I totally organized my desk....I´m so cool

Yea this whole screen thing is not doig it´s job

It would be nice if they would stay out of my room....it´s mine and i don´t like to sleep wtih amphibeans...or reptiles..oh goodness I don´t even know the difference

Samuel(not to becomfused with the lamanite) likes to kick it in the kitchen

Gertrude likes to sleep next to the pass along cards and books of mormon

I live in a zoo

The rabbit we found kickin it in the street one day while knocking doors

Another week in Paradise

Hey friends and family!!!

This week was realy quite interesting I feel like I say that every week.  ha ha But seriously, we are teaching 2 young men (yea it would be nice if other people besides the young men in the ward would give us referals but what can you do?) and they are both really excited about gettt=ing baptised.  I am super excited for them too BUT I mmost likely won´t be here for te baptism of one of them because he can´t go to church until next week and you have to go to church twice before baptism.  And transfers are in 2 weeks.  I honestly can´t decide if I want to stay or if I want to be transferred.  ha ha to be honest I dont even care beause I know that wherever President sends me is where Heavenly Father wants me.

So I learned something really important this week.  If you dan´t want to find anyone you won´t.  ha ha the last few weeks I have been really bummed out and haven´t had the BEST attitude and so I haven´t been finding and teacing the way I should.  BUT i gave myself an attitude check and now I´m teaching a whole lot more.  Ha ha seriously missionary work is alllll about attitude.  If you are happy you can have the spirit and if you have the spirit you can teach to the necessities of people and when you teach what people need you can baptise!!!!! and when you baptise you re happy!!!!  yea!!!!!  I love the Gospel it is soooooo simple but sooooooo complex!!!!

SO I reacieved an AWESOME package yesterday!!!!  I just want to say THANK YOU!!!  to my family!!  you guys rock and thanks to all the ward members that contributed letters....not gonna lie, I recongised 2 of the names and the others were 100% foreign to me but hey I am totally used to foreigners so no worries!!!!!  But seriously thanks sooo much I am wearing some super nasty smelling repellent but no one is bitting me!!!! ha ha THANKS!!!!!!

We had on eof the 70 come and we had a conference yesterday it was super awesome!!!!  I love it when people talk who know what they are talking about you can realy tell when someone is speaking with the spirit.  I never really noticed this before but here on the mission it is sooo cool when you know that someone is speaking exactly what God wants them to say.  I LOVE it.

Anyways I realy really love all of you I will try to be better at writting stories and getting back to everyone but it is tough when you only have a little time and sooo many poeple who love you!!!  Thank you for all your prayers and all your love.  You are all the best!!!!  Stay awesome and never regret!!!

xoxoxoxox

Sister Ottley...yea I´m a missionary...sabia?

If my life was a movie the primary hymn book would be the soundtrack

Well loved ones!!!

 

THis week was full of 13 mile days and ZERO NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!!  yea!  it´s awesome!!!  ha ha I figured out that my  companion and I at a normal non-pressed pace walk about a 12 minute mile and I figured out that on a normal day we walk about 13  miles......why am I not a stick person?  I would really really like to know.  ha ha but I felt really crappy all this week because we were working SUPER super hard and not having ANY results.  No baptisms and no new investigators.  I couldn´t figure out whart we were doing wrong.  BUT last night we ended up with Icaru, he is great!!!  he is SOOOO excited to be baptised and is trying to convince his parents to come to church on sunday too.  It is soooo cool to help people recognise the real truth. 

 

Anyways Icaru will be baptised on the 4th of setembro.  SOOO AweSOME!!!!  pray for him. 

 

So, I am really gald to hear that the demo d erby was able to go on with out me.....surprising but I am glad.  ha ha I am sad that I missed the white trash event of the year but I did my best to celebrate here too.  ha ha we were walking back home one night SUPER tired and super down because we had planned like  50 lessons and only had 4.....stupid.....anyways I was all depressed and all I could think was 'I could be on the ferris wheel right now"  ha ha ridiculous I know but seriously life is sooooo easy when you have no worriesha ha so anyways I was a little depressed and out of no where this old guy walked by selling cotton candy!!!!! I about peed my pants, I  asked my comp if he was selling it and she said DUH.... ha ha I chased him down and he immediately regognised me as a dumb american girl and charged me $4 ha ha I didn´t even  care,,,,,,until i got home and started eatting it....kidna  tasted like a foot.

