This is no American hospital

Família!!

Sounds like the weeks just get better and better there.  Lots of stuff happening. Wilson I hope you are feeling better... a lot better.  That hike sounded great but I can't believe you only got one fish.... a little disappointing. I thought I taught you guys better.

Yeah so I´ll have a year in 2 days....... that is COMPLETELY UNREAL!!!  I cannot believe that it has already been a year.  When I think back to when I was home it seems like 3 months ago but when I think back to getting trained, it seems like an eternity ago.  But it mainly just feels like it went super super super super fast.  I don't have the package but that is alright, no big deal.

So what is with this investigator eating dinner at the house?!?! If somebody did that here I think I would grow wings and fly away while playing a harp.  You guys are taking your duty to share the gospel by the horns.  Parabéns!!  And Jefferson left 3 times with the missionaries this week! That is pretty cool.  Keep it up.  I wish I would have done that more. Dad, you rock. That is so great that you just stripped down and gave away all of your stuff for the comfort of others.  That is a great Christ like example........I remember what it was like to be cold..... those were the days......hey Benson, give a big wet kiss to Chris for me when they arrive. He´ll love it.  

So where do we even begin on the week....  let´s start at the beginning.  So this week was awesome!!!!!!  Best week I´ve had in a while.  Nothing extra ordinary happened, just your average week as a missionary.  It was a compilation of a lot of things. One thing happened on Tuesday, me and Elder Volk decided to go tracting up in a richer bairoo called Núcleo 9.  I hate doing contacts, street or door.  I´m just not good at it and never know what to say.  So on Monday night and Tuesday morning I was just praying for the courage to be able to do contacts.  Well the contacts came around and I loved it!  We were going for almost 1.5 hours!  We didn´t get in to teach anybody but we found two promising families!  Usually I dread it but that time it was fun.  It is because we had a plan.  If they wanted to hear us but didn´t have time then we were going to give them 2 choices of when we could come back. Then we would get their number and tell them we would call and confirm.

Another little thing is the ward.  I stinking love ala Êxodo!!!!  I love the leadership and the youth and everybody!  And I´m to the point where I´m comfortable with the members so now I can brincar com eles.  Especially Y*.  At the church on Tuesday and Friday they play futebol and dominos (I don´t want to play any of your grannie games alright!)  So we go there when we don´t have comprimissos and get references.  This Saturday they had the festa julinha which is a tradition festival here. It is like a cowboy/hillbilly party.  They dance and there is always a ton of food and everybody dresses up like hillbillies.  So they danced the quardilha which is the brasilian form of square dancing.  So during this week they had rehearsals at the church.  Just being with the members makes me happy.

Another thing that made the week great was my attitude.  Instead of wishing to be somewhere else, I was content in being where I am, even happy to be here.  I remember one night as we were getting a ride home from the church I just couldn´t stop smiling.  I am a missionary, is there anything more happy than that!  It was just a great feeling.  (this isn´t that organized because I forgot my paper where I wrote what happened during the week)  So I was just really happy this week! All week!! Except for one tiny little problem that I will address hereafter....... dun dun dun...

So like I said we had a massive party at the church on Saturday night.  The youth did a country dance and the primary also did a dance.  Then the whole ward did the quardilha... square dance but brasilian style.  It was so much fun and there were a ton of less actives there.  We also met a lot of non members... só que they don´t live in our area :(  but we will pass the reference.  

I forgot the best part of the night.  Right before the party we had a baptism.  She is the 12 year old daughter of Ka*.

The baptism was good.  Our YM presidency was there and they did a musical number. I´ve seen 2 on the mission.  It was a great baptismo and she is already friends with all the youth and she danced at the party!

Last night we had a little fireside with an ex mission president. He used to be the stake president here. His topic was preparing for a mission.  It was like a question and answer thing so anybody could ask a question and he would answer.  One of the questions was obviously "what is the best way to prepáre for a mission?"  He shared a quote from Elder Bednar that says the best way to prepare to go on a mission is to become a missionary.  To read what a missionary reads, to think like a missionary thinks and to pray like a missionary prays.  After this he called me and Elder Volk up. He didn´t give us a heads up about this.  He said that in order for members to think and pray like missionaries they need to know what missionaries pray and think about.  So he had Elder Volk tell what he thinks about all day and then had me give an experience on prayer.

It was on the spot and my heart was beating so fast.  I shared about the fast that me and my district did in cidade do leste to find new investigators and how we found like 7 people that week, how all got baptized.  I told them it is good to pray for yourself because we have to help other people but that it is also import to pray for others.  I thought it was pretty good.  My heart was racing but it was awesome!

So ... now for the thing that has been bugging me..... so as you know I have been suffering from ingrown toe nails, so I have had a super bad one for about 3 weeks, we are talking (the squeamish should skip this part) gushing out puss and blood.  And it kills when you touch it.  There was no way that I was ever going to be able to get that thing out of there so this morning.... we went to the hospital to get it taken out. We had a member take us.  We sat there and had to wait about an hour.  Then they took me back to another little waiting room. There I was able to talk to leticia, a 22 year old girl that I gave a Book of Mormon too.  I just explained to her a little about it then she said that I gave her curiosity to read it so I just gave her the Book of Mormon that I had with me.  I told her to start with the intro because it explains better about the book of mormon.

