11/25/13 "Born of Goodly Parents"

"I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents..."  

- 1 Nephi 1:1. 

(and probably the most frequently read verse of scripture among Latter-Day Saints. 2 Nephi is hard.) 

Another fun fact that you should know about North Carolina is that we have psychics here. With the exception of Pineville, every area I have been in has had psychics, palm readers, tarot card and ouija board people, and all that sort of stuff. (Do I get bonus points for knowing how to spell ouija without having to look at a dictionary?) I have never seen this anywhere but North Carolina. And it's not just an isolated thing -- there's actually multiple of them in every area. 

I was initially surprised that such a religious area would have superstitious stuff like psychics all over the place, but now I realize that there actually isn't much difference between what these sorts of kooks do compared to what goes on in some of the churches around here. Maybe we should go and get their opinion the next time we're trying to find new investigators.

On the subject of superstitious...

A few weeks ago I was in the library using my Facebook time. I generally try not to pay too much attention to what other people are doing on their computers, but I am still usually vaguely conscious of what they're up to. I was happily working along when suddenly I saw the lady next to me get on Google, type in "Mormon underwear," and click on the third link or so from the top, not a Church website.

Brain: "And...intervening."

Elder Fisher: "Excuse me, ma'am, I happened to notice that..."

And thus I was able to redirect this woman away from the presumably anti-Mormon site she was going to be looking at and onto mormon.org, where I was able to show her my profile, explain that I was a missionary, and start answering her questions about what we believed. Situation avoided. Whew! 

We ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and a ton of other stuff when she asked us for it. It turned out that she had been living across from our street for years and had always wanted to know that we believed. Did we worship Joseph Smith? What was the Book of Mormon? Did we still read the Bible? A bunch of stuff like that.

To think that all of this happened because I am aware of what other people are doing...

***

The meeting with Elder Quentin L. Cook was very short, only two hours instead of the regular three or four or five. Having shaken hands with Elder Cook before, I had told all the missionaries in my district that he had a squishy hand. They didn't believe me, but this was later confirmed when he shook hands with all of us at that meeting.

He didn't really have that much counsel or direction to give us, but he did tell us some interesting things. He talked to us about his responsibility to assign missionaries. Some missionaries, he said, need a certain mission president; they need to be around his example to help them grow. Most assignments, Elder Cook said, are ultimately made for that reason. Some missionaries are assigned to a certain people; they have talents and abilities that allow them to really succeed in that place. Some missionaries are assigned to a mission because of some future experience they will have there.

Elder Cook also told us that the time will come when we will understand that our mission has blessed everyone near and dear to us -- not just our families, not just the people in the field, everyone in our life. He also said that some of the companions who have the least in common with you will have been the most important for you in the future.

I could expound more on what he said, but there isn't all that much time. I'll close with this: Upon seeing all the sister missionaries in our mission, which is the largest mission he's been to at around 250 missionaries,Elder Cook commented that perhaps the greatest effect of the age change will not necessarily be the people who will come into the church during the wave, but the effect a mission will have on all these sisters who will be mothers someday. 

I thought that was cool. The Lord needs missionaries, but even more importantly, he needs good parents, and serving a mission is a great way for Him to prepare the youth of today for parenthood in an increasingly evil world. To quote Elder Cook from the meeting: "Being born of goodly parents is not as important asbeing goodly parents."

I am definitely grateful for my goodly parents and all the people in my life who are doing an awesome job at raising their family. The most important battlefield in the world is not out on the streets, where we the missionaries are, but in the home.

Love you all so much. Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Fisher

11/18/13 "Great and Marvelous"

"And there had many things transpired which, in the eyes of some, would be great and marvelous; nevertheless, they cannot all be written in this book." - 3 Nephi 5:8

 

While playing a game of Catch-the-Less-Active-At-Home yesterday, we knocked on a door and a lady answered. After a brief moment of introduction, I politely asked her, "What is your name?"

"I'm not interesting in talking to Mormons," she growled.

I replied, "What an interesting name!"

...Possibly not the best response, but I've been itching to do it for 16 months now and it felt so satisfying.

