Hello Dear Family! 

I hope that you are doing well! From what I could skim it sounds like you are all having a great week and are working and playing hard. I am so glad to hear that!! Time is going so fast. Remember you are living the dream!

Thank you Beyleigh for your sweet letter. I love you so much and hope that you are having an awesome summer! I am glad you can spend time with the cousins at the cabin! Thank you so much for your giant example and testimony!!

Grandma Clegg -Thank you so much for your letter and I am so grateful to hear that you are both doing well! I am glad that the surgery is done and that everything went well. Please tell Grandpa that I love him and hope he recovers quickly! I love you and miss you. I hope that you are both having a great summer! 

Well, tranfers struck… and they hit hard.  I am writing you all from Necochea, a oil refining town about one hour and half from Miramar… so I am back on the coast. So far I love the city so much. President has asked me to be a zone leader and I am now with Elder Connely, who is on his last transfer here. SO we are going to work so extremely hard. I am still a little in shock. We were eating at a members house and we got the call. All the other Elders are still in the district 5 in Santa Rosa and Elder Patterson, who was in my MTC district is now in Santa Rosa. I am excited for the blessing that I have to serve now, both my investigators and more Elders. It is a zone of about 20 elders and I am way excited to teach like never before.  

Last week was a good week, we worked hard up until Saturday, and then it was a mad dash of saying goodbye and packing to leave on Sunday. I love the members there in Santa Rosa so much. It was so so hard to say goodbye to the Garcia family. They have not been baptized for even a month yet...but to see the change in their lives is simply amazing. When I went to say goodbye -  Ana, the 9 year old girl lost it and started crying so bad. It hurt. But they are in good hands. The members were all really nice and were so kind to me. That ward has so much potential. I am excited to hear of their growth in the future.

                      Saying Goodbye... Bishops Family at the Terminal

I wanted to tell you a cool experience that I had last night and a little about zone conference. Last night we got to the mission home at about 3:30 am. We got in and there was an elder sitting up in his bed who could not sleep because his stomach was hurting him. He is pretty new here in the mission. Elder Taylor, the AP, who will be flying home tonight was the Elder that we had to wake up after the taxi ride to get into the house. I asked him how he was feeling about going home that next day and he told me how he was sad, excited all at the same time. After a little talk, I watched him as he took care of this Elder. For some reason it was so touching to me to watch him cook this Elder some food to help his stomach. Afterword I sat in bed and just thought how a Christ centered life changes the way we treat other people so much. I thought of this Elder who had so much success all throughout his mission and yet his last night in the mission, here he was cooking pasta for a new Elder who had a stomach ache at three in the morning. It was just touching to me. I have been so blessed to rub shoulders with such great Elders in my mission. I will greatly miss Elder Knuteson, Elder Hansen and Elder Henry. They are great Elders and I really had a strong friendship with them. Also Elder Garrison and Elder Sanchez, my Zone Leaders there in Santa Rosa are so awesome. 

Our Mission President talked about so much at Zone Conference. When he teaches I feel the happiest ever. He is a master teacher. He explained to us about Matthew 14. He told us how the Savior was trying to teach us two lessons in this chapter. One, that we have to think about other people (the 5 loaves and 2 fishes) and two that we can’t do that if we don’t rely on the Savior. I always thought that when Peter fell in the water it was because of his lack of Faith…but maybe it was because he started thinking that he was doing this all on his own, maybe it was thoughts of pride that made him fall and cry out "Lord, save me!" I would encourage you to read Matthew 14 this week. 

   The last goodbye to my Mission President and his wife - finishes his mission July 1.

Dad- So glad to hear that you had a great Fathers day!! I fully understand also that this time of year is crazy also. You put all you got into running that resort. I sure love you Dad. I am so grateful for your example and charity. I am so happy that all is well up there and that life is running smoothly. I love you Dad. Thank you for your prayers. I hope you know that they are coming right back at you. Have a great week. You going to do the Spudman this year? Is your heal and ankle better?

Mom-Thanks for your sweet letter. I sure hope that all is well. I am glad to hear of all the little successes. Thank you for sharing that from President Borens talk in church. He is an amazing person and example. I hope that your events and weddings are going well. I have not been able to read all of your letter yet but I will tonight.  I love you with all my heart Mom. Keep being great. Stay strong. 

