Season 9 Episode 2 - ONE YEAR DONE! 7-24-16

This was a killer week. We had a bunch of meetings. But it was also a land mark - one year. I didn't do anything crazy to mark the year, kinda lame I know, but it is still cool.
Monday-
We had a busy Monday. We went around and were actually able to give members a set of a family mission plan. It was a cool thing. It is helping get the members more involved with the missionary work.

Milk and cookies after getting members mission plans - sent by a new friend in Camas to Mom

Tuesday-
We had our trainer trainee meeting. That was a really good meeting. We learned a lot. It was a bunch of the safety and tedious things that  we had to go through. Then we heard some from the new mission president. He is way cool. I really like him. I really like the way he teaches. It is a lot different than President Taylor.
Wednesday-
We had a zone meeting. I gave a training on revelation. It went well. We were talking about how to help your investigators to receive revelation. It went really well I think.  Then we took a member out with  us for a little bit.
Thursday-
We went to the temple. It was a really cool experience. One of the best for sure. So that actually took the whole day because traffic was brutal. Then we worked hard for the rest of the night.

Friday-
We did some service for this guy and it was rough. We helped him dig a hole that was like 8 inches deep, with dimensions of 20" x 8" it took a while. Then we were able to talk to our investigators to try to set up a meeting.
Saturday-
We did more service. It was the first exchange that I planned. It went pretty well. I was trying to help the district out as much as I can. Then we were able to teach this guy later through service. So it was a pretty tiring day. We hauled an entire trailer full of gravel to his back yard. It was a good work out.
Sunday-
We had some good meetings. We then wanted to go to all the Ward council meetings to see what we could do to get their help. It was a good plan. This was
a great week. Not a lot to write about but it was a really good one. It truly doesn't feel like a year.

Season 9 Episode 1, July 18, 2016

Alex and Elder Brown - bonus picture from Angie!

Garrett Schnell, Angie's son with Alex and Elder Brown

This was a crazy week.  The Tuesday and Monday this week were full of

challenges to get ready for transfers. So we will jump to Wednesday. We got

our new comps. Mine’s Elder Brown from Cedar City, Utah. It’s been a riot so far. Wednesday he got here and we went to work.

Thursday-

We had our first full day of work. It was a little crazy. We were working so hard but not a lot happened. But Elder Brown is figuring somethings out. I had him go take the first couple of doors. Haha with a new missionary they may try something and it probably won't work but because they are so new they get blessed. We have already seen some of the greenie blessings.

Friday-

We had a member come out with us that night and we were blessed to teach somebody. I have never felt so happy to teach someone before. The brutal hard work we had Thursday and the rest of the week made that a perfect highlight.

Saturday-

We had a zone comp study. We were trying to rally the troops. The zone seems a little down and not as pumped to work. But we had a good study to help start a  fire. Then the other district leader and I got together so we could prepare a training. It was awesome!  We studied about revelation. We found some pretty cool stuff especially from the true to the faith booklet. It’s going to be sweet. Then after that we headed over to visit a guy named Jim. We helped him out earlier. It is a different situation, since he likes to talk a lot. So in our lessons we don't say much but we do get to teach him. Then that night was really cool. We had like

30 minutes left and we needed something to do so we prayed and asked where to go. Then Elder Brown had the inspiration to go by and visit an investigator we have been trying to contact for the last few days. I thought she has two little kids it is probably too late.  We started to drive away to a different place when the spirit asked me, “Why not?” I was humbled that is for sure. So of course we went to visit her and she was home and we got an appointment to go back. So I learned a good lesson. Don't question the spirit. I had talked myself out of visiting her even though I also had the spirit telling me what Elder Brown felt.  I had felt the same way. Good lesson to learn.

Sunday-

It was a usual church until five. Then we worked a bit that night.

In answer to Dad’s question, I have a set of elders, the zone leaders,

and a set of sisters in my district.

Love,

Elder Astle

Alex's face is in the far, back corner

Leaning against the piano

Greeting Elder Brown and gathering his pillow and sheets.

Photos of the new companionship

Alex and Elder Brown...day one!!!

Season 8 Episode 6, July 11, 2016

To start things off, we had a killer week. We got our transfer news. I am going to be training a new missionary. It is going to be really fun. Kinda overwhelming at first! I am staying in an area that I haven't been in for very long. This transfer is nuts I am now going to be a district leader, and training -- that is really crazy.
Monday was the Fourth of July. We got to stay out and watch fireworks. We were invited to 2 BBQS. It was really cool. We ate, then were able to stay out and watch fireworks. Camas goes crazy!!! It is like a battle zone.

Basketball playing fun...notice the position of the tie...So funny!

Tuesday-
We did service for a little old lady that broke both her arms. She is a really good gardener and since the injury she hasn't been able to weed. We did it and it looks great. Then we had a good lesson with a less active. She is going through some hard times right now.
Wednesday-
We had our last district meeting. Then we ran into the problem of everyone being out of town. Seriously, since people have some money here they all leave for the summer!
Thursday-
About the same as Wednesday... nothing really crazy happened. We just went
out and worked hard.
Friday-
This was maybe the weirdest thing that has ever happened. I thought I was done with the weirdos because I was here in Camas. But no, they find us! We started off talking to this lady. She was a really nice lady. So we started talking about prayer and it was really good. She then told us that she was a psychic and a Christian. So I thought, what in the world is that? We were actually having a good lesson and out of nowhere there was another lady who looks like Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter.

