June 26, 2012

Hello Family!!!

It's so GOOD to hear from all of you, man you guys are the BEST!!! :)
I have so much to tell you today. . . .. So here goes! First of all,
Di- I got your tape! Ha ha, I am glad that you are SO happy! Here is
the thing though- there is a MAJOR case of jealousy going on right
now. . . . but I'm only slightly bitter about it! ;) Mom I really
loved the Blog posts that you shared! You are such an inspiration! You
should print them off for me and snail mail them so i actually have
time to read them instead of just skimming over them! Hannah- I'm
hearing ya! Let's stick together on this one! ;) P.S. I basically
LOVED your new embarrassing moment, BA HA HA!! You are so stinking
funny! Rach- this boy sounds like fun! Brownie points are always good
so keep it up! ;) If he tries anything though, I expect to hear all
about it on the tape, just like Di! <3 Last week we had more time to
write letters but I'm not sure how much time we will have this week-
we'll have to see how it goes! :) Oh yeah- I'm SO glad that you got to
meet Bro Elms!!! Isn't he great!?!?!? ( I have more to write about
that but I think I will send that in the snail mail home!:) )

So, this week has been so good!!! We are doing exchanges tonight with
the Saline sisters. I'm going to Saline and S Thompson is staying
here. She will be the senior comp so she gets to drive, lead out and
all of that good stuff!!! I'm not gonna lie- I'm a little nervous, but
I'm sure that she will be great! :) (After all, She learned from the
best right!?!? LOL, JK!!!!!) Any ways, I feel like we are finally
starting to be able to teach better in unity! We had some really great
lessons this week and I feel like we were BOTH able to teach instead
of S Bishop talking the whole time and S Thompson volunteering to say
the prayer. We have been studying boldness and trying to incorporate
that more in our teaching- it's been helpful for the most part, but
then I feel like it's hard for us to draw the line between BOLD and
ARGUMENTATIVE. Ahh, Ha ha! I don't know! I guess I will just keep
praying and I know Heavenly Father will help us to figure it out!

Sad story of the week: WE LOST OUR PHONE!!! :( Ha ha, we must have
accidentally left it on one of the benches at the Diag and didn't
realize that we didn't have it until we got home. . .. yeah that was a
lovely conversation with President Holmes! Ha ha, He was super nice
and we were able to get a new phone the next day so it wasn't too big
of a deal- we just lost ALL of our contacts and had to start again
from scratch! But, I'm not bitter! ;) 

We had the MOST amazing experience. We contacted into this kid named
Trevor. He was interested, but had to study for a final the next day.
But agreed to meet with us the next evening. The next day as we met
him and taught him about the Restoration, the spirit was SO strong!!!
As we talked the spirit confirmed the truth of what we were teaching
and the WHOLE lesson he had this HUGE smile on his face! At the end we
asked him how he was feeling and he was like, "I don't know why i
haven't ever heard any of this before!!! It makes SO much sense! I am
so excited to read this book for myself! My family is all really
religious and I'm sure they would love to hear this too!" I think that
was possibly one of the BEST lessons that S Thompson and I have ever
taught. It was the most amazing feeling!!! Here is the thing: He just
finished up the spring semester so he was leaving the next day to go
home for the summer!! BUMMER, right?!?!? But we found the address for
the church in Traverse City and we are going to try and have the
missionaries up there continue to teach him and hopefully his family!
:)

Another sweet miracle: We have seen this guy all over campus doing
Par-Cor. It's the most interesting thing I've ever seen! He describes
it as "Seeing an obstacle and using your body to be able to overcome
it." We stopped him the other day and told him about how the gospel
does that SAME thing for us- it helps us to overcome obstacles. But
that the best thing was that God had restored the fulness of his
gospel through a living prophet on the earth today to teach us exactly
what we need to do to have his help in overcoming those obstacles, he
just kind of stared at us and was like, "REALLY!?!? Why haven't I
heard of this??" We fixed that real quick!! Ha ha! His name is Ivan
and he is from Russia. He has had a really hard life, but it's amazing
to see how God has prepared him and put him in our path so that we can
teach him more about the gospel! He is so golden! We are super excited
to continue teaching him!

Okay- so one more miracle and then I better get going! We were out
contacting on Saturday and we ran into this girl named Anny. We have
talked to her before and she said she wanted to come to church with
us. We gave her our card with the address to the church and our
address. But then on Saturday when we ran into her again, she said she
hadn't been able to find the church. We offered her a ride and she
said she would love to come!!! It was so amazing! We had NEVER taught
her before, she doesn't speak very good English, had no idea what to
expect at church and got a ride from a complete stranger, BUT despite
all of those obstacles- Sunday afternoon rolled around and Anny made
it to church!!!! Ha ha!! IT was great!! In the meet the Bishopric
meeting AND in Relief society she expressed how happy she was, how
much she loved church and how she was, "Going to be here EVERY
Sunday!" :)

This week has been such a testimony to me of how this is God's work-
he has truly been guiding us and helping us to find his children that
are ready to hear and accept his plan of happiness!!! It's the BEST!!!

I love you all SO much!!! Keep up the good work!! My prayers are with
you that you will all survive the last few days of Pageant! :) Just
know how much I love you!!! You guys are the BEST!!

Love,

Sister Bishop