Oct 21,2012

Hello again to my very favorite people!! :) I hope you are all doing
fantastic!!

Can you believe that it is already October, and MID October!!! Time
goes so fast!! I can't believe it! :) So, it really is fall in Ann
Arbor! All of the leaves are changing and today is the first time all
week we haven't had to wear tights!! So, funny story of the week! Last
week we went leaf jumping with April! It was basically the GREATEST!!!
We went up to the "Arb" and they had just barely finished raking most
of the leaves, so we kept walking and walking until we found a place
that there were some leaves on the ground! We raked them up with our
hands as good as we could and got a pretty decent pile, then took
turns jumping in it! :) As we were playing we were taking pictures,
giggling and running around and this random guy walked up with a super
nice camera and was like, "Hi! My name is Patrick! I am a
photographer, do you want me to take some pictures of you!?!" Ha HA!!
We were all like, "Umm. . . . . SURE!!!" Ba ha ha!!! So, he took a
bunch of pictures of us playing in the leaves and then gave us a card
so he could e-mail them to us! :) They actually turned out pretty good
from what we could see on the camera so we are super excited! :) April
is going to e-mail him and print off some of the good ones for us! The
funny thing is that as we were talking to him we were like, "So, are
you a photography student here?? What's your major? Etc." He got this
funny look on his face and was like, "Nope!! I'm an Engineer! I just
do this for fun!!!" Ha ha!! The reason that was so funny is cause
students here are SO dedicated to their major that they usually don't
have time for ANYTHING else! Especially engineers!!! :) It was pretty
great! Patrick made our day! :)

Other funny story really fast!! The Tingey's have started doing a date
night every month. They have been on the guys in our ward to be more
proactive about dating and to help them they are doing the date night.
Anyways, so the date night was this Friday. There were a couple of
girls that didn't get asked and REALLY wanted to go! One is named
Cyndi. SO, on Wednesday we were reading with Hunaid at the Institute!
Then we had to leave and he stayed to play ping pong with S Tingey.
Then next morning we walked in and S Tingey had this HUGE smile on her
face!! She came running (that's no small feat for S Tingey! ;) )came
running up to us and was so excited!! She told us, "Sisters!!! You
will never guess what happened last night!!!! She then told us how
Cyndi was also at the Institute the night before and when she saw
Hunaid decided to just ask him to date night! She did and HUNAID
AGREED TO GO WITH HER!!!!! :) :) Ha ha!! This is our shy little Indian
man that has ever only been on ONE date, ever in his life!!! :) Ha
ha!!! Sister Tingey about had a heart attack, but it totally made her
day!!! For date night they played Clue and everybody seemed to have a
really good time! Even Hunaid really enjoyed it! :) He has changed SO
much in the last few months! It is absolutely amazing!!! Yesterday at
church he passed the Sacrament for the first time! :) It was one of
the precious moments! He did great! I know he was super nervous, but
of course Kendall was right there to help him out so it all worked out
great! :)

So! It's been a great week! Lots of fun stuff going on and lots of
miracles too!! We met a new guy this week named Kwesi. (This story is
so exciting, but kind of a sad ending unfortunately!) We met him last
Sunday evening as we were out contacting on a pretty empty campus. (It
was fall break last week, so it was a pretty quiet weekend.) As we
talked to him, he was really excited to learn more! He told us, "Wow!!
Of COURSE I would want to know and find out if there was a prophet on
the earth today!" The night of his appointment came and we were at the
diag right on time! We sat and waited and waited, we made some phone
calls and tried to call him with no answer! So we finished our phone
calls and right as we were packing up to head out, he came running up
to us! :) We were so happy he made it!! We went to the institute and
had one of the most amazing, powerful lessons we've ever had!! The
spirit was SO strong and he was completely blown away! As we told him
the first vision, he just sat back in his chair and said, "Oh my
GOODNESS!!! Oh my goodness!!!" Then "Wow! I believe this!!!" S Decker
and I were smiling SO big we thought our faces might crack! It was
incredible!!! We invited him for a baptism commitment and he said he
would, but he would have to clear it with his parents first. This was
seriously one of the most amazing feelings! It was incredible!! After
he left we felt prompted to text him and warn him about any Anti
literature. Now, here is the sad part! After all of that, we text-ed
him Saturday to invite him to church. He text-ed us back that night
and told us that, "I will not be attending church tomorrow or our
meeting on Thursday. This is not a path I want to pursue. But thank
you for all of the information!" We were heart broken! He was so
golden!! He must have found/heard some pretty hard core anti. It was
super sad! The comforting thing though, is that he felt the spirit so
strongly!!! He will remember that and he told us that he has never
been baptized, so every time someone brings that up, he will remember
our lesson!!!! Hopefully over time his heart will be softened and he
will be able to find the truth! :)

