Missions aren't all rainbows and butterflies

i want to start out with my favorite scripture!! 1 Nephi 19:9. i almost cry every time i read it. but another word for suffer is allow. so when you read it change suffer to allow!

9 And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.

so i guess missions aren't all rainbows and butterflies. i have actually been struggling lately. I just have been feeling really dumb like I dont now what im talking about. I think I do, i just dont know how to use my words haha. but every time I teach or something I just want to cry! and it aint because Im feelin the spirit!   its because I feel like what I say isn't helping them and im not making any since! uuggghhhh. But,  sister Gasu told me I should get a blessing so I did. Elder Gleave is a Homie and made me feel better!   I was telling them how I felt and he basically said welcome to the club.. and I was like oh, every greenie goes through this.   but I was seriously contemplating if I wanted to come home or not, but then I realized that Im a Bischoff and Bischoffs dont quit!!! But im just so tired of waking up in the morning super salty .    I had a dream i was a returned missionary and at Disney World, but then realize Im still a missionarry!! haha! 

      Anyways, its all good in the hood now. The only reason I even thought about coming home was because I didnt think it was fair to be grumpy and annoyed all day as a missionary. 

     so Im trying to remember what even happens in my life so i can tell yall but my missionary brain is on something.... I feel like yesterday was a couple years ago lol! on October 3rd is my 2 month mark from the MTC!      Thats so weird because I feel like if I woke up and I was still in the mtc it would feel normal because I feel like it was just there yesterday!

 But transfers are on October 2nd! Im kind of nervous. 1)  because I love sister Gasu and still want to be her comp, and 2) because Im scared Im going to have a comp who lives in a house that is super messy!!   Because when I went on exchanges I had to sleep at their house for 1 night and I thought I was going to die. Im a pretty messy person to be honest, but this house was so bad! and Im still a greenie so i cant go around telling the girls in the house to clean after themselves! I just want to be in a zone with the others from my district from the mtc! 

      

okay i feel like Im just complaining now so Im gonna stop. 

So on Wednesday we did zone FHA at the senior missionaries house! It was so fun! We had lunch there and one of the elders who is leaving this transfer shared a message, then we played games! We played werewolf (mafia) and I kept getting chosen to be the wolf and I almost won lol!    Then we played psychiatrist and that was super fun! so one person leaves the room and everyone else figures out what weird thing to do whenever the person who's it asks a question, and they have to figure out what we are doing. so we did whoever is talking, everyone has to point their feet at them. it was so funny because Elder Chapman couldn't figure it out for the life of him!    Then the second one we did was when the psychiatrist asks us a question we have to start out our answer with the first word from "our purpose of a missionary" so in order we had to use all the words "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end". it was so hard because they ask questions like what is your fav color? but it was super fun! 

        I love zone sport! Chair soccer is my FAVORITE! you're on your own team and just try and hit everyone chair. and the sisters get a sister bubble so the elders cant touch you lol.    Its so fun!

    oh so we have a new investigator! his story is SO sad i almost cried. so hes about maybe 60 yrs old idk. but he dated a girl in HS who was Mormon and he wanted that good feeling he had from our church again so he contacted us! so we were talking to him and apparently he was illegally adopted. like in the hospital, his mom gave birth to him, then the doctors told them that he died and they did an illegal back door adoption. so later on he did family history and found his family, but his parents died a year before he found them. and when he met all his siblings,cousins and aunts and uncles, they were super confused because they thought he was dead! that is so sad! and his family that adopted him were abusive, and even gave a way their daughter to a known child M. (hopefully you know what i mean by M because I dont like saying that word, so Im not going to spell it either!) anyways his whole life is sad. hes living alone now because he had to move here from Idaho because his x wife is a drug addict and his son is too and he got his son put in jail because he kept stealing from him. so hes alone now in AZ because the cops told him to move away so his son cant be a creep anymore and steal from him. its sooooo sad! SO- we're trying to get him some friends!

