God sent down fire from the heavens!

Hola familia.  Como anda?

Lesenviaria fotos a ustedes hoy por email, pero voy a mandar una tarjetita lleno de fotos por correo tortuga hoy.  Disfrutenlos!

Hey, it has been a very good week.  Thank you for the personal money card.  Just thanks for everything.  Thanks for life.

El granizado did not reach us, but we got a ton of rain, and yes, it has not been happy for the grapes.  It is really a bummer.  It is everyones fear, and this week it came true.

Dad, I loved the personal supervision comment.  And Mom, that's sweet - young at heart, roller coasters.  What a fantasy.

Let's start with something called The Bautismo de Celina.  She is the most prepared person I have ever baptized.  She actually hungers and thirsts after righteousness.  The baptism was well planned, and well executed.  The mother of Celina, who we’d never met before, showed up at the church an hour before the baptism and dropped off coke and a torta de chocolate!!!  We had a good attendance at the service and it was really spiritual.  My companion performed the saving ordinance of baptism for Celina.  Then after, we partied with torta and facturas (and we got to take home all of the leftover!)  Yesterday she received the Holy Ghost.  She has changed her life, and the Gospel has made her so happy.  Last night we visited her.  She has a brilla in her eyes.  They shine.  It is so cool the cambio that she has experimentado.  Celina is an exceptional daughter of God.

Let’s now go to Leah.  She is the daughter of the reactivated and amazing family Maure.  She noticed a Huge change in her house after we blessed it and the parents started living the Gospel.  She came to church with her parents last week.  The only previous contact I’d had with her was an Argentine kiss on the cheek greeting (I didn’t kiss her, she kissed me and I just stood there in their house feeling violated.  Sometimes they attack with their saludos and they are unavoidable deadly).  Well, she LOVED church last week.  After church, we had a super spiritual lesson with her and put a fecha.  Throughout the week, we passed by twice and wow, she is ready.  One of the lessons, I did most of the talking and it was sumamente amazing.  As I wrapped things up, I bore a testimony and God sent down fire from the heavens.  WOW is all I can say.  It is amazing what the Spirit of the Lord can accomplish  The way it can make us feel.  The change it can root in us.  The evil it can cast out, literally, and the paz and gozo it can bring.  But we are the duenos and must constantly strive to live worthy of it.  WOW.

Leah, accompanied by her wonderful parents, came to church yesterday, in a dress and with most of her piercings sacado.  She wants to change her life so bad and told us, Like King Lamoni, that she will do anything and live any commandment to receive the promised blessings.  Basically, I will give away all my sins to know thee.  We are finding amazing prepared people that want this and that will stay active and receive their propi exaltation.

Then there’s Jorge and Rita!!  They have received their fecha de casamiento, the 11th.  And have accepted their fecha de bautismo, the 12th!  The plan is to marry them on Friday with a huge party at the church, with an asado, funded by the missionaries.  Then, have the greatest baptism of all time, Saturday the 12th of marzo.

Those are the amazing people we have.  Now, the job is to get out in the vineyard (and in all aspects of the word, Rivadavia is a vineyard) (las uvas son ESPECTACULAR!!!!!)  (eaten fresh off the vine without even wiping the dirt off) and find some more ready prepared children of God.  Sometimes that is hard and discouraging, but the paydays are huge.  So, “why not.”  That’s somewhere in the Book of Mormon.  Why not talk and rejoice in the atonement of Christ.  WE CAN DO IT - you can too Amanda.

Speaking of which, I would enjoy a foto or dos of Amanda as a missionary so I can ooz with even more pride when I tell them mi hermana es misionera! in Chicago.  (I think it was the fourth of July).

We had a great long almuerzo Tuesday, where we ate with some new investigators we had.  And then, with my extensive altura, I picked some purple grapes off their parral and we enjoyed those.  Just a side note.  Ate some more morsilla this week.  It was cold, and eaten plain.  Jorge said it was good, so I thought “why not?”  “Why not rejoice in the eating of o so tasty cold blood sausage with Jorge?”

