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