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| At the church where silent night was written |
Liebe Fam und Freunde,
Oh sunshine, how I miss thee. 'tis now four long days since I have felt your loving warmth..... Here's the deal. If I wanted to ride through a cloud, I would get on an airplane. NOT on a bike. But alas, on the way to the email shop this morning, I found myself getting wet. I was perplexed. I looked up to the sky...nothing. No rain. No drizzle. No anything. Just straight up water hanging out in the air, trying to give me shower #2 for the day. Why do people live in humid climates anyways? Sheesh...haha In other news! The work goes on here in Wels, Österreich! This last week was busy. We had a mini finding day with the Elders, and street display in Ried, a Zone Training Meeting in Salzburg, and a way neat Family Home Evening with Laura in Linz, in which we made homemade ice cream in a bag, while teaching "the gospel of Jesus Christ". It was great. :) We also had some wonderful lessons WITH wonderful joint teaches. Wow, the members here really are amazing. We met with our Ward Mission Leader yesterday and talked about what we can do to involve the members more and give them more opportunities to do missionary work. I am looking forward to the upcoming transfer and am so grateful to be staying here in Wels... Oh! Right! I am staying here in Wels! We got our transfer calls last week. Friday morning. 7:30am. Phone rings. I made Sister Baxter answer it. They couldn't possibly tell her anything we didn't already know. Sad, but true. My wonderful other half is leaving me this week. She'll be sitting at home in just 5 days. Crazy. I am excited for her though. She's a wonderful missionary here in Wels, and she will continue to be a wonderful missionary back home. I am so grateful for the time we've had together. She's taught me a lot, and changed my mission and my life. Thanks Sister Baxter. :) So! Anywho. Then she gave the phone to me. "Good morning Sister Bice, how are you?" "I am doing just dandy President, and yourself?" "Thank you, I am doing well myself.....Sister Bice, we would like to extend to you a calling..." He kept talking, although he didn't really need to. Those words were all too familiar, and I had a little flashback to just 6 months ago. Besides which, the only "calling" that can be extended to a Sister (at least in our mission..) is....trainer. I guess the best word to describe the feelings inside me is...humbled. It's funny...you'd think I'd feel more prepared or qualified to train than I did when the Lord asked me to train Sister Lin 6 months ago. I mean, I HAVE learned SO much since then. But! I feel about the same as far as the concept of training goes. With one exception. Instead of the panic I felt before training Sister Lin (yes, I was a little panicked..) when you called on Friday I just felt...peace. Why? Because although I don't maybe feel exceptionally "qualified for the job", the Lord showed me with Sister Lin that this is HIS work and HE is going to qualify HIS servants, regardless of any weaknesses and imperfections found in their trainers. "Any two people can accomplish anything. As long as one of those people is the Lord." I think some Golden Spirit is just what Wels needs. I've been so privileged to work with such an experienced missionary as Sister Baxter, and I have learned so much from her. So! Now the challenge will be trying to take the last 11 months of experience and use it to the benefit of my new sweet companion. I have no idea who she is, but I have decided I love her already. I have already done some reflecting about my first experience training, and made some goals concerning what I would like to do differently, etc. I have a lot of expectations for myself and my companion this coming transfer. We are going to be a lot of things. We're going to be obedient. We're going to be diligent. We're going to be successful. But most of all, we're going to be happy. Because! Being a part of this Great and Marvelous work and not being happy while doing it is a shame. So! I guess from here it's just going forward with faith and trusting in the Lord and loving every moment of it. :) At any rate, sorry mom, you'll have to wait a week on pictures! I ride out to Munich on Wednesday, and I will find out who she is on Wednesday night, then Thursday it's back to Wels and back to work!
Annd before I scamper, just want to pass a little bit of Bishop Lehmann wisdom on. He bore a short testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday and it really made me think. He is a handy man for a living. He explained that last week, he got a phone call from somebody who had a broken keyboard that they wanted him to pick up. He drove over, and saw the keyboard. His first thought, "Broken? It's not broken. There are just three keys that are broken..." I mean, we all know that a piano can still be played with three broken keys. Buuuut anybody relatively musically inclined knows that it wouldn't sound all that great. In fact, depending on which keys they were, it could sound pretty terrible. Then he talked about how that relates to our lives. Sometimes we like to fool ourselves by telling ourselves everything is in order when we only have "a few broken keys." We keep on plowing forward with our song, avoiding the broken keys when we can, and when we DO come across it, we kringe are perhaps a little embarrassed, but then keep going. I thought about it a little after the meeting, and realized that that is exactly what Satan wants. I mean, obviously if you were to push a piano off of a 7 story builing, there would be absolutely no question to it's being broken. But Satan doesn't ask us to jump off of 7 story buildings. He just chips away at us, one key at a time. We tell ourselves that it doesn't really sound that bad, that we are just fine. But! Why play on a piano with broken keys when you can take it to the repair shop and do it right? From my experience, Jesus Christ is an excellent piano repairman. :) So! My commitment to all of you is to do a little reflecting this week, and think about which of your keys are broken, or could use a little tuning. Don't settle for a piano with even one broken key. The Savior came to the earth, and suffered for our sins. The price has been paid. We just need to choose to let the Savior bring our lives back in harmony, so that we can become the Masterpiece He has in store for each of us. The church is true! Thank you all for your prayers and support. Have a lovely week and remember to SMILE!
Love, Sister Bice
PS! Happy thanksgiving everyone! Forget not to be Grateful!!
Annd before I scamper, just want to pass a little bit of Bishop Lehmann wisdom on. He bore a short testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday and it really made me think. He is a handy man for a living. He explained that last week, he got a phone call from somebody who had a broken keyboard that they wanted him to pick up. He drove over, and saw the keyboard. His first thought, "Broken? It's not broken. There are just three keys that are broken..." I mean, we all know that a piano can still be played with three broken keys. Buuuut anybody relatively musically inclined knows that it wouldn't sound all that great. In fact, depending on which keys they were, it could sound pretty terrible. Then he talked about how that relates to our lives. Sometimes we like to fool ourselves by telling ourselves everything is in order when we only have "a few broken keys." We keep on plowing forward with our song, avoiding the broken keys when we can, and when we DO come across it, we kringe are perhaps a little embarrassed, but then keep going. I thought about it a little after the meeting, and realized that that is exactly what Satan wants. I mean, obviously if you were to push a piano off of a 7 story builing, there would be absolutely no question to it's being broken. But Satan doesn't ask us to jump off of 7 story buildings. He just chips away at us, one key at a time. We tell ourselves that it doesn't really sound that bad, that we are just fine. But! Why play on a piano with broken keys when you can take it to the repair shop and do it right? From my experience, Jesus Christ is an excellent piano repairman. :) So! My commitment to all of you is to do a little reflecting this week, and think about which of your keys are broken, or could use a little tuning. Don't settle for a piano with even one broken key. The Savior came to the earth, and suffered for our sins. The price has been paid. We just need to choose to let the Savior bring our lives back in harmony, so that we can become the Masterpiece He has in store for each of us. The church is true! Thank you all for your prayers and support. Have a lovely week and remember to SMILE!
Love, Sister Bice
PS! Happy thanksgiving everyone! Forget not to be Grateful!!
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