Nov.26,2012

 

Monday, November 26, 2012 3:16 PM

Hello family!!! How are you!?!? I'm so glad to hear that you all had a
wonderful Thanksgiving!! The Christmas party also sounded like so much
fun! :) It's so crazy to hear all these names and try to put them to
faces. . . our family is growing so fast i don't know if I will
recognize any of them when I get home! ;) I got your letters this week
with all of the pictures!! WOW!!! You guys have grown up SO fast!!! It
blows my mind!!! :) I can't believe it! :) I loved the letters though
and the pictures! I just sat there and stared at them for like 10
minutes. . . man! Being a missionary has made me really, really
thankful for my family and the awesome relationship that we all have!
Especially out here where there are so many people who don't know
about the gospel and don't know how it blesses their families. . . it
is so sad! I was studying a talk this morning and this line just
jumped off the page at me, it said, "Exaltation is a FAMILY
experience!" Isn't that so great!!?!? No wonder families are central
to the gospel, no wonder our families bring us so much joy!!! It all
makes SO much sense!
Oh!! Before I forget!!! We finally have a real postal address!!!! :)

It is:
Sister Lisa Bishop


This week has been so good! We were invited to have Thanksgiving
dinner with a part member family. I don't remember if I already told
you this story or not. .. but the Mom is less active and works a lot
of Sunday's, the Dad is not a member and there are 2 little girls that
are 11 and 9 that aren't baptized yet. The Dad grew up in Utah as a
non member and has always had a lot of negative feelings to the church
because of some of the things he went through. The miracle of the
story is that he NEVER would talk to missionaries, let alone let them
into his house. A few weeks ago we stopped by to visit the Mom and
while we were there she told us that He wanted to invite us over for
dinner! We of course accepted and were really excited!!! When we got
there on THrusday evening, they were all dressed up fancy and
excitedly waiting for us. Anthony (the dad) had made all of the dinner
with the 2 girls because Vicky had to work. We sat down and ate and
enjoyed a great conversation the whole time! We were a little scared
that he would be kind of standoffish, but he accepted us right from
the start! In between dinner and dessert, the girls and Anthony put on
a little concert for us with the piano and their violins! The whole
time we talked and laughed, it was great! At the end we asked if we
could share a Thanksgiving message and Vicky agreed, but Anthony
decided to take the dog for a walk. :) But the girls stayed and we had
a great lesson with them! Before we left, Vicky told us, "Sisters, I
want you to know that you have seen a miracle in Anthony today!!! He
used to sic his dog on any missionaries that tried to set foot in his
front porch! YOU are the FIRST missionaries that he has ever invited
into his home! It may not seem like much, but his heart is softening
little by little!" :) It was really neat!! We made a thank you card
that we are going to drop off this week and hopefully that heart will
continue to soften and eventually we will be able to teach him and his
little girls! :)

After all that yummy food, we had one more appointment for the night.
We went to May's house, (Han's mom). We had told Han that we were
going to eat before so his mom didn't have to worry about feeding us.
(She ALWAYS cooks food for us!!!) But when we got there that night, we
walked in and she looked at us and said, "Hello Sisters! It's good to
see you!! I hope you haven't had too much food because I have been
saving my Thanksgiving dinner to share it with you! Would you like to
join me??" :) Ha ha! After an invitation like that we couldn't resist,
so we unbuttoned the top buttons of our skirts, said a little prayer,
slapped a smile on our faces and said, "We would love to have some
dinner with you!!! Thank you so much!!" Oh my goodness!! Heavenly
Father sure helped us out there! :) 2 big Thanksgiving dinners within
2 hours of each other and somehow we managed to get it all down! ;) Ha
ha, it was really, really good! But I don't think I've ever been so
full in my life! :)

OH!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BEN (sorry it was yesterday!! I remembered
though!! ;) ) and HAPPY BIRTHDAY this Friday to my little Goose!!!
(You are growing up way too fast!!) Your hair is almost as long as
mine is in those pictures!! You are one beautiful little girl! I love
you both SO much!!!

