So it gets dark here about 4:00 in the afternoon. There is snow on the tops of all the high mountains around us but we only get a lot of rain.  Because the humidity is so high even though the temperature is 40 degrees or so, we are wearing thermals. The cold drills right through a person. Maybe one day out of seven we'll get a break of sunshine. But, British Columbia is still beautiful. Whatever the season, there is beauty around ever corner. The Lord really made a beautiful world for all of us.
     Last Monday we started a FHE group for the " young at heart ". Everyone is sixty or older. We take turns meeting at each other's home each  Monday. We have a dinner and then Stan gives the lesson. The dinner is potluck Candian style. That is ,the hostess plans the main dish and everyone is assigned what to bring to finish the meal. How is that potluck I ask ?  Only in Canada. The first time we had a sit down meal with China, Crystal & candlelight.  The second time everyone brought about three things plus the meal. How is that potluck ?  Well, it's a feast anyway.
     So last Monday during our FHE lessons Stan asked a hard doctrinal question to the group. The members all sat there while the non-member, Jim, answered correctly. That was so awesome.
     Our friend & neighbor Marlene asked for a Book of Mormon to read  last week. We gave her one several months ago . She gave it back with a rubber band around it & placed in a grocery bag tied shut. She has come a long way in nine months. Also yesterday she came over and told me she hadn't eaten for two days. She was very hungry and wanted a potatoe. I took her in the kitchen and said :" Whatever we have, you are welcome to have. " "Our food is your food. ". I had her look in the fridge and the pantry and choose whatever she would like. She was very humble & grateful. I felt bad I didn't know she was going hungry. I should have guessed, she's alone on a fixed income and she is very skinny for an 80 year old.
    A big & scary man walked into our building durning church last week. Big full beard, about 400 pounds, and smelled like a wet horse.  Stan sat to visit with him for a bit. After greeting  him, I excused myself and walked down the hall gagging from the smell. A member saw me & asked if I was alright. Anyway the man, Daniel, asked us to come by his home & teach him more about our church. So on Tuesday we drove out to this old old scary motel on a barren street not far from a truck stop. It was dirty, delapated with a invisible dog howling. People were hanging out  by their open front doors and staring at us ; the  street was eerily quiet like just before a gun fight at the OK corral. We counted the numbers til we found # 16.  The door was open. Daniel was lying  on a way too small bed for him. There was garbage scattered all over the floor and a clothes line draped crosswise from one end of the room to the other. I didn't go inside. Stan talked to Daniel, reminded him who we were, and started talking about the Book of Mormon. Daniel waved him away saying : " I've learned enough. I don't want to learn anymore. " It wasn't until later that we learned that motel was the home of drug dealers and their customers. eek !!!
      I did surgery on an oversized stuffed smurf for our friend Rocky. The smurf had a decapitated head. We see Rocky every week trying to hopefully have him hear the lessons one day. He's a very interesting guy. He buys storage lockers at auctions and then sells the stuff to the locals. I've found a few good buys there. Whenever he has some religious picture or statue he shows it to us while singing a hymn of some sort trying to pursuade us to by it. It's always something Catholic.
     The highlight of the week was traveling to the mission office in Richmond to personally shake hands and have an interview with Elder Jeffery R Holland. He asked that all 250 of the missionaries file pass him. We were to shake his hand, tell him our name & where we were from. No more, no less. Later when he was speaking he told us that constitutes a personal interview. In the time we say our name & our home, his eyes can penetrate our soul. Wow !  He talked with us for two hours, pounded the pulpet, yelled at us, taught us from the scriptures, and bore a rock solid testimony. He also gave us a blessing. It was quite the meeting with a ton of proper church protocol. I even think he had a body guard. Cool.
     We also did our second transport of the missionaries going home with honor to the airport. It was from 2:30 am til 6:30 am after which we went back to the hotel to get a couple hours of sleep before our drive home. I tell them all : " not be the last person off the plane........their Mom is in agony waiting. But it also a time your Mom will feel real joy. " There's nothing else like the first hug from your return missionary.  We  enjoy this assignment to meet and visit a bit with each one. What amazing missionaries !
       We love being missionaries it's a most excellant adventure. The journey is not an easy one but oh the experiences we've had, the people we have met and the things we have learned.  The church is true. We have a Heavenly Father who knows and loves us. We are immeasurably blessed because we have his son, Jesus Christ to be our personal Savior. The Book of Mormon is true for sure ! Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration and Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet today. We are so blessed. We love you all,
        Sister Fisher