Disney Jeopardy!! :D Yup, I've still got it. ;) (also, P.S. I love Italians hahaha)/The Man from Pakistan and the Epic Word of Wisdom Lesson (1/27/20)

Cześć!!

Monday we had our normal chill pday. We also had our apartment inspections done by the Womacks. After that, we all went out to eat some Chinese food. ("I went to a Chinese restaurant...." hahaha) It was fun! After that, I was able to talk to everyone except Zach again. So that was great!! But Zach... you should really email me bro. (Hopefully you even read these things haha) Later, we had our English class and 13 people were there. 10 of which being new people (some of them had been at our other English classes, but are still relatively new). And for religious discussion, everyone stayed except for James/Marek. So that was awesome!! And most of them stayed to play games with us!! It was awesome!! We played Jeopardy again, but it was hard to find a topic. Wilbert and Solomiya have been dying to do a Disney themed one (I have too, quietly and not so quietly haha), but there have been people who didn't really know it, so it wouldn't be fun for them. Then, when we asked this group if they know Disney... every single hand went up. YES!! So we were finally able to play Disney Jeopardy and it was the BEST!! Let me tell ya... I've still got it!! 😏😉 But don't worry, I really held back on answering and really only answered if absolutely nobody on my team knew the answer. I even had to correct an answer on the actual game haha. 😅 And I think Sister Aramaki finally has a small sense of my true Disney nerdiness. 🤪 Especially when there was a question under the category of "Animals." The prompt was: "In this movie, two characters become friends who weren't supposed to." I had it immediately and said, "Fox and the Hound"!!" And Sister Aramaki looked shocked and just said, "HOW?! How in the world do you know that?!" I laughed pretty hard. But it was a good time. After that, we played charades which somehow involved Elder Southard (a senior couple missionary) demonstrating the tango with me!! Ahhhh!!! It was so funny!! And random!! I was dying!! He just like got up and came over to me and started dancing. Normally I'd be chill with it. But half of my thought process was "ahh is this allowed? Okay, he's a senior missionary. But ahh wait what?!" So it was pretty entertaining. XD

Tuesday, January 21, 2020... Well, one year ago today was the last time I was in America (or even on the American continent!). Kind of crazy that I've been on foreign soil for an entire year now!! --

I hit my year mark in the country! Can't believe I've been in Poland for over a year now!

We had Zone Conference. And well... I can't hide anymore. I got asked to play the piano for zone conference. I've been exposed hahaha! It's like I can't go a single zone conference without being involved with music in one way or another haha. Curses of being a Carroll!! (Haha totally kidding I love it!!) This was the last Zone Conference of the transfer! It was good! We reviewed everything we've learned in zone conferences since the Chandlers arrived in July 2019. It was a good review and interesting to see the progression. It started with us, internally, making sure we have strong testimonies and relationships with Jesus Christ. Then, it moved on to sharing it with others. And then we talked about different ways to find people and all the tools we have for that. It's so interesting because we really do have to make sure we are solid and ready to go before we can share that with others and try to help them. We sometimes have to help ourselves before we are capable of helping others. Really good life lessons in there. We also were introduced to the new English program called English Connect. Basically it's designed to help people go from zero English to being fluent enough to start doing the BYU Pathways program. So that's AWESOME!! And it's so basic and easy to teach. Our English classes are going to have such a better and more solid structure than they've had in the past. Thank goodness! Now I feel like I know how the classes are supposed to look and work. It's seriously such a cool program! Oh and crazy thing... it's a 24 week course. And I won't even be here for the full 24 weeks!! I'll be home before the first cycle ends!! 😱😱 CRAZY!! Later, we had a meeting with a man named Artur. His friend Piotr is meeting with missionaries in Germany and Piotr referred Artur to the missionaries. So that's awesome! Artur is such a sweet, older guy. He's very open and wants to meet with us to learn more. He's also very willing to read the scripture, pray, and do the things we invite him to do. He's going to be a solid member someday. So that was a happy way to end the day!

Wednesday we were able to do our weekly planning. After all that was done, I had the chance to do some family history research for a member of the Church who lives in America. (We have some resources they don't have access to outside of Poland.) It was fun to be able to do Family History for a bit again! Then, we were able to have a lesson with Asan in Renoma. Okay, funny story... we taught Asan about the Word of Wisdom today. Before the lesson though, he asked us if we wanted anything to drink. We told him we were okay, but he bought us tea anyway. Even though we had told him we could only drink fruit tea. He thought it was "legal" tea that he bought us, but from the smell of it, I could tell it was not haha! So he went up and asked what the ingredients were. He came back and told us all of them (which were all good), but he forgot one (which was not good). He said he was going to ask again, but before going he was joking around and oh my goodness it was so funny! He said that the barista was gonna be like, "What the heck man?! Just go drink your tea!!" It was HILARIOUS!! So he went and asked and came back and said, "Okay yeah it has black tea and caffeine in it." But hey, we had a lovely centerpiece for our Word of Wisdom lesson. The lesson actually did go really well though. Asan is committed to live by the Word of Wisdom and already sees why it's important and could benefit him. He is seriously just progressing so well! He also studies a bunch on his own. Not only that, but he learns from the lessons and about the gospel and then he applies it to himself and his own life. It's awesome!! And he is so humble too! Whenever we compliment him on his progress or faith or anything, he just gets quiet and changes the subject. This time, there was a picture in the book and he just said, "So.. is that a picture of Joseph Smith?" We couldn't help but chuckle a bit. He's an awesome guy. Oh! And to just put a bow on that whole experience... as Asan shook my hand over the table, he knocked over and entire glass of tea (yes, it was in a glass not a cup). So it was a ton of tea!! It was just the perfect ending to the lesson. Like.. Word of Wisdom, BAM! Done with tea! BAM! Knocks over the glass of tea! BAM! It was pretty great! XD 