This week we took the colectivo to Junin twice and had some great experiences.  We found an amazing lady way out in the campo.  We will see what happens this week with her.  She got goose bumps as we gave the first lesson and especially as I recited the First Vision.  WOW.  It was really cool.

Also, we visited Hermano Krachu out in Junin.  Just a fine member of the church who, every Sunday (well at least the last 3) puts a sandia and a melon (honeydew) (rush) on the back of his bici and gives the sweet dulce loot to us at church.  He’s got a great set-up in Junin.  We always feast on huge portions of watermelon at his house.  And last night I was consuming handfuls of grapes as we walked through his chacra and vina.

Trying to find a less active family, we stumbled upon a way campo string of houses.  For the first time that I can remember, I heard complete silence.  It was really neat.

Castallano tip.  When speaking, just randomly throw in a que se yo.  They do it all the time here.

Another side note.  I learned about masonry this week.

Okay, just a bunch of side notes.  We had branch conference this week and a TON OF PEOPLE came to church.  And I was way nervous playing the piano because there were 7 big men in suits up on the stand.  Not just 2 or 3.  Everyone came from over an hour away for it.  I opened up the great meeting with Come Come Ye Saints.  I love that hymn.  It’s Hinojosa’s favorite.

We got an enfermito in the pench.  Hyer has strep and pink eye.  We are all trying to survive and stay sano.  So that’s fun.  Bytheway, “somewhereonlyweknow” by Keane is on.  I love it.

TRANSLADOS!!!  Last night my companion and I about pulled our hair out expecting a phone call from President Lindahl telling Arrua he’s training.  And even though Hyer received a call, calling him to zone leader and the other elders faked us out about 5 times, it didn’t come.  So, I now have a great deal of hope of staying another cambio here with my awesome companion.  We find out officially tonight!!!!  We are super anxious and excited.  This is going to be huge.

Well, that is all I got.  Enjoy life, choose the right, and don’t get pink eye.  It kinda makes you look funny.

The grapes here are better than you could ever imagine them.  The watermelon is equal to Grandpas.  Hermano Krachu is like an Argentine form of Grandpa Skinner.  And the honeydew . . . wow.

Have a happy week with lots of smiling.  And the best way to do that is to stay close to the Lord.  When you don’t feel like praying, stay on your knees until you do feel like praying.  I followed that counsel this week and guess what?  It really works.

I hope I’m still in Rivadavia next week.

Bye

Chaucito!

Elder Ostler

Send all my love to Amanda Panda Bear, Wednesday.

HHHHOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAA

Hola Family Ostler.  Como andan?  Todo Bein?  The magic of Monday is about to begin.  I love reading so much what you write.  And now I get to try to tell you how the week was and how I’m doing.  And ya ya, you get to see a couple pictures.

Basketball last pday

And Mom, sorry about the memory card.  It’s right on top of my escritorio, just waiting for you.  Necescito mandarla ahora. I have just been kinda flojo with sending it to y’all.  Sorry, disculpame.  Really, I need to copy it onto a cd or something for safety and then send if off, prolly next week.  No, surely next week.

Like Amanda, I too am working on coming out of my shell.  Being myself and not being scared to goof around and have fun with the people.  It’s mostly the language that I hinder myself with, not getting out of my box and really connecting with the people. Me entendes?¿

IPOD - O MY WOW as Amanda would say.  DANG.  I can´t believe you.  But we love it.  Yes, everything came.  You are a sly one Mom and helpers.  Elder Owens LOVES the JONNY VANCE Proclamation To The World.  Wow, that is constantly going in the pench.  Thank you.  I LOVE YOU FAMILY.

