Cześć!!
Monday was pday once again. Basically we just hung out, emailed, grocery shopped, cleaned, and yeah! We had a good English class and the Legnica Elders came. I was able to do the religious thought at the end. We watched the video "He is the Gift" and talked about that and how we can focus on Christ or family more this Christmas season. It was cool! Then, we had a game night. Przemek had brought these fun things he used for his English class that he teaches at school. It was this Christmas word search and crossword, a Christmas quiz, and then 2 songs where you had to listen and fill in the blanks of the lyrics! I remember doing that last one during German class in high school, so it was pretty fun! Okay, we also played Black Magic. Wilbert already knew it, Sister Aramaki figured it out, Solomiya was almost getting it, but the Elders absolutely did not and I'm pretty sure Elder Baer was going a bit crazy. It was hilarious!! So he would try to organize it to see exactly what the signal was or what I did differently. It even came down to where he had me sitting in a chair, closing my eyes, speaking the exact same way as I simply listed objects, not even as a question, and telling me which time to do the chosen object (make it the 4th or 6th or 10th object). One time I even made it so obvious by saying, "The whiteboard. The blue chair. The black piano. Elder Frank's tie." STILL!! NOTHING!!! The Elders were DYING!! Lucky for us, we have a whole train ride to Warsaw for them to figure it out!! ;) XD
Tuesday was such a great day!! We went to Warsaw for our Christmas Zone Conference! We all met at the Mission Home for that. It was seriously so good!
Zone Conference group picture.
The Williams’ last zone conference!! I love them!!
We talked a lots about Christmas, Christmas as a missionary (how it's definitely different, but so good and memorable), President and Sister Chandler read their journals of their Christmases as missionaries in Poland, and we basically talked about all things Christmas. We also talked about Family History and how we are going to start doing our own family history so that we have a "testimony of it" before we start using it as a tool to help people here in Poland. Of course, having already worked quite a bit on Family History before my mission (so I guess you could say "I have a testimony of it" or experience with it), I was so excited to hear that we will have the chance to do this! I seriously love family history so much! It's so amazing! In fact, last week, we were working on the "My Family" booklet together. We were literally just writing the names and having very strong feelings. Literally just writing the NAMES of these people, of our ancestors, bring such a powerful feeling of love and connection to them. It was such a spiritual experience for both of us. The scripture is real! (Malachi 4:6 "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.") Basically it was a really good zone conference. Oh! Sister Chandler, Sister Aramaki, and I performed a musical number too. We did "Oh Holy Night" and I played the violin for it. It was fun and went well!
Later, we had a catered dinner from a restaurant called Stół Polska, basically it was just really good Polish food. And then! We all went to see the Palace Lights! Basically the Palace Gardens just have lights all set up in them like the lights at Temple Square. It was really pretty! When we got back to the Mission Home, we had what was probably the most spiritual Christmas Devotionals I've ever been a part of. It was just really special!! We sang lots of Christmas hymns (traditional ones and Polish ones) and heard testimonies of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It was beautiful! And that night, all the Sister missionaries spent the night at the mission home. It was a really special experience today. :)
Me and Sister Aramaki at the Palace Lights.
Emily is like our child haha.
Emily is our child still (light tunnel).
Okay fam, some really fun things: So I started this trend of checking to see how closely we're all related using the Family Search app. Everyone was like.. 8th cousins with me. And then I had stopped looking for a while and I heard Elder Edwards yell to me. Turns out, we're 4th cousins!! WHAT?! We're related through William Jordan Flake and Lucy Hannah White. So he has Flake family and he told me how he kind of grew up going to visit Snowflake, Arizona and how he loves it there. And how we have so many good stories in our family history. Then people started saying how we did look like family. (Even though he's half-Italian, I guess the Flake gene still runs strong haha!!) But yeah! So I served with my 4th cousin! Wow, my 4th cousin was my District Leader on my mission! That's pretty cool!!
