Season 17 Episode 5

This was a great week. We had zone Conference and it was my last one, so that was weird, but it was a good meeting for sure.

We taught a less active guy and he was a lot different this time. We stopped by a couple weeks ago and he said that we could come by and just talk. But this time we sat down and talked to him  and he was actually able to be taught. We talk to him about prayer and how it's a big important part in his life. He told us that his mom, who is an active member, challenged him to read the book of Mormon every day.  With us stopping by we reminded him of his promise. It was a good lesson that we had.

Friday we had a full day of service. We started at the food bank and we did a bunch of things there. And then our car needed new brakes so we took it into the shop. At first they weren’t going to be able to fix them because with the church you have to have a authorization code in order for any work to be done. So we were there for a few hours. Then that evening we helped at this event called Harvest Days. It was a huge car show that they had. We were basically traffic controllers. That next day we had a family history booth there and seemed to go pretty well. We weren't in a very great spot as far as foot traffic. But it was fun.

We had a great lesson this week with Cayla and she has just been busy doing her school stuff so we have been working really hard to help her.


Elder Astle

season 17 episode 4

This was a great week. Just hitting the highlights because it went by
way too fast. The 4th was a blast! We had an all day P-day and we had a
BBQ with the other missionaries. It was awesome! Then we went on a sick
hike by our house later in the evening.

Robert got baptized! He was so pumped and the baptism was awesome. It
went smoothly and there was some really good support for him which makes
everything easier in the long run. He has made a huge change since the
beginning of when we started teaching him.

A pretty funny story this week: Friday I was trying pray before before bed and the member’s dog Gizmo was just going berserk. It was impossible for me to have a good meaningful prayer when the dog was going. So I waited and hoped that it would stop but it didn't. It stopped barking for a while and then at 11 or so it just went crazy for a
while. So I was looking out the window to see what it was barking at. It was barking at the tree and pointing at something. So I heard one of the two old guys we live with trying to get up to go and get Gizmo to stop. So I thought I would do it because it wouldn't take us as long. I woke up Elder St. Clair and we slid on our slides. Then, as we are headed out the door I grabbed the big spot light that we had.  Once we got outside I grabbed the first thing I could find, which was a garden hoe. Elder St.Clair shined the light and then we saw two eyes looking at us! It was a big raccoon. It was just sitting in the tree. We both knew that raccoons are pretty mean. And we were in just flip flops and slides and all I had was a garden hoe so, it was not our most prepared situation. Bill comes
out and tries to poke the raccoon with his cane. We tried to get the dog out of the way in case this raccoon came down. But no luck! So I decided to grab a branch with the hoe and shake the thing out of the tree. It fell out and then immediately started booking it. I thought I was going have to ninja fight this thing but Gizmo ran up quick like lightning and bit it and then it jumped over the fence. So now we are famous around here
for the raccoon wrangling.

Season 17 Episode 3

What a week!
Today we had a BBQ and played a bunch of lawn games at a member’s house. It was a bunch of fun. We also hit the parade. It was good. It was a big parade for a small town but it wasn't very lively. The parades I remember being fun are the ones where people are way excited for everything! We are going to chill for a little bit today.

This week we had some amazing progress with our investigators. Robert is pumped for his baptism and he passed the interview so now he is doing well and starting to head towards baptism. That is this Saturday!

We learned some things this week with Cayla, the intern living with a member. Every time we meet her we get a strong feeling that she is ready for the gospel. We have had some good meetings. We taught her Sunday Night. We had a bunch of people fasting for a miracle for Cayla. We felt like she could be ready for baptism on the 22nd. When we invited her to be baptized, she didn't say no, but didn't say yes either.  She said,  “I don't know what to say.” We were thinking about this later because we had the strongest feeling that she could be baptized on the 22nd. What I learned is that it can happen if she wants it. She has to be the driver. It is all about her  - not that we didn't feel inspired to do it but that she just chose not to.

I have seen a ton of growth with Elder St. Clair. I tend to throw him under the bus even more because he is picking it up well. He is doing well!

Not too much to say, but I have seen a big growth in myself. Something I really have learned, especially as of late, is to tune in to the voice of the spirit. It isn't always the same voice, but it comes through the same channel. I really do know that this is God’s work. He directs it and guides us.

Elder Astle

season 17 episode 2

We had a great week. Next week our Pday is Tuesday because of the Fourth of July.

But this week we had some really awesome things happen. Monday we played soccer at the complex. It was a blast

Tuesday we helped at the food bank. It was really slow which was good because there was a bunch of stuff we needed to do. We had a busy day trying by some people.

Wednesday we had our interviews. So we had our planning before. Then after we were planning on going to mutual to help the Priests out. They were doing service but we felt like we need to go somewhere else. We stopped by a couple members to ask if they would be willing to have a lesson in their home. And we followed up with the members we ate with a couple of days ago. They are working with their friend but just haven't invited them to anything yet.

Thursday we had a district meeting and a busy afternoon. We had a lesson with Robert and he is doing better. He told us that he was having a hard time letting go of his past. But he is really excited to move forward.

Friday we received a challenge that whichever zone finds 10 new investigators gets a pizza party with President. So we had plans to find people who we could teach. We had a bunch of part member families that we wanted to go by. Also we had potentials to stop by. We cleaned those up really quick since nobody was home or interested. Then we both felt that we needed to stop by these people that we did some service for to see if we could help her again. We were in our shirt and tie and had our clothes in the back of the car. Then she proceeded to tell us everything that she doesn't like about our church. But she said she really needs help. So we decided to help her out one last time then not come back any more because she said she would never read or join. So we helped out out to be nice and to leave her with a good experience. She only told us that she needed sticks moved from one side to the other. We didn’t have too much time so we did what we could. She then called us and was asking us why we didn't finish the job. After our appointment we went over and finished what we could because we again wanted her to have a good impression. But she was just using us for the service. After that we headed out to find a new investigator. We did what we could and then felt like we needed to go by this member. It turns out they are going to be a perfect fellowshipper for our investigator Cayla. We didn't know why we were there at first, but it turned out this person was perfect and they will be great. Then we had about 20 minutes left of the night and we prayed and went and knocked on a door. We found somebody who just moved in and was interested. It was awesome. So our zone hit the challenge and another zone did too. So it went on to the next day.

