October 17, 2016

Hi everyone! 

First things first, some stuff made for a hold up on transfer board so we don't know anything about transfers until tonight, so it's been a pretty nerve wracking weekend, but only a few more hours! I'll send an email later after I find out to let you know what's going on for the new transfer. 

This week was a pretty good one! I was able to go on some great exchanges. One of them I got to be in a trio with Elder Schank and his trainee. So it was a great posterity time! We tracted, had a member meal and grabbed some ice cream. So all in all was a great time!! Also this week we did some service for a friend of a member and helped build a garden fence, so it was nice to do some manual labor and get some dirt under the fingernails for the first time in a while.

Also this week we were able to go to the temple for the Recent Convert Baptism trip! It was so nice to be back in the temple. Even though it wasn't a full trip to do an endowment session it was great to be in the baptistery with all of these recent converts doing the temple work for their direct ancestors. Such an amazing spirit. We took Clarisee, a convert who was baptized in August when Elder Zocca got transferred down here. She speaks only French and her brother is in the ward so she didn't want to go up to the French branch. So really a miracle Elder Zocca came down and was able to teach and baptize her. 

We then had Why I Believe on Sunday and I got to see the Morgan's! I'm sure they will text you with a picture of us today! It was so awesome to see them and get to talk with them. I sat next to them for the meeting and Clarisee was one of the RC who bore her testimony to start the meeting. So it made for a great night with also getting to see all the old friends from around the mission! Crazy to think it's already been a month since the last one!

Love and miss you guys! 

Love you!!

Austin 

An e-mail we got later with his transfer information-

Calls just came out. So I will be moving again. I'm going to the Silver Spring Zone staying as a Zone Leader in the College Park Area. It's up around the U of M. 

I'll be with Elder Tutuu and Elder Warnes. Elder Warnes is going home mid transfer so that is why we are in a trio to start. 

More info to come, I'll talk to you next week!! Love you!!

Austin 

Exchange with the posterity!!

Anacostia Boys! With Brother Mason, one if our favorites. He has slight mental 

disabilities and he's all the Elders buddy!

October 10, 2016

Hi everyone! 

Sounds like things are going good back home, I'm glad CC and BYU were both able to pull off good wins this week!! And sounds like Jamal has been having a monster season!  

I haven't been able to see the Morgan's yet, but we have Why I Believe this Sunday so hopefully I see them there! Like you said this area has opened my eyes tons. I feel like DC 3rd was like the warm up for this ward. So many tough situations, people who are in bad places in their lives. And sadly usually because of decisions they have made themselves. There is so many drug and alcohol problems. And I swear everyone is smoking when we are out and about. The ward is still struggling, we still only have about 50 people TOPS at sacrament. Of the 6 people who do sacrament, 2 to bless and 4 to pass, it was all of the missionaries in the ward. And then this will show how interesting out ward is, get this...so we had a child of record baptism yesterday and I conducted the service. We were missing so many ward leaders Sunday that they asked if we could do it, so a little unconventional but add it to the mission journal.

We had a pretty good week. We have been getting a TON of Mormon.org Bible referrals that we had to go check on. And then also did quite a bit of tracting this week. Kiawana is really struggling, we wanted to pick a new baptismal date with her but she just isn't ready. Her life is really kinda falling apart and it's super sad. But she finally came to church yesterday!! She just wanted to talk so we skipped gospel principles and had a lesson in a spare room. We were talking about trying to find blessings Gods given her even in all this hard stuff, and all she said was "I haven't smoked Crack Cocaine again and I still have my kids". Let me tell you we aren't in Kansas anymore Todo. 

But Valorie is doing awesome! We went and taught her yesterday and she's been reading the BOM! And she said she believes the Plan of Salvation is true. And yesterday during the lesson she started doing The whole, "if I did believe this and join your church..." game. So we really feel like she's going to commit to baptism soon! 

To top the week off we had Elder Bennett of the Seventy come and speak to the mission! It was such an amazing meeting! It was soo long but so spiritual! I took away a lot of awesome things from it. Plus we were combined with Rockville and DC Zones so I got to see some friends!! I sat next to Elder Jenks and it was awesome so see others there too!!

