you home a whole suitcase of Christmas Ornaments if you would like. I have been and will be keeping my eye out.

  

Well I am writing from a town called Trenque Lauquen.It is about four hours away from Bahia Blanca. President just finished all of the interviews with the zone and now tomorrow we have the conference and then tomorrow we go to Olvarria and then to Tandil and then to Necochea and then we come back to Bahia this Saturday. It is a busy week!
Last week was a great week,
I am trying tp peice it together in my head and it was a normal week. Had to be in the office alot because my comp left to a zone conference but I left and did splits with a member that is preparing to leave to go on a mission now. It was a good week. We dropped Luis Torres and family, or we got really honest with them and told them what they were going to miss...and he explained how he was comfortable in his church and didnt want to change.   Good ole Agency!!! I am excited for this week and amd getting to know alot more missionaries and am really glad for that. Dad, thanks for your great advice and thoughts on that.

Dad- Thanks so much for your letter this week. I loved it. It has been a adjusment for me to be in the office, but it has helped me learn that a career with not so much office-ness would be something that would make me happer. I love to be out with the people. But I am so grateful for this time and the number of people that I can serve the realm has increased greatly and I am super grateful for that! Thanks for the update on the debate. I almost started crying I was laughing so hard when I read what Glenn Beck said. I thought the General conference talks were so great. I really liked the Elder Eyrings talk about expecting the will of God. Elder Hollands power house and really all of them. I felt like they were are really clear and left us with desire to act.  The message is so clear. My ten questions were answered and then some. Thanks for your advice about thoughts.  It is so important, and something that I need to watch even more in the office. I am so grateful for mission rules that protect us. Have a great week and thanks for sharing your love for Mom. I think she is pretty special also. We both got pretty lucky!! I love you Dad. Have a great week. Shout at the tv for me during a debate.

Mom- Thanks so much for sending a camera... I am sure BYU and Provo is a mad house with all the girls wanting to leave. The sisters in this mission are such studs and the church is going to grow a ton now. I am pumped. We have decided that the BYU campus will be pretty empty on the female side the first  year that we get back, and really it is wonderful. I am glad that the end of the year employee slide show went well and that the season ended well. So many great people. I get giddy with all the missionary oppurtunites that I am going to have when I get back. I want to get the missionaries teaching at least three employees. Mom -I love you so much!! This Sunday is Mothers Day here in Argentina. I will be thinking of you and Grandma Crouch and Clegg. Thank you for sharing that sweet story about Ben and Katie. I was thinking about them during conference. Send my love to them. You are the best Mom. Have a great week and thank you for your prayers. . Oh and I was able to see Preisthood and it was absoulty wonderful!!

  

Mikesell- You were the first one I thought of obviously when the annoucmnt came out. Dad´s advice is great. Think, pray, you got time. You know how I feel about the mission. I am glad to hear you got to run so well, and that you love your roommates. I formed bonds with my Freshman floor that can never be broken. I love those men. You will form life long friendships and it is so great to have so much time with cousins and wonderful aunts and auncles. I love you Mikes. I will be praying for you like always. Thanks for being incredible and such a wonderful example. Have fun and keep studying hard!!

Brennen- I sent your letter on Tuesday last week and so it should be getting there this week I think. When is Sadies? Brennen, keep being a stripling warrior. The war is getting thicker and you can't mess with the gray brother. Stick to the rod. I love you so much Brennen. You are such a great example to me. Keep jumping--- Do you have a Preach my Gospel? I would recomend that you study chapter 3 a little. It will help you do the basics. We will practice teaching also. I love you man. BE A STUD!

Alex- Hey stud. 4th place! Great work. How is your legs feelings? How is BYU football? I love you buddy. How is school? How is your reading in the Book of Mormon. I challenge you to finish it before I get back. Where are you at in it? I love you Alex. A ton. Keep being great. You have an ability to lead that is incredable. People follow you because you have a natural sense of energy and I know that you are going to do a ton of good things in the world.

Harrison- Thanks so much for writing. I am glad that you are doing well. I love you!! Are you excited to have Dad in Jerome with you soon? That was a huge rat in the picture Mom sent. I hope you can learn your mulitcaptions good. Tom from Redfish will really like Argentina. I love you Harrison! Keep being a "Grande"

McCall- It looks like that rat could eat more than just your Barbies nose! I am glad that you are happy I love you and miss you. I hope that you are making lots of great freinds and doing great things. I sure appreciate you and I hope that you know how much I love you. Keep being awesome and growing a ton!!! Handshake!!

Well I really like the scripture I read in Mosiah 5 2- 5 this week. Talks about the importance of the Holy Ghost in our lives to helps us to reopent and and change and repentance gives us VISION.

I love each of you with all my heart and I feel and am really grateful for your prayers every day. I'll keep trying to be the missionary that you all think that I am.

