I cut bangs for the first time EVER!! (for the record, she already had bangs pre-COVID era...)/Indomitable (4/27/20)

Cześć!!

Monday was a pretty normal pday. We were still in the store, but checking out, a few minutes after 10:00 and this Babcia threw a little fit about it. Oops... And I accidentally went into another store before noon, which is still the designated "senior time." Double oops.. I honestly forgot on that one. Anyway, we were able to play some games for pday and later we got ready for the nightly devotional, which our District was in charge of. I'm really hoping the restrictions get lifted quickly. I want to see a few things before I leave Poland!! Maybe have a few adventures on pday before I leave. I know that's not why I'm here in Poland. But it would be nice.

Tuesday we basically just did weekly planning, contacted a ton of members and whatnot, and worked on Facebook. We also helped Elder Womack figure out something for Zoom. We talked about member and the YSA with him. Sorry, honestly nothing really exciting happened today. It was really just a big planning, coordinating, and contacting kind of day. Oh, I guess we were supposed to have interviews with President. But turns out, he'll be here in Poznań on Thursday, so we moved it to then. I'm really glad to have my interview in person because I only have a few of them left! 

Okay, um.. random interesting thing I guess. There is this street close to our apartment called "Akiva Eger Street." I knew the name didn't look Polish. So after a quick search on Facebook (because we don't have google...) I discovered that Akiva Eger was a Jewish Rabbi who emphasized the importance of social distancing during the pandemic outbreak of 1831. I thought that was oddly convenient that we live close to this street and we are in a time of social distancing. XD Also, I never noticed this street name until Tuesday. So, the more you know, I guess. XD

Wednesday morning we had District Council. We do a "life hack" section where people can share tips or recipes or things like that. Elder Zabriskie had it this time. He and Elder Draschil made this hilarious video about how to make pancakes. Including a montage of Elder Zabriskie whisking the eggs for seemingly "hours." Which is Elder Womack's biggest pet peeve, as he clearly pointed out to us on Sunday as we made breakfast burritos... XD It was hilarious! Anyway, later that day I was able to do a post about the poem I wrote, which was cool. I really love this picture of Christ. I thought I should point that out. I feel like it captures His character really well. 

I love my Savior, Jesus Christ and I'm so grateful for everything He has done for me. I know that He makes it possible for us to become better people. To try over and over again. He was resurrected that first Easter morning. I know that He lives. I know that as we try to become like Jesus Christ, we will receive help from Him. He will be with us. He will help us change.

Anyway, then we had a lesson with Ola! We taught her the 3 final points we had left to teach her. We taught about the 10 Commandments, Obeying the Law, and Teaching and Learning in the Church. It was pretty straightforward. Then, we were able to just talk more about prophets, the scriptures and applying them to our lives, prayer, faith, and spiritual experiences. I asked her if she had written down any of her spiritual experiences and she said she had! So I challenged her to find them and read them again. She's still praying about baptism, so I'm hoping that by reading her own experiences with the Spirit, she will be able to recognize the answers she is receiving. She's still doing well though and has so much faith. It's just hard because I don't think she realizes it or sees it in herself.

Thursday we had interviews with President Chandler in the morning. It was really good! So crazy and sad though because it was my last one with him before my "exit interview"!! Seriously so crazy.. But I love interviews with President! It feels similar to talking with my Dad or at least some sort of "mission father figure" I guess. So, we just have a really good time talking together. Later, I helped Elder Womack write the Branch History for 2019. He told me the things that happened and I typed it up for him. He had asked me the day before if I would help him with it because I can type fast. XD It was fun to hear about everything that happened here last year! After that, we had a lesson with Marlena. She has been so busy that we haven't been able to have a meeting with her while I've been here. But she was finally able to meet! And it was so good! She is such a faithful lady and she has a deep love for the scriptures and God. It's easy to see that. We were able to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with her. It was very simple, but there was a very sweet spirit there during that meeting. At the end, we asked her about baptism and if she would be baptized. She had a few concerns (more logistical than anything), but besides those, it sounds like she really wants to get baptized. I hope we can resolve those concerns quickly because she would be an amazing member. I loved being able to meet with her. Afterwards, she sent us a text and thanked us for the meeting. She said that it had been a hard day for her, so she was really glad we were able to talk. 

