Just Keep Swimming

Que Tal? El mision es super chivo y estoy aprendiendo bastante aqui en el salvador con mi comapnero y con todos los experiencias que yo he tenido. Realmente estoy agradecido pro mi companero elder P. What is up?? I won’t give a translation. Typing in Spanish is bien duro. It is hard. jajaj. So That is soooooo wicked chivo that the baby was born! Joseph Malcolm is an awesome name. I love it. He looks like he is going to be the president one day, maybe not of the united states but of some organization somewhere! jaja.

Me with some sweet mechetes. Everyone has mechettes. It is cool.

Soooooo my comp hasn't changed at all really. He is the exact same as day number one buuuttttttt I have changed. This week was a ton better because I have been able to be patient and humble. I have felt the pure love of Christ for him. I am doing it!!!! He still walks 20 yards ahead of me, doesn't let me talk and never takes my advice or help but sometimes he does. He is a good guy really. He asks questions to the people we teach to make sure they understand, he works really hard and wants to dedicate all of himself to his service, he is great.

I told the president what you said mom about how if he was with a real greenie that they would be drowning but I am just keeping on swimming! At first when I got here I was swimming like marlin, nemos dad in the movie, idk if that is his name, but now I am swimming like dorie. What is the difference you ask? Attitude and ability to see the good. At first I was struggling and trying to see my way and be able to understand why and how and what but I was not able. Now I have been able to surpass my weakness through the miraculous atonement of Jesus Christ and be able to rely on Him and His power to be able to overcome my weakness. My comp is still the same but I have changed. It is still bien duro at many times because I don’t teach in lessons and I don’t get a lot of support from him if any but I am able now. Patience is real family. Patience is real.

Sooo on Monday it was hard that afternoon with my comp. I was still swimming like nemos dad and trying so hard to enjoy it, and we left our house that night and we were walking on the street and my comp was literally at one point 30 yards ahead of me on the street and I couldn't see him for 10 seconds as he rounded a corner. I was walking all alone. I felt alone and weighed down. It was tough for reals. I am sending this now. The power has been going on and off.

So yeah it has been tough still, but on Thursday I did interchanges with Elder Andrade (awn draw day). He is awesome. Super chivo man. He taught me so many things. New words and new things and it was great. I took charge in our lessons because we stayed in my area so that was tough. Three weeks out and you are in charge of an area. I was nervous but it turned out to be one of my favorite days here in the mission. We took a 20 minute break for pupusas!!!! That was for dinner and got chocobananas!! Legitness. I actually taught the lesson and followed the spirit and it was soooo fun! I got a glimpse of what it should be like in the mission. Teaching and loving and inviting and having a blast. Enjoying! Right now I am enduring and trying to enjoy.

Elder Hallman thinks I will get transferred but I don’t. I am not wishing this transfer away but trying to learn and fulfill my purpose here and now. One day I will want to be back here in castano uno. This ward here is awesome. All of the members are strong and love the work. . . . . . . .  that is why I don’t eat dinner and that is why we never get referrals. The members are sooooooooooooooo sick here. The youth and everyone. I wish we could be good with the members, they like me and everything but . . . . .

On Sundays we teach English hymns to the ward members that want to come at 5pm. It is so fun. I play the piano and it is really sweet. This week was good. I am seeing the fruits of my efforts in my desire to now want to go and work and want to bring souls unto Christ. I can feel it. I just am trapped and am doing the best I can in my situation. I cannot change my situation, but I can adapt and pray and overcome. It is still bein duro, but I am working and learning to love it. The scriptures are awesome tool.

So I have only done language study two times. My comp doesn't believe in it. We do the first 12 weeks in comp study so we leave our house at 10 every morning. It is hard. My language abilities are not increasing as fast as I would like but they are getting better.

I love you guys so much. Wilson and Benson. You guys are sick and learn to love every moment. Life is only for once time. I love the babys name and have been praying everything went well and what a blessing it did. Lilly is huge. I love you guys so much. I can’t believe it has already been about a month I have been in the field! Christmas will be here in a flash!! My birthday is sooo soon! I will be nineteen! What? And since when do I know Spanish? hahahaha.

