Chrisrmas from the MTC

So everything is going great here at the MTC. Christmas was incredible! Christmas Eve Elder Bednar spoke to the missionaries and after he let all the missionaries shake his hand. He gave an incredible talk about trees, lights, and shepherds.
      Christmas morning started off great, I opened my presents from my wonderful family (thanks for the packages and letters by the way, I really enjoyed reading them) and then we sang as a zone. We received a very nice present from the MTC, well all the means to purchase the gifts were donated by members of the church. We received a handmade tie, a scripture marking pen and a CD along with a few treats.
   Following, we went to a devotional and lo and behold, Elder Holland spoke to us, AGAIN! He also gave a wonderful talk in relation to Christmas and the Savior. He gave, or committed all of the missionaries to study the names of Christ in the scriptures and how to apply this in our lives. I would also like to extend this invitation out to anybody that would like to study about the “Names of Christ” as well.
    Elder Holland told us to do “12 Names of Christ” for the “12 Days of Christmas” that follow Christmas Day.
The 12 Days are as follows, 1) The Great Stone of Israel 2) Messenger of the Covenant 3) Christ is an advocate 4)Christ is a mediator 5)Christ is an intercessory 6) Christ is a light 7) Be a faithful witness 8) Strength and a refuge for all people 9) be a true vine 10) remember the lamb 11) Christ is the Morningstar 12) Christ is the High Priest of good things to come.
 In a couple days we begin 100% speak your language and we can only speak in Russian between tomorrow until we leave (the 20th of January). I’m excited, I know this will significantly improve and help out with the language. Well I hope all is well!

Love, Elder Ostler


S.O.T.W. –“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproach, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
---2 Corinthians 12:10

No phone call :(

So just a quick update. Some people have been asking but we didn't get a phone call today. Daniel is still in the MTC which means that there are like a bazillion other missionaries so they say No phone calls for anybody! Kinda a bummer but we did send him a package and a little tree a few weeks ago.

We think that everybody should donate prepaid cell phones for use on Christmas but until that happens we will support the decision of no phone calls.

Keep the letters and packages coming! Daniel is loving everything that he has been getting. Thanks everybody! Merry Christmas

All Is Well In Zion

So things are still going great here at the MTC. All is well in Zion. Haha that part is for Amber. We watched legacy a couple Sundays ago after our Sunday fireside and I laughed when they said that line. But everything is truly going quite swell. I"m not going the lie, the language is not easy, but it is coming. Tomorrow we teach our first lesson in 100% Russian!

Oh so all of the older missionaries in our branch, along with the native Russian speakers, have left or will be leaving with in a day or two to parts of Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic. Yes, now we are the older missionaries! although, now i am coming to realize that my first day here i thought the older missionaries knew so much Russian, however, now i can see that they really didn't!

I am trying to think of something that has happened out of the ordinary besides---Breakfast-Gym-class-lunch-class-dinner-and class again.

I am really excited to teach the first lesson in Russian tomorrow so I will let everybody know how it went next week.

Love elder ostler

Choose the Truth

Hey Family,
Thanks for the e-mail mom. So I don't' know how long this is going to be, I only have a few minutes. I wish I could write allot more, but I really don't have much time. But I got the package, thanks for it and the bag, the jelly belly stuff from Milwaukee and the scripture marking pen and everything.

The scripture memorization is coming along quite well, it's starting to get hectic though with it, I have like over 30 memorized and by the time I leave I'll have like almost 90! which I'm excited about.

I"m glad to hear that everything is going well for ya. So dad is exercising too? that's good. and i will ask heather about her date. maybe something will come from it.

Oh and I'm glad she has more space in my old room now. and i really really liked the jelly belly gummies. the bat gummies were the best. Thanks for the package, and did Kristin really make the fudge???

So today we went to the temple and because this is the last week the native Russian speakers are here we were able to do sealings. I love going to the temple and i wish i could spend more time there, especially in the celestial room but we have a lot to do on Preparation Day. So thanksgiving was great, we heard from Elder Neuenschwander, i think he might have been Cory's Mission President, but I'm not sure. He talked with us and it was really fascinating to hear him talk about Eastern Europe and all the work that is moving along over there.

Then later we had a thanksgiving meal but it wasn't anything like what Mom and the family prepare for Thanksgiving. Following the meal we had a service meeting and then we put together 10,000 kits for Haiti and another country that just had a disaster. So how is grandma Webb doing? I hope she's doing well, and what about the Weisses? have they been able to sell their house? Well I've gotta go but I'll try and write a letter if I have time.

