Miracles in San Fernando!

Alright so first I´ll give you all the great awesome things from this week then some of the chistes from the week.

I had to ask her what "chistes" were. Here is her response: 
"oh sorry jokes like if i said chiste chiste which i say all the time it means like joking joking or only joking"

So first off i cant remember if i talked about it while i was in the mtc but my companion and i came up with this in the mtc. Faith is like a spiritual trust fall. Basically if you have faith, you trust heavenly father to catch you if you fall and you submit his will to his. So thats from a few weeks ago that ive been thinking about for the past week. 
Second, so last sunday NONE of our investigators came to church. So we eventually came to the realization that none of them were progressing so we dropped them all. All 6 of them and started from scratch. We then proceeded to look and look and look. We made the decision to only proceed and begin to teach them if they accepted a baptismal date and or seemed receptive. That narrowed our search a lot. We then ended up fasting on friday, after 2 or 3 days of finding no one. It was a little discouraging to report our numbers because of our lack of success but everyone was so supportive cause it happens to everyone. So then on friday we found 3 people (one of which we cant count cause theyre out of our area)! Theyre so prepared and so great! One was a member reference and shes 12! SHes so adorable and very mature for her age! She came to church with us on sunday and we are so excited to teach her! SHe loved church. The second was the son of an inactive member and we thing hes really prepared as well! He couldn´t come to church though because everyone is on winter vacation right now and he was going somewhere with his family but he has a baptismal date! So the girl ended up bringing her little sister who is 10 and she loved church too and ended up committing her to baptism! You can totally see the light of christ in their eyes! Thats something that I have learned these past 2 weeks is in alma when it talks about countenance thats a real thing. You can tell when people are ready just by the light you can see in them. So we have 2 people coming to church with us and we had a goal for the week of 3. So before we leave the apt in the morning my companion prays for a miracle that somehow we will have 3. THen lo and behold we get to church with our 2 and the elders (were in a ward with the ap´s) come up to us saying that a little boy that lives in our area is coming to church today to see his cousin get baptised! WHAT. I cant even. ¨Such a blessing. So he comes and we commit him to baptism before the meeting even begins. He was just ready. So exciting. THEN HIS MOM SHOWS UP FOR THIRD HOUR. And were like oh hey. so we set up an appointment with her and oh man. so great we visited her last night and we taught the restoration and the spirit was SOOOO strong. She really liked thrid our and stayed for the baptism and liked that and is now going to pray about the restoration. And she has an unofficial date (she needs to get married first, shes been living with her "husband" for 25 years and have for kids the oldest is 21 and arent married). Such a miracle weekend. How fantastic. 
Ok so now the fun things for the week. So at our district meeting our district leader shows up with refreshments. How great. BUT he shows up with donuts. Mind you, american donuts are different than argentinian donuts so were like ok cool. but then someone grabs one and ITS AN AMERICAN DONUT! (supposably they didnt have them here) AND IT WAS FILLED WITH DULCE DE LECHE. it was magical. soooo good. 
So everyone here knows that im a foreigner but apparently no one thinks from the us. whenever they ask i know youre not argentinian but where are you from? we have them guess. its always first germany and second russia. haha 
Ok so its a shame we believe in baptism by immersion because of the amount of water you need for that haha. so on sunday the elders had a baptism but they go in to fill up the font during church and THE HOT WATER HEATER IS BROKEN. and the water is freezing. like ice cold. (its winter here) so everyone flips out and then we started to get buckets of water and fill them up in the sink in the kitchen (that uses a different water heater) and bring them to the font. oh man. what an experience. in the words of the AP "this is the mission" haha
Random thing that no one will probably know what im talking about BUT so theres this thing that all the missionaries do down here where you shake your hand and it makes this snapping clapping sound and it takes a super long time to figure out how to do it. like ususally months. BUT LET THE RECORD SHOW THAT I GOT IT WITHIN MY FIRST WEEK. just sayin
the other fun thing which i mentioned last week was that there are a bunch of dogs EVERYWHERE. so its normal for them to come up and sniff you like whatever. so saturday this one dog comes up to me sniffs me then lifts his leg and STARTS TO PEE ON ME! so i flip out and luckily nothing got on me so i shoo it away super quickly but then while im sitting there talking to our now investigator it comes back while my back is turned and did the same thing! i turned around to a puddle behind my shoe. by some miracle it wasn´t on me still. thank the heavens. the member we were with died of laughter
ANd finally last week we went to a members house for lunch and they have a little girl whos like 4 and she wasn´t eating her bread/roll and were like what do you not like bread? to which she responds no i don´t like bread... but yes i do like the bread of the sacrament! I died. super cute. oh and also yesterday we were eating with a different family who had a kid and hes about 5 and my comp asks him are you going to serve a mission? to which he reponds "... another day" so funny. 
Finally something that i came to realize today in my personal study. I read the devotional becoming a concecrated missionary which is super great. everyone should read it. and i started to think about the song army of helaman and how our generation is compared to them. I was thinking of how missions are difficult (in a unique indescribable way) and i thought you know, none of them died yes, but a lot of them were wounded, battered, and injured. This work isn´t easy, but it is so great and so worth it. It brings so much joy to everyone involved and in the words of elder holland salvation was never an easy experience. We need to give our all to the lord and he will bless us. and i bet you ANYTHING that the army of helaman came out of that so greatful for their experience and in rejoicing and thanking god. They can say,"yeah i was part of that generation. it was all a miracle. im thankful for my parents for teaching me what i know to be true and im thankful for god. i hope what i did gave hope and inspiration to those i worked with because I followed the spirit. I heeded the lords call and remained clean. i´m grateful for the lords hand in my life and the miracles he performed for me. he is all powerful and has made me stronger. it was a struggle and we had to give up things along the way but IT WAS ALL WORTH IT."thats how i feel right now and thats what i hope i can proudly say at the end of my mission. We are the lords missionaries and his servants. It is an honor to have this call. 
I hope everyone is doing well back in the united states! Chao from argentina!
les amo!
hermana ostler

Buen Dia de Argentina!

