Aug 26,2012

Dearest Familty!!

Hello!!! Wow, it sounds like it has been an eventful week at the
Bishop home!!! It's so good to hear all of the fun little stories and
know that you are all doing so wonderful!!! :) Life is so good! I
can't believe how fast time flies! I have been here with S Decker now
for almost 6 weeks. . . that means that transfer calls are this
weekend. We aren't anticipating anything, we are pretty sure we will
stay for at least another transfer, but I guess we will find out! :)

The last few weeks have been kind of slow. . . but seriously I don't
know how this all works cause time feels like it has flown by! I think
it is mostly because we stay so busy!!! :) We didn't have a ton of
lessons cause all of our people are still gone on summer vacation, but
they should all be getting back this week for school to start next
week. So, we are SUPER DUPER excited for everyone to be back and
hopefully for life to get back to "Normal!" :) Despite the quite
campus, Heavenly Father still blessed us with lots of miracles! I am
so thankful that this is HIS work!! :)

So, our first miracle is Javier. He is another African guy that is
here learning English. We had our second lesson with him this week and
extended a baptism date, which he accepted!!! He also committed to
come to church with us on Sunday. On Saturday night we were out
contacting and ran into him and his friend. When we asked if we would
see him at church the next day he replied, "Oh yes! Of course!!" and
his little friend piped up, "Me too, Me too!!!" Ha ha! It was
basically fantastic!! So, we found them both rides and the next
morning they were at church! It worked out even better cause we had a
guy that speaks Spanish there to greet them, walk them through
Sacrament Meeting (letting them know what was going on and
everything!) and he even gave them a little church tour while we were
busy rounding up some other people! Ha ha! So much for Sunday being a
day of rest!! LOL, I'm pretty sure that it is our BUSIEST day! But it
was really good!! :)

Our other miracle was Ernest. :) ERNEST IS SO GREAT!!! S Thompson and
I met him out contacting a month or two ago and he only ever come to
Friday Forum. We only have an e-mail address for him, so it's hard to
get in contact with him. He is so funny! He gets really excited
anytime we talk about religion. . . which is what we do, so he is
ALWAYS super excited! Ha HA! He took us and the Saline Sisters out for
dinner this Friday because he has a lot of questions that he wanted to
ask us! Boy oh Boy!! He wasn't kidding when he said LOTS of
questions!! I was surprised when he would STOP talking and let us
actually answer his questions. We talked about tithing, WOW, and
temples- we pulled out a pass along card with a picture of the salt
lake temple and he started yelling (excited yelling) right there in
the middle of the restaurant. Our conversation went something like
this: (Ernest yelling of course!) Us: "This is a picture of the Salt
Lake Temple!" Ernest: "You have got to be kidding me!!! That is the
MOST beautiful building that I've ever seen!!! I AM GOING TO GO INSIDE
IT!!!" Us: "Ernest, you have to be baptized before you can go in it!"
Ernest: "I know I need to be baptized, YOU know I need to be
baptized!!! I know I'm not a Mormon yet! But I AM going to go inside
that building!!" We got some pretty good looks, but we felt like it
actually went really well! Besides all the yelling and excitement we
were able to testify of the truth of the gospel and before we left he
said the closing prayer! Ernest is going our East to visit his family,
but hopefully when he gets back the Sisters will be able to start
teaching him for real and get him to come to church, so that he CAN be
baptized and CAN go to the temple! :) Ha ha, what a special guy! :)

One other quick story!! S Decker and I are learning a little Chinese
so that we can help our Chinese investigators better. There are SO
many Asians coming in with school starting, more than half of our
investigators are Asian. We had a sweet experience this week with a
new guy named Mr. Li. We met him out contacting, taught him the
restoration on the spot and he accepted an AYWY Baptism invitation!!
These Chinese people are so amazing!!! I truly love them!!!

Matthew is getting baptized this weekend!!! CONGRATS, little Man!! You
are so great!!! Ben is going through the temple?!?!? WOW!! All of my
"little" Brothers are growing up way too fast!!!

