Chip and Cheery

We do a lot, Hanau is a tiny place but Europe is big :) Today we are going to Gelnhausen again for a photo shoot. Gelnhausen is just so picturesque I can't help myself. Right now we're sitting in the Forum, Hanaus mall. Reminds me of hanging out at crossroads or San Tan with friends haha  H&M is a cheaper store that specializes is ripping off and pretending haha. That's also where we get our WiFi. Today I'll take pictures of everything for you. Haupt Bahn Hof, the trains, the travel, us and Sister Catherall (she came from Köln and we're serving together in Hanau haha it's awesome), Sister Jenkins and all the cool stuff we see :)

Haha cool, so we're back! We did an amazing hike and took an overload of pictures for you :) um... hmm. So we wake up every morning at 6:30 and are supposed to exercise but I'm really bad at getting up haha Then we get ready and eat breakfast, then at 9 we start personal study. Then companion study for another hour, then German study then lunch until 12. We head out to do the work of the Lord. Talk to people on the street, talk to them on their porches, talk to them in their homes, in the bus, in the train. Haha this week we focused on Less actives. You see as a missionary you do more than baptize people. You are Jesus' disciple for 2 years. We visit with the members and do service to serve the people as the Lord would. We met with two brothers, on different days. One smokes and has left the church and the other is in a wheel chair because of a mistake during a surgery he had. The first was really weird and hard to talk to but the second was a doll and just quatsched with us for an hour or so. He's back in the hospital today... 

We don't have any investigators right now so we are spending all our time finding. It's okay, I like it but my comp doesn't. It's tough to stay chip and cheery when the people around you have a negative attitude about everything. But it goes. 

So we don't have a dish washer or a dryer. We do all the dishes by hand (not so bad) but we have to wait a day for all of our clothes to dry on a rack that takes up what seems like half of our apartment haha. Living in a two room apartment is an adjustment to our house. I miss having my own room and a bathroom I don't "need" to share. It's always the worst because since we eat at all the same times, we have to use the restroom at all the same times haha. 

Ummmm I did get a new suit and its looking nice. I don't have a photo of it but this Sunday I might remember to take a photo of it. I also got some jeans and a pair of shorts since in some weird change of events I lost my Perry Puma gym shorts... sad. Hmmm I  feel like I'm accepting too much of Germany into my life. I  shaved my chest... that was weird. I drink carbonated water lieber als tap... and I do say stuff differently. Just German expressions in english like "what for a car is that" instead of what type. 

Well, that's all this week :) I love you all and hope everything is going well

Waiting for  train (happens a lot)

 

 And this is us exploring the forest in Germany

 

 

Sister klein singing a song about missionaries haha let me see if i can translate

"My father was a farmer

He lived in USA

Until the day he went to the post office (shorter in German haha)

There was a letter for him here

He thought the letter was from his sweetie

He was very surprised

He made the letter quick open

And here is what it said:

Guten Tag, Viele Grüße (hello, many greetings)

You are called, repent

Hahahaha

No more dancing

No more kissing

You are called as a missionary

My father was a missionary

He went from city to city

And as he came back home

His head was almost flat (his hair was buzzed)

And then in autumn there was a market

And a girl asked him

If he wanted to dance with her

And this is what he said:

Guten tag, viele Grüße 

I'm a Missionary, repent

Hahaahah

I cant dance,

I cant kiss

I'm called as a missionary"

Haha it sounds better in German haha

 

Blessings hidden in trials

Hey ma! So this is weird now cause my emails are going to talk about a week from Thursday to Thursday instead of Monday to Monday. So, yeah this week Abdol and Abbas got baptized!!! It was so awesome because the ward totally took the lead with planning and we had members do all the stuff. Matthias Zarse baptized the two, and then Christian Schmidt and our GML (ward mission leader) confirmed them both members of the ward. Then Abdol got up in front of the ward to express his thanks. He was so nervous about his German but did a wonderful job. The members here are so inviting. I love it. I'm excited to start working with the Hometeachers of Abdol and Abbas to reteach them the lessons.

