Lisa March 25,2013

Dear Family,

Wow!! I know I say this every week, but I really can't believe how
fast time is going!!! We got transfer called this week and surprise,
surprise S Sirstins and I are both STAYING!!! Yay!!! We are in for an
another AWESOME 6 weeks together!!! :) It's gonna be great, we've got
some high goals, lots of faith and desire and even better, we've got
God on our side!!! It's going to be INCREDIBLE!!! :)
This week was pretty great!! We met with David Howie, our scuba diver.
We have been trying to get him to commit to more than reading and
praying for what feels like forever!! Finally this week we had a break
through! He asked us to go over the commandments. . . again. . . in
detail and in modern language so he could know exactly where he was
at. :) We went through the 10 commandments, W of W and Chastity. At
the end he looked at us, sighed a great big sigh and said, "Okay
Sisters! I know where I am at now. . . all I have to do is come to
church on Sunday and keep the Sabbath day holy, then I will be able to
put God first and then I have to get married. So, I can't come to
church this week, and I'm not sure about next week, but I am going to
come soon!!!" I just about fell off of my chair!! Ha ha, this is what
we have been hoping and praying for with David Howie for MONTHS!!!
FINALLY!!! So, then on Friday he called us and told us that he had
made time and wanted to come to church this week and DEFINITELY on
Easter!!!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. . . David Howie
WANTING to come to church!?!?!? It was awesome!!! :) Sunday rolled
around and unfortunately, David was sick so despite all of our coaxing
he didn't make it, but we are holding him to his word to be there next
Sunday!! I love this man so much, I think that he realizes as soon as
he starts coming to church consistently, his next step in baptism!
He's gonna make it!! :)
Our other really neat miracle was Roger. He is the man we found right
at the end of the night like 2 weeks ago. We've been teaching him
twice a week for the last 2 weeks and he came to church yesterday!!!
:) He LOVED it and even though he has a little bit of social anxiety,
by the end seemed very comfortable and friendly with every one there.
Roger has had quite the life and seems like he's been just about
everywhere and done just about everything. . but he has a very sincere
desire to change. He isn't sure how Christ fits into the picture, but
that's exactly why Heavenly Father sent him 2 sister missionaries!! :)
Roger is amazing!! He is praying about a baptism date and the ward
yesterday was very welcoming and supportive. :)
So, we have this adorable little family in our ward named the
Randalls. .. I can't remember if I told you about them or not. The
little girls adore the sister missionaries- yesterday at church as we
were walking to Sunday school they came running up to me laughing and
giggling and very proudly showed me their beautiful pony tails and
flowery headbands!! Ha ha!! "Look Sister Bishop!! We are JUST like
you!!!" :) They are SO stinking cute, I love them so much!! They are
moving out to South Lyon, so they will still be in our ward, but out
of our area. We are going to help them pack and clean this Thursday
and I'm so excited, they are so great!! :)
Tonight is when all 10 of our new sisters will be coming out!!! We are
SUPER excited!!! :) :) The Assistants called us Friday night and asked
us to host some of them. But since there are so many, we are taking
them out in 2 shifts!!! CRAZY!?!?! We're gonna pick them up at 4:30
and S Sirstins will take out 2 of them in our car and I will take 2
and drive President's car!!! (No pressure- Just their first night in
the mission and President Holmes' car!!! ha ha, but it'll be great!!)
Then at 6:30 we'll take those sisters back to the mission home and
switch to take out another batch!! It's gonna be epic!! Our plan is to
use their new missionary faith and get at least 2 people on baptism
date and find lots of new people to teach- hopefully some families!!!
:) :) Tonight is gonna be the BOMB!! Please pray for us though, we
really, really want this to be successful and AWESOME!!!! :)

Family, I just love you all so stinking much!!! :) Thanks for the
letters, the prayers and all of your love and support!! Thanks for the
funny stories and EVERYTHING, seriously you guys are just the
GREATEST!!!! Words cannot express how much I really love you!!! My new
motto for this transfer is "Doubt not, Fear Not!!!" With God on our
side, we can do it!!! :) Choose the right and remember all of the
important things. .. and of course, REMEMBER WHO LOVES YOU!!! :)
Have a wonderful week!! Love you!!!
Love,
Sister Bishop