Saturday was a great day! The afternoon was long and hot and nobody was home. But the real highlight was that President McAteer came to our lesson with Robert. President asked at interviews if he could attend this meeting, and it was a great time. It was a good lesson and we really helped Robert focus on the need for Jesus Christ. Then President gave him a blessing at the end.

Sunday we had Robert and Cayla come to church. Cayla was the intern that came last week. We were supposed to teach her but she felt really overwhelmed and had a really good time at church so she cancelled the lesson.

Elder Astle

Season 17 Episode 1 - June 19, 2017

Alex's homecoming is on July 30 at 11:00.  Details and address will be sent out closer to the event.

Happy Father's Day Dad!
There was so much that happened this week so this week is a blur.

We helped out at the food bank this week and we unloaded a huge truck.
There was so much food that it took about 2 and a half hours to
unload. It was massive.

We made some good progress with Robert this week. He's understanding
pretty well and is really excited for his baptism. We took him to a
baptism this week and it was a great experience.

A lot of this week was a trial of faith. Everything we had planned
cancelled and we were left to do things on our own. On Friday we stopped by
the church to make a quick plan before we headed out again. We found that
there was a sports night going on.  There were a lot of nonmembers that
were playing. So we balled them up in our proselyting clothes. One of
the priests that was there told us that his friend kept coming to his mind.  He felt like he should share the gospel with him. He invited his friend over to hang out and told us that his friend that day felt like he needed to change his
life. So he should be coming to church next week and that's when we
can meet him.

Sunday was pretty cool all-around.  We got to see Brandon bless the
sacrament. He was so excited to do that. He said it was a really
special day for him. And, we had a couple people come to church that we
weren't expecting. There is a member family that has an intern living
with them for a couple months. She came to church a couple weeks ago
and we didn't think much of it. But this time she came to church and
we both felt like we needed to talk to her. After church they headed out
really quick so we weren’t able to talk after church. But as we were out
Working, we felt like we needed to go by to see her. We started just following up
with her experience and she said she has loved it so far! And then all
of a sudden we felt like we needed to start teaching her the first
lesson. So we did - and it went really well and she was excited to read
from the Book of Mormon. What a miracle this!  Right at the last hour
of the week, we were able to find a new investigator that we were
looking for all week. We are pretty pumped.

That is really all that is worth including in the email.
Elder Astle

We got this with a nice Happy Father's Day message for Dave from a sweet member yesterday.

Season 16 Episode 6

It was a really busy, good week. Time seems to just be ticking faster and
faster away.

This last week we worked really hard. We had a zone conference with
Elder Larry R. Laurence and he is from the 70. We had some training on
the house of Israel and what that really means. It was pretty cool and got
us thinking a bunch though. Also, he found out that we got a challenge
from Elder Andersen to baptize 50 people in a month. He taught us how to do
it. It was actually pretty cool. He taught us that we need to use the
members. It was a really good training.

Also this week we had some really good lessons with our investigators.
Robert is doing well. This last week we taught him a couple times. He
just told us that loves everything that we have taught and everything
he has learned. He wanted to move up his date for baptism. We talked
to our ward mission leader about it and he wanted us to move it to the
24th. We felt like we shouldn't, but we were kinda pressured into it and
He had made some progress towards that date. This whole time we didn't
want to move it because we felt like that was the date the Lord told
us. Then this week, Robert told us that he wants to do the
original date. He felt like he was being too rushed. So a  good lesson
that we learned is to not question the revelation that we received. I
am glad it happened sooner rather than later. Because now he is still
on track and is excited to do it.

These are the highlights of the week.  It was a good week though and I think
that next week will be awesome too.

Elder Astle

First picture is the sunset the other day. It looked like fire - it was pretty cool. Then the next pic we had a zone breakfast and we made too many pancakes and didn't have anything to take them home with. So I
used two paper bowls and wrapped plastic wrap all over.

Season 16 Episode 5

This was a crazy week a bunch happened. We also went bowling today and that
was cool.

We had a couple really awesome lessons with Robert. He is progressing
so well. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and our members were way
late so that was a real bummer. But once the members got there, they helped out a bunch. Then we stopped by this week and showed Robert how to tie a tie so he would feel more comfortable. He was pumped. Here is a funny story about Robert.  This
week it was fast and testimony meeting and Robert told us that he
feels like he needs to go up and say something. We told him how to do
it and then he got up there and started giving a testimony. We were
way shocked. Then something that doesn't usually happen happened. He
asks us from the pulpit to come up with him. I didn't really know what to do so I
looked at the bishop for some help but he didn't give any help so we went
up there and stood by Robert and then after that bore our testimonies. The
Ward was shocked but it was good. It was something never seen before
but it worked. He is definitely getting baptized!

We did some sweet service this week. We helped out this lady with her
yard. She was so grateful for it. We were supposed to drag these
branches from one side of the yard to a huge burn pile. It was
normally going to take an hour. But we tried to get the branches free
so it was easier and we ended up moving this seven or eight foot high
20 foot long pile all the way across the yard in one trip. You should
have seen the look on their face when she saw it. Then on Saturday we
helped out at this community event. We got there early in the morning
to register and help set up. We got assigned to the parking side. We
thought we would help unload canoes and kayaks. Instead, they sent us to be
with this guy named Corneleon. He is a good guy going through some
changes. And we had a pretty boring job -  just point down to the docks
and then point them to another lady. But the coolest part was that we
taught him the gospel the whole time. We taught for 2 hours and he started the
conversation. We talked to a bunch of people there and it was a blast -
good publicity for sure. Then later that day we helped take it down.
And, we helped out the mayor and talked to him for a little bit. He was
listing all the members he knows.  One of them is the stake president
and we think that the service had some really good things come from
it.

Cool miracle! We were out with a priest and when we were planning we
felt like we need to let Jacob, the priest, decide what we do. We planned a day but
we let him go where he was feeling. We were driving past this house
and he felt like we needed to knock on this door, so we flipped around
to get to this house, but we couldn't find it. Then we saw this guy
Randomly standing in a field. We are in the middle of nowhere, by the way. We
rolled down the window and talked to this guy and he was super interested.

