Transferred Again

January 13, 2014

So I was transferred...

I was feeling it and I was wanting to leave but at the same time I wanted to stay to see the marriage of our investigators. It was good being in the interior. I think I forgot how to sweat.. haha. I was transferred back to Recife in Boa Viagem. I'm a Zone Leader and I'm opening an area. The zone has 18 missionaries and a lot of sisters too.(Nothing I'm not used to)... My companion's name is W. Ferreira. It's not the other Ferreira(my trainer). The transfer was funny. My companion was the first name to be called.  They said he was going open an area and I felt like I was going to be his companion and I was!  It was weird. The elders who were there did some type of fubecagem and the area closed and reopened with us. They left 6 baptisms for us too! Yes! Bishop Lucas was there from Aguas Compridas too. It was fun talking to him and finally understanding everything he was saying. And I was speaking like a pro. There were a lot of missionaries transferred from Caruaru so that zone will be different. I said goodbye to all the people who matter like Brainer, his mom, our couple we were going to marry.... it was fun in Caruaru and difficult but now I'm back in baptism territory.

This week as far as work goes was kind of bland. I think it was because we felt the transfer coming and it was just weird. We met some funny people, mainly just old guys who never stop talking. We talked to this one dude, Ramos, really old who wanted us to stop by to pay a visit. The dude talks a lot. We entered in his house and he just started telling a story without end. We were trying to teach him but it wasn't working out. He was just talking so much, so we were tag teaming him to try to keep our cool. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would go to church to find out. Didn't go.


The crack-head didn't want us to visit him anymore because he was "confused and didn't know what he was capable of doing."  We left it at that.

Also we found this guy named He-man(Edivaldo) who is an inactive member. His nickname is He-man because he's huge. We found him through one of our investigators. He had read the Book of Mormon four times and he moved to Caruaru from Recife and didn't like the people at church there so he went inactive. He is a cool guy and we talked about his past and I sang count your blessings because that is one of the hymns he remembered after years of inactivity. He liked it a lot and I think it reminded him of the blessings he's missing by not going to church with his family. He has 2 kids and a wife. The spirit was felt and he knows what he has to do.


We went and visited Cilene and Brainer for the last time.  She gave us stuff to eat and said she was going to miss me. I said I was going to come back with my parents. She said I could baptize her in November when you all are here so we'll see. It's an ongoing thing with her. 

The married couple is sad I'm leaving but they were expecting it too. It will be cool to see the photos of the wedding. I feel like I left that area better than I got it so that's good, didn't baptize anyone though. 

I love this gospel and will never abandon it. It's just not something that's deniable. Even though it's hard being a missionary sometimes, my testimony of the work doesn't shrink a bit when I'm having a hard time. Christ lives and is our Savior and through his grace we can do great things.

Love you family!
Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll

Happy New Year

January 6, 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This week was slow and steady and nobody was home.

Holidays are the same everywhere you go. Everyone travels.  We only had half of our investigators at home this week. I think it's because we have half rich and half poor people. The pobres just stay at home and we could teach them everyday if we wanted to. But there's no point to that now is there? We started off the week with a very interesting lesson. We went to visit this guy named Julio. We pulled his name from the area book. Short, squaty guy. Our Assistant to the President had already taught him and then went home after. The guy is good, but when we got there he was drinking and smoking with one of his idiot friends. They were watching a video about the iluminadi or however you spell it. Conspiracy theories about how the government is run by the devil. They were just amazed and believing in every word of it. Erasmo was with us and we were all just looking at each other. Erasmo sent me a message, "Let's go?????"  haha, yeah. Julio asked me if I believed in this mess and I said no. He said "yeah me neither..."  haha. We explained about the prophet and how this video was garbage. Erasmo got really impatient and burned the heck out of Julio's friend because he was trying to convince us that this video was real. It was just an awkward situation, and kind of funny at the same time. We left and he said he was sorry.

We tried to contact some references from the Christmas cards and found this old lady. She was alone so we sang at her doorstep. She liked it a lot and she was really nice. She was our only lesson that day because of New Years. Oh, and we walked a ton looking for an address in the middle of nowhere in the desert. We were obligated to be at home at 6. We got there, slept, woke up at 9 and waited for the fireworks. We live on the 2nd floor of this building and the floor above us is unfinished so at midnight we went up there and watched the fireworks in the city. It was cool and I got a video. Elder Pereira said.... "dude, we're going home this year!!"  We laughed. haha.

