...and the beat goes on..‏

me and baxter. pretty much defines our relationship. i miss her!‏

Liebe Familie und Freunde!

..Don't ask about the title of the email...I think it is a song..at any rate, it just popped into my head...ANYwho!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I just love Thanksgiving, because it is all about being GRATEFUL! Which is something that I don't do often enough sometimes! But when I really stop and think about all of the blessings Heavenly Father has given me....WOW! I could fill a book and then some with all of the things I am grateful for in my life. But! I will put that on my "to-do" list and spare you all the time...hah. But! I DO hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed spending some time with your families:) I spent Thanksgiving...on a train. But! We celebrated it on Sunday with some of our American members, so I did in fact get to eat some turkey. We didn't have any pie, but I guess that just means I will have to make up for it next year. ;) And for all of you wondering if they have Black Friday here? They don't. Thank goodness. I have always admired those that are brave enough to leave the house on Black Friday. My sense of self preservation never did let me do that...

Anywho! Let's see where to begin with last week? Monday? Monday sounds logical...so! Monday! Monday was lovely. Sister Baxter and I hopped on the train out to Linz and met up with Laura and the Elders for...the Christmas Market! It was a grand old time. The Christmas markets here are adorable. As well as a little guady and overpriced...but! It just brings a fun little atmosphere to the air. Yesterday we went contacting near the Christmas market in Wels and mensch! I have ever seen so many people in one spot in this place since I got here! Unfortunately amidst the "hustle and bustle" it wasn't a great atmosphere for people to want to give us the time of day..but! We will keep on keeping on until we find the One!

Annnd besides Monday, the rest of the week was more or less a blur. Tuesday was Sister Baxter and I's last real day in Wels together. Annd we actually ended up spending most of it in Ried helping the Elders. But! It was good. And Wednesday we headed out to Munich. It was the weirdest feeling knowing that both of us were riding out there, and only one of us was coming back....oh, Sister Baxter. I may or may not have cried after she left. Hmph. It's so crazy to think that she is HOME! And what's crazier? That's gonna be me in just 6  months...

So! fast forwarding a little bit...."The verdict" with the new companion? First off, do you know what never ceases to amaze me about the mission? How dramatically our lives sometimes change at the transfer, and yet how quickly our new situation becomes completely "normal." I love Sister Baxter so much and have missed her like crazy, but already it feels like Sister Drury has been at my side for months. Crazy!  Speaking of Sister Drury, she is just a gem! Wow! Her German is already great, and she has a wonderful "go, go, go!" attitude! Sometimes I feel like I am running to keep up with her! But I have just loved her excitement, her energy, and her sincere desire to share the gospel with everybody! I am doing all I can to make sure that excitement doesn't diminish. Just think how great it would be if EVERY missionary had the "golden spirit" their WHOLE mission! Sister Drury has inspired me to unbury my own Golden Spirit. After our second day here in Wels we came home for the night and she said "Sister Bice...I am a little confused. I always heard that missions were "the hardest thing ever" but...I'm having fun....am I doing something wrong?" I must admit, I couldn't help but laugh a little, because it reminded me of myself at our interview last transfer. I assured her that if she was having fun, she was doing something RIGHT and encouraged her to hang on to that the rest of her mission. Because we are engaged in a great and marvelous AND Joyful work! On a side note, she is from Idaho (which means I have yet to ahve a comp from Utah), has red hair, AND is skinnier than me. For all you doubting Thomas's out there, I am being serious! She also brought exclusively pencil skirts on her mission, which has been a beast with the bikes (..have YOU ever ridden a bike in a pencil skirt? Well, I haven't..but sister Baxter did once, and she said it was hard too!) But! She is a great missionary and is only going to get better with time. :)
As for myself, I am also doing just dandy! I have been once again amazed at the help that the Lord has given me already in the last couple of days. Sometimes I think to myself "What? I can't do that!" But when I trust in the Lord, go forward with faith...well, He has yet to let me fall. Which doesn't necessarily mean He has yet to let me fail. But I am convinced He allows us those experiences just for the sake of our personal growth. :) Lately I have just been concentrating on trying to make my prayers more personal and my study time more meaningful. My mission is just absolutely flying by, and I know I will never get this time back, nor have another time like it in my life. I feel like I mostly have been just tapping into the wonderful resources available to me out here, so I have been trying to figure out how to make better use of them. Which! Is a little tricky but..es geht:)

Mensch. I am out of time. We have lots to do today. But! I hope you all know how much I love you! And how much I love being a missionary! What a blessing. Ich wünche euch alle eine Woche mit dem Herrn!

