The Young Men taught him about the gospel without us!

Familia!

I love all of you so much!!  You know that saying, that you don´t know what you have till it´s gone. Well it´s true.  I thought I learned that it was true when I couldn´t run for a year and a half.  But now I´m learning it on a whole different note!  I miss all of you so much.  Some times I just think about you all.  I pray for all of you by name almost every night.  I love you so much.  Sometimes I do get really homesick.  Its not fun.  And yeah mom I read what you sent last week, this week.

Jefferson, I hope you make JV!!!!

So when I started reading email I thought it was mom typing about the dls and zls but then when I got to the part that said, "I´m turning the bunny cages into a dog pen," I knew it was dad.  rarrarrarra  only dad would do something that crazy:) rarrarra.

So yes the rule is 3-4 liters of water a day and every opportunity I get I drink as much as I can.  Sometimes though as I'm walking down the road in 39 degree weather my head just starts to pound and my mouth gets super dry, like super.  But I always eventually get a drink.

After emailing last week we went to the church to play ping pong.  President Klein is in our ward and so is his daughter and her husband so we played with the daughter and her husband.  I DESTROYED!!!!  I had 3 dynasties in a row.  I was on fire.  I don´t even think jackson or jefferson could have beat me.  On fire.  That also made me a little homesick as well because I just felt like I should be downstairs in the green room playing with jefferson and jackson.

On Tuesday I had to go to the federal police to get my id card.  We had to go to the mission office which is at the stake center.  we had to take like a 20 min bus ride and then walk like a mileish.  it took us 8 mins to walk from where the bus let us out to the stake center.  In those 8 mins, 49 drops of sweat dripped from my nose, chin and eyebrows... yes.. I counted.  and it is HOT.  I take a shower every night and right when I get out I start to sweat.  Crazy!! There were some cool days this week which was good.

So when I went to the police they just took my finger prints but we had to wait a while. Then later that day we had training for all the new missionaries and their trainers.  on Wednesday we had zone conference.   all the meetings were at the mission office/stake center.  we had to go there 3 times in two days... kinda annoying.  the travel time was like an hour one way.  walking, waiting for the bus and then riding the bus.  and sometimes the buses get packed... like I cannot move packed.  it is crazy.  I tried to understand what was happening at the meetings and I think I got most of it.

So just some funny stories...  we were walking down a beco (alley) at night one time  like we always do and we passed some teenage girls coming from school.  They were talking but I didn´t understand anything.  when we passed, Elder M was like, did you hear that?  'Yeah I heard it but didn´t understand it.'  He told me that this is what they said. ``If they (Me and elder m) would have said good night to me, I would have kissed them.``  rarrarrarrarra  how funny is that!!!

Another time we walked up to an old guy to talk to him about the gospel. I asked how he was doing.  he look at me and said ``I don´t understand you.``  Elder M tried talking and he still said he didn´t understand.  then Elder M ask if it was because we are American. He said yes and that we needed to leave.  it´s just funny because he totally could understand us.  he respond to 2 of Elder M questions.

So we had another baptism this week!  he is 15 years and his name is Felipe.  the YM in this ward are awesome.  Elder R and Elder M baptized like 4 ym.  they just keep bringing their friends for us to teach.  they call us every night to open the church gate for them (its locked and we have the key).  there is kind of a futebol field in there. it is just on the pavement.  we will only open it for them if they bring someone for us teach so they always do.  that is how we met felipe.  and they pretty much taught him all about the gospel without us.  they are just awesome.

This is João and João

One of them is named joão vitor.  I love him so much!!  he is so nice.  he got baptized like 3 weeks ago and he already has the priesthood.  he is 12 and is already talking about serving a mission.  he is so nice!!  and he actually talks in a way that I can understand him.  love him.  another one of their friends came to the baptism and we will probably baptize him this Sunday.  Elder M baptized felipe.

So about my companion.  I love him and am learning to accept him, at times it is just hard.  he has a tendency to always disagree with whatever I say.... no mater what it is.  I say, I like watching football, then he will say, I hate football and think it is a waste of time.  I love BYU football.  Then he will say I hate byu sports.  sometimes he does it to be funny..... but its not funny.  I´m trying to learn his kind of humor.  today we were cooking sausage in a frying pan and I said, 'sausage is already cooked.'  then he said no not always.......  haha i´m just kidding.  so just stuff like that.  whatever I say he will always disagree with.  he likes to contradict me.

Sometimes when I ask him to do something he won´t do it just because I asked him to.  like this morning he was cleaning the shower and I took my soap and stuff out so he could clean that part.  He asked why I was doing that.  I told him so that he could clean that corner.  he said he wasn´t going to clean that corner.  then after he was done he made the point of telling me that he didn´t clean that corner.  annoying stuff like that.

But I realized today that his contradicting me is just his sense of humor so I will just treat it as such and just laugh:)  he really is a good companion.  he teaches me a lot and is a hard worker.  I never have to bug him to get out the door, he just likes to sleep in....  but I´m waking him up tomorrow so we can go running:) he will thank me!

This morning we cleaned our house for 3 hours.  it was filthy.  under my bed was so dirty from the last elders stuff and dirt.  I also cleaned the kitchen.... like I would have made Anjye proud.  I took everything off the counter (microwave, blender dishrack) and washed the whole thing.  when I was done, it looked good:) The picture is the kitchen after I cleaned it.  Jefferson, you would be so proud of me for that job I did.  My comp was like, ``wow, you are kinda a clean freak.``  I told him that he doesn´t know you, Jefferson.  I told him if you were here you would have the whole fridge cleaned and organized as well.

A couple questions/requests.  can I iron my pants?  Is my bag waterproof?  and when you send a package I would love it if you would send like a little pocket notebook and face cleanser. But you don´t need to send one right now.... just when you do.

So on one of the days this week we went to eat at a members house.  it was an older couple.  they are wealthyer so their house is pretty nice.  their son was there too.  he is like 25 and an RM.  he is so cool!!  the food was absolutely to die for, noodles, rice, feijão and meat.  the feijão was so good.  it is just like a bean soup type of thing with beans and spices and big leaf things.  so good.  then they had steak and sausage!!  so good!  I had 3 plates full.

So what you do is you put it all on your plate, put a couple of slices of tomato on top and maybe some lettuce and then you mix it all up... so good!!  that meal was exceptionally good.  then for desert we had Acai.  you know those chocolate covered goodnesses we get from costco.  well it is the same fruit they just turn it into a smoothie thing and it is so good!  i haven't eaten anything weird yet.

I miss all of you so much!  I think about you all the time. I know I shouldn´t it is just hard not to with such an amazing family:):):)  keep up the good work boys.  you are Ostlers so I know whatever you are doing is good:) I love all of you and miss you!! thanks for your prays, I can feel them!!!!!  Love you.

Tudo Bem

Elder Ostler