One More Weekly Letter

July 28, 2014

One more weekly letter....
My feelings about the mission are mixed at this point. I'm in the final stretch and I think that this is my last week in this area. Mixed emotions.... As much as everyone says, "don't think about home", at the end, it almost seems impossible. I find myself trying to squeeze every last drop out of my mission. Regret at this point is my worst enemy and it's crunch time. At this point, I'm happy with my progress as a missionary and even as a child of God.... I've mastered the language and the culture too. I've reached a point in this area where I feel really comfortable with the members and even with the work. We have some really good investigators and a few are progressing really well. The Spirit is like an energy that appears to put words in my mouth and thoughts in my head. It's incredible how the Lord enables us when we are helping him in his work.

Yesterday we had lunch with a dude who just got off his mission from Venezuela 3 weeks ago and he was telling us how weird it is when you get back. It makes me a little bit hesitant to go back. Here I feel like a different person. More elevated... more confident. We have a huge role in the lives of a lot of people. In the past 7 months, I've been able to help people to accept the true gospel and to get excited about it too!

Marcos and Yonara are on fire. This week they went out with us to teach people and they just got excited about the work. Yonara has been a member for 6 months and Marcos has been a member for 4 weeks, and both of them are daringly bearing testimony of the Gospel they love. They really enjoy going out with us and seeing how people are blessed by the gospel. Both of them want to go on missions, so a year from now they're going. How cool is that? Two recent converts who are just dying to get out there to preach what they believe in. Their testimonies are pure and without doubts, and really bring the spirit into the lesson. It's amazing because Yonara's family does not support her about the church and even ridicules her. She has a calling as an indexer in the ward and her mom doesn't let her do it at home, so she walks to the beach to do it on her phone. Marcos is just awesome, and all the members just got attached to him when he joined the church. He already has a ton of friends and we're teaching his mom. As soon as she stops smoking, she'll be baptized. 

In the Piedade ward everyone is pretty excited about the work because Bishop Gustavo just implemented an Family Home Evening program in the ward. There's a calendar where all the families that can, choose a night to receive the missionaries and investigators in their house to have a family night. It's something that's bringing a lot of success to the ward. We had two this week that were great and there were a lot of new people for us to teach. Graça, a lady in the ward did one in her house and we were the first ones to arrive. She said she had invited people but it took a while for people to show up. It turned out being a good deal. There were a lot of women there. One of them had just lost her husband and there was another who was asking about salvation. So what did what we do. We whipped out the Plan of Salvation and cleared up their doubts. We could tell there was some relief when we looked at the face of the woman who has lost her husband. 

A couple of nights after that, there was another FHE. We were in a lesson right before the FHE when the power went out in the whole city. Everyone screamed as usual and we began walking to the FHE in the dark. If Yonara and Marcos weren't there with their cellphone flashlights we wouldn't have been able to navigate our way through the muddy roads. Graças a Deus. The family we visited had invited their neighbors who had just moved in. Gloria and Nara. The dad, Manoel was afraid that it wouldn't be good because of the power outage so it almost didn't happen, but we insisted haha. It was great! Manoel had prepared a couple of activities that stretched our brains and were related to the scriptures too. Gloria and Nara liked it and went to church the next day.

Sunday was great, like always. We baptized an 11 year old girl named Efigenia who has been dying to be baptized for about 4 months now. It was hard to get her mom's permission, but we did it. She always goes to church with her neighbors who are members so she was set. I even think she's been to the Recife temple more times than I have! haha. She's from the Jardim Piedade ward which is great because it had been a long time since we baptized someone from there. There were a lot of people there to support and her parents were there too. Her step-dad surprised us with his excitement about the church. We taught her parents a long time ago but never again because they are super busy. But when we taught them, he didn't have a job and we prayed that he could find one. A week later he had a job and when we talked to him on Sunday he said, "the prayer worked! I have a job. Now every time I pray, I thank the Lord for the job he gave me..." Sometimes we underestimate the power of the prayers we say with the investigators, but they really help to strengthen their faith in Christ, even though they aren't members of the church.

