Christmas in Herne

This week was a pretty good week. We had transfers this week and me
and Sister Schuring are staying together! That means I get to have
Christmas here with the awesome members in Herne. It will be awesome!
This week we had some pretty fun adventures.
We learned how to call the police in Germany. That was an adventure.
We went to invite people to our ward Weihnachtsfest and a lady stopped
us and had us call the police for her. Apparently her Mann had just
hit her and ran off with her purse. Some girls helped us out and we
called the police and helped her find her Mann. So much for contacting
that night.
We also had a wWiehnachtsfeier! It was so much fun. A little weird,
but our phone didn't stop ringing the whole time! We had a whole bunch
of people show up. And most of them were invited by our investigators!
We had an Albanian table and an Indian table and a random African
table with guys that no one knew why they came, but we welcomed them
anyway. It was super fun! And stressful. But that's ok.
Yesterday after church we decided to go visit an investigator who
slept in and missed church. Her name is Sahitya and she is from India.
We got there and she had made us this huge meal! It was so good and
soooooooo much food. It made me think of Athi. She would have made us
similar food. What was funny though was that she gave us cola which
has caffeine in it and my body that has had caffeine a total of maybe
once thought that was interesting. Sitting still and focusing during
studies afterwards did not happen. :) there is a reason I don't drink
caffeine.
Also this week we set a baptismal date with Andre! He wants to read
the whole Book of Mormon first but he is already done with 2 Nephi and
who knows, maybe Jacob by now. He is way cool and really wants to make
sure he is done no the right thing. He asked us what the covenant was
that he would make when he got baptized. Looks like we need to go over
lesson three with him.
Today we were in Dortmund again at the Christmas Markt. It is so cool!
I got some cool stuff. And we just enjoyed everything in the Markt. It
is a lot cooler when it isn't raining. But because we spent so much
time in the Christmas Markt I don't have much time so.... Hope you
have a good week! Ich liebe euch!
Liebe
Sister Carroll

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Pretty sunrise. This was probably like 9 in the morning.

German ward Christmas party

German ward Christmas party

Sahitya

Andre

Happy thanksgiving!

This weird thing happens where we do lots of things and stay busy all
week then I sit down to email and I think "we did nothing this week."
But that's ok. I'll do my best to remember.
Tuesday night and Wednesday I was in Duisburg for a split with he
sister training leader. That was super fun. When we got there that
night it was snowing! Tuesday was super cold but it didn't really snow
in Herne. But in Duisburg it was snowing! That was super cool.
Wednesday night we got back to Herne just in time for dinner with the
JD or YW. It was super fun!
Thursday was thanksgiving! We didn't do anything special. But we
decided that since no one invited us over we would go to Bochum and
get dinner at the Weihnachtmarkt. There we actually met an American
family so we got to wish them a happy thanksgiving. Then we had
bratwurst for dinner. It was an awesome thanksgiving. Then we took a
poster around Bochum that said "wofür sind wir dankbar?" And we asked
everyone what they were thankful for and had them write it on sticky
notes and put it on the poster. It was awesome! We had people just so
grateful that we had asked them to think about that.
Thursday we also had Lebenshilfe which is a service project we do
every other week. I forgot to mention it last time. We go and we sing
with people who have special needs. It is so cool because since it is
Christmas time we sing Christmas songs! In German! I love it so much!i
think it is basically my favorite thing ever.
Friday we had the coolest lesson ever! Andre, the police officer I
think I mentioned earlier, has enjoyed meeting with us. We have just
assumed it was to practice his English. We asked him last week to be
baptized and his response was that he had already been baptized.mwe
met with him this week and this time brought a member who used to be a
police officer. He explained the concept of authority in police terms.
It was such a cool lesson. It started with Andre having amazing
comments on scriptures he had read that fit perfect with our Thema.
Then the member, who is known for just talking and talking and talking
about whatever he feels like, stayed quiet until we asked him to
explain authority. In the end Andre turned to us and said. That makes
sense. I understand now. He is willing to get baptized once he knows
the Book of Mormon is true, which is hopefully soon because he read
like 5 chapters in one day.
Sunday was the Erste Advent that means that there are 4 weeks until
Christmas. It is really a cool concept that I learned about. Germans
celebrate each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas as a way to
look forward to Christ's coming. That plus the new Christmas video
came out! Did you watch it. It gets better every time you watch it.
Yesterday I was just so excited about Christ! He is really so amazing!
He is our savior and at his time of the year we really get to think
about that and share that with so many people. My favorite part of the
new video is when they say freut euch! Or rejoice! What better reason
to rejoice than because of Christ! Not even just because of his birth
or his death, but just because of him! He is amazing! I am so greatful
for Christ and this amazing time of the year.
Now that thanksgiving is over Weihnachten can officially start! Frohe
Weihnachten!
Ich liebe euch
Sister Carroll
#EinErretterIstGeboren

