New Companion and Family Wedding

January 25, 2016

    My companion’s name is Elder Ashby and he is from Bloomfield, Colorado [Broomfield] in the Denver area. He worked a little before his mission and that is about it. The senior companion doesn't really exist in the companionship but I lead for a little bit because I know the area. My last companion went to Göttigen and that is still in the Hanover zone.

   I have not been inside of the VW factory yet but I have seen it like 6 times because we actually work quite a bit in the city it is in. It is really nice not having to deal with political things on the mission because I really just do not need to know about it right now.

   Scripture of the week Alma 45:19 “Behold, this we know, that he was a righteous man; and the saying went abroad in the church that he was taken up by the Spirit, or buried by the hand of the Lord, even as Moses. But behold, the scriptures saith the Lord took Moses unto himself; and we suppose that he has also received Alma in the spirit, unto himself; therefore, for this cause we know nothing concerning his death and burial.”

   Quote of the week "We need to be great teachers" Elder Ballard mission conference.

   I am actually super excited about the Z & N’s wedding and I can't wait to see LOTS OF PICTURES PLEASE. I really want to see the cutout of me and see if it actually looks like me. It sounds like everything is going pretty good in the family and I am really excited for everything going on. If someone were to have a baby this year that would make this year [2016] one of the most exciting years in our family between a wedding, a returning missionary, and a new baby. But whatever, I think the two that are for sure happening are good enough.

I hope that you have a good week and hope you know that I love you.

Love,

Elder Spencer Fisher

Transfer Day, seeing MTC group members, and showing off a wedding tie

January 18, 2016

     Hey--I’m doin’ good this week.  I got the tie [for Z & N’s wedding] and I will send the pictures today.  (mom note: we are making a cardboard cut out of Spencer so he can be part of the family pictures)

     My companion is leaving this transfer day and I am getting a new one.  My new companion will be Elder Ashby.  He is from Colorado and he was also in my MTC group so he and I were in the MTC together.

      My favorite lesson to teach is probably why God loves us so much. This past week I met two new converts in the other city in our district and it was really cool. I was on a companionship exchange in the branch in Halberstadt with Elder Drazin who is also in my group from the MTC. We live about 20-30 minutes away from the church building and that is with public transportation.

     This past Friday, we met with a less active family and we are going to start working with them more because two of the sons are missionary age and we think that working with them will be a good idea.

      My favorite thing to eat a member’s house this week was the lasagna this last Sunday and that was pretty good.  Dad, I would be jealous of the In n’ Out burger you had but to be honest I do not really remember what it tastes like.  (mom note: In n’ Out was the last meal we ate together before we dropped him off at the MTC last January).

     Scripture of the week. Alma 40:25 "And then shall the righteous shine forth in the kingdom of God."

Quote of the week "We are in the last dispensation, and so much work has to be done and we need to be in a hurry in order to accomplish it." Wilford Woodruff

     Not too much to report on this week but I hope that there will be more this next week to talk about.

I hope that you have a good week. I love you.

Elder Spencer Fisher

One Year in the Mission Field.

January 11, 2016

Well, all the snow has melted away already and has warmed up a little bit but it still is colder than the California winters that I am used to. 

I am a year out this Thursday (January 14th) but I am not quite sure if it feels like it though. Anyways, I am excited for this second year but at times if feels like everything is going really slow but at the same time everything goes by really fast. I also feel like a missionary needs a three year mission just to get enough work done with the language and everything too.

I think I have met all of the active members in my area now but if I know all of their names or not is another question. And we are trying to work a lot more with less actives. We met 2 less active families this week and both of them have like traveled the world so it was really cool finding out what other people do for hobbies.

We have a ward choir but we do not sing in it because there are enough people in the ward to make the choir without us so we just go and do missionary work. The primary is pretty big, I think, maybe about 20 kids and the youth (Aaronic Priesthood-Young Women) is the biggest I have seen here and has about 8-10 people in it.

Scripture for the week Alma 26:11-12: "But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.”

