#63 - Festa Caipira!!🎉🕺💃 (7/29/24)

NA RUA

Eau galera! Como vai? Quais são os novidades? Essa semana passada foi legal! Fui para um atividade e vestia com barba!😆[Hey guys! How are you? What's new? This past week was cool! I went to an activity and wore a beard!]

Elders and beards

 

Elder Vital

Hey guys! Elder Fisher with a quick update from this last week. With transfers today, our p-day was a little different but to inform everyone.... I'M STILL IN JARDIM OSASCO!!🥳 This will be my 4th transfer here and I will be finishing the training of Elder Lima here! Going into this next transfer, I'm putting 110% into God's work here before I have to leave!

But in other news, here are the  highlights from this week:

Elder Vital in jail

Monday - We went to Curitiba today! We were guided by the spirit to a restuarant that turned out to be owned by members of the church! It had been a while since they had elders there that they gave us a free lunch. WOOHOO!! We are went tie shopping and lets just say... I spent over 100 reais on ties😅 (each was about 15 reais) [Mom note: each is about $2.67]

PINK TIE (Happy wedding Kaylee e Cristian!)

Tuesday - Today we did a lot of visits with members: Sirlei, Fernanda, and Bishop. We went to visit the mother of a recent convert and she had a LOT of questions. It was awesome to see how much Bishop knows and how he was able to answer everything and explain using his own experience how the Book of Mormon is true!

 Scooby the dog

Wednesnday - Today I did a division with our zone leader Elder Hyat in his area! It was nice to take a break from my area and see how a zone leader works. The division was awesome! We had lunch with some members that learned how to make angel food cake! It was more like a marshmellow than cake, but it was good. We also found the opposite of a cat lady... a dog lady! (I'm not joking, she was walking around with like 8 dogs🤯) We also had such a spiritual lesson with a family teaching the Restoration. We went into the lesson not knowing what to teach but I know we were guided. And when I shared the first vision, the spirit was touching all of our hearts! I know the power that our testimonies have, and by way of bearing our testimonies, the spirit can  better work in the lives of those we talk to. Never be scared to bare your own testimony with someone, it is powerful!

Marking dates with Elder Hyatt!

Thursday - We went around visiting people today and found Julie and vitoria! While we were talking to Julie outside her house, Vitoria had this baby dog that was trying to bite me the entire time! He was so cute but it also hurt when he bit me😅 Vitoria also found a wig and put it on my head.... I have no idea where the wig came from... let's just say I looked like a Ompa Lumpa from Willy wonka!

Oompa loompa

Friday - Today we went around confirming everyone for an activity..... 

Tug of War vid

Saturday - FESTA CAIPIRA!!! I honestly don't know much about this holiday but it was super cool! We had our ward at the stake center for a dance, games, food, and best of all... TUG OF WAR! We did Elders against Elders and I don't want to brag but.... Elder Lima and I won😏 I was also thrown in a tent which was a prison i guess... but it was cool to see everyone together and bring new people to get to know the church! (I also got to wear a beard🤣)

Full van

Sunday - We woke up to a message from our van that the van had broken down and wouldn't arrive until 8:30 so we didn't have a lot of time to get people and sadly all of our friends fell threw and couldn't make it. But! We had the baptism of our friend Erika in the area of the other Elders and that makes all the difference, to see someone make a covenant with God! Later that night, we also witnessed the miracle of Patricia! She is a mother of some recent converts that disappeared but we found again! We talked to her and she is wanting a new start after her husband left and we are now helping her prepare for baptism! Please pray for Patricia!

Erika baptism

This week I have been focusing a lot on the power of bearing our testimonies. Sometimes we think a testimony needs to be something profound but it can be as simple as "Jesus Christ is our Savior". A testimony is a statement of divine truth that you know and when we bear our testimony, the Holy Ghost will bring the Holy Ghost to the heart of those we teach (2 Nephi 33:1) And now I ask you, what is your testimony and with whom can you share it with this week? That is my challenge for you all this week!

