Cześć from Szczecin POLAND!!! :) (1/28/19)

Cześć Rodzina!!

This week has been CRAZY!! But sooooo good!!

On Monday, we traveled all the way from Salt Lake City, Utah to Warsaw, Poland. Traveling was so fun complete with stories from everyone in our district and the flight attendants giving us special treatment. :) Everyone loves the missionaries!!

We arrived in Warsaw and were picked up by our Mission President, President Turek, and his wife, Sister Turek. And as many before, I can tell you that they are absolutely WONDERFUL!! We had personal interviews with President Turek so he could get to know us better. Then, we hit the streets for our first time contacting in Poland. (Contacting is when we just stop people and talk to them on the streets.) It was so much fun! My tights were still in my carry on because I didn't have time to put them on... don't worry Mom, I wasn't cold. But I did get a few funny looks like I was crazy (which they'd be right) ;) and even some lady who told me to put on tights because I was making HER cold hahaha. The next day, I put on tights. XD We spent the night at the Turek's/Mission Home in Warsaw and it was probably the best sleep I've had my entire mission. It was the best!

The next day, we met with our trainers and were assigned to our separate areas!! I had the longest train ride, so my trainer and I left first. I said my goodbyes to my MTC District. Complete with hugs for the Sisters and handshakes with the Elders, and even a "Cześć ya later!!" (Hopefully my MTC Polish teachers don't cringe at that.) ;) And then we were off!!

Well, here it is... the information you've all been waiting for... My first area is.... SZCZECIN!!! And my trainer is the wonderful Sister Godfrey. She is amazing!! And we're working really well together! :) Alright, so Szczecin (sh-ch-eh-ch-een), 2 syllables. Think of it like "sketchy," except an "sh" "ch" smushed together at the beginning haha. (Some missionaries actually gave it the nickname "Sketch-in" haha. But..) Szczecin is awesome!! It's the closest city (with missionaries) to Germany!! (I think haha) But I've already been able to use a little bit of German too. (I KNEW it would come in handy!!) Our train ride there was 8 hours long... well, it was supposed to be. We had a total of 1 hour and 40 minutes of delays from various things, and we finally made it to our new apartment by midnight!! And yes, we were still up at 6:30 the next day. :)

First dinner we made after a long day at the urząd. . .hence the glasses.

Oh, that's the other thing... We are whitewashing in Szczecin!! (Basically that just means that both of us Sisters are new here.) There haven't been Sister Missionaries in Szczecin for about 8 or so months... so yeah! Whitewashing on my very first area and first transfer!! :) It's actually really great though!! We have a lot of work to do and a lot of options because nobody knows us. :)

We also have a new apartment that no other missionaries have lived in and oh my goodness it is AMAZING!! It's just super nice. I mean, I know they treat the Sister missionaries well here, but our apartment/flat is just way nice. Sister Godfrey said it's probably the nicest one they have in Poland for missionaries.

Poland is everything you would imagine Europe to be. The classic European architecture, the lampposts (yes, there is a European look), the cobblestone streets, the smell of the bakeries, the colorful buildings.... AHHH!!! And yes, I love it ALL!! :) This is my dream!!  

Okay, so the first few days in Szczecin, we were doing our legal work to make sure I'm legal and to get my residency card. Funny story with this: The first urząd (government office) was great! Just like the DMV, very organized, except very fast!! The second one... wow... So, I guess there's this group of Ukrainians who decided that they owned the place and none of them even work here. So, very early in the morning, one of them starts a list and gets all the tickets/numbers for the day and then only hands out like 11 or so of them. And they have about 5 huge Ukrainian guys who stand guard around the ticket dispenser, so no one can get the tickets. Crazy right? Well, the Elders here in our District told us that this has been going on since.. forever. (Elder Jenkins has been here for 8 months.) And that this is just the way it is. Well, today, this lady came out (who actually works there) and she starts telling all these Ukrainian men off! It was EPIC!! She basically just said, "This is ridiculous! Get yourselves organized. Get in a line!! If anyone is paying anyone to make a list, report them to the Police!!" At that, the Ukrainian making the list kinda ran and hid himself in the crowd. Hahaha!! And yeah, we got our legal work process started and mostly done. (we have to wait for the mail and a process and other boring things you don't want to hear about...) But yeah! That also never happens! I guess the Elders have been there several times for HOURS and never made it in. I guess they just needed the Sisters. ;)

 Waiting at the 2nd Urząd (government building).

