"Me gusta el libro"

Hello From Nampa!

This week was crazy at first but it was great! I got my new companion on Wednesday. Her name is Sister Thomas. She is from San Bernardino California. She was in the MTC for a week and a half. She instantly got transferred to the Nampa Mission the day after she got here. She's on fire. She came pre-trained. She felt inspired to talk to this guy on the corner who was selling strawberries. He looked hispanic and Spanish is her first language but she hasn't spoken it in a long time. So we talked to him in our broken Spanish and gave him a book of Mormon in Spanish. We only had 8 dollars so he ended up giving us half his box of strawberries for eight dollars instead of 10. I got to use some of my Spanish and when Sister Thomas couldn't remember a word, I knew how to say it and when I didn't understand him because he was talking too fast, she understood. And we were really unprepared and didn't have a pen so we put our number in his phone and he actually called us yesterday and said "Me gusta el libro"! Miracle!

We've talked to a lot of single moms too and were able to share with them how the gospel can help them. And it's just good to be able to befriend people who are struggling. 

The broadcast about missionary work yesterday was amazing. I'm so excited for more missionaries to come out and for the work to hasten! There is so much to do. 

Love you all!

Sister Bishaw

Ann!

Sister Healy!

All the trainers!

Los elderes!

Deo and his family! I will miss them!

Holding up church materials! haha

Me: "Who's your favorite superhero?" Sister Halaapiapi: "Justin Bieber." Me: "bahaha"

Hello!

So today is transfer day! My fate was decided on Saturday. I will be serving in the....

NAMPA IDAHO MISSION! 

Which means there is a new address to send things too. It is...

1008 W. Sanetta

Nampa, ID 83651

I'm sad to leave all the people that I love in Boise, but I'm excited to go to Nampa. I will be training a new missionary. This will be the 3rd time in a row. I've done the first 6 weeks of the 12 week program twice so far and apparently I'm just not getting it so I need to do it again. I'm really curious about what happens in those last six weeks though. haha. I will also be a sister training leader. Because so many sisters are coming out they created a new assignment, which is a leader for the sisters. So I just help the sisters if they need anything and I go on exchanges every week. Should be exciting!

This past week was fun. I miss Sister Hala'api'api because she is so funny (see the title of this email). She went to Caldwell, ID though so we'll be right next to each other! We went to a couple ward BBQ's. One was a pig roast but I didn't see a pig! I was kind of sad. But we got to participate in the cast iron pan throwing contest. It was so funny. I'll send pictures next week!

Love you all! And thanks to everyone who emailed me this week! I really appreciate it!

<3 Sister Bishaw

"Dutch-Oven Dinner!"

Hello!

This week was fun. We had lunch with the stake president and his wife. They made curry chicken salad and it was delicious. It was good to be able to talk with him about how we can help the stake. 

We tried to meet with one of our friends from Africa that we help with English but she texted us and said she was sick and in the hospital. We happened to be near here house so we went to check with her mom what was going on and her mom said she was at the pool. haha. We talked to her and she said she had a headache...

We had a great lesson with Robert. The Carlsons, a couple in the ward, came with us. Brother Carlson and Robert were pretty much best friends by the end. Robert looked right at Brother Carlson and said "Mr. Carlson, are you a stamp collector?" and he was! haha. Robert said he looked like a delicate guy. Robert had some old stamps to show him. It was great. Robert is very scientific and political so he said that the Book of Mormon might be true and God might be able to answer his prayer but he's not sure. He said he'd give it his best effort though. He told us that he watched the Restoration DVD like 4 times!

Thursday was a rough day. We planned all day and that went well but the rest of the day no one was home or interested. The Lord is definitely teaching me patience and long-suffering and I am obviously not getting it. 

But on Friday we got to see Ann and she just makes my day. She told us how grateful she is for us and how much we are helping her. She's like my adopted Grandma now. I feel like we just sit and talk with her and I don't do very much but it means a lot to her. I'm learning that it's the little things that matter most. Just small acts of kindness. 

Saturday was the stake high priests Dutch-Oven Dinner! There were SO many Dutch ovens! They sent us home with so many bags of food we won't need to go shopping for like 3 months. haha. It was really fun though. We spent all week inviting people to it and we had an okay turn out. It was good to see everyone. I feel like the people in this stake are my family now because I've been here so long!

Sunday we spoke in Sun Rise ward and President Cannon came! It made us a little nervous but it all went well. haha. We spoke about missionary work and how essential the members are. This is an awesome talk 

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/we-are-one?lang=eng

Our ward mission leader spoke too and it was funny because we weren't able to get our reports to our ward mission leaders saturday night because we were at the dutch oven dinner and in his talk he said it was the first time we didn't come on Saturday and he had told his wife to help him clean up the house because he thought we were coming. Later someone told him that we were too full of food to come. haha. 

