6-27-2011

Hello Family!!


I am sooo happy to hear that Kirk and Heather were sealed in the temple!!! You all have no idea how much joy i feel right now, knowing that such a choice son and his wife and daughter were sealed together for time and all eternity. I'm so proud of them for pressing through such trials and reaching that ultimate goal of being sealed in the temple. They are such a great example to us all, those who have been sealed and those who havent. I dont know what it is exactly when i heard the great news but it honestly brings so much joy to my heart. This is something we want for every person we talk with on the street and it gets me a little emotional to think that someone in the world made it!! it is honestly kinda hard to explain these great principles but then have them treated as naught each day, things that are so close to the heart. I have been trying to work charity lately, not letting these occurences when people refuse these blessings harden my heart towards them. Your heart just aches when people just shrug it off or even get a little hostile about it. Just the other day we were sign-boarding and i stopped a young lady who was walking with her two little girls. I handed her a brochure that has the picture of Christ with all of the kids and also the family proc. and testimony of apostles. She stopped and paused, looking thoughtfully at it. I began to explain our belief in families living together forever. She said she believed in God and Jesus Christ. She was very kind, smiling and thanking me for the brochure and said she would read. But, as she said goodbye and started to walk away, another women came from behind her taking one glance at us and then at her daughter who was holding one of our brochures. She exploded in anger, snatching it from her daughter's grasp, to which her daughter snatched it back, actually fighting for what she must have felt in her heart was something special. The mother finally won the little battle and stomping over to me handing me the crumpled brochure to me apologizing, probably realizing what she had just done and how immature it was and stomped off again with her daughter in tow. The daughter slowly turned and gave me smile as if to say 'sorry' and left. It was very sad to me to see this happen. It seems that someone actually wanting an eternal life with their family here is rare and not an every day occurence. Families have not yet been recognized such a vital thing to the development of people here. I hope that someday she will see missionaries on the street again, remember what had happened and what she felt and want to know more. Anyways here are some pictures from this last little while. My time is running out so i'll try to hurry and upload them.

Love,

Daniel

 Me on one of our member's motorcycles. (Don't worry, I didn't actually drive it, it was just to make Josh jealous of my vehicle. :)

 Making home made sharma's with some of the Youth in the Branch on P-day.

Done with conference and off to McDonalds!

 Investigator from makevka at district conference.

 Factory in our town! yay polution!

Provislavnic Temple

Tank Monument

Ukranian Countryside

06-20-2011

Hello Family!!


Sounds like one very busy week back at home!! It was great to see those pictures of all of the fun things you all have been doing. It honestly makes my whole week each week when i get the chance to hear about all of the great things you all are doing. Each of our new investigators that we acquired over this past month are all being backed up to the wall of faith and are having a hard time finding the will to really take the step of faith that is so vitally needed. Sometimes i just want to yell," just read and and pray about the book of mormon!!! Thats all that we are asking!!!" Im still trying to understand why it is so hard for some people to understand when we basically say just that, but not yelling. :) I feel the main reason for people not taking that step is because they realize they will will have to change their lives in order to live according to what they woulds know to be true. We keep pushing forward though it seems as though Satan is out to get us, more drunks and some very hot weather! I never knew i could sweat that much or that i even had that much liquid inside of me!!! its crazy! The humidity here is what really gets us sometimes and i hear its just beginning!! This last week we had Mission Conference, District Conference, and Zone Conference, all within a weeks time!! it was rather crazy going to and from donetsk taking the 2 hour bus ride back and forth. We get to take another trip up today because our office forgot to take our passports while we were here. The conferences went really well and for the mission i had the oppurtunity to share my song "Oh my soul Hungered". Before hand i felt rather unprepared but as i prayed to heavenly father, asking that his spirit would be there and that all i wanted to do was glorify his name, he gave me confidence that everything would be alright. It was amazing how relaxed i was, there standing in front of my whole mission, President Clayton, President Schwazzer, and President Fry. What was even more amazing to me was how the song turned out, seeming to just come out all on its own, allowing me to invite the spirit that i wanted to be felt in that room. My pianist masterfully followed my every pause and stress that i placed within meaningful phrases and i knew that the Lord was with us. As we closed together and sat down i could feel and see that the spirit had touched many of the people in that room. All of the sisters in the front row were in tears and the Elders were silent, no one saying a word. It is times like these when you feel so grateful to the Lord and his tender mercies. You feel that love that he has for all of his children. How grateful i am that i could be an instrument in his hands in bringing others unto him. I know that without him and his Holy Spirit, that song would have just been any other song and I would have just been like any other artist. i am grateful that he was there to help me when i needed it most. During these activities we learned that Moscow now has a stake which was great to hear. The next up on the list are Donetsk and Harkov, both in our mission and i hope to hear the great news that they will be becoming a stake very soon also. It was a little bit of a dissappointment to the members when they heard the news but i feel our area's do still need time to become more established still in reactivating less-actives. Well, the work moves on around the world and i hope that all is going well back at home. Thanks for keeping me updated on all that is going on. It is so great to see the pictures and hear from each of you when you have time. I hope you all have a great week and i am already looking forward to your next emails!!!:)



With Love,

Elder Ostler

6-13-2011

Hello Family!!


