Sister Carroll has arrived!

Erin with President and Sister Stoddard

Dear Carroll Family,

We're happy to inform you that Sister Carroll has arrived safe and sound here in Frankfurt, Germany! She looks great, and we're thrilled to have her Positivity and talents here among us in this mission! She'll change many lives.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Alles Gute,

Germany Frankfurt Mission Office

Last P-day in America!

This time next week I will be in Germany!!!!! I can't beleive it! I'm so scared and excited but I only focus on excited because otherwise I will super scared and that will not be good. This week was awesome. I don't know what made it awesome. It just was. How can it not be awesome. Even when bad things happen, I am just too excited about other things for them to matter! 

Thursday we had TRC and we got to skype members in Germany. I'm going to die when I get to Germany is basically what I learned. We skyped a teenage convert who is getting ready to go on a mission and Sister Roderer did most of the taking then would turn to me and say, "Hey say your testimony of Joseph Smith". Then like 10 min into the lesson, Sister Roderer asked about her conversion story and she spoke for the last 15 min of our lesson. She spoke so fast! I understood like 3 sentences she said. After the fact, Sister Roderer was telling an Elder about our lesson and she said something about her and I was like,"wait she said that?" Then we got back to the classroom and died and attempted to study by osmosis .

Friday we got our flight plans. And somewhere in there I got a package from you gyus. I don't remember if it was friday or saterday. It was awesome. Everyone else got valantiens packages so our classroom was full of candy all week. I think we finially finished it or threw it away yesterday. It was so exciting to get the package. I also got the german for the strength of youth and have used them in multiple of our lessons with Dani. Sister Roderer says thank you. She was really excited. We have so much fun together. Yesterday Bruder Jones mentioned how we would all be getting new companions and both  me and Sister Roderer told him that we were not changing companions because we would be companions forever basically. 

Sunday Sister Roderer played her flute for the departure devotional. She auditioned a few weeks ago and had given up hoping for an opportunity to play. It was really hard on her because that is what she does is play her flute. Then friday afternoon, Sister Bertasso, the MTC Releif society 1st counselor taked to  her personally about playing instead of just sending a letter about it. I was so excited! I think I was more excited that Sister Roderer! I don't know why I was so excited, but I was. She did awesome too. I think all the departing missionaries needed to hear it. It was so cool. 

I leave for Germany next tuesday morning. I will be able to call home!!!! I am so excited! I will call either at the Salt Lake airport or the New York airport. It depends on when we have time, but I will call. I can't wait to talk to you guys! I hope everyone has a good week! I am almost out of time and have to go start packing. We don't get much time for that. :)

Ich liebe dich!!!!!

Sister Erin Carroll

This is our branch. Me and Sister Roderer were not in this one because she was playing her flute. We were in another one, but Brother Waite didn't send it to us. 

My family loves me!

Elder Fletcher messing around with sticky tabs when we supposed to be productive

Us matching on Sunday. Me and Sister Sant were opposites!

This is us after TRC skype last week. Yep....

Elder Moore and Elder Fletcher "Studying" Elder Moore likes his tie :)  Our ongoing joke is that we are "writing in our journals when we are actually taking a nap. Elder Moore, with the tie, reminds me a lot of Patrik. :)

MTC Week 4

I feel like so many things happened this week and yet nothing super exciting to write about. Last wednesday after I emailed Sister Roderer had lots of practices for all her musik stuff. So I got to listen to her play her flute and the piano for like 2 hours. It was cool. While she was practicing a guy named Brian came to listen. There are people her at the MTC that have gold name tags that are supposed to be non members. Some are and others are actually members, we just don't know and assume all are non members. Brian was a gold tag person. It was really cool to talk to him and the musik made him just cry for like 5 min. He was telling us a story when all the sudden he broke character and told us he was a member and all this cool stuff about his mission and how he has used what he learned after his mission. It was so cool!

