Week 24: Bye Guarapuava

December 12, 2016

SO news flash:

Sister Councill will be transferred!!!!! AH.  TCHAO Guarapuava!  

Yesterday we had a conference here in Guarapuava, and my Mission President came, and interviewed all of us missionaries serving here!  That was great :) I really love my mission president and I hadn´t had an interview with him since I got into the field (so almost 4.5 months!!!!!).

But he told me that I will be transfered to an area close to Curitiba!  I still don´t know where exactly, or who my new companion will be... :(

Apparently the area that I´ll be going to was an area of Elders that were very "Fubeka."  Meaning that they didn´t obey the rules. *sigh* So my mission President is putting me there to "clean things up" so to speak.  I´m excited, and a little nervous! Because I´ll be "opening" the area so to speak.  Both my new companion and I won´t know the area, and we´ll practically be starting from scratch, because the Elders there didn´t do anything.  So it´s going to be one BIG adventure!  

But I´m really excited to be honest.  I love Guarapuava and I LOVE Sister C. Silva, but I really want to grow spiritually. I want a challenges are one of the best ways to grow- so here I goooooooooooooo.

Saying goodbye to Elizandro and Paula, my recent converts here in Guarapuava, was by far one of the hardest things so far on the mission.  I love them so sooo much, and it just kills my heart that I don´t know when I will be able to see them again.  *ahhhhhh*  We all cried- including Elizandro!  It was a pretty special goodbye.

I´m not looking forward to saying goodbye to my companion later today....

BUT on a positive note, this week was great! It rained and rained and rained but it was good! 

I´ve got lots and lots of photos to send this week!!

Last pday my district FINALLY celebrated Thanksgiving XD It was sort of Thanksgiving- the only thanksgiving ish food was the mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie i brought XD but it was fun and good and we played games and it was great!  Also there´s one picture where an elder fell and I´m sending it to you all so you can enjoy the looks on our faces ;P  

Last pday also, the us sisters had a gift exchange and that was really fun. I got a super black and pink polka dot cup, which is perfect because I love pink, polka dots, and i love drinking water XD

I found a HUGE confederate flag at this store called the Ranch. I WAS SUPER STOKED because yall I´m in Brasil, How often do you find a confederate flag?!?!

us sisters had a service project this last week! We helped a family here move! And it was my first real service project so that was neat :)

There are some pics of some people we have been teaching, and then my FAV family here in Brasil- the family of Elizandro and Paula ❤

There´s a church here that has a huge "Missao" in the lawn, and I took a picture in front of it ahah. You might have to zoom to see!

And finally, a selfie of Sister C. Silva yesterday at church :)

But I love you all LOTS and lots and lots!  My spiritual thought this week is to not run from challenges.  Run toward them.  Because challenges are how we grow and progress :)  And I know that Heavenly Father NEVER gives us a challenge or trial that we can´t overcome.  

Have a FANTASTIC week,

eu amo voces MUITO.

xo Sister Councill

Week 23 pictures

Week 23: What's up from Brazil

December 5, 2016

Hello hello hellooooo!

I hope everyone is well and happy! Anyone else can´t believe that today is December 5th??? Maybe I´m more in doubt because here it´s warm, which is super strange. Sometimes my companion says something like, "you know Christmas is arriving because of the warm climate.."  and I´m like  🤔what? hahah 

But this week went by super fast and nothing reallllllly exciting or eventful happened.  Last pday I learned how to make "cocada" a superrr yummy coconut cookie! It takes a lot of time to make so most likely I won´t make it until after I get back, but you all should look up a recipe because seriously it´s sooo good. 

One day this week I thought to myself, "today I want to find a 4-leaf clover." And then during the day we stopped for a second to take a break, and I looked down at my feet and FOUND ONE!!!! How cool is that??? Super sweet coincidence.  But actually I think Heavenly Father heard my thought and wanted to make my day 🙂

I´m really excited because today my district is FINALLY going to celebrate Thanksgiving!!! I made 2 pumpkin pies, so it´ll be great ;) hahaha

But i´d like to share something that I learned this week during my district meeting.  My District Leader said something a little unusual, something that I have never before thought about, BUT that I began to ponder a ton this week and find it reallly important to recognize and so I want to share it with you all! 