      I dont think anything else cool happened this week.   I haven't taken a lot of pics this week ):     I only have like 1 where we did charcoal masks lol. oh and i found out whenever the Elders find out you're having a hard time the bring you ice cream! So after they gave me my blessing they texted us and asked what my fav ice cream was! take advantage of that or nah?   jk i thought about it but that's not Christlike  Ü
I MISS YALL

    Pray for me that ill stop having dreams Im at Disney World so i dont wake up mad that I'm not there!! HAHAHAHAHA

I'll try and take more pictures! We just always look super ratchet and gross, and sweaty,and scary.

 Sister Bischoff

Ups and Downs of Desert life

okay so this week was honestly pretty weird! so in the beginning of the week we were planning and i really wanted to go see this lady i heard a lot about. so we went and ohhhh my goodness! if anyone who has little kids who read this, skip this part because i dont want to scare them or anything haha.

okay. so this lady, her son is in jail again for burglary, and she is trying to get him out. but her son wont be getting out any time soon, so he needed someone in jail to protect him i guess. so he meets this guy in jail who has been in there for a long time and they become friends and help/protect each other.

       So her son decides, "oh lets give this other big time criminal my moms phone number and address!" super thoughtful right?  so homeboy starts writing this lady were talking to and they star dating and stuff. this guy starts telling her why hes in jail and stuff and it is noooo bueno. hes in there for "accidental" murder. and he kills animals. so super scary guy but she still writes him. she also brings him 50 $ of food each week! aaaaand she sends him pictures... and one of the pictures he has is one of her cats...he tells her all the time how much he loves that cat. like seriously hes obsessed with it. so were kind of scared for that cat at the moment because hes getting out of jail maybe next year and he is trying to live with her.... and hes trying to get his daughter who just got out of jail to live with her too. we we are SUPER scared for her safety right now...

       Anyways so a couple days ago we went on exchanges, so we swapped companions for the day. so i went to the San Tan area and was comps with sister Drummond. so we just met that day, she picks me up we go to her house and start planning for the next day,  it was probably about 9 pm. so we were kind of talking and after we planned she just looked at me and asked if i needed a blessing, so i said uhh sure, because why not?  she was like okay cool, because i feel like you need one and i want one too. so the Elders come over and give me a blessing, then they asked what she needed for her blessing and she just started crying about her companion and it was super awkward first of all because i dont know any of these people, and second, i just dont know how to deal with peoples emotions, and apparently the elders didn't either because they were being super awkward.... THEEEEN we were getting ready for bed and she told me she was going to make a quick phone call. I guess her definition of quick is an hour and a half! She was in the other room with the door shut, and I was just sitting in the other room being as awkward as I am.... then she finally came out and it was FINALLY bedtime... but they decided to talk all night and I though I was going to die! hahah (for anyone who knows me, im a pretty grumpy person when I dont get enough sleep and have to wake up at 6:30.)

          The next day with her was good! During comp study in the morning I was kind of in a weird funk and I was feeling like Im just a wannabe missionary and had no idea what I was doing... so we were reading out of PMG (preach my gospel) and she stopped me and said "sorry but i just keep having this feeling to tell you that I can feel the spirit so strongly with you, and all you did was just read! its crazy!" so i laughed but she did make me feel better so that was good!

 Honestly tho i think the best thing about that day was when the singles ward bishop bought us subway..haha just kidding, that wasn't the best thing of that day, but it deff was a highlight of the day lol. 

we did a lot of correlation that day, and she had me lead out a lesson for one of their investigators. it was about the commandments, follow the prophet, and obedience. then we had dinner and finally got back with our real comps. then Sister Gasu told me that the real reason why we do exchanges is so that they can evaluate you and then the tell the mission president how you did... so that causes anxiety. lol

