Lake Butler, FL

Dear Family & Friends~

I can't believe school has already started again. Wow. Billy, a sophomore?! Kendall, a ninth grader?! Aaron, HOW ARE YOU IN COLLEGE ALREADY?!! How strange...I would agree it is also weird that I have almost been gone for a year now and even more odd that I will be 20 two Mondays from today.

...It is kind of neat to think of the unexpected things that happen on your mission. You truly never know what is going to happen. Experience has shown me, especially these past few months, that in life it is necessary to expect the unexpected. One of the very first things that was said to me when I showed up in Lake Butler was that as I allow the Spirit to be my guide, I am setting myself up to be on one wild roller coaster ride. You could be out doing the most random of things, and all of a sudden a window of opportunity will open up that you never knew existed, and all because you were listening to the still, small voice of the Holy Ghost. Not only does the Spirit lead us to where we need to be before we even realize where we are going, but He always helps us to be provided for as we travel on our journey. Whether these provisions may actually be physical, or mental, or even spiritual. He is always giving and sharing, especially when we accept the gifts he so lovingly attempts to give us. This scripture has centered itself in my mind these past couple days:

"And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."
1 Nephi 4:6

Yesterday, just before sacrament meeting I received a phone call from one of the counselors in the Elder's Quorum Presidency and he asked me to give the lesson in class since he was going to be absent. I accepted the assignment, but unfortunately, and fortunately, we had many people come to church with us, and so I didn't get a chance to read the lesson at all. In fact, the very first time I even looked at the lesson was right as I was supposed to give the lesson. It was on Developing Talents, found in the Gospel Principles book. Honestly, as unprepared as I was, I felt 100% confident that the lesson would work out. I think by the time the lesson was finished, it ended up being one of the best I had ever been asked to teach. The Spirit led every word. I was amazed at how well it went. One of the people in the class said maybe I should be teaching every week! I thought that was pretty cool! Nevertheless, I knew it wasn't anything that I did that made the lesson so great, rather it was the fact that the Spirit was guiding our meeting. However, I will say this, I don't know that I had ever been so confident in teaching a lesson in all my life, especially in one I had not studied for. It reminds me of what Grandpa MacKay told me once, seeing as how he gets asked to teach lessons at random quite often, and always manages to pull it off--he told me that every day you prepare for giving a lesson, whether or not you are planning on teaching, and that when the time comes for you to stand in the spotlight, the words just come. Grandpa also says it is always fun to see what words are going to come out of his mouth as he goes, and I think I finally understand what he means.

We went to the temple on Saturday and were able to do a session and not just baptisms and confirmations. I was grateful to be able to go and even more grateful for the Spirit that has been with me ever since. I have come to realize that if I want to make it in this world, I am going to need to spend time at the temple throughout the rest of my life. We never did go to the bookstore, however, but the temple itself was good enough.

Elder Brown and I are working well together and I'm sure over time we'll be able to work better together...he is an awesome companion. He is fun to work with and we make sure to have a good time as we go. I'm grateful to serve with him and I'm sure we'll be good friends even after the mission.

Lake Butler is definitely a small area, however, it is large enough that I still need to wear my regular attire each day and growing a beard is most likely out of the question. The closest missionaries live about twenty minutes away, in Starke.

President Barry is quite a bit different than President Newman, but he still manages to keep in contact with us although not in person quite as often. We write him each week and he writes us back a short message each week. As far as missionary work goes, when it comes to the new rules and whatever else, President Barry expects us to be reading from our "white handbook" of missionary guidelines each day. We are to hold ourselves accountable for living up to missionary standards. Preach My Gospel is what we are to study from every morning. As we do these two things, and more especially apply what we learn, we will successfully be able to be our own "mission president's" of the area. It all goes back to that scripture I quoted earlier, our goal is to become missionaries (as well as individuals) that are led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which we should do. We take action and the Spirit points the way. We go forward and the Spirit takes care of the rest. It is a lot of fun the more you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit--if everyone only understood this, all people would do it. I still have much to learn, but I think I am finally getting a taste of what it is actually like to be a missionary who is led by the Spirit.

I love each of you and hope you have a great week and a great new school year! Good luck with work, Dad! I'll talk to you next week and until then, I'll look forward to hearing from you :)

Love~

Austin