Returned with Honor

Elder Caraway returned home today - Friday, March 22nd, 2013 -

after serving his Heavenly Father honorably in the

Alpine German-Speaking Mission

for 2 years.

Well done, Spencer!

______


“Missionary service is a priesthood duty —
an obligation the Lord expects of us
who have been given so very much.”

[ Thomas S. Monson ]

Montag, März 18, 2013

Untersberg!

Going up the mountain with the cable car.

At the top!

The cloud moving in!

In the cloud!

Montag, März 11, 2013

Man, this last week was pretty metal. It was like 50-60° degrees outside. We went outside without jackets or anything, and that was very nice. People are a lot nicer when it's nice outside. Even though it was nicer outside, we were still unable to find anybody. People were nicer, though, when they said ‘no’ (ha). You have to look at the bright side of things.

We also got to meet with Johannes 3 times, and that is the most we have gotten to meet with him in one week so far. Missionaries are supposed to have daily contact with their investigators. Sometimes I think that is a little too much. I think meeting with him 3 times was perfect. He is making progress like crazy, which is good. He still hasn't received an answer about Joseph Smith, he said, but we think he has and just hasn't recognized it yet. He feels the Spirit every time we meet with him, but I believe he is wanting a huge vision type of thing, and a very spiritual experience where he can say that he knows for sure. He's doing good, though.

Last week for P-Day, we went to Werfen, Austria. We went to a cool castle in this really metal valley with these Alps surrounding it. Sadly, the castle was closed - but it was still worth it. I sent some pictures home. I can't wait to show you guys all of the photos I've been taking. They're pretty metal.

I translated on Sunday in church. There were, like, 6 Americans in church that needed translation, so I translated. Man, that was hard and not that fun. I can translate English into German much easier than German to English. Sorry if my spelling or English grammar is not the best. Sometimes I find it difficult to express myself in English. I feel a little at a loss - or a man without a language - because I can't express myself perfectly in German, and then I know I can't express myself in English like I cold have. I have forgotten a lot of words that mean specific things in English. Sometimes I'm a little worried because I can't write good English anymore. Oh well, it's all good.

A new rule has come out for missionaries. Missionaries are now allowed to email anyone they would like and not just their family. I was informed from my mission president today about that. I thought that was kinda crazy. Doesn't really apply to me anymore since I've only got one more P-Day after this. That would of been nice, though, to be able to email people that I taught. It would have made contact with them much easier.

[In response to a comment from home:] Yes, there will be 230 missionaries in my mission instead of 140 now. They all start coming in the day before I leave. 30 new missionaries come in the day before I leave, and then another 30 come in the next transfer or next cycle of new missionaries.

Wiederhören (Goodbye) -

[ Elder Caraway ]

______

Werfen Österreich :D

Montag, März 4, 2013

We got to meet with Johannes twice last week and he is doing so much better since he has stopped smoking. I hope he keeps it up. He told us how his mother had always hoped that he could stop smoking and I think that’s the motivation that is helping him a lot. I believe his mother has already passed away. We got to teach him about the Plan of Salvation and he loved it. I can't see how you wouldn't love it, you know? He enjoyed it a lot.

Thats all we really got to do this last week. We are going to go to some sweet mountains today, hopefully. It has warmed up a lot today. It's, like, 50° outside. It's nice.

Bye -

[ Elder Caraway ]

Montag, Februar 25, 2013

We had a cool experience this past week, Elder Mochon and I. Our one investigator, Johannes Hufnagel, has been trying to stop smoking since we starting meeting him. He was a pretty heavy smoker. He was smoking about 20 cigarettes a day. He has gradually cut back every time we have met with him, though. 3 days ago when we were meeting with Johannes, he told us how he is struggling to stop smoking. Once he said that I received an impression immediately to tell him about Priesthood blessings and ask him if he would like to receive one. I acted upon the prompting and he wanted to receive one. Then Elder Mochon gave him a blessing that he would stop smoking. Johannes told us yesterday that he hasn't smoked since he received the blessing! Talk about awesome. He was way happy to tell us that and is just happy that he has finally stopped smoking. It was definitely a miracle that happened because of faith. It was seriously a miracle. He was addicted to nicotine way bad, but now because of the Priesthood he has become healed, I guess you could say. We haven't been seeing much success in finding new people, but the Lord has seen our hard work and has been blessing our one investigator to help come closer to baptism. It's pretty awesome. That what pretty much the highlight of the week.

