August 31, 2015

Dear family:

Hallo schönen guten Morgen!
Yep it is my birthday today. Now I can say "back when I was a
teenager..." Haha. I should get my package at interviews tomorrow.
Yeah Stefan had a good email last week. We had a slower week number
wise. But got some good work done.

I don't have much time, but I will tell you just a little cool
experience. So elder Hale and I were trying to find a less active. He
is an African and he loved in an area where a bunch refugees and
Africans and people from the Middle East live. We go into this area
and could not seem to find his apartment building at all but some kids
came up and talked to us. They asked us who we were and what we do and
where we were from. I then asked them if they could tell me where
building number 5 was. They then went on the search running in front
of us looking for the building and we eventually found it but our less
actives have since moved. After we thanked the kids one asked me " ihr
seid Christ oder?" ( you guys are Christian Right?) I told him "ja" he
than said "ich bin Muslim". But he didn't say it in a you are wrong
kind of way it was more like a "cool! I'm Muslim" it was just way
innocent and nice. He was about 6 or 7. When this happened I thought
about what Jesus taught:

"3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become
as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the
same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

It didn't matter to these kids that we were missionaries from a
complete other faith they helped us. The showed pure charity and
humility and we're living pure religion. Even though these kids don't
believe on Jesus Christ as their savior the still exemplified his
teachings and help two servants of the Lord. This week I want to
become more like a little child. ( not throw fits and tantrums) but in
the way that Jesus meant it. Be humble. Love quickly. Quick to
forgive. Be willing to do what my Father wants me to do.

On Friday we will be meeting with a guy named M. He is
from Brazil. I am pretty nervous for
this appointment so if you could pray about that specifically this
week that would be great.
 Love Elder Carr

August 23, 2015

Dear family-


Sounds-looks like y'all had some fun! So the ward isn't voting on baptism or anything. Its complicated but we have already gotten a green light from president for when baptism comes so. 

We had some fun this week. On Wednesday, we went and shoveled horse poop at the Schmidl's house. brought back some good ol' memories and it wasn't near as bad as doing it back home so that was good. It was kind of scary though because Monday through Wednesday we really didn't do anything. I mean we were doing stuff but it was more like eating appointments service projects Zone Training and stuff like that. So by the time Thursday came we still didn't have anything but it was all good in the end. 

Thursday we met with J. and J.  J. fed us and it wasn't anything gnarly like I thought it was going to be. After that, we taught about Prophets and it did not go like I thought it would. Jessica doesn't really think a prophet is necessary and neither does J.. What I have learned about working with Africans is that the are very faithful people but the also think that the can receive revelation for everyone around them. We invited them to general konferenz and also explained personal revelation versus the job of a prophet and I still don't think the completely understood. I wish that I just knew pigeon English and it would work so much better when teaching Africans haha. They have already expressed that it is hard for them to understand our English so I have found that when I talk like an African they understand a lot more. I feel kinda ridiculous when i do it but at the same time I feel like I am speaking a different language and that is really cool haha.

My language wish list for this mission: Arabic, Spanisch, Pigeon Englisch, Serbisch.

If I spoke those i would be set haha.

Today we went to Hallstatt and it is basically the most beautiful city I have ever seen. They also have these skulls from dead people underneath a Catholic church with the peoples names painted on the Foreheads. It was a pretty cool pday today.

Love you guys und schöne Woche! 

August 16, 2015

Dear family:

I have interviews in 2wks and I am excited about that because most of the time I feel like I have so many weaknesses that I don't even know where to improve. I finally was able to snap out of a ''happy drought'' this last week and really loved being a missionary but I swear I can't catch a break.

 We went to zone training today and the Zone leaders told us specifically that ward members call and complain about us because we are too ROBOT and have NO PERSONALITY. If a robot is a really attractive man-beast trying to be a humble servant of the Lord then yes I am a robot with no personality haha. I will figure it out. I had a good imaginary fight in my head and feel way better now. 

