week 57: snow in arizona...

Monday, November 28th, 2016

Hello everyone!

Aghhh so it started snowing yesterday!! I know awful. It's so cold I'm going to perish. When I got called to Arizona I never thought I would have to deal with snow.

Monday we had our first lesson with Noah, who is being adopted by some members in our ward. He is 11 and is so cute. I'm excited to teach him! We followed up and he said he has been reading his Book of Mormon!

Tuesday we had a lesson with Sister Tuetken, who isn't in our ward anymore so we had a hand off lesson with the Elders but they didn't come...but we still had a good lesson with her and got to say goodbye. Pretty much the rest of the day we met investigators and less-actives and members in Paloma Ward. Our ward mission leader, Brother Moore came out with us at night. He is so funny. He shows no emotion, he probably thinks us sisters are crazy.

Wednesday we had district meeting and we are in a district with all Elders...so let's just say that "doppest" was said a lot in the trainings...lol. We then had a lesson with a girl named Cheyenne in Paloma Ward. She is 16 and doesn't go to church that much. We are going to help her get to church. We then had a lesson with the Tsosie family, they are in Paloma Ward. They are recent converts/less-actives. They have some disabilities and don't comprehend a lot that we are saying. They are a cute family though. We met Sister Reidhead, her family isn't active. We had a little lesson with her. They have been meeting with the missionaries for a lot time but doesn't seem like they have progressed.

Thursday was thanksgiving!! It was a good day! We volunteered at the love kitchen and served thanksgiving food. It was way fun! On our way home, our truck got a flat tire...lol. We had to call the Elders and they helped us change it. We then had our first dinner at the Nikolaus' and the Halls were over there too. We then went to the Bairds for a second dinner. And then we went to Linden with the Tregaskes for our third dinner. LOL. SO MUCH FOOD. I never knew I could eat so much. But it was a good day and I'm grateful for all the families who fed us. The thanksgiving message I shared at dinner was by Sister Reeves. She said, "To me, the greatest miracles in life are not the parting of the Red Sea, the moving of mountains, or even the healing of the body. The greatest miracle happens when we humbly approach our Father in Heaven in prayer, fervently plead to be forgiven, and then are cleansed of those sins through the atoning sacrifice of our Savior." I love this, it really is the greatest blessing/miracles that we need to be grateful for. I'm so grateful that we can change and repent to be more like our Savior.

Friday we saw Sister Mejia, she is a less-active who wants to get back to church. It's sad because so many people have social concerns about church. We then had a lesson with the Diromas, they just went through the temple and are awesome! We saw Sister Bottoms, she looks so much better than last time, she is reading the Book of Mormon everyday! Which is so awesome. We found some unbaptized kids that we are going to start teaching!

Saturday was rough cause all our appointments canceled. We did have progress and did meet a lot people. A lot of people weren't home cause of thanksgiving weekend.

Sunday all of our appointments canceled as well!! Haha no one likes us. Well we did have one lesson with the Tsosies. They had bed bugs...so that's worrisome. Pray we don't get bed bugs.

This morning I finished the Book of Mormon again!! Man I love that book. I read in less than two months, I've never read it that fast. It was for the doctrine of Christ reading that our whole mission did. I loved it. I learned so much about the doctrine of Christ on a deeper level. I know that we can be cleansed from sin as we apply the doctrine of Christ to our lives. We have everything we need to get back to our Heavenly Father & I'm so grateful for that. We can become holy, without spot because of Christ. This reading reminded me of a quote from women's conference:

"We need women who have a bedrock understanding of the doctrine of Christ." - Pres Nelson

Also when I read the Book of Mormon I have gained a stronger testimony and I noticed I was able to testify more of that blue book to others. This quote by President Benson below is so true. If you don't read that book everyday or have never read it from cover to cover, I recommend you do! It's never too late to start.

“There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path.” - president benson

ALSO. there is the new Christmas initiative video called #lighttheworld. You can find it at: mormon.org

I'm excited to serve these next 25 days in 25 ways!! Yay Christmas time!!

I hope you all have a great week! Stay warm! ️

--xo: sista fisha

Tuetkens!

Changing the tire...

thanksgiving!!

coca cola

cutest boy

first snow

SNOW

week 56: gratitude changes attitude

Monday, November 21st, 2016

Helloooo.