He said something like this, "everyday y ou all plan who you wilil teach, where you will teach, and when you will teach.  You all need to thing about the fact that Satan also is planning every day how he can distrupt your work. You all need to be prepared."  

OKAY yes this is a very unusual statement right? And a little bit disturbing- well not disturbing but I can´t think of a better word. 

His statement was directed to us missionaries, but the same principle can be applied to all of us- every day WE absolutely must be prepared or Satan will try and influence us to try and make the wrong choice, and the wrong choice always always always leads to unhappiness.  I don´t want you all to be unhappy, I want you all to be HAPPY and JOYFUL :)  And so does Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  

So what can we do to be prepared?  We can pray for help.  Imagine if everyone in the world as soon as they woke up, knelt down on their knees and offered a prayer to Heavenly Father- asking Him for help and strength for that day.  How much better would this world be?  How much more joyful and happy??

As a missionary, I pray a TON.  Because the work that I am doing is soo special and sacred to the Lord, and I want to give Him my ALL.  I know that you all can pray and give Heavenly Father your all as well! And as you do, He will protect you.  

I love each one of you who is reading this (and those who aren´t as well 😉).  I want you all to have the best day, week and lives possible! And I know that is only possible through Jesus Christ.

So this week, smile a little more, pray a little more, and love Christ and Heavenly Father a whole lot MORE ❤

xo Sister Councill

week 22 pictures

Week 22 Hello Oi OIah

November 28, 2016

Hey yall!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! I´d love some pics ;)

This week I didn´t get to celebrate Thanksgiving, but it was great nonetheless! I think my District is going to have a "thanksgiving lunch" next week so I´m super pumped about that!  

My week started out in Curitiba and that was great because I got to receive letters!!! Woooohoooo :) That was wonderful, keep on writing ;p

One of the members in the Guarapuava Branch here needed my help one day translating some instructions for a metal detector into Portuguese.  It´s pretty funny because he´s around 70 and wants to search for gold.  haha I think I´ll do that too when I´m 70 years old. Sounds like a great past time!  But after I tried to help him he brought out some old money that Brasil no longer uses. And we were flipping through it and all of a sudden we saw one that had been drawn on. You know how little kids like to draw faces on the people?  Well HE HAD DONE THAT TOO!  AND IT WAS HILARIOUS and I literally couldn´t stop laughing for 5 minutes.  I was imagining this cute little old man drawing on the faces of people on money.  Super super super funny.  

SO THIS WEEK WE MISSIONARIES HAD AN ACTIVITY with our Branch!!! IT WAS AMAZING. I´ll explain why.  So we had 4 Sisters, and 2 Elders.  And we put on a play for the members.  Here´s the run down of the play.

Two Angels (the missionaries) are up in Heaven and realize they have a phone call to make to two girls down on Earth.  They call and say that Christ will visit their house that afternoon.

The two girls´house is completely a wreck, and they rush to clean things up.

In the mean time different people knock on their door asking for help.  A pregnant lady (meeeee haha), a person asking for money (Sister C. Silva), Missionaries (us HA), a person who just wrecked their car (me again), visiting teachers (us), people ready for a service project (us again), and a crazy old lady (Sister C. Silva).  

Every time someone knocks on their door, the two girls reject them because they are "preparing for Jesus."

When their house is clean, the angels call again and inform them that Jesus visited their house numerous times in the form of people seeking help, but they never accepted him.  

So the message was that we need to serve others more, and realize that when we serve we are actually serving Christ.  We then showed the new Christmas video from the church and it was INCREDIBLE.

I´ll talk more about the video later..

But first I want to share something I learned from Church yesterday :) There was a story told from a talk (I don´t remember who or when). It went something like this: there was an old man who was suffering greatly from pain, and one day his young grandson came to visit and saw him suffering. The grandson said, "If I love you more, will you suffer less??"    This question was then applied to US and the SAVIOR.  If we love the Savior more, will He have suffered less?

