K, seriously? I just got unpacked!!!!

FAMILY!!!!!!!

Guess what. Going on a mission does not make your life ANY less crazy. I haven't had a real nights sleep since I started thsi crazy adventure. Tuesday i finally got the last of my clothes unpacked and all that fun jazz. It really is a task to get organized when there are 3 sisters trying to share 1 closet. But we did it!!! Then wednesday evening durring language study Sister Thomas (mission pres' wife) called and said "well now that you've got everything all unpacked how bout you pack it right back up again?!?!" WHAT?!?!?! I'M GOING TO BRAZIL!!!!!! I can't hardly stand it!!!! I'm gonna freak out later thoguht because I just don't have time to do it now. maybe in like 16 months or so ;) Anyways really cool story time!!!!!

Our Heavenly Father really really does hear and answer our prayers and he WANTS to give us blessings, all we have to do is ask. So the last couple weeks at the MTC I prayed EVERYDAY that my VISA would come. I prayed for that more than anything I think, pretty sefish right? I thought so too. So once I got reassigned and came out here to North Carolina, I stopped. I prayed for things like investigators and safety (go figure). I really like it here and english is a pretty cool language. But I realized that I was still called to Brasil, and I should probably do all I could to get there. I humbled my stubborn self (yea, can you believe it?) and asked my Heavenly Father that if I was meant to go to Brasil could I please have a VISA (I did this in Portuguese and in better words of course) and Sister Thomas called me that night. Yea, I'm gonna go with it's where I need to be.....

So I leave tomorrow (tuesday the 12th) and so I'll be flying out of Charlotte at 11:20 I won't call ya'll at home at that time (it'll be like 7:30 your time when I'm in the airport) , I'll probably wait til my EIGHT HOUR layover in Texas.....yes, I said eight hours!!!! If you want me to call you just let my mom know (509-785-6125, leave a message) and get her your phone number so that after I talk to them I can call ya. I will land in Brasil around 9:00 AM on wednesday so yea, 24 hours of airplanes and airports WOO!!! Pray for me?

NEW ADDRESS!!!!

Sister Meredith Rae Ottley

Caixa Postal 6946

Pituba

41811-970 Salvador-BA

BRASIL

Mail is super expensive so don't feel bad if you don't send me anything. :) but you BEST be emailing me...like right now. k, thanks :) LOVE YA!!!

ANYWAYS even thoguh I'm leaving tomorrow the work is still going SOOOO amazing here in Shelby, North Carolina. Mom and dad wanted to know where abouts I was......yea I have no idea. Haha I love it though. I think my district is something about Gastonia....? Ha ha maybe Pete will be able to tell you something more. We have investigators in Waco, Cherryville, KingsMountain and a whole lotta other places that I can't ever remember the names of. (a.k.a. my area is quite large.)

So you know those cheesy comercials for mormon.org and LDS church stuff? Guess what?!?!? THEY WORK!!! we had a referral for Denise, she is the collest lady. SHe is the BEST cook in the world (no offense mom) and she makes cakes from scratch everytime we come. not just a boring old regular cake but REAL life coconut cream, strawberry, lemon, orang glaze etc. Wow, it's amazing. Anyways she knows the bible inside and out and will let you know if you are saying something that doesn't line up exactly (oh goodness the Holy Ghost has to work hard while I'm teaching because I don't know the Bible at ALL) ha ha she came to church yesterday and i'm SOOOO sad that I don't get to meet with her again because I really wanted to help her recognise the spirit she felt. BOO!!! stinkin VISA!!! ANyways she made chicken and dumplins' (not a spelling error) Chicken and Dumplins should better be reffered to as a Heart Attack. Holy Heavy Food!!!! But it was SOOOOO good. Man alive. ANYWAYS LOVE her!!!

Our 13 yearold investigator Alex came to young womens on wednesday. I forgot how fun those activities were. She was one of two young women....yup and guess who the young women president is? The other girls mom. Wow, I had no idea how blessed I really was to have a Youth Organization the size I did. Anyways Alex ahd a lot of fun and I really hope she will continue to come. She accepted the invitation to be baptised so pray that her family will not get in the way.

