#34 March 3, 2014 I am basically talking in Aramaic over here.

Knocking doors in dwarfville

Beso means believe in command form. It is basically the coolest Albanian graffiti around and you can find it here and there


Hey Fam,

This last week I was reading in Jesus the Christ and it mentioned a man named Bartimeus and had a note that that meant the son of Timeus, same thing with Simon Bar Jona. In Albanian the word for son is "bir", which is basically "bar", so if you carry the ten and apply the principles of horseshoes and hand grenades, I am speaking Aramaic. That is pretty sweet.

It has been another week out here in paradise, and well, we ain't dead yet! There have been a couple noteworthy things going on over here. One pretty crazy one happened because of one of our investigators named Banush. Banush is this really connected old xhaxhi that , due to his presence in both government and university positions knows a crazy ton of people. He is really hard to meet with, but really likes the idea of Joseph Smith and "new prophets" (we are very much in a agreement on that) and told us a couple weeks ago that we can't just be teaching one or two people about this at a time. We need to be meeting with ten, fifteen, or more. We told him that we agreed, but that first of all we needed to find those people. He said that he would bring people and we were very okay with that. It finally happened this last Wednesday when he brought 9 others with him to learn about this Joseph Smith guy and it was pretty cool. The outcomes of the meeting are still up in the air, but even just that fact that it happened is super cool. This is not missionary missionary work or even member missionary work, this is investigator missionary work. It was a real testimony to me of the possibility of sharing the Gospel with your friends.

Something similar happened with Dodona. We went over to her house this last week with the Homers and when we got their, she had also invited two friends and her son to come and hear what we had to say. That was also super cool. However, we have to give her over to First Branch because of where she lives, so we are praying that they can help Dodona and all of her friends down the path of the Gospel of Christ.

We met a guy named Aleksander a couple months ago and had tried to met with him before, but due to everything he had not been able to until this past week. (We actually had an interesting mess-up of thinking another guy was him and teaching him a really short lesson before Aleksander got to the church. Oops. Kinda.) We sat down with him and taught him a lesson about the Book of Mormon and just watching him was an experience. The guy loves Jesus Christ a lot, but doesn't know a ton about this Bible or anything. However, as we explained about this Bible and the Book of Mormon and how they build each other up and strengthen each other, he was just excited. We read through the Introduction with him and he would stop every now and then and tell us how much sense it made. He was then able to come to part of church yesterday and, well, he is just a great guy. We are excited to help him progress in his knowledge of the Savior and His Gospel.

Last night we had a movie night at the church. The sisters had popped up some popcorn (kokoshka), and we watched the Restoration film. While Elder Jorgensen and I were waiting for someone to show up so that we could show them where the church was, two guys walked by and we invited them to come and watch the movie with us. They said yes so we took them and it was really good. Something that I have been figuring out on my mission is how easy and good it is to just ask. A lot more times than I would ever think people have responded is more positive ways than expected, so I have come to know that I never know what people will say or what all is going on for them.

I had an opportunity to study some of this past General Conference this last week (I know that it has almost been six months, but finding time to study everything is tough). One of the really big things that has kicked me in the rear end and said "listen up" was Edward Dube's talk. He quoted President Packer in a story about an ox-pulling contest (go check it out). I thought about myself as a missionary and how I often try to "bulk-up" and become the biggest, best missionary that I can be. I don't think that this is a bad thing, but it is not the only thing. We are here two-by-two and as such it is important that I am pulling in time and rhythm with the other ox in the yoke (my companion). Only in completely unity can the biggest loads be pulled. Only together and with the Spirit as a third member can the impossible be possible and our potential as missionaries of the Lord Jesus Christ be expanded and fulfilled.

On an unrelated note, I was talking to Elder Jorgensen this morning about opportunities that we had to serve in the Church before the mission. It really hit me how much magnifying your calling makes a difference. There were definite times were I did not try (either because I did not know how or didn't put forth the effort) to magnify my position and truly lift where I stood. However, when I did, it made all the difference in the world. The same deal has made itself manifest. When we work to magnify our calling, the Lord magnifies us to fill the newly created view that we take. However, when we do not try to do that, the Lord has no need to magnify us as our own purpose and view is minimal. If you can do a bit more to help progress the work, do it!