I haven't been able to send the letters yet so hopefully I can do it today. I got your letters on Wednesday! The one with the avengers thing in it! I Loved the picture Wilson. Keep getting good grades boys. It matters and teaches you a lot. Marching band sounds sick. I have the coolest little brothers ever. You guys rock. And my older siblings are pretty chivo too. The word chivo means cool. Central America can be crazy! I am safe though. No worries. I only eat chicken and rice. I am sick of it already that is because my comp goes to the same place everyday. hahah So yeah it is great! Love you all, and I’ll talk to you next week!!

Love, Elder Ostler

Miracles Are For Real

6:07 AM
Que tal? So I am sending you this because we are going to hike the volcano right now and the zls said that we could get on and send a quick message to the fam to let them know we will be writing them later. So I will be back on later today but I have no idea what time. This week was incredible. In all aspects of the word. Health problems, companion problems, and other missionary life struggles. Probably one of the most difficult weeks in my life for sure. I love you all. I will send many more details later but I am doing well. I had a disease called Chikengunya. Look it up. jajaja. Tell Benson and Wilson that I miss them and love them like no other and just wish I had like five minutes to spend with them! They are so cool. I want to be more like them! jaja. Okay I will write the big email later. I have a lot to say about this week! Like I said, it was incredible.
Love you all,
Elder Ostler

The hike today

Hola Familia!!! This week ranks up with most likely the hardest week of my life. It was quite something. Last pday when we got back I cleaned my floors. Even after I mopped them they still looked pretty gross so I mopped them again! They still looked gross. I don’t even know how to describe our mop. It looks like dreadlocks made out of an absorbent material that has no handle. It is hard to mop and clean our house because we have no supplies so there are some old pants that are just sitting in my apartment which I took and cut up to make rags out of and to clean with. I was only able to clean the floors last Monday.

On Tuesday night I noticed some weird rash developing on my arm but at first I thought that it was just a bunch of small little bug bites. On Wednesday when we were out in the road teaching and having lessons I noticed that my body developed the symptoms of a fever and I felt exhausted. I immediately started to pray for strength and health and took some Advil and drank a lot of water the rest of the day and thankfully I had the strength to continue in the labor of missionary work. The rash kept worsening and that night it was really bad.

We had a meeting with the ward mission leader and with Elder Hallman and his comp Elder Andrade. When Elder Hallman saw my face he asked me, are you okay? I said no and then asked for a blessing. I was dying. Lots of pain and no energy. But I knew that God was helping me and strengthening me. I could feel it. It was really cool. I was trying to be so faithful to the hope of Christ and His power to heal me. I knew that He had healed so many others through His power and mercy, why not me?

I needed help because I was really sick and not feeling well. Elder Hallman gave me a blessing and the power of the priesthood was so strong in that room with us missionaries and the ward mission leader. He blessed me with strength to rise the next morning and also a quick recovery as this would be a hard trial along with all the things I would face and have to face.

The next morning I arose with strength. I went to San Salvador for immigration and visa stuff. I was able to see only a few of my ccm buddies that were in my district and other close elders that weren't. Our group from the ccm is so tight. It is so great. I saw Elder H! He’s legit. That afternoon my body was destroyed. We got back to our area and started working at 3 o’clock. I felt awful. Achy body. Killing joints. It hurt to walk, my head was pounding and my body I could feel burning from a fever, but I was scared to tell my comp because...I will explain it later in the email.

In San Salvador by the statue, San Salvador del mundo

We worked for two hours and I was so miserable. I eventually told my comp I needed to go and rest and call the nurse. I did and took my temp when we got home. 104 degree temperature. That is so high. The walk home was sooooo painful and slow but my companion just walked right on ahead of me in the street not really even recognizing how bad of condition I was in. He was easily like 15 yards to 20 yards ahead of me on the street as we walked home. I was dying. The entire way home I prayed. I didn’t want to think bad of my companion, and I wanted to have the strength. That was such a hard walk home on the streets of San Antonio.

