season 4 episode 3, December 28, 2015

Dear family and friends,

First off thanks to everyone who sent stuff. Thank you cards are on

the way. We had a great week, even with the holidays. It was a great

Christmas.

Tuesday-

We had a very open day of finding. We have been in the process of using better finding methods. We have 700 or so less active members in this ward.  We are not doing a lot of tracting. We are doing a bunch of stopping by less actives homes. We had a full day of that, and it wasn't that successful. We then decided we were going to change the way we find.

Wednesday-

We were on exchanges with the zone leaders. I stayed in the area. We had a crazy sweet day. We started off by contacting a referral. They weren't interested. I felt like we should knock on a few more of doors near the referral’s house. It was a little town home square that I haven't seen before. We found some really awesome families. We taught  a bunch of lessons there. Then we went out and were stopping by a few less actives. We found some part member families. That was cool. We will go over again and get them. Then we got another referral from some members. That was sweet.

Friday-

We taught a lesson to somebody. We were in the church before we were

Skyping home. We were there with some other missionaries. This visitor to the church asked us what is faith? So we told him. It was sweet... five missionaries in a circle teaching one investigator.

Saturday-

We taught a lesson with the people we have on date for baptism. He is struggling

with smoking. He has beaten some harder drugs in the past and he is struggling with smoking. He mumbled under his breath, “Why is one cigarette a day bad?” We painted him the eternal picture and told him that this one cigarette is keeping him from being with his family forever. It was a good lesson. The member we had with us did well too.

Well that's the week.

Love,

✌Elder Astle 👊

Portland temple

Season 4, episode 2...December 21, 2015

Merry Christmas everyone! (Santa emoji)

We had pretty nice week.

Tuesday-

We had a long day of finding. We really didn't have a lot happen. We are doing everything we could, but we are just not finding some people who are actually interested. We are loosing more gators than we are finding. They are all not interested or just really flaky. 

Wednesday- 

We had a zone conference. We were taught more effective ways to find because we have not been using the members. We are teaching them how to do missionary work. That was a really cool meeting. 

Thursday we were on exchanges. It was a blast. I went to the St. John's area. 

Friday 

We went to the temple. It is such a pretty temple. They have three levels in the celestial room. Way sweet. 

I know this email is way short. I am sorry. It was a great week. I just don't have a lot of time today. We had a way late start. And we only have so long. 

Saturday- 

We had a full day of service. It was sweet. We helped people move and we did a zone service at the bishops store house. 

Merry Christmas!! More details next week. 

Love,

Elder Astle 

Season 4, episode 1, December 14, 2015

Dear friends and family,

I have seen record rain and record heat here. The river is so high and

is causing flooding. It is crazy!  It usually does this really stupid

mist stuff. It just sprays you in the face no matter what direction

you face. But now, it has been pouring rain for like a week. I am used

to it, but I am not a huge fan of it. I am still surprised why people

actually like it here. The people are weird and the weather is crappy. 

We had a sweet week. 

Tuesday-

We taught a lady who we have been trying to teach for about a transfer. (6 weeks). She has been referred to us by another mission and she was

awesome. She accepts the restoration. She soft committed herself to

baptism. So we were stoked about that. When we were teaching our

part member family, Michael expressed that he wanted to know the

church was true before he got baptized. Then me and Elder Moore bore

powerful testimony of how he can. He hadn't read the Book of Mormon and

he wanted to know it was true. It was sweet!  The spirit was way strong

there. We had an Alma and Amulek moment. Then we committed him to read it more.

Wednesday-

This was transfer day. So we had the transfer meeting. We had to do it

over FaceTime but it kept cutting in and out. We really only could hear a little bit of what President was saying.

Thursday-

We worked so hard but it was a rougher day. The people we were contacting were not at all interested.

Saturday-

We had an awesome day. We did a lot of finding. We had a good mix of finding. We went less active hunting. There are so many here. Then we taught the R. family again. We committed him to live the word of wisdom. It was another  powerful lesson.

Sunday -

We haven't had a single investigator at church. We have tried with the R. family for six weeks. Every time, they said that they would definitely be there and every time they weren't. So we have one o'clock church. And they are usually a family that is always late. So we figured they would be late. We also have Sacrament  Meeting last. It is weird. So it is 1:00, they aren't there. It is 1:30, still not there.

Then 1:45, still not there. Then at 3, they showed up just in time for the  Sacrament. We were so happy. Because he can't get baptized until

he comes to church. Now he has. 

The new Christmas video that the church made is awesome! We use it all the time. It helps us in our finding efforts. Because a lot of people are Christians but they don't want to talk to us. It softens their hearts a bit so we can teach

them a bit. It is sweet! I would encourage you to watch it. And, as you do, think

about someone who would benefit from watching the video. Then share it with them.

#ASaviorisBorn

Merry Christmas (christmas tree, santa emoji)

✌Elder Astle (fist Pump)

Season 3 episode 6, December 7, 2015

Dear Family and friends,

This week was definitely not boring. We had some fun this week.

(Mom note: I asked Alex where he was for Thanksgiving, and if he was transferred to a new area.)  We spent thanksgiving with some of the members.

I am staying in Portland. The same area as I am in now. Elder Moore is my comp.

Tuesday-

We met two mentally insane people. One was a church referral. We

contacted her and found out she had used the missionaries in the past. It

was a creepy place we went. We found out she was insane and we dropped

her. (mission speak for not teaching her.) Then we had another referral that was insane. He said he was kicked out of a psychologists office. It was insane. Pun intended! We also met a way drunk guy who told us he was from LA. From  the 18th street ( gang) it was a really funny meeting. (Funny???? sounds scary to me.)