My comp isn't dying haha though we did have to go to the ER. We ended up going with the Frankfurt Zone leaders in their car because we were in Frankfurt on Monday for P-Day. So yeah, my comp said he was doing fine so we thought we could go to Frankfurt with the sisters and the Elders from Wetterau. But once we got there my comp started to complain about his stomach. It progressed into shaking and pain so around 6 we took him to the ER. We waited in the waiting room for 4 hours while they "assessed" what was wrong with him then gave him some fluids, and some cramp medicine (for pregnancy cramps hahha) and sent us home. We got to see the AP's on the way home because the FZL had to deliver some eggs and bananas to them. But overall the experience was fun and because my comp was sick we had a ton of left over food this week hahaha. Blessings hidden in trials, we weren't so thrifty this month ;)

Last night we went ouT finding and I was having a difficult time getting people to stop. People react very violently to the name Jesus Christ and it had been affecting my contacting the past transfer or so. So last night I resolved to do better. After a couple of rejections is saw this guy that reminded me of my Peruvian investigator in Koln. So i approached him and started in German but he stopped me and said he only spoke English. Haha I chuckled and thought "this is gonna be too easy" and I started to testify to him in my native tongue "Fabio (that's his name) we have been called of God to share a message with everyone we see. That message is that God lives, and he has restored his church again on the earth. Not reformed or anything else, we testify that Christ's church is here on the earth again, he speaks through his prophet and we have apostles and the priesthood. Can we have your number so that we can meet this week and share more abut this message." And he said yes. And I smiled so big!

Haha it was just the answer to my prayers. We will be meeting with him on Monday.

Today we are in the park playing some ball. It's a nice stress reliever and a good time with the other missionaries. The parks here in Germany are something else, often times they have elaborate playgrounds and big bridges or stadiums. Today's park has all three and it is an unnaturally warm sunny day here in Hanau so that makes it all the better.

I love you all and pray that all goes well. Liebe Grüße Elder Fisher

Hier in Hanau

Manchmal gut, manchmal schief

I know its been a long time since I've actually given a super detailed description of what I'm doing instead of my thoughts and impressions of the week, so I thought I could take some time this week and actually share some of the nitty gritty daily stuff that is to me really nothing but might be fun for you all at home to read about.

So, this week we started out by missing our P-Day on Monday because this week it changed to Thursday. And let me tell you its been a long week haha p-days have always been a nice day to let the tension out. Anyways, we had to meet up with the Sisters to practice a musical number for Zone Training the next day. Sister Catherall and I sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer. It went really well, even though there are some higher notes in that song haha I had a blast singing, I miss performing, and music has always been my passion. 

So that brings us nicely into Tuesday, which didn't start with Zone Training. No, not by a long shot. It started the night before, I got home and laid face down on my bed at like 9:30 and was out like a light. When I awoke to my alarm I went to turn it off and turned on the light. As I turned around I noticed my companions bed was empty... a moment of panic struck but I looked around the apartment calmly, and after a few moments thinking of all the possible things I could tell President about how I had lost my comp I found the bathroom light was on. My companion was and had been there since 3am he said. He had become violently sick in the night and was just sitting on the floor. We gauged the situation and decided that we would call President and ask if we could stay home. He said that there was no real reason to stay home and to try to get out. So we started to get ready. But then my comp threw up. And from there it just got worse. But we went anyway. He swayed on the train to Frankfurt main station and just as we exited the train into the international train station my poor comp puked a second time. This time into a clear plastic bag he had packed in his bag. He proceeded to carry this bag with him to the church... filled with its body warm contents. We had a great training, he stayed sitting and the musical number went well. Then we got the poor kid home to sleep it off. 

This morning he was doing better but we dragged as we returned to Frankfurt to pick up our car after some minor repairs. Hopefully he's doing better but the last few days have been filled with sickness and our apartment still doesn't smell right. 

Our 2 investigators from Iran are being baptized this week!!! Abdol and Abbas! These two found us after speaking with missionaries in Hamburg and have just blown me and Elder Woolley out of the water with how much faith they have. They have given up smoking and and preparing to enter into eine besondere Bündnis mit ihren Vater in Himmel. Ich freue mich darauf! 

In other news from the Middle East, we met last week with a friend of ours named Asaf Mohammad. He lives in Wächtersbach and picked us up at the Bahnhof to help us back to his apartment. We got there and this is the scene haha

So walk into this room, hardcore German rap playing, LED light strip, one guy is in his bed, the others are all watching music videos. And there's this funny smell... kinda stale... it smelled familiar... but I couldn't put my finger on it... anyways we meet Asaf's friends and they are all pretty nice. One of them is kinda sick and is laying in bed trying to rest. And Asaf leaves to prepare dinner. We half listen to this rap and talk about what we do and who we are. Everyone there is Muslim. And we have the same conversation we have with every Muslim. It goes like this, 

You know ISIS? 

