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