Until next week und mit lieben Grüßen,

Sister Bice

New Transfer?..Achtung, Fertig, Los!‏

At the church where silent night was written

Liebe Fam und Freunde, 

 Oh sunshine, how I miss thee. 'tis now four long days since I have felt your loving warmth..... Here's the deal. If I wanted to ride through a cloud, I would get on an airplane. NOT on a bike. But alas, on the way to the email shop this morning, I found myself getting wet. I was perplexed. I looked up to the sky...nothing. No rain. No drizzle. No anything. Just straight up water hanging out in the air, trying to give me shower #2 for the day. Why do people live in humid climates anyways? Sheesh...haha In other news! The work goes on here in Wels, Österreich! This last week was busy. We had a mini finding day with the Elders, and street display in Ried, a Zone Training Meeting in Salzburg, and a way neat Family Home Evening with Laura in Linz, in which we made homemade ice cream in a bag, while teaching "the gospel of Jesus Christ". It was great. :) We also had some wonderful lessons WITH wonderful joint teaches. Wow, the members here really are amazing. We met with our Ward Mission Leader yesterday and talked about what we can do to involve the members more and give them more opportunities to do missionary work. I am looking forward to the upcoming transfer and am so grateful to be staying here in Wels... Oh! Right! I am staying here in Wels! We got our transfer calls last week. Friday morning. 7:30am. Phone rings. I made Sister Baxter answer it. They couldn't possibly tell her anything we didn't already know. Sad, but true. My wonderful other half is leaving me this week. She'll be sitting at home in just 5 days. Crazy. I am excited for her though. She's a wonderful missionary here in Wels, and she will continue to be a wonderful missionary back home. I am so grateful for the time we've had together. She's taught me a lot, and changed my mission and my life. Thanks Sister Baxter. :) So! Anywho. Then she gave the phone to me. "Good morning Sister Bice, how are you?" "I am doing just dandy President, and yourself?" "Thank you, I am doing well  myself.....Sister Bice, we would like to extend to you a calling..." He kept talking, although he didn't really need to. Those words were all too familiar, and I had a little flashback to just 6 months ago. Besides which, the only "calling" that can be extended to a Sister (at least in our mission..) is....trainer. I guess the best word to describe the feelings inside me is...humbled. It's funny...you'd think I'd feel more prepared or qualified to train than I did when the Lord asked me to train Sister Lin 6 months ago. I mean, I HAVE learned SO much since then. But! I feel about the same as far as the concept of training goes. With one exception. Instead of the panic I felt before training Sister Lin (yes, I was a little panicked..) when you called on Friday I just felt...peace. Why? Because although I don't maybe feel exceptionally "qualified for the job", the Lord showed me with Sister Lin that this is HIS work and HE is going to qualify HIS servants, regardless of any weaknesses and imperfections found in their trainers. "Any two people can accomplish anything. As long as one of those people is the Lord." I think some Golden Spirit is just what Wels needs. I've been so privileged to work with such an experienced missionary as Sister Baxter, and I have learned so much from her. So! Now the challenge will be trying to take the last 11 months of experience and use it to the benefit of my new sweet companion. I have no idea who she is, but I have decided I love her already. I have already done some reflecting about my first experience training, and made some goals concerning what I would like to do differently, etc. I have a lot of expectations for myself and my companion this coming transfer. We are going to be a lot of things. We're going to be obedient. We're going to be diligent. We're going to be successful. But most of all, we're going to be happy. Because! Being a part of this Great and Marvelous work and not being happy while doing it is a shame. So! I guess from here it's just going forward with faith and trusting in the Lord and loving every moment of it. :) At any rate, sorry mom, you'll have to wait a week on pictures! I ride out to Munich on Wednesday, and I will find out who she is on Wednesday night, then Thursday it's back to Wels and back to work!
 