Wednesday-

We were on exchanges. I was with Elder Munger. He is actually from

Riverton. We had a really rough day and we were working hard. Nothing

was happening. We knocked on like 50 doors. Then we had a member come

out with us. Suddenly we had miracles. We taught a lady who didn't want to

talk to us  at first but she noticed that we had something special. Then we went

and visited another lady. We were able to get in because we had a

Member with us. Then we taught a guy right outside her house. He asked us

questions like, “What happened to the ancient people of America?” We had

a solid day.

Thursday-

We were on exchanges again. It wasn't very fun to do back to back

exchanges in your own area. I was so tired. When I’m in charge it stresses me out to make it go good. We were tracting then we met another miracle. She came up to us and we talked to her. She wanted to know which church is true. Then we called her the next day and she said she was reading and got an answer to her prayer to stay on the course. It was so sweet.

Saturday-

We took our investigators to the temple visitors center. It was sweet.

They need it so bad. That is such a good missionary tool. Way cool

experience. One lesson we learned. When the day is rough, pray and

it will eventually turn out.

Love you all,

✌Elder Astle 👊

We had a picture sent from our "nephew" in Alex's mission.  Yay Tyler for sending pictures...Alex doesn't send as many!

Elder Tyler Jones and our goofy guy!

Season 3 Episode 5, November 30, 2015

This week wasn't that good. It was a super slow week because of

thanksgiving. All of our appointments cancelled. We spent Thanksgiving

with some members. We had one dinner at 3 and one at 6. It was a lot of food,

even for me. This was a slow week, so that's why the email is rough.

Next week will be sweet. I got the things you sent. Haha the Lego

Christmas tree was great. Happy birthday Dad. I  did forget when it

was. Sorry this email is bad, next week will be better.

Elder Astle

Not sure what this is....just included in his letter.....

The Portland zone got a reward luncheon for keeping their apartments clean!  Amazing!  Alex has learned to clean. The boy second on the right is my brother and siter-in-law, Chris and Nichole's nephew on her side of the family...serving in the same mission.  So crazy!

Season 3 Episode 4, November 23, 2015

Dear family and friends,

Kelsey, please give me updates on silver rush and get as involved as you can.  (Mom note: Silver rush is a December only service based fundraiser that RHS does every year.  Each year it gets bigger and better. Alex participated almost daily in it his last two years of high school.)  For thanksgiving we are going to a members house. We are not sure what the whole day will be but, it won't be a

effective day. We are not going to knock doors. People here are rude

enough. Haha not a good idea. 

Tuesday

We were on exchanges with another set of elders. I stayed in my area and

Elder Moore  went to the other. Tuesday was a pretty crazy day. To start off we went to visit an investigator. Then we knocked a few doors right by the investigators. We met a way nice lady. She wasn't interested at first, but we just kept the conversation going. Then she let us in and we taught her. It was awesome. Then we decided to street contact in the cold and rain. We found out really fast that no one is on the street when it's cold and rainy. It was a really crazy rainstorm. The rain was going in my face matter what way I was going. After that we drove down to dinner. I don't know the area well enough so I was trying to find parking. We found some at a Wendy's. When we left dinner we didn't remember how to get to the Wendy's. So we were running through the streets of Portland. We finally asked a guy who turned out to be from another country where Wendy’s was. He told us how to get there and after jumping over the largest puddle in the world we found the car. We had a good laugh about that.

Wednesday

Nothing too crazy happened. We teach at a prison. I am not cleared yet to go in. (Mom: “YIKES!!!”) So I get to hang with the Spanish missionaries and Elder Moore goes in with a member. We were on the street and talking to a guy. Who was a really angry gang banger. He didn't want to talk so I offered him a picture of Jesus. He then was even more angry saying, “Jesus doesn't look like that.!” Haha it was the most memorable moment. He told Jesus was black not white and didn't have long hair and the picture makes him look like a hippie. After that I laughed pretty good.

Thursday

We had our mission tour. There was a member of the seventies here. He was really good. We taught at Concordia University. We taught a class {of like 15) the restoration. It was a hard lesson because it was presentation style. No one was interested in what we had to say. It was a cool experience but hopefully it started a spark.

Friday

We didn't have that cool of a day.

Saturday was awesome

We took a member out for a couple hours and then found a way awesome

investigator. But the highlight of the day is Saturday night. We have been teaching this part member family. They are our most promising people to teach. We have been planning on how we could help them progress. The wife is a less active and the husband is a non member. This guy is like a hard guy. He is 6-5 with tattoos everywhere. He has snake bites. He looks like he could be in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He has long hair and is built. We were teaching them the plan of salvation. We we're talking about Adam and Eve and how the fall was planned and they were not  sinners. He started to cry, but we kept going. He left the room because he was crying so hard. It was funny because while this

was happening, the ward mission leader was with us and was reading the

scriptures that we were reading. He looked up and saw that they had left and asked what happened, he had missed it all while reading the scriptures. We told him that he had felt the spirit. While this was all going on we both felt so strong to invite him to baptism. We put him on date for the December 19th. He said that date was already in his mind. We are planning on taking them to the temple

visitor center. They will love it. And we have special permission to

do that. What a cool lesson. And what a great experience.

✌Elder Astle 👊

Apparently they found the Weiner Mobile and Alex had to have some pictures!

Season 3 episode 3, November 16, 2015

Dear friends and family,

This week was a little rough.  We have worked hard and didn't really have that much success. We are teaching some really solid people. We went 0-7 at church this week. We did the same last week and the gators we are teaching said they would be to church. A few of them committed themselves by saying we are definitely going to be at church. Then they weren't there so that was kinda a rough go. We talked to a bunch of people that don't want any part of us this week.  Nothing super miraculous happened this week. 

Tuesday we taught this part member family. They want to come back and have done everything except come to church. We think we can get the father put on date for baptism. We are going to pound church attendance. 