A bit later, we had a call with Zoe again. Let me tell ya, that girl is adorable. Just the sweetest and she is always a highlight of my week. We were able to talk with her about prayer. She told us that she had prayed about everything this past week. She even prayed about a girl in her class who is pretty mean to her and she asked God "why does she behave in this way?" She's a very thoughtful and mature 9 year old, for sure. We asked her how she feels when she prays and she told us she feels happy. And this week, she said she would pray and ask God if He loves her. And then, after the meeting she sent us the music video for "The Final Countdown" so there's that too. XD

Our call with Zoe (we tried to see what we would look like with short hair)

Again with Zoe (I have a mustache because I'm acting out a story. I think I'm making chocolate in this shot.) XD

And I discovered that my hair is actually long enough to give myself a full beard/face of facial hair. Yay me. XD

Friday was great! The Womack's got another puzzle. 1,000 pieces this time. Needless to say, we wiped that one out pretty quick. XD Under 3 hours! Oh AND it was WHILE we were messaging people on Facebook haha. XD 

In the morning, we had a wonderful meeting with Claudia. We went over the Baptismal Interview questions with her again. She is so ready. The first time we went through it, there were still a few things she wasn't sure about. She still had some doubts and concerns. And you could feel that she needed more time. But when we went through it this time, you could just feel that she was ready. She is so excited to get baptized! She told us it's a big step to make, but she think she's ready and she feels excited. She also finished the Book of Mormon. When I asked her about her experience with that, she said, "I can't really put it into words. But there was just this great feeling of peace. I just felt peace and happiness as I finished the Book of Mormon. It just felt good. My faith in it just grew more and more. The more I read it, the more convinced I became that it's true, the Church was true, and that I really did want to be baptized." That was just a huge testimony builder to me to hear her say that and to see that the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost really do have that power to convert people. To change hearts and desires. It's been amazing to see how her concerns and doubts from earlier have slowly just disappeared as she reads the Book of Mormon. I've loved seeing the change that the Gospel has brought into her life. Seriously, you can FEEL the changes that have happened. I love that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can do this for all of us. I've been so blessed to see this change in someone as I've been teaching them. Claudia is the miracle I've been waiting to see for my entire mission. May 9th, here we come!! :) 

Later in the day, we had a meeting with Dharmik. We were able to talk about the Plan of Salvation. Dharmik has great faith in and a relationship with God. It's easy to see that. The Spirit was definitely there during that meeting. There was an especially sweet feeling of the Spirit present as we testified of Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice for us.

Saturday was good. We were able to do a lot of work on Facebook and message a bunch of people. Also, when we got to the chapel, the Womack's decided we needed to go on a drive. So we did. Let me tell ya, I don't think I have appreciated just "going on a drive" so much haha. It was so good to get out of the city for a bit, see some of the Polish countryside, and even the rolling fields of yellow!! (Mustard or rapeseed fields) It was beautiful!! It was good to have a break, spend some time with the Womack's, and enjoy the scenery. 

Beautiful yellow fields on our drive!! :)

After we got back, we had a meeting with Kasia. She didn't really want to talk about the gospel. She said that's all we ever talk about... well, yes. That's true. We're supposed to haha! XD She wanted to talk about other things and in English. So we read a bit in the Book of Mormon with her and talked about that and then, she talked to us in English about finishing school and things. It was good! And she still wants to meet. She later apologized to us for being grumpy about it earlier and said she still wants to learn more. Good thing we showed her love and tried to compromise with her!! She's great and I'm sure she's just dying for human interaction like we are and everybody else is. Later, during our devotional we found out there was a baptism in our mission today! It's so cool that we're still baptizing even during COVID-19!! Making history... wow!

Our call with Kasia.

