Gehorsam = Segnungen (Obedience = blessings)

Liebe Familie!

This week was crazy wonderful! 6 new investigators!! We prayed so hard for that. 4 of them came in one day through an interesting experience that made us grateful we were obedient. As the Missionary Handbook states, we are not to meet with men alone. We had an appointment with two men that we had met on the street. They are from Kurdiskan. We thought they would have a woman there, but when we arrived, it was just the two of them. We explained the situation, which really confused them and then prayed. We went door to door in their building and found a woman willing to come with us for the appointment. Her name is Layla. She is from Iraq and did a lot of translating into Arabisch for us. After the appointment, she told us she liked us and invited us over for dinner (she was cooking it when we interrupted). We met her daughter (14) Caroline, her husband Samir and son Marvin. We also met her mother, but she did not speak any German. Sister Anderson and I were surprised when we walked into the home after our first appointment to find a huge painting of Christ leading his disciples through a field in their main room. We asked about it and found out that they are in Germany because they were kicked out of Iraq for being Christian. They are very strong Christians and really enjoyed our message. We have met 3 times now with Layla and she very close to making progress. We will meet with the whole family again on Tuesday and (finally) will be able to bring them a Book of Mormon in Arabisch. What a blessing!

We also met with Natascha from Russia. We decided to watch the Restoration DVD with her. Her 2-year-old son recognized the sweet Spirit from the film and stopped what he was doing and quietly watched when the first vision was explained. Her whole family is wonderful. We found out she is actually more German than Russian, but really enjoyed speaking Russian with our joint teach, Schwester Maier from Russia. We have a fabulous Gemeinde. We had some hard moments this week and we had some really, really fulfilling ones. Amazing how the good ones so strongly outweigh the hard times. I love Pforzheim though everyone tells me it is ugly (it just does not have all the old churches like other cities because Pforzheim was bombed in 1945). I love it here and I LOVE going out to the little dorfs and seeing the beautiful, beautiful green. I sometimes wish I could just stay here forever.

Sister Anderson and I are working so hard that we realized we need to play really hard today so we need to get to our plans! We also dyed her hair braun this morning. That was fun.

--
Sister Carla June Carroll

Pforzheim, Schmuck Schmuck Schmuck

Liebe Familie,

I am so excited to be here in Pforzheim. When I found out I was going to Germany on my mission, this is what I imagined. We live in the city itself and we many of the same people. The woman who walks her dog in the morning (when we go running) as well as many others. There are many small dorfs outside of Pforzheim that we visit. We have had much success with dooring here and even more success with contacting on the street. The people here are much, much more friendly than they were in Vienna or Munich. It must be a small town thing. We held a street display (Straßenausstellung) on Saturday and about 10 members from the branch came and helped us. We had many good discussions and made out a few appointments. We blew up balloons and tied family home evening cards to them and handed them to little children (we are so sneaky). I talked with one woman with three children and she told me she was a member, but since she married has not been to church. Surprise! We will meet tomorrow. We also had many other great experiences.

The branch is GREAT but our beloved recent convert, Julia is leaving for 7-8 months. That is a hard blow to take. We don't have anyone committed to baptism yet ... actually we dont have any progressing investigators yet, but Sister Anderson and I are working hard and praying hard to find good ones that will progress. I have high hopes. I love being a missionary. I love being a missionary when I can work my hardest. I am so so so grateful for a companion who lets me work until we are dying at the end of the day. It is great.

This week many were out of town on vacation, etc. so we did not have a big turn up at church. There were a grand total of 25 people at church including us, two investigators, the high council visitor and his wife and our branch. That was ... weird. But I loved it. I got to know everyone's name and no one could get through the cracks. They all love each other and accept each other for who they are. I love it here. I hope to spend as much time possible here. It is a dream to be together with Sister Anderson again and working hard all day everyday with her. She is just amazing.

One man that came to church (Edgar) met one of our members (Schwester Molthan) on the train and she invited him to come. He plays the organ and loved the music. We even formed a last second branch choir and all sang together after the meeting. He committed to come again next week and then meet with us and the Molthans after church for lunch. We will also meet with him Wednesday.

I am extremely impressed with how much our Gemeinderat is ready to help one another. They are missionary minded. We are working hard to get in contact with and meet with many inactive or less active members. One in particular allowed us to come visit. We did our best to invite her to come back and simply bear our testimonies, but she told us that we would have no success with the Germans, especially in our area. She challenged us to go talk to her neighbor across the street and told us he would never have interest. We did and set out an appointment to meet with him and his family for Friday. We also made another return appointment and a few numbers exchanged before the bus came. The Lord is helping us.

I LOVE being here! The gospel is true. We are working hard and sticking through the hard times.

--
Sister Carla June Carroll

PS -- Schmuck means jewlery. There are lots of jewlery places here ... lots of manufacturing.

Ich gehe weg!

Liebe Familie,

SURPRISE!!! Got a call from the Assistants ... I am going as far away from Wien as possible on Wednesday. I am going to the area that I was earlier called to--Pforzheim! But this time I am going to serve with my other MTC Companion, Sister Anderson! I cannot begin to describe how excited I am about that. I have served in 5 wards in Germany and Austria, but Pforzheim is a branch with about 30 active members (I think, I will count when I get there). When I was in München, President called to have Sister Olsen and I open up Pforzheim, but a few last minute changes took place and Sister Anderson went to Pforzheim and I went to Vienna. Now, I will be joining her there. Sister Olsen (now serving in Vienna 2nd ward with Sister Covey and living with us) showed me pictures from when she was there. Looks beautiful.

