Patience, Inspiration, and Late Night Revelation.

So it's been a month (and three days to be exact) that I've been back here in the sunshine state. One month FLEW. There's not much happening to be honest, but I've already learned a whole lot of somethings because of this bunch of nothing that isn't happening... ya following me here?

Let me tell ya about it. 

This week has been especially rough. A whole lot that I wasn't prepared for or expecting, and a whole lot of trying that isn't resulting in progress and a WHOLE lot of job apps that don't seem to be looked at no matter how many times I call or go into the stores or how many prayers I've sent just looking for answers. It's really, really obnoxious when you want the world NOW and God has a better and bigger plan, if you would just CALM YOURSELF for 10 seconds and accept that.

That's not a strength of mine. I like to have a plan and I like life to go according to plan. I like organization and success. That's all kind of ran off since I came home. On my mission I had a set schedule, 100% of my efforts were focused on people other than me. My entire purpose was to help OTHERS to come unto Christ. I wake up, study, eat, teach, plan, sleep, repeat. It was golden. Every few months the mission President calls and tells you that God has another plan and you're being transferred to another area, but then you get there and you adjust and it's like a well-oiled machine. All along you know your purpose and where you're going and you know that God wants you there. 

Real life is a different story. I know God loves me and has a plan for me, but I can't tell you where He wants me right now or why or WHY I DIDN'T GET A JOB THE DAY I WALKED OFF THE PLANE. (I'm getting over that now, I've just never had difficulty getting a job. It's new territory for me.) There's no transfer call, the purpose is eternal and a lot broader and there are a lot of other things you have to balance while remembering that God loves you and that there are bigger things than what's stressing you out right now. I just remembered that today. 

There has been a lot of soul searching and LOTS of praying (begging, really, but it's whatever), lots of studying (still room for improvement, let's be honest) and a few tender mercies in between the really tough days. 

That's brought me to where I am right now. The entire month that I've been home has been asking these same questions; What do I do now? Where do I need to go? Should I stay here? Should I move? Why don't I have a job yet? Where should I work? What does the man upstairs want from me right now? HELP ME PLEASE?

I've been pretty obnoxious asking a whole lot of questions and making a whole lot of requests as to what I think would be good or cool to have in my life right now.

Then I went to church this afternoon. YSA wards, man. I'm still trying to enjoy it, but the lessons today were TOP. In Relief Society they had mentioned a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 58, and I didn't really focus on it but I knew I liked it. So naturally, I forgot all about it after church. I came home, ate, made a few more requests and sent a few more questions to the Man upstairs. Decided to go to sleep, rolled around for a while, but I was thinking so much of everything that was going on and recognizing little answers and Doctrine and Covenants 58 came to mind. For whatever reason the ONLY time this deep inspiration/study motivation/answers/etc comes is extremely late at night when the only thing I want to do is sleep. But I mean no complaints, I'll take it when I can get it.

So I read. 

Turns out all that I needed was in this chapter. 

I wouldn't have been ready for it nor listened to it had i read it before, but today it was perfect.

I had a lil Q&A session tonight, just me and God via Doctrine and Covenants.

Number One:

   Q: Mmkay this isn't so cool any more I'm kind of tired of this, I get that the trials are for me to learn but really now it's been a long month

   A:  2 For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithfulin tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.

 3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.

 4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.

             Okay, touché. 

Q: Okay then I get that, but still.. What do ya want me to do? Where do ya want me? Just tell me where to go and I'll do it. I'm all in. Let's go. I just need a lil direction.

A:  26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

 27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

 28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward

 29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.

Alright fine I get it. No more transfer calls. No more "Hey Sister Morrill, I need you RIGHT HERE and I need you to take a bus at 9 PM on Sunday night to get there and you'll meet your companion when you get off and yall will choose together what to do and I'll be with you okay?"

You're a grown woman, GET YO'SELF TOGETHER. We're back to real life. We choose and we act and we make mistakes or good choices and we get consequences, and that's part of the thrill of it. Nothing is for certain, but if we do what we know is right, so many of our decisions, whether or not they are perfectly made and organized, will still be for our benefit. We're here to learn and grow. We can't wait to be physically placed exactly where God wants us and wait for all of it to fall into place. We've got to make the path and ask God for the help along the way.

So now is the time to decide. If they don't have what I want or need here, I can go. I can stay. I can look harder. I can find somewhere with other opportunities. I'm not assigned a mission or a companion. I choose. I can do anything, and it's completely up to me. I still don't know exactly where I'm headed or what I'll do with it, but God trusts me and I trust Him to lead me right. 

Truthfully, I thought I learned this "relying on God" lesson on my mission, but what I'm really learning is that that is exactly what the test is on earth. We're going to be tested and tried and it's going to be hard and lines are going to be blurred and we're going to have to choose hard things. And each of our decisions will bring us a step closer or a step further from God, but every time we choose good and ask Him for the help or strength or whatever we may need.. He'll be there. It's not a question. The only question is if we will trust that or not.

 8 ¶For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your waysmy ways, saith the Lord.

 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my wayshigher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

He knows better, and He's never changing. We can trust in Him and trust in the ability that He has given us to choose for ourselves. We have our road map. We have our scriptures, prayer, and a living prophet on the earth today. We have the Spirit's guidance. We are unstoppable.

What's that?

You thought this was over? You thought I was done?

OF COURSE NOT.

I figured.... why stop in the mission? Those weekly letters are everything on the mission, why wouldn't I find joy in it now? I love sharing. Time, stories, food... I love sharing what's going on and hearing from others, so I'm continuing this blog to try to continue that habit, and hopefully somewhere along the way someone gets something out of this, and maybe it will do good for someone somewhere.

Let's talk about RM life thus far.

I've been home for 13 days. 

It took me 9 to watch a normal movie. The movie was Mockingjay pt 1. It was intense.. I then had to have a Hunger Games marathon the next day because I had never seen Catching Fire, nor remembered what the whole thing was really about. That was a lot of movie time. A lot of violent movie time. It was rockin. Just different after a year and a half of Jesus 24/7. #RMprobs

Hugs are nice. I'll hug anyone and (almost) everyone. Minus the creepers. I'm dreading going to the YSA branch because giving a homecoming talk or stake conference are no longer valid excuses anymore. This Sunday it's just YSA and I. Baby steps, baby steps.

In case anyone missed it, this happened.

That one's still fresh. I don't want to talk about that right now.

But I'll get over it.

I have been eating unholy amounts of Taco Bell (specifically for the Baja Blasts and Crunchwrap Supreme, if you must know).

I speak to myself in Portuguese when no one's around. People tell me I have a latino accent. 

I always joked about the RM's (as young as 5 days off the mish to 50 years) who go on "well on my mission, we...." rants... 

But I have become one of them. But it's where I've spent the last year and a half of my life, so give me a break.

I'm looking for a job. I'm hoping to marry a rich man one day so I can not work or look for jobs. PS everyone.. I mean EVERYONE talks about marriage and I can't handle it right now. I don't recognize anyone on facebook because they all got hitched and changed their last names. I came back and it's all the same but it's all different. I don't know how to explain it. My life plan right now is the following:

     *get a job

     *save money from said job

     *get an apartment

     *stay in said apartment at least til my sister graduates in may

     *if I still have money saved, roadtrip to California and everywhere in between for the summer

     

and then

     *figure the rest of my life out.

so in case you were curious, there it is. 

That's it.

The first two weeks really haven't been too crazy, I'm just trying to get unlost and it's just frustrating, sooooo I'll get back to ya when exciting things start happening again okay? okay. beleza.

PEACE, Y'ALL

Love,

Jordan.

Just Jordan.

I´M COMIN´ HOME TO YOUUUU

Hey yall.

So I´m in the mission office. We´re having interviews with President. Tomorrow I get that AIRPLANE HOME! 

Carol got baptized on Friday. Our ´´capela´´ is a huge yellow house rented and there is a little swimming pool in the back... that´s where she got baptized. BASK. It was raining half the week and it was so important for Carol to be baptized in ´´her capela´´, but it wasn´t looking possible, BUT with miracles do Senhor the rain stopped around 4 PM and the baptism started at 7:30 as planned! 

IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. 

I think my memory card has a virus, so if anyone at home knows how to fix that without losing all of my photos por favor help me when I get there this week... I´ll show yall fotos and what not when I get home ;)

PS I PREACHED TO A BUS FULL OF PEOPLE IN BRASIL THIS WEEK. IT WAS SICK. 20 SECONDS OF COURAGE, BABY.

See ya Wednesday ;)

Pela última vez,

Sister Morrill

IT´S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

Hey guys.

Remember how it´s been a whole week since I wrote my last letter? 

Take that time, and add one more day and I´ll be on the airplane home. Add one MORE day and I will be hugging everybody that I love in the USA and listening to the new Garth Brooks CD. Life is sweet.