 

Ha ha I am pretty sure God was telling me to suck it up, reminded me that the grass is not always greener on the other side.  THis is a REALLY good lesson to learn here because there are a LOT of comforts of home that I don´t have here.  I often find myslef complaining be ause I don´t have a car, dishwasher, clothes dryer, carpet, aircomditioning,  fast internet, all those kid of things.  But I have learned to  just smile, no on e here has those things and they are just as happy as can be.  why should I be  any better?     What a life lesson.

 

  The other day Sister Utida and I were trying tro find the house of a referral when we ran into some old guy.  we asked him for directions and then explained that we were missionaries and have a message blaa blaa contacts bore me....ha ha but this one was SOOOOO different he explained that he was a member but wasn´t able to go because his wife couldn´t leave the house.  well great can we leave a message wtih you guys and say a prayer?  ha ha turns out his wfe is NUTS!!  ha ha she asked about  50 times if my companion was my mom....bah ha ha we stared giving different answers each time.  no, we´re sisters, no we´re just friends, oh we are sisters in zion.  Then she and her husband started fighting about who does  the most work around the house.....apparently she sometimes does stuff but really just  causes more work for constantino.   It was really really funny. 

 

 I decided that i WILL be her when I get old.  I WILL lose my mind and I WILL be awesome.  ha ha made my day.  I thin k my favorite part about her was her hair, grey and ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! ha haI am SOOOO  excited to get old.

 

Anyways sorry I´m not super spiritual this week I promise I will share a SUPER DEEP spiritual moment next week....I just gotta have one first ;)  ha ha I love you all!!!

 

 

XOXOXOXOXO

 

Sister Ottley

Me and President Hart and Sister Hart

So basically My life is the coolest ever

FRIENDS AND FAMLIY!!!!

 

I love love love you all sooo much.  My week was not that exciting me and my companion are running behind a bunch of old investigators which really hasn´t been too fruitful for us BUT it means a LOT of walking and a LOT of contacts.  ha ha my portugues is good...so they tell me.  Sometimes I have to repeat myself because I have a thick accent but I am working on it.

 

The family that I was really hoping to be able to baptise this week wasn´t able to go to churh on sunday so they have to wait yet ANOTHER week BUT I know that everything happens for a reason and the lord would NEVER allow anything to stand in the way of a baptism if it was meant to be so we´re gonna work with them a little more and make sure that everything is in order for nxt week. I have faith that all will go right!!!  |Pray for them!!!

 

I have been really trying to work on this whole prayer thing.  It is ridiculously hard to pray at 6:30 in the mrning without falling asleep and at 10:30 when you are sooo tired you can´t remember what you even ate for lunch.  ha ha BUT I am getting better at praying with faith and I have learned something.  It´s funny that we really don´t pay attention to what we are saying in our prayers sometimes.  BUT honestly it is a conversation with God.  He is our father and he wants to hear all about our lives.  He totally talks back and sometimes we just don´t listen. 

 

I haven´t run into Guto (our drunkard friend) anymore but i assume I will, he doesn´t live too far from our house.  I hope someday he will stop drinking and realise where he needs to be.

 

Yesterday we had a training with President Hart, he is the coolest guy EVER!!!!  We made plans for him to return in a few weeks to give a fireside here in our ward I am SUPER excited.  It´s gonna be awesome.  sister Hart is such a sweetheart, she is trying SOOO hard to learn Portuguese and she is just plain the greatest.

 

so I don´t know what happened to the time but I gotta go!  Have a great wek all of you I love you!!! xoxoxoxo

 

Stay awesome!!!

 

Sister Ottley

Não muito...ainda

okay so this whole missionary thing is starting to make sense.  It is a slow process but it is totally worth it.  I love Brasil, there are so many people here ready for the gospel and sooo many people that need to turn towards Christ.

I don´t know if I tolod a story about Guto stopping me in the street drunk and talking to me in English.....?  anyways he is a member of the church but hasn´t gone in years.  We found him a few more times and he is ALWAYS drunk but wer got his address and he said he wanted to go to church.  SO we went and picked him up sunday morning...he was in a white shirt and tie!!!  and he had his book of mormon in hand....I about peed, he got a hair cut and was sober.  What an answer to prayers.  Yea so we dropped him off at the church so we could go pick up some other investigators.  We left him in the hands of Bishop and one of his counsilors....he escaped.  By the time we returned he had left.  ha ha I guess he really hasn´t repented but oh well.  i hope that he fi8gures it all out soon. 

So my house is not just any old regular house.  Nope, it is a reptile slash amphebian (spell check please) exhibit at a zoo.  Ha ha we have frogs, toads, godzillahs and lizards GALORE!!!!  ha ha just about everyday we find a new one.  I take pictures of them.  I can´t ever get my pictures to load on the computers here so i need to figure out how I can mail them to ya´ll but don´t worry I am on it.  

