May 22, 2017

Hello family and friends! I hope you all are well.

This has been a fantastic week!!!!! Especially at the end.

We had some amazing lessons with Elisa this week. We were really
worried about her because she was still having some struggles with the
word of wisdom. We met with her last Saturday and saw a big change in
her. We talked about the two things that she wanted to work on to
prepare herself for the baptismal interview, receiving a testimony on
the Prophet Thomas S. Monson and quitting coffee. We asked her how she
was doing on both of them and she said "oh I think that President
Monson is what we would call in the Catholic Church a Saint!!!" As a
gift, Sister Griffin had given her "On the Lord's Errand" and she
loved watching it. She has a testimony of the prophet now. When we
asked her how she was doing with the coffee, she said that she was
still trying to get off of it. Sister Griffin and Reese (a family
friend) both shared their strong testimonies about the word of wisdom.
Afterwards I felt impressed to say "Elisa, to prepare yourself for
your baptism, will you give us all of your coffee right now?" She
immediately dos so and told us to throw it all away! We took pictures
doing it. She has such great faith! I've never taught anyone more
prepared ever before in my mission! The baptism will be this Saturday
at 7:00P.M. Everyone keep Elisa in your prayers as she gets through
these last couple days before her baptism and confirmation.

Kenny is awesome! He came to church yesterday and we went over the
baptismal interview questions. He's completely ready to go as well.
What a huge miracle he was!!!! Thank you Elder Cunningham!!! After the
lesson his wife started bragging about what an amazing drummer he is!
Kenny mentioned that he played but he made it sound like he was just
an amateur but his wife showed me a video and he is a professional!!!
Kenny is very humble so he would have never told me himself but I'm
glad his wife did haha!!! Kenny will be baptized this Saturday at 6:00
P.M. right before Elisa. It's going to be one of the best days of my
mission!!!

The Lord has yet blessed us even more! Yesterday we had two people
unexpectedly come to church! Tenaz is the sister of a recent convert
in the 1st Ward and she decided to come just before she started work!
She loved it and is committed to come to all of the classes the next
Sunday. We're going to ask her then if she will take the missionary
lessons with us. We know that she'll say yes! Her brother is such a
great example to the family and we're praying that he can help the
rest of his family join the church and be sealed together forever.

Nicole was the other one that came to church. In fact, she reached out
to us via text and asked us if we would meet with her and help her
start her "journey." We we're so grateful and replied with an "of
course!!!" We're going to try to meet with her this week maybe
tomorrow or Thursday. We're super excited. I've been praying all this
month that the Lord would help us find new people to teach and we
worked so hard only to have the Lord have them fall out of the sky it
seems haha! I testify that the Lord is the paymaster and rewards those
that serve him with all their "heart, might, mind, and strength."

Recently in my studies I've been learning about what it truly means to
give your "heat, might, mind, and strength with an eye single to the
glory of God." This quote from C.S.S. Lewis is something that I found
to go along with what I learned: "Give  me  all. I don't  want  so
much  of your  time, so much  of your  talents  and money,  and so
much of your work:  I want  You.  All  of you. I have  not  come to
torment  or frustrate  the  natural  man. but  to  kill  it. No
half-measures  will  do. I don't  want  to only prune  a  branch here
and another  there;  rather, I want  the  whole  tree  out. Hand it
all  over to me,  the whole  outfit,  all  of your desires,  all  of
your  wants  and  wishes  and  dreams.  Turn them  all  over to me,
give  yourself to me  and I will  make  of you  a  new  self in  my
image. Give  me  yourself and in  exchange  I will  give  you  Myself.
My  will,  shall  become  your will. My  heart,  shall  become  your
heart." When we give our hearts, we put both feet in the mission. All
of our wants or passions are put away and we accept the fact that
change happens and we embrace it and find peace and happiness doing
it. After the mission, instead of going back, we take a step forward.
I testify that if we can give our hearts to the Lord, he will change
them and perfect them in His own time.

