Safety Guidelines, Summer in Germany, Freiberg Temple Open House

July 25, 2016

   It has been hot here the past few days as well, finally, the middle of July and we are finally getting our summer for like a month!  It is also summer vacation right now in Germany, so a lot of people are out of town.

   Yes, I have heard about the terrorist attacks that have been happening recently in Germany as well, I know it is scary but I feel comforted by the Lord that I will be okay, and besides that, there is always terrorism in the world somewhere, sometimes it is a little closer than other times.

   This week like I said it was pretty hot, but we had a few appointments that we got to participate in, we also have another new investigator who is a younger mother and her son is pretty energetic. We also went to an eating appointment and they have bumble bees that live underneath their porch, and I thought that was really cool. I think I might want to keep bees in the future. (mom note: this is interesting because at one time he really didn’t like bees because he was constantly getting stung)

   We had Zone Training Meeting this past week and it was good, the president doesn't come to all of the Zone Training Meetings, but he does come to all of the Zone Conferences. We had to travel about an hour with train. I think there are about 10 or so zones in the mission.

Questions and answers:

1) What are the safety guidelines the missionaries have for keeping safe? (mom note: The mission president sent an e-mail to all the parents on July 19^th after the train attack in Germany and told us he had reminded all the missionaries)  The safety guidelines have to do with teaching people from certain countries, or being inside at 9 at night or 9:30 if we have an appointment, being obedient, and stuff like that. Pretty much the guideline is to be smart. 

2)  Does Minden have a lot of apartment buildings? or mostly houses?  So everywhere in Germany has a lot of apartment buildings compared to America, but Minden does have many house as well.

3)  When you have district p-day, do you have lunch together?  do you pack a lunch or buy lunch?  Today we went for a 10 kilometer hike, I will probably send pictures next week when we have more time. We usually eat lunch together.

4)  Have you noticed if your teaching style is the same as when you arrived on your mission or has it changed as you have become more comfortable in teaching?  My teaching has, of course, gotten better, but my style is my style and I shouldn't really change it, because that is me and that is how I will connect with certain people.

5)  Did they feed you for zone conference?  This was a zone training meeting, not a zone conference. We had to feed ourselves.

6)  I saw that the Freiberg temple Open House start next month and that the re-dedication will happen in September....will they have a satellite system set up so people can watch who aren't close to the temple?  Yes, we get to watch it through satellite transmission, we even get a special temple recommend for it. (Frieberg Open House and Dedication)

   Scripture of the week:  Alma 17:35  “Therefore they did not fear Ammon, for they supposed that one of their men could slay him according to their pleasure, for they knew not that the Lord had promised Mosiah that he would deliver his sons out of their hands; neither did they know anything concerning the Lord; therefore they delighted in the destruction of their brethren; and for this cause they stood to scatter the flocks of the king.”

Quote of the week "come what may and love it" Joseph B. Worthlin

   Well I hope that you have a great next week and enjoy the last week in July! I cannot believe that it is already here!! Time flies I guess. Love you and wish you the best.

Love,

Elder Spencer Fisher

The week before Father's Day and missionary work

Market square in Minden.

June 19, 2016

Happy Father's Day!! I will say it on the actual day next year. Sounds like dad had a good Father's Day as well (even if he did have to speak in church), or at least a good dinner. If it is any consolation for him, I had to speak on Father's Day as well.

The weather here is weird, and all of the members say that this weather is not normal, it will rain really hard for like 1 hour and then it will be very sunny and hot for 2 and then rain again. It makes missionary work difficult sometimes.

I am doing good, I am healthy, happy and frustrated sometimes, the mission can be an emotional roller coaster but for the most part I am happy and I am having fun. It really is not an easy thing to be on a mission and every mission has its own difficulties I guess. Sometimes the days feel like they do not end and that the weeks feel like years, but it is all worth it. Just have to keep going.

The church Elder Fisher visited

This past week we went finding, had exchanges with the elders in Bielefeld, we helped another member with computer problems (I played with the dog because my companion loves to do stuff with computers), ate nachos for one of our lunches, we had Zone Training meeting and interviews with President Fingerle, we had a family home evening with the ward and we also met someone from Jamaica. It was a good week.

Today we went to an old church here in Minden and that was interesting.  I took some pictures that I will be sending.

During church on Sunday, we usually help with translation, sometimes teaching a class, and give talks in sacrament meeting monthly, but not always the case.

I studied the story of Abinadi this week and that was good, to see how someone can be both bold and loving with missionary work.

The organ!!

The interviews with President Fingerle went well I guess. Nothing too different happened in the interviews but it was good to just talk with him. I had a good week. This coming week we do not have a lot of appointments, but it will be okay, we will try doing surprise visits with the members.

Scripture of the week: 1 Nephi 21:15, “For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

Quote of the week "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyways." John Wayne.

Hope that you have a good week and know that I love you too!

The description on the card tells that
"even though there was death, there is life"

Love,

Elder Spencer Fisher

Mary and Jesus

Elder Fisher said the stain glass depicts knights

The Hannover Zone!!

New Companion, Family History Work, and Continuing in Bad Bentheim

September 21, 2015

   This week was just all around a good week--the work is going pretty good and we has a little bit of success this past week.  My new companion and I are really trying to just focus on being obedient and improving the missionary program here in Bad Bentheim.  We found 5 new investigators this week and we did a lot of stuff and also came up with a lot of ideas on how to help the program here and make the work go more smoothly and work better.

