Monday, October 31, 2016

a member of our branch bought us each a bear bell for safety while we walk in the forest daily.






   Monday we made a trip to Bellinghanm to help fulfill the requirements of our visa to cross the boarder once in a while. The guard at the inquired if we are converting anyone. "No such luck " l reported back, " can we give you a lesson?" I asked. He smiled and quickly handed back our passports and wished us luck.
     It was refreshing to get back in the States again, mainly because the fuel and groceries are half the price there. I purchased 30 gallons of gas. My little blue Hyndani , l named it Blue Tango, gets 40 miles per gallon.
     I like to go help our friend Martin, a guy from Italy, with his garden and chickens cause his back hurts. He let me clean out the chicken coop. It's probably been a while since it's been cleaned because l loaded a whole wheelbarrow and dumped it on the garden . We then spread some fresh sawdust in to make the birds coasey for the cold weather. Martin offered me a dozen eggs.
    I haven't seen any meaintance for the apartments here so l cleaned the furnace and filter to prep it for winter.
    On Friday we were lucky enough to go to the temple and do two sessions. Only on Friday can we do two back to back. I get pretty excited to see and feel how Adam and Eve had to bring on the Fall.
    Sunday l played the piano for prelude, the hymns, and the primary program. The kids surprised me with how well they did because last week's dry run was a disaster. The Branch President wanted to hold a fifth Sunday meeting for the adults, but the president had to be at the hospital on account his fourty year old son is dying of cancer. Probably any day now. The first counselor is moving away this week so he couldn't do it and the other counselor had the gospel doctrine class so I volunteered. I chose the doctrine of agency because l think it is mostly  misunderstood. Everyone seems to think they are a free agent and can do what ever they want. The truth is we are all agents of Christ and are obligated to keep the commandments and create happy families. One old high priest argued,"l still have my  freeagency!" I countered "lts like having a mortgage . Can you say to the bank it's Christmas so l don't have to pay you this month?" He railroaded the discussion and prevented me from bringing out the beautiful parts of this doctrine, but a couple of members tried to rescue me.
     Rain, rain, there's been so much rain in October the weather people think a record will be broken. Almost 200 millimeters so far, that's 7.8 inches. Friday the sun broke through and l was able to sneak in a bicycle ride, 50 kilometers.
      I've been reading the Book of Mormon and I think the best sermon on the atonement of Christ is given by Abinadi. Wouldn't it be fun to meet him and listen to him teach?
      See you next week. Love from Elder Fisher.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Our trip with Rebecca was too awesome. We stayed in a cute little air B&B with little chestnuts hidden in every room. We saw  many things, ate lots of good food and some not so good, saw so much beauty. We walked down huge streets with high skyscrapers and much much more. I can't possibly put all 400 plus pictures on here. so there are a few for now. I'll add more later. It was an excellent adventure !

The trees in the city had eyes to watch you.


Parliament at Night

Victoria, British Columbia



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Breathtaking  Buchart Gardens


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       Hello everyone. We had a most wonderful week. Our daughter Rebecca flew in to visit us. She was here for six days. Her kind husband took the week off work to take care of the four littles. Thanks Seth ! We were able to travel and see so many interesting and beautiful places. I only took 487 pictures. Ha ! She was able to attend our little branch , stay in our little apartment, and meet our friends. It was so fun to have her come. I must admit , it made me homesick for a few days.

       We had another senior missionary couple come for a visit and dinner at our apartment. Their assignment is ten hours north of us. They are CES missionaries. It was great to have someone to trade stories with. They are from Logan Utah. He is a temple sealer, a past Stake President and a real spy. Well, he's retired now.  I tried to get him to tell me some spy stories but he said he wasn't  allowed to. I was disappointed. They teach a couple of the teenagers In our branch Seminary over the Internet. That was interesting to learn.

        Zone meeting was this week. Such a spiritual high. What great leaders we have coming up in our young missionaries. They are amazing. The church and the world is in good hands. They are faithful, stalwart warriors doing what they know is right. The spirit is tangible in those meetings. It's a joy to be a part of this great work. We are truly blessed.

      We finally had a Relief Society activity for our little branch. It was pumpkin night. Everyone (all five of us ). Made something from pumpkin. Even the Relief Society president dressed like a pumpkin. There was pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin fudge. Ha. Stan got to attend to be the priesthood leader.

      News Flash !!!!    The great anticipation is that in November 12th we will travel to Richmond to attend a meeting with.......Jeffery R. Holland. Yes, the mission is all a buzz. We are more than excited. What an awesome opportunity !!!  We are so looking forward to that. He will also be at our stake conference that weekend. Two days later we will drive back to Richmond to do the missionary transport to the airport. Fun !

    We love you all. We love the Gospel, it really is good news. Keep the commandments...it's worth it !


