4/8/14

Sounds like everyone is doing great!  I hope everyone enjoyed Conference as much as I did.  When it was over, I was actually pretty sad.  I was like, "That's it?" I'm just glad we get to access all of the talks online and hear them and read them!  I'm going to be doing that!  There were so many great talks!  I loved President Monson's talk on courage!  I'm pretty sure that was in the Priesthood Session.  I can't wait to listen and read it, as well as the rest of them.

So, with it being my year mark this week, I've decided to answer some questions I put together for a District Meeting a while back when I gave a training.  Here it goes:

1)  Who am I? 
I am a Richmond Virginia Missionary, a servant of a loving Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.  I am a defender of peace, virtue and freedom.  I am one who strives to do good and looks for opportunities to serve my brothers and sisters.  I am a valiant knight of our King.

2)  Why did I choose to serve?
The Gospel is the greatest blessing given to us.  We would be lost without it, with no direction in our lives.  I know of the blessings and true happiness it has brought to me.  We're all brothers and sisters, if I love my family then I will rescue them.  I will be there to help them find and receive the blessing Heavenly Father has for them.  I find joy that I have never before experienced in this.  When you serve others you are also serving God.

3)  What is your greatest tool as a missionary?
Now, I have two answers for this one.  My first answer is love.  Without love you can do nothing.  The correct word in this case should be charity.  When you have charity for someone you literally see someone how Heavenly Father sees them.  Your desire to serve them increases dramatically!  You realize that these people are literally children of God, just as you are and that they need your help!  They will feel your love as you do all you can to show your love for them, and they will never forget it.  My second answer is the Book of Mormon.  It testifies of our Savior, Jesus Christ!  It is a second witness of Him, the Bible being the first.  The Book of Mormon reveals many plain and precious truths that were lost to us for a long time.  The entire Gospel of Jesus Christ can easily be identified in the Book of Mormon and it brings us closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  It helps us develop and stay faithful to Jesus Christ and that is the most important thing we can do in this life.

There are three more questions, but I will have to get my notebook to remember them.  It's been a while since I gave that training.  I will have it for next week though.

Elder Skinner and I are still companions!  This is the longest either one of us has had the same companion.  Next transfer will be his last, so I could very well be with him for one more transfer!  Who knows!  We will have to see.  Also, on May 3rd we will be having a HUGE mission conference!  I say huge because we are combining it with half or all of the Chesapeake Mission!  That's Eli's mission!  So, I will probably see him!  The reason for this conference is that 2 General Authorities and an Apostle are coming to speak!  We are very excited! 

I love you all!  Have an awesome week!

-Elder Austin Mounts

 

 

3/31/14

First off, I loved the story of mom jumping on Aunt Stacy to wake her up and surprise her!  I wish I could have been there for that reaction!

That's super awesome that you were able to go to JP's farewell!  I'm sure he loved that!  I couldn't be more excited for him to go on a mission, just because I know how much it will bless his life and nothing could bring him greater joy!  It truly is the Lord's work and a time where we get to serve our King and Master!  I want to be there when he gets home so I can see how much he's changed too!

I can't believe Trent gets home this Wednesday!  That's pretty weird and crazy!  Time goes by WAY too fast!  I'm just starting to get a little bit more of the hang of missionary work!  It's going to be the same way when I leave, I'm sure but I don't want to leave just yet!  I'm pretty happy  that I have at least a year left!  I have so much more work to do out here!

So, this week has been a very awesome week!  I'm going to say it, "Tracting is awesome!"  Of course it's not until you start  knocking on those doors and inviting people to hear the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that you're happy you're tracting.  Sure it is scary at first, but you get into the groove of things.  Contacting people on the street is pretty scary too, but even that's nothing once you do it.  You feel good and what are going to do?  You're just inviting them to be blessed and receive all the blessings Heavenly Father has for them.  So we've been doing a lot of that this week and guess what?  It's worked!  We have been trying so hard to find some new investigators, struggling too this past month.  We have been praying for the Lord to guide us to those He has prepared to receive the Gospel and Saturday we were blessed with 2 potentials and 1 new investigator!  He is from Congo!  We were able to teach the Restoration with him and we had a member, Brother McAllister, present!  That is my FAVORITE lesson to teach!  The spirit is always so strong in that lesson!  After the lesson, the investigator gave the closing prayer and it was in French!  It was awesome!  We also have been busy these last few days running from appointment to appointment.  Our investigators are gaining testimonies of the Book of Mormon and our longest running investigator shared hers with us yesterday!  Sister Deane told her that she had a testimony of the Book of Mormon after she shared it with her.  She didn't even realize it and she got super excited once she did!  The work is just on fire over here and I'm sure throughout the world!  I love it!

