Lauenburg, A New Bike, and Dinner Appointments

August 22, 2016

   I traveled to Lauenburg this week by train. Yes, I am in Lauenburg on the Elbe. (mom note: there is another city called Lauenberg closer to Hannover). When I got to Lauenburg, I met my companion (Elder Riggs) and we talked about the area and all the people in it.

   I am pretty much recovered from the accident, we are on bikes in this area as well so I kinda have to get over it, not that it shook me or anything, but I didn't want to ride a bike for the rest of my mission.

   It is pretty good here, we are working hard and have already seen a lot of success in our five days together and we are expecting to see a lot more in our time together. The companion is really good, he wants to work pretty hard so I am helping him with that as well.

   This past week, we met with a man and his two sons who are 10 and 8 years old.  They are super cool. The dad is less active.  It was our first time teaching them and it was really good—and his sons want to be baptized!  Then on Saturday, the dad (who is Greek) wanted to make us some Greek food, which was unbelievably good.

   Later in the week, we had to go to a city called Celle (?) and get bikes so we can actually get around our area so we did that.  We talked to a guy on the way down to Cells who is from Cape Verde and his whole family is full of members but he is not, so we got his address and number and gave it to the missionaries in the respective areas.

   We have a ward here in Lauenburg, it is really nice to have 3 hours of church.  The ward has about 60-70 active members. On Sunday, I met the ward and gave my testimony as well.  We ate at a Sister Baumgartel’s house and at the end she said we can just call her Mama Baumgartel, so that was good to hear. She is no replacement for you though, so don't worry.

   On Sunday we rode our bikes an hour one way to go and teach a family who all want to be baptized, they have to work on some stuff but they all want to be baptized! That was probably the best lesson of my entire mission.

The weather hear is pretty similar to the weather in Minden I would have to say.

   Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 31:5-6 “And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water! And now, I would ask of you, my beloved brethren, wherein the Lamb of God did fulfil all righteousness in being baptized by water?”

   Quote of the week: "make sure these missionaries have fun!" Elder Ballard at our mission conference last year

   It really sounds like you had a busy week, I bet it was really fun and it looks like you had lots of good times at Sequoia. I really want to go to Sequoia with you guys next year! I also cannot wait to eat moms cooking!! I miss it so much. I love the food here, but moms cooking is by far better! I can make 4 more months though.

   I hope you have a great week and that you enjoy the last little bit of summer while you can too! I miss you and wish you the best!

Love

Elder Spencer Fisher

General Conference, Service, and Bike Riding

The missionaries in Elder Fisher's district

April 4, 2016

   It feels like spring for sure in Minden but it is supposed to cool off for a few days here soon and then warm up again. The weather here in Germany is crazy I tell you.

   The work is slow but we are working, I feel like every day on my mission it has gotten easier to get out the door and go and do missionary work.

The decorated Easter egg trees Elder Fisher mentioned
in last week's letter

   Last week, for Easter, we ate with a family in the ward and we ate a lot. They gave us soup, salad, lasagna, ice cream, and a cake too! I didn't eat dinner that night or breakfast the next morning I was so full.

   Well I hoped that your cinnamon rolls that you got for General Conference tasted good (I do not remember what they really taste like) I have been enjoying German pastries the whole weekend!

He said this was "something cool looking"

Elder Hunt and Elder Fisher

   I really liked this past conference. We watched conference in English because it is always better to hear it in one’s native tongue. We watched conference in a neighboring ward building in Stadthagen and spent the night with the elders over there because we would have gotten home pretty late if we came home that same night. For the Sunday morning session of General Conference, which is on from 1800-2000 (6-8 pm) here we watched it at our branch president’s house because we caught a ride home with him from Stadthagen—he had come for the sessions that we watched on Sunday morning at that building. We still need to watch the last session of conference but the rest of conference up to where I have watched has been really good and I enjoyed it a lot. I liked the talk from Elder Mervyn B. Arnold about less active work or that is what I understood it to be about that. We will be watching the last session of conference that next week in church as far as I heard.

   The bike riding is going good, I do not think that my companion enjoys it as much as I do, but I enjoy it a lot more than walking everywhere. We usually just ride our bikes [instead of taking them on a bus] because taking our bikes on a bus costs extra money and it is not that much more time effective.

   We went to this one small town this week planning to go by on old investigators and we ended up hiking up this huge hill and once we got to the top it was just farms and we had a view of the whole valley below us, it was cool to see.

   I have seen a few boats here in this city because there is a big canal that goes through this city and a lot of boats that use it.

   My favorite thing to do for service on my mission is to do yard work, because it is outdoors, you can get your hands dirty, and you can wear normal clothes as well.

   If I had some time after my mission before I had to leave for school I would probably try to get more into wood working to but since I am leaving right away I want to do wood carving because I can do that just about anywhere with any block of wood.

   Scripture of the week: " 1 Peter 4: 6 For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." (this was used in a conference talk, too)

   Quote of the week: "murmuring is the scriptural equivalent of childish whining."(Elder Renlund)

   I am keeping dry and enjoying my time. Love you and hope that you have a wonderful week and hope you can enjoy April too.

Love,

Elder Spencer Fisher

At the Stadthagen church building watching General Conference
(missionary selfies are the best!!)

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