One little light

Hey Family!

Sounds like Alaska was a blast! Glad you guys were able to have fun! Reminds me of living in Washington, I would love to go back and visit some time. So we had a decent week this week. On Tuesday we did divisions with the Zone Leaders, I stayed here in the area with Elder Duce. I learned a lot from him and really loved the opportunity. We were able to find some new investigators on the street, and hopefully we can help them progress. We have a few people that are progressing and going to church right now, only that they are all not married. There is a free marriage thing on the 1st of September, but it’s a long ways to wait.

 I am particularly excited for this one guy named Eduardo. I think I talked about him a little last week. We taught him and he loved the message, and loves the church. Then this fast Sunday, he went up and bore one of the best testimonies. I think everyone was impressed with him. He will be a great member and leader, we just need to get him married. Besides that we reactivated a family. The dad’s name is Bruno, he is super cool, speaks Arabic, English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French. It is because he worked on Royal Caribbean on their Europe cruises. We meet him at a ward party on Saturday and talked to him and got him to come to church Sunday! He is married and has a daughter of 2 years. He is also a former missionary. It is funny because when one of his cruises was in Turkey, he met the missionaries there. They said that their last transfer the entire mission baptized 16, Bruno served in Salvador Brazil, and would often personally baptize 20 in one week. Crazy, haha. But we are trying to work a lot more with less actives and try to re activate while at the same time baptize.

 So Saturday we had Festa Juninia at the Church. It is a party that Brazilians throw in the months of June and July (Depending what day you choose to have it) It is a Northern celebration, basically the equivalent of a random holiday for hicks. haha But it was seriously awesome! We had tons of non-members and less actives show up, and there was tons of food and dancing. I really think it surpasses any ward party that I have ever been a part of. haha, But Brazilians really know how to party, that is for sure. It was good through cause it shows non-members that church can be fun and helps them make friendships really fast.

Last cool thing is that last night the little 4-month-old girl of a member was feeling sick. The member lives underneath us so we went to give her a blessing. It was like 8 30 at night a dark, and halfway through the first part we heard a bang, and all the lights went out except for the room we were in. Something happened to the power in our street, and the entire neighborhood didn´t have enough power to power a light bulb except for that one room we were in, so we finished the blessing and went home. haha pretty cool. 

Anyways I pray that you guys get some rain. Sounds like the fire danger is pretty bad! It hasn´t been cold here either, even though it is winter. 90´s this past week. Tell Paige to get better soon!

 So I read a talk by Holland, I have heard it a lot before, but I loved it! It is Safety for the Soul by Holland in 2009. Also something I realized about the gospel that I love, is that is gives us the opportunity to really create our own happiness and pleasure. Many people these days become slaves to things in order to have enjoyment or happiness. Money, cars, drugs, immorality, anything really. But the gospel allows us to find happiness independent of worldly things, happiness inside of us, free for all if they will just follow some simple counsel. How great that is! Anyways I love you guys! Hope that the anniversary was great and also Happy 4th of July! Hope you guys have fun! Love you and thank you. Peace out!

Elder Connor Ottosen