After we successfully finished our work at the urząd with our district.

 Elder Jenkins in the glasses and Elder Moody without.

On Saturday, we did an "English Finding Activity." Basically this is where we hit the streets and we find people and we invite them to English class! It was so much fun!! We handed out so many little invitations/fliers to so many people! And honestly, it was one of the most fun things I've ever done. (Either that or I'm officially a missionary and in that mindset haha.)

Funny story with that: I officially got "frogged" for the first time. I guess "frog" or "frogged" or "frogging" is a term the missionaries use over here as like a code for someone who is only interested in meeting/talking to us because they're interested in US or they think we're good looking. So, I was handing out fliers and doing my thing and then I see this 17 or 18 year old boy taking pictures of me on his phone!! Elder Moody (the other Elder in my district) pointed it out to me and said, "Hey, you officially got frogged for the first time! Congratulations!! Yeah.. he was taking so many pictures of you for like... the whole time he walked past." I asked Elder Moody why they did that, and I guess Americans are like super cool here, which is awesome! But supposedly it automatically makes you way more attractive... Kind of how Americans think foreigners are attractive as well I guess.. Well, that was definitely an interesting experience... But I guess there's a first time for everything. Even getting frogged!! XD

Also on Saturday, we met a girl named Hanna. Her English is amazing!! And we asked her about her religious background. She said that her parents have a church, but she is trying to figure things out for herself. How great is THAT?! She's golden!! We exchanged numbers and are currently trying to schedule a meeting with her. :)

On Sunday, I met the people in our ward, except here it is called a Branch. And ours is SO SMALL!! There are a total of 15 or 16 branch members, but only 1 normally comes. We had 4 come on Sunday though!! And they are all great! :) Especially Dagmara, the only one who always comes. She's AMAZING!! And does so much for the branch. She is just super solid and I love her already. I also lead the music, gave the opening prayer, and will be giving a talk on February 10th! (We do a lot of everything here in the Branch because there are barely any who attend. But it's great!)

Me on the street where the chapel is. I get to see this thing of beauty every other day to every day!! It's the BEST!! It's similar to how the chapel in Thessaloniki is; in an apartment/business building.

Also on Sunday, we did service at this center for kids from troubled homes. And it was SO FUN!! The kids were so sweet and I had the best time with them! We made brownies with them and it was so messy because they're crazy kids too, but I've never been happier to have cocoa EVERYWHERE!! :) :)

That's all for this week! Everyone keep striving to come closer to your Savior, Jesus Christ. He truly is the only person who can help us make it through life!! :)

Have a wonderful week! Miss and love you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

*A message from Brigham Kriser:

Here's Brigham's response to your last email that I forwarded on to him. "I just read Shaylin's email, it was so good! And that's so exciting! I can tell by her attitude that she is going to do and see amazing things there. I'm so glad that Poland has her. And Szczecin, that will be so good for that place. I've never been there, it is in the north section of the mission and I never served in that part. But my roomate served there and he loved it. It is a city that needs good missionaries and happy ones, it is known to be kind of grey and can be one of the tougher areas. But with the right missionaries and the right spirit, the coolest things can happen in those cities. My first area was very similar and I had the sweetest experience there and saw the  coolest things."

