3-26-2012

Dear Family,
I am so glad to hear the way that music is touching the hearts of so many there in Arizona. It is such a blessing to have such talent and skill among church members there. Make sure to take every opportunity to use that great gift. This week we returned from Harkov on Wednesday. Later that night, we visited the first family I had ever been to while in the mission field, the Grechnev's. They have a wonderful family with a less active father who is kind to us but doesn't want to hear our message. We decided to have the members of the family prepare short lessons and their testimonies on a few different topics that the family had been struggling with. We saw such a difference when they did this, and they really felt the power of their own testimonies that they may not have realized was there. That is one thing I have learned on my mission, that one of the best ways for a person to learn something is for them to teach it themselves. Some people always doubt what they know, until they have that opportunity to testify of it. I remember so many times during my youth growing up and not feeling like I was strong or able to share what I felt in my heart. But, each time, whether it was at youth conference or sacrament meeting, when I went outside of my comfort zone, I could feel the Lord's power working through me and I would even be surprised as to how much I really did know to be true. I came to know it in my mind as result of the confirming witness of the spirit in my heart.
This week, we also saw a great miracle! We were on the way to a less active lesson far out on the edge of our area. When we went into the apartment complex and were waiting at an elevator,  a man walked in from the street, on the verge of a drunken and sober state. We talked to him and he immediately invited us to his home that very minute to meet his wife. He said she was a nurse and just a great person who needed us to share our message with her. We made him promise she wouldn't be drunk also and then headed up the elevator to this man's apartment. When he opened up the door the man called out to his wife who was watching TV on the couch and with a surprised look came to the door. At first she was apologetic, seeing that her husband had just crossed into a more drunken state and told him to go to the kitchen. We talked for a few minutes in the front entry way and soon we had her pretty curious as to what in the world we were doing there. She invited us to sit down in her living room and we began to teach a little about the Book of Mormon. She told us she was very interested in religion and had not really united herself to any faith. She had studied with Baptists and Jehovah witnesses but for some reason never joined their churches. We gave her a book of Mormon and asked here to read and pray that she could find her own answers to her life long search. She agreed to our commitment and we will see if she kept it in our next meeting. Her father was also there on the lesson, probably in his 80's. he was very funny because he didn't speak the whole time but then would ask two or three times if their were communists in America. We laughed and said that there probably were but we hadn't met any. At the end we left with a prayer and were both so happy about that miraculous experience, clearly having happened not by accident.
This weekend we also had the chance to attend a celebration of 20 years since the first missionaries came to the Donetsk mission. We heard the stories of the pioneers here in Donetsk and also the testimonies of President and Sister Galbraith from the Kiev, temple. It was such a wonderful experience and about 10 investigators were in attendance. It would have been very hard not to feel the Spirit working in that room. The Donetsk mission has come a long way since those days, and we are truly blessed for the diligence of those who came before us to serve.
The next day, which was Sunday, was also a great day, President setting apart two sister missionaries who will be serving at temple square. We had a little testimony meeting with their families, not all of whom were members and then set the sisters apart to serving the Lord. Then the families left and we, President Campero and his wife, the temple president and his wife, and the sisters had a great dinner and talked about the adventures that were ahead of them. They were both pretty nervous about it all, not knowing exactly what they were getting into but knowing that it would eternally bless them and their families. It is great to see such strength in the young members here. Then to wrap it all up, towards the end of the night, the Temple president asked to talk with my companion and I with President Compero. We went into president's office and received some wonderful instruction. You could tell that this man understood the meaning of the temple well and through his testimony, it strengthened each of us and reminded us of the covenants we made while in that holy place. I had been praying and fasting my last transfer to help remember and keep those covenants that I made with God and this meeting with the temple president was an answer to my pleading and fasting. The Lord is truly aware of us and each of our struggles, that I know with all that I am.
I love you all so much and am grateful that we can all live together again according to our faithfulness, thanks to our Heavenly Father's great plan for us. Have a great week!

With Love,
Elder Ostler 

3-22-2012

3-22-2012

Dear President and Sister Ostler, 

This is just a short email to tell you what you already know. Your son, a missionary in the Ukraine Donetsk Mission, is a remarkable young man. My wife and I arrived here several weeks ago and he was one of our zone leaders. We were immediately impressed with him and we commented to each other about him. When we learned of his calling to be an Assistant to the President we just smiled because we knew, though we had just met him, that such a calling would likely occur at some point.

 We are from Aurora, Colorado and are serving our second mission. We were in the Russia Novosibirsk Mission previously where I served in the Mission Presidency. I have served as a counselor to four mission presidents in Colorado and in the Europe East Area. I mention that only to indicate I have an idea of what a good missionary is like and your son is a tribute to his parents as well as to Lord. You can be very proud of him.

