Monday, November 24, 2014

I think success as a missionary isn't necessarily measured by what you do, but by who you are and who you have become

Hey everyone!  It was good to hear from you and know that everything is going really good!  It sounds like you are all getting excited for the Holidays.  People are getting really excited here too.  Decorations are being put up and it looks really nice.  You are gonna love it so much when you see it for yourselves!  My week was also really good despite some bad luck.  I got sick on Monday night and it held us back quite a bit throughout the week.  It's never fun being sick, but it's especially not fun while you're on a mission.  I also had some bike problems this week.   We biked through a forest and my front tire popped!  haha dumb I know.  But it was still a really nice week.

Monday was a nice restful P day, no hospitals this time.  We just walked around Haarlem and took  pictures and stopped by some shops just to look around.  I started feeling sick that night and then woke up the next morning feeling miserable...

Tuesday was definitely the day I felt the worst.  I had a really bad headache and a sore throat and ears.  We had district meeting in Amsterdam and we went to that.  Afterwards, I really wasn't feeling well, so I went with Elder Cooper to grab some medicine to get me through the week.  We went back home after district meeting and rested for a little while before our dinner appointment.  Even though I wasn't feeling good, I was still looking forward to our dinner appointment that night because it was with the M's, and I really like them.  We had a nice time eating and visiting.  We got home that night and I was out.

We woke up the next morning and I was feeling a little bit better.  We had a couple of appointments in the morning and mid day.  We taught F.  He is a recent convert who has made a lot, A LOT, of changes in his life this year.  He got in a pretty bad accident earlier in his life and he has some brain damage due to that.  He also can't hear very well, but he is a really good man.  We taught him about the Priesthood to prepare him for the coming Sunday where he would receive the Aaronic Priesthood.  After that we did some service for another recent convert, Y.  She is also a really sweet lady.  Her health prevents her from coming to church every week, but she has been the past two weeks now.  Service wasn't very fun while being sick, but you still get that good feeling afterwards, so it was worth it.  We took it pretty easy the rest of the day so I could get feeling better.  Earlier on in my mission, I tried working through being sick.  Until it hit me one day in Brugge.  I had been sick for about  a week and I wasn't getting better cuz I just kept on trying to work through it.  I felt miserable, and that day we were biking in the freezing cold rain getting soaked.  We were stopped at a light and I told my companion (it was Elder Goates at the time), "This is the most stupid thing we could possibly be doing right now." haha he agreed.  From then on I realized it's better to take it easy and rest up so you can get better faster.  And that's what we did Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday we woke up and I still wasn't feeling any better!  I was getting pretty annoyed at this point.  We had our studies and rested a little longer until our appointment that afternoon.  We had an appointment with A and C, and we brought a really cool member with us this time.  It was a great appointment and she is really starting to feel comfortable around us.  The member was really good for her too.  A is really smart and loves reading and learning.  We showed her the Gospel Library app on her iPad and she absolutely LOVED it!  she mentioned it like 3 different times in her closing prayer.  They are really sweet.  We are just hoping that her work schedule changes!!!    It was a nice appointment though and it lifted my spirits too.

Friday we did some planning and got out of the house at a good time cuz I was starting to feel a little better.  We had an appointment fall through, but we rescheduled with him for next week and he felt really bad.  He is a pretty positive investigator, so we are looking forward to our appointment next week.  Our dinner appointment also fell through cuz the wife was sick.  Everyone is getting sick this time of the year.  We had spent so much time in the apartment the past week that we didn't want to go back to ear dinner until 9 haha.  We looked some people up and met this really nice man who said we could come back.  We also had an appointment with a recent convert named F.  She is from Ukraine and is a really nice woman.  She is very interested in the Book of Mormon and wants to know more about it, so we will be reading it with her every week from now on.  After that is when we rode through the forest and my tire popped... :( so dumb haha

