We went to the JUNGLE

Família!

What a week!  So I cannot believe that Saydi is already applying to BYU!  What the heck that is just craziness! Wilson! congrats on the Priesthood!  That is sweet! Always be worthy to use it!  Spring break!  That sure doesn´t exist on the mission... but we are going to have like 1 and a half hours to relax today which will be good.  It is much needed.

Well I didn´t read Saydi´s emails but it looks like she went to the zoo this week........ This week, we went to the jungle......... THE JUNGLE!!!  SELVA!!!!!  I´ll get to that later though.  First off, Tuesday, we went to the temple!  It was so amazing.  We got drenched with rain on the way there but it was all good. The temple is so peaceful and amazing that I just can´t even believe it.  I haven’t been in 3 months.... it was so amazing!  I just can´t put in words the peace that comes from the temple. It is amazing.  And you guys (boys) still going to those youth sessions in the morning (there is no question mark on this keyboard.)  So the temple was just amazing and I was able to understand just about everything this time:)  I think the Temple is sometimes we just take for granted.  I did for the first 3 transfers on my mission. And we get to go again on Wednesday!! I´m so stinking happy! It is going to be so awesome!

Oh I just feel like there is too much to tell you guys and that I´m not going to have time to do it.  So now I´ll tell about the JUNGLE.  This week we had lunch with De. She is a Irmã that lives in the JUNGLE! We had to take a bus for about 20 mins to get there.  When we got off we were met by her 10 year old son and nephew.  They showed us the way to the house.  We got off the road and descended this super steep dirt road into the JUNGLE, well, we were already in the JUNGLE..... but we went even more into the JUNGLE>

After we walked on the road for about 5 mins we came to a little...... I don´t know what it is called.  It wasn´t a river or a creek, it was just still water.  When it rains alot it fills up with water.  It was like a little water way that connects to the amazon river.  The picture (if it will send) should explain better.  We got there and they lived on the other side of the water.... so we had to cross some how.  The little boys swam to the other side and grabbed a canoe!  (They had to borrow it from someone because they had lent theirs to someone)  so we got in this canoe and crossed this waterway that was about 50 ft across!  We were in the JUNGLE. The AMAZON RAIN FOREST!  It was totally crazy.

Their house was a little wood house up on stilts.  For lunch we had Tambaqui, it is a fish that lives here and is super good. (I would send you a ton of pictures but it is taking for ever to load them, maybe next week).  After wards when we were leaving we left a different way.  We went down by the water and De BUSHWHACKED her way through these trees with a machete! It was super sweet! We were bushwhacking our way through the jungle to get to civilization!

Once we got out, we had to cross the water way to get back to the other side.  We borrows a canoe of another guy.  He also had this styrofoam buoy type thing that was like 6ft by 3 ft.  Delciane told us that we had to cross on THAT!!  I don´t know why!  There was a perfectly good canoe right there>  But it was fun.  That is what the picture is of.  Us crossing the water on the buoy.

I got on first.  Elder Walbrecht was a little bit nervous about getting on.  He really didn´t want to fall.  At first he was shaky but as we got going he mellowed out.  The two little boys got in the water and pulled us across.  It was insane!  I just couldn´t actually believe that we were in the middle of the AMAZON RAIN FOREST>  SELVA! So that was our jungle lunch this week.  Super fun:) 

On Wednesday we studied in the morning in Chapter 10 of PME.  Teaching skills.  We studied about listening, asking questions and using the scriptures.  That day we had 3 Killer lessons.  The first was with Si*.  He is a guy that we met through his kids. We talked to them on the street a couple of weeks ago.  We taught him the first lesson. I thought we taught it super super well.  It wasn´t just a cookie cutter lesson but we actually taught to his needs.

Our next lesson was with O.  He is  "married" to a member, but they aren´t actually married.  He was already taught by the missionaries where they used to live.  They just returned to manuas from one of the interiors.  We really went into the lesson just trusting in the spirit because we did not know what this man needed to hear.  We ended up teach the restoration and the BOM and the law of chastity.  We used in the lesson what we had learned that morning for comp study!  It was so awesome!  We were using scriptures to explain the restoration of the priesthood and we asked him questions that brought out his doubts.

Like at one point Elder Walbrecht invited him to be baptized.  He accepted.  He talked a little bit more about baptize after that.  Then I felt prompted to invite him to be baptized again... so I did.  When I was doing it Elder Walbrecht was looking at me like, what are you doing.  After I invited him he paused for a second and said "But I was already baptized."  That is when we were able to explain the importance of the priesthood in Matt 16 verse 18 and 19 I believe.

We went back again on Friday and had an equally good lesson.  We asked questions and listened really good.  They are having troubles accepting marriage right now and we didn´t know why.  Through the spirit we were able to figure our why.  The spirit put the questions into our minds that we should ask.  It was amazing.  They are going to be moving again in about 2 weeks so we will see what happens.

Sometimes I feel like we just fall into cookie cutter lessons and we don´t actually focus on the people.  And at times it is so easy to do because most everyone just accept it.  But you really have to listen and be in tuned with the SPIRIT to know exactly what the person needs to hear.  I need to get better at that, loving the investigator.....  We can´t just treat them like a baptismal statistic.  They are actually a real person who needs the gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Thursday we did a division with our DL.  Elder Gonçalves.  He came here to work with me in our area.  We went to teach a man we met at the lan house a couple of weeks ago.  We taught the first.  He accepted it all and he also accepted our invite for baptism. The Elder Gonçalves said that we would like to mark a date of his baptism.  Then he looked to me.  He whispered to me "this Sunday, this Sunday."  I pulled out the calendar and marked it for Saturday the 12 of April.  When I did that Elder G started like making this weird groaning noise because he wanted me to baptize him this week! No way jose.  The date we marked only gave him 2 Sundays of church before the baptism but when me and Elder Walbrecht talked about it later, we decided it was a good date because he seemed firm...... but..... he didn´t show up to church.....  nobody did!!!

We spent 2 hours on Saturday just going around and inviting our investigators to church and only had 2 show up........ I emailed Jackson one of the excuses one of our investigators gave us.... pretty interesting.....

So that was my crazy week.  Temple and the JUNGLE, some amazing teaching visits. This week is conference and it is going to be so awesome! There is something about watching conference as a missionary.  It is pretty sweet.  I love you all so much and I wish I could send more pictures but this is just taking forever!  I love you all and have a great spring break!

Elder Ostler