How are ya?.

I still can't beleive I'm almost to my last 6 months! It's unreal! Things are going by so fast. The sisters that flew out with me go home at the end of this month and the others go home in february, which is a really weird feeling! 

Things are going good out here! Elder Cabas and I are working super hard and seeing a lot of success! now we just need to get these people baptized! A lot of them have potential and will be awesome members :) 

It's cool how much we've been guided by the spirit this past week. We've been super busy but in the little windows of time that we have to work huge blessings come. one day we only had like an hour to teach so we decided just to knock on doors and all three doors we knocked on let us in and we taught them and got return appointments :) When we do the small things God makes big things happen! Thats what we've been trying to teach the missionaries in the zone is that being obedient to every detail will bring huge blessings!! I think it applies to non missionaries too! 

anyways I love you! miss ya tons! 

Elder Austin

Lastest from Pickle

Happy Monday!!

Well well well. Things are going good over here! It sounds everyone is still cool back home...I'm glad to hear that haha Mom send a pic of the scooter! The other day we were helping a lady get her scooter running and I thought of you... hopefully yours doesn't work either haha

Alright so transfer news!!! Elder Belding will be leaving! It stinks, he was fun to serve with but he's gotta move on! I found out that my new companion is one of my homies from back in the day! His names Elder Kuns!! We'll be working with the zone together and then training a brand new missionary! This will be my third son. I'm pretty pumped!!

This last Saturday Elder Oaks met with us missionaries in the area and it was sooo cool! Theres no way that man is not an apostle! On Saturday Elder Martino and Elder Roads of the 70 spoke, then Bishop Couse (Presiding Bishopric) and  the Sister Oaks and then Elder Oaks...the spirit was so powerful! It was almost too much to handle haha Then the next day, Elder Oaks spoke at our Stake conference! Once again soo much power!!!!!! President and Sister Murdock spoke too! We're sitting in the gym with one of our investigators when the usher came up and moved us all the way to the second soft bench from the front! We had several other investigators come too! After the meeting one of them (Matthew) ran up and wanted to shake Elder Oak's hand. (Matthew doesn't even really believe in God) So I grabbed him and introduced him to President and Sister Murdock and they asked him how long he'd been been baptized for and he said oh I'm not yet haha President was like I'm happy you say yet cause it'll happen soon haha After them I went for Elder Oaks all guns blazing!! I stopped him (that was kinda scary haha) and introduced him to Matt. I'll never forget this cause Elder Oaks dropped some apostle testimony on Matt.  He said the best thing about all of this is that its all true. Matt felt the spirit, I felt the spirit, both of our testimonies were strengthened by that little sentence haha Matt is slowly being chipped away at. It's only a matter of when now haha I guess to relay some of Dallin H. Oaks message to you guys. Listen and be willing and able to follow the promptings of the spirit! Follow Christ's example! "WE ARE A CHURCH OF DOERS"

I love you all! Keep being cool and stuff and don't let mom ride the scooter. That's to all of the family that will read this and other people hahah Love you tons!

Elder Austin

Happy MONDAY!!

Things are going good over here! We've just been really busy and running all over the place. Tons of exchanges and meetings and conference calls.We're really working to build the ward’s trust and get the members involved. We've been tracting and finding for hours everyday and haven't seen a ton of success so it’s up to the members. It's frustrating when the members don’t want to be involved with missionary work. So you better be helping the missionaries you have over there in the Westpark ward!! Give them people to teach and go out with them :) Its not scary and it brings blessings! Feed them too!!! hahaha I'm sure you guys are doing great at all that though haha

The area is pretty cool! Small towns and ranches (still a lot bigger than Granby) We're in a car cause we have to drive all over the place, but we've been spending most of our time walking trying to talk to people haha for p days we've just been playing basketball. its a nice change of pace from fishing every p day, but im looking for all the good spots to hit another p day

Love you all! Keep being cool and having fun over there! This day last year I was in the MTC haha so nuts!! Take care :)

Love

Elder Austin

It sounds like everyone back home is doing awesome!

Things are going good over here. We're working hard and trying to build the area. It suffered a bit the past few transfers with some missionaries getting sent home early, but we're turning it around :)

It's crazy that all these people are leaving on missions. It's the best choice they'll ever make!

I love you all so much! And I'm so pumped being on a mission. The other day we had a zone conference and the things I learned were awesome :) The work is hastening! We're having an apostle come to our stake conference here in a couple weeks, and its going to be so cool to hear what he has to say. Big things are happening over here!!!

Love, Elder Austin

OHHH BABY!

Rifle, CO.! This place is pretty cool haha I'm actually living in Silt and we cover Silt, Newcastle, and part of Rifle. It's a lot of fun here. The area and zone has struggled for awhile I guess but were about to tear it up :) Our zone seems pretty cool too, good missionaries...some interesting ones too haha

Ok so my new companions are Elder Belding from Kentucky, and Elder England from Washington!!! Weare pumped haha Everyone in the mission is super jealous too of our companionship haha They're all like what?!?! Elder Belding, Elder Austin, and Elder England all together that's not fair hahaha It has been so fun too! Really busy though with all the other stuff but its cool.

