Monday, December 29, 2014

I'm on a gurney!

Família!!!
What a great week..... The favorite part was definitely Christmas day talking to you guys!  Wow, that was the best session out of the 3.   Everybody was together... minus Chris.. but still.. absolutely awesome!

So the best day of the week after Christmas was definitely today... the pictures should explain:)  Me and Elder maia went to the hospital at about 1 in the afternoon but this time I went with the determination to get it out.  I was not going to walk out of that hospital with an ingrown toenail. And the doctor took it out!!!  He was awesome and so was the nurse.  The first picture is just of me................"I´m on a gerny!"  The last one is of after he numbed it (which hurt so bad) and used a shovel thingy to whip the ingrown part out. It is massive!!!! I was so surprised that that was in my toe.   Pretty crazy stuff.  Hope that Jefferson can handle it.  :)  




That sucks about the Christmas day break down of the car... our car sempre seems to break down on really important days like when the day that Amanda got home from the mission.   And nobody ever told me that Elder Garland got home..... when did that happen? recently?

So the Christmas package got here today... at least I think it is the Christmas package, it has a stocking on the top.  I still haven´t dove into it but I´m positive it is good!!!  And don´t know what happened with the birthday package but it is whatever.  It gets here when it gets here.  But thank you sooooooooooooooo much for all of the stuff that you send!!

This week we have the meeting with all of the zone leaders... well tomorrow it is.  Then we will be working in our area and doing a split with one of the other zone leaders.


I´ll be back later but that is all for now. Love you guys!! 

Monday, December 22, 2014

Best part . . . just being with all of the missionaries

The view from my front door.
That is where the US played Portugal

A Família

So since we have the mission office I can really do it at any time.... But I´m thinking at about 4pm or 5pm here.... so like noon or 1pm where you guys live in that freezing waste land. Wow I´m super stoked.. especially now knowing that all of you are together!  I´m just so happy right now to be able to talk to you guys all...I was thinking a little bit about what we would talk aboutPresidente Castro said that we should plan our calls and aproveitar os 40 minutos que temos. Thats right it is still only 40 mins but I´m fine with that.   It is plenty of time to talk it up. But I do want to ask you guys to share this one thing with me... For the year 2014, What is your most favorite experience?  Does that make sense... Think of the one thing that happened during the year that left you most happy. A experiência mais agradável.  I want everyone to pick one thing and be ready to share with me... and with everyone. Since I haven´t really been a direct part of your lifes this year.. I want to know what is going on:)  Got it.. don´t forget. Also, think of questions you have for me NOW so that you don´t have to think them up on the spot. I think that just about covers it for the Christmas call. :)  excited out of my mind! 

So on to the week.  This week was one very unique week of the mission. We left on Sunday night for Porto Velho.... we took an hour plane ride and we went to sleep at the Zls house.  It was Elder Robinson and Elder Batemon.... funny right.  Elder Robinson is one of my favorite missionaries on the whole mission. Before I got to my first área, he was there being trained. All of the members loved him to death!  I haven´t been able to talk to him a ton because I´ve never been in his zone. But I´ve always loved him.. anyways... the conference was with only 2 zones.. the 2 from Rondônia.  The training went a lot better I felt.  I had already done it once and knew what I was doing.  It still wasn´t perfect though.

That night (monday) was the birthday of one of Elder Robinsons recent converts so we went over to the bishops house and we made tacos and salsa!  The brasilians loved it.. especially the salsa... I was pretty good if i say so myself... When we went back to Elder Robinson´s house me and him had an amazing talk.. we talked about our first area.

That night we caught our flight with President and Sister Castro at 2am.  We landed in Rio Branco, Acre at 3:30am.  There was a one hour difference; in our heads it was 4:30.  Boa Sorte.  We went to the Zones leaders house and I had the privilege of sleeping on the floor, it was great.

The next day (Tuesday) me and elder Maia did a division with the Zone leaders there. Their area is out on the outskirts of the town. Lots of forest and dirt roads and wood houses.. pretty cool... That night (see picture) we had Tereré.  Man that stuff is good. And as you can see Elder Pothier was at the house as well!! He was my comp last year at Christmas time.


The next day (wed) was the conference. It was the best out of the 3. I felt like me and Elder maia finally nailed the training!  We did good. And the talent show was legit!  The missionaries sang Feliz Navidad and got Pres and Sister Castro to dance! And it is on film. So funny.