As always, I love you all, and I know this gospel is true and life changing because the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of changes.

Ate o proximo!

Doves?

-Elder Fisher 

#62 - This is knock off Coffee?🫠☕️(7/22/24)

Eau todo mundo! Como vai? Meus amigos que estão nos Estados Unidos, como está férias? Meu amigos e outros partes do mundo, como está o trabalho? Estamos numa uber agora indo pro Curitiba para comprar gravatas! [Wow everyone! How are you? My friends who are in the United States, how is your vacation? My friends and other parts of the world, how is work? We're in an Uber now heading to Curitiba to buy ties!]

Nice pic

Hey guys! It is that time once again when all the missionaries flood to Facebook Messenger to talk with family and carpe diem ("seize the day"). And here Ive got some updates about how I seized each and every single day this last week:

Bridge in the Mato

Monday - Bucket List: make cookies✅️ We made cookies! We went over to a member family and made cookies with Duda. Mateus e Dudas dad liked them so thats a win in my book (knowing that we didnt have the right measuring cups😅)

COOKIE

Tuesday - Today was the usual work in the rain and find new people until we got a call from our house maintance friend, Ademir! He called us to head back to the house so that we could get heaters. I realized a few weeks ago that our house didnt have a heater and that our house should have one so, WE GOT ONE!!!🤩🤩

Wednesday - MISSION DEVOCIONAL!! We studied this conference talk that talked about the importance of the sacrament and how we should always be willing to partake of the sacrament and have the spirit to be with us. I also listened to a conference talk by President Nelson called "The Book of Mormon: What would your life be like without it". I invite everyone to listen to this talk and think, where would you be without the Book of mormon.

Baptism?

Thursday - We went to visit our friends Debora and Geovani. They are going through some hard times and it feels like there is some spirit that has a hold on them. We felt that we needed to give them each a blessing and dedicate their house as priesthood holders. This is truly a power of God that has been given to bless his children. I know this power has been restored and is used to bless the children of God. Later in the day, we had another activity with the ward and guess what.... i lost musical chairs again😅

Musical chairs

Friday - Today we got to bring our recent converts Fernanda and Jucelino to the temple! We didnt make a reservation so because of the numbers I just watched but it is always a miracle to see the children of God in the Lords home, helping those of his children on both sides of the veil.

 
Temple Group

Saturday - Today Elder Lima was sick after eating something so we confirmed the maximum number of people we could and then headed back home. Elder Lima then asked me for a priesthood blessing and I am happy to know he trusts me to offer a blessing for him. I know this blessing worked because.. 

Aguilhr

Sunday - we were able to bring people to church today and Elder Lima had the strength to press onward. The highlight of today was when our friend Alan (10 years old) invited us to eat cake with him to celebrate his birthday after church. He is sure a pure soul and reminds me of myself in many ways. And the highlight for the week, I tried this drink that is like Coffee but isnt called "Cervada". I officially know now that I dont like the taste of coffee😅 ill stick to coffe bread

4 elders in á car (2 guys on a scooter) [Mom note:  Studio C sketch]

This week I have been focusing a lot on the Book of Mormon and how it truly holds a fulness of the gospel and how it is essential in our lives. How President Nelson says: "The full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is contained in the Book of Mormon. Period." And i know this is true! We need to help everyone recieve the answers and blessings this book offers for everyone!

Photo bomb with Maria

Sorry that I am sending this later than normal. But I love you all, and hope your well!

Até o próximo!

-Elder Fisher

#61 - Rain update🌊🌊🌊 (7/15/24)

 Boa noite galera! Tudo bem?

Smolder?

We spent a lot of time at our zone meeting today, shopping, and baking cookies so this is going to be a quick update!