...my collar bone is all gravy mom haha

Everyone talks about Shooter’s Cafe here haha we're probably gonna go today haha we'll see :)

Saw the girls camp video! It was awesome haha I'm glad your all doing well over there :) I cant believe Brandyn is leaving too! He'll be such a stud missionary.

I can't believe last year I was getting ready to leave on my mission! haha its so crazy! There's no time to lose! I'll be home in no time so I guess I better make the most of what I have right now :) I love you guys thanks so much for the love and support :) And I did get the package and letter thanks so much :)

Pickle's Pictures

Nick will be moving on from Granby to Rifle, CO. He will be a Zone leader in his next area. He loved his time in Granby and will really miss it.

Newest Email

HEY!!!I

Alright so Elder Quezada is in Montrose and Elder Ramirez is finally settled in here!! It's been such a tiring week cause of all the driving I have to do now! Ramirez doesn't have a drivers license so I'm the all time driver...we have to go to Denver twice this week too. He's a cool kid thoo 2 months out of Peru and its his first time out of his country! He speaks ok English too! My spanish is already continuing to get better. I feel comfortable going up to people and speaking but its tough to understand them sometimes haha So I'll just nod my head and say si or act distracted haha

Alright so spiritual story for the week!

Yesterday we were on our way to Kremmling after church (really far away) and about 1/4 the way there I started feeling like we shouldn't go. It was mostly laziness that kept me from wanting to go, but I did feel promptings as well! So we flipped around and headed back. We had no plans for working in Granby so we just decided to knock doors. The first door we knocked on let us in and it turned out she was a member! Less active for years, but we challenged her to read the Book of Mormon, and she said she would and invited us back another time. Then like 10 minutes later we parked on the side of the street to get out and knock more doors, and this lady was just standing at her door staring at us haha so I said Hey what’s up were missionaries and she’s like yeah I know I'm a member. She also was a less active member who didn't even know there was a church here! She wanted a Book of Mormon and said she would come to church!!! And you thought my laziness was a bad thing mom and dad hahaaaaa

Anyways things have been good over here! We just put 2 of our investigators on date for baptism in July! They're 20 and 23 years old . We're also still working with Kerby and her family!!!

Love you guys! Keep being awesome!

Con amor!

Elder Austin!!

A new message from Nick

Alright so transfer news!....this ones crazy!!!

So much to my joy and happiness I'm staying here in Granby!! I'm also going to finish a new missionary's training!Hes only been out for a short while and hes from peru! and he speaks no english!!! So I guess I'll be learningspanish real quick!! I'm excited but nervous too!!! I hear he's a good humble kid sso it should be fine. The work still continues to be awesome up here! We're still meeting lots of cool people, and not so cool people but its all fun no matter what!

I haven't done any of my x ray stuff cause its too expensive and dumb. I'll keep going on it until I feel something go wrong for sure! Dont worry about it mom!!

Hope you all continue to be happy and super cool! I miss you guys so much! It's weird that I'm almost a month away from my year mark. I'm just tryinng not to think about it. It's flying by soo fast!!!

Love you all!

Con mucho amor

Elder Austin

Pickle in the woods

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!!

It's crazy to see everyone going on missions, graduating, getting married! Hahaha it's pretty cool! I'm glad that your all doing well :) 

I have no idea what's gonna happen this coming transfer! It's pretty up in the air but hopefully I stay! I love this area too much haha it's pretty easy to find out where your going when your Spanish speaking cause there are only like 10 Spanish areas in the mission. If I do get moved I want to stay in the mountains at least. All of the mountain areas are Spanish speaking so hopefully I get one of them! 

This week has been interesting. We've been rejected a ton with little success :) it's cool tho cause were still working really hard and are going to see more success soon! Last week of the transfer thooooooo! Who knows what's going to happen! Usually if I like where I'm at.....pres likes to move me so I'll probably go! Haha

Anyways things have been good. Love you guys! Thanks for all you guys do

Love elder Austin! 

Ps more pics comin! 

A little message from Elder Austin

It was cool getting to talk to all of you yesterday! It's sad saying bye but we only have 2 more skypes left til I get home! Crazy! It really has been flying by. It's so much fun getting to teach and meet all of these people. The crazy ones and the cool ones too! It's definitely been some of the hardest days of my life but the most rewarding too. This is the most important message and gift on this earth. It's blessing my life so much and it's great to see it bless all of these peoples lives too. I've never worked harder in my life, and I love it. No work is more rewarding. This gospel is true. We need to cherish it and share it with all those who don't know about it or who may have forgotten. Nothing with bless our lives more :) Love, Elder Austin

Hola!