Then I went in with the doc.  It was a little tiny room. A little bigger than our pantry if you took all the shelfs out.  They had a gurney there ("I´m on a gurney") and had me lay on it.  It was just a nurse and a doc.  I had my foot hanging off the end of it over a garbage can.... this is no American hospital.  Then they just did it.  He numbed up my toe which did not feel the greatest.  Then he grabbed the ingrown toenail and said "do you feel that?"  I felt nothing.  Then he took some scissor type things and dug in and chopped off the ingrown part.  No pain.  It was great!  Then he prescribed some drugs (because it is infected) and off I went! 5 mins top.  He spoke a little english too.  The worst part is this... I have to stay in the house for a week.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

It can´t be!  If this would have happened to me at the beginning of the mission and I could have stayed in home for a week I would have been perfectly fine with that.  But now when I´m almost at my prime..... ahhhh, it just is a bummer.  Honestly there is a little part of me saying "yes I get a break!" But most of me is just suffering.  I love this work and I want to work everyday.  After the experience of tracting on Tuesday my fear of talking to people has really gone down. What is the worst they are going to say.. no? (people here don´t slam doors on us or yell at us, they just say they are catholics and say bye, in a semi nice way) so it is kinda a bummer but I´m glad that the pain is gone.  I´m still numb from the operation.  We are at the lan house right next to our house. I´m using a cain to walk around.

So that was like the week in a nut shell.  I´ll have a lot of down time this week so I'll probably wright some letters of the stuff that I forgot. Have a great week and know that I love you guys so much!

Elder Ostler

It's okay to keep the rules

Família!!  

Sounds like you all had a great week.  Scout camp and girls camp.  But what about Jefferson.... haven´t heard from that kid for a while.  Is it still just the same ole mowing, kicking butt and taking name.kakaka.  What about the dates?  "Do you have a girlfriend?"  "yeah"   "is she hot?"

No I haven´t gotten the package yet and I probably won´t get it till the transfer which is the 4th.   And I don´t really know if I can ask for it because we live quite a ways away from the mission office.  But if I don´t get it till the transfer... tudo bem:)

So today is Elder Neyra´s birthday.  He is in our district and he speaks spanish with me.  To day we bought açaí to celebrate.  It was good.  That is what the picture is of.

So Elder Volk said something very interesting to me in our comp inventory. This is what he said to me "you are teaching me that it is ok to keep the rules."  I loved that.  I´m glad I am showing him that:)  We go running every morning.... it is great! We have a round about by our house so we go out there at 6:30, well more like 6:50 by the time we get out there and we run for 20 mins then do abs afterwards... it is great!

So do you remember Ká?  She got baptized 2 weeks ago.  Well she is a single mother with 3 kids.  She got divorced about 6 months ago.  Her kids are LC, SF and Tat.  We have been teaching the two daughters most of the time but they didn´t want to baptize.  Well, SF was supposed to get baptized last Saturday (2 days ago) but it didn´t work out.  They live in an apartment building (don´t think of an Appt. building in the states.....) and the people that live below them are traficantes or in english, drug dealers.  So I guess that the story is that LC ratted them out and told the coppers so the druggies were threatening them... scary stuff.  So they left immediately to live with their dad in another bairro.  SF was going to get baptized 2 days ago and the other two would have gotten baptized this Saturday but now it is just Tat.  I´m really sad that they moved because I really loved them. I love talking with them and teaching them.. LC has so much faith!  We are going to get the address of their pai and send the missionaries there so tudo bem:)

They are playing music in this lan house (american music) and I don´t recognize half of the songs!  I´ve been away for some time now.....

On Thursday we went to the temple and this time we took a different bus that took us out to ponta negra (right by the temple) so we descended there and took pictures by the river.... Rio negro..... which makes the Amazon river.  It just like hit me.... this is the Amazon river and I´m here.... what the heck!  It felt like a mix of being at home and in Hawaii.  It felt like home because it was a river and we have a river but it felt like Hawaii because it was stinking hot and tropical.  None the less it was awesome.

On Saturday we did service in the morning.  We carried dirt, a lot of dirt.  This irmão had a massive pile of dirt out in front of his house so we had to use a pick ax to break up the big chunks and then haul it back behind his house in wheel barrows.  It took all morning and then an hour after lunch.  We were agsausted!!!  My back and abs hurt so much.  But it was awesome. I loved it. It is always do something different;  also the irmão was listening to the radio... american music.... and once again I didn´t know half of the songs.

So last night after our meetings at the church (which were awesome!! I love being apart of the leadership meetings and planning stuff)  Y* gave us a ride home.  I was hanging halfway out the window because the car was loaded with people.  I was just looking around me and it hit me.... "I´m on a mission.... and I almost have a year on the mission..... this is unreal."  It was the first time that I really thought about it. Just looking around at brasil, it just hit me.  

