SISTER FISHER'S FINAL EMAIL of her Mission!  :

 From: Jessica Fisher [mailto:jessica.fisher@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Subject: Transfer 12, Week 6: The Wrong Number, Teaching a Twin, Depression, T, Africa and the Last Mile

 I don't know where the time has gone. My mind is tired. My body is weak. But my spirit just wants to keep going and smile at everyone I meet and introduce myself as Sister Fisher, a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Words can't describe it. I have millions of words in 3 journals. Hundreds of pictures too. But it's not enough. As it's been said before- "how do you sum up the experience of a lifetime?"

 My mission is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. The best decision I have ever made. The hardest thing I have ever done. The greatest thing I have ever done too. It has changed me. I don't want the same things I wanted before, which weren't bad things, just not like what I want now. I know what the spirit feels like and when it's talking to me. I didn't know my heart could have so much love being stretched so thin. I didn't know I could love my family so immensely. I didn't know just how much I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. 

But now I do. 

There's a few other miracles I wanted to share before my final testimony.

The wrong number.

I forgot to include a miracle I had two weeks ago in that email. I was calling a former investigator of mine who just recently got out of a rehab/addiction place and the phone number had changed. So I apologized for calling this stranger and hung up the phone. Immediately upon doing so, I felt bad/like I should call them back and introduce myself and why I was calling someone else in the first place, and invite them to listen to the message of Jesus Christ that I planned to share with him.

So I did.

This time, I called back and introduced myself and apologized for calling again, but said I felt inspired to share with them the message I intended to share with R. I reached a wonderful older couple- Rand J. They live in Florida and R said she'd be delighted to hear about my message of Jesus Christ and told me afterwards that she had met with missionaries a long time ago but loved what they said to her then. I asked if I could send missionaries to her again. She said she would love that!

You just never know. Be a good girl and a good boy, and just follow the thoughts (that seem so insignificant and minor) that fill your mind, especially if you regretted not doing something or saying something. Just turn back around and do it again. I've learned that. Every time I pass someone on the square that I just smiled to, but then felt like I should've said something more to, I turn around and go back and do it anyway, no matter how embarrassing or socially awkward it may be for one second. But every time, I know that it was something the spirit wanted me to do. Sometimes nothing comes of it. Sometimes it's really awkward, but I know that it's those times that God is just seeing if we're listening and responding to what He asks us to do. And if we are receptive and listening, then He can guide us to do more and say more.

 

We also received an amazing member referral from a man who came to the square- J. 

He referred his twin brother- J.We've been able to teach J quite a bit and he just so needs the gospel. He lives by himself now that J recently moved away after he got married. He struggles horribly with depression. Yes, I said it. Depression! It has been so neat at the end of my mission to be able to help SO MANY other sister missionaries, investigators and members who struggle with depression. It was such a hard challenge for me especially at the beginning of my mission, and I often wondered, "Why do I have to struggle with this?", and "Why didn't I know about this before my mission?"

I know now that the Lord was only preparing me to be able to use the Atonement and heal and find ways to overcome and become stronger so that I could help so many people He was preparing to put in my path.

It's been neat. J has said that he doesn't remember the last time he was happy and he's been willing to do what we've asked him to do, to make certain changes in his life. I'm excited to continue to teach him on the phone even after I get home, with Sister M. Only at that time, I'll be a member present...which is just fine.

It's not that the Lord just wanted to let me suffer to "learn something from it" or just wasn't hearing my tears and prayers, but instead, He knew that only a person having gone through what those people had, could help them, know what to tell them and share with them, would be what would help them come closer to Christ.

The words “Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." D&C 122:7

The neatest thing for me, was I felt prompted to share with T some of the words I typed up last week in my email. As I read to him those words, the spirit was very strong and confirmed what we taught to him, about why God gives us challenges- the question of his soul. 

 T T T!

