Season 7 Episode 1, 3-25-16

Well, this week was crazy. We had transfers. I stayed here and got Elder Potter. He is form Colorado Springs. He is a good guy who has been out for 6  months. For our Mother's Day Skype, we can do it at 7 our time, which will be 8 there. I got the package. Thanks again.

Monday-

We have had a really crazy day. So we were in a tri-panionship So we were with the extra guy for a couple of days. In his Ward somebody wanted to take us to Multnomah Falls. So in the morning we did that. That was a cool hike. Then we went to hang with our zone (Gresham). We were there for a couple of hours. Then because he was the zone leader for the Portland zone we went there. So that is why the email wasn't good. Then we headed to a family home evening.

Tuesday-

It was a pretty slow morning. The two others in the tri-panionship were both being transferred. So they were packing. When that finally was finished, we went out. We were trying to balance the work in the YSA Ward and our Ward so we stopped by one of the less actives in our Ward. Then we went to the Gresham institute. Mom will you ask if Derrick served out in the Gresham institute. Because I have a picture of someone who I think was him on the wall. (It was Derek, Alex’s cousin Michelle’s husband - they met on their mission to Portland in Gresham!)  Then we headed into a lesson with somebody in our Ward. We are teaching this less active family,  have a daughter who is 9 and isn't baptized. So we taught her, it was a struggle because she was being "shy". But she wants to be baptized.

Alex's cousin Derek is the missionary on the left!  Small world!

Wednesday-

We had the transfer. I got Elder Potter. So it wasn't a very exciting day. Getting him situated. We stopped by a few people.

Alex and Elder Potter

Thursday-

We had a pretty good day. We got a referral, so we were going to go contact it. While we did that we got another referral. The first one wasn't home. Then the second one was home. So it was a good miracle. He was pretty solid.

Friday-

We had some really good lessons with a few less actives. One of them wanted us to teach their friend. It was awesome. We talked about when it would work to schedule the lesson.

Saturday-

We taught some sweet lessons. One we taught to an African family.  It was really cool! They don't speak very much English. So they finally were comfortable enough to tell us that they would like us to read with them. So that is cool and it  can help them progress.

Sunday-

We had a really good time at church. We had a lot of people come. It was a good week. Very busy.

Season 6 Episode 7, April 18, 2016

Sorry I don't have a lot of time this week. We have been hiking and we have just been crazy. We had a stellar week. I don't have too much time today because we went on a hike. And we've been training for a couple of days. The elder that lives with us is now an AP. I am staying  the Rocky Butte Ward. I am actually really excited for the transfer. We did a hike today and it has been crazy busy.

This week was really good.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday-

We had a bunch of lessons. I will add more details next time.

Saturday-

We had a very busy day.  We taught our gators who are on date for baptism. They are a way sweet family. Then we taught a lesson with this lady who we

thought was solid, while we were there these Jehovah’s Witnesses came in. Talk about an awkward lesson. Wow!

Sunday-

We had our gators come to church. They hadn't been to church before but now they came so wahoo!! I apologize for the short email not too much time today.

Alex likes taking pictures of flowers.

More flowers.

Season 6 Episode 6, April 11, 2016

Normally transfers would be here but this is a seven week transfer. This week was very cool. We had yet another busy week. Nothing too crazy happened this week.

Monday-

We taught this guy who we think might turn into a basher. He hasn't yet but we were expecting to have that happen. We had a good p-day.

Tuesday-

We had a district meeting so it was good. Hit up some good stuff in the meeting. Then we went out a tried to do good finding. We did have quite a busy day.

Wednesday-

We helped move a lady. The sisters called us, they are in the Ward right next to us. They asked if we could help move this lady. They said she promised to have the stuff in boxes. So... we had to pack and move her. We spent a while doing that. Then we went to a less actives house to pull weeds. It would have been easier to pull grass. We worked for an hour and headed to an appointment.

Thursday-

We had a lesson with Angela. She is about to be baptized. It was a good day. We had a very busy day with nothing really to cool to report.

Friday-

We had a good lesson with a recent convert. She is about ten and her grandparents are kinda lazy so she doesn't come to church very much. We taught them a good lesson. We then taught a few people on the street. It wasn't too interesting.

Saturday the highlight of the week.