That night we flew back home at 3:45am.  Caught a flight to porto velho and then to manaus. We landed at 8am. Talk about a sleep less night. We had to go right to the mission office because the arriving Americans had to do visa stuff. Finally at 2pm we were able to go home and sleep; we were DEAD!!! We were out till 8pm and then didn´t have any problems getting to sleep at 10;30.  So that was just a quick run by of the conferences.  Overall awesome... The best part was just being with all of the missionaries... sleeping in their houses and just conversing with them. Elder Maia is telling me the importance of gaining their trust. I think I´m doing pretty ok with that.

So on Saturday we were able to work in our area! It was incredible. Sometimes it is hard to leave your house after lunch to work in the hot sun. But on Saturday we were both so excited to get out on the streets and work!  The bishop gave us a list of members to visit... more to just see if they still lived there... none of them did so we were able to make some good contacts with the people (the other 3 elders in the office with me see the size of the email that I send to you guys and just can´t believe that I write that much.  Elder Wilson just asked me what I´m going to tell you guys on natal because I’m writing you soo much right now).  Next week we will start doing division s with the ZLs.  It should be pretty fun.  To go work in other areas.

That is about it for the week.. Eu espero que saibam que eu amo vocês demais! Estou muito animado para falar com vocês na Quinta-feira.  Vai ser bom demais! 4pm to 5pm Manaus time... don´t forget. (not like you could). That will still give you time to go to Hermiston if you desire....  Até quinta!!!!!

Elder Ostler!

FELIZ NATAL!

Played Nertz this moring with some sisters…
They just got here by bus so they stopped by the escritoire
and happened to have a couple decks of cards. 

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Qual é melhor, arroz ou feijão?

Família!
Wow, What a week it has been.  Full of everything... Stress, happiness, embarrassment, awkwardness....But overall just awesome!  I don´t even knw where to start... well maybe I should start with why I´m writing on Saturday and not Monday.  Yesterday we had the cnferência de Natal em Manaus com todas as zonas de Manaus, Boa Vista, Tefé e Itaquatiara.  There were a ton of missionaries here... Kinda crazy. Tomorrow night we are going to Porto Velho to have the conferência de natal with the missionaries from there and then on Monday night we will fly to Rio Branco to have our last conferênce... we will get back on Thursday early morning.  So that is why I´m emailing you now... make sense.... I hope so:)  Oh and before I forget... about the Christmas call.... I can really do it anytime on Christmas because I'm in the escritrio now... we have computers.. we just got to get some webcams. So that can be at any time.... we will set up an exact time next monday (10 days).  I´m thinking like afternoonish here so like 10 or 11 there... and since I´m your only missionary yu don´t have to worry about anybody else..

So a little bit about what I´m doing right now. I´m in the area of alvorada which is the same place that has the mission office.  We share the area with a dupla f sisters... and unlike the APs in the past we will be working a lot more in our area instead of traveling.  We will also be doing divisions with the Zone Leaders on a weekly basis.  But we won´t be able to work in our area everyday. We have to do relatorios and such.......... Honestly , I still don´t know what I´m doing. I´m just kinda following Elder Maia around and doing what he tells me to do.

This week was like the most unique week of my whole mission because we gt to participate in the arriving and saindo missinários.  Monday night is when the Missionários that are leaving Left.  It was Elder Volk (my old comp) and Elder Nielsen's groups.  I´m gnna miss those guys.  They went and dined at the house of president and then we went there in a bus and picked them up and took them to the airprt. All of their flights left at like midnight or later. We got there at about 11pm.  We got everybody thru the check in and on through security, there were about 12 of them leaving.  But one of the sisters was going to panama and had to wait till 1am to check in .. so in the ffice the elders have a tradition.  The new elder (in this case me) has to buy everybdy subway. There is a subway right next to the airport so at 12am we went.  It was pretty good.  And when I say pretty I mean really!  Then we took the sister back to check in só que she had way to much wait... She was allowed 23 Kilos and have 60 Kilos!!!!!!!!!!!! So we sat there for another hour as she rifled through her stuff and got rid of it. Mainly just books and clothes.  We got home at 2am and went right to sleep.   So that was pretty fun... 

But what was even funner (yes Saydi, It´s a word) was on Tuesday when the new missionaries arrived. We went to get them from the airprt at about 11am with the secratarios and Pres and Sister Castro.  There were 6 of them.... (one thing that is happening here is that there are massive groups of missionaries going home and small ones arriving, a lot of areas have already closed and will continue to close).  2 Elders from Honduras and 4 Sisters, one from Brasil, one from Columbia and 2 AMERICANS!  I couldn´t believe it. They are the first Americans to arrive since January (discluding visa waiters).  They were in the São Paulo MTC.  We picked them up in the bus (it is a rented bus with a driver) and we went to the temple to snap some picks......  Then we were off to the Presidents house fr Lunch.

