After district meeting on Monday, Elder George and I were walking to vea, to open the mouth in the parking lot, which we hate doing. But on the way there was this lady coming down on a side street and I opened the mouth with here. She lived right there on the corner and immediately invited us in!! That, in all my life, has never happened before and it turns out that she was a former investigator that we had talked on the phone with just 2 days previous! So we started to talk. We talked about baptism, as we do in almost every single lesson, and why she stopped investigating the church. The only problem is her marido, her husband. He's one of those catholic dudes. But anyway we just really hit the Book of Mormon hard. When we went back on Thursday, she had read what we left her. We talked about church and sure enough, on Sunday . . . .SHE CAME!!!!!
It was a miracle that we found here, that she invited us in, and that she came to church. All she is missing is a fecha to be a progressing investigator. And we need to figure out the whole husband problem. Always a problem with getting someone baptized. Her name is Lina. She's great and LOVED church, as did everyone that was in that room, and she said that next week she was going to prepare the food early so she could stay all 3 hours. Just great!
Terrible Tuesday
Worst day I have had in a long time. I woke up with those acidic burps I get right before I throw up. But all day I couldn´t throw up. I tried everything but I never could get the awful feeling out of my stomach. I got up on time, but them went right back to bed. But at about 11am I suited up, we went out for an hour. That was all I could handle. It was a terrible hour and on the way back home, after teaching nobody, we saw some workers making part of a road using some tar. They were heating it up and laying it and we both thought of Joseph Smith. How he had mobsters and filthy people pour that tar on this flesh. I thought about all he went though. All the stories I know and I'm sure there are countless that we don´t know about. But he still held on to his claim. He held on to his testimony and to the church. He sealed his testimony with his blood. Why? Why would a man go through that. Maybe because the story is actually true. He did see God and Jesus Christ. And through him the Church of Jesus Christ, the same Church that Christ established when he came to the earth, was Restored. How Fantastic!!! Let us, as members of this great church, share this story and Happiness with EVERYONE!!!!!
So, after we got home I just went to bed, and stayed there all day. I ate nothing, just let my body try to fight what ever was wrong with it. I think I had a fever, because I think I woke up when it broke. I"m glad that day is over.
The walk on Wednesday
Wednesday, I was still really weak, but had a good day and mostly was recovered. For lunch we went to the hermanas house that always feeds us and washes our clothes. And they fed us.......SO MUCH. It was noquis again, and just painful. Those things hit the stomach and just work death. They expand I swear. So leaving that house we were just both hobbling and just struggling for every breath. Every step required effort. I do not think I have ever been that full in my life. Anyway it was 20 minutes of just no good. And right as we were crossing in front of vea we saw the beginning of a fight! We kind of hung around across the street and a little bit away. Not entirely sure what happened, but this drunk oldish guy, you know like around 48ish, maybe 49, was just asking for it from these guys who just got off work. And he started swinging. They just blocked it and didn´t do anything. After another 60 seconds of the old guy not leaving them alone, one of the kids had it, threw his backpack off and just wailed on this guy. A couple punches later and the old drunk guy was on the ground. It was kinda sad, but kinda sweet too.
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| Elder George and Elder Ostler |
Friday Morning was LOCO
Just crazy. In total we taught 4 lessons, which is just fantastic for a morning. At this one inactive guys house, (all this is in huarpus) he couldn´t move very well, so before we started he asked me to move a turtle to the outside. It was under his chair and it looked disgusting. Luckily he told me to use my foot. I was relieved and kicked the turtle out of the house (Saydi, I did it softly, don´t worry). Then we went to this other inactives house. He does not have legs and is blind. It is really sad, but we shared a lesson with him and then asked him to invite his nonmember son (23) to join us. The son did join us and we had the best lesson ever. We taught about Jesus Christ and Baptism. It was a good lesson, but then we taught him how to pray and at the end of the lesson he offered such a heartfelt prayer, it was fantastic. When he was done the spirit was noticeably in the room. We used that as a teaching moment and it was just wonderful! Being a missionary, I get the beautiful experience of teaching people how to pray to their Heavenly Father and then witnessing them pray for the first time.
