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Fatima and the goats. |
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Oh boy.....last week a lady in our branch died in a horrific car accident. Tonight our neighbor passed away. We are still trying to help the daughter of the lady. There are five children in the family . The other four children came to the funeral. They wanted to know where the money was and how much there was. When the daughter told them there was no will, no money, not even enough to pay for the funeral ;they went home. She is left to clean the house, sell, get rid of everything, deal with grief and take care of her little family. Because her mom wasn't active in the branch, no one in the branch wants to help her. So we have tried to help as much as we can with whatever we can for as long as she needs. Our neighbor just died tonight so we don't know what we can do there. We will see.
We have been spending hours on the food drive this week. I will post a picture of our living room. It will be a blessing after September 17th when that is done. Pray for us. It is really a difficult undertaking and we hope for success.The scope of it is so big. Stan and I will have to do the "Happy Dance" when we're done.
Transfers were this week and we lost a couple of our favorite missionaries. They were outstanding in every way. Too bad we don't have any single daughters to line them up with. Maybe our granddaughters ? Megan ? Lexie ?
SO it unbelievably true. About the rats. I asked our friend Jack if he would call me when he caught a rat at his house. So he caught one on a day we were out of town for meetings. He put it in the freezer for me. I told him I wanted to take a picture and he wanted it to look nice. I will attach the picture here. Keep in mind this is a baby. The mommas are bigger and the daddies much much bigger. I couldn't even take the picture, but Stan did. Good old Jack, he is such a good friend.
Marlene went to church again on Sunday. She sat by a lady visiting from the Stake. The Stake President was the speaker in Sacrament meeting. Near the end of his talk Marlene said out loud to the Stake visitor:" Why in the world do they let people like that talk in church ?" "He yaps like a hurt puppy and doesn't say anything. Blah Blah Blah ." " They put a suit and tie on anybody and let them go on and on".
We had quite a discouraging week. Missions can be an upward climb. We taught a great lesson to Roy about the Book of Moron. He denounced everything, said we could be his friends if we don't talk religion anymore. He doesn't believe there is a devil, or punishment, or hell. ahhhh. We did go rock hunting with him for a couple of hours out on an island of the river with umbrellas . He gave us these cardboard looking and tasting rye wafers for a snack. We did go for a very beautiful hike, saw blue herons. eagles and a goose. Sad that he doesn't have a drop of faith but a very hard heart.
We also taught a lesson to Wally who confronted us with some anti~Mormon literature about blood sacrifice and polygamy. When we asked him to read the Book Of Mormon and pray about it he said: "I will not read it and I will not pray about it."sigh.
We also went to see Fatima and Hussain. They got six new baby goats for their farm. Fatima feeds them with a baby bottle. I'll attach a picture. They are so ready and willing to be taught the gospel.(Fatima & Hussain, not the goats). The zone leaders have been going with us to teach but yesterday when we went there they told us not bring the young kids. Hmmm. How do we tell the Zone leaders that ? Fatima and Hussain are the only real investigators we have.
The study of the Book of Mormon everyday has been a great help to us in our work and discouragement and hopes. We know the book is true. We know the gospel is true. We know we have a loving Heavenly Father and a Redeeming Savior Jesus Christ. Because of that knowledge we carry on, press forward with hope in our hearts that we can make a difference in someone's life. That we can bring people the truth and the great Plan of Happiness. Leaving the comforts of home, missing our children and grandchildren has to be worth it in the end. Sometimes we feel like Johnny Appleseed, we are just planting seeds.
Be strong, be faithful always always. We love you all.
Elder and Sister Fisher
We have been spending hours on the food drive this week. I will post a picture of our living room. It will be a blessing after September 17th when that is done. Pray for us. It is really a difficult undertaking and we hope for success.The scope of it is so big. Stan and I will have to do the "Happy Dance" when we're done.
Transfers were this week and we lost a couple of our favorite missionaries. They were outstanding in every way. Too bad we don't have any single daughters to line them up with. Maybe our granddaughters ? Megan ? Lexie ?
SO it unbelievably true. About the rats. I asked our friend Jack if he would call me when he caught a rat at his house. So he caught one on a day we were out of town for meetings. He put it in the freezer for me. I told him I wanted to take a picture and he wanted it to look nice. I will attach the picture here. Keep in mind this is a baby. The mommas are bigger and the daddies much much bigger. I couldn't even take the picture, but Stan did. Good old Jack, he is such a good friend.
