Hello family!!
Happy Easter!!! This week we spent Easter away
from Donetsk in the second half of our mission called Kharkov.
Easter sacrament meeting was so great with focus on the happiness that comes
from Christ's resurrection. All in that room were absolutely edified.
Its amazing how quickly you can fall in love with branches you have never been
too. It didn't take long before we were best friends with these members I
had never seen before. The church is wonderful in that way, no matter where you
are, the gospel is the same, and the people who believe in it are all pressing
forth toward the same goal of salvation. We had two zone conferences this week
which both went well, the second being a very edifying and inspirational. You
can tell the difference when Elder's and Sister's prepare for our conferences
and come prepared to be spiritually fed, to find solutions to our inadequacies,
and determine what we must do to find the kind of success our Father in heaven
expects. I love this work. Something we had never done before was allow time for
the senior couples to share spiritual thoughts for a good amount of the time.
It was amazing to see the insight our senior couples have and it
was truly a blessing to our mission to hear from them because they
answered many questions we have discussed for hours with President.
General
Conference was also heaven sent. Their were many times when a speaker would say
something in direct answer to what we had discussed and we would all just kind
of look at each each other with a smile and nod and quickly write down this
revelation. Such a tender mercy! I love this gospel with all of my heart. I
cant imagine life any other way. This week we also had the fun experience of
going on exchanges with elders in our district so Elder Errington and I had a
chance to try something our mission president suggested. We just recieved the
new translation of the russian book of mormon which has major changes in nearly
every verse(much easier to understand and read) so we have many old books we
have been asked to distribute as soon as possible. SO, we used the idea of
taking a box of leftover books and setting it on a stool on a busy sidewalk and
put a small paper on it which said "free book with a promise". Of
course, many people were curious as to what in the world we were giving away
and would try to get a glance at the books in the box while pretending not to
be interested. It was really funny. Soon one person's curiosity got the better
of them and stepped forward to see what we had to offer. We were able to give
him a short explanaiton as to what it was and then he left with a book. Soon
after another came, and then another, and then they came in crowds of 6 or 7
people all talking at once trying to figure out what was for free and who we
were. We emptied the box of books in less than 45 minutes, which was about 15
books. We had honestly not thought that people would be so curious but this
little experiment proved to be a success, proving that people really are
interested in who we are and what we have to give them, we just have to find
out in what way is most comfortable for them to start off their first contact
with us, whether on the street or in the home. Attached is a picture of our
little creation. Yes, my Russian hand writing in block letters may look like a
3rd graders hand writing but that's ok. To this day i stand by my hand writing
as being key to our experience!:) it might have proved to attract more people,
who knows?:) just kidding, we just didn't have time to type it up but next time
we will!
So, to answer your question about a normal day for us i
honestly couldnt think of one but i guess in general this would be our ideal
lay-out for a day.
6:30 -7:00 get ready
7:00-8:30 finding on the street
8:30-10:00 Work out, eat, get ready
10:00-12:00 Personal and companionship study
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:00 travel to office
1:00-4:00 Meetings with president, working on following
meetings like zone conference and specialized trainings and general mission
events, completeing projects and putting new finding ideas into action. (every
2 or 3 days, this time fame is used for
finding activities)
4:00-5:00 Language study
5:00-6:00 Dinner
6:00-9:00 Lessons with investigators and members, or finding
on the streets and in apartment complexes.
So that's our normal schedule for right now, a little
difference than many other missions since we have been trying to focus on
finding men coming too and from work, thus in the morning and the evening and
mid-day when they are on lunch.
Well family, my times about up to i will upload some
pictures really quick but i love you all so much, Have a great week!!
With love,
Elder Ostler
ps. I think that would be great to room with Benjamin. When
i heard that i just felt great about the idea so if he would like to, i'm all
for it!
