Missionary life

This week was good. A little crazy and strange, but that's normal for
missionary life so....
This week was the week of the birthdays. Tuesday was literally spent
birthday party hopping. A member had a birthday on Monday so we were
supposed to stop by if we had time. Well..... We ended up getting
stuck in Bamberg last Monday until about 7:30. We were running to
Bahnhof to catch the bus and elder Hudson ran across the street and
thought it was a one way street so he only looked one way. Well, it
was not a one way street. Basically long story short, we missed our
bus and learned how to call the police in German. But everyone is ok.
No one died and elder Hudson only has a bruised shoulder. But because
of Monday we went by this member on Tuesday. After meeting with her
we went to go by on an investigators party. Except his was literally a
party and we were so out of place. Pretty sure we were the youngest
people there and it was super awkward. Tender Mercy: sister Peterson
wasn't feeling well right before we got to the party so we had an
excuse to only be there for a little then say goodby.

In other exciting news this week, we had a super awesome lesson with
Gisela this week! We met in the church and had a member there because
she wanted a priesthood blessing. Basically the member taught her
everything, committed her to read the Book of Mormon, committed her to
come to church, and told her she needed to think nicer thoughts about
herself. It was an awesome lesson and we didn't really have to do
anything! Then we totally priced her up for church on Sunday! We got
to church and she told us to go in first because she needed to make
some phone calls. So she walked in late. Then she didn't want to sit
next to us. Then during the sacrament we look out the window and she
had left! But we saw her just go sit on the rock she was on before so
we figured she was just on the phone again. About 5 min later we see
her get up and head towards home. I poked sister Peterson and ran out
of sacrament meeting expecting her to follow me. I get outside and
down the street before I realize that I have no companion. Luckily
Gisela walks slow and sister Peterson was pretty quick to catch up. We
were able to convince Gisela to stay and just sit in the foyer. We
were good examples this week in church. We spent the whole time in the
hall. Oops. But Gisela stayed!

Funny awkward story of the week: after our awesome appointment with
Gisela we had to run to catch a bus because it was a little longer
than we expected. There is this less active who the elders work with
named Jürgen. He has special needs and wasn't allowed to know that
sisters were back in Coburg until he saw us leave the church last
week. He now has an obsession with us. We try to keep all
conversations short. As we were running to catch the bus we saw
Jürgen! I felt really bad that we had to run and not stop to say hi,
but at the same time was grateful for the tender mercy. I said sorry
and tschüss pretty quick then realized that an even bigger tender
mercy came out of us having to run for the bus. Jürgen was using the
fence he was standing next to as a public toilet. Thank goodness we
had to catch a bus!

Miracle of the week comes from walking home one evening. We were
getting a little closer and this old Oma who always says hi and does a
cool handshake with us saw us. There was this guy walking his bike
next to us and when I saw her comming I was afraid it would put us in
an awkward situation with this guy, but I had a very distinct feeling
that it was a blessing that we were seeing this Oma. So we said hi,
did our handshake and moved on. The guy with the bike was now in from
of us and he had stopped and was waiting for us. He asked us what we
were doing. Within 10 seconds he had a Book of Mormon and we had his
contact info. We then just gave him the opportunity to ask us
questions and we had a super good conversation for like 15 min! It was
so cool! We are super excited to meet with him later.

This week I have been reading a lot in the war chapters in Alma in
both English and German. In both I am right next to each other. The
war chapters are so interesting. You go from having a really spiritual
learning from the chapters where alma teaches his sons to war. But
what has been cool to see us how much the gospel is still in the war
chapters. As I have been reading in German, I have been circling any
time something from the gospel of Jesus Christ has been mentioned:
glaube Umkehr Taufe Geist bis ans Ende ausharren. The are all over the
place. But what is really cool is how much Glauben is used in the
wars. How much faith captain Moroni has and how much faith the nephite
a have as they go into battle. It is really a testimony of how our
faith can help us with all we do.