Saturday was an awesome and busy day.  We had the annual Turkey Bowl that morning!  The Amsterdam zone all met at Vondel Park in Amsterdam to play some football.  President Robinson came too and it was a lot of fun!  We got back to Haarlem and had an appointment with and older lady in the ward.  She is in a wheelchair and needs help grocery shopping, so I pushed her in her little wheelchair and we chatted and got some of her shopping done.  She is such a sweet lady and a really good missionary too.  She has her little walker back at the old folks home, and there is always a Book of Mormon sitting on the top.  People stop her and talk to her about it quite often.  She is one of the sweetest old ladies I have ever met.  After that we went to our dinner appointment with the O's.  They are a family from Ghana and really nice.  They have one son who is about 7 years old.  WE had a good time over there.  The wife was pretty sick and has been for a while now, so we were able to give her a blessing.  The Spirit was very strong.  Some of the most spiritual experiences on my mission have been while giving blessings.  It was a fun dinner appointment getting to know them better.

Sunday was probably the highlight of my week.  I love Sundays here in Haarlem!!  We woke up and I was SO sore from the Turkey Bowl the previous day!  It was pretty pathetic haha.  We had church at 9:30 and President and Sister Robinson came to give a combined lesson about Preach My Gospel.  They asked the 4 missionaries in the ward to share something too.  They asked me to talk about the section, "A Successful Missionary".  I had no idea how direct that towards members, but I think it went well.  That is a subject I have been thinking about a lot lately as my mission is winding down.  Sometimes I think to myself if I was a successful missionary or not.  I think every missionary asks themselves that at some point on their mission.  I think success as a missionary isn't necessarily measured by what you do, but by who you are and who you have become.  And of course, what you do reflects who you are.  But there is only so much we can do as missionaries.  There are 3 parts in missionary work.  God's will, Our will, and their will.  We can only control our will.  I think successful missionaries do their best to align their will with God's will, because missionary work isn't our work, but His.  So if our will becomes His then He will lead us to those who are prepared to accept the Gospel.  The best way we can align our will with His is simply by praying daily and gaining a personal relationship with Him, obeying His commandments, and diligently working.  When we do those three things, our faith will grow and we will become great tools in His hands, and He will make us the means of performing miracles and bringing people to him.  I tied it in to the members by inviting them to pray for opportunities and then seek for those opportunities to be a part of His work.  After I was done, I sat down and really started reflecting on my mission, and I reallized that God really has led me to everybody who I was able to share the Gospel with.  I think it went well though.  Second hour was Gospel Principles which was nice, and the sacrament meeting was the Primary Program.  There are about 12 kids in the Primary here, and they are crazy! haha they are so cute though and I loved playing the piano while they sang the whole hour.  After church Frits was ordained a priest, and he was soooo excited!  I was excited for him.  I met him back in March when he wasn't baptized and he is a different person now.  It's so cool seeing how the Gospel changes people.  It was also nice seeing President and Sister Robinson again.  They are such great people, and I miss not being around them all the time.  It was just a good Sunday.  After chruch we went to our ward mission leader's house for lunch and correlation.  Our ward mission leader is SO cool!  He is French and he feeds us all this French food haha last week he fed us this cheese that he claims is illegal in America haha it isn't pasturized or something.  It was actually pretty good though!  We had a nice discussion and planning meeting with him.  We are holding a ward thanksgiving dinner and talent show on Saturday night, and so we did a lot of planning for that.  We hope it is a good turn out!  That night we went to Sister C's.  She is a really cool woman.  She lived in Utah for a lot of years, and she made 7 layer dip!  That was the first time I had eaten seven layer dip in 2 years, and it was so good.  I LOVE 7 layer dip!  It was a nice close to a nice week.  Even though I was sick and got a popped tire, it was a great week, and next week is set up to be another great one.  I can't believe I only have 2 weeks left!  CRAZY!!!  I am getting really excited to see you guys.  I miss you a ton and pray for you daily.  I love you so much!  I hope you have a great week!!!!!

Elder Bishop



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