Our beautiful centerpiece for the Word of Wisdom lesson (pre-accident of spilling it) XD.

Anyway, after that lesson, Wilbert came for self-reliance with us. He didn't look too good and said he had been feeling pretty sad and lonely and didn't really know why. We were able to just have a good heart to heart with him. We talked about our relationships with God and how prayer is such a powerful thing. It was a pretty tender conversation. Then, we had our lesson for self-reliance and the topic was perfect. It was the lesson that talks all about prayer. I couldn't believe how perfect it was!! God truly is in the details!! One of the commitments is to pray morning and night for a whole week and Wilbert committed to do that, so that will be really good for him!

Thursday was good. We first had to go check on the Elders' apartment and make sure it was clean because I guess the landlord was coming to paint. Anyway, I have now officially been inside the Elders' apartments of both cities I've lived in haha, because they were no longer in the city. Haha, but still kinda cool! 

We had to check on the Elders' (unoccupied) apartment this week. I found a Żabka store sign in there. It was signed by some of the Elders who have lived here. Shout out to those of you who know what Żabka is. Y'all are legendary!! XD

Later, we had a meeting with Kamil. He found out that it won't always be us two here in Wrocław and he was so sad. He said, "I like you two! But maybe you'll come back and visit. Or I'll come visit!" For the lesson, we watched President Nelson's closing remarks from General Conference October 2019 and we read Joseph Smith's account of the first vision. Kamil asks really great questions and he really pays attention. He's so faithful and does the things we invite him to do. And he has already had experiences with prayer in his life, so this is only building off of that. At the end of the lesson, we invited him to be baptized when he knows these things are true. He asked, "Be baptized again? ....Sure, yeah! I can do that!" He is so awesome!! After our meeting with him, he practiced piano in the chapel for a while. Ahh, I love Kamil! He is so great!! Later in the day, we met a man named Domenico at Renoma for a first lesson. Now, Domenico is way awesome too! So about Domenico... he is just super chill, down to earth, kind, respectful, very open, and honest!! He reminded me why I love Italians!! (I feel like all the Italians I've met are similar to this.) Domenico has very strong faith and believes in God, but thinks that church (as in the organization) is corrupt. And through talking with him about the Church of Jesus Christ, he was very interested, asked lots of good questions, and thinks it's all very possible. After he read the scripture about praying to know if these things are true (Moroni 10:3-5), he committed himself to read and pray about the scriptures. He said, "So basically the scripture says that after we read these things, we need to pray and ask if it's true? Okay, that makes sense. I will do that!" And for him, as he had explained at the beginning of the meeting, prayer is very intimate and personal. And he feels very strongly about that. But he wants to meet again and learn more. And he will definitely be praying! It was a great meeting! (Side note: He was another person who was found through Facebook!! Best tool ever!!)

Friday we were able to go and visit Agnieszka. She's been doing the "Come Follow Me" program on her own and she LOVES it!! We had a nice discussion about what she's been reading in the Book of Mormon. Then, she was able to ask some questions she had. We also watched Pres. Nelson's closing remarks with her and "Ask of God" (the depiction of Joseph Smith's First Vision). It was really good! Then, she was looking up something on YouTube to ask us an English question. Then, out of the blue, this random church video just pops up as a suggestion!! It didn't match the topics or anything of the other videos around it. Agnieszka noticed it and said, "Oh! Maybe that's for me!" And she wrote down the title to watch it later. It was pretty cool! Later, we were able to do some work on Facebook while Vova, Wilbert, and Wiktoria played some games together. Then, we had our English class and had 2 new people this time. At the end, for religious discussion, Vlad and Kiryl (who came last week) stayed again. AND they even participated in the discussion and added some really good thoughts!! They're the newest ones here and they're already going all in! I love it!! They're so awesome!

Me and Honorata. She comes to English class and I just think she's the funniest and spunkiest lady I have met here. I love her!

Fun fact: So I guess Poland is a 2nd World Country. I didn't even know that was a thing. But I guess it makes sense. Because it's still developing, but it's definitely not 3rd World... so 2nd World country is a nice in between haha.

