#34 - Feliz Navidad y Christmas Miracles

Chuy's Baptism!

 On Friday I got a call from Hermana Balls and Hermana Feldman in Madera that Chuy was getting baptized on Sunday and President was going to baptize him! Not sure if y'all remember him, but he was the one that came to stake conference and we were outside in the parking lot for 30 minutes singing and praying and pretty much dragging him into the church because he was so terrified, but afterwords he fell in love with the Mackays and had a total change of heart. President came out teaching with us to him once, and has gone back a few more times since I left. He has made so many changes in his life and really has used the Atonement of Jesus Christ to get baptized. His whole family came to the baptism as well and they're all being taught now! I'm so greatful for two sister missionaries who contacted him on the street last February so that he gave us that call in July and that I was priviledged to see this miracle. I couldn't think of a better Christmas Eve.  A member took me up to Madera (which by the way, Hispanics celebrate the 24th more than the 25th and I couldn't believe how sweet she was to do that, it's almost an hour up North). I arrived at the end of Sacrament Meeting so I saw a ton of members that I knew and love so much. All the missionaries sang Silent Night in Spanish as an interlude and Chuy's mom starting crying, the Spirit was so strong and I just felt so much love for everyone.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We only had an hour of church, and it was combined with the English ward. The Monroy's brought a friend that we had met before and will hopefully start teaching soon. There's this little girl named Alex who we met our first week (she's on our records but moved to the English ward) and she sat by me. She didn't want to go up and sing so I told her that if she did I would give her a sticker, then she ran up haha!

After church we caroled to a few members and friends. Then one family picked us up and we spent Christmas Eve with them, I got to play the duet part with their little girls on their piano pieces.  Afterwords Hermana Oldroyd and I headed back to our apartment and had a little Christmas celebration. Thank you so much for all the gifts and cards! It was very sweet.

Our Palm tree Christmas tree

Christmas Day we skyped our families, ate pazole, went over to a few members' homes, and then the  Brandts (the senior missionary couple) invited the whole district over for dinner. Our mission president also said that we could watch one Disney movie, and we had to have the cars parked a 6:30, so we went to another family's house and watched the Lion King that night. 

Christmas Day dinner at the Brandt's

Also this week, the elders had a baptism and one of our investigators made it! His wife's a member and their whole family came. That was definitely a miracle as well. Also it was a miracle that the font got filled, the hot water wasn't working at first so we had this chain of missionaries with pitchers of water from the sink trying to fill it up. 

Exchanges with Sister Peterson (blonde) and Sister Dixon (Reddish Blonde)

This week was also exchanges. I went up to Clovis with Sister Dixon who I know from Madera, and their area has an assisted living home. So we painted with one of their investigators and talked about the Book of Mormon. When we walked in the lady asked if we would play the piano so then we sang to them, I was grateful I brought my little hymnbook (Thanks Chels!)

We painted with one of the investigators at an assisted
 living center and talked about the Book of Mormon.

Love you all so much. Have a great New Year!

Silvina Monroy took us to Fresno last monday for some shopping

#33 - Weirdest Phone call ever

On Tuesday Sister Oldroyd was a bit sick so she stayed with a member while I went and visited some less actives with another member in the ward. We ended up talking to one of their sisters who isn't a member and we're going to start teaching her!

Christmas Zone Conference

We dressed up our district leader like a Christmas tree for one competition.

Christmas Tree Competition

Hermana DeLeon and I were in charge of playing the piano

Then we had Zone Conference where we really focused on being consecrated missionaries. The time we have to serve God full time is extremely short, so why shouldn't we give everything? That includes talking to everyone, being positive, focusing thoughts, and ending each day telling God that I did my best and will try harder tomorrow. President Mackay showed the Piano Guys O come O Come Emmanuel Video, and it really touched me how He really came to be our Savior. One missionary said, "He took the time to get to know you personally in the Garden of Getsemane, take the time this Christmas to get to know Him personally". Then we did a "sing -a-mony" Which was missionaries going up and explaining their favorite him, then we sang it. It was really fun for Hermana DeLeon and I who were in charge of playing the piano. After that we did some fun games, we dressed up our district leader like a Christmas tree for one competition, and Hermana Oldroyd and I got second place in a cup stacking game.

Miracles this week was finding Daniel again! A month and a half ago we talked to him and taught him a bit. Then he moved, but we decided to knock on his door on Friday to see if he was home for the holidays and he was! And he accepted a baptismal date and committed to keeping the word of wisdom (not drinking coffee or tea, after we offered him Abuelita) and went to church on Sunday!!! He says he prefers English though so tonight we have a lesson with him and the elders to transition him over. He's so awesome!!

Explaining the title: We got this phone call from a private number and this guy said he was named Javier and gave us an address to go to. He said he got our number from the tarjeta (little cards we passed out at the Kingsburg parade). So we go at our scheduled time and no one answers. Then we stopped by on a different day and this 20 year old girl answers. We ask if there's a Javier that lives there and she says that her dad is named Javier but he died in 2008! No one else lives at that house but her mom. She started crying and said it was a sign and she got the  chills and it was really cool but also really freaky! We have no idea who called us but we should be teaching them some more this week. 

Saturday we were part of this food drive at the high school. I loved talking to people and making them smile, I accidentally said Feliz cumpleanos instead of Feliz Navidad a few times, but that just made them smile more haha! It was kind of like the Bishop's storehouse with people running around with carts.  We even ran into some old friends!

Not too many pictures this week, hopefully I'll have some more with Christmas! If you want to see the funny pictures from zone conference go on the california fresno mission blog!

Also, my preparation day will be Tuesday next week so I'll email y'all then! Have a very Merry Christmas! I know that Jesus Christ lives, this season is a time to remember Him and to give. I want to encourage you all to think of something you can give Him this Christmas. Maybe it's an old habit you want to stop, maybe it's a commitment to read the scriptures more this year, or to reach out to someone that you haven't talked to in a while. Our mission president promised us that if we do that, and consecrate ourselves, we will come to know Christ more this season. I am so grateful that God is loving enough to send us His Son. I love you all so much, thank you for all your support and the joy that you bring!

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

#32 - Sisters' Retreat at the Mission Home

Last Monday we all headed up to Fresno. The Corcoran sisters in our zone gave us a ride and we got to go to the mission home for a special Sisters' retreat. It was so much fun!! There's 45 sisters in our mission right now, and I realized that I knew quite of a few of them. All of the pictures for this week are with them. Sister Feldman and Sister Balls said that Madera is going great and Chuy's looking to get baptized Christmas Eve!!  The picture of the 6 of us are the sisters I came out with. It was so cool to talk about how much we've learned and see how incredible they all are. We ate taco soup and President Mackay gave a lesson on what Jesus Christ did for us and how much He loves all of us. It was like a real family home evening!

Sisters I came out with

Then, because we were going to the temple the next day in Fresno, we got to spend the night at the mission home. We spent the last hour of proselyting time caroling to all of the Mackay's neighbors. I love the smiles people have when we sing to them! The next day we went to the temple and it was fantastic as always. The have the cute nativity set up outside and it was fun to be in my old zone again. 

Then last night, the stake had a big nativity festival. There were hundreds of nativities set up and music going. I absolutely love the Spirit of Christmas that's here.

We gave lots of service this week. On Wednesday we learned how to make tomales with a family, Thursday we dug a hole to put in cement (I very much thought of you Dad doing home projects), and cleaned part of a lady's house. #LightTheWorld has been going so great! For the "bring the children unto me" day we wrote notes to the kids in our branch and ding dong ditched them. Their parents on Sunday said it meant the world to them, the littlest things can really make a difference!

I've been writing down miracles every day in this little notebook, I encourage you all to do the same! When you have the eyes to see them, they're everywhere.  One of the ones I saw this week is the new mutual theme "Peace in Christ" Which is Doctrine and Covenants 19:23 - the scripture I put on my missionary plaque! Christ truly offers us peace when we turn to him.

Love you all!

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

#31 - #LightTheWorld

This week was so great!!

Fresno fog is so real
[Her dad says this isn't fog]

Making candy cane pass along cards while watching the District

 Starting the first of December, this initiative to help people serve started, called #LightTheWorld. There was a young women in the english ward who was in charge of building a float for the Kingsburg parade and we helped her out with it. The pictures will probably explain it better than I can, but we tied a bunch of candy canes to light the world cards, we put up a fireplace and Christmas tree, and there's this beautiful picture of the nativity on the back. Then all the missionaries in our zone came up to be in the parade. It was really weird to actually sit on a float instead of marching, but I got some pictures with some of the youth in their band! It was so much fun though! We sang Christmas carols and passed out cards and it was the perfect way to start the Christmas season. And Kingsburg is our area so we're excited for all the referrals!

The Float

I'm with the band!

Afterwords we rushed over to the branch Christmas party - it was FANTASTIC! There were so many non members there. Even some of our investigators who we thought had sort of disappeared because we haven't been able to teach in a few weeks came. And they brought friends! The little kids did the nativity and at the end I got to lead them in singing "Mandó su Hijo" (He Sent His Son). What really made me smile was watching all the other missionaries interact with the people there. There are a few investigators whose husbands aren't very supportive who came, and I kept seeing the other elders laughing and having a great time with them. This district is seriously fantastic! 

Nativity at church party

Tonight there's a sisters' retreat at the mission home, and then all the sisters in our zone are going to spend the night and then go to the temple tomorrow. 

Add caption

Hope you all are doing well! I am so excited for this Christmas season. I know that God did send His Son to come and be an example, teach, perform miracles, sacrifice and live again, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to help share that light with people here. Go and #LightTheWorld as well! 

Love,

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

#30 - Turkey Bowl and Disappointments turning into Miracles

Was in Visalia Dad! (He served there on his mission)

The California Fresno Mission has a tradition of a turkey bowl on Thanksgiving. They combine zones and we had the entire South of the mission meet up in Visalia, about 70 missionaries! I'm still waiting to get the picture sent to me. It was so much fun! We were all super sore afterwords though, the whole weekend. I got a touchdown though! Then we went to two Thanksgiving dinners with the English ward, they had invited the entire district over. Then we went to the Monroy's but I literally could not eat anything else. They gave us some tomales to take for later. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon and the chance to serve a mission! The people here are so sweet, they have hearts of gold.

Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl! [Can you find Marin's head?]

On Friday we had set up an appointment with a member and couple to come teach with us. The member wasn't home and we were really disappointed because we were already there with the other couple. But we decided to go visit another member who hadn't been to church in a long time. It was such an incredible experience. We shared the new #lighttheworld video (You should all look it up and do it this December!!!) and then the couple shared just how much they loved this other member. And then he came to church on Sunday! We've been trying since we got here to Selma. When one door closes, another opens. I know God directs us where we need to be!

Fall pictures [Mom note, I couldn't tell this was Marin at first]

I want to encourage all of you to look up the #lighttheworld initiative. It's some service opportunity every day of December to get ready for Christmas. Let's just fill the world with light this season!

Love you all,

-- 

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

#29 - Singing an investigator to sleep

Happy Thanksgiving all!

This ginormous dog we saw

We went to visit this lady on Tuesday who is going through a rough time. Her family really wants us to teach her to help motivate her. We went in and we just asked if we could sing to her. We sang a hymn and then started explaining it to her, and asked her a question and when she didn't respond we realized that she was completely out. I guess we're good at lullabies! We just sort of walked out of her house after that haha.

Also we got transfer calls and we're both staying, but some of the elders in our district our leaving. And they're going to add two more elders in the Spanish branch, so we'll be up to 8 missionaries for one branch!

A sign that says Chivos (goats) are in the area

Miracle for the week: We met this guy on the street weeks ago and he was going to meet up with the english elders but didn't make the appointment. He doesn't have a phone and said we probably shouldn't visit him because he lives with other people who don't like missionaries, and didn't give us his address. We had no way to contact him. But an appointment fell through so we decided we would just go down that street again and pray to be guided by something with the color purple. Specific prayers bring specific blessings!  So we get out of the car and the 2nd house we see with purple on it has these little violets outside. We go to the gate  and don't even get to knock on the door because this huge dog starts barking at us, but then someone walks out of the house and guess who it is? Randy and his girlfriend!!! And he felt so bad for missing the appointment and wanted to contact us and  I almost cried, it was incredible!

This week Sister Oldroyd and I were talking about changing small things instead of everything at once. It's so easy to get overwhelmed with wanting to be better at spanish, contacting everyone, memorizing scripture references, working with members, and sometimes we just feel like we just can't. But we decided that everyday we were just going to work on one thing, and then at the end of the day we could come together and see if we did it. On Friday, we worked on inviting people to do things, and explaining the why behind it. And it was great to see how we had grown in just that day in that skill. We're not expected to do everything at once but we can definitely grow every single day in just one thing. So if you're feeling overwhelmed by all the things you can't do, focus on just one thing you can do today to be better. I promise that it will help you see how God is helping you grow!

This beautiful lake we found near an investigator's house (only one I've seen in Fresno!)

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving! I've heard that the missionaries do a multi-zone turkey bowl so we'll see how that goes. 

-- 

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

#28 - Telling elders they can't go to baby showers...

Sister Monroy's baby shower

Good Afternoon!
There's the family in the ward that we're working with a lot, they're so sweet and they come out teaching with  us and they're just awesome. Hermana Monroy had a baby shower this week and asked us to help set up for service. The day before the elders said that they were probably going to stop by and we had to explain to them that baby showers are mostly just for women, it was pretty funny! And while we were there we started talking to her friend, and she came to church on Sunday and then invited us to come teach her on Tuesday!

