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