Marlene went to church again on Sunday. She sat by a lady visiting from the Stake. The Stake President was the speaker in Sacrament meeting. Near the end of his talk Marlene said out loud to the Stake visitor:" Why in the world do they let people like that talk in church ?" "He yaps like a hurt puppy and doesn't say anything. Blah Blah Blah ." " They put a suit and tie on anybody and let them go on and on".
We had quite a discouraging week. Missions can be an upward climb. We taught a great lesson to Roy about the Book of Moron. He denounced everything, said we could be his friends if we don't talk religion anymore. He doesn't believe there is a devil, or punishment, or hell. ahhhh. We did go rock hunting with him for a couple of hours out on an island of the river with umbrellas . He gave us these cardboard looking and tasting rye wafers for a snack. We did go for a very beautiful hike, saw blue herons. eagles and a goose. Sad that he doesn't have a drop of faith but a very hard heart.
We also taught a lesson to Wally who confronted us with some anti~Mormon literature about blood sacrifice and polygamy. When we asked him to read the Book Of Mormon and pray about it he said: "I will not read it and I will not pray about it."sigh.
We also went to see Fatima and Hussain. They got six new baby goats for their farm. Fatima feeds them with a baby bottle. I'll attach a picture. They are so ready and willing to be taught the gospel.(Fatima & Hussain, not the goats). The zone leaders have been going with us to teach but yesterday when we went there they told us not bring the young kids. Hmmm. How do we tell the Zone leaders that ? Fatima and Hussain are the only real investigators we have.
The study of the Book of Mormon everyday has been a great help to us in our work and discouragement and hopes. We know the book is true. We know the gospel is true. We know we have a loving Heavenly Father and a Redeeming Savior Jesus Christ. Because of that knowledge we carry on, press forward with hope in our hearts that we can make a difference in someone's life. That we can bring people the truth and the great Plan of Happiness. Leaving the comforts of home, missing our children and grandchildren has to be worth it in the end. Sometimes we feel like Johnny Appleseed, we are just planting seeds.
Be strong, be faithful always always. We love you all.
Elder and Sister Fisher
Saturday, August 20, 2016
The devil came back. Remember several weeks ago we were out knocking on doors when we happened to knock on the devil's door. It was such a frightening experience. (I wrote about it in an earlier letter ). On Tuesday Stan and I we're returning from our morning hike through the forest. As we walked up to our apartment building, he (the devil man) was standing there. Can't tell you anymore. Maybe someday.
Today has been a day of service. This morning we rode our bikes over to Martin & Amelia's at 7 am. Martin has arthritis in his legs and so needed help digging his potatoes. I parked my bike ; happy that I didn't wreck on my way. I saw a few beautiful ripe plums hanging on a tree so I picked a couple for Stan & I to share. I was so happy I found them and walked directly into a tree branch with my face. It will look sad tomorrow for church. Anyway, Stan dug six rows of potatoes and I picked them up into buckets. After breakfast we went to a less active family to mow, weed and clean their yard by the lake. We will take them dinner for 20 people tonight. The mother of the family is less active. She was killed in a horrible traffic accident on Monday. We are helping with all we can. Stan will be accompany the special musical number at her funeral. It's so different here, instead of serving a meal for the family after the cemetery; everyone at the funeral goes in the gym and has finger food. I really don't understand some things.
It's very hot here. The summer temperatures are in the 90's with about 88% humidity. We have two fans, one upstairs and one downstairs. We sleep with one blowing high speed on our faces at night. The other night I dreamed I was in a snowstorm. Ha!
The zone leaders went with us to teach Hussain and Fatima again this week. It was an awesome experience with a discussion about the Plan of Salvation.. Pretty interesting as we had three languages going with everyone trying to understand. It so wonderful to feel the spirit teach. Fatima questioned why we would want to leave a loving Heavenly Father and come here. Hussain is struggling with evolution and man. He is a scientist and has many questions. They both are learning definitions of our Mormon culture.
We are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission. We started August 14th and will end on Christmas. There is such great power in the Book of Mormon. I love it !!!
Marlene came over on Thursday. She sat on our couch crying & telling us how much we have changed her life. She said before we came she was thinking of sucide. Now she said she is happy every morning when she wakes up. She has come a long way. We are hopeful for her. She is still coming to church.
We had the zone leaders for dinner on Tuesday and also a member. Durning dinner the member's chair collapsed and she couldn't get up. It took both zone elders & Stan to retrieve her from the floor. I was really embarrassed for her but she wasn't and after we gave her a new chair she had second helpings.