This week has been kind of crazy. . . we are teaching this woman named
Karen. Her mother passed away about a year ago and she doesn't really
have any religious background. . she has a lot of really good
questions though! This week when we met with her she finally opened up
enough to pray with us! :) I think that first time an investigator
prays is magical!! I love it so much!!! :) She is super sweet but SO
lonely! WE are working on getting her friends in the ward and doing
all that we can to help build her faith! (Mom I was really excited to
hear that you are teaching a lesson on faith! Alma 32 is a really
great chapter. . . I'm sure you've looked it over a few times, but it
has some really great stuff! When we were teaching it this week a
member pointed out in verse 27 (I think) how you have to "make room"
for the seed of faith to grow! I had never really thought about that
before! I have always just assumed that there was plenty of room and
all the seed needed was water and sunshine! But if there is NO ROOM,
then of course the seed won't be able to grow and fully develop.
Especially with the world that we live in and all the fast paced
society and social media, we have become a people obsessed with NOW,
we don't want to wait to learn patience! It's so difficult to learn
patience with spiritual things because everything else is so instant.
Another aspect is that we need to give heed to the still, small voice!
A lot of times the spirit speaks in little ways. . . like a small seed
sprouting, instead of a mega phone blasting in your ear! It's the
SMALL things and the quiet things that really build and strengthen our
faith! )

We had another neat little miracle this week as we stopped by an
investigators home. Her name is Christine and we didn't have an
appointment, we stopped by to try and schedule something later in the
week. At first she let us in, but didn't want to "study." But as we
visited with her she settled down a little and S Evans pulled out a
mormon message. She said she felt very strongly that Christine needed
to see it. It was one about forgiveness and the Atonement. As we
watched it, Christine was amazed and felt the spirit so strongly! :)
By the end of the night instead of us pulling out our planners to see
when we could come back she was TELLING us when to be there! :) Ha ha!
It was amazing to see the difference it makes to invite and feel the
spirit! :)

Sorry this is kind of short this week, it's been a crazy day so I
better get going! But just remember how much I love you!!! :) Choose
the right and all of the important things!!! RWLY!!!!!

Love you guys the BEST!!

Love,
Sister Bishop

P.S. I never did hear from Aunt Dona, but it would probably help if
she had my address!! ;)
P.P.S I am all out of my multi-vitamins and I can't find them any
where out here, can you either send me some or recommend a good type
that I could just buy out here? I am also getting a little low on
shampoo! :) I think I have everything else that I need! Thanks a ton
though! You guys are the BEST!! :)

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Nov.18,2012

Dearest Family!!

Hello All!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!! Wow! I can't believe it's that
time of year already, I LOVE this time of the year so much! Especially
as a missionary, there is no better time to be a missionary cause
around this time of the year everybody seems to be a little kinder and
more concerned about the people around them. Even if 2 strange girls
come knocking on their door at 8:00 when they are trying to get kids
in bed and they have never met us before, even if it is freezing cold
and they have to open the door, they all seem a little bit kinder!
It's so nice!! :) For the most part, the weather has been beautiful!!!
The last few days I haven't even had to wear my coat! Hooray!! My
Australian companion on the other hand thinks that she will freeze to
death the moment that she steps out the door, so she bundles up and
puts on layer after layer!!! Ha ha, it's great! I'm sure that we make
quite the sight: A short, little, blonde girl with a light jacket and
a very TALL, red head with an Eskimo coat, boots, mittens, scarf and
everything else you can think of!! Ha ha! We have so much to be
thankful for!!!! :) I just am excited to see what she'll do when it
REALLY starts to get cold! ;)

