#98 - 2 vs. 1, Cat fight 🐈🩴🐈‍⬛ (3/31/25)

Chama Galera!!! Alguém aqui sabe como fazer um Churrasco?? Porque agora, meu companheiro, Elder Eyring, sabe e ele é profissional!! Vou explicar logo logo...[Calling all guys!!! Does anyone here know how to make a barbecue?? Because now, my friend, Elder Eyring, knows and he is a professional!! I will explain it to you right away...]

Early morning City

Hey guys!!! I'm writing my email this morning before we are going to have a churrasco with the Stake Presidents councilor, President Alex! He also just had a son come back from the mission so we are gonna hangout a little with him today!

How are things going in the world? Anybody know the wordle for the day?🤣 (idk if that still exists)

I hope that you are all doing well and are wanting to know how life in Brasil is going for a certain ginger so.... LET'S FIND OUT!

Monday - pday with the Elders! We had the Elders from Dalcol and Jardim Europa over to hangout and play "Epic Tiny Galaxies". It is a game that Elder Snow brought and had us all play for our first time and somehow... I WON!!🏆

Burgers with the boys

Tuesday -  Today was pretty chill! The highlight of the day was getting caught in a storm and having Maricleia (an investigator) save us from the storm in her car. We then went to her house, drenched from head to toe🤣 after drying off for a bit, we went to the center to participate in a meeting about a new project happening here in ponta Grossa. We are trying to help people participate in EnglishConnect here at the institute to see how this program would work around the world and help in missionary work. It was cool to participate and offer insight.

FLASHBACK TO FIRST DIVISION WITH ELDER ORTIZ!

Wednesday - Divison with Elder Sousa in Uvaranas! Elder Sousa led me around his area and informed me of a person that would be baptized that day, Nicole! The incredible thing is that Elder Souza took charge in helping her to get baptized. We recieved a text from her during the day saying "I don't know if I'm ready, can we put it off?" And Elder Souza didn't doubt, he took action to go visit her and help take away her doubts. It was honestly nice for me bc I feel that after training so many people, I am accustomed to take charge of everything and do it all but today, I learned to really trust your companion and be there to offer support. And so, Nicole was baptized!

Baptism prep

Thursday - Division with Elder Snow from Jardim Europa! Today we went to Guaragi so that I could do a baptism interview with their friend Luiz but the problem was.... WE COULDN'T FIND LUIZ🤣 We first went to his girlfriends house, he wasn't there. So we went to his house and we found his aunt (I think) who said he doesn't even live there🤯. So we decided to try again later and we ended up finding a lot of cool people and marking a baptismal date with someone. Then, right before we left Guaragi we tried again and.... HE WAS AT THE MARKET🤦‍♂️ So we ran over there but sadly we couldn't find him. The rest of the night we spent back in our area filling up the baptism font and having one of the bishops steal my shoes and putting them on a window hidden away from me🤣 (bishop tiago from Dalcol is like that)

Nice temple pic

Friday - Temple trip!! While we were at the temple, we ran into a friend of Elder Eyrings who played tennis with him at the start of the mission and his wife complimented us on our portuguese! Little by little I'm getting more brasilian!😁 But that very same night we had the first EnglishConnect class at Institute. It was awesome to see everyone learning and trying (especially my friend Rubens from Princesa!!)

EnglishConnect class

Saturday - Now for the title of the email! We went to confirm our friends for church and a dance that the ward was putting on and when we went to visit Valdo and his family, a random cat appeared. They already had one cat that was really jealous! Their cat started screeching and Valdos wife, Simone, grabbed the new cat and her sandal and said to her cat, "come at me! Two against one! Don't mess with me!" I could help but burst out laughing! It was so random! The other highlight was seeing a video of Vinícius dancing in preparation for the dance. 10/10. But before the dance we had the baptism of our friend Maricleia who attended church so much and was bascially a member without being a member and finally she was baptized! Right afterwards we had a dance (this time I didn't dance I swear😆) that ended at 11 I think bc we still heard music playing from our apartment!

Maricleia baptism

Dance 

Sunday - Church was cool bc while a lot of our friends confirmed for church didn't make it, I found two investigators who just showed up! After church we had lunch with Edison who made Elder Eyring cook! Elder Eyring learned how to make churrasco and now he is professional. It was just really funny to watch and see him learn and also sweat a lot bc of the heat😅 afterwards we went to visit Marco (a member of our ward) in the hospital. We actually arrived the same time as President Alex and his son! It was cool to talk to Marco and visit him. Afterwards we went doing some visits with Jhony and inviting our friend Manu to be baptized! Pray for her!

