Happy valentines day! I want all of you to be my Valentine :)!
This week we had Zone Training Meeting, and that was nice because I
got to see Elder Garver again. In ZTM we talked about our main goals
they are; Find, Teach, Baptize, Retain, and Reactivate! It is hard for
missionaries to do all of those things by themselves, if you can,
please help missionaries with referals, being a fellowshipper, or just
make them some food haha. I love the members in our YSA ward they're
really great to us. We ate with a family (Minchins) who is renting out
to a Chinese girl named Ziyi, she is really cool and the mom of the
family speaks Chinese from her mission in taiwain. The lesson was
great and they later came to our Chinese new year Fireside so
hopefully she can read and start progressing. Also I spoke a lot of
Chinese at that lesson so Elder Bird gave me a lot of good tips
after. He says my Chinese is getting better but its hard to notice!
Later in the week one of our Investigators Chris finished the Book of
Mormon. He finished reading it in like A WEEK AND A HALF.. it was
pretty insane when he told us that he finished it. We were going to
teach the word of wisdom since we know that he drinks tea but he had a
lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and the Bible, he has read
the bible 3 times but still doesn't really understand it and doesn't
even believe in eternal life. He says it would be weird because
everyone will be old and a guys son could be other than his father. We
tried to explain the resurrection more and stuff but I think he just
needs to feel the spirit and build his testimony of Jesus Christ
because once he has that and then a testimony of the BOM nothing else
matters, He will be able to keep the word of wisdom and believe all of
the teachings because he understands Christ's perfection and the
perfection of his teachings. "Christ is the gospel personified" -I
think that was Holland. It is hard trying to find wahts right to teach
chris but he is still reading and progressing so hopefully its just
time that he needs.
We ate dinner at one of our favorite memebers, Emma's house this week.
she always is fun and were trying to help her roommate to be more
active. It never fails that I say something extremely stupid when we
go over to her house... and its usually sacrilegious, racist, or
something just ridiculous. Oh well haha. There wasn't anything too bad
this time. I think im learning my lesson. She taught me the correct
way to say Gyro you have to roll the G a little.. its rough. she got
mad at me for saying it wrong at dinner.
Ping pong and English class went great this week, we are having good
numbers come almost every time now. Its nice to actually have people
to teach English to. It is a great finding activity. Also on Saturday
we had a huge Chinese New Year Fireside. There was an hour of talks at
the beginning by Chinese members and two missionaries, it was great to
sit back and listen and work on my Chinese. I can understand a lot of
church vocab and understood most of the talks. There were a lot of
former investigators and some current ones that made it out and I
think it was some great exposure for them. They can see that this
isn't just a white guy church. Plus there were lots a return
missionaries with great Chinese. Andrew Gibb is one of them and he won
a Chinese game show and got a freeride to any Chinese college he
wanted. Chinese people say that his Chinese is better than theres
because he has no accent at all. Most Chinese people have really bad
accents, being standard is a great thing and apparently his Chinese is
very very standard!
Sunday we met with Sean the lazy Taiwanese guy. Turns out he is not so
lazy anymore! He got a second job and is working really hard. He still
loves his League of Legends (an internet computer game) which he is
playing every time we go over. but he is becoming a really hard
worker. He had a super hard month, he wouldn't accept our calls or
texts, and was in a really dark place. We were able to bear strong
testimony that when you are in the hardest times in your life is often
when you can find and see Christs love and light the easiest. its when
we are stripped down to nothing that we look for things that are
immovable like Christ to rely on. Elder birds story really helped him(
about his near death experience in the car crash) he seemed to feel
better and always says that we are so convincing but we explained that
its the spirit that is convincing not us.
It was a great week, it snowed a lot and the roads were really scary a
few days, but we made it through!
Be safe, love you all! good luck on valentines day or Single awareness
day, whichever you prefer to call it :)!!
love, Elder Ostler
My name is Elder Ostler and I am currently serving an LDS mission in Edmonton, Canada, Mandarin Chinese speaking and loving it!
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
February 2, 2015
Transfers!
So this is the start of the second week of transfers. Last week we had
a few changes to our district and zone. One of our zone leaders that I
really loved elder Sears got Transferred but thats ok because his
replacement seems just as fun and great! Also Elder Silva a friend
from back home just got moved into the Spanish companionship in our
district! We played little league football together back in the day
and we have a lot of common friends! He is a year younger than me but
weve been out for just about the same amount of time. Its nice to see
a familiar face! I don't know him too well though so it'll be sweet to
get to know him better. Also we got an elder from the phliilpines!
Elder Cayabyab :) thats a fun name. Elder Bird also was made District
leader. I think thats going to be good because he needed a little
change and some more responsibility! He has been in the same area for
basically 16 months! That would be rough! Everything is going good so
far with the transfers.
We had dinner with Sister Minchin and her family this week, she is a
returned missionary form Taiwan. Her Chinese is pretty ok and they have
a Chinese student living with them nameed Ziyi. She is really nice and
were trying to practice the lesson with sister Minchin and we asked
her if she would like to sit in on them and she said sure. Its been
going well and were eating with them again this week! We have a good
friend Aaron who has been coming to church a little bit and is a
really cool guy. We met with him and his friend Lionel this week to
get to know them and their religious back grounds. Aaron has actually
been baptized and has been going to a bunch of different churches to
see what he likes. Also his English is very fluent, I thought he was
from Canada the first time I met him! His friend Lionel is also really
cool but polar opposite of Aaron in the sense that his English is not
very good at all and the only thing he knows about Christians is that
he heard his grandma say amen every once in a while when she would
pray. Wow haha its a little difficult teaching them but I think it
should work out ok in the end.
Chris Is still doing great. He is probably going to get baptized
sometime this month. He has a problem with putting his Chinese name on
the records because he thinks if china gets a hold of that he won't be
able to get a job because of some groups that he is in. We talked to
president about it and he said to tell chris that its totally
confidentialy and there is no way for them to get it. Hopefully it
helps because that was the only thing holding him back. Green tea
might also be a problem but were talking to him about that this week.
He invited us over for dinner and cooked us a super great Chinese
meal! He lives in the basement of a really tiny house and the ceiling
is only like 6 and a half feet tall... it made me a little sad for him
because he is 30 going to school, living in this really cheap place
and I think hoped to be in bigger better places than where he is at.
On the other hand im so excited for him, He has read the bible 3
times, and is almost done with Alma even though he only started 2
weeks ago! How crazy is that! I cant wait for the fullness of the
Gospel to bless his life more and more as he builds his testimony and
shows his faith in Christ!
Yiming our member friend took us out to lunch so that was nice, but he
drank green tea right in front of us so he obviously doesn't have a
very strong testimony of the word of wisdom but I hope he can build
his testimony! Most/all Chinese members struggle with understanding
and keeping a strong testimony even with fellowshippers and
missionaries following up. We are working hard on keeping our members
active but it is pretty hard!
Saturday we had 3 lessons fall through but we also met some new people
at our pingpong activity so it kind worked out.
That's basically all for this week! I hope everybody knows how awesome
they are :)!
Love U GUYS!!
So this is the start of the second week of transfers. Last week we had
a few changes to our district and zone. One of our zone leaders that I
really loved elder Sears got Transferred but thats ok because his
replacement seems just as fun and great! Also Elder Silva a friend
from back home just got moved into the Spanish companionship in our
district! We played little league football together back in the day
and we have a lot of common friends! He is a year younger than me but
weve been out for just about the same amount of time. Its nice to see
a familiar face! I don't know him too well though so it'll be sweet to
get to know him better. Also we got an elder from the phliilpines!
Elder Cayabyab :) thats a fun name. Elder Bird also was made District
leader. I think thats going to be good because he needed a little
change and some more responsibility! He has been in the same area for
basically 16 months! That would be rough! Everything is going good so
far with the transfers.
