March 14, 2016

Hi everyone!

So this past week had an interesting twist as I got an email last Monday from President Cooke asking how much ASL I know.. So I spent the next few days thinking I was getting a language reassignment and freaking out. Long story short, they might be bringing some Elders out of the ASL program to English to get trained up and go back because the ASL program is struggling. So whew.. No foreign languages for Elder Carroll.🏼️

The rest of this week was pretty regular, but Saturday was by far the highlight!! It was the monthly recent convert temple trip and we got to go again with Bob from our Ward. When I walked into the temple waiting area I saw Brother Heath (WP2 Ward Mission Leader) and he was so excited so see me! It was so fun to see him and reconnect! He's an amazing man. Plus Elder Coombs walked in a few minutes later so it was a White Plains reunion! Then we find out who they brought.. Scott Jenkins!! Ahh I was so happy to see Scott! Scott holds a special place in my heart as he was the very first person I ever met with on my mission. We had tried to get him to the temple when we were down there but between health problems and other things we never could. So it was actually his first time at the temple this past week! Talking with Scott was so great! All he cared about was Elder Coombs and I for the time we had in the waiting room! Asking all sorts of questions about our missions since we had left. Then he made comments like it was just like the good old times sitting at his house! Then the experience got even more special! Elder Coombs and I were assigned to confirm together and without planning it, Scott came in our room. So it was his old missionaries who did the confirming his first time in the temple. Scott got emotional as the spirit was pretty strong and he has such a big grasp on spiritual things. Then after he looked and me and Coombs and said "I wish I had come earlier like you guys tried to get me too. It's amazing here. But I couldn't have planned a better first experience. I'm glad you guys were here for me.  I love you guys". Coombs and I almost cried. Scott is amazing!! Then he made us promise we would see him again soon.

I love serving in a mission where I can stay connected with people from the past. Like I was talking about that with Ismael last night how we will stay connected even after I get transferred. Plus staying close with other missionaries like how close I am still with Elder Coombs! You guys will have to drive all the way up to Cache Valley for his homecoming!! It's going to be so sad this summer to see all those solid guys go. But at least I have my best buds here the whole time with me like McDonald, Mellen and Jenks.

Anyways I'm off to play football in the Mall in the rain! Know I love you all lots and think about you tons!!

Love,
Austin

PS Archibald came to church and they seem to be doing good! Susan and Sarah have slowed down a little and missed church and won't commit to a solid bdate but are still doing good! John and Danisha couldn't meet with us this week. Transfer calls are this Saturday 

This is a picture Austin sent of Scott Jenkins (who he saw in the temple) in November when

he was saying good bye before he was transferred from White Plains to Laurel.

Austin sent me an email later on p-day and said, "Pictures from today after football at the Mall! Guess who was at the Lincoln Center...Ozzy Osborne".  He said there was a bunch of security with him and he was pretty much on "lockdown" and everyone just sat and watched. Wouldn't that have been funny if they could have gotten a picture with him.  Ozzy and LDS missionaries!!! 

March 7, 2016

Hi Fam!

This week really isn't much to talk about until yesterday. The week was a pretty same old, same old week. Knock some doors, teach some lessons, knock some more doors. But yesterday was amazing!! So we ended up having 10 investigators surprise us and come to church!! We had 2 kids from the Jamaican family come, Susan and her mom/sons, then Archibald and his wife surprised us by coming and then a member brought these two people from her apartment complex that she doesn't really know but invited to church. (It's a long story maybe I'll tell it another time).

It was crazy trying to juggle taking care of all of them! I also don't think I've prayed so much during a Fast and Testimony meeting for no one to say anything off the wall haha. Why do investigators always decide to make fast Sunday their first! But it was all good! Archibald and his wife Yassa left after sacrament and then we took Susan, Sarah (Susan's mom), Rochelle (Jamaican family adult daughter), and John/Danisha (new people), to second hour and had a great Gospel Principles class taught by yours truly. After, we talked to John and Danisha and he looked at me so sincere and said, "I've never been baptized. And I felt so good as you taught, will you teach me and help me get baptized". It was amazing! So we went over in the evening and had a full lesson. It went amazing and they loved it! They accepted to be baptized in the first lesson and we are setting their B-Dates this week! Totally been prepared for the gospel by the Lord! 

