Wunderbar!

Liebe Familie,

This week was pretty crazy but wonderful! Sister McGuire and I had an amazing last two days with another and she left me early Wednesday morning to go to Neumarkt am Wallersee near Salzburg. She is working now with Sister Klein from Germany. I was companions with Bailey Hampton from Ceder City (that might be wrong), Utah studying here for a semester in Vienna. She leaves in June. Sister Hecht had an appointment in München for her Visa or Passport so I spent basically all of of Wednesday and most of Thursday with Bailey. We had a TON of appointments and kept ourselves busy. Probably some of the most opposition from our investigators came in those two days and by the end of the last one, Bailey just said to them "just pray about it! God will answer you and if he says it is not true, then you will know!" I think she really enjoyed our split. :) I stayed the night with the other Sisters in Wien (Sisters Covey from Provo and Nelson from Salt Lake City). We had a good time. Bailey left on Friday to go to Rome, Italy for a week. No big deal.

Then Sister Hecht came and I finally got to know her! She is really great. I learn a lot from her and not just German. I am looking forward to this transfer. She is a convert to the church through a miracle and some good friends. She is born in/near Dresden, Germany and has lived near Helsinki, Finland since she was 18 (she is 24) where she was an au pair (nanny). She goes home from her mission in August. She speaks fluent German, English, Finnish, Swedish and good French. Yeah, she's really smart. Her preferred language is English. She served in München I for the first 8 months of her mission, then for 6 months in Switzerland including Richterswil, Schaffhausen and then Wettingen. She just came from Ulm, Germany where she had served for 2 weeks. Now she is in her THIRD country of her mission in the beautiful city of Vienna. Doesn't get much better than that, huh?

We met with the usual and had an awesome time. Frankie, Joe, Christian and Wisdom came to Stake Conference this week where Elder Texiera and Elder Schütze reorganized the Stake Presidency. The former bishop of Wien II, my first area on my mission, was called to be the Stake President. Cool! It was a really powerful meeting and Elder Texiera always tells good stories. I loved his story about playing Ping Pong when he was young. He competed in Ping Pong from the time he was 10 or 12. When he was 17 he got really good at it and had already become the national champion. It was at that time that he and his whole family joined the church. In preparing for the regional tournament (which must come before the national), he got a Yasaka Mach 5 thing for his racket and was really excited to win. He went to the competition, though it was on a Sunday. His Dad had previously told him "we are different than we were last week. We have made a promise with the Lord to follow his commandments". The whole time he felt worse and worse and could not concentrate on the game because he was thinking about what was going on in Priesthood meeting. He finally just told his trainer he did not feel well and needed to go to church. His trainer was flabbergasted, but he left anyways and only made it to the last part of Sacrament Meeting, but he had made a decision that changed his life. Amazing how the small decisions truly matter.

We met with Ting Ting this week from China! She met with missionaries for a long time and then stopped for the last year. No one could contact her. The number we had did not work and we dropped by to see if the address was good, but there was a different name on the door and none of the neighbors knew her (this was 6 weeks ago). Her friend, Kerstin, invited her to General Conference and she came! She wanted to meet with us and really wants to know now if the Book of Mormon is true. Don't give up on your friends, no matter how much exposure they have already had to the church. Invite them to activities. It is so rewarding! I am so grateful to be a missionary. I know the Lord blesses His children because he loves them. He will do all he can to help you no matter what you are going through, but you must simply open the door for him and trust him. I know this gospel is true.
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Sister Carla June Carroll