Rach- I really DIDN'T forget your birthday!!! I'm sorry I'm such a
slacker!! I don't have time today cause we are splitting our
preparation day in half so we can go to the temple this Thursday, but
I promise that I WILL send you a card soon!! Just know how much I LOVE
YOU!!!

Ang- Your kids are growing up way too fast!! Make them stop, okay!?!?
:) They sound so adorable!! Just remind them how much I love them!!!

Di- Hang in there!! :) I know you will and guess what else?? YOU'LL BE
FINE!!!! :) I'll keep you in my prayers too, but no worries! It will
all work out!!

Dad- Thanks for the letter!! Glad you and Mom had a good trip!! You
are both the BEST!!! Oh yeah, did you guys meets S Decker's parents??
They said something about running into you guys?? :)

Mom- Thanks for all the updates and the cute little stories! They
totally made my day! :)

Everyone else: Good luck with school starting soon, I love you all SO
STINKING MUCH!!! :) Choose the right and all the important things!!!
And Remember who loves you!!!

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!!!!!
Love,
Sister Bishop

These are the flowers that Brother Elms got for us for Lisa when we sent her the tape of Ben's mission call. 

 

 Instead of making their beds Sister Decker and Lisa had a camp out. 

 

Lisa has been focusing on how Jesus loves everyone! 



Dear Family!!! Hello!!! :) I am SO glad that it is Monday! :) It feels
like it has been a super long week, but at the same time it has flown
by! I really don't know how that always works out. . . I guess that's
just how the mission life is! I don't think that I will ever get used
to it! :)

Okay, so this week we've discovered our calling to Michigan was not
really to convert Michiganders! ;) I really feel like Heavenly Father
has called Sister Bishop and Sister Decker to Michigan and to the
University of Michigan to convert CHINA!!! :) Ha ha! Here is the
story! Last week we got a referral from Temple square for a Chinese
man named Gong Wang. The referral said to call him ASAP cause he was
super excited, so of course we did! :) We called a few times, over the
next few days, with no answer. We left him a message and decided to
stop by the address that he gave us. That all sounded great, until
there was NO SUCH ADDRESS!!! Ha ha! We were super bummed, but decided
to call one more time. We did, still no answer so we left one more
message. Then we let it go for a few days. Then, last Monday he
text-ed us!!! He said he was on campus and wanted to meet with us that
night! He was super excited and we were pretty much in heaven, but the
best is still to come! We met with him that evening and had such an
amazing lesson!!! We taught the restoration, helped him to understand
baptism and invited him to be baptized! He told us, "Yes!! When I know
that this is true of course I will join your church! !" He was super
excited! We set up our expectations and invited him to read the BOM,
pray and come to church- all of it was exactly what he had been
waiting to hear! We gave him a BOM and set up a return appt for later
in the week. When we met later in the week he asked us, "If I want to
be a Mormon, what do I need to do?" (That's the question that EVERY
missionary loves to hear!!) We explained baptism and the things that
we would help him to do to prepare and then came the clincher: he told
us, "This is all really great and I want to do it, but I am going back
to China in 5 days!!!!" AHHHHH!!! Ha ha! We gave him all the info we
could and told him we would do our best to get him contact info for
the Church in China, this will be our THIRD Chinese man that we really
wanted to baptize but is going back to China before we get the
chance! So, the Lord sent us to Michigan so that we can convert China!
I'm super excited that school is about to start so that Chinese
students will be coming instead of leaving!!! The thing is though, I'm
positive that the 3 guys we sent back to China will continue to read,
study and learn! So that when China is open for missionaries they will
be there waiting to be baptized and then also to support and help the
work progress!!!! The Chinese people are so sincere and filled with
this huge desire to find out the truth, it will be such a blessing for
that people when the gospel and be shared openly in their nation!!!
Sigh, just pray for them!! <3

This week has been so crazy! We have been trying to ask for more
referrals and invite people when they set up an appointment to bring
friends. So far that hadn't worked at all, but this week it sure paid
off!! We had one investigator bring his roommate who wanted to learn
more, and another guy bring his 2 friends to a lesson!! We about died
of shock to open the institute door to not just one, but THREE Chinese
men who wanted to learn more about the gospel!! (See once again, we
teach SO many Chinese people! I really, really love them!)

