JAS (Joven Adulto Solo) or YSA (Young Single Adults)

 us with the JAS program

 our convert and ward mission leader who baptized himbefore the baptism

 before the baptism

Around Town

 yep there was a theatre there :(

 the flooded road when it poured on sunday. (note the last picture was the day before when it was super hot)

 a pic from the train station in carupa

Field Trip

 outside puerto de frutos

 in front of the tigre river

 at puerto de frutos with chocolate dipped churros filled with dulce de leche

the argentine version of the jungle cruse on the tigre river

Encontrar, Enseñar, Bautisar

Wow so this week has been great. Yes i did have a pday yesterday but EVERY STORE IN THIS PROVINCE WAS CLOSED YESTERDAY. Yay random holidays where no one has to work. Its basically labor day but for no reason and literally nothing is open. haha So thats why im emailing on tuesday.

So this week I have learned 1. you have to make time for the gospel. no matter what. We were teaching this lady and her daughter and she is the sweetest most caring person ever. Whenever we taught her we could feel she spirit soooo much and were sure that she was going to progress. Well after a few lessons and a church attendance which she loved, she started working a LOT. She was almost never in her house and when she was she was exhausted (she is a caretaker for other people and cleans and cooks and whatnot for them so her schedule is flexable). We felt so bad for her but knew that this is something that she needs. So we kept trying and kept trying but was saying that she just didnt have time for it all. We eventually dropped her which broke my heart because she is so great. I know that Christ could give her support and strength if she let it happen but she just wouldnt make time to pray and read and develop a relationship with Jesus Christ. Just like any other relationship it takes work and you have to let him in. when life seems hard and you dont have time thats when you cant afford to not make time for Him. I could feel so much love for her and it was so hard to see her not do the thing that would help her the most.

Thing 2. dont judge a book by its cover. Ok so I think this is something that everyone is guilty of at some time or another but honestly its something that is sometimes really hard to do. So our new investigator actually found us. We were crossing the street to wait for a member on a corner to go to an appointment when he comes up to us and more or less is like hey so i talked to your friends a few months ago and they said theyd stop by but they never did and i still want to learn your message. I was a little bit wary of him just based off his looks and sometimes people do this just to get our attention cause my comp and i are both blonde haired and blue eyed. So we go on talking and set up an appointment which i still wasnt really sure of. Long story short we ended up going and wow. He is so prepared. He smokes a pack a day (20 cigarrettes) and committed him to drop the habit and smoke only 13 then 12 the next day and the day after. He proceeded to top that and only smoke 10 and 7. So as of now we are PRAYING PRAYING PRAYING that he can find a way to change his work schedule to be able to attend church.

Ok so now on to the other stories. SO we went to a young single adult play show thing that they put on for the primary of the stake so help out and support them. During the break they were playing kids music and this song comes on and my comp and i realize what it is at the same time and slowly turn to eachother and laugh. Barney music in spanish is a bit funny.

Now this one i am so sad about. So a member comes up to us last tuesday night and is like oh yeah this famous american died then said his name which i didnt understand cause people pronounce things different in spanish and my comp freaks out and im just like oh i don{t know who it is then she says robin williams. WHAT. ROBIN WILLIAMS DIED. So sad. there goes my childhood. Time to do his temple work. Moving on.

So this one happened in gospel principles this week where we were talking about commandments and the senior couple missionaries (office missionaries) are in our ward and attend that class. so the teacher asks robbing. what is robbing? to which the elder speaks up and is like something that happens to the missionaries every week. we cant go a week without someone being robbed! haha we kinda died laughing. apparently you cant be a real missionary in this mission without being robbed. I havent been yet thank the heavens but maybe some day

now i cant remember if i have talked about this or not but oh mate cocido. so mate is this tea drink thing that missionaries cant drink but we can drink the kind from the tea bag. And ALL THE MEMBERS TRY TO GIVE IT TO US. Which is fine cause most people love it. PErsonally it makes me gag. Its definitely an aquired taste haha which i am currently trying to aquire. haha

And finally, its starting to warm up down here! You can tell because a. its warmer and more humid and b because the sunrise is moving! what. the other day i looked out my window and i couldnt see the sunrise. hmm weird haha

Love you all!

Hermana Ostler

PS peruvian food is the bomb. we had some at a members house on sunday and i think i died and went to heaven. then for dessert they had this brownie type thing with dulce de leche and whipped cream. oh heavens

Feliz DIA DEL NIÑO

HOLA a TODO!

