My companion's name is Elder B. Yes, he is a native. That is two in a row for this white boy! The only difference is that this time, I'm training in Spanish. We talk all the time in Spanish. And I love it. Most of the time. Although sometimes it hurts my brain. There are only a few very rare moments throughout the day where I have to say something to him in English and ask him for his help in how I would say it in Spanish. Elder B is from Mexico. He lived there for the first 10 years of his life. Then he moved to Georgia with his family. That was where he was living when he was introduced to the gospel a year ago by his friend/next door neighbor. After a couple months, he was baptized. And now he is on his mission. He told me a pretty funny story of the day when he told his mom that he had been baptized a member of the Church and was preparing to go on a mission (his parents are catholic and had no idea he had joined the church). But anyways, here he is! And his white boy trainer is non other than your Elder Ostler.
The awesome experience we had this week.
We had a rough first two days as far as appointments for teaching goes. In 3 days, even though we had plenty of scheduled and confirmed appointments, all but one had fallen through. Elder B was getting a little bit frustrated. And rightfully so. In the MTC you are told all kinds of stories all about how we teach all day long out in the field. So I was completely understanding of how he felt. I was just trying to keep us going with a happy attitude. Despite the failures in our teaching appointments though, we had had lots and lots of contacting opportunities. Contacting people and finding is something that I didn't get to do a lot of last transfer. So it was awesome to me. But I don't think Elder B was convinced that all our finding efforts were really being fruitful because he still hadn't seen much of the teaching aspect of missionary work.
Anyway, on Saturday night, before leaving the house after dinner, I knew that we were in need of a miracle teaching opportunity. Elder B needed it... not to mention the fact that I needed it so my trainee didn't lose all faith in his trainer.
So I said a silent personal prayer. It was pretty simple prayer. I just asked Heavenly Father for the miracle to meet and teach someone that night. Then, I double checked my plans with him to make sure that the houses we were planning to stop by were still good. In that moment though, a different name popped into my head. "Well that's interesting" I thought, "They weren't even close to being on tonight's plans. And as I thought on that name it became my one and only focus. I realized that it was an answer to prayer. I was being told that we needed to change the plans.
So we did. As we got in the car, I explained to Elder B that we would be changing the plans for the night due to what I thought was a spiritual prompting. If I had remembered that Hispanic people think that spiritual promptings are a huge deal, I probably wouldn't have explained it that way, but because I forgot, Elder B was super duper excited and very willing to follow my lead.
The family was a potential we had received weeks before. But every time we had tried to contact them, nobody was home. We had even had an appointment to see them at one point, but they called us last minute to tell us that we couldn't come.
As we pulled up the the house, I could see the lights on in the house. The TV was going. In that moment, I felt like I knew two things. 1-I had surely received a personal prompting, and 2-we were going to get in.
We knocked on the door and they excitedly invited us in the house. It couldn't have been more perfect. The TV was turned off and the furniture rearranged so the focus could be on us the missionaries rather than the TV.
We spent about 40 minutes getting to know them before even starting the lesson. They led the conversation. In those 40 minutes, they pretty much told us everything a missionary could dream to hear. It was amazing. They are prepared and ready to change their lives. They aren't satisfied in their current religious situation and felt the need to investigate the Mormon church.
I wish I had more time to explain, but basically, in short, I can say that I was led by the spirit. All the Spanish study, but more important, all the gospel study of the restoration came out in a far better way than I had ever imagined I could teach. It was amazing. This couple is so excited to learn more. And I am so excited to be able to teach them more with Elder B. They are a perfect family for a new missionary to experience.
Words really can't describe how amazing that experience was. Just a miracle.
Wish I had more time, but I don't.
Love you all!
Your Brother and Son,
Elder Ostler
PS Thanks Daniel for the letter!
