#105 - A Journeys End....⛰️ (5/19/25)

   Chama Galera!! Estamos aqui no van indo pra Curitiba agora para voltar pros Estados Unidos. Eu ainda não acredito que esse dia chegou. É muito estranho mesmo. [Calling everyone!! We're here in the van heading to Curitiba now to return to the United States. I still can't believe this day has come. It's really strange.]

Wall art

Hey guys!!! Here we are. The last email I will send from Brazil. This will be a review of what happen this last week but then I will send one more later on this week with my final thoughts. But let's learn what went on here in my last full week in Brasil:

D&C 4 zone pic

Monday - My last pday was pretty chill running some errands and saying goodbye to some people and having my last interview with President. The funny part was going to work and having a dog on the bus. I tried to get him off the bus but he almost bit me so, we just let him be until right before we got off when out of nowhere he threw up on the bus! That doesnt happen every day!

Cookies

Tuesday - The last district counsel! For this counsel, Elder Collins and I made cookies and they turned out.... pretty good actually! It was sad to say goodbye to my district for one last time but I know that they will all do incredible things. Elder Collins and I then worked around our area where we were doing a contact with someone and something insane happened! I had asked him for a cup of water and when he returned, he gave me a GIANT JAR!! I didnt know what to do so.... I drank it all. Let's just say, drink water throughout the day and not just at once during the day😅

District pic

Wednesday - Today I was surprised by the members and the youth with a going away party. They had cachorro quente and everything. I'm gonna miss them.

The youth

Thursday - Today we had our mission Devotional where President Bikman reminded us of eternal truths. We talked about not using conditionally before and eternal truth. For example, when we invite people to pray and ask God to know the things we teach are true, we should say it as "if you pray, you will know that Joseph Smith truly saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ, this is Christs true restored church on the early, and the Book of mormon is the word of God" and not "ask God if the Book of mormon is true" because these things are true and will never change!

                                                      Saying goodbye to friends

                                              

 

 

 

Friday - Today I got to see my friend João again! We went to the Sisters area to do a baptismal interview for one of their friends whose boyfriend is a member of the church. Turns out the boyfriend is my friend João that I met a year ago in Palmeira! I was also given a surprise churrasco by Kelly, Neimar, Edison, and Andreia! It was really good!          

                                           

Kelly and family

Saturday - Today we did a service project for our recent convert Laianys mom, Ana Negrello. She was needing a set of stairs to ascend and descend from her house and a porch in the back. So calling the Elders Quorum, we got it done! The funny part was Ana's dog, Simba, started sitting on the drying cement out of no where and left his paw prints!! Oh well🤣

Service project

Sunday - Last Sunday, last talk in Brasil. I focused on the power we recieve from Jesus Christ and his Atonement by making covenants with our Heavenly Father and how we can access that power NOW, TODAY! After church I spent the rest of the day saying goodbye to friends and members and I can honestly say, yes I cried.

Family of President Alex

A cool scritpure I found this week was Ether 3:6-12. Elder Holland talked about these verses in a social media post and I liked what he said, focusing on verse 11, "Believest thou the words which I shall speak?". It is interesting because the Lord didn't say do you believe the words I said (in the past) or the words I speak (in the present), but the words he WILL say (the future). That is how we should trust in the Lord. We should be humble enough to trust him and act on his words and prompting no matter if we know exactly what he says. We believe and trust in him!

 Correr ate o fim!

Agora tenho que me arrumar pela viajem! Até amanhã Estados Unidos! [Now I have to get ready for the trip! See you tomorrow, United States!]

Goodbye grandson!

- Elder Fisher

#104 - "SIM, SIM, SIM!!"🌊🔥 (5/12/25)

Fala Galera!!! Não acredito que tô aqui no último p-day de minha missão! Hoje de manhã, tive minha entrevista com presidente e almoço com ele e alguns outros missionários. [Hey guys!!! I can't believe I'm here on the last p-day of my mission! This morning, I had my interview with the president and had lunch with him and some other missionaries.] 

Devin with Elder Mortenson (his 1st comp at the CTM) & Elder Ortiz

Happy Elders

Hey guys!!!! Once again, the weeks just fly! Here we are on the last normal p-day and like it has been, it passed by quickly so here is a quick overview of this week:

Monday - We got doffes donuts again😅😅

Tuesday - Today was a rough day ngl but it was also incredible at the same time. I had gotten sick (my annual cold) and had basically lost my voice but I could feel the Lord sustaining me. He helped me have the power and clarity in my voice to speak with people. I feel if anything, with my sickness I spoke even better portuguese 🤣

Wednesday - Division with Elder Eyring!! And right as we traded, we already had a problem; we forgot to leave a phone chip with the other elders😅 so I got in contact with my friend Cris to go visit them and we told them we would send the chip over in a "special package" (aka with a lot of pamphlets and books of mormon, let's just say, we like to use uber a lot and be very cautious with our delivers😁) Later that day we went to have lunch with irmã Neide and her family where we found EVERYONE SICK!! Neide was starting to loose her memory, Neusa had an infection on her leg, Ingride had a bad cold, and Vitor suffered a motorcycle accident. I am thankful for the priesthood and being able to give them blessings. Please pray for them! We also had a cool run in with someone from Palmeira. When I asked where he lived he mentioned this road I knew that went all the way to the woods and guess what! He lives at the end of the road😆 so after talking to him about the Holy Ghost and baptism we got his address and the Elders ended up going there in Palmeira and helping the entire family schedule a baptism date!! Miracle!! (Please pray for Paulo and family)

Thursday - Today I learned something: the Sisters area of Princesa is HILLY!!! We went their to do a divison where we found Tom Sawyer (see picture below). We also had an incredible miracle. Sister Oliveria had the prompting to plan for us to go visit a reference they taught about 3 months ago. We went by at 8 at night and found the references mom. Turns out she is going through troubling times and wants to turn to the Lord. We explained how through covenants with God, she can receive the power of God. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted! She is now progressing to making her first covenant with God!