Our Southern Baptist Ordained Minister! Oh how we love him! He's doing well too. Read up to chapter 10 of 1 Nephi. Soon we will have a 3 way call with S, the miracle man from Tennessee, who recently got the Priesthood after his baptism, and blessed the Sacrament. That lesson will be on the restoration of the Priesthood, and how ordinances are important for Salvation, and how the literal power of God is the difference between just getting wet and symbolically showing our faith in Christ, and literally being cleansed and purified and our sins being washed clean. 
 

Africa

There's one other amazing miracle I'd like to share. I just found out about it a day ago. One of the sisters at Temple Square received a chat from a minister in Malawi, Africa. The chat went well and those sisters continued to teach him. He loves the restored gospel and knows that it is true. However, the closest branch of the church to him is half a day's journey almost in another country. Instead, the minister started to preach the words that the sisters were teaching him, to his congregation in Africa. Now there are 33 people that are meeting to listen to the restored gospel! And they all want to be baptized. So of course that sister is passing up this request up to the Seventies in charge of the proselyting of the area to see how they can establish a branch there, and get Priesthood holders to come and baptize these people! A neat problem to have! So cool! 

 

Well here it is. If there could be only one thing that someone would read about my experience as a missionary here it is:

The gospel is real. It's not just a nice thing to read about. It's not just a great way to live. It's not just a nice thing to believe in, or something to give you hope in. It's not just a nice story. It's not there to just get us to think less of ourselves and to eat healthier. I didn't come out here to gain better social skills or learn how to get along with 12 companions, or to read the Book of Mormon a bunch of times.

This is real life. God lives. Jesus Christ is His Son. We did exist before we came to earth. God does love us and gave us many Prophets along the way to follow and to learn from. There is a plan. There is purpose to our lives here, and it's more than just having a family and having a nice job and house. 

This is real. 

The gospel changes people. It changes us into becoming something more than what an ethics class can teach, or a health book can bring, or an inspirational TV show can inspire. This is God's message to the world. It's the answer to all of the challenges people are having. It's the answer to the questions in their minds and souls. It's the answer to bring world peace. It's the answer to all political, social, economic, and most importantly spiritual crisis the world has. And there's something more. Something that words cannot describe. It is the love, the understanding, the hope, the peace, prosperity, meaning and the acceptance that every human heart longs for.

That's what I have been doing here. I just worked with God for 18 months bringing that to as many people as I could. 

Am I done? No way! The mission is just an internship, for a greater "full-time" life-time-long career as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  How could I just keep this for myself?

I know that it is true. I know it! I've searched it, read it, prayed about it, analyzed it, thought about it for months and lived it. It has blossomed and bloomed in my heart as Alma 32 in The Book of Mormon foretells. 

Joseph Smith was a Prophet.

 

 

 

He wasn't perfect, just as any of the mortal men God calls to be His mouthpiece. But I know that He was. And I am grateful for all that he sacrificed and gave up in his mortal experience so that we could have truth today. I know that the Bible and the Book of Mormon is the words of other Prophets. I believe them both to be true. I know that the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants will also lead us to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ. I know this. I love this. And I'm gonna live this for the rest of my life and thereafter too. 

Love,
Sister Jessica Fisher 

P.S. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....... (on Temple Square at least)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From: Jessica Fisher [mailto:jessica.fisher@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Subject: Transfer 12, Week 5: T, R, Tender mercies at the Christus, and The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

Dear Family and Friends,

I sure love y'all.

We've had some amazing miracles that I'd like to share with you today.

1. Our Ordained Southern Baptist Minister friend T

He called in for the first time just over a week ago and spoke to his first Mormon missionary- me. We talked about how he had just gotten back from his counselor and that his counselor (on his lunch break in a non-professional position) said he should go and talk with the Mormons, because of his current situation/feelings towards religion and the religious world. He suffers from depression and was in a rough patch. He stopped pastor-ing in churches because he just couldn't stand the hypocrisy, and how many of his colleagues would rather not offend their congregations with God's truth to not offend their paychecks. He was frustrated that the people in his churches weren't a family- that they didn't support, love and respect each other and just plain 'old care about one another. He now says "I know that God led me to Sister Fisher and that it wasn't a coincidence that she was the one to answer the phone." When we talked, he told me all about his concerns with religion, and I just listened. I told him that I did care that he couldn't remember the last time he felt happy,  and told him about my battle with depression and how scripture reading, prayer and focusing on lifting others around him could help. I shared a Book of Mormon scripture and we talked for a long time. He told us that if his other minister friends knew he was talking to the Mormons that "they'd be so surprised that they'd be the first men on the planet to have babies!"(He's hysterical and uses metaphors similar to that one all the time!)