Dinner with the JDs

Our grateful sign

Bruder Golnick teaching Nan how to play piano

Lunch with Nan

The thanksgiving dinner

Dortmund Weihnachtsmarkt

Dortmund Weihnachtsmarkt

What happens when elders get sisters' iPads.

Weihnachtmarkt

I'm not really sure what we did this week. Nothing super amazing this week. It was cold. The Weihnachtsmarkt in Bochum opened this Thursday and we spent our dinner stunde on Saturday walking around. It was so cool! And really cold. But super cool! 

We were able to meet with Nan this week. She is super cool! We lost contact with her for the first half of the week, but we met on Saturday and she came to church on Sunday. She is amazing. It is so cool to hear her testimony, even though we don't know her super well. Although we are thinking we might move her baptism to next week because we have only met with her once and we won't be able to meet with her until Wednesday at the earliest. Plus he ward doesn't know she is getting baptized yet..... But she will get baptized!

We had a potential investigator call us this week. When we met with him he told us he needs our help. He wants us to find him a girl friend. He didn't want us to be his girlfriend, which was good, but he does want us to help him find someone. That was a really funny appointment!

We had zone training this week in Dortmund. It was really funny actually. You remember last time when we got called the night before for a Thema? Well this time we didn't get called! However when we got there, the zone leader announced, " now sister Schuring will give a Thema on the elders quorum". We thought it was a joke. Then we realized it wasn't a joke. Although it was still really funny.

Today we went to Essen and saw the Christmas Markt! It was so cool! I thought it was really cool. Everyone else thought it wasn't super cool. I just liked the whole Christmas aspect of it. I wish we could just live at the Christmas Markt! 

 This week we had a conference for all the Gemeinde rats or ward councils in the Europe area. Elder Ballard spoke along with the area presidency. One of the speakers said, " magnify does not mean to multiply. It often means to simplify." I though that was really cool. I also thought that went really good with what I have been studying this week. This week faith in Christ keeps showing up in my studies. Not just faith, but faith in Christ. There is a difference. Faith is simply who you trust. It builds confidence and helps us move forward in life. Faith in Christ, however is the thing that brings us to eternal salvation. We can't just have faith in God and hope to be saved. We need to have faith in our savior. That he is who he says he is and can do what he says he can do. Only faith in our Savior can bring us closer to him and help us reach the goal we have had all along.

Another thing mentioned at this conference that I thought was really funny was by Elder Ballard. He talked about how if we think we can get out of missionary work by dying, we are wrong. He said that the missionary work on the other side is no different than it is here. So he suggested that we get started now doing missionary work. He wants us to practice for the next life. I wish I had the actual quote because it was pretty funny, but I thought that was an interesting thought I wanted to share from what I learned this week.

 This week has been pretty good. Long and not super super eventful, but still good. Christmas is showing up everywhere and I love it! And it is starting to get really cold. Yesterday me and sister Schuring found ice ! My hands were also pretty red and numb. But I love it! 

I hope you all have wonderful weeks! Christmas video comes out Sunday! Make sure you watch it! And simplify don't multiply

Ich liebe euch!

Liebe

Sister Carroll 

Bochum Weihnachtmarkt

Essen Weihnachtmarkt

Essen Weihnachtmarkt

She said she was tired :)

Add caption

Poor Elders

This week was so long! Not really in a bad way. It was just long. I
love seeing miracles everywhere that just prove that God is looking
out for you. This week we got kicked out of the Uni by security
guards, got rained on, got some autographs from some famous police
officers, Skyped with an investigator in the alpine mission, got
rained on some more, ran into a protest, helped out freezing elders
and set a baptismal date! So much excitement and so many stories!

