Jan 25, 2015


Dear Family:


Things are going OK. This would be a really rough area if it was ugly, but es geht. Yeah this week we hit the streets and when I say that I really mean it. If you look through my planner all it would say is Studies and then ''Kontaktieren'', ''dooring'' and ''Go by on...''. So I am pretty tired today haha.On wednesday we went to Villach which is the next city over and it is even deeper in the Alps. It was way pretty. we had some vorbeis to do there and we were able to get a less active lesson.

We rang this less actives door bell and and he buzzed us into his apartment building. We found his door and when he opened it he was just in his underwear... like speedo style. He also is a fairly large man so that was great :P. He told us to come back in an hour and we did and had a good chat with him. We where able to set up another appointment with him for this week.

Ok so I guess this area isn't totally empty. When have about 20 un-contacted potentials in our phone so we started chipping away at that and set up an appointment with this one dude but he was a no show. We still have about 8 people we can call and a couple more that we can go by on so hopefully something will get started up.

I'm finally getting comfortable in my German now. I feel like my personality is started to come through a little bit. ITS ABOUT TIME! But I still need a lot of work til I am fluent, but  a year from now I think that I will be able to say that I am fluent in German not just proficient. That will be a cool day.

Love you guys have a good week.

Tschüß 

Jan. 18, 2015


Dear Family:

What a week!  I am sooooo tired . I forgot my planner so I don't know how long this email will be haha. So first off.  My Comp is Elder Rodgers and he is from Canada.  He likes the mountains and snowboarding.  So far the majority of my companions in the field are Canadian haha. That is way funny because there are almost 300 missionaries in the mission and only 3 are from Canada. I only need one more and then I would have served with all the Canadians in the mission. Austria is way cool. The dialect is tough for me right now but that is pretty normal. I will be fine in about a week. The Austrians are way nicer than the Germans but they don't want to listen to us stil.. I haven't been able to see the mountains yet because it is rain, rain, rain but once that clears up than it will be fine and beautiful and everything. The area is struggling right now. We only have on investigator who wont get baptized in this life time. We have done so much finding in the couple of days that I have been here. Its weird because we had so much going on in Rosenheim but here its like opening an area but I have 6 months (hopefully) to make something happen here and I am excited about that.

I only have one story from this week. Yesterday we were going by on some potentials and former investigators and kontakting. We were getting stuffed. We went by on this one guy and he leaned out of his window and he told us that he didnt have anymore interest but then he invited us up for tee and cake. He was from Bosnia but that is the classic attitude of Austria. They don't want to talk about religion but they will feed you haha. Definitely different than Germany haha. When people don't have interest there they usually give you cuss words and rude comments not cake haha. 

Love you guys hopefully next week I will be able to tell you about a sick new investigator we found.

Bis dann

Elder Carr

Jan. 12, 2015

I AM GETTING TRANSFERED TO.... KLAGENFURT, AUSTRIA!!!! It is one of the most beautiful areas an American can go in our mission. I am soo pumped. I wanted to go here since the first day of the mission but I didn't think that I would ever make it there haha. My area is in the heart of the Alps and it borders Slovenia and Italy. Pretty AWESOME! Elder Bakewell is Going to Richterswill, Switzerland and Elder Smith is going to Esslingen, Germany. Elder Kastendieck is staying and is going to be training. 

We had a ''Less Active week'' this week. Almost all of our lessons were with less actives.

On Monday we went and visited Bruder D. he is from Brazil and he made that cheese bread that you can eat at Tucanos. It was way good.

Tuesday We had zone training meeting and we got some new mission rules. We have to speak German from 9-9. So my brain has already started to rewire itself. At the end of the day, I can't speak English. It gets broken haha. I am pretty excited about this rule though because it hasn't even been a whole week and my German has improved so much its unreal. I am kind of mad that I wasnt doing this before.

Thursday we went to M.'s house and we shared a spiritual thought about goals and setting some spiritual goals. His wife just moved into her new house so Elder Kastendieck will be able to work with her next transfer too. We are going there tonight to have Familienabend. It should be good.

