Saturday, December 22, 2012

Transfer 4, Week 4: The Church is True, The Book is Blue, There's a Work to Do!

 Dear Familia!

So.... this week! Sister C and I sorta got the flu which has been rampant around the mission but miraculously we feel pretty much recovered. 

We have seen even more of the success of our mission zone's motto: "Call and ye shall find, drop and ye shall receive, invite and it shall be opened unto them." 

We've met even more people who we will begin teaching! Here have been  some of the chats we've taken in guest services (our current assignment).

I like the 'Nefi' one. (Nephi) :)

 It's been a privilege to serve here and to be able to share the Gospel with so many people in such a variety of ways. 

Now that it's the Christmas season, our hearts and minds are naturally turned to gift giving and gift receiving. The truth is, as I've told Sister C many times lately, I don't want anything. I have everything that I need. I'm the happiest I've ever been. The secret? I haven't thought about myself in a really long time. I know that the Lord will provide a way for us and will watch over us and take care of us. For example, this morning, the entire zone went to IHOP for breakfast and showed some of the international sisters "the international house of pancakes". We had two separate people who offered/tried to pay for our meal. There were at least 20 of us there. All of us just were swept with an immense wave of gratitude. There was nothing left for me to do but bow my head and pray and just give thanks. I just feel so blessed. So extremely blessed. 

 I guess my true Christmas list would be this:

-All of our friends that we're teaching all of the sudden not be busy so that we can teach them.

-All of them accept the gospel and be willing to change and be baptized.

-All of them attend church.

-All of the members in their church wards be kind and loving and welcoming towards them.

-The local missionaries of all of these people reach them and maintain contact with them.

-All of the sisters in my mission who have not received gifts will receive gifts (my mission presidency has this covered by the way... but sadly there are many).

-My companion and I return to 100% full health.

-The weather to be 20 degrees warmer at all times. :)

-10:30PM to 6:30AM to feel like 10 hours of sleep every day. ;)

-20 letters from all my friends who I haven't heard from (just kidding everyone... but seriously haha).

And honestly, all my other dreams and wishes have come true. I am in the best mission in the world. I asked the Lord to put me to work and He has. I have the greatest companion ever and we are reallllllly learning how to do the work better. I absolutely love the Book of Mormon. I love saying good morning to one of the homeless ladies that is always by the square when we walk there. I love my mission Presidency. I love Sister Gillette. I have the best Zone Leaders and District Leader in the world. I ate at a family's home this week for dinner- which was a big deal, and a great experience and a delight to be there. And the Gospel is true. It is the solution to every single problem we face in life. I know that to be true. I love it. I love teaching and testifying of it. 

Here's my thought to everyone today. As I grow closer to reaching our mission's goal of finishing the Book of Mormon before Christmas (I'm 12 pages away - woot!)

These scriptures (from The Book of Mormon) and doctrine have really impressed me and left a dent in my mind for pondering:

2 Nephi 2:25 "...and men are, that they might have joy."

 

Alma 34:34   "...same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."

Mormon 9:14  "And then cometh the ^ajudgment of the Holy One upon them; and then cometh the time that he that is ^bfilthy shall be filthy still; and he that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still."

 The first scripture doesn't just tell us to have joy, but it says that our purpose here is to have joy. We are commanded to allow ourselves to be happy. Happiness is a choice. That might be the greatest lesson I've learned on my mission.  The next verse in Alma talks to us about how we will be the same person that we are right now here on earth, in the next life too. Basically saying, if we don't learn to be happy now, we will always find an excuse to not be happy, or not be satisfied or be content and just happy with life with our situation, with our circumstance. Everything does not have to be perfect or perfectly fit in our plan for ourselves or our expectations for us to find joy. We have been given so much. A new car, a nice dress, more earrings, a better score on a test, winning the basketball game, going out to eat, being asked to the dance all of those things at the end of the day will not 'make' us happy. We are still the ones that choose to find happiness. We don't have to wait for our 'golden ticket' like President Uchtdorf says, or when all the ducks line up in a row for us to finally find joy. With how our life is right now, with the strengths and the weaknesses we have, with the blessings and the struggles that we have, we can find happiness where ever we turn, because we have been given so much. 