O I forgot. So right before we went to knock on this door we went to Belen's house, it´s pronounced like Belin, but she couldn´t do a lesson right then. There was this guy sitting in a daze on her ¨porch¨and he was drunk drunk drunk. As we walked past him he said, "Come here . . come back. .... come over here." I felt bad for him so I turned around and gave him a pamphlet (I really shouldn´t have done that). We keep walking and about 30 steps later we turn around and look back just in time to see the show!!!! This guy gets on his feet, barley, and starts walking. Just staggering. He throws the pamphlet in an aceca and then attempts to walk towards us. What happens next I just can't explain. After about 10 completely drunken steps, the guys pants fall down around his ankles. And at this point he is struggling to stay on his feet. Just struggling so hard. Elder George and I both know that within the next 10 seconds he is going to be on the ground. And after the pants came down he went down too, just hits the cement sidewalk!! It was amazing. Incredibly funny, but also really sad. It certainly was logged in the memory bank never to be forgotten. (and another priceless part was he was wearing whitey tighties) After this happened we were both shocked and went quickly to the no legs guys house only about 5 houses away from where our drunken friend was laying. We quickly knocked, got in and shut and locked the door.
On Sunday
We both gave discursos. I absolutely rocked it (said in all humility, because I really give the credit to the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord and the Gift of Tongues took over after I said about my second word) It was just powerful. The spirit really was cranking and it set the tone for the rest of the meeting. It was truly a different sacrament meeting. It was so great for Lina. I went up there and just pushed the book of Mormon. Just hounded that amazing work of God. I shared some quotes form President Benson and Hinckley. How the Book of Mormon is EVERYTHING. Everything depends on the Book of Mormon. The truthfulness of this church hangs on the Book of Mormon. I bore fervent testimony. Then I related a testimony of the Book of Mormon to Missionary work and just was very bold, read a D&C scripture and told those members how it is a Commandment to share the Gospel. And how we needed their help. And really, if you have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith, why would you not want to share it!!!???!¿!?!¿!?.
And this week we saw success with working with the members!! We found this gold mine inactive and she has given us 4 references!! And yesterday we went over and taught here husband. It was a fantastic lesson. At one point I shared 2 Nephi 31 10-11, i think. And oh, I was just great. I love how in a lesson when we teach truth, and we are doing it in a good way, the spirit will always be there to bear testimony. Always. That is the spirits mission. That is what the spirit loves to do.
And also this week we have lunch 5/6 days!!! Now, for those of you, hmmmm, Saydi, who are wondering why Argentina only has 6 days in the week, it's because we don´t eat with members on pday. I don´t want you to be confused there missy.
But the members are feeding us now, and I have eaten some great stuff recently.
Saturday night we went to the church for about 30 minutes and played basketball with some members. So fun. We are so much taller and just owned, it was way fun.
One more week. I am so tired right now. my legs are jelly because . . . . we had a turkey bowl today! It was so sweet, just fantastic. Tell Ben Ostler I thought about him a lot this morning. There were just some balls I could not catch, some plays I could not make, and just skill I was lacking. Now I'm serious, tell Ben that many times when I messed up and fell just short, I thought, Ben could have done that. Nonetheless, I was definitely one of the threats. It was 3 zones. Maipu, Godoy Cruz, and Mendoza. There were so many missionaries. We split up in teams and just went for it. 2 hand touch of course... still way fun. I went all out and am just tired right now.
After that playing at a huge park, San Martin, we went to get some food. Now we are doing cyber, obviously. And Elder Cabranes is a zl of maipu so got to reunite with him today! It was way sweet, he is just great. Also his companion, the other zl Elder Harvey grew up in Syracuse, that's where Jase Ward spent his childhood years. So he knows Jase"!" Elder Ward. And he was looking for me because apparently good ol Brother Ward talked to his mom and told her that we were both in the same mission. He was actually the quarterback on my team today, and fed me some pretty sweet balls. American football.
It would be alright if you just sent all the boys mail in one envelope. Thanks for spending some time writing me letters. . .. yes we got mail this week because the zls went to the offices. It´s nice living close to the offices. No I haven´t seen the nurse, I did it myself with Elder Gonzalez´s coaching. I went at it with some weapons last night and came out victorious.
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| Elder George and Elder Ostler. I love the look on my face. |
A favor mother, or father. Please type my emails I send home with spelling changes, so it´s readable, so that when I'm done I can just print them all out, all things spelled correctly and can put them as part of my journal. If that's too much, don´t worry about it. I cant remember if I described the toe surgery, but yes, I cut it out and it is just really tender right now. Yeah I already told you that. Well, I think that will bring this one to a close. It has just been great, but this cyber is just on fire, it is so hot.
Love Elder Ostler
Amanda emailed me and I emailed her! It was great. Just sharing some tips on the Work of the Lord
