I am still alive and doing so well!

We got a letter today. I live for Thursdays! There is a part in this letter that I am still crying about. I am sure you can guess which part when you get to it. I love and miss my boy! This week I sent a care package with beef jerky, trail mix and 24 Valentine "Fruit by the Foot". I am already working on next week's. It helps me with the time.
That is all I have to say. So here is what we have been waiting for.....


HEY MOM and everyone!!! I am still alive and I'm doing so well! I love it here! We have had a lot of companionship inventories which has really helped! It is still hard and one of the companions still hates it. Its tough though. We are really helping him, but its because he isn't been completely obedient with everything.

We have been teaching a new investigator named Erik. He is married and Catholic. The interesting part is  that his wife is a member of our church. She prays with him and he hears her read the Book of Mormon which has really helped us. We taught the first lesson about the Restoration and it went really well but when we extended the baptism invitation to him he said no. That is fine. He is fine with his Catholic religion and is happy. Our next lesson was answering some of his questions and also teaching him more about the gospel. When we taught the lesson the spirit wasn't there, but when we were done and he still didn't want to think about baptism, we just humbled ourselves and started to speak by the Spirit. We testified of the truth of this church and of the Book of Mormon. Elder O'Farrel told him of his experience being a Catholic and being baptized into the LDS church. He testified that he knows this church is true. We all testified of the truth and challenged him to read the Book of Mormon. We teach him again today and we're going to again invite him to read the Book of Mormon. We really want him to know that we aren't making him do anything we are just simply inviting him to know for himself if these things are true. Hopefully it goes well!!

Other than that I have been learning so so so much! I have been working on charity and patience. Those are the Christlike attributes I'm working on. Also on Tuesday, we had a devotional for the 50th anniversary of the MTC. Elder Nelson was there and also Elder Holland. It was powerful! They spoke on the importance of being a missionary, acting like a missionary and knowing that if we work hard we will stand on the shoulders of those giants who have come before us. Then at the end Elder Nelson rededicated the MTC! They dedicated it again because of some renovation! IT was amazing! The Spirit was so strong and what he said was profound. This is a hollowed place and a sacred ground. It is dedicated like the temple to the service of the Lord.

Also our branch president talked to us afterward about what we learned and also about some things he wanted to teach us. One thing I learned from him that I hope you can tell Grandpa was about Patriarchal blessings. He reminded us that God is omniscient. This means he is all knowing and all-seeing. This means that he sees yesterday, today and forever at the same time. As we receive our blessings the Lord is actually telling us what He sees. He tells us of our past, our present state and our future. He said that everything in the blessing will come to pass because it has happened.(As long as we are righteous of course!!) It was powerful, he also challenged us to reread our blessings with the new eye of seeing our lives through God's eyes. Seeing it as His will. We need to align our will with His, and when we do that we can fulfill what He wants us to do. He told us to read Moses 1:31. Moses asks why he is doing what he is doing (Moses 1:39) and God simply replies, it is for myself to know and my own purpose. We don't know why, but it is His will. With this idea, it teaches us that we should be righteous and follow His commandments, and bring others to the gospel, simply on terms of our love for Him. We don't know the why, but we love Him and that is all we need.

The MTC has been really fun! I am enjoying it. I have seen Isaac a lot and have talked to him! Thanks for the packages that you sent! They were really nice and my companions say thanks! About the temple clothes, I need my white pants, shoes and Tie. I can rent them from the temple, but when I get to Oakland I need them so I can baptize. I am the only one without them haha! The temple has been great though! We are going again today!

I have been working really hard! One of my teachers wanted to have a one on one conversation with me yesterday to get to know me. He said that he knew that I was known as the miracle. I don't know how he knew about my heart, but he said that it was amazing that I am here. I told him that because of what the Lord has done for me, I am going to give everything I have to the Lord. I am going to work as hard as I can and be diligent. I have been very tired, like they say once you start your mission your eternally tired, but as I push forward and work hard and am diligent, I'm strengthened and I can stay awake and work hard. My companions keep asking me how I stay awake and I simply tell them I'm being obedient, going to bed on time getting up on time and also I don't want to waste any time! Its to important.

I am so excited to get out into my mission and to bring people to the gospel and to come to love them! One thing I learned is in the pre-existence we were given "plans" My plan is that I would come to this country, into my family and into our church. Whereas, say my best friend in heaven was being sent to a foreign country or to Oakland, speaking a different language and not being apart of the gospel. It is powerful to think that I covenanted with the people I knew before birth, that I would bring them the gospel. I am preparing to teach certain people that are waiting for me to come. The Lord is preparing them to hear me and to accept the gospel. It is so powerful!

I love everyone!!!! I am doing great, learning a ton and enjoying it here! I'm having a load of fun too with the people here! We have been playing games and stealing each others district name signs and things like that (in our down time)! Its fun! One thing that is sooooo funny is every Wednesday when the  new missionaries come. When they get their name tags there is an orange tag on them to tell others that they are new. Well one of my companions likes to mess with them so on Wednesday he slips his name tag around so its blank and puts the orange tag on it. He then goes to the new missionaries and is like freaking out "Where did you guys get your name engraved!? Mine came blank!" The new missionaries always freak out and are like "I don't know mine just came this way!" Ha ha ha its so funny! We have done it every Wednesday so far! Its awesome!@


I got to go!
I love everyone!
Talk to you soon!
Elder Austin Jay Hill