Michelle's baptism Oct 26,2013

Sister Montera, companion 

 Sister Bishop, Michelle and Sister Montera at Michelle's baptism on Oct 26,2013

This is Exciting! Monday Oct 28, 2013 11:11 pm

Hey guys!                                                                                 Tuesday Oct 29, 2013

So I got all of your emails this week and I loved hearing from all of you! I especially loved hearing the news from Mike and Vanessa!! I am so happy for them and their family as their family is expanding. I am glad that I won't need to wait too long to see him/her after he/she is born.  I can't wait to get all of the awesome pictures of everything.  I loved hearing all the exciting things that are happening in your lives.  It sounds like the Bishop family is doing pretty awesome this past week! I am supper happy for all of you!!

So this week has been really awesome.

I was able to have another baptism this week!! Michelle was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday.  It was such a great moment and I have been so blessed by her.  She bore a great testimony how she knows that this church is true.  As one of her missionaries who was able to see this from the beginning, she is such an amazing person who will do amazing things in her service for the church.  And on that note, have I mentioned that Michelle wants to serve a mission?! So yeah she had said that this is what she wants to do so that she can share what she learned to be true to others so that they can be as happy as she is.  I am just so happy that she was finally able to make this covenant with the Lord, and see the blessings that are and will come into her life.  

We are working on trying to keep busy during this little bit.  It is kinda hard sometimes when we don't exactly have a very big teaching pool during Sembreak.  But that is okay. The Lord is continuing his work, as evidenced by Michelle.  

So in a few hours I will be going to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!  I am so excited to go! It is such an amazing opportunity to go to the temple here in the Manila mission.  I am so happy! The Spirit is so strong at the temple!!! It is truly my favorite place on earth.

I love hearing from all of you!!!

You are all in my my prayers.  

Spiritual Nugget for the Week:

"Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost the this great cause.  Lend your efforts to helping people... Stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, hold up the arms that hang down.  LIVE THE GOSPEL OF JESUSECHRIST."  - Gordon B. Hinckley

Love you

Sister Bishop

Rebecca and Ada - Oct. 21, 2013

Ada and me earlier today.  Right after we finished our last Recent Convert lesson.  She leaves this week to go back to her province. 

Rebecca taught Ada the discussions and was her first baptism in Sept.  

Hello po!

Monday Oct. 21, 2013  7:44 am

hey everyone!

It is just another great week on the mission.  I am so grateful for this time that I am here and serving.  It has kinda been a crazy week.  I am doing good. Still feeling fine. 

Some of the highlights of the week were the interview with President Stucki.  That is always a great thing to have, I love being able to hear his counsel for each of us individually.  I was such a great time just being able to talk one-on-one with him.  I am so blessed here in the Philippines Manila Mission to have such a great Mission President.  He was able to talk with me about some of my worries and the stresses of becoming a new trainer.  It is stressful at times but it is also really rewarding.  The church is putting a focus on the stresses of missionary work, so they came out with a new booklet for all missionaries that talks all about stress and stress management.  It is so true that the mission field comes with a ton of stress: good stress and bad stress.  I am trying to handle all of the stresses a bit better which is something that I think that we are able to become better at.  I think that that was something that stood out to me in General Conference.  Is that when it is all said and done and we are stress, worried, depressed, "ready to turn back" (Alma 36 I believe), that the Lord is always there no matter what.  That his Atonement is always in effect and if we can just remember that than it will all be okay.  I am so blessed to know that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me and wants to see me succeed in my mission and in life.  That He has not left me comfortless.  He provided me with a Savior who is always there to help me through all of the trials of life.  And also the Holy Ghost as our constant companion if we will be worthy.  What a great blessing of our Heavenly Father.  He truly loves each one of us individually.  

So we will be having one baptism this next week.  Michelle will be baptized this Saturday.  She has such a great testimony of this gospel! She loves sharing her testimony with us and her friends.  She has already brought 2 of her cousins to meet with us (one of them has a baptismal date: Aren) and Aren's boyfriend too (also Bap Date).  She had her interview and guess what?! She passed!  hahaha! She is absolutely amazing and I am so blessed to have her in my life and in this mission! She is absolutely so ready for this step in her life.  She has such a great faith in this gospel and in the Book of Mormon.  She says that her day is never complete until she reads.  Isn't that how we should all view the Book of Mormon, as essential to our day?!

