May 9, 2015

Well this week was crazy! I feel like I say that every week...... 

Well I had one of the wonderful opportunities to see one of the best
missionaries in our mission teach the restoration. We were at a
baptism for someone in our Ward and Elder Mason taught the
restoration. What makes Elder Mason so good is that he was an AP not
too long ago. And usually that doesn't mean too much but being an AP
in a mission located within the valley of the prophet and apostles is
something else. He's met almost every apostle and has participated in
a training given to all of the first quorum of the 70. He's learned a
lot and watching him reach the restoration in Spanish taught me a lot
as well. 

I learned something that reminded me of our last zone
training meeting. And that is the power behind your authority.

During the last zone training meeting we talked a lot about where the
power of our words come from and how to access it. As missionaries we
are given power to testify just as powerfully as an apostle however
being 18 and up its a little hard to figure out how to use your power
and authority without all of the knowledge and experience that the
apostles have. But at the last training meeting we talked about how
every time we give our credibility as representatives of Jesus Christ
we are using our authority. The more we use and rely on this authority
the more power our words will have. This power comes from the spirit.
As I watched Elder Mason teach I saw the way he used his title as an
Elder and how the people reacted. It's incredible how much power his
words had and you could see it in the eyes of everyone their.

And so I've been studying a lot on this stuff. The more I learn the
better I get at teaching and also allowing the spirit to teach. Me and
my companion have been working on letting the spirit teach rather than
us and we've seen some pretty amazing miracles from it. 

First off we
found 8 new investigators last week. I have never seen anyone finding
that many in one week before. It's incredible how the more sincere our
testimonies get the more the people we talk to can feel the spirit.
Every one that has allowed us to talk to them has accepted the Book of
Mormon and also the baptism invitation. Now getting them to stay on
the path towards baptism is the tricky part but we're working on it.

Right now we have 15 investigators and 2 of them are getting ready to
be baptized. We are very excited to see what happens these next two
weeks.

In other news I just went on one of the hardest hikes of my life. 6
miles total up and down a mountain. Here are some of the pictures.

Also last Saturday we had a Mother's Day activity and we decided to contribute a little something.

Fried Oreos!!!!! Bringing the south to Utah!!!!!!! 




Also the highlight of this week was being able to talk to my family last Sunday. It has been too long!!! Everyone looks so different! But it was really nice talking to everyone. I forgot how funny my dad is haha!!!!!! I love all of them to death. 

That's everything that's happened. Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Austin