Oh and thanks for the ring, I got it, and it fits just fine. (Daniel was given a ring and lost it before he left in the couch) And I even learned what it says. It says Vee-bare-aye Ees-tee-new. It is spelled completely different in Russian, but I don't' have Russian characters on here. But it means choose truth. Because I guess the phrase choose the right was coined by the communist regime in Russia and as a result the church doesn't want to be associated with that. Little story for the Day, Attach that and give to mom and whoever if they were wondering how to say choose the truth in Russian!


Love Elder Ostler

Pictures

Hey Family-

WOW! Ethan is going to preschool! How does he like it?

So I apologize, I started writing the letter last week and I never finished it as you can tell But thanks for the letters. I'm sorry to hear about everything that is going on with proposition8.

When Elder Holland came last Tuesday, he mentioned, or apologized that he was so tired and told us that a lot has been going on at church headquarter in Salt Lake. Nonetheless, Elder Holland still gave an exceptional talk.

Well here are some pictures...

Hope all is going well

Love,
CTAPEUWNHA Ostler
(stay-ray-sheh-nuh)

Our first Sunday we went to the temple and it was swarming like bees with Elders.
(L-R) Elder Harten, Daniel, Elder Hofmeister, Elder Stachitus


Elder Stachitus, ElderHofmeister, Daniel, Elder Harten

Elder Hofmeister receiver PIE from his mom. Here we are eating the pie.
Elder Harten, Daniel, Elder Tomerlin, Elder Stachitus, Elder Hofmeister, and Elder Murray

Chocolate milk... mmmmmmm

Hey, Fam

     So things are going incredibly wonderful here. The language is quite interesting, each time we learn something we learn that there are special cases or situations for each one and that there is a lot to learn. I feel somewhat confident with what i have learned, but each time i learn more i discover that i don't know very much. sufficeth to say that I am not as smart as i would like to think I am.

    Thanks for your letter dad, i appreciate hearing from both you and Mom.

      I am glad that you were able to go to Shawn and byrdie's to visit them. it sounds like you all had a lot of fun. oh and yeah i will accept any form of mail whether it be e-mail, snail mail or from dearelder.com. however, the dearelder.com is nice because i can read it before Preparation day and then i know what to write when i respond. Still send e-mails, or maybe do both just in case i lose a letter or something happens.

     I am loving the MTC, i enjoy learning each day about Russian and the gospel. I know that i have said this, but i truly love the spirit of the MTC. It is kind of like a mini-Zion! Once again i would also like to comment on how blessed i am to have Elder Harten as my companion. He works hard and he is focused on the Lord's work. We are both learning a lot from one another.

     Today has been unlike most, well yes it is Preparation Day, but besides that we were able to go to the Temple with the Native Russian speakers from Ukraine. This was their first time and so they were receiving their endowments. each time i go to the temple i enjoy the spirit that is present there and the feelings are incredible.

    You asked about the other Elders in my residence hall, there are four Elders in my residence hall. Elder Harten and myself, and then two elders, Elder Powell and Jensen, that are going Ukrainian speaking in Kiev.

    Luckily i haven't gotten sick of the MTC food yet, i love the chocolate milk that they serve for every meal, i think i have had chocolate milk at ever meal....well besides one and that's because they were out of chocolate milk.

     I am not sure if everybody received my e-mail last week so please make sure that everybody gets my e-mail.

Daniel has Email at the MTC for family!!

Hey FAMILY,

So I only have a few minutes to actually type an e-mail so please forgive any and all spelling errors. I logged on to the computer but part of my 30 minutes was taken up when I registered for an e-mail with myldsmail.net. So everything is going great, I saw brother Dean today! The language is coming along, I can sort of pray and bear my testimony in Russian. Thanks for the letters, the letters through Dear Elder.com come really quick and are quite efficient, so if you guys are running short on time i would recommend to use that.

I can hardly believe my first week will be here tomorrow. I am slowly but surely getting a hang of how things work around here. I don't' really know what to say except for that things are going great here. Oh so Sabbath was great, quite long, but nonetheless it was relaxing and i really enjoyed the fireside. Brother Heaton spoke and he talked a lot about faith and how to incorporate the Book of Mormon in every lesson and to bear witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon even if the lesson is really short. My companion is Elder Heaton, i would write elder in Russian but i don't' have a Russian keyboard. I heard that Russian is one of the hardest languages for English speaking missionaries because most of the Russian alphabet is similar to English but each letter makes a different sound. I am so grateful that i have had an opportunity to learn some Spanish along with Arabic/Hebrew. This is significantly helping me out with the language. The language makes sense to me, however, now i just need to actually apply all the knowledge. Sadly, this is the difficult part. Oh and in Russian they have a thing called "cases" and can i just say, "Wow!" I remember talking with an elder or sister that served Russian speaking and they mentioned cases.

Well I don't' want to bore you with what I'm learning about the language. I don't' have a whole lot more to say. I love everybody and i really enjoy the opportunity i have to be here at the MTC. at first i looked at this as 12 weeks is going to be forever long, but now i am looking at it as an opportunity to feel the spirit much stronger for 12 weeks when most elders are here for only three.

