Elder Ostler

Dear famiy, Jan 26,09
It has been a sweet week. We had a great appt. with Shela and had dinner with her and her son and husband. The family built a stronger friendship than before with shela and we taught her about baptism and the holy ghost. It was also good to go to Du quoin and find and a new investigator tracting named Pauline and go tract down some L.A. members. We also went down to Cobden and did some tracting and found another new guy to teach named Brian. We have had another successful week. But the highlight was to teach shela and after we did the overwhelming joy of missionary work that we felt. It makes the mission the best part. We slept good that night, that was for sure. Me and Elder Bowen have been having good unity and it has been helping us teach better and to teach with more power. I have been learning tons of things with my new comp and it is pretty tiresome but I do enjoy getting tired. There is also a good ice storm that is suppose to be coming in tonight.
with love, Elder Ostler

Look What I Found...

After reading Rand's post I thought that I may have a picture of Sandee from the Family Campout....and what do you know, I do!

Happy Birthday Sandee! I hope you have a great day.

HELP! I need all of you.

I'm really struggling with something: Keeping up with birthday posts. As I look back through the archives I have done literally hundreds of birthday posts over the last few years. And I have loved doing them. So what's the problem? My schedule right now. I am in an INTENSELY busy period with our start up agency and am finding it very difficult to keep up with the ever growing amount of birthdays. For instance: By the time this week ends, I will have flown to five different cities for meetings and presentations. Right now I'm in Vegas. I'm not telling you this so that you think I'm important, I'm just swamped growing a very rapidly expanding agency. When I joined the agency we had two clients: O Organics and Eating Right. Today our roster of clients includes: O Organics, Eating Right, Safeway, Jamba Juice, T-Mobile, The Organic Center, Manduka Yoga Mats, and a couple of pro bono accounts. SWAMPED! Keeping up with birthday posts is not only very difficult right now, it's some days impossible as I'm in the air, in meetings, or unable to connect. So...can I take a break from the birthday posts for awhile? And can whomever from whatever family is having the birthday pick up the slack and do a post? I do love knowing who is having a birthday, but I do need help. What do you think? Can we share this responsibility? Big thanks. Oh, and one last thing: HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY SANDEE! I HOPE YOU'RE HAVING AN ABSOLUTELY AMAZING DAY. WE LOVE YOU! (darn, I have no picture).

Baby Mary Blessing

Dear Denny Family and others,

We're blessing Mary Jade Ostler on February 1st at 10:45 AM at the Yellow brick church building at 115 East 200 South in Ephraim. We're inviting everyone who can come and worthy Priesthood holders to be in our circle. There is a luncheon to follow at our parent's house. Jon & Valerie Ostler. 732 N. 100 E. We would love to see you there! If you think you'll be able to attend, call Sara's cell phone: 435-340-0617

Thank you,

Andrew and Sara Ostler

And thank you from me too! Peace out!

Dear Family, Jan 21, 09

My new comps name is Elder Bowen and and he is from West Jordon Ut. He is a country boy so we get along well and have been teaching good too. He is really learning things quick and learning the ways of the mission. He is going to to be a super missionary and I hope to help him become even better than me. We have been working the area really good and finding people in a town called Cobden and Jonesboro. The members are getting real excited that we are working those small towns. I guess missionaries have never really done much work down there. We did some tracting and found some new people down there. One guy was a media referral named Edy who is looking for a church and is really into cars and working on a 1970 Nova. He is in Cobden. Also in Jonesboro we had a referral for a really sweet lady named Betty who is very religious. Shela is doing well and we are going to talk to her about baptism and the holy ghost at a members house for dinner with them. The members have been so good to help us with rides and teamups or splits. It is cooling down in the 20's with the windchill which can make it colder.

With Love, Elder Ostler

HAPPY BIRTHDAY #1 SON KENT!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! YOU ARE THE GREATEST!

WE ARE JUST AS HANDSOME AS OUR DAD!! WONDER IF WE WILL EVER BE AS BIG!

WE LOVE YOU DAD, HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We hope you have a wonder ful birthday too son... We are very proud of you.

Love you,

Mom and Dad

Sundance

Last Saturday we went up to Park City for our annual Celeb watch. It was perfect weather so we walked up and down Main Street numerous times. After the stalking we went to the Outlets and spent way too much money. It was great!

Adam Duritz - lead singer for the Counting Crows

Russell Simmons (with a cameo by Rachel)

Tom Arnold

Linda Hogan and her 30 year younger boyfriend - they looked pretty weathered in person

We also saw the Samantha girl from the Travel channel and Aly and Rachel talked to Jane Lynch in the Coffee Shop.

