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