Raising the vision!

Hello my beloved family!

Thanks for the great letter! It was really good to hear about everyone ;) and all of you! It was really funny because  I was at a single ward activity on exchanges and everyone was going wild over the new iphone 5. The first thing I thought was, I know what dad will say in his letter. haha For me it doesn’t matter! I am more happy here than I have ever been. That’s something I have noticed this week. I feel a sense of fullness. Like it says in 3 Nephi 18 about the sacrament, the multitude felt full because of the spirit. That is how I feel. Even though I am not doing all the things I want to do or I don’t have all the new cool stuff, I have never felt more full and happy. It’s the most amazing feeling. I go to bed every night thinking and feeling that I did what I needed to do and I don’t have any regrets. (Even when I am completely exhausted.)  Helping others truly brings true happiness.

I will try to write Ryan today, we have a Zone Activity so we will be busy, but I will make time! This week was amazing! It ended off with a bang too! I have learned so much this week and I am back on and doing well. In the side of new people, we found a new lady last week. She is from Mexico and is about 70 years old. I told my companion this week I don’t know what it is with me finding and teaching older people. She is really good. She is living with her son and his wife and they are all members except the for her, the grandma. We taught her the first time and it was a little hectic just with so many people coming to the door and things. We finally taught her again and it went really well. We are not quite sure on how well she understood, just because of her age. When we leave she shakes are hand and holds it for forever as she tells us a bunch of random things. It always happens to my companion. He shakes her hand and she grabs it and holds it. It’s so funny and he feels so awkward. We are not sure where we will be going with her. She actually came to church yesterday. We weren’t planning on it until I thought about calling her and asking and she said yes. She enjoyed church. The only thing is, she will be returning back to Mexico in November so we are seeing if she really has interest and if we can do this. We don’t want to baptize her and then send her to Mexico. It’s a slippery situation but we have been praying a lot about it and we’ll talk to her tonight hopefully.

We have been trying to find new people to teach this week. We did find a little family with 10 minutes left in the day. We knocked on the door to remind a lady about an appointment we had. Another lady answered and it was her sister. We talked to her and she had been with missionaries in the past and when we showed the Book of Mormon the husband in the background said “Hey come in. I want you to explain that book to me. So with 10 minutes we went in and taught them about the Book of Mormon shortly and reset an appointment for tonight! We are excited for that.

District Meeting: It was really good I think this week. I did a training on how to find new investigators. The thing that was different is that I had the missionaries in the district bring a T-shirt to use. For the training, I taught about the importance of teaching the gospel. We are not here just to say that God has called a prophet and restored his church. No, we are here to teach the gospel and then teach that the GOSPEL, not just his church, was restored through a prophet. The missionaries in my district were surprised and were like "wow". For the practice we put on our shirts. I wore the "DONT MESS WITH TEXAS" and then we roll played a contact. I had them use what was on the shirt to start the conversation and had them reason how they were going to use it, and then I  had them  relate it to the gospel. It was really cool. I felt like it went really well.

So we had exchanges this week with the Zone leaders. I went with Elder Jones in his area in the singles ward. I learned so much and we had such an amazing experience. We only had one lesson. That morning we met with the stake mission leader at "Country Waffles" to explain all the key indicators for the stake. I was so excited because I love that and it’s hard to do that kind of stuff in the Spanish branch. I learned so much in that meeting. We had some really interesting opportunities in tracting also. We taught one boy in the street. We said hi to him and we presented ourselves. He then said “hey lets sit down, I want to hear”. So we all sat down under a tree and we taught him the restoration shortly. He was explaining about how he is mad at God and doesn’t want to join a religion but he needs something and that he wants to overcome drugs and things. We taught him the gospel and about prayer. I could just see the clocks working in his mind and also the spirit. It was a really good experience for me. The other one not so much, but I learned a lot from it. I started the contact. I knocked the door and this huge black guy opens it. I presented ourselves and then I asked him what was his religious background. He then said, "excuse me" And went on to explain that he was very Christian and that he didn’t belong to a religion and that I shouldn’t be having an interrogation with him, but a conversation. He was nice but very strong with us. He had us take out our bibles and read things to him. I was so scared just because I wasn’t used to doing contacts in English. I learned a lot from that. The other cool thing that happened is we sang a lot. We would sing when we walked we sang to the less-actives that we visited. It was a really awesome exchange and I really got inspired and got going.

Yesterday was amazing also. At church we found a guy we never met before and one of the members brought him. We talked to him he stayed for church and then we invited him to learn more about our message. He accepted! It was a blessing from the Lord we didn’t do anything! After church we had a small district meeting because we are going to be doing a class on the 5th Sunday. In the ward council that morning, the bishop was explaining some things and it wasn’t right,  so we are trying to figure how to help this ward.

Yeah I got to go, but the summary of the story, sorry, is:  We are trying hard to grow the branch without strengthening it first. I explained in ward council and our district meeting, about a tree and how it can’t grow faster than its roots. I explained that we must raise the vision of the leaders in the branch before we can raise the vision of the branch as a whole. It was really cool! I am excited about what is going to be happening. This Thursday I am going to do a district meeting on "raising the vision of the leaders" I am really excited and I am relating it to Captian Moroni and how when everything wasn’t going good, he raised the title of liberty and it raised their "vision" He got his armies united and together. I want to help this branch and its leaders raise their vision so we can grow it. Grow the roots and the trunk will grow. I hope everything goes well with that this next week. I have been doing a lot of studying and praying over it. I have been praying a lot also about why the Lord needs me here for so long. I received an answer and I know I need to work with the branch and Reactivation. I want to help this branch grow. I am excited and I am learning so much! I really can feel my leadership abilities kick in.

Oh also ALFREDO GARCIA RECEIVED THE PRIESTHOOD IN CHURCH TODAY!!!! It was such an amazing experience, wow. I will never forget that. Also we went with them to a fireside called, “Why I believe" where recent converts share their testimonies! I sat on the front row and was super happy. After, Sister Merideth told me she enjoyed my happy smile down there haha. I also saw, Elder Rodriguez, Elder O'farrell, Elder Foliaki, Elder Bradford! It was awesome! Also they all were telling me, "So I heard you’re a new district leader" I felt bad to say yes, but I said “yeah and I am learning a lot and trying!”

I need to go but thanks family! I love you all and I will try to write Ryan today! Love you.

Love Elder Austin Hill

Paz fuera!