Well hey there
Family!
Wow! Another
missionary in the family! Woot woot! Congratulations Sister Stolp!
That is so so exciting!
How is everything
going with all you guys? It has been an awesome week! We have had
some awesome miracles. But I will talk about those in a bit. I just
checked the mail this morning and got those stamps you sent to me. Question: If
I were to put a letter in the mail today, would it get to the house before Kara
leaves for Hawaii? Or should I type it up and send it to her email style?
I'm thinking it would be safest that I send it email style. Can you have
Kara tell me what email I should send it to? Thanks
Cool beans!
That is awesome to hear that Kara and Nathan have been taking care of the
lawns together. Oh how fun it would be to tag along. By the time I
get back home, it sounds like my skills won't even be needed (if it is that I
even have skills anymore). But maybe if they are feeling generous they
might let me tag along for a day or so before I have to start the race to
school. How many lawns do they have these days?
Interesting
news....
I received in the
mail this past week what are referred to as "pre-trunks".
Basically it is a piece of paper that has some information that I need to
fill out so that the mission knows what airport to ship me to when it's time
for them to kick me out of here. I said that the city was Seattle and
then put in parenthesis (SeaTac). If I messed up, let me know so I can
fix it. Also I received some directions that I need to ensure that I have
an ID that is current. It is for getting through the airport security.
My first thought was..."perfect! I have two! If they
don't accept one, the other will probably be ok." But about 5 min
later the thought came to mind, … "Elder Ostler, you have been out a
while....are you sure your IDs are still current?" It was then that
I dug out my driver’s license and military id for the first time since way back
when I was still a car missionary. My license and the military ID both
expire before my return home. So I will need some help taking care of
that. The driver’s license expires in July. If I recall correctly,
I think you can renew my drivers license online? Not sure.... Can't remember
completely. Anyways, if you could help me out on that, that would be
AWESOME! Oh yea.... I should probably share this detail... I learned in
the letter that my release date is August 19th.
So regarding the
sweet miracles, we found a couple people this week whom I KNOW have been
prepared by The Lord to be introduced to the gospel at this time in their
lives. Every single day I pray specifically that we and those whom The
Lord would have us teach will be led to each other. I also pray
specifically that we will be able to recognize each other once He has led to us
to them and them to us. The principle of specific prayer must be true.
We have had some pretty sweet experiences this week.
On Easter night,
we were riding our bikes when this drunk man called out to us … "Hey you
guys are my friends! I love you guys!" Knowing that we
couldn't get very far with him while he was still under the influence, we
simply taught a simple Easter thought in between all his ramblings about how he
wants his life to get better and how he thinks that the reason he called out to
us is because his spirit knows we can help him. We got his address and
phone number and told him that we would pass by sometime soon. We tried
to get by sooner, but some other things came up and so we weren't able to get
by 'til Saturday.
When we stopped by
on Saturday he was on his way out of the house. But as he saw us, he had
a total shocked look of recognition come over his face. He says,
"Wow! I remember your guys' faces! I talked to you guys on Easter!
God must have led you here right now cuz if you had come any later you
would have missed me! Wow this is so crazy! I was on my way
somewhere but that can wait. Tell me what message you guys bring with you
today. I am all ears. God must haven known I needed you guys.
That must be why you came." A little later we learned that he
had NO clue that he had given us his address. ZERO recollection.
That was part of the reason why he was so impressed that we were there.
But after we told him that he had been the one to tell us where he lived
he said, "Wow! I told you that? Wow. That's bad. Yea. I
was way too out of it. I am going to need to stop with the drinking."
But then he added that the Lord must
have caused him to say his address even in his drunken state without even
realizing it so that we could come to teach and help him.
We had planned on
sharing the restoration with him, but about 10 min into our visit with him, we
realized that this was not what was supposed to happen. We walked out
about 40 min later. We heard some super cool stuff from the last 6ish
months of this man's life. Basically he knows that the last six months of
his life have been full of the Lord's constant invites that he change his life
and come unto The Lord more fully. He knows that our arrival at his door
was an undeniable signal from The Lord that now is the time for him to begin
doing what The Lord wants him to do. For me, this experience was an undeniable
witness to the power of specific prayer.
Well...I had
another cool miracle answer to prayer that I was thinking about sharing...if I
get more time after I type up Kara's letter....I might decide to send it.
But more likely I will probably choose to play some basketball. So
the other story will probably have to wait 'til next week.
Hasta luego! Love
you all!
Oh...P.S. I am
making tons of Spanish contacts! In fact I am making far more Spanish
contacts than English ones! So that is fun stuff. Basically I just
try to get their information quickly so I can hand it over to the Spanish
elders and sisters in the area and get back to talking to the English folks
that are willing to chat. We have started going by all the less actives
in the ward and the area where the majority of the less actives are located is
Spanish dominant.
Well bye 'til next
week!
Elder Ostler