Okay, so Saturday morning, we went to help a lady name Anna. She's a Russian member of the Church from London. Did you catch all that? Haha, anyway, she just had surgery and so we helped her get settled in her apartment and went grocery shopping for her. She sent us with A TON of money AND her 2 credit cards. Keep in mind, this is the first time we've met her! That is so much trust in the missionaries!! It's crazy! Anyway, it was fun to help her out. Then, we had our English class at the chapel. We had some new people today too! I think there were 14 people today. And 5 of them, it was their first day ever learning English!! So cool!! And I think only 1 person left for religious discussion. Yay! After class, Anna Tarasova (Viki's mom) asked me about Family History and if she could do some research here. So I got her set up on an account and showed her how to add her relatives and search and stuff. She's excited to search on her own!! Also, a girl named Halina stayed after class to ask us something. She said, "Hey, so can I really come to church tomorrow? I really want to because it's really interesting to me!" Um... YES YOU CAN COME TO CHURCH!! I love it when that happens!! She's awesome! Later, we had a meeting with Agnieszka Januszewicz and Adam. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Both Adam and Agnieszka had a lot to say and thoughts to share. So it turned into a pretty interesting lesson. Later, we met with Doni and talked about his Book of Mormon reading and his prayers. He's been praying a lot recently. He says he's had exams. XD But it's really good that he knows he can pray for that!! We watched some of the Book of Mormon videos together. He really enjoys those and it really helps him to understand everything better.

Sunday, Kamil came to church!! Yay! There was also a new girl from France. Her name is Ludivine and she is here for a semester at the University. She's super sweet! Plus, she was happy that there were SISTER missionaries here in Wrocław. That made us feel good because most of the time the members ALWAYS ask us when there are going to be Elders coming back to Wrocław. So pro tip: if you have Sister Missionaries serving in your ward or branch, don't ask them if Elders are coming. 1. They don't know. And 2. It might make them feel bad. Sister missionaries are missionaries too! We can do the exact same things that Elders can. And we have just as much authority to do missionary work as the Elders do. Okay, rant over. But just keep that in mind. ;) After church, we visited Babcia for lunch. She gave me a heart keychain that says "Kocham Cię" because I'm leaving. I'll see her one more time, but she didn't want to forget to give it to me. She said, "I want you to look at it and remember me. And remember that Babcia holds you always in her heart!!" Aww, it was so cute!! Funny thing, I was told this by 2 different people today. So apparently Polish people are officially fluent in Polish at age 16!! They finally actually know what they're saying by then. And Wiktoria told me that she still isn't fluent (she's my age). Haha now I don't feel so bad. It makes me feel so much better about my Polish. It's comforting to know that Poles aren't even fluent in their own language. XD It's seriously so crazy. And honestly such a miracle that I can speak as much as I do. Talk about the gift of tongues!! Okay, also today, we ran into Wiktoria and her 14 year old sister Oliwia!! We had a great time talking to them and getting to know Oliwia. She's so sweet! And it was cute to see Wiktoria with her. They have a very sweet relationship. It was cool to see that side of Wiktoria too!!

We have transfers next Monday. And I've been in Wroclaw for 8 months (4 transfers). So I am definitely leaving. It'll be weird to have to get used to another place again. But I'm really excited!

Love and miss you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Me with a cute lil European car :) Not as common anymore as you can imagine haha.

The little canal near the chapel has been frozen this entire week!! So it's definitely been cold, but we are lacking snow...

View from the Elders' apartment.

Little throwback to when we were on the Frontrunner in Utah heading from the MTC to the Salt Lake Airport!! I swear I was more excited than I look haha.

The Womacks took us out to eat at a Chinese restaurant last week.

HAZARDOUS: EXPLOSIVE POST AHEAD/Well.... I got hit on by a single, 28 year old guy from India this week!! XD (1/20/20)

Cześć!!

On Monday, we were able to do our normal pday. And for those curious, that usually consists of grocery shopping, exercising, getting ready, cleaning, sometimes eating (but sometimes I forget to for a while on pdays haha), emailing, messaging, and talking to our families. Nothing super exciting or adventurous these days. Just resting, relaxing, and communicating with family. But come next transfer, I'll be in a new place, so I will probably be going on more adventures and exploring places haha. Anyway, we had our English class that night and had a bunch of people there and it was all guys too, I just realized. Man, hanging out with mostly guys before the mission gave me lots of good practice for now. XD Anyway, it was Vova, Sergey, Marcin, Wilbert, Przemek, and James/Marek. Later, Solomiya came for game night and it was really fun! But for the spiritual thought of family night, I shared a video and talked about prayer. Then I asked others to share their thoughts on why prayer was important. Przemek answered, which really surprised me! And his answer was perfect! It makes me think that maybe he really has had some experiences with God in his life, even if he hides it really well. He said something like, "Ask questions with trust, and answers will come. Trust is crucial. Answers can come in lots of different ways: through another person, a thought, a feeling, something that happens to you, anything! Sometimes answers are all around you, but we just can't see them yet. They will come in their own due time. Trust that they're there." And I was blown away by his answer. Wow! It was beautiful! Later, we had a Zone Conference Call. It went well and they said we're doing a good job and that we're seeing a lot of improvements and success in the mission. Yay! We also got news that we're allowed to watch "The Fighting Preacher" on pdays now. And that was definitely exciting news! Anything different we can watch is always happy and exciting haha. We've seen everything we're allowed to watch and like... 10-20 times each hahaha. So new stuff is great!! XD

