#67

Dear Everyone,

Well, this past week has been a bit interesting in that we have been trying to become accustomed to the new parameters set last week by our mission president still. We have been working really hard to do everything for the good of the investigator and not just for us and our own personal glory. That, along with some other factors has made quite an impact on our weekly results. However, I have been learning in the past couple months that my mission is for so much more than personal recognition. That shouldn't be any of it. If everybody thought that we weren't doing any kind of good work, but we knew that it was what the Lord wanted us to do, that is still what we should be doing.

One time this week, kind of randomly, I saw a picture from the Bible Videos on Lds.org of Jesus Christ. I told my companion that one thing that I have noticed in the past couple of months is that my love for my Savior has grown. The first several months of my mission that was something that I wanted to see happen more. I was trying to do everything that I could and did have a love for the Savior, but I have seen my love grow more than ever over the past little while. What a wonderful blessing and mercy! I sure hope that as I study more, pray more fervently, and serve with more of my heart that that love can deepen and spread.

Gerti got baptized this week! How awesome is that, the very first person that showed interest enough to give us their phone number when I first entered 2nd ward has entered in at the gate that leads to eternal life! He has grown a lot, and though is definitely not a General Authority yet or anything, baptism doesn't mean perfection in knowledge. He has made that step and now he will grow even more every week in church and every day on his knees and in the scriptures. He brought his brother to the baptism which was cool and after we got out of the water he grabbed me in a hug and said he felt like he was reborn. He was right.

We had a good learning experience at the baptism too. We asked Eni, an investigator that Elder Rawlings and I had both taught a few months ago to speak at the baptism. She is still an investigator and has been having some deep and difficult questions challenging her faith and we thought that she could really use the spiritual strength that came from testifying to others of what she knew. So we asked her to speak about the Holy Ghost. She did great (she is very smart and though she has her doubts, those things she knows, she knows) but afterwards both Bishop Gjini and President Weidmann pulled us aside and let us know that we were not allowed to do it again (though President agreed that perhaps the Lord had allowed it to happen this time innocently for the spiritual well-being of Eni). Well, you live and you learn!

We actually have been finally able to start listening to conference this week during our companionship studies. It is wonderful! My favorite so far is Elder Christofferson's talk about agency and belief. It rang so true with so many people that we meet here. Here is maybe my favorite part:

"To those who believe anything or everything could be true, the declaration of objective, fixed, and universal truth feels like coercion—“I shouldn’t be forced to believe something is true that I don’t like.” But that does not change reality. Resenting the law of gravity won’t keep a person from falling if he steps off a cliff."


We don't just share the Gospel because it is a nice thing to think or believe, but because it is the truth and others need to know about it! And it needs to be done boldly because universal laws aren't exactly subtle (take a look at the gravity example). It rips me to shreds when I see people here get a taste of the goodness that it entails and then turn it away, but their agency is their own. We just have to make sure we are doing everything possible to allow them to use that agency in the right way.

I love you everybody and I hope that you are doing some things in your life right now to love your Heavenly Father and Savior a little bit more every day!


Love,
Elder Ostergaard

P.S. I bought a suit today. I wasn't really sure if I should, but I was thinking about my situation on suits (one was bought for me by my lovely parents for my 16th birthday and the other bought from Salvation Army and then tailored by my lovely sister...the first one seeming to be very bulky right now- weird because I don't think that I have lost weight or anything- and the second having been worn away between the legs, fixed out here, and then wearing down again) and about how often we need to wear suits here with our winter season for dress starting up yesterday. Okay, that is a lot of explanation, but Elder Rawlings and I got one and it was $100 which I guess is supposed to be really good. Whoo, well it feels to good to get that off my chest!

Hey Mom, I realized that I didn't answer you at all about your question on the influence of pornography here in Albania. I would pretty comfortably say that the problem of pornography is even more prevalent here than in America. It just isn't recognized by society as being as bad as what I remember noticing from those I knew at school, but then again I was in a pretty sheltered group of friends (thank goodness). As for church leaders addressing it, I really haven't heard anything on the subject here outside of teaching the Law of Chastity to investigators, so I am sure that it could be much better guarded against.

I don't really have any ideas for Christmas, but only a hippopotamus will do.