Wednesday we had exchanges. I actually enjoyed it so much. I was with the Spanish missionaries for a day. We talked to some people who were not interested but they were nice. That is a thing with the Hispanics I have met,  they are nice and friendly even though they don't want to listen to our message. We also talked to this guy who was on cloud nine. He was high and wanted us to smoke with him. So we tried to leave him with a Book of Mormon, but he wouldn’t take it. I can understand abut 15% of the Spanish being spoken. That is basically the week.  Sorry it is a small letter, but it wasn't very exciting week. 

Love,

Elder Astle 

(Alex said that he could only receive packages through the mission home, He is in an apartment building, so packages aren’t safely sent to his physical address.  Also, if he is emergency transferred somewhere, the package will get to him if sent to the mission home.)

Notice the caption: Save Portland from Hell...with praying hands.  

Hmmm......

Alex loves Star Wars, this guy had to make his day.  a unicycle riding, fire breathing bagpipe playing Darth Vader!!!

yup, found basketball....

Season 3, episode 2 sent November 9, 2015

This week definitely was a lot better then the last week. No last minute transfers.

Tuesday-

We started off the day doing knocking. Then we got a call from the hospital to go visit somebody. We thought we would be giving a blessing. We headed over there and found out she was in the ICU. We found out this lady had pneumonia. She was really crazy. She told us her dad was killed when she was a kid. She said that he told her just barely to go build a home in Salt Lake City. So she didn't want a blessing. She just wanted to talk. She only wanted to talk for a couple of minutes then said, “Bye, see you in Salt Lake”. It was a little weird. Later that day, around like 7:50 pm, we were knocking doors.This is not a good time to knock on doors. We went to try to stop by a former investigator’s house. We noticed he had been dropped because of not keeping commitments. We like going to formers because they are usually more cordial then the rest of the people. So this guys wife is a less active member. She wanted us to come by... we found out later. We were walking up to the apartment, it was one that locks you out and you

have to call a number to get let in. We were just going to see if we could be let in. As we were walking in, we saw two people that were outside. The lady stopped us, and said we are Heather and Michael R. They were the people we were going to go stop by to visit. They were headed out and we caught them right before they could leave. She said it was too good timing. We went up to their apartment and talked to her a little bit. We answered some of her questions and it was a good chat. The husband Michael left to another room. So we didn't teach him anything. Then later in the week he texted us and asked us when our next appointment with them was. We said it was for Friday at 8. He thought we were coming on Thursday. Then he told us he was reading from the BoM and would be at church. That was so cool. What a blessing! What a way to finish off the night.

Wednesday-

Wednesday started out with a lesson scheduled with a new investigator. We had to bring a member to the lesson because it was a single lady. The lesson fell through but we still brought the member with us. While we had him with us we took him tracting. It was very unsuccessful tracting experience. We had another lesson with a guy right after the cancelled lesson. We had talked to this guy on the street a couple days ago. We set up a lesson with him but when we got to the lesson, he wasn't home. His wife was home and since we had the member with us we were able to go in and teach her. They are honest speakers of truth. We taught her the restoration and she loved it. None of this could've happened if we didn't bring the member.

Thursday-

Thursday we were on exchanges with the traveling assistants. I had a pretty cool experience this week. We are doing a lot of finding people by relying on the promptings of the Spirit. We prayed for where we were to be lead. My companion got a prompting to park and walk up this road, which we did. I got a prompting to turn left, so we headed left. It was a little ways down the road before there was finally a guy walking down the road. This is again at a time in the day where no one is out and it is the dark. We talked to this guy. He isn't a new investigator but

we planted a seed of faith with him. It is so cool finding by the spirit. The rest of the week wasn't all that good. It was kind of slow.

Love to you all,

✌Elder Astle 👊

Season 3 Episode 1, 11-2-15

Dear family and friends,

This week started off really weird. Tuesday we had a bunch of lessons that were in a row. They all canceled on us. It was really stupid. We had four lessons scheduled and all four cancelled.

Wednesday

We had a really good transfer meeting. I got a lot out of President Taylor's message. My new companion is Elder Moore. He is from St. George. He is a cool guy we like each other so far haha, JK. We are pals. We found out that there were going to be four missionaries in the ward. So they were going to live in our little dinky apartment. So the whole day we were getting set up and placing bunkers.

Thursday

Me and Elder Moore don’t have a car. We are in a car share. The other missionaries, Elder Barton and Thomas, have the car. We talked to so many people. Oh yeah, our area book is empty. So I know how that goes. It is just like last time. We need to do some finding. So that is what we did. You can't teach unless you find. So we went out and found a couple of people who we could teach.

Friday

This was a crazy day!  Elder Thomas got ET (emergency transferred???) out to another Ward so we had to work that out. So that consumed the day because we had to work that out. So that means we were in a tripanionship. That consumed most of Friday.

Saturday

Saturday we were together in a tripanionship. We had to do some area book work.  Once we went out, we tracted a neighborhood. It was raining so hard. Like it was raining ridiculously hard. We were all drenched in a matter of minutes. We only had part of the day today because we had to go in after dinner. We were not supposed to be out doing work after dinner because that's when the crazies come out. So, after dinner we headed back inside and got to chill there the rest

of the day.

Sunday

Sunday was another crazy day. Elder Barton found out he was getting ET’d. So we had to figure that out and that was kind of a crazy day. Fast and testimony meeting was interesting. The members in this word are weird. They are really, really, really weird. The testimonies were a little bit strange. It wasn't false doctrine but it was close. So, we decided we have a lot of work to do.

I will get more pictures next time. This is been a crazy week.

✌Elder Astle (fistbump)

Season 2 Episode 6, Alex mission letter 10-26-15

Dear family and friends,
(Mom notes in blue...)

