Hello Everybody!!!! This past week has been SO good!!! :) Oh man, we've seen so many miracles and Heavenly Father has really poured out his blessings!!
Last Saturday as we were out contacting we found this really neat guy named Raul. He was supposed to be watching the football game. (Cause that's what college students do on a Saturday night, especially here at U of M!!!) But randomly decided to skip the game and go to the gym. We found him after working out on his way home, as we talked with him he really opened up to us and said he was looking for something to help him continue to grow and that "This might be exactly what I am looking for!" :) We assured him that it most definitely WAS exactly what he was looking for and needed! He didn't have time right then, and neither did we so we scheduled a time and went our ways.The next day as we prepared for our lessons we were SO excited to teach him, we could hardly wait! :) We went to the library where we said we would meet and he was anxiously waiting for us, we walked up and he got the BIGGEST smile on his face! As we visited and asked about his background for a few minutes he basically said ALL of the how to begin teaching bullet points, then started in on how important prayer was and even though we seemed like we could tell him a lot of things that he was going to have to find out for himself by asking God! :) Ha ha! It was fantastic!!! We had to stay on our toes to be able to teach him something! That's how the whole lesson went! He loved Joseph Smith's story, and was floored at the opportunity to read the Book of Mormon. When I told him that he could keep the copy we had his eyes got as big as saucers, and he reverently took it and carefully put it in a safe spot in his back pack. :) He promised to read and pray and was super excited when we said there was more we had to teach him! :) He couldn't set an appointment right then, but we are definitely going to see him this week! The other miracle was the fact that he committed to pray about being baptized, and he said that he would do that too! :) It was such a testimony to me that God guides us! He will guide us to His Elect, or he will guide them to us! God can do anything!!! He guided us to each other and provided a chance for one of his Beloved Children to draw closer to him! Yay for missionary work!! It's the greatest!! :)
The next day we spent at EMU. We had an appointment with Lashawn, who we had taught only 1 time. We weren't really sure what her desire was and so that was our goal at our appointment. As we reviewed the restoration and testified of Christ everything just came together beautifully. At the end of our lesson we invited her to be baptized on Oct. 27, she accepted!!!! (So super random fact: We have really, really amazing zone leaders! They invited each companionship in our zone to put someone on date this week and promised us that we would see many miracles as we exercised our faith! That was such a huge reminder of the power of obedience and faith. We did it and just like they promised, we did see lots of miracles! She is the first one we have had on date in a couple of weeks!) Lashawn has to work every weekend, so we are trying to figure out a way for her to attend church. I don't know how, but I do know that it will work out! Heavenly Father is in charge and He will make it possible if that is what needs to happen! :)
That night we had another miracle as we were out contacting. We found a guy named Ryan. He let us sit down with him right then and there and teach him the restoration. He is super prepared and was excited to learn more. As we taught him, it was amazing to see how the spirit just took over the lesson. We testified and he felt it so strongly! He accepted a baptism invitation and we are excited to see him this week to extend a date!! :) I love how as we do our best to work hard, God always watches over and takes care of us!
With the last few weeks going the way we were, S Decker and I decided that we really needed to recommit ourselves to the work. We talked about it a lot and finally decided some goals that we thought would help us! Then we also asked our Elders to give us a blessing. Yesterday right before church we just took a few minutes and did that for us. It was so incredible!!! I am SO thankful for the power of the priesthood!!! It was amazing for me to see how God talked to both of us in our individual ways, we both heard, felt and understood where we were and what needed to happen next! :) It was so wonderful! I was again reminded of Heavenly Fathers great love for all of his children and for me! :) I am so blessed, and so thankful for all of those blessings! :)
So, our other huge miracle was something that I thought would NEVER happen!!! At least not when I would be here to witness it! But, HUNAID BORE HIS TESTIMONY!!!!!!! :) :) :) He made Kendall go first and then he was the very last one! When we saw he was getting up, we both looked at each other and burst into the biggest smiles you've ever seen in your life!!! His testimony was simple, but straight from the heart and everybody was touched! :) He said something like, "Hello! My name is Hunaid! If you haven't met me before, that's okay. I am Kendall's friend! I used to be an atheist, but then I met the sisters and they taught we how to pray. So, I know it sounds kind of like a hippie, but I did it and IT WORKS!!! I felt so much better and I knew that the spirit was talking to me! I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen!" He had everybody smiling and giggling just a little, but it was SO good!! The best thing was that he did it COMPLETELY on his own! We didn't ask him to share his testimony and when we talked to him later he said he had been thinking about it for a whole week! He had even written down exactly what he wanted to say and practiced it!!! :) He was a little embarrassed, but felt very good afterward and we were able to assure him that underneath all the nervous feelings, the spirit was again testifying of the truth of the things that he had said. It was amazing!!! :) Oh, how I love that little Indian man! :)
We had so many other great lessons this week! We still didn't have a ton, but at least some of our investigators are getting back to us FINALLY!! It was an incredible week, maybe if I have time i will tell you more about it in my snail mail!! But my time is about up here!! I'm SO excited for General Conference this weekend!! We have some good plans and are hoping to get a lot of investigators to come! It's gonna be the start of some really good things happening in Hill St!! This week is looking so great! We have a lot of faith, we are recommitted, we know why we are here and we are excited to see God's help as we work hard doing HIS work! :) I love you all SO SO Much!!!
