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.

Chaos and Snow!

This week was just chaotic! And yet it wasn't super strange. And it was really fun. This week we have done lots and lots and lots of walking. At the beginning of this week we would get home at night and our feet would just be so tired and our legs would not work any more. We just have done a lot of street contacting in order to get more investigators so we actually have someone to teach. This week sister Peterson also got sick so we did spend about an hour Wednesday inside because I made her take a nap. She was only going to sleep for  20 min, and she even set an alarm, but she turned it off and kept sleeping. 

Thursday I went to Nürnberg! We had a split with our sister training leaders. We got up at 6 to catch a train at 6:30 to meet them so me and Sister John could get back in time for a service project. Coburg is in the middle of noewhere! But we had a really fun service project where we did farm work. And Nürnberg has public transportation that actually works! Friday we had Zone Training and afterwards we had interveiws with President. It was actually really fun, but we didnt even leave until 6 so we didnt get home until like 8:30. So much for dinner! Saterday we had some appointments, but they all fell out. So we spent the whole day helping a member clean out the church building. And when I say clean out, I mean move all the junk around to make it look organized. Not necessarily the best missionary day ever, but it was fun and we wore jeans the whole day! 

Yesterday was probably the highlight of the week. Yesterday we met with a guy named Bramuel. He had met with the sisters before they left, and is really just looking for truth. It was such a spiritual lesson and it was just really fun. Also yesterday it snowed. Can't get much better than that. :)

Today we spent the day doing errands. I have successfully had to fix something with the shower in three different missionary appartments. We had cleaning checks this week, which was fun because the Ehepaar who does them is from the military area so we got peanutbutter and root beer. But since there have not been sisters in our appartment for a while, we also got a lot of nit picky things that we have to get fixed. Like the kitchen sink and the shower head. So today we called the Hausmeister and went to Obi to buy a new shower head. I even installed it myself! Although last time I fixed a shower, it just caused more problems, so I'll keep you updated. :)

This week my studies have really just been focused on the Book of Mormon. This week I made it through Jakob. Jakob 5 is really so interesting. I think you could just spend so much time learning so much from it. I love how in the alegory, Der Herr des Weingartens (The Lord of the Vineyard) is really so willing to work with the Knecht (servants). He doesnt just tell them to go and work, but he tells them, "Come, I love these trees and together we can see the fruit come. And it won't just be my fruit, but we will all rejoyce together." It just really makes you think about how we are the Lords hands. But we are not Sklaven (slaves), we are Knecht (servants). We work together with the Lord and together we accomplish so much. He is not going to force us to do anything for him, but he does ask that we help, and we dont need a nametag to help the Lord with his work. We can do it in so many different ways. 

I hope you all have a fantastic week! See miracles! Be the Lords hands!

Ich liebe euch!

Sister Carroll

Sister Peterson did not appreciate the snow like I did.

The shower I fixed

Wow!