I was initially very sad about the call. I was really expecting to stay and I have grown to love this ward and our investigators so so much. If I ever can live abroad, I will come back here. I have spent 9 months all together in Vienna and I have seen much. I have not done much of my own accord, but through the help of the Lord, I have been privileged to see miracles occur. Ivana was not baptized this Saturday since she got stuck in Serbia, but this coming Saturday (yes, just after I leave), she will be baptized. Hopefully I will at least get pictures of the baptism.

I cannot remember if I mentioned Parviz (30) before. I talked to him about 2 weeks ago an the Bahn and really expected him to be German, but he is from Iran and speaks no German! He is the most prepared person I have ever met. He came to church for the first time yesterday and LOVED it. He is a composer and just a very gentle man. He lives with Mani (18) and Shayan (29) also musicians and interested in the gospel. They are truly a group of miracles. Ekarin and Binbin are working towards the temple and Brown is working to receive the Priesthood. There is so much joy in this work.

I also was privileged to attend the setting apart of Angela Hambruck from Wiener Neustadt. I went on a few splits with her and one time when all of our appointments fell through, I taught her street contacting ... in the pouring rain. Not going to lie, it was a wonderful experience. It seemed like a small thing to me, but it really put a bond between us and she leaves today to attend the Provo, MTC to learn Greek to serve in Greece. Whoa. She will change the world. She is already an excellent missionary.

I took pictures with several members and investigators at church yesterday. I am so sad to go, but I have the wonderful reassurance that the Lord has a plan for me. He knows how to do His work.

--
Sister Carla June Carroll

July 4th

Liebe Familie,

This week was just full of miracles inculding two new members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and a new Bishopric of the Vienna 4th Ward. We sent around a list in our ward the last few weeks for members to sign up for joint teaching with us. We have seen miracles and were able to have 13 lessons this week with members present! We had only 19 lessons all together this week, but we are still going strong! I will just start with the baptisms since those are fresh on my mind. Ekarins was nice and simple. We wanted to keep it within an hour so everyone could have time for other things, but it could still be a spiritual experience. I sang I Believe in Christ and Sister Lind made up a beautiful accompianment. Liberty baptized him. That was my favourite part. Liberty joined the church about 6 months ago in Switzerland and he ist so strong. I learn so much from him. Many missionaries came that had taught Ekarin over the two or three years that he investigated the church on and off. I had even dropped him as an investigator a few months ago because he was not making progress, but he suddenly started coming to church on his own for a few weeks, we met with him and just told him he needed to get baptized and be a member so he can have all the blessings of the Atonement. He is a great addition. He is always smiling and happy and willing to share that with others. It takes a lot of humility to grow up with no God in ones culture or surroundings, then to come to a new country and learn about Him and let Him play a role in your life. Ekarin reads in the Book of Mormon in Thai and then tells us about each part. He has shared some insights that have really helped me. Amazing that each person can make a difference in others lives.

Binbin's baptism was huge! The whole Kapelle was full of friends, family, members, investigators. Also, we thought we were in charge of bringing food to the baptism and were not able to find support, so we asked many individuals to bring something. Just before the service started, several family members of Binbins came with lots of food for a buffet. Binbin was so happy to see food overflowing the tables after the service. So Binbin is from China and met Patrick in France where he was studying. His mother is french, his father is Austrian. He grew up a member but spent most of his life outside the church until about 4 months ago. Their first Sunday in our ward was my first Sunday, too. There were so many languages at this baptism--it was done in English. Many participated in the service ... so much that it was 2.5 hours long! But it was so wonderful it did not seem that way. Amazingly, though, Satan worked hard on the whole family this week--everyone got sick and Patrick and Binbin had it the worst. They thought about postponing the baptism, but Binbin could not wait any longer. They were both miraculously quite healthy the day of the baptism. I prayed so hard for them all week. When Binbin came out of the font, I wrapped her in a towel and she said, "that was easy!".

The next miracle that happened came also at Binbins baptism. I sat by Leo and Xiaoyen, two of our investigators from China. Xiaoyen already knows everything and is spiritually ready to be baptized. Leo showed no interest until 2 weeks ago. After the baptism, I asked him what he thought and he told me he felt a feeling of "pure" that he had never felt before and that it felt really good. We learned in our appointment that evening that the whole week was spiritually significant for him. He and Xiaoyen read nearly every day in the Book of Mormon together and Leo saw immediately that he had more energy, he was less selfish and was just more happy. Amazing!

ALSO I talked to a man named Parviz on the U-Bahn on Wednesday. He is from Iran and then Kiev (Ukraine) and composes music here in Vienna. He asked if we had a choir he could conduct ... we said, well ... sort of ... then when he came to our appointment at the Institute Center, Sister Lind and I were singing with a group of BYU Students by the piano and he was so excited. We met with him. When asked what he expected or hopes from our meetings, he answered that he does not just want to study the scriptures, but to do something, to help the church, the community and everyone. We invited him to be baptized on 6. August. ;)

Oh and we met our new Mission President on Thursday--President and Sister Miles. Bishop Mamouney was released on Sunday as he and his family are going back to Australia in September and Paul Jovero was called to be the new Bishop. As he spoke, I have never felt the Spirit so strong through someone else's humility. He is a great man and will make a great Bishop. I am really grateful that I have come to know him before he was called as Bishop. He was my first guess of who the new Bishop would be. Dean Messervy and Ed Garcia were called as counselors. I love this ward. I love being a missionary. What an honor to be in the service of the Lord.

--
Sister Carla June Carroll