Elder Lynn Wm. Southam

Serving as a senior missionary in Gorlovka, Ukraine

3-19-2012

Hello Family,

It was so great to see those pictures! It looks like you are all having a great time together. That must be so great to have all the boys around still. It looks like the bird flu has caught on at our house!:) You all have such cool contraptions for those birds. Birds really are amazing. I might consider taking up the hobby:) 

This week here in the mission has been CRAZY! I've never had to multitask quite like this in my life. My companion had to leave for a few days on a visa trip to bulgaria so I had to hold down the fort while he was gone. As assistants, we spend a lot of time working on projects in the office and waiting to help President Compero when he may need it. We are still working on a schedule that can make room for all of the necessary things a missionary must do to be successful. We had one particular day where I went into the office around 12 and was there until a little after 9 working on different projects that needed to be finished before our trip to  Harkov and Sumy to the North of Donetsk. We also have short meetings, once or twice throughout the day with president to make sure we are all on the same page with him and his schedule which he has with members of our District. We have also been working on combining our Harkov and Donestk districts so we can get a Stake in our mission. That would be such a blessing!! The members have looked forward to this for a long time and we are almost there. We hope that these plans will follow through. 

On Friday, we made the trip up to Sumy, my very first area, with President Compero and his wife, a branch president and his family from Makeevka, and a couple in the district presidency. It was quite the 7 hour ride and was a lot of fun! We played around with the branch president's 10 year old son in the back seat nearly the whole time until he passed out from tiredness. I haven't been on a road trip like that in a while:) It's especially fun getting to know and speak with Ukrainian people over long periods of time and not only on 45 minute appointments.You really gain a great apreciation for them and the people that they are... even among so many of the wicked. They are great examples to all. 

We arrived in Sumy that night and got up the next day for meetings in the center area of the city. The branch is still struggling to get walking on its two feet since I served there a year and a half ago. The crutch of the missionaries has continued to be taken, the branch then falls and won't pick itself back up, and then the missionaries have to come back in, brush them off and get them going again. It's a hard situation mostly because of the lack of worthy, active, priesthood holders who can take on the responsibilities as priesthood leaders in that branch. I feel President Compero now has a better idea of what is going on up there and can now move ahead and make the necessary changes to allow that branch to grow. He really is a great man because of his humility and love. Yes, he can make mistakes like any normal person, but the character he has developed was made very evident in his patience during our meetings with the Sumy branch presidency. When things got heated, he didn’t yell or become angry, he calmly took it all and guided it away from the sensitive issues and turned to a more productive conversation. Rather than pointing out the faults of the branch presidency, he quickly moved to find solutions and not dwell on their lack of dilligence and obedience in the past. I loved being back in my first city that I never thought I would go back to! There is a great African American man there who I was friends with, and it was so great to catch up with him and see how he was doing. I also checked up on our investigator families that were doing great when we left. Unfortunately, nothing new was recorded in our teaching records that we had left, and when I called them, they had no desire to meet. We instead went to a really great man who can't walk but is very well kept and keeps a nice apartment. He remembered me from long ago which was surprising and this time I could actually hold a conversation with him! It makes such a difference and makes it quite a bit easier when you understand what they say and then relay your feelings and opinions back to them. 

After church this Sunday, we had to take a train down to Harkov and met a really nice Muslim man. My companion and he talked for a long time about religion and it was pretty interesting to hear about such a different culture. We arrived here in Harkov and then met a man from Gilbert, Arizona picking up his soon to be wife who he found online.... Nice man and way random that we just happened to be on the metro car in the subway. We stayed the night with Elder Stradling who I knew back at home in Mesa.  He is doing great out here. He's a great elder! His companion Elder Bolingbrook is also doing great and we had a great time being with them. 

Today there will be a meeting for all of the senior couples in our mission here in Harkov which should be a great meeting. We have so many different types of couples who are learning so much out here and who all contribute so much to our mission. 

Well family, my time is up but I hope you all have a great week ahead of you! Thank you for the pictures! They really do speak 1000 words! Thanks for your spiritual thoughts also! They honestly help me a lot and often have a lot to do with what I struggle with or what I need to be doing better.

I love you all! Have a great day!

Elder Ostler

3-12-2012

Dear Family,

This is Elder Ostler emailing from Donetsk Center area with companion Elder Bangerter! We had our transfer meeting this last Thursday where President Compero gave me the assignment to serve as his assistant. This is a great responsibility and opportunity and I am so grateful to have been given this chance to serve our mission president and the elders of our mission.  I was honestly not really expecting this new assignment but as we all know, the Lord works in mysterious ways. I am also grateful to serve with Elder Bangerter for a second time. If you remember, we served together just about 3 months ago for a short time. I feel like this will be a great opportunity to be humbled.

