MIRACLE in Kansas 8-31-15

Hey everyone! It's been another great week in Kansas! 

M- I'm doing well. I feel like through a lot of this week I've been bogged down with all the not proselytizing stuff that we have to do as missionaries. Whether it's transferring the area book onto the iPad, or service, or planning, or this, or the other. I feel like we've been too busy to be normal missionaries lately so it's been hard to focus on our purpose as missionaries. I guess everything feeds into our purpose one way or another though. It's been a good week though. It's been a fun week. The missionaries in the area are awesome too, especially Elder Marsden. We are getting along great.

I- Nadia and her family came to church and we had an awesome lesson with Kym on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

R- The gospel can only be taught and understood through love. Every aspect of the gospel revolves around the fact that Christ loves us; He loved us enough to die for us, so He asks us to love Him enough to live for Him. 

A- The area is doing alright. We mostly just need more people. Story of my mission! We are having dinner with some potential investigators tonight though! It's going to be the best! Food AND people to teach?! What more could you ask for! 

C- Elder Marsden is awesome. He's working hard, and he's learning every day. We are getting along super well. 

L- Elder Marsden and I are studying the commandments this week. I love teaching the commandments. It’s only through living His gospel can you come to know for yourself that it is true. 

E- I love you all. I pray for you all the time, and there's nothing I want more than to be able to be with you, but this is where God needs me right now. I love every minute of my mission and I am so happy to be serving the Lord. Hope you all have a great week! 

Love, Elder Cluster. 

MIRACLE 8-24-15

Hey everyone! It's been a fast week. I swear it was Monday just a split second ago.

M- I've been doing well this week! Ugh, it's been bike week so we've got our exercise. That's probably a good thing though because my food baby is growing. I think it's about time I started using the Moore’s treadmill. We have been so busy this week! Between having to bike and updating our area books every day, we have had like no pros time at all this week. I don't know if I mentioned this last week or not but we have been putting everything in our area books into an area book/planner app. So every day this week from one to three we've sat in the church and transcribed area book records into our iPads. Not the most fun.

I- our investigator Kym is doing really well. She is one of the people the sisters were working with in Stanly before we took over their area. She has some really good relationships with members in the ward and she is super open. She even came to church on Sunday! She's a single mom and super busy so it's hard to touch bases with her super often but she is just great.

R- I was asked last minute to give a talk in sacrament this week on faith and repentance. I absolutely loved having the chance to prepare for that talk. The basic core doctrines of the church could never be studied too much. The beauty of this gospel is its simplicity; whether it's eternal families or temple work or modern day revelation or anything. All truth and blessing that we receive in this life is received through faith in Jesus Christ and using His atonement to become more like him.

A- We haven't gotten much of any time to go out and work this week. Between being on bike and he area book it's been tight. Double covering keeps us busy too. It'll be nice to have a car again this week!

C- Elder Marsden is doing great! He's such an awesome missionary. He's been on a talk to everyone kick. My little son is so brave! I love training. Half of the time I don't even realize I'm training though because Elder Marsden knows his stuff.

L- This week in twelve week we've been studying the importance of the Book of Mormon in missionary work. The Book of Mormon is the best! Read it!

E-I love you all! Thank you for all the emails and for staying in touch. I know that a lot of you are going through some hard times back home. Just know that I praying for you and that God sees you in your trials.

Nothing like living with Members... Yummm Taco Salad!

My awesome district 

MIRACLE 8-17-15

M- Hey everyone! I'm doing well! It's been a super busy week. Covering two wards is something else. I feel twice as busy and half as productive. It's going well though. The longer I serve the less and less I care about numbers (that means we didn't teach much this week.) 

I- our investigators are doing well. We are meeting with a Hispanic part member family. They're doing well. I should have used my language study with elder Sanchez more seriously!

R- Elder Marsden and I have been studying about being a consecrated missionary. The more a missionary learns to let go of their past life and things that they can't control, the happier they will be. Being “all in” is the happiest and easiest way to be a missionary

A- Umm, the area would be doing better if we knew it better. Elder Marsden has only been in Redbridge for six weeks, and neither of us have done anything in the Stanley ward before now, so it hard to get a firm grasp on all the tiny details of everything we have to do as missionaries. Both wards are super supportive though and we are catching on fast! 

C- Elder Marsden is fantastic! I love having such an obedient and hard working companion, and more than that, we are friends. It makes the hard times easier, and the good times even better. 

L- Time is precious. There is no time for anything out here! Between the twelve week training, double covering, and all our other responsibilities, there's just not enough time in the day. Every minute wasted, is a minute of your mission you're never getting back.

E- The Moore’s are awesome. They are the family we live with and they take such good care of us. Living with members is the best!!!

Thanks again for the Birthday cards and candles. I got all my birthday stuff last Thursday at Zone Training. Ha! All the missionaries in the zone sang to me when they brought in my mail.  I need to start thinking about plans for when I get home. I talked to president Vest about extending my mission but I'm not sure he'll let me.