Gloria and Nara went to church. Turns out they are aunt and niece. Gloria has a salon in her house and has two young kids. Nara is 18 and speaks English fluently because she was a foreign exchange student in New Zealand. They both loved church. When we visited them after church, we went with Marcos, Otavio, and Lucas and it was a party. These girls were prepared to hear the Gospel. They used to live in a city that doesn't have the church a month ago and then came here. Gloria said they left the Assembly of God because of the many apostasies that exist there. We usually try not to agree too much when this happens... we kind of just smile and nod, because there are really A LOT of apostasies in that church. The Book Of Mormon is super correct in saying that whatever church that isn't the church of Christ is the church of the devil. But the lesson was great there. The spirit was present because of the many testimonies we brought with us and we invited them to be baptized this weekend before I get transferred. They accepted but with one condition. They have to pray and be certain before they decide. Easy. Their hearts are super open so the spirit will just invade them with good vibes.

So Sunday we'll find out if I'm transferred or not. I've been here for almost 7 months and if I stay one more, then that means I will have to stay 2 more because Varela is going home on the next one. If I stay, he´ll go home and I'll have to show another guy the area before I go home. I HAVE 2 TRANSFERS LEFT. The recent converts and members are sad that I'll probably leave on this one,,,, it'll be hard to leave this area because I feel like I'm a member of the ward! It's getting weird, but my work ethic is not going to change. Gotta end it puking! (See the end of the letter for explanation)

On that note, I'd like to wish you all a good week. Remember who you are and what you stand for. You stand for CHRIST. And nobody else.

Love you all,
Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll

When Dallin was in high school he ran on the Cross Country team.  If a runner performs his absolute best during a race and puts every last ounce of energy he has into his run, sometimes he will end the race and puke as he crosses the finish line.  "Puking" was an indicator that the runner had ended his race, putting forth the best he had to offer and didn't hold back.  So "gotta end it puking" is a good thing for Dallin.  It means he's going to work hard and diligently until the very end of his mission, putting forth his best effort.

Some old pictures that popped up on Facebook!  Gotta love it when that happens!

One More Week in the Book of Life

July 21, 2014

This week was interesting.

Pday was interesting because we went to the mission office so I could do my BYU interview with the President to get my ecclesiastical endorsement. He asked me two questions.... are you worthy to use a temple recommend and do you know and understand the honor code at BYU.... I said yes to both and he said, "Good, now I want you to teach me some things about the mission...." He started asking me about the things he should be worried about as mission President and what he should do to make his work effective in the mission. It was interesting talking to him because he is so different from President Lanius. President Lanius' interviews were short and sweet and kind of blunt and now we have a President who likes to know the ins and outs and likes to hear both sides of the story. I told him about the trouble spots in the mission and what to look out for. The man is spiritually charged and got here just ready to get stuff done. He sees the areas which need improvement and is willing to experiment and include the missionaries in the process to get it fixed. He said he always wanted a mentor in his life and decided to adopt one. He read EVERYTHING that President Packer has ever written and has a book of quotes which define him. I'm excited about the direction the mission is going in.

The work this week was relatively slow as we are recuperating after the world cup and chasing down investigators whose progress was delayed. It's a little bit annoying because we have two wards to keep track of and one is way stronger than the other one. The leaders from Jardim Piedade, the weaker one always ask us if we're working in their ward. We just tell them yes and they shrug their shoulders and walk away. We don't receive much help from the people in Jardim piedade, whereas in Piedade, the youth and the leaders are excited and always willing to help out with missionary work. We have to find a way to animate this ward, but I'm thinking I only have 2 weeks left in this area.

Remember Manoela, the lady with the 4 month old baby... Well we visited her and her husband this week and we found out they're from Ciará, another state and the husband, Jorge is just here to work. We taught them the Restoration and they both accepted baptism. Seemed like they were excited to hear the message and everything made sense to them. It was nice to teach 2 people who were really humble. They're from the interior of Ciará and are just open, humble people. What the scriptures say about the humble is true. That they are more teachable and more receptive to the whispers of the Spirit. After the lesson we were talking and they said that Manoela is going back to Ciará until December so there's no way to baptize her here. Jorge is staying so we'll see if we can pull something off with him. They traveled this week so neither of them went to church. We believe that she just came here to discover the gospel because she's only been here for a couple of years. Then when she found out about it she has to go away.....

