As I write this morning, I am at church an hour early. Stan has early meetings now that he is in the branch presidency. So I will write the week's letter while I wait.
Oh, the Love our Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ have for us is more than we can comprehend. We have see so many tender mercies, blessings and miracles. This week was an awesome spiritual high. We were only in Hope one day this entire week. Tuesday we traveled to a specialized training with the mission president & his wife. Also the Assistances .It lasted for six hours. We learned amazing things. The spirit filled the room. Wednesday, we traveled to a world wide full time missionary training from the apostles. Wow ! That was a testimony building experience.
Wednesday was also Marlene's 79th birthday so we took her out to dinner. She loved the time we spent listening to her. She ate about two bites of her meal. When the chocolate cake, whipped cream with chocolate syrup and ice cream came , she didn't miss a drop. It was fun. Thursday we traveled to the mission office in Richmond for two days. It's great to be around the office staff and all the young missionaries as we transport them to the airport and back. We also help with the meal preparations and clean-up. The days are long and we return home exhausted but we love every minute of it. Saturday was the Chinese New Year. Because Richmond is 93% Chinese, we wanted to stay there for the huge celebration...but we had to come home. Bummer !!!
Oh on Monday we had family home evening with our young at heart group. Betty made spegetti and served our plates. Everyone got a mountain of spegetti with enough to feed six hungry people. What is the proper thing to do in that situation ? Eat what was on your plate til your busting at the seams or leave 3/4 on your plate and offend the cook ? I was sick all night. Tomorrow is our turn to host 12 adults for dinner in our tiny apartment. That should be fun. One interesting fact here, Canadians think anything made in a casserole dish is "lazy cooking ". I'm making spiral ham, potatoes au-graten and Vegetables other than Brussels sprouts. I'm a lazy cook I guess.
This week will be a little lighter on the travel. We're looking forward to going to the temple with our zone on Tuesday. I love the temple so much. Another zone meeting on Friday and a Senior couples party in Richmond on Saturday. Missions are more fun and more work than I could have imagined. There is so many blessings and opportunities, I just wouldn't want to miss.
I'll share a couple of thoughts from this week.
"Always be in GPS range of your Heavenly Father . Think about your day yesterday. If God wanted to tell you something by the still small voice... Was your day so that you could hear it ?"
We love being on a mission. It's an amazing experience.
We love you all. Stay faithful and endure to the end. The best is yet to come.
Elder & Sister Fisher
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Good morning this cold beautiful Sabbeth day,
We are still serving in Hope British Columbia. We love being missionaries and serving in Lord in whatever we can do. Stan is the first counselor in the branch presidency now. He loves to conduct sacrament meeting. He also loves to play the piano. Today he will be conducting, so he will play the prelude, move to the podium to open the meeting, move back to the piano to accompany the opening hymn and back and forth for the entire meeting. If it's not too irreverent to think...it's quite entertaining. Today both Stan and the branch president are speaking. On the other hand I will only be doing sharing time and the nursery for primary. We only have seven hours at the church today. Missions are wonderful !
As missionaries , we are studying the attributes of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are assigned one attribute per day to study and learn from the Savior how we can have that attribute a part of our life.
It's an amazing experience, you should do that too, for you. One thing I have learned on this mission is the unbelievable love our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ have for us. How truly kind they are and how they care about "the one". Elder Bednar recently wrote a song about "the one". It is beautiful. You can look it up on the computer.
On Wednesday of this week we have the special opportunity to travel to a world-wide missionary broadcast from the first presidency only for full-time missionaries. Our president Burt told us "it will be life changing". We are so excited to be a part of that; to see what we can learn at the feet of a true and living prophet of God.
We are so blessed and happy to be serving a mission in this window of time. The weeks fly by. I try not to dwell on family and home. That's not a good idea. I am learning to "live in the moment" and appreciate where we are and the many opportunities before our face.
We love our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. We love the gospel and it's message that "families can be forever". Being away for so long has taught us how important that concept really is. We know the church is true. We know Joesph Smith is the prophet of the restoration and that he did see our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. We know the Book of Mormon is true. We are on our third time on reading it all the way through on our mission. What a great blessing that has been. We love you all so much ! Don't ever give up on keeping the commandments; they will keep you safe. Have a wonderful week.
So much love,
Elder & Sister Fisher
We are still serving in Hope British Columbia. We love being missionaries and serving in Lord in whatever we can do. Stan is the first counselor in the branch presidency now. He loves to conduct sacrament meeting. He also loves to play the piano. Today he will be conducting, so he will play the prelude, move to the podium to open the meeting, move back to the piano to accompany the opening hymn and back and forth for the entire meeting. If it's not too irreverent to think...it's quite entertaining. Today both Stan and the branch president are speaking. On the other hand I will only be doing sharing time and the nursery for primary. We only have seven hours at the church today. Missions are wonderful !
As missionaries , we are studying the attributes of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are assigned one attribute per day to study and learn from the Savior how we can have that attribute a part of our life.
It's an amazing experience, you should do that too, for you. One thing I have learned on this mission is the unbelievable love our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ have for us. How truly kind they are and how they care about "the one". Elder Bednar recently wrote a song about "the one". It is beautiful. You can look it up on the computer.
On Wednesday of this week we have the special opportunity to travel to a world-wide missionary broadcast from the first presidency only for full-time missionaries. Our president Burt told us "it will be life changing". We are so excited to be a part of that; to see what we can learn at the feet of a true and living prophet of God.
We are so blessed and happy to be serving a mission in this window of time. The weeks fly by. I try not to dwell on family and home. That's not a good idea. I am learning to "live in the moment" and appreciate where we are and the many opportunities before our face.
