November 27, 2011

Letters received from:

Bishop Prince- Thank you so much!!  Your letters always inspire me. I love you Bishop. You are the man. You are in my prayers and I hope that all is well. Thank you for writing!

Mikesell- Thank you so much....loved it so much!

Papa-  Thank you so much for the Dear Elder. As always I learn so much from your letters. I loved reading your journal entry on your birthday. I love you Papa and Grandma. Thank you for taking the time to write. I cherish your letters.

The Packages!  Thank you so very much!!  Everything made it great and I have just loved listening to music in the house. Thank you for the card, the pictures... everything. It was very thoughtful like always.  

Emails:

Dad, Mom, Mikesell, Brennen, Alex, McCall

Grandma Clegg- So sweet to hear about Thanksgiving and the investigator in your ward. I loved it! I love you both very much.

Bryan Harper- Thank you so much for the email man!   It meant so much to me. It was so great to hear from you. I am glad to hear you are staying busy and working hard with school. Keep at it brother. I hope that all of your family is doing really well. You are the Man!!

 Thank you all so much for your support, prayers, and love.

It was another great week. We had a lot in success in finding this week. We found 21 new investigators. (There is a story behind this…. Austin sent Jeff an email saying there was a break in / murder of a young boy when he was home alone and the burglars stole a computer. The town is in an uproar about it all and are seeking peace and answers. Thus they are anxious to talk to missionaries this week. When Austin was in the MTC they told the missionaries “tell your Dad the freak out things…not your Mom”…haha… I believe it… but am doing fine.  This was 10 blocks away from him. I found this newsclip of it. Where each of us all live isn’t much better!?  However,  the news clip kinda freaked me out a little I will admit it.)    http://www.ntn24.com/news/videos/angry-mob-riots-miramar-argentina-over-local-murder-case-7765

I sure hope that at least some of those will come to church and we can progress a little. I would think that at least some of them would. I would prefer quality over quantity.  Jose did not come to church this week and we have not been able to get hold of him as of today. Hopefully we will tonight. I know he has felt it, he knows what is right, and now it is in his court. It is really hard. We will pray and work for the best. Trinidad story is even sadder. She is now moving and does not want to be baptized basically  for fear of not be able to keep the commandments. She comes from a really sad home. We had a lesson with our Branch President with her and  afterward the meeting he told us to pretty much “drop it and let it go”. That was hard. We know that baptism is the thing for her. We are going to try and send the missionaries in Buenos Aires to her house when she moves there. Possibly a miracle will occur and she will have a change of heart.  Amidst all that it was a refining week. I have had the goal  for the last several weeks to really try and open my mouth more, at least five time a day. Even when my first thought I don’t want to talk to them or I can not talk to them. It has been amazing what has happened. Heavenly Father really blesses you when you get out of your comfort zone. There was a baptisim in our Branch of a little girl whom they had lost her baptism records. So she was baptized again. We were in charge of organizing it and it went well. It was a good time. Our branch doesn’t have many activities which is a problem… so it was good to have it. Dad - you asked how are members are in helping.  Quite frankly there is not a single completely active family in our branch so it is hard to have the church feel like a happy loving place. It really is another hurdle to go. But we are working on reactivating families and all that. The Branch Presidents wife has not come to church since I got here. It would be nice to get some more families. I know we would have more baptisms if the members lived what we teach in lessons. But I can not worry about them. We just do our best. I try and take accountability for it and not use it as an excuse.  

One fun story that happened this week is that we were walking this dirt road and I turned to my comp and asked him if he wanted to find two new investigators. He of course said “yes” so I said lets knock on this house. Turns out we found a kid named “Franco” who is ten years old who was baptized in Buenos Aires a year ago and then his family moved. His family has hard hearts but we were able to teach them and it really was miracle that we were able to find them.  I testify that Heavenly Father answers your prayers every time, in His time. Some other good news is that with transfers this last week my roommate from the MTC is now in my district. Elder Patterson is his name. I am so happy and it really is a tender mercy .He was one of my best friends in the MTC. I am really excited for that. He is from St George. 

This week I learned a lot about charity. I keep thinking how in order to be better missionary I need to have a more love for people and really let that be my motive for everything. I have been reading about Captain Moronia and I realized what it means to really put your whole mind and strength into a cause. I want to get there as a missionary and just loose it for this work and change. I am just a normal person and I need to become more to represent the tag that I have on my chest.   It is all about overcoming your fears and weaknesses and it is not easy and it takes work.  D&C 12: 8 and   D&C 19: 18 are my scriptures for this week. 

The pictures:

1.)  Of our church. 

 2.) Trinidad and our Branch President.

 3.)  A rather funny bag of chips at the baptism 

4.) One of the Hermanas who gives us lunch every Wednesday.

