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