Dec. 10, 2012

Hello Family!!

Thanks for the packages this week! I got my vitamins and my shampoo
and all the other goodies! Thank you!!! You guys are the BEST!! I'm so
spoiled! :) So, really fast before I forget . . . This week S Evans
got her Christmas package. When she got it it has already been opened,
so I opened it all the way to make sure that everything was still
there. It looked like it was all still there, but because she is a
foreign missionary, it is super expensive for her family to send her
stuff. Anyways, so I know you guys are always really good, but I was
wondering if you could throw in a couple of extra things for her in my
Christmas package?? :) All she got was a "You are special book",
jewelry, a scarf and some chocolate. It doesn't need to be much, or
anything expensive. . . just a little something, so she has a few
things to open on Christmas! :) I'm pretty sure that you guys would
be sending her something anyways, cause you are just the BEST!!!
Thanks !!! :) (P.S. If anybody in Michigan is reading this on the
blog, THIS IS TOP SECRET!!!)

YAY!! So, this week we have continued to be blessed with so many
miracles!!! :) First I'll tell you about Semone. SEMONE IS AMAZING!!!!
Everybody we teach has a little bit of a bumpy road with some trials
and struggles, especially someone that is as elect as Semone! So, this
week has been no excuse but it's okay because we have really seen
God's hand in it! This week we had an appointment with Semone in
Tuesday. At church on Sunday we had Sister Jibson come up and tell us,
"Sisters! If you need anyone to go teaching with you this week, please
call my daughter Tara. She is almost missionary age, she just broke up
with her boy friend and she has been seriously considering going on a
mission!" Of course we wanted to take this girl out with us and have
an awesome experience so she can see what missionary work is all
about! So, we decided that Semone would be the perfect appointment! :)
We got it all set up and showed up with Tara at Semone's door on
Tuesday. As always, she was SO excited to see us, she gave us all a
great big hug, welcomed us in and eagerly got out her Book of Mormon.
We had an AWESOME lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and actually
put her on baptism date for December 29th!!!!! The spirit was SO
strong, Semone was in tears and the 3 of us just couldn't stop
smiling!!!! Tara got to help teach and share her testimony and the
whole experience was just amazing!!!! After our lesson Tara agreed to
come tracting with us! We had been praying really REALLY hard all
morning that we would be able to have miracles while Tara was with us
and God blessed us so much!!! After Semone, we prayed and tried to
feel out which building we needed to tract. We let Tara be a big part
of the whole process and we all felt REALLY good about this one
building! So, we grabbed our little Books of Mormon, mustered up some
courage, kept a prayer in our hearts for a miracle and started
knocking!!! The THIRD door we knocked on, there was a couple home who
invited us in! :) :) They are a humble, sweet little couple named
Jessica and Tighrees. We ended up teaching them most of the
Restoration and inviting them to be baptized! They both agreed to pray
about it and admitted that Jessica had never been baptized and
Tighrees didn't really count his baptism as something special like he
knew it should be! They are incredible!!!! :) Again, Tara got to be
really involved with the teaching and testifying, by the end of the
appointment she couldn't stop smiling!! The smile on her face was so
big I thought that her face was gonna split in half!! :) Ha ha! I
guess she went home and told her Mom what a great time she had and
that, "We actually got in the door!! I didn't know that EVER
happened!!" They even shared this experience in Relief Society in our
little missionary moment! :) It was so amazing!!!! I was so incredibly
grateful that she was able to witness and be a part of those miracles
and taste of the joy of missionary work! :) What an awesome
experience! :)

So, back to Semone. . . here is the rest of the story with the bumpy
road and trials part of it. . . Semone called us on Friday and left us
a voice mail that said something like, "Hey Sisters! This is Semone, I
just have been so stressed and anxious this week that I need some time
to cool off and see where I'm at." We were both heart broken . . we
didn't know what to do. We had a crazy day, but were finally able to
stop by and visit her on Saturday. When we knocked on the door she
immediately answered and got a HUGE smile on her face. She wouldn't
let us come in or teach her at all, or even set up an appointment, but
she said that we could call her in a few days. . . but before we left
she gave us both a big hug and told us that she loved us. I really,
really feel like she will be okay! I think she talked to her family
and they just weren't very supportive and thought that she was rushing
into things. So, we will try to call and stop by in the next few days.
But she isn't going to get away from us that easily!! :) Just keep
Semone and her family in your prayers!! They need it! :)

So, with all of this going on, Heavenly Father thought we needed
another miracle. . . His name is Kun. Kun met with missionaries at
Purdue University 10 years ago. Since then he has been very involved
with a Baptist and Presbyterian church. He has grown in faith and
learned about Jesus Christ, but never really felt right about being
baptized. Through all of these experiences his friends have told him,
"You can check out any Christian church, EXCEPT the Mormons! They are
not Christian so stay far away from them!!" He recognized that the
persecutions we have faced were similar to persecutions that Christ
suffered when he was on the earth. He also noticed that people treated
the Book of Mormon similar to how the treated the New Testament in the
early days of the church. . . with all of this evidence he decided to
investigate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a little
more thoroughly. He searched on-line and over the past 10 years and
done a lot of research. He finally decided that this MUST be God's
church. So, this Thursday he walked into the Institute and "Turned
Himself in!" Ha ha!!!! I think that it is any missionaries dream to
have someone like Kun walk up and say, "Hey! I've been researching
your church, I believe that it is true and I want to be baptized!!!"
:) Someone at the institute got in contact with the Hill St Sisters
and they taught him the Restoration. They found out that he was
married and in our area, so they called and referred him to us! We met
with him Saturday night and this man is SO ELECT!!! Just shaking his
hand and looking into his eyes I could see that he had been searching
for the truth and had found it!!! The spirit was so strong in his
presence!!! We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and put him on
baptism date for December 29th!!! :) When we asked him what he would
like to study from the Book of Mormon he told us, "Just give me
everything that I need to know to be baptized! Give me the crash
course and put me on the fast track to baptism! I have been waiting SO
long and I really, really need this in my life!" MIRACLES!!!! This is
TOTALLY God's work! :) He came to church yesterday and already has a
TON of friends in the ward! We are teaching him at a members home and
he is just starving for the doctrines of the gospel! :) His family is
kind of struggling with his decisions though . . His wife is also
from China and doesn't really believe in God. She is NOT supportive at
all of him coming to church or meeting with us, which is a big
concern. But when we talked to Kun about it he just said, "I HAVE to
do this. I will pray for my wife! Will you also pray for her??" He
has such great faith!!! He is so prepared!!! Please keep them all in
your prayers! There is so much going on, we are truly seeing the
window's of heaven being opened and the blessings and miracles POURED
out!!!

The Christmas season is the BEST time of the year! It is amazing to be
able to be a missionary now! Oh man, I LOVE this work so much!!! We
have been so blessed and we truly have our Heavenly Father to thank
for all of these blessings!! I love all of you so much!! And hope that
you are doing well! Remember all of the important things!!! Have a
wonderful week!!! (Talk to you on FRIDAY!!!!) :) :) :) :)

Love,
Sister Bishop