Elder Eyring the cook!

One take away from my study this week was in Alma 43. These are the war chapters in the book of mormon but what caught my attention was verses 45-47. It talks about the reason why the Nephites fought. They had a better reason than the Lamanites: they fought for their families, home, liberty, and religion. As I pondered on this it helped me realize the real reasons I am here and how the most important work we do truly is in the family to protect them from the adversary and grow closer to God.

 

                                                                    Chamarão [or mate]
Next week is transfers and to be honestly, idk what will happen for my last transfer but, stayed tuned!

Até o próximo! Amo vocês!!

- Elder Fisher

#97 - "Where's My Water?" 💧🐊 (3/24/25)

Bom dia Galera!!! Como está as coisas? Não sei se alguém conhece aquele jogo de celular mas literalmente essa semana foi como aquele jogo e vou explicar...[Good morning guys!!! How are things? I don't know if anyone knows that mobile game but literally this week was like that game and I'll explain...]

Acordian (maybe already sent but I found it today)
[Mom note: Elder Fisher's grandmother played the accordion]

Hey guys!! How's it going? I hate to say it but this last week I passed my 22 month mark and now, I have less than 2 months left😬 It is crazy how time is flying by. But to not focus on that, how's life in the state? Germany? Canada? Brazil? Argentina? Wherever you may be!

This week was honestly pretty special and here are the reasons why...

Bus the st. Bernard

Monday - Chácara pt 2!! This time we went down with the AP's and Elderes from Dalcol with Edison from our ward! It was great to chill with them and a HUGE saint Bernard like the one in Peter Pan. We ended up playing a lot of spikeball (I won't lie, Elder Eduards and I had a winning streak of 6 games in a row against the other teams) We also went fishing and I caught 3 fish! (Gotta live up to the name right😉) The other cool part was thar Edison had been trying to buy some land to build a chácara and guess what, the owner of the land (a former bishop) was selling and after 5 years of looking, Edison bought the land! Miracles I guess!

Fishing

The boys and Edison

Tuesday - Zone Meeting! We divided into 3 groups and did a rotation. I conducted one of the rooms where we focused on teaching towards the baptismal interview questions and how we can use the Book of Mormon to do so. Afterwards, many missionaries commented on how they liked the change and that our little classes helped a lot! Later we went to visit our friend Ana at work and found out she had just left by the time we arrived at work. So, we ran after here. We eventually found what we thought was her and we were running. Not sure if it was her I just D&C 66:6 it and yelled "ANA". Sure enough it was her! Then to end the day some person said that my first name (Devin) means devil in portuguese... I guess that's what happens when your a ginger and don't have a soul🤣

Wednesday - As the title says, "Where's my water?". Turns out Ponta Grossa is trying to make a new reserve of water and by doing so many people have been without water, today being the first day we didn't have any so... I had to pass on the shower today😮‍💨 But we still worked and had our english class as well! To end the day we talked with Artemis, a return missionary who feels very overwhelmed rn and away from God. It was nice to share Joseph Smiths experience with her in D&C 122 and we are slowly helping her on her way back. [Mom note: Elder Fisher said he didn't get to shower for 3 days since they didn't have enough water!]

Thursday - Divison with Elder Lytle! We worked in my área but I wanted to commented first on a part of my personal study when I read this passage in Alma 28:14 which reads "we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord". I thought this was cool to see the importance of us as priesthood holders to serve missions. But it was a pretty chill day overall. The funny part was lunch with members when a member gave us water with Gas and went to have some when she offered lime and sugar and I said yes. When she put the two in, it started to explode and to stop it from leaking over, I just started chuging it!😂 lets just say, I got a Tummy ache

Elder Lytle and Elder Silva

Friday - I did a division with Elder Glauser today! We found a lot of cool people and participated in our games night but the weird part is we ran into the same crazy lady 5 times! I think she may like us or something😅

Youth volleyball

Saturday - Today we acompanyed our recent converts and youth at a volleyball activity (we may have played a little) and also played the game of gratitude with them. It was funny to see them try to figure out the trick of the game like with "black magic". But the cool experience was when it was at 8:30 at night and we still needed to visit some people but when we passed by a house the spirit stopped me. It reminded me that a member had told us to pass by this house and I felt the need to pass by then, so we did. We met Kelly and her family and after following that prompting...

 
Baptism of Luisa

Sunday - THEY WENT TO CHURCH THE NEXT DAY!!! We also had the baptism of our friend Luísa today (we are still helping our friend Ana feel more prepared) and it was incredible to see all the members participating to support her! 

