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

Wow..Wow,...We have moved to our new area. We are still unpacking . It's hard to do because we are always out & about. When we do get home we fall into bed. But Oh, we love being missionaries.
Our new assignments for this area are :
   We are part of the mission office staff.  So we are on call day & night for what the Mission President needs.
   We still do the transports of driving a big 15 passenger van, taking the missionaries to & from the airport & ferries. We take them for Transfers and also for MLC meetings.
   We help the office people with the preparation, serving, and cleaning up of the certain meals they serve for the special events for our young missionaries.
    We also work with a set of young Elders and a set of Young Sisters. We can go on splits with them or help with teaching appointments as they need.
   We teach an English class to the Chinese people twice a week on Mondays and Fridays.
   We have a scripture study on Tuesday morning with the awesome office staff.
   We are assigned to the Richmond 1st ward. It's geography is the same size as the Gilbert Arizona Mission. There are 400 people in the ward list. Around 60-100 come to church on Sundays. Our calling is to go out and find the lost sheep and bring them home. So when we're not doing one of our other assignments we are to be out finding. We have had some amazing experiences with that. Last week we found a sweet older Chinese woman who hasn't been to church for many years . She has a real rabbit who runs around her house. "Boho" chews everything like a little mouse. He is not potty trained and doesn't talk so I don' think he's a very good pet. Sister Fan is hiding him out as her apartment doesn't allow pets. She was very interesting . She has about 1,000 books arranged around her living room, ; each has colorful Chinese writing . They are very decorative. She gave us a drink of boiling water and some weird kind of cracker. When I told her we were going to teach an English class and We didn't know Chinese she offered  to come help us teach. She also said she will teach me Chinese. The one phrase she taught us was : "Judy Food". That's how to remember it but not how to pronounce it. It means :"I wish you luck ". She also promised she will start coming back to church. And she gave me a gift of a real crystal hand-tied bead necklace that is purple and means love & wisdom. It has a wee hand crocheted flower on it. Beautiful.
    Another family we met was from Tonga & Fuiji. There are 10 people in the home. There is a 94  year old great grandma, a grandma, her two daughters. One daughter is married to a non member and they have two boys, 3 and 2. The other daughter is divorced and has three children.The mother & two daughters are less active members. They said they would come to church when we invited them.
We'll see. We had great visits with both of them. This is finding I love it. It's so fun !
   Elder Fisher & I have concocted  a secret code for our transfers. Actually a couple of young Elders helped me think it up. So when we do transfers, Stan drives around in  the big van so he doesn't have to park. Parking is crazy. It costs $13.00 for every 5-15 minutes. And finding the level you parked on is a nightmare. Vancouver is a gigantic airport. So I go in the airport with my phone and Stan keeps moving. I call him if the flight has been delayed and when I see the Elders or Sisters we are to pick up. Then he can time it so he drives up to the door just when they have picked up their baggage. So the fun code is:  "operation young cargo."
               "two in the sights"
               "four coming down the barrel ."     It's so fun now.
We attended a Zone Conference. What a spiritual high . It's a long meeting, 6 hours but when it ends everyone just sits there because we don't want to walk away from the wonderful spirit that is there.
  We must get out the door. Missions are an indescribable experience. We love you all.
  Have a great week,.Share the joy of the gospel with someone.
  Elder and Sister Fisher

Our city

The Bank

We moved to China

Richmond

our new home city

What a week !!!!!!! We so love our mission. This week we received a mission transfer from Hope where we've been for a year to Richmond BC. We moved from the mountain forest where bears & Cougars run free in town to Richmond a huge concrete city of skyscrapers, millions of people and mostly Chinese writing on all the stores & buildings.  We are so excited for our new assignment from the mission president. Our assignment is:
  Be part of the office staff...on call all days & nights.
   Help with young missionaries meals for MLC and comings & goings (new &old).
  Still transport the missionaries comings & goings from ferry to airport and back. Staying in a hotel         the night new missionaries arrive , also the night old missionaries return home.  
  We are also assigned to a ward. The boundaries are the size of the Gilbert Arizona mission. It's huge. Most of the ward members are inactive. So we are to find the loss sheep and lovingly bring them back to the fold.  Last night we had dinner with our mission president and his wife. It's so wonderful.
    Leaving our dear friends in Hope was so hard. It's been home to us for a year. Many tears were shed. We tried to box & pack for the same three days we trained the new couple taking our place in Hope. They expected us to cook all their meals too. We are exhausted. ( I feel old ).
     I have so much  more to say but we're at the church using their wifi and we need to leave. We have been off the grid for five days. That is really hard. We have had some really neat experiences to share and also all about our new apartment. Later I guess.
     We love you all, we love the gospel, we love our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ who is our  Savior.
     Please stay tuned... More to come...


 Our Bishop in Idaho said our homecoming talks will be on Sunday August 13 th ...so please put that on your calendar.  Time is going too fast !!!!

