Elder Ostler's Letter

dec31,07
Dear, family The baptism went through it was a great success. We printed 50 programs and they all were handed out. Brittany was so happy when she got baptized. You could tell a big difference I also asked her and she said that she felt really good. Her new ward was there the singles branch plus part of are ward and even non member friends and her foster mom. I got to be in the conformation circle and also be a witness it was really neat. It was good because we had the members doing about everything. I am also getting a new companion on wenesday named Elder Bloomfield he sounds like a really great guy. He will be a follow up trainer. And for Elder Farmer he is going district leader in East St. Louis. Hope you guys have a great New year I am also still doing well. Also Aunt Beth and Uncle Matt sent me a package which had a etch a sketch candy and three book of mormons with testimonies from people in Aunt Beths class at church. That day I taught 3 girls on the metro about the restoration and gave them the copies of the book of mormons they were excited and suprised it was a awesome experience I will never forget I thought I would share it with you guys. with love,
Elder Ostler

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLETON

Carl we all hope you have a wonderful birthday!!
Nothing creative here, just a
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

You are an important part of our family and we love you.

Let the Birthdays continue!

Unfortunately I'm not at home so I don't have access to any of the darling baby pictures of Miss Amanda...but we can't let that stop us from wishing her a WONDERFUL birthday. In fact, it's been too long since we've heard from you Amanda...how about an update on you and your family? How were your holidays? Did any of you get the dreaded coldfluitis? How's school? And are you having any more ice storms? Give us an update, and have a FABULOUS birthday. (And about 100 more!) We love you.

How Rand got sick this summer

I know you thought it was the legendary waterfall of eternal youth, but all it did was make you sick. That's OK, because we love you just the same. Just think, it took at least 45 years to get your hair to it's current shiny, silvery-gray color. We don't want to stop that process. More silver = More sexy.
This year you discovered

• what it feels like to be at the top of an arch,
  
• that you don't like the taste of chili from Cincinnati,
• Charlie Harper (and that it's fun to stalk his widow)
• the feeling of coming home from urgent care and being rear-ended by a sleeping hotel worker,
• the joys of Yetiquette,
• that Landmark is totally screwed up,
• Brooklyn is really cool,
• tubing down rivers can be fun,
• West Virginians are missing a lot of teeth,
• there are big crosses in the plains states,
• dousing your head in an ice-cold waterfall isn't the best idea,
• Lars and the Real Girl,
• your daemon is a tiger,
• a new Indian restaurant,
• the biggest blueberry,
• that you can pull a suitcase in a rainstorm through the streets of New York,
• that a Pinkberry is next to our hotel,
• you can enjoy a cross-country road trip to old cities
• and that you can't wait to see what this year has in store for you.

We're sorry that you're sick on your birthday (again), but we're always glad to extend your birthday for as long as it takes until you feel well enough to truly celebrate (and taste your birthday cake.)

LOOOOOK OUUUT FOOOOR THAAAAT TRREEEE!

But it was too late.
So our Utah Holidays were going fabulous, we were absolutely loving the SNOW, until a little sledding mishap yesterday. Gunther was going down backwards when a tree got in his way. He broke one of the bones in his arm, but he's in amazingly great spirits about it. He walked in with his cast and announced: "The REALLY good news is...no surgery. Plus, I get to take the X-Ray to school!" He has a temporary cast on and they'll put the full cast on once we get back to California. He also thinks it's pretty funny that if he pees on the toilet seat he has a "really good reason." The rest of us are fine, although I have a HORRIBLE cold and have spent the last couple of days in bed. I have a doozie. Hope you're all having HEALTHY holidays!

SOMEONE IS OLDER!!

Ok--so I am not creative like Rand--but I know a cute girl when I see her.
Today is her birthday, she has pigtail braids, and a purple striped bathing
suit----If you see her, give her a hug and wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANDREA
[ps. it is "E" to many of you, but Andrea to me]

Hope your day is wonderful!

Feliz Navidad!

Our niece Ashleigh Garcia went with us this year. She kept Travis company on the long trip.

Anybody recognize these two? Somehow they showed up at Grandma Garcia's for Christmas this year.

We visited Grandpa Garcia's grave in Las Cruces.

We also visited Great Grandpa Chavez' grave (Lisa's Grandfather) grave in Colonia Juarez. This year we got special permits to cross the inner border at Janos Mexico and visited Colonia Juarez, The Mormon colony settled in the 1880's. It is where Grandma Garcia was raised and introduced to the Church.

This is the place where Grandma was baptised in the river in Colonia Juarez when she was 15 years old.