We had a really good week this week. We tried to set a baptismal date with an investigator and she is considering right now. Half the ward is for it and the other half is against it. So we are going to do it haha. We also had some really good less active work this week. We visited an old lady in our ward and she has really bad hearing so she has a little microphone thing that is connected to earphones that she wears in order to hear you. She is really sweet and hopefully she will feel good enough to come to church on Sunday. It was so funny as we were walking out of her apartment Elder Hale turned to me and was just like '' I have never developed love for someone that fast before...'' haha. She is an awesome old lady we have another appointment with her on Saturday. 

We also taught J., a less active; about the Plan of Salvation and she really enjoyed it. She even came to church on Sunday! She invited us over for dinner on this Thursday and I may have my first food story next week because she is from Nigeria and i heard African cooking can get pretty Gnarly. I am so excited.

ya i don't know what to do about the whole Robot thing because I feel like I have made some really good connections since I have been here. I am in tight with the youth, Old people love me  because they are all converts and love missionaries so I think it is only a 1 or 2 people that don't like us and at the end of the day it's not like I am trying to not make relationships with people that's what its all about. I tell you i knew that i had patience probs back home but they are so clear on a mission and I have made a lot of progress but i need to keep practicing it for sure haha. 

I love you guys. Keep praying for me ( I don't know why i say that because I know you will pray for me so wie so haha). 

-Elder Carr

August 9, 2015

Dear Family-

That's cool that you guys have had
such a good time with grandparents and Tyler's family. I am especially
jealous about the whole pool thing haha. It has been over 100 degrees
basically the whole week. That is really unusual for Austria, the
grass is starting to get brown and a member told me yesterday that
this hardly ever happens.

This week we met with a couple of people. We met with this guy named
John. He is from Nigeria and is basically a waste of time. He has been
meeting with missionaries for 7 years and never makes progress. It is
always kind of scary meeting with him too because he may or may not he
drunk when we show up and most of the time you don't know until you
are already in his house and then you gotta bolt. So ya.

We also met with this really cool lady on Thursday named Frau
Schlagin. We talked about the Book of Mormon with her. She is a really
active Catholic and his even a professor for religion in one of the
schools in Wels. I don't think she has very much "real intent" but we
also started talking about the Plan of salvation and found it
interesting so we will see. Stranger things have happened.

Saturday was pretty hard. We had 3 appointments scheduled and 2 fell
through and the other one was John so it was a 20 kind. There was
nobody outside because it was so it hot and people just were angry
when we went dooring because cool air was going out but opposition in
all things right. Just press forward with a steadfastness in Christ
having a perfect brightness of Hope and a love of God and of all men.

That's all I got for today. Love y'all.
-Elder Carr

August 2, 2015

Dear Family:

Thanks for the Package. Well we still haven't been able to teach any of those potentials yet. 

We went by on Frau E. this week because she stopped answer our phone calls. We were buzzed into her apartment building and she came and talked to us and she told us that she no longer had interest... Felt like (for the lack of a better word) garbage. I asked her why she no longer had interest because I was really confused, she was so happy when we first contacted her. She then informed us that she is jobless and is just trying to keep her apartment right now. I told her that we weren't trying to sell her anything and all we want is 30 minutes. She told us to stop by again... in a month. NOOOOOO. I don't want her to turn into one of those potentials where, in a month, we go back and she says ''come back in a month'' and that cycle goes on for years but you can only do what you can do. I then told her we would do that and that we had a gift for her. I gave her a Spanish Book of Mormon. She took it and that was basically it. We walked away feeling really sad.

Right after that experience we had an appointment with a Less active family in our ward.  They are from Afghanistan and they still have family in Afghanistan. If anyone finds out back there that they are Christian, their family that are still in Afghanistan will be killed. So when we visit them we have to De-Tag. I felt so sick going under cover haha. 