So that is great to hear Allen is getting better. (Alex's Uncle Allen has been int he ICU for 4 weeks and is finally doing better.  Answered prayers and many miracles!) First things first.
I got it it was good. Perfect. (He is referring to the pizzas we sent last week, Alex loves a good pizza.) We got our transfer letters. They are shipping me out to the Alameda Portland ward. I am pretty much down town. I am going there with an Elder Moore. I heard it is like the
hood. So that is super cool. I am pumped to go there. The moda center (???)is in my area. Elder Jensen has to stay here. He is not that happy because they're splitting he area. So now it is the smallest area and there are two sets of missionaries here. This week was kinda slow. We started Tuesday off with a district meeting. Then after that we were scheduled to have a lesson with our
mission president. But it turns out our investigator went to the doctor instead of meeting with us. What a punk!  So we had to cancel on the Mission President. That kind of sucks because we are really excited to teach with President Taylor. Then later we met a new investigator who we are going to refer to the YSA. It was a long day.

Wednesday-
We were on exchanges with the district leader. I got to stay in our
area. I was on exchanges with Elder Bowden. We had a set lesson with
non-active member then she canceled on us and said she didn't want
anything to do with the church. Wednesday was a day full of canceling.
All of the set appointments that we had were canceled because of some
reason or another. We taught a lesson with Kim who is a less active
guy because he works at a old person home in his house. The bright
part about his day was we did service with a lady in the ward who is
going through some kind of cancer. We've helped her out in the past
and she's a really nice lady but she's struggling with her health so
that's why she doesn't come to church as much. We helped her build her
new mailbox because she couldn't put the piece in place. We had to
hammer it in for her.

Thursday-
We started off the day tracting. We found a couple of new
investigators. It was kind of weird because we didn't get her name. We
were about to then she ran off to pet dog. Then we met some guy who
only speaks Spanish. That was very fun trying to figure out what to
say to this guy. I was able to get his name and tell him that we were
missionaries. We went over to teach a family who is just moved into
the ward. There are less active family and are working to trying come
back to church. We visited them with a member of the elders quorum
presidency. The wife really wants to come back, but the husband
doesn't want to change his ways. After dinner we went and tried to
visit some less actives. We didn't talk much because it seems like
every single person was watching the stupid football game. (Alex is calling a football game “stupid” !  Wow! He’s focussed in on the work! :)

Friday-
Friday started as usual with a weekly planning session. Those usually
last a couple hours. After we plan we go and teach a lesson active
lady. We have been teaching her for a few weeks now. And this week we
taught her about the law of tithing. This lady is been to the bottom
of the bucket most of her life. She is had a really tough go of things
and is trying to get back. She's been a member of her whole life but
she didn't understand the doctrine.
Saturday-
We went to an apartment complex because we had a lesson there. Then
that person wasn't there so we knocked on some doors in the area.
Knocking on apartments on a Saturday is crazy. We got a bunch of
people to answer the door. We went and talked to some people who were
totally wasted. It was really funny because we were knocking on the
door and one of them started singing "knock knock knocking on Satan's
door". They weren't interested but it was still funny. We talked some
new potential investigators. One of them was a lady who would be a
really solid investigator but we can't schedule an appointment with
her. Other one of them was a really nice guy we ended up teaching him
the first lesson at the doorstep. He was really active in his
church.after that we headed over to a less active's house to do some
service. We didn't really do very much because they forgot to call us.
Then we came home and helped the Arnetts with their kitchen. Their
dishwasher was leaking and it was leaking for a while so I had to rip
up the carpet's in the floors.
Sunday-
Sunday was a really awesome day. The Evergreen ward had their primary
program. It was a really good program. They sang a song at the end
that made almost every person cry. They had a little three-year-old
sing the last verse of the song. After dinner we went and knocked on
some doors. We met two new investigators. One of which is a really old
guy who grew up Catholic. We were talking to him and he was very
interested in what we had to say. He said he was a truck driver for a
long time and one time he was in Utah and saw the Salt Lake City
temple. He said it was one of the most beautiful buildings he has ever
seen. So we taught him the first lesson. We left him with a Book of
Mormon and temple pass along card.


✌Elder Astle 👊fist bump

Season 2 episode 5, Oct 19, 2015

Monday

Our p-days usually consist of us playing sports at the stake center. So we haven't been able to go any where else. We have to get permission from the AP’s because our zone is the smallest zone in the mission. We are in the city so there isn't that much real close by. I am not sure if some of the missionaries here just are not good a basketball or I am just better. Probably both, in all honesty. We play a lot of  scatterball. That is like a free for all dodgeball game. It is really fun. I usually go for the machine gun technique. Just get a ball and throw it as fast as you can back and get it throw it. It is a good strategy. We have a trophy I pulled out of the church dumpster. Haha I glued a little toy on it. It is now the championship trophy. Haha it was preventing the dumpster from closing. So I thought it would be funny to bring to p day.

A trophy we found in the trash and it is now the dodgeball
trophy. Whoever wins gets it. We glued Alex the lion on and wrote the words...

Tuesday-

We had a pretty good day. We had a district meeting and afterward we went to find some new people. We had a lesson with a kid whose grandma is a less active member and grandpa is not interested at all. He is a really good kid. We taught him the restoration. The best part of this lesson is that grandma is wanting to come back. It awesome. She said she would read with him and go to church with him. We have a lesson coming  up tomorrow with him. We are actually teaching him with our mission president. He said he had an open month. And so he wanted to come to lessons with us. Then later that night, we taught a lady who is on the verge of being a less active. She has a bunch of little boys. We taught them a restoration lesson with an object lesson. We compared it to a

Rubik's cube.

Wednesday nothing really happened.

Thursday

This was one of those days that you don't like. Everything went wrong. Our teaching appointments canceled, and we got dropped by an investigator. We had another lesson cancel. Then through all the chaos. We went to this guy’s house because we are looking for his wife. He had a Christian background. He just recently joined another church. We taught him about the restoration. This is where it gets cool. He was reading the epistle of James that morning, the same scripture as Joseph Smith. He was really interested then when we told him that.