We had dinner with Sister Minchin and her family this week, she is a
returned missionary form Taiwan. Her Chinese is pretty ok and they have
a Chinese student living with them nameed Ziyi. She is really nice and
were trying to practice the lesson with sister Minchin and we asked
her if she would like to sit in on them and she said sure. Its been
going well and were eating with them again this week! We have a good
friend Aaron who has been coming to church a little bit and is a
really cool guy. We met with him and his friend Lionel this week to
get to know them and their religious back grounds. Aaron has actually
been baptized and has been going to a bunch of different churches to
see what he likes. Also his English is very fluent, I thought he was
from Canada the first time I met him! His friend Lionel is also really
cool but polar opposite of Aaron in the sense that his English is not
very good at all and the only thing he knows about Christians is that
he heard his grandma say amen every once in a while when she would
pray. Wow haha its a little difficult teaching them but I think it
should work out ok in the end.
Chris Is still doing great. He is probably going to get baptized
sometime this month. He has a problem with putting his Chinese name on
the records because he thinks if china gets a hold of that he won't be
able to get a job because of some groups that he is in. We talked to
president about it and he said to tell chris that its totally
confidentialy and there is no way for them to get it. Hopefully it
helps because that was the only thing holding him back. Green tea
might also be a problem but were talking to him about that this week.
He invited us over for dinner and cooked us a super great Chinese
meal! He lives in the basement of a really tiny house and the ceiling
is only like 6 and a half feet tall... it made me a little sad for him
because he is 30 going to school, living in this really cheap place
and I think hoped to be in bigger better places than where he is at.
On the other hand im so excited for him, He has read the bible 3
times, and is almost done with Alma even though he only started 2
weeks ago! How crazy is that! I cant wait for the fullness of the
Gospel to bless his life more and more as he builds his testimony and
shows his faith in Christ!
Yiming our member friend took us out to lunch so that was nice, but he
drank green tea right in front of us so he obviously doesn't have a
very strong testimony of the word of wisdom but I hope he can build
his testimony! Most/all Chinese members struggle with understanding
and keeping a strong testimony even with fellowshippers and
missionaries following up. We are working hard on keeping our members
active but it is pretty hard!
Saturday we had 3 lessons fall through but we also met some new people
at our pingpong activity so it kind worked out.
That's basically all for this week! I hope everybody knows how awesome
they are :)!
Love U GUYS!!
January 26, 2015
> We actually didnt have too many weird things happen last week.
>
> We met with our Investigator Chris this week after English class and
> he seems to be moving a long really well, he will most likely be
> baptized sometime in February and we also picked up a few new
> investigators over the last week that are progressing pretty well.
> Chris's main concern is that he is part of a Daoism group that helps
> him to get better jobs and/or promotions back in China and if they
> found out that he was baptized then they would take his name off of
> the list. It doesnt sound like that big of a deal to me but to him it
> is a big problem. We talked about how all of that is personal
> information and people can't just access it. He said that if he can put
> his English name then he will Gladly be baptized but the more we
> talked with other people it seemed like that isnt ok to do. We are
> going to talk to President Manion to see what would be the best thing
> to do.
>
> Also we met a guy names Aaron, he just showed up to English class with
> our friend Lionel. His English is already pretty amazing but he likes
> coming and seeing us. He has come to church the last two weeks and we
> are meeting with him this week. At church the speakers were talking
> about family history and temple work and he was kind of confused so i
> explained that we do temple work for the dead. I was worried at first
> because even though i tried to explain it to him with some tact it is
> still a pretty weird thing to hear for your first time. But as I
> explained it he kept saying how much sense that makes. He really asks
> the perfect questions that were leading to things we teach in our
> lessons so we set up a date to meet. I really think that he will move
> along really quickly. He is a great guy.
>
> A lady also brought a girl named Jessica to church with here to meet
> us. Her English is also really awesome but everyone needs to hear the
> gospel in their own native tongue. She isnt in our area though so we
> passed her off to the Elders in River bend area. They dont have very
> many investigators so its great when we can pass of a few
> investigators to them every once in a while.
>
> We did a booth called 21 tips for better grades at the University of
> Alberta and that went really well. We went on splits with the zone
> leaders so that we could have a chinese speaker at the booth the whole
> time. Elder Bird went with Elder Monks and I was with Elder Sears.
> Side note: we have like the best zone leaders in the mission, they're
> super great guys. Anyway Elder Sears and I did our studies and a few
> things together. It was nice to take a look at how other missionaries
> do their day to day tasks because i only have my experience with Elder
> Bird. We then went and got some lunch. We tried this thing called a
> "tombstone" Its a huge donair (kind of like a gyro) with poutine
> (french fries with gravy and cheese curd) in it! it was sooo good. But
> definitely not very good for you. Elder Sears and i split it since its
> so huge. I think ill try to eat a whole one some day :). So then went
> to go to take our turn at the booth. It was going great and we were
> talking to a ton of people. I just tried to say hello or hows your day
> going to everyone that walked passed. If someone stopped then we would
> tell them about our 21 tips for better grades and also our English
> class if they or some of their friends were interested. We got a whole
> bunch of English class sign ups but then this lady from the U of A
> came down and started getting really mad at us because we were
> "Soliciting" we had read the rules but she went back through and
> highlighted the No Soliciting section... it was pretty ridiculous. She
> told us that we had to sit behind the booth and we could even say hi
> to people..... If i wasnt a missionary i really would have just given
> it to her straight and probably went and talked to her supervisor. but
> we just listened to her and tried to gather as much information as we
> could and then said that we were sorry and wouldnt do it again. So we
> sat down and it was a complete waste of time after that. No one wants
> to just walk up and talk to us, especially chinese people! So
> hopefully we can get that figured out before next time since that
> booth is usually one of our greatest finding tools.
>
> In Canada they have speeding traps that just take pictures of your
> license plate if they catch you speeding. They are literally
> everywhere in Edmonton. It makes it even harder since all of the
> speeds are way slower than what they would be in the states. The main
> road we live on is only 50 k an hour which is about 30 miles per hour.
> Elder bird got flashed the other day for going 60 in a 50. He cant
> drive for a little bit so im going to be driving the whole time now.
> Its ok because i need to get to know the area better so that i can
> actually get some places without a GPS.
>
> Today Elder Bird got called as the new District Leader so thats gonna
> be pretty fun. Our district consists of one companionship of Spanish,
> Tagalog, and Mandarin Elders. Its pretty sweet being an all language
> district. Elder Silva ( a friend from little league football, he lived
> in Clearfield) is joining our district and he is going from an English
> missionary to Spanish so thats pretty sweet, I heard that his spanish
> is already pretty good though.
>
> Last thing, I started reading one random verse right before i got to
> sleep and right after i wake up. sometimes its a random dumb one that
> doesnt make any sense out of context, but sometimes i get a sweet one
> that is really applicable to me. Either way it helps me to start and
> end my day off really well. I like it a lot!
>
> Heres a normal day with Elder bird :)
>
> Elder Garver and I like a week ago
>
> and i also got a haircut the other day!
>
> We met with our Investigator Chris this week after English class and
> he seems to be moving a long really well, he will most likely be
> baptized sometime in February and we also picked up a few new
> investigators over the last week that are progressing pretty well.
> Chris's main concern is that he is part of a Daoism group that helps
> him to get better jobs and/or promotions back in China and if they
> found out that he was baptized then they would take his name off of
> the list. It doesnt sound like that big of a deal to me but to him it
> is a big problem. We talked about how all of that is personal
> information and people can't just access it. He said that if he can put
> his English name then he will Gladly be baptized but the more we
> talked with other people it seemed like that isnt ok to do. We are
> going to talk to President Manion to see what would be the best thing
> to do.
>
> Also we met a guy names Aaron, he just showed up to English class with
> our friend Lionel. His English is already pretty amazing but he likes
> coming and seeing us. He has come to church the last two weeks and we
> are meeting with him this week. At church the speakers were talking
> about family history and temple work and he was kind of confused so i
> explained that we do temple work for the dead. I was worried at first
> because even though i tried to explain it to him with some tact it is
> still a pretty weird thing to hear for your first time. But as I
> explained it he kept saying how much sense that makes. He really asks
> the perfect questions that were leading to things we teach in our
> lessons so we set up a date to meet. I really think that he will move
> along really quickly. He is a great guy.
