Southern Comfort Zone

Southern Comfort Zone. Brad Paisley. give it a listen. it's the anthem of my life right now. I'm in BRASIL. I don't understand anyone. No one understand me. I now speak more spanish than portuguese, Manteca ruined me =P I don't know what language I learned in the MTC 9 months ago but I don't think it was Portuguese! The language is SO pretty though. I've been on a plane for the past 24 hours an I'm exhausted and it's only 1 PM here. Ha. The first flight was fine from Cali to GA. It was KILLER saying goodbye to President and Sister Lewis, and Sister Clayson got to see me at the mission office before I left, made my WEEK. But the flight was fine. Then we had an overnight flight from Atlanta to Sao Paulo and I told the lady sitting next to me that we serve our missions for 80 months instead of 18 and I don't even know what else may have come out of my mouth. Not much. Yikes. I'm in the Brazil MTC. Ha ha ha. We have to go buuuuut thought I'd let you know I'm alive and I haven't been robbed or held at gun point or anything fun yet. I'm safe =) amo voces! see ya whenever our next pday is. TCHAU TCHAU.

 

Sister Morrill.

Hey y'all.

This week has been madness. Pretty sure I have the weirdest mission ever. It was relatively normal and then the whole Brazil thing came back into play and now nothing's normal and everything is crazy and I'll spend less time in my original mission than I have in California. I still DO NOT WANT TO LEAVE THIS PLACE. This has become home. This is going to be a harder goodbye than it was from my real home. I just love these people so much and I've learned so much and I just want to keep doing it all here. I know the Lord has a plan for me and that there are even grander things waiting for me in Brazil, but it's still so hard. I'm excited. No I'm not. I'm trying to get excited. I should be. I will be. 

BY THE WAY. Since I've been out here speakin' da english for so long, they're sending me to the BRAZIL MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER for two weeks. I'm going to Sao Paulo before I get to Florianopolis. I'm a little bit excited for that, I can't lie... I'm also going to turn 20 and hit my 10 month mark on the mission while I'm there. WHO TURNS 10 MONTHS IN THE MTC? This girl. It's fine. 

I leave in like 6 hours for the mission home. I'm staying with President and Sister Lewis. I haven't packed yet. What's new. One day maybe I'll learn. Eh, or maybe not. My companion is going to be all by her lonesome self for 2 days :( Not really... She's gonna trio it up with the Spanish speaking sisters. HA. 

Speaking of Spanish. Manteca is filled with spanish speaking people. I think more people speak spanish than english, legitimately. It's nice. Problem- I've picked up on it. I can say just as much or more in Spanish than I can in portuguese now. THAT'S why I'm going to the MTC haha. WE'VE HELD SO MANY CONVERSATIONS IN SPANISH THIS TRANSFER. Half of our investigators speak spanish. I don't even know spanish. I hardly even know portuguese. I don't know how it keeps happening. I'm just tired and confused and I don't really know what I'm doing but I keep doing it anyways and somehow it works and we see tons of blessings from it. I don't get it. That's my mission in a nutshell.

The Stotts, my favorite family everrrr/Ward Mission Leader  (in Manteca) surprised me last night. They were being all secretive and stuff with Sister Johnson and pulled up to the house, and Sister Poole pulled out a cake and they decided to celebrate my birthday before I left :) I'll be surrounded by Brazilians that I won't understand on my birthday, soooo it made my night. This area is the best. I love it here. I don't want to leave them!

Here's a story. 

There's this rehab housing across the street from one our investigators. I think I told you about them before? Well we were out knocking on doors to find a member of our ward a few nights ago, and it was in this sketchy-sketch motel looking complex thing. Total DIVE. We talked to this shirtless Oklahoma cowboy who was passing through and asked if he knew the lady we were looking for.. or if he heard about the church before.... Doin' missionary stuff. Ya know. When out of no where this drunk guy pops out across the complex, sees us, looks at Sister Johnson and yells "ERICA!" as he stumbles around the parking lot. We're all super confused. Meanwhile the shirtless cowboy looks at him and just says "Dude, I don't think you have a clue who that girl is!" Sister Johnson pops in "uh.. We're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.........I'm Sister Johson" Drunk guy makes his way over to us. "Oh. I thought you were Elizabeth." No, no. We are not Erica or Elizabeth. But it turns out his name is Shane.. We met him at Rehab like a week earlier... He just got kicked out of rehab. But he remembered us talking to him about Jesus, even though he was plastered. That's cool. Sister Johnson thought it would be a good idea to give him a mormon.org card WITH OUR NUMBER ON THE BACK before we left. So I mean best case scenario he sobers up and calls us to be baptized, worst case we get a drunk phone call at 3 AM. We can't lose. 