So this week is Stake Conference, and we are really excited to see this next mile-marker of growth in Albania. How all the current District and branches will be affected is right now up in the air. However, one big thing is going to be who is where here in Tirana. There are a lot of people who are living within other branches' borders and with the creation of a stake this will be a more enforced thing. Third branch will see several people leave (including the Elder's Quorum President, Relief Society President, and 2nd couneslor in the District Presidency) and we are hoping to see several people enter as well. For number of units, I am not totally positive right now (there are currently 10 branches and 2 groups in the district). Some members are excited about the change, some aren't really sure how anything is going to change.

In a typical day we don't walk a crazy ton as we are often either sitting in lessons or standing on the street and contacting. Probably a couple miles. Public transportation is only used if we are going out of the branch which isn't very often. Actually just a couple weeks ago the government closed down the use of unlicensed forgons (vans that drive from city to city). That changes the transportation from city to city pretty significantly, but I have only ever been on 2.

In our English classes we use this book that was put together for missionaries as the base line, but then we will do other things too. However, a lot of the times missionaries will just make stuff up. Whatever it is, they are learning English I guess.

Alright, well I hope that this next week is just the bomb diggity for you and that you learn something knew and do something great!

Love,
Elder Ostergaard

#33 Another day, another destiny

Alright,

So this last week was good! We were able to teach a good amount of people, had a good number of people in church, found a pretty good number of new investigators... the only problem is that I wasn't called to be a good missionary. Our companionship was not put together to do good work. We are here to be extraordinary and craze-ify the work out here in Albania! Oh gees. I guess that is why I have been blessed with many one-more-days out here, because I guess we have not found out how to do it right the first time! But really, it was a good week.

So this week. We have found a fairly solid ability with finding people (Tirona is a big city and that makes a wonderful avenue for talking to a whole lot o' people) and even teaching people (when they show up to the appointments that we set up, sadly on a significantly less frequent basis than we hope for), however, the third part of that equation, the baptism part, we have been working hard to breach that barrier. There was a baptism for the zone leaders this week and it was great to be able to get an investigator there and help them see a little bit more about the purpose behind the two American kids in suits on the road. Enxhi, a recent investigator, came to it and before the baptism started I was able to explain a bit about what was going down and the covenants behind the two boys getting wet. After the explanation about the internal cleansing that was going to happen, I asked her why she thought that they had decided to get baptized. She said that maybe they just felt guilty. I laughed and said that that was probably a big part of it. We all feel that yearning to be clean and it that can be a huge reason for some people to want to take that step into the waters of baptisms and the continual repentance that we are privileged to do.

On a similar topic, this week we are privileged to work with a recent convert named Pellumb right now. He was just baptized two weeks ago and then yesterday he received the Aaronic Priesthood and will have the opportunity to pass the Sacrament next week. As we went over all of the steps of what was going to happen last evening we took a few minutes at the end to sit down at the end and just really try to help him understand the purpose and meaning behind what he would be doing as a Priesthood holder as he would prepare, bless, and pass the Sacrament. John Bytheway gave a talk once where he mentioned how important the duty of Priesthood holders is. When your friend asks, "what are you doing this weekend?" and you say not much, you might want to rethink. A better answer would be that you are using authority, that in approximately 12 steps can be traced back to the Savior, in order to help put a congregation of people under a binding covenant with God. Suddenly you weekend seems a bit bigger. Helping to teach that and help someone see the importance was a wonderful refresher to me of my responsibilities as a Priesthood holder.

Yesterday one of the investigators that came to church with us let us know that his 1 and a half year-old daughter was in the hospital and asked us if we could help out. We told him that we were not able to help out financially, but that we did have a special way in which we could help out. We went over last night and gave his daughter, Xhoanna, a blessing. We are really hoping and praying for faith from the mom and dad to be exercised in the healing of their daughter.

Some questions:
How is your health doing? -- My health is doing well, I haven't even really had to pretend I am not sick!

Tell us a little about the weather. Have you had to use your raincoat at all? Does Albania ever get snow? -- So the weather has been for the most part really nice recently. It is actually usually colder in our house because the cement is not an incredible insulator for heat, but it does a rather fantastic job with the cold. My raincoat gets used a couple times a week and the waterproofing job that I put on it is holding up well. Snow. Nope. They will tell you yes but that is once in every however many billion years. Up north they do though (in Shkoder and Kosove).

Do you wear your suit coat much? -- We probably wear a suit coat every other day or so. The other days we wear sweaters.