    

Yeah as you said Mom - Thanksgiving does not exist here in the slightest. I was going to send you a picture of our Thanksgiving but I didn’t want to make you all cry. Ha-ha just kidding!  We had pasta, just like every day. Thank you for those cooking ideas Mom!   

Dad- Sounds like you had a great week. Thank you for your letter. I loved what you said about gratitude and prayers and I will do it.   I can’t  believe you found your keys. What a crazy story! That is my Dad. I love it. Sounds like Redfish has a lot of snow already up there. That is great. I hope that you have a great week Dad. Thank you for all that you do. Know you are in my prayers. Your the Man!!

Mom- Thank you for the pictures and everything in the package. I really enjoyed it.   I will look forward to reading your letter. Oh yeah, I was wondering what time would be good for me to call on the 25^th?  I think with the time change I am either 4 or 5 hours ahead of you. So I think if I called like at 1 that would be at 8 your time. We have church until 12:30 here. But let me know what is good for you.  Are you hoping to go to Muldoon? Thank you so much for the package. I have loved having music, pillow, and vitamins. Little things that don’t matter but it actually has been nice. Thank you for your thoughtfulness. I love you so much Mom. I miss you and hope that all is well. Look forward to reading your entire letter. You are in my prayers.  Thank you so much.

Mikesell- Sounds like it is raining men for you!  ha-ha.  You will know what to do as far as college things go. Don’t worry.  I will keep praying for you. Virgina is far... we will see what happens! huh. I am with Mom on this one. I want my sister close. Don’t worry too much about it. You will know what to do and do what you feel is right, talk with Mom and Dad. Good work on your Physics! Are you doing the second trimester of it too?  Nordy is a hard nose with the 79% or 89% grades. It is good…it is like college. I love you Mikesell. Keep it up! You are my hero. Keep enjoying your days!! Love you Sis.

  

Brennen- Hey Stud...  Big game day on Wednesday! I love the Buhl first game. You are always the most nervous and it is just fun.  Play hard, be loose and just put into practice what you have learned. Thank you so much of your emails. I sure love you. Keep being awesome. Do you have Seminary now? You will love it! Mom says you are working on a really awesome song on the piano for the Stanley Christmas program. You got the gift!

Alex- Hey pretty cool calling my man! I am sure they have talked about the importance of that particular calling. You will learn a lot. Take is seriously and do your best. What a blessing. You are a stud man. Good work on your team. Keep it up. Thank you for writing. It meant a lot.  The church is true! I love you. Keep up the great work! How were your grades last trimester?

 Harrison - I loved the picture you sent in the package Harrison!! It was so great. I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving. I miss you!!  Are you going to have a Christmas chain this year? When does “Elfy” come out? That is such a fun part of December to see where he is at each morning.   I love you Harrison!

McCall- Thank you so much for your email. You looked so cute in your dress in the picture Mom sent. What a princess. Mom said you got your haircut!  I hope that all is well. I love you McCall. I am excited than you are learning to read and am enjoying school. Practicing our handshake!? Don’t forget how to do it! I love you.

Well all. Sorry for the mountain of typos - this key board is a little frustrating.  It keeps sticking. I love you all so much.  Thank you for your prayers. I can do so much better, but am very grateful for everyday for the opportunity to be a missionary. It is a very growing time. 

I love you all.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Love your brother and son,

Elder Austin                                                                                                                                                                                                        

November 21, 2011

Emails:

Amy Ellsworth- Congrats on your call!!! Ohio Cleveland Mission!! Kirtland Visitors Center is awesome!!How exciting!!!  Scott Maughan´s sister is in that same mission! I will drop you a letter here soon.

Grandma Clegg- Thank you so much for your words of support and for sharing how things are going. I hope that all is well and thank you for your prayers.

Lindsay Hayes- Thank you so much for the letter. I sent you a letter but with the address thing I don’t know if you will get it. I’ll try again…

Letters from the Faithful Family:

Dad

Mom

Mikesell

Brennen

¿Que Tal?

Hello the people that I love the most. From what I have read it sounds like everyone is doing really well.  Another busy but great week it sounds like! Que bueno!

This last week has been really good.

We really grew our relationship with Branch numbers this week and that was good. The disappointing thing was that we worked really hard to get investigators to church and we had success. We had 6 investigators at church on Sunday!  However, there were only 25 people there with those six investigators. That was a little disappointing.  The meeting was really good still and it all worked out ok. We taught a class, blessed the sacrament, and then gave talks. It was a good experience. I am amazed at how the lessons in church always seem to apply themselves to the investigators. The promised blessing of going to church is real.

Jose accepted a baptismal date for the third of December. We have set dates with him several times but this time was different. When he accepted the first thought that came to my head was... wow my family really must be praying for him too... He seems to be progressing and was at church this week. Keep praying and I will work harder.

Trinidad also has a date set for the 3rd of December. Her family has some problems but hopefully she can lead out and they will follow.

