GLÆDELIG JULI!!

Davs venner!!

 This week was awesome!  We had a way busy week.  On Wednesday we had a mission wide conference for Christmas and it was so fun to see all of my buddies again from the MTC.  We heard from President, ate some way good danish food, played a gift game, and watched The Lion King (new one) and I loved it!  That movie is so good hahah.  It made me think a lot about Christ actually. There is a scene where the monkey talks about how the past can hurt, we can either learn from it or run from it!  That relates to us and why we are on Earth.  We are here to learn and grow!!  Through Christ, we can grow the most.  Christ is the savior and he atones for all of us perfectly, individually and fully.  He paid the WHOLE price.  Not just part and there is nothing left out.  He loves you!!

 We got back on Thursday from the conference and have had a good couple of days.  We knocked on a guys door and his neighbor came out and said no one was home.  So we then talked with that guy and he said he wasn't that interested but offered us a soda for the road.  We took it and said thanks and then knocked on the next door.   We finished the street and were walking back and the same guy came out of his door and asked us if we have anything about our church with us, so I offered him a Book of Mormon.   He was so happy when I said it was his for free and he said to us in exact words in danish "I will read the whole thing."  It was so sick!!  We got his number and we are gonna go back and talk to him after the new year!!

 On Saturday we decided to bike out to a nearby city and knock some doors out there.  Earlier that day my comp fixed his bike tire and so we thought we were good to go. The second we got to the city his other tire went flat.  We went to a store and bought a new tube and then it was the wrong size so we had to go back in and buy the right size.   It took about 45 minutes but we got it fixed again and then went and knocked a ton of doors and got some good talks in but not too much else.  We get back to our bikes and the tire was flat that he fixed the first time hahah!!  We just decided to catch a train and head back instead of walking an hour and a half.  Learning lessons of patience every day out here.  I love the mission and I love the Lord.  I'm not perfect and neither is anyone but all we can do is strive to be better than the day before!  I love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas!! Remember why we have Christmas and serve people! Eat lots of good food for me back home!! I'm so grateful to be out here on the Saviors birthday serving him! No place I would rather be 🙂

 Shoot me an email...I'd love to hear from you!

 Glædelig jul!

 Kærlig hilsen

 Ældste Fisher

 Pictures:

 1) For p-day, a cool return missionary from Denmark took us on a drive to look down on Frederikshavn

 2) Same lookout with Elder Ogden

 3) Official Mission Conference Christmas pic

 4) Me and my MTC buddies back together again

 5) Gift exchange fun

 6) My Christmas tree all set up :)

 7) Out on one of our biking adventures

LIVING IT UP IN FREDERIKSHAVN

This week was great!  So I got transferred up to FREDERIKSHAVN!  It is the northern most area on the mission and it is awesome!!  My companion is Elder Ogden from Arizona and he is such a cool guy.  This week was crazy!  I got here on Monday, unpacked and stuff and then we ate with our ward mission leader, Jacob 🙂 I already love the guy!  He gave me a chocolate christmas calendar and is way good to us!  We worked hard this week!  We knocked a lot of doors and contacted a lot but it was actually fun because Elder Ogden and I get along really good! 

Up here in Frederikshavn we have one of the best branches ever! They are pretty much just one big family (quite literally they are all cousins) and everyone is so loving!! We played floorball on Wednesday night and it was so fun!!  Its like hockey on a basketball court with a whiffle ball.  There is a girl who is about 16 and she schooled me and Elder Ogden and embarrassed us hahah so we got some work to do.  We had a couple eating appointments this week, which was fun. It was good to get to know everyone just a little better.  We also had the Ward Christmas party on Saturday.  We sang songs and danced around the Christmas tree and ate Danish food.  It was a good time hahah a little different, but I went with it.  There is a family named the Blankensteiners and they are not members except for the dad.  They have three boys and they said they are going to get baptized soon.  It is fun to work with them and get to know them.  Their three boys remind me of my three little brothers so we are already really close.  We were meeting at the church and Elias (who is 11) came up to me and told me he needed to show me something.  He showed me the baptismal font and was so excited and happy!!  It made my week for sure hahah I know I'm here for a reason!! 

One thing that was funny this week was that we had an eating appointment with a family and their grandpa was there too who has Alzheimers. It was kind of sad but funny because he asked me and my companion at least ten times each if this was our first Christmas in Denmark, how long we have been here, and if we know what Danish people eat at Christmas!! He was sweet though and it was cool to meet him. 

When I read the scriptures, I love reading in Alma.  Two of my favorite chapters ever are Alma 34 and 36.  It talks about faith in Jesus Christ and why we have the Atonement.  I challenge you to look into it and see what you find out :)  I love you and miss you all!!  Thanks for all the support...it helps me a ton!!  Til next week!!

PS: we went up to Skagen today (the tip of Denmark where two seas meet) with a couple Elders from Svendborg.  They came up because Elder Salisbury served in Frederikshavn and helped prepare for a Christmas concert we had so he came to watch it.  We climbed around in some World War II bunkers and walked out to the top of Denmark!!  It was so much fun!  See pics below...

🙂 love you all!!

