Hello Family!
Well, I has definitly been a crazy first couple days training! We've been working hard to find more people to teach so we spent most of our time on the streetsl We handed out 5 books and had 27 other lessons with as many people as would listen and talk to us. Though none of them seemed like a golden find, as we talked about them after each experience, we realized that each of them had something change in them while we spoke, whether it was from being atheist to believeing in God and christ or not liking american to thinking that we are all God's children and that we're actually some pretty classy people. :)It was cool to think that we were really making a difference in people's lives. The language has definitly started to peick up again and my understanding is also increasing. One huge spiritual experience we had was when we were on a lesson With a Sister Bigoon in our branch when i recieved a call from the branch president. He told me that someone needed a blessing right then and that we were the only one's with that ability to bless in our part of Marioupol. We closed our lesson and quickly made our way to the bus stop. Being confused as to where eactly we were supposed to meet our member who would then take us to the family, We almost passed the stop but liuckily the sister saw us and waved at us to get off the bus. We made our way quickly to a small apartment cramed between a few big apartment structures. As we entered the dark room we found a man breathing very heavily laying on a bed witha distraught wife and younr daughter across the room. The man was too weak to get out of his bed so we had him lay there as we annointed his head and gave him the blessing. As I pronounced his name, I could suddenly feel the intense love God had for this man, though many different aspects of his life may not have been in accordance with the commandments. I pronounced upon him that he would be able to find peace in his heart and a love for his family and that he would see them again. As I fought back my emotions, I told him just how much his father in heaven loved him. I told him that some day he would have his full health again, not fully realizing exactly what that meant. After closing, I knelt by his bedside and reassured him that what had been pronounced upon his would come to pass according to his faith in Christ. The man lay there but shook our hands very greatfully saying "thank you , thank you" in russian over and over again. As we quietly said goodbye and left, I could see that the wife had been crying and i hope she could feel some of that love that God had for her too. The next day at church we found out that the man had passed silently away that night, a few hours after we left. This came as a shock to me. I thought back over and over again about what I had said. I felt I had been led by the spirit but why had he died when I had blessed him to return to health someday. Moments before the blessing I remembered having thoughts about whether this man would live or not. At the time I took them as doubts when perhaps it had been the spirit whispering the will of the Lord to me. Though the meaning of my words had been something different to me, thinking about it makes me think maybe the spirit spoke those words through me with a different meaning. perhaps that he would have that fullness of strength and health in the next life with a perfect body at his ressurection. I was also reading an article from Elder Oaks about the healing powers of the priesthood and he made the point that ideally the words in a blessing are guided by the spirit to know Gods will but with inexperience sometimes comes our own desires for the person, so that we may not correctly communicate Gods will. He said though the words of the blessing can help bring peace , they are not essential to the blessing. He said the power of the blessing really depends upon the faith of the individual blessed and the will of the Lord. This whole experience has been quite emotionally and spiritually consuming for me and has taught me many lessons about the whisperings of the spirit, Faith, and God's will and love for his children. I will never forget that experience and I can say with out a doubt that God loves each and every one of his children no matter who they are or what they have done. This experience has made me want to be better and to come closer to understanding that love that God has for us and how I can better make that a part of myself in my daily conduct. The Lord is so good to me and I am so grateful for this chance to serve on a mission!! Thankyou for all you do for me family and i hope all is going well. I love you all and i hope you all have a great week!!
Love,
Elder Ostler
