Some Pics

                This is a girl from our ward that does a lot of work with the missionaries her name is Taylor.

                                        This is Sister Horrocks and I with our huge ice cream cones!

This week has been crazy!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been crazy! ... I can't even remember all of what has happened since last I e-mailed!! We started out with some service, we went to the soup kitchen which was really fun! I was in charge of busing tables so I was able to interact more with people than Sister Horrocks who was serving the food. It was good fun, I don't think I've had to clarify to more people that I am NOT a nun than I did in just a few short hours working over there. I also got all sorts of random questions such as "your Mormon so you don't believe in dancing right?" "... Ummmm ... No we believe in dancing" "Oh, yeah! You guys just don't believe in coffee" "Nope, we don't drink coffee." I even had the opportunity to teach a little bit of the first lesson all on my lonesome. It was a blast, but it really made me think about how blessed I have been in my life. Especially when we saw children come in, it was worse that day as well because it was snowing super hard and to watch these people who have no where to go walk out in that weather broke my heart. We also had the opportunity to teach seminary!! Our members went out of town for their son's wedding and they Sister White teaches seminary so she needed someone to sub for her while she was gone. We volunteered and then realized that they were in Revelation!! AHH! We were freaking out all week and spent a bunch of time studying because you can't really teach something that you yourself don't understand. So we tried our hardest to understand it... It was an adventure to say the least, and all in all I think the lesson went pretty well. Lets see... What else happened this week... Umm... We had an adorable little girl come up to us while we were eating out with Harriet and just introduce herself. She wants to be an missionary one day:) It made me feel a little bit famous;) Well I guess that leaves us to Sunday which was amazing of course because Harriet got confirmed AND another cadet from one of the other wards got baptized!

      In fact we were on our way into the baptism when Harriet came floating up to us (she had just gotten out of an interview with the bishop) and said "I just got my temple recommend!" So we are mega excited because we will be able to go do baptisms with her for her first time. She also spoke at the new member fireside that we hold once a month. She was really nervous to get up and bear her testimony but she did wonderful! I did not get called up to give an impromptu testimony this time which was a relief! Overall, Sunday was a  wonderful day! So, before I go just a quick thought from my personal studies! Its in Matthew 9:12-13 it says, and this is talking about Jesus Christ and when sinners came unto him and sat down with him and the Pharisees were asking the disciples why Christ was eating with sinners and Jesus hears and says: "But when Jesus hear that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and no sacrifice: I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Isn't that such a great verse? Many times in life Satan tries to convince us that we are not worthy to pray or to use the atonement. However, Christ didn't come to the world expecting us to be perfect, rather he came into the world because he knew that we wouldn't be. If we were perfect then we would have no need for repentance, and  if we had no need for repentance then there would have been no need for the Atonement. But, one thing that a lot of missionaries have been saying here that I love is that if you were the only one on the entire earth that Christ needed to perform the Atonement for then he would still do it. He is our ritualistic physician, and if we turn to him he can heal us. I know that this is true! I know that God the Eternal Father and his son Jesus Christ love and care for each and every one of us personally and they never want us to suffer. I love you all so much! Have a FANTASTIC week!!!

Love,

Sister Bice

Dear Family and Friends

Dear Family and Friends,

Yesterday was one of the most amazing days of my life!!! Yesterday, Harriet got baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I didn't know that I could feel so much happiness but seeing how happy she was just made me so much happier that we were so privileged as to be allowed to be there with her on such an important day. She has taught me so much more than I think I could have ever have taught her!! We also had an amazing lesson with one of the less active members that we are working with. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a while and hasn't been progressing. Many times we have been asked if we should drop him but Sister Horrocks and I felt that we needed to keep meeting with him and that it wasn't the right time to drop him. So, we did! Well the last time we met with him was amazing!! Why you may ask, well because in all honesty we didn't teach him anything! We had only gotten as far as sharing the scripture we had prepared when he had a 'light bulb moment' and pretty much the spirit taught him from there. I really think he is going to progress from this point on, he knows what he needs to do and now he just needs to do it. It's crazy how the times I feel the most successful as a missionary are the times that I talk the least ... But that is how it should be, our purpose as missionaries is to invite the spirit. If I can do that then I know that I have achieved my purpose:)

