Wow! That sounds like a pretty exciting start to spring break!
Hmmmm....okeedokee. I am going to start out by answering some of my Mom's concerns. I feel somewhat bad that my shortening letters gave you cause to think that things were amiss. Hopefully I can sufficiently explain myself by the end of this letter. But first of all, please know that I am quite fine and dandy.
But to answer your question more specifically, there may be lots of reasons for these shortening letters. Here are a few of what I guess are my excuses. I forget sometimes what I want to share in my email time and I sit here staring at the computer screen for a while. It is WAY harder to focus here in the family history center of the stake center than it was to focus at the library (there are tons of missionaries here and we get email time in between the talking). Some of the stories I consider to share with you guys I decide last minute would be better left untold 'til later because I wonder if it would cause you unnecessary motherly worry to hear of them.
But speaking of stories I wished to have left untold, here is a fun one! I live in Boyle Heights! There is always fun and exciting stuff happening here! Like my apartment companions (the other companionship that lives in our pad)! There is just never a dull moment. On April fools day, they played some super good pranks on us. They pretty much flipped our room inside out. Everything got reversed on us. Beds switched around, study desks changed, my iPad keyboard was replaced with a fake one made of paper, they went through my pictures and framed Elder A. by placing some pictures of Kara that you sent me forever ago in a conspicuous spot on his desk......I could go on, but to get to the meat of the story, I will stop for now. I will just leave my report with this: we spent almost an entire dinner hour laughing as we walked around the apartment finding all the stuff they had done to us. It was so fun.
The April Fools pranks however were not only confined to the dinner hour of our funny discoveries. It all started at 4:00 that morning when the first of 5 or 6 different hidden alarms went off in our room. The funny thing to me is that I simply got out of bed and groggily followed the sound to where the hidden alarm bomb was at and turned it off. I remember thinking it was odd when in one specific moment I found the other Elder's phone to be the culprit of the alarm. But without much thought I simply turned it off and went back to bed thinking "I will have to remember to tell them they left their phone in here tomorrow." I had totally forgotten that it was April Fools day and that this strange series of events could be more than just an accidental coincidence. But then finally when the fourth or fifth alarm went off, Elder A. says, "OH.... I KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING!" He then reminded me it was April Fools day and with a moan says, "They got us Elder!" Elder A. went quickly back to sleep. But I, with this new realization sat there wide awake laughing in marvel at how many strange alarms I had turned off without ever once giving it a second thought. When I finally stopped laughing, I was wide awake. So I just layed there thinking.
Finally, our alarm (our real alarm) went off at 5:45. It was at that point that I realized how much sleep I had missed out on in all my quiet thinking. We, Elder A. and I, had planned to go do our laundry that morning instead of working out in order to save a little time on our pday temple trip day (the laundry mat opens at 6 and we wanted to be done in time to get to studies on time at 8). We had set our alarm 45 min early so that we could accomplish this feat of getting laundry done before our busy temple pday arrived without sacrificing any of our missionary time. But when the alarm went off and I realized how much sleep I had missed out on I decided that I would offer the idea to Elder Angel that we sleep in until 630 and try to squeeze laundry into our temple pday or wait till the following morning. It came as no surprise to me that he accepted the offer. And I was so happy that he had because I wanted to try to catch up on a little bit of the sleep I had lost.
About 5 min later, as I lay in bed again trying to make myself go to sleep I heard 3 quick gun shots. It sounded pretty close. And I assume they came from on the street in front of our apartment (this would be where I enter the realm of information that I normally try not to share in the letters home). Now to be completely honest, I didn't give it too much heed. After all, I live in Boyle Heights and hearing gun shots isn't a terribly rare occurrence. But then I realized that had we headed outside to the laundry mat according to plan, we very well could have been in the street right when the action had happened out on the street!
I made the realization in that moment with even more certainty that the Lord truly does work in mysterious ways to accomplish his purposes. Let me describe the series of events. He had allowed (maybe even prompted) the Elders to prank us with the alarm clocks. He had caused me to be unusually groggy as I got up to turn them each off to the point that I didn't ever realize we were being pranked. By never realizing we were being pranked, I never attempted to find all the other alarm bombs that had been placed in our room so I could turn them off and sleep in peace. Additionally, by never realizing it for myself, I got to have a good laugh at myself when Elder A. brought it to my attention and I realized that I had been clueless even when I had every evidence in front of me to show me what was really going on. Furthermore, the good little laugh I had at myself woke me up and kept me thinking and missing sleep for around an hour. Then, when our alarm finally went off, instead of acting in my normal manner and jumping out of bed to get going with the days plans without any thought given to my sleep loss, I had a very rare moment in which I desired to catch up on my sleep.
This entire series of events had saved us from being out on the street in a moment of probable danger.
Super cool story huh?
Well, I would tell a few more, but I really really want to go play some basketball. I have been behaving myself really well today as I struggle to focus on the email to the family even with all my distractions here in the computer lab full of missionaries.
Love You My Family!
Hasta Luego!
Elder Ostler
