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
