"Keep Austin Weird"

The black board my YSAs made

Hello my dear Family :)

Como esta?!

Well fam. Welcome to Austen.

I was transferred back up into South West Austin into the Oak Hills Ward. It's a FAMILY WARD! Weird. I didn't think it would be that difficult adjusting to a family ward, but boy was I wrong. YOUTH. BABIES. PARENTS. GRANDPARENTS. WHAAAATTT?! Brain overload basically. Did I mention there are youth and children? Cause there are. Weird. 

So my Companions name is Sister Clements. I ADORE her. She is from Highland Utah and is the oldest of 4 girls. Both of her parents served missions, her mom in Ohio and her dad in the Philippines. She has freakishly long dark hair and she only wears make-up on Sundays. We get along real good :)

Our ward is in quite a well-off area, and I've heard it's a little tricky  to find people to teach. I'm so excited to be here. Every night I thank God that I've been moved to this area, because I really am just so excited to be here. Sister Clements old companion Sister Burtenshaw actually got transferred to my Singles Branch in San Antonio. We just switched places. But she actually had to be transferred again since she's Canadian and can't go on the Air Force Base. Sad.

So before I said more about Austin there were a few things I had to get y'all up to speed on.

Vanessa and I saying goodbye :(

So in the YSA Branch in San Antonio we were teaching a boy, I've mentioned him before, Conner. We had an appointment with him two weeks ago on Friday and we confirmed with him the night before and everything was good. Then we texted us and asked if he could call us. We called him and he said that he had finally talked to his dad about taking the lessons and his dad wasn't very happy about it. He took his car keys and told him if he went to the lesson he would basically kick him out of the house. So Conner called us and we asked him what he wanted to do. Was it something he still wanted. He told us that he would find a ride to the lesson the next day. And he did. He came anyway. Sister Young and I had quite the ordeal planning his lesson. We ended up taking everything we had and hoping for inspiration. He set a date that day. He said that he was scared of his dad following through with his threats, but he said that he was more scared of not following what he knew was true. WOW. It was a powerful moment. He talked to us more later and said  that he told had said if he wanted to be baptized he would have to move out and support himself. He's now looking for an apartment. Talk about faith and dedication. It's incredible to see people dedicate so much for the truth.

So last week when my YSA Branch found out that I was leaving, they threw me a party. They tried to Slyly ask what my favorite food was and so made me tacos and they even got a cake that said "We'll miss you!" AWW. Dang. Make me cry. I will miss those kids. They taught me a lot. 

So Austen. Yeah. Sister Clements described them Austinites as creative modern hippies. I may or may not be getting a shirt that says "Keep Austen Weird." I love it :) there is just a some what crazy creative feeling here. Very different from Down Town San Antonio described as "The Straight Getts" 

Sister Clements and I

Being back in Austen just felt a little bit like coming back home.

So we figure out who our new companions are, and Sister Clements Whispers to me "by the way we're on bikes until Tuesday, Sister Burtenshaw crashed the car and it's in the shop." Cool. So just in case y'all were wondering... not eating all day, getting up at 4:30am, two transfer meetings and 100+ degrees equals a crashed bike. Cool. Not really. Just sort of... I hadn't been feeling good and tipped my bike. Whoooooo down. Sister Clements felt bad. I felt like a idiot. Pero, it is what it is.  We walked for a bit and a nice man gave us water. We gave him a card. It all works out.

Well, family. That's about all for now. 

Catch up with ya later!