Know that I´m fine and doing well.  I love you all and hope you have an amazing semana!!!

Elder Ostler

And mom I haven´t heard of anybody going home because of the heat but I have heard of people going home because of the "heat" to baptize.  Crazy stuff.   

Amo vocês!

Chat with Elder Ostler

Elder Ostler: You there? Is dad there? I have a teeth problem.. nothing serious.  

Mom: Text me the question. I'll text it to dad. He's waiting - they're boating today. But I told him you had a question

Elder Ostler: Boating with who? The boys? tell them to do something legit in my name kakaka.  

So I have the wires on the back of my front teeth that hold them in place.  The wire is glued to my teeth.  A section of the wire came off but the end of it is still glued to the tooth. I could just leave it, cut it off (the broken dangling section)?  Or yank it out (with tweezers)?  Or fly dad down here to take it out? kakaka

Mom: He said he's flying down!!!!  Just either clip it or if that leaves a jagged edge yank it off. Do you have the clear retainer you can still wear at night?

Elder Ostler: Yeah I do.  Here is a tip for when Jefferson leaves.... get him a brand new retainer the week he leaves....

Is it the boys that are out boating?

Mom: Jefferson's & 2 friends, Hunt and Olsen, and Benson and 2 friends, Cooper and Merkley and dad are boating. I told them to do something legit in your name. Your email was awesome. I've been catching your blog up today, I was 3 weeks behind. So I've read the last 3 weeks. I just hope that you know how much we love you, that you can feel it during your down times. Turn to the Lord, ask for comfort and you'll get it. It's promised to you. You're worthy of the Holy Ghost, you can have comfort any time of the day or night. I love you so much and am so proud of the missionary that you are. That you're setting a good example, that you're being a good leader.

Elder Ostler: Well I´m out of here.  It doesn´t look like anything is getting through but I love you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.

The mission is hard

Família!

Wow looking at that picture just makes me miss Washington, wow that is a great state:)  So for starters... the world cup.  When alemanha just kept scoring and scoring it was just quiet.  So weird. After the 3rd goal I knew it was over.  After that I just thought they were showing a replay...kakakak  I watched it with our elders quorum Pres.  He is a super funny guy.  You can never tell his emotions because he always looks like he wants to hurt you, but usually he is just tranquilo.  It was kind of sad but I didn´t let it bother me.

After that we went around and talked to our people. In the streets everybody was outside and just normal but nobody talked about the game, normal.  But the week was a hard one.  It was just weird, I don’t know how to explain it.  The people weren't like noticeable sad but they were just different.  No I didn´t watch the game, we could have gone and watched it but Elder Volk was tired and I was fine with not watching it because I probably would have felt guilty watching it anyways, so we went home and studied.

Last p day we did a churrasco with the 4 other elders in our district and it was really fun. Elder Volk has phase 10 so we played that.  We did a division on Tuesday and I stayed in my area with a greenie from Peru.  I had him teach me some spanish.. or rather, reteach me :)

Mom, you said something last week that I never responded to.  You talked about how you thought that I was confused about this whole baptism thing, like I´m torn.  Well you are totally right.  I want to be that type of missionary and love to take my investigators to church for a while and teach them everything and convert them on an American missionary standard... but here it is just not like that.  We just baptize really fast..  Don´t worry, we still teach, it is just different.  But I´m getting more and more used to it.  So you were right about me being in a torn state.  And I remembered something that Pres Castro said to us 2 weeks ago, he asked a question like this "do you guys think that we are qualifying our baptism and baptizing like the prophets would have us baptize?"  So my guess is that he will start to change things, I hope.

But like I said, this week was just a little weird, it was a hard week for me starting on Wednesday.  I don´t know why but on Wednesday and Thursday I was just REALLY DOWN.  Like sad.  There were a lot of factors, I didn´t feel like I was doing enough.  I don´t remember why I was down, I think I just didn´t feel like a good missionary.  It was super hard, I didn´t feel like I had the spirit with me.  I was studying the story of Ammon and in Alma 17 I noticed something...verse 5 talks about all of the suffering that they went through.  When I think of them, Ammon and his brothers) I think of great missionaries full of the spirit but in that verse we learn how much they suffered.  It talks about suffering mentally, physically and spiritually, that is the part that surprised me.  They were great men of God BUT STILL suffered in the spirit. Dad, you should share this verse with your priests, the mission isn´t easy, it even says in the BOM that it isn´t.  The next verses talk about their preparation through, they prayed and fasted that they might have the spirit poured out upon them that they might teach with power and authority and that is the key, the preparation.  The mission is hard, at times, unbearably hard, but if you prepared yourself, it is totally possible,,,, and even fulfilling.

