Thanksgiving and Laser Pointers

December 1, 2014

Good morning,

Let me just start by saying that I CANNOT believe it's already December again. It seems like just yesterday that I was opening up missionary presents on Christmas. Time really flies, doesn't it? Hard to believe that I've already been out 9 and a half months. But that's just how to cookie crumbles. I'm hoping my mission doesn't go by too fast. Cause it already feels that way.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving was fantastic. I wasn't really feeling well the whole day but the dinner we had made up for it! It put me in a food coma for sure! We went to the Tyndall's to have a nice, southern Thanksgiving. We had turkey (cooked in an infrared cooker, actually pretty cool yall should check it out), stuffing, cranberry sauce, collards(yummy), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes of every kind, giblet gravy, ham, deviled eggs, chicken n' pastry, cheesy potato casserole(with onions, aww man), homemade biscuits, and much more! For dessert we had pecan pie, cheesecake, and some Hershey crumb cake sort of thing(really really rich whatever it was). But needless to say, we were taken care of. We got invited to three other Thanksgivings, but after the first one we decided that would be a bad idea.

The rest of the week was also great! I know we're not supposed to play the numbers game, but we taught (don't laugh, Dallin) 17 lessons this week! That's more than we've taught in two months! These were good lessons too. We visited a lot of less active members this week and found three new investigators.

One of our new investigators is Robert. He's a referral from another investigator, Stephanie. He lives in an old high school converted into an apartment complex. It's quite interesting, really. But he's great. He's 36, has three kids, and just wants to rebuild his relationship with God. We taught him the Restoration and he understood it! We invited him to be baptized and he said he would, but we don't have an official date yet. We'll take care of that later this week. But it was funny, while we were teaching him the fire alarm went off. LOUDEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD. He says sometimes it just goes off randomly and everyone goes out in the hallway to see what the damage is, but he can't trust it anymore so he just stays in bed. But Robert is great. Great individual, good Christian. We just really need to focus on commitment with him so that he knows what he's getting into.

Let's see what else we did....I bought a laser pointer so now all of the cats in North Carolina flock to me. It's really funny. Also, we got transfer news yesterday. Both my companion and I are staying! Our branch mission leader said he begged President Bernhisel for us to stay, and here we are! We're planning on baptizing this transfer. Also, we had a great lesson with Josefina. I think I mentioned her last week, but she's 65ish, Catholic, and has a very strong relationship with Christ. And she loves us! I told her last week that I love tres leches cake and then she had some for us a couple days ago! That's when you know they trust, when they feed you. But she was supposed to come to church yesterday, but didn't, so hopefully we'll get her there next week. She said she would get baptized "si Dios quiere," so in other words, she will.

So I was thinking this week about what the Gospel actually means to me. We contacted a man yesterday who said that he didn't need to join a church to be saved. He then asked us what the difference is between us and all the other churches. "What more can your church do to help me with my salvation?" He says. Well, I testified of the Restoration and how we have the proper authority to perform saving ordinances such as baptism, but his Baptist mind couldn't grasp that concept. He's one of those that thinks that the church of Christ is just the whole Christian body, so he wasn't having that. So he told us he was satisfied and then sent us on our way. (After of course asking for our first names and then calling us by those. Little bit of disrespect, but that's pride speaking) But it kind of made me wonder what I could have done differently to catch his interest. So I'd like to pose a question to ya'll. What specific blessings have you seen come from being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?

I'm gonna end on that note. I'm hoping your answers will give me some greater insight as to what that man is missing in his life.

It was a great week and this week should be even better. Hope yall have a good December 1st! Enjoy the red Jell-O for me!

-Elder Landon Carroll


A view of Fort Brag

Missions are not easy, but they're certainly worth it.‏

 November 24, 2014

Good morning folks!

It's been a pretty great week in Carolina Norte. We definitely taught some great lessons this week and I continue to learn more about the Gospel and about myself.

I'll just go through the highlights of the week for ya:

Tuesday we helped with the baptism of an 8-year old in the branch. Being in a branch is super fun because the missionaries do EVERYTHING. We set up the Sacrament on Sundays, we interpret for all the meetings, we give blessings, we clean people's yards, counsel recent converts, and even escort old ladies to the pulpit. It's really a blast. But this baptism was different because it was in Spanish, which means the interpreting was done in English. I had the honors of interpreting. It felt kind of strange, but it worked out nicely. Something I've definitely seen on my mission is the Gift of Tongues and the Gift of Interpretation of tongues. Whenever I interpret, I feel the power of those gifts. It's like the words just flow. But the baptism was great and very spiritual. I enjoyed having the opportunity to serve.