We love our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. We love the gospel and it's message that "families can be forever". Being away for so long has taught us how important that concept really is. We know the church is true. We know Joesph Smith is the prophet of the restoration and that he did see our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. We know the Book of Mormon is true. We are on our third time on reading it all the way through on our mission. What a great blessing that has been. We love you all so much ! Don't ever give up on keeping the commandments; they will keep you safe. Have a wonderful week.
So much love,
Elder & Sister Fisher
Saturday, January 14, 2017
There goes another week for our history book in Canada. Another week of snow and below zero temperatures. We did have the opportunity to enjoy a little sunshine when we drove from our little Hope ,in the shade of the towering mountains , to the big city of Abbotsford. It was actually sixteen degrees warmer there as well. We traveled to Bellingham for Stan a dentist appointment and to buy groceries & gas that was affordable. Gas in Canada is now $1.30 per Liter. That's about $4.70 a gallon. Cheese is $12.47 a pound...we buy it in Bellingham for $3.60 a lb. It's a bit of an ordeal to cross the border back & forth. Our little blue car has our Idaho license plate. When we go through the border gate, they always ask : "where is Home ? Stan answers :" Hope". Then there is a big explanation if we live in Hope why do we have an Idaho plate ? Then we have to explain we are missionaries .All the while the officer is glaring at us, looking in our car, while wearing a gun, badge, bopping stick & handcuffs. So far so good. We haven't been searched yet.
We had a magnificent Zone meeting this week. In Abbotsford again. There's not much in Hope. It's wonderful to be a missionary , to wear a name tag everyday being examples for Jesus Christ. Stan has a hard time remembering to put on his tag so I put a couple of extra ones in the glove compartment (or jockey box if your from Idaho) of the car. Like my glasses; my tag is the first thing I put on in the morning and the last to take off at night. I've been known to sleep with mine.
We took our dear eighty year old friend , Lucy , to Chillwack for the day Thursday. We found her an amazing cane so Stan bought it for her. Lucy doesn't need a cane to walk, she collects them, and uses them when she goes places for "old lady effect". It works, everyone opens doors for her and let's her be first in line. I love her. She is hilarious. She walks along really slow and wobbly as she says :" oh boy...oh boy....oh boy". She collects canes with character, like wood carved or wood hand painted ones. "They are conversation starters " she says. People always stop and talk to her. We took her to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. She's a vegetarian who loves Chinses food. I spilled a little lunch on my white blouse and she announced in a very loud voice :" We can't take you anywhere ". People stared.
We have been helping Jack, an elderly man in our branch , do his family history. He waited fourty years to go to the temple. So now we want to help him with temple work. We set up a Hope Branch baptistry date for Friday. He took sixty names to be baptized and confirmed. We have five youth in our branch , however, only two went to the temple with us. So Stan and I both got baptized. I don't know about Stan, but I haven't done baptisms for the dead since I was a teenager. I don't like water, even a little bit. I made the man baptizing me promise not to leave me under the water. First they asked me to do 22 names. I gasped... and started to cry so they gave me only fifteen. Even though it was a fearful event, it was a joyous occassion. The branch was able to complete all 120 ordinances for Jack's family. He was a witness as he is unable to be proxy. Another sister from the branch had twenty names as well.Two of the names where mine from the Widmer side of our family. It's always awesome to be in the temple.
I was asked to help with Activity days this week. My mind said : "Say no ". I didn't listen. It turned out to be a disaster. In this little branch they don't have cub scouts so the 8-11 year old boys are combined with the 8-11 year old girls. I gave myself permission that night before I went to bed , to say "no way " next time.
It was Stan's birthday this week. He still looks and acts like a 30 year old. He chose the menus for his meals all day and I made him a birthday cake. He even survived me singing Happy Birthday to him. He's a good sport. Although it isn't fair; he only has one birthday on our mission and I have two. sigh.
The mission President announced this week who our new mission president will be when he completes his mission in July. It is a member of the Seventy, Elder Chong. That will be great. I think all mission presidents must be great. Ours certainly is. We love him ! We probably won't get to know Elder Chong much because we will complete our mission in August.
We love being missionaries, we love the gospel of Jesus Christ. We love and miss you all. Be faithful every single day; that's happiness.
Love, Elder and Sister Fisher
We had a magnificent Zone meeting this week. In Abbotsford again. There's not much in Hope. It's wonderful to be a missionary , to wear a name tag everyday being examples for Jesus Christ. Stan has a hard time remembering to put on his tag so I put a couple of extra ones in the glove compartment (or jockey box if your from Idaho) of the car. Like my glasses; my tag is the first thing I put on in the morning and the last to take off at night. I've been known to sleep with mine.
We took our dear eighty year old friend , Lucy , to Chillwack for the day Thursday. We found her an amazing cane so Stan bought it for her. Lucy doesn't need a cane to walk, she collects them, and uses them when she goes places for "old lady effect". It works, everyone opens doors for her and let's her be first in line. I love her. She is hilarious. She walks along really slow and wobbly as she says :" oh boy...oh boy....oh boy". She collects canes with character, like wood carved or wood hand painted ones. "They are conversation starters " she says. People always stop and talk to her. We took her to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. She's a vegetarian who loves Chinses food. I spilled a little lunch on my white blouse and she announced in a very loud voice :" We can't take you anywhere ". People stared.
