Hi Mother and Father!
So we had the craziest hurricane ever here in Orlando! Huge! 10 mph winds with a 15 minute rain shower! I thought we were going to die! Ha yeah nothing happened. At all. Not even windy. I'm really thankful that it didn't hit us though. Near the beginning of the mission, I wanted one to hit. But now I definitely don't. That would be horrible. Thanks for the prayers :)
Sooooo...no memory card. I've looked places that it could be but no luck. I am 99.9% positive I put it in the box. So it might be lost. But we can still pray for miracles. Hopefully it will show up somewhere.
So if you have problems at the DMV for my license I can just get a FL license. I would just need my birth certificate. Just let me know what happens.
Mom to answer your question about the College Program: The program goes from anywhere between 3-12 months. And basically the purpose of it is to just come and have the experience of working with Disney. Some people want to work with Disney full-time eventually but most people we talk to just do it for fun. Students from all over the world come to do it. It's cool.
So this week was busy with transfers and whatnot. Lots of running around. It's great though because I've learned how to step outside of stressful situations and stay in control of the things that I have control over (if that makes sense). I've learned a lot about that. So we met with Alex this week. We taught her with a member from Spanish Fork named Jocelyn. It was perfect too because Alex needed to hear someone else's testimony besides ours. So it went great and Alex said that she would be baptized this coming Thursday. PLEASE keep her in your prayers as you have so far because she needs it badly. She is seriously so prepared but Satan is working on her hard. And once she is baptized she will be such a good member!
Thanks for the prayers that you have said on her behalf so far :) We also met with a girl named Delphine this week. She is awesome! Super intelligent and has tons of great questions. She has a catholic background and loves to learn. She lives with a member named Leah and they have talked about the church a little. But Delphine is doing all the right things to find out the truthfulness of the Gospel. She is reading, praying, and coming to church tomorrow. We have had two amazing lessons with her. Please keep her in your prayers as well.
I am really thankful for all the prayers that you both send out for me and the people that I work with. Prayer makes a huge difference in so many things. Prayer changes things. I love it. There is so much power in a kneeling prayer. I am always reminded of the story of Alma the younger and the four sons of Mosiah seeking to destroy the church. When the angel appears to them in verse 14 of chapter 27 he says: "Behold, the Lord hath heard the prayers of his people, and also the prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has prayed with much faith concerning thee that thou mightest be brought to the knowledge of the truth; therefore, for this purpose have I come to convince thee of the power and authority of God, that the prayers of his servants might be answered according to their faith." It's cool to think that the whole reason an ANGEL OF GOD appeared to Alma the younger was because of his father's prayers. I wonder if anything would have happened if Alma the elder hadn't prayed in faith for his son. Interesting thought. This is why it is so crucial to pray for investigators; so they can "be brought to the knowledge of the truth".
I love prayer. It's amazing to think that we can actually speak with our Heavenly Father. I think a lot about how excited I am to meet God one day (in fact about an hour ago I told Elder Gregson how excited I was to meet God haha)...but while we are here we can literally speak with him. That's how he is able to bless us so much when we pray. All miracles and blessings are according to our faith in Him and in Christ "whom [we have] never before heard nor seen". Think of the faith that it takes to get down on your knees, with your eyes closed, and just start talking to someone that you can't see. My testimony has gotten to a point where I know that when I'm on my knees talking, God is right there listening. I pray that testimony will continue to increase. I don't know how He does it. I don't know how he hears and answers every single one of His children's prayers. And it's something that I don't necessarily need to fully comprehend right now because I know that one day I WILL know. But I've never believed as much as I do right now that when we pray to Him in the name of Christ, He hears, and answers through the power of the Holy Ghost, which is undeniable. So thank you for your prayers.
I love you so much! I hope you are happy and healthy. Stay fresh and go to the Temple! I want to invite you actually to do this: on a day that you can, go to the Temple and do initiatories, then and endowment session, then sealings. It might take a while but you won't regret it! (you know that though ;)) Ha I don't know why I am inviting you to do that but it would be great! Tell everyone in the family and all my friends that you see that I miss them and love them. LOVE YOU TOO! Have a blessed week!