We just finished up our last lesson with Ada.  She found out today that she passed her CPA exam!!!! I was so happy for her! It was actually quite emotional as she will be leaving to go to her province this week... But I love her so much!!!!!  She shared her testimony that she knows this is the church of God and that because of that knowledge, she will never leave. She asked if there was anything that we could tell her that she should do and we said: pray, read the scriptures, go to church, and always be worthy of a temple recommend.

I love you and sorry this is short.  But I love you all!!!!!!!!!

Miss you and Mahal ko po kayo!!!

Sister Bishop

Answers to mom's questions Oct. 14, 2013

1) Are you fully recovered?   

 I am totally recovered. I promise! there are seriously no problems that have left over from the sickness!  I am out at work everyday. Eating well.  Sleeping Good.  Staying Healthy.

2) How much weight did you lose?

Not that much.  People here are just very conscious of when people lose weight so they were all telling me, it was not that much really.  But most foreigners do lose weight here in the Philippines.

3) How are you feet holding up - blisters?

 My feet are doing fine.  Have not had any problems with them so far!

4) Have they started to decorate for Christmas?

We have not, the christmas music has been starting to play since around mid sept.  and there are some places that are starting decorating.  Things go up a bit slower with all the time people have before christmas, unlike america where it is pretty much black friday it is up in lights. 

5)  What is the strangest thing that you've experienced? 

 Hmmmm I don't know what the strangest thing is.  ummm sometimes there are naked children running in the street.   I have had whole fish, head and all, a few times.  jeepneys and tricycles are quite the experience.  Being called out to is interesting "Hey Joe".  Oh and having these pretty old Filipino men tell me that I am beautiful as I pass by is not the greatest.....

6) Did you get your last box I sent you?  It was a small one.

So guess what? It came!!!!!!!! I was so happy!! Because I have been in the same zone and have been with some of the missionaries here for all that time, some of them were very jealous and I just said that I have the best mom ever! hahaha it is true.  But I forgot my camera and the cord at the appartment!!! I got into the internet cafe and was so upset! I so badly wanted to send so many pictures to you so you can see what my life is like. But I have written in a bunch of reminders in my planner so I will not forget! and I absolutely love the post-its and lemonade (so filipinos don't like lemonade because they say it is too sour, I just over here in heaven haha) 

Hope that answers those questions for you!

love ya!

Another week in the City and General Conference Monday Oct. 14, 2013 4:43 am

Hi guys!!!                                                       Oct. 14, 2013

So it has been a fun and exciting week.  To start off we are now starting Semester Break.  So that means that all of the universities and schools have let out so all of our teaching pool are pretty much all in their provinces except for a select few.  So that will be fun and exciting!  We were not able to get any new investigators this week because all of the people who we would talk with are leaving for like 3-4 weeks.  So that was kinda a bummer.  We are seeing what this week is going to be like with all of the students gone.  We are hoping for the best!  

But it was kinda cool this week as we were able to go to a few other areas in our stake besides the Sampaloc Area that we do most all of our work in.  So that was cool we had to ask our bishop for a lot of help finding out where a few addresses are.  Then they turn out to not have lived there for 3, 4, even 8 years..... Oh well.  We got a referral for a guy in another area so we will be able to go out there again and to another less active in another random area.  

We are still working with Michelle on her baptism.  Wow she is so great!  I have no worries with her and as we have a lot of time with her we are able to take things much more slowly.  So that is fun :)  She is just amazing I am so blessed to know her and be able to work with her during this time.  

Jet we are going to have to reextend his baptism because we have not seen him in over a month (he has job training ) then he also missed church.  So that was kinda a bummer.  But we are meeting with him in a little bit so that will be good to see more of where he is at with the gospel!  