>
> A lady also brought a girl named Jessica to church with here to meet
> us. Her English is also really awesome but everyone needs to hear the
> gospel in their own native tongue. She isnt in our area though so we
> passed her off to the Elders in River bend area. They dont have very
> many investigators so its great when we can pass of a few
> investigators to them every once in a while.
>
> We did a booth called 21 tips for better grades at the University of
> Alberta and that went really well. We went on splits with the zone
> leaders so that we could have a chinese speaker at the booth the whole
> time. Elder Bird went with Elder Monks and I was with Elder Sears.
> Side note: we have like the best zone leaders in the mission, they're
> super great guys. Anyway Elder Sears and I did our studies and a few
> things together. It was nice to take a look at how other missionaries
> do their day to day tasks because i only have my experience with Elder
> Bird. We then went and got some lunch. We tried this thing called a
> "tombstone" Its a huge donair (kind of like a gyro) with poutine
> (french fries with gravy and cheese curd) in it! it was sooo good. But
> definitely not very good for you. Elder Sears and i split it since its
> so huge. I think ill try to eat a whole one some day :). So then went
> to go to take our turn at the booth. It was going great and we were
> talking to a ton of people. I just tried to say hello or hows your day
> going to everyone that walked passed. If someone stopped then we would
> tell them about our 21 tips for better grades and also our English
> class if they or some of their friends were interested. We got a whole
> bunch of English class sign ups but then this lady from the U of A
> came down and started getting really mad at us because we were
> "Soliciting" we had read the rules but she went back through and
> highlighted the No Soliciting section... it was pretty ridiculous. She
> told us that we had to sit behind the booth and we could even say hi
> to people..... If i wasnt a missionary i really would have just given
> it to her straight and probably went and talked to her supervisor. but
> we just listened to her and tried to gather as much information as we
> could and then said that we were sorry and wouldnt do it again. So we
> sat down and it was a complete waste of time after that. No one wants
> to just walk up and talk to us, especially chinese people! So
> hopefully we can get that figured out before next time since that
> booth is usually one of our greatest finding tools.
>
> In Canada they have speeding traps that just take pictures of your
> license plate if they catch you speeding. They are literally
> everywhere in Edmonton. It makes it even harder since all of the
> speeds are way slower than what they would be in the states. The main
> road we live on is only 50 k an hour which is about 30 miles per hour.
> Elder bird got flashed the other day for going 60 in a 50. He cant
> drive for a little bit so im going to be driving the whole time now.
> Its ok because i need to get to know the area better so that i can
> actually get some places without a GPS.
>
> Today Elder Bird got called as the new District Leader so thats gonna
> be pretty fun. Our district consists of one companionship of Spanish,
> Tagalog, and Mandarin Elders. Its pretty sweet being an all language
> district. Elder Silva ( a friend from little league football, he lived
> in Clearfield) is joining our district and he is going from an English
> missionary to Spanish so thats pretty sweet, I heard that his spanish
> is already pretty good though.
>
> Last thing, I started reading one random verse right before i got to
> sleep and right after i wake up. sometimes its a random dumb one that
> doesnt make any sense out of context, but sometimes i get a sweet one
> that is really applicable to me. Either way it helps me to start and
> end my day off really well. I like it a lot!
>
> Heres a normal day with Elder bird :)
>
> Elder Garver and I like a week ago
>
> and i also got a haircut the other day!
January 19, 2015
This week was pretty dang busy, it was packed full of meetings and
lots of fun new things.
We got our recent convert named Lincoln a present since Wednesday was
his birthday and we saw him a few times this week and were able to go
out to dinner with him. He is soooo much help in our lessons. He comes
to at least 2 or 3 lessons a week and is really essential. Because
there aren't many Chinese members its hard to convince people that
this isn't like an all white thing, or sometimes its just that they
are more comfortable speaking to someone who isn't a missionary. He is
still learning a lot of things himself but his simple testimony is so
powerful. Sometimes in lessons we ask him a to tell his experience with
prayer or what the spirit world is to him or something and it takes
him a while to get all of his thoughts together. But every single time
he helps the investigator feel the spirit and helps them to understand
that he was in their shoes once, its the best. He is sooo important
and im so grateful for him.
We had a Language meeting where we found out that we are getting a new
missionary from china in the next few transfers. He lived in Canada
for a while and can speak Cantonese and Mandarin. He is going to be a
great asset! It had my comp Elder Bird on his toes though because now
he thinks either him or another one of the older missionaries is going
to be made zone leader and is going to have to give up mandarin for a
time.. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens this next
week. This is the last week of my first Transfer :)! its crazy that
I've already been in the field a month and a half! I think im actually
already around my 4 or 5 month mark with the MTC and everything.
That's super weird.
At the language meeting we always stand up and tell a miracle that
happened and these sisters in Garneua stood up and told a story about
how they met this Chinese girl outside of their area that they are
teaching and stuff.... there are 2 problems there, OUTSIDE of their
area AND SHE IS CHINESE!!!!!! holy cow that's what we call poaching
around here. So we ended up meeting with the sisters and shan shan and
had a good lesson. We're going to be taking over teaching her from now
on.. and turns out theyre teaching a whole mandarin family.. they said
they want to be taught in English and my comp turned to them and said
oh that's great I'm fluent in English we are gonna have a great time
teaching them. hahah I laughed my head off later. The sisters just
don't understand that even if they want to be taught in English some
words don't translate and it can be very confusing on certain
subjects.. Im still new at it but Elder bird thinks like a Chinese
person now and he knows exactly what to say.
We also taught our investigator Nick du who brought his girlfriend
Windy and that went really well. They're fellowshipper bore sweet
testimony of how he found the Book of Mormon to be true. Also we had
help from another missionary Elder Liu who is from Taiwan. He knows
nick really well and it went great!! This week we were really trying
to find some new investigators and although contacting didn't really
work we got two new investigators through other means! How crazy is
that! and hopefully we will start teaching that Chinese family soon.
We went to dinner with some great members the other night, Tyler
Bennett who was lincolns fellowshipper and is a returned missionary
that is a ton of help to us! Aaron and Lincoln were also there and
they are all great guys.
This week our activities were great our English classes were pretty
packed and we were able to give other areas a few new investigators
from it. Also were doing a thing now called 21 tips for better grades
to help all of the college students in the area. Apparently the church
did it in Texas and it was really successful. I think it will be yet
another asset to use to meet new people.
This week was great and busy. It showed me that if you make goals and
do your part to try and accomplish those goals.. God through other
means may bless you with exactly what you need even if your own
efforts are futile. we shared 1 nephi 17:36 with 4 members that we
visited last night and talked about how we all of these wildernesses
that we have to go through in order to reach our own personal promised
land. But God will give us a light, just like he gave nephi and his
family the liahona. This week seek to see what your light is and
humble yourself to use that light to guide you :).
Love you everyone! have a great week!
-Elder Ostler
lots of fun new things.
We got our recent convert named Lincoln a present since Wednesday was
his birthday and we saw him a few times this week and were able to go
out to dinner with him. He is soooo much help in our lessons. He comes
to at least 2 or 3 lessons a week and is really essential. Because
there aren't many Chinese members its hard to convince people that
this isn't like an all white thing, or sometimes its just that they
are more comfortable speaking to someone who isn't a missionary. He is
still learning a lot of things himself but his simple testimony is so
powerful. Sometimes in lessons we ask him a to tell his experience with
prayer or what the spirit world is to him or something and it takes
him a while to get all of his thoughts together. But every single time
he helps the investigator feel the spirit and helps them to understand
that he was in their shoes once, its the best. He is sooo important
and im so grateful for him.
We had a Language meeting where we found out that we are getting a new
missionary from china in the next few transfers. He lived in Canada
for a while and can speak Cantonese and Mandarin. He is going to be a
great asset! It had my comp Elder Bird on his toes though because now
he thinks either him or another one of the older missionaries is going
to be made zone leader and is going to have to give up mandarin for a
time.. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens this next
week. This is the last week of my first Transfer :)! its crazy that
I've already been in the field a month and a half! I think im actually
already around my 4 or 5 month mark with the MTC and everything.
That's super weird.
