Today’s Title: HAPPINESS!!!!

I hate to be repetitive, but that was the fastest week ever.

Thank you all for your great emails last week. Cassidi, I received your letter today. Thank you so much and be looking for a reply in the next month. 

I loved all of your letters last week. I love to hear that you are busy, that life is going well, that it is not all easy, and that you are progressing. 

Grandma Clegg - Thank you so much for your letter and your thoughts and the 4th of July. I have been praying for you and Grandpa and I am very glad to hear that today he is doing better. I love you and know that if any buddy can fight through the rough roads, you both can, especially with the testimonies that you have. I love you and hope that all is going well. Have a wonderful week. 

Papa Arlen- Thank you so much for your letter. I am very excited to read it this week. I love you both so much and hope that all is well. I miss you and think of you often, every day. Have a great week and Happy 4th of July. I love you.

Well, this week was the best. I honestly am happy. Elder Connolly is an absolute stud and he wants to have this last transfer to be a good one, he is in burnout mode …meaning he is going home next transfer with the knowledge of giving it all he’s got til then. We worked so hard, I have never been so happy. I also feel very blessed because we are teaching a family of 7 that will be baptized the 14th of July, The family Paniabla. I don’t know why Heavenly Father keeps putting all of these prepared families in my path, but I am so grateful. The ward here is incredible. The members are (with all love for my other areas) very dedicated and have great mission centered testimonies. Of course there is much to work do always though. I love it here. We had a meeting Tuesday with the district presidency here and I feel so blessed to have more opportunities to learn how church leadership works. I testify of Ether 12 27. I don’t know how Heavenly Father does this work with average 19 year old boys around the world.

So on Tuesday night the elders in an area next to ours the elders got robbed and moved out  of their house into our house  - which makes 8 elders in our house. Luckily it is the biggest house I have lived in. The only little issues are the one bathroom and one kitchen. But really we are doing really well. They are looking for a house and they should find one soon. We ran everyday this last week, it was so great. Exercising is awesome. Do it.

Dear President Defletson is now is Cordoba, and President Parreno is officially arrived. The APś told me this morning that he and the he and his wife are awesome and they are way excited. We have a Zone Leader meeting this Wednesday and I am really excited to get to know him. I am learning a ton form Elder Connolly, the zone is improving a ton and I know we are going to grow a lot. I love it love it love it. Missions are the best ever. I can’t tell you enough. I love this work so much. It has changed my desires, the little things and all I want to do is tell people about this.

 There has been an increased talk of Mitt Romney here, not sure what is going on up there. I hope that the 4th goes well. I will for sure wear one of the red, white and blue ties that I have. ;)  

Love of God is the root of all virtue, of all goodness, and of all strength of character of all fidelity. 

Not sure where I read that this week, but I really liked it and wrote it down in my agenda at some point last week. 

It is strange to think that this week is the hump week. I have been out one year this week. Time to refocus and go for it. It is going to fly. 

Dad- Feliz cumple querido padre. Espero que tu dia esta lleno de cosas lindas, quizas un lago frio. Te amo y respecto muchismo. Su ejemplo ha sido una piedra de mi fe. SIga adelante. I hope that you have a great Birthday!!!. I don’t know if you have gotten my letter yet. I hope so. I am excited to hear the accent of our new mission president. Let me know if I can do anything for you Dad. I loved the first presidencies message for July. Happy Birthday. Enjoy it. Thank you for your testimony.

Mom- You are an absolute angel. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts, always over the details. I hope I can paint a picture of the city for you. I really like it here. I hope that I have a lot of time here. I am learning so much. Mom, I am so happy, every day I miss you all because you are all so much a part of me, but I love sharing. I hope that you enjoy your week and can influence the people that you want to influence. You are the best.  To answer some questions, I still haven’t received the package and it getting colder, but really it has been a pretty mild winter. I love you Mom. Thanks for your example of greatness. Your’e the best!! 