The temple in Colonia Juarez. Dedicated in 2000' A very beautiful temple in a quiet little Mormon colony of 1200 people. Thanks President Hinckley for bringing the temples to the people. The Ochoa family from the Ascension Branch was sealed here just three weeks ago.


La Academia Preparatoria de Colonia Juarez. This school was first opened when the saints arrived to Colonia Juarez. It is owned and run by the Church, but you don't have to be a member to attend. Lisa's mother graduated from here before getting married and going to BYU. It wasn't quite this big back then. Two of the youth from the Ascension branch attend this school. Thanks to the Perpetual Education Fund, many others do also.

I caught a picture of one of Santa's Elves still in her jammies.

One day we assembled 500 dispensas of food to distribute. Lisa's job was adding the bags of flour.

We bought red chilis from these boys. Then gave it to anyone who needed it.

Ashleigh carrying a dispensa.

Travis found the balls at a School for handicap children we visited.


Mark rented a young boy's pony and gave rides to the kids. He had to test it out first.

Now Travis wants a Pony!

Members of the branch showing the new books they received. Thanks Lisa.

Santa got mobbed by the kids at a Party in town.

The Barboza Flores Family. they lived in a house made of pallets three years ago. Dave's family helped them this year with some construction supplies for their home. Ask Dave for the details. They were very touched. Thanks Dave and Amy, and kids.


The Medrano Family. Thanks to many hands, we helped them with the little addition to their house. They have nine in the family and live in about 200 square feet. The bike in the picture is from Matt to Rodolfo, who is holding it.

This is the addition to their little adobe house. It now has a cement floor, new lights, and a front door. They are members of the branch, and are preparing to go to the temple in a few months.

This is Alexis, and Alexa, the Medrano twins. They are 15 months old. We took them a rocking horse and a toy box. They're not too sure about Mark holding them.

Miguel and Eloisa Sirvas, and their son. There house is made out of pallets, plywood, tar paper, adobe, tin, and every other kind of worn out broken down stuff they can find to use. They invited us in and offered to let us stay with them if we wanted while we were in town. They fed us homemade corn tortillas when we visited. The house is no bigger than 8 feet by 12 feet with a little wood stove that he made, a table, and a small bed. No electricity, no bathroom, no running water, and a dirt floor. We left them some blankets, food, and clothing. She is a member of the church, baptised 7 years ago in Casas Grandes with her three children.

This is our friend Adelaido. He wanted to give us a puppy in exhange for things we brought to him. He gave Mark forty two pesos, that he had been saving for us. We gave him some new tools, and a little stove to cook with, along with food and a sleeping bag.

Here he is with his new stove, he quickly took it inside so it would'nt get stolen.

This little guy got a new blanket.

We always find some Tara Mara Indians. They are very poor and live up in the mountains of Northern Mexico. They dress very colorful and come down to the border towns to beg in the streets.

And last but not least, this is our new little grand niece, Olivia. She is Nicole's new baby. Just 4 months old. Nicole is Hugo's daughter, Lisa's brother. Merry Christmas to all. I hope we did'nt bore you with our trip. Lots of love to all. During this holiday season, don't forget to count your many blessings.

Merry Christmas to all the family. We hope Santa found you and yours and you have a wonderful day today. We made it home sunday night late after driving all the way from Las Cruces, NM. We woke up Christmas Eve to the smell of a pie cooking in our oven. Bobette, a friend from our old neighborhood snuck in our back door and welcomed us home from Mexico with a homeade Peach Pie! Yum. We enjoyed helping Santa south of the border again and all went well. We wanted to share a few pictures of the trip. Enjoy! Merry Christmas. Love , Mark, Lisa, and the boys!

PS. We are anxiously awaiting a call from Justin about 12:00 noon today Yea!!!

DENNY FAMILY after "CHRISTMAS PARTY!!

It's a Denny Family after "Christmas Party"!!
All are invited---come and enjoy a visit and food.

When: Friday, Dec. 28th
Where: Aly's mansion
87 "E" Street
Slc. Ut
Time: 5:30 --until we're done

It will be "pot luck", bring anything you want to bring and we will eat whatever comes.
This is a no structure party---just food, family and enjoying each other. If you want to bring a fun game you got for Christmas, you can.

I could say I was pulling Taffy.