At the language meeting we always stand up and tell a miracle that
happened and these sisters in Garneua stood up and told a story about
how they met this Chinese girl outside of their area that they are
teaching and stuff.... there are 2 problems there, OUTSIDE of their
area AND SHE IS CHINESE!!!!!! holy cow that's what we call poaching
around here. So we ended up meeting with the sisters and shan shan and
had a good lesson. We're going to be taking over teaching her from now
on.. and turns out theyre teaching a whole mandarin family.. they said
they want to be taught in English and my comp turned to them and said
oh that's great I'm fluent in English we are gonna have a great time
teaching them. hahah I laughed my head off later. The sisters just
don't understand that even if they want to be taught in English some
words don't translate and it can be very confusing on certain
subjects.. Im still new at it but Elder bird thinks like a Chinese
person now and he knows exactly what to say.
We also taught our investigator Nick du who brought his girlfriend
Windy and that went really well. They're fellowshipper bore sweet
testimony of how he found the Book of Mormon to be true. Also we had
help from another missionary Elder Liu who is from Taiwan. He knows
nick really well and it went great!! This week we were really trying
to find some new investigators and although contacting didn't really
work we got two new investigators through other means! How crazy is
that! and hopefully we will start teaching that Chinese family soon.
We went to dinner with some great members the other night, Tyler
Bennett who was lincolns fellowshipper and is a returned missionary
that is a ton of help to us! Aaron and Lincoln were also there and
they are all great guys.
This week our activities were great our English classes were pretty
packed and we were able to give other areas a few new investigators
from it. Also were doing a thing now called 21 tips for better grades
to help all of the college students in the area. Apparently the church
did it in Texas and it was really successful. I think it will be yet
another asset to use to meet new people.
This week was great and busy. It showed me that if you make goals and
do your part to try and accomplish those goals.. God through other
means may bless you with exactly what you need even if your own
efforts are futile. we shared 1 nephi 17:36 with 4 members that we
visited last night and talked about how we all of these wildernesses
that we have to go through in order to reach our own personal promised
land. But God will give us a light, just like he gave nephi and his
family the liahona. This week seek to see what your light is and
humble yourself to use that light to guide you :).
Love you everyone! have a great week!
-Elder Ostler
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
January 13, 2015
This week was the craziest week ever! We were super low on food and out of money last month so last Preparation day we decided to go out Costco and load up! We bought so much food! The only bad part is we're like sick of all of it now haha.. we still have about 2 months of most of the food left to eat though... oh well. Then we Met with our investigator Sean and shared Elder Bednars Patterns of Light videos with him and he really like it. He seems to still be progressing. Tuesday was when things got really weird! We went to lunch with a member and she told us to meet her at a Japanese restaurant at 12:30 and she didn't get there till 1:15 or later and that was a pretty big waste of time but we ate lunch and caught up since she had been in china for the last month. She is super rich and has like 4 houses in china. Were trying to get her to come to church more but it kinda seemed like a lost cause. She is still living a good life but just wont come to church. That's something that seems particularly hard with Chinese people, getting them to give up 3 hours on sunday to come and listen to a bunch of people talk about the gospel. Especially since its in English.
We also traded our car for bus passes for the day and that helped a lot with contacting. We got onto the LRT and talked to tons of people! This is the really crazy part... So just before we were going to get off A TON of people got on the train. There was literally no room for anyone else on the train.. and i was on the wrong side of this giant crowd and my stop was coming up. I was talking to a member sitting next to me when we pulled up to our stop. I said goodbye and told her goodluck because her son is serving in eastern Canada. I started shuffling through the crowd and when i was about half way through all of these people more people stepped on and then the doors started closing!!! I wiggled my way as fast as i could and reached out my arm to stop the doors from closing. Literally an inch before my hand could reach far enough to stop the doors, they shut... I pushed the button to open them again but they would open. The Conductor came over the intercome and said step away we have to pull away right now, everyone step away we have to pull away right now there's another train behind us. My moral dropped... There was no way i was getting off and as soon as we started to pull away I saw Elder Bird had gotten off, we made eye contact and he said "Ill stay here". Just then a guy next to me said "you can be on splits with me". That made me feel a lot better. So i rode the train for a while and talked to this guy not thinking much of it. A few stops went by and since we only ever ride the LRT up and down and never ever get off it didn't even cross my mind to get off and get on a train going back the other way...... at least it didn't cross my mind until we were on our way to the very last stop at the end of the line... Im an idiot.. haha Everyone got off the train since its the last stop and it was really weird.. long story short i got back to Elder bird and we ended up being separated for about 25 minutes. We got back together and just laughed it off... I didn't think that was going to happen again any time soon but it almost happened again yesterday!! luckily this time i got off haha.. i guess weve got to be careful on the LRT!
Also a native told us to stick our bible somewhere it doesn't belong.. lots of drunk and high people on the LRT but there are also lots of Chinese people so its worth it. We had dinner with another member and she cooked us Gyros and Cheese cake. It was super good. The rest of our week wasn't too crazy. We had a few good lessons, a Zone Training Meeting where we got trained on facebook and how we use it. Im making a new one so if you could help me connect with old friends or anyone that might be interested in the gospel that would be great. We have an hour a day to use it but its really ineffective if we use it that long..
I got to see Elder Garver again at this ZTM and it is like a flash back to home everytime i see him! We always just say "dang, we are in Canada right now!" Im sure its even weirder for him since hes been out for like 18 months now! Elder Birds birthday was on the 10th and we went out to eat a lot this week because all of the members wanted to take him out for a treat. We went and got hotpots with yiming. Its a really fancy Chinese food where everyone has their own boiling water pot built into the table of really weird not edible things like roots, mushrooms, various parts of animals, fruits, and vegetables that you boil meat or vegetables in and they absorb the flavor. It was soooo good!! we ate a ton! They also have a bunch of weird things that we ate. Fish stomach, cow stomach, goat/lamb, chicken hearts, fish tofu, fish balls, squid, a bunch of weird mushrooms, and a bunch of regular meats and veges too. I am getting super used to weird Chinese food and everything tasted really good! i also had some whole deepfried fish today. We also had Dimsum yesterday and that was super great! The food here is pretty awesome but everything is super expensive. hotpots for 3 people was $100 dollars.. luckily the members paid for us.
Overall it was a great week, im learning a lot from the Book of Mormon and reading it everyday. We are working hard but during your mission ive come to find that even with a lot of hard work results are few and far between. At least that's what it seams like.. I know im making a difference in my life and hopefuly in others.. it just is very hard to see. But i know that when i look back at my mission life in 2 years i will be able to see how far ive come and how far others have come in their journeys in developing faith in our savior. You don't always see results but if you are working hard I know the lord will bless you. Even if it takes a while for us to notice how much he has changed our lives. We also had the great opportunity to go to the Temple today. Sooo great. I love the spirit there and being able to see our mission president. I hope all of your weeks are great and know that i really do love all of you and each of you have helped me in my journey to this point of my life in lots of different ways and all of you are invaluable! Love you! be safe -Elder Ostler
Monday, January 5, 2015
January 5, 2015
Happy new years! 2015 is here and thats super crazy. its weird that i
> graduated in 2013 and its been almost 2 full years since i
> graduated... crazy.
>
> This week was pretty great, we had to shovel a few times out in the
> freezing cold but if you cover up -40 isnt too bad. but if you dont
> cover up your skin can freeze in 5 minutes! Canadians honestly could
> care less that its getting cold. most of them are used to it and just
> carry on their days as usual just with more clothes on.
>
> We met with a few less actives this week, retention is really hard
> right now for the chinese people that we are teaching because there is
> no chinese ward. We are working on getting a Mandarin gospel
> Principles class started so that we can atleast have an hour of church
> devoted to helpilng them get to know the gospel and how important
> church is in a language that they can understand everything youre
> saying. Most of our investigators only understand about half of what
> is going on in sacramanet meeting so that is hard but the young adults
> are really good at being nice and fellowshipping. probably because
> most of them have been missionaries and understand how importnat that
> part of the conversion process really is. This sunday we made a huge
> mistake but im kinda just laughing it off now.. the past two weeks
> church has been at 10 because there were only a few wards meeting
> since most people went home for new years and Christmas. So when we
> invited people to church we told all of them that church started at
> 10... it would have been fine if we could have just gone to the 9
> oclcock sacrament or even an 11 oclock but the 9 oclock was just about
> over and there was no 11 so we had to tell everyone to go back and
> then to try to come back at 1. only like half of them actually did
> though.. were working on strengthening our Mandarin members so that
> theyre at all of the church activites and meetings so that our
> Investigators will have more friends and feel more accepted.