Your Children Arrived Well... (1/22/19)

Dear parents of our newly arrived missionaries, 

I am happy to let you know that your children have arrived safely in Warsaw this noon. We were excited to pick them up from the airport and meet them in person, not just have  a picture of them on our transfer board. What a lovely group of missionaries! We are looking forward to serving with them and are sure they will be a wonderful source of truth for the Polish people. Your missionaries radiate with joy and are excited to share the gospel with their brothers and sisters here in Poland.

This afternoon, we took your children to a photographer to take pictures for legal work, they had an orientation in the mission office and each an interview with President Turek. They are now teamed up with the Warsaw missionaries and out on the streets proselyting. Tonight, we will have a dinner and a testimony meeting in the mission home before they'll retire to bed early. The trainers will come to Warsaw tomorrow, there will be a trainer-trainee-meeting in the chapel, where your children will be teamed up with their trainer and early afternoon they will be on their way to their first area. P-day will be next Monday, so you will have to be a little patient to receive the first email from them. 

Thank you very much for teaching and supporting your missionaries. We feel very blessed to have them in our mission. 

Kind regards, 

Sister Adrienne Turek

Polska Warszawska Misja

Kościół Jezusa Chrystusa

Świętych w Dniach Ostatnich 

Last P-Day in the MTC!!!/Do Widzenia MTC!!! (1/17/19)

Cześć Rodzina!!

Cool thing: On Sunday we will be singing "Army of Helaman" for our district's "farewell." I just thought that was really cool since we kind of sang that at my farewell at home! Everything is coming full circle. :)

Alrighty, this week nothing too crazy happened. We're all getting more and more ready to leave... but it's good! I am soaking up every last bit of the MTC experience!! This place truly is amazing!! The Spirit of God is so strong here and you can feel the power of having so many missionaries in one place. It's amazing!! So yeah, I think I will miss the MTC. At least I will miss the people, and the spiritual strength and support here. Both from the environment and from the missionaries around me. And I'm so grateful I was able to experience coming here and learning and growing through the Spirit. It's amazing what a great teacher the Holy Ghost is, even in things like learning a language. I know that the Spirit really can bring things to our remembrance like it says in John 14:26. Especially when it has to do with the work and will of God. That reminds me of something one of our teachers told us this week. She said, "You can never fail at missionary work because it's not your work." And it's true! This truly is God's work and we are just instruments in His hands. And He will use us to fulfill His purposes if we are willing to let Him.

Friday we finally got our travel plans!! We will be leaving on Monday the 21st at 1:45pm and flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam!! Then, we will fly from Amsterdam to WARSAW!!! I am so excited!! Everything started getting/feeling really real starting on Friday and everyday since then has had more moments like that. It's coming so fast!

Saturday we had a fantastic surprise waiting for us in the classroom... That's right! It's the MINTS!! THE MINTS ARE BACK PEOPLE!!! :D :D (Haha sorry, this is like the only drama we have here, so I hope it's entertaining for y'all.) Turns out, it was the Albanians and they were just playing a joke on us....... at least they gave it back!! We decided to take it down yesterday since we're leaving soon. But we got our last picture with it and then took it down. The grand total was...*drumroll PLEASE!!*.... 75 MINT CONTAINERS!!! Hahahaha.... not sure how many were ours and how many were added... haha. But yeah! That is also the equivalent of $187.50.... no shame. ;) It's been a monument to the long 9 weeks we have spent here at the MTC. XD Fun times in the life of a missionary... :)

On Sunday we got a new MTC presidency and so our devotional was with them!! And on Monday, we said goodbye to the Bulgarian District! They entered the MTC the same day as our Polish District and so we basically "grew up" with them here at the MTC. And soon it'll be our turn! :)

On Tuesday, during choir and the devotional, Sister Marriott sat right behind me! Before we started, she actually asked me if I would come and sit by her and help her sing again!! I was so excited! But before I could, another senior sister sat by her (not knowing the situation) and we didn't say anything else about it. But it's okay! I was able to talk to her more after the devotional and get a picture with her. :)

On Wednesday night, we had our last class with Sister Theriault ("Tario" in previous emails, and Barney in even more previous emails...). So she of course gave us her final words of advice as we prepare to head to Poland. One thing that stuck out to me was this: The purpose of the gift of tongues isn't for us to speak perfect Polish, but to have us speak and be able to convey Heavenly Father's love for His children. So when we focus on that, loving the people, that's when our Polish will be the best.

