I met with our new mission president, President Ostler, and his family (Sister Ostler and their son Caleb, who is 14 and is with them on their mission) 3 times this week. And boy how awesome those 3 times were! Once for a general welcome to the mission for everyone, once for Mission Leadership Council, and once for interviews with President Ostler. Cool, cool things are happening right now in my life as a missionary, as a person, and across our whole mission. President Stucki really, really taught us obedience, and how exact obedience brings blessings. Right now, President Ostler has been showing us that we need our charity to grow up in conjunction with our obedience. As far as I can tell, the biggest bridge between those two has a lot to do with sacrifice (with a really, really willing heart.) I haven't figured it all out for sure, and it's gonna be a lifetime pursuit. But boy howdy is this changing how I'm looking at missionary work, at people, and how and why I do everything that I do, especially as a missionary right now.
At the first meeting, when we all first got to meet President Ostler, his son Caleb put together a video to show to all the missionaries of his brothers and sisters talking about how excited they are for President Ostler and Sister Ostler to be our "mission parents." Apparently, all of Caleb's brothers and sisters are married except for two (and one is on a mission currently.) When the video came up for the one who's a recently returned missionary, we all immediately noticed that there was a picture of a pretty girl superimposed over the video sitting next to Caleb's brother. There was a loud "whoops" from the podium, and they started laughing and explained that Caleb, as a joke, had put the girl in the video so his brother wouldn't be all alone since all the other siblings are married in the video, but they hadn't planned to show that version with her superimposed in. The whole mission had a pretty good laugh about that one! It was super duper funny, the Ostlers are some of the funniest and happiest people I've ever met.
I want to be just like Sister Ostler when I grow up. This quote alone explains why, "I wish we could just have a party with you Sister Training Leaders every week! But I think that's probably not allowed." They're such a happy and fun family, and they made very clear to us that their first priority is still their family (President Ostler said he'll sometimes go out in Levis and a t-shirt without a nametag and take time to just be a dad for Caleb) and that they want us to all feel incorporated into their family, all 200 or so missionaries. Our interviews were done at the mission home, and there wasn't any particular stress for time and we got to make no bake cookies while we were there with Sister Ostler making sure the Elders didn't burn down the kitchen. That's the most fun I've seen missionaries have in a long time, haha, just trying to figure out no-bake cookies.
At mission leadership training, after lunch President Ostler passed out animal crackers for all of us to munch on while listening because he knows how hard it is to focus after a bunch of missionaries eat lunch. In case you all didn't know, animal crackers are pretty much one of my favorite things in the whole entire planet.
One thing that was interesting is that when President Ostler speaks to a large group, he often reminds me in some ways of President C. Thomas Carter. That's a very high compliment to both of them, two people who I esteem very highly.
The picture is of all us Sister Training Leaders with President and Sister Ostler after MLC. Talk about a good time.
Much love,
Sister Larsen
One of my favorite investigators (also a cat lover.) This cat is the fluffiest and cutest cat I've ever seen that wasn't my own cat.
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