We have been helping Jack, an elderly man in our branch , do his family history. He waited fourty years to go to the temple. So now we want to help him with temple work. We set up a Hope Branch baptistry date for Friday. He took sixty names to be baptized and confirmed. We have five youth in our branch , however, only two went to the temple with us. So Stan and I both got baptized. I don't know about Stan, but I haven't done baptisms for the dead since I was a teenager. I don't like water, even a little bit. I made the man baptizing me promise not to leave me under the water. First they asked me to do 22 names. I gasped... and started to cry so they gave me only fifteen. Even though it was a fearful event, it was a joyous occassion. The branch was able to complete all 120 ordinances for Jack's family. He was a witness as he is unable to be proxy. Another sister from the branch had twenty names as well.Two of the names where mine from the Widmer side of our family. It's always awesome to be in the temple.
I was asked to help with Activity days this week. My mind said : "Say no ". I didn't listen. It turned out to be a disaster. In this little branch they don't have cub scouts so the 8-11 year old boys are combined with the 8-11 year old girls. I gave myself permission that night before I went to bed , to say "no way " next time.
It was Stan's birthday this week. He still looks and acts like a 30 year old. He chose the menus for his meals all day and I made him a birthday cake. He even survived me singing Happy Birthday to him. He's a good sport. Although it isn't fair; he only has one birthday on our mission and I have two. sigh.
The mission President announced this week who our new mission president will be when he completes his mission in July. It is a member of the Seventy, Elder Chong. That will be great. I think all mission presidents must be great. Ours certainly is. We love him ! We probably won't get to know Elder Chong much because we will complete our mission in August.
We love being missionaries, we love the gospel of Jesus Christ. We love and miss you all. Be faithful every single day; that's happiness.
Love, Elder and Sister Fisher
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Good Morning and Happy Sabbeth Day !
We love being missionaries....the days fly by. We are being called to help at the mission office more frequently. We helped with transport last week for three days and were called to go again Thursday & Friday this week. We drive the young missionaries to and from the airport; also to and from the ferry. It's great to be amoung the young army of the Lord. Between the shuttle service ;we are able to help the two senior couples in the office. They are becoming great friends. We also help the senior couple in the kitchen with the meals for the big missionary meals and the cleanup. Stan is an awesome dishwasher.
On Monday we attended the funeral of our Branch President's son. He was an outdoor, extreme sportsman. One time he was climbing a huge mountain near us in the winter. He was climbing a waterfall when the ice broke away. He fell 80 feet and crushed every bone in both his ankles. He crawled seven miles in the snow with two crushed ankles to get help. He had strength and stamina beyond belief. So four years ago he got cancer. He fought the hard battle as he did anything in life. In July the Doctor said he would die any day. He refused to give up. He willed himself to live. His family started a bedside vigil at his hospital bed. He was under hospice. But he set a personal goal to live until his next birthday. He passed away on December 28th which was his 43 birthday.
On Wednesday we had a most inspiring district meeting. The district leader invited two recently baptized members . They gave great ideas and told us of their conversation story. The Lord prepares people to accept the gospel. His timing is always right. We need to have faith in that timing. Being a missionary is a great blessing. To study everyday, pray continually, listen to the spirit and grow in so many ways is reason to be grateful for the opportunity to be here.
We love and miss you all...we are happy to be missionaries at this time. What a learning experience.
Have a wonderful faith filled week and remember to laugh everyday !
Love, Elder & Sister Fisher
We love being missionaries....the days fly by. We are being called to help at the mission office more frequently. We helped with transport last week for three days and were called to go again Thursday & Friday this week. We drive the young missionaries to and from the airport; also to and from the ferry. It's great to be amoung the young army of the Lord. Between the shuttle service ;we are able to help the two senior couples in the office. They are becoming great friends. We also help the senior couple in the kitchen with the meals for the big missionary meals and the cleanup. Stan is an awesome dishwasher.
On Monday we attended the funeral of our Branch President's son. He was an outdoor, extreme sportsman. One time he was climbing a huge mountain near us in the winter. He was climbing a waterfall when the ice broke away. He fell 80 feet and crushed every bone in both his ankles. He crawled seven miles in the snow with two crushed ankles to get help. He had strength and stamina beyond belief. So four years ago he got cancer. He fought the hard battle as he did anything in life. In July the Doctor said he would die any day. He refused to give up. He willed himself to live. His family started a bedside vigil at his hospital bed. He was under hospice. But he set a personal goal to live until his next birthday. He passed away on December 28th which was his 43 birthday.
On Wednesday we had a most inspiring district meeting. The district leader invited two recently baptized members . They gave great ideas and told us of their conversation story. The Lord prepares people to accept the gospel. His timing is always right. We need to have faith in that timing. Being a missionary is a great blessing. To study everyday, pray continually, listen to the spirit and grow in so many ways is reason to be grateful for the opportunity to be here.
We love and miss you all...we are happy to be missionaries at this time. What a learning experience.
Have a wonderful faith filled week and remember to laugh everyday !
Love, Elder & Sister Fisher
Monday, January 2, 2017
Whew...what a week. Happy New Year to everyone. We can't believe it's January already. We have almost been on our mission for a year. Time goes so fast in some ways. This week flew by. We drove to Rchmond to help with the missionaries transports. We were there for three days. Two of the three were sixteen hour days, from 6:00 am til 11:00 pm. We loved every minute. We drove through the concrete jungle from the mission office to the airport to send off departing missionaries and other trips were to pick up the arrivals. We also drove back & forth to the ferry. One run they asked Stan to drive the mission van while I was to take Sister missionaries in our car. I don't drive in Salt Lake because I get lost. I didn't want to drive in that kind of traffic (which is ten times worse than SLC ) but I couldn't say no. Stan promised to take care of me so I followed him back & forth. They don't have curb & gutter here so at one point I was driving on the sidewalk. One of the Sister missionaries with me suggested it might be better if I drove on the road.
