#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

#8 - Hello!

Good morning!

This week Petra and Jose got baptized! They are both really sweet and have really strong testimonies about God and Jesus Christ. Their baptism was such an incredible experience, and I'm so excited for them!

Petra and Jose's baptism, the two Elders were teaching them before we came to Madera, so they came back to baptize them

This week we get a new mission president. Each mission has between 100-250 missionaries usually, and the mission president gives us direction, and we report to him and he gives us trainings on how to be better missionaries. They're called for 3 years, and now President Clark is heading home! President Mackay will be here Thursday. This transfer has  been really crazy because I just got here, we had lots of trainings, we're getting a new president, and time has just flown by!

A missionary shared a scripture with me this week that I really enjoyed: It's in the Book of Mormon in Jacob 5:72 which says,

"And it came to pass that the servants did go and labor with their mights; and the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them; and they did obey the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard in all things."

Muchas Ciruelas (plums)

The California Fresno Mission has "The Lord's Vineyard" written on all of its cards, papers, etc. Because so much fruit is grown here! There's vineyards everywhere, and just like the Lord labored with the servants in the vineyard in this scripture, I know that God is working with us to help people come unto Christ, and as we're obedient we are blessed. I would encourage you all this week to find a scripture and apply it to your life, and write down how you can change to become more like Christ. I love finding scriptures like this that just fit so perfectly!

Words in Spanish I learned this week:

ciruela- plum (hence the picture :)

Boracho/barato - drunk/cheap, don't mix the two up!

Boliche- Bowling

cuetes- fireworks

Have a fantastic week! Love you all!

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

#7 - We actually saw a chicken cross the road this week!

Good morning everyone!!!

So we were driving out of a lesson and we almost ran over a chicken, it was literally crossing the road to get to the other side :) Everyone here has dogs, cats, birds, or chickens, it's so crazy!

I might not email next week because we're going to Yosemite and we might not have time, but hopefully we will!

This week I learned that exact obedience really does bring blessings. There's a lot of rules as a missionary, and sometimes it's hard to keep track of all of them, but they are there to help guide and bring miracles. One is that we can't have a lesson be over 45 minutes, which is really hard when  a lot of people really like to talk, but Sister Maxwell and I had been getting out late a few times. We recommitted ourselves to leaving early and being on time and it's been great! We've met a lot more people who want to learn about Jesus Christ, we've been more unified in teaching, and have had more guidance in our teaching as well. 

Sister Feldman and I

This week on Thursday we went on exchanges. Sister Maxwell is a Sister Training Leader, so she's supposed to switch companions a few times every month just to see how other sisters in our mission are doing and to help them out. On Thursday I was in Kerman (Which I nicknamed Kerman the Frog :) with Sister Feldman who was my first companion when we did "Open Your Mouth" my first day. She's awesome and we ran into the sweetest old lady who just opened up to us about her life and wanting to be closer to God. Kerman is half English half Spanish so I actually taught people in English (really weird!) most of the time but it was a really great day, and I learned a lot from her!

When Sister Maxwell and I had to throw out the rest of the cookie dough we made....it was such a tragic day :(

Yesterday at church we were standing in the hallway talking to someone and were asked to teach the youth sunday school. So we asked them what questions they had and had a really good discussion on praying to find answers, like it says in James 1:5. We also talked about the importance of knowing the doctrine, or the why of what we do. Going to church is an application, but the "why" is that God loves us and wants us to learn to be more like Him. There are lots of commandments given to us by God, and it's a lot easier to follow them if we understand the "why" behind them. I would encourage you all this week to look at commandments, standards, or rules you have in your life and think about why they're important and how we can blessed by following them. Then we got asked to share a message in Young Women's as well! (The group for 12-18 girls). Lots to do at church, but it was a really great day.

Also it is SO HOT here! It was over 100 almost every day this week and I have never been so grateful for a car with AC in my life. But people are always really nice and offer us water!

We also got to go to the Fresno Temple!! It was so beautiful and I felt so peaceful there! Temples are the House of God here on the earth and you can feel so close to Him while you're there. It was such a great experience! 

Hope you all have an incredible week! Love ya!

--

 Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission

#6 - Welcome to California!

So the new buildings have all of these pictures that you can pretend to be in. This one is the Sons of Mosiah (Some people in the Book of Mormon who were missionaries)

Hello Everyone!

This week was crazy, but so great! 

