12-19-2011

Hello Family!

Glad that everything worked out perfectly when i made that skype account and you were right there to add me! Miracle!!! This week has been CRAZY! SO, we had a lesson with an older grandma in our branch who i'm sure will be translated anytime now. She tries so hard to do what is right and wants so badly to do all the missionary work she can in her little babushka body. She just reffered a neighbor to us which has clearly been prepared for the message of the gospel and as we taught a little about the gospel of Jesus Christ, she asked the perfect questions with an open heart. She is now on date for the 14th of January! She accepted it and everything and seems to really want to find peace in her life! Her name is Valentina and she has a family that struggled alot but has just started to level out a little. She is in her mid-50's i believe. Prayers on her behalf would be greatly appreciated and expecially so she can attend church each sunday. Work is looking like it may be an issue for her but i feel she understands the urgency and has great desire to serve God now that she has found truth. Such a great blessing!!! We also just had transfer's this week and my companion became Assistant to the President and Elder Loveridge is now my companion. He is a great Elder from Utah that i look forward to serving with. We are already seeing great miracles and seeing the blessings from being a unified companionship. We are also learning great things from our experiences as zone leaders! We had a zone leaders council with president Bennet from the area presidency which was a great wake up call. He really pointed out some of our weaknesses and help us make steps towards correcting them and helping our mission do the same. He has really focused on us opening our mouths and speaking to everyone. Its not only overcoming fear but a real change of attitude, expecting to find those who we are ready. He talked exactly about a concern i had about seeing our results and it was so great how he helped us see the more mature way of seeing things, expecting great results but not letting ourselves get discouraged when we face adversity. It is all in the Lords time, we shouldnt be so imatient to see the will of the Lord take place here. Those things he has promised will take place without fail, but we may or may not see that during our time here. It is our job to work as hard as we can right now and that will be enough. Have strong enough faith to keep running and running and sacrificing and sacrificeing without needing the fuel from the tank of visible results. I feel this is a large reason to why i have been called here, to learn this one concept. I love the Lord and am so grateful that he has placed me in the perfect place in the perfect time for my good and for the good of those with whom i associate. It is the same for all of us, no matter where we are no matter what we are doing. God has prepared specific people that we ourselves can only touch and help. It is our choice to honor that trust the Lord has for us. The Lord loves us all so much and he gives us all such great oppurtunities and we must take them if we ever want to face our Heavenly Father with peace in our hearts at the judgment day. I love you all so much and i look forward to talking to all you who will be at home on the day after christmas! Happy Holidays!!!!

With Love,

Elder Ostler

12-12-2011

Hello family!

Well this week has just blown by! We picked up another father and mother as a refferal from our new branch mission leader this week. I was on a split so i was not there for the first meeting but i look forward to meeting this great couple. They sound like they are fairly interested in what we have to offer so we shall see what comes of it. Weatherwise, we had a rainstorm yesterday which is weird because it should be snowing. We still have a long winter ahead of us and we look forward to the snow so we wont have to keep cleaning the mud off of our shoes and pants from tromping around all day. :) As for Ukranian/Russian celebration of Christmas, that takes place on the 7th of January. It is seen as just one of the many, many other religious holidays used an excuse to go out and drink. This and many of the other classic religious holidays have lost their real meaning here because of the great corruption caused by alcohol usage. For example, a teenage kid just sat down next to me as i was typing that sentence, with two big bottles of beer in his hand... its early monday morning and im fairly sure today is not even a holiday..just imagine how it is on holidays...it is very sad how far this evil reaches.  The christmas trees and gift giving mostly take place on New Years, the biggest holiday of the year. Here in our branches, they are trying to get a celebration of christmas to be unified on the 24th just like we do back at home and change back its meaning to Jesus Christs birth. I plan on using those pictures and calenders from that package i just recieved to use on our lessons to help our members feel the joy of the christmas season while we watch Joy to the World and sing christmas hymns together. By the way Thank you SOOOOO much for the HUGE package you sent!!! It was perfect and i'm so glad it all got here! We had tortillas that same night and needless to say, i ate to much because i was enjoying it way to much!:) Those little gift bags will also go well with this christmas lesson im preparing. The kids will love it! Oh and i think i forgot to mention one thing about our making rice crispies here, they havent quite started to sell marshmellows here in Ukraine. Is there a way to make a substitute for marshmallows?:) sorry i forgot to tell you! This winter we plan on doing some caroling while sign boarding kind of like last year but with some very nice new street boards. It will be alot of fun! Thats my favorite part of the season. As far as music goes, we have been asked to share a number at the branch christmas celebration so if you know any good, simple arrangments that 6 missionaries could sing, that would be great to get that!    

1) As of right now, we are seeing about clearence to skype home over the webcam. Much more conveniant and cheaper. I'll let you know this next week for sure. i know for sure our call will be 30 -40 minutes now with our new president.

2) Right now i am doing just fine with the cold. It would be great to get that other pair of earmuffs from home if possible. Thanks so much for going out of your way to get those other ones. 

Thanks for all that you do for me family, especially Mom! Its great families like ours that do great things and keep missionaries like me alive out in the field! I love you!

Sincerely,

Elder Ostler

11-28-2011

Hello family!
SO glad to hear from you all!! It was amazing to hear about all of those miracle having to do with the clothing washer. I'm sure that whole process took lots of patience to endure also:) It is amazing just how God watches over all of his children, even when we may have no idea why we are going through such trials and what we had done to deserve it. The Lord truly is molding us all to become what He wants of us. This work is God's work, and it is real. This week, our investigator went off date due to him not showing up to church services when he said he would this past two Sundays. He also struggles to learn the principles that we teach. We have struggled to get a member on lessons with him because of work schedules so we plan to make it happen this week as a last effort before moving on. We got dogged for half of our lessons this week but had a great Thanksgiving with the missionaries all stationed in Donetsk with 4 turkeys provided by our senior couple the Hatchs. They are so great and provided a great time for the missionaries to enjoy together. To end this week, we almost got dogged by the family of a counselor in our district presidency but luckily everything worked out and we were able to have a great lesson with them. We focused on helping them build their Zions. Their faith was so amazing and the mother just kept writing and writing names down, people she had been thinking of but hadn't yet given to the missionaries. We look forward to working with this family, they just have returned from being mission presidents in Russia. Their family set a goal to have 6 baptisms from their family alone within the next year. What a great goal!! Their faith alone with help them reach that goal and even surpass it! This family, the Podvodovs, are just like any family that you'd find at home, just trying their best, loving each other like our Father in Heaven loves us. We hope to find even more families of such strength and capacity in the following months as a result of the refferals we will recieve and teach.  

Thanks so much for all of the pictures! I think I got all of the emails you sent also which were great to read!
I hope all is well at home! Keep up the good missionary work at home! Do something nice for the missionaries for me while I'm not there!:) even the smallest of things make the biggest of differences in the lives of missionaries. Love you all!!