>
> On new years we had to be in 6 just to be safe in case someone was
> drinking and driving. we had a little party and had some snacks but we
> have like 0 food in our appartment right now.. were going to costco
> today to stock up! Anyway New years wasnt all that special but it does
> make for an easy contacting subject to break the ice with. This week
> we road the LRT (subway system) around for a bit and thats a quick way
> to just talk to people and ask them how there new years is going. we
> met quite a few chinese people and some people from all over the
> world. When youre on the LRT you also come in contact with some people
> that arent quite as friendly.. this week there was a guy who was on
> something and was rolling around on the seats and jumping around
> mumbling something about us having on "Tabernacle of Jesus Christ"
> T-shirts on... it was pretty weird.
>
> Our investigators are doing pretty good most all of them are
> progressing its just difficult for most chinese people to commit to
> something like this.. especially since it definitely seems like a
> "white person" church when we bring them to activities and or
> sacrament. Chris (Li ming yang) is probably our most solid
> investigator right now and i think that he really will be baptized. he
> believes in Christ keeps our commitments. He even brought two of his
> friends to one of our ping pong activites! Another investigator is
> Echo, she knows that this gospel is true but she cannot commit to it
> because Buddhism really helped her. She knows that baptism would help
> her and she wants to follow Jesus Christ. She even said that if she is
> baptized that she would stay strong and be faithful. the problem is
> that she doesnt although she wants to commit one way or the other she
> has a hard time giving up what she loves. we asked her this week to
> live the gospel to the best of her ability and I know that she will
> feel the spirit and hopefully she will be able to commit once she
> knows that living the gospel helps her feel better than her life right
> now. Its difficult but it is also a testimony to me that the only
> thing that truly converts someone unto Christ is the Spirit. If she
> does see a difference in her life i know that she will get baptized
> and that she will be a great member!
>
> I think thats it! hope everyone had a great new years!!
>
> -Love Elder Ostler
> graduated in 2013 and its been almost 2 full years since i
> graduated... crazy.
>
> This week was pretty great, we had to shovel a few times out in the
> freezing cold but if you cover up -40 isnt too bad. but if you dont
> cover up your skin can freeze in 5 minutes! Canadians honestly could
> care less that its getting cold. most of them are used to it and just
> carry on their days as usual just with more clothes on.
>
> We met with a few less actives this week, retention is really hard
> right now for the chinese people that we are teaching because there is
> no chinese ward. We are working on getting a Mandarin gospel
> Principles class started so that we can atleast have an hour of church
> devoted to helpilng them get to know the gospel and how important
> church is in a language that they can understand everything youre
> saying. Most of our investigators only understand about half of what
> is going on in sacramanet meeting so that is hard but the young adults
> are really good at being nice and fellowshipping. probably because
> most of them have been missionaries and understand how importnat that
> part of the conversion process really is. This sunday we made a huge
> mistake but im kinda just laughing it off now.. the past two weeks
> church has been at 10 because there were only a few wards meeting
> since most people went home for new years and Christmas. So when we
> invited people to church we told all of them that church started at
> 10... it would have been fine if we could have just gone to the 9
> oclcock sacrament or even an 11 oclock but the 9 oclock was just about
> over and there was no 11 so we had to tell everyone to go back and
> then to try to come back at 1. only like half of them actually did
> though.. were working on strengthening our Mandarin members so that
> theyre at all of the church activites and meetings so that our
> Investigators will have more friends and feel more accepted.
>
> On new years we had to be in 6 just to be safe in case someone was
> drinking and driving. we had a little party and had some snacks but we
> have like 0 food in our appartment right now.. were going to costco
> today to stock up! Anyway New years wasnt all that special but it does
> make for an easy contacting subject to break the ice with. This week
> we road the LRT (subway system) around for a bit and thats a quick way
> to just talk to people and ask them how there new years is going. we
> met quite a few chinese people and some people from all over the
> world. When youre on the LRT you also come in contact with some people
> that arent quite as friendly.. this week there was a guy who was on
> something and was rolling around on the seats and jumping around
> mumbling something about us having on "Tabernacle of Jesus Christ"
> T-shirts on... it was pretty weird.
>
> Our investigators are doing pretty good most all of them are
> progressing its just difficult for most chinese people to commit to
> something like this.. especially since it definitely seems like a
> "white person" church when we bring them to activities and or
> sacrament. Chris (Li ming yang) is probably our most solid
> investigator right now and i think that he really will be baptized. he
> believes in Christ keeps our commitments. He even brought two of his
> friends to one of our ping pong activites! Another investigator is
> Echo, she knows that this gospel is true but she cannot commit to it
> because Buddhism really helped her. She knows that baptism would help
> her and she wants to follow Jesus Christ. She even said that if she is
> baptized that she would stay strong and be faithful. the problem is
> that she doesnt although she wants to commit one way or the other she
> has a hard time giving up what she loves. we asked her this week to
> live the gospel to the best of her ability and I know that she will
> feel the spirit and hopefully she will be able to commit once she
> knows that living the gospel helps her feel better than her life right
> now. Its difficult but it is also a testimony to me that the only
> thing that truly converts someone unto Christ is the Spirit. If she
> does see a difference in her life i know that she will get baptized
> and that she will be a great member!
>
> I think thats it! hope everyone had a great new years!!
>
> -Love Elder Ostler
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
December 22, 2014
holy cow I made it to Canada Finally! im so excited! this first week
out here has been great! it was rough at first but once I finally got
a little bit caught up on sleep it got a lot better! my first day
proselyting I committed Chris (li min yang) to baptism so that was
awesome. My Chinese is not anywhere near my Trainers but I can usually
hold my own in a conversation and am pretty good at understanding and
teaching in the lessons. Its pretty 30/30/30 between my comp, the
investigator, and I. I really like that.
Its like -1 degrees Celsius everyday up here haha but apparently
that's really warm for this time of year. Its usually in the -30's or
something by now... so its gonna get a lot colder very soon!!!! Its
already too cold to go street contacting. We get most of our
Investigators through activities and English class. We teach English
class every Wednesday and Friday. It goes really great.
Canada is not at all what I expected. There is soooo much diversity
in Edmonton it is unreal! there are people from Isreal, Bangladesh,
ghanna, China, Korea, Japan, Philipines, Europe, Taiwan, Mexico,
Natives, and probably like 20 other cultures that I see every single
day! probably 1/8 or so of the people I see are Chinese. Its seriously
great! A lot of different types of people come to our English class
and its really fun to get to know different cultures.
Being a foreign speaking missionary in a primarily English speaking
area has some great benefits; we get a car all to ourselves and have
no limit to how many kilo's we can drive. most elders have to share a
car and are limited on k's. Because we are not immersed in Chinese we
can also listen to Chinese music in the car and some things like that,
it really helps with my listening skills. We also have close to
quadruple the amount of investigators that other missionaries have.
The church and Chinese people are making leaps and bounds it is great!
My day usually goes like this; wake up, work out, breakfast, study for
4 hours, eat lunch, study some more, go out to a lesson or
activity/prepare for English class, teach a lesson, eat dinner, and go
to the institute building to teach another lesson or have an activity.
It seems like we are no really doing a whole lot to me but our entire
day is full! A mission is not at all what I expected but I love it so
far!
We had a Christmas meeting where we all got a letter from our parents
and a card from the first presidency and watched meet the Mormons
because most of the Elders in the mission haven't seen it yet. There
are about 230 missionaries in the Edmonton Canada Mission, 9 Spanish,
7 taglog, and 9 Chinese. There are a few people that can also speak
their native language to people but their comp is English speaking. We
are some of the few Mandarin Elders but the Church is growing a lot
with Chinese people.
