Magandang Gabi po!!!! Tuesday Sept 17, 2013 8:37 am

Hey everyone. So right now I am trying to compose my thoughts right now and it is sort of difficult. So I will just start anywhere right now. It is so good to hear from all of you! I love hearing everything that you guys are up to!!!!!!!! You are all up to some really crazy things: trips, school, work. That sounds so fun. So this week was really good. We were able to contact a lot of referrals and even get some less active lessons. We have been trying so hard to get L.A. lessons but it was really hard. So I am really glad we got to get some this week. Then the other good news is that we have a baptism this week end! This is Sister Admix (cool name). She is so excited and so ready for the gospel!! Sister Moreno and I are so excited for her. September 21 was actually the original date that we extended to her and so that is very rare that it happens on the first extended date. On to the really cool stuff :) Today we had our temple day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was such an amazing experience and it made me appreciate the temples and the plan of salvation so much more. I am so amazed and grateful that I have been blessed to know about them all of my life. I am so lucky that I have been raised in this gospel, and that I am now sharing it with others!! My time in the temple was so amazing. I just want to go back everyday!! I was also able to have questions that I have had answered while in the temple. It is so great to know that the Lord loves us and wants us to know FOR OURSELVES the truth and knowledge that he has!!! Finally the last part of my email will be about something that literally just happened as I was starting my letter to you all...... i am training.... President Stucki called us up and asked to speak to me. He told me that I would be training a sister who has been out for one transfer (there are a the sister training leaders all have 2 anaks aka babies/trainies). I do not know who it is most likely a Philipina. But Yeah.... I am very excited and very very nervous!!! We have a training on Thursday for a little while. He said that I would be staying in my area so I am not shotgunning. So I am training.. crazy though. I am not looking forward to leaving Sister Moreno. She was told that she will be training/shotgunning for her 4th time. We hope that she is opening the sisters area in the other ward in our building. So who knows what is happening with everything... So I will be needing a lot of prayers these next coming weeks. I am really excited to see how much the Lord is hastening his work. I know this call comes from the Lord. "The Lord does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called." I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know this with all of my heart. I have seen so many blessings in my own life and in the lives of so many people. So when things get difficult, and they will, "Count Your Blessings" I love this gospel so much!!!!! Hurrah for Israel! :) Love Always, Sister Bishop P.S. Sister Ada (our recent convert from the 8th) has Dengue and is in the hospital. So if you could just keep her in your prayers!!! P.S.S. I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Everyone Monday Sept 9 6:30 am

(Rebecca had a brown out in the middle of writing her letter this week - so here is her second attempt)

So guess who got a baptism this week?! this girl!!!!

So my baptism was of an amazing girl named Ada.  She was able to have her uncle, who is a member, baptize her, and the rest of his family was able to come down to be there.  It was the most amazing experience watching her be baptized.  She is seriously one of those golden investigators who is so ready for the gospel.  She bore her testimony after and said how she knows that this is truly the one and only true church of God.  It has been one of the most amazing conversions because as soon as we started teaching her it seemed as though she was already a member!  We always would joke, Sister Moreno and I, that we were going to get to the baptism and she would tell us that she has been a member all her life... but it truly was one of the best moments ever.    

I have been blessed so much by her testimony and the change that she has made in her life.  I kept having the thought that this is what true conversion looks like and this is why I am on a mission and serving the Lord.   

This month we fasted and prayed that we would be able to get more referrals from members and our investigators.  And this week we got a ton!! We were able to contact a bunch of them and get them to become new investigators.  It is so great to see the blessing of the Lord in our lives as we follow his commandments.  As we follow the Lord, we have his promise that he will bless us and that he will help us with our challenges.  

The language is still coming along, I am still no where near being fluent or even somewhat close but it is a good thing that we are blessed with the Spirit and by God (also people understand taglish...)

Work is coming along really well, and I am having a lot of fun while doing it. I am in love with this ward and the people in it.  I am even getting more used to the city (even though I don't really like living in the city).  But everything is going really great and stuff.

Oh and I am going to the temple on the 17th, and the new video has made it to Manila!! We are so excited! we have a count down until we go to the temple haha.  

We are doing really well and the area here is so amazing.  Supposedly we are supposed to get a set of elders in our ward at some point so that will be... interesting.  We don't know how everything is going to work as we are in charge of the YSAs for the entire stake.  So that will be fun.  and I am really so excited to see the area really start to take off.  Who knows, this may just be the first of many YSA wards here in the Philippines.  Oh, have I mentioned that we are the only YSA ward in the whole Philippines.  Yeah, that is pretty cool :)

Well I love you and I love this work so much!

