4/26

Dear Everyone,

Thanks for your emails. I'm sorry to hear about Ollie. I have a lot of fond memories with him, but it happens. Mom said you've been going to the gym, Dad, and that you've been getting some exercises to help the pain in your neck. How often do you go and which gym is it?

Thanks for sending a package Mom. I haven't received it yet, but mail usually doesn't get to our apartment until about 12:30 or so. You said that I should take the bike stuff you sent me back to K-mart if I can't use it, but I'm pretty sure we don't have one here. If I end up not being able to use it, I'm sending some things home pretty soon so I'll try to fit them in there if I can.

I don't know yet when I'll be calling home on Mother's Day, but I'll try to let you know in my next email so you can set it up for me to talk to as many as possible.

Well, this week was a pretty slow week in the work, but we still were blessed with some great lessons and miracles. We gave a lady we've been teaching who had a bad case of strep throat a blessing and she was better when we came back the next day. Also, we had a pretty crazy night on Friday when we had the Tornado warning that went on and hit Mississippi. It had been sprinkling on and off all day and we were on our bikes headed towards the home of some Spanish investigators near the edge of our area boundary to meet some members when all of a sudden it started pouring rain. We were soaked in that for a couple miles until we got to there at the home and it stopped raining. Then, we went and knocked the door witht the spanish member and they had had something come up so they couldn't meet with us that night after all. On our way back to go visit someone else, Elder Davis' back tire deflated in about 15 seconds and so we had to start walking. We were on foot for about half a minute when the spanish member who had been on his way back home gave us a call to say that there was a tornado warning for a storm 16 miles south of us. So, he came by and picked us up with our bikes and then dropped us off at another member's home until the tornado warning was over. It was pretty cool. Elder Davis hasn't had a tornado warning here yet, so the whole time was pretty excited, but it ended up missing us so he was pretty disappointed. He said he'd been praying for a tornado and now he had to start praying all over again. :)

Yesterday, we had a Stake meeting and Elder Gibbons from the Seventy came and spoke to the Stake. I think over half the people there at the meeting thought he was going to announce a call to Missouri. All these things happening around the world have really started stirring people up all over the place and it's made some people more interested in hearing what we have to say. It was a great meeting, but Elder Gibbons pretty much just said we need to keep going strong and be a light to those nonmember friends around us.

Speaking of things happening around the world, we were teaching an investigator who is from Honduras the other day and one of his cousins came in the room and told us something was happening in Arizona on the news. I was wondering if an earthquake or something had happened in Arizona too, but we found out that really there were some protests going on about the law the governor of Arizona had signed about deporting illegals from Mexico. Our investigator wasn't too happy about it or the fact that I was from Arizona, but he said he knew I wasn't racist like the Governor in Arizona so he'd keep talking to us. I guess that's a good thing. :)

Well, today is the official start of the new transfer and we're hoping to make it a good one. Keep praying for us and I know the Lord will bless us with success in bringing his children again unto him. Love you all!

Tu hijo y hermano en Cristo,

Elder Bradley Bishop

4/12/10

Dear Everyone,

Sounds like there's some major changes happening with everyone in the family back home. Everything will work out though in the end and I'll continue to pray for you. Tell Grandma Bishop congratulations on turning 93 for me. When I told the other missionaries that my grandma was 93 today, Elder Davis said that my parents must be in there 60's for my grandma to be that old. You two haven't been jumping a few birthdays while I've been away have you? :) Thanks for the package Mom. The bread was great, but the box you sent it in was a little interesting. You mentioned Aunt Shirley missing my emails in your letter. If you could send me her address, then I can include her in my emails instead of you having to forward it on to her every time and risk forgetting about it.

Well, the work here is still progressing. We met a lot of great new people this last week and some had already previously listened to the missionaries in other places in the U.S. and they wanted us to come back and start teaching them again so we're pretty excited for that. Also, I don't know if I told you in my letter home last week, but the Arkansas Elders that we share an apartment with had a double baptism on Friday, a woman and her ten-year-old son. It was a great baptism and we were all very excited for her. She teaches at one of the high schools here in Texarkana and had to endure a lot of persecution from her fellow teachers when she made the decision to be baptized. It was the first baptism that this area has seen in over 9 months as well so the ward was pretty excited.