We had a really good appointment with them and talked about our families back home and us a little bit because I am still the ''new'' Elder and Elder Hale is also a ''New'' Elder to a lot of people. We then talked about prayer and scripture study as a family. It was awesome. They are a really cool family and they are moving in September and then they will be able to come to church more. 

They were probably the coolest part of the week. We taught a couple more lessons here and there but the rest was filled with dooring and street contacting but it was fun.

Today for pday we had a district pday. We went to Linz and played Squash. Like racquetball. I ended up taking 2nd in the tourney. I lost to Elder Plumb but he is a worthy opponent. He is getting transferred to Vienna on Monday and i am really sad about that. he is like my mission big brother. I have been in contact with him for the last 8 months. He was my Zone leader and then my District leader. He only has 2 transfers left so tomorrow will probably be the last time I see him. I'm gonna miss him. Anyway I had to buy new shoes this week I will send you a picture and then you will know why I had to buy new ones.

Love ya 

-Elder Carr

I couldn't send the picture of Brett with his worn out shoes with holes in them because there is some sensitive information in the background.  Just trust me when I say his shoes were worn all the way through

Brett's mom

July 19, 2015

Dear Family:

 Sorry I'm writing on Tuesday. Yesterday we had Zone Training in Salzburg. Our train was late which made us miss our bus to the Church in Salzburg and we ran into like 3 Mormons on Vacation so we got there late. We Usually have Zone training on Tuesdays, but there were guys from Utah here. They were from the missionary department and are trying to improve the Language program at the MTC... I think that's what they said. So I took a German reading test and most of the passages it was really hard to pick out the main purpose because they would go off on tangents about something else for a while. My score was Advanced-Low with a Random at the Superior level... So if you can figure out exactly what that means, let me know because I have no idea haha. 

Last Monday was really cool. None of our appointments went through so we just started Dooring the area. We rang at this one apartment building and we pressed a klingel that said Estevez-Jimenez. They didn't say anything but buzzed us in. A 14-15 year old girl was there and I asked if her parents were home and she went and got her Mom. I started talking with her and she was really excited actually. She is from the Dominican Republic but speaks perfect German (YES A LAMANITE THAT SPEAKS A LANGUAGE I DO!) We showed here the ''Thank Him" video on our I-pads and she started crying. We set up an appointment with here. She has relatives that are Mormon and remembers going to church with them as a girl and is excited that the church is in Austria and really wants to come.

On Tuesday we went to Jessica's house. She is a less active from Nigeria. We brought one of the Priests with us ( Did i mention we actually have youth in this ward! There are 4 Priests in the ward and we are trying to get them out with us as much as possible.) The kid who we brought Is Joshi. As we walked into the lesson I asked him if he was ready for an English test (Because Nigerian English is not British haha) he said he was going to try hard. haha he is so sick. We taught her about Prayer and committed here to have family pray with her kids and she said that she would. 

Wednesday we had our Tischtennis abend with the youth and the rest of the day was just finding. 

On Thursday, we had 4 appointments scheduled and everyone fell out. We had 2 JAE's (YSA's) with us who are both leaving in September for their Missions. Sara is going to Greece and Samuel is going to Berlin. We just sat down at a picnic table with them until their bus came back just talking about how to prepare and what its like to be a brand new missionary. It was cool to see how excited they are. While we were talking, this African lady came up to us and started asking us questions. We ended up teaching her the Restoration and asked her if she wanted to meet again but she was visiting her brother and she lives in Sweden. (Watch out Stefan!) She said that if she sees missionaries there that she will talk to them. We weren't able to get here number to give the Swedish missionaries a referral. 

On Friday, our appointment with Frau Estevez fell out but we were able to re-schedule for this friday (Pray that it goes through.) We had a lesson with M., an investigator, but that was basically our Friday.