But... this is my VERY LAST WEEK AS A MISSIONARY EVER. WHAT WHAT? I still feel like Sister Marchetti and Sister Hittrich and all of the missionaries I knew before the mish are still out there, but they´ve all been home foreverrrrr already. Time flies. I´ll be joining the RM ranks soon. Weird. I´m still a kid.

But this week was bomb. 

Let me tell ya about it.

Monday night. Magical things ALWAYS happen on Monday nights. My entire mission. I don´t know what it is, but Monday nights are golden. We had a family night in the house of Rosa. Carol was there, and everyone was late so it just became ´´talk to Carol about her doubts and introduce the plan of salvation´´ time. Carol had a dream about some elder (she couldn´t see his face, just some elder) talking to her about the priesthood and asking her something about if she wanted comfort or health or what not... She was just really confused because she´s never really heard of it, but we were MIND BLOWN because we know that there are priesthood blessings for health or comfort, and we explained to her and it was sweet. But we introduced a little bit of the plan of salvation, where we came from, where we were before we came to earth and what not, and that was all for the day. But after the message we were chatting and getting ready to leave, and out of NO WHERE Carol started talking to me.

´´I don´t know if I´ll be able to be baptized before the 10th, Sister!´´ (bc she knows that I´ll be headed home by then). 

I was caught off guard because we did not ever say the word baptism this time, but i tried to play cool.

´´oh yeah? why not?´´

´´oh because blá blá blá´´

and then I laid it down.

´´Look girl. We love you a freaking lot. We´re thinking about you a lot. We´re praying for you a lot. And we feel like you´re going to be ready your baptism by the 8th. You´re THE most prepared person we´ve ever met. Are you down?

Carol: ´´Ya know, I think you´re right. Maybe i´m ready. We´ll work for it then.

And that was it and we let her go.

Then we had a lesson with her on HALLOWEEN. Halloween isn´t even a thing here, but Carol and Rosa wanted to do something with us so bad, so they set up this baskly halloween get up all over Rosa´s house and we had a little lesson with Carol, and it was all normal, and her friend Tainá said she was going to be baptized on the 8th in Chapecó 1st ward. It was cool.

Then on SATURDAY we went to see Carol and her bro Pedro at her house, and we were just conversing, and she said ´´Hey, so we´ve got a compromisso on the 8th, néh?´´ 

and we were just like ´´Oh yeah, do we?´´

and she shook her head yes.

´´WAIT.. WE DO?!´´

So Carol accepted to be baptized on the 8th.

Then on Sunday we found out that she would have to work on Saturday. 

So she decided she would be baptized THIS FRIDAY. 

I love her love her love her. This is THE BEST way to leave this mission. We´re praying that all goes well and everyone stays firm and happy and it´s going to be great. I am so excited. BUT the miracles didn´t stop there. 

But before I get to that, on Tuesday i had exchanges with Sister Soares in Chapecó 2 and it was top and we had a bask and she goes home with me. I cannot wait for that Brasilian to get her booty to the US next year because I adore her. 

On Saturday we visited Angelita and Sebastião and their son Richard. They are incredible and we had a powerhouse lesson with them, and THEY CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY. 

Not only that, but there were 8 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH YESTERDAY. Richard, Luiz, Marilí´s husband and son, Carol and Pedro, and two more that I don´t even know. THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN. IIIII BELIEVE IN MIIIIRACLESSSSSS. Church was wonderful. Bishop Daison told me to talk in Sacrament meeting next week since I´m going, so that´s whatever but it´s fine it´ll be good. It´s just going to have to be different than the one I share when I get home, because there´s n o  w a y that i´ll conseguir falar ing... be able to speak english straight if i try to translate. English is just going to be weird any way. But it´s whatever. I´ll get there.

SEE YALL AT HOME WEDNESDAY MORNING. 10 AM. TAMPA AIRPORT. BE THERE.

It´s gonna be sweet. 

See ya in 8 days ;)

LOVE YALL.

SISTER MORRILL

2..

Guys I´m panicking (don´t even know if that´s right but portuguese has ruined my english and i don´t even care anymore). 

I´m pretty sure I wrote my FIRST email of this transfer YESTERDAY... But here I am in the lan house again and Suddenly it´s WEEK 5 of the transfer... 2 more weeks.. HOW?

But I´m trying to get over it.

This week was good. A little tense (weekly companionship meltdowns... but we love each other and we just laugh and sing and make ´´sister missionary life´´ parodies to songs we remember before the mish until it´s not tense anymore.. Sister probz) But the week over all was really freaking good.

Tuesday started with EXCHANGES. I was in Chapecó 2 with SISTER NOVOA. IT WAS GREAT. We have grown SO MUCH in the past 6 months apart, it´s ridiculous. I don´t know how it happened or how i learned portuguese or what exactly changed in both of us but it was incredible to see the difference. Basically life was good on Tuesday.

Thursday we had an exposiçâo do Livro de Mormon... I don´t even know what exposition means in english but maybe google translate can help yall. But we went downtown to the praça, set up a bunch of super crente banners about the story of the book of mormon, which basically gives the entire story of the restoration of the gospel and prophets and everything.. we started flagging people down and talking to them about the gospel and try to guide them to the banners to teach them the restoration and invite them to read the book of mormon. the thing MOST crente that I´ve already done in my life. I hated it in the beginning. But then it was a lil catchy and by the end i was basking in making people listen to me talk about the church of  JESUS CHRIST ON THE EARTH TODAY. It was pretty great. I have become such a missionary and I don´t know where it came from. 

We taught Carol and she is incredible and I´m still hoping she decides to get baptized on November 8th before I go home but we´ll see what happens. She is just a love of a person. I adore her. 

Well that´s all i got for now, time to go but I love yall and I´ll talk to ya next week... and then AT HOME!

Peace out.

Sister Morrill

3...

I can´t believe it´s been a whole week already. I feel like I was here YESTERDAY. 

But it´s cool.

We had exchanges in Efapi on Tuesday and it was cool. Super nice to get a breath of fresh air in another area. I was with Sister Mickelsen all day and it was a bask.

But then Wednesday happened. We came home. We worked our trash off. We came home that night.. and found 11 cockroaches. and a spider the size of my hand. Not exaggerating. We were up til midnight killing those suckers. We woke up the next day and found some more...and every night since then we have walked in the door and began our hunt for cockroaches. It´s been ridiculous. We should be moving apartments soon because ours is AWFUL and full of mold and it´s super humid and basically being home is awful there. 

I´m really tired.

So there´s a missionary from my ward here who came home this week, his name is Maicon. He has to have a surgery and then he´ll go back out to the field when he´s recovered, but he came home on Friday, and we happened to pass by his mom´s house around the time that everyone was home and we saw everything go down and his mom was all weirded out that her son was actually standing in her house again and we saw him be released that night, we went to a wedding, went back to share a message with Rosa (Maicon´s mom) and her family, AND they had a friend there the whole time. Carol. She´s tight with the family. She´s not a member. She´s the sweetest thing ever. We´ve talked to her a little bit before, but Friday was perfect. We got to really talk to her and she came to church on Sunday to see Maicon´s talk. Everything was just perfect. I´m expecting miracles with this girl.

It was SO weird being in that house seeing everything happen. Maicon has a year and a half on the mission already, so he´s legitimately 3 weeks ahead of where i´d be.. 3 weeks from now I`LL be home and it´s all going to be strange and I love my family and friends and everyone, but I do not imagine myself anywhere else other than right here, right now. I am a brasilian. I was born for this place. I don´t actually believe that I only have 3 weeks left in this place. But it´s all going to work itself out and it´ll be great and right now I have the greatest calling on the planet, and I´m happy with it. Pretty please prepare all the brasilians for me when I get back home, because we are going to drink chimarrão and do brasilian things because I´m already missing it and I´m not even gone yet!

I LOVE YALL. See ya next week!

-Sister Morrill

Can you hear it?

It´s the sound of TRUNKINESS.

I´m not even trunky... not a lot.

But MAN, a girl gets some emails from friends and family and basically I am PUMPED to see yall. I never ever ever want to leave Brasil, but if I have to, it´s gotta be with all yall out there. I miss yall.

BUT THIS WEEK.

LEMME TELL YA BOUT IT.

I have NEVER been so exhausted in my entire life. I thought I´d already felt the worst on the mish. Nope. This week just slapped me in the face. We had mission leadership council on Tuesday, so we travelled all night on Sunday, got to Floripa on Monday, prepped junk with the other STL´s for MLC the next day, woke up EARLY on Tuesday, meetings, worked with the Floripa sisters til our bus came at 9 PM, and we got home at 6 AM Monday morning. The rest of the week we have just been RUNNING like no other working and trying to teach and finding new investigators and we´re getting to bed late every night because there´s so much to do and we´re waking up early because of leadership meetings and things that we don´t have time to do during the day and basically there is just not a word to describe how tired I am. It´s getting way hot here and it just takes away whatever little bit of energy you may have had.

