MAILING ADDRESS

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

Monday, October 26, 2015

The Spirit of God‏

This week was SO GREAT.

I don't even know where to staarrtt...??

So this week we got a crazy amount of referrals from people, it was awesome. (As I was typing this, we got another one lol). We were able to find some "lost sheep" and a couple new investigators! We also met someone who was definitely not interested... haha I think that was my first straight-out rejection! YEAH! All part of the experience! Haha it was so cool to meet lots of new people this week, we had a good time.

We were also able to visit with Casandra and Flor again. On Tuesday, we sat with Casandra and read from the Book of Mormon, talking about miracles and faith and courage. She told us that she's been seeing some miracles happening in her life, and we're like, "DO TELL." because we always love a good miracle :) She told us that the date we set for baptism, November 28th, was suddenly clear and open - all of her plans somehowgot changed to different days! And her mom randomly came home one day with a new outfit for Casandra to wear to church. Super small miracles but strong evidence that God is slowly working on the heart of Casandra's mom and paving the way for her baptism. Casandra was in tears as she too recognized the hand of the Lord working in her life. Such a special moment.

We met with Flor twice this week, and I always leave her house feeling so good. She is just feasting after knowledge - she loves learning. She told us that she is just scared of baptism, that it is something, she thought, even more important than her wedding! Haha well, that only proves how highly she holds her Father in Heaven. We told her that this life is a time to prepare to meet God, that no one is expected to be perfect, but that we are expected to try and improve ever day. This helped her fears a bit, though she's still not comfortable with setting a date. She wants us to come back often though! I have lots of hope for her, she's amazing. She can feel the Spirit, I think she just needs to know how real her Father in Heaven is and His unending love for her.

So craziest moment of the whole week - a less active member in our ward called us up and said that her and her boyfriend wanted to get married and come back to church and that she wanted our help! Uhh.. yes. A thousand times yes. So we met up with her and talked all about how the ward can help, the importance of building a foundation on the gospel, and raising a family in the way of the Lord. Her boyfriend, Victor, walked in, and joined us as we read from the Book of Mormon. He was quiet at first, and then when he realized that we spoke Spanish, started opening up. He told us how important God is to him and grateful he is that he can start a family based on God. Shana, the member, turned to us and said, "I want to be married in the temple, but I need to be active right?" yes... "And he needs to be a member?" ..yes.. "Victor, how would you feel about being baptized?" ..omg.. "You know, I think I'd really like that." ..OMG... So without missing a beat, I asked him if he would prepare for baptism by the end of November, to which he happily answered that he would. We had an appointment that we were already running late to so we got his number, set up another appointment, invited him to church, and said a closing prayer (which he offered). We called Shana yesterday to confirm out appointment, and she told us Victor was already reading the Book of Mormon and that he had read a lot of it!

OKAY WHAT!

Being in the right place at the right time, everyone.

God is so involved in our lives, it's hard for me to just call moments like these "coincidences." God is real. Never before have I been so aware of the Spirit working miracles and guiding my life. It's amazing.

I love you all so much!

xoxo

Hermana Brie Gould

PHOTO ALBUM: Dream Team - Gould and Miller


Monday, October 19, 2015

Recognizing Him‏

Life changing thing I learned this week

In the church we are asked to pay tithing, which is 10% of the money we earn. This money goes towards building temples, churches, publishing the Book of Mormon, etc. All good things. Compared to how much the Lord has blessed us, 10% is nothing. So... compare this to a mission. The typical age of a missionary when they first leave is about 18-20 years old. A mission is either 18 months or 2 years, depending on if you are a sister or an elder. This amount of time spent serving the Lord is consecrated time. It is meant to be given wholly to the Lord - all efforts, all attention, all thoughts into the mission to serve our Heavenly Father. So in an essence, we are giving up 10% of the life we have already gained on this earth back to our Father. It needs to be done faithfully, willingly, and lovingly, just as with tithing. And the blessings are beyond comprehension :

ALLLLLLRIGHT now my week!

We had zone training AND a trainer/trainee meeting this week! So I was pretty much bombarded with revelation and the Spirit. Amazing. I left both meetings with a determination to step it up, to work harder, and to love deeper. This gospel is just the best EVEERRRR.