Friday

Friday was a pretty cool day.  We first got a lesson with a less active member who has been struggling really bad with the word of wisdom. We taught her the word wisdom and it went pretty well. Then we had a service project later that night.  We served food to some old people at a concert. It was kind of a weird service project but it was helpful to be able to get our name out there.

Saturday

This day was long. We had a long day tracting that didn't give us much success. We knocked on a lot of doors and we did not get a lot of doors answered so it was long and kind of sucky. We found a couple new gators but the overall the day was a really long day.

That is the week.

Love you all

✌Elder Astle {fist bump}

Here I am getting ready for the day...Mom note: His clothes are hanging in the closet!!! On hangers!!! YES!!!

Zone BBQ

 A zone BBQ

Kitchen remodel, or maybe a flood??? No caption...

All he said is our kitchen...looks not good...

Not sure what is happening here, other than this is classic Alex!

Season 2 episode 4, 10-12-15

It is awesome that Uncle Allen is getting better! It didn't sound too good earlier, It’s great to hear he is on his way back. Kori, no surgery is good. Tell her to rub some dirt on it and get back out there. Haha! It is nice it is only the MCl that was hurt.  The ACL is risky business.  Kylee, I am glad that you are playing lacrosse and are doing so well. That is a tough sport. Kelsey, are you still clearing the roads when you drive? How is the new swimming coach? 

This week was pretty slow, for a while.

Monday

We teach this less active family on Monday evenings. We did a pretty cool object lesson with a Rubik's cube. We compared it to the restoration of the gospel. It went good. We are going to use that later when we are teaching little kids with their families. Then we went to contact a referral we got from headquarters. It was a Russian family. They didn't speak any English. So that is nice, since we don’t speak Russian. We can't communicate very well.

Tuesday

We tracted a bunch and taught a really less active family. It was a bad week for use teaching a lot of lessons at first. 

Wednesday

We were on exchanges with our district leader. I have discovered that car areas are nice. You drive to your appointments. You can be more effective.

Thursday

This was a sweet day. We had an awesome zone meeting. Got a lot out of it. The basic message was how to make planning and your studies more effective. It was really good. Then after we taught a less active guy. He is less active because he works as a CNA sort of thing. He has an adult care place now at his home. We finally were able to get him at church. Then later we had to stop by a lady we got referred to from the relief society president. She just wanted to see how she was doing. We did a quick door step visit and lesson and she told us her awesome conversion story. She isn't less active, she’s just been gone for a couple of weeks. Then we knocked on another lady's apartment. We have literally tried there like 20 times. She was really interested but it was a really fast doorstep lesson the first time. Then we have been going over to her house for a long time when we are close to the area.  She finally was home so we taught her again on the door step. She was interested and we invited her to baptism right there she said she would. Wow! On the doorstep! Persistence pays off! 

Then we taught a family that just barely moved into the ward. He is a great guy just doesn't come. Haha he moved in about a block from the church. He knows that too. They were really hoping for a visit from us so we felt inspired to go over.

Friday and Saturday were both pretty slow. 

Love,

✌Elder Astle (fistbump)

He included a random video of a dog jumping at a fence, I will figure out how to post it later.

His captions are not coming through, so, his district? At Cafe rio?

Season 2, episode 3 Alex's letter 10-5-15

Hey.
I now have an iPad that works. I am now efficient again.

Tuesday
We did some service for a lady who just recently beat breast cancer. We moved her fridge for her  so she could sweep and mop under it. Then we Paul Bunioned some wood for her. We cut and moved it across her yard so she could use it for the wood burning stove. It took us like Fifteen minutes to get it all done.

Wednesday
This is one of the funniest things that have happened so far. We were walking through this woodland path and we ran into this pot circle. Haha there was like ten of them. We were walking past and the first thing they asked was,  “Do you want to smoke weed?” Then right after they asked, "Who are you guys?" We said, "We are the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. " We talked to them for a little bit. Then they asked us if we party and we said no. But there were a few of them that were interested. We gave out three Books of Mormon. While we were leaving we said if they were interested that we could continue our discussion later. They said, “Oh we will be here tomorrow.”
Then we taught Alex T the last part of the Plan of Salvation lesson. He is a recently baptized member.

Thursday
We taught Tim who is one of our good gators. He is the one that is completely bed ridden. We taught about baptism and put him on date. We are not sure if or how this will work. But, with faith in the Lord anything is possible. We are not sure how to proceed.  Then we were at a lesson with one of the these less actives that we have been working with for a while. She is a talker so her lessons last a very long time. We also taught this family that just recently started coming back but then they stopped going to church. They are frustrating because we call to set up an appointment, then they make excuses and cancel. They were saying they don't have time to read the scriptures. They said this while they were watching TV. I straight up told them if there is time to watch TV there is time to read the scriptures. We told them it doesn't have to be very long, just every single day.

Friday
We taught a less active guy who is like 90 and is a war vet. He is way cool and has great stories. He really is less active just because he is old.

Saturday
We started of the conference weekend with a zone breakfast at one of the stake presidency members. We had some homemade Marion berry jam. That is the best jam ever! Then we watched conference with them. It was a great session. Some really powerful talks. Then we went to another members home for the next session. It was also a great session. But the highlight for me was the priesthood session. We watched it with a member who had his nephew who isn't a member watching some with us. He is now a great new investigator.

Sunday
We watched conference with some members. They wanted us to come for breakfast. So naturally we did. Guess what they had? Pull-a-parts! Oh yeah! So good!  That was a good session as well. I really enjoyed Conference! I don’t know if I have a favorite talk. They were all good, I guess.

Love,
Elder Alex Astle

We have pull-a-parts every conference, so this felt like a little bit of home to Alex!

Snail mail letter 10-1-15

Alex’s latest letter, 

Snail mail, received 10-1-15

Hey!