Tuesday was pretty typical. During personal study, I was reading the Book of Mormon, but in Polish. And it's weird, but... I almost feel the Spirit more strongly when reading the Book of Mormon in Polish! Maybe it's because the Gift of Tongues is working on me as I do that. And... cool thing. I feel like I understand Polish better and more easily on the days when I study the Book of Mormon in Polish. It's really interesting! Well, basically, we did our weekly planning and had a very busy week planned! Kamil (the uber driver Michael met) is soooo excited to meet with us! He's awesome! Also, when we were at the chapel, we were able to talk with Mariusz Kotliński for a while. He is such a sweet, cute old man. And he just LOVES doing family history ALL the time! Seriously, any chance he gets, he just does family history. It's so sweet! He reminds me of a Grandpa. I love it. And he loves telling us all about his life and all these stories. He's seriously the sweetest! I'm so grateful to know him.

Wednesday we started out with District Council. Our District Leader, Elder Baer had asked us if we would do a section about Facebook and how we've been finding all these people through that lately. So, we walked them through the process of finding a group and making a post and having them actually post it right then. We did a post too, but I'll talk about that more later. I hope they had some success with it too! Then, we had a meeting with Asan in Renoma. We taught him about the rest of the Plan of Salvation. It was.a good lesson. He's still keeping commitments and striving to become a better person. He even has goals for himself that he is keeping and having success with. We're so excited for him! He's just progressing really well and smoothly, it's great! Later in the evening, we had self-reliance with Wilbert. We were on the lesson that talks about serving others. Part of the lesson is that, as a group, we have to talk about someone we all know, who we could serve. So we talked about people... and then Wilbert suggested Doni. So we went forward with that and tried to figure out what he needed. We thought that he might need to feel love, that he isn't alone, and that he has friends. His birthday just happened, so Wilbert suggested we do a surprise party for him! And as soon as we had that idea, the ideas and inspiration just FLOWED!! Isn't it so cool how you can take these little steps and feel good about them and just keep going even if you aren't entirely sure what you're doing. And then you just hit a point when the ideas, inspiration, and revelation flows. And then you know for sure that you're on the right track and doing the right thing. It's the coolest thing and coolest process. I love it!

Okay, so back to Facebook! We decided we wanted to post about our English classes on a Ukrainian page and see if they would be interested. For the initial post, we had the help of Solomiya for the first one, but then for responding to comments and messages, we just use google translate. And it seems like it's doing a pretty good job because people's questions are getting answered. XD Maybe I should study Russian or Ukrainian too... XD But basically a summary of this entire experience of posting this page could be summed up like this.... WARNING: DO NOT POST ON UKRAINIAN PAGES UNLESS YOU HAVE A TON OF TIME TO ANSWER THE FLOOD OF MESSAGES YOU WILL RECEIVE FROM SUCH WONDERFUL, OPEN, AND WILLING PEOPLE!! IT'S THE BEST!! Sooooo yeah, awesome stuff!! Within the first 30-60 minutes, we had about 70 "likes" and a ton of comments. And then, it just grew exponentially from there! We were receiving friend requests, messages, comments, requests for us to share it to other Ukrainian groups, "likes" and "loves" on the post, people "tagging" their friends and saying "Let's go!", and so so many interested people!! If everyone shows up who said they would, I honestly don't know if we'll have enough space for everyone!! :) Even the next morning, we were still getting friend requests and messages and everything from people. Plus, the average post on there would normally only get about 2-10 "likes". Just to give you an idea of how big a deal this is, let me give you a few statistics. These are from January 16, so it has probably grown still!!

"Likes" and "loves": 421

Comments: 105

So, as you can see, those are some pretty high numbers! It was just SUCH a contrast to the reaction we got on other pages. (Primarily Polish pages) When we posted on other pages, we got lots of mean comments, "angry" faces, and eventually our posts would get taken down from the page haha. We luckily would have some success through that before the post got taken down, which is good. But yeah, basically it was the COMPLETE opposite reaction when we posted on a Ukrainian page! (No angry faces, ONLY "likes" and "loves", tons of comments and responses, no mean comments, etc.) It was AMAZING!! I'm definitely doing that in my next area too!!