         Okay, let me tell you something about peoples houses. some people are just so dirty! there is a difference between messy and dirty. the bottom of my purse is so ridiculously dirty and black from setting it down in peoples homes! But I'm just used to it now lol! Dad, honestly you better be so proud of me... I'm not that picky anymore! people make some weird stuff! and i still eat it! I have to pray sometimes to help me tolerate some stuff but I think I'm doing pretty good! I still wont eat ketchup tho haha!     but i actually have had a couple nightmares where people make me eat ketchup haha. Seriously like people serve us food on plates that still have other food on it, or used plastic cups (you can tell they are used) and i always get water with weird floaties in them... but I eat it or drink it anyways so I dont offend anyone!    :)

          oh a dog chased me when i was on my bike the other day and it was a SCARY dog, i swear it was gonna bite me and sis Gasu was laughing so hard at me! haha i was so scared! i never biked that fast in my life. then later on that day i was biking and my dress got caught in the chain and i almost fell off haha! sis Gasu was laughing so hard at me! that day was a rough one lol. actually every day is kind of like that for me lol.

so thats my life! sorry i haven't been talking about our investigators but i will in the next one!

i love and miss yall!

- Sister Bischoff

                                                                    Sister Gasu and me

                                              My collection of scorpions..lol

                                                                    Girls I live with

Awesome family in our ward

Funniest week here in AZ...

okay, so this week went by so fast! like i feel like i was just emailing yesterday! Literally missionary time is so weird! i have no idea what day, month or anything because it goes by so fast! but its been so good! 
So you know how its super hot here? yeah, well apparently i always look like I'm going to pass out and have no color to my face so people always freak out and let us in their house! (my secret to let less actives or non members into their house) but its sooo funny! Like we were driving the other day, so we weren't even biking, and literally i get out of the car walked maybe 10 steps to their house and they looked at me and was like OMG come in sit down let me get you some water! You look like you're going to pass out! its so funny! I was only in that heat for like maybe 1 minute! Whatever it works tho! 
But honestly there have been a couple times I almost passed out on my bike! Im okay with that tho because that gives me an excuse to take a nap! lol   I told Sister Gasu if i did pass out to do me a solid and flip me over so i dont get 3rd degree burns on my face! 
Okay, I met the craziest funniest family EVER! So we were tracking and we passed these people and stopped to talk to them because we thought they weren't members...but they were... literally i was dying from laughing the whole 2 hours we were talking to them! They are crazy! They have like 12 cameras outside their house so they can watch people and report them to the police for random stuff.  One time she was watering her lawn or something and someone was speeding, so she yelled at him. So he stopped and was yelling back at her so she got mad. She walked over to him and sprayed water all in his car and she said she made sure to get his radio so it would break and stuff!  Then another time last Halloween someone was speeding so the husband got mad and chucked a sucker at his car and cracked his windshield super bad! I was seriously dying I was laughing so hard! I was like y'all are some SAVAGES! They were like I KNOW! LOL   They are converts and have cool tattoos all over them. I cant even remember all the crazy things they told us but it was soooo fuuny it made my day!! 

The other day sis Gasu went to the temple with sis Wells because one of their converts went through, so me and sis Sprouce were companions.  We went to her area for dinner and the people who were supposed to feed us took us to chick fil a! They were super cool and their kids are all older except the two boys that were with us. One was 16 and the other was 11. The 16 yr old boy is just like Jaymz! They are both tall and play volleyball and football! Then we went to my area and went to the Santa Rita ward for a party.   We only went because one of our investigators Payton went!    Payton is GOLDEN! the other day we met him because someone told us to go see him. So we went and it was kind of weird because he had his shirt off and he was being super awkward about itl lol. But he was like yeah I want to go to y'alls church and stuff! He told us he had a dream about where he should look at his work. So when he went to work at the hospital, he looked where his dream was, and there was a Book of Mormon and he has been reading it everyday!!!   We were all freaking out!  Then we asked if he was praying about it to know if its true, and he said, why would I keep praying to know if its true if I already know its true? I got my answer the first time I prayed!!!   We were like omg who is this kid? Hes so golden! So we are teaching him the first lesson tonight!! OHHH and guess who got chosen to go to GLADYS KNIGHTS FIRESIDE????? ME AND SIS GASU!!! we are so excited!! Only like maybe 10 missionaries get chosen!! Okay I counted and I will hit my 2nd month in like 20 days! so weird!!!
 Sundays are so long let me tellll youuuu! 6 hours of church is not the first thing to do on my list, but it has blessed me!!!! lol.     First of all we went to Santa Ritas ward council and they took like 2 HOURS! noooo! its only supposed to be maybe 1 hour! I was so hungry and tired.... I was not having it !haha I almost died! So after we finally got out we were trying to get home before church started so we could eat and get snacks! So we get in the car and Tiwi (basically our car babysitter) starts yelling at us saying WATCH YOUR SPEED like 20 times ad we were like tiwiiiiii stooop... Im not tryin to starve... we're so hungry!!! it was super funny...lol    We think were pretty hilarious... but everything is good and Im having so much fun out here...do me a solid and please pray the weather cools down so we can at least pretend its fall down here. I love and miss everyone!