This week we taught a dude named Lenilson who used to be a crack addict. Brainer said he would pass by and ask for food at his house. He gave us his address and we visited. The dude is super humble and regrets what he did. He lives in a little house with nothing in it because he sold everything he had for drugs.We talked about the Restoration and the Book Of Mormon and he went to church. He said he won't go back without a long-sleeved shirt because he has tattoos. We said he didn't have to but he insisted. He's reading the Book Of Mormon slowly but surely.

Our soon to be married couple is as strong as an ox. They're super awesome and ready. Ezequiel stopped drinking when we started teaching them so the word of wisdom wasn't a problem. They had doubts about baptisms for the dead and a few other things but it's nothing that can't be cleared up fast. They have testimonies and anyone who comes up to them with something bad to say about the church they burn them. They're great. 25th of January! I'm hoping I won't be transferred this next week.

Also we got a reference from someone from Recife! This lady from the church in Recife called us giving all the details about her sister, Debora for us to visit her. It was cool. José told me we were going to receive this reference but it took a while. We visited Debora last night. She's young and pretty and was home alone so we couldn't enter in her house. But we marked for today with Erasmo so we're good. She seemed interested.

It seems like we have a pretty good relationship with the members here. It's great. We don't have to worry about not having anyone to talk to our visitors at church and stuff like that. There are a lot of members here who are wanting to go out with us and help us out with their family members and references. It's really nice. I don't want to leave this area. Even though we haven't baptized, we have some really good people lined up.

Well I guess that's it. I miss you all a ton, but I'm grateful I'm here. I'm having great experiences and learning a lot about myself and the gospel. I really do feel like I have grown closer to Christ and feel his love more in my life. He is our Savior and there is no other way to exaltation without him. My New Year's Resolution this year will be just to open my mouth more.  Sometimes fear gets the best of us and keeps us from having faith in ourselves and the Lord. It'll make me a better missionary for sure.

Well, I love you all and pray for you. Don't forget to be a member missionary!

Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll

Singing in Portuguese

Elder Carroll was able to call us (his family) on Christmas Day and talk to us.  We loved every minute of this time spent with him.  With the help of modern technology we Skyped and were able to see and talk with him.  I (his Mother) asked him to sing us a song because we just love hearing his voice so he sang, "Silent Night" in Portuguese.  It was so wonderful to hear his sweet voice and to listen to the beautiful Portuguese language that he has learned.

Christmas in Brazil

December 30, 2013

Caramba.

This week was cool. Not literally but it was good.

Pday was funny. We went to Recife to pick up the Zone's packages without them knowing. We got our sleep in on the bus and got to see some of our friends from the other Zones in the interior. It was a party in the mission office because right when we got there a van arrived with a ton of Christmas packages. From what we saw, the secretaries don't really do anything but mess around. Must be relaxing haha.

Tuesday was our District meeting and we had tons of packages to take to the missionaries. I was taking a shower and I hear a banging on the bathroom door. Freaking Elder Bochi came to our apartment and ruined the surprise. We had sent him to contact a reference from our area that is closer to them than to us, and the guy could only receive people in the morning. So they went and he wasn't there so they paid a visit to our house. Good thing I like Elder Bochi, otherwise I would've got really angry. I guess it made it easier for us when we were late for the meeting and our District leader already knew about the surprise. When we got there late with all the packages the sisters didn't even look surprised. Then we explained that the boxes were for them and they got super excited. It was funny, kind of a delayed reaction. Then we did our secret Santa thing and I got toilet paper and 2 ties.

Christmas was trunky, I mean awesome. The 24th we went to a member's house from the other ward because nobody invited us from our ward... Ineubb´s In-laws. We ate regular Brasilian food, talked, and ate some cake. Just weird when it's not your family. On Christmas day I opened my package and it was awesome! The workout band is being used and the food is getting eaten. Thank you! We had lunch with a member and rushed to the capela(chapel) to talk with our families! It was the best day of my life. It was fun to see you all and actually hear your voices. (Dallin was able to Skype with his family on Christmas Day) Sorry for talking like a weirdo.(Dallin had trouble remembering some English words when he was talking) Haha, I tried. So that was basically the highlight of the last 6 months and there's one more call to make this Mother's Day and then I'm home. After the phone call we ate pizza with Erasmo...banana com brigadeiro. Yum.