Yesterday after Zone Training Elder Hale and I went to a former investigator. We set up an appointment with him 2 days earlier but when we got there he told us to get lost... so we did. BUT one thing that President has been trying to show us is that even when Appointments dont work out we should door in the area. So we did and the first hour was really hard. It was a bunch of rich people and a lot of them were really nice about it only a few jerks but for the most part, the people were really nice. But despite that it was really hard for me (one of those days) but I tried to choose to be happy and Optimistic and I said a little prayer that I could keep going and that we could find someone. We doored that whole appartment building with no ''Success''. We realized that there were a bunch of appartment buildings that didnt been contacted for a really long time. We only had 30 minutes left which isnt a long time but we went and startged another appartment building. It only had 12 names on it and that is more than do able for thirty minutes. We klingeled 11 door bells and nobody wanted anything. We did the last one and nobody answered but buzzed us in the door. We started walking up to the appartment number and there is a lady wrapped in a towel with soap all over her (really Awkward) she asked us what she wanted and I told her that we were missionaries and we wanted to show a little video of christ and she said ''ok'' I told her we could come back in 15 minutes and show her the video after she finnished getting her self ready but she was like '' Well, How long is the Video?'' ''three minutes'' ''Ok just show it to me now'' so we did. At the end we told her what we do as missionaries and asked her if she wanted to come closer to Christ and her answer was so funny ''duh!'' haha. Usually that isnt what people say especially after we interrupted them taking a shower haha. But hopefully we will meet with her this week and get a new investigator. 

Just pray for us that we will be able to meet with these people we found this week and help them progress in the Gospel.

Love ya Brett.

July 12, 2015

Dear family:


 We absolutely have to go to the rodeo next year. I have to learn how to be American again haha. Just kidding.   I walk down the street and everyone knows that I'm American. 

This week was pretty good but I ended up getting sick, so that was no fun but luckily I am feeling much better. 

On Monday we went to an appointment and the people weren't there (Classic) but there were some new members who lived right around the corner so we went and visited them. We had our ward mission leader with us to be a Joint teach for the first lesson and he actually suggested that we go by on this couple. It went ok.

Tuesday we went to district meeting and had an appointment after that, but the guy was also a no show. We ended up contacting the rest of the day.

Wednesday we had a lesson with M. and it was really good. She still doesn't understand everything that we are teaching. We asked her if she thought more about baptism and she said yes and she doesn't want to get baptized until next spring and I am on board with that. Hopefully by then everything will make sense for her.

Thursday I went on an exchange with Elder Strauss in Linz. It was my first time working with a German. He is cool, but we only talked in English because he says that he will have plenty of opportunities to speak German when he goes home. We contacted the whole day and it was pretty fun.

Friday we had our ward sommerfest and just had a good time with everyone. We had a less active show up and also an investigator. 

That was basically my week. We are going by on a girl that Elder Plumb and Elder Hale found while I was in Linz so if you are awake, pray that this will go well. We are also going by on the Johannovic family. We found them a couple weeks ago. I really want to find someone to get baptized and I feel like my mission clock is already counting down even though I have the better part of a year before i go home. 

Love you guys a ton.

-Elder Carr

July 5, 2015

Dear Family:

It  sounds like you all had a good week and have another good one for this week. Ma I sent up a prayer for you auf Deutsch sogar. Ya this week was a bit better. I taught the most lessons I ever had in a week. We were able to have ten lessons. 

Yesterday we went to a member's house to eat after church and the have Horses. I told them that we also have horses and they got pretty excited. They asked me ''Kennen Sie sich aus?'' which means like ''do you know your way around horses?'' I told them yes so they are going to have a cool service project for us in a couple of weeks. I think we will be shovelling horse poop for them too. I guess I will find out if I truly miss it or not haha. 

We are teaching this lady named M. She is a bit strange. She might have Autism or something like it. When we have lessons with her she is way cool and engaged in the conversation but other times she wants to talk about really random things. She wants to get baptized and we tried setting a date with her but she turned it down and told us it needs to be later and after meeting with her I agree. We have a lot to teach and we have to do it in a way that she will understand. 

