12/2

Dear Everyone, I'm writing a little bit earlier today because an investigator of the other Elders invited us out to his cabin for our P-day. It's been raining this morning and the last couple days, but we're still hoping to have a lot of fun up there. We're leaving in about 30 minutes so I'll keep my letter short today. It sounds like you all had a great Thanksgiving. We ate at two different members houses. One meal was at 2 and the next was at 4 so we were all very full at the end of the day. The Sister from the second house gave us ALL the leftover food and so our fridge is STILL overflowing with stuff right now. We also helped the second family set up their Christmas tree which was really fun and made us decide that we want to put one of our own in our apartment. We're not sure whether we'll actually get around to it or not though. If we do, we'll probably just leave it up even after Christmas. :) Speaking of Christmas, Elder Wilson has a couple Christmas CDs that we listen to when we are driving around town, but being raised on a ranch, he grew up listening to country music and so both CDs are Christmas Country. If it's not too much trouble, do you think you could send me just one normal Christmas CD? All this country is kinda driving me crazy. Just kidding, it's not that bad...but seriously, send me one if you can. :) The Work is going great around here. Tracting is a lot more fun during the Holiday season. Almost everyone is nicer. Instead of those that turn us away simply telling us they're not interested, they turn you away and then wish you Happy Holidays as you are leaving. It's great! We also taught a couple more Spanish lessons this week which is always exciting. It's hard to really progress when you don't really run into any Spanish speakers more than once a day, but I'm still working on it and I try not to make the same mistakes twice. I'm excited to learn it and love teaching in Spanish. Unfortunately, a couple of our most promising investigator families have hit a rough spot. Two of them in the same week got anti-ed by some people they knew and now they most likely won't let us come back. We're still praying for them though. Also, we got kicked out of an apartment complex the other day. We were teaching the beginnings of the first lesson outside a man's door when another man drove up, climbed the stairs and told us we needed to leave because there was no soliciting. This is where it gets kinda funny in a sad sort of way. We told the man we weren't soliciting, we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ. The man then told us to take Jesus elsewhere or he'd call the police. Pretty funny in a pathetic sort of way. I wonder if the man even realized what he was really saying. Anyway, the police wouldn't have done anything, but we left anyway. It was saddening though. We hadn't had any real success in there so far, but we were only about half-way through the complex and as we were leaving, I couldn't help but feel that there may have been someone a few doors down that would have listened to us and had their lives changed. Still, everything is done in the Lord's timing and so if there's someone who needs to hear it, they'll get it one way or another. On the bright side, we had a couple commit to being baptized the day after Christmas! We're not sure if they'll actually be able to make that first date since there's a couple things they need to do before being baptized...for instance getting married, but hopefully even if they don't make the first date, it'll give them a goal to start working for. We've actually only taught them 2 times in a week and a half and they didn't make it to church the first week, but we're hoping to get them there this Sunday. One of their children had to go to the ER yesterday though so things are a little crazy right now. Hopefully they'll be able to make it though. Anyway, I have to go now, but I'm doing great! It's hard to lose investigators that you've grown to love, even if you've only known them a couple weeks, but everything happens for a reason. Maybe they'll be ready to receive the gospel a few years down the road. I love you all and thanks again for your letters. Tu hijo y hermano, Elder Bishop