This week was great for the work too. The couple who was wanting to get married and baptized, Kátia and Ezequiel are getting baptized/married the 25th. These people were well prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel. They don't have problems with anything. He stopped drinking right when we started teaching them so they're clean! They gave us white dress shirts(she makes them for a living) and love us. Thanks Dad for the marriage money. They are really grateful and very excited. We went to the Cartorio(marriage place) to get it all paid and set up. The Bishop and Stake President(leaders of the church congregations) are super excited. Just hope I don't get transferred!

We found another family these past 2 weeks. Brainer gave a reference of a family whose mom was baptized 25 years ago but is inactive. Her kids are super legit. Vinicius is 16 and Wiliane is 20(and a girl). Brainer is 25 so we keep joking around that when we baptize her she's his. Every time we go there we invite Brainer to go to his girlfriend's house with us to teach. Good times. They accepted the baptismal challenge and will get baptized when they receive answers to their prayers. It's in God's hands now. But they are some cool people, and will be great members. We joke around with them as if we've been friends for years.

Love you all!!! Happy New year!!! I love you and am always praying for our family!

Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll

Contacting Referrals

December 23, 2013

This week went by super fast, don't really know what happened.

Pday (Preparation Day) was normal. We went to the center of the city as usual and did the usual dinking around. We got home and relaxed for a few hours, much needed. When we went out to work we were going to visit this eternal investigator(someone who will take forever to baptize) Josenildo. On the way there we were stopped by this lady. "You're the Elders from the Mormon church right??"  Uhhh yeah! ... "I've always wanted to visit that church but I was always too embarrassed to enter."  This woman was super excited to see us. She said she had stayed in this Bishop's house in Recife and Pereira just happened to serve in that ward. It was a "coincidence". So we talked and she wanted us to visit her at her house and meet her "husband"...they're not legally married but they were super cool. When we met the dude he was more shy and reserved but we got to talking and he opened up. They began to tell us about their lives. The husband(Eziquiel) built their house all by himself. He even made the bricks. He went and got the clay from some place close to his house, from the ground not from a store. The dude is a machine. They have a little girl who is one, and they are super humble, nice people. The first visit was really fast because we had an appointment, but later in the week we explained thoroughly about the restoration. It was great. They understood everything and were ready to accept it. They went to church and loved it. Ezquiel said it was like nothing had ever experienced before, and Cátia(wife) said she liked it a lot. They plan on going to church from now on. And get this... they actually want to get married. Imagine that! A couple who lives together who wants to get married. She said she wants to get married in the church. She even asked us how she could do a family night because she had participated in a few in Recife with the Bishop. These people will be baptized. We just have to get them married! Woo!

This week has been great for referrals. Remember how I said we got 40 from the members? That's all we've been doing, contacting referrals. We don't even knock doors! It's amazing! It takes a while to find some of the houses because the addresses in Brasil are cookoo, but when we find them it's usually well worth it. This area went from being a tracting area to an actual teaching area. We're finding a lot of great people. Of course there are those people who don't accept anything outside of their comfort zone, but about half of them thanked us for coming and said they would go to church. It's great because they already know their friends from church. We had some people cry when we sang to them the Christmas hymn, and we now have some people in our teaching group who have some actual potential.

This week we also did an exchange with Caruarú. Elder Bochi came to my area and we set out on an adventure of contacting referrals. We got lost and walked a ton but we ended up contacting two. Bochi was mainly there to talk to Cilene, Brainer's mom who is taking forever to baptized. She's so dang close it's not even funny. Right when we got there she began to talk about how something supernatural came over her when she was praying about the church and where she should go with her life. She said the feeling was just good. We got really excited but when she was talking she was talking as if she was scared of the feelings she felt. We told her that was her response. she said no it wasn't and she's trying to wait for something else. Brainer whipped a scripture out of nowhere in Doctrine and Covenants that was perfect. D&C 6:22 or something like that. It talks about how Oliver Cowdery was trying to get more responses from God than he already had, and God said that if he wants more answers/proofs, go back in your mind to that prayer you said and the feelings you felt when you asked for the truth. She got really quiet and we asked her what she was going to do from there. She said she would decide later. OFIGUVNRUWI. What more does she want?! There was a Christmas activity in the ward last night and Marcione(LMA) was joking around with her saying she was super close to being baptized. She said "Yeah, I was this close, but now I'm this close." (shrinking the space between her fingers). We'll get her.