Keep smiling, remember all the important things and especially RWLY!!!! :)
Love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Bishop
P.S. Happy Birthday Mom!!!! You are the greatest Mom ever! I hope you have a wonderful birthday, you deserve it!!! Butter churn and all!! Ha ha! LOL ;) (Just kidding, just kidding!! But really! I love you super duper mucho!!)
Hello family!! :) It's Monday once again and I'm sitting here thinking, "Where in the world has this last week gone?? It's flown by!!!" :) Oh, so funny story of the week, I finally gave S Tingey her present that you guys sent her! IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! I had to do some quick little adjustments on the bag so it would pull out a little smoother, but then I told her that I wanted to record her opening it on my camera, but that she would have to hurry because my battery was almost dead. She was like, "open it really fast. .. okay!" Then she yanked that little box right out of the happy birthday bag and skittles EXPLODED EVERYWHERE!!!! Ha ha! I think she jumped like 3 feet and then about peed her skirt!! Ha ha! I thought that E Tingey just about had a heart attack and we had to help brother Elms up off of the floor after he stopped laughing! Lol!! It was so great!! So , just so you know it worked out perfectly!!! They were so excited they are going to use it for their family party for Thanksgiving! :) I video taped it and I'll see if I can copy it and send it to you soon! It was hilarious!
So, like I said, this week has been pretty crazy! :) Monday we went to the Ford Museum with the Tingey's. We giggled and took a bunch of pictures and just had a great time! Then Tuesday was our Sister's Day in Detroit. We met at the mission home with ALL of the sisters and President and Sister Holmes, had breakfast, then went on a tour of the city! It was fun to see all the sights and take a bunch of pictures but honestly I think my favorite part was just being there with everybody! I super super love these people so much!!! They are the greatest!!!! :) All day it didn't matter what car you were in, who you were sitting by or what you were talking about, we were all just best friends and talked and laughed! Oh man! It was the BEST!!!! After touring the city a little we went back to the mission home and had an instruction about being BOLD and loving. Ha ha, I think that it was perfect for a room full of Sisters. It was awesome though. We had time for a Q and A session and lunch and then our day was over! I'll have to send some pictures! It was beautiful and so so much fun! :) After Sisters day, we all went on exchanges. I have such a powerful testimony of exchanges!! I went to Fenton with S Farnsworth (Who was the Sister I worked with last time too, but it was still such a great learning experience!) and S Decker stayed on Hill St with S Godfrey. It was kind of hard, I knew S Decker was a little nervous, and S Godfrey was plain scared out of her mind, but they did it! THEY BOTH DID IT and that was exactly what they both needed to know! :) In Fenton S Farnsworth and I set some goals to do some tracting and find them more investigators because that's one thing they were struggling with and our other goal was to just have fun! I think that so many times we get caught up in the "Work" aspect of missionary work that we forget we are supposed to find joy in His work. It's easy sometimes to be intimidated or get caught in a routine, but one thing I learned that day was as you make it something enjoyable and fun AS you work everything goes so much better! :) We had picked out a street to go and tract and when we got there it was clear out in the boonies and was mostly country! S Farnsworth can't walk a lot and I was a little nervous. But we prayed and felt like that was where we needed to be, so we slapped a smile on our faces and got out there! The first door was amazing! The lady told us, "Sure you can share a message about God, this is a God fearing house!" She was very kind and even though she wasn't interested in learning more it was a good start! With that attitude and faith and hope that the rest of the road would be the same we carried on. The whole time as we were hiking up and down these LONG drive ways we giggled and talked, we cracked jokes and really just enjoyed our time! The weather was beautiful, the people were super nice and we were doing what we needed to be doing where the lord wanted us! It was one of the BEST feelings! We found a potential investigator and even though we didn't see a huge miracle with touching someones life, it was a huge miracle for both of us. I felt like that experience was exactly what Heavenly Father needed for S Farnsworth and S Bishop to learn. Meanwhile, our companions were working hard and seeing lots of miracles too! :) When we met back up that night, we were all glad to be headed back to our own areas with our own companions, but had all learned some valuable lessons. :) I LOVE exchanges!! :)
