Called to Serve: Elder Jeffrey Carroll's Joao Pessoa Journey: Week 2!

Week 2! July 14, 2015

2 weeks down! This second week went by so much faster, so that was nice, and honestly, I'd say it was a better week than last! Okay, so starting with last Tuesday after I got off e-mail, Spencer J. Condie of the Seventy spoke to us for devotional and it was great! I'd heard him speak before and it was high quality. We had a mini testimony meeting in our district after that and it was really powerful. Next day was a little rough cause we had to be up at 5:45 for a 6:15 service project, I was exhausted the rest of the day. Sister Sandholtz (our teacher) came back from Colorado, so that's nice. I participated in my first zone tie draft! It pretty much is exactly what it sounds like. Everyone who wants to plays a tie out on the floor and writes their name on a small piece of paper that gets put in to a box. Shake that box up, draw names, and pick ties. This one was a "low quality" tie draft, but I feel pretty happy with the one I got. Thursday we had our last lesson with Abraao and I was finally able to do a large chunk of the lesson without looking at my notes! It seriously felt so good, even though I made a lot of mistakes. We got a new batch of people for our district and they're all nice, so woohoo for that! Now Friday, Friday is a day I'll remember.

So our investigator, Abraao, was just a member posing as an investigator, and Friday he became one of our daily teachers along with Sis. Sandholtz. We all knew that was going to happen, but we didn't know his story. I won't go into details, but he completely changed his life and his attitude from when he was in the MTC to the time he got out into the field and became such an incredible and hardworking missionary. The Lord can work miracles my friends. He has been through so much and grown so much and it is so inspiring. Friday also had another strong experience, we were able to watch the broadcast of President Boyd K. Packer's funeral and it was very strong. It was so focused on hope and happiness, that death is simply another step in our existence, and that families can be together forever. I'm so glad to have that knowledge.

Okay so Saturday, funniest thing happened. An Elder and a Sister were getting way too close in the cafeteria, they were standing up and everyone could see them, and after about 10 minutes, someone pulled out the Missionary Handbook and opened to the page that talked about appropriate actions between Elders and Sisters and the whole caf started clapping and cheering, so so funny.

Sunday I blessed the Sacrament in Portuguese, so that was definitely cool. We said goodbye to 6 of our missionaries today who got their reassignments,, I'm going to miss them. Also, this morning, Tuesday, Elder's Schmidt, Bourgeous, and St. Gelais of our district left for Brazil. We've had some great times in these two weeks and I'm going to miss them a lot, but they're on to bigger and better things.

Write me and send me Dear Elders guys! I'd love to hear from all of you!

Thanks for all your support! Till next week

- Elder Carroll