And tell us a little about how your church building differs from ours. Do you have to have a key to get in to teach lessons? Is it an electronic key pad like ours? I bet the building is much smaller than our Stake Center. -- Our church building is three floors tall and the pronari (landlord) lives on the fourth. It has a gate in the front that locks and then all of the rooms lock (not electronically, we just have to carry around a billion keys). The Sacrament Hall is the first floor and then all of the teaching rooms are on the other two floors.

You'll be a Stake in Albania very soon! Tell us a little about that! -- The Stake should turn 3rd branch (as well as all of the other Tirana branches) into a ward. There are not a whole lot of options for a bishop, so that will be interesting. It is going to be a hard transition that will lead to a lot of blessings as more people will be taken to fill Stake callings, missionaries will be separated a lot more from the dealings of the units, and President Ford will no longer be the ecclesiastical leader for the area.

Can you tell me about a recent experience in which you felt you had been directed by the Spirit in your teaching or other activities as a missionary? -- I think that the most prominent for me this past week has been in our lesson with Pellumb. However, when I look back I can see little spiritual promptings that I have had to get out into the road and talk to someone, or whatever it may be.

Do you only speak Albanian with your companion or only with nationals? -- No...we should be better about that.

What is some of the most impressive things you have noticed about your companion? -- He is so chill. There are very few things that rattle his chains. I have found how tense of a person I am out on my mission. I have discovered many things that cause me to go out of my chill zone and I need to work on that.

And, finally, any package yet? -- Nope, not yet

Hey, I love you so much and I hope that you have a fantastic time in Utah, Mother! Get well Grandma, get wedding-ready siblings, get more jacked both of you Michael Phelps brothers, and Dad keep holding up the world, Atlas.

Shihena,
Elder Ostergaard

#32 February 17, 2014 ... with pictures even.

Hey Momma,

Well, this week was a good week in the field! It is one of those ones where it feels like the work is really progressing and we are inviting more people to come unto Christ. And since that is really what the work is all about, I would say that that made it a pretty solid week.

We are still having our struggles getting people to church, but they aren't as bad of struggles as they previously were so that is a huge blessing! Actually the investigator who we are most excited about kind of showed up last week at church. We had talked to him on the road and I guess invited him to come, but neither of us had gotten his number. However, after that he just showed up last week. He is a guy named Ernest and he is really cool. He is 21, so it is a bit easier to connect with him too which is great. He told us that he is really looking for some more faith in his life and we gladly told him that that is something that we specialize in. He has been coming to English course too. He said that he was baptized in the Orthodox church, but when we explained the reason for him to be baptized again and he understood and excepted, so woo! We also met these two girls contacting on Saturday night and invited them to church and they came all three hours which was really awesome! We actually just set up a lesson with them for later on today, so we are hoping that that will go someplace! For our other investigators, we have some that are making progress, but I guess just not as much as we would have hoped. However, If you could keep some of these names in your prayers that would be great: Ernest, Dodona, Drita, Zaura, Monda, Banush, and every other Albanian ever. Thanks!

This week we have been continuing on in our English course and we have seen more people coming which is just awesome! Teaching English is pretty fun and it gives a whole different feel to communicating with Albanians. Suddenly I can communicate with them in their language a whole lot better than they can communicate with me. We taught them how to say "see you later alligator."

We have gotten an interesting question from one of our new investigators recently that I guess I had never really thought about before. She has a muslim background, and though I don't think she practices that much, she still has beliefs in correlation with that faith. She told us that she didn't understand why we prayed in the name of Jesus Christ rather than simply praying to God. I have been reading my missionary library and some conference talks as well as asking some others about what they thought in order to come up with a good answer to this question. I would love your thoughts, but here are a couple of the things I have found:
1. We do indeed pray directly to Heavenly Father. We are simply told to pray to the Father in the name of Christ (Doctrine and Covenants 10:5).
2. There is a certain power in the name of Christ that we ourselves do not possess (for example see the story of Moses' encounter with Satan in Moses 1:12-22).
3. This is not completely answering the same question, however it is along the same lines. The plan of our Heavenly Father includes both perfect justice as well as perfect mercy. The Father must be just and hold to the commandments and guidelines He has set (see Alma 42). However, He has also created away for mercy to save us, and that way is through His Son. To say that we need Christ in order to return to the Father is not to diminish the omnipotence of the Father, but to show in more detail how His power is extended.
Those are some thoughts, but please feel more than free to shoot some others my way.

