Weddings... Broken Car.. Stomach flu and other fun stuff....‏

Dear Family and Friends,

      This week has been a rather eventful one. It started out with Zone Conference on Tuesday... Where they made me give my departing testimony to all of the other missionaries. I was really good and managed not to cry the entire time I was on the stand but the minute I sat down I just lost it. Sister Rehm (our mission presidents wife) just watched me the rest of the meeting while poor Sister Perrin tried to console me. Then, the next day out vehicle coordinator came down and tested our car because we told him two weeks ago that the brakes were broken.

      So, he came and discovered that they were indeed broken and told us that we needed to get it fixed asap. So on Thursday morning we spent the day at the car dealership getting out brakes fixed. That was nice, now I don't have to worry as much about running over my companion when she is backing me out of parking spaces!! That was nice.

      Then, to make our week better one of the investigators we are teaching finally set a baptismal date so we were stoked about that!! Then we finished the week with a wedding. One of the converts in our ward was getting married and they needed help with set up and what not. So, that was pretty much our WHOLE Friday and a good portion of our Saturday. Then Saturday night I started to come down with the stomach flu and we had to stay home all Sunday. That drove me crazy!! But more than me poor Sister Perrin was going crazy having to stay in all day! So, that was our crazy week!

      In Zone Conference on Tuesday, Sister Rehm got up and gave a really good presentation on how we need to have a personal relationship with everyone in the Godhead. That was an interesting thought. We talked about it a lot and she talked about how out of all the things God could have chosen to be called he chose to be called Father and how important a role that is. I never really thought of it that was but to know that we his children were of up most importance to him is an amazing thought. It made me think about a talk in church a long time ago where the speaker posed the question "We may be active in church, but are we inactive to the Lord?"

       I liked this because honestly, we can go through the motions but have we developed and nurtured a relationship with our Heavenly Father? He loves us so much and yet sometimes we can ignore him and block him out of our lives. But, if we keep him in the center of our lives then we will be blessed. I know that to be true. This is a long email so I will let you all go. But, just know that I love you all and I truly am praying for you:)
Love,

Sister Bice

lesson on charity...‏

Dear Family and Friends,

     This week was a good week.... A crazy one too!! I feel that a lot of the times that is how missionary work goes though. But, I have really enjoyed it!! Right now, we are teaching a 18 year old... I think I mentioned him, he is the one that wants to get baptized in December. But, this week while we were talking with him he has been talking about going on a mission one day which is really exciting!! I hope that he will do so. In fact, recently I have been so sentimental? I don't think that is the right word... But whenever a youth talks about a mission I just get super excited for them and so sad that I'm almost done with mine. I just keep wanting to tell them that they will never ever regret going on a mission. I love being here so much. It kills me a little to think about how soon I am going to have to give it all up.

       But, as I have been serving I have been blessed to see a change in others as well as in myself. Example, one of the Elders in my district I really don't get along with very well. We had a run in that maybe I will tell you about when I am home. But, for weeks now I have been praying to have charity towards him and to kind of forget the things that happened earlier. So, because Heavenly Father works this way instead of just giving me charity he gave me an opportunity to develop charity.

       That experience was kind of humbling and I didn't really want to do it. But, Heavenly Father kept prompting me. So, I finally gave in and did what I kept feeling prompted to do, which was to ask this Elder for a blessing. It was an amazing blessing and it helped me realize Heavenly Fathers love for this elder as well as for me. With that I have been able to forgive him for some of the mistakes he made earlier last transfer. I am so grateful for that.

      So, I think I mentioned this last week but I have been reading a lot in the Old Testament and I really like repeated phrases and in the last few chapters I have been reading Moses is instructing the people not to worship false Gods or Idols since that is Israels biggest down fall. Well, there is a phrase that caught my eye which talks about them serving other gods which is shortly followed by the statement 'which ye have not known'.

