Monday, November 5,
2012
Hola mi familia!
At Church on Sunday (fast and testimony meeting) I
understood very little of what was being said over the pulpit. I'm not sure if it just wasn't my day
for understanding Spanish or what.
But I was struggling.
There was one really old man that bore his
testimony who was sitting right in front of me. After the meeting was over, I leaned forward and thanked him
for his testimony. (I figured it
was a nice gesture and a way to introduce myself to him) but after I thanked
him, he asked me a question that threw me for a loop, "Tiene la misma
problema en su vida?" [Do you have the same problem in your life?] I realized in that moment that I better
come up with some generically genuine answer because I had no idea if his
"problema en su vida" was health related or spiritually related.
So, being the smart cookie I am, I replied, "No, yo no
tengo la misma problema. Perro, yo
tengo problemas; Todas personas tengan problemas en sus vidas. y el Evangelio es la respuesta. Esta conocimiento del Evangelio es muy
bonita para mi." [No, I don’t
have the same problem. But I have
problems; all people have problems in their lives. And the Gospel is the answer. This knowledge of the Gospel is very beautiful for me.]
I was so relieved when, in as excited
a way as this old man could muster he exclaimed, "Amen! Verdad Elder!" [(It’s the) Truth Elder!]
Whew! I dodged
a bullet there. In the future, I
am going to make sure I understand the testimony before I decide to compliment
it.
All of the youth in the ward speak English. So after church, a few of them came and
told me how I did really well and how they thought my joke was really
funny. This obviously was a boost
to my self-esteem in the Spanish language (especially since they told me that
they could understand the whole thing).
So that was very nice of them.
Oh yea, and my joke basically just made fun of myself and
how I hoped they would be able to understand the new gringo missionary who just
arrived from the MTC and only has 12 days on his mission.
All of us missionaries had a dinner appointment at a
member's home yesterday. The
member, a Hermano in the ward, is a convert to the church and his wife just
passed away a month ago.
I ended up with the opportunity of getting to talk with him
personally while the rest of the missionaries sat around the table/living room
talking after the meal. It was
really good language practice trying to understand him even in the midst of all
the noise. And it was so
awesome. He is a man of so much
faith. He told me how the gospel
brings him so much peace, and how grateful he is for eternal families. We talked for probably about 30 minutes
and he was so patient and helpful as he helped me understand how to fix some
problems I had with my Espanol. I
really enjoyed talking with him.
But when we finally left his house, I realized that I had a slight
headache (I'm guessing from having to concentrate so hard in order to
communicate). Someday, I'll be able
to have conversations like that one without getting a headache. Oh boy, that will be the day.
Well, I'm gonna put my SD card in this letter. So enjoy! I love you all!
Thanks for sending me that absentee ballot. I got it sent out last week.
Speaking of elections, we have had so many people engage us
in political small talk about the elections. As missionaries we aren't allowed to talk politics. So usually we just try to avoid the
political conversation and skip straight to our agenda, "Have you ever
talked with Mormon missionaries before?"
So far we haven't been too successful with this. So usually we just politely listen as
people give us all these scriptures as to why they think Mitt Romney's policy
is the best for the country. It's
pretty interesting. I definitely
enjoy it. Many of these people
have encouraged us, "So while you are out there doing your thing, you
should show these people why Mitt Romney is the answer." If only they knew we aren't allowed to
give political counsel. Oh it sure
is fun to be a missionary.
Love you my family,
Elder Ostler