So then on Thursday we were getting all packed up and ready to go when E and S Belnap called us. They brought us NEW MATTRESSES and new pillows and a new broom and mop!! It was like Christmas morning!!! We were so excited! But of course we were running late, so we just kind of piled it all in the living room to sort out when we got home that night. In the mean time, our appointment rescheduled for later in the day and as we were driving to campus I had this distinct impression that we needed to go through our area book and find some of our former investigators. We turned around, went back and grabbed it, and spent a little while prayerfully going through it and calling those that we felt prompted to. It was the craziest thing. I've never had such a clear, distinct prompting! We didn't have a lot of time, but from the people we did call we were able to send a referral!! It was exciting!! It's something we are still working on, because the formers haven't been gone through in a LONG time, but I'm excited to see what other miracles we will have from this!! :) Funny thing though, because we were so busy all day, we didn't have time to take out our old mattresses, so we put some sheets on them, pulled our blankets off our beds and slept in the living room for the rest of the week!! Ha ha, it was funny!! It was so nice though! Thank goodness for new mattresses!! :)
Wow! I feel like i have so much more i can tell you, but as always our time is running short! I will try to get a snail mail out today, but i'm not sure if I'll have time!
Mom would you check my account? I think we are going to the Salvation Army today to see if they have some warmer sweaters and I'm not sure how much money I have in there?? If there isn't much would you just transfer some from savings?? Thanks! That would be great!! :)
Thanks Family for being so great!!! You really are the BEST!!! I love you all so much!!
Hello Family!! Thanks so much for all the letters, packages and pictures this week! I had a great birthday!! Ha ha, thanks so much!!! :) Sister Decker stole my tape player and recorded on it all morning yesterday and took about a bajillion pictures! We are going to give S Tingey her exploding box today and record that, but hopefully i will send you all a tape today! :) Thanks though, for everything! You guys are the greatest!!!
So this week had been interesting!! I have to say, I REALLY DON'T LIKE SATAN!!!! Ugh!!! He is SO mean!!! He has been working super hard on Me, S Decker, our investigators and members this week! It's super lame!! We actually were only able to see like 3 of our investigators this week because they all had something come up! Van's sister had an emergency health problem that he had to go home for, Mackenzie has been SUPER busy with school and family stuff, Alex has been so wrapped up in school he has cancelled on us, Nick was struggling, Kendall had a really hard week. . . . . When it rains it pours!! So of course with all of our people struggling so much- it was kind of a rough week for us. I feel like Satan knows the good that we can/are doing and so he is trying everything he can to stop us! The good thing though is that we have have FAITH!!! And with that Faith we have greater power than Satan does! S Decker was really struggling last night, and we had a really good little heart to heart this morning. We know that mission life is hard, but that is one thing that makes it so great! If we didn't have trials and hard times then we would never learn and grow! I think that is one thing that i have learned and appreciate so much more because of my mission, that yes, there will be hard times! But, with the Lord on my side I CAN DO ANYTHING!!! 1 Nephi 3:7 has never been so meaningful before in my life! :) It's true though, the Lord will always provide a way for us to accomplish the things that he has commanded! After our discussion this morning we have raised our own bar! We are stepping up our game and not backing down. We are going to see the Lords promises fulfilled as we ran and are not weary and walk and not faint! As we GO and DO, and as we see miracles work every single day! I know we can do it, because this is God's work! Please pray for us though! We need all of the help we can get!!! And pray for our investigators- they are struggling!!! We need to find new people, so i guess pray for them too! :) Ha ha, the power of prayer is so real- it's the greatest!!! :)
