God always has miracles planned for us

Dear Familia!

Mom, you are the best!  Thanks so much for doing my schedule,  Thats a huge stress reliever for me!  About the British class, I know about the prerec, but I took that prerec class in Hawaii and I worked my tail off to get a good grade.  My transcript says that BYU accepts the credit, but only as an elective.  English 251 is like the pre rec for all english major classes . . ugg, I really don’t want to take it again, but what can you do?  Also, Hna Ireland told me about the scuba diving class and I was totally planning on signing up for it! How do you know these things?  Also, the sem class I think will be fun, and even though I don’t need Randy's class, it is an opportunity that can’t be passed up.  He better go easy on me, cause I really wasn’t planning on taking another science class in my life.  But really, you are the best ever!  Now, if you could only find me a job . .jajaja.

So, this change is finally coming to a close, and I am happy about that.  It’s been a difficult change for me for various reasons.  I don’t know if I will be staying in vivaceta.  A part of me wants to stay because I just love the people here, but then again, I don’t know if there is anyone left for me to find here.  If I stay I will start knocking doors for the third time.

The week was slow and yet fast.  Slow because we didn’t teach a lot, or find very many new investigators.  No one came to church, and our investigator pool is slowing shrinking. I think I need to work harder and have more faith that the Lord is preparing people.  And fast because . ..  well just cause every week seems to be going faster and faster.  My mission turned on light speed, and the weeks are just flashing by.

Though the work has been slow, God always has miracles planned for us.  The miracle of the familia Cruz began developing about two months ago when I was with Hermana Perez. We had both been praying that we would find a family to teach to strengthen the ward. One night we were walking down the street and a man who was entering his house called out "Hermanas!"  We went over to talk to him, and found out that he is a less active member who moved into our sector a few days before.  His name is RC and he is from Peru.  He told us that his oldest daughter, G* (16) is a member, but his two youngest sons still weren’t baptized.  His "wife" also is not a member because they aren’t married.  Typical.  He told us that he has been in Chile for 2 years working so that his family could come live with him. At this time his family was still in Peru.  He said that he finally had enough money, and that his family would be traveling to Chile within a month and a half.

Wow, Hna Perez and I were so excited to have a family to work with, even if they wouldn’t be here for a while.  Well, we tried visiting RC a few times, and I even passed by with Hna Peralta, but we never found him again, and eventually the familia Cruz moved to the back of my mind.

Just last week, Hna Peralta and I were out working, and all our plans fell through.  Typical. Hna Peralta asked me what we should do, and I felt we should go knock a street called Central, which was odd, cause the only type of people who live in central are the old type of people who are usually catholics.  But, I followed my feelings and we went to knock doors en central.  Well, we didn’t have a very good reception there.  The people were the busy, rude and door slamming type of old catholic people, and soon Hna Peralta told me that we should go find another street.  But I insisted that we continue knocking until the end of the block.  So we did.  I just felt we should be there.

Then, just as we got to the last few doors, we heard someone call out from the plaza behind us: "Hermanas!"  We turned around and saw a young teenage girl with her mom, and what appeared to be her two little brothers calling to us.  I didn’t recognize them, but we went over to meet them.  They introduced themselves as members of the church, and they said that they had recently moved from Peru about a week ago and wanted to know where the church was.  I was on the brink of answering their question, when suddenly the memory of RC popped to the front of my mind.  "Usteds son la familia de RC Cruz!" I exclaimed. Obviously they were surprised, but confirmed my declaration.  I then explained to them how I had met their dad about two months ago, and how we had been waiting for them to arrive.

Later that week we went to visit them and were warmly welcomed into their house as old friends of the family.  RC is working on his divorce with his ex wife who actually lives here in Santiago.  It is going to take some time, but he is very serious about getting married in the temple.  We are now sharing the missionary discussions with O*, and also helping A* prepare for baptism.  RC and G* came to church yesterday, and the young woman almost attacked her.  It was awesome!  Our next goal is to get the who family to come to church.

It is so amazing how God led us to this family, and I am truly grateful for the opportunity He has given me to be a part of their lives and a part of their journey in becoming an eternal family.

Also, on Saturday we had a rock solid lesson that was in between progressing and danger of being dropped.  But we brought a member and taught her and her son, and it was great!  We invited them to be baptized and they accepted!  But, sadly they didn’t come to church cause they were sleeping, and we didn’t have their number to call them.  So that was a bummer. But next Sunday si o si van a ir.  Ademas, el proximo semana es la conferencia!  Estoy tan tan tan emocionada!

Last Pday we went to the zoo, and that was awesome!  But the zoo is on a hill so we basically were hiking all afternoon, which was fine and actually enjoyable, but it wiped us out for the first few days of the week.

Marty

Alex

Gloria

And Melvin
I found them all.
They escaped form New York, took a vacation in Madacascar,
popped over to Africa, passed through Europe, and ended up in Chile . .jajaja!

The weather is cooling down and it makes the long hours of knocking doors after lunch more bearable.  An Hermana cooked us turkey this week and she put cumin in it!  Oh is was so good and it reminded me of home.  Its been a long time since I’ve eaten something with cumin. I’m teaching Hna Peralta english, and she is now doing all her personal study in english.  Today during companionship study she told me that I gave her animo to do missionary work again.  I don’t think we will be staying together for the next change, and I will honestly miss her.  We are super good friends.

Well, that's all I got.  I love you all.  Thanks for your prayers and your support.  You have officially received the award for the best familia EVER!

Con Amor, 

Hna Ostler

Also, congrats to Wilson por recibir el sacerdocio! Wow, I still can’t believe that he completed twelve years!  I hope your birthday was wonderful!