MTC Week 2

Hallo Familie!

What an awesome week! This week we decided that the German word for knife was not messer, it was toeten zeug or killing tool. We also declared war on Sis Sant and Sis Neilson. So I think you could say it was a very uplifting week. :) Actually it was a really awesome week.

We finished up teaching Maxim and turns out Maxim is not Maxim. He is actually Bruder Jones and is from Utah and is another teacher. We are now teaching Dani or Sis Garlick and Guenther or Bruder Hanson. We don't teach Guenther until Friday. But we have already taught Dani. She is so cool! She has already read the Book of Mormon and knows that it is a special book. We planed to teach her the Gospel of Christ but in the lesson switched to the restoration. It was so cool! I was able to explain all of it ok without too much help from Sister Roderer. My German is getting so much better! 

On Saterday we had service in the morning. Me and Sister Roderer cleaned vacums. We also vacumed, but most of our time was spent cleaning the vacums. It was an interesting assignment. I had dust all over me and my allergies were so bad for the rest of the day. It was way fun though.

On Sunday for sacrament meeting we all write talks and in the meeting  the President will just pick someone so we all have to be prepared. Well this sunday the topic was faith and I wrote my talk on what we had for FHE that one time where we talked about how Nephi always says and it came to pass. Just before we left to go to sacrament meeting the branch president asked me if my talk was done. I told him yes them clued in and asked if that meant I was speaking. His response was, "Do you really want to know the answere to that question?" So I gave a talk in sacrament meeting this week. In German. Terrifying. Everyone said they could understand me though so my german must not be too bad. 

I also memeorized the first vision yesterday in German! It is amazing the power that scripture has! I am still having trouble memorizing the purpose in German and I have the first vision down! There is great power in Joseph's words. I know it! It is the coolest thing ever!

I have also been getting lots better at praying in German. I say most of my prayers only in German unless I'm tired. It is cool to make connections between German and English. In English when we pray we say Thou hast. In German we talk to God the same way we would talk to our families so we use the informal you du which when you conjugate the verb for have it is du hast. That means that thou used to be like du in that it was informal and intimate. Like how you would talk to your familie members. Cool right?

We also had an awesome devotional last night. The speaker shared the scripture, 3Nephi 5:13. Such an AWESOME scripture. I feel like I should post it on everything! We also talked about how I am not on a mission because I chose to be here, although that does have some part. I am here because God called me to be here. God loves the people in Germany so much that he called me to be a missionary and to teach them about His love and plan for them. I am not on a mission because I want to be. I am here because God needs me to be here. It was cool to see that perspective. 

I love you guys so much! Have an amazing week!

Liebe
Sister Erin Carroll

Sister neilson decided to attack my desk with sticky notes.

all of us at the temple on sunday for our temple walk

my cupcakes from my friends. I shared with everyone. Elder Blau really liked them

MTC Week 1

Guten Tag! Es geht gut! Ich wissen viel mehr Deutsch jetzt! Ok I'll go back to English now. It has been so good! Did you get my letter? The MTC president told us to send you a letter then first night unless we were from out of the country, then we could email, so I just sent a letter. My companion is awesome! Sehr toll! Her name is Sister Roderer. She is 24 and went to school in New York for Flute performance. She is so  much fun! Oh and I guess I should probably tell you, we are the Sister Training Leaders for our branch/zone for the next 3 weeks. It is like the zone leaders only sisters. I am also senior companion for the next 3 weeks. Yikes. Why so much responsibility! It has been fun though. I have gotten to know the zone leaders really well which is also fun. 

On the plane I sat in front of an Elder going to the Berlin mission. He is in my branch. He is really nice. I also met a sister who I keep seeing everywhere! Her name is Sister Brown. Her cousins are the Welches and the Herrings. It was really funny when we found that out. I also saw Elder and Sister Larson before they left this week. I had forgotten they would be here so it was really fun to see them. I also saw an Elder Nisson? I don't remember exactly his last name but his first name is Adam and he was in elementary school with me in Mesa. I was in his class a few times. I don't remember which class, but both of us recognized each other.  

We have already had our first "investigator" His name is Maxim. He is from Oesterrich or Austria. He only speaks german. Luckily Sister Roderer's dad is from switzerland so she has grown up hearing German and is really good at it. We have had 4 lessons with Maxim. The first one was pretty awesome and I feel like they just keep getting worse. Ha I think it's supposed to work the other way, but I'll just go with it. For our lesson on Monday I explained so much in German that I didn't even know how to say! It was the coolest thing ever! I know Heavenly Father was helping me. Yesterday though, I had a lot harder time with my German. 

Yesterday we had a devotional and Elder Ballard came and spoke. It was so good! He talked about how we should memorize the first vision so we can say it with confidence. In our first lesson with MAxim  that is what we taught and it was hard because we taught our first lesson on Friday so we barely had time to get to know our companions, let alone memorize the first vision. But I had memorized the last line when God says, Dies ist mein geliebter Sohn. Ihn Hoere! " when I had to memorize it in English for mission prep. It was so cool to look Maxim in the eye and tell him the small part I had memorized. It really does bring the spirit. It was so cool! 

Sunday was really cool. All the sisters meet together to watch music and the spoken word then we have releif society as all the sisters at the MTC. We have sacrament meeting with our branch in the afternoon and everything is done in German. Everyone prepares a German talk and the President chooses people in the meeting. Even the sacrament prayers are said in German! It is awesome! Then we get to go and walk around the temple. I'm not allowed to disclose when that is because I am a sister training leader and need to be an example and not have friends meet me at the temple. Sorry :). It is really nice though because we just sit all day. And even when we are walking between classes it is under things and the buildings are so tall. I can barely see the mountains! It is terrible! 

I'm running out of time so I better stop. I will try to send some pictures. We are still learning how to use the computers. Ich leibe dich!

Liebe,

Sister Carroll

This is me and my companion sister Roderer

The sisters in my district and my roommates, Sister Sant, Sis. Neilson, Sister Roderer and me

Me and sister Roderer being rebels. Being a sister training leader means we get a phone that only calls the front desk.

The phone. We dont like it. We have to have it with us always and it feels so weird to have. We avoid touching it at all costs.

She made it!

Hallo Familie!
     How are you guys?!  My P-days will be Wednesdays I think but the MTC President told us all to write our families last night. I ran out of time so I'm writing you now!  Yesterday and Today have been crazy. I got to see Eme yesterday and Teresa took a million pictures of everything. At the MTC I was assigned a host who helped me find my room and class. My teacher is Bruder Rowley. He is funny. He also took our schedules because they were wrong so today has been interesting. My companion is Sister Roderer. She is from Utah and her dad is from Switzerland so she is good with German. Everyone in my class has taken some German except for 1 elder. I felt bad for him yesterday. I saw Brother and Sister Larsen this morning. I forgot they would be here. Everything is so crazy and I'm done having my hair in my way, but it is still down and nice. I promise.
      Ich liebe ihr!
            Sister Carroll

Time to Go!

She's all ready to go.  Grandma and Grandpa Starr were able to come to the airport, too!

She looks like a missionary!

There she goes……...

 The Stake Presidency and Bishop came over last night to set her apart and it was a wonderful experience.  He asked each of us to bear our testimonies and the Spirit was so strong.  She's ready to go, and so excited!  We can't wait to hear from her!