#52 - You have a fear of.... bunnys?!🐇 (5/13/24)

Bananas?!?

E aí tudo mundo? Como que tá? Como foi a semana para vocês? Alguém viu a luz em Utah, a luzes do norte? Eu queria estar lá mas eu estava aqui😅 Talvez a próxima vez..

Hey guys! How's it going?? Elder Fisher here after another week of climbing hills, getting jumped on by dogs, and the nice hot brazilian sun! (The tan is getting better!🤣)

   

Me and Elder Lopes

   But as always, here is my week in review here in Jardim Osasco:

Monday - Transfers!! Normally with transfers our President will call us to let us know what will change and if he doesn't call you, you will stay in the same place with the same call. President never called us so I figured, "Guess we are staying!". Later in the day, after playing with and watching Oorbies grow, I got an email that only District Leaders get and when I updated out Preach My Gospel app, it said I was "District Leader and Trainer". So, I am officially training and being District Leader again without even knowing! 🤣

Oorbeis

Tuesday - Today we focused on finding new people and visiting references (I think missionaries say referrals in english, but they are when someone requests a visit or book of mormon from the missionaries, if your interested in a visit go to ComeUntoChrist.org). While knocking doors, we found Jessica who asked us if we worked with Family Search! It caught me so surprised that I asked if she had the app and we checked if we were related (we weren't🥲) but she has interest in learning more so we connected her with people from Family Search! It was cool to see how people from around the world are using this resource to get to know their families. Later that night, we brought our friends Murilo, Kaue, and Adriele to Seminary.... may or may not have crashed Seminary😅

Walking with the boys at night

Wednesday - Lesson of the day: In-grown toenails HURT!😆🫠 Woke up this morning and spoke with Sister Bikman about an in-grown toenail (unha encravada) that I thought I had and she said I could ask around about visiting a doctor about it. I asked the bishops wife, Sirlei, and she immediately marked an appointment for me that same day! So, I worked, enduring every bit of pain walking, and actually got to talk a little Librus (sign language) with someone! (I also used google translate). Then I went to my appointment and let me say.... "...ow... I don't want to do that again!😂". From what I saw, I think I had 2 small in-grown toenails and now, im better! I'll see if my mom can put the video on my blog. 

Before surgery and video of his reaction. [Mom note: Ingrown toenails are hereditary,
sorry Bud, that you had to go through this] They walk A LOT!

Thursday - Honestly don't remember much from this day besides putting sunflower oil and cottenballs in my foot to care for my in-grown toenail but I remember I recieved a random message from someone named Jailson saying how he is the next Christ. I honestly didn't know how to respond so I said "cool!" and asked if he would be interested in a Book of Mormon.

Boys and the temple

Friday - TEMPLE TRIP! I love going to the temple and how much it has been emphasized these days. I truly know that all the promises that President Russell M. Nelson has said about the temple, are true! There is no other better place to communicate with our Heavenly Father or feel peace than their is in the temple. We should truly strive to go when we have time and try to make our home like the temple. The Home is the second holiest place in the world after the temple. After visiting the temple we had a member lunch and it turns out, the members had some farm animals! They had chickens, pigs, and bunnies! When we were going to see the bunnies (coelho) Elder Lopes ran away! It turns out, he has a fear of bunnies! I tried my best to help him give it a piece of lettuce but Elder Lopes freaked. Maybe when Elder Lopes goes to the US I can help him overcome this fear😉

BUNNY

 

 Boys and a porco

Saturday - Today we were confirming people for church and during our member lunch we had lunch with some of my favorite members: Raquel and Ozair. At times, we will teach them some english phrases and right now they like the phrase "YEAH BUDDY!". They also burst out laughing when I said "minha celular" instead of "meu celular" (they both mean my phone). Yeah... still working on the portuguese at times😅     

 

    

Sunday - Woke up early and got right to waking up everyone for church! While knocking doors, my dog friend kept jumping on me and ended up getting my clothes all dirty before church even started! But it was all good because we got 7 people to church, one of which was Adriele who got baptized! We have been teaching Adrieles family for some time and it is remarkable to see the difference the presence of the gospel of Christ has made in their life as the Father, who doesn't believe in God, now wants to believe! They have such a strong desire to follow Christ and we are slowly but surely helping them progress.