Skipping rocks at Carrizal.  The best pday ever with family Flores y Silvio

So, it's family dinner, Monday night or fhe, whatever.  Fhe doesn't exist as a missionary.  Pretty much every day is fhe actually because we sing every day, pray a lot, share a ton of spiritual thoughts and teach a lot of lessons and also do a lot of games and such.  My favorite game is called push Elder Arrua in the acequia.  I love winning that game.

By this point, I have accidentally stepped on the cord to my macina and it has turned off twice now.  Gotta love Argentine cybers.

So it’s fhe and Mom is reading this out loud.  Now boys, think on the last 7 days.  And  .  .  .  .  .  .  suspense . . . raise your hand if you have practiced the piano for the set amount of time, 5 times.  Ah a a a a a GOOD!!  Felicitaciones!!  Now for those of you who do not have your hands raised, maybe none of you,  get your butt in gear and prepare to serve your heavenly king.  If I was there I would tackle you and tickle you so hard right now.

Now keep you hand up if you hit 6 days.  NICE JOB.  Do i hear 7??  Please practice your piano.  Please please practicar tu piano.  It is so important.  I will never get over my regret from not giving it all I had and practicing.  DO IT!

I rocked piano this week, but had to throw it together Sunday morning before church, because we hardly had siestas in the pench this week.  Tuesday we went to Junin and were planning to eat at a members house, but we ended up receiving the food in tupers and, since we didn´t want to pay and go back to Rivadavia because we planned to stay in Junin till the tarde, we went to a tranquilo plaza and ate it sitting on a park bench.  It was pretty fun eating it with our hands.  Then another lunch was just crazy with the family Perretti.  He is a chef and old and crazy and can’t hear.  We have so much fun with him.  He fed us some green peppers stuffed with goodness. Yeah, if the boys would have been there, they wouldn't have touched it.  I liked it though.  In Junin, we had an amazing lesson. I was guided by the spirit to this man and was able to get in his house, after an initial NO.  WOW.  The spirit worked through us and touched his heart.  He was a member inactivo.  Dang, it was up there among the best lessons ever.  Each week the number of ‘best lessons ever’ grows and grows.  We probably had 3 this week.

We helped the other Elders this week as they barley baptized again.  Lets just say it started 2 hours late.  It was a practice of patience yet again for Elder Arrua and I.  I love Elder Arrua.  Dad, we have informed the president, but I don´t know.  I want want want to stay, but he is in the perfect position to train.  One year in the missino, 6 weeks in the area, a good solid elder.  Hasn’t trained yet.  And there’s 17 latins on their way.  uhhhhh  noooooo

And then one siesta we had a cita and decided to work through the siesta, but uhhh, at one point there was no one.

No one.

No one.

So we miraculously found a ice cream dealio open and took a seat, talked some spanish, and ate some helado.

We had 2 amazing lessons with Celina this week.  Uhh, make that number of lessons that made their way into ‘the best lesson ever’ like 6 actually.  She is so ready, truly a hungry seeker of the truth.  I agree with Braden.  One of the best parts of wearing the black name tag is having your investigaros tell you that recibio su respuesta.  Wow.  The spirit, it is so so strong.  Celina will be baptized this Saturday.

Jorge y Rita.  Wow!  They do everything us and the Spirit commits them to do.  This week they went and sacared a turno at the marriage place, and while they don´t have a fecha for getting married yet, it will be sometime at the end of March.

Yeah, on that March thing I never think about my birthday, but just send some cliff bars and m and ms and I will be SET.  Thanks for all the love from home.  The other missiononerds are amazed.

We did some great service for Jorge and Rita this week and Saturday night they invited us over to eat pizza.  It was fantastic.  It’s hard to be home on time when you show up at 9 to eat and they haven’t even bought the food yet!  That’s just the culture here.  But, even though their family came to visit that night, Saturday, and they didn’t get to sleep till 5, they still came to church!!  Wow, it was great, holding Angel on my lap durning princiopios del evangelio.  It was such a pay day seeing them in church.