We got back and I took a cold shower which was sooo nice. My body was inflamed and burning up. I drank water and tried to eat a cracker and laid in my bed listening to conference talks until sleep came over me. It was rough. It is hard to sleep with a 104 degree fever and achy bones. They call this disease dolor de cuerpo. Translation is pain of body. And it was painfully.

The next day was Friday and I felt wayyy better from my sickness, but my comp came down with something and we couldn't go out to work really in the afternoon because he slept. So I washed his clothes and did a clean sweep on the kitchen that day while we were stuck in the house. I took the microwave, hot plate, toaster and table out of our kitchen, mopped scrubbed and cleaned like an Ostler knows best. It was awesome. There were a lot of spiders under the table. I moved the fridge and mopped underneath it too. The table when I scrubbed it you could tell a difference between what I had cleaned, which was white and what I hadn't which was a more brown tone. It was great!

Cleaning on Friday

Saturday was normal and Sunday as well. Teaching and preaching, but now I am going to explain a little regarding my companion. I really didn’t do that much last week and it is tough. I will try to explain this very clearly. First off, he is a son of God just like me and came on a mission and deserves the best. I am trying to love him and serve him but that proves to be a hard task at times. I feel as though that he doesn't even realize I am there.

We are on the street and finish a contact and . . . . . . . 

So I have lived with missionaries and know how missionaries function and what they do and what missionary work is supposed to be like because of my studly siblings, and because of this I see that there needs to be communication and support and teaching within a successful companionship. However. . . . . it is not that he is doing anything disobedient wise just that we stay at lessons for 2 hours and he only bible bashes our potential investigator about Christ’s resurrection and what the real sabbath day is or why the bible has been translated so many times.

All of Elder P's lessons are the same. A rote presentation. He doesn't let me talk and I am sacred to even then! If I don’t teach the way that he teaches then when I finish teaching, my companion will recover and teach the exact same points and doctrines I just taught so my teaching is not my own.

I want to teach so the people are excited and feel the spirit and want to learn more and teach to the specific needs of the investigators. It is hard. I find myself not want to teach because I know my comp will just reteach what I teach. This doesn't happen in every lesson but in most. . . . . 

So I am dealing everyday and trying to love him. I am trying in prayer and service to really be able to loose myself in the work.

We taught himnos in English on Sunday to the ward members that showed up that night. It was cool! I play the piano too, but not in sacrament, I am going to ask the bishop about it. Anyways I must leave now. It is tough but with faith miracles happen. God is real and he loves us all. Let us be strong and seguir adelante. Miracles are real. 
I love you all! 

Elder Ostler

Mission Life Here In The Jungle

Que Chivo!! The mission is sweet. It is sweet, hard, frustrating, a climb, painful, a blessing, once in a lifetime experience. I will first tell you some things we did and how life is here in El Salvador and then express some difficulties of this week!

So last Monday I was able to clean our fridge!! It was pretty groddy and there are spider webs everywhere in our house though most of the spider webs have nothing in them so that was great to kind of be able to settle in more this week and make it feel a little bit more like home! I got food and had a good breakfast everyday and was able to become more acclimated to the mission life here in the jungle of El Salvador, because quite literally it is a jungle!! There are so many trees and steep hills and mountains and there is a cool bolano about 10 miles from my house! Actually there are three right next to each other.

There is the view after the huge rain storm yesterday evening

aNYWASY AFTER I WAS DONE CLEANING THE FRIDGE I JUST FELT LIKE I SHOULD SAY A PRAYER. i DONT KNOW WHY I JUST FELT LIKE I SHOULD. MY COMP WAS IN THE BANO SO I KNELT woops -  down in the kitchen and started to pray and then the waterfall happened. I had the most gratitude filled prayer I have ever spoken in my life. I prayed for everything and how grateful I was and I realized as I prayed how different it is here and how much less I have and how much less these people here have. They have nothing. I thanked our Father in Heaven for all of my blessings and I was pretty much weeping. The tears were just an accumulation of everything and boy it felt good to just weep. It was a mix of joy and sadness and gratitude and humility.

