June 8, 2016

Well these past weeks have been just hard. But great!

Elder Jimenez is an amazing missionary! He is the hardest worker I've
ever been with. He's the new district leader and I'm still district
leader companion (all benefits and no responsibility!!!) but I do my
best to help him out. It's not easy being in leadership especially
here because district leaders have a lot of responsibilities and busy
work. It takes a lot of time out of our Friday's and Sunday's but we
still get a lot of work done nonetheless.

We had a miracle. Just so everyone knows there is a time and place for
everyone. Well a few months ago, Elder Stout and I found a woman named
Paula who was new to the United States from Mexico. Well it turns out
that she was interested but said that she didn't have any time for us
so we should just work with others. It was sad to drop her but it
wasn't her time. Well a few months later I decided to put her in the
plans. I don't know why but I just felt like we should try again. So
we went by and knocked the front door and no one answered. We decided
to go around to the back door before we gave up. The door was open and
so I leaned in and yelled to see if anyone was home. Paula came out
and she told us about how she was really busy and just didn't have
much free time. The usual. But my companion told her who we are and
what we do and why it's important. She asked us if we believed that
God answers questions through the bible. We told her that's one way
but that we could also teach her better was. She told us to wait there
and she went back inside to get her purse and some water bottles for
us. She told us that there was a park near by and asked if we would
walk with her and talk on the way. On the way we did "How to begin
teaching" and just got to know her. When we got to the park we sat
down at the pavilion and that's when she told us her situation. She's
been dating a guy and living with him for the past year and he told
her that if she lived with him that her would bring her here to the
United States. But she ended up working for the family of this guy to
help them out but they pay her almost nothing. She has a daughter and
it's getting harder and harder to support her. On top of that she
misses her family. The family she's living with is about to move their
business to Kentucky and she's been packing to move. What they don't
know is that she's been packing to move back to Mexico to be with her
family. She started crying and told us that she doesn't know what to
do. So we taught her the restoration but really focused on faith and
the Book of Mormon and told her that she can know anything she needs
to by having faith. We told her that she needs to start reading the
Book of Mormon and that she would find her answer within its pages.
The lesson was perfect. She accepted everything and during the closing
prayer she told God that she is putting her life in his hands. It was
amazing. We don't know what happened to her be jade she left the next
day. She either went to Kentucky or Mexico. I'm personally hoping that
she went to Mexico but I feel very Strongly that wherever she is that
she's happy and doing what we told her to do.

Well I don't really have enough time to say anything else but I know
God is real and he loves each of his children.

I hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Austin