FIRST WEEK IN Brazil

First baptism of my mission this week! WOOHOO!!! Best Christmas present ever. Besides a ginormous T.V. That'd be cool too. Anyway, Elder Dup and I got to baptize two of our investigators this week, Iuri and Iago (brothers). I baptized Iuri (yes, in Portuguese), and Elder Dup baptized Iago. Iago is old enough to recieve the Aaronic priesthood and enter into the Deacon's quorom, and I'm really excited to see him continue to progress. Iuri is 11, so he is almost a Deacon also. Both of them are really excited, and though I still can barely make out a word they say, I know they are both building their testimonies each day. 

Besides it being Christmas and all, and besides the baptisms, not much has happened this week. So many people were gone for the holidays! I don't blame them  though; Brazil has a ton of awesome places to go visit during the holidays. Anyway, this week, we made a new friend! On Thursday, after our lunch appointment, Elder Dup and I made our way back to the apartment. When we got there, I found a big fat lizard resting on my pillow. Yup. Just chilling there, like he owned the place. Elder Dup, my mission daddy, fearing for the well-being of his son, chased the little guy outside. He got bit a couple times, but he hasn't started growing scales or anything weird yet, so I think he'll be fine.

This coming week, Elder Dup and I are expecting a bunch of baptisms. We have a lot of dates set up for this week, and they all seem really solid! Our last date was set up just yesterday. It was the coolest thing ever! This guy, Dacio, probably about 60 years old, came to church, started talking with us, came to gospel principles, and said he wanted to be baptized! Elder Dup asked him if this week would work, and he was all like "Yeah this week will work!" Except in a completely different language, so I don't know exactly what he said. Elder Dup says he was really excited about baptism, and that he was sharing how his own personal thoughts about life were answered by our gospel. The whole time I was looking around, trying to find the angels that sent this guy. Really! It was so cool! We're really excited to teach him this week, and to see him baptized, and eventually to see him called as an apostle or something.

It's really been an awesome week. I can't wait to see what this week has in store! Atê mais! 

Christmas Day Phone Call

Merry Christmas 2013 Elder Bishop

Fortaleza, Brazil:::: arrived on Dec 17

Elder Bishop arrives to Fortaleza, Brazil

Hunter is now in Fortaleza, Brazil:  safe and ready to serve!!!

Elder Hunter Bishop flew to NY on Monday, Dec 16. The first flight--5 AM-- out of Twin Falls was canceled due to fog. He barely made the SLC TO NY flight as it took the SECOND plane from Twin Falls, ID two attempts to land due to fog in SLC. The plane got to SLC, but returned to Twin Falls for gas and went back to SLC!!

From SLC to NY, Elder Bishop sat in front of Steve Correll of The Office and his 2 children. Flight attendants were very attentive to the youngsters and Steve C. kept a low profile. Elder Bishop called from NY using another missionary's phone card. It was so good to hear his voice and hear how excited he was to begin another journey!! The fact that he sat in front of a celebrity was icing on the cake!!

VISA Arrives!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, my VISA is here! I got my travel information too. I will be leaving this Monday in the morning, at around 6:00. Then, I begin my long trip down to Brazil. I'm flying to Salt Lake, then to New York, and then to Sao Paulo where I will finally board for Fortaleza. Wish me luck!

Raining DIP N DOTS

First off, my trainer. Elder Pimentel is a 5' 8" white guy who has been waiting on a visa to Brazil, Fortaleza for 6 months. He isn't too happy about that. His name means something like "quick to anger" or "quick to hotness," which is a little ironic, because he is a very mellow guy. He's a really great missionary, and I'm really glad I got him as a trainer. Plus, we will probably see each other in Fortaleza, which is pretty awesome! He opened the area we are serving in right now (Twin Falls West Two), so he knows many of the people. It's a little difficult right now, because the Elders in the area before us didn't make any records, so we have no idea where to start. We have been going around to people that Elder P. knew previously, and checking up on their progress. This mission is almost entirely a referral mission, because of the amount of members, and because tracting would not be fun in the rural areas (which is pretty much the whole mission). Nevertheless, Elder P. and I have already had a few really funny experiences. 

 There is also some crazy weather. The third day out here, my bike got a flat tire (great way to start the day!), and we had to walk much of the day. While we were walking, there was a random storm of.... dippin-dots. No joke. It snowed unflavored dippin-dots on us. It must somehow be related to all the nitrogen given off by the potatoes.... Sorta like how radiation causes all sorts of crazy stuff with everything. Yeah, potatoes are like nuclear fallout. 