***

I am now companions with Elder Mejia, a bilingual elder from Kernes, Utah. He came out one transfer after I did, so we are both fairly experienced and close to each other in age. I am enjoying being his companion. He is very good at asking people questions that make them think.

This week we have had several days as cold as apostate Christian perceptions of the lowest circle of Heck. On the way home from transfers it started snowing, and Wednesday was pretty cold. Coming from a person who was quite happy walking amidst the snowdrifts at BYU in shorts, flip-flops and T-shirt in the middle of winter, this means that it was probably pretty cold here. It is wet cold, not the dry cold of Utah -- layers don't help that much. But it warmed up for the weekend. Saturday and Sunday we had heavy fog for most of the day, which is always cool.

Both Thursday and Wednesday we joined forces with the Spaniards to help people unload massive U-Hauls so crammed full of life possessions as to put an Egyptian pharaoh to shame. In both cases I did the majority of the heavy-lifting. I was happy that I am able to do it.

We found out this week that this Friday we will be having a surprise meeting with Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve. This was nowhere on the schedule earlier this fall and will be the third Mission Tour we've had in two months. Normally they are once every four months. Makes me wonder what's coming down the pipe here in Charlotte that keeps causing all these General Authorities to come our way. (My guess is City of Enoch-style translation.)

We also had it announced to us that December 1st we will be getting our iPads. This sadly means that this is the last transfer that I will be using my favorite little pocket planners. :(  Yet another example of the changing face of missionary work.

The Church has asked that ward buildings and family history centers be made available for missionary use during the daytime. We haven't been able to use ours because we don't have a key to our family history library. On Sunday a stake representative came to talk to the ward secretary about getting us the keys. Our ward secretary then informed us of the meeting.

When I thought a bit about this situation, I realized that it could all be summed up like this: 

President Monson, who has all the keys, delegated keys to our stake president, who then had authority to delegate the task to the stake representative to give the keys to the ward secretary who could then give the keys to us.

Sadly, someone made an error down the line and we still do not have the keys.

There have been many things this week that are great and marvelous but I don't have the time or space to write them here. And that is only a week. Imagine Mormon and later Moroni trying to sum up one thousand years:

THE LORD: "My son, thou must remember: only the important things shalt thou write."

Moroni: "Cureloms are important!"

I know that the Church is true and I love being a missionary. I look forward to telling you all about Elder Cook next Monday. Love you all. Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Fisher

11/4/13 "The Pure Love of Christ"

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." - Moroni7:47

A North Carolina autumn is truly a sight to behold. I have been bedazzled this whole week as trees have started to explode with color all around me. Elder Herr has had to put up with me suddenly stopping on my bike to take pictures.

This week had a few fun events. For example, it was the first time that I've had an investigator cry during the recital of the First Vision. We also had one of the recent converts in the ward, sweet little Brother McCray, talk to us about how he'd been reading the sacrament prayers in the book of the prophet Macaroni.

"Moroni," we corrected.

We had about eight lessons lined up this week with a member present -- which would have been the most I'd had my entire mission -- but they all fell through except for one of them. A bit saddening.

On Friday we were forced to retreat indoors due to heavy rain. As much as I loved my time biking in the rain back in January, I felt that I would spare Elder Herr that experience. :) While we sat inside our apartment waiting out the storm, I turned on a DVD with short documentaries about the lives of the modern-day prophets and began to watch a few.  During the documentary of John Taylor, the video mentioned his presence in Carthage Jail, and how he sang "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" immediately prior to when the Prophet was martyred. 

Perhaps it was the rain, or the fact that my mother has recently been reading "The Work and the Glory," or that I had happened to stumble upon and read that book series' account of the Martyrdom just a week before, or perhaps it was the way that the song was presented in the documentary. Whatever it was, the words of that song hit me with a lot of power, and I immediately got an idea for a picture. 

I have never taken any art classes and my natural talent is not that great, but I tried my best to create the image that had popped into my mind. To help explain my thought process behind the picture, I will share some of the lyrics with you.

