Haven't writen much here but Austin got his package I sent to him on Aug. 14. Looks like it takes about 7-8 weeks to get there. So........ for Christmas packages send before the end of October.

1 and counting

Austin wrote to tell us that he has his first baptism come Saturday! Yay! Go Aust, we are so proud of you!

Updated address for Austin, from Austin

hey here is my address to the mission home

Elder Austin Ford Bowthorpe
Misiòn Peru Arequipa
Casilla 1884
Arequipa, Peru

ok and dont send anything worth more than a hundred dollars or i have to pay alot of money in taxes ok everything is going great here its just living in a third world country cold showers etc we get cooks or pensionistas so no need for the recipes ha ha ok te amo and mi español is coming along slowly ok adios


Sounds like he is doing well, we sure miss him. Two years=a long time.

Baptism News

So, as some of you may know. I have gone back to church in the past few weeks. Shaun & I have been taking the missionary discussions & Shaun has decided to be baptised. In fact, he's doing so on June 6th. Very exciting. Shaun is such a good Man & I feel so blessed to be marrying him in 4 days! Church has been great, I love the people in our ward. I didn't really ever think I would go back to the church, but I truely feel that this is the only way I could have ever gone back. I used to tell Shaun all the time that he'd make a great Mormon, lol!! His family thinks it's weird & they don't understand. His Grandmother asked his Mom if this meant that he was going to grow a beard... Hmmmm.... But, my family is being very supportive & happy for us, & come Saturday they'll be his family too! I've often heard that sending a Missionary into the field will bring many blessings to the family at home, & I truely believe that. Here's the letter from Austin after I told him we were getting married & Shaun was getting baptised. Enjoy!!!

hey lindy
your email was awesome it made my day! im so happy now to know possibly that im doing some good out here that the lord will bless members of my family. awesome. i know this is what you wanted to be a nice little mormon family im so happy for you and shaun. well i leave on tuesday to Arequipa.... anyways, love you, maybe you will be ready to be sealed when i get back.
adios! Austin

E-mail from Austin

Here is what Austin has had to say about Peru so far...

Que tal
um where do i begin well i know a little more about Peru now, Lima is a
really dirty and polluted city i cant even see the sky sometimes because the
smog is so thick. I thought where i was was bad but, last Saturday they take us
out to go proselyting and the took us to the slums it was really bad i don't have
pictures cause if i would have brought my camera it would get stolen. people
live in garbage, no roofs dirt floors , stray dogs everywhere people were
staring at us i felt guilty because i have been so blessed with everything and i
felt like i was strutin around in nice clothes and stuff. the only people that
talk to us is girls i don't understand what they say but my companion said they
like us and want to have gringo babies so they can get out of here. I used to
hate all the Latinos coming to Utah but, now i don't blame them i would do the
same thing as well if i lived in these conditions. the part where I'm at is really
nice now the mtc is in the rich part of the city the mtc is really nice well it
has to be the church builds it and they build nice buildings everywhere. I have
a Spanish companion they all make fun of us but us north Americans make fun of
them as well. anyways love ya bye P.S. no guineas pig yet just chicken and rice
every day.but it is pretty funny we teach all the Latins word in English and say
they mean different things, for example we taught them dingle berry and said it
means i love you haha its pretty fun adios.

He also told my dad that the Peruvians like to sing "Hotel California" really loud, and that it sounds awful. Haha. He got to call my mom on Mothers Day so all the sibs also got a chance to say a quick and I mean quick "Hello", and my mom was really thank full to have talked to him. Oh, something funny... while we were taking turns saying hi, Broc was in the background telling us to ask Austin about the dogs, over and over again, then when it was Brocs' turn the first thing he said was "Are there a lot of dogs?" It just struck me as funny.

I cannot believe that he has almost been gone for 2 months. I think we are all really starting to miss him. But I will say that I have seen some definite blessings happening in our family because of his faithfulness and example. Thank you all for your prayers.

A little story

So, Austin has been gone for a month now. I can't believe it. Since he has been in the MTC he had to have knee surgery. My parents have got to see him four times since they first said goodbye. I think that that would be the hardest. He is doing well, and is cleared to go to Peru. He was supposed to leave the 15th of April, but he wont be leaving until Tuesday, which is tommorrow. He sent me a letter that I wan't to share. He talks about how having a mission companion is a love/hate relationship. He then proceeds to tell me how jealous I am going to be because Jeffery R. Holland went to the MTC to speak. Here is the story that Elder Holland told them, about Elder Toronto in Czech Republic. The Elders were going door to door adn they went to this one house and the lady was mean and slammed the door in their faces. The missionaries were persistant and knocked again. The woman answered and the missionaires told her that they didn't need to be treated that way adn that they had prayed this morning and they knew they needed to be there. The woman then asked if they were ministers? When they answered yeS she told them she wanted nothing to do with religion. The missionaries asked her why and she replied, "My husband died in the war, leaving me with a child to take care of by myself, and then my child 3 years old died." The woman broken hearted went to her pastor/minister for comfort and the preist said, " I've never seen you in my church before, and now you come to me when you're in despair. YOur child is in Hell and your going too because you didn't get her baptised. GET OUT!" The woman then asked the missionaries if that is what they wanted to know, and told them to get off her porch. Elder Toronto told her, "I know where your daughter is" The woman stopped dead in her tracks, and the missionaires pulled out Moroni 8 which talks about children adn baptism. Thank you Austin, for sharing this stroy.

Yay, I got a letter today!

I was so happy to see a letter from my lil' brother in the mail today! He writes,
"Dear Jamee,
Thanks for the letter, it is great to hear from the outside world. I had no idea what the MTC was going to be like. From 6:30a.m. to 10:30p.m. I'm either in class or studying, I didn't realize I was never going to be left alone. I'm with my companion 24/7 but we're becoming friends. I can only write on Wednesdays I would suggest you use DearElder.com it's free and same-day delivery. Tell EVERYONE I miss them and they have to write me cause I don't know their adresses. Sorry for a short letter, but I'm in a hurry mail leaves at four.
Love ya,
~Austin"

I won't always put everything he wrote me, but I didn't see any reason why I shouldn't have put the whole letter in today. Well you heard the Elder(hehe) WRITE!