President Wilson came and had companionship study with us this morning and it was awesome!  We practice taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and he said we did great!  He gave us a few tips and we can't wait to apply them!  I have a video of it and I'll have to send it as soon as I can!  Also, when we did go tracting, it rained the whole day.  It has been raining for the past 2 days, but stopped today!  We were soaked and had to use a towel to dry our pant legs off, ha ha!  So, we have been experiencing all kinds of weather here too, ha ha!  We are just ready for Spring and no more cold!

Anyway, that's all I got for this week!  We got money for this next month and we're going to go buy food now, WooHoo!

I love you all!

-Elder Austin Mounts

3/24/14

How is Luke doing now that he has no teeth at all?  It sounds like he might as well have none with all the teeth that have been pulled from his mouth!  Was it 8 at once?  That is crazy!  It is also weird to know that Ellie is old enough to be baptized!  Have you asked her about it?  Why did she choose to be baptized?  I just thought it would be cool to know what she has to say about it.  It feels like Kate was just the one getting baptized!  Why is it that time just gets faster and faster when you get older?  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  I can't believe that JP (cousin) goes into the MTC right on my year mark.  I'll be leaving though before he hits his year mark because my end of service date is the 8th.  That's a bummer  I don't want to leave early, if I have to leave at a different date at all can't it be later?  I could just stay another transfer.  That would be cool.  But they'll kick me out to get the younger ones in. :)  That's going to be Thatcher's age group...super weird huh?

So, I guess I'll get down to the details of how last week was.  Snow, first off and the weather keep switching.  We've experienced all 4 seasons in one week!  It looks like it just might be doing that again this week!  We just want Spring!  Transfer calls were also this past Saturday!  Elder Skinner and I are both staying for a third transfer together!  After this one, it will be his last!  We're hoping I'm the one to kill him off, ha ha!  This is the longest that either of us will be with a companion though.  It's weird to think about, and if I do kill him off that means I will be with him for the first half of 2014!  Wow...

This week with our investigators has been pretty good you could say, but they're not falling away either.  Does that make sense?  One is getting pretty flakey...Every time we set up an appointment for the weekend, she ends up getting sick the night before... We are hoping that's really what it is, but it's happened for almost all of March.  We REALLY hope we can meet with her next weekend because she has a lot of questions for us.  We just want to answer them.  Finding new investigators for our part of the area and some of the Zone has been hard.  We're planning on doing this Zone fast so that we can find more people to teach.  We need that too, because right now I just want to teach more people and even though we tract and street contact, there are better ways, more effective ways.  MEMBERS ARE KEY TO MISSIONARY WORK!   If the members work with the missionaries side by side, the hastening of the work will shoot up!  We just got to keep praying to have those missionary moments!

Love y'all!

-Elder Austin Mounts

3/17/14

Thanks for the update on everyone.  It's good to know who I can keep in my prayers and help out to the best of my ability.  My mission president and wife is President and Sister Wilson and we are in the Richmond Stake.  We just had Stake conference this past weekend and it was awesome!  We had a broadcast and Elder L. Tom Perry got to speak to us as well as a member of the General Primary Presidency and a member of the Presidency of the Seventy.  All of them were very great talks! 

Our investigators are doing pretty good.  One of them just found out that she has a BYU channel and is SUPER excited about that!  She gave us the details of what the speakers were saying yesterday while she was on it!  She will be watching General Conference also!  It's weird to think that a year ago from the time that happens, we were in the Conference Center ourselves!

We also saw another investigator this week and talked about temples!  It was wonderful!  I love temples and miss them a lot.  For part of my studies this week I've been reading from the temple prep booklet and it's been very nice!  Another investigator has had a crazy week and we weren't able to meet with her and she wasn't able to come to church because of it.  Please pray for her, Satan is working very hard on her right now. 

