On P-Day we went biking with our friends.

Sister Torman my friend.

This is our home in Richmond.

We bought a new suit for Elder Sarimento from the Philippines .

He only had one suit . It had a hole in the back of his jacket. 

How people live in Richmond.

Another day in English  class.

Vancouver

We biked around the sea wall in the rain.

A beautiful sight on our bike trip.

The sidewalk to our church this morning.

Our Friends.

Our English Students.

A non -member dinner.

My Handsome Companion.

This beautiful bush in a neighbor's yard.

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Our Mall.

Vancouver skyline.

Two Happy missionaries.

    Just an interesting day in the mission field.  We were up at 5:00 am to drive the AP's to the airport for a zone conference. We came home & went for our two mile walk, then home to study. We made breakfast and took it over to the mission office to eat with the senior couples there .We love them. We made hashbrowns,  sausage, vegetable & cheese omelets, blueberry muffins ,apple juice and a fruit plate.  After breakfast we hit the road finding and visiting less actives. At one home the lady answered the door, scowled at us and stepped out on the porch. We introduced ourselves. She snapped :"I can read " pointing to our tag. She is a member who quit church because people are onery & mean. She believes in Joseph Smith but that's all. Finally she invited us into her home where  her four barking dogs gave us each a headache. We invited  her back to church. "That's never going to happen ", she told us. Mostly people don't let us in, but occasionally someone does.  
     We took a young missionary from the Phillipines & his companion shopping. The president said he only has one suit and it has a big hole in the back of the jacket. So we went to buy him a suit . Stan also gave him a pair of shoes, four ties, a white shirt and belt. His favorite was a red flashlight and a watch, which Stan also gave him. Who knew he had been on a mission a whole year without owning a watch. It was fun to see him so happy.
   From there we went to an appointment , a new convert from Iraq. We are teaching her English.  It fun to teach her because she has such a good attitude and is so willing to learn. She gave up her country, her family and everything she knows to join the church. She was Muslim.
   We also taught our Chinese English class. The ward mission leader & his wife prepared a large Easter meal to invite non members. Because our Chinese class are all non members, we took them all to the dinner. They loved everything about it. Stan & I went to the church early to set up tables & chairs. I was in the kitchen helping cut tomatoes for a Greek salad when the mission leaders' son (about six ) came us to me and said :" Give me your knife." I looked at him and said : "Go get your own". Really ?  Who tells a 6 year old to go get a butcher knife ???
    Today supposed to be Pday so we did our laundry. We only have three hours a week with
Mondays as our assigned day. We share a small laundry room with all those in our building. It costs around $20. to wash & dry two loads.
  Spring as arrived. It is so beautiful here in British Columbia. Almost every shrub, bush and hedge are loaded with flowers of every color. There are actually "Rose " trees. Bright colored tulips grow in bunches along the roadways. Between singing "Popcorn popping  " white blossoms on trees and the beautiful pink cherry blossoms , it is a Delightful Spring suprise. We are loving it !
   This week we went to see our friend Kirsten. She is the lady who had brain cancer when she was twelve. She is very disabled , lives in a care home, never had the opportunity to marry or be a mom. Stan played the piano for her while she and I sang her favorite songs. "There is Sunshine in my Soul",  "I Stand all amazed ",  and " I am a Child of God ".  It 's such a sacred experience to be in her presence. Angels are always there. I love her.
    So we went to an extremely upscale restaurant in Vancouver this week with the  mission president,
his wife and four senior couples who all work in office assignments. It was wonderful to be together with all the leaders of the mission. But, wouldn't you know it.... First the waiter spilled a glass of ice water on me. Then, as we were eating the pre-dinner fresh bread, I saw a human tooth on my plate.
 I thought the cook who made the bread lost a tooth in the dough & I happened to get it .Shortly after that, I discovered I had a big hole in between my teeth. It scared me as I thought: " oh my, if one of my teeth could fall out, maybe all of them will fall out on the table in front of me. " so I started to cry.  It was so embarassing.....really, who has their teeth fall out at a fancy dinner party ?
    The days are going too fast. There is so much finding to do. So many people to tell the "good news" to.  We love love being missionaries. There's nothing like a mission to stretch you physically and spiritually. We have truly been blessed. We are so grateful to the Lord for this opportunity to serve at this time of our lives.  We have come to appreciate so many things that we have taken for granted before.  We love our dear Savior so much !