I could say that I was busy wrapping presents. Or I could say that I was hand stringing garland for our Christmas tree. Or I could say that I was just putting the finishing touches on some homemade Christmas projects. Or I could say that I was making batch after batch of Christmas cookies. Or I could say that I was out shoveling snow for all the widows in Venice, but you'd KNOW that was a lie...so let's just say I was on the road and didn't get my reminder email. Anyway, we hope you had a FESTIVE birthday Danen. We love you.

Elder Ostler

Dear, Family

It sounds like things are going well in Ephraim that is cool about Travis and his Eagle award. It snowed here the other day and has been fun shoveling the snow for people in there driveways. Also It has been great just being a missionary. Well the other day I got a gold quarter sent to me in the mail if it was from you guys thanks. If not whoever sent it it made my day it was really cool. Today we were at the mall and this guy that works there that we have talked to on the metro gave me and Elder Shreeve my Zone leader a free drink it was cool. Then I gave him a Joy to the world dvd we had in my coat. It was great to see his reaction. It made me so happy because he said that made his day. I like to see peoples day made as mine has been made so many days. We are so blessed this time of year to celebrate the birth of Christ and have a day off from work. I will talk to you guys at christmas sometime I will be looking forward too it. This time of year there has been a lot of rejections but that is why we have testimonys to keep us srtong and make us stronger. With love, Elder Ostler

Santa's Web Site

Just wanted to make sure all the kids knew how to get to Santa's web site.

Santa's Web Site.

Did you see this?

This was in today's Salt Lake Tribune online. Two Elk were trying to act tough and butt heads with each other. Unfortunately their antlers got tangled together. Nobody knows how long they had been tangled when they were discovered, but one of the Elk died of exhaustion (I don't like that part of the story). Two Wildlife Officers decided against tranquilizing the living Elk because they feared it wasn't strong enough to survive. They decided to cut the antler off the dead Elk. They said after they cut the two Elk apart, the living Elk stood around for five minutes, completely exhausted, before running off. They also said the attached antler fell off as the Elk ran off. I thought it was a pretty interesting story and just thought I'd share it.

Day 2 NO SCHOOL!!

For those of you that have paid attention to the weather news, we have been experiencing some pretty extreme weather.

I've witnessed several ice storms while living out here, but none with this amount of damage. For the first time I was thankful I didn't have any large trees around our home. Many residences are with out power...some trees are even blocking front doors.

We have been blessed and were able to be on the "help out neighbors" end of things. No damage at our home (just Bri's office). I believe we'll be back in school tomorrow. Thank goodness because it's starting to feel a little like "Groundhog Day" where every day is a Saturday because we can't go anywhere.

Its A Girl!

Austin and Brayden will be getting a baby SISTER! We had the ultrasound on Monday and found out that we are expecting a girl for our 3rd due on April 22nd. Needless to say, the news made Tori's day and all the sickness well worth it. Now she can buy PINK stuff and there is nothing I can do about it!! We are very excited and don't really know what to do with girls, but welcome the challenge. Austin has been telling us from the beginning that there is a baby sister in there, "cause mom, I already have a baby brother Brayden and I want a baby sister!"
In other news, in case my mother hasn't spread the word all around by now, I have been accepted to Ohio State University for my post-graduate residency in Prosthodontics and we will be moving to Columbus, Ohio in June for 3 more years! We are very excited to live there closer to Andrea and Eddie, and the boys are excited to live closer to 'Baby Thomas'. As most of you are wondering, a Prosthodontist is a dental specialist who works with specific cases in cosmetic dentistry, implant dentistry, and anything that is a prosthesis. I love what I do and am looking forward to it. I hope you are all well and have a Merry Christmas!!

Dear Santa...

...I would like a new binkie,

and some more diapers,

and maybe a car.

Merry Christmas!

Well. Well. Well.

I could be wrong, but if I had to guess I'd say somebody was dreaming of a BLUE Christmas and Birthday that year! But then, who wasn't right? We hope you have a WONDERFUL birthday today Kalyn. We know you're spending endless hours these days working on your blog, building your nest egg, safety net, empire, which means you won't have to work so hard later... ...VERY SMART...but we hope you'll take time today for some deep breaths...and a big slice of SUGAR. We love you. Have an AMAZING day.
Let's see...who else could be having a birthday? Gee...who could it be...here are a few hints...she's a DARLING MOM...DARLING GIRL...I'm sure an AMAZING WIFE...and she's someone we don't get to see NEARLY enough. Oh...she also happens to be wearing a BIG ORANGE CROWN in the picture. Yes, Tori, We hope you have a WONDERFUL birthday. We love you.

Some Photos from Grandpa's Birthday

Here are a couple of photos from the day we were at Dad's for his birthday celebration.