A Historic Day for the U.S.A.

I'm proud and excited to see this happen in my lifetime. Tomorrow will be a very historic day!

SUPERBOWL PARTY

FEBRUARY 1, 2009

PITTSBURGH STEELERS -vs- the ARIZONA CARDINALS

Yep, less than 13 days to the Annual Superbowl Party at Mark and Lisa's!

So wear your yellow and black (Steelers) or your red and white (Cardinals) --- or whatever color you want for those of you that don't know or don't care!

Kickoff is usually around 4:00 - ish.

Bring your appetite!!!!

We will have soups and breadsticks as the main course, and then whatever else ya'll supply.

We'll have all the paper products; if you need something specific for your dish let us know.

Bring 1 liter of what your family drinks and we'll provide the ice water, for you non-soda drinkers!

Reply with your number of who is coming and, if you want, what you'll bring so others don't duplicate it.

Bruce Springsteen is the half time show. Jennifer Hudson (American Idol finalist several seasons ago) will sing the national anthem. We will stand and have our hands on our heart for Matt and all those serving.

For those who don't live nearby or aren't coming - we'll miss you! But it was sure fun to see a lot of you at the after Christmas party! Thanks for making the sacrifice to come!

Mark and Lisa

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KELLY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!! We love you and hope you have a wonderful Birthday!!

You are the #1 husband, #1 Dad, and #1 Grandpa!

We are so lucky to have you.

Grateful for safe arrival!!

I'm just grateful that Jeff and Erin made it to North Carolina safely. Very thankful that they were not on the other plane going to North Carolina---the one that landed in the Hudson River!!

PS. Morgan wants the baby to be called "Mulan" , Lauren wants "princess Aurora. When asked what Mom and Dad want to name the baby, Morgan said " The baby doesn't have a name", but Dad wants to call it a boy's name!

Birthday Greetings for Pamelia

Rand was in a meeting all day and sends apologies
for not posting the birthday of a real cutie in our family.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAMELIA.

We love you (and would love to see a new picture of you here on the blog!)

Elder Ostler

Dear Family, Jan 12, 09
We got transfer calls the other day and well Elder Harmon is going home and they called me to be a trainer for a new greenie coming out. I don't know anything about who it is yet because you don't find out until transfers. It will be fun I can't wait to meet him. Elder harmon will be missed but change is for the better. It will be fun to teach someone how to do things that hasn't been in the field before. This week has been great though we had a very neat ant tender appt. with Shela. We talked to her about coming to church and bore strong testimony about it. There was a lot of tears in the house and with the member we were with. She told us she had prayed more that day than any other time in her whole life. She had had a ruff couple days and it was an answer to her prayers that we came that day. She told us how she needed to change and she needed to be at church. She came sunday with her son and her husband it was so neat to see them even happier. Also a LA member the Metasavich family has been coming back to church for a few weeks now who we have visited. They are wanting to go back to the temple and get active again. They also stayed for the whole 3 hours and not just sacrament. We also found a new lady named Vanessa who is really nice and wants to read the Bom. It has been great this last week we got 3 new referals to work with. It has been neat to work with all these great people in this area things are really taking off.
with love, Elder Ostler

Kalyn's Kitchen Featured in Article About Utah Food Blogs

Just thought I'd let you know that my blog was featured in this article about Utah food blogs:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11443175

There is also a list of other blogs in Utah too, although it's only about half the blogs that I know about. Still, it's a nice article.

(For some reason their page is slow to load. If it gets hung up, just refresh and it usually loads.)

SARAH - Late Happy Birthday!

HEY SARAH!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON JAN 8th, last Thursday!

We are so glad you joined this family! Hope you had a very, very happy birthday, and enjoyed eating lots of peeled grapefruit!

(Her latest pregnancy craving!... and she didn't like them at all before!)

Happy Day! We love you!!!!

Does Anyone Want Free Tickets for U of U Women's Gymnastics?

I have passes which can get up to six people per ticket into a gymnastics meet. I can send you more than one, if you have more than six people

The dates are Jan 23, Feb. 6, Jan. 20, March 6, March 13 (all Fridays.)

If anyone is interested, just e-mail me and I'll send you the tickets.

Denny Family Christmas Party Photos #3 - Still More To Come!

