MAILING ADDRESS

Sister Brieanna MacCall Gould
Nebraska Omaha MIssion
11027 Martha St
Omaha, NE 68144-3107
United States

Monday, July 27, 2015

PHOTO ALBUM: Pictures for ya!

We had exchanges this week! I went to Fremont again with Sister Allen and it was GREAT.
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We also taught primary again... and I loved it because they are crazy.
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The Book of Mormon. Read it and weep. Because God's love is too real.
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Esmeralda and the cutest little girl evverrrr, Camila :)
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I forgot to send these like 2 weeks ago haha I get blessed with the best of the best.
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Heart is changing‏

So I'm not comparing myself to the Grinch necessarily, but you know how his heart grows 3x it's size and it's painful because he feels like it's going to pop right out of his chest? I'm pretty sure that's happening... every day...

I was sitting in sacrament yesterday, looking at all of these amazing people who I've gotten to know in the last 3 and a half months, and my heart just swelled inside me, and I felt genuine love for each and every soul. THAT is what missionary does to you, it makes you LOVE PEOPLE and it's AWESOME.

Haha ok so. My week.

It was so good! Miracles just keep happening. I'm still amazed daily by God and His infinite power. He really does have control and when we try to align our will with His, miracles happen.

On Friday, we were invited to a Family Home Evening with one of my favorite families, the Rodriguez family! They are so great. We invited Joey and Dulce to come along - they totally did, it was the best - and they brought another friend. When we showed up at the house, I was a little freaked out because there were a lot more people than I expected, like I solid 20 people! Luckily, they were all gems. They were so loving and kind to our three friends, and they just welcomed them in. The Rodriguez' had asked us to prepare a lesson, so when we were planning, it was planned for a smaller setting. We really wanted to spirit to be present, because we all know the spirit is the best teacher. I felt strongly that we should still follow through with our lesson. We based it off of 3 Nephi 17, one of my favorite chapters of scripture, and we focused on the importance of having faith in our Savior and truly believing that he can heal us. The spirit was so tangible in that room, I know I say that a lot in my emails, but for real, it was. As we read from the scriptures and watched a couple videos, I felt like we should open it up to have a little testimony meeting. We sat in silence for a while, letting the spirit work, and as people opened up, I could really feel God's love filling the room. I love hearing people bear testimony because you can just see it in their eyes. It was amazing, so good. Great day.

Another great day was Sunday. Sundays are always the craziest days - we are running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Ridiculous. But I love it! Because I love being busy and having a purpose haha so after a meeting with the elders and our ward mission leader, we headed into the chapel to visit and greet people. And then suddenly, I saw someone walk in, who I didn't recognize at first, but as she got closer, I freaked out. It was Isela! She is an investigator we have been working with for months. We have been trying to help her get to church for the longest time! We hadn't been able to visit her the last couple weeks because we've just been so busy, so when I saw her walk into the chapel, I pretty much died. I ran to her and just hugged her and we embraced for the longest time. She had tears streaming down her face and she kept kissing my cheeks haha I was just like, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" Guys... it was awesome. I would relive that moment over and over again. One of God's children was that much closer to Him. She came to church, and she was able to participate in the sacrament and feel the spirit and learn more about Him. Ah it was beautiful.

We also had Esmeralda and her two sons come to church, along with 4 other returning members! It was incredible! Seeing people coming back to church just makes my heart do that Grinch thing... expand to sizes too big for my chest to even handle. I love it.

Overall, God is good. I love life. I love that I am here, serving a mission. There is no where else I'd rather be. I love my companion. I love my area. I love my Savior. I love my Father in Heaven.

