Dear Family,
The Lord is trully blessing us here in Ukraine. Through this time of searching
for those who are elect, the body gets extremely tired of thinking, always
being aware of who could be helped or talked too. When you get to this time on
your mission, you know exactly what is extected of you and you feel a great
determination to do it to your best abilities. You feel like its the final hour
and the mission has never seemed so real as it does now. It is amazing to look
back at this refining process and still wonder where the time has gone and what
changes have taken place in my life and the lives of so many i love.
Just dismorning i had confirmed to me that two more investigators we started
teaching in Marioupul have excepted a date of baptism. Since Elder Smith, whom
i trained in marioupul, is my zone Leader now, he was able to break the good
news to me and we had a great time rejoicing together. I still remember vividly
the sacrifices we made there in Marioupul and the struggle it was to give all
that i had and now, a year later, seeing the harvest beginning to appear. My
patience has never been tested to this extreme ever before in my life and im so
glad that i didnt stop doing all that i could during my time here. The Lord is
doing great works here and i'm so glad that i am lucky enough to see some of
the fruits of our labors. The Lord helped make up the difference where we
lacked.
This week we had to move the date of baptism for our investigator Olya because
of work that came up on sunday which didnt allow her to come. We felt that she
really needed to attend at least one more time before baptism so we talked to
the branch president about it and agreed to move it to the 14th of July. We
told her later that night. She took it really well but was sad that she couldn't
just get baptized at that very moment. She is so excited. Its amazing to see
her willingly make changes in her life to align herself with what is expected
of members of the church. She is making many sacrifices and going the extra
mile to make sure she follows the council of our leaders as far as modesty and
Sunday worship goes. Please keep her in your prayers.
Thankyou so much for the messages you wrote this week. Its amazing to hear the
lessons you each are learning through different experiences in life. The
atonement is real and continues each day to make a difference in my life. What
a blessing to know of Gods plan for us, and what a blessing it is for all of us
to have the oppurtunity to share it.
I hope you all have a wonderful week!!
With love,
Elder Ostler