Well you counted right Mom, Transfer call out is this Saturday! It is so crazy how fast this one went, and I only have 6 more after this one. So nuts!! But it will be interesting to see what happens, I really have no clue. I could see it going both ways of going or staying, but I'll be happy either way. 

Love you all lots!!

Love,

Austin 

Tracting in the rain.. here is the difference in our companionship haha

 But it's okay cause we still love each other hahah. Oh man I love this guy!

October 3, 2016

Hi Everyone!! 

Sounds like it was a good week for you all. A little low key, but those are always good weeks to have. Sounds like Caleb and Hailey are doing great in the activities and I'm glad BYU could get the W!! I'm sure the colors in the mountains are great as they usually are! It hasn't started to get that cold yet. It is starting to change though, we are in the low 70s to 60s on most days. And it is going to be a little off and on rainy for a few weeks. The colors will usually turn here at the end of October to early November if it follows like last year. 

Well with General Conference it was a little slower week. We taught some good lessons and things are going really good with Valorie. We have taught her a few times and she knows it is true, she's made comments that we know she does. Now it's just getting her to let go of the social side of her church, which she's only been a member for 6 months. We are hopeful! Sadly thing with Kiawana have made it that we are gonna have to bump her baptismal date, but we are hoping she will find her desire again and keep progressing!

Big event of the week (besides Conference) was interviews with President! He's said he's going to keep up trying to interview every missionary, every transfer. And props to him cause those are some long days! Ours went SO long! Since he's still new and getting to know people he talked an average about 20-30 min with each missionary when he is slotted 10. Then we had a few problems come up in the zone so a few missionaries took as long as AN HOUR!! Holy smokes! It was such a long day. We showed up at 9am to have a pre interview meeting with him and then we didn't walk into our interviews until around 9:45 pm. My interview with him went great, I love that man! We talked about some problems in the Zone, then he looked at me and said," Elder Carroll I so appreciate you" kinda teared up and said "We are gonna be friends a long time". I'm glad I have developed such a close relationship with him, and he's helped makes this transition to all the new rules and policies so much easier. I'm in a good place with them all now. 

Then we talked about the transfer to come and how Elder Zocca and I will most likely get broken up since there is a need to train new Zone Leaders. (Earlier that day he had said he was on the phone with Pres. Morgan the day before the Morgans will get here this week I think and he's assigned them to live in the Annapolis Stake but will serve with all the YSA wards in the mission) I jokingly said "so you're gonna move me to DC 2nd YSA to be a Rockville Zone Leader so I can work with President Morgan right?" And he laughed, then looked at me and said he actually liked that idea a lot and would think more about it. So fingers crossed! We ended the night with the Johnsons wanting to take us to dinner! So we went to dinner at 10:30 with them to Applebee's haha. Not many people can say they have been in a restaurant with their mission president until 11:30 at night! But it was great, a more casual environment to get to know them even more! 

Then of course the big event of Conference!! Wow I can't believe that I can say I only have 1 more as a missionary!! It's so crazy! But I love Conference so much now. Like I don't know if it's just I pay way better attention than I did back home, or if being set apart helps, but I get so much out of each talk. Like so much!  So we weren't able to go up to the Visitors Center for conference, we tried but we couldn't get an investigator or recent convert to go. Since we are over the Zone we went on an exchange to WP1 and actually got to watch Conference at the Beal's! So I got Conference crab again! Then we watched Priesthood at the stake center. Then both sessions on Sunday at the Stake Center. Like you Dad I can't wait to be able to go to Priesthood with all of you. Only thing that's a little sad during conference weekend is for sure after Priesthood session knowing you all are going to dinner together. But like you, I'm glad I'm here, it will be all too soon we get to all go together next fall. We got to watch all the sessions and the talks were great! I can't really pick a favorite but I did really like Elder Hales, Elder Cornish, President Nelson, Elder Yashita, Elder Oaks, Elder Uchtdorf (Priesthood Session), Elder Eyring (Priesthood Session) talks, wow that got a lot longer than I thought as I was looking at my notes. But you get the idea haha 

Well I hope you all have great weeks! I sure miss and love you all!! But guess what, 83 days till Christmas! 