With Love,
Elder Ostler

11-21-2011

Hello Family!!

How's going?! for some reason I didn't get your email this week so there must be some hitch in the email system. I can't wait to hear how everything is going! This week was a great week! We have a new investigator named Roman who was referred to us from a member girl in the central Donetsk region. We had a lesson at her house which went great! We didn't have time to cover the whole restoration but we did explain to him the importance of the Book of Mormon and prayer. He was very excited and was asking us for some kind of commitment, a very rare occurrence among investigators. He is 17 years old but had an open heart to what we have told him thus far. There is such a huge difference between those who hunger after truth as opposed to those who have just a passing interest, mostly in Americans. It is such a great feeling when teaching such people with honest desires. They are such great examples to us, how we, too, should be honest seekers of truth, wherever it can be found. We, as members of God's church, have such a great advantage and in turn, responsibility to seek out all good things and to learn from what God has given us through His prophets. There is so much to learn, so much that we can all do better. I'm so grateful for an understanding Father in Heaven who is willing to share this knowledge that He has with His children, not holding anything back. I was just reading through the Bible where it speaks of Saul and David's reigns as kings, and it was amazing to read of these kingdoms and other kingdoms that suffered greatly because of selfishness and power-hungry leaders that held back their people, even encouraging unrighteous deeds. It just came to my mind that we all are so truly blessed to have a perfect God, a perfect King, in whom we can trust to give us the wisdom that we so desperately need to survive this life here on earth. He has given us prophets, holy scriptures, prayer, even his own son, so that we could all return to him if we would just trust in his plan. 

I learned another good lesson just last night on a bus going home that i shared with Alyssa which I thought I'd share with all of you also.We were on a large trolley bus coming home from a lesson and the conductor approached us to take our money and in exchange for passage. She looked very closely at our badges as she approached and she seemed to light up as we told her that we were missionaries.  We offered our money but she refused to take it and gave us our tickets. We offered again but she just wouldn't take the money. Finally, we gave up and she just smiled at us and said that great people like us shouldn't have to pay and walked down the aisle. Just reflecting on that experience made me think about all the small acts of kindness we render, whether great or small, that can have a great impact on the lives of many. It was interesting to think that perhaps there had been some positive experience between her and the missionaries, maybe years ago, who knows. Maybe the missionaries didn't even realize what they had done. Kind of like Abinidi and Alma the priest. He had no idea if anybody would listen to his message, but he still gave it and ended up sacrificing his life for what he knew to be true. What great examples. This experience was definitely a testimony to me of what we can do, even with the little we can do. It made we want to make sure I spoke up or tried to help others at every opportunity I had. The Lord is aware of all of His children. It is such a comfort to know that. Well my dear family, my time is ending so I'll be wrapping up but just curious if any of you had any requests from Ukraine? I want to send the family a package for Christmas so just let me know if there are any Ukrainian things that you just happened to be craving:)...maybe..Milka chocolate?!?!  I know its German but it is definitely a tender mercy that just happens to be found here in Ukraine:)  I love you all and I hope you each have a great week!

With Love,

Elder Ostler 

11-14-2011

Note:  This week, one of the missionaries from Daniel's mission came to visit.  He had been home one week.  He was an AP in the mission and was able to tell us a lot about the area and the people in the Donetsk Mission.  He said Daniel is very quiet :) and that he is still singing at a lot of the meetings.  He said Daniel is a good and faithful missionary.

Hello Family!!
Glad to hear all is well!! I'm was also very glad to hear that Elder Niel made it to our house. He is such a great guy! He worked very hard on his mission and went out strong as an assistant to our mission president. I don't know if he told you but we were in the same choir at Stapley before he went to Westwood for high school. He is missed here in Ukraine. It also looks like everyone had a great time helping Benjamin with answering. Though I did have a question... who was that ninja man in black?! He looked pretty stealthy :) I hope all of Brandon's tests went well. That sounds like it was pretty intense.
This week was a good but very exausting one. This area really is great, though we seem to have less oppurtunity to teach because of the distance we must travel just to reach our investigators and members. I think we are going to plan a little more strategically as to make it more convient to meet by setting up our lessons all near eachother as to minimize travel time and spend more time teaching. We had a great split this week where my companion and another elder in our district put a man on date for the 10th of December. He seems to except everything he was taugh,t but still has some different challenges to overcome, so we will see if we can baptize him at least by the time this year comes to an end. I would love to see another baptism!! We are also teaching a young man  who is a good friend of a great family in our branch. He still isn't quite sure what to think of Jesus Christ but he has a great heart and will come around to it as he is futher exposed to the blessings of living the Gospel. We plan to put him on date as soon as he feels he is ready. We also had a chance to have a lesson with President Compero. He really took the reins and showed us how to get refferals from our members. He was concise, making every word count, bolding telling them what was expected of them and backed it up by a strong scriptural base. He chose one to pray in the middle of the lesson to help each of them be inspired as to whom on their lists of possible investigators would be ready. We will be following up this next week to recieve these referrals and began teaching them. This work is great! The branch was great this Sunday, everyone involved with people other than themselves, really reaching out to other members and investigators. And, for the first time on my mission, we sang our sacrament music  with an organ! Our building is old but it was great to see we have a working organ. Many of our buildings have nice organs that must have just been a little misused because now nearly all of them have really strange problems that make them unsusable.(I'm not sure if unusable is a word but it sounded good :) Well, the mission continues to be a great experience, filled with challenges but cleary all for my good and the good of others. I hope that all of you are doing fine and in good health. The Lord is so good to us! To be born into a country were belief in God is not something abnormal or radical. The people here are so strongly tempted in all things, I really look upon those parents who manage to raise their kids and have them turn out normal with great admiration.  I can't wait for you all to meet them when you come this next summer! Well, times about up. I love you all! Keep up the good work at home and let your examples shine so that others will see your good works and desire to come unto Christ and our Father in Heaven.


With Love,

Elder Ostler

11-07-2011

Hello Family!!
Thanks sooo much for all the pictures!! It was fun to see how everyone is growing up and having such a great time. All these new children being born must also be fun and keeping you all pretty busy! I'm so glad that all is going so well back at home! I pray for you all each night and hope all is going well. Sounds like Caleb had a great party! I'm fairly certain he's grown another foot or so since the last time i saw a picture of him!:) And Benjamin is gearing up for yet another dance!!! I remember the feeling of time flying during the school year. Right when you feel you've finished one dance, it's on to the next one. And between that, choir festivals, and tennis matches, the year is suddenly already over! Time flies when your having fun, right?!