On one of our trips we were transporting one Elder and three Sisters from a pick up at the airport to the mission office. The sisters told us that the Elder with us is an accomplished vocalist. So he sang all the way from the airport to the mission office. He had the most smooth perfect pitch accupella voice. He sang : Come Thou Font Of a Every Blessing.
How Great Thou art
Be Still My Soul.
I Stand All Amazed.
Nearer My God To Thee.
Lead Kindly Light.
I can't described the feelings I had, the way I felt in my heart, or the tears that fell. It was a treasured experience. Such a beautiful blessing , peacefully unassuming, unexpected, truly loved.
On the lightest day of the driving we were asked to help the office couples with meals. The office has two senior couples. One of them is a dear friend I knew from the pre-existance( she told me so ). She also is the cousin of Marie Osmond. The other couple, the husband sang in the Tabernacle Choir for twenty years & his wife has served on the Primary General board. They are both such a blessing to be around.
On the way back to Hope after our work there , we met with the Stake President. He called Stan to be the first counselor in the Hope branch presidency. He was sustained and set apart on New Year's Day. This is his third time of being in the Bishopbric. He's a good man.
We were invited to Lucy's for a traditional English New Year dinner on Sunday. We enjoyed Prime Rib, roasted potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, Yorkshire pudding ( which isn't pudding at all ) beets, fake champagne, and Tuxedo for dessert. There was China, Crystal, and candlelight. Everything was British prim and proper. After dessert I taught everyone how to play "what is it " and we sang in our Crystal champagne glasses for pretend microphones. I guess I'm not that prim & proper. We all laughed and had a wonderful time.
Today was sad. We drove to Chilliwack to attend the funeral of our Branch president 's son. He was 43 and just passed away from cancer. A beautiful twelve year old girl with the voice of an angel sang : " Going Home ". Both Stan & I cried like babies thinking of our own Matthew who has gone home. In Canada everyone brings fruit, small sandwiches, Squares and raw vegetables. Everyone who attends th funeral goes in the gym to eat and mingle. The first time I thought it was weird, but now it's comfortable and makes good sense as the family can walk around to talk with everyone.
We had a very special Mission Christmas. Sometime maybe we can share it with you. It's wonderful to be on a mission. We are so happy. I was so excited to go on a mission and now I understand why.
We just finished reading the Book of Mormon as a mission. So today we started at the beginning to read it again. What a blessing the Book of Mormon is. - we love our Heavenly Father. We love our Savior, Jesus Christ. We love being part of his army if missionaries. What a huge blessing and opportunity it is for us. Always keep the faith & endure to the end. It's so worth it. We love you all. Have a great week.
Love, Elder & Sister Fisher
On one of our trips we were transporting one Elder and three Sisters from a pick up at the airport to the mission office. The sisters told us that the Elder with us is an accomplished vocalist. So he sang all the way from the airport to the mission office. He had the most smooth perfect pitch accupella voice. He sang : Come Thou Font Of a Every Blessing.
How Great Thou art
Be Still My Soul.
I Stand All Amazed.
Nearer My God To Thee.
Lead Kindly Light.
I can't described the feelings I had, the way I felt in my heart, or the tears that fell. It was a treasured experience. Such a beautiful blessing , peacefully unassuming, unexpected, truly loved.
On the lightest day of the driving we were asked to help the office couples with meals. The office has two senior couples. One of them is a dear friend I knew from the pre-existance( she told me so ). She also is the cousin of Marie Osmond. The other couple, the husband sang in the Tabernacle Choir for twenty years & his wife has served on the Primary General board. They are both such a blessing to be around.
On the way back to Hope after our work there , we met with the Stake President. He called Stan to be the first counselor in the Hope branch presidency. He was sustained and set apart on New Year's Day. This is his third time of being in the Bishopbric. He's a good man.
We were invited to Lucy's for a traditional English New Year dinner on Sunday. We enjoyed Prime Rib, roasted potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, Yorkshire pudding ( which isn't pudding at all ) beets, fake champagne, and Tuxedo for dessert. There was China, Crystal, and candlelight. Everything was British prim and proper. After dessert I taught everyone how to play "what is it " and we sang in our Crystal champagne glasses for pretend microphones. I guess I'm not that prim & proper. We all laughed and had a wonderful time.
Today was sad. We drove to Chilliwack to attend the funeral of our Branch president 's son. He was 43 and just passed away from cancer. A beautiful twelve year old girl with the voice of an angel sang : " Going Home ". Both Stan & I cried like babies thinking of our own Matthew who has gone home. In Canada everyone brings fruit, small sandwiches, Squares and raw vegetables. Everyone who attends th funeral goes in the gym to eat and mingle. The first time I thought it was weird, but now it's comfortable and makes good sense as the family can walk around to talk with everyone.
We had a very special Mission Christmas. Sometime maybe we can share it with you. It's wonderful to be on a mission. We are so happy. I was so excited to go on a mission and now I understand why.
We just finished reading the Book of Mormon as a mission. So today we started at the beginning to read it again. What a blessing the Book of Mormon is. - we love our Heavenly Father. We love our Savior, Jesus Christ. We love being part of his army if missionaries. What a huge blessing and opportunity it is for us. Always keep the faith & endure to the end. It's so worth it. We love you all. Have a great week.