Sister Haight is stinking INCREDIBLE. We were on an ônibus, coming home from the boondocks of our area, and hadn´t had much time to talk to people for the day. Sister Haight looked around and saw all the people on the bus (22 people to be exact). We chatted a little bit, she stood up, walked to the front of the bus, and started legit PREACHING to these 22 people. ´´Good night everyone! I´m Sister Haight, this is my friend Sister Morrill, and we´re missionaries!´´ she went on to tell em all about the Book of Mormon and God´s plan for them and testified, told them all goodbye, and pulled the cord to get off on the next bus stop. It was incredible. I´ve never seen anyone with that kind of courage. I thought she was crazy, but she´s got GUTS. We were walking home and I was just speechless, but I started talking like ´´soooo... do ya do that often??`` She told me how she watched this movie (I bought a zoo? something like that. Don´t have a clue.) and it talks about having 20 seconds of courage. Just prep yourself up and GO FOR IT. the first moments are hard and awkward and what not, but forget it and just GO. But she put it into practice and now she´s preaching on the bus. NO REGRETS. I want to be like that. I´m never going to regret it, but the stories are going to be baskly. 29 more days to make some stories and see some miracles!

Gabriel and Eduarda were baptized on Saturday. It was FANTASTIC. I don´t know why I´m suddenly being so blessed and seeing these things happen. Miracles. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SEEEESTER JAYCEE. 18 WHAT WHAAAT!

I´m out of time. Talk to you next week. 

LOVE YALL!

-Sister Morrill

MY LAST FIRST WEEK

So I´m sitting here in São Jose. The coast next to Floripa. We have mission leadership counsel tomorrow, with alllllll the leadership in the mish and we get to chat it up about how to make this crazy place better, so that should be interesting. Sister Haight and I had to take a 9 hour bus ride ACROSS THE STATE to get here. Floripa at 5 AM this morning, and São Jose a couple hours later, and we are now exhausted and hungry. 

Let me just start off by telling yall how much I LOVE MY COMPANION. She´s incredible. She´s from Indiana. We´re soul sisters. Holy crap. I love her. It´s been a week and it feels like we´ve been comps the entire mish. We just laugh all day long and share Jesus with people and throw rocks at the Rottweilers that chase us (yes that really happened, but don´t worry about it.) We are KICKING BUTT HERE. Working like nobody´s business and we´re both pretty freaking fantastic at portuguese (yeah, my GH is showing... wait, that doesn´t make sense in english but just leave it) I love Campos Novos, but that area was kicking my trash and I forgot how cool it is to be a missionary. I KNOW that i´m going to head out RUNNING this transfer. We´re killing it. Not everyone (or anyone) accepts, but we are doing all in OUR power, then the choice is up to them.

WAIT THERE WAS A MIRACLE.

So a few months ago I went on exchanges in Chapecó. I taught this ROCKING family, the mom was less active and they were teaching her 11 year old daughter, Eduarda. Last week I got here, and Sister Haight was telling me about this family that just moved to our area from another ward in Chapecó. I was like ´´whoa that´s like the same story as that one family i taught here´´´....TURNS OUT IT´S THE SAME FAMILY. I GOT TRANSFERRED HERE AND THEY MOVED INTO MY AREA AT THE SAME TIME. Now Débora is active and her 2 kids, Eduarda and Gabriel (9) accepted to be BAPTIZED on SATURDAY. I AM SO PUMPED. They remind me a lot of Eleane and her daughter Eduarda, that I taught in Campos Novos. Same type of attitude and everything, I feel like the little time I had with Eleane prepared me to come back here and be a part of everything with Débora. It´s been incredible. 

Adventures of the week. My very first step outside of our apartment in Esplanada, I sprained my ankle. That sucked. This drunk guy kissed my and Sister Haight´s hand and it was grody. I´m so over hand kisses. Mission life is ridiculous. We almost got killed by a Rottweiler, but we escaped unscathed. Some angry brazilians set 2 bus on fire the night we went to visit Debora, so they sent the rest of the buses to the garagem for the night and we were stranded in the hood of our area until a miracle taxi came to the rescue. We changed the song ´´Girl on Fire´´ to ´´IT´S JUST A BUS, BUT IT´S ON FIIIIRRRRRE.´´ Last night this idiot (Yes, I mean lovely child of God, but idiot nonetheless) on the bus couldn´t get the overhead light to turn on, so he tried to get it to spark with his lighter. NOPE I DON´T THINK THAT´S HOW IT WORKS, BRO.  We taught a super simplified ´´Plan of Salvation´´ to an investigator. He ran outside in between us in the middle of it to fix himself a joint RIGHT BEHIND US. He´s been addicted to everything under the sun. Rough life. 

GENERAL CONFERENCE ROCKED AND IF YOU ASK, YOU GET ANSWERS. I´m running out of time but I love yall and I´m really freaking feliz and I love yall and I´ll see yall in 36 days and talk to yall next MONDAY!

Deuces.

Sister Morrill

MY LAST TRANSFER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Guys. 

Oh my lanta.

I passed my LAST WEEK in Campos Novos.

I don´t believe it. 

Let me tell ya about it.

Tuesday. We had family night with Ricardo and AnaMaria (they´ve literally saved me the past 4 1/2 months) We had an investigator there. Lucindo. We taught the restoration. It was great. People cried. It was tender. 

We met with Susi. She came to church last week and we cleared up doubts she had and she wants to change and she´s going to be baptized one day. 

The Marques family is fabulous. Alex (middle child. 17.) is SO strong now and determined to get him and his family to the temple. Nossa, he´s incredible. We made a goal with them to read the scriptures ALL together EVERY DAY, and they´re doing great great great. 

Friday came. WE GOT TRANSFER CALLS ON A FRIDAY. IT WAS ONLY LIKE 2h30... WHAT? President Silva called.

It went like this... except in portuguese, obvs.

-ring ring- -ring ring-

Me: Alo?

Presidente: Hi. Who I talking to?

Me: Sister Morrill.

Presidente: Ah, hi sister morrill. Who is your companion?

Me: .....Sister Mantovani!

Presidente: Ah, is she there? Put her on speaker.

Me: She´s here;

Presidente: HI SISTER MANTOVANI, ESTÁ AÍ?^

Manto: I´m here presidente.

Presidente: Great. Sister Morrill, you´re being transferred.

Me: uhhh

Presidente: You´re going to the Esplanada area in Chapecó.

Me: Mmkay, cool beans.

Presidente: Your companion will be Sister Haight. 

Me: -screaming in my head WHOOOOOOOOOO-

Presidente: Sister Morrill.. 

Me: Yeah!

Presidente: You´re being assigned as Senior Sister Training Leader.

Me: Haha... no. 

-quietness-

Me: wait.. you´re serious?

-call fell through-

then President called again.

Pres: Sorry, Sister Morrill. Did you hear me?

Me: Yeah, I´m going to Esplanada with Sister Haight.

Pres: ....yes. And you´re being assigned as Senior Sister Training Leader.

Me: But serious?

President ignored me.

Pres: Sister Mantovani. Your companion will be Sister Carvalho, ta bom?

Manto: Ta bom. 

 

and that was basically it.

So I´m going to be sister training leader. I have to do exchanges with everybody. President is crazy. 

 

It´s my last transfer. I´ve gotta goooo now

Yesterday Ricardo´s family had a mini farewell for me. it was good. gotta gooooo.

see ya next week!

Miracle.

Hi yall.

I don´t have any time haha,

but know that Aline was baptized on Saturday and it was the greatest miracle of my entire mission and the spirit was so strong and we have another referral named Lucindo who wants to be baptized and I can´t believe it´s all happening.

Elders are ridiculous but I don´t have time to explain so never mind.

OH MY LANTA. WE HAD ZONE CONFERENCE LAST WEEK... They always leave the last 10-15 minutes for the missionaries who are going home to give their departing testimonies... I didn´t realize my mission is legitimately acabando, but I HAD TO GIVE MY LAST TESTIMONY AND I DON´T BELIEVE IT HAPPENED. I can talk in front of whatever group of people without problema, mas it caught me by surprise and I was shaking like nobody´s business and ALMOST cried... Sister Mantovani didn´t know what to do because I flat out never cry or freak out or do anything to show emotion aside from ridiculous amounts of happiness.But it´s fine.

I´m good now.

Still don´t believe it. But that´s our week!

MOM. PUT THE BAPTISM PICTURES ON THIS POST PLEASSSEEE :)

Love,

Sister Morrill

MIRACLES MIRACLES MIRACLES

Alright guys.