I love all of you and I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!!

May 15, 2017

Hello family and friends!

What an amazing week this has been!

It was really nice seeing the family yesterday! Karis you've grown so
tall!!!! I miss you all like crazy!

We had an amazing week and I want to let you know what's happening
with the people we're teaching.

Elisa is amazing and came to church yesterday! She has a testimony in
the restoration and in the Priesthood. She chose to be baptized on the
27th of May and she is so excited!!! Brother Griffin (our Ward mission
leader) will be baptizing her and confirming her the next day. She's
changed so much from the time we first met her. She said that these
past 4 weeks have been an amazing blessing for her. Her testimony
comes from the change that she's seen in herself. She said that she
was a very angry person before but ever since she's met us she's
learned that she can leave that anger behind and change. If you asked
me she is the nicest person I've ever met! (Besides you mom) I can't
even imagine her getting angry. We're all excited for her baptism and
this Wednesday when we meet with her again.

Kenny is the coolest guy you'll ever meet! For work he usually finds
himself hanging from a tower 40-100 feet in the air doing maintenance
and electronic repair. Before that he was a drummer! He came to church
yesterday and loved it! It was nice to see the Elders Quorum get to
know him and befriend him. He feels really good about his baptismal
date for the 27th of May and already has asked someone to baptize him.
He's awesome and we're excited for him and his family as well.

So Nic Watson is a young man that we started teaching but when his
family decided not to join in , we transitioned him to the YSA Ward
because we felt that it would be better for him. However he's stayed
in contact with us and just the other day he had his baptismal
interview!!! He's going to be baptized on June 3rd and wants us to
attend and we told him that we wouldn't. Miss it for the world!!!! It
was an amazing blessing to hear that he decided to continue with
baptism. I have been thinking about him ever since the other
missionaries started teaching him and it's a wonderful blessing to
know that the fruits of our labors extend not only to our
investigators but can be anyone that we open our mouths to. I am very
excited to attend his baptism and I hope to bring some of our
investigators there as well.

Something that I've been studying about a lot is the Sacrament. It is
a very sacred ordinance that is essential for our eternal progress and
it is a very important part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My favorite
scriptures on the sacrament are the prayer themselves and they both
mention the promise that we receive which is that "they may always
have His Spirit to be with them" (Moroni 4:3). The Holy Ghost is often
referred to in the scriptures as fire because He purifies or
sanctifies us of our sins. This great blessing of having the Holy
Ghost in our lives is all thanks to Jesus Christ and His Atonement.
The Gift of the Holy Ghost and the renewal of this blessing through
the sacrament are just a few of the ways that we are over time
perfected in Christ. Every week we partake the Sacrament at church, we
exercise our faith to come unto Christ and little by little we start
to experience what Moroni explained in the last 3 verses of his book:

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves
of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all
ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then
is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect
in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can
in nowise deny the power of God.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and
deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of
God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the
covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become
holy, without spot.

I hope that everyone can find this promise fulfilled as they prepare
themselves and loved ones to partake of the Sacrament each week. What
an amazing blessing it is!!!

May 1, 2017

Hello Family and Friends!!! 

The last Sunday before transfers was Awesome!!!! It started off with the Confirmation of Russell Skuse. It was a great way to end the transfer. Afterwards we were able to go to another Ward and we're going to go to temple square with a band new investigator! Her name is Tenaz and she is the sister of a recent convert. She came to church once with us and loved it!!!! After temple square we're going to invite her to take the missionary lessons and also to be baptized on May 20th. We're super excited to see how it goes. In the last Ward we went to Elder Sandino and I gave talks in sacrament meeting and then we taught the class during the second hour. I absolutely love teaching!!!! It was a great Sunday! 

Yesterday was just as good. It was the end of the first week of the transfer. Transfer news came in and Elder Sandino and I will be staying together! Elder Sandino is one of the best companions a missionary can ask for which is something that I mentioned in my sacrament meeting talk. I'm very thankful for the Lords Inspiration on putting me with him. I hope to learn much during our next transfer together. If I stay with him for my last two transfers then he will make my longest had companion. That'll be cool! 