Ben mar. 25,2013

Dear family
Ok my letter will be nothing like Lisas last one wow that is super amazing I am like wow . . . idk but that is super cool. I was jealous at some parts like when you said that you have a car and you can drive around ect. but thats all right busses are good when they come on time. but want to hear a funny story . . . ok good . . . so on the way here it was raining like crazy so we had our umberellas and were walking down the street and the wind was blowing super hard so we had them kindof in front of us and the wind was coming in waves. so as I was walking i was bracing against the wind and i felt another one coming and so i held even harder to my umbrella and . . . I totally walked right into a payphone glass ha h a ha it was so funny we both just laughed at taht it was great!!!!! ha ha totally made my day. sort of. but yea it was super great.
Well family we might have a Baptism this Saturday as long as Luis doesnt smoke at all yesterday he didnt smoke it was great we have faithfully been calling him and keeping him busy I love it it is awesome. keep praying for him. So this week has been super busy with contacts we think we have a fullday of teaching and we call everyone and they say yea you can come during this time we get on the bus go for half an hr or more and get in their area and call them to get their actuall adderss and either they dont answer or all the sudden they cant do it right then it is super annoying. so for this week I mostly have funny stories. so last tuesday we woke up and said our prayers and Elder Fry finished and left and then I heard water running and then I hear Bishop get in here. . . so i go in and elder fry had heard water running so went into the bathroom and the cold water was running so he turned it off but the handle actually broke so we had to shut off our water and get a repair man because we didnt have the part to fix it super annoying. so for half the day we didnt have water to shower or cook with. after it was fixed language study was spent partly in the shower but its all good now. speaking of water problems Ermizine had a baptism and they had to come to our church to do it and so we turned on the bioler for the water and started to fill the fonte. but the boiler wasnt working so being desperate we tried what we could and then when the other elder got there we explained the problem they tried stuff and it wasnt working still so we went to the bathroom by the fonte and had a prayer. it was super funny 4 elders praying for some way to get the water heated for a baptism in the bathroom. luckuly no one came in and eventually they found out that the boiler needed to be reset. but otherwise they were ready to baptise in cold water.
Also last night I did my first split from Elder fry We had taught a lesson with the Elders courum President and his brother and then wanted a member present lesson with Luis so I went with the ECP to do some home teaching and Elder fry Taught with Marcos. that was so good for me because I all of the sudden couldnt talk in English so I had to pay better attention to what was going on and everything because I didnt have a translator it was more of a challenge but super good because it helped so much.
Well family the only other funny thing was that we were teaching and helping this less active and so one time as we were leaving she gave us each a book because Elder Fry was just looking at the covers or something and she gave E fry one on the history of portugal with no pic and me Do Cabin do pai Tomas or uncle toms cabin, really random as soon as we got home we put them on the shelf and havent toutched them since. but yea she is kind of physco ikd super wierd
any way transfers are this week and during interviews wth pres he said to both of us I dont like to transfer missionaries untill after the training program is over but we will have to see what the lord says when transfers are over. that worries me cause I think if some one was trasfered it would be Elder Fry cause he has been here for 4 transfers and I dont know if I know the area or lang good enough to do it but we will have to see here in a week.
Well family I love you all tons, this week I did do a contact on my own random last story. this guy was walking by the bus stop and so I contacted him like we try to do and i expected E Fry to be right behind me but right as I started the contact another guy came up and started talking to him and I was like crap I am on my own. well it went alright he didnt want anything to do so I left him with a card but I could have done more oh well but it was good to see i can do things on my own ha ha well you guys are awesome Lisa i got you package thanks so much I loved it, Hannah thanks for my own email (you too di Its just hannah doesnt usually send me one) I will try to email you next week or get a snail mail off but that probably wont happen knowing me but yea Love you all Tons Dad I am glad your talk went so well thats great I love you all tons ctr and all the important stuff!!!!!!!
Love Elder Bishop

Lisa's Letter March 18,2013 So many Miracles

Dearest Family!!!

This last week was so wonderful! There were so many good things that
happened. . . I think the easiest way to share all of the miracles is
simply in chronological order, so here goes!! :) Monday we had
switched half of our preparation day to Thursday so that we could go
to the temple. We planned on doing some finding, so we got everything
done that we needed to and went to the street that we had picked out.
It was a good day, we talked to a lot of people and knew that we
needed to be there, but there wasn't anybody that we were able to find
and turn into new investigators. All day long I was praying and
praying that we could find at least someone that we could teach. . .
finally at like 8:45 we were on the end of a very long street. We
decided that we should probably start walking back to the car. All the
while I was still praying so hard, I didn't want to end the night
without finding anyone. As we neared the car, a man walked around the
corner. I whispered to S Sirstins, "Sister!! That's HIM!!! We have to
go and talk to this guy!!!" :) She gave me a little surprised look and
said, "Really!?!? Okay!" We stopped him and just started talking. We
explained who we are and what we do and started teaching the
Restoration!! He was so excited!! He told us, "Wow! That's great! I
don't even know why I was walking in this neighborhood tonight. . . I
live in a subdivision a few blocks away. Can you come and teach me
now??" :) We were super excited!!! Ha ha! We told him that we had to
get home, but that we would come and visit him the next day! We got
his name and info and set up an appointment for the next day. It was
AWESOME!! Heavenly Father really does hear our prayers and answer
them!!! It felt SO incredibly good to know that we had done everything
that we possibly could, and that the Lord blessed us!! :)