 

The last scripture, the verse in Mormon is perhaps the scariest of all. He that is happy right now, shall be happy still, and he that is unhappy (or hasn't figured out how to find joy in the journey) shall be unhappy still. 

 

At the end of the day, if we follow the Prophet, read our scriptures, pray, attend church, pay our tithing and do our best, the Lord will bless us and we will find happiness, contentment, and joy. As long as we follow the Lord, He will bring us closer to Heavenly Father, and the closer we are to Heavenly Father, the happier we will be. The further away from Him, the sadder we will be. That is the basics of the law. It is what it is. Other people might make choices that effect us and that might be difficult for us or create unknowns or provide mountains that we might have to climb because of their actions, but let us "not say to God how big my mountain is, but say to my mountain how big my God is." All things will work out for our good. We know that the Atonement will make all things right in the end. 

 

 I love this final scripture in the Book of Mormon (if you would like a free copy of The Book of Mormon, just ask for one online on Mormon.org) :

 

Mosiah 2:41:

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and ^ahappy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are ^bblessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out ^cfaithful to the end they are received into ^dheaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

 

This gospel is true. Heavenly Father has not only a Plan of Salvation, but a Plan of Happiness. It is a perfect Plan. Let's have faith in it with every step we take!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upwards and Onwards!

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Love,

Sister Fisher

 

 

Saturday, December 08, 2012
Transfer 4, Week 2? or 3? Something?

 Dearest Familia and Friends!

Wow. Time is flying. 

Not going to lie, we are exhausted from the Christmas season already, but that's what Pday is for!!! :)

It's been neat being able to talk to SO MANY people and run into some of you. I love the work so much. It's hard sometimes, disappointing when people don't want what you want for them, but I love being here and loving others and hopefully sharing a little bit of the love and vision Heavenly Father has for each one of them. Sister C and I have really learned how to enjoy every minute of it. I'm the happiest I have ever been in my life. 

 It's also been a huge blessing being able to perform with the Missionary Choir on my violin, and share my testimony through music especially in incredible locations like the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Tomorrow we'll perform for church, which will be neat too. This coming Monday will be our "General Authorities Mission Tour" I'm not sure exactly what that is, but apparently Elder Evans, the head of the Missionary Department is this year's general authority. So that should be cool too.

 I don't know how many stories there are to share this week. However, we've had some very interesting chats ...

(Here's one:)

Caller:  "I'm doing awesome!  you are a mormon right?
Us:  Yes we are, are you?
Caller:  No. I am living here in far rockaway and I saw your church here with the yellow vests helping out and so I was looking you guys up on the computer and found this website "

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And some really awesome inspirational images with quotes from Apostles. (see below)

As for the week, we've adopted this phrase in our zone: "call and ye shall find, drop and ye shall receive, invite and it shall be opened unto them." We've really tried to be diligent in this, this week and it has been pretty amazing! We hate dropping people, but at the end of the day, we may drop them, but the Lord never will. I love to hang onto people and think, well what if in a month they'll want the gospel, or I think maybe if I just call one more time they'll change their mind. No. We don't have to beg people. It's their choice. It's okay. We invite people to come closer to Christ, that's what we do. So as we exercised faith to drop people the Lord really did give us new people to call and teach! It's been pretty cool to see. We had too many people to work with before, and that's why He wouldn't give us more. We hit an epiphany, "The only people that you can help, are those that want to change." Amen. That's the truth. Sometimes people don't want what you want for them, even though you know it will bless their life. Heavenly Father still respects their agency, or their choice. We should too. We have to trust in His plan for them and that as we allow them to choose, we drop them and focus on others, and sort through to find those that really want to change, and we found some!