Love,
Elder Ostergaard

Last week Kimball sent a link to a Dropbox of pictures that a Sister missionary had taken on a Preparation day excursion. Here are a few:

#66 Monday, October 20, 2014

Dear Family,

Happy Monday dearest people! I hope that this week has been fantastic and that it wasn't exactly the same as the week before. Some lessons learned, maybe a couple hard things (just enough to get you moving forward even better), and even more wonderful things. This last week had a couple of pretty dramatic changes in the missionary work here in Albania (if you don't remember what that is, it borders on the Adriatic, is mainly mountainous, and exports chrome chiefly-- except I don't really know about that last part because I have never heard of any kind of chrome export here).

On Wednesday morning I got a call from Elder Rawlings (I was at the time on an exchange with some Elders in Shkoder) and he told me that President Weidmann had just put out a new regulation that Elders had to teach guys and Sisters had to teach girls. It was kind of a punch in the gut (I don't know if you have been reading my emails for the last year or not, but most of the success that has been found has been with girls). We knew that it was the right thing to do because President is in fact an inspired man, but it took about 12 hours for me and my companion (who has been in the same boat in regards to teaching girls mostly his whole mission) to really found out for ourselves that it truly was the will of the Lord not only for the President, but also for us personally. Even though we were always keeping the rules in teaching with another guy present and keeping within the regulations that the Brethren had set, we have discovered that there are in fact a ton of benefits to this new regulation:
1. The priesthood force here in Albania is minimal, and if more than 2/3 of the missionary force here can only be teaching potential Priesthood holders and their families, that number really has no way to go other than up.
2. It definitely makes finding members that match personalities easier. When we taught girls that meant that our pool of those to help us out was very limited and it is now so much larger.
3. It helps people be baptized for the right reasons. It is not unheard of for an investigator of the opposite sex to be baptized simply out of devotion to a missionary that taught them, and this should whittle that down.
4. It helps the work in the ward become more tightly linked as missionaries will be finding investigators for other missionaries and the whole feel will be for the good of the investigator rather than the good of the missionary.

We were also given new steps to incorporate into our daily planning that allow that time at the end of the day to become more Spirit-based and driven.

We had this powerful lesson with Gerti and told explained the covenant that he will be making at baptism entails attending church every week to partake of the Sacrament. It is hard for him because he works in Tirana during the week and then on the weekends he goes home to see his family. So on Sunday he actually brought his mom to church which was wonderful! We are shooting for him to be baptized this week, so keep him in your prayers as well as Qamil, Suleman, Andrit, Aurel, and Roland.

That also reminds me of a wonderful opportunity that we had to see the hand of the Lord during our week this week. We were out knocking down some doors on Friday and we get a call. It was another missionary telling us that a member would be bringing his friend to church that wanted to learn form the missionaries. His name is Aurel and he is now on a baptismal date. It was cool to see that when we were doing what we could, the Lord was willing to step in and do that which we couldn't.

The picture is of a brother and sister that Elder Rawlings and I were asked to baptize. Their mother was re-discovered after 12 years and decided to bring her family to church and the sisters had the wonderful opportunity to teach them. Their names are Frenkli and Armela and they are awesome.

Well everybody, I love your guts and all their coatings. Keep it real out there and don't do anything I wouldn't do.

Love,
Elder Ostergaard


Here are a couple pictures of some of the missionaries in our zone at a Canadian Thanksgiving Day waffle party last week.

#67 October 13,2014

Hey everybody,

Sorry that this note is going to be rather short, but we don't have a ton of time. I have really been noticing more fully this week the weight of leadership and of goals. With new goals that we have set as a mission and as a zone, there is this new fire that has been kindled inside of us to accomplish these goals that we have set with the Lord. The efforts have been intensified and the Spirit more earnestly sought. I hope that as we work to reach a new potential that we will be guided in that journey. Along with that fire there is definitely a certain weight though. As we see from our perspectives where the zone is and where we are, stagnation and mediocrity are not options. The only way that we will be able to achieve what we need to achieve is through excellence. It is just that getting to excellence is not the easiest thing in the world. But that ain't nothing but a thing, because we can do hard things.

I just want to tell you really quick about a cool person we have been able to start teaching this week. Her name is Mariana. She was taught 3 or 4 years ago in the city of Elbasan by some other missionaries, but that didn't work out. She has been friends with members since then however. We met her about a week and a half ago as she was walking on the street with one of her member friends. We were able to bring her to the YSA FHE and since then have found that though she wasn't ready then, she has been slowly, slowly prepared by the Lord to hear the message now. So, plant those seeds, because however long after, something can happen. And it's pretty cool when it does.

Love you so much everybody, keep it real because fake just won't do it.