     Goodness! I don't even know what to write about! I feel like I have seen countless miracles in the past week and I don't even know where I can start. But I guess I can share with you all my testimony. I know without a doubt that this church is true, I know that it was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that living this gospel is the quickest and surest way to happiness in this life and that we can truly ENJOY to the end because no matter how tough times may get, and no matter how many times people may tell us we are wrong. I know that true and lasting happiness will come if I but hold on to the word of this gospel. I know that what I am doing out here in Colorado is truly the Lords work. I love this gospel with all my heart. I may have shared this scripture with you before but I love it! Its in Alma 30:8-9 "For thus saith the scripture: Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve. Now if a man desired to serve God, it was his privilege; or rather, if he believed in God it was his privilege to serve him..." I love that so much!! Honestly, it has been such a privilege to serve him, to stand as HIS witness at ALL times and in ALL things and in ALL places. It has been a privilege for me to meet the people I have, they have all touched my life in innumerable ways and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given me to dedicate my life to him for 18 months. I love you all so much!!

Love,

Sister Bice

Snow Anyone?

Family and Friends!!

This week was a glorious week! Of course I can say that because lets face it I'm a missionary and no matter how tough things get I can always keep my chin up because I know this work is far greater than myself. On Tuesday, we got to do a mini mission, meaning from 8:00 in the morning when our studies started to 10:00 at night when planning was over we had a temporary companion. Her name was Jenny and she is going on a mission here soon and wanted a 'mission experience' before she went. It was a bit hard to learn how to teach in a threesome but it was good fun!! We even took her tracting for about 15 minutes and the only person we tracted into was a member.... But! I think she had a good experience with it which is what we were praying for.

     We also had a miracle this week!! We ran to wal-mart to get some treats for district meeting. Only we were getting some very specific treats that we could not find. So we were wondering all over and finally found them, we were talking about the price when a man came past us to buy something. He made some comment about what he was buying and then.. He stopped and talked to us!! We taught him a quick lesson right there in wal-mart and we even have a return appointment! It was great:) In fact, we have been challenging almost every member we talk to, to do a gratitude journal and have the first thing everyday be a miracle that they saw. I think that as a companionship the fact that we look for miracles each day and acknowledge them has made it so that in this past week we have seen more miracles than we have in previous weeks. It is such a testimony to me that God has a hand in our lives and blesses us when we acknowledge his hand.

      In fact, we got to be someones miracle this week! This week it Allison's(the member we live with) prom! So we REALLY wanted to see her in her dress before she got picked up so... we got home as fast as we could so we could see her... Only when we got home she wasn't there yet and Sister White was upstairs trying to frantically sew on the sleeve to Allison's prom dress to make it modest. So not to waste any time, Sister Horrocks and I jumped in to help. There was one point where I had to literally sew Allison's dress ON her! But, we got her out the door and off to prom with both sleeves of her dress on so it all turned out great!! So along those lines I have been reading in 3 Nephi where Christ is healing the sick and seeing the people one by one, and it made me think of the Hillary Weeks song where it said "when he had a world to save, he had a world of time to stop and hold a little child." So as I was thinking this week I realized that if the Savior of the world with the most important mission ever had time to stop and serve those around him. Then we should as well, we all have lives and we all get super busy, but do we allow ourselves to stop and serve those who may need it? I know that I don't do as well as I should. Sometimes, I put on my blinders and just do what I need to. But, how many times have I missed out on being someones miracle because of that? The thought kind of made me sad! So, it's my goal this week to render some kind of service to EVERYONE I come in contact with. I would challenge you all as well to look for someone in your lives who could use your smile, your testimony or your service, if you do I promise that you will be someones miracle!

I love you all so much!!!

Love,

Sister Bice

Wow! What a week!!

Family and Friends!!!

