Being a Missionary with a bike.

Elder Fisher and Elder Hunt

March 20, 2016

    My talk in church went good (on March 13^th), it was about repentance and I called those Germans to repentance!  Just kidding. It was my first talk in German but I have already given lessons in German before as well so I wasn't really nervous to give my talk.

    We had district meeting this week and I actually went on exchange with my trainer Elder Gerlach (his trainer) so that was fun but we have been seeing each other our whole missions so there wasn't too much to catch up on so we just talked with each other.

  

Elder Fisher and his bike

   We did get new bikes and we even got a drier too. A member in our mission travels around the mission to fix apartments and makes sure the missionaries have what they need, and he happened to have an extra drier with him so we got a new drier from him. This week we got our new bikes and I love it! I feel like such a missionary on them and it is so much better than walking everywhere. It also reminds me of how much I used to actually ride my bike everywhere too. I cannot wait to go mountain biking again when I get home.

The explanation for this picture Elder Fisher sent:
"Riding to door a small village"

    We also helped the sisters in Hannover build new beds and closets (everything from Ikea) for their apartment because 2 more sisters moved into the apartment recently so they needed it.

    Our Branch President also got married this past week so now he is a happily married man. This coming week we have lots of service planned and I am really excited to do that and also Easter is this week so that is just another cool this to be excited for.

    This week we made chicken wraps from scratch and tried our luck with lasagna again...we are taking a break from the lasagna for a while. The calzones tasted good but we want the dough to be good thickness though.  We were able to eat all of the sweets from the ward potluck. And on Saturday I enjoyed some wonderful German cake with a member, so I am not jealous of you going to REI.

Elder Fisher and Elder Hunt
with their bikes (notice the helmets)
crossing a bridge

    This week we went out to this little farm town to door and we saw a guy who had a big auto garage (for Germany) and his wife answered the door and they had a bunch of cool little knick knack things and I thought that was cool because you do not see that in Germany very often with antiques or stuff like that.

I want to visit Northern California because on the mission people always ask about Northern California and I have never been there and there should be some good things to see there.

A scripture that caught my attention this week was actually the story of the rich young ruler who came to Christ and asked "what lack I yet?" and that was in the context of asking how he could obtain eternal life. It made me think.

    Scripture of the week: Matthew 19: 16-23:  “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.  He saith unto him, Which?  Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?   Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.   But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Quote of the week: "There's a silver lining behind every cloud" -Johnny Cash

Love you and hope that you have a wonderful week!

Elder Spencer Fisher

Calzones, Bikes, and Sweets

Calzones are baking

March 14, 2016

   Sounds like everything is pretty good out there. We didn’t have to worry about time change yet.  We don’t change the clocks here to move forward until on Easter Sunday.  It is pretty fun out here and the time seems to be going by pretty fast.  My companion and I are doing okay.  I would say that I cook more but we both kinda cook together. I tried cooking calzones and lasagna for the first time and they both turned out okay.  We both like to clean so the apartment is pretty much spotless.

   This week we walked like 17 Km on Thursday so I felt really tired after that. We are getting bikes and they will be brought to us sometime this week and we are really excited about that because then we do not have to walk everywhere anymore.

   My favorite lesson to teach this week was probably a member lesson where we did a role play with a little pamphlet thing from the church about the Plan of Salvation. It was a good lesson I think and it helped the dad get some excitement about continuing doing missionary work.

Elder Hunt and Elder Fisher
waiting for the calzones to finish

   I met someone from Nigeria this week who is an active member and he has an awesome testimony, he brought a friend to church this past Sunday as well. He is really nice and loving and just wants to follow God.

   We go to the branch council meetings each week.  As for the branch, I will be giving my talk this coming Sunday and I will be talking about repentance, it should be a good experience.  We had a ward lunch last Sunday after church (potluck) and we were given a lot of the sweets and the leftover drinks as well so that was really good but at the same time we can only eat so many sweets. This past week, our branch president also took us to a British goods store and bought us some sweets so that was really nice of him to do and it tasted really good too.

   I was reading in the book of Moses this past week when Enoch sees the vision in chapter 7 and he talks about the earth moaning and groaning against the sins of the wicked and about the Crucifixion of her creator and then I thought about how the earth was also baptized in the flood of Noah and I finally understood what it meant that the earth was living and I do not just know that anymore, I understand it now.

Success!!!

   Scripture of the week Moses 7: 69 “And Enoch and all his people walked with God, and he dwelt in the midst of Zion; and it came to pass that Zion was not, for God received it up into his own bosom; and from thence went forth the saying, Zion is Fled.”

   Quote of the week: "John, leave it alone. Mary, leave italone." Boyd K. Packer (in conference report November 1987)

   Well, I love you and hope that you have a great week and hope that everything goes good. Hope that you are getting ready for conference, too, and making that apple pie for dad.

Love,

Lasagna and Ciabatta. Mmmmm

Elder Spencer Fisher

PS  If you have not seen the new Easter videos yet, we invite you to watch them at https://www.mormon.org/easter

Welcome to Minden!