Mikesell- How is my 18 year sister? As with all of your birthdays, I thought especially of you. I hope that you had a great day. Did you all make it to ride the horses? That is so cool that you were able to climb Mogul. Are you getting excited!? I cannot believe how close college is getting! Enjoy every second with the family! I sure love you Mikesell and am so grateful for you. DO great things this week and keep up the good work. I hope that you know how much I love you.  All my love sis. Keep rocking it.

Brennen- Sounds like you are having a great time in the dish pit!! That is a wonderful experience and will teach you mental toughness. That is funny that you are cooking and learning to make pasta. That is a skill that will serve you more than just about another on your mission. haha. Do you know what you are going to do this Fall sport wise? Are you going to do XC?  Start running now!  I am so glad to hear that you are having such a great summer. That is the best ever. Keep doing the little basics. Does it feel weird to know that you are going to be the oldest in the house now soon? You will do great. I love you brother. You are the man and have a great week.

Alex-Hope that you are doing good little man. I am glad that you could climb Mogul also. That sounds so great. I am jealous. I have not seen a mountain since I left Utah. This place is a giant pancake. Eat a s’more for me will ya? I love you bro. Keep being awesome and progressing. Learn how to work up there. It will bless you forever. I miss you bud. Keep being great. 

Harrison- Sounds like you are doing awesome my little man. I sure miss you.  I am glad to hear that you are enjoying primary so much. You have such great teachers! I am shocked that the water is so warm there. That is great. I love you bro. Keep being great.

McCall- I sure love you little sis. Did you eat your double ice cream cone?  I love you sister. Keep having fun and remember who you are. I miss you!

Well my dear ones. I love you. Have a great week and thank you for your prayers. I am slightly nervous that this last year is going to fly by~~ Buckle up. I love you each so very much and want you to know how much I love my Heavenly Father. This is his work. 

Have the best Monday ever.

All my love,

Elder Clegg

June 18, 2012

Hey there my Sawtooth Clan,

Thank you for all of your letters! I received emails from Jordan, Cassidi, and the great family. Thank you so much! I really appreciate it.

I hope that Kalina is doing well and that Sterling and all of the family are also. They have been in my prayers this week. I also hope Grandpa and Grandma Clegg are doing well and that Grandpa's surgery went really well. Hope the hospital stay is quick as well as the recovery. I love you all and know that all will be ok in the end.

Dad - I hope that you had a great Father´s day and that all is well. I hope that Papa and Grandpa Crouch enjoyed their time up at the lake as well. That is great that they were up there.

Mikesell!!! Happy Birthday this Saturday! I sent you letter about a half hour ago with Dad´s b-day letter, so you should get it in about 9 days I sent it to the Stanley address.

Well this last week was a really good week. I am trying to sort it all from the other weeks in my head. Some highlights that I can think of are that we found a big family of nine people and 6 of the kids came to church. I hope that they can keep progressing. WE are finding a lot of people right now who are really struggling ecomonically right now, food prices are going up here quite a bit and in the winter it is lot harder for people to work. The siestas are just dead, it is just me and my comp in the streets but I love it, it builds a lot of character and if you plan well it is not so bad. It has gotten colder and the long johns and all that good stuff are starting to get there use, today is really nice though. We had some great service projects with some of my favorite families here this week. One of the them, _Roberto Oses knows a Elder Jolly from Salmon who served in Argentina Rosario in like 88 of 89 I think. He is one of my favorite members. That has got to be form the Jolly family.  We also had a good service project with the Bishops family. I love them also. The familia Ochoa and Garcia are doing well. Sergio Garcia is a little sick right now and is struggling to quit smoking it is really sad to see how deep this addiction is. He is in a wheel chair so he can’t exercise to get away from it either. I am really praying and thinking about him so much. The ward is doing good, seems like when one family gets active another one falls and it is kind of like that. I really appreciate strong members and I cannot tell you how important they are to missionary work, for real growth to happen. We are turning our focus to work a lot with them. Tomorrow we have a zone conference, the last with our dear Mission President. I am really actually kinda of hurting with that. I love President so much and I can’t imagine my mission without him. But changes make you grow and I am grateful for them. This week I read in Alma 24 about the great conversion of the Anti Nephi Lehis and made some cool connections about what are the real fruits of repentance, things like sacrifice, fear of God, true joy, gratitude. I was thinking about that and with Sergio I thought about how sin takes away our vision of our perspectives of ourselves.  This Friday we get the transfer calls, I don´t know why but a part of me feels like I am leaving… you asked what my gut told me Mom… but we will see I have not been here that long. It was a good week and I am grateful for the lessons that I am learning and the relationships that I have.