Love ya tons,

Austin

here's a pic of me watching Conference with my friends

from our district Activity today

September 26, 2016

Hi Fam,

Congrats to Leby on his game! And yeah a huge bummer for BYU.  It was crazy with how many members were in town. I'm sure the DC 3rd Ward was packed! On the metro Saturday I felt like a celebrity with BYU shirts everywhere trying to talk to me haha. That's where I ran into Adam Blogett. I was talking to him and his friends, they asked were I was from then he said Draper.  So of course we asked each other where. And then when we were taking Bellevue I saw the light go off and he realized that I was "the Elder Carroll from my ward!" So it was pretty cool haha. But we are all so jealous, a lot of senior couples and even Pres Johnson went to the game.

Well it's been another pretty good week here! Elder Zocca and I have been seeing a lot of good things happen. Early in the week we did some weekly planing and made some good goals for the transfer as a companionship I think we will see some great things happen from them. Plus we did the planning over an early dinner at 5 Guys so that always helps haha. 

It was kinda a same old, same old week so it might be a thinner email. We are still meeting with Kiawana and her kids and hoping to keep the same baptismal date, but we will see. There are a ton of hurdles we are dealing with. It's so sad to see these good people be gripped by all of these horrible things in their environment and situation.  The other person we are excited about is named Valorie. She was a Mormon.org referral and we called to see if we could visit her and she said we could come over right then. We went and taught her and she told us her daughter is a member so she knows some stuff but had tons of questions. And it's so awesome to teach her cause that's all we do is answer her questions. And it's been cool for me to see us answer these questions and just again show me the church is true. We have to answer all of her questions first with the Bible and then the BOM and we can answer them every time. I'm so glad I'm serving in a place like this, cause my whole mission I've had to learn the Bible to be able to answer all of the questions that people who already are in Christian denominations have. And I've gotten pretty good at knowing what scriptures to use and like I said it just confirms everything. #ChurchIsTrue

Then Saturday was the best!! Former Elder Herring was in town for the game since he's red shirting at the Y. And him and his parents took a few of us out to breakfast! It was so sweet to see him! We was the AP when I came into the mission and he's such a stud! After that I got to go down to WP2 on an exchange!! I got to see the Vances, Heaths, and of course I had dinner st the Chamberlain's! Ah it was the best. I'm glad I've got to stay connected with them my whole mission. Things are slowly still getting better! Sister Chamberlain, even said.. "ya know when the kids finally get to be baptized you better come down to baptize one of them". Ah man that was the best to hear!! All in all that day ended up being 14 hrs.. out at 8 back at 10 at night. It was a killer one 

Sunday was then filled with stake coordination meetings in the morning. Which was nice cause we got to see Elder Torgerson and Jenks, love those guys! Then church with our always interesting congregation, and going to the refugee community for Elder Zocca to teach in Swahili. 

Hope you all have great weeks!! I sure miss and love you guys! Time is going so fast though plus 90 days till Christmas so 90 days till Skype! Have a great General Conference too!!

Love you all!!

Austin

#NoFilter....like really. There is no filer on that!

September 19, 2016

Hi everyone!! 

Okay to answer your questions- Elder Zocca has been out for 17 months so just a little longer than me. And he was called French, he's served in the French program and Amharic program before going English to serve in leadership. But like you said super cool about him getting to teach in Swahili. And no there are no sisters close to our Ward haha. Nor do I think there ever will be. Just the 6 elders in the ward here. And Elder Zocca had been in the area for one transfer before I came here. So the bed bugs got taken care of.. We threw out the mattresses, bed frames and box springs from the room and did a spray treatment. And it's now been a week and a half with no one getting bites and no bed bugs seen so I think we are in the clear. 