On Wednesday we didn't do too much, nothing to report at least. But we did visit a man named J. He stays in assisted living because of cancer and some mental disorders, but he's great. We go over and talk with him and share spiritual thoughts, and give him blessings of comfort. It's funny, every time we go he either asks for a dollar or some candy. I usually carry some Werther's with me, so I always give him a few. But that's not the point. The point is that when you visit the sick and afflicted, you feel something very special. You're just filled with love that you can't even really describe. I left his room feeling very uplifted and I went to bed with a smile on my face that night.

Thursday we had a great lesson with our baptismal date, A. We talked about the Holy Ghost and the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how to recognize answers to prayers and things like that. At this point, he really REALLY has a desire to know if the Book of Mormon is true. He says he hasn't received an answer yet (that he knows of), but he will keep reading. I think the key with him will be getting him to church. We're hoping to get somebody over there to fellowship with him this week so he doesn't have to go alone. But please pray that he gets an answer to his prayers! That will make all the difference in the world!

On Friday we did a surprise visit with our old friends O and P. We got there and they hadn't changed a bit. They're old and unhealthy, so they don't move much haha. O just loves us. She calls us her "adopted sons." She said something really funny. "When I"m healthy and can get out of this chair then we'll dance." But she's super exaggerated especially when she feels the Spirit. She always talks out loud and claims it's the voice of God speaking through her. I still don't know whether to believe her or not. But we gave her a blessing of health and she was really happy that we stopped by. We talked briefly about prophets and she said "I hope you two become the greatest prophets that have ever walked this earth." We'll see about that haha.

Sunday was a pretty big day. We had been preparing for a few months for a fireside that we had last night. Brother West, the branch mission leader, wasn't expecting anyone to show up. So we originally set it up in the relief society room. But people just kept coming and coming! We weren't even expecting thirty, but I think we had almost sixty in attendance! That made me super happy. So the fireside was great! We had a member of the stake presidency speak to us about conversion. And I sang again! I sang "I Need Thee Every Hour." The song was great, and actually in my range this time. I really enjoyed it. I think between that and the great speaker and fellowship, the fireside was a big success. Definitely made my night. Well week, actually.

So that was my week! We had a lot of fun this week raking up leaves and teaching lessons! Although serving a mission is by far the hardest thing I've ever done, it's all worth it for the joy that it brings.

Have a fantastic week!

-Elder Landon Carroll

Landon received an "orange" package from his family for Halloween!

Landon saw this "tractor-tron" on the road.

It's A Miracle!

 Landon is visiting a funeral home in this picture.  I really didn't get the story, but a little odd!

November 17, 2014

Pues....good morning!

Another week has passed in the missionary life of Elder Carroll. I can call myself that now because there's only one Elder Carroll ;) It's been a pretty good week. We didn't do too much this week, but we did witness some miracles.

I'll just go ahead and get right into it. Y'all know our investigators M and A? Well three weeks ago they were bombarded by anti-Mormon information. We thought they were gone, but the Spirit told us not to give up yet. So here's the news. M is still indifferent about the church, but A has a baptismal date for the 3rd of January! He started to read the Book of Mormon and with that I guess he forgot about all the negative things he read on the internet. In his prayer at the end of the lesson, he said "Lord also please bless my brother M. Even if he doesn't decide to become a Mormon, please help him to find the right path." That implies that A is planning on becoming a Mormon! How great is that? So we'll have hopefully a quick visit with him tomorrow and then a church tour on Thursday to really help him dive into progression. So that's the miracle for the week.

Here's a funny story. You know that man we talked to who claims he's Moses reincarnated? Well we went over to help him rake leaves on Thursday. He's under the impression that God has called him to save people's lives. He says "when I go to sleep at night, I leave my body and I go around the world to save people. I appear in their rooms as a beam of light and then save their lives. Like one time I went to the home of a woman in India. She was sitting at her desk in her office and I go and whisper to her that she needs to leave the room. So she left and then about ten seconds later a tree comes and destroys the whole room." Crazy, right? We're under the impression that he's either super out of his mind, or was visited by and angel of light (of the devil) or both. We attempted to teach him the restoration, but he thinks he's a prophet himself so we'll definitely have to approach the situation at a different angle. He said "God give me power to do things. Hopefully next month he give me power and I can bless you." So...we'll see what happens there haha.

