April 23, 2008

The Lowrences are doing awesome. The mom and one of the kids came to church on Sunday and really liked it. They said it was a lot different then the catholic church that they had been attending. The mom has to work this next sunday but the kid wants to come again. We really want the father to come to church ya know. But get this, They arent married. So once again the process of getting people married begins. It might be a little more difficult this time, Mama lowrence kinda already told us that she didnt want to get married. Good thing that the gospel changes people, huh.

We usually get about 50 people to church. There is the medical school right by us so a lot of the students are members. Its about half students and half locals. The senior missionary, elder white, is the branch president. And most of the students do all the teaching for classes and such.

This last week we had four investigators in church. We have one baptismal date. his name is Junior, he's from santo domingo. he came here to try and find some work. doesnt really speak any english. so that gets interesting at our english branch on sundays. Guess who gets to translate?

Well thats most of the updates that I've got for now. President Dewsnup is visiting our island right now. He's come to see what needs to be done when the senior couple leaves in five weeks. They dont know of any replacements coming in the moment, unless grandma and grandpa want to sign up> :)Love Elder Osterloh

While we're waiting for another email....

here are some pictures that Elder O has sent us while on his mission. He's a great missionary!!

April 15, 2008

My companion and I are staying together. So nothing new here. I completely forgot about taxes, I guess thats one of the blessings of being a missionary, you get almost completely out of the world.


They usually leave people out on the islands for quite a while. There is an elder on Barbados who has been on that Island for over a year. He switched areas once, but still thats a long time. I will probalby be here for a while. The brethren have recommended to mission presidents everywhere that they leave missionaries in an area for six to eight months. Obviously that cant always happen, but that is kinda the new standard I guess.

So I dont remember if I told you about this new family that we found. They are the Lowrence family. Man, they are so cool. We went over there to contact the mother and see how she was doing, so we were about to go and she asked us to mark another chapter in the Book of Mormon for her. They have plans to come to church the first time this next sunday. Every time we go over there I feel something telling me that they are going to get baptized and be awesome members here.

Love,

Elder Osterloh

(Here are some pictures that Elder O emailed. He looks really good! He's such a wonderful missionary!)

April 9, 2008

Conference was great. We got to see it from the internet. We went over to the white's,senior couple, apartment. It was pretty nice. Almost like watching it from home ya know, except that it was a tiny apartment on a tiny screen on a tiny island. Thats the only difference. Ya I really like elder bednars talk because we spend most of our time walking the streets trying to find people to teach. Man, it would be so cool if the members found people for us to teach, but its so new here that that doesnt happen much ya know. We did find a new family that we started teaching this week. They are a family of 7. What a number uh. One of the kids is a little tiny baby, so we dont really teach the baby ya know. But they are really cool, we gave them a Book of Mormon and they are going to read it as a family. Man, Im excited for them. But they are really new still, so basically anything could happen with them ya know. Love Elder OsterlohPs Im learning French. A bunch of the people here speak french because the island keeps on going back and forth between endlish and french rule. And there is a french island just a short ferry ride away. I can see it when we walk down from our apartment.

April 2, 2008

the work here is going well. Things are starting to shape up with a few of our investigators that were having problems. They just didnt want to do any work themselves. They love our visits, but those commitments were killer. We think we have it figured out though. If not, well theres always more fish in the sea. Zone Conference went really well. President is really good to us. They gave us donuts for breakfast and hamburgers for lunch, those things are kinda out of the question out here because of prices.