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