The other thing we've really worked on is inviting. We've been inviting people to be baptized. If they really want to change, they will want to be baptized because it will help them change and help them find Christ and become closer to Him! So.... we even did in on Mormon Chat. One person actually accepted! And another didn't.... but it was still good because we were able to see how sincere they were, if they really wanted to change or if they were just asking questions. See the chat above with the baptismal commitment.

Anyways!
I love the work. A lot of it is just that - work. But I love serving the Lord and doing whatever it is that He wants me to do. We're finding joy in chatting, placing and answering calls in Guest Services 6 hours a day, and saying hi to millions of people on the Square at night for the lights, taking pictures for people, loving my companion and laughing at myself, playing violin for crowds, proclaiming the Gospel, teaching and blessing people's lives, giving chocolate to homeless people, and wearing the Lord Jesus Christ's name on my badge over my heart.  Finding joy in the journey really is a choice. And it is the right choice! :)

 Merry Christmas,

Sister Fisher

 

Saturday, December 01, 2012
Transfer 4, Week 2?
 

Family and Friends,

 

This week as been really interesting. It was the first week of mass chaos on Temple Square- Christmas lights. We were in guest services when we had about 400 calls come in from people asking about the Christmas lights last Friday and it was just insane! So many people have come and it has been really neat meeting them and having performances from musical groups all the time every hour from 5pm-on. We're on the Square some nights late and it's exhausting. But good. I've been able to play my violin about 3 performances this week with the Temple Missionaries Choir and each time it's just great. Really neat to be able to use music as a testimony too. I love it. It's been so rewarding. I know that the Lord is really blessing me because I know that I'm not practicing like at all, and my ability should be diminished, but it's not.

We took around a really great investigator lesson with sisters from the SLC South mission. It was 3 boys (age 16, 18, & 20). They are the victims of a cruel world, abusive family experiences and just really rough life. They're trying to find joy. One said "Well, I don't know if I deserve to be loved by God." That broke my heart. They've been told too many times that they're worthless and shown that they aren't loved, that they begin to believe it. We testified of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father and began to show them His plan for them. It was neat. When we headed up to show them the Christus statue, after a while, one said, "I just want to stay in here forever."

At the end, we gave them tickets to see Savior of the World musical - but it was cool because we only thought we had one ticket left, and then there were 3. I'm going to believe that that was a miracle. We told them that we thought that they were special and that's why we wanted them to see the performance. All three of these boys looked at us straight in the eye with the expression "You think I'm special?" and the Spirit just wooshed in and I told them "I know that you are a son of Heavenly Father, that He loves you and that each one of you have unlimited potential and that He has a plan for you and your life so that you can learn and develop to be all that He sees you to become." It was a neat and crazy experience. Each committed to a baptismal date for December 22- the best Christmas gift they'll ever have. 

 As for my message this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the war chapters I’ve been reading in the Book of Mormon and the lessons we can learn from them.

 In Alma 49:5-9, it talks about how the Nephites had to prepare for the invasion of the Lamanites, and how their preparations are what kept them safe and DEFENDED. It reminds me of Satan. We’re at the point in time that he’s had a lot of practice and just like the Lamanites, has learned and become more crafty and clever of how to enter our homes and our hearts.

Like the Nephites in the Book of Mormon, we must become even more guarded and protect ourselves, homes and children. The things that were okay or on the line 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago, aren’t any more. Those are the very things that Satan uses when we are particularly susceptible.

 “5 Now at this time the chief ^acaptains of the Lamanites were astonished exceedingly, because of the wisdom of the Nephites in preparing their places of security.

 6 Now the leaders of the Lamanites had supposed, because of the greatness of their numbers, yea, they supposed that they should be privileged to come upon them as they had hitherto done; yea, and they had also prepared themselves with shields, and with^abreastplates; and they had also prepared themselves with garments of skins, yea, very thick garments to cover their nakedness.
 7 And being thus prepared they supposed that they should easily overpower and ^asubject their brethren to the yoke of bondage, or slay and massacre them according to their pleasure.
 8 But behold, to their uttermost astonishment, they were^aprepared for them, in a manner which never had been known among the children of Lehi. Now they were prepared for the Lamanites, to battle after the manner of the instructions of Moroni.
 9 And it came to pass that the Lamanites, or the Amalickiahites, were exceedingly astonished at their manner of preparation for war.”

