Привет моя любимая семья!!!
This week has been another great week! As a companionship we reached our mission's Standards of Excellence which was quite the endeavor. Elder Smith (my new companion fresh out of the MTC) and I worked like crazy to get our 20 quality lessons (a lesson with a prayer at the beginning and end amd principle taught) by the end of the week. I dont know how that compares to other missions but here in Donestk, lets just say its pretty stressful :) Between people "dogging"(cancelling their lesson) us about every other lesson you have scheduled and the long bus rides to get to their houses, its pretty difficult to plan out your days and to actually know what will happen. In the end we reached our other goals we had set just along the way and met the 20 lesson mark. We are in the 'miracle zone' now so hopefully we can keep it up! We gave another blessing this sunday and brought the sacrament to an old lady in our branch this sunday with our recent convert Kolya since he is now a priest. I, once again, had the oppurtunity to say the words of the blessing. Their is something extraordinary and very humbling about these different experiences, when you know how inadequate you are with the language and even in experience with giving blessings, that you really do have to place yourself in the Lord's hands and let him guide you through his Holy Spirit. For me personally, i'm a very "do it yourself" kind of person, and have never really been the one to ask for help unless it is desperatly needed. I can see that as a result of these experiences, my trust in the lord is becomeing more and more real, slowly breaking down the walls of my pride that have been built up and well maintained for so many years. I can see that there is still much more that lies ahead of me that will continue this process and though it may be absolutley exhausting, i can say that each of them will be worth it.
As far as training goes, we are actually working very well with eachother. Elder Smith is from Cheeno, California and actually stayed in my exact same hall in college just a year after i was there. Its weird to think that i was was there a year ago. It's crazy how time flys! He is really great elder with a great determination to do good. I think we will make a great team.
Thanks for all that you do for me and thanks for all the emails i recieved this week! I Love you and I hope you all have a great week!
With Love,
Elder Ostler
