Wait, so Aardvarks are like Lamanites....

 Hey Friends and family!!!  I just want to tell you all how much I appreciate hearing all your updates every week, I don`t know why but I had a really weird dream last night that I came to do email and had no emails.....It worried me.  ha ha I am a weirdo.  Anyways so This week was way awesome.  So my first baptism here on the mission was Jonathas, a few weeks ago his parents got married so they could get baptised.  Well only his mom, Lourdes, got baptised on Saturday but I am pretty sure we will baptise his dad, Hamilton, this Saturday.  They are so amazing and I love them sooo much.

Lately I have been thinking alot about going home and what I am going to have to do with my life.  Yea well, I have no idea.  So, I am just going to do my part, focusing here on the mission and I know the lord will provide a way.  I just want to have some future.  Ha ha I just do`t know what yet.  So you can all just relax, I will go back to school, if ya`ll want to send in my applications for me, be my guest.  ha ha :) but I will keep the commandments and Heavenly Father commanded us to get an education while President HInckley was profet so I will be going back to school.  But I found out the date that I will be coming home....and Gretchen you are going to have to hold on for just a few days.  I will be getting on a plane for the USA on the 8th of August, 2012.  It is really not long enough to do everything I want to do here in Bahia but apparently it is long enough to do what the lord wants me to do.

So I love having a companion who has the same cultural habits as I do and who speaks the same language as I do.  I love all of my Brazilian companions but being with Sister Turner has BLOWN my mind, more than once.  She is so amazing and we have like the worlds funniest deep doctrine discussions.  all the time.  But the other day we had one that about made me pee my pants.  This one was not as deep but it was funny.  We had been talking to a member who wanted us to try armadillo....apparently it is a delicacy....great.  ha ha and when we got home, Sister Turner was like "what are we going to do when they try to force us to eat an aardvark"  ha ha I just started laughing and said, "you mean an armadillo?"  yea that!! ha ha and then we realized we didn`t know what an aardvark is... I said, I think it is just an armadillo without armour.  Then sister Turner replies with the most profound connection ever...."so aardvarks are like Lamanites!!!"  ha ha uh, sure Sister Turner Aardvarks are Lamanites and Armadillos are Nephites.  I just love that being a missionary has made me the worlds BIGGEST nerd and we can turn any topic into a gospel topic in the blink of an eye.  This comes in handy when investigators want to tell you random pointless never ending stories.

So I have said it before but I will say it agina, I love being an american in Brazil.  I am the coolest novelty here it is awesome.  Our Zone leaders asked Sister Turner and I to give a training on thursday about how to meet goals and  so we did some activities and had people share ideas of how they made contacts.  And we came up with some pretty good ones, one was make it a competition and so Sister Turner and I decided we would see who could get the most contacts with people with facioal hair one day and then the next day we did people who don`t have teeth.  Well on the no teeth day, We were doing a contact on someones doorstep one morning when our Zone leaders called and Sister Turner stepped away to take the call.  I finished the contact and turned around to go find someone else.  and POOF right in my face was a scruffy looking old guy.

I smiled and thought to myself "i bet he`s missin a few teeth and Sister Turner can`t do anything about it because she is on the phone"  He smiled back and dang, what a looker, not a pearly white in sight.  I went right on up to him and started to invite him to church....he took this....well,  ummm...he took it in the WRONG way and started asking questions like "oh where do YOU live little girl....it`s at a church is it.....well I live right here, let`s go in right now." and started to pull me towards his house.  "oh no, not gonna happen."  I was looking around desperatly and then he tried to hug me ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I thrust my hand into his and shook it violently and FINALLY my companion appeared at my side still on the phone with our zone leader.  We explained that we couldn`t come to his house right now but that we would be sure to stop by if we were in the neighborhood and then we BOOKED it out of there.  ha ha he was hot on our tails...well as hot as a little old smoker guy can be..when we realized that the street ended.  It wasnt exactly a dead end...ha ha as much as a complete cliff hanger....literally.  ha ha Sister Turner was still on the phone with Elder Nachtigal trying to explain the situation to him and I was laughing so hard I was about to pee when we had to turn around and walk past him AGAIN.  ha ha  we started walking relaly really fast and got to a good place to hide a little bit with some families around where I could compose myself and sister Turner could fininsh relating our numbers to our Zone leader.

We headed back and ow and behold after turning around the corner who do you think was sitting on the sidewalk smokin a cigaret?  good ol smokey the creeper.  ha ha we walked past hastily and went into the next house we knocked.  ha ha we taught a lesson and invited her to church (I´m pretty sure she is an elect BTW) and headed on our way.....Guess who was sitting on the other side of the street when we left her house....ha ha ha ha we decided to head to our lunch appointment and got the HECK out of there.  ha ha I have never really been afraid of my safety I really was just more afraid of him having a heart attack if he continued to persue us.  he really didn`t look that good.  ha ha but it was pretty funny.  I will not lie.

So I can`t eally think of anything else funny or noteworthy that happened this week.  Except I finished the Book of Mormon again :)  woot woot!!! I started it again today and I want to challenge EVERYONE to do the same.  If you aren`t already reading the Book of Mormon GET ON IT!!!  ha ha it really isn`t that long and if you read it like you would any other novel the story is sooooo amazing!!!  I love it!!!!  I mean come on, if my little nephew Tyler can read it all by himself YOU CAN TOO!!!  If all goes according to plan I shall fininsh it by april and be able to read it again before I come home in August.  The plan is to read it in Spanish and put President Hinckley`s promise to the test.  If you read the Book of Mormon in a different language, you will learn that language.!!!  I plan on studying Spanish when I get home.  So Adam you`d better be brushing up so you can help me!

I love love love love you all!!!  I miss you, but I don`t want to come see you anytime soon, just saying.  Please stay awesome and never regret!!!  XOXOXOXOX

Love,

Sister Ottley

OH PS.  I haven`t gotten any packages recently but that doesn´t mean they aren`t in the office.  I haven`t really seen anyone lately that could get the packages to me.  I will hopefully be going to Salvador this next week.  But I don`t know for sure yet.  I will keep you informed.  I don`t know why it has taken so long to get to me this time.  There is no strike going on but that doesn`t mean that everything is all fine and dandy.  Who knows anymore.

Mom,  I did get the check form Rick.  I sent a thankyou card already and sent the check to you. Tell him I said thank you sooo much.  But he should be getting a letter soon, maybe you could explain to him that the post office is not exactly the fastest here.