So Plain...No Sound

Dear Family,

The past week has been pretty good. Taught some lessons and met some people. One of the Assistants to the President (AP) went on exchanges with us last Friday and Saturday. His name is Elder Kimball and he's from Salt Lake area. It was a great experience and I learned a ton. He's an awesome missionary! On Monday we went to the doctor because my companion has had a problem with his foot for the past few days and apparently a couple of his bones in his foot are rubbing together. Ouch! I'm glad I have a healthy, strong body. He also has Krones Desease, so it can be pretty tough sometimes. Really, that's all, that happened with the missionary work this week. On Sunday, Brother Harvey spoke. He's the seminary teacher for the high school students here. He did an awesome job! He spoke on Hope and it was as good watching an apostle speak. So, Easter was good.Thanks for the stuff I asked for....the goodies were a nice bonus, but seriously, no iPod! You know I stay busy and am a hard worker. I really want my iPod here, so in the mornings when working out and getting ready for the day I can have some inspirational music and/or listen to talks. Also, its nice to have some music to listen to when at the appt. making lunch or dinner. CD's are too much of a hassle and I don't want to pack them around and we can' t listen to the radio. So, could you please send my iPod and the connectivity stuff. I'll send some money in a package back. My iPod was the reason I even asked for that other stuff. I wasn't going to have any of that other stuff sent, but it became convenient. And if mom is worried about it getting lost or stolen...I'm in the United States and there isn't a whole lot of thieving here in Oklahoma.Anyways, thanks for all you do for me and the support you give me!

I love you all!-Elder Osness

Dearest Family,

So, how are things? Very well, I suppose? The weather here is still crazy! Sunday was a clear, beautiful day with sunshine shining on the world then...Monday night was pooring rain! I know, that happens in St. george too, but not like this! It was crazy cool! I thought I had seen some pretty good flash rain storms and loud thundar, but last night was insane! At first it was kind of like St. George, the clouds came in and it started pooring rain, out of nowhere. Then, in the middle of the night, I wake up to this "tic tic tic" on the window and a big, roar of thundar and I could here the wind out side rushing by! The hail didn't last very long, but the awesome thundar lasted all night! I never heard such loud thundar. It was pretty sweet. That's pretty much the coolest thing that happened this past week. Other than that, just the regular missionary stuff; walking, talking, and teaching. No new people. Oh, but we did get a cell phone, so we don't have to go back to our appt. to make a call. One rule with it is, we are supposed to be conspicuous with it and aren't supposed to walk around with it in our hands or talk on it public areas. My companion had a reawakening of that rule on Sunday. haha! He was walking down the street and he pulled it out of his pocket, so I said "conspicuous, elder!" (I told him that because he's always shoving rules at me, so I figured, eh, I'll remind him of one). So, he glares at me, like whatever man! No more than a few seconds go by, while he's looking down at the phone, and he smashes his face right into a low branch of a tree and cuts open his nose. haha! That'll teach him! It was a fat tree branch too! like the size of my thigh. I feel kind of bad though because it looked like it hurt really bad.My companion and I, also met a crazy man yesterday. We were walking down the street and this guy looks at me as he passes and says, "hey, you look pretty tall. Do you play basketball?" I told him, "a little..." Then, before I even finish talking he starts talking again, "you should go to the University, you know, right over there. Go to the gym, right now. Go in you shirt and tie, all dressed up. Go to the gym, you understand!?" And I said, "why?" and he just storms off. What in the world! Yeah, he's crazy.Anyway, no new investigators, just some crazy stuff. Yo Jeff,Did you get that last e-mail? I gave your number to them (313-7643), so you should be getting a call soon. Also, could you put my baseball mit in the package as well(either the first baseman's mit or the one with my name on it). It should be in your blue baseball bag, which is either at your home or in my room. Could you also put some of my no-sho white socks in there. Those would be in my top dresser droor. And possibly, those Rug Rats sheets on my bed. Sorry, that's a lot of stuff, but it would be nice to have all that and its a free because that guy, Brian, I think is his name, I forgot, is coming here this week.Thanks for everything! Love ya!