Okay, so one more amazing miracle this week! We saw Mackenzie this
Friday for the first time in several weeks. She came and we were just
about to start our lesson when her phone started ringing. She looked
and saw that it was her Mom and said she needed to take the call. We
decided it was a good time to take a potty break, so we left her in
the classroom. A few minutes later as we were waiting in the other
room we heard her start yelling and crying. From the sounds of it, the
conversation was NOT pretty. It was really hard to listen to. We gave
her the time that she needed, but in the mean time I felt prompted to
ask Bro Elms if he would be willing to give her a blessing if she
would like one. He said he would stick around for a little while just
in case. When she came out of the room her eyes were all red and we
could tell that she was still pretty upset. That morning as we were
planning for her lesson we felt like we needed to sing to her. (Ha ha,
once again, we are DEFINITELY NOT the Mo Tab, but we rely on the
spirit and it seems to work out okay.) ;) So we sang "Lead Kindly
Light" then talked about the priesthood and priesthood blessings. She
said she would like one so we went and got Bro Elms. WOW!!! It was so
amazing!!! She had been struggling with the concept of the priesthood
before, but after feeling the spirit so strongly during that blessing
her testimony grew SO MUCH!!! We talked for a little while with Bro
Elms and just enjoyed the spirit in the room. I loved how simple the
entire thing was! We planned, prepared and prayed for the spirit to
guide and it was truly miraculous!! She is still really struggling
with her family, so please keep Mackenzie in your prayers and her Mom!
They all really need it! <3

Okay, so I have to just say one more thing: I LOVE THESE PEOPLE SO
STINKIN' MUCH!!!! We are working on getting a new missionary
committee, new WML and LOTS and lots of new people to teach!! This
area is going to just take off, we have to many good plans and ideas!
We have the love and support of the ward behind us and the faith and
courage to go to work! We met with Hunaid last night and I can't even
tell you how much I love that guy!!!! Him and Nick (a less-active that
we have been working with) both got the priesthood yesterday! I think
it was potentially one of the VERY BEST feelings I've ever had!!! I
felt like I was their Mom. <3 ha ha, I was almost in tears yesterday
and the smiles on their faces were HUGE!!! The gospel really does
work! It changes people!!! I am SO thankful for this time I have to
find MY brothers and sisters and remind them Who Loves Them and see
how that little reminder can change their lives! :) I love where I am
at, I love what I am doing and I really, really love the people that
we are working with!

Well, family! I got your package this week!! Thanks so much!! I'm
listening to the tapes today and loving every minute of them! Happy
Birthday to Jake and Matthew last week, hope you both had a great
day!!! Please tell Grandma Johnson how much I love her! I will keep
you all in my prayers! :) Mom and Dad, how was your trip?? :) If you
were at the temple on Thursday, we were probably there at the same
time!!! :)

I love you all SO super much!!! Choose the right and all the important
things, and remember, WHO LOVES YOU!!!

Love,

Sister Bishop

August 13, 2012

Hello Family!!!

It's been such an exciting week!!! LISBON PORTUGAL!?!?!?! AHHHHH!
That' so incredible!!! Ha ha, I absolutely LOVED the video!! That was
basicall the BEST thing of my life!!! :) :) It was so real! I really
felt like I was there! Bro Elms, S Decker and E and S Tingey all
watched it with me and I laughed when you all laughed, cried a little
and screamed a whole bunch!! I really had to smile, it took everyone
else a few minutes to catch on to all the little details about when
Ben is leaving and everything, but I got it all the first time! Ha ha!
It's funny that even after 9 months I can understand all the noise and
chaos and fun and still know what people are saying!! :) Everybody
tried to tell me Ben was reporting to the MTC on Dec 9th, but I
assured them it was the 19th. Then after watching it for the 3rd time,
and listening closely (and Bro Elms pulling out a canendar) they all
finally agreed with me! It was so SO great!!! I"m so excited for you
bud, You'll be FANTASTIC!!!! (Mom, your kitchen looks super good!) I
think my favorite thing about the video, besides all of the exciting
news, was being able to see everyone! My little Matthew isn't so
little any more. . . . and all of his teeth have fallen out!! Goose is
so TALL!! Tim has probably grown about a foot and a half and Laura and
Miriam have both grown up so much!! All of the rest of you look about
the same! ;) I had to smile, Bro Elms asked if that was Dad sitting
next to Ben on the couch, when I said yes, he just kind of smiled,
shook his head and said, "Yes! Now I can see where you come from! :)
Your Dad has such a quiet, calm influence. Look at him just sit there
and smile. . . Wow! He's great!" I could only smile and agree! I have
the BEST DAD in the whole wide world!!! :)

