#102 - Week 💯: Ladies and Gentlemen, we made it! (4/28/25)

E aí Galera!! Tudo bem? Vocês acreditam que já chegou semana 100!?! Realmente, tô bem surpreso que já estou aqui. Ainda não parece real mas, faz o que né? [Hey guys!! How are you? Can you believe it's already week 100 !?! I'm really surprised that I'm already here. It still doesn't seem real but, what can you do?]

Elder Collins and I temple

Hey guys!!!! If I was back in elementary school, I would probably do that "100 days of school" project but with 100 weeks as a missionary but, I don't have 100 pieces of macaroni to do it😅 We are actually at the chácara one last time so I'm enjoying the last of the time I have here.

Chácara with the boys

But to get into it and see how I celebrated my 100th week, here are the highlights:

Monday - Today we had a pretty chill p-day, we just went to go get the best açai (I tried a kiwi flavor, 6/10, but the pistachio, 10/10!) And then are night we went to acompany a recent convert, Felipe. We found out that he started drinking and smoking again and hadn't been to church for a while so we passed by to have a talk with him. We focused a lot on the importance of the sacrament and the blessings we get for having the spirit of God to be with us and how we need him with us constantly. I then ended up asking for Felipe to give us all his alcohol and cigarettes and, being the innocent and not knowing how to dispose of things like this, Elder Collins and I went outside and dropped the drinks in the grass and stomped on the cigarettes... I think that worked😅

Taking away the vodka

Tuesday - We recieved the AP's today and had the biggest lunch ever! The ZL's came over to eat lunch with a member family in our area that was going to help with a marriage in the zone leaders area so we ate all together! Afterwards, I went around working with Elder Eduards. A lot of our commitments fell through but we still worked and while walking, Elder Eduards accident kicked me with a rock! Luckly it didn't hurt

Wednesday - Today we went around finding new people. We didn't find too many people interested but we did see a interesting truck with Chinease writing on it (guess I need to learn one more language 😅) but at night, I went to go do a baptismal interview for Dalcol. I met Raissa and her mom Andressa. They were super excited and make a cake also, just for the interview 😆

Thursday - We met an interesting guy today... while looking for a facebook reference. We knocked on his door and didn't answer until we started to leave. Then he told us to wait while he got his key. When he opened the door, we presented ourselves and he did to but then out of no where he pulled a gun on Elder Collins! Luckily it was just a plastic toy again and the dude was just messing with us. His name is João Vitor and he is a less active member. He likes to joke around and it had been a while since he went to church so we invited him to come back and he did!

Friday - Today we went to acompany a lady that the Sisters of Ala 1 are teaching. She had a date of baptism marked for this Sunday but was having a hard time not drinking coffee. We tried explaining to her and hyping her up to stop drinking coffee (she drinks less than a cup each day) but, she insisted she couldn't stop drinking coffee. So we are going to keep helping her. The rest of the day we went visiting some people and got popcorn 3 times today from friends. I guess everyone was making popcorn today😂🍿

I wasn't paying attention

Saturday - NOW, for the title of this email. Because we live in Ponta Grossa, we don't go to the temple that much and it is difficult to get recent converts there to get to know the temple but.... it finally worked out! We woke up early and while the ward leaders were getting the recent converts together to go, we went done early with our friend Cris. Sadly we weren't able to agende an appointment but, the Lord provided and we got permitted to perform baptisms! For me it was incredible and a dream come true to see at least 10 of our recent converts to be able to know the temple and to be apart of the Lords work on the other side of the veil🥹

Cris and temple

RC and temple

Sunday - We woke up today with a text from our friend Maurício, who was going to be baptized, saying that he got sick after eating a hot dog the night before. Moral of the story: don't eat hotdogs before your baptism😅 it's okay though. We are gonna help him for another day! The crazy part was getting a call from one of the AP's, Elder Granados, who accidentally burned his hand! There was a mishap with the stove at the church and he burned himself. We came running over and he is all good now!

