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......"
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
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