I am going to do this the old school way like I said in the email.  I tried to update to the new software for my ipad.  The new updates prevent me from rotating my screen. I have called a few places that fix broken cellphones and tablets and they gave me a rate that wasn’t worth spending.  I thought it might be a good bet until they told me that it wasn’t guaranteed.  So I prayed about it and I am going to play it safe and not take the gamble, so whatever you did before to get me and ipad, you will probably have to do it again.  *Mom note: we got his new ipad this week and have sent the receipt to the mission office.  Hopefully this takes care of the ipad issue and Alex keeps it FAR away from water. 

This week was really busy, we had a lot going on.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we had a district meeting. This is where we meet to discuss business items and have a little training.  We were looking at our district’s numbers/  My area had 80% of the numbers, which wasn’t good.

Wednesday

Our teaching pool is very small. This last week we only had like three scheduled lessons.  So we went out and are trying to find some really solid people to teach.  We found a really good one.  We tracted into her and she was very familiar with the church.  Her neighbor is a member so we are going to try to have the neighbor attend the lesson.  Also, we are going to try to have the lesson in the member’s home because that is such a better experience for the investigator because it will be more likely to lead to a baptism.  The members are really the most important tool.  All the referrals that we have gotten have been people who are golden (really receptive and ready to convert) and are ready for baptism.  Later this day we taught a recent convert, Alex T.  He is hard to teach because he is a high functioning kid, but he has a little mental disability.  In order to teach him, we have to simplify it down as well as keep him interested.  We have to break up the lessons and teach him slower than the other people, but it is good to go slow.  It is better he understands it than that we get through a lesson.

Thursday

Thursday we had a long day of visiting people.  We were given a large list of people the bishop wanted us to go see.  We were trying to see them before Friday.  We have been doing that for a couple of days now.  We have the privilege of going on splits with our ward mission leader.  (He is the big guy in the picture, the really tall one.)  We wanted to stop by a lady who we visited once.  We haven’t been able to go by and see her again because she is having some problems with her health.  IT turns out that we felt like we should go see her and she was actually going to call us to ask for some help doing things around the house. So we felt the prompting to go there and she needed our help.

Friday

We had an awesome Friday!  We started out with Crystal’s baptism.  The other set of Elders called us and said they had to move her date to Friday.  So, we headed over to a baptism.  She was so nervous.  I don’t think I have ever seen anyone so nervous.  There really weren’t very many people at the baptism.  We had only a few from our ward and only a few from their ward.  That is partially because of the weird time it was at.  In the end it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  She doesn’t do well in large crowds, so it was actually good that not very many people were there.  It was a great baptism.  Her longtime friend baptized her and as well he was the one who had led us to her. We were also able to participate in the circle where she received the Holy Ghost.  Super Cool!  After that, we did some tracting in some apartments.  We ended up finding two new people to teach within five feet of each other.  That was a pretty sweet way to end the day, picking up some new gators.  Those people we found came after some crazy opposition.

Saturday

We met another really good potentially golden investigator.  He is a really nice guy and was willing to have us come back and teach him.  We also met this way crazy old lady.  She had some Jehovah’s Witnesses come by and she thought they were Mormons. She asked us if the book they left was ours and it wasn’t.  We told her it was a Jehovah’s Witness Bible.  She then said this: “Jehovah’s Witness! I thought they were Mormon!  I have to give this to Goodwill!” (That is their version of the DI) So at this point we were laughing because she doesn’t like them, but she loves us.  It was so funny!

Sunday

We had lots of meetings and attended Crystal’s confirmation.  We never have a lot of time on Sundays to do anything because of meetings and church.

I hope next time I can get my Ipad back and don’t have to write another letter.  Hope you can read my scribbles!

Love Elder Alex Astle

Broken ipad

No email today, except to say that there would be no email until he replaces his broken ipad.  He says to tell you all he has mailed a regular letter home and that he will write when he gets the new ipad. We are working on that.  In the meantime, there are pictures: again, the captions didn't come through the email.

Crystals baptism

Me finding out about my ipad needing to be replaced.  Mom note, look at those hung up clothes!  What?!?  I am so happy to see he knows how to use a hanger.... :)

Season 2 , episode 1 - 9-21-15

Hey all!

Alex is finally answering some of my questions:

So I got the ipad case and it is a way sweet case. We tried to send a pizza for his birthday, but the whole thing got messed up and confusing.  We asked him if he would like a “second dinner pizza”, since he ate two or three dinners when he was home. Yes about the pizza thing, we were also super confused. But we would like that. Haha  We asked about the ipad which he thought he should use in a rain storm, and it didn’t work too well afterward. I called the mission tech guy about my iPad. He said it would be like $140 which kinda sucks. I knew it would be a bit more because it was water damage. So I am probably going to do that rather than get a new one. The cheapest option is a former missionary from the mission who has a business that fixes iPads.  What I might do is just use it for a while until I get annoyed with it. It works, just half the screen doesn't.  I thought I fixed it but it guess I didn't. Happy birthday Kelsey.🎊🎁💥🎉🎉🎊💥🎁 haha Wow!  Lots of presents, poppers and fireworks emojis for Kelsey.

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone. Our Ward mission leader found out it was my birthday last week and I didn't tell him. So he picked up the phone and called. Haha he is a cool guy.

Tuesday

We had to do some phone work. We have a ton of people whose numbers are in the phone but we have no name. That is not very good. Because most of the time they are members of the ward. After that we went and found a new gator. That is basically all we did Tuesday.

Wednesday

We had a transfer meeting. They used to broadcast it to the zones that are in the boonies. But, President Taylor wanted everyone there. So we had the largest meeting in WVM history. It was a really good meeting. He said right now we are the most obedient set of missionaries he has ever had. He doesn't have to worry about us. We right now have 160 missionaries. And, 100 are in training. So it is crazy how many new missionaries are here. All in all, it was a great meeting. After the meeting we contacted some former investigators. They were nice and friendly and open to listening to us but they were too busy to set an appointment for us to come visit. In the evening we taught a lesson to a recent convert. He just accepted taking the new member lessons. The T. family is who we taught next. Alex is the boy that we were teaching and his mom Jackie who just recently decided to come back to church. It was a good lesson with them. And they definitely felt the spirit. They participated way good which is key because participation invites the spirit.

