Off to the waterfalls!

Hey Family!
Wow it is school time already!!?? Good luck to Kade and Paige, should be a fun school year! haha So this week was pretty chill. Not a whole lot happened. Lucas got confirmed yesterday and he likes the church. I hope we can help him prepare to serve a mission that would be so cool. My email will be a little short because we are actually going to do something this pday. We are going to some waterfalls in our DL´s area. Should be awesome I hope. This next Saturday we have those free marriages, so this week we are going to be working a ton with anyone who qualifies for it, and hopefully have a few baptisms next week. That is a cool story about Romney! Just goes to show that show much depends on our attitude and how we take things. The gospel always helps us to have a better outlook on life and the future. In fact yesterday we were teaching a family. Just 20 days ago two of their sons were murdered at their door.  I imagine it must be horrible either way. But with the gospel you have the hope of happiness and peace, and an opportunity to see your loved ones again. Without the gospel everything looks so bleak. Unfortunately we lost some good investigators last week. They all decided to stop investigating the church, because of pressure from family members and friends, but we continue working and hopefully they will have their chance down the road. 
I am glad you guys got the package this time!! Sorry it didn´t have a ton of things, maybe for Christmas I will find more things to send. haha. But that is cool you talked to Joe, how is everyone at home?
For sure you should send me pics of everyone. haha Those caves in the picture were at a park we went to back in Irajá. The park is called Quinta da Boa Vista, if you want to look it up. It was way cool and had a museum and zoo, both closed on Monday. :( haha
Kory should be getting home soon! You will have to go to his homecoming and tell him hi for me. haha . 
So that is also way cool with the temple walk! For sure send me some pics. 
Thank you a million billion for the love, the advice and comforting works. I love you all so much and can´t wait to see you again, but I am so happy to be a missionary and to help others. Love you guys! 
Elder Connor Ottosen

God does answer prayers!

Hey Family!

We Baptized!! Finally the last day of the transfer too, haha. We have been teaching Lucas, the boyfriend of a member, he is 18 almost 19. He has been really interested but got a job where he works every Sunday. We didn´t really have lots of confidence that anything would happen. I fasted that we could find someone to baptize this week. Then on Thursday we went there and he had quit! I was so happy! but still didn´t think we would have a baptism this week, but Friday we had another lesson, he loved it, said he believed and wanted to be baptized. Saturday he said he receive an answer! He dreamt that he was in front of a pool really deep and big. He was really scared to jump in, but finally he jumped, and when he came out there was he girlfriend and her family waiting and smiling. He said he didn´t want to wait and wanted to be baptized Sunday! So yesterday he was baptized, and he even said he would consider a mission. It was really one of the tender mercies of the Lord, really shows that he tries people´s faith before showing the blessings. We also got another reference of a member that wants to get baptized next week! We will be working with her this entire week. Really it shows how much better it is to work with references, haha we have done about 680 contacts this transfer and until now no baptisms of contacts, but we still have many to teach. Another super cool experience happened. Friday we had a bunch of lessons fall, and so we thought of a reference of a recent convert/less active that I have never met. I had heard that she wasn´t interested from the missionaries before but we decided to go there. Her name is Flavia and when she came to the door she got a huge smile. Turns out that the night before she was really depressed, passing through some major difficulties in life, and she prayed telling Heavenly Father she missed the missionaries, and wondered if he could send them to talk to her again, the next day we showed up! Nothing cooler than being an answer to someone´s prayer, and Sunday she went to church! This week was a good one. Now I have just one more transfer training, but we are hoping to work a lot better with members and try and baptize a family. 

But anyways that’s what is happening here. The weather is starting to heat up again, 80´s and 90´s more often, bleh. haha 

Yeah we walk a pretty good amount, the members don´t really live close to each other so we are always walking, but it is good. Anyways things are going great here, I am so happy to be a missionary and be an instrument in the Lords hands to change people´s lives!! Really there is nothing that can replace the mission and I love it! I love you all and wish you a wonderful week! Love, Elder Connor Ottosen

The work goes on...

Hey Family!

This week I admit was pretty hard. We worked like crazy, but still no baptisms. The District leader, Zone Leaders, even assistants were calling trying to get a baptism, if they just knew how much I want one too. This week is the last one of the transfer, so we are going to do everything to baptize. haha  Rafaela, the 10 year old girl will be baptized, just not yet. Her mom wants to wait so we are going to try and prepare her mom and try again later. Tiago and Gracilene we tried to get ahold of this week but no luck. They work and have school at night so that was kind of difficult. We had another lady come to church. She was looking for help to pay some bills, but to also find a church to attend. She was awesome and I am certain that she will be baptized, but unfortunately she lives in the neighboring ward boundaries. The one other person that we are exciting about is Maria. She stopped us in the street and asked us to pray for her. We visited her and she had never attended church and never read the bible but was looking to start now. We will visit her tomorrow and see how she liked it her.

 Anyways that is crazy to hear school is about to start again. Seems like the summer started yesterday to me. The time absolutely flies in the mission field. Good luck to everyone and going back to school! Glad the US was able to do well in the Olympics. There isn´t a whole lot of talk here about 2016 yet, I think it is still a long ways away for people. Plus I live out of the main city, where all the action will be.

Haha yeah there are some missionaries that love to sing hymns. I would but have absolutely no talent singing. haha 

I am glad to have a comp that knows so much and is eager to work. I pray things are going well there. I got you pictures of the Cruise! Looks like that was awesome. I sent you guys a package. It has a memory card with all my pics, you can post them on my blog is you want. Anyways love you guys to death! Have a good week.

Elder Connor Ottosen

Thought he was a flower?

Hey Family!

So pretty long and tiring week this week. But hopefully we can get some baptisms this next Sunday. We are working like crazy, haha. We have 10-year-old Rafaela, She loves the church and always goes with her 16 year old brother who is a member. She wants to be baptized but her mom, who is inactive, says it is too early. This week we will visit her mom with the bishop and see what we can do. We also have Tiago who is 19, and Gracilene who is 17. They really like the church, but keep hearing all sorts of bad things about the church that is making things difficult. Stuff like we bury bodies in the parking lot, and all sorts of crazy things. It is sad how many misconceptions people have. This area reminds me of how it must have been in New York when Joseph Smith was 14. From the front of our church you can see 3 others, and in 5 minutes walking, probably 10 churches. And there is tons of bashing on other churches here. I have already talked with people that don´t want to participate in religion because they have seen pastors fighting in the streets. But we are here to put a stop to this madness. haha.

Saturday we did a service project at the bishops, we destroyed a concrete wall and built a new one. I am still pretty sore because it lasted a long time but it was good to help. We are getting lots of service projects to do now. 

So something strange happened yesterday. I felt something in my hair and went to brush it out and felt a sting on my neck. It was a bee! First time being stung since I was a toddler. Poor guy had probably never seen a red head before and through it was a huge flower. haha

That’s exciting you guys saw Wendell and his family! I remember them when we were little. Tell them hi for me! 

Taylor Howell is going to Russia! Tell him congrats for me!

So this week I was studying the Book of Mormon and Alma 41 really caught my attention. Basically the plan of salvation is the plan of happiness because everyone gets what they want. The people who love sin and the worldly things, will get sins and worldly things. Those who refuse to accept the gospel, but think heaven will be a place to live forever playing a harp for Jesus will be able to do this. And we know there is more to it. If we desire to be close to God, and love him with all of our might, mind, and strength, we will live with him and have the opportunity to become like him. What a wonderful and perfect plan!

I love you all and thank you all! Hope everything is great back home!

Love, Elder Connor Ottosen