This Sunday Stan is teaching Elders Quorum, playing the piano for all our meetings and I am teaching both classes in Primary. We just got done cleaning the church.
So an update on the food drive. Wednesday after District meeting we hurried back to Hope to meet with the youth church group from the Calvary Baptist in Surrey. We walked into a long concrete room with tables and chairs. A large projector was at the front of the room along with some African drums. There was a huge sound system playing rhythmic loud rock music. There were 40 or more teenagers and a couple of leaders. We were the only white people in the room. The young people helped us scotch tape 3,000 flyers to 3,000 grocery bags for others to hang on houses in Hope for the food drive. The kids we fun to meet and we worked among them. The only drawback was they had to have music to work. So they would do a few bags & then all stand and stomp their feet and clap their hands to the rhythm. It took three hours but we got that part if the operation done and acquired some new friends. They offered to help again next year. We would have to extend for a month if we were to do it next year. The Branch President really wants us to.
It was my 80 year old friends' birthday this week. On Friday a member from our branch ( the broken chair member ) and Lucy, the birthday girl and I went on a little trip. We traveled to Chillwack, went to lunch and went shopping to celebrate. It was fun. Oh and we did get an ice cream treat too.Of course mine was chocolate.
We love being missionaries. We love our opportunity to serve and to represent our Savior, Jesus Christ. We know this is the best thing we can be doing at this time of our lives. It's not easy to be away from the comforts of our home , our family and friends.....but it is so worth it. What blessings and miracles we are seeing. We know we have a loving Heavenly Father and a wonder Savior, Jesus Christ. The church is true, the Book of Mormon is true. Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson are true prophets of God. Keep the faith, always hang tight to the Iron Rod. We love you all.
Lots and lots of love,
Elder & Sister Fisher
Today has been a day of service. This morning we rode our bikes over to Martin & Amelia's at 7 am. Martin has arthritis in his legs and so needed help digging his potatoes. I parked my bike ; happy that I didn't wreck on my way. I saw a few beautiful ripe plums hanging on a tree so I picked a couple for Stan & I to share. I was so happy I found them and walked directly into a tree branch with my face. It will look sad tomorrow for church. Anyway, Stan dug six rows of potatoes and I picked them up into buckets. After breakfast we went to a less active family to mow, weed and clean their yard by the lake. We will take them dinner for 20 people tonight. The mother of the family is less active. She was killed in a horrible traffic accident on Monday. We are helping with all we can. Stan will be accompany the special musical number at her funeral. It's so different here, instead of serving a meal for the family after the cemetery; everyone at the funeral goes in the gym and has finger food. I really don't understand some things.
It's very hot here. The summer temperatures are in the 90's with about 88% humidity. We have two fans, one upstairs and one downstairs. We sleep with one blowing high speed on our faces at night. The other night I dreamed I was in a snowstorm. Ha!
The zone leaders went with us to teach Hussain and Fatima again this week. It was an awesome experience with a discussion about the Plan of Salvation.. Pretty interesting as we had three languages going with everyone trying to understand. It so wonderful to feel the spirit teach. Fatima questioned why we would want to leave a loving Heavenly Father and come here. Hussain is struggling with evolution and man. He is a scientist and has many questions. They both are learning definitions of our Mormon culture.
We are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission. We started August 14th and will end on Christmas. There is such great power in the Book of Mormon. I love it !!!
Marlene came over on Thursday. She sat on our couch crying & telling us how much we have changed her life. She said before we came she was thinking of sucide. Now she said she is happy every morning when she wakes up. She has come a long way. We are hopeful for her. She is still coming to church.
We had the zone leaders for dinner on Tuesday and also a member. Durning dinner the member's chair collapsed and she couldn't get up. It took both zone elders & Stan to retrieve her from the floor. I was really embarrassed for her but she wasn't and after we gave her a new chair she had second helpings.
This Sunday Stan is teaching Elders Quorum, playing the piano for all our meetings and I am teaching both classes in Primary. We just got done cleaning the church.
So an update on the food drive. Wednesday after District meeting we hurried back to Hope to meet with the youth church group from the Calvary Baptist in Surrey. We walked into a long concrete room with tables and chairs. A large projector was at the front of the room along with some African drums. There was a huge sound system playing rhythmic loud rock music. There were 40 or more teenagers and a couple of leaders. We were the only white people in the room. The young people helped us scotch tape 3,000 flyers to 3,000 grocery bags for others to hang on houses in Hope for the food drive. The kids we fun to meet and we worked among them. The only drawback was they had to have music to work. So they would do a few bags & then all stand and stomp their feet and clap their hands to the rhythm. It took three hours but we got that part if the operation done and acquired some new friends. They offered to help again next year. We would have to extend for a month if we were to do it next year. The Branch President really wants us to.