The miracle of the week was that we had a family of four come to church Daniel and Sonya. We found them six weeks ago but they have not been coming to church. This week they did. I love this family and I want them in the water bad. We have not asked the ¨Are you married¨" yet and knowing what I know of Argentina, I am going to guess not. But we can hope they don’t need to be divorced to anyone else and that they can get married quickly. That is the investigator report. We had more success this week but I still have this hunger for baptism and seeing the change come in someones life. Please pray that I will have greater desires to give of myself and work harder to be a more "fluent" missionary with my language skills. I can understand pretty much everything within a lesson setting. They just can’t really understand me.

So we -boy oh boy - did we have a zone conference this week!! I am still shaking with a little bit of fear. But before I talk about that I want to talk about another little thing that happened.

Things that touch my heart:

Thursday night I was on Divisions with our zone leader, Elder Carlico.  I am going to spoil something for you Dad but I found this guy who makes home made shoes. I had asked him to make me some about a month ago. I got them praying that I would be able to give them to you Dad and also to be honest as a backup if my shoes don’t make it. But I think they will. So I was in the same area with a different zone leader and we went to contact a family who was getting in a car….turns out they were members. But then a man calls out ¨Elder” from across the street. It was the man who makes the shoes. I hadn’t noticed that we were in front of his house. So we came in and he gave me the shoes and  we went on contacting. We had appointment with a less active member right after and we had a great lesson. There was a young man there - about 17 or 18 years old and you could tell he was struggling. He has 4 sisters and an angel Mom and no Father. They didn’t know what was in the bag I had but for some reason we found out his shoe size was the same as yours and mine Dad. I still did not say anything about the shoes. We had a great lesson and they sang us a primary Hymn on the guitar for the closing Hymn. The Mother asked the young man to say the closing prayer but he said no. The Mother said the prayer and then we left. We got about one ten steps down the street and I told my companion we had to go back. We called this young mans name out... his name is Yvonne and I gave him the shoes and told him to prepare for the mission with some directness. I don’t know why I did.. I just felt like that was the right thing to do. The thought came through my mind “Dad would want me to give them to him". He was really excited and lit up a little though all this. We then left and Elder Calrico said ¨How did you know he needed church shoes?¨ I told him that I really didn’t know if he did or not… I just kind of figured he didn’t. He then told me that Yvonne had come to church last week with shoes that were really beat up and embarrassing. I hope you can make sense of this story. I am not here to help out people temporally which I realize. I am here to baptize…. but I think Heavenly Father gives us opportunities to learn and to test us. SO Dad… know your pair of Christmas shoes is on the feet of a future missionary in Mar del Plata Argentina. I don’t tell you this story to brag or prideful but rather to teach that it killed me to watch the love this Mother had for her son and to watch him just sit there and be selfish. He owes her and his Heavenly Father more.

And so do I....which leads me to my Zone conference experience:

We had the great opportunities to hear from Elder Aidukatius, a member of the Seventy. It was humbling beyond belief. They pulled up the stats of our zones baptisms and they were not good for the last 5 months. He asked us to stand up and proceeded to give us a Christ-like Coach Krum chastening. I was sitting in the front row and he asked me a couple of questions. I just prayed I understood him right and tried to answer right. Oh man - it was so intense.  I am still shaking a little. Needless to say that is why I titled this letter “repentance”. Because that is what I really need. I am not living up to my potential as a missionary right now. I am very grateful for all that I have and I know that I will be blessed with success as I just put forth that extra effort. I know that if I continue to be obedient we will see some baptisms this December. That has to be my main focus.

Dad- Thank you for your letter.  I look forward to reading it later this evening. How is your preparation for the Christmas party coming? I hope that you have a great time in Boise on Thursday and then Muldoon. I will never forget that time we stopped and looked at the stars. I feel that day like yesterday. Please send my love to Uncle Alan and family... they are in my prayers. And of course to Grandma and Grandpa Clegg and Papa and Grandma Crouch. What you said about some people here not liking the United States is true. I am excited to share stories with you one day about that. I don’t have the time to say them all in this email each week.  Love you Dad so much. You the man!  Oh this week was amazing  - I heard “Every tear drop is a waterfall” in its entirety on our taxi ride to Zone Conference and then “Speed of Sound” later haha. A tender mercy. I think Heavenly Father really does have a sense of humor. Dad - you are one of the most thoughtful people I know.

Mom--

Hello you Angel! Well good news... Your packages are sitting in the zone leader’s house and I will get them tomorrow. They called and told me... they were nice. I am hoping Mikesell´s letter is there also. Thank you so much. I will let you know the details next week. Sounds like you had a good week. Thank you so much for your encouraging words, journal entry, and everything. It really means so much and is a great strength to me. I love you very much. I feel your prayers. This week I figured out how to go running with my comp. We have a park right next door and so sits and he reads on a bench while I run circles around him. It has helped me have more enthusiasm and I feel better. The water is fine here... most of the time…? So far so good. I will use good judgment. Thanks for everything Mom. Have a great Thanksgiving. It doesn’t feel like Christmas at here. There is Papa Noel stuff up but it is not right. It helps with the homesickness though. I love you Mom. Thank you for your thoughts on Gratitude. It truly is a power that cannot be stopped.