Time has also been flying out here too! last transfer just finished and I am now in a city named Petrovsky, right out of Donestk with an Elder Bangerter. He's  a very enthusiatic missionary with great desires to find some success in our area. He's from Melba, Idaho and is from one of those families that is related to nearly every person in the church in one way shape or form! We'll have to find out how we are related. He also knows Soelbergs. SO, I'm sure we will see some baptisms this transfer. This branch is also the second strongest in the Donetsk Mission with so many great families that love the missionaries and could fill most any position or calling in the church and fufill it well. We already met with one great family, and they were so good to us. These families have been hard to come by in other areas, but as far as I can see, and what my companion has told me, nearly our whole branch is made up of these strong families. I feel this will greatly improve our possibilities for success and really help investigators be truly converted. We had a district conference, a broadcast from Salt Lake City by Elder Clayton, Oaks, Uchtdorf, and a sister whose name I can't think of right now. It was really great and exactly what the members needed to hear in helping the missionary work move forward. The night before, we had a few meetings where we reinacted what a branch correlation meeting should be like because of the many misunderstadings of how one should be run. I think it really helped our leadership understand, and I look forward to the great change it will bring. We also had Zone Leaders Council where we began setting goals for the year and talking about a few new resources we are learning how to use. We had a great experience stretching our faith, preparing to blow away the results of the past and the lack of baptisms we have had here in the Donetsk Mission. Most of us still had a few doubts as to how we would get four times the result we had this last year. It will take much faith because most feel that they have been working as hard as they could this last year. Now we plan to use our resources more effectively and work as hard as we can to reach this goal. We had the chance to all kneel down there in President's apartment  and listen as the AP's offered prayers as well as President. The feeling was very strong in that room that it was possible and would come to pass if we would continue to trust in the Lord. We then all had the chance to share our feelings as to whether we felt it was possible. This brought such a great spirit to the meeting and really helped us as we continued our meeting. This Church is God's church and  is led by inspired servants of God. I am so grateful for the truths we have that can lead and guide us through the darkness of this world. Well, that's all my time for now, but I hope you all have a great week ahead of you! Stay safe and have a great day!

With Love,

Elder Ostler

10-31-2011

Hey Family!!!
That made me way excited when i heard about Dad's missionary experience. I find that more and more in the work here. That when we are out serving and working our hardest or just being the best examples we can be, the Lord places people in our paths when we least expect it. They almost seem really random sometimes, just as it must have been for Dad in the middle of that meeting. That is so great and i hope all goes well with that new investigator. This week we have seen many blessings once again seemingly come out of the wood-works. This week we worked constantly, trying to do our best to always open our mouths on the streets and wherever we were. We didnt recieve any new investigators but the Lord blessed us and helped us find two investigators that hadnt been contacted for 9 years both in one night. They both seem to have changed and have great potential. We are excited for them. We also, for the first time, got into the home of our past, inactive branch president. He was thrilled to have us there and it was great for his family. Missionaries havent been able to get into them for a long time so this was certainly a blessing. We also just happened to stumble upon a less active babushka(grandma) we've been looking for this whole transfer and finally found her sweeping outside a bus we just happened to be getting out of. I know the Lord is blessing us for our efforts! We also had our young investigator girl Dasha come to church with her grandmother and she had a great time. She is doing great and will be baptized as soon as she gets her parents permission which has been holding her back. I had the chance to go play in the primary after gospel principles which was so great! its so much fun to go and play and listen to them sing. They were learning the song "What child is This", a favorite here in ukraine. It was really funny because when we had finished and i got up to leave, a teacher knew that i had recieved a transfer call and will be leaving this thursday and said that they would remember me when they all sing in the upcoming months. That was very nice of here to say and i thanked for it and then turned to the children to hear one of the sons of the old branch president say that he was sad because I was his best friend. To this all of the other children that i've met with started to protest saying, "im his best friend!" the primary was in an uproar and it was really cute. Needless to say i got out of there pretty quick!:) It was really touching to here them all say that and it taught me a good lesson about how children show their love is a good example of how we can show ours. They are so honest and innocent and you know they mean it by the way they say it. Though its far down the road, it made me just that much more excited to be back with all of you and then on to starting my own family. I really enjoyed the conference talk either is this last conference or the one before about being as children. Their is alot of truth to that and i'm thankful for so many that are examples to us all. Well, thats it for now. I recieved a transfer call which means i will be leaving my area this thursday so next time i write i will be in a new place. Its always exciting but a little nerve racking so please include me in your prayers!:) Love you all! Have a great week!!

With Love,
Elder Ostler

10-10-2011

My Dear Family,


Another week has passed by and we have all been saved by "baba leta"- grandma summer. The cold weather came rolling in like it was here to stay but luckily the predictions were right and the warm weather returned and with it rain. This week we had another chance to go to donetsk for some counseling among the Zone Leaders. IT was another great experience and we then went from there to Lugansk to share the newly acquired statistics and ideas with our elders there. We returned after two days of splits to gorlovka where we held another district meeting. We concluded that day with planning and taking some banana bread to a less active who lives in our flat. He is a return missionary who was sent home a little early. He had his feelings hurt and has since researched all sorts of anti-mormon literature and has had his foundation and testimony pretty well destroyed. It was so sad to hear him speak of what he once had and knew what he had was good, and then throw it away because of his taking offense. We plan on meeting with him soon again to help him piece together what he knows to be true and help dismiss some of his skewed views and doubts about God's reality. Prayers on his behalf would be greatly appreciated. It is a tender subject for him and it will not be easy to help him where he is at. We really need the Spirit to be with us every step of the way if we ever want him to be active again. His name is Sasha. Our investigator, Yana, had a chance to come to the General Relief Society Meeting after a day at the Reenok, the market. We began to watch it with four other sisters in the branch when the power splitter they had been using started to smoke and shut the power off. Because it had been cold in the room, the sisters had plugged in two large battery heaters, computer tower, and Projector all to the same power splitter which resulted in over heating. SO.. we then moved it to the geneology computer where we finished it with two other sisters and our investigator. She said she really enjoyed the talk by president Uchtdorf. She is a very hard one to read. She is a nice person but seems to enjoy our friendship more than what we are teaching her. We are planning on having a deciding lesson this week, whether we need to just give her some time without us meeting with her, or continue to try to push along at the snail like pace we have been going. Please pray for Yana. Please also include us in your prayers as we try to find some new investigators this week. It has been a struggle this transfer to find new investigators and this may be the only week we have free to really do some searching and finding.