What do you all think? I think yes!

Because when we love the Savior, we have the desire to follow His perfect example. We have the desire to repent daily. We have the desire to be better- to obey the commandants, obey His teachings, pray, read the scriptures... etc.  

And what is the consequence of all of these actions?  Slowly and surely our bad habits, bad actions, bad desires begin to diminish and are replaced by righteous ones- we begin to become more like Christ; this as a result causes two things:

1. Christ suffered less,

2. We also suffer less

I am so grateful for Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the sacrifice He made for me, and for each of you.  He suffered for each of us, individually, so that we might suffer less.

This Christmas, the Church has produced an activity for us to do to REALLY feel the Spirit of Christmas.

It´s called "Light the World."  It begins on December 1 and ends Christmas! Here is the link https://www.mormon.org/ 

Every day has a theme and various activities for us to do to be more like Christ, do as He did, and enjoy Christmas more fully!

I promise it is inspired.  And I´m so excited to participate and I encourage all of you to visit the site and learn about how YOU can participate as well :D

I love you all!!!!!!

xo Sister Councill

Week 21 Happy Thanksgiving

Hello! Hola!  Oi!

This week was wonderful and went by SUPER fast!!!!! I´ve got some funny stories to tell and also some really cool more spiritual experiences to tell yall :)

Starting with funny... I think the majority of you know my water bottle, right?  It´s a bit different XD (for those of you who don´t know, it´s like a book)  Well lot´s of people here in Brasil, and in my mission here now refer to me as " the Sister with the crazy waterbottle") It´s super funny because every time we have district meeting, my Zone leader mentions something about the word of wisdom, because it does kind of loook like a whisky flask, but it´s 100% not I PROMISE :D haha anyways I thought that was pretty funny

This week we finally got around to installing our CO2 and smoke detector.  The instructions were in English, so I was the only one who really understood what to do. Well I was in the other room doing something, and I walk into the room where the detector was installed, and the other sisters literally had a piece of paper on fire to "test" the alarm 😱 I freaked out and was like, " NO YOU CANT DO THAT" because obviously that´s not how you test the detector! So they threw the paper on the ground, and I stomped on it. So this week we couldve had a really serious problem, but thankfully no 😂😌

For all of  you who are at college, or at BYU, or for all of you in general! I found a super funny scritpure that describes perfectly what happens at BYU when you have freinds that get married.  Look it up!!!! Luke 14:20 XD SUPER FUNNY.

Okay, now for the spiritual part :)

This week I had two experiences that I´d like to share with you all :)

So every transfer (every 6 weeks) every companionship of sisters has an "exchange" with the Sister Training Leader, who happens to be my companion. So lucky me getso to go on more exchanges than normal :P  This week we had exchanges with the Sisters in Irati- about two hours from Guarapuava. Because it was a little far away I ended up spending 2 nights there this week! Wednesday night until Friday morning! Irati is a suppppper super super super cute town . I didn´t take any pics of the city, but you can take my word for it or google Irati, Parana, Brasil :)  The two sisters in Irati are Sister Cotinho and Sister Soares! Sister Soares is in her training, which means she is in her first 12 weeks on the mission, or in her case, the first 3 weeks! I had been praying and praying that it could be a wonderful, good and learning experience for both of us (because I didnt know her area, and she is a new missionary).  I really wanted to learn from this exchange, because both of my companions have been leaders in the mission, so I havent really ahd the opportunity to really put into practice what ive learned from them, WITHOUT them. I prayed a lottt.  

And God heard my prayers :)  The exchange was wonderful, we were able to visit a bunch of people and found 2 new people to teach :)  Another miracle is that Sister Soares is from the north east part of Brasil where there is a COMPLETELY different accent, and I was able to understand most of what she said! I hope that sometime on my mission I have the opportunity to be a companion with a new missionary. It was a totally different experience, but I really enjoyed it!

