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