Daniel: I couldn't
get your letter in the mail last Pday. My plan is to send it today. I
hope you will accept my excuse of an apology that you will read about in a
moment.
Ok here is the excuse as
to why Daniel didn't get a letter from me yet....
We received a text from
the District leader last Monday saying, "Hey everyone! District
activity at the Church today! Be there at 3!" I was expecting
to use the first chunk of time writing my letter to Daniel before joining in
whatever the fun was. But when we got there, I found a surprise party
that our Sister missionaries had planned for me! It was super fun.
Random Question that just
came to the mind...Harrison leaves on his mission soon...right? Did he
already leave?...Hmmm can't remember.
Anyways, the party was
super cool. Tons of food. They had hooked up with one of the Hermanas in
the ward to help them with the preparations. Of course they didn't say it, but
it was pretty obvious that our sister missionaries had devoted a ton of the
earlier hours of their Pday to preparing the food with the Hermana from the
ward.
So, I didn't write the
birthday letter to you last week Daniel because I was celebrating mine with the
missionaries...hmmmm saying it that way makes me sound like a selfish brother.
Hmmmmm yea...I will change topics now.
Thanks for the Package!
It was awesome! Honestly, I think one of my favorites was the CD.
I love the song Come thou fount. Interesting note about music, we once
again have permission to listen to things like 4 Ordained (remember when I sent
it home?...well, I would like to have it back someday). President Becerra
I believe was just trying to clean up some super disobedience with the music
choices of some missionaries in the mission.
The GPS clip you sent me
fits. So I will be sending the one back to you that you bought from Best
Buy. Thanks!
Everything else was great
too.
Now time to talk a bit
more about other possibly more interesting stuff.
Remember how I used to
love contacting/finding people while walking the streets of East LA?
Well, I have realized that I just love Finding in General. It is
one of my most favorite things to do as a missionary. I just love it.
Truly. I find a lot of joy in that aspect of missionary work.
We were teaching someone
last night that we haven't had a lesson with since we first found and started
teaching him a couple weeks ago (he
has been too busy with work and some other surprise life trials that have
jumped in the way of our visits). He is awesome. Such a cool guy.
He is the first person I have met who has started tearing through the
Book of Mormon. I called him a couple days after we had taught the
Restoration and given him the Book of Mormon and learned that he had been
taking advantage of his break times at work to read the Book of Mormon.
He had already finished 1Nephi! He was on fire! But life
happened and that fire started dwindling due to other things that came up.
But honestly I wasn't really ever discouraged with our appointments that
kept falling through because he truly did have good reasons each time.
(Surprise birthday party his family did for him, a car crash, and another
birthday party of his daughter that we were invited to join in with when we
showed up at the house for a lesson because he had forgotten that it was going
to be his daughters Birthday, a couple last minute work calls.) Just Life.
Not a problem.
But to get back to the
story, we had a lesson with him last night where we reminded him what the goals
are of our visits and how it is going to require some consistency on both ours,
and his part. Then, we opened up the scriptures and taught Sabbath Day
Observance. I loved his response when I asked him, "What do you
think God is telling his son, (his name), with this commandment?" He
responded with something to the effect of, "Well, he is telling me that
I'm not doing what I need to be doing. He is telling me that I need to
change. And I need to start following this one." Then he
asked, "So what else do I have to do to for this commandment?"
Wow! That was
impressive. Its not every day you meet people who are so willing to
submit to the Lord's will even when it is going to involve a sacrifice.
It is a miracle to have the opportunity to teach people like him.
Well,
Time to Go.
Love you all!
Your Missionary,
Elder Ostler
P.S. Tell Bro
Nickel that I loved the Plan of Salvation scriptures he sent me. I
happened to receive that letter from him when I was in the process of working
on a lesson plan for an Investigator who needed a little more information than
I could find on my own. Several of those scriptures I received were an
answer to prayer. Thanks Bro Nickel!
P.S.S. Tell Jackson
that I love his Letters. Those are always fun. There is always a one
liner in there that just sticks in the mind keeping me smiling for days.
Good stuff.
