Visiting the statue of Christ!

Hey Fam!

So this has been the strangest mission week for me. Tuesday was McIntire´s last working day so we said goodbye to some people. Then I went with him Wednesday to the office and we did some office work until night, where we ate dinner at President´s house with his wife. Then Thursday we got up early and visited the Christ Statue, and then after that visited some other families, and then he went to the airport to fly out that night. I met up with my new comp Elder Asto from Peru. He was working in another ward in our district, so they took him out to work with me, and made his comp a trio with the ZL´s. He is really chill, has about 1.5 months in Rio. I´ll try and learn some Spanish from him, haha. We visited some really good families this week and are trying to get them to church next week. One visit was cool, the Dad of the family had just suffered a small stroke, and was recovering from paralysis in the side of his face. A protestant preacher arrived during the visit and did his prayer and everything, and then left. After that we taught about the priesthood authority and gave him a health blessing. I don´t know if he did, but I could feel such a big difference between the two. Not that the preacher had bad intentions, but that he lacked the priesthood. How happy I am to have the priesthood again on the earth. Besides that it was a good, but short week. We are really excited to see what this next week brings though. 

Love you!!

Elder Ottosen

Change of plans

Hey Fam!

So sorry for not emailing yesterday, we had training all day long, and I just got time right now. It was District leader training with the president. He focused a ton on the doctrine of Christ, which is so important to always focus on. Literally the only way we will return to live with God is following Christ´s gospel.  So this week has been a bit crazy. Turns out my comp went home while he was in the MTC so I am not training anymore. My comp is Elder McIntire from California, close to LA. He has two years on the mission. In fact he was supposed to go home last week, but he is waiting one week for his twin brother who is serving a mission in Recife Brazil, so they can go home together. So I am going to stay with Elder McIntire until Thursday, and then we aren´t really too sure. President is trying to get a short-term missionary to work with me, but as of right now we really don´t know what is happening. I will probably be in the office until they can get me a new comp, so a few days. So that is that, pretty interesting. haha. But for the week we had together, we managed to do a good amount of work. We found some good families we are going to work with, and are making some progress with our other investigators. The guy who showed up at church unfortunately couldn´t be baptized because he had a college test on Sunday, so we are trying to get him this week, but it will depend if I am here or not. So real quick I want to tell you about our first visit with Rafael. It turns out that one day he was walking down the street, and stepped on an old friendship card. He got really interested in the Book of Mormon, so he searched on the website, then talked to some one on the website and then showed up at church! Pretty sweet. Also I did a cool baptismal interview the other week. This guy about 40 who was super excited to get baptized, and had only known the church for 2 weeks. I asked if he had anything to say, and he said that he wanted to say he was sad, because he didn´t find this church sooner; that this church filled out the empty part in his soul, and he was so happy to have found so many brothers at church. This was all because one of his coworkers decided to start talking to him about the church at work. Really cool. So besides that we had some other cool things happening with the ward getting excited and working, but we will see what happens with the rest of this week and everything.

Well anyways I don´t have too much time, but I hope everyone is doing well. Love you all so much! 

Love, Elder Ottosen

Finishing up in Caxias?

Hey Fam!!

So this week will be a bit short because I am training!! Again! haha wow, for the forth time! But I am really excited, and thing that it will be an awesome time. I will only learn tomorrow who it is. But it looks like I will finish my mission in Caxias. Besides that we had a good week. We marked a few baptismal dates for this week and were able to have a lot of referrals because of an English course here, called wizard. The owner is a RM, and managed to get a bunch of referrals to all the missionaries in Rio. But yeah I have to be quick, no baptisms this week but let´s see about next. 

While visiting the less actives we showed them that we, and the ward, cared about them and wanted to help them. This way we have gotten a good amount of reactivations here. Everything depends on the spirit, but the spirit won´t help us unless we have love. 

The biggest change has for sure been myself, but only comes when we work selflessly. Work ethic, realizing that sometimes we have to sacrifice momentary pleasure for true happiness, patience, and many other things I have hugely learned on the mission. I have found 1 true purpose in life, while before the mission I had many small ones, but my long term purpose wasn´t number 1. 

So yeah sorry I don´t have much to share, remind me and i can write more next week. 

It is exciting to hear from everyone and how they are all doing! Remind me but I have some cool experiences to share next week. Anyways love you guys, have a WONDERFUL week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Love, Elder Ottosen

Members from a former area

Hey Mom and Family! 

So we had a good week, a bit difficult though because we had to leave a lot to do baptismal interviews. Always a good cause though, haha. I also got to see a ton of members I know from Saracuruna. The young man I baptized there, Lucas, he moved to São Paulo, but I talked to him and he is active, and preparing for a mission in January! I was too happy to hear that! We also got a good amount of new investigators, and got 6 of them to church. The others that we have are progressing well, just sometimes we come across those annoying obstacles,haha. During church a man showed up, he had looked up the church on the internet, and talked with someone in a church chatroom. Showed up all by himself and he was super interested. He works a lot, but we are excited to teach him this week. Also we are having a good amount of success reactivating people. We got two 17 year old twins to go to church Sunday. Hopefully we can get them preparing for a mission, and also teach there families! 

So if you guys didn´t get a chance you should watch a Work of Salvation broadcast, I think it is on the church site, really awesome broadcast that I loved. 

It sounds like you guys are really getting the heat, sorry about that. Never is very fun, are there lots of wildfires? I would still consider being a wildfire firefighter when I get back. 

Sounds like life is busy as normal, sorry I don´t have too much time to write today. But I appreciate the email. 

Well I love you guys and hope and pray that all is well! That is so true, and the gospel always offers the security and peace that we need. More than anything else. It is so perfect and full of love. Well have an awesome week and a wonderful IDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love ya´ll!!!!

Elder Connor Ottosen