The next day was New Missionary Orientation.The whole meeting, I was
so impressed at how VITAL the spirit is in the work. I know this, I've
learned it over and over again so many times in my mission. But
sitting there listening, it really hit me again what a huge part of
the work it is! It made me want to do better, to rely more on the Lord
and trust that he will give me the words to say! That was a huge
set-up for the rest of the week. I made a more conscious effort to let
the spirit really be the senior companion. That night we went to see
Roger. (The guy we had met the night before.) He is SO prepared!!! He
asked ALL of the right questions like, "What is my purpose in life?
How can I learn more about God and my relationship with him??, etc."
The lesson was incredible!! And even better because S Sirstins totally
took the lead. She started it, kept it going in the right direction
and even extended a baptism invitation at the end!!! :) I was SO
proud!!! She is young, and one is the ditziest people I've ever met
(and I mean that with love!!!) but she is learning and growing so
much!!! It's sweet too, cause I'm learning and growing right along
with her! :)

Thursday rolled around way too quickly!! It seemed like the week had
just begun, and yet sure enough, it really was Thursday! I love the
temple and being there with all of the sisters was SO amazing!! It was
very unifying, and strengthening for all of us. (At least that is how
I felt!) Then we all went our different ways on exchanges. S Sirstins
and S Hee were in Northville and I went to Lake Orion with S
Butterfield. By the time we got home, we didn't have much of our
evening left, we grabbed some dinner, planned for the next day and
fell into bed. It was good though, on our long drive to have the time
to just talk. So, here is where this is so AMAZING!!! The exchanges
were TOTALLY inspired!!! I NEEDED to be in Lake Orion that Friday!!!
:) So, SUPER RANDOM!! But, Mom do you remember that lady that called
me right before I left on my mission!?!? She had seen my little write
up in the paper that I was going to Detroit and she said she had a
friend that she needed me to go and find. She gave me the address,
name phone number and everything and said to tell them that "Aunt
Betty and sent me and that they REALLY needed to listen!!" I had
completely forgotten about it, until we were driving to out apartment
that evening! But it just hit me as I was sitting in the car, I WAS
GOING TO HER AREA!! The address was in Lake Orion and I NEEDED to go
and find this lady!! That night I called and told the Sisters where to
look to find the info, and they found it without any problems!!! We
looked up the address and found out it was in the elders area. We
called Elder Alger and he gave us permission to go and contact it. We
had a pretty busy day already, but we managed to move things around
enough and make time to go! :) As we drove up to the house I was
praying so hard!! We pulled up, and prayed and the spirit was just SO
strong!! I'm sure my smile was a mile wide as we walked up and knocked
on the door. A lady came to the door and I asked if she was Phyllis.
She smiled and said "Yes!!" I was so excited!! Ha ha, "Phyllis!! Do
you know the Willmore's??" "YES!!" "My name is Sister Bishop and Aunt
Betty sent me to tell you hello. . ." Before I could get anything else
out, she smiled politely and said, "Sister Bishop it is so good to
meet you and I really appreciate Aunt Betty sending you. . . but I
have company and cannot talk right now!" I couldn't believe it!! After
all these months, what was the chances that I ever would have been in
her area and HERE I AM!?!? And she's turning me away!?! I was so
sad!!! We managed to leave her with a card and a short testimony and
then that was it.. . .

We walked back to the car in silence, and climbed in. I was shocked
and sad and said a little prayer in my heart, "Heavenly Father, I'm
here! I did my best! What now???" As we were driving out of the
neighborhood a street sign caught my eye and the spirit practically
SHOUTED, "STOP!!! You need to be HERE!!!" I quickly asked S
Butterfield to drive down this street. At the end of the road I looked
at her and said, "Sister I know this is SUPER random! And I know that
this in NOT our area, but we REALLY, REALLY need to tract this
street!!" Her eyes got really big and she was like, "But we can't just
randomly tract in someone else's area!?!? Call President!!!" Ha ha! We
talked it over for a few minutes, and decided that we really didn't
have time. . we had an appointment we had to get back for and we
didn't have permission. . . it just didn't make any sense! We started
to head back to our own area and I just felt so sick. After battling
for about 3 blocks, I looked at her again and said, "Sister we have to
go back!! We HAVE TO!!!" She pulled over and said, "I know!! Really,
just call President and tell him this story and get permission to be
here, there is someone here that needs us!" :) :) So, we called!! Ha
ha! When nobody answered, we had to call the Assistants. We explained
it all to them and they told us, "Well sisters! Any one you find
you'll just have to hand over to the elders, but I guess just follow
the spirit!!" We were SO excited!!! We drove back to our street,
prayed and felt this HUGE sense of urgency!! We stood there in the
road for a minute trying to decide where to go, the spirit told me,
"Split up!!" I remember thinking, "this is SO crazy!?!?" But I told S
Butterfield what I thought! She looked at me with eyes as big as they
could get, gulped and said, "Okay!!? Let's do this!" I went to one
side of the street and she went to the other!! Nobody answered my
door, but at her door a guy came and I heard her start teaching him
the Restoration. A few minutes later she down the driveway looking a
little shocked and whispered, "I just taught him the Restoration!!!!
AND I gave him a Book of Mormon!!!" AND He said the Elders could come
back!!!!" I think she needed that confidence boost to know that SHE
really can do this!! After that we didn't feel AS pressured, but still
knew that there was someone else we needed to find. After that we
stuck together and followed the spirit. We didn't knock on every door,
just the ones we felt really strongly about. I have NEVER loved
tracting as much as I did for that 45 minutes!! Every one we talked
to, I just opened my mouth and felt like that was their ONE and ONLY
chance to hear the gospel!!! We ended up finding like 5 potentials
plus the guy that S Butterfield talked to at first. I'm sure if
anybody was watching us it was quite the sight to see. We were walking
down the road, discerning which houses we needed, sometimes we would
pause in front of a house, sometimes we would start to walk up the
driveway before we felt that it wasn't this house, so we went on. It
was absolutely incredible!!! We saw so many miracles in such a short
little time!!! (I wish I could just tell you this story face to face,
it would be much better and MUCH shorter!! Sorry about the length!)
Any ways, we learned a lot of valuable lessons! I think one of the
biggest things I took away from that experience was the fact that
Heavenly Father knows his children! For some reason he needed us there
on that street, and I truly felt like we succeeded, we found the
reason, or reasons that we needed to be there!!