I absolutly loved the sessions of conference this time around. My companion and i were talking about how it was hard for us to imagine missing the saturday session when so many do. It is such a great blessing and such a small sacrifice on our part to sit and watch and feel what God has in store. We just wanted to make copies of all conference and hand them out on the street!!:) I am so grateful for latter day prophets and apostles. I really liked Elder Christopherson's talk on the atonement. It helped me realize more of what i need to be doing to trully repent and really use the atonement in my life rather than seeing it as a list of points to be checked off. The Gospel just makes so much sense and i am so grateful for the simplicity of it all. The Lord loves us all so much. Just hearing about Kandi makes me soo happy that she is truly choosing to follow the Savior in being baptized by water. THis may seem like a sacrifice to her right now but the blessings and happiness that will come as a result of this righteous choice will far out weigh anything that may have seemed difficult or hard to leave in her life before baptism. I know that as we all take small steps of faith, the Lord will strengthen us and build our character and testimony to last through those hard times of trouble which will come to each of us. I hope all is going well at the DelBianco's and that you are all having such a great time together! Family is so great and is something i want to never take for granted again in my life!! :) Thankyou for all that you do for me. Have a great time at the Joe and Megan Ostler's home. I cant wait to see pictures!!!:)



WIth Love,

Elder Ostler

10-17-2011

Hello Family,


Sounds like a GREAT holiday back at home!! From catching gigantic fish to a wonderful BAPTISM, talk about a roller coaster of emotions!!:) I still cant get over the fact that we had 2 convert baptisms in the Northridge Ward! I dont think I can remember the last one we had there in our neighborhood. Thats as many as I've seen here my whole mission! You all looked so great in white and kandi, stan and luis and have never looked so happy! not to mention how happy benjamin and and john looked too!:) That sounds like such a great experience. I couldnt help but feel the spirit as you shared that experiece. Its times when you hear such stories that your heart just yearns for the people here to accept our message. I dont know what its like after the mission but here expecially, in the field, i guess i've felt something a little like what some of the missionaries and prophets from the Book of Mormon described, that longing for everyone to except the message and find that happiness that we have. I've learned that there is also a whole other aspect to turning that longing into action. It is not an easy thing, when you feel such feelings of love for the people to have it be disregarded or even yelled at. Again and again it has been kind of like be pushed down to the grown, going down again and again. I've learned that it takes a real christlike love to endure such blows. It is something i continue to work at but i have noticed such a difference when im just loving the people because i know i should, and when i love them because i know that they are my spirit brothers and sister, sons and daughters of God. Im so grateful for the example our Savior gave to each of us, that even when the majority of the people did not believe him and were hostile towards him, spitting on him and beating him, He didnt even flinch. His love was perfect. He didnt think one bad thought, not one mean word. He was perfect. I still stand all amazed at the Saviors example. It makes me wonder sometimes why it is so hard for me to love when i am tried. I find myself so far from the mark sometimes that it is hard not to let Satan step in and discourage me. But i know that our purpose here on earth is really in the end, to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, and that God would not give such commandment unless they were actually achievable. We met some guys on the train coming back from Lugansk who were really friendly, funny people. It was just a funny reminder of the good people that are out there that just need to be found. I'll include a few pictures of that memorable train ride. :) please excuse the picture of the shirtless man. I forget if thats appropriate or not, its just somthing that every man here does when on trains or in hot places. Dont worry though, we didnt join them.:) Also included is a picture of Zone Leaders Council, and a teaching practice during a district meeting we had, and watching general conference a week later as a district at the church building. Well, thats it for this week! I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you!



With Love,

Elder Ostler

10-3-2011

Hello family!!


I am so glad to hear that Kandi is making soo much great progress!! It is honestly so exciting to hear about people accepting the gospel no matter where they are in the world! The happiness that awaits these people is impossible to describe. Thats something that is so important, letting that light shine that we all have within us and that happiness that God has blessed us with. To say honestly it is not easy sometimes for the fear of being ridiculed or disregarded when what we have is so precious to us. But, i know that we are blessed and that such experiences will only strengthen our own conviction and testimonies if we will hold to what we know is true, what we have always known to be true in our hearts. This week was a bit of a struggle.. we had 6 lessons fall through. Not the easiest thing when that is more than half of what we would normally get. The ones we did have though went well and we were able to present 4 papers where people could write down refferals for us to find and contact. We look forward to seeing their results in our next meetings with them. Each week I gain a stronger understanding and a greater apprectiation and love for the members here in Ukraine and for all the small branches around the world. Sometimes i see the struggles they go through, troubles with family, health, or even within the branch, and i question why they hold so strong? why do they continue to come even during such trials? Time and time again i have thought about this and i could see it especially as they testified this last sunday that they have testimonies of christ's atonement for them. It is amazing how much pain and suffering, both physical and spiritual, the atonement covers. Christ truly understands what we have all been through. He sees our struggles and knows exactly what we need to do to endure well. He is there to help us when we ask and will always be there to soothe the pain. I've been starting to read Jesus the Christ and have been coming to understand just how perfect God's plan is for us. To know that we have a loving father in heaven who also knows everything is such a comfort. We have shared messages about hope and atonement of Jesus christ from the past conference and each time we testify, the truthfulness of it all seems to resound in my mind and heart, sounding stronger and stronger until it is something that any person could not deny. The mission is such a great experience and i am so grateful for it, no matter the challenges i face and trials i am called upon to endure. The joys far outweigh the struggle. God loves you all so much and i know that he loves me and is so happy with us when we simply choose what is right. I am so glad to hear that conference went so well. We will have the chance to watch it with our branch this next friday and saturday which should be great! Thanks mom for those highlights from conference. I cant wait to see them! :) Those pictures were also great of the temple and those at the conference center. Those grounds bring back so many great spiritual memories. Im so grateful that i was raised by such great parents that helped me realize that while i was young. Though i may not have seemed to pick up everthing the speakers said, somthing about the atmosphere of the spirit that could be felt there was something that will never leave me. I know exactly what i will be doing with my children when the time comes!:) Thanks for all that you do! Our investigator Yana is still struggling and hasnt changed much. We invited her to begin to read and we hope and pray that she will. Please pray for her. Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week and i look forward to hearing from you!



With Love,

Elder Ostler

9-26-2011

Hello Family!!!


Another week has blown by and im still not quite sure what happened to our last week! Time is going way too fast! Being a zone leader is great because of the close contact we get to have with the mission president but is sometimes difficult because of the travelling we have to do which takes away from our time we can spend in our own area hear in Gorlovka. This week we took the train to Lugansk to hold a district meeting to present the information and counsel we recieved during our Zone leaders council. It went well and we returned to gorlovka later that night. The next morning we held another district meeting in our own area and the elders their excepted it well too. We had a lesson later that evening with an investigator named Yana who originally had a date 1st but has been taken off because she hasnt attended church for the last little while. Its been really unfortunate because she was doing so well but has been tempted by satan and given a raise in her job because of her work on Sunday which is the most productive day on the market where she sells meat. We are trying to help her work with her boss or just find a different job altogether see she can make time for God in her life. She also is struggling with reading the book of Mormon at the moment which is really inhibiting her from recieving any answer. She has righteous desire for her family but really struggles to put that desire into action. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated on her behalf. Thanks! SO, after our meeting with her the next day was zone conference. Another great experience, covering what we talked about in Zone leaders council. That night we got dogged on our lesson which was unfortunate but we returned and did some work in the area book, contacting a few former investigators but without success. We then had our second day of zone conference where me and another elder McCarther put together a quick musical number accappella to Abide with Me. It went well and i really enjoyed it. Both of us have nearly the same voices so it blended very well and a few elders made the comment that they couldnt tell who was singing which part. The conference's focus was on understanding the Atonement so we can help our investigators apply it in their own lives. One of our seventies said that if a investigator will truly repent, he will be baptized, and that our church is the only church that has the full understanding and authority to make such repentance valid. It is our job as members to share our knowledge with those who do not know because without this repentance, they cant be saved. Antoher investigator we have worked with and just passed to another set of elders name is Pavel. He is a great guy and also coming right along and is really looking for an answer. As far as we know his is looking sincerely and all set to recieve it but just needs time, reading, and prayer. We just moved his date and want him to reset it soon. Including him in your prayers would also be greatly appreciated. This week has been great as we have been searching more dilligently for referrals. This next week we have our goals set high to recieve more refferals that either of us have our whole missions. We cant wait to see the great success that will come from our new focus. President Compero has also encouraged us to send refferals home to the missionaries at home, to help build zion both here and at home. He allowed to log on to facebook to get what information we could about our nonmember friends and to write each one that we feel might be ready our testimony. I am very excited about this and have no idea why i hadnt ever thought of doing that before. Im excited to get involved in the work here and back at home!