Love, Elder & Sister Fisher
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Monday, December 26, 2016
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Marlene Cooked us a wonderful Christmas dinner.Turkey with all the trimmings .The mission president asked us to spend Christmas with someone who was alone. |
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Merlene's fabulous table setting. |
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Marlene and Ben
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Jack's Christmas gift to us. |
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A French Canadian traditional pork pie. |
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Cinnamon Rolls for Christmas delivery. |
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Saturday, December 17, 2016
What ????? Another week already ? It's been a busy one. It was transport week again. We traveled to Richmond to safely help fourteen young missionaries return home in time for Christmas. I got up early on Tuesday and made fourty homemade cinnamon rolls to take to the mission office. We helped prepare the "last supper " for the departing missionaries. We enjoyed the meal in a separate room & then did the clean up. It's fun to see some of the missionaries we met when we first came out. One of them, Elder Tan , is from Singapore. He was our Zone leader for a time & came to Hope once a week for awhile. We really like him. When we would send pictures to his Mom, she invited to come & visit them in Singapore. Elder Tan told us he might be able to go to BYUI; If he does, we will see more of him. Anyway, Tuesday evening we stayed in the hotel with the fourteen departing missionaries. We finally got to bed at midnight and got up a few hours later . At 3:00 am , we took half of the group to the airport . We keep them in a group, see that they are checked in and that their baggage is paid for. After that we went back to the hotel for an hour. At 7:30 am we took the second group to the airport as well. One in this group was our Stake Presidents' granddaughter. That was fun. The first group had several different airlines & times to get to. The second group were all on the same flight going to Salt Lake City. I could just imagine the excitement and anticipation at the SLC airport that morning. It brings tears to my eyes whenever I remember the feelings of the day our missionaries came home. I look forward to that kind of joyful reunion magnified when I see Matt again. After the missionaries are safely going through security , we go back to the mission office to report & then drive back to Hope. It's a great assignment !!!
Marlene's car battery died. Stan bought her a new one and did the "out with the old...in with the new "...process. She was so grateful. She came over to ask for milk this week. I feel so sad for her. We do what we can to help.
We watched an Italian game show with Martin & Amelia. That was a hoot ! Amelia kept telling us to answer the questions. "What was the question? " I asked. We had grapefruit juice and frozen Apple something. It was good. She gave us a loaf of her home made bread. Yummy !
Everyone told us it never snows here. We're in a rainforest. So last Saturday and Sunday it snowed and didn't stop. We had 60 centimeters of snow. That is equal to 26" or 2 feet. Our branch president came and picked us up for church in his four wheel drive truck. The heat didn't work at the church either. On Monday Stan shoveled snow most of the day. Luckily by Tuesday we were able to drive the 120 miles for transport.
We enjoyed a very nice Relief Society activity on Wednesday night. Stan had a duel job, he was our priesthood representative and he played the eight Christmas carols we sang for the program. All three of us sisters attended. We all took appetizers to share so we had , bbq smokies, cheese & crackers & chips & salsa.
On Thursday morning we woke up to frozen water pipes. Well, the temperature was -17 celus. With a windchill of -24. Anyway our landlord called a plumber and two hours later we were back to the luxury of running water we so often take for granted.
Tomorrow we are speaking in Sacrament meeting. Stan is teaching priesthood, playing the piano, & I 'm doing sharingtime. We love Sunday's because we can call all our kids each week. It's so good to be able to talk to each one.
Tonight we are invited to a "Yalda tradition " with our Iranian friends, Hussain and
Fatima. I'll tell you all about it next week. We are taking s'mores to teach them one of our traditions.
This Christmas season is the best. As missionaries we are really focused on our Savior, Jesus Christ ; his life and mission. It's a wonderful way to celebrate each day all we have because of his selfless love. We hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season. Here I have noticed everyone says : "Merry Christmas " because it's not a political statement right or wrong. It's fun that all our neighbor's in this fishbowl complex have given us a Christmas card. Even the pot smoking , living together apartment gave us a religious card about Jesus Christ. We hope you are all participating in "light the World " initiative from the church. It puts the extra special touch in our Christmas season.
We love you all, pray for you , and hope your Christmas is Merry and Bright !
Love, Elder & Sister Fisher
Marlene's car battery died. Stan bought her a new one and did the "out with the old...in with the new "...process. She was so grateful. She came over to ask for milk this week. I feel so sad for her. We do what we can to help.
We watched an Italian game show with Martin & Amelia. That was a hoot ! Amelia kept telling us to answer the questions. "What was the question? " I asked. We had grapefruit juice and frozen Apple something. It was good. She gave us a loaf of her home made bread. Yummy !
Everyone told us it never snows here. We're in a rainforest. So last Saturday and Sunday it snowed and didn't stop. We had 60 centimeters of snow. That is equal to 26" or 2 feet. Our branch president came and picked us up for church in his four wheel drive truck. The heat didn't work at the church either. On Monday Stan shoveled snow most of the day. Luckily by Tuesday we were able to drive the 120 miles for transport.
We enjoyed a very nice Relief Society activity on Wednesday night. Stan had a duel job, he was our priesthood representative and he played the eight Christmas carols we sang for the program. All three of us sisters attended. We all took appetizers to share so we had , bbq smokies, cheese & crackers & chips & salsa.
On Thursday morning we woke up to frozen water pipes. Well, the temperature was -17 celus. With a windchill of -24. Anyway our landlord called a plumber and two hours later we were back to the luxury of running water we so often take for granted.
Tomorrow we are speaking in Sacrament meeting. Stan is teaching priesthood, playing the piano, & I 'm doing sharingtime. We love Sunday's because we can call all our kids each week. It's so good to be able to talk to each one.
