my life as a missionary.....ish

Hello friends and family!!!!

I just want to tell you that my legs and face are doing MUCH much better. I don´t have time or patience to upload more pictures but trust me when I say that after talking to the doctor everything got much better. Yes, they were infected but it is better now.

So there is some sort of holiday going on here something to do with some saint. I am really not sure what it is all about all I know is that everyone is feeding us all sorts of delishious things. and people have giant bonfires in the street and all sorts of fireworks. And they have wheelbarrows of peanuts.....literally. It is realy odd but fun at the same time.

my New area is Feira De Santana 2. It is a larger city but a smaller ward. To be honest if people were active the ward would be huge. I am with Sister Macambira she is from Sau Paulo and awesome!!!! This is her last transfer and she is ON FIRE!!!! We had a baptism on sunday and we plan on baptizing every week. I am really really starting to love this whole mission thing. His name is Vitor. He is 16 and just flat out hilarious. We saw him on the street my comp had already taught him before I came here. She said "vitor, when do you want to be baptised? Sister Ottley came all the way from the United States to baptise you." ha ha it was sooooo funny and now he is baptised!!!!

So I made a goal to stop speaking english altogether. I don´t even say my personal prayers in English. Then Vitor asked if I would pray in English with him. Sure, why not.....uhhhhh I totally forgot how to pray in English. Thank goodness he only speaks Portuguese because my prayer was a disaster I sounded like a hillbilly. ha ha

I don´t know if ya´ll have seen the video....I think it is on mormon.org....but it is a group of boys who kept inviting all their friends to church and pretty soon the YM´s group grew form 1 to like 10. It is really an awesome story THIS is what is happening here in Feira. I am soooo excited because Vitor and his friend Caio are now recent converts. They were references of Michael a member in the ward. And 2 more of their friends were at Vitor´s baptism and they have a friend David waiting for Vitor to recieve the Priesthood so he can baptise him too. And Yesterday they gave us yet another friend they want us to teach.

I am soooo excited for the work that is happening here and I don´t ever want to be transferrred!!!!!

So my comp and i were walking to an apointment pretty far away and We came accross a junk yard. This is pretty common here in Bahia. People just find an empty field and make it trash central. ha ha it is pretty great. ha ha but in this junk yard there was a GIANT PIG!!!!! I took a picture with it but it is on my comps camera I will send it when I can.

My companion is amazing. She is basically a baptizing machiene!!!! I am soooo happy!!! SHe is kinda nuts too though. She has asthma and started taking prednisone..This makes me happy because she has ADHD just like me now.

I am sorry that I don´t have a lot to say this week but I hope you all are happy and enjoying life just as much as I am. I love you all!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

SIster Ottley

more allergies!!! YIPPIE!!!!!

allergies are great!!!!!

the drawing of me....looks almost exactly like me

The tri-fecta reunited!!!!!

I have Killer Good Looks, a Killer Attitude and someday I will have a killer whale

I Finally got PACKAGES!!!!! thank you thankyou thankyou!!!!!! I love all of my new clothes and am OSOOOOO excited because it issoooo hot here and I am sick of sweating to death n my button up tops that i was SURE I was going to need. Yea by the way it is "winter" here......people complain about the cold.....As I sit there sweating....I get confused a little bit.

I felt like it was my birthday for real yesterday!!!! ha ha THank you soooo much!!!!! I got One form Mom AMber and Meghan!!!! thank you thank you thankyou!!!!! I LOVE getting mail!!! it makes me SUPER happy!!!!

SO heres the deal....Brasileans are NUTS!!!! for reals like straight up CRAZY. Yesterday was transfers, Sister turner and I were waiting for the bus to the conference and some random guy came up to us and asked if he could draw us.....why not? ha ha it turns out he is a member and wants to study art at BYU someday......yea I don´t know if that is going to happen.. ha ha I´ll try to send a picture of what he drew. ha ha ha ha ha haha ha I of course praised him and thanked him to the ends of the earth and as soon as I was far far away in the stake center I peed my pants laughing at he picture he drew. I about died. I have hung it in my new house next to a picture of Jesus.....is that sacreligious? ha ha it makes me happy....