 The next lesson learned is that we must FORTIFY our homes and hearts. We must be prepared with the ammunition to defend ourselves when Satan still sneaks past our guard and line of defense. Those things are church attendance, praying daily and sincerely, and reading the scriptures ourselves and as a family.

When those waves of doubt, inconvenience, pride, contention and impatience come into our homes and hearts, these are the things that will strengthen ourselves and the Spirit to enable us to overcome. Being well protected is not enough.

  18 Now behold, the Lamanites could not get into their forts of security by any other way save by the entrance, because of the highness of the bank which had been thrown up, and the depth of the ditch which had been dug round about, save it were by the entrance.

 19 And thus were the Nephites prepared to destroy all such as should attempt to climb up to enter the fort by any other way, by casting over stones and arrows at them.
 20 Thus they were prepared, yea, a body of their strongest men, with their swords and their slings, to smite down all who should attempt to come into their place of security by the place of^aentrance; and thus were they prepared to defend themselves against the Lamanites.

Satan is too practiced that He can now enter almost any place and situation. We have to fortify ourselves constantly- everyday, everyday, everyday.

We can’t stop.

Alma 50:1

1 And now it came to pass that Moroni did not stop making preparations for war, or to defend his people against the Lamanites; for he caused that his armies should commence in the commencement of the twentieth year of the reign of the judges, that they should commence in digging up ^aheaps of earth round about all the cities, throughout all the land which was possessed by the Nephites.

 Ask yourselves- "Where has Satan already entered my fort of my heart or home and how can I fight him out of there? And then ask how can I better protect myself and home and not let any wall become weak?" His forces are stronger than they were 10 years ago. Our weak wall that we’ve neglected that withheld things 10 years ago, won’t hold now.

And lastly, ask yourself, "How can I fortify myself and my family better to defend ourselves when Satan does enter?"

Carry on, carry on, CARRY ON!!!!

Love,

Sister Fisher

Thanksgiving Mission Party - Yeehaw!

 November 24, 2012

Transfer 4, Week 1: Gobble Gobble!

 Howdy Y'all!!!!

 So, transfers happened and my new comp is from my MTC class of sisters (we were in the MTC at the same time) and her name is Sister C from Indianapolis!!!

She's AWESOME. It's way fun being with her. We're very similar too. She also went to BYU and played the viola in Highschool, and most importantly, she is a missionary as well with the same objectives and desires that I do! Doing the work the best we can!!! (with the Lord's help of course).

 But I will tell you a bit about our Thanksgiving. So we were on the Square until about 1pm and then we all drove (the Square was closed) to a place and had a huge dinner with all the mission presidency, senior couples, and a bunch of their family, and all 180 sister missionaries! It was crazy!

We learned a few line dances, yee-haw all y'all!!! (the Latin sisters and Polynesian sisters were VERY enthusiastic about dancing too.... what you can do when you're in a mission of all women).  We also did some activities to educate us about the meaning of Thanksgiving. And we got to eat dinner with the General Primary President and her husband. We have connections - but she came to dinner with us!! :) It was pretty neat. We watched a movie and cut out snowflakes and it was just a really nice time to kind of refresh and renew us, our first real break in a while. But, it was interesting.... After a few hours, all I really wanted to do was get to work again. That's the thing that makes me happy. We recreate and relax, so we can get back to work. That is where happiness lies. I just started feeling bored and just had a big desire to get back to missionary work again. 

It was interesting because before my mission, that time to veg and relax,  the time to get away from my work and stresses,  were the things that I looked forward to the most. Now, I know that that time isn't what makes happiness. Serving and working with the people around me is what brings joy  - losing ourselves in the concerns and needs of others. Relaxation and recreation are very important though to enable us to be able to get back to work. Progression in all aspects of our life is what brings true satisfaction and joy. Sister C and I were talking about it.  Before our missions we wanted to 'get away' from our troubles and concerns through watching movies, or hanging out with friends, or sleeping or eating, whatever; but now we realize that happiness lies in working through our problems and concerns and stresses. 

