Siostra Carroll: Snails are falling all around...../Blue Skies and Sunshine in Szczecin!!! :D (4/8/19)

Cześć Rodzina!!

This week was just SO GOOD!! Lots of wonderful conferences haha.

We started off with our Zone Conference in Poznań on Tuesday. Those are always fun!! And on the way home from that, we started talking to a lady and we actually ended up talking to her for the ENTIRE train ride back. It was so much fun! AND best of all, I was actually speaking Polish and was an active part of that 3 hour conversation! Which is probably really boring for y'all to hear about, but I was really excited about it! Anyway, her name is Jola and we gave her info to the Poznań Sister missionaries. Jola was way nice and really hopes to see us again! (We do too!!)

On Wednesday, we did an English finding activity and were handing out a ton of our little flyers. I handed some to these kids (probably about 10 or 11 years old) and they kept asking me for more. I thought they wanted to give some to their friends. But then, they asked for more!! And then I thought they were just going to throw them away somewhere. BUT THEN, they started handing them out to a TON of people!! They thought it was so much fun!! And a ton of people actually took them from the kids. So much, that we had to move to a different spot so we would actually have people to hand them to. Then, the kids just disappeared they were walking down the street handing them out and we don't know where they went. But yeah! They just did a ton of work for us! XD It was awesome!!

Okay, the weather this week was GORGEOUS!! So warm, no jackets, everything is starting to bloom, clear blue skies, and sunshine everyday. It's felt like I'm in Disneyland everyday walking down these European streets!! :)

On Thursday, we were able to go and help Agnieszka (Maja's mom) in her garden. We raked, pulled weeds, found a bunch of snails.... no really, there are snails EVERYWHERE here. It was awesome! And it was just so warm and pleasant!! It was really enjoyable. And a good service project!! Later, we had a meeting with Ania.

Wait! I never told you how we met Ania!! Last Monday, we were on our way home from the chapel at the end of our preparation day. We sat down on the bus and this lady was smiling really big at us. So we smiled back, of course. Then SHE leaned forward and started talking to us. And SHE asked US for our phone number and said that she wanted to be in contact with us!! I could NOT believe it. That literally never happens here. Long story short... she had met with missionaries about 4 years ago, but had a midlife crisis, moved away for a while, and then fell out of contact with them. We quickly set up a meeting with her.

So, our meeting with Ania went really well!! She agrees with everything we believe in (that we've discussed so far) and she basically was roasting the Catholic church the whole time. (didn't put that on the group email because of Mr. P hahaha...) She also said that she's read the entire Book of Mormon before. Actually, miracle with that: She has dyslexia and it's really hard for her to read anything. Even when she read the Bible she struggled. BUT she told us that when she read the Book of Mormon, she had no problems with her dyslexia at all. She was able to read fluidly and with zero problems!! MIRACLE!! We have another meeting set up with her for this week. She's fantastic!! :)

On our way to the chapel after our meeting, we contacted a JW lady. Also, Jehovah's Witnesses are VERY prominent here in Szczecin. They are EVERYWHERE (probably the same amount as the snails in the garden) haha XD But they never take any flyers or anything from you. But I invited this old JW lady to conference and she actually took the flyer!! I couldn't believe it!! Crazy...

On Friday, we did a Family History finding activity in the park and we actually ran into some friends of ours from Polites; Batu from Georgia and Lenka from Slovakia! We had a really good conversation about families, culture, traditions, and family history with them. We ended up setting up a meeting with Lenka to set up an account and help her get started on FamilySearch. That will be really cool!!

Fun thing about all the Catholic churches everywhere in Poland is that at the hour, you hear the church bells... EVERYWHERE!! At noon today, you could just hear a ton of church bells chiming and ringing and ohhh.... I love it so much!! Honestly people, if you think of stereotypical European things... That is what I see and live with every day here!! And I can't get enough of it!! :D I'm so grateful I get to be here in Poland!!

On Saturday, we did one more finding activity, but this time for General Conference!! We had a really good conversation with this cute mom named Alicja and she said she's actually searching right now for a church for her and her family. We got her phone number, but haven't been able to get in touch with her yet, but we'll keep trying. We also had a long conversation (I say long because usually it's just a "hello, excuse me..." and a "no thanks" or "I don't have time." XD) Anyway, we talked with a 17 year old girl named Łucja and invited her to General Conference. We also gave her a Book of Mormon (which she had heard of before). Later, at 18:00, we watched the Saturday Morning Session (10:00am MDT... time differences are fun haha) of General Conference!! Monika came in right before the last talk (President Henry B. Eyring), but she still came! Afterwards, she said that she felt like that talk was meant for her and she loved how much our church focuses on families!!

On Sunday, we were able to watch the Saturday Afternoon session in the early afternoon and then we watched the Sunday Morning session at 18:00 again. And guess who came?! Łucja came!!! She came and stayed for the entire 2 hour conference (plus dinner the hour before!). She really enjoyed it! And she said she really liked the first talk (Elder Dale G. Renlund) because it talked about things that she was really interested in. She said that her parents are Catholic, but she's just really searching right now. (Perfect!!) We set up a meeting with her for this week. :)

General Conference was AMAZING!! I haven't been able to watch the last session yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. So no spoilers from any of you!! ;) Haha kidding, it's okay. But if you haven't watched it, I encourage you to do so!! There is something for everyone in conference.

Love and miss you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

We went and explored Old Town Szczecin today. This included the Old Town, the White Castle here, and walking along the river.