Speaking of new house....I got a new comp and a new area yesterday!!!! YIPPIE!!!!!! I am soooooo excited. SIster Macambira is "dying" this transfer. ha ha I am killing her and I am so excited because she really really wants to end her mission with lots of baptisms. This makes me happy because I really amready to finally do some real work.

Ha ha Sister Macambira has asthma and this makes me scared becuase she wakes up in the night trying to breath......great. Good thing I have a little experience with this right? ha ha we´ll see.

My new house=rats, more mosquitos, peeping toms and no mattress.

Don´t worry we are moving next week.

I am really really sad to leave people in Camaçari but more than excited to have a companion who is ready to work and has goals!!!!! This is gonna be GREAT!!!!

So my new president is coming the 28th of June....HOly Moly, this is gonna be strange for a little minute. We will see who that goes, I think he is gonna do a really really good job. His wife doesn´t speak Portugues so I know I am gonna like her :)

So who know that as a missionary you automatically become a lisenced marriage councilor? ha ha We got a pohone call (still in CAmaçari) from a couple that we´ve been teaching about how they just had a giant fight and Ilza was looking for a new house. Great....what doyou want us to do? ha ha we did a little praying and headed over, we stayed for about an hour and a half talking about how they both needed to grow closer to our heavenly father in order that they could grow stronger as a family. we had to explain that since Ilza does not have a job and no way to support a family she cannot move out with her 2 sons just because Manoel is alittle annoying at times. We set some goals for them and I taught them to have family prayer every night. I am really really grateful that I have a family that will be together forever I don´t think I ever REALLY understood that concept. It is really really hard to watch these people ruin their lives because they don´t understand that marriage was meant to be an eternal concpt. I am SOOOO grateful for the truth. And I want to thank my mom and dad for teaching me from birth so that I don´t have to worry. THANKS GUYS!!! And seriously as annoyed as i acted as a young child family prayer really really is a giant blessing in my life and I hope everyone tries to establish family prayer/roommate prayer/couple prayer in their daily routine.

So this week I learned a little bit about our saviors sacrifice for us. The atonement really is an amazing complex idea that I don´t think I will EVER fully understand. Jesus Christ is amazing, there really is NO other way to have happiness other than through his sacrifice. Think about this, he was a perfect being, he had NEVER experienced sin. He didn´t know the feeling of guilt he´d never felt that pressure because He had never sinned. Then all at once her took upon himself ALL the sins, guilt, sadness, pain, fears, weaknesses, burdens, etc. of all mankind. He did this all at once, all alone. This caused him to bleed form every pore. WHoa. I really don´t think that as a human race we take full advantage of the sacrifice and suffering he made for us in Getsemani. There is NOTHING hat he hasn´t experinced. He can help us be happy but we HAVE to let him. we HAVE to turn to him and allow his atoneing sacrifice do it´s work. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Alma 7:11-12. Anyways something President Toledo taught me was that in the Garden of Getcemani (i really don´t know how to speak english anymore) Satan tempted Jesus, and an interesting thing about this is what Jesus did for his Apostles. Jesus knew Satan was there and he went to his disciples because he wanted to protect them I had never thought of this before. Jesus was protecting his apostles....I just hope that someday, somehow I can understand this pure love and maybe develope the capacity to demonstrate even a fraction of it.

I love love love you all!!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

SIster Ottley

Wait, did we Kill Obama or Osama?

