No letter this week

Erin had the chance to go to the Temple in Frankfurt on Friday, so they took that as their P-Day and didn't have a chance to write today.  But, our wonderful secret agent, Sister Nowak, sent this picture outside the Temple. So glad she got to go.

Sister Andrea Nowak took the Köln Sisters and the Bonn Sisters 

Crazy Fun!

This was a really crazy but fun week! Monday we were in Köln and Monday night I went on a split with Sister Funk who is one of the Köln sisters. Tuesday we had zone konfernz which was really good. It was ALL day, but it was way fun. We had a really yummy lunch and we got to watch Meet the Mormons. We also got to watch the new Easter video that comes out this Saterday. It is really good! Make sure you watch it and share it with everyone. It is called Because He Lives and it is just really good. I cant wait to pass out the cards that invite people to watch it. It is just a good simple video about Christ. Tuesday after the conference, we went on splits in Köln again just for a few hours. Sister Bunderson and Sister Funk thought it would be a good idea for me and Sister Pettitt to go together. Sister Pettitt is only one transfer older than me and is still being trained too, so our trainers decided to let us go into Köln all by ourselves. It would have been fine, except, when we got off the train at our stop, Sister Pettitt turned to me and asked if I had keys for thier appartemt. Then she asked if I had a phone so we could let them know we didnt have keys. Basically, our trainers dropped us off in Köln with no way to contact anyone. So we went to our appointment which fell through. Us being goldens without a phone didnt know what to do so we decided to head back home and just wait. Only we decided a better use of our time was to walk home so we could contact on the way home. This would have been fine except Köln is a big area and Sister Funk had the map. No worries though! We made it back safe and sound to the Köln sister´s appartment. We only laughed about it alot and our trainers only felt really really bad. It was a really funny expirience!

Wednesday we finally got back to Bonn and the rest of the week has just been normal meeting with investigators and new converts. Ahti left for India yesterday and wont be back for 10 days. Our lives will be a little different for a while. This week Ahti decieded I was Problem Child because I beat her at arm wrestling and she said I cheated. We just have so much fun with Ahti! 

Yesterday a sister, Vanessa, gave her homecomming talk in church. She just got home this last week and she was so excited to see me and sister Bunderson at church. She came and sat with us during FHV (relief society) then after sacrament meeting she gave me her phone number and told us she wanted to come teach with us at some point. Then we went to her house for a homecomming party thing. It was really fun and the food was soooo good. Also we were out of food at our appartment yesterday so it was good to have food. No worries, we went shopping this morning and now we have food!

Today we cleaned our appartment really good. We are really bad at doing the dishes so we had to take time to do that this morning. We also went grocery shopping since we were out of food. Then we went to the Haribo store here in Bonn. It was really cool! I got some candy. I cant wait to try it. 

This week should be pretty normal. We are overnighting in Köln again Thursday night because we are going to the temple on Friday!!! Sister Nowak from the Köln ward has offered to take the 4 of us to the temple. I am so excited! However that means we are switching our Pday to Friday for next week so we can go and not get in trouble. That means I wont have Pday next Monday.  I dont know yet when we will email. I think Sister Bunderson just wants to end our pday early and email monday. It depends on how long it takes to drive to Frankfurt. We might just send a quick email from Sister Nowaks phone. Sorry for not many details, but just giving your a heads up.

Hope everyone has an awesome week!!! Make sure to check out the new Easter video and share it with someone! It is really so cool. Also the computer likes me this week so hopefully I can catch up with pictures!

Liebe 

Sister Carroll

She sent a TON of pictures, so I tried to narrow them down a little:

I guessing this is her welcome from her companion :)

Church in Bonn?  Can't find it...

Cemetery at the church 

Cool flowers - always taking pictures of flowers :)

Street behind the church

She did say there was a picture just for Ethan - I'm pretty positive this is the one!

Beethoven

The Bonn Minster - I think.

Rhein River

Old City Hall in Bonn - I just cried when I saw this because I was right there too!

First Baptism

Sister Heywood, Sister Carroll, ?, Vicki, Sister Bunderson, Sister Parker

Train Station - beautiful window!

Köln Cathedral - I'm pretty sure - I was there too!

???

Köln Cathedral

German keyboard 

Haribo Store they went to today.

Happy Warm March Day

Erste Taufe! Surprise!!