--
Elder Austin Gable Engemann
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Photos, August 27, 2011
Liz and Keisha's baptism
Typical thumbs up!
Breakfast with the Campbells! (Senior couple)
With some friends at church
The Sister's worked with Lily and she asked me to baptize her. Good times.
Ice cream party!
August 20, 2011
Chello!
Nick Forrest is going to the Philippines!!! When you see him tell him I LOVE HIM! And congratulations. That's awesome.
So I don't know what to do about the memory card...I'm 99% sure that I put it in there. There is that 1% that I took it out for some reason haha. I will look for it. If you haven't already, you could take out all the stuff and shake it. It might have been snuck into one of the shirts or something. Just a suggestion. There was a TON of pictures on it so I really hope it didn't get lost haha. It will show up. Somehow.
So my license expires one the 26th of January. So hopefully it can be renewed. I know it is under 6 months but if you could just see what you can do that would be great. I really appreciate it :) and if it can't be renewed could you find out if it will mess up my residency for school if I get a FL license? Gracias!
So your story about the lady from the cruise is so cool! See what you did! You started a chain reaction that will change their lives forever. Just by sharing what we believe. It's amazing! Missionary work is God's work for sure. Ha I love it. I'm glad you had a good experience. You'll have to let me know what happens.
This week was busy. Buhizuheeeeeee. We finished figuring out transfers. There is a big board in President's office with magnetic pictures of all the missionaries in their zones and districts. And when we do transfers we pray, move them around, see how it feels, and pray more. It's awesome how it all works out. We spent a ton of time over a period of days moving things around. After it was done you just feel so relieved. The Spirit is a reliever haha. And when you feel relieved you know it's right. Pretty cool how it works.
So Alex was supposed to get baptized today but she went to Puerto Rico. She doesn't like a date. It was set for August 20th. But she feels like it's too soon. We tried to reset it for next week after a longgggg talk. She said she would get baptized next week but she doesn't like a date. It's weird haha. But she is so ready. She already has a strong testimony and is living the gospel. No one at church knows she's not a member. It will happen. She's taking her scriptures to Puerto Rico so that will be good. We love her.
So this transfer there are 21 new missionaries coming in. SO many. There are hardly enough areas to fit them. Next week is week 1 of the transfer. It is a really really busy week haha. We have arrivals on Monday, Transfers on Tuesday, and Departures on Wednesday. It's fun though. So we should have a lot of new people coming to church tomorrow. All the BYU students got here this week. We're excited to meet them all tomorrow. Soooo...things are great.
I hope you are doing great. Have a great week. I say great a lot. Great! Love you!!!!!!!!!!
--
Elder Austin Gable Engemann
Nick Forrest is going to the Philippines!!! When you see him tell him I LOVE HIM! And congratulations. That's awesome.
So I don't know what to do about the memory card...I'm 99% sure that I put it in there. There is that 1% that I took it out for some reason haha. I will look for it. If you haven't already, you could take out all the stuff and shake it. It might have been snuck into one of the shirts or something. Just a suggestion. There was a TON of pictures on it so I really hope it didn't get lost haha. It will show up. Somehow.
So my license expires one the 26th of January. So hopefully it can be renewed. I know it is under 6 months but if you could just see what you can do that would be great. I really appreciate it :) and if it can't be renewed could you find out if it will mess up my residency for school if I get a FL license? Gracias!
So your story about the lady from the cruise is so cool! See what you did! You started a chain reaction that will change their lives forever. Just by sharing what we believe. It's amazing! Missionary work is God's work for sure. Ha I love it. I'm glad you had a good experience. You'll have to let me know what happens.
This week was busy. Buhizuheeeeeee. We finished figuring out transfers. There is a big board in President's office with magnetic pictures of all the missionaries in their zones and districts. And when we do transfers we pray, move them around, see how it feels, and pray more. It's awesome how it all works out. We spent a ton of time over a period of days moving things around. After it was done you just feel so relieved. The Spirit is a reliever haha. And when you feel relieved you know it's right. Pretty cool how it works.
