Week 6 An Amazing Week! (Pics Included)

Hey friends!

Much has been accomplished this week in the field! Both, Ricardo Lopez and Donell Christensen were baptized and confirmed this week!

Ricardo's baptism was an amazing experience.  Elder Allen and I were able to stand as witnesses for him. It was such a spiritual experience for Ricardo, his family, and everyone else that was there to support him.  He was confirmed yesterday, and Elder Allen and I also had the privilege of being able to stand in the circle as his father-in-law confirmed him a member of our Church. We still have a few lessons to go over with Ricardo as he is preparing to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and a temple recommend to go do baptisms at the Temple, asap!  He and his wife, Crystal are planning to get married in the Temple one year from now.  I am lucky enough to be allowed to attend no matter where I am living in the mission when the time comes!!

Donell's baptism and confirmation were both held yesterday. Again, another awesome experience!  She had so much support from family, friends, and people in the ward.  There were so many people that they had to move the service from the Relief Society room, to the chapel to make space!  It was awesome!!  Elder Allen and I both were able to stand as witnesses for Donell's baptism, as well as stand in the circle for her confirmation that followed shortly after thereafter. They too, are looking to be married in the temple one year from now!

GOOD NEWS!!  James has recently contacted us again and said he wanted to meet once more.  We had a great lesson and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He is still undecided for baptism but says he is praying about it to find out when it should happen.

We were not able to meet with Linden and Casey (the two little girls) this past week, but we are scheduled to meet with them tomorrow!

Last P-day we were invited by a non-member named Chris Pratt, to do some clay tossing! It was awesome and so much fun!!  I made a bowl and he said the next chance he gets, he will fire it so I can take it home :)  Chris is married to an active member and goes to church almost every week. He lives the Gospel standards, but he just isn't baptized yet!  He has known about the church for many years and I think has just put it off. His children are also active. I will keep you updated on Chris! We are planning on going over again tonight to finish up our clay makings.

So the other night at a dinner appointment, we ate with the Carroll family!  Turns out, we are related about 3 or 4 generations back!  They don't know any family in Arizona, but they are super nice and such a great family-- Just like all Carroll families I guess :)  They actually have a daughter serving a mission in Gilbert, AZ!  Her name is Sister Whitney Carroll.  She is living on Power and Guadalupe!  Kinda funny…Two Carroll missionaries just switched places :)

Yesterday I attended Primary for the first time in almost 8 years!  I forgot how fun it was! :)  The kids are awesome and carry such an amazing Spirit :)  We were able to give a short lesson and play "Hide the Missionary".  They usually do sort of "hot & cold" game with singing.  They sing louder when the person is getting closer to finding the missionaries.  This time instead of using little dolls, they were able to play with real missionaries--US!! :)

We are blessed enough to have amazing members all around us. Every day, people are looking out for us and doing us huge favors.  One of the Ward Mission Leaders was kind enough to let us borrow his guitar for the baptisms we sung at and actually let us keep it at our place!  We are so grateful for him and all the other people that help us out.

Thanks so much for everyone sending letters and emails, it means so much!

Everyone is in my prayers.   I hope you guys are having an amazing time back home as I am here! I am blessed to be able to serve The Lord in his work and help bring other unto Christ. Thank you, everyone who supported me throughout the years and supported me to come out here.  You know who you are, and I am eternally grateful for you.

Until next week!!

-Elder Carroll

My favorite scripture this week:  D&C 112:34 Be faithful until I come, for I come quickly; and my reward is with me to recompense every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega. Amen.

Week 5: Pics Included

Hey Everyone!

First off, Happy Birthday tomorrow to my Mom!  Hope it’s a great one :)

Week 5 has been amazing!  We are currently teaching 14 people!  We go on splits with either the guys in the Elders quorum or the young men waiting to leave for their mission!

