Chased by a dog and bit by a chicken!

It´s sooo hot! Haha.
Haley, I´m gonna start with you! I love hearing about all your high
school experiences! except for your Spanish grade...here´s a tip.
When I study Spanish, I read out loud everything that I read, write,
or memorize. Using the senses of both sight and sound while training
your tongue to remember words and phrases helps your brain retain the
information. Try doing that, even if you have to whisper in class.
That should help. And pray for help too!
Regarding your desire to do everything... I know, right! Haha I feel
like there´s so much to do, so much I want to do. And I simply cant.
I started praying for the gift to prioritize this week and I think
that will help. But you can always try to figure out what is best out
of your options. It´s tough to sacrifice the other things that you
want to do, but sometimes we have to. Just remember not to waste your
time. I got your letter and I loved it!
I also got Alex´s letter through Dear Elder. And that was so great!
I wrote him back and should be sending that today. Mom, I finally
sent you a letter, that should arrive in a few weeks haha!
Brock, it sounds like things are going great! Thanks for you email,
and your advice. Keep up the good work in school. You sound way
happy, I love it!

It sounds like the two missionaries are way cool! It´s neat to hear
about stuff like that.
Dad, to answer your questions...
Transfers are every 6 weeks. Elder Herrera (from El Salvador) has
been here for 4 months. He is a convert of four years and his parents
aren´t members. His brother and sister are, but I think he´s the
first to serve a mission. He´s awesome.
And I´ll be reading D&C 53 today during personal study. I´m excited
to check that out.
This week was crazy!! Lots of good stuff, some tough things too. The
mission is such a roller coaster! On tuesday and Wednesday we had a
Seminary with President Maravilla. It was amazing, I learned so much!
I was able to see a couple other greenies who are also having some
interesting experiences haha! Elder Thomas (6´8¨) basketball player
was chased by a drunk gay guy, he doesn´t have running water, and he
goes poo ten times a day. I gave him some of my Immodium on Wednesday
haha. I hope he´s doing better.
President talked about a lot of things, especially the importance of
finding families. He also emphasized the need for every investigator
to read and pray every day and attend church. We focused on that this
week and it went great!
Thursday we met with the Santos family and applied some of what we
learned in the Seminary. They told us they wanted to be baptized on
Saturday!! We then talked with Vicky, the girl who had a baptism date
set and then dropped it. She also said she wanted to get baptized on
Saturday! It was amazing! Then on Friday we met with Julio. He got
an answer to his prayers and expressed a desire to get baptized. He
came to church with us yesterday and it was great. On our way to
church we walked by the house of his pastor, who was standing in the
front yard! That was awkward and funny. Julio didn´t know what to
do, so we just said good morning and kept walking. My companion
warned him that his pastor is going to say all kinds of things about
the church, and to remember the answers he´s gotten to his prayers.
I´m praying for him.
So on Saturday, we planned the baptism and it was kind of hectic.
Rosa, the 20 year old sister in the Santos family still wanted to be
baptized, but the rest of the family did not. So it was just Vicky
and Rosa, but it was still great. Elder Grover came to interview them
and I accompanied him with that. I kept being blamed for stuff not
getting done during the day and I still don´t really understand what I
failed to do. But everything was ready for the baptism. Then Elder
Herrera asked Rosa and Vicky if I could baptize them! And they said
that would be great! I had assumed he would be doing it and hadn´t
memorized what to say. I stumbled on the words, but it was all good.
It was a wonderful experience.
Yesterday Rosa was confirmed, Vicky didn´t show up to Sacrament
Meeting. I had thought Elder Herrera had called her to make sure she
was coming, so that was an unfortunate assumption on my part. Our
Zone leader wasn´t happy with us. I learned a lot from this weekend.
I didn´t like the rushed feel of preparing everything. As amazing as
the experience was, it would have been so much better had we planned
it out better.

Two more members of the Santos family want to get baptized this week,
so hopefully we can do a better job assuming all goes well with that.
Last night we had a District (stake) leadership meeting with our
mission president! It was awesome. He laid down the law and it was
powerful. He has been called of God and he has an ability to
communicate what needs to be said in a way that makes you really want
to get going on it. Haha I don´t know how else to describe it. But
he´s stopping by our house today to visit with us and interview my
companion.

Elder Herrera told me we could use bikes to get to our appointments if
we didn´t have time to walk. So we borrowed two bikes on Thursday and
did that. I didn´t feel right about it, so I asked Elder Grover if we
can use bikes. He said no. I told Elder Herrera that Elder Grover
said we shouldn´t ride bikes, so I wasn´t going to ride a bike
anymore. He wasn´t happy, but he respected my desire to follow the
rules. We took the bikes back that afternoon.
One night when we were riding our bikes back to our house, two nasty
dogs started chasing us! With a well-aimed kick to the face of one of
them, Elder Herrera fended off his opponent. I was too fast for mine.
It was intense, but hilarious. I couldn´t stop laughing. The dogs
here are disgusting! Ugh. I miss Ginger haha! I was also scratched
and bit by a chicken this week.