So, just a few quick stories! We had David Glen Hatch come and do a fireside for our mission this week. Lila came and as he listened he was very touched by the spirit! He loved it so much! During the fireside Bro Hatch asked all of the missionaries to stand up. Lila's eyes were about the size of a grapefruit when he saw how many missionaries there were! After the fireside he asked us about the life we live, what we do, what a normal day would be like, etc. When we told him all about it all he could do was stare! He told us, "If I were to do that kind of sacrifice, I think I would have to see Jesus face to face first!" It was a very unique experience for us to share our testimonies of how the Lord supports and helps us (and all those we love) as we do His work. The funny thing is, after the fireside S Decker and I were talking and we think that Lila thinks in order to be a member that he will have to go on a mission! ha ha! Which would be GREAT, but I think we better work in building his faith, and getting him baptized before we try to send him on a mission! lol! :)
We had Zone Conference this week too! I really love these meetings where we get to be with other missionaries and practice and learn together. It was amazing, I felt like everything that we talked about was EXACTLY what Sis Bishop needed to hear! Along with raising our bar, I am committed to being more exactly obedient! I need the blessings that are promised!! I have always been obedient. . . but there are things that I can do better! :)
Sorry this is short today! We are going to the Ford Museum today with the Tingey's and we are already running late, so I better get going! I love you all so much though!! Keep up the good work! :) SMILE!!! It makes the world a better place!!!
Love, Sister Bishop!
P.S. Thanks Dad for your letter and the little stories!! You are the best!!! Rach- I don't think that I got all of your letter, it kind of cut off in the middle of the story! :) Di good luck with the PCAT this week, you'll be in my prayers!! ALL OF YOU!! RWLY!!!!! :)
Hello ALL!!!! It's so good to hear from you- like always! :) Thanks Dad and Hannah for the cute little stories about my sunbeams!!! That totally made my day! :) I'm so glad that they all still know who loves them and that they bring their B of M's to church! Ha ha! YAY!!! It's great to know that even after you leave some one you can still have am impact on their life!
This week has FLOWN by! I seriously was looking back over our week and don't know where it all went. We have been super busy and this week everything went much better! Ann Arbor is a COMPLETELY different city with students here! There is traffic and noise and SO MANY people!! There was a football game this weekend. . . it was kind of a rude awakening to see the real world so close. There were about a million and a half people (Okay, not really! But that is what it felt like!) and the majority of them were VERY drunk. It made for an interesting day of contacting, that's for sure! We actually were at North Campus for quite a while and it was much quieter up there. Sorry, no drunk black guy stories this week! Ha ha! ;)
This week I had been thinking a lot about Sister Rowe and her family so we stopped by her office and chatted for a few minutes! It's amazing how the spirit works and I really know when she needs us. This time it worked out perfectly! She was moving to a new office because they gave her a promotion at work. But if we hadn't of gone in at just the right time, we would have missed her and then we wouldn't know where to find her! Any ways, as we were talking she started to tell me all about how well her family is doing. Wyatt is doing good in school, Willow is loving second grade! Pat is still struggling a little and doesn't go to church with them any more. BUT She is going to get her patriarchal blessing in the next few weeks!!! She was so excited and as we talked it was amazing to see the change that has taken place over the last few months. When I left Chelsea, she was doing good. . . but now she is doing SUPER!!! She knows how important church is, she is reading her scriptures and praying. . . all of the little things that are so important! It was just one of those moments where I was SO thankful to Heavenly Father that he let me be a part of her life! She is an amazing woman with such a strong testimony!! I really, really love that family so much! They will always have a special place in my heart!