Yes Mom, i got the packages!! :) Thank you soo much. The office had to come check our apartment the friday after our birthday and so they just brought the two boxes down with them. It was great and we were all very excited to see all of the great food all ready to be eaten. You have no idea how great it is to open up a box to find a bunch of american cake mixes and chilli seasoning!! :) Its basically heaven on earth! I'm glad to hear you got that letter for your birthday in time! thanks Dad!:) You have a great husband Mom! This week we had a good week full of interesting experiences. The drunks seem to be out in force this week and they all seemed to be attracted to us... Fortunately the Lord kept us safe from a few hostile ones and we're doing great. We were able to meet with a few of our investigators this week who seem to be doing very well. We have one named Sasha who is really a great guy, working hard to make a living and being successful at it. In our last meeting we showed him one of president Monson's talks so he could get a taste of what a prophet really was but unfortunatly, the clip we had decided to show had many more big rarely used words that he said he didnt quite understand but he did understand that temples were important to us which led to a great conversation. His mother is interested in family history so were are also hoping to get her involved too. When we talked to him about why he met with us time after time, he told us he felt great peace when he was around us and that he really liked that in contrast to his work setting where so much was going on. He said he really treasured our time together as we discussed things of real importance. We are trying to help him identify the Spirit he has been feeling, this peace he keeps describing. The scientific side of him sometimes gets a little in the way when he questions whether it is just something to be explained scientifically that we feel or whether it is God's promise being fufilled to us. He is a great guy and has great potential. He hope that he will put forth that mustard seed of faith so that he can find out for himself whether or not what we say is truth. Our little girl is back off date and we decided to not choose a date again until the mom can find the motivation to come to church on sunday. Its really sad to see that this is all that is holding Nastia back from being baptized and from them being sealed in the temple. We hope that something will help change her mother's desires to be more pure so that they can accept these ordinances. Prayers on their behalf would be greatly appreciated. Sometimes there is nothing more frustrating than to see someone who is soooo close to finding such enduring happiness but still holding back to the natural man within. It is soooo necesary for them to make that choice though because if it had been made for them, the next time they were asked to make a sacrifice, it would be just that much harder without that experience. We did have a funny lesson a little while back with them that i wanted to share about. Teaching a family like them honestly makes me soo happy and i love to see the love they have for eachother. We were talking about the ten commandments and it came to the one about honoring your father and mother and looked at Nastia and looked at her in a half smiling way and asked "So, you are obedient to your mother, 100 percent, right??" to which she slowy looked from me to her mother in a shy sort of way kinda saying"well...yeah, kinda" and just burst into laughing. It was the funniest thing to see both of them laughing and enjoying being together to the point that the little girl had tears coming down her face from laughing soo hard. She reminded me of Caleb alot when he gets on one of his laughing, giggly moods. :) We also had a funny conversation about the phrase 'chicken scratch' which apparently is the same in russian and they got a good kick out of that one too. Family is so great! i dont know where the world would be without families that love eachother! actually.. i do and its pretty terrible to see sometimes. Its taught me NEVER to take my family for granted. I love all of you guys and I hope that all at home is going well. I am grateful for the spiritual experiences i hear each week from you and they trully do strenthen me. Have a great week!! I'm off to make some homemade Sharma's! Should be an interesting experience so I'll let you know how it goes!:)



With Love,

Elder Ostler

6-6-2011

Hello family!




Thank you soo much for sharing those experiences from the Stake Trek with me. To hear all of those experiences that you had, so similar to those of pioneers of old, it honestly got me a little emotional over here and my companion probably thinks something is wrong with me. :) Those experiences you had, though very different from the modern day pioneers found here in ukraine, had a familiar sort of feeling to them and the emotions seem to run together. It is not easy for these people to be members here. With hardly anyone to associate with who has similar beliefs it can be a great emotional and spiritual trial for many of the people here at times. This sunday we had a lady who we recently blessed bore strong testimony of the power of the priesthood and right after her, the lady who's son died after we blessed him bore strong witness of what she also knew to be true and that nothing could shake her from her faith. It was a very powerful testimony meeting and the people here are holding strong, just as pioneers of old. Thanks for all of your examples to me. I love you and I cant wait to hear from you in this upcoming week!



Love ya!

Edler Ostler