Thursday

We taught this guy who is was way friendly and polite. We sat down and started to teach him. He only accepted answers from the Bible. It started out ok,  just a discussion, but then he turned into a basher. I don't like those people at all. We left him with a couple of scriptures to study that basically lines up our church with the ancient church of Christ. Later that day we taught a couple of less actives a family home evening. It was really fast because they had stuff later. Then we taught a less active guy who served in World War Two. He is a way cool guy. We are doing lots work like that. Mom note: We had a phone call from the ward mission leader in the Evergreen ward where Alex is serving.  He called on Sunday to say that Alex may or may not be having lunch at his house right then.  He said their ward was the largest in the area and that Alex was doing a great job helping to contact and reactivate the inactive people in the ward.  Such a great phone call!

Friday

We taught Tim again. He is slowly progressing but progressing. Then we taught a lesson with Sister S.  She is doing so much better because of our teaching the lessons to her. Then we had a hand off lesson with the Walnut Grove elders who are now teaching Buddy and Crystal. We were able to get Buddy to commit to reading the BOM. That is way good. We taught three lessons in one day. For a walking area that is impressive.

Saturday

We had to plan for the week because our Friday was so busy. That took a while because there was a bunch of stuff we had to do. We also had a meeting with the stake presidency. They stressed using members to help find people to teach, because the members know people. That is what we have been hoping is for the members to say we would like you to teach our friend. That is the most effective way.

Sunday

We had exchanges with the traveling APs (Assistant to the President). They are way cool missionaries. We learned a lot. I went with one of them tracting. We hit some serious opposition. Haha it makes me laugh. There was a dude that looked as though he would punch us in the face.  But we have seen it before, there usually is a miracle after opposition like that. Nope, haha more people. When stuff like that happens you just laugh it off. The APs taught us afterward and said they're impressed with the work we are doing.

Love,

👊Elder Astle😎 Again, his name has a fist bump emoji on the left and a smiley face with sunglasses on the right.

Season 1 episode 6, 9-14-15

Hi everyone!

On Tuesday,

We had weird day. We had to get some more books because we ran out. We went with the district leader to get new Books of Mormon. When we finally got back, we went out and headed to our appointment. The lady wasn't there. Then

we tracted and picked up some new gators. Apparently this is the hottest summer that Washington has ever had. Most days over 90 degrees. It is hot!! Holy cow!!Of course it happens while I am here :).

Wednesday-

We had interviews with the President. It was good.  It went really quick. Then after that we had exchanges. I was put with another Elder Jensen. We were in his area. We taught somebody who had been a good investigator, but he didn't have any faith. He was a good one,  then he read anti stuff and decided he wasn't going to have missionaries come over anymore. I didn't even know who he was really, since I had just met him, but his decision was like a gut punch. He just lacks the faith to ask if the gospel is true. He was swayed too easy by the stuff he read on the Internet. Then we taught a guy who has just recently decided to come back to church. We taught a really good lesson on enduring to the end. He seemed to enjoy it. 

Thursday-

We had a zone meeting this day. We heard a lot of messages about being ourselves. It was a good meeting. They gave some really good training. That took most of the afternoon. After the meeting, we taught Buddy and Crystal. It was the last lesson before they moved. They are so close to the baptism, it is sweet!

Friday- 

We taught Natalie S. She has had a messed up life. She has hit the bottom and is hopefully making the change for good. She has tried before but she hasn't come all the way back. We taught her about faith and her lessons are really long because she is taking in everything very well. She loves the lessons and wants us to keep coming back.

Saturday-

Saturday was awesome. It started out by helping Buddy and Crystal move. We got the other elders from the ward they would be moving into to come help. They have a lot of stuff. Like they each collect stuff. They rented a U-Haul truck. We filled it all the way a few times. About half way through the move the elders quorum came and helped out. Both Buddy and Crystal were so happy to see all those people. About twenty people came to help.  That helped us so much!  It took like ten minutes to unload the trucks. This whole thing has been a challenging process. It is hard to work between the wards. We thought we would have to baptize her in our ward but now with the move we are passing the torch. Then we left early to go to a baptism. It was way far away so we bummed a ride from a member. It was a great baptism. She was this old lady who has been

taught for like a year. After that we put our investigator Justice on a date for his baptism. It was such a great lesson!  We had a pretty busy week. Transfer letters came. I am staying put.

Love,

👊Elder Astle😎

Season 1 episode 5, September 7, 2015

Hey!

Answer to Michael's questions  Michael is  Alex's cousin who is serving a service mission and was with us over Labor day weekend and had a lot of questions for Alex.

1.What time do you get up? 6:30 AM

2.How are you eating? we get fed by members for dinner and we are on our own for lunch and breakfast.

3.How is your ipad after it got wet? Well, my iPad has half a screen that works, so I am getting that fixed

Tuesday-

We just went and tried to go visit some people. The highlight of this day was dinner. We went to this guy’s house and he is Jamaican. He wants everyone to experience a foreign mission so he makes food from Jamaica. He made us chicken wings and green bananas. It sounds really weird, but instead, it was one of the top five meals I have ever had. It was so good. The chicken was cooked to perfection. He is a professional cook. So he knows how to make anything. He loves cooking so he goes all out. It was awesome. We really didn't have an exciting day, other than the wonderful food.

Wednesday-

We taught someone who only believes in the Bible. He was willing to talk to us but we may not see him again. Then we taught this guy named Tim. Tim is completely bedridden. He has a feeding tube and a breathing tube. He is very open to meeting with us again. We are not sure how to proceed in the future with him. He is learning from us but he hasn't done any of the commitments we left him with. Then after him we taught Buddy and Crystal. We taught them about tithing, and follow the prophets and other small commandments. Buddy FINALLY read the scriptures. Wow! So pumped for that!  He is one that has researched and stuff like that. He’s moving along so good. 