Early morning suits

Sunday afternoon tiredness

Another cool thing, we met this missionary who returned from his mission this last week, Jhony, and he gave us some cool advice. He told us that in the last 4 months, it is common for missionarys to rely more on their abilities bc they have been through so much that they don't rely so much on their faith. And I started to see how that is true. I think at times we get in a consistent routine that we rely more on our ability than our faith, but our faith should always be bigger and growing while our ability does to. As 2 Nephi 26:13 says, the Lord will perform miracles depending on our faith. This is his work, so his miracles must come to pass, so we must have faith and always have it growing!

But that's all for this week!

Amo vocês! Até semana que vem!

- Elder Fisher 

#96 - Chuchu hunters🥑🤠 (3/17/25)

The smolder

Chama galera!! Como está tudo mundo hoje??? Espero que vocês estejam bem e estão aproveitando o dia. Estamos aproveitando hoje para ir numa chácara🤩 [Hello everyone!! How is everyone today??? I hope you are well and enjoying the day. We are taking advantage of today to go to a farm]

Cris and the gang

Hey guys!!! Hello from the Brazilian boy Chicagista in Paradise! I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the weather cause here, we are starting to enter into fall season and with that, my seasonal cold is coming! But besides that, let's see what adventures and experiences Elder Fisher had this week:

Monday - We didn't do too much during p-day besides eating at Gorillão but at night we went to visit Helen and Augusto who went to church and we asked to pray about Jesus Christ restoring his church. When we arrived, I could tell something was wrong and that was confirmed when we went in and saw her pastore and missionarys. Not wanting to pick a fight, I just bore my testimony about Christ restoring his church and invited them to visit. I hope they visit it someday 😁

Tuesday - THE AP'S ARE BACK! We had the AP's staying with us for the week and they arrived today. We actually had lunch with a part member family and ended up inviting one of the family members to be baptized. She accepted! Ngl, it is weird to teach a lesson with 4 Elders 😅 The rest of the day I went around with Elder Hyatt. It was fun to reminisce on memories and work together again

Ap's and member lunch

Wednesday - PALMEIRA TAKE 3! (Shoutout to our uber that was playing a country song "hit me like a hurricane"😆) It was funny during the mission devocional today bc President Bikman asked why we had 8 elders together in Palmeira. He forgot we were on divison today😅. But I loved what we talked about. We read from Judges 6-7 that talks about Gideons experience with the Lord and his army of 300 against an army of millions. We compared that army of 300 to us. While we may not have the greatest numbers or resources, with obediance to the Lord, we will win no matter the odds. Today I worked with Elder Frederickson acompanying dates they have in their area and I met José, a recent convert that speaks fluent English! He is awesome!

Elder Frederickson 

Palmeira church (FINALLY)

Thursday - Divison with Elder Peabody! I brought Elder Peabody to my area and it was really cool to work with him. I found out a lot about Elder Peabody like how he cooked a lot before the mission and was studying to be an engineer. We also found this really cool dude named Antonio whose brother is actually a member of the church! So we are now trying to get him to come and visit!

Elder Peabody

 Rikelmi and his bro

Friday - Divison with Elder Ortiz! This time I went to Jardim Florença and let me just say, it was a day of service! We went to acompany a girl who is wanting to get baptized and we ended up gardening in the yard to help out her mom. Afterwards we went to help a venezuelan get some furniture for her house and preparing the church for a baptism. Before the baptism, I went to go do an interview for the kid, Arthur, and then he got baptized before a ward activity that night!

Chuchu service

Saturday - CHUCHU!!! First what is a chuchu? It is a green vegetable that kinda looks like a huge avocado. We went to help our friend Felipe clear out the weeds and bushes in his yard and we found a whole bucket load of Chuchu! That night we had a family night at irmão Edisons house. We brought a lot of recent converts and got them connected with each other and members. The fun part was planning the gratitude game and trying to see who could find the trick of the game😉 (side note, i had the best hot dog ever with mcdonalds sauce)

 Family night

Sunday - It was a pretty chill Sunday. We didn't have many investigators bc things came up but I did get to help get a centipede out of the baptismal fonte and we confirmed our friend Loisa for baptism next week! And to end the day, after our mission coordination meeting, we crashed the Relief Society's broadcast Devotional and got some free food!

On the bus

As of lately, I have been thinking a lot about the law of consecration, a covenant we make with God to give all of our time and things to the Lord. I have seen so many members here (especially Edison) who truly live by this law and offer cars, money, and time to serve the Lord. I hope to be able to do the same and truly live with putting God first (3 Nephi 13:31-33) We must magnify our office to help others also do the same and live by this law (Jacob 1:19)

Amo vocês!