In the rain

While this week may not have happened like I planned it to, I am grateful to see the Lords hand and will manifested throughout it all! We just need to remember that the Lord can do his own work, but he uses us so that we can be apart of it and become like him!

I'm super excited to see what these next 3 weeks bring and I'll be here to tell it all!

Idk why but our recent convert send us this Pic edited

Love ya e ate o próximo!!

- Elder Fisher

#101 - Avacado Easter?🥚🥑 (4/21/25)

CHAMA GALERA! FELIZ PÁSCOA!!! Espero que tudo mundo conseguiu celebrar essa Páscoa em uma maneira especial e tambem relembrar o sacrifício expiatório de nosso Salvador Jesus Cristo!! [CALLING EVERYONE! HAPPY EASTER!!! I hope everyone was able to celebrate this Easter in a special way and also remember the atoning sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ!!]

Hey guys! How was Easter?! Did anyone do an Easter eggs hunt? Paint eggs? Crack eggs over someone's head?😉😂

This week was incredible to help our friends come unto Christ and remember his sacrifice for each one of us. Jesus Christ truly lives and he arose again on the 3rd day and invites all to come unto Him so he can heal you and your pains. 

But as you are all waiting for, here is week 99 in Brasil and week 99 of the adventures of Élder Fisher:

Monday - In the words of Donkey, "Like donuts and.......DIABETES!!!"🍩 Yep! Donuts! And let's just say, I may have gotten a sugar rush😅 But the cool experience was being able to get a blessing from our bishop. When we were working at night,  we had an unexpected experience with a family of macumberos (black magic). Feel the lack of the Holy Ghost with us, we went to go ask for a blessing from Bishop and, that spirit came right back!

Donuts

Tuesday - Guess what!?! We are back to the cartório AGAIN! This time it was for our friends Kelly and Neymar! They had told me the day before that if we passed today, we could mark the marriage for this Saturday even though with the holiday on Friday they could process the marriage and... it worked! We got the marriage marked! In the middle of our work day, we recieved a reference for a Luciano. We entered in contact and at first I couldn't tell if this man was trying to scam us. He sounded distressed but also fake. But trusting the spirit we went to go visit him and turns out, he has a cousin that is a member and living in Utah and the he, Luciano, recently separated from his wife and fell into drinking. We explained how Christ understands his situation and has the power to change him. He is now reading the Book of Mormon and stopping to drink!

Pizza

Wednesday - We went to go visit our recent convert Reni who Elder Collins commented looks just like Edna Mode from Incredibles. I couldn't help to agree bc Reni had gotten a really nice haircut! But two "cool" experiences was first talking to Luana and Wyttor and seeing the desire that Luana has to be baptized and help prepare the right way for her unborn son Mateus (and them offering us pizza afterwards). The second, finding two avacados in my bag?!? Turns out, when we passed by Kelly and Neymars house to check on them and when I asked to use the bathroom, they put an avocado in my bag🤦‍♂️ they got me pretty good ngl!

Avacados

Thursday - Division with Elder Braga! I went to go work with him in his area and it was really remarkable to see him work. Elder Braga had already served 5 months in another mission but finally got his vice to come here. We actually found one of my friends, João Vitor, from Jardim Verona and now he is helping us out in Dalcol. I did also have another in-grown toenail visit (yeah 1 more😅) but at the end of the day I had a nice talk with Elder Braga and got to share some of my experience with him and he seemed pretty appreciative. He is a pretty cool guy!

