Hello Family!!
How's it going!!?? it sounds like you all had so much fun this last week. I cant wait to see pictures from it all. Oh, and either i was totally out of it last week or i just didn't realize but congratulations Josh and Jen!! That's so great to hear! With all of these babies being born im starting to lose track of just how many nieces and nephews i have right now! :) It would be great if by any chance in the next package or whatever is sent to get some photos of the new grandchildren so i can show the members here. They love our family photos and i use them so much more than i thought i ever would before i came out. They are really helpful and helps you get more personal with your investigators and members of the church. It is neat to see the member's eyes light up when they see our ginormous family and all of us smiling and many of them say they want to have families just like that. Thanks for being great examples! It makes such a difference to the members here to see just how much potential they have as members of the restored church of Jesus Christ. This week we just received word that both my companion and I are being transferred. We dont find out to where until transfer meeting this next friday. It was really sad having to say goodbye to some of the families here that i've grown close to. They had us speak in sacrament meeting and it was really the first time i had spoken since the MTC on an assigned topic. Normally we just bear testimony but this was a great opportunity to learn some new words. I spoke about Love in the family and how the branch can also be seen as a family. It went pretty well and i hope i have the opportunity to give talks more often. SO, more changes are coming my way and im looking forward to making the best of whatever comes. I hope i get the chance to really settle down a little bit in whatever my next area is because its a little rough getting transferred so often when you are just getting to know the people. I'm so grateful for the many opportunities we have to learn and grow out here on our missions. It seems like one big learning experience just put into hyper-speed and thrown at you. I'm just learning how to use my journal to try and catch each of these learning experiences as they come flying by. It sounds as if all is going well and i am very glad to hear that! thanks for all of the love and support you give to me and the time you spend to write me. I'm sorry i dont have time to respond to every email but just know i read every single one of them and love every minute of it:) Love you all so much and i cant wait to hear from you this next week!
With Love,
Elder Ostler
Monday, March 28, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
3-21-2011
Hello Family!
This week has just flown by!! I feel like i was just barely writing you all! This week we had a great zone conference with the President of the Europe East Area, Elder Schwatzer(something like that), which was great. It was amazing to see how deep of a knowledge he had of the gospel and how smoothly he could move from one point to the next, connecting seemingly impossible points of his lesson together making it very powerful. He presented a very interesting lesson on a different way of looking at the message we teach and different diagrams. He also taught us how to approach people and talk to them about the gospel by showing us how he would ask someone on a date using his wife. It was pretty comical and just slightly awkward but he had some great ideas that should help us talk to more people. His wife also had the chance to teach us too and it was really interesting to me and for some reason hit me pretty hard. She talked about being witnesses of Christ and how when we present ourselves as his messengers, we dont need to kinda skip around our real purpose of talking to them, just to keep them from yelling at us and walking away. We can go up to them and say with the power and authority of our calling, "We are Representatives of Jesus Christ and he has called us through a modern day prophet to come to you and share the message of his restored gospel." Just that statement right there is sooo powerful when you stop and think about it and honestly, any person who takes life seriously and is concerned about there salvation in the slightest would stop to at least hear what you had to say if they heard you say this. It's an approach I'm going to start applying as soon as i can. Sometimes, unfortunately, you get a little caught up in the routine of what you say to people each and every day, hour after hour, and you almost expect rejection each time. It was a breath of fresh air to hear about these different approaches we could use and i certainly hope that these will help us find those people who are ready or at least be able to plant some seeds. A miracle that happened this week was that i was able to sing without any hinderment for the zone and President Schwatzer, even with the nasty sickness I had. I still have something like a cold but for the time i was singing, it went smoothly. Thanks for your prayers! I know that it helped me portray the Spirit i wanted to be felt in that room. The Spirit is such a wonderful tool that is so desperately needed. Doing this work with the Spirit really makes all of the difference, literally ALL of the difference. We are basically just to American teenagers walking the streets of Ukraine speaking terrible Russian without it. I love this gospel and i love this work. Thanks for all the support you all give me. I received that package and i wanted to thank you so much Mom!!! It was so nice to get that. I used my Card and it works fine. Thanks Dad! Well I love you all and I hope you Have a great week ahead of you!:)