FUNNY STORY NUMERO DOIS!!! So I hope you all recognize that I am the same ol scatter brained nothing really works out the way it's supposed to Meredith. My companions get to laugh at me running up the stairs back to our apartment about 3 times before I get in the car because I ALWAYS forget something. Anyways Wednesday is District meetings. Fun right? oh yes. So it was in a far away land....(don't ask where, I have no idea) and so we'd arranged for a member to take us there and another to pick us up....so we thought. We're sitting around our apartment wednesday morning just waitin to hear from our member.....its getting close to 15 minutes past and we called him....HE WAS IN CHARLOTTE!!! he had NO IDEA he was giving us a ride. Oh goodness....."get in the car sisters We're LATE!!!" ha ha we had to drive all the way there. Thank goodness for GPS or we'd have been LOST!! the only bad thing about driving ourselves is that we don't get that many miles every month and so it means that later in the month we won't be able to go visit those of our investigators who live further out. Not awesome. SOOOO moral of the story is!!! if you ever have the opportunity to give the missionaries a ride, TAKE IT!!! it helps more than you will EVER know!!!

Okay, gross...did you know that those grub things in the Lion King ACTUALLY EXIST!?!?!?!? well guess what?!?! I found one!!! we were pulling some weeds...well ALOT of weeds....and this wiggly thing was on the ground. Guess what? I screamed. ha ha SHOCKER!!! my companion Sister Knight PICKED IT UP!!!! are you kidding me!?!?! ew, it was nasty and huge and fat and just plain gross. but It was totally worth is because the lady we were pulling weeds for lost her husband and has had a lot of hardships. I love service, DO IT!!! even if its something as simple as waling someone's mail up their drive and chatting with them for a few minutes. I've learned since being on my mission that EVERYONE loves visitors!!! Even if they are complete strangers in skirts with frizzy hair (yea humidity is great).

Along those lines!!! OLD PEOPLE ARE THE BOMB!!! When I get home I am going to try to visit as many widows and old guys as possible. We have this AWESOME investigator who is going to be baptised the first weekend in May. I am so excited fo rhim I might die. he is 60 has liver cancer and would make millions if her went on to do stand up comedy. Oh man, you just have to hear him to understand what I mean. He is the coolest guy ever. He told us he used to be in a band, ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!? that is soooo cool. I can't look him up but you guys should and let me know how awesome he was. He said I could google "1960's Texas garage Bands" and his band's name was "Four More" or "The Chosen Ones" (not jewish) ha ha and the number one song was supposedly "don't give up hope" or "problem child" I love it!!!

OH MY WORD!!! I am seriously in the land of White trash, Lard, tobacco, dogs and Baptists. Every person I meet has at least one dog and if they don't have one they have 50 and they all smoke or have family that smokes in their house....EVEN IF IT'S A MEMBERS HOME!!! Yuck. and if they're not Baptist, they're Methodist. CRAZY!!! there is litteraly a church on every corner in this crazy place. Which means there has to be at least 2 preachers living on every street.....GUESS who tracts into them just about everyday. And I'll tell you what, I have never met nicer people....but I've also never met ruder ones either. Ha ha just be sure that if you are trying to represent our Savior jesus Christ you do it in every aspect of your life okay? thanks.

HOLY STORM!!! It hailed golf balls here on saturday night. We had to cancel our appointments because our mission prez wanted us to stay indoors. It was the coolest thing ever!!! ha ha but scary too. lots of people lost power and it was crazy.

K, I've typed a random novel at this point so i'll sign off. I love you all. Keep me posted on your lives!!!! I love you alll soooo much thank you for all your support and prayers. Sorry my letters aren't more thorough and organized, I'm a scatter brain. Keep up the good work NEVER REGRET!!!

XOXOXOX,

Sister Ottley

PS. dont' panic if you send/sent me mail and are afraid it won't get to me in Brazil, they'll forward it to me.

Jill and Gwen: what's up? uh, do you want me to have my sister update my blog because she offered. Email me.

Amber: THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE!!! it was PERFECT I about peed when I was going through it. You can expect pictures by the end of the week!!! I'm gonna send them off today.

Mom and Dad: Tell Pete I'm sorry i don't have more information for him. But that he had an amazing Mission I'm sure, This place is AWESOME!!! umm...Sister Davis isn't going with me but one of the other visa waiter sisters I came with will be. I will be fine. Don't worry. I LOVE YOU!!!

Adam: did you get my letter? It was a card....I hope you did because I actually wrote stuff too. Uh, you know that 100% deet stuff? You should order adn send me some because my companion who actually made it to Brasil already said the mosquitoes are attrocious ( I can't spell, don't judge me) I LVOE YOU!!!!!!! and by lvoe I think you know what I mean :)