      Annd before I scamper, just want to pass a little bit of Bishop Lehmann wisdom on. He bore a short testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday and it really made me think. He is a handy man for a living. He explained that last week, he got a phone call from somebody who had a broken keyboard that they wanted him to pick up. He drove over, and  saw the keyboard. His first thought, "Broken? It's not broken. There are just three keys that are broken..." I mean, we all know that a  piano can still be played with three broken keys. Buuuut anybody relatively musically inclined knows that it wouldn't sound all that  great. In fact, depending on which keys they were, it could sound  pretty terrible. Then he talked about how that relates to our lives.  Sometimes we like to fool ourselves by telling ourselves everything is  in order when we only have "a few broken keys." We keep on plowing  forward with our song, avoiding the broken keys when we can, and when  we DO come across it, we kringe are perhaps a little embarrassed, but  then keep going. I thought about it a little after the meeting, and  realized that that is exactly what Satan wants. I mean, obviously if  you were to push a piano off of a 7 story builing, there would be  absolutely no question to it's being broken. But Satan doesn't ask us  to jump off of 7 story buildings. He just chips away at us, one key at  a time. We tell ourselves that it doesn't really sound that bad, that  we are just fine. But! Why play on a piano with broken keys when you  can take it to the repair shop and do it right? From my experience,  Jesus Christ is an excellent piano repairman. :) So! My commitment to  all of you is to do a little reflecting this week, and think about  which of your keys are broken, or could use a little tuning. Don't  settle for a piano with even one broken key. The Savior came to the  earth, and suffered for our sins. The price has been paid. We just  need to choose to let the Savior bring our lives back in harmony, so  that we can become the Masterpiece He has in store for each of us.  The church is true! Thank you all for your prayers and support. Have a  lovely week and remember to SMILE!
 Love, Sister Bice
 PS! Happy thanksgiving everyone! Forget not to be Grateful!!