     Wow! What a week!! I LOVE conference week, I'm always sad when it is over. But! Here soon we will get the ensign and then I will get to study and re-read the talks until October when conference is here again:) Let's see... where do I even start with this week... I don't even know. I'll start, I guess, with Anthony's lesson. Anthony is an investigator that we have been teaching. He is going to basic here soon, so this was our last lesson with him :( Anyways, it was a ROUGH lesson. One thing Sister Horrocks and I have learned about the Springs is that they are brutally honest sometimes. So we were really bummed after the lesson, and were just frustrated with so much! But, as Sister Horrocks keeps telling me, whenever we have a really bad week it just means that Satan is trying to stop us from achieving something really good. So what was that really good thing? Well we have 2 new investigators!! Both are super solid! Jake is the first one. He doesn't have ANY religious background, but he is really excited to learn about the gospel. In fact, we had to do a transition lesson because the elders started teaching him, but he is in our ward. The elders had taught him half of the first lesson and we had planned to teach him the second half. When Jake got to the lesson, however, he informed us that some OTHER family ward elders had tracted into him and had given him and his roommate the full first lesson. So, we figure the Lord really wants him to learn about this gospel. He watched conference with us on Saturday morning (he even took notes) and we are seeing him later this week. We are super excited!

The other investigator was a member referral and we were super nervous, because we were informed that she had already read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, all of Doctrine and Covenants,  has started the Pearl of Great Price, and is halfway through Jesus the Christ. She has also apparently watched every available Elder Holland talk. So, we were nervous that if she had done all this and hasn't desired to be baptized yet, then we were in for some serious anti questions. This, lucky, was not the case. She read all of this in three weeks! Not only that, but she is a cadet at the academy, so I don't know when she had time to read everything, but she did!! Anyways, the lesson with her went REALLY well! In fact, she has a baptismal date! I'm so grateful for the privilege the Lord had given me to be the missionary that teaches he. I feel like I did nothing. Actually, I didn't. The Lord has been preparing her for this gospel for a long time. She also came and watched both sessions of the Sunday session of conference with us. :)

    Anyways! I've been reading in Alma lately and I LOVE the scripture in Alma 13:28: "But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering." This is one of my favorite scriptures because of the promise that we will not be tempted above that which we are able. However, I didn't notice until recently the condition that God gives us. We, in order to be strong enough to resist all temptations that come to us, must humble ourselves before God and pray to him continually. I can testify to everyone that power of prayer! I know that even just a quick prayer said in the mind holds great power and can help us to resist and overcome all temptations. But not only that, it can help to lighten our burdens and make us more able to carry through and persevere through the storms of life. I love you all and I hope you are doing well!!

Love,

Happy Easter!

Family and Friends!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!! The family I am staying with has an 18 year old daughter. So yesterday morning Sister Horrocks, Allison(their daughter) and I got to participate in an Easter egg hunt that the Whites had prepared for us. It was pretty intense and I lost.... by like 20... But that's okay cause what I did get I was able to keep. They hid little chocolate eggs. They also put out an Easter basket for us it was so sweet! We are so blessed to live with the Whites, they defiantly take care of us! This week has been an AMAZING week! I can defiantly see the Lords hand in my life and in what Sister Horrocks and I do. Tuesday we had an appointment that didn't show up, so as back up we did a stop by. We went to a girls house that we didn't recognize from her picture in the ward roster. Well when she answered the door we did recognize her. She is not less active like we had thought. But! As we got talking we found out that she had decided to go on a mission, but some things in her life (a boy) had come up and she wasn't sure anymore. So on Sunday she had gotten a blessing from the bishop and he told her that she would know her answer when she received it' and then we randomly showed up to her house. Her mother quizzed us to see if maybe the bishop had sent us but we had by complete accident scheduled her in as a back-up appointment thinking that she was a less active member. Anyways, her mom came up to us at the Easter Cantata (a huge music performance the stakes around here do annually) and told us that she had decided to go on a mission and that she was so much happier about her decision than she was before.

