#19 - We are the Angels among men! (9/25/23)

Does this count as a good picture mom? [Mom note: I asked him to send me a nice picture with him smiling instead of a goofy face]

Bom dia todos! Como vocês estão? Espero que esta semana passada foi ótima!

Right now we are going to visit our Zone Leader, Elder Wooley, for a little p-day division! As missionaries, we plan out our day each morning but also need to plan out our week on p-day. Elder Hall and I never officially learned how to weekly plan so Elder Wooley is going to give us some dicas (tips) on how to plan.

I don't know what happened to my face

In other news, its been another long week with going up and down hills, dogs 24/7, and LOTS OF SUN (Youll be able to see how bad my tane is😅🤣) 

But here is the update from this week:

Monday: This was a pretty busy p-day with cleaning, shopping, meetings, and playing soccer with our Baptism date, João! It was honestly a blast to play soccer again and kinda intimidating when you have 10 year olds playing like Messi (I have much to learn!)

soccer

Tuesday: A pretty chill date but there are 2 major things I remember. When we were at a membors house for lunch I found that 1. Sprite tastes different here! Its not at all bad but you can tell it isnt the same sprite as in the states. It was still really good! And 2. Random music vídeos of people playing Pan flutes in the wild is actually quite relaxing! The family has a new born baby só they play that kind of music

Dog.. that peed on me 5 seconds later

Wednesday: I learned a lot this day from our mission wide devocional! We were studying Moroni 7:27-48 and this time it hit me WAY different! (Its awesome how we can still learn from scripture even if we have already read it!) President Bikmin mentioned the importance of having Charity in the work and how we are the angels sent to help those of Gods children. Miracles have not ceased! We are the miracles for others!! I recommend these verses to not only missionaries but everyone as we could all show more charity to others for Charity is the pure love of Christ. A love that we can share with the world!

João family

Thursday: "Do you remember, the 21st night of September?!". (Sadly couldnt listen to this song😂) This day we had 2 baptism interviews. One with João and the other with José. Both went great! Josés interview did go a little long (about 1 hr) but we have him scheduled to be baptized this Saturday! João had his baptism yesterday!

Baptism!

Friday: Elder Hall decided today that I would take charge and start all the lessons. Ngl, was kinda stressful, but I pulled through! The funny thing about how we teach as missionaries is we dont necessarily make a plan and stick to it. We rely on the Holy Ghost for guidance and using inspired questions. For instance, we taught this one man, Jerson, and I started the lesson asking questions to find a need in his life. We ended up learning an experience he had where he was very ill and a voice told him to rise and he did. He was able to then go to work that day. Using this I helped teach about the Holy Ghost and the gospel of Christ. It was awesome! I also gave a blessing for someone who we thought needed sugery but the next day we saw him, he was standing and walking completely fine!!! WOOHOO! (Also had a bday party for the Mother of our friend Edi, apparently they put nuts on pizza)

Pinecones in Brazil!

Saturday: While cleaning the Church and preparing the baptism fonte, i found a spider in the water and wondered, "can a spider be baptized?". We went around checking on people for church and attended the 21 year anniversary of the ward! It was this dance and they even played some English music! THERE WERE EVEN PEOPLE SWING DANCING!!!🤩 Sadly though, I couldnt dance (I did do the hand signs for YMCA though... oops)

Sunday: JOÃO WAS BAPTIZED! It was awesome to see him come closer to God and follow the example of Christ! Also, we think we saw a frog get run over by a car and then came back from the dead! It was freaky!

Insights from the week:

- Elder Eyring talk "Priesthood and personal prayer"

- D&C 62 - talks about missionaries 

- Mosiah 4:27 - its okay to take breaks!

I hope your all doing well! Never forget that I am praying for you all and know that God is always with you! Love you all!

Até mais!

-Elder Fisher

#18 - Mr. Blue Sky (9/18/23)

 Boa tarde meus amigos! E aí beleza?!

After spending about 2 hours cleaning our apartment and going through belongings of former missionaries (we actually found a photo album of a missionary😅), here I am writing the weekly update. This week I jotted more things that happen during this so I will try something different today:

cheese grater party hat?

Monday:

Had a member lunch today with a member that likes reading about the history of Nauvoo and the Saints! Being someone who grew up going to Nauvoo a lot, we had a great comversation about it. (Also I offically want to go to Nauvoo after the mish so if anyone wants to join me.... hit me up when I get back!🤣) We also ate this desert that was just tangerine skins with syrup. I officially know now I dont like tangerine peels but I still am thankful for it!😁

Tuesday:

We walked for about a straight hour today to visit an investigator and it was SO NICE that Elder Hall and I started singing Mr. Blue Sky! We also passed by this kid and his dad and when I said "boa tarde" to the kid he gasped at me. I guess he isnt used to seeing an American ginger in public👨‍🦰🤔

Wednesday:

DIVISION WITH LUIS! We had a member ask to join us while we taught and he showed up in missionary clothes and everything! It was awesome to see how even after the mish, missionaries are willing to help teach and how we are all still learning and helping each other grow!