Any ways, we've had a great week! We had specialized training this
week (2 days of it!) and all of the sisters went on exchanges for 2
days in between training meetings. I love these meetings because I
feel like they are always EXACTLY what I need to hear! As we were in
the training meeting, we had one of the stake presidents come and
instruct us. It was SO good!!! He said a lot of really good things,
mostly he talked about how to help members be more involved with
missionary work by helping them to feel the spirit and TEACHING them
HOW to DO missionary work! I had never thought of that before! I guess
that being a missionary, you just kind of assume that everybody (well,
all of the members any ways) just know what they need to do or say to
share the gospel. Well, a lot of these families are scared because
they don't know how to do it and they don't want to lose any friends.
So, he told us to facilitate the spirit in their home, so they can
really feel it by teaching and testifying of a simple doctrine, then
invite them to be a part of missionary work by inviting someone to
hear the missionary lessons by a specific date and then practicing
with them! WOW!!! What a great idea, right?? As missionaries we
practice all of the time, what a great idea! :) Any ways, so with that
in mind we went out to work. Our first member lesson was with a member
of the Bishopric. We had it all planned out and ready and were SO
excited, but with all of our planning we neglected to leave time for
US to practice.. . . . Well, it didn't go as swell as we wanted it to.
I think he felt a little bit guilty cause he tried to come up with all
sorts of excuses about how they were working with their friends.
HMMMM, Thank goodness for his sweet wife!! :) She piped up and
suggested that they invite friends over in a few weeks to hear a
Christmas message that we share! We quickly agreed! Ha ha, we shared
our testimonies of missionary work, promised them that they would be
blessed and that the Lord would bless them and then had to run. I'm
hoping that they really do follow through on the Christmas message!!
Needless to say, we are still working on that one! We'll get it, but
it is gonna take a little bit more time and practice!

Funny story!!! So, for exchanges this last week, the sisters called us
and they told me I would be leaving. I was just a little bummed cause
I had JUST BARELY unpacked all of my suitcases and got every thing
organized, but they they told me I would be going to. . . .. HILL
STREET!!!! Ha ha!!! YAY!!!!! I was SO excited!!!! :) I teased them all
day that I had been on exchanges for the last week and now they were
just sending me home! ;) It was so good!!! I was there with S Hoopes,
and it was (again) exactly what I needed! The first day after
specialized training, we taught Van. S Hoopes had never met him before
and I told him I was being transferred, the look on his face was
priceless!!! It's been a while since we had been able to see Van, and
we went there straight after our meeting so we had like 3 minutes to
plan. . .. Heavenly Father blessed us SO much! In our training
meeting we also spent a lot of time talking about the power of the
Book of Mormon. So, we put that to use! We read a little with him,
then talked about prayer. It was so amazing! It was one of those times
when you can feel the spirit so strongly and you feel like it's not
you talking. .. Yeah!! I was saying all sorts of things and promising
blessings that I knew I couldn't provide, I KNEW that the spirit was
guiding that lesson! The last few days I have really studied the
Atonement and it amazes me how EVERYTHING relates to the Atonement. My
insight in Van's lesson was that, as we pray we are able to
communicate with God, through that communication he sends his spirit
to help us recognize the answers and as we recognize those answers we
are able to make changes in our lives to draw even closer to our
Loving Heavenly Father. THAT"S THE ATONEMENT!!! That's what it is all
about!! It's all about helping us to change, to be better people, to
come closer to God and feel more of his spirit and his love for us and
to become the Children that He sees in us! It's made me evaluate my
prayers, my studies and everything that I do. .. 'Is this going to
invite the spirit and help me to access grace??" If so, then I keep it
up, if not that's a good indication of an area that I can improve! :)
The next day we were busy all day and had an amazing, crazy, spirit
filled day! I am SO thankful for the time we were able to be together.
I LOVE S Hoopes, so much!!! I really appreciate her love of the
gospel, her desire to share it and her testimony that drives her to
keep going! She's such a great example!

