November 12, 2012
So this one's going to be pretty quick. The library was closed today (Monday)
so we get to email tomorrow (Tuesday).
But by the time you get this letter, you will have already received my
email.
Since we didn't have to block out an hour of our day to
email, we had a whole extra hour of time.
It was way fun; we went to Chinatown. Chinatown is the very edge of our mission. Our zone leaders cover that area. It is as absolutely close to L.A. as
you can get without leaving our mission boundaries. By that I mean that it is basically L.A. It was pretty fun looking around.
When we got there, we went as a District, our District
leader said, "Alright Elders, this is L.A. so watch your
wallets." When he said this I
realized that I still hadn't taken my social security card out of my
wallet. So I was very sure to keep
a hand over my pocket whenever people were around. And I no longer have my social security card in my
wallet. I took care of it as soon
we got home from Chinatown. I
probably should have made that change long ago.
Well, I'm going to have time to email tomorrow but in your
last letter you asked for Christmas present suggestions. So here is my best effort...
I still love all Reese’s products. I ate my last one yesterday. Can you believe I made those last so long? Paydays [candy bar] are also really
good.
Music. I didn't
bring any with me. Mormon
Tabernacle Choir is always good, 4 Ordained (I think we have that CD), the CD
of the music some people from the stake performed last year, and other such
spiritual music. I will let my
family decide. The music standard
in our mission is this: You
decide, through prayer if necessary, and with your companion if the music is
appropriate or not. Appropriate is
interpreted to mean that it doesn't distract from our missionary purpose and
provides an environment where the spirit can reside. It's pretty funny to me to see what some missionaries deem
as acceptable with this loose standard.
Some Elders listen to anything and everything that mentions Jesus at
some point. Maybe I'm weird or
something, but the "Jesus has saved my soul" raps aren't exactly what
I would deem as personally acceptable.
So if you want to get music, which would be awesome, try to avoid the
Jesus pops and Rock n' Roll songs...I'm not really a fan. OK, enough talk about the music.
The only other thing I know would be really, really awesome
is called a locking skewer. It
replaces the quick release latches on my wheels. This would be really nice because it would save a ton of
time taking my front tire off every time we stop and then having to put it back
on again. Elder Ingram is planning
on asking for one for Christmas too (his parents also asked for suggestions on
Christmas presents.)
As far as other things that other missionaries would like,
all three of my companions in my apartment have mentioned they love my
tie hanger. So if you could get
three of those and put them in the Christmas package, I'm sure they would love
that. The reason I say three is
because it is very, very likely I will be in this same apartment and area
through the rest of my training, which would be through Christmas.
Ties are always good too. Well, that's all my ideas. I'm sure you already have some sweet ones of your own
though.
I'll write an email tomorrow that talks more about my actual
purpose here in California (missionary work).
Well, love you my family,
Elder Ostler
P.S. Some
Mommy/Sister baked goodies would also probably be fun to get. But you'd probably have to send these
separate from the Christmas package so they don't hold it at the office until
Christmas.