I have not spoken lately and the last time I spoke in church was a brief testimony in November that I was asked to give.  I've learned a lot from my studies this past week.  I have learned how to make studies a lot more effective, for one, and I'm constantly studying from the Ensign daily and the Book of Mormon, and I'm getting a lot better at answering the questions found in PMG (Preach My Gospel) when studying that.  I find myself wanting a LOT more time for studies.  I've also been studying my Patriarchal Blessing more often.  I'm trying to read it every other day at the least, or whenever I have some free time.  It has been a very great week because of all these things.  I have never felt so close to the Savior, or Heavenly Father.  I've even put away pictures of everyone back home and just have pictures of the Savior out so I always know who I need to be focusing on and it works!  I've been listening to music a lot more too, even when I study I turn the volume down just enough so I can hear the hymns playing, but I'm still able to focus.  I don't think I've ever wanted to be more focused on the Lord's work than I am now.  I don't want to come home with regrets.  I've felt the joy that comes from doing missionary work, even when it feels you've had no success when you've gone out, you show the Lord that you're willing to do His will and that He can trust you with those He has prepared.  It's still hard to go out sometimes, but that's only because satan is there tempting you to not want to go out.  Once you do though, it's super easy to feel that happiness in the work.  You just have to have made the decision of what you're going to do before the time of action comes.  I believe that applies with everything we go through and every decision that we make.  If we want decisions to be made easier as well, then we just need to humbly pray to the Lord.  He's the only one who can help us through EVERYTHING that we go through.  I have definitely come to a sure knowledge of that this past week.  Humility is key to prayer.  It's been so hard for me to humble myself in the past and do that, but thanks to the encouragement and council of someone I respect very highly, the Spirit has worked on me time and time again.  I don't know how to explain it, but I've felt the Lord work on me once again and I can feel that great change.  It's so wonderful when we let the Lord enter our lives and let Him guide our every action!  This work is true and the Gospel we are living is true!  Nothing can tear it down, so let's hold onto it!

It is not currently warm.  Virginia is weird.  It was like in the 60's all last week and now it's back to winter this week and it's even snowing right now.  I'm tired of winter...We are staying warm though and eating well.  Thanks for the quote and I love you all!

-Elder Austin Mounts

3/10/14

This week was pretty great!  We didn't have too many lessons this week though!  However, it was still a good week!  We had zone conference and that's when two of the zones in the Richmond Stake came together and had trainings from 9 to 4!  President and Sister Wilson were there and we got to hear from them and our AP's.  Elder Skinner and I also had an exchange with some other Elders in our District so that was nice!

Our investigators are doing well, you could say.  Only one of them is really progressing though.  The others are too, just not as quickly as we would like them to, but you can only do so much for them, you know?  One of them really wanted to come to church this past Sunday but she had an operation on her throat on Friday.  She will be in church this next Sunday though and that's Stake Conference!  She's in for a treat!

Our other investigator that had an issue is progressing steadily.  She has given us referrals!  We're going to meet with one of her friends this coming week!  She is a missionary and she doesn't even know it.  Another one has been investigating for 10 years from what I can remember and she's still just in the same spot she was a year ago.  She just can't give up smoking and she needs to come to church.  She is working on it.  Hopefully something will come up soon so she'll be able to come.

I recently discovered that I LOVE the Ensigns A LOT!  I was reading Elder Richard G. Scott's article from the February Ensign.  I can't remember the name of the article.  He says something in there that really made me just go, "Oh wow, that's so cool!"  He says that there are two types of decisions we can make in life:  (1)Decisions based on circumstances and (2)Decisions based on eternal truths.  Heavenly Father wants us to make decisions based on eternal truths and Satan wants us to make decisions based on circumstances.  I've found that by following the counsel given by Elder Scott by making decisions based on eternal truths I find myself thinking about each decision I make before I do it and that makes every decision so much easier.  It's also easier to follow the Spirit rather than give into the temptations of the adversary.

The ward and my companion, Elder Skinner are doing great!  The ward is really pressing on missionary work this month and rescuing less active members as well!  It's great! 

We had crazy snow last week that I told you about but other than that there has been no other crazy weather.  I'm doing a lot better than ever right now.  I did hit a point where I was frustrated because I felt like I had plateaued in the gospel and that I couldn't get closer to the Savior or more in tune with the spirit.  However, thanks to the help of a friend, I was reminded about what tools I have and how I can better use them in studying the Gospel, continuously strengthening my testimony. 