A poor wayfaring Man of grief

Hath often crossed me on my way,

Who sued so humbly for relief

That I could never answer nay.

I had not power to ask his name,

Whereto he went, or whence he came;

Yet there was something in his eye,

That won my love; I knew not why.

Next this man was starving. Then he was dying of thirst. Homeless, and then beaten and stripped, and then: 

In prison I saw him next, condemned

To meet a traitor's doom at morn.

The tide of lying tongues I stemmed,

And honored him 'mid shame and scorn.

My friendship's utmost zeal to try,

He asked if I for Him would die.

When Joseph had gone to the woods to pray, all he had been looking for was an answer. He received much more. He had seen God. He had seen the Savior. He had seen things that other men would have given anything to see. He did not know that that prayer, offered in the peace of a sheltered grove, would end up taking him through fire and pain and cold and darkness. But the other Speaker in that conversation hadknown what would happen. Knowing what Joseph would have to endure, the Savior had called him to be a prophet. 

Joseph had borne affliction before Carthage Jail, to be sure. He had been beaten and imprisoned, betrayed and abandoned. But I am certain that as Joseph sat there in that upper room, listening to John Taylor sing, awaiting his martyrdom, that perhaps he thought about the words of that verse. I would imagine that he thought of the Savior, whose face he had first seen and whose voice he had first heard twenty-four years before. We can only imagine what the Savior sounds like, but Joseph actually knew. And I am sure that he could hear that voice ask the question in the song.

"Joseph, would you die for Me?"

...

The flesh was weak; my blood ran chill,

But my free spirit cried,
"I will!"

...

At baptism we promise the Lord that we will keep His commandments. In the temple we make a further promise with Him that we would do anything and everything for Him, should He ask.

The Savior can require us to make such a promise because He was willing to do everything for us.

"Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail--

But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."

That is the love that we are here to acquire during our earthly existence. When we love God enough to do anything. Even give up our life for Him.

...

Then in a moment to my view

The Stranger started from disguise.

The tokens in His hands I knew;

The Savior stood before mine eyes.

He spake, and my poor name He named,

"Of Me thou hast not been ashamed.

These deeds shall thy memorial be;

Fear not, thou didst them unto Me."

I know that this Church is true. The Savior's love continues to astound me. I have felt it. I have felt it very abundantly. I know that He is there. He directs this Church. It is His. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that President Monson is, too. This is the work of the Lord.

I love you all. Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Fisher

11/12/13 "The works that I do shall he do also"

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do." - John 14:12

While biking to an appointment one evening, Elder Herr and I passed by an Outback Steakhouse. The neon lights in its letters had gone out, making it an Outhouse. I wonder how long it will take them to notice that.

Very quickly -- I am staying in Lakefield but will be getting a new companion. He will be my eighth companion in eight transfers, which is highly unusual. I'm thinking that if the Lord ever brings back plural marriage I will have been prepared for it.

I will miss my current companion, though. I will miss Herr a lot. Making puns about Herr was so much fun.

***

This week was an eventful one. On Saturday the 8-year old daughter of our Elders' quorum president was baptized. We had two investigator families at the service, and it was very beautiful.

We are currently working with the _____ family. They were progressing very well until Brother _____'s mother-in-law suddenly showed up. In short, she is living evidence that the adversary will oppose any attempt to come unto Christ. She embarasses Brother _____ terribly. After one particular lesson Brother _____, who does not like his mother-in-law, escorted us outside to talk about it. I commented to him, "Youdo know we believe in eternal families, right?"

One advantage of the mother-in-law being here is that we can get Brother _____ to do basically whatever we want as long as it gets him out of the house and away from her. On Saturday we even got him to come out teaching with us. He came with us to a part-member less-active family and actually did a really good job, bearing testimony of the First Vision after we shared it. I had never seen anything like it -- aninvestigator teaching members. It was unbelievably epic.

Later that day we succeeded in getting Brother _____ and his son to stake conference. It wasextremely good. I could share all sorts of good things from the speakers but I will save it for another day. I want you to know that our stake president is awesome, though.