I have been reading about Grandpa Owen and his conversion story along with his testimony. I feel so close to grandpa even though I never met him. His testimony gives me strength and uplifts me.

Love,
Elder Ostler

First Letter from the MTC

11.6.08

HEY FAMILY! Well, I hope everybody found the presents and letters I left underneath my bed.

My companion is Elder Harten, he is from Woodscross, Utah. I feel very blessed to have him as a companion. We bonded from the get-go and found that we have lots in common, one of which is soccer.

Today we had our first class, one of out teachers is Brother Gunnell. He served in Cory's (Daniel's cousin) mission and I believe they know each other. We started off by learning the alphabet and now we are reading words, I am amazed at how fast we were able to learn the alphabet. I love the language and I cannot wait to learn more.

I will write more next week, I love ya all and hope all is great.

LOVE ELDER OSTLER

For those of you wondering what Daniel is learning, I believe this is the Russian or maybe the Cyrillic/Ukrainian alphabet!

My Will and Last Wishes

My Wonderful Family,

Dad- I leave with you my communication to the world, my cell phone, and a bag of baby ruths along with a PB twix, a kit-kat and a Reese's.

Mom- I leave you with a bag a Almond Joys and the usage of my I-Home to share with Kristin and everybody in the kitchen.

Amber- I leave you with my I-Pod, hopefully this can be used as a bargaining chip for the I-Pod Derek has.

Jared- sorry I ran short on time, but I leave you my bag of sour punch twists and my potatoe gun.

Kristin- I leave you some Pop Rocks to remember our "rockin good time" and a gift certificate to PF Change, oh and the I-Home, however, I will let you and mom work this out.

Ethan & Camden - I leave with my "little Buddies" two remote control cars (the bigger one just needs the charger) to play with in my absence, two teddy bears to cuddle with at night, a box of fire works (with parental supervision) and a container of magnetic superheros (yes Jared you can play with these too) Oh and I almost forgot , a kitchen! & the magic grow sea animals and any remaining candy.

Heather- I leave you my FM transmitter that is in the car, and 3 milky ways to eat to remin ya that I'm not in anther milky way galaxy, but the same country (for 12 weeks) and the same Earth for a long time!

Derek- I left you a lot, find what you can, and fight Amber for the I-Pod, but you must return her I-Pod. Oh and my skull candy ear phone that will take you away from your roomates.

Sorry if I didn't leave what you expected, but I had to think on the spot.

PS- I would like a few of these things when I return, oh and everything is located under my bed! RUN, RUN, RUN!

At one time Daniel said he wanted to be a lawyer. I think if this is how all the wills he writes are, then he would be great!

Time for the MTC

We woke up to a snowy morning but arrived with sunshine at the Provo MTC. Daniel was prepared and packed up. We thought we had covered all our bases but note the picture of Mom unpicking his suit pocket before he could put his name tag!

Mom kept wanting to take more pictures. I think it is so she could stand by him a little longer. We got to the MTC at 12:30 and didn't leave until after 2:00, and no the movie is not that long. It is just REALLY hard to say goodbye!

Daniel was eager and very excited to be off, to start learning Russian and prepare to share the gospel. My personal opinion is that he was too eager to be gone. I am pretty sure Daniel was the first missionary out the door and on his way! He listened a little too closely when the MTC president shared the bandaid analogy!

Elder Ostler's OFFICIAL tag with dork dot and all.
Doesn't it look great!
WE ARE SO PROUD OF DANIEL!
You are going to be the best missionary!

Speaking in Church and Visiting with Friends and Family

My mom spent way too much time trying to get the yard looking nice. In the end it did look great and we even had a little food left over after 100+ people ate, first miracle of going on a mission! It was great to spend time with family and friends that I hadn't seen in a while.

Daniel did a great job giving his talk on Zion. He didn't even use too many big words.

15 White Shirts Anybody?

15 the number of white shirts Daniel is taking on his mission! We had to take out all the pins etc and wash them so they will fit in his suitcase. Poor kids this is basically what he got for his 19th birthday a few weeks ago. White shirts, some ties and some shoes. Really though what are you supposed to buy somebody who is leaving on a mission that isn't mission realated? For chirstimas maybe we can send him another white shirt, a tie and some candy to spice it up a little bit.

Daniel Gets his Mission Call to....

The Ukraine Dnepropetrovsk mission!!!

If you look closely you will see that we are a computer orientated family!! We were trying to skype with Mom, Dad and Heather in Jerusalem, Jim and Megan in Ohio and Shawn and Byrdie in Wisconsin!! Nothing like your family living all over the place and trying to include them in your big news!