Liebe Grüße aus Österreich:)‏

Liebe Familie und Freunde,

Fun fact for the day: "Austria" in German is "Österreich". "Öst" means "east" and "reich" means "kingdom"..so! Austria means "eastern kingdom"...fun huh? :)

So! Another crazy week in Wels. Actually, I feel like every day this week I thought to myself, "Man, today has been crazy.." but in the end I decided it was just from being in a dritt. Two companions is definitely more exhausting than one companion. Hah. But! It was great. We actually saw Sister Leben off yesterday in Salzburg. She is in Munich right now, and MIGHT come back to us at the end of this week if her Visa doesn't get here soon enough. We are keeping our fingers crossed for her. The poor thing is ready to go to her mission...anywho! We had some good adventures last week. I think Friday took the cake. Friday we took a little field trip for an appointment with..Leo! Leo lives in Scharnstein. Scharnstein is an hour long train ride from Wels. But since he came to us on Tuesday, we told him we'd come to him Friday. Wellll it turned out being..just a bit crazy. We took our ride to Scharnstein and then walked 35 minutes, in the snow, to his little village. Right before we got to his house he called and said he was going to be a little late. A little 45 minutes late. Sooo there we were, stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a couple of houses and..a bar. A really sketchy bar. Sister Leben thought it would be a "great missionary opportunity" and wanted to go in, but..there are times in life when you have to put your foot down and draw the line...annd after stepping one foot inside, this became one of those times. So we did in fact not go into the sketchy bar, rather froze outside until Leo came home. But! It was worth it. Leo just has the neatest testimony. And! He has a baptisimal date for the 23 of March! Now we just need to help get him ready for it. :) Oh! Right! I finally earned myself an "embarrassing language FAIL" story! Are you ready? So, there we were talking over dinner and Leo asked about the Word of Wisdom. So we explained it a bit and were talking about why it was important. I explained to him that it was largely because our body houses our spirit, and so we need to take care of it. In German they usually say the body is a "shell" of sorts. Welll there happen to be two words in german that sound very similar. There is "hülle", being "shell" and then there is "hölle", being...hell. Apparently with my little american accent he understood the latter of the two. After what I thoguth was a good explanation Loe said "..I am a little confused..." No wonder! What I had told him was "Our body is a hell for our spirit..." Uhh...I would be confused too! But! I re-explained it and we caught the mistake. I couldn't help but laugh. It happens to the best of us..? Hahah. At any rate, the week was good. And I feel like I had a lot of "ah-ha" moments which is always good. And Sister Judd (who by the way is a GEM! I love her!) made some good plans for this week so...fingers crossed?

    So! Though the week was great..I feel like I don't have a lot of stories. So! I will just share with ya'll what I learned today in personal study. :) I read a talk from Elder Holland called "Israel, Israel God is Calling." Super great talk. Towards the end it said something along the lines of "We can't do everything, but we can do something..." Whiiich I really loved. I feel like this lesson is vital to living a life capable of influencing those around us for the better. I know personally that somethism, I feel like I need to do "everything". But I aslo know that the moment I try to take "everything" be the horns and wrestle it to the ground,  I tend to get overwhelmed and end up doing more or less..nothing. I think the real challenge is focusing on the SOMETHING. On my mission, I have really had to laern the difference between doing everything, nothing, and something. Obviously, I have not done everything. Not every person I ahve talked to has joined the church, and not everyt less active member in the areas in which I have served has come back to the fold. But, for my own sanity's sake, I have to believe that I have done something. Whether God seeth it fit in His wisdom to allow me to see the effect of my efforts or not, I have to believe that as long as I am doing my best, what I am doing out here is doing something for someone. I am not perfect--I can't do everything--but God isn't going to condemn me for that, nor is He going to punish the people whom I serve for my imperfections. If  we give God our hearts, and give of our heart and love to everyone we know, our Father in Heaven will make sure that something good comes out of every day of our lives. Of that I am confident. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to toil in the Lords vineyard. I am so grateful for the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the testimony my mission is helping me develope and strengthen. I am grateful for my wonderful family-what a wondeful support you all are. I pray that in the coming week you all can find a little time to forget about trying to take on EVERYTHING, and focus on doing SOMETHING thoughtful for someone you love. Ich habe euch alle lieb! Remember to set a smile on your faces and show the world who you truly are--Children of God.

Liebe Grüße,
Sister Bice

PS. For you more valiant readers, I read this quote this week, and would HIGHLY recommend it. It is a real thought provoker...
"When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten, the most obvious sin is some sin against charity. I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards to those particlar acts. They would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create teh rats, it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the porvocation does not make me an ill tempered man; it only shows me what an ill tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily, they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.
Apparently the rats of resentment and vindictiveness are always there in teh cellar of my soul.
And if, what we are matteres even more than what we do-if indeed, what we do matteres chiefly as evidence of what we are- then it follows that the change which I most need to undergo is a change that my own direct voluntary efforts cannot bring about. After the first few steps in Christian life we realize that everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by  God." Everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God. So? Let us give ourselves to Him, and let Him change us. :) Love ya!