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

August 24, 2015

Hey Guys!

This week was much better than last week.  We had a blast hiking

around the caves. It was so cool.  (Alex went to lava tubes near Mount St. Helens last p-day.  We googled it and it looked like a lot of fun!)

Tuesday

We did a lot of knocking, but it isn't too bad. I still don't love it, but it is getting better.

Wednesday

More knocking and we visited some people as well.

Thursday

We had a zone meeting. It was way good. President Taylor is awesome.

He gives us exactly what we need. We taught Buddy and Crystal. They

are coming along way good.

Friday

We taught a person in a home health care place. He is bed ridden but

is able to learn. He had some questions and his mom was there and she also had some questions. We ended up teaching them (in the most round about way) the third lesson.

Saturday

We had another day of knocking. But after dinner we went and visited

some potential gators. It turns out that lot of them were interested.

So our next week is filling up with more and more lessons. It is great

to know that our hard work of trying to find people that are willing

to accept the gospel is paying off. It is so sweet when people are ready.

And yesterday,the fire smoke was pretty bad. We didn't get told to stay inside.

There, I guess, is a bunch of woods burning. But there was nothing said

to us to limit being outside. (I asked him about the fires and if they were affecting their work. His cousin is in the mission to the east, Spokane, and has to stay indoors unless teaching a lesson due to ash particles in the air.)

Sunday we had meetings all day. But it had been a good week. It was a fast week really. Next week for sure we have a lot of teaching opportunities.

Thanks for the calls, texts and chats with us to see how Alex is doing.  He doesn't write much, but for him, this is gushing.  Keep him in your prayers, and please keep writing him. 

  

Love,

Elder Alex Astle

Sent from my iPad

Alex's letter 8-17-15

Hey guys,

To answer some of your questions. Yes the iPod would be awesome. They are pretty relaxed with music. All the requirements are if you can teach a lesson or something after, as long as the spirit stays, the music is ok. So classical is good. Any church music. Anything that is uplifting and doesn't drive away the spirit.

The Arnetts are great. They just barely sent their son on a mission. They are usually working when the school year hits since Sister Arnett is a teacher.

This week has been crazy. Monday we did get to play some basketball. We played like some dodge ball type thing earlier in the day. That was fun. But, showing the kids how to play basketball is great. We meet as a zone and play a bunch of random stuff. After p-day we then do some work from six to nine.

Tuesday

The former elders worked the other investigators over so we didn't inherit a lot of new gators. So we hit the streets knocking on doors. We do a variety of different ways to door approach. So work others don't. But where we are serving is in an area where it is all houses. It doesn't have parks. Just a bunch of of houses and townhomes. We tracked and ran into a potential, but he just wanted to bash, kinda. So we got out of there. We actually found some good people this day. Then we had another lesson with Crystal and Buddy. They are progressing well. We taught them the second lesson about the plan of salvation.

Wednesday

We had a training meeting from 9-4. It was a way good meeting. President Taylor had full control of the meeting so it was good. Afterward we knocked some doors.

Thursday

Knocked some more doors and then we taught Crystal and Buddy. We took them to a baptism of another area. We taught them the third lesson which stresses baptism, it was perfect to bring them to a baptism after this lesson.  We also went on splits with the ward mission leader. He is a funny guy. He is about 6"5' and has so much energy.

Friday

Tracting. We knocked on so many houses. Haha like 120-140. Then we had dinner at this Polynesian brothas house. We had that bbq chicken. It is the sweet one that is marinated in that bbq sauce. Oh man it was good. He made so much food. He cooked like 20 chicken legs. And halfway through, he pulled out about the same amount of chicken breasts. He looks like the shrimp guy from Hawaii 5-O but he is like 1 hundred pounds less at least. But has the same facial structure and facial hair.

Saturday

We visited a lot of people on Saturday. One of which being Jerry King. He is an old guy that has been talking to missionaries since Nam. Haha not really, but he is one of those seventh day Adventists. He loves missionaries. But he has his firm beliefs. He talked with us for for ever we tried to get out but he kept telling us stories.

Sunday

We were able to get our new gators at church. Buddy hated that beyond belief. He doesn't like communications between people. He lasted through Sacrament though. It was cool that they were there. I don't remember if I said but they are moving in September so we are trying to get them baptized before. Or if not, when they move.

Today

We went to this place called ape caves. It is a lava cave up by Mount St. Helens. It is really cool!  We were there all day.

Love,

Elder Alex Astle

8-10-15 letter

Mom's note:  I was getting worried that no email had come through.  5:15 he wrote!  Made my day!
I now know where my kid is living!  Seriously a good feeling!