Wow!! This letter is getting long, I better get going soon, but I have
one more story that I waned to share! We are teaching Han's mom, May.
She is super, super sweet and really loves meeting with us, but she is
also very busy and obviously doesn't recognize (or associate) the
feelings of having us around with feeling the spirit. We went to see
her this week and decided to apply the things we learned at
specialized training. We came up with a lesson plan that we felt met
her needs and covered what she needed to know, feel and do, we
practiced it and felt good. Then as we were sitting there in the
lesson we were running out of time. We knew we didn't have enough time
to do EVERYTHING, so we went another route. We were still able to do
the: know, feel, do pattern and it actually turned out much better
than we even planned!! We taught her about prayer, the importance of
it, why we do it and even How to pray! (Thank you President Devree's!)
At the end we asked her if she would say the closing prayer. She was
very nervous and tried to get Han to say it, but even he felt it and
KNEW that she needed to pray. She finally did pray!!!! Han had to go
first and give her an example and I think her prayer was almost
exactly the same thing he said, but it didn't matter! For the first
time in years and years, May took the invitation and spoke out loud to
her Heavenly Father! The feeling in the room was absolutely
incredible!!! Now we know that she can do it, and hopefully she will
keep her promise and pray throughout the week this week!!

Well family! I guess I had better get going! I still don't have a
mailing address. . . you can send anything to the Hill St address and
they'll get it to me. Next week for sure I will have one though!!!!
(Hopefully!!) All we are waiting on now is for the Post office to
bring us the key! I will let you know as soon as I have a real
address! :) It will be nice to be able to get mail for real, again! ;)
I love you all so much!!! Thank you for being who you are, thanks for
choosing the right, thanks for being such great examples in all that
you do and for living the gospel!!! :) The Gospel life is TRULY the
GOOD life!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Love you all the BEST!

Love,

Sister Bishop

Nov 11,2012

Dear Family,

Hello!! :) Can you believe that it is almost Thanksgiving!??! I can't,
it's SO crazy how fast the last couple of months have gone!!!
Christmas is right around the corner and time is just going to keep
speeding away from me, I think! :) This week has been a good one,
interesting, but good! :) With moving and the new ward, new comp, etc,
it's been BUSY!!! But we have had some pretty amazing miracles!! (And
some pretty funny things. . . Oh the life of a missionary!!) ha ha!

So, we have this adorable little family that we are teaching, the Mom
is a member but has been less active for a very long time. She has 6
kids!!! (Yay for BIG families!!! It's SUPER crazy at her house, but I
love it SO much!!!!) There is a 16 year old boy who is also a member,
but less active, a 14 year old girl, a 9 year old boy,a twin boy and
girl that are 8, and a 5 year old little boy. (Oh, and another child
that is adopted that we have never met, so we don't know if it is a
boy or girl, or how old it is!) Any ways, 4 of the kids are eligible
to be baptized, so we have been teaching them. Let me tell ya, they
are a HANDFUL!!! I have NEVER seen so many chillens with SO much
energy!!!! Plus, as a single mother, the kids are not very well
disciplined. They know nothing about church, religion or God and like
I said, they all have ADD (Seriously!) So, Sister Evans tried to
warn/prepare me, but there wasn't anything that she could do! :) The
first time I met them we decided to bring S Evans guitar and teach
them "I am a Child of God." WOW!! What an experience that was!!! :) We
walked in and were immeadiately celebreties, they were screaming and
laughing and jumping all over us, I didn't know that children could
make so much noise!!! Ha ha, especially after teaching college
students for the last 8 months it was a bit of a shock to the system!
:) Somehow me managed to semi- keep them under control and they
actually did learn the first verse and the chorus! It was one of those
things that you walk out of the house utterly exhausted, but
completely satisfied and happy! It was so precious to see hear those
kids singing, they melted my heart. . . I'm in love! :) We stopped by
another time this week and the kids were so crazy that only one of
them would sit down with us and let us teach him. So we got the Mom
(Rosalinda) and the little 9 year old (Tino) and taught them about
faith, courage and prayer. We taught Tino how to pray and he said his
first prayer!!! Once again, we walked out of the house completely
exhausted, but exteremely satisfied! :) There is just something
beautiful about the simple faith and innate goodness of a child, even
a child that doesn't yet know or understand that He is a Child of God.
But, they will learn, we will be there for them!! I'm so excited to
help this cute little family to see how the gospel can change and
bless their lives! :) Visiting with the Fernandez family makes me ever
more grateful for all of you!!!! YOU GUYS ARE INCREDIBLE!!!! I hope
that you know that! <3 We have been SO blessed to grow up in a home
with the gospel and parents who love us and teach us about God and all
of the things that really matter in life! What a blessing it is to
KNOW that we can live together for all eternity!!!! Wow, I have truly
been blessed with the BEST family ever!! I sure do love you guys!! :)

