Leandra & Marvin from  Africa.

Stan adjusting the new bikes we got for them.

Meassoun, a new convert at the temple for baptisms.

First time at the temple for Maessoun.

Beautiful British Columbia.

Part of the city.

This is where we walk every morning two miles.

My two best friends at the mission office.

Downtown Richmond.

More city views.

Sorry these aren't in order.

Also on our morning walk.

Stan helping Martin on our visit to Hope.

Just beautiful skies we get to see everyday.

The wind blew on our walking path.

One side of traffic.

It's usually six lanes like this.

This is the little family in exile .

Zenit

Just one of the tables at our International Dinner.

The view outside our bedroom window .

  Last night we had a ward International dinner at the church. Each family brought a potluck item to share from their country. The table was a feast. There were people from forty-eight different countries. It was amazing to see the array of foods and the many people from all over the world in one ward. Many of the foods were interesting, many I couldn't recognize what they were so I didn't choose them. After the meal a man said someone brought cooked snake. Eek!  when we had to wait almost 30 minutes for our table's turn for the food, I decided to use my paper plate as a frisbee  so we could entertain ourselves and others to make the waiting seem shorter. Then Stan came up with a great magic trick using the paper napkin after my trick fizzled. He saved the day. It was a wonderful night for us as we had seven non-members at our table ; five who are investigators. At our table alone we had Iran, China, Iraq, Africa, Japan, Turkey,  Canada and the United States. Scotland & Denmark stopped by. What an experience this mission is meeting different people and learning their cultures. We feel like we've traveled the world.
    We took our P-Day this week and traveled the four hours to our first mission area of Hope. We visited all of our non-member  friends and  had a most delightful day. Stan was able to help our friend Martin plant peppers in his garden & cleaned his chicken coop. We were invited to eat with friends at each visit. There is no such a thing as dieting on a mission. The scenery was magnificent ! Being in the huge concrete city with towering high rises, freeways crossing every which way and traffic as far as the eye can see, I had forgotten about the lush green forests, winding rivers and beautiful waterfalls around every corner. It was nice to be home again.
    We are excited about our work with the less activities in the ward. One lady, Jennifer , came to relief society with me on Thursday night. And Tess, came to church today and stayed all three hours. Last Sunday we had three others attend. We feel like the work is progressing and we are doing our part to gather the lost sheep. Today one of songs in sacrament meeting was "Dear to the heart of the shepherd ". As we sang that song the spirit told me ....we are helping gather those who are more dear to our Heavenly Father & the Savior than gold. What a great work we are blessed to be a part of.
   Leandra, our investigator from Africa , is reading the Book of Mormon. This week when we meet with her we will give her a baptismal date.  It's so exciting.  Majid, from our English class also has a baptismal date. Woohoo! He is from Iran. Tonight we have an appointment with Toby and his daughter Oy from China. We are looking forward to teaching them as well. The Lord is really blessing us. We are often very tired, but it is the best kind of tired there is. We love being missionaries. We love the people and the work we have here.
  An interesting story was this week we drove Maessoun and her son,Joesph to a doctor appointment in Vancouver. With traffic it took us three hours for a 10 minute appointment. The best part was  the lady I met in the waiting room. Her name was Zeint. She was a young mother with a husband, two children, a seven year old girl and a four year old boy. She was a muslim from Turkey but the family had fled to Ethiopia when Turkey became too scary. Her husband was a principal and she was a teacher at a school there. They had bought a house, a car, and had many friends there. One day the turkish government sent them a letter saying the seven year old's passport was to expire and they would not renew it so the family needed to return to Turkey.  So...when the school in Africa planned a trip to the United States; the father bought tickets for his little family . As the trip was to end in the States and everyone boarded the plane to Africa, this little family ran away. They were able to cross the border into Canada before the little girls" passport expired. They left everything they had worked for and only brought what they could carry in backpacks. When we met them they were at the immigration office trying to get a place to stay the night. I gave her a pass a long card with our names  and phone number. I shared with her my testimony of Jesus Christ.  I told her that God is aware of her and her family and that He loves them very much.  I told her when they get settled to call us because we would like to tell them about the "Plan of Happiness". She looked me in my eyes and said:" I know you know God because you have His light in you ". What a compliment ! It was unique what I felt talking with her.  I felt like I knew her from before; As if we were friends in the pre-existence . I like to think I made a promise to find her here and tell her about the gospel. I will post picture of her & her little family. I pray for her everyday.
   It has been a wonderful week in the mission field.  What a blessing and opportunity it is to be a missionary.  We are building relationships for eternity.  I can't think of anything better.   love you all. May the Lord bless you all.
Elder & Sister Fisher

