October 30, 2017

Hello everyone!

The weather here is crazy! One minute we're dying because the sun is really strong, and the next minute it's pouring! I never know if I need to bring an umbrella or sunscreen haha!

Anyway, sorry my email was so short last week, we got home late from the zoo! Sister Moura and I accomplished a district goal, and our reward was a trip to the zoo! It was super fun, 4 other sisters and our recent-convert friend Luan came with us, and we had a blast! I'll attach pictures at the end! Before getting into the serious, I thought maybe you'd all like to know that I ate pig's stomach on Saturday!

This week has been a little difficult. In our area, we now have 18 investigators! But none of them ever have time to see us. With this sad piece of news has come a little bit of a struggle for me--it's been hard for me to be excited about the work. Because of this lack of excitement, it's been so so easy to be pessimistic about the work, to focus on the problems rather than the good things. That is why I am so grateful that at the beginning of my training, Sister Moura set up a habit for us. In our planners, we write a miracle of the day, every single day .So when I've felt that the work was slow, or that my teaching wasn't top notch, I can look back and think "how has Heavenly Father blessed my life today?" It's very similar to the story of President Henry B. Eyring about journaling. When we write down our experiences, we have the opportunity to remember what happened during the day, and see the Lord's hand in our lives. It's been a huge blessing, especially for this week.

One of these miracles happened on Sunday. Sister Moura and I have a less active member friend, and she's amazing. During third hour, we had a training for all of the adults about less actives and how we can bring them back. She bore strong testimony that members need to help, it was a little bit of a reprimand--she talked about how her parents have been inactive for five years because they didn't feel welcome in their ward (not the ward were I'm serving) and something that she said that really impacted me was this: "Please don't stop visiting us. We may say we don't have time to visit, but we really just think we're unworthy to come back to church. So please don't give up on us." What a powerful, heartfelt testimony. This was a miracle because this is exactly what my ward needed to hear to get them to wake up! As members, we have the tendancy to fall asleep where church is concerned, focusing more on the life we live outside of church and not focusing enough of our energy with the church and what we can do to help others come or come back to Christ. This is our calling as disciples of Christ--when we are baptized, we promise to take His name upon us, and that means acting as He would act, and bringing souls to the knowledge of salvation. I have a testimony of this gospel, and that when we invite others to hear this message of happiness, miracles will happen. I say these things in the name of my Savior and brother, Jesus Christ, amen.

Love,
Sister Carlson

October 17, 2017

Good morning everyone!

This week has been so so hot, it's been crazy! Inferno during the day, terrential downpour in the afternoon! On Tuesday we were caught in the middle of the storm! We were at the bottom of a hill too, so all of the water was coming in our direction! We tried running uphill, but the water was up to our ankles and we almost fell over. We were both laughing so hard, it was really fun! Also, I drank my first coconut! I don't have a picture, but the coconut was green and not as sweet as you'd think. It was really yummy!

We were able to meet our new district this week, and a new American is here! I'm not the baby anymore! Her name is Sister Bonham and shes really nice. I like our new district they're really fun!

So yesterday was daylight savings time. Who didn't know? My companion and I. We thought we got to church 15 minutes early when in reality we were 45 minutes late! Ah I was devestated, especially because we missed the confirmation of Filipe, the nine year old that got baptized last week! Sister Moura and I were honestly close to tears!

Besides that, Sunday was a day of miracles. We had many people to visit, and they all lived pretty far apart, so we needed to use the bus to get to each house. For the bus system here, you can pay 3,80 reais for one bus using your bus card, then you don't have to pay for another bus for three hours. For the first bus ride, we both had just enough money for one trip--bussed up to Irmã Marcia's house for lunch, and went next door to teach José about the Holy Ghost. These two appointments took more than three hours, but we needed to bus down to Taiane's house for our next appointment. We tried our cards without much hope of them working, but it said that the three hours was still valid! We were pretty excited, how amazing! After Taiane, we needed to go to our final appointment, very far away. We tried our cards one more time, and they worked! We were both close to tears, our cards worked not for 3 hours, but for 6. This was such a tender mercy for us and really demonstrated that the Lord is watching out for us, and that He cares about everything in our lives, even if it's just a little bus card.