First things first, LOTS OF RAIN. We have entered into normal Curitiba weather here😅

Na rua [in the street]

But in other words, here is a summary of the week:

Monday - Elder Vital told me the story of the "Bolinha" (which means small ball). The story is used to present the book of mormon and the "bolinha" is the liahona. If anyone wants to know more, send me a message and I will try to recreate the story in portuguese.

Tuesday - Altacelma was baptized today! Someone who the other Elders had been teaching for a while, and who I also taught a bit, was baptized! It was remarkable that despite the rain, she pushed forward to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized! 

Baptism of Altacelma 

Wednesday - Today, I had my own "4th floor, last door" experience. Elder Lima and I were walking around at the end of the day in the dark and I felt the need to hit the last door in a road. We knocked and found Gabriel, who ended up being an elite person! He explained that he wanted to come closer to Christ and wasn't baptized. Elder Lima and I talked about baptism and recieving the Holy Ghost and finally, MY SON DID HIS FIRST BAPTISM INVITE!!! Gabriel is now on date! (Proud dad moment!) 

Gabriel (4th floor last door) [Mom note: if you don't understand
the reference, feel free to check out this link: Fourth Floor, Last Door

Thursday - Today we had an activity with the "JAS" which is the "YAS" in the states (young single adults). It was cool to get to know other people who were around my age and play this game called "This is not a game" that has a lot of deep question to truly get to know other people. It got deep!

Friday - TEMPLE TRIP!! We went to the temple today and while I was in the temple, I was focusing a lot on the power of the priesthood. Something I forget as a priesthood holder is that we have the power to bless others and we should use and offer these blessings to other, but not permit ourselves to have dominon over others. (D&C 121) I also did a division with my boy Elder Vital! Let's just say, don't forget your umbrella when it rains!

Umbrella gang

Saturday - While cleaning the church today, I heard the loudest and longest thunder strike ive ever heard! It was more than 5 minutes! While walking around today, a car came running at us out of no where! Then all of the sudden.... it stopped! It was bishop! Man he scared me! 

Angelo baptism

Sunday - Angelo was baptized today! With all the rain from this week messing with our work, I was truly grateful for our Heavenly Father helping us bring 10 investigators to church today! We also found my friend Alan today! He was roller blading down the road and saw me and we ended up talking with him and his mom! They are looking for more peace and a greater presence of God in their home. We talked about the Holy Ghost and how he can helped them and now they are on date for the 28th of July!

baptism PT 2

Overall, this week was pretty slow with the rain. I think there were many times this week that I had these doubts of having the outcomes I wanted because I wasn't seeing them, but in the end, it comes down to trusting in the Lord, and he will provide!

Raquel e ozair 

Love you all and I hope that you put your trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Let his Atonement have an effect in your life!

I was hungry

[Mom note: I brought a 'Flat Devin' to church and took a pic with Elder Child, who returned home]

Ate o proximo!

-Elder Fisher

#60 - The book of Naum... WHAT IS NAUM!?😂🫠 (7/8/24)

Boa tarde Galera! Tudo blz? Tivemos uma reunião do distrito em presencial hoje e depois nosso distrito comeu bastante! Ainda estou cheio😂[Good afternoon folks! Everything ok? We had an in-person district meeting today and then our district ate a lot! I'm still full]

Sacred grove?

Hey guys! How's it going? To all of my friends that know about brazil (or are there right now) I need to say that I LOVE Sonhos. Sonhos are this breaded pastry with cream in the middle and it is SO GOOD! Highly recommend! Ngl though, I feel pretty full and sick.

SHOE

But this last week was pretty good! It was a week of challenges for our zone and let me say, IT WAS CRAZY! One of the challenges was who could give out the most Book of Mormons and a dupla in my district gave out 100! I don't know how but it was awesome!

In other news, here is the run down of this week:

Monday - We spent the p-day with a member family and I brought some american food for them to try! Here are the results:

Goldfish - 🟢

Fruit Snacks - 🟡

Pistachio pudding - 🟢

So overall, they liked 2/3. LETS GO!