Other cool story, we got to meet Elder Oaks!!! YUP!! It was pretty
fantastic!! He came to do a stake conference for the westland stake
and asked to have the opportunity to meet with all of the
missionaries. It was incredible!! He took a few minutes and shook all
of our hands then talked for a little while about our purpose as
missionries. . . it was so good!! (Ben I'm thinking of you as I'm
writing this. . .) He shared a story about a young man from one of the
previous stakes he had lived in that he had sent on a mission. This
young man had a stutter that was really bad. He couldn't speak very
well at all, but when this Elder came home and gave his report to the
high council, the stake president asked him how many people he had
baptized. In his stuttering voice he said, "Onnnnnne,
Hunnnnnndrrrrrrrreeeeedd and ttttthhhhhhhhirrrrrtttty
fffffffffooooooouuuuurrrrrrr!!!!" The insight that Elder Oaks shared
was that, "Even though this young man could barely speak, let alone
teach a lesson, the Lord had been able to work through him to reach
many of his children! We all have weaknesses, none of us is perfect,
but if we allow Him, God will work through us to accomplish his work,
despite our weaknesses!" I loved that! It made me reflect on some of
the weaknesses I can see in myself and set goals of how to exercise
more faith to hand them over to the Lord and let him work through me
more effectively! :)

So, with those 2 miracles S Evans and I have stayed pretty busy!!! S
Evans is really great!! I love her! It's been interesting trying to
get used to teaching together though! :) For the last 8 months I have
been with missionaries that I have trained, and teaching with them was
another whole ball game. It's really amazing though to be unified
enough to have the spirit guide us in our lessons. We've had some
really great lessons this week and some others that weren't so great.
. . . but thankfully the spirit was there anyways! :) We are working
on practicing more in comp study so I'm sure that will help! :) Funny
fact though, hearing your comp speaking in an accent 24/7 makes me
think in an Austrailian accent! Ha HA!!! When we do our recitations in
the morning, I have even catch myself mimicking her Austrialian
accent! :) It's pretty great!

Any ways, other super funny story of the week!!!! Ha ha, are you
ready, this is a good one!?!?! So, it's a fact that michigan pulmbing
is NOT the greatest. . . but this toilet in our new apartment is
something else entirely!! It's so pathetic!!!! Ha ha!! So, it got
clogged on Friday, but since we just moved in, we didn't have a
plunger!!! OOPS!! So, Saturday right before we went home for the night
we ran to wal-mart and got a plunger. . . then is when the fun really
started!!!!! Ha ha, Thankfully S Evans is a film major so she caught
it ALL on video! You see, I was plunging, she was video-ing and I
flushed the toilet and it literally EXPLODED on us!!!! It wouldn't
stop over flowing either!! I was plunging like a mad woman and it
wasn't doing a darn thing!!! Finally I got the brillian idea to turn
off the water, but by this time the floor was completely covered and
we had to wade in there a midst all of the . . . . poop. . . . and
turn of off!!!! Meanwhile we are both screaming our little heads off,
and grabbing any spare towels that we could get our hands on, but to
no avail. It was a disaster area!! So here we are, 10:22 p.m., two
super tired sister missionaries who need to pee but can't because the
toilet wouldn't work. . . it was a pretty dire situation!! We finally
got a hold of the maintenance crew and some guy came over and fixed it
(at like 11:15) we cleaned it up and best we could and finally crawled
into bed!!!! The best part of this whole story was that we just
laughed and laughed the whole time!!! There really wasn't anything
else that we could do . . . except maybe cry, but that wouldn't have
solved anything either! Morale of the story here, just call the
maintenance guy!!! (oh, and always have a plunger handy when you are
in Michigan!!) ;) Good times!!!