We helped him find the local Bishop's phone number and he spoke with the Bishop a long time, and got in touch with three sister missionaries who started teaching him twice already this week. T will be attending for the first time in his life the Mormon church this Sunday. He now owns a copy of the Book of Mormon and we read in Mosiah about King Benjamin, one of the most Christ-like leaders who wasn't afraid of offending but sharing truth. T told Sister M and I, " You don't know how much better I feel talking with y'all, than I have felt in a long time."

In our most recent phone call he ended up defending the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and saying that of the little bits he has read from the Book of Mormon, and the talks we sent him of the Apostles that he believes what they say!

It's been so neat to be able to help someone find what they are searching for.

 2. R 

She called in about a month ago and requested a Book of Mormon for her and her husband. And I happened to be the one to answer the phone, once again!

She happens to live just 20 minutes from my home in Texas! And very close to my Grandma. So neat! She's just delightful. Recently she told me that they love the Elders and believe everything that they have shared with them about a Prophet on the earth today. She will have a church tour this week and hopefully will attend church this weekend!!!!

She's studied religion all her life, and both her husband and her were raised Baptist. She was so grateful that my Grandmother actually called her and shared about her experience changing churches.

She said that this just feels so comfortable with and believes so perfectly. She believes with all her heart that there's a Prophet on the earth. She said it just all seems to be working out for the good and the right time. She said that she's read about all other religions. She doesn't like "til death do you part." She likes her husband and loves him and wants to be with him forever. She's been married to him for almost 50 years. And it's just not long enough.  "I'm just so pleased that I called you that day. Everything has happened for a reason."

I'll have to visit that Ward when I get back in a few weeks and meet her there for church! So neat!

3. Tender Mercies at the Christus

We were wandering around during our Temple Square Contacting time this week and it was about 15 minutes until Dinner, and nothing much was happening around, not many people to talk with so we were debating going and having dinner early or just spending the next 15 minutes where we had planned to be. But Sister M said- "Let's go to the Christus." And that's what we did. Expecting to get up there and see only a few people and to just say hi, and then play the Word of Christ recording and leave, I went straight to play the recording. When I came back from the other side of the room, I saw Sister M with a young woman and her newborn talking with both of them. The beautiful young baby girl had tiny little hearing aids, and Sister M knew a little about the deaf culture and started to speak with the woman. Mom and Dad were both hearing, and yet this tiny 6 week old was born deaf. The young woman started to share with us the confusion but great love that she had right now, wondering what to do with this tiny baby--- raise her signing, or raise her speaking or both or what. She had three other little boys at home, all with no hearing problems. Eventually, she began to just open her heavy heart and told us that she and her husband left their home for a weekend with this precious daughter, and to come away to ponder and pray at the Temple and get strength. She told us the hard things about having three little mischievous boys at home, the humor and the horror. And at one point, I was just listening to her, and I just started to open my mouth and told her, "I know this is probably strange to say, but thank you for choosing to be a mother." I had never told anyone that before. It had never occurred to me to be a choice or really a thought that I had thought about. She looked down and I started to mumble some sort of response or excuse why I would say that, but she just looked up and had these gigantic tears in her eyes that dribbled down her face as she smiled. The Spirit just bore witness to me, there at the Christus statue, that God knows each one of us. He knows us. He loves us. Christ has felt everything that we would go through before we would. And really, truly, when we open our hearts enough to care, and our mouths open, He will fill it with the answers to someone else's prayers. 