      I think this stood out to me because on my mission I have felt that I have come so close to God. I love that it talks about how Israel knows the God whom they serve. God is so involved in all of our lives. Honestly, all one has to do to know God better is to stand back and look for his hand in their life. I promise that it is there no matter how hard or how good the time in their life was, God was there. Why? Simply because he knows and loves each and everyone of his children.

       Just like when we look at our lives we can see how our parents were there protecting or rejoicing or such with us; Heavenly Father is there in the details of our lives rejoicing when we are happy and sorrowing when we are having a hard time. When we follow Him and His commandments then we are coming to know him and when that happens then we see how much he loves each and everyone of us.

      As I said earlier, I have learned a lot about charity recently. Seeing someone that I really didn't like very much through our Fathers eyes was so amazing!! Knowing how infinite and all encompassing that love is kind of left me a bit awestruck. I know that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of us so much. I know that he loves the people maybe we have a hard time loving. I know it and I'm so grateful for it! I love you all so very much and I hope and pray that you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Bice

Last Transfer... AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!‏

Dear Family and Friends,

      This week marks the beginning of my last transfer... Sister Perrin and I will stay together (making her the only companion I have had for over 3 months) and we will continue to work here in Falcon Colorado. With the anticipation of transfer calls this week has been an interesting one. We did a lot of service, we even got to help out building a turf field for a school here in falcon. That was fun.... But, I must say that turf is HOT when it is 90 degrees outside... Sister Perrin and I both burned our knees!

      It was also really funny because we took a Young Woman out with us service tracting this week and you will never guess who decided to come along and help... Her boyfriend.. Who isn't a member of the church... I don't know if you have ever heard of non-members tracting with missionaries but I most certainly had not! It was really funny and kind of awkward. But, he didn't seem to mind it at all. :) Over all this week was kind of a weird one mixed with a lot of laughter and some tears... I didn't know what to do most of the time. But, with school getting back in this week a lot of people went out of town over the weekend to get their last little break/vacation before school started. So we got asked to share the thought at ward council and it was on 'using Gods blessings wisely'. So, Sister Perrin and I were sitting there wondering what we should share.

        What we came up with was 1 Nephi 1:1 "1 I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days." Now I know this scripture is well known and probably used a lot but I was thinking about how much it highlights the difference between someone who used his blessings wisely and his brothers who did not. Laman and Lemuel had access to the same blessings that Nephi lists here. They were born of goodly parents and they were taught in the language of their father. But, the difference is that Nephi used these things to bless his family and others while Laman and Lemuel let them kind of fade away. They chose not to use them. We know from later in the Book of Mormon that because the Lamanites didn't have any writings their language became kind of corrupted. So many times I think we have gifts and blessings but we don't use them. Maybe we don't see how they can benefit others or even ourselves. But, every time we use a gift that God has given us we change a life. I know that to be true I know that God gives us things even our challenges so that one day we can turn around and bless the lives of others.

     So, I would challenge you to go our and use your talents this week, bless the lives of all those around you! Know that I love you all and that I pray for you!!

Love,

Sister Bice

Service... Service... SERVICE!!!‏

Dear Family and Friends!!

     This week was a week of service! We did so much service!! We also had interviews with President Rehm... That was an interesting experience because we had to drive there in the middle of a flash flood. I was a little scared for my life and a lot a bit grateful that I wasn't the one driving the car!! Then of course we had a really fun community service project this week over at a place called the 'slash pit' in Black Forrest. So, if you are like me at all then you are probably wondering right now what in the world a slash pit is..... I thought it sounded really rather scary. But, no worries it is not scary at all. All that it is, is a place where people can bring their mitigation stuff and other branches they have cut off their trees. This place takes it for free and then turns all these branches and ground cover into mulch. So, our job in all this was to help people unload their cars. We got to talk with a lot of people and had a lot of fun! In fact, Sister Perrin and I may or may not have gotten into a soot fight so both of our faces were covered in ash!