It's me again. It's been a crazyyyy week. We lost one of our wards :( first ward (or show low creek ward). Saddest thing ever. I get too attached to people I guess, I just love all the people I have met on my mission. So now we are in Paloma Ward, so we are in show low stake now and show low zone. So our whole stake is elders except us... boo hoo. I'm sending this late cause we have a rerverse pday kind of thing. We had a pmg workshop. This morning the jex's (a senior couple) wanted to go to lowes and take a picture by the joy sign, haha they are so funny. Our investigator Zach works there and driving up we were thinking wouldn't it be funny if we see Zach...we pull up we see him walking into work, WITH A COFFEE CUP! we get out of the car yelling and we steal his cup and throw it away lol. He was like "it's hot chocolate!" It was so funny.

Monday we had a referral for this blue trailer. So we went by and it ended up being members, recent converts. The elders teach them but one of their kids isn't a member. He is 15 & isn't interested. We had a little lesson with them. We had a lesson with Clarise and Sister Willis came with us. She didn't read so we read the Book of Mormon with her. She is really excited to read it! I asked her to be baptized and she said yes! Her husband wasn't in the lesson though. Her kids love it. We gave them all Book of mormons and Jesus stickers. We then had a lesson with Zach. He is having a hard time keeping commitments, we talked about obedience. Brother Macgregor came with us to fellowship Zach, he is a convert so it was good.

Tuesday we were walking to Sal & Teresa's (taco Tuesday) for lunch with Brother Duncan. And we hear Mark yelling at us. Anyways it was perfect cause Mark then comes eat with us and Brother Duncan had his son who is YSA age so he was getting him excited about YSA. We had a funny TTI, we were at a less-actives door seeing if they wanted to come back to church and meet with us and he said no so we asked for a referral and of course he was like "I stick to myself, I don't know anyone" and then I turn around and see this teenage boy walking, I ask the less-active if he thinks he would be interested? The boy sees us from like 30 ft away and we yell hi! He says hi and then I say "wait we have something to tell you!" And then quickly say bye to the less-active and talk to the boy on the street. He said he has had missionaries over before! They are Spanish so we referred them to Spanish missionaries. Pretty cool though, talking to everyone you see works! Brother Ellsworth, the guy that referred us to Howard Fisher wanted to meet with us before our set lesson that night with Howard. We said okay. We talk to him and he wants to teach the lesson this time and then hand it over to us...oh dear. He said he did it with the elders investigators and that he promised Howard he would do it. We asked the elders how it was and they said it was cool and true doctrine so we said alright. Really strange though, cause we are the ones used to teaching. We have a lesson with Howard at bro Ellsworth's house. And he taught his "modified" plan of salvation. It was cool but REALLY deep doctrine and he talked so fast and I was just dying in the corner. He talks about heavenly mother and just lots of stuff that I'm sure confused Howard. And some of it was really questionable doctrine...ugh but yeah haha. We talked to Howard about it later and he was like yeah that was too much for me.

Wednesday we had district meeting (our last) but at that time we didn't know it was our last. Our district leader bought us pizza. Yes. We then saw Sister Valade who is a less-active and her granddaughter Brittany. She isn't a member. We invited her to start reading the Book of Mormon. Random story...we were contacting a referral and we were about to pray and we look over and there is this guy barfing EVERYWHERE. LOL. Were are like what's happening! And then after it all he just goes back to smoking his cig. People are so weird. We then had a great lesson with Deanna. She is at 2 Nephi 18! Like none of my investigators have ever gotten that far! I asked her to be baptized if she knew it was true, she said yes but she will have to think about it. We then had a correlation with Brother Rubert (new ward mission leader) in Show Low Creek Ward and he is awesome! We were so excited!! The next day we found out we weren't in the ward anymore. Our lives are awesome.

Thursday is the day we find out. We get a call from our zone leader and we're just like NOOOOO. so many tears were shed and so much yelling. We went to DQ to get icecream. I love the members there so much. The hardest part is that I won't get to teach Howard and his family though. Like I honestly felt like I was supposed to meet them. It just hurts a lot that we can't teach them anymore. It's crazy how fast you come to love someone. We met with the elders who are taking over our area and they are bums and weren't even taking notes. Were like come on care a little bit more about the area we are so sad to leave. Ah it was just ask and then we had a meeting with the elders that used to be in Paloma and they are like yeah the ward sucks at missionary work and telling us all these awful things. We're like great thanks for telling us. They did find two families to teach recently so that's good. While we were contacting this potential and talking to this guy we hear yelling and this guy beating his girl and the guy we're talking to is like "one moment" goes to his car and gets a gun and walks over there looking all tough, we're like what's going on....kind of scary but it was all good. We then had a lesson with Zach, he really just needs to get married or keep the law of chastity. Anddd word of wisdom. But Channa was saying how she doesn't want to get married right now and that she won't marry Zach until he is baptized...so we need to figure it out, we asked them to talk to bishop. Zach agreed but Channa didn't.