   My new companion’s name is Elder Westbury and he is from Williamsburg, Virginia.  He will be celebrating being on his mission for a year next month-he came in the same group as my trainer did. My new companion is really excited to be out here on his mission and we are excited to work together.  Elder Westbury didn’t go to school before his mission but I think that he worked.  He is planning on attending BYU-Idaho after his mission so he is asking me lots of questions about it. 

   Elder Westbury and I have a lot of similarities and interests in common—like the fact that neither of us are from Utah, and he likes country music too!  He is the type of guy that makes you want to be better. I think that we will have a good transfer together and will have lots of fun times together.

   When I was waiting for my new companion, we worked out the train schedule so that my new companion would show up before my last companion left so I didn’t have to wait at the train station.

   We actually didn't end up teaching the lesson on Sunday, the Young Men’s president did, but we sat in there because it is good to build a relationship with the youth I think.  The lesson was on the commandments and what they are.

I am still in the car area and it is fun.We do not have a set service project exactly but we usually have service about 2-3 times a week.

   It is cool about seeing the zone conference at our church building--I cannot really imagine what a zone conference in a smaller geographical mission would be like because when I see a missionary at a zone conference they can live 150-200 miles away and we are still in the same zone!

   I will send pictures next week.  We were going to email at the McDonald’s to use the free wifi but there is a new McDonald’s opening tomorrow so the old one closed yesterday and we will be able to use the new McDonald’s next week.

   That is too bad about BYU losing but there is always next week. My quote for the week—“ Quote of the week. "Life is like a football game."

   

   Scripture for the week Malachi 4:5-6 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Spirit of Elijah scripture, from the things on I have seen on my mission, this promise is true and will really help in the hastening of the work.

   Love you mom and dad and hope that you have a great week right now--thank you for the scriptures you shared--they were really good.  Next week can you send me a family history story?  I am trying to do more with family history work in my area because it really does help people to understand the gospel better and help less actives see the purpose of temples more clearly.

Love,

Elder Fisher

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)

Missionary Work and Last Zone Conference with President Kosak

June 8, 2015

View from a mountain near Annaberg-Bucholz

Annaberg-Bucholz is about a 1/10 of the size of Halle but the ward is about the same size. We have choir on Thursdays and we have ward mission coordination meeting with our ward mission leader on Wednesdays. Other than that, we do not have any extra ward meetings during the week but we are going to try to get stuff going where investigators can come to the activities and other things, so we will see.  My district just has 4 elders in it so it isn't that big--as a matter of fact, it is the smallest possible district that we can have. It is our ward and the branch that the other elders are serving in, but it really isn`t that big of an area.

  Elder Fisher saw the The Berlin Dome while he was in Berlin

We do not actually have any set community service here in Annaberg-Bucholz like we did in Halle (they helped with the soup kitchen once a week) but we are looking for places that we can go and do some service—it will give us closer ties with the community and give us an opportunity to do something besides finding and dooring.

The Berlin Needle is near the Berlin Dome
(and you can see it in the other picture)

In my new area/apartment, my companion does more of the cooking but the things we eat aren't as detail oriented as they were with my last companion.  We usually eat at a member’s house 1-2 times a week here which is fine and sometimes the members will give us food as well during the week or a chocolate bar or something.  My new apartment does have a washer and dryer in it and I think that most of them do here in Germany because I haven’t actually seen a laundry mat anywhere here.

Last week it was a zone conference and it was pretty great, we had a lot of inspiring talks and I got to hear what I needed to do to help out my new area. I think it was also kind of sad because it was the last zone conference that President Kosak will have with us because he goes home on June 30th. They normally serve us lunch for these big conferences but this time they didn't.  However, we spent the night in Berlin the night before so we went by a bakery and bought sandwiches before the conference for our lunch.

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin is next to the Brandenburg gate.

The United States Embassy in Berlin

I met someone extremely interesting this week and I have a story for you! This week we went finding and we were in a smaller town so we decided to do some dooring. At the end of the day we were both kind of tired but we decided to do one last building. In this building, a lady stopped us and said “I have a friend that is Mormon and I have met with you guys before in Leipzig (a city in Germany)”. However, when we asked what her religious background is and she said "Extra terrestrial worship".  She then told us that aliens out there and about are 51 in the U.S. My companion asked "How do you know that there are aliens?" and she then said "they appeared to me in my apartment because I am a believer."  We didn't really know what to say after so we ended the conversation and parted ways.

Scripture for the week is a chapter 3 Nephi 30: 1-2  “Hearken, O ye Gentiles, and hear the words of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, which he hath commanded me that I should speak concerning you, for, behold he commandeth me that I should write, saying:  Turn, all ye Gentiles, from your wicked ways; and repent of your evil doings, of your lyings and deceivings, and of your whoredoms, and of your secret abominations, and your idolatries, and of your murders, and your priestcrafts, and your envyings, and your strifes, and from all your wickedness and abominations, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be numbered with my people who are of the house of Israel.”

Love you and I pray for you and the whole family every night, too.

Love,

Elder Fisher

June 2015 Zone Conference for eastern zones of Germany Berlin mission