I love my mission. I love it so much. I am so grateful for this opportunity and that Heavenly Father let me come and helped me get here. I am the happiest I have ever been in my life, because I am not thinking of myself. I know that that is where happiness lies in. Look at those around you, and think today, "How can I serve them more?"  I'm sure you are already doing so much. Don't do more. Just do it more effectively. How long does one text message that uplifts someone, or an email with an uplifting video, or just a note of gratitude or a simple, "I love you", or including someone and their problems in a prayer take? Not long. 

 Another interesting thing that happened this week was a Chat that we had (on www.Mormon.org , Chat With A Missionary). It was with a member who was wanting to get his name removed from the church. We asked him some questions about why and what happened. He said that he just didn't think it was true or right. We proceeded to ask him and create a sort of check list with him: 

 

We asked him, "When was the last time that you prayed and read the Book of Mormon?"

At first he typed out "not for a long time",(yes we can see what people type before they send it- it's really helpful because then you can see someone's thought process)-  ,  but a second later he erased it and said: "I pray everyday and I really prayed about this choice and I got my answer."

We asked, "Are you keeping the commandments?"

"Yes"

"Do you pay your tithing?"

He responded, "Well I only believe that I should pay it when I want to, not when someone else is telling me to."

Which then Sister Creal responded, "Well... the person telling you to is God."

Which he then made some comment about how this church isn't true and he doesn't believe it anymore. 

Which I responded (sometimes the Spirit just speaks before you recognize what you're saying), "Well it's hard to know if something is true or not, if you don't 100% do it."

He disconnected after that. 

 But that chat really made me think,  Do I 100% do it? Do each of us 100% try it, believe it, love it? 

 I bet that those might get y'all thinking. Love you all. Thanks for the support and examples to me. Happy Thanksgiving. The Lord has blessed all of us with the most important thing of all - the restored gospel that Christ himself started. 

Love,

Sister Fisher

Wednesday, November 14, 2012
 

Transfer 3, Week 5: ..... let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

  Family and Friends!

 Some may question the title--- it snowed about 14-18 inches in Salt Lake City this weekend. It was insane. I've NEVER seen that much snow in my entire life at one time (except in the mountains of course). 

Thank you Dad for Both of the letters you sent- I received and read both of them. PS Tell B he looks old, mature, and better than he even was before and like he was an excellent missionary! I want to look like that when I come home. I hit my 6 month mark in a week. It's insane. 

I have a huge testimony of fasting now. We had a mission fast this weekend, and we received through chat and the Square and on the phone and in guest services 6 new people to teach. It's awesome. (not that we need more to teach right now.... haah)

 My head actually really hurts right now as I am emailing so most of my email will be in the images I've sent. The last one is an image of one of the MANY chats we took this week, and as you can see, a friend gave them a mormon.org card (which is in the back of the October Ensigns!) and so she checked out mormon.org and then came on chat with us and we talked for a while. She gave us her phone number and now missionaries are going to visit her and we will be talking to her as well!..... and we gave her the church's address. Miracles happen by small and simple acts.

 We visited a ward this Sunday and spoke there. My topic and talk is my take home message of the week, and I know that it is true and WORKS! :)

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Teach When You Find, Find When You Teach -- Nov 2012 talk by Sister Fisher

I’ve heard many people say (myself included before my mission):  I don’t have any missionary experiences, or I don’t know anyone who is interested in learning more. Preach My Gospel shows us that finding and teaching is the same thing.

Maybe one reason why people around us don’t show interest in learning more, is because they don’t actually know what we believe in.

How we speak to our family, how we dress, all of our conversations, the media we watch and listen to, how we use our time, and our attitudes toward meetings and church are all ways to show our beliefs. However, as a youth told us on Temple “Oh, I’ll just be an example to them”----It is no longer enough to just be an example, or show what we believe. We have to share WHAT we believe.

