Monday, November 18, 2013

Last Email Home


Hello!

Woah, this is the last one of these! Can you all believe it? I can't. My mission has been the best hardest thing of my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I've been able to see the gospel of Jesus Christ change individuals and families for the better. I've seen miracles happen. I've seen the Lord use me to answer someone else's prayer. What a beautiful experience. It's been a privilege to help the Lord in His work. As missionaries and as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we seek to share the love of God of with others. That's all we are really here to do. To help all of God's children know that God loves them and that they matter because they are children of God. I know that God knows all of his children and he knows what they need. Through His spirit he will tell us what we can do to help them.

Kari Bess got baptized this weekend! It was a great baptism and a lot of her family came. Her husband came and we could tell that he felt the spirit. It's awesome to see the gospel bring families together.

Love you all! Thank you for all the support over the past year and a half!

<3 Sister Bishaw



Monday, November 11, 2013

"I'll miss your smiling face"


Hello Everyone!!

This week went well! Sarah Adams got baptized and it was amazing! The Spirit was so strong. She invited so many people. All her friends from Deseret Industries came. Also two of her neighbors. It was a great turn out. The Bishop spoke and he challenged all those who are not LDS to meet with us (the sister missionaries) and find out for themselves it is true. Bold! Sarah bore her testimony and said that she never leaves the house without reading the scriptures. What a reminder and lesson that is to all of who have been in the church longer. She really is an inspiration and she has been truly converted. She wants to share it with everyone and her excitement about the gospel is contagious!

We had a minor setback this weekend when our phone stopped working! It wouldn't let us make calls or receive calls or texts or anything. It said we were out of range! It was really bad because we went on exchanges that day and we forgot to say where we were going to meet at the end of the night. Sister Davenport also dropped the phone on the front lawn on our way to the car that morning so we didn't even have the phone when we exchanged with the other sisters. When Sister Davenport got back to the house she noticed that the lawn looked like it had been mowed!! But luckily the boy who mowed the lawn found the phone and propped it up on the door. Can you imagine if he ran it over with the lawn mower?! bahahah! It was a miracle that he didn't. But our phone still didn't have service. So eventually Sister Davenport called us from someone else's phone and we told her that we had already driven to Nampa from Kuna so they could just meet us at our house. On Saturday we went to the mission office and they gave us a new phone and we had to go to Sprint to get all the contacts moved over. It was eventful! And while all this was happening we were trying to finalize all the plans for Sarah's baptism! But it all worked out. With prayer it always does.

Love you all!!
Only one of these left! Ahhh!

<3 Sister Bishaw

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Flava-Flave was at our Trunk-or-Treat!

Hello Everyone!!

This week was awesome!

We went to the baptism of Jackie Eubanks! It was a wonderful experience. It's amazing to see the gospel bring people so much joy and peace. And to see it brings families even closer together. 

We went on exchanges with the Caldwell sisters. They are both Tongan. Sister Valele is awesome! She's really funny and excited about everything. She just came out on her mission a few weeks ago. She is so happy and positive about everything. We had fun.

Sarah is all ready for her baptism on Saturday. She made her own invitations and she is inviting everyone! She even invited the people who helped her make copies of her invitations at the library! She hasn't smoked in about 2 weeks and she is staying strong! She had a game plan. If she gets the urge to smoke she said she'll just go to the library and read the scriptures or she'll say a prayer. She's just awesome and has been truly converted! We're so happy for her. 

We went to teach this family and when we got there they had to reschedule because their dog just had 11 babies!! A pure bread pitbull. The little babies were so cute! It was cool. Then we just shared a message about the beauty of creation! :)

We went to the Trunk-or-Treat at the church and the best costume hands down was Sister Robison who let out her fro and dressed up like Flava-Flave. hahaha. She had a big clock on her neck! Funniest thing. 

Have a great week everyone! See you soon!!

<3 Sister Bishaw

"It Will Change Your Life Forever!"

Hello Everyone!!

This week we got a lot done! We had a list of members of the ward that the ward council wants to check on and help come back to church. So we found out a lot of information about those people. One brother we visited said he doesn't want to come back to church but he is interested in playing church ball! So the ward is going to set that up ASAP! 

We started teaching a couple who is friends with a member. They let us in this time and we taught them about the Restoration. The husband is Catholic but he agreed with everything we taught and he agreed that he would read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true. He was flipping through it during the lesson and he looked pretty interested in knowing what it's all about. He and his wife just love helping people and are really sweet.

