Good Bye My Beloved Jungle

Hermana Ostler’s Update – May 5, 2014

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 

After 7 and a half months battling weird critters and falling into holes full of water... I HAVE A CHANGE. I should be happy, right? 

Well. 

I am heartbroken. I have never loved any place more than Puerto Maldonado. Movie star status here. My intoxicating love for this little jungle city is an obsession. I love the people, I love the cool music in the streets, I love when the sun rays fall down and we walk around with short sleeves in the dusty air, talking to people about my Savior. I love it when the people tell me that they are searching for something, but that they just don’t know what it is. I love how we get invited to drink about 10 gallons of soda every day and they serve it with so much love. I love that I was here so long that people finally started to learn how to correctly pronounce my last name. I love the monkeys, the birds, the free mangos, the adventures that I had every day. I love the members, my investigators, I love the change that I can see in myself, that I love with everything that I have, that I hold nothing back. I love my Ruizita and all the memories I have with all my companions. 

I love it all. 

But on to the next adventure! 

I will be the Sister Leader in Cusco. I have no idea what President is thinking to call me, someone so imperfect and a little on the loopy side, to train other sisters... But I will do what the Lord wants me to do because I know that He knows better than I do. It will be a really big adventure to just go out and see everything and get to know a lot of the sisters. Also, the apartment of the sisters in Cusco has an oven so you can better your bottom dollar that I will be eating a lot of cookies. Hahahaha. 

This week was a little bit of a “Refiners Fire” so to speak. A couple days where you are just so so so tired that you come home and cry. A lot of feeling really sad about the bad decisions of other people, especially because I love them so much. A lot of circumstances that made me ask myself, “If I am trying so hard, why am I not having success? Have I done any good here?” But then I thought about all the prophets of The Book of Mormon, that they usually didn’t have crazy success either. At least in the beginning. I thought about mission stories where people come home and they haven’t baptized a single person but that THEY came back CHANGED. And last of all I thought about my Savior, Jesus Christ. How HE also cried for the sins of others, that HE also experienced a little (and I mean A LOT) of unfairness. And although I cried and although I felt really really alone, I lifted up my head and was full of joy. I KNOW now that it is possible to be happy even in the hardest of times. That every situation that we come across is an opportunity for us to think, “This is a chance for me to be like Christ.” And the whole perspective of “trials” really changes. I am so grateful for that. 

I also learned that our Heavenly Father is also preparing the minds and hearts of people everywhere. For most of my mission I have felt that I have been doing my “Noah Routine” which is basically imploring and convincing people to do that which is right. Just begging them to follow Christ because I know that is the way for us to be happy. Trying to help people stop in their tracks and really think about their course of life, that maybe they are sad because they are doing sad things. That is the Noah Routine. But this week I saw that God really IS preparing people to receive the message of the gospel, that if we let Him, He will guide us to these people. 

This week we started teaching the sister of a recent convert, Pamela. I always bug her and invite her to listen to us but she was always pretty cold with us. Well, this week her brother Edwin (MOST AMAZING MAN EVER) told us that Pamela wanted us to see her. We go to their house, share a message with her and after she starts telling us the reason why she wanted to listen to us now. She explained that she was about to start up a really bad job, one that would send her way way way off track and basically just cause a lot of hurt and pain. That night she had a dream. She told me that she was inside of a volcano and that there was lava everywhere and big black rocks. (In this moment I was totally thinking about Lord of the Rings and was about to get REALLY distracted with all my Frodo-Sam memories.) 

She then started to explain her dream the next day, that she was basically in the Land of Mordor or something and that there was no light. But then she looked up... and saw US. Saw me and Hermana Sanchez. We were encircled about by light. WE walked towards her... Then Pamela looked me into the eyes, and I was definitely not thinking about Lord of the Rings anymore... And she said. “YOU. YOU talked to me and told me to come back. To stop walking in the dark and come to the light. To come back to God because He loves me. And that is why I needed to talk to you so bad. I trust that this is what I need to do.”

I know that God loves His children, and even more so the people who have strayed. The people that are imperfect and lost. I was one of those children and He saved me. I am now here to follow God’s plan for me and help save my brothers and sisters. I know that He lives and loves us. 

I love you all. More Cusco Adventures next time! 

This is my leaf hat. And this is Alfredo. I was sitting in the shade of his bar (that sounds bad), because it was raining. I was humming a little tune when he comes up behind me and asks,"what are you doing?" It scared me so bad that I started to scream. Hahaha. But then we were friends. 

This is the family of Hans and Yovanna. There are menos activos and are not married, but are amazing. The other day we were all kneeling down and Hans was praying, and that big tough man started to WEEP. Crying without control asking and pleading and begging God to change him to make him a better man. I have never been so happy in a prayer before. 

This is Hermana Lido! I love her. When I first got here she didn't want anything more to do with the church. But after 7 and a half months of working with her she is back to church and is being a incredible leader here.