We had two amazing lessons this week with Flor, Esmerelda's sister. The first was last Monday, where we focused completely on the Book of Mormon. We actually weren't planning on visiting her, but when our appointment fell through and nobody else was home, we both felt super prompted to stop by and visit Flor. Turned out to be just what all of us needed! We read from the introduction of the Book of Mormon and used the Bible to show Flor just how much God loves us by giving us another book of scripture. We testified of its truthfulness and asked her to read it. The spirit was just so strong - mainly, I feel, because Flor is just so willing. She has real intent, a sincere desire, and faith. She's amazing! We came back a couple days later, and we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked all about faith and repentance and baptism. We talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost and what that means for us. We talked about how we endure to the end. The spirit, again, was so strong, the question of baptism almost exploded from my mouth! She told us she that wanted to be baptized, that she wanted the peace we talked about, and that she wanted to be clean from her sins... BUT.. that she wasn't ready to set a date. GAH. Her desires are so pure, though, we have no doubt that she will be baptized within the next couple months or so :)

We also had an awesome lesson with Andreina, a member of our ward. She has been through a lot, but she is just now getting up on her feet and it's amazing. To see her come so far has been an honor - I'm so grateful I have been able to witness the Atonement in action. When I first met her, she was at her lowest of lows, and now she's talking about wanting to serve a mission! It's just amazing. But there are those creeping fears that come back, and she finds herself doubting her potential to be someone great. Dang adversary. So we talked about fear and the Atonement, and how ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, God has been trying to subdue our fears by replacing them with confidence in His son, Jesus Christ, and the redeeming and atoning power he has. As we talked, I felt prompted to open my scriptures - to what, I actually wasn't sure - but then my finger landed on a set of scriptures I had previously marked as, "How to live a happy and successful life." PERFECT. We read them together, and Andreina looked up at me and said, "How in the world did you know I needed to hear that?" Honestly I just said, "God." If nothing else, I have learned that you just need to put yourself in a position where God can use you to help someone in need. If I hadn't had studied my scriptures, marked those specific ones, and prayed to have the Spirit guide me that day, who knows if I could've helped her! The Spirit has been doing this whole teaching thing a lot longer than I have - I just need to be worthy of the gift and always follow promptings. 

Update on Jose - HE IS NOW A PRIESTHOOD HOLDER. He came to church yesterday, all dressed up in a nice white shirt and tie, and honorably stood to be recognized as a priesthood holder. I can't even tell you how big my smile was, probably too big.

GOD IS GOOD AND HE IS REAL AND HIS LOVE IS REAL.

I so testify.

also I love you all.

xoxo

Hermana Brie Gould

Monday, October 12, 2015

Learning to be a vessel‏

This week was another gooood oonnneee :)

Hermana Miller is a fantastic missionary - she's so diligent and so kind and so loving. So happy to be her companion! I mean for crying out loud, she got up and bore her testimony on Sunday in such great Spanish and the bishop got up right after her and just raved about how awesome she was! Love her!

So we've been studying and role playing and all sorts of good things and one day, I decided to do something new for language study. I took her to a Hispanic grocery store, handed her three pass-along-cards, gave myself three, and then said, "Alright! Let's do this!" Haha we spent about an hour in the store. Afterwards Hermana Miller said that she was terrified, but I couldn't even tell! She was a natural. Haha we practiced a little bit, and then we tried to find some people to talk to. She handed one card to a super nice lady, I was able to hand out two. The second lady I talked to was golden. I went up to her and told her that I was learning Spanish and asked her if she could help me with some of the words around the store! Oh man, she was moooooore than happy to help haha as we started talking more, she ended up telling me her life story. Funny how learning how to say "banana" in Spanish turns into a whole 30 min discussion about God and family. Super cool. It ended with her telling me that "we were both on the same path, headed towards God." I took that opportunity to bear my testimony and hand her the card. I invited her to learn more, and she accepted! After I got her address and number, she gave me a great big hug and left, smiling. It was such a cool experience! It's all about being in the right place at the right time.

SO remember Casandra? She is the cutest 14 year old girl. She's an investigator! She is so ready for baptism it's crazy. She already tells people she's Mormon! Haha she loves the Book of Mormon, she knows she's received her answer... she's just wants to be baptized, but her mom would like her to wait a few more years. While we were planning on Friday for the week, we felt prompted to set someone for baptism. Looking at our list of progressing investigators was a little discouraging, but then I felt prompted to talk about Casandra. We both felt she was ready and that if she had faith, the Lord would provide a way and that He would soften her mom's heart. We prayed, felt good about it, and then headed to teach her. The lesson was completely led by the Spirit. We talked about miracles and faith and acting on that faith. We talked about our Savior and about the miracle of the Atonement. The Spirit was so strong, we didn't even hesitate to ask if she would set a goal to be baptized by the end of the year. She said she would! She picked the date - November 28th. We are so excited! We have so much faith, and the faith of this amazing girl can and will work miracles.