Right now we're in Recife to get Christmas boxes/packages from the mission office for our zone. Our zone doesn't know we're here so were going show up with their presents at district meeting as a surprise. They weren't supposed to get them until the transfer but President let us come to Recife to do this surprise. It'll be great.

Well, Merry Christmas to all and this is the last Christmas away from home for me. It will be weird but good at the same time. Christ is the Lord and this is His season. I can't wait to talk to y'all in 2 days!!

Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll

Spread the Gospel

 December 11, 2013

Sorry for being late. (Letter was received on Wednesday instead of the usual Monday)

We didn't even have a chance to get on the computer. Do you believe that? This past week and a half has been insane and awesome. It started out with the transfer. Sorry I didn't give y'all the name of my comp. Elder Pereira from Rio de Janeiro. He's cool and we get along. He was in the CTM in Sao Paulo when I was there and we arrived here in Pernambuco together. It's weird because I couldn't even talk to him there but now we talk like normal people. It's cool.

This past week has been great for the work because we received 40 references? How? That's a lot. Our ward mission leader is a boss and made this Christmas kit for the members to give to their friends. He got us 100 Christmas DVDs and gave the members cards for them to write names of friends to give to us. From there we get the names, go to the people's houses, leave the DVDs with them, sing a Christmas hymn, and talk about 

Christmas. Then we mark another visit. It's gold. These next couple weeks before Christmas we're going to contact all these people and baptize. Finally. It's interesting to contact these references because you always have a picture in your mind of what the person will be like but it never works out in the end. It's like a guessing game.

We've been trying to work with this one family this past week. They've been to church twice but don't want to get married. I don't understand this. They've lived in the same house for 6 years, have 3 kids, but don't want to get married. It gives me a headache listening to them talk about why they won't. Story after story after story. Problems. You would think we were psychologists. It gets pretty heavy.

We've also been trying to hunt down some less active members. We got a list of them and have found out that a ton have moved away. We found this one dude who was baptized when he was 17. He's 28 now and he was baptized in the Assembly. When we got there he was super excited to see us. The dude was crazy.  "My friends! Enter!" He gave us stinky hugs and we entered. The dude was crazy. I don't know why the elders at that time baptized him. He had no teeth and was just crazy. He told us stories about how he would walk around with the elders and got up and demonstrated how fast they walked and told us they went and bought Popsicles. We were just dying of laughter. We asked him why he was baptized again. He didn't know but he's going to church this Sunday. Success.

Another house we went to out came two guys saying the person didn't live there anymore. One was dressed as a woman. The other just had boxers on. It was interesting.

The counselor of the Bishopric gave us 10 names to chase down on his road. He has a nephew named Joseph who gave us 2. He loves the missionaries. His mom showed us that he was talking to the former president of the mission on facebook. He's just a funny kid. His dream is to be an elder. So we invited him to go with us to visit these people. He got so dang excited. We got to his house to pick him up and he was shirtless so we waited outside for him to get ready. 10 minutes later he comes out with a suit on and carrying a brief case. Hahaha. So we left and made some visits. One of the visits was super annoying because the people just wanted to know about the United States. I was afraid Joseph was getting bored so I asked him if he wanted to go and he said,  "No, this is awesome."   When we got to his house we sat on the porch for a bit just talking to the family. By the way, there are 3 huge families from the same family who are members on the same road so it's just a party there. We were talking and Joseph was inside and his mom told us that she asked him if it was good. He said "It wasn't good mom.... it was awesome."  I was surprised because it wasn't that good but the kid is awesome.