We found this Muslim dude named M. on the street and I asked him what he believes and he said Islam and then he said Jesus was only a prophet and I switched the approach to Prophets in the Book of Mormon and he really wanted one in Türkisch. We brought it by and set up an appointment for this Tuesday. 

We also found a Serbian family. I'm not really sure how interested they are yet because he said that he lets everyone in if they are helping people come closer to God. His wife may have some real interest though and they said that next time we come that they will have their Daughter there. They said that their daughter may be really interested so hopefully we can get some more stuff rolling here. 

We taught a bunch of other people this week but they aren't really progressing or keeping commitments but we will keep working on them.

Love you guys!

-Elder Carr

June 21, 2015
  I got my I-PAD!!!

Hallo meine Familie!
It sounds like you guys had a great week this week. The pictures that you took were awesome dad. Mom congrats on the 4.0! So it is true I am officially an old missionary. You ask me how I feel about it and you
were right, this has been the fastest year of my life. It has been filled with trials, excitement, exhaustion, tears (I have turned into such a girl), but most importantly MIRACLES! I have seen many lives
change including mine. BUT I have a lot of changing still to do and i feel like I don't have enough time to do it. I don't want this to end.  So I'm not going to think about the end. EVER.

So I also had a really full week this week. We did go visit a Bruder P. this week and we shared the talk ,,Die Musik des Evangeliums" with him. The spirit was so strong. He was crying a ton. He said that he would be in church again but he didn't come.  We did a lot of finding this week and we were able to find 5
potentials this week. We even have an appointment with one of them
today at 5 pm. His name is Alex and he is actually Austrian!

So I think I mentioned a bible bash that we had last week with a
seventh day Adventist. Well at the end of our meeting last week I
invited him to attend a bible course that a member does at the church
on Thursday. I didn't know why I invited him because our conversation
wasn't going anywhere but it turned out to be the spirit that gave me
that idea. He came to bible course and the spirit was really strong
and it was very clear that it caused him to do some thinking. Well we
left bible course and invited him to come back next week. Yesterday we
were at the bishops house for lunch and bishop received a phone call
and it was Mario, the 7th day Adventist! He told bishop that he wanted
to meet with him and talk about the Bible. He also told bishop that he
is on a search for the truth! We have an appointment with him on
Wednesday at 5:30 with the bishop. I am excited to see how that goes!
He could really be golden and I am way excited because Elder Bolt for
a comp study last week took all his concerns and solved them with the
Bible and now we actually get to use it! We just did that comp study
for fun but now I am really glad I did.

I also found out that I am going to be transferred on thursday. I am a
little upset about that because things are just starting to pick up
and this ward is like Familie to me. I thought it would be hard to
leave home but I was never sad when I left for the MTC. I was nervous
and excited but not sad. When I get transferred though I feel sad. I
wish I could just stay in one area my whole mission. Thursday will
probably be the hardest day of my mission.

I am going to a place called Wels. It is still in Austria so I am way
excited about that. I like Austria better than Germany. Probably just
because I didn't know German when I was in Germany haha but I am glad
to stay in Austria. I will be training again too. My greenie has
already had on transfer in the field so I will Finish his training.
His name is Elder Hale. I don't know to much about him. I only met him
once at a zone conference.

I love you guys a ton!
Ihr seid am besten!
-Elder Carr


Sent from my iPad

June 14, 2015

Dear Family-

I dont have a lot of time because we have to catch a train up to Salzburg today. We have Zone Conference tomorrow and we are getting our Ipads.

We met with Bruder P. and it went well. He didnt come to church this week but he told us before hand and also said that starting next week he can come again so that is good.

We met with W. and he hasn't been to church in 3 weeks and isn't reading in the Book of Mormon. We are trying our hardest to share something that will touch his heart.  he said that he would be baptized when he gets an answer but he isn't doing the things that he needs to in order to get an answer. 