How is everyone else doing?  Alex's birthday sounds like it was awesome!  I can't believe she's 18 now!  We're all growing up way too fast!  It's too weird sometimes! 

Well, that's pretty much how I'm doing this week and what's been up.  We're going biking again today and it should be warm.  We're excited!  I'm hoping the sun comes out soon!  It's kind of cloudy! 

Love you all!

-Elder Austin Mounts

2/27/14

Happy Birthday!

We do what we call a Progress Record today so I was allowed to send you an email!  Happy Birthday mom!  I love you so much!  Thank you for raising me in a home that lives the Gospel values and continuously invites the Spirit!  Thank you for teaching me to love everyone around me too!  It is a HUGE life changer when you do!  It also helps with siblings because I honestly love them and don't want to live too far from them.  They are my best friends.  Thank you for being someone I can always talk to about anything even the small things!  I love you mom!  Have a Happy Birthday!

-Elder Austin Mounts

2/24/14

Our week was pretty great!  We are doing good, staying healthy and staying warm.  So far, we haven't been able to meet with Marti recently but we will soon.  I think she realizes that she misses meeting with us and having the spirit around her.  That's how her texts look like anyway. 

We are going biking again today and it's going to be so much fun!

I did get the package you sent, thanks!  I will definitely be using the beanie a lot!  I even use the neck warmers inside!  I also did get the email from Danee saying where she was going.  That's so cool that she's going to be bordering my mission!  I might get to see her in the temple if we plan it right!

Thank you so much for Daniel's email!  I've missed him a lot and have been thinking about him a lot this past week.  He's my friend and my brother and I love him.  I actually haven't given too many talks lately.  I did it a lot more in my first area because it was a branch.  The ward members usually end up speaking a lot and I think that's better because we only are around for so long.  The last one I gave was at the baptism of our 11 yr. old investigator.  I'm so happy she chose to be baptized and follow Jesus Christ and stand as a witness of Him at all times and in all places.  We got to confirm her a member this Sunday!  She is the coolest and was just shining on Sunday!  She's very, very happy!

We found someone that was really interested in the gospel yesterday.  Once before, Elder Skinner came with Elder Holloway and tracted into her but she told them to come back later and that was it.  We contacted her again yesterday and it was the perfect timing!  She had just left her church because she didn't believe all it's teachings were right and she didn't want to be a part of it.  She had grown up in it.  She also had a lot of questions for us and we answered them.  We went through the Restoration with her and her questions for 3 hours.  We are seeing her again this Saturday. 

Well, I love you all!  Sorry, I'm almost out of time!

-Elder Austin Mounts

2/17/14

The snow lasted for about two days here and we were stuck for about a day and a half.  Elder Skinner also got sick from accidentally eating some gluten and we were out for another day!  It's been quite a crazy week!  We are still riding bikes and loving life though.  It's great serving in the Glenn Allen ward.  Elder Skinner and I aren't getting transferred and we're SO happy about that!  We're definitely going to be in contact after the mission.  He is awesome!

I think I may have said this in my last email but our long time investigator dropped us.  She had an issue with eternal marriage and how it's essential if you wish to progress in the celestial kingdom.  This was brought up in a Book of Mormon class we have every Thursday with the ward missionaries and mission leader.  She just brought it up again.  We will stay in contact with her though because we love her and she's awesome!  She was able to come to the baptism for the 11 yr. old we have been teaching which was last night.  It was a very wonderful experience, the spirit was strong!

As I just said, the 11 yr. old is now baptized and she's so excited to be a member of the church!  I was able to give a talk on Baptism!  I'm grateful that she asked me to do it!  Elder Fuhriman (my MTC companion) was also there and he gave a talk on the Holy Ghost too!  His trainee, Elder Holloway performed the baptismal ordinance.  It was a very awesome/busy Sunday!

I am excited for Kendall Earl and her mission call!  Elder Holloway is from Baton Rouge!  Kendall is going to have a blast and love the mission!  I can't wait to hear where Danee will be going!  She told me that she finds out this Wednesday!

I love y'all!  I'll be sending pictures of the baptism!

