Hello Family!!
Another week has gone by and im writing home again! Time is flying! We continue to work with our investigators but the progress of each is coming very slowly. We didnt pick up any new investigators this week but we did meet up with the mother of a member of the branch presidency who is not a member and she seems fairly interested in what we have to say. She listens to us very carefully and she has agreed to meet with us twice and has come to church twice in a row so we are hoping to see great progress soon. This last lesson we had covered alot about prayer. Many of the churches around the world use the Lord's prayer as their own and just recite it over and over. We helped show her that the verse before talks of 'vain repititions' and that Christ just gave that as an example, not to be used as a 'vain repitition'. We also talked to her about a habit she had of crossing herself and asked her why the priests taught her that if that was never taught in the scriptures. She told us she honestly didnt know, she just had always done that. She told us that she sincerely wanted to find an answer to know the truth and by the end of the lesson, we had her pray as instructed in the scriptures and as prophets have taught, using her own words and closing in the name of Jesus Christ. It was really a great prayer and she is a quick learner. The next step is getting her to do that all on her own! We committed her to do it and we will be following up soon. There are a few other weaknesses she needs to straighten out in her live but those will change as we teach her about each one. Many investigators and people in general sin ignorantly, having maybe a feeling that something is wrong but having not much else to confirm it and that is why we are here, to inform them of what we already now to be true and have tested ourselves. I was reading a section from The Miracle of Forgiveness the other day and it told the story of a ship that had been stranded off the coast of south america without fresh drinking water. All suffering from extreme thirst, they signalled to a passing boat to share of there water with them. The other boat signalled back, telling them to lower their buckets, they were in fresh water! Unknown to the passengers, their boat was at the mouth of the amazon! Just think of the millions of souls around the world, hungering and thirsting for truth but not really knowing where to find it. That is why it is every member's responsibility to share what he knows with others, that they may also feel the peace and joy that come from a knowledge of the gospel and how to apply the atonement in their lives. We also work with a young man in his twenties who experimented with different substances that were against the word of wisdom lets just say. He has rejected these different substances and gives us many examples of why he absolutly despises them. His parents are already under the influence of such substances and were not quite so lucky as to excape their grasp as their son. We continue to work with him and help him understand Jesus Christ's doctrine and atonement. We hope and pray that he will continue to make the neccessary changes in his life to trully come unto Christ and be perfected in him. Well, thats about it for the week! I'll let you all know more about some of the others we are teaching next week. I love you all and i hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Elder Ostler