Well this week has been a whirlwind trying to get things going. Going to a new area is always interesting because you know how to do the missionary work, but you are re learning the people in the ward, the people you are teaching, and your area. But it's been good. This past week Elder Zocca and I gave a Zone Training on missionaries extending and following up on commitments. I'm happy with how it went and President was there and really complimentary of how it went.

Then the story I wanna tell this week is about the investigator we are working the most with. So her name is Kiawanna. She's had a pretty rough life, she was using crack-cocaine for a while but has since gotten off of that. She is a pretty accurate representation of what this whole area is pretty much like. But she has such a desire to change, and ever since she first stared meeting with missionaries she has wanted to change. And slowly she is, we have her on baptismal date for October 16th along with her two twin kids Issac and Kyana. We are super excited and hope we can resolve a few more W.o.W. problems and get them all baptized! Elder Jenks was actually one of the missionaries that found her, and at Why I Believe last night I got to tell him about how she was on Date and he was so excited just grabbed me in a huge hug and told me how glad he was that I was down here to finish what he started! When we both got called as Zone Leaders at the same time he came down here before he was called as an AP last transfer.  

Sunday was our other hi light. So we got asked by the Stake Presidency to be a part of this panel Q&A at a Stake Mission Prep fireside and it was tons of fun! Plus I saw some familiar faces from WP2 there! After that we had to fly up to the VC late for Why I Believe. And it was a blast! We are holding onto that since its about the only thing they haven't taken away... yet. We are hoping they won't. But it was so nice to see some faces I haven't for a while like Elder McDonald, Elder Cowan, Elder Chapman, and all the other great friends I've made out here! I love getting to serve in DC North, there's no mission like it in the world. So unique and truly "The Greatest Mission in the History of Life"!! 

Love you all!! Hope you have great weeks!! Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers, you guys are the best support from back home!

Love,

Austin 

Elder Zocca and I found a license plate this week.. It's now a souvenir for me

Reconnecting with DC Zone! 

September 12, 2016

Hi everyone!!

Mom why did you have to google Anacotia.. It was better you didn't know haha. But I'll talk more about the new area in a second. But yes Scott is the one I saw in the temple. And being over Suitland stake now I'm gonna for sure try to visit him and some other WP2 members when I get the chance to! 

Well as you would expect with a new area and new companion it's been quite a bit of adjusting! But it's good!! It's fun to be back down in Suitland stake, while staying in the city as well! It's a great combo. Plus as well getting to serve with Elder Zocca has been a party and a half. I have known Elder Zocca since about February and have been great friends.. having a friend as a companion makes doing the work so much better. Elder Zocca is from Tanzania and came to the states for college. He went to the U because he's going into medicine and he was baptized while he was there. So he's only been a member for about 3 years and is the only member in his family, he's a little older so he's 25. But he's a stud, such a great guy! 

Our area here is super weird. So part of it is in Anacostia, SE DC so super ghetto and everything. But then we have some surrounding Maryland so it's like southern Maryland, nicer neighborhoods. So just a really weird combo. So when it gets dark we can go work in really safe areas. Also don't worry, in the ghetto people really respect clergy and Jesus so they don't really mess with us. They sure love their Jesus people around here haha. But there's a lot of work going on here so that's super nice to be really busy! Also the ward is more of a branch. No joke 40-50 people TOPS in sacrament meeting yesterday. 5/6 people who participated in blessing/passing the sacrament were missionaries. So it's gonna be an experience here!

The week was a good one! Tuesday feels like forever ago.. But it was filled with saying bye to tons of people in the DC 3rd Ward. It was hard to leave, inner city wards are so interesting but it sure has a piece of my heart now. Wednesday was transfers so we had errands that entire day with all of that as well of Thursday had errands. Because we had to deal with bed bugs.. Look the whole cute "don't the let bed bugs bites".. No. don't ever say that again. Bed bugs are Satan. Long story short a missionary in the apartment I moved into had bed bugs in his wood bed frame and was getting bites but they couldn't figure out why until we found them in the frame. Luckily they hadn't spread to the mattress or other beds so we were able to do a self treatment and all is well in Zion again. 