Then on Wednesday we had specialized training where we got to talk about the Atonement and watch the new bible videos! So GOOD! http://www.mormonchannel.org/bible-videos here is a link to them I strongly recommend watching them! They portrayed the Atonement in a way I had never seen it!! We also got to teach our investigator Anthony, who told us he wasn't going to get baptized before he left for basic training but that he still wants to know and find out if this is the true church. Which is awesome because he has been meeting with the missionaries for a while but he told us that in the last month or so he has gained the desire to truly seek out the truth rather than take the lessons out of pure curiosity. Sorry this letter is long! So many good things happened this week though!! So, since it was spring break and we work in a YSA ward, EVERYONE was out of town! But, that is okay! Why you ask? Because we got to go tracting!! Okay admittedly it is hard, but Saturday we went tracting with a member. For the first forever it was super hard. people didn't open their doors and when they did they were extremely rude. So Sister Horrocks and I were panicking because we wanted out member to have a good experience. Well, we knocked on a door and they guy went off about how 'Mormons are a cult and the book of Mormon is blasphemy' So we were really bummed and downhearted and out of time. So we began to head back to the car but Sister Horrocks was all 'no! We can't leave like this we need to do one more door' so that one more door turned into four more doors because no one would answer. Finally, we stood in front of the last door on the hallway, but Valarie (our member) pointed out that when we were walking up we had seen a girl leave this door. To that Sister Horrocks responded "then we will convert her husband" and knocked anyway. Well lo' and behold her husband actually answered the door and was super interested! We have a return appointment for Saturday so keep us in your prayers!! Anyways, This letter is super long so I will let you all go!!

Much love!!

Sister Bice

Family and Friends!!

Family and Friends!!

     Wow! what a week! We have been crazy busy trying to get everything done.... Oh but before all of that, I shoveled snow for the first time on Saturday!! It was pretty exciting and the White's were shocked. Apparently people here know where St. George is but they don't know that it is a desert that doesn't ever see enough snow to need to shovel it... It has been cold and very snowy the past few days but I think I will survive... It would be a lot easier to survive though if there was less wind! Ah! I tell you what Colorado is always windy! But this week has been great! Mostly we have been doing ATM's (assisting the members) where we help them with mission plans for themselves and finding people in their lives that they can help. One thing I have noticed this week is that I apparently need to pray more... out of the 20 lessons we taught I can count on one hand the times I wasn't the one called on to pray. At first I thought it was because Sister Horrocks was asking who they wanted to pray so I decided I needed to start asking but that has made no difference. In fact the times she has been the one called on to pray have been in the lessons that we have taught with that person before so they felt awkward calling me to pray two lessons in a row. I even got called on to pray in Relief Society yesterday! So I have said a LOT of prayers this week!! But that alright, more blessings!! On Wednesday we went up to UCCS the college up here and stood at their free speech corner (which was outside and freezing!!) and I got to practice ITL's which means inviting to learn... its a fancy way of saying street contacting. I'm really good at saying 'hi' to people but I didn't talk anymore than that. I'm working on it though! Its my goal for this week:) Especially, since it is spring break for the schools down here so our best bet in finding people to teach will be tracting. We also have an appointment with a girl that Sister Horrocks contacted at UCCS, her name is Kacie and she seems super awesome! So we are praying that she is open to the gospel. Also Wednesday night we were asked to go to a Cadet social and well socialize with the cadets. It was fun we got to know a lot of new people from all 3 YSA wards in Colorado Springs. In fact, a couple of the cadets served in Tokyo Japan with my Japanese tutor from Snow College! Crazy right? We also got to meet with our investigator Anthony, he is stubborn. He doesn't want to pray to know if the gospel is true he kept saying that if it was true it would be manifest to him by the spirit therefore prayer was unnecessary. So, we had decided to go in and just read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with him, we were going to read on faith. But! Sister Horrocks decided that we should read from where he was at in his reading. It just so happened that he was in 1 Nephi 15. Well, it just so happens that in 1 Nephi 15:11 it says "Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said? --If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things will be made known unto you." It was awesome!! Unfortunately, he leaves for basic training in a little over 2 weeks. So even if he did accept our invitation of baptism he wouldn't be able to be baptized until much later... You have to go to church for 3 Sundays in order to be ready for baptism and he has only been once. He missed yesterdays service... But keep him in your prayers. I think he knows this is what is right he just doesn't want to act on it yet.. Anyways, sorry this letter is so long! I will let you go. But before I do I just want to share a scripture in 2 Nephi 26:28 and it is talking about Christ "Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged one like unto the other, and none are forbidden." we all have been given the same privilege and invitation and that is to come unto Christ. So I challenge you all to keep a gratitude journal, to look for 3 things each day that Christ has given you in your life and then pray to thank him for those blessings:) I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Krista Bice