Hello again!! (2x this week?!)/Wesołych Świąt!! (Merry Christmas!!) (12/27/18)

Cześć Rodzina!

I'll just jump right into this...

On Sunday, Sister Emett and I had the opportunity to teach a lesson in our District Council/Meeting (kind of like Sunday school). We taught on the subject of "Praise to the Man" in reference to Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. We talked about all the things that Joseph Smith sacrificed for the gospel and for Jesus Christ. In fact, the scriptures say, in Doctrine and Covenants 135:3, that "Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it." We continued with a discussion on what we could sacrifice for Jesus Christ and what we can do to help His work progress. We also read the 4th verse of the hymn, "Praise to the Man" while thinking about Jesus Christ in that context. 

Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven;

Earth must atone for the blood of that man.

Wake up the world for the conflict of justice.

Millions shall know "Jesus Christ" again.

I loved relating this verse to Christ. And it fits perfectly. Millions shall know Jesus Christ again. When Christ returns to the earth for His Second Coming, every knee will bend and every tongue will confess that He is the Christ, the Savior of the world. We will all know and recognize Him as our Savior and millions shall know Jesus Christ again.

On Monday, we learned about on of the most loved Christmas traditions of Poland. They have these wafers imprinted with pictures of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. (They also use these types of wafers in their sacrament or communion.) So everyone gets a wafer. Then, everyone goes to each person individually and says what they wish for that person in the next year. Then the person receiving the wishes breaks off a piece of the wafer of the person who is giving the wishes. They eat the wafer to accept those wishes. To them, the wafers represent restitution and unity of family. It's such a sweet tradition!

Another cute tradition is: kids believe that at midnight on Christmas Eve, animals can talk. So they always tell stories of how their dog or their cat talked to them and told them that they loved them. It's kind of how in America we always watch for Santa's sleigh and Rudolph on Christmas Eve. Now, I don't know if the animals in Poland talk, but I'm going to find out. I'll let you know Ethan! :)

Our Christmas tree and gifts (all the Polish sisters' gifts).

Christmas here at the MTC was great! Totally different from any other Christmas I've had, but it was a cool experience. For our devotional, we had Elder David A. Bednar come and speak to us. It was amazing!! He spoke on receiving personal revelation and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. He talked about how if we are keeping the commandments and trying to be the best we can, our steps will be guided and sometimes we won't even realize that we're acting on promptings from the Holy Ghost. When we're doing what God wants us to do, we will be where He needs us to be and doing the things He needs us to do. He also talked about how we often think of being perfect as being without mistakes. He talked about it in the way that perfect means, "whole" or "complete." I thought of this: We can only be made whole and complete through Jesus Christ who is perfect. In every sense of the word, He is perfect. And so it is only through Him that we can be made perfect as well.

Polish Family picture on Christmas.

Also on Christmas, I was able to skype my rodzina!! My family! It was the best thing ever and now Mom can't wait for Mother's Day to come. :)

In the evening that day, we had another "devotional." We had David Archuleta come and perform for us. He is so talented!! I had never been to any of his concerts and I hadn't really listened to much of his music before. But he was really good! That was a fun surprise for all of us. Afterwards, he wanted to meet everyone, so we all were able to go and shake his hand. (For any of you David Archuleta fans out there, I send a digital handshake to you from him. You're welcome.) :)

Since it was just Christmas this week, I want to talk a little bit more about Him. On Christmas Eve, in class (Yes, we had class on Christmas eve. Y'all are jealous, I know), we had the opportunity to study the different names of Christ and write them on the whiteboard with scripture references. (I've included a picture below if anyone would like to study this as well.) There were so many names and we didn't even get them all! But it was such a cool activity to do, especially on Christmas Eve and to be able to focus completely on our Savior, Jesus Christ. One name of Christ that I focused on during this time was: Deliverer. I know that Christ is our Deliverer. He delivers us from sin, death, bondage (from sin), hopelessness, sadness, hate, anger, turmoil, confusion, doubt, and pain. And instead, He gives us the opposite. Righteousness, life, freedom, hope, joy, love charity, peace, clarity, faith, and relief. I love even just the difference in feeling between those words. I know that the difference is Christ. He provides deliverance for us to be able to feel these things and experience those positive emotions.

Love you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Names of Christ.

Panorama of our classroom and some of our district members.

Class picture with our substitute Sister Cooper.

We all matched our outfits, so naturally we had to get a picture.

Jessalynn Wynn.

Ethan's Nacho Libre picture.

Someone made a box into a little bed for Luna, the MTC cat.

Do Widzenia Finnish Rodzina!! (Goodbye Finnish Family)/Remember Christ at CHRISTmas!! :) (12/20/18)

Cześć!

Alright, so kind of a funny Polish word: mogli (mow-glee). Yup, it sounds like the character from the Jungle Book. The word "mogli" means "could." But whenever we say it, it just remind me and Elder Cheal of the Jungle Book. But on top of that, he ALWAYS starts singing "Trust in Me." You know.. the one that Kaa the snake sings?! Don't ask me why he picks THAT one. I have no idea!! As if he couldn't have picked a better one from that movie.. like.. even the elephant march is better than that one. XD haha, fun times...

Tuesday evening at choir practice, Brother Eggett was on fire!! It was basically another devotional. In between practicing the song, he would tell us the story of Moses and how Moses was a missionary too. God promised to save the world and his method of doing that is through missionaries!! He said some incredible things and talked about how our group of missionaries was saved in heaven to come to earth in THESE days!! Brother Eggett said, "Imagine going into Cougar Stadium and picking 2 people. Those are the chances of you being chosen to be a missionary at this time in history." He talked about how we were saved for 6,000 years in heaven, being trained and tutored for our earthly mission; for THIS mission. He said, "Moses was saved for his moment, and you were saved for yours." *ahhhh chills* He also mentioned how President Nelson has been saved to be our prophet and for him to say to us on behalf of Heavenly Father, "I am calling you to gather Israel." So powerful... Heavenly Father has everything all planned and worked out perfectly. Now all we need to do is trust in and follow that plan.

Okay, not going to lie.. Monday was really hard. Our family here at the MTC, the Finnish district, left early Monday morning. We dropped them off at the travel office and said our goodbyes with hugs for the Sisters and handshakes for the Elders. I am so excited for them to get out into their mission field in Finland!! But I really miss them. It's hard because they really were our family. It made me think a lot about how it must have been in heaven before we came here to earth. We're all up there being taught, trained, and prepared and then a group gets to leave! And the rest of us are still there in training. Haha, to be honest, I probably came to earth first because I didn't want to be left behind and missing everyone like how I am at the MTC now. THAT'S the real reason why I'm the oldest child, Mom. XD So if there was any pushing and shoving going on, it was because I didn't want to be the one left behind!! (joking, joking....) On the bright side, I met Sister Debiasi yesterday! (She's Elder Nicolis' (Greece Elder) girlfriend!!) She is super sweet and we were both so excited to finally meet each other.

 Finnish and Polish family picture!! <3

Finnish and Polish siostry

But yeah, a really cool tender mercy for Monday was the advent calendar that Mom gave me with all the pictures of Christ. It was perfect!! On Monday when the Finns left and I was feeling really sad, the picture was titled "I Will Dry Your Tears" by Simon Dewey and the scripture was John 14:16-18. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." I loved this so much. Even though it's just a little thing that I'm feeling sad about, Heavenly Father STILL cares about that little thing and wants to give me comfort through it. I truly felt His hand in my life that day. Even with something so small, it was a huge blessing.