 Baptism of Adriele

Honestly in review, this week was miraclous! Even though at times I felt that I wasn't doing much as I could or that people weren't as open to messages, God provides! His work cannot be frustrated (D&C 3) and if we countinue with all diligence (Jacob 1:19) God will provide. That's Faith for ya!

Baptism with everyone!

Hope that your all doing good and that you all remember the small and simples moments that God has given you to help you and others come back unto Him. He is truly walking beside and carrying your load with you!

Ate a proxima!

-Elder Fisher

#51 - "TODAY" Baptisms🌊🔥 (5/6/24)

E aí blz? Como vocês estão galera? Mais uma semana passou cheia de momentos e experiências sagradas e aleatórias! Mas, com certeza foi uma semana muito abençoada e guiada por Deus! [What's up? How are you guys? Another week has passed full of sacred and random moments and experiences! But it was certainly a very blessed week guided by God!]

Golden hour!

Hey guys! How are things? Each time that I write this first paragraph I feel that I am putting my english to the test and warming up the english again!🤣 So if there is anything I type that doesnt make sense, just read Mormon 9:31😉

The 4 Elders lunch division

But in other news, here is the run down of this last week!

Hamburger!!

Monday - Spent the P-day at a members house and had a terrific lunch! I also got to play some ping-pong against Arthur (who is insanely good!) and in the wise words of Flinn Rider: "Guys, I want a ping-pong table!"😂

 MASSAGER!

Tuesday - Finding day! While knocking around doors and acting like Gandalf to everyone ("YOU SHALL NOT PASS... without talking to us!😁") We stumbled upon this little alleyway with some houses. We had a good lesson with Paulo and Leticia talking about how we can recieve forgiveness from God and then immeditely depois we knocked this one door and awoke an army of Dogs! No one answered the door so we ended up moving on to another spot. Afterwards we decided to leave and the dogs were right there ready to attack us! (I may or may not have sung to myself, "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?!") It turns out the gate wasn't closed so the Dogs got out and were barking up a storm, ready to bite us. We then immediately reached for the ground, grabbed some rocks and herded the Dogs back to the house and locked the gate. No dog bites this time! Later at night, we went to seminary with some of our recent converts and one of them had a mini massage machine. Out of no where he put it on me on the highest setting and immediately I jumped! Let's just say, that small thing packs a punch!

Crashing Seminary!

Wednesday - Mission Devocional! The biggest thing that stood out to me is when our President talked about how things aren't supposed to remain "static". We as people change. We never know who will accept the Gospel or what someone could be going through and how that might change them. Everyone has their time and circumstances to recieve the gospel message, we just need to be patient and keep trying until they are ready! Biggest thing that happened today: WE FINALLY GOT OUR OWN HOUSE!! We had been living in a house with 4 Elders and 1 bathroom and washing machine. Now, it is just Elder Black and I here and the other Elders got an apartment (that is a lot fancier than ours😅)

Right before I broke the chair!

Thursday - Today I recieved a question I honestly wasn't expecting! We met a lady named Pamela who was very intrigued with our work as missionaries. She asked a lot of questions about, where we are from, why we are here, and then she asked me "have you thought about giving up?". It caught me off guard and sincerly I responded, "I have thought about it once, but I know I can't." I then shared with her one of my mission scriptures (Mosiah 28:3). She liked the scripture and my resolve that she accepted a book of mormon and it was awesome to see how much my resolve as a missionary has grown! Later in the day, Elder Black and I tried to make a facebook post with this handmade chair outside and I may or may not have broken it while sitting on it! We then enjoyed a ward activity and brought a lot of investigators, one of which was Adriele!

