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 about…. Presidente 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.