The sun here is a total blessing in my life.  It is the middle of winter and never gets below 75 degrees.  my life is beautiful, but my tan-lines are cuter!!!  ha ha its slightly ridiculous BUT i don´t even care.  

Okay, so we are teaching Antônio and he is awesome.  He lives alone and all I want to do is throw ihim in the water.  Pray for him.  He is so awesome and I know that as soon as he joins the church the lord is going to bless his life more than he can even imagine  He sells ...junk....out of a cart in the street and he really really just needs help and he never wants us to leave because he doesn´t like to be alone.  I think it is sad.

we are still working with Jace and Samara and Stefani.......I don´t know if I´ve already mentioned them.  They are an awesome family Jace only needs to stop drinking cafe and go to church.  I am just gonna start carrying a bucket of water around.  THese people don´t have a chance.  The water is gonna get em one way or another!!!  ha ha I love it!!!

Nothing too exciting has happened since last week.  But the work is good.  I love you all!!!  Stay Awesome!!!!  XOXOXOXOXOXOOX

Sister Ottley

Pictures at the Mission Home July 2011

E ai?

Oi familia e amigos!!! I hope all is well for all of you from all
your emails it seems as though things are good. I am prayig for all
of you that told me about your sicknesses so don´t worry, you shall be
healed sooner than you can say paralelepipedo....google translate
that!!! ha ha

So this past week I made 6 months on the mission!!!! Do you believe
it?!?!?! My life is just a big ball of fun!!! and a big joke I love
it!!! I have photos I promise one day I will be able to send them but
I have to figure out this whole brazillean internet thing which is
ridiculous.....ha ha Anyways this week we were in the house of a
member slash investigator and their son came up to me with a string in
his hand.....the other end of the string contained a fairly large
gafanhoto...I don´t remember the word in english sorry. ha ha those
ugly bugs that jump aaround...anyways it was quite large and I told
him I liked his toy...and then I realized it was alive....in.000997846
seconds I was up on the couch begging him to remove it from my front
and of course everyone was laughing really really hard. oh Brazil!!!

I MEMORIZED ALL 13 ARTICLES OF FAITH!!!! I am soo cool!!! ha ha and
now every night before I sleep I try to repeat them in my head...it is
hard but i am working on it! I was also thinking that maybe this
would help with the whole Meredith talking in english in her sleep
thing but my companion said that I was still talking
english...great...oh well someday I will only think in Portuguese and
you will all hate me.

so this week my companion came running out of the bedroom with my tag
and pinned me and dragged me out of the house because according to her
"we only have 10 more minutes f personal time and I am really
hungry!!!" okay so we were running to the market but one problem...I
was in flip flops....flipflops that were a dollar at target....yea one
broke....oh my life.....ha ha so i was trying to walk with it half on
and half off and there was a lady in the street who said "just don´t
think about it and take them both off" ha ha so I did ha ha I am a
true brazilean now because I walked around barefooted!!! ah aha i am
so awesome!!!!

My companion sister Macambira left today...sadness. she is going
home....so weird. But my new companion is sister utida...she uses the
brightest red lipstick I have ever seen.....I´m gonna steal it.

Pergunta...is my address on my blog? I have had quite a few people
asking me for it. If it is some sort of address in brazil it is my
address....my address shouldn´t change for the rest of my mission.

So sister Mac was looking al my pictures from home and the MTC and
said "wow your skin used to look like porcelin" uh, thanks? I guess
I am developing quite the tan these days.....get ready for skin
cancer!!! yippie!!! ha ha i haven´t really burnt that bad oly a
little on my shoulders because I switched backpacks for a day and the
straps laid in a different place. But yea the days of smooth porcelin
are ver I guess....

I learned something this week!!! yea thats always nice to hear from
your missionary isnt it/ ha ha yea so I was reading a few different
articles in some antique ensigns and they were al about the expiação
of chirst and i realized something. If we all truely understood the
meaning of the sacrifice that Christ made we wouldn´t need rules but
without rules we don´t need the atonement.....my mind was blown I
don´t think I just blew very many minds but seriously think about
it.....ha ha

So our teaching pool is pretty big right now I don´t even know where
to start. I am really hoping to baptise this weekend so we will
see!!!!

k, love you all gotta run!!!
Stay aesome!!!

READ the scriptures and pray EVERYDAY!!!!! and just trust in our
Heavenly Father because he really does nknow best...hes great.

XOXOXOXOXO

Sister Ottley!!!!!