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