I hope that you are all doing well and I pray for all of you eveyday!

Mahal ko kayo!!

Sister Bishop

Hey Guys Monday Sept. 2, 2013 5:11 am

Hello everyone!!

It is crazy how time is already starting to fly by! It is already September!  What?! That just does not seem possible!  But the work here is good as always.  We are working hard and the days just seem to go by so quick! This is now my tenth week in the field and it feels like just yesterday that I arrived in the Philippines.  That is so crazy and I am doing really well.  Guess what? Still healthy too. :)

So on to some of the cool things that we have done this week.

We had our Zone Conference on Thursday so we woke up and quickly got ready and took the train to Buendia which is where the church and mission headquarters are.  in all that took around 1 hour to get there but the train was really quite cheap! haha.  But the Conference was so amazing and I loved every second of it.  Sister Moreno and I sung "Help Me Teach With Inspiration" from the Hymn Book (281) and it was really good! it was a lot of fun :)  But the whole theme of this conference was "Teaching By the Spirit"  We learned a ton and it was such a great experience to meet with our zone to get revelation from Pres. Stucki.  The Conference Scripture came from the end of Enos 1:12.  I cannot remember it word for word but it is such a powerful scripture!  

On our way back to Sampaloc we were getting on the train when we began starting to talk to a woman when another joined in the conversation.  That woman was a Jehovah's Witness.  She began telling us that only 144000 people will be saved by God, and you can only pray that you are one of them.  That made me so sad when she said that because we have such a different view of God, that he is our loving Father who wants us to return home with him.  I am so grateful for my knowledge that I have in this gospel and that I know that Heavenly Father loves me despite all the mistakes that I make, he still wants me to be happy with him for eternity.  I have been so blessed by knowing this.  

Also, Yesterday, we had our investigator, Ada, interviewed for her baptism next Sunday.  She is so prepared and has such a great testimony of the gospel and has already seen the blessings come into her life.  We joke that someone is going to tell us that this has just been a big prank and that she is already a member... she asks us about getting a Patriarchal Blessing! Hhaha.  But we are so excited for it and she will be my first Baptism!  This is such a marvelous work bring back our fellow brothers and sisters into the gospel.  When we talked with her to go over the baptismal interview questions.  We got to a question about tithing and we had not finished talking to her about it and she said that's okay I already know all about it!  Wow she has the most amazing testimony.  She bore it on Sunday in Fast and Testimony meeting and the Spirit was so strong.  She said that she has been on a search to find the truth and that she has now found it!  It was a blessing to me to hear that she knows the Book of Mormon is true.  She is already almost done with 2 Nephi. but she is truly so prepared!

During our interview I was taking to a sister who asked about one of our investigators who we have been working with (guess what she is American!) but she is a 7th day advenist and studying here in Manila.  So I really don't know what she really believes in... but I can communicate at least!  The sister asked if I think that she has the potential to be baptized.  I responded with what I thought was a standard missionary answer that everyone on earth has the potential to be baptized into this church because this is truly the one and only true church of God on the earth.  And that we have all already picked the plan of God and now it is our task to do it again.  She was really surprised by my answer because she said that she has asked many missionaries that same question and none of them have ever said that... they either say yes or no.  I know that this is the true church of God.  

Finally, I finished the Book of Mormon on Wednesday!! I am so happy and I have such a firm knowledge that the Book of Mormon is true.  If anyone has a question about this church, all they need to know is if the Book of Mormon is true.  After that, everything falls into place.  I followed the council found in Moroni 10:4-5 and prayed about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and I received another witness that it is the word of God.  I felt peace and comfort as I prayed and the thoughts came into my mind although not in my own voice, that of course it is true.  I love the Book of Mormon and that is how I know that this church is true, and why I am serving a mission. 

I love you all and I am so excited about our work!  I love hearing from each of you and hearing how all of your lives are going. You are all in my thoughts and prayers.  I miss all of you so much and love you with all my heart.  Keep bringing those souls to Christ, including your own!  

I love you

Mahal ko po kayo!

Sister Bishop

Hello! Monday August 26, 2013

Hey guys!!!

So this has been an interesting week! So on Monday we went out to do our normal P-day activities and it had started to flood in the city so we just thought what ever of it and we get up the next morning and it is downpouring rain.  We didn't know if we should really be going outside.  But luckily a little later we got a text from the zone leaders saying that we all need to go home now and stay inside until further notice.  So not gonna lie we were really bored that day.  We can only watch the district videos, finding faith in Christ and the Restoration (which we don't even have).  So we tried watching FFiC in some random languages and stuff.  I made a fort out of my bed!!! it was pretty awesome and I have kept it up all week :D  That was an interesting day, but that is the life of the city.  I was just able to email you guys on monday before it got too bad and stuff.