I finished reading ¨Jesus the Christ¨this week. I´m sad it´s over, I
learned soo much! Towards the end I felt such a strong feeling of
appreciation for the Savior. The Spirit was so strong as I read the
last few chapters. I fear that I don´t fully appreciate the Atonement
or the Savior simply because I don´t fully understand the significance
or the impact of His life and sacrifice. That book is amazing.
I have pictures to send, so I´m gonna try and do that. I love you
guys and I hope you all have an awesome week! Thank you for
everything! I love you!!!
Love,
Elder Austin Tyler

Settling in

Holy cow! Lot´s of questions to answer. And tons of awesome news
from you guys! Dad that´s awesome what happened on the plane! And
that´s sooo cool about Alex! I wish I could see him play sooo bad.
Haley it sounds like you´re keeping busy and staying awesome. Keep it
up! I love hearing about your high school experiences. I remember
thinking the same thing as you regarding how cool it was to finally be
driving and hanging out in high school. And then before I knew it, it
was over! Slow down and enjoy it when you can. It goes by fast. Mom
I love that scripture you shared. The thing you said about sharing
the message about Joseph Smith is very applicable here. Most people
believe in Christ, the special message we get to share with them is
how Christ´s true church is on the Earth. Sometimes they think it´s
really interesting and other times they get offended at the idea that
all the other churches aren´t Christ´s church. Even though we explain
that those other churches are wonderful, they simply lack the
authority of God. It´s tricky, but when we follow the Spirit we
always know what to say.

This week has been tough. So now Elder Herrera and I have the whole
area to ourselves. It´s a big responsibility, and I want to get going
on things again. Things were slow last week because of the sudden
changes and leaders coming through to check on us. We didn´t get much
done and my companion was really depressed for a couple days. Also,
one of our investigators was hit by a car and passed away. It was
really weird even though we hadn´t taught her much yet. But we had
the opportunity to talk to the family about the gospel and we´re going
back there tomorrow. Also, we had a meeting with the Branch
leadership and the two counselors in the branch presidency said they
would not help us with missionary work. My companion patiently and
admirably tried to explain the benefits of helping with the work, and
they yelled at him. It was weird. President Maravilla is coming this
week to our Branch. I think he might be coming to see if this area is
going to have missionaries after this next change. It´s been a crazy
week haha ahhh

So it´s always hot. The thermometer on my alarm clock says 81 to 84
every night. But I´m getting used to it. I have trouble sleeping
sometimes, especially when I get a freaky dream or something. I had
one last night that kinda threw me off and I couldn´t sleep much after
that haha. But I might take a nap today because nobody´s playing
soccer for P Day. Lame.
Haha but I think we´re gonna clean up around the house and buy some
food. So that´ll be nice. Yesterday we had bread and butter, rice,
and water for dinner. It was a caused by a misunderstanding on how
much food we had in the house.

Sometimes it´s really tough to love somebody you live with, especially
when you come from different cultures. I can rarely understand my
companion, but I´m getting better at understanding other people. I
ask him to clarify or explain things and I get even more lost. It´s
really weird. I don´t think he does it on purpose, but I don´t
understand why it´s getting harder to understand him the more Spanish
I learn. But I´m focusing on the fact that I am learning so much!
It´s great!
We eat lunch at the restuarant on every day except Sunday. The owners
are the landlords of our house and they´re like our grandparents.
Hermano Kike is a member of almost two years and he´s awesome. He and
his wife are really old and cute and they like to talk to us when we
come home at night. It´s fun to talk to them, they make my day.

We eat lots of chicken, beans, eggs, rice, and bread. And sometimes
steak, I eat a lot of cereal. We eat well. I love the food. One of
the members wants to make an iguana dinner for me soon. That´ll be
cool.

I can remember names, but I can´t remember places very well. I´ve
never been good with directions, and it´s harder when my companion
tries to explain where stuff is haha! Ahhh but I´m figuring it out
finally.

I gave my first talk in Spanish yesterday! It went well I think.
Hermano Kike said it was good, but that was the only comment I got. I
spoke about the importance of working together in missionary work, how
every member is a missionary and we need the help of the members. I
invited the branch to pray about people they know who we can visit and
that we would be asking them for references in the coming weeks. So
hopefully that will help things pick up.

I´m still getting used to the concept of not having personal space.
Haha especially with kids. They walk past me so they can feel my
white arms. It´s uncomfortable, but whatever haha!

Some of the members here are soo awesome and they´re willing to help
us with anything. I love visiting members´homes, they always help me
feel welcome.

So I´ve been thinking a lot about what you said, Dad, about not
waiting to be great. I´ve been trying to figure out how to leave
things better than when I found them. As a greenie, I´m not taken
very seriously, so I´m trying to patiently change one thing at a time.
We don´t use our time very well, so I use extra time to study. And
that´s helping me learn a lot, but that´s not what that time is for.
Sometimes I feel guilty for not using time more wisely, but I don´t
know what to do. I obviously can´t go contact alone, but I don´t know
what to do. Sometimes I feel like, as a greenie, I should just sit
tight and learn as much as I can while I figure out what to apply
later when I have the opportunity to make a difference. But then I
feel like I should be applying that stuff now. But I don´t know how!
Ahhh it´s bugging me. I guess i need to rely more on the Spirit.

It´s been an interesting week, but I´m loving the work! It´s been
cool becoming accustomed to this environment. I´ve learned a lot
about myself and I have a lot to do and become. Julio wasn´t home
twice this week, but we talked to him and his uncle last night. He´s
going to come to church next week even though he doesn´t feel like
he´s gotten an answer to his prayers yet. He likes what we have to
say and he has a strong desire to learn. I keep praying that he will
recognize the Spirit. I gotta go, but it was awesome reading your
emails! I´m sending a few letters today, just a heads up! I love you
guys and hope you´re loving life! I read Romans 5:1-5 this week and
it´s cool. It helps me keep a proper perspective. Love ya!
Elder Austin Tyler