Season 17 Episode 5

This was a great week. We had zone Conference and it was my last one, so that was weird, but it was a good meeting for sure.

We taught a less active guy and he was a lot different this time. We stopped by a couple weeks ago and he said that we could come by and just talk. But this time we sat down and talked to him  and he was actually able to be taught. We talk to him about prayer and how it's a big important part in his life. He told us that his mom, who is an active member, challenged him to read the book of Mormon every day.  With us stopping by we reminded him of his promise. It was a good lesson that we had.

Friday we had a full day of service. We started at the food bank and we did a bunch of things there. And then our car needed new brakes so we took it into the shop. At first they weren’t going to be able to fix them because with the church you have to have a authorization code in order for any work to be done. So we were there for a few hours. Then that evening we helped at this event called Harvest Days. It was a huge car show that they had. We were basically traffic controllers. That next day we had a family history booth there and seemed to go pretty well. We weren't in a very great spot as far as foot traffic. But it was fun.

We had a great lesson this week with Cayla and she has just been busy doing her school stuff so we have been working really hard to help her.


Elder Astle

season 17 episode 4

This was a great week. Just hitting the highlights because it went by
way too fast. The 4th was a blast! We had an all day P-day and we had a
BBQ with the other missionaries. It was awesome! Then we went on a sick
hike by our house later in the evening.

Robert got baptized! He was so pumped and the baptism was awesome. It
went smoothly and there was some really good support for him which makes
everything easier in the long run. He has made a huge change since the
beginning of when we started teaching him.

A pretty funny story this week: Friday I was trying pray before before bed and the member’s dog Gizmo was just going berserk. It was impossible for me to have a good meaningful prayer when the dog was going. So I waited and hoped that it would stop but it didn't. It stopped barking for a while and then at 11 or so it just went crazy for a
while. So I was looking out the window to see what it was barking at. It was barking at the tree and pointing at something. So I heard one of the two old guys we live with trying to get up to go and get Gizmo to stop. So I thought I would do it because it wouldn't take us as long. I woke up Elder St. Clair and we slid on our slides. Then, as we are headed out the door I grabbed the big spot light that we had.  Once we got outside I grabbed the first thing I could find, which was a garden hoe. Elder St.Clair shined the light and then we saw two eyes looking at us! It was a big raccoon. It was just sitting in the tree. We both knew that raccoons are pretty mean. And we were in just flip flops and slides and all I had was a garden hoe so, it was not our most prepared situation. Bill comes
out and tries to poke the raccoon with his cane. We tried to get the dog out of the way in case this raccoon came down. But no luck! So I decided to grab a branch with the hoe and shake the thing out of the tree. It fell out and then immediately started booking it. I thought I was going have to ninja fight this thing but Gizmo ran up quick like lightning and bit it and then it jumped over the fence. So now we are famous around here
for the raccoon wrangling.

Season 17 Episode 3

What a week!
Today we had a BBQ and played a bunch of lawn games at a member’s house. It was a bunch of fun. We also hit the parade. It was good. It was a big parade for a small town but it wasn't very lively. The parades I remember being fun are the ones where people are way excited for everything! We are going to chill for a little bit today.

This week we had some amazing progress with our investigators. Robert is pumped for his baptism and he passed the interview so now he is doing well and starting to head towards baptism. That is this Saturday!

We learned some things this week with Cayla, the intern living with a member. Every time we meet her we get a strong feeling that she is ready for the gospel. We have had some good meetings. We taught her Sunday Night. We had a bunch of people fasting for a miracle for Cayla. We felt like she could be ready for baptism on the 22nd. When we invited her to be baptized, she didn't say no, but didn't say yes either.  She said,  “I don't know what to say.” We were thinking about this later because we had the strongest feeling that she could be baptized on the 22nd. What I learned is that it can happen if she wants it. She has to be the driver. It is all about her  - not that we didn't feel inspired to do it but that she just chose not to.

I have seen a ton of growth with Elder St. Clair. I tend to throw him under the bus even more because he is picking it up well. He is doing well!

Not too much to say, but I have seen a big growth in myself. Something I really have learned, especially as of late, is to tune in to the voice of the spirit. It isn't always the same voice, but it comes through the same channel. I really do know that this is God’s work. He directs it and guides us.