On Thursday night (after a baptism, which I will talk about later) I asked Elder Volk for a blessing and after that I felt way better.  He said that I was teaching by the spirit and that the people could see the resemblance of Jesus when they looked at me.  That helped me a lot.  Then on Friday I did what I call an Ammon fast,  I fasted just like they fasted in verse 9 of chapter 17 of Alma.  I fasted that I could have the spirit to teach the people and also that I would be able to be more animando e tirar o desanimo.  Well it worked, Friday was a much better day. I was able to be happy and enjoy the accompaniment of the spirit. I remember we were in a lesson with a new investigator.  At the end I beared my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith.   I could feel the spirit testifying to him through me.  It was a great feeling.  I don´t really now how much else I can explain it other than it was great!   The power of fasting is real.  It is always during the fast that I´m able to see the most blessings which I find rather amazing.

So right now we have an investigator called BJ and his wife. I do believe that I already talked a smigit about them.  We already took him to the marriage place and sorted out his problem. He can get married, só que he doesn´t want to.  He always has some sort of excuse to not get married and baptized.  And when he runs out of excuses he just starts again with the first, no joke.  But the man loves me!  He tells me how I´m going to baptize him and he always gives me a big hug!  I love it. I just wish that he would do something.  He wants to baptize, just not marry.

So I´ve heard this phrase a bit when we teach people, like the 3rd or 4th visit "oh I believe everything you say, I believe that all of it happened (talking about the first vision and such) but I already have my church and I don´t want to be in 2 churches, but you can still visit me when ever you want"  What the what?!?!  That makes no sense, if you really believed that then you would know that THIS is the ONLY church. I think it is just because the people don´t understand.  We have an investigator who is the owner of a bakery and she told us this.  We don´t think she will progress any further but it is always nice to go teach her because she gives us free food after wards:) kaiak

So we are working really well with the leaders here.  I love our 1st counselor in the bishopric, he is far right in the picture, Y* is right next to him (where we watched the game, the crazy one).  The 1st counselor just has his head on right and has good ideas and understands.  He always offers to leave with us.  And he has a car which is a plus and he is a math teacher so that is pretty cool too:)  In the wheelchair is our ward mission leader.  My first one since I was in adrianopolis, he is great and has a great excited spirit. The only problem is is that he is in a wheelchair so we can´t even leave with him to go teach, our area has too many hills and stairs for that. (Manaus is NOT flat) but he is still good.

The baptism was good.  R* know quite a bit of the members in the ward. He has being playing futebol here for 6 years and was taught by the missionaries two years ago só que ele nunca batizou por causa da namorada dele.  She was of a different church but now she is gone so he got baptized!  I had to baptize him 3 times.  The first two times his foot came up so the 3rd time I put my foot on his foot.  I dunked him down then as I was bringing him back up I noticed that his hand never went under so I pushed him back down... when I looked up at Elder Volk (the witness) he had a look of horror in his face, he said afterwards that it looked like I was trying to drown him because I had him under, I was bringing him up and then I pushed him back down again. kaka

Dad, so being a zone leader doesn´t take much time away from our work, just at night when we have to call the DLs and get numbers and stuff so sometimes we are up late but other than that it is fine.  We will be giving zone training tomorrow so that will be fun:)  My first training as a ZL!

So Jefferson and Benson are on the efy high huh... efy,,, good times.  And that is awesome that you are going to ape caves, I love that place:).

And Jefferson the mowing feeling always sucks, I know it, where you just want to be done.  Remember how you always had to come and wake me up because I was sleeping... it is because I didn´t want to go... and because I wanted to sleep.  What I did to help it was just enjoy your days off more.  Have fun.. GO ON DATES!!!!!!! They are fun!  By the way, who was mowing while you where gone?  That is what I'm trying to figure out.

Playing cards of 3 with Elder Nielsen and Elder Neyra today.
Sorry Wilson but I never won:(

Well my week was pretty hard but God was able to help me turn it around.  I hope that scout camp doesn´t smell to bad and that you guys don´t get too hot at home this week (like that´ll ever happen kakakkak)  Love you all and don´t forget to read the Book of Mormon!

Elder Ostler

Studying daily is key

Dear família!

Happy 4th of July!  People here were celebrating with fireworks too...just they weren't celebrating our independence day,.... they were celebrating brasil´s win. :)

So on Tuesday we met Presidente Castro.  He has the standard works memorized! He was just popping off scriptures like nobodies business!!  He is very spiritual too. He is really cool.  From his training I picked up a few things about him.  1.  he loves the scriptures. 2.  he will enforce the rules because obedience is important to him.  3. Studying daily is key.  4.  He is not all about baptizing just to baptize.  Yes, he wants to baptize a lot but he is not the guy that is going to be ok with missionaries just throwing people in the water. I think that he will enforce the qualifications for baptism. When one of the elders who is a big baptizer asked him what he thought about our goal of 12000 baptism for the year and spreading the work he told a story about when he served a mission and him and his comp went to an interior and taught a whole town of 5000 people.  They called president and told him they were going to baptize the whole town.  President said no way because there was no way those 5000 people were going to stay firm in the church because there was no church there.  He was transferred immediately.  So he didn´t answer the question directly but we got the point:)  He isn´t just going to be sending missionaries out to start the church in rural cities here.  I got that he wants us to baptize the right way.