Dad- I hope that you had a great Fathers day yesterday. Yesterday I asked Elder Knuteson what he loved about his Dad and then I told him what I loved about mine. It was a spiritual moment for me walking the street to think about you and how grateful I am for you. I hope that you were able to feel very loved. I can´t believe it is already Father´s Day. I hope that business is going well and that you are enjoying all the fun memories and feelings that Redfish brings. Keep being the great example that you are.

Mom- Thank you so much for you letter. I appreciate the little updates on all the kids and the life at the lake. I am glad to hear that you all had a good game of Frisbee for me on Thursday. Today I needed to clean out my suitcase and I decided to clean out a binder that I have full of letters. I read the first letters that I received from you and Dad at the MTC  - that was a strange feeling.  It seems so long ago to me, but like yesterday also. I love you so much Mom!! Thank you so much for your kindness. I think I will get the ¨ redfish¨ package this week. I loved the cards, the Ensign so much. Thank you all for your thoughfulness. Have a great week and I hope you can keep making 26 hours in a day like you do. I love you!

Mikesell- Wow, the big 18. How are you feeling? I am glad to hear that you are so busy and are having fun with everyone. I sure miss you Sis. I will be praying and thinking about you really hard this week. I can’t believe what a life you are living and what vision and potential that you have. Make sure you stick to the basics. This summer will feel like a dream to you. Enjoy your TIME. I love you and may you feel so loved on Saturday. You are so special. Keep being the great person that you are. Peace out.

Brennen- What a stud you are! Thank you for your sweet email. Have you got your Patriarchal Blessing in the mail yet? Go on a hike and read it on the top of a mountain somewhere. I love you Bro. Have a great week and keep working hard. I am glad you are having a schedule and everything.  Dish pit will make a man out of you even more! You’re the man.

Alex- Thanks for your letter. I sure love you little man. I hope that you are doing good and that you are learning a lot. I am glad you had fun tubing -Brennen said. I miss you buddy and thanks for your prayers and thoughts. I am excited to see how much you have grown and matured. Keep being awesome.

Harrison- Thanks for the email. I am doing good buddy. I miss you. My companion is doing really good.  Thanks for praying for me every night and that is crazy about the squirrel. Not in your bedroom huh!? Keep them outside! I hope that you catch him. Those blow dart guns still around? haha Have a great week Harrsion. Keep being a good boy my man. The HARRY WAY.

McCall- It sounds like you are just living the dream like normal. I am glad you and Harrison are enjoying housekeeping so much! I sure love you Cally. I hope you have a great week this week and that you can do something fun and special for that sister of yours on her birthday! I love you Cally. Are you still guarding my bed for me? ;) Eat a ice cream for me. I love you Cally. Thank you for your example.  I am glad you got to see Kaley this week! How fun to have them come to Redfish!

I love you all!  May your week be filled with memories and growth. I continue to pray for you and want nothing more than for you to receive blessings like ever before! Keep the Vision!

All my love,

Elder Clegg

The Family!

So glad to hear that you are all doing well and that life is going well. You are all officially now up at the Fish. How great!

Thank you all who sent emails - Grandma Clegg, Cass and Scott. All the family and thank you Mom for both of your emails!

Grandma and Grandpa Clegg - I hope that this week goes well.  I will be praying extra hard for you and I hope that the operations and recoveries go really well. I sure love you both. 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Fathers Day. I am very grateful for my Grandpas and my Father and so many examples of great fathers that we know. I love you each of you so much!

This week was a good week. A little different… I don’t really know why. I had two sets of splits and had a baptismal interview. I learned a lot from the splits and learned so much from Elder Hansen and Elder Garrison.  It was great to work with Elder Garrison, he is a legend in the mission and speaks and teaches so well. He loves the scriptures and loves to bust out the bible on the first lesson to show the evidence of the restoration…which is something I have not really done on my mission… so that was great to get a greater appreciation of the bible and to start using it more. I have been reading the New Testament for a couple months now and I really enjoy it. 

On Wednesday the Garcia family and Tornacio family had a cake and a BBQ for me at 8…that was really nice of them.  The ward members were really nice too. It was a fairly good working day too, and that was the best part. I really appreciate the families here in the ward. They are some great families.