Sunday was peaceful. We had our meetings at 10:00 and 13:00. They went well and we had a good group of people for both of them. Even Ola and Kasia (Mom, not the young one we teach) were on the group call for the meetings today! Later, we had our District Devotional. Sunday is always full of meetings. But we had dinner with the Womack's and the Elders right after, and that's always really fun! We're so blessed to be taken such good care of by the Womack's! I love them! For the devotional, we had a guest speaker, John Butler. He talked about DNA and the Book of Mormon. It was really interesting!

Love and miss you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Sister Jensen caught a picture of me. Just look how Polish those buildings behind me look though...

Me and Sister Jensen in the Rynek with our masks on *not social distancing for a second oops*

THE RYNEK

Tag picture! I realized I haven't taken any "tag pictures" my entire mission. I thought they were kinda cool though, so now I'm playing catch up. :)

Our view of these beautiful trees on our drive out of town. :)

Chat with the Relief Society Sisters in the Branch (notice Sister Jensen's and my social distance...) ;)

Sister Jensen asked me to cut her bangs and do like a fade-out or whatever it's called. I honestly don't know, that's what she called it. But the bangs like, kinda frame your face, and curve a bit haha. So, she knew that I had NEVER cut bangs and STILL asked me to do it. So I cut her bangs and they actually turned out pretty good for my first time. We were both happy haha.

 

The first picture is in the middle of it when there were like 3 different lengths and I was slightly terrified I was messing up haha. But the next one is a few days later.

Don't they look good?? Yay!! XD

Masks that cover your face, but it's not a facemask. But it is illegal to be outside without one.../A 4,000 piece puzzle and it just had to end like this... (4/20/20)

Cześć!!

Tuesday it seemed like we had a lot of surprise visitors. It was still pday, but we went and visited Marta for a second to give her banana bread! It was good to see her! Then, we went to the chapel and President Chandler stopped by to give us all masks. He's driving to a TON of cities today to deliver masks to everyone. He said he expected to be home by 2:00 am. Crazy! A bit later, another senior couple came to pick up some of the masks that were left for them. They stayed for a while and we had a pizza party haha. It was fun! As for pday, there was a lot of emailing that happened and of course I called the fam. Also, we finished the puzzle today!!! But there was ONE PIECE MISSING!! It was a brand new puzzle. 4,000 pieces. Took us a MONTH to finish!! Only to find that we were MISSING ONE PIECE!! Oh my goodness... my bet is that Elder Long took it home with him... XD Haha, kidding but way frustrating.

We finished our 4,000 piece puzzle!!! But we were missing one piece!! 😭😭

 Then, I played some games with Elder Draschil and Elder Zabriskie! We had a good time talking and joking together. Then, that evening when I came home, I got a massive headache. Like, the kind that includes nausea. It was terrible. So, I guess those are in the category of migraine, right?? My whole life, I just thought I was getting really bad headaches. I didn't realize THOSE were migraines! I thought migraines were even worse than what I had dealt with. (High pain tolerance problems, right?) XD Oh well. It stunk. I hid under a blanket while listening to the nightly devotional. Hopefully nobody noticed haha. Then, I went straight to bed. But seriously I felt like half drunk or something. I kept losing things and forgetting where I had set things down and texted random things that were fine, but I forgot that I had texted them. Yeah, I was WAY out of it. But I think I'm better now. Sorry, that was probably way boring to read.

Wednesday was a day filled with a ton of studying up on the "Safeguards for Using Technology." We had to do a ton of stuff to prepare for a meeting we had with President and Sister Chandler. They called it a personal companionship inventory where we focused wholly on the Safeguards and technology use. It turned out to be a really good meeting and it sounds like we're doing the things we're supposed to, so they were of course happy about that. Also, on Wednesday, we had a meeting with Claudia! We actually taught the last four principles to her; Service, Missionary Work, Teaching/Learning in the Church, and Endure to the End. So, we taught her from beginning to end!! Whoo!! And I am so so grateful I was able to teach her everything. It's so special to see someone go from start to finish. And to see all those light bulbs go off along the way! She asked us about the interview and baptism again. She still feels good about May 9th for baptism. We asked her how praying is going, specifically about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She said she feels like it could be true and that she has faith in it and it keeps growing. When we told her those were the last things we had to teach, she said she's learned a lot as we've had meetings and is so grateful that we've taught her everything. Most exciting to me though is that she said she has seen so many blessings come into her life since the time she met us and has started down this path! I love it when people are able to recognize those changes, differences, and blessings that come into their life as they begin to learn and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful thing to watch and see happen to someone. 