Mikesell-

Hey there dancer lady.... sounds like you had a great time with Spencer at Sadies. He is great. I am glad you asked him. Don’t worry the stuff you forget to tell me usually gets covered in Mom’s journal… so I have a heads up. J Good luck with all your tests and enjoy your Thanksgiving break. I love you Mikesell. Thank you so much for your letter. You are such an inspiration for me. Have a great week. You are unbeatable!  Keep the faith. Do you have seminary next tri? Have fun and   keep enjoying your senior year.

Brennen-

Sounds like we both spoke yesterday! That is great. Honesty is such an important principle. How was your first week of real practice for Basketball? Keep working hard! When is your first game? My companion is doing really good thanks. He goes home in April. We are getting better and we are working together. I am learning how to be a better ¨helper” for him.  I love you so much. _Have a great Thanksgiving. I am excited to hear what songs you  put on the Ipod. Thanks for everything man. I love you so much. Have a great week . Thank you for your example. Keep being awesome!!

Alex -

Hey man! Sounds like you did awesome at your tourney in Boise. What a stud!! You would be more studly if your dropped me a email with your stats at least. I want to hear how life is going for you man. I love you Buddy. Have a great week this week and enjoy Thanksgiving. I miss you man! Keep being a great stud and example for your siblings. I love you man. Be your best Alex!

Harrison-

Hey man. How are you? I miss you. How are all of your friends and school? Have you made any turkey hands? I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving Harrison. Keep being the energetic awesome person you are. You are such a good person. I love you so much.

McCall- It sounds like you might be able to read this letter on your very own here soon. Congratulations you smart little whippersnapper. (bet she can’t read that word)  I love you so much Callie. Have a great Thanksgiving and remember I love you. We have so much to be grateful for. 

Well everyone! I love you each so much. Have a great Thanksgiving! I will be there with you in Spirit! I promise you all to keep working and do so harder. Tell Amy Congrats on her mission call!

Have a great week. Tell the entire family hello.

November 14, 2011

 

Oh how my love this hour that I have to write and hear form the people that I love so much!   It means so much to me.

Emails:

Dad

Mom

Mikesell

Brennen

Alex

Grandma Clegg

Thank you all so very much!!  I have skimmed them a little and look forward to reading them in their entirety tonight!

Well this week was another good week. It started out a little bumpy just because we were having a hard time reaching our goals every day but towards the end we were able to re-focus and have more success. We got an email from our Mission President today and apparently Elder Christofferson was here this week sometime and there has been a change in the way we do our transfers. Apparently we will now be in the same area for 6 to 9 months with the same companion for an average of three transfers. So I may be getting to know Miramar quite well. That does me good because I want to be successful here and baptize this place like crazy. This week was a good week though. I prayed for each of you a lot... I will talk about that later. On Friday we had a emergency transfer in our zone and our zone leader was sent to Bahia Blanca to be the missionary in charge of all the houses. We have a new zone leader who actually is one of my best ¨Missionary Friends¨.  It was hard to say good by to our old Zone Leader because he has really taught me so much.

We had a good week with one investigator named Trinidad. She is 14 and wants to be baptized but has lots of doubts because of her family has been baptized and has fallen away from the church and she doesn’t want to follow in their steps. I am glad that she understands what a covenant is and what it means to her. She comes from a pretty broken home. We are trying to get her Mom divorced and then remarried again. She has some issues but the Dad is a good guy. It could be quite a process for the family.

As for my man Jose... I am a little worried... We are trying to get him to receive an answer and have those spiritual experiences. He believes in the feelings he is having and  that things are true. He believes that all good things are of God. All of which is true....We just need to get him to understand why he needs to be baptized again. (Catholic).

We also found some other investigators with potential.  I want to baptize so bad and see that conversion in a person... but I know that this is a work that relies on agency. I just need to let these people be touched by the spirit and trust that the rest will work out.

Good week over all... This week we have Zone Conference and it will be my first. I am really excited to learn how to be more effective and bust it more everyday. The way to be happy out here is to work your tail off. I have made a goal to open my mouth fives times a day when my first thought is to stay quiet.

Well... Life is great here. My scripture thought of the week is in Alma 41:15.  Mom this is the “Law of Attraction” scripture of the century. I have thought a lot about vision and what it means to have goals and work to achieve them. I am trying to get a vision of who I want to be when I step off that plane and run to you all in the summer of 2013. I really am so grateful for every day and I know that Heavenly Father has His eye on each of you.