The greatest part of this week came, of course, during General Conference.  How amazing it is that we have this gospel and that we are able to here the Lord's word for us right now!  I have received so many blessings from listening to and heeding the councils of the prophets.  There are just so many points of General Conference that I love!  

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Jeffrey R. Holland

M. Russell Ballard

Henry B. Eyring

Richard G. Scott

President Thomas S. Monson

Neil L. Anderson

Wow there was so much great talks that we received from the Lord this conference.  It was such a spiritual experience to be here on the mission and to be a part of what so many of the leaders were talking about: Missionary Work!!! I know that this is the work of the Lord and that when we are on the Lord's errand, we have his protection, his Spirit, and his Love!!  This is truly such an important work of the Saints in these last days

Also there was a big emphasis on the family and the Priesthood Power in the family.  I have been so blessed by having the Priesthood in my home and as a constant source of power to me.  Even as I do not have the Priesthood, I have such a deep love for the Power of God.  It has blessed my life in so many ways and I love being able to testify that it has been restored to the earth. 

Finally, one of my favorite topics that seemed to be a connections with what seemed like all the talks was the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.  How this has blessed my life. I know that my Savior loves me and that he is always there for me.  Even in times of trial in sorrow.  He is there.  He is with us during the good times, as well as the difficult.  If only all men could know of the reality of the Atonement in there lives, how much more wonderful this world would be.  But until then, that is my calling: to spread the news of the Savior and His Atonement.  

I love all of you and hope we can all heed the words of the Lord.

Miss you all tons

With Love,

Sister Bishop

HEY GUYS! Monday Oct. 7, 2013 8:30 am

Hi eveyone!!

How is everything going!! I loved hearing from all of you this week, it is so fun to read all about what all of you are up to!

I have not gotten to see General Conference, but we get to watch the broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday! I am so excited.  It is crazy to think that exactly one year ago my life completely changed with the call from the prophet about the age change of missionaries.  It is weird to think that only one year ago, I really had no plans of serving a mission and now I am out here in the Philippines.  I can truly accredit being so prepared for being willing and ready to serve a mission to all the people who have made a difference in my life,  my parents, siblings, teachers, friends, and just everyone.  It is such a blessing in my life that I have this opportunity to serve the Lord in this calling!

I am feeling so much better.  No residual symptoms or anything from the sickness so that is really good.  I did lose some weight from it just because I was not eating too much with being sick.  But that is really all that came out of it... I am glad that we are back to work.  It was fun to get back into the swing of things after being sick. 

Sister Montera is great and I am having a lot of fun working with her.  It is a definite change from being with Sister Moreno and being the trainee to being the trainer of Sister Montera.  But it really is quite fun.  Granted I do feel more stress and I feel busier just because there is more responsibility with being a trainer.  

We went on last minute exchanges with the sister training leaders on tuesday.  and that was really fun.  I stayed in our area again this time and I was glad that I was able to learn more from some of our leaders.  

Our investigators are doing really well.  We are still working with Michelle (who is absolutely and totally amazing) and Jet (we were not able to see him this week because of his job training schedule)  but they are both great.  Michelle actually bringing her pinsan (cousin) to our lessons so that she can learn more and we are excited because Aren and her boyfriend Chriz came to church with Michelle on Sunday :)  Also, we have this amazing new investigator Jane who started meeting with the missionaries in her province.  She also has a baptismal date that she is already so ready for on Nov. 16.  I am so blessed in this area with seeing so many prepared people for the gospel!!

I am so excited for General Conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is one of my favorite times of the year! It is such an amazing blessing in this church that we have a living prophet who receives revelation from the Lord for us right now! There is nothing better than being able to hear his words and to also receive our own person revelation to our lives and answer the questions of our heart.  

Oh and we had temple tour this weekend.  I love being able to feel the spirit there and to walk around the temple.  There were a lot of investigators there (unfortunately all of ours had school or work... bummer)  but the spirit is so strong there!!!

I have loved the scriptures in D&C about the calls that were made to the elders of the church around D&C 30. They are all so great!!!!!!!!!!

I love you all and miss you so much!!  It is so great to be here and serving the Lord!!

Mahal ko po kayo

Sister Bishop