Friday we had sisters conference with all the sisters in the mountains. President Robinson & his wife came. It was really good, our theme was trust in the Lord. I needed the conference a lot cause of everything that was going on. It just didn't make sense at all why it needed to happen. And I might not find out for a while why it did happen. I gave the spiritual thought. I talked about how much God trusts us. We have this opportunity to do the most important work on earth because he does trust us. He knows us more than we know ourselves. We are here now because we were elected to be here now. "Faith and trust in the Lord require us to acknowledge that His wisdom is superior to our own. We must also acknowledge that His plan provides the greatest potential for spiritual development and learning." - Elder Bassett. Heavenly Father hasn't done anything to make me not trust Him, He always has a plan, and that plan is harder but always better than I have for myself. I'm grateful for a Father that does trust me, when he gives me hard things to do it's kind of like a compliment because he knows how strong I am. He knows how strong we all are, we have always been his most trustworthy children. The theme was from Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." I love that. In order for Him to direct us, we have to be going. I know that His path is always the right path. Later that night we had a hand off lesson for Howard. Oh my goodness is was so good, it was weird teaching with an elder but holy cow that family is so prepared I'm so sad I can't teach them. Howard and his mom, Maria read the restoration over and over again. Maria said it all just made sense. How cool. They loved the lesson. We set a date for January 9th! When we said the first vision Howard started crying. The spirit was so sweet. And I guess they went to church again and it was Maria's first time and she loved it! She said she felt at home. She told the Pattersons that she wants to be as happy as Sister Fisher...best compliment ever! This gospel does make me so happy! I love sharing it with others! I'm just grateful I got to play a small part in their conversion. Ahh love that fam.

Saturday was randomly like the hottest day ever. We pretty much were in Paloma all day seeing people so we just walked the neighborhood. The members in Paloma are really nice and SO excited to have sisters. I guess a little while back the members didn't trust the elders at all so sisters is probably what this ward needs. We had an awesome lesson with Clarise on the plan of salvation. We got her husband to join for a little bit and he said the closing prayer! We had ward correlation with our new ward, our ward mission leader's name is Brother Moore. He is pretty cool. We are going to get the work going.

Sunday was a little crazy, we didn't even have time to go to show low ward. We are now in two different buildings. We did go to ward council is show low ward though. We had pec in Paloma Ward. It was a pretty good meeting. We had our first lesson with Paige, she is a nonmember married to Mike who is a less-active. They are a cute young couple with two little kids. Paige has no religious background so we are stating from the basics. We taught about God and how the gospel blesses families. We brought Sister Macgregor and she was the MOST perfect member!! Paige might even come to church on sunday! We ate dinner with Paloma Ward with recent converts. Their name is the Ramirez family, they are awesome!! Most solid converts ever. They have four boys. She made us reallyyyy good tacos and I ate 8...mainly cause I wanted to beat the elders record...who says sisters can't eat a lot. That's one thing I have learned on my mission, how to eat. But yeah I love that family so much already. They gave us a referral for a new move in across the street. Ends up being a pmf! The guys (nonmembers) name is Chris Fisher. I just keep meeting people with my same last name. But he said we can come back! We then had a lesson with the Lamdins (less-actives). And the husband isn't a member! (Sad that I get excited about that lol).

Ah but yeah it's been a crazy week. I don't know why we are in Paloma Ward but I'm just gonna keep working hard! I have too many things to be grateful for this season.

"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" -1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

I love this scripture. It reminded me of a quote.

"When you pray, are you really praying or just saying prayers? When you pray, do you really, truly want that “not my will, but thine, be done”? - Elder Uceda

We need to be thankful in our circumstances. What if we had only the things we thanked for yesterday? The things we take for granted, others are praying for.

"live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you" - Alma 34:38

I have so much to be grateful for and I could make a big list but I won't. I'm just so grateful to serve my Lord. 