Elder Astle

season 17 episode 2

We had a great week. Next week our Pday is Tuesday because of the Fourth of July.

But this week we had some really awesome things happen. Monday we played soccer at the complex. It was a blast

Tuesday we helped at the food bank. It was really slow which was good because there was a bunch of stuff we needed to do. We had a busy day trying by some people.

Wednesday we had our interviews. So we had our planning before. Then after we were planning on going to mutual to help the Priests out. They were doing service but we felt like we need to go somewhere else. We stopped by a couple members to ask if they would be willing to have a lesson in their home. And we followed up with the members we ate with a couple of days ago. They are working with their friend but just haven't invited them to anything yet.

Thursday we had a district meeting and a busy afternoon. We had a lesson with Robert and he is doing better. He told us that he was having a hard time letting go of his past. But he is really excited to move forward.

Friday we received a challenge that whichever zone finds 10 new investigators gets a pizza party with President. So we had plans to find people who we could teach. We had a bunch of part member families that we wanted to go by. Also we had potentials to stop by. We cleaned those up really quick since nobody was home or interested. Then we both felt that we needed to stop by these people that we did some service for to see if we could help her again. We were in our shirt and tie and had our clothes in the back of the car. Then she proceeded to tell us everything that she doesn't like about our church. But she said she really needs help. So we decided to help her out one last time then not come back any more because she said she would never read or join. So we helped out out to be nice and to leave her with a good experience. She only told us that she needed sticks moved from one side to the other. We didn’t have too much time so we did what we could. She then called us and was asking us why we didn't finish the job. After our appointment we went over and finished what we could because we again wanted her to have a good impression. But she was just using us for the service. After that we headed out to find a new investigator. We did what we could and then felt like we needed to go by this member. It turns out they are going to be a perfect fellowshipper for our investigator Cayla. We didn't know why we were there at first, but it turned out this person was perfect and they will be great. Then we had about 20 minutes left of the night and we prayed and went and knocked on a door. We found somebody who just moved in and was interested. It was awesome. So our zone hit the challenge and another zone did too. So it went on to the next day.

Saturday was a great day! The afternoon was long and hot and nobody was home. But the real highlight was that President McAteer came to our lesson with Robert. President asked at interviews if he could attend this meeting, and it was a great time. It was a good lesson and we really helped Robert focus on the need for Jesus Christ. Then President gave him a blessing at the end.

Sunday we had Robert and Cayla come to church. Cayla was the intern that came last week. We were supposed to teach her but she felt really overwhelmed and had a really good time at church so she cancelled the lesson.

Elder Astle

Season 17 Episode 1 - June 19, 2017

Alex's homecoming is on July 30 at 11:00.  Details and address will be sent out closer to the event.

Happy Father's Day Dad!
There was so much that happened this week so this week is a blur.

We helped out at the food bank this week and we unloaded a huge truck.
There was so much food that it took about 2 and a half hours to
unload. It was massive.

We made some good progress with Robert this week. He's understanding
pretty well and is really excited for his baptism. We took him to a
baptism this week and it was a great experience.

A lot of this week was a trial of faith. Everything we had planned
cancelled and we were left to do things on our own. On Friday we stopped by
the church to make a quick plan before we headed out again. We found that
there was a sports night going on.  There were a lot of nonmembers that
were playing. So we balled them up in our proselyting clothes. One of
the priests that was there told us that his friend kept coming to his mind.  He felt like he should share the gospel with him. He invited his friend over to hang out and told us that his friend that day felt like he needed to change his
life. So he should be coming to church next week and that's when we
can meet him.

Sunday was pretty cool all-around.  We got to see Brandon bless the
sacrament. He was so excited to do that. He said it was a really
special day for him. And, we had a couple people come to church that we
weren't expecting. There is a member family that has an intern living
with them for a couple months. She came to church a couple weeks ago
and we didn't think much of it. But this time she came to church and
we both felt like we needed to talk to her. After church they headed out
really quick so we weren’t able to talk after church. But as we were out
Working, we felt like we needed to go by to see her. We started just following up
with her experience and she said she has loved it so far! And then all
of a sudden we felt like we needed to start teaching her the first
lesson. So we did - and it went really well and she was excited to read
from the Book of Mormon. What a miracle this!  Right at the last hour
of the week, we were able to find a new investigator that we were
looking for all week. We are pretty pumped.