Mikesell- Thanks so much for you email. You sound good. That is too bad about your foot. I hope that it heals up soon…six more weeks sounds like a lot. SO are your classes all laid out?  I am a little short on time my dear. But, I love you. I pray for you and I go out of the house to work every day to honor all of you. Know that. Have a great week. Have fun, work hard, mediate, plan, set and achieve goals. Do good things and be Mikesell. Love you sis..

Brennen- Hey bro, sounds like you are doing good…really good. How is the dish pit? You are becoming a great young man!!  You and Alex both are just awesome together. I hope that you have a great week and know how much I love you. Keep strong. Keep the vision!

Alex- Hey man, sounds like you are doing a lot of fun stuff this summer. Life up there can get really busy. I was thinking about you a lot this week and wanted to invite you this week to take some time to go out in a quiet spot and pray and think about whom you are and what you want in future. You have so much potential. God knows it and so does Satan, he wants to destroy your freedom, your happiness. Where as Heavenly Father want you to be the best Alex Clegg in the world. When I was your age I started to read the Book of Mormon every day. Al, I will tell you, if I hadn’t started back then doing that, if I would be on a mission, I would be a totally different person. Alex, with all the love that I have for you… I beg you with all my soul….Read that Book every day, say two prayers every day, and keep the Sabbath Day Holy. I promise you that as you do you will find more purpose in your life. Your eyes will be filled with the faith and vision of what Heavenly Father sees in you. This is a war bro, a dead out war and if you and not doing everything within your power to be a represantive of Christ, you are on the wrong team. Alex, I love you so much. Have fun at the ranch today; tell the Ovesons that I love them.  This is all real. Find yourself and progress Alex. You’re the man. Alma 48

Harrison- I hope that you are having a fun summer little man. I sure love you and hope that you have a great week .You is amazing _I love you little man. God Speed. Do the hand shake. Keep up the good work. Thank you for always being so happy.

McCall- Hey little friend. I sure love you. I hope that you are still as sweet as ever. I miss you. Have a great week ok? Keep saying your prayers and doing those little important things. How is your primary class?

Well, I love you all, and have a great week. Keep progressing and being happy. I love you.

Your  Grandson, son, brother, and friend.

Elder Austin

P.S  I recommend a read of Alma 32 for the week. 

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

Hola Querido Familia,

What an incredibly busy week you all had!!! Thank you so much for taking what little free time you do have and write me. I am so happy to hear that everything went so well with graduation, Brennens Patriarchal blessing and all the tournaments and races. We were all greatly blessed!!

I received letters from Ethan Lopez - Thanks so much Ethan! Your letter was very kind and I am glad to hear that you are doing so well.  I look forward to seeing you down the road also. Thank you so much for your wonderful example. I miss you bro - hope finals went well and that summer will be great for you!

The Oveson Family- I honestly cannot tell you how much I loved your letters! Margaret - you should seriously consider writing a book!! What a great experience that you had in the "Flashing red light zone”.  Thank you so much for your letters!! I miss you all and I hope that all is well. I am sure it is beautiful and that the cattle will arrive shortly if not already. Have a great summer and thank you all so much. Thanks for the sweet letters KY and Logan!!

Well, it was a great week. Really I learned a lot and grew much I feel like. I love times when I can see where I am at and have huge desires to do better. Last week we had a meeting for the district meeting just in our zone right after I sent you the email last week -  it was a great meeting. On our way back I was looking at my clock and it was 8:30pm. I figured the bus would pass by our house at about 8:45….which only gives us about fifteen minutes to work.  I was pretty pumped from the meeting and thought how I want to be the type of missionary that really does that kind of thing. The bus was a little late due to traffic and we literally walked in the house at 8:55pm. I asked my comp if he wanted to go knock on just one more door right by our house. I told him if nothing happens tonight for sure Heavenly Father will see our efforts and we will be blessed down the week. He is great so we said a prayer… half smiling because we knew it was crazy ...SO as we shut the door it literally was 8:57 so we had three minutes before we had to be back in unless we got into a house within three minutes. As we rounded the corner heading out of our complex the other Elders were coming in. Right behind them was a neighbor who we had contacted before… he is a college student our age and was really nice. He were just getting back from his church. I went up to him and shook his hand and within thirty seconds he invited us in. I looked at Elder K and just smiled. We talked for 25 min and we were back in the house by 9:30. I testify to all of you that God sees our little efforts and wants to give us faith building experiences. I was just taken back with gratitude for that experience.