We started teaching this AWESOME guy named Sam. Sam agreed to be baptized as he learns more. I like Sam. I'm leaving Sam tomorrow :( I am sad. This week has been incredible. We've found THREE new investigators this week! We've needed it! I won't be here to teach them all but I'm so excited for the area. These people have so much potential, I can't wait to hear how things go. I'm proud to say that we busted it all the way to the end, this area is going to explode soon. There are SO MANY prepared people. We've been through heck trying to find them, but they are coming. I'm so thankful for the past 2 months here. I've learned so much here, even when I didn't want to. Especially when I didn't want to, ha.

Well we need to get going and pack, but I love you all a lot and I'll talk to you next week from BRAZIL. Tchau tchau!

Love,

Sister Morrill

Exchanges and visas and transfers, OH MY.

Well, this week has been NUTS. 

First, Tuesday. Tuesday we had exchanges! Exchanges are my favorite. Really, Sister Maughan is my favorite. Sister Maughan is in Lodi. I got to go up to Lodi with her, and Sister Jolley (we served in El Dorado together) came down south to Manteca with Sister Johnson. We got to work in this lady's garden in the morning. It was a blast. Service is soooo nice. They made us homemade calzones. They were delicious. Not like this is important. But now ya know. MOVING ON.

So our mission has been challenged to contact 20 people every single day. Purely street contacting. Just talking to random people outside. I hate it. I've been fighting it from the beginning. BUT on exchanges we killed it! Half of them were purely spanish speaking or muslim, so that was rough. But hey, it builds character. I had to use my portuguese/spanish. It was rough. But they got some of it.  Sister Johnson and I killed it again the next day (all english, luckily). I've been converted. I love it. It's fun. It's a challenge. Like let's see who can give this guy a picture of Jesus Christ first. BAM. Beat ya. Nailed it. It's been so much fun. 

Sister Johnson had to get finger-printed for her visa app on Thursday. So she had to be alone in a room with a guy who had to hold her hand. WHOA THERE. Also one of our investigators went in for a smooch when we were on exchanges, ha ha ha. Sister Johnson's had a rough week. She's scarred but it was pretty amusing for meeee.

OH. OKAY. HERE'S A STORY.

So... the past 2 transfers I've gotten a call on the Friday of the 5th week of the transfer, and in both of those calls it was for an emergency transfer. So all transfer long I've been dreading Friday of week 5. Bad things always come in 3's, right? Let's top #3 off with a transfer OUT OF THE COUNTRY, why don't we. I could feel it. Only to Sister Morrill. So Friday was weekly planning. We were in doin' work and makin' plans, and that afternoon one of the Assistants, Elder Morley, (the same one who's brought the bad news the last 2 transfers) gave us a call. He does the small talk thing again. I do the nervous talking to much thing again. He finally gets to it and ALL he had to say is that they got the phone info from last month and saw that there were a couple calls made after 10:30 pm before I was even in the area... That's all. Okay, Elder Morley. We'll make sure it doesn't happen. Yep. Thanks. We'll repent. BTDubbs, can you permanently reassign me to Sacramento already? No? Okay. Well see ya later. 

Done. 

We go along with our day. 6 and 7 PM pass, so I'm convinced that I'm SAFE. Definitely, definitely staying in Sacramento for the next 9 months. Hakuna Matata. BUT WAIT. Suddenly the whistle of doom sounds. Do doo do do doo. do doo do do doo. do doo do do doo do doooooooooo. It's President Lewis. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is a joke. I'm not answering. No way. Sister Johnson picks up the phone. President does the small talk thing. Jokes about the weather. Haaa, yep. "We're biking in the rain President. Yep. We're enjoying it. You're right, California needs the rain. Oh, you want to talk to Sister Morrill?" NO. I love President, but I DO NOT love what I knew he was going to say. "Hello Sister Morrill.. -small talk small talk small talk-" "Hiiiii President." -small talk- "Sister Morrill, I have some good news and I have some bad news for you. The good news is you got your visa. The bad news is you're leaving us." "I THOUGHT YOU HAD GOOD NEWS, PRESIDENT?" President started talking about how he and Sister Lewis love me and how they love that I've spent this time with them in Sacramento and la la la and I cried like a little baby and he told me I was leaving on the 11th and I cried some more and I hung up and I was still crying and I hated that I'm leaving Sac and I hate that I was crying but it was happening anyways so it's whatever. I've never hated receiving a phone call so much. 

