But the subject line also refers to a song I heard while walking on the street. You know that song? I want to break free? It just fits so perfectly. These past 11 weeks have been killer. When you are in the midst of a trial you grow, you rely on the Lord, you really do give it your all. I am trying to see my weaknesses so I can be healed faster, because the more I perfect myself the better I am able to serve others and bring them unto Christ. As I look back on my training, I can see a change in myself. If I am honest I can really take a transcendent view of where I used to be a year ago and where I am now and I can see a difference.
Because it was my bday people have asked if I feel older and usually when it is your birthday you don’t really feel much older because life is a slow progression of growth. But I feel older. I feel more self reliant. I feel more mature. I can feel it and it is cool. I am excited. I love leadership and being able to have responsibility and have something to do and keep my focus, I haven’t been able to do that at all. I haven’t been able to have a say in many things at all. I haven’t and now I will be able to. I am going to treat my new comp like a king. I am going to do what he wants to do for a change. And we are going to TALK! So many of the problems in companionship's could be solved with communication. SOOOOOOOO many problems could be throw out the window if there was communication. It has gotten better since the beginning. estoy listo
I love hearing about the family and all that is going on. I did hear about the France thing from a member on Friday. They told me it was a bomb and that is all I heard so a lot of it is new about isis and stuff. World war 3 how crazy!
This week. Here it is. Just the highlights. This internet is slow....
Monday was my birthday and we went to the beach which was awesome! I loved it so much! I had fish too! We got special permission from president to be able to eat fish at this restaurant since it was fresh. I talked with Elder McFarland the whole time practically. Our whole zone and the other neighboring zone all went so there were alot of us. It was fun. The beach itself was not huge, pretty small but way fun. SOOOO beautiful. We were there in a little fishing town so not a tourist place. But it reminded me of when we went to Mexico. That whole beachside scene but the beach was not as big!
I got a huge pupusa that night too. My comp wasn’t gonna go and when I told him that the ladies were going to make one for me he said that he forgot! haha super awesome! Tuesday we had a good lesson with our investigator who is preparing for this next Sunday to be baptized! Finally. Our lessons are good but could be so much better. She is prepared though. And that night I had my fifth dinner with a family other than on Sunday!!! It was great. They feed you beans with bread and eggs, or sautéed veggies with hot dog slices. The beans and bread are soooo good. Then you have coke or either juice. So delicious. It really tastes good!
Wednesday was great too. We had our weekly planning and at the end of weekly planning you have a comp inventory but we usually have never done that but this time we did. My comp told me things that I was doing good and he told me that I was a really good missionary and was happy to be my comp. That made me feel like I was on top of the world. First it was weird then I saw that he really meant it. I said thanks. I did the same and told him his strengths and my advice to him was to talk more. He has started to talk more. It was great. But that day just set the tone for the rest of the week! I never looked at him bad. Anyways it was a good day. The communication only got a little tiny bit better but hey I got better!! He is just soooo quiet. Just the most silent person I know. It is crazy.
That day it rained soooo hard. We used an umbrella to keep us from mojandonos. I held it and we walked under the same umbrella so that was good comp bonding time!! The streets are literal rivers. It is insane how much water can fall from the sky!!
Thursday our 17 year old ward mission leader came out with us all day, he is rock solid and will be a reallllyy good missionary. He needs a little bit more of a backbone though but he is incredible!!!!!!!!!! Our lessons that day were so fun! I loved walking and talking with him and being able to learn stuff about the language and El Salvador. We went to a special ward council that night with a stake leader there who talked about numbers and attendance of the ward. Apparently the ward is going to split soon! Sweet huh? So yeah it was a cool meeting!
Friday we had lunch with a member in the zls area with other missionaries to celebrate one of their birthdays and we had some awesome rice and chicken again but it was way better than the stuff I usually eat! So delicious. We had to wait for a little bit before the food was ready though so we played uno and I lost super bad everytime. It was awful. But they had a bball so I dribbled for a little bit and that was awesome too! All the girls here play bball so they are the good ones and the boys play futbol. Pretty cool.
We met with the familia H who are solid members in the ward and they were watching soccer. Brassila and Argentina tied. And El Salvador got roasted by Mexico. He was the one who told me about the bombing in France. He told me 118 dead so yea being a missionary you really are out of the loop.
Saturday it rained again but harder than ever. My shoes got so wet at like 3 pm so they were drenched all day long. Not too fun! We were out in the jungle when it started to rain and so the trails were the rivers so we had to walk on the side of the trails in the brush and that meant that we got even more wet. Incredible.
On Sunday we had a lot of less actives back to church. It is awesome to see them come! We are preparing two baptisms for this weekend on next Sunday. So if I am still here I will probably be able to baptize them. I also gave a talk in church. The ward mission leader asked me to talk and so I prepared a little on Friday and Thursday but then I totally forgot Saturday and Sunday morning until I was sitting in the chapel singing the first hymn. I quickly got my planner out and wrote down what I remember I had planned and some more things. I spoke on the plan of salvation and the need to make these things known to the world. After a lot of people told me that my Spanish was fluent and that it was really good. That made me feel good.
That night we had a lesson with a menos activo who has work on Sunday so she can’t come but she has a little son. We were there for a little and my comp shared a little thought and then the baby who is like 2 years old just started to scream its head off. And that is never pleasant, but my comp just kept talking and teaching and then the grandma had stuff to say and when the old people talk they never stop. I sat for 30 minutes just waiting to get out of there as my comp kept teaching. The baby screaming. The grandma talking. That was tough. I prayed and prayed to just keep calm and be patient.
At the end of the day yesterday I was about to be done. I could feel your prayers give me strength in that moment. I have felt your strength this week. I really have- this morning I did a ton of laundry. I am really a pro at washing by hand 36 articles of clothing including bedsheets. In an hour and 15 minutes. Beat that. Your hands get sore from wringing out clothes. kk I gotta go and I will send some pics and they probs won’t have captions. I love you all family!! Rock on. I am sooo stoked for changes and ready to conquer the world. Oh yeah, I also want to mention that I have seen everything. Central America has much to offer. Much of it is disturbing and gross. Really my eyes have been opened to the reality of the world. It is truly incredible. I love you all!!!!
Elder Ostler
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