So why didn't I write to y'all sooner?  Because we went to the temple on Tuesday and it counted as a our pday. The temple is awesome. They have a full sized nativity there and they planted poinsettias so it's beautiful there in the garden.  And the new stuff in the temple is amazing. More emotional and spiritual. I liked it a lot. After the temple we stayed in Recife in a house of elders there. I knew them all so it was just a party there. Oh! And I saw my kid at the temple too!  He said my Portuguese is awesome and we talked about all our inside jokes.  It was great. I saw Claudemire from Aguas Comprodas too. It was a reunion. 

We had the Christmas mission conference. It was sweet. We had a 70 and his wife talk to us, Elder and Sister Granja. Super spiritual. Super motivating. Then each Zone sang a Christmas hymn. I'm not gonna brag or anything but ours was definitely the best. Sister Ramy(USA) got a piano arrangement of Silent Night from her mom and we sang the verses from the Hymn book. It was legit. I arranged the voice parts and the last verse me and another sister, Hicken(USA) sang a duet. It was awesome. We had people crying and the spirit was setting the chapel on fire. Saw all my buddies at the conference and had a good ole time eating tons of turkey. Then I got my package from the fam! It was perfect! So much candy. And the tree was awesome. Set it all up and everything. I'll send y'all pics next week.

But man. The church is true. Jesus is definitely our Savior. No doubt in my mind. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and I got a lot more out of it this time than other times I've watched it. The atonement is real, and everyone needs it. That's why we have to spread the gospel! Hows the challenge from Elder Ballard going? Brought anyone to church yet? Well, love you family, and miss you tons. Till Monday!

Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll

(Both pictures posted were old ones that Dallin's mom found on Facebook)

Loving the Mission

December 2, 2013

Wow, this week was fast. Today was transfers and I don't have much time to write to ya'll so I will try to get it all in the best I can. Elder José got transferred and I'm here now with my big black companion from Rio. He's really cool and we arrived on the mission on the same day. I heard that he doesn't like any leeway when it comes to mission rules. It'll be good for me. Even though I'm not disobedient, there's always room to improve. The transfer was super legit. A lot of missionaries I knew went home so it was weird to see all of them bear their testimonies and leave. But it was super spiritual and motivating at the same time.

This week we had the leadership meeting with President. He presented the new plan for all the missions in Brasil. The new rule for Baptisms is if the person is 15 years old or less we can't baptize them until they've been going to church for 3 months. Brasil has been baptizing a ton but hasn't been retaining the numbers so the Area presidency took drastic measures. Now we have to focus on families more(which should have always been the focus). The number of baptisms will go down a bit but we have to have faith that this new change will be for the better of the church and to help us have more priesthood/splittings of wards. It was weird looking back on my mission and remembering how many kids I've baptized. It's all good though.

This week we've been teaching our 3 married couples who aren't married. It's annoying but there's potential in these families. Nilson(the guy who has a band) went to church and brought his 3 kids with him. It was sweet. Arnedes and Leticia went to church too. The class on Sunday was about family history so it was kind of weird for someone who was getting to know the church. But it all worked out when we talked about baptisms for the dead in the new members class(Elder José and I taught it.) We taught the Plan of Salvation. It's always a good one.

Fast and testimony meeting was great. One of our investigators(Josenildo) got up and bore his testimony. It was amazing.  This guy was scooped off the street by Elder Vargas and José when he was just hammered drunk. They marked a day to go to his house. He quit drinking in 1 week. His life is changing a lot right now because he's getting right with God. He loves to go to church and counts the days until he can wear his white shirt and tie that were given to him by one of the members. He's the guy with the stash in the picture I sent to ya'll from last week. Just a good guy. He said that no other church could have done this for him. He's tried all of them. It's because this is the church of Jesus Christ and has the POWER to change people's lives for the better. I was smiling uncontrollably when he got up there. Arnedes wanted to go up too but the time ran out. It has been a long time since he went to church. It was a great Sunday for investigators.

I wish I could write to ya'll everything that happened but I don't have time. This week was a testimony builder. I know that this is the true church of our Savior Jesus Christ. No doubt in my mind. Doesn't matter what anybody says. I get sad sometimes that the people don't recognize the truth but the only thing we can do is present the gospel to them and hope they accept it. I love being on a mission. I love my family. I love the Savior.

Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll

Dallin's mom found this old picture on Facebook

Another old picture of Dallin in his first area.