grüß euch! schon wieder..:)‏

This is the Von Trapp family mansion from the Sound of Music

Liebe Familie und Freunde,
Alright, I think you all need to take a seat, because I have some big news...
WELS HAS AN INVESTIGATOR!!! Ja Wohl! The long search has...definitely not come to an end..but! It HAS decided to take a turn for our favor! Actually in all honesty, he found us. Like Frau Hausmann! Acually..I got the story second hand because it happened while we were on an austausch so I was in Neumarkt..
Oh! Our austausch! Well we actually had zone training meeting in Salzburg on Tuesday (which! By the way, was wonderful. I think the Salzburg zone is the best zone in the world..) and then afterward we had our exchange. Sister Drury and Sister Marquardt headed back to wels and I headed out to Neumarkt with Sister Armstrong. And I...have never been so afraid in my whole life. Hah. Neumarkt has a car. A car which Sister Marquardt drives. Unless of course Sister Marquardt isn't there, in which case Sister Armstrong drives. That however has only happened...once. Last Tuesday. Yep, I got the..privilege..of experiencing Sister Armstrongs first time behind the wheel. And if her panicking wasn't enough to scare somebody, her driving was! I mean, I am not saying I could have done any better but..naja. Turns out there were miracles happening in both our areas. The Welsers were found by a new investigator, and us Neumarkties..made it home in one piece!
I think the only bad thing about exchanges is..the food. It is always awkward eating other peoples food. I never know what to do with myself. I was trying to feed myself breakfast and saw some cereal. It is actually the cereals that Sister Drury is obsessed with and buys every week, but I had never tried it. I thought to myself, "oh! Sister Drury's favorite cereal! That should be safe..." So I poured myself a bowl and....it tasted more or less like dog food. I told Sister Drury that if I had to start off every day eating that stuff, I would be eternally in a bad mood. Hah. Naja. To each his own. ;)
So! Our new investigator! The sisters were sitting on the train talking about zone conference, when the guy across from them just quotes a bible scripture to them. They had a nice little chat, gave him a Book of Mormon, and made out an appointment. Which appointment took place on Saturday, and was SO good! It was our first real live appointment here in Wels for a long time. Mensch, it felt really great to teach again! We also noticed that we were  a little out of practice..but! We had an awesome couple from our ward along as a joint teach, and the Spirit was there, And! Danny is just straight up awesome. Such a solid guy, and totally eats up everything about religion. He ended up pretty much giving himself all of the commitments we had planned to give him. Towards the end of the lesson he said "sooo if you are a church you must have a ward..and you must meet sometime..." "Yep, sure do..every Sunday in Wels.." "...how should I dress? When does it start? How do I get there?" Hah! What?? Naja. Sadly he didn't end up being able to make it. But! The will was there! And we are meeting again with him this week. And we are real excited about it. Feel free to pray for Danny!
My other big news for the week..I fell in love. We got on the bus home one night and a boy came to the back and sat next to me. His name is Stefan. We had a nice little chat.
Stefan is 3.
Baha. He this kid was a crack up. He totally just ditched his mom and came and sat with us in the back. He was a big fan of my fingerless gloves. We are friends. Cutest. Kid. Ever.  I gave his mom a pass along card.:)
Anywho..aside from a new investigator, we also found some new potentials this week! Quite a few! Which is a big deal for us! Hah one of them was funny..we had actually went by on somebody who had asked for a BOM but they weren"t home. We went to leave and...I couldn't open the gate. (Yes, you CAN get locked INSIDE peoples gates here...) Mensch. Soo I was contemplating the chances of us getting over the 7 foot spiky beast (..and by us I mean Sister Drury..hah I have hopped my fair share of fences in my life, and she was in..a pencil skirt..) when..Sister Drury walked up and..opened the gate. Uh..fail? I blame the mittens. But! It was perfect timing, because the little delay allowed us to cross paths with a man a few moments later, to whom we gave a Book of Mormon and exchanged numbers so that we can meet. Afterwards we were talking about the irony and Sister Drury said "..I love that God's way of stopping us is putting Sister Bice in front of a perfectly normal gate because He knows she can't open it..." Hey! Ok..maybe that is sometimes true..but..beggars can't be choosers? Haha. I really do LOVE being a missionary. :)
Annnd of course I learned some really neat things this week during study...buuuut I forgot my study notebook and I don"t remember what they where...hah. Oh! I did learn a cool quote from Sister Armstrong. She said "We can't just pass through our mission. Our misison must pass through us." Such. A big. Fan. But really though! This very topic has been busying me quite a bit lately. I mean when it all comes down to it, the end of our mission is more-or-less-in-a-strange-sort-of-way like the end of our life. (They DO say that we "die" when we go home...) The only things we can REALLY take with us are the friendships we've made, the lessons we've learned, the knowledge we've accumulated, and the person we've become. Whiiich is actually..a lot. And I am so so grateful for the opportunity to be here finding out what life actually means and how to deal with it using the gospel. I read in an old notebook of mine sometime this week, "The atonement should be applied daily. Not because we are great sinners, but because we all fall short and the Atonement is what brings us closer to God." I really love that. I feel like before my mission, the "Atonement" or at least "repentance" always had kind of a bad connotation. But! That is not at all how it us. Repentance, the Atonement, is a gift, that we are ALLOWED access to...EVERY DAY! Now THAT is amazing! What a blessing. There was an awesome talk in the Liahona several months back that talked about how the gospel doesn't just make bad people good, rather, to make good people better. Applying the Atonement in our lives does not at ALL mean that we are bad people. It just means that we are taking advantage of the opportunity to become better. So neat. :)
Ok I am here in a room with my whole district and they are talking and I can't concentrate and so I am just gonna give it up and scamper..I will do better next week. But! I love you all! Thanks for your love and letters and prayers!! And as always...don't forget to smile:)
Ich hab euch liäb!!
Sister Bice