An even bigger pay day came last night.  An AMAZING lesson with Rosa we had.  There were angels there.  I love the spirit so much.  It makes me feel so so so good.

We worked another villa this week.  Costa Canal.  It was man, just a different experience.  You can´t imagine.  Remember that house in Mexico that we entered and walked around a bit and they had nothing?  That’s what this is like.  But every house. I love teaching them and looking into their eyes.

. . . . . . Well, I love you guys.  Thanks for the support and prayers.  

Elder Ostler

God be with you til we meet again.

"Every man eventually is backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand." Ezra Taft Benson

HEY!  We changed cybers.  The dueño of the other one stole some of Elder Owens pics and put them on facebook, making fun of an investigator they have.  But I can’t send pictures at this one!  I just tried for about 10 minutes.

The Miracle of Yesterday.  We went into church fasting.  I was psyched.  We had 10 solidly committed to church and 7 of them with fecha.  WOW.  This week we worked a villa a few days.  It’s called Sanisidro sur.  A villa is a super really really poor place.  We got a lot of our 25 news from this villa, a family of them was really promising.  Actually, 2 families.

You can’t even imagine what walking into and teaching in a place like this is like.  One day we walked in and some teenagers started yelling at me and trying to talk to me in English.  The only word I understood was marijuana.  Probably because it’s the same in both languages.  With the teaching, the next door neighbors got the music going.  The dogs are barking, the kids are playing on a tire swing.  It is NUTS.  We had some great success and taught some amazing lessons in the villa.

Saturday night, after 3 hours in the villa, we went to Rosa’s house and had a tender lesson where with the help of Rosa, we put a fecha with her 13 year old Lucila.  It was 9:30, time to go home, and we were on fire.  But we decided to keep going and go to this great new we had on the opposite side of the city.  We had a great lesson with this lady, Mrita.  Kinda old and talks in a super raspy voice.  After calling her to repentance and sharing a powerful testimony, I solidly committed her to church.  She said that she gambles.  Because it was already 10ish, we told her we’d leave that lesson for another day.  She accepted a fecha and coming to church.  But she said she couldn’t give up the gambling.  She told us that she would come to church, but that if she didn’t, we were not to come back.  She loves the things of the world more than the things of God.  Walking home with a huge vineyard next to us and the moon and stars overhead was amazing.  We were so psyched.

Sunday morning we got up good and ready to go.  I was decently practiced for my “performance” at church.  We went to the villa to buscar algunos investigadores.  My heart dropped when they didn’t answer the door, probably sleeping.  We arrived at church just in time for Priesthood and took a seat.  My companion manned the door, watching to see if any investigators came.  Priesthood ended and nothing.  Gospel principles ended, no one.  I was so bummed as I walked up to tocar the piano.  For 20 minutes I played prelude music.  The President forgot to bring bread.  The meeting started and to my rejoicing, Celina showed up.  But as the meeting continued and we praised the man and chose the right, I was saddened.  We also sang Jesus of Nazareth for the santa sena.  And I remembered i was fasting out of Thanks.  Alma 45:1.  I tried to put away my sadness.  Church ended and we put a solid cita with Celina, a person who lives on our street but is impossible to find.  We were invited to Rosa’s to eat for the second time this week, but man I was just bummed.  Ten committed to church and 7 with fecha, but nothing.  Celina came.

As we returned from lunch and sat in the pench, I have never not wanted to work so much.  I thought of the days where I left church feeling good and a nice 10 hours away I’d be with the family (email on pday) to look forward to.  I cannot describe to you how bummed I was.  But we went out the door and had a miracle.  Within not too long, my companion noticed a smile on my face as I was talking to an awesome chico, Mario.  We taught him and 2 other news.  Something in the back of my mind told me something amazing was coming, that God was about to bless us so so so so much.  I could believe it.  But O BOY.