To answer some questions:
Do the Albanians celebrate Valentine's Day? I guess kinda. You could see people walking around with flowers and either the government or phone companies put up some decorative stuff here and there.
Today we, along with 6 other missionaries, went down to the artificial lake. It is this really big lake in the south of Tirana and we walked around and ate a bit of a sack lunch there. It was really nice!
Our laundry is done in our apartment with a washer that we have right there and then hung up on some drying racks (I think I sent a picture of those way back when).
Our apartment could be cleaner, but it isn't that bad.
For breakfast it is either eggs and hot sauce (from the American dollar store), cereal (I usually mix together corn flakes and this granola-ish stuff called muesli), or bread and nucream (a nutella-ish thing but better and cheaper). Then for lunch we are inside a good amount of the days. The zone leaders usually come over and we make pasta, or other stuff).
Grocery shopping is not crazy different here, just not as big of a selection of things. You can also go get produce from little fruit stands. The groceries aren't crazy different in price (except for peanut butter and stuff which are really expensive), but the fruits and vegetables and such are really cheap (I think so at least, a kilo of oranges is about 60 cents).
And my package is not yet here, but maybe soon.

Love,
Elder Ostergaard

Hey Mom, here are a couple pictures that I just got from Elder Austin. These are from Nertila's baptism and one of Sister Andrews wearing Elder Austin's fuzzy hat. Elder Austin actually just got on a plane this morning for America. He has been having continuing problems with his stomach in Kosovo and the area doctor in Germany told him to go home and get it fixed. Hoping and praying everything goes all right.

Love,
Kimball





Hello Mother Dearest,

How did you pass? Are you tired. Are you bored? With health? From the house? Are you good? (then you just need to say good after every single one of those questions and that is an Albanian greeting)

These are some pictures. The first one is of a "pod racer". The gypsies here will attach the back half of a bike or a motorcycle to a big box with wheels on it and drive it around yelling really loudly for people to give them their old scrap metal and appliances.
The second is of Brother Alushi, this awesome member in 3rd branch that helps us out with a ton of lessons. He had us over and played the guitar for us and sang. It was awesome.
The third was actually taken last night after Elder Jorgensen and I talked with this guy from Taiwan. He spoke no English and really really broken Albanian. It was a good time!

Love,
Elder Ostergaard

#31 February 10, 2014

Hey Momma, [and I'm sure he means everyone!]

The weeks are just rolling by here and it is crazy to be sitting in this smoke filled room with an ndalohet duhani (No Smoking) sign up as I type here once again. Our weeks have been a bit difficult these last couple of weeks with people not being able to meet ad the such (I guess that is how the work rolls apo jo?) but we have been working and really trying to do what we need to be doing. This has happened a couple of times where we just come to the end of the week and look back at what was accomplished, not quite with that feeling of satisfaction that we had been a-hoping for. That is when we say a prayer as a companionship and plead with the Lord to accept and seal the efforts that we put forth. The work can always be improved, but it is good to know that the Lord will accept our best efforts, whatever they may be.

Elder Jorgensen and I recently started teaching an English Course which has started off well...except for the fact that it is totally filled with members and other missionaries' investigators. We need to get other people here to learn about the Gospel...but the church is kind of in a back alley of a not super well traveled road. Whaddya do? So we are still working on getting some other people there and hope that that works out!

Church is still a pretty tricky part of the work, because even though we were able to get a lot of people to come last week, people get busy. We are still pushing for these people to come and always inviting a billion people to come to church (we go through our list of current and potential investigators and call as many as we can to come). We are hoping to see all those that we have been able to see grow continue in that growth!

I was actually reading just a couple of days ago in the book Jesus the Christ. Christ was in the process of sending His twelve on their first missions. He told them that they must, "be fearless...for the most their persecutors could do was to kill the body." I read that and was really impressed by the weight of the Savior's words to them. And then I thought about me. Yeah, that is where the real learning comes in. As I likened the words of the Savior to me and the mission that I am serving right now I took a step back (figuratively as I was sitting at the time). What are my fears on the mission? People laughing at me. Being in the middle of an awkward conversation. So, essentially nothing. I have been called as a missionary to be as a missionary from an already "peculiar people" which really makes me double peculiar. Weirdness should be my bread and butter. The only thing that can stop me from being the greatest missionary that I can be is a lack of dedication to the regulations set by God and my own decisions on how much I want the Spirit and how seriously I will take my calling as a missionary. Repentance is a change of mind and heart that brings a re-aligning towards God, yourself, and eternity. This day I repent to be a better servant of Christ and a better missionary. I repented yesterday, the day before, and I hope to be willing to repent every day of my life.