This conference led me to realize that the Lord grants requests. A few weeks ago I had realized that I'd never met an Area Seventy and I wished that I could. And lo! at stake conference Elder Meredith was presiding. After the Saturday evening session I remarked to Elder Herr, "Well, with that, the only position I've never met is a temple president." And behold, the next day President Amacher of the Raleigh Temple was there.

***

I had the opportunity to be a part of a powerful experience this last week. On Thursday we found ourselves with twenty open minutes. I decided to go and try a less-active that we hadn't been able to contact in over a month, an elderly sister named A___. She was home, but a few minutes into the conversation her daughter and her niece J_____, both adults, walked into the room. The next day J_____ was scheduled to go in to the doctor for tests, as she had cancer. A___'s daughter, a member, had told J_____, a nonmember, that we could give her a blessing in preparation for it.

We agreed. I briefly explained what a blessing was to J_____, read the story of the woman with an issue of blood, and explained to her that healing comes from faith. We then sat her down and I gave her the blessing. Afterwards many of the people in the room were in tears. We rescheduled to return on Saturday.

When we returned, J_____ explained to us that a month ago, when she had gone in for testing, the doctors had found four growths and a grapefruit-sized tumor. When she had gone in yesterday, they found nothing and, slightly bewildered, had declared that she was cancer-free and could go.

I am not saying that the blessing caused the tumor to magically shrivel up and go away. For one thing, I'm pretty certain that I don't have that kind of faith. But things didn't have to happen that way for the occurrence to be miraculous. I am certain that the Lord knew at what time to send us to give that blessing so that it would be a faith-building experience for J_____ when she went in for her appointment. 

I am honored that the Lord would allow me to participate in such a story. I am honored that He would allow me to have been a part of it. It has been at times like these that I begin to understand what it really means to be a representative of Jesus Christ.

I know that this Church is true. I love you all. Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Fisher

10/28/13

"We believe in meetings: all those that have been scheduled, all those that are now scheduled, and we believe that we will yet schedule many more meetings. We have endured many meetings and hope to be able to endure all meetings. If there is an opportunity to have a meeting, we seek after it."  -- The Fourteenth Article of Faith

This transfer has been a transfer of meetings. We had General Conference, then zone meeting, then zone conference, then a mission tour last Monday with Elder Zwick of the Seventy and then another mission tour with Elder Kopsichke of the Seventy last Saturday, and then we'll have another zone meeting next week.

But honestly, I love them all.

It was interesting for me to keep track of how many different ways people pronounced Elder Kopischke's name. President Craven said it "Ko-pis-kuh." I originally said it "Ko-pish-kee." I also heard it said "Ko-peesh-kuh" and "Ko-pis-kee." Thankfully no one said it "Ko-pis-cha-kay" or else I would have had to firmly correct them. Finally I listened in to how Elder Kopsichke said his own name to settle the matter: "Ko-pish-kuh."

He had a lot of great things to say and a ton of practical advice. His accent is a lot better than President Uchtdorf's -- you can barely notice it. I nearly ran him down after the meeting so that I could introduce myself. Elder Kopsichke had worked with my dad about twenty years ago in Germany, so I had to bring that up. 

***

My current district leader Elder Haskell is a Spanish elder, so this Wednesday I went with his companion ElderFacemyer to their area. It's interesting being on exchange with Spanish elders but I generally find ways to participate in a lesson even if I can't speak the language.

Introductions can sometimes be problematic, though:

In Spanish:

Investigator: "Hello!"

Me: "Hi, I'm Elder Sinner."

Spanish Elder: "What my companion meant to say is that his name is actually Elder Fisher."

Oops.

Another fun thing about North Carolina is that every restaurant or store here has a sanitation rating, usually posted near the cash register where people can easily see it. They're graded to 100. Rule of thumb: subtract seven from the total to get the actual cleanliness of the restaurant. If the posted number is below 85 or so, you're in trouble.

This last Sunday was the ward primary program, which is always one of the best Sundays of the year. Solid doctrine, pure and simple. Musical numbers that get me teary because I understand the principles inside the songs now. The other nice thing was that there were three nonmembers in the program. It's awesome seeing one your investigators' kids talking about prophets in sacrament meeting.