Buckle up. 

This week was fabulous.

After a solid month of nearly killing ourselves and still seeing ZERO progress here whatsoever... We fasted and prayed a freaking ton.. and the Lord decided to bless us.

We found SIX new investigators this week. 

3 of them were referrals from members.

One of them, Aline, is married to a member named Micael. Aline accepted a BAPTISMAL DATE for SATURDAY. Like in 6 days. We´re going to be running a lot this week. I´m so pumped. 

On Saturday we were knocking doors... basically. here you just clap and people magically come outside to talk to us, but i mean it´s the same idea. Anyways we were contacting this lad named Susi. She let us in her house, we chatted for a little bit, and she was saying she really needs a church right now. She was like ´MAN, the church is coming to ME.. I´ve GOT to go to church, huh??  Filha, let´s go to church tomorrow?´´ 

WE DIDN´T THINK SHE´D ACTUALLY COME. Everyone says they´ll visit and N O B O D Y visits... But we got to church on Sunday.... and THERE SHE WAS. In Relief Society they were talking about eternal marriage and sealings and temples and I was just thinking WELL THIS SOUNDS CRAZY AND WE STILL HAVEN´T TAUGHT HER A THING SHE´S NOT GOING TO GET IT SHE´S GOING TO RUN AWAY.... But after the class... She asked about sealing... and what you have to do to be sealed... She talked about a marriage of 30 years that ended and I´m not really positive right now but she thought being sealed to your family for eternity was the greatest thing ever and wants us to explain it more on Thursday. 

ELECT. SHE IS A GOLDEN, EVERYONE. 

I was just really happy.

Life is good here. 

Last week Sister Mantovani and I both wrote President about our almost-hopelessness and suddenly things are happening, and he said he would be working on the issues soon buuuuuuut I hope that it doesn´t close the area because we found miracles and people we need to baptize. We´ll see. God knows what he´s doing. It´s fine.

This week I am a happy camper.

IT´S GETTING HOT HERE.

Seriously. And it´s burning season, so everywhere we go there are fields on fire, and the sun and the humidity and the fire smell and EVERYTHING just reminds me of Florida and camping adventures right now. It´s so great. But better still because on top of that, everyone here speaks portuguese. I´m not trunky. Not at all. Not excited about seeing everyone I´ve missed in 8 weeks. Nope nope nope. 

UNTIL NEXT WEEK.

LOVE YALL

SISTER MORRILL

Hey yall.

There´s legitimately nothing else happening here.

We´re working so hard and no one is accepting or we can´t find the at home. 

I´m legitimately waiting for President to call me and tell me I´m being emergency transferred or that he´s closing the area, because I don´t know what else I can do here. 

That´s all. 

But, so yall know...

I´m still alive.

Still mostly happy. 

Still love the people here.

Oh, PS. Elder Rodrigues was emergency transferred from our district like 2 weeks ago, and Elder Hakes just got notice and he´s being transferred TODAY, so basically the Elders who kept me sane here are both outtie and I´m lost and stressed and lonelyyyyyy haha, buuuuut it will all work out in one way or another. It´s whatever.

See ya next week.

same old same old

So just a little tidbit of information this week..

We´ve been working with this less active family since I got to this area... Deliane and Ivan. They are incredible. I love them to pieces. We went to their house Saturday night... they told us they were COMING TO CHURCH THE NEXT DAY. They came. Life was good. It´s been a while! But that was the little miracle this week. Our investigators aren´t doing crap, but the families here are progressing so much. I was pleased haha.

That´s really all I´ve got. This area is killing me but I love the members here. This week is zone meeting, so there will be a lot of suffering and traveling, but I should get packages and letters ;´)

PS IT´S SEPTEMBER. I COME HOME IN NOVEMBER. TWO MONTHS GUYS. I´M PUMPED. BE PREPARED.

Til next week!

Sister Morrill

Still going

hey yall.

One week with 1 set of missionaries here in Campos Novos. I´m still not crazy about it, but it´s fine.

This week was super slow and we were really just trying to get to know each other´s investigators and organize the area. 

Everything´s okay here. 

It´s going to be a really, really long few weeks. 

But it will be good. 

Miracles are coming.

That´s about all I´ve got for ya this week, ha. 

Til next monday!

Sister Morrill

Just a lil heartbreak.

WELL if you´re looking for happiness and uplifting junk this week, I´d love to help BUT you aren´t going to find it in this letter today. Just letting yall know. 

Why?

It´s transfer week.

My baby girl Sister Simões finished her training. Transfers are inevitable. 

This area is HARD. My companion is perfect. I did not want transfers. 

But God had another plan.

The work was about killing us all week long. Our entire district is SUPER close and no one wanted anyone to be transferred. Normally transfer calls come on Friday night. I, Sister Simões, Sister Cozzens, and Sister Mantovani (roommates) all went to the pastelaria, bought a mountain of sweet, chocolate filled pasteis, and made the trek home to await the dreaded calls.. We all wound up laying on the floor staring at the phones in the middle. The call didn´t come. We couldn´t sleep for crappp.

Saturday came around. Still, nobody knew what would happen with tranfers. 

9 PM came around.. President Silva called. Told me to gather the 4 of us together and throw the phone on speaker. President doesn´t normally call for transfers. There is JUNK going down this transfer.

He told Sister Cozzens that she´s being transferred to Lages......Then he told her that her companion would be Sister Simões.

BAH. BAH. BAHHHHHHHH.

They´re shutting down my area. I´m going to stay in Campos Novos and continue training Sister Mantovani.. I´ve been doing 12 week program since January. Ya get tired of it, man. But Sister Mantovani is cool so it should be okay. Sister Simões is basically my best friend. I adore her. She´s my favorite person in this entire mission. I´m sad to be seperated from my Carioca, but now I´ll have a Paulista! But that being said, they´re taking a companionship out of here, there will just be us two, our house will feel empty. The rest of the district is staying luckily, but we´re all still super bummed. 

This is the hardest area I´ve everrrr had. I feel like the 2nd companionship of sisters is more so that we have emotional support because this place is killer, but i guess it will all work out. I love Campos Novos and the people here, but it´s really, really difficult. I´m on my second to last transfer, and it´s completely possible that I´ll just stay here until the end of my mission. 6 months in Campos Novos. That´s nuts. I´ve got 3 so far. 

We´ll see. 

We´re all stressed and anxious and as sad as junk here, but I´m hoping the work will pick up now that we´ve got the entire city again. Who knows. 

Missing yall a ton!

Til next week,

Sister Morrill

Hey yall.

Yesterday didn´t give a lot of time to write, but for now know that I´m good. The week was a bit lost because we had to travel to Videira for a zone meeting so we lost 2 days of work here. We taught Mario (he´s a turd but it´s fine). when we finished the lesson  Claudinei ran into the house freaking out because his girlfriend was drunk. she walked/crawled/fell all over herself into the house and just kept mumbling about how her mom won´t let her go to church with ´´god´s girls´´ tomorrow if she stayed at his house. Irmã Irma (Claudine´s grandma) had to calm everyone down and sort things out because Claudinei was a wreck. It was pretty great. Mission life is nuts.. Eliane is alright, we didn´t get to teach her this week but she´s still excited and what not..

 

other than that there´s nothing really to tell haha, but i love yall and I´ll talk to yall next Monday!

 

-Sister Morrill

MIRACLES

Well last week was hard and junk, but WE FOUND A MIRACLE THIS WEEK.

The miracle... It´s a family. A family of golden investigators.

Eliane, Anderson, and MariEduarda.

They met with a member of the ipomeia district a few weeks ago. He talked about the gospel with them. He gave us the referral.

They´re incredible. We taught them the restoration this week. They WANT this to change their lives. They need it. I can´t even describe it.

I´m out of time.

But we finally met Matilde again!

She and Valdinei seperated. But she looks SO MUCH HAPPIER. I was so happy to see her. She´s great. Still hurting with all that´s happened, but she´s SO wonderful. 

Also I had another allergic reaction to some but bite and everything was inflamed and itching and i had to go to the hospital last week, but it´s all good now. No worries. I didn´t have to geta vaccine so I don´t really care. I still hate doctors, though. 

Love yalllll, gotta go.

Til  next week :)

Sister Morrill

Study, eat, work, sleep. Vida missionaria.

Hey yall.

Number and work-wise, this week has been fantastic. We´re finding um monte of new investigators via knocking doors and what not, we taught the ones that we found the week before, it´s all been good. Claudinei headed to Florianopolis for the Aeronáutico academy.. I forgot how to say it in english but it´s close, right?  Anyways, he was ready to stay there for good if he was accepted and start training and working for them... so we thought we lost him f o r e v e r.. BUT he wasn´t accepted (unfortunately for him, fortunately for us). We´re bummed too because he was WAY excited. But he´s back now and we´ll see him this week!