We knocked on Jorge and Rita’s door and they let us in, like always.  We brought the sillas outside of their house and shared a smile.  I started off the lesson and immediately the spirit of rejoicing and peace filled the air.  I asked Rita if she had prayed, she has been a bit dura on this.  But finally she said YES!!!  I asked what she felt and she said that she knew it was all true.  “I felt a sensation.”  That’s the word she used.  Jorge already knows it’s true, he had prayed before and the time they came to church he said he felt something real special while partaking of the water.  Then throughout the lesson, as we rediscussed the four big commandments, church, word of wisdom, chastity and tithing, they committed to all of them.  We traded a LDM for 66 bags of tea (Rita loves her tea but loves the things of God more) and it was incredible.  Jorge sad he found better work (which he has been looking and hoping for!!!!!!) and he told us of a dream he had.  Me and Elder Arrua were in it.  He said we were in a different place and it was good.  He took that as an extra sign that these things are of God and he should continue.  They have read every single folleto and now have the Book of Mormon.  Rita was supposed to go to the registor civil this morning to sacar a turno so they can sign the paper and get married.  It could take up to a month.  So for next transfer we are planning an asado marriage in the church and 2 BAPTISMS.  WOW, I want to stay 1 more transfer with Elder Arrua so bad.  He wants it too.  So we’ll see.  During the end of the lesson, their 2 kids were going crazy, laughing and playing and wrestling like always.  And I picked one of them up and kinda tossed her up in the air, like dad always did with us.  She loved it and didn’t want me to put her down.  Jorge is 24 and Rita is 20.  Their 2 kids are 1 and 3.  It was such an amazing lesson and lit us on FIRE.  God blesses us so much.

The miracle of last pday.  In short, we hopped in the car with Silvio, the parents and a sister and they took us to Carrizal.  WOW.  The best pday of our lives!!!!!!!!!!!!  So amazing, we drove through the camp, were able to see Rivadavia, more than just the square mile or two we see every day.  It was unbelievable.  Carrizal is a big water deal with the canals and acequias and we got our feet wet!  Wow, how I miss the grand Columbia.  I took something like 70 pictures that day.  WOW.  And I found a sweet pink shirt in the pench to wear.  So dad, I finally did it, something way different on a pday.  It was so amazing and I will be looking for more similar activities.  Unforgettable.

The miracle of mowing lawns.  We went to Junin this week to visit the members, one of which is Hermana Diaz.  We were helping her do some things and I got to mow her lawn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was the best best best ever.  An electric 15 pound mower, but really it was so amazing.  I took a handful of grass and taped it in my journal.  It poured into my mind SO MANY MEMORIES!!  All I can say is WOW.

We have 5 lunches coming up this week!!!!  That is a reason to throw the hands up in the air.

I have been hearing a lot of bad things about Egypt, and this week a lady told me Obama is not President anymore.  Argentine gossip.

Mom, I read Preach My Gospel, pg 99 “Parents.... for their children” and thought of you.  I hope you are all doing good.

Jefferson

Harrison

Mom

Saydi

Dad

Wilson

Benson

Amanda - color my world

What are you up to?  Is your schedule super busy mom, what are the new projects?  Writing other missionaries?  Is the practice still up and good?

The miracle of my companion.  He is amazing.  I love him.  We are going to stay together for sure.  I have to be here to help Mary and baptize Jorge and Rita, a Family!  He asks us the best questions.  They asked us if we are always going to come to their house.  They love us and we love them.

For the beauty of the earth

For the beauty of the skies

For the love which from out firth

Over and around us lies

Lord of all to thee we praise

This my hymn of grateful praise

Argentina is the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life.  I love being close to the grapes and the mountains and the clouds . . .  everyday I ooo and aaaw over them.  Elder Arrua thinks I’m nuts.  They are so much more real here.  Some of the vineyards are never ending.  The beauty is breathtaking.  I swear, if I just had a graham cracker and some chocolate I could make a dang good smore with the clouds.  They are fluffier here.