Another experience that we had was on Friday. We made a jeopardy game for a ward mission activity, for Friday night. That day I had an interview with an investigator from the other Elders in our house who was scheduled to be baptized on Sunday. We went there and he was not there so we went on splits to wait for him to get back home (well he never did come home and was not baptized, send your prayers for him) but as we were on splits we went to a family that Elder Hansen and I had found on splits about a month ago. They are doing well but haven’t come to church. We had a great lesson with them and they told us how they wanted to come to church but wouldn’t be able to this week because he had to work. I rather gutselly told them that we would love to come by to get them up for the activity tonight. We persuaded them after a while and then we had the closing prayer and we actually were able to set baptism dates with them also. They came to the activity and they loved it and he actually kicked my trash in a pushup contest for one of the categories. It hurts me to tell you that. I was so stoked because I have been doing pushups every morning without missing a single day for almost 11 months but he just whooped me. Man... But it was great.

It was a sad end of the week when the other elders were not able to baptize there investigator. I am learning a lot about how to help people be motivated and really see what it means to have that tag on your chest. It means more and more to me.  I love this work and just want to scream to take out every one of natural man and complacency out of me. But I am grateful and happy.

This week is a big week. The familia Garcia gets married the 1st and baptized the 2nd. I am so excited and really just feel like a dream to be able to have found such a great family. I want them to stay in this so bad. I have faith that they will.

Dad  - It sounds like the race went well and I hope that everything was well marked this year!! haha That was great!! I am excited for you to have this summer. I think it is going to be a really great one and that a lot of lives are going to be touched and a lot of good is going to be done. I was thinking how wouldn’t it be neat if you all could have the goal to try and help an employee reach the waters of baptism this year. Maybe just all be looking for someone who seems really prepared and then pray for some way to share, without any complications with the boss / employee situation. I sure love you Dad and you sound so good!! I loved hearing about your state track experience. I sure appreciate all that you do for everyone. I thank you for your motivation and all that you do. I love you and will keep praying for you. Have a great week and enjoy Harrisons B-day. Love you Pops!!

Mom-  Feeding 600 people in one weekend… ouch. Probably not your record though…even a close second if I remember right…? Wow… what a week!! I hope that this week you can be a little more settled and get some last minute things down. Sounds like you will be hitting the road a lot this week. I hope the kids can step it up this week and help you. (Hint, Hint) How are you feeling?  Lots of emotions the last week…Mikesell graduating… maybe you haven’t had the time to take it in. I am so glad to hear about Brennen’s Patriarchal Blessing. I thought about that a lot this week. Mom, I love you so much. Thank you so much for your email and your words of encouragement. You are pretty on the ball!! I hope that this week is great and if the Clegg cousins are still there tell them Hello for me and that I love them. I love you Mom. Have a great week and thank you so much for your awesomeness. You are the best!!

Mikesell -Wow, there she went. You looked so great in all of your pictures - thanks for sending them. I am glad you got your letter just in time for graduation! I sure love you and am so grateful for the person that you are. I hope that this summer is a great one for you. Sounds like you had a lot of fun last week. I sure miss you sis. I love you and am super excited for this summer for you. It should be a lot of fun.  Work hard and go get that vision this summer. I love you Mikesell.

Brennen - How are you buddy. What a special experience that you must have had. I am so grateful that you were able to get your Patriarchal Blessing. You will cherish that day for ever. You know in Dad´s blessing it talks about how his children will be special spirits reserved to come forth in the last days and you live that perfectly in every way. You are such a good kid. Stay strong and work hard this summer. I am super excited for you. I sure love you brother and keep being the great person that you are. Have fun up there in that little piece of heaven. I am glad that you enjoyed Marsh Valley Tournament!!