We didn't do anything else this last week besides try to find people interested in the gospel every day, all day. That can be fun sometimes. You meet some crazy people. We got to meet with some friends of a member this last week and they came to church on Sunday and really liked it! I hope we can start teaching them. The only reason why we couldn't is that they are very busy. They are both Italian. One is from Sicilia and has a totally typical mob boss voice. It's metal.

We went to a Red Bull factory place last week for P-Day. It was cool.

[ Elder Caraway ]

______

This is an airplane hangar where Red Bull has put up a bunch of

different vehicles they have sponsored. They were getting ready for a

show as we were there.

Montag, Februar 18, 2013

I felt a lot better this last week. Then my companion is not sick at all anymore. It was actually the first time I've gotten sick on my mission. I've had really good health on my mission, luckily (knock on wood). The only thing is I still cough a lot. Man, I cough every 2 minutes it feels like. It gets annoying really fast (haha).

We weren't able to meet with Johannes again. We finally got a hold of him. He said he has been having problems with his phone. We made an appointment with him and it fell through, sadly. That was the first time that we made an appointment with him and he wasn't there when we came. Oh well. We think he just forgot and went out somewhere because it was Saturday night and normal people do something on Saturday.

We found a lot of new potential investigators this last week. Hopefully some of them will turn into investigators. It hasn't been too cold or anything here. It's still always on the border of freezing. It snows like crazy and then during the day it will melt most of the time.

Funny story: We had transfers on Thursday and one of the other Elders here in Salzburg, named Elder McClellan, was getting transferred. A couple of members came to say goodbye to him at the train station. One of the members that came is a total goof. He was helping Elder McClellan get in the train and stuff, and when trains come through they usually just stay for a minute and then they continue on their coarse. Well this member got in the train with Elder McClellan. When the doors close that means that the train was leaving in 3-5 seconds. Haha ... and we have no idea what this member was doing in the train and the doors closed as he was still in the train. The doors will lock so you can't open them while the train is moving, so the doors locked and this member got trapped in the train with Elder McClellan and rode with him all the way to Munich (because the train went to Munich non-stop). Haha ... Munich is 2 hours away from Salzburg and he had no ticket. It was pretty funny. That made my week.

Today we want to go to this Red Bull factory thing. I don't know if Red Bull started here in Salzburg or not, but the guy who came up with Red Bull is from Salzburg, so they have Red Bull stuff everywhere.

[ Elder Caraway ]

Montag, Februar 11, 2013

Man, was the past week rough. I was sick alll week. We didn't get to do a whole lot. My companion was sick, as well. We are both feeling better now, but during the week last week it was not the funnest. We didn't get to see Herr Hufnagel at all since we were sick. I hope he's still doing good. He didn't come to church on Sunday.

We had a ward activity on Saturday, though, and it was for the Carnival. The theme was American Indians and they asked the missionaries to do something in this activity. I don't exactly know why, but they did. The ward mission leader provided us all with Indian outfits and we did this "rain dance". It was quite entertaining (lol).

Today I had like the best P-Day in my life, though. We went to Berchtesgaden in Germany. This is where Eagles Nest is. We wanted to go to Eagles Nest, but the roads were too dangerous to drive on, so Eagles Nest was closed. I saw the most beautiful part of this world I have ever seen in my life, though, today. The Alps are one of a kind. I took a lot of photos. I wish I could send all of the photos home. I will just have to show you when I'm home.

Today is the first day of my last transfer. I will be staying in Salzburg with Elder Mochon for my last transfer. I will be home in 5 weeks. Normally transfers are 6 weeks, but this one is 5 because of the new missionaries coming in.

Tschüß (Bye) -

[ Elder Caraway ]

______

The house where they filmed The Sound of Music!

It’s 5 minutes away from the church.