So that was last week and this week was way faster than last week let me tell you! I have a hard time remembering specific days and what happened on those specific days! Its sweet. On Tuesday night I just went to bed as normal expecting to wake up and do regular stuff on Wednesday. My comps alarm went off at 5:00 am and I was wondering why so I just went back to bed and was gonna wake up at 6:30. But he comes in at 5:50 and tells me to wake up because we have to leave. I sit up in my bed rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and ask why? He says we have a conference for district leaders in the capital, San Salvador that day. He was showered dressed and had eaten and everything and we were supposed to leave at 6:00 am! He didn't tell me that he has a meeting!!! hahaha Isn’t that crazy?? He knew and just didn’t tell me.

That happens a lot though with everything. We will just be walking down the street to an appointment and I’ll keep walking down the street while he stops and buys something and then I realize he stopped and he never says a word. That is just how everything is everyday. I don’t know if he expects me to know, doesn't want to tell me or what but I have become somewhat used to it. It is still really hard and I get frustrated with him sometimes and that makes it hard to really love him. I am trying to see the good though.

That Wednesday we went to the estaca by the temple in San Salvador which is an hour and a half bus ride to the city. I got to see a bunch of my ccm buddies there whose companions are also district leaders!!!!! My companion Elder A from the ccm wasn't there so I was bummed because he is probably the coolest person alive. So while the dls met, all of the other companions and stuff got to talk for an hour so that was a huge blessing to be able to talk with a bunch of elders from my district from the ccm and see how they are doing and get support and be able to actually talk to someone!

Dinner at a members house. A weird soup and chicken and rice

On Friday we were on the other side of our area on the other side of the hill or mountain doing contacts on the street and we come to a house that has a fence around it with kind of spike looking things on the top. This lady comes out about 50 years old and we contact her. We talk about the restoration and we stop talking and she just goes off. The Book of Mormon is not true. How could it be written by prophets and on and on. I was surprised that I understood practically everything that she said, and her daughter too was standing there inside the fence by the gate. We were on the outside. The discussion lasted about fifty minutes. At one point my companion was talking to the daughter and I was solely talking to the mom, who you could see it in her eyes was not having any of it. These are a bible people. Some of them are strictly only bible and will not believe in anything else. So that was this lady.

I was able to listen to her and she asked a pointed question. What do you promise in your preaching and everything you do, what do you promise? I paused for a little had no idea what to say but opened my mouth and it was filled. The words that came out were these. Felicidad. La promesa que verdaderamente podemos hallar paz y solaz en esta vida para que podamos vivir en un estado de felicidad con nuestro padre celestial y su hijo juscristo. Translation is happiness and peace. The promise that we can find happiness and peace in this life so that we can live in a state of happiness with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. That was all I said and all I needed to say. It was a cool experience. The lady was still very stubborn and said something about the bible and how I was wrong.

I also got told I was going to the inferno by another lady. But the thing I want to say most about this is that these people were trapped. They were the ones standing inside there black fence, like a jail cell with big weeds and bushes growing around them to trap them even further. I felt for their state of confinement in a spiritual sense. It was sad. We usually meet people like that once every day. But we found a guy on Saturday. He is soooo open and wants to learn so we are going back on Wednesday to talk with him. I am really excited, but it is rough with our lessons because my companion teaches in the exact same form every time. It is always the exact some structure and lesson every time. The teaching isn’t exciting or anything so when I try to teach I try to be excited and ask a lot of questions and stuff, but if I ever miss a point or a little sentence my comp will always reteach the point I just taught and if I don’t teach how he teaches he reteaches the same point that I just taught so sometimes I don’t even want to teach, and the hardest part is that after the lesson he never says anything. Never teaches me how to be better or gives advice, just starts off ahead of me and walks to the next lesson without saying anything. But I’ve become used to that occurrence and am trying to ask him to get him to help me and talk to me.

