May 27, 2014 - Two Little Blondes in a Big Blue House!

Hello From Texas!!

I absolutely hate that I only have an hour. I have only been on here for about 2 minutes and already feel so overwhelmed because I have SOOOOOOO Much to tell you guys about and soooo little time! :)

I made it to Texas!! can you believe it? I definitely cant. I still wake up every morning and have to remember that I am in Texas. So we flew from Utah to Dallas and then to Lubbock. As we were flying from Dallas to Lubbock I was looking out the window and saw about 7000 different shades of brown on the ground. It is just straight dirt flying. Hahahah I will send pictures so you will understand what I mean!

The first couple of days we stayed at the mission home with President and Sister Augustin. I came out here to The Lubbock Texas Mission with I think 14 other new missionaries (I think 14 because it has been so long it feels like) My mission president is awesome and his wife is the sweetest lady in the whole world. Definitely a blessing. But we then got told where we would be serving! All 14 of us went different ways which was super weird because I hade just spent every hour of every day with some of them! But it was definitely a great change! I got on a bus and drove a few hours to meet my Trainer!

My trainers name is Sadie Ethington she  is a girl from Spanish Fork Utah. She is 19 years old. She has been out for 9 months! She was a Cheerleader from BYU. She is darling. If I could hand pick a trainer I would pick her. She is such a hard worker so diligent, and really knows her stuff. Not only that she is hilarious. We both have blonde hair and blue eyes. Hahahah people ask us if we are really sisters. :) We just get along so well! We then got in our cute little white jeep and drove to our area!

I am in a tiny little town called Childress! Everyone in Childress are so humble. But I have been here for 5 days and have already seen some pretty funny stuff. But anyway.... We get into town and we go find our house. It is this blue little house! hahahah  I will send pictures. So the elders that Lived there before us were lazy and were not good missionaries at all. We are basically starting from scratch here. There are no investigators in the record book, no nothing. It looked like missionaries had never been in this area before! And also there had never been sisters here before so I am pretty stoked that I am here in Childress. But anyway.. We get into our little blue house, and the Elders before did not even try to clean it before they left... hahaha we spent the entire first day just cleaning their nasty beard clippings off the Bathroom floor. hahah there were old suits in the closet and all sorts of random stuff! probably a little bit TMI but I hope you get the idea... hahahha But Childress is beautiful! There are such beautiful trees and all of the roads are either Cobblestone or dirt... Which makes it pretty funny when it rains because everyone gets stuck and we just haul right through in our cute little jeep. hahaha

Being here is such a culture shock! You see a different church on every single street corner. One that you haven't heard of. I didn't know there were more than one Baptist church.. It is just weird being outside of Utah where 80 percent of the people are not Mormon... It is very humbling. I just feel so bad for all of these people because I just wish they understood everything about the True church.

Gosh I have been on my mission for only 3 weeks and have already learned SOOO much! The Gospel is already coming alive! It is kinda intimidating thought because everyone here knows The Bible inside and out backwards and forwards and I am over here trying to Teach them that the Book of Mormon is another Testament of Jesus Christ, when I know little to nothing about the Bible! I am so blessed to have Sister Ethington though! She is awesome! She knows every bible story so well!

I absolutely love missionary work. Being here has made me so much more appreciative that I grew up in this Gospel. There are so many people out here who do not know what they are looking for but just feel something missing in their lives. I feel so lucky to be serving a mission to hopefully provide them with the truth and provide them with what they are missing!

So every Thursday is Bike day! Because we had no records AT ALL in our area book we figured that we would call our Ward mission leader and also our Branch President (the Branch President Is our bishop but the ward here is to little to be a ward so it is a branch) but they were both out of town so we didn't have anyone to teach and so Thursday was our first Bike day it was like 90 degrees outside and we were just bikin around finding people! We had 51 morning finds! A new Mission record! hahah But it was scary at first! Going up to people to tell them about how Much Jesus Loves them... hahahh I swear 40% of them didn't even speak English. Hahah I am trying to pick up as much Spanish​ as I can! But when we got home we had been outside on our bikes for like 6 hours and so we get home and sister Ethington and I were both Fried! hahahah worst farmers tans ever! Its day one and I already Have a farmers tan but I love it!

Okay if you guys need to send me any packages, send it to the mission home address through the post office! Not Fed ex and they will be able to forward it to which ever area I am. But My address of where I am living now is 1305 Avenue E NW Childress, Texas 79201
So you guys can send stuff there also for the next 12 weeks!

 I hope you all know how much I Love you! I wish so bad that I had time to sit and e-mail all of you individually! I feel so overwhelmed with Love from all of you guys! I am so grateful for the Love and support you all have showed me! I am seriously so blessed! Not gunna lie being out here has been a big change. I have learned a lot about myself. There is no where else I would rather be. (but I do wish you all were here with me) ;) Have such a wonderful week and I will talk to you guys next Monday! Don't worry about me! I am happy and healthy and am so grateful to be here!

I hope you all have a great week! I Love and Miss you all!

-Love Sister Carroll!