May 29,2012

Whew!! Hello Family!!!

I am so out of time already!! Ha h, we forgot that the library would
be closed on Monday and we didn't really schedule any time today for
e-mails so, we are trying to squeeze it in on our lunch break and we
are SO out of time!! ha ha! So ironically, This morning i was studying
PMG and the thing that stood out the most was a quote that went
something like this, "Time is the MOST precious resource that your
Heavenly Father has given you, the time you have to serve him full
time is extremely limited. Organize your time and use it to the best
of your abilities!" Well- that is one thing that I am definitely still
working on! :)

So this week has been SO AMAZING!!!! :) :) :) Last Monday when I wrote
you all, I was feeling a little down and a little lost. As I wrote my
letter to President Holmes I expressed those feelings but then
acknowledged that I DO know Heavenly Father loves me and cares about
me! I DO know that He hears and answers my prayers so, I made it a
goal so watch for those ways that he answered my prayers throughout
the week. Are you ready for this?!?!? There were SO MANY MIRACLES!!
WOW! I defiantly have a testimony of the power of prayer!!

- About an hour after writing e-mails, we were doing our grocery
shopping when the Chelsea sisters called us! They informed us that
they were in our area shopping and asked if we would like to join
them. Of course we jumped at the opportunity! That shopping trip was
JUST what i needed! We went to the salvation army and had a BLAST!!! I
don't think that I have laughed that hard in a long time! We had a
wonderful time shopping, telling stories, trying things on but mostly
enjoying each others company! :) Just the break from the normal was
wonderful!!!

-That night as we headed out, we had planned to go contacting for the
evening. We didn't have any appointments scheduled, but we knew there
was someone that we needed to find! With that attitude and keeping my
eyes open for answers to my prayer we headed out. Well, I'm still not
really sure how it all happened, but in that short 3 hours we found 3
new investigators!!! :) (That is the standard of excellence for the
whole week!!)

-Tuesday was great and we found another 2 investigators!! The best
thing about all of this is not the numbers of new investigators, but
the fact that we found that many people who were sincerely interested
in learning more about Jesus Christ!!! By the end of the week we were
up to 9 new investigators-- 9 more people that WE get to help come
unto Christ!!! I guess if anybody feels a little down, there is no
better way to fins happiness then giving service!!! Especially
missionary service!! That's my favorite thing about the gospel, is
that it makes people HAPPY!!! When we have the opportunity to make
others happy, it like the ripple effect, it just keeps going!!! :)

-On Sunday we got a new 1st councilor in the Bishopric. We are sad to
see the others go, but The Sangsters are going to be wonderful! Once
again, new people to love and serve-- it was another miracle from
Heavenly Father!!!

-There were so many blessings and miracles this week, but i will just
finish off with 2 more! Yesterday for Memorial day our district got
together and had a BBQ. I think that sometimes I forget to have fun!
Ha ha! This is Missionary WORK, but the purpose is to find JOY in the
journey! We played volley ball, ate food, tried to fly kites and had a
really great time! I love being with other missionaries! There is just
a special spirit and when we all get together, It's the best!!!

-Last, but not least; WE HAVE A SENIOR COUPLE!!!!!! I am SO excited!!!
Their names are Elder and Sister Tingey. They are from some little
town by Boise Idaho. They got here yesterday and we stopped by to take
them a plate of cookies and get to know them for a few minutes. They
are the BEST!! :) They will be helping out a bunch at the institute
with us and with the Ypsi ward. They were SO cute!! I am so excited to
have them, senior couples are basically the greatest thing ever! :)

WOW!! Such a wonderful week and this week is off to a great start too-
there are so many miracles and blessings that the Lord sends my way
every day! I am learning to open my eyes and recognize them more and
more! Most of all this week I am SO thankful for a loving Heavenly
Father that hears and answers my prayers in a VERY real, very prompt
way. He really does know and love little Sister Bishop! Just like he
knows and loves ALL his children!! I KNOW that that is true!!!

So- I guess that Naomi is being transferred to Gillette?!?!? Is Leann
still living there?? If she is, you should totally hook them up! You
can read her letter, just sign into my account and it's under the
folder with her name!

