Down With the Sickness and Up With the Spirit!

Hello everyone! 

Man, it is a wonderful time to be serving the Lord. The online MTC experience has been so much better than what I had imagined. I am learning so much in my classes and I am really feeling the spirit more in my life than I think I ever have. It is amazing what changes you can notice in your life as you immerse yourself in things that are righteous. Before entering the MTC, I had only heard one person say that they actually enjoyed their experience in the MTC. I honestly thought that it was just this thing at the beginning of every mission that you just had to suffer through until you could get out into the mission field and enjoy yourself. Although I have had some rough days, and some days that I have really struggled, I am loving this experience. I am so grateful to be a missionary. Having the opportunity to be surrounded by the Gospel of Jesus Christ has made all the difference in my life in just a short 10 DAYS!

Since my last email where I told you guys I was starting to get sick, it has just been getting worse and worse every day. The last two nights I think are the only times I've ever slept with a humidifier. I've been living off of Dayquil, and I have constantly been nervous that my cough or my raspy voice would interfere with my classes and studies, but every time I have needed to learn or speak, the Lord has provided me with the strength to overcome my symptoms. Even in my times of sickness, I can testify that the Lord provides a way for you to obey his commandments and do what is right. Today I can finally say that I feel better than I did yesterday, and I hope that It'll be over it soon.

Today was my second P-day and me and my dad went out on the river again. No fish this time but it was nice to get out of the house again. Today was the first time I had put on a pair of shoes since SUNDAY! The "stay at home" order didn't really change my daily schedule much. 

Me and my companion have started teaching TRC (training resource center), lessons. We are teaching Sister Seable. In our first appointment, we invited her to read 2 Nephi 2, and had some questions for her to think about. She came back to our appointment on Wednesday with a page of notes and a ton of questions! It was amazing and me and Elder Eckhart are so grateful for her willingness to act in faith and study in-depth what we gave her. We had a lesson planned but we didn't even get to it because we were just able to share some really awesome messages with her and answer some questions she had. Me and Eckhart were pumped after our meeting Wednesday. We truly felt the spirit and were so grateful for Sister Seable. Not to mention that most of the people we teach in TRC's are actually members pretending like they are non-members, but some are actually non-members. Although, I know that members like to use TRC's to have personal concerns and questions answered by the missionaries. So I really hope we are helping. I can only imagine the joy that I can feel after an awesome lesson with an actual investigator. 

There has been no news on any relocation for me. I can safely assume that it will be a while before I get to South Africa. But, I am still waiting on further instruction as to where they are going to send me in the meantime.

The online experience has been strangely normal for me. We do our studies, our classes, and our teaching appointments all over video chat. For some weird reason, I feel like I have been able to focus here at home so much better than I ever have in any classroom. And I know the spirit has so much to do with that. I love this work. I love the people I work with, those I teach, my companion that I teach with, my teachers that help me, and those in my district who learn with me. I have waited a long time to be a missionary and I am so grateful to be where I am and to do what I am doing. The Church is true. I love and miss you guys and I'll have more for you next week!

Elder Oswald