Dad-First off thank you so much for your email. I look forward to reading it in much more detail. What blessing you are to so many. Sounds like your talk went well and your lesson too! Isn’t Preach my Gospel the best? Someone told me here that our Mission President said that if the missionaries would live every principle in the book we could baptize like Alma and the Sons of Mosiah... interesting huh? I am glad all things with Redfish are going well. Sounds like winter is hitting hard... It has been hot here. It is very humid and you get soaking wet with sweat. It is going to be an awesome summer hahaha. It does not feel like Christmas or Thanksgiving at all really. Totally different feeling in the air. Well Dad I love you so much. Thank you so much for your prayers. I pray with energy for you. I hope that you have a wonderful week. Hey one non missionary question. How is he election looking? I can not tell you how much my love for the United States has grown. The average citizen in the US has no idea how much the world looks to us.  Our country has to be the example in keeping the commandments... We are strong because of our families. Love you Pops!  CHOU!

Mom- I love you so much. Thank you for your letter. That is funny what you said about sensing how I am doing.  I feel like I can feel the same with you all. To answer some of your questions: They drink a lot of Kool Aid type stuff here but soda is really popular. Tang is the most popular drink besides Mate. There is so much pastry, bread type stuff that seems to be the mainstay here.  I am getting better at cooking. It is really expensive to buy healthy. I have though about what Dad said he used to eat all the time with rice. Tomato sauce and eggs and cheese. Yep.. Thats how is goes!  I eat a lot of oranges and try to just eat as healthy as I can. It is lot of carbs, but all is well. That idea with the sheets actually would be great. (sew two sheets together as an insert for his sleeping bag so he could have clean sheets to sleep in!) I think you are freakishly able to discern people’s needs. It really is not human. (Haha).  My shoes and everything else are holding up well. I am planning on washing my sleeping bag here by hand next week or something. I want it to be hot so it will dry fast. But it is not a big deal. It is going to be really hot soon and I am pretty sure I will not be wanting anything. It is very humid. I am not expecting the package until next week the Elders say it takes a good month at the very least. I can send stuff quicker to you but once it gets here they have to bus it to our zone... the zone leaders pick it up once a week and so it is just kind of a slow process. Don’t worry though I am living the dream and doing great. I hope those pictures I sent are okay. We were walking this Sunday to pick up some investigators and I saw that sign about the men working and thought that I had to take a picture with that. It was pretty funny. I sure love you Mom. Thank you so much for all you do. Thank you for your prayers... support …and overall everything. Thank you for your journal and letter.  I love reading it and it is great to know what is going on. I love you Mom... With all my heart.

Mikesell... Well to be perfectly honest I don’t know how to put into words my feelings for you. I am so grateful for the bond and friendship that I have with you. As I prayed and thought about you this week I could just feel that it would be a hard week. I prayed that you would look to your Heavenly Father and realize that in time you will look back on this week with thoughts of love and gratitude.  I want to say you are a stud. I want you to know to not give up on BYU. That ACT test is not everything.  Because of your dominating other accomplishments in school like activities, sports, and all those things it is possible. Do not give up. Talk with them and work to see what you can do. I know that if Heavenly Father wants you to go there, you will go Mikesell. I wish I could talk to you on the phone also. Only like a month until we can... but know that I love you and pray for you very hard. Work hard... keep having a passion to do good in your everyday life and realize that you are bigger that sheet of paper with a number on it sitting in your room some where. Realize that in the eyes of Heavenly Father you are perfect.  Because you try to serve others and do your best. Read your Patriarchal Blessing. I have read mine over and over during this time and it has been as Dad said in the letter that he read in my call “An Anchor to my Soul” for sure. I love you Mikesell. You are amazing and have faith and hope. Go to work and don’t look back. You can do anything. Stay close to the family and enjoy your time with them I hope to get your letter tomorrow. Love you sis. I miss you too. Keep at it and we will be ¨playing frisbee in the park¨ together in no time. Good luck with the end of the trimester tests!

Brennen the Handsome one:

Dude.. Congrats on the baskeball team!! I am so pumped for you. Enjoy the great times buddy. Keep at it! Who is your coach? If you said in your email I will read it tonight. I prayed for you a lot and am so happy for you! Enjoy the time with the team and work your hardest. Don‘t be afraid to step out there first on the court when coach calls for volunteers. You are the man Stud!!  I love you. Go get em. Keep in the Book of Mormon!! Good luck with your trimester tests.

Alex - Hey man how is life? Sounds like you killed it in the tournament last weekend. That is a lot of points!  You got to tell me about your buddies… Your skills... everything!! I love you man. I hope you know that. Keep on keeping on. I hope that you have a great week. I am excited to hear of your success this year in AAU and then onto school ball! I love you. Keep up the good work. How is that white hat?

