#13 - Great week!

Exchanges 

I forgot to mention last week that we've been biking! We were running out of miles for the week, so in the afternoons we biked, and drove in the evening. One day we tried to bike 3 miles away to visit someone and never made it because we just talked to so many people on the streets as we went by! There are so many incredible people in Madera, and it's so fun to meet them. It's also funny how many times we run into the same random people on the street. I never really took the time to just walk around and meet people back home, it's so great!

I finally got around to putting a cover on my planner

My bulletin board in the apartment

Luis came to church yesterday! He is just the sweetest many you will ever meet. We met him during our Book of Mormon stand and every time we come he says how grateful he is that we stopped him on the street. 

We had a dual lesson this week with Valentine YSA sisters and Giovanni at Jose's house. He understands a lot of English, but can't speak a ton. But he's YSA age so we're both teaching him and trying to get him to make friends in the YSA ward, and a lot of them speak Spanish and English there. He's so awesome!!

One day this week we had "yard sale lady" in our plans, because we didn't remember her name. We ended up going to the same street but talking to a totally different yard sale lady who used to listen to missionaries 10 years ago. So crazy!

This week we knocked a door and asked someone why they thought there were so many churches, he responded with, "I don't know, maybe they don't like carrots?" I literally had to swallow the biggest laugh in my whole life. I have absolutely know idea what he was saying, and he was speaking English!

We were also super tired, I think I fell asleep during a prayer once and started dreaming, and then woke up when  a telephone rang ring before it ended.

Random side note- I found out last week that I made it into BYU's mechanical engineering program!

 Joanna and her brother Alaric

One of our investigators has been teaching us Mizteco (Don't know how that is spelled) which is an older language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico.  A lot of people here speak it!

so:

Mizteco- Spanish - English

Itaa- planta- plant

Tiiyoo- tortuga - turtle

Wa a wee - Adios - Goodbye

Tina - perro - dog

Chito - gato - cat

ilo - conejo - bunny

Yesterday we gave talks in church.  A month ago we found out we were speaking and my first thought was family history work and temples, and I'd sort of been preparing for that. But then this week on Thursday I was just so stuck on that talk and realized I needed to speak on something else. I spoke on Love and Charity and how Christ gave His life for us because of His love, and how we can give our lives back to Him by how we serve and love others. Many great people died for the name of Jesus Christ, and we can LIVE for Him. I would invite you all this week to learn more about God's love for us, and how we can show that love for others. I shared Moroni 7:48 in the Book of Mormon, Matthew 22: 36-39, and John 15:13. Then the other 3 missionaries talked about obedience, the spirit of the law, and service; they all connected really well, and I definitely feel like I was supposed to change my topic. 

Love you all!!!!

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno CA 93704

This scripture is on a missionary plaque here in Madera, it made me laugh so hard that he picked this one!

_____________________________________________________________________________

Later, the same day, we received the following email from Marin's new mission president:

My name is Bart Mackay and I have the privilege of serving as President of the California Fresno Mission.  I am simply writing to let you know that your daughter, Sister Fisher, is an outstanding missionary and is doing a tremendous job serving the Lord Jesus Christ.  We have been impressed with her faith, diligence, and heartfelt love for all who she comes in contact with. She radiates a light and goodness that reflects her deep love and commitment to the Savior and blesses lives daily.  
We are so blessed to be serving with her and express our gratitude for your for love and support in this great work. 



With gratitude, 

Bart P. Mackay

President

California Fresno Mission

#12 - Birthdays, Byes, and Bikes!

Good Morning!!

After Preparation Day Monday, we had a Family Night/ Birthday Party with a family in our ward! It was super fun! One's birthday was the 16th, the other the 18th, so the party was right in the middle of the two. A bunch of kids from the neighborhood showed up, and we got to teach all of them  a little message about the Holy Ghost and following Jesus Christ. We also had this awesome Spiderman cake and everyone had a lot of fun.

Tuesday was sooo crazy! My first Transfer Hub! Pretty much all the missionaries in the mission showed up at the church building to switch companions, go to new areas, or go home. It was so hard to say Goodbye to Hermana Maxwell, but I'm so happy for her to be home again! Also, we were some of the last missionaries, so we got to "split drive" to the mission office to drop off extra cars. As missionaries, we need to be within sight and sound of companion except when we're in interviews or the bathroom. So split driving is when you get special permission from the  president to have just one missionary in the car. So weird!! It was only my second time driving here in california and it was so weird not being with a companion for 10 minutes!