It's been a full week of lesson prep, teaching, learning, growing, and changing. We've definitely grown closer as a district as we've been more open with each other. Just with personal stories and sharing spiritual insights and thoughts. Our lessons with our teachers pretending to be investigators have been really powerful and the Spirit has been so strong. I've been able to piece together sentences of what I want to say. I'm sure the grammar is horrendous, but the meaning is received and they always understand. One question we've been asking this week is, "What has Christ done for you?" This is usually in conjunction with a lesson on the Atonement and the gift of Jesus Christ. I like to think of the story of the lepers and how only one of them returned to thank Christ for being healed. How do you show Christ that you are grateful for everything He has given you? I invite you all to think about that. Take some time, maybe this Sunday, to think about your feelings for Christ and everything He has done for you and everything He has enabled you to do. I know that if you do this, you will feel closer to Christ this Christmas. :)

During class on Wednesday night, we memorized this phrase in Polish. “W dzień Sabatu, wzmacniamy się nawzajem.” This means, “On the Sabbath day, we strengthen each other.” All I could think of during class tonight as we studied this particular phrase, was just how blessed we are to be in wards and have our “ward families.” I loved this phrase because of what it shows about us as members of the church. On the Sabbath day, we strengthen each other. These phrases we’re learning in Polish are so simple, and yet have so much meaning. Our ward families are places we can go to receive strength and comfort and help. That’s one of the reasons we have wards is for the purpose of strengthening each other! We can’t do this alone. We need to rely on Christ. And even though He can’t always be here physically, there are people all around us who can stand in the place of the Savior. These people can help to lift, comfort, and help bear one another’s burdens. So on the Sabbath Day (and every day), please strengthen each other!! Do what Christ would do if He could be here.

I also feel like I need to share my testimony on the Plan of Salvation (the Plan of Happiness!). As most of you know, my family experienced the loss of a child. My younger sister Candace had a condition called anencephaly, which means her skull didn’t completely or properly form and her brain was left exposed. She was not expected to survive birth, but she did! That was a miracle in itself and she lived for 23 hours. But what is even more a miracle is the fact that through Jesus Christ, I will be able to see my younger sister again! Through Christ and God’s plan for us, His children, we can be with our families forever! Through Christ, death is not the end. It merely becomes a small step in our eternal existence. I know that I will see my sister again. And I know that families are eternal!! I also know that Jesus Christ suffered not only for all of our sins, but He felt all of the bad things that happen to us through our lives. He knows our individual struggles and trials. This is how He knows us so personally. He is able to help us bear our burdens and carry our sorrows because He already has! He understands perfectly and so we can rely on Him wholly.

Love you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Thanks for the package!! 

That was the best thing ever!!

 Polish Siostry (sisters).

Me and the Colorado Springs Elders!! (Quick story: We would always see them and they really wanted to learn Polish. So we taught them a few things. They really like pretending that they're going to Poland haha, but they're going to be such a great missionaries. They left on Monday too.)

Our district mint stack!!

Me hugging a paper that had pictures of all the Finns on it. 

Sis Eberting snuck this one of me on Tuesday night haha.

Polish is deeper than the ocean.../Polish traditions include bathing with fish... *please read for explanation* (12/13/18)

Cześć!

I'm just going to jump right in... So the Polish district that was here before us had this huge stack of Icebreaker mint packages that they had consumed throughout their stay here at the MTC. Sooooo... Our Polish district decided that we would beat that record. We're doing pretty well so far and we proudly display our tower of empty Icebreaker containers in the window for all to see. Haha we basically just stress eat mints. It's the best! XD  Here's our lovely stack in the window with orange peels :)

Also this week, we moved classrooms!! Yayyy... we loved our old classroom and were pretty attached, but the new one will be great too! Now ALL the missionaries in the MTC have class in building T4. (We were in T3-238. Now we're in T4-179.)  This group picture with all our books was on moving day.

Cool thing I've noticed this week: I feel like when I testify about the gospel and what I know to be true, that's when my best Polish comes out. And why shouldn't it? The Holy Ghost's job is to testify of Christ and of truth. So we will be helped as we do those things! Another thing I've learned from teaching: Our only job is to help the people we're teaching to feel and recognize the Spirit. As long as the Spirit is there, we've done our job.