Wherever thou Art, act well thy part, one of my dad's favorite quotes and a picture we all have next to this sign :)

My roommate Sister Nicholson!!!

On Wednesday we woke up early and took a bus, then the train, then an airplane to Fresno. I had never been in a plane that small before, there were probably only 40 people total on it. We arrived at the airport and when we walked out there were a few missionaries who were heading home that greeted us. Than we met our mission president and his wife by the baggage claim. We went straight to the mission office and had lunch and a mini training. Then they told us that we were going to go outside and do "Open Your Mouth" which just means talking to everyone we see! I was terrified at first, but it was so much fun! People here are so sweet and kind and willing to listen to you. We gave out a lot of pictures of Christ and shared the importance of following Him. We spent that night in the mission home, and I found out that we are the last incoming transfer that will come to that mission home, since we're getting a new mission president in three weeks and after 40 years they are getting a new mission home! 

Our Travel group

Thursday we had some trainings and then we met our companions! So my trainer is Hermana Maxwell, and she's awesome! We're in the Madera area right now, which is the most heavily Spanish speaking area in the mission, so I'm really excited to learn a ton!

My companion, Hermana Maxwell

So all growing up my mom always fed the missionaries a ton because she said that one day her kids would be fed on their missions. Just to let you know Mom, I have received a ton of food here. I haven't eaten anything but tortillas, rice, beans, and chicken but it's been great! The members are so sweet and are always willing to help us with anything.

We've been meeting with investigators and recent converts (people who are looking into joining the church and those who have just recently been baptized). It's kind of scary just because some people speak spanish really fast,  but I'm learning a lot and have been able to teach in Spanish so it's good!

I love it here in Fresno! I'm so excited to be serving all these people here! I've learned a lot this week to open your mouth and share your beliefs with others. I would invite all of you to share an uplifting message with a friend this week. It could be a post on facebook or instagram, or even just a little text of something to lift someone's spirits. 

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Hermana Fisher

Sister Jeppeson, who shares an aunt with me but we've never met! Finding family in Fresno!
Sister Jeppeson also got trained by MY trainer Hermana Maxwell! And she was there that first day at the mission office and ran up to me and said Sister Fisher We're related! And we're good friends now :)

#5 - I'm here!

6/7/17

Hello!

I made it to Fresno this morning! Everything went well with the trip. Preparation Day is Monday so I’ll email more then, and I should tell you not to respond to this email address.

Love you so much!!

~Hermana Fisher

 

Me with Pres. and Sister Clark

Me and my companion, Hermana Maxwell

#4 - Three weeks that went by way too fast!

6/5/17
Lots of pics!

Good Morning Everyone!​​

This week was great! We move into the new buildings today, so I get two classes in them. They asked our zone to do a little "photo shoot" in the new courtyard so let me know if those pictures show up anywhere :) The new buildings are so beautiful and have so much light. I've included a few pictures. They switch the flags every single day and you can see a beautiful view of the temple and of heritage halls from the top of the buildings.

New MTC buildings

Our investigator Ana

 On friday we had "in field training" where we learned more about finding people to teach and how to work with members, it was really an incredible meeting. There were so many stories from the teachers about how working hard and following promptings of the Spirit can bless so many lives. At one point though they pretended to have a birthday party and popped a balloon showing something about not letting people burst your expectations, but for those who have seen me with loud noises it didn't go down too well...I literally screamed and freaked everyone out, but that's me!

a picture with our teacher

Our investigator Ana committed to being baptized! She is the sweetest lady ever, She is so ready and could literally teach all of the lessons we gave her. 

I get to sing at the Senior Missionary Welcome Devotional today, "I feel my Savior's Love", which is my favorite primary song and I'm super excited for the opportunity! Its kind of crazy that I leave for California on Wednesday, I'm really going to miss my district and zone. 

I've learned a lot this week about listening to the Holy Ghost and loving others. We watched this video yesterday at church that talks about how a teacher saying "I love you" totally changed a young man's life, I'd really encourage you all to watch it if you have a few minutes! 

 https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-03-002-love-those-you-teach?lang=eng​​​​

Especially when you yourself are having a bad day, turning outwards and giving service to others and showing love for those you may not get along with can really bless your life. Our devotional last week was about how Christ always turned outward even in His times of sorrow, and if we do so as well we can really become more like Him.

Have an incredible week!

--

Hermana Marin Fisher

California Fresno Mission