love Sister Bischoff!!

I cant even tell you how fast mission life goes by! The 3rd was my month mark from the MTC! soooo crazy! Usually I write down everyday what I'm going to put in the emails but i forgot to this week.    Today i'm going to goodwill to get grandma skirts so i don't flash people on the streets on my bike anymore! 
So this week was soooo funny, literally me and my comp laugh 24-7!    But fast Sunday is crazy because we have 2 or 3 churches we go to, so we have church ALL day so we cant eat ALL day!! But i love church so its all good! 

We went to a Samoan break the fast, but we already ate before we went, but they made the missionaries get food first, so we had to eat another full meal.  We told another family we would come over for some cake, so we had cake. we were soooo sick! like literally i felt like that dumb girl from charlie and the chocolate factory who turns into that huge blueberry... 
Honestly i cant remember a lot of what happened this past week because it goes by so fast! But me and my comp get lost all the time and i have funny videos of us getting lost ill send! There's this family we go to all the time in our ward and their kids are so funny! Their little boy likes taking my name tag and put it on and he runs around screaming "IM A MISSIONARY!!!" and he takes my camera and takes super awesome selfies! ill send those too! Ohhhh i almost forgot... so we went to zone sports day Sautrday morning and we were playing volleyball outside. Sister Gasu didn't want to play so she was sitting on the side. the whole time we were playing.  Mosquitoes were eating us alive like we were their thanksgiving dinner or something! it was so baaaaddd!  I look over at sis Gasu on the side and she did not look good at all, so after the game we went in the car and she was super sick, then we got home and she could barely breath and she walked into the closet the totally passed out! I ran over and was like OHHH CRAP are you okay!? she couldn't even talk, she was like slurring, so I almost called someone, but then she got up and did something to feel better, I have no idea what was going on, so i was like ummm how about you just take a nap, because i dont know whats going on! hahah im the worst, i should never be a nurse! It turns out shes allergic to mosquito bites!!!! Shes good now, We didnt have to bike because of that (praise the Lord). 

Gladys Knight is coming to our mission! Its a free event but you have to have a ticket from a missionary to go! BUT missionaries aren't allowed to go because there's not enough room.... so members can only go if they invite a non member! Some missionaries can go and usher but you have to be on the list. They are all about that this choir is multi cultural...and to be on the list to usher, they want multi cultural missionaries.... GUESS WHO IS MULTI CULTURAL???????? ME!!! so we asked if we were on the list and they said yes!!!! we are sooooo excited! i swear if somehow we dont end up going i will cry!!! (we'll just break in.) haha  They are performing in the church building across from the Gilbert Temple!!! It is going to bee sooo awesome!!! 

The other day there was a dust storm and I thought I was dead like omg... we were biking and there were dust devils everywhere and random lighting...but no rain!!!!  Arizona is so weird man... its so hard to find people here...EVERYONE IS MORMON! or no one wants to talk to us...its all good tho!  im still happy here!