This is my number one thing I am grateful for in this month of gratitude- those wonderful people who choose to be mothers and fathers, even though it's hard. Even though it's not what they expect. Even when it's the hardest thing they have ever done. As a missionary, we are constantly teaching and trying to repair the effects of people whose parents were not there. 

So here's to you: thank you. Thank you for choosing to be a mother. Thank you for choosing to be a father. Thank you for choosing to be a brother and a sister. It's not an association, or genetics or DNA obligation, it's a choice. 

4. The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

Another time on the Square this week, we passed a young man who was sitting on the planters in the middle of the Square just looking at the Temple with his journal, clearly with nothing to write, pondering. We said hi and started a conversation. He was from Florida, deep southern young man, and just sold everything and was basically a modern-day pioneer was just led here to Utah by the Spirit. He didn't know why. Nothing was working out. He missed home, the culture he knew, his family, the friends he had the job he had, everything. I started to share about my own parent's stories of following the Spirit and being led to BYU, my mother in particular, who quit her job and moved up to Provo in the middle of the semester, and somehow found another job, and found a place to live in the very middle of the semester. She, I'm sure, was wondering all of the same things this young man did as well. But then I told him the end of the story, how it all worked out, and how my mom ended up meeting my father and etc. etc. I just told him that life was like a Tetris game: that sometimes we have it all planned out, and we're getting ready for the next block to be released but it's not the block we expected, and we're frustrated because it messes up everything and then we realize when we see the following piece, that God was just setting us up for the next play.

Trust in the Lord. He knows. He has a plan for you. As we walked away we saw him feverishly writing down everything that just happened and knew that we were there at the right time and in the right place. We never saw him again, but both Sister M and I will never look at that particular cement planter the same way. 

There's always some sort of summing up idea of my letters, and this is the one for this week: Open your hearts to love someone new. Open your mouths to let that love shine through. Be good boys and good girls, and follow the thoughts God will give, to help someone around you absolutely know, that God does live. 

John 9:1-3

“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

[Basically, why would this man have this challenge, unless it as his, or someone else’s fault?]

 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

 

Why do we have challenges and trials and imperfections?         So that God can heal us.

So we can feel His love change us and make us new. So we can experience a miracle. So we can humbly love and rely on our Savior's miraculous power.

I want to testify, with all the molecules of my testimony, that being healed by God is 100,000 x more influential and wonderful and amazing than just being whole and challenge-free from the start. That being a broken vessel and being mended by the Atonement of Christ is 100,000 x better than never feeling dark or down. 

My cousin, Elder Tenney, in a hard part of His mission, mentioned in his letter this week that it is through others that God answers prayers. I testify that that is true. I have seen it. I know that "we are His hands." I also know that the reason why we go through trials is so that God can heal us. The reason why we don't know everything, is so we can trust. The reason why we must ask, is so we can be answered. And the reason why God works through others, is so we will all become a stronger family---- brothers and sisters. 

I love you all, my fellow brothers and sisters.

Someone needs you--- your smile, your love, your testimony, your experiences and your light.

Sister Jessica Fisher 

 

 

From: Jessica Fisher [mailto:jessica.fisher@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2013
Subject: Transfer 12, Week 4: 17 (miracles)/missionaries later, and a baptism!
 

HE GOT BAPTIZED!

S was baptized this past Saturday, November 2. Wow it was neat. I got to do a violin duet with the piano playing elder who was teaching him at the University, we played: I am a Child of God. It was another dream come true! Wow.

 

Then we received permission to attend his student ward and see him receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and what do you know? It was Fast and Testimony Meeting and he asked me if he was allowed to get up. Of course I said that he was, and he got up there and bore his testimony. My face hurt from smiling through that entire meeting. 

He later told us that he counted all of the missionaries that he had spoken with, that hand knocked on his door in the past or that had taught him: 17 missionaries. 