And, yes, I love you all too :)

xoxo

Hermana Brie Gould

Monday, July 20, 2015

PHOTO ALBUM: Hermana Bacy

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Hermana Bacy! Representin' CALIIIIFORNIA
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Life is just great everyone‏

Some crazy things happened this week... we witnessed a hit-and-run, we were asked to help someone out of jail, I ate cactus, we saw about 20 shirtless men walking around Omaha, I drank flower juice, and I got a makeover from a very serious little 5 year-old who insisted that bright pink lipstick was my color. Hermana Bacy and I, as you can imagine, laughed a whole lot this week. Speaking of Hermana Bacy, she is GREEAT! She is from Sacramento, California - born in LA. She's crazy and it's great. She is so dedicated to the work, and she instantly lights up a room. Like no joke. I'm just like, "Woah woah woah Hermana... chill." Haha she's great and so enthusiastic and loving. The Lord orchestrated this companionship. I've already learned so much from her. It's funny how He works sometimes. He knows exactly what we need, and He's just waiting patiently for us to trust Him. And when we finally do, miracles happen.

So something that we've started doing during daily planning is thinking of a miracle we want to happen the next day and then praying about it throughout the day. And you know what? Our miracles have been happening!

One day we prayed that we would find an investigator in Papillion (where we live) so we could have someone to teach closer to us. As the day was coming to a close, we were running out of people to visit. (side-note. Miles for a missionary is the biggest struggle. We are given a certain allotment every 3 weeks... but miracles end up happening when we try our best to stay within those lines). Right before I turned to head home, a thought crossed my mind. About a month ago, Hermana Grubbs and I had gotten a referral for a woman named Maria. We were never able to find her. Either she didn't live there or she was just never home, we weren't sure. Well, Maria crossed my thoughts, and without a word, I just swerved into the apartment complex, scaring the heck out of Hermana Bacy (haha). We said a fervent prayer that Maria would be home, we grabbed a Libro de Mormon, and tried our luck. And GUESS WHAT. She was home! And more than that, she was interested! She said that this world is just crazy and she'd love to hear what our message was! Have miracles ceased? Nay.

Our second miracle was two have two extra lessons that we didn't already have prepared. Tuesdays, for some reason, are always a little awful haha no one likes to be home on Tuesdays or something. We spend most of the afternoon looking for service or just street-contacting because no one seems to be home. Well, as we prayed, we felt prompted to go try a certain family. Sure enough, they were home! We had a great lesson with them all about our Savior. As we left, we said a prayer of gratitude and asked that we might find one more person to teach. We had an hour or so before our dinner appointment so we decided to do some tracting. Inspired tracting. So what this means is that we stand on the sidewalk, look at all the houses, and say to one another, "Alright. Which one are you feeling?" And then we just try our luck! We do our best to follow the promptings of the Spirit. The Spirit is the best leader. We tried a couple houses and no one was really interested, and then I saw a woman walking into her house out of the corner of my eye and said to my companion, "Her." So we headed over, knocked her door, and told her who we were. She instantly let us in (IT WAS AWESOME) and we just bore testimony of our Savior to her. She was definitely prepared by God... she taught us! The Spirit was present - it was tangible and all of us were being edified together. She asked us to come back later in the week! We came back, and we both felt prompted to ditch our lesson of the restoration and teach the plan of salvation. Tears filled her eyes as she told us that she had lost her husband, and how she felt she would see him again. We testified that she would. It. Was. Amazing. Period. 

Miracles happen every single day my friends. With faith all things are possible! 

So many others amazing things this week but so little time. Just remember this... God is real. I can testify that our Savior lives. I know that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. It's not just another church... it's the kingdom of God on the earth. The same church that Christ established - it's on the earth right now.

Isn't that amazing!?

I love you all so much!

xoxo

Hermana Brie Gould

PHOTO ALBUM: My last weeks with Hermana Grubbs...

Monday, July 13, 2015

PHOTO ALBUM: Cambios‏

Last day with Hermananananan GRUBBSSSS
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Cambios‏

You all didn't pray hard enough! Hermana Grubbs got TRANSFERRED! Haha it was very much unexpected and really rough, but good thing I've got Hermana Bacy now! She's great. And she speaks a lot of Spanish which is also great. Get ready world, my Spanish is going to improve this transfer.

