Memorizing Polish Scriptures, Strive!, and Forgiveness/If it was easy, it wouldn't be worth it. (10/14/19)

Cześć!!

Monday was just a super chill day. We took things way slow. Probably the first time I've ever done that on a pday. So it was kinda weird at first, but it was nice. But in the afternoon, I took Sister Aramaki to go see the Rynek because we somehow went an entire week without going there. Now, Sister Aramaki isn't one for sightseeing or doing things like that, so I wasn't sure how she'd react. She just doesn't understand why people like it so much and what the appeal is. (Very similar to how I feel about shopping hahaha!!) Anyway, I took her there and at the last bit, I made her close her eyes and I pulled her out to a good spot in the middle of the Rynek and then I started filming her reaction. It was so cute!! She was just in awe with how beautiful it was. And I'm so glad I caught it on camera. 

The Wrocław Rynek.

A picture Sister Aramaki caught of me while skyping her Mom on pday :)

Later that evening, we taught our English class and had a really fun Family Home Evening/Game Night. At our English class, Anna came! (Max's wife) I love her so much and it was so fun to spend more time talking to her. When we got home, we had a Zone Conference call where they told us about MLC (mission leadership conference) and the things that President wants us to do and focus on. So that's kinda fun to talk to everyone. And realize that we're not alone in our struggles with the Area Book Planner app. Hahaha! We're all having problems with it, so we're working on that. But yeah, it was a nice relaxing pday!

Tuesday we all met up at the chapel in the morning to watch the Sunday Afternoon session of General Conference!! (I feel so lucky to have conference weekend overflow into the next week a bit! I love it!!) And of course, the last session was way, way good! I am so excited to see what this next special bicentennial conference is going to look like in April 2020. It's going to be an amazing experience, I'm sure, and I already can't wait for it to happen!! After that, we were able to work on Facebook and do our weekly planning. Weekly planning with Sister Aramaki is seriously so so good. We really talk about the people we're teaching and make solid plans. It just feels like we're doing exactly what they want us to do with weekly planning. I feel like our focus, as a companionship, is really on building up the church here in Poland. And that doesn't always mean getting a hundred people baptized. It means taking care of the members and making sure they are solid and  being watched over. If we don't have a solid foundation with the members, we're not going to have anything to build up the church on with new people. All aspects of this are so important! Anyway, there's my thought about that. Sister Aramaki and I have a lot of good talks about the people and about missionary work. And its it's just so good. I love working with her! That evening, we had a conference call with President Chandler and the other Facebook missionaries to talk about the "public relations" side of things and the results we're having from our posts. It's really cool because doing Facebook missionary work, you can reach SOO many people just by doing one, single post. It's such a cool tool! Also, I think President is pushing for our mission to get approved to use Instagram. That would be pretty cool and we'd be able to reach a lot of the younger people that way! (And usually they are more open about things like this too.) But we'll see! Exciting things are definitely in the works!

Wednesday we had a really good District Council. For part of it, we talked about Conference and what we all learned from it. Then, we got on a long conversation about joy. It was so good! Joy doesn't always mean the elation of fun or temporary happiness. But joy is in Christ. And when we're on our missions, we are the most focused on Christ that we've ever been in our lives. Christ is joy and so the mission is full of joy. (Because it's full of Christ!) And our lives can be full of that same joy as well. As long as our focus is on Jesus Christ!

Wrocław Missionaries!!

A bit later, we did an English class finding activity. I was able to talk to this super cute family visiting from Israel!! I love being able to meet so many people from around the world! It's so cool! Even later, we had a lesson with Gosia and Anna. It's so hard because we think that Anna could actually be interested, but Gosia definitely is not. And Gosia just talks and talks and talks.... so we REALLY want to meet with only Anna, individually. It was an okay meeting, but it was hard because Gosia would just kinda bash on everything we were saying. Even when we were sharing with them what we knew to be true, she would just keep talking on immediately after that. So, I don't think we'll be teaching her anymore. In the evening, Sister Aramaki had such good conversations (as usual). I told her this too, but I've just noticed, Sister Aramaki is so sensitive to the Spirit. Both in recognizing it and acting on the impressions and prompting she receives. I really admire that and it's a beautiful gift she has! And it's definitely an area I really want to grow in as well. It's only been 2 weeks and I'm already learning so much from her!! I love being companions with Sister Aramaki!! She is amazing!

