Hey Family,
Hope that this week was awesome and that you are all doing really exciting and wonderful things such as homework and paper routes (all that good stuff).
This past week Elder Lee and I have been really working to implement some of the lessons we have been learning especially in correlation with the Spirit and letting the Lord direct the work we are doing rather than trying to shove Him into the little package that we decide is correct. It definitely gives a different feel to the missionary work when you try to be humble enough to recognize that every effort that we make, no matter how much of our mind, might, and strength are in it, is so small in comparison to what the Lord can do. If we are trying to play on the Lord's team however instead of pretending like we are trying to let the Lord play on our team, I think that is when miracles will happen. So, we have been working hard to pray all the time and be led in our goal-setting, planning, and proselyting activities. It is crazy to see how much growth is possible. It's probably kinda like the scientist that discovered the molecule and was super excited to find the base of creation, and then the guy that discovered an atom destroyed that, and then came electrons...don't they realize that it would just be so much easier if they just stopped turning up the magnification on their microscopes? Kinda the same thing with magnifying our callings; it would be a whole lot easier not to do it, but we were created to be more than just acted-upon bystanders. Becoming better is hard, but we are called to do hard things!
I heard a pretty cool talk just this morning that Elder Lee showed me about being men in Christ. It talked a bit about David slaying Goliath and showed that David was not even a soldier in the Israelite army. He had no recognized responsibility to go up against the opponent and he definitely wasn't up to size for it. However, he knew of God's power and that through him that power could be made manifest. It is so often that I have the thought that if I get into the right situation I will do something awesome. However, we can't wait for the Lord to put us in what we consider golden situations, because maybe what seems unlikely might just be perfect and we just need to be willing.
One specific way that we have been trying to work by the Spirit is to pray before every finding effort. There was one instance this week where we only had 15 minutes of time to do a bit of street contacting before our next activity. We decided to take the extra minute or two to pray and then went at it. Even though we didn't have a ton of time, we were able to meet this really cool girl that came to church this week and shows a lot of interest in God. Heavenly Father knows what He is doing with His work. Pretty cool.
President Weidmann will be presiding at a zone conference this Wednesday and it is so interesting to see his view on missionary meetings. This conference will take up almost the entire day of missionary work and we might be able to pull one or two lesson at the end of the evening. When I first looked at the meeting's time-table I was pretty shocked at how long it was going to be and Elder Lee and I talked about why it was as long as it was. It is for the same exact reason as I mentioned before we realized, that we cannot do this work to the Lord's standard if we are not with the Lord in the work. President Weidmann is taking so much care to make sure that we are in a spiritual state that is ready to help others that need it and directed by the Spirit so much that we know where they are and how to help them. My thought of studies and missionary meetings has been, for most of my mission, that they were the breaks the Lord gave us so that we could get ready for the real stuff outside. I didn't, and am sure still completely don't, understand the importance of these hours. They truly help us become who we need to become, but only if we let them.
Well everybody, I love you 34 and I have no doubt that it'll just keep on going up.
Love,
Elder Ostergaard
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