Hmmm regarding the week. It was a very interesting one. I will start by saying I am so grateful that I have been blessed with the gift of finding. For whatever reason it just seems to come easy to me. Why do I say that? Because we lost 6 investigators this week with another one in the process of being lost. It was a bummer. We lost 2 families due to moves. And we might be losing another investigator who will be moving to Mexico if all goes well for him. One of the families that moved wasn't a surprise. They had told us about a month and a half ago that they would probably be leaving. The other one was a total surprise. And a bit of a disappointment for me. It was the miracle family that I have told you about several times...the one that we found my first week with Elder B.
We were driving in the car heading to a potential's house that we wanted to pass by for. But then the thought came to mind, Go by the ____ family. I questioned it for a second. It didn't make any sense. They had been ignoring our phone calls and texts for a few weeks and even not answering the door when we passed by. Not to mention I already knew that this was an hour that they are always reffing soccer games. But regardless, I figured it wouldn't hurt to pass by just in case the idea truly was a spiritual prompting.
As we pulled up, we saw a moving van full of all the furniture that used to be in the house. "I remember thinking.....hmmm this is a bummer. But I guess it really was a prompting." I explained to Elder B the obvious (that this would probably be our last time seeing our wonderful miracle family) and then added that we were going to help them out and make it an awesome last visit.
As it turned out, we had arrived right at a perfect time to help. They had just started lifting the super heavy concrete benches and tables from the back yard pool area and were in the process of realizing that they couldn't do it alone. So timing was perfect.
It was sad helping our favorite family move out and away....especially after knowing that they had planned on doing it without ever informing us. But it felt good being able to help them out and show them that we still care for them and love them even though they had been ignoring us. I was grateful for that opportunity.
Elder B however had a super duper duper tough time dealing with this one. He did his best to help as little as possible. He is currently doing the best he can to erase them from his memory. This is super sad for me though that he would chose to act that way about a family that we had so many awesome experiences with. I made an effort to explain to him that even though it was super disappointing for me that I will always have happy memories of the lessons we had with them....especially the night we found them. I hope that he can chose to do the same. I hope someday he can look back on his mission and remember that first lesson he ever taught as a missionary with happiness.
So there were some disappointments this week. But truthfully, I am so ready to go make up for it this week. I mentioned earlier that I am grateful for my ability to find. Luckily, because of all the finding that Elder B and I have done together, we still have plenty of people to teach. So while its a disappointment to lose so many investigators in such a short span of time, its not going to kill us. We are going to be fine. And I am so excited to get out there and find some more of the Lord's prepared in this coming week.
And the good news is that we already have some super duper solid looking contacts to go by in this coming week. And one is even a family that I met about 3 months ago that initially told us (Elder M and I) that they had no interest in what we do (they live close to another investigator). But, I made it a point to keep my head up, and have some friendly conversation with them every time we pass their house. It seems to be paying off because in our last "friendly conversation pass by" they were very very receptive to having us come back to have a visit with them! Woot Woot!
Well,
I love you and pray for you always!
Your Son/Brother,
Elder Ostler