As we were talking later about the things that we had learned and
felt, we knew we had gained precious knowledge and we needed to apply
it! We set a goal that we would have the faith, every single day for
an entire week that God has prepared someone for us to touch that day!
Then the hard part was coming up with the "HOW" we were going to do
this! How we could keep this fire burning! Here's what we decided:
-Pray!! As much as you possibly can and LISTEN then ACT!!! (It works
every single time!!)
-Talk to everyone!!
-Alma 31:35 (Remember this!!!)
-Be Accountable!! We knew this was quite the goal so we needed to be
accountable to Heavenly Father, ourselves, our companions, each other
and to all of you! We figured with all of those people, we would have
to follow through! ;)

So, that's what I learned from exchanges this week!! :) I came back to
my area with a greater desire to work hard and see miracles, to find
that person, and the faith and determination to go and do! :) Even
though I wasn't there to contact that referral, Heavenly Father used
that to get us where he needed us!

This week has been AWESOME!!! Between the temple, Exchanges, and our
own little miracles in finding, it's been amazing to see Heavenly
Father's hand in our work every single day! :) Whew!?!? What a crazy
week right!?!? :) Lots of good stuff happening and tons of miracles!!!
It's the last week of the transfer, so we're gonna go hard and strong
to see all the miracles Heavenly Father has in store for us!!

Sorry, this letter was all about me!! I hope you all know how much I
love you!! Ben, I hope you are doing well!! Keep up the good work!!!
Just know that I am praying for ALL of you every single day!!! :)
Lucky you!! ;) Ha ha!! Love you all! Have a wonderful week!!

Love,
Sister Bishop

Ben's Letter march 18, 2013 getting more contacts

Hello Family

Well this week has flownby maybe because I am beggining to understand people and the fact that I got letters from you guys ect (Diana it takes 8 days apparently for letters to go through) super suprising actually. Anyway this week was super cool, when I first got here Pres. Fluckiger challenged us to do 10 contacts every day and I had been slacking on that so this week after District meeting we decided to have a compitition in our district to see who could get the most contact in a day. so the next day we started to contact like crazy and that is hard to do not really knowing any thing so off we went. Well that day I contacted 16 people and among thoes was Alvero. Alvero is a gentelman who belives in Christ and is searching for the Truth and the best bible that he has found is the J W so Elder Fry talked to him and we left him a Book of Mormon, it was all super good we just need to work on being sure to get addresses and phone numbers next time but he has our number so please keep him in your prayers that he will call back. So back to the competition we ended up contacting 31 people taht day and we were in last place!!!! Matozios got 45 and Foz got 50!!! then we realized how great it was to actually do work and get numbers back. we have got almost 10 contact every day since and it has showed in our numbers. we found like 8 people when we usually find 1 or 2 we taught 17 lessons and normally get 10 and this week normally we have 3 people in sacrament meeting but we had 6!!!!!!!! we were super blest. it is awesome!!!! in total our district had 525 contact just this week with 89 lessons with everyone. and 12 people in church!!!!!!!!!!!! we have blown our zone goals out of the water and its all from contacting 10 people or more every day wow this talk to everyone thing really works I think the Lord know what he is talking about in PMG. ;)

we also have had some other things happen, one last story before I have to go, we were headed out to teach a family on the bus so as we were getting off we stood up and a lady behind us said something I didnt catch but elder Fry did so when we got off the bus he said wow we do speak a little portuguese. then he said that woman behind us said why do they always send the ugly ones. so aparently now I am ugly ha ha super funny well family this is another one of Bens Brief Blubs ha ha I will try to do better and next time I should have some good stories because I am going on a division with Elder Wertz. Elder Wertz has been out one transfer longer than me so we get to work some ``Rookie Magic`` it will be great. well family love you all tons I am out of time again but just remember your little happy ugly elder in Portugal, love Elder Bishop :)

Lisa's letter March 11,2013

Dearest Family!!!