Friday - Divison with Elder Bueno! We first went to go visit a venezuelan, Carmen, that went to church in the Sisters area. I went with Elder Bueno bc he speaks Spanish and when we got there.... it was busy!! The family was running all over the place that they let us in, sat us on the couch, and then had problem after problem that bascially we didn't do anything😅 but God will provide a way someday. Then later that night we went to separate beans for a lunch we had....

Saturday - ...today!! Bc of mothers day, the men from Elders quorum got together to make feijoada (it's like a bean stew). There was a lot! Sadly the men burned the rice but it was still good! I also found out that our recent converts took part in an activity where Vinícius dyed his beard green and Kelly and Neymar dressed as pioneers 🤩

 

Sunday - Today with mothers day was from rock bottom to out into space. Not many investigators or recent converts came to church and we didn't really know what to do. We went to lunch with Kelly and Neymar, our recent converts, where we knew one thing: their nephew, Emanuel, wanted to be baptized. The entire family was there and we thought, how incredible would it be for all of them to see Emamuel be baptized. We talked to Kelly and Neymar and they liked the idea so we talked to Emanuels mom. Emanuel has been going to church for about a month now and his mom asked him in that moment: "Do you want to be baptized?" He said "Yes", "today?" "Yes" "are you gonna stop drinking coffee" "YES". Because of Emanuels devotion to follow Christ, he was baptized!

As said in 3 Nephi 11:37-38, we must be like little children because the kingdom of God is for them (3 Nephi 9:22) Ask yourself how you can be more like a child and let's the Lords will prevail in your life!!

Amo vocês!!!

Até a última semana!

Elder Fisher

#103 - How to get in a house: Bloody nose 👃🏡 (5/5/25)

*we had a photoshoot [Mom note: many more pics throughout]

Chama galera!!! Quase esqueci mandar algo hoje porque fomos tentar achar camisetas de um time de futebol aqui em Ponta Grossa. Mas, não achamos🤦‍♂️[Hey guys!!! I almost forgot to send something today because we tried to find jerseys of a soccer team here in Ponta Grossa. But we couldn't find any.]

 

Happy cinco de maio!!!!!!! WOOHOO!! Someone eat a taco and send me a pic cause I don't think they have tacos here😅

But besides trying to have tacos (we actually had burgers today) here are the other highlights from the week:

Monday - Last time at the chácara!! We went to the chácara with the AP's, ZL's, and the Elders from Dalcol. We ended up playing "Secret Hitler" and out of the 3 games we played, I won once! I'd say that I'm pretty professional!

Tuesday - We had our zone meeting today where we talked about talking to EVERYONE! We had a cool activity where we chose one person in a group of 10 to be an elect person who would go to church and we had to try and find them in 5 minutes. Let's just say, never have I seen so many missionaries running around😆 We also found this guy named Lucas. He had a really strange curiosity about the book of mormon and knew so much about the gospel already that idk if he was actually a member and was faking it... I still don't know😅

Wednesday - We found a lot of cool people today and also did some visits with our friend Vinícius. For example we went to visit Ana and Laiany, a recent convert and her mom. Fun facts I learned that day: you can almost die eating corn bread (Tenha cuidado Elder Collins!) And ana is the same size as the length of a tie😂👔

Thursday - Dia do trabalhador!!! (#laborday) turns out it was a holiday today so a lot of people were at home.. and didn't want to attend the door🫠. It was like a rundown country town. The good thing was we had lunch with Andreia who, while we were talking about American movies, showed me that singing in the rain exists in portuguese!!!! I'm adding that to the bucket list. But now for the title of this email. We were searching for a reference from a member and we knew that the reference lived in a condominio but we didn't know how to get in. Right at that moment, I got a bloody nose!! Needing to find a bathroom and a tissue, I remembered that a inactive member lives in the condominio and called to him. Luckly he answered! We then went in, asked about the reference, and 5 minutes later we were talking with the reference at her house and they said they would go to church!! Thanks bloody nose, I knew you would come in handy one day!

Friday - The cool part of today was going to English Connect and our friend Helena, Kaue, and Eriki were there again and their English has gotten really good! We then ended the night at the church with the youth who started asking us if what they saw in the movies is real about the US. Let's just say, yes and no😅

  

[Nice branch across his face]

Saturday - Today we went around confirming everyone for church and the coolest part was seeing how faithful our most recent convert is, Neymar! When we passed by, he was actually on the church website paying tithing!! It is incredible to see how devoted they are to the gospel of Christ and trust in his blessing!

Sunday - Today we got some more of the family of Kelly and Neymar to church, Samuel and Katia. Katia is the mother of Samuel and Emanuel, who has already been to church a few times. We tried to find them again that night but couldn't. We are hoping we can talk to them this week and schedule them for baptism this coming week (keep them in your prayers!) The other cool and sad part was saying bye to our friend Gabriel who is going on his mish. We arrived right as he was watching the online CTM Devotional. We watched a little and it gave me a lot of memories but I'm happy he is serving!

Scripture for the week: 2 Nephi 4:34 (trust in the Lord)

Amo vocês! Até a semana que vem! [Love you guys! See you next week!]

- Elder Fisher