Well family, i love you all so much and am grateful for all that you do for me! thankyou for your prayers and support! i know that with out the power of all of our faith combined, life would really be much harder to cope with. I am grateful that the Lord gives us this oppurtunity to show this faith and is always waiting to bless us with all that he has. We all trully have been blessed and i know the lord is pleased with us when we share these blessing with others. Hope to hear from you all soon!



With Love,

Elder Ostler



Also, we have a problem right now in that somewhere the records of baptism for kolya, our first baptism got lost. We hope that they will be found by the branch president who should have them but the search is still continuing. im not sure what will happen if they cant find them, if those who participated will just to fill out another form or if all of the ordinaces will have to be performed again but we will see. Keeping this in your prayers would also be greatly appreciated. Do you know anything about how that all works dad? well thanks soo much!!

September 19, 2011

Hello Family!


This has been another great week out in the mission field. Thursday was our transfer meeting and my new companion is Elder Duke from Hurricane, Utah(somewhere on the border of Utah and Arizona). He's a great guy and i think this will be a great transfer. The next morningn on friday, we went into donetsk for Zone leaders council which was another amazing experience, so much great information and some new ideas as to how to recieve referrals. Our mission has for the longest time focuses on being busy missionaries, meaning we spent most of our time searching on the streets or tracting. Our new president has really been stressing that we be busy but be smart about it, taking more time for planned finding activities and focus on refferal recieving when working with members. He showed us some results from Armenia, aparently the next one up for recieveing a stake, who are not even allowed to make initial contact with others on the street. Most of their results come from MEMBER REFFERALS! When i think about how i treated the missionaries at home and not showing very much interest in giving them refferals, i now understand just how frustrating, time consuming, and tiring it is to try and find people on your own without much help. The Lord still blesses us for our efforts but we can definitly see the results get better drasticly as the members involve themselves. Now i realize just how many great oppurtunities i had to introduce the missionaries to my friends but didnt take advantage of the moment. Thats a regret that i have that i want to change when i return. Any ways, that was all that was very exciting this week so i hope to send you some pictures right now if i can.

                             This was us waiting at 4 oclock at the Lugansk train station.

 This is from my apartment in the evening. These buildings are called dome's and is where almost everyone lives

This was a celebration of Day of the Miners. There were tons of people on the central square of the city.

                                            Some grafitti that i actually appreciate!! :)

                                            This was our district from last transfer.

                           This is our mode of transportation in ukraine, the beloved Marshutka!

Well i love you all and i hope you all have an amazing week. I really loved seeing those pictures from benjamins dance! that looked like alot of fun! Also thanks for that other picture of us when we were younger. it was fun to see :) Well, talk to you all later!

With Love,



Elder Ostler

9-5-2011

Hello my dear family!!


So this week has been another good week in the field. Like i said last week, we went to the funeral in our branch. It was really a great experience. The father of the family took the oppurtunity to share the gospel and pleaded with alll of the members in the branch and nonmembers that came to show support for the family to do whatever was neccessary to be able to attend the temple. He testified so strongly of what he knew to be true in his heart and what we all hope and pray for, Eternal Families. I was so glad that he took the time he had to speak sharing that tender moment sharing the gospel rather than focusing on the bad that had been done and mourning. It was a good lesson to me of how the attitude of one individual can affect the attitude of many others in either in inspiring and a lifting way or a depressing, pessimistic way. This week we had the chance to put a younger mother on date who has been meeting with the missionaries for the last few months. She accepts everything really well and doesnt really question very many things and really likes the support she gets from the missionaries. We are trying to get members involved because we are afraid she is becoming a little too dependant on some of the missionaries that have taught her. This week we will also be making an effort to meet with most of our members that are willing to meet with us. Right now we have about 9 or 10 active and 20 to 30 inactives that we are trying to work with. The branch lacks priesthood right now because most of the priesthood holders are inactive or not worthy to fufill some of the vital callings in our branch. We have been meeting with our branch president each week to discuss such problems and offer our support to him because it is a big load to carry, he having served for about 7 years already and constantly trying to keep the branch together and work with branch consisting of 30 percent activity rate. I also had a chance to read the talk " You are my Hands" from president Uchtdorf which really touched me and i think it will make for a really great lesson in helping these members understand that the lord requires not just our prayers and fasting, but our actions. I'm excited to share this with our members and really felt a great spirit about it when i read. I loved the perfect example he gave of the two brothers that worked the same field together. After harvest had been completed and been evenly divided between the two brothers, they both returned home to sleep. Neither of the brothers could sleep and both went out to the field to give part of his half to the other brother who he felt was more in need than himself. These were both done at different times so that neither new what the other had done. The next morning they woke up and were surprised to see that both piles looked the same. The following night both woke up again and went to the fields, this time at the same time and when they saw eachother, they understood embraced and wept. That is what i think of when I think of selfless service, the kind of pure love that the saviour showed for his fellow brothers and sisters here on earth. I am so greatful for all that my saviour has done for me with his infinite atonement. I only hope that i can measure up to be what he wants me to be with the time that I have here on the earth. The Lord is so good to us! i hope that is something that we all remember, expecially when we take the sacrament each week. I love you all and i hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you. Thanks so much for the letters you have sent. It is so good to hear about the missionary experiences you all have been having and will be having. Have a great day!! :)