Soooo I'm going to Brazil on March 11th. Next Tuesday. I should be excited and maybe I'll get there and be excited. It's just going to be SO hard to leave Sac. I love it here. I love the people. I've never been so happy in my life. But I'm doing the same work and sharing the same gospel in Brazil, too. Different people and it's a little further away, but i know it's going to be fabulous. My portuguese is awful but I know it will get better in time. I'm excited to get to know the people and the culture. I just can't believe I'm actually going now. I'll get over it haha. It will be incredible. I get to spend half of my mission in another country, speaking another language, and I was blessed enough to spend the first half of it in the best mission EVER. I am a believing, bold, baptizing California Sacramento missionary through and through. I'm excited to see what happens in the upcoming week and maybe by then I'll be excited to see what happens after that :)

Gotta go, love you all and miss you!

Ate logo,

Sister Morrill

NEW ADDRESS: (As of March 11th) Sister Jordan Ashlee Morrill Brazil Florianopolis Mission R. Feliciano Nunes Pires, 42 Centro 88015-220 Florianopolis-SC BRAZIL

They try to make me go to rehab, I said nooo no no

Hellooooooooo beautiful people!

Let's see.. This week.. Well, we've been playing futebol with Mexicans for the past 2 p-days and it's been a BASK. Brazil preparation, anyone? This week was good. Long. Still a struggle. Still not feeling at home. Still figuring the companionship out. But it was good. On Tuesday we contacted a referral from the Spanish Sisters, her name is Rhoda.. She kinda lives in the ghetto-ish part of our area, so biking there is a party. We talked to her and got ourselves a new investigator, and on the way home we met a bunch of guys across the street.. We started talking and THEY were the ones talking about Jesus to US before we could even get a word out. They're a bunch of sketchy-sketch lookin' guys, all tatted up and what not. Turns out it's rehab housing and there are like 4 duplexes full of em. We started talking about Jesus Christ and how He's helped them through their process, and before we knew it we were passing out Restoration and Gospel of Jesus Christ Pamphlets galore. We were giving them some reading and they were SO pumped about it "I LOVE READING THE WORD." "IMMA GO READ THIS RIGHT NOW." "Thanks ladies, I love me some gospel reading"... I've never met anyone so excited about reading a pamphlet about Jesus Christ, much less so MANY people. Haha it was neat. We're gonna stop by again. They're fun.

Sister Johnson got a flat tire, so I had to pull out my man skills and fix it for her, then Sister Poole (the lady we live with) tried to "fix" it herself, then I had to re-fix it, then Sister Poole touched it again and she popped the tube.  We spent SO MUCH TIME fixing and refixing that stink of a tire, and by the end we had to go to the bike shop and get a new tube. It was a looong day. While we're talking about man skills, the other sister missionaries here are such GIRLS. I mean cool, it's whatever. But on p-days their idea of fun is "Oh, we should go to the apartment and bake cookies and make valentines together and do other cutesy things and sew and stuff" and I'm just like "Can we go outside and kick a ball or rub our faces in dirt or something?" Let's do something fun guys. Come on. We need to play sports. I enjoy doing womanly things sometimes I guess, but let's live a little bit sistas. I'm not butch, promise. I just appreciate having a good time on p-days. That's all. There's a lot of estrogen in Manteca. 

HEY GUYS. I PASSED 9 MONTHS THIS WEEK. How crazy is that? Time is FLYING, I can't believe it. 

Wellllllll I've gotta go, but please enjoy a little news/requests/info/whatever from President Lewis + the mission office :)

Love ya guys!

Sister Morrill

Just a lil bit from the Sac Mission: Mail info and our mission fast.. feel free to join :)

“Boxes and packages should be sent 1^st Class or Priority mail, not standard post.  Use padded envelopes when sending small objects, not flat envelopes.  Use sturdy boxes and packages that will hold up in the mail process.  UPS and Fed-ex packages and boxes cannot be forwarded and are held in the office until the next monthly Mission Leader Council meeting when they are delivered to zone leaders for delivery to missionaries

Mission Fast:  Because we are behind in our goal to baptize 801 truly converted people during 2014 we held a Mission Leadership Council Fast on Thursday to petition the Lord to bless our Mission with more baptisms based upon our faith, obedience and hard work.  At the end of that day sister training leaders, zone leaders, assistants and Sister Lewis and I held a conference call so we could end our fast with a prayer together.  We also discussed and decided that we would like to invite all of us in the Mission to fast this coming Sunday, March 2^nd  to again plead with the Lord to bless our Mission with more baptisms based upon our faith, obedience and hard work.  We read Helaman 3: 35 “Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.”    As a Mission we desire to become stronger in our humility, firmer in our faith and to yield our hearts to our God.  We desire to bring many souls unto Him.  Our 2014 baptism goal was inspired.  Now we must urgently do all in our power, including petitioning our Heavenly Father to bless us with sheaves upon our backs as we thrust in our sickles with our might all the day long as we labor with Him in His vineyard.  Will you please join us in this fast?  In addition we felt we should ask you to invite your families at home to join us in fasting on March 2^nd, a regular Fast Sunday, in our petition to Heavenly Father. 

