the beautiful life of a missionary

Liebe Familie,

This week consisted of many interesting appointments. Especially our two/three weirdest eating appointments. These were our first in this ward and as it is an international ward, we basically have no clue as to the culture we were to expect. In our first eating appointment, we were joined by the elders and only found four table settings on the table. They fed us several courses, but did not join us for the meal. We took the last few minutes to try to get to know the family, but in the end just felt bad that we just ate their food and dirtied their dishes without serving them. Let your missionaries get to know you and serve you! The food was absolutely delicious and I am starting to love Philippino food. We also ate with a family from Ghana, but it was basically Tacos--something I have not seen since I left America. They love spicy flavoring, but out of concern for us put it on the side. Very very very spicy chilis. Also delicious food.

We worked so hard this week and met with lots of people. The first appointment coming to my mind was our second this week with Ren and Xuang. Xuang is going to Linz this week and so it was our last appointment. I have never pushed so hard in a lesson before, but we felt directed by the Spirit. He grew up being taught that there is no God and all the stories of creation, etc. were always just stories to him. He does not know what it means to believe in something. So many times this week, we left our appointments and I looked around to check if I was still in Vienna (well, one time we weren't, but that was planned). Xuang promised to read the Book of Mormon--the whole thing. We invited and pushed and invited him to pray. Just to try it. Our appointments opened up a lot to him and he said he was really "impressed" by what we did, but he will soon realize it wasn't us at all--it was the Holy Spirit of the Lord guiding us to teach him to what he needs to know. He made great progress in our lessons, and he got to the point where he said he will think about praying once he has finished the Book of Mormon.

The most exciting thing is what we are looking forward to--GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!! My favorite time of the year (okay, so it comes twice, but still). We will be watching it live and I might be watching it in English this time, which will be a little different. I am excited to learn and preparing myself with questions that I am seeking. We are excited for the wonderful, precious investigators here in Vienna to come partake of the opportunity to hear what our Prophet has to say for our day. What an opportunity for each of us to ground our testimonies even more! I am so excited!

I love you all!!

--
Sister Carla June Carroll

Wien ist wunderbar

Leibe Familie,

This week was amazing! We gained another 4 new investigators and are working hard to fit everyone in at this point! It is wonderful! I was worried in coming to this area that it would be hard to find people that prefer to speak Englisch and are interested in learning about the gospel, but I was proved wrong. Sister McGuire and I talk with everyone we can on our way to appointments. This week we met Nelson from Nigeria on the street and invited him to come to church. He came and stayed the entire time! We met with Liang, Erka, Caitlin, Victoria (new), Familie Cardenas, Tessy, Ekarin (new), Ren and his roommate whose name I cannot pronounce (from China--new), and even more! We heard beautiful prayers in Chinese, Mongolian, Englisch, Tagolog, Thai, German, and French. Oh it is wonderful!

One of the many highlights of this week was Erik Benge's baptism. He was baptized in Wien II and a nephew of one of the members I know. Caitlin came and I translated for her. The Spirit was so strong. She really enjoyed it and is enjoying meeting with us. There just is nothing better than bringing a progressing investigator to a well prepared baptism. It was wonderful. Caitlin has lived everywhere in the world and is starting to apply for colleges and is looking at the University of Utah due to the good reputation for medical students. :)

Like I mentioned, we met with Ren and his roommate. Ren teaches Chinese at the university (of which I can only count and say thank you, but I am learning "Good Night") and his roommate is studying helicopter engineering. Ren had met with missionaries before, but had kind of been lost for some reason for a while. His roommate was completely new to the gospel. Ren's English is a little rough and his roommate's was just a little better, but when we asked Ren if he still believed in the traditions of his country, he firmly and powerful stated, "No--now I believe in God". Writing it doesn't do it justice. One had to feel that when he said it. He will pick up again in the Book of Mormon. A very spiritual lesson.

Also, we met with Ekarin for the first time--he is from Thailand and a while ago said he was too busy to meet with missionaries, but we called him up and made an appointment. He is finishing his PhD in Computer Engineering (ha!) and speaks good English. He prayed at the end of the lesson though hesitant. He brought up a very good point in our lesson that I had not connected before. We asked him what he expected of us and of God and he said he prefers to be without expectations and thus will not be disappointed. Before I realized it, we were testifying boldly that God requires us to expect something--he requires that we pray in faith. We have to first believe. It is so important that we continue to take steps into the dark to learn to trust our Father in Heaven and to strengthen our relationship with him. We must be believing.

The Lord truly blesses his children. All he asks is that we keep his commandments. He gave us these commandments never to restrict us, but in order to help us to grow stronger and gain more freedom. We can only be blessed as we keep His commandments. Caitlin asked me this week, "but how can I know all the commandments I need to keep?" Well, Caitlin, because God loves us he gave us a way to know. We have a Prophet of God today. He speaks for God and he has the authority to speak to the whole world from God. Prophets of old wrote down their revelations and thus we have scriptures. We can learn of God's commandments as we read the scriptures. Isn't it so clear then how important it is to read daily in the scriptures? God has given many commandments. That is why the Pharisees and the Scribes were so confused in Jesus' time--not because there were too many commandments, but because they did not understand the priorities they needed to place. Jesus simply stated that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our Heart, Might, Mind and Strength and the second greatest ist to love our neighbor. All of this is made clear through scriptures. I am so grateful that we have scriptures. SO grateful we have a living prophet today. Through him doctrines are kept pure and more scripture is given.

