Monday, April 21, 2014

#41 Monday, April 21, 2014

Dear Family,

How is it going!? If you do indeed find time to read this letter this week amidst the whole "my sister is getting married" stuff, I hope that you are having a swell time. That is so crazy. Whaddya do, crazy stuff happens some times.

But hey, this last week was a good week. We weren't getting all the lessons we wanted or hitting all of our goals, but, we did do something, and we did effect someone. So that's good.

A couple good successes. Saimir is now on a baptismal date again. He his previously been on at least one date before, but stuff happened and he is still thoroughly dry. We had a lesson with him on Saturday where we brought out a talk from President Monson relating the Cheshire Cat's words to Alice to his situation with baptism. He told us he wanted to be baptized, but he had to be totally sure about it first. We told him that he of course cannot be baptized before he is actually ready, but that in order to even get there he must have a goal in mind. That goal was a baptismal date. We also tried to overcome his thought about being totally sure by talking about Zeno's paradox. I learned it in my Philosophy class (as well as the movie I.Q.) and it is a good way of showing that at some point in our faith travels we have to talk a leap. He accepted finally and here's hoping!

Another good success was with an inactive family called the Ahmetis. They haven't been in something like 8 years and feel totally abandoned by the church. Our first meeting with them 2 weeks ago was basically them venting their anger on us. This last week though we went over and it was much better. I think that their trust in us is improving and we are sure hoping to help them see the beauty of the Gospel light again. It might take some time though.

This doesn't really count as a success, but it kind of made my day. On Saturday we were out street contacting and this girl came up and tapped me on the shoulder. I was kind of weirded out but turned around and said hi. She asked if we had church the next day, where it was, and what time it was. We told her (because those are questions we like to answer). She was just like "I'll be there". Then she booked it out of there. She didn't even just run across the street, she ran until she was out of sight. We laughed pretty hard about it. However, we didn't see her in church which was a shame. Maybe next week.

I was able to speak in church on Sunday along with the 3 other missionaries who recently came to Fier. Preparing for a talk on the Savior was such a blessing. Man. What an incredible gift bearing testimony is. I mean, we get to do it all the time as missionaries, but still bearing testimony is so great. Also, Enxhi came to church here in Fier with her sister and should probably be getting baptized on Saturday! That is way exciting.

I have been working really hard this week on being happier. I think that I mentioned that I was going to be doing something like that last week. It really has made a difference. Being happy is so good. Sometimes it is really hard to start and often difficult to keep up. However, it is sure happier than being melancholy or even just content. Having high highs sets you up for low lows, but they are worth it and are always made up for if we continue to be honest seekers of happiness like Ammon. If you aren’t happy, start taking those steps to change it. It matters.

Well hey family, I hope that you have such a good day and week. Don't go too crazy. The Church is true. Christ is the Savior. He did what the good books say He did, and he did it for you and for me. Love you lots!

Elder Ostergaard

1 comment:

  1. Its a wonderful day to start our day like this,. Thanks for posting this. God Bless!
    the family international

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