This week has been some thing else! Ha ha! We had specialized training
on Tuesday and Thursday so that felt like it ate up our whole week.
Campus was pretty quiet so between meetings and that, our week was
pretty quiet. But we did learn some very valuable lessons! At
specialized training over the 2 days we focus a lot on teaching
simply, powerfully and BOLDLY, and creating a reciporical, warm
environment! Our numbers were down a little this week, but our lessons
that we DID have were so much more powerful! It was so amazing! I
think that one of the biggest things I learned was about having faith!
E Barclay (One of the Assisstants) said something the very first
morning about how when we have Faith, God will provide! He talked
about how thay are always so busy, but that just helps them to rely
even more on the Lord so that when thay are out proseltying, they see
so many miracles! He said, "It's not up to us to change their hearts,
our job is to be out there inviting them to come unto Christ! But as
we do our part and have trust and faith in God that he WILL change
their hearts, then the miracles start to happen!" It's so true!
Sometimes I think that I get so caught up in all the things I need to
DO, that I forget Who's work this really is! It was an awesome
reminder to me this week to give it to God! Sister Bishop can't do
this work, but Sister Bishop and God can! :)

So, with all of that faith to back us up, we went to work! There were
so many great miracles! Our first one was Van. He was Atheist until
about a month ago. Now he has been reading the BOM, praying AND he
even came to church this week! We met with him on Tuesday and had such
a great lesson! It's so amazing, how when you prepare, practise, and
do your best, how the spirit takes charge! We didn't teach him
ANYTHING that we had planned, but were able to really focus on his
needs and giving him doctrine to back up his actions and the things
that he was feeling! We even invited him to be baptized!! The spirit
was so strong and he didn't say no!! Ha ha, he felt like it was a bit
soon, so we left it up to him and Heavenly Father. He's gonna pray
about it, and we'll see how it went this week! :) Then, he came to
church this week and LOVED it!! It was fantastic!! He was super
friendly and I think met the WHOLE ward! Any time we sang we could
hear him from the back, just belting it out! He remembered names of
people, met the ward council and was telling them all about himself. .
. . it couldn't have been any better! :) He's so close!!!

Our other amazing tender mercy this week was Daniel. He is our Chinese
Christian. We knew that he was going back to China this week, and we
really, REALLY wanted to baptize him before he left! We had a great
lesson, we actually sang him, "I am a Child of God." But swtiched it
to "You are a Child of God." He just started crying, and told us,
"Wow! I can tell how much you guys really do love me and want what is
best for me!" The whole lesson was like that! He asked the perfect
questions and we had scriptures and testimony to back up our answers.
By the end of the night we knew he was so close! He realized that he
didn't always have the spirit to be with him, and we helped him to
understand that by being baptized by proper authority, he would be
able to have that! He promised to pray about it and even though we
didn't have him committed, we knew that was for the best! We were a
little sad that we weren't going to baptize him before he left,
especially because we knew that when he goes back to China, he can't
meet with missionaries or church members. (Unless of course he was a
member.) But then we met with him agian on Saturday evening right
before he left. Again we sang, but this time we sang, "I Need Thee
Every Hour." (Singing helps us to invite the spirit so quickly!! We
have learned that very quickly, so even though we aren't Mo Tab, we've
been utilizing our talents! ;) ) This time Daniel really broke down!
We had a great, spirit filled lesson about how he will be able to
really know about the restoration for himself, and how as he prepares
and is baptized, he can truly have God with him every hour, through
the companionship of the spirit! To end the lesson we invited Daniel
to pray specifically about the BOM and Joseph Smith. We all knelt
together and he prayed for a very long time. (In Chinese. . . but the
spirit that was there trasncended all languages!) Daniel finished and
had tears streaming down his face and S Decker and I weren't too far
behind. He still wasn't quite ready, but this time we felt really
good about preparing him to go back to China. He will be baptized, I
know he will!!! :) He is so wonderful, we love him so much and could
definately feel Heavenly Fathers love for him too! :)

