February 18, 2012

Aye mum,

Ok I'm not changed yet, tomorrow! That's right I found out last night that I will being changing areas tomorrow and I will be getting a new companion. I'm super nervous and a little scared and just leaning on the Lord so much right now. I have heard a lot about the pueblos (villages) here in pueblo. They are crazy but also beautiful from what I hear. Pray for me!

So to respond to your letter mom, I'm doing really good, a little bummed because I never got to baptize Jose Luis and I have been teaching him since day 1 but I know that he will get baptized one day and we can be happy in heaven together. The investigators are just picking up so well lately right as I'm leaving haha. Raymundo's wife wants to get baptized now too, they love church and everything about it. Raymundo is still just doing everything he can to head towards baptism, he is soooo sure this is the truth, it's amazing. I loved reading all the stories you sent to me, especially about the class you taught, that is a SUPER good idea!!! It really really is, I'm very impressed. :) Also, thank you so much for the pictures, I was just showing off the cutest nieces in the WORLD to my companion and our temporary companion for the day Elder Handy (from Idaho). So I dont have a lot of time today and not a lot to write so I guess that works out.

- First could you tell Sis Hurley (not hurley anymore i know but i cant remember her new name) thank you for always being so great and encouraging me so much, and also could you tell the Denna family thank you for being so amazing and always such good examples to me and everyone, Brother Denna has always been such a great guy I'm very thankful for everything he taught me.

- Tell Brian: the other day we were going to knock on a door but it said to knock the window. Instead of doing that I drum tapped the window to be creative! They still weren't there haha

- I have been doing my morning expercises a lot lately and (also tell Brian to try to beat me) I did 105 solid pushups without stopping on thursday.

- We had interviews with President Reeves this week and I had the privelege of being the very very last missionary to be interviewed. The first thing he asked me was "how does it feel to be the very last interview?" I said "That you must be really tired" he laughed then said "ya I am" haha then he told me how it wont take away at all from the attention he will give me in the interview, then we had a really great interview and he helped me with a lot of things. He really is a man full of the Spirit.

I'm thankful for this opportunity to be a missionary. It's so so SO hard but I love it and I wouldnt trade it for anything to be able to serve the Lord with everything that I am. I love you all and I'm so thankful for all of you. Talk to you soon :)

Elder Branden Carl Astle

 

                                                Wow... the sixth month mark! Wait....
                                                  That was my favorite tie!! Not really.

 

Once again.....Where's Elder Astle?

 

 

There he is! 

 

 

                                 Elder Astle, An Investigator and Elder Knowlton

                                            Elder Astle said to think Nacho Libre while
                                                 looking at the next few photos!

                                              Yum.....these are Elitos...they are yummy!

 

 

I got you a surprise!!!

 

                                                        Get that corn outta my face!

Sorry, This is his letter from Feb. 4, 2012

Aye mum,

I love you so much. I miss you so much, especially a lot because i got the photo album you sent me. I LOVE IT!!!!! Thank you :) My toe is doing great and my tooth is all great too, i finally got used to it. I did get a missionary merry christmas card, i think it was christmas? I dunno but i loved it a lot and it made me cry. thanks :) I loved reading your letter I'm so happy to hear about everyone at home doing well and that Bobby made it home safe and all is well. I miss Bobby a lot. Unfortunately this week I'm especially out of time :( I'm cooking Spaghetti at the house of the familia balbuena so i gotta get back to finish and eat before we go teach. I love your scripture you sent too mom it really is so great. I love my Heavenly Father so much. I read in my line of authority that grandpa was ordained a 70! I didnt know that!!! How come we dont talk about things like that? could you all read D and C 88:125 It's about Charity and it's especially amazing! Oh! I also saw for the first time a guy peeing on the street! Weird.

I love you all so much, I know the Chruch is the true Church of Christ. Strive to feel the Spirit every day k? I trust you :)

Elder Branden Carl Astle

 

 

 

                          Elder Knowlton making crepes.....eh trying to make crepes?

 

Elder Astle making patties!

 

Sauteing onions?!

 

 

Sauted onion ala hotdogs?

                        Elder Astle's dream! His adventerous imagination lives on...

This is Elder Astle's letter from Feb 11, 2012

Aye mum,

Como estais? I love you and miss you all, I am so happy and thankful for the life we were able to live so far as a family in my life and I am so excited for the rest of it and to live as a family forever. You all are just everything to me and i miss you all so much. So this week was a little bit rough. I'll talk about the middle first. Tuesday and Wednesday and my 102 fever. :( It was pretty tough being sick but the worst part was not being able to go out and work, especially when we have plans for the whole day to go visit people. And then finding out afterwards that they were waiting for us was even harder. I really dont like being sick but it's like my companion told me, I need to stay and rest so i get better faster so i can actually have a good impact in the lessons. While i was sick we played chess, my companion won the first one and i won the second one. My companion is really smart and really good at chess! Elder Knowlton is super cool, he's also left handed so every time i see him write I think of Aaron and get sad from missing him and everyone. So i just try not to watch him write things.

- So the spaghetti was actually not too great, it's just not nearly the same here, they dont have any kind of itlian sausage at all :( It tasted a little like home so for that it was good, elder Knowlton also said that.

- We ate at Chili's this week with one of the member's in our ward, it's twice as expensive as home! It was so delicious though :)

- The very next day I ate Pig skin soup... straight up saugy slimy pig skin in super spicy broth... yum I actually liked it :)

Finally I will tell you all about our investigator Raymundo. We started teaching him about 2 weeks ago. The first lesson we gave him a book of mormon and explained the restoration in short. He said ok come back in 2 weeks so i can read a little, we convinced him to let us come back in a week, this last monday. When we got there he told us he had read half the book of mormon and also he read just about everything on mormon.org! We were so happy, we asked how much he believes in these things and he said 10 out of 10. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! The next time we went by his wife and his son-6 years, they also have a baby-2 months, listened to us and really liked everything! They all even came to church on sunday and loved everything there too! Some people actually confused them with already being members. Raymundo told us that he has been looking for a long time to find the truth and now he feels he has finally found it. I love being a missionary. I love serving these people. I love serving Heavenly Father and being happy. I love feeling the Spirit. I feel so full of love right now it's hard not to cry at the most random times. It is also so so hard to be a missionary. Please keep praying, but mostly please pray for our investigators like Raymundo. I love you all so much. I'll talk to you soon.

Elder Branden Carl Astle

 

 

                                                  Sick Elder...He's still dressed to serve!

                              Feeling a little better.... Up for a challenge Elder Knowlton?

 

That was a little too much, back to bed!

 

                                                         YUM!! Meranges!

                                I don't know if this was before or after the tummy sickness.

                                        

                                                              Must be feeling better!