Right now as a missionary, I'm working on building my confidence back up as a teacher. These last three weeks have been pretty hard so I'm trying to rebuild myself a little bit. Satan has a way of confusing missionaries into thinking they're inadequate, not good enough. But it's our job to push out those negative voices and do what we were called to do! That is, bring souls unto Christ!

We've been studying a lot lately as a companionship about what it means to truly be converted to the Gospel. Have you ever asked yourself if you are truly converted? Do you have no disposition to do evil? Are you constantly seeking to be like Christ? Do you constantly seek the companionship of the Holy Ghost? Are you not just "going through the motions," but actually living the Gospel with a purpose? If not, then figure out what you need to do to be more converted, and do it! (I take the liberty as a representative of Jesus Christ do do missionary work even on my family and friends. Ha!)

But that was my week. We're having a lot of success and witnessing miracles. Even though this work is hard, it's not impossible. We just trust in the Lord and keep walking.

Have a fantastic week!

-Elder Carroll

Landon thought the little geese in this picture were strange...they kind of look like some sort of turkey or hen to me.  Any thoughts from the blog readers out there?

Another Week Already?

November 10, 2014

Good morning!

Here I am trying to think about what I actually did this week. It's kind of hard to just think on one week when they all seem to just mesh together. So I'll start with the investigators/work.

So Monday was just preparation day, nothing to report. But Tuesday we had some good stuff. All of our appointments fell through during the day, but we definitely had some success in the evening! We had an exchange with Brother Lowrimore. He's 78 years old and is in the middle of fighting stage 4 cancer. Pretty impressive actually. But he was super funny. I don't know what it is, but I love talking with old people. It just makes me happy. So he went to an appointment with us and when we asked him to introduce himself, he just started bearing his testimony. That works I guess! The name of the man we visited is J. He's a referral from the sisters who is supposedly golden. The only hang up he has is that he doesn't believe in modern day prophets. Brother Lowrimore's testimony really helped diffuse some of that. He's a convert of about three years, so he was able to tell his conversion story and invite J to "soften his heart" and listen to the Spirit. I think J felt the Spirit that night, so hopefully he gains a testimony soon.

On Wednesday we taught a young man named M. I think I might have mentioned him last week, but he's 14 and we had a great lesson with him. Brother West, the branch mission leader, was with us, so the lesson was super powerful. M has a hard time believing in God because he "allowed his grandpa to die from cancer" so we really tried to hit on a few key points of the Plan of Salvation: "Why is life full of hardships?" and "Where do we go after we die?" We might have actually blown his mind with some of the doctrine we were throwing down, but he's a smart kid and he understood everything. We had him say the prayer and invited him to start praying to God every night, so hopefully he comes on top with a strong belief in God.

Thursday we had interviews with President. Let me tell you, President Bernhisel is an inspired man. With the keys he possesses, he basically knows exactly what each missionary is going through and what kind of missionary they are. But that was a good interview. He helped me to address some concerns I had about myself and about the mission and now I feel more ready to move forward and continue working. After that, I went up to Dunn for exchanges with Elder Mora. Elder Mora is a really great missionary and we had a lot of fun together. From the exchange, I definitely learned that I need to learn to invite the Spirit better during lessons. We have a few investigators who would really benefit from a spiritual experience. *hint M and A*

On Friday we had a great lesson with a new investigator named G. She's an old black woman who was just curious as to what we could bring to the table. So we taught the Restoration and it was REALLY spiritual. She understood everything, including the great apostasy, and when we asked her when we could come by again she said "I was actually gonna ask y'all when you could come back." That's a good sign! That means she felt the Spirit!

Not too much to report about the Weekend. Just church and eating food haha. Nobody came to church this week, so we definitely need to work a little harder on that.

So that's about it. We had a lot of success this week and I'm glad to be part of this great work.

Until next week,

-Elder Landon Carroll

Exito...Mucho Mejor

November 3, 2014

Hello everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. Mine was definitely pretty.....missionary-y. But I'll get into that later.

So last week in my letter I talked a lot about investigators that we had discontinued teaching, lack of interest, lack of success, and some unfruitful hard work. But this week was not like that! We were able to really go out and work and we found nine new investigators! And they're all pretty well interested! That just goes to show that the Lord promises success to those that consecrate their lives to Him and work hard.

So on Wednesday we had a branch fall festival. The saddest part about that is that more people attended than we ever see on Sundays. I imagine it has something to do with free food? I don't know really. Maybe if we just made the Sacrament bread a little bigger, more people would come to church. We often talk with our branch mission leader, Brother West, about how we need to go out and baptize people that will "stick." You know, the kind of converts that don't just get baptized and then fall off the radar. It's really sad when that happens. Right now we're focusing our efforts on truly finding the elect who will hear the voice of the Lord when He calls, know it's Him, and then hold onto the iron rod all the way to the end. So with that being said, one convert who is truly committed to living the Gospel is far better to have than ten converts who don't ever come to church. But enough of the rambling. Let's talk about the investigators we saw this week....