So we have been working a lot to try and be better with the members and a great family here named the Bartel family brought a great kid to church named Carlos and we talked to him and taught him. We have set a date for June 24^th. He is really great and I think that he has a lot of potential. We have a couple other investigators as well that we are working with that have potential. Transfers are on Mikesell’s birthday and one of us four will probably be leaving so we have all got to push hard until that point. 

Dad - I just saw your email come through… thanks so much. I really appreciate it. I love you and hope that you have a great week. You are the best. Have a great Fathers Day and enjoy all wonderful Redfish. Sounds like you basically half of Jerome High as the staff!! That will be good. I love you Dad. Thanks for your example. Read the first part of Helaman 5 and I want you to know how grateful I am for my fathers.

Mom- I love you so much.  I received word that the small package you sent got here like on Saturday….so I should get it tomorrow. Thanks so much for being so thoughtful. I love you and sounds like you are getting settled in at Redfish. I am sure there will be lots of great employees at the house this year a lot. That will be fun. It will be important this year to jump out of the resort Thursday and go do something as just a family… other wise the summer will be over really fast that way. Yeah, I am trying to live off the set amount of money and nothing more. Heavenly Father blesses his missionaries to live off strictly rice and pasta and four oranges a week…haha… no we almost have lunch with a member like four times a week. I figure I am going to need the money much more on the other end after the mission. I bought a new hairclippers last week…mine bit the dust. Please tell Papa and Grandma thank you for the birthday money. So sweet of them…  I love you so much Mom. Thank you so much for your prayers and your thoughtfulness on my behalf. I miss you. Have a great week and know that I love you. You are the MOM!

Mikesell- Hey sweet cheeks! I hope that you are doing well. I sure am excited for you to start running. You are a committed Wolverine now! One of my favorite missionaries will be there at UVU next fall… Elder Ochesbien my old comp. Also, one of my role models and a really great missionary, Elder Christianson, he is our assistant. He knows you are going to be there so he said he will look for you. Heads up!! I love you Mikesell - have a great week. You are in my prayers, keep working and playing hard. You’re the best!

Brennen- Hey man! How are you? What are you going to do for work this year?  Mom said in her letter you will be doing dishes. That is awesome! I bet you are playing a lot in any spare time with Dave and Rio. Do you want to do XC next year? Start running now if you are! I promise you will be so much more prepared if you do. I love you Brennen, and am so grateful for your example. Work and play hard this summer.

Alex- You just work this summer… don’t worry so much about the play. ha ha jk. I love you buddy. I hope that you are living the dream and having a great summer. I sure miss you and respect you so much. How are you coming with the B of M?

Harrison- How is that scooter holding up? Are you having a good summer? I hear you are all swimming so much right now…that is weird because it is getting super cold here. I love you little man. Keep being the great kid you are. Fluff lots of rocks for Mom and get the place looking nice!

McCally - You are so cute -- I sure love you. I hope that you are laying off that ice cream so you don’t get a summer belly!  haha jk. I love you Cally and I am so grateful to have you as my sister. 

I love you all so much. The Gospel is real and what a great thing we have going here. I hope that this week is great for you.

All my love,

Elder Austin

Last pic with our Mission President

The Newly Baptized Garcia Family!!!

The Newly Baptized Garcia Family

Hello Family and Friends,

I hope and pray that you all have had a wonderful week...

Thank you Bryan Harper for your letter!! Thanks so much for taking the time to write and I am glad to hear that you are doing well. You are such a great friend Bryan. I love you brother and have a great week. Thanks for taking the time to write -- I will be sure and write you soon.

Thank you to all you sent letters:  Papa and Grandma, Grandma Clegg, Joel Prince, Trisha Cox, and each of the family. I really appreciate it!

Well it sounds like by the end of this week the whole family will be officially up at the fish. How wonderful! I even can see briefly that the first frisbee game will be tonight maybe for FHE. What a joy that brings me! I am glad to hear that you all had a great week and the adjustment goes smoothly to being full time Stanley residents.

This last week was absolutely crazy, but in a good way!! The conference was a amazing and I learned so much!! It was great to see so many Elders that have been such great examples to me in my mission. I talked with Elder Yosts companion  and it sounds like he is doing well. My whole MTC roomies are district leaders now so it was so great to see each of them and talk to them. They are doing really well. We had a great room full of people I love and respect. I also received a letter from the family Gonzales and Elder Yarger in Miramar. It was great to hear from them. The family Gonzales all have callings and are progressing well. The two boys have received the priesthood and the whole branch sounds like they are doing awesome. That was the best news ever to me and it was so wonderful to hear from them. 

