January 17th

Liebe Familie,

The weather in München is nearly as crazy as I remember it in Utah and Colorado. Today, I had to take off my jacket because it is so warm and yesterday I wanted to wear both winter coats that I have. Maybe we will have a blizzard tomorrow. :)

The work is continuing to go forth like a stone cut out of a mountain, with many struggles along the way, but the Lord's hand is evident. We had 4 baptismal candidates the last time I wrote. Catarina did not get baptized last week, but will someday. She just needs more time. Chrissi's father does not approve of her being baptized, so unless that changes before Saturday, her baptism will also have to wait. And ... Namina's mother does not want her to be baptized, but she says once she is an adult (in 10 years), she will be baptized. Sister Quist and I can see her serving a mission. Her father might still be baptized.

This week we received no calls for Transfers, but found out that our other companion, Sister Hansen had! Sister Anderson, who was Sister Quist's companion (in Stuttgart) before joining Sister Hansen and I and she was my companion in the MTC. Sister Quist and I will move!

In an appointment with Namina (8), Melanie (6) and Herr Yari (64), we showed up with two other women (we have a rule in the mission that two missionaries are not allowed to met with only one adult of the opposite gender and it also cannot be two on two, so we had to bring at least one other woman). Herr Yari's son Baumann (36 and yes, that's the first name) was there for the first time and joined us for the first half of the lesson on the 10 commandments and Sabbathday. The lesson was really good and at the end when deciding who should pray, Namina said Melanie should and her father said "Melanie is too young to pray". Namina, Melanie and the missionaries objected, so Namina sat with Melanie and whispered the words she should say, including asking help to keep the 10 commandments, to come to church and asking the Holy Spirit to come. It was awesome!

We are excited to celebrate Sister Quist's 22nd birthday in two days and enjoying celebrating Grandma Dalley's birthday today. The gospel is true!!
--
Sister Carla June Carroll

January 3rd

First, excerpt from my letter to President Condie: „This week was another full of miracles. We met with Catarina Montag, Mittwoch, Freitag und Sonntag. The baptismal date changed again because Robert cannot make it to baptize her on the 14th of January and we could not find a good solution for her to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost in her native language except on 16 Januar 2011. We were able to bring the Bishop once and today we had another sister to be her friend. We are working hard to ensure that she has the support of the ward. Her sister, Carla is a great support and is often visiting (Carla and Robert are in the ward). We met with Chrissi and brought a Junge Dame her age and finished the Plan of Salvation. She is doing well and excited to be baptized. We met with Herr and Namina Yari twice this week (Namina was only there once) and Herr Yari said in the first visit that he would like to be baptized with his daughter on 12 Februar 2011. All of the baptismal canditates attended church thankfully. We also met with Sutha, who met with the Missionaries a few months previous, but went on vacation and lost contact for a while. He remembered little, but was able to review quickly and understand what we taught.”

Basically, the work here is going forth and the field is white already to harvest! We have been working on our finding this week as we are finally a little more in a normal situation (whatever that means). We stayed at the Mission Home Christmas night and stayed there until New Year's Day. Sister Hansen's frostbite improved a lot and we got light back in our apartment. Our Hausbesorger will return on 10 Januar 2011, so we might be able to get him to fix our heating problems then. Our bedroom is really warm and we are using the hand warmers I got for Christmas. Thanks!

We started finding in the area around Catarina (we need about 1.5 hrs on the Bahn and Bus to get to her--it's just outside of München in Putzbrunn). We found a lot of people that do not speak German and some that are interested in the Gospel. We found several that speak Romanian. Dooring is always fun, but remember, President Eyring said that should be left to the members. :) But, it is a good experience for each missionary to knock on a good amount of doors. I love talking to people on the street in the freezing cold because they say, "It's so cold out, can you come to my home and we can talk there another time?" We just smile and respond "Gerne". Okay, it isn't always that simple, but that is where the miracles come in. The gospel is true!!!

--
Sister Carla June Carroll

Oh, I forgot the funny story! So, we came home one night to see the President's car drive away and our fuses were missing! That meant ... no electricity at all! We had just come home to plan ... and we need a LOT of stuff that would be ridiculous to take somewhere else, so we searched for the flashlight Sister Quist got for Christmas, but in vain. We found matches ... and floating candles. So, we had a nice (shorter) planning session to candle light. :)