This last Saturday was a bit of a bummer - we had no set appointments and no one was home when we went out. Lame! There was a scripture that kept coming to my head, but I was like, "Ok yes, I know I need to share this, but with who??" Haha it was about 7:30pm, and we headed back closer to where we lived to try and visit some members. No one was home, of course haha, but as we were sitting outside of the Rey's house, a family in our ward, trying to figure out what to do, they pulled up! We waited a couple extra minutes, figured out exactly what we were going to share, said a prayer of gratitude, and then headed up. As we shared some scriptures in Alma 5, the conversation turned to fasting. On Sunday, we had our fast and testimony meeting, so I felt prompted to remind Hermana Rey about the blessings that come from fasting. She instantly looked up and said, "Ah! I forgot!" Haha we talked all about fasting and fasting with a purpose and praying as we fast - the Spirit was so strong. Hermana Rey thanked us over and over again for reminding her. She assured us that we would see her at church the next day! 

Fast forward to Sunday, Hermana Rey was there! She was one of the first to get up and bear her testimony. She started telling the congregation about the experience we had shared with her the night before and how she absolutely needed to be reminded of the importance of fasting. She said that I had been her angel, sent to remind her of God's love for her. It was so kind, my heart was just happy, but I know that it was just me and Hermana Miller following the Spirit - being vessels in which the Lord can help His children. It wasn't us - it was the Lord. We were just where we needed to be in order to best help our Heavenly Father :)

Over all - LIFE IS GREAT. I love seeing God work so many miracles. That might be the theme of my mission so far... just absolute amazement at God's miracles.

I love you all!

xoxo

Hermana Brie Gould

Monday, October 5, 2015

Transfers...‏

I got transferred... NO WHERE LOL. I'm still here in Omaha! Crazy right? Yes - crazy. But even MORE crazy is that I'm training!!!! Thursday morning President called us real early, like 6:34am (good thing we were awake lol), and asked to talk to Sister Bacy. He told Sister Bacy that she had a new assignment. She would be heading back to Sioux City, Iowa - her baby area - where she would be in a trio with Sister Grubbs (my momma!) and Sister Castagnola (who Sister Bacy trained!). It was a complete shock, Sister Bacy was actually without words. And then she handed the phone to me and President said, "Sister Gould, we'd like ya to train a new missionary in Omaha." And I was like, "OOOH YAAAA!" Like super loud haha I was so excited! I get to stay! The Lord obviously just wants it to be very hard for me to leave this place... lol I'm so grateful though. I'll at least be here until we're done training - another 2 transfers - which means I'll be here for Christmas!

So my companion is Sister Miller! She is from Bakersfield, CA, and she's a gem. Get this - we have the same name, but I go by Brie and she goes by Anna. COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT. #compunity She is so ready to go and work and be diligent. She told me from the beginning that she just wants to be obedient, so she's always asking me questions about rules and everything. She's amazing! I got so luck to have her as my companion, she's already such a good missionary. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to train. I love her already!!!

Gonna be completely honest, this week was a little bit of a flop when it came to lessons. It was so crazy with transfers, we were flying all over the place - trying to pack and whatnot. But Jose is still doing so great! He's the best ever! This week we're just gonna hit the ground running. I'm excited to start teaching more and finding more people and just working. The key to success in missionary life is work! 

I'm so grateful for General Conference, wasn't that amazing? Every single one of my questions were answered, I was so blown away. I loved how focused it was on doing what we know we need to do. One of my favorite quotes was this...

We can choose to see commandments as limitations. We may feel at times that God’s laws restrict our personal freedom, take from us our agency, and limit our growth. But as we seek for greater understanding, as we allow our Father to teach us, we will begin to see that His laws are a manifestation of His love for us and obedience to His laws is an expression of our love for Him.

Obedience brings blessings. Exact obedience brings miracles. I fully stand by and support this. The commandments God gives us are meant to help us and allow us room to grow here in this life. They aren't restrictions! There is safety in following the Lord. Why would there not be? He knows where to guide us. Trust Him, trust Him commandments, trust in His love.

I'll end with a little quote from my mom's email this week... it's perfect. 

I heard this little ditty this past weekend and I love it... "FAITH it till you make it!" Have faith in good things, in miracles big and small - go to work and do what needs to be done.

Just go to work!

xoxo

Hermana Brie Gould