8/2

Dear Everyone,

So, I've got another funny story for you this week. That same member that had us dismantling his shed last week gave us a call last night to ask us if we could come over for a half hour or so to help him with a rat problem. We were in the neighborhood and one of our appointments had fallen through so we told him we could come over for a bit. We got over there and he had some traps already set up and had some rat poison with peanut butter on it to try to get the rats. Apparently he had already shot one of the rats, but the others had scurried back behind some food storage containers they had next to the house and he was scared to go too near to it so basically I just took the rat poison over next to the wall and placed it down on the ground underneath their perch. Because he was so afraid of them, I felt like I was about to be jumped by an R.O.U.S. :) I was alright though so no worries about that.

We had another very awesome week this week. Oddly enough, it seems like since I no longer have a spanish companion that the Spanish work here has really taken off. This last week we taught a man named Jose Rodriguez and then 4 other men from Mexico called Jose, Jyme, Valentin, and Florentino. All 5 are really awesome and hopefully we'll be able to get them to church this week. They normally don't have work on Sunday they said (which is extremely rare for Hispanics working here in the States) and so if we get them to start coming to church along with the Lords and Maria then we will definitely have the making of a Spanish Branch here. :) It'll take some time for sure, but after teaching the 4 Mexicans in their bare, but pretty clean trailer with no air conditioning I felt almost as if I were down in Mexico after all. It was so cool.

Among other things this week, we went over to the Lord's last night with that couple I was telling you about that served missions in Brazil (the wife is actually from there) and we had a bit of a party for Sister Lord's birthday which is today. We had fish tostadas that one of the other members made, but the main treat of the night we had was...coffee. Brazilian Coffee that is, made from barley, called Pero which apparently is not against the word of wisdom. So we had a coffee party last night and the Lords and Maria who was there as well all said they loved it and would be drinking if from now on instead of the "illegal" (according to the word of wisdom) coffee.

Hope you're all doing well and I look forward to hearing from you next week.

Love,

Elder Bradley Bishop

7-26

Dear Everyone,

Had an awesome week, but it was pretty repetitive. So, basically the First Presidency is changing the missionary focus of Preach My Gospel from finding and working with members to becoming more effective teachers. So, this last week, half the leaders in the mission all met in Gulfport, MS and we received training for 4 days on the new missionary focus. It was 4 crazy days of pouring things into our mind and role playing the things we were supposed to be learning, but the end finally came and I know that I'm a much better missionary now than I was at the start. Because it was in Gulfport, a lot of the missionaries coming to the meeting from other parts of the mission ended up staying with missionaries in the Gulfport Zone for the 4 days. They set it up so that we would usually be in training from 9 to 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon and afterwards return to our areas to implement the things we had learned. So, we had two other missionaries staying with us for the 4 days and one of them was another Spanish Speaking that is up in Hattiesburg right now. It ended up working out perfectly because for those 4 days, the Spanish missionary (Elder Westover) and I would go out and work with our Spanish investigators in the evening while Elder Killian went out with the other missionary to work with our English investigators. We ended up getting a lot of work done this week and we also have a lot of new investigators to work with as well. Also, just to let you know Mom, on Monday we started teaching a man from Brazil who speaks Portuguese and English and so maybe I'll be able to pick up a little Portuguese while I'm out here too. :) We had a pretty crazy morning today because we went to help a member take care of "some stuff." We had actually helped this same member a few days ago move a couple of his neighbors out down the road and so he called us up last night to ask if we could help him for a little bit in taking some of the things his neighbors had left behind from their house to his house. (He assured us that he had their permission) The "stuff" turned out to be a barn-like shed that he wanted to rebuild in his own yard. So, we went about dismantling this shed for three hours this morning and taking the parts over to load them in his truck and afterwards we unloaded it all in his yard. To make matters worse, the electric saw he had planned on using to dismantle the shed ended up not working. Therefore, we had to stick to dismantling it with a sledge hammer. And when I say that "we" had to use the sledge hammer to take off the walls and the roof, I really mean that "I" had to do it since the member is almost 70 years old with heart problems and Elder Killian wasn't feeling good this morning. So, right now my body is feeling pretty sore since I had to come at the roof from weird angles in order to keep from putting any holes in it. But, I finally got it done and we carried all the walls and framing off to his truck in perfect condition so I can now proudly say that I've added the title of "shed demolisher" to my list of mastered trades.
Maria and the Lords are all still doing really well and we're really focusing on them reading the Book of Mormon and Praying so they can gain that conviction that this isn't just a really nice church, but the true church in which they need to be a part of.
I love you all and hope you're all doing well. Good luck with the move Ben and Macey!

Love,
Elder Bradley Bishop