Thursday we were STILL responding to the overwhelming number of people interested in our free English classes! Also, I started getting an exponentially higher amount of friend requests from random Indian and African and Middle-Eastern men. XD I guess if you put yourself out there you're gonna get the attention of ALL TYPES!! XD I got hit on and hit up by a few different random guys. A guy from Algeria told me he wanted to get to know me and he actually CALLED THROUGH FACEBOOK!! Of course, I immediately ended the call. XD Another guy told me he was coming to Warsaw and I should be his tour guide because "why not." XD Sorry, I don't think so buddy. Also, I don't even live there! And probably the best/funniest one was a guy from India who went through and "liked" ALL of my profile pictures ever (good thing I don't even have that many haha) and of course messaged me. My friend actually posted something on Facebook a few days before this happened that I thought was all to perfect. It said, "Approach life with the same confidence that random Indian men approach women online." Too too true. XD I took a screenshot of the conversation I'll attach it to this email. Please enjoy. XD

Please enjoy my conversation with a random 28 year old, single, Indian man. XD

Okay! So as for the rest of the day, it was fairly normal! We were able to have a meeting with Kamil. He was Michael Gray's Uber driver. It turned into a 2 hour meeting, but it was good! He had lots of questions about everything. But we were able to teach him about the Restoration. He's interested and open which is great! He also wants to come to our English class. And get this!! He asked US if he could bring people to the lessons with us!! And if he could give our number to interested people!! Um... yes please!! You can bring referrals to us!! He's so awesome!! Also, we had Max and Anna on the meeting with us and they were seriously perfect and it worked so well with Kamil. Later, we met with a man named Hameed. He is from Libya and comes from a Muslim background, but like many of the Muslims we are teaching, is leaning more towards Christianity. He was also very interested. He wants to read the Book of Mormon and pray and find out if this is the right way to God. He says he knows that there is one right way to God, somewhere out there, but is still trying to find it. When we asked him if we could meet again, he excitedly said, "Of course! I want to learn more." I'm so grateful to be teaching all these incredible and prepared people! Also, in the evening, Mehdi randomly called us and said he was in a bad place mentally and didn't know what to do. He said he thought of reading the scriptures, but couldn't do it. At the same time, Sister Aramaki and I had the distinct impression that we needed to send him a conference talk to listen to. And then we both thought of the exact same one! Wow, the Holy Ghost and his influence are so powerful and so so cool!

Friday was super busy! **Hint: It was another one of those "lunch past 16:30 kind of days" haha! XD In the morning, we had interviews with President Chandler. It's kinda crazy because the last time we had interviews with him was towards the beginning of October, so the beginning of last transfer and we still had Elder Moody and Elder Baer here! And now, here we are towards the end of January and the end of the second transfer together here. It's so crazy! Anyway, interviews were good. We talked a lot about having a vision for where and who I want to be by the end of my mission. So I've been thinking about that a lot. He also asked me an interesting question. He asked me if I could serve anywhere, where would it be. President Turek asked me the same question in my first interview. President Chandler just wants to see what we're thinking and see how it lines up with what he's kind of been feeling. He didn't reveal anything though. When I gave my answers, he said, "Interesting." And moved on. XD So I have no idea what THAT means. He then asked me WHO I would want to serve with. And I told him that I had no preference. I did get one thing from him, I basically am 100% transferring and my next city will probably be my last city. So I'll be finishing out my mission wherever I go next. So we'll see what happens!! Also, when I told President about our crazy successful Facebook post and showed him, he was shocked and said, "Are you SERIOUS?? That's incredible!!" He was so excited about it and wanted me to post about it on our mission's facebook page so all the missionaries could know about it and try it too. After interviews, we went to visit Babcia. She really wanted to meet President, so we took him to visit. Oh my goodness, they both LOVED it!! They just chatted up a storm and had such a good time together. It was a really good thing for everyone. I loved seeing them interact! 

Babcia and President talking when we visited her. It was so cute to watch them interact! Aww!!

Babcia and President again.

After that, President headed to Legnica for interviews and we went to Agnieszka's for a meeting with her. We talked about and introduced the "Come Follow Me" booklet and program. She was so excited about it! She wanted to get started that day! She loves that it has a study plan and will help her understand the Book of Mormon better. She's also really excited to do the program with Daniel and help him learn and understand. This is so good for them! It makes me so happy to see how excited she is to learn and study the gospel. Also, during our conversation, I felt like I could just speak Polish so much better. The gift of tongues truly flows when I need it to. I'm learning that it's not always when I want it to, but when I need it to. Well, when God needs it to and when He needs me to say something. I'm still learning to trust that and to trust the promise that if I open my mouth, it will be filled and the words will come. Later, we had our English class. We had 11 new people come!! (And out of those 11, we had 10 people stay for religious discussion after class!!) And they are all AWESOME!! Holy smokes.. so we had a total of 14 people come to English. Which means we had about a 466.67% increase from our regular 3 people haha. Hey, that's pretty good! ;) XD Anyway, it was a really busy, really good day!!

