Hello Family!!
It was really great talking to some of you yesterday! It was so great to hear how you have been doing. This week we met twice with the little girl who wants to be baptized and her mother. They are so great and so nice to us it has been a breath of fresh air to see people with such great potential and sincere desires. I've been trying to adjust the lessons that we would normally teach to adults to fit what a ten year old would understand and enjoy. For our first lesson we brought a book of church art and showed those to her as we went throughout the lesson. We also taught about the plan of salvation and i prepared an outline of the plan like we would write it on a white board at church and then colored it in and gave it to her. I am pretty much terrible at making these things interesting and exciting so any advice or ideas would be GREATLY appreciated:) Thanks! So, Dad made the comment of maybe sharing more specifically some aspects of the work here so you all have a better idea of what it is like. Thats a great idea and i think this week I'll just share a little bit about a "normal" sacrament meeting. So, usually we arrive at church about 30 minutes early and most of the youh in our branch are already there getting things ready. This branch really has some great youth. The rest of the branch slowly comes trickling in within the last ten minutes of sacrament meeting starting. As investigators show up we talk with them and find a seat next to them to make them feel more comfortable. Once the meeting begins and we begin to sing, the hall sounds like a choir of angels, everyone singing their hearts out whether it sounds good or not:) The accoustics in the hall are actually really great too and i really enjoy its reverb. We procede with the meeting and normally the talks are farely normal. Sometimes some of the less experienced and newer members get a little blasphemous but normally its pretty hard to go astray when the assignments we are given to talk about are from conference and past Liahonas. This last meeting we had the girl who directs the music was gone at youth conference so i got to get up and lead. For some reason the electricity kept going off and then back on so it was a little crazy since we use an electric keyboard. For the opening song we were on the last verse and the power went out and then for the last two phrases it came on and the lady who plays the piano picked up just in time. It was pretty funny and many of the members had big smiles too as i walked down from the stand. After sacrament meeting we have gospel princples where recent converts and investigators go. The teacher is good at getting the class involved and helps us as missionaries answer questions to along the way. Those usually go pretty well and are very helpful for our investigators. After that priesthood begins and the craziness begins!:) just this last sunday President Fry was here and the teacher had prepared a lesson on honesty. He started out with some crazy scripture that i didnt even understand in english. We had two people translating and the whole class was in an uproar trying to enter in their two cents. We turned to President Fry to answer and he did pretty well but the second counsilor kept pointing out something that Jesus had taught that he didnt feel was right. We finally compared the english scriptures to the Russian ones and came to the realization that there was a difference of only a few words but it was those few words that changed the whole meaning of the passage. It was just another testimony to me of how quickly the word of God can be distorted by men and how much we need the prophet and priesthood leaders to guide us. We concluded the lesson by reading all of the chapter headings to make sure everything was convered and closed with prayer.:) So, this experience was not to far off from a typical day in priesthood and that is pretty much what our meetings consist of. Just a little different than in America i'd say:) haha Alright, well times about up but i hope you all know how much i love you all and i hope all is going well for you back at home! Keep up the great Work. I love you and i cant wait to hear from you all again soon!
With Love,
Elder Ostler