Sister Padilla joined us for a few days because she's waiting for a new missionary to come from the MTC to train. She's an English missionary, but she totally prayed in Spanish, and gave such beautiful testimonies. She didn't understand a lot, but it just showed me how it doesn't really matter what we say, but how people feel when we speak. And when we use the Spirit as a guide people can feel God's love for them.

I'm going to start including quotes from Joanna everyweek (our 10 year old investigator). This week her friend was there and Joanna taught the whole lesson to her friend! She explained the Book of Mormon and said that it's about Nefi and Lehi and how they follow God's commandments and are blessed. She is my favorite! We also taught them "I am a child of God", which was so sweet. We told them to sing it whenever they're scared. 

The Young Women went to camp this week here. They sang yesterday in church their theme song. That was so cool! I realized that I literally went to Girl's camp a year ago. And it's amazing to see how much my life has changed since then. I know the Lord guides us to wear we need to be! 

Yesterday the other Elders in our ward had a baptism for Elizabeth! We did the interlude in the middle and talked about humility. We shared 3 Nephi 9:20, Alma 32:6, and Ether 12:27. When we're humble, God can mold us in His hands.And our weaknesses are there to help us grow, because we turn to the Lord. I would encourage all of you this week, when you notice you something want to improve, or a weakness you have, to sincerely pray to God and ask how He can help you grow. Weaknesses can become strengths through God!

Also this other church on the street had a sign that said "If you're happy, notify your face". I really like that :) 

Love you all!!

#11 - Book of Mormon Stand

This week was so awesome!

During our zone meeting a week ago we made a goal as a zone to hand out 250 copies of the Book of Mormon. So Hermana Maxwell and I decided to set up a little Book of Mormon stand in downtown Madera. It was so much fun! We had these little charts with questions on it, and on the other side were pages in the Book of Mormon that answered those questions. I absolutely loved it! We asked people if they wanted to do a short 1 minute activity with it, and one man after reading a verse said, "that's beautiful!" 

Also we got transfer calls last night, and I'm staying in Madera and will be with Hermana Feldman- who was my companion my first day and who I've gone on exchanges with a few times. It's going to be great! I'll miss Hermana Maxwell though!

The day we both happened to match

We went and did service at the Villegas' house. They had a lot of glass antiques that we dusted, super great way to get to know people better. Also, miracles are so real! We've been trying to hand out four copies of the Book of Mormon everyday to reach our goal, and on Tuesday it was 9:20 (10 minutes before we have to be in the apartment) and we still had two to go. But we parked our car, walked outside and met two girls and their dad who wanted to listen to us! And they were so sweet and offered to help us with anything we needed. 

Our Book of Mormon stand

Our investigator Marissa came with her kids to church! The kids absolutely loved primary (the classes at church for kids under 12), and she said she wants to keep going because she felt so good while she was there. Eva came too, who is another person we met while she was trying to get a hold of Petra and Jose a few days ago. 

These adorable puppies Marissa has

On Friday we went to Adilene's graduation for her summer program at Fresno State. It helps kids learn English and discover different interests in preparing for High  school and college. She was in the Arts program and she did this really fun dance. We also saw some other boys do the Danza de viejitos, which is literally the dance of the little old men, and they wear fun masks. It was so cool because I saw that same dance in Mexico with my family last summer. It was so hard to say goodbye to her, but she's coming back from Mexico in two weeks, so just a short trip.

 My invitation for this week is to find someway to serve someone else. Serving others brings us so much joy and really helps us focus on others needs.

Spanish words:

ahijada- God-Daughter 

Riñon - kidney

Rescate- rescue

Remate - Swap Meet

*Also funny story. This guy told us he lived on "Surache" and we couldn't find that on the map. Then we realized that he meant "Sur H", pronounced the Same, but that means South H, as in South H street. 

Have a fabulous week!

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

1814 N Echo

Fresno, CA

93704

#10 - 4th of July!

Good Morning!

Saying goodbye to Pres. and Sis. Clark

This awesome watch I got that says "No prob-llama"

This week was kind of crazy, but then again, when is it not crazy when you're a missionary?

So on Tuesday for the 4th of July we had to park our car and be with members after 6pm. So the Ellsworths from Kerman came and picked us up and we spent the evening with their family and the Kerman missionaries. We didn't see any big fireworks, since Kerman does theirs on the 3rd, but they did lots of little ones in the streets. They were all so sweet to let the missionaries join them and it was a lot of fun! Sister Ellsworth's dad is Brother Boyd, who's the ward mission leader in Kerman, and he had some great stories about traveling the world meeting people with the Rotory club. He also said that when he came to Kerman the church was really small, but the first couple of years they baptized almost 30 people a year! Such a fun day!