Temple

Friday - Went to the temple today and saw my CTM district friends! Turns out that my first companion in the CTM, Elder Mortenson, is training!! It was awesome to see how much he has progressed! As I mentioned on Thursday, we brought our friend Adriele to the activity and we passed by today to teach her and her family. My intention was to invite her to be baptized but God had different plans. As we began talking, Adriele said she loved the church and the activity and that she felt something different but good while she was there! I explained it was the presence of the Holy Ghost and we began to read 3 Nephi 11 to understand how we can have the presence of the Holy Ghost with us through baptism and while reading, Adrieles mom, Daniele, asked "If Adriele wants to follow your church, does she have to be baptized again?" and immediately Adriele said "I WANT TO!". Thanks to Gods design we now have her on date for this coming Sunday! 

After temple lunch

Saturday - Had Venezuela type pizza today! SO GOOD! I also found another Dog that looks and acts the same as Caramel in Palmeira! And now, the highlight of this email! We had talked with a lady, Sandra, about passing by today to share a message with her and her kids, Kauê and Murilo. When we passed by, Sandra said she talked to her kids about baptism (since they aren't baptized yet) and that they wanted to be baptized immediately! So, I asked our Bishop and President and they gave us the okay. So after teaching everything they needed to know (practically 3 lessons in 1) we marked them on date for the next day! And this is what happened...

CARAMEL THE DOG!

Sunday - We got everyone with our Onibus and went to the church! Murilo, Kauê, and Sandra loved it and after church... they were baptized (so technically not a "today" but basically😂) We are going to bring Murilo and Kauê to seminary this week but after only knowing them for 3 days, we are already brothers from another mother! And then maybe during a member lunch, the members asked for a song suggestion and I said "I see country everywhere" (Shoutout to my swing dance friends, Love you guys!)

Bus!

Overall, this week was full of a lot of crazy moments but I was amazed to see God's hand in it all and how he is preparing his Children, every step. While at times we may feel that we are working our best and not getting results, keep going! Be like Mormon and Moroni in Moroni 9:6, continue to labor diligently as we have a labor to perform in this "tabernacle of clay".

Baptism of Murilo, Kauê, and Sandra

Filling the font

Love you guys! I'm praying for ya everyday and I know that God is with you every step of the way!

Ate a proxima!

-Elder Fisher

#50 - The "Chicaguistas" are back!😎🏙🫘 (4/29/24)

E aí Galera!? Como vai? Elder Fisher aqui novamente depois mais uma semana aqui em Brazil!! E hoje, bati 11 meses como um missionário d'A Igreja de Jesus Cristo Dos Santos Dos Últimos Dias! Estranho né? [What's up guys!? How are you? Elder Fisher here again after another week here in Brazil!! And today, I hit 11 months as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Strange, right?]

The sunglasses!

Hey guys! Ive been told that the United States is entering into Summer and Brazil... is still crazy weather as ever🤣 I still walk around with a jacket and umbrella but still end up during of heat during the day! Winter is coming.... very slowly😅

 Ice cream (side note, the McDonald's ice cream machines work here!)

But in other words, here's the update for this week in Jardim Osasco:

Last district council

Monday - So last week I mentioned this old drunk dude that asked me these weird questions. He asked me to choose an animal: Wolf, lamb, goat. And a color: Red, blue, yellow. I chose lamb and blue (bc we are the sheep of gods flock and I like blue) and he said I chose well and he accepts me so.... cool! Glad I chose right😅

P-day after cleaning!

Tuesday - HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: FINDING SOMEONE WITH A PERRY THE PLATYPUS SHIRT!!🤩🐸 I immediately decided we are friends and we started talking to him. He didnt even realize he had the shirt on until I pointed it out😆 We also went to visit a recent convert, Fernanda, (who also happened to be the same person that fell flat on the floor on the bus coming home from stake conference) and she told me about how she felt God was preparing her for something and I felt prompted to share one of my favorite mission scriptures, Mosiah 28:3. It was what she needed and now she recieved a calling to be a part of the missionary coordination in the ward!

Chicaguistas

Wednesday - When you get two chicagoians together, you've got the "Chicaguistas"! Yep, division with my boy Elder Child! But to start the day, we had a mission devocional that focused on how we should make our homes and ourselves more like the temple. After all, the most important work we will do in our lives is in the home! After the devocional, the "Chicaguistas" hit to the road. One of the people we found was Rogerio, a very cool and funny guy! When we arrived, he let us in on the spot and the first thing I saw was a collection of Play stations and he soon showed us his gym in the back! We then tried to teach a lesson but he started teaching us american culture about this dog named Lassie. Apparently it is a movie and I need to watch it😅 (add it to the bucket list) but we ended up giving him a BOM and marking another visit. We then also found a reference that hadn't been contacted, Bruna, who passed through a very hard time and could have used help from the missionaries. Im glad we found her when we did and now we are teaching her and helping her prepare for baptism (to all the missionaries, contact your references quickly cause you never know what they are going through!)

End of the division

Thursday - Honestly don't remember what happen today other than a lot of people being gone and not answering the door. So, on to Friday!

Late night diner dinner

Friday - While making contacts on the road today, we passed by a gym that was playing the same song I listened to in middle school for our warm ups😂 i actually stopped and had a lot of flashbacks. I dont remember the name but it has the chorus "you show the lights that stop me, take me home" (or something like that) We then found this family and our friends Arthur and Julie. Its been a while since they attended a church but we had a good talk about the plan of salvation and how they will see their mother again. I then immediately became friends with Arthur bc he knows who crash bandicoot is! (Shoutout to anyone whos knows). Then finished our day visiting this family who is looking for a church where they feel welcome. I explained how things work in the Church of Jesus Christ and offered to end with a prayer. Afterwords the Mother told me that we were the first people to offer a prayer to bless their family and that she looks forward to making a visit in the church! 

Saturday - We went around confirming our friends for church and almost helped baptize our friend Marlo to follow Christ and be baptized but he had a birthday party so it didnt work out😅 we also ended up playing some ping pong at the church and while I was playing against Elder Lopes, Lopes hit Elder Black in the face with the pingpong ball and Elder Black church sat there in shock. It was pretty fun though!

Late night sunset

Sunday - Woke up early and tried to get our friends to church. Sadly none of them woke up but when we arrived at church, our friend Claudio was there and he loved it! This week we are going to talk to him some more! Today though, we had the baptisms of our friends Daniel and Vitor! It was awesome to be the one to confirm them with the Holy Ghost! Later that night, we ended the day visiting Fernanda who made 2 cakes. 1 she put salt in place of the sugar and só she made another one. I asked to try the salt cake and.... yeah that was a salty cake🤣

Vitor e Daniel baptism

Even though things didnt go this week as I was hoping, I am still happy to know that I am doing the will of God. When we feel the presence of the Holy Ghost with us, we are doing the will of God even if it may be different from what we want or think. I like what the verse in D&C 103:27 says about a Disciple of Christ. If we are willing to lay down our life for the Lord, we will find our life. I come to see this verse in my life as this is my purpose, to use my time and talents for others and I am seeing the person I can and want to become not only for myself, but everyone else who needs the future Elder Fisher.

I hope that you are all well and that you guys have a great week!

Mate ou chimarrão [Mom note: Dev says mate is gross! He found this while cleaning the church.]

Amo vocês! Até a próxima semana!

- Elder Fisher

#49 - Stake Conference = Elders babysitting🫡👨‍🍼(4/22/24)

Jungle?

E aí a gente? Como vai? Não sei sobre a resto do mundo mas tivemos Conferência da estaca aqui em Boa Vista! Vocês tiveram uma conferência também? [And what about us? How are you? I don't know about the rest of the world, but we had a Stake Conference here in Boa Vista! Did you have a conference too?]

(Nice photo for mother)

Hey guys! After running to get lunch, get a haircut, do some shopping, and answering a drunk guys random questions about sheep and colors (I will explain next week!🤣), here I am with another summary of "The Fishers in Black" in Jardim Osasco!

Monday - CHURRASCO! We went to go visit the other Elders in our District and had a Churrasco! If any of you know Tuacanos or Braza Grill (Sean we are going after the mish and if anyone wants to come, let me know!), it is like that were people pass by and offer you all shorts of meat. Without knowing all the different, I just said yes to everything and suffered the consequence of an upset stomach later😅

Early mornings

Tuesday - Rain.... and LOTS of it!🌊 I had my umbrella with me but not my jacket and my comp.... didn't have either! So we were huddled like penguins trying to hit doors and navigate to a store where my comp bought his first umbrella and maybe a ponch or two. While trying to find new people, I knocked on this one door and out of no where this dog came running at me and jumped at my face until it hit the gate! The gate actually almost broke and the dog almost got a new chew toy🐶 Lets say there are times I am thankful for gates here!