We went to contact someone of that list and the address it had for him ended up being a janitorial supply store! We asked the lady at the desk if this brother was there and she told us he was in Boise and that she was his mom! She told us that he served a mission in Italy and has since stopped going to church. But his parents are getting ready to serve a mission. They know that their family will be blessed as they serve. 

We had stake conference this week! Elder Bowen and Elder Allen of the seventy came to reorganize our stake presidency. Bishop Stephan from the 36th ward is the new stake president! He is a really missionary-minded bishop. He was totally my guess for who it would be! Elder Bowen is awesome! He spoke to us about how to be better member missionaries. He said that his favorite way to do missionary work is to say "Are you a Mormon?" and see what people say. He's had a lot of success doing that! 

Love you all!! Only a few weeks left to write me!!!

<3 Sister Bishaw

"It was a neat-o, wild, and crazy week!"

Hello Everyone!

We taught a lot of lessons this week and it was awesome! We met a lot of new people, some interested, others not so much. But we definitely did our part and worked hard! 

Sister Davenport is awesome. She makes me laugh a lot. She is also really brave and great at teaching! We work together well and just try to talk to everyone about the gospel. 

Two of the people we are teaching are preparing for baptism. It's exciting to see how enthusiastic they are about the gospel and how much they are looking forward to their baptisms. They are already inviting people to attend and sharing the gospel with those around them. Sarah wants to learn everything she can. She even bought these old Book of Mormon cartoons on VHS! She said she never walks out the door without reading something from the scriptures. She's just soaking it up and loving it! I can see how much she has changed and she seems so much more at peace. She is constantly turning to the Lord for help. 

It was a great week! Thanks for all the support!!

Love, 
Sister Bishaw

Thursday, October 17, 2013

"Go out with a bang!"

Hello Everyone!

This week was awesome! We had missionary leadership council on Tuesday. That's always a fun meeting because we get to discuss the mission and how we can help the other missionaries. On Thursday and Friday we went on exchanges. On Thursday one of the Spanish sisters came with me and we went to teach a new investigator. Her neighbors are LDS and she watched general conference and had lots of questions. We taught the first lesson and answered her questions and it went really well. She even came to church on Sunday and said she enjoyed it! On Friday I went with other Spanish sisters to their zone meeting. It was pretty much all in Spanish so that was fun! They even made me say the opening prayer in Spanish! They said I did good and I understood most of the meeting. The Spanish zone leaders are awesome! Their zone meeting was so spiritual and you could tell they really care about all the missionaries in their zone. After the meeting we went to Golden Coral and ate WAY too much! They Sister Bishoff came with me to Nampa because she's in a trio. I know, our names are really close. haha. We went to contact a man who just started coming back to church and we found his stepson home instead. He agreed to read the Book of Mormon and said we can come back next week! You just never know. We set baptismal dates with 3 of our investigators this week. They all have felt the spirit tell them that the Book of Mormon and the gospel are true and that they should be baptized. One needs to quit smoking but she is so close! It's amazing to see people change and gain more peace in their lives. I'm so happy for them. So we went out with a bang on Sister Armstrong's last week! She goes home tomorrow! Today I got my new companion, Sister Davenport from Tennessee!! She goes home 6 weeks after I do! 

Love you all!
Sister Bishaw

Sunday, October 13, 2013

"I just love conference​s!"

Hello!

This week was great! Minus Sister Armstrong getting the 24 hour flu on Friday. So we had to take a sick day. She's doing better now so that's good! Maybe we were just pushing ourselves a little too hard. We did a lot to plan Sisters Conference. We had a meeting just for all the sister missionaries in the mission. It went really well! The theme was DOTS which stands for Depend on the Savior. So all the sisters wore something with polka dots and all the decorations were dots. Sister Cannon helped with that it was so cute! We ended with a testimony meeting where everything talked about a time when they had to depend on the Savior. The Spirit was so strong and we were reminded of why we are doing what we are doing. We want others to know that they can turn to the Savior during hard times as well.

We also got to watch General Conference! It always goes by too fast! I wrote questions before conference and I received answers. I know that God knows me personally and through his Spirit he will teach me and tell me what I need to know. I don't know what I would do without his help. 

We taught a good amount of people this week too. It seems like a lot of people we teach just aren't quite there yet but I know that as we keep working with them and praying for them it will all happen for them in the Lord's time. People often need consistent love and help from others in order to change. So we'll keep being their for them!

Love you all!! I also love letters! ;)

<3 Sister Bishaw

Family and Friends! Thanks for all the support!