Well, family, the motto of the week is that it's fun to find all the time! (shout out to Elder Cristian Mattoon who is in the Iowa Des Moines mission and that phrase is from a song on a CD that came from that mission) We are trying so hard to find new investigators!!!! We're asking for referrals from everyone and talking to people on the streets. We have handed out 20 potential investigator referrals to other missionaries this transfer, some of the Spanish speaking. I love that I can speak a few words of Spanish. It really comes in handy on the mission in San Diego where a ton of people speak Spanish. It also helps that Sister Landeen knows more than I do and can really talk to them. About all I can say is "Me nombre es Hermana Bishop. Como te llama? Soy missionara de la Iglesia de JesuCristo de los Santos de los ultmos dias. (Have you heard of) el Libro de Mormon? Yo se el libro de mormon es la verdad. Quiero apprender mas? Donde esta su casa?" Haha, I can street contact. Maybe not well, but a little bit. It's worked before! Anyway, we're trying to find investigators!!! We didn't find any this week, but we are not discouraged. Especially after we saw this cool sign in an apartment complex we were contacting in. (see pic 1)
I'm getting better at not being scared to talk to people. I was taught something by the spirit one time. I sometimes ask myself "should I talk to them?" and the spirit whispered to me "the answer is always yes". So sometimes I still ask myself that and then answer it and then we go talk to the person even if they're across the street. Missionaries are so weird that way. But it's good. I've been called to preach the gospel. And....on Saturday we went to the same apartment complex that we saw that cool sign at we saw a family walking on the sidewalk by the complex. They looked like they were dressed up for church or something. I looked at Sister Landeen and said "the answer is always yes" and went off to talk to them. We introduced ourselves and asked their names and told them we were missionaries. Turns out they were "witnessing" for Jehovah in the same apartment complex! I didn't know what to say, and I think they just wanted to avoid conflict, so they walked off. I wish I had bore my testimony, but maybe the blank mind meant to just let them go? Hmm....But yesterday we were walking in a condo-y neighborhood and some guy yelled across the street at us and asked if we wanted to buy some water. We crossed the street so we didn't have to yell back and told him we were missionaries so we traveled light and didn't have a lot of money and we didn't want to buy any water. He asked what church we were missionaries for, and when we told him he started preaching about his church. The Rock church, which doesn't have a super good reputation with the missionaries. He was really concerned about our salvation. Except instead of bearing his testimony he just tried to shake our faith in our doctrine. He said Joseph Smith was a false prophet and Jesus and Satan couldn't have been brothers and how could God have once been a man if He created man and such as that. He also said something about the King James Version of the Holy Bible, but I'm not really sure what he was trying to get out. He didn't say things very clearly. It was a little amusing how hard he tried to get us to argue and he even came back and had us roll down our window so he could push another scripture in our faces that might shake our testimonies. But I think I realized I need to evaluate the way I street contact, because I certainly don't want to be like him! I understood he was concerned about my salvation, but I had no idea what he was trying to say! Didn't anyone ever tell him to simply and intensity? So, those were fun encounters.
Todd and Rachael - tell Thatcher happy late birthday! I thought about him on the 23rd. =]
On Sunday night we stopped by Kristi's house to say bye because she was getting set apart and then leaving on Monday to head to the MTC with her mom. We knocked on her door and her mom answered and told us she had been set apart already. So we waited while she came downstairs and I gave her a huge hug! I cried a little bit. I think it just brought up a lot of memories from a year ago when I left on my mission. I wanted to take a picture of the 3 sister missionaries that were in the house, so I let her wear my name tag and I put on my extra pocket name tag I keep on my scriptures and we took a super cool picture! (see picture 3)
I still love living with members! They are really nice. =] I attached a picture with them so you know what they look like. (see pic 2)
Yesterday as I was reading the Book of Mormon I noticed in Mosiah 18:2 that Alma taught the people about redemption. I was pondering what redemption meant, and I looked it up in the dictionary. It means something like "to atone for, to pay the price to be free, and to make something of value". I really liked thinking about how through Christ's atonement we could become someone of value because He atoned for our sins. =] It's super good news! Tell everyone! And then this morning I was reading Mosiah 20 and I realized how it was kind of funny that the Lamanites were coming to attack the people of Limhi because some daughters had been kidnapped. Just goes to show how special women are!!
I think that's all I have for this week. We're just so busy trying to find new investigators! I love you all! -Sister Bishop
pic 2 - Sister Landeen, the Quiggles who(m?) we live with and myself on Sunday
pic 3 - myself, Sister Kristi Krause (who doesn't have her name tag yet so I let her borrow mine for the picture, and Sister Landeen
pic 4 - Poway has signs like this all over the place. It's a special place. We took this picture shortly after we talked to two women walking their horses.
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