Yea. 

You know how they say they are Muslim? 

Yea. 

Well they aren't! Muslims would never do that! 

Yea. We know, we've met a lot of muslims here...

We're muslims, ISIS isn't. They are crazy ******* (what have you)

Yeah, we've met plenty of wonderful Muslims...

It's just the media you know, they always paint us as the enemy. But its not Islam its ISIS!

Okay....

And so on ahaha literally EVERYTIME that we talk to a Muslim. But I digress, we then have the most amazing Arabian dinner I've ever had haha Joghurt, Mate (which is garlic chicken stuff... to die for), flat bread, dates, olives, the  Whole shabang! And have a great time. Then they start smoking. And Asaf looks at me and asks

"Kennst du was das ist?" Do you know what that is?

(And just by the way he looked at me I knew.)

I didn't answer then he said

"Wart mal, dann bemerkst du" Wait a minute, it will come to you.

And the smell hit me. Then I recognized that smell from when I walked in. And maybe you know now too...       Weed.

Haha yeah... as we say in German it went Schief...

We said we needed to leave, but Asaf still had fancy tea for us, and we had to really work to leave but Asaf helped us out and took us back to Bahnhof. 

There I was able to start talking to two more Middle Eastern Men who turned out to both be from Iraq who then became friends, we invited them all to church and had a good time on the train ride home. Haha yup. So ist es in the Frankfurt Germany Mission. Manchmal gut, manchmal schief. But we got out with nothing more than a headache. 

And that's all I've got for stories this week ahaha so if you were wondering what missionary life in like in Germany... lots of German, lots of Middle Eastern, some Döner, some Wursts and if you are careful Weniger (less) Weed. But its going so well. I'm having a blast teaching, speaking German, loving the people and the members. They are einfach Spitze! Just Great!

I hope that you are all having eventful lives in the states! If you haven't emailed me in a while and are reading this one, know that y'all are in email debt cause I've only missed like 2 weeks for 11 months. That's right, I'm coming up on a year. Make sure you send some mail my way :) I love you all so much and hope all the best for you!

Liebe Grüße and as the Germans say "Mach's Gut!"

(Update later that night....)

We had to take my Companion to the ER for some stomach pains. After 4 hours of waiting they released him with some cramp medicine and he seems to be doing much better. Anyways I just wanted to say that I love you very much and as I'm approaching 1 year on the mission my thoughts have turned to home. I miss you guys all a lot and can't believe that I've been gone so long. It doesn't feel that way. Hopefully the next year will go by just as fest and I can see y'all again. 

I've learned so much out here and would never trade the experiences I've had for the world. My love has grown. My compassion and understanding for people has waxed in the Lord and I feel like Patience has been a theme of my mission haha. I've learned that Christlike attributes are developed one moment at a time, through small actions and small decisions. And I've had plenty of those out here haha. I've also learned to cook well enough to be able to eat what I make ;) and also for other people to be able to eat it. I'm no Iron Chef but I'm pretty good at Maggi Packs (small do it yourself food packs) 

I am humbled as I look back on my life. Humbled to the very core. Nothing I have had or now have truly belongs to me. And I have depended upon you and Dad for everything. And I still do. And I am incredibly thankful that you both have supported me in all that I do. And that you continue to support me. I could not have done this on my own. I wasn't mature enough to start preparing but you two helped me through it and got me out here. And I am so thankful for that. I am humbled. I've lost a lot of weight and now my pants and my suit don't fit me. I've walked nearly through one pair of shoes and I have to ask if you can send money so I can get a suit and maybe 2 pairs of pants.  Never have I realized how dependent I am and how blessed I have been my entire life. I really wish there was more that I could do for you.

I pray everyday that the Lord will protect you. I've prayed for peace and joy to be found in our home and send many thoughts your way. I hope that it has been so <3 please let me know soon if it's possible for me to go get some new clothes. I love you so very much and pray always on your behalf.

Love, Elder Fisher

 

Sister Catherall and Jacob after their performance