Saturday, July 22, 2017

         It's been a bitter-sweet week here in Canada. We are still attending our various meetings, out knocking doors finding the loss sheep and driving transports for the mission. But this was a week of goodbyes as well.  We took a day to drive back to Hope, our first home in the mission field. Many experiences, memories and friends are there. We stopped in to visit our best friends . All but one are non-members. We saw Jack, Martin & Amelia, Lucy who took us to lunch, dear Marlene who openly sobbed as we hugged goodbye, and Houssein & Fatima. We love them so much and realize we probably won't see them again in this life. It was wonderful to see them all again but sad as well.
        Friday was our last English class. We so love our Chinese friends. Alice, who is from Hong Kong is such a character. She pantomimes as she talks to us. I asked for her address and told her I would write. She said:" No, you will forget me ".  Then she said: "I have been coming to English class for many teachers but you are the only one who truly loves me".  I really do need to write her.
      We cooked one last dinner for the office staff on Tuesday evening. We enjoyed a relaxing evening in a beautiful courtyard full of roses and wonderful background music. It was so fun until the neighborhood  Rat  scurried by. There was some screaming and tripping over a cane and knocking over a chair or two by someone in the group. But, finally we all settled down and planned for the future times we were going to do things together. Who knew we would make Eternal best best friends on a mission at our age ?   When we think of our family at home, eighteen months seem so long, yet when we think of our mission, it seems so short.
        We also took a day this week and did a little sight seeing. We bought a ferry ticket and with our car traveled to Victoria.  We had been there before , last October when Rebecca came for a visit , but we needed to see the Butchart gardens in full bloom and a couple of other places. We went to the gardens  and they did not disappoint. We also went to Fan Tan Alley, the Miniature World and the marvelous Butterfly Gardens.  I will post some pictures. It was a fun all day date for the two of us as we stood out on the deck of the ferry and watched the sunset on our way home.
       We kept busy all week trying to get done all that we needed to do. Besides finding the list from the Bishop of lost lambs, we visited some of our friends. And I had my last therapy session on my leg before we come home.  My physiotherapist is our Stake President so we had some very interesting conversations. He also is a triathlon athlete & marathon runner.
       We stopped in to say goodbye to our Angel friend , Kirsten, in the wheelchair. Stan played the piano for her while she and I looked through her scrapbooks. Tomorrow will be our last 7:00 am ward council meeting and the rest of the day is full of appointments. Friday we will have our interview with the President so we're looking forward to that.
   This coming week is transfers so we will be  cooking two big meals for 60 people. One is on Tuesday and the other on Thursday . We will be moving missionaries back and forth from the ferry and the airport all week as we have twenty missionaries going home and twenty new missionaries coming in.  That means we'll be  staying at the hotel for two nights with the out going one night and the incoming the next night. Whew, two days of three hours of sleep each. Good thing we're not old. Anyway, so I suppose I won't have a chance to write the blog next week. But we will look forward to seeing you all on Sunday, August 13th at 1:00 for church. Please call one of our children for the address, I don't know what it is.  We have so much to tell you about the great opportunity we have had to serve a mission. So many experiences, stories, just tons. We will look forward to that time. We love you all.  We love our Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ so much. It has been an honor to wear His name On our missionary tag. Now, as we come home , We will wear His name on our hearts .We love the Book of Mormon. We know it can and does change lives. Keep the faith always. Keep your testimonies burning bright. The world is a hard place but your testimony will get you through.

We are looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Love, Elder & Sister Fisher

1 comment:

  1. Oh beautiful! I live what you said about wearing Christ's name one our hearts. I'm so glad you got to see the gardens in another season. And it's always the perfect time to make forever friends.

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