Monday, February 2, 2015

We had a baptism!

Família!!

Well It sounds like it was a good week.  Great News about the chubbs..  He´ll do great down here in Brasil!  And Wilson..... you haven´t won the title of favorite uncle yet... She still hasn´t met me..... kakakakak.  So about you plans... they sound great... só que I think that you will actually get to be with me on Monday.... but other than that it sounds great...  that phrase "Your feet touch Pasco Airport concrete on July 3" doesn´t sound trunky at all..... kakakakaka  and I got my debit card.. thanks a TON!!!!!

So I got some big news for you guys!!.... well it is really just big news for me but I´ll tell you anyways.... Elder Quentin L. Cook is coming to our mission on Feb 24! Along with Elder Aidukaitis!  Tu è doido!  And the even crazier part is this:  The whole mission will be reunited!! The last time that happened was.... I don´t even know.. at least 3 or 4 years ago.  There are 90 missionaries serving outside the city of Manaus that will have to come on Monday or Sunday.  So we have to find housing for 90 bodies.. that is a lot. I think we are going to have to get a couple of hotel rooms.. não tem outro jeito. .  It will be a ton of work to get it all organized but totally worth it.  I have a feeling they will introduce the new missionary program that James Olsen´s mission is doing right now.  They piloted it last year.... or they might just be coming to burn the crap out of us.... which ever it is I´m stoked!!! 


This week as far as our work in the area goes was great!!!  We had a baptism. Her name is Ya*. She is the sobrinho of João, the rapaz that we baptized last week.  The sisters have been teaching them for a while now. João´s Mom and Ya*´s Grandma (same person) is a less active (she is the lady in the picture).  


We invited her to come back to church and she accepted!!!! It was seriously a miracle. We hardly did anything.  We were reaping what the sisters had planted. Ya* didn´t want to get baptized at first.  The sisters had already taught her and João everything but she was still really timid.... She was going to the assembléia de Deus with her aunt and she was afraid to leave her aunt to go to the true church, even though she already knew it was the true church. We invited her to say a prayer with us during the lesson. She was really timid about it.  João had told her that he had said a prayer asking if he should be baptized and he felt good about it. So she wanted to do the same.

All 5 of us (me elder thompson, ya*, joão, and their cousin) knelt to pray. All of us said a pray.  In our prayers we all pleaded with Heavenly Father to give her an answer.  It was so cute when João said "Por favor, Abençoe a Ya* que ela possa receber uma resposta."  It was great. Cousin did the same. After she prayed we got up and kept teaching her.  As we went on she started warming up and invited her to be baptized on Saturday and she accepted!!!  It was great. But I knew that her aunt would try to make her change her mind so we really encouraged her to keep her mind firm in her decision.

Her aunt was unsuccessful in the convincing and she was baptized on Saturday night... Her baptism falls into my top two baptisms on the mission..... Absolutely amazing. It was only me and my comp, João, Ya*, the cousin, the less active mom, our ward mission leader, his wife and his two little boys.  Another young couple showed up after the ordinance had taken place.

Antonio (our ward mission leader) is the best.  He had invited a bunch of people and we had told a couple people as well but nobody showed up... but it really didn´t matter.... the spirit was So so strong.. I can´t even describe it!  I was beaming the whole time.  Which means smiling.  It was such a joyous moment.  Ya* was also really excited to be being baptized.  Words just can´t describe the feelings at the baptism. It was amazing to see the mom there coming back to church. She came to church the next day as well. Both the baptisms of João and Ya* were miracles.... Complete hand of the Lord.  Amazing.  

We also found a GOLDEN FAMILY this week!!! I mean Pure GOLD!  We were going to visit some rapazes that we were teaching. They were in front of their house on the road playing with um papagaio (kite).  Their friend was there as well... he had gone to church one time I think and also plays futbol at the church on tuesday and thursday night.  Elder Thompson asked him if his parents were at home. He took us too his house and we met his Mom and his Aunt. He is 13 and named K*.  We talked with his mom a little and asked if K* could come to church with us.  She said yes. Then we invited her to church.  She gave us an extremely soft Yes.  She said she had a husband but they aren´t married (this is happening on saturday afternoon).  About 5 mins into our visit her husband shows up.  A strong solid guy who gave us a VERY firm handshake. Fr* is his name. We asked his permission to take K* to church with us and after a couple three four seconds of thinking he said we could.  Then we invited HIM!  His was taking on the role of "I´m a tough guy and a man and what I say goes."  He asked us what church.  Then he asked what time? -   - "8:30, We can pass by a little before 8 to pick you guys up"  - - "Yeah we will go" He said... we talked a little more about our purpose as missionaries and such.  We left.

I called them on Sunday morning at about 7:30 and said we would pass by in 10 mins.  He said ok.  I have to be honest.... I was seriously doubting that they would come with us... we get that a ton.. everybody always says they will come and then when we show up to pick them up they come up with the lamest excuse EVER! Super annoying.  So we show up at their house and Guess who is all ready to go with their Sunday Best!?! Fr*, the mom, K*, and their 4 year old son!  I was dumbfounded!!! they were actually going to come to church with us!!!  I should not have judged them and trusted in God More.... 

I could tell they were really confused during the meetings.  The meetings of the church are completely different than here in Brasil.  The other church’s usually have a screaming preacher and ask for tithing from the time it starts to stops.  I think they enjoyed it. We are going back to ensinar tomorrow night. The mom works all day and only gets back at 8:00.  I´m excited to teach them and hopefully marry and baptize them.  They would make Great members! 

Like I said our ward mission leader, Antonio, is Amazing! We had our meeting with him last night and he is full of energy!  We planned some great activities for the word to animar.   He is on the same page as us as far as baptisms and excitement.  He says that whenever we have a baptism to let him know and he will be there... to mater the hora ou dia!  Of course we will try to put all of our baptisms for Saturday night so that the members can go.... but even when we did that... nobody went.... But just having him in the ward is amazing! He reminds me a lot of Jackson... just more humble ;)

This transfer has been a week of firsts for me....  When we stayed at the mission home last week I took a shower bare foot!!! I felt like I was sinning!   But it felt soo goood!  First time in about a year and a half.....  Today when we went on a major shopping trip I found Body wash... like actual liquid Axe body wash......  first time since the MTC.


We spent R$140 on groceries today. That is roughly 80 bucks. But we made tacos with it as you can see in the picture, and drank tereré.


The other pic was at the conselho de Liderança. Elder Hammer, Elder Brown, And Elder Klumker.  They are great Guys and Hilarious!



Well that was the week! Hope this week goes great for you guys and thanks for all of the letters! I got three envelopes this week!  Still doing great and loving what I’m doing!  Falou!

Love, Elder Ostler

This was the mission council…. I'm not in the picture because I took it….
with my super sweet camera….everybody always tells me how cool it is…. It is pretty sweet :)

When we ate at President's house - Yum

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