        This week actually flew by. It was an amazing missionary week. We went to our last zone conference with our mission president, president Burt. He is an amazing man of God. We have learned so much from him. Anyway his three year calling is coming to the end at the first of July. We will really miss him. Our new mission president is Elder Wong from the first quorum of seventy.  President Burt taught us many things at our conference which was from 9:00 am Wednesday until 6:00 pm.  We had a bite of dinner and then went to a missionary correlation meeting until 9:00 pm that night. One of the really neat things president Burt taught was the three things every member of the church needs to do to keep from going inactive . They are :
         1. Pray on your knees every morning and night.
         2. Study the Book of Mormon every day.
         3. Attend the temple weekly or bi-weekly or at the least once every month.
He said doing these three things will keep us close to the Lord & our testimonies strong.
        We did many missionaries visits to less actives as usual. We also were able to take two members to the ward temple night on Tuesday. One, Maessoun, is a convert of seven months from Iran. She was able to be baptized and confirmed for several people. She loved her first experience in the temple. The other member is Kirsten, the lady who had brain cancer as a child. No one else in the ward was willing to take her ; but we are friends. It's always a pleasure to be in the company of Angels.  She couldn't do much but was able to be confirmed for several people. She said just being in the Holy temple is a blessing to her.
        So finally, we have an investigator, Leandra. I think I wrote about her last week. She will be coming to church tomorrow for all three hours. Today we gave her the first lesson on the Restoration. Tomorrow night we will give her the second lesson, and on Monday evening we are going on a picnic with her & her son. She is a single mother with a nine year old son. She does'nt own a car so Stan bought them both a bicycle . They were so excited. So we are riding bikes to the picnic on Monday. Leandra is a most delightful person. She is going to college to become a nurse and is from Africa.
    We are really looking forward to church tomorrow . Besides Leandra & her son , we have another investigator , Majid, from Iran. He is from our English class. I asked him after class on Friday if he would like to come to our church. He said "yes". So exciting.  Also, a lady who has'nt been to church in 30 years is going to Relief Society meeting on Thursday with me.  Things are going great. We feel a great urgency as time passes so quickly.
     The three senior sisters in the mission office took me to lunch for my birthday. We went to a beautiful restaurant on the pier by the ocean. It was a perfect setting and a beautiful day. We laughed ourselves silly talking about doorknob tricks and such. It was so much fun.
      We love being missionaries. We love serving the Lord. We love telling people about the blessings of the gospel. Because we have so much , we feel we need to share what we know with others.  We are so grateful for all the blessings and miracles we enjoy everyday. We love our Heavenly Father, our Savior Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. Keep the faith , it's worth it !
We love you all,
Love, Elder & Sister Fisher

See the story of the crows and the eagle.

The BC Ferries we transport to.

Beautiful flowers my daughter Rebecca sent for Mother's Day.

On our morning walking path.

How tall the trees are around here.

Also on our walk today.

Thelma and Louise (see story).

Practice makes perfect...we're getting better at selfies.

Bald Eagle sitting in the tree.