Harrison the Energetic. How are you buddy? It sounds like you are starting to learn how to read with perfection. What a stud! I sure love you and  I am excited to see some pictures of you. Keep being happy and smiling. How is your class? Do you have lots of friends? How is scouts?

McCall - You are such an angel. I love you so much. I hope that you had a great week. Sounds like you are starting to read really well also. BIG KISS for you. I hope that you are doing great. Are you excited to eat lots of turkey and do all those fun things?

Well my family.  All is well here. I love you all and will continue to bust it each day. May Heavenly Fathers richest blessings be yours. I sent a letter to Papa last week. but please send my love for his birthday. I love each of you so much. Keep being happy and know that hard times make us better.

I love you!

Elder Clegg

November 7, 2011

Hello the people that I love! I looked at my watch today and realized it was November 7th and could not believe it. I just sat in shock for a few minutes.

I received letters this week from:

Stephanie Bingham- Thank you so much! It was so great to hear from her.

Brittany Davidson  -Dear Elder -Was great to hear from her... Thank you so much for taking the time to write.

Email from Uncle Kevin - Thanks so much! I just loved it.  I am glad to here Elder Clegg is doing well and having success!!

The family emails were all so fun to get…

This week was a really great week. However to be perfectly honest, it has been one of the hardest weeks I have had on my mission so far. But I have grown. I was not in my area until Thursday and I was with two other Elders. One of the Elders had one more transfer than me and the other has been here just three weeks. Needless to say we were slightly language challenged!! We had a great time and learned a lot. We found a new investigator and visited some great people. I learned lot and really had a nice time. We got back to Miramar Thursday at about three and from there we have not find any new investigators this week. It really stunk. But I am expecting good things this week. Elder Mickles, my zone leader from last transfer told me that the first 6 months of your mission Heavenly Father humbles you. Can I get an amen? Haha! I read great scripture in Alma 36:38 that talks about living in Thanksgiving Daily. That is what I am trying to do.

I had a memorable experience yesterday in Fast and Testimony Meeting. I stood up to bear my testimony, which I can do great in Spanish. Then I tried to tell a story and it got bad…but I know the spirit was testifying through me because I could look into the eyes of the branch and see tears in their eyes through my tears. I sat down and the next person at the pulpit said something like,  ¨Isn’t it amazing that we did not understand a word Elder Clegg just said, but we could still the spirit of which he was trying to convey!?.¨ It was pretty humbling. They were really nice and I learned that the sprit really is the one who should be doing the teaching in this work. I will never forget that experience. I say this with humility and gratitude, but I am struggling with this language. I am trying to be patient but man.... I know I will look back on this time and it will be better. Im just going to put my head down grab the pockets of Heavenly Father and keep climbing this mountain. I can do it; your prayers are much appreciated. Thank you. It was a great week though. It is getting warmer here. It rained this week and the streets turned to rivers, it was crazy.

The pictures are of some trees here and the one of the other district leaders in our zone from Argentina had birthday so we took picture. They are a really great examples and friends to me.

  

Sounds like you all had great week. That is so fun that you were all able to go the Basketball game at BYU.  I bet that was great time. How fun…. I will read all of your letters in greater detail tonight but sounds like all is well...Glad Mom got some home time with McCall.

Dad- That Coldplay song is definately the theme song of my mission and I look forward to hearing it again. The lyrics really apply well. “Waterfall”.  How is your adjustment going with everything in Jerome? That is great committee you are on for the Christmas party. Great people. You are all going to do some serious work! Sounds like things are starting to cool down. I thought a lot about you Dad this week and all the stories you have told me from your mission. Im so grateful for your example and find strength in doing what you did.  I love you so much Dad. Thanks for your letter. Hey- this week I actually studied faith a lot. If you go to “Preach My Gospel” look under Chapter 6 under Faith and chapter 3 lesson three under “Faith in Jesus Christ”. The scripture references are really great. Oh and look in the Bible dictionary under Faith. It has a list of the three effects of faith in this life. 1. Happy with the life that you live. 2. Receive the blessings of obedience  3. Receive and are confident in your salvation in the life to come.  That is funny you got that topic to speak on in church on Sunday… that is seriously what most of my study was this week! Check out those references that will help I think.  Love you Pops!

Mom- I love you so much Mom. Thank you so much for your letter. I look forward to reading your journal. You have no idea how much it means to me. Sounds like you had a great week. I loved the pictures of the kids dressed up at Halloween. You are so sweet with all you say and do. I hope that you were to answer some of your questions:  Yes they have siestas the same like when Ben was here in Argentina. The whole town shuts down from 2 to 4. Some people get mad at us for knocking doors, but such is life. I love you Mom. I am eternally grateful for you. I hope you have a great week and are able to do the things that you want and need to do. Heavenly Father wants what you want in life.  I love you Mom. Thank you for your thoughtfulness. I don’t know if you all got my letter yet or not. I wrote one for the family couple of weeks ago? Maybe you said in your letter? Where are you all going for Thanksgiving?