Another thought about learning and growing...and changing and improving. I was half watching the film "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" while I was exercising. In this scene Alvin Smith is talking to his younger brother Joseph about a snail and how it makes its own shell layer by layer and eventually outgrows it. Alvin then says, "Maybe God intends for us to outgrow ourselves too." I've felt that a lot here at the MTC. God doesn't intend for us to always stay the same. He intends for us to be so much greater than we imagine. And in a way, He wants us to outgrow ourselves and become greater than we are. It might be hard because God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy. Think about it like this: when babies take their first steps, the parents are pleased because it's exciting! But they aren't satisfied because they know that someday that baby will run. God isn't satisfied with only a few steps because He knows we can run and do so much more. He knows our potential! If we ever want to know what that potential is, all we have to do is ask. We need to ask God specific questions to get specific answers.

Hope you all have an amazing week!! Next time I write y'all, I will be in POLAND!! :D

Cześć ya later!! Kocham was!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Funny "missionary meme." We have many of these...

Sister Hunt (Macedonia), Me, and Sister Warren (Bulgaria).

Me and Sister Saunders (Bulgaria).

Me and Sister Asay (Belgium/Netherlands).

I LOVE Sister Asay!!

Maya Bolander (Latvia- Russian speaking).

Maddy Paskett!! She came to the MTC TODAY!! for a job interview and I was able to take her around, show her some cool murals, and talk for a bit. :) Made my day!!

Wow, what a week!!/The Mysterious Case of the Missing MTC Mints... (1/10/19)

Cześć Rodzina!!

Fun thing really quick that I didn't get to tell y'all last week. When we were walking back from the temple, I ran into Jessica from Nauvoo! You know, the one who played Jane Manning. It was so fun to see her and catch up a bit. I always love running into people from "the outside world" hahaha. It's always good to see them. Speaking of people from Nauvoo, Jacob Beasley is here at the MTC now. I believe he is going to Fiji and speaking Fijian. (Remember, his family is the one from England and Becca Beasley served in Thessaloniki, Greece?) It's been fun to see him around and also to see Maya and Tristan. Although, I don't seem to run into those 2 as much as I ran into Alec, Ryan, and Wes. But it's okay!!

This week was really good! Really long, but really good! I was blessed to have many good and exciting things happen this week! :)

On Friday, we had our 2nd Skype TRC with a member of the church from Poland named Agnieszka! (Yes, please try to say that name. I dare you!) ;) She was great and really nice! But she talked BARDZO SZYBKO!! Very quickly! And she would say a TON! Which was great! Even our teacher, Sister Einfeldt was like, "Whoa.. that is FAST!" Needless to say, she was very proud of us and how well we did with that and other technical difficulties we had with internet connection and such. But it all worked out! The biggest miracle of all was that I didn't feel like it was any different from any of our other lessons in the sense that I understood basically everything she was saying, or at least got the general idea of what she was saying. It has been incredible to see everything that I've been able to understand this week. Even though I've never spoken Polish with or taught someone who speaks so quickly, it was so good and comforting to know that I will be able to understand most of what they're saying when I get to Poland. (At least, I'll understand when they're talking about church things. Anything else and I'll be totally lost, but it's all good! I have time to learn!!)