We did a division this week with one of the DL in out zone.  I went to their area with the junior comp.  I helped him see that obedience is important and to stop listening to music.  In that house there are 4 elders so the next morning I went on a run with another elder.  He is a beast!  He was Elder Pothier´s comp in the states when they served there. After we finish here at the lan house we are going to go over there and have a churrasco!!  Gonna be super fun.

This week we had 2 baptisms, on Saturday Ká got baptized. I don´t remember if I talked about her last week. We met here 2 months ago and didn´t want anything to do with us when we met her.  Now she has totally changed and desired to baptize.

Yesterday after church, E* was baptized.  He is the brother of one of the members in the ward.  He was taught by missionaries 6 months ago but never got baptized because he traveled.  So he was baptized yesterday.  I only taught him 2 times before he was baptized.  It is because Elder Volk went there when we were on divisions.  So really we taught him 5 times but I was only there for 2 so to me it was kind of weird at the baptism because it felt like I really hadn´t done anything. Elder Volk told me that in one of the lessons they read the BOM and he had really good questions. I have no doubt that he will stay firm in the church. His brother in law baptized him.  He is the skinnyer one in the picture.

After church we had a ward council meeting.  It was soo good!!!! Our first councilor in the bishopric is the best.  He conducted the meeting and the meeting was pretty much us going over the mission plan of the ward.  He assigned each organization to bring to the bishopric their plan to find people for the missionaries to teach (it is part of the plan) then we designated a time for the baptisms to take place every week.  It was a great meeting.  I love this ward and I do not want to leave! I forgot to tell that to pres castro to day in my email. I´ll tell him next week.

So I have a few question for ya. What is the Dealio with cousin Tyler?  He go back yet?  And I want to put more songs on my ipod.  Can I just hook it up to the comp and download music from lds.org or will that totally mess up the iPod. 

Well that was our week. It was a good week:)  We have a date marked with Ro for this Thursday.  He has known the church for over 2 years but could never baptize because his girlfriend wouldn´t let him. Now she is out of the picture so he is all for it!  He is 18.  I´m pretty excited for his baptism:)

I also played piano again and did so so .  The sacrament hymn was I Stand all Amazed.  The first time I played it was right then. I just played the top hand.  The chorus was bad... but it was singable:)  PRACTICE YOUR PIANO! 

Have a great week.  Oh and my brothers are BEASTS!!!!!  Slalom skiing ,,, I never did try that out.  Benson, Christian would be very proud of you:)  Have a great week.

Elder Ostler

Vamos Brasil!!

The key to being a missionary is humility

Família!!

First of all..... BRASIL GANHOU!!  That is right baby, leave it to Júlio César to save the day.  That was a great game.  It was at noon so we watched it over lunch at a member of our bishoprics house.  We were so into that game.  When Júlio blocked those 2 goals, we were going crazy!!!  After the win the fireworks happened.  Then we left to go work.  EVERYBODY on the streets was so happy.  Honking horns, Brasil flags hanging out of car windows, people hanging out of car windows screaming, and everybody was just really happy.  It was really cool.  I must say I´m a little disappointed in all of you, minus Jackson and Dad.. kakakakakak 

So my comp is Elder Volk.  He is half Brazilian though.  His dad met his mom when he served his mission in Brasil so a lot of the people here think he is Brazilian.  We get up at 6:30 and go running!! We went on Saturday and it was awesome.  There is a round about right next to our house so we went and ran around that which is great because we don´t have to run at each others pace, we just go.  So I´m looking forward to doing that with him.

Presidente Klein left on Friday and Presidente Castro chegou.  All I know is that he is from Espírito Santo and his wife is from Paraguay.  Him and Pres Klein are friends. I will meet him tomorrow at Conselho da Missão.  It is all of the ZLs and sister leaders. It is a big all day meeting where he make decisions from the miss~ion.  I´m super excited!!  Elder Volk tells me that it is just so much fun.

So this week was great!  I think I learned more in this week than I learned in my last transfer on the mission.  It started on Monday night, like I said Elder Nielsen stayed with us.  At night we were talking, he asked me for some advice about training his new missionary...  I told him a little.  Then I asked him for advice on being a ZL.  He has been my Zone leader for the past 3 transfers. I look up to him a lot. He is a great missionary.

The second big learning moment was on Wednesday when we did divisions with the APs.  They were two brand new AP Elder Munhoz e Elder Sobarzo.  So they came to our area and I went with Elder Munhoz.  He is Brazilian and awesome!  We went to teach 2 couples that need to get married.  One of them doesn´t want to and the other one has other problems.  As we were teaching I was just amazed at his teaching ability!  He always knew what to say and what he said flowed so beautifully. He used the scrips a ton and he brought the spirit into the lesson.