Elder & Sister Fisher

       Elder Melua is a missionary from Koko Polan, a small island out in the ocean near the Phillipines.We had the great blessing of spending a few hours with him during our transport week. He was going home after completing two honorable years in the Vancouver Canada mission. At the age of 16 he left home to take care of himself. He is a hunter and fisher by trade.  He hunts wild pigs by chasing them, throwing them on the ground, they tying theirs legs together like a cattleman ropes a calf. He then sells them at the street market. He goes fishing at midnight with a spear and a flashlight. He fishes out in the ocean to catch, eels, octopus, small sharks, and blow fish. When he sees one with his flashlight he spears them. I asked him about sharks. If he sees a big one , he swims away as fast as he can. After a night of fishing he cleans the fish and takes them to the market by 5:00 am so people can buy fresh fish for breakfast. He rents a little house and lives alone. One day the missionaries knocked on his door. They did'nt know his language. He said he couldn't understand anything they said but the Holy Ghost as with him and taught him. He was baptized two weeks later and a missionary in a suit & white shirt one year later. Just amazing.
     This week was transport week so we were in Richmond Monday through Friday working hard with only two to three hours of sleep a night. Whew ! We also received a transfer from the mission president. We will be leaving our little Hope where we have spent a year to go to Richmond, the headquarters of the mission. Our assignment will be to work in a ward where 80% of the members are in in-active.  We will find them and bring them back to the fold. We will also still be doing transports every two weeks. It will be like starting a new mission. Hope and Richmond are opposites.
     Today we are meeting the new couple that will take our place in Hope. We are feeding them dinner and then we will have them with us Monday through Thursday. The president wants us to keep them busy every minute . My question is : how will we pack and clean so we can move on Thursday?
     I'm adding a few pictures of even more snow and freezing rain that appeared this week.
We enjoyed so many beautiful spiritual experiences this week. Unbelievable. What a great opportunity to serve a mission. It's more than I could have dreamed.  Please share the happiness of the gospel with everyone you know.

Lots of love,
 Elder & SisteR Fisher

Relief Society Latin Night.

Olaf

Driving on the dangerous freeway.

We saw five ambulances, several rollovers and watched a  pickup hit a small compact car as they both fell down the embankment.

We prayed all the way home.

This morning outside our front door.

Today out the back door.

More snow here in the rainforest where it does't snow.

Our car is in there somewhere.

     Good Sabbeth morning.   Our church was canceled today.  We have three feet of "new "snow. Our little blue car just can't plow through that much snow. The branch president said it's too unsafe  for anyone to drive to church today.  Yesterday Stan spent all day shoveling snow for many people. He is healthy as a horse so he can shovel circles around  the people in our branch and our non member friends. Looks like he'll be out shoveling again today as well.
    We are assigned to travel to Richmond on Monday morning and will stay in a hotel there for three nights and drive back to Hope late Thursday evening. It will be a great week if we can maneuver through the snow. I don't drive in the snow anymore. I had too many experiences of knocking over stop signs, hitting park cars, landing in ditches ; not to mention doing 180's on the freeway.
      This week was phonominal . So many wonderful experiences. On Monday it was our turn to host Family Home Evening for the elderly. We packed twelve adults into our tiny apartment.  We served Ham, funeral potatoes, corn, fresh green beans, rolls, green salad and cinnamon cake for dessert. Stan taught a wonderful lesson. After that we talked and laughed. It was a great evening. Tuesday we traveled the six hours to go to the temple with our zone missionaries. I love the temple so much . I really hope to go back to serving in Idaho Falls when we get home. Wednesday again we did the six hour trip . This time we took our friend Jack. We were able to accomplish 30 sealings for his family so he took us to lunch. They have the real "fish n chips " from England. Really yummy. We went to Agazzi to visit our Iraian friends, Fatmia and Hossian.  We love them so much.
    We had dinner with Lisa Tates and her family on Thursday. I learned to make some gluten free recipes to share with them We are teaching Lisa the temple preparedness classes and trying to activate her husband Mike. Both are doing well.  Mike even came to church last Sunday and stayed all three hours.  Yippee!!!
    On Friday we drove to Abbotsford to attend a three 1/2 hour zone meeting. It was one of those meetings  where the spirit was so strong that after the closing prayer everyone just sat there. No one wanted to leave. It is amazing to see the strength, the leadership, the solid testimonies of these young missionaries. I am in awe. No worries for the future with  these kind of young people at the helm. Two of the elders sang : "Lead Kindly Light "  in the most beautiful harmony I have ever heard. I tried so hard not to cry that I gave myself a headache. I finally gave up and sobbed using all  the Kleenex I keep in my boot  so I don't have to use the end of my skirt to blow my nose.  I love those kind of meetings...the peace, the joy, the testimony  just elevate us to a higher plain. It's a feeling we  would love to feel forever. I guess that's what Heaven truly is.
   We love love our mission. We are so excited to be here. We love the work, the young missionaries, our non members friends, the gospel and most of all our Savior , Jesus Christ. He is the reason we are here. We love him and want to show him how much by serving a full time mission. Oh, what a blessing it has been. I have learned so much ! Tons of experiences, blessings, miracles, new people,
It's awesome awesomeness for sure. We teach  repentance, practice  repentance, testify of Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith  and the wonderful plan of happiness.  How blessed we truly are.

Lots of love,
Elder & Sister Fisher
Vancouver Canada Mission

     

    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

       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
   

Happy Birthday Stan.

Blowing out the candles.

winter in Hope.

Hope. British Columbia

nine feet on snow by our apartment.