One more quick story, Saturday night the relief society 1st councilor
called and asked us to teach in RS. We of course accepted, but didn't
have time to study the lesson until the next morning! Ha ha! Luckily
for us it was an easy topic, "How to effectively share the gospel." We
brain stormed a few ideas, worked out a game plan and felt really good
about it, so thats what we went with. I was just a little nervous
because I felt like we could have been more prepared, but Heavenly
Father blessed us so much!! I really am so thankful for the
experiences that I had before my mission that prepared me so well to
be able to serve! Yesterday I taught the whole RS who loved them!!! :)
Ha ha, it was great!!!

I"m SUPER OUT OF TIME!!! I love you all so much!! !

Choose the right and all of the important things!!

Lots and LOTS of love,
Sister Bishop!

P.S. Mom and Dad are you in NY?!??! :) Wave Hi as you fly over! :)

Love you all!

A young man lisa has been teaching.  

Lisa's new companion. 

Their district.  she always cuts off this Elder's head!  ha ha



She did exchanges with this sister one day. 



Lisa and Sister Thompson

Aug. 6,2012

Lisa at the Diag at the University of Michigan July 2012

The cube!!  Supposedly the biggest spinning cube in the U. S. Who knows  Pretty awesome though right??

Hello Family!!!! :)
I can't believe all of the exciting news in your letters this week!!!
Ha ha, its so crazy to think that there really is a "normal life"
going on outside of what we do as missionaries! I'm SUPER DUPER
excited to find out where Ben goes!! His call came SO fast!!! AHHHH!
That's so crazy!! :) And Mom and Dad going to New York- i can't
believe how close you will be! You'll fly right over me!! And upstate
NY is only like a 5 hour drive! HA HA! We were actually discussing
this with one of the people we were teaching this week and talking
about how CLOSE everything is here in the eastern US. Pittsburgh,
where Riss is at is only a 5 hour drive, NY is super close, the ward
was talking about organizing a trip to Nauvoo to do baptisms one
Saturday, Chicago is only like 3 hours away. . . . I guess what all of
this means is that I'm going to HAVE to come back and visit!! :) With
all of these places so close, it would be silly not to come back and
visit! Oh yeah, and Canada is like 2 hours away! So crazy- but lots of
fun!!!

This week has been a good one! It was interesting. . . we are heading
into YET ANOTHER of those lovely transitional stages that we have come
to love so much! Summer semester is wrapping up in the next week or
two and then at the beginning of September, school will start again. I
am SO excited for school to start again!! There are going to be so
many people!!! It's gonna be great!! But, even with all of the
craziness, we still had some pretty sweet tender mercies! On Thursday
all of our appointments fell through so we got to spend the entire day
contacting. The thing is, S Decker is super intimidated by
"contacting" so we have affectionately renamed it "Happy Time!" We got
A LOT of happy time that day! Ha ha, it was one of those days that
even though we were doing our very best, smiling, being happy, talking
to everyone, waving to people as they walked by and EVERYTHING. . . .
nobody wanted to talk to us! We were feeling a bit down, so we took a
minute, said a quick little prayer and had the impression to walk a
way we had never gone before. We had prayed for direction, so we took
the prompting and acted! As we walked we kept trying but still no one
wanted to listen. . . we ran into a member and that was fun (it
doesn't happen very often) but by this time we were almost to the
hospital on the far side of campus. We felt like it was time to head
back to our more populated area so as we headed back, we crossed the
street and this cute little older lady walked around the corner. She
had a map in her hands, but you could tell she was completely lost! We
talked to her for a few minutes and said we would walk with her and
try to help her find the way to where she was going. As we walked of
course we just started talking. . . . it was the greatest!!! She
totally opened up and even though we didn't find the place she was
looking for, she found so much more!!! She found hope in the message
of the gospel we shared, she found love from 2 complete strangers and
felt comfortable enough with us before she left to give us both a hug,
and she found love from her Heavenly Father in the simple act of
service that we did as we walked with her! Before we left she gave us
her name, address and phone number and told us that, "You should all
come by sometime and teach me more about all these things! And I want
to come to church too!" It was so amazing for us to see how Heavenly
Father can use us to do his work! We were able to listen to promptings
of the spirit, go where we needed to go, at just the right time and
talk to all of the right people! Such a blessing to remind Me and help
S Decker see how God will guide us as we exercise our faith and go to
work! :)