HELLO HELLO

HI GUYS.

HOW ARE THINGS? 

Things happened this week. It was good. Missionary life is picking up. (watch my visa come now, BAH.) 

So last Monday all of our plans fell through after p-day. Bummer. So we were walking around the sketchy-sketch neighborhood in the dark and trying to decide who we needed to see or who would be around or SOMETHING. So we found these two guys chillin in their garage, and we decided to play dumb and ask how to get to a nearby street. (Yeah, we creep sometimes. What of it? We have eternal life on the line here.) So we asked them how to get there, and naturally the "What are you ladies up to?" follows. WELLLL, let me tell you. We're the missionaries. We teach people about Christ. Eternal families. Baptism. Peace and blessings. God loves you. Whatever the spirit leads us to say. Word vomit. They asked us questions. We gave them both a Book of Mormon. "Well this thing here will answer those questions" BAM. One of their names was David and the other was high, so I dunno. But he (David) wants to read and told us to come back. BEAUT.

Tuesday was ZONE CONFERENCE. My favorite. Well, mostly. We learned SO MUCH. Elder Baxter wasn't there so we weren't afraid to breath or look up or whatever. Everything was back to normal. I didn't have to dress up like an angel. No problems. BUT.... President has every missionary prepare a 2-3 minute talk about a certain subject, and he calls a couple of them up randomly near the end of the conference. I dread it. But there are like 60-80ish missionaries there, so I thought I'd be fine again. Haven't been picked yet, why not wait one more conference? Wrong. President liked it. He called me first. Naturally. So I had to share my talk. All the departing missionaries share their testimonies at the beginning of the conference, and I was chosen to finish it. Lovely. I was not amused. But I learned SO MUCH in preparing for this talk. I needed it. Definitely didn't want it, but I absolutely needed it. I needed to remember what I'm doing here. I got caught up in Manteca and missing the people in Bass Lake and how much work we had to do there and blahhhhh blah blah and all kinds of stuff. So much. But I had to remember the impact the gospel has had in my life, how the Sisters at Temple Square essentially changed everything I thought and believed and how much happier I had become since then. Now it's my turn to find those people who need that same uplift. I'm here to find the people who can replace me when I leave the mission. I'm here to help them receive the blessings by following the example of Jesus Christ. I forgot. This work is SO IMPORTANT. 

I'm out of email time. Got to go. But I love you all a lot, fique suave.

Love, Sister Morrill

IT'S THE CLIIIIIIIIIIMB

Things are slowly, slowly picking up here. It's definitely an uphill climb, but man it's STEEP. 

Things happened this week, buuut I still feel like I've got nothing to share. I'm not as excited here as I was in Carmichael or El Dorado. I love the area and I'm getting to know the people, buuuuut still different. None of our investigators really have legitimate direction orrrr serious motivation to really pursue the church or learn about it. They're kind of stuck in their lives and don't get it and we try to talk about it but they don't get it. It's hard. I've had so much more inspiration this week though to work as hard as I possibly can. I'm called as a missionary. I'm a representative of Jesus Christ, and I don't want to waste a SECOND of my time here. I have a purpose. I have people to meet and things to do and all kinds of things that I need to do people I need to search for. I don't know what else to sayyyyyyyy now. We were supposed to have exchanges this week, they got delayed :) SISTER MAUGHAN IS MY SISTER TRAINING LEADER. She was Sister McLelland's trainer. She is the beeeeeest. I've got a few great people around me. It's great. Well I'm out, there's a ukulele in the room and I need to play it. Love yall.

Tchau tchau!

Sister Morrill

HEY GUYS.

 

Well I realized that I emailed on Tuesday AFTER our miracle day, so I legitimately have nothing to tell you. Every time I say I have nothing to say, we end up with crazy long emails about nothing so I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE. I've still got 5 weeks in this transfer. It already feels like I've been here for 10... It's only been 2. It's been a SUPER slow week. Appointments fell through. Super Bowl AND rainstorm yesterday = no one is out. No one wants to talk. d e a d.

 

I legitimately have nothing to say. STANK. Are there still people out there? Do people still write letters? Has technology completely taken over yet? I've got a perfectly good mail box in front of our house that would LOVE to hold some of my mail. I'd love to hold some of my mail. I forgot what it looks like :P Welllllllllllllllllllll I've got nothin. I'm just rambling. Love you all. Tell me about your lives. And your kids. Or your jobs or families or the lack of any of the above. Let me know you're out there. Whatever you feel the need to write. I'll take it. I'M RAMBLING AND THROWING A PITY PARTY SORRY. OVER IT. I'm done. Bye guys. Have a rockin awesome week!

 

Love,

Sister Morrill