A* still doesn´t want to marry but we left her with ether 12 to read and pray.  BJ has a problem in that he thinks he is still married to another women.  So the next morning, a member came and picked up me and Elder Munhoz then we picked up BJ then we went to the cartorio, it is like a government building.  We went to see if he had to divorce antes que ele pode se casar.  We found that he doesn´t!!!  Anyways, back to Elder Munhoz.  I talked to him afterwards about how he taught like that.  He told me that he focuses on the spirit.  He said that in order to get the spirit he is obedient to the rules and that he memorizes scriptures.  Another big thing he said is that when he hears  prompting... he just does it without thinking twice.  I learning so much with him and now I want to do what he said so that I can teach like him.

That night at the house we had 4 elders there, a bunkbed and a hammock.... so I slept on the tile floor!!!  It wasn´t that bad.  I put a coat that an elder left at the house under my bum and then I put my pillow the long way so it would cushion my back and then I put our area book under the pillow under my head to prop my head up a bit.  I only woke up one time at night.  I slept pretty good too:)

The other big learning moment was yesterday when me and Elder Volk did a division with 2 recently RMs in our ward. I went with Fernando.  After we went and visited one of our investigators he was like "lets knock some doors."  He was so excited to be a missionary again.  He went and clapped a door but no one was home.  Then he saw a guy across the street and was like "oh! lets talk to him!"  We went over and taught him the restauração.  He is a great teacher and was really excited the whole time. He talked a lot about how the man needed to pray to know for himself to know if these things are true.

Afterwards we were talking and he told me the key to being a missionary is humility. He showed me in the letter from the 1st pres in PMG at the beginning where it says that.  He said when you are humble doing a contact isn’t difficult.  For me, I still am bad at contacts and I don´t like it.  But Elder Volk is really good and I´m learning from him.  But those 3 experiences I am learning a lot!  So great!

Yesterday we were supposed to have the baptism of Ká after church.  Elder Sobarzo interviewed her on Wednesday and she passed but she was still falting vontade to baptize.  When we met her, she wanted nothing to do with us.  She thought we were wrong and worshiped Joseph Smith.  She would just walk out when we were teaching her and her daughters, now her heart has changed and she is accepting the Gospel and will now be baptized the week that comes, like this weekend.  We will also be baptized the brother of a member.  He was taught be missionaries 6 months ago but moved so he never got baptized.

I played the piano in sacrament meeting again.. it wasn´t that bad because I picked 4 hymns that I knew, except the sacrament hymn. I don´t really know any.  So I practice the celestial courts (or something like that) during the week then played it yesterday.  There is a pianist like I said but she didn´t want to play this week so she asked me to do it, which I love.  I´m way less nervous now to play than I was the very first time I did.  And this isn´t like the church in candeias that has 30 people. This is a congregation of 100-120 people!  So boys... I will say it again.... Practice your piano.  And not just hymns, learn fun songs too. Wish I would have done that. Learn and memorize.  It will bless you so much in your life.  And if you get a chance to play for people to sing, TAKE IT!

I can´t believe that Saydi is cold kakakakakakaka!!  It is hot here!  Actually today was weird, the weather was like Seattle weather, misty and cloudy and a little cool.

So a little bout our house.  We live above members.  They live downstairs and they have 3 apartment thing upstairs.  We live in one and their sons and their wives live in the other 2.  Our house is kinda small but super nice!! And we borrowed a hammock for Elder Nielsen last Monday so I slept in it last night.  Pretty comfy.  For breakfast every morning we walk across the street and buy bread.  That is breakfast here in brasil, pão.  I like it.  They have pão de queijo (cheesebread)  pão doce (sweet bread) and massa grossa or pão frances which is just like a little piece of bread... kind of like mama roll but with a harder outside... oh mama rolls.. with homemade strawberry jam..... yum.....

So summer is like flying by for you guys or what!! It is for me.. it is almost July!!!! That is crazy!  You gotten the boat out yet?  In the pool everyday?  Mowing lawns? Jefferson, are you going on dates?!?!?  You got to do it,,, it is fun stuff.  This week was a good one.  It was great that those 2 RMs helped us out on Sunday, it was Fernando that had the idea to do division!  Help the missionaries!  Tell them you will go out with them or better yet.. give them someone to teach.  I´ve calculated that a reference from a member is 84% more likely to get baptized than just someone the missionary finds.. it is true.

To answer your question mom I am pretty confident in my language.  I understand just about everything and I can say what I want.  But I´m still not forgetting english:)  Me and Elder Volk speak english sometimes together.  Him and his last american comp did it so he is just accustomed to it.  mas eu gosto de falar português.  Eu lembro quando eu estava falando com elder walbrecht e ele falou que é estranho que nós somos bilíngue.  Nunca penei sobre isso mas é verdade.  Y yo estoy hablando español con elder Neyra, él es nuevo compañero de Elder Nielsen.  Él es de Peru.

The pic is of me in front of the stadium here.  We had to go to the mission office this week so we aproveitamos e tiramos algumas fotos.

I love you all so much!  Have a great summer week!

Elder Ostler

How do you feel now that you are a zone leader?

Família!!