Tell Dona that I HAD to write small- you can only fit so much on those
little post cards!! :)

And I have not heard anything from Sis Walser's grandson?? I'm not
sure what that was about in your letter??? Ha ha!!
I love you all SO MUCH!!! Thanks for being the greatest family ever!!
Have a wonderful week!!!

Lots and LOTS of love,

Sister Bishop

May 21, 2012

Dear Family!

Hello!! :) Whew-- I don't even know where to start! This week has been
an interesting one! :)

I'm not sure if I had already told you this, but Sister Rowe works on
campus. We had been to see her once and had a really good visit with
her. It's always good to see someone that you have come to know and
love. We had only stopped by that once and didn't really think about
it again until this week. Tuesday morning I woke up thinking about her
and her family. All through our exercise and studies I couldn't get
her off of my mind. We had planned on being at U of M, but didn't
really plan on stopping by. As we headed out to work I had the
distinct impression that we needed to go and see her, but once again,
we hadn't planned for that. I was really trying to decide if that was
the spirit telling me to stop by or if it was just Sister Bishop
wanting to stop by and check up on her. Well, the thought wouldn't go
away so finally we I told S Thompson, "I'm not really sure why, but we
have to go stop by Sister Rowe." Her simple reply was so comforting,
"I have been thinking that SAME thing!" :) I love how the spirit works
on us! So of course we went and stopped by. When we walked in Sister
Rowe looked a little shocked to see us, then almost immediately burst
into tears! We stepped out into the hall to talk for a few minutes and
had a really good visit. They have been really struggling with their
marriage, finances, Pat not wanting to go to church any more, etc. And
she was feeling a little down. We didn't say anything profound, but we
were able to listen and comfort her. It was such a testimony to me
that Heavenly Father really does know his children! There are no
coincidences! He uses other people sometimes to answer our prayers and
I was SO thankful that I listened and was able in a small way to help
answer Sister Rowe's prayers. I sure love that family! <3

I feel like I am constantly having to re-evaluate where I am, what I
am doing and how it is fulfilling my purpose. This week has been kind
of an interesting one as I have sought to be more filled with the
spirit-- without the spirit I'm lost. We had some really great
experiences in some lessons that we were really guided like:

When we met with Mackenzie this week we invited her to be baptized! I
was super nervous because she has told us over and over how much she
loves being Catholic. When we did invite her, she told us "No." But
she is still reading the BOM, feeling the spirit and growing in her
faith. It was an interesting experience. I felt like the whole lesson
wasn't at all what we had planned it to be, but Heavenly Father guided
us and it turned out really well.

Another miracle: We are teaching a Hindu guy named Pinaki. He is super
flaky, but we prayed all week that he would be able to make it to his
appointment. He did come but as we started with following up, the
things he was saying made it sound like he was going to drop us. I
started praying like crazy for help and to know what to say to him.
What happened was nothing less than a miracle. Once again our lesson
was NOTHING like we had planned, but all of these question started
flooding my mind-- as I started asking him those questions it made him
stop and think. . . instead of jumping in with all the answers I
LISTENED and it was amazing! (Just like PMG says) He was able to
resolve his own concerns!!

We have had some really great experiences that have helped me see how
the spirit IS guiding us. I'm so thankful for that. Sometimes I feel
like I get caught in doing the same things over and over again each
day and don't rely on the spirit as much as I need to. I feel like I
go through this every couple of weeks and have to RE-learn everything!
Sometimes I just wish I could just be perfect! Ha ha! I wish that I
learned it all the first time and that I could move on, but like it
says in Ether, we don't receive the witness until after the trial of
our faith. In specialized training President Holmes told us, "Routine
is the enemy of revelation." So I have been watching for the routines
I have fallen into and am trying to break free of them. It's hard! A
mission is HARD WORK-- but that is what makes it SO GREAT!

Rachel asked for a list of our investigators that you could pray for!
I think that's a great idea!! Thanks!!

Mackenzie
Pinaki
Tim
Ericka
Sari
Todd
The Rowe Family

There are more, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head!
Also, If you could pray that I will continue to find ways to love and
serve S Thompson, I would really appreciate it! :) She is doing really
good, but some days it is really hard! <3

I love you all super mucho!!! :) Hope that everything is going well!!
I pray for you all every day! :)

Love you guys the BEST!

Love,

Sister Bishop

Long time, No Talk May 14, 2012

Dearest Family!!!