Well family, I guess I better get going!! I hope you are all doing
Super good!! I Love you all SO MUCH!!! Have a great week and remember
all of the important things!!! :)

Love,
Sister Bishop.

P.S. Ben I can't believe how fast time is going!!! Enjoy it while you
can!!! You are going to be such an incredible missionary!!! I'm so
excited to have you out in the field the same time as me. . . it's
gonna be the bomb!!!

Hannah, that pie was BEAUTIFUL!!!! Like one of the little boys told me
this week, "Well, BLOW ME OVER!!!" Ha ha, I'm SO proud! <3

Di I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU DIDN'T TELL ME ABOUT MISSION PAPERS!!!!
YOU LITTLE POOP!!! (ha ha, that word has been a favorite since our
experience from saturday night!!!) WOW!!! That's super crazy!! I know
you will be great, just keep praying about what you need to do and
Heavenly Father will help you to know what's best! (But, I'll just
tell you, a mission is the GREATEST thing!! I love it SO much!!!! . .
. . Just Sayin' ;) ) Any ways, the end!

Love you all the BESTEST!!

Unexpected transfers!

Hey Family!!! How are you all doing???

:) Life in Ann Arbor is going great! But I have some BIG NEWS!!!!!
This last week has been pretty crazy with out trio and covering 2
wards, time seems to have flown by. We giggled, we told stories, we
worked hard, taught some powerful lessons, went on splits like crazy
and really had a great week. It was SO fun to have those few days to
be back in a family ward!! I honestly kind of forgot what it was like
to have a family!!! To have a Mom and a Dad and a whole table full of
chillens for dinner time, and all of the NOISE!!! Oh my goodness! I
couldn't believe how noisy all those adorable little kids were. But i
loved it so much!!! All week I kept thinking, "oh man! What would it
be like to be back in a family ward?? What would I do if I got to
teach FAMILIES and KIDS again?? Could I do that?" Well. . . . . we're
gonna find out real soon cause. . . . I'M BEING TRANSFERRED!!!!!!
President Holmes called us Thursday morning and said, "Hello Sisters!!
I just wanted to call and let you know what the plan is for Monday."
We didn't think anything of it, we knew we had to get another sister,
so we thought we would be prepared for what he was going to say next.
I definitely wasn't! "Sister Bishop. . . YOU ARE BEING TRANSFERRED!!!
You are going to Ann Arbor 2nd with S Evans!!!! And S Decker, your new
companion will be S Hoopes!!!" I couldn't believe it!!! I just kind of
sat there in shock for a few minutes while he explained the rest of
the details. Then finally he asked, "Alright, so Sister Bishop, Are
you okay??" Of course then I knew that he was really serious and that
I was leaving and i just burst into tears!! I managed in between my
tears to get out a, "Yeah, I'm okay." He talked to me for another
minute but then had to go. I hung up the phone and then the tears
really started!!! Ha ha, I have really come to LOVE the Hill St ward,
so much!! I love the people, the city, the campuses, my investigators,
our leaders. . ..  I just love it ALL!!! I thought that I would be
leaving a few weeks ago, and i was prepared for that then, but this
was so unexpected and sudden, it really caught me off guard. So, here
is the really amazing part of this whole dramatic story! :) Right
before President Holmes called us, we were doing our comp study and we
had just finished reading our white hand book where it talked about
respecting leaders and how they are called of God. We each talked a
little bit about how much we love President Holmes, how we could trust
anything that he tells us and how if he asked us to do anything (no
matter what it was or how hard it might be) we would get a spiritual
confirmation ourselves and then go to work to get it done!! Right as
we all agreed on that, the phone started ringing . . .when we all saw
it was President Holmes, we all just looked at each other and giggled
thinking "what a coincidence!!" Oh man, good timing President Holmes!!
;) The other really amazing thing about this was that we went to the
temple on Thursday, which happened right after we received that phone
call. What a better place to receive a spiritual confirmation than the
temple, right?!?!? As I was there, I felt such peace and comfort, I
knew that this is what needed to happen. Even though I would be
leaving the people that I love so much, I know that this is where I
need to be! It's funny though, we will still be close (I mean, we are
STILL in Ann Arbor!) So, we'll teach people at the institute every
once in a while, we go to Friday Forums, so I'll still get to see a
bunch of the people even if I'm not attending church with them. So
really, I get the BEST of both worlds! :) So, yes!! I am in a new
area!! I get to teach families and be around little kids again and
although I will really miss my old area, I am SO excited for this new
journey!!! It's amazing to see how God guides us in His work! This
week has definitely been a confirmation of that! :) I don't have a
mailing address yet. . . the office is still working on that! :) So,
for now you can keep sending stuff to the Hill St address and they
will bring it to the institute for me! Hopefully by next week, I will
have a real address to give you! So, I finally get to have this
Australian comp that I've dreamed of!! ;) S Evans is great!!! I just
know that we are going to have such an awesome time!! We are going to
be such a great team!