Quote of the week "We have the gospel so the glass is not half full but completely full" (member of the ward here)

I hope that you have a great week and that you have a wonderful week and know that I love you.

Love,

Elder Spencer Fisher

Each dot represents one day of Elder Fisher's mission--
This was captured in a screen shot on January 14, 2016

Busy in Bruanschweig and SNOW!!

**We usually get 2 e-mail letters each week from Elder Fisher and they get combined into one letter--but this week we only received 1 on Monday and the other came on Tuesday...and the letters will explain why.

January 4, 2016

(to mom)

Elder Fisher in front of the church building
in the snow

Thank you for the pictures I enjoyed them all a lot. I really liked the picture of Z & N on Abbey Road.  Sounds like you had a fun week and that you had a jam packed week, too.

Most people are back from Christmas break but it just snowed recently so it has slowed the work down a little bit.

This past Sunday a lot of members bore their testimonies and it was really good--I would probably say that I had one of the best Sundays on my mission yesterday.  I think we have a few activities in the Braunschweig ward but I have only been here for 5 weeks so I cannot really say right now.

Yes, we are able to visit the VW factory on Pdays and I am planning on doing it because I think that it will be a really cool experience.

This past week we meet a few less actives that are willing to meet with us and we are excited to start working with these people and help the ward have more success.

Our district meets weekly unless there is another missionary meeting. As a district we try to help each other think of different ways to help the other program succeed and really just encourage each other.

That is really all that I have for this week, I love you and I hope everything goes good with you guys this week and that you will have lots of fun doing the different routines.

Love,

Elder Spencer Fisher

January 5, 2016

(to dad)

Elder Fisher captioned this picture "more snow"

Sorry I didn’t email you yesterday but as soon as I sent my email to mom the wi-fi went out at the church so we got permission to email today because we only got like half an hour of email time yesterday.

We have had nothing but snow for the past 3 days!!!! It is really cool but also it makes the work here a little more interesting too. As I send this email it feels like 10 degrees Fahrenheit outside. But I love it except for the feet get cold at times.

We do not have any time changes for the church times because our ward just starts at 9:30 every Sunday and we do not share the building with another ward.

Scripture of the week: Alma 3:8 "For thus saith the scripture: Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve."

Quote of the week "We were having a terrible time having baptisms in our ward. They were very low, and we realized that the Lord would not bless us with new converts until we took care of the people in our ward that we already had." Bishop Kelly (Work of Salvation broadcast)

I hope that you have a good week and hope that you stay dry too and it doesn’t get to cold for you down there.

Love you and hope that you have a great week.

Elder Spencer Fisher

A Christmas Skype call

(mom note:  We usually get e-mails from Elder Fisher on Monday mornings, which is his preparation day--p-day for short--but twice a year we get to talk to him by phone or Skype--depending on their area and personal choice.  This Christmas we were able to Skype with Elder Fisher at 7 am our time and we were all able to be here for the experience.  We are thankful to the member family in Germany that opened their home to the missionaries for dinner and for Skyping.  Below are some of the questions & answers from our conversation.)

December 25, 2015

What is Braunschweig like?  It’s very flat, in the middle of Germany.  It doesn’t rain as much as my last area but it is very green.  How do you like your new area?  There’s a lot of people compared to my last area. I like it a lot.  It is a very Americanized city.  However, the days are really short right now because there is only about 7 hours of daylight so it gets light later and sun set is really early.

What is Christmas like in Germany?  There are Christmas markets in every town, everyone has Christmas trees, they hang stockings for decorating but they don’t fill them, and they have the chocolate-a-day advent calendars.  They also have a group of scriptures they read for the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas.  As they read the scriptures, they burn the candle for that Sunday, then on Christmas day, then on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, they burn all four candles at the same time.  What are some things they sell at the Christmas market?  Food, nutcrackers. 

How often do you speak English (compare to German)?  Not very often…just when we meet Americans or people who have immigrated from Africa.  I still have an American accent when I speak German.  Do you see any of the refugees from Syria? We do see them everywhere. 