LUIS

Thursday:

We went over to our friend Joãos place to teach his family and invite him to be baptize and... HE SAID YES!!! We have continued to visit about every other day and its been great to get to know them better and one of the brothers, Mateus, gave us Brazilian pokemon cards! Its so cool to see how it compares to the ones in the states. We hopefully will also be playing soccer with them later today or tomorrow and Joãos baptism date is for next week! Please keep him in your prayers!

Arturos fam

Friday:

Did a Divison with Elder Eyring! Funny thing, we are both still in training😅 It was actually really good! I went over to his área in the city and was practically thrown in the deep end but we ended up teaching like 5 lessons, giving out 3 books of Mormon and survived in the city with our combined knowledge of Portguese. We actually started talking to these people who I thought were our next lesson but they were actually just random people. So when Elder Eyring got a call saying we needed to leave I freaked, gave them a pamphlet, and we ran to our next lesson. Shoutout to that fam for the ice cream and conversation!

Elder Eyring!

Saturday:

We went to a churrasco (barbeque) for a sister in the ward and apparently, IT WAS HER BDAY! Her entirely family ended up arriving and it was crowded. The food was also really good! We also met this dude who I think was trying to speak Japanese? Neither of us could understand😵‍💫

Sunday:

Did a divison with Mosias again! While teaching someone, the 3rd spiderman movie was playing and so the entire time I was telling myself "Stay focused Elder!". Another lesson we had was also difficult because there were like 7 dogs barking. Satan was definitely fighting against us but we still got our message across.

Division with Mosias

Some insights from this week:

Jacob 5 - my brother Sean recommended this section to me and it explains the ideas of the plan of salvation. I highly recommend reading it.

D&C 18:10 - The worth of souls is great in the sight of God!

It has honestly been an awesome week! Its also weird to think how im almost out of training. Just 3 weeks more!

First Elevator of the mish!

I hope everyone is doing good and I want to thank everyone for all the emails I have sent. I know that all of you have great potencial beyond our comprehension and that our worth is great in the sight of God. Love you all!

Até mais!

- Elder Fisher (🐟er)

#17 - NA RUA CURA! (9/11/23)

 Boa noite meus amigos!

Elder Hall has a better smolder than me

Can't believe how fast the weeks go by! It literally feels like yesterday I was writing this email. I guess that is what everyone means when they say time flies. Everyday seems long and tiring but every week and month that you look back on seems so fast!

 

 

Home cooking!

PUSS IN BOOTS IN CURITIBA!

With it also being 9/11, I wish to give thanks to all who are or who have served our Country! I would also like to give my respects to all the families and people who may have lost a friend or family member on this day. My love is with you all!

In other news, here is my update on this last week:

- Starting with a miracle, Elder Hall and I were invited to visit a member family one night this week on Brazils Independence Day. We both felt that something bad would happen if we went but we ended up going. We got to the road where the family lived and these dogs ran in front of us and chased off this shady guy who was walking towards us. We ended up meeting with the family and teaching them but we definetly know that God was watching over us and sent those dogs to save us! Goes to show how important this work is and how God protects all his children!

Zone meeting? (Idk the name)

- ZONE CONFERENCE! First off... THE LUNCH WAS DELICIOUS! 10/10! This conference was also really cool and insightful for me. My biggest take away is the idea of "Internalizing" the gospel. Internalize into yourself the gospel of Christ (and how to be a successful missionary on page 13-14 of PMG!!). I think this is apart of the reason we are here as missionaries. To internalize the gospel so that we automatically live it. D&C 84:85 "Treasure up in your minds continually the words of life" or the gospel. Also "NA RUA CURA" (Or the road heals). For all the missionaries: If you are scared or don't know what to do, go to work out on the road = NA RUA CURA. Also, shoutout to Alma 26:27-31 (always a good scripture to find strength in!)

Morning workouts

- Another miracle that happened was finding this man today who we encountered yesterday. We found him while running around getting people to church in the morning and he was bleeding pretty bad on his head. We tried to help him but he said he was going home so we got his address and tried to find him later in the day. We were trying to find his house on Sunday and I said a prayer to find him but we couldn't. Today though we found him while walking back and he seems to be well and we are going to take him to the doctors tomorrow! I see now how Heavenly Father answered my prayer on his time and knew we would find him again!