Hello friends!!!
I can't believe that it is Monday already, I feel like the last week
has just flown by. . . despite the fact that it went way too quickly
we had a really great week! I think the high lights of the week were
our exchange with S Williams and S Bone and then Zone Conference! :)
For our exchange, S Williams and I really focused on the power and
authority of our calling as missionaries, and praying with faith! :)
It was incredible to witness the miracles that followed. I know that
both of these sisters had struggled a little, but were excited for
this opportunity to learn and work with another companion. Along with
our focus on the power and authority of our calling, we decided to put
that to use in our finding skills. We did everything that we could all
day to follow any tiny little prompting that we received. :) I loved
how any time we had to make a decision of where to go or what to do,
we were totally in unison! We made it a goal to talk to everyone that
we possible could! We stopped at a gas station after lunch to use the
restroom and while I was waiting for S Williams, I noticed the lady at
the cash register peeking at my name tag. As I stood there, the spirit
told me to go talk to her. I'm not going to lie, I kind of fought it
at first. You would think that after all this time, I wouldn't be
nervous to talk to anyone, but somehow it still gets me a little out
of my comfort zone! But the spirit wouldn't let me leave until I
walked up and talked to her. She was so sweet! We talked a little bit
about what we do as missionaries and were able to teach her just a
little bit before she had to help the next customer. We ended up
leaving her a card and inviting her to come to church!! :) After that,
we jumped in the car and were headed out to go tracting. We prayed
about the streets that we had picked the night before , but felt like
we were in the wrong area. It was funny, as we were driving to the gas
station, I had noticed a street and felt very strongly that we needed
to be there. As we prayed the prompting came again to go tract that
street. I looked over to S Williams and said, "I know this is kind of
crazy. . . but as we were driving over here there was a street that I
felt really good about!!! I think that it was called Cherry Lane." Her
eyes got kind of big and she had a huge smile on her face as she
squealed, "No WAY!! I thought and felt the EXACT same thing!!!" :) It
was awesome!! We went and knocked on the doors and found some really
great people. Our timing was perfect and the spirit reassured us that
we really where in the right place. :) It was so great!!! :) The first
door that we knocked on this awesome African American lady answered
the door. She looked at us, smiled and said, "Oh girls! I would love
to invite you in, but I am running late to work! I am so sorry!! Could
you come back another day??" We set everything up with her door after
door, were so amazed at how the spirit just prompted us and we knew
exactly what to say!! It was awesome!!! That night we went and saw
Sheryl (one of their investigators). She is such a sweet heart, but is
not very fond of S Bone. As soon as we came in she piped up and said,
"Oh S Bishop, I wish that you and S Williams could both just stay
here!! Then I would have 2 GOOD missionaries!" It made me really sad
to hear her talking that way about S Bone. So, I told her that S Bone
was a great missionary and that she just needed some help and
encouragement. I asked her to please, please do everything she could
to help S Bone. I don't know if it will make a difference, but I sure
hope so!!!
Please keep S Bone (and all of our Sisters in my mission in your
prayers!! They are really struggling right now and they really need
the extra prayers!) Our exchanges this week were SO inspired!! S Bone
and S Sirstins both did very well and it helped them to realize that
THEY CAN do this! Particularly S Bone. I felt she was much more
confident and enthusiastic about everything after having to be the one
in charge! But it was also very helpful to have S Sirstins there
because she is a go-getter! They worked hard and saw lots of success!
:) EXCHANGES ARE THE BEST!! :)

We also had zone conference this week- I love our stake president out
here, he is the BEST!! His name is President Medley and I just think
the world of him. He have an instruction about several different
things. This is so cool though!! You'll have to find a picture of
Abinadi and King Noah, look in the top part of the painting really
closely and you will find a picture of the Savior! He pointed out that
even though Abinadi had perhaps felt all alone and thought that maybe
he had been forgotten, he was never really alone! :) He never was and
NEITHER ARE WE!!! :) :) It's so true!! There are some days that seem
to last forever and you wonder why. . . but then as you turn to
Heavenly Father he will reassure you that he is ALWAYS there and that
he will not leave you comfortless! He also talked about the importance
of getting people to the temple! There are so many people and families
that I want to get there!! Oh man, it was such a good reminder!!! :)
I love Zone Conferences!