We love you all tons !  Keep your light bright and your testimonies strong .
Love,
Elder & Sister Fisher

Spring has sprung.

Beautiful.

Our sweet English class.

Two of our students are being taught the gospel.

                Our Chinese Spy Friend.

inside the Chinese mansion.

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The part of dinner I put in my purse.

Wow!!!!!!!! What a week. I have so much to write I don't know where to start.  So... We were invited to dinner at the huge huge 3 million dollar home of a former Chinese Spy. She didn't speak any English  so that was interesting. She fed us a meal of Chinese soup which consists of chicken neck skin & bones, little bits of some other kind of meat. (Someone said it was probably dog ), with lots of grease , onions, celery. Also rice to mix with it to soak up some of the grease. She gave us a round white glob. I'll post a  picture. It was like a glob of raw dough. I put mine in my purse. Stan ate his.

For a drink, we had a cup of boiling water. The dessert was so yummy, pieces  of orange & apple.  Her home was massive. She kept talking in Chinese and smiling. I kept waving my hands & smiling.
I think her husband might be part of the Chinese mafia because her husband lives in China. The mafia buy up big million dollar homes in Canada to launder money. She said she only has to live in the house for two years. Crazy.
    It's spring here. There is popcorn popping on some of the trees, others have blooming flowers , on the tree. People hang clear lights on the boughs to celebrate spring. There are some "Alice in Wonderland " like trees full of roses. They are beautiful.  The gas prices are incredible .....$6.00 a gallon. One thing I love is all the open markets with fresh fruits & vegetables. We don't buy our
produce at the grocery store anymore.
      We are now teaching English to a new convert from Egypt. We go to her home once a week to give her one-on-one lessons. She was a Muslim who converted to Christianity & was baptized a Mormon. The mission president had to interview her so she would understand that if she was baptized she could never go home to Egypt again. If a Muslim coverts to Christianity, they are killed.
Even her relatives could come to Canada to find her & kill her. Maesounn is so pretty and has a four year old son, Joseph; they speak Arabic. She is a delight.
     This week we had the opportunity to drive the big van full of Chinese non members to Vancouver to attend a convert baptism. That was a crazy ride. Too bad I don't know Chinese. The baptism had 50% non members in attendance. It was a spiritual high.
     We met a less active man named Ken. He didn't invite us in but came out on the porch to talk to
us. In his early 50's and in a wheelchair, he was quite a character. He had the big holes in his ear lobes that look like a window you can see the other side of town through. He was covered in tattoos. I was looking at all of them until I discovered they were either snakes or rats so I looked elsewhere. He said he felt guilty about not coming to church. He comes from a very active family except for him. His parents served two missions & his brothers & sisters are all active.  Maybe someday he will turn himself around.
  One of our friends, Sister Bennicossa, is the mission chef. She is part of a senior missionary couple. One of her assignments is to shop , prepare and feed large groups of missionaries for certain occasions. We go help her prepare, serve and do dishes. She made a deal with me that if I would teach her how to make homemade bread & cinnamon rolls, she would give me a copy of all her recipes. Ta Da... I got them. Good thing, the president ask if I will prepare, shop and serve the big groups of missionaries for two of the on going events as the Bennicossa ' are going home this week.
I love to cook but am worried about the stress of the situation. Eeek !
   The days are flying by. We run from the minute we get up til we can finally go to bed exhausted. But it's a good kind of tired.  Today we started out early to go "finding" the loss sheep. We made 12 stops and met with four interesting people. Two of them invited us back & seem quite open to returning to church. We meet with the Bishop and others weekly for a missionary coordination meeting. last night the Bishop gave us a new list of people to go find. Tomorrow we will go work more on the list. Tomorrow night we are going to the temple with the other couples in the mission office. I don't  know about other missions, but in this one there is no time to sit around watching TV and knitting. Time is a premium and we don't dare waste a minute in the urgent work before us. We are so blessed to be serving a mission, so happy for this opportunity in our life. We are learning so much, experiencing more than we ever anticipated, and love being the Lord's missionaries. We love you all. Keep on the path, there is safety & peace. Don't let Satan creep into your life. I know he is very real & very very evil. Always keep him away by choosing the light.
   Until next week....
   Our love,
   Elder & Sister Fisher

