The Minden Branch, Pulling Weeds, and District P-Day

Elder Fisher's District

July 18, 2016

   Sounds like you have had quite the week there. Good to hear that the weather is staying relatively cool. I sent some pictures as soon as I read your email.

District P-day in Bad Oeynhausen--a park

   I am really becoming a member of the Minden Branch, it is really funny, by the time the next transfer comes I will have been in Minden 6 months.  My companion is really shy and doesn't really talk with the members unless I really encourage him so I get to talk with the members a lot, which is good for my relationship with them. If I were to someday have the means to return to Germany I would definitely come to visit this ward on a Sunday so that I could see everyone.

   The members in Germany do not celebrate Pioneer Pay, but we do happen to have a ward mini golf activity on Pioneer Day.

Another picture of the district
--without the big plant hiding the elder

   Finding service projects to do is not always easy to find and with Germans they are stubborn and want to do things on their own as well, but we do get service projects usually once a week. This past week we pulled out weeds for like 4 hours at a member’s house. I hate weeds. By the way, Germans have lots of little knick knack things in their yards. But most of them are organized for the most part.

   My favorite way to find people new people to teach is by talking to people on buses and at train stations and stuff like that. I am not a fan of talking with people on the streets. My favorite lesson was with a less active lady from Mexico she has some interesting ideas but she is nice.

The palace in Bad Oeynhausen

   There are 8 missionaries in my mission district. We usually meet once a week unless there is a zone meeting, like this coming week then we meet with the rest of the missionaries in the zone as well. The next Zone training meeting is this coming Wednesday. 

   My apartment does have a washer and a drier, I have not actually had an apartment without a washer and a drier combo.

Another view of the palace in Bad Oeynhausen

   Scripture for the week : Alma 16: 21 :And now after the church had been established throughout all the land—having got the victory over the devil, and the word of God being preached in its purity in all the land, and the Lord pouring out his blessings upon the people—thus ended the fourteenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi.”

   Quote for the week: "John, Let it go, nothing you do will bring her back, anything you do will make it worse, John let it go" Boyd K. Packer

I love you and hope that you have a great week. Love you.

Love

Elder Fisher called this a "mansion house"
in Bad Oeynhausen

Elder Spencer Fisher

A garden mosaic

Zone Conference, Service, and Pioneers

July 13, 2015

   Zone conference was good.  I learned a lot but it is too much to type in an email to be completely honest.  My new mission president is super nice and he has two of his daughters living with him too. He also has really cool ideas for doing member missionary work which is really cool.  We weren't able to find any new investigators this week. In Annaberg-Buchholz, almost everyone knows the missionaries so finding new investigators here is a little more difficult but we still try. We go to other cities, too, and not all of the people there know who the missionaries are.

   No one has signed up for service because of the service poster yet but I was figuring it would take some time to get some people to sign up--also half the ward is on vacation right now so that is another reason they aren’t signing up but people in our ward will for sure sign up though; they love it when missionaries are around them.   However, we did get to do some service.  Last Saturday, there was an Open House at our church building (like every Saturday) and this car pulls up and out comes the married couple that serves in Freiburg.  They said there was going to be a Young Single Adult (18-30 year olds) activity in our building and that they needed a little bit of help with it. So we set up tables and chairs and cut fruit for the people. They gave us free food for helping, too. It is actually really cool because this married couple’s actual calling is the remodeling and documenting the remodeling of the Freiburg temple. So they talked to us about the construction of the temple, what they had to do, and how they received the actual calling as well. It was really cool talking to them about all that.

At the entrance to Martin's Cove.
Elder Fisher's 4th great-grandfather was
in the Martin Handcart Company

  (Mom note: The next part is in response questions about Pioneers, Pioneer Day, and a family trip we took.  Last summer Elder Fisher went with his parents and one of his brothers on a Pioneer/family history trip—we traveled to Salt Lake to visit Temple Square and “This is the Place” park, Fort Bridger, Martin’s Cove, and Fort Casper/Upper Crossing of the Platte river) 

At the beginning of the hike to Martin's Cove
Lots of sagebrush!!

   I remember the trip all right, we saw lots of sage brush between all that traveling that we did. I am not sure if the Germans celebrate pioneer day--I do not think that they do though, at least in East Germany. I am not sure if there were any German pioneers at that time. I am sure there were but I just don’t really know. A lot of the German members here move to the USA for one reason or another. A member in my ward here has 7 siblings in his family and all live in America and his parents live there, too.

Martin's Cove--the Pioneers sought shelter from
the winter storms in this location.

   For my personal study time, for the next while, I will be studying Book of Mormon while thinking of missionary work and I read Ensign articles about how to become a better teacher, too. Sometimes I study scriptures listed under a hymn or something like that but it isn't as common for me to study that way. For my German vocabulary study, I do not take a vocab card with me every day but when we have a 30 minute bus ride or something I read a page in my dictionary and try to work on the words that are a little more useful than the other ones.

   Scripture for the week is Alma 21:16  "And they went forth whithersoever they were led by the Spirit of the Lord, preaching the word of God in every synagogue of the Amalekites, or in every assembly of the Lamanites where they could be admitted." the first part I related to the transfer call at the end of each transfer only theirs was a little more direct from their source.

…Quote for the week "there will be hundreds of stakes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland."-Spencer W. Kimball. This quote inspired me to help change Germany as much as I am able/allowed to.

  

 I am taking pictures but not as much as I was. I will send pictures next week.

Love you and have a great week.

Elder Fisher

Leipzig Nord, Leipzig Süd, and Dresden Zone Conference
We were able to spot Elder Fisher (hint: you might need to enlarge the picture)