Birthday surprise!

Hey Family! Hope you guys had an amazing week!

So yeah I am here, training with Elder Richmond. He is from Blanding Utah, a small town south of Moab. He is a way good missionary. We are working in Caxias, Which is in between my first are of Irajá and my second of Saracuruna. I actually went to Saracuruna this past week to do a baptismal interview, and it was awesome to return after almost 8 months. Unfortunately we were barely able to work this week. My comp is having some serious knee pain and problems so we traveled a lot, going to Copacabana for an MRI and to other doctors. Hopefully we can have some results this week and figure out what to do. Besides that though, it looks like this is an awesome area. A ton more humble, but the people are awesome. The first counselor of our mission is our next door neighbor. When I got here on Tuesday I wasn´t going to do anything for my Bday cause it was transfers. We had a family night with some recent converts and President Mansano (The 1st counselor of the mission). At the end they brought out a birthday cake and starting singing happy birthday! Haha biggest surprise of my life!!!! My new comp had seen it was birthday on the mission site and told them the night before. Needless to say I was super happy and this is like my favorite ward now. 

Anyways no I haven´t gotten the package yet, but I should this week. Also I got a bunch of emails from friends too!

Well I hope you guys have a great week! The Church is true and I love it! Seriously in the middle of all the bad and difficult things happening in the world, we can find all the peace we need just looking toward Christ and His Gospel. There aren´t words to describe it. haha Love you all!!!

Love, 

Elder Ottosen

Packing bags again

Hey Family!

Happy 13th birthday for Paige again! That’s crazy I am 21, it doesn´t seem like it at all. haha I loved the pictures you guys sent. haha man that blew my mind. Anyways looks like I got transferred, again. hahaha I will be serving in Caxias, really close to my second area of Saracuruna. Baixada Fluminese again. haha I´ll admit I am a little sad, I really liked it here, but you go where the Lord needs ya. I will be DL there, and I will finish the training of another missionary. He is American and that is all I know. I am excited to see what happens! This week was not too cool. Elder Lamb got sick and we spent most the week home. We were able to visit a few families though, and who knows what will happen here in the future.

Thanks so much for the birthday gifts though, I haven´t gotten them yet but I am excited. haha Also thanks a ton for the money, I will try to find some time to stop and eat at somewhere nice. 

That is so crazy to hear about the new schools and the changes in Draper. Man let’s see if I still recognize things when I get back. haha Anyways that is interesting to hear about the things happening.

I am glad to hear the family is well. Tell everyone I love them and thanks for all support and love. Sorry the letter was short.

Love!

Elder Ottosen

Happy to serve

Hey Family!

So we had a baptism yesterday! Felipe, a grandson of a recent convert was baptized. He was super happy and is really excited to get the priesthood next month. He almost wasn´t baptized cause his mom wouldn´t let him, but we talked with here and we will see is she can will continue receiving the lessons too. We also found a few good families this week. One was knocking doors, the man Saldanha, his wife and their grandson. It is funny cause he doesn´t believe in anything and has tons of doubts, like how God can exist, who really built the pyramids and a lot of questions, but wants to have an eternal family so we are working with them now. Things were pretty good this week. Unfortunately one of our good investigators got a call to go train with the Coritianos in São Paulo, a really famous football team in Brazil, so he will leave this week. We will have to see what happens this week cause transfers are on my birthday next week. haha. It is pretty crazy how fast the time is going, it is flying by! Scares me sometimes. 

Anyways no I don´t know where the temple will be yet. I also didn´t know about the new sister callings, I got the two FHE books, Thanks! I am also glad to hear everyone is getting better, and having fun activities. Sounds like no one has spare time huh? haha

Anyways tell Paige happy birthday!!!!!!!!!!! That is crazy she is 13, wow! 

Well I am doing well and happy! I hope that every one of you have a great week with lots of happiness! Which is only found through the gospel I may add. haha Love you all!

Elder Ottosen

Amazing News!

Hey Family!

Man did you hear the amazing news! We are so excited for the temple here in Rio. What a blessing it is to have helped contributed. Conference was awesome though I loved it, a huge focus on families and missionary work. I loved when Monson shared his story about obedience, haha. What an important attribute it really is. Anyways this week was a bit slow. We knocked LOTS of doors looking for new investigators, but unfortunately didn´t have a lot of luck. We did find a few though. One is a Peruvian family that doesn´t speak Portuguese, just Spanish haha. It is difficult to understand, though not completely impossible. We are still having this one unmarried family coming to church. They are really good and it looks like their son and nephew will be baptized on the 21st. Besides that things are pretty normal. We should have a baptism this week. Filipe is a grandson of a recent convert, we are going to start working with his parents too haha. Anyways I am super happy with everything that is happening. Hope we can step it up another notch. Well Love you all! Hope everything is going well!

Love, Elder Ottosen

203!!!!

Hey Family!

So this week was really busy but really good. We had divisions and then interviews with president so LOTS of traveling, haha. But we had a baptism yesterday! Wanda is a little old lady that came up to us,  (her neice is a member) and wanted to be baptized. She has got to be over 90 but she is super excited and was jumping up and down with happiness, haha really funny. Besides that Easter was good, oh Happy Easter (one day late) haha. We are still working with some families but they are taking a bit. They have lots of doubts and need to focus more on getting an answer from God. I am super super excited for general conference, it will be an awesome opportunity to help our investigators get to know and feel more. Plus who knows what temple announcements they will have. So because there is a strong catholic tradition here, everyone eats fish the week of Easter, including most of the members. I still don´t like fish, we even had cow stomach which I like more than fish. 

So I got the Valentine’s Day package! What books were you talking about? I got the socks and the candy and stuff. Thanks a billion! I think I am set until get home now. The only thing is that I need to readjust my pants.... I have gained some weight and they aren´t really fitting right now. Like I am sad to say, but I am around 203 now. ugh. I need to get rid of this fast. I will work on it. 

Anyways sounds like you guys had a good Easter! That is awesome about the wings deal. haha. And Thanks a ton for the Priesthood line of authority. That is awesome! Plus I am happy to hear that you guys are getting better. 

So you can keep sending the emails like normal, don´t worry about letters cause we are far away, at the most I get mail once a month. So around here everything is closed on Monday. They have a bird aviary, a museum and everything, but it is all closed. We usually just rest on P-DAy. 

Glad to hear that everyone is doing well! Love you guys and wish you a wonderful week!

Thanks for the updates and everything!

Love, Elder Ottosen

PS. April Fools about gaining weight, I am completely normal. hahah