Later that night, we had a guest speaker at our nightly devotional. He was incredible! His name is Brent Wadas and he is a friend of the Chandler's. He told us his conversion story. Basically he was the most opposite from "golden investigator" that you could get. Like... he tried to break members and missionaries down and did NOT want this to be the true Church of Jesus Christ. But his story of change was so cool! And now he has one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard. The main thing I got from his story was that we should never give up on anyone. The gospel is for everyone, we just have to love them and let them choose to follow it for themselves. Just love people and they will learn from your example. Let the Holy Ghost do the teaching.

Thursday we had a meeting in the morning with a guy named Sergii. Now, I haven't experienced this before in any meeting, but especially not a video meeting, but after about 2 seconds of talking I just felt really uncomfortable. I had thoughts rush to my mind that we needed to have Ukrainian missionaries meet with him or our Elders meet with him... literally ANYbody else besides us. So, I tried to figure out a plan. Luckily, through all this, he received 3 calls from the same person, so he decided to take the call and said he would call us back. I decided to message him and let him know that we would start a group chat with some other missionaries who could meet with him because they are also male. He seemed okay with that, so that's good! It was really strange. But I figure that if I'm feeling that uncomfortable before anything has happened and through a VIDEO CALL, then I should probably listen to that. 

After that, we had a Zone Conference.... with the whole mission... so it was a mission conference. XD We had Elder Kopischke come and speak to us again. It was awesome! He asked us what we're learning during this experience with COVID-19. He also let us know that Elder Uchtdorf and President Ballard ask about the European missionaries often, especially since we are basically the only ones who stayed in our missions. They said they are learning a lot from US! And that they are using the things we learn to do Missionary Training things from leaders and missionaries. Elder Kopischke told us that we are writing history. That was way cool to hear from a General Authority!

We had a mission conference with Elder Kopischke this week. 

A bit later, we had a call with Zoe for English. We were able to make up some fun stories together. At the end, we were able to talk about the Plan of Salvation by making it sound like a storybook adventure. That definitely caught Zoe's attention. She was asking lots of questions and making guesses on what heaven is like. We told her that she could ask God these questions. Then, she asked a really good question, "How can I know if God answers me?" I thought that was such a deep question. But so sincere and genuine. It really touched me. We explained how she would feel that God is answering her questions and that it sometimes takes time and practice to understand what He is saying. She told us she would pray this week and ask God a question. At the end, she even closed her eyes and sat reverently for the prayer!! It was such a sweet teaching experience. 

Call with Zoe.

Later that night, we had our Devotional and a guest speaker came. It was John Hilton III. I think he came to BYS one of the years I was there. He was really cool! A great speaker and a great teacher!

John Hilton III was our guest speaker at Institute this week.

Not a ton happened on Friday. We were able to meet with Kasia in the afternoon. We had a good time catching up with her. We talked about faith, following Jesus Christ, and baptism. She said she hadn't really thought about baptism yet. But she told us that she would study, read the Book of Mormon, and pray about baptism. She told us that she loved General Conference and she asked us if there was a way she could watch past conferences too. She just soaks up everything she can! I love how much she loves to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! We planned to meet the next day to talk more too. 

Call with Kasia.

At the nightly devotional, we found out a few things. First, we're allowed to take public transportation again!! Whoo!! And a really cool thing President Chandler told us... Apparently the Poland Warsaw Mission is the only mission that didn't send any missionaries home. Let me say that again: We are part of the ONLY mission in the entire world who didn't have ANY missionaries go home due to COVID-19!! Holy smokes, that's crazy!! He told us that we are literally making history in this mission. Apparently, it even has the attention of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as well. I thought that was way cool. But wow! What a blessing to be a part of this mission and to be basically untouched as a mission and keep our whole family together!!