Alright, so funny story of the week! We have been reading a chapter out of the Book Of Mormon every night with Hunaid because he hasn't been reading on his own. This week he got so excited that instead of only reading his 3 verses, he read like 5 before he noticed it was my turn! Ha ha! :) He likes the B of M, and when we read with him the stories come a live and he learns a ton. . . we just have to get him reading on his own! This week as we were reading in chapter 4 was my favorite though! We had just read about how Nephi cuts off Laban's head. (It is Hun aid's job to summarize everything as we read so we know that he is understanding everything that is happening!) So we read where Nephi chopped off Laban's head and puts on his clothes. Hunaid got this really disgusted look on his face and said, "Wow, man!!! He just chopped off Laban's head and put it somewhere!!!! Then he stole his clothes too!!!!" Ha ha! I just started giggling so hard!! It was so stinking funny! :)
We had the greatest thing happen yesterday. We were out in Saline stopping by a Less active, he wasn't home so we were getting back in the car when the neighbors across the street started waving us down. As we looked a little closer we saw the boys all had white shirts and ties on and the girls were wearing dresses! S Decker looked at me with a confused look and asked, "Members??" I shrugged and we went over to say hi! They actually were members!!! Ha ha and they invited us to have dinner with them!!! :) Totally made our day! It was such a great little miracle, just in case you were wondering that NEVER happens! :)
I feel like we have been so blessed this week with tons of little miracles. Our people are all finally back for school and things are really gonna take off. This week was just the warm up round! Sister Decker and I are working hard and having so much fun! I really love her! :) She's great! I feel so lucky, over the last few weeks we've grown really close. Sometimes she just looks at me, and knows exactly what I'm thinking or feeling. It's fun to work so hard with someone you that you get along with so well! :) Ha ha, funny story though! S Decker volunteered us to do a musical number this week at our zone conference! ha ha! The little stinker! She tells everybody what a great singer I am and then volunteers us for things like this!?!?!? I don't know what I'm going to do with her! LOL Lucky for her, since she volunteered US, we will BOTH be singing! :) Maybe I will try to record it. . . we will see how it goes!
Well family! My time is about up! Thanks for all your insights Dad! I thought it was so interesting thinking about how the priesthood has power to help us resist temptation. . . what a great gospel we have the opportunity to be a part of! I love it so much!! I love how it changes people and helps us to be better!!! You are all the greatest! Keep up the good work! Don't forget who loves you. . . but if you do it sounds like you could ask Addy and she'll be able to remind you! ;) Have a WONDERFUL week! I love you all SO much!!
Hey there!!! Just in case you all were wondering, I wanted to inform you all that: I HAVE THE GREATEST FAMILY EVER!!!!! Ha ha! I'm just counting my blessings and of course you are all at the very top! :)
So, Transfer call are in AND. . . . We are both STAYING!!! Big surprise, huh? Our district leader really had me going for a few minutes and pretty much had me convinced that I was leaving! But right as I was ready to burst into tears, he started to feel bad and decided that he would repent! Ha ha! Man! I was so mad! LOL! I think he felt really, really bad though! I am sending a tape this week cause I didn't have any time to write letters, so Di you can watch for it and then send it home so everyone else can hear all the fun little stories too! :)
Sounds like you have all had a busy weekend! Matthew's baptism, Ben going through the temple, Dad's toe surgery and everything else! Sounds like a party and a half!!! Di- I seriously about peed my pants when you told me about your girls night out plucking your eye brows!! ha ha! I don't know why, but that really hit my funny bone! ha ha! I guess it's cause I can totally hear you two and see the party happening! ha ha! You guys are the greatest!!
So, our week this week was a little bit crazy! We swapped our preparation day last week to Thursday so that we could go to the temple. So that kind of threw our week off, plus we did exchanges so it was even more wacky! But, still so good! For exchanges I stayed here and Sister Farnsworth came with me. Sister Decker went to Canton with S Holmes. It was amazing to me to have the chance to teach with another sister that has been out for a few months and see her teaching style. S Farnsworth is like the worlds sweetest, most soft spoken person. She is a powerful teacher!! Our day was full of lesson which I was thankful for (And so was she!) Because she doesn't do very well walking around a lot. By the end of the night her leg was killing her! I felt just a little bad, but again very grateful that we had so many appointments and hadn't been out contacting ALL day like S Decker and I have been! :) Exchanges are always fun, but it is always nice to be back in your own area with your own companion!
