Head wound

Hey Family,

I actually had a head wound this week. Don´t worry though, nothing serious. I was walking over a bridge to pass over the train station, when I was wasn´t looking ahead of me and ran right into a low hanging block of concrete. You’re right when you say head wounds bleed a lot because my I put my hand up and it came back completely red. haha but we put pressure on it, and it stopped within 5 minutes. I have some good blood clotting! haha and we cleaned it up and it is all good now, just kind of funny how that happens. Wow The BSC is going playoff!!! That is great news! I will want to hear more about that! Haha And tell everyone getting married congrats! I am sure that all my friends who aren´t on a mission will be married by the time I return. haha.

So this week was alright. We have been stressing working with less actives, and hopefully through them find baptisms, also asking lots of references from members. We have a bunch we need to contact this week.

The problem with less actives is they were almost always offended in some way. People and their feelings... ahaha just kidding. But really they are just hurting themselves when they hold a grudge. It is never easy to forgive and forget, but it is the free medicine to any pain we feel from past offenses from others. Now if we can just help some of them do that. We did find a really exciting family yesterday. I am

praying that they are married. haha but they have four kids and really liked the message, hopefully we can get them in church on Sunday. After giving the message yesterday the mom, Tatiana, insisted that we stay for her to make cake for us. haha Hopefully that means that they at least enjoyed our lesson and want us back. Also on Saturday morning the ward had a service project that we participated in. We helped build a roof, by mixing and hauling concrete. It was fun to do some work with the ward, and we also got a reference of a guy who went to church. Eduardo, he is really funny and loved church! I think a part of the reason is because he loves talking with people and loved the social aspect. I have confidence that he will one day be baptized, but

surprise, he needs to get married first. haha but we will work with that. Anyways that’s about it for this week.

Talked to tons of people, usually kids, in the street who just want to hear us speak English or make fun of our accents. That gets annoying really fast. haha. Also I read a talk I really liked if you guys want to read it’s "our perfect example" by Henry B Erying in 2009. So while we were walking yesterday I just started thinking how great the gospel was, and how merciful God is with us. It is just amazing to me all the blessings he gives us just in this life, and not to mention the crazy opportunities we will have in the next. It just made me think of how this gospel is glad tidings of great joy, and I just want everyone to be able to fully understand what it really means for us. Well I hope you guys and having a blast! Take lots of pictures for me and have fun! Also Thanks for sending the package! Sounds perfect,

Love you all so much! Take care! Love, Elder Connor

Ottosen

Down goes the mango tree

Oi!

So wow it sounds like you guys are crazy busy, never a calm day. haha I hope that everything is able to work out and get fixed. Sounds like the BBQ would have been nice. WE also had a bbq for lunch this week. It was really good, a little bit different. I think my favorite meat is chicken heart, haha they make it even better than tucanos. Tell Paige congrats on the church talk! That is exciting. Also tell Cole congrats on the job. I hope everything is able to work out. Thanks for sending me all those pictures! Man I know it has only been a few months but everyone looks different! Crazy how fast things change. haha It scares me for that things are going super fast.

Man I for sure want to go on a church history tour sometime. I have gained such a greater appreciation for the church since I left on the mission. Maybe we could organize it to all go on a trip like that some day.

So teaching is going pretty good right now. We had a mom and her daughter go to church yesterday so I was really happy about that. It was just a contact on the street and she was really receptive to our message. The only thing is we are pretty sure she isn´t married, but we will find out for sure this week. Her name is Rosangela, we 

haven´t had a chance to talk to her husband yet. But besides that not really anyone progressing. We might start to work will less actives and through reactivating them find new investigators. It is a lot easy this way cause they investigators already have a member friend. We were able to get a less active member go to church yesterday. It was really cool cause he wanted to stay and look for a job, but he decided to go to church. And when he got home from church a guy showed up at his door with a job for him to do. It just goes to show the Lord will always bless us if we do what is right.

Unfortunately the lady with the drug problem we found drunk in the street this week, but we will continue working with her.

Oh I almost forgot, we did some service yard work this week. Our neighbor’s house had this huge old mango tree, so Saturday morning we cut it down. But we only had a dull ax so it took two hours and my arms and hands are super sore now. haha but it felt so good to do some outdoor work. I will have to send a picture soon.

haha so I got back that package I sent you guys for Christmas, haha who knows why it didn´t send. But the candy was super gross. I really want to buy something for everyone and then I will send a package.

Thank you so so much for everything you guys do.

With Love, Elder Connor Ottosen





The new temple in Brazil

Hey! Hope everyone had a great week! You gave me a lot to respond to so I will do my best.   Sounds like the house is going to be a busy place for friends over the summer, good luck with that. Also you will have to take me over the same trip for Memorial Day when I get back. Sounds like you guys had lots of fun! I got the rest of that family history you sent me. Thanks for that I really enjoyed it, also that news article about the LDS basketball player. Wow what a story, it is nice to see there are still amazing people in the world. So tell Daniel hi for me, back already that is crazy.

So I really like my new area! The mosquitos are much better this week, not as much as a problem. And it has been much cooler, like in the 70´s. This week was again finding new people... It is super easy to find investigators, almost everyone lets you come back for a visit. But finding people that keep commitments is a whole different story. haha. I guess that means I need to get better at teaching. So interesting story, we are teaching this woman that has had a really tough life. She used to be a prostitute, has drug, alcohol and smoking problem, and is just really not happy and looking to change. Right now we are trying to help her stop doing drugs and alcohol and stuff. Satan doesn´t let people go easy.