Saturday we were able to have 2 meetings! We first met with Kasia again. She said she had been thinking a lot about something I said yesterday; about how God will never ask us to do something that won't bring us happiness. And let me tell ya, that was 100% inspired by the Spirit. I'm grateful I listened to the prompting I had received to say that. The Spirit really does give us the very words we need to say, when we need to say them. She told us that she had been thinking, reading, and praying a lot about baptism. Even just in 1 day, in between our meetings! She's definitely been thinking more seriously about baptism. She had good questions about the Book of Mormon, the Priesthood, and Joseph Smith. It was good! 

A bit later, we had a meeting with Himanshu about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He read in the Book of Mormon and prayed this week, which is awesome! He had good questions about the Holy Ghost and what that is. He said he would keep praying and will start praying in the way that we taught him we should pray. He's doing well. Slow and steady, but still progressing. 

Well, I learned today that apparently it doesn't matter if you're in quarantine or not. You're still gonna get ALL of the contacts... even the crazy drunk guys who want to wife you up. It just takes longer to figure that out through text. Dang... So there's another marriage proposal for the books. XD Oh and a different guy asked me on a date a few times. 🤦🏼‍♀️ That's what's new with me... So how's your day going?? XD

Sunday we were able to have our normal church meetings. We had a full screen of people for our Come Follow Me class. There were 9 people besides missionaries! So that was really exciting! It went well. :) 

We had a great discussion for Come Follow Me with lots of people. We had a full screen!! :D

Later in the day, we had a District Devotional and our weekly call-in report with Elder Mitchell. And we had dinner at the Womack's. For our nightly devotional, we had a guest speaker. It was Sister Cześlak. She was the first missionary from Poland... ever!! She served in Washington state and while there, she briefly met President Hinckley. A few weeks later, she was asked by the First Presidency to go to Salt Lake City. While there, she worked in the temple to translate the temple ceremony into Polish!! She later recorded the audio for the ceremony into Polish as well!! It was such an incredible story to hear! And wow, she is such a strong member. She is truly a pioneer of the church here in Poland. So faithful and such a powerful testimony. It was a really great devotional!!

Love and miss you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

Old town road... Polish version ;)

Me in a mask.

The Book of Mormon is available in Polish on the app!! 

FINALLY!! This new translation is 30 years in the making...

SpRiNgTiMe!!

Me in a mask again!

How do you split a pea?!/Easter!! The hills *ahem* PARKS are alive with the sound of music... XD (4/14/20)

Cześć!!

Surprise! A Tuesday pday! Because yesterday was Śmingus Dyngus.

Monday we woke up at 8:00 am again yay! Haha it's honestly pretty weird to wake up that late... You know, I really don't mind waking up at 6:30 am every day now. It's really nice to get up and get going. (I'll probably look at that sentence in a year and laugh at myself haha. But for now that's how it is haha!) We did our normal preparation day things. There is now a reserved time for senior citizens to go shopping from 10-12. AND they made a new rule that in the store, there can only be 3 people for every register/check-out stand there is. So, in ours I think there can be 9-12 people! We went as soon as we could in the morning, around 9, thinking we would have to wait for forever. But there were even fewer people than there normally are! So that was nice. Eventually we headed to the chapel, walking the whole way because we're not supposed to take public transportation right now. It's about a 30 minute walk. But it was way nice outside 21°C!! (70°F). So that was pretty great! Oh, and I saw this ridiculously long line for the post office. About 30 people... all 6 feet apart... INSANE!! At the chapel, we were able to play Ticket to Ride with the Elders and then Skype our families. It was a nice day!

