Hello! so this week was just wonderful haha. So, as all you
Americans know, it was Thanksgiving weekend, and because Germans are so
interested in America, they knew too. We were invited to 4 different
Thanksgiving dinners this week! haha Thursday by the Penrods, Friday by the
Baumanns, Saturday by the Reimers and Sunday by the Francks. haha In normal
Missionary life, 2 of them fell out but! two went through and we had a wonderful
time haha. So, for those of you just checking in, I'm serving in Hanau right
now which is just about the coolest city in all of Hessen. It is the birth place of the
Bruders Grimm and they are very proud of the fact. This week on my Split with
Elder Hamilton, I bought the Grimms' Complete Works.
Let me tell you, I am super
honored to read all the Grimm stories in the original language. Fun Fact, Jakob
Grimm actually did a lot to reform, and standardize a lot of different grammar
for the German Language.
We went by on Chad Bergner this week but he wasn't
home, and I'm fighting with a new app the mission is using to keep track of
numbers. It doesn't recognize that I'm in Hanau and no longer in Köln. The
Germans are the same here, not trusting of the religious people who keep
approaching them on the street and asking about their relationship to God, but
we get a few that will let us in and listen to a small Spiel.
There was this one lady in a dorf we doored, so we
took a day to go to the dorf named Wolf. In Wolf we doored into a Catholic lady
(the only one in this protestant Dorf [village]) anyways we had a really good
conversation, but then when I tried to commit her to reading the Book of Mormon
she said something to the effect of "I dont really have that much time, it
would just sit around, keep it for someone who has more use for it..."
blah blah blah, the normal spiel. and I'm getting tired of this excuse. Germans
are always saying junk like "I wish you lots of success, but not with
me." "Wow! What you're doing is amazing, keep it up, but over
there." "You've got it right! but I'm already christian, go teach those
muslims over there" and it finally came to a head so I look this lady in
the eyes and say "Did John not tell us to prove everything and keep was is
true? What if this is the truth, you don't want to give it up. Try it!" she
said "but I have my religion and I'm at peace with that" and each word
decended upon my ears like anvils upon an egg. My immediate desire was to stand
up and scream at this lady. To literally reach across the table and shake her
with all of my might and scream "ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?!?!?!
The truth, literally the answer to every question ever
placed, could be staring you right in the face! delivered nearly on a silver
platter right to your cozy home out in the middle of nowhere and you are
gonna say to my face "I already have a religion!?!?" ugh! I'm
not selling snake oil, I'm not trying to get you to buy anything, literally your
reading this book does nothing for me. If anything, it does in fact leave me
without a book to give to someone else. but it rewards me Nothing. So think for
a moment. Why would I PAY to spend TWO years in a FOREIGN land, forgo my studies,
leave my friends and family, my customs and culture, trudge through the cold, learn
the language, drive an hour out to the middle of nowhere and knock through 30
rude people to come to your door, to bare you my broken, bruised bleeding heart
in an attempt to show you how dear this little book is, how special and
comforting the message is, the Love that we can feel from it..........
Just to hear you say "I already have a religion"
This isnt a religion! It IS THE religion. It is the only
Gospel spoken of and lead by GOD HIMSELF he speaks to prophets so that we know
we are not alone. He gives us power to heal the sick, to bless the afflicted
and to SEAL FAMILIES TOGETHER FOREVER! and you will forgo all of that to keep
from changing a check mark on your Anmeldung (papers for the city, they make
you register with your church in Germany)
Of course, I did and said none of those things. I smiled
weakly and accepted her agency. I had wrestled to communicate my feelings for
her and for this message and she had chosen that it wasn't something she was
interested in, as life changing, comforting and selfless as it was. I took the
book back and gingerly returned it to the worn place in my bag. We said another
prayer before we left, and with disappointment shut the door behind us.
Hopefully that wasn't all too sour, but those are often the
experiences that happen. more than not, that is a summary of my interactions
with people and these are why it is so tender and sweet when someone DOES
recognize the immense worth this message has. They recognize that there are
around 80,000 young men and women all over the world, making the same sacrifice
as I, to carry this message through a no mans land of confusion and doubt to
their doorstep. They also recognize that countless other saints, give countless
hours in service to this church, from the mothers in Primary, to the ministry,
to the leaders. No one is paid for their efforts in any sort of currency. They
recognize that we do it out of love. We do it out of a sense of love and for
that we are rewarded. Our treasures are heaped up in heaven as we trudge
through and keep at it. That'ss why, we cry at baptisms, thats why we keep going,
to find that one and O how great our joy is, when we are able to see that one
again in the Celestial Kingdom. Just that one. That's all we're looking
for.
haha, Aside from all that I am having a blast out here. Its
really a blessing to be serving with the missionaries here in Hanau, Sister
Baker is a crack up and is always making me laugh haha.
Um, I ran out of things to say haha I'll be setting up some Christmas letters for the family this week and sending them off. Next week I'm
going in to look at Lederhosen, so that will be cool.. I love you all so much and I pray for you every
day.
hugs and kisses Elder Fisher.