The security guards and the rain are pretty self explanatory. The
autographs came from an investigator. He likes sister Schuring. He is
also the chief Polizist in Bochum. Some of the officers under him do a
television show and are very famous apparently. He was so shocked that
we didn't know them. But he got us their autographs anyway. He is
pretty cool, but he also calls sister Schuring Lindsay so...... The
elders might end up with him.

The skype and the baptismal date go together. Did I tell you about Nan?
She lives in Bochum which is in our area. She went on vacation for
like 3 weeks somewhere in the alpine mission and met the missionaries.
She loved what she learned and set a baptismal date with them. But
then she had to come back to Bochum for work and school. She still has
the baptismal date for 28th November. It was awesome because president
called us and told us about her. Then the sisters called us and we set
up a Skype appointment. Then we Skyped with her to meet her and let
her get to know us. Then she showed up in Bochum on Saturday! We are
so excited for her. She is super nice and she has a baptismal date!
That was literally God handing us a baptism.

The protest and the freezing elders semi go together. Really the
protest was nothing big. It was funny timing. Friday night we had an
appointment with a member then German class where some potentials were
supposed to come to. During the appointment we got like a million
calls from the elders and some pretty good voice mails. Turns out they
left their key to the church at home and waited outside the church for
more than 2 hours in the cold until we showed up. The messages were
along the lines of, we are dying! Then the next day we were planning
on doing a finding activity in Bochum just before Nan was coming. We
got there and there were no elders. And there was a really big
protest. We called them and they didn't answers. So we did finding by
ourselves for a minute before trying to call them again. Later we got
a call from a random number that ended up being the elders using a pay
phone to find us. Turns out they accidentally locked themselves out of
he apartment with only €5 and their bus passes. Somehow we found them
and got them hot chocolate because they were sad. Then they used our
phone to call the zone leaders to get a spare key. They went to
Dortmund, still with only €5, and we spent time with Nan. Later we had
a voice mail from them using a pay phone in Dortmund telling us they
had just used the last of their money and were stranded in Dortmund.
We called the zone leaders and assumed they had made it back and
gotten to the church for their appointment, we went there and brought
apples for them. After their appointment we all went home. At like
10:15 we get a call from the elders. They had finally made it into the
apartment. Apparently the key didn't work and they had to wait for the
Hausmeister to get home. Poor elders. They are grateful for pdays.

Through all the craziness this week we did see lots of miracles. Today
I was reading president Uchtdorfs talk from women's session. Aunt Rose
says, "You see, everything else in the gospel--all the shoulds and the
musts and the thou shalts --lead to love" and I think that is so true.
Everything we are told not to do or to do, weather they be
commandments or the white handbook, are to help us love others
better. That better love helps us serve them more and bring them
closer to Christ. I thought that was really cool. I love how so much
of the gospel is love.
I hope you all have a good week! See miracles! Ich liebe euch!
Liebe
Sister Carroll

Dinner appointment at the Roths yesterday

Long, but good!

