Week 11 - July 27th, 2015

No general email from Elder Aston today, but he was able to send us a lot of pictures!

Waiting at a bus stop.

Tarantula.

Holding a tarantula.



Week Ten - July 20th, 2015

HOLA. Soo, lots has happened this past week! We got 4 new investigators! And had one of them progress by attending church! Woot woot! We also had a service project this week for one of the members who needed her tree to be chopped down, and in the pictures I will send, the tree is actually a lot bigger than it looks! That was fun though and it was nice to help her with that. Haha and! I found a lot of tarantulas this week!! One of the recent converts who lives out in the boonies (his name is Benjamin and is 9 years old) went looking for tarantulas with me because he found out that I liked them soooo we went to a small rock pile, that was literally like 10 feet away from his house, and within like 2 minutes found 3 tarantulas!!! They were all kind of small and very friendly so I held one and I made my companion hold it as well! I will send pictures haha. Anyways, those were probably the most interesting things we did. We dont have a lot of time today, because we are going to the church to play soccer with some of the youth sooo I will write more next week! Chao

 

Service Project Pictures

 

 

Week Nine - July 13th, 2015

Hola! Well its been a very busy week for us! We got 2 new investigators! Woot woot and we have an appointment with another tonight sooo yeah! So every since I have gotten here its been really cold, well now its really wet! And they say they are in a drought. There are literal rivers in the streets! So thats been great haha. And me and my companion went to Viña del Mar yesterday to meet the New President of our mission who is Chillian and awesome haha. After we got lost and ended up at the ocean which was cool haha, but bad because we arent suppose to go near the ocean! Oops. Haha anyways something funny: so my companion found some really funny scriptures, The one that is probably the funniest, is in Ether 14:23. My companion read this to me after not showering one day because my towel was being washed hahaha! I have others, but this one is probably the best. Anyways, its been good here! Lots of stuff has been happening to keep us busy! Alright well, I will talk to yall next week!! Chao!!

 

"Going to church & someone has their sprinkler going while it's raining."

"Somebody's pet duck in their backyard."

 

Week Eight - July 6th, 2015

Soooo this past Friday was the American world cup final for futbol and it was between Chile and Argentina. And Chile has NEVER won the world cup before, so the fact that they made it to the world cup was huge! Anyways, so my new mission president (who is Chillian), as of last week, said that we could watch the game! So we bought jerseys and went to the ward mission leaders house and watched it with his family and it was crazy!!!! After they won the game, literally everyone in Chile went Crazy!! There were people driving like a houndred miles per hour down the streets with people hanging out of the windows waiving Chillian flags and shouting and screaming! And I got some video of it hahaha. But after a little bit of that we heard gunfire so we went back to the apartment and studied and talked for the rest of the night. It seriously lasted like all night and it was literally all right outside our house so we had a hard time getting to sleep. Anyways! That was a lot of fun though:) 

Things have been good here! Its been kind of slow with the people we have been teaching, but one of our investigators is really close to a baptismal date sooo hopefully within the next couple weeks!! Today we have an activity with my district because we met a goal of baptizing 5 people within one month soo yay!! We are going to go to a city called Piña blanca and we are going to play games, eat completos and mono caca (monkey crap, its a cookie hahaha). Anyways other than that nothing much has happened sooo I got to go! Chao!!

 

"My area"

"BEST CANDY EVER"

"My companion & I"

 

Week Seven - June 29th, 2015

¡Hola! Sooo, this week hasnt been too crazy. I got to have my first baptism this past week which was an experience I wont forget for one thing, the font wasnt very full because the water decided to turn off, and the other was I was baptizing a girl who weighed more then me so I really had to work to get her out of the water hahaha. Anyways it was good other than that:) So the area I am in is called Olumé. Its not super far from Viña del Mar, but it is pretty different. It is very deserty here and gets flippin cold during the mornings and nights. I really like the people in my ward and district. Im surprised at how many of the people speak English, there is this one man who is from Colorado and doesnt speak any Spanish only English hahaha so he talks to me a lot, because he doesnt have a lot of people to talk to except his wife. I had lunch with them a few days ago and it was really fun. The other members that speak English are the ones that served missions haha they all had to learn English because of their companions. Oh yeah! I also help teach an English class which is a lot of fun! I like being the one teaching a language and not having to learn it for once haha. Anyways that about sums up what I had to talk about this week! Thanks for all your emails and love and stuff! Entonces ¡Chao!

 

 

Week Six - June 22nd, 2015

So it has been a week since I left the MTC! its been really hard, but Ive also had a lot of fun! Im in an area right now that is very poor, but I prefer this than the city! There is graffiti and dogs everywhere which is actually kind of fun. Dogs are freaking annoying though haha. The place Im at is in a desert, but there are lots of trees. It gets reaaaally hot during the day and then reeaaally cold during the night haha. Anyways my trainer is Chilian, he is 18yrs, and his name is Elder Henriquez. He doesnt speak English so it has been kind of hard trying to understand what he is talking about, but we have made it work! My Spanish has gotten better, but the people here talk sooo fast haha, the worst is when they are talking then look at me and stop talking, because they asked me a question and I just look at them like... what? But they are all really nice and understand that Im still learning so its ok haha. Anyways I have my first baptism this Wednesday! Im going to be baptizing a girl named Antonia, she is really nice, she is about our age, and none of her family are members. Hopefully we will have more soon. Alright well thats about all I have time to say so I will update you all more next week! Hasta Luego!

