December 1st

Austin's letters came in different pieces this week and included several pictures!  He first talks about a video he made last week that I was able to see.

Hi Mama!!

I thought you would like it! Do you know if Emily got to see it as well? I will email President Griffin today to ask him about it. I saw the photos you uploaded for me- thank you, they are wonderful :)

I cannot look at the blog I guess. Thank you for making sure everyone can get updates from me on my mission.

On thanksgiving we ate at two homes: Nikki's and the Schafers. We ate at the Schafers first; they are a great family and very friendly. Their oldest son Brodey (who is 10) is baptized but nobody else is yet. Their other son Noah will be baptized in a month or so when he turns 8, which should help Sister and Brother Schafer be motivated to do what they need to in order to be baptized. They are really a great family. I especially enjoy seeing Noah because he always hugs us and prays for us. Whenever I see him, I pick him up and give him a big bear hug, often times spinning him around. He's such a great kid. Although I don't connect with Brodey as much, he is very smart and plans on being some sort of scientist. Everyone in that family is great!

Nikki's house was also great. She is a professional chef and has 10 kids. She is a single mom and is such a good person. She should be baptized either this or next Saturday. Her oldest sons name is Azmar (he is about 19) and he is baptized. I think I talked about him in the video. We call him Meme. He recently received the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

You're doing great in school, mom. It always amazes me more and more how hard you work. Be sure to take good healthy breaks and reward yourself when you have good accomplishments!

Its always sad when people aren't interested, but it helps to know that we gave them the chance. We just need to be sure that we allow the Spirit to be with us when we share, and if they don't want to listen, there is nothing we can do at that point. But, it is true that we never know who will be interested and who will not, so we have to share the wonderful gospel with everyone! :)

BROTHER SHIELDS IS THE NEW BISHOP!? Holy cow!! Man all those changes are such big changes! That is exciting! Tell The old Bishopric thank you for their service and the new one as well!

Did you get to see the video that I uploaded last night?

I love you so so so so so much! Thank you for all you do for me. Thank you for your prayers in my behalf. Things are going so great here.

Love, Elder Shaffer

PS- I will try to find out if I have Brian and Kait's email because I think you sent them to me, but will you let Brian know that I plan on mailing him a hand-written letter today for his birthday and that I will probably include a small present in a Christmas package later in the month that I send? Thanks!

Additionally he sent this: 

I just wanted to make it clear what my Facebook accessibility is. I
don't know all the rules right now but I do know that I need to finish
"cleaning up" my Facebook before I can do anything. I have spent hours
-and will continue to spend hours- hiding anything from my timeline
that isn't missionary related (which includes pictures). It takes
forevvverrrrr :/ Once I am done, I know that I won't be able to talk
to you guys for fun or whatever, but I can see everything you post and
can post certain missionary related posts.
Also, I bought a knife last p-day and wanted to show it to you all! It
was $15 and since I didn't have one, really liked it, and figured it
would be something I could keep forever, I bought it.

And this:

I think this is the only last thing that I forgot! :p I don't know if
I talked about the baptism from Saturday.  Aldo, the 18 year old
Hispanic young man who was just about ready for baptism when I got
here, was baptized on Saturday!! It was such a special experience to
see someone enter the waters of baptism and covenant with God to
follow Jesus Christ forever. I took the time to safe with him how
clean I felt when I came out of the water when I was baptized. Also,
we found out later that day from the person who baptized him (Brother
Brewster, who he lives with) that he wants to serve a mission! Just a
few days before the baptism I was telling elder Nicholson how cool it

would be if he wanted to serve a mission. 

Pictures of Aldo's baptism: