#47 - TRIO = DIVERTIDO

Last day with Sister Pachner

On Tuesday I had to say goodbye to Sister Pachner, I'm going to miss Hermana Salvaje! Then Hermana deLeon came and joined me. We had two days just the two of us, and we had a really great bible study about the parable of the Sower. One of our investigators came and told us how he felt like he was in the rocks or thorns, but he was really working to be in the good soil, it was so sweet!

New Companions

Then Thursday we met our new companion la Hermana Harris! She's from Texas and was so exhausted her first day. She went to the CCM in Mexico and was running on almost no sleep. But we just got right to work and talked with some incredible people this week. Also, I had forgotten how much fun trios are. We have to tell ourselves to focus so often because we all get along and laugh so much. 

Historic Kingsburg jail 

We started a branch choir and are singing Divina Luz (Lead Kindly Light). It actually sounded really good and we're excited to teach some people here in the branch to conduct. 

This week I was studying a lot about how Jesus Christ really changes us. I've always been told that His atonement, His sacrifice, gives us grace, an enabling power, but I've never really understood exactly HOW that happens. I reflected on the trials that I've had in my life. For example, I thought about how hard it was to wake up for seminary every morning in high school. And I thought about how I always seemed to have enough energy to do everything that I needed to. That energy that I had was that enabling power.
We may not recognize Christ's hand in our life immediately, but I know that if we look for it, we'll be able to see exactly how He has been there guiding us, strengthening us, and lifting us at every step. I invite you all to reflect on trials in your life and how you've seen Christ, I promise that you'll find Him!

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

Snail Count! (We got to 15 one day outside of our door)

#46 - St. Patrick's Day Baile!

First off, I've realized that I speak pure spanglish now, like "Oh no! it se cayo-ed!" or "we're going to regresar at 5" or "do you like to bailar?". It's pretty fun!

Elotes! (Mexican grilled corn- Condiments such as salt, chile powder, butter, cotija, lemon juice or lime juice, and mayonnaise are usually added to the elote. )

This week was so incredible!! The Visalia sisters came to our area and we both went to teach. In the same hour on the same street, we both found new investigators who want to learn more. One went to our bible study that night, then the baile, and then church, and the other during the whole lesson was asking about how he can get baptized. Also, we hadn't seen an elote man in months, and Sister Jesperson prayed that we'd find one, and we did. Milagros!

Our Distrito (SO MANY ARE LEAVING)

Transfer calls were crazy. Sister Pachner is going home, the parlier elders are both leaving, the reedley english elders are both leaving, one of the reedley spanish elders is leaving, and one of our zone leaders. Our whole district is going to change! But I'm staying in Selma! And Hermana deLeon is coming here and we're going to trio train a new missionary.

Saying Goodbye to families

Saturday was our St. Patrick's Day Dance that we put together to help the branch grow closer together and get non members to learn more about our church. We had 2 investigators there and one of them brought a friend! The decorations looked awesome, and all the members that came had a great time, it was fun to watch all the people dancing, they are way better than at stake dances!

 St. Patrick's Day party

Friday we had interviews with president and it changed my entire perspective on missionary work. He explained that we often work ourselves up over expectations of both ourselves and others, but the only expectations that matter are from God. We make goals with numbers to help us grow, and if we don't make them, it doesn't mean that we're disobedient or awful people, as long as we get to the end of the day and still have that good connection with God, knowing that we tried our hardest, He's ok with that. "The Lord can baptize as many as He wants, He just wants us to participate so that we can have the experience to learn". It's all about our own growth. As we come here to serve, we're growing, we're learning, and we're helping others as well. Recently I feel like I've focused on a lot of things that I could do better, but now I want to focus on how I've grown, God just wants us to grow and become more like Him! So this week, look at the past year and focus on what you've done good and what great changes you've made in your life. I promise that it will help change you to have a more positive mentality and help you look forward to other changes. 

Salvaje cake for la Hermana Salvajita (Sister Pachner)

Love you!

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

#45 - Let's build a house and get our own!

First off-We moved!! We now live in Kingsburg, which is way nicer than Selma. It's all cute and clean and the owner is Mormon. It was such a miracle, we've been searching since January and it all just fell in place in a week. And now we get to work more with some of the members down here who we don't see a lot.

So we wanted to do another mini exchange with the Farmersville sisters, and they told us to bring our service clothes because we were building a house. One of the Visalia sisters' investigators needs his trailer finished before the 15th in order to move out and finally come to church. The whole Visalia Zone came and we sanded and tore out the shower and had a lot of fun. So here we are building a trailer with the Visalia Zone.  Definitely love service!

 Zone conference was this week and we learned a lot about technology, next month we're getting smart phones and honestly my biggest  concern is dropping mine and breaking it. I'm really excited for all the proselyting opportunities we'll have with it. We'll be able to use facebook and connect more with the ward, message and video chat investigators who aren't normally available, and organize everything a lot more. President talked about how we made a promise with God in the pre-mortal life to serve Him, and how we had pure agency, or the ability to choose, and that's why we're here today. Use your agency to choose to do good things and serve!

Miracle: We had this potential from a couple weeks ago and were finally able to stop by on Saturday, she wasn't there, but her husband and son listened to us for 30 minutes and are really interested, we're so excited!!

Also, we're organizing a dance this weekend for St. Patrick's Day, Wish us luck!

LOVE YOU ALL!! Drink a shamrock shake for me!

-- 

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704

#44 - 3 day exchanges and a suicidal cat

With Hermana Baeza

We went to go knock some doors and went up some apartment steps, there was this cat there that kind of froze and then looked to the right and to the left, searching for escape, and decided that the best option was to jump. So it jumped from the second story, and we freaked out that it died, but it was ok. I guess we intimidate cats....

On Friday we went on exchanges with the Visalia Sisters. Sister Ferrell and Sister Jesperson. Sister Jesperson came here but she had a Celiac attack (some allergic reaction) to the food at dinner. But that makes it really painful to work for a few days. So Sister Ferrell and Sister Pachner came back on Saturday and we all worked in Selma exchanging who stayed inside. Then Sunday, I went to Visalia with Sister Ferrell for her ward, and then we all met up again in Selma for the linger longer- and Sister Jesperson is feeling way better! Then today we decided to switch up preparation day and I'm in Visalia again with Sister Jesperson, and Sister Ferrell and Sister Pachner went to Yosemite. It's been really different but so fun!

I tried to make a voice recording, but then it got corrupted when i plugged it into the computer, so maybe next week...

But we saw so many miracles this week! This new man we're teaching, Ivan, when asked about the Book of Mormon said it was the most true book on the earth, and this person we used to teach let us back in and was really excited to watch videos on mormon channel and read. 

I learned  a lot about love this week. All of our actions should be out of love for God or others, and I know that if we pray for love and charity that it's going to come, and we all have a responsibility as children of God to show love for all of our brothers and sisters and help them. So do some random act of kindness this week to show someone you care!

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA 93704