Journal Entry

7-20-14

Sorry, I didn't email at all this last week.  Our p-day was taken up by a bunch of other stuff and we didn't have any time left to do it.  I can't send emails out any other day of the week.  I wish I could have been there to see all of that flooding in Rexburg.  Even though it sounds like a whole lot of damage, I think it would have been fun to play in the water.
Anyway, I thought instead of summarizing everything this week, I would let you read last night's journal entry.  It was a pretty great day!  Love you!!

Here's the journal entry:

BEST SUNDAY EVER!!!!!  We had an amazing week that lead up to this perfect day!  After Ward Council this morning, we drove to Quintyn B.'s to wake him up and give him a ride to church.  We did the same thing with Charlie and Hunter M.  As a result, they both came.  Oh Ya!!  Don H. and Angela L. showed up, as well.  So we had 4 investigators at church today.  While I was greeting people at the door with Bro. Vick, one of the sisters' investigators, Peggy, walked out right in front of us on the main walkway where everyone was coming and started smoking a cigarette.  As she was walking out she said, "I still have 5 minutes before church starts."  It was kind of funny, but then I had to hurry and ask her to smoke on the side of the building away from everyone.  All of the church meetings were great and we got a referral from the Vanscoyks.  His name is Tyler A. and he works for them.  He has been asking them a lot of questions about the church.  So, we stopped by and gave him a B.O.M. and it turned into a 2-hour lesson where we talked a lot about the Book and we taught him the entire Plan of Salvation.  It was sick!  At the end of our day, we looked at all of our weekly goals and saw that we reached EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!!!  Neither of us have had that happen, and I don't know if that will happen again!  I hope so.  We got 26 lessons!!!!

Austin's actual Journal Entry
(written in his tiny handwriting)

Not Transferring and Seeing Great things come of Serving Others!

7-7-14

No.  I'm not transferring.  I'm staying here.  So, that means I will be killing off Elder Lawless and then I don't know what will happen.  That might mean that I will be here for at least one more transfer so that I can show another elder the area before I leave.  Elder Lawless is staying with me, and so are both of the sister missionaries in the ward.  No changes.  It will be a lot different next transfer, though.
That's good that they got all of the information for Dad so quickly.  Hopefully, they get some good results back soon.
This week was a little different for us.  We did a lot of service moving people, and some good things came from some of the move.  We helped move a part member family and the dad has been less active for 19 years and he came to church yesterday because he said that our service and example reminded him what he loved about the church when he first joined.  It was really awesome to see him at church.  Service took up a good chunk of our week, and things will be the same for the next few weeks.  I did not eat very healthy at all this week, but I didn't have to make anything for meals either.  Since we did a bunch of service this week, everyone always fed us pizza and pop.  Then, we got all of the leftovers from it and a few members bought us dinner throughout the week at fast food restaurants.  This Saturday we also got the leftover of some big birthday party they held in the church gym.  So, we have a bunch of unhealthy food, but it's saving us on the cost of groceries.  Have a great week!

Love,
Elder A. Whaley

Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Absolute Best Solution to any Problem!

6-30-14

My hump day was alright.  It felt like any other day in the mission.  We were too busy to really celebrate or do anything.  I still need to take some pictures of the things that you sent me.  Thank you for all of it, though.  Elder Lawless and I ate through all of the Tootie-Frooties in the first day!  We don't have any traditions for it.  They won't let us burn anything either.
Right now it feels like these past few weeks have been super slow because I was nearing the year mark, but there have been a few things that I've really seen and learned over this last year.  The first thing is when you work hard, you're happy!  You're tired, but happy!  The second BIG thing is living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the absolute best solution to any problem you will ever deal with.  I've met so many people and members who either don't have the gospel or don't live it as they should, and they are in bad circumstances and they are unhappy.  Some of them realize it and they do something about it, and it's great to see the atonement work in their life, but there are those who have an extremely difficult time understanding that the simple principles of the gospel can help them and they turn away from it.  The best thing that you can do is to make sure that your testimony is centered in Jesus Christ and that you have a solid foundation of scripture study, prayer, and church.  Everything else is built upon that foundation.
I don't know what will happen this transfer.  I've been here for four transfers, but I could be here for another 1 or 2.  I'm guessing that I might leave, which would kind of be nice, since I've been here for so long, but I also don't want to yet because this is an amazing area!  We have had great work and we actually have 3 baptismal dates set with investigators for the month of July and one in August.  If everything was to go through as planned, we would have 6 baptisms this next transfer.  But, we will see what happens.  We have calls for transfers this Saturday, so I will let you know next week.  We still haven't met with that one family yet, but they are just working out some family things.  We should start teaching them again in a week or two.  One of the members is in contact with them frequently and she said that they are doing well.
I'm glad to hear that you are still learning new things during your personal studies and that you are all doing family prayer.  Keep it up and work on doing study as a family.  I hope that you all travel down to Utah safely and that everything goes as planned with all of the tests for Dad.  Love you!

Love,
Elder A. Whaley

P.S.  I love the book of Mormon quote book that you all sent me!  Thanks so much!