I really love it out here and I love My Companion Elder Bird, He is
amazing at Chinese and has been out for like a year and 4 months, ill
be with him for 3 months while he trains me. I would have gotten out
here a little bit after he did if I had left the MTC last year so its
crazy that his Chinese is already so good! he can talk to anyone about
most anything that comes up. It is really impressive. He is from
Oklahoma and our personalities get a long really well. He has a great
conversion story about how he got in a really bad Motorcycle accident
and is lucky to even be alive let alone walk and be totally normal.
While he was in the Hospital a general authority came to see him and
once he heard his story he told him that the lord had spared him in
order for him to serve a mission. I am so grateful that he did
everything he needed to do to get out here! He is a great man and
companion. Ill send you pictures of his leg next week if I have time.
I love serving the Lord, Especially during the Christmas Season. I
hope that all of us can feel Christs love and understand the magnitude
of his gift for us. It is amazing. I know we can all give a little bit
more to Christ. Whether that be serving others and helping out others
in ways that they cannot help themselves, or recommitting to serving
the lord and having complete faith in him. I am trying to work on both
of those and I know that Christ will help me achieve those goals if I
really put my mind to it.
I wish everyone a very very Merry Christmas, a Happy New year, and a
happy birthday to a few of ya!
Love,
-Elder Ostler
I also got to talk to Elder Garver for a few hours and it was great to
catch up and see him. Its crazy that we ended up in the same mission.
It took a lot to get us both here but we are here now and both loving
life! :) He is my best friend!
Monday, December 15, 2014
December 15, 2014
Hi!!! so this week i have like no time since I have to pack up everything and get
ready for Canada TOMORROW! I loved the letters I received form both
bishop and the Primary. I am so grateful that everyone is so loving. So thank
you Canterbury park ward.
Since I don't have much time i just wanted to leave everyone with a quick
spiritual message. Elder Bednar gave a talk called Characters of Christ a few
years ago on Christmas in the MTC and it is life changing. I have seen it
several times now and i always get something new from it each time I watch it.
It is about some of the amazing attributes that Christ had even in dire
circumstances. When he was being crucified he forgives the soldiers, does
missionary work to the thieves on the crosses next to him, and makes sure that
his mother is being taken care of. When we are in the depths of misery and
suffering we turn in. Even when something very small happens to us we are
selfish and only worry about ourselves. This is something that we can all work
on. The fastest way to get out of the pits of misery and endless woe is to turn
out and serve others. I would invite everyone to find a way to worry about
themselves a little less and care for those around them. Also please watch this
talk if you have a chance. It will change your life
I hope all is well! wish me luck in Canada!
Merry Christmas :)
Love,
Elder Ostler
December 8, 2014
It is insane that I have already been in the MTC
for almost an entire month. I don't know where the time goes. I am still really
ready to get out of here in exactly one week! I leave the 16th at like 3:30 in
the morning!! I am not looking forward to getting up that early but at least my
flight is only like 5 hours, some of the elders in my district are going to
Singapore and their flight is like 25 hours haha.... ridiculous!
quick recap since I have been so bad about emailing;
Thanksgiving was sweet! Elder Bednar came and gave us some amazing advice
about preparing and answered a bunch of missionaries questions.
I seriously have a tender mercy every week now if not everyday that
testifies to me that I am supposed to be here in the MTC right now and in Canada
very soon. I know that the Lord has prepared me to be ready for my district in
the MTC and helping them as well as preparing my friends and Investigators! It is
so surreal every time something happens but I just try to let it strengthen
me!
Vocal point came to one of our sunday night devotionals. If you didn't know
who they were like me, they are an acapella group from BYU and they were amazing!
look up some of their videos if you have the chance!
I got called as the new district leader last week and I am really working on
being a good leader for my district and trying to help them out. We had a sweet
lesson from one of our teachers that talked all about overcoming our personal
weaknesses and it applied to some of the problems that we were having as a
district. It all led back to the talked titled "Lord, is it I?" its doctrine is
so true and I love the story. Instead of us working on trying to change others
to become better we need to see what we can do better and we can all be edified!
read it for yourself if you can.
Also watch the "Gift" video on LDS.org. its amazing. Christ is the gift and
we call all discover the gift, embrace the gift, share the gift. CHRIST IS THE
GIFT! One thing I love about being on a mission during Christmas time especially
in the MTC is the fact that Christmas is soooo much more centered around Christ
and his many gifts to us. what can we give to him this Christmas?
One of our teachers just got home from her mission in Taiwan about 3 months
ago and has been having a lot of hard decisions come up lately and we did a
sweet activity where we prayed and tried to receive revelation for her just like
we would an investigator. I kind of just sat back and then like a half hour into
it I felt prompted to ask her how long she thought she needed to prepare in
order to be ready to make a decision for her several problems. She was kind of
confused so I said it again and she wasn't getting it so I read one of my
favorite scriptures Matt 16:25. I Felt the spirit sooo strong and just told her
that I know that she doesn't need any time to prepare. She is ready right now.
She had spent the last 1.5 years serving others and losing herself in the work
and through losing herself God helped her truly find herself. He had been
shaping her and preparing her for over a year. She felt the spirit super strong
and so did I. We both couldn't help but getting emotional. I am so glad that I can
truly help people. Even if that person is just my Chinese teacher :)
Not much else going on here just trying to work really hard so that i can
kind of understand people when I get to Canada.Â
I wish everyone a great Christmas Season :). Remember the real reason why
we have it and spread some love whenever you can!
Love you everyone!!Â
-Elder Ostler
November 24, 2014
My week went by super fast, only 3 more weeks and I should be out
of here. The language is coming and I am learning more and more and remembering
more things that I had forgotten everyday!! I keep working on helping people feel the spirit and finding ways so
that I can invite the spirit. I know that is the most important part, the only
thing that will make a person want to change is feeling the spirit.
I miss you guys too! I was more prepared
this time but its just weird not seeing Bridger play video games all day, dad
at home working and Katelynn running in and out of the house. I just miss
talking to you guys and all of the little things.
Have a happy thanksgiving!! ours will be the same as last years, big lunch,
service, and then sack dinners. its actually really fun.
Katie,
I know its super hard to pic what you want to do for the
rest of your life when you still feel like a kid and cant even pick what you
want to have for lunch... but one thing that i know is that i have recieved many
answers to my prayers and if you really want to know what you should do or where
to apply to and everything pray all the time for it!! read your scriptrues and i
know that you will make the best choices.
I love you all and miss you guys everyday. I showed everyone our family
pictures of us tubing down the snake and they loved it! Â have a great
thanksgiving and be sure to tell everyone hi for me on thanksgiving. best of
wishes to all of our family!
Love,
-Elder Ostler
November 17, 2014
My companions name is Elder Stevens. He is really nice and quite the character. He kind of reminds me of a grown up version of Royce, looks and all. I will have to
send a picture soon. He is going to Burmingham, England speaking Chinese! and the
rest of my district is going to Taiwan or Singapore. I like them a lot. Its
crazy how many of the pass downs that we started or had are still going! A whole
bunch of stuff has my name on it and its pretty cool that it has lasted this
long. My old branch presidency also recognized me and gave me a huge hug they
are really nice and I was surprised they still remembered me! Also my old
teacher and some old gold tag investigators. I really think there was a reason I
had to come home when I did and that I had to wait until now to go back out. Too
many things happened at home that I was able to help others and too many things
have already happened in the MTC that I keep getting the feeling it was all
meant to be. For example my companion could not stand his old one and he tells
me everyday he loves me and that he is soooo glad I am his companion. A gold tag
investigator that we spent a lot of time with sat me down and talked to me about
how my district "saved her life" and that we reallly did make a difference for
her and that she loved us and thinks about us all the time. I know it was meant
to be. Hope all is well back home. just know that I am
loving it and working hard!!
November 10, 2014
After being home for almost a year I am glad to report that I made it to
the MTC and met up with my zone leaders. I havent met my companion yet but that
shouldnt be too long they were just off doing something. I dont have much to say
except that i love you guys! dont have too much fun at home without me! It is
crazy that i made it back to this point in my life and i cant wait to serve and
work hard! I will miss you guys but everything will be great :)! Have mom please
post something on facebook about how grateful i am to everyone for getting me to
this point and wishing them well. I love you guys so much and i will make sure
to have some fun stories for you next week :). be safe and have fun!
but not too much
fun without me ;)
Monday, December 30, 2013
December 29th 2013
This week
Monday, My companion is doing a lot better after resting for a few days.
