Craziness

Liebe Familie,

This week was crazy! It was technically shorter because we had Vorbereitungstag on Tuesday, but it felt longer. We had 20 lessons this week including Wednesday, where we had 8 appointments fall through all at once. We also moved apartments this week which took a lot of time. We had some amazing lessons especially with Favour and Ben and Simon and Great (all from Nigeria). Favour and Ben are preparing for baptism on 16 July 2011 and we met them on Monday. We also met with Ivana and Matthew McCann. Matthew is a member but has been inactive for a long time. He is from Scottland and moved to Vienna for work a while back. He met and married Ivana who is from Serbia. (They are not new, they have met with missionaries for a long time). We talked about coming to church and about the plan of Salvation and invited Ivana to be baptized. It is really hard for them to come to church because they own a Pub and it closes at 4 am and church starts at 9:30 am, but they made the commitment to come for the next three weeks and then Ivana will be baptized on 09 July 2011, then they BOTH came to church for 3 hours!! It was Ivana's first time and Matthew's first time back in many, many years. I could not stop smiling all of church. We also had Chao, Ekarin, Nancy, Simon and Binbin at church. BinBin and Ekarin will be baptized on the 02. July. We will probably just have two different serviced back to back. I am so grateful I get to work with these wonderful people. I also found out that this transfer will be 7 weeks due to President and Sister Miles coming, so that means I will be present for all the baptisms on 02, 09 and 16 of July! Yay!! I hope I will continue to stay in this area.

Funny story for the week: so we moved into my previous apartment (at Rennweg) where Sisters Covey and Olsen live and Sister Downs is visiting for at least a week. We all got home from the day at the same time and proceded to try to defy the laws of physics by all cramming into the Elevator that was supposed to only take 3 people. Whoops! Turns out physics won (surprise) and the elevator broke. We went down a few centimeters, but were able to make the door open and climb out. Sister Lind and I just walked up to the 6th floor and thought the other sisters were right behind us, but they had gone to tell the Hausbesorger. When they got back the told us that we had to pay the repairs of over €1000 .. then they said "just kidding"!! :) Turns out our Hausbesorger was really kind and insisted that this happens often and we don't need to pay. So we all learned our lesson.

We just had so many amazing lessons this week I don't know where to start. I love being a missionary so much. There has never been a moment where I did not have a trial that I did not think I could overcome, but I have seen like Nephi did that the Lord always provides a way for His children to keep his commandments. I am so grateful to be on a mission especially here in Vienna. I love this work and I have come to know my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ better than ever before. I have also come to understand and know my Heavenly Father on a deeper level. All of these promises are available to ALL missionaries (young and old) so I think it is worth it for all to go.

Alles Liebe!!!!
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Sister Carla June Carroll

Crazy Life of a Missionary

Monday, Tuesday craziness and getting ready for the transfer, then Wednesday Sister Hecht and I said our goodbyes and she went to Switzerland to work with Sister Borcherding and Sister Burnell. I worked with Sister Covey on Wednesday since Sister Nelson left for Munich. We talked with so SO many people and had a really great time. I sure wish I could have served with Sister Covey in the field. She goes home in 8 weeks time along with Sister Olsen, her recent companion and her MTC companion (they were both fast-tracked so it was only 3 weeks, but they are back again!).

This week was a little rough because both Frankie and Joe have fallen off the face of the earth. Joe`s phone is off and we only have the street name where he lives. Frankie has not called us back and has not been home when we have gone by. We pray a lot for them. Not sure what else to do.

We met Ann this week though. She is an acquaintance of Liberty, our number one member missionary. We met Saturday, she came to church on Sunday and we had a great appointment today. She has a lot of potential. A lot of times when we meet people from Africa, they agree to everything, but Ann said she really wants to know if this is true before agreeing to be baptized. She really wants to know, too. She really gets it. Also got a call this afternoon that the Elders in our ward for some reason are leaving so we will take over everything. That will leave us with something like 10 baptismal candidates (4 from us, 6 from the Elders). We are pretty overwhelmed with the large load, but I know the Lord will provide.

I LOVE being a missionary and wish that I could just do this forever. Well, at least I can be a member missionary forever!! I love this work and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here on the Lord`s errand. I hope everyone who is pondering a mission will really search it out and go with full purpose of heart. We need more missionaries. We need more prepared missionaries who will love this work. Everyone can love this work if they just love the Lord. It`s that simple. Amen, brothers and sistas! (sorry, sometimes I feel I am in a baptist community in Nigeria)

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Sister Carla June Carroll