So down here in argentina apparently they have celebrations and days for

EVERYTHING. And theyre all a bigger deal than christmas. (apparently

christmas isn´t a huge celebration like in the states) but yeah so they

have mothers day and fathers day and the such, but they also supposably

have a animals day and kids day and whatever else and yesterday was the

kids day (dia del nino) basically everything shuts down and no one is in

their house and if they are theyre celebrating and don´t want to do

anything. also the day before is almost like black friday haha super

interesting.

The last few days have been great. We´ve been doing a lot of visiting less

actives this week. I guess its weird to think about it but there is so much

good you can do and you can help so many people that know about the church

and are baptized but then have just lost their way or have forgotten. Its

great to rekindle their hope that no matter what happens or what they do

they the savior loves them and will accept them  no matter what. We taught

this girl who got baptized about 4 years ago and is now 16 with a one year

old son. We randomly found her and discovered she was a member and it was

so amazing to see the hope that the message of christ was giving her. the

rest of our investigators are going great! although so many didn´t want to

come to church yesterday because of the holiday haha oh well

in other news: we went to a members house for lunch the other day and she

was TOTALLY watching little house on the prarie. (in spanish of course) it

was super wierd and super tempting to watch it cause i mean my childhood

but i didn´t haha

also apparently theres no word or translation for "baby shower". they just

say it like that. so its like spanish spanish spanish "baby shower" spanish

haha. it kinda cracks me up.

and for this week on the list of fun things hermana ostler has done on her

mission. so here there are a lot of peruvian immagrants who come here for

work and the food here is not spicy unlike the rest of the hispanic or

south american world. i also have a unspoken rule that if someone gives you

something or an opportunity to do something do it just so say you did. so

story time. we were at a members house last sunday and the mom is peruvian

and so they like "pecante" on some of their food which they just add on.

and they have their own homemade recipie of something that they add. so my

comp is like oh yeah ill try it and then offers it to me so i say sure

cause i mean i can take it. i put on a little bit which later my comp told

me was a ton for peruvian picante and eat some more of the rice and all the

sudden the heat of the sun is in my mouth. i almost died. everyone was

laughed and i couldn´t taste anything normally for about 10 minutes. whoo!

it was fun haha

welp thats it for this week! ill send some pics soon!

love hermana ostler

PS 

so tuesday because a bunch of people in the missions visas expire and the church wants us to obey honor and sustain the law they took 30 missionaries across the river to uruguay and back to renew their passports with another 90 day visa until they get their residencial and since were the only missionaries in the area who arent the aps my comp and i got to babysit the mission office! they prepared us well with things to do if people called or came with mail but at about 10 these people came to the gate saying they were switching the big table in the office for a newer better looking one and had it in a truck. they had NOT told us that this was happening today. so we opened the gate and sceptically locked ourselves in the building cause 4 random guys were coming in with this pickup truck. but then the driver gets out and wants to talk to us as were trying to go back inside to lock ourselves in and hes like ohhhh then startes fiddling with his wallet and continues to talk. so im like uhh what the heck do you need from your wallet. he then pulls out his temple recommend and is like oh you probably want to know that this is a real thing that were doing and shows it to us haha. Yay mormon identification! hahah

Pictures from Argentina

 my tags i got a new one last week

  me and my comp

3 generations daughter mom and grandma

 most of our zone at lunch last week for pday

 our zone after volleyball last pday

 this pie cake thing that a member got us. its so good! and weighs literally like 10 lbs. has this jelly in the middle

the pie cake thing pastaflora is what its called

Hola a todo!

This week has been great. A lot of turn overs with investagators aka dropping and finding others. We are basically no longer teaching anyone who came to church last week haha but the work moves on! the two girls (the sisters) who came last week, theyre parents don´t want them going to church with us then the boy and his mom that just showed up last week randomly it looks like were going to drop... but all is well in zion! we found a young adult that we have been teaching all week and wow. i don´t think i have seen someone so prepared. We taught him the word of wisdom and after a bit of a little like what? this is a thing? he was like yeah ill live it. the next day we came to visit him and asked him how it was going and he was just like yeah last night i was playing soccer and my friends offered me some alcohol and i said no and didn´t drink any. we then asked him if his friends thought he was weird for doing so and he said no it was weird but im glad it happened. haha hes so great and straight up just super awesome. so yeah thats our main investigator. we have a few more but nothing huge and a few more just possibilities. We are praying daily for miracles to reach our goal of 3 baptisms and 3 confirmations this month! so crazy. with god anything is possible! 

love 

hermana ostler

ps sorry for the short letter this week. not too much happened and we have some zone activities planned for today :D