So being a missionary is kind of like living in a bubble.....a sound
proof bubble. I mean I am grateful that I don´t have to focus on
things of the world but at the same time, I miss tv. ha ha life is
good here in Brazil. I watched a jumping spider attack and eat a
giant fly. I discovered a bug that I named a wall crawler. It is
really strange....it litteraly crawls up the wall but in a gross scary
kind of way......I can´t really explain it. So there is some sort of
celebration going on that lasts for about two months. Thats great but
I don´t really like to hear fire crackers at 6:00 am EVERYDAY!!!!!!
ha ha thank you st. joão whoever you are. thanks alot. as if I don´t
need sleep :)

So MIRACLES REALLY DO HAPPEN!!!!! there was a guy who was being
taught by the sisters here in my area a while back before my comp or I
were here. He just randomely SHOWED up at church....who does
that?!?!?! it was awesome, for some odd reason he couldn´t stay for
the whole 3 hours but we got his address and were really excited to go
teach him and baptise him ......yea I don´t know who said what but he
gave us a total BOGUS address...bah ha ha ha ha ha we taught the
people that live in the house he told us was his and their neighbors
too.....none of them are interested either. My life is a joke.

So the people here are really really sweet. THey LOVE to feed the
missionaries. THere is an ex-member ( like innactive for 4 years) who
has an acarajé stand and she gives us free acarajé whenever we
want.....SOOOOO good but she refuses to give me mine with shrinp
anymore becauseshe thinks I am allergic because of the swelling in my
ankle.....due to my mosquito bites.....darn.....oh well it is still
good!!!!!! anyway this love is super awesome and i love that the
people love us so much BUT my waistline doesn´t love it and neither
does my ability to fast. ha ha Fasting is suck a joke here but I
still do what I can, I usually just bable some english mixed with
portuguese and they are like "oh she is a llegic" or "oh she has
diareah" I just laugh. it is really funny.

Speaking of portuguese....I am still learning....everyday. Sometimes I
learn the right way with a book or with someone teaching me.
Sometimes I learn from mistakes. Ha ha I had been buying this juice
because it was the cheapest in the store and it wasn´t totally
disgusting. Ha ha and then I bought milk (if you can call it milk) by
the same brand.....I was a little confused because the writing was
totally different but it was the same brand "suja"
I never know what milk to buy because milk comes in a powder form
here....or it is in a cardboard container.....I just get so confused
an I don´t really even like milk as it is. So normally I just go
without but I had bought a cake mix to make for family night and it
needed Milk so I decided to be adventurous. I made the cake and I
added the milk and I about died when Iopened the container because
of the horrid smells coming out of it. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I started
looking up words on the package because I wanted to make sure it
wasn´t rotten.......Suja is not a brnad......it means SOY!!!!!! Bah
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha i about died. It was really funny. so I´ve been
drinking falvoured soy milk for a while now.....I just love my life.

andother laguage funny is TJ.....this is pronounced "te jota" it
stands for testimunha de jovah....aka JW "jey dub" Jehovahs Witness.
Bah ha ha when people say tj fast it sounds like idiota.....I was
soooo confused as to why people we constantly talking about this
religion like they were idiots. I mean they are but that is still a
little rude. THEN I was making a door contact and the man said oh i´m
te jota and I about passed out. THEY EVEN CALL THEMSELVES
IDIOTS!!!!!! ha ha ha ha I´n the end I´m the real idiot. What a
joke. ha ha

Well don´t worry about my mosquito bites or my face. I am slowly but
surely healing. I don´t make little girls cry at church anymore but
I´m gonna kick someone in the face the next time they try to rub some
sort of cream or concocktion on my legs. ha ha EVERYONE IS A STINKIN
DOCTOR!!! thanks but no thanks. ha ha ha ha I know they just want to
help but when I have to wash my body like 4 times just to get your
"miracle worker" off my skin I´d really just rather suffer through it.
ha ha

I am working really hard here in Camaçari trying to get some people
baptised before I have to get tranferred. Transfers are on the 21st
and I don´t know if I´ll be staying here. Part of me really wants to
stay and see some people get married and baptised and part of me wants
to go somewhere more fruitful. I´m selfish.

Anyways I hope all is well I hope you are all praying and reading your
scriptures daily!!!!