This week, I went on a split with a young man named Brandon (He's leaving on a mission next month to Honduras) and we visited a non-member named Ace Avery. He's 85 and is married to an active member of our Church but, has never cared to be baptized.  He told us that he loves the people of the Church but doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon.  He also said he's been visited by the missionaries countless times. He's heard ALL the discussions and knows everything there is to know about our Church.  He mentioned that he'd even read the Book of Mormon cover to cover…but he didn't think it was true.

I asked him if he knew about Moroni's promise or the Book of Mormon promise (Moroni 10:3-5) and he said yes.  I asked if he had read with real intent as instructed by Moroni.  He said he did not believe he read it with real intent,  because he read it on account of a dare!  I asked him if he could try to find the willingness to read with real intent.  He said no.  When I asked why, he said that he just didn't have the desire.  I asked if he had ever prayed about the Book of Mormon being true.  He said he had not.  Then, I asked if he could do that and he just laughed and said he couldn't.  I was confused,  so I asked him if the reason he couldn't pray to know the truth was because he thought God would be offended.  He said yes, God would be offended if he "bugged" him with that kind of a prayer.

He told us that he was a strong Southern Baptist and  that he was currently attending a Bible school.  So I asked him if he knew the scripture in the Bible, James 1:5.  He said yes and quoted it... "If any of ye lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it will be given him."  I pointed out that he had left part of the scripture out. "If any of ye lack wisdom, let him ask of God, *who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not*, and it will be given him."

Then I asked him if he knew what "upbraideth not" meant.  He said he didn’t know.  I explained to him that it meant, if we ask God a "stupid" or "dumb" question, he would not be offended.  There is no such thing as a dumb question to God :) He then looked at me with a puzzled face.  I invited him once again to pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that if he did so with a sincere heart and real intent, he could know of its truth through the Holy Ghost. We haven't been back since and he is out of town for the next few weeks, but we’re planning to meet with him when he gets home :)

I was also able to start teaching 2 young girls.  Their mom is a less active member but wants to come back to church.  Their names are Linden (13) and Casey (8).  I was able to teach them The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Restoration.  They are amazing and retained so much of the lesson!  We are inviting them to be baptized when we visit again on Tuesday night!  While teaching them, it reminds me how we all need to be like little children and humble ourselves.  Children are the greatest example of what we need to be in order to become truly converted ourselves.

Ricardo Lopez is still on date for this Wednesday, the 21st!  He asked Elder Allen and I to sing a special musical number for the program so we are going to be doing that--with a guitar!  ;)  It’s a nice nylon string that belongs to one of our Ward Mission Leaders,  so it'll be a lighter sounding tone :)

Our other baptism is set up for next Sunday on the 25^th.  It is Donell Christensen!  She's super prepared and everything is going smooth.  She also asked us to play a song at her baptism as well :)

James (the one we took to Temple Square) has recently told us that he doesn't want anything to do with the Church anymore, but thanked us for being nice and trying to help him.  Keep him in your prayers. His family is hard on him and he's had lots of troubles recently.  We are trying to set up an appointment with him asap.  Please keep James, Ricardo, Donell, and Ace in your prayers for me!

We are averaging about 22 lessons taught a week, so we are plenty busy! Afternoons are somewhat slow, but we are trying to find as many service projects as we can to keep us busy.  Nights are double booked and most of the time we get home late.  Sundays are definitely the busiest days.  We have 1-2 stake correlation meetings every Sunday and then several Ward Council meetings that we are asked to attend.  Sunday nights usually have 3-4 lessons planned with Investigators.

We were able to attend the Salt Lake City Temple this morning!  It's beautiful and holds the Spirit so strong.  It was an amazing experience.  We are able to attend the Temple once a transfer, so that’s every 6 weeks.

It's still hot here, and everyone says this is the hottest summer Utah has had on record!  So I still feel your pain for the heat :)  Although, they say it's gonna cool down soon.

Hope everyone is well at home! You are all in my prayers.