Lunch was pretty good.  Afterwards Elder Wilson one of the secretaries gave a short training and so did Sister Castro. I had to translate a bunch of it for the two english sisters... What I can´t believe is that I once looked as deer in the headlights as them!  They didn´t understand much but now that I think f it I understood almost nothing when I got here.  They are both from California and are my age, graduated in 2013.  Then president Castro interviewed them all.  Then we were off to the chapel to meet their trainers. By this time it was like 8pm.  Elder Stenquist is training ne of the Elders and the two Americans got put with brasilians.  It was a pretty fun day...

And then we had the conferencia de natal yesterday.  It was kinda put together at the last second. All the missionaries from the cidades in the state from amaznoas and Roraima flew to manaus the day antes.  There were a ton of missinaries there.  We started a little late (like I said it was kind of thrown tgether at the last second, the planning part).

I conducted the meeting.  Me and Elder Maia gave a training.  I was pretty nervous. It was well over half the mission... and my first training...... In the Zone trainings I was always bem tranquilo because it was a smaller number of people and just more comfortable.... This time I was a little nervous.  Elder Maia is a pro at giving trainings. He just is a natural public speaker.  We talked about planning and companionship and hw they are connected.  I felt like I didn´t do all that well.  I should have prepared better for it.  But when I talked to Elder Klumker about it afterwards he said I did great.  I still feel like I could have been butter.

One thing that I need to do better is have more cnfidence in the Lord that he will help me. More faith and mre humility.  That is really what I´m striving for.. to have Heavens help... because I´ll be honest.. there is no way that I can d this alne.. way to much to do.

After the trainings we had lunch then a talent show by zone and district.  It was pretty funny. I was in charge of the mics and pianos...  It all went smoothly......Then we had the testimonies of the missionaries leaving and arriving.  The leaving ones were all the same "It goes by so fast, I never thought I would be at this point but now I´m here......"

The arrivals missionaries were SO GOOD!! Elder Klumker also bore his testimony cause he just got here 4 weeks ago and he is a baller.  He said he was just so happy to finally be serving in brazil!

I´ve never really thought about that but I´m so blessed to serve my whole mission in brasil.  Thank you so much Mom... w/o you that would nt have been possible.  Thank you so much for flying to san fran I don´t even know how many times, 5?.  I thought that the 2 arriving Americans woulds have trouble but there testimonies were my favorites, along with Elder Klumkers.... They couldn´t say much, just the simple stuff.  "I know the church is true.  I know the Book of Mormon can help us. I'm reading it.  Portuguese is hard but with God, will learn."  But when they said it it was just so strong and I knew that they really meant it.  I was actually surprised at how much they were able to say.

The gift of tongues is a real thing and I don´t doubt that. I still remember the day when I landed.  I said a prayer. God heard my pray that day.  He has blessed me with it so much.

After the conference we took a picture with everyone... I´ll see if I can send it to yaall.  I was with Elder Klumker and Elder mount.. man I lve those two.  Elder Klumker talked to us abut all rooming together at BYU.

So that was the conferece. It got over at 9pm.. we were shooting for 4pm... we kinda missed and we still had to cut some stuff out... the two this week should do better because we already ran through it once....

So here is bottom line of the week. I have no idea what I´m doing...But Elder Maia said that that is normal. He said that he didn´t start catching on really till his secnd transfer...But the week was super fun and excited from the leavers to the arrivers to the conference.

Oh yeah one other thing, at the conference I felt such a massive love for all of the missionaries. It was amazing. From sitting up on the stand to talking with all of them. All of the GAs that have passed here have always said that they love us so much and that God gives them that love. Well it is true.  I know most of the missionaries and abut 1/3 I know on a personal level but I still just loved them all. 

I hope the week goes well for you guys and that you enjoy that cold weather kakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakkakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakaakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakkakakakakkakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakakkakakakakakak!

Falou!

Elder Ostler  

Monday, December 8, 2014

The birthday was great!

FAMÌLIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of the craziest weeks of the mission by far..... but I´ll get to that later.. (the "o" on this keyboard doesn´t wrk very well so it might be falting a couple of O´s)

Wow it sounds like things are going great for you guys.  That is sweet to here about amanda and chris and how they will start t rake in the cash....  btw... where is chris wrking at?  And Jefferson that is awesome that you are playing for the RHS varsity team!!! Just awesome!!!  Christmas here doesn’t feel like Christmas just because it is so stinking ht.. and the peple get trees.. they are just about a meter high and are plastic...

