Hey!!

Things are going good over here! We finished zone conferences and they went great. i think they caused a change in some of the missionaries hearts. We're excited to see all the good that will happen here in the mission. Now we're working on the transfer board. It's weird putting missionaries in areas and knowing i wont be here for any of it, but its good. Great things will happen!

I'm definitely going to miss being a missionary. I dont know where i would be if i hadn't served. I was healed and saved by this mission for sure :) As much as i love it though, i'm excited to come home. God told me to come out here so i came, and now he's telling me to go home, so i'll go home! He has a lot in store so i'm excited for all the things he'll need me to do. I love you guys! Thanks for supporting me through these 2 years. I owe you all a ton :) 

We've been seeing tons of miracles lately and i know God will continue to bless the missionaries in this area. There are people waiting everywhere. We just have to show them the way!! 

Love

Elder Austin

HEY!

Transfers are tomorrow! 

WE did have a couple cool experiences. We got a referral from Salt Lake for a guy in jail. He was a drug lord and wanted us to come teach him how to pray. He's a member but hasn't been in a long time. We met with him at the jail over a video chat. He was really cool, and seems like he wants to change. He said an awesome prayer too. We also met a lady while we were knocking a few doors. She's having a ton of family struggles and said she was praying all morning for help from God, and then we came. It's funny too cause we knocked her whole street and no one talked to us the entire time. We thought about leaving to a new spot but felt like we should just keep going. I've learned that there are no coincidences. God knows what he's doing and uses us as the instruments to answer prayers and bless his children. 

 Love, Elder Austin

It sounds like everyone is doing so good back home! Thts so sweet that Dad is helping the missionaries out and the kid wants him to baptize him?!?! 

Things are going well here. This past week was a little more normal so we got some work done! We'll be having a miracle baptism this saturday! The Pierce Family!! Garrett and Jessica are the parents and they have a little 3 year old boy and a 2 year old girl. WE've been teaching them nd they've been coming to church and last night he told us that he wanted to tell us to baptize him right after church!So we moved their date up to this saturday!! They wanted to be baptized in the river but president shot it down haha safety reasons and stuff. It's been a great week though! Met a lot of people and are seeing tons of success. The other day we tracted into a Spanish families home and I taught them a little bit and asked if the spanish sisters could come, they said it ws cool. So when the sisters went over they texted us and said that they are "super golden and prepared"  It’s awesome to see how the Lord uses every ounce of our talents to help others out!!

Other than that its been busy!! This week will be tons of exchanges with other elders and then the following 2 weeks will be Specialized Trainings (E.Donovan and I will have to drive to Delta, Montrose, Craig, Rifle, and Glenwood Springs) Lots of driving and more exchanges and then the week after that, we will start working on The Transfer Board....Which takes a long time too…

Anyways pray for me that I wont die this week, and that I'l be able to get a reasonable amount of sleep hahaha

Elder Austin 

The pic is from a festival in the mall where the Denver Nugget cheerleaders were meeting people!

Things are going good over here in Golden. We're really trying to get the ward more involved in missionary work and actually supporting us (the ward hasn't helped the elders much in the past D:) and i think its starting to work! WE'll be having a baptism this friday and should be having more in february! We've been working hard and were starting to see the results. One example of the ward helping us out in missionary work is we were over at the bishops house and I asked him who he knew that wasn't a mormon and that we could go try and make mormon haha he thought for a while and finally was just like well you can go give this lady a shot haah he didn't even know her name but we went over to her house got in and taught her. we found out she is a great great great great however many greats granddaughter of joseph smith!! IT was pretty awesome! Her family told her to never tell anyone she was related to him, but she told us and shes now reading the book of mormon and taking the discussions! SO! If you have anyone that pops into your mind for even a second that you think the missionaries should go try. tell them!! 

I can't beleive I have only 6 months left now! It's going by so fast, and its only going quicker. It feels like everyday it goes faster. I'm excited to work hard these last 6 months and then to see you all again :) 

Love you guys!! PEACE!

Elder Austin

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