Our super awesome English class on Friday!! :) Looked about the same size on Saturday too.

Other half of the English class.

Saturday was great too! In the morning we were able to study and do some great work on the main Facebook page. After that, we had our Beginner's English class. We had 11 people at class. All new!! It was such a good class! All of them are from Ukraine and I think 3 of them, it was their first day EVER learning English. So that's really exciting! And guess what?! For religious discussion after class....THEY ALL STAYED!! And during that class and discussion, there was just such a special feeling there. These people are just so special. They're so humble and open and willing to learn!! And they are good people. They are so good! I was just sitting there, nearly being brought to tears by the love I felt for them. And only knowing how much greater the love our Heavenly Father has for them is. Incredible. By far, one of my favorite English classes I've taught on my mission. It was seriously so special! After English, we got even more happy news! Agnieszka Kukurenda called and asked about English classes. She said that she wants to come next week with Daniel!! This is so good! Because that means she'll be coming to the chapel!! And it's been YEARS since she's even been there!! The next step is naturally, being there for church!! I was so excited!! Then, we were able to have a meeting with Lucyna. We read the Book of Mormon and watched the "Come and See" videos. I asked if there was anyone she wanted to invite to church. At first, she said no. Then, I remembered that her brother would be visiting her that night. I asked if she wanted to invite her brother. She said yes! So we did a little roleplaying and helped her practice how she would invite her brother to church. She did well! Afterwards, Sister Aramaki told her that now she could invite everyone. And Lucyna agreed but said that the most important is her brother. She really wants her brother to come to church and it's very sweet to see that. :) 

Later in the evening,  we met with Doni and taught the end of the Plan of Salvation. He was way interested and focused on this lesson. (With him, sometimes it feels like teaching a deacon/12 year old haha, but it's good! That's just Doni and we love him!) But yeah, he asked really good questions about the Plan of Salvation and seems to understand it pretty well. So that's awesome! We had a good time together and talked and laughed too. Doni's an awesome guy and I'm so glad I've been able to teach him from the beginning, see him get baptized, and continue teaching him. It's an amazing thing and I'm gonna miss him when I leave! As a missionary, there is just such a special bond you have with the people you teach. It's beautiful. But I'm gonna miss all these people so much when I leave!

With Doni!!

Okay well, I think I had one of the happiest Sundays ever!! For many reasons.... here it goes. Dhiva came to church! He was a person I randomly ("randomly", right?) friended on Facebook and started talking to. I had invited him to come to church and he came!! He also wants to meet with us this week. He's just a very sweet, humble guy. Also, Kamil came to church! He just fit right in and was participating and had a great time. He also told us that he's learning how to play the piano and asked us if he could play in church on Sundays!! Um... yes!! If you give them a job, they'll stay!! He even took a hymn book home with him so he could practice! I love it! We also had Iryna's friend, Svitlana. She's an atheist who had nothing better to do, so she came to church!! What?! Awesome! Then, Mariusz wanted a picture with me because he knew he would be out of town and gone when I leave. He also had me write in book that nobody has written in since Sister Gornichec was here a year ago!! (I also found Brigham Kriser's (my cousin) note to Mariusz in there! So that was cool!) It was so sweet that he wanted to say goodbye. I guess that means we had a pretty good connection and that makes me so happy!!

Me and Mariusz.

And one other person came to church today. Someone who hasn't been to church is probably almost a year. Wiktoria came to church!! 

Wiktoria came to church!!

Me and Wiktoria!!

Me, Sister Aramaki, and Wiktoria.

She said she had to come to see me before I left. She will probably be coming back to church now. Also, I gave her a "Come Follow Me" book because she really wants to do the program. She was excited about it even! We're going to do something together this week too. And when I move, she says she wants to come visit me in my next city. Aww, I love her so much and I'm so so so happy she came to church today. My heart seriously felt like it was bursting with joy. I think the last time I really felt that was when I got my mission call. It was amazing to feel that again. Just when I thought this week couldn't get any better!! My joy is full!! I can't help but feel that God is blessing me with these experiences so close to the time when I'll be leaving Wrocław, so that I will never forget these people or this place.

Love and miss you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

P.S. Our current numbers for the Facebook post are these. "Likes": 504    Comments: 132

Me and Sister Malinowska.

I'm teaching all men... from the middle east... and it's AWESOME!!/Small World Full of Big Connections (1/13/20)

Cześć!!

Tuesday was pretty chill. It was fun to talk to those I got the chance to. @Mom, Dad, Hailey, and Zach kinda haha. After pday ended, we went to Skytower to be there for English conversation practice. I haven't been there since September. So it was kind of weird and a little hard going back. Just some hard days happened when I was going there, so it was almost like getting thrown back into that. But it's good because I'm making new memories now. I talked with a lady named Luiza. She's really nice and was way interested in coming to our English class. And she was so excited to tell a few people about it who she works with. So, sweet! Hopefully we'll have some new people coming to English! Later, we worked on Facebook and were able to message a ton of people from posts we had done. It was awesome! I seriously love working on Facebook because we get to talk to so many more people and people who are actually interested. It's the best tool ever!!