Love you so much and Sure hope that you are doing just great and keeping busy!

Puç puç, (that is for Valentine's Day) Ju puth fort,
Elder Ostergaard

#30 February 3, 2014

Dear Mother,

Happy Monday and welcome to another week! This wasn't the massive breath of the air from a fresh week as it was last week, but it always great to be able to start again and start at it with some fresh eyes (On a similar note, I changed my toothbrush again yesterday or the day before, that is another great beginning. If you haven't changed your toothbrush in a while, try it out, it's great.).

This last week the most exciting big event was definitely at church. We have really been having a difficult time getting people into church (we invite a crazy ton of people, but then I guess they find other things that take priority) and have only been able to get one investigator to come to each of the sacrament meetings we have had here in 3rd branch. However, perhaps it was this Fast Sunday, perhaps we are just finding a couple of people who are really becoming more open to the message we have, and perhaps it simply was not raining (though most likely and combination of the three), we were able to have more success with it this week! We were out waiting for a guy named Spirro to show up at a near-by landmark and he came with his wife which was really exciting! Then we walked over to the church (which had already started, I don't think that I have been on-time to church for about 5 weeks. Investigators, you can't go to church on time with 'em, and that is a lot better than going without 'em) and as we walked into the Chapel we saw Godona (more about her in a second) and a girl next to her that we didn't recognize (it was, in Godona's words, her "spirit daughter". We will figure out what that means next time we meet.). So we were super excited about that. Then as we went to go sit down Elder Jorgensen saw Julian who we had invited in a lesson the day before to come and went and sat by him. And then about 3 minutes later, Gjyska walked into the Chapel (we had met her about a week and a half before but had not been able to actually meet with her again since). We were so excited. As President Ford says in his British accent "investigators in church is the key key indicator" and it was so great to be able to have so many people there as the power of God was exercised through the blessing and passing of the Sacrament.

So onto Godona. We met Godona on Thursday while we were contacting and she seemed great. She is a 63-year-old nëna and she is spunky. When we met with her on Saturday she came in wearing some really exciting clothing and told us that she was a rrobaqepse, a seamstress, that she was born to be a rrobaqepse, and that she made all of her own clothes. Coolest nëna ever. We had a great lesson with her and she was super accepting of the Book of Mormon and the message that we gave to her. When we gave her a couple chapters to read that night before we saw her at church the next day, we asked her if she would read them. "Of course I will read them!" she said and I realized that perhaps it was a bit of a silly question. So we said we would see her at 10 the next morning for church. We weren't able to sit next to her or her "spirit daughter", but they were in the same row as me and they seemed to be doing just great. After the Sacrament began the testimony meeting, and after a couple of people gave theirs, Godona put her head out and looked down the row at me. "Can I go up there?" she whispered. I saw the Book of Mormon in her hand and thought that she probably wouldn't be preaching any false doctrine if that was the base of her words, and was like, "yeah, yeah you can go up there." She went up and said a bit about how she had just met the red-headed boy and the other boy the other day and had read from the Book of Mormon last night. She then started to read from the Book of Mormon. By verse 3, I could tell that she was reading from Moroni 10 and I thought, well, it is the last chapter of the last book in the Book of Mormon, she can only go so far! She read through Moroni's promise and kept going. I pulled out my book and started following along thinking that maybe my smile was so big it might fall off my face. At about verse 28 President Çuçi stood up and kindly told her that we needed to let other people get up and talk as well. She was very cordial and finished up and sat down unabashed. She's great. After Sacrament meeting she told me that she was going to go home and prepare what she was going to say next week. I tried to explain that we would actually be having a slightly different meeting the next week, but it was a bit tough to explain with all the people moving around, so I just told her that we would talk about it during the week.