Don't ever forget that we are given the Gospel to share it.  Is there anyone that you know that could benefit from knowing the truth of the Gospel?  That person you're thinking of right now is the person that needs it the most. Share the joy and love of the Truth we know.

-Elder Carroll

PS Don't forget to write me! I love getting letters from friends and family :)

My favorite scripture this week… Mosiah 4:11-12

(11) And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.

(12) And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true. 

Week 4- Teaching, teaching, teaching! PICS INCLUDED!

Hey Everyone!

Second week out on the field has been great! We are teaching non-stop and have a total of 9 investigators! Two of them are set on date to be baptized, Aug 21st and 25th. Ricardo is on the 21st and is super excited about it. I look forward to teaching him every week we go. He works two jobs so he is only available on Wednesday nights. He has recently been able to ask for Sundays off work, which is great. His faith is strong and he is so prepared. Our last appointment with him, we met at the Stake Center and showed him the baptismal font and how the baptism would work. While we were there we also taught him about tithing and what it meant to pay tithing. He was so willing to do it, it honestly surprised me! He also asked us how he could meet President Monson. That made me smile! We explained to him that he's really busy all the time, but his favorite place to go for ice cream is Nielson's Custard, and that he might be able to catch him there sometime :)

Our other investigator on date is Donell Christenson. She is married to Chris, a less active guy, and they have been taking the discussions for about a month now. Chris is now a worthy priesthood holder and is going to be baptizing her! It's amazing to see the progress she's made. She's completely ready and committed, and even gave up smoking. She has a beautiful testimony and I'm super excited for her! It's amazing to see how to gospel blesses families.

So more about the family we are staying with, the Storey's. Kirk, the dad, is an engineer, but I'm not exactly sure what he does for work. Karen, the mother, is going back to school and is taking online classes. Their son. Kyle is a genius!! He is ranked #2 in the WORLD in robot programming as of 2012. He is constantly entering competitions and working on his stuff.

Another cool thing. The stake leader who is over our missionary work in one of the stakes we cover, his sister in law.. yeah she wrote the Twilight series!

We were able to go to Temple Square this week with an investigator, it was an awesome experience. His name is James, and he's 18 years old. He's taking the missionary discussions behind his parents back, because they have hard feelings against the church. His testimony is growing every time we meet with him. He's a smart guy and says he wants to get baptized, but once he moves out of the house. I'll keep you updated on him.

Everything overall has been great. The members are a big help and its such a blessing. We get fed every night at a members home. We have only been served lasagna once :) haha

Hope everything is well at home, you guys are in my prayers!

-Elder Carroll

PS  Don't forget to write me!!

My favorite scripture this week:  3 Nephi 5:13 "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

  

Week 3- I'm officially out in the field! (PICS INCLUDED)

Hey all!

The field has been an awesome experience so far! All the new missionaries came in Tuesday night and stayed the first night at the mission home. President Hansen (our mission leader) was there at the Train station to pick us up and greeted each & every missionary with a big hug! He's awesome! When we got to the mission home, we were informed by Sister Hansen, that President Monson's house was a 1 min walk away.  He is the President of our Church. We could see it from the front door of the mission home! Crazy, huh? Apparently he only goes there about once a week. 

We slept good that night and got up bright and early to go to a local church building for transfer day. I was paired with an awesome elder, Elder Allen! He's 20 and from South Dakota. He's been out 19 months. He's from a family of 11 and worked as a firefighter before he came out here! He's an amazing teacher and I've learned so much from him already. We get along really well.

Before we left the church building to go back to our place, President Hansen had a challenge for all the new missionaries...To invite someone to be baptized before we went to bed that night!! Elder Allen told me he had someone in mind, but first we would go to our apartment (actually it's a member's home and we live in their basement. It's an awesome family) so i could unpack and get settled, then we had splits scheduled tonight. Each week, the wards switch off sending young men out with us (mostly priests who have their papers in) so they can get a taste of what it's like to be a missionary. We cover 2 stakes, 18 wards total and are the only missionaries for them!!

