Hi,
I think I understand what's the issue.
Maintain a separate fsm that's responsible for counting and one responsible for displaying.
First:
Can you increment an integer fine within your current system? do not output anything on screen, just se the var as "inspector" and watch the value, if it changes ok, then the next step is to have a second fsm that will every frame check of that number is different from its local reference, and if so then it means it needs updating visually. So in that fsm you maintain the actual current int that you really show on screen, that's the value you will compare with the real counter.
with this kind of setup you can then add some nice fancy effects, like if you have ten collision in a split of a seconds, you can increment by one every x tenth of a second the gui text until you reach the counter value. this will give a sense of value animation and will attract attention that indeed the value is changing.
Does that make sense?
Bye,
Jean