August 20, 2018

Hello my beautiful family! 

What a week!! This week has been full of learning experiences, and I feel like I have grown a lot! I´ve learned to manage stress better and how to truly rely on the Lord. 

The weekend was full of blessings! On Friday, we had divisions, and I was with Sister Silva! She is so cute, and her testimony is so strong! She only has four months on the mission, but she has been called to be a sister leader. She said she didn´t feel prepared, but President Miller told her that "God didn´t call you to teach, He called you to learn". How profound, I love that! We truly learn so much in leadership positions, and it´s important to have the humility to learn what God needs us to learn! We were blessed with 5 new investigators, and we are so excited to start working with them! 

On Saturday, we had 2 activities in our chapel, and we got to be there! So Mogi Centro had their activity in the morning, and we went because there were some potential investigators there to play soccer. We 4 sisters were able to teach the restoration when they weren´t playing soccer, and I felt so full sharing my testimony with these young men. At night, we had our activity about  missionary work! It was a real blessing to prepare all of the activities, lessons, and videos to enlighten and teach the people that were present. 

Basically, this week I learned what it means to have a testimony of Jesus Christ. It means loving Him so deeply that you can´t help but testify of Him and His holy mission. It means preaching with confidence, because this gospel is true. It means studying more about the life of Christ so you can understand and love Him more. It means sacrificing things of the world to gain the things of heaven. I am so grateful to be a missionary, to be here in Brazil and to preach to this people. I love life because of Him--He made it possible to live free of sin. How grateful I am for His infinite sacrifice that He suffered for me, for my family, for my ancestors, for my future children, for people that I don´t even know. But He know them. He loves them. He guides them. May we all do as Christ does and lift those that are downtrodden!! In His holy name, amen.

I love you all!!

Sister Carlson

August 13, 2018

Hey everyone!!

This week has gone by in a flash! It´s been so wonderful to work in God´s work! I´ve learned a good bit from zone conferences, the examples of others, and personal revelation!

But as I said, we had our zone conference this week! It was amazing to hear the lessons that God was ready for us to hear, just in the moment we needed it! My favorite lesson was that of Sister Miller, the President´s wife. She still doesn´t speak portuguese, but she has a sister translate for her (it was precious!) The theme that she taught was on virtue, something that it simple and complex at the same time. Virtue mean purity of thought, and when our thoughts are pure, we act in accordance with that cleansliness. This purity of thought also allows us to be better instruments in the hands of the Lord because purity invites the Holy Spirit to live within us, and we can´t teach the restored gospel save it be that the Holy Spirit touches the hearts of the listeners and testifies to them that what we are saying is true. How profound! We also talked about faith and how planning helps the spirit guide and bless our everyday work. I was spiritually fed for sure! 

We also had a very sweet experience on Sunday! We were eating lunch at a recent convert´s house, and when we went to give the message, we went into the living room to talk with him and his aunt, Teresa. I had never met her before, but she was all curled up on her bed and didn´t speak much. I asked if she had ever heard of the Book of Mormon, and when she said she hadn´t, I explained how it came to be, and shared the story of Enos. As my companion and I testified of the gift of repentance and prayer, we could feel a sweet spirit in the room testifying of what we were saying. I´m grateful for this experience and the time I have here in Brazil to testify of the restored gospel wherever I go. How amazing is that? 

But I think that´s it! I hope you all have an awesome week!!

August 6, 2018

Good afternoon! 

Sorry for writing in so late, it´s been rainy all day and it was hard to leave the warm, comfortable house into the cold, dreary world to walk until the LANhouse hahahahaha:) It´s been rainy this entire week, and I´ve been told that winter has ACTUALLY started now, in August, so now it´ll just keep raining and be a little cold. Beats baking in the sun! 

Anyway, this week has been good! On Sunday, we were able to contact a referral and we met a lovely woman that has been prepared for the gospel. Sister Jobran and I both felt a very special spirit when we were talking to her, and we left a Book of Mormon with her that she said she would read with "much love and care"--how precious! We weren´t able to mark a return appointment because she´ll be going into surgery on Tuesday, but we´ll definitely be calling and making sure that she´s alright! 

