Thanks for all of those cool pictures!! Looks like you guys had a great time at the beach! Thanks for all of the mail you have been sending too! Things have been going well here. We continue to learn new stuff non-stop, both gospel oriented and language. I've decided Russian is a difficult language! Its been really interesting learning it so i really enjoy it but at times it can be just a little overwhelming. It's hard to explain but its a really good, exhausted feeling at the end of each day when we head back to our residences. I know that the Lord blesses us if we are putting forth our best effort and i feel like I am doing that. This Sunday we had a fireside where a few music composers came and talked to all the missionaries about the songs they arranged in the hymn book. It was a really neat experience to hear what went into each one of these songs. I guess i never thought about the significance of each note, even in the hymn book. It added a whole different aspect to the hymns for me which was really cool. My district leader and I have actually been preparing a song that we are hoping to audition for one of the upcoming devotionals. He's got some good musical background so it been really nice to sing hymns and other church music with him when we've had free time on Sundays. This week we are supposed to give the second lesson in complete Russian to an investigator here at the MTC. The investigators are members but have volunteered to come in and help us practice and are pretty authentic. I guess we'll see how it goes! Its pretty exciting and terrifying at the same time but i know it will be a great learning experience from which we can build. Today we made it to the early morning session at the temple and it was a great session. We really enjoy going there earlier in the morning when the sun hasn't quite come up over the mountain and then coming out when we are through to the view of all of the flowers and fountains being lit up by the brightness of the sun. It really is so beautiful and sometimes i feel like it is that tender mercy of the Lord that gives me the strength to make through each week. Well, not much else has been going on here. Just lots of studying and praying!:) Im hoping to get some pictures printed and sent to you here pretty soon. I hope everything is going well back at home! Love you guys!
~Elder Ostler