Dear family and friends,

So Tuesday we set our alarm to wake up at 3 because we had to be at the travel office at 3:30 The alarm never went off. So we got a pounding on our door at at 3:20 am asking if we were ready. So we quickly and as fast as we could got ready. Then we made it right on time. But in the mean time, I lost my suit coat hanger. But I have everything else. Then we rode the bus to the front runner station (the commuter train from Provo to Salt Lake). We took that up to tracks and then rode the tracks to the airport. We had a good flight and landed safely. We then were picked up and shuttled to the mission office. It is a church that has been converted into an office. Right there we were given our iPads and stuff to use. The president talked to us for a bit. And then we were sent to go with some of the other companionships to go and hit the streets. Holy cow ! I was so tired. We had to go straight out into the field. So I jumped

right into tracting. The very first house I knocked on, the door got slammed in my face. So we did that for a bit and then had dinner at the mission home. After dinner some of us went to the APs apartment for the night.

Alex with his mission president and wife, President and Sister Taylor

Wednesday we had our mission meeting. That is where all of the missionaries are all gathered together and given the companions and the area we are assigned to  I am companions with Elder Jenson. He is a pretty chill dude. We are assigned the Evergreen Ward. It is a walking area.  We are staying with a member family, the Arrnets. This day was rough. I was still tired and missing home a bit. But then we got to the Arrnets and got busy. The previous elders didn't have many people investigating. So that means we have to knock some doors. We were walking around at about six. Then

some guy pulls up and says there is somebody I want you to teach. So we followed him. He turned out to be a member but of a different ward. He brought us to Crystal and Buddy. Buddy is difficult person to teach because he doesn't like being questioned. But Crystal is willing. So we taught them and set up a return appointment.

Thursday was an entire day tracting. It was so tiring and we didn't teach very many people.  We walked about ten miles.

Friday was better we didn't have all that long but we had a good day. We taught Crystal and Buddy and they committed to be baptized. Woah.!! So cool!!!

Saturday was the same as Thursday .Lots of knocking on doors. But we were able to get some new gators ( investigators).

Sunday was way cool because we went on exchanges with the APs they taught us a lot. They were so cool. But it went awesome. Sorry there's not more for those days there were a lot of people not interested.

We get fed every night be members. So I am eating well. Thanks for the mail. I can only read the emails on p-day. But I like that there are some there.

My address is: 3311NE 143 Ave Vancouver WA 98682

And we can read letters whenever, so please write me!

Love you all!

Love Elder Astle

Sent from my iPad

Off to Washington!

We got to talk to Alex this morning for about 20 minutes before he boarded his plane to fly to Portland, OR.  It is a one hour flight, and he was hoping to maybe sleep on the plane.  He sounded great and ready to get to work.  He was tired because they were up till midnight packing and cleaning the room so it was ready for the next group of missionaries.

He liked his companion and his district.  There were 4 of his district going to the Washington Vancouver mission, the rest of is district was heading to Tacoma.  More were going to his mission from other districts, but he didn't know how many.  He was excited to hear that his Aunt Nichole's nephew, on her side of the family, would be heading his way in September, going to the same mission.  Yay!

MTC life: He was ready to leave.  He didn't like the all day in a classroom thing, and really enjoyed being outside when he could be.  There was a virus going around and lots of them were sniffly and coughing, so getting out of the building was really great for his psyche and his sore throat, which he hadn't told us about.

He was never a greeter at the MTC welcoming the new missionaries, this is reserved for the ones going foreign because they are there longer.

We had  list of questions we asked him, since we knew our time would be limited.  This is a summary of the list.

He's doing great and is excited to get out to the mission field.

8-3-15

Hey Family and Friends,

The second week of the MTC was great. It was kinda the same as last week. Except we had a huge missionary orientation day that was not very fun at all. It lasted all day. At least in the classes we were able to learn by doing. The orientation is from like 8 am-6 pm .  It was a guy going over a power point. To be honest it was a very long and tiring day. 

Haha it was really funny because one of the elders in my room is a Polynesian, and he wrote home the first day and asked for food because he felt bad eating all of ours. They responded with 5 boxes of stuff. One box had just candy bars in it. It looked like somebody went to the gas station and grabbed about all the candy bars. The other boxes are full of snacks beyond belief. It is so funny how much food we have. 

We went out and played like soccer in the field because everyone was getting sick we thought it would be a good idea. It was nice to break out of the gates. It was so nice to get some sun in. And after being cooped up in the class room for days it is like freedom.

Yesterday was one of the greatest days here. We started off with sacrament meeting. Hearing all the testimonies is so powerful. After that our branch president read us a spin off of the Dr Seuss classic "Oh the Places You'll Serve" It was kind of cool. Fast Sunday wasn't too bad.  Our schedule said dinner was at like 4 but I wanted to be there earlier so we could eat. But the dinner started at 3:30 so we were the only ones in the cafeteria.  (Alex's cousin had warned him that fast Sunday at the MTC was a giant line for dinner, which had him quite worried.)

I am so happy to be done with the MTC.  I have learned a lot and I think I am ready to get on out there and start teaching people. 

Elder Astle

Our food pile

Pointing to my mission, Mom asked me to do this picture.

We are all wearing purple ties.