Tuesday we had a mission wide meeting with President Chandler. We seem to be having a lot of those these days haha. It was good though! We talked about Joseph Smith's experience with being in Liberty Jail. President Chandler related it to what we are experiencing now, and how we're kind of "trapped" a bit as well. He compared this time of staying inside and social distancing as a type of our own "personal Liberty Jail." Which means that, just like with Joseph, the Lord has lessons prepared for us to learn from this experience. I think that goes for everyone and whatever our own personal Liberty Jail is or times of trial that we go through. There are lessons to be learned from every difficult and trying situation we find ourselves in. The rest of the day we spent doing our studies, weekly planning, messaging people... the usual. Cool thing though, Claudia texted and told us that she's "trying to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the week so that she can start Doctrines & Covenants"!! Wow!! That girl is amazing! Also, she said in Alma, there were a bunch of questions that he asked the people he was teaching. She said she wanted to see if she could answer those questions herself. So she did some research, found a list of those 50 questions online, and has been going through them and answering them for herself!! She just applies the scriptures to herself all on her own. I don't think I'll ever stop being in awe of her faith and real intent as she studies and learns about the gospel. Amazing! That evening, we had a guest on our nightly devotional call. It was Bishop Col. Al Finch. He was a friend of the Chandler's from their home in North Carolina. He's a Psychologist in the army and does personality profiling and things like that. He talked about a lot of things; personality, meditation, reducing stress, dealing with self isolation as an extrovert vs. introvert, and more. And I was reminded once again why I want to study Psychology haha. It was seriously SO INTERESTING!! Such a great nightly devo!!

Wednesday we had a meeting with Dharmik. He was someone our "Facebook machine" sent a friend request to for me. Cool thing though.. he had previously been taught by missionaries here in Poznań and also missionaries in Prague last Fall. And the machine just "happened" to "randomly" send him a friend request??? There's NO way. God definitely had a hand in this and obviously wants Dharmik to meet with missionaries again. We had a great first meeting with him. He already has a Book of Mormon and he also watched one small part of conference. But he said he'd watch more and read more. Nothing super out of the ordinary happened, but it was just a really solid first meeting. We'll be meeting with him again! The rest of the day we had District Council, messaged people, created Facebook posts, and we also all took a personality test. We were really curious about it after the devotional last night. It was really interesting! As the results turned out, I'm the only extrovert among a bunch of introverts. 😂 I'm still convinced that I'm a bit of an ambivert. Because in looking at the results for both the extroverted and introverted variations of my personality, I found both to apply pretty well. Though my results were 8 to 2 in favor of the extrovert quality in that section of the test. So who knows! 😅

Thursday we started out with our personal study. This week, in preparation for Easter, I've been reading about and studying the last week in the Savior's life. Thursday was about the Last Supper and the Atonement in Gethsemane. I had a pretty powerful experience as I read and contemplated what it must have been like there as the Savior introduced the Sacrament. And when He promised His apostles that He would never leave them alone or comfortless, even though He wouldn't be with them physically. I didn't even get to start reading about the Atonement before I had lyrics/lines to a poem flow into my mind. They were beautiful and captured so well the thoughts and feelings I had about the Savior's Atonement and the Sacrament. It probably still needs editing, and it doesn't have a title yet, but I wanted to share it with you all.  :)

Poem:

It happened there, that passover night.

In that upper room all filled with light.

He instituted the Sacrament as a remembrance of Him,

Giving us the chance to grow and change within.

Now the bread is broken.. weekly, for me and you.

And we remember how Jesus Christ was broken too.

After comes the water, which represents His blood.

It helps us to remember His never ending love.

In the Garden of Gethsemane,

Christ began to make us free.

The only thing He had in mind

Was Salvation for all mankind.

When the mob came for Him late into that night,

He allowed them to take Him, never putting up a fight.

Broken, bruised, and beaten, He has borne it all,

Paid the price for sin and redeemed man from the Fall.

The Savior of the World died for you and me,

All so that we might be set at liberty.

He was buried and 3 days passed.

The day had finally come at last.

Just as all the prophets had said,

Christ had risen from the dead.

Saving us from imperfection,

Was the Savior's resurrection.

From breaking bread in the upper room,

To victor o'er the empty tomb,

Christ has shown the way to live.

He has promised His help to give.

If we just learn to walk in His way,

Christ can be with us every day.