Lately, it seems like we've been teaching a lot of people with addictions. I guess that's what happens when you're teaching group becomes more mature. We're teaching some parents of some youth that we baptized and with these new, adult investigators, we're meeting some challenges with addictions. It's either coffee or cigarettes and we have to analyze closely the problem of each person even though there are many people with the same addiction. It's interesting. Everyone has a unique personality and a unique way of dealing with the addiction. Some say it's super hard and isn't possible to quit and others have tons of faith that Christ can take the addiction away. If they don't have that faith, we have to find a way to help them to develop it. It's a great lesson for all of us. Addiction could signify our position or progress in life. If we don't have faith that Christ can help us to change our circumstances, then become stagnant. If we include him in our decisions and in our ambitions, his grace will reward our faith and we will be successful in anything we want to accomplish.

This week we also did an exchange with some elders in our district. It was marked for us to have a missionary activity in the chapel and it was the young men's responsibility to get it all organized, so we would just have to show up and participate. Turns out that the young men's president had to go to the hospital because one of his relatives was sick. So we had to improvise, something that missionaries are really good at. So we thought of some games we had played before and the ward mission leader improvised a spiritual thought. And guess what... it all turned out! One of the games was called "sou bobo", or,  "I'm silly´´ in English. It's a game of perception. Everyone gets in a circle and there is a broom that everyone has to sweep on the ground saying, "sou bobo".... then they wait for everyone else to tell them if they really are bobo or not. Then they pass the broom to the next person. The catch is that there are only 3 people who know when a person is bobo. The three people who know will clear their throats before sweeping and saying sou bobo, and then the people who know the secret say, ´´não é bobo´´ or,´´isnt silly´´.. hahaha so the people have to discover how to not be bobo. When people started to discover who it was, there were a ton of people clearing their throats loudly to help the people out who were bobos.... haha it was funny. We just died laughing because everyone was changing their voices and sweeping the broom in different ways to try to not be bobo.. You don't really have to do much to make people laugh here.. people just like to laugh!

Marcos blessed the Sacrament on Sunday. He repeated about 4 times but he was real happy about the opportunity he had to use his priesthood. He told us he was super nervous and just got lost in his words haha.  He's a good guy.

This week we also did an interview for a lady named Varela who was baptized on Sunday. I did the interview and I found out that her niece was the first baptism ever on my mission! Turns out that her family lives in Águas Compridas and me and the other Elder Ferreira helped her niece to get baptized about 1.5 years ago. It was a funny conversation. It's a small world when you're a member of the church.

Last night, we went out with a couple of the young men, Otavio and Lucas. They just kept telling us how great they thought the mission was and how excited they were to be getting ready to leave. They're both 18 and are getting their stuff together to leave. I think the only thing keeping them from sending their papers is the military release. All the missionaries from Brasil have to do this because it's kind of required for guys to enter into the army. Anyways we were walking in the street after we taught about the priesthood at Flávio/edinetes house, and as we passed an alleyway, we heard a guy yelling, ´´irmão,,,, irmão!!´´ We looked back and didn't think much of it because there are always a bunch of drunk dudes yelling at us Sunday night, but we looked back and saw a guy who was bleeding pretty bad. So we went to him and he had a bunch of gashes on his head and said he had just been hit... He had a lot of blood on his shirt and on his face. I called the ambulance and it was ridiculous. They put me on hold, then after like 5 minutes someone started asking me what his symptoms were and hung up. Didn't even tell me if they were coming or anything. We sat the dude on the sidewalk and called Otavios dad to come pick him up and drive him to the hospital. CRAZY. We think the dude was involved in some conflict because he didn't really tell us in details what had happened, other than the dude that hit him hit him with a plank.. Then again, he was shaking pretty bad and was almost going crazy. It seemed like the Lord put us in his path to help him out.

That really happens a lot on the mission. Whether the person is in need of spiritual, or physical help, the Lord puts us in their path so that we can rescue them. It's quite the privilege and is very gratifying when the person says thank you with a smile. Something about being in the right place at the right time is just satisfying. I know that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and I want the make the best of my mission while I have time left. IT'S A ONCE IN AN ETERNITY EXPERIENCE.

I love you all and hope this week is just dandy.
Love,
Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll

World Cup is Over

 This is a picture of the wedding that happened a few weeks ago that Dallin was so excited about!

July 14, 2014

Hello folks.

Glad to be able to write to you all one more time on this glorious day. I'm pleased to inform you all that this keyboard does not have a question mark, so forgive me in advance.