This week has been so good! On Saterday Vicki was baptised! It was so awesome! she was so happy! It was so cool to see how happy she was! This week I also had a split with Sister Parker. She is STL with Sister Heywood. Sister Bunderson went to their area and Sister Parker came to Bonn with me. I had to be in charge of everything! It was so stressful. Luckily Sister Parker was Sister Bundersons companion before me so she knew everyone and where enverything was. It was really helpful. Then Sister Heywood and Sister Bunderson came back to Bonn for the baptism so I got to talk to Sister Heywood a lot. That was really fun!

Ahti is happy with us again! It has been so fun this week to hang out with her. She is so fun and kind to us. She likes to get us ice cream. She also thinks Ethan should be Sister Bunderson´s boyfriend so.... 

Wow I cant think of what else to say! It was really just a good normal week. Oh I know! I´m not in Bonn right now. I´m actually in Köln! There is something wrong with our bathroom so we cant use the shower for the next few days and we have to spend a few nights in Köln. I got to see the Kölner Dome for a little today. We are going to come back another time and go inside and climb to the top. We just saw the outside while we were waiting for the Köln sisters to find us.  It is huge! The church next to us is not nearly and big! Germany is just so cool! I want to show you guys everything! I love it so much! And I am learning so much here! 

I will try to send pictures, but the computers dont really like me. Sorry! I do have some though! 

I love you guys! Thanks for all you do!!!!

Liebe 

Sister Carroll

Some pictures Athi sent me:

On Splits with Sister Parker, and Athi - getting ice cream

Sister Carroll, Sister Bunderson, Athi, Sister Parker

Athi and Sister Carroll getting ice cream - I think on P-day because I got it today.

Indian Food Party with Athi

Athi sends me pictures on Facebook, and I LOVE IT!  It's so fun to get a surprise view of my girl.

Sister Carroll, Athi, Sister Bunderson

Dinner

Sister Carroll and Athi

Yum!

Dishes

Sister Carroll, Sister Bunderson, Athi

Pictures

Classic Picture!

On the Train up to Salt Lake

All the missionaries heading toward the airport

Headed into Frankfurt!!!

Apartment - sleeping area

Kitchen

Study Area

Looking from the windows - sleeping on the left.

First full week in Germany!

So sorry about last week and my crazy all over the place email. It was so overwhelming! This week has been really good. It is really starting to warm up. yesterday we didnt wear jackets and today we could have gone without a jacket, but we didnt and now we regret it. THis week I hadmy first dinner appointments. They were so good! Actually I think we only had one schedualed eating appointment. All the others were just appointments that we happened to get food at. Every time we go to a members house, we get a full meal. It is insane! But it actually is good because we often forget to schedual in our dinner time. We are so busy here in Bonn. Sister Bunderson says that the average number of lessons in a day for our mission is 1. Today alone we have 2 planed plus one other will will stop by on so we will probably end up with 3. And today is P day! 

This week we found a family that the wife barely speaks English or German. It was really interesting when we found her. She is super nice though. We will go back and see them later this week. We also ran into an old investigator who they lost contact with and she was really happy to see us. She set up her own return appointment! Then one investigator we had brought a friend and his friend is really interested. Unfortunatly this investigator is leaving for Kenya until Mai, but we will teach his friend until he comes back. This investigator is really ready for baptism though. He was  begging us friday night to get him baptised saterday morning because he left sunday morning. It was really funny!

This week was hard though because Ahti, one of the recent converts freaked out at us. She decided she didnt want to tald to us ever again. We have kind of just let her be alone, but we will check up on her this week. 

We also had Pfahl Konferenz or stake conference this week in Düsseldorf. Apperently the speakers were great! I didnt understand any of it though so I will just take Sister Bundersons word for it. I got to see Sister Heywood and sing in the missionary chor. The cor wouldnt have been so bad, except the elders really wanted to make it complicated so they had all these parts and when there are only 8 sisters there is only so much you can do. It was good though. President Stoddard spoke at the conference and I understood his talk. Sis Bunderson said it was because he has an american accent and that is what I learned at the MTC was German with an american accent. His talk was really good though. Since Düsseldorf is so far from Bonn, we stayed overnight in Köln with the sisters there. That was really fun. They have a really nice appartment. 

Today Sister Bunderson went shopping. I watched and laughed at her obsession with clothes. She said we wont do that again until April. The Köln sisters also came so we hung out with them. We say a really cool big church and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was so awesome!

