September 14, 2012
Dearest Family,
I'm sure you have been waiting anxiously for this
letter. It may have been slightly
mean of me to give you that little teaser about my fun stories, but it sounded
like a fun idea at the time.
Mom, my first story answers your question about how the new
roommates are going. We were
moved, Elder M and myself, to the side of the dorm hall with the rest of our
District. This became possible
when two spots opened up in a room with two Elders in my District. I love being in a room with these
Elders. They are excellent at
adhering to the rules. They are
always in their rooms when we/they are supposed to be, even when other members
of the District choose not to.
Living with such obedient missionaries is really nice because it means
I'm not the only one checking the clock and announcing how long we have 'til
lights out. Both Elder T and Elder
S are very helpful in this aspect.
And it is much nicer knowing the entire room wants to be obedient rather
than feeling like I am the only one.
Having so much unity in obedience is wonderful! And it even opens up the option to chat
for a bit after lights out. I
never felt comfortable talking even for a little bit when I knew that the
conversation/rowdiness would push way past midnight and into the wee hours of
the morning. I didn't want to be
any part of that. But with this
new rooming situation, we all understand how to limit the length of the
conversation to a much more appropriate time frame and it never turns into
rowdiness or a party. So we have
talked for 5-20 minutes before someone announces its time to stop and get some
sleep. I love it.
The funniest conversation we had was when the Elders were
talking about girlfriends they had, and stuff like that. I was just lying there listening,
afterall, it wasn't like I had anything to add to the conversation...or so I
thought. Elder S eventually asked,
"What about you Elder Ostler?
Have you had a girlfriend?"
I replied with something to the effect of, "Depends, we are talking
about girls that are friends...right?" When I was told that was not what we had been talking about,
I simply stated, "Well in that case, no. Never had one."
They laughed and thought I was joking at first. So I had to tell them for realsies that I indeed had
remained single. That was it for
that night's talking.
The next night was way better. All three Elders had plenty of questions for me. Questions like, "So have you
kissed anyone?" I might have
had to much fun with this...see if you can imagine the answer, Mom. "Ah, I've kissed my mom a few
times...does that count?" But
that wasn't satisfactory so I asked if kissing my dog counted. But surprisingly enough, neither one
'counted' in the eyes of my fellow missionaries.
They were curious as to "why I would do that to
myself." (Deprive myself of the pleasure of kissing.) So I explained that it was a goal I had
made with my cousins to wait 'til after the mission. They told me things like, "Wow, that's cool, but I
would never be able to do that."
But then I got to have even more fun when I got asked about
hand holding. "Oh yea dudes,
I mean Elders, of course! What
type of childhood do you think I had?
I always made sure to stand next to the cutest girls whenever I played
Red Rover." It was funny and
it definitely took them by surprise but they didn't think I was being
serious. They were convinced I had
held someone's hand outside of Red Rover so I asked, "What about when
you're dancing? I have held girl's
hands during dances...that counts, right?" But no, they still weren't impressed. I even learned haunted houses don't
count either! Oh, what a
shame. It would seem I am not
quite the lady's man I have always thought myself to be.
However, I was somewhat comforted with their final question,
"So, Elder Ostler, have you ever hugged a girl?"
I decided to play a small prank, after all, I was
rolling! So, I let out a long
sigh, and then said, "Well, that depends..." There were a couple seconds of pure
silence before Elder S broke the silence with, "You have to be kidding
me. You haven't even hugged a
girl?" I had them! It was the funniest thing ever...or at
least I thought so. Anyways I told
them I was just kidding and that I had in actuality hugged girls prior to the
mission. We all had a pretty good
little chuckle. It was great. Truly, it was. Hopefully that story is as funny to you
as I thought it was.
The other thing I wanted to tell you about was mine and
Elder M's breakthrough as far as our companionship as missionaries go.
It started Saturday evening. We were studying Spanish and he was falling asleep. So I suggested we do wall sits while we
continued to study to stay awake.
We were going to see who could stay up the longest but only a minute and
a half into it, Elder M dropped out.
So, I won. Which was
obviously cool to me...I mean, it's not every day you get the chance to beat
someone in wall sits who gave up a full ride scholarship to play football so he
could go on his mission. When I
mentioned this to him, he just smiled and shook his head at me. Then he said, "Alright Ostler,
we'll do it again. But next time
we are going to do it with something on the line so I actually have a reason to
try." And thus began the
negotiations. We decided we would
do it Monday morning, and that the loser would be forced to drink four glasses
of milk for four straight meals.
It might not sound like a big deal, but when we have gym time right
after breakfast, its a pretty big deal.
Playing basketball or running on a stomach full of milk didn't appeal to
me in the least!
So, on Monday morning at 6:00 a.m. we got up for our little
competition. By Monday we had both
realized how stupid and painful this could turn out to be. But, it was too late to call it off cuz
the District had also gotten up with us to watch.
My legs started shaking at the four minute mark. And right when I was thinking about
accepting defeat, I noticed Elder M's legs had started shaking too! There was hope! We went way longer than I ever thought
we would. Every once in a while my
legs would stop shaking for a few seconds, which was nice, but it was so
painful. We both made it to 12
minutes! And then a few seconds
beyond the 12 minute mark, Elder M finally dropped out! I was so relieved I wasn't going to
have to drink all that milk.
That's pretty much it for the story, except I should
probably mention that Elder M also challenged me to race the mile a few
minutes after the wall sit challenge.
We haven't decided what the loser will do, or when we are doing this
race, but because there is the chance I could lose (only a slight one in my
opinion), I decided to have compassion on him with his milk drinking. I allowed him to stop after only two
meals. Maybe he will remember that
if he ends up winning.
Well, my family, thank you for all your never-ending
support. I know your prayers
really do help. I am so blessed to
have such a supporting family.
Also, I find it really funny that Dad is going to be in the
LA Airport the day before and the day after my little trip to the LA
Airport. That is crazy
coincidence.
And, don't worry Mom, you will be fine! Salt Lake is a whole 45 minutes away
from me. Well ok, maybe it isn't
really all that far away...but it was worth a try to make it sound like an
impossible distance. : )
Love you,
Your missionary,
Elder Ostler
P.S. What is the Moss' address?
