Faith as a Grain of Mustard: Dengue, Tranfers, and my new daughter!

February 26, 2013

As you can tell from the title, the past week and a half has been one of the biggest rollarcoasters of my LIFE!

I came down with dengue last week. What does one do when one has a life-threatening disease straight from the amazon? Well, first you’re in denial for a bit. Then stubborn missionary leaders that love you call the wife of the president, who in turn gets royally ticked off at you for not calling earlier. And then you get sent home to sleep for ALLL DAYYYY. Seriously. So I spent quite a few days in the houses of the members, doing nothing but sleeping. Woke up every once and a while to eat some good old rice and beans. Me and my hammock are best friends now. Lost some weight that I had put on over the course of the first six months and got to learn more about the Christ like attribute of patience.

So, Monday arrives. I´m finally allowed to be out on the streets again, still a little tired but really excited to get to work. We´re eating lunch at the house of William, an AMAZING investigator who was finally baptized on Sunday after 2 years visiting the Church :) and then I get the phone call. Sister Carroll! Pack your bags, get to the bus stop, you are finally leaving Mossoró and you will train a new sister!!!

What. The. Heck.

So these past 48 hours have been a whirlwind. I was finally transferred out of Mossoró (after almost 6 months there, I kid you not) for CAICÓ! The only other city which is arguably hotter than Mossoró. It was an area of Elders, but the work was going so well here that they split their area in half and brought in the Sisters :D I don’t know anyone or anything, but the Elders have been living angels today, running around to help us buy everything for the house and showing us where the members live.

My new companion is Sister F. de Oliveira!!!! She is from Rio Grande do Sul (is possibly more white than I am), loves English and speaks pretty well, is completely dedicated to helping me lose my accent, and LOVES the mission. Just to give you an idea, our LD asked us how many baptisms we would have this month and she looked at him all serious and says, I think we are going to baptize 25 this month. Just 5 each week, starting this Sunday.

The best thing about Sister F. de Oliveira is that she really believes it. I have never met anyone more excited about the work, and more dedicated. She has so much faith. She has a testimony that is rare but powerful. She is constantly looking for people to teach, people in the street, people on the bus, and especially anyone who looks sad. She walks right up to them and says, you look sad. When you are baptized you won’t be sad anymore. Will you come to church and prepare to be baptized? AND THEY LISTEN TO EVERYTHING SHE SAYS! Every single person she has talked to has asked for us to come back! Miracles are real, but they only happen according to our faith. I am going to learn soooo much from her :)

There is a story in the Old Testament that kind of sums up my mental state right now. The Israelites are preparing for battle with 22 000 soldiers and the Lord says, That’s too many. Send some home. So there are only 10 000 and the Lord says, That’s still too many. They will win and they will tell everyone that it was by the strength of their own hand instead of by my power. So the Lord sends them all home except 300 soldiers and says, Yes. That’s enough. You can go to battle with your 300 soldiers against 15 000 and you will win and you will know that it was through my grace and my power that you were saved.

I´m feeling a lot like the Lord has given me lots of challenges. So many that I’m feeling pretty small right now. I have no doubt that this is going to be the best transfer of my mission so far, but I also have no doubt that I will be relying on the Lord every step of the way. He´s taking care of me and when we do our part, He won’t let us down. And I’ll come out of everything knowing that it wasn’t my strength, but the grace and power of God.

Keep me and Sister F. de Oliveira in your prayers!

-Sister Carroll

Also, SHOUT OUT to my brother Benjamin who was accepted to BYU!!!!!! I´m so proud of you!!!