  

Mikesell- I wish I could watch your DSA award on the internet so bad, but it is against the rules. It will be the first thing I watch when I come home. So you have a race this weekend in Boise?  I am so excited for you. Hey, I have absolute faith that Heavenly Father is going to bless you with your ACT test. Remember that he has his eye on you and knows what is best for you in the long run. I am excited to hear the results. Have faith and know that no matter what happens you are Mikesell Clegg - daughter of Heavenly Father with eternal potential. That test means nothing in the big picture. Mikesell - remember how much I love you. I miss you like crazy keep on keeping on and working hard. So you make your own decision with Physics. Mom and Dad may disagree with me, but I say stick with it next trimester. You will send in your transcript before the grade show up for this next trimester anyway… and I think you will be able to really enjoy it. You are always blessed for doing hard things, but also remember to not run faster than you have strength. With all the clubs and things you are involved in, you might have to cut somewhere. You are entitled to revelation for this decision. Talk to Mom and Dad they really know best. Listen to them and talk with them. I love you sis. I hope to get your letter tomorrow. I will let you know next week. Love you sis!

Brennen - Stud muffin. Big week for you man, the big high school basketball tryouts!! I hope open gym has been fun for you. I will be praying for you. Do your best and forget the rest. I hope your calling is going well. Take it seriously it will help prepare you for a mission. I sure love you man. Sweet job on that egg drop with Mikesell for Physics. You are a stud. love you man. Keep doing the important things!

Alex my beloved brother. haha I love you man. How is life? How is your scripture reading coming? I promise you Alex that you will find more success in your life in sports, relationships, school, and any other dream you have if you just read the Book of Mormon every night and pray. It changed my life when I was your age. I know if you do it it will change yours too. I love you so much Alex. Remember that please. Keep living up the Clegg and Crouch Legacy. You are destined for greatness!!  Remember that there is nothing more important in life that treating others with kindness. You are special young man. I love you bro. Keep up the good work. I think you have a tournament this weekend!? Go get em. I love you buddy so much. God speed~

Harrison- Thank you so much for your sweet letter. It meant so much. You looked like  a sweet Jimmer. What a stud! I loved that Papa scared you with that costume. I love you Harrison! Argentina is great. I miss you buddy. Keep being good things. I love you brother. A big hug to you!

McCall- You still looked like angel in that costume and you are dressed as a witch! I love you so much… I hope school is good. Are you excited for all these holidays coming up!? What fun time... I love you Cally.

Well I love you all so much. This Church is what it says it is. May Heavenly Father bless each one of you. I pray for you with all my strength. God Bless...

Love your son, brother, and best friend~

Elder Austin

October 31, 2011

Hello the people that I love the most!

What a week you have all had! Incredible!!

Letters received:

Trei Cook- Dear Elder- Thank you so much.. It meant the world to me brother.

Libby Baum

Hayley Clegg

Trish and the emplyeees

Bishop Prince

Kim Yost

Emails:

Grandma Clegg

Brennen

Mikesell

Lindsay

Rachelle

Dad

Mom

I loved all of them and will read them this afternoon. Thank you all so much!! I loved them with all my heart. Excited to read over them all ~ Letters are the best!!!

Mom – Answers to your questions:

Do you sleep in your sleeping bag every night or only when you travel up for meetings?    Always use it, glad I have it but wish it was smaller haha Just kidding!!

Are you electric plugs normal there…? Look like our outlets?       Yes, still need a converter but not to shabby....

Plumbing…? Hot water? Up to speed in technology?     Yes have plenty of hot water, it is kind of like the early 90s technology wise, every place is so different…

Lots of trash on ground there? In Mexico there is tons….      Yes trash and dogs everywhere

What are your Mission Pres rules about “outside books” other than scriptures and Jesus the Christ? I have an amazing book on the scriptures and the law of attraction. You have mentioned many scriptures from the book.      No rules on this, I would love to read it, but only able to on Pday.

Retainer?      I have it and all is well. Pray I don’t ever lose it.

How many missionaries total are in your mission? 200? Sisters? Any driving? Bikes?     About 200, bikes in some areas. Only the office Elders drive. Buses are everywhere, take taxies a lot also.

Please tell Grandma Daw Happy Birthday For me!! 92 years old! I love her so much. I have been meaning to ask for their address for like three weeks. Papa Arlen has a birthday coming up this month. I have a letter written and will send it soon.

So this week was great, we had divisions again and I always learn so so much. I was with Elder Murrilo de Chile. He is our zone Leader. I am writing early because my companion is going to Bahia tonight and I am doing divisions again - with Elders that have less or the same amount of time as me. It should be quite the experience. I am excited. We will get back to Miramar Thursday afternoon. It is kinda hard to be away so much with our investigators but all is well.