So Alex was supposed to get baptized today but she went to Puerto Rico. She doesn't like a date. It was set for August 20th. But she feels like it's too soon. We tried to reset it for next week after a longgggg talk. She said she would get baptized next week but she doesn't like a date. It's weird haha. But she is so ready. She already has a strong testimony and is living the gospel. No one at church knows she's not a member. It will happen. She's taking her scriptures to Puerto Rico so that will be good. We love her.
So this transfer there are 21 new missionaries coming in. SO many. There are hardly enough areas to fit them. Next week is week 1 of the transfer. It is a really really busy week haha. We have arrivals on Monday, Transfers on Tuesday, and Departures on Wednesday. It's fun though. So we should have a lot of new people coming to church tomorrow. All the BYU students got here this week. We're excited to meet them all tomorrow. Soooo...things are great.
I hope you are doing great. Have a great week. I say great a lot. Great! Love you!!!!!!!!!!
--
Elder Austin Gable Engemann
Saturday, August 13, 2011
August 13, 2011
Hey family! I'm super tired haha. I'm falling asleep at this computer.
First, I'll answer your questions:
Yesterday we went to Daytona on exchanges with the Zone Leaders up there. I got to see a ton of members, including Grandpa, at a ice cream party that they were having at the church. It was great to see them all.
Today we taught Alex again. She is soooo ready to be baptized! She is doubting herself a little though, thinking it's too fast. So please please please pray for her this week to receive an answer that she can be baptized on the 20th. She is so cool and has a ton of faith. She is living the Gospel already. Everyone at the Church loves her too.
I'm stoked for you to meet all the people that I worked with on the mission one day. It will be fun. But things are great! Elder Gregson is the man. We are having tons of fun. One thing that I do need from you is to find out if you can renew my driver's license. Or call someone in an office somewhere and find out if I can get a license from Florida without messing up my residency in Utah for school. That would be really great if you could do that for me. Because my license expires right before I go home and I need to renew it. So get back to me as soon as possible on that please :) thanks!
I love you both so much! Have a wonderful week and pray for missionary opportunities!
First, I'll answer your questions:
- 1. Zone Conference in our mission is split up into three different days for 7 zones. There were 2 zones together on Tuesday, 3 together on Wednesday, and 2 together on Thursday. We aren't really in a zone haha. We went to all of them. Elder Gregson and I accounted for the mission and had two different trainings on finding and teaching. It went really well. I learned a lot.
- 2. We don't really know anything about Elizabeth's parents. Hopefully they are ok with it haha. I think they will be. Her baptism was soooo great! Tons of support from the ward. After she got baptized, she sang "How Great Thou Art" and it was awesome. She was very happy. I'm glad that you were able to see some pictures.
- 3. It's probably hot here but I'm pretty used to it now haha. Because last summer seemed SO hot.
- 4. The memory card that I sent in the package is in the envelope near the top of the box. You can dig around and find it. I promise it's in there. Unless someone stole it. But I have faith that it's there haha.
Yesterday we went to Daytona on exchanges with the Zone Leaders up there. I got to see a ton of members, including Grandpa, at a ice cream party that they were having at the church. It was great to see them all.
Today we taught Alex again. She is soooo ready to be baptized! She is doubting herself a little though, thinking it's too fast. So please please please pray for her this week to receive an answer that she can be baptized on the 20th. She is so cool and has a ton of faith. She is living the Gospel already. Everyone at the Church loves her too.
I'm stoked for you to meet all the people that I worked with on the mission one day. It will be fun. But things are great! Elder Gregson is the man. We are having tons of fun. One thing that I do need from you is to find out if you can renew my driver's license. Or call someone in an office somewhere and find out if I can get a license from Florida without messing up my residency in Utah for school. That would be really great if you could do that for me. Because my license expires right before I go home and I need to renew it. So get back to me as soon as possible on that please :) thanks!
I love you both so much! Have a wonderful week and pray for missionary opportunities!
