I Love This Work

This is me and Chile . . . . we are good friends!

This is me and completo . . . . we are also good friends!

Familia!

Loved the email!  Sounds like you guys are just doing the same old thing you've always done.  Awesome story mom . . love it!!  O, and you can send the stuff to goodwill.

My week was mas o menos.  For a couple days it was just so hot I wanted to die, cause we still have to wear winter clothes cause in the night it gets pretty cold.  So that was no fun. But there are little things that happen every day that make all the walking, the sore legs, and the tired bodies worth it.

For example, I just love listening to the people we teach pray for the first time.  They are usually so nervous, and sometimes they laugh.  But then there is always a moment when they realize that they are talking to their heavenly father, and there is a change in them. Most of the people haven't prayed in months or maybe years, and it is like music to hear them talk to their heavenly father.  Also, I love singing hymns with them too, cause over half the population of Chile is tone deaf and I always have to try so hard not to laugh cause we sound quite terrible.

I haven't gotten any mail, but this week I talked to Sister Essig, and she said the strike is over, so our mail should be coming in little by little. . . yay!

Thanks for the companion advice mom.  I really need it.  Hna Peralta is amazing.

I don't know if you guys remember me ever talking about D*.  She is one of our investigators.  She is AMAZING!!  This week we took her to a member house and while we were walking there I started asking her questions about her life . . . wow . . . her life story is like incredible!  She is 63 right now and has Parkinson's, but she is just so happy and always looks for the good (maybe I can learn something from her). She is the youngest of 21 children!!  All from one mom and one dad. Her mom married her dad when she was 12 years old, and he was 32 .. . crazy!  She had her first child at 12 and her last at 53.  Her dad died when he was 93 and her mom died when she was 103.  They never got divorced or anything.

D* got married when she was 23 and her husband was 32.  They had three kids.  Then her husband died suddenly from diabetes that he didn't know he had at age 37.  She never remarried and raised her three children practically on her own.  INCREDIBLE!!  She said she was born an aunt, and out of the 21 kids, 4 are still living.  As I was talking to her I was just overcome with gratitude.  It's incredible the people you get to meet on the mission. Every single one has something to teach you.

This week I got sick, so I have been kinda miserable.  The work was pretty hard, and we had no one in church.  BUMMER!!  The mission/life is like running a marathon, sometimes it is all you can do to put one foot in front of the other.  That was my week.  But, the second, forth, tenth wind always come.  The hills pass and the way straightens out, and as long as you always keep moving forward then you are doing okay.

So, I only have one cool story for you this week.  So, we have this investigator, she is 65, but seems a lot younger.  She knows the gospel is true, but doesn't want to get baptized. When we teach her, her mom is usually there too.  Yes, her mom is alive, and has 95 year!! She is good of health, but a little cookoo in the mente . ..  jajaja.  We call her Abuelita cause she loves it!  Sometimes she will get to talking and no power on heaven and earth can make her stop, so we just laugh. The other day we went to teach her, and of course la abuelita was there too.  I remember looking at her, and a very strong feeling of love came over me.  I felt an impression that I would see her again in the next life, young and beautiful.

While we were teaching la abuelita fell asleep in her chair . . . hilarious!!  Hna Peralta, touched her arm to wake her up, and she nearly jumped out of her chair.  SO FUNNY!  Hna Peralta asked her if she was dreaming about a tree that had white fruit .  . like Lehi's dream, as a joke.  La Abuelita's answer surprised us all. She said "one time I had a dream about a tree that glowed and it had white fruit."  WHAT?  We asked her if in the dream she tasted the fruit.  She said: "I tried, but I couldn't reach it.  I never found out what it tasted like."

Hna Peralta and I were silent!  I don't know if you have ever watched the movie about the conversion of Wilford Woodruff, but there is a person in the movie who had great influence in the conversion of Wilford, and he had a dream very similar to that of la abuelita, and the interpretation of the dream was that he would come close to finding the restored gospel, but would never taste it in this life!  I remember the impression I had had not 10 minutes before, and I knew that la abuelita would accept the gospel in the next life.  Now is just not her time.  It was a really cool experience.

The mission is really amazing.  It is incredible how you can just love people so much. People that you just meet, or barely even know.  This is the Lords work.  I know it, and I love it.  Every time I teach the gospel and invite people to come unto Christ, I know it even more.  I wouldn't physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhaust myself every single day if I didn't know for sure that this is the church of God.

We get rejected . ..  A LOT!!  If I got a dollar for every time that a door got slammed in my face or for every person that puts there hand up and says "I don't have time, and I'm not interested," I would have a lot more than one dollar.  But none of that matters, because every time I hear someone pray for the first time, and I see that change in them, it's worth it. Every time I see someone lean forward in their chair as they feel the spirit and hunger for more, it's worth it.  Every time someone that we invited, walks through the chapel doors, it's worth it.  It's true, that sometimes the mission is really just putting one foot in front of the other, but once you catch that wind, and you pick up the speed and you can feel the air rushing by, filling your lungs, well ..  there's nothing like it.  I love this work!  

Con Amor, 

Hermana Ostler

Ps.  Hermana Leyva went home on Wednesday :(  I don't know anymore details.  Hermana Essig says that it was super fast.  They found out the problem and she was gone.  Hermana Essig says that she thinks Hermana Leyva will come back, once she gets her ankle all taken care of.