Sister Tessa Bishop: LETTER 13: The one where Tessa meets a fire dancer

Ok, this week was too good. Loving it, doing work, seeing miracle after miracle!

STORIES

--Alright so Monday night, we had visited everyone and had nothing else to do, but still had 30 minutes left of the day! So I'm just driving along and Sister Rhoades says, "Soo...where are we going?"

Me: "Where God wants us to go of course!"
Sister Rhoades: "And where is that?"
Me: "Ask Him, not me!" haha

So I just pull into a parking lot, we get out and walk straight to this guy we see... long story short, he has an LDS friend and wants to learn more, wants to come to church, etc. Holy miracle!!! Did that just happen? God's timing is incredible!! I can't get over it. Best thing ever. His name is Ignacio, or Nacho for short. Still in the process of meeting up with him (:

--We had an appointment fall through, but the Marlows were already planning on coming with us. So instead, since they are amazing, they came out knocking with us! We headed up their street knocking, and are walking up the driveway to one house and Brother Marlow just says, "This is it." Uhh wow...ok!

Haha so we knock on the door, and start talking through the window to a guy in bed. He invites us in, and we go to his bedroom and find him. His name is Paul! Paul has multiple sclerosis, but also has the most incredible faith. We shared the Restoration with him, and have gone back again since to talk more about the Book of Mormon with him! Yayy miracle!!

--Another time driving, wondering where to go street contacting, we see a girl dressed in blue medical scrubs. Sister Rhoades just says, "Let's go get her!" haha so we creep on her, pull up in a parking spot by her and jump out super quick and start talking to her! Her name is Mary, and she just moved here from Syria. She is the sweetest girl ever, she's 21 and has a love for Jesus Christ that truly inspires me. We met the next day and taught her the Restoration. She lovesit. Taught her again, the Plan of Salvation! Again, she loved it. She feels it's true already and says she will pray about it and do whatever God tells her to do. Ahh! Well, we had to hand her over to the Singles Ward Sisters, but they are doing great with her. Miracle!!! Love it!

--We had Zone Conference on Thursday, and for weeks they have been stressing how important it is to be on time. Well, if you know me at all, you know I am always very diligent about being on time, it's important to me! Haha so we go to leave with a large buffer time so we would for sure get there on time. And....we had a flat tire!! Seriously?? The ONE time it really matters. I was a stressed mess haha. We had ran over a nail! So the Elders came to the rescue, and we made them late too. But it worked out, and Sister Hall even used us getting a nail in our tire as an analogy during the conference! It worked out, but was very bad timing. (:

--Speaking of Zone Conference, it was the best thing ever! A member of the 70 came, Elder Kopishke. He is inspiring. I felt the spirit so strong, and he truly changed my life. I was on a spiritual high for the rest of the week, and still am! I love it! How blessed are we to have an apostle of God come minister to us. Also, at lunch, he and President Hall came to sit, eat, and chat with us. We chose the right table! (: I had the opportunity of saying a prayer after lunch in front of everyone, and I don't think I've ever been so nervous for a prayer haha

--We went to visit a potential investigator that missionaries had found a couple years ago. We've tried many times before, and she was always busy. But we were persistent! Haha so we finally got to go in and talk with her, and we had a member with us, Sister Pena! Her husband is 40 years older than her...pretty crazy. He's 93 and going strong. Their name's are Regina and Glenn! (Glenn's are good luck (: ). So as she's talking, she starts asking what happens after we die, because she doesn't know how much longer her husband has. We taught her a powerful Plan of Salvation lesson, and she totally felt the spirit, committed to read the Book of Mormon, and wants to learn more. WOW! Sadly we had to hand her over as well, this time to the Spanish missionaries! They'll do well with her (: Miracle!!

--At Pep-boys while getting our tire fixed, we started talking to this lady named Kim. She's a fire dancer! Haha she was so awesome though, after talking for a bit she's like, "Can I take a picture with you guys?? Hold up the Book too! I want to show my friends!" So I held the Book of Mormon proudly and we got a picture with her (: She wants to meet up and bring a friend to talk with us more! Can't wait! It's in the works (:

--We went to visit a lady who lives next door to Rosie, and Ursula, and Josh! 3 of our investigators live right on the same street! We call it our golden street haha. So we visit Esperanza, and I invited ourselves in (it's worked 3 times now this week--three for three!) so she let us in and gathered all her kids and her nieces and nephews who live there. We taught the whole family the Restoration and they committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray as a family. They loved it and we have a return appointment next Friday! I can't even describe how happy I was. Biggest miracle! Lots of new investigators!

FUNNIES

--Well...I don't have anything specific to share. Sorry! But the Elders here crack me up, every week. I can't handle it. They're too great! Love it. So that will count as the "funny" for this week. (:

LESSONS LEARNED

--Elder Kopishke taught me SOO much! Some highlights:

· Setting goals is an act of faith. We need to take our dreams and kneel down. Take them seriously! Get your dreams and then get behind them. Make them happen.

· We see what's in our minds--if we're envisioning finding our dream family or dream person, we will see them everywhere! We can't just envision the 100 people we want to baptize, but picture the ONE then find them. (:

· Before we leave, we should baptize our replacement. (LOVE THIS. I will bring a girl to the church, and she will be a missionary one day, too. (: )

· This is ALL about love. Jesus Christ didn't 'overcome the world' through being a tyrant, a ruler, etc. He overcame the world because he LOVED it so much that He was willing to die for it.

Honestly, I could go on and on with the things I learned. But that will do for now (:

I can't even get over how blessed I am to be seeing all these miracles. This week was beyond amazing. SO MANY MIRACLES. I'm loving the work, loving the people here, just loving everything! Thank you for the support and love, keep it coming (:

My cluttered but amazing desk, along with my collage of pictures and quotes (: Makes me happy!

We got RAIN! For the first time! Sister Rhoades was beyond happy, it was nice to have a break from the heat. Things have cooled down and I finally have gotten to break out my jacket!

Just a little glimpse of Glenn's dog, Callie! We love her. Parts of her look like a leopard (:

A blurry picture we took at Glenn's. (:

Our ward made the CUTEST stockings for the missionaries in our stake!! The elders have little ties, and the sisters have buttons and bows. All have little nametags. I love it! We got to help stuff them with goodies. (:

Our dear Elders fixing our tire!

Elder Amadi and I, I was trying not to smile...you can see how well that went. Haha

Everyone here keeps giving us fruit from off their trees! Exotic ones, at least for Utah standards haha. I've got some japanese fruit, guavas, and pomegranates.