6/30/14

Glad to hear everyone's doing very well and that Luke had the opportunity to go to EFY again and be ordained to the office of a Priest!  That gave me chills!  Alex is lucky to be working at Genie!  I want to do that when I get home and work to save up for school the next semester after the summer.  At least, that's the plan, it continuously changes, so I'm not really setting anything in stone until the end of the mission draws closer.  Enough about that though, not important right now.  I'll be sending the SD cards asap!  if you could get them back to me quickly as well that would be awesome!

So, to answer your question Dad, about getting out of my comfort zone.  That's actually been very eas I've noticed.  We do it everyday and sometimes I even surprise myself!  I was actually thinking about that yesterday as we went out with one of our members, Brother Johnson.  Talking to people really isn't that hard.  I do have to sit ad listen to the spirit at times in some lessons because I don't know what to say at some points, but something good usually comes out of my mouth once I just open it.  At least I hope it's good, ha ha!

Love is definitely the only way you can become a missionary.  You can go through the motions, but until you love the people or the specific person, you will not get anywhere.  It can be very hard at times too, at least I feel it is for me.  It's definitely a gift of the spirit that I'm constantly praying for.  I've also noticed that after you love the person, you have to get them to feel the spirit as soon as possible.  That comes from reading the Book of Mormon sincerely and coming to church with an open heart and contrite spirit.  So, I guess to summarize all of that, we really just help and invite people to develop their faith in Jesus Christ.  That is literally all we do and it's the best!

To answer your question Mom, about how I have felt the spirit most this week.  I finished the Book of Mormon for the second time as a missionary and acted on Moroni's promise, even though I've received a witness that the Book of Mormon is true many times before.  I decided to do so again.  No huge amazing witness came to me, I didn't see angels or anything, but I felt that still small voice that is the spirit, giving me comfort and peace.  There was no stupor of thought whatsoever, I felt the spirit and knew as I had before that the Book of Mormon is another testament of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I'm not exactly sure how we will be spending the 4th.  I think we're going with a member to a potential investigator's home.  I really am all over the place in my head.  It's a good thing we carry around planners!  Our investigators are doing very well!  Brenda was in Chesapeake this weekend so she wasn't at our sacrament service.  She is going to be moving to Chesapeake in September so she said she was going to go to church there when she visits.  She is also getting baptized on July 19th! So that will be an amazing day!  Ray Smith is going to be baptized the 23rd of August!  We are still working with him.  We think they were out of town this weekend, he and his wife, but the work is progressing here and we're finding more and more people to teach every week!

Love y'all,
-Elder Austin Mounts