July 2, 2010 email
Hola!
Seriously, I am loving it and doing so so good. The MTC is really a sanctuary, it is getting a little scary to leave for Argentina. But it's not like I am really scared. I AM SO EXCITED.
OK, some questions etc. First, can you send a little food? Come 10 pm we get pretty hungry. Thanks. Nephi saw a bear? Do tell please. Yeah, you can mail me some Ensign articles. That would be good. We do get the Ensign here but you could certainly send it to me along with some graham crackers and chocolate chips, you know. Yes, the Argentina binders came and they are so awesome! Elder Allen and Elder Huntington loved them so much. No I did not meet my new mission president, cause I don't have a new one yet. But the Buenos Aries Elders in my district met theirs and loved it.
BTW, there was a barrier between me and Elder Oaks and there were "guards" so I couldn't have run up to him and shook his hand. That is so sweet Denny might get baptized. That is happiness. Earlier this week some mom sent their kid a letter full of Disney lyrics. It was really fun because eventually we were all singing them really loud before gym one day. I will say that I was singing "A Whole New World" and "Hakuna Matata" at the top of my lungs. Little things like that are so fun here. Anywhere else they would be super lame. But this is the MTC. You gotta make your own fun here.
Yesterday during gym I went out to play soccer and there were about 8 Europeans that arrived this Wednesday just waiting for some fresh blood. They were English, German, and Danish and SO GOOD at futbol. It was so so so fun. They were better than Ben Ostler, which honestly is rather hard to believe. It was so fun though and there was this one time where I did dribble the ball somehow around the best German guy. It was great, they all spoke English and I am excited to play with them tomorrow.
Saydi--beat boxing has come in handy here. One day I was doing it softly without thinking of it and the District wanted me to really let it loose, so I did what I could and they loved it. Then that night some Elders from other districts asked me to do it. It was way sweet. Our Zone got a new district this week. They are so awesome. It is really fun always meeting new people here.
To answer what sounds to be your main concern, as a missionary, I will not hear anything about my visa until the week I am supposed to leave. That is just how it works. I hear that most Argentina Missionaries are sent and nothing goes amiss; however, there are 2 Argentina horror stories to my knowledge (they really aren't that bad though.) There are 6 veteran awesome Elders going to Mexico who were supposed to leave Monday. They obviously didn't get their visas on time. Three were immediately temporarily transferred to Salt Lake South. They were so jazzed! The other 3 are still here and they really are as happy as can be. While it does suck, they say they are making due and it's okay. But one of them, the huge ZL Elder, tweaked his knee in basketball and he has to stay 2 more months because of surgery!!!! We talked with a senior couple going to Argentina. They were only supposed to be here 10 days then head out. Well, they have been here 2 months waiting. Obviously they were disappointed, but all is well and it will work out. And the other story is an Argentina Elder was temporarily reassigned to Montana because his visa didn't come. Dang, Montana, really? So no sweat on my visa, it will come.
Sunday night we had an AMAZING fireside. Some guy who works in the missionary audio visual department or something spoke to us. He told us of the new Mormon.org website to launch July 7 and showed us some sneak peeks about it and its missionary work features. The portraits were amazin!!!!!!! That site will do wonders. And there is this part where you can make your own profile so people around the world can read why you're a Mormon and your testimony. Tell everyone they have to make a profile for it!! They are letting us do it soon too. They are going to advertise this website hard. It is going to do wonders. Tell everyone about it.
Also, Sunday night they showed us PMG movies The District 2 which was amazing beyond belief. It is really cool sitting in an army with 2000 other missionaries and thinking, we are the Lords 2000 stripling warriors. That is cool. Also, on Tuesday we had a devo and Sister Elaine S. Dalton showed up and spoke to us. It was way good. She gave us those virtue packets and that was funny. But she really talked about our purpose the whole time.
Some days here are unproductive and rather hang out days. Before my mission I would be happy with how much I get done these days, but being a missionary we live by such a higher standard. When these days happen I feel guilty. I feel guilty to the Lord. But other days are amazing and I feel the spirit so strong. It is like there is a fire within me. It is so so cool. To not have bad days, we are finally listening to a planning tactic we learned. When we plan for study time, companion time and personal, we plan every minute and put time limits on it. We did that yesterday and today and there was no wandering and it was so so productive. Yesterday it seemed like I learned more than I have in the whole previous week.
Also, Saturday we were teaching a lesson to our progressing investigator and we were teaching about prophets but the missionary irresponsibles before us took 15 minutes of our time so we had only 15 minutes. We were getting near the end and I was just thinking, we can't jump into the first vision because we didn't have enough time etc. Well, we didn't and we cut off at James 1:5 and recommitted her to pray. Later, we found that we were all thinking the same thing. It is so cool how the spirit can guide a lesson.
Well, it's hump day tomorrow, that is exciting, but I'm not going to glissade down. I'm going to keep climbing.
Well it's good here, my computer keeps freezing so I'm going to send this. I love you so, my family.
Bye
Elder Ostler
12 years ago