--
Elder Austin Gable Engemann
Friday, August 12, 2011
Photos: Elizabeth's Baptism, August 11, 2011
Me, Elizabeth and Elder Gregson
Elisheva Ali, Jocelyn Waite, Carrie Proctor , Eric Petersen, Dell Irene Minnich, Elder Austin Gable Engemann, Bryce Funk
Sunday, August 7, 2011
August 6, 2011
Hi my wonderful family!
Things are going great. Elizabeth is getting baptized this Thursday. Then Alex the next Saturday. Then Huan the next Saturday.
Listen to this cool story about Huan: We taught this girl in our ward named Hannah the other week and helped her with her missionary work. We role played with her and had an awesome experience where she really figured out what it was that she needed to do in a certain situation. It was great. Anyway we promised her that before she left on the 12th of August she could find someone to accept the Gospel and be baptized. The Spirit was super strong. Anyway, so on Sunday we see her walk into Church with another guy who we had never seen before and she just had a huge smile on her face. Elder Gregson and I were both thinking "YESSS!" She did it. It was so cool, she was so happy. That's why missionary work is so cool. You're just so happy when people accept the Gospel.
So the person she brought is named Huan. He is Vietnamese. He's really cool. The next day we taught him at the Church with Hannah there too and had an amazing lesson. He accepted to be baptized on the 27th of this month. Then at the end he prayed and said one of the best prayers I've ever heard on my mission. So sincere. And the Spirit just filled the room. Corner to corner, top to bottom. I felt like I was on cloud 9 during the whole prayer because I was just so stoked for Huan and the journey that he was beginning.
I love working with the YSA ward. The ward is definitely performing. We will be getting a ton of new CPs within the next couple of weeks so Elder Gregson and I are going to pump them up quick so they can get focused on missionary work right away. There are soooo many people in the College Program waiting to be baptized. It's unreal. We just have to have the members find them.
We had a testimony building experience the other night. We were teaching Alex and her roommate Lyn Thursday night. We were focusing a little more on Lyn because she had a ton of questions and we were trying to help her understand. And she brought up the Sabbath day because she had heard us talk to Alex about it in a previous meeting. She started talking about how she doesn't think that shopping and things like that on Sundays are ways of breaking the Sabbath. Then all of a sudden Alex jumped in and just TOTALLY stood up for the Church and for the Sabbath. It was so cool! She bore her testimony about it. Elder Gregson and I were looking at each other with our jaws dropped because we were so proud of her. You could just see the Spirit working through her. It was great.
So we're meeting with Lyn again tonight. Hopefully it goes well. She is an awesome girl. Really outgoing and has a way strong faith in Christ. She is getting stuck on the Book of Mormon though. If only she understood the power that the Book of Mormon has within it. And that it doesn't take anything away from the Bible. I have gained such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon on the mission. I will NEVER deny it. Ever. It's sad to see people not even give it a chance. They don't accept it before they even read it. If they just humble themselves a little by cracking it open and reading they can feel the power of it. I love it. I've gained a strong testimony of the Bible too. It's cool to see how the Book of Mormon and the Bible have their unique stories to them but they go so well together. Hmm...it must be like God wrote both of them or something...haha. Please pray for Lyn to feel the Holy Ghost as she reads the Book of Mormon.
So we had an amazing experience this morning during companionship study. We were role playing for our investigator Mike, who I have never taught but Elder Gregson has. So he was Mike and I was Elder Engemann aka me. The first and second time we practiced I didn't even know where I was going and I couldn't feel the Spirit at all. I was just pulling random words out of my head. I was trying but it just wasn't working. I truly did have a "stupor of thought". Then we tried it a third time. This time, after we had started role playing, we said a prayer. The Spirit came and from that point was the teacher, not me (thankfully). As we went on the Spirit was there the whole time and it told us exactly what it was that Mike needed to hear. It was so comforting to sit there after the role play, relieved, with a confidence in our hearts from the Holy Ghost that THAT is what he needs to hear. The Spirit is such an incredible source.
So...life is good! And crazy busy. This next week is Zone Conference. Tuesday-Thursday. Three separate meetings. And Elder Gregson and I are training on Accountability. Please pray for us to have the Holy Ghost with us as we teach. Thank youuuu! :) But I hope you have an awesome week! LOVE YOU!!! Oh to answer your question: we don't bike anymore haha.