We did have some sad things happen this week. Xhemal who we were really pushing for a baptism in the next week or so told us that he didn't have the opportunity to meet with us any more. We were super down about that and called him and tried to talk about it, but he just said that right now wasn't the time. We are really hoping that he will take what we have taught him and sometime down the road be ready to make that step and accept all the teachings and make those covenants! The same sort of thing happened with Dori. We really want to help those out that don't have the blessing of the Gospel in their lives, but I guess it isn't on our time as missionaries when that is going to happen.

I have recently been reading in Our Heritage which is a short history of the Latter-day church and it is really good. It is pretty incredible to see from the timeline of the Church how much everything was put in order by the Lord in order to allow His church to start and grow. The right people were always there when they were needed and so many people were ready to hear the message of the Restoration that these missionaries had to preach. People are there, the Lord is preparing those souls, we just have to do our part. We out here in Albania are part of a missionary force of 80,000 in the world. We are spreading the same message about the same book, the same Prophet of the Restoration, and most in importantly, the same Lord who is the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It is pretty cool.

Well, I hope that you have a wonderful week and do a lot of great and productive things! And I sure am praying for your health Mom, that doesn't sound fun at all.

Love,
Elder Ostergaard

P.S. I wouldn't mind more MoTab music. You just sent the Christmas card that had the picture we took after Grandma's funeral ( which I think is the most recent all-family photo that we have).

#29 January 27, 2014

Hola family-o,

How are you doing?! I hope that you are just wonderful even though I have heard it is nice and chilly back home. Today we were outside playing in the park in shorts. Albanian winters. They are a killer. (It actually is chillier than that generally and the rain is what really gets ya).

First of all, I am so grateful for new beginnings. In the mission I am especially grateful for two: the Sacrament everySunday and each new week beginning on Monday. Last week was definitely one of the those weeks where Elder Jorgensen and I were ready for a new start to come along. We set up a lot of things and people were just not deciding that learning about what we were teaching was one of their priorities I guess. After we got in last night and took a look back at our week I pulled out my Preach My Gospel and was reading in the very first couple of pages about how we can know if we are successful missionaries. We went through each point as a companionship and, not including the natural imperfection that we have within us as mortals, we were able to answer positively to all the points. After that we wrote up some ways that we can improve what we do both in obedience and the work itself so that we are no hindrance to the work here. In chemistry terms, we don't want to be the rate-determining step in this salvation equation. We are excited to get back out there and kill it this week though. We have been called of God to do His work here and we have not been called to fail but to rise to the call and succeed, so here we go!

So one great thing that we did learn this week was with our investigator Xhemal. We met with him and discussed more about what his situation was like and then talked to President Ford and we have been given the thumbs up to move forward! Now we just need him to exercise his agency and faith throughout the rest of the lesson process as we work to help him progress to baptism.

I have not done a whole lot of tracting on my mission as usually we try to find people on the street, but this last week we were giving it a try and had the fun experience of accidentally knocking into a recent convert and meeting with them a little bit. It got me thinking a little bit. Last night as Elder Jorgensen and I were looking through the White Handbook and thinking of ways we could be more obedient he came across the phrase that we need to be seen as servants of the Lord wherever we are. Whenever the Lord takes a second to check on what I am doing, I hope I am caught in the act of being busy in His work. We are not perfect, but we do have the capacity to stand up and try a little harder to do a little better. So I am trying to be better at keeping that part of my baptismal covenant that is found in Mosiah 18 where it says that we will be willing "to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in."

Oh before I forget, I heard a couple of crazy connections between the family and the world. Carley let me know that a member of Tirana 4th Branch (where I served my first 4 months) is now in her BYU student ward! My friend on a mission in Indonesia also just emailed me and asked if my borther's name is Alex and if he was getting married soon, because if so the sister missionary he was sitting next to was emailing his fiancee. So that was fun.

Something that I have been working on studying this last week a bit is the often asked question of if God exists and if He really does love us, why do so many people suffer? I have been looking in the scriptures, Preach My Gospel, and True to the Faith to get some help on answering that question. Some good thoughts were given in True to the Faith under the section of Adversity. I also think about Elder Eyring's talk where he asked for mountains to climb in order to try his faith. How I have tried to answer this question as of recent is by looking at the eternal nature of the Plan of Salvation and how God's perfect plan will try us in the exact way to help us reach the potential that He knows we can achieve. Whether that comes in a wonderful and loving family in Midland, Michigan or on the streets of Tirana to a gypsy family, there is a purpose there that will help us reach that point. In the end, I think that Preach My Gospel says it when it says that when it comes down to it, people are put up against the wall of faith and have to decide whether or not to take that leap and really seek for God's will to be made known to them. It is also important to note what Preach My Gospel says when it states that no matter what your problems are, the best help can be found through the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Oh, and also, probably a month or a month and a half ago I said that my one pair of shoes had developed cracks (eventually that extended across the whole width of my foot) in both of the shoes. I went and got the re-soled finally and he did it for 500 leke ($5) which was awesome.

