Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Ganz liebe Grüßen! (I have no idea if that is correct German..probably not..hah)‏


Liebe Familie und Freunde,
Zuerst! Ich habe euch alle sehr Lieb:) Vielen dank für euer Briefe, Gebete, und Unterstüzung! Ihr seid alle super:)
     Ok second...a question to all you Bundys.....how was the reunion?? Meine Güte I hope it was just the best ever! It smelled like campfire here this weekend. A little cruel and unusual but! Next year. :) But I really do hope you all had a good, safe, relaxing weekend out on good old Mount Trumbull.
     As for Germany? Well, I guess I don't really know how Germany is. But Göppingen is great! This last week was..well..it was an adventure. Days in the life of Sister Lin and Sister Bice are always an adventure. Actually we had an exchange this week! With the Pforzheim Sisters:) This time around I stayed here in Göppingen with Sister Marquardt! She was in the MTC with me! It was fun to talk and see how far we've both come since then. It was really fun to work with her! She's such a sweetheart. And so humble. I learned a lot in those 24 hours! But then of course it felt like "home" to pick up Sister Lin and be back here with her. :)
     Speaking of Sister Lin! She's great. Hard to believe this transfer is already coming to a close. It's been so neat to see how much she's grown the last 6 weeks, despite her Trainer! Hah just kidding. But really though. She's had two trainers this last transfer. Sister Bice, and the Lord. Sister Bice has been doing what all she could, but the Lord has been doing all the work. This week we have Interviews with Präsident Miles! I am excited. He's such a great mission president. We also have transfer calls Thursday. I think Sister Lin and I will be staying here for one more round. But who knows. I've kind of had a feeling the last couple of weeks that someone else will finish her training. I guess we'll see oder?
    so! Enough with the Zukunft and on to the Vergangenheit! Some announcements for the week? Saturday, 7/7/12 marked my 7 month mark. WHAT?? I've been in Germany almost half a year! Hard to believe.
     Oh! The 4th of Juli! Don't worry, I didn't lose the American in me. A sister in our ward invited us over for Hamburgers, Hotdogs, chips..and Kool-aid! I don't know where she got it. It doesn't exist here. Germans think it's too sweet:) Anywho, she decorated in red, white and blue and everything. It was cute:)
     Annnd Saturday! We had a lesson with...Frau Hausmann! I was a little nervous because we decided we needed to go over expectations with her, and we wanted to commit her to baptism. So! We did just that. We had a great lesson, and at the end we said "We know there is a lot more to learn, but when you come to the point that you know that what we're teaching is true, will you be baptized by someone holding the proper authority from God?" Annnd she said yes! Now we just need to work on committing her to a date:) Also in the lesson we talked about that first night we met..two months ago. We already knew it was a miracle from our side, because we weren't actually supposed to be on the train we met her on in the first place. We'd had a lesson with a less active, who was 45 minutes late, and then we were stuck in a dorf, and just happened to catch a train that got us home JUST before 9pm. So! In our lesson she told us her side. She said that the train shouldn't even have been in Geislingen (where we got on). They'd stopped there and the loud speaker came on saying they couldn't go on for at least 30 minutes for whatever reason. Which is why Sister Schulze and I were able to catch it. Then, Frau Hausmann was originally in a different compartment, but some drunk kids got on so she moved to the next one and ended up sitting across from..the Mormon missionaries. She thought "..I should talk to them". But then decided against it, got off the train, and started to exit the Bahnhof. But then she changed her mind, turned around, talked to us, and the rest is history! Well, so far. The moral of the story is: is so neat to see how God puts us where He wants us. So many of the things that "go wrong" in any given day, are actually just our Father, leading and guiding His work, just the way He wants it.
     So Saturday was great, but I guess the highlight of our week was Sunday. We had 4 investigators at church! FOUR! In one day. :) AND one of our less active Sisters! It was SUCH a great feeling. I could have burst with joy to see all of their smiling faces sitting in the congregation. It's days like yesterday that make this all worth it. I love seeing the Gospel work in peoples lives. I love watching it change them. And feeling it change me. "Shall we not go on in so great a cause?" I vote yes:)
     Zum Schluss! For district meeting, we were all supposed to pick our "favorite chapter" in the scriptures and share it. It was actually..way neat. I really liked it. Mensch! I had such a hard time choosing a favorite1 I figured I'd make a list and then pick one..I ended up with a list of like 15. Hah. But the one I finally chose was..Moroni 7:) I just love everything about that chapter. For times sake, I only read verse 41 to the end. Charity. When I read about charity in this chapter, I like to replace the word "charity" for "Christ", because Charity is the pure love of Christ, and Christ is Love.
"....he must needs have Christ; for if he have not Christ he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have Christ. And  Christ suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if you have not Christ, ye are nothing, for Christ never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto Christ, [who] is the greatest of all, for all things must fail..." Then of course I love verse 48. That's my goal. That when he shall appear, I shall be like Him. I'm not perfect. But I'm trying. And sometimes I feel like I don't try my hardest. But I'm working on that too. Sometimes I feel like I just don't have much to offer. Annnd to be real honest...I don't. But Christ does. And I'm not out here for me. I'm out here for Him. I love teaching the Plan of Salvation out here, because it reminds me over and over again just how perfect it is. It truly is a plan of Happiness. All the how's and the what's and the why's? I don't know. But I know it's true. And I'm grateful for this opportunity I have to share it.
     Alright! out of time and this is already way too long! Sorry! I wish you all a wonderful week! Don't forget to smile! Someone may need it, even if you don't! 
Much Love,
Sister Bice

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