Season 12 Episode 6, December 26, 2016

We had a fantastic Skype session with Alex on Christmas! It was so much fun to laugh and visit with him.  He said to say thank you for all the packages and cards.

It has been a good week. Let's just start Tuesday. Tuesday was one of the best days we have had. In the morning we tried by a potential investigator, but they weren't there so we talked to a few more people outside. And they were interested. Then we had a lesson with this guy at a coffee shop. We called him on the phone and asked if we can meet and he said he was really excited to meet and then he's going to be bringing a couple of his buddies. So we were down to find out if this guy was really interested. It turned out to be a Bible Bash. Haha! This guy brought his friends for moral support. They were there to help him make his point. So we are teaching them and they are asking all these questions and we manage to teach them a little. One of the guys actually was pretty interested in the message. So we are meeting there again to talk to him and if it starts to be a bash, we will leave but if it’s good, then that would be sweet. Then after that we headed to pick up a member.  He was a recent convert and he wants to go on a mission so he wanted to go out with us. We had a good lesson with Jessica. She is so ready and we taught her the word of wisdom and she is all for it. Then we had a really spiritual lesson it was kinda a breakthrough lesson. She opened right up and told us all of her concerns that she was having. After we dropped off the member we felt like we needed to go to Baskin Robbins. It sounds weird, but we taught somebody there a couple weeks ago but we never heard from her.  We got some ice cream and gave her a Book of Mormon. It was awesome. 

Wednesday was weird. We had a bunch of plans fall through for us. So we stopped by a bunch of people. We ended up teaching a couple less actives. 

Thursday we finally had our zone meeting. It went really well. And after that we had some business stuff that we had to take care of. Then after all that we went to Peacock Lane. It is a street in Portland famous  for doing Christmas lights. We went Christmas caroling. We just sang the hymns and it was pretty fun. We had a good time. And some people stopped to listen for a long time. So it was something that I haven't done yet. (Mom note: never thought I would ever hear Alex say he had fun caroling!)

Friday we played Santa by picking up and delivering packages to our zone so we had to go up to Vancouver. But we had a last second lesson before we headed in. 

Saturday was pretty boring. Nobody was home. 

Sunday was fun!!

Season 12 episode 5 12-19-16

This week was crazy. We had our all day P-day extravaganza. It was a blast! Our video took top spot. (mom note: that was the video he shared last week.) Then Tuesday we had an exchange. I stayed in Springwater and it was a good day. We got a call to give a blessing in the hospital. While there, we felt prompted to share a message with her. She is an active member just having some health problems. We shared the new Christmas message. It was cool  and we could tell she needed a pick me up. We worked really hard, but just nothing really happened for us. 

Wednesday we planned everything for our zone meeting then had a good lesson with a guy. As we were coming from his house it started snowing a bit. We had another person to stop by. Then it started dumping snow. Like Utah status. So we called everyone who was driving in. We were only like a normal 10 minute drive home but it took upwards of 3 hours. Nobody has a clue what to do to drive in the snow. In a place that "never" gets snow, it has snowed twice in one week. It has been called by the locals “snowpocalipse” (probably spelled wrong) but you get the point. So, we played board games the rest of the day. And Thursday was just a solid sheet of ice so we were grounded.  Friday was looking good but later in the day we were sliding like crazy and had to park the car. 

Saturday we were on exchanges and they came and blitzed the area. It was a really good exchange. We had a stellar day. 

Sunday was odd but good. They cancelled church. There wasn't even ice... but they cancelled church. But we went out and killed it. So it was a crazy week. 

Love Elder Astle

Season 12 Episode 4 - Dec 12, 2016

This was a great week. There was a lot that happened. 

This week we had an exchange with Cherry Park. They are a walking area. It also was like 20 degrees. So we were biking and the bike I was using had broken handle bars so we had to go back to the apartment to drop the bikes off, because it is sketchy riding down the road with wobbly bars. This was a good day. It was strange and cold but good. 

Wednesday we did stake reports. That was the basically the whole day doing paperwork. Then we headed up to Vancouver because there was supposed to be a crazy storm and we were going to have a meeting up there anyways so we stayed the night with the assistants. 

Thursday we had a meeting. It went really well. Very spiritual meeting. But we got snowed in. So that wasn't good. We were in for a few days because of freezing rain. It wasn't very fun. 

Once we were able to get back to work Saturday it went really well. We had some of the coolest lessons. Our investigator told us a crazy story about how she read the Book of Mormon.  How she had no cell phone service in her house but she did outside. Then she read from the Book of Mormon, and right after she read the internet came back in her house. It was cool!  She is going to be baptized. 

Sunday was a crazy day  as we just went all over the place. Sorry it is really short letter. But today we had an all day meeting and it was a talent show and a devotional. So that is was why we have no time. But I will send some pics. 

The video is what we did in the talent show. 

Season 12 Episode 3

This was a killer of a week. I learned a bunch. And we just had a bunch of fun. 

It started of on Tuesday when we had a lesson with this lady. The appointment was all confirmed and good to go, but when we got down to her place, we found out that she lived in a locked apartment. We looked for the call box and....nothing. We went to the front desk...nothing. It turns out that the place was a center for drug rehab. And because it was a single lady, we had to bring somebody with us. So the member that brought us was leaving and heading down the road. But she called us and said we could still come up. So we quickly called the member and he went up with us to teach her. We started teaching her and found out she has a couple of kids. It was a rough lesson as far as distractions go. The three year old was tearing up everything. We taught her and she said she feels like something was missing in her life. We asked her if she feels like the gospel could be that missing thing and she said yes. So she is now working for  a baptism date!! 

Wednesday we were on exchanges with Elder Hall. He is a new missionary and he is just trying to get his footing. We had a really good day. We tried to help him find out why he is here. We talked to a few crazy people. Elder Hall is a big guy. Like 6’4” or 6’5”. We went to this door and there was a little weiner dog. And it was barking up a storm and it scared him so bad!! He freaked out!!  Oh my!!! I laughed about that for a little bit. Then we taught this guy named Nate. He is a less active who just wants to have some happiness. We bore some big time testimonies. It was awesome. 

The next day we were supposed to have a mission leadership meeting but President was sick. So  we had a couple of lessons. It was a bunch of driving. And it was kinda a rough day. It was one of those days that was hard and you crave ice cream. So we went through to the day and we stopped by one more person before the end. They weren't home so we decided we could get some ice cream. We went in and this girl asked us what church we go to. She told us that her grandparents are members and she goes to church with them every once in a while. She doesn't feel really welcome because she is the only person her age. So we talked to her for a bit and she said she would come to church this week. Do you think it was an inspired ice cream run ? I think yes. 

Friday we had a bunch going on. We went to the temple visitors center with a less active. He really enjoyed it. Then we got wrecked with traffic. And they took a few wrong turns so like 2 hours later we finally got back home. 

Saturday we  went nuts. We had appointments all day. It was sweet. The first one was with a referral from a member. She is solid. She has been to all the churches and feels they are all wrong. Then we taught her the restoration she said it makes sense. And when we invited her to be baptized on the 31st and she was all down for it!  She said that when she commits to something she gives her all. It was awesome. Just had a couple of lessons after that so nothing too crazy. 

Sunday was again way cool. We had some random non members at the church. They were here for a business approach so the stake president just happened to be there. We introduced them to the bishop and they were actually really interested. So that was awesome! 

It was a really good week. Learned a bunch and had a bunch of fun! 

Elder Astle