Wednesday morning, I got a message from a lady named Marta. She is the one I met a while back at Skytower, who was so excited to talk to me about musicals and things that no one else she knew was interested in. Anyway, she messaged me to interview me for the newspaper! She works for the newspaper now, which is WAY cool. And she wanted to interview me about the English conversations that happen at Renoma and Skytower. So, yet again... I will be in the news while on my mission. XD So that's pretty cool!  Later, we worked on messaging people we had met through Facebook. One guy I messaged wants to meet with us. And the other guy wants to meet with us, attend our self-reliance course, AND come to church on Sunday!! That was WAY exciting! Then, we had a meeting with Asan. We talked about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was good! Lessons with him are always good and just super relaxed. He just listens to what we teach, asks questions that he has, and then during the week he reads the Book of Mormon and prays to receive answers. Things are going smoothly with him and he's making good progress. Later, we were supposed to have a meeting with Doni and Anna at 16:00, then Doni asked to switch the time to 17:00. Then he let us know he would be late and be there at 17:30. Anna got there at 16:50, so she was definitely on time. And we just talked with her and helped her practice English until Doni finally showed up at 17:50. 50 minutes late!!! We still had a lesson with him though and we just started self-reliance later. And the lesson still went well! We talked about meekness, humility, and kindness. We watched a talk that Elder Bednar gave called, "Meek and Lowly of Heart." It was really good! I love this quote he says in it:

"The Christlike quality of meekness often is misunderstood in our contemporary world. Meekness is strong, not weak; active, not passive; courageous, not timid; restrained, not excessive; modest, not self-aggrandizing; and gracious, not brash. A meek person is not easily provoked, pretentious, or overbearing and readily acknowledges the accomplishments of others."

Thursday we studied, planned, and contacted on the way to the chapel. Then, we had District Council through Skype with the Elders in Legnica and Zgorzelec. I was assigned to teach a section about something from "Preach My Gospel." I chose chapter 11, which talks about extending invitations. We had a good discussion about it. We talked a lot about how when people keep commitments like reading the Book of Mormon and praying, that is repentance! Because repentance is just coming closer to Jesus Christ. By doing the things we invite them to do, people are coming closer to Jesus Christ, and in turn, they are repenting. So, naturally it's really important for us as missionaries to be inviting these people to do things and to act because our entire job is to help people to come closer to Jesus Christ. Later, we were able to do a lot of work on Facebook and set up some more meetings. After that, we headed to Renoma for English Conversations. I was able to talk with Marta for the first round. It was so good to see her again and we had fun catching up. :) She also kept thanking me because she said without me her article never would have gotten done. XD I think she could have done it, but I'm glad I was able to help!! :) She asked me if I had seen any musicals lately. Ha! I wish!! So then I explained our missionary rules about that haha. We spent more time talking about that, which was so fun! :) 

Group picture at Renoma for the newspaper.

After Renoma, we headed home for the night. Oh, but quick funny story: Just to clarify, I have NOT seen Frozen 2 because it was released while I've been on my mission. BUT my sister, Hailey, played small parts of the music while we were skyping one time. And yes I still remember it. XD (Y'all haven't forgotten that I'm a Disney nerd, right? Haha!) ANYWAY, as we were walking across Plac Wolności to Renoma, I hear this mystical melody being sung and I'm looking around trying to figure out where it's coming from. It sounded vaguely familiar... then, these two young, teenage boys run up the stairs from the underground parking garage and sing, "INTO THE UNKNOWN!!!" And that's when I knew it was from Frozen 2. It was pretty funny and I laughed. (While my comp was totally confused with what just happened.) This is what happens when you're totally out of the loop on new music and movies! Struggles of a missionary hahaha! :)