Alex-  Hey man, so your Ipod got stolen!? At mutual - that is a bummer… but maybe it will be a good little experince.  It sounds like you played really well. That is awesome.  I sure love you man and I pray for your daily. I hope that this is a growing summer for you in every way. It will be lots of fun. I sure love you Alex. Keep being a great example buddy. You the Man!

HARRISON- THE BIG 9, are you soooo excited for your birthday!? I am... I hope that you have a great day and that you can have lots of fun and remember how loved that you are. I sure miss you buddy. Keep being awesome. What are your big plans for this week? Have you jumped in the lake yet? I love you buddy. Keep saying those prayers!!

McCall- I hope that you love this week so much!! I love you and miss you. I still remember your cute face from Skype on Mothers Day. I hope you can play a lot but be a good little helper and that you will have a fun week. You are getting so big!  This will be a great summer for you. I love you Cally. BIG KISS...

Oh the weather here is actually still surprisingly nice. I love the autumn here.

Papa and Grandma Crouch - I just saw your email come through. I am way excited to print it out and read it. Thank you so much and I love you both!!

Tonight I have a 5 hour bus ride to Bahia for out last leadership conference with my beloved President. I am excited for that.

I will keep trying to be the missionary that all of you think that I am.

I love you all and have a wonderful week. All my love ---

Elder Clegg

May 21, 2012

Family,

Another week, another week! I appreciate all of your letters and the updates on the week. Everyone sounds really well and I am glad to hear about the success of state track and all the great energy as well as movement up at Redfish and in Jerome.  Thank you so much for your prayers this week. They were greatly felt and answered. Yesterday the Ochoa family was confirmed and their baptism on Saturday went really well. It has been about a year since the ward baptized so it was good to "break that ice" and get that water flowing. 

Thank you Grandma Clegg for your email. I will be praying for Grandpa and that the preparation for the surgery will go well. Thank you for sharing that neat experience with me. I am so grateful for your example. I love you both.  

Papa and Grandma Crouch - thank you so much for the Mothers Day email. There are no words to describe the gratitude that I feel reading these letters. I hope that you both have a wonderful week in Idaho. I love you both.

 Well with the baptism on Saturday and some other success it was a great week. I had some serious desire to work this week….and it just felt like a good week. I want to work more with the members here though, we can have a ton of success as missionaries and forget the importance of involving the members. They are so crucial to the work. That is something that I wish I would have realized growing up. Always ask the missionaries if you can go with them out on lessons. It will bless your life greatly. So this week the zone leaders got put in my district and that is such a blessing. You are not going to believe this story but our new Zone leader is from Arizona, and he went to BYU.  This Wednesday when they came to our area to have the interview with the Ochoa family before baptism we started talking and I was asking him where he lived.  Funny thing is, he was dating Amy Ellsworth roommate before his mission. He knows Jessica and Amy very well. He was in their ward. Funny connection huh? He has been out about a year and 5 months. Elder Ryan Garrison is his name. I am happy to work with him. He has great vision. Other than that it was a great week.  The Garica  family has the certificate and they are sealing the deal the first of June to be married. A true miracle. The thirteen year boy, Julian reminds me a lot of you two Brennen and Alex. He is a stud on the bike and is a really good kid, looks up to and respects his Dad so much. 

Well, sounds like life is rolling up at Redfish again. I thought about the wonderful feelings that exist up there at this time and was so happy for you all to be there. Even if you were not there this weekend! haha. Next weekend! ;) Tell all the employees that I love them and that they better have the best summer ever. Kill em with kindness and make it so they want to ask you about the gospel… but more importantly…. open your mouths. Just like you said in your letter Dad.  Hey Mom, would you mind emailing me each of the baptism pictures that there are on that SD card I sent you? I want to print them out here to have them, and i will save them on my SD cards here. I am glad that you got my letter ok for your birthday and that you enjoyed it. You deserve so much more. I am glad that Grandma and Blair and Anneli got there letters also. So far the mail system has been good to us!!