Another investigator named G came to church!!! He is gonna be baptized on the 26 and is a big dude. Kinda tall and really has a belly! He is scared of baptisms so we are working with him and he is scared of prayer which is weird.

Some of the food that we have is a lot of tortillas. These tortillas are corn but cooked on the stove top and super thick. But there are things called pupusas. They are the same tortilla but stuffed with frijoles and queso.. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO delicious. But everyone has them and all the ladys have a little tienda or they make tortillas or they make pupusas. Old old men walk around with their little ice cream dollys ringing bells. Middle aged guys carry huge baskets of bread, like rolls. They walk with their horns, like the super annoying squeeze horns. I’ll have to get a picture with one of them. There are dogs everywhere and garbage everywhere. I wrote you a letter and am sending a letter today.

We did service on Saturday and built a house for a lady! Was crazy poverty but it was sweet. A huge cockroach jumped on my leg when we were moving a big pile of wood metal and garbage. I saw a 4 foot long iguana but couldn't get a picture of it and probably a 4 to 5 inch long scorpion. There are little lizards everywhere and they will just chill inside you house at night or whatever. It is fun! hahah

The service project where we built a house. Super Hot!

Central America is great and I am trying to love it! I hope this email was good. Love you all and I think about you a lot! Straight a"s Benson and Wilson you too. Work hard and you will never regret it!! I will email you in a week! It might be later in the afternoon cuz we might hike the volcano, not sure. Love you and know I am hanging in there and growing more than ever before! 

Love Elder Ostler

The Field

My comp Elder Abilez and I at the airport in El Salvador

The day actually came. I am a missionary in the field. That is a weird feeling!! So we left on the bus on Tuesday last week for El Salvador but couldn't cross the border because of protests and so we turned around and had a 2 hour bus ride back to the capital of Guatemala where the amazing church travel headquarter dude guy hooked 25 seats on a plane for us missionaries in the same day! A real and true miracle. So we flew and were on a bus for 4 hours, airport for 6 and then a plane for 1 so that was a long day!! We ate that night at the church building next to the temple and headed to the assistants filthy house where I shared two twin mattresses with 4 missionaries on the floor while 26 missionaries shared beds and the like.

Part of my area. It is really mountainous here and really steep.

Outside doing laundry. That is the shower and the bano in the back left hand corner.

There is a little river on the left side of the picture down a ways but u can't see it.

That is the outside of our house

Got my comp the next day at the exchange meeting and went to my are. Sonsonate is the zone. Castño 1 is the area. In a town or municipo that is called San Antonio del Monte. The last week at the ccm was normal and boy do I miss that place. Mostly just the food hahahaha. Yeah so I have like no food. My comp, it is weird. I don’t know if he just doesn't realize it or what but I have had only one breakfast in the past week and that was this morning. I don’t know how the whole food thing was gonna work cuz I was new and there was like no food in my house and I just was confused and I try to ask and get information but his answers are short and I don’t really understand him all that well so I have just kind of found things out myself and I need to be more independent in asking to stop to eat something because I went like 3 days in a row with a meal at lunch time each day and nothing else. So that was one challenge.

The mornings are hard especially because he doesn’t talk and I try to but it doesn't work cuz the conversation just dies and I am stuck and I don’t know. Sorry I am being super confusing. I just feel lonely. Like no one is there but then that is when I pray and cry. And plead with Heavenly Father that I can have strength to see and understand or not even understand but that I can just be able to overcome and be strong. Also in alllll of our lessons it is always sooo long. Like over an hour long and this one time we were there for two and a half hours in this guys store talking to him about the restoration. I don’t think that is how it is supposed to be as missionaries so that is hard.

My comp explains every little detail about every lesson to every person we talk to. Like the little folleteos or pamphlets of the lessons we teach only like the first two pages or even only one page in the entirety of an hour. It is not the way we should be teaching. Teaching should be animated, spoken so the people understand, learn and gain the knowledge, not every little sentence and word in the folleto needs to be explained. It is hard.