Wow this week! This week has really been such an adventure. So last
Monday after we emailed, we had familie home evening. We had lots of
people show up to say good bye. I hadn't told Andre yet that I was
leaving, because I honestly thought he wouldn't care. He walks in we
are talking and he asks what is new. I say I am leaving. He yelled in
shock and told me I wasn't allowed to leave until July. Poor Andre.
Later that night, Shahira wanted to throw cake at elder Crossley and I
because we were leaving. Well she got elder Crossley, but Samson had
the other cake for me and decided sister Baker needed it more than I
did. That was hilarious.
Tuesday we traveled to Frankfurt. Since sister Baker is training she
had to be in Frankfurt to pick up her new missionary. And since the
only one who knows where our apartment was at in Coburg was Elder
Hudson who was also training, me and sister Peterson got to hang out
in Frankfurt for a day. We got there just in time to eat dinner with
the new missionaries. It was really fun! I saw elder Fisher only it
was really hard to call him elder fisher. And we didn't get a picture
because we were dumb. Oops. We were able to be there for when the new
missionaries got paired with their trainers, so I got to see who
sister baker was training. Then they all left and me and sister
Peterson awkwardly sat alone in the Frankfurt church building until
the Frankfurt STLs came to save us. Then we spend the night with them
and the next morning went to catch our train. We got to Bahnhof and
had lots of time. Next thing we know we have 4 min before our train
leaves. So we run to the train which happened to get moved gleises. We
asked the train lady if it was the right one. She told us yes then
slammed the door in our faces and the train drove away. So our trip to
Coburg was already off to a good start. After forever of traveling
with 8 suitcases and one box of treats from Australia ( elder Hudson
is training elder Williams who is from Australia and who got a package
for his first week in Germany) we finally made it out to the middle of
nowhere aka Coburg. Then we walked to our apartment, dropped
everything off, and helped the elders get to their apartment.
Something really cool about Coburg is that is isn't flat like Herne.
That is really cool except for the fact that when you are carrying 3
suitcases and a heavy box, it is not fun. We finally made it to their
apartment then they had an appointment so they ditched us. We found
our way back to the city center where the busses where. Elder Hudson
told us just to get on a bus to Bahnhof and walk from there, because I
could remember that. We saw that we had to wait 10 min for a bus, so
we decided to walk. Bad idea. After wandering around Coburg for like
30 min we finally found Bahnhof and headed home, except we had nothing
in our apartment so we went shopping. ( elder Hudson told us that they
got the essentials for us.... Toilet paper. ) then we finally made it
home and started unpacking and checking out the apartment. We finally
remembered we needed dinner at like 8:30.
Thursday we had district meeting in Bamburg. Well the train lines
between a part of our area and Bamburg are being repaired, so we took
a 20 train and then a 30 min bus to Bamburg. Then we had district
meeting and had to get back and still had had no studies. We ended up
doing a hour of contacting because we were so done just sitting.
Really the rest of the week was just contacting. Miracle of the week:
we had an appointment yesterday after church! His number was in our
phone and when we Called him he answered with, sister watkins!!!!! It
was still an appointment so...
Other miracle of the week! We had someone at church! We met this guy
on the street. The conversation was literally 2 seconds, but we got
his number and called him about church and he came! It was awesome!
Now we just need to meet with him...
Other cool things about Coburg:
We have bikes!
      Problem: they are big bikes.
      Solution: we lowered the seats
     Problem: we don't know German bike laws
      Solution: we have a split with the sister training leaders this
week who know Coburg better
than we do and can show us how to use bikes and buses

There are castles everywhere! And because it is summer they are open
on Mondays!
It looks like a miniature Bonn! It is so cool
The washer is in the apartment! I don't need to have my companion with
me when i want to wash my clothes.

Basically this week has just been an adventure. Lots of contacting.
Lots of finding. Lots of getting lost. We haven't really been much
farther than the church yet so I'm sure we will get even more lost
this next week!
This week I read the talk by elder Oaks about  opposition. It was
really good. It is amazing how much we need opposition in order to be
able to use our agency. I think my favorite part thought was not
something in his actual talk. It was in the foot notes. A quote.
"Learning how to lose gracefully is not only a civil duty; it is a
religious imperative. God designed mortality to ensure opposition in
all things. Setbacks and defeats are part of his plan for our
perfection.... Defeat plays an integral role in our 'quest for
perfection'"
I thought it was such a cool though. We need to to have defeat in
order for us to reach perfection. I thought that was such a cool idea.

Well this week was a really long email. Weird not normal. Ich liebe euch!
Sister Carroll

I found Germany!!!

Coburgers in Coburg

Coburg! We went to that castle on the hill today :)

Me and sister Peterson in the castle

Coburg!

This week. I'm sure lots happened this week, but I can really only
remember this weekend. Miracle of the week comes actually from the
elders. We learned this week that God works in mysterious ways. The
elders have this investigator named Sylvia. She met with missionaries
a long time ago and told them eventually that she would call them when
she was ready to be baptized. Well last transfer she was ready and
called the elders. They met which her and she has really the desire to
be baptized. The problem was that she didn't want to tell her boy
friend and she was living with him. The elders told her she needed to
either get married and tell him or move out before she got baptized.
Well the elders met with her again this week. Apparently her boyfriend
died. Saddest miracle ever. But now she doesn't has to decide and can
be baptized.

Samson was baptized this week! He was so excited! He literally had a
countdown. We met with him every day this week and he would tell us
how many more days. Then on Friday he told us how many hours. He
looked so cool in his white clothes and I don't think I have ever seen
him smile so big! He got the Holy Ghost yesterday and called us today
just so happy with life! It was so amazing.