So, really quick a have a cute story, then I have to run! We are going
to the temple this week, so I won't have any time for snail mail,
Sorry!! :) Any ways, we have this adorable little family in our ward
named the Randall's. They are a young family with 4 little girls all
under like 5. Bro Randall is in the Bishopric, so we always go out and
help S Randall get into the chapel on Sundays. The little girls ADORE
us! :) S Randall was a missionary too and they always pray for us, and
make sure to say hi at church- they are just the cutest!! So, usually
on Sunday's I try to dress up a little nicer and wear a nice outfit
and like one of the flowery head bands that you sent me. :) So,
yesterday as we were helping the Randalls into their bench, S Randall
looks at me and says, "Sister Bishop! Abby and Bella have something
that they want to tell you!!" I looked over and they were just
BEAMING!! They both said, "Look Sister Bishop!! We dressed like you
today!!!" :) Ha ha, they both had these cute flowery headbands!! Ha
ha, it was SO cute, they totally made my day!! I sure do love those
little girls!! :)

Well family!! Sorry this is short, just know you are in my thoughts
and prayers always!! I love you all SO incredibly much!!! I hope you
all have a wonderful week! Choose the right and all of the important
things!! RWLY!!!

Love,
Sister Bishop

Ben's letter March 11, 2013

Hello Family

so anyway things have been great but let me answer some of your questions first. so I have got a letter from Tim and Mom they came on the same day on Sat i think so idk but I havent got any from Di. so if she sent it to my address i should get it soon but anything sent to the mission home i wont get till my next zone confrence on the 22 so we will just see. well mom the people here are really nice they will say hi to me and all but if you bring up religion they will make some silly excuse like the other night we were walking home and contacting people as we went and it was my turn so i stopped the guy and said hi I am E B my comp name and then said we are diciples of Jesus Christ. by this time he had stopped and was listening to what we said then after I said that he said sorry guys i am in a big rush and i have to go sorry. and then he left. so we just kept going. but everyone in our area knows the Elders. and they love to make fun of us because Helder is a name here but the H is silent so they always honk and wave and Say OH ELDERS and just laugh because we turn and look and its almost as funny as Bishop Bishop. BTW the members here love my name they cant prounounce the sh sound but they try really hard and then they make that same joke it is super funny for them.

So My ward mission leader is so cool he is trying to keep us so busy and he is doing really well actually mostly because we have to wait for the bus to come and get us and go from place to place but its all good. they my ward is doing a choir so we went and last week it was really interesting. untill now i never realized how blest I was for being able to have bro Thomas and our ward choir ect people here just sing a diffrrent note if ya know what I mean. but this week we started to sing a song i recognized and then i realized it was Arise And Shine. the one we sang for this last trek idk but i was so excited I was having so much fun. it was great. The problem is that with the portuguese words some of the tempos are off so its hard but so fun i loved it.

we also have such an awesome district there is only 3 companionships of Elders but we rock!!!! we have the zl Vargas and Harvey and us and Elder Terry and Wertz and it is so much fun to go do stuff with them. and they are all super jealous of my ties. they think that my ties are so cool its super funny. speaking of ties Diana the first time I wore my awesome orange one we were walking down the street and this teenager stopped me and asked me where I got it and I was like hey elder what did he say. . . oh um America and then he was like dang it and left to catch up to his friends before we could say anything more but now I like the tie even more well have to see if stuff like that continues to happen the next time I wear it. ps Elder Vargus is from Costa Rica so I will ask him what part but if hollie is in that area that would be super cool. do you think that you could get me her email address and then we can email ect I just want to be sure to get the right address. but that would be great.

so the weather here right now is Windy and Sunny with a 100 % chance of rain almost every day. so we just go out and hope we are dressed for the weather. but its interseting. so Lisa the other Day I got to mark an inv. for Bap it was so cool his name is Luis and he smokes and has been working with the Elders for a long time but we had a lesson with him and were able to teach him and I contributed when I could but it wasnt much then E Fry turned to me and said commit him to stop smoking the 23 and Bap the 30 so with his help i did and he said yes so we are working with him and he should be bap. the 30 so please keep him in your prayers. but we have been super blest when we teach him. becaue of his family we sometimes teach him on a bench out side and one day it had been raining off and on but had stopped for a bit so we had a lesson with him and set goals with him and then as we were leavign we went around the cornner and started walking up the street and it started to rain again it was so awesome that we werent rained on.

So We just heard that now for some sweet reason we can now do emails to basically everyone and we have 1.5 hrs to do it now so idk if that is just portugal or a new thing for missionaries or what but its sweet!!!! lisa is it the same for you too or not? so I finally have tome to write all taht i want to and its great!!!!

anyway Elder fry is from Oregon so I dont think we know their family or anything but he is super awesome. Lisa I dont live by a jungle but we pass some really interesting looking fields when we are on the metro but nothing super wild dang it. so random story they have just come out with double decker busses so I hope one of them will eventually be on my bus route taht would be super cool. next question have you been feeding the Elders around there cause we have got lunch every Sunday so far, from members and from a couple that are potential investigators. so idk but some of these people are trying to get me super fat. with almost every meal they have a soup and then rice with some sort of diffrent gravey of some thing with salad and then dessert one right after another so I get super full but they are so nice. they speak in their broken english and I speak in my broken portuguese and when we dont understand we have elder fry translate its a great cycle and most of the time they just talk to E. Fry and I focus on eating and tuning into the conversations when I can or whatever. so its great.