I'm thinking I might leave this transfer since I will have finished training Elder Schank.. But I am hoping I can stay at least one more as I have seen the areas potential be revealed. It would be hard to see the hard work I've put into the area show right as the time I might leave comes around. And I've grown to love Laurel lots, so much is finally happening and there's lots of people it would be tough to say bye to. But if the Lord needs me to serve somewhere else, than I am happy to go. So whatever happens this transfer (Mar 23rd) I'll try to make the most of it!

Since it's a shorter email I'll share a spiritual thought, so this is an experience that happened a few weeks back. But made a big enough impact I've thought about it and built on it a lot since. So I was having a rough day a little back and was just struggling to feel like I was a good missionary. Was I really doing everything I could and stuff like that. It was the evening so I was laying on the couch watching videos on my iPad and I watched the Bible video, "Feed my sheep". Of course we all know it as the one Elder Holland gave a great talk about and is all about Peter and Christ's talk about feed his sheep. But it's what comes after that really was my answer. In John 21:21-23 it says,

21 Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?

22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

23 Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?

It's the phrase, "what is that to thee?", that was my answer. Christ tells Peter not to compare his calling to that of Johns. They both have a key duty in preaching the gospel, but different roles. Just like each of us. We all play our individual role in Gods plan, but that doesn't mean the differences make anyones calling more important or better. We (I) need to stop comparing ourselves (myself) to others and just focus on what our Heavenly Father needs from us (me) specificity. It's easy to compare as that's how we measure things in this world. How do you know I'm a better football player than the next guy? Well you run faster, lift more, catch better, run crisper routes. How do I know my business is better than the competition? I sell more, have a better profit margin, and have more of the market share. But that's not how the Lord measures our success, it's never out of comparison to him. No matter what role we play in this life the calling from Christ is the same to us all, "Follow thou Me". 

I hope everyone has a great week! I love and miss you all! 

Love!

Austin

Ps. Hit 7 months this last week.. How crazy is that!? Feels like I got here yesterday..

This is Jayden and Darnell (Susan's sons). They are crazy and a complete handful,

but they are great! They love us tons!

My boy Darnell!!

February 29, 2016

Hi all!

Like you said it was an amazing week and followed up with a pretty good one this week. So this Jamaican family is kinda interesting. So it's a single mom with 7 kids under the roof. But like 4 of them are over 20 and they are all American kids. Like they claim to have just come from Jamaica but from what I can pull they have been here for between 5-10 years. So the kids are all American cultured. And we haven't had the mom come yet, and only 3 of the kids came this week. And they never return our calls or will meet with us during the week so it's kinda weird. Susan is doing awesome!! I'll talk about her later!

I was gone like half of the week in other areas on exchanges so I pretty much felt like a traveling trainer this week with how much I didn't sleep in my own bed haha. So Tuesday I went to the College Park Area with one of my zone leaders. I went contacting with him and taught this homeless guy at a metro stop and he loved it and since he's homeless he has tons of time to read the BOM haha.  

Wednesday was good since we taught Archibald again and set up a time to finally meet his wife and teach her too. But our night got cut short with a crazy thunder storm that President called out and said we had to be inside because it was a tornado warning I guess. So it cut a lesson with Susan off the table but luckily we met with her the next day. 

Thursday was Zone Conference and it was so amazing! All of the workshops given were really great. President talked a lot about patience and how he knows it is hard to have to wait for things as a missionary. A quote he said I loved was "Humility doesn't mean you are weak and patient doesn't mean you are indifferent. You can still care immensely while waiting on the Lords time". I love that, we still care so much, but just need to add patience better to it. Later that night we taught Susan again. As well as her mother and two sons (who love us by the way haha) we taught the Plan of Salvation and they loved it!

Friday I was on exchange again to an area as our District Leader went with Schank to Laurel.. Not much to say from that day. 

Skip to Sunday. So like I said 3 of the Jamacians families kids came. And then Susan came the 2nd and 3rd hrs. But she didn't come to sacrament because my comp texted her the wrong time. But it's all good because her, her mom Sara and her two sons Jayden (8) and Darnell (6) came and they all loved it! Plus I guess Susan stood up in Relief Society to introduce herself and I guess she said "My name is Susan and I am meeting with the missionaries and going to get Baptized as soon as I can" Ahh when I heard that I could have cried! They are so awesome! Plus Jayden and Darnell love me! They only have met me like 2 times but after church they came running up to me and tried to tackle me and showing me the stuff they made in primary. Ahh I was just so happy after church Sunday. Sunday night we met with Archibald and his wife Yassa. She loved our message but kept saying this is a spiritual journey and she just wants to take it at her own pace and we just told her exactly we are just here to help her. But she really like what we talked about and even asked tons of questions about us as missionaries and other things which were super awesome. 

