Hello Family!
Wow! It has been a crazy crazy week. I'm still trying to get a hang of how we are going to be doing things effectively here in Azusa without cars. We have only gotten on the buses a few times, but every time there has been a successful contact. So I love that. But I'm a little sad because the bus route isn't exactly convenient for us... either that or I just haven't found a better way to use it yet.
We live in this pool house looking thing behind the house of the members we live with. We live in the upstairs of the pool house. Downstairs of the pool house is a work out room. So that is a nice feature to have just right down the stairs. We live with two other English Elders.
My new Companion's name is Elder Page. He is a white guy. So the Native streak for Elder Ostler is over. If I remember right his first name is Andrew. He just graduated from high school this last year. He is 18 years old. He is from North Carolina. But he comes to me from the MTC in MEXICO! He tells me that all Spanish speaking missionaries are now going to the Mexico MTC. So that's pretty cool!
I am really enjoying my time with Elder Page. He is just an awesome guy. Our first week together didn't go anywhere near according to plan. Definitely not your ideal first week as a missionary. Since picking him up at the mission office, we have just had too many weird situations that have come up last minute making it impossible to complete a full study session. But this guy is a stud. A real trooper. He impresses me. And he does it even without his full studies. Which is a feat that I would have never been able to do at his stage in the mission.
Elder Page says his Dad served in Dad's Mission! We don't know if you two were there at the same time or not though.
Hmmmmm what all can be said about this week.
Well it has just been crazy. But we have been making it work. The majority of our work is in Azusa. We live in Glenndora....and where we live in Glenndora is nowhere near where we would have any work to do. It's out in the mountains in a more upper-scale area. It takes about 40-50 minutes to ride home at night because it's nearly all up hill. So that is fun. But luckily we have only done it twice. The other times I have just made it a point to make our last visits of the night either close to members or with members who have trucks so they can carry us and our bikes home. But leaving the house and going to work is just the most awesome thing ever. It's just the easiest most breezy ride in the world. I love it.
P-day is super difficult without a car. But I'm sure it will get easier with time. We just have to figure out a system. Us and the other companionship living in our apartment are planning on making friends with the neighbors living up by us and asking to use their laundry rooms on P-days. That will save us a ton of time. The good news is that all our neighbors by our apartment are members of an English Ward around here.
Well, that's about it!
Love you all!
Elder Ostler
[Note from Mom: Ben hasn't said anything but we received a letter from the mission president stating that he is also now serving as a District Leader.]