-Elder Austin Mounts

2/10/14

The work in this area has been pretty average for missionary work.  I say that because we have some pro's and some cons.  First off, the 11 yr. old girl's baptism will be this Thursday at 8 pm.  We are super excited for her!  All is looking well in that regard and she couldn't be more happier!  Now, we met with our other investigator all last week and all was going well.  She felt the spirit so strongly when we watched The Testaments with her.  She cried because the spirit was so strong!  Yesterday though, when we asked her if she would be coming to church, she told us no and that she was done with her investigating.  She said that she had appreciated the lessons. We were confused... We are still hoping that she is doing well.  Please pray for her. 

We still need to find some more investigators.  We have a few but none of them are really progressing.  Everyone has their agency and sometimes that can be a little bit frustrating as a missionary because you know that what you have to share with people, (who you love) will bless their lives.  However, when you've done all that you can do, you just leave everything else in the hands of the Lord and he'll take care of the rest.

The weather has been 30-40 degrees with no rain and snow.  We are staying warm though so no worries.  I'm glad to hear that everyone else is enjoying the snow and doing well overall.  It would be nice to hear from everyone in an email, Luke and Alex.  How about some pictures of the snow?

I wish I could have been at Stake Conference in Moses Lake!  It sounds like it was really great!

Well, I love you all!  I will be sending pictures!

-Elder Austin Mounts

2/3/14

The schools have finally opened up after over a week and a half of having cancelled it.  They cancel it even if the forecast says there might be snow.  I'm not kidding, ha ha!  We're staying pretty warm, those biking pictures took place the one day of the week it was supposed to be warm.  Snowed the next day!  Just like yesterday was in the 60's and now it's pouring like crazy after all the sunshine we just had!

I guess you could say I'm getting used to a bike.  I like it a lot better than a car!  My bike is pretty heavy for a biking Elder but hey, it's a good workout!  We have a "Good Will" here so we're going to try and get a different bike and maybe sell the one I have.

So, our investigator is on date for the 25th of March to be baptized!  She's working hard to achieve her goal and we're helping her every step of the way!  She's working hard to give up tea and go to herbal.  We gave her a blessing the other day and she has the faith to believe that the blessing will indeed help her.  It will, of course!  We've just finished watching all the animated stories from the Book of Mormon with her because it helps her with a visual and she understands it a little bit better and has a strong desire to read from the Book of Mormon, but she always does her reading from the scriptures which is the most important.  She even bore her testimony yesterday in gospel principles on the Savior and the Spirit was very strong.  She got very emotional.  She will be baptized before we even know it!

The 11 year old girl is still on date for the 13th of February.  We have taught her everything and we recently went over the baptismal questions with her and she definitely is where she needs to be!  She is super excited and lets us know whenever we bring it up!  Yesterday at church was pretty funny.  We were almost done with testimonies and it was one of those days where I could not stay awake in church.  I was struggling.  This young investigator said afterwards that it looked like I was praying but then she realized that there was no way someone could pray that long in church and then she saw my head bob.  I told her that missionaries are human and fall asleep in church sometimes. :)

Okay mom, here is somewhat of our daily schedule: 
6:30 / Wake up (at the latest) usually 6:15 - Workout / We did so many squats, legs and ab workouts the other day, it hurt to walk for the past two days.  It felt good though. 

Afternoon:  usually have lessons with people and having a member present / that's almost always at the church

Evening: Dinner / more lessons with more people (hopefully) or members

Night:  Travel home and plan for the next day / We try to contact people along the way, usually they're fine with where they are in their religion but there is always someone who DOES want to learn more about the church.  We just gotta keep looking!

Glad to hear the Hawks won!  I heard they creamed the Bronco's!  That's crazy!

Anyways, I love ya'all!  Remember that God lives and so does His son, Jesus Christ!  If you're ever in need, they are a simple prayer away.  I know that they WILL hear your prayers and that they live.  The Holy Ghost has time and time again confirmed this to me through true feelings of peace and true happiness.

-Elder Austin Mounts

1/27/14

It sounds like you guys had quite a week!  I'm so happy we have the plan of salvation too!  We actually went over it with the 11 year old that we are teaching.  I think it was this week anyways...it was this week.  She had been taught everything but the end.  So, as we were going into the lesson, or about to, her sister, who is a member, was there as well and we had them use the pamphlets we have and teach us the Plan of Salvation!  Yep, we were the investigators this time and she and her sister were the missionaries.  They've both told us that they want to go on missions when they can so it's pretty cool!  Also, at the end of the lesson, our investigator was the one who invited us to be baptized and she did very well on the invite!  It was awesome!