A and M: So we went over to their house one more time just to really hold them accountable for judging the church by what they read on the internet and then choosing not to act on the information given directly from the source. So we invited them to really investigate and find out if Joseph Smith truly was a prophet of the Lord. So they will have hopefully started reading and praying about the Book of Mormon.

M: He's a fourteen year old boy who claims he's agnostic. I believe it's more of just a "I don't see the importance of God so why believe in Him" kind of thing. We had a cold lesson with him last night outside his apartment and we talked a lot about the purpose of life, God, and commandments. We left him with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read so hopefully he comes to us with some good questions. He's a very logical thinker, so it should all make sense to him.

F: F is a black man with dreads who believes in Rustufarianism. If you're not familiar with that religion, I encourage you to look into it. It's actually quite interesting. Basically he believes that life is what you make it and that everything is somehow an illusion that we have to overcome. So we're gonna teach him the Restoration next time. The funny thing about him is when he introduced himself he said "My name is F...but....you can call me Cowboy." Haha so now we just call him cowboy haha.

C: C is a twenty-one year old who's life is just not where it should be. From the sounds of things, he has no clear direction of where he wants to go. He said that he's investigated many different religions, but never ours. So we taught him the Restoration yesterday (in the cold) and invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We're hoping he gets an answer because he said if he comes to find out that this is the way God wants him to go, he'll get baptized.

So those are just a few of the investigators we're working with right now. Of course we have more, but to keep things concise, I'll just focus on the ones that you don't know about.

As for Halloween, it was pretty fun. We didn't do anything apostate, but we were able to enjoy the day still. I remember the whole day I just had this feeling that I wanted to go to a haunted house. I'm not the biggest on those, but you want what you can't have right? But we didn't do that. We went tracting for most of the day and had a few very solid contacts. President told us not to do anything after 6 pm unless we had appointments scheduled, so we stayed in for the night. We went to the church and finished weekly planning and then afterward....BASKETBALL. I kind of miss being able to play every week in Pinehurst, but I don't think my body does. As we speak, my back hurts, my knees are aching, and my ankles are stiff. I guess that's what happens when you go all out for two hours not having played for a month. But it was still fun! Definitely a good stress reliever for me. Speaking of basketball, I was thinking about the NBA on Halloween and about how obsessed I was before my mission. Something that I've come to realize since being on my mission is that there are more important things in life. Am I ever gonna stop loving basketball and video-games and stuff like that? Probably not. But there are better things to do. We really should focus on spending time with our families and enjoying the time that we have with them. I guess YOLO would apply in that situation haha. I wish I had realized that before my mission.

There I am rambling again. Well overall, this was a great week. It felt long, but now that I look back, I see what I learned and how I've grown. My testimony of Christ has definitely been strengthened this week. It took me a long time to actually comprehend the fact that Christ is my personal Savior. He knows me perfectly because He's experienced everything I have and ever will. Through His Atonement, everything that is unfair about life can be made right. Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way for us to be truly happy, and it's absolutely the only way that we can return to live with our Father in Heaven.

I hope y'all have a great week. Thanks for all the prayers my way. And once again, WELCOME HOME DALLIN!

-Elder Landon Carroll

Back to the Drawing Board

October 27, 2014

Good morning everyone!

Another great week has passed in North Carolina. Every week here presents its own challenges and difficulties, but I always come out having learned something new! Whether that be emotionally, physically, or spiritually, the experiences I have here present great opportunities for growth.

So about that subject up there ^. The reason I say "back to the drawing board" is because that's where we've come to. Over a series of events, most of our teaching pool has been depleted and we have a lot of doors to knock!

So here's a few things that happened.....