Love you all. Thanks for the prayers.
Elder Cluster 

Transferred and Training....What???

Hey everyone!!! It's been a ridiculously busy week, so I'm going to give a day by day this week.

Monday- A great P-day in Independence as always. Lots of emails, and basketball, and P-day Joy. The Andrees, (an awesome ward missionary family,) took us to the Cracker Barrel for dinner. Ha, such an old person restaurant. It was great!!!

Tuesday- the Andrees took us and Allen up to Liberty to see the Liberty Jail. It was great to be there. That's only the second time on my mission I’ve had a chance to make it up that way. Allen loved it. He loves everything to do with the church. It truly has been a blessing to work with him. All in all it had been a great day… And then we got transfer calls... They're fetching “white washing” our area! Both Elder Bylund and I got transferred! Gaaa! What the junk! I've only been here for 2 transfers. I was so mad to hear I was leaving! I was called to go and finish training Elder Marsden in the Redbridge and Stanley wards, over on the southern end of Kansas City Kansas.
                                                                  

Wednesday- Happy Birthday to me! I spent my whole birthday packing and saying goodbye. It was a pretty crappy way to spend it to be honest... Saying goodbye sucks. Elder Jones went home, so elder Spencer had to join us for the day in a trio. Ha, that was fun. Since we were so busy, we didn't have a chance to celebrate my birthday party till late that night. Thank you so much to everyone who wrote me and sent me candles for my cake! That was so much fun! It definitely wasn't how I thought I would be spending my twenty first birthday, but thanks to all of you, it was a great day.

Thursday- Meeting at the Stake Center for transfers was really weird. All the sisters I came out with went home! And so did my trainer Elder Whiting! They're all gone! Crazy Crazy Stuff!!! Elder Marsden is my new companion and he is super cool! He's from Saint George, and he's been out for six weeks. This area is something else. We are serving in Johnson County which is the third richest county in the whole country. We live with members in a MANSION! We are also covering two wards. The just took sister missionaries out of the ward right next to us, and left us to cover both. Ha, it's a good thing too, because our area is pretty darn dead.

                                                                  

Friday- we went to the Diana Rose Farmstead! Our whole district goes to do service there every Friday. It's like a little fake farmstead for little kids! I helped in a little shack next to the fishing pond, helping kids get there little fish off the hooks and throw the, back into the pond! It was the best service ever!
                                                                

                                                                       

Saturday- it's been crazy trying to get to know both wards. We've visited a lot of members to try to get our feet on the ground, and learn who's who. The sisters who use to be over the Stanley Ward had a couple investigators so we've been trying to get to know them too.

Sunday- SO…MUCH…CHURCH! Between ward counsel, correlation, and two sessions of church, we were in meetings for eight and a half hours! So much… That's not even including the hours of studies we did afterwards.

Well that doesn't include half of the business of the week but that’s all I have time for. Thank you so much for everything! I love you all!
Love Elder Austin Cluster

PS. My mom asked me to take some "Artsy" pictures with my name tag like my brother Brycen.... So here you go!
                                                                                     

My name tag in front of a beautiful sunset

NAME TAG SELFIE! 

                                                                 

MIRACLE 8-3-15

M- I've had a great week! We've been keeping busy and working hard! Transfers are coming up on Thursday, and I got a training call! I'm so excited! I'm going to have the chance to be a dad again! Training is just the best! I can't wait! The trainers meeting on Saturday was really good too. I happened to run into a lot of the sisters that I was in the MTC with this week. It's crazy! They're all going home in like four days! Man, time flies. Also! Thank you for all the birthday cards and candles that I've gotten! I swear I've gotten more mail in the past couple days than I've gotten in the past six months combined!

I- My investigators are doing great. A is awesome as usual, and we had a guy named MJ came to church yesterday. That was a little bit of a surprise, but it was great to see him. Hopefully we'll be able to help him along. 

R- The trainers meeting was awesome. They taught us that trainers are very important. Trainers have a huge impact on their missionary, which affects their entire mission, which in turn will affect the rest of their life. I feel like I have to step up my game. I’m excited to be a trainer again.

A- The area is doing well. We need a couple more people to meet with, but I know they come along. The worst thing to happen to this area is the fact that we are going to have the car less! We use to be two weeks car one week bike, but now we're going down to one week car one week bike. It’s rough stuff.

C- Hey, Elder Bylund got a trainer call too! He is ready to get transferred! It's going to be crazy. I can’t wait to see where he's going.

L- The Book of Mormon is just chalked full of revelation. Read it. Read it all the time.

E- So elder Bylund and I were sitting in McDonald's this week and this homeless man came up to us and started talking. He was pretty fried, but he was nice. When we brought up the Book of Mormon he said that he had read it twice and that he wanted a blessing. So we went outside, and gave him a blessing right there!! There we were, right next to a tree in front of McDonald's, the freeway on one side and the McDonald's drive though on the other. At first I hesitated but then I asked myself, "what would Jesus do." He would bless the nice little homeless man. 

 I love you all! Thanks for the prayer and all you do for me!