So I still haven´t had a chance to meet our entire ward. Yesterday we had a meeting at the stake center again for the dedication of the temple in Manaus Brazil!! It was super cool, Manaus is literally in the center of the amazon, and they broadcasted it to every stake center in Brazil. There was President Uchtdorf and Elder Cook. It really made me miss the Temple. It is such a special and powerful place that I took for granted before. 

As for other investigators we have a few families that we are teaching and are reading, and we are going to bring to church this next week. I will let you know how that goes. We have some really good ones but unfortunately aren´t legally married. I think they have the same thing in the U.S.? Domestic Partnership? You get the benefits of marriage without the commitment. Yeah lots of people here do that, but we will change that!

So Elder Connell is half Mexican and last Monday we had a family night and he made homemade tortillas and we had tacos with the seasoning you sent. It was delicious! Just thought I´d tell you that. Today we already went and played Ping pong for a bit at the church, then we will probably just hang around for the rest of the day. Not a lot to do around here.

Something sad that happened. Our first counselor in the bishopric got robbed while at church. They broke into his house and took everything, even meat in their freezer. It is really sad cause they aren´t wealthy to begin with, and it happened to them last year too. So I got grandmas letter and Ensign magazine! Tell her super thanks! I will write her but the post office is almost an hour away so it might be a little bit. Also I read a talk that I loved this week, "To acquire spiritual guidance" by Richard G Scott. Just thought I´d recommend it.

Thanks for the personal history! I am super glad you decided to go on a mission. It blessed my life tons!

Love you all tons and thanks soo soo much for everything! Hope you are having a good summer! Love, Elder Connor Ottosen

New area...and mosquitos!

Hola Family! Happy Birthday Mom and Dad! Hope you guys were able to do something fun.

So I have official left the city of Rio and am in the Area of Saracuruna. It kind of reminds me of how Nephi is compared to Salt Lake. Much much smaller, though still big. We actually live in Jardim Primaveira, and our area includes huge parts around. So there 

aren´t really buildings here over 3 stories, way less people, and tons of people use bikes to get around. There is one main street with all the businesses and the others are usually just houses. And oh how green it is. I just went from concrete jungle to more or less actually jungle. There are all types of fruit trees around here. Papaya, banana, tangerine, mango, and tons I don´t even know. Over all it is really cool, though it might be a little bit hotter and a lot more humid. As I already said Elder Connell is my new comp, he has one year and is from Nevada. Really funny and always has people laughing. I have only met a few members of the ward but they all seem very nice. They are a lot more humble in this area. Don´t worry there aren´t any favelas here, any danger is actually going to come from something a lot smaller, Mosquitos. I thought it was bad in the city, but it is crazy here. Even wearing repellant I think I have 25 to 35 bites right now. But really you get used to it. I will just have to be careful about sicknesses. So it is a lot lonelier here cause we actually live in a house slightly bigger, but with only two missionaries. It might take some getting used to. I am just getting to know our investigators, looks like we have a bunch, but they really aren´t progressing, so it might be a lot of finding others to teach. So yesterday was stake conference, which was actually regional conference to all of Rio and São Paulo. It was a broadcast from SLC and the prophet spoke along with some other leaders. I liked it a lot, they talked about keeping ourselves pure, and raising kids in righteousness among other things.

So basically I am really excited to work here. It seems to me the people are really receptive, maybe just a bit hard to have them actually do something but we will see about that. Hope things are going great in Utah!! Tell Cole congrates on Graduating! Hope you guys are able to do a vacation or something fun soon! With Love, Elder Connor Ottosen




My 1st transfer!

Tchau Tchau Irajá. haha so unfortunately I didn´t last another transfer with Elder Kerr at Irajá. But I am going to Saracuruna with Elder Connell as my senior! Elder Connell was one of the missionaries that was in our house when I arrived. He is really cool and I am excited to work with him. I know nothing about the area except that it is still in the City of Rio but I think more towards the outskirts. I will miss Irajá but I´m also excited for the furture.

So we had our Baptisms and Confirmations Saturday and Sunday. I baptized and confirmed Tânia and Elder Kerr, Yasmin. It was really awesome, and I felt the Spirit a ton the last few days. Tânia and her family are like our family in Brazil, haha they will be strong members I am sure. Elder Kerr will continue working with them to get the rest of the family baptized. The actually made us shirts and little memorials which was super nice of them. The only thing is they put the temple in the background, not knowing that the temple often signifies marriage, so it was pretty funny. Really cool experience this week, I gave a health blessing to Tânia because she has some sort of stomach problem. When I said the blessing it was really like I wasn´t speaking, I was just there while the Spirit was saying what needed to be said. I thought it was really cool, and noticed if we are worthy and it is God´s will we can be his mouthpiece. But that was the pretty big news of the week. Unfortunately lots of our investigators weren´t progressing so we had to cut lots, Elder Kerr will have his work cut out for him this week.

So how was Memorial day! Sounds like dad had fun, hope you guys did too. Tell Kade congrats on Lax, Paige too. That is sad they lost last second, but always next year huh. Oh and tell Cole congrats on Graduating. I can barely believe it, seems like yesterday I was. Hope that job works out for him, and school too. I love college and I’m sure he will too. So I got 3 packages, your and Grandma´s birthday packages... Thank you guys so much, I loved it. I will actually make some cookies tonight. And the last package was the ward poster from Christmas, hahaha just a tiny bit late. But thanks a million and tell the ward thanks. I also got the family history and loved it, thanks for that! I love you all so much and hope everyone is doing great! Love, Elder Connor Ottosen