Accompany the Missionaries!

Helloooo to all! Hope your week was great! Mine has been!

After our baptism last week we were able to put a date with his older sister for this coming weekend! Shes so great and really has had a change of heart! Our convert also has been such a stud. Has started to accompany us.... well not really. We have started to accompany HIM. He has such a desire to share the gospel with his friends, family, neighbors, and even the people who he barely knows! He always says that "after you have felt something so great like the light and happieness that the gospel brings, you want to share it" what a stud! Two days after his confirmation he said in a meeting with some of his friends that he would bet his life that joseph smith was called as a prophet. It was sooo powerful and had me close to tears. The people really see his example and is a powerful example to everyone, members and non members. 

When we were walking (my companion and i in shock), he asked us why we were shocked that he was sharing witheveryone and I told him that missionaries spend their entire missions trying to get members to share the gospel with their friends because thats where the best conversion comes from is the members. He told me "yeah but to be emberrassed to share the gospel is to be emberrassed to enter the celestial kingdom." i thought wow thats harsh but then thought some more and although he probably doesnt realize it he said something pretty profound. If we will all see our friends, family, loved ones, and even people that we just know or shared the gospel with in the celestial kingdom, and we didnt share it with anyone, we WILL wind up there alone. That WOULD be a bit emberrassing.

I guess just some thoughts. Anywyas hope you all have a great week! 

love

Hermana ostler

Los Actividades de Hermana Ostler

baptism of david! :D

completos (hot dogs from chile)

disneybounding as minnie sunday for church

our minute to win it team

dont forget the helmet!

district pday we made pizza (like 2 weeks ago)

sick sick

The Ward Activity

i FINALLY had an excuse to wear my ponco! :D

 hi were super argentine haha #gaucho

our ward activity last week

The Traveling Hermana Ostler

on the way to san pedro! (right before i got sick)

whoooo work!

 divisions fun. wake up early with the freezing cold and have to be in a bus at 7 in the morning. whoo

trip to san ferrrrr

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyways

Well after a relatively mild winter we finally got a cold front! It has been rainy and cold and windy all week which has made working here in provincia super fun. With mud, mud, puddles and more mud. haha But it has been fun!

This week has been another fun week of out of the norm activities, with exchanges (planned), more exchanges which were unplanned which included a quick trip to san fernando, during that day i took just about 9 different busses round trip. WHOO. Basically im dead tired.

Something that struck me from this week was that someone said that the lord only gives us things that we need. I started to think about this a little bit because i realized that the lord not only gives us blessings but also our trials. And it reminded me that we all need trials in our lives, otherwise we would never learn anything. So when the lord gives us trials its something that we need, especially for a learning experience.

Other than that, we had a baptism this week! Hes a great kid (16 years old) and he really was looking for something to fill his life. He said that to join a church he wants to see a change in his life, although there was nothing huge that he needed to change. After beginning to read the book of mormon and pray though he did see a night and day change in his attitude and happiness. It was amazing to see his process of conversion the last few weeks and in the end his baptism. He said he didnt feel too different and i thought hmm thats weird but then realized that the conversion was already there. He had truly repented and had only completed the process. It was a great weekend.

WElp thats it for this week! love you all!

love

hermana ostler

This week has been full of rain and out here in the province of Buenos Aires we have been experiencing a bit of flooding and extreme conditions, especially in the more humble parts of our area. (The picture of me soaked explains that)

We had a week a bit out of the norm with 3 meetings, 2 exchanges, and 1 normal day to work. WHooo! But its been awesome to see all of the miracles that the lord has been providing for us. In one of our meetings that we had this week (a leadership meeting) an hermana was talking about the miracles that they were seeing in their area and the story behind it and she said that "its amazing. the lord moves the whole world so that in the end we see a beautiful miracle in our area." it is so true. its like the people magically show up because the lord dumps them in our path but a lot of the time we really dont realize what happened to get them there. I think that every life is a giant miracle that we see but a lot of times we dont recognize it. Its amazing to be a part of. 

Also during exchanges this week i was able to work with 2 newer hermanas in the mission who are so awesome. THey are huge examples to me of love and light and how to convey the love and light of Jesus Christ to those around me. I love it!

