Be careful what you pray for...

Hey there Family and Friends! 

       How is life? I hope everything is going good. Is it still summer over there? It's turning into fall here.  Starting to rain more and get chilly! :) I think it's kind of fun.  But not a lot of time to cuddle up to the fire place and drink hot chocolate ya know? This just isn't the time for that.  Makes me think that I sure took some things for granted before now, that is for sure.  So this week was good.  I have to start by saying- as soon as I gave that challenge last week in my letter, I was put to the test.  I don't know why, but I just had a tough, rough, struggle for a couple of days.  I was forced to apply my own challenge to just "Be happy".  It was hard, and I think I discovered that it is almost impossible to put things aside and just be happy without help from our Father in Heaven.  It's just too hard to try to do it by myself.  I needed some comfort and some ... perspective. And the only place I can get that from is prayer.  So, that is something that I learned this week and it's sure helping me now even.  :) 

      So, where to begin!? I have an example of prayer for ya! So... I'll admit, I eat a lot.  There I said it.  So at the end of the day, when we get home for dinner, I eat SOOOO much! I'm just starving! So I made it a goal to try to eat less, and of course, I prayed for help as I try to accomplish this goal.  So...... God, being the kind Father that he is, answered my prayers! We went to buy our food today and neither of us had any money on our cards! We had ZERO! So.... I used my own money, which made us really only buy the necessities right? Yeah, We realized later on that that was, in some round about way, an answer to prayer.  Hehe.  Sometimes I think He gets a laugh out of our prayers- maybe just mine- but really :-) So yeah,  that was a fun lesson learned.  Be careful what you pray for too! :) 

      Okay, so I LOVE the members and investigators that we have here in Gdansk.  They are amazing.  Agnieszka and her daughter, Kasia, gave a talk to us for our last lesson.  We asked them to both prepare one on Humility.  It was sooooo good! They both had their resources and their sweet testimonies of Humility.  It was really cool.  Then we went to Samjit's (the member from Thailand) and she had made us like 6 or 7 rolls of Sushi!!! She is so sweet! We sure love her.  Then in English/Book of Mormon reading class, Lukas drew the coolest drawing of Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life! So cool! He is awesome.  He had a really cool interpretation too.  I love our class :) Oh! and our member, josef and his wife who isn't a member, irena, is picking a baptismal date! We are so excited for them!!! Ahhhh! they want to go through the temple together.  It makes me so happy.  

      Well, My hands hurt from typing so fast.  I only have a few more minutes.  But I did something today in personal study, it was cool. I mapped out my conversion.  I made a time line of my life and I had the ups be the spiritual times and the downs be the... non spiritual times (or less-spiritual).  Then I looked for patterns and reasons why there was an up or a down in certain areas.  It was really neat.  I learned a lot.  So that is my challenge for all of you.  Take a few minutes and map out your life and ask yourself what things have happened or have you done that have brought the most happiness or the least happiness.  Then live according to which ones brought the most.  It's really cool. Let me know how it goes.  

Are they talking on the phone...or maybe the recorder.....

Yum Yum Sushi.  Shelby must be in heaven

Looks pretty healthy Shelbs....

      Okay, well, I better go.  I sure love this mission. Hands down it is the hardest thing I've ever done.  All day, every day.  But I look at the Prophet and all the apostles who have done this or are going to be doing this for the rest of their lives.  They amaze me.  This work is worth every drop of sweat and every mile walked (or ran).  It's just worth it.  I hope everyone gets the opportunity to serve.  As my great friend Danny told me, this is the only time you get to "Walk with the Father and live like the Son."  Have a great week! :) 

Love, Sister Shelby Ostler