We had a great lesson with Deo and his cousin Linda. We did it in French and English. We just read form 1 Nephi 17 about Nephi building the ship and they totally got it! They related it to themselves without us saying anything. They said it's like when we have hard times and God helps us because God helped Nephi build the ship. Deo said he wants to read the Book of Mormon for 30 minutes a day now because he felt the spirit during the lesson. Now Ivan is still being Ivan but we think he'll come around. He kept asking really trivial questions trying to find fault in what we teach. We told him what we always tell him - he need to pray with faith. 

Love you all! Have a great week! Please write me! brittany.bishaw@myldsmail.net.

<3 Sister Bishaw 

PS HAPPY FATHER'S DAY ON SUNDAY! 

We can tat!

Sonia!

Sister H wearing Sonia's shades

Don't mess with Elder Gibbons...

"You are District 3" -President Cannon

Malo e lelei! I'm learning more Tongan! Palofita is Prophet and ongo'ongolelei is gospel. I could pretty much teach the whole first lesson already ;) haha. But it was a good week. We started teaching 2 new people, I got to go back to my old area, and we had 3 long missionary meets in which I learned a lot! We also met a man named Mohamed tak tak. That was probably the best part. 

Tuesday was a miracle day! We had prayed specifically that we would receive more referrals and we were trying to ask for them more and look for more opportunities to find new people to teach. On Tuesday we received 5 referrals from talking with Bishops and just from people calling us. I know the Lord answers prayers and as we do everything we can he takes care of the rest. One lady who called us met a homeless man at Deseret industries and she felt like the spirit was telling her to talk to him and help him. She ended up giving him a ride where he needed to go. She told us that she knew that God loved him and was aware of him. She felt she needed to give his information to the missionaries after she talked a little about the gospel with him. We contacted him that night and he took a Book of Mormon and agreed to meet with us. He's had a hard life and he's made mistakes and I was able to testify of the power of the atonement of Christ to heal and to forgive. It was an awesome experience. We met with him again on Thursday but I was in Meridian on exchanges. But I heard it went well and he came to church on Sunday and stayed for all three hours. He has a lot of questions. 

We also contacted this lady that hasn't been to church in a while. She's sick right now and they don't know what's wrong with her. Sister Hala'api'api and I were both inspired to share a message about hope. We could tell she was really comforted. By small and simple things!

We went to contact one of the referrals on Wednesday and sadly she was interested. But we looked across the street after and saw this member lady who also hasn't been to church in a while because she's been sick. She was carrying bags so we went over to see if we could help and it turns out the bags just had empty cans in them so they were super light. She said she was talking them to the recycling place to get money for them. We asked her how much she would get and she said about 4 dollars. She is so sweet. Some people work so hard for every little thing they get. It's inspiring and refreshing to see someone that honest and hardworking. 

On Thursday I got to go back to Meridian, my first area! We had a cool experience. We went to contact a former investigator and we thought we were at the right house but we weren't. This lady named Annette answered the door and we started talking to her instead. Turns out she went to primary at our church as a kid and she enjoyed it. She's also read some of the Book of Mormon. She loves the Bible and said she reads it to wake herself up in the morning! She's a really awesome lady. She took a Book of Mormon and said she'd read it and pray about it. 

Then we had dinner with the lady who bought me and sister chadderton toilet paper almost a year ago! haha It was pretty great. 

On Friday we went to contact a family and on the way into the apartment complex we met 3 guys from Africa. One was named Mohamed Tak Tak and he said he's the only Mohamed Tak Tak in the world. haha He also said he wants to marry an LDS girl. We told him we could teach him about what she would believe. haha. We also met a man named Zola and a 19 year old named Moses and their both LDS! Moses said he's going on a mission soon. On Sunday we were talking to the lady who actually helped teach Zola and she said they had lost tract of him! and Moses is the son of another man that this lady helped teach who just wrote a book about his conversion called "God doesn't write with a pen." Small world! 

On Saturday we spent a lot of time inviting people to church and to a dutch-oven dinner next week. It was fun to talk to people. We had quite a few people at church on Sunday. We went to a break the fast with the senior singles in one ward. It was cool to get to know people. One man told us about the hard life he's had and about his abusive father. Some people have had it really rough. I am just filled with gratitude for the wonderful parents that I have. 

Love you all! Letters are appreciated! 

<3 Sister Bishaw