-Elder Osness

No more Addendum!

'..family..'

So the weather has been awesome the last few days! Not so windy, more sunshine, and it hangs around 50 degrees and 60 degrees. I met a guy while tracting the other day that was a convert (1960's), but six years later left the church because of a disagreement of the doctrine. He's really cool and respects the church, but has a small problem...which we'll fix! I've never met a guy that can go off on more tangents than him! He was busy when we went over yesterday, so he couldn't talk long,but he wanted to show us his model/rc airplanes. He has a ton of them and he built all of them except one. We ended up talking to him for about an hour and a half. We also met a guy earlier in the week while tracting, whose a member, but not active, so he thought the bishop sent us. He's funny. He called himself a "jack mormon." We're going to meet and straighten him out too. I only took one picture this week and it wasof my companion at our district meeting. Next week, I'll have more:) While I was at a dinner appointment on Sunday, our ward mission leader was looking at some church history sight, so we decided we'd to find any Osness missionary info. We didn't, but he did find our family site and watched our family reunion video and noticed that it was titled "Onsess Family Reunion 2006." Do you see what's funny about it? Nobody knows how to pernounce our last name, but that's probably okay because from that video we can't even spell our last name...hahaha!Oh, I met someone that lives in St. George and is here visiting their family here. She said her husdband could bring anything I need out for me next week if I want him to, so I'm going to take her up on that offer. I don't remember her last name, but I'm going to give her Jeff'snumber so her husdband can get ahold of him. Things that I would appreciate packed into a shoebox or something forhim to bring would be, my iPod, and the other accessories I have for it(iPod usb connector cable, car/radio adapter, tape adapter, and audioout cables), my gray slacks from my closet, some computer speakers thatwill connect to my iPod (if you have any extras), and anything else youthink I might like. The reason I want my iPod stuff is because we just got rid of our Missionary Handbook addendum, so we are now allowed to listen to music in our appartments plus several other things. ...and yes, I do want my car addapter because I'll probably end up in a car during my mission.Ya-hoo!Another thing, in my las interview with President Gee, he told me to expect to become a senior companion in the next couple of transfers.eeehk! I guess that's cool! There are some things I still need to learn,but I could do it.Thanks for all you do for me! Love you all and miss you tons! Don't have too much fun on that arcade!

Love, Elder Osness

March 4, 2008

Hey...Yo!

Hey thanks for the link to my blog and for setting it up for me. Also, thanks for all the e-mails too. Its good to hear from everyone!This past week was pretty nice. I was able to teach a guy we tracted into and the weather was about 60-70 degrees with little wind, well, that was until Friday night. Ough! I really hate the wind! Friday nights wind blew away all the warm, sunny weather and since then, tell the end of this week, its supposed to be cold and windy. The tempurature says about 30+, but the wind feels like ICE on my face and it blows at about 20-30 mph! OUCH! But while it was sunny, I was able to get some good pictures. I saw a phone booth, so I figured..."hey, cool picture, yeah!" Better yet, The phone was ripped out of it! My companion is embarrassed, I guess, to take pictures in crowds because he would try to be inconspicuous and take the picture as fast as he could. The pictures at the baseball field look as cool as they do because my companion wouldn't wait for me to get situated before snapping the shot. He's a goon...I guess that's cool though because I am too! Ha!We had dinner at a member's home, the Emery's, the other day...and they moved here from St. George! That was cool. One of their daughters graduated a year before me at Dixie and the other is a couple years after me (still in school, here in Norman). They're way funny family!Yesterday, while we were walking a pug started fallowing us and continued to fallow us for about two miles! He was a funny little pup! He would play chicken with every car that came down the road. The dog reminded me of Frank, off of Men In Black II. Other than that...nothing overexciting. Just me being a missionary!

Love,Elder Osness