Keuschheit

It's weird to think that's it's only been a week! This week was so
crazy. We had so many points where we were laughing so hard. I love it
when you can just find the joy in life. I love think the theme of this
week can be summed up as language barriers. That basically defines all
of our crazy stories. That and our theme of Keuschheit (chastity).
Awkward enough chastity has showed up more than we have wanted it to
this week. Some of the n correspondence with the language barriers,
others not. Ask me after the mission and I might be willing to share
all the stories from this week, but for now we will just share some of
them.
This week our chastity streak started with Andre. We taught him
Keuschheit at a members house. We had told the member before hand that
we would be teaching Keuschheit. He was so excited when we got to his
house. Normally they talk about police stories for ever then we start
our lesson, but he was super excited to start the lesson. It actually
ended up being a really cool lesson. The member had really thought
about what he wanted to say and he shared some really cool insights.
This week we also met some people who don't speak English. Our
investigator from Pakistan brought a friend to an appointment and then
set up a time for us to meet with this friend and another one. The
funny part is that the two friends we met with spoke to us in English.
But when we spoke English to them they didn't always understand it, so
they would translate our English for each other into English. It was
really funny. We had to speak very simply. " you phone? I call?number?
We go there? Family Germany? Family big? (Fill in country) hot?
Germany too much cold. Me house America. You Jesus? Me Jesus. Me talk
Jesus." That was a very interesting conversation. Afterwards me and
sister Schuring couldn't speak normal sentences to each other in
English or German!
We had a similar lesson with some men from India. We taught them
German and then told them about the Book of Mormon using lots of
pictures and very simple sentences. But we ended up with 6 new
investigators in one day! It was so cool!
We also met with the lady who works at the pizza place we go to every
week after district meeting. She is so nice. The funny part of that
lesson was that we had just had a way good conversation about God and
prayer. Then she wanted a picture with us so she asked the lady who
had been sitting at the table next to us the whole time to take a
picture for us. After she took the picture, she was like, " that was a
really good conversation. There is this cool website with the TRUTH
that I think you would like." She then proceeds to write down jw.org.
Me and sister Schuring just stared at each other. We then told the
lady that we were from our church and asked if she had heard of us.
She left pretty quick after she realized who we were. We laughed
pretty hard after that one.
Yesterday we had zone conference in Dortmund with elder Johnson of the
seventy.That's  why we have pday today. Last week my email got sent on
Tuesday because of internet problems again. It was really fun
yesterday. I got to see Sister Roderer! She is my new STL! It was so
awesome!
This week I listened to the face to face discussion with the piano guys.
It's on the gospel library under youth. It was super good. And it went
well with things I have been studying. In preparation for zone
conference we were asked to study the Christlike attributes in PMG.
One at really stumped me this time as I was studying was virtue. I
didn't know how I could develop virtue. Partially because I didn't
really understand what it was. What I understood was things related to
law of chastity (it just keeps coming back! :)). But really there is
more. In the face to face broadcast one of the guys talked about
virtue being having good thoughts. Ja klar. But he pointed out that
means thinking good things even about other people and especially
about yourself. When you start thinking things that are bringing you
down, like comparing yourself to others or telling yourself you aren't
good enough, you aren't being virtuous. That really made me think. Am
I being virtuous. Does virtue garnish my thoughts unceasingly? Or am I
bringing myself down? Am I have bad thoughts directed at myself? It
was a different way of looking at virtue and I really liked it. It was
a good reminder to be nice to myself. I like how the commandment is to
liebet eure Nächsten wie dich selbst (Love your neighbor as yourself).
 Das heißt, you need to treat yourself like you would treat others.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! ITS ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!!! Have a
fun time preparing for Christ! Ein Erretter ist geboren! Freut
euch!!!!!!!!
Ich liebe euch!
Liebe
Sister Carroll

No explication required.

This is Martina. She works at the pizza place. She is super cool!

These are the girls who had to translate what we said in English into
English for each other.

Zone conference! Just missing Sister Nielson to make our group complete!

This is what happens when I fall asleep for he last 5 min of studies.

This is from last week in Dortmund. Elder Taylor got transferred
though so he isn't in our Herne group anymore.

This is Elder Crossley. He replaced elder Taylor. He just got to
Germany. Can't you tell? :)