Tonight we are invited to a "Yalda tradition " with our Iranian friends, Hussain and
Fatima. I'll tell you all about it next week. We are taking s'mores to teach them one of our traditions.
This Christmas season is the best. As missionaries we are really focused on our Savior, Jesus Christ ; his life and mission. It's a wonderful way to celebrate each day all we have because of his selfless love. We hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season. Here I have noticed everyone says : "Merry Christmas " because it's not a political statement right or wrong. It's fun that all our neighbor's in this fishbowl complex have given us a Christmas card. Even the pot smoking , living together apartment gave us a religious card about Jesus Christ. We hope you are all participating in "light the World " initiative from the church. It puts the extra special touch in our Christmas season.
We love you all, pray for you , and hope your Christmas is Merry and Bright !
Love, Elder & Sister Fisher
Saturday, December 10, 2016
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At the temple last night. |
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Our Christmas tree with Rebecca"s origami stars. |
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At the side of the road in Hope. |
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This morning on our walk down the city street. |
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Today on our walk in the forest. |
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Along our walk. |
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In the forest this morning. |
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Beautiful river on our walk. |
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Fatima so excited; decorating her new tree. |
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Fatima's first Christmas tree. |
Put on the brakes...we're going too fast. We love being missionaries. It's hard ; but at the same time such a wonderful experience. So many opportunities and people we would have missed . We are already talking about our next mission. Well, actually truthfully, I am already talking. Stan is a bit more reserved.
Today we went on our two mile walk through the forest in 6" of beautiful pristine snow. I guess it never snows here in the rainforest so everyone is bundled up in their houses. No one drives on the roads. Anyway, I took my camera so I could capture the most amazing beautiful sights. I will post a couple of pictures. With all the coats I had on ; once I fell down, I couldn't get up. It was so funny I just lay there laughing. Stan was a little worried and backtracked to help me. Yesterday it was -20 and today quite warmer at 15. It's a different cold here than Idaho because of the high humidity. Tonight we have Stake Conference at the branch on TV.
Yesterday was amazing. We traveled to Langly for a seven hour Zone Conference. They are always a spiritual high. We had Elder Nattress from the Seventy come & teach us. Also our beloved Mission President and his wife. I'm good friends with the AP because he & I went tracting one day. He is Tongan & an amazing missionary. We will be taking him to the airport this week. We have transport so the faithful tired missionaries can be home for Christmas. Elder Asi promised he will invite us to his wedding. Awesome awesomeness.
After the all day Zone meeting, Stan and I went to the temple. Such a great ending to the day. Except we had to drive almost 100 miles home on the Canadian freeway. That is a feat on a regular day. Last night there were cars in the bar pits, tow trucks flashing lights, police cars and a Jack knifed semi truck right in the road. I counted 12 cars off the road. We prayed & the Lord blessed us to arrive home safely.
I got in the baking mode again and made 40 or so homemade cinnamon rolls. We delivered them to all the non-members we know. Oh, We also went shopping and bought two Christmas trees, ornaments, lights & more. We took one tree to our friend Fatima because she wanted a tree but her husband didn't agree. We had so much fun decorating together. I will post a picture. We took the other tree to Jack. He and I decorated it together. It really cheered him up. I keep saying :" this is a party Jack. Aren't you having a great time.?" he laughed and thanked us many times.
I've been working with Brother Hara to help do Jack's family history. We were able to prepare 263 ordinances for Jack's family that needs to be done. If we can't baptize in Hope, we'll do the baptisms for those in the spirit world. We have much temple work to do now. I have learned to Love family history. It is a spiritual experience for sure. I am hoping Matt is teaching some of these people we are baptizing.
I was asked to help with activity days this week. Six eight & nine year old children made homemade candy. Almond bark, peppermint patties, and pumpkin fudge. It was a free for all. Although the leader had good intentions and we tried to keep their hands clean, it was for not. The leaders idea was to put all these candies in little gift bags to pass out after sacrament meeting the week before Christmas. I suggested she give the kids the candy to share with their family. She was not inclined to agree. So on the way home I gave Stan a "heads up " not to eat what was given to him.
Stan has been shoveling snow all day for the people who never have snow on their sidewalk. Are you all doing : "Light the World " 25 days of Christmas ? We are too . So fun ! We received a Christmas card signed by the first presidency too. We put up a tree for ourselves. Rebecca made us many paper orgami stars, so it looks great. I'm trying to be busy helping others be happy this Christmas so I won't get too sad about not being home for Christmas. But, this is our mission Christmas so we want to make it special too.
The real reason for the season is our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. We are so thankful to celebrate this time for him. He did for us what none of us could do for ourselves. How blessed we are !!
We love you all and hope you are enjoying this Christmas season.
Love,
Elder & Sister Fisher
Today we went on our two mile walk through the forest in 6" of beautiful pristine snow. I guess it never snows here in the rainforest so everyone is bundled up in their houses. No one drives on the roads. Anyway, I took my camera so I could capture the most amazing beautiful sights. I will post a couple of pictures. With all the coats I had on ; once I fell down, I couldn't get up. It was so funny I just lay there laughing. Stan was a little worried and backtracked to help me. Yesterday it was -20 and today quite warmer at 15. It's a different cold here than Idaho because of the high humidity. Tonight we have Stake Conference at the branch on TV.
Yesterday was amazing. We traveled to Langly for a seven hour Zone Conference. They are always a spiritual high. We had Elder Nattress from the Seventy come & teach us. Also our beloved Mission President and his wife. I'm good friends with the AP because he & I went tracting one day. He is Tongan & an amazing missionary. We will be taking him to the airport this week. We have transport so the faithful tired missionaries can be home for Christmas. Elder Asi promised he will invite us to his wedding. Awesome awesomeness.
