Hello Family!!!
Another week has blown by and im still not quite sure what happened to our last week! Time is going way too fast! Being a zone leader is great because of the close contact we get to have with the mission president but is sometimes difficult because of the travelling we have to do which takes away from our time we can spend in our own area hear in Gorlovka. This week we took the train to Lugansk to hold a district meeting to present the information and counsel we recieved during our Zone leaders council. It went well and we returned to gorlovka later that night. The next morning we held another district meeting in our own area and the elders their excepted it well too. We had a lesson later that evening with an investigator named Yana who originally had a date 1st but has been taken off because she hasnt attended church for the last little while. Its been really unfortunate because she was doing so well but has been tempted by satan and given a raise in her job because of her work on Sunday which is the most productive day on the market where she sells meat. We are trying to help her work with her boss or just find a different job altogether see she can make time for God in her life. She also is struggling with reading the book of Mormon at the moment which is really inhibiting her from recieving any answer. She has righteous desire for her family but really struggles to put that desire into action. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated on her behalf. Thanks! SO, after our meeting with her the next day was zone conference. Another great experience, covering what we talked about in Zone leaders council. That night we got dogged on our lesson which was unfortunate but we returned and did some work in the area book, contacting a few former investigators but without success. We then had our second day of zone conference where me and another elder McCarther put together a quick musical number accappella to Abide with Me. It went well and i really enjoyed it. Both of us have nearly the same voices so it blended very well and a few elders made the comment that they couldnt tell who was singing which part. The conference's focus was on understanding the Atonement so we can help our investigators apply it in their own lives. One of our seventies said that if a investigator will truly repent, he will be baptized, and that our church is the only church that has the full understanding and authority to make such repentance valid. It is our job as members to share our knowledge with those who do not know because without this repentance, they cant be saved. Antoher investigator we have worked with and just passed to another set of elders name is Pavel. He is a great guy and also coming right along and is really looking for an answer. As far as we know his is looking sincerely and all set to recieve it but just needs time, reading, and prayer. We just moved his date and want him to reset it soon. Including him in your prayers would also be greatly appreciated. This week has been great as we have been searching more dilligently for referrals. This next week we have our goals set high to recieve more refferals that either of us have our whole missions. We cant wait to see the great success that will come from our new focus. President Compero has also encouraged us to send refferals home to the missionaries at home, to help build zion both here and at home. He allowed to log on to facebook to get what information we could about our nonmember friends and to write each one that we feel might be ready our testimony. I am very excited about this and have no idea why i hadnt ever thought of doing that before. Im excited to get involved in the work here and back at home!
Well family, i love you all so much and am grateful for all that you do for me! thankyou for your prayers and support! i know that with out the power of all of our faith combined, life would really be much harder to cope with. I am grateful that the Lord gives us this oppurtunity to show this faith and is always waiting to bless us with all that he has. We all trully have been blessed and i know the lord is pleased with us when we share these blessing with others. Hope to hear from you all soon!
With Love,
Elder Ostler
Also, we have a problem right now in that somewhere the records of baptism for kolya, our first baptism got lost. We hope that they will be found by the branch president who should have them but the search is still continuing. im not sure what will happen if they cant find them, if those who participated will just to fill out another form or if all of the ordinaces will have to be performed again but we will see. Keeping this in your prayers would also be greatly appreciated. Do you know anything about how that all works dad? well thanks soo much!!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
September 19, 2011
Hello Family!
