Week 33 pictures

Week 33 oi de Brasil :)

February 13, 2017

Hello yall!

I love being a missionary 😍

This week was a roller coaster! We had SUPER GOOD DAYS, and then the opposite.  But I´m happy! 

This week I got to do something that I´ve been DYING to do since I got here in Brasil!  My Mission President finally allowed us to!  There´s a picture here of me with a cup and a weird straw thing.. it´s called chimarâo! It´s a type of tea! Pretty cool stuff.  100% certain I am going to buy a whole bunch to take with me when I return to the good 'ole USA.

What else happened this week.. my companion and I saw a TON of miracles. There was one day that was literally like the best day ever.  WE FOUND A GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR AND HER NAME IS TACIANI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

One day we had 3 investigators "cut" us.  Which means they don´t want our visits anymore.  So that was pretty fun stuff.. but hey it´s good too! We will use our time more wisely now. 

We have a baptism marked for this Saturday..  Eliane.  Everyone please add her to your prayers because yeah. She didn´t pass her first interview, and I´m really worried about this week. BUT prayers are powerful :D

For a spiritual thought... yesterday in Relief Society the subject was about blessings and how many times we forget how BLESSED we are.  We think more about our neighbors/co-workers life etc, than our own.  But the purpose of the lesson was to show that in reality we are all very very blessed by a loving Heavenly Father.

I´d like to challenge each of you to, for a moment, to forget about alllllll the things you´d like to change, and think about the things you are grateful for in your life.

*don´t read on until you´ve thought of at least 3 things ;) *

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How do you feel?  more happy?? More relaxed??  Definitely not stressed or angry, huh?

On my mission here I have journal. It´s called, "Sister Councill´s livro de Milagres" (which is incorrect Port grammar btw) or Sister Councill's book of miracles. Everyday I write at least 1 miracle that happened that day. I like to think of miracles as 'tender mercies.' A miracle doesn´t have to be a huge thing, for me it´s when you recognize a blessing in your life and recognize that it came from Heavenly Father.

Yall, I know that every single day we have tender mercies/blessings/miracles that happen.  The hard party is having the eyes to recognize. But like everything else, practice and prayer will help. As we pray for the eyes to see, and really LOOK, we´ll recognize the blessings in our lives; we´ll be grateful; we´ll be HAPPY.

xo Sister Councill

Week 32 pictures

Week 32

February 6, 2017

WOW SO MANY THINGS HAPPENED AND CHANGED THIS WEEK AND I THINK I MAY BE THE HAPPIEST GIRL ALIVE.

Okay, perfect.  Let´s begin!!!!

SO BASICALLY EVERYTHING CHANGED IN THE MISSION.

Now we get to wake up at 7:30 (gloria, gloria, Allelujia) and go to bed at 11.  AND we get to choose when we want to do our studies throughout the day. It´s perfect because it gives us some more freedom!  WOWZERS. It´s perfect. I´ll write it out specifically, because I know my mom will want to know ;)

7:30- get up pray

7:30-8- exercise

8-9- get ready for the day, eat, etc

9-9:30- plan

9:30-10:30- personal study

10:30- 10 pm- proselyting.

BUT in this time we get to choose when we will do companion study, language study, and training!  Also we can have 30 minutes to eat dinner now, which is FANTASTIC, because all of us missionaries here in Brasil, always waited until we got home at 9 to eat, but now we can return 30 minutes earlier to do that!!! WOOP this girl is gonna COOK!!!!

Also our pday starts 2 hours ealier :D

AND THE BEST PART is that now we only have 4 key indicators. 

1. Baptisms and Confirmations for the week

2. How many have a baptismal date

3. How many were at church

4. How many new investigators

IT'S SO PERFECT. LITERALLY I AM SO HAPPY.

ALL of these changes made me think about how change is SUCH an important aspect and blessing in our lives. And, not just change, but INSPIRED change.

Now what is "inspired change."  ?  

(something I made up haha)

With the example of all the changes in the missions, these changes were inspired, BECAUSE the Prophet and His apostles ( the missionary committee)felt they were necessary.  How did they feel it? I haven´t asked them personally, but I bet they would say something like this, "through the Holy Spirit- through fasting and through prayer."

So "inspired change" is something that happens when we are seeking the guidance of the Spirit, through prayer and fasting.  But what does this have to do with us?