So my new area is cool! we're just a small branch up here cause a lot of the people who live here are transient and only stay for ski season and stuff, but it's a great little branch! The people are awesome and willing to help out! My new companion, Elder Quezada, is awesome! He's native to spanish and taught english before his mission, so I'm in luck! He's from Oxnard Shores Cali, but also sorta from Chile! He's old too hahaha he's 2 years older than me....geezer haha ANyways SPANISH! It's coming haha I still am lost in all the lessons and stuff but I can pray carryon a converstation kind of. It's so much fun haha WE teach this awesome family that owns a restaraunt in Fraser and they speak spanishand they're just super cool. They give us food all the time! I can't wait til I can teach and communicate well in spanish! Quiero aprender ahora, pero necessito tiempo! ANyways the teaching has been going pretty well! We've been finding new people to teach like crazy and we have a couple who are progressing really well! ONe guy in particular. His name is Ken and his whole family are members of the church. He's been "investigating" the church for a long time now. Missionaries have deemed him an etern-a-gator because he's never really progressed, but we had an intense lesson with him and his family yesterday and he said he wants to get baptized! Probably this coming sunday! WE're excited because this guy is pretty much a member, he just needed a bit of a push! We also taught another awesome part member family! They want to get baptized the only problem is the parents need to get married!!! WE had a crazy lesson with them about eternal families and the blessings that come with the temple! WE were pretty much invinting them to get married...the things we do as missionaries! They seem like they're going to start progressing really fast! But anyways it was a good end to the week. Hopefully we can keep things rolling!!!!! Love you all!! Elder Austin!

Se Habla Español Elder Austin

Crazy things have been going on this week! Transfers are tomorrow so the missionary world is going crazy! And its official now....I got a call on saturday night saying that I will need learn spanish and that I'm being transfered to a spanish area....I have no idea what I'm getting myself into but it should be fun! I'm gonna miss the foothills ward though. ONly 6 weeks here and I'm already close with a lot of these families, but I'm looking foward to habloing (see my spanish is already good!) WE also have been teaching this awesome family, The McDowell's, and just gave them a date for baptism on friday! I'm bummed I wont be here for it, but send them your prayers so that thewy can continue to progress. Other than that we've almost died a couple times driving in the snow because I kjeep pulling this cool lever thats right by my seat ;) I've also never had so much food in my life. WE ate at a recent converts house and they gave us a huge plate of food, but I was hungry so I went for seconds, and she gave me a plate that was bigger than the first sooo I almost threw up cause I had to eat it all. ANyways I still need to pack all the random junk I've accumulated and some spanish to learn sooooo PEACE!!!

Nick Pics

UPDATE!!!

SO it's been an awesome week here in Lakewood/Golden/wherever I am! WE've been working hard and its been paying off. At the begining of the week we had some guy call us and he was breaking down over the phone talking about how his sister got in a pretty bad accident and how she is comatose (i think thats how you spell it) ANyways we go and see him in this motel where he's staying with a couple other guys and it was pretty sketchy cause it smelled like smoke (cigarrette and the other kind) and they all looked like they wanted to hurt me, but we start talking to the one guy and he seems really interested. We also prayed with him for his sister. Over the next week we keep goig over to see him and he tells us that his sister is somehow remarkably healed and that she's home now and how he wants to be baptized! I also noticed that his roomate was listening a little closer than in past times. He was always there but he never sat in on the lessons, but this time i could see him across the room just listening. SO after the lesson I went up to him and told him about what we do, he was interested ad took a book of mormon. It was such a cool experience to be a part of. I also got a text from the Elders back in The Grand Junction 1st ward (my last area) and they told me how two of the guys that Elder Green and I found are on date for baptism! One of the guys, Steve, Was I guy I talked to on the street. I remember I was riding down the street one day and I passed I guy and didn't talk to him...I felt like poo so I said a prrayer and promised God I would talk to the very next person I saw, no matter what haha So about 2 seconds later I see steve! Turns out he was solid hahaha Yesterday we had about 6 less active members come to church too. There hearts are changing and they're remembering what the gospel has dfone for them in there life. It's for everyone! We all neeed it! Thanks for all the love and support you give me! I need it! your letters and emails are the best! LOVE YOU ALL PEACE OUT!!!! Elder Austin!

The recent email

So I'm in the Foothills Ward now! The area covers parts of Golden Colorado, Lakewood, and just the metro area of Denver. It's like I'm in a whole different mission compared to out west. The way of life is just so different. It looks like I’m in another area that is struggling though... My new companion, Elder Johnson, started his mission with Elder Green so he's a pretty young missionary...like me! He said it’s been tough here. I'm excited though cause the ward seems great! I got to speak at a baptism and be a part of a recent converts confirmation! It was so cool! Elder Johnson said that the past 4 days have been the hardest he’s worked and the most successful he's been in his entire mission, so hopefully things will start looking up. I'm glad everyone is doing well! The whole city is in depression right now because of how bad the Broncos played its kinda crazy haha. It’s weird being in a football town because every single person has Bronco apparel haha!

Nick with a family from Grand Junction :)

Monument Zone

Animal Shelter Mascot- Sherman

Nick's Pictures :)