Lunch 7/8/24

Tuesday - NEW MISSIONARY TRAINING MEETING... for the 5th time! (I think this might be my last time) This time it felt weird because my son, Elder Salmon, who I trained 3 transfers ago, IS TRAINING! I had a proud dad moment. We also got a reference of our friend Caio. He is the same age as me and said he was looking for greater focus and purpose in life. We explained how we have purpose to have joy in life and follow Jesus Christ and how we can have this blessings by recieving the Holy Ghost. And after talking about baptism, he accepted to be baptized on the 21st! WOOHOO CAIO!! 

     Jesus Loves You       

Wednesday - We woke up this morning and while Elder Lima prepared his food, the sink fell through! It caught us so off guard but continued on with our day. We had our MISSION DEVOCIONAL and talked about chapter 5 of preach my gospel "Use the Power of the Book of Mormon". Some of my biggested take aways were: Willingness to read the BOM is a great sifter to see who is ready and willing to learn, and the book of mormon is the most correct book than any. During our work today, we visited our friend Caio and Elder Lima actually left his phone there so... I did majority of our relating for the day. We also experienced our first Black out! It was pretty cool! 

Sink

Thursday - We did a division with our friends in Rio Verde! Elder Paramore and Elder Alencar! I worked with Elder Alencar today and our challenge for the day was baptism invites and while we did 7 baptism invites in one day, 3 people accepted! MIRACLE! (we may or may not have won the challenge for the day) But the highlight was when we had lunch with their bishop and he asked me to share a message using a verse from the book  "Naum". Ngl, i had no idea what book it was until he showed me it in the bible. I immediately chose a random scripture and.... it worked out! 

Elder squad

Friday - Today was pretty hard actually. We were talking to some missionaries who were having some problems with their companionship and I was also getting messages from members who needed help with things and it felt like everything was just falling down on me. But in these moments, I saw the miracles God was offering me and the agency I have to choose in whom I trust and in whom I get strength. (Alma 26:12, 16) 

In the van

Saturday - We went around confirming people for church today and some people stopped us and told us they were recent converts from another mission. We took a picture with them. It was cool to see how everyone just knows the missionaries. We also taught my friend James and his wife the restoration and Ariane, his wife, said "I feel like I already knew this. It seems so familiar..."  

Tayla and Ewerson

Sunday - BAPTISM OF TAYLA AND EMERSON!! It was so cool to see how a random night contact led to them making covenants with God! It was an awesome experience that I will never forget...

Everyone

Everyone PT 2

Overall, this week I have learned so much about the Holy Ghost and how he guides us. We have free agency to choose but we know God guides us and offers us a way to judge so we can make good choices. (Moroni 7:13,15-16). But in the end, the purposes of God will move on forever, as an eternal circle (Mormon 8:22, D&C 3:1-4)

Enzo

Look for the miracles around you. God offeres them. He is always extending his loving arms towards you to cure you. You just need to enter into them. (3 Nephi 9:13-14)

Simba???

Salt water taffy from sister, Chelsey

Ate o proximo!

-Elder Fisher (🐟er)

Online DL Meeting

#59 - "EFY/FSY sandwich song"🥪 (7/1/24)

E aí Galera! Como está indo? Na verdade, neste momento estou vendo meus amigos brasileiros comer comida americana. Parece que eles gostam de Goldfish de verdade🤣[What's up guys! How is it going? In fact, right now I'm watching my Brazilian friends eat American food. It seems like they really like Goldfish]

 

What's up guys! How's it going? Not gonna lie, it's funny to be a missionary with how many times I think I know what I am doing but then I learn something new and realize, "I have a lot to learn!".