Saturday was the most tragical day of all!!! *please imagine me saying this super dramatically as you read* (And yes, for those of you wondering.. tragical is indeed a real word. It means dreadful, calamitous, disastrous, or fatal. All of which are fitting for what I am about to tell you.) OUR MINTS WERE STOLEN!!! It started with half of them mysteriously disappearing.. We wrote a note that said "Thou shalt not steal! Please return our mints. Love, The Poles" and they responded by taking all the rest of our mints!!! All 35 containers were GONE!! We don't know who it was, but we are highly suspicious of the Russians....... There's kind of a rivalry between the Poles and the Russians. (I mean.. as much of a rivalry as you can have here at the MTC where we most certainly all love each other and never ever steal people's things... right?? Haha only kidding. We do love them, and some of the Russians have been really nice and even offered to donate mint containers to us haha.) It has been really interesting though because everyone passes by our classroom, so everyone sees the mint stack. Soooo, when it disappeared, we had random people coming by and asking about it. Turns out, everyone loved the mint stack and loved seeing it in the window everyday haha. Oh the simple, childlike joys we find as missionaries. XD We had many people we didn't know come by and drop off mint containers; both full and empty ones. Honestly it was crazy to see how many people loved that stack. Anyway, we're all good over here and now that we know for sure that everyone looks in our window as they pass, we've turned it into a good thing! We put a scripture or conference quote on this small whiteboard and we put it in the window and people always stop to read it! This is just a perfect example of how good can always come from a bad situation. (Even if it was a sort of silly example, the principle is still true!) :)

Our inspirational quote and our new beginnings... 

We are Poland, we cannot be defeated, we will not be broken, we will rise again!!

Sunday, Sister Emett and I taught the Relief Society lesson again. (In case you haven't noticed... we do a lot of teaching around here. "To teach, and preach, and work as missionaries do..." Haha, yes, the song is very, VERY accurate and I'm sure I'll find that to be even more true in Poland!!) Anyway, we taught on Christlike Attributes. This was really cool for 2 reasons: 1. This was the lesson we had on our first Sunday here at the MTC, so we have now made it through the entire rotation of lessons. 2. As missionaries, we are always studying Christlike Attributes, so this was a fun one to teach. Some of the things we focused on (which I took from my personal study of the Book of Mormon) were the qualities of Moroni (in Alma 43 & 44) and how he showed Christlike attributes. One of the ones that stood out to me most was Moroni's faithfulness. In Alma 44:3, Moroni says "the Lord is with us" and also, "and now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith." I just loved that! Now, I've been studying Hope as my Christlike Attribute this week because last week the Polish was really hard and I wanted to be positive and hopeful about learning this difficult language. And it was really neat to see the example of Moroni in this. He had so much faith and hope, even when his army was greatly outnumbered and the task at hand seemed impossible. But he didn't lose that faith or hope and in the end, he triumphed! I am looking forward to my day of triumph (in the language) as well, but for now I just have faith and hope in Christ and His ability to help me!

Monday was pretty fun. We had the opportunity to host senior missionaries again! There was a Senior Missionary Couple coming today who will be serving in Poland! We waited ALL morning for them and had been yelling "cześć!!" at everyone who arrived to see if we got any responses. Finally.. FINALLY they came! We yelled, "Cześć!!!" and they yelled it back and asked how we were doing (in Polish)!! We were so excited! They are Elder and Sister Womack from Vancouver, Washington. (They don't know the Carroll's though. But Elder Womack did live in Tigard when he was younger.) Anyway, we love them and we're so happy that they'll be going to Poland with us!! Also, really fun thing today: Who remembers who Sister Neill F. Marriott is? If you don't, look her up! But she was the 2nd counselor in the General Young Women's Presidency. Anyway, she was released from that calling in April 2018 and now she and her husband are here at the MTC about to head out on a mission in Portugal! So that was way cool!