So last Monday, I was all sad because no one was progressing or anything, and then that night? BOOM. Miracle. 

We've been teaching Esmerelda for the last month or so. She's progressing really well! She's excited to be baptized, but there are a lot of things holding her back. It's been rough, trying to figure out how to help her. Hermana Grubbs and I just turned it over to the Lord - we both had so much faith. Well, Monday evening, we got a call from Esmerelda. She asked us if we could come over and meet her husband! She said he wanted to talk to us. We made our way to her house - a little nervous, a lot excited - and prepared to teach him the Restoration. I can't even tell you how perfect the lesson was... it wasn't us at all! The Spirit was tangible. He held the Book of Mormon in his hands and told us that this is what he wanted. He wanted this for his family. He told us that it all made sense - he felt so good about what we had taught him. He told us he felt comfortable - that he knew we could help him progress and become clean. We set both him and his wife for baptism in August! They came to church on Sunday, and I can't even explain how much happiness I felt when I saw their little family of four sitting together during sacrament. After church, he shook our hands, invited us back to his home, and thanked us for everything. We told him it was all God! SO AMAZING.

The morning we found out about transfers, we sat on our bedroom floor in shock and then the tears came. It was just so overwhelming - we had so many plans all set up and we both knew what everyone needed to progress and everything was just going so well. We prayed for comfort and understanding. I prayed that my new companion would feel welcomed and loved when she got here. Lots of prayers were said that day and have continued. Well, that same day we got a call from Dulce (the girl who we visited in the hospital). She asked us if we could come visit her. Of course we could! We were so excited. When we got there, we met her friend Joey, a super friendly 19 year old. We started getting to know each other, when Dulce asked, "So, can we talk about God now?" So we did. We found out where Joey was spiritually, what he believed, and what he wanted to do with his life. He told us he had a christian background but it was always so confusing - churches just contradicted each other all the time. So we bore strong testimony of the Restoration, teaching him about our Heavenly Father all the way to the amazing gift we have of the Book of Mormon. The whole time we were teaching, his whole attention was on us. He asked us questions, and as we answered them, you could see understanding coming to his mind. The Spirit was tangible, again, just like with Jose and Esmerelda. Joey was so enthralled in everything we had to say. When we handed him the Book of Mormon, he hugged it to his chest and told us how excited he was to read it. He said we had answered questions he'd had his whole life... he said it all just finally made sense. Hermana Grubbs and I held back tears - tears of gratitude for this golden human being, tears of happiness for the gospel, and tears of sadness, knowing that we wouldn't be able to teach him together after that day. We set him for baptism in August, and promised him that he would feel ready as he kept learning and reading. It was incredible. Absolutely incredible. I would do my whole mission over again just to relive that lesson.

I know that this is God's will - cambios, or changes, are meant to strengthen us. Although it's been hard, I know that my new companion, Hermana Bacy, will be so good for this area. I have so much faith that miracles will happen. She's a great missionary. She's already gotten along so well with our investigators and members!

God is good, and He knows what we need. I'm so grateful for those two amazing miracles I got to share with Hermana Grubbs and for all of the other memories we have together. I sure got lucky. She not only became my best friend - she was also my sister. 

I love this work! So much! I can't wait to share with you all more about Hermana Bacy and all of the awesome things that will happen! We've got lots of hope for this transfer :)

I love you all so much!

xoxo

Hermana Brie Gould

ps I'll have pictures with my new comp next week... it's been a crazy weekend. But she's beautiful! And so great!

Monday, July 6, 2015

PHOTO ALBUM: Nebraskeeeee‏

IS THIS NOT THE COOLEST MURAL
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Also the Marshall's are actually the cutest. Look at his face! Pure happiness.
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Trial of my faith‏

God bless America, y'all. Sure love the 4th of July! We had a nice, American BBQ with the Marshall family (the members we live with), complete with potato salad, hamburgers, and chocolate cake. Perfect. Love me some American food.

