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.