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