Sorry for the long email again! Sometimes I have lots to write and
sometimes not! Ich liebe euch!
Liebe
Sister Carroll

I found Toby!!!!!! Only he had a long tail and the owner was not super excited to hear about Jesus Christ. Haha

We found a snake! At first I thought it was just a big worm, but it was totally a snake! Except it moved really weird, like it didn't know how to be a snake or something. 

Oh elders... Although the quote of the week came when we brought cookies to district meeting and elder Rowe said, " I can't I'm allergic to delicious. I'll break out in fat." He still ended up eating 2 cookies. In fact, he is the one standing up. :)

Fall out....

This week was really good and really weird. This week literally
everything fell out. I feel like I say that a lot, but this time I
mean it. If all the appointments happened this week that were supposed
to have, we would have had like 15 appointments this week. But that
didn't happen. And yet somehow we were always busy and still have
ended up with pretty normal numbers. It was cool to see how God was
willing to help us achieve our goals even though he let everything
fall out. He just filled out time with things we were not expecting.
Exciting things that happened this week was that at one point or
another, we all almost died. This week we all, elders included,
decided to try out the bikes. The elders wanted to go by on someone
pretty far so they called and asked to borrow our bikes since they
don't have any. We gave them the keys and let them have an adventure.
When we met up later to get the keys back, they told us how they got
lost and rode into a swamp that was surrounded by plants that hurt
when you touch them. Well the next day we had everything fall out and
decided not only to contact a referral, but to ride our bikes there.
It should have been a really easy ride, and it was except the path we
took took us up a giant hill and into a forest. Bikes fell over
multiple times. Sister Peterson fell over multiple times. Needless to
say it took us like an hour and a half to get there and 15 minutes to
get back. On the way back it was so much fun! I was like flying down
the hill! I was going so fast. But the bottom of the hill turned, so I
had to turn. I skidded all over the place and was positive I was going
to crash super good. I was prepared to crash in the grass, but by some
miracle I survived and was still standing by the end.
In other exciting dying stories this week, we had a street display in
Bamberg! That was actually really fun. The dying part was afterwards
when we were at the church. We had finished cleaning up and were
getting ready to leave and for some reason Sister Peterson was on the
floor. Elder Diederich had a pen and told sister Peterson to close
cover her eyes. For some unknown reason she did. And for some unknown
reason elder Diederich dropped his pen in the middle of her forehead
and now she has a little red dot. Where it hit. The death by pen
doesn't end there. Last night during call ins, I was writing out
memorized scriptures in German as a continuation of my sprach studium
and sister Peterson was talking on the other side of the room on the
phone. She was being annoying so I threw my pen at her, but not super
hard or in an attempt to hurt her, just to scare her. So she threw it
back. Only she threw it so much harder and a lot more exact. Let's
just say that we have gotten comp unity down and have matching red
marks on our foreheads, only hers is more in the middle and mine is
bigger. Luckily we didn't poke anyone's eye out.
Other than just messing around, we actually did some work and there
was some spiritualness to the week. I've learned a lot about
missionary work these last few weeks and I have become very grateful
for  how my mission started. That I learned at the beginning of my
mission that if I want things I make them happen. If I want people on
the street to give me numbers, I ask. If I want new investigators, I
meet with them. Things won't just fall into my lap. If I am working
hard, God blesses me with miracles like that, but if I just wait for
them to it won't. And that is not just for missionary work. When we want
to accomplish something, we need to work for it. Then God will step in
and make it work. With any goal, with any project we want to
accomplish we need to start on our knees and work it out with God and
then we need to get on our feet and work with God. Otherwise, it just
won't get accomplished like we want to.
Sorry for the long email! Too many crazy stories! I hope you all have
a wonderful week! Ich liebe euch!
Liebe
Sister Carroll

The start of our bike adventure

Sister Peterson falling off her bike

A killer lady bug. It was actually really nice, but it just looks evil.

Little Crazy!