22! Starting of a new year of life..and almost a new transfer!‏

Liebe Familie und Freunde,
Mensch! What a great bunch of friends and family I have! But really though. I don't know how I got so lucky. Just a little shout out to all of you who sent a birthday wish my way for today. Thank you SO much. It was so neat to read through all of them! I just love ya all so much! It definitely added some sunshine to my day! Which is good! Because I haven't seen the sun once since I woke up! It's raining today. But! There is a german birthday song that says "Heute kann es regen, sturmen oder schneien.." I forget the rest of the words...but! It means "Today it can rain, storm, or snow.." and then goes on to say hat it just doesn't matter because it's my birthday! Haha. "Wie schön das du geboren bist, sonnst hatten wir dich sehr vermisst.." "How nice that you were born or else we would have missed you.." I would just like to turn that around a little and say...how nice that I was born or else I would have missed all ya'll!! Hah my distrikt leader called last night and asked if I was excited for my birhtday. I said "Ja wohl! Nothin' like being one year closer to dying!" Pah. Yes, I am still sassy sometimes. :) Thank you all for being so great. :) So! I woke up this morning at...5am. And tried to fall asleep. Fail. I walked out of the room to see balloons all over the floor and the walls peppered with birthday notes...daw! My sneaky little companion. Still don't know WHEN she did that..hmm...at any rate! Sister Baxter is the best. I am just so grateful for her. Every day. Anywho! I got up, turned on the oven light, sat myself on the kitchen floor, and read myself a couple of conference talks until 6:30. It was lovely. :) So! Enough birthday nonsense! Even on all of the other days NOT my birhtday, I am still doing great. :) Sister Baxter and I are just trucking along here in Wels. We had an exchange last week with the Neumarkt Sisters. Sister McBride and I took over here in Wels. Mostly..it was wet and cold. We had to buy a new light for my bike and as I was trying to open it and load the batteries with frozen hands, I dropped one. No big deal right? Right. UNLESS you are standing over a giant metal grate covering a giant pit of despair. Yep. Never gonna see that battery again. I just had to include that story so that you all know that I am clumsy as ever, and my luck hasn't improved much. ;) Anywho! I had lots of time to think. I am so happy here in Wels, but the work has just been at a stand still lately. So Sister Baxter and I talked about it during planning and came up with some new goals and new things to try out to try and find some new investigators. We've been spending some time trying to get to know the ward better and they are wonderful. Our Bishop even invited us over yesterday and brought us over to his neighbors house along with a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD..unfortunately she was sick and we didn't really get to talk to her...but it was amazing to see that they took missionary work and turned it into a family activity. They are great. We've also started checking a couple families a week and trying to bring them brownies or something of the sort. It was neat, 2 weeks ago we went by a familie and nobody was home except for the 15 year old son, who we had never met because he is inactive (His parents are divorced and his dad is against the church..). We just dropped off the brownies and a note and chatted for no more than 60 seconds and went on our way again. Well! He was in church yesterday! His mom explained to us that right after we brought the brownies, he called her and said, "Mama, sie waren soooo Lieb! Wie so machen sie so was??" (Mom, they were sooo sweet! Why do they just do things like that??) I guess he was just boggled that we would just do something nice for no reason, and decided to come to church yesterday. And we ate lunch with them afterwards. They are SUCH a neat family. I love them. Hah, Sister Auer found out it was my birthday while we were over there and made a last minute surprise cake. Sweetheart.:) Anywho, It was just kind of neat to see how we can have an influence for good in the ward as well as in the lives of all the other people we work with. Being a missionary is great. :) So! Study time! I did a lot of study on D&C 4 this week. What a great section! So short, but so jam packed with wonder! I noticed perhaps for the first time the use of the word "embark". I looked it up in the english dictionary and it said "to board a ship or a vessel". Kind of weird that missionary work is now a ship hmm? But! It makes for a wonderful analogy. All of us here in the mission field (or in life for that matter..) have already boarded our vessel! And, as a dear friend once told me, we have the choice: are we going to be out here on a row boat? Or a ship? We can spend our days and energy rowing away and not really getting anywhere (..if I were paddling we'd probably just be going in circles...I never was very good at the whole rowing thing..) or, we can board a ship with the Savior at the helm and trust that as we all do what we are assigned to do, we will be lead where we need to go. Usually, when someone gets on a ship, it's because they want to go somewhere, usually somewhere "better" than where they are currently at. We hope to sail towards the promised land. But of course boarding a ship takes a certain element of trust. We have to leave solid ground--our comfort zone and sometimes things and people we love--and out on a "risky venture" in hopes of becoming more than what we are. I have a quote on my wall back home, "Ships are always safe at harbor. But that's not what ships are made for..." I have always loved it, and especially in a missionary sense. Sure, I am always safe in my little comfort zone. But! That's not what the Lord has called me to do, and that's not what I was made for. Missions are about sacrificing the "solid ground", setting out to serve the Lord, and being willing to do WHATever He asks of us. ...I am still working on perfecting the application of this knowledge..but! The only way to discover our full potential is to give up our solid ground from time to time and see where the Lord can lead us. Aren't the scriptures just great? :) So! I am almost out of time. We have transfer calls on Friday. I have to admit..I am a little nervous. I mean, my companion is going home. So it's not a matter of IF I get a new comp, rather, WHO. But! If there is one thing I have learned about transfers, it's that the Lord knows EXACTLY what I need, and who I need. Even if I can't always see it from the beginning:) I hope and pray you all have a lovely week!
Liebe Grüße,
Sister bice

Hallo schon wieder! Und schon November!?‏

...zombie pday!

..we got those shirts from an old lady in our ward. she is a little crazy, but we love her:)

Pres. & Sis. Miles, Sister Bice

Stuttgart Zone- Leadership

Liebe Familie und Freunde!