March 7, 2016

Elder Fisher (not sure if this is in Braunschweig or Minden)

   Well sounds like everything is good.  The spring is slowly coming into play, but it is early spring so it is still pretty cold like 40-50 degrees for the next few weeks. It is still better than 20-30 degrees though.

   

   I am still in the Hannover zone.  For transfer days we always use trains to get to our new areas but it wasn’t that bad this transfer because the train was only like a 2 hour ride. (Mom note: one of his early transfers took him from easternmost part of Germany to the westernmost part of Germany and it took him over 8 hours).  

   I am in the city of Minden and it is good.  We do a lot of walking and use buses.  I would describe this place as a town with a lot of country that is part of our area as well.  We are trying to get new bikes so we can use those in getting around to do missionary work. 

Zone bowling

   My new companion is Elder Hunt and he is from Snowflake, Arizona and but he also lived for a year in North Dakota, too. . He is over 19 months out and he will be going home the 8th of July.  It is just the two of us in the apartment. There are no sisters or couple missionaries in my district but it is a 6 elder district so it is not that bad.  My companion is district leader so I get to go on companion exchanges a lot.

Elder Fisher...it still looks cold!

   I think my new branch is good too. We are in a branch but it is a larger branch. I have already been assigned a talk in this branch so I would say that we will be doing a little more in helping the ward than in my last area (which didn’t need as much help other than missionary work) but from what I have seen, the branch is really good and willing to help us as well.

   I met a lot of interesting people this week but we also found a new investigator from Angola and he is pretty cool.  I cannot tell you too much right now about him because he will be meeting with us this week, but he was nice.

   Dad, I don't even remember what most of the foods taste like anymore that you mention in your emails so I can honestly say that I am not jealous about you eating one of my favorite foods.

   Scripture for the week: Alma 12:33 “But God did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which was laid) saying: If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten Son;”

   Quote: "all you need is love, love, love is all you need" the Beatles

   I love you and hope that you have a wonderful week and you can stay cool. Thanks for the pictures I enjoy receiving them.

Love,

elder spencer fisher

Transfer time. Saying Good-bye to Braunschweig

February 29. 2016

Elder Fisher with Elder Ashby
(his 2nd companion in Braunschweig)

I got transferred and I am going to another area in the zone called Minden.  It is a smaller town surrounded by mountains.  I will be working with Elder Hunt.  We will see how it goes I guess.

My favorite experience this week (and it usually happens when I leave a ward) was this: when I got transferred, a lot of the members did not realize that I was only there for 3 months and said I thought you were with us for 4-6 months.  I asked why and they all said that I really try to be a part of the ward and try connecting with people. That was really cool to hear and even though I am leaving so soon I can leave knowing that I left an impact on a ward even if I was only here for 3 months.

This past Sunday, I was in the investigator class. My favorite lesson that we taught this week was a lesson and we had to have a translator come to translate a whole lesson into Spanish. The lesson was The First Vision.

Elder Fisher with a family from the Braunschweig

As for seeing something interesting, yesterday there was a guy walking with two girls and kind of hopping around and acting cool and skipping and stuff and just doing random stuff.

Scripture of the week:  Alma 5 :16 “I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?”

Quote of the week. I do think mom is making you work quite a bit but a I want to tell you a German proverb I learned yesterday "How you eat, it shows in how you work" so if you eat fast, you work fast and good.

I am excited for the next transfer and I think that the rest of my mission will go by fast so I am trying to work harder and better now. I love you all too and hope that you have a good week.

Love,

Elder Fisher

Spring is on its way, being a missionary in a ward vs. being in a branch

February 22, 2016

Sounds like everything is going good and like the family vacations have all come to an end.

The weather is improving a little bit because it isn't so cold anymore and it shouldn't be below freezing for the next two weeks so that is good.

Germans put out chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs too, like America. For the most part Easter here is the same as in America.

At zone conference, we learned about getting referrals from members. At zone conference, we ate chicken and rice dish.

My favorite thing to teach this week was probably the Plan of Salvation. We taught this really cool guy from Haiti and he is pretty serious about reading the Book of Mormon and learning.

This is the last week of the transfer and then starting next week I have like 7 or 8 transfers left, that is crazy to think that a year ago I was just barely coming to Germany and learning the language and now the missionary life is normal for me.

The investigators are doing good, we are trying to teach them the gospel.  We are working a lot with less actives though and trying to reactivate the people that are already part of the church so that there is more support for people coming to the church who are not members. I haven't spoken in the ward and I like the ward but I like working in branches with like 30 members because a missionary really feel like part of the branch when he works in the area.

Scripture for the week 3 Nephi 7:8 "And thus six years had not passed away since the more part of the people had turned from their righteousness, like the dog to his a vomit, or like the sow to her wallowing in the mire."

Quote of the week: "how many problems would not exist if we just loved one another" ~~member of the ward here

Love Elder Fisher