Sorry for the mix up with the emails last week. We went to Essen for
pday and missed the train back to Herne. Then we finally got to the
church at like 5:30 and had all the emails written up and the wifi
wasn't working, so when we tried to send the emails it wouldn't work.
Then I guess I found wifi later in the week, because then it sent
them. We didn't do anything special for pday. We just had dumb wifi.
But now the church has really really fast wifi. It is super nice.
This week we did a lot of finding. Which made the week really long, but
it ended good and with 4 new investigators. One day we decided to go
contacting at a Friedhof or cemetery. We stopped a guy who was leaving
and he told us he had no interest but kept asking questions.  Sister
Schuring tried to get his number and he was like, well can we just
meet now? So we went in the Freidhof and he gave us a very long and
interesting history lesson. It was super  cool. Apparently the
building at the Friedhof had been built by nazis and you could still
see their influence on it. Then as we walked around we shared the
restoration. He took a Book of Mormon at the end. We didn't get any
contact info, but it was still way cool.
Another cool lesson was yesterday. We had a lesson with this guy named
Benedict. I met him like a month ago and he finally agreed to let us
come by. We showed up and him and his wife sat down with us. We asked
if he had read and he was like, I haven't read a lot. Then he
proceeded to tell us basically the story of 1 Nephi and 3 Nephi 11 to
the end of 3 Nephi. It was so cool! He and his wife had so many
questions for us and both of them loved the Book of Mormon.
Last miracle of a his week. We had been contacting ALL DAY. We were so
tired and my German was broken. So we decided it was time for dinner
and a Pause. We sat down to eat and we're just finishing up when an
unknown number called us. Sister Schuring answered and the guy on the
other end said. You gave me this book. I need your help. I am Muslim.
I want to change my religion. Can you help me change my religion? We
were like natürlich and tried to set up an appointment. Turns out this
guy lives in Frankfurt, but he used to live in Bochum which is right
by Herne. We had met him in Bochum and given him a Book of Mormon and
he had read it and really liked it. We gave his number to the Frankfurt
elders and called him a few days afterwards to make sure he understood
what happened ( limited  English and no Deutsch ). He told us about
the man in Frankfurt who called him and how they had met. He then
thanked us for all the help and told us how happy he was that we had
helped him find this religion. It was so cool!
I love seeing how the Book of Mormon touches people's lives. It is
just a book, and yet it is so much more. This week I have been
studying about Ammon and his missionary work. It is so cool to read
about people who are doing the same thing. I really like the story of
Aaron. He goes to do missionary work and he sees no success. In fact
he gets thrown in prison. Then his brother comes with his neue bekehrt
to save him. Then he goes back to his whole town of neue bekhrts. I
think if I was Aaron I would be feeling pretty down. No success and
someone else is having so much success that he can come and save you
from your unseccess. I think something that is so hard just as people
in general is to compare ourselves. This week Elder Heiner shared a
quote with us. It was " Differences are to be celebrated not
calculated" I like how Aaron didn't calculate the differences between
him and his brother. Instead he celebrated it and was happy for him. I
am so grateful for differences. If everyone was like me, missionary
work would not get done. But there are others who fill in my
weaknesses. Who fill in the gaps.
I love you all so much! I hope you have a wonderful week!
Ich liebe euch!
Sister Carroll

Yes that is Darth Vader.

FALL

Kartoffel fest!

Our Halloween treats

Me and sister Schuring

The man at the Friedhof told us that this was evidence of the Nazis.
Do you see the nazi symbol?

SANTA!!!!! Weihnachten!

This is what happens when you go shopping with elders..... Best
shopping pday ever!

Happy Halloween!

Wow this week. I'm not really even sure all that happened this week.
Sister Helmick said goodbye to people and packed. Wednesday we ended
up in Dortmund because sister Helmick had to take a bus early so we
overnights with the Dortmund sisters. The Düsseldorf sisters were also
there because transfers are confusing and crazy so we had 6 of us in
their apartment. It was really fun. The next day sister Helmick left
and me and Sister Jeppsen who is also from my MTC group who serves in
Düsseldorf and was waiting for her new companion got left to roam
Dortmund by ourselves. We ended up with about 2.5 hours of finding in
a city that neither of us knew with no Bücher Mormon and literally 10
cards. First we attempted to find Bahnhof. That took us about 30. Then
we went on a search for Kinder eggs because why not. Then Sister
Jeppsen made some phone calls. Then we attempted finding and didn't
get much done because we got lost. Then the Dortmund elders called us
to have us come to Bahnhof and we had to find our way. Finally we
found Dortmund Bahnhof and our new companions! It was quite the
adventure.
My new companion is Sister Schuring. She is from Utah and has 2
transfers left. This one then one more. She is really cool. We have
had so much fun.
We started out our companionship with 2 street displays. We had one in
Gelsenkirchen for some elders in our district. Then we had one in
Bochum for us. It was way awesome! We ended up with 8 numbers from the
one in Bochum! Although one of the numbers I called yesterday the guy
remembered me as the hübsch klein Amerikanerin (pretty little American). We will see what
happens with that. He wants to meet to talk about Indians.
Saturday was Halloween! Normally I don't like Halloween. But i think
this year was the best Halloween ever! We had a ward Kartoffel (potato) fest.
So we spent the morning inviting people to it. Then we went and
someone we met at the street display randomly showed up and a  random
family we invited! It was so cool! We had lots of really yummy food
and they had marshmallows to roast for the kids. The best was the
random guy from the street display. He came up to me while roasting
marshmallows and he was like, "these are so good! I tried one not on
the fire and it was good. Then I did one on the fire and it was so
much better!" I then explained the concept of s'mores and I just about
blew his mind. He was going to go home and google it.
After Kartoffel fest we had about an hour and it takes like half an
hour to get home. We didn't really know what to do but just started
walking with the elders. Elder Heiner really really really wanted to
go trick or treating and somehow convinced us to do just one door.
Halloween is not super big in Germany, but some people still get into
it. Instead of saying trick or treat you say süß oder sauer (sweet or sour). We got
let in and got some candy! Then elder Heiner was like, "thank you for
giving us something. Can we give you something? It's called the Book
of Mormon." It was so awesome! We totally did a bunch of other doors.
We gave out 3 Bücher Mormon and a restoration pamphlet! And we got
candy! Even when we got rejected we still got candy! Best way to door
ever. Too bad Halloween isn't more often. It makes dooring so much
more fun.
This week I was studying in Alma. Right when Alma has started his
mission. It is really cool to see what he does. He goes from a very
successful area, Melek to a very unsuccessful area, Ammoniha. It was
really interesting to read and see just how he reacts. I loved what
the angel tells him when he tries to transfer himself. "15 Blessed art
thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast
great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the
commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first
message from him." Basically don't worry about it. You are doing your
best. The success will come. Maybe you won't see it, but as long as
you work hard you will be successful. I thought that was really cool.
Wow sorry for such a long email! We just had a fun week! So many weird
things! Ich liebe euch! Danke für alles! (Thank you for all) Seht vielen Wundern diese
Woche! (See many miracles this week!)
Liebe
Sister Carroll