We had Angela's baptism! We found her a while ago by just going by a less active’s house. She at first, wasn't interested. Then the next lesson she asked us if she could be baptized. She has been talking to sister missionaries over social media. Then we started teaching her in person.  She also has a grandma that wanted to be re baptized. So we have been teaching her too. We had Angela's baptism. She was so ready. She should have been baptized a month ago, but we had to wait because she wanted her cousin to baptize her. We had her service and it was a very good one. And her grandma got baptized as well.  Grandma was like 89 and not sure how long she had left. Everything went smoothly. The font was really warm.

Sunday-

We got to confirm them members in Sacrament. It was a great experience. The spirit was so strong the whole Sunday. We also has a bunch of people come to church. There was a less active family that the Ward council said would come. And, they came haha!  We had a good lesson with them and they felt the spirit. Which is why we knew they would be at church.

Sorry it is kinda a bad email nothing happened until Saturday really.

Love,

Elder Astle

Season 6 episode 5, April 4, 2016

We had one of the busiest weeks ever. We were rolling from appointment
to appointment. Only three appointments all week canceled, which is a miracle itself.
Tuesday-
We had a zone study with the mission president. It was a very good meeting. It usually is with him. He wants to do this because he is leaving soon and wants spend as much time with us as possible. Then after that meeting we had our district meeting. It was short because President likes to talk. Then we were on an exchange. I went to Tonga again. It was a good day. Pretty funny though!  The Elder I was with can't drive so I had to. We were driving and he sees someone who he thought was a Tongan. He said, “Stop! That guy was Tongan!” So we stopped and we went up to him and said, "Malolele" which is spelled wrong but it means how are you?  The guy looked around and was so confused. Haha!!! He was a Hispanic. We saved his information and referred him to the Spanish missionaries. I had some tears later thinking about it because it was so funny!!! We taught a couple of good street lessons to some people. Then they took us to a buffet and said in their thick Tongan accent, “Eat Elders!” So we did!
Wednesday-
Well, we found the puddle lake again. It has been dramatically down since we skipped the rocks in it. We taught a lesson to this guy who likes to talk. He is a cool guy. We brought a member with us who likes to talk. Then randomly, some dude comes in who likes to talk more. So if you didn't add it up, three guys who like to talk in one room. It means not a lot being said from us. :) We taught this less active guy who is basically a Baptist. He loves the fire of the Old Testament. He also told us how he would go and beat up drug dealers. He is an interesting
guy. He is understanding the gospel better. We just have to use scriptures the whole time with him. Otherwise he tangents on how we need to be like Job. And don't get him started about Jonah! He likes those guys a lot. It is always an interesting lesson.  He is getting it though. The spirit is working on him. We then had a stop by to this guy that we both felt like we should go see. It was a good lesson. We helped them feel the spirit. We taught like 4 kids in this home. The
parents are cool with us teaching. We did really well and they definitely felt the spirit. We taught simply and were able to answer their questions. We think that family could be baptized here pretty soon. It is sweet.
Thursday-
We had a zone service project where we picked up a bunch of trash on the side of the road. There is a bunch of trash. I also grabbed a little snake with my grabbers. I felt like the crocodile hunter! We had a busy day as well. We got back from that and taught a lady who is going to be baptized next week. It was sweet.
Friday-
I had a Mousa again. This time with pictures.

My mousa!

We planned for the day and then taught a couple lessons later. We got stuck in some major traffic. Portland has the worst traffic! They have tiny roads and they have no plans for making them bigger. So their major freeway has 3 lanes. And we weren't even on the freeway!There was just a bunch of cars. It took us like 30 minutes to go 1 mile. That is not good.
Saturday-
We watched Conference. We tried to watch it with our investigators, but they cancelled. So, the morning session we watched at the stake center. Then the afternoon session we watched at our Ward mission leader’s house. It was good. Then we went to Priesthood at the church too. The sessions were all good. I don't know if I have a favorite.
Sunday-
We watched Conference with our gator who is going to be baptized. It was a blast. We taught her afterward. She had a few questions of what was happening or stuff they said, so it was good we were there. Then we watched the next session at a less active’s house. We then had a lesson with a recent convert. She is from the South and made us some authentic Southern food. It was boom!That was basically the week. I really enjoyed Conference. Good messages. My heart was full. This week we have been bouncing tfrom one thing to another.

Elder Astle

The vista house

A flower I put the camera in.