HELLO!!! It is Monday morning and it is SO beautiful outside today!
What a blessing!!! :) It was basically the BEST thing ever to be able
to talk to you all yesterday!! :) But of course I forgot a few very
important things: 1- Dearest Mom, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!! You are the
best mom ever! Thanks for everything that you do! I really love your
positive attitude! Whenever I see or talk to President Holmes, he
always thanks me for being so upbeat and positive. I feel like I owe
that one to you! Somehow you always found something good in every
situation, even when is seemed impossible! <3 I'm also so thankful for
your faith. I've learned throughout my life that as I trust in my
Heavenly Father and have faith in the promises and covenants that I
have made, that he will always be there to strengthen and support me!
I feel like, once again I owe that knowledge to yours and Dad's
examples! I love you both so much!! :) I'm so glad Heavenly Father let
me be YOUR daughter!! :) Okay, so that was the most important thing I
wanted to tell you all about! :)

I wanted to explain a little about why we tried to keep our phone
calls so short. . . in the hand book we are advised to keep our phone
calls short. I have known about that rule for a very long time and
have tried to justify my way around it. . . I came up with some
really good excuses too! Like, "I probably have the biggest family out
of ALL of the missionaries! They all get to talk to their family so I
should too!" Or, "An hour, that is PRETTY close to 40 minutes,
right??" This is something that I would think about occasionally but
then as I was studying one morning it really hit me, why I really
needed to follow this rule! I was studying about faith in PMG, it says
something like, "Faith is trusting in God and being obedient to all of
his commandments even when we don't understand why." So- here is what
the spirit taught me! It's not about how long I can talk to my family!
It's all about following the rules and guidelines that have been
established for me as a missionary! When I wrote my acceptance letter
I agreed to live by ALL the rules and standards for the missionaries.
It doesn't say, ALL of the rules except when Sister Bishop calls her
family on the holidays! So, I've been working on my faith! I am
trusting in God's promise that because I was obedient I will be
blessed and see many miracles! :) It isn't always easy, but Heavenly
Father never gives us more than we can bear! I've already seen
blessings today: the beautiful weather, more unity in our
companionship, a strong, healthy body! :) I'm counting my blessings
and being grateful!! (Especially grateful that I got to talk to the
BEST family ever for a whole 40 minutes! ;) )

Sorry, I don't have any exciting stories yet! But this week is going
to be full of miracles! :) Thanks for all your prayers! I love you all
SO MUCH!!! :) Tell Aunt Bon thanks for the letter! :) I loved it!! Ha
ha, and I appreciated the jokes too! :) You guys are the greatest!!

Lots and Lots and SUPER-MUCHO LOTS of love!!

Sister Bishop

May 10,2012

Dearest family, HELLO!!!!! :) How are you all today?? It sounds like
you are all doing great! :) I love that it is officially warm enough
to bring out the water balloons! (Ha ha, warm enough for the Bishop
family anyways! LOL. Honestly, I think that we could justify using
water balloons year round if we really wanted to! ;) Sounds like you
are all having tons of fun!!

So, before I get going I thought I would let you know that we did find
a place to go on Sunday to call you guys! We will be at Bro And Sis
Kirbayahsi's home. ;) (Say that 10 times fast!) Ha ha. They are a
super sweet couple that have been serving as the 2nd councilor in the
Bishopric for the last 5 years. But yesterday Bro K got called to the
high council so we are all thinking that next week we will have a new
2nd councilor. But anyways. . . we will probably be calling about 7:00
our time, which makes it about 5:00 your time. :) I"M SUPER EXCITED!!!
I can hardly wait!!! Hopefully that works for all of you! Sorry about
the delay, it's so different working with a a singles ward. . . but
this week has been so great!!

Alrighty, so I just have to say, I really love how Heavenly Father
works! We have had kind of a long, slowish week. This last week was
the week right after finals had ended and so everybody was gone or
moving home, and summer classes didn't start until today. So we got a
lot of walking in this week and sadly not as much talking as we would
have liked. But I know that this week is really going to pick up! We
set some super awesome goals with our district at district meeting and
we have the faith that we will do our best and heavenly Father will
make up the difference! :) We had to call Pres. Holmes this week for a
couple of things and as we were talking he asked how our week was
going. We explained that it had been kind of slow but we had set high
goals and were doing our best to accomplish them. He told us how he
had been studying the book of Mormon in the last few days and noticed
that Ammon and the Sons of Mosiah asked that "perhaps" God would grant
their desires! It really hit me, I can set my goals high to help me
work hard, and then pray that "perhaps" God will help me to accomplish
them! It was really an eye opener, so this week, that is my focus! I'm
going to work hard, and do my part so that I can recognize all the
miracles that God sends my way!

