HAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAA

Hello everyone! Sorry I suck at emails. My mum has about killed me because I haven't written one in a couple of weeks. Sorry mum, hopefully I can discipline myself my last 8 weeks or so!

Some highlights of what happened this past couple of weeks 

-dinner with President Johansson

-zone conference 

-church attendance 

So a couple of weeks ago we had a cool miracle happen. Elder Burgess and I were really praying for a priesthood holder. We really needed to find one because the branch is struggling a lot since the Branch President and us Elders are the only priesthood holders. We had a long week and we hadn't found one.. hahaha. But on Sunday this random guy from 1 1/2 hours away just showed up to church and mentioned that his family are members of the church but he isn't and that he is trying to get into it. Boom! Elder Burgess and I were so excited inside and so happy that our prayers had been answered. A family! That is really what the branch needs. They are so far away that they are trying to move in closer to the church. It will be really exciting once we can start seeing their family every week and help the dad get baptized! Also this week, when the dad and his family came, we had about 21 people attend Sacrament meeting! That's about double of what we have been getting! It has been really awesome seeing our friends and less actives come to church! 

We also had Zone Conference this week and it went pretty well! President Johansson talked a lot about repentance and really focusing on helping our friends repent before they are baptized. He talked about how if we can help them see the joy of repentance before baptism, when they get baptized it will be a more spiritual experience for them because they will be able to feel the spirit a lot stronger! I thought that was kinda cool. For lunch we had Hawaiian hay stacks. Which is so American and all the Australians have never had it before.  They were really good! Elder and Sister Wilding did a great job preparing them and they were delicious. 

During zone conference President Johansson mentioned that he was staying the night in Berri and he asked if Elder Burgess and I wanted to go out to dinner with him. And of course we said yes! We ended up going to this really nice place called Big River Tavern! Got some $56 steaks, a nice juicy Waygu steak! They were delicious! You always have the most random conversations with President Johansson, he just likes to talk basically. But luckily that means that we got on the topic of how we liked the flat we are staying in. I told him that it's not the best for a few reasons but that I don't want to complain. Now, he is trying to get us a new flat! Hooray! I'm excited! I think he wanted to get us a new one in the first place because it's so small. We'll see what we end up with.

Something sad happened as well this week. My Grandpa Bishop passed away. Very sad to see him go but I'm not too sad because I'll see him in the next life. He was a very patient kind soul. He was always so humble. Really just a meek person. Always felt so much love from him and all the effort he and grandma would go into to make us grandkids happy. I love my grandpa and it's comforting knowing that he is in a good place and he is being taken care of by a loving God! I will aways remember Grandpa Bishop's awesome laugh that always cracked me up, kinda went like this... HAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAA. I will always be grateful for the awesome help that he gave me with my pinewood derby car. It may have not won 1st place but it looked swanky. It was the bat mobile. He may not have always expressed the love that he had for me but he always showed it in his actions. I miss him.

-Elder Bishop 

Pictures: 

District council in person for the first time in forever 

Dinner with President Johansson 

Me and Elder Burgess

Beautiful sky

Kebab from Golden Elephant