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