Our other huge miracle this week was amazing how it all came
together!! We meet with Yang, our Chinese investigator every Saturday.
As we studied for him and discussed his needs/concerns in comp study
we felt very strongly that he needed to see a baptism! We felt that if
he saw it, felt the spirit and was able to have that experience that
he would not be as hesitant to set a date for his baptism. So, we
text-ed the zone leaders to see if there was a baptism in our zone
soon. Well, answer to our prayers: There was a baptism!!! AND it was
THAT evening IN Ann Arbor!!! The church building where it would be
held was like 10 mins from campus! :) :) We quickly contacted Yang and
he agreed to meet later in the evening and come to the baptism. The
other challenge though was finding him a ride! We can't give anyone a
ride in our car, so we stared calling people frantically! For one
reason or anther it seemed like EVERYONE was busy!! I think we went
through the contacts on our phone like 5 times, trying and retrying to
find someone to give Yang a ride. Finally, we had done all that we
could so we turned it over to Heavenly Father. We prayed and said "We
felt like this is something that would be very beneficial for Yang to
experience and it would address some of his needs and concerns. We
have done all that we can! Please help us!!" (We should have done that
WAY before we did, but we learned!) We decided to go through our
contacts one more time! By this time it was like 5:30 and the baptism
was at 6:30, our ultimate back up plan was to ride the bus as close as
we could get with Yang and then hike the rest of the way! :) As we
went through our contacts this time we found someone that we hadn't
tried yet! We quickly gave him a call and he told us, "Yeah, I can
help out with that!! Thanks sisters for letting me serve!!!" Oh my
goodness!!! PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED!!!! :) We gave him the address and
Yang was able to make it to the baptism!!! :) It was so incredible!!
The spirit was SUPER strong and he left with a smile on his face,
really glad that he had been able to make it! Yang is so amazing!! He
is so prepared and he is SO close!!! This Saturday we are planning on
seeing him and hopefully after the experience he had at the baptism he
will have the faith and courage to set a baptism date for himself!
Keep him in your prayers!!! :) He will be the most incredible member,
all he has to do is take that leap of faith. It's scary, but I know
he'll be great!

This weekend we were at U of M (of course!) But, as you all know, it
is football season. The game days are always a little crazy with so
much alcohol, and so much of the world. It is always a rude awakening
to the "real world" that we live in. But this weekend they had a
rivalry game so it was 10 times worse! I have never seen so many
people under the influence of alcohol, not even in control of
themselves, their bodies, their minds or their language. The feeling
on campus was the most disgusting, awful thing. Bro Elms saw us pull
up to the institute and told us that we shouldn't even be there. We
had to be because we had appointments, but we were SO happy to leave
and go to the baptism that evening. Ugh!!! It's so sad to see people
lose themselves so much just for "fun" or because of peer pressure. It
made me especially grateful for the home and community that I grew up
in and for the standards that I have! It also makes me VERY grateful
for the gospel that keeps me grounded and helps me to have real joy!
:)

Well, family! I better get going!! We have SO much to do! Ha ha, like
always! But I hope that you are all doing well!! I love you all SO
much!!! :) :) :)

Choose the right, RWLY and all of the other important things! :)

Love you guys the BEST!!

Love,
Sister Bishop