I had the neat experience this week to pretend to be an "interested person" or "investigator" of the Church. My job was to act how they would act and respond in a way that they would. It was so hard though because the lesson felt so so personal and like it was meant just for me! A few times, I forgot to respond as the investigator and answered as myself just because of how personal it was. The Spirit was so strong and very present during the lesson. One of the questions that the Sisters teaching me asked was, "When have you felt God's love?" And that really made me think about the times and experiences I've had when I've felt that. There have been many. And as I reflected on those instances, I found that I felt the same way as I did back then. As I was reminded of the times I felt God's love, I felt God's love for me even more strongly. It was an amazing experience.

Super cool language thing: This probably wasn't supposed to be deep, but it totally turned out to be that way! In Polish, "Za" means "for", as in, "in exchange for." The word "zadośćuczynienie" means "the Atonment," as in Christ's Atonement. So, Christ performed the atonement not only for us, but in exchange for us. He literally paid the price for us. He suffered in exchange for us. Polish makes everything so deep and full of meaning!! I just really wanted to share that because it made me think of Christ and everything that He has done for me and how much I love Him for it.

Fun Fact: There are 13 languages that are spoken in our branch!! Fun Fact #2: I don't speak any of them.... Haha YET!! I'll get there. But on Sunday, I did have the opportunity to say the closing prayer in Polish (also in front of the entire branch) and it was actually super cool! Never before would I have thought that I would be speaking Polish and actually succeeding. It's still so crazy to me that I'm learning this language. And I am so grateful for this opportunity!!

In class, we talked about how if we ever get frustrated with the language, we just need to remember that we are the only 40 people in the entire world with the authority to preach the gospel in Poland and in the Polish language. We are ordained to preach the gospel in the Polish language and because of that, we will be blessed and helped along the way!

Polish Christmas Eve Tradition: *cover your ears mom* *or eyes I guess...haha* On Christmas Eve, the Polish people have fish for dinner. I believe they eat carp or herring. Anyway, they buy the fish live a few days before and they come home aaaaaannnnnnddddd they store it in their bathtub until Christmas Eve when they kill it, cook it, and eat it!! How do they bathe and shower, you might ask? Well, they just hop right in and bathe with the fish!! Isn't that great?!?! Definitely my favorite tradition I've heard so far. XD Haha. 

Okay, a not so gross one: As soon as December starts, families will put orange peels around their house to make it smell like oranges. So when kids smell the oranges in the air, they know that Christmas is coming really soon.

On Sunday night, for our devotional, we had BYU Men's Chorus come and sing!! I SAW JACOB VANDERWERKEN!! (That's my cousin, for those who don't know haha) He's in the choir. It was super fun to wave at each other after the concert and talk through the little bit of sign language that I know. But yeah, I was super excited to see someone from my family. Definitely the highlight of the week. :) The songs they sang were great too! They sang a bunch that I had sung before "Where Shepherds Lately Knelt" and "Child of God" (African spiritual) were some of these. We sang "Child of God" in Cantus and there were a few others that totally made me think of Cantus. Fun times!

The Finns had a crazy few days. All of them had their visas denied, except one. (And we think it's because he's Australian haha) Anyway, they were all reassigned to missions in the United States until further notice. So they were all pretty sad, and understandably too! They've been here for 9 weeks learning Finnish and planning to be in Finland for Christmas and then that all changed. Luckily after a few days, their visas went through. It was a complete miracle!! And of course the Finns were even more excited than before to go to Finland. I'm just so grateful that Poland doesn't require visas!! It's literally not even a possibility for something like that to happen to us Poles. So grateful!!

I just wanted to finish the email with this thought: I want to talk about the Book of Mormon!! I love the Book of Mormon and I know that it truly does testify of Jesus Christ. It not only supports itself, but it also supports the Bible! They go hand in hand to help us learn more about Christ and come closer to Him. I know that when we read the Book of Mormon, it brings literal power and protection to us; both seen and unseen. It protects us against temptation and gives us strength, hope, and comfort in our trials. I know that by reading it we can come closer to Christ than through anything else. The Book of Mormon helps me know what God wants me to do. It also helps me to feel God's love and to see His hand in my life every day. I love this book and I'm so grateful to help others come closer to their Savior by helping them understand it.