We worked really hard this week. Something I am starting to notice is
that this work is more than us and those we are teaching. There is so
much more here for them. And there is more help than we think out there.

This is a picture of a original death mask of Abe Lincoln, and the
Smithsonian wants it bad.

Elder Astle

Season 16 Episode 4

Today was a blast! We had a BBQ as a zone and went to a park. The only problem was that everyone and their dog was planning on going to the park today as well. Haha! So the whole city of Vancouver was there, but it went well. We cooked up some burgers and ate and had some fun.

This week has gone by so fast.

Last Monday we played soccer at an indoor place. Then we had to go pick up the other Elders for something so our day was pretty shot after that.

Tuesday we did some service at a food bank. And after that we helped Brother Stamps with his wood. He had a huge pile of wood and he was trying to stack it. So we finished that up for him. That night we were really trying to find a new investigator. We ended up being led to a less active member who didn't know what he was looking for in his life. We asked him what he was waiting for and why he wasn't active. He said, “I don't know.” It was a good visit and we will probably go back sometime.

Wednesday we were able to make contact with an investigator that we haven't made contact with for a really long time. She was just about to shut the door and say she was too busy today when we invited her to a family history day. She opened right up and talked to us for about 30 minutes about her family. She was so excited to be able to do family history. Later that night we met up with a family we've been trying to meet with for a long time. We were able to give them a blessing and just be in the right place at the right time.

Thursday we had a district meeting and we talked a lot about goals and accountability. Something I've really learned recently is that if you are accountable you will work harder and set higher goals. That was something I have seen. Accountability is huge. After that we headed over to a member’s house and helped him move some of his dirt to the back lawn. It took us an hour to do what  would have taken him 3 hours to do. Then we cruised on over to Robert and Anna's. Robert is an  investigator that we found a little bit ago and he came to church last week. We taught him about prayer and really how to pray, to seek inspiration, and what answers are going to look and feel like. And then we invited him to be baptized on July 8! He then asked us what happens if he wants to be baptized sooner than that!  We were pretty shocked, but super pumped!

Friday we planned and had another lesson with Robert - this time actually teaching him the lesson we planned for Thursday.

Saturday were on exchanges and we felt like something big was going to happened to Robert. We miraculously met up with him and he said that he may not be able to make it to church because of work. And he was super bummed about it. He said they might get him off early for that.
It was a really fun week, it was hard for sure, but fun.
Elder Astle

Season 16 Episode 3

Today was a blast! We went and played soccer at an indoor place and I am spent. Literally, I am just straight exhausted. That is good. It was a bunch of fun. 

This week has just gone by so stinking fast. Monday we taught this guy who seems pretty interested. That was awesome. Then that night we had exchanges. 

Tuesday we went to the food bank and were able to help them out for a bit. That is always good. There is a lot of good we can and have been doing there. Some of the people could be interested. Some aren’t, but we will keep trying. After we spent a couple hours there we came back home. The member we live with is like 80 and he was out stacking wood in his yard so we went over and helped out. It took a little bit of time, but it was way to much to do as an 80 year old. Then we got a couple referrals from a member. Then we prepped a member on how to help this family. It was a good day. 

Wednesday was great! We had a district meeting. We are trying to work with members more. So we have a challenge to NOT tract. It is actually going pretty good. We are starting to see some of the fruits of this. Then later that day we had a sweet lesson with Robert. Robert is a boy friend of a less active member. We taught the Plan of Salvation. And invited him to be baptized. It was sweet. 

Thursday we taught Luke and invited him to be baptized and he said yes! So we had two lesson this week that that happened. And Elder St. Clair did one of them!

All in all, it was a really good week.  Sorry this is so short but it was a really cool week!

Elder Astle 

Mom note: Bonus picture sent from a member with this caption: "What a great missionary! You should be so proud!" - Made my day!

Season 16 Episode 2

This was a pretty good week. There were some highlights for sure. The start of this week we taught Brandon for the first time after his baptism. He is doing so good. I am so excited for him.

We had our trainer Trainee meeting. So that one starts at 8:30 and went until 4. So we were inside for a long time. But they gave us some really good training. President talked about how to become a consecrated missionary. It was a very good meeting for sure. Then we had a meeting with the Relief Society Pres. and she gave us a huge list of names of people to go by. We started putting them in when we can.

Wednesday we had a district meeting. It was all centered on faith. So I think it went really well. Then we were able to teach Dave W. He said the first time we tried to teach him that he wasn't investigating, but after we met with him he said that he was going to investigate. It's been a really slow process with him  but this time we were able to go over the Book of Mormon with him. He read all of 1 Nephi and had a bunch of questions. It was awesome to see that. He might be getting baptized here pretty soon.

Thursday was mainly spent trying to set up some appointments. We had some success but not a lot. We were able to contact a few people who we haven't been able to for a while so that's good.

Friday we had interviews with the president and we planned for the week. Nothing else happened really.

Saturday we were on exchanges and I went to the Walnut Grove area. It was a good day. We had all of the appointments fall through but the highlight was giving a church tour to their investigator. He is solid. We had the spirit with us in that lesson for sure. He started crying and could definitely feel that spirit. It was a great lesson.

Sunday we had a good Mother's Day.  We got to Skype home and also we made contact with an investigator and had a good talk beforehand.
 That is mainly the week.

Elder Astle

Season 16 Episode 1

This week was one of the best weeks ever! We had an apostle, and a baptism. Not much better than that!

My new companion is Elder St Clair. He is from Eagle Mountain. He is 18 and and graduated early to come out. So he is fresh from high school. It is going to be a bunch of fun to be working with him.

Alex and his two trainees - Elder Brown(rt) and Elder ST Clair (left)

The first couple days of the week mostly consisted of the business of transfers. Elder Bleazard is still in the zone, he lives now in an area just a little more down the zone. So we moved his stuff and tried to get things done, but problems kept happening.