Friday we had an appointment with the S.'s. They are less actives in our ward and we shared a thought about God being our Heavenly Father. They have some major testimony problems but we hit it off pretty well. 

Saturday was a huge planning day because we found out that Rosenheim 2 is getting shut down so Elder Kastendieck had to learn their area. That was also the day I Found out that I was getting transfers. 

Love you guys

- Elder Carr

I'm going to miss Elder K.

Jan. 5, 2015

Hey Familie. That is so funny that Taylor was in the new chursh youth video. I totally missed her but I watched like 3 times over until I found her haha. I haven't been transferred yet. Transfer calls are on Saturday and it could turnout that I stay in Rosenheim for a 5th transfer we will see. I will be able to tell you whats going down next week. So winter left as quick as it came haha. We got probably 2 feet of snow in 5 days and now there is only little bits of patches. It snowed hard for 5 days straight and then the sun melted it all away last week. 

Last Monday we didn't have any appointments set up after our p-day so we went contacting in the snow for 3 hours. We got stuffed the whole time but that's fine. We also went by on a few potentials and old investigators but nobody was home. Elder Kastendieck and I looked like Yetis when we were done haha. It was pretty cool.

Tuesday we had distrikt meeting and then we went contacting and went by on people again. No one was home. (Kind of the story of our lives this week)

Wednesday we went to the B.'s house and ate Raclette again it was good. We had to be home at 10 and then go to bed at 10.30 like normal but the thing about new years in Germany is they don't have fire work resrtictions so I couldn't sleep all night. I sounded like WWII was right outside our apartment. 

Thursday we went to our bischoff's house for new years and played games with his kids. It was fun.

Friday we went to Familie A.. They are less actives in our ward. We talked about the Iron rod and that we may need to let go of somethings in order to hang on to it. It was a really good lesson. It was the first time that I have ever really felt like a companion and I taught in unity. Way cool.

Samstag we had an appointment with E. but he didn't show up so we are probably going to drop him. pretty sad. After that we went to Keifersfelden and taught Schwester M.. ,

Sunday we had president Kohler just show up. That kind of freaked me out. But it was ok. I think Rosenheim is getting moved to a 2 man area soon and he came to see if our ward really needed 4 missionaries... It doesn't. It would be a busy 2 man area but that's how it is supposed be.

we have lost contact with M. this week. We haven't been able to get a hold of her. Keep that in your prayers.

Love ya

-Elder Carr  

Dec. 28, 2014

'Im glad everyone had an awesome Christmas. Ok I will just get into the week

So on Tuesday we had a lesson with M. and it was amazing! We taught her that she needs to start developing a testimony and finding answers for herself. We asked her what she thought about the Book of Mormon so far and she said that she thinks its true and we asked her if she believed Joseph Smith was a prophet and she said yes. Elder Kastendieck than asked her what the next step would be when she finds out that the Book of Mormon is true. We all sat there for a while and we told her that the next step would be baptism and she said ''Ya I know''. BOOM!! My brain exploded when she said that. Hopefully we will set a date this week.

Christmas was great on the 24th we ate Raclette and played games with Familie D. On the 25th we went to the Lübkes and ate rabbit and skyped you guys. On the 26th we went to the J.'s and ate goose. We didn't have a white Christmas but the day after it snowed and didn't stop until yesterday so now we have snow everywhere and it is absolutely freezing now haha.

Sunday was awesome. M. didn't come to church and I was a little bit disappointed about that at first and by the end of the meeting I was glad she didn't come... We have a member in our ward who had a problem with the Book of Mormon for years but he still came to church and has been active. well. He gave a talk on Sunday and it was on a topic of his choice so he talked about horses. He literally read every scripture in the Book of Mormon that had horses in it and then he read a scripture that said that all the Horses would be killed in the last days of the Nephites and that's why there wasn't any horses left when Columbus found America and the he said Amen and sat down. WEIRDEST TALK EVER haha. That was his problem all those years? HORSES? REALLY? I am just happy he finally found an answer. haha

Love you all and have a great new year

-Elder Carr