So this week was really great! Yesterday was Stake Conference and President Defletson spoke with his wife.  It was great. The Mar Del Plata Stake is really strong and it was a good time. We had one investigator there.  One story: I was in Mar del Plata and my companion was with Jose teaching him with another Elder and our Branch president. They were teaching the Word of Wisdom and apparently President of the Branch talked about how is actually was just fine to drink tea and how he didn’t pay tithing until he was a member for like two years. I am sure that helped a lot with Jose. Hum… It is hard to have true success when the Branch President is a little shaky....but I love them and they are trying to do their best.

A great experience was really special for me this week: It was Saturday, at probably the same time you were running in State Mikesell and it was about the same time that you wrote to me about that in your letter. That prayers are truly answered! We had a lesson with a less active member who has a 40 year son who has had a stroke. She was sharing her testimony about prayer. We were sitting on the front porch of her house with her son. I could feel the sun on my face and I could not help but cry. I thought about how Heavenly Father loved her and heard her prayers and hears my prayers and my families prayers. It was one of those moments that is hard to put words to but the feelings will never leave. I want each of you to know that I pray with energy for you every day. It is work and I love it.

There was lots of little miracles again this week. I am happy. Sometimes discouraged with my Spanish but I know that I am here to testify of what I know, not just to learn Spanish. (Thanks Bishop Prince). This week should be normal... I thought a lot about the scripture in Romans 8: 28 that ... Read that and I testify that it is true.  Look at each of our lives.  Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.  

Dad- The fearless hunter!! Shooting a bear - Haha what a fun story!! I cannot believe the damage that bear did! I am glad you went up there! That is scary with Mom up there alone. For some reason I can just picture you doing this. Haha…I am sure Kent Gunnell would love this story. Our best success is from our porches.  I hope that you are feeling better. I love you so much Dad. You are my hero. Have a great week and enjoy the basketball game this weekend. I will root for DIxie maybe for this one. Kinda hard...not BYU!? How great to see Landon play!

Mom - Thank you so much for the packages. I really don’t need anything. I hope that it was not too expensive. I will let you know when I get them. It will be a little while I think. Thank you so much. What a trooper you are. It sounds like things with the Fish our slowing down, but you are still just as busy. I hope that all is well. I love you so much. Mom… the greatest blessing of my mission so far has been the love that I have for my family and how I will do anything to honor them. I hope you have time to exercise, temple, and all of those things that you want to do. You serve others so so much. I love you Mom. You are in my every prayer. Have a great week!!! We are never far in spirit.

Mikeseellllll!!!! WHOA! Third!! What a superstar!! I am so proud of you sis!! Sounds like you ran with heart and that is what matters. I am so happy for you!! What are you going to do this week with no practice??? Thank you so much for your experience with prayer. That has been the theme of my week.  Keep working in all that school stuff. Sounds like you are doing well. Be happy with your efforts!! Mikesell - I love you so much and I am so grateful for the friendship that I have with you. I think about all of you always right before I go to sleep. I am so very proud to call you my sister.

Brennen- Hey Stud- all I hear about you is how awesome you are and what a great young man you are!!  I know that though.  I sure love you man. You are such a great example to me. I miss you buddy. Keep doing the important little things. Thanks for the email.  I love your sense of humor. You the man...

Alex- Hey little man...How is life. For some reason this week I thought about when we would play basketball in the kitchen with the basket on the door. I miss that bad. You better be practicing or I am going to dom you!! I mean I do like 15 mins of ab work out every day.. haha. Actually - I am scared to play you. My comp hates running so to keep the peace and I run back in forth in our tiny kitchen and it is just not the same. I sure love you Alex. You are such a great young man. Keep being you and loving other people. You can achieve those dreams!

Harrison... Oh my amigo I love you so much. You need to learn how to type so you can write me. I hope that you are doing well. How are your friends? Friends are important. I love you Harrison. Don’t forget the Harry Way. Keep kissing Alex and he will kiss you too. Love you buddy.

McCall - I love loved your Oreo story. That is my sister!!!  They have Oreos here thankfully. They also have lots of that kind of stuff. How are you? You look so grown up every picture I see of you. I love you so much Callie. Hayley Clegg told me in her letter that you told her that Jesus is your best friend... I love you Call and am so grateful for your example.

Well my family... Life Is well! Life is  a process of learning and growing. I know that hard times make us stronger and that with hindsight everything gets better. We push through with prayer, set goals, and try our very best until we succeed. We will persist until we succeed. Please know how much I love Heavenly Father and this work, and please know how much I love each of you individually.

Have a Wonderful Week! I love you so much. Enjoy your first week of  WHAT…  November!!? That is so crazy! Happy Halloween. I almost forgot about that!!

I love you!!

Elder Austin