Thursday we had TRC again and the lesson was actually pretty good. My German is getting a lot better. I can feel how much easier it is to express myself, but at the same time I still feel so lost with the language. Its a wierd feeling. I think when Heavenly Father wants me to feel confident He helps me, but all the other times I just have to work for it. Tomarrow we get to go to the Skype lab and teach people who are actually in Germany. I just know I will not be able to understand anything. But that's ok because Sis Roderer will be able to. :)

On Thursday Sister Roderer and Sister Sant also auditioned for a musical number at one of the many devotionals. They did so awesome! Sis Sant has an amazing voice. It reminds me of Jamie's. She sang consider the lilies and the MTC releif society presidency just loved it! She was able to sing for the incomming senior missionaries on Monday. It was so cool and Sister Roderer played for her so I got to go too. The spirit was so strong. 

I have also seen Colton or Elder Honey multiple times. I think it's funny because everytime I see him he is lost and I have to give him directions. I also talked to someone from my mission prep class yesterday. It is cool to see people here that I saw at BYU. It's been fun. 

Our lessons with Dani and Guenther are getting lots better. We plan awesome lessons then go in and teach something so different. I am so grateful for scripture mastery and the scripture mastery card because it is really hard to answere a question with a scripture when I can't understand the scripture. Luckily any scripture mastery will be good and will not say anything weird. I can trust that. Me and Sister Roderer are getting so good at working together. It is the coolest thing ever! Guenther askes a question I turn to a scripture, look over at Sister Roderer and she is also at the same scripture! No words exchanged! It was also cool that in class we were all teaching Sister Garlick as a district just for practice and I couldn't think of anything to say. Then Sister Roderer shared a scripture and I knew exactly how to build off of her and testify of what she was saying. We totally took over the lesson because we just built off eachother. Even our personal goals are in sync! It is so cool. I don't think I have ever felt inspiration so strong and I know it is inspiration because Sister Roderer has the same ideas as I do! It is so cool!

I don't really know what else so say. It was a really good normal week. Sister Roderer has had a hard week though so if you could keep her in your prayers that would be good. This morning has been pretty rough for her, and it doesn't help that she is getting a cold.

I love you guys so much! Thanks for all the letters! I love hearing from you!

Liebe

Sister Erin Carroll

Oh I forgot. Tomorrow I get my flight plans! I only have 1 more p-day in America! Its so exciting! I can't wait to go! But then I also remember that in Germany I will have a new companion and I really like Sister Roderer so that will be sad. We have so much fun together. This week for service we chased each other down the hallway with vacumns. It was fun! 

Also read Moroni 7:31 and some of the verses around it. It is cool to think that for others we can be the angels it is taliking about and if we are angels, then we have the same ministry of angels. Cool right?

Pictures from our service last week that Sister Helmick sent me

The first and last time probably me and sis Roderer matched

My awesome name tag and German scriptrures with the cool ribbons the elders gave us!

My 2 packages I got from Grandma and Grandpa Starr and Madison. Grandma and Grandpa also sent candy, but that stayed in the classroom. I need something to throw at sleeping Elders and they prefer it if they can eat it afterwards. :)

Pretending to study. We posed for this pic, so you could know what it looked like to study in our classroom. :)

Yay for selfies...

Half way to Germany!

I think I expirienced every emotion possioble this week. On Wednesday after emailing I fell asleep while writting letters and to wake me up Sister Roderer and Sis. neilson put an alarm clock by my head. I was so terrified when I woke up. I almost fell off the bed. It was so funny!

We started TRC this week. That is where we teach members as members. In German. One of the members we taught knows Lucy Barny! It totally made my day to hear that! It was so good. We do TRC every Thursday. Next Week we get to go to the Skype lab and teach people who are actually in Germany! I'm excited but scared. Those lessons are hard to prepare for because it is a whole different mindset of what the person needs. Thursday I also got a package from Madison! Lets just say it came at I time when I really needed it. It made my day. It is a really cool journal with letters in it and I think it is the coolest thing ever! All the sisters in my district really like it and they all want to read the letters. They also make sure I don't read them all at once. They are awesome!