Love,  Elder & Sister Fisher




Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Saturday, October 8, 2016

  We were at a temple recommend interview with the mission president when it turned into a nice visit, so we offered ourselves to help lighten his load. With a smile and a twinckle in his eye he suggested he may have an idea for it. "Oh good ," we thought, "a new adventure."
   A week later Sister Wilson called and assigned us to transport the going home missionaries to the airport. So on Tuesday we made our journey in our little blue car named Blue Tango to Richmond B.C. Two hours from Hope to the mission home. The mission home and office is attached to the stake center.
   We arrived at 11:00 am and quickly made friends with the office staff because the big van and the mission president were at the temple with the 11 missionaries who would be on their way home tomorrow.
   They put us up in a big hotel that was nearby. In the afternoon l returned to the office to see the big ford van waiting for me, so l connected the trailer to it and backed up to the front door to make it easy
to load all the luggage and we then drove them to the mission president's home for dinner, a cebelatron, and testimony meeting. At 8:00 pm we got the call to transport them to the hotel. I passed out their room keys and instructed them to rondiview at 4:45 am.
    All 11 arrived on time to reload the luggage in the dark and off we went to the airport 15 minutes away. Some went to the international gate and others needed to be at the Canada departure area. Parking was complicated.
   Elder and Sister Wilson were with us to show the way and give instructions. How will we remember everything in 6 weeks when we do it again?
   We returned to the hotel to sleep 2 hours before the drive home. By mid morning we returned the van and trailer.
   Back in Blue Tango for the return trip we spotted a huge Buddah Temple. The sight of was so interesting we went in to see.  A lovely orential lady named Judy warmly greeted us a gave us a nice tour but wouldn't let us photo the monks singing and chanting at the golden Buddah. She invited us
for lunch we hadn't scheduled that much time for it. Next time though we will.
   It turned out to be a fine adventure for us to be with 11 strong and faithful Elders. I was able to sit
with one of them and talk about some of our favorite Book of Mormon stories.
   Today Sister Fisher made 4 loaves of bread that was still warm when we took them to some of our investigators.

                                          Elder and Sister Fisher



Sunday, October 2, 2016

Kawaka Lake  where we were cleaning out the house.


      Unbelievable last seven days We thought after the food drive we'd be looking for things to do. We had a temple recommend interview with our mission President. We told him we didn't leave our children and grandchildren for 18 months to not work hard every day. I said : "I don't want to finish our mission and say. I wish I could have done more." So he gave us a special calling to drive the two hours to the Mission home every six weeks.  There we will stay in a hotel , arise at 2:00 am to gather missionaries & their baggage. We will transport them in a fifteen passenger van with a trailer attached to the Vancouver airport for their "Return with Honor" flight home by 4:00 am.We are sooo excited !  Stan is more than capable of negotiationing the outfit ( van & trailer ).  I bet we will have some great conservations along the way. So fun !

      This week we spent packing , helping, cleaning the house of the less active sister in our branch who was killed in the car accident. She was a widow but had five surviving grown children. Three of them only asked : "where's the money ?" The fourth one is so strung out on drugs she can't function. The only daughter left lives in another city and has a husband & two children. She is a member but hasn't been to church since she was a teenager. She's quite interesting as she has a degree in  movie industry make-up. We saw her portfolio. It was amazing as she could change a normal looking person into one of those odd creatures in the Star Wars movies or any other movie as well. She is very talented at her vocation but pretty well unable to do anything with the house problem at hand. After seven days of toil and strife we (Stan&I ) were able to complete the task. I could make it a really long sad story but you'd have to get out your violin and play a very sad song

.   We were able to make the six hour trip to the temple yesterday with our good friend Jack . I am so amazed at how I can learn something new almost every time I attend the temple. It was great. We bumped into our Stake President there. He had just been to his son's funeral the day before. The son was walking on the bridge with a railroad track , was listening to music with his headphones and texting. He didn't see or hear the train. So sad.

Today we were thrilled to listen to both sessions of conference and we listened to the Priesthood session together.What an amazing conference. Since being on our mission I have come to really appreciate how blessed we are to have the gospel in our lives. What a difference it makes.

   Stan has been asked to teach piano lessons to a child from a family in our branch who can't afford to pay for lessons.

 We have  this awesome new plan too. We are going to take some family history classes and we will meet with members and non members at our branch every Tuesday to teach them and help them their personal family history. Our first week was this past week. We had one member, Jack come and one non -member ,Lucy. It's so fun to work with them because Jack is a first generation member . With Lucy ,I helped her make her own tree.  Now I wished I would  have spent more time learning family history before I came.  It's a  fascinating work especially when you start with prayer.

We love being missionaries. We love serving the Lord. I couldn't help myself from crying today when the missionaries from the MTC sang "Called to Serve ". What a blessed opportunity we have.

We love you all. Keep the faith , enjoy the gospel, share the joy with those who don't have it.


Have a great conference day tomorrow !,

Love, Elder & Sister Fisher




Saturday, October 1, 2016