But anywho.  The storm made the beginning of our week a bit slow as quite a few of our investigators were stuck in their province, and school and the MIR were closed.  The week was not off to an as good start but it picked up by the end with the last few days being a bit better. 

We relly a lot on the MIR and referrals from our ward so when we were not able to use a lot of resources the work was not as great.  But the work keeps going and it is really looking up for this week. 

We had a great missionary cordination meeting with our ward missionaries and ward mission leader.  being in a YSA ward is awesome and it is so fun.  In the district videos they say that your ward mission leader should be your best friend and you need to have a good relationship with your ward missionaries.  When ever I hear that I just think: check! Our ward is so amazing and the members are great!!!  Have I mentioned that our ward is the ONLY young single adult ward in the entire Philippines?! yeah that is pretty cool.  :D

So at church this week we had 6 investigators attend!!! that is supposidly the most that Sister Moreno has ever had on her mission.  We were so happy when they all came in. We picked up one brother: Raymond.  He is the one with our really cool meeting that I metioned a while ago.  And the others came by themselves or with a friend.  It was so fun to have our gospel principles class with so many people.  Our Gospel Principles class is taught by our Bishop.  He is really funny so that is a great way our investigators get to know him better. 

So our really great investigators who have a baptismal date this next month are Ada, Michelle, and Admix.  Ada will be baptized on the 8th and confirmed on the 15th.  Michelle moved up her baptism to the 14th/15th.  and Admix on the 21st/22nd.  These girls are so great and each is progressing so well!  I am so excited for my first baptism!!! these girls are so strong in the gospel already and have been so prepared for so long. 

Ada is really pretty much a recent convert and seems like she has always been a part of the church.  She is reviewing here in Manila for accountancy and is really busy, but always makes time to read the Book of Mormon. 

Michelle was a referral from the MIR because her boyfriend is actually serving his mission in Canada.  She is so amazing and has already said that she wants to serve her own mission.

Admix is 19 and is also dating a missionary serving in SLC.  It is really cool to see her grow more and more in the gospel, and prepare for her baptism.

So this week we have our Zone Conference and it last from 9-3 and it is quite far away with traffic and everything, so then we will get back and have studies.... no work on thursday.... :(  But I am excited to have our conference and see our Zone.  it is only our zone because ours is so big...

Oh and Liz I found out that Sister Jensen is in my Zone so I will meet her this week.  So that will be cool.  You can tell that to her brother.  and one thing that I forgot about is that I actually met a girl from your freshman ward.  Sister Hayden.  I believe her first name is Kimber, but she recognized me because she said I look similar to you.  :)

So this week I will be able to finish the Book of Mormon.  I have loved reading it with a focus on Missionary Service and it is throughout the entire book. I know that the Book of Mormon is true with all of my heart.  My entire testimony is based on the truthfulness of that book and I am so blessed in my life everyday by it.  I love it so much and it truly has changed my life so much.  I hope that I can possibly finish all of the standard works while on my mission.  Now that would be cool.  If I could get a list of the Seminary Old Testiment reading assignments that would be great so that I do not have to read all of the random stuff in there.  That would be great! haha

I have really loved this week and I absolutely love working as a missionary.  While some days/moments are much harder than others,  the good out way the bad in so many ways.  I love this gospel and this church.  

I love you all so much and loved seeing how each of you are doing and hearing about your week!  You are all so missed by me and know that someone halfway around the world is thinking about and praying for you! Hope you have a good week and stay safe!

Love always,

Sister Bishop

Hello Monday Aug 19, 2013 5:41

Hi everyone!!

I am in my second transfer!!! where has the time gone? there is still more time but after this transfer everyone keeps saying it goes really fast... They also say this is one of the hardest transfers.  

but anywho.  Guess who is in the middle of a flood right now?! This girl!

Not gonna lie the floods in the city are really quite gross.   There is trash and nastiness everywhere in the water. Last night when we were walking back to our apartment it was up to our mid calf or higher.  It is supposed to be raining pretty much this entire week.  So that is interesting for the work.  Well see what all happens with everything....

Thank you everyone for telling me more about everything and sending pictures! I love seeing them!! I am still currently working on trying to find a way to send mine....

So the work here is going really well!! We have these two amazing girls who are our investigators: Ada and Michelle.  These two are oh my goodness so prepared each is so excited for their baptisms this month.  They are the two that we are really focusing right now with their baptisms.  