Wednesday night, as we were falling asleep, Sister Aramaki and I had a really long conversation. It was so good! And part of it, we had a good talk about forgiveness. And during that conversation, I had a few thoughts and insights come to me that were really helpful and I would like to share them. 1. Forgiveness is given freely, but trust has to be earned. 2. Just because you forgive someone doesn't mean you have to trust them. 3. When you forgive someone, that doesn't invalidate your feelings. Your pain and emotions and feelings were and are still real! ~ I think these are super important to realize because forgiveness is hard! And it's something I'm still fully learning how to do and learning how to have the Savior help me to forgive. But those 3 thoughts on forgiveness that I had are definitely helpful and I felt like I should share them. So, if you feel like that was written for you, then it probably was! :)

Thursday was pretty cool. We worked on a presentation with the Elders. Przemek (a guy who comes to our English class) has asked us to come and do a presentation on ourselves, America, and even about our church.. and come visit some classes at this school where he teaches! It should be really cool! Oh my goodness it was crazy though. He had and outline for us to follow and a lot of that included things from High School!! So thank goodness for Facebook and that other people actually post on it way more than I do haha. I was able to get a lot of pictures that way. Things from school dances, to football games, to graduation, to choirs, to lacrosse...  I was able to get everything! But it was super weird because it brought a ton of memories back and reminded me of what my "pre-mission life" was like. And I haven't actually REALLY thought about that in a while. So it was pretty fun! Later, we went and did English conversation practice at Renoma! I talked to Ella, a girl who I've talked to before. She's way into yoga and meditation and that sort of "spirituality." But we were even able to talk about God's plan for us and what happens after we die!! She is brilliant. She even talked about how we have to have sad things in order to feel happy. So we talked about how all things have to have an opposite! And SHE even said that there is no way we can progress and improve without trials and hard times in life. Seriously.. such a cool conversation!!

Friday we had a meeting with Agnieszka and it went really well!! We talked about General Conference and watched the talk about the "Come, Follow Me" program. Agnieszka now wants to do the program and asked for a booklet. She also wanted a Liahona magazine with last conference's talks in it. AND she wants a CTR (Choose the Right) ring so she has an easy and normal way to talk to her friends about the gospel. This was her idea, not ours! She wants it so that her friends will ask her what it means and she can tell them about it and about the gospel without them immediately not wanting to listen. She is so smart! Oh, fun thing, in Polish the CTR rings are actually "WS" rings. And that stands for "Wybierz Sprawiedliwość" or "choose righteousness." Anyway, it was an awesome lesson! Then we went and visited Babcia for a while and even sang some Polish Christmas carols with her which was super fun!! Haha she's just like me, she likes to celebrate Christmas ASAP!! XD Later, we were able to work on Facebook and teach English class. And for the religious discussion, Sister Aramaki and I, (just spur of the moment and no rehearsal), we sang "Come Unto Jesus" (of course, in Polish). It's something I've never done for religious discussion before, but it was really cool and pretty fun! And most importantly, it really brought the Spirit and people seemed to enjoy it. I'm really glad we were able to share that with them and help them feel the Holy Ghost!

Saturday we had President Chandler come for interviews! We went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. The Elders half jokingly suggested it, and then President was totally down! So, we went there for lunch! After that, I had my interview with President and it went well! Part of it, he asked me if I have a goal right now, which I actually did. Basically just to be studying and marking up my scriptures in Polish and improve my Polish. Here's the cool thing: I have been kind of praying to know how I can improve my Polish because.. it's really hard to learn, especially when you're teaching yourself! He invited me to read the scriptures only in Polish and to memorize a scripture in Polish every day. I think President's invitation to me is an answer to my prayers. I really have been wanting to speak and understand Polish better. Especially with Grammar and syntax and everything. And by reading scriptures in Polish and memorizing scriptures in Polish, I think that will help me with this goal. President thinks so too. I think he was inspired and I'm grateful for that. Another cool thing we talked about was the word: "Strive". He asked me if I feel like I'm a good missionary, and you know, sometimes it is hard to see it in myself. So I just said something like, "I think so. I'm really trying to be." And that's when he told me that the key word is: STRIVE. He said, "As long as you are striving to do what is right and to be a good missionary, then the Lord will take that and He will make up the difference." And that was something really comforting and something that I really needed to hear! And I think that applies to us in life as well! As long as we are striving to do our best, that's all our loving Heavenly Father asks of us.

Sunday we had a great sacrament meeting! The members are so so wonderful here and I just love them so much!! Anyway, they were all really excited to meet Sister Aramaki! It was just a really good Sunday. And after church, we went and did service at this kitchen where they make food for homeless people. I had been there one time about 4 months ago, but sadly hadn't been since. I've been DYING to go there again and Sister Aramaki wanted to go too. The people who go there are so cool and super nice! I love doing service projects like these because the people there are super chill and usually love talking about anything. They always ask about our church and why we're here. And at the same time, we get to show them we're normal people and grow good relationships with them!! It's awesome!! That was definitely a Sunday highlight.

So, I had a thought one morning this week. I was just thinking about the mission and life and all the trials we have here. And of course, I know there's always a bigger reason and purpose behind it. But the thought came to me, "If it was easy, it wouldn't be worth it." And that is so true! I mean, trials are never easy and we never wish for them to happen. But after they're over, we see that we receive so many more blessings and insights. And we learn and grow so much. We come out stronger, better, and more refined than we were before. So, of course it's going to be hard. And life is going to be hard. But if it was easy, it wouldn't be worth it.

Love and miss you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Book of Mormon contacting with Sister Aramaki.

A super cool picture I took in the park we contacted in: I LOVE the way the sun looks in the Fall. The lighting is SO COOL!!