Well it sounds like you guys had a crazy week!  Crazy Fun!!  My week was crazy to say the least.  But you bought sand tires for all the 4wheelers> (questionmark)  And where was Chris for most of this time (questionmark)  And Benson is like.... turning into a man, he is actually bigger than that bike now... parabéns.   And Brasil in the world cup.  I was soooo into that game and afterwards I just couldn´t believe that they hadn´t putten up any goals.  We watch the last 20 mins of the US game.  I totally thought that we had it in the bag until they had that amazing cross header goal.... oh well... they will probably still make it through to the next round.  Ronaldo was not happy.  It is good to hear that nobody got seriously hurt, Cody just kinda got bruised up a little (fireworks are going off in preparation for the game which starts in 2 hours).

So I guess is I will just start with the week..... the big change happened on Tuesday night. The ZLs called and said that Elder G would be getting transferred the next day which was really weird because transfers weren´t till today.  So what happened is this.  Our Zls are Elder V and N, 2 Americans.  Elder N was my ZL in cidade do leste and I like him a lot.  Elder V came on Wednesday morning to be with me in Êxodo and Elder G went with Elder N to be in their area.  I didn´t know why.  All I knew is that the area of the ZL was moving.

After Elder V unpacked a little he sat down and said "so Elder Ostler, how do you feel now that you are a zone leader (questionmark)"  I just kind of sat there and looked at him.  I asked what he was talking about.  He told me that we are the new zone leaders......  I was totally taken aback.  I didn´t even know what to think.  It was just crazy.  Elder G got transferred to the other side of the river today and Elder N will be staying in his area and train.  The pic is of us 4 last night, Elder V is the one by me and Elder N is the one on the left.

So being a zone leader now, I don´t even know what to think.  All of the zone leaders I´ve know have been like old missionaries who know how to baptize.  I just still feel like a young guy... because I am. One thing that I have been praying for is humility. Not that I´m super prideful... I just don´t want to arrive there.  I talked to Elder O this week and he told me not to be like all of the prideful Zone leaders who think they are too good for every one.   I want to do what the missionary handbook says and love the elders in my zone.

On Sunday we had a baptism.  A girl that we found a few weeks ago.  The baptism was great.  She is in relief society though because she has a little baby who we have to carry to church when we go to buscar her in the morning.  I´ll send a pic of the baptism.

So Elder N has been with me and my comp since last night, his greenie won´t get here till tomorrow afternoon so he is sticking with us.  Last night we talked alot....  it started out with talk about the mission.  They are from the same group and they told me about the start of their mission.   They went through WAY worse than me. Elder N almost went home because he was questioning the baptizing thing.  And their zone leaders were insane!!!!  He has really opened my mind these last 3 transfers I´ve known him (he was my ZL in cidade do leste também).

We talked alot about our missions and he talked alot about the transfers when I was with Elder Walbrecht.  Elder Nielsen did a division with Elder Walbrecht and he told me that he envied our area.   We were retidão.. like we followed all the rules, mission rules and baptizing rules.  He said that when he was there he felt good and he envied us and our area and the work we were doing.  It felt good to hear him say that to me. Most other missionaries just find someone and baptize them in 2 to 3 weeks and sometimes all of the lessons aren´t taught.  

So that was my week.. not much details but that is the big stuff that happens.  I really like Elder V, he is a great teacher and he is really focused on baptism.

One of the main thing in this mission is marking dates... that is just what you do. If someone goes to church, in the next visit you mark a date for their baptism and then you do what you can to get them baptized on that day.  This mission is not like other missions... it is just different.

President Klein goes home on Saturday.... it is crazy  that he is already leaving.  I´m kind of excited that I got called as a ZL right when the new pres (President Castro, brasilian) will be arriving so that I will be able to get direct training from him and really take to heart his plans.  I will do what he says.  If he comes in here and just turns the mission upside down and puts a stop to baptisms... I will follow.  If he puts a massive emphasis on obediencia... I will follow.  He is not even here but I know that he is called of God and Know that he will receive inspiration for the mission.

One thing that I love here in brasil is the bakeries!! Amazing!  That is what people have here for breakfast,,,, bread.  We have one right in front of our house and it is bomb.

We are going to watch the brasil game here in a couple of hours.  Be thinking of me when brasil wins 3-0 :)  it is gonna happen:)

I snapped this picture real quick and it isn´t that good.
It is a motorcyvle decked out with brasil flags.. these people are nuts!

I can´t tell you guys how much I love you guys.  Being with these two Americans for the past day has made me a little missing the USA and you guys and the stuff you guys will do this summer.  But I´m still fine.  I know that I need to be here and serve and I´m excited for all of the changes that are happening and will happen.

I love you guys!

Elder Ostler

PS I got ANOTHER package this week.  The one with the towels.  Thank you so much for those.. they feel sooo goood!! I am so blessed to have a family like you guys. You guys rock!

Me and Elder G were giving it all we had!

Família!

Wow I loved that email, it sounds like you guys had a great week. Jefferson emailed me and told me all about the camp too.