O and P, the people we thought were GOLDEN attended their own church last Sunday and...they apparently loved it. They hadn't been in years so returning rekindled the excitement that they used to have for their church. So O gave us a call (while I was napping during lunch. Yes, we're allowed to nap. In this mission we get an hour break for meals so I wasn't being disobedient I promise! If you don't agree with that, I encourage you to read Mosiah 4:27 :)) and she said that she appreciates all that we taught her but she'd like to stay with her church. We then visited P the next day and he said the same thing. He knows the Book of Mormon to be the word of God, but he won't take any action. We plan to visit them again when O is there to see if we can save their souls :)

A and M had an interesting experience as well. They gave us a call and told us that they had read some stuff that they were just weirded out by (such as becoming a God, temple ordinances, etc) and that they had a lot of questions for us. So we met with them and they're convinced by all this anti Mormon stuff they're reading that Mormonism is a Satanic cult and that we are a lost people. He said he wants proof that the church is true and that Joseph Smith was actually a prophet. We explained to him the need for faith and asking God if these things are true, but he doesn't like that answer. So we plan to see them one more time and be a LITTLE more bold and see if they take some action in reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. So I'll keep y'all posted on them.

All of the other investigators and potential investigators are either uncontactable or just flat out don't show any interest. And that leads us into this week. We have lots of plans to go out and knock doors(because knocking doors works in Clinton) this week and hopefully we have a lot of success with that. During accounting with our District Leader last night he was like "Your teaching pool went from 17 last week to 5 this week. What happened Elders?" Haha kind of sad but that's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes en la obra misional.

Oh, here's a story for ya. We talked to Moses on Tuesday! Moses! In the flesh! Hahaha it was this black guy from Panama who spoke Spanish who believes in reincarnation. He said that in his last life he was a fish in the Amazon River. I asked him how he knew and he said that God showed him. And then he said "Like I also know I was Moses." So that was pretty crazy. Haha maybe I'll say a prayer tonight to find out who I used to be. I'm hoping I was Nephi!

So that was some of my week for ya. Something I've seen out here is that every day is super hard in its own way, but every night I get ready for bed and I'm able to look back on the fruits of the day and kind of just smile. It's something that's hard to explain unless you've experienced it for yourself, but it is true.

Love y'all,

-Elder Landon Carroll

Changes On the Way

October 20, 2014

Que tal!

Wow I really can't believe it's already been a week. Time really does fly on the mission. I was just thinking the other day that I started college over a year ago...what. I guess those are just symptoms of someone who's trying their best to serve the Lord.

As far as the mission goes, I'm loving it. I'm kind of a non conformist in most things, but I've found recently that just embracing the mission (culture, life, etc) is the best thing to do and the best way to have fun. Something that I learned this week was that there are disappointments all over the place! But it's when we focus on the things that really matter, the constants in our lives, that we're able to look past the negative and find joy.

With that, this week was pretty great. On Tuesday, we had another lesson with O and P and....K. This one went pretty well. We ended up teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them and they ate it up! P was asleep when we got there, but woke up 30 minutes later with a "when did y'all get here?" Haha. Anyways, K was less aggressive this time, so we were able to help him understand some things. He's trying to find out right now if the Book of Mormon is true (which it is) so we'll see how that goes tomorrow. I'm hoping he's able to gain that testimony because he would be a very strong member. O should be coming to church this next Sunday for the first time, so that should be great. Hopefully she keeps the "amens" to a minimum haha.

Small miracle that really touched me. We went to an apartment complex to go contact some people and knock a few doors. We knocked on a door and a black man opened up. His name is D. He said he's not very religious but "she loves to talk religion." So he let us enter. We turned the corner and walked in the living room. A lady was sitting there on a bed watching TV. It looked like she had been bed ridden for a long time. Just to give you an image, she was probably about 400 pounds. It was apparent at that point that she was having a hard time and had had a hard life. So we introduced ourselves and then got to know each other a little bit. She said that she had faith in Christ, but had a lingering question for us. She said, "In the Bible it says God never gives us more than we can take. How is it that He knows how much we can take? How can He really understand?" So I whipped out the Book of Mormon and turned to Alma 7:11-12. I'll quote it for you:
" 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

She then started to tear up and said that that's exactly what she needed to hear that day. She said that she used to have missionaries come over a lot, but she doesn't feel ready or worthy to have us come yet.  We left her the Book of Mormon and left the apartment feeling humbled and uplifted. That really touched me. It's amazing the small miracles that we witness as missionaries. Whether it's following the Spirit to find someone, seeing someone understand the Restoration, or just making people's day, it all builds my testimony in one way or another.

So the rest of the week wasn't too eventful. We weren't able to get anyone to church this week, but we are working hard and seeing the fruits of our labors. We don't have any scheduled baptisms, but be on the lookout :) We'll have some soon.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

-Elder Landon Carroll

P.S. My companion, Elder Ostergar, has to go home for some time to have a knee surgery done. So we'll miss him for sure. My other companion, Elder Salvatierra, is very very sick right now with a stomach virus. Please pray that he gets well and that it doesn't spread to me!