With Love,



Elder Ostler

8-29-2011

Hello Family,


Thanks for your letters this week! they were great to recieve! It is amazing to hear about all of the news back at home. I cant believe those different people are getting married! thats so great! So this week was a good week full of lessons but our investigators are 'running into walls'. AWW!! we lost a few but there is are still 2 more that have great potential but the we are having a hard time getting them fellowshipped in to the branch because of problems there in the foundation of the branch. The mission president is working miracles going about solving problems left and right but we need just about 10 more mission presidents hear and 100 more priesthood holders to keep our branch from going under. We are working on the hundred priesthood holders while the Mission president is taking the role of the 10 and we are hoping to see success. We also just had a young less active man get killed in our branch which we just met earlier this week. We recieved a call from his father early one morning on the way to a lesson we were having. He said his son was in critical condition and that he was in a hospital located near the church building. After finishing the lesson, we arrived at the hospital a found the father not doing so good, very distraught. We received the nurses permission to give the son a blessing and were given special clothing to enter that part of the clinic. We found the son and he was looking pretty bad, unconcious since he had been attacked knocked out by a beer bottle. We proceeded to give him a blessing and silently left, thanking the nurse. We left a Book of Mormon with the father and left. The next morning at church we learned that the son had passed away early that morning. After church we went with a few sisters and a counselor in the branch to visit this and offer comfort. We talked for a while and gave each of those in the family a blessing. We sang a hymn and prayed. The Lord loves his children, i know that without a doubt. It is in moments like these that i think that we feel christlike love the most. I have never felt it quite so strong as i have felt it with these deaths in both our last area and this area. It is an amazing feeling, something that you never want to leave. If i were to get nothing else out of mission, i would want to leave with that christlike charity that penetrates all darkness. I am so thankful for that wonderful oppurtunity for us to express such love. We will be attending the funeral in about an hour. We pray that the spirit will be their at that meeting so that all in attendance with take a part of that with them and let it change their lives. Thanks for all that you do for me family. Each and every day i serve, i realize just how rare it is to live in such a family as ours that loves eachother and cares for one another. I love you all with all my heart! Have a great week!!



With Love,

Elder Ostler

8-22-2011

Hello Family!!


Well, we have had another crazy week travelling two and from a city called Lugansk waking at 5:30 one morning and 4:00 another morning to make it to one of the few trains that travel to that city. Needless to say, im tired. We had a great time helping train the missionaries there and help spread what the mission president wanted them to hear. After doing all of these companionship exchanges, we had a great sunday at church, waking up early again to meet a mother and a father whom we have been teaching 2 hours away in a city called Kramatorsk. They have a daughter that just got baptized at byu and wanted to meet with us. They are so great and decided to make the long trip to church and it just happened to be the sunday when our Mission President, District president and counselor, and Relief society President all came and gave great talks and then took the following two hours to train the whole branch, trying to solve all of the misunderstandings and problems by sitting them down and teaching them what their role as members were in the branch, missionary work, and church as a whole. We heard it went really well. We were, at the time, teaching our investigators and answering their questions. Afterwards we realized they would have to wait for 3 hours for the next train to their city so we had them go up to donetsk to find a bus their instead, travelling with the District president! We were so happy that they did that for us and im sure it was so good for our investigators to feel that strength from those great people. We also had a great branch activity the youth put on and it was soo great. We had 4 investigators their and they ALL had a great time and participated alot!! It was soo good to see and it really helped the members want to do even more activities! We are excited for this branch and where it is moving.



That is basically what happened this week in our area because of our travels. I'm so glad to hear Stake conference went well. It sounds as if it was another great spiritual experience! You are all doing so great and im am glad to hear it. sorry if my letters kinda sound the same sometimes. Keeping a journal is a struggle for me but is something i want to spend more time with so i can share more of my spiritual experiences and struggles with all of you. I love you all and i hope you have a great week!

Sincerely,

Elder Ostler

7-18-2011

Hello Family!!


Another week has gone by and im writing home again! Time is flying! We continue to work with our investigators but the progress of each is coming very slowly. We didnt pick up any new investigators this week but we did meet up with the mother of a member of the branch presidency who is not a member and she seems fairly interested in what we have to say. She listens to us very carefully and she has agreed to meet with us twice and has come to church twice in a row so we are hoping to see great progress soon. This last lesson we had covered alot about prayer. Many of the churches around the world use the Lord's prayer as their own and just recite it over and over. We helped show her that the verse before talks of 'vain repititions' and that Christ just gave that as an example, not to be used as a 'vain repitition'. We also talked to her about a habit she had of crossing herself and asked her why the priests taught her that if that was never taught in the scriptures. She told us she honestly didnt know, she just had always done that. She told us that she sincerely wanted to find an answer to know the truth and by the end of the lesson, we had her pray as instructed in the scriptures and as prophets have taught, using her own words and closing in the name of Jesus Christ. It was really a great prayer and she is a quick learner. The next step is getting her to do that all on her own! We committed her to do it and we will be following up soon. There are a few other weaknesses she needs to straighten out in her live but those will change as we teach her about each one. Many investigators and people in general sin ignorantly, having maybe a feeling that something is wrong but having not much else to confirm it and that is why we are here, to inform them of what we already now to be true and have tested ourselves. I was reading a section from The Miracle of Forgiveness the other day and it told the story of a ship that had been stranded off the coast of south america without fresh drinking water. All suffering from extreme thirst, they signalled to a passing boat to share of there water with them. The other boat signalled back, telling them to lower their buckets, they were in fresh water! Unknown to the passengers, their boat was at the mouth of the amazon! Just think of the millions of souls around the world, hungering and thirsting for truth but not really knowing where to find it. That is why it is every member's responsibility to share what he knows with others, that they may also feel the peace and joy that come from a knowledge of the gospel and how to apply the atonement in their lives. We also work with a young man in his twenties who experimented with different substances that were against the word of wisdom lets just say. He has rejected these different substances and gives us many examples of why he absolutly despises them. His parents are already under the influence of such substances and were not quite so lucky as to excape their grasp as their son. We continue to work with him and help him understand Jesus Christ's doctrine and atonement. We hope and pray that he will continue to make the neccessary changes in his life to trully come unto Christ and be perfected in him. Well, thats about it for the week! I'll let you all know more about some of the others we are teaching next week. I love you all and i hope to hear from you soon.



Sincerely,

Elder Ostler

8-15-2011

Hello Family!!




Well this week has blown by! Monday we travelled back to Donestk for the 4 time within the last week to drop me off at the office to fill out visa papers. That night i was on a split with Elder Garlock, another elder from Mesa, Az and stayed at their apartment for the night. The next morning we called up a taxi and went to go pick up a sister who was coming with us and took off to the airport. We met with a member who works in the mission office got through security allright and made our way to Bulgaria stopping in Kiev to pick up some more of our missionaries and on through vienna where we went out of the airport to eat some McDonalds and returned for our final flight that evening to Bulgaria. The mission president didnt have time to meet with us or house us so we ended up paying for a few hotel rooms. Bulgaria was a beautiful place and was expecially great because of the american fast food resturants they have there that are not found in Ukraine. :) We had half of a day waiting for our passports and werent allowed to do any procelyting so we occupied the rest of our day with seeing the area. We travelled back to the airport the next day and made our way home. We have had a chance to meet with a few investigaotrs and one that is getting very close is a divorced mother named Yawna. She is very nice and knows english very well. She is moving right along and agrees with most of what we say and has faith to believe and find out the things that she doesnt. Its a great attitude to have and right now we are trying to get a member or two to friendship her on our lessons. We had a great sunday with 5 investigators at church and a few visiting members from past branches that i dearly love. They helped me so much in adjusting to my new area after being taken from Sumy. I was so great to see them! We had a few lessons after church which went fairly well with those investigators that attended and made some good progress with them in answering their questions. Those Sundays always feel so good and productive! We hope and pray for those kind of days and it came!