We answer chats, phone calls and questions from people all the time who all say “Yes I’ve noticed my Mormon friends do this or that, but I don’t know why they do it.”

Too often we wait for formal opportunities to share the “why” of what we do and who we are. We wait until we bring them to church and explain to them there, or wait for the missionaries to teach them, or we write our testimonies in copies of the Book of Mormon and give it to them, or we wait to explain what we believe and why we acted the way we did in high school in a letter you write a few days before you go into the MTC.  (Me)

As Preach My Gospel teaches us, we don’t need to wait to share what we believe. Our friends and neighbors already know and can tell that we are different—what they need to know is why we are different.

As President Uchtdorf’s family did, we can all explain or share religious experiences that we have as we go along, instead of waiting for a formal occasion to do so. We don’t have to say, would you like to learn more? Or do you have a few minutes that I can share _________ with you. Or if you just read this you’ll find out why I ________________. As President Uchtdorf said in his talk Waiting on the Road to Damascus, you don’t have to wait to share your beliefs with friends by saying “I’d like to bear my testimony.”

He says: “Years ago our family lived and worked among people who in almost every case were not of our faith. When they asked us how our weekend was, we tried to skip the usual topics—like sports events, movies, or the weather—and tried to share some religious experiences we had as a family over the weekend—for instance, what a youth speaker had said about the standards from For the Strength of Youth or how we were touched by the words of a young man who was leaving on his mission or how the gospel and the Church helped us as a family to overcome a specific challenge we had.

We tried not to be preachy or overbearing. My wife, Harriet, was always the best at finding something inspirational, uplifting, or humorous to share. This often would lead to more in-depth discussions.”—UNQUOTE……..(--President Uchtdorf, in Waiting on the Road to Damascus) Preach My Gospel tells us to share short powerful messages where the spirit can testify of the simple truths we believe in—or the ‘why’. 

As people notice that we dress differently at prom, instead of saying “my parents or my church said I have to” we can explain why we dress modestly by saying “I know that I am a daughter of God, and because of that I want to dress my body respectfully” or “well, one day I want to be married in the Temple, and I need to dress modestly to prepare” or “I dress modestly so that the spirit of God can be with me.”

 

Or when people ask us why we don’t work on Sunday we can share a principle of the gospel that we believe, such as “A prophet of God has said that the way we can keep the Sabbath day holy is by attending church, spending time with our families and resting from work on that day.”

 

When we switch the radio station because an inappropriate song comes on, instead of saying “I just don’t like this song,” we can say “Well I don’t want the thoughts that will come in my head if we listen to this song,” or “the spirit won’t be with me if I listen to this song.”

 

When people ask us about not drinking alcohol or coffee, instead of saying “well I’m not allowed to” we can share how we know that a Prophet of God revealed that those things are not good for our body, or it prevents us from feeling the spirit, or another simple truth.

Or when they ask us about why we don’t date until we’re 16, or we date in groups or are very careful with how far we take physical affection, we can share “that we know that marriage is very important to God, and that we must keep each other clean and respect the standards a Prophet of God have established to keep us safe.”

When we teach as we find (or as we have the opportunity to share), and not waiting to find before we teach, our friends will be interested in learning more because they will actually know what we believe, not just how we live our life.   When we refer quickly and simply to the truths we know, or the why behind what we do, I know that we will all have many more missionary opportunities. We’re not asking you to work harder, just smarter.

As we share short powerful messages we will help direct those who are seeking for the gospel, but don’t know where to find it, actually find it.  We will be able to share all the blessings and guidance that we have from the restored Gospel, with all those around you that you love. We will also more effectively keep our covenant we made with our Heavenly Father at baptism, to “stand as a witness for God at all times and in all things and in all places.” 
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Love,
Sister Fisher
PS. Sorry about the short letter today. Next week will have more.

An eraser that's big enough for all our mistakes. Just like the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

    Music and the Spoken Word broadcast, Sundays 8am Mtn time