Sister Tessa Bishop: Letter 5: The one where Tessa eats a whole fish

Another great week, more miracles, and stories! Are you ready?

Well, a majority of this week has been spent teaching Glen, so I'll just dedicate a little portion to Glen and his progress:

· On Monday, we set a baptism date!! September first is the day, less than two weeks! How great is that?? When we were talking about the date, and I started asking him the whole official question, "Glen, will you follow Christ and prepare yourself to be bapti--" But he cut me off mid-sentence with an enthusiastic "Yes!!" So great.

· We were having a lesson about the fundamentals, CPR: Church, Pray, Read. We do a whole object lesson where you build up cups as your foundation, the investigator is on top, and then you take one cup away and everything falls down. We had him take the cup away, and of course, it all tumbles down. He's like, "Are you threatening me??" Hahah we were laughing so hard.

· At church Sunday, the gospel principles class was on the Word of Wisdom, which we haven't taught him yet! We were way nervous with how he'd take it, but he's just like "Yeah, makes perfect sense! Our bodies are temples and we gotta take care of them, they are the vehicles for our spirits!" Biiiig sigh of relief. Such a breeze!

· He called us Sunday night...
Glen: "Hi sisters! So I can't drink coffee anymore?"
Me: "Yeah, sorry Glen! We'll talk about it more on Wednesday when we come over."
Glen: ""Oh no, it's fine. I'll stop drinking it right now, just wanted to double check. Goodnight!"
Uhh...who does that? He called to ask us about a commandment...and then just obeyed, no questions asked. He's golden.

· He asked for advice on how to plan his days out, so we went to target and bought a 'to-do list' and then wrote Pray and Read Scriptures on the top of every single sheet. Haha we're so sneaky (:

· We went to teach him and he had Jehovah's Witness flyers on his door...so we just stuffed them in our bags...he doesn't need those right? haha

· We were talking about how the spirit fills you with light, and he's like, "I can see that! It looks so good on you!" So sweet.

Glen really is the best. Some other note-worthy stories though!

People have been refreshingly kind to us this week...just out of no where! But hey, no complaints (: We taught a less-active member, she hasn't been active since her teen years and now her and her family are strong in another faith. We went over and she had fruit all ready for us, gathered her girls to listen to the restoration, brought out homemade cookies for us, and then as we were leaving, she gave us a pan of lasagna to take home! Say what? They were the most Christ-like people, I might have learned more from them than they learned from us. They are experts on the Bible pretty much so we were way nervous that it would turn to Bible bashing, but they listened to our message, were so kind, and just Christ-like. Such great examples, I was blown away with their kindness. There are many others too where we just knocked on their door and they let us teach them. It's the best!

One time we got locked in to someone's house...hahah a lot of people up in the hills (the richer area) have gates on their driveways. Someone let us in their gate and we talked to him at his door, but then the gate closed behind us and we were locked in. We knocked on his door a whole bunch and he wouldn't answer! "We know you're in there! Open the gate!" haha it was the weirdest thing. So we were locked into his front yard for 5-10 minutes. That's a first!

Thursday we celebrated Sister Rhoades' and Sister Scrivner's one year mark! We made s'mores and it was lovely. Also, Saturday was my one month mark! Not as monumental, but it is to me (: Can hardly believe that a month has gone by, 1 down 17 to go!

Each Friday down the street from us, around 20 food trucks park up and down the street. They come from alllll over, and so do the people! It's quite the event. So we went to go street contact, but it was wayyy crowded and no one wanted to stop and listen to us. So we went home discouraged around 8:30, but we decided to go outside our apartment and street contact for the last 25 minutes of the night. We went out and talked to the first guy we came in contact with, and he really opened up to us! He was so interested in learning more. It was really incredible, because we were so discouraged from the food trucks, but decided to keep trying even though we easily could've just stayed in our apartment and called it a night. But the Lord blessed us for our obedience and persistence, and now we have a potential new investigator. Way cool!

While talking to someone in his front yard: "You guys are so happy and bubbly, I'd give you drugs or alcohol if I had some!"
Uhhh....still not sure what he meant by that hahah but no thanks!

Saturday we did a service project with a member, her husband has to be put in a wheel chair, so we helped clean up her house and rearrange things so a wheel chair could fit through places. Well her husband was with LA PD for 30 years, so we went through boxes and just found tons and tons of cool things from his police days! I loved it. Except for when we had to go shred pictures...he worked in the child abuse department, so there were a lot of sad pictures ): Cool experience though hearing his stories and helping them out. That night we had dinner with a member, and we had fish...but like, a whole fish--head, tail, eyes, and all! I've never eaten a fish like that. So we skinned them, pulled out all the bones...it grossed me out at first, but then I thought it was really cool. And yummy (:

Sunday we had church and it was amazing! In all honesty though, church is really stressful when you're bringing investigators...I'm so nervous about what the speakers/teachers will say next, if they'll mention things the investigators don't know about yet, if it's too confusing for them...yeah. It's a little stressful.

Fun fact, the gospel doctrine teacher is the director of Napolean Dynamite. Cool huh? And the actor who played Napolean Dynamite is in one of the wards in my mission. Some missionaries in my district have been in that area and can say that Napolean Dynamite passed them the sacrament haha. What do I have to do to get transferred there? (;

This week I've been working on being spiritually present at lessons. I feel pretty capable when it comes to teaching, but that's not what matters most. What matters is listening to the investigator, and using the spirit to discern their needs. Focusing on the spirit the whole time and on the investigator makes all the difference! When I'm focused on what I'm going to say next, I'm not teaching the person, I'm teaching a lesson and just getting the information out there. When you're teaching a person, you are helping them from where they're at on their journey. You address their needs, their concerns, their spirit. It's so much better that way!!

Again, I'm learning to be happy through adversity. Missions are hard and Heavenly Father knows how to push all your buttons. Haha but it really is for my good, it's making me better. I love this gospel so much. If you're thinking about going on a mission, GO. It is so amazing and worth it in every aspect.

Thanks for reading my novel about my week, things are going well! Missionary work is the best. Thank you again for all the love, support, and prayers! Keep writing me (:

xoxo
Sister Bishop