The neatest thing was that his ward was having a Temple Day in the Salt Lake Temple and he got to go and do baptisms just 3 days after his own baptism! Pretty neat. He said it was really special, "tons of spirit", and that "his heart was pounding" the entire time. There's few things better than to be able to hear someone you've helped through all their concerns say that finally! Aww just so neat! I'll be using him soon to be a member present on a phone call where we will teach a man who just called in yesterday who used to be a Southern Baptist Minister from Mississippi who is just tired of hypocrisy in his congregations/other faiths and wanted to learn more about why all the Mormon kids in his classroom are so much better behaved than the other students.

I'm just grateful to the Lord for putting those people in my life. I really truly genuinely love the people I teach with all of my companions. That's the hardest thing on your mission is letting them go, and letting them make choices for themselves when you know it contrary to their happiness.

 That brings me to my thoughts recently this week in what I have studied in Helaman. I've been pretty startled this time around of reading the Book of Mormon at what events are described, what trials and what condition the people are in up until Christ's Coming, and I really have felt, just as all the Prophets have said, that those same challenges will be among us, now in the last few years before Christ's Second Coming as well. 

 Here's some shocking things that mirror our own day:

 
Helaman 13:38

"ye have sought for ^chappiness in doing iniquity, which thing is ^dcontrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head."

Helaman 13:27
"Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a ^bprophet."

 Helaman 11:22

"And also they had peace in the seventy and eighth year, save it were a few contentions concerning the points of doctrine which had been laid down by the prophets."
 
Helaman 11:32-34 
"And the robbers did still increase and wax strong... and did do great destruction unto them; yea, did kill many, and did carry away others captive into the wilderness, yea, and more especially their women and their children. Now this great evil, which came unto the people because of their iniquity, did stir them up again in ^aremembrance of the Lord their God."

 Helaman 5:2

"For as their laws and their governments were established by the ^avoice of the people, and they who ^bchose evil were ^cmore numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were^dripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted."

Helaman 12:6 

"Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath^a created them, should ^brule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at^cnaught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide."
 

I think I shared what the Spirit taught me in my study, so now onto a more optimistic point. So we can see that time is coming. That it is happening! What an exciting thing? We know that the end is nigh! What a wonderful thing to know if we are prepared! We shall not fear if we have prepared. I am so excited to see our Savior again. I am so excited to have Him reign and rule over all the nations and bring peace and rule in absolute righteousness. I am so excited for Satan to be bound and for thousands of Temples to dot the earth and for the wave of missionary work to blossom and bloom and cover the continents. What an excited time to live in! The opportunities we have to build the kingdom! I see it in the excitement of all the members all around of opening their mouths and in how my referrals we received at conference above and beyond that of the other two conferences I have experienced on my mission. I see it in the amount of people on chat and who call in to mormon.org with good questions and with prepared hearts and minds. I see it in all of the desire of good Christians and religious people alike to find truth and to stand up for what is true and correct morally despite a demoralizing society. 

Many of the sisters around me make comments to see if I am sad to leave my mission in a few weeks and go home. I'm not. Why? It isn't because I haven't absolutely loved every second of representing the Lord and His church and bringing the gospel to everyone I meet, but it is because of all of that. I'm not done here. I'm not through. When I am released it doesn't mean the Lord has released me as a missionary! No no no! Instead I have gone through 18 months of an extensive internship and now in just a few weeks I will be released into my real job- spreading the joy of the gospel to everyone I meet. Standing as a witness of God at all times and in all things and all places! Everyone needs what we have! They are looking for it! They just want to know how to be happy, and why they are not, and why we are! They want to know why our families and marriages are so strong. They want to know how to raise their children in a chaotic dangerous world! 

 I know that this is why we are on the earth right now. This is why I am here. 

Please send any referrals or anyone else in these last few weeks, that you'd like me to call to share the gospel with to me. I will call them. I would LOVE to. Call my mission's guest services at this phone number: 801 240 1706 and give the referral to Sister Fisher. 

I love you all and I know that there are MIRACLES with member referrals. 

It's because of a member who referred S again that he was baptized this weekend.

Sister Fisher

 Remember the promise God has given us- "Neither take ye thought beforehand ^awhat ye shall say; but ^btreasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be ^cgiven you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man." D&C 84:85

I know God has never forgotten His promises to me these last 17 months. 