Other than that we´re working like nobody´s business and I´ve still been discouraged and stressed até o pô, but I´m hoping things are more chill this week and I can enjoy being here again haha. I´ve got 3 1/2 more months to bask in Brazil and an eternity to think about it. It will all be good.

Matilde has fallen off the face of the planet. Valdinei and Matilde seperated and he´s staying at his other place and Matilde´s been staying with her brother and settling things with the death of her son, so I know she´s gotta be super busy.. but it´s been 2-3 weeks. She said she´d call to mark an appointment with us buuuut... a week later and she still hasn´t called. She´s the most elect person I´ve ever met so I trust that she´ll come back up, just gotta wait wait WAIT. 

Miss yall back home, hope everything is WONDERFUL over there! 

Until next week!

Sister Morrill

Wellllllll what do I even have to say about this week?

It was rough. We had to travel to Chapecó on Wednesday and Thursday so we missed a ton (all of them, really) of our appointments. The only investigator we saw this week was Claudinei and he´s a bit of a turd. He´s actually incredible, it´s just his whole family situation that´s killer and his worry about being perfect in the gospel. But he´s doing great, at least.

We got home at midnight on thurs. to wake up as usual at 6:30 and get back to work. Just that EVERYTHING fell through from Friday to Sunday and NO ONE was at home like they should have been.

BUT- there was a good thing.

In Chapecó, President Silva (ps I met our new president. He´s cool.) told us that if we knock doors that we will find the elect... completely contrary to California where we were told it´s a waste of time.. I wasn´t excited. I don´t like knocking doors. Leave that for the JW´s. BUT we did it yesterday. And we found a woman named Marisa. We just asked to give her an invitation to visit the church or whatever and she practically threw us in her house and we were able to teach her about the Restoration. She´s super catholic and not looking for change, but the spirit was there and hey, I trust President and i believe in miracles! We´ll see.

That´s all, really. That and I got my travel itinerary and I make it home the 8 something in the morning, November 12th! whoooooo hooooo. 

But.. That´s all folks.

Até next week!

Sister Morrill

Just another day in (a cold, cold) paradise

Hey yall..

I have this tendency to just want to talk to my momma when I have email time and then I also have to respond to emails and then everyone else on the planet gets the short end of the stick.. sorry about that. One hour just doesnt cut it in a foreign country with junky computers in the lan house... internet place? they call it lan house here. Whatever. We go there to use their internet and computers. This city doesn´t have a good lan house so we suffer a little bit haha, it´s fine.

This week..

Sister Cozzens (lives with us, she covers the other half of Campos Novos) got a new companion on Wednesday.. Sister Nunes left on Monday, so we´ve been trio-in´ it up until her novinha (she´s training again) came at MIDNIGHT. No one got sleep. It wasn´t cool. The trio was cool but when I see other sisters I just remember how freaking happy I am to have Sister Simões. She´s a blast. We´re besties. 

We had a ROCKING awesome lesson with the Marques family. They´re less active and I love em like the dickens. The spirit is always so strong when we´re there, and THEY CAME TO CHURCH TOGETHER YESTERDAY. The Irmã had to work, but the rest of the family came :) 

Matilde is holding on. She doesn´t have any doubt whatsoever about the gospel or the church or anything, but life is really, really hard for her right now. Satan´s doing EVERYTHING in his power to keep her from having it all. Her son died a few weeks ago and there are a lot of problems with her husband that we´re trying to help with. She is THE sweetest person I´ve ever met and she is the LAST person who deserves everything she´s had to pass through. We fasted with her last weekend and she´s praying like nobody´s business to know what to do or for her husband´s heart to change and tão. This week she looked even more upset than the week before, and I just want her to be able to live the gospel without problems and receive the support she needs. SO difficult. 

Claudinei, son of her hub, is still hesitant to be baptized but he´s READY for it, soooo we´ll see where that goes in the future. 

PS yall, I got my return date and I´ll be home on November 11th! Prepare yourselves. 

And just because I like numbers and what not-

including today makes 61 weeks/61 emails home....

and just 16 emails home before I´M back home :´)

Just 16 little emails... yikes. 

BUT I love yall, until next week!

Love 

Sister Morrill

Just another week in the best country in the world

What happened this week? 

lemme tell ya bout it.

We visited Matilde. I stinking love her too much. You could tell it had been a hard week for her, she has problems with her hub and I just want SO badly that all of her trials could just go away and she could be happy. We asked her what she thinks of the Book of Mormon and the church. She already knows it´s true. she wants it in her life. She is incredible. I know that trials are going to come and it´s going to be REALLY stinking hard because they are so strong and so prepared, but I KNOW that the 3 of them in that family will be baptized. I don´t know exactly if I will be here to see it, but I sure hope so and I´m going to do all I can to prepare them for it! I adore that family.

We had zone meeting on the 4th of July!! Elder Hakes (american) and Elder Rodrigues (brasilian-learned english from Elder Hakes.. it´s a bask) are both in my District and it´s such a BASK. non-ending party with a spiritual message mixed in from our District Leader. I love having friends in our district, SO much better. Unfortunately we´re in brazil and they don´t care about the USA´s independence, so nothing happened other than a big ol hug from all the american sisters. We found out about transfers (ps I have 2 transfers left after this... just 2. this is getting weird.) Sister Simões and I are staying together for another transfer :´) I get to finish training mah baby girl. This transfer is going to be a blast. PS I GOT MAIL FROM YALL AT THE MEETING. LETTERS FROM MEGAN AND ABBY LEGITIMATELY MADE ME TEAR UP. We have time to relax this pday and yall will have letters headed your way as of tomorrow ;) I miss yallllllllll.

Anyways... Im pumped for this transfer. Sister Simões had been SUPER stressed because of health and everything and it was taking a toll on every other aspect of our work haha, so the week before was really difficult, but we were talking yesterday and everything is SO MUCH BETTER. she´s really loving the area and the people and she hasnt felt any pain in 2 days now and we have some rocking goals to set this area on FIRE. We´re coming back with a vengeance. 

We made a devotional in Joaçaba and invited the areas of our whole district. It was called ´´O Maior Missionario No Mundo´´.....aka The Greatest Missionary In The World. For the past couple of weeks we´ve told everyone in our branch that the greatest missionary in the world was coming to Joaçaba, but didn´t tell em who it was.. everyone was super pumped and guessing who would it be, and errrbody came on Saturday to see... The greatest missionary in the world is the Book of Mormon ;) we got a huge box and covered it blue and I made it look LEGIT with the book of mormon font and all written ´´O LIVRO DO MORMON´ on the front. we opened the devotional and then invited the ´´greatest missionary in the world´´ to come in....and Elder Hakes walked in wearing the giant book of mormon box. Everyone  was like HA, GOTCHA KKK... Best reveal ever. But the missionaries all shared things about the book of mormon, his purpose, that we have the opportunity to share him and everything... it was SUPER powerful and our branch L O V E D it ;´) So great.

Ummmm Im running out of time as always, but enjoy this little number junk that I discovered.

In my mission so far..

1 baptism

2 countries

3 mission presidents

5 areas

10 companions

11 transfers

14 months

and blessings = infinite. 

I´m getting old up in here. It´s weird. I´ve got 4 more months to keep them MIRACLES coming haha. We´re gonna KILL IT!

Until next week, gente!

Love ya,

Sister Morrill

soccer and chuva and needles, OH MY

GUYS.

What can I say... 

this week was nuts.

It was hard. I don´t know if there´s an easy way to serve a mission in brasil... i don´t think so. Not possible. Luckily, I didn´t come for it to be easy, right?? 

My companion´s ticked. She likes the mission and what not, but she´s from Rio and she´s HATING this small town and we´ve both had health problems the past 2 weeks and it´s hard to get good help here and everyone´s telling her something different and she´s super frustrated. I love, love LOVE these people and this area and I don´t know how the heck to help the other missionaries here be more positive. Lots of people gossip here. Everyone tells everyone what they didn´t like about everything. It´s a bit ridiculous, I am lost as to what to do, but I´m praying a junk load and trying to keep peace with the members here and hopefully all will end well.

First of all, we´re watching the games of Brasil in the world cup. It´s a bask. SO TENSE BUT SO GOOD.

Claudinei. He´s 19. Investigator. He´s Matilde´s step-son. He is GOLDEN. He lives with his grandma (matilde´s mother in law), who IS a member of the igreja. He´s been coming to church and wants to be baptized, but wants to wait a little bit to really KNOW what he needs to do and live the standards and what not. He wants to be firm. 

