Ok some gratitude is definitely due. Mom, Thank you so so so sooooo much for getting the GPS sent to me so quickly. It arrived on Valentines day! How perfect! Happy Valentines day to me :) My mom really is a miracle worker. I'm amazed. Truly, I am. That was impressive. And then, as if the GPS wasn't enough, I got COOKIES too! Wow, I must really be loved. I couldn't figure out though why in the world you would send the cookies in a separate box from the GPS. The best thing I could think of was that you didn't want to crush the cookies...Oh my mom is so thoughtful about even the little things in life. ;) But then, it all made sense when I quickly scanned over your email today and learned that you had already sent me the cookies before you had received my last minute request for the GPS. Wow! My mom is amazing! I have such an awesome family. I am so so blessed.
Speaking of being blessed, it is something I have been doing a lot of thinking about over the past several weeks. I am so blessed. And I have been so blessed my entire life. But a little more specifically, I have been amazingly blessed as a missionary. I got to start my mission off with an absolute STUD. His name was Elder Ingram. He was the real deal. Through and through a solid missionary. And even though I missed him (who wouldn't miss a guy like Elder Ingram?) I was blessed equally again with another great companion. Elder Rauckhorst is quite the dude. Its definitely not anybody that gets hit by a car, goes flying over the handlebars, and then turns it into a street contact. I learned so much from him. I am so grateful I got the opportunity to be his last missionary companion. Even though I was technically done with my "12 week training program" I felt like I was still being trained. It was awesome. The way I see it, I got blessed with the best kick start or primer I could ever ask for. And now it's time to take all the experiences I was blessed with as an official trainee of Elder Ingram, and an unofficial self proclaimed trainee of Elder Rauckhorst and be the missionary that the Lord needs me to be. And oh how fun it's going to be.
Elder Rauckhorst's and my last week together was great. We had to deal with the disappointment of only one baptismal service rather than two, but in truth, it was only a slight disappointment. We just need to help them get readied a little more. They still want to be baptized, they just want to wait a little longer until they feel more ready. And that is ok. Because we learned this past week, that they do have a little more readying to do. The word of wisdom, specifically coffee, was the problem. They believe it. They want to live it. They are just having a hard time right now. But like I said, it's ok. I'm grateful they felt the need to tell us before their baptism rather than keep hiding it until after baptism. So we will keep working with them on that.
But, only one baptismal service fell through, and that means that we had another one which didn't fall through! Woot Woot! It was so wonderful to be able to have a baptism on Elder Rauckhorst's last day as a missionary. Remember the family that we found with the little 8 year old daughter 3 or 4 weeks ago? Yep, that's who's baptism it was. Her, and her 11 year old brother. It was awesome.
Well, before I run out of time, I have a new companion (obviously, since Elder Rauckhorst flew home already)! He has only been out for one more transfer than me! I feel for Elder P. He didn't have nearly as wonderful of a primer/kick start to his mission as I. His last companion was another missionary who was going home. Elder P spent two transfers with him. And in that time (according to Elder P) his companion was very very trunky. He says that in his last two transfers, he only taught one lesson. Yikes! So we are gonna get him rollin again. He's a good kid. I think he just needs a boost. A little kick start. So it's time for me to start putting to use all the wonderful things I learned from my last two companions. We got this.
Well, Love you all!
Elder Ostler
P.S. News flash on Elder Ingram: He got called to be Zone Leader! He is a zone leader now on the other side of the mission. I really did get trained by one of the best. I am so blessed.
