Stan teaching English class.

Celebrating Sister Gallager"s Birthday.

Sister Torman"s Birthday (from the office).

English student and her prayer rock.

another Prayer rock.

I'm practing writing my name is Chinese.

Vancouver Airport/

Sister Koloskva off a a flight.

At the ocean  gathering prayer rocks.

Apollo , the missionary van.

Richmond missionaries on a visit to the Temple.

I will finish the post and correct the errors tomorrow. It's almost 2:00 AM and I  need to go to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow but I have so much I haven't written yet.

     It's been a week already that I have been trying to write. Time disappears as quickly as the sandcastle on the ocean beach. Which by the way we had the opportunity to go the the ocean for a few minutes this week. We went to find rocks to take to our English class. I collected a few awesome shells as well. We taught our students, who are non-members how to pray and they each decorated their own prayer rock to take home. I will post a picture. The students loved the idea. We had two English classes this week. The other class we taught them English words & definitions. If the students got them right, they got to play "tick tack toe". A couple of them had a rousing compition.
      It was transfer week so we spent three days moving missionaries from the ferry to the airport to the office. They are long days ,usually about fourteen hours with only three hours a sleep each night. Stan does all the driving and navagating of the spegetti bowl of roads in this concrete jungle.
   We cook for two district meetings on Wednesday's now. We also eat with the office couples three times a week taking turns cooking. We are enjoying amazing meals and wonderful conversations with friends. Last Sunday we had a dinner with the office couples and the President & his wife. We are building some really awesome friendships. We are so blessed. One of the office sisters is Japanese. She made us a heavenly salmon salad, wontons and fried rice. Yummy !
     Th President assigned us to take 20 young missionaries to the temple on Tuesday. Stan drove "Appollo" the 15 passenger van.  The missionaries name everything. Reminds us of home. Our family named everything from our cars, to our pets, to rooms in our house. We had the Russian applesauce factory, High-ho silver the car and the "Dukes Room ", named after the Dukes of Hazard tv show. We also had the opportunity to attend the temple on Friday evening with one of the office couples. We love love the temple and hope to be officiators again in the Idaho Falls temple when we return.
     A cute Chinese less active sister who we visit gave me a wig. She was very kind and thought I might need it. She kept telling me it was real hair and very expensive. The Chinese people are fun to be around. They are so animated when they talk, bowing over & over , putting their hand over their mouth when they laugh and waving their arm while tapping their head when trying to think of the English word to say. A couple of the students in our class are teaching me to write my name in Chinese. I will post a picture. They are also trying to teach us some words but end up laughing at our pronunciation.
     We met two wonderful sister missionaries on our travels this week. One from the Ukraine and one from Hong Cong. They were both going home after completing their missions. We saw a miracle at the airport with the Chinese sister. We arrived at 10:30 pm to get her checked in and through security. Her boarding pass said she could check two bags at no cost. But when we were at the ticket line the airport worker said she must weigh her carry-on & her purse. They weighed 14 kiagrahams instead of the 7 kiagraham limit. They were charging her $150 for the extra 7 k. So we opened her bags,,unpacked, moved, shuffled things right on the floor in front of everyone. It was embarrassing.  She finally filled a bag of clothes for me to take back to the office to donate to another missionary. By this time it was almost midnight. We weighed the bags again and it was still too much weight. The cost was now $100. I called the President to ask what we should do. He said pay the extra $100. A minute later, a airline employee walked by and asked about our problem. She looked at our missionary tags and said : " you may take all of it, two checked bags, a carry-on and a large purse for only $32." What a miracle. The Lord does bless his missionaries.We also took care of five incoming sisters from Spain, Denmark, Utah, China, Phillipines. The first evening they arrive and spend all day in trainng then we take them to the Hotel and stay overnight with them. In the morning we return them to the mission office where they will have more training & be assigned their companion. We help with their meals at the mission office as wheel so we get a chance to get to know them.

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Aren't  we blessed ?