Well, I love ya lots and hope you are having a beautiful day!
Elder Ostergaard

P.S. Mom, first of all, I feel kind of bad that you are sending a package already. It isn't even Christmas yet. Second of all, I love packages and that should not be taken as discouragement to send it if you don't want it to be. Third of all, I love peanut butter (especially chunky). Fourth of all, I love the idea of a companionship tie thing, but right now Elder Jorgensen already has one of those and I can get ties here, so don't worry about that too much. Fifth of all, I really like pictures. That family picture in the Christmas package was awesome and just any kind of pictures of the family would be awesome. Sixth of all, that is all of the "of all"s I can think of. I love you Mom!

#28 Monday, January 20, 2014

Gezuar te henen juve!(Happy Monday you all!-- or yous guys as I am told Michiganders say it)

Well, another week of missionary work has done been done. We have still been working on building up our teaching pool, but slowly and surely we can see that that pool is actually filling up a bit.

We had a couple interesting teaching experiences this week. A few days ago we were teaching Xhemaj about the Word of Wisdom. Alcohol had previously been brought up as a possible concern, so we went into the lesson hoping for the best. We told him the different parts of the commandment and he said that he was in agreement with everything, except for one thing. Alcohol. But not as we had thought it would be. He said that he was out of work right now, and the only income that he got for his family was from a based from home distillery where he made and sold alcohol. We were not exactly sure what to tell him as the Word of Wisdom doesn't really prohibit that. So we asked President Ford that night, and we are still in a sort of a buffering stage on that and have to learn some more stuff before we can tell him anything for sure on this. He is great though. Pray for him!

We were also teaching a lesson to this guy named Dori and were looking at the Book of Mormon. He opened up to the picture of Moroni burying the plates in the Hill Cumorah and he loved it. He told us that it was such a beautiful picture that there must be truth behind it. I am not sure if I could every build a testimony off of the beauty of a painting (though it is in fact a very nice painting), but if he can use that as a starting block, all the power to him!

This week I have been reading a bit in Jesus the Christ (which is fantastic by the way and you definitely should think about picking it up if you have not already...or even if you have already). One of the really awesome things that I read was actually about John the Baptist. John had a large following of disciples that really thought that he was something. John, however, had always testified of the coming Savior and when he indeed did come backed down in order to let the Lord take His position at the head of the work of God. That is an incredible work of humility and something that I look up to a ton. Maybe this is true with everyone, but perhaps most trying thing for me of all is my pride. I have such a hard time just thinking about -- me. I am really trying to follow the example of John and become a humble servant of the Lord.

Something else that I have loved is reading Elder Talmage's look at the character of Christ especially as relating to Christ's cleansing of the temple. He writes that contrary to an often thought of look at Christ as completely submissive, or Savior is the essence of manhood and has righteous passions and actions to accompany that characteristic. Meek when meekness was right, strong and bold when they were required to do the will of the Father. Studying the life of the Savior through this book has better helped me to learn about the everlasting sacrifice that was done and the eternal Advocate that He is.

Something that has been pretty tough with the work as of late is getting people to church! 3rd Branch here has some really great and strong members, but it is much smaller than we would hope it to be. Getting our investigators to church has been so far a pain. We had 13 people tell us that they were going to be coming to our Sacrament Meeting -- and 1 of them came. Don't get me wrong, that one was a great one and we are so glad for the growth in the Gospel the was fostered in his soul during that time. However, church attendance is so important and these wonderful children of God need to be a-coming! So if you were wondering what could require prayers here in the 3rd Branch district of Tirana, that is something that could definitely use those prayers.

Thank you so much for your love and prayers. It sure means a lot to me! It is pretty cool to be part of maybe the most prayed for group of people in the world and the members and investigators that we are working with sure could use those prayers.

Love,
Elder Ostergaard