The end of the week made up for the first few days of the week. Friday we had a stake  Aaronic Priesthood commemoration for the restoration of the priesthood. We were asked by the stake president to be there and to sing “Called to Serve”. President McAteer spoke to the group and they had us sit in a group of other missionaries and randomly stand up to sing called to serve. It was pretty cool when one group stood up them the next and so forth.

Saturday was great! We started off with a meeting with Elder Anderson from the twelve. We also had President Christiansen from the presidency of the seventy. We met at the mission office about an hour before and when he came in he wanted to shake everyone's hand. Elder Andersen said some things that really impacted me. One thing he told us was that the calling of a missionary is a branch of the calling of an apostle. The only way they can really take the gospel to all nations is through us. And he said that we are called as witnesses of Christ while he is called as a special witness of Christ. I really enjoyed that. Also when he bore his testimony of the Savior, it was really powerful. Then after the spiritual meeting we went as fast as we could to the baptism. I got to baptize Brandon and it was sweet! The spirit was so strong. He had some good family support for him too which was great. They all weren't members but they came. Brandon was able to bear his testimony at the end and it seemed to mean a bunch to him. He is a stud!
That was basically our week!

Elder Astle

season 15 episode 6

So first thing first - we got news of our transfers. It was a pretty crazy because everyone is getting moved and there are so many changes. I am going to stay in Pioneer for the last of the mission. I am going to be training a new missionary. I am really excited but it also makes me a little nervous. I am pretty happy though. I really wanted to stay. I was really surprised, to be honest. We have so much about to happen in the Ward. 

This last week we had a great week. Monday was a really good Pday. We had a bunch of fun. 

Tuesday we were on exchanges with the Battleground 1 Elders. It was a good day. We had good long day. We went out and we were hitting it. We started talking to these people about family history and they were super interested in it. We told them we would call them later to set something up to go to the family history center. They were all down for it. Then we called them to give them the address and they said no. It was a fast change of events but it was good. We had some learning moments together. 

Wednesday we had a zone meeting. We had President come. He does so well. It was a good meeting. We talked about goals and vision. We had a bomb lesson with Brandon. We taught him about missionary work. He is already  for bapitsm.  He is asking us who are we teaching. It is sweet. He is inviting his whole family to come. They live in Eugene and Spokane area. So they are going to drive a few hours to come. So that is going to be so cool for him.  Right before that we were trying to get some people to come to the Ward party. So we tried by a couple of the part member families that are in the Ward. Usually how that goes is they are sort of nice but not interested. We tried by one of them and we asked if he had ever talked to missionaries before and if he would be open to talking in the future. He said yes! So that was awesome. He was busy so we didn't get an appointment with him. Then right after that we had about 10 minutes before Brandon's lesson so we headed down into his complex. We ran into a lady who just out of the blue called us a few days before and asked us when church was. We told her and she came. We were driving past and we saw her out walking her dog. So we parked and went to go talk to her. And we realized when got there that her husband was with her (he came out of nowhere literally). We talked to them for a little bit and then invited him to take the lessons and he said yes! And they said they would be at the Hoedown. We were stoked. 

We did some reports on Thursday. I learned how to make this sheet for excel. There is usually a template that they email to us. But for some reason or another the graph and the chart are always wrong. So when we report to the stake president it looks really bad because the graph is messed up. So we made our own. And it looks perfectly like the template but it is actually correct. So that was a bunch of fun. Then we tried by a couple of part member families and were going to invite them to the Ward party. 

Friday was a good one. We did some service at a food bank in the morning and then did some planning on the afternoon. Most of our week was spent trying to get some people to this party. It was a big square dance party. In the kind of area we are in it totally works. We invited everyone and their dog. Literally we gave one to a dog. Haha! No we didn't. But we just kept inviting people. We invited members to bring their friends. And there were some families who had a bunch of people planning on coming and at the last second they cancelled. We were supposed to have 20 non-members there at least. But we got a couple. And they are solid. 

Saturday was busy as can be. We had a service project where we helped at a garden. We helped dip the roots in the water and then tie them in bags. And after that we got to a move right at the last minute to help out. We taught Brandon and finished everything up. Then we went to go help out a companionship. They had a couple problems going on and we had to go there. 

Sunday was really interesting. We had a random stake meeting which btw postponed Brandon's Baptism. Because we didn't want him to go 8 days without the Holy Ghost. It was all for a Stake presidency member moving out. Then we jetted over to a Correlation for another stake. And that went well. My companion is being doubled into an area. So the missionaries that were there were giving him the rundown on everything. Then there was a fireside that was all music. It was really good. That was a headache and a half trying to get that together. Some missionaries wanted to do it. They asked us, but we weren’t sure what was being asked. And then there was just a miscommunication between them and the stake. Because they didn't clear it with the stake president. The stake president got mad. So all in all, it was a headache for us. But it happened and it went well. 

Elder Astle

Season 15 Episode 5

This was a really good week. Sorry no new pics, but I will work on that. Last week we played soccer  and it was a blast. It was so much fun. This week was a pretty open day. We worked really hard to find somebody. We did! We found this guy named Forrest. He is straight from Texas and he loves the Lord. He said we could come back and we tried another approach of inviting him to the Ward party. It is a little country ho-down. That has been a huge aspect of finding for us recently.

Since everything was crazy today, I’m just gonna hit the highlights. We had a meeting in Vancouver. It was a really good meeting. They usually are and this one just helped us see more of what we can do. I had a couple lessons this week with Brandon and we taught him some of the commandments. We talked about chastity first and then we went to tithing. When we got there to teach tithing he said, “Elder's, I cheated. I read the pamphlet before you came.” He recently just found out how to use the Gospel Library app. It was awesome!  So we had him teach us tithing.

I went on exchanges and we did some service in the morning. And spring here in the Northwest could either be 60° and sunny or it can be 40° and pouring down rain. This time it was pouring down rain and the service got canceled. But that day we felt like we needed to find a priesthood holder. We went and looked for a guy who we thought could be a potential leader in the ward. The place we felt like we needed to go was in an extremely wealthy neighborhood. But we worked hard we didn't quite find him. But we will if we still work hard.

