Everyday in the mission laugh a lot.

Hello Everyone! 

Last Wednesday we got to hear from Elder Haleck of the 70 who came to tour our mission. We had this cool experience where we got to hear from leaders from a ward and learn about how we can better help them and how they can help us to do missionary work. There are a lot of LDS people in this area who have been lost and need rescuing and we learned a lot about how we can all better work together to help those people. 

This week at the temple open house was awesome. I was asked so many great questions. One 12-year-old Catholic boy came up to me with a notebook that he wrote some questions in. He asked me if Mormon men could have beards, what we thought about the trinity, and if we did anything to honor Mary. What an awesome kid! I told him that Mormon men can have beards, but if you're a missionary then you can't. I told him that we believe that the Godhead consists of God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. They are separate beings but all one in purpose. And I told him that we love Mary (the mother of Jesus) but we don't do anything special to honor her. He told me that he prays over the Rosary every day with his family. So cool! We get to meet so many awesome people at the open house. 

On Saturday we went to the Trunk-or-Treat one of our wards had. It was pretty funny because we met all of these people for the first time at a costume party and when we saw them at church on Sunday we hardly recognized them! The brother conducting the meeting was Uncle Fester the night before so that's all we could picture as he was speaking. SO funny. 

We're teaching two 12-year old girls right now who want to be baptized. And on Sunday we received 2 referrals from members whose neighbors want us to teach them! The members out here are awesome at sharing the gospel with their friends! 

And me and Sister Anderson still laugh a lot every day. :)

I love you all! and You're all in my prayers! 

Sister Bishaw 

PS. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 

Sister Tonuu and Elder Cook. Yeah, he's 6'11". haha

Props to Pete Webb for the cool mug ;) 

Me with my cool mug :) 

"Why you cryin', HUH?"

Hello all you lovely people out there! 

So the first few days of this past week I was still living in Meridian even though I had been "transferred" to Boise west. So I didn't feel like I had really switched areas until Wednesday when we moved into our apartment that is down the street from the Boise temple! We live with 2 other sister missionaries. It's been fun! Sister Anderson, my companion, is from Georgia and she is hilarious. We never stop laughing. We live with Sister Houtz and Sister Tonuu. Sister Tonuu is from Samoa and she said she looks at me and wants to start speaking Samoan to me! I really am Poly by association! ;) And she also says "Why you cryin', HUH?!" all the time and it's hilarious. You probably would have to be there...haha

But yeah, this week has been a little crazy with opening a new area and not knowing who to visit and also working at the temple open house every day. I've had to switch gears in my mind a little bit at the open house because we're not allowed to give away Book of Mormons or teach the way we normally do. It's been interesting and we've met a lot of cool people. One sister said she met a family that was not LDS that came all the way from New York to see the temple! My favorite question so far was from a little kid - he said "Oh you're from Rhode Island? What does your license plate look like?" haha Yes, us Rhode Islanders are rare out here :). 

On Saturday we had a cool experience. We got a call at the mission office from a lady named Mary. She said she wanted sister missionaries to visit her and we ended up being the closest ones to her! So we go to her apartment complex and it took us about 30 minutes of walking around to find her apartment! Idaho doesn't believe in numbering the houses in order. haha. After we had been looking for a while we said a prayer that we would be able to find her. When we did, we said a prayer of gratitude right there on the sidewalk. She was home and she told us that she has been taught by missionaries before and that she felt like this was finally her time to convert. We testified to her that God sent us to her and that Satan was trying to keep us from her. She recognized that she's been battling Satan. She felt like she needed help and she reached out to us, which was awesome. We left her with a Book of Mormon and a chapter to read and we planned to go to the open house with her this week. Sadly, on Monday Mary called the mission office again and told us that she didn't want missionaries anymore. Satan is working hard on her. Although this experience was sad and frustrating for us, I learned that we need to keep going and keep praying for Mary, but we can't get down on ourselves. Discouragement will weaken your faith. 

Thanks for all the love and support! 

Love, Sister B 

PS I've been out 5 months today! Weird! 

Haircut!

Exchanges in Nampa with Sister Davenport!

Last district meeting in Meridian!

yeah, we're a pretty cool trio.