They are each so excited and keep telling us they can't wait to be baptized.  Michelle has a friend (Elena) that we are just starting to meet with and all three of these girls came to church on sunday and they all said that they just want to be baptized! How cool is that!!

These 3 girls attended our ward fhe and so we were able to go. It was so much fun.  We had a really great lesson about the atonement and we played a bunch of games.  The YSAs here are just a lot of fun to get to know and work with.

This week has been harder with finding as there has been a lot of rain so school is suspended for that and the ysa's are just difficult for finding anyways.  But the work is still going forward.  It is still hard but we are doing some really great things.  I am still quite nervous with the whole Tagalog and everything but it really does get better when I am in the lessons.  Power of the Spirit!  I still just wish that I was fluent already so that would not have to worry me any more.  I just keep thinking that by the end of the mission everyone leaves knowing the language really well.  So hopefully I will be able to get better soon.  I really don't like not knowing how to actually talk to people in there language.... but it is fun when I am able to say something to them that I was not able to say before or just surprise them by saying something in Tagalog.  

I still find it so weird sometimes when I realize that I do not see any americans or white people who are not missionaries.  I think I have seen a total of 5 white people in Manila who are not missionaries!  That is quite an experience.  

It is cool to see how everything is going in our work and it will be cool once we have some baptisms this month!  So I am really looking forward to that.  The weeks are going by really fast!  

I also think that the days can be so long with so much to get done in each one.  

Oh and I am still healthy!!! my sleep is doing a bit better only a few nights is it not as great sleep.  But overall I still have enough energy!  Everything else is doing really well and I feel fine overall.  

My mission president is really big on exact obedience and so that is something that we are constantly trying to do better at and we can see a difference in our work.

Guys, I really hope all of you are doing well.  I miss you so much and I love hearing from all of you every week! It is so much fun reading the letters and seeing your pictures!! I promise I am trying to take a lot for all of you and even if it is only after the mission that you can see all of them it will still be worth it!!

I will be able to finish the Book of Mormon this month and make my goal!! I am already in the Book of Mormon (in the Book of Mormon hehe :) )!  So that is super cool.  I have loved reading about the Savior's Ministry in the Americas and it really truly is the crowning moment in the Book of Mormon.  It has become really special to me and I have gained so much strength from the Book of Mormon.  And it is cool to see the change that it can make in other's lives as well.  

Oh and I have been reading Jesus The Christ and it is such an amazing book!! I am already a fourth done and it has been so cool about getting to understand more of the life of the Savior.  Not gonna lie mom, I learned a ton of it from you and from your seminary ;)

Well, I love all you so much and I miss you guys!  You are all in my prayers.  LOVE YOU!!

love,

Sister Bishop

P.S. if you can find it the talk/ quote from Gordon B. Hinckley called "We will work for the Glory of our Lord" is our mission theme and is really great! y'all should read it!!!

Mahal ko po kayo Monday Aug 12 2:33 am

Hello everyone!!

 

I hope everyone is doing well over there!! A few things that I just want to say about all of your lives from your emails:

daddy:

-I am excited about all of the work you are doing

-is it all from home

- send pics of the basement and peaches

mommy:

- like I said pictures of the basement and peaches

- I GOT MY PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-literally that was one of my favorite parts of the week!

-tell me more about the temple and stuff

Rachel & shaun

- glad to hear about your wonderful news

- how was the conference in St George?

Michael& Vanessa

-... how are you guys doing...

-more pictures please!

Sarah& Chris

- how is the one sister who is getting baptized

-tell me more about her

- once again more pictures pleeease!

Elizabeth

-email....

- I have told you about what all I want: pictures!, stories, and more pictures, and everything else :)

 

So on to everything else....

 

This week was really great!  I made the goal to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the month and I should hopefully be able to even finish with time to spare!  I am currently just starting the Saviors ministry in the Americas and I started my first day of the MTC.  So that makes me supper excited. 

 

We had a zone meeting where before hand I found out that I had a package!! I was so excited and they told me that I would have to wait until the end to get it.  We had President and Sister Stucki there so that was fun.  They told us that we should try to foucus some of our studies on the life of the Savior through the Bible as well as Jesus the Christ.  I loved that advice and it is so great to be able to learn more about Christ's life and teachings.  So finally at the end I was able to get my package!!!  I also got letters from Dear elder and one from Jessica Hadfield with her graduation announcement (CONGRATS!!).  It all made me so happy to get and open!!!