But I think the most special experience was on Friday, when we were eating lunch with a member. She has two children, Kayque and Yasmin. Yasmin is an 8 year old full of energy, and Kayque is 19 with severe disabilities. Sister Jobran loves Kayque and has told me a lot about him, but Friday was the day that I got to meet him. The spirit was very strong in the room, and I could feel the love the God had for this teenager that was unable to do anything for himself. It was very special to stand beside him and talk to him for a while. I´m grateful that God loves every single one of His children, it´s not important how capable we are or how often we fall, He still loves us. What a blessing!

I think that´s about it! Sorry I didn´t take pictures last week, I´ll make sure this week I take a bunch to send next Monday!! I love you all, have a great week!

Sister Carlson

July 30, 2018

Good afternoon everyone! 

Wow, this week has been full of things to do! Medical appointments, district meetings, proselyting, the works! The Lord really does bless who He calls with energy and resiliance hahaha!

I learned a lot this week, but I think the most fulfilling day spiritually speaking was on Sunday. I received pure doctrine, and it was wonderful!! As it was the last Sunday of the month, all of the adults were together to learn about ministering. Our branch president was our teacher, and I can testify that he received direct revelation for our branch--it is always awe-inspiring to see God´s hand in action! He started by writing a list of active members that were not present (which was by no means small) and then asking everyone who knew why they weren´t there at church. He went on to day that we as members of God´s church--who have accepted coventants which can be found in Mosias 18:9-10--are in a very real sense responsible for the other members that aren´t at church. And ministering is about love now, not just about duty. We can send texts to ask how people are because we care, not because it´s close to the end of the month. And ministering is a very real thing in our branch because lots of people aren´t attending church, so if it stays like this, our branch will close. The branch president pleaded for us to do our ministering to bring lost sheep back to the fold. And then in gospel principles we learned about working hard. So interesting that being productive is a gospel principle! But it´s true! As with our sweat we earn our daily bread, we are able to be humble and remember our God. Something that I shared with the class was something I learned from my mom and my grandma. Whenever I would complain about cleaning the house because I wanted to goof off, they always said "First we work, then we play, then we´re happy for the rest of the day!" I said that as I´ve grown, how I understand this phrase has changed. We truly will be more happy if we put our work first, because if we just spend the day playing, it has no reward. As good as it is to work, we do need a break every once and a while. That´s why we can achieve ultimate happiness when we work, then play. One of our purposes on this earth is to be productive, but also to have joy! Let us be joyful in the work!

I love you all so much!

Sister Carlson

July 23, 2018 - 1 year behind me, 6 months ahead of me!!

Good afternoon lovely family of mine!

So today was transfers, when everything changes!! 18 areas were closed and reopened, almost every area had one missionary leaving, and it has been stressful down here in Brazil. But Sister Jobran and I have been fine because the Lord has blessed us with the opporunity to stay together in Jd. Ivete! I am very excited to be able to work with my brazilian sister in bringing souls unto Christ!!

But this week has been great! God is merciful to all of His children, no matter how many times they doubt or question personal revelation. I am one of those children that He has been merciful to! On Friday, I had the opportunity to go to the temple with Ester, a recent convert that is my mission mom in Jd. Ivete! I asked permission for President Miller if we could go and do a session, and he authorized it!! It felt wonderfully reinvigorating to be in the house of the Lord. I had a personal question for the entire week, so I decided to ask in the celestial room. I was able to receive personal revelation from promptings and the scriptures. I left on cloud nine! But the next day, doubts started to eat away at me and I felt like I was drowning in some unneeded stress, so I asked an Elder to give me a blessing. And God gaveme the same exact response that I had received in the temple the day before. With my mind more at ease, I went to Church on Sunday, only to hear the SAME response in Sunday School! Ha! The Lord is so perfect!! I love this experience that God gave me, because I learned several things from it. 1)God will respond wherever you are, you just need to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit 2)When you doubt, you are free to ask again and 3)When you receive revelation, ACT!! God is perfect and is ready to help us when it is necessary, but we have to be willing to do our part, or the blessings will be lost. This transfer we are planning on working harder than ever so we can receive the blessings that are in God´s hands, and that He´s just waiting to pour down on us!! I love this gospel, and am proud to say that I am a member of the restored church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!

I love you all, have a blast this week!

Sister Carlson