Tara got baptized! She's beautiful, isn't she? :) 

She's 6'2" so the she rolled up the pants. :) 

With Sulia! 

 Sister Christensen! the lovely lady that let us live in her beautiful basement! and a kimono in the back :) 

The Christensens! They took us to a mexican place before I left Meridian.

The Webbs! My home away from home! :) 

The Bovees! My other home away from home! :) 

The trio and sister moss is back!

Line up! I'm trying to cry here...

I just couldn't hold in the laughter! I blame sister Houtz.

Tell Grandma before you leave! :) 

Why is the word Anchovies on my peanut butter jar??? 

"I'M GOING TO BOISE!" for Real This Time ;)

Hello Everyone!

Transfer calls came to us on Friday night! I'm going to...Drum roll please....BOISE! I'll be serving in the Boise West stake with Sister Anderson who is from Georgia. I served with her in a trio with Sister Chadderton for a week one time and she is awesome so I'm so excited! They are opening Boise West to sisters just for this tranfer I think so that we can be closer to the temple for the open house. This is going to be a GREAT transfer! We already started working at the Open House on Saturday. We are in the gym of the church building next door to the temple and we greet people when they finish their tour. We ask them how it went, answer any questions, invite them to fill out a comment card, and show them where the free chocolate is. It's awesome!

On Wednesday I went to Nampa for the day! It's always cool to see a different part of the mission. It was funny because we played bingo in Meridian on Tuesday and then when I went to Nampa we played bingo there too!

Another highlight of the week was Tara's baptism! She was baptized on Saturday and received the Holy Ghost on Sunday. The baptism was a really spiritual experience. Sister Hamilton and our friend Sulia sang a beautiful song called "I heard him come." Sulia couldn't even get through it because she was crying. Everyone else was crying too! You could just feel the love in the room. Love for the Savior and love for Tara. It was beautiful. The gospel of Jesus Christ is real and it really does bless our lives. With the Holy Ghost in our lives nothing can ever be that bad.

Sadly there will probably be no pictures this week because these library computers don't let us save stuff to them. But next week for sure! I took a lot this weekend saying goodbye to Meridian people! At stake conference on Sunday our mission president spoke and he announced to everyone that I was leaving. That made it easy so I didn't have to tell everyone myself! I'll miss Meridian, but I'm not going too far!

Love you all!

Sister Bishaw

Miracles, Temples, and Conference - What More Could a Sister Ask For?

Hello Friends and Family!

Last Tuesday we played BINGO again! Sister Hamilton called out the numbers this time and she started calling them out in different accents. It was hilarious! We also had a miracle on Tuesday! We didn't really know where we needed to be after BINGO, but we decided to try to stop by someone's house and we saw that this lady wasn't home so we turned around and then we saw one of our investigators walking her dog. So we drove up to her and talked to her, and after a few minutes she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. She said she just wanted to go home and go to sleep. We pretty much insisted that we come over and talk with her and she agreed. She told us that she suffers from severe depression and that she was going through another spell. She said it was triggered by these dolls she saw in a thrift store that reminded her of a doll that her father gave her that she no longer had. She said she felt guilty for misplacing it. We could tell that Satan was really trying to get her down, so we told her that it was no coincidence that we had run into her. God sent us to her, because he loves her and is aware of her. After we left she called us and said that we pulled her out of that depression and she felt better. We told her not to thank us, but to thank her Father in Heaven. We're just the instruments. I love being a missionary! 

On Wednesday we went to the Boise Temple grounds with one of our investigators to plants flowers! They needed like 20,000 bulbs planted before the open house next Saturday so a bunch of people volunteered and we got it done! It was really fun. I can't believe the Open House starts in 5 days! 

I fasted on Wednesday because I felt like I needed some extra strength and help from the Lord. After the temple said a prayer to figure out where to go next and we both thought to go see Sister Bacon. So we went and Sister Bacon was home and we got to meet her 2 sons, Kayden and Dylan. They're 16 and 14. We shared a Mormon message with them and when it was over Kayden asked if we could watch another one! We said, "of course!" So we ended up watching two more. Mormon messages really bring the spirit. Kayden told us that he has tried to talk to God before but he didn't see a light or anything so he thought it didn't work. Kayden and Dylan grew up in a less-active LDS family so they really haven't been to church much at all. We taught them about how God speaks to us through the Holy Ghost and we feel the Holy Ghost through thoughts and feelings, and not many people see a light or a vision. It was really cool that we were there to help them understand. They are eager to learn and we already went back and taught them the first discussion. Meeting them was totally and answer to prayer and fasting. 

