Lisa Jan 21,2013

Dearest Family,

Hello!!! :) We are getting to our e-mails a little early today because
we get to go to Detroit for the car show! :) I'm super excited,
supposedly it is all of the brand new up and coming cars that will be
coming out this year! It's a pretty big deal in Michigan- seeing as
this is the car capitol! :) We get to go with S Holmes and S Decker-
so it'll be fun to spend some time with all of them! :)

This past week has flown by!! We had our sisters conference this last
Tuesday, it was something that ALL of the sisters needed! We spent the
whole day together, we are kind of dwindling in numbers- there are
only 13 sisters in the mission now. But it was SO great!!! At lunch we
all sat together at a big table and laughed and talked. . . I don't
think that I've laughed that hard in a LONG time! It's so great that
as have this incredible bond, even though I haven't served with all of
them we are all in this together! We're working hard and seeing
miracles. There is just something about being missionaries at the same
time that really bonds you and brings you closer together!! (I feel
the same way with Ben, even though we are hundreds of miles apart, I
feel like we are closer than we ever have been!) So, the sister's
conference was really great! We practiced being more bold and faithful
on the door step and always finding when you teach, and teaching when
you find. For the practice we invited someone to come to church with
us, right there on their door step, without much of an introduction or
anything! Ha ha! At first I thought it was a little crazy, but
amazingly it really opened people up and gave us the opportunity to
teach the Restoration in a unique way. Even if they told us that they
already has a church that they attended, we were able to testify and
invite them to learn about some of the blessings that they would
experience as they came to church with us, it was so good!!! The other
thing we tried was contacting someone and after a brief intro we
started with a prayer and taught a lesson right then and there. (All
of this was SO good cause S Mecham and I were trying to find ways to
be more bold and this was really an answer to prayers!) I was a little
skeptical to try it, but that night we had planned to go tracting and
we put both of these things into practice. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! The
people were so kind, they could tell we were passionate about what we
were doing and we loved it! We found ourselves walking much faster and
excitedly anticipating what would be beind the next door! AND the best
thing was: IT REALLY WORKED!!! :) We taught a young man right there on
his porch, prayed with him and invited him to learn more. It was was
so good!!! I loved it and was so grateful for the way it helped us to
start off our week!!

We had the most incredible miracle this week!!! :) We are trying to
start an English class for Japanese people in the area. We wanted to
do it as a service opportunity, but also as a finding tool. So, we'll
teach English and then have a gospel discussion afterwards. It's taken
forever to get everything together for it, but this last week we
finally got the flyers written in Japanese and were out putting them
up. We went to a Japanese restaraunt called Wasabi to post it there.
We walked in and asked the cashier at the front door if it would be
alright to post our flyer. She said she would have to have her manager
approve it and we said that would be fine. She walked into the back
room and a minute later an older Japanese gentleman came out. He had
our flyer in his hand and asked us to tell him a little more about it.
We did, as as we did his eyes lit up!! :) He got this big smile on his
face and the first question out of his mouth was, "Wait!! Are you
Christian??" We assured him that we most definitely were and his smile
just widened, "So AM I!!!" "I think that this English class is such a
wonderful idea! But does it have to be at this address??" (We were
going to have it at the chapel in Livonia.) We weren't quite sure what
he was asking, so he tried agian, "Instead of being at this address,
could you come here and teach the English class?? I would like to take
it!!! Also, do we have to wait until Fenruary to start?? What if we
started next Tuesday instead? I will host it here at my restaraunt and
you can teach me and my workers! I have 5 or 6 that I already know
would be very interested!!!" This whole time S Mecham and I were just
kind of in shock!! We smiled excitedly and promised that we would see
what we could put together!! It was so much more than we ever
expected!!!! :) We were telling the ward council about all of this
yesterday and they were all super excited too! Several of them offered
to help and this Bishop was so impressed that he told us, "Wow, I'm
sure you Sisters are going to end up in the Ensign or something!!! You
hear of these things in other places around the world, but NOT here in
Michigan!" Ha ha!! It's probably not Ensign worthy, but we are excited
to get it going!! :)

I got to play the piano in primary yesterday and it was so much fun!!!
Ha ha, of course it was a little bit crazy!! The ONE week that our
investigators decide that they can stay for Sunday school is the day
that we won't be there to referee!! Primary was really refreshing
though and so much fun. And our investigators survived Gospel
Priciples without us! (Thank goodness!!!) :)

I loved the mail I got this week!! Thanks everyone for the letters!! I
promise that one of these days we might have a normal preparation day
and have some time to write you back!! It'll happen!! I promise, but
probably not today! :) Sorry!! But I'll be sure to take lots of fun
pics at the car show to send to you too! :) Oh, by the way: Dad: DID
YOU REALLY SEND ME A REAL SCORPION!?!?!?! Ha ha!! That was so funny!!!
What in the world are you supposed to do with a scorpion sucker?!?!?
:)

Sorry this is a little shorter today . . we are still searching and
praying for our family! We haven't found them yet, so please continue
to pray for us! :) This week is going to be great though!! I'm super
excited for all of the miracles that I know Heavenly Father has in
store for us!! Love you all SO much!! Keep up the good work and always
RWLY!!! :)

Have a wonderful week!!

Love,
Sister Bishop