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