He is really good though. He can explain any doctrine principle to anyone and he knows the bible like dad knows teeth. He is a hard worker and we visit a lot of people and talk to everyone, or mostly everyone. I don’t want to sound like everything is bad because it isn’t.

We teach and invite literally every person we talk to, to be baptized. It is really cool actually. We say something like this. If you were to know these things are true and receive from God that this is what you need to do, will you be baptized....? And it is always with a date. It is really cool. We have a goal for 10 LPEs every day. That is like open the mouth but it is like short lessons kind of. Hard to explain.

Yesterday was awesome though. We didn't have any of our real investigators come to church. Out of the four progressing, none came sadly. I was bummed but the other companionship Elder Hallman, who was with me in the ccm and his comp Elder Andrade, that are in the same ward with me had a baptism last night and afterward there was leftover ice cream. Oh my goodness that was a blessing.

When Elder Hallman and I met after sacrament meeting he came and sat by me and we talked. It is hard. His comp and him stay at peoples houses for a looong time too, but longer. They were at a lady’s house for 4 hours. Crazy! It is just the culture or the missionaries don’t really want to work or something but I definitely will never spend that much time at an investigators house.

I am sorry if this email is like a really downer one, because the field has been goood, it has been hard. I am trying to look for the good in everything and in myself to keep me going in everything I do. Every time we talk to someone I just try to think if I am doing everything I can to serve with all my heart might mind and strength to fulfill my calling as a missionary. I don’t want to have regrets ever in my mission. I want to make sure I am just really trying my hardest and doing all I can every second of every day. To be perfectly obedient and to hold myself up to the stand of what God expects, which is everything. He expects everything of me.

The managing stress book that all missionaries have has really helped me a lot. I do some of the relaxing exercises in there and it helps me to be better focused on my purpose. As the language goes I can understand probably like 50 percent at the start of the week but now I understand like 65 percent would be my gauge. I feel like I will be able to fully understand everything in like a month or two so I am really excited for that! I am getting better at speaking and I have already grown and I can see it!

Their pronunciation and accent is weird and different. These people pronounce some of their s sounds in some words as h sounds. ñ Only in certain words and places though. Very unique.

To follow the metaphor of the tree Saydi introduced a few yeas ago. Mine is growing. I planted the seed in the ccm and it has sprouted. The wind of the field has definitely been testing and trying at times and I can feel the waters of the gospel, of Christs grace and divine aid being caught by my roots of faith and patience and effort to be able to see the blessings of God in my life so that I can better be a more effective deliverer of the fruit of my branches here to the people I teach and meet on the street so they like Lehi and his family embark on the path to the tree of Life, to partake of the fruit of Christ and his atonement so that they may also be planted in the soil of Gods love and grow ever more to partake of eternal life. I can everyday see tender mercies of God in my life to be able to press on and try my hardest.

My companion is a great young man. He has 25 years and was converted at 20 years of age into the church. He is really small but has a huge heart full of love and he can be patient with the people we teach to make sure they really do understand what they are being taught so that they can be prepared for baptism and eventually go into the temple.

It is also super hot here. I sweat soooo much and am so grateful for the little sweat towelettes things that I have!! So we were talking to this catholic lady yesterday and she was not moving in her stance because she said she had already received of Christ in her life and is on the right path. She was not letting us in at all. My companion was doing most of the talking. She was pretty much told us we were going to go to hell, or the inferno. It was pretty crazy! I bore my testimony and along with Elder P, I could feel the power. It was cool. We have an investigator named E and she is progressing so good but we haven't been able to see her the last two days because she has been not ever home! So sad. I hope she comes to church this Sunday!

Kk my time is up, but nobody else is stopping......sooooo yeah. But I will, even though I want to stay on. KK gotta go! Know I am doing good and working hard to try to learn and love and serve and teach the best of my ability. I love you sooo much!!! I will try hard not to miss you hahah:) BYE

Love, Elder Ostler