Anyway, I have to go now. Talk to you all next week! Tchau! 

November 25,

It isn't quite as cold here as it gets in Kansas, but it's also really windy! The worst it has been was 27 degrees, but the members here are really nice and they are letting me borrow some warm clothes. The wind is really the worst here. Everything is so flat! People say Kansas is flat, but they haven't seen Twin Falls! My area is a biking area, and biking on flat, windy roads isn't the funnest thing to do. I am getting crazy strong legs though!

Elder Pimentel and I are getting along great! Our mission president told us that he thinks the visa waiters are some of his best missionaries, which is funny because I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing! I am Elder Pimentel's first trainee, and I think he is doing an awesome job. I bet President Curtis was talking about Elder Pimentel when he said that. He is a great missionary, and yes, we've been able to speak Portuguese to each other. 

Thank you for the package! The cookies were great, and the exercise equipment was definitely needed. For some reason I didn't get any exercise equipment! Maybe they stopped giving those out because there was too many missionaries. Anyway, I really appreciated the letters, too. Thank you Carson and Jessie for the rainbow loom bracelets! Sadly, I can't wear them, because our mission president only allows us to wear watches. 

Carson,

Keep up the good work with that list! I'm really glad you thought Ender's Game was good. I'm really excited to see that. It's one of my favorite books, so I was a little worried that they wouldn't make the movie right. 

I heard you got a tutor for school. Hopefully that will make High School easier for you! 

Keep up the letters lil bro! I really enjoy them! 

Jessie,

Keep up the gymnastics, sis! I heard you mastered your roundoff back-handspring! That's awesome! It sounds like you're doing real well in school too. Keep it up! Thanks for the rainbow loom bracelets! They're really pretty. 

Thanksgiving 2013 in Twin Falls

It's been a long, slow week. Lots of our investigators went to visit their families for Thanksgiving, so we haven't had much to do. Elder P. and I did find some very strange and sudden service opportunities. The Lord definitely works in mysterious ways! Hopefully what we've been able to do this week opened up the hearts of some to the gospel. 

While we were out contacting on our bikes one day, an old man saw us and called to us to come help him. When we got to him, the man asked us if we were Mormon missionaries. We replied "Yes," and he immediately exclaimed "It's a good thing I called out to you!" Then he explained that his receiver dish for his T.V. had fallen down again, so he asked if one of us could climb onto the top of his trailer and hook it back up. Elder Pimentel climbed up the trailer ladder and got the receiver to work again, then climbed down. The old man came over to give us some money, but when we told him about how we believe in service, he put away the money and chuckled to himself. He then turned to us, with a glint in his eye, and said "Well, I'm Catholic, so don't tell anyone that I let the Mormon missionaries give me service. They'll think I'm planning on converting!"

Later on in the week, while we were sitting at home trying to find work to do, our neighbors, Jason and Scott, came over and asked us if we'd seen their friend. They were helping another neighbor move out, and when they came back, their friend was missing. We sort of live in the ghetto, so the fact that he was missing was a little scary. We helped them look for a little while, but we couldn't find him anywhere. Elder Pimentel and I had to leave the search to go to an appointment, but we told them we would pray for their friend. The next day they told us that their friend was alright, and that he had gone home and forgot to tell them. After they told us the good news, we talked a little bit about religion, and Jason actually said he wanted to quit smoking, so hopefully we can help him out with that. And then we played around with their Zippo lighters (apparently Elder Pimentel can do some really cool tricks with a Zippo lighter).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Elder P. and I surprisingly only had one Thanksgiving dinner! Brother Young, our ward mission leader, invited us over to eat with his family, and we stayed there a good amount of the day. President told us not to overstay our welcome for the Thanksgiving holiday, but hey, the Young's were super welcoming the whole time! Every time we were getting ready to go, they would bring out another game and ask us to play. We played some fun games with them, like Lightning Reaction. If you have not played this game, I would implore you to do so. Let me explain. This game is a test of reaction time. A button in the middle of  the game flashes red, and when it turns green, you have to press a button on your rod. Whoever presses their button last, gets a nasty shock. It was SO funny! But quite a bit painful if you lost.

Well, that's my week! Stay tuned!