That is really all that is worth including in the email.
Elder Astle

We got this with a nice Happy Father's Day message for Dave from a sweet member yesterday.

Season 16 Episode 6

It was a really busy, good week. Time seems to just be ticking faster and
faster away.

This last week we worked really hard. We had a zone conference with
Elder Larry R. Laurence and he is from the 70. We had some training on
the house of Israel and what that really means. It was pretty cool and got
us thinking a bunch though. Also, he found out that we got a challenge
from Elder Andersen to baptize 50 people in a month. He taught us how to do
it. It was actually pretty cool. He taught us that we need to use the
members. It was a really good training.

Also this week we had some really good lessons with our investigators.
Robert is doing well. This last week we taught him a couple times. He
just told us that loves everything that we have taught and everything
he has learned. He wanted to move up his date for baptism. We talked
to our ward mission leader about it and he wanted us to move it to the
24th. We felt like we shouldn't, but we were kinda pressured into it and
He had made some progress towards that date. This whole time we didn't
want to move it because we felt like that was the date the Lord told
us. Then this week, Robert told us that he wants to do the
original date. He felt like he was being too rushed. So a  good lesson
that we learned is to not question the revelation that we received. I
am glad it happened sooner rather than later. Because now he is still
on track and is excited to do it.

These are the highlights of the week.  It was a good week though and I think
that next week will be awesome too.

Elder Astle

First picture is the sunset the other day. It looked like fire - it was pretty cool. Then the next pic we had a zone breakfast and we made too many pancakes and didn't have anything to take them home with. So I
used two paper bowls and wrapped plastic wrap all over.

Season 16 Episode 5

This was a crazy week a bunch happened. We also went bowling today and that
was cool.

We had a couple really awesome lessons with Robert. He is progressing
so well. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and our members were way
late so that was a real bummer. But once the members got there, they helped out a bunch. Then we stopped by this week and showed Robert how to tie a tie so he would feel more comfortable. He was pumped. Here is a funny story about Robert.  This
week it was fast and testimony meeting and Robert told us that he
feels like he needs to go up and say something. We told him how to do
it and then he got up there and started giving a testimony. We were
way shocked. Then something that doesn't usually happen happened. He
asks us from the pulpit to come up with him. I didn't really know what to do so I
looked at the bishop for some help but he didn't give any help so we went
up there and stood by Robert and then after that bore our testimonies. The
Ward was shocked but it was good. It was something never seen before
but it worked. He is definitely getting baptized!

We did some sweet service this week. We helped out this lady with her
yard. She was so grateful for it. We were supposed to drag these
branches from one side of the yard to a huge burn pile. It was
normally going to take an hour. But we tried to get the branches free
so it was easier and we ended up moving this seven or eight foot high
20 foot long pile all the way across the yard in one trip. You should
have seen the look on their face when she saw it. Then on Saturday we
helped out at this community event. We got there early in the morning
to register and help set up. We got assigned to the parking side. We
thought we would help unload canoes and kayaks. Instead, they sent us to be
with this guy named Corneleon. He is a good guy going through some
changes. And we had a pretty boring job -  just point down to the docks
and then point them to another lady. But the coolest part was that we
taught him the gospel the whole time. We taught for 2 hours and he started the
conversation. We talked to a bunch of people there and it was a blast -
good publicity for sure. Then later that day we helped take it down.
And, we helped out the mayor and talked to him for a little bit. He was
listing all the members he knows.  One of them is the stake president
and we think that the service had some really good things come from
it.

Cool miracle! We were out with a priest and when we were planning we
felt like we need to let Jacob, the priest, decide what we do. We planned a day but
we let him go where he was feeling. We were driving past this house
and he felt like we needed to knock on this door, so we flipped around
to get to this house, but we couldn't find it. Then we saw this guy
Randomly standing in a field. We are in the middle of nowhere, by the way. We
rolled down the window and talked to this guy and he was super interested.

We worked really hard this week. Something I am starting to notice is
that this work is more than us and those we are teaching. There is so
much more here for them. And there is more help than we think out there.

This is a picture of a original death mask of Abe Lincoln, and the
Smithsonian wants it bad.

Elder Astle