All my love,

Elder Austin

Querido Familia,

There literally is nothing in the world that makes me more happy every week other than to read your emails and feel of your spirit. Even though we haven’t seen each other for a good bit, I feel like our relationship has grown. What a blessing and I love you all so much!

Grandma Clegg- Thank you so much for sharing that wonderful experience with me. I love you.

This week has been spectacular. There have been so many miracles in the area and in the office. Really, the most important thing is the area, because I need to set an example, or else the words that I speak don´t have much meaning.

We just finished the zone conference here in Bahia Blanca with my zone and another zone it was the first of the month. Next week I will be out of town all week with President and Hermana and Elder Gravelle to visit the zones Tandil, Pehajo, Olavarria, and Necochea. That will be great. The zone conference went well and we were super blessed.  We were blessed this week to be able to find some great investigators. We found a man named Gabriel on Saturday and yesterday him and his daughter went to church. He is the brother of Luis Torres, the man who is now visiting his Evaneglico church actively, but we are working with him. I had some great experiences with the Familia Parreño and we talked a lot about the focus of the zone conferences. We are trying to reach the goal of 1000 baptisms in the year and if we  put in the last push we can make it. I am so pumped and want it as a mission so bad. We had a FHE with the Hermano Moran and the familia Parreño and another family from our ward. That was really great. He is coming along. It is more of a process with him. I have a lot of faith and vision in him and I know that he can do it if he lets the spirit work with him.  I received a letter from the family Garcia this week that Sergio has received the Aaronic Priesthood and they are doing well. That is the best. I have lost my camera, and I am sad about that. It fell from my pocket in the taxi and, well, it would be very rare for someone to return it to the company. I have called them several times. If there is an old camera laying around in the house that you could send I would appreciate it. The cameras here are super expensive, DO NOT BUY A CAMERA and if there is not a spare one, I can just download the photos of other missionaries on my sd cards.  Hermana Parreno takes a ton of pictures and she said that she would give me them also. So I am all good. I feel good, I am adjusting better to the office and learning how to make better use of my time in the area.  Mom. I think this week I will be receiving the package. 

Dad- Sounds like you are enjoying your time in Jerome. I am glad that you are getting to spend some time with the crew. I also am super excited for General Conference. I have written down ten questions that I would like to have answered. I did it last session and it was really cool how they were answered. I hope that you get to see a lot and that is a great experience for you. Thanks for your email. I love you Dad. Have a great week. 

Mom- I got talking about desire with President and Hermana Parreño this week and I sent them a copy of some of the letter from Papa about desire. They loved it. We are talking about the use of time and planning and accountability in our presentation. It is great. Thanks for your scripture last week. That is one of my favorites. It sounds like you are doing well and thanks for all the updates. I hope that you know how much I love you. You are the best ever. Have a wonderful week and I am thrilled that you are using my room for your photo album project. That sunlight is the best. Papa told me that would be the best room… I took his advice and I think that he is right. I love you Mom. Have a great week.

Mikesell- Sounds like you had an excellent week and I am excited for your meet you will be going home here in a couple weeks to visit… that sounds good! I am glad that you are liking your ward. Be looking for a good place to like next year. We will see what happens. I love you Mikesell!! I  liked your picture of the moon. I love you Mikesell!! Keep growing spiritually and doing all of those great things that you are doing. I love you.

Brennen- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I have your letter written and ready to send tomorrow. I don´t know if it will arrive on time…I don’t think so. But I will be thinking about you and I hope that you have a wonderful day. Sixteen…. sounds like you got the dates lined up by being asked to Sadies by a girl. Atta boy! Thank for being great example Brennen. I love you.

Alex- Thanks for your email buddy. I sure love you! I miss you. How is XC? Broken 5 min mile yet? Are you excited to start going to church in Jerome? I am sure that you are. Add an hour to that church block can be rough coming from Stanley’s two hours. I love you Alex. Thanks for being my best friend and my brother. Keep to the rod.

Harrison- YEAH MAN! How are you? Are you liking school? I hope so. What is your favorite thing to learn about? Are you excited for the treasure hunt at the end of this week? I love you Harrison. Keep being great!!

McCall- I was thinking about how cute you are! I hope that you are having a wonderful week. Are you learning a lot in school? I love you Cally!

I invite you all to look up the new Mormon Message that talks from Elder Christofferson on trials.  Also the talk by Spencer W. Kimball called Jesus the Perfect Leader. He actually gave it in Sun Valley. Also the scripture in Proverbs 15: 31-32. I was thinking this week how some of the greatest blessing we receive are trials. I am grateful and humble to be here in the mission. There is nothing better and I have never been happier. I love the Gospel, I love my Savior, and I have a vision of what my purpose here is. I love you all and am grateful to be able to pray for all of you. Thank you for your prayers. Have a wonderful week. Thanks for all being amazing and great examples of Christ.

Love,

Elder Austin

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