From: Jessica Fisher [mailto:jessica.fisher@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Subject: Transfer 12, Week 3: Elder Oaks and a Surprise Tulip

Hello family and friends,

I want to start out with the “tulip” for the week (see last week for story about the tulips in our lives).

This Saturday, I met with the Sisters and S in the Visitor's Center. They started going down through all these questions and concerns he had, and the differences between the Bible verses and some of the Book of Mormon about the nature of God. Finally, I just couldn't handle it anymore. The bold lion in me just had to declare truth.  I know that he had felt the Spirit before and I just wanted to declare and testify of truth. I shared what I knew about the Nicene Creed and how changes were made to the original text of the gospels and the epistles of the Apostles in the New Testament, all according to popular vote and cultural/political differences way back in 300 AD. I testified that even the King James version had many errors in its production.  I said that King James took not men inspired and called by God to translate, but instead took the 40 most educated men he could find to combine into 3 different groups to translate the Bible into English. Each of those groups would bring their translation and compare it next to the other groups and whatever words they could not agree on are now the italicized words in the Bible- take a look at your Bible. How many incredibly important words are italicized? Exactly. There needed to be a Restoration of the original. There had to be. God doesn't work in chaos.

I testified that I knew that there had to be a Restoration, God had to speak to declare through this chaos, confusion and dismay what truth was and what it wasn't; that there had to be truth on the earth or God would cease to be God. And Joseph Smith had to be God's chosen Prophet and the Book of Mormon had to be true, or we would all be lost. We wouldn't know where to find truth and we would all be simply believing in fairy tales and made-up beliefs created by men. I declared that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only fully true church on the earth, or absolutely nothing is or was, and if it wasn't, we would all just simply exist without purpose or joy or reason or anything. 

 

I told him that back when I taught him last February that, yes, some of his words really cut into my soul and I had been striving for many months to search for a way to explain the truth better to him.  But when I went to Wyoming during my Outbound months, I found what I was looking for. I couldn't say it clearly very well way back in February, but I could now. So I then said:

I know that Joseph Smith was called by God the Father and Jesus Christ and that He gave his life for the truth and the actuality of what he saw and what really happened. Because of that,  I know that every single other of our Church principles are true,  whether we have a complete knowledge of it or not, but I know that. I know the Book of Mormon teaches truth and is so clear, and because of that, I know what the Bible means to say, and even more importantly I know from the Holy Ghost that these things are all true. How you may ask? I have had experiences with God that confirm all of this to me.

I testified that this is the reason why we come on our missions...It is to help people come closer to Christ, not just to "baptize" people. I said to S that it didn't matter to us to baptize people or not. We told him we'd either baptize them here or do it after they've passed on, but we want them to do it here so they can enjoy the blessings sooner. I declared that either he could act on what he knew to be true and the feelings he had testify by the Holy Spirit to him now in this life and receive the blessings that he could enjoy here in this life,... or he could wait and accept it in the Spirit World, and still know it is true just as he did now, but we would have the work for him done either way. Either way, he would have to act on the truth that he knows and feels.

And then, Sister M and I felt that we should just leave him and the group that moment. So we did just that.

About 10 minutes later, the other sisters came to find us and just stared at us and said, "After you left, none of us knew what to say. But the Spirit was so strong that we just didn't know what to do. But then S said, 'If I were to be baptized ,would it have to be a large service? Or can it just be a small thing?' And he had tears in his eyes."

We set a date for him to be baptized on November 2, 2013, and he told us, "Do you know why that date is special to me?" No.... we didn't. But apparently that date 5 years ago was when he was in an accident that was supposed to be fatal, but he knew God saved his life.