 

"This is a picture of the sunset in Santiago!! They have the best sunrises and sunsets."

Last Days in the MTC

 

A group photo in Viña.

Elder Aston & his new trainer!

 

"A picture of me in my new area! Olmué!

 

 

 

Week Five - June 9th, 2015

Sooo, This is my last week in the MTC! I cant believe thats its already been 6 weeks! I most likely wont be having a P-Day next week so this is the last one for las proximas semañas. Anyways, not a lot has happened this week so this one is going to be short! Haha so my district is like the best in the whole world. We are like super sarcastic and real with eachother it makes me laugh. The Hermanas especially in my district are super funny with how sarcastic and mean they are to eachother. My companion makes me laugh a lot too. There was this one time that we were practicing with the latinos and they were suppose to teach about the Plan of Salvation and we had to come up with a need that had to do with the plan of salvation, like a family member died or something, so in a black person voice my companion says (really loud): my gopha (gopher) died, my dawg died, where dey at? I hit a bird the otha day, where dat at? Hahaha I guess you had to be there, but I was dying, it was soo funny. ANYWAYS.... I go to the temple for the last time today for the next 2 years:( So im going to make the best out of this!! Well I think thats about it sooooo, thanks for the emails and letters! I really appreciate it! I love all yall, Hasta Luego!!

 

Elder Aston's Zone in the MTC

 

"This one is just a random house that has some obvious german influence. It looks cool."

"This is inside a 7 story mall. It was HUGE!"



"This picture was taken right outside the church I go to."

 

Week Four - June 2nd, 2015

So I have about ten billion things to say, so ill just pick a few. So first a funny story: Yesterday, the trio of Hermanas in my district were teaching a lesson to a teacher acting as an investigator and one of the girls wanted to say I asked to god and he answered my prayer. When I asked I felt it in my heart that I recieved an answer. She didn't know how to say I asked so she was like how do this? And one of the Hermanas said, Im pretty sure its pedo. In Spanish pedo means fart hahahaha. So she basically said, I farted to god and he answered my prayer. When I farted I felt it in my heart hahaha. Hooo so funny. Anyways, now for a different story. I learned this past week that to go to a decent University in Chile is around 20,000 - 30,000 a year! Because of this, there are lots of protests and riots! Well one day me and my companion just finished a lesson with our investigator when all of the sudden there was a knock on the door and apparently there were protests going on about 10 minutes away from where we were! But the freaky part was that the 6 weeker missionaries were out proselyting in that area! So the afternoon teachers all left the MTC and we were left there staring out the window. Nothing happened to the 6 weekers, but they said that it was getting pretty sketchy out there! I also learned that they have different kinds of vehicles that fight against the protesters. There is one called the Llama (in spanish) Which basically sprays super high pressure water, another that releases an even more potent pepper spray, and finally one that releases a super high pitch sound that makes people become disoriented and throw up! Lots of fun! Hahaha anyways..... The MTC is good, I gave an entire Restoration lesson all in Spanish! That was a mile stone for me haha. I only have 2 more weeks and then Im out of here! Its really going to be sad to leave my district, we have all become really tight. Anyways, Thanks for all your letters and emails. I really appreciate it! Adios!

 

 

"These are my roommates that left this morning :( They are going to be great missionaries."

"This is a picture of where I play soccer in the mornings. This isn't the cool place where I play but we like this one because it is close."

 

Week Three - May 26th, 2015

So not a lot has happened this past week except I got new rommates which kind of sucked, but my new ones are a lot of fun! They dont speak a lot of english, but we can still talk about songs and movies and stuff hahaha. I have 2 other roommates besides my companion and one of them keeps laughing like in the middle of the night. Its soo weird and they keep accusing me of doing it hahaha. Anyways, I kind of got a cough and a sore throat this week. I think I got it from one of the sister missionaries that left a few days ago, because she was like really sick. But Ill survive haha. Today is a really good day, because I have PDay and then after I write all of these emails I get to go to the temple! Woot woot. I hate that I dont have a temple in my mission, so I try to really take advantage of it when I get the chance. Oh yeah a lot of people asked what my schedule is like so here it is. I wake up at like 6:45 every morning and go to personal study for like an hour and then i go to a local park and play soccer until like 9:15. The latinos are really good and I really suck haha. At 10 I start classes and this includes language study and practice investigator study and so on. I finish the day at about 9:30 and then we have to have the lights off in our apartments by 11. So thats my day! Pdays and sundays are different, but other than that my schedule stays pretty much the same! Anyways I love you all and thank you for your emails! Ciao!

 

Eating Ice Cream





Picture in Chile