The next day Sister Maxwell stayed in Kerman and Sister Feldman and I went back to Madera. That was weird, because I was leading the area for the day, but I got to drive for the first time since coming out here. That's also weird because we use a 2016 Malibu with all these gadgets and my whole life I drove a '97 Corolla. But we talked to so many people and it was a great day. I also learned a new word in spanish - "picar", as in "una abeja me picó". Got stung by a bee for the first time in my life. But trying to explain that in Spanish proved very difficult haha :)

When we had to fix the tire pressure

We visited a less active family this week and at first it was really awkward sitting there talking to them, but then we started sharing a lesson on the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the wife said that that was exactly what she needed to hear today. And that every time she's facing trials in her life the missionaries always seem to show up. We're going back next week to help her clean too ! (A lot of people won't accept our offers to serve so that was exciting). I've realized this week that God usually uses other people to answer prayers. As a missionary it happens all the time, but I'd encourage you all this week to think of a way you can serve someone else, and pray for who you can help. You can answer someone's prayer too!

Dinner with Adilene

Friday was our "mission tour", where President Mackay came around to each area of the mission and met with us. They really focused on the Book of Mormon, and using it to teach. We made a zone goal to have each companionship give out 4 a day, or 250 total. It's been so much fun! We literally just go up to people and ask them their favorite number 1-531 and share a scripture with them. Every single page of the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and can help people come closer to Him. 

Our new president is so awesome and I'm super excited to get to know him more. 

Eating the little watermelon someone gave us

Have a fantastic week and don't forget to go to 7/11 tomorrow!!! (I'm still looking for one here in Madera)

Love,

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

#9 - Hola!

Hello! And Happy 4th of July!

I am so grateful to live in a free country, and for all the men and women who give their lives to help us have that freedom.

Side note- we didn't end up going to Yosemite last week, but instead went bowling which was super fun!

Marin is Pescadora

This week was awesome! So first, we had zone conference on Wednesday, and because President Clark left Thursday, this zone conference included 5 of the 8 zones in the mission- so many missionaries!! We had some really incredible trainings. The assistants talked about why miracles cease, and recommitted us to being exactly obedient and not being afraid to correct or be corrected. It can be really hard to accept correction from others, but I really liked how one missionary described it. You correct others because you love them and you don't want them to be held back from what they can become. 

Then Sister Clark talked about motivation, why we do what we do. There's many reasons to go on a mission, or really anything in life, some are forced to go, some go out of duty, some because there's a reward at the end. But the best level is out of charity and love. Whatever you're doing, it's important to understand your own motivation, and when you do something out of love for someone else that's when you can really grow and can leave with no regrets.

President Clark talked about being TDUCAB missionaries: True Doctrine Understood Changes Attitudes and Behaviors. Understanding the why behind what we do is more important than just teaching the application of how to do it. He also talked a lot about family history, and he feels like it's going to be a big push of the new president. Sister Maxwell and I really want to work with doing family history with the ward here in Madera. And today at the dentist we mentioned we were missionaries and the dentist said he goes over to our building all the time because he loves finding out about his ancestors! I would invite you all to spend some time looking into your ancestors and family history!

Also at zone conference they have all the departing missionaries bear their testimonies, and at the end my companion got up!!! This is literally her last transfer and she purposefully didn't let me know until that moment that she's going home. But she's such a great example because this whole time she keeps saying how hard she wants to work this transfer, and I never would have guessed. The time we have to serve God full time is very limited, and it's important to spend every minute focused on missionary work.

This week we were teaching a guy and his four year old kept talking to us (he was so cute!) He said he got these plushies from Santa Claus...And then his Dad told him it was Santa Cruz, not Santa Claus. That made me laugh!

We went on exchanges again this week in Kerman and it was incredible! Somehow we ended up teaching a lot of the same people I met last time I was in Kerman, and even one lady we just ran into on the street a few weeks ago who is now getting baptized! 

This week I just saw so many tender mercies from God. One day we were teaching a lady and she kept saying this word that my companion and I didn't understand. But then it suddenly clicked that I had heard that word so many times before when I took spanish in high school. I thought when my spanish teacher kept talking about the history of Spain I would never use it in my life, but because she had, I knew that "musolmanes" was Muslim, and I could actually understand this lady! She was talking about different religions and how we need to respect everyone. God knows exactly what we need, not only now, but in the future!

Have an incredible week! Love you all!

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission