Elder Astle's Update:

 

Hi Mum,

I love you and miss you. Our P days are always too short haha So i'm going to kind of have a list again sorry.

So I heard about Obama winning the election, we aren't supposed to talk about politics but the American elections are a pretty big deal here i guess, everyone was talking about it. One of the ladies in our ward said that she is glad that Romney didnt win because if he did win and bad things started to happen the people would blame all the bad on the mormons. So I guess she's kind of right. Mom could you send me a few things? I would like a calendar for 2013 if those exist as some kind of joke :P Also can you send me my line of authority (ask dad) and the date i was baptized and the date I was confirmed. Also please dont send me my watch, it's way too nice and i dont want to ... lose it... haha Also could you have Brian look up or make a good workout for how to tone muscles, specifically thighs, but whole body is good too. I just wanna look like Nephi and Ammon when i get back!!!! So the other day something funny happened. We went to the house of an old investigator. We rang the bell and waited and as i looked over to the window i saw the top half of a little old woman's head peak up and between the blinds and then slowly drop back down like nothing happened. Then we watch as the shadow being cast from a back light onto the door walks up to the door and slowly tries to the lock the door quietly and thereafter we watch the blinds close nice and slowly... visiting houses that are haunted by spirits is weird.. hahaha So something tough about the language: i feel like my language is doing a lot better but every once in a while i find words like "rendir" which means "to conquer" but it also means "to surrender" haha sometimes it's tough, a lot is based on context. The other day we were having a lesson and i look down and see this bug kind of like a cricket thing crawling across the floor followed about a foot behind by a spider with super long skinny legs. The whole time i was picturing the spider roaring like a monster as the other bug is screaming and they are both moving at about .01 miles per hour haha. So something to help me not get bored while walking places is that i snowboard all the time. I use the terrain around me and pretend there is snow and visualize myself doing cool stuff on a snowboard haha it's pretty fun but i miss snowboarding. Also, i am excited to come home and snowboard with dad and nicole and my friends :) Nicole is going to be so good when i get back! I had mole a few times now and it was good but it wasnt like WOW until Saturday we had mole that was WOW it was soooo good.

So the missionary work is pretty tough, not going to lie. A lot of times discouraging things happen, a lot of times. But the important thing that we remember is that we cannot get discouraged and we just need to keep pressing, "seguir adelante!" as they say here. We had a few lessons this week that were really really good. Something important that im learning how to do right now is testifying with conviction. It's so important that i pour my whole soul into my testimony and hold nothing back. That's when I can really invite the Spirit and that is what will do the real work for our investigators. I have to say those times that i have had feeling the Spirit so strong and loving the people so much and wanting them to be happy so bad are some of the best times of my life. I'm so lucky to be here. Those times make all the really hards times worth it. I love it here. I love the people. I love missionary work. I love all of you so much, it's still hurts. I love the Spirit. I love my Father in Heaven and my Savior with everything that I am. Talk to you in a bit,

Love forever,

Elder Branden Carl Astle

 

Another little note:

 

So we have only been hearing about the earthquakes but we havent felt anything.