Have a happy thanksgiving! 

--xo: sista fisha

COMPANION

When we found out we are losing one of our wards...we got ice cream

Sisters conference

Chocolate milk addiction

Deal family

Markkk

fisher fam

Catching Zach drinking coffee

week 55: LSD church?

Monday, November 14th, 2016

Hello!

This week has been good, just another week doing missionary work. We still have both of our wards as of right now, we keep texting and calling president to try to persuade him to let us keep both. Please pray it works! But I do love this area and my companion. Oh gosh we laugh so much, if people saw our studies & weekly planning they would think we were insane.

Monday night we had dinner at the Lewis' with Deanna. Omg it was the best food I have ever had. They even bought me chocolate milk, PRAISE. We then had a lesson with Deanna after, she didn't read the Book of Mormon so we read with her. It was chapter 19 in 1 Nephi & it was just so powerful and the spirit was so strong! Deanna has a heart of gold! We then went to Tewana's and had a lesson with her. Her husband Sammy was there, we asked if he wanted to take the lessons, he said no. We then had a lesson with Zach. On gospel library he was looking under missionary and saw the online pamphlets and he read the word of wisdom one before our lesson. Haha we didn't even tell him we were teaching it next. He drinks coffee errday so we need to work on that one with him.

Tuesday I was on exchanges in my area with Sister Szewczyk! (I know her name is insane). She is my grandbaby cause Sister Gulley is training her. We had the most crazy day lolol. First off taking an area after three weeks is hard when you don't drive and you really don't know the area haha. And Sister Szewczyk is new so she doesn't know anything. And it was elections day, so yeah it was just crazy and then there was a shooting, someone shot an officer so that's just awful and sad. But we still had a really good day even though like all our apts canceled! We are very similar and had such a fun day. So many laughs. It was a really good exchange & I think she needed it. She is such a good missionary, and will bless so many people. Well we saw Sister Tuetken in the morning. We read the Book of Mormon with her, cause that book changes people and so we want to read with her. And she came to church on Sunday! Miracle! Since we took on a little bit of Wagon Wheel Ward (which was her area) she introduced me to some less-actives. One of them being the Yoemans, haha so stubborn. They aren't wearing their garments because they aren't comfy. And there were like 5 other reasons. But they are funny. We went and contacted this referral and we knocked on her door, and as soon as she answered she goes, "I'm not taking any visitors!" And so we just asked her if she has ever met with the missionaries before, and she goes "I'm not joining the LSD church!" (She was so angry) and so I was all "you mean LDS?" And she goes "it might as well be the same thing!" She told us she was Roman Catholic, and so I just changed the subject and asked what her dogs name was and she just looks at is with an angry face and says "DOG!" And slams the door. HAHahahh. Missionary work at it's finest. We then had a lesson with Lexi & Gigi who are 9 & 10 recent converts and then their little brother who's name is Ryan. They are so funny. Pretty much they don't go to church because their parents don't go. We tried to get someone to drive them to church but the mom never responded...it was almost curfew and we knock on a random members list who was in wagon wheel but just our ward. We asked for a referral and he gave us his neighbors. So we knocked and the family is super nice! Hopefully we can meet them this weekend! They have been busy this past week.

Wednesday we had district meeting. It was way good! I like our district. We had a cool miracle this day trying to contact people in the apartment complex. We had been trying to see this referral named Gina for forever. Anyways we go up and we hear her talking to someone on her back porch. She then hangs up the phone and starts talking to us. It was perfect timing cause she was going through a lot. And the cool thing is, is that we met her 6 yr old son a couple weeks ago at a less-actives house. At that lesson I asked this little boy if he wanted to say the closing prayer. He wanted to so we helped him say it, he is the cutest boy. Anyways his mom Gina told us that experience really changed him and after that he had a lot of questions about God. So she was like yeah can you come over in two hours to talk to my son? We're like sure! We do and we pretty much just answer his questions and introduced the Book of Mormon and asked if we can come back to talk about the Book of Mormon and how was have the church. They said yes!! We met them last night again and I'll talk about that later. We then contacted a potential that we wanted to see for a while. It's a pmf and the husband Mike is less-active. Her name is Paige. We knock and Mike is there, his wife is never there when we go! So we talk to Mike for a while, he has been less-active since he was 16 and is really hesitant about coming back. Anyways then his wife comes home miracle! And she is so nice. She took the lessons with the elders 6 months ago. She pretty much just wasn't interested. She didn't really get it, she doesn't know really anything about religion or about God. We talked to her for a bit and we are going to start meeting with her!