So on Tuesday I did a division with elder mount from my group in the MTC.  It was great to talk a little and catch up on things.  My toe is doing just fine... kinda.  You should have gtten my other email that I sent to vangorkum....abut me going to the hspital.  We went on Friday night because I couldn´t stand it anymore. Just this time we went to one f the best hospitals in manaus. We got there and we waited for like 20 mins then I gt called back to the surgeon.   The funniest thing happened... I said.."I have an ingrwn toenail that I need taken out." 

This was his next question, "well how do you know it is ingrown?" 

I just wanted to dye of laughter right in his face.... "HMMM i don´t know, maybe it just feels like a bunch of fire ants have a attacked it and then paul Bunion smashed it with an ax... yeah that is hw it feels....  and when I accidentally hit it it feels like jack sparrow stabbed it with his sword and then poured rum all over it.... yeah... so that is how I know that it is ingrown..."

He got online and shwed me the prcedure that shuld be done just like vangorkum did with the phenol that stops the toenail growth on the sides... he told me he could do that but that he didn´t have phenol...... how des one of the biggest hospitals in manaus not have phenol? I asked him if he culd just take it out real quick but he said that that wouldn´t solve anything because it would just grow back.. so this is what he did... he gave me a prescription for phenol and told me to go to a pharmacia and get it.. but not just any pharmacy would have it.. it had to be a good one....  then I was to come back the next morning.. (he was still gong to be there) and he would do the precedure.  Great.

So we left the hospital and went on our search fr phenol.. but this time it as 10pm. We go to a pharmacia that would have phenol but the pharmacist said that it is super rare and that a pharmaci wouldn´t have it.  We needed to go to a stre that sold hspital supplies. He gave us the general location of one.... he really didn´t know. So we got on the bus and decided that we wouldn´t come back the next day because we had no idea where to find the drug and our day was FULL!  But then when we were at lunch on Saturday the irmã who is a RC told me to take my shoe off so she could see it.  She liked in disbelief.  Then she grabbed here stuff and started digging.  The ladies that d manicures here also take out ingrown toenails.  And when I say that she started digging... I mean she starring DIGGING!!  She drained out all of the puss and blood... there wasn´t that much.. and she got some massive chunks out and boy did it hurt....  but it is feeling 50 times better now so nothing to worry about..  she said she would get the rest of it out on Monday (to day) because the swelling would g down...but I told her that we had transfers on Sunday and that I pssibly would get transferred...

December 6, 2014.... 20 years
The birthday was great!! There is a girl in our ward that was born on 6 dec 1994 as well!  She is the step daughter of our ward mission leader. She made us a cake and rented a trampoline fr the night.  So that night we went ver and had cake and jumped on the tramp;... and boy was that fun... it was tiny though.. 3 meters in diameter and on really uneven ground.. but still fun.  Her friends went first (just like 3 YW from the ward) and me and elder brown were telling them t do flips... but obviously couldn´t.  Then elder brown went up there and they were like "do a flip do a flip" just like we were doing them.. just that they didn´t expect him to do it.... it bounced 3 times and pulled out a backflip....they were all shocked!!! It was funny.  Then I got in and did a frontflip 180.  It was a great birthday...:)  Right after that we ran t the church for a wedding of a less active member and her nonmember boyfriend.  We have already taught him once and he said that he wants to be baptized.  He is just studying and working to much for us to teach them...

We have two other baller investigators..... A* & F*.   We found A* about 3 weeks ago and said that she wanted to go to church. She was´t able to go last week. She is like 40 and divorced and has a daughter. We taught the first and then invited to church and she went and loved it!!! S col.  We also met F*...  she is kinda crazy but went to church.  And has a baptism date for the next Tuesday. It will be great... and she wrote me a letter asking me to marry her..... no thank you.

So now fr the craziest part.  On Saturday afternoon Presidente Castro called me and told me that he had been praying and fasting and told me that the Lord had called me to be the next Assistant to the President................ I just didn´t know what to say to him.  He asked if I accepting and said yes.  He told me I should pray and fast that the Lord confirms to me as the Lord confirmed to him that it is me that should be the next AP.  I will need a lot of faith that God will help me... I got here to the office yesterday... it is so weird.  Our house is tiny.. there are four of us living there.  Me and elder Maia, (my comp, see pic) and the 2 secretaries, elder wilson and elder suoza silva live there.    It should be fun with a lt of work....  We have our own area and elder maia said that we will be able to work in it and do lts of divisions with ZLs


Well that was the crazy week.... h´pe everything ges well for you guys!!! Love yu Guys!