Ja Hallo! Wie geht's euch? We had a really great week here in Wels...with a lot of lessons! First time in a long time. Ok so I guess we didn't have THAT many lessons, but the ones that we had were really good! We also had a couple of new investigators! Really promising ones too. Perhaps the kind that need a little more time than anything, but what is time to the Lord? It's not WHEN we "get there", it's simply THAT we get there. :) Wels is such a wonderful area. The ward here loves missionary work, and are so willing to help. I think for most of my mission, I have felt like the WARD was supporting the MISSIONARIES (which is also great..), but in Wels it feels like us, the missionaries, are supporting the Ward. Which is exactly how it should be. Last week, our bishop invited us and our Senior Couple to lunch. We got there and they had made it all fancy with sugar rimmed coctail glasses and everything. It was really cute. :) Annnd also eight courses. EIGHT! I think I was already full by the time we got to #3. Haha. It was fun though. I love the Lehmanns:)
I got sick last week. I went to bed at 8pm on Tuesday. And slept clear till 6:30am. Annd still couldn't properly function during personal study. So Sister Baxter ordered me to bed and I took a nice 2 hour nap. It. Was. Wonderful. And! I felt like a million bucks afterward. :) It's cold here already! Especially on a bike!  No wonder I got sick! But I have been managing to keep warm :) I will admit that I have looked like a spook sometimes...with my two jackets my wool skirt and my scarf wrapped from my neck clear to my eyes. Throw a bike helmet on top of that and...well, lets just say, its not a fashion show. Hah. I would have NEVER dressed like that back home. But! Desperate times call for desperate measures.
.....sooo I'm sure there were a lot more great things that happened in the week...probably some good funny stories too....i thought of some good ones on the train ride over here...buuuut I am afraid to say..I can't think of them right at the moment...hmm..
Mensch, I am just so grateful to be here. I like the way Elder Miller said it a couple weeks ago. "I am so grateful to be serving here and now!" Obviously the opportunity to serve is fantastic. But it's the "where" and the "when" and most importantly the "who" that makes each mission perfect for the missionary. I bet almost every missionary in the world would tell you, quite proudly and confidently, that they served in "the BEST mission in the WORLD!!" (Little do they know that I am actually the one serving in the best mission in the world..*wink*) But! That's what's so great about it. I took some time last week and flipped through my first mission journal....I don't think I've laughed so hard in a while. I have grown so much since then! Experienced so much. Learned so much. If somebody asked me "So Sister Bice, what have you learned on your mission?" I wouldn't even know where to start. I think one of the things I have learned most is simply to love. I read President Monson's talk from Priesthood session this last week, "See Others as They May Become" and! I loved it. It really made me think. I mean, that is the key to this work. To see others, and ourselves, not necessarily as they are, but rather, as they may become. "We must develop the capacity to see men not as they are at present but as they may become when they receive testimonies of the gospel of Christ." We MUST. It's essential to our progress, and to theirs. Taking a step back from the must, we notice the WE. If you think about it, it really is a kind of "carnal man" piece of advice. Sometimes, we are just a little too far from perfection to see things as they really are, AND be happy about it. So we have to try to look through somebody else's--the Saviors--eyes. Then! It hit me just how absolutely grateful I am for a Savior who, although He sees me for my highest potential and nudges me along on my way to reaching it, also sees me for exactly who and what I am. And He loves me. Weaknesses and all. I am so grateful for that knowledge. We had a lesson with the Young Women again this week and at the end Sister Fuchs said "So we all know that there are a lot of hard things that come with missionary work, but in just one or two sentences, could you please tell us WHY you do it?" It was a great question that I had never actually really thought much about. It was also a great opportunity to bear my testimony to myself as well as the darling young women. Why? Because I love my Savior. Because He gave His life for me. Of course He performed the Atonement for each and every one of us, but every day I am more convinced that if it was just me standing down here on this big old planet earth all by my onesies, He still would have done it. Just for me. And if I can give Him just 18 months of my life in a small effort to say "thank you", then please, sign me up, trials and all. :)
I hope you all have a wonderful week! If you are feeling a little bit down, just whistle a little tune to yourself! That always helps! Then again, so does being a missionary. I don't know how you could NOT be happy with a little black nametag with "Jesus Christ" on it!  I am so grateful to have such a wonderful army of support back home as I am privileged to take part in this wonderful work. :)
Love,
Sister Bice