Our older investigator made it an interesting week.  We stuck to our usual schedule of meeting and reading everyday and then watching one of the animated stories from the Book of Mormon videos.  Then, it was either Wedesday or Thursday when we were at Brother Harton's house for a lesson with her and everything had run smoothly until we came to the baptismal invite at the end.  Every lesson we invite at the end.  She brought up the tea concern and we told her she would have to give up tea to be baptized.  She told us that she wouldn't then it was quiet for a long time.  Then after talking more about it and how we've addressed the concern before, she got upset and just walked out of the lesson.  It was sad to see her go.  However, we have talked to her since then and she still wants to meet and now believes that she can give up tea.  We have told her too that herbal tea is okay.  We've actually said that a couple of times.  But she still wants to be baptized.  We're just trying to help her understand that if she wants to receive answers from God that she has to ask Him with sincerity.  Heavenly Father answered our prayers and is still continuing to help her.  She is awesome!

I also got to talk with a new convert from my first area this past week!  He is the second person that was baptized when I was in Wakefield.  Ruby was the first.  He's doing great and we just continue to encourage each other.  He is now the new Gospel Principles teacher there!  Wakefield has also gotten some sister missionaries as well!  It's grown pretty fast!

I will try to get some more pictures with more people.  Elder Skinner has another ski mask that I've been using.  So, thanks for sending another one!  We've been freezing here!  Biking in the cold is not our favorite thing to do but we are watched over. 

Well, I love you all and I'll keep you posted on what's to come!

-Elder Austin Mounts

1/21/14

This week has probably been one of the best weeks of my mission!  We taught 10 lessons with members present and 3 other lessons!  Wow!  About half of these lessons involve one lady that we have been teaching and the other half involves a girl.  She is 11 years old, so Kate's age.  Her sister was recently baptized and her mother will be once she and her fiancé are married.  It's really cool to have lessons daily with them and see how much they have progressed and learned from between each visit.  We've been watching the animated stories from the Book of Mormon with our adult investigator to give her a visual and we're starting with the girl also.  The woman we teach loves them.  It's helped her reading! One day we were in 1 Nephi 18 with her and the next day she came back and told us that she just got to Alma and read all night because she has insomnia.  She proved she did too with all the questions and explaining to us that went on.  She is REALLY looking forward to her baptism on March 25 as are we!  We've grown to love her a lot, and to answer Dad's question, I think that true service is being filled with Charity, the pure love of Christ, and acting upon it.  Sometimes, it may feel like we don't have it, but we must continue to pray for it!  We are promised in Moroni 7 that we will be filled with that love if we so desire it!  "Love is THE greatest motivator."  A quote by Elder Neumeyer, he's home now and was my first AP.  So, true service is having charity to those around you.

The 11 year old girl was originally the sisters investigator but because of a new mission rule, only investigators in your area are we allowed to teach.  At first we were very bummed about this but we knew, thanks to Sister Southwick reminding us, that we would see miracles come from this.  This young girl is very shy.  She definitely reminded me of Kate at first!  But with Elder Skinner and myself working hard to get her to open up she has!  Didn't take long either!  We even have handshakes now, ha ha!  (I've definitely noticed that I love teaching children a little more than adults, idk why.)  So we watched the Tree of Life video with her and discussed everything with her, all the symbolism, (it's also where she was in her reading) and we came upon the ordinance of baptisms for the dead.  Her sister was in the lesson so that's how we think it got to that.  After discussing the purposes of baptisms for the dead with her, she got really excited and we invited her to baptism.  She got shy again but then I asked if she would like to set the date for herself on a calendar.  She really got excited after that and took our planners and set herself for February 13th!  It was such an awesome day for all of us!  She is still SUPER excited for it!  Everyday we are over there, well almost everyday, she's more and more excited!

So that's how our investigators are doing!  Let me tell you how Elder Skinner and I spent our PDay yesterday!  We went mountain biking!  Richmond is supposed to have one of the best spots on the east coast!  So we did this huge 10 mile ride yesterday and it was pretty scary at some parts!  But we were safe, thanks to our prayers that we would be that morning!  It was also a very beautiful ride!  I'll be sending you some pictures!

I love you all!!

-Elder Austin Mounts