Elder Ostler

The bugs of Manaus

Monday, December 1, 2014

Hotter than . . . . . something very hot . . . . . like a BBQ!!!

What the???? scuba diving!!!  I was thinking about that this week and how right when I get home I want to get certified. Just a little jealous... but not really ... this week was absolutely amazing!!!  But first thing is first..... I’m dying of heat!!!!!!!! It is definitely over 100 outside and in this lan house the AC is broken.... me and Elder Brown are literally dripping in sweat.... but I guess that is better than just freezing to death like you guys kakakakak.  And Benson I will gladly take over the business when I get home... consider it DONE! kakak  That is pretty cool that you are doing the drumline and good luck with Babal Jethro.... do the ostler name proud..  So this is the last email you will get from me as a teenager!  Já pensaram?  I´m turning 20 baby!!!  And even better... there will be a full moon on my birthday!

So this week we had a baptism!!!  wahhwhhoo!!!  I think I mentioned it last week.. it was R*...  he has been going to church now for almost 3 years but never felt like he was ready for the baptism... until two weeks ago.. we were working really close with him the past 3 weeks and we tried to mark the date for last Saturday but when we were weekly planning we felt we should change it to this Saturday (this was LAST week, like 14 days ago).  When we went to his house to remard the date he said that he wanted to be baptized and that date.. we didn´t even invite him.. he just said it!  It was great.  He knows the baptism is essential.


It was a great service.. great turn out and his non member dad was there.  He is 19 and has a girlfriend who is a member.  The bishop bought a cake and salgados and we had kikão too.. it was great!  Elder Brown did the ordinance and he said that when R* left the agua, his eyes were SHINING!  I thought that was soo cool. I don´t think I´ve baptized anybody on the mission who was more prepared than R*.  He knew Everything and had a forte testemunho da restauração.  

I´m really having a stronger love for these people, especially R* and F* and his family... they are progressing good.  K* told us that she received an answer that the church is the true church just not the Joseph Smith was a prophet... we invited her to pray about that.... well all of them..


It is HOTTER THAN HOTT this is supposed to be the wet rainy season... but it isn't.... Hotter than .... something very hot... like a BBQ.. it is hitting records also we are in manga season and the members are giving them to us like candy on Halloween... most people here have a manga tree in their quintal... we got a bowl of about 10 right now with 5 more in the fridge... they are sooooooo gooooood!!!!

I also gave a talk on Sunday.  I was told before hand so I had time to plan. All of the talks in our ward are on the same thing... tithing, fast offerings, law of chastity and drugs.  I decided to talk on Conversão using the talk by bednar that he gave in 2012,, converter to the lord.   I did alright but not the best.. I should have practiced it a couple more times to work out all the kinks...

We had thanksgiving at Irmã C´s House, she is a less active but she made us jaraqui.. it is a fish about the same size as a rainbow trout.... it was super good!!!! She works in a kitchen so she knows how to cook....  I just sent a pic of it....we are inviting her back to church.

Thanksgiving meal….
ate the whole fish….
INCLUDING the head!
I ate three of them. Afterwards all that was left was the spine... yumnmy.  The head is super salty but good.  I felt like Grandpa Skinner eating it. I remember one time when we were over at his house when I was young and we were eating fish and he just bit off the head….I thought it was disgusting and here I am doing it!
On Tuesday me and elder brown gave a zone training to our zone on the things elder Aidukaitis taught us.  I think we did really good.  Our zone just sat there with a .... shocked look on their face....they understood and they told us last night that they did it.  It is taking them about 8 hours to do..... me and elder brown just did it for a second time so we are getting better....

Did you guys go to coconut´s?  or night diving? any sea turtle attacks? kaka  

This morning we woke up at 3 in the morning to go get my ingrown toenail taken out.....the hospital here is a first come first serve.. you have to get in line and then wait till 7 when they start attending people.  We got there at 530 and I has about 20th in line... pretty good.  When I got up to the window to talk to them they told me that all of the opening for the day were full and that I needed to come earlier if I wanted a spot....... I didn´´t get mad... there was no point in it... but now we will figure out a plan b.... maybe not the public hospital but the private one.....my toe isn't killing me.  I´m taking advil so that is helping.... only when I hit on something which is rare.  I´m not the clumsy type... but it sure was a fun adventure to be on the dead silent street at 3:30 in the morning...

I hope that everything goes well this week and that you don´t freeze to death!!kakak  I´ll hope not to melt to death.  see you in 24......


Elder Ostler