By the end of the week, our numbers were looking a little low like they have been the last few weeks and I was feeling a little down. It was frustrating to work so hard, and not see the success that I wanted. As you know it was fast Sunday this weekend so S Decker and I were talking about what we should fast for. We talked about different people we are working with and some needs that they have, but as we kept talking we felt like the biggest problem was: US! We felt like we were lacking faith, confidence and the courage to work hard and expect miracles. We decided that we would fast for US, and in turn that would bless the people we are working with and everything that we do! It was my turn to pray and as we knelt there together I poured out my heart! I knew that this was what was holding us back, and I knew that I couldn't break free from it on my own. It was one of those really amazing experiences where you really FELT and KNOW that God is there and heard that prayer and that he would answer it! Right then and there I decided that I would do everything I could to make this happen! Any prompting I would act on it, any thoughts I would share, I would study, work and DO everything that I needed to because then I would be worthy to claim the blessings and miracles that I was POSITIVE God would send my way. Well, hold on folks, cause then the miracles started pouring in!!! 1- We had received a referral earlier in the week for a Bryanna. She referred herself through Mormon.org, when the elders went to meet with her they found out she was moving in the next few days to U of M, so they immediately sent her our way. We called her and actually met with her that night! She is SO great! She told us, "I will do ANYTHING that God tells me I need to do! Even if it's just, 'God says so!'" She is totally golden!!! :) We invited her to come to church on Sunday and she wasn't sure if she would be able to make it. But (Here is where all of the miracle start to happen!) Sunday rolled around and she said she was going to make it!!! We found her a ride and she showed up Sunday morning in a car load of freshman girls! They all hit it off so well!!! Bre totally ditched us during RS and went with these other girls. She told us that she was so comfortable so felt like she was right at home! And she was like, "I am DEFINITELY coming back here! This was so great!" It was SO nice not to have to worry about finding her friends. . . the whole ward just opened right up and took her in! It was fantastic!!
2- Sunday morning we were studying and the phone started ringing. I figured it was someone needing a ride, but didn't recognize the number. Are you ready for this!?!?!? This guy called us and said, "Hey! My name is Lila. I am a student at EMU. I met 2 ladies on campus a FEW MONTHS AGO that gave me a card and invited me to come to church. Do I have the right number??" It's a good thing that I was sitting on the floor or I would have probably fallen off of my chair! Probably 1 in a million people ever call us when we give them cards! And this was MONTHS ago! We haven't been to EMU in like 2 months! After recovering a little I was ecstatic!! I told him we would find him a ride for church TODAY if he could make it! He was so excited, he immediately accepted! We called a member and sure enough, a few hours later there he was! He really enjoyed church and once again the ward did so well at fellow shipping him! He LOVED priesthood and had a really good experience. We set up an appointment and are going to see him tomorrow to teach him more! He was so so funny too! He was filling out a little get to know you sheet and it had questions on it like, "Have you been a member for less than a year?" He answered yes and I just smiled and thought, "That's right!! ha ha! You will be soon!!" Then there was another one that said something like, "Are you planning on serving a mission in the next 2 years?" He looked at me, kind of smiled and said, "I dunno, maybe! That might be kind of cool!" Again I just smiled a little bigger and thought, "You have NO idea how cool that would be!!" :) Ha ha! I'm really excited to see him tomorrow!
3- Last week when we met with Hunaid we had a rough lesson. We were telling him about the new member lessons and how ward missionaries usually teach those lessons. He was very upset and insisted that he didn't want ANY BODY else to come to our meetings. It was such a silly thing, but eventually we convinced him to let just one guy come. Well Sunday when the Ward Missionary was there teaching, was the greatest thing ever!! He is a recent convert himself and was able to really relate to Hunaid and answer questions that we couldn't have answered! At the end he was thankful that he let Han come, for which we were all very grateful!! But man oh man! We were a little concerned about that one! :)
These are just a few of the miracles we have seen in the last few days! :) It's been so amazing to see the change it's made in Me as I have made it a conscious effort to be more faithful, more confident and more courageous!! I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father does hear and will answer my prayers! This week has been such a testimony builder! Now school is back in session and there were SO many people out today!!! I loved it so much!!! Last night as we were out contacting with this new focus of being faithful, confident and courageous there were so many little miracles! I was talking to people and saying things that Sister Bishop would never say! It definitely wasn't me talking, but it was amazing to see and feel Heavenly Father using me to do his work! This is the coolest thing ever!!! Ha ha! I love being a missionary! :)