It was my 80 year old friends' birthday this week. On Friday a member from our branch ( the broken chair member ) and Lucy, the birthday girl and I went on a little trip. We traveled to Chillwack, went to lunch and went shopping to celebrate. It was fun. Oh and we did get an ice cream treat too.Of course mine was chocolate.
We love being missionaries. We love our opportunity to serve and to represent our Savior, Jesus Christ. We know this is the best thing we can be doing at this time of our lives. It's not easy to be away from the comforts of our home , our family and friends.....but it is so worth it. What blessings and miracles we are seeing. We know we have a loving Heavenly Father and a wonder Savior, Jesus Christ. The church is true, the Book of Mormon is true. Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson are true prophets of God. Keep the faith, always hang tight to the Iron Rod. We love you all.
Lots and lots of love,
Elder & Sister Fisher
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Wow!!!! What an awesome mission week. We are so happy to be serving a mission together. We have the best of everything. This week was a spiritual high. It started out with Zone meeting and the huge spirit generated there. We have such stalwart young missionaries in our zone.
Monday when we went to visit our Iraian friends in Agassiz . Their married daughter & her 12 year old son were visiting from Vancouver. The daughter was in a great deal of pain. She couldn't sit, or stand or walk. She had to leave her job to come and stay with her mother so she could take care of her. We taught the family about Priesthood blessings & asked if she wanted one. We got another senior elder to come to help Stan give her a blessing. She cried, her mother cried, I cried. They are not members of the church but the spirit was so strong in the room and they all recognized it. Hussain told us : "whenever you come I have such a warm feeling in my soul." "please come everyday." On Friday we went back to Agassiz to see how the daughter was doing. She was up walking & said she felt much better. We had a lesson with them on the plan of salvation. It was so good because they asked many questions. They are officially our new investigators...all four of them. God sends miracles every day.
One day we were out meeting & talking to people. I said : "let's go in this little store." We were on Main Street in downtown Hope. As Stan & I were walking through the store I over heard someone tell an elderly lady "Happy Birthday." So as we were leaving the store I saw the birthday lady again. Stan said : "let's sing". So we broke out singing "you have a birthday shout hurray" right there in the store in front of everyone. As you know we are not accomplished singers but the thought was there. Everyone stared, the woman smiled. We talked & invited her to church on Sunday. She said she would come. Another miracle. As the scripture says, "by small & simple things great things come to pass."
It's summer here. In the 90's with 80% humidity. With kind friends help we have a fan on a pole to cool us; a table fan and a small window air conditioner. Of course our car is air conditioned as well. Needless to say the sweat pours off of us. Nylons are out of the question. With the heat I still made 10 loaves of fresh homemade bread which we delivered to non- members as part of our on going missionary efforts. We also had a big dinner party at our house for missionary zone leaders, some members and non-members. I made baked Swiss chicken & stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, fresh green beans from our little garden, homemade rolls and a lemon blueberry cake with whipped cream. It was fun !
Our mission president has received a revelation that we are to read the Book Of Mormon as a mission. He's calling it Moroni's Promise. I remember when we did this program with our youth years ago in our Shelley Idaho ward. It was awesome as I'm sure it will be again. We are starting August 14th and finishing on December 25th. I am really looking forward to it.
Part of our service this week was to go help Rocky Wigglesworth unpack boxes at his business. We took the young zone leaders with us. They asked him about his beliefs . He thinks there is a God but isn't sure & doesn't have a need to find out. He doesn't go to church because "it's not my thing . " He doesn't pray unless someone in his family is in trouble. He is such a great guy too bad he doesn't know how much he needs God in his life. I bought an authentic East Indian outfit from him.
We spent time with Betty this week listening to & supporting her. Her son flipped off the deep end and was admitted to the mental ward at the hospital. It's been quite a trial for her. So today we went shopping together to give her some stress relief, fun and therapy.
The food drive is progressing nicely. We took the flyer template to the town printer so he could make the 3,000 flyers we need. This coming Wednesday we are meeting with a youth group from another church to get the flyers stapled to the 3,000 bags. Everything is rolling right along. Because it is such a huge undertaking, we are going to celebrate when it is complete. We'll probably go down to the lake and wade in the water. Ha !