      It was so good! We also had a chance to teach the Plan of Salvation to one of our new investigators this week. It was a wonderful lesson, he is a good kid and he has his answer. The only thing holding him back now is that he wants to finish the Book of Mormon before he gets baptized. So, he is thinking he will be baptized in December. We will see though, in August he goes to college and I worry that without that constant companionship of the spirit then he will be so much more vulnerable to the temptations that Satan will throw at him.

      Yesterday, I was reading in Preach My Gospel in the lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and I was under the heading of repentance and there was a sentence that caught my eye. It said simply "Repentance includes forming a fresh view of God, ourselves, and the world." I really like this because just earlier in the chapter it talks about how we need to repent everyday. So, essentially everyday we should be gaining a new and fresh view on God, ourselves and the world. I find that it is easy to let guilt build and weigh on my spirit until the view I have of myself isn't a very nice one. However, if we repent everyday then we will be continually be gaining a new view of ourselves and of those around us. As we do that we develop Charity for ourselves and those around us.

        I know that on my mission I have looked at those around me with a completly new view. I find it crazy that by drawing closer to the Lord and serving and loving him with all of our heart then we are able to develop a new view of not only ourselves but of those we come in contact with each day. I know this to be true because I have seen it take effect in my own life. I know that God loves us and that he is watching over us. I hope you all keep that in mind and know that I love you and that I am praying for you:)

Love,

Sister Bice

Dear Family and Friends

Dear Family and Friends,

      So, this week we mostly did a lot of service! Which mostly consisted of pulling weeds for people. I didn't know this but pulling weeds can make you really sore when you do it consistently for 4 or 5 hours.... Either that, or I'm super out of shape.. I wouldn't be surprised if both were true. But, It was a really good week. Which, I say every week. Honestly though, even on the tough weeks I don't know that a week spent fully on serving the Lord could be a bad one. We were able to teach a lot which is always good:)

       I find it funny though, often on the best weeks I have the hardest time figuring out what to write about in these letters!! Unfortunately, our investigator hasn't set a new baptism date. She has been having problems that don't have anything to do with the church that are just proving to be set backs. It makes me sad but, I know that her testimony is sincere and as long as she holds onto the teachings of the church then she will be baptized. Maybe not this week or even while I am still in this area. But, it will happen. In fact, Sister Rehm (our new mission presidents wife) talked about her conversion and how it took her a really long time and a lot of missionaries before she was baptized. It wasn't because she didn't believe it, it was purely because she didn't know how to tell her parents about her baptism. So, I know that if it is not her time now to be baptized then her time will still come:).

       Other than that I'm not sure I have many other exciting updates, but I will leave you with a scripture. So, this week seems to have been a theme of things, I think Heavenly Father is trying to tell me something. But, recently as I have been reading the scriptures I have noticed how often when it talks about battle it talks about them going to battle in the strength of the Lord. Even yesterday at church all the talks were on how we can have courage through trials. This morning I was reading in Numbers and I usually find it really confusing... And still do but in chapter 14 verse 9 there was a part that caught my eye cause it goes along with this theme. "Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not" Also in Mormon chapter 2 the end of verse 26 "... Nevertheless  the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea, we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak like unto our brethren."

       So, I believe I mentioned already but last week was kind of rough for me. Somethings happened that just caused me to think 'why me? My whole mission I have worked hard to be so obedient and be a good missionary and person. So, why do I have to go through this trial?' But, as I have been studying this week I have realized that if we are obedient and doing our best and constantly drawing closer to the Lord then there is no trial that we go through that he is not with us every step of the way for. No matter what if we are following Him then every trial we face we face with him by our side. There is no trial or pain that we can suffer that Christ has not already suffered on our behalf. HE and only He knows our exact pain and exactly what we are feeling. We can always turn to him to help us and to heal us. This is something that I know to be true!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!

Love,

Sister Bice