Letter for Dec 9

Well, you won't believe what Elder Pimentel and I did this week. While at the Reynold's household (members in one of the wards we cover), I partook of the most devilish food in all the world. I ate a ghost chili. This thing just looked evil, and I ate it! I believe that the more instinctual part of my brain took over for the following 15 minutes, because I have no recollection of what I did during that period of pain. All I remember is the sensation of someone lighting off fireworks in my mouth, and then the immediate feeling as if I had chewed on napalm, like it was candy. After that, I kicked into auto-pilot mode. That consisted of sipping on milk for a loooong time. Oh yeah, and trying not to cry. The Reynolds have a video of all of this. They tried to send it, but their internet wouldn't upload the file. Someday I hope you will all be able to see it. 

Anyway, this week went pretty good. It was still a little slow, but this time it was because everyone was sick. We got a new investigator, though! Her faith is amazing. She has taken all of our commitments, and we've set a baptismal date with her. She hasn't received an answer to her prayers yet, but she continues on praying and reading the Book of Mormon. We've been meeting with her at a member's home, who have been fellow-shipping her, and they've been wonderful too! Brother Haney, the member, shared with Johnny, our investigator, a very sweet story about his children's response to the Christmas story. His oldest daughter, 4 years old, after hearing about Christ's birth, said she wanted to invite Christ to her birthday party. Brother Haney asked her "How will you invite Him?" to which she responded "We'll ask Him to come!" Brother Haney, touched by her response, continued talking, and asked her "How will He come?" His daughter, a little perplexed at the question, just looked at her dad and simply said "You open the door." This story really brought the Spirit to the room, and Johnny felt it as well. She has children of her own, but she hasn't seen them in a long time. We are trying to help her get back on her feet so she can see them again. We felt prompted to tell her that as she continues down the strait and narrow path, she will be able to see her kids again. I'm very excited to see her continue to progress!

Well, those are the highlights of the week! I'm looking forward to telling everyone about next week!

Second Week in Twin Falls

It's been a long, slow week. Lots of our investigators went to visit their families for Thanksgiving, so we haven't had much to do. Elder P. and I did find some very strange and sudden service opportunities. The Lord definitely works in mysterious ways! Hopefully what we've been able to do this week opened up the hearts of some to the gospel. 

While we were out contacting on our bikes one day, an old man saw us and called to us to come help him. When we got to him, the man asked us if we were Mormon missionaries. We replied "Yes," and he immediately exclaimed "It's a good thing I called out to you!" Then he explained that his receiver dish for his T.V. had fallen down again, so he asked if one of us could climb onto the top of his trailer and hook it back up. Elder Pimentel climbed up the trailer ladder and got the receiver to work again, then climbed down. The old man came over to give us some money, but when we told him about how we believe in service, he put away the money and chuckled to himself. He then turned to us, with a glint in his eye, and said "Well, I'm Catholic, so don't tell anyone that I let the Mormon missionaries give me service. They'll think I'm planning on converting!"

Later on in the week, while we were sitting at home trying to find work to do, our neighbors, Jason and Scott, came over and asked us if we'd seen their friend. They were helping another neighbor move out, and when they came back, their friend was missing. We sort of live in the ghetto, so the fact that he was missing was a little scary. We helped them look for a little while, but we couldn't find him anywhere. Elder Pimentel and I had to leave the search to go to an appointment, but we told them we would pray for their friend. The next day they told us that their friend was alright, and that he had gone home and forgot to tell them. After they told us the good news, we talked a little bit about religion, and Jason actually said he wanted to quit smoking, so hopefully we can help him out with that. And then we played around with their Zippo lighters (apparently Elder Pimentel can do some really cool tricks with a Zippo lighter).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Elder P. and I surprisingly only had one Thanksgiving dinner! Brother Young, our ward mission leader, invited us over to eat with his family, and we stayed there a good amount of the day. President told us not to overstay our welcome for the Thanksgiving holiday, but hey, the Young's were super welcoming the whole time! Every time we were getting ready to go, they would bring out another game and ask us to play. We played some fun games with them, like Lightning Reaction. If you have not played this game, I would implore you to do so. Let me explain. This game is a test of reaction time. A button in the middle of  the game flashes red, and when it turns green, you have to press a button on your rod. Whoever presses their button last, gets a nasty shock. It was SO funny! But quite a bit painful if you lost.

Well, that's my week! Stay tuned!