Swift kick in the pants...

March 29, 2018

Swift kick in the pants...

So Saturday marked two months in the MTC. On top of that I was reassigned for an unknown amount of time to Charleston, West Virginia. In other words, I was given a swift kick in the butt this week. The reassignment isn't for certain, but it's looking like I am going there. There is also a good chance I go to another mission in the USA, it's a long story that I cant really explain, but the mission visa waiting system is all messed up over here so we really don't know whats going on.

*Since this email we have confirmed that Austin’s visa is delayed along with three other Elders. There are five missionaries that will be traveling to Mongolia next week. The other four are being reassigned to wait it out. It looks like he will be going to West Virginia unless a miracle happens within the next few days, so start praying. We do not have his travel plans yet.*

But here's the rest of the week.

Friday: Really the highlight of the day was getting our flight plans, and now since we are getting reassigned they really mean nothing hahaha. So yeah, that's Friday.

Saturday: Today marked 2 months in the MTC so our teachers started teaching us survival words. That was really nice because now we can talk about a lot of things, not just gospel words.

Sunday: So ever since our 3rd week here, we have had a goal of filling up 10,000 water bottles on the water bottle filler machine. It's like the ones at the pool, so Easton knows what im talking about. So we have been drinking about 4 hydroflasks each, every day since that 3rd week. Well on Sunday we finally got to 10,000! It was probably the best thing we've done at the MTC. Scrimsher gave a commencement speech. It was a nice service. Also I got the pictures of Mom and Dad outside the temple when they got married, and all the sisters of course wanted to see, and they all said Dad looked like young Leonardo DiCaprio. Don't let that go to your head Dad. They were smitten with dad. LOL

Monday: In class we got bored, so we started to learn some Mongolian Script. It's really really tough, but it's super cool. Its like Arabic where there are 3 different ways to write a letter, if the letter is at the beginning of the word, in the middle, or is at the end of the word. It's nuts. Mom, I’m going to get you a small poster once I get to Mongolia with the word family written in script. Its pretty cool stuff. That night Scrimsher and I cruised around T4 (the new big building). It was nice to just walk around and have some fun.

Tuesday: Today, our teacher Batsaagaan named me the MVP of the class. He said my Mongolian has improved the most, and that I sound super good. He told me that if I keep working I will be fluent super super fast and that I have the potential to sound like a native (which is rare for white guys to do). So that was super super cool. So in case anyone forgot, or I forgot to tell you, there is no Bible in Mongolian. So we do all our teaching from the Book of Mormon. It's pretty cool, but really hard sometimes because we know really good Bible verses but we can't use them. Also, because of the Mongolian Book of Mormon we know that the Brother of Jared is older than Jared. There is no word for Brother in Mongolian, it's either older brother or younger brother. And the First Presidency told the translators to put in Older Brother as the word. Pretty neat.

Wednesday: So this day sucked. I'm not going to beat around the bush. We found out we are (most likely) getting reassigned. So that really blows. But we will see how it goes. It was just a rough day yesterday. Pretty much the worst one so far. We have not heard anything and we are all really confused and frustrated. I’ve been praying my guts out all day, and all this morning during the temple too. We’ll see what happens.

Have fun on your trip this weekend. Listen to some Head and the Heart, some Ben Howard, Imagine Dragons, and Ultralight Beam by Kanye. I miss all those so much.

I love you all and miss you so much. Tell everyone I miss them and love them so much! I will let you know as soon as I hear anything new about where the heck I am going to be next week.

Love, Austin

Napping in class

"Woke up to this. Scrimsher tipped my bed while I was fast asleep."

"Mongolian chocolate. The best chocolate I've ever had and I'm not just saying that. It's like hot chocolate in a bar."

"Elder Tai. He's from a rough part of LA. He's huge! Like 6'8" and pushing 300 lbs. His parents are Samoan and he's going to Houston. He is such a tender guy."