Crazy face

But in other news, here are the updates, adventures, and discoveries of Fish Beans:

Monday - SHOPPING TRIP.... for grociers! Elder Lima and I bought a lot of food to cook and try and ended up spening more than 400 reais! Let's just say... budgeting is important

Rain jackets

Tuesday - Don't remember much of our work today besides rain and lowkey calling a man a "senhora".... whoops😅

Avacado? (Random kid gave us it)

Elder Platt

Wednesday - ZONE CONFERENCE (sadly, we didn't take a picture) but something we talked about was the importance of using "inspired questions" to truly find a need of the person but also, help the person we are teaching find a need they may not have even realized was there. I got to put this in practice today when I did a division with my boy, Elder Platt! We went over to his area today and I worked with Platt while Elder Lima worked with Elder Cirilo. They work in a branch so I felt that I was back in Palmeira again! It was awesome to use more inspiring questions and see the results of the people we found! I found the Holy Ghost helped me to connect their needs to the gospel of Christ and the importance and blessings of recieving the Holy Ghost! (Also during Zone Conference, one of the Sisters said that bc I sing, I should be one of the people from High School musical, maybe I can be part of HSMTMTS)

The boys

Bocaiuva do sul at night

Thursday -  Today I found out the difference between hymns in Portuguese and English. It turns out some songs have different rythms also! Let's just say, old habits die hard. Today we had our ward activity and we brought our friends Deivid, Ana, Taila, and Everson. We did this quiz with 3 teams trying to answer questions about the gospel of christ and lets just say... my team won!😁 I also got my MINION BOX TODAY!!!! (thanks mom!) [Mom note: I've sent each of my missionaries a "You're One in a Minion" box for their missions, full of Minion snacks and stuff]

Minion box!

[Mom note: His favorite treat in the box was actually some instant pistachio pudding!]

Friday - Today I did a division with our zone leader Elder Gonzalvez! While walking around, we found someone taking care of some sheep and found a kid named Israel that is truly looking to follow Christ. We talked about the gospel of Christ and invited him to be baptized and he accepted! We are now helping him prepare for the 21st of July. While we were walking around we also heard the "Crazy frog" song or as I like to say, "THE EFY SANDWICH SONG!!!". (I may or may not have stopped in the middle of the road to dance a little😅0

Elder Gonzalvez [Mom note: check the name tag for correct spelling!]

Saturday - We woke up early and helped out a recent convert with a service project. We made ciment and made a brick wall. It is awesome to see how handy Brazilians are with these things and it was cool to learn! Later that day we had a lesson with our friend Adriele and her family. We ended up staying there long than I liked and what I thought was taking up our time turned out to be a blessing! Adrieles father in law offered to drive us around to confirm people for church! (Thanks Vanildo) 

Elder quorum service

Sunday - Today we brought a lot of friends to church and helped our friend Kienner follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized! It is awesome to see how a reference from a member turned into finding a young man who was looking to follow Christ and find a place where he felt more at home after moving to Brazil from Venezuela. I look forward to seeing his family take this step also and come closer to Christ!

 Batism of Keinner

Keinners family

Big take aways from this week was focusing on the blessings God promises us and how essential the Holy Ghost is in our lives. As the verses in 2 Nephi 32:5 and Moroni 10:5 say, by the way of recieving the Holy Ghost, we can know all that we must do and the truth of all things! I think at times we forget how essential it is to have the Holy Ghost and why it is we take the sacrament each week to "have the spirit to be with them". I want to invite everyone to truly come to understand what the sacrament prayer says and why we have it in our lives.

Domingo deleitoso

I know Christ lives. I know this is his true church restored on the Church again in these days and it will never leave again. I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and teachs us his divine mission in our life and has a fulness of the gospel of Christ. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet that helped bring about the restoration of Christs church and that we have a prophet that lives and recieves revelation from God today. You to can know this, by asking God with a sincere heart and with faith in Christ.

Love you all! 

Ate o proximo!

-Elder Fisher