With Love,
Elder Ostler
This week has just flown by!! I feel like i was just barely writing you all! This week we had a great zone conference with the President of the Europe East Area, Elder Schwatzer(something like that), which was great. It was amazing to see how deep of a knowledge he had of the gospel and how smoothly he could move from one point to the next, connecting seemingly impossible points of his lesson together making it very powerful. He presented a very interesting lesson on a different way of looking at the message we teach and different diagrams. He also taught us how to approach people and talk to them about the gospel by showing us how he would ask someone on a date using his wife. It was pretty comical and just slightly awkward but he had some great ideas that should help us talk to more people. His wife also had the chance to teach us too and it was really interesting to me and for some reason hit me pretty hard. She talked about being witnesses of Christ and how when we present ourselves as his messengers, we dont need to kinda skip around our real purpose of talking to them, just to keep them from yelling at us and walking away. We can go up to them and say with the power and authority of our calling, "We are Representatives of Jesus Christ and he has called us through a modern day prophet to come to you and share the message of his restored gospel." Just that statement right there is sooo powerful when you stop and think about it and honestly, any person who takes life seriously and is concerned about there salvation in the slightest would stop to at least hear what you had to say if they heard you say this. It's an approach I'm going to start applying as soon as i can. Sometimes, unfortunately, you get a little caught up in the routine of what you say to people each and every day, hour after hour, and you almost expect rejection each time. It was a breath of fresh air to hear about these different approaches we could use and i certainly hope that these will help us find those people who are ready or at least be able to plant some seeds. A miracle that happened this week was that i was able to sing without any hinderment for the zone and President Schwatzer, even with the nasty sickness I had. I still have something like a cold but for the time i was singing, it went smoothly. Thanks for your prayers! I know that it helped me portray the Spirit i wanted to be felt in that room. The Spirit is such a wonderful tool that is so desperately needed. Doing this work with the Spirit really makes all of the difference, literally ALL of the difference. We are basically just to American teenagers walking the streets of Ukraine speaking terrible Russian without it. I love this gospel and i love this work. Thanks for all the support you all give me. I received that package and i wanted to thank you so much Mom!!! It was so nice to get that. I used my Card and it works fine. Thanks Dad! Well I love you all and I hope you Have a great week ahead of you!:)
With Love,
Elder Ostler
March 14, 2011
Hello Family!
Things are going great here in Makeebka! The snow is melting and Spring is here to STAY!! yay! I've been a little sick this last week and had to stay in a few days with a sore throat and super stuffy nose but i recieved a blessing from my branch president and companion and am feeling great already. The sickness that normally comes this time each year for me and last for a week or two has only lasted a few days and is already leaving me. I am so grateful for worthy priesthood holders who honor and hold the priesthood dear to them. Tomorrow we will be having zone conference in donetsk and we have a Member of the Seventy coming which is great! i have also been asked to sing Oh my soul Hungered as the musical number for this conference. I was worried that my sickness would keep me from doing that but with the power of the priesthood, i should be ready to sing just fine tomorrow. I was practicing the on sunday and one of our members here who knows a little english came up to me while i was playing that song on the piano and looked at the title and i could see the confusion on her face. She directly translated over to Russian which would be more like, My soul was hungry, to which we both laughed and then i showed her the scripture in Enos where it used a slightly different more ancient word that made more sense in the context of the song.
So to answer these questions you have i'll just kinda list them out for you.
1)This is honestly very trying for me but their is a light at the end of this tunnel of growing experiences. The language is slowly coming and i am feeling a little more confident in what i say. The spirit seems to also be comeing stronger and stronger as we focus our efforts on the work.
2)Right now, the hardest thing for me is knowing exactly what to say that would help each of the different people we meet with, and exactly how to say it in Russian. Its been getting a little better as i have had these different experiences with different people. Something i am still working on.