On Friday we did some splits and I was in a Dritt with Elder Miller and Elder Bolt. We were just walking the streets handing out flyers for the Meet the Mormons thing that we are doing and this guy comes running out of a restaraunt yelling at us. We stopped and he talked with us and he told us that he was 7th day aventist. He asked us if we had time and I said ja... My mistake haha. We start walking to his shop and I realized that I didnt have a ´Bible in my bag and I asked Elder Miller if he had one and he said ja. The guy heard that and he said ''Good! You have to have a Sword...'' Great... Anyway we go in there and the whole restaraunt is 7th day Adventists and then they just started going. We tried bring it back to the Book of Mormon but the wouldn't have it haha. They asked us about death and what happens. We talked about the spirit world and they pulled a scripture about how we turn to nothing and that we dont have spirits. The then told us to back up that we had spirits using the Bible. We could fnd anything. The asked a whole bunch of other Questions that we couldn't back up. Obvisousl the answers can be found in the Bible but I cant do it off the top of my head. The last couple of days Elder Bolt and I have been studying the Bible and we found answers to support our doctorine from the pre-existence to baptisms for the dead.

I can't wait to have my I-pad because I am going to make a ''Doctrinator''. So when we talk to members of other faiths I will be able to find the answers to their questions quickly.

Love you guys. 

-Elder Carr

June 8, 2015

Dear family-

We had a pretty decent week this last week too. Last P-day we went to this place called Minimundus. It is this little out door exhibit and it has 180 well known places of the World schrunk down by x25. I got to visit the Eifel Tower, the White House and a Nephite temple all in the same day haha.

On Tuesday we had a lesson with William and It didnt go like I thought it would. We talked about the Plan of Salvation. He is really deep rooted Catholic and pretty stubborn about it too. We committed him to read in the Book of mormon but I dont think he has done that yet because I called him a couple of days ago and he said that he would start that night. We also invited him to church but he didnt come yesterday. We also talked about baptism a little bit and he just told us that it was going to take some time to change relgions. (So he knows exactly what our purpose is so thats good) but it will take A LOOOOONNNGGG time to change religions if he doesnt keep commitments. 

On Wednesday we went to a northern part in our area called Spittal. The city was really pretty. It is nestled in a valley and continues up into the foothills of this huge mountain. We went there to go by on some less actives but one wasnt home and the other has moved.

On Thursday we went to Bruder P.'s house and he told us about a really cool experience that he had. He has been struggling with somethings lately and told us that he wants to fix them. He said that even after we committed to church he still wasnt sure if he was actually going to come. He said that he started praying and in his words '' there was a direct connection'' and he asked God what he had to do to fix what ever is going on. He said that as he did that he almost immediately got answer. He said that he had all the principle that we have been teaching him go through his head, he thought about Christ, The Atonement, the commandments, and everything else, BUT the one thing that stuck out to him and was loud and clear was ''Go to Church''. He then said that he started complaining to God that Church was to early and that Klagenfurt is to far away from Villach. He said that as soon as he started complaining ''the connection was gone''. He then knew that he needed to be in church. After he said that I immediately re-committed him to Church haha. Bruder P. has a long road ahead of him but he has made so much progress from the time Elder Rogers and I first started meeting with him in January so I know that it is Possibly. I probably will have Bischoff come with us to visit him in the next couple of weeks.

on Sunday Bruder Pöcher came to church again! And the Supperberger's invited him for lunch next week and we are also going. Exciting things are happening.

Love you guys lots.

-Elder Carr

May 31, 2015

Dear Family:

We had a pretty eventfull week last week.

On tuesday we had Distriktsversammlung at the Wades house and that was basically just a normal distrikt meeting but it was fun haha. After that Elder Bolt and I decided to go by on some old investigators. We went to a lady's house and knocked on the door. She opened it and we asked her if she wanted to meet with missionaries again and come closer to Christ and she said yes. Its was way cool. Her name is L. and she is from Nigeria. We set up an appointment for saturday. As we were walking out of her apartment building we ran into J. J. is from Afgahnistan and he played in a soccer tournament last February. We stopped and talked to him. I didnt feel like it was right to invite him to meet with us just because of were he is from and ja... muslim stuff but he is way cool and I invited him to come to English course and he got way excited so we will see if he comes this week.