Well family I love you all tons Tim I am glad to hear taht you almost have a date planned for your birthday that should be super fun. Mom If i understand correctly you are going to be called to the RSP and be the president is that right? good for you I will keep you in my prayers like you said well family my time is almost up so I Love you all super tons ctr and all the important stuff. love your Little Elder in Portugal.

Love Elder Bishop

Lisa's letter March 4,2013

Dearest Family!!

Hello Friends!!! :) I just have to say, you guys are the greatest!!! I
love you all SO stinking much!!!

This week has been so great!! :) It's been one of those weeks that you
are just happy, the work has it's challenges of course, but you just
give it your all and see the miracles that Heavenly Father has poured
out on you!! I am SO grateful for the 12 week program and the
structure that it gives to help train a new missionary. I've seen this
week especially as we've studied and practiced teaching the
Restoration what a HUGE blessing that it has been. Sister Sirstins is
great. She is not afraid to just jump right in and start teaching,
which is SO nice! Instead of coaching her along and helping her to do
her part in the lessons, I've had more of a struggle keeping the
lesson focused, simple and short! :) We've had some really great
spiritual experiences with our investigators. Like this week with
Martin and Sharon we talked about the Role of the Holy Ghost in
conversion and how to recognize it. It was amazing because Sharon
doesn't have much of a religious back ground, but was able to
recognize some of the ways that she has felt the spirit in her life!
Sister Sirstins is really, really good at relating to people and
sincerely bearing her testimony and I think that's one of the things
that hit Sharon the strongest. It's interesting how different
companions will do different things and sometimes they remind you of
each other. Yeah- Sister Sirstins reminds me SO much of Sister
Burnham. Ha ha, it's so funny sometimes!!! I just kind of shake my
head and think, "You two would have been perfect companions!!!" It's
great though, I love her a lot and she is great!! I honestly feel that
President sends me these missionaries to train me! I have a lot more
to learn from S Sirstins than she has to learn from me, that's for
sure!!! :)

We have really tried to focus this week on faithful finding and
immediately starting to teach at the door. It has been such a great
experience, it is SO hard!! Last night we had planned to do some
finding to finish off the night. We picked a street and as we drove
there we were a little intimidated because the houses were all HUGE
mansions. But we felt really strongly that there was someone on that
street that needed us that night! We prayed and the spirit whispered
to me, "Sister Bishop, even people in big houses need the gospel!!" I
quickly repented and prayed for the spirit to help us. Earlier that
day I had also been fasting that I would be able to be a better
teacher, a more bold witness of Christ and a better trainer for Sister
Sirstins. As we got out of the car, I just felt completely at peace,
knowing that we were in the right place and that the spirit was there
to help us!!! The first 2 doors they wouldn't even answer, they just
came to the door and waved us on. But the 3rd door was a complete
miracle!!! :) A teen age girl opened the door and we asked to talk to
her parents. Her dad came to the door and we introduced ourselves. As
I started talking, the spirit just kept prompting me exactly what to
say. He kept whispering, "DON"T STOP TALKING!!!" So I didn't!!! After
a few minutes, the man at the door just looked at us, smiled a little
and said, "Well are you going to stand on my porch all night in the
cold and tell me this? Or would you like to come in for a few
minutes??" We walked in, sat down and he said, "Okay girls, I am a
really to the point kind of guy! So tell me, what is it exactly that
you guys are trying to do? Do you want to convert me?? I'll tell you
right now that I am probably the least likely person to do so. I have
a church and although I don't go as much as I should, I still believe
in God. So tell me, what do you want??" :) I was SO stoked!!! (This
experience actually reminded me of an instruction we had at a sister's
training meeting with Elder Lamb and Elder Davis where they talked
about being bold and playing Bad Cop-Bad Cop. It was DEFINITELY Bad
Cop-Bad Cop mode!!!) I explained our purpose and used the HTBT bullet
point that talks about baptism. Then we taught a SUPER short, BOLD,
powerful Restoration. At the end we committed him to reading the Book
of Mormon, praying to know that it is true, and invited him to be
baptized!!! :) He was a little bit blown away and wasn't quite sure
what to say. :) He promised to read and said that he would actually
like to come to church soon. He appreciated the boldness and the
straightforwardness of the lesson. We got his number and told him we
would check back up with him in a week. (I realize now that I
shouldn't have let him off that easy, I could have pushed a little
more for a return appointment, but he knew exactly why we were there
and was really impressed.) It was totally awesome!!! It was such a
testimony to me that Heavenly Father really does hear our prayers, he
will answer them and he will help us to turn our weaknesses into
strengths. I had NO idea what it was the Byron needed at that door
last night, I honestly don't even remember what I said to him! But I
do remember the feeling of the spirit speaking through me and it was
INCREDIBLE!!! :)