3) The most postive thing i have seen so far is the progress these branches are making towards becoming a stake! it is coming close! After we reach that, their's nothing holding us back from haveing another temple here! Every member here dreams of the day that will happen.
4) I do feel these experiences are bringing me closer to christ. It is hard to feel that sometimes but you do learn just how little can be done by yourself and just how much more can be done when your trust is in the Lord.
5)RIght now i feel like i understand about 50-60%. Well, at least i understand that much of the context of what they are saying and the general thought but each individual word, sometimes thats pretty difficult.
Well i love you all so much and i cant wait to hear from you all again. Congrats Benjamin on making all-state!!! thats so awesome!! I hope you have a ton of fun. Keep up the good work Caleb!:)
With Love,
Elder Ostler
Things are going great here in Makeebka! The snow is melting and Spring is here to STAY!! yay! I've been a little sick this last week and had to stay in a few days with a sore throat and super stuffy nose but i recieved a blessing from my branch president and companion and am feeling great already. The sickness that normally comes this time each year for me and last for a week or two has only lasted a few days and is already leaving me. I am so grateful for worthy priesthood holders who honor and hold the priesthood dear to them. Tomorrow we will be having zone conference in donetsk and we have a Member of the Seventy coming which is great! i have also been asked to sing Oh my soul Hungered as the musical number for this conference. I was worried that my sickness would keep me from doing that but with the power of the priesthood, i should be ready to sing just fine tomorrow. I was practicing the on sunday and one of our members here who knows a little english came up to me while i was playing that song on the piano and looked at the title and i could see the confusion on her face. She directly translated over to Russian which would be more like, My soul was hungry, to which we both laughed and then i showed her the scripture in Enos where it used a slightly different more ancient word that made more sense in the context of the song.
So to answer these questions you have i'll just kinda list them out for you.
1)This is honestly very trying for me but their is a light at the end of this tunnel of growing experiences. The language is slowly coming and i am feeling a little more confident in what i say. The spirit seems to also be comeing stronger and stronger as we focus our efforts on the work.
2)Right now, the hardest thing for me is knowing exactly what to say that would help each of the different people we meet with, and exactly how to say it in Russian. Its been getting a little better as i have had these different experiences with different people. Something i am still working on.
3) The most postive thing i have seen so far is the progress these branches are making towards becoming a stake! it is coming close! After we reach that, their's nothing holding us back from haveing another temple here! Every member here dreams of the day that will happen.
4) I do feel these experiences are bringing me closer to christ. It is hard to feel that sometimes but you do learn just how little can be done by yourself and just how much more can be done when your trust is in the Lord.
5)RIght now i feel like i understand about 50-60%. Well, at least i understand that much of the context of what they are saying and the general thought but each individual word, sometimes thats pretty difficult.
Well i love you all so much and i cant wait to hear from you all again. Congrats Benjamin on making all-state!!! thats so awesome!! I hope you have a ton of fun. Keep up the good work Caleb!:)
With Love,
Elder Ostler
Monday, March 7, 2011
March 7, 2011
Hello Family,
I hope all is going well and that this letter finds you all at home and happy! Thanks for all of the support you give me. This week has been another good week. We had a chance to go sign-boarding this week and we were able to talk to many people about the gospel and give out a few Book of Mormon's. We also got one lady's information who came up and started to talk to us about how her father had the missionaries over to their house a few times. She said she was having hard times with her son right now and really wanting to turn to God for help and guidance. We gave her a book and exchanged information. Hopefully we will have a chance to meet with her soon. We called a few time already but have not been able to get ahold of her. We have continued to work with some of our more long-term investigators, trying to help them solve their problems. One of which who had some worthiness issues is making good progress and we are hoping that she will be cleared up soon so we can help her to be baptized. We also found out recently that she had some how picked up a D&C somewhere along the way and she has gotten herself pretty confused over what she had recently believed and felt after reading the Book of Mormon. We've been focusing our efforts of trying to help her realize what she originally felt from reading the Book of Mormon and that to qualify for baptism, a testimony of the Book of Mormon is what is needed. Understanding of further and deeper church materials will come with time and with the gift of the Holy Ghost after she is baptized. One of the other long-term investigators we have been working with still has a wife that is a little against his baptism. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and about when people have concerns about the church and whether it is true, one only needs to sincerely find out if the Book of Mormon is true, which then in a kind of domino affect leads to the truthfulness of all things in our church. We committed him to reading with his wife and testifying about it to her and then praying. We hope he will act upon this challenge so he can receive the eternal blessings that come with baptism and a possible eternal marriage with his wife and family. We felt good after teaching that lesson but it still seemed like their were other concerns pressing his mind and that perhaps it wasn't just his wife that was making it hard to make the sacrifices that were necessary. I will keep you posted on their progress. We sincerely hope to see some success with these investigators soon and we also hope to be adding a few new, pretty solid, investigators. Please keep praying for all of us. It is just a little exhausting to see how long these people have sat on the edge of finding such a higher level of happiness but are just having a hard time acting. It is so hard when you feel like you know exactly what they need and know what they need to do but you have to be patient and let them act for themselves and not be acted upon. It's enough to drive you crazy sometimes! :)haha I know that it all is in the Lords hands and that all we can do is keep trying our best. I am so grateful for my saviour Jesus Christ and the gospel he taught and lived perfectly. I know that this is his work and that he loves all of his children. I know that the Lord blesses us for every effort we put forth in his work here upon the earth. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all and i hope to hear from you soon!
With Love,
Elder Ostler
I hope all is going well and that this letter finds you all at home and happy! Thanks for all of the support you give me. This week has been another good week. We had a chance to go sign-boarding this week and we were able to talk to many people about the gospel and give out a few Book of Mormon's. We also got one lady's information who came up and started to talk to us about how her father had the missionaries over to their house a few times. She said she was having hard times with her son right now and really wanting to turn to God for help and guidance. We gave her a book and exchanged information. Hopefully we will have a chance to meet with her soon. We called a few time already but have not been able to get ahold of her. We have continued to work with some of our more long-term investigators, trying to help them solve their problems. One of which who had some worthiness issues is making good progress and we are hoping that she will be cleared up soon so we can help her to be baptized. We also found out recently that she had some how picked up a D&C somewhere along the way and she has gotten herself pretty confused over what she had recently believed and felt after reading the Book of Mormon. We've been focusing our efforts of trying to help her realize what she originally felt from reading the Book of Mormon and that to qualify for baptism, a testimony of the Book of Mormon is what is needed. Understanding of further and deeper church materials will come with time and with the gift of the Holy Ghost after she is baptized. One of the other long-term investigators we have been working with still has a wife that is a little against his baptism. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and about when people have concerns about the church and whether it is true, one only needs to sincerely find out if the Book of Mormon is true, which then in a kind of domino affect leads to the truthfulness of all things in our church. We committed him to reading with his wife and testifying about it to her and then praying. We hope he will act upon this challenge so he can receive the eternal blessings that come with baptism and a possible eternal marriage with his wife and family. We felt good after teaching that lesson but it still seemed like their were other concerns pressing his mind and that perhaps it wasn't just his wife that was making it hard to make the sacrifices that were necessary. I will keep you posted on their progress. We sincerely hope to see some success with these investigators soon and we also hope to be adding a few new, pretty solid, investigators. Please keep praying for all of us. It is just a little exhausting to see how long these people have sat on the edge of finding such a higher level of happiness but are just having a hard time acting. It is so hard when you feel like you know exactly what they need and know what they need to do but you have to be patient and let them act for themselves and not be acted upon. It's enough to drive you crazy sometimes! :)haha I know that it all is in the Lords hands and that all we can do is keep trying our best. I am so grateful for my saviour Jesus Christ and the gospel he taught and lived perfectly. I know that this is his work and that he loves all of his children. I know that the Lord blesses us for every effort we put forth in his work here upon the earth. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all and i hope to hear from you soon!
With Love,
Elder Ostler
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