Dear Family,
First of all Dad, I am staying focused. I'm really excited to come home, but I'm not trunky. There's this other elder in my district who is oozing trunkyness. He goes home with me. Then a sister who I came out with has been sooooooooo trunky for 6 months, 6 MONTHS! Can you believe that! There are some aspects of missionary work that are getting to me, like always being with someone, and not being free to go where I want when I want because I have someone else with me who also has an agenda. Sister Fossett and I work really well together in lessons and finding. We both feel the same things about people, most of the time.
Sister Fossett really wanted to teach C** the WOW. I thought not. But she felt strongly about it, so we did. And it went so well. After C** read what we do and don't do she said, "Yeah, why wouldn't you do that? It's stupid to put those things in our body's that control our mind and are addictive." It was a really good lesson. Then our member, who was awesome, invited her to church on fast Sunday. She works on Sunday's, but she said she could try to get it off, and it seemed like she really wanted to come. The member said that she wasn't planning on saying that, it just came out, and it was directed by the Spirit. I love members who are so in tune with the Spirit!
Then some more miracles from this week.
The R**'s are doing really good. We had the WOW lesson with them this week, and she said that she would stop drinking coffee :) She really wants to get baptized, and when we suggested that we postpone the baptism so her girls could have a little more time to prepare, she was very adamant about being baptized on the 24th. Also since we were at the church for her lesson we suggested that she receive a priesthood blessing. It was Wednesday evening, so a ton of people were there for activities. President Evans was able to give her a blessing with another brother. It was so amazing, and she really felt the Spirit.
She was gone this weekend so was unable to come to church, but two of her girls came. The ward helped us out in finding rides for them, and after sacrament meeting they booked it to Sunday school with their friends. Regular teenagers! We love them.
This week we also had an amazing finding experience. Last week we found this lady. She was interested to hear more about the Book of Mormon, but wanted her son to be there with her. So we set up a time that we could come back. We later realized that we had doubled booked our schedule, and that at the time we had planned to meet with her was the same time that we had to be clear across our area. So we called her, and I thought I left a message on her phone, but wasn't sure if it recorded.
A few days later our original appt told us that they couldn't meet with us, so we were once again able to meet with S**. We however, didn't call to confirm that appt, because we thought our message didn't record. We showed up to S**'s, and she had thought we weren't coming, but welcomed us in anyways. Since when does that ever happen? You accidentally cancel an appt but it goes through anyways? Then she said, "After you left I looked up some stuff on line," (and by the sounds of it, it wasn't good stuff. uh-ho) "but you know how it can be...so I thought I'd let you girls come and tell me some stuff about what you believe." We were kinda surprised. She had read anti, but still wanted to meet with us and was sooooooooo receptive to what we said, and was so excited to read the Book of Mormon! We're super excited for her. Oh, and what's more, is that she's never been baptized. Most of her family is baptist, but she said, "I never felt a strong desire to be baptized in that, or any other church." So we gave her a soft baptismal commitment, and she accepted! :)
Then our other miracle was soooooooo amazing! Something I never even expected. Back in Oct/Nov Sister Wallace and I were teaching a girl named J**. Remember her? She was a self referral and VERY Catholic. She knew everything about the Catholic church and LOVED it. But she felt that she need to read the Book of Mormon and check out our church. Well in the end she ended up with some anti stuff and it turned her off. Sister Wallace and I were crushed, because we saw so much potential in her. Well on Friday morning Sister Fossett came up to me and said, "We just got a text, and it's going to flip your lid." The text said, "Hi I don't know if this is still the right number, but my name is J**. I was meeting with two sisters back in the fall. I stopped meeting with them but I can't shake thinking about the mormon church and was maybe interested in being taught again?"
We quickly checked our schedule and by some miracle, Saturday night was open. I was gonna schedule someone in for our last appt the previous day, but felt that I shouldn't. I then realized that that spot was for J**. So we went over the next night and she had changed. She said that she couldn't get the Church off her mind, and that maybe she went about things the first time in her way, and not in God's way. She said she was willing to do things the way God wanted her to, and how we suggested she do them. She was so humble and submissive. (And how amazing is she? She is so in tune with the whisperings of the Spirit.) I asked her what she would do if she found out that the Book of Mormon was true and if this was God's church. She said that she would 100% do everything the authority of the church said to do. So pretty much become a member. Sweet! So we told her simply to read and pray. And Sister Fossett in all her awesomeness pulled out Alma 32 and challenged her to test this. She also said, "Don't go into this looking to prove things wrong, but hoping that it can be right." J** really liked that. She also came to church the next day and stayed for all three hours. We pray and hope that this time she'll be humble enough to accept the message and truth.
She ended up coming to Dekalb ward instead of Sycamore because she still wanted to go to mass. Whatever. But it ended up that Dekalb ward was EXACTLY where she needed to be. The talk in Sacrament meeting was FOR HER. One thing she said Saturday night was that another reason she was willing to try this again was because she saw how well the members of this church lived what they believed. And the sacrament talk was on scripture study, and the person giving it was a good, strong member, but admitted that when nothing was pushing her she was kinda lazy in reading the scriptures and needed to repent. And scripture study is exactly what we've been telling J** to do.
Then in RS we talked about the Priesthood. We had already gotten this lesson in Sycamore, and it was kinda aggressive, so we were afraid that it would offend J**. But Sister Gillespie gave it, and she was a convert in her young adult life. She knew J** was investigating, was very aware of that. In the Catholic church only Priests have the Priesthood. Where as here 12 yr old boys have it. We shared examples of the Priesthood working in ours or others lives and how that's helped boys and men.
I shared the story of how when a Sisters husband died my brothers (who love money for mission and college) mowed her lawn FOR FREE and I never heard them complain about it. They did it because not only did she need help, but they were her HT. Sister Fossett shared how the Priesthood had helped her brother respect and honor women and become so polite. These examples and others touched J**. She appreciated how it helped us become better members. Though I don't think she appreciated how we said that we alone had the Priesthood. But as Sister Fossett said afterwards to me, "You can't mince words. This is our message, and you either accept it, or you don't."
And J** contacted US. If she doesn't want to learn, then she doesn't have to. So please keep her in your prayers that her heart will be softened enough to accept this.
Oh, and no need to send the email. I read it all. Sister Fossett takes a long time to email. I really have nothing else to say. Other than I'm soaking wet. It poured outside, and we dashed in here. And in less than 30 seconds we got SOAKED. It was crazy. The elders are coming here today. Some are already here. But we still have to get back home, get changed and then go meet them. Oh the picture is of last district mtg. We had stuffed animal day! It was so fun!
Sister Fossett climbed in one of our investigators crawl spaces to fix some pipes. She's a fix-it woman. Yeah, she got dirty. I laughed, took pictures, then held up a board at the end so she could screw it back on. We're helping Sister R paint her daughters room and we were sanding plaster down. That's how I looked afterwards!
Thanks for all your prayers. Love you all.
Love Sister Ostler
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