Well, family, I know this Church is the restored Church of Jesus Christ. The truth is here in its fulness for the partaking of those who simply reach out and partake of the fruit. I am so grateful to be a missionary for my God and grateful for the sacrifices from my family and friends that have made this possible. Especially from Mom and Dad. There simply is no more important work than sharing the gospel.

--
Sister Carla June Carroll

alles gute zum Geburtstag, Sister McGuire!

Liebe Familie,

This week was wonderful! We worked hard, we prayed hard and today we will play hard. We met with Erka several times (from Mongolia, about 36). Her English is improving and impressive rates and she is reading in the Book of Mormon in both Mongolian and English. She was a medical doctor in Mongolia in several areas and now is working on her PhD. She came to church again and everyone thought she was a member! We also started to meet with her friend, Amaraa, also from Mongolia. We are excited to work with our new investigators from this week: Amaraa (Mongolia--found through Erka), Jev (France--found on the street last week), Liang (China--whose name we found in our area book, former investigator), and Tessy (Nigeria--also found through area book). We met with Caitlin (17, America) this week and at the end of the lesson she prayed!! She had never prayed aloud before. We each said a prayer on our knees and she prayed after me and before Sister McGuire. It was amazing. Liang also prayed at the end of the lesson--it was good and we felt the Spirit, but did not understand the words because it was in Chinese. He will probably get baptized soon--more on that next week.

We made an amazing find, here is Vienna this week. On Tuesday we headed out immediately after studies and tried to find some former investigators/potential investigators. We turned the corner to go onto their street and we were hit by a huge smell of baking brownies--the strongest I have ever experienced. Turned out, it is not brownies, but a Manner factory! The windows were such that one could not see inside, but there was a crack and I looked inside. I am pretty sure I saw Oompa-loompas. That's right. We found Willy Wonka's (or Manner's) chocolate factory. Only a couple blocks from where we live.

The HIGHLIGHT of this week was definitely Elder and Sister Richard G. Hinckley coming. Thursday night he gave a fireside for the youth. We brought Caitlin and Erka showed up, too. It was half English and half German. I was very impressed with Elder Hinckley's German. He served his mission in Germany and kept up the language his whole life. He was funny and uplifting and very inspiring. He talked a lot about sealing and baptisms for the dead and "first lessons", etc. Caitlin wrote down all of her questions. We gave her a "first lesson" again on Saturday. Also on Thursday night I saw several members that are in Wien II whom I had not yet seen. It was wonderful. Friday, we had a mission tour with Elder and Sister Hinckley. We learned very specific ways we can improve as a mission. It was so uplifting and encouraging. We learned that for the European area, this mission is doing really, really well and of course we want to be even better. We also learned more about the new www.mormon.org. Go on today. Tell your friends. Link it to your facebook--make it your status. IT IS AWESOME. One of the best missionary tools.

So today is Sister McGuire's Birthday!! We are excited to go celebrate and play hard. Last week for Vorbereitungstag, we simply walked around Vienna and looked a pretty buildings and such. So easy to do in Vienna. I am so grateful to be here. I love my beautiful Wien. I realized on Sunday that I feel more at home here in Vienna than I have anywhere in a long time. I hope I stay here for a long, long time. This ward is amazing, our investigators are great, and the city is more than beautiful. Highly recommended. I love you all!! Thank you for your love and support. I know this gospel is truely the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. His power to do his Father's will and perform holy ordninances is again on the earth. I know it.

--
Sister Carla June Carroll

Wien ist anders

Liebe Familie,

Surprise!! I got a call from President Condie Tuesday evening asking me if I would go to Wien instead of Pforzheim to work with Sister McGuire. We are still opening an area, but I am back in my beloved city of Wien working with one of my MTC companions! We are working in Wien IV, which is an International Gemeinde and the meetings are in English. That was really weird to have no German church this week! There are 6 Sister Missionaries in Wien right now. Sister Downs is STILL here serving with Sister Sander (from Germany will be leaving in a couple weeks to where she was called--St. George Temple Mission). There's also Sister Covey who is training Sister Nelson from Salt Lake City, UT. It is really exciting. The four sisters are all serving in Wien II (my first area) and living in my old apartment. Sister McGuire and I are living in the Senior Sisters' old apartment (Sisters Chun and Achiu recently went home, they were proselyting missionaries in Wien).

It is so weird and so wonderful to be back in my first area. Wien II consists of Bezirks (Districts?) 2, 3, 4, 11, 20, 22, so I know those the best. Wien IV is actually all of Wien and a little outside, so we do finding wherever we are! We have talked to about 100 people since we arrived and have had about 20 decently long conversations on the street. We have several appointments for next week with many we talked with. I was expecting to find a lot of people and have to give them to their respective Wards because we are in an English speaking ward, but on our first full day here, we talked with 4 people who responded that they did not know any German and asked if we spoke English! Sister McGuire and I speak German to each other and talk with as many people possible unterwegs, so the German ought to stick.

We met yesterday with Caitlin from America. She is really amazing and asked some deep deep questions for anyone, let alone a 17-year-old. We also met with the Cardenas from the Phillipines and Erka from Mongolia. We received a couple teaching records to work with and read one about "Leon" and this amazing first lesson where they reported the Spirit being really strong and then nothing else for 2 years. We dropped by and found out he is a student from China, his name is Liang and he was really disappointed he had to wait 2 years and excited to meet with us. I am back in WIEN!!!

--
Sister Carla June Carroll