I have had a ton of spiritual thoughts this week but none of them are really surfacing at this moment. It has been shown to me yet again this week how truly important repentance is. Preach My Gospel calls it "the central purpose of our lives." And it's true. We have faith so that we will repent. We get baptized to commit to repentance. We receive the Holy Ghost to help us repent. "Endure to the end" is just another way of saying "Keep repenting."

Repentance is the "action step" of the Gospel. The Atonement is the message; repentance is the process. It doesn't matter how long it takes for us to repent. From an eternal perspective, all that matters is that weget there.

I am looking forward to another exciting week of repenting and helping others repent. Being a missionary is the most wonderful experience. I know that the things I teach about God and Jesus Christ are true.

I love my companion, I love my area, and I love my mission. Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Fisher

On the subject of the van...I see this thing cruising around in my area all the time. Driving it automatically makes you awesome.

Elder Fisher with Elder and Sister Kopischke

10/22/13 "Whether by mine own voice"

"What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself...whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."

We had a surprise meeting in Charlotte this Monday. Elder Zwick of the Seventy came to visit Charlotte due to the death of Charlotte-native Elder Page in California, and after the funeral on Saturday he decided to stick around and speak to us. So this is why this email is a day late. Also coming down the pipe is a meeting with Elder Kopischke of the Seventy this Saturday, which I'm looking forward to seeing as he worked with my dad back in the 90's.

It is a beautiful fall here. The leaves have not yet started changing colors but the weather is lovely. This last week the sky has been pure gray from sunup to sundown every day. In the mornings, huge clouds fill up the valleys here, and whenever it finishes raining, mist rises from the ground.

A member shared with us that the LDS Church was on Jeopardy this week. This led me to come up with the should-have-been Final Jeopardy question:

Alex Trebek: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."

Contestant:    "What is 'the truth?' "

Alex Trebek:  "That is correct!"

Here's a much harder question: Would the winner have to pay tithing on the money he'd won? (Remember, answers must be phrased in the form of a question.)

This last Saturday, at the end of a long day, with all other options exhausted, I felt prompted to try a former investigator family that I hadn't been able to get hold of for six weeks. We knocked on the door and when the husband opened up and saw me, his eyes went wide. We had achieved complete and total surprise.

We came in and talked with them and he told us that, quite honestly, he'd figured we'd forgotten about them. (Never.) We talked to him and his wife and invited them to church. The husband, who has always been the one holding the family back from baptism, again put up some resistance. "Every time we start getting involved in the church bad things start happening," he said. "I don't want that to happen again."

A thought immediately jumped into my head, so I took it. I leaned forward and said, "As a representative of Jesus Christ, I promise you that if you come to church tomorrow you will be at peace."

I can count on one hand the number of times in my mission that I have really pulled the "As a representative of Jesus Christ" card. It is not something that I feel comfortable throwing around casually. Preach My Gospel talks about remembering the authority of your calling, but I have usually reflected that in other ways. The thought came into my head, so I obeyed the prompting. It was not a premeditated thing.

The husband balked at this, and said that I didn't have authority to make a promise like that. I repeated it. He again balked at it. I didn't want to argue, but I replied that I was confident that what I had promised would come to pass. So Sunday he and his family came to church for the first time in over six months. We will see where it all goes.

It has been a growing experience for me, being on a mission, as you all have probably seen. I am grateful for the loving support of my mission president and my companions. I love being here, and I am honored that the Lord has chosen me to represent Him. 

My call as a missionary came in response to my request. My assignment came because an Apostle of the Lord sat in a little room in the 5th floor of the Church offices, saw my face, and in fasting and prayer received a revelation on where I was supposed to go. That is an amazing thought.

By the way, Elder Zwick informs us that there are currently 81,000 missionaries serving, with 17,000 more with mission calls. I really would be honored if I got to be serving when the Lord's army hit 100,000. We'll see if it happens!

I love you all, and I love my mission!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Fisher