My other experience.. I prayed this week that I could have a spiritual experience at church, because the last few sundays I havent really been feeling very spiritually uplifted. However, this week my companion and I ended up in Nursury (the class for babies and young children).  We were with Paulo- the son of our recent converts!!! He was distrupting the sunday school class, so we left with him so that his parents could have a good experience in Sunday school.  So not exactly the spiritual experience I was hoping for in church...

BUT at lunch one of the members ended up sharing with us her life story, wich was incredible and reallly made me realize HOW easy my life has been. Her story was very spiritual and all 5 of us (us 4 sisters and her) were in tears at one point.  I realized afterwards that that was the answer to my prayers. I didn´t have an extremelly spiritual experience in church, but I did afterwards.

I know that Heavenly Father always hears our prayers, and He will always answer them, in His own TIME and WAY. In my first experience my prayer was answered how I expected and wanted, but in my second, it was different.  BUT both experiences were wonderful.

This week I also have been studying and pondering about faith. How faith is a principle of action and power. And how the more we act and pray in faith, the more blessings we receive, and the more influence from God we receive in our lives.  This week I found one of my new favorite scriptures, "if ye will have faith in me, ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." (Moroni 7:33)  

Think about the significance of that scripture. I testify that faith IS a principle of action and power and as we exercise our faith in Christ and God, our lives will be better.

xo Sister Councill

Week 20

November 14, 2016

Hello all you lovely people!!!! 

I hope you all are well and happy and loving life!!!!

Weird thought for you.. this week I´ll have had 1/4 of my mission!! WHAT 😱

So funny story this week!  I am starting to teach my companion English! WOOHOO. It´s super fun and funny. Two words she learned how to say were, "rat," and "window."  And one day we were teaching a lesson and she turned to me and said WHILE I WAS TEACHING, "rat. window."  YALL. Literally almost died in the middle of that lesson.  Because first of all, a RAT! And second of all, how funny is it that my companion was able to say that in English!!! hahah oh we laughed and laughed and laughed a ton after that lesson. 

THIS WEEK I TALKED TO SOMEONE ON THE STREET IN ENGLISH!!!!!!!!!! Ah I was SO excited!!!! yall dont even know. hahaha.  It was super hilarious, because I almost forgot how to speak correctly in English. Writing to yall is one thing, but speaking in real life is totally different XD

Next week will be interesting because I´ll be spending two nights in another nearby area for divisions!  I´ll be the temporary companion of a "newby" so that should be fun and interesting! I´ll also get to travel alone which will be an adventure 😅

So for my spiritual thought this week I want to focus on President Nelson´s talk from this years Oct General Conference, "Joy and Spiritual Survival." 

This week I had the chance to teach the Plan of Salvation  to two different women who were grieving the death of children.  So, I´ve been thinking a lot about the purpose of the Gospel, how we can be happy in the midst of trails.. And it was perfect because a couple of weeks ago my mom sent me Elder Nelson´s talk! (because I didn´t understand a whole ton when I heard it in Portuguese ha )  And this week I finally had the time to read it!  

Folks.  I´m here to tell you that, "Men are that they might have joy."  (2 Ne 2:25)  I testified of that Gospel truth this week to one woman who thought our purpose here on earth was to suffer.  I was sooo sad that she felt that way, and I promise that that is NOT our purpose here on earth.  Our purpose is to live, gain experiences, conquer trials, receive blessings, learn how to be a disciple of Christ and experience JOY.  

God said, "For behold this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  (Moses 1:39)

Immortality is living forever,

Eternal life is living forever with God.

So God literallyh said that His goal/ purpose is for us to live with Him forever.  Imagine how that would be??

Perfect. 

I know God doesn´t want us to be miserable here on Earth.  He doesn´t want us to feel pain or guilt, and He´s provided a way for us to overcome those feelings.  

That way is Jesus Christ.

President Nelson beautifully said, "As our Savior becomes more and more real to us and as we plead for His joy to be given to us, our joy will increase."

I know this is true.  I know that whatever we are experienceing in life right now, good or bad, it can be better, happier, and more joyful through the love of our Savior Jesus Christ.

 President Nelson siad, "The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives, and everything to do with the focus of our lives."

What is our focus?  Jesus Christ.

xo  Sister Councill