A Lot Of Stuff

It's been about 3 weeks since I wrote my last email...a lot of stuff has happened.

So first let's talk about transfers.

I have gotten a new companion straight from the MTC, Elder Burgess, he is from West Jordan Utah. He is big into music and loves playing the piano the best. He is also a great guitar player. I am finally training a new missionary. It has been a different experience so far. Definitely forgot about how I was fresh out of the MTC. It's been different having a companion adjusting to new missionary life. It is definitely helping me grow as a person in new ways. Especially patience, empathy, and charity. My companion and I are very different people, but we make it work and get along just fine. It's been cool to see his talents and what he can bring to the table as a young missionary. I for sure miss my last companion Elder Keller! He was an amazing missionary so young in the mission. He was very sensitive to the spirit and diligent and quite a funny one as well. Except when he was a little obnoxious, lol.

The area is doing well. We are currently working with a lot of people and trying to help our members to be missionaries so we can all help the branch grow. Our finding while door knocking has gone down quite a bit because I think the Lord wants us to find in multiple ways because that's where everyone is going to be found. But, we are still going to keep knocking and for sure doing other finding methods, keeping multiple lines in the water. Please keep us in your prayers that we can find some more friends and that our friends will come to church. We have been teaching quite a bit which is why I think our finding hasn't been as high, which isn't a bad thing. Just not used to being so busy. There have been multiple days now where we just teach. And we have been working with less actives as well to get them back to church.

We had an awesome mission tour. Elder Nattress, who is the Pacific Area President and Elder Nash, the Executive Director of the Missionary Department came with their wifes. It was down in Adelaide for a few days. It was actually really motivating and insightful. Very led by the spirit. Everyone loved it and our mission is very grateful that Elders Nattress and Nash came to help us with missionary work. They gave us a lot of invitations to help us with our missionary work. And so far so good while following through with it.

I had a cool experience with one of the invitations. It was to pick one thing I needed to repent about and repent about it and do better with it. So, I chose something to work on and I gave it to the Lord in prayer, I locked myself in a room by myself and prayed to God to help me. I really wanted to feel the healing power of Jesus Christ. And... I finally felt it. It was a lot more subtle than I expected. But it was peaceful and very calming and I felt really happy. I finished my prayer and I was laying down on the floor just pondering about what happened and I started talking to God and for the first time I heard the Lord's voice. It was so subtle, but awesome. I was able to have an actual conversation with him. It was a really cool, uplifting experience. I felt really happy the next couple of days and I had so much energy. I imagine it's just a glimpse to how it will feel in the eternities when we get to live with our families for forever. Repent, it feels good.

The mission tour was with the whole mission! So literally all of my mission friends were there. It was awesome to say hi to everyone. We got to stay with another set of Elders for a couple days. Their names are Elder Beck and Elder Hong. Elder Beck has about 3 weeks left and Elder Hong has about 2 years left lol. Elder Hong is straight from Taiwan, and his broken English is so funny! haha, it was a good time. Elder Beck was this fetching ripped navy guy that was high ADHD with so much energy, holy fetch! Got some good tips on how to get big. He is so ADHD that at one point he was putting me in head locks while I was minding my own business on my bed. He thought he was really funny. I did some street contacting in the city for the first time and that was interesting. It was a lot different than knocking doors, that's for sure.

Right after the mission tour in Adelaide, we had a zone conference in Mildura. That was pretty good. Not as good as the mission tour. We spent P-day there and our zone conference there. It was fun spending time with some other Elders. We got to go do some lazer tag. We had a great time. For lunch during the zone conference we got to eat at this place called Hogs Breath. They had really good BBQ! Got these amazing ribs. they cost about 30$ american dollars and luckly the mission president had us covered.

That was the past few weeks. Send me a message and tell me how you're doing. I'd love to hear from you.

Love,

Elder Bishop

Pictures:

Pigs head, food we got from some Tongans

Brenton Moffat

Hogs breath ribs

Me and Elder Keller

Bangcouq flippen good food

Lazer tag

Put the piano in the branch chapel

Me Elder Burgess and Elder Carr