On The Lord's Errand, A Journal of Elder Branden Astle's Two Years in Puebla, Mexico: August 12, 2013

Aye mum,

I love you, thank you for being my mom. Thank you for taking care of me when I was sick. Thank you for coming to my patriarchal blessing and always supporting me in righteous paths. Thank you for teaching us by example. Thank you for loving us with everything you are. I know you do. I hope to love, one day, like you and dad love us. I will do my best.

Well I'm going to respond to your letter from last week. First though I loved the pictures this week. The picture of matthew with the caption you put with it made me laugh so much. I love matthew. Well you told me about how the Fardos's are going to move. You told me that their new bishop will be Bishop Latham, said "nooooo" out loud because I thought you meant our bishop, then I read more. Also you said to tell Elder Vargas hi, he says he sends a hug and a kiss for everyone, haha. The most important part about the letter was that you ate brownies .... we get to eat brownies once or maybe twice a year when Hermana Reeves makes us one single tiny brownie each. I miss brownies. I love and miss everyone from home so much.

So I got sick again. Real sick. I had a 104 fever and as we were walking back to the house so that I could sleep I saw an hermano sorting beans. Well I couldn't say no, even though I felt like I was going to die. I separated beans for 30 minutes in a boiling hot sun. Hey now I'm better and I still get the blessings! Well the next day I had to go buy drugs. I had to start talking a bunch of pills. The doctor said I had to take tylenol and guess what, a box of tylenol costs 50 cents! That's low right?

Mom I was wondering if you could send me Nichelle's address? I want to write them all a letter. Thank you.

Yesterday I had a super special experience. Elder Vargas hadn't received his patriarchal blessing so we went to Patriarch Osorio's office yesterday. He sends his regards. Patriarchs are some of the best people I have ever met. I wanted to be a patriarch for a long time but now I realized I have to be a lot better than I am now if I want to be a patriarch. Well I will just tell you that when he started to give the blessing it was awesome. All of a sudden the air got really heavy and it became heavy to breathe, but it was a calm heavy and felt awesome because I knew it was the Spirit being poured out upon the patriarch. One thing he told me that I like a lot is that in any relationship we have, in the mission or in marriage, or with kids three things are key. 1. Patience 2. Admitting who is right 3. Communication. He really inspired me a lot.

Oh one little note, have aaron and brian and maybe kimmy and bobby would like it too, have them look up "imagine dragons" a missionary told me it's a really good band from utah.

I gotta run but I love you mom, thank you for everything,

Elder Branden Carl Astle