This experience will be one of the most memorable experiences of my entire life …the day that I declared my testimony and all the reasons behind it and said it with such absolute, and that the Spirit that I was praying for that would accompany my testimony would touch his heart. The Spirit is what converts. I just wish I would've believed and totally realized that earlier in my mission.
Wow. An experience like that beats any temple service I've done, any baptism I've been to, any compliment, any scholarship, any date, any anything. When you declare truth from the bottom of your soul and with everything that you have, and the Spirit is there confirming everything, it's almost like there's just fire all around. The living room felt like it was burning. The sisters there said that they were praying to not cry because it was so intense. I'm so grateful I was able to be there and be a part of that process.

I would've never thought that something like this was possible. But the moral of the story is this: Never give up. God never gives up on any of us. I know that. I would NEVER have thought back in April that this could happen to S, or in June after I left for Outbound and received an email from my companion letting me know what happened to him, and how devastating it was. But God knows. This is His work, it never once was mine.

On top of a surprise “tulip” for the week:

We had a special visitor this past Monday morning!... Elder Oaks and his wife! President Gillette just loves surprises, and wow this was a treat!  I'd like to include some of his special words he shared with us:

-Apparently 3-5 million people visit Temple Square each year. WOW. That means that I approximately have spoken with about 10,000 people personally in the last year, or about 15,000 people on my mission. (No wonder even I feel “people-tired” sometimes at the end of the day!) That's crazy, but also what a blessing. He shared with us what a huge blessing it is and privilege to serve here.

Another quote: "Faith means trust. When we pray with faith it means we pray with trust that the Lord will answer with what's best for us."

But I'll never forget some of Elder Oaks' best quotations that I wrote down during the question and answer session:

1. What about a Patriarchal Blessing where the blessing hasn't yet been fulfilled?

Great question. He said that that comes up almost every single q & a that he does. One sister shared about her mother who raised them and has been divorced for many, many years and asked about the promise in her mother's blessing to be sealed in the temple as a family to a righteous Priesthood holder. She said tearfully- "Will that occur in this life or the next?"

Elder Oaks discussed with us what will be happening in the Millennium in "thousands of temples" across the world.

Sister Oaks stepped in and told us that her blessing has an entire page on children and having babies. Well if any of you know Sister Oaks, she was married not til in her late 50s and has many grandchildren and children by marriage, but has never had a child of her own. And she said seriously, but humorously "And in the Millennium is when I get to have my babies!!!" (All the sister missionaries chuckled at that)

2. What should I do when they ask questions that I don't know the answer to about Joseph Smith?

"Don't get sawed away by the lesser questions, when you know the answers to the bigger ones."

He spoke about how historians and anti's alike like to pose these questions to us to shake our faith, or to try and plant holes that we can't quite answer easily. BUT... he said that not a single one of them have ever been able to explain the answer to the biggest question of all: The Book of Mormon. How could it have come to be, unless it is truly the word of ancient prophets translated by a servant of God? None of them even try to answer that. Elder Oaks said he's been to tons of historical societies and none of them even attempt to explain it. They know it's impossible, unless it's true. Unless it is what Joseph Smith said it was, and what the Spirit has borne witness that it is.

3. What is the best thing for me to say to less-active returned missionaries?

He then gave the scariest quote I have ever heard:
"Every single one of you is just as susceptible to being less-active if you stop doing your spiritual maintenance every day."

Wow. He told us it's easy to become less-active: You just stop reading your scriptures and stop meaningfully saying your prayers, you miss one or two Sundays of partaking of the Sacrament and BAM! Then the renewal of your baptismal covenant can't take place and you no longer have the protection of the promised blessing of "keeping His Spirit to be with you always",  and all of the sudden, the devil plants ideas and thoughts and doubts and concerns that you no longer have the spiritual protection or the faith to respond to or deal with.

He told us that it happens so easily so don't you dare think "wow... how could that have happened to them, when it could so easily happen to both you and me."   He said, “Bring them to remembrance of who they really are. Love them. You can't influence anyone you do not love.  Boldly testify whenever the time is right, but just help them- they just got tired, worn out, and confused and temporarily lost their vision.”

 

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I love you all. Even if my body is dragging through and barely making it through the last few weeks, I want you all to know that my soul and spirit is just as alive and inflamed as it ever once was!

I know this is God's work and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Love,
Sister Fisher