Até semana que vem!

- Elder Fisher

#95 - We got our butt's kicked🦶 (3/10/25)

Fala Galera!! Sim, mais uma semana passou e mais uma vez, sim eu tenho só 10 semanas mais na missão! Tempo passa rápido né? Eu ainda imagino que estou começando a missão em Almirante Tamandaré! Que loucura. [Hello Guys!! Yes, another week has passed and once again, yes I only have 10 more weeks on the mission! Time flies, doesn't it? I still imagine that I'm starting the mission in Almirante Tamandaré! How crazy.]

Nice Pic (is this good mom?) [Mom note: I LOVE this pic!]

Hey guys!!! How is everyone from missionary to cowboy, to mom from dad, from baby to slightly smaller babies. How was the week for you guys?!

Elder Eyring sun protection

Overall it was a pretty chill week with a lot of random but spirit guided experiences and here I am to relate them:

Monday - HAIRCUT!!! ....that's honestly all we did. The barber also lowkey didn't understand my portuguese but, that's okay. At least I got a decent cheap haircut!

 Volleyball night

Tuesday - After an early morning of district councils, we got to work. Some of the highlights for today were finding someone who thought we were German (I think because of our short haircuts) and started to talk to us in German. (Wished that I had my friend Elder Heap to translate for me!) Later thar night, we were heading back home in the dark and for whatever reason, Elder Eyring and I are walking on the train tracks. To make it easier we did a little trust exercise to walk on the rails which supporting one another. #trustexercise

Wednesday - Divison with Elder Pavez! First thing we did was visit an investigator in the Sisters area because they wanted us to give him a blessing. The incredible part was how the Lord planned all this that they asked us to visit him this day when I was with Elder Pavez, so off we went to visit Luis. He is actually from Peru so Elder Pavez could speak Spanish with him. He had been to church a lot but never understood why he needed to get baptized to receive the Holy Ghost. We explained it to him and after a phone call to the Sisters and their bishop... LUIS WAS BAPTIZED! Afterwards Elder Pavez and I worked in his area with what time we had before the baptism of our friend Ruan. Right before the baptism though, Elder Pavezs companion, Elder Souza, threw up so we had to get some medicine for him. But then our friend Ruan was baptized and his sister was there to support him!

Luis baptism with Sisters

Ruan baptism with Sister Raira

Group Pic of Ruan baptism

Thursday - Cool experience today! We were looking at our Preach My Gospel app when we found someone who was a reference from Facebook but wasn't taught, so we passed by and found Augusto, Helen, and Beatris! Turns outs, Augusto attended the church of Jesus Christ a LONG time ago but never got baptized because he was told that be needed to wait a year to do so. So after explaining about baptism and the Holy Ghost, they accepted to be baptized! We are now helping them to receieve this gift from God!

Augusto e Beatris

Friday - TEMPLE TRIP AND ZONE CONFERENCE! I actually saw my friend Elder Brown today and discovered that he is using my lululemon pants that I left in Jardim Osasco. I left them because they were pretty worn out and I had to sew into them to patch up the holes and I had got 2 new pairs but I was happy to see them put to good use. Take away from zone conference: our temple preparation begins way before we starting driving to the temple and that the temple is a tool to become like our Heavenly Father, not a reward. We should always go when we can! But to talk about the title of this email, someone did in fact kick us. We were walking in the neighborhood at about 7:30pm when out of nowhere this car stopped in front of us and a man came out. He asked if we had a problem and we were just confused. Then in a very firm and bold voice he told us to get lost and started to kick us. From his smell, I could tell he was a little drugged but we just left. Even though we were "attacked" the recommarkable part was that we didn't feel scared. We trusted in the Lord and knew that Satan was just trying to test us but that he didn't win this fight.

Temple

Saturday - Today we confirmed our friends for church and finally we were able to find our friend Reni who had such a bright smile and HASN'T SMOKED SINCE GETTING BAPTIZED!! WOOHOO RENI!! We then accompanied Vinícius today and he shared more of his story and how great he is for us. Everytime this happens though, I think how people's lives don't change bc of us, but that the Lord planned all this through the Holy Ghost and we are just companions of the Holy Ghost!

Sunday - Sadly we didn't get as many people to church as we wanted but we were content with the miracles the Lord provided us.

My spiritual take away from the week is the quote from President Nelson from 2023 "Peacemakers Needed"

"One of the easiest ways to identify a true follower of Jesus Christ is how compassionately that person treats other people."

 MOTH

Amo vocês!! Até a proxima!