One thing that I think is very important to realize, is that when an "inspired change" happens in our lives, it will ALWAYS be for the better.  Because it was inpired by God.

So us, as children of our Father in Heaven need to learn how to pray and seek His guidance in our lives.  And when we learn how to do that, the choices we make will be in line with the plans He has for us.  Consequently, we will be living a much happier and easier life.  NOT easier in that we won´t have trials, but easier in that we will be wiser in the choices and changes we make.

The first thing that we all can do to learn how to make "inspired choices" is pray to God, and ask for His help.  I know He will help us.  Becuase he loves us.  His gratest desire, is for us to be happy.

I love you ALL,

xoSister Councill

Week 31 pictures

Adelynn's "greenie" companion.

Week 31: So much to tell ya'll

HELLO HELLO HELLO,

Wow okay so to be honesty, I don´t even know where to start!  I´ll start by telling you about my new companion!  (minha filha-my daughter).  She is from Sao Paulo (like all of my Brasilian companions hahaha).  She´s adorable! She has a really soft and high voice, it´s super adorable. AND she is one day older than I!  Her birthday is July 7th and mine is July 8th, isn´t that pretty funny??  Well she´s an amazing and dedicated person. She´s super willing to work, even with blistered feet and she isn´t scared to talk to people!  Basically I feel really blessed and happy to be her companion :)

Fun fact:  This week I had cow stomach.  

Fun fact:  Never again will Sister Councill eat cow stomach.

Also something interesting about Brasil.  Here, teenage boys fly kites in the street for fun!  I thought that was super interesting because you would NEVER catch a teenage boy doing that in the States!

Also this week was realllly hard for me.  My mom always said that the mission is HARD, because people have agency.  And this week I found that to bee 210% true.  We have been teaching Lucas and Leah.  They are awesome.  Lucas is almost 19, and Leah is his mom.  They were super interested in what we had to say and we were SUPER excited to teach them.  We taught them about the Book of Mormon this last week, and a day later called them to invite them to an activity.  Leah said they talked to their pastor and would stay in their church.  MAN, okay guys.  You know that feeling you get after someone breaks up with you?  Well I 100% felt that after she hung up the phone.  I´ve never cried so much on the mission, except for in that moment. And I felt totally ridiculous, because my companion is a newbie and I have to be an example for her haha- but When I thought about it, my two trainers both cried during their first week with me.  I guess it´s normal haha.  

No, but seriously, it was the worst.  And I understand now why missionary work is so hard.  You meet people, and you begin to love them SO MUCH, and then when they aren´t willing to give it a chance- the Gospel, the Book of Mormon- it is truly soo soo sad.  

If ya'll wanted to pray for them, that would be AWESOME.  We already stopped by once after this phone call, but yesterday their pastor visited them, and she called again to say that they wouldn´t be receiving our visits anymore.  *sighhhhh* Please pray for them.

So that was a huge part of my focus this week.  Also we are teaching Eliane.  Her story is INCREDIBLY long, but if you all wanted to pray for her and pray specifically that she can understand why baptism is important, I would be very grateful!

Also a call to all those who know what Blue Ridge is😉😎  Would you all be willing to send me ideas of simple ice breakers, and things like that from the class Character Education?  It would help me a TON here on the mission 😀 Thank you thank you! ❤

Yesterday during Sunday School we learned about the Creation. How God created the Earth, and how this is an example of how much He loves us. At the end, the teacher asked a question that has REALLY caused me to think.  

What do you appreciate most about the creation of the World?

Woah. 

That´s a pretty grand question, huh?  

It really made me think hard!

I ended up saying that I appreciated most that God created the Earth with diversity- that there are different countries with different cultures that we all can learn from. 

I´ve had the opportunity to experience a little of Asian culture, and now Brasilian, and I really want to experience and love so many more! (that´s my life´s dream in a nut shell).

But I would like to ask all of you the same question- What do you appreciate most about the creation of the world???

I promise you that thinking about this will lead you to realize just HOW MUCH love Heavenly Father has for you. 

Our God is a loving God.

He is a kind God.

He is a merciful God.

He truly is our Heavenly Father.

I love you all and wish you a happy-filled week,

xo Sister Councill

Week 30 pictures