That's about it.  Sorry for such a short email but things are going really well.

Love,
Elder Astle

Season 15 Episode 4

This last week was crazy. We did a sort of zone minute to win it. But it took forever to set up. So that is why the emails were so bad last week. This week we went to an indoor soccer place and man, that was fun! I am stinking tired though, but it was worth it.

Monday we had a quick stop by to Brandon's house. We have been keeping in contact with him daily to help him progress. It is interesting because we have done everything we can to help him stay active in the future. We introduced him to family history, we have his fellowshipper in the bishopric. We did a bunch of things this week to help him be active in like 5 years.

Tuesday was a great day. I got to do one of my favorite things ever - I gave a baptism interview. This was the first time it hasn't been for somebody who is either 9 years old or a teenager. It was sweet. I could tell she was really converted. We were also able to teach a part member family this week and he seemed pretty interested.

While we were at the church talking about how to work with members more we met a member who has been sharing the gospel.  We were able to get a member referral. It was sweet.

Later this week we took Brandon to the temple visitor center and it was really awesome. Brandon just does everything we invite him to do and he does even more on the side. It was sunny at the temple. That is the biggest miracle of all. Brandon is now on day eight or so non-smoking! He's such a cool dude. The first time I met him I felt like I knew him from somewhere and I know why, because I was supposed to find him.

I had a really really good Easter. Everyone and their dog was at church. We had Brandon at church and investigator named Luke at church. There were also a couple other members who haven’t come to church for 20+ years. So you can say we were really busy that day trying to talk to everyone. And there was probably a ton of people who we didn't even know who came to church on Easter.

Is was a good week. I read about the Savior’s life leading up to Easter. I read what would have happened on the day back then. And it was pretty cool to get to Sunday and read all the suffering and then - boom the resurrection! It was a message of peace and hope. It was awesome.

Love Elder Astle

Season 15 Episode 3

We had a really good week. It was really insane, but good. This could be called the week of meetings. We had a really good zone conference and I learned a bunch there. We also did a bunch of reports this week and because the technology was messed up we spent a good amount of time on making the correct graph. 

We did have some really good miracles this week. We've been teaching Brandon.  You can tell if somebody is repenting by the way they look and by the way they feel. The last lesson we had with him we committed him to repent to let go of everything that was holding him back. It was a great lesson and we had a really good talk about the word of wisdom and how that will bless his life. 

We had interviews with President this week. Those are always great. He is a really good guy. We went out to lunch with him and at the restaurant we felt like we needed to talk to this guy who happened to be Hispanic. Luckily for us Elder Bleazard knows Spanish. Turns out he was a member and has been going through a lot recently and has had some bad experiences in the past with some missionaries.  We followed the prompting. 

On Saturday I was on exchanges. We had a really good day. Things just didn't go the way we planned. We had a pretty cool miracle right as we are about to walk into dinner. We talked to this guy in his car and he said he was just visiting with his friend. We taught him about the restoration in the Book of Mormon and he said that he would be willing to give it a try. And then he said that he was eating dinner with the missionaries in the house that we were going to. We had dinner with him and the member and her son who was one of the people we talked to outside who happened to be a member as well. And we still had a good conversation at dinner about the gospel and what we do and it was really cool. 

The biggest miracle of all came on Sunday. It was fast Sunday and we were planning on teaching Brandon how to fast so he can help overcome his smoking addiction. But things fell through and we weren't able to teach him before. We had a few members of the ward fast for Brandon that he wouldn't have the desire to smoke anymore. And after church we went over to his house and we asked him how his progress was going and he told us that he didn't even have a desire to smoke today! Fasting works! It was the best thing ever. That was definitely the highlight of the week. 

I am doing good it is a short letter today but I had a lot of things going on. 

Elder Astle 

Sent by a nice member in his ward

Season 15 Episode 2

This was fantastic week. Man it was busy as ever. But it was a very satisfying enjoyable week. I am in Ridgefield, Washington. If you have ever heard of that I would be surprised, because it is tiny. It is a big farming area.  It is a little farming town but it is sweet. 

Monday was great Pday we had to cut it off early because we had a lesson with some less actives. They fed us a feast. It was awesome! Right after that we headed over to Brandon's house. Brandon is a single dad with a seven year old son named Mason. We taught him the plan of salvation and when we invited him to be baptized he had tears coming down his face. It was sweet. He said he didn't feel ready to be baptized. Funny thing about Brandon is that the very first time I met him he looked familiar. I know I was supposed to find him. We had a bunch of teaching in the evening. We then headed over to a members house. They invited a friend to take the lessons. We taught the restoration and it seemed to go pretty well. That was a sweet miracle teaching in a members home!

Tuesday was a normal day but  later that day just seemed that we were in the right place at the right time. We stopped by a few less active who weren't home, but the Lord was putting us in the place where we needed to be. It was sweet. 

Wednesday we had a zone meeting and it seemed to go really well. When it goes smoothly it make life easier. After that we had an exchange. I stayed in Pioneer and we had a very busy night. We went to teach a less active member and we taught her boyfriend as well. He seemed pretty interested so that was a good start to the lessons. After that we headed across the area for another appointment and shortly after that appointment we had another appointment. This one was with Brandon. We took him to the family history center at the church to work on his family history. He absolutely loved it. He started punching in his family that he knew and then all of a sudden he found somebody that had a lot of work done and he could trace his line back to the 1000's. What a great resource that was for us!

Thursday was pretty normal.  Nothing too out of the blue happened. We see miracles every single day. It is sweet that the Lord is blessing us in our time here in this area.

Friday we had another lesson with Brandon and he committed to a baptismal date!!! He committed to April 29 to be baptized!!! Woo hoo!!

Saturday we watched the first session of conference with Brandon. It was a really good session. We watched the second session at our ward mission leader's house because all of our other plans fell through. It was a great conference and we learned a ton. Funny thing about conference is that Brandon was talking to us later and we only were going to watch one conference with him but he actually ended up watching all of them. It was awesome!!! He told us later.  He was quoting the statistics and we thought, “Wait, you watched the second session?” It was just funny. 