Brayden 1-7-08

Sorry I haven't sent out his letters lately. no excuse, just lazy.

hello family well this week was a better week than the last ones. we were able to see alot of investigators this week and also we pick up a new investigator named louay. He is a guy and he is a east indian. He loves the book of mormon, or what he has read so far. He asked us to come back and start teaching him. Also we saw our investigator patrick (he is 17 and goes to seminary with a priest in our ward). The sad thing is patricks whole family in antimormon and doesn't let us talk to him awhole lot, but his dad said he can get baptized when he turns 17 which is in feburay. He is still planning on getting baptized and loves seminary. Hopefully we can get him out to church also. we were able to see Murry, the fed ex driver, and talk to him yesturday. We had our ward mission leader there with us, which was beneficial because he could relate to alot of things. He is also a convert and has gone through most of the same stuff.The weather this week was really nice. It got to 0 on monday and it wasn't below -15 this entire week, but there is still snow on the ground. I dont think it is going anywhere soon, because January and Febuary are the coldest months. Which is not fun if you are in a walking area. well things are great here I love you all hope you have a great week.
love peace and chicken grease.
love brayden

Denny Family Christmas Party Photos #2 - Many More to Come!

2 letters from Elder Ostler

Dear family, Dec22, o8
It has been a fun week first had dinner with some great members named the welch's who we got to see there kids sing in a elememtry school program. Then we got to help them do some service by cleaning up all of the chairs and tables with some teachers. We also went to Desto to all the appts. we had up there. We also found someone new to teach when teaching a family that we have been working with named the Kertsy's. We also had fun at another members home as we made pizza and it was a dinner for the 4 Elders in the ward and me and Elder Swenson one of the other Elders made some cool pizzas with faces on them and one was a maze and singing american Itaialion songs like so sukulento meatballs and other things we made up. We have a few people we are going to see this Christmas the one who we will call at will be Sister Carruthers and it will be fine to call me a 1pm my time. She is a cool lady in the ward here.
We have some people getting closer and closer to baptism Evelyn who keeps praying and is waiting for an answer and Shela who keeps understanding more and more. The members and helping us with rides and teamups to help teach it has been awesome. It was cool to see a LA member come to church who we visit at her shop from time to time. We also got to do some service by helping a lady named Belinda who is really neat and has a farm chop and stack wood. Me and Elder Harmon got to get involved in a reactivation fireside for the youth and teach what we do with the LA members and what the members can do it was tons of fun. Then I got a cookie on a sucker stick it was great. I have recieved both the packages thanks very much for the presents, letters, and homemade goodies.
With love, Elder Ostler

Dear family, Dec 29,08
We had a busy week this last one and we saw a lot of people. It was fun to have quicker visits with LA members and investigators as we made dads no bake cookie recipe and gave it to them and they seemed to really enjoy it. People were really suprised to see us make cookies, they were really impressed by that. It was nice to have Christmas with the Clover family and also with the Cundiffs and the Tates. We were running around like crazy but it was a fun day. I know me and Elder Harmon were sure beat after that day and ready for bed at night. The Clover family made a huge tote full of fruit salad to eat that is their tradition. It is so people can take some home when they leave. At the Tates we had a ham and rolls and potatoes. We also got to try night vision googles they got. Then at the Condiffs about the same kind of food. Those slippers that you sent me are great, thanks a bunch. They are so nice to wear in morning and night. I also enjoyed all of the homemade goodies that were sent to me. I want to also thank you for sending the Christmas scriptures which were fun to read every morning to know the true meaning of Christmas better.
With love, Elder Ostler

Dan's Day.

See that guy over there on the left? Today is HIS day. We hope you get to spend it creating art, eating cake, relaxing, and knowing how happy we are to have you in this family. We love you Dan. Have a wonderful birthday. (We need new pictures!)

Denny Family Christmas Party Photos - Many More to Come!

MATT SAYS HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Matt called home on Dec 31, 2008! Unfortunately, Mark was the only one home, but fortunately, he answered the phone! Matt was only able to talk for 5 mins, so it wasn't a long conversation, but he is well! He says it is getting easier because more and more is becoming routine. He goes to Camp Pendleton this weekend for 4 weeks (but his address remains the same!) and will mostly work on weaponry. He wanted to tell everyone hello and he loves them. He was a little emotional, as was Mark; we guessed he would be able to make one phone call in this 13 week training, but we, or he, never knew when it would be. Anyway, he is good and getting stronger! He is weighing in at 181 and is down to size 32 waist. He says his clothes that he took with him just drown him! Thanks to everyone for your support and letters and Christmas cards - keep writing!

Love to all,

Mark and Lisa

Happy 2009 and Happy Birthday!

Jon's resolutions for his birthday: Continue to look like he hasn't aged a bit (even 20 something years later), eat cake FIRST, and be grateful for another wonderful year full of amazing blessings! We love you Jon. Have a wonderful birthday. And happy 2009 to all!