XOOXOXOXOXOXO

Sister Ottley!!!

LIAR!!!!

Oh meus caridos!!!

I just love you all soooo much!!! I am so happy to hear about everyone turning in their mission papers! This truely is a great work, I don´t think that before I got here I understood the real importance of it all. Be strong, it is hard but it is all worth it in the end. If we keep an eternal perspective nothing is as hard as it looks.

So this week I got to go on splits with my dearie Sister Davis!!!!! Ha ha it was a BLAST!!!! We found 10 new investigators in her area that day and it was just super awesome!!!! I think I had forgotten what it was like to be around an american....ha ha I´m basically a brazilian now. But when my Companion Sister Piola came to pick me up the next day I imediately asked about our investigator who had a baptismal interview the day I was gone. Sister Piola said that she had decided to postpone and that her old pastor had been talking to her about what an abomination the Mormons are blaa blaa. I was realy really dissapointed because we had walked an hour to and an hour from this investigators house EVERYDAY for 2 weeks AND not only that but I knew she was ready. She had a real testimony and a response from our heavenly father about the truthfullness of our message. well before the tears started, Sister Piola jumped uop and hugged me saying I´m kidding, It´s a joke!!!! SHE`S GETTING BAPTISED TOMORROW!!!!!! ha ha it was a shock. but really funny.

So we ahd a baptism of Cristiane!!!! She is great. Her husband is really anti but she is super firm!!!! I love it!!! like seriously nothing can stop her now because she has the Holy Ghost and she knows what´s up.

Anyways today I am spending P-Day in Abranches. It is BEAUTIFUL here....for real like gorgeous. Sister Turner is here and so we´re gonna go to the `dunes` (yea it´s okay to be jealous Adam) But its like right on the beach here and I love it. I really want to get transferred here some day. I hope I do. I probably will since tehre are only a few places that sister serve.]

So I wrote down all the things that I wanted to tell you all that had happened this week but I forgot my planner in the apartment. Anyone who has served a mission knows that this is the abominable sin......yea way bad. So I´ll do my best to tell you about this week without repeating stuff from last week. Ha ha to be honest it all kind of rolls togetehr.

I don´t know if I´ve told you all about Ivone. SHe is teh mom of some recent converts (twin girls) in the ward and she is great. She also already has a testimony. She reads the book of mormon everyday and she promissed she would pray to know if it was true....although for some odd reason she want to wait until monday to do it. WE are returning tonight to get the answer. ha ha I already know what it will be but its still kinda nerve racking ya know? Well anyways, one of the twins was tell ing me that she had been talking to Ivone and Ivone said she already knew. ha ha its so funny. I don´t unerstand how people can know something but not follow through. Its like smoking ya know? like Everyone knows that if you smoke you will have health issues. But people start smoking everyday. It´s ridiculous. ha ha it is really hard to watch people read the Book of Mormon and pray but not DO ANYTHING!!!!! I sit in lessons talking about the Holy Ghost and how he speaks to our heart and I look into these beautiful peoples eyes and its like I can see them feeling the spirit. But satan is MUCH more experienced than I am.

I honestly think that is the hardest part of a mission. I can walk all day. I can get the worst sunburn of my life. I can have a zillion mosquito bites that get infected. I can have some unexplicable allergy. But all of this is nothing compared to the pain that I feel when people say no, when people say they don´t want to be baptised, when they don´t want to hear "the mormons". I just want to have a stampo on my forhead you know? " what do you have to lose?" Its rough but it is just sooo important. People don´t know what they are missing out on.

Anyways I gotta go I still need to email my President!!! I love you all!!! Stay AWESOME!!!! Keep praying and don´t stop reading the scriptures. And don´t be afraid to share your testimony it is the one thing we have more valuable than anything else. And don´t be afraid to talk to a member!!!!! DO IT!!!

XOXOXOOXOX

LOVE!!!!

Sister Ottley