-Siostra Shaylin Carroll (04/09/2020)

We had a meeting with all the Sisters in the mission. I guess the Area Presidency thought it would be good for the Sisters to have their own meeting as well. It was good, I mean, we just talked about how we're doing physically, emotionally, spiritually, and in fulfilling our missionary purpose. Honestly, I think I've been blessed and protected, because I feel like this hasn't really affected me at all?? XD It just feels like I'm doing all the same things, just in a digital form. It's really not that bad. So I'm grateful for that. After that, we had Zoom Exchanges!! Haha THAT was definitely a first. Basically, I was on exchanges with Sister Ludlow through a video call for 2 hours. It went well! We basically just did a companionship study, language study, talked about conference, and had a lesson with a returning member there in Kraków. I was surprised at how much could be accomplished on an exchange through Zoom. It was cool! 

After that, we had a meeting with Claudia! We taught her about the Priesthood and about Eternal Marriage. It went well. She LOVED conference and thought it was so good! Her favorite talk was Elder Neil L. Anderson's. (The exact talk I felt like she really needed to hear! Wow!) She also said that as she prays, she just feels more and more eager to be baptized every single time! She said she would be interviewed for baptism, which meant we had to set a date. Now her concern was coronavirus interfering, but we set a date having the faith that this Worldwide Fast will help the situation. She was thinking sometime mid-May, and we set a baptismal date for May 9th!! She's on date again!! I was so excited!! Now we just have to finish teaching a few things, get her interviewed, and wait for coronavirus to chill out!! XD Yay!! She's excited and we are too!!

Friday was the day of the Worldwide Fast that President Nelson invited us all to take part in. It was so cool to see the unity it created throughout the world and among so many different religions joining together to fast and pray. There was definitely a strong feeling of the Spirit throughout the day. It was a really special experience to take part in. In the afternoon, we had a phone call with Zoe to practice English. We were able to read the children's Bible story about the Last Supper and the Resurrection with her. We talked about Easter and different traditions we all have. We even had fun with the Facebook filters and played some games with her. I love our calls with Zoe! 

A quick screenshot from our call with Zoe.

A bit later, we had a meeting with Ola. She was able to watch a bit of conference too! So that's awesome! We had a good meeting with her where we talked about service, missionary work, and enduring to the end. When we explained that enduring to the end is more of just a lifestyle and who we are versus a checklist of things to do everyday for forever, she said that was a lot easier and better than it sounds. She's still studying the gospel a lot on her own and is praying about baptism. She's doing well and we'll keep working with her to help her prepare and feel ready for baptism. She's awesome! After that, we worked on Facebook for a while and eventually walked back home. Our walks are fun... because it's all through European streets!! So it's beautiful!! Honestly, I don't think I'll ever get tired of them. The architecture or the cobblestone or the lampposts.... I love it all!!

Saturday we had a few meetings, which was great! We first did a doorstep visit at Bożena's. It was so good to see her again! She's doing well. She wanted to wish us a happy Easter. She even gave us some chocolate, a vegetable salad (really similar to potato salad), a pastry, and some żurek!! (Żurek is really common for people to have for lunch on Easter. Not everyone I've met likes it, but I really like it! I feel like on my mission I've realized how I am not a picky eater at all haha.) 

Bożena with her gifts for the Womack's.

After that, we headed to the chapel and had a meeting with Himanshu. He watched a bit of conference and enjoyed it. He said he learned a lot. We talked about the 2nd half of the Plan of Salvation. He really enjoyed it and liked it. He seemed to agree with it too. He even made the analogy of the 3 kingdoms being like 3 different vacation packages. Each has different things and some are better than others. The best one is obviously the most expensive. So it just depends on how much you are willing to pay. For the Celestial Kingdom, that's the highest Kingdom (the best), so naturally, it's going to be the most expensive. We have to be willing to pay the price, to make those sacrifices, if we really want to make it there. I thought that was a really cool connection he made and I've never really thought of it in that way. It's so great that he's really trying to understand it and make it applicable to himself. At the end of the lesson, we asked him if when he came to know that these things we're teaching him are true, if he would be baptized. He said he would! And that he would definitely follow Jesus Christ's example in this way. 

