Hey Ben,

The week's been going good and there's lots to write about. I'll try to
get all your questions answered though. Firstly the young Spanish couple
are doing pretty good. We couldn't go over there last week because the
day we usually set aside for our lesson was the day we had our mission
conference. We tried going over earlier that week, but no one was home.
We called them up and asked if we could come over earlier this week but
they said they'd be busy until tomorrow so that's when we're going over
there. We're going to try to get them to church this week though and
hopefully we'll get them to go see the Testaments with us this Sunday at
one of the member's houses. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that we're going
to start doing that. A young newly-wed couple in the ward want us to
bring over the Spanish new members and investigators we have every other
Sunday to watch it until "all the Hispanics in Texarkana have seen it."
As of last night we now have 10 investigators with a baptisimal date. As
of about 3 weeks ago, our mission president really challenged us to start
challenging people on the first lesson. Some have told us that they won't
say yes until they know for sure it's true, but a good number have
responded in the affirmative. Unfortunately, none of the ones with a date
have come to church, but we did get some long term Spanish investigators
to church this last Sunday. Then again, the fact that we were having a
Potluck that day after church probably helped them make the decision to
come out.
Elder Davis and I have both had colds the last week or so and that hasn't
been much fun. I actually started losing my voice yesterday so I had to
tell Elder Davis to say a lot more than he usually would. He was scared a
lot, but it was good practice for him anyway. My voice is a little better
today, but still really scratchy.
For your next question, I assume you meant zone conferences? We've only
had the one mission conference and that was this last Friday. Two MTC
trainers came down and talked with all of us on how to improve our results
as missionaries. It was a great conference and I learned a lot of things
that I need to improve on. All the Zone Conferences have been awesome as
well. I love going to ZC not just to see other missionaries, but because
I learn so much each time I go and I get a renewed fire for the work.
It's like each conference is one of those turbo boost platforms in the
racing video games. (Please don't tell anyone I used that analogy.) :)
Since I don't have a lot of time left, I'll answer your last question and
answer the others next week if you still want. I love studying the
scriptures all the time! It's amazing how much you can learn as you
reread them every day. You know that I've been memorizing a scripture in
Spanish every day and that has blessed my life tremendously. I have
trouble remembering all the references perfectly, but it has been really
cool to become better aquainted with the scriptures as I memorize them and
then apply them to both my life and use them when we're with members or
investigators. Yesterday, Elder Davis and I were studying Lehi's vision
because we wanted to use it with a couple of our investigators that I've
been working with pretty much since I got here. It was amazing as we were
reading it and discussing the dream, how much it truly applied to our
investigators. They've grapped onto the rod, but it seems like every time
they start to move forward, the mist of darkness prevents them from seeing
the tree of life. We know how much they need to attend church in order to
make the goal of Eternal Life, but so far they've been blinded by those
mists and have been unable to take that step forward. We shared this with
them and I hope that we can help them overcome their problems and take
those small steps along the path to Eternal Life. Pues, eso es todo por
el momento. Vaya con Dios mi hermano.

Elder Bradley Bishop