On wednesday i had on of those defining moments on my mission. It was the kind of day that you use as an example for the youth to help them decide to go on a mission. We had a lesson with Bruder P.. He didnt come to church last week so I asked him why because I was almost positive that he would come. He said that he was fighting with his wife and he said that was the reason why he didn't come. (Just an excuse I think but whatever). We told him that it was important to come to church but we really wanted to focus on love during this lesson. We told him that we loved him and that his heavenly father loves him. We then shared a talk that Brad Wilcox gave in 2011 in a devtional called ''Seine Gnade ist Ausreichend'' (His grace is sufficient). We read that and at the end of the talk Bruder P. was in tears and the spirit was way strong. I pointed out a point where it says that we dont just have 2 options: Being perfect or giving up. I told him as long as we were making progress that it was enough and it comes Schritt für Schritt. We invited him to church again and he said that he would be there.

The next day we met with William at the church and taught about the restoration. He is a deep rooted Catholic actually. I wasnt really expecting that but oh well. He has a really firm belief in Christ and he wants to be as close to him as possible. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he would start reading it. He also said that he would come to church again.

Saturday came and we werent able to confirm our appointment with L. so we told our Joint teach not to come. We needed another man to come with us but I was almost positive that it was going to fall out so we told him not to come. We walked over to her house so we could possibly move the appointment later that day but when she answered she said that we wouldnt be able to meet that day. She found out that she was getting tossed out of her apartment and she had a lot of stress. I asked her if there was anything we could do to help her and she just said ''I dont know...'' three times and it sounded like complete dispair and devestation. I told her that we could give her a blessing if she came to church the next day and she said that she would come. 

Sunday came but W.and L. both didn't show up. I was really disappointed that W. didn't come because I had called him the day before and he said that he had started the Book of Mormon and he had questions about it and he said that we could talk about it at church but he never came. I called and texted him but he never got back to me. Just pray for him. Sacrement meeting started and Bruder Pöcher still wasnt there. I passed the sacrament and Elder Bolt was the back door Usher. When I went to go sit down but Elder Bolt mouthed to me ''He is here'' so I went out to the hallway and he was there! It was probably the first time in 15 years that he had been in the church. He was crying a little bit earlier it looked like. He came and listened to the talks and really liked them. The ward totally embraced him too. It was way cool to see. He even stayed an hour after church because he was just talking to people and someone asked him if he was going to be there the next week and he said JA. It was hands down the coolest sunday on my mission.

I love you guys a lot and have fun with that new wood splitter haha

-Elder Carr

May 24, 2015

 Dear family

The week was pretty good this week. I gave my fireside on Friday. It was really good. I had to talk for about 40 minutes in German and I actually didn't do to terrible. The coolest part was at the end. I just bore my testimony about the Savior and his Atonement. It was amazing to feel the spirit come in that strong and how easily the words just came out of my mouth. The coolest part was we had a woman named K. there. She has been coming to English course and we have been trying to figure out a way to teach her. Well we invited her to the fireside and she came and I know for a fact she felt the spirit and has even told Elder Wade (a senior couple Elder in my ward) that she feels something special when she comes to church.

We also taught Bruder P. this week. He is a less active that I have been working on since I first got to Klagenfurt. We shared 2 Nephi 31 with him and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he was feeling the spirit, Elder Bolt even told me that he was crying at one point but I didn't notice. We invited him to come to Church and he gave me a yes... WHAT? He said that he was going to come! When we left his Apartment he even said ''Bis Sonntag'' which means he is coming. On Saturday I texted him and asked how it was going with the Book of Mormon and he said ''We will talk tomorrow'' so I was really excited but Sunday came and he didn't. UGH... I was so sure that he was going to come this time. I was talking to my ward mission leader about it and he said that Br. Pöcher knows that the church is true but he is so scared that it is true. So I think we will meet with him this week and just have a ''love fest lesson'' where we will just let him know how much we care about him and also how much his Heavenly Father loves him. Hopefully that will be good for him.