Elder Ostergaard

#65 October 6, 2014

Dear People,

This past week has been great. We missed a lot of work that could have been done because of helping the new trainees and stuff, but we can see a lot of good potential happening. One cool thing that happened this week was Elder Rawlings and I talking about our zone in relation to a mission goal of baptisms that we were going to have by the end of the year. We decided that we would have the missionaries in every unit discuss it and talk with the bishop about it so that the Lord can help us achieve this goal. The goals are pretty high and we are excited to see the missionaries here in the Tirona zone step it up to rip this goal to shreds.

So for General Conference, we actually did not get to see it this week. Instead, the entire thing was translated and next week the stake will watch it on DVDs in order to get rid of the possibility of internet mess-ups and such. We do indeed watch it in Albanian (unless President Weidmann changes his mind) and I am excited to be able to understand so much more of it this time (this is my 3rd conference in the country)!

I got the question if I was tall or not. I am indeed pretty tall, but my new companion is rather tall indeed (he is 2.04 meters, or 6'6'') and it is a weird experience for me, because he actually sticks out more than I do here. My red hair is very abnormal though and people are always really weirded out when they find out I can communicate with them.

I think that one of the cooler experiences that happened this week was when we were passing out fliers for English course earlier this week. We saw a member sitting at this little stand deep into 2nd ward territory and went to go say high to her. She was there with these two other girls and they ended up saying that their father was an inactive member and that they were willing to learn! That was pretty cool. We have met with them once since then and are excited to continue on with that. The Lord really does put people in our path that are ready for the message.

Well, I sure hope that you have a wonderful week this week and that you can find ways to be tools in the hands of the Lord.

Ju perqafoj,
Elder Ostergaard

P.S. My companion is the bukurosh in the middle.

#64 The transfer calls are in and....

I am still holding down the turf here in Tirana! That was an almost for sure thing because of the nature of being a zone leader (the norm for zone leaders at least in this mission is two transfers), so the big question was who would be joining me. The lots have fallen to Elder Rawlings! Elder Rawlings has been our district leader during this recent transfer and he was in my MTC group. He is a great guy and a great missionary and I am way excited to be able to work with him and learn some good things from him. Elder Lee will be going down to Lushnje (one of the smaller branches in the mission) and I am sure that he will do a great job among the members, missionaries, and non-members in that area.

So this past week we were able to do some work, teach some lessons, try to fulfill our missionary purpose, all that good stuff. One thing that I have thought about the last week especially is blessings. This transfer has really been a massive harvest of blessings. It is amazing how when I try to look for the blessings in my life they just multiply to a point where I almost feel bad that I am given so much. We met a girl about two weeks ago who told us that life was just unfair and unhappy. As we talked to her a bit and learned just a little bit about her, we caught just a small glimpse of the many wonderful things that she has in her life. How much happier we would be if we could just learn how to open our eyes a little bit. When I take the time to try and see the hand of the Lord it makes the more difficult times in the work reveal the blessings inside of them. It is pretty cool stuff.

What is a typical P-day like for you? -- On P-days here in Tirana, it's usually pretty chill. We could go tie-shopping or go bowling at this park in Tirana. Now and then we go visit somewhere like Krujë or Shkodër and that's fun.

Are you still playing soccer with the local members? Are you still getting assaulted by them? -- So here in T-2 we haven't played futboll like at all. We do play basketball now and then which is pretty fun. And yes, I am constantly being beaten with sticks and things. It's for the love of the game.

How often do you have zone meetings? how often do you go on trade-offs with other missionaries? -- Some sort of a zone meeting happens every month. Exchanges by the zone leaders are done with the district leaders at least once every 6-week. That means we will be doing exchanges almost every week.

How are your shoes holding up? -- My shoes are doing alright. If you remember I got my one pair patched up when I was in 3rd ward and they have been doing alright since then (that has been since the beginning of the year). The Eccos haven't had any problems. They are great shoes.

What would you like for Christmas? -- My two front teeth. That's all I want. Shoot, I don't even know though. Haha, I actually saw signs for teeth whitenings and thought that would be cool, but they are not nearly as cheap as one would wish! I really liked the Christmas card you sent last time! Photos are great. I also love MoTab and have been super grateful to have what you have sent!

What is the average salary for a person in Albania? -- There is a guy in our ward that is a manager at a call center (quite a good job) and he makes something like $3 an hour.

Is there much crime in Tirana? -- Probably, we don't see it though.

So here are a couple pictures of Elder Lee and I with investigators that we have had this transfer.

The first one is Gerti (he is a dubstep dancer) and was actually the first person that Elder Lee and I met that showed interest in the Gospel on the first day that we came into 2nd Ward.

The second is with Suleman. His mother actually fed us today which was awesome.

