The food here is getting more and more terrible!!! The only redeeming quality is the wrap bar. So I have had a wrap every day for like the past month. Being music director also gets really difficult sometimes. Some of those hymns are nasty to conduct!!!!! What I am most excited for are Sundays. As music director I can schedule any special musical number I want. HAHA I love having power!!!!!! I'll be playing this Sunday and 3 of us will be doing something the week after. I have 2 hermanas that can sing and they want me to play the piano while they sing. And so we've been practicing every day. Yesterday was the last day we taught Gabriel. It was really sad. We took a lot of pictures together and I gave him my e-mail. He promised me lunch because he's always in Salt Lake. I'll take what I can get. Anyways I only have one week left here. It's crazy!!!

anyways I hope you are all doing well and I miss you.

Love, Elder Austin

Here is all of the people I'll have to say goodbye to. They're all really awesome especially the handsome devil in the middle. But I am ready to get out of here. I need a change.

Well yesterday marked my 22nd lesson in spanish. It also marked the greatest lesson I have ever had. Our TRC investigator is named Gabriel. He is from Chili and lives here in Utah. He is a member but acts as an investigator so we can practice. It's always been hard to personalize with him but yesterday he shared with us something very personal. 

He told us about the most difficult trial he has had to endure in his life. His wife's parents became ill with in weeks of each other. Her father had cancer in his stomach. The removal of which caused him to slip into a coma. Not a week later her mom had a hear attack and also slipped into a coma at the same hospital. A month later Gabriel's son was found with an aggressive form of cancer. A week after that both of his wife's parents died in the hospital. Never has he cried more in his life. But he also never lost his faith. He prayed multiple times a day and never stopped believing. When the doctors told him that there was no hope for his son, the only thing he remembers is walking out of the hospital feeling fine. He wasn't sad. This scared him. He thought that he had lost his mind. That he was a broken man. To distract himself from this fear he would drive a lot. He did this for about a week until he decided to drive somewhere remote and pray. He asked why his son had cancer and if he was broken. He received an answer that he was not broken. Also that the Savior knows the pain that his son was going through. He was able to feel the love the Savior had for him and his son and was told that everything was going to be okay. Never before has he been happier than at that moment that he knew that everything would be okay. He returned home happy. His family was happier. And miraculously his son recovered from his fatal cancer. His faith became a witness that God was real and that he love him and his family. Ether 12:6

I'm practicing the piano 30 minutes to an hour a day. I have two musical numbers planned for sacrament meeting. One of them is me playing Come Thou Fount and the other is me playing Olive Tree with two Hermanas singing the song. 

Please put on my blog a thank you for everyone who has sent me a dear elder. I look forward to getting one every week. I hope everyone is doing well.

Love, Elder Austin      

Hey!

The dear elder did work and it was nice getting mail for once. I also got the package and I was so happy to get my music binder. I've played so much piano since getting it!!!

I'm glad Karis made it into the chior. also I haven't sang at the MTC yet but me and Elder Maloy are going to try it this sunday.

Anyways I've been practicing piano every day here and I'm trying to learn all the songs in my binder so I can perform one more glorious piano concert as prelude music at the beginning of Church. Oh I've also been called as Branch Music Director so I'm in charge of all the music and all the special musical numbers. It's pretty awesome. Whenever I want to play something during sacrament meeting I can schedule myself whenever. I don't have any pictures for this week so I'm really sorry about that. I'll try to get more next week. How is Mikelle doing? I'll try to email her today. Nothing else has really happened to my this week. I'll be sure to write again next friday.

Love, Elder Austin

Hi, 

Here is a Picture of my companion, Elder Maloy. I can't send all of the pictures in one email so I'll have to send multiple.

I've been great here. This is a picture of me and my roommates. From left to right their names are Elder Richards, Elder Maloy (My companion), Elder Gali, Elder Tyrell, me, and Elder Morris. They left 2 days ago to teach in the Phillipines so now it's just me and Elder Maloy. The MTC is full of great people. Everyone here has been nice to me. I've also learned plenty of spanish. Spanish is not easy and sometimes I feel like I'm not progressing at all. But my companion helps me a lot. He's very good with spanish and always helps me when I need it. I probably wouldn't have gotten this far without him. I had a chance to see Elder/President Russel M. Nelson speak to us last Tuesday. He taught us about writing the gospel on our hearts. One of the things I remember the most is how the whole atmosphere of the room changed when he walked in. You could feel how close he was to the Lord. 

I've already taught 7 lessons in Spanish and I've had some pretty amazing experiences. We had some amazing speakers come and talk to us. The most amazing probably being Elder Russel M. Nelson the president of the quorum of the 12. But I won't bore you with the details. The most amazing experience I've had so far is from teaching a man named Gabriel. Gabriel is the second person I've taught here. He is from Chilli so he can speak Spanish much faster than my brain can interpret. So my first lesson with him was a train wreck. We couldn't understand a thing he was saying and we were not prepared with a lesson. Our plan was to go in there and get to know him first before teaching him anything (not having a lesson is not good as i have learned) but he wouldn't open up to us and he didn't have any questions about the church. I remember writing in my journal that day "today was a terrible day." So you can imagine how scared i was to teach the second lesson. When I started the second lesson I just started complaining about how hard learning spanish was in espaniol and then he stopped me and in english told me his story of how he came to america and couldn't understand english. He had to learn it on his own without any help and then he told me to never doubt myself and that he believes in me. somehow complaining about leaning spanish helped Gabriel open up to us. I felt prompted to share the story I had with that man we helped a couple days before I left for the MTC. I told him that I couldn't peach spanish and he couldn't speak english but that I won't give up trying to learn. I also told Gabriel that I hope I will have the chance to meet this man again so I can speak in his own language and finally get to know him. (this was all in spanish by the way) He wiped a tear from his eye and said in english "you are a good boy. You will do great things." I have never felt the spirit so strong as I did then. The rest of the lesson was wonderful and I am so excited to teach him again. 

Elder Austin with Elder Askew, a friend from the Cartersville, GA Stake

I have a couple of requests if you don't mind. I would like my piano music binder please. I've been practicing hymns whenever I get the chance but I want to be able to play Come thou Fount during sacrament meeting. Also there are other songs in there i want to learn for prelude music. I could also use one more pair of exercising shorts because one pair IS NOT ENOUGH!!!

I love you and I hope everyone is doing okay

Elder Austin 

My First Day

my first day at the MTC was crazy! I was dropped off and immediately escorted through several buildings collecting supplies I would need. Afterwards I was taken to my room and given only enough time to set my suitcases down before I was escorted to my spanish class. Spanish class consists of my teacher speaking nothing but spanish and me understanding absolutely nothing. Their motive of thinking is that if I hear spanish long enough then eventually I will learn it. So far that method hasn't been working very well but this is only the third day here. The food is nice and I am able to exercise often. My companion is named Elder Maloy and he is from a place called Normal, Illinois. I never though such a place existed but apparently his town is the center of our Country. He's a great guy and we've gotten along so far. He puts up with the workouts I've come up with so far and he has a great desire to learn more about exercise. He also has a great testimony of the church and wants to do the best he can. Right now we are helping each other memorize our purpose as a missionary in spanish which I will now type to you from memory.

             nosotros proposito del misionaro es invitar a las personas a venir a Christo al arudarlas a que reciban el evangelio restarado madiante la fe en Jesuchristo y su explacion, el arrempimiente, el babtismo, la reception del don del espititu santo y el perseverar hasta el fin

             I hope you all are doing well and I will email you next week