This has been another great week out in the mission field. Thursday was our transfer meeting and my new companion is Elder Duke from Hurricane, Utah(somewhere on the border of Utah and Arizona). He's a great guy and i think this will be a great transfer. The next morningn on friday, we went into donetsk for Zone leaders council which was another amazing experience, so much great information and some new ideas as to how to recieve referrals. Our mission has for the longest time focuses on being busy missionaries, meaning we spent most of our time searching on the streets or tracting. Our new president has really been stressing that we be busy but be smart about it, taking more time for planned finding activities and focus on refferal recieving when working with members. He showed us some results from Armenia, aparently the next one up for recieveing a stake, who are not even allowed to make initial contact with others on the street. Most of their results come from MEMBER REFFERALS! When i think about how i treated the missionaries at home and not showing very much interest in giving them refferals, i now understand just how frustrating, time consuming, and tiring it is to try and find people on your own without much help. The Lord still blesses us for our efforts but we can definitly see the results get better drasticly as the members involve themselves. Now i realize just how many great oppurtunities i had to introduce the missionaries to my friends but didnt take advantage of the moment. Thats a regret that i have that i want to change when i return. Any ways, that was all that was very exciting this week so i hope to send you some pictures right now if i can.
This was us waiting at 4 oclock at the Lugansk train station.
This is from my apartment in the evening. These buildings are called dome's and is where almost everyone lives
With Love,
Elder Ostler
This has been another great week out in the mission field. Thursday was our transfer meeting and my new companion is Elder Duke from Hurricane, Utah(somewhere on the border of Utah and Arizona). He's a great guy and i think this will be a great transfer. The next morningn on friday, we went into donetsk for Zone leaders council which was another amazing experience, so much great information and some new ideas as to how to recieve referrals. Our mission has for the longest time focuses on being busy missionaries, meaning we spent most of our time searching on the streets or tracting. Our new president has really been stressing that we be busy but be smart about it, taking more time for planned finding activities and focus on refferal recieving when working with members. He showed us some results from Armenia, aparently the next one up for recieveing a stake, who are not even allowed to make initial contact with others on the street. Most of their results come from MEMBER REFFERALS! When i think about how i treated the missionaries at home and not showing very much interest in giving them refferals, i now understand just how frustrating, time consuming, and tiring it is to try and find people on your own without much help. The Lord still blesses us for our efforts but we can definitly see the results get better drasticly as the members involve themselves. Now i realize just how many great oppurtunities i had to introduce the missionaries to my friends but didnt take advantage of the moment. Thats a regret that i have that i want to change when i return. Any ways, that was all that was very exciting this week so i hope to send you some pictures right now if i can.
This was us waiting at 4 oclock at the Lugansk train station.
This is from my apartment in the evening. These buildings are called dome's and is where almost everyone lives
This was a celebration of Day of the Miners. There were tons of people on the central square of the city.
Some grafitti that i actually appreciate!! :)
This was our district from last transfer.
This is our mode of transportation in ukraine, the beloved Marshutka!
Well i love you all and i hope you all have an amazing week. I really loved seeing those pictures from benjamins dance! that looked like alot of fun! Also thanks for that other picture of us when we were younger. it was fun to see :) Well, talk to you all later!
With Love,
Elder Ostler
Monday, September 5, 2011
9-5-2011
Hello my dear family!!
So this week has been another good week in the field. Like i said last week, we went to the funeral in our branch. It was really a great experience. The father of the family took the oppurtunity to share the gospel and pleaded with alll of the members in the branch and nonmembers that came to show support for the family to do whatever was neccessary to be able to attend the temple. He testified so strongly of what he knew to be true in his heart and what we all hope and pray for, Eternal Families. I was so glad that he took the time he had to speak sharing that tender moment sharing the gospel rather than focusing on the bad that had been done and mourning. It was a good lesson to me of how the attitude of one individual can affect the attitude of many others in either in inspiring and a lifting way or a depressing, pessimistic way. This week we had the chance to put a younger mother on date who has been meeting with the missionaries for the last few months. She accepts everything really well and doesnt really question very many things and really likes the support she gets from the missionaries. We are trying to get members involved because we are afraid she is becoming a little too dependant on some of the missionaries that have taught her. This week we will also be making an effort to meet with most of our members that are willing to meet with us. Right now we have about 9 or 10 active and 20 to 30 inactives that we are trying to work with. The branch lacks priesthood right now because most of the priesthood holders are inactive or not worthy