Halle Familie und Freunden!
So! This week has been super crazy, and super busy, and I don't have a whole lot of time, but I'll sure do what I can here..
Fun Fact: The word for "Relief Society Presidency Meeting" in German is "Frauenhilfsuerernigungpräsidentshaftversammlung´´ yes, it is all one word. Yes, it is approximately 48 letters long.
Tuesday! Was the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the MTC. And guess who came? Jeffrey R. Holland. And Russel M. Nelson. It was SO neat! Holland bore a short but incredibly powerful testimony, and Nelson gave a neat message about the history of missionary work, and our duty to represent well those who have come before us. The devotionals here are always so great. But my favorite part of when the Apostles come is...their eyes. So much light in their eyes. Sometimes I think they are tearing up, when really, it's just the light! It's amazing.
So! This week! Well we got to host the new missionaries again on Wednesday, which was way fun! Your first day here, you have a little orange dot on your name tag. The Dork Dot. Love it.
Also on Wednesday! My companion and I were recommended by our teachers to help with one of the new missionary workshops. It was...so interesting. We played the missionaries for a big group of newbies, and after 15 minutes, they would turn it over to them. Oh. My. Lands. Mostly, it was a reaaaalll eye opener to just how much we've learned in these last 9 weeks. The newbs were awful! My favorite was "So..I noticed that you had your eyes open during the prayer...I thought you said you were a Catholic??" Hah! One of the new missionaries said that to their investigator! It was crazy. It made me realize that I haven't necessarily learned a whole lot of new doctrine while being here, but rather, learned to use and teach the things I already knew...which makes a world of difference...
Umm! So Thursday was our last day of class, which was super fun. We spent most of the time sitting on the floor while our teachers went through their mission albums with us and told us stories about their missions. It made me SO EXCITED to get to Germany! And also mildly terrified. Haha.
Friday we had In Field Orientation. Which was super informative! I quite enjoyed it. Mostly we just went over things like street contacting and working with the members and all the important stuff we never talked about in class. :)
And! Every Thursday, a wife of one of our branch presidency members comes and visits us in our room...this week Sister Hickens came, and read an email from Sister Smart's first week in Germany. She was in the group above us, and is in the Alpine mission. She said that as soon as they got there, they were handed some pass along cards and a book of Mormon to place. She said 1 of 9 missionaries actually succeeded in the task. Bah! So i guess that is what I will be doing here in TWO DAYS! Walking around a German street, trying to make myself understood enough to share the gospel....and I can't wait. :)
So! Some thoughts from this week. There are a few of them..bear with me..
First! 1 Nephi 17:13 is Christ talking to Lehi and his family and says. "And I will be your light in the wilderness; and i will prepare the way before you..." Sounds good right? Well the German Book of Mormon says "And I WANT to be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you..." A bit different hmm? Christ WANTS to be our light. He WANTS to prepare our way. But the choice to follow, the agency, is left in our hands. If we are not being led by the Lord in our lives, it isn't because He isn't trying...
Also! "Happiness is not a destination, but a mode of transportation." -President Monson. I think sometimes we get too caught up in wanting to be happy that...we forget to be happy! Sounds silly right? Yet it happens. I know personally I sometimes think "Well, when such and such happens, THEN I will be happy..." or something to that effect. When! All I'm doing is wasting the moment. Happiness really and truly is not a destination. IF we are always waiting for happiness to come, it never will. We must not wait for happiness to find us, but we must find happiness in each and every day of our lives.
I think my favorite thought from this week was shared by meine Lehrerin, Sister Christopher in her parting testimony. She said "Don't just go on missions. Become missionaries." How true is that. It is all too easy for us to go out, serve a mission, do missionary things, wear missionary clothes, follow missionary rules....and never actually become a missionary. "Missionary" isn't a calling. It's a state of being. A state of being where we have so much love for our Savior, and so much love for our fellowmen, that sharing the gospel is the only logical course of action! The big take away that I'll be forever indebted to the MTC for is simply learning how to love. "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." And when they know how much you care, you'll be able to change lives.
Well! That's all I've got for this week! I'm sure I'll have some more interesting material to share next week as I will then be in GERMANY! Thanks so much for all the love and letters and prayers. I love you all!
Love,
Sister Bice
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