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

 

 

 

Reconhecer o Salvador

                                                                                                                        October 13, 2014

 This week was AWESOME and really hard at the same time. Funny how these two ideas go hand in hand, right? There´s a lot that I could say but I´ll just share what I learned in the New Testament and that will be enough

When Christ was calling his apostles, he begins by helping the poor fishermen with the miracles of the fishes and the full nets. It’s interesting to note that the first thing Peter says after witnessing this miracles is, Depart from me for I am a sinful man. He doesn’t feel worthy to be in the presence of the Lord, with all of his weaknesses and faults. And how does the Savior respond? He could very well have said, You are right. You are a sinner, I´ll find someone better. Or- yeah, you´re a sinner. Work on THIS weekness and I´ll come back in a month to try again. or even, I know your weaknesses, if you follow me we´ll work on them together.

But He doesn’t.

He just says - Don’t fear. I will make you a fisher of men.

Christ doesn’t call attention to our faults, He just sees who we can become. He wants us to have this vision of ourselves also. While we are tormented by all the things we can’t do, He sees everything that we can do. Everything that we are and the divine potential that we have.

I´ve read this passage so many times but I never noticed, never understood. I realized when I read this that I don’t actually know the Savior all that well. When I don’t manage to do everything the way I would like to, I get really frustrated with myself and really critical but you know, the Savior doesn’t do that. He is a god of mercy, he has charity- the pure love of Christ. I´m starting to understand how much the Savior really loves us and what kind of man He was. And I want to be like Him.

Challenge this week: Forgive someone who you think doesn’t deserve it. That´s what the Savior does every day.

Love you all!

Sister Carroll

 

 

 

Week of Miracles!!!

                                                                                                                  September 29, 2014

First off, you just have to know that my comp right now, sister Acosta, is like my best friend in the world. I love her SO DANG MUCH and we were in a week-long division so I got her back last night for the first time since last pday and it was like a sleepover with your friends after a long time apart.

Sister Acosta is standing next to Sister Carroll - what a gift for them to get to be together again, this time as companions

 

WEEK OF MIRACLES!!!
It’s been such a great week. I had a lot of really neat experiences where I felt the Savior very close to me and helping us and the work in a very personal way. It’s not anything big that shapes our testimony, but it’s the daily little experiences that strengthen and help us.

I know that the Lord hears and answers prayers.

I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, the most correct book on the face of the Earth, and the best way to feel close to the Savior. It is our guide to understanding the Atonement.

I know that God will respond to anyone who asks with a sincere heart if the Book of Mormon is true; I know that the promise in Moroni is true. Sometimes we have trouble recognizing the answer, but that doesn´t mean that we didn’t receive one.

I learned that answers to prayers come when we are serving other people, not when we are on our knees.

I know that when we love someone, we have the courage to say hard things. Sometimes the best expression of love is correction.

Another way to show love is to express confidence and trust someone, even if you don’t think they are worthy of your trust.

Perfection doesn’t come in this life, but we can learn to have the right attitude with our weaknesses.

Love you all!

Sister Carroll

new picture for the week with Sister Baker &...

Mais uma semana em paraiso

                                                                                                                       September 21, 2014

Okay. Novidades da semana.

(1) I’ve officially forgotten how to speak English. The élderes think it’s really funny. So sorry if me email is short or switches back and forth.

(2) SISTER ACOSTA É ÓTIMA! Seriously. I love my companion. She was one of my best friends on the mission, and now we´re together 24/7! hahaha :D but seriously. We laugh a lot and work hard. She keeps me from getting too stressed.
The ward is great; we had a ton of investigators on Sunday because it was all the members that brought them!
OH! Jaqueline and Luiz are going to get married! Yayyyyyyy!!!!! We spent a good 3 weeks trying to teach them about the law of chastity and they really want to get baptized and they finally decided to get married officially. They don’t have money for a big party, but the irmãs na ala are already planning to make a big cake.
Anne got baptized! After so long! It was great :)

transfers!!!

                                                                                                                       September 17, 2014

OK. Hold on. Time is flying way to fast here, it seems like yesterday I was sending the transfer news from 6 weeks ago.

I’m still here in Alecrim! We´re going on 4 months already péople! Luckily it’s a big city. Like, New York but not really. Basically all that means is that there are ALWAYS NEW PEOPLE. And lots of them.

My new comp is a good old friend, Sister Acosta!!!! Another gaucha (number 3!) [from rio grande do sul] and we actually lived together for a good amount of time in Caicó, without being companions. It’s gonna be a blast! I love her to death already. She is going home at the end of this transfer, so we´re going to have to push through, baptize, and throw that trunkiness in the trash where it belongs! Yeah!
I got to go on a neat pday getaway today for Parque das Dunas. Pictures to come. I learned the name of a praying mantis in Portuguese - Louva-a-Deus, which literally translates to Praise God. The bug named  Praise God. Also, I saw 2-headed snakes and coach roaches the size of my hand.

ANNE IS FINALLY GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!! After more than a month! She is so ready, we´re finishing up the plans with the YW president and her boyfriend is coming in from Forteleza to baptize her. It’s going to be so special. I feel so privileged to teach Anne, she is gonna go places. As a matter of fact, she is already planning to go to the temple first week in October: D

Lots of love! Please pray for Anne, Jaqueline e Luiz, e dinha!

-Sister Carroll