- We had a zone meeting today (idk it's actual name) where we practiced teaching. Since I am halfway through training, my comp has begun to have me start lessons and ngl, its kind terrifying to start a lesson especially when you don't prepare beforehand. But, nevertheless, I pulled through. The "investigator" said that they didn't believe in God and when he said this, everyone in the circle around us just freaked cause it's hard to address this when teaching. But, Elder Hall and I took our time and I could feel the words and scriptures I needed to share with them during the moment. Turned out to be a great practice! Shoutout to my boy Jonathan for being the investigator!

Division with Mosias (he served in Idaho)

Scriptures & Thoughts:

- Thomas S. Monson "See Others as Who They May Become" (see everyone as a child of God entering into the waters of baptism)

- 2nd Nephi 32:3: some members who were former missionaries shared this scripture with us during lunch one day and it was exactly what I needed. I know as a new missionary, I sometimes overthink the gospel and think that I should be perfect by knowing exactly where a scripture is... but I am not. And that is okay. All I need to do is feast upon the words of christ and they will tell me what to do and say. 

That's about all for this week. Ate a proxima semana!

- Elder Fisher (or 🐟er)

#16 - YOU KNOW TEEN BEACH MOVIE! (9/4/23)

1st cut of the mish

 Boa tarde! E ai beleza? [Mom note: google portuguese to english and put in the phrases he uses to translate]

Espero que voces tiveram uma semana maravilhosa!

the most BEAUTIFUL DAY

This past week, being the first one of the new transfer, was full of both ups and down but, was always filled with life lessons. That's what I think is so awesome about the mission! We are trying our best to bring people unto Christ and bless their lives and while doing so, we bless our own lives. The person that I try to be on the mish is the person I will continue to be after the mish.

But anyway, here are the highlights:

- One of the members of the ward here, named Mosias, speaks english and guess what... HE KNOWS TEEN BEACH MOVIE! We were making a route of members to go visit and when we were done, he started singing the song "Crusin for a Bruise". I nearly FREAKED! We ended up singing like 3 Teen beach movie songs before we left. He is officially my brother now. (And yes... I love teen beach movie so if you want to watch it sometime after the mish, hit me up!😆)

- Dog bite count: 1 & a half. This small dog bit me whiling walking into a members house and as far as I can tell, no blood or cut in my pants (thanks again Chelsey for teaching me how to sew) 

NA RUA! [in the street]

- I did my first successful baptismal invite with Jose! We were talking about the Gospel of Christ and we could feel the spirit in the room so I went for it and he agreed! Sadly we need to change the date from tomorrow to another day because he wants his significant other to be there but still. WOOHOO! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

- Idk if this breaks a mission rule (and if it does... dont tell anyone) but while at a member lunch the members just gave me their new born baby to hold! I was caught so off guard but at the same time, I am truly grateful for this experience. I couldn't help but smile the entire time! (DON'T TELL PRESIDENT)

Division with Elder Child [from back home in Chicago]

- This week we had a Division with our new AP and fellow Chicagoan: ELDER CHILD! It was my first time doing a trio and it was awesome! I learned the importance of talking to everyone and the power of being diligent in your work. It was also great to catch up with Elder Child again. I plan to play pickleball against him when I get back

Elder Child at work.. I am working too

- The hardest day yet of my mission was probably this week. It was storming all day, we walked all day with no one answering the door and all our plans falling through. Ended up getting back home with wet socks and really beat up feet but you know what, I learned something. Right before Elder Hall and I threw in the towel, I felt prompted to speak with this man who was walking home at night with his son. Idk why, but I did. We ended up having a great conversation and made plans to meet with him another time. From this experience I learned two things: 1. There is no need to complain and 2. Put others interest before yours.

BRAZIL

- To build off this last point, we listened to a conference talk titled: "The Priesthood Man" while cleaning the Church (we clean every Saturday) and my biggest take away is to put others interests before yours. When we do this, we think more about other people and begin to see them in new light. We sacrifice our own interests to better help another and often times, it will be a blessing for both you and the other person! If we all made a bit more of a sacrifice to put others interests before ours, I know that we will begin to see even more miracles in our lives!

Facebook post I made

Scriptures:

3rd Nephi 27:27 - Be like Christ

3rd Nephi 13:31-34 - Sufficient is the day and put first the kingdom of god

Shout out to Elder Wall with Moroni 10:32-33 - perfected through Christ 

I hope you all are doing well and know that so long as you try, Christ will make up the rest and always be there to lift you up. Love hearing from you guys! Ate mais!

-Elder 🐟er