It's been a wonderful week in the mission field. Every day is a new adventure. We have made forever friends and know we could not have had these experiences without coming on a mission. We are happy and trying to serve the Lord with everything we have . We don't want to look back on our mission and wished we had done more. It's an opportunity of a lifetime. We are so grateful for the many miracles we were given with my cancer to get us here. We are blessed every single day. We are learning and growing so much. We love our Heavenly Father and our dear savior Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to be members of the true church. We are blessed to have commandments and covenants to keep us on the path. We are extremely blessed to have beautiful children and grandchildren. We love them with all our hearts. This separation just confirms how much we desire an Eternal Family. That's really what it's all about.
Much love to you all,
Elder & Sister Fisher
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Miracles and missions go together I have found. Our zone leaders are always saying : " Go find a miracle today." And so they happen. I bet if you look for miracles in your life, you 'll find them. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much. Our mission president says God favors his missionaries. Yeehaw ! So the other day we felt the need to drive by our Italian friends. Amelia was outside standing by her bike ranting & raving in Italian. Her bicycle had a flat tire-with the tube hanging out flopping on the driveway. Every ready flat tire fixing Stan went right to work to make the repair. Amelia was so happy she gave us a purple cauliflower and fresh garlic.
Why were we prompted to go there ?
Monday I played "little red hen ". We took fresh homemade wheat bread to five of our non-member friends. Roy wanted to give me $10. for the loaf. He said he'd pay me $10 for every bread I made him. I told him if he paid me I could'nt make it for him anymore. That's the kind of thing senior missionaries can do. To love others, give service and show them the light of Christ so hopefully someday they will choose to be taught and come unto Christ. We went to visit with Hussain and Fetima this week. They were looking for two cats for their farm which is over run with mice. Cats in Canada sell for between $75. And $125. Another miracle, our next door neighbor has a cat who had kittens. Where were they hiding them ? We were able to get two of their kittens for Hussain & Fetima for free !
It's been really hot here. Not so much the temperature, it's about 80. But the humidity is about 80 or higher so blasted... I'm melting. The day I was making bread the kitchen was an oven. So we have this waist high fan on a pole. I put it in the kitchen to help produce some cool air while I was cooking. It was next to a cubboard I need to get the flour out of . Without thinking I bent my head down to open the cubboard. Whoa.... My hair got caught in the side of the fan. As soon as I collected my senses I unplugged it and was able to save three-fourths of my hair.
The food drive is ever going forward. We were able to accomplish a ton this week, finding community volunteers, visiting businesses, meetings with our branch president and sending emails. Interesting item, we are able to use Facebook for help in recruiting volunteers. Also we can do missionary work by what we post on Facebook. Do you know you can do missionary work on Facebook as well ? Yup. We were able to get nine groups from the community to help with the drive this year. Last year they only had three groups so we feel really good about our progress.
We received our new visa's this week. These are good for one year so we should be good for the rest of the journey. All our mail is opened as it crosses the border, there is no privacy here.
We moved the hymn plaque from the back of the chapel to the front today. And we have all new matching number cards for the hymns. Yea. Sunday Stan is playing the piano for all meetings except Relief Society where we sing along with a phone. He is also speaking in Primary and I am teaching Relief Society. I also have the new assignment of decorating the bulletin boards . That's more fun than cleaning the church every week. But we are happy to do whatever we are asked . It's fast and testimony meeting so we always bear our testimonies as well. We love our little branch. They are so small and need so much support. The spirit is strong in the meetings and we love the people. I want to start providing the sacrament bread though, we eat from the same loaf for a month because there are so few members.
Lucy invited us to a celebration party for one of our branch members next month when he is released from prison. She said she'll serve Mormon tea if I will make the cake. I don't think I'll do any lettering on the cake. What do you say : Prison Break ? With luck we might be able to buy fresh salmon from the Indians. Interesting fact.... Here the train blows it's horn when it approaches a bridge instead of at intersections. The reason is that Indians walk along the railroad tracks and the train needs to warn them. We love being missionaries. We love the gospel. We are so blessed to know the truth. Our Heavenly Father lives and loves us so much. Jesus Christ is his only begotten son. His atonement for us is greater than we can possibly understand. Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration. The Book of Mormon is true. We have blessed to have a living prophet today, president Monson. Share your testimony every day.
We love you all,
Elder & Sister Fisher
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