The Field is White: I'm starting to love it

I'm on my way to the Bishops house. We go there every Thursday for lunch. It's out in the
country and so beautiful but we have to cross the highway and a stream to get there.

BLAH . . . . . . BRAZIL!! I´m kinda freaking out right now! That is so so so so so so awesome! Oh Harrison you will be amazing! Portuguese! Wow, I do not envy you. But you can do it! Hopefully your Spanish background will help you. Wow, I just want to sing and dance! That is the greatest news ever! The amazon! Oh you are going to love it!

Jefferson . . . your Spanish is so good! You should come to Chile:) hahaha, well the Spanish here is so different. But I am starting to love it! Some of my favorite things they do are cut the S off the ends of words. Like mas o menos, they say ma o meno. Also they add ´Po to the end of everything! Like for si they say si-po and yo se-po. I just love it! I'm still not fluent and still get frustrated a lot, but I know that eventually my diligence will pay off.

I love the Hawaii picture! Just yesterday I was missing Hawaii so so so so much! Just everything! On Thursday I was missing home a lot. But I'm getting better! I have moments of complete joy! The days are so long, but the weeks fly by. Its Monday again . . . really?

So first I want to tell you about fruit. On Wednesday (my one month anniversary) we saw the fruit of our labors . . literally! So we met this man . . A**. But we call him hombre de uvas. He stopped us as we were going to visit a less active member. He stared talking to us in English . . well a little. He told us that he met the first LDS missionaries that came to Los Andes and he taught them Spanish and they taught him English. It was cool. Then he picked a couple clusters of grapes for us from his vine and we set an appointment to come visit him. Well that appointment was on Wednesday but when we got there he had to leave, so to compensate he gave a huge bag of grapes form his vine. That bag must have weighed 3 plus pounds!

Then at lunch that day, Hermana Reyes sent us with two huge apples for the road, then we found J**, and we taught her and her family the first lesson. They are golden! They were asking questions about Jose Smith and the Book of Mormon and it was just great. During the lesson they brought out a huge plate of honey dew . . so good! Then they sent us with two giant plums and another bag of grapes. We had so much fruit there wasn't room to carry it.

Later, as I was thinking about all the fruit we had received the thought came to my mind [this is the fruit of your labor] we have just been working so hard and not finding anyone to teach, but I think the fruit that day was the Lords way of telling us that its coming. Then later that day we met Is** in the streets. We were stopped on the road, trying to figure out how to get to our next appointment, and she asked us if we needed help. We talked to her for a minute, and she told us she is having a hard time and asked if we had a minute to talk with her. So we went to her house and she told us how she is broke and has no food and how her children will not help her. She told us about her terrible marriage and how when she saw us on the street she was praying that we wouldn't turn the corner until she got to us. It was a great experience. I really hope that we can teach her more and she will accept the gospel.

Also we had a baptism this week! F**. We have never taught him but he had been investigating the church for over a year, and none of the elders that worked with him could get him to commit to a baptism date. Then the week we arrived we met him at church and had plans to go visit him, but then when we were eating with the bishop he told us that F** had called and wanted to be baptized!! It was crazy. The ward kept asking us what we did, and we shrugged our shoulders and said it was the Lord. The baptism was on Saturday and it was so so so great! I love F**. He's just . . . blah I can't really describe him. Basically we would be best friends if I spoke better Spanish. He really is going to be great for the ward.

Also I got to play the piano this week while we were at the chapel a lot preparing for the baptism! Oh it was great. I don't play in church cause my companion plays and she's way better at hymns than me. But F** had me play and he wants to organize a talent show for the ward and he wants me to play. We really want to pull this ward together. They are great people but they are all really old. So we want to organize fun activities that will be appealing to the younger less active families in the ward. So a talent show is perfect. We are also going to start teaching English classes on Saturday]! Whoa!! I'm so excited.

My companion and I are working well together. Sometimes I get frustrated with her. There was one day that I was getting so so so frustrated with her for the stupidest things, and no matter what I tried I could not think of anything good about her. Then the next morning, I was reading in the scriptures, and found this great scripture, basically it made me realize that God loves us all the same, and just because I may do things differently than my companion, it doesn't mean that God loves me more. So that day every time I thought of something bad about my companion I would think of one good thing, remind myself that God loves her the same that he loves me, and then sing a hymn. I'm learning a lot about myself out here.

I've realized that becoming a good missionary isn't about what I do, if I follow the rules or not, it is about what I think. If I can start to think like Christ would think then I will have no desire to break the rule. I will only want to do his will. I guess before my mission I thought I could still somehow hold onto my old life. But I now know that I have to forsake everything for the work. My books, my music . . everything! Sometimes when I would get really frustrated or down I would think about one of my favorite books to make me feel better, and that's not a bad thought, but there is a better thought out there. I realize that I need to be 100 percent focused on the work, and when I am down I need to think of ways I can help others instead of focusing on myself and what I want.

A few more quick things. I got a letter from Amanda! Thanks so much! What you said was exactly what I needed. Also if you could send those shoe squishy things. I forgot them. I left them in the hallway by my room, and whenever you feel like sending me a new skirt go for it! I did not think it was going to be this hot or that I would be riding a bike all day. So a light weight full skirt or two would be great! Also my companion knows Johnny Vance! He was her first zone leader.

Okay, now I'm going to try and send some pictures. Sorry this email isn't that great. I'm just so overwhelmed by the whole Brazil thing! I'm so so so happy for you Harrison. A mission is so hard, but I'm starting to love it. I'm enjoying more and enduring less. Now I just need to work on loving the people and having my only desire be to serve them and invite them unto Christ. I need to stop thinking about what I want, and that I am tired, or hot, or can't speak the language. Cause the moment that I stop thinking about myself and give my problems to the Lord, he will bless me!

Love always

Hermana Ostler