So you watched the Manaus game!  Sweet!  I´m about a long way away from the stadium.  By bus a little less than an hour, car... 20 to 30 mins.  And if they showed an above shot of the stadium, then you definitely saw the mission office.  It is 2 blocks away.

So this week was good.  In order to understand this next part I need to explain something.  In my district it is me and Elder Galvan with one other companionship.  On Monday the ZLs called me and said that the other companionship (or ward) would be receiving two new elders.  One ward with 4 elders, 2 companionships.  They arrived on Tuesday morning.  It was weird because transfers are in a week.  But you will never guess who one of the missionaries is?!? Elder O! The one I was with in Candeias!  I don´t know if I told you but he went home after the surgery and was home for 3 months and now he just came back!  I was so happy to see him and he was happy to see me.  He is telling everybody how good my brownies and pancakes are.  I think I will make a big batch of brownies today and take them to zone training amanhã.   This picture is of our zone on Tuesday at the temple:)  I love that place:)  So now my district has 6 elders and it is great!

On Wednesday the power went out at 3 in the afternoon.  As we were walking home that night on a busy street we saw three guys pushing a car in the middle of the street.  So we ran out to help them.  One of them was drunk...shocker.  We helped them push.  It was out of gas and the station near their house was out of energy so they had to go to a different one.  We got to a hill.  We jumped in the bed (it was like a car and a truck mixed because it had a bed) and rode down the hill... we were booking!!  When we got to the bottom we got out and pushed again... this time, up hill.  There were 5 of us, one of them was drunk and the other two were doing very little.  Me and Elder G were giving it all we had!!  I was dripping in sweat.  But it was super fun.  We hit another downhill and coasted to the gas station.  Then they drove us home.. it was pretty fun.  We gave them our number and a restoration pamphlet.  The power was still out when we got home.  In the closing prayer of our planning session the lights flickered on.  Everybody in the streets started cheering:)   If the power wouldn´t have come back on that would have been one miserable night.  No AC and no fans.. hot hot humid and hot.

Thursday we watched Brasil and Croatia.  The other 4 elders came to our area and watched with us in the house of the Elders Q Pres. He is crazy!  and funny.  I will admit that that yellow card was trash but even with out the penalty kick Brasil still would have won 2-1.   They play Mexico tomorrow so we get to watch again!  woohoo!

This is what all of the streets here look like!!! Go BRASIL!!!!!
Oh I forgot to tell you!! We got liberaed to watch the jogos de Brasil!!!!!  I´m so excited!

Halftime of the Brasil game

Last week on Monday night we did a FHE with a family that is returning to activity and invited Is*, the one we baptized last week. It was good, we taught the lesson on agency and standing firm in these last days.  Brasilans love to talk and talk and talk so we lost control at some points but in the end it was good.  We are trying to work with Is* more.  We are also teaching his brother, he has two younger brothers.  But his dad, everytime we go there just ignores us.  He is from another church.

Yesterday we woke up and left at 7 to go get people for church.  We passed by 7 houses and got one person.  It was a little disappointing but we got one:)  

One thing that I´ve been having a hard time with this week is numbers.  Here we are expected to get high numbers.  On Wednesday when we passed that numbers to the ZLs they told us we needed to invite more people to be baptized and mark dates and find news.. sometimes stuff like that just gets me down.. it is partly because I´m still prideful and I think that I´m doing fine and then when somebody tells me I´m not.  I'm just trying to be more humble and not worry about our numbers too much.

Another thing I´m trying to do is make my WILL God´s will.  Sometimes as a missionary I have an internal battle between the mission and home. Let me explain.  I know that it is God´s will for me to be here and it is my will too but sometimes I still want to be home with you guys, but that is not God´s will.  It is this struggle between wanting to be home and wanting to be on the mission. I´m not saying I´m homesick or anything, (unlike you mom, hours go by with out me thinking about you guys:) sometimes a day:) but I always remember you guys in my prayers at night)  So I´m trying to make my will Gods will.  A perfect example of this is Mateus 26:39, one of my favorite Scriptures.  It´s when Jesus Prays to the Father and says that he doesn´t want to do the Atonement but that he WILL because he wanted to do the will of the Father and not his own will.

So last week I told you about getting my camera fixed... well it didn´t happen, the place didn´t have the right piece. So now I will just wait for that battery:)  Ilovebrasilmail...  and MY PICTURES ARE HERE!!! What happened is that the lady transferred the pictures to the computer but not the flash drive!!! When we went back she found them on the comp and put them on the flash drive and the memory card.  So now.... I have 2 copies of them.

So that was my week. Oh one more thing.  So Elder Galván mixes in a little spanish with his português like he says "voy" instead of "vou" and just little stuff like that.  It still gives to understand him but it is just that now I´m starting to do that!!  kakakakaka.  Every once in a while I will say a whole phrase in spanish.. I´m pretty good like that.  trilingual.  Well have a great week mowing lawns and riding 4 wheelers:)  Amo vocês

Elder Ostler

Brasil Campeão!!

Rumo ao Hexa!!!