First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!!!! I did the math wrong in my head last week and thought that today was going to be your birthday. But in reality it was yesterday. Whoops. I hope to have time to send you a birthday letter today. But if not, you will get it next week. Hope you had an awesome time with the cousins!
Ok now for you Elder Ostler. Because I'm sure you are curious ;)
He is doing awesome. He is loving his mission. He is loving life. Sometimes he feels like he isn't succeeding fully as a trainer, but then he just reminds himself that he learned equally as much (probably even more by now) from Elder Ingram after being his companion as he learned while he was actually still officially "in training".
Anyways, the work is rolling forward here. It gets better and better daily. Everyday, I keep learning. I keep improving, and keep realizing the specific things I can do to become a better missionary, but in the long run, a better member of the church myself. Sometimes I think of this wonderful two years of a mission I have ( a true blessing of an opportunity) as a two year training of how to be a better child of God. I love the mission. Sometimes, in the business of the work, when I'm feeling tired and exhausted, I forget how much I love it. But then, when I take a second to try to imagine my life without being tired and exhausted from my missionary labors, just the thought nearly brings tears to my eyes. The saying that the mission is the Best two years is an understatement. But I really can't find any other way to describe it. Ok enough of that. Moving on to the stuff that is probably more interesting for my family.
I had an amazing miracle of a finding experience last week. It started in personal studies. I think I was studying repentance unto baptism (but I don't remember for sure because there are usually so many things I have to study and search for during my personal study time). Anyways, I read a Topical Guide reference wrong and in doing so, read an obscure verse from the bible that had nothing to do with my topic of study. For some reason though, as unrelated to my topic of study as it was, it stuck in the mind. I contemplated the verse for the next minute or so, and then realized, hey! That sounds like a nice scripture to have in the back pocket for when I meet someone who needs something like that in order to accept our invitation! But then I realized there would be NO WAY I would ever remember how to find it. So I did the next best thing and made my own cross-reference in the column next to James 1:5 (a scripture I turn to quite often in lessons). I then continued on with my studies.
Throughout the day, that scripture stuck in my mind. "Examinad todo. Retenedlo bueno." in English it is something like, "Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good." Thessalonians 5:21 or something like that... Not too concerned about memorizing the reference because I know where to find it.
Anyways, we had a lesson planned during the day with a youth member present. That lesson canceled. While we were walking with him back to his house, I decided we were going to take a "break" and rest under the shade of a tree for a second. My intentions were to sit down and talk a referral out of our member youth and then go contact it with him. After all, it's summertime. He has absolutely nothing better to be doing ;) I was unsuccessful...or so I thought. The only people he was willing to go by with us were members. So we began walking for the closest member home. But then, I had another impression. So I said, "Hey, I already know these members pretty well. We visit them quite often. What I really want to do is meet or get to know somebody new. You got anyone for me?" He then thought of another name... another member name. But this time, I had no idea who it was. So off we went to meet them.
Upon arriving at the house, I realized that I had indeed met her before in church. Just never had the ability to remember her name...whoops. (yea...I still struggle with names....but, I'm getting better at it) Anyways, we began talking and learned that her son is visiting her from Mexico for the summer. He was in the back room. He is 20 and isn't a member of the church but is very active in his own religion back home in Mexico. She went back to his room to invite him out to meet us. He was awesome. In all honesty, probably the most educated sounding person of his age I have ever had the privilege to speak with on my mission. A wonderful person. As the conversation went on we learned that he is familiar with missionaries. While he never really studies with them, he is always looking for opportunities to serve them. He sees the missionaries treated extremely rudely in Mexico and has made it his personal quest to make sure they know that there are nice people out there who will help them out even though he isn't desirous to listen to what they teach. He makes it a point to give the missionaries rides across town when he sees them walking or to buy them a street taco from time to time. A super cool guy.
As we went on, I steered the conversation towards his beliefs, and what it is that he understands of our religion. And this is when things started getting really awesome. He started telling us all the things he loved about our religion. The things he thinks are important, the things he thinks are hard. He had a couple hard questions about the word of wisdom, but as I opened my mouth, the words spilled out. He had nothing but the up most respect for what we teach, believe and live as members of the church but has no desires to change.
I said, "So I've got a question, it's kinda a tough question, but if you don't mind, I'd like to ask it anyways. Would that be alright?" I love getting permission before asking the tough questions because then they give you permission to ask whatever question you want and it is highly unlikely that they will be offended. It also normally helps them to desire to answer more fully and completely rather than just a short answer. Anyways, after receiving permission, I asked, "What would need to happen in order to cause you to change religions."
There were some long moments of silence. And then he calmly replied with, "You are right. That is a tough question. And here is how I will answer you. I will consider changing religions when Jesus Christ no longer exists."
His mom was mortified and gasped to show it. My companion looked like a deer in the headlights. And our member youth started looking awkwardly out the window and fidgeting in his seat. It was a pretty intense moment. And I could tell that our potential investigator enjoyed the reactions he was getting. But I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction he was getting from everyone else. I could feel the spirit working within me. I took a second to gather my thoughts and then began with, "That's a pretty strong statement. Would you like to tell me why you feel so strongly that way?"
As he began to answer this question, the scripture from my morning study once again popped into my head. But it wasn't only a prompting. He was actually saying exactly what the scripture was saying (just in more modern language). He was telling us how he had tried and tested what he believes and how he believes it to be true. He then went on to explain he thinks it is good to try and test all things, but he doesn't want to "play with god" by testing a new religion when he has found and been baptized in his own church which he believes to be true. He felt to play with god would be a sin.
When I was given a moment to talk again, I started with, "Well, I can't agree more with you. Everything you are saying is true. Playing with God is wrong. And I would never ask you to do that. But to test God's word (a religion) is not playing with God. And in fact, is something that we are commanded to do. Allow me to show you a scripture I found this morning while I was studying in the Bible.... We shared the scripture with him and then I invited him to prove our unique message, a message that has been restored to the earth once again after being lost for many years. A message that we declare to be true after having accepted the invitation to prove it for ourselves.
He accepted. He even gave me a hug as we left. I was the only one to receive a hug out of the three of us visitors.
That experience was a miracle to me. An amazing miracle.
I love my mission.
Your Son and Brother,
Elder Ostler