Professor Trelawney

These ladies greeted each other and the greeting they gave each other was really weird. Then Trelawney starts talking and totally takes control of the conversation. She starts talking to us about this church that’s a psychic church. The she turns to Elder Merkley and says,  “You have such
a sweet spirit.”  And turns to me and says,”You too.”  She then talked for a while and came really close to us and said, " You are going to have a dramatic experience, you will see the face of the Lord. You will see it and he wants you to know he loves you, he LOVES YOU!" Very weird!!!!!  After that we were trying to get out of there! We said a prayer and the she said a prayer with a lot of weird stuff and dancing. So now I have officially received a psychic vision.
Saturday-
We did some really cool service for a guy. We were driving down after our dinner appointment a few days earlier. And this guy waved us down and asked if we could help. So we helped him with putting some stuff on all the wood in the house because it is getting painted. So as we did that, we were looking for opportunities to teach him during the service, but it wasn't there at first.  So we finally were able to share a cool message with him. We were stoked.
Sunday-
So our usual Sunday is church which lasts from 8-5.  Yesterday it was from
6:30-5! It was nuts! It was a very good meeting though.
Love,
Elder Astle

Love,
Elder Astle

a

Season 8 episode 5, July 4, 2016

Happy Fourth of July!

It has been a crazy good day, and week, for the record. This week was a hard working week. Monday we went to a park and played badminton. It was kinda hard to see because of the trees. Then we headed out to work.

Tuesday was really crazy! We had splits twice in the afternoon. Once I was with a recently returned missionary. He was awesome. Nobody we tried to see was home at all. Then later we went out with a family. They have like 3 20 year olds and a return missionary in the bunch. It is really cool. We took a few of them out and tried to find some people. We ran in to the number one problem that we face. Nobody was home. It is the summer here so most people have a bunch of money and they go on vacation the whole summer.

Wednesday-

We had our district meeting. And then we headed over to this guys house for a service project. He was in a wheel chair and couldn't do his yard work. So we called up the priests in his ward area and they helped us out. It was a working crew followed by our bishop with a chain saw. It reminded me of those classic movie shots of everyone walking with a different weapon. Haha! We chopped some trees and made sure no weeds were growing. After that we taught this guy a lesson. He is a really devoted member of his church. But, it is a promising prospect so no complaints here.

Thursday-

We started off the day moving a lady. We didn't have much time so we just busted out and went as hard as we could. We did everything fast and efficient until the giant piano. It took 8 guys to move it. Then we had a meet and greet with our president. We meet the McAteers. They are really cool and down to earth people. They are both adult converts. President is from the RLDS church.  That is crazy!

Friday-

 We worked for this 80 year old lady to help in her yard. It was awesome. We might be teaching her. We did a lot of service this week but it was productive. We were finding and trying to teach through the service.

Saturday-

We went out with a member and it was one of those times where everything goes wrong. Really funny! Then we helped this guy in his yard and taught him as we worked. So we had a big week.

An eagles nest

July 4 picture - I was told he was in the nicest apartment in the mission, looking at this bathroom, I believe it.

 A sick shirt I got today!

A bonus picture from a breakfast for three wards in Camas! Thanks Angie Schnell!

Season 8 episode 4

Got to start by saying what a crazy week. Yeah I got the shirts.
Monday-
We had a awesome day. After our Pday we headed over to this less
actives house. She was giving is the good old why is this happening to
me stuff. But we were able to teach her. Then we headed over to do
some service for this family. They are from Zambia. We were going to
help them Put up their fence. But first we had to eat. We ate like
Zambians and it was awesome. They used their hands we actually didn't
work on the fence. He asked us some questions and we answered them for
him. So we taught him in our service clothes. Haha kinda backwards.
But he is solid he is wanting a change.
Tuesday-
We helped a part member family move. So that was cool. He still may
have bad feelings toward the church but it may have softened him up a
bit. We baked cookies this day. This was not my idea. We had to
because the last elder that was here promised them to some people and
we had to follow through. We also had to apologize to someone that the
previous missionary offended. So that was another reason to the
cookies. It worked they accepted but we won't do that again. It was a
long process. But what ever.
Wednesday-
We went on splits this morning. And I went out with a guy that never
came out before but it was cool. Then that afternoon we delivered the
cookies. We also had appointment win the African family to teach them.
And we get there so he was working on his fence so we helped him work
on his fence in our shirts and ties. Haha a little backwards but it is
really funny. Then we went on splits again during the evening. It was
cool had a talk to someone we have never talked to before.
Thursday -
We had our zone conference with president Taylor. He was a little sad.
It was a good meeting. It was really long though. But it was his last
one.
Friday-
We had a good day. We planned then we had a meeting with our Ward
mission leader. And then we pulled weeds.
Saturday-
Saturday was a busy busy day. We had a bunch going on. We were taken
over to a members newborns house and started teaching him. So we were
so happy. We just doing a bunch of stuff. We are still figuring out
the two wards. We made contact with somebody who is was solid.
Sunday-
Church started at 7-4 so that was a good chunk of the day then we had
appointments after dinner.