Kærlig hilsen 

Ældste Fisher

Pictures:

1) Me in front of the Frederikshavn Church

2) Found a chair that fits me perfectly

3) Another "cute" Danish street (plus I needed to document the blue sky that day)

4) Skagen bunker

5) inside the bunker

6) Skagen beach

7) Elder Ogden and myself where the seas meet

8) a cool old church in Frederikshavn

Goodbye Randers

Elder Fisher was transferred today from Randers, Denmark to Frederikshaven, Denmark.   He served in Randers for almost 4 1/2 months and will miss the area and the people he has grown to love there.  Frederikshaven is the northern most area in the mission, and he is excited to be serving there with Elder Ogden from Arizona.  Skagen (where the North Sea and the Baltic Sea meet) and Albæk, where many of Elder Fisher’s ancestors are from, are now in his area.  No change in the rainy weather, but his spirits are high.  We look forward to an update next week on how things went on the transfer and this next chapter in his mission.   Until next week….   

Pictures:

1) One of my last days in Randers

2) Me with some of my favorite members (Bjorna. Clara and their son). They fed us almost every Sunday night

3) We stood outside the Book of Mormon musical in Aarhus and handed out B of M's to the people leaving the theater

Video:

Christmas band playing in downtown Randers

Mission Conference fun!

Godmorgen alle sammen!!

I hope everyone is doing good!  Here is a recap of the week:  Tuesday we got to go and do some service for a members Dad who is not a member.  It was way fun and good to help and we are hoping we can get him to Church! On Wednesday we had a mission conference and it was so good to see everyone! I'm awful at taking pics (sorry mom) so of course I have only one to show!  But anyways, it’s always good to hear from President and Sister Olsen and to be apart of their awesome trainings.  He is an amazing leader and always knows what to say to help us! We woke up at 3am that morning and took the train all the way to Copenhagen, so we got like 4 hours of sleep…. We drove home in a car with Elder Redd and Elder Laurence, which is always so fun and they are both way cool dudes! On Thursday we had Italian food for Thanksgiving dinner and our friends Shelly and Niels took us out to eat.  It meant a lot because it was my first major holiday away from home.  Niels, on the way home, said he is getting work off so he can come to Church and he is anxious to see how it goes and so are we!!  

A couple funny things that happened this week:

1.  We saw a member on the street and he told us that he talked to one of his friends, who isn't a member, and the guy asked if one of our Missionaries was handicapped? I thought "Oh crap what did I do this time?" But he was talking about my companion because he walks around without a jacket on and it's cold…Hahahaha!!

2.  A couple of people here in the mission have been playing a way fun game…. It's called "Who can find the sun first?" We have been playing for 3 weeks... no one has won... hahahahaha

But on a more serious note!! I've been reading a lot in the new testament. One of my favorite stories is of the women who said that if she could just touch Jesus she would be healed and because of her faith she was. (Mark 5:28-34) As Christmas comes it is a perfect time to strengthen our faith and relationship with Christ.  All we need to do is have faith and believe!  Christ is the reason I am on a mission and he knows me, and I want to serve the people here for him.   I can’t think of a better thing to be doing in my life right now.   Thanks for all your prayers.  Until next week.  

Pictures:

1) My first ever mission conference

2) Frosty fields

3) a Danish Santa eating a pretzel

4) Randers Reindeer

5) ...still waiting for the sun

Get the freak outta my Face (Få frikken ud af mit ansigt)

Hey what's up everyone!! This week was a little bit slow on the teaching side, but it was still way good in so many ways!  We had interviews with President Olsen and it was so nice to see him!  He’s such a great man and he always knows just what to say.  He is a spiritual giant!  We had a couple people this week yell some stuff at us when we were contacting like "religion is s*** man" and some other great stuff I won’t write here, but I’ve learned you just gotta roll with the punches. This week I gave my first talk on the mission and I was a little nervous!  It was on the Book of Mormon and it went really good, but I didn’t say a word of anything I wrote down!!  It just tells you the spirit guides us when we need him.  I had a few members come up to me after and tell me it was exactly what they needed to hear this week.  That always makes you feel good.  We have fun and work hard on the mission and I may, on occasion, make an animal sound at people when we need a laugh or things get too intense...  Everyone’s reaction is priceless!  

If there is one thing that I have come to know, it is that Jesus Christ knows us personally and loves us.  He wants to see us happy and he wants us to come to him!  It is crazy if you read the scriptures how many times, he invites people to come to him.  Whatever it is that you need to do to come to him, do it!!  We have a mission conference this week and I'm so excited to see all my mission buddies and hear the messages!  We go to Copenhagen too, which will be fun!  

Have a good Thanksgiving and celebrate hard for me cuz they don’t do that here in Denmark and I’m gonna miss that turkey!!  I love you all and I miss you all!!  Come unto Christ!!

Med kærlig hilsen

Ældste Fisher

Pictures:

1) me and my favorite book

2) cool ship parked in one of the bays here in Randers

3) Elder Millett and myself with some cool sisters in our district

4) a member showing us how to bake

5) a Mormons Bog selfie

District Fiesta

Yo, what's up everyone!!  I hope you are doing good and I hope everything is good back home.  This week was a crazy, crazy week!

On Tuesday we were out working, and we got a text from a less active member and her husband we are teaching.  She said that she had just had a second major heart attack and that she is in the hospital again, so that was way hard to hear that it happened again.  So, we kept a good attitude and said a prayer for her.  She lives about 45 min away and so we were not able to go see her this week, but hopefully we can give her another blessing next week if we see her.  We were then going to eat with a member, who is awesome, and has fed the missionaries in Randers for a while.  We got there and he said that we actually did not have a dinner appointment and that he is not going to come to church any longer.  That was a punch in the gut too, Bam!!  But it's all good because we had another eating appointment on Friday and guess who came?? This member wanting to leave the church!!  We walked him home in the rain and I stopped him, and I said "Erick, how did you get