Dear Family,
I am writing to you from here in Exeter - a nearby city of my area, Woodlake - about transfers. So it turns out that I'm not going anywhere. That's really great - because I LOVE it here! Although I am sad because my companion, Elder Escobar, is not staying with me. He is going off to Modesto. However, this transfer was awesome. In four weeks, I fell in love with the people and figured out my way around (at least somewhat). I was also really happy because Elder Escobar is an amazing missionary. You know how there are companionships where there is one Senior Companion who is always teaching the Junior? Well, this was more like we were both Seniors - and we were constantly learning off of each other. So that was incredible. But now he is leaving. Off to Modesto to be a District Leader. That's pretty cool.
It turns out that I am staying here in Woodlake because I'm training. I can't say that I've ever done that before. This is going to be crazy! It was so cool because I was finally in an area that was unified - completely. Our companionship was unified. Our District was unified. Our Zone was unified. It was the epitome of awesome.
Now our District Leader, Elder Young, is training as well as another Elder - Elder Sigmon. Now to give you a little background on Elder Sigmon, he was one of the Office Assistants when I came into the mission. He doesn't talk too much, but he is really intelligent and rather intimidating. He was one of the elder's that was giving us training our first day.
So yesterday, our zone came together to play sports and I approached him rather cautiously and asked, "Elder Sigmon, what am I going to do? I don't know what to do!"
There were a few other people around that said, "Don't worry! No one knows how to train!" But Elder Sigmon looked at me and said," Elder Ostler, you know what you're going to do. You're going to Find, Teach, and Baptize."
When I heard that I was like... oh, ha ha ha, Elder Sigmon. Quoting Preach My Gospel, eh? But what he said kind of stuck with me, and I kept thinking about it. Now, I see the powerful simplicity to his words. It's true. That's exactly what we're going to do.
So you know how I am in the Visalia Zone, right? Well last week, I went on an exchange into our District Leader's area, and we had this idea that we were going to just blow up the place that day. We were going to doeverything. Like literally. everything. And so we did. And it was cool because we didn't get down about those people that were rude or told us "no thanks", we simply moved on. We were constantly on the look-out for those who the Lord was preparing. And it was weird because it always seemed to be the people who we wereleast likely to talk to that were the best.
There was this one family that we decided to talk to. They had spoken to missionaries before. He told us about this vision and how he was a preacher and how he felt that it was his duty to help everyone come to the truth about Jesus Christ. His wife was sitting there right next to him but she wouldn't say a word to us. I could tell that she really didn't feel comfortable talking with us in the beginning. But after he told us everything, we spoke to him and shared the commonalities of our belief in Christ. They really felt the love we had for them because we felt the love that Christ had for them. That emanated from us. It's the only way you can teach others. If they feel that love. Otherwise, they completely disregard what you say, and esteem you as their enemy.
When we left, I looked at Elder Fadely (Elder Young's companion) and I said, "That was awesome. Now, whenever they see the missionaries, they're going to remember that special moment that we shared. We did the work of the Lord, there."
--- I had a point to that story. You see, during that lesson, the son asked, "So did they have to hire a new preacher over there?" I quizzically inquired as to what he was referring to. He then told us about how the Bishop had been shot there not too long ago - right in the building where we have District Meeting.
That was cool.
I like this area.
Anyway, I love you all so much. I'm so happy that I have all of you.
I await all of your letters. (Even those from my fan club)
Love you all,
Elder Ostler
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