This Friday I got to meet Sis Roderer's brother. He got home a week ago and the MTC lets missionaries who overlap set up a time to see each other. It was cool and Sister Roderer was way excited. On Friday Sis Sant and Sis Neilson both got packages. Sister Sant's was full of tons of candy and food. We shared with all the districts multiple times. I almost got trampled by the elders in district B. It was way fun! Sis Neilson got German CTR rings! THere were enough for the whole district! It is so cool! We all match. The elders were so excited about them! She also got German Article of Faith cards for all of us!  The elders were so excited about the CTR rings and so happy because Me and Sister Roderer got them all little presents last week that they got us cool German ribbons for our scriptures. I forgot to take a picture so maybe next week. I want to get some for my Bibel so then I will have matching ones. 

Saterday we did service again and we cleaned the showers. We started by having a photo shoot and getting the lady in charge of cleaning to laugh really hard at us. Then we used a hose and some cool foaming stuff to power wash the showers. Not really but we pretended. The other sisters where laughing at us. It was really fun. Saterday was a hard day. I am having a really hard time with the lessons. Speciically I have a really hard time teaching the Plan of Salvation. I don't know why, because that is one of my favorite things. I have a really hard time thinking of ways to convey my feelings for the Plan even in English so I think to have to do it in German is too overwhelming. Saterday was rough. 

But then everything was ok because Sunday was fast sunday! We had a "Mission Conference" for 2 hours but I didn't want it to end. I took 4 pages of notes! It was sooooooo good. Things were said and taught that I didn't even know I needed to hear! That keeps happening here. I go to devotionals or firesides and think, "I don't know how this will help me" and then they start speaking and I am just amazed at how hard everything hits me. They also called new sister training leaders and switched up the junior/senior companions. I don't have to interveiw the sisters this week! Interviews are so stressful and you have to be able to read people and it is not my skillset. But now I don't have to do it! the new sister leaders are sister peterson and sis helmick. Sister Helmick is a convert and the only member in her family. They are both so cool. I love them both so much and I know that they will be perfect for the job! And it's not me anymore so that is good too. It was a neat expirience though and it was cool to find ways to become friends with the other sisters. I  think Me and sister Roderer really were able to bring us all together as friends. 

Sunday night we watched Legacy. Every Sunday we can choose a movie to watch from like 4 provided so we watched Legacy. Have you guys seen it? Well there is a sort of love story in it and it should not be shown to missionaries. Everyone laughed so hard and they had to tell us to be reverent. It was so funny. Sunday night was also sad. Elder Terrell went home. We didn't get to say goodby and we really don't know the reason for it other than he needed to work things out. Talk about a kill joy. 

Monday you could feel the sadness. Everyone stayed happy and positive but especially when we had to tell Sis Garlick what happened with Elder Terrell, you could feel that everyone was just a little down. Monday we taught 2 lessons! We taught Dani and Guenther! It was cool and we got Dani to commit to be baptized! It was so fun! Ican't wait to go to German and to teach people for real!

So many other awesome things happened, butI'm almost out of time! I love you all! Ihr habt ein ganz tolles Woche! (terrible German sorry)

Liebe 

Sister Erin Carroll

My cool markings in my new German Scriptures

Me and Sister Jeppson Wearing the exact same clothes.

Me and sister Roderer and the new Sister training leaders Sister Helmick and Sister Peterson

All the sisters in our branch

Our district at the temple on sunday

Sister Helmick photo Bombing our district picture

Me and Elder Jenson who is really tall. Plus everyone else who is photo bomming because we are not allowed to be in pictures with just elders. Sister Sant really wanted a picture of the contrast

All the sisters in my district with our cool WDR rings!

Our service project on Saterday. We got to clean the showers. It was the best! We used a hose! I can't take serious pictures. Can't you tell?

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