April 11, 2016

Hi everyone!

Sounds like it was a great week back home! I'm glad you guys were able to have such a great trip down in Moab! We will For sure have to do some of those sweet hikes when I get back!

So Brother Seay is a member of the Ward. He is one of the more solid couples in the Ward and his wife and him are super missionary minded and called as Ward missionaries. He loves reaching out to the missionaries families. Like you said it is crazy all of the picture and things you get about me since I'm stateside. It's fun to serve around all the tourist places because we always get stopped and hear "Hi Elders" yelled from across the way, super fun to be like the public image missionaries for the church around the DC Metro area! Elder Cowan and I talk about how cool it is that we serve in the area that everyone thinks of when they think of DC! It's so cool!! Well besides the fact we get a fake referral for Obama about every other week haha!

So this week was a pretty great one! I'm just gonna jump to Saturday and Sunday because that's where all the eventful things happened. 

So Saturday we had interviews with President and Sister Cooke, and have I ever mentioned how much I love them?? Like wow if I ever feel bad about myself I can guarantee they will make me feel like a million bucks after talking! I talked with President and he was just really complimentary of me and everything I've been doing. And we talked for a while because usually I don't have much to talk about because my approach has always been that I can solve my own problems and I don't need President to help out with stupid things. But he said that's great but he wants to help me out. Then he said he loves me tons.

Then I got to talk to Sister Cooke, and I LOVE that woman! Like she really is my mission mom. We were talking and she said "Elder Carroll you are really quiet" and I laughed and told her she must not know me very well. And she laughed and said what she meant was that I never call her with health or emotional related problems. (Back to my conversation with President). So she said I need to text her out of the blue sometimes and tell her how my days going hahah. She's amazing. 

Then guess who came to the Ward on Sunday?! Lucie!! (Ismaels mom) because I had talked to her about going to the DC 3rd Ward because of how she can't go to Laurel Ward with her work. So it was fun to see her and then I called Ismael later, I love that kid!! 

Then on Sunday we had a baptism! I can't believe I've forgotten to mention this before! But looks like I'm the closer missionary. I come in during the 7th inning and make sure the people get baptized. Because so far both baptisms I've had I've just walked into. So we had a Baptism for a guy named Shawn. He's investigated for a few years. Then he got serious and he's totally changed his life around to where he is now. It's amazing to see the changes that happen in people's lives as they draw closer to our Savior and come unto the gospel. He is amazing and I love him tons even in the short few weeks I've known him. He's so much fun to teach and he loves Elder Cowan and I. 

It's been a fun week, Sister Cooke said she was so happy that I'm happy with this transfer and to "soak up every minute because I know sometimes we don't always get to serve win people get get along with". Life is good. 

Can't wait to talk to you guys in 4 weeks! So crazy it's coming that fast!! I love and miss you all! 

Love you!

Love, Austin 

Shawn's baptism