Well, family! I love you all SO very much! Hope that you all have a fantastic week and know that I pray for you all of the time! :)
Hello!!! Wow, it sounds like it has been an eventful week at the Bishop home!!! It's so good to hear all of the fun little stories and know that you are all doing so wonderful!!! :) Life is so good! I can't believe how fast time flies! I have been here with S Decker now for almost 6 weeks. . . that means that transfer calls are this weekend. We aren't anticipating anything, we are pretty sure we will stay for at least another transfer, but I guess we will find out! :)
The last few weeks have been kind of slow. . . but seriously I don't know how this all works cause time feels like it has flown by! I think it is mostly because we stay so busy!!! :) We didn't have a ton of lessons cause all of our people are still gone on summer vacation, but they should all be getting back this week for school to start next week. So, we are SUPER DUPER excited for everyone to be back and hopefully for life to get back to "Normal!" :) Despite the quite campus, Heavenly Father still blessed us with lots of miracles! I am so thankful that this is HIS work!! :)
So, our first miracle is Javier. He is another African guy that is here learning English. We had our second lesson with him this week and extended a baptism date, which he accepted!!! He also committed to come to church with us on Sunday. On Saturday night we were out contacting and ran into him and his friend. When we asked if we would see him at church the next day he replied, "Oh yes! Of course!!" and his little friend piped up, "Me too, Me too!!!" Ha ha! It was basically fantastic!! So, we found them both rides and the next morning they were at church! It worked out even better cause we had a guy that speaks Spanish there to greet them, walk them through Sacrament Meeting (letting them know what was going on and everything!) and he even gave them a little church tour while we were busy rounding up some other people! Ha ha! So much for Sunday being a day of rest!! LOL, I'm pretty sure that it is our BUSIEST day! But it was really good!! :)
Our other miracle was Ernest. :) ERNEST IS SO GREAT!!! S Thompson and I met him out contacting a month or two ago and he only ever come to Friday Forum. We only have an e-mail address for him, so it's hard to get in contact with him. He is so funny! He gets really excited anytime we talk about religion. . . which is what we do, so he is ALWAYS super excited! Ha HA! He took us and the Saline Sisters out for dinner this Friday because he has a lot of questions that he wanted to ask us! Boy oh Boy!! He wasn't kidding when he said LOTS of questions!! I was surprised when he would STOP talking and let us actually answer his questions. We talked about tithing, WOW, and temples- we pulled out a pass along card with a picture of the salt lake temple and he started yelling (excited yelling) right there in the middle of the restaurant. Our conversation went something like this: (Ernest yelling of course!) Us: "This is a picture of the Salt Lake Temple!" Ernest: "You have got to be kidding me!!! That is the MOST beautiful building that I've ever seen!!! I AM GOING TO GO INSIDE IT!!!" Us: "Ernest, you have to be baptized before you can go in it!" Ernest: "I know I need to be baptized, YOU know I need to be baptized!!! I know I'm not a Mormon yet! But I AM going to go inside that building!!" We got some pretty good looks, but we felt like it actually went really well! Besides all the yelling and excitement we were able to testify of the truth of the gospel and before we left he said the closing prayer! Ernest is going our East to visit his family, but hopefully when he gets back the Sisters will be able to start teaching him for real and get him to come to church, so that he CAN be baptized and CAN go to the temple! :) Ha ha, what a special guy! :)
One other quick story!! S Decker and I are learning a little Chinese so that we can help our Chinese investigators better. There are SO many Asians coming in with school starting, more than half of our investigators are Asian. We had a sweet experience this week with a new guy named Mr. Li. We met him out contacting, taught him the restoration on the spot and he accepted an AYWY Baptism invitation!! These Chinese people are so amazing!!! I truly love them!!!
Matthew is getting baptized this weekend!!! CONGRATS, little Man!! You are so great!!! Ben is going through the temple?!?!? WOW!! All of my "little" Brothers are growing up way too fast!!!
Rach- I really DIDN'T forget your birthday!!! I'm sorry I'm such a slacker!! I don't have time today cause we are splitting our preparation day in half so we can go to the temple this Thursday, but I promise that I WILL send you a card soon!! Just know how much I LOVE YOU!!!
Ang- Your kids are growing up way too fast!! Make them stop, okay!?!? :) They sound so adorable!! Just remind them how much I love them!!!
Di- Hang in there!! :) I know you will and guess what else?? YOU'LL BE FINE!!!! :) I'll keep you in my prayers too, but no worries! It will all work out!!
Dad- Thanks for the letter!! Glad you and Mom had a good trip!! You are both the BEST!!! Oh yeah, did you guys meets S Decker's parents?? They said something about running into you guys?? :)
Mom- Thanks for all the updates and the cute little stories! They totally made my day! :)
Everyone else: Good luck with school starting soon, I love you all SO STINKING MUCH!!! :) Choose the right and all the important things!!! And Remember who loves you!!!
Love you all! Have a wonderful week!!!!! Love, Sister Bishop