Alright so first off I´ll get my heart break out of the way... ARGENTINA LOST THE WORLD CUP. WHAT. THE. HECK. I told my comp in the mtc when we found out: "alright thats it. im not going anymore. im staying here." she laughed and said that was fine with her because shes staying in the mtc for a while cause of her transfers being messed up. But alas im here anyways and its great!

So the flight down more or less kinda sucked. I was smack in the middle of the plane for 10 hours and slept on and off and it was dark and there was turbulance and yeah. I was basically in this weird state between being awake and asleep and it was kinda dreamy. Weird. Anyways then we had customs and all this other fun stuff and long story short basically lost a night of sleep.... WHoop. so yeah. But the first day in Argentina was FANTASTIC (besides being deathly tired). We got to go to the cathedral where the current pope is from and see the casa rosa and everything else that if you search buenos aires argentina those pictures pop up on the internet. We then got to go to the site where south america was dedicated for missionary work (20+ years ago) and where earlier this year argentina was dedicated. super cool. then to the mission home for a discourse on everything and lunch (we were STARVING) and it was soooo good. holy cow. empanadas are my FAVORITE. Then we got our companions and my companion is Hermana Keith! shes from ogden utah and speaks english! thank the heavens. although we try not to. 

So about the country and my mission. So my mission includes the city of buenos aires! yessss. so great. we call it capital (pronounced cahp-ee-tall). Were basically the smallest mission in s america but we have the same amount of people haha. it supposably takes about 3 hours to get from one end of the mission to the other. super tiny. so yeah. 

I´m currently in an area called san fernando. It looks kinda like europe (based off movies and pictures) but a lot more run down and a lot dirtier. A lot of the roads down here are cobble stone (?) brick ish stony yeah... and very uneven. THERE ARE DOGS EVERYWHERE. Just walking around in the street trying to get food from the trashbags out for collection. Super crazy. BUt all the dogs just do what they want haha its kinda funny. 

The people here are super nice. They always greet you with a hug and a kiss on the cheek even if they have just met you. (we shake the hands of the men though). its kinda different cause a lot have gates around their house or whatnot and no doorbell so we stand outside the gate and clap and say hola and then someone comes out to greet/talk to us. The members are so great and we almost always have a member with us when we´re not in the apartment. Super awesome. 

the work down here is great. President Ayre told us on the first day and i see it to be true that the work is super fast down here. There are so many people that are ready for the gospel. Our goal is to meet them, invite to be baptized first encounter and 3 weeks later they are baptised, thats how ready they are. It is crazy but so awesome. You have to work so hard but it is great. My first full day was great and the lessons were great. But because the work is moving so fast here if they don´t have a date or arent progressing we drop them (we try to teach each person every day). We don´t tract but get a lot of references and street contacts. The members are so supportive and always go with us for lessons. 

THe spanish is good. Not coming along as fast as i could have hoped (and i mean like overnight haha) but its going faster than it would with the Lords help. I understand quite a bit but speak less. 

The area that im in the water is drinkable but i use a filter anyways cause im used to american water haha. BUT the shower water is cold. well fluctuates from lukewarm to pretty hot I find myself praying in the shower a lot for the water to be hot haha. also we wash all of our clothes by hand! 

The food is AMAZING and dulce de leche is definitely my weakness. Heaven help me. Also, IT IS SO COLD DOWN HERE. we almost always are wearing our heavy winter coats and always when were outside. I went from 100 degrees in provo to who knows what down here. (i cant remember and if i did they always tell me in celcius...) Oh back to food. so down here lunch is their big meal so instead of going to members houses for dinner we go for lunch! Its the best! Oh man the food is so good. Then we don´t eat dinner cause we just have lessons and its great valuable time to teach so yeah. i usually carry a snack with me. 

anyways thats all i can think about for now! Hope your week is well! ill take more notes and write more about things down here next week! love you all!

with love

hermana ostler

Settling In

 1 my comp and i

 2. welcome decorations

 3 my first lunch in the field (not at presidents house)

 4. view from the apt

5. washing clothes

First Day in Argentina

1. a friend from college

 2. The arriving group in the Buenos Aires North mission in the big plaza thing first day. The other sisters are from the Argentina Missionary Training Center (MTC), and the elders were my´´companions´´ and were in my district in the MTC in Provo.

 3. a panoramic of the cathedral we visited

  4. casa rosa

  5. casa rosa

6. dedication site

pictures from the last day of class with hermano rios!

 

Your daughter has finally arrived

Dear Family,

We are thrilled to report that your daughter, Sister Ostler, has finally arrived safely in her mission here in Buenos Aires.  She was picked up at the airport, and after a brief tour of Buenos Aires was brought to the mission home for a luncheon, followed by an interview with the President.  You should expect to hear from your missionary on her next P-day, which will be on Monday, July 21^st.  Thank you for your prayers and support.

Presidente y Hermana Ayre

Argentina may have lost the World Cup, but Hermana Ostler is going anyway!

I was sent this picture this morning!

Your darling missionaries!

I had the pleasure of sitting near your missionaries on Frontrunner this morning. I have a son serving in England now and I love to get surprise pictures. So, asked the three of them if I could take a picture and send it to their moms. They all looked happy and anxious! So grateful for their willingness to serve. Happy Monday!

-Erika Munson