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