Sunday was great as well. We watched another session with Brandon and it happened to be the one where the speaker talked to the nonmembers. So how cool is that!! Brandon leaned in and was attentive and now every time we teach, bring him to church, or invite him to do anything he always has that look in the eyes that the gospel is changing him! 

Peace! ️ ✌

Elder Astle 

Season 15 Episode 1

Hey we had a great week!
My companion is from Houston. His name is Elder Bleazard. As far as what our address is, I am still working on that. I am in the middle of nowhere. But, we live with two old guys and a dog named Gismo. It is a pretty good set up.

Elder Bleazard looks like Pearce Brosnan

Gizmo! Our roomie!

We had a crazy week.

Tuesday was a bomb day. We got referred to us a sweet person who is about to be baptized. It was like manna from heaven. Haha!  We have worked so hard. We also had some sweet lessons. It was a good way to kick it off to the new zone leader coming in. I felt good about leaving after that. We had worked so hard to build up the area and right at the end things started happening.

Wednesday was transfer day and that is always a headache and a half. Getting to the transfer site at like 7AM, making sure everyone gets there and waking up super early to get there. Then we get to the mission office and we unload and we make sure there are some people driving others to their new areas. Then that afternoon we made plans for after the transfer. We taught a less active and we brought her visiting and home teachers over and that went really well. At first we were really bummed out because we didn't get to teach her because our visit was just spent talking. But it worked out somehow. She was invited to the women's broadcast and she went, and had a great time. That was like her first time back to church since she was 9!

Thursday we had a sweet day.  We worked hard to get to everything we had. Elder Bleazard and I both want to family.(not sure what this means). It is something we feel that we can do here. We then went to the ward council ministry night and the bishop gave us a few names of people to go. Those people were’nt home, but, we were able to find an investigator who has been really hard to contact.

Friday was really great! We did service at a food bank. Then we taught a part member family and at the very beginning the father said he was not an investigator. But by the end of our meeting he said that he would like to investigate. It was a pretty awesome spirit  that was definitely working on this guy. And we planned for our week and made some good plans.  This day is when the real miracles happened. Friday night we were supposed to have a lesson with Brandon. He had to cancel on us but we invited him to come to a baptism Saturday morning. He said he would come and check it out. We had a few members pray that he would have a special experience at the baptism. And he came and had a great experience there, and he was really grateful that we invited him. After the baptism we gave him a quick church tour. That was the icing on the cake for him. He felt the spirit of the baptism and then when we toured the chapel, he felt it even more. He said he was planning on coming to church this week.

Sunday was awesome because Brandon came to church! He loved Sacrament  Meeting, but  had to leave right after. He said next time he would  bring his son and he's going to stay for all three hours. The members did great in helping him get fellowshipped!

Our home - Numbers strangely looking like a house number.....

Picture from a hike in Portland

Elder Astle

Season 14 Episode 6

This has been a very amazing week. 

Tuesday we were on exchanges with the Cherry Park Elders. I stayed in the Spring Water ward. We had a good day. We saw some really cool miracles. We taught a guy from Iran who doesn't speak very much English. So we had to teach as simply as possible. Then I felt like we needed to go by to visit an investigator they weren't home but we started knocking around and found sweet new gators. Then right before the end of the night we found a new person. 

We had a sweet lesson at institute about the resurrection. It brought to my mind some thoughts. We have the knowledge of this. So many people think that it is just done and over after death. We were teaching this guy this week who didn't think life went on but after the lesson after we showed a really powerful video he said he believed it. I have been thinking about how the resurrection is the crowning point in the atonement and is really the most important thing we believe in. Without that our faith is in vain. 

Wednesday we had a district meeting we went to. And then we had to plan a little training we would give in the meeting on Thursday. It seems like it is going to go well. We had a lesson with Jensen. She is a member who wants to come back. She is going to be re-baptized here pretty soon. She is one of the most solid members of the Ward and she isn't technically a member. 

Thursday we had a meeting in the Cove. It was a great meeting. Some of my favorite meetings  ever. We gave a training on having people on date for baptism. It seems like a lot of us have people on date but they never get baptized. So we talked about how to help that. Then we had sport night. Usually these are just really fun but this time we played glow in the dark ultimate frisbee. It was a blast! But the best part is a recent Convert brought his friend to the activity. So after we played we talked to him. We had this feeling to show him around the church. We were in gym shorts and were sweaty giving a church tour. Then as we were walking by the chapel I thought that we should talk to him about what happens there. Normally I wouldn't do that in just basketball shorts. But I felt prompted to. We talked with him for a bit and then gave him a Book of Mormon. And Nathan, his friend ,said they talked the gospel The Whole Way Home!!! 

Friday was a crazy, We had our planning and we taught a solid guy who is on date for 4/15. 

This letter is a little shorter then normal but it was good week. 

Oh and I am being transferred to the Pioneer Ward in the Van North stake. 

Elder Astle 

Mom note: My cousins were in Portland over the weekend and decided to go to Alex’s ward for Sacrament Meeting.  My cousin Dave said he scared the beejeebers out of Alex as they waved to him when he walked into the chapel.  A range of emotions played across Alex’s face as he couldn’t place them at first, then recognized them, then was happy and then worried that he had somehow broken a mission rule.  Highly entertaining to Dave for sure.  Here is the picture taken after Sacrament Meeting when Dave was able to deliver a hug from ME!!!!!

Alex and Dave!

Season 14, Episode 5

This was a great week. Monday we went bowling. I found a cool Hawaiian shirt for like 2 bucks at DI, just to get into the bowling spirit.(mom note: this shirt... It’s UUUUGLY!)  We also had a really cool miracle! We had a few members pray that we find a new investigator before 9 o'clock. When we had them pray, it was about 8 o'clock, and we needed to find somebody that night. We felt like we needed to go by a potential's house, but they didn't pan out.  Then at 8:59 PM, we knocked on this guy named Behrans door. He seemed really interested and he said we could come back after we talked to him for a little bit. Talk about cool miracles! This one was really cool!