And some special things with the Chandler family. So, as part of the Christmas Devotional, Sister Chandler sang "The Most Beautiful Story That's Ever Been Told" and wow... it just felt like Mom was there singing. It was really special. I've missed that. Hearing Mom sing, I mean. And so a few tears were shed, but it was so special to feel like a lullaby was kind of being sung to me again. And to feel that sort of "motherly bond" with Sister Chandler again. :) And the other thing with the Chandler's... so Emily (the 11 year old) hung out with me for basically the entire evening. She wanted to be with me at dinner, and at the Palace lights, and walking around with me.. it was so fun! And made me feel so good. And what was probably the most special to me, was this thought that kept coming to mind. Emily is about the same age as Candace would be. So being with her, just felt like how I would imagine being with Candace would be like. So as she chatted with me, was being silly, and wanted to show me things, walked with and linked arms with me, and took goofy pictures with me.... this whole time, I couldn't help but think of Candace. That was really special for me. Because it felt as though, I sort of had an evening with Candace (with the help of sweet Emily). I love Emily and I really have always felt a sort of connection with her from the time I met her. So, maybe she was friends with Candace in heaven? I don't know! But it was definitely a very special experience. :)
Emily Chandler is like my best friend.
Wednesday morning we got up and said goodbyes to everyone before heading to the train station and heading back to Wrocław. (Almost typed "home" haha. I guess it's kind of a temporary home though, so it works.) But yeah, we took a train to Wrocław and went to our apartment to unpack a bit.
The train station looks like Hogwarts!!
(At least that’s what it reminded me of.)
Then, we did weekly planning. And in the evening, we taught our self-reliance course to Doni, Wilbert, and Jami. It went well! Afterwards, Jami gave us some of her things (leftover canned food she had, dishwasher detergent, toilet paper...) before leaving Thursday morning!! She's moving! She flew to England and will spend Christmas there and then she's moving to Utah. She has really been feeling like she needs to go to Utah (even though she really doesn't want to). Jami has a lot of very spiritual experiences and the Holy Ghost speaks to her very clearly and plainly. And she's so sensitive to that and she listens. It's so cool! But yeah, she's moving, so we had to say our goodbyes or "see you laters." It was so cool to meet her and have her here with us in Wrocław for about 2 months. It was such a blessing!
Thursday morning I was thinking about this: The Polar Express is gonna be REAL for me this year. There are train tracks that go RIGHT by our apartment. I'm living up North. And I hear trains in the middle of the night!! Never at any other time in my life will I live right next to train tracks, so this is it folks! My Polar Express Christmas!! :) Okay, so not too much happened. But! We helped Agnieszka Kukurenda with her grocery shopping again. I love spending time with her. She has such a sweet spirit!! On the way back to her house, she (almost hesitantly) explained to me and asked me, "Okay, so Daniel was wondering if... well, you said you have a brother who is his age and they both like Legos... so Daniel was really wanting to write him a letter! And maybe they could be pen pals and talk to each other?" I quickly said, "Yes! Of course! My brother would love that. That would be awesome! Yes!" She looked so happy! And that will be so awesome and so cute! Oh my goodness! Anyway, we later took a train to Kraków for exchanges. But it was 2 hours late! It said it was going to be 80 minutes late, but then ended up being even longer! There was a German man who was speaking some Polish with us and trying to figure out what was going on with the train. It took me a bit to place the accent (since I haven't really heard Germans speak Polish before), but while we were checking the departures board, I figured it out! He was German! When we got up to the platform again, I went to find him and was able to ask if he spoke German. His face lot up and he said, "Ja! Ja! Ja!!" And I was able to explain to him that the train was late. It was super basic German, but he seemed so grateful! I'm so glad I was able to help him!! And then, on the train someone helped me!! I was trying to charge my phone, but the outlet was in a place where my charger was too big to fit. This older lady in our compartment saw that I was struggling and she kindly offered her charger to me to use!! It was so kind!! Wow! People are just so good. :)
Friday, we went on exchanges in Kraków. I've been with Sister Lueck both of the other times, so naturally I had to be with Sister Ludlow. (Believe me, I've been praying like crazy just to survive this day and that it would be quick and painless... and, well.. my prayer was answered!) The day went well, I survived, it was painless, but I'm just glad it was a one day thing haha. I know I can handle that now. Okay, so basically, we had a lesson with a returning member in the morning. His name is Marcin and he's way cool. Really open with the missionaries and really trying to become better! Then, we all went to lunch at this Polish "milk bar" (just a place with cheap Polish food). But it was this cute, little cafe inside this fancy building where the Kraków Radio station was based. Pretty cool! Later, we did a fun finding activity where we had a whiteboard and we asked what people's favorite thing about Christmas was and we sang Christmas carols!! So they all went caroling with a Carroll!! ;) ;) Haha, probably my favorite thing around this time of year are all those jokes. XD Anyway, we ended up getting contact information for 3 different people! It was awesome! And then, we stopped by to see the Rynek and the Jarmark there. It was really pretty! And I know I might be biased, but the Wrocław one is a LOT bigger and I honestly think it's prettier! :) Lucky us! We have the best one in Poland!! And apparently one of the top 5 best Jarmarks in Europe!! :D Haha!
