Dec. 17,2012 Lisa called last night to talk with Ben

Dearest Family!!!

Hello to ALL!!!! I can't believe how good it was to talk to you all
last night!! Oh my goodness, that 30 minutes went WAY too fast!! :) :)
I loved it though!!! SO, SO MUCH!!! I think that the thing I loved the
most was the fact that we didn't really "say" anything! :) All of the
little stories we shared was all that we needed! I loved how Mom said
for your little family Christmas party that the BEST thing was being
together and spending that time as a family! That really is the
GREATEST!!! Oh man! I love you guys SO, SO much!!! (I told S Evans the
story about Tim in Sunday School and we giggled the rest of the night!
Ha ha!!! :)) I'm sending this e-mail to Ben's missionary address too,
so hopefully it makes it and I guessed right . . . if not, you'll have
to let me know what it is for real. :)

So, here I am in Northville!! S Mecham is GREAT!!! I can't wait for
you guys to see pictures, we really could be twin sisters! :) We are
both the same height, blonde and blue eyes. . . just talking to her
for the little while we've been together, I can tell we are going to
get a long just great! We are SO much alike! :) Ha ha, it's gonna be
good! Northville is a family ward, it's not rural, but it's definitely
not the city either. It's actually a pretty ritzy area. . . so, it's
gonna be great!! :)

I was really sad to leave Ann Arbor, but it actually worked out really
well this way! I feel like instead of just being transferred from Hill
St, they kind of winged me off of it! :) I still got to see people
once in a while and get used to a family ward and get to know and love
the people there, so it really was the BEST of both worlds! I think
one of the hardest things was actually saying goodbye to S Evans! :)
We have got to be such good friends over the last 6 weeks and before
me, she really struggled with her companions, so it was super hard to
say good bye! :) It's so amazing to see how God works! We both needed
that 6 weeks together, I learned so much from her and it was really
incredible!!! I sure do love that girl! :)

So, with all of that good stuff out of the way, we did do some
missionary work this week! :) It was really awesome!! We did exchanges
at the beginning of the week. I stayed in AA and S Butterfield came
there, so S Evans was in Fenton with S Farnsworth. Exchanges are such
a powerful experience to learn from another sister! They are the
BOMB!! So, Tuesday morning S Butterfield and I meet with Jeanette, we
had only taught her like 2 times and we weren't sure if she was really
interested. She had been taught a lot by missionaries before, and
seemed to have a pretty good understanding of the things that we had
shared. We decided to start at the beginning and just do a very
powerful, spirit led lesson according to her needs. As we studied and
practiced, it was amazing to feel the spirit and see how it all came
together so easily! As we taught the lesson it all just flowed, and
even though I had NEVER taught with S Butterfield, we were so
unified!! Man!!! It was such an amazing feeling! At the end of the
lesson, Jeanette told us, "WOW!!! You girls are SO good at this, it
all makes so much sense!!! This is so amazing!!" We invited her to
pray about being baptized and she promised that she would! (It was
really awesome too, cuase we took Tara with us!! She is so awesome!!!!
She was able to just jump right in and help us teach and testify! She
actually spent the morning with us and absolutely LOVED it!! She's
gonna be the best little missionary!!)

We have been working with a Less Active named Rebecca Thornton, she
has been LA for a very long time and has a lot of questions and
different views about the church and our doctrines, etc. But we had
dinner with her and the Bednar's last Sunday. After dinner we read the
"I Feel My Saviors Love" story book to the little girls and talked
about ways that we feel Christ's love for us. We targeted it to the
girls, but Rebecca listened intently the entire time. She even seemed
to get a little emotional. So, yesterday when we went to say good
bye, I brought it up again and shared my testimony of the Savior and
His love for all of us. A sweet spirit filled the room and we all got
a little teary eyed as we were able to partake for that brief moment
of His love! It was really neat! I know she still has a bunch of
questions and doubts, but as long as she remembers that HE really does
love her, I know she will be able to overcome them! :)

Our other miracle was that. . .. WE GOT SEMONE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :)
We had tried calling her several times during the week, but she never
answered or called us back. We were super bummed, but didn't feel good
about just stopping by. When I found out I was being transferred, I
tried calling her again, but still she didn't answer. She didn't have
a voice mail, so I just decided to try texting her. A few hours later
she called and apologized for "putting us off" and asked us to come by
Sunday night. We were still a little nervous, but felt really good
about it, so we stopped by last night and had the most amazing
experience!!! OUR SEMONE IS BACK!!! :) We walked in and she gave us
both a great big hug!!! She again apologized, but explained that she
had had a really crazy week. We chatted for a few minutes and then she
asked us, "Well Sisters, I haven't had a chance to read my Book of
Mormon yet, can we read together??" We of course, obliged! :) We
turned to 3 Nephi and read the account of Christ in the Americas. She
got SO excited as we were taking turns that she just kept reading and
reading. . . as she read her eyes started to water and the spirit
poured into the room. We talked for a few minutes about what it would
be like to have been there and seen/heard all the things that those
people saw and heard. :) Aww!! It was SO good!! She told us that she
wants to continue to meet with us, but she wants to take it slow so
she can really feel it out and pray about it to make sure that this is
really what God wants for her. :)

It was kind of a crazy emotional week with exchanges, being
transferred and calling you guys!!! It's been a good one, but I'm SO
glad it's preparation day and we can take it easy and get everything
organized and settled in. :) I'm really excited to see the miracles
that God has in store for me and S Mecham here in Northville!! I'm
sure it's gonna be great!! :) I hope that you all have a most
wonderful week!! I love you all SO much!!! Choose the right and all of
the important things and REMEMBER WHO LOVES YOU!!!!

Love you the BESTEST!!

Love,
Sister Bishop