This week was a normal world cup week. Complicated.

We started out the week with a leadership meeting with President. The man is awesome. He's brushing up on his Portuguese so he takes a while to get his ideas out, but the ideas that he expresses are brilliant.  He's changing our point of view.  He really wants our baptisms to be converts.  We talked about the way the mission marks baptisms.  Before he got here when we passed our weekly numbers from the week, we used to only pass marked people for the people we were going to baptize that week.  He said our vision would be very limited if we did that and said that we have to pass the number of marked people we have for the next 3 weeks.  He says it will let us be able to have a better vision of our investigators.  It's a little more relaxing that way without the assistants breathing down our necks, but that doesn't mean that we can relax.  We feel that he has a great love for the gospel and a strong desire to please the Lord. He also talks a lot about how our missions will benefit us after our missions.  He suggested that we speak English in our houses so that the Americans don't return speaking like children and so the other missionaries will be able to get good jobs when they get back. It's hard to speak English.  Luckily Elder Varela speaks a little bit of English, so he understands a lot of what I say.  It helps us a lot when we don't want people to know what were talking about...hehe.

We booted Osiane. We talked a lot about the Book Of Mormon and even taught the plan of salvation just using scriptures from the Book Of Mormon.  It was one of those lessons where the investigator asks tons of questions and you have to explain everything in excruciating detail.  By the end of the lesson, we were practically sweating and we felt good about it.  She said she believed in EVERYTHING we said.  She also said that she doesn't agree with the idea that there exists only one true church of Jesus Christ..... You've got to be kidding me.  She believes in Joseph Smith, the Book Of Mormon, and everything else we taught, but does not believe there is one true church. This is truly an idea from Satan himself.  It was sad, but we can say that we did our best,... she just didn't accept.

This week was interesting with the world cup. Brasil got destroyed by Germany and everyone was fuming mad. It's all people talk about, and everyone blames the government and Felipão, the coach. We went to Flavio/Edinetes house the day after and the kids were all home when they were supposed to be at school.  They said they went to school and nobody was there because everyone was so embarrassed that Brasil lost so bad. People didn't go to work and everyone was just revolted. Marcos was happy because he's so cynical, but the majority of the people we talked to were just disturbed. Katiuce told us that during the game Edinete and Flavio were yelling at the screen saying stuff like "Ahhhh I don't even wanna live here anymore!  I'm going to move to Elder Carroll's country"... and "these monkeys don't know how to do anything!!" .... Katiuce said that nobody could talk to Flavio because he was so angry.  People literally cried while watching the game.... In our apartment complex everyone was just yelling no over and over and over again.  Futebol is everything here. And in spite of the whoop'n Brasil took, people still rooted for Germany in the final because they can't stand Argentina.  That's what we call a real rivalry.  I bought today's newspaper as a souvenir.

As far as work went, this week was a bust. We had some success with one woman named Manoela though. We taught her in front of her house with her 4 month old baby. She was REALLY receptive to our message and said that she felt the presence of God.  She agreed to be baptized and she agreed to going to church but didn't go because it rained a ton and all the roads were super flooded.  Few people went that we invited because of the rain, so it was kinda sad on Sunday, but we're going to have loads of people in the church this week. We also are going to work with Raynas' mom this week to see if we can't throw her in the water.

Well loved ones. This is the true gospel. No doubt in my mind. Life wouldn't make sense if it were false. Christ is the center of EVERYTHING, and our lives need to revolve around Him.

Love you all...
Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll

No Going Wrong with the Book of Mormon

 July 7, 2014

This week was the bomb.

Pday was a bust, as we had to buy a new fan because Elder Varela likes to use one to sleep, where as Ferreira didn't because it left him with a sore throat. We have to adapt with the changes in companions. It's interesting how much I got used to being with Elder Ferreira, I could almost predict everything he did. But Varela is different of course, and either way we get along great. He's more of a precise worker where as Ferreira was more go with the flow, follow the spirit type deal. I think I'm in between those two, so either way, it's easy for me to adapt. I like the way we teach together because we don't just split up every topic like a robot.... we stop talking when we feel like it and let the other one start up. It's more relaxing and has a good flow because the other way around it just gets tiring. Y'all know that I don't really like talking that much.