We got back from Bahia at about 2 am in the morning and I slept in an area close to our house and then we had district meeting the next day. It was great. President wants every missionary to baptize his last month in the mission, and this weekend two of the three pairs of Elders baptized. We just can’t conform and must keep going. 

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were some of the sweetest days of my mission. The familia Garcia was married and surprised by all of their family.  Then, they we all baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. Elder Hansen and Elder Henry baptized a great kid named Marcio. Our ward is growing and the energy shift is changing. I was disappointed greatly with the attendance at the baptisms, but the ward was really nice to them on Sunday and the Famila Garcia is awesome.   They were greeting out new investigators at church on Sunday and last night when we went to visit them… I kid you not the spirit in that house was so different. They want to go visit with us, they want callings, they are just on fire! I love it so much and the members are loving them so much. They have a FHE with the Bishop tonight and I am excited to hear how that goes. Maria is fasting and they are asking a lot about the temple. I am so grateful to know this family, they are studs. I just pray with all my heart that the ward can keep them. I am confident that they will. Maria Ochoa and her family was in the church and they are doing really well also. This week we will have some splits and I am excited for that. Last week I was also able to talk with one of the APs on the bus for like a 45 mins and that was precious. Elder Taylor has four more weeks in his mission and he is just so sad about leaving and working like a madman. He is such a great example. 

I cant believe that this week I turn twenty. I can’t really compute it in my mind. I was reading back through my journal and it was great to see how the mission had changed me, not in great ways but just in small simple ways. I feel so blessed. I set a goal for baptisms at the beginning of the year, and back then my vision wasn’t very good. I have to raise that goal because I reached it last week. I can not conform.  

Please wish Aunt Cynthia a Happy Birthday for me and that I love her and all the family. If you could pass me their address that would be awesome actually. I know you are all super busy. 

President talked a lot about daily excellence this conference… among lots of things but he shared two scriptures that I thought were great… one of them is in Mosiah 4: 26 and the other is Psalms 96: 2. I love breaking up the days and just trying to do the best with one day. That is the way to progress I believe. It is more doable in my mind if I think just about how we can do little better things just today. President has changed the standards of excellence to finding two new investigators every day and it used to be 15 a week I have noticed a huge difference in my work ethic and in the ethic of the Elders. We have not had book of Mormons for two months in the mission and it might be because of this change. So I challenge you all to be excellent in your daily lives. Thank you for your examples and the way that you are happy and always doing good. 

Dad- I was so pumped to hear that there was a baptism in the Stanley branch. What a great thing to hear. It sounds like you are all doing very well and busy. It is so beautiful up there right now and I love the feel of all the new people. I hope that you can travel safely and I glad that all is well up there. Thanks for your great letter. I love you Dad. Have a great week!!

Mom- Thank for your letter Mom. I love you very much and thank you so much for your support and I hope that you have a great week. My goal is to have the birthday go by as unnoticed as possible… I don’t want it to be about me at all. But I have a loving comp who likes to tell a lot of people so I think I lost that battle. I love Elder Knuteson and we get along great. I love you so much Mom.  Oh hey, some members here added me as friends on Facebook FYI.

Mikesell- So how is that foot?  Did you forget that today is the moon day? I love you Mikesell and I hope that you enjoy your week and all the restaurant staff and guests. You are the best and I hope that you have a really fun week. I love you.

Brennen- Good work coming back and beating Al’s team!! That sounds like the big battle. haha I wish I could have seen it. I love you so much Brenn. You are such an outstanding person. Have a great week bro. You the man!

Alex- Hey little buddy. I thought  good and hard about the tic tac toe game before I put that piece of paper in the envelope and depending on where you went I either win or we tie. We will keep playing though.  I love you man. Keep being happy and awesome.

Harrison- Thanks for your letter and I am glad you got mine!! I sure love you little buddy. You are so special to me. I am glad that your birthday went well. I was praying for you extra hard.  Keep doing life the Harry way.

McCall- I can hear the way you talk in your email. You are so cute. I hope that you are loving the lake and that you have a great week. I love you Cally. BIG KISS!

I love you all so much. Have a great week and know that I love you all very much.

I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior and am so grateful for His Atonement.

Elder Austin