     WOOHA !!!!!     We have an investigator !!!!!   She is a single mom from Zimbabwe Africa.  We met her at a birthday party, visited with her yesterday, and she & her son are coming to church. I gave her a pass along card so she has already looked at Mormon.org to find out some things about us. Next week we will be teaching her the first lesson. She is so fun. She & I hit it off  from the start. She has been a professioanl nanny & laughs hysterically at whatever I say. We are so excited to have a real investigator. Please pray for her & us.
     There are two couples in the office that turns making the trip to Point Roberts U.S.A. to collect the mail.  On Monday, the couple that was assigned to go was unable to because the Elder had another assignment. So the wife, Sister Smith , asked me if I would go with her. She thought it would be fun because both she & I are directional challenged. Neither of us know where North or a East is nor do we care. We can't read a map either. So both Stan & her husband were worried about us going together. Stan wanted to drive us but Sister Smith said we needed the adventure. We could be like "Thelma & Louise " , whoever they are. So we took our passports , a lunch & took off. We laughed ourselves silly, had a great time and only got lost once. We even remembered to pick up the mail. Ha ! I'll post a picture of us.
    Yesterday , as we were walking to our car, we heard a great commotion. There was a huge eagle sitting in a tree across the street. Around the eagle five black crows were squawking loudly and waving their wings . They keep up the rattling for several minutes. I tried to get a good picture. Finally , the eagle gave up & flew away. There is a picture of the birds chasing the eagle. It was quite the show. I suppose there were some babies in the tree who needed protection. Quite the sight.
     We had a new student come to our English class yesterday. He is a young man from Iran. He was very handsome and very nice. There are many people from Iran here as well as every other country in the world. We have learned so much about other cultures. It's a great learning experience .
     An interestering thing about Canada is how many times you drive down a main city street and the entire lane is blocked off. Men put on those fluorescent vests, take a shovel & a wheelbarrow  out in the street and play. Stan says, their mothers let them play in the street when they were little. Also because real estate is so valuable here , the apartment complexes don't have parking lots. So at night people park in the lane closest to their apartment. You have to be careful driving in that lane because you never know when your going to come across a parked car. Yes, there are no parking signs posted along the streets.
       Now we found a "warlock". First it was a "Witch"  in Hope and now a warlock in our Richmond ward boundaries . They don't do their ceremonies in their house. They build a little building in their back yard. The warlock one had dragons pained on the outside. It has an old fashioned door handle like in King Aurther's castle. They are words painted on the side of the cabin saying : " quiet, I am hunting dragons ".  It's painted nice and is well kept. The house he lives in is a delapated trailer house with junk all over the porch and rats running to & fro.
      We love our mission president. His three years are winding down. He and his wife will go home just a month before us. We will be getting a new president from China, president Wong. That's good because there are so many Chinese people here. He is also a General Authority so he will serve two years instead of three.
      This week was difficult because our sweet granddaughter was married in the Rexburg temple and we were'nt there. That was really hard to miss. We have always tried to put the Lord first in our lives and this was no exception. We will be so excited to meet our new grandson at a later time.
     The gospel is so true. Our Heavenly Father is so good to us. We are so grateful for many blessings and many miracles. There is no doubt where they come from. We so love our Savior Jesus Christ and will never be able to comprehend His love for us. It is sad to see people here  who don't know Him nor do they want to. We have many opportunities to recite the scripture : " I saw a pillar of light, directly above my head, which desended gradually until it fell upon me ..." Joseph Smith is the true prophet of the a Restoration. We owe so much to him. The Book of Mormon is a treasure beyond words. We should find ourselves reading it everyday. Our mission is an incredible experience. Many joys and tears. A journey we are happy we could make together. We love you all.
Elder & Sister Fisher
   
   

I'll write the captions for these pictures later,,,,when I have a few minutes.

This is called a "Monkey Tree "

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At the airport delivering missionaries going home.

Faithful departing missionaries.

Our little friend from Iraq Birthday.

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                                  Trying a selfie.

At the temple with our dear friends the Smiths.

Beautiful British Columbia skies.

Just a yard that's pretty.