Funny story from Monday: So I got a letter in the mail from Greece!! I was very surprised to see that it was a letter from Elder Nicolis (aka Sister Debiasi's boyfriend)!! I was very concerned..... because it was addressed to me.... but no need to worry!! I flipped it over and on the back it said to "please give to Sister Debiasi!" Haha, I was so relieved... But I decided to play a little joke on her hehehehe.... We were all at lunch and I whipped out the letter and said, "Sister Debiasi! Guess who I got a letter from?!" (Don't worry, I know she's the kind of person who can take a joke like this. Otherwise I wouldn't have done it!) She saw it and was like, "WHAAATTT?! I haven't even gotten a letter from him!!" And she was trying to see if her District Leader had checked the mail for that day yet. And then I told her that it was a letter for her and he had just used my address since I've been here way longer, so he could get it sending sooner. And she was SOOOO EXCITED!!! She just ran over and gave me the biggest hug and we laughed and laughed. It was a lot of fun! :)

The letter that thankfully wasn't for me!!

Tuesday we were planning for our Skype TRC on Friday and I found a quote by Neill F. Marriott for us to use. I jokingly said to Sister Emett, "What if we ran into Sister Marriott and we were like, 'Oh.. hey! I just quoted you in my lesson yesterday!' How crazy would THAT be?!" Well.... you've probably guessed by now, but I did end up meeting Sister Neill F. Marriott. Not only did I meet her, but I sat next to her during choir practice AND the devotional Tuesday night! (Lucky for me, they tell everyone they have to sit in the same seats for the devotional as they did for choir practice.) :) But yes, I was able to talk to her and get to know her a bit. I LOVED having the opportunity to meet her! She is so, so sweet! She was so glad that I was a strong alto and could help her sing the song. And believe me, I was very glad for that too! Haha! She told me she loved singing with me and meeting me and that I was going to be a wonderful missionary. It was such a blessing to hear things like that from a previous General Authority. As we said goodbye, she gave me a big hug! I was so, SO grateful for the opportunity I had to meet her. :)

Note for just the family about that experience (because not everyone needs to hear this, because I don't want to come off as though I'm bragging): She said she felt so safe and secure sitting by me during choir and devotional, because I helped her sing. She loved that our family sings together and has all the parts. She told me that she could feel the sweet, strong spirit that I had and that I was going to be a wonderful missionary and bless many lives. She said she was so glad to meet me and sing with me. And Mom, she said to tell you that you've done a wonderful job with raising me.

Alrighty, Wednesday we had a really good class in the evening. One of our teachers, Sister Barney (she got married, so now it's Sister Theriault), decided that for class she would surprise us. And we had to teach a lesson all in Polish, with zero time to prepare. It's a good thing I have faith, right? Haha! But really, it wasn't so bad! I was so surprised to see that I was able to piece together sentences and phrases and have them actually kind of make sense. I feel like I say this every week, but really! It's always a miracle to me and I am so grateful! She also had us switch up roles. And she had me pretend to be the "interested person" who was being taught. (I think that this may have been because I was the only one really talking when we were teaching the first time. Sister Emett is really, really shy and Sister Tario makes her really nervous, so she clams up even more. I allow time and opportunities for her to speak, but she couldn't say anything, so I ended up talking and teaching the whole time. And thus, I became the "interested person".) So, I was able to practice Polish and being a person who didn't know anything about the church. That was a cool experience too! And then, to top it all off, we did a role play and pretended that there had just been this earthquake and we were in Poland. Basically, the scenario was that we were trapped in this place and a lady was with us. We were able to teach her about the power of prayer and what Jesus Christ can do for us in times of trial or times when we're afraid. We were also able to teach on how families can be together forever and that it doesn't end with this life. So basically, that class just forced us to speak Polish, but it was SO GOOD! Because it made me realize that I CAN speak Polish and I can get my message across when I really need to. The language is coming so much faster now. I feel like a made a big leap of progress this last week. Even just the last few days! It’s really exciting. And I know it’s just going to increase so much once I get out into the field. So I’m really excited to experience that!

I remember when I was in elementary school and how I wanted to be Secret Agent or an FBI Agent or something. Now I'm thinking maybe I should still do that... The Polish would likely come in handy... who knows?? ;)

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Remember Christ and try to serve others as He would if He were here. This church is true!!