Well, I love you guys a lot and pray for your well-being!

Love,
Elder Ostergaard

#63 September 22, 2014

Well everybody,

Welcome to the Elder Ostergaard minute. I recognize that for the next few seconds you will be thinking mainly about me. I'll try not to let it go to my head.

So I would actually like to do this letter based primarily, if not completely, upon some questions asked to me (something I usually forget to do entirely).

What did you do today for preparation day? -- So today we woke up to a lot of rain. We had been planning to go hike up behind the large artificial lake here in Tirana, but our plans changed. We ended up just kind of walking around and looking at a couple different stores (specifically some perfume/cologne stores -- we learned that you could get some cologne for 500 leke (about $5), so that was really exciting and I decided to help myself smell better).

What kind of funny or impressive experiences have you had with your companion, as you've learned to adapt to his personality or style? -- So this is going to be my last week with Elder Lee (unless President Weidmann decides to change the transfer norms). He, probably a lot like me, is probably one of the most "Utah boy not from Utah"'s that I have ever met. He is very much so one to speak what is on his mind and likes to know if anything is bothering me or what my thoughts are on something. I think that is probably a pretty normal thing and it has kind of shook me a little bit out of my own my-thoughts world (kind of, I am still not very good at it).

I've been following your weather patterns and it looks like things aren't as intensely warm as they have been. How is that affecting your dress and your activities? Are you enjoying the weather? -- The weather here has been rather lovely the last while. We still wear the exact same thing that we have been wearing the last several months (still lookin' fly in our short-sleeved white shirts and ties!). Usually hot weather means that Elder Lee carries around a water bottle...and I think about drinking more...but that is usually as far as it gets. We have both been blessed with pretty solid health though which is great.

Do Albanians spend much time outside in neighborhoods or mostly just in the marketplace? -- Albanians spend a whole lot of time sitting in coffee bars usually drinking little cups of Turkish coffee. Kind of ridiculous actually that they can spend so much time on such a small little beverage (they are almost always toddler-sized cups, whatever floats their boats I guess). Young people don't usually spend a ton of time inside the walls of their own homes, a lot of the time they are doing xhiros (talking walks) on the streets of Tirona.

Who are you currently teaching? What has encouraged them to investigate the gospel? -- We are teaching a few people a couple of whose names are Suleman, Qamir, and Gerti. All three of them have a long way to walk down on the road towards conversion still. We do sometimes have worries about interest having too firm a root in just the investigators liking us, but I think that that is one wonderful side-effect of transfers: they help root out those that are not as anchored in the message. We have also had the wonderful opportunity of meeting several different people that seem very promising as investigators of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ that have ended up living in another area of Tirona that we are then able to allow other missionaries to teach and take part in seeing the hand of God in their lives. We also had a couple tender mercy unexpected investigators this past week which has been cool.

What was the funniest thing that happened to you this past week? -- I don't know if there has been anything too funny that has happened, however, this just yesterday the Pope made an appearance here in Tirana. We were actually told to be very careful and to stay away from groups of people because of a terrorist group called Isis. Nothing at all happened, but it was kind of cool to be in the same city where a massive world figure made an appearance.

Tell us about the ward. Are you playing the piano? -- Second ward is such a wonderful place to be. There are a lot of strong members (except that yesterday there was no bus system because of the Pope which meant that many fewer people were in church) as well as a good amount of members that need a lot of help. It definitely helps out that our bishop served a mission which means he understands that much more of how to help the members and non-members here in Tirona. I am indeed playing the piano. I am afraid that I am going to come to the end of my mission and not know any hymns in Albanian. I guess that is not the most important part of the mission!

When they sing the hymns, do they sing well? -- They sing better in Second Ward than anywhere else I have been, but well, that doesn't mean a ton. The chorister here is an old member named Sister Kashari and she is ridiculuos, but I no longer laugh very much while I am playing because of her exciting way of really getting into leading the music.

How is your new Mission President? What areas of missionary work is he having missionaries focus on that are different from your previous President? -- President Weidmann is wonderful. We just recently had zone conference on Wednesday, something that turned out to be abut twice as long as any other zone conference I had ever been to. He we in charge of the whole thing and what he does he does with a purpose. Rather than the frazzled approach to missionary work that I used to have where I would fight to get every second outside, he focuses so much on us being prepared by the Spirit and it has started to change me. There is much more that I can improve on, but I see much more the process of how to get there.

So there is a bit of my missionary life. Hope your week is wonderful!

Love,
Elder Ostergaard

#62 September 15,2014

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