This week we had a meeting with our new President. It was really cool because he was there with his wife, his two daughters, and his son. His son is 11 and his daughters are 19 and 15 I think.... But they were all given time to tell us a little bit about themselves. It was touching when they all said that they were angry and sad when their dad received the call to be mission president, but when they entered  the airport and saw us singing the mission anthem, they all felt the spirit and felt that everything was going to turn out alright. It was good to hear that we could relieve them of some stress and worrying, just by being there to greet them. I can imagine their feelings about the whole thing. Out of nowhere they find out that their dad will be a mission president for 3 years in Brazil and they will have to stay there to. President Bigalow said that he received a call from Elder Bednar and went to his office to talk to him with his wife. He served as a young man in Chicago speaking Spanish, so for the past few months, he's been studying Portuguese and trying to filter out the Spanish words (looks really hard by the way he was speaking Portuguese with us). But he's a good guy with a light, friendly personality. His wife doesn't speak much Portuguese but gave a whole talk in Portuguese (she read the whole thing)... It made us see that she is serious about being here and is willing to work and study to help the mission out. We're really excited for this new president because he said he's going to go on splits with us to see what the work is like.

This whole week we were basically working with a few people to get them baptized fast. I feel like this area is just baptize, find, and baptize, find and baptize. It's ideal for sure. Yonara's friends, Marcos and Jaqueson were both baptized yesterday. Also, we baptized a girl named Rayna, who is Flavio/Edinete's neighbor/friend of Katiuces. The two guys are 21 and Rayna is 13. When me and Ferreira opened this area up, we baptized a few youth and they ended up dragging about 15 other kids with them.... it's a baptism factory!!! It looks like it's never going to end.

Marcos, I think was the most excited out of all of them.  He's a super funny dude and we already have tons of inside jokes with him. He thinks it's funny that I use all the Pernambuco/Nordeste slangs that all the street folk use. His whole family went to the baptism and we're gonna throw them all in the water in a little bit because they liked church a lot.

Rayna's mom was there too and she really liked church. She said it was different and didn't feel like she was being pressured to accept Jesus. Half the churches here say that if you don't "accept Jesus/raise your hand at the right time" that you'll go to hell and there's no hope for you. So that's already one point that we have on the others. She liked the way that everyone just goes at their own pace and how nobody is forced to do anything. It's great too because she's friends with Flavio/Edinete and is just a good, relaxed person who is fun to be around. We'll get her in the water fast. She was asking us a lot about the "what can you do?" and the "what can't you do?" so we told her about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. Mom's like that kind of stuff.... if they're a good mom......

Jaqueson is just a mystery who doesn't like to talk. He wanted to be baptized so we baptized him!

So this week we're really going focus on getting Osiane baptized. She's an 18 year old girl who just thinks way to much... or maybe not enough. She is always studying/sleeping so it's hard to mark visits with her. She's different. She is sarcastic when she answers our questions like she constantly wants to say, "duhhhh, of course I know that"..... but the word/expression, "duhhh" doesn't exist here. She went to church with her mom which was great. They really liked it and we went to talk to Osiane at her house afterwards. I asked her if she wanted to be baptized. She explained that she was looking for a church to stay at and she didn't know if this was the one. WE explained that if she read the Book Of Mormon and prayed and really thought about it, she would know. She has the type of personality where she has to study things out and analyze to make a decision. There's no going wrong with the Book Of Mormon.... IT'S DA TROOF!

I've decided that I want to read the Book Of Mormon and the New Testament before I get home.  It's a goal.  I figured out that the less I read the Book Of Mormon, the weaker my testimony gets.... not that it's weak or anything,,,, but you know. It really is the glue to my testimony. It makes it so the restored gospel makes sense and has a base. The Bible is great, but I'm not going to lie, it doesn't have the strength that the Book Of Mormon provides for me. That's just my feel.

Well folks.... I guess that's it.

Oh... just a quick joke for y'all real quick...
"you know you're in Recife when half the testimonies born at fast and testimony meeting are about miracles that Jesus performed so that the members could escape shootings and assaults in the streets.´´

Don't get scared mom, I've never seen a gun on my mission so I'm safe.

Oh and dad, the world cup cannot be escaped here.
Everyone watches every game so we're always updated on who goes home and and who plays who and who the best teams are. If Brasil doesn't get through, I'm rooting for Holland. They're bosses and will destroy Argentina. People literally cried when Neymar broke his back. My comp and I were sad too...