After the all day Zone meeting, Stan and I went to the temple. Such a great ending to the day. Except we had to drive almost 100 miles home on the Canadian freeway. That is a feat on a regular day. Last night there were cars in the bar pits, tow trucks flashing lights, police cars and a Jack knifed semi truck right in the road. I counted 12 cars off the road. We prayed & the Lord blessed us to arrive home safely.
I got in the baking mode again and made 40 or so homemade cinnamon rolls. We delivered them to all the non-members we know. Oh, We also went shopping and bought two Christmas trees, ornaments, lights & more. We took one tree to our friend Fatima because she wanted a tree but her husband didn't agree. We had so much fun decorating together. I will post a picture. We took the other tree to Jack. He and I decorated it together. It really cheered him up. I keep saying :" this is a party Jack. Aren't you having a great time.?" he laughed and thanked us many times.
I've been working with Brother Hara to help do Jack's family history. We were able to prepare 263 ordinances for Jack's family that needs to be done. If we can't baptize in Hope, we'll do the baptisms for those in the spirit world. We have much temple work to do now. I have learned to Love family history. It is a spiritual experience for sure. I am hoping Matt is teaching some of these people we are baptizing.
I was asked to help with activity days this week. Six eight & nine year old children made homemade candy. Almond bark, peppermint patties, and pumpkin fudge. It was a free for all. Although the leader had good intentions and we tried to keep their hands clean, it was for not. The leaders idea was to put all these candies in little gift bags to pass out after sacrament meeting the week before Christmas. I suggested she give the kids the candy to share with their family. She was not inclined to agree. So on the way home I gave Stan a "heads up " not to eat what was given to him.
Stan has been shoveling snow all day for the people who never have snow on their sidewalk. Are you all doing : "Light the World " 25 days of Christmas ? We are too . So fun ! We received a Christmas card signed by the first presidency too. We put up a tree for ourselves. Rebecca made us many paper orgami stars, so it looks great. I'm trying to be busy helping others be happy this Christmas so I won't get too sad about not being home for Christmas. But, this is our mission Christmas so we want to make it special too.
The real reason for the season is our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. We are so thankful to celebrate this time for him. He did for us what none of us could do for ourselves. How blessed we are !!
We love you all and hope you are enjoying this Christmas season.
Love,
Elder & Sister Fisher
Saturday, December 3, 2016
This week has been so busy we haven't had time to sneeze. We Love being on a mission. We are so happy we chose to serve the Lord..Every week just seems to get busier than the one before. On Monday evening we joined about 100 people of the community to do an Avent Walk. I'm not sure if that is the country's tradition or if it's the many Christian demonatations tradition. Anyway, we walked through pouring rain, mud puddles and cold carrying a lantern. We stopped on our two hour walk at six different churches. Once inside the church, we listened to a ten minute sermon by the priest or pastor. Then we sang a couple of songs from their hymnals. So different from anything I've experienced. They were : Hope United Church, Catholic, Christ Church Anglican, Hope Pentecostal Assembly, Hope Harvest Church. We were two Mormons proudly wearing our missionary tags , amoung 100 "saved by grace" believers. I couldn't feel the spirit in any of them. Our church was not in the event because the community believe Mormons have tails. Well ,we went amoung them to show them who we are & that there are Mormons in Hope. We came home and had hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows.
We ate Iranian pasta with Hussain & Fatima. It's spegetti with chicken pieces, diced fresh tomatoes, limes, carrots, and a very spicy sauce. We also had spicy rice with little dark somethings which I couldn't recognize, yogurt, peach jam & goats milk.. But we loved the company. This week we are taking a 6ft Christmas tree and lights with decorations to suprise Fatmia. She really wants a Christmas tree but her husband says "look outside, there are many trees."
One of our young missionaries had a birthday this week so when we made the dinner for the District meeting, we made him a Birthday cake with candles & a song. It's great to be able to spend sometime with the young faithful Elders. They are amazing.
On Thursday we made an appointment for me & Jack to get some help at the family History center in Abbotsford which is an hour away each direction. We have set a Hope Brach Baptism day at the temple next Friday. The whole branch will be doing baptisms. I can't remember how long it's been since I've actually got in the water. Should be amazing.
We had our Branch Christmas party this week. I started out volunteering to cook a 20 pound turkey. I ended up cooking two turkeys, making gravy, and tearing up six loaves of bread to make dressing for 50 people from scratch. We were also assigned to set up the tables & chairs & clean up. Most of the branch came which was only 20 people. One little family was missing. The best part about it was we had 7 non-members who attended. Fabulous.
Today our non-member friend , Lucy, asked us to cook a Birthday dinner for a lady in our branch. She wanted it to be a suprise party so it was at our house. We took Lucy to the grocery store as she wanted to pick out & buy the food so I could cook it. Party turned out great. Our plan went well & the birthday lady was very suprised. They have gone home now so Stan is preparing the priesthood lesson for tomorrow and I'm trying to put together a sharing time for the rowdy noisy primary kids.
Oh, I did have a little fun with Marlene. I invited her to the birthday dinner. She came over early. I had a big roaster full of turkey bones I was cooking down to make "real" stock to freeze for later cooking. She & I were standing in the kitchen. I looked at her seriously and said:" Marlene, I am a witch and Stan is a warlock." She just stared at me, didn't say a word. I opened the roaster and showed her it was full of bones bubbling. She didn't say a word. "This is what we do with people we don't really like " I said.. The look on her face was so funny, I just had to laugh & tell her I was joking. I know that wasn't very missionary-like but the opportunity was there & I couldn't resist. I'll repent before I go to bed tonight.