Sunday was for sure the hi light. There was a really big inner-faith walk in DC to remember 9/11 and we had missionaries up there as Volunteers and since we are still in the city we got to go. So we got to walk around to all these churches and help direct people, answer questions, pass out water, take pictures, all of that fun stuff. So it was pretty cool to get to be up in all of that. There were about 45 missionaries as well as President/Sister Johnson there. After that I got to have a super cool experience of going to listen to Elder Zocca teach. I say that cause he has a group of refugees in Silver Spring, Maryland that he teaches in Swahili (his native language in Tanzania). It was so humbling to be in the refugee community and watch these people get taught in their own tongue.  

Overall things are going great here. I'm feeling like I'm on a bounce back from the downer I've been in recently. I'm feeling a lot happier and things are looking up. I'm so glad to have all your support back home. Sure love and miss you guys!!

Love,

Austin

Inner faith walk. This is from on of the Indian temple where we ran into Pres Johnson

We found Gandhi

 DC 3 Goodbyes

Shawn and Charisma 

An investigator I loved, Sayid. I'll have to tell his story sometime soon!

Skip!

 JS! What a guy!!

September 5, 2016

Hi everyone! 

Well this week was one with ups and downs. First off the baptisms of both Kyrie and Hailey didn't end up happening. So on Tuesday we went to do the baptismal paper work and Kyries biological Dad showed up and said he couldn't be baptized cause he's not ready to decide and he's a 7th Day Adventist and that Kyrie needs to experience more churches before he decides. Then right after Kyrie grabs me and apologizes he can't be baptized and that he "already made my decision, I wanna be baptized in your church!" Then Sunday came and we get a call from Hayley's Dad during Sacrament saying Hayley won't be baptized cause she's not old enough to decide and also needs to experience more churches. Mind you he's a member. I was soo mad. I tried reasoning with them and showing them that they might not think they are old enough but the Lord does. And then I hate the argument of they need to go experience other churches. Ugh. Super frustrating. So we had a full font and I had to get dressed in Whites to go pull the plug. So that was pretty depressing. 

Also this week, we had another MLC (Mission Leadership Council) where President announced more changes. Like no more zone activities, can't leave your ward boundary on P-Days (so no National Mall if you're out of the city), and no more transfer temple trip (we will go 4 times a year now). So those were all super frustrating. And little petty things like no more colored socks... So it's been tough. But I've realized there is not going back to how things were so I just have to try to be positive and make the most of it. I want to enjoy my mission not just endure it. So for our plans today we are just gonna see some guys from the ward and I have to get packing. 

Okay now that you think I'm in a deep depression here for the hi light of the week! Remember Scott Jenkins? RC from White Plaines 2nd? Anyways so he has super bad health problems, and was taken to the Georgetown Hospital in DC and that's covered by sisters, so as the Zone Leaders we cover it for blessings. So we got a call from the Elders down there asking for us to go give him a blessing on Friday. So of course we went! It was so good to see him! Then yesterday we took him the sacrament and visited with him. It was so nice to reconnect with him and see someone I've gotten to love so much! 

To top the week off, transfers are this week so the call came out.... I am leaving. It's a ton of mixed emotions. After 6 months I'm kinda ready for something new, but also super sad to see it go. This ward is a crazy one, but I love them. Serving in a inner city ward is a special experience. I have 3 options of where I could go, DC 2nd YSA (still in the city), Anacostia (Ghetto of the ghettos), or Annapolis. We will find out tonight and I'll make sure to send another email to let you know where I'm going.

I love you all! Miss you tons, I hope you all have awesome weeks!!

Love,

Austin

-The quick email we got later that day when he got his transfer information-

I got called down to Suitland as a ZL in Anacotia. So welcome to the Ghetto of ghettos!! Plus I get to be with Elder Zocca who's a way good friend! I'm really excited! Plus I can go on exchange to WP2!!

Love you all, talk to you soon!!

-Elder Austin R. Carroll 

Giving Scott his blessing!

 Since Scott had an infection when we went do the sacrament we had to wear these clothing cover things...