Siostra Carroll: 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.