An email from a while ago

TRANSFERSS!!!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow we're getting another batch of baby missionaries! It looks like I'll be staying in Grand Junction 1st ward for another 6 weeks and I'll continue to train! After this transfer I'll have been in this ward for just about 6 months! Out of all the missionaries in our district I've been in this area the longest haha it's probably because they dont want to expose the rest of colorado to me haha I'm excited though! I get to freeze my butt of on my bike for another 6 weeks in GJ's record cold weather woooooooohhoooo It's gonna be great! This ward hasn't had many missionaries stay over 4 months here so it's cool to have a chance to continue to build strong relationships with all of them! ANyways this week was pretty good! Elder Green got his stitches out so we were able to get back to work and ride our bikes really fast again! It was kinda crazy tho, we met with this guy who flagged us down a couple weeks ago and told us to come over. he lives alone in this really nice house thats full of all this really cool ancient stuff and lots of guns haha He let us hold all of these sweet rifles and shotguns and stuff. it was sweet! I guess he played semi pro basketball and wwas really successful when he was young so he got to retire when he was like 28 or something. and now he just invests in young singers and all that good stuff. He was a really nice guy but I could tell that even with all that awesome nice stuff he isn't really happy. something is missiing, and all he is trying to do is make up for what he doesn't have. It's sad to see, but hopefully he'll open up to the gospel, but I dont think he will. He's jewish and I think he wants to just bible bash! It's all good though! ANyways! ANother transfer is over! number 4 starts now, and it's gonna be the best one yet, just as long as i dont freeze. It's kinda funny we'll be riding around and its a nice 3 degrees and my eyes will start to water because its so cold, and then the water freezes to my eyes! Its cool! Take care everyoneand keep being cool and stuff!!

Another email from Pickle

HEY! I'm glad you liked the pictures, I guess I'll try to get more with me in them. It has been literally freezing the past week.... I guess we've had record snow and low temperatures for grand juntion! I guess the temp got down to -11 at one point... I thnk irvines record cold is like 50 or something haha It's been kinda crazy trying to get around with it all. A lot of the streets we ride on are side and back streets so they dont get plowed and the snow eventually turns into ice, which makes it almost impossible to ride on... my companion learned the hard way hahaha We were on our way to an appointment (...late) and I was riding pretty fast so i got pretty far ahead of him, and after a while I looked back and he was just walking his bike down the street. I thought oh he's probably just playing it safe, but then he leaned his bike against a fence and started taking off his jackett.... at this point I was what the heck man we're late lets go! So I started yelling from down the sstreet to see what he was doing, but he wasn't even responding and he was leaning over a little. so I started walking over there and as I got closer I could see that the snow around him was just covered in blood... then I was like oh crap. So I started running over to him and as I got there our bishop and his family just happened to be driving by and pulled over and helped us... its was nuts! there was also another member who was meeting with us to teach a lesson and he showed up too to help out. My comp had slipped on some ice and went face first into the ice, and cut his chin open. I could tell right away he would need stitches cause it was pretty deep haha he's scared of needles though so when we went to the urgent care he was a little freaked out, but he toughed it out and got 5 stitches inside and 11 on the outside. Looking back on it now it was pretty hilarious, but we were definitely being watched over when we had a member and the bishop and his family all pull up to help him out. but anyways... we're being very careful haha. I'm just getting over being sick and now elder green is stitched up, but we're hanging in there. one week left in the transfer, and we're looking to finish strong! There is some good that comes out of biking in the cold too though. we were riding home at like 9:30 one night and got stopped by a bunch of diifferent people. they were all amazed that we would be crazy enough to ride around in 0 degree weather in the middle of the night hasha I was a little amazed we were doing it too haha anyways I'm glad to hear that everyones doing well back home and you're all getting ready for christmas too. we have lights up in our place and a little tree too haha and thats so cool about JT too. I remember that litle guy haha he was awesome! I might need some more letter/writing stuff here pretty soon. I love and miss you all so much! Let me know how everything is going and merr christmas! Love Elder Austin

4 month mark!

It's crazy to think I've been out for 4 months already! I still feel like I just got out here. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving week! It was weird to be away form home, but we made the most out of it for sure! We weren't allowed to proselyte so we played football all day and ate a ton of food. It was sweet! We've just been doing our thing as usual, working hard and talking to all sorts of awesome/crazy people. We're coming up on transfers too, which is insane! I really hope I stay though cause transfer day is on December 17th and I'd be sooooo mad if I get moved to a new area the week before Christmas, but I guess its not up to me haha Anyways this week is shaping up to be another crazy one! Everyones saying that we're looking at 18 degrees one of the days this week with some snow too. They're also saying it'll be around 8 deg. at night..... For some reason they like putting the cali beach boy on the bike in the dead of winter! We'll see how it goes I guess. Hopefully everyones doing well back home. I miss you all so much! Thanks for the prayers and letters and all! They help out so much! Love Elder Austin

Pickle's B-day