We found the sweetest, little family this week. Their names are Rob
and Mia. Mia is a Filipino lady and they have been married for like 3
years. We tracted into them and felt really good about their home.
They didn't let us in right then, but asked us to come back later. We
went and saw them last night and Mia was SO excited to see us! She
welcomed us right in and we quickly found out that her brother and
uncle are also LDS!! Her brother served a mission even!! She has
witnessed the blessing and happiness that her brother has experienced
and was eager to let us teach her also. We taught the Restoration. (It
was a bit scattered and I had to keep bringing it back on topic
because both Mia and S Sirstins LOVE to talk! ha ha!) But, it was
really neat! At the end of the night we had given Mia a Book of Mormon
and she promised to read it every day with her 2 kids. S Sirstins was
able to extend her first baptism invitation!!! It was funny, she was
so nervous even though we had practiced it several times. I had to
help her get it started, but then she extended the invitation and Mia
accepted!!!! :) We are going back this week, but we haven't set up a
time because Mia wanted to make sure that Rob would be there! We are
so excited- this has got to be one of the families that we have been
praying for!!! :)

This week S Evans and I attended the Zone Leader Council meeting with
President and Sister Holmes. It was so awesome!!! We discussed the
needs of the mission and planned out our training meeting for the next
few months. It was the first time sisters were there and we were able
to give some really good feedback on ways to help the sisters.
Especially with all of the new sisters coming in and EVERYBODY
training next transfer, it was busy, but super exciting!!! :) We
organized exchanges and we are doing 2 this transfer!! (That's A BIG
DEAL!!!) We usually get 1, if we are lucky!!! So, lots of really good
things happening!!! :)

This week is going to be great, with Exchanges and Zone Conference we
have a lot to look forward to!! Plus all of the miracles that we
witness on a daily basis. I'm so grateful this week to be a
missionary!! It truly is one of the BEST jobs ever!!! I love it so
much!!

Well family!! I love you all SO much!!! :) Keep up all of the good
work, choose the right and all of the important things!!! And REMEMBER
WHO LOVES YOU!!! :) Have a WONDERFUL week!
Love you all the BESTEST!

Love,
Sister Bishop

Ben's letter March 4, 2013

Hello Family

so sorry for such a short letter last week I was trying but we only had time to print off our email an write the president and then all of you and after we literally ran home because it was faster than the bus. so I didnt even read your letters till later that night so sorry about that so first of all most importantly to dad because i want forgiveness in this life and the next. what has helped me want to serve a mission? well that comes from so much of what I was taught as I grew up. every time I heard a story from you or mom they always were so powerful and involved with faith. and that was something that I always wanted. just about every homecoming or farewell had the same message so i was so excited to serve and I had been taught that for me it was never a question of if I should serve but when and then that was something that I wanted to do so bad that I knew for me it was when I was 19 and if I had been born 6 months later or so it would have been when I was 18 :) then just going down the list in 2 ne 31 Obedience <it is a commandment to serve and your examples and stories have taught me that through all of thoes late night talks that we had as a family. I could go right down the list and say repentance was key to having the spirit there for me as I taught and then enduring to the end and I am not done enjoying yet:) so I hope that that helps idk mostly it was your examples to me and all of the important stuff that both of you and the spirit taught me and I am so greatful to have learned:)

any way My area is so cool we are in Maia and it is a huge area!!!!!!! by bus it would take about 1 hr or more to cross so we are really busy doing contacting. well normally its me saying hello we are deciples of Jesus Christ and we have a message that can bring you happyness,then I smile and look at Elder Fry and try to understand what It is that they say. its really funny because when someone is talking I can get the jist of what they are talking about but if they ask me a question then my brain realizes that and as it is processed i have to re think that and then I have to figure out what to say and this all takes time and i look to e fry with a look of ahhhhhhhhhhhh what and then he translates and I think man i knew that but my mind froze up. so it is really interesting and thats withalot of people but I have a hard time with some because they have really slured speach and i just smile and nod as they talk it is really interesting.

However we have had some adventures though because we switch bags in the midle of the day last time and I forgot my keys in the other bag and Elder fry thought i had mine so that was an interesting night but we got in about 10 min later but it was still super funny.

well i am runnign out of time so quick questions i havent got any snail mails yet and they probably explain more but lisa say hi to Pres. Holmes from Pres Fluckiger they know each other ha ha what was this about jakes accident in his car who was hannahs prom date can we make sure skipe works cause that is how i will try to talk to you next mothers day.

I was sorry to hear about sis. cobbs

well family Iove you all tons ctr and all the other stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love Elder Bishop :):)