At church yesterday, Hunaid was confirmed and received the gift of the
Holy Ghost! It was so great!!!! The smile on his face was the BEST! He
was a little nervous, but the Bishop just put his arm around him and
everything went super smooth. It was really neat because at the
baptism last week we had everyone write their testimonies on a little
note card and we made a little book for Hunaid with all of the note
cards. We decorated the front with his baptism picture and made it
look all nice, then we also wrote down his confirmation blessing and
put that with all of it. When we met with him last night and gave it
to him he was so floored! He just kept flipping through the book,
reading the cards, looking at the picture and reading his blessing! He
looked at us and said, "WOW!!! Thanks so much man! This is REALLY
something, it means a lot! I'm SO touched!" We were super excited that
he loved it so much! We even asked him how he felt last week and put
that on a note card too, so now he can keep it forever and always look
back and remember his special day! :) It was perfect! :)

So, the other great news we got this week is that: ANNY IS GETTING
BAPTIZED!!! Anny is someone we met on campus couple of months ago.
When we met her, she barely spoke any English, but we invited her to
church and she said she really wanted to come. Then we ran into her
again, and again she told us she wanted to come to church! This time
though, we were able to get her number and help her understand where
to meet for a ride and what time. Well, she came to church and LOVED
it!! She told us she would be there EVERY week. Well, to make a long
story short, she did come. . . every week she was there! Then we found
out she was married and gave her as a referral to the Saline sisters
who have been teaching her for about 3 weeks. Well, they called us
last night and told us she is on date to be baptized on August 25, and
asked if we could be there to support her! We were SO excited!!! It
was so neat!! Heavenly Father really knows what he is doing! :) Ha ha,
S Thompson and I were just out contacting and invited her to church
and now look what he has in store for her!! Miracles never cease!! :)

We have specialized training this week, so we are pumped for that and
already this week is looking busy and happy! :) (That's the way we
like it!) ;) S Decker is doing great. She is a great teacher!! It's so
nice to have her cause she just jumps right in and shares what she is
feeling. We make a great team! :) Yesterday we were teaching this cute
little Chinese man. He was having trouble understanding what we were
talking about, so S Decker jumped up to the white board and started
using some Chemistry analogy! (Ha ha, it was great!! He is studying
Chemistry here so it all totally made sense!!!) After that it all came
together beautifully! She was totally inspired! :) Then he was able to
relate and you could just see all the puzzle pieces fitting together
in his mind. It was great too cause we had just barely studied
"Teaching People, Not Lessons." I think that she totally nailed that
one! :) It's so fun to have someone who is just so stinking cute! I
love her, the ward loves her and all of our investigators love her!
She's FANTASTIC!!!

Well, family!! my time is about up!! I've gotta get going, we promised
the Saline sisters that we would make them lunch today and we still
have to go shopping so we have food to make!!! ha h! Oops!! :) But I
hope you are all doing great! Thanks for your awesome examples, your
prayers, and all that you do! I have the very best family in the whole
wide world!!!

Love you ALL THE BESTEST!!!

Love,
Sister Bishop