Mother's Day and the Blessings of Technology

May 11, 2015

Elder Fisher during our Skype call

            This past week was Mother’s Day and all over the world families waited patiently for their chance to talk on the phone or Skype with their missionary who is serving a mission.  Our opportunity came at 7 am on Sunday morning with a Skype phone call from Halle, Germany.  Today’s blog includes some of the things we talked about and then the letters we received this morning—which were really short because we got to spend time talking face-to-face.  Technology is a wonderful blessing.

Elder Fisher's missionary badge.

MOTHER’S DAY CALL ON SKYPE 

May 10, 2015

**Where are you Skyping from?

         We live on the middle floor of an apartment building. The floor below and the floor above are families that are related to each other.  One family has a father who is really into computers and their home has a great set up for wireless internet.  All four of the missionaries in Halle are here Skyping at the same time in different rooms of the house (no headset required!).

**What time do you get up in the morning? Go to bed? What is your morning schedule like?

    We get up at 6:30 am and go to bed at 10: 30 pm.  After breakfast, we have personal study time from 8-9 am, companionship study from 9-11 am. Then we have lunch, then we have language study before we go out “finding”. We spend an hour extra in study time because I’m still training.  That will change after next week when my training is complete.  After my training is complete, I will probably get a new companion. My companion has been in Halle since he arrived in Germany so he will probably get transferred.

**How do you get around town?

    We usually walk (about 6 miles a day) or ride public transportation.   The zone leaders have cars to go from one town to another but most places are apartment buildings so a car isn’t very helpful.

**How often do you have district meeting? Zone conferences? Mission conferences?

       We have district meetings once a week, zone conferences once every transfer (or 6 weeks), and mission conferences as needed (about twice a year)

**How is your German coming along?

   Good—it’s hard for me to remember some English words at times (he demonstrated his German and when he was trying to tell us something, there were a couple of times he really had to think about the work he needed.)

**How often do you eat at church member’s homes? What do you eat you eat when you are making your own food?

   We eat at member’s homes about once a week, and there is a blind sister in our ward that feeds us every other week besides that.  We have big lunches but for dinners we usually have sandwiches.

**What tourist/cultural things have you seen?

   We were able to tour a chocolate factory but we can’t visit the museums in this area because they are closed on Mondays which is our day to explore.  In the town square of Halle is a church that is 500 years old which is actually next door to where we meet for church which is on the ground floor of an office building. On Mondays, after we study and do e-mail, we do our shopping and other tasks.

**How is the weather now?

   It’s warmer but we never know what the weather is.  We look out and if it’s cloudy we take our jackets.  It will be nice when we get our iPads because we will have a weather app so we will know the daily weather.

 **How are they going to handle the iPads? (the German missions are the first European missions to be getting them) 
   Each missionary will get them and they will have the apps pre-installed and they will be owned by the mission.  We had a 3 hour training meeting at the last mission conference to explain how to use the iPads to increase missionary work.  If a missionary downloads an app on their iPad, the iPads are monitored to make sure the apps are appropriate.  We will be able to e-mail our ward mission leader on a daily basis and then be able to send our weekly e-mails home from the church instead of the internet café like we do now.  The iPads will have all the church materials on them so it will be easy to get information to show people.  (the missionaries had so fun showing how much the iPads would help the missionary work--you can see this at Germany Berlin Mission blog entry for May 7, 2015--can you find Elder Fisher?)

This week’s letter--

    This last week we had a lesson with a German guy which was really cool and I forgot to tell you about and also my first joint teach on my mission last Saturday too.

    Scripture for the week in honor of Mother’s Day yesterday isAlma 56:48 "And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it." the stripling warriors told this to Helaman.

   "I have seen angels, I have had revelations, seen visions, but the greatest of all is that still small voice."  Wilford Woodruff talking to J Golden Kimball

   Okay, that is all I can think of right now. All is well here and hope you have another good week and you and mom are keeping busy.  Just so you know I love you and I am so happy that I was able to talk to you yesterday.  

Love you so much

Love Elder Fisher