This week was a little crazy and all over the place. We had so many
days this week where we got home from a very chaotic and busy day just
to look at our numbers and see that everything that was supposed to go
towards our goals had fallen out and we had all zeros. But somehow at
the end of the week we were still able to have good numbers and not
all zeros. It just showed me this week how much God is in control of
our schedules and what we do.
This week started in Nürnberg on Tuesday with zone training. Since we
are in Coburg, zone things take literally all day so we just did
studies that night, but we had our district leader, elder Diederich in
Coburg on a split with elder Williams, and he decided we needed to
make him cookies. We totally had a bible bash all about how the sister
should make the elders cookies and how the elders needed to be self
sufficient. This actually all happened Monday night, because it
continued on the train ride to Nürnberg. When we got back somehow we
concluded in us making the elders cookies as long as they made dinner
for us. So sister Peterson made some cookies and called the elders,
but they didn't answere. In fact they didn't answer all 20 times she
called. The next morning after morgen sport sister Peterson was
showering and I was falling asleep while reading my scriptures and our
doorbell rings. I open the door and the elders are standing at the
door with breakfast. They had forgotten about making us dinner and
left the phone in a pocket that got put in the closet. They found it
that morning and decided to make breakfast. It was super funny!
Thursday we had district meeting in Bamberg so that took a long time.
Then we were on a split so I ended up with sister Riser in Coburg.
Friday morning we split back because we were supposed to be super busy
Friday, but everything fell out.
Saturday we ran all over the city. What makes us have to run even more
is that we are feeding he cats on one of the members. But we have been
riding our bikes more! So much fun! We ride them to go feed the cats.
Sister Peterson's needs to be fixed, but we can still get places with
them now! We are getting so much better with them.
This week I have been thinking about a lot of different topics, but
something that I have been really thinking about is how important it
is to set goals with God. If we just set goals, we may accomplish
them, but it we set prayerful goals we are able to accomplish them so
much easier! As I was reading in Verkündet mein Evangelium  this
morning I found something really interesting about goals. " The
ultimate measure of success is not in achieving goals alone but in the
service you render and the progress of others. " Our success with
goals is not if we actually accomplish them, as long as we set them
with God and work to accomplish them. Sometimes I feel like
missionaries get so caught up on goals. Every split I have I get asked
about what my goals are. Every call in we are supposed to report on
goals. Goals are good, but success does not lie on the fact that I
accomplish my goals, as long as I am working hard and doing my part to
help others, and that is not just for missionaries either. I thought
that was super cool.
Ich liebe euch! Seht Wunder!
Liebe
Sister Carroll

A Pfingstren Rose

The kitties wait for us to come and feed them :)

A member made these for Gemeinde Essen. He is now my favorite member. His sister watches divine comedy and studio C. They are literally the best.

We went church jumping today since everything was closed. We also hiked to a tower, but it took literally 5 min. This church is super big and has this cool really detailed thing about Christ.

The tower

Happy Mother's Day!

So we may have spent 2 hours in a museum today and only have like 40
min of email time. Oops haha.
This week was really good. We ran into a lot of drunk people this
week. I had like a 40 min conversation with an extremely drunk man who
asked me if he was ugly since he was having trouble getting girls to
talk to him. He then was slightly upset that I only gave him the
church address and not my number. We also had a 20 min conversation
which a really drunk lady. She contacted us and the elders in the
park. She was asking why people who are good die young and alcoholics
live to be like 90. Her friend then commented on how she was an
alcoholic. We also showed up to a lesson with an investigator and she
walked up and the first thing she says is "hi I'm drunk." So much
alcohol.
Other than that we had a pretty normal week. It has been pretty cool.
It was awesome seeing you yesterday! That was so cool! Today we did
the museum at the Veste. Soooooooo cool. So many pictures. Ethan you
would love it. I took all the pictures for you. :)
Ich liebe euch!
Sister Carroll

This is all armor

A baby knight!

Or I was told that it was my size.

So happy to Skype!!!

Mai!!!

This week was actually really good and just full of little miracles.

Not even like miracles that I can explain, just little ways I knew

that God was looking after me.

This week we had some more appointments! It wasn't all just finding!

Still not the amount of appointments I am used to from Bonn or Herne,

but still doing pretty good. We surprised our sister training leaders

with our numbers this week. That was a good feeling.