Our Apartment in Richmond

    What a wonderful week !  So many great  experiences. We were out knocking on doors with the rain dripping off our umbrellas trying to connect with the less actives on our ward list. There are 400 members on the ward list with less than 100 who attend church. Two of the people we contacted durning the week came to church on Sunday. These are less active members who the Bishop has assigned us to find and invite them back to church.  One was a 27 year old sister. She has a strong testimony of the gospel but life has thrown her for a loop. When she was a beautiful twelve year old she discovered she had brain cancer. After many brain surgeries, chemo,  and radiation , she is left in a wheelchair living in a home by herself. She doesn't have any hair, has limited sight, and has a limited use of her hands. While we were in her apartment the spirit told me she was a favored beloved daughter of God. She said she has just been in the hospital for seizures and that she wasn't 100% yet. We invited her to church. "I'm only about 90%". I'll come when I'm back to 100%."  She said. Sunday she came to church for all three hours. Her name is Kirsten. I will never complain about having ugly hair again.
  We visited with a couple from Ireland. When we knocked on their door the husband yelled through the door without opening it. "Go Away", he boomed.  His wife came and opened the door. She is a very active lady who comes to church every Sunday.  Bobby Dickerson was offended 30 years ago and hasn't come back. They are very Irish with a great thick accent. We had a very good visit with them and so will keep going back.
    Another door we knocked on flew open. A twenty something young man, Shane , stood there with a welcoming smile. I had just introduced ourselves when his mother rounded the corner. " you don't come here and knock on my door without calling. You call first. We are busy " "leave now " she said. They are from East India. We will see if the young Elders can go see Shane and connect with him. After they call first, of course.
    I could tell you about all thirteen people we called on this week, but another day.
Besides going out knocking doors, we are very busy helping the office people. On Sunday evening we had the two office couples and our mission President and his wife come to dinner at our little apartment . We all had such a great time. It was amazing.  We 've been invited to share dinner with the office couple three nights a week. Each of us is assigned a night to cook the dinner. If the mission president & his wife are available they will attend as well. It's wonderful to be around  such strong leaders of the church. We are truly blessed.
   We went out with the young sisters a couple of times. One day we went to help do service for a non member. She was just leaving . " let's not go home. " I said. "Let's knock on doors until we talk to someone ". It was pouring rain as usual. We joined arms and walked down the street as if we were Dorthy and her friends on the yellow brick road. We knocked seven doors, talked to two people. One invited us back. It was someone's bright idea to jump a ditch, with water in it, along the way. The bright idea person jumped first. I didn't  quite make it...sigh. The others succeeded. It was fun ! You've always got to have fun!
   Today Elder Fisher is driving the big silver 13 passenger van, Apollo,  full of young missionaries to the temple. We have permission from the president to attend a temple session and then come right back to Richmond to work.

More to come as soon as I get a chance to write.

Our English Class

English Students

More Of Our Class

Playing Consetration. 

So Happy !

So This Is where we get Christmas Holly.

Where people live in Richmond.

More Apartments.

People either live in the apartments or they live in Million  dollars homes.

Just a store across the street from our apartment.

Cheesy Smile.

Two of my new best friends.

Sister Rothe from Springville Utah.

Sister Galligallar from Scotland.

Ting Ling Lee Fan

One of our less actives.

Our new address......

#135. 8091 Ryan Road
Richmond British Columbia
V7A.   2E4

So interestering..... I have to tell you about our new ward in Richmond. The people are from......


China.         Thiland.     Philippines     Australia       Scotland.            Denmark.        England.      Japan

Findland.     Chili.      India.       Italy.        France.       Ukrain.        Russia.    Iran.       Iraq.      Fiji

To name a few. What an adventure !!!! We are learning about so many countries & their cultures. It's amazing. I am hoping to learn a few words in each language. Fun !!!! The mission president said there are 65 different languages taught in our mission.

This week we have been out finding the lost sheep.  Lucy  Rossi is a Childian from Italy who married a Candian. We  went into her home to meet with her. She doesn't come to church anymore because her life is hard and she is depressed. She cooks and takes care of ten people everyday. There are two very large dogs, one of which promptly  came and sat on my lap as I was sitting on the couch. His head was so big I could'nt see Lucy as I talked to her. "Loo...get off the Sisters  lap ", Lucy said. Her house was very crowded. Out of one corner spilling out into the center of the room were dolls of every kind. From another corner came books and magazines and papers moving to the center too. Another corner was filled with a dinningroom table and about eight chairs; each one a different style & color. All sorts of things hung from the ceiling, like flowers and do dads and decorations. We invited her to come back to church. She said she is not ready as she would have to get out of her pj's. I can see there is a wonderful potential for her to come back. She just needs someone to love her.

We taught the Chinese English class on our own Friday. It is so fun !! The class members always are given a homework assignment but they never do it. So on Friday I made those chocolate marshmallow brownies. I told them they could have one this time but from now on they only got a brownie if they showed me their homework was complete. One of the Chinese students said :" Are you trying to be my mother ?" I said:  " absoultely yes." Tomorrow we are going to play the constration game with Enlish words. I bet they all have their homework done.

A miracle this week, one of the many, I so love being a missionary !!! Anyway last Sunday a non member mom was visiting from Alberta to see her daughter. The daughter is less active but they came to church. The mom, Bev and I became instant friends. On Thursday, ( here's the miracle), I was walking in a store. The right place at just the right time. We ran into each other. She said : " I was sorry I did'nt get your number at church Sunday. Will you & your husband come to dinner Friday night ? " She is a college professor in Math and accounting and computer programing. She and I have nothing in common. We built a friendship that she plans to keep going on Facebook and  she is coming back in the summer. She is open to learn about the church. Today I sent her the new video of Joseph Smith & the Restoration. Can't wait to see what happens.

One of the less actives we met last week and invited to come back to church , came today ! We're still looking for Sister Fan, our Chinese friend. Maybe next Sunday.

Here are some of the names on our list to find:     Drikibeau
Ng
Arusha Kapoor
Legaspi
Anuik
Bamba
Monjusko
Symchy

We are so thrilled to be missionaries. So excited about the work. We really want to make a difference.
I have tons more to tell you all, but that will have to be later. We are having the mission president & his wife, the two office couples and us for dinner.

Keep the faith. Be happy because you are so blessed. We love you all so much !
Love, Elder & Sister Fisher