On New Years Eve, I made that same oath.

Feliz Ano Novo!  Feliz Año Nuevo! Happy New Year!

What is happening my family!!!  It seems like for ever since we have talk......   Jefferson!!! I´m soooo happppy foooooor yoououououuu!!! That is absolutely amazing!  And keep your head up during the senioritis.... I don´t remember me getting senioritis. Benson, I hope you are improving your skiing skills and can do a 360 now. No fear just do it.

I´m holding up a 15 (not a six) for 2015. 

WELL I think that my news year eve was a little more upbeat than your guy´s.  The elders quorum pres from the ward Êxodo invited me and Elder Maia to pass the night at his house.  Êxodo was Elder Maia´s first area and it was one of my favorites. Y*, if you remember is kinda a crazy guy but awesome! He has about 2 years of church now.  Elder Maia taught a family that eventually got baptized when he got transferred. When I went to the area to serve I helped reactivate this family.  They stayed firm while I was there.  Then they fell away little by little when I left.  So when we got to the area we went over to Y*´s and he drove us down to their house.

Y* gave us the low down on them. We went over and just started with small talk. Then Y* started talking to them and counseling them. The atmosphere in the house changed from calm to disastrous (how was that for a sentence my english major sister?)  . . . raising voices . . . accusing.  Y* got ahold of the talking stick and gave them a sermon. . .  Then Elder Maia gave the training that we gave at the Christmas conference on companionship... it was pretty awesome.

I thought of what I could say to help them.  I thought of the marriage triangle.  The husband and spouse are at the bottom two corners and Christ is at the top.  The closer that they individually get to Christ, the closer they become one to the other... I was looking for the right opportunity to say it.   raising voices . . . accusing.... it was at one of these times that the prompting came.

It was at this moment that the thought came to my mind.

"Stand up!"

Usually when we talk about the ways the spirit talks to us we talk about it as a still small voice... this was no still small voice.  It was a thought.. not a voice, But it was as strong as ever...

"Stand up!"

"Stand up!"

I knew it was the spirit.

Well... I didn´t act quick enough.... My heart sank. I hadn´t follow the prompting of the spirit.  As we were saying goodbye and shaking their hand I said "I have one more thing to say....... " and then I said it. Then Elder Maia asked if we could end with a pray. We knelt and My Companion offered a beautiful pray.  We then left.

As we were driving back to Y* house for a churrasco I remembered the story of Pres Monson when he was a bishop I believe. He was in a stake meeting and the stake pres was speaking.  He got a prompting that he needed to leave that instant and go directly to the hospital. But right during the stake presidents talk? he thought. "I´ll just wait till the end and then leave." When the stake pres finally finished his talk, Pres Monson bolted out the door and to the hospital.  When he arrived he ran up the stair and saw a hospital room with commotion in it.  The nurse outside the hospital room door asked him

"Are you Thomas Monson?"

"Yes I am."

"The patient was calling your name right before he passed away 5 mins ago." She responded

In that moment, President Monson made an oath that he would never again ignore the promptings from the spirit or even delay to accomplish them.   On New Years Eve, I made that same oath.

The party was pretty good. We staed from the midnight part of it.  Here they don´t have a countdown and then go wild.. they just kinda go wild at 11:55 till 12:10 with fireworks.  Y* had bought a couple of bottle rockets and blackcats on roids! They just make a massive "BANG!"  Here the tradition is a big meal at midnight... so after the commotion we ate. It was churrasco, pork, lasanha, rice, and farofa, with chocolate cake for dessert.  Mom and Dad, when you guys come down.. we are definitely passing by that house.. he is a great man! 

On the 2nd we did a division with some Zone leaders.  I stayed in our area with Elder Marina and Elder Maia went to their area with his comp. It was a pretty good day. I got in my first bible bash!;;  It wasn´t even that heated. They came to the lesson with the bible in hand.  Right from the start they were saying this or that "I could never go to your church because you have dances and listen to worldly music, in the bible it says we should only listen in louvores (praising hymns)" or "the bible says that you have to be baptized in running waters like Jesus." or "the bible doesn´t say that you have to be married before the baptism if you are living with someone."  Yeah but it does say that fornication is a sin and that you can´t be baptized in sin!  Yes, 1+1=2.  We didn´t really respond to these concerns because they didn´t give us a chance. They just went on to another topic.

At one point I interjected and said "have you guys ever heard of the Book of Mormon?"  We explained what the Book of Mormon is and how it came to be.  I focused on the part about Jesus appearing unto them in 3nefi11. The whole time I was talking they were flipping through their bibles trying to find something that disproved what I was saying.  The man said "I can´t find the scripture but Jesus said that he wouldn´t appear to anybody until his second coming, so how could he have then appeared to these people?" We gave him examples of Saul and Stephen both seeing the Lord. Well Saul didn´t see him but he heard his voice and saw his light and was blinded because of it.  Then he said that the bible doesn´t say anything about the BOM so we showed him one of the many examples in João 10:16 and 3 Nefí 15:21.  We sealed the lesson with our testimony and the invite to read 3 Nefí 11

On Saturday the sisters in our ward had a baptism so they asked me to baptize her.  She has been going to church now for quite a while.  It was the first time I’ve been in the water since August. That is a long time.  But it felt good.

Well have fun going back to school everyone!!! Love you all and have a great week!!! Elder Ostler