I am only a week behind on our blog. Time goes so fast. We are running every minute. This past week was very interestering. We spent most of the week "finding". We had a goal to visit 15 places a day. Thursday we over achieved with 16. I'll share with you a couple of them. We traveled to the gigantic Vancover hospital to see a patient there. She is in the mental facility for an undetermined time. So we're asking her some questions. I asked about her hobbies. When she said "I love counted cross stitch "; I replied "Oh I can't do that. It drives me crazy " Oops !
We visited a less active lady in her 50's who invited us in. Loud classical music was playing on the TV. We didn't sit down because there was not a place to sit anywhere among "the stuff". We ask her about herself and then invited her to come back to church. I pictured in my mind she could be a real practicing witch. They have a lot of them around here. She stood there with her stringy hair , toothless mouth except for one side tooth, holding a really mean looking cat. "I'm done with church ! I don't believe in organized religion, she said. I'm religious. ". Just then the big cat snarled at us & she said :"my cat agrees with me."
Another less active we have been visiting for several months answered his door and said :
" my girlfriend and I know where the church is. You don't need to keep coming back to invite us to church ". In fact, don't come back "!
However, one of the less active ladies we visit who is a Aboriginal is coming back. The Stake put on a "Truth & Reconciliation " day in Surrey. We invited her to go with us & she did. We spent a wonderful day with her. We learned a lot about the Canadians, the Catholic Church and all the atrocities that were done to the native Indians in Canada. We attended a "Smugh " ceremony with an old Indian in full dress. He came to each one of us and blew Smugh ( a burning substance with lots of smoke) around our bodies. He fanned it on us with huge eagle wings held together with an eagle claw. It was pretty weird. We stood outside in the pouring rain for this ceremony. We then listened to a PH.D. Professor of Indian studies. He was amazing. He is of the Indian descent and also a member of the church. I learned so much from him. Later we went in the cultural hall to try : "Bannock," a strange bread made of baking powder, water, flour. We then watched a program of authentic First Nation dances in full cultural dress. It was great. When we took Jennifer home she said : " I might come back to church ." She hasn't been to church for 25 years.
It's amazing the experiences we've had on our mission. We have met so many different people, learned about so many cultures, and learned so much. We love being missionaries. We love the work of finding the lost sheep.
We taught Leandra the third lesson. She is very open to learning & is reading the Book of Mormon. We hope to set her a baptism date for July. Magid is doing well too and is on lesson three.
This week he told me " you are pronouncing my name wrong ". I felt so bad. "what am I calling you ", I said. " you are calling me little short man ". In other words, I was calling him Midget. Oops ! He and I had a little discussion . I changed his name to Benjamin and we would call him Ben. He liked the name & agreed.
Tuesday we took 29 missionaries for a session at the temple. We were able to do endowments for our old friend Jack in Hope. What an amazing sight to see twenty-nine stalwart missionaries file into the temple. The song : ," We are like the armies of Helaman " floated through my mind.
We are so blessed to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. We know it's so true !
We missed another baptism this week of our little grand daughter , Charlotte. That makes four baptisms of grandchildren and a wedding. Sad. But it's okay. We're doing the Lord's work . That is so important to us and the pay is out of this world. We love and miss you all. Whatever you do.....remember to Keep The Faith always.
Love, Elder & Sister Fisher
