Monday, August 6, 2012

oh hey! It's me again!‏

Meine LIEBE Freunde und Familie,
...So I was writing in my journal last night and thought....AH! Where did July go?? Sheesh! The time sure does fly..
Bahaha. So I was having personal study this morning when the handy rang. It was a number I didn't know so I answered it...
"Hallo..this is Bruder (no idea..) and I am a member too...I heard that Jesus Christ was coming on August 4th and just wanted to ask if it was true??"
...the man was talking to fast and mumbling that I had to ask him a good 4 times to repeat himself. I thought I must be understanding him wrong, but time and again I kept hearing the same thing. So, I put his concerns at ease and told him that, to my knowledge, Jesus Christ was indeed not coming on the 4th of August......some people are just strange.
    Anywho! We had a great, crazy, busy last week here in Göppingen! Ich bin K.O! But, at the same time, I've never been better:) On a quick side note, we had our first district meeting of the new transfer on Tuesday and it hit me that...I am now "Distrikt Oma!" Mensch! I am the missionary that has been in our district the longest. Go figure..it's been nearly 6 months! I guess it's an..honor? Haha. Anywho, beside District Meeting, we also had Leadership Training in Stuttgart with President and Sister Miles. It was SO great! Sister Lin and I got an assignment to speak to everybody. When the zone leaders called and told me what it was, the both of us had to laugh. "How to ask good questions." That is something that Sister Lin and I have definitely had to work on. Not our forté. But! With the help of the Lord and Preach my Gospel, we pulled it off. :) Hmm..oh! We also had dinner with our branch president this week! in my 5 months here, we hadn't yet been able to pull that off. It just never worked out. So! It was a small kind of accomplishment:9 It was super great to get to know Pres. and his family a little better. We are really trying to work with the members more here, and the best place to start is with the bishop! Or in our case, branch president:)
     So! Even though last week was pretty great, this week is going to be even better! Let's see..what do we have planned...hmm..Monday-Friday? Life as normal. Then on Saturday? Baptism of Andreas Schöbel! And Sunday? Baptism of Sarah Agbonbaye! Meine Güte. I tell you what, I have experienced some MIRACLES here in Göppingen the last 5 months. Absolute miracles. It has been so neat to see the Lord's hand in the work here. He has taken our little area and made it begin to blossom:) I am so grateful to be able to be His servant here at this time where His angels are really preparing  people to hear our wonderful message. At any rate, this weekend is going to be busy for sure. Our Ward Mission Leader has been absolutely great to work with us and really take the lead on planning the services, which has been really helpful. Br. Fromm is a gem. It's great to work with him:) I am just so excited for Andreas and Sarah! What a wonderful and life changing step they will be taking this weekend as they enter into a covenant with God through the waters of baptism.  They are both really happy wonderful people, but what they probably don't fully comprehend is that they are about to get a whole lot happier. This is, after all, a gospel of joy:)  
     Also! This weekend we get to have....a sleepover! So we have a rule in our mission that when an investigator gets baptized and the missionaries who originally started teaching them are still in the mission, they can, when possible, attend the baptisimal service. Annd since Sister Schulze and I are the ones who started teaching Sarah, I called and invited her, and she got permission from President, but the trains on Sunday don't ride as often so! She and Sister Funk have to come on Saturday and spend the night at our place! Schade. ;)
        As for little old me, I've been doing just dandy:) I tell you what, having patience with yourself sure does make a difference when working to overcome weaknesses! I've been studying ch. 6 in VME lately, and patience was something I decided I needed to work on. Patience has never been my forté and I've really come a long ways in being patient with other people, but a lot of the times I forget to be patient with myself. The mission field is a great environment to learn such an attribute:) I'm so grateful to be on a mission. I heard or read somewhere the other day that WE didn't choose to be here on a mission. We decided we WANTED to go, and then God decided to allow us to come here. I'd never thought about it that way before but I suppose it's true. I am day after day filled with gratitude that God allowed me to come here to this mission to serve Him for a short 18 months. The time is going by so fast, and I feel like I am always running to keep up with it, but these last 8 months have been the most wonderful of my life. Even and especially the hard times. I wouldn't take those ones back for anything. My sister Teila sent me a talk about faith the other week and Richard C. Edgley says "And because of my faith--even in the seemingly worst of times--I recognize with peace and gratitude that in reality it is the best of times." That is something I have really realized here on my mission. To be honest, my eyes have really been opened to how much wickedness and sadness there is in the world. But even despite it all, I have no doubt that these really are the best of times. The time when the fulness of the gospel is here on the earth. What a marvelous time to live. What a marvelous time to be on a mission.
    Anywho! My time is once again spent! Ich habe dich alle sehr Lieb! Danke sehr für euer Gebete und Gedanken!
Love,
Sister Bice

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