Just so you know, transfers are happening next week and there's a good chance that I'll be getting moved to a new area. President asked both Elder Knight (who was brought up here to Texarkana the same time as me) and I in our interviews if our companions were ready to take over the areas. He said nothing is sure yet because he still needs to pray about it, but again, there's a pretty good chance of it happening. Obviously, I'll go wherever the Lord needs me, but it's going to be pretty hard to leave this area if I do end up being transferred. I've come to love the people, both the members and investigators, in this area so much and it'll be hard to say goodbye. There's also so many people here that we've been teaching for a long time as well as some that we've met only recently, that are progressing towards baptism. We found a couple this week who just got married a couple days before we knocked there door who were very interested in The Book of Mormon and the Gospel. One of the long term Spanish investigators who we hadn't visited for a while because he was so hard to contact suddenly decided that he wanted to be baptized and told a member he wanted to set up a time for us to come over and start teaching him again. It seems like there are so many things happening here right when I'm about to leave, but I guess that will happen in every area that I'm leaving. Anyway, if I do end up getting transferred, I probably won't be able to write you next week so don't get worried if you don't receive a letter until two weeks from now. (That's for you Mom) I'll try to get a regular letter off to you, but I don't know if I'll be given time for that either so I guess I'll talk to you in two weeks if that is the case.

I love you all and hope everything is going great.

Tu hijo y hermano en Cristo,

Elder Bradley Bishop

4/5/10

Dear Everyone,

Hope you all had a great conference weekend! Weren't the sessions this year great? As I've told some of you already, we were able to get two of our investigators to come watch a session and they both really enjoyed it. (One was an English investigator and the other was Spanish). We had a lot of others promise to come...but unfortunately something seemed to come up for all of them. It really was too bad. There are few ways that you can feel the Spirit more strongly than listening to the Apostles and Prophet of God testifying so strongly of Jesus Christ and his reality. I was sad when it was over. I enjoy listening to the speakers so much.

After the last session, we went over to a relatively new convert and his wife's home to have Easter dinner. It was really great. Also, one of the sisters in the ward made us all Easter baskets and it made me think of all the fun Easter times at home. (Except for last year when you told us we were too old for it Mom. :)

So, this week has been a week of ups and downs. Elder Davis and I had a lot of great lessons with people and got a lot of new investigators. Also, a spanish couple that I started teaching right before Elder Wilson left accepted the invitation to be baptized. They live on the Arkansas side and it's been really hard for Elder Davis and I to get ahold of them, especially since they've been in the process of moving down the road, but one of the young member couples that live here (the wife is Spanish and the husband served Spanish speaking to SLC) have become really good friends with them and that's helped a lot. We've had a couple lessons and dinners in there home that were really spiritual. This spanish couple that said they'd be baptized said they still want to learn a little more before they set a date, but that they do want to be baptized. They also still need to be married, but Elder Davis and I have already married one investigator couple so far and we have no problem getting it done again. :)

The big let down this week is that Barbara Nixon who we've been visiting almost every day the last two weeks called us yesterday and told us she's going on vacation for a month. She had told us that her grandaughter was moving to Mississippi from out West this conference weekend and that she had promised to go spend time with her, but she was going to try to work things out so she could come to Conference. She called us on Friday to tell us that she wouldn't be able to change afterall and that she wouldn't get back until Sunday night. Then, she called Sunday night and told us that she's going to stay with her sister and grandaughter in Mississippi for the next 4 weeks. She said she might be coming back on the 17th for a day so hopefully we'll get to go see her then. It's a bit of a let down that she'll be gone for so long, (and since I might be getting transferred out of here in two weeks that I won't be able to see her again) but I know that she'll get baptized. On Wednesday and Thursday when we were visiting her she said that she hadn't had a cigarette since Monday morning. I know she knows it's true already. She's just been jumping around from church to church for so long that she's afraid of doing it again. I have no doubt that she'll take the step when she comes back though as long as the missionaries keep in contact with her.

Thank you for your prayers and your letters. I hope you're all doing great and enjoyed conference as much as I did. The Prophet and Apostles are inspired and blessed with such power and authority from God. They remind me of Nephi right before Christ came who it was said of that so great was his testimony and faith that those he preached to could not disbelieve his words. I love you and pray for you all. Look for opportunities to share the Gospel in every thing you do and you will be happier than any other time in your life.

Tu hijo y hermano en Cristo,

Elder Bradley Bishop