Some updates on what's happening with the people we've been teaching: Elisa is progressing and loves the lessons! Two Mondays ago we had to cut P-Day short to teach a lesson at her home. We took with us the Ward Mission Leader and his wife, Brother and Sister Griffin. We taught the plan of salvation and we're able to relate it back to everything that is important to her with is her family and her faith. She loved it and believes it. She accepted the baptismal date for May 13th. Last Monday she came over to the Griffins where we ate dinner together and talked about church and what we do there. We showed her videos of what sacrament meeting is like and invited her to attend with us. Well yesterday she came to church for the first time and she loved it!!! She was able to meet the Bishop and the Stake President. When we left she committed us to a lesson the next day so today we'll be teaching her at the Griffin's today. Everyone keep her in her prayers that the Spirit will be with her as she prepares to be baptized on the 13th. 

Nic is awesome! He's definitely going to be baptized. In order to help him more, we told him about the single adult Ward and invited him to attend. He still wants to see us now and then and because we teach his family we'll see hi every time we go over to his home. But the YSA sisters will be teaching him now. I'm very thankful for the opportunity that I had to get to know him and teach him. He's a wonderful guy that I hope to stay in contact with even after my mission. 

I love you all and wish you the best this week! 

Elder Kallin James Austin 

Utah SLC South Mission 

April 17, 2017

Hello family and friends!!!! What a great week!!!!!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend. We definitely enjoyed ours!!!!

Last Thursday we had the special opportunity as a Zone to take our
investigators to a musical concert. The performance was called the
"Lamb of God" and it was done by the Draper Philharmonic Orchestra. We
had the special opportunity to take one of our investigators on date
to be baptized (Nic) and it was an amazing experience. They had a full
orchestra and also a full choir.they also had several soloists that
sung parts in the place of many of the apostles and also significant
women in the New Testament. The went through some of the miracles
Jesus Christ performed during his life, His Atonement, His death, and
His resurrection. I was blown away and I couldn't think of a better
way to prepare myself for Easter! Nic loved it and is still preparing
himself to be baptized on May 6th. Hopefully the rest of his family
will also take this very important step to join the gospel as well!

Last Wednesday we received a text from one of our investigators named
Russell Skuse who has been taking missionary lessons for two years
now. He is fully active in his high priest group every Sunday but just
hasn't taken that step of baptism because of lash back that he has
received from his family. Just before Elder Sandino and I entered the
area, he had just dropped the other Elders asking them for a little
time away from missionary lessons. Well we got into the area and have
been working with him since. Lady Wednesday we received a text from
his saying "hey Elders! I just got back from my business trip! It was
complicated and we ran into a lot of problems. But I'm back now and I
want to schedule my baptism date for this Sunday at 7:00 P.M. Will
that work?" We both nearly passed out after reading the text and we
rejoiced!!!! We said "of course it will!!!!" He passed his interview
with flying colors and he was baptized on Easter Day. His daughter,
who wasn't supportive in the past, not only came to church with him
but also came to the baptism to support her father. It was a wonderful
baptism and the Holy Spirit was very strong. After we had taught the
Restoration to everyone while Russell was changing out of baptism
clothes, we sat down and Elder Sandino leaned over and said "that was
the most powerful lesson I've taught. The Spirit was so strong!" I was
so happy that we were able to experience this amazing miracle!

I'm very thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that makes this
miracle of baptism possible. Knowing that He came and atoned for us
gives us perfect hope that we too will be able to ascend to our Father
in Heaven one day. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. God the
Father and God the Son are real and they know us all by name. I love
them and will serve them as best as I can.

I love you all and I wish you an amazing week. Also please keep the
Espinoza family in your prayers! This family has been torn apart by
Satan as they were investigating the gospel. They need all the help
they can get. Have a great week!

returning a dog to his owner