November 4, 2014

Souza


                                                                                                    November 3, 2014

 

Such a good week! Seriously, I just love Souza
My companion, Sister Cabral, is the best ever. I love her so much. I´m learning SO MUCH from her :) Did I mention last week, she actually should have gone home last week with the transfer because she finished 18 months but she is staying until November 24, 4 weeks more. It’s great! She says - Physically, I´m really tired and my mind has trouble focusing but what I still have is the desire and that´s what´s keeping me going.

I learned that missionary work is really quite simple. After a while on the mission, your brain gets filled with techniques and secrets and how to teach and how to plan and you know, sometimes it’s good to empty your mind and go back to the basics.

(1) You need to work diligently. Maybe there are more effective ways to work and use your time than just contacts and knocking doors, but when you do EVERYTHING within your power the Lord sends miracles.

(2) You need to love the people! If you love them, you´ll pray for them, you´ll study for them, you´ll worry about them and you´ll always be close by. Its not a sacrifice to go out of your way and return to the house 2 or 3 or 4 times to visit with them. You wake up thinking about them and go to bed praying for them. And if you truly love them, the Lord will bless THEM because of YOUR faith!

(3)Pray with faith, really believing that it’s going to work out. Just trust that God will make things happen if you´ve really given your best. Don´t be afraid to pray for miracles - but you have to believe its gonna happen! No doubting Thomas´s here!

That´s basically it. After 15 months on the mission, these 3 things are really the best way to do the Lord´s work. And it’s wonderful :)

So this week we helped João Luiz be baptized. He met the sisters a little more than a month ago, drunk, but pointed out his house and asked them to pass be. So we came :) He is so pure of heart! The biggest motivation for him was his family, his wife and sons. The BEST moment was walking to church yesterday and he told me that his son started going to church (in a different state). He said that his son drinks and never went to church. I told him that now YOU can be the example for your son that it is possible to stop and change and that it’s only following Jesus Christ that makes the difference. And João Luiz just had the biggest smile on his face and said, Yeah you´re right. I can help him. I am the example for my son.

I just love being a missionary and having these moments!
João Luiz, Fernando ,Cosmo e família! Ezequil

I love them so much! Every single one of these men had to overcome a drinking addict to be baptized, but what it really comes down to is that they needed someone to believe in them :) Someone to tell them that they are awesome, that they´re gonna succeed, that they are important. Really, I just love being a missionary so I can be the little voice that says You can do it!
Until next week,
Sister Carroll
Happy Halloween from Souza, Brazil

baptism day

baptism day

baptism day

baptism day

The Lord Really Loves Me #dinosaurl​and


                                                                                                   October 29, 2014

(Here is my letter from last week that time ran out before I could send it)
I have 5 minutes sooooo here we go!

Got to Souza after 9 hours alone in a bus (which is a REALLY long time for a missionary accustomed to having a comp), had just enough time to throw some clothes in a back pack before I left to fazer uma divisão in Pombal, a city about an hour away from here.

 When I FINALLY made it back on Saturday I got to know my area, and we helped 3 INCREDIBLE men prepare for their baptism on Sunday: Fernando, Ezequiel, and Cosmo. Cosmo almost made me cry, he´s this little old man whose wife was baptized 4 months ago and her and the missionaries have just been praying and working with him this whole time. He always drank and could never give it up, but then he drank too much and got really sick and had a life-flash-before-his-eyes moment and changed EVERYTHING. So Cosmo was baptized :) and now they are preparing to be sealed in the temple next year. Woohoo!!!!

 So, the Lord really loves us and knows each of us personally. For those of you who know me, really know me, you know that I was obsessed with dinosaurs when I was a kid. Obsessed. I always wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up. With time, other things became more important but deep down, I just love dinosaurs.

Turns out that Souza is home to one of the biggest dinosaur dig sites in brasil, and maybe the world! Cool, huh? So the town is totally capitalizing on this and there are dinosaur statues and murals and dinosaur restaurants and gas stations and markets and everything is dinosaur-themed here. It’s just so cool

It may seem silly and such a small thing, but I think it’s incredible how the Lord remembered what was important to me when I was 4 years old, and then arranged everything - my mission, here in Brasil, my transfer to Souza, everything - so that I could be here. He just knew that it would make me happy. And He loves me.

I´ve gotten home every night this week almost sleeping on my feet and completely exhausted, but it’s the good kind of tired when you know you gave everything you had in the service of the Lord.

Love you all!
Sister Carroll
yeah for dinosaurs!


 

Trasfers


                                                                                                    October 20, 2014

Hi there!
So I found out less than an hour ago that I´m being transferred!!! Wooohhhh!!!!

I´m headed to Sousa tonight - it’s a 9 hour bus ride from here to the end of the world (or at least the mission limits!). Sousa is a district, I’ll be serving in a branch for the first time in my mission and I’m SO EXCITED! Lots of sun and horses and sun and corn and good old nordeste de Brasil.

I already know my new companion, Sister Cabral, from all the conferences and meetings and divisions and we´ve just been in the same mission, together, for a really long time. She goes home in 3 weeks. BUT is the least trunky Sister I know. It’s gonna be the sprint at the end of a race for her and I´m ready to work my little tail off :)

It’s gonna be hard to leave the missionaries, members, and recent converts that I love here (especially Sister Acosta!) but the good news is that Alecrim is the heart of the mission so I´ll be hanging around here a few more times with conferences and everything. It’s not goodbye, just see you later.

The Lord really works in strange ways. I´m always going to be grateful for the lessons he taught me here, especially in the last few weeks - lessons about mercy and second chances, about love and charity, about weaknesses and perfection, patriarchal blessings, the Holy Ghost, personal revelation, lessons about repentance and the sacrament, about service, and leadership. Lessons about Jesus Christ and what He expects of me. 

I love my Savior and I stand amazed at the love, trust, and mercy that He gives me. I´m very confused as to why He loves us all so much, but I´m starting to understand little by little as I serve and love the people that the Lord has put in my path.

Please pray for me and my companion(s) sister Acosta and Sister Cabral!
Always,
Sister Carroll