Overall another pretty great week here. Transfers are in about 3 weeks and I'm scared I'm gonna go because I've finally got to the point where I like my area I serve in. And my work is finally showing in the area. But hey, leave the area better than you received it and serve where the Lord needs you. It's amazing to see the Lords hand in our lives everyday. I know he blesses the work we do for him here in Laurel, MD. I've grown to love so many of these crazy Marylanders out here. 

I love and miss you all!

-Austin

Ps. Sorry no pictures this week

February 22, 2016

Hi all!

So it was an AMAZING week! We have been putting in hard work these past weeks but worked our tails off this week and the results and blessings have come. As missionaries we really shouldn't focus on numbers as the indication of our success, but our numbers were crazy good this week! First off we had 5 investigators at Sacrament meeting (first time w/ an investigator at church here in Laurel for me!), they were some members of the Jamaican family! I'll talk more about them later on.. Plus we taught 7 investigator lessons this week which is awesome! 

Monday after we got snowed in with some freezing rain the guys had to sleep over again until they could leave Tuesday morning. So we had a mega bed of 3 mattresses on the floor. After they left, Schank and I got to work! And I pushed us to work hard! We taught a lesson to a man named Archibald who is from Liberia. He is a super humble man and when we explained the restoration he loved it. He's been a life long member of Methodist church but said he's felt something was missing. And as soon as we explain the Book of Mormon he felt like he had found it. He then said he wants us to teach his wife also and overall was just an awesome lesson! He wasn't able to make it to church yesterday but we are going to meet with him on Tuesday this upcoming week! 

 

Then here is our miracle for the week. Really it hit me so hard with this experience how the Lord is putting me in the exact right spot and the right time to do his work when he needs it done. After our lesson with Archibald we went to check on some potential investigators (people missionaries have talked to but haven't taught a lesson to yet). So we knock on this door and a kid says one sec let me get my brother. So we stand there forever waiting then talk to the kid and get a time to come back. And now here's the miracle, as we are walking down the stairs in the apartment complex this lady stops me, points at my tag, and says "mormonos! Missinarios!!" And I'm like ahh crap all I have Spanish wise is a decent door approach, where I can explain who we are and get their phone number to have the Spanish missionaries go by. So I try to talk to the lady and it's just going nowhere. She's blabbing at me and I have no clue what's going on. So I struggle through saying one sec I'm going to call missionaries who speak better Spanish than me. So I call the Spanish Sisters and they were on shift at the visitors center so no answer. So I call up one of the traveling assistants, Elder Patchett and have him talk to her! Hahah team work!!! And I talked to to the Spanish sisters a few days later and they are now teaching this lady! Honestly if we had been 1 min later or faster we would not have ran into this lady. It truly was the Lord putting us in the right place to talk to her.. Well to be able to call other missionaries for her that is haha 

Later on Tuesday we were tracting and I knocked this door and and a guy answers the door and after I say we are missionaries he stops me and says "Hey man me and God aren't straight right now so I don't wanna hear it" and I don't know if I was feeling bold or this was the spirit throwing words out, but I look at this guy and say, "really man? Why do you say that?" And I was like what!? Did I just say that to this huge dude!! And he then looks at me and says "I just lost my Mother and Uncle to murder last week" So then without a second hesitation again me or the spirt, just goes into Plan of Salvation. And he cut me off and said he just really wasn't ready to talk and wanted to try to be nice, but he took a BOM and our number. So who knows, another moment where the Lord needed this man to be comforted in his time of need. Too bad he didn't let us talk to him then, but I hope he will actually open up the BOM and find comfort and call us. 

I've already written tons about this week so I'll tell you about one more awesome thing this week. So we finally met with this referral named Susan! It has been so many dropped appointments she should have gotten dropped. But I could never do it. I just felt like we had to keep trying. So we met with her Friday night and basically the story is her sister is a member and she told her that if she wanted to find a new church and have her questions get answered to talk to the missionaries. So we met with her and taught her the Restoration and she loved it! She kept saying it made so much sense and she couldn't wait to pray to know its true. Then said she wants us to teach her sons (8 and 6) and also her mom. Then I asked if she has any questions and said asked what we believe about the life after death. And we said we would teach about that next time but yes we will live! Then she opened up and said she had twins both who passed away right after birth back in December, and I was almost in tears. As we read Moroni 8 with her and gave her a short answer about how she would see them again the spirt was so strong. I am glad we have the knowledge we will be with the ones we love after this life. I know it's true. 

