Feb 6, 2011

Dear Family!

Hello! So here is the BIG news for the week: Sister Burnham and I have been on pins and needles all week waiting for the call Saturday night to let us know what was happening with transfers. . .  Saturday we went around to most of our investigators and took pictures just in case AND after all of that. . . I’m BEING TRANSFERRED!!! AHHH!! I’m leaving my Chelsea family! To tell you the truth, I have kind of known for the last 3 weeks that this was going to happen. It was only a little surprise, one that I am very excited for!   I have really come to love the people here: My companion, my investigators, my members, the Bishop and especially all of the people that help us out so much every day!  I’m sad to leave all these wonderful people and I will miss them all like crazy, but I just know that God has plans for me elsewhere. I am excited for the challenges ahead that (like Di said) make us stronger! We spent the day yesterday visiting mostly ward members and families and taking pictures. They were so sweet, Sister Taylor (one of the people we spent Thanksgiving with) told me, “Come back and visit me sometime, then I can actually call you by your real name!” J I know that there are wonderful people everywhere, but this ward was so much like our home ward! What a blessing it was to start here, I’m so thankful for a loving heavenly Father who knows what my needs are and what he can do to help me stretch and grow a little more! J So, that’s the big news but the bummer is that I don’t find out where I am going until transfer meeting tomorrow! But  I will have a few minutes tomorrow to shoot you all a quick e-mail with my new address, so you can watch for that! J

This week we had a lot of success with our Jessica Hall’s! J  (We have 2- One 17 year old that we call Jessie, and the other is like 24 and we call her Jessica. It gets a little confusing sometimes, but it keeps us on our toes!) So, with Jessie she is praying about when to be baptized!!! We fasted with her yesterday and had a really good experience. At least I did! She didn’t make it to church yesterday so we haven’t talked to her yet. But hopefully we will see her tonight before I leave and we can chat and get some pictures. We told her that transfers were coming up this week, and there was a possibility that one of us would be leaving. After the lesson we were getting ready to go and she came up, put her arms around me and asked, “You aren’t leaving me, right?!” It seriously made we want to start bawling right then and there! It was definitely a “PM!” At that moment she was just like my little sister! I totally flashed back to when you all dropped me off at the MTC and Hannah gave me one last hug before I walked away.  J She really reminds me a lot of you Hannah! You are almost the same age, super cute, very involved and so dedicated to what you know to be true! J She is one of the people that I will miss the most! But hopefully I will be able to come back to her baptism in the next month or two.

With Jessica Hall this week it was a very special spiritual experience. We were at the Temple’s home and Brother Schulte was also there, we had lunch then she had a lot of questions! (I LOVE QUESTIONS- A BUNCH!!) So, we answered her questions and basically ended up teaching her the gospel lesson. (You know, faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.) Last week part of her commitment was to write down what she believed and what she hoped to believe. It was AMAZING!! We talked about baptism, how Christ was baptized, then she shared what she hoped to believe; the spirit was SO STRONG! She was crying and told us, “I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I am crying!” We all smiled through our tears and explained that was the Holy Ghost helping her to know that she was headed in the right direction! J After that it was totally natural to invite her to be baptized and she said yes with no hesitation!!!! Her husband is less active because he works a lot and is so tired that he spends Sunday trying to catch up on his sleep. But she is working on getting him to take her to church and I just hope and pray that he will be the one to baptize her in the next few months! She is so ready, and SO golden! I really love her so much! J Once again, I will really miss her, but hopefully I will be able to come to her baptism in the next few months.

Oh, so the other good news with transfers is that Sister Burnham is training again!! J President Holmes called us Sunday to tell us that news and we all agreed that Chelsea is a wonderful place to start a mission! The next couple of transfers we are getting a sister from Australia and one from England, so Sister Burnham is hoping for a companion with an awesome accent! Ha ha, I’m sure she will be great though, no matter where she is coming from!

The Wrathall’s son, Ryan is coming home in like a week! (Brother Wrathall is the Ward Mission Leader.) They are SO excited! It is so fun to hear them tell us about his experiences!  He is in California but I think that he has had more near death experiences than anyone I know! Ha ha, good thing that he is a missionary! The Wrathall’s are the GREATEST! We spent Christmas with them, they are the ones who got us a Christmas tree, they gave us each a new shirt and a pink snuggie for Christmas and they feed us dinner practically every Sunday night! We look forward to correlation every Sunday night because we know we can always count on them for anything! Even if it is just Brother Wrathall making us laugh off some of the stress we have acquired during the week. What a great family that has been a huge blessing for me! I love them so much! J

Mom, you asked what we do all day every day? Well, it’s hard to say! Sometimes I feel like we do the same thing over and over, but each day is so different! Each person we see is different, and it keeps life interesting! All I can say is that we TEACH!! We LOVE and we SERVE! J

So, funny thing of the week; we have started going to the church to exercise every morning and it has been really good for us. But to get to the church there is a short cut through the cemetery. It’s only a little scary driving through all the headstones in the dark and watching for the deers that jump out when you least expect them! (Yes, Michigan has deer too! J) The funny thing though is that we drive through Hell to get to district meeting and we drive through the cemetery to get to the church! Ha ha! (Okay, so it sounds super lame in writing, but we thought that it was pretty hilarious!J)

Well family, I think that is about all of the excitement for the week! I love you all super mucho! I probably won’t have time to write you all today because I have to pack all of my stuff! (Wish me luck, you all know how much I LOVE packing!) Watch for my e-mail tomorrow with my new address! I love you all so so so much!!! CTR!!

Love,
Sister Bishop!

P.S.  Thanks everyone for the letters! I LOVED the one from Dad! I had to smile though; this winter has been pretty mild so I don’t know if Hell is going to freeze over! LOL I have some pictures of us there with snow on the ground though, I think! I will try to find them and send them to you!  I want a share of the bonus from which ever customer is paying you for it thought! HA ha, JK! Letters from Dad are always special though! J Lot’s of love!

P.P.S Di- sorry you probably won't get a snail mail from me this week! You are FANTABULOUS THOUGH!! Keep up the hard work with school, it will pay off eventually! You are such an awesome example! Thanks for the reminder about faith and fasting, it was just what i needed to hear! Tell Ang happy birthday and fix her an awesome cake! :) I LUFF YOU!! 

Diamond Diamond Heart Heart!!! Diamond Diamond Heart Heart!!! Diamond Diamond Heart Heart!!! Diamond Diamond Heart Heart!!! Diamond Diamond Heart Heart!!! Diamond Diamond Heart Heart!!! Diamond Diamond Heart Heart!!! Diamond Diamond Heart Heart!!!