Sent: Monday, October 14, 2013
Subject: Transfer 11, Week 6: Kiwi's, Sunshine in my soul, A Baptism, 100 Pushups and a Violin Dream come true
G'day, G'day family and
friends!
"What a bizarre title!" I know you're thinking, " Kiwis? In October?" Well transfers
happened and my new comp is a Kiwi!!! She's not green.... she's just from
New Zealand! (New Zealand-ers are called Kiwis). Her name is Sister M and she'll be in her fourth transfer.
Haha. My new p-day will be Wednesday--- so write me! :)
I'm still serving also in Relief Society,
which I love, and no longer in Guest Services.
Sister S and I went to a BAPTISM!!!!!!! So
exciting! First one we got to attend in a long time. The funniest thing happened
though, we came super early like we are supposed to, and the elders told us
that their musical number cancelled on them last minute. Another baptism was
happening (a nice problem to have-right?) and one of the elders was playing the
violin for it, and actually he happened to be an elder I took an investigator
lesson with last August 2012, at the beginning of both his and my mission, and
he played the violin at that baptism which was my first baptism on my mission
(way back with Sister C)!
So I said hi and he remembered me and we talked real fast, and then I asked if I could borrow it or he could come play for the baptism in 30 minutes. But he just gave the violin to me and I just went in the hymn book and found a hymn and made up an arrangement (my theory teachers should be proud at this point) and BAM! Performed it at a baptism. :) I realized then and there that I had finally accomplished a dream of mine- to play violin/a musical number at one of my investigator's baptisms. Wow. That was cool.
The baptism was so fantastic.
The young man's face after he was baptized was
so neat. He just smiled so big and was just so full of light.
There was one talk given by one
of the elders, who gave a story that really made me think. He was sitting in
Youth Conference/EFY (Especially For Youth) in Australia, and he and about 20
people were all surrounded in a circle. The teacher held out a lot of chocolate
and all of the teenagers were really excited to have some of it. The teacher
then called on a large, strong rugby player young man in the circle to come to
the center. The teacher told the conditions for everyone to have the chocolate
that they wanted. "How many of you want chocolate?" All the hands
went up in the air. "For each of you that want chocolate, this young man
has to do 10 push ups." The young man looked confident but still half of
the hands went down from the circle. 10 hands remained. Each person looked at
their friend and thought- he can handle it. Besides I'll give him some of mine
when he's finished. The teacher said, "Okay, do 100 push ups." The
young man did the first 10. The first person got chocolate. Easy. No worries.
He did 10 more. More chocolate given away. And 10 more. After the first 30,
sweat started to form and his face started to tense. He was in pain. Several of
the friends put their hands down. But the teacher said something interesting,
"Whether you take the chocolate or not, it doesn't matter. The price is
still 100 pushups." The friends in the circle watched as their brave
friend, who was in a lot of pain slowly finished the pushups with tears coming
from his eyes. Some of the friends in the circle asked if they could help him
do the pushups, or if he could do the pushups from his knees for it to be easier.
But the teacher said again, "It doesn't matter. The price is still 100
pushups."
At the end of the parable, the teacher got up and said:
"Christ paid much more than 100 pushups for each one of us. But just like
the chocolate, whether we accept His gift or not, He still had to pay our part
for us."
"15. Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.
16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men."
We either take Christ's gift, or we
don't. But it's already been paid for. We can choose to pay justice ourselves
all over again and suffer what Christ did, or we can learn from it, move on and
move forward with love and gratitude for what Christ did for us so we don't
have to, and simply repent.
We gave a tour today with two men. It was kind of an
overcast day, cold and cloudy. The two men were high school friends, now 10 or
15 years later. One of them was a returned missionary and the other was his
non-member friend who had always respected and admired him from afar. And they
were at Temple Square. They were on their way from Los Angeles to see another
of their friends in Idaho and made a stop there. The non-member friend had just
agreed to hear the missionary lessons. At the end of the tour, we testified of
Jesus Christ. As I was giving one of the most powerful testimonies on my mission to
this man about how the gospel changes us because of the Atonement of Christ, through the
window the clouds parted and the sun crept through, breaking through, bringing such
bright sunshine on my face and on us as I testified. The Christus Statue was lit up
with this sunlight that moment, too. It really was magical.
Love,
Sister Fisher
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