That night, we had a first lesson with a Russian lady named Nadezda. It went really well and she is really interested! She was a very sweet lady. :) It was a really busy day, which was a huge blessing for me. Let's just say that many prayers were answered today. And I am so so grateful for that.
Jarmark in Kraków.
Christmas Carp in a small pool in Kraków.
Saturday we came back from exchanges in Kraków. On the train ride home, I had some thoughts. I posted it on Facebook, but for those who didn't see and would like to read them, I'll send it in an email right after this one. It was a pretty cool experience.
After we came home, we taught an English class with Anna and her husband, and their daughter Viki. It was so much fun! So, part of it, they wanted to understand what the lyrics meant in the song "Last Christmas." I don't know if I've said this before, but the Poles have 2 staples of the Christmas season. That is 1. Home Alone (Kevin Sam W Domu... they LOVE that movie) and 2. Last Christmas (they love that song and it plays everywhere and I have no idea why they love it so much...) Anyway, so we went over the lyrics for Last Christmas!! It was pretty fun! Then, Viki gave Sister Aramaki and I drawings she did for us!! She drew me a picture of Rapunzel. Oh and she wrote "To: Shaylin Carroll, From: Viki." Haha I love the full name thing. XD
Picture of Rapunzel that Viki drew for me.
Anyway, later we had a good meeting with Doni about Eternal Marriage. He said he's never really thought about marriage before now. But now he has it as a goal! Whoo!! We also had a good meeting with Lucyna. She's so sweet and always so happy to see us! I love seeing her face light up when we come to see her! :)
Sunday, church was good. For Sacrament Meeting, after we took the sacrament, we watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional. That was the first time I've ever watched it in Polish, so that was fun! After church, Sister Aramaki and I worked on Facebook. We posted in a ton of local groups just introducing ourselves and why we're here. From that, we messaged all the people who "liked" or commented on our post. We were able to message at LEAST 40 people and are currently in contact with 10 or so. It was literally the fastest way ever to get potential investigators and get talking to interested people!! It was seriously SO AWESOME! We already have 3 or so meetings set up from that. It was maybe about 30 minutes of work to post and start messaging and then so much more came from that. It was so cool!! Later, we had to drag ourselves away from a very successful session of Facebook contacting to go caroling with Isabel, Adam, and Doni.
But that was super great too! We had a lot of fun visiting members and such. Oh! And Slawa has a pet rat!! It was so cute! (Probably never thought you'd hear those 2 words huh? Cute rat?) Mom! Plug your ears!! But I got to hold it and it crawled up my arm and hung out on my shoulder for a bit. It seriously felt like I was in Harry Potter haha. For some reason it just made me think of how some of them have pet rats haha. Fun times!!
Going caroling with Isabel, Adam, and Doni.
Me holding Slawa’s rat!!
*MOM DON’T LOOK!! I WARNED YOU!!*
Well, we don't have snow here yet, but I'm praying for a white Christmas!! I hope y'all have an amazing week and Christmas wherever you are in the world!! Wesołych Świąt!! :)
Love and miss you all!!
Siostra Shaylin Carroll
Sister Aramaki said the snow made us look like Elsa...
(which reminds me... I still haven't seen Frozen 2..... XD kidding, kidding..)
My thoughts from the train ride home:
This morning, we were returning back to Wrocław from Kraków. We took a train and we normally have tickets with reserved seats. This time was different. We didn't have guaranteed seating. As we got on the train, we went from compartment to compartment searching for any empty seats that we could have for our 4 hour ride home. Nothing. There were no open spaces. There was no room.
So here I am, sitting on the floor in the small corridors of the train car, and I can't help but think of the night the Savior of the world was born. For Him, there was no room in the inn. There were no open spaces or empty seats. It really got me thinking about this and soon I had a song running through my head. It's a Christmas song titled, "Do You Have Room?" It asks a series of questions in the chorus. I want to write them here:
Do you have room for the Savior?
And do you seek Him anew?
Have you a place for the one who lived and died for you?
Are you as humble as a shepherd boy
Or as wise as men of old?
Would you have come that night?
Would you have sought the light?
Do you have room?
So as I sit here on the floor of this full train, I remember my Savior, Jesus Christ. And how, for Him, there was no room. But it doesn't have to be that way with us. We can always give room to the Savior in our hearts. Merry Christmas everyone!!
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