Groundhogs Day

Have you ever seen the movie Groundhogs Day?? Well, that is what I've felt like this week. Bill Murray wakes up every morning to the same song on his alarm and he does the same thing everyday.... Ha, ha! Although I love my mission, i'm ready for a change this transfer!  This is my last week of officially being trained and I've got a spring in my step.  I'm ready!!  Transfers are next Monday and i'll find out on Saturday what the plans are for me and probably a new companion. I'm excited to let you all know what's happening and I think I'll be staying in Randers.  I really do love it here!

We did lots of finding this week. Not too many people are interested in talking to us, but that's ok we're still going to keep looking for souls that need the Gospel. On Friday I went on splits with Elder Krueger here in Randers, he's from Ohio and is a chill guy.  We had a great day and worked our rears off.  

So on Sunday, I got up and bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting on the importance of missionary work. The branches response was great! We have 5 eating appointments this week and hopefully we can get to know more members and see if they have anyone in mind that might be interested in meeting with us. Im convinced in this country, and everywhere, that members of the Church have to be looking for new members and not just the missionaries.  The people here are great, but God is not at the top of their priority lists.  I may have relayed the importance of Missionary work in a strong way to the Branch...  Well, I figure it's better to be bold than sit back and watch.  

I'm not going to lie, some days on the mission are rough. Like yesterday, we were out contacting and it seems like people were doing whatever they can to avoid us (bolt across the street when they see us coming or hurry and pick up their phone to look busy), it was pouring rain and I was sopping wet and I thought "what am I doing out here??" And then I quickly thought, "I know what I'm doing out here. I chose to be out here and this isn't my work that I'm doing, it's the Lord's work. Jesus Christ has gone through much more than we can imagine so the least I can do is give him 2 short years of my life". But I have to say, I was super excited to get back to the apartment and get dry and stay warm.  The weather is turning cold and dark.  In the winter I guess we only have about 6 hours of sunlight, so I'm getting ready for that with my "happy light" and vitamin D pills.  Stay tuned for a picture of that...

Finally, one of the requirements of passing off training in our mission is to memorize D&C Section 4 in Danish.  I finally did that and it is so powerful to speak that and remember the blessing of bringing souls unto Christ.  I started reading the Book of Mormon in Danish and I'm excited for the growth I hope to experience learning the language and feeling the spirit.  I am so grateful that I was called to this mission and that I can experience different things, good and bad, that I know will help others and myself for the rest of my life.   I love this Gospel and know it is true.  I love you all and look forward to next week!  

Ældster Fisher

Pics:

- rainbow

- just chilling on a net over the water

- ghost goody

- the best chocolate milk in the world

- me and Grossnickle singing happy birthday to his mom

Video:

- part of D & C section 4

Hej from Dansk

Well Hej, which means hello in Danish, and Hej Hej means goodbye. hahaha Ok so this week was excellent!! Something funny that happened was one day Elder Grossnickle and I were heading out the door and we were both a little tired and needed something funny to lift our spirits cause we were feeling down. I am in front of Elder Grossnickle and I just hear "ohhhhhhhhhh ugghhhhhhhhh!!!!" and he ate crap falling down the stairs and I'm not gonna lie it was one of the funniest things I've seen in awhile!  I also went on splits in Aarhus yet again this week and it was such a good time!  I was with Ældste Appleby. He is from Australia and is such a homie!! We ate some slow cooked barbecue chicken...it was soooo good and then after 9:00pm we just talked and chilled. He is such a cool guy!! 

This week we worked really really hard to find new people to teach. We fasted Saturday as a Zone and then Sunday we had a grind day (before we watched conference) which means we were out of the apartment from 10am in the morning to 5pm at night either contacting or knocking on doors.  We had a miracle happen which was way cool!! I forgot something at the church so we walked to the church and got what i forgot. We walked home a different way than we normally would have and we saw a man we had talked with before. We asked him about the book that we gave him and then we asked him if he had time to meet this week and to our surprise he asked us if we had time to meet right then!  We sat down on a bench and he talked about how he didn't know if God was real and how he wanted evidence.  Well of course I pulled out a Book of Mormon and I bore my testimony about it and told him that the Book of Mormon is evidence to me that God is real. We told him to pray and ask if God is real. We said a prayer with him and he said that he wants to come to church next Sunday and we are meeting with him again on Saturday! The spirit was so strong and that made the whole week worth it. Miracles happen all we need to do is have faith and be patient!! I love you all so much and I miss everyone, but I am very happy serving a mission and I love Denmark.

Everyone should read 3 Nephi 11 this week and think about Jesus Christ and how we can come closer to him every day! He loves us all so much that he would die for us and go below the lowest of lows so we never have to. 

I'd love to hear from you guys so shoot me an email or Google hangouts message!!  kalvinfisher@missionary.org

I love you all and the Church is alive and well in the Dansk Mission!!  