Another lesson I learned was that constant humility is key to finding new investigators. We had a weekly goal of 20 contacts for our district, and we needed to find six people on Sunday. I had little hope, but Sister Moura was firm. On our way to the bus stop, we found two people, and I thought that that was good enough. But we walked for about thirty seconds after and we saw four boys walking in our direction. The first thing I felt was defeat because I knew that Sister Moura was going to talk to them--silly right? We were able to get their information, and we gained six new contacts in ten minutes. It was honestly a miracle, and I learned that when the Lord puts people in your path, you need to take that path swiftly, with courage and faith! When we proselyte, I always have a fear of talking to young people, but Sister Moura loves it. She is such a good example of talking to everyone, because everyone needs this gospel in their lives.   

Anyway, I think that's all I have time for! I love you all so so much!
Sister Carlson

October 9, 2017 - Growing is Good

Good morning everyone!

So today is the first day of new transfers! Sister Moura and I are staying here, and our Sister leaders are staying as well! We're excited for more fun divisions with them in the future!

This week was pretty hard, I won't lie. I think Friday and Saturday were some of the worst days so far on my mission--not that it's a bad thing, I was able to learn an important lesson! On both of these days, it was raining basically all day, and no one wanted to hear our message. Friday was the day we were planning to focus on contacts, people we had talked to before on the street and they accepted our invitation to hear the gospel. But as we went from house to house, no one was answering. so we kept walking and kept knocking. One sister was so sweet, she invited us halfway through our search for people to her house for some Christmas cake and kind conversation. It was definitely a spiritual and sugar boost, one that I sorely needed. We talked to one older women for a long time, but because I was feeling discouraged it was difficult for me to understand what she was saying. Even though we were not having too much success, we were excited for an appointment that night with a nine year old boy, Filipe, that wanted to be baptized on Sunday. We needed to teach him several more things before his baptismal interview, so we were planning on teaching him Friday night and Saturday night at the chapel. But last minute his mom called and canceled our teaching appointment. We were worried that Filipe wouldn't feel prepared to be baptized, so we spent the night trying to sleep with this heavy burden of worry. Saturday was harder because of the lack of success from the day before and on Saturday. It was really hard on Sister Moura, and she was able to open up to me how she was feeling. As she spoke, I realized something. We live in a beautiful apartment. We have umbrellas to keep our heads dry and shoes to keep our feet dry. We both have families that love us so much and are supporting us from home. We have an awesome ward with people that are so amazing. So why were we focusing on the bad things when we had so much good in our lives? This was an important lesson for me because yeah, those days were hard and yeah, sometimes I thought that people using their agency to reject our message was my fault, but we can still have joy when things are hard. Just because someone didn't want to listen to our message doesn't mean that our message disappeared from off the face of the earth. It's still there, and I can still receive comfort and strength from this gospel. I've been reading the Liahona a lot lately, and one phrase that struck me in my heart of hearts was "He doesn't want you to try harder, He wants you to turn to Him sooner". What a beautiful thing to remember! Why would we try harder to improve ourselves in our own strength when we can turn to the Lord for help and improve 10 times faster, 10 times easier, 10 times more lasting? I'm grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord and that I'm able to see His hand in my life, during and after the fact.

Here´s a picture of the family! His older brother
Nycollos was able to baptize Filipe!

Plus, this week ended on a spiritual high! Filipe was baptized on Sunday, and it was an emotional, tender experience. He has two older brothers, one currently serving and the other preparing to serve, and a mother that has been prepared for baptism for ages, but her husband doesn't want to get married. When we've taught him, he's been very shy and I was worried that he was being baptized because it was what other people wanted; but when Filipe came out of the waters of baptism, his smile was bright and genuine, and I knew that he truly accepted this wonderful ordinance and he understood it's significance. I'm grateful and humbled to have been a part of such a wonderful and personal event for him, and I know that when we invite people to hear this message and they accept and are baptized, there is no greater joy. Not only that but after baptism, the temple is opened and new, spiritual opportunities can available to them. I know that this gospel is of Jesus Christ, and His church has been restored and that we have a living prophet that receives direct revelation from God. He loves us all, and we can all feel this exalted love when we turn to His son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, and follow his example of charity and gratitude. In His name, Jesus Christ, amen.