- Elder Fisher

#94 - How to fix a baptismal fonte (DIY🪛🔧) (2/3/25)

Nice pic

Chama galera!! Como vocês estão hoje? Está esquentando lá nos Estados Unidos? Aqui em Brazil....não 😅 Estamos no calorzão e estou aqui bebendo água. [Hey guys!! How are you today? Is it getting hot in the United States? Here in Brazil... no 😅 It's really hot and I'm here drinking water.]

Hey guys!! How is everyone? What's the biggest miracle you saw this week?

Nice pic with Elder Eyring

Also, is everyone getting excited for General Conference!? It is just about a month away! I'm just getting myself physically prepared to run around and help people watch😆

But to keep it short this week (cause im a l ittle bit sick) here is the day by day here in Paradise:

I was hungry...

Monday - Transfers! I'm still in Paradise with Elder Eyring but a lot of people in our zone changed. Highlight for the day was staying at the chapel helping with uber and finding whatever luggage was forgotten😅 (and also buying country swing dance boots! For all my friends, we going country swing dancing when I get back!)

English connect with friends

Tuesday - After our first District counsel for the transfer we got right to work! We actually went to a facebook reference we recieved who ended up being the bishops sister! I always saw her at church so I wondered why she requested a visit. We passed by and she told us she wanted us to teach her step son who isn't a member so... one more person to teach! The highlight of the night was visiting another reference: Rogério. Rogério really wants to change his life and be closer to God so we talked to him about baptism and invited him as well. He accepted! The first step though is helping him stop smoking. So after talking, we left his house with a full box of 20 cigarettes. And once again I found myself asking, "I've never smoked. How are you supposed to dispose of cigarettes?😅" if anyone knows, please tell me😂

Rogério!!

Wednesday - We went to visit our friend Ruan who is the brother of a recent convert in our ward. He has a lot of good questions and things very practical. He ended up asking, "where is Jesus christs true church?". We were able to tell him that he went there last Sunday and we invited him to be a member and he accepted! He should be baptized this coming week. Pray for Ruan!

Ruan lesson under the umbrella

Dog

Thursday - Early morning CLM in PERSON! We discussed about what to discuss during our zone conferences but there are 3 things I'd like to address. 1. Never forget to call a general authority by his title of "President" or "Elder" (President Bikman might have caught me slacking and gave me a reminder 😅) 2. An elite person is someone who fulfills commitments and allows God to prevail in their life. 3. We should truly just focus on Jesus Christ and not present ourselves as "Elder" or "Sister" so and so but as representatives of Christ. He is what everyone needs

Cris and pizza with the boys!

Friday - MOVING DAY!!! Not for us but for a member of the church. Alejandra was planning on changing houses for a while but that day the owner said she had to leave so... we came running! We thought it was just going to be an hour thing but, it took majority of our day. We met some cool people helping with the move who were from Arabia! The worst part is that the borrachuros were active so right now my legs are Red🤣

Moving!

New hat

Saturday - MARRIAGE IS WHAT BRINGS US TOGETHER TODAY... pt 7. We had the wedding of Gustavo and Keri! Gustavo is a friend of Edison (first counselor in the bishopric) and today he got married and baptized! The funny part, we needed to push back the baptism because the lid was stuck in the baptismal fonte so we couldn't clean it. We tried getting it out and then we gave up and called Edison. As soon as he arrived, he got a screwdriver and popped off the lid. How many Elders does it take to take off a lid? We will never know cause it just takes 1 Edison😂

Gustavo wedding

Gustavo baptism

 

Sunday - I woke up this morning with some stomach pain (I still have some today). Luckly, the Lord provides and Sadrak came in clutch to help bring our friends Valdo, Marlon, and José to church early to talk to bishop and recieve the priesthood and then get everyone else. After church, Elder Eyring and I ran after our friend Reni to talk to her about baptism but she disappeared! I swear she is a ninja! We ended up finding her, talking to her and.... SHE GOT BAPTIZED! She had been going to church for a while but couldn't be baptized until she stopped smoking and she was finally able to. The amazing part was that a lot of members showed up to support her and something I won't forget is her bright happy smile she had. I had never seen her smile like that before🥹

 

Reni baptism

Reni in the water

For the first week of the transfer, I know the Lord was guiding us in all things. Besides being sick or tired, we decided to act rather than be acted upon (2 Nephi 2:26) and the Lord used our faith to act to bless us!

Breaking in on seminary 

But now, I'm gonna lie down and rest up. Thanks to everyone for your support and now that I am always praying for ya (Moroni 8:3)

Até o próximo!

-Elder Fisher