Thats basically it for this week!

love

Hermana Ostler

Soaked with Exchanges

the companionship that we did exchanges with the first time this week

 exchanges, second time around

 exchanges!

after working in the rain yesterday

Its Starting to Rain

Well thiss weeeeeekkkkk. Haha 

Basically a run down of things that happened this week. Well before i forget something that happened last week that i forgot to include. 

So remember when i mentioned the whole reading the book of mormon in 24 days for pioneer day? Yeah. WE DID IT! We had a great devotional as a mission the 24th in celebration of pioneer day which was a blast. We ended up reading chapter 10 of Moroni (the last chapter in the book of mormon) and wow the spirit was so strong! We then had some musical numbers and a few talks about the pioneers. It helped me remember why we are out here and the purpose of sacrifice even when things get hard. The pioneers are such an example to me of hard work. 

Reading the Book of Mormon was also so great because I was able to feel the truthfulness of the book as i read. Every word seemed to testify to me that it was true. It was amazing. 

Then this week unlike a usual transfer week we didnt have any meetings or anything. Ive spent the last few days sick and yes it has even rained (although this has been a VERY dry winter for buenos aires). Something that has started to happen is that we are starting to get a "rain" of blessings. We have a really awesome investigator and seriously. Wow he just has a thirst to learn. He is super awesome and super energetic about learning about everything. We also have been finding some pretty awesome people lately and are starting to find miracles creeping out of the cracks. I know that after the trials of faith we always recieve blessings! 

Not too much happened besides that! Until next week!

love you all!

love hermana ostler

Bridge over Missionaries

 close up to the san fran wannabe

 my comp and i 

i like to try and look cool hahaha

hermanas!

zone selfie... with only half the zone

#zárate

Something Old, Something New (Written July 27th)

This week i have learned a lot about enduring to the end with patience. This last transfer has been one of the most difficult in my mission, as well as for my companion. I learned especially this week, the best thing you can do when things get hard is be patient, calm, and endure the things that try to throw you off. Its always worth it to smile and keep going instead of become angry and defensive. Its ok to have bad days, thats what the atonement is for. When no one seems to be on your side, the Lord will always be there.

Other than that this week was transfers! Whoooo! Im still here in Zárate, but hermana Vargas has left and i was in for a surprise for my new companion. Her name is Hermana PARDO! Yeah the same hermana pardo that i had as a companion 6 months ago in Núñez! WHAT?! Im super excited to work with her again and to hopefully bring the miracles that we saw in Núñez here in Zárate. :)

have a great week!

love

Hermana Ostler

Saying Goodbye to Some Things Old, Some Things New

my old (and new companion)

 Week 29

Week 59: Back together again with Hermana Prado

Week 17

 Week 59: elder danneman and elder perry. 

after teasing me about how i only have 4 months left in the mission….

Week 19

Week 59: saying goodbye to the lines

saying goodbye to hermana ramirez (my sister)

2 weeks Sorry! (Make that 4 weeks) - Written on July 20th

Sorry i didnt have time to write a mass email last week but i got a bunch of stuff done then had to go! haha so is life sometimes.

So not much has happened in the last two weeks besides find, filter, and drop investigators. Oh am i learning patience! 

Other than that 2 really fun things happened in the past 2 weeks! The week that i didnt write, as you probably saw in the pictures that i sent was that we went to the temple! Wow it was such a great experience. It really helped me to focus on the things that matter and to see why we do the things we do as missionaries, or the "goal." I had forgotten how much i love the temple. I KNOW that it is the house of the lord and that we can go there when we need peace and guidance from our Father. It amazes me how the lord will always answer our prayers and give us the guidance that we need. 

THis week we had a great ward activity. Apparently it was one of the only big ward activities that has happened in a few years and although no investigators showed up it really gave the members a lot of excitement to continue participating in the future events that are to come and to work with the missionary force in the ward. It was a really great activity and we hope that there will be more to come in the future! 

and thats about it for the past two weeks! i love you all and hope that you have a great week to come!

love hermana ostler

One Year Anniversary in Argentina

 1 year after meeting for the first time! aka my 1 year in the country!

 churros!

 argentina!