Love you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Polish District.

Snack time in the residence.

Sack Breakfast after Service Saturday.

FLORIDA KEEYYYYSSS.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!/Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!! (Happy New Year!!) (1/3/19)

Cześć!!

Wow... 7 weeks! CRAZY! So that's pretty neat... (name that video) Yup, you got it right!

First off, I want to wish my wonderful, beautiful, extremely talented, faithful, loving, selfless, magnificent mother a very happy birthday!! TODAY!! Happy Birthday Mom!! I love you!!

Alright, so on Friday, we had our first Skype TRC!! This is the same thing that we've been doing on Wednesday nights here at the MTC with the in person TRC's. Except!! We actually get to Skype and teach someone in Poland!! And we teach in Polish of course... AND they ACTUALLY understand us!! It's a miracle!! It was a lot of fun and I'm excited to do another one tomorrow morning! We've already had some super cool teaching experiences just here in the MTC. So it gets me really excited for actually teaching in Poland. As we've been preparing our lessons for these Skype TRC's, we have no idea who we're going to be teaching or what has been going on in there life. And yet, we always feel directed to a specific topic that we should teach on. There have already been experiences we've had where the lesson we've taught is exactly what that person needed, or it directly applied to them and their situation, or it was an answer to their prayer. We are already seeing miracles right here in the MTC!! I love to see how the Lord's hand is truly guiding His work.

On Friday night, we had a family home evening with our district and some of the rest of our zone. (Mainly the new Finnish District) We watched the 3 part video series of Sister Reyna I. Aburto. She basically tells her life story and it's insane. She's had so many crazy things happen in her life and she has still managed to remain hopeful and steadfast in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was amazing to see the many little things in her life that led to her eventually joining the Church. It just made me think of how this could happen on my mission. I could be teaching someone who has been through crazy things in life and everything has led them to the time when they would finally hear about and be prepared to receive the gospel. I'm so lucky to be a part of that final phase! And to help bring hope to people that might otherwise remain hopeless.

Our Sunday devotional was incredible!! We had Brother and Sister Jerry and Kim Coslett come and speak to us. They were just "ordinary" people; not a general authority or anything, but their stories were far from ordinary! Sister Coslett grew up in an extremely abusive home. Brother Coslett's father left them when he was just 6 months old and when he was 12, he was abandoned by his mother and he had been on his own ever since. Both of them ended up meeting missionaries and joining the church. It was just incredible to hear about their terrible situations turning into beautiful lives full of hope!! I loved hearing all these examples this weekend of how the gospel has changed people's lives for the better. And I know this goes for everyone. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of peace and hope. Because of Christ and what He has done for us, we CAN have peace and hope in this life and forever! Again, I am so excited and blessed to have the opportunity to share this glorious message as a missionary of Jesus Christ!

One more quick thing about Sunday, the Coslett's brought a special guest for a musical number. They brought in Daniel Beck (a musical performer in Utah) AND Kenneth Cope!!! For those who don't know, Kenneth Cope is a very prominent LDS musician/composer/song writer (LDS=member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). They performed "When You Believe" from the Prince of Egypt and it was beautiful. Also, Kenneth Cope has been writing a musical about the life of Jesus Christ. So far, I believe he has only released Act 1 of the music, but it is AMAZING!! It's called "Son of Man" and you all should go listen to it!!

On Monday, 2 of the Sisters in our district got packages with a ton of Icebreaker mints!!! So we now have millions of mints..... There's SO MANY and we've started to calculate how many we need to eat each day to finish by the time we leave.... don't worry Mom. They're sugar free, so I won't get cavities. ;) Haha, but really, I don't think we'll actually finish them. We'll just have them in our suitcases and when it goes through security the TSA people will just be like, "Uhhhhhh....." It'll be great. XD

Our stack will continue to rise until the day we leave the MTC.