 

A cool experience came this week on Wednesday, when we smelled something really bad, sort of like burning marshmallows in really bad way, so we looked outside our window and we saw a guy standing there who was delivering food for someone who lives on one of the floors beneath us.  But low and behold it was Raymond.  Raymond is a guy who we met probably a week or so previous on the street just briefly.  Since that first time we had seen him 2 other times and were never able to really talk to him but we kept running into him.  on Tuesday we saw him again and Sister Moreno and I told each other that this cannot be a coincidence and the next time we see him we are really going to talk to him. Then Wednesday morning came and we saw him!!! We gave him a lesson one pamphlet and we got some of his info.  He texted us a little later and we will be seeing him this week!!  It is cool to see how all of that happened in the course of one week.  :)

 

Our lessons are going well and I am sort of seeing my Tagalog improve.  It is still really difficult, and I sometimes have no idea what is going on.  But that is the life.  I am getting more used to everything here.  I have continued to say healthy which is great.  I hope that I won't have to deal with some of the things that I am already seeing some people and missionaries deal with. So that is great.

 

So far we have 6 people who have baptismal dates in September or October.  They are Jay-Ar, Ada :), Admix,  Michelle, Arianne, and Reynalin. They are all great and most all are progressing really well. 

 

The work here is going really well and am beginning to get more used to everything here. Still I am not totally used to being called out to and stared at because I am white, but it is not exactly like I can change that aspect.....

The food here is still delicious :)

 

We had Stake Conference this week and Sister Moreno and I attended the morning and afternoon sessions because she was playing the piano for the stake choir.  So that was fun.  After the afternoon session (my ward's) our ward had sort of a lunch/dinner thing at the church with siomai.  which is delicious by the way.  All the other missionaries were really jealous :) teehee

 

The work here is good and I am really liking it here.  It is cool being a missionary in these last little bit.  It is cool seeing the work hastened and everything. 

 

Wednesday is Transfer day and I am almost positive that I will not be transferring this one.  We are getting in another 31 missionaries this week so that is cool.

 

My spiritual nugget this week is Matthew 11: 28-30.  I love this verse and no matter what we are going through the Lord will be there and he will help us through it all.  He is always there waiting for us to come to him.

 

Like always I love you and I miss you tons!!!!!

You are all amazing!  I have been so blessed by you and your example has shaped the person I am today.

 

With Love,

Sister Bishop 

Mahal Po kayo! Mon August 5 1:08 am

                                                                                                Monday Aug. 5 1:08 am

Hello America!!!

This has been a really great week over here in the Manila YSA ward!

We are progressing investigators some towards baptism.  We right now have Bro. Rayan, Bro Jay-Ar, Sis Dez, Ada, Sis Arianne.  All of our baptismal date investigators are referrals.  So that just shows you how important referrals are in missionary work! It is really fun and seeing everyone here grow and learn in the gospel.  For a cool missionary moment, the lesson with Ada was so amazing.  She is so prepared and it is not so much that she came into our path but we came into her's.  She pretty much kept the entire lesson flowing with questions that would lead perfectly to the next topic of Lesson 1: The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ( Ang Pananumbalik Ng Ebanghelyo Ni Jesucristo).  When we got to Joseph Smith's First Vision she was saying that she had chills during it!  The Spirit was so strong and so cool to see her recognize the truth of the message.  She has texted us since asking for reading assignments.  She is so great!  After church I was talking to her friend Bmae  (pronounce Bee- May) and she said that Ada just kept saying she wants to be baptized!  So that was freaking awesome! Her baptism date is August 31 :)

The tagalog is coming along.  Not as fast as I would want it to be aka I am not fluent.... But it is coming.  It is really helping in our lessons and it is fun to see when I can get a phrase that I was not able to get before.  

My ward is so great and they provide us with a bunch of referrals, and because we are in the Manila Institute of Religion (MIR) building a lot (it is pretty much heaven aka Air-Con) we receive a ton of referrals there from people from all over the stake who go there!

I am beginning to like the food here so much more and am finding things that I like a lot.  One thing that the Philippines is amazing at is bread! they have such good rolls and such that I would be worried if they had a bakery type store closer to our apartment.  \

Our apartment is a small studio style and has a set of bunk beds and tile floor it is pretty nice comparatively 

I am in the middle of the city so it is actually quite loud most all of the time so that has been fun... to get used to..  But all and all it is going well.  The bugs I have been able to handle.

Oh!!! this week we had my first flood! Parts of the city came up to my knees so our day was not as productive.  It is cool to see how the city still keeps going even with all the water and rain.  Speaking of the rain: it rains everyday and just downpours for a quite a while and then will be done.  Sometimes more than once.  it is crazy.  gotta love rainy season!!

Well remember that i love you all!  I have to go! now but you are all in my prayers D&C 100:1!

Much love 
Sister Bishop!