We see a lot of American here because the biggest VW plant is in Braunschwieg. What types of cars do you usually see in Germany—VW, Audi, and BMW.  Have you been on the Autobahn?  Yes.  How fast was the car going?  190 kilometers per hour (110 miles per hour).

What do you usually eat?  For breakfast we usually eat cereal—Germany has its own brand of foods and we eat the cereal we like. For lunch we do different things.  For dinner, we usually eat at members’ homes 2 times a week and when we make it we eat a lot of open faced sandwiches on bread from the bakery.  Are you sick of sauerkraut yet? Yes!

How is the German different between areas?  When people travel to different parts of Germany they usually speak High German—because the German between the different areas is very different and they might not understand the dialect.

What is your schedule?  Awake at 6:30 am, Bed at 10:30 pm  I’m usually tired and ready for bed after being out and working all day.  We are in at night by 9 pm unless there is a teaching appointment and then it is 9:30 pm. What are you studying during personal study?  Bible—New Testament in Germany and the Book of Mormon in English and German.  

How many are in your zone?  In this zone there are 20 missionaries.  We usually have a zone meeting once a month.How is the difference between mission presidents?  They are totally different in how they do things but both are really strict. Our new president has several types of missionaries beside the regular proselyting missionaries.  We have service missionaries, temple visitor missionaries, Chinese language & Spanish language missionaries, and media missionaries.

Where do you e-mail now? We e-mail from the church because it has wi-fi access.  If I get an e-mail during the week, I can download it to read later in the day.  Funny story:  for a while I was getting lots of e-mails for Elder Fisher…but they were for an Elder Fisher who is on a mission in Alaska.  I was getting wedding announcements, family reunion updates, and letters for the other Elder Fisher.  I finally got an e-mail from him with his actual e-mail and a letter to please forward the info to him.  Moral of that story--be sure you have your e-mail address correct for the missionary you are writing to!

mom note:  we loved seeing how happy Elder Fisher is serving his mission and we cherished spending some time with him.  We are so blessed to live in an age when we are able to span a distance across the world to see our loved ones.

Christmas in Germany and PHOTOS!

Christmas Market in Braunschweig at night

December 28, 2015

Christmas Martket in Braunschweig during the day

Well I sure enjoyed skyping with all of you on Christmas, too. It was a good time. I heard your little comment about the better emails and I might think about it. Maybe.

I opened my presents on Christmas Eve and that was good. I enjoyed the See's candy that you sent as well!! It was a little taste of home for me. I do not have a lot to say today. I did get another tie from the second day of Christmas from a member, too.

That is really weird about the whole Christmas shindig (mom note: Elder Fisher is discussing how we normally open presents at 6 am but this year we waited until after his Skyped call and breakfast before we started). I am not sure how I feel about opening presents so late and I am sure Lindsay Anne was going crazy waiting to open the gifts too!

The largest VW factory--Elder Fisher loves cars
so he probably loves this!

My companion worked doing HVAC before going on his mission and graduated high school.

I like the area and I am completely okay not having any leadership position because that means I have more time to just work and focus on my area and not have to worry about all the elders in a district or a zone. I like it I can just focus on one thing at a time.  We are looking for more service activities to do but as of right now we do not have set service activities during the week.

I also feel like I am growing in my ability to cook as well because I am sick of eating bratwurst and spaghetti so we are experimenting with different things and they are turning out really good I think.

I also went to look at suits today for fun and I realized that suits are really expensive and I do not want to pay for a lot of those down the road.

Scripture of the week: Mark 2:16-17 "And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Quote of the week:  "I received a letter from a man that says I talk too much in conference about the Word of Wisdom. That sounds like a man that needs to hear more about the Word of Wisdom, so that will be the topic which I will address to you tonight."-President Heber J. Grant

a group of colorful houses

a Christmas tie!!

Well, that is about all that I have for this week seeing how we just talked three days ago. I will send you pictures today to make up for the lack of pictures in the last month or so. I love you and hope you have a great week and have fun bringing in the New Year New York time! Happy New Year!

Love

Elder Spencer Fisher