Tuesday we had a day. We were working really hard to trying contact some people. No luck for us really the whole day. Then later that day we had lesson with Jessica. She is doing well. Her lesson was centered on helping her share the gospel. She has a bunch of friends and the one she wants to share the gospel with was somebody who wasn't  very supportive of her when she got baptized. We were helping her plan to share this message. Afterward we had institute. It was just a really good lesson on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We are really trying to get some of our people to come to this because it is so good.

Wednesday was a very interesting day. We went out to District meeting up in North Portland area. We had plans to stay up there to work in that area. Then I got a call from a less active who asked us if we could help him move some furniture into his place. So we changed our plans so we could help him out and then we taught him about how to do missionary work. It was sweet, but it kind of threw a whole wrench in our plans, but it worked. After we had all that happen, we had a lesson down at the very bottom of our area right after dinner which meant rush-hour traffic. So we were stuck in traffic for about an hour. We had a really awesome lesson after dinner. We had a lesson with somebody who wants to get back in the swing of things. 

Thursday was such a breeze. We did some service at the bishop’s storehouse. Then after that, we headed over to a lesson for a less active guy. After, we tried to contact around there; for the most part, no luck.

Friday we had a really good planning session. We've been struggling to find some people who are solid who we can actually teach. Our problem is we find people aren't all too interested. So we have some really good plans on how are going to find some new investigators this week. Some of those are really out of the box. 

Saturday was a very very busy day. We had a breakfast at the beginning of the day. We had a correlation meeting with our new Ward mission leader. It is kinda hard to communicate because he is Hispanic and there is a language barrier. After that we headed out to the institute building to have a lesson. It was a good lesson. Then we headed to a baptism in Longview for Elder Davenport. 

Sunday was mostly just church. And we had a sweet miracle come to church. Just somebody who wanted to come that some other missionaries found. That was a bonus!

Elder Astle 

Season 14 Episode 4

This has been a really good week and I'm trying to remember everything that happened, but it seems that my days are combining so we will just go with what I can remember. 

On Monday we went and hiked around Mount Tabor. It's not a very big hike, it's just kind of a nature walk but it was good to get out and to breathe a little bit. It was a very fun day.  We had a lesson with our investigator named David. We are having to teach him very simply because he is from Rwanda and doesn't speak much English. 

Tuesday we had our district meeting then we did a lot of driving because we felt like we needed to go to the very tip of our area. After what felt like persecution of the Saints, with a lot of very uninterested people, we found Wendy. She's this old lady who has a lot of member friends. Her family are members of the church. We started talking to her and she told us that she was looking for a closer relationship with God. We shared the restoration with her and helped her understand that she could strengthen that relationship. It was a solid lesson and we referred her over to the missionaries there. Sometimes we feel like we're bounty hunters for the Lord because we go in and we find some people for the missionaries in other areas that are really elect and ready to get baptized. 

Wednesday, Oh what a day! My favorite part of every month! We did Stake reports! That took up the majority of our day. Then after that we felt like we needed to go find a blue house with an American flag outside. We went looking for a blue house and ran into a former investigator that we dropped because we haven't been able to make contact with him. I didn't recognize him at first because he was coming up from behind us on the street. We talked to him and he said he’s just been really busy with work and hasn't had time to meet. I think we were supposed to see him for us to be on his mind. 

Thursday afternoon was very interesting. Not a lot of action or excitement happened. We went to a college campus and taught this guy in one of the student commons areas. That was the first time I've done that and probably the last. It just wasn't a good place for the spirit. The guy we were meeting was a investigator in the past and he's not ready really at all right now so it was kind of a waste of our time. Then we actually had a cool miracle. We made contact with a potential investigator through his phone. That does not ever happen. Usually YSA are always on their phone but they never get back to anyone. That was awesome. 

The later part of our week was when a lot of things started happening for us. We had a planning session today and I think it went pretty well. We have some new ideas and some new things to try to help the area get moving. Later that night we had a really good lesson with David teaching him the plan of salvation. It is very interesting teaching him because of his understanding and his language limitations. We have to go really slow and basically teach like we're teaching a child. But that lesson went really well the spirit was there and he had a good understanding of what we taught. 

Saturday was really awesome! We had a recently returned missionary call us and say her friend wants to meet with us for her class at school. She is taking a world religion class and needed to experience meeting with the missionaries. We had never met her and we gave a church tour. It was one of the few times that I have given a church tour. It went really really well. We made sure everything was ready for the tour and all the lights were on and then we started giving the tour. We didn't know what to expect because we've never met her before, but it was a powerful lesson. She didn't have much of a belief in God at first, but the spirit was there so hopefully she felt something. After the tour we headed over to a lesson with some Elders out in Gresham. They told us they were supposed to pass us off their investigator. The lesson fell through, so we felt like we needed to make a few phone calls. We called a few numbers off the numbers that have been in our records for a very long time. We called this guy and he answered and he said we could totally come by his place! That is a crazy cool miracle! 

Yesterday we had a stellar day. At church one of the members brought their friend who wants to be taught. Also, this random person shows up at church who wants to be baptized! That is crazy! She actually was a member a long time ago but she removed her records and wants to get back into church. Stuff like that never happens! Usually people who remove their records do not want any part of the church or coming back to it. Then after church we went to the lesson of the miracle phone call from just the other day. And this guy was golden! We started off really well and found out he just wants to find a belief in God. It was an amazing lesson! Then on the way home from that lesson we felt like we needed to call one of our recent converts and set up a time to meet and she said that she will bring her friend with her to the next meeting! We found three new investigators just in church or through some really cool miracles!

Love,

Elder Astle 

Season 14 Episode 3 - February 27, 2017

We had a very good week. Today we went and walked around the mountains around here called Mount Tabor. It's pretty fun, it was just a park that we walked around. We took some good pictures.