.     So we made it through the week with six days of moving missionaries to and from the Ferry and the Airport. It's a rigorous week. We sent 9 missionaries home after their faithful service. We collected 12 new missionaries to begin their mission adventure & we transferred the regular missionaries to their new areas. And interesting note is that the returning missionaries bags are torn, duct tapped, missing a wheel or a handle. The new missionaries arrive with fancy new bags , zippers, wheels and everything neat & intact. And with the look of a "deer in the headlights ". We had 2:00 am, 3:00 am , 4:00 am and 6:00 am  trips to the airport, along with morning & afternoon & evening runs.. We were finishing our last transport around 11:00 pm at night. This time I had to drive one of the vans full of missionaries. The driving here is about ten times worse than driving in Salt Lake. I was transporting to the ferry and we had to go through the George Massey tunnel. It's very busy, very long, and very dark. As we were about to enter the tunnel I told the missionaries : "I'm scared of tunnels so I just close my eyes ". They all started praying.
      Besides all the transporting we prepared the meal for 30 on Wednesday evening. (After only 2 hours of sleep ). That included the incoming missionaries, the office staff , the President & his wife. It was pretty stressful but went fine , I guess.
        We had an assignment from the Bishop to drive the mission van to a neighboring city to take members to the new Self-Reliance workshops. We just get assignments added on every week. I think we will need to sleep for a month when we get home. We are constantly running.
  Speaking of running.....I was running in the rain no less on Wednesday afternoon. One of the office ladies was with me but she wasn't running. Hmmm. Anyway I ended up doing the "mandatory splits " on the cement. Now, I was never a cheerleader for a reason. Needless to say, it was not a pretty sight. Doing the splits is not a normal activity for a 65 year old grandma. I may never be the same.
      We were invited to a birthday party with the new convert lady from Iraq. Her son turned five. It was fun. Fun party but the best was we met a lady from Zimbabwe Africa. We have a return appointment to teach her the gospel. We are so excited.
      We are still out knocking doors trying to find the hidden less active members and invite them to come back. Those visits can be very interestering. Sometimes people are so nice to us and lie about coming back and others are mean. Never- the -less, we keep on trying.
      Yesterday, the mission presidents' wife took me shopping. She took me to the most amazing fabric store that I'm sure is the only one like it on earth. They had fabrics from all over the world. My mind was just racing. I put so many bolts of fabric in our cart that it tipped over and spilled them all on the floor. Sister Burt is a first class beautiful person. I was suprised to learn she was a seamstress and a tailor. She said it was a "gift" she was born with. How did I get in the wrong line to miss that one in Heaven ? I can sew but it's certainly not a gift, it's hard work for me. After we bought our most unusual beautiful fabric, she took me to her house and taught me how to make the most fantastic skirt. I am still in shock today. I just hope I can find some time to sew while I still remember what she taught me. So so fun ! While I was gone with Sister Burt, Stan cleaned the house. It was P-Day after all.
    Our dear office friends went with us to the temple on Friday. We were able to do 30 Inatitories & sealings of names Jack and I found  while we were in Hope. Jack is such a sweet man and dear friend. The temple is such a blessing. It will be great that the Idaho Falls temple will be re-opened when we come home.
     This week, our beautiful granddaughter, Megan is getting married in the temple to her sweetheart. We are sad we will miss this awesome event. We have also missed four of our little eight year old grandchildren's baptisms which makes this grandma sad. But they know where we are and that the Lord has always come first in our lives. It's ok.
    I just finished the laundry a day late. We have had to resort to buying new clothes because we can't find the time to get the laundry done. I really don't mind. Ha ! Stan is pacing the floor so we need to get out finding more people. Pray for us that the people will open their doors and their hearts to the blessings that await them.
     We love you all.
     We feel the urgency of time.
     Love, Elder & Sister Fisher

We love our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. That knowledge is essential to the plan of Salvation. We have no clue how blessed we are to be members of the church. Keep the faith, keep your testimonies strong.