MONO hits you pretty hard. nothing too big happened, I actually dont like p-days
that much, theres no order to it and that makes it hard.. plus we have a lot of
free time but nothing to do but read and write... but its a great time to get
some studying done.
Tuesday, we went and sang a christmas song to our teacher today and gave
her present to her. She said it made her cry and that she thinks about us all of
the time and how we help her to be happy when she is feeling down. Everyone was
really happy today and our whole district was singing Christmas carols and being
very happy. We got to watch Mr. Krugers Christmas and it was really fun :)
Christmas Day!!!! got to email for a little today and that was nice, I
would almost like just a little time everyday but i could see how it could be
distracting. The Elder who i was helping do the magic show did amazing!! he is
so good and the entire audience stood and clapped for him! it was the best act
of the talent show! My companion also played charlie brown while laying on the
piano bench. He is really good. We helped our friend Gale move the piano like 3
times.. its a pain but i love doing service and she is so nice :)!
Elder Bednar came and spoke to us! they passed out cell phones to everyone
and they could all send in questions to ask him and he would answer them right
then and there. some of the answers were; The atonement has both cleansing and
strengthening power and we need to use both!! Apostles are still subject to
temptations just like we are. (I am understanding more and more that apostles
and even the prophet are just people, but they are called to do more than a
mortal man can, just like me :)). There were a lot more and ill try to send more
in my next letter!
I love all of my Christmas presents, especially my ramen and beef jerky!!
we also got to watch the MOTAB sing their 2012 Christmas presentation. It was a
great day!
Thursday and Friday, Its so weird that the Elders ahead of us are leaving
already!! we only have 2 weeks.. haha so crazy!! it really hit hard this
weekend!
Saturday and Sun, Our TRC went great and so did our lessons, not much to
talk about though. Sunday was awesome and we had a great temple walk with
everyone!
Thats one more week down and 2 to go!! cant wait to get out there!
Love,
Elder Ostler
December 25th Email
thanks dad, I am having a great time here and my Christmas was awesome. I though
of you guys all day and hope you had a great day too :). I dont know what
prepaid card you are talking about i havent received one yet but I think i will
out in the field, Ill forward you the email that I got about a card and you can
see if its the same thing. you can just put the money onto my debit card since
thats what ill be using for my own stuff anyway.
tell everyone thank you so much for all of the gifts! I loved it all,
especially the calendar :), pictures are probably my favorite thing to get! haha
but i dont really have room for the big preach my gospel case in my bag... and
the tie had a stain on it haha, I might try to send a package home with the tie
and the PMG case and stuff because my alarm clock broke the first (I already
have a different one) and my camera will not turn on anymore... im trying to
work on it but I think that its broken. It wont charge anymore and its not the
battery. If you could send me a new camera asap that would be great :), you can
use the money in my account if you want.
Im glad you got to see everyone at all of the Christmas parties and im
hoping they are all doing good. I pray for them all of the time too. tell all of
them that I love them.
only 2 weeks left!! how crazy
I'm always thinking you, love you all and I hope you get my letter soon
:)
Love,
Elder Ostler
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Letter from MTC Teacher
Dear Parents of These Wonderful Elders,
My name is Jordan Bready, I am your sons teacher at the MTC. I served in
the Taiwan Taipei Mission from 2010-2011.
I just had to write you all a quick note and tell you a big THANK YOU for
raising such wonderful, wonderful young men. This district has been such a joy
and blessing to work with. They are all so diligent, obedient, and are working
hard to become powerful teachers and missionaries.
I have never written a parent email before, but I am feeling extremely
grateful for how wonderful these Elders are. You would be so proud of how hard
they are working here at the MTC! I know that there are miracles being prepared
for them in Taiwan and Canada.
Thank you again, and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!
Sincerely,
Sister Bready
12/25/2013
ok so I don't have as much time as I though only 20 minutes right now.. but
I hope all of you back home (mom, dad, Ashley, Katelynn, Bridger, Grandpa
Ostler, and Everybody else!) are doing good. I want you to know that I pray for
you everyday, and I want you all to be proud of me so im working really hard. I
miss you all and wish that I could be with you during this time.. but I have
your picture hanging up on my desk and I think about all of you everyday :).
Plus I know that this is the right thing for me to be doing and I know that it
will bless my life and the life of my family more than we can even imagine. I
hope you are noticing those blessings in your lives because I know that they are
there.
This whole week was awesome! At the same time it was a wake up call because
I only have 3 weeks left and I do not know even close to enough Chinese and Im
still working on getting my general lesson plans together. I know I will never
feel totally prepared but I want to work even harder these next weeks to be able
to be as prepared as possible!!
I don't remember if I told you or not but we did a big huge secret santa
thing for every single mandarin speaker and for our teachers and several other
people!! It was a great feeling and I really loved it. So much joy and happiness
can be brought into someones life from just a small thoughtful gift, maybe it is
only your presence, just being someone to talk to. I know its Christmas, but
there is always more time to improve and the holday season wont be over for a
little while. so I would encourage all of you to try to look for ways that you
can help other people! Make that one of your new years resolutions, to help
atleast one other person a day :)
Love all of you!! hope you get my letter soon!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! Thinking about all of you all of the time! Enjoy your presents!! Im going to open mine later today!! LOVE YOU
Love Elder Landon Lloyd Ostler
p.s. I have a really small part of the Christmas day talent show where Im
helping a fellow magician with some of his tricks :) just thought you might want
to know
12/23/2013
wow, Im really glad that you had such a fun time at the Tribe Family Christmas
party! That was so much fun last year! hahaha I cant even imagine that game of
bum darts.. I miss that stuff! :) but its ok, one of our investigators threw us
a party and she was way awesome!! there was food and gifts and everything, she
is such an awesome lady! The snow down here has been making miss snowboarding..
so you guys better go a whole bunch and take some pictures for me!! Tell Ashley
hey for me since she didnt see me off :).
Thanks for taking good care of grandpa! I really miss him!!! he is such a great guy. Tell Everybody from both sides of the family that I love them and that im thinking about them all of the time :). you can tell justin that sounds great. I havent had too many cool things happen yet so hopefully out in the field it will get a little more exciting :)
Thanks for taking good care of grandpa! I really miss him!!! he is such a great guy. Tell Everybody from both sides of the family that I love them and that im thinking about them all of the time :). you can tell justin that sounds great. I havent had too many cool things happen yet so hopefully out in the field it will get a little more exciting :)
I havent opened my presents yet but I was tempted to! hopefully its not
food.. because we have so much!!! Im so sick of candy haha, but Im excited to
open that stuff:).
Im glad you got the email from my laoshi, she is so awesome and one of the
main reasons that im doing so well :)
I cant call you for christmas but ill be able to email in the morning till
9;30 if i understand correctly, and yes i would love a calling card :). I dont
have my flight plans yet but it should be in the upcoming weeks!
Love you everyone! and I really hope all of you have a great christmas!!
:)\
Nothing too big happened this week but my email on christmas will be a lot
longer and Ill go into more depth with this past week :)
Merry Christmas!!
Love, Elder Ostler
12/16/2013
Mom,
12/16/2013
Mom,
One of the guys in my district, Elder brady went to viewmont and knows one
of the guys up there right now, His name is Landon Brown. Elder brady said that
he is cool guy and i cant wait to get up there and be able to preach the gospel
with him and all of the other guys! Im glad Gary is doing a good job as the
Bishop, I know he will do a great job, and it probably helps him take his mind
of the world like you said. Sorry about Kohls... I know that its hard but if
anyone can do it I know that you can. You are such a hard worker and a great
example. Just try to remember to have the true spirit of Christmas and to make
people happy, Christmas can be a really hard time for some people and they might
need a little pickmeup. :)
Dad,
I know its crazy that ive already been at the MTC for over a month! and I
have less than that to go. I really am trying to use my time to the best of my
ability because the language is pretty difficult, Especially the grammar. It is
coming so fast though, everyday we try really hard to SYL (speak your language)
and use as much chinese as we know. It helps a lot and we learn a lot from each
other. I probably knew the most Chinese coming into the MTC and I have to catch
myself sometimes to let my companions have a big role in the lessons too.