To answer your questions

1. Yes he speaks a little russian and can kind of understand. We went to school in Moscow a long time ago and that is where he learned. Our practices actually took place in english this time which is something different than what we did before. We found it was much more productive in finding mistakes and correcting them. I think the principle goes, if you cant say it right in your native language first, the odds are you probably wont in russian either. It helped alot and made for a much more comfortable environment for us to grow in.

2. We have 10 elders in our zone, soon to be 12 as soon as we open a new apartment.

3. We struggle with unity between members. Misunderstandings and past experiences with other missionaries from the past has given the members a kinda sour impression of the missionaries. Though greatly improving, their is still progress to be made. The missionaries are also working on showing their love and trust and devotion for the work and for all of our members and we recently had a fast for it mission wide, members and missionaries. We look forward to those relationships improving so we can so we can retain new converts better than in the past and also recieve new investigators.

4. All missions have thier own little problems and right now with ours it is our transition from one president to another. Their have been a few misunderstandings because of words that have been spoken that were not understood or explained very well. The mission right now is trying to get all of the missionaries and members looking in the right direction with the same vision in mind. That way we can focus on the Spirit of the law while still obeying the letter of the law. You can imagine how hard it is to get so many young men like us to a point where we all think the same way and come to agreances, positively including all opinions.



Well, thats all my time for today but i wish dad luck with Stake conference and i hope all goes well! I love you all and i hope all is going well for you!.



With love,.

Elder Ostler





How are the Koffords doing? In bulgaria we heard about a bunch of crazy riots going on in london. I hope all is alright!



oh, and Elder stradling from Mesa, Az who is sitting next to me said stake conference went well and that Dad did a great job or something (his mom said):) Keep up the good work!

8-8-2011

Hello family!


Well, as Mom found out from our office staff, I am heading over to Bulgaria tomorrow to have my visa renewed for a few days and return. We also had transfer meeting which was a surprise and now I am surving in gorlivka, a smaller city about an hour outside of donetsk. I have also been moved to the Zone leader and have already been having plenty of experiences that come with this position. Elder McCaulloson is now my companion and has about two transfers left. He's a great missionary and i look forward to these following transfers. I am still trying to learn of all the responsibilites that are included in this position but im slowly getting the hang of things. We had Zone Leaders Training the day after tranfers took place and it was a great experience. It really opens your eyes to see and speak with your mission president on a more personal basis. We spent most of the day at his house speaking on the different topics of Atonement, the Holy Ghost in conversion, and the Book of Mormon in conversion. Our new president, president Compero also stresses the use of practice for 50 percent of the time which has proven to be very effective. Its usually kinda awkard in times past but when we do one companionship at a time and really scrutinize every move they made, their weaknesses and strengths, it was very helpful. What turned out to be the main topic that came to our attention from these practices was Love. President Compero is such a loving man. He gives us hugs whenever we see him and his wife is also just as sweet. They are perfect examples for us. Each time in our practices we would do it over and over until each companionship could recreate a perfect way of extending a baptismal and book of Mormon reading commitment and each time Love came up as the main concern. It became very apparent how much better the investigator would accept commitments and really have the desire in his/her heart to fufill it if we extended it with real love in our hearts and concern for them, not telling them that they were doing it for us, but that they would be doing it to please God.

Our branch here in Gorlivka is also great and has many good members. Like all branches it has its weeknesses and problems which we will be working to overcome as best as we can. Thus far we havent had much of a chance to meet with many investigators and it seems as if this area will be a bit of a struggle in that respect but it should pick up here soon their are great changes coming to all area's of our mission and it is exciting to see. We are stressing more organization and unity in our branches and more strictness in following the guidelines set forth by the church in order to see the bigger blessings. Thanks for your prayers on behalf of our investigators, they really need it. I havent heard much from my last area but i certainly hope and pray that little girl made it to church with her mom. Well, i hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you. Thanks for your love and support! I need every bit of it! :)

Oh, and thanks for that photo of you all and the cousins! it was great to see all of them. You all look so happy together! I cant wait to start see a little bit of that here!



With Love,

Elder Ostler

8-1-2011

Hello my favorite family in the world!!! :)




It was sooo great to hear of all of the great physical and spiritual experiences you have all been having! i really liked that picture of Dad and Benjamin in front of that canyon. You are all looking so great! We did a little "hike" too i guess you could say out to the sunflower fields and i came to a rather discouraging conclusion of my out-of-shapeness! I guess walking around in procelytes all day in temperatures over 100 and humidity at its max, its keeps your weight down for sure but doesnt quite gime me my cardio workout:) Benjamin and Dad looked like two workout trainers on the front of a magazine or something!:) This week i recieved my transfer call so i will be leaving marioupul this next thursday. Its a real bummer to leave an area after working so hard to pick up its work but im confident that the next elders who come in will keep moving it forward. We also found out we will have an addition of another apartment in mariopul meaning we will have a total of 6 elders in our satellite city! it was great news!! Our little investigator Nastia is back on date for the 20th and i really think she is going to make it this time. Her mom is back to the determination she had before and now we have a concrete plan of how we can help Nastia get to church, even when her mom has to work. It will be so great for the branch to see another baptism. It does so much to raise the spirits of everyone as a whole. Anyways, i thought i put some pictures up really quick before my time runs out. Hope you enjoy them and have a great week!

 Beautiful Sunflower Fields of Ukraine!!

1531 Famous Marioupol Sign

1524 More Sunflowers

1495Provislavnic Church in the area

1530Another shot coming in from Donetsk

1479 We discovered a zoo park on p-day and had a great time there with the animals!

With lots of love!!

Elder Ostler

7-25-2011

Hello Family!