Kirsten .....our friend.

She & I made cards together.

Stan playing the piano for Kirsten.

She contracted brain cancer when she was 12 yrs old.

     I didn't think a mission could be so hard.......yet, I often have  found myself crying in bed at the end of the day for the joys, miracles, and blessings  I have felt in one day on our mission. This mission is amazing , a once in a lifetime experience.  Let me tell you about a couple of miracles.  Thursday we set a goal to find 15 less actives in one day.  We were able to stop by 15 places. We met with 7 people and saw two miracles. One was Andy. We have been by his home several times with no answer. This time as we rang the bell, I Prayed out loud :" please let someone open the door ".! Andy did. We had a great visit, stayed an hour,  and invited him back to church.
      As we were following our list, we had the impression to go to a certain door.  The woman answered with a face of grief and tears. Her x-husband & father of her only daughter ; had just been taken to the hospital. She is blind , her daughter a teenager. They were getting ready to catch a bus to transfer to another bus to get to the hospital. We drove them there quickly. She is a less active lady who hasn't been to church for 30 years. The next day, she called to tell us how lucky it was that we came when we did. We saved them so much time & trouble. Her husband died that day. We said :" It wasn't luck. Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ love you. They sent us here to let you know of that love from them ."
    Sunday morning we stopped by Kirsten's house to pick her up for church. She is very disabled in a wheelchair. The sun was shinning, first time in three weeks. We walked in & commented on the sunny day. She started singing "There is Sunshine in my Soul Today".  We sang it together all the way to the car.  She keep singing it as we drove to the church a couple of miles away.  As we rolled her wheelchair into the chapel, the conference prelude was playing  :" There is Sunshine in my Soul....". She commented, "Can you believe that ?"  Then durning the conference, Elder Holland's entire talk was about that song. It was such a lift for her. I told her :" See, God  knows you, is aware of your needs, & loves you. "
       Our Chinese English class is so fun. At the end of Friday's class, the students begged us to make the class an hour and a half instead of one hour.  So on Monday we taught from 4:00 to 5:30. At the end of class , they asked if we will make the class for two hours ?  We said "no".  Stan plays an opening song and I sing. Yes, you read that right. Unbelievable....me with little musical talent. But after about a month of classes, all the students sing with me. I think they sing more to cover my voice than really wanting to sing. Hey, whatever works. They are all non-members and we always sing opening & closing songs and have prayers so they can feel the spirit. We also teach them how to pray so they can take turns. This week we defined all the difficult words in "The Lord is my Shepherd ".
       We did transfers again this week for the mission. It was Mission Leadership Council so we were doing airport & ferry runs for two days. Being part of the office gives a chance to be with the mission president and his wife often. They are amazing leaders. As are the two office couples we work with.  Sister Smith is a past General Authority so it was fun to sit by her in conference as she knew all the General authorties.
    Conference was outstanding. Our days of watching it in our pj's is over though. We dress and go to the church for all six meetings.  Interestingly enough, only the full time missionaries attend with an investigator occasionally.  It was an incredible conference. We were so excited to hear about the Pocatello temple. Those people have prayed for years to have one there.
     We have an appointment in a few minutes. Keep the faith always. We are blessed to have the truth.
We love you all.

Elder & Sister Fisher.
 

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