Love you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Singing/saying our missionary purpose in Polish.  L-R Sister Emett, Me, Elder Cheal, Elder Olschewski, Sister Berrett, Sister Eberting, Sister Webber, and Sister Lueck.

Spying on the Finns.

More cat pictures.. it was a struggle emailing with her. 

But it was nice to have an animal on my lap again because I miss Jojo.

Elevator Czas!! (ch-ah-s) Elevator time! 

We like to see how many people we can fit in there without breaking any rules haha

Temple trip with the Polish and Finnish district!! :)

Siostra Emett and I at the temple.

Ryan Sevy left for Texas this week!!

Me and my companion Sister Emett! :)

WELCOME TO QUARANTINE!!!/"God Make Ye Mighty Gentlemen" (12/6/18)

Cześć Rodzina!! (row-jee-nah)

Hello Family!!

To start off with, we have service every week on Saturday mornings at... 6:25am!! So next time you want to complain about cleaning the church at 8:00am on Saturday, think of me, and think again!!

Every time I get to Sunday, I’m like... whoa! That was so fast!! And I’m so grateful it goes fast because then I’ll be in Poland a lot sooner!!! :D Honestly, sometimes it’s hard to remember that I’m actually going to Poland because it feels like we’re just gonna be here in the MTC for eternity... which we basically are.. but then Poland! Haha a lot of times I’ve just been like, “well, this is my life now and this is how it’s gonna be every single day.” It’s crazy. You can do such similar things every day, and yet... each day is unique and brings different experiences, people, struggles, emotions, and adventures!!

On Sunday, Siostra Emett and I had the opportunity to teach the Relief Society lesson. It was on recognizing and understanding the spirit. We had a really good discussion and several sisters shared some AMAZING experiences. It was a really cool lesson and the spirit was SO STRONG!! I think it's so cool how they give us so many opportunities to teach here at the MTC. I love it.

Cool thing I learned at choir on Sunday. (Brother Eggett is the best!!) He taught us that in "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" the word rest=make and merry=mighty. "God Make Ye Mighty Gentlemen" Hmm... interesting. I loved that and it made me think of what is happening to us here at the MTC. We may not be mighty on our own, but through God, we will become mighty!

Sunday night, we all went and watched "Legacy." You would NOT BELIEVE how many people here had never seen it!! It was insane. Still just as cheesy.... but really good! And a fun thing to do for Sunday night, for sure. (I also forgot how much kissing was in that movie. Ah, the life of a missionary.) XD

In class, we had a discussion about The Book of Mormon and how it will help us in our teaching. There was a section in Preach My Gospel that says, "The honest seeker of truth will soon come to feel that the Book of Mormon is the word of God." It immediately took me back to the Nauvoo and British Pageant where it talks about the Seekers of Truth!! The Book of Mormon was the answer for their seeking and it is still the answer for seekers of truth today!! I loved being able to make such a cool connection. Ahh, let's all keep being Seekers of Light, Seekers of Goodness, and Seekers of Truth!! (TRUTH WILL PREVAIL!!) (Hey that should be like my mission motto or something!! XD

Oh, so funny thing, every Wednesday when we get new missionaries, everyone yells, "Welcome to the MTC!!!" But not Sister Lueck... instead, she yells, "WELCOME TO QUARANTINE!!!" XD (From Finding Dory...) But yeah, I can't say that she's wrong though. It's hilarious. XD

On Tuesday, I had the special, small Christmas choir performance. It was SO POWERFUL!! We sang "Silent Night," "The First Nowell" (Mack Wilberg), and "Where Shepherds Lately Knelt" (Craig Courtney). And they were all BEAUTIFUL!! Basically what it was: It was a lunch for the MTC Ecclesiastical Leaders (Branch Presidencies, their wives, and such). They had a member of the Quorum of the Seventy come and speak. It was Elder Craig C. Christensen! So that was awesome! My seat was right next to the pulpit/microphone and so I was on camera.. pretty much the whole time. XD It was really cool though because I was able to shake Elder Christensen's hand AND President and Sister Martino's hands. (Pres. Martino is the MTC President. That's basically the mission president here.) Anyway, while we were singing, I could not stop smiling. It was so much fun and the spirit was so strong and it just felt so good! I loved singing in a smaller choir again. It was wonderful!