We met with Matilde! AND her husband was there. Valdinei. Claudinei´s dad. They are INCREDIBLE. I cant even tell you. Valdinei KNOWS the gospel is true. He KNOWS. He´s got some vices holding him back from living it so much, it´s REALLY hard for him to kick the things of the world and truly give his whole soul to the Lord, but the spirit was SO strong in our lesson and he really does want it. You can feel it. His wife isnt AS familiar with everything but she is so willing to learn and she knows it is good and will truly bring her the peace she needs. 

Wednesday.

I had to go to the médico. Doctor. eek. Remember those mosquito bites? Well, there were a LOT. A LOT A LOT. Turns out that 1) the mosquitos here  have venom. How? Dunno. But it is. Not only that, but I happen to be ALLERGIC to them. My foot and my other ankle were hecka swollen. It was AWFUL. We walk everywhere. I wanted to keep working and all, but it just kept getting worse. So we went to the médico. I´ve feared this since the day I got my mission call. But we went. I expected him to give me some allergy meds and call it good, but NOPE. I had to get a vaccine because it was so inflamed. Not ANY vaccine, it had to be in the butt. POR QUE? WHY? I don´t know if there exists an adult in the world with more fear of shots than I, but compared to past experiences I took it like a CHAMP. Family, if yall remember Derek´s scorpion experience in Recife? It wasn´t much different. At least the médico wasnt a witch doctor or something. it´s fine.

1 minute left on the computer. love yall. til next week :)))))

sister Morrill!

Opa

Hi I spent all my time talking to my momma and now I have like 5 minutes to tell the world what happened this week.

Most important is Matilde. 

She´s 45. Her 19 year old son died in a car accident a week ago. She is adorable. She´s hurting a stinkin TON. We met her a few days after he passed away. We told her about the plan of salvation. NEVER in my mission have I had such a desire for someone to understand that message and how important it is. I don´t know what to do when people have feelings and all, but I know how to make them laugh,sooooo I did that. In the beginning you could just see that it wasnt the same and you can see in her eyes that she just lost the world. My heart was BREAKING for this woman. She´s wanted to have a visit from the missionaries for a while, but we hadn´t even heard of her til the week past. ...past week. I know without a doubt that we were needed in that moment, it´s so sad to see what´s happened  but so incredible to see how Godis working in her life. 

I´ve been thinking a lot of the song Hands by Jewel hoje. It´s amazing how we are colocado na vidas dos pessoas ugh portuguese how we are PUT IN THE LIVES OF PEOPLE in the exact moment that we are needed. As a missionary I know we truly are here in the moment for a reason and that we are here to do His work and serve His people. This experience is incredible. 

I never want to leave but I also can´t wait for the day to reunir with all yall and SLEEP for weeks. Brasil kills ya but it blesses ya like no other. I adore this place. 

Until next week,

Sister Morrill

Oi gente!

14 minutes to write. Sorry in advance.

This week rocked.

We´re finding people to teach. Lots of people. 

Terezinha has a baptismal date for the 28th! buuuut didn´t come to church yesterday so we´ll see. If she still has the desire it will be June 29th or July 5th! 

Zone conference was on Tuesday.

President and Sister Fernandes are the greatest people on the planet.

When they teach, they don´t just teach us to be missionaries. They teach us life lessons. Tuesday was the life lessons of all life lessons. This is their last zone conference, they´re heading home in a week or two and President Silva will take over! Então, their zone conference was all about finding our future spouse hahaha, SO different than Cali but such a bask. They´re so fun. All of the missionaries were trunky-ZÃO thinking about home and all, but it was a great conference! 

My legs are completely covered in mosquito bites. It started with two, and then 5, then 10, then 17, and as of 2 days ago I have 22 on my left leg and 25 on my right leg. I quit counting after that. I don´t even want to know. The mosquitos in Campos Novos are KILLER. So different and SO MUCH WORSE. My legs look awful. But it´s cool. 

I have never been so exhausted in my life. I about pass out every night here. I feel like the moment I shut my eyes the alarm goes off and 6:30 arrives and it´s time to get to work again. Brazil is kicking my trash, but that just means greater blessings later, right? 

It´s been a lot of time since I´ve remembered to do this... but here we go again. QUOTE OF THE WEEK, ERRBODY!

´´SISTER MORRILL, VEM AQUI....-turns around and observes this extremely uninteresting morro- TEM UM CARA FAZENDO XIXI NA RUA.´´

Uh, english: ´´SISTER MORRILL, COME HERE. -morro=hill= SOME GUY´S PEEING IN THE STREET´´

-Sister Simões.

She kinda freaked out a bit. But I died laughing at her observance of this hill in the middle of no where for no reason. 

He 40 more seconds on the computer. LOVE YALL.

SHOUT OUT TO MY EL DORADO FAMILY.

SHOUT OUT TO MY REAL FAMILY

NO MORE TIME

SISTER MORRILL

HEY HEY.

Just another week in Brazil. Time is moving quickly (like I´ll be headed HOME five months from tomorrow-not trunky, just a fact) but the work seems to be moving slowly. We´ve got a LOT of room for improvement this week! We´re finding SUPER cool families. We are BEM na começo de ensin.....errrrr sorry.. We are... ugh one minute, i have to reroute to english. Então. We´re still in the beginning of the whole finding people and teaching and what not, we´re out working all day and lots of people aren´t at home so it feels slow, but the people we ARE finding and beginning to teach are incredible.

The members are WONDERFUL. I have never seen anyone as excited and WILLING to be a part of this work. And not only that, but they EXPECT to be a part of it. These are not just our investigators, these are people who are going to be friends and youth leaders and future members of this branch (future ward in the making, we´re gonna do it!) They´re welcoming our investigators in their homes and activities and LOOKING for opportunities to go out with us and teach and get to know the people, and giving referrals left and right because they TRUST us. I want to be that kind of member when I come home. There were Elders here previously who didnt do a whole lot of work, so it´s been incredible to regain their trust and see the desires that they truly have to share the gospel with those around them.

    It´s been freezing and rainy since the day we got here, and we´ve been out walkin and workin in the rain sdince day 1, and it´s all catching up with me and right now i am sickkkkkkk, but it´s all good. Could be worse. I´m still walking.

  We started teaching Jaqueline, but we went back and she shut off the lights after seeing us through the window and didnt bother coming to the door. I think that door shut. BUT we were walking down the road after that incident and I decided to talk to this lady on her front porch, her name is Terezinha. She invited us in and we were able to teach her about the restoration right there! My bebêzinha lead the lesson and i am a proud momma  :´) Every time something falls through we always find a little miracle.

We lost a ton of time travelling to Ipomeia for zone meeting, buuuut it´s cool. Tomorrow (or tonight, we still haven´t received notice) We´ll be headed to Chapecó for zone conference with President Fernandes! A little sad to lose ANOTHER day in Campos Novos but SO PUMPED for President Fernandes´ last conference :) We always have a huge lunch afterwards and it´ll be greattttt.

Other than this we´re teaching a few other people (like i said, bem no começo.)  and trying not to freeze to death. I thought my portuguese was getting relatively good, until some 8 year old told everyone he doesn´t understand anything I say... and then our investigator Fátima. She looked to my comp ´´Is she italian? German?´´ ´´....I´m american!´´ ´´OH, THAT´s why we can´t understand almost anything she says´´ :)))) EVERYONE ELSE UNDERSTANDS. I was a little bit ticked because I thought I was doing pretty well hahaha, but hey, I´ve been here 2-3 months.. I´ve got plenty to learn and time to learn it. I´m learning over and over about humility here. I am NOTHING by myself. Everything I have or am or do is all thanks to God and the people he´s given  to support me!

Love yall lots, but that´s all folks!

Until next week-

Sister Morrillddd

Jeitinho.

Hey yall.

Um, I am freezing. I am in Campos Novos... South central part of Santa Catarina (i think). It´s really cold here. Brasil was supposed to be hotter than Hades..how this is happening I DON´T KNOW. I can see my breath. It´s taken me a solid 5 minutes to write these few sentences because my fingers are moving at a sloth´s pace right now.

Monday was cool. My companion´s new companion chegou, that was weird. Sister Novoa had to do some more exams at the hospital. We had a family night with Fred e Fernanda and their kids :´) They are recém-conversos in São João, I ADORE them. 

Tuesday came. 9 AM ônibus para Florianópolis. Fred and Fernanda came to say goodbye :´) bawwww. Got to Floripa, took a cab to the mission office (ps BOYCE AVENUE was on the radio in BRASIL so i think thats pretty legit and it was perfect... The taxi driver was playin it, not my fault nope nope nope. But saudades lasted for like 2 seconds because i was pumped so see amigos at the escritório.) Anyways.. We got there, went out for Lunch, came back, waited foreverrrrrrr, trainers had a training mtg with President Lewis. uh... President Fernandes. Oops. Wrong mission. But we had training none the less. Afterwards the novinhas and trainers juntaram and we had a presentation and received our companions! 