The elders from Dalcol

LONG BUS RIDE

Temple

Friday - TEMPLE TRIP & ZONE CONFERENCE!! Big take away: "Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost want to bless you more than you want to be blessed!". The awkward part about today was Easter traffic! We left Curitiba for Ponta Grossa at 12. It is less than a 2 hour drive. And we arrived at Ponta Grossa at.... 4:30pm🤣. Traffic was really bad! But at least I had time to read some conference talks! We also did a little "divison" with the Zone Leaders so I could do interviews for them and them for us so I worked with Elder Eyring again! What actually ended up happening, we went to the area of the Sisters of Princesa to acompany someone they were teaching. His name is Gabriel. He was wanting to get baptized but needed to be taught the law of chastity and word of wisdom so, Elder Eyring and I came by and talked to him. He has a girlfriend with whom he wants to have a family with and we promised him that if he truly wants that family, he needs to keep these commandments and receive the Holy Ghost so that he can show "all things" that Gabriel needs to do (2 Nephi 32:5). He talked to his girlfriend and she understood and... GABRIEL WAS BAPTIZED! (Your welcome sisters de Princesa!)

CRIS!!

Saturday - KELLY AND NEYMAR GOT MARRIED!!!!! ...yeah that's about it. I also had a cool talk with Cris as well!

Wedding 1

Wedding 2

Sunday -  With Kelly and Neymars marriage, then came their baptism and the baptism or Luana! We had planned everything except... for the baptismal jumpsuits! I had asked other missionarys for them the day before but... no one answered🤦‍♂️ So after Vilmar "kindly reminding us of doing things beforehand and in order" we got some jumpsuits from the zone leaders and... it all worked out! We then spent that afternoon eating 2 churrasco lunches (I felt so sick afterwards) and finding a random fake dead body on the ground. Apparently it is part of some weird tradition here in Brazil!

 
Vinicius and Jhonny at Kelly and Neymar baptism

Luana baptism

Fake dead man doll?

This week in the spirit of Easter, I was reading from 3 Nephi and Mosiah 14. I love chapter 14 of Mosiah as it says how Christ was "wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; and with his stripes we are healed". Jesus Christ is our salvation and cure. He knows you. He can help you. Search for him and his sacrifice.

Love you all!

Até o próximo!

- Elder Fisher

#100 - Grandson and Grandpa! (4/14/25)

Hey guys!! Im quickly writing this! Sorry this is coming to you late but to explain the email title, Elder Collins is actually the son of my son that I trained in Palmeira, Elder Salmon. So, I'm with my grandson!!

Anywho here are some highlights from the week:

Monday - TRANSFERS!! We actually had to run around and check on some stuff and all I will say, it's difficult when you have many whitewashes that happen. But I'm working with Elder Collins now for my last transfer as a District Leader!

  
Tuesday - Today we went to the cartório and we asked for the documents for our friends Kelly and Neymar. We are now in the process of their marriage for THIS SATURDAY!!

Wednesday - Honestly don't remember much from today besides making a lot of contacts 😅

Thursday - We went to go visit an investigator from Irati that was in the hospital. It was funny cause I thought the couple that was already there were family. Turns out they were there for someone else🤣

Friday - While working today we saw some pretty big smoke and I think someone's house might caught fire. We don't really know cause after a while it disappeared but I hope the person is okay. We did have a funny moment where we felt we were on the truman show bc a random man passed by and started talking to us when we were outside with some recent converts. It was completely out of no where and he asked random question so, if anyone was recording... can I get the video???😁

Saturday - I went to Princesa to do an interview for an investigator named Brenda who was going to get baptized the next day and she is awesome! She wants to serve a mission and everything! Later that day we went to visit Luana, the wife of a non-member. We had passed by earlier in the week and the Lord blessed us bc normally the husband (vitor, a less active member) doesn't answer the door and he did. He said it was a sign bc his wife, who is pregnant, got really sick the day we passed so we planned to pass by on Saturday and we taught the Restoration. We also wanted to invite her to baptism but I didn't know how after we already taught the Restoration and thanks to my grandson, Elder Collins, he invited her and I got to do a baptism interview and she should get baptized this week! We then finished the night going to a farewell party for a new missionary, gabriel!

Sunday - We honestly didn't have too many people at church bc of the rain but we got some really good investigators who we have scheduled for baptism. But after a rainny day of work, we went home and I took a nice hot shower!

