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