This week before the transfer ended, I had the chance to meet with a few of our members and an investigator and everything felt very good. I dont know quite how to describe it but it is a great feeling when you leave an area loving the people and having them love you, and also having the feeling that you did all that you could while you were there serving. I feel like I am finally coming to understand the love of Christ a little deeper and it is already blessing me in ways I never imagined. In the moment it seems like such a small shift of thinking, and of acting while in reality, it is changing both my own and other's lives. I love this  work, this people, and this land in which I serve. Yes, this people may struggle at times because of traditions of the pas,t but that only gives me more reason to love them, especially those who are brave enough to change their lives and step out from among the crowds, so to speak, and become true disciples of Christ through living his gospel.

This Sunday we went to the Central Donestk branch where I was asked to bear my testimony. It was amazing to feel such love for the people in that room that I had honestly never talked to or met with. Afterwards, president asked me again to share my testimony in the Makeevka branch that met during the next hour. If you remember, I served in this branch towards the beginning of my mission. As I stood to share my thoughts, I was once again overcome by those feelings of love for those people, this time almost all being familiar to me. It was truly a testimony to me that as we serve those around us or those with who we associate, we will be blessed with a great love for them and not just any love, a Christlike love, making us want to do anything for them so that they were happy both in this life and the next. Thank you for the examples each of you have been to me of this love. Thank you so much for the letters that you have sent me and the great news about the two new babies that are are coming.  I love you all so much. I love you because I know that each of you is trying your hardest to serve our Father in Heaven by loving His children here on earth. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I can't wait to hear from you this next week. 

With Love,

Elder Ostler

3-5-2012

Dear Family,

I was so happy to read about how Benjamin and Caleb are doing! Thanks for those great notes. I still can't believe you are finishing your senior year benjamin! I might just have to hire you as a tutor when get back :) Sounds like Caleb is also having to make some big decisions with changing schools. I hope that that works out well for you and that it will not be quite so intense as the academy.

As far as flight plans go for coming over, I would highly reccomend staying in touch with Sister Hatch, our office secretary. She recently performed a cleaning check on our apartment and asked me what was my plans with family coming.  Thanks so much for taking care of all of that!
Oh and one quick question, Is Lance going to be rooming with me and where will i be rooming?

SO, this week in the field i recieved a transfer!! very unexpected since i just got here for the second time but that must mean I have some more work to do elsewhere in this mission. Its always kind of sad leaving an area earlier than expected but its good to know that the branch is good hands, the Lords hands. This week we spent a good amount of time taking care of all of the documents needed to move our new senior couple in, the Southams. They say they know some Ostlers in Orem so maybe they know some of our family! They are a really fun couple and will prove to be a great asset to our branch here in Gorlovka. This week at church, our investigator Natasha and her inactive husband Roman came to church for the first time in months! it was so great to see them there and the members did a good job and making them feel at home. I know she feels something there at church and i hope and pray that she will gain the desire to act upon those desires in faith. We showed them a film about Spiritual Crocidiles that Boyd K Packer talked about a while back. She seemed to enjoy it but was pretty terrified of those huge crocidiles. We feel like it had the desired affects:) That small film really gives a good visual of why we shouldnt mess around when it comes to temptations satan sends our way, kind of like what Bishop Kerr taught Benjamin and the youth about dynamite. Quit trying to put the flame out and just get out of there! I think that is such a great lesson to learn, training our minds to not rationalize in situations that could lead to great harm, and learn to act upon spiritual promptings immediately.
 We also had an investigator ludmilla at church this sunday who has been really hard to meet with because she can never meet during the week.We met with her after church and had a great 1st lesson with her to really set up her foundation in the gospel. She has great desires and seems to be a very sincere lady and really opened up to us on that lesson when she had been very quiet during church, perhaps a little shy. She was pretty sad when she heard I was leaving but she will do so great if she keeps coming for the right reasons.
As this transfer is coming to a close, it felt good to reflect on my efforts to have greater love. I feel that the Lord truly honors our righteous desires, though seemingly impossible to us, he makes all things possible. I have made it a matter of prayer and fasting and have truly felt a slow but sure change. I have much more work to do to truly become a disciple of Christ but I am coming to learn that these things cant be changed over night and need time to make it lasting.
I love the Lord and I love this work. I can't imagine being any where else at this time in my life.
Thanks for sending some more warm weather our way! Its greatly needed and welcomed!:) Spring is coming and its a great feeling! Thanks for support and letters. May the Lord bless you in all that you do!

With Love,
Elder Ostler