One cool miracle this week was a lesson. We met his week with a lady

named Gisela. She was meeting with the sisters before and actually had

a baptismal date, but struggles with smoking and some other things.

Our first lesson with her was really awkward because we didn't know

each other and she smoked like 5 times in the lesson. But when we met

this week she only smoked once and it was a super good lesson. We had

made the appointment after our comp study and forgot to plan something

until 2 seconds before walking in the door. As we stopped to plan, her

friend who is usually there with her saw us and invited us in. So we

went in with absolutely no plan. We talked and asked about the week,

how things were going, und so weiter. Then she said something and I

felt like we needed to show the Wille Gottes video about the current

bush. After the video we sat in silence for about 30 seconds. Then her

friend was like, now you probably are going to ask what we thought.

Then the words just came out of my mouth, "not what you thought, what

you felt". From there we were able to talk about gods love and the

atonement and keeping comandments. She really opened up to us and

brought us an addiction recovery book the sisters had given her

before. By the end of the lesson the spirit was so strong and she was

so grateful we came. It was so cool to see that the lord was giving

the lesson, not us.

Another cool thing this week was that one day we had nothing. Like

literally nothing. I mean normally we have nothing, but something

about this day made it seem less than nothing. And yet when we started

the day, I knew we would see miracles. As we went through the day

nothing super big happened. No one committed to be baptized. We didn't

end up with any new investigators. Nothing super special happened. And

yet at the end of the day I knew God had lead our day. At the very end

of our day we were walking home. We had gone to do a vorbei, and

didn't want to wait for the bus, so we walked. Walking wasn't faster,

but it wasn't really slower either :) at the very end of the walk this

man stops us. "Mormons! " he was from Brazil and knew the church

there. I was trying to get his contact information and he proceeded to

tell is his life story. Only I don't think he told it in German and I

don't think it was in Englisch either. And I don't know Portuguese,

but I get this feeling it wasn't Portuguese either. I think it was a

mixture of all three. Didn't understand anything he said. Then his

friend rode by in a bike and he said hi and he friend stopped and we

ended up with his number and he wants to come to church. Super cool.

This week we also learned that your body speaks to you if you hold

your arm up and ask yes or no questions. Aren't relief society

activities so much fun?!

One more quick miracle comes from yesterday. First, we had a member

invite us over for lunch after church. MIRACLE! Haha. But since the

food wouldn't be done for a while she sent us out to do something else

and come back later. So we went contacting with the 9 year old

daughter. That was an adventure. Then we had a lesson with two men who

have a Muslim background. When we contacted the one a few weeks ago,

he really did not seem interested.after rescheduling multiple times we

finally met yesterday. He walked up with his friend, and we honestly

thought they were there to argue with us, just by the way they looked.

Really bad judging the book by the cover, but we did. Then we sat down

and they were so respectful and willing to learn. Some of the nicest

Muslims ever! It was such a cool lesson! And one of them texted us

happy Easter today. That was nice of him. :)

Today I was studying the talk given this last general conference by

elder Renlund. It is called, that I might draw all men unto me. It was

super good and just talks about needed to strengthen our relationship

with Christ. I think my favorite quote was, "To draw closer to the

Savior, we must increase our faith in Him, make and keep covenants,

and have the Holy Ghost with us. We must also act in faith, responding

to the spiritual direction we receive. All of these elements come

together in the sacrament. Indeed, the best way I know of to draw

closer to God is to prepare conscientiously and partake worthily of

the sacrament each week." The sacrament is really something that is

such a wonderful opportunity for us when we use it as that. It is

really hard to do. Especially when the 9 yr old who went contacting

with us sits between us. It can be really hard to make the sacrament

something aufbauendes . But it is such a blessing when we let it clean

us and prepare us to be closer to Christ.

Ich liebe euch! Wir sehen uns Sonntag!

Liebe

Sister Carroll

The Veste at night

Being lost

Dooring

Castle from today. Unfortunately it was closed and we just walked around the outside.