 Also for Tuesday, the large MTC choir sang "The First Nowell." (Same arrangement) Apparently this is the first time the MTC Choir has sung this song, so I feel pretty lucky to be part of that group! The devotional was good! Elder Jose Teixeira and his wife spoke to us. Our entire district felt like that talk was for us. We all had had a pretty rough day Polish-wise and so that talk was really good for us to have. He talked about having ups and downs all throughout your mission. But instead of having those ups and downs moving horizontally, the ups and downs can be vertical and help us progress upwards!! This was a really cool visual to think about. And this can be applied throughout life, not just the mission. Someone also said later, "Your attitude determines your altitude." And I really loved that as well.

The other day, I don't remember the context, but one of the Finnish Elders, Elder Labaron said, "Don't be sorry, just be better!" (sound familiar, Hailey?) XD I thought it was funny that it was literally word for word what Rob Fenn says to everyone, haha!

Funny thing we do here: So, there are cameras and microphones in every room. This is for a few reasons. To make sure the teachers are doing a good job AND because I guess the government is really interested in how we, as missionaries, are able to learn a language so fast!! So, pretty often (we don't ever know when) people from the government or the CIA will come and observe classes to see how we do what we do. (Anyone ever tell them about the gift of tongues..??) XD Anyway, so in some of the rooms they have two-way mirrors. (I think that's what they're called?) It's a mirror on one side and a window on the other. So people can come and observe without the occupants of the other room knowing that they're being watched. (AND there's a white board that covers the window when it's not being used. It's super slick.) On our floor, this room happens to be the Finnish classroom!! Often, on our breaks, we'll go into the other room and just spy on the Finns. It's actually really entertaining. XD Our two districts (the Poles and the Finns) spend a lot of time together, so we're all really close. It's super fun!

We had our 2nd TRC last night (Wednesday) and it actually went really well! TRC's are super cool actually. AND I understood everything!! (I, at least, got the general idea for the things I wasn't so sure about.) But yeah, it was great! The cool thing is, even if you aren't speaking perfect Polish, the Spirit is still there. TRC's always turn out good because the Spirit is there. It's peaceful and calm, and it just feels good in there! Even if you don't always understand or can't always say what you want to, it's okay, because the real teacher is the Holy Ghost. And He helps us hear what we need to hear and learn what we need to learn.

I love and miss you all!!

Love,

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Christmas Tree in Building T3.

Small Christmas Choir lunch: we were fed REALLY well. It was seriously like heaven...

Lovely views at the MTC.

I love seeing all the classrooms lit up at night. I feel like it's also very symbolic how we are gaining more light and knowledge in those rooms while the rest of the outside world is very dark. SO COOL!!

My Christmas decorations in the residence!

Sunday night devotional was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional!!

Okay the random pictures of me are from Starszy Olschewski (star-shih ol-chef-skee). We basically have a picture war going on. We both try to take pictures of the other person while they're not looking... So yeah, I think he's winning because he has some like.. 6th sense of when someone is taking a picture of him and he ALWAYS knows. Haha, it's all fun though. (He's the one smiling in the background of one of the random ones haha.) The other Elder is Starszy Cheal (chill). They're awesome! Honestly, they're like my brothers while I'm here. (Don't worry Zach, you're not being replaced!) It's the best!!

The other picture that says: "śmierci" That's of Starszy Cheal, haha. He was laying down on his desk and so I flipped his hood over his head and it was hilarious. XD "śmierci" means death and the Elders say it ALL the time. So it's kind of an inside joke haha. Fun times.

And the last one was our Sisters' Ice Cream party!! It was a blast. They have BYU Creamery ice cream in the vending machines. It's crazy! That was Tuesday night.