This week was pretty rough. Nothing improved - or at least, not that we can see right now. We've been working really hard with all of our investigators, but we can't seem to help them progress any further! We've been praying and fasting and studying to try and figure out what God wants us to do. We have faith that God will provide a way, He always does. He knows exactly what we need and exactly what we should do. I love that, I love knowing that. It gives me a lot of hope. 

The two highlights of this week were Zone Conference and exchanges.

EXCHANGES - This time around I was with sweet Sister Manning. She was originally in the South Dakota mission before our mission adopted her! She is so amazing, I love her. She has this way of absolutely lighting up a room and making everyone feel loved. If you've got a story to tell, she'll listen and her focus won't sway from you one bit. It was a little weird at first... but it's awesome! We were able to visit 3 families. Love them all! One of the visits was with Elizabeth, one of my favorite humans. We were able to meet her roommate, Brooke too! All 4 of us sat on the living room floor, and chatted about life and how we all came to know the gospel. We asked both of them what drew them to the church, and both said that it was the focus on families. As Brooke opened up and told us her story, something that she said really stuck with me. "The gospel healed me in a way that I had been looking for. No other psychology class or therapy session worked. Only God." Beautiful, right? The most lasting and enduring peace and happiness comes only in and through our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ. You can't find that happiness anywhere else. You can sure try and prove me wrong, but I know for a fact that God is the author of happiness. Through Him, we can live with our families for all of eternity. All that is wrong in the world will be made right. All of it. We have to trust in that.

ZONE CONFERENCE - We finally met our new president and his wife! President and Sister Gardner. They are both so amazing. They are both inspired and definitely needed in our mission right now. Plus the two of them are so cute... they are so in love. They talked about each other with so much adoration - it was just a lot of cuteness that I couldn't handle as a missionary lol. But I love them tons already! Sister Gardner and all of her goodness gave a really great training - and super applicable too. The thing that stuck out to me was this... "Find joy in the hard times. Always seek for His guidance and watch for Him answer your prayers." Love it. President Gardner finished the conference with a message that really touched my heart, and I know it was needed by so many others. He looked at all of us and said, "Elders, sisters. You can't go back. You can't go back to the life you used to live. You are changed! Do you understand? You are changed." He told us that we are here on a mission to be changed for the rest of our lives. This isn't just 18 months or 2 years of talking to people about the gospel... it's so much more. This gospel is so much more than I even realized. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is so much more than I can even comprehend! I can't waste one second. I can't be selfish in any way... and I think that might be one of the hardest things about a mission. When I'm too scared to knock a door or call an investigator or teach in Spanish or even if I'm too tired to wake up on time or study my scriptures for a full hour... I'm being selfish because this isn't my time. These next 18 months (or I guess 13 now) are the Lord's. So do I love the Lord enough to leave my old life behind? 

My goal for this mission (or my whole life!) is to know Him.

So all in all, this week was not too exciting. We did teach 20 lessons though, which is the most we've ever done! But we don't see much progress, though we have hope. Exchanges are this week! Let's all pray that Hermana Grubbs and I get another transfer together... :)

I love you all so much!

Don't sell yourself short. Be great! YOU CAN DO ITTTTT!

xoxo

Hermana Brie Gould

PHOTO ALBUM: Mis ninnoossss‏

We've taken over a primary class for the next couple weeks and I love it. A lot.

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PHOTO ALBUM: The zoooooo‏

Apparently the Omaha Zoo is the BEST IN THE WORLD so we had to check it out. We only saw like a 3rd of it but it was HUGE!!!!
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This is Elder Cox, Elder Jensen, and los ninos de Hermana Niklitscek. One of them is actually a ghost.
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