Sister Carlson

October 2, 2017

Hello to all!

I hope you all have had a fantastic week, I know mine has been pretty great!

Every Tuesday, we have a district meeting. Usually I enjoy it because the people in my district are amazing, but last Tuesday, I was ready to cry with joy. Why? Because I received TWO cards from Sister Carlson! My heart was dancing, I actually couldn't stop smiling! It was such a gift too, because earlier that morning I had subconsciously decided that I was going to have a bad day. But encouragement from my twin changed that really quickly! Thank you, Avery, for your loving words and kind encouragement, it was exactly what I needed.

One really awesome experience I had was on Thursday. Sister Moura and I have been teaching an investigator named Flávio for a long time, about at the start of this transfer. He was a referral we received from Church Headquarters, and he asked for a Book of Mormon. He's been a member of many other churchs, and is really smart. He's constantly asking questions, which is a great learning experience for me! But on Thursday, we invited a member to accompany us for a lesson with Flávio. The entire vibe of the lesson was different; it was more of a disscussion, not simply asking and answering questions. I felt like Flávio understood more, and it was a real testament to me that members are important in the conversion of converts. Our goal in bringing Irmão Roberto was to give Flávio a friend, so he felt more comfortable to come to church. Sister Moura and I are praying that he'll take this step of faith and come to church next week!

Also on Thursday, we were informed that tomorrow (or on Friday) we would be moving houses! Surprise! We spent most of the night packing our suitcases and everything else (kitchen utensils, bathroom supplies, pamphlets, etc.) and were exhausted. Then we got a call in the morning that they were coming over to pick us up, give us the keys, and giving us an opportunity to clean our new house! Our new house has so much light, it's really close to lots of things, and we now live close to a less active family! What a wonderful opportunity for reactivation! Anyway, after we cleaned for a bit, we ran to have lunch with a member. Then we ran back to our old house to wait for the elders, they were going to help us move everything. We got everything loaded onto the truck, and then got it to our new apartment! We were able to unload your things pretty fast, and we have settled in nicely. The only problem is that we live on a main road, much different from a main road in quiet Ivoryton, CT. Sometimes I can't sleep, maybe because of the noise or maybe because this is a new house and my body needs to get used to it. Who knows, I'll probably have adjusted to it by the end of the week!

It's been really rainy here for conference, but what a wonderful, different experience conference was! It was completely in portuguese, and it was hard to hear the english underneath the portuguese, so I was on my own! Well, not alone, I think the Spirit was with me. I was able to really write down the thoughts and feelings of my heart, and maybe the Spirit was able to influence me to write something down. I'm still learning how the Spirit communicates with me, it's a journey! One of my favorite talks was by Owen (I don't remember his first name) about repentance. This is what I've been preaching! It was so amazing to see my teachings connect with what he said! Something I'm constantly telling investigators is that repentance is about change, not specifically about feeling guilt for awful things you've done in the past. Sometimes, it is necessary to find forgiveness for those big and scary sins, but most of the time, we need to use it for little things. The changes we need to make in this life are changes that will help us become more like our Savior Jesus Christ. If you are quick to judge others, you can repent and ask Heavenly Father to help you see the good first. What a marvelous opportunity we all have to use this wonderful gift, repentance, that was wrought through the Atonement and suffering of our brother, Jesus Christ!

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve the Lord and preach His gospel to the people of Brazil! I'm also grateful for the opportunity I had to listen to our prophets, apostles, and others speak and give us divine counsel. I hope that you all are able to feel reinvigorated from this conference!

I love you all so so much!
Sister Carlson