The beautiful fall leaves

Friday was Zone Conference with Elder Echo Hawk from the 70 (Part of the leadership of the church under apostles). I LOVED everything he said. His wife was so sweet and before the meeting had all the sisters meet up and individually met all of us. And I was so surprised by how many missionaries I knew there! This was my first zone conference in "the South" so I didn't think I would. But I got to see Sister Jeppeson again (My cousin is going home this transfer!) and lots of other mission friends. Elder Echo Hawk focused a lot on having faith and expecting miracles. He explained a lot about failure and success as well. "Everytime you open your mouth you're a success". This applies to everyone, just having the courage to tell someone about the gospel, even if they don't accept, shows God that you're willing to spread His kingdom. 

My 'cousin' Sister Jeppeson at Zone Conference

On Saturday I woke up sick and didn't think I was going to be able to work. But the elders came and gave me a blessing, and after I felt so much better! We still got out on time to teach people and we really felt the Spirit during all of our lessons. I just wanted to say thank you to all the Priesthood holders, the power of God is so real and helps us so much to accomplish what He wants us to do.

Playing Frisbee with our district

Sunday was the primary program, and since the ward and branch have a combined primary, we combined sacrament meeting- and I translated!! I got to wear the little headset and translate all the kids saying "Jesus loves me". The hard part was when they quoted scriptures and I didn't have enough time to look them up. Definitely realized I have a long way to go in spanish, but that I've improved a lot.  They sang this song about choosing Christ again that was really cute. We all chose Christ before coming here, and now we just have to have our actions here reflect how we choose Him again.

Love you all!

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

#27 - Halloween and Day of the Dead across the street from a cemetery and getting locked in a room!

I got these fun leggings that I get
 to wear around the apartment.

Really random title, but really random week!

So I haven't taken a picture of our apartment yet, but we live across the street from the cemetery, and it was kind of weird. Also, all of high school in Spanish we learned about day of the dead and alters that people set up, and yellow flowers, but then I finally actually saw it this week! People had all this food out in their houses, and there were trails of flowers everywhere. Halloween was super fun! We had to be in our apartments by 6 pm, and so Hermana Oldroyd and I baked brownies and made finger jello, and then watched The Testaments (a movie connecting the life of Christ in Jerusalem with the events happening at the same time in the Americas, and the Book of Mormon).

 

Halloween movie night

Then on Wednesday we felt that God had guided us to people. We talked to this lady outside her house and she told us she had just gotten back from the cemetery, her mother had passed away 7 years ago. She told us about a lot of the hard things she's going through, and we were able to share with her 2 Nephi 4:19-21, which has brought me a lot of comfort, and we could tell it really touched her. Then we met this guy named Randy who told us about wanting to change his life and he gave us this little cross he's had for years and told us we had helped lift his burdens. I just felt so happy that we really got to help people feel of Christ's love.

Thursday was exchanges again with Sister Sheffield and Sister Baldwin, and it was really fun! So they don't speak spanish, so they were just kind of following along for a  lot of them, but they'd never been in spanish areas so it was very different for them. We saw so many miracles that day with finding new people to teach and I learned a lot about teaching to people's needs. The next day we were getting ready for the day and Sister Baldwin got locked in the room! Our apartment's pretty old and weird, and we told them that you can't close the bathroom door all the way or you get locked in, but we didn't know it happened to the other room as well! Also, the door knob fell off from the inside, so we tried for a few minutes, decided to pray (we had to slide Sister Baldwin's name tag under the door because she refused to pray without it on), and then got a knife and somehow pried the door open. Such an adventure!

Also, our mission president said we could now listen to ANY Christmas music as long as it's not rap or romantic, so if anyone has any extra CDs Hermana Oldroyd and I would greatly appreciate it!

PAINTING!

Friday we painted someone's porch roof because they are about to sell their house, and then at dinner that night we were talking to someone about tender mercies and she said it was a miracle that we had come and met her and we were now friends, I felt so loved. Every single person here in Selma wants to help out the missionaries, I just feel like I am part of a whole other family. 

Service project: PAINTING!

Finished project

I want to invite you all to look for little miracles that you can see everyday that show that God lives. Sometimes it's running into someone you know, it might be a smile, a little coincidence that really is divine. When you look for them, you'll see them everywhere- 

Love you all!