Thursday I was on exchanges again in my area with Sister Ho Chee. I love her! She is going home this transfer. It was a really good and spiritual day. We pretty much went around Wagon Wheel and met the new members in our ward. We spent a good chunk of our day in Silver Lake Estates. Not many people were home. We did have really good TTI's with these two guys and gave them a Book of Mormon. We had a referral for a guy named Tristan. He ended up being a less-active. He had been baptized for I think three years. We had a lesson with him and his wife and it was really good. They hadn't gone to church for a while and are moving today. But I could tell they needed our visit. Hopefully they go to church in the valley! They said they would. We then had a lesson with Zach. I felt impressed to talk about scripture study and then read 3 Nephi 11 with him. It was a really good lesson. Zach is just very logical, which isn't bad, he just needs to focus more on the Spirit cause that's who does the converting. He is just so funny. We asked them to both pray & sofas to about a marriage date.

Friday was rough cause weekly planning...haha but then we went to the pizza factory with Brother Phil so that made it all better. We had a lesson with Jayce and that was good. We had a lesson with Chase Masters who is a recent convert, he is 12. Their family is pretty awesome, they came from Wagon Wheel. We then had a hand off lesson with the Spanish Elders for Rafaela. We were trying to find a Spanish member to come but no one was available but at dinner we ate with a family who's son just came home from his mission in Bolivia so he came with us! Rafaela was sad I think that we can't teach her anymore but she will understand it so much better in Spanish.

Saturday we spent a lot of the day in white mountain lake. We had a referral for this family allllll the way out there, in the middle of nowhere. The drive is rough. But we meet them and they are so nice but not interested. Then we get a text from the elders asking if we cover white mountain lake, we are like yeahhhh we are here now. They give us a referral that a member gave them. So we contact him right then and he is awesomeeee. His name is Howard Fisher, yes same last name, meant to be. But he is so cool and is trying to humble himself. When he was in prison he went to a Mormon church there and I think that's what sparked his interest. He has been through a lot and has so many tattoos, he has "sinner" tattooed on his eyebrow lol. And then fisher on the back of his head haha. Anyways we set up an apt with him and invited him to church and he came!!! Oh my gosh so awesome!! And he came all three hours!!! He brought his 10 yr old son whose name is also Howard but we call him sir. He is shy and reallly didn't want to go to church but he did and went and had a bad attitude. Haha so we sat by him in primary while his dad went to priesthood. He is a little punk haha he was punching me and kicking me but I know he secretly likes us and that he secretly liked church. Howard said he loved church and a lot of it spoke to him!! He even bought nice shirts for him and his son for church! There was definitely a reason God sent us to white mountain lake that day.

Sunday was good but crazy cause the wards changed with the boundaries so there was a lot of callings. Our new ward mission leader in Show Low Creek Ward is Brother Rubert! He is awesome. We then had our lesson with Gina. Her other son who is 13 was also there. His name is Brandon. Her two boys are just so sweet. We brought Sister Baird who is awesome & she was the perfect member for Gina! Gina has a past with drugs and her husband has been in jail the past 5 years so I'm sure that's really hard for the kids. She wants to go to church but she is scared she will be judged for all of her tattoos. But we taught the restoration and it went really well! She is really open minded and actually has a lot of the similar beliefs that she does. I'm excited to continue to teach her!

Alma 29:9 "I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy." That's when I feel the most joy on my mission, is when I feel that I am being an instrument in His hands.

Elder Cook's talk from general conference called serve is a great one. He says "when we recognize God’s hand in our calling and serve with all our hearts, additional power comes into our service, and we become true servants of Jesus Christ." I have seen that so much in my mission. There is no way that I could do His work by myself. I'm grateful for His grace to help me get through he day. He also quoted President Romney who said, “Service is not something we endure on this earth so we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made.”

I love serving my Father in heaven & so grateful for this opportunity to be an instrument in His hands.

--xo: sista fisha

lulu

lol this little girl took a pic of us praying

Exchanges with Sister Szewczyk!

Exchanges with Sister Ho Chee!

animal farm at a members house

kitty cat

potty mouth!

Rafaela!