I guess since I was so overwhelmed last week I forgot to tell about my first impressions of Bonn. It is such a cool city. Very international. I have taught more lessons in English than in German. Before every lesson Sister Bunderson has to remind me of what language we are speaking. At one point this week we had an English/ Spanish investigator and a German / not-russian-but-close investigator at the church at the same time and we had to switch between English and German. It was funny. Everyone in German has a dog. I am sure of it. I see dogs everywhere! Even the homeless people have dogs!!!! Also the majority of people here smoke. Never have I smelled so much smoke! it is crazy! Bonn is so pretty though. The Rhine is amazing and the chuch members are so nice. All of them ask if I understand German, then proceed to speak really fast. I think I would understand so much more if they all spoke with American accents :)

Yesterday we visited a sister in the ward who is old and can´t leave here house. She was super nice. Her brother was there too and I just listened to the conversation. At the end they had me say the prayer and the brother was really impressed with my German. I feel like I can speak it, but just cant understand it, and when I understand it, I dont know how to respond. It is really frustrating. During the lesson was really funny, because the brother wanted to know my first name. I decieded since he was a member and really just curious to tell him. Both him and his sister had never heard of it as a girls name before and they couldnt even say it right! It was so funny them trying to say it! No one can say Carroll either. The first week here we had one investigator, Vicki, who couldnt say Carroll and the member teaching with us told her in America Carol meant song so she started calling me Sister Lied or Sister Song. She also calls me Sister Süß and Ahti calls me baby because I am so small. It has been really interesting to hear my name said in so many ways.

Have an amazing week! I love you!

Liebe,

Sister Carroll

I´m in Germany!!!!

I feel like I havent written for so long!!!!! Im in Germany! (also the keyboard is weird here so if there are random z I apologize)

Oh mz goodness, where do I start? MTC was awesome and we had so much fun the last week there. We were all so ready to leave,  but we still had so much fun. THe flight was good. CHecking luggage was  the worst. It was so stressfull. luckily Sister Roderer knew what she was doing and she helped me.  We were split  up into travel groups by alphebetical and I was with 5 other elders. It was reallz fun though. THey were super nice. The flight to Frankfurt was super empty so I was able to just lay out and sleep for most of it. It was so awesome being able to talk to you guys. luckily mothers day isnt to far. then I can skype. 

us with Sister Garlick and Bruder Jones

us with Bruder hansen

Once in Frankfurt we had orientation and contacted people. That is something I have to learn to deal with: contacting. I totally just stood there terrified. I have gotten a little better with my new companion. They let us go to bed super early that first night becasue we were all so tired. I slept so good. The next morning we were paired with our new companions. IM IN BONN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My new companion is Sister Bunderson. She is super cool! It was sad to say goodby to Sister Roderer, but sis Bunderson is pretty cool. 

Then we went to the train station to hang out with the other missionaries before our 2hour train ride. Sister Bunderson's old companion is now an STL and they called to meet me. On the phone the other STL asked if I knew a Sister Carroll in the MTC. I told her I was Sister Carroll. Turns out Sister Heywood is an STL!!! and she is pretty close to me! I will get to see her at stake conference next week and during splits. I was so excited!!!

After we got to Bonn we went to a members house. Then we had 2 other appointments. All 3 were English. I think this whole time I have had 1 German lesson. Bonn is a very multicultural area. 

We had a party with a recent convert on Saterday. Her name is Athi. She is from India and is reallz fun. She made Indian food for us at the church with thd elders. It was reallz fun! she is so nice and funny.

Church was good yesterday. There was a lot I didn't understand, and ye t, I understood more than I thought I would. I gave my testimony in sacrament meeting. It was terrifying, but everyone said I did awesome and that my German is really good. 

Todaz we cleaned up the appartment and went grocery shopping. Then we went and saw Bethoven's birth house. It is also rainy todaz. Dad, we also got ice cream and German ice cream beats every thing in America. 

It has been so fun and Sister Bunderson is super cool. SHe lived in Switzerland for like 5 years so she know German pretty good. Plus she has been here longer than me. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I forgot my camera cord at the appartment. I do have pictures though! Ahti said she sent some to you to so those were ones I was going to send. Germanz is so cool! I loove it  so much!! Not more than I love you guys though. Schönes Woche!!!!

Liebe 

Sister Erin Carroll

Indian Food

Indian Food

Bonn Missionaries with Athi

Sister Bunderson, Sister Carroll, Athi

Sister Carroll, Athi, Sister Bunderson