Excerpts from his last letter :
"One of the things that I have been doing in my scripture study is I've been marking all the Christ-like attributes throughout the scriptures. I also am only reading a chapter a day and if it is short enough, two then. I'm trying to find something significant in each chapter that I can use"
"There is so much less-active work here that needs to be done. Its crazy, I don't know if I told you this but the two wards we are over have about 20% activity rate and that is with a full roster. So there is some cases we need to do repair work and in other cases we just need to light the fire underneath them to get them started. This is the thing Pres Monson has started to focus on is that the rescue effort is more so than it has been. That is all me and my companion has concentrated on lately and that is and has shown so many blessings for the ward and missionary work. I heard it put this way one time that "why would the Lord bless us with people to teach if we can't take care of our own that we have right now."
"You know me, I'm not the one to talk to everyone that I see and to hold a conversation for a while. But, I have gotten so much better at it. It's almost like I'm a new person. So I definitely gotten better socially. The dislike is still there, but I'm trying to be better at it"
And last: "But the work of the Lord is going great and I'm almost a year out. Can you believe how much time has flown by? I'll be on the downward slope soon and that will feel like crazy. This is a really short time and it sure didn't feel like that at the beginning of it."
So as you can see, Elder Key is taking his mission seriously and doing the best he can. I'm very proud of him that he can humble himself to see his weaknesses and turn them into strengths! He is trying to be more Christ-like and that goal alone will help him learn to love the less active people and look at them the way Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ do, as his brothers & sisters!
I wish I had more pictures to share, but getting a letter from Austin is such a miracle in itself, I won't push it!
Please write him, he would love to hear from you. Support his decision in the mission field and thank him for his sacrifice, he needs it from you ... his friends.
Love,
Danette
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