Life is good. God is good.

So... I'm laying on the floor in Nieder-Wollstadt. Emailing family and friends and listening to the Nashville Tribute Band and just loving life.  Life is good. God is good. And I've learned that when we are grateful, what we have becomes ENOUGH. We don't have a lot here as missionaries. Not a lot of money, not a lot of time, not a lot of sleep, but when we are grateful for the things we do have, the gospel, the love of the Lord, the confidence that we are saved, that we can become better than we are. We suddenly have enough to keep going. And that is beautiful to me. 

This week we didn't have very much. Didn't have very many potentials, very many investigators, very many lessons. But we do have two amazing new members who love the Lord and his restored church. We were able to teach Abdol and Abbas the first lesson again. It was great to really get down to the nitty gritty story of Joseph Smith and how he knew where the plates were and how he translated them. It was cool :) 

We had Zone training this week and I was asked to give a theme. The theme was how to teach through the spirit. I had a ball. I love teaching haha. The big send home was that not everyone recognizes the feeling of the spirit so we need to help them recognize it. So I had halves of lychee and gave it to everyone and they all tasted it. Those who didn't know what it was could not explain it or name it. But those who did could name it and at that point some of the others realized what it was but others needed that to explain it more to recognize it. It was a cool object lesson that worked much better than I thought it would :) Today we are in the church to spend some time together before the transfers. No one knows what's happening yet. We won't until Saturday night. But yeah. You all can know next week from my next email if I moved or not. I think i will :) Nuremberg, here I come ;)

Love Elder Fisher

Hier in Hanau

One Year Complete, One Year to Go!

Everything is okay on my end... a comp that keeps me working on patience, Germans who teach me humility, investigators who teach me about faith, members who teach me about love. This week was all finding. That undesirable part of missionary work that includes slammed doors, harsh words over telecoms and the waving of hands. The baring of fervent testimony, the hope of the spirit. I met a Mongolian this week. I talked to him about Köln and he and i became total homies haha i called him to set up an appointment and he yelled "ai! Fisher!

Wie gehts dir?!" Haha it was cool. Hopefully he has interest in the Gospel. He's Muslim so we will see how it goes. Also the Familie Herbers brought some friends to an activity and they (the friends) and us spoke and they (still the friends) invited us over for dinner some time haha so we will go this week end with the Herbers to have a little tea and talk session :)

Today was my 1 Year Mark. We went to Büdingen and then Asia Palast to celebrate. I ate (for the first time) Crocodile, Ostrich, Zebra, Kangaroo and muscles haha i hate muscles.

The other stuff was pretty good haha but it all tasted like beef, aside from the Crocodile, which tasted like swampy gamey chicken :)

Here are some fotos of the Castle in Büdingen and me trying the exotic foods.

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