Well family, I love you all and hope y'all have a good week. Pray so that Osiane can receive a confirmation about the Book Of Mormon. She's super close.

Love,
Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll

Complicated Week

 June 30, 2014

This week was complicated but we made it work out.  I'm trying to write this thing fast because I just wrote a ton and the email deleted itself. So don't mind the grammar.

So we started out with the transfer. It was insane because about half of the mission was there to be transferred. President said that he put everyone there to make a lot of changes to help out the new President who came this week. Everyone was filled with mixed emotions because President has taught us a lot. But we are excited to see the changes that will take place with the new president. Presidente Lanius said that he may not have taught us how to baptize, but he did teach us to be honest. And he knows that without honesty, there is no baptism. He's right. My new companion is Elder Varela.  He's cool. He was companions with my first Zone Leader, Elder Farrer.  It's funny how the cycle works with companions on the mission. Varela is chill and we already get a long very well. The way we teach is very similar and the teaching flows and has a good spirit. I'm excited to work with him here.  I think this is my last transfer here.  He has 2 transfers left so he's definitely going to die(finish his mission) here.

This week it rained a freaking ton. There was a night where it rained the whole night straight and when we woke up it was still raining . We had to go to district meeting that morning so we put on our boots and started walking. The Apartment complex was more flooded than we had ever seen it. The water level was over our boots so whatever.  I got some videos of the roads we can watch when I get home. The roads were like rivers with actual currents because of the cars that were still driving! WE walked a while and then we took the bus.  On the way we saw some gringos with US and Germany Jerseys because of the game that happened in Recife. Imagine the trunkiness! They were taking pictures of the flooded streets and the cobrador yelled, "yeah, this is Brasil son!!"  ESTADOS UNIDOS SE CLASSIFICOU!!

We went to the temple this week too! When we took the metro we saw a lot of Americans with huge hiking backpacks going to the game in Recife. They had come from Manaus because they watched the game there too. I tried talking to them and asked them where they were from. They said they were form the US.... duhhhhh. I found out that my English is terrible and that Americans aren't really good at conversing.

Friday we went to the Airport to greet the new President. President Bigalow is his name. He's from Salt Lake and brought his 2 daughters and his son too.  Some of the zones were invited to sing the mission anthem when he came out and we were lucky to be one of them! He came out with his wife and kids and we started singing. It was pretty emotional. President Lanius was there and he seemed pretty nervous. We sang and the Presidents greeted each other. Lanius took off the name tag and gave the microphone and the keys to Bigalow. It was interesting. All the sisters were crying and everyone was speaking in English because his family doesn't speak Portuguese yet. When I shook their hands they said they were looking for me because Landon met Sister Bigalow on his airplane to his mission and she remembered his name.  It was cool. They are really nice and look super ready to take control of the mission and make everything happen. The Assistants have advised us that none of the rules that President Lanius put in place have been abolished yet so we're just going to wait and see if the mission will become less rigid.....

So we hardly got to work this week because of the rain, the Brasil games and the temple trip but we have some pretty sweet investigators now.

Jackson/Marcos/Williames are friends of Yonara. She's a recent convert and is really excited about missionary work. These 3 dudes are her neighbors/friends. They all went to church and liked it. Marcos is almost done reading Gospel Principles and when we invited him to be baptized he said he was thinking about it. He went to a Family Home Evening at the Bishop's house and said that he felt that the church was true and it wasn't because anyone told him it was. He said that when we know something is right, we feel it..... That's right. We marked Jackson to be baptized this Sunday. We're going to try to baptize them all.

Osiane is a girl we met while knocking doors, me and Elder Ferreira. We were knocking this one road and she passed by us when we were trying to enter in the houses. I had an impression to talk to her but I let her pass by. Then we knocked her door and found her again. Her mom said that Osiane needed a religion so we taught both of them. We taught Osiane later about the Book Of Mormon and she said she knew it was true without even reading it. That's the power of the Spirit. She didn't go to church though because she woke up late. We'll see if we can baptize her in the next two weeks. She's a good girl, 20 and just likes to stay at home and study, so it seems very possible.

Well family...... Hope this week is good for y'all. Keep going strong and never let go of the rod! Love you all.

Elder Dallin Carroll