January 24th

Liebe Familie,

This week was fabulous! My sweet companion, Sister Quist, turned 22 on Wednesday, 19 Januar 2011. We celebrated by moving apartments and picking up our companion's new companion (Sister Anderson came in to work with Sister Hansen) at Hauptbahnhof. We ate some sushi and sandwiches and talked for a little while. We went to Chrissi and Eliana's for a lesson. We taught about prayer after singing Happy Birthday in German, English and Spanish. We had a great time and they gave her some really nice presents for her birthday. We moved in and tried to clean up quickly. We had Interviews with President Condie the next day as well as District Meeting. Did you know that the Missionary Department came out with new Sisters' Dress Guidelines? They really needed updating. After reading it, I realized my wardrobe really needs updating.

Chrissi actually did not get baptized this Saturday as was planned. We are praying her father will give permission and working on dipolmatically working with him. We are not too worried as her testimony is not a factor, she will get baptized even if she has to wait until she is 18. Her mom gave a talk in church yesterday. It was absolutely fabulous. She talked about the first Article of Faith. We were so proud! Herr Yari also said that he still wants to be baptized on 12 Februar 2011, even though Namina cannot be baptized. He came to all three hours of church and participated!

So, success story of the week happened last night. We were exhausted and had had a really intense Sunday. It was just hard. Sister Quist had a bad headache and I still was not feeling well. BUT we knew that we could go out and so after a little bit of dragging our feet, we left the apartment. We did not have any appointments and we really could have just stayed and been really productive by making lots of phone calls, but we went and decided to drop by a less active sister who had not seen the church or missionaries in a couple years. She was home ... but we woke her up (it was only 6 pm! I promise!!). We felt really bad at first and she did not want to let us in ... but we went out in the -5°C cold and actually had a fantastically spiritual lesson and invited her to begin again to read in the Book of Mormon. Then, we tried to meet up with someone (long story) at an U-Bahn station that we had never met before, but had a name ... not much use. We ended up talking with many people there about the gospel and committed two to attend church the next Sunday. Basically, it was amazing. I love this work and I KNOW it is the work of the Lord. He guides us and knows how to help us. He wants to badly for all of His children to return to Him, but knows it must be their choice. We only invite. NOW is the time to prepare to meet God. TODAY is the day to work out our salvation. The gospel is true. I know it.

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Sister Carla June Carroll