General Conference was amazing! If you didn't watch it you still can, just go to lds.org ;). I wrote down questions I had before conference, then I took notes during conference, and after conference I wrote down the answers I found to my questions. It was awesome because I was given a lot of direction about what I can do to become a better missionary and disciple of Christ. I'm excited to make some changes! 

Love you all!! 

Sister Bishaw 

Pictures:

1. Zone meeting! Last one for the McMullins! :(

2. Cinnamon Rolls made by the amazing Sister Christensen who lets us live in her house. :)

3. I guess I like to take pictures with food....Teri Chicken at the Lamms! PS. Go Broncos

4. Stole from Sis Hamilton's camera. A more normal one from Anthony's baptism.

5. Again from my comp's camera. A funny one!

BINGO! and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in Samoan.

Hey Guys!

 

This week I saw miracles just like every week! I've learned that you see miracles when you are looking for them. So expect miracles, and they will come. I see God working in my life every day and I know with a surety that he is mindful of all of his children.

 

On Tuesday we helped the elderly play Bingo and it was hilarious! They played a nickle a card and they were really into it. They kept getting mad at me for calling out numbers they didn't have. hahaha. We were glad we could help them because they really enjoyed it.

 

So back to serious things...we finally saw a less-active lady who has 2 kids that we taught the lessons to, but we were just waiting for them to set a baptismal date. They finally are getting baptized on October 27th! They have been ready forever so we're really excited for them.

 

We met 2 really cool families in one of our wards on Wednesday. They were all hanging out outside watching their kids play and playing with them. They were like the life of the street! It was super funny because Brother Holyoak got to talking to Sister Hamiliton about Samoan because he learned some in school and he did head, shoulders, knees, and toes in Samoan. Hilarious.

 

We taught Linda and Veronica the last lesson on Wednesday and now we are just waiting to hear back from their mom about when they can be baptized. There's some family issues that need to be worked out first but they should be getting baptized soon!

 

We taught Tara the next day and she is also ready to be baptized on the 13th! She has definitely been prepared by the Lord. We had dinner with a family that is working on promoting family history in the ward so I got to show them how do some family history and temple work. I still remember, so that's good! Hopefully I can use some of my schooling to help the ward!

 

We also caught Jesse at home and started teaching him again! He went to the Salt Lake with his girlfriend and saw the temple and said he wants them to get married there! We talked about what that would entail and he is praying to know if this is the true church.

 

On Friday we were inspired to visit the mom of one of our former investigators because we heard she was having a hard time. She opened the door and she was crying and just didn't even say anything and let us in. She told us what has been going on, we encouraged her, read a scripture, and said a prayer. She said she felt better and that before we got there she was contemplating what she should write in her suicide note! I was extremely grateful that we followed that prompting to go see her when we did. We told her that God sent us to her and that He is aware of her and that He loves her and wants her to keep going. The Lord truly is mindful of every person, and He wants to to be happy. I know that He uses each of us as instruments in His hands to help his children who are struggling, and we're all struggling in some way. We're all here to help each other.

 

On Saturday we went to the Relief Society Broadcast with our mission president's wife! We were honored to go with her and the broadcast was great. And on Sunday we had a meeting about the Boise Temple Open House and learned more about what we will be doing. We'll be in the church building next to the temple when people come out and we'll be there to greet them and answer questions that they might have. Also, the highlight of the week was that all of us sisters got to take a tour of the temple. It's beautiful and truly the house of the Lord. Everyone who can needs to come to the open house.

 

You are all amazing! And I'm so excited for General Conference this weekend! Everyone should watch it! Check out LDS.org.

 

Love you all!

 

Sister B

 

PS. Quote of the week: "Find Happiness in ALL that  you do." -Gordon B. Hinckley