The week was topped off with Saturday night getting a call from Mercedes (Jamaican family) asking if they could still get a ride to church.. What!? We had tried for 2 weeks to get in contact with nothing! So they ended up coming, all 5 of them! It was great except it was Ward Conference so I had to explain lots of stuff like why everyone was raising their hands so much (during the sustainings) hahah. And then on top of that it was Why I Believe last night!! And to top that even more I slept over at Coombs apartment last night. So I'm with the Rockville ZLs, APs, and then we brought McDonald with us too.

It's was an amazing week this week! There are times when it gets hard and you ask why you are even out here doing it, but then their are weeks like this that remind you that like in the mission call letter says, never such happiness awaits you then when you are in the service of the Lord. There are rough times, amazing times and the in between. And I'm so glad I get to top the week off with hanging out with tons of my great mission friends. Especially since Coombs and all those guys leave this summer!

Love you all, miss you tons!!

Love,

Austin 

We were walking through an apartment complex and found this spray painted on the wall

February 15, 2016

Hi everyone!

So it is snowing today and we just got told we cannot drive until further notice. Luckily Elder McDonald, Mellen and McDonald came up to sleep over for Pday! So without even knowing we got all together for what might turn into a few snow days.. You never know with these Marylanders and their snow haha

Happy late Valentines Day to you all too! It was sure low key compare to what is normally expected at home.. I wore a pink tie to church and that was about it haha. But yes I got your package and it was great!! Thanks for all the love from home! And I loved the bear hug card.

Sadly we didn't get in contact with the family from Jamaica. They have had on/off contact with missionaries for a reason, they are super sketchy to contact. So who knows what will happen to that all. Also... Yes!! It has been so cold this week!! Wow the wind here just cuts you in half!

This week was pretty good. A few highlights I will hit..

A few miscellaneous things like having to go get the oil changed in my car was annoying. Also we went to help move these members and no one from the Ward showed up except the Elders Quorum President! Luckily it was just a 1 bedroom apartment. 

Saturday was by far the highlight of the week. Every second Saturday the mission had a time slot at the temple for our recent converts to come and do baptisms. So we went with a man named Bob who has been a convert for about 9 months! He's just the greatest and a solid recent convert. He even brought his own family names! I was asked to help do confirmations and I love getting to serve in the temple. It was so cool to see all these missionaries walk in to the room with their recent converts and all of them would just be so happy! 

Sunday was a shock to the system as the reorganized the Bishopric! The Ward mission leader was called into the bishopric so we are currently Ward Mission Leader-Less. So we will see who will get called and what will all happen. 

Sorry for the not great email this week! I'll try to do some crazy stuff next week and have a good email next week haha. I'm going to go adventure into the snow so I gotta run. I love you all lots and miss you tons!!

Love,

Austin 

 Oh major PS. I forgot to mention on Friday I got talked into another pepper at Sister 

Mayes. I can't decide if I'm just getting use to it or stupid. Or both haha!  

Anyways Coombs was there to get a pair of pants sewed by her and it was his 

first time so he had to do a pepper. They convinced us that we had to 

do a "Posterity Pepper". So Coombs, Me, and Schank all had to do one together. 

And this one was my hottest one yet!!!  So enjoy this picture of us dying and enduring together.. 

Granddad, Dad and Baby Boy

I found a real nice Under Armor Maryland Shirt!

February 8, 2016

Hey everyone!

Well this week was one of those grind it out weeks. Nothing too special to talk about until the end of the month. It's weeks like this I don't think people really think about/appreciate about missions. It's just the work of trying to find people to teach and just the hard stuff about the mission. The beginning of the week was pretty discouraging but as always the Lord doesn't let us (especially his missionaries) get too low. So we ended on a high note.

First off my email hasn't been working with my iPad this week (I guess it's a problem some other missionaries have been having as well) I feel like a greenie emailing from this church computer. So that's been annoying.

This new transfer, transfer #5!!, started on Wednesday (with no transfer meeting *tear).  I kinda knew I would stay to finish training Elder Schank though. I'm trying really hard to love the area all the time but it's a tough one. I know I'm suppose to be here for a reason and there are still awesome times like getting closer and closer with Ismael and Lucie. Plus other success we have. But it's still been tough here.