My companion is SISTER SIMÕES! She´s from Rio de Janeiro. She´s white. Everyone here thinks that she´s american and I´m brasileira....BASKING.

The next day commenced our 9 HOUR bus to our area. We´re living with 2 other rockin´awesome Sisters. (another american and a brasilian WHOOOOO). Once again we don´t have beds, just mattresses. and it´s cold. Really cold. Oh, the joys of opening an area. I miss 2 things from the US- Air conditioning and heating. Só isso. Other than that things have been crazy trying to conhecer the area and the people, we started with NO ONE AND NOTHING. So crazy. But we´re making a billion contacts and have appointments and people to visit this week, SO GREAT.

Basically in Brasil I´ve learned that I truly don´t know a thing, except for my purpose as a missionary. I´ve come to really understand WHY im here and what i´m here to do. I´m only capable of doing it all through the spirit and the help of the Lord, and they are doing SO much in giving me to abilities to do everything that needs done here. This work is incredible. I love this place. I want to stay here for the rest of my mission. Campos Novos is a branch (maybe 30 people on Sundays) and our goal is to have 100+ going by the end of the year and to be in the works of building a capela and creating a WARD here. All it takes is a lotta faith! So excited to see it all happen. There are miracles waiting for us.

Eeeeek out of time.

Love yall.

Sister Morrill

President is crazy.

Hey everybody.

So before I even get going, sometimes I forget that yall don´t speak portuguese.. Just know that my english is getting a little rough and i´m speaking portugues 24/7 for 2 and a half months now baha (it´s only going down from here, 5 more months guys of Portuguese, people). I´ve had google translate pulled up next to my email buuuut that takes more time out of emailing, so please accept that there will probably be portuguese words here and there and that google translate is there for ya. 

ANYWAYS. 

I left my other planner at home. New transfer = I forgot that the other one still has all my precious details of the week. It´s fine.

Really this week has been pretty normal. More things are falling through but overall normal, haha. The meninas that we´re working with didn´t come to church again and we´re deciding what to do with them, bahhhh dificuldades. I said goodbye to them all on Friday :´( oh, btdubbs... I´m being transferred.

Transfers transfers transfers.

I am opening a new area.

Campos Novos 2.

A new area that requires an 8 HOUR BUS RIDE from Florianopolis..

Why Florianopolis? Why aren´t I leaving from Tubarão?

Let me tell you.

Not only am I opening a new area (let me remind you that this requires talking to everyone in PORTUGUESE. Sure portuguese keeps coming out of my mouth these days when I want it to be english, but i´ve still got A TON to learn.), but I am also TRAINING. President mentioned leading somehow in interviews, but I thought he was kidding and if not I thought he would give me more time than this hahaha. But it´ll be great)

I am responsible for a new missionary who is probably brazilian (that will be nice i hope) and for a new area. 

Totes fine.

It´s just doing it all in portuguese that´s got me a little preoccupied.

It´s fine.

Today I pack everything up. Should be relatively easy because we´re still living out of our suitcases (still don´t have a guarda-roupa ou camas). This may be the first time I don´t stay up all night long packing and running around. We will see. Tomorrow I go to Florianópolis. We´ll have meetings and things with President Fernandes and afterwards I´ll receive my novinha :´) Then we´ll separate again and the novinhas dinner with President and Sister Fernandes, and they´ll dump us off at a hotel (super chique hotel.. i´m pumped. hotel means i´ll have a bed and a clean shower whooooooo) and we´ll hopefully have some food available for us haha. Then comes Wednesday where I and my new comp begin our 8 hour bus ride to Campos Novos. Should be a bask. 8 hours on a plane is killer, imagine o ônibus. Welcome to vida brasileira.

I am in love with this mission.

It´s not even comparable with Sac. Sac is completely wonderful and I have tanto amor for Cali-Sac. But this experience is 110% different and just as wonderful. I love the people. Everything is more simple. The food is bomb. You really cannot describe this experience adequately. If somehow you have how to get here and stay a while, do it. I think I´m running outta time!

Until next week :)

Love Sister Morrill

Let go and LET GOD

I can´t even begin to describe this week.

Partially because I´m already about out of of time to email.

But also because it´s been crazy.

We´re esforcando like nobody´s business and.......uh portuguese. Google it. I don´t know how to say it in english. It´s fine. Anyways, we´re busting it over here and compromissos are falling through and people aren´t progressing and we´re pushing back Ágata´s batismo a little more so she has time to understand and study and go to igreja (she didn´t come again this week). Anyways we´re running around and doing WORK and things aren´t working out and we´re not sure exactly why.

Backtracking.

PS my year mark is this week what?

anyways

Wednesday we were going to a member´s home for lunch and this german/brazilian guy stopped us again (we had contacted him a week or two ago already) and told Sister Novoa that she´s nice, and I was pumped because i thought for once the brazilians were finally going for the chilean, WONDERFUL. I didn´t understand what he said after that, but we left and Sister Novoa was cracking up and explained. He DID say she is nice... but followed up with ´´Mas minha paixão é dela´´ looking at me. oh, translation. ´´but she is my passion.´´ followed by ´´que lindo cachinhos´´ eek. we will find a new way to that irmã´s house. I just want one week without brazilian probz. just one.  

WE CAN WATCH THE WORLD CUP MATCHES. ON THE MISH. BAHA. LIFE IS WONDERFUL HERE IN BRASIL.

Oh yeah i forgot. what I wanted to tell you was about my companion. Her foot was super inflamed and grody looking this week. She thought it was an allergic reaction to chocolate? No. We went to the hospital on Saturday to check it out. They think she has migratory arthritis. So we´ve stayed em casa for a couple days until we get an appointment with the rheumatologist to make sure, because she said something could get worse (i dunno, they were speaking medical vocab) so i just say okay and we´re waiting for an okay to walk and do stuff and we´re marking a day to see the rheumatologist today, whooooooooo.

Seriously this week was crazy and i wish i had time to explain it all but i gotta go :( 

I´m adoring my time here, don´t want anything to change :(((  we will have transfers on Monday so yall will here if im staying or leaving or training or whatever. Agora i have to go, but love yall. talk to ya next week!

Ready, set, GO

Nossa.

This week has been compely nuts. Again. Ha.

Baptisms. They were promising and they´re still coming, but it fell through for this sunday but that´s alright because I got to talk to my família on Sunday!

We´re still running from one end to the other and praying and teaching and walking and going a little more and a little more, until we don´t think we can go any further, then we get a little UMPH from the Spirit and we go further anyways. I haven´t had an experience like this in my whole mission. (Little wonder.. haven´t been HERE my whole mission. This place is incredible. Mmkay I´ll tell you about the week and try to help yall understand what i´m talking about.

The beginning was normal, pday and we had exchanges and stuff.

Wednesday we had interviews with President Fernandes. It was cool except he told me that I will probably train a new missionary next transfer. It´s cool to do that in english and all, but the problem here is that everyone speaks português and i´ll train in português and I´ll be the only one who knows this area and it´s all PORTUGUÊS. If President and the Lord want to do that to the poor greeny that´s fine, I´ll do it, but BAH next transfer will be nuts. 

Oh hey Dad, I was thinking about Serendipity and Papa Kelsey´s this week and if we ever both go to utah again we´re going to papa kelsey´s, mmkay?

Thursday came along and we took a bus to Capivarí (another CITY in our area.. ha ha ha) and then busted it back to visit Rillary, Ágata e Izadora. Rillary was having doubts because she doesn´t want to give up coffee for the rest of her life, and Izadora´s mom told her she couldn´t be baptized. Ágata isn´t letting a THING get in the way and she was still planning on Sunday. We had Irmão Fred come with us and he was perfect. He was only baptized two months ago and gave up smoking and the girls loved him, he´s great. 

We planned on Friday and then saw Ágata and everyone again and had a meeting and then had a BAPTISM in Oficinas. João Marcos, coolest 8 year old you´ve ever met. We had lunch with them last week. We got lost on the way to their home and wound up in área verde (aka drugs drugs drugs we are NOT allowed to enter área verde, money and drugs and probs guns and idk errwhere) but there was some guy with crack on the side of this dirt road and no one would tell us where the streets were because everyone´s afraid to get busted even though we´re just a few starving girls with a big whopping ´´JESUS CHRIST´´ on our nametags. it´s fine. If I lead some drug caravan or something I wouldn´t want to tell people where to go either, i guess. Anyways. We found their house and told them about the big guy with crazy drugs, and João Marcos just called us out and said ´´why didn´t you talk to him??? THIS IS YOUR JOB´´ Sorry João. Maybe Jesus would have talked to him but I wanted my companion and I both to leave área verde ALIVE.