The new church intivitive "Light the World " is amazing. I hope all of you are participating. It's an amazing missionary tool. Also amazing for our families and personally as well. We are excited for the Christmas season and the real reason we celebrate, which is of course our Lord & Savior , Jesus Christ. We love him and honor him.
Merry Christmas to you all. We love you tons !
Sister Fisher........
We ate Iranian pasta with Hussain & Fatima. It's spegetti with chicken pieces, diced fresh tomatoes, limes, carrots, and a very spicy sauce. We also had spicy rice with little dark somethings which I couldn't recognize, yogurt, peach jam & goats milk.. But we loved the company. This week we are taking a 6ft Christmas tree and lights with decorations to suprise Fatmia. She really wants a Christmas tree but her husband says "look outside, there are many trees."
One of our young missionaries had a birthday this week so when we made the dinner for the District meeting, we made him a Birthday cake with candles & a song. It's great to be able to spend sometime with the young faithful Elders. They are amazing.
On Thursday we made an appointment for me & Jack to get some help at the family History center in Abbotsford which is an hour away each direction. We have set a Hope Brach Baptism day at the temple next Friday. The whole branch will be doing baptisms. I can't remember how long it's been since I've actually got in the water. Should be amazing.
We had our Branch Christmas party this week. I started out volunteering to cook a 20 pound turkey. I ended up cooking two turkeys, making gravy, and tearing up six loaves of bread to make dressing for 50 people from scratch. We were also assigned to set up the tables & chairs & clean up. Most of the branch came which was only 20 people. One little family was missing. The best part about it was we had 7 non-members who attended. Fabulous.
Today our non-member friend , Lucy, asked us to cook a Birthday dinner for a lady in our branch. She wanted it to be a suprise party so it was at our house. We took Lucy to the grocery store as she wanted to pick out & buy the food so I could cook it. Party turned out great. Our plan went well & the birthday lady was very suprised. They have gone home now so Stan is preparing the priesthood lesson for tomorrow and I'm trying to put together a sharing time for the rowdy noisy primary kids.
Oh, I did have a little fun with Marlene. I invited her to the birthday dinner. She came over early. I had a big roaster full of turkey bones I was cooking down to make "real" stock to freeze for later cooking. She & I were standing in the kitchen. I looked at her seriously and said:" Marlene, I am a witch and Stan is a warlock." She just stared at me, didn't say a word. I opened the roaster and showed her it was full of bones bubbling. She didn't say a word. "This is what we do with people we don't really like " I said.. The look on her face was so funny, I just had to laugh & tell her I was joking. I know that wasn't very missionary-like but the opportunity was there & I couldn't resist. I'll repent before I go to bed tonight.
The new church intivitive "Light the World " is amazing. I hope all of you are participating. It's an amazing missionary tool. Also amazing for our families and personally as well. We are excited for the Christmas season and the real reason we celebrate, which is of course our Lord & Savior , Jesus Christ. We love him and honor him.
Merry Christmas to you all. We love you tons !
Sister Fisher........
Saturday, November 26, 2016
A new week and raining still but at great week at that. It was Thanksgiving in the states so we celebrated by making a turkey dinner with all the trimmings for our District with the young missionaries. They seemed to enjoy it all especially the homemade pumpkin pie. I'll add a picture.
On Monday we made lots of big fat yummy cinnamon rolls for about ten non-members. We delivered them hot. We actually gave some plates to our favorite printer in town who helped us with the food drive. Also gave a plate to the auto shop who repaired our smashed car for us after the "hit & run."
It's fun being a missionary. Our neighbor Marlene , a 79 year old widow knocked on our door and asked for food. She said she hadn't eaten for two days & could we give her a potatoe ?We had her come in. I gave her two grocery bags and told her to help herself to anything in the fridge and our little pantry. She was ever so happy. She choose potatoes, chicken, noodles, apples, eggs, blueberry pie. She was reluctant but I talked her into filling the bags. Later in the week we took her shopping in downtown Hope. She had described a pretty rug she wanted for her bathroom so we bought it, a few bananas ( which by the way) she eats bread with sliced bananas on it for lunch. She doesn't have much. It's really hard for her because she is a very classy lady. While in the store, Christmas music was playing so I started dancing. She laughed and showed Stan as if he hadn't seen me. A few isles later , she started dancing herself. It's so fun to see her laughing. I love it !
On Thursday we drove the 2 1/2 hours to take Jack to the family history center. He is the only member of his family. We also worked with him and a Japanese man, brother Hara, who is a family history gruru. Success !!! We found a treasure trove of names. So we made an appointment with the temple to reserve the baptistry so we can take the branch to help Jack baptize his ancestors. He is so excited.
We talked with our mission president this week. He is working on a plan for a transfer in the future. We will see what happens. He called to tell us he enjoys reading our letters. Ha ! Fun !We also took our non member friend Lucy for a fun day in Chilliwack. We went to lunch at the Chinese restaurant and went shopping until she was tired. On the way home we stopped for a small ice cream. It was $9.86 for 3 small ice cream cones. That's Canada...expensive.
I llove the Thanksgiviving holiday. I think it is my favorite. I was quite melancholy missing the big family dinner with all our family. But, I made a long long list of all the things I'm so grateful for. Including the miracles we received when I got Cancer right before our mission. There is such an abundance of blessing we have in our life....it's beautiful. We hope you had a great Thanksgiving and that your Christmas holiday will be happy. We love you all.
Always always go forward with faith.
Love, Elder & Sister Fisher
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