Hej, Hej

Ældste Fisher

Pictures:

- representing J.Fisher crew
- cool town center in Aarhus
- me and Elder Appleby
- me and Grossnickle
- out on splits with two of our favorite members (Mads and Oliver Koch)

Movie:

- my man Grossnickle after one of our workouts

No more jump roping

Hey y'all!! I hope everyone is doing great and I hope everything is good!! This week was a great one!! I love it here in Denmark and I am so lucky to be serving the Lord. It still doesn't feel real that I'm on a mission. It's so cool, hard, and fun all at the same time!! This week I got to go to Aarhus with our zone leader Elder Kresge and that was such a good time. He is a cool dude! 

We had zone conference on Friday and it was so good to see everybody and hear from President!! He is such a great guy! I always get something new when I talk with him. One thing that I tried to do this week was to focus on others and not myself. The more I did that, the more happy I was and more successful!!
 
Something funny that happened this week was we were jump roping this morning and my comp was having a hard time doing it and then he threw his jump rope as far as he could and broke a handle & screamed "I hate this thing" hahaha!! That Elder Grossnickle is a funny one. I have gotten closer to him and even though we are different, I love him!! 

Do me a favor and read Alma 32 and take a minute to think about what you need to do to strengthen your faith!! God loves each and every single one of you so much and as a missionary I have been able to see that love for people every day and it has changed my life!! I love you all so much!! Email me and say hi!! 

PS: We went bowling today for our p-day and it was so fun! Looks like my mad bowling skills are still on point :)

 Love Ældste Fisher 

Pictures:

1) me and my licorice pipe
2) chilling with Elder Kresge and some others in Aarhus
3) me and Elder GN with our loot from home 

Video: - proof of my amazing bowling abilities

Northern Lights - 3 Months In

Hey everyone, I hope you all had a great week! This week was good here, but a little bit hard at the same time. I was able to go to Aarhus, with a brand new missionary this week and it made me realize how far I’ve come with my Danish. I was able to hold a 45 minute convo with a guy we met on the streets. It was pretty cool! He seemed interested at first, but he was very stubborn and it was frustrating by the time we finished our discussion. Still, it was a good test of my Danish skills!

We met a girl today named Amelia & she said that she thinks that we met her for a reason. She was quiet the entire time we told her about the Book of Mormon. She smiled when we gave her a copy & she seemed excited. We got her number, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to meet up with her again. One of my favorite quotes that I kept telling myself all week is “If you ever feel like God has turned his back on you, turn around”.  He’s always there, you just have to look for him. It’ll be a busy week this next week and it’s good to stay busy on a mission as the Lord loves a workin' man.  We have splits on Wednesday and Thursday and Zone conference on Friday and I'm excited to mix things up a bit this week. 

For P-day today we went to a small lake/pond called Fussingø. It was very pretty & it has a cool castle on the grounds. It’s starting to get cold & dark here so that means my skin is getting pasty white. Ha, ha, ha. I went for a run this week and a stick jumped up and poked me in the back of the leg.  Random, but it made me laugh!  One final thing was that as the sun went down tonight I was able to start to see the Northern Lights and it was so cool!!  I miss you all and please pray for our success here in Denmark!! Have a good week and Love you all.  

Pictures:

1) another prize winning sandwich
2) a view of the northern lights from my apartment
3) a cool church in Aarhus
4) me on a dock by the pond that we went to on p-day

Video:

Dang Danish stick (aka Badger) got the best of me on my run

Moun'ains

Hey y'all! This week was a good one. It's the last week of transfers and I found out that I'll be staying in Randers with Elder Grossnickle for one more transfer. I wasn't too surprised about that one but I'm excited to be staying in Randers. I love it here!

We had Stake Conference yesterday in Århus so we drove up there with the Koch family. I flippin' love them! A few of their kids were making fun of the way us Utahns say certain things like: moun'ains instead of mounTains and den'ist instead of denTist. Ha, ha...I guess my Danish isn't the only thing that I need to work on. It was awesome to be at Stake Conference though and see all of the members and missionaries from my zone. 

I got to go on splits with Elder Anderson this week too. He's from Syracuse and he's awesome! I'll miss him but I'm happy that I got to know him out here. It was fun to be with him on his last official split of his mission. We had dinner at an elderly members home and at the end of dinner, Elder Anderson asked that I share a message to leave with her. I had the feeling to share Alma 7:11. It was cool. Elder Anderson told me when we left that she has been dealing with some sad family situations recently and that scripture was just what she needed to hear.

We had four people drop us this week. Remember the lady that we met (she was out in front of her house with her neighbor and we went back and gave her a B of M)? Well, we went back to visit her and we saw her scurry back into her house when she saw us and we rang her doorbell 4 times and she never answered. Ha ha ha ha! That's the normal here. But no fear, we are looking for that oasis in the desert and hope that we'll find it one day. We'll find it eventually, it just depends on how thirsty we are!

My danish is improving which is so nice to be able to communicate with people more and more and see how the Lord blesses me!  I love you all and I'm praying for you. Remember to pray and read and know that you are never alone! Jesus Christ sacrificed everything and we are never too far from his helping hand.

Until next Monday....have a good week!

