Sister Tessa Bishop: LETTER 20: The one where Tessa contacts 61 people in one day!

First of all, I must apologize for being a day late. We switched our P-day to Tuesday just for this week because we got to go to the temple this morning! More on that later (: We had the best week though, I'm stoked to tell you allllll about it. Here we go.

STORIES

--Adeline is the best! We've had 2 lessons with her, and we are going to the LA Temple Visitor's Center with her next Sunday. We're excited about that. She amazes me with how well she understands what we teach her and what she reads in the Book of Mormon. She's super diligent with reading, and makes notes and asks questions consistently which is a dream come true. She really thinks about these things, and is solidifying her testimony that these things are true. We're just really excited and happy for her, we love her to death and it's the biggest blessing being able to watch people learn and grow.

--We knocked and met a guy named Ed, he's a cop for the LAPD! We taught him the Restoration and he had amazing questions as well. New investigator!! (: Unfortunately, we have to transfer him over to the Young Single Adult ward. But hey, what matters is that he's learning truth and growing (:

--This week, we focused on finding like crazy. We tried to contact as many people as possible, which is a new focus we've been having in our mission. We set a goal to talk to 50 new people a day, which was reeeeal difficult at first, but we got the hang of it! We've seen the biggest miracles from it as well. One of which is Jaune and Haruka! We knocked on Jaune's door, he answered and said "We just moved here, we're actually looking for a church to go to." Say no more! Haha probably the best thing I've ever heard. We went back and taught Jaune and his wife Haruka, they have 2 young kids as well. It was the best lesson I've had in a long time, they are amazing and the spirit was so strong. They really are incredibly prepared for this, and are searching for truth. Holy cow, I could just rave about them and go on and one. We love them to death already! 2 more new investigators (:

--We have been visiting with this sweet lady named Betty. She's 93 and the cutest little thing! We went over and she had a "To-Do List" ready for us, so we've been doing service for her and loving it. She sounds like Marcel the Shell (from youtube), and if you've seen those videos, you'll understand why everything she says cracks me up. She's adorable!

--We went on exchanges this week with the Canyon Country 2nd Ward sisters. I was with Sister Abbott and stayed in my area! We contacted so much, it was crazy. Set up a ton of return appointments as well and found a lot of people who are interested. We knocked on one door and a lady opened and seemed like she was really skeptical and going to close the door on us, but then she said "Abbott! That's my last name!" haha it really opened her up and we talked, eventually met her boyfriend/husband (not sure which) as well. That's the power of exchanges! If Sister Abbott wasn't there, who knows if Mallory would've listened to us. But now, we've gone back and had a lesson with Mallory and Chad, and they are new investigators as well! We love them tons, super excited about them. Miracles left and right!!!

--We got to go to the temple this morning!!! It was the best thing EVER. I've never appreciated the temple more. What a blessing it is, and I'm extremely grateful me and Sister Naylor could go this morning for her delayed birthday trip (:

FUNNIES

--A section dedicated to cute Dayna:

While reading about Joseph Smith's first prayer: "Then Stan tried to stop him!!" hahah she meant Satan...it was so cute.

In Sacrament meeting after a young man handed her the bread tray: "He's CUTE!! He smiled at me like this. (:"

In a lesson: "What if when you die, you can't find your mom?!?"

Another lesson, us: "Ok Dayna, we're going to read for 20 minutes!" Dayna: "Mom, you better let me play after this."

--Me and Sister Abbott were talking about how we appreciate when people are honest with us about if they're interested or not, but do it in a nice way. Then a few minutes later, we met this guy on the street walking his dog, and he says: "Ireally don't want to talk with you guys about Jesus."

Me: "Oh thank you!!!"

Sister Abbott: "...for being honest..."

hahah yeah, that's what I meant...the last part of the sentence didn't come out, so I just gave him the warmest happiest 'thank you' after he blatantly rejected us. It was pretty funny. Luckily I had a companion who could finish my sentence for me (: We were laughing pretty hard.

--Basically when you contact tons, funny experiences happen all the time. Most are those "you had to be there" kind of experiences though. Can't decide if this experience is one of those, but I'll try my best to explain it well! Me and Sis Abbott knocked on a door, and a guy just opens the door but doesn't even look at us, his eyes are glued to the TV and he just walks away. Uhh...what the? haha so we say "umm, hi!" and he's like "oh shoot, I thought you were my cousin!" haha gotcha! (; he really was super funny, we were laughing tons.

LESSONS LEARNED

--This week I've learned a lot about the importance of talking with everyone. Really, all God expects of us is to do our very best in what we can control. He won't hold us accountable for things we can't control, ie: baptism--can't really force people to get baptized, unfortunately (; What we can control is how effectively we study, plan, set goals, and pray. That's completely up to us. We also have a good chunk of control on how many people we talk to each day. We can't, however, control as much how many investigators we have. Agency comes into play! So basically, it's just important to do the best I can on my part. God expects me to open my mouth and talk with everyone I can, and when I do that--I'm happiest, I have the spirit with me, and we see miracles for our diligence! I love it! We feel really blessed to have been able to work hard this past week and go out knocking TONS and talking to more of God's children than we have in a long time.

Amazing week overall, I'm so very blessed it's almost not fair (knock on wood). Haha I wish you all the best, thank you for your continued love and support! Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! <3

xoxo
Sister Bishop

I just really wanted to hang upside down last P-day...seemed like a good idea, until I realized how difficult it was in a skirt and got stuck haha. My loving companion laughed and took pictures of me struggling (;