For Harrison & Jefferson.  The word fachero is someone who is very smooth with the ladies and a galán is a straight up lady’s man.  Fachero and galán.  The difference is galán is more.

The other Elders baptized this week, barley.  It was great and a baptism I will never forget.  It was a group effort and she was eventually helped all the way under the water.  Yay, other Elders.

Two new goals are to learn how to make break and noquis.  I LOVE NOQUIS, the best ever, and the tuco, their red sauce is incredible.

I found a legit wood court in the other Elders area and this morning we, the zone, went and balled it up.  It was AMAZING.  It’s been 6 months since I’ve played on a wood court with glass backboards.  WOW.  And, well, time is up.

I am so excited to read and reread Amanda’s email.  I love this new system.  O, the questions, hand fine, feet good, physical condition good.   Got the cliff bars today.  And the memory card.  I’m excited to open the journal pages.  And I have 4 different sets of journal pages, no more needed.  The fruit is coming in season and WOWWOWOWOW.  Argentine fruit. . . you guys have no idea.  I love honeydew and think of Rush every time.  Sometimes walking through the fincas we pluck a grape or two from the vine.  Heaven in the mouth.

I love you.

Elder Ostler

Elder Arrua is the Bomb!

Hola.  Hello, hello.  YES Miss Amanda Panda got transferred!!  That makes me so happy.  The joy of a new comp is so so great.  I love change in the mission.  It should do her good.  Thank you for forwarding her email out here to Rivadavia.  It will be printed.

Yes, I got a lot of mail last week.  I received the camera card.  Thank You.  So Much.  The  one I have is Full.  I hope that makes you happy Mother. :)

Silvio Flores received the Sacerdocio this week.  Yesterday after church Elder Arrua and I stood in the circle and as President Perez conferred the Priesthood of Aaron upon Silvio.  His parents were there (BOTH!).  It is great helping their family.  We are teaching their other kids, 3 teenagers, Milagros, Estephania, y Italo.  

Elder Arrua y su llamamiento inspirado.  The call Elder Arrua received to come here was so inspired.  On so many occasions I see him talk to people, share something in a lesson etc. and I KNOW it is inspired, him being here.  I can’t express it very well.  Elder Arrua is the Bomb.  I love being with him.  He always compliments me, always helps me, he´s a Gem.  We love being together and already decided we are staying together next transfer too.  He enjoys occasionally talking about his future esposa Hna Ostler, the one in Chicago.  We get along so well, our comp studies are unbeatable.  The thing is, he is selfless, he gives of himself.  And he´s got some pretty funny quirks, we all do.  A great servant of the Lord, Elder Arrua.

Holiness to the House of the Lord.  I miss going to the temple!  It has been too long.  My appreciation for the Temple has grown.  When I return, Cheeves (Elder Chaves) and I are going to own all of those temples in Utah.  In this case the word own means to attend often.  It will be espectacular.

Amanda learning Spanish.  WOW, might I say.  I still wish I could do divisions with her and this time maybe teach her a thing or 2 about the language.  My language skills are alright.  I remember after every day with Hinojosa, my head ached.  Spanish . . .  Spanish, . . . Castallano, head swirling.  But with Arrua, its totally different.  Very rarely do I get frustrated, and my head doesn't hurt.  I’m learning good, but certainly need to put more effort into progressing and growing my language ability.  Yeah Castallano.

Yesterday was a hard Sunday for me.  A really good part was Celina came to church.  Because the Temple doesn’t yet exist in Mendoza, the Church for me is a place to recharge my batteries and let others teach me!  But yesterday, for testimony Sunday,  uhhhh nope-.   It was bad.  Story after story after la la la la la.  The spirit left after participar en la santa Cena.  It was bad.   And on top of that, only Celina came.  We had So Many Good People committed! I don´t know what happened.  For church, I played the Spirit of God to open the meeting.  It is a decently technical song for an amateur like myself.  It was sweet though!  Elder Owens and I are in love with the little portable piano in the pench.