Rain ponchos

Wednesday - During the morning, I let Elder Black lead to give him practice to talk to people and knock doors. He led us to this one house with a lady outside her house. I began to talk to her and that's when I noticed she had a knife in her hand she was figiting with. Without question, I shared a quick scripture, set up the next appointment, and kept moving. I still don't know why she had a knife in her hand. (For my sibilings: I also found the chomper the toy after that encounter). Later in the day I had my son try a corn popsicle and the verdict is: "I am weird for liking Corn Popsicles"🤪 Funny moment today was knocking a door and then Elder Black said "Looooolloo" and it opened! It was hard to speak while laughing, my bad

Medicine "shots" (Elder Lopes vomitted) [Mom note: Devin said an elderly
woman told them that as it gets colder she has medicine for them, but called them 'shots']

Thursday - Ward Activity today and... MY SONS FIRST BAPTISM!!! Technically the other Elders found these people to baptize but Elder Black performed the ordinance for his first time. PROUD DAD MOMENT! We were also talking with these youth that are learning english and when we were walking everyone back home in the cold one of them said, "I am freezer!" when she ment to say "I am cold!". I got a good laugh out of that but happy they are practicing!

Baptism of Elders friends

Friday - Woke up in the middle of the night to someone speaking! I couldn't make out the words but I thought someone broke in! I then looked around, saw nothing, and went back to bed. I then woke up again and found out what I thought was a burgler was my comp!😆 Elder Black was sleep talking with a normal voice and woke us all up! Then when we were contacting people, Elder Black said "Eu nao hablo english!". I can't tell but I think he speaks portuguese, spanish, and english. Slowly but surely he is learning and I am happy to see his progress!

MEAT

Saturday - GIANT VENEZUELAN CHURRASCO! We went to have lunch with these investigators who cooked up a LOT of meat! (When the family went inside, Elder Silva also spit across the table on accident and we broke out laughing, glad that the family didn't see that!) Later that day, we went to teach our friend Antonio and Maria. During our lesson, someone set off a bomb out of no where and Antonio just said, "oh that's normal". Luckly it was just a small one but it freaked me out! Cool spiritual prompting today: we were walking back to our main area of work and found Phoji sitting outside a store. I felt the need to talk with her and first thing she said was "I already go to a church". I then continued to talk with her and found out she was waiting for her friend and left her phone back in Curitiba. I then felt prompted to pull my phone out and I let her call her friend. After waiting about 30 minutes, her friend came and afterwards, she thanked us, called us her angels, and said she will have to think about visiting The Church of Jesus Christ again. I hope she does!

Working the bus

Dog attack

Sunday - Woke up early this morning to prepare for our friend Debora's baptism! When we knocked on their door to wake them up, I immediately got trampled by their dogs and got my pants dirty😅 (this happens a lot to me I think). We then went to the church and had her baptism where her son, Elias a recent convert, said it was a blessing to see his mom follow Christs example and recieve the joy he recieved through baptism all because a "rapaz" (young man) appeared and invited her. Turns out he had been trying to help his mom be baptize for sometime and I just showed up and felt the need and she accepted! Goes to show how God prepares us to be instruments in his hands to teach and be who others need us to be. Then later that day we had Stake Conference and our friend Amalio came with his family all by himself! As the email title says, I sat in the back on the stage with all the youth and started making kootie catchers and offered whatever I could to keep them entertained. Let's just say, thanks mom for teaching me the weird face you know how to do!😂

Débora baptism

An overall awesome week! When I was studying this week, I read in Helaman 14 about the birth of Christ and I love the verses between 12-18, especially 13 as we learn that we can have a remission of our sins through the "merits" of Christ. Truly all of this is possible through him. He is the only path back to the Father and always is calling us back (Mosiah 3:17)

Turkeys?

Amo vocês! Até a próxima semana!

- Elder Fisher