So Bruder P. didn't come but William DID! William is that guy that we found from Ghana. He came and we set up an appointment on Thursday. I forgot to tell him that church is 3 hours... He got a little bored. But he said that he will meet with us so I am excited about that. It is a little hard though because he speaks English, French, and a local African language but no German. I had to translate for him and translations are so boring but for the Investigator class he taught it in English because he was the only one who came. We probably will start doing a German Sunday school and an English Sunday school from now on.

Things are starting to pick up. It is pretty exciting. Don't worry about that dude spitting on me because the next day we found William! so maybe we should pray that more people spit on me haha.

Love you guys!

-Elder Carr

May 17, 2015

Dear family:

I don't have much time so I hope that this message makes sense. haha

So I got my transfer call on saturday and I am staying for another transfer in Klagenfurt. We did a bunch of finding like usual this week and we actually got a potential this week! His name is William. He is from central Africa and knows a lot of Mormons. It was kind of funny actually. I started doing my thing in German and he saw that I had a book of Mormon and he said ''Oh the latter day saints!'' haha. It was really cool. He has a lot of friends in Ghana and lived there for a while haha. He gave us his number but we haven't been able to get a hold of him. 

That same day this drunk guy was yelling at us and motioned for us to come over...So we did haha. He then told me that he had a friend who needed us and then gave us a name and address. After we made a couple Sarovtov approach jokes we eventually made our way over to the apartment building and went up to this guys door and knocked. He answered and we talked for a little bit but he said that he is already meeting with JWs and doesn't want to meet with us. DANG IT! We will probably go back to that apartment building this week because it looked like there are some pretty humble people who need the gospel in there. 

A couple of days ago I was on an exchange with Elder Miller and we were contacting in the street and we were getting stuffed all day and then this one guy was walking towards us and Elder Miller tried to stop him and talk to him but as soon as Elder Miller said hello to him the dude spit on the both of us. That was the first time that has happened but that was one of my items on my mission bucketlist so that was pretty cool haha. Anyway keep praying for Elder Bolt and I. I really want to find someone to teach and baptize. 

Love you guys!

-Elder Carr

March 29, 2015

Dear Family_

Thats weird that this whole email is directed towards me now haha. I don't like that haha. Dad sounds like you got a pretty cool new calling. Sarah's baby looks so flippin cute. Mom- Monika is scheduled to be baptized on this Saturday. I probably will shoot Elder Kastendieck an email today and ask if everything is moving forward with that. hola Stevie haha. Whats it like being home? that must be weird as heck. Did you feel disobedient when you slept pass 6:30 this morning haha. Kacey have fun at MO-PROM. Jake way to be fast. TJ way to be 11!

So this week ya I will just come out and say it. We are officially teaching zero investigators. We went over to Herr T.'s we had a great lesson planned and he was sitting outside his apartment building and he walked up to us and said '' Heute habe ich keine Zeit...Und ich wünsche keine, weitere besuche''. So basically what that says is he dropped us. 

But I am doing ok. Elder Rodgers and I went and got some Ice cream and we made it through. There is still a lot of stuff in Klagenfurt to be done. (there is literally 100.000 people in this city and like close to 800.000 in my area) someone will listen to us. I just have to keep this phrase that President Kohler gave us in mind ''consistent persistance in faith and dilligence.'' (President Kohler is the best) but we are going full primative missionary work this week. Find, find, find. Knock, knock, knock. Like I said last week, all I have to do is hit 1000 doors haha. 

I taught in the gospel principles class yesterday and I did the easter egg lesson that you sent me mom and it was a hit haha. So thanks very much for sending it to me. 

I love you guys. Have a great week. Dont think that I am depressed because Im not. My emotional welfare is fine. haha.

Cant wait to skype you next transfer.

-Elder Carr