It was hard to say goodbye to some of the people that we are working
with though. Hunaid and Mike actually handled it pretty well. I think
the hardest person was Efren. (He is the less active guy that helps us
teach Bonifacio that I told you about last week. The one who said that
he doesn't believe in God anymore.) I think he was the hardest to say
goodbye to because I feel like I can really relate with him . . which
is weird, I've never been through the things that he described. But,
as we've met with him the last few weeks, I've had such powerful
spiritual experiences where I've felt the spirit working through me.
I've been able to say things, that I NEVER would have known on my own
and really listen and be able to discern his needs. It's been
incredible!! This last week we asked him to say the closing prayer and
for a while he refused, nothing we said would convince him. We finally
all just bowed our heads and told him that we would just wait for him.
..  he finally tapped my arm and asked, "Sister, PLEASE will you just
pray for me??" I looked him in the eye, not really knowing what to say
and when I opened my mouth the words that came were just, "I already
AM!!" He looked at me for a minute, kind of nodded his head and began
to pray. It was one of the most sincere prayers that I have ever
heard. It was amazing!!!! Efren still has a lot of doubts and
questions, but he is going to be okay! As long as he continues to read
his scriptures and pray, he will find the answers that he is searching
for! He text-ed us on Sunday and told us that he has been reading, and
praying and that he feels like it is helping! I kills me that he KNOWS
all of this! I think he even still has a testimony, he is just letting
his pride get in the way of his faith. But, that's okay! He has some
really great guides to help him find his way back to the real joy and
knowledge of the gospel.

This week has been pretty crazy, but I have loved seeing God's hand in
all of it! Sister Hoopes will be so wonderful for S Decker, they are
going to make the greatest team!!!! :) I just know that Hill St will
be so blessed with the two of them! Nothing is going to be able to
stop them!!! :) S Evans and I are super stoked for all the potential
in our ward also! Especially with the Holidays coming up, people are
kinder and happier, so I just know that God has so many miracles in
store for us!

Well family, it's getting to be late and we still have a TON of stuff
to do!! (You should have seen me packing up my apartment!!! Oh man!!
That's a story all on it's own! I'll see if i have time to work on a
tape. . .. ) I'm sure I won't have time to do any snail mail though,
sorry!!! Just know that I love you all SO much!!! Thanks for your
letters, your thoughts and all the prayers for my "missionary
strength!" ;) I need all of the help I can get!!! :) Have a WONDERFUL
week!!!

Love you guys THE BEST!!
Love,
Sister Bishop