to fufill some of the vital callings in our branch. We have been meeting with our branch president each week to discuss such problems and offer our support to him because it is a big load to carry, he having served for about 7 years already and constantly trying to keep the branch together and work with branch consisting of 30 percent activity rate. I also had a chance to read the talk " You are my Hands" from president Uchtdorf which really touched me and i think it will make for a really great lesson in helping these members understand that the lord requires not just our prayers and fasting, but our actions. I'm excited to share this with our members and really felt a great spirit about it when i read. I loved the perfect example he gave of the two brothers that worked the same field together. After harvest had been completed and been evenly divided between the two brothers, they both returned home to sleep. Neither of the brothers could sleep and both went out to the field to give part of his half to the other brother who he felt was more in need than himself. These were both done at different times so that neither new what the other had done. The next morning they woke up and were surprised to see that both piles looked the same. The following night both woke up again and went to the fields, this time at the same time and when they saw eachother, they understood embraced and wept. That is what i think of when I think of selfless service, the kind of pure love that the saviour showed for his fellow brothers and sisters here on earth. I am so greatful for all that my saviour has done for me with his infinite atonement. I only hope that i can measure up to be what he wants me to be with the time that I have here on the earth. The Lord is so good to us! i hope that is something that we all remember, expecially when we take the sacrament each week. I love you all and i hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you. Thanks so much for the letters you have sent. It is so good to hear about the missionary experiences you all have been having and will be having. Have a great day!! :)
With Love,
Elder Ostler
So this week has been another good week in the field. Like i said last week, we went to the funeral in our branch. It was really a great experience. The father of the family took the oppurtunity to share the gospel and pleaded with alll of the members in the branch and nonmembers that came to show support for the family to do whatever was neccessary to be able to attend the temple. He testified so strongly of what he knew to be true in his heart and what we all hope and pray for, Eternal Families. I was so glad that he took the time he had to speak sharing that tender moment sharing the gospel rather than focusing on the bad that had been done and mourning. It was a good lesson to me of how the attitude of one individual can affect the attitude of many others in either in inspiring and a lifting way or a depressing, pessimistic way. This week we had the chance to put a younger mother on date who has been meeting with the missionaries for the last few months. She accepts everything really well and doesnt really question very many things and really likes the support she gets from the missionaries. We are trying to get members involved because we are afraid she is becoming a little too dependant on some of the missionaries that have taught her. This week we will also be making an effort to meet with most of our members that are willing to meet with us. Right now we have about 9 or 10 active and 20 to 30 inactives that we are trying to work with. The branch lacks priesthood right now because most of the priesthood holders are inactive or not worthy to fufill some of the vital callings in our branch. We have been meeting with our branch president each week to discuss such problems and offer our support to him because it is a big load to carry, he having served for about 7 years already and constantly trying to keep the branch together and work with branch consisting of 30 percent activity rate. I also had a chance to read the talk " You are my Hands" from president Uchtdorf which really touched me and i think it will make for a really great lesson in helping these members understand that the lord requires not just our prayers and fasting, but our actions. I'm excited to share this with our members and really felt a great spirit about it when i read. I loved the perfect example he gave of the two brothers that worked the same field together. After harvest had been completed and been evenly divided between the two brothers, they both returned home to sleep. Neither of the brothers could sleep and both went out to the field to give part of his half to the other brother who he felt was more in need than himself. These were both done at different times so that neither new what the other had done. The next morning they woke up and were surprised to see that both piles looked the same. The following night both woke up again and went to the fields, this time at the same time and when they saw eachother, they understood embraced and wept. That is what i think of when I think of selfless service, the kind of pure love that the saviour showed for his fellow brothers and sisters here on earth. I am so greatful for all that my saviour has done for me with his infinite atonement. I only hope that i can measure up to be what he wants me to be with the time that I have here on the earth. The Lord is so good to us! i hope that is something that we all remember, expecially when we take the sacrament each week. I love you all and i hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you. Thanks so much for the letters you have sent. It is so good to hear about the missionary experiences you all have been having and will be having. Have a great day!! :)
With Love,
Elder Ostler
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