Saturday was Fernanda´s baptism! She was an investigator in São João (our ward but area of the other sisters... she loves us though) So great. baptisms everywhere but our area haaa,but they´re coming! Saturday we were running. We had an activity with Oficinas members and all the missionaries in Tubarão Saturday morning, ran to our lunch appointment, fell through, ran to the market and ran home to eat, ran to the bus stop with the zone leaders and off to see Ágata for a baptismal interview. ran back to the bus, ran to the baptism, ran to an appointment with the family of Marisete e Paulo, the coolest family evaaaa. Best lessons there. They´re returning members, so much fun. 

Sunday Ágata didn´t come to church and we´ve got a few things to resolve, but we´ve remarked for Saturday for Ágata´s baptism! Should be fine.. Had lunch with a rockin awesome family and then SKYPED HOME. I LOVE MOTHERS DAY. Talked to the fam bam. in English. That was weird. I´ve already been in Brasil for two months? That´s weird too. It´s a struggle speaking english but I still have a junk load of vocab to learn in portuguese too, MAD STRUGGS. But it´s fine. 

Mothers day... I gave my farewell talk a YEAR ago, last mother´s day. It sounds like my return date will be November 10 (I´ll spend like a day at the mission office, so I´ll be back November 12th? something like that) I´m officially down to the last 6 months of my mission. I can´t believe a year has passed. We´re doing so much here that time is passing even faster, I hate it! I love everything that is happening, I just wish it would happen a little slower. My life has completely changed because of my mission and I want to see these things happen for the rest of forever. I´m so happy here haha, I´m terrified that November I´m going to breathe and it will be november. Until then I´ll just be busting it over here and loving every single minute. Everybody needs to serve in Brasil (and Sacramento), it´s the greatest everrrrr.

Love yall. Gotta go once again.

Talk to ya in a minute!

Love, Sister Morrill

Madness and Miracles.

We are SO blessed here. 

There are miracles in Tubarão.

Tuesday happened. Plans fell through. We decided to visit our beloved investigators Rillary, Agatha e Isadora. 

We took the ônibus up to their bairro, got off on our stop and proceeded to walk towards the house. Somehow we started talking with another lady named Johana. who was headed the same direction.. had a great converstation, she showed us her house and wanted us to return... we were meant to be there at that time and it was just a super cool experience. 

 

We reached Maristella´s house. (momma of Rillary and Agatha)

We were talking with them, and Maristella told us they were talking to a neighbor about us and the church and she wanted to talk to us to hear what we believe.. Really she was a bit skeptical (oh also she´s Jehovas Witness) but she has lots of questions and wants to understand. It´s super cool. Her name is Rosale. or Rosele. I don´t know. It´s português. Anyways.

The point is we left and found TWO new investigators and that in itself was a miracle. Maristella´s family is so great. They´re giving referrals left and right. 

Isadora was one of them :) She´s 13 (going on 20) years old, neighbors and friends with Rillary and Agatha. We were teaching their family like a week ago, and they were telling us how Isadora and I looked SUPER alike, so we told her to go on and call her over haha. We met Isadora and we legitimately look like we could be sisters. She went to New Beginnings with Rillary and Agatha about a week ago, we showed them the baptismal font.... que suave, sempre.

BUT, back to Tuesday. We met with Rillary, Agatha, Isadora, the WHOLE family and their neighbor Rosale. Basically they had a representative from almost every house on that street. It was nuts. BUT we were teaching and we invited Rillary to be baptized because she´s already had a date and has met with the missionaries and has really been learning and all, and Agatha and Isadora both wanted to be baptized too.. MIRACLES. We have the 3 of them that will be BAPTIZED this coming Sunday :)) 

This whole week has been incredible. These girls are SO prepared. We found Isadora because they wanted to show us that we looked alike. All 3 of them are giving things up to be baptized and I know it´s stinking HARD for them, but they KNOW that this is good and that it´s what they need to do. They don´t know all about the gospel yet and they don´t understand why there are all these things to do, but the spirit is so strong with each of them, it´s incredible. We are literally running from one side of the area to the other (huge...HUGE area) to keep up with everything going on and we´re exhausted but I have never in my life been so happy. The Lord is preparing people and we are just the mouth piece. We are the insruments he´s using. He says go or points in one direction and we go and find miracles and blessings and I don´t understand it but I am so blessed and so happy because of it. 

Had to tell yall about that....

moving on, quickly because no time.

Brasilians like americans and it´s creepy and I don´t like it. Wednesday some teenager came to a youth activity with a member and we introduced ourselves and did our missionary duties and invited him to learn more and junk, and we were leaving and I JUST WANTED TO SHAKE HIS HAND but he held on and kissed my hand. This is the 2nd time this has happened here in the past month. Germ-x. I use it a lot here. My companion was walking away like ´´ummm THATS NOT NORMAL IN BRAZIL, SISTER. WHAT IS THE DEAL HERE?´´ I DONT KNOW WHY THEY TARGET ME BUT THEY DO. Then the next day we were in this little shop, and some 40 or 50 something year old looked at me and was like ´´OOOOOO QUE BONITINHO. DO YOU WANT TO DATE ME?´´ ´´Do you have a boyfriend?´´ ´´Where do you live?´´ oh my lanta it´s terrible. I hope I learn to talk like a native so I can tell people I´m from Porto Alegre or something. 

Anyways.

Gotta go.

I want to eat.

LOVE YALL. 

Mother´s day is sunday, I get to skype home :´) SO PUMPED. 

See ya next weekkkkkkkkkkkk

Paz.

Sister Morrill

CHUVA! CHUVA!

Brazil is so weird. 

Brazil itself is great. I love Brazil. But serving a mission in Brazil is weird.

 

Everything is different. Days pass faster and sooo much slower at the same time. I don´t know how to describe it. I love it here. The people are fabulous. The food is great. I´ve got guaraná for yearrrrrrs here. This place is wonderful. I´m even more cut off from the rest of the world haha, but I adore everything about this place.

The craziness began a week ago after our p-day festivities (pretty sure the crazy things always happen Monday night...dunno why, but ALWAYS).. 

Então... We were walking...and walking...and walking.. and walking under a sketch bridge.. and crossing a street... and out of nowhere this middle aged man with flip flops and a suit jacket is running towards us yelling ´´IRMAS!......IRMAS!!!´´ (Sisters) and flailing his arms to get our attention. I was scared for my life. I kinda wanted to start running the other direction. But my comp? nope. Wait, sister! WAIT FOR WHAT? WE ARE GOING TO DIE. I DONT WANT TO WAIT. But we waited. The man caught up, caught his breath, and started talking. This is all happening in português, remember. I don´t have a clue. He starts going on and mentioned that he talked to some irmas from some other church yesterday and he thought we were them and i´m not sure if he wanted us to preach to him or preach WITH him but he had some motive behind talking to us and we gave him an invite to come to church on Sunday and he started this very animated prayer, and he was holding the invite in his hand, looking up at the sky, and walking in circles as he spoke (much like the Princess Bride...please guide this sword to the man with the mask-esque...impressive) and he´s praying to God to know if this is what he was meant to cross our path and if we´re telling the truth and all kinds of stuff. The prayer itself was very sincere. It lasted a solid 10 minutes, but it was great. We stood there and when he threw in an ´´amen´´ we shook his hand and went on our way. He didn´t come to church and im not actually sure that we´ll ever see him again, but its cool.

we went to visit this rockin awesome family the other day (they live in a sketchy sketch bairro.. drugs by the truck load, but almost everyone we´re working with lives there so... eh. it happens.) we were just arriving and some man starts screaming and running down the road ´´CHUUUUVA! CHUUUUUVVAAAA!´´ ...Chuva meaning RAIN. Sister Novoa and I looked up to the overcast (but rainless) sky, looked at each other and thought ´´´hmmmmm eu acho que não... Don´t think so.´´ No rain. Turns out ´´chuva´´ is code word for ´POLICE. THE POLICE ARE COMING. HIDE THE MONEY. HIDE THE DRUGS. IF YOU´RE ON DRUGS, HIDE.´´ Everyone is going crazy and running and shutting doors and this woman is running and dancing in the street with this huge branch in hand, some guy is busting it to the mercado, everyone is nuts. We see this police car come through and drive to the sketchy street...people were still going crazy and i dunno what happened but everything went silent and we decided to go inside before we got shot and talk about the gospel. 

I´m in Brasil, guys.

Earlier that day we taught Rillary and Ágata, and their friend Isadora came with them to a young women activity and we showed them the baptismal font and they loved it and they´re both hardcore feeling the spirit and we´re going to see if they want to be baptized next week...SUPER prepared family, love them all. This place is the best.

Wellllll I gotta go but I love yall a ton. Keep some letters coming down south por favor, i only get them like once every 6 weeks so it´s like CHRISTMAS every transfer.

Paz, gente.

Sister Morrill