Love, Ældster Fisher

Pictures:

1) Me in my new winter coat. It's starting to get cold and dark in these parts

2) Another "cute" Danish street in Randers

3) A delicious frog treat we got (and ate)

4) We found a storm trooper outside of an Elementary school

5) Me, Elder Grossnickle, my buddy Elder Laurence and Elder Redd at lunch today

Jensen's Bøfhus

Hi everyone and hope all is well back home. This week was great!  We found a lot of new friends and we had the opportunity to take a member out on splits. His name is Mads. He's 17 and he is a stud. He has 2 older brothers one is on a mission and the other just got back and you should have seen how excited he was when we asked him if he could come out with us.  While we were out with Mads, we taught a lesson to our friend Ali and we knocked doors with him it was so fun! 

One thing I've learned how to be better at on my mission is boldness. So there were two ladies out in front of their houses smoking (they were neighbors), so I talked to them both and one seemed kind of interested, but didn't want to say anything. I could tell she was interested because her friend had just told us no and was watching for her reaction and she paused. We walked away and knocked on the next door and then I had a huge feeling to go back and so we did and I gave her a Book of Mormon and we set up an appointment to teach her more next Friday.  She was so excited when I gave her the book and it made us so happy!! 

Another thing I've found on the mission is just how much God loves us. He sent his only begotten Son so we could come back to Him.  Jesus has walked the paths of our lives and I know for a fact he knows us and loves us. God loves us so much and He will forgive us of our sins, all we have do is ask and honestly try to be better!!  The cool thing is that we can always know for a fact that Jesus will always comfort us and be there when we think we are alone!! Pray every day and ask Heavenly Father to give us comfort and ask for help with whatever we need help with! I love this gospel!! 

One of the highlights of the week was on Wednesday. I was able to call home because it was my Dad's birthday. After finding out that we were going to be making spaghetti for dinner and our ground chicken was still frozen at home, he told us to go out to eat on him for his birthday. There is a fancy steak house in Randers called Jensen's Bøfhus (you pronounce it Yen-sen's Boof-Hoose and it means Jensen's Beef House....ha ha). It was delicious!! And much better then the spaghetti we were planning on that night.  So that made my week and happy birthday to my Dad! 

We were able to tour the mission a little bit this week too. We went on splits up in Aalborg on Friday. That was cool and It's only about an hour train ride from Randers. We knocked on about 150 doors and didn't get one person to talk to us so that wasn't so cool, but it was fun trying. 

A funny thing that happened this week was we were contacting and I stopped this woman and I think I scared her really bad because she farted louder than I had ever heard and I thought it was my companion, so I just kept going but after she said no thanks I walked away and was dying laughing hahahahahah!! 

Anyways I love you all so much and don't forget that Jesus Christ is always here for us, we just have to reach up in faith to Him!! Give all of your pains, burdens, sins, and trials to Jesus and he will take them. He loves you!!

Pray, read your scriptures and find a way to be happy each day!!

Love Elder Fisher

Pictures:

1) on splits with Mads

2) my delicious meal at Jensen's Bøfhus

3) the view from a members front porch after dinner at their home

30 Days Adventure

Hey everybody I hope you're all doing good!! This week was super busy but it was great!! Probably the highlight of my mission so far was that we had a "30 day in The Land Adventure" where we went to the Mission President's house for a night with my MTC district of 8 guys. So, we got up super early on Tuesday morning, took a 5 hour train into Copenhagen and then another 1 hour train/bus to get to the mission home. It was the best to see my buddies from our MTC district and hear how they are doing and had a couple trainings, we went to the temple and just chilled!! It was so fun!!  President Olsen even pumped up a few basketballs for us so that I could shoot some hoops in their backyard. It was awesome and I challenged him to a game of 1 on 1.  He declined by patting his belly and saying he might need to get a few pounds off him first, hahahaha! He is the coolest person! I love him a lot.  We got to do a session in the Copenhagen temple which was cool. It was in Danish though so I felt a little behind trying to translate it all, but my Danish is getting a lot better. Ha, ha. It was a quick trip but I loved every minute of it!

I went on splits this week so I got to spend some time with Elder Redd from Idaho. He's a beast! He's only been out one more transfer than me so we can relate being "greenies" and all. It's so nice to shake things up every once in awhile.  

We knocked on this guys door this week and he was legit screaming at us and telling us how we were brainwashed. It was funny hahah!! At one point, the guys dog tip toed out of his apartment and cowered behind my leg. I told the guy in Danish that his dog liked me better then him. He didn't like that comment. Ha, Ha. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Anyways something cool that happened was we were on the street contacting people and we stopped this lady and she said that her daughter told her that she chose her as her mom in heaven! So we gave her a brief run down on the Plan of Salvation and she said she got the chills and the spirit was super strong!! She had some questions for us that we were able to answer so we'll see how that goes. She was a very nice lady.

I love the mission! It can be sooooo hard some days, but it's all so fun and good!!  I look forward to this weeks adventures.  

Love, Ældste Fisher

Pics:

1) my buddies from the MTC in front of the temple

2) found these sweet sunglasses in our apartment

3) ship port in Randers

4) me and Elder Redd out on our morning jog

5) my first trip to a Danish McDonald's...yummy

Video:
- another day on our bikes