Me doing the metal at the top of the mountain!

Metal

Montag, Februar 4, 2013

The last week was okay. It wasn't too cold and it wasn't really warm, either. One day it will snow, one day it will rain. The weather is always on the border of freezing, so it’s in the 30°'s.

We haven't found any new people to teach in the last week. People have been in grumpy moods lately. I stay positive, though, when people are mean to us and like to think that their girlfriend just broke up with them or something funny like that (lol). Everyone has their days. We are still teaching Johannes Hufnagel. We got to teach him twice last week. He is a very strong smoker. He's trying to stop and is going to this class during the week, but he doesn't seem to be making much progress. Our last lesson with him we had a member present with us and it went very well! We watched The Restoration DVD with him and taught him more about the Restoration and we actually committed him to baptism. He won't be getting baptized until I'm already home. He needs the time, though, but he's getting baptized and thats sweet! He came to church on Sunday. There was a baptism here in Salzburg on Sunday, too. An investigator of the other Elders here in Salzburg got baptized. He was a young guy named Daniel. He's only 23.

The photos I sent you are from a small village called Adnet. It's about 30 minutes south of Salzburg. We got a media referral that lived out there that we contacted, so that’s why we were out there and it was soo pretty. Austria, well at least eastern Austria, is the prettiest place I've ever seen. The landscape here is crazy.

Transfer calls are this upcoming week, but I'm 99% sure I will stay here in Salzburg until  I go home since I only have one more transfer, and then back to the real world :/ . Oh well. It's all good.

Tschüß (Bye) -

[ Elder Caraway ]

______

Montag, Januar 28, 2013

Not too much happened this last week. We went outside every day and tried to find some people to teach. Nothing really too new. We didn't find many people who expressed any interest in the gospel, sadly. It was very cold this last week, too. It was okay during the day, but as it got dark ... man did it get cold. It was around -20°C here this last week during the evenings. It was about -10 to -12°C during the day. Then it snowed a lot this past week. That was cool! The snow is fun. It’s fun when it turns to ice, but it's also dangerous because I fell on my butt a couple of times this last week (lol). It was pretty funny. Luckily it wasn't in front of anybody because that would have been embarrassing. Only my companion had a good laugh, but he fell on his butt, too, so then I had a good laugh. We didn't have 5 eating appointments this last week. We only had three. Two of them fell through. That's okay, though. It's all good. The members here in Salzburg are pretty chill. We met some cool families.

[In response to a comment from home:] It’s very rare when you get to extend in my mission. It’s really hard to extend because of visa issues. Germans and Europeans can extend without any problems, really. My mission, as well, is going to have a hard time training all of the new missionaries coming in. Especially with Sisters. We don't have enough Sisters to train all of the Sisters coming. The problem with all of the Elders coming, is finding places for them to live. It's very hard to find apartments over here. It's going to be exciting! Sadly, I'm going home when it all really begins. Oh well. Can't do anything about it. It's all good.

Tschüß (Bye) -

[ Elder Caraway ]

______

Montag, Januar 21, 2013

We found our first investigator here in Salzburg. It is a man named Johannes Hufnagel. He's cool. He's about 55. We've only met with him twice - and how interested he is in the gospel, I'm not exactly sure. After the first two visits he made it sound like he's just more interested in what we believe, and not changing himself. We'll see how it goes, though. He was supposed to come to church on Sunday but he didn't come. We met with the bishop and his family yesterday after church. The bishop's wife is an American. It was a lot of fun. The longer I'm on my mission, I see how much fun Americans are. We are a funny people. We like enjoying life and we're fun to be around (lol). We have 5 eating appointments in the upcoming week, though! I've never had so many eating appointments in one week on my mission. It's going to be great. It’s gotten a lot colder here, as well. It was around -10°C this last week, and this week it should be around -15 to -20°C. It’s not the warmest.

The last week was good, though. Not much happened. We just tried to find investigators every day, all day. We had interviews with President Miles. It was way awesome. I had a really cool spiritual experience with President Miles in our interview. It was my last one until I go home.

Tschüß (Bye) -

[ Elder Caraway ]