Just so you get an idea of what this mission is like... we had to take the train to our place which is in Farmington, almost at the top of our mission. As we got there and stepped off the train, we were waiting for another set of companions who have a car (we are the only lucky elders to get bikes!) to pick us up to take us home. As we were waiting, I kid you not, we had 3 people offer us rides and 1 offer to take us out to lunch. We constantly have members picking us up and helping us out. In this past 5 days that I've been here, I have NOT spent even one dollar out of my own pocket!   

One lady stopped us on the way to an appointment, and gave us $20 because she was going to serve a mission, but decided not to. So she felt bad and decided she could help out! The people here are awesome! Our first time out to eat, we went to some oriental place.  We were informed by the waitress that our meal had been paid for by a family. Amazing huh? Elder Allen and I had to go to Smith's (basically Fry's) to pick up some stuff for a lesson, and some other stuff.  As we were checking out, some guy came up and started scanning his stuff (self-checkout) on the scanner and said he'd buy everything for us. He spent like $25 on us! THAT'S NOT IT! On our way home from our appointment, we were stopped by a guy working at a local corn dog stand (I'm talking foot long corn dogs that cost $5 each) that were apparently the "World's Best Corn Dogs"!  He gave us each one for free along with a drink, and said we're welcome back anytime. They were delicious! I am so grateful for the love of the members here.

Anyways, before splits on the first day, we had a dinner appointment (we have a dinner appointment literally every night besides P-Day) with the Hurst family. It turns out, Sister Hurst was my Aunt Nan's roommate at BYU years ago!  Small world!  After dinner we had splits with the priests, and following that we had the opportunity to visit Ricardo Lopez, an investigator who's wife and in-laws are members. He's 20 and had been being taught by Elder Allen for a few months. Elder Allen said this was my chance to invite him to be baptized and that he had already been taught all the missionary discussions, but he was having trouble accepting baptism.  We showed up at his house, and he invited us in. They asked me to share a thought, since I was new to the field. So I shared Alma 26:12 (Thanks Emily!).  After a long discussion with Ricardo and many testimonies shared by his family, Elder Allen and myself (tears shed by everyone in the room), I had the opportunity to ask Ricardo if he would be willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ, by being baptized by someone holding the power (priesthood) of God. He accepted and is now on date to be baptized on August 21st!

The Lord is preparing people. I know Ricardo has already been through a lot, and I was only the one to turn the key, buy it was an amazing experience and especially on the first day!  Also within these first couple of days, I was able to see 3 other people accept baptism and be set on date!  It's so amazing! This is The Lord's work. I love that I can be a part of this. To see the joy on people's faces, there is nothing like it!

So, everyone said I was going to die without my guitar. haha I thought so myself, but after the past couple of days visiting members homes, I've found 3 houses that have guitars!! They said we are welcome over anytime :) Elder Allen and I sang Nearer My God To Thee (Sorry Andrew!) at all of their houses, and they (and I) really enjoyed it! It felt good to play again :)

This week was fast Sunday, so Elder Allen and I had the opportunity to bear our testimonies 3 times, in 3 separate wards yesterday! It's so funny, we are like celebrities when we attend sacrament. They recognized us from the stand in all three meetings, probably because we are the only missionaries that cover ALL of our 18 wards. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming. I ran into Logan Stapley, and out of no where, he gave me a big hug! I had no idea who he was!! haha  Apparently he graduated from Gilbert High and went to school with the Carroll family (He said he was uncle Vance's age). Again, a small world, but i guess I'm only in Utah, huh? haha

Gotta go, times up on the computer! Hope everyone is doing well at home! I'm praying for everyone, stay safe!

-Elder Carroll

My favorite scriptures this week- Alma 37:36-37

36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy  doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

 37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

My first area!  Waiting to hear from you :)