Tuesday was a very interesting day, we had a pretty open day so we tried to find some new investigators. We didn't have much success in the afternoon, we went around and tried to contact by a community college. They wanted nothing to do with us at the time and there were not very many people out at the college. Seems like we got there just as class was starting. Then we made the usual drive out to the Institute building. There's another community college out that way and we felt like we needed to go knock a little bit in an apartment complex. After a little bit we wanted to find one person there. Turns out we did! We found Vanessa. She said she usually doesn't open the door to missionaries but she felt like she needed to this time. She told us that she has a belief in God but feels like he is very distant. After talking to her for a little bit we shared a message with her about how she can come closer to her Heavenly Father. She was golden. That's what our story is been the last little bit - finding some people aren't YSA but are down for the cause. We are also getting poached a little bit this week meaning that other areas that we are over are teaching YSA  people. So that is a little annoying. 

Wednesday was zone conference. We learned a lot and had a very good meeting. We are starting to do those every transfer now. President taught us which group of people is most likely to stay active in the church and we learned better ways to go about finding some new investigators. Then we had a lesson with David. He is from Rwanda and he is a refugee. He speaks really good English. We are excited to teach him. 

Thursday we were on exchanges. I want to the Portland ward with Elder Webb. (Mom note: Elder Webb’s mom was in my home ward in Arizona.  Her family claims that my family was instrumental in the conversion of her family.) He is a good guy we had a hard working day. We biked and walked around all day. We talked to close to 40 people. We had a really good exchange. 

Friday was our planning day and we had a lesson with a recently returned Marine. He was telling us all the things that he had going on in his life and that he needed some peace and comfort. It was a good talk  - he'll fit in really well. 

Saturday was a usual day - nothing special just working to build up the teaching pool. 

That is all for us. 

Season 14 Episode 2 - February 20, 2017

We had a good week I am trying to remember everything that happened because it was kinda a blur. 

Tuesday We had an awesome day. We had a killer district meeting today. Then we did a little experiment. We called a couple of the less actives we are working with and some of the active members and had them pray that we could find somebody who was ready to be baptized. Then we went out and did it. We were up today by the University of Portland. We have had a hard time finding people but it was a fruitful day. We found Andrew and taught him about family history. He has a kid so we sent him to the other area. Right after him we met Amie. She is a college student and was out walking her dog. We started teaching her and she was really open to learning and open to meet again. Then we headed out the drive to the institute building which took about an hour and we hit it hard. Right before institute we saw this guy down the way. We were like, let's go talk to him. So we were right outside the institute building and we started talking with this guy and he said he needed some peace. So we told him if he came to institute with us he will feel some peace. So this guy was Hispanic, he knew English but he would definitely benefit from the Spanish missionaries. We called up the line to get ahold of the Spanish Elders. We told them what happened and then they said they would come. So they got there and talked for a bit and then they taught him. He accepted the invitation to be baptized. So we were so pumped. All we really did was bring him to institute. So what I learned today is the truth in “Where two or three are gathered there will I be also.” When we combine the faith of others and our faith plus our works the crazy miracles happen. The Lord wants us to find people  so we just have to do what it takes to get there. 

Wednesday we had our interviews with president. It is pretty stressful for us to put together but it worked out. We taught a few people in a mega apartment complex. Right now we are trying to be the most effective so finding people is tough because YSA is everywhere. But the apartment complex is much more efficient for us because that is where the people are. 

Thursday was a good normal day besides the meeting in Vancouver. It was a good meeting and learned a bunch. I think those are the best meetings. 

Friday was different since usually we have our planning but because of the interview we did it on our Wednesday. We went out and spent a bunch of time trying to find some new people. We found a couple that seemed solid but they didn’t keep their return appointment. We are working hard just weeding out the fruit from the weeds. 

Saturday we did an exchange. We had a good day. We decided to go to a mall and contact people. We taught a really awesome guy named Alex. Then not but a second after talking to him, this guy comes up and asks us if we are passing out Bibles. We actually had one in our car. So we went and grabbed it for him. Then he tells us he is from France, but he didn't look like he was. He asks us if we know Spanish/ Jewish  history. We were confused but we said not really. He goes on to tell us he is a Muslim. He says I am going to show you what your people did to my people in  history. So he pulls a lighter out of his pocket and tried to light the Bible on fire. I had to stop myself from laughing because it was surprising and the Book didn't light on fire! It should have, scientifically it should have burned, but it didn't. He got pretty mad it didn't burn and then threw it in the trash. We just walked away after that. It was like the most disrespectful thing that basically anyone could do but I wasn't too bothered. It was a very interesting experience. Also I ate some bad food so I got some food poisoning Sunday morning early. It wrecked me. 

Sunday we had church and nothing unexpected happened. 

Season 14 Episode 1 - 2-13-17

Well to start off we had a good week. I learned a bunch. 

This week we did another zone meeting. It was a blast. We had a lot of the other companionships train on something so it got the whole zone involved. It was one of the best ones I have been to. It was just fun. Then later that day we headed out to teach a guy named Chris. He is a way nice guy who just flakes out a bunch and never keeps his appointments. This time we just stopped by and taught him a bit on his door step. We aren't sure how to help him progress. 

Wednesday was transfer day so we made necessary plans we needed to for the upcoming transfer. We got everything all situated and then president asked us what we are going to do to baptize 10 in March. So we made our new plans, set our goals and tried to get companionships to help us out. We are excited for it. We can see it already in the works. Then later that day we were teaching Nate. We stared talking about the priesthood but it didn't feel right. So we switched and focussed on  the sacrament. It was so good. 

Thursday was a good day - it was a learning day. So when I was first here things were going pretty well. So since then either they progressed or they got dropped. So the last little bit we have been doing things our way. We have had a lot of works, but not very much faith. As a result, we learned that valuable lesson that faith without works is dead but works without faith is stupid. That was a good one to learn. 

Friday was good we had our planning day so that is always good to plan and get everyone caught up. We also had a little zone meeting and because of that we didn't get to plan for our own day. So we just rolled with it then when our time to find people came around it was brutal. It just was so ineffective. So another lesson learned there for me. 

Saturday we had a stellar day. We called the missionaries in our area and asked if there was any YSA that were active that we could go by and recruit them. We spent a good chunk of our time looking for some new people but it was an awesome day. 

Sunday was sweet! The YSA is always a party. We had some less actives show up to the church. That was nice. Then we had a crazy night - we will just leave it at that. We got warned by the spirit to get out of the area so we did. 

Love,

Elder Astle