Sorry that this is pretty quick and short for this week! Next week I'll write sooner.

But as always, love you all and miss ya. Anything you need, just send me a message

3 nephi 9:13

- Elder Fisher

#99 - "One Last Time" General Conference 🏃‍♂️📺(4/7/25)

[Mom note: no notes about the pics this week, so take your best guess!]

15 Novos templos!!! Olha só! Amo a conferência geral e essa vez foi a última vez que vou assistir com essa plaqueta. A próxima vez, não vou ter mais!🥲[15 New Temples!!! Look at that! I love general conference and this was the last time I'll watch it with this sign. Next time, I won't have it anymore!]

Hey guys!! Transfers today and guess what....... I'M STAYING IN PARADISE!! That's right, I am staying in my area for the last transfer and I will have a new companion: Elder Collins. I am supposed to show him the area and prepare him to be the next District Leader for after I leave. The Zone Leader area needed to change so Elder Eyring went there and I stayed and became a Districr Leader. I'm still super excited and I know we will have many miracles here still!!

Speaking of miracles, let's go ahead and jump right in to see which miracles happen:

Monday - STAKE CHURRASCO!! The stake president and his wife invited us to have a churrasco for all the missionaries of the stake. It was great! And I learned to play skull king (10/10)

Tuesday - We spent majority of the day invited people to watch conference and 2 "miracles" happened. 1. I had the Holy Ghost tell me to take off my hat and low and behold, I found a cockroach there! Thanks Holy Ghost for that! 2. We found this wild "apple" and I was about to eat it but then we decided to ask someone about if it was poisonous or not. One of our friends said it was fine and bit into it... 5 seconds later they spit it out and went to wash their mouth🤣 (dont worry it was just bitter, not poisonous)

Wednesday - Divison in Nova Esperança! This is actually a Sisters area so Elder Eyring and I went there together to visit some people the Sisters were teaching. We found this one lady who was really going through a lot of challenges and he marked a baptismal date with her and gave her a book of mormon. Later we talked with Leandro who speaks english but is impossible to tell if he is drunk or no😅. He is progressing little by little

Thursday - All I remember from today was visiting Fernando, the husband of a member. He told us about the company he works for called "Mars". When he told us it was the mark for candy's like snickers, I said I had never heard of it. Sure enough, if you look at the packages, Mars is a brand that is put on it! You learn something new every day🍫

Friday - Division with Elder Bueno! The first division with him was right when he started the mission so it was awesome to see how much he has grown and changed! He lead us around and guided through each lesson. Like how President Nelson talked about confidence before the Lord, I know he has grown that confidence in the Lords work. And then when we traded that night, Elder Eyring and Elder Glauser appeared with 2 plates of cake. Sadly... I didn't get a slice 🥲

Saturday - Conference day 1 = The start of the Marathon 🏃‍♂️. We actually started the conference in the best fashion... with 2 lunches! We had lunch with members first but then a SECOND time with some investigators and let me just say, I did not feel so good in the Tummy afterwards🤣 I also learned about a type of orange that doesn't have any flavor, it honestly decieved me for being a normal orange. And once again, I sat on Coffee and stained my clothes😅 but shoutout to the young men for the pizza conference watch party!

Sunday - We were able to help a lot of people watch conference and after all of our efforts we officially helped 31 people watch conference and 29 recent converts to watch as well!! To end it all, we had the baptism of our friend Manu. She had been wanting to be baptized a year ago but her parents didn't let her. After members leading us to pass by there, the family having a confirmation from the spirit that this is Christs church, and Manu bearing her testimony and desire to follow Jesus, she was baptized and began the path for her family also!

Honestly an incredible week with General Conference! Even though I haven't been able to listen to all the talks, im excited to do so. But for now, we need to get back to work.

Ether 12:4

Até o próximo!

- Elder Fisher

#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