Everyone is learning very well though and our investigators are progressing very
well!! Everyone learns differently and is good at different things so that
really helps in our lessons having such a wide range of different skills. The
hardest part is probably understanding people, they talk super fast and cut
words short and slur everything together haha... but it is getting easier every
week :). overall the language is going great and I really love it, my teacher is
amazed and really says that we are the best missionaries that she has had and
were progressing the fastest! I asked her several times just to make sure that
she really meant It too. hopefully it snows more soon so that you can get up
there and ski! I really am going to miss that, but no big deal I can in just a
few short years :)
Katelynn,
Thats a pretty cool story, Its important to really get into the spirit of
loving others and not judging anyone, just try to love everyone no matter if you
know them or not. If they have done something bad to you or dont like you then
be even nicer to them. It really will make a difference, some days in highschool
i would wake up an be in a bad mood but i would just force myself to be happy
and nice to everyone. It will make you happier and it will make the people
around you happier. You never know how a friendly smile or just simple hello or
5 second conversation will affect someones day, or even their life! I know it
seems like you cant make a difference.. but you truly can change lives, tell
everyone that I challenge them to make the little things matter and try to have
a positive impact on everyone you see :). If you do that I know that you will
receive blessings in your life and also help others lives. In as much as ye have
done it unto my servants, ye have done it unto me!
Bridger,
Hows the Toe doing? Im sorry that was my going away present to you haha...
but from the sounds of it your doing better and started wrestling again. Keep
working hard everyday, and try to become better everyday! It really will make a
difference, you are way better of a wrestler than I was at your age and I know
that you will do very good if you continue to work hard, listen to the coaches,
push yourself, and wrestle smart, Wrestling isnt about being bigger or stronger,
faster, or even better than the other person. If you wrestle smarter and read
what your opponent is doing you can really beat anyone. Keep working your butt
off, and listen to the older guys, they can help you a ton! Tell everyone I say
hi and good luck. goodluck to you too bridger! love ya
Love you everyone, If you see grandpa tell him that i have had dreams about
grandma and that i pray for him and I know that she is helping me everyday. I
loved his letter haha it still makes me laugh when i read the part where he said
if I could read his letter it should help with learning chinese. He is such a
great guy and one of the best role models in my life! I hope to be just like him
someday.
Keep up the christmas cheer and dont let me down on my challenge :), I
pretty busy and sorry that I dont write more, but I love your letters and
packages and hope you keep them coming :) Those christmas stories are awesome so
far and I really look forward to them everyday!! Its very inspiring and I hope
to make a difference someday just like the first story!
Have a great week
Monday, December 16, 2013
Elder Ostler's email from this week. 12/12/13
Mom,
Mom,
One of the guys in my district, Elder brady went to viewmont and knows one
of the guys up there right now, His name is Landon Brown. Elder brady said that
he is cool guy and i cant wait to get up there and be able to preach the gospel
with him and all of the other guys! Im glad Gary is doing a good job as the
Bishop, I know he will do a great job, and it probably helps him take his mind
of the world like you said. Sorry about Kohls... I know that its hard but if
anyone can do it I know that you can. You are such a hard worker and a great
example. Just try to remember to have the true spirit of Christmas and to make
people happy, Christmas can be a really hard time for some people and they might
need a little pickmeup. :)
Dad,
I know its crazy that ive already been at the MTC for over a month! and I
have less than that to go. I really am trying to use my time to the best of my
ability because the language is pretty difficult, Especially the grammar. It is
coming so fast though, everyday we try really hard to SYL (speak your language)
and use as much chinese as we know. It helps a lot and we learn a lot from each
other. I probably knew the most Chinese coming into the MTC and I have to catch
myself sometimes to let my companions have a big role in the lessons too.
Everyone is learning very well though and our investigators are progressing very
well!! Everyone learns differently and is good at different things so that
really helps in our lessons having such a wide range of different skills. The
hardest part is probably understanding people, they talk super fast and cut
words short and slur everything together haha... but it is getting easier every
week :). overall the language is going great and I really love it, my teacher is
amazed and really says that we are the best missionaries that she has had and
were progressing the fastest! I asked her several times just to make sure that
she really meant It too. hopefully it snows more soon so that you can get up
there and ski! I really am going to miss that, but no big deal I can in just a
few short years :)
Katelynn,
Thats a pretty cool story, Its important to really get into the spirit of
loving others and not judging anyone, just try to love everyone no matter if you
know them or not. If they have done something bad to you or dont like you then
be even nicer to them. It really will make a difference, some days in highschool
i would wake up an be in a bad mood but i would just force myself to be happy
and nice to everyone. It will make you happier and it will make the people
around you happier. You never know how a friendly smile or just simple hello or
5 second conversation will affect someones day, or even their life! I know it
seems like you cant make a difference.. but you truly can change lives, tell
everyone that I challenge them to make the little things matter and try to have
a positive impact on everyone you see :). If you do that I know that you will
receive blessings in your life and also help others lives. In as much as ye have
done it unto my servants, ye have done it unto me!
Bridger,
Hows the Toe doing? Im sorry that was my going away present to you haha...
but from the sounds of it your doing better and started wrestling again. Keep
working hard everyday, and try to become better everyday! It really will make a
difference, you are way better of a wrestler than I was at your age and I know
that you will do very good if you continue to work hard, listen to the coaches,
push yourself, and wrestle smart, Wrestling isnt about being bigger or stronger,
faster, or even better than the other person. If you wrestle smarter and read
what your opponent is doing you can really beat anyone. Keep working your butt
off, and listen to the older guys, they can help you a ton! Tell everyone I say
hi and good luck. goodluck to you too bridger! love ya
Love you everyone, If you see grandpa tell him that i have had dreams about
grandma and that i pray for him and I know that she is helping me everyday. I
loved his letter haha it still makes me laugh when i read the part where he said
if I could read his letter it should help with learning chinese. He is such a
great guy and one of the best role models in my life! I hope to be just like him
someday.
Keep up the christmas cheer and dont let me down on my challenge :), I
pretty busy and sorry that I dont write more, but I love your letters and
packages and hope you keep them coming :) Those christmas stories are awesome so
far and I really look forward to them everyday!! Its very inspiring and I hope
to make a difference someday just like the first story!
Have a great week
Sunday, December 1, 2013
November 24th
Dear Mom,
I did get your letters from "Dear Elder," but I got all of them sometime this week. I really liked hearing from you guys. The package was also great! Try to find a cheaper way to mail things though. Haha all of my shirt necks are getting tight... Even with the extra button thing. I try to exercise a lot, but I just keep gaining weight, around 5 pounds already... and it doesn't seem to be fat :) so that is good. Thanks for the quote, love and miss you :)
Dad, I'm glad you had the missionaries over. They really can help a lot. Everything is still going good here, but it tis hard to stay focused and awake for like 11 hours of class. I'm doing my best though! Our "investigator" committed to baptism! But then it turns out that we have been teaching our new teacher the whole time. "Peggy" is an instructor here that we didn't know about, now she is teaching us and our old teacher is our investigator. Love hearing from you guys! f you can, send a small nerf gun that shoots those blue bullets. Love ya :)
Grandpa Ostler, Haha ya your letter didn't help me learn any Chinese... but I do love hearing from you! I am glad your helping sky with everything, you're a great man! Love ya! and tell sky & Heather & everyone I love them too!
Bridger, you are a dork man! Haha ya I see her and a few other people. Keep doing good stuff you're a great kid and I miss you a ton, don't get too good at x-box while I am gone... haha. See ya soon, love ya!
Katelynn, Thanks for sending me the Dear Elder, I really appreciate it. The food is ok... but not the best. It is usually cold, and lets just say I smell about the same as Bridger most of the time... which isn't good haha... Love Ya! Keep up the good work with everything :)
Ashley, I know you won't get home for a while but I wanted to say that I love you and that you're a great example!
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