You had asked earlier about the Ward and I never gave and answer. This Ward is an interesting one. They use to be a super solid Ward, but have lost a lot of pillar families to the Ward in the past 6 months I guess. So they like to think of themselves as a super solid Ward but they really aren't. They are struggling. 

This past week we were on a split with the HP Group leader and he was talking all about ideas he had to re energize the wards missionary efforts and I was stoked. I had some ideas I've been hesitant to bring up that he loved and wanted to get going. So jump ahead to Sunday morning in Ward Council the HP leader brings up the missionary efforts. Then all of the other WC members start talking about how they think the Ward is a great missionary Ward and doing just fine. Overall I hope we can help them see there is room for us to improve and be innovative.  My last interview with President MacPherson he encouraged me to be an innovative missionary. He shared Helaman 3:7-10 and talked about how the Nephites had to be innovative and entrepreneurial by building with cement. He told me that the doctrine I would teach doesn't change. But the way I teach and most things I did as a missionary was up to me. He told me to be the best entrepreneurial missionary I could be. So of course you know that's right up my alley so I was all about that and way excited. 

We did have a great end to our week with us last night finding a family to start teaching. They have had on/off communication to missionaries since coming here from Jamaica two years ago. But the Mom got referred by a friend to us agin and we found them. They have continued reading the Book of Mormon and I hope I don't jinx myself saying this, but they seem pretty solid! They even were asking about baptism so we made sure to meet with them soon (like tonight soon haha). So we added 7 investigators from the family, only hard thing is we have to find them a ride to church so hopefully the Ward steps up on helping us out on this one! But the Lord really does answer prayers, as I said I was really starting to get discouraged earlier in the week with us having practically no one in our teaching pool. It was a great tender mercy from the Lord.

Another side note from the week on Friday I hit my 6 month mark! Crazy!!!! So I did the ceremonial burning of a tie which I'll try to send the video of that! I know you'll be wondering.. No I didn't burn one of my ties. I found a gross ugly old one in our apartment and burned that.

I hope you all have great weeks!! I love you lots and miss you tons!

Love
Austin

I'm off to go play some football on the mall today for P-Day 

February 1, 2016

Hi all!!

Well it was an interesting recovery week after the big snow! Since theses East Coasters don't know how to deal with snow it turned into another half week for us.. So here's what happened. 

Monday we tried to metro out of the city to our car. After navigating a metro that was only running like every 40 min (usually like every 10) and get to our metro stop. Trudge through some knee deep snow with a backpack on a suitcase in my arms only to find out that the church parking lot isn't plowed. We call the zone leaders and find out it won't be plowed for the rest of the day. So we turn around and metro back to Capitol Hill.. But it's okay because it was a great ending to my birthday! We made my cake and had a great time. Plus one more Risk game to end the night haha 

So we wake up Tuesday and go back through the process to get out our car.. Only to find out it still ISNT PLOWED!! Ahhhh!! So we get told it was suppose to be plowed the day before and if not it for sure would be that day. Because we assumed it would be plowed that day we camp out in the East-West Chapel and start to make calls and do all we can to get our week ironed out for once we get there. Then we start to watch every church video we can get on our iPad, next thing we know it's 5:30 and getting dark.. So we have to figure out where we are sleeping so we call up the Traveling Trainers and they bail us out. Since they live down the street they come pick us up and run up to Laurel so we can get out suits since we had our mission temple trip the next morning. So we get back and sleep the night at their apartment. 

Wednesday we wake up and go to the temple. It was amazing as always! Plus the streak has been extended!! McDonald and me right next to each other to keep the streak alive! So we make our traditional lunch stop at Wheaton Mall and go back to see if the car has finally been plowed out... FINALLY! 6 days after snow has fallen it has finally been plowed!!! So we got back to work as much as we can.

Sadly the rest of the week isn't much to talk about. It was one of the slowest weeks of my mission, work wise. Since the federal government and all the schools were still closed all week everyone just seemed to be shut in and not want to be bothered.

In the only other big news this week is we got transfer call out on Saturday night! For the first time in my entire mission so far... Nothing changed! I'm staying in the same area with the same companion! Crazy to think I've always had something change on a transfer, so it's kinda nice to just keep plugging along with what I have going. I hope I leave after this transfer but life is good, we are just gonna keep working!

Hope you all have a great week! Love you lots and miss you tons!!

Love,

Austin 

The pictures are of us at the East-West Chapel waiting for the parking lot to get plowed. The heat wasn't on all the way since it was during the week. And our feet were freezing from trudging around in the snow, but luckily we found a space heater haha