--
Elder Austin Gable Engemann
Things are going great. Elizabeth is getting baptized this Thursday. Then Alex the next Saturday. Then Huan the next Saturday.
Listen to this cool story about Huan: We taught this girl in our ward named Hannah the other week and helped her with her missionary work. We role played with her and had an awesome experience where she really figured out what it was that she needed to do in a certain situation. It was great. Anyway we promised her that before she left on the 12th of August she could find someone to accept the Gospel and be baptized. The Spirit was super strong. Anyway, so on Sunday we see her walk into Church with another guy who we had never seen before and she just had a huge smile on her face. Elder Gregson and I were both thinking "YESSS!" She did it. It was so cool, she was so happy. That's why missionary work is so cool. You're just so happy when people accept the Gospel.
So the person she brought is named Huan. He is Vietnamese. He's really cool. The next day we taught him at the Church with Hannah there too and had an amazing lesson. He accepted to be baptized on the 27th of this month. Then at the end he prayed and said one of the best prayers I've ever heard on my mission. So sincere. And the Spirit just filled the room. Corner to corner, top to bottom. I felt like I was on cloud 9 during the whole prayer because I was just so stoked for Huan and the journey that he was beginning.
I love working with the YSA ward. The ward is definitely performing. We will be getting a ton of new CPs within the next couple of weeks so Elder Gregson and I are going to pump them up quick so they can get focused on missionary work right away. There are soooo many people in the College Program waiting to be baptized. It's unreal. We just have to have the members find them.
We had a testimony building experience the other night. We were teaching Alex and her roommate Lyn Thursday night. We were focusing a little more on Lyn because she had a ton of questions and we were trying to help her understand. And she brought up the Sabbath day because she had heard us talk to Alex about it in a previous meeting. She started talking about how she doesn't think that shopping and things like that on Sundays are ways of breaking the Sabbath. Then all of a sudden Alex jumped in and just TOTALLY stood up for the Church and for the Sabbath. It was so cool! She bore her testimony about it. Elder Gregson and I were looking at each other with our jaws dropped because we were so proud of her. You could just see the Spirit working through her. It was great.
So we're meeting with Lyn again tonight. Hopefully it goes well. She is an awesome girl. Really outgoing and has a way strong faith in Christ. She is getting stuck on the Book of Mormon though. If only she understood the power that the Book of Mormon has within it. And that it doesn't take anything away from the Bible. I have gained such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon on the mission. I will NEVER deny it. Ever. It's sad to see people not even give it a chance. They don't accept it before they even read it. If they just humble themselves a little by cracking it open and reading they can feel the power of it. I love it. I've gained a strong testimony of the Bible too. It's cool to see how the Book of Mormon and the Bible have their unique stories to them but they go so well together. Hmm...it must be like God wrote both of them or something...haha. Please pray for Lyn to feel the Holy Ghost as she reads the Book of Mormon.
So we had an amazing experience this morning during companionship study. We were role playing for our investigator Mike, who I have never taught but Elder Gregson has. So he was Mike and I was Elder Engemann aka me. The first and second time we practiced I didn't even know where I was going and I couldn't feel the Spirit at all. I was just pulling random words out of my head. I was trying but it just wasn't working. I truly did have a "stupor of thought". Then we tried it a third time. This time, after we had started role playing, we said a prayer. The Spirit came and from that point was the teacher, not me (thankfully). As we went on the Spirit was there the whole time and it told us exactly what it was that Mike needed to hear. It was so comforting to sit there after the role play, relieved, with a confidence in our hearts from the Holy Ghost that THAT is what he needs to hear. The Spirit is such an incredible source.
So...life is good! And crazy busy. This next week is Zone Conference. Tuesday-Thursday. Three separate meetings. And Elder Gregson and I are training on Accountability. Please pray for us to have the Holy Ghost with us as we teach. Thank youuuu! :) But I hope you have an awesome week! LOVE YOU!!! Oh to answer your question: we don't bike anymore haha.
--
Elder Austin Gable Engemann
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