Friday we had a meeting in the morning with Agnieszka. First, she had me translate a letter that Daniel wrote for Ethan. It was so fun! They planned on sending the letter that day along with some other fun surprises that I won't spoil for Ethan. It was seriously so sweet of them though!! Then, we had a good lesson with Agnieszka. We talked more about the temple with her. We watched the videos they have on the "Come Unto Christ" website. She had lots of good questions which we were able to answer for her. We're still trying to get her to come back to church, but these are baby steps. And progress is progress. It was a good meeting. Later, we had a meeting in Renoma with a man named Hemn (it's kinda pronounced like "Haymen" just less of the "eh" and more straight to the "n"). And Hemn is from Iraq!! I actually found him through a Facebook post I had posted a bit ago and I had messaged him because he "liked" the post. Holy smokes, this guy is awesome! Basically he told us that he grew up Muslim, but doesn't believe it at all. He turned to Christianity, but then fell away in high school. There was a point in his life where he had an experience where literally saying the name of Jesus Christ saved him. He said that in this situation, he tried saying other names like Buddha or Allah, but the only name that worked and saved him was the name of Jesus Christ. Hemn said, "There is power in just his name." And so he definitely knows that God and Jesus Christ are real! Such a cool thing. He had lots of good questions. And at the beginning, he started off with, "Okay, so a little background on me..." and just volunteered the information to us. Then, he said, "Okay, you're the teachers. I'm just here to learn." (So cool!) We originally had planned to do just a quick intro, but seeing how prepared and ready this man is... we immediately taught him the first lesson about the Restoration!! It went really well and he just took everything in and continued asking good questions. At the end, he committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to find out from God if it is true. He said that he knows there is one true church and one "right way" out there. And he knows that he hasn't found it yet, but that "this could be it!" So he is definitely going to pray to find an answer. He has already received answers in that way, so for him, he knows and it's very natural for him to receive answers through praying to God. That was definitely an exciting meeting! I think it's so interesting though... we're called to serve in Poland on our missions and yet, I'm teaching more foreigners than Polish people. But my mission call doesn't say to just teach Polish people! We are supposed to teach "those who will receive us." Which is what we do! And it's so interesting the different places people we're teaching are from. Morocco, India, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Iraq..... all these places! Because of that, these are people I would meet in no other way. For example, Iraq: we don't have missionaries there, so there is literally no way I would have met Hemn. I know that God has things set up perfectly. It was all designed so that I would get called to Poland, be a missionary in Poland, and meet all the foreigners who "happen to be here" too. Part of the reason God sent me to Poland, is because he knew there were these people I would meet by coming here. So whether it be Poles or Indians or whatever, I know that I was supposed to meet them on my mission. And I'm so grateful that God has a plan for that. A plan for them and a plan for me. And I'm grateful I'm able to see bits and pieces of how that plan comes together and starts to make sense. It is seriously one of the coolest things ever!! :)

Saturday morning we went and visited Babcia. We spent time talking, singing, telling stories, learning about history, and just spending time together. (We had just watched "The Mailbox" the night before. For those who haven't seen it, it's this short film about this old lady who is basically neglected by her family. They never call or visit or write or anything. And I'm pretty sure they made the film to guilt trip people hahaha.) So basically that was on our mind as we visited Babcia because her only daughter lives in New York. So we are literally all she has and she is always overjoyed that we come to see her. It should be a requirement for whichever missionaries serve in Wrocław, they need to watch "The Mailbox" so they keep visiting Babcia. XD Haha, but yeah, I love her and I'm so glad I get to spend time with her. 

Me, Babcia, Sister Aramaki (Babcia had her hair down for the first time EVER!!)

Later, we worked on Facebook, set up some meetings, messaged quite a few people. Facebook works so well for finding new interested people to teach!! Then, we had a meeting with Asan. We taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation. As usual, he asked great questions and just absorbed what we were teaching. He's making great progress, having success, and you can really see his faith through his actions. He does what we invite him to do and as a result he is coming closer to Christ. I couldn't ask for a smoother teaching situation. It's awesome! Later, we had a meeting with Lucyna. We watched the video of Elder Bednar and Elder Rasband doing a tour of the Rome Temple. It was great and she loved seeing it!

Sunday, Asan came to church. He was a bit late, but made it in right after the Sacrament. But he still came! It's progress!! After church, we were talking with some members and then a familiar face popped their head into the room. It was Michael Gray! We were just about to head out the door to go to service, so we invited him along with us. He gladly accepted our invitation. Since he doesn't have a tram card, he took and Uber and met us at the mall. On the way over, his driver, Kamil, was playing classical music and talking about how he likes that sort of thing. Michael ended up talking to Kamil about religion and Kamil was interested! Michael introduced us and we were able to exchange phone numbers. Kamil wants to learn more and come to church! Wow! So so cool. No such thing as coincidences. :) We went to the soup kitchen and had a good time talking with all the people there. I love that place. It makes me so happy. :) 

Service on Sunday for Zupa na Wolności.

Okay, and more connections that Michael and I discovered today! He mentioned something about living in Washington D.C. and I remembered that we had stayed in his house back on our big roadtrip across America in 2015. They were out of town, but let us use their house. And then, we made the connection that I know the Whiting family. (They were in the same family cast as us for Nauvoo Pageant in 2018.) Turns out, he not only knows them, but is related to them! Michael's wife Rachel is sisters with Stephanie Whiting!! We could not believe all the connections. Michael got way excited about them and started telling everyone about all the connections we had. Seriously so cool!! The world is so small, people!! Something cool that Michael said to everyone as he explained these connections was, "It's so obvious that this is part of a divine design. There is someone above us who is orchestrating all this." And I couldn't agree more.

Love and miss you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Me and the comp.

Me and the comp and a cool skylight (haha I just needed more pictures).

Typical street in Poland. Enjoy the view.

Me and the comp and SUSHI.

Found a rose, took a cool picture (don't worry, I didn't get jipped by the gypsies on the Rynek haha).