I had a good week of studies this week, I wanted to share just a few scriptures, one is Proverbs 29: 18. The other is the first 15 verses in D&C 76. I have been reading Jesus the Christ and the New Testament and it has been really cool to learn more about the life of Christ.

Dad- Sounds like you had an awesome time at the state track tournament on Friday. That is so great! I am so glad to hear that Jerome did well and that Eric Harris did so well too! I am guessing he will be running at the Y next year. What a great example of vision and desire and effort. Sounds like you have some great returning crew members. I am so happy for Cass to be the Nanny. I hope that you all just have the best summer ever. What a blessing is that place.  It is a part of us! I sure love you Dad. Thank you so much for your example. You don’t know what a huge impact you have on so many. Tell the branch up there that I love them. Have a great week. You are the MAN!

Mom- I am so glad you got the letter and the SD card ok. It was kind of risky of me to send that, but I am glad that it got there ok. What a week you have ahead of you. Brennen will get his Patriarchal Blessing, Mikesell Graduates and the fun begins of trying to get the family moved to Redfish. I will be praying for you extra this week.  You are so amazing. I don't know how you do it all.  Thank you for sharing your testimony. Thank you for all the fun little acts of service that you do for each of us. Those little things are what make the biggest difference. I love you so much Mom. I hope that you have a awesome week. I sent a letter to Amy´s parents and asked if they could just forward it on. Have a great week and travel safely! You are superwoman! I love you with all my heart! 

Mikesell- Mikesell!!  I was thinking about you today. You know I just want to tell you to take a second and look back at your high school career. You have done more good than can be written. You too, just like Eric have reached your vision. Have an attitude of gratitude like you do and you are only beginning to see the potential that lies within you. The story of you with Kristen was so touching. Maybe this was to help you see that you do want to be a trainer or something like that to help people do what they want to do physically. You are so gifted. This is the week. You should get a letter from me. Act like it is a surprise. I love you so much and am so proud of who you are. Thank you for being my best friend and sister and example. You are going to have a great week and one that you will remember forever. Tell Terran, Tanner, Melissa, Hannah all your friends who I know and cant name individually Congrats for me. I love you Mikesell. GO get your vision. 

Brennen- You also have one of the most life changing weeks coming up for you. Mom and Dad I am sure will have some good advice for you. Fasting before will help you to be more spiritually intune. I am so excited for you Brennen. I was thinking and when I get home we will climb a mountain or lake together and we will share our thoughts. Sound like a plan? Have fun in Marsh Valley. Trust in Coach Messick, you will learn a lot from playing with the big boys and just enjoy it. I sure love you buddy. I will be praying for you and I am so proud of the person that you are. Love you bro!!

Alex- Thanks for your email little buddy. You are so great. Are you excited to get up the fish? I didn’t know David and Rio where coming up there again that is awesome. Take advantage of that and tell hello and that I love them. Keep growing in all the important ways buddy.  I love you bud. Keep being a stud!!

 Harrison- Hey little man. Your last week of school! Are you so excited to be with that awesome Cass all summer?  I would be.  I hope that you have a good last week with your friends and enjoy your time. That is sometimes hard to leave all your buddies for the summer, but don’t worry they will be there when you get back. I love you Harrison!! Keep saying your prayers and living life to the fullest.

 McCall- I bet you are really going to miss your buddies…Allie has been a good friend hasn’t she!?  Did you know that I was 7 years old my first summer ever at Redfish? You are already a pro and know all the fun stuff though. I love you McCall and pray for you so much. Have a great week and remember that your big bro loves you.

All my love!!! Have a wonderful week dear family. I love you with all my heart. Be safe and keep living the Dream.

Mikesell Congrats and Brennen enjoy getting your blessing on Sunday!

Alex, Call and Harrison help Mom as much as you can!! 

I love you. This all is real and AWESOME!

Elder Austin