Thursday-

We went on exchanges with the DL (district leader, a group of missionaries makes up a district). I went with the DL to his area. He is over the YSA  (Young Single Adult group) and another family. We went out and tried to visit some of his potential investigators called potentials. Then we taught this guy who was high. Seriously he was tripping. We taught him about prophets and he feels that he is one because birds follow him. He would be a way good person to teach if he wasn't on drugs. That is basically all that happened today. 

Friday- 

We taught a less active member. She has some major word of wisdom problems in her life. She was on some anti depressants for way longer then she needed to be so it messed up the chemicals in her brain. She hit a huge low and then quit the pills. Then she also quit everything else at the same time. So as good as that is, it was bad for the brain. She just recently accepted the missionary lessons. So we have seen the change from her being a someone who isn't really wanting to change- to someone who is doing all she can to change. She said we have been an answer to her prayers. Which is so cool. Then later that day we taught Buddy and Crystal. We had basically the last lesson with them. Which is sad because they are moving to another place come the middle of this month. So we don’t technically get the baptism, but we are counting one of them as ours. We will definitely go to it. We are helping them move on Saturday. 

Saturday-

We had a long day of tracting. We got a couple of new gators as well. That was sweet. We meet somebody who was golden. She was praying for truth and then we came. We taught her a brief restoration lesson and left a BOM (Book of Mormon). That is again another time we answered somebody's prayer. She doesn't know that yet but I hope we did all we could to help her. It is stuff like that that makes tracting worth it. That is why we do it. Because somewhere someone is waiting to hear what we have to say but in order to get there we have to go through countless numbers who aren't. 

Sunday- 

We had some more knocking to do. That is basically what we did. After church we knocked some more doors. 

Elder Astle again signed with a fist bump and sunglasses smiley face emojis.

Again, his captions didn't come through, so we think this is his yummy dinner he described

8-31-15, Season 1 Episode 4

Hey!
Happy Birthday Mom!
I forgot to tell you about my companion. He has been here for about ten months. His name is Elder Jensen. He is from Colorado. We get along good so far.

Tuesday
We are doing some more tracting. It is a slow going process but we are working really hard to find people to teach. We found some  good prospects, potential investigators that we could come back and teach. We did that all afternoon. Then after dinner we sat down with a preacher. He was hard to talk to because he only believes in the Bible. He was almost bashing us, but not quite. Then after that we visited a lady who needed our visits. She was battling cancer and hasn't been able to come to church for a while. It turns out that she wanted to have a spiritually uplifting message throughout the rest of her week.

Wednesday
We had our first district meeting. It was way good. Our district is way cool. After district meeting we hit the pavement. After dinner we had a lesson with Buddy and Crystal. Crystal has a few questions, but she is getting everything we say. She is so cool to teach because she went to a lot of churches before now, and she just understands everything because it just makes sense.

Thursday
We taught a lesson to somebody who one Sunday came up to us and said, I would like to take the missionary lessons. What!?! That was such an answer to prayers. We have been praying for people who are ready to hear the gospel. She was there with her boyfriend. He is a member and she wants to learn more. We taught her the restoration. We were again blessed with another investigator who is golden. She has a crazy schedule for work so we don't know when to schedule another lesson.  After dinner we had splits with our ward mission leader. He is so cool. We went to visit a potential gator that wasn't home. So, since we didn't have anyone to visit, I got a prompting to visit the Trimble family. They are a part member family.  The mom is active, and the dad is a non member. Their son has a bit of autism. The son is 18 and just recently baptized. They do this thing called new member lessons. That is where we teach them the lessons over again after they have been baptized.  We went over  to their house and they were putting a hide-a-bed couch in a truck. So we helped them and introduced ourselves. They asked us why we were there.  We said we just felt like we should come see you, so we did.  They accepted the invitation to take the lessons. Then on Sunday they were at church, and apparently they haven't been there for a couple weeks. Wow a huge blessing! What a testimony builder!

Friday
We went and visited some people, and tracted a bunch. Our zone gets about 7 OYM( open your mouths, tracting opportunities ) a day,  we get like 20. We also taught a member who is having a rough go. She is taking the lessons again. So we taught her the restoration. She seemed to take it well.

Saturday
We had exchanges with our zone leaders. I got to go to the zone leader's area. I went on exchanges with Elder Livingston. He is a tiny guy, but he has a huge testimony. That was cool  and we got along pretty well. We did some finding of people.  We had a lesson with with a really old lady. She was way nice and we taught her the plan of salvation.  She had a couple of concerns about the spirit world, but we answered those well for her. After that we met back up with our companions. My iPad got wet because of the rain. It was raining buckets and we were heading somewhere and I needed it to look up the address. And then the rain came. So I am in the process of seeing if I can get it fixed. It kinda has a seizure and wigs out. But I left it in rice and now it works better and I will leave it in rice tonight as well.

Sunday
We had Sacrament Meeting. And our gators showed up.  That is crazy!  Our district leader asked how we get them there.  We just said they actually like going to church. 

That has been the week, I guess.  I have been humbled by prayer this week.. Our prayers were answered with someone who is ready to be baptized!
Love
Elder Astle (I wish the emojis came through, he had a fist bump and a smiley face with sunglasses around his name)
The following pictures  were  FINALLY sent, but the descriptions of the pictures didn't come through, so I am Momma interpreting them..I could be right, or not..... 

My district at the MTC

Impressive cup/ salt and pepper tower! At the MTC cafeteria

My district at the Provo Temple

Vancouver Washington, from the plane.

Mount St. Helens, from the plane.

My zone? or district?

At the parking lot of Ape cave

Exploring Ape cave

My district, exploring the caves

In Ape Cave