The other big thing that happened his week was transfers. We were told
that president would call for the leaders on Saturday around 2 and the
APs would call everyone else around 5. We started walking home after
samsons baptizm just after 1. We called the APs to tell them about the
baptism and asked them if they could just tell us about transfers
then. They said no. Then as we walked around the corner getting to our
apartment around 1:30. Then sister Baker pulled out the phone and was
like, sister Carroll its president! I didn't believe her but she
answered and put it on speaker. Basically the moral of the story is
that she is training. The bad part of that call was that I knew then
that I was getting transferred, but I didn't know to where. And I had
to wait until 5 but we did make a deal with the APs when we called them
that they would call us first because we had a baptism. Well I'm not
staying in Herne. Actually I'm going somewhere very different. I'm
going to Coburg! Coburg is in the Nuremberg stake. It has been closed
for two transfers, meaning there has been no sisters there for two
transfers. My new companions is sister Peterson, sister bakers MTC
companion. We will be opening the area. And the elder there is
training. So that means 3 new missionaries in one area. All I can
really say is that this is going to be an adventure.

This week as I have been studying, I have been doing a lot of reading
in the Book of Mormon. I finished it in German a few weeks ago and
decided I want to finish it again before I go home. I'm not very fast
at reading the Book of Mormon but it has been really cool to read it
fast recently because  it lets me really see the story. Nephi is
pretty cool. When his brothers are being dumb, he really just tells
them what he knows and really just tells them to do what they want.
Yesterday we ran into a man who sister Schuring had argued with on the
bus once. He is really rude and really just wants to argue. We were
waiting for our Bahn and he was trying so hard to argue. Finally I
told him that that is what he believed and we believed something
different and went back to figuring trains for transfers. He kept
trying to argue, but in the end he wasn't able to do much, mainly
because I was ignoring him, but it is amazing how when we want to
argue, we can. But if we don't want to, it is super easy to not to.
Not always mentally because we get angry and want to argue, but
ideally it works, just like Nephi.
I hope everyone has a good week! Next week I will be emailing you from Bayern!

Ich liebe euch!
Liebe
Sister Carroll

So terrible picture, but isn't he just so happy! And he even brought 3 friends!

Samson's Baptism

Herne Elders and Sister with Samson

He had the biggest smile all day!

I look so tiny next to Jens and Urs. 

We had brownies and ice cream last night!!

Conference!

This week was really good! Don't you just LOVE conference! We were
able to watch the women's session both Saturday sessions and the
Sunday morning session. I can't wait to read the priesthood talks and
the Sunday afternoon! Hearing from the prophet is just so cool. We
were so blessed and had three of our four baptismal dates come to
conference and one of them was the man who only speaks Türkisch. He
even called us the night before and asked if he could bring some
friends who spoke English with him. That was super cool! Now we have
an appointment set up with all three of them! Desmond left before the
end of the priesthood session. Kawa and his friends left right after
it was done and Samson stayed for a second session!
Samson is literally the coolest guy ever! This week he had his interview
with president. Which also lead to us being interviewed by president
simply because he felt like it. Samson was so excited to meet with
president. He called us because we were 2 min late. Samson also helped
us plan things for his baptism and after the priesthood session told
us that when he gets the priesthood he will go back to Africa and give
his dying mother a blessing. He had elder shelleys name tag on all day
yesterday and insisted we call him elder Shelley. He told me he wants
to serve a mission. I'm pretty sure his baptism will work out this
week!
This week I also had a split with sister Markel in Duisburg. It was
super fun! She is from Switzerland and has perfect German so it was
really fun to practice with her.
This week we also had a street display and the elders all ditched us
because they wanted to go contact somewhere else on the Fuß, so me and
sister Baker packed up everything and left without telling the elders.
They all thought we were angry with them. We just didn't want to do a
street display by ourselves :)
So what did you all learn from general conference? Well I learned that
we should help refugees, remember that we are children of God , and
that German is the celestial language. Basically I'm learning the
celestial language. I'm being prepared for the celestial kingdom. :)
but really we all are. That is the whole point of this life is to
prepare to meet God. And some of us just might be a little farther
along than others in learning the language :) but we all progress at
different speeds. If we want something done we have to make it happen.
If we want to be in the celestial kingdom, we have to do what will get
us there. We have to have the right input to get the output we want
otherwise it doesn't work. God is wisdom and order. All things must be
done in order. If there is no order it doesn't work. That is what is so
amazing with God! He tends to know what he is doing.
Well I hope you all have a good week. Good luck preparing for he
celestial kingdom and learning German. I know you can do it! :) Ich
liebe euch!
Liebe
Sister Carroll

Today we found a bald eagle

Our weekly planning - it's a pirate bunny :)

Frühling! (Spring)

Sister baker has too many water bottles and she refuses to get rid of them

District meeting about dealing with stress. aka cream beards

Me and Sister Markl