The Basketball Week

Família!!!

Thank you sooo much for that email. That is just what I needed.  From that picture of my stellar cousin Ben with you guys to your last paragraph mom.  This morning and last night I was not doing good.  Your last paragraph mom brought peace to my soul..... I felt so calm sitting in the crowded lan house, surrounded by little boys playing video games in the middle of the jungle. I felt of your love for me but more importantly, like you said, the love of My Heavenly Father for me.  He is real.  The way you worded it brought a peace to my soul. Thank you, obrigado

I was feeling down for a couple of reasons.  One is because….  It was kind of a misunderstanding and it was carelessness on my part.  Presidente hasn´t talked to me yet but he burned the missionary who did the baptism.  I explained the situation in my email.  So I was pretty stressed out about that.  The other reason is missionaries aren't getting along.  But I´ll get to that later.

So the picture is of us on pday..... that is right... playing basketball!!!! First time for me in 13 months!! Are you kidding me.  We played a lot of 21.  The other guy that isn´t an american is Noel.  He is the member of another ward.  He is from english guinne right above brasil so he speaks english.  He is cool.  That is me draining a shot.......I´m pretty sure I made it.  As we were playing Elder S, who is a baller himself, asked me if I played a lot of big man before the mission. I told him that was the only thing I play. He said I was pretty good at it... you hear that Jefferson.  After over a year and I still got it!!! That is right. That night we recorded a rap that we made of Elder S.  He is an animal.  He is a hard core worker outer and never stops at working.  So me and Elder Brown made him a sweet rap. I´ll see if we can send it home. 

Tuesday was conselho de liderança;  Presidente Castro pushed big time the new qualifications for baptism.... Well truth is they aren´t new at all..... they´ve been the same since I got here.  2 times at church (that changed.... it used to be three) and if they are under 16 and don´t have a family member over 18 who is getting baptized with them or who is already a member, they have to frequent the church for 3 months.  He pounded that in hard!  It was awesome.  He is putting a complete halt to under the table baptism and baptizing unprepared/unqualified people.  His focus is FAMILIES!!!! Big time on families... I guess this was an answer to my prayers from the days with Klein.  I wanted things to change because I felt it was wrong the way we were baptizing... and apparently so does Presidente Castro.  Our numbers for baptism has plummeted but Presidente Castro made this promise: as soon as we start teaching better and by the spirit the baptisms will be exponential... that was also a promise from Elder Nelson of the 12.  Afterwards me and Elder Brown talked with Presidente a little about our zone. We have a dupla that isn´t getting along at all and one his having problems. It was a sweet talk. We asked him other questions too.  He is a great man who is called of God.  

So I don´t know if I´ve mentioned this but our ward doesn't have activities. So we decided to do a noite da cinema.  We did it on Wednesday night and watched Frozen. We have popcorn and popsicles and juice.  The bishop sure pulled through for us.  It was a miracle that we were able to get the dvd player hooked up to the projector hooked up to the amp; but it was all good.  Also, a massive group of kids came that we talked to on the street.  We went back to teach one of their moms the day after but she didn´t want it.  But the activity was great!  All of the members are asking us when the next activity is going to be.  We will probably do another noite do cinema a semana que vem..  mas, vamos ver. 

So now on to an elder problem.  He is going home in December but he is already dead....... he wants to do nothing. Thursday he refused to go to his area.  So to keep his comp from going insane I took him out to work with me and his comp stayed in house to babysit.  The next day he did the same thing...…. When we talk to him, he just cuses at us........ in Portuguese ............................... we learned some new words this week:) kaka, but it is all good.  If he don´t go work tomarra we gonna call the boss.

On Friday night I did the best contact of my life! We were walking in the sentido de casa when we saw some kids playing bball at a little dinky "park."  Elder Brown looked at me and we both had the same idea.  We went over there and just started talking, not about the church or anything.  Eventually we got a game of two on two going.  I was on the team with Ra* who plays just like Bryson Creer!   Hardly anybody here plays bball.. it is just soccer.  So that is rare we saw them playing. Good thing that we were already warmed up from pday so we were ready to go.

After we played a little we taught the 2 about Joseph Smith and the restaração do evengelho de Jesus Cristo.  We invited them to General Conference.  Ra* didn´t go but G1 went!  His name is so weird that everyone calls him "G1."  He has really no direction in life so we will probably be able to help him get baptized.  He is 21.  Really other than that we didn´t find anybody.  Nobody that really wants it.. so we still keep looking. 

Conference was the highlight of the week!!! By far!!  Best conference I´ve ever seen. Saturday was definitely my favorite. Like you said dad, all the apostles and 70 we so bold.  All of us Americans in the zone (7) got to watch it in english.  But for Elder Godoy´s talk in Portuguese we ran upstairs to watch it in Portuguese!! It was sweet!!! History making! I loved Elder Scotts talk like you said dad.  Very bold.  I also loved Elder Jórg Klebingat on Saturday.  He was very blunt, I liked what he said about our physical well being.  If we aren´t comfortable in our bodies and we can do something about it, do it.  If you guys didn´t see that one, go see it.

My favorite quote was from Elder Oaks  "Kindness is powerful."  We were talking about the main themes of the conference and what the Lord is trying to communicate with us. Some of the themes we noticed were  parenting, loving one another, give to the poor, fasting, sustaining church leaders, and gaining a personal testimony of the truthfulness of the church.  Just a couple of things for you guys.. are you doing a weekly FHE like Elder Scott said we should be doing?  And Elder Allan F Packer talked about family history... you doing it?

So at the market right next to our house they were having a drawing for a bike.  For every 3 packages of powdered juice that you bought, you got a ticket to put in the drawing.  This past month I bought probably 20 dollars of powdered juice, 30cents each.  And guess who won!!! We did!!!!! We won a stinking bike! Are you kidding me!!!!!

I´ll be giving it to a little kid in the ward in the near future.

That is awesome that hochbol is still going!! Just awesome!  Yesterday I was watching the world report and was thinking about hochbol and how they could totally make a mormon message or an ensign article about that!!! Look into it.  You rock Jefferson and mom!

And what is this talk of taking out the tramp!! Everything is changing.  I´m excited to see what the place looks like when I get home.   And Hill broke is his leg!!!!!!!!! I heard talk that BYU would go undefeated this year..... big bummer.  Our water is back yes and I finally cleaned the bathroom..... that is one way I get rid of my stress now.. cleaning the bathroom:)  Relaxing.  I haven´t gotten my package yet but will probably get it tomorrow because we have zone training.  Me and Elder Brown are giving it and it will be awesome!!!  Too awesome!!

This week our numbers were super low.  We could throw out excuses of the elder and conference but really we could have worked harder.  There is always room for improvement!  Lets do it this week.

Well I´m feeling 100% better now than when I got here so that is good. We are going to go centro hoje so that should be fun.   I love you all and hope everything is going great for you guys!! Till next week

Elder Ostler

ps.. watch  ALL the sessions of conference......…

Partying it up last night... popcocn and creme de cupuaçu!