I resent my last 3 emails hoping you would get at least one of them. I hope all is going well back at home. I didnt get an email yet so the system probably just has problems right now. This has been another very fast week and we had great chances to meet with many new investigators and pick up 3 new investigators. It was great! Its a breath of fresh air to have a fresh batch of new investigators when many of our older ones run against the wall of deciding whether or not they want to change their lives. One of our english speaking investigators, Sasha, brought a friend who had lived in the US for two years and it was fun to talk to her and we hope that she will help him get to church to really start to experience what the spirit feels like. In one of our recent trainings with Pres. Compero, he showed us a graph showing that we had a good number of about 23 new investigators being reported each week in the mission. The next step was getting them to sacrament meeting, which dropped to an average of 6 of those new investigators actually attending. It became very apparent that that was the main issue. All of this led to 1 baptism this last week in the mission. It was apparent that raising the number in church attendance would raise the number of baptisms in the mission significantly. We switched our focus to that and really pounded it with our investigators but they still struggle to make this relatively small descision. Its also hard not to have any control over it as a missionary besides reminded them and doing all you can to get them to go. So, we hope that we will see that progress with Sasha and his friend Marina soon. They're great! We also had a great experience with another person wanting to learn english who just walking in on one of our lessons. It was a final lesson with a couple we had been teaching and hoping would baptize but they lost their spiritual desirea and really just want english. It was really sad to lose them but great to pick up a new younger investigator. We hope to meet with her soon. Their was also a little drama in the branch regarding someone who had spread a rumor that the missionaries had recieved permission from the branch president to baptize an investigator who was drinking and smoking. I spent an hour or two just talking to the people involved after church, reassuring them that everything was alright and that nothing like that had ever been said. Sometimes the things that you end up doing on your mission are things that you never thought you would have to do. I'm sure it will be helpful down the road but looking back on it, i never thought i would be having to counsel people like that, especially in Russian. The Lord is so great to bless us with such experiences. Thanks for all of your prayers family! We desperatly need them out here and every single one counts, im a firm believer of that! I love you all and i look forward to hearing from you!



With Love,

Elder Ostler

7-11-2011

Hello Family,


This week we had the oppurtunity to go into Donetsk to have interviews with our new mission president, President Compero. He is a very nice man, trying so hard to help us become a better mission. He is a few inches shorter than my last president President Fry. We look forward to a training we have later this next week we will be able to attend to really get to know him a little better because our time was so rushed during our interviews. I'll make sure to keep you all informed. We had a few times to meet with our investigators this week and it was great because we have some very close to baptism, but its also difficult because it is THEIR choice to put forth the effort to find the truth and not ours to force:) This week we took our second counsellor sign boarding with us and it seemed to go really well, give him a better taste of what we go through and missionary life in general. It was really neat to see how the next sunday, everything in the branch seemed to run so much more smoothly. I had the oppurtunity to speak on the liahona article The Lord Needs Missionaries from President Monson. We then had Gospel principles on the importance of Sabbath day worship which was also great for our investigators since that is usually what they struggle with as far as commitments go. We have two investigators at church, and one is doing great, moving through his problems to find more happiness and wisdom through baptism. We then had priesthood two which we had 2 investigators, talking about member missionary work. It was really great!! Many of the brethern bore witness to the purpose of our callings and the purpose of thier callings as member missionaries. It was really great and i feel like we are slowly getting turned back in the right direction to where we can find true success. We also had a chance to meet with our secretary afterwards and show him some new tools found on LDS.org as far as calendar making and map making goes. He had no idea it was there and we all think this will also greatly help the branch be more organized and ready to accept new members of the church. I showed him ours at home and he was amazed at how much we had going on on our calendar and how cool it was that everyone was mapped out already with all of their information. Do you know if this is new technology that just hasnt been taught in training yet? We were not quite sure why no one knew about this and im thinking it will also be a great help to other branchs too in our mission. Well, my times up. I hope you all have a great week and i look forward to hearing from you!

With Love,

Elder Ostler




i got the ring! thanks mom! it only fits on my pinky but it works just fine! i guess my fingers must have gained some weight... :)

7-4-2011

Hello Family!




That picture of Elder Oldroyd got me laughing pretty good. :) I guess we're both going through our mid-mission crises :) This week has been another great week. This week we had 20 quality lessons all planned out. We called and got ahold of nearly every person to which they agreed to meet. By the end of the week we ended with a total of 7 qualities because of lessons cancelling. This is a pretty regular occurence unless you get a week of pure miracles like we had a while back. Something about all the planning and preparation and then the cancelling is VERY tiring and i find my self exhausted every night. I am thoroughly convinced like i have never been before that the mission is made to be one big, humbling experience. We saw the blessing of this last month's work this last sunday, having 10 more people attending sacrament meeting than the average, even with some of our regular members not in attendance. It was great! We also had 3 investigators at church which was another miracle! then, during the next two hours following sacrament, we had two more new investigators show up wanting to meet! We were basically in heaven! a busy sunday at church is always a great sunday, expecially after a drought of investigators not being willing to come for a few weeks. We so grateful for how the lord has blessed us! You learn more and more that it is the Lord sending these people to you and not really yourself at all, just the efforts you put forth that matters. Another fun 'miracle' we had yesterday was when we got on the but to go to church their was a seat beside me. At the next stop a girl got on and before even sitting down she reached out, shaking my hand saying 'preevet' (friendly hello). For anyone thats been on marshutka's in ukraine, you would realize that this is not a normal experience and i was immediatly very confused. We got talking and i soon found out that she was a member from russia here visiting a friend. She and her friend had no idea where the church building was and were very grateful that they had decided to get on our bus and not on one of maybe 100 other buses. Its just small random things like that that just let you know that God is mindful of all his children, even with the small details like that. I also had an interesting learning experience a while back that I'm not sure if I shared yet that I thought you would like. We were at the church building which is located in the middle of a bunch of flats, apartment buildings. We were in a room waiting for our investigator when a grandma came shuffling up to the door, very distraught. She told to help quickly, that some kid was trying to wreck our gate to the fence that surrounds our building. Sure enough there was a teenager on our gate swinging back and forth on it. I immediatly started walking toward the 17-18 yr old with confindence to which i think he might have been a little frightened, maybe thinking i wanted to fight. I had no idea was i was going to say or what i was supposed to do. The young man quickly got off the gate and kind of hid around the side of it keeping it between us. When i reached the first thing i did was reach out my hand to shake is asking what his name was. I dont know if it was the missionary that was in me or what but thinking back about it, it was kinda an interesting way to react. We soon had a friendly conversation going and soon some of his friends slowly walked over to us, trying to figure out what i was talking to him about. They were soon all asking questions about what our building was and what american were doing here. It was surprising to hear these questions, these kids living right across from the church but not having any knowledge of what it was and who we were. Soon our investigator walked up and joined in the converstion, also explaining the functions of our building, confirming that he had actually been listening intently to what we had taught him which was great. It is amazing how the spirit can help you in instances like that, when the culture here would be to come out, swearing and yelling at the kid to get off the fence. I am so grateful for how the spirit helped handle that experience with love and it was very apparent that all of those teenagers were very surprised at our reaction and how we treated them like adults. Its amazing how much God loves his children and it is a great blessing to have such experiences that help that testimony grow. Well, my time is about up but i hope that all is going well at home. Thanks for keeping me filled in on what is going on. It is always great to hear! Have a great week!



With love,

Elder Ostler





I think the package arrived at the office a while back but i should be recieveing it tomorrow. I'll let you know. Thanks!!:)