Transfer Calls

This week was pretty good. I got a cold this week so I don't remember
many details. Plus I feel like most of my week has been defined by
Saturday and yesterday. But before we get to that, I have to tell
about two new investigators we found! We got a referral from the Essen
sisters and hadn't had time to go by on the lady until this week. We
went by and she answered the door and before we could even say
anything she was like, " oh you are from Jesus! I have been waiting
for you!" We went in and had a really good lesson about the Book of
Mormon. Then we set up a return appointment. As we went to leave she
mentioned that we should talk to her neighbor too. She said at he was
Christian and they all went to the same church. We thought that was
cool and planned to go by. As we walked out the door, he was right
there, so we started talking. He was really excited we were from Jesus
as well. We talked in the hall for a minute. Then we all turned around
and went back into the apartment we had just left and we had another
lesson about who we were and the Book of Mormon. We also set up a
return appointment with him! It was so cool!
Friday we had a street display and I talked to a lot of people. That
was also went my cold started getting bad so Saturday morning I had no
voice.
Saturday we had transfer calls. Me and sister Helmick weren't too
worried about transfers. We figured we would stay together. We had
only been together for one transfer and sister Helmick has only been
in Herne for 2 transfers. We are all listening to transfer calls and
they announce the Herne sisters and say that I will be getting a new
companion. That was a surprise. Then we find out that sister Helmick
is going to Mannheim with sister Roderer! Let's just say chaos erupted
as we heard that. And our day after transfer calls consisted of a
baptism for the elders investigator and one of our investigators
crying when she heard sister Helmick and elder Vogel were leaving.
Then sister Helmick packed.
Sunday we had church and we were supposed to sing in church, but
sister Helmick wouldn't let me because I still sort of didn't have a
voice. After church the elders asked what we had planned for the rest
of the day and sister Helmick responded, " well sister Carroll needs
to rest because she is sick so I will probably be packing." Let's just
say we went home and she rested and I studied.
So this week I forgot to ponderize. But this morning I studied alma 5
which is way good. I love the testimony alma gives at the end of the
chapter. But what I think is so cool is what Alma says in the last
verse. He says, "62 I speak by way of command unto you that belong to
the church; and unto those who do not belong to the church I speak by
way of invitation, saying: Come and be baptized unto repentance, that
ye also may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life."
I think it is so cool the two groups he distinguishes. Members and non
members. He notes that it is a commandment for us as members to repent
and act on our baptismal covenants. He then says that it is an
invitation for nonmembers, which is all it can be. And it never hurts
to just invite. I think everyone should read that chapter. It is super
good. And it is pretty good in German as well.
Hope everyone has a wonderful week! And sees miracles! Ich liebe euch!
Liebe
Sister Carroll

Sister Nowak sent me a birthday present! She is so cool!

Look at all the colors!!!!!