We did have some really neat experiences this week though! First of
all, remember Danielle? The girl with Leukemia at U of M? We saw her
everyday this week, until she passed away on Friday evening. I have so
much I want to say about that experience, but i will put it on the
tape I'm working on and I can't wait to tell it to you all personally
next week in our phone call! I will just say that I'm not sure why we
got to be a part of her life for the last week of her life, but her
and her family have touched my life! I will never forget them!! Of
course we will miss Danielle, but I KNOW that Heavenly Father was so
happy to welcome home one of this choice daughters! <3 She is finally
free from the pain she has had to endure and she is SO HAPPY!! Her
family is doing pretty good, but still keep them in your prayers! We
are working with the ward mission leader and the missionaries to
coordinate with Her family to get her work done ASAP! (Definitely more
to come here. . . .but later!)

So the other miracle this week was our investigator named Mackenzie!
She was someone that we had contacted into and our first lesson we had
been really focusing on using How to Begin teaching, so we could teach
HER and not just a LESSON. It worked so welll!!! (Ha ha, Amazing how
that works right? You follow what the lord has asked us to do and it
always works out so well!) So, Mackenzie had really opened up to us
about her faith, her trials and struggles and we had set up
expectations so she knew exactly why we were there. We told her that
this would bless her life so much, but that it would take some effort
on her part, that effort would come by reading the BOM, praying about
it, coming to church, etc. She told us, "I'm Catholic. I LOVE being
Catholic, but I guess that i could come at least a few times to check
out your church." :) So after our 2nd meeting on Friday she said she
would come to church with us on Sunday. We explained all of it to her
so she would be comfortable and also explained that it would be
testimony meeting. She was Super excited! So Sunday morning rolled
around and Mackenzie showed up to church! (AND she came all by
herself!! Amazing, Right?!?!) She walked in, and we introduced her to
some people, then the meeting started. Everything was going great, and
the meeting was actually going a bit long when the Bishop started to
stand up and end the meeting and one kid ran to the pulpit to "share a
few quick thoughts before we closed." We all smiled and settled back
to listen. Then Mackenzie leaned over to me and asked, "I know we are
out of time, but can I say something??" A little shocked, I told her
that she was welcome to share her testimony! She walked up and
graciously the Bishop smiled and gave her a nod of encouragement. She
stood there and bore a simple, powerful testimony of our Savior Jesus
Christ, how much he loves all of us and how he is always there to
guide us! She then testified about the BOM!!! She said, "I have only
started reading the BOM, but when I do read it, it takes me to a
peaceful place and gives me feelings of comfort and love!" She shared
a little bit about how we had contacted her, and all that she was
learning and how she could see that God was still continuing to guide
her! The spirit was so strong, it was AMAZING!!! After she sat down,
Bishop Connett shared some thoughts, then he even came and talked to
her for a few minutes after Sacrament. He was able to really relate to
the things that she was experiencing and the entire ward was there to
support, encourage and help her with anything!! :) She also
participated in Sunday School and RS, with lots of good thoughts and
comments. She had a really great experience at church and I'm so
thankful for a Loving Heavenly Father who knows exactly what she
needed to hear, and gave us such a wonderful ward to work with!

To close, kind of where I started, I'm SO grateful for a loving Father
IN Heaven who knows ME!! He knew it had been kind of a rough week with
not as many people to talk to, but he gave us that wonderful miracle
to finish off the week and get us all excited for this week and ALL
the miracles that he has in store for us! :) I really do know that God
lives! He knows Sister Bishop and wants me to be successful and will
help to do hard things! :)

I love you all SUPER DUPER MUCHO!!!! I can't wait to talk to you in a
few days! I think i should have another tape in the mail today. . .
.maybe! We'll see how it goes! :) Lot and lots of love!! Have a
wonderful week!! Choose the RIght!!!

Love

Sister Bishop