Later, we had a meeting with Martyna. It was short, but good. She's been coming up with 4 goals for herself (like all the youth in the Church have done). She shared her goals with us and we talked about how we can help her. We were also able to talk with her about Easter. She's doing well and it was good to talk with her!

Also, President Chandler told us about this article that came out on Friday night saying that the worst was behind us. (In regards to the coronavirus in the USA.) I guess that was the first day that the data showed the numbers going down! And guess what else was on that day?? Yup! The worldwide fast! God is hearing and answering our prayers!!

Sunday was Easter! Happy Easter!! It was a little different here this year. Last year, on the day before Easter, there were TONS of people on the streets, all dressed up nicely, and carrying their beautifully decorated baskets to Easter Mass to have them get blessed by the priest there. I thought it was so cool! I had never seen so many people out in Poland before. This year, however, the streets were completely empty. Needless to say, we had a very quiet and peaceful walk to the chapel accompanied by the church bells of empty cathedrals. I'd say it was quite poetic haha. Springtime really is beautiful here though. Everything is so green!! They just don't have grass haha. Anyway, we were able to have a church meeting through Zoom for an Easter talk given by Marian (a member here) and then we watched President Chandler's Easter talk he made for everyone in Poland. It was really good! We were also able to teach our Come Follow Me classes. We talked about Easter, specifically about the Resurrection and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was such a good discussion. I love the words it uses in 2 Nephi 9:10-11 to describe what Christ's Resurrection did for us. The words "escape" and "deliver up" stick out to me. And truly, that is what Christ's Atonement and Resurrection do for us. They provide us an escape and deliverance from death and sin; the 2 things that, alone, we could never overcome. But because of Him, we can. I'm so grateful for Easter and this time to specifically remember our Savior Jesus Christ and all that He has done for each of us. I love Him and I'm so grateful to be serving Him here in Poland.

Monday was Śmingus Dyngus! The holiday that's the day after Easter where people dump water on each other! Haha I did not get any water dumped on me, but it did rain for the first time in a few weeks. So I thought that was a funny coincidence! We just did our weekly planning today and not much else happened. We helped the Sisters in Lublin film for a video they have to make. We had to do a Zoom call and pretend like we were having a church meeting. We also had to pretend that we were Polish. So we took off our nametags and gave ourselves Polish names. I just picked a Polish name I love, so I was Gabrysia for the afternoon. That was probably the most exciting thing that happened haha... We also talked with Kasia on the phone for a bit which was really good! But yeah, that was the end of our week.

Love and miss you all!!

Siostra Shaylin Carroll

P.S. 2 funny stories... That guy who basically proposed to me on messenger. The Indian one? Yeah, so he texted me on Easter and said, "Happy Easter Princess". Oh dear.... 🙄 And the other one is regarding the subject line: So Elder Womack was talking about how small the Branch budget is and how ridiculous it is that they ask him to make a budget to show how they will spend the money. Then, he said, "How do you split a pea?!" And for some reason it was really funny to all of us. So I told him I would make him a t-shirt and he could wear it as a protest. I'll put a picture on here. Haha it made me think of the t-shirt/T.K.O. or whatever it's called.

Had to take a selfie because there were almost zero pictures with me in it this week haha. So yes, it's still me and I'm happy to still be a missionary. :)

Found this gorgeous green grass with flowers blanketing the whole thing and couldn't resist...

Please just ignore my hair laid out all crazy and admire the beautiful tiny flowers EVERYWHERE!!

Had to capture a bit of "The Sound of Music" vibe I was feelin. XD

Also, this may or may not have been illegal... I'm not sure if this is considered a park... oops. 😳

Social Distancing, but they still wanted to come see the baby!! XD

I got in the top 3 for potato carving this week! Whoo! (Yeah, I guess that's a thing??) It's an Idaho Potato!! Get it?! XD

On our walk home, this is the Opera House/Theater, right across from a huge fountain that should be running soon.

Okay, so I guess we do have grass in Poland haha. It's just not the same, but just look at how GREEN that is!!

More beautiful things... courtesy of springtime.