Saturday we were heading out to the calle prinicipal to finish opening the mouth before returning to the pench for the night.  I had a thought to turn down a street, the opposite way we needed to go.  I have leaned to never ignore one of the sursurros de el Espiritu Santo.  So I followed it.  Halfway down the street we found a man and a woman trying to hoist the carcass of an old gutted auto onto a cambion, bigger truck.   It was what this guy does for work, get old cars and turn then in as scrap metal. We set our fundas on the sidewalk and hardly asked, just started lifting with them, ignoring their, ‘O no, you’ll get all dirty.‘  I didn´t think we’d really get really dirty.  Well, I put my hands on the twisted metal.  A second later I looked down at my right hand and thought dang, I should have look where I put my hand, because I grabbed a pretty twisted part and I got stuck by some metal.  After the job, which did get us all dirty, we went to a members house and I cleaned up my hand.  It was a sweet experience. I am glad I followed that small prompting of the spirit.  The Lord knew 2 of his children on that street needed help, so he sent us.  And Cool things like that happen every day.

I already told you a little about Jorge y Rita, the young couple I opened the mouth with and invited myself into their home.  Well in that instance I was So following the spirit.  They have tuned out to being Fantastic.  We just need to marry them.  With them, we have had some incredible lessons.  They accepted the Law of Chastity and Tithing and have the first 3 lessons, Restoration, Plan of Salvation, and Baptism.  It is great and I so hope to be able to baptize them at the end of this transfer.  I don´t know what happened but they didn´t come to church.

The reactivation of the Family Marue is complete.  They came to church again.  We promised them that if they came to church, their week would be completely different.  Well, Wednesday we passed by their house and WOW.  What a change.  Hna Maure was so happy.  She had already finished reading an entire liahona

Roosters and chickens.  We were in barrio imaculada conception.  Yeah, I wonder where they got that name form.  Anyway, we entered a house, went to the back and taught a lesson with a rooster and chickens running around and making some noise.  The mother and friend were great, but the grandpa was NUTS!  At one point he tossed his Book of Mormon in the dirt.  He was so funny, didn´t believe in anything.  It was a cool experience.

Dad, people are amazed you served in Japan.  Do you remember lots of Japanese?  Have you watched a movie or read anything in Japanese lately?

This one ALB we had, these guys were taking a break form work and smoking and drinking coke out of a 1L bottle.  They offered it to us and we accepted.  Never in my life in the states would I have shared a coke with 2 guys with cigarettes, they probably have never seen a toothbrush either.  I love Argentina.

We always eat with Rosa and here family.  Well this week, we made TACOS for them!!! I was head chef and they turned out so great.  Her family had never eaten tacos before and we had to show them how and everything.  It was so so so so so fantastic.  We picked flowers walking to her house and put them in our shirt pockets.  Elder Owens and I felt like we were going to prom.

This week we were able to travel to San Martin and Pintar and orfanato, orphanage.  Cool.  Elder Owens has an amazing voice and lights up the pench with it.  I LOVE IT!  Eating a lot of ice cream for breakfast is not good for you.  I read Our Heritage this week.  It was amazing and touched me.  I was able to feel the amazingness of the pioneers, my ancestors who went before me, who made this restored Gospel possible. . .  remarkable those stories.  It amazed me.  From that book I took strength, determination and faith.

Today has been really good.  We woke and up and ROCKED personal study.  I had the best personal study that I’ve had in a long time.  Then we met other elders at the church and played basketball!  It was great and I really did well.  Ben Ostler, you would be proud.  Now we are going with the famila Flores and they are taking us out to the Campo.  El Mirador is where we are going.

Well, that's all for now folks.  Stay Strong Boys! 

Elder Ostler

Can´t believe Saydi got a car! 

I love you all!