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

#26 - Wonderful Week

Exchanges (Sister Baldwin is in the back and Sister Sheffield is on the left)

 So Tuesday we went to a training at the mission office, which was really incredible. We learned a lot about adjusting to missionary life, and it was a good reminder on not focusing on stress, numbers, and a million things to do, but just focusing on what you can do right now to be a bit better and be the person God needs you to be. It was also fun to meet up with other missionaries and talk about old areas. Afterwords we went to Clovis for exchanges. It was SO DIFFERENT, because Sister Baldwin and Sister Sheffield (Who I found out was a clarinet player in BYU's marching band last Fall as well, and she was Sister Oldroyd's roommate for a semester!) are English missionaries. We're not that far away from them, but our conversations, the food we ate, just everything was so different. It was so good to learn from them though. And they let us borrow one of their bikes! They stopped sending sisters out with them the last couple of transfers so I don't know how much longer I'll be using mine.

Giving service cleaning out someone's backyard 

Friday was the ward and branch Trunk or Treat. And both of the families we're working with went! And they started talking and are becoming friends! That was a miracle. We had so much fun getting to know more people.

Not sure what these are for, but we saw them at Walmart.

Hats a member made us

I've been thinking a lot recently about planning. I've heard crazy stories where missionaries get the impression to go to this street at this time and they find this miracle person and I was wondering why that doesn't just happen to everyone. Something I thought about is that this life is for us to learn how to make decisions and how to act more like God. He trusts us to make plans and we pray before and after to confirm that that's where we need to go and what we need to do, and He lets us learn for ourselves. And even when not everything goes as planned, if you're doing it while being obedient, you will be blessed.  An example of this was yesterday! We were going to see this family and then they weren't there, so we decided on our two back up plans and they weren't there either. But at the last house we saw this guy all the way down the street and decided we should go talk to him. We didn't want to seem like we just picked him out and were stalking him, so we drove the car over, and decided we would knock on a random house and ask if the Ortiz family lived there, and then nonchalantly walk back over to this guy like we were just talking to people nearby (I know, Hermana Oldroyd and I overthink everything). No one answered the door and by then the man had walked inside! We debated whether or not it was weird to knock on his door and finally we just said, this is literally what we do as missionaries, and we knocked and he came out all excited that we were there! He said, "Are we going to pray or something? I really want to pray!" and then explained how he lost his bible and was looking for another one, and after we talked to him he said, "Can't you feel the Spirit that's here?" MIRACLE! It made us so happy and we were so grateful that God trusted us to make plans and then put someone in our path who was prepared. The only sad part is that he doesn't speak Spanish so we had to give him to the elders, but we're so excited for him!
--

Spanish words

Mogrero - junk

Love you!

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

From Fresno Mission Blog: Marin meeting her new companion

From the Fresno Mission Blog: When new missionaries arrive, they gather together and often sing

#25 - Had to get a flu shot again...

Not sure how many of you know this, but I'd never gotten a flu shot before my mission. I had to get one when putting in my papers and then last week President emailed and said we had to go get them this week. So after years of seeing the signs for free flu shots and walgreens I finally went and got one! My companion and I now have matching red  curidas, or bandaids.

We decided to get pizza one night for dinner, Sister Oldroyd almost cried because there's no Little Caesar's in the CCM

Also little adventure of the week, we met with this one family and she gave us cookies from the store she works at. I was driving so I didn't get to finish mine before our next appointment, I just kind of still had it in my hand when we got to the next door and Sister Oldroyd just says, "Sister Fisher, you can't just show up eating a cookie when you knock on someone's door!". We both just died laughing. If anyone knows me I have the biggest sweet tooth though and it wouldn't even phase me that it's not socially acceptable to just show up with cookies.

This fantastic yard arrangement someone in Kingsburg has.

A lot of my week is on my recording. The highlight was definitely interviews with President Mackay and going to church on Sunday. Everyone in this branch is so sweet, they all wanted to get to know us, offer to help us. They are so excited to have sisters here in Selma again. During interviews we focused on the power of the scriptures. I realized that I can definitely do a lot better on learning the scriptures in order to teach from them. There were two experiences this week where we were talking to someone on the street and they asked a question that I knew the answer to, but for the life of me I couldn't remember where it was. We were challenged to find a scripture for every sentence in the first three lessons in Preach My Gospel ( A book we use as missionaries for what to teach about). It's quite a task and will take a while, but I've absolutely loved doing it. Instead of just using scriptures that everyone always has, I'm finding so many treasures of other scriptures. The Book of Mormon is true and our testimony of it gets stronger as we read and study it, I would encourage you all to do so this week!

Spanish words:

frasco- jar

Punjabi words:

Sat shai Akae - Hello

We have a joke with some missionaries in Madera about Mattresses found in alleys,
 I literally see mattresses in alleys all the time now.

Love you!

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704