Um... Monday was also New Year's Eve, but we still went to bed at 10:30pm like all good and obedient missionaries do. :) But.. yeah! We had about.. a 10 minute celebration after our class at like 9:00pm. We just did a few confetti poppers and were super obnoxious with party horn/noisemaker things. It was a blast! OH! And we even gave the Elders New Year's kisses!! HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATE KISSES, THAT IS!!! Please don't freak out.. it's a JOKE!! :)

New Year's Eve!
L-R: Sis. Lueck, Sis. Carroll, Sis. Emett, Sis. Webber

New Year's Eve Celebrations!
L-R Sis. Eberting, Sis. Emett, Sis. Berrett, Sis. Carroll, Elder Cheal, Elder Olschewski

On Wednesday, we had more missionaries arriving at the MTC!! It's always exciting for us here, but we know that it's a sad day for many Moms. But it's okay! It is ALL worth it!! :)

Quick story: One morning, we were waiting in line for breakfast and these 2 Elders in front of us started talking to us. Which was fine and fun and all, and we just thought it would be one of those one-time conversations like we have all the time here because there are SO MANY people here. But NO!! Ever since that day, (about a month ago?) we see them EVERY day, probably 7-10 times a day. And I'm not exaggerating AT ALL! It's insane and basically impossible that this happens, but it does.. so I guess it's not impossible... anyway, I'm rambling now. But yes, we see them all the time and we call them "The Chatty Elders" because they were so chatty that first day, haha. Anyway, back to Wednesday. It’s weird because the MTC is so big and has so many people here, but you see the people you know ALL the time. No idea how or why it works out like that, but it does! And I ran into "the chatty elder" Olson and he happened to be a Host Missionary for Tristan Phillips!! 

Elder Olson (aka Chatty Elder), Elder Tristan Phillips, and me!!

                               

Actually, seeing Tristan was super lucky. I was on my way to class and there’s 2 ways we can walk. We happened to be walking the not so regular route yesterday and I ran into Tristan right after he had gone through Building T3 (the parking garage is right under that building) and he had just done all his check in stuff. So it was maybe 7 minutes from when he had been dropped off at the MTC. Which is crazy fast to run into someone you know! And I saw Maya Bolander!! 

I didn’t see her until night time during our evening class. She walked past our outside window. We were in the middle of class, but our teacher told me I could go and see her really fast. I think she saw how excited we were to see each other. :) So, I was able to run outside and give her a huge hug!! It was nice to be able to give someone from home a hug and I haven't been able to do that yet because everyone else from home has been an Elder, haha! So yeah, Wednesday was a super fun day.

The Hard Boiled Egg Story: This morning the MTC food just got worse. We got a sack breakfast (we just got breakfast "to go" so we could eat in our room instead of putting on dresses to go eat in the cafeteria.) Anyway, I got a hard-boiled egg. At least, I THOUGHT it was a hard-boiled egg. Normally, every other week I've done this, the egg has been hard-boiled!! But today, I cracked it open to peel off the shell and a bunch of liquid came pouring out. I thought, "Okay, that's not right..." and I went to the trash can to keep peeling. Lo, and behold... the egg was NOT hard-boiled, not even soft-boiled. And as the yolk fell into the trash can, that's when I knew. Indeed... it was a raw egg. The end, of my pleasant breakfast tale... :) XD Fun times in the life of a missionary.

Love you all! This church is true! Now go share the Light of Christ with someone who needs it today! :)

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

New Year's Eve: I melted Hershey kisses in a mug in the microwave and "smuggled in" a fork and bananas from the cafeteria. I still wanted to do my family's tradition of New Year's Eve chocolate fondue!! And that was the closest I could get.

We have now been here for all the holidays ever... (the paper hanging in the blinds looked like the Polish flag. It was supposed to be a joke, but we all love it so it stays there now.)

Polish and Icelandic Elders with more New Year's party supplies.