Sister Bishaw in Potato-Land: A donkey, fairy wings, and bubble tea!

Hello Everyone!

So let's start at the end of last P-day. A member ended up buying us Panda Express for dinner which was so nice of her! Then we went to the young single adult Family home evening. They were playing Frisbee and other sports outside. They were all having such a good time. That ward is amazing and it made me miss college! Miss you BYU friends! :) We read scriptures with one girl there and it was really awesome! They even gave us ice cream!

After FHE we went to sister Dengsoth's house. She is from Laos and so we got her a Lao Book of Mormon because we thought she asked for one, but we found out she really wanted us to find her a Bible in Lao. So that is what we will try to do soon! But we shared a conference talked with her and had a nice time visiting with her. She is making school bags for underprivileged children. The Relief Society wants to make 50 bags all together and Sister Dengsoth already made like 10. She's amazing.

2 of the Elders (missionaries) gave Sister Chadderton a Priesthood blessing of comfort on Monday night. It's amazing that Priesthood holders can help us by using their power to act in God's name and tell us what our Father in Heaven would have us know.

On Tuesday we saw a young single adult who has bladder cancer. She's living at home, but in a lot of pain. She's a total trooper though and she's taking it like a champ. She just kept saying "It is what it is." She has accepted how things are and instead of being upset about it or angry she has decided to be positive and hold on to her testimony of her Savior. It was very inspiring to visit with her.

We also saw Anthony on Tuesday. He is the one who is waiting to be baptized. He has one of the strongest testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel of Christ I have ever witnessed. Because he has had to wait, he has had time to really decide if he is committed to following Christ. He has decided that there is no way he will ever stop living the gospel and coming to church. He can't deny that it is true.

Ben had his baptismal interview on Tuesday as well. And guess who the Elders brought with them? Not Nathan, but Spencer Jackson, his brother. haha. Spencer and I didn't recognize each other at first but then we figured it out. Those Elders just love bringing people I know from home with them to things!

On Wednesday we had zone training. We learned about ways to plan and use our time effectively. It was amazing because it really helped our weekly planning session we did on Saturday. We are both on the same page and we know what we want to focus on.

For dinner on Wednesday a member took us to IHOP! The best part was when the waitress started telling us a story about how her friend was in a bad mood and she just left her house because she felt like she was bothering her friendl, but later she texted her that she loved her and then her friend said that she was just in a bad mood because of the heat! That story was prompted by us moving tables because it was too hot near the window. Anyway, she told us that her friend is her best friend in the world and that they love to talk about God. She said that recently she just stopped being angry at God. She realized that God wasn't the cause of her problems and she decided to love God and be grateful for her problems. It was awesome. We left her our number and told her to call us if she ever wants to talk about God!

We met with one of our new investigators on Wednesday night. He's the boyfriend of a less-active single adult. We had a member come with us and we taught about the Restoration. He agreed to read the Book of Mormon at the end.

After that we exchanged with the Middleton sisters. That means that Sister Chadderton went to Middleton with Sister Dickey and Sister Whitman came to Meridian with me! It was a cool experience. We visited a family that has a donkey and horses and dogs and it was cool to pet the donkey because it looked just like the one in Shrek! We had a few mishaps and cancelled appointments during the day but everything ended well. Except Sister Whitman accidently left our phone in her purse and started taking it back to Middleton with her! Don't worry though, we got it back within the half hour. But when we got our phone we had a message from President Cannon and it was...dun dun dun...Transfer Calls!! We were going to find out if we were staying together for the next 6 weeks or getting separated. The verdict is that we are STAYING TOGETHER IN MERIDIAN! Woo! Totally what we wanted. President and the Lord know that we are not done here yet. So we were excited. We also got a message that announced the Boise Temple open house and re-dedication! The open house where anyone, LDS or not, can walk through the temple and see the inside, will start on October 13th and end November 10th. The youth cultural celebration will be November 17th and the re-dedication will be the 18th. So if you know anyone who will be in Boise during the open house let them know about it! Us Sisters will most likely be part of giving tours. I'm really excited!

On Friday we saw three recent convert young single adults! Two are doing really well and the other has been struggling with life in general lately. We will just keep meeting with him and praying for him.

Saturday was our awesome weekly planning session. Then we delivered reports of the work we're doing to our ward mission leaders. We did a little tracting. Then we got something called Bubble Tea, which is a smoothie with tapioca pearls in the bottom. It wasn't the best because the pearls were frozen. Sister Chadderton introduced me to it. They sell it at Chinese restaurants. The best flavor is Honey Dew but this place didn't have that.

On Saturday night we had Ben's baptism! It was amazing because the spirit was really strong and you could tell that everyone was there because they cared about him and knew that this was a very important day in his life. President and Sister Cannon and our Zone Leaders came to the baptism, which was awesome. Also, the stake president and bishop spoke to Ben and lovingly welcomed him into the ward and stake. It was just really awesome all around. And the Relief Society made treats without anyone even asking them to! Just awesome.

After the baptism we went to see Carol. You'll see her in the pictures I sent. She is the coolest lady ever. She is so generous. She gives us stuff all the time and she is just an awesome person to talk to.

On Sunday three of the young single adults asked for Book of Mormons to give away! One was for Ben's mom who came to his baptism and now is interested in learning more about the church! One was in Russian. This is a cool story. So, Sunday morning I was looking for something in our closet and I got distracted and starting looking at all the stuff in there and I found a Russian Book of Mormon, which I thought was interesting. Then when the girl asked us for one I was like, we already have one at home! So we didn't have to order it from the mission office. Coincidence? I think not! There is also an Elder here who started his mission in Russian but had to come home for medical reasons and is now finishing his mission here! So he can teach this girl's friend in Russian! Another non-coincidence! God truly puts us all where we need to be in order to help each other. He puts people in our lives that we need in order to learn or just to bless us in some way.

We stopped by the Wiggin family's house to get some water on Sunday and they ended up telling us their whole conversion story. The parents were married with two children and got divorced and eventually both found the LDS church in different ways and then getting remarried in a court house right before the wife was baptized! There are a lot more details but that's that main story. It was really cool to hear how they came to know the gospel is true. They appreciate it a lot more because they had to wait for it and they came to know the truth for themselves. It's real for them. They know that they have become clean through the atonement of Christ and that they will be together forever as a family. They held on to what they knew even though they were met with a lot of worldly opposition. Opposition that could have made them angry and made them want to give up, but they decided to be patient in order to gain the blessings God had in store for them. Brother Wiggin said if he had gotten angry when he was told he would have to wait a year to be baptized, it would have been like kicking himself in the face. He looked at it as if someone told him that they would give him 5 million dollars, but then said he would have to wait a year for it. Of course he would wait a year instead of just never getting it! It's 5 million dollars! He explained it so simply. It was awesome.

We also met with Sister Pancake on Sunday. Yes, like the breakfast food. She is very recently divorced. She is so strong in her testimony of her Savior. We talked about how at the end of the day, all that matters is your relationship with the Savior. If you're okay with him, then it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. And people who judge you or are unkind to you just don't matter. If we know our Savior is by our side, then nothing can hurt us. I want to get to the point where I am so sure all the time that my Savior loves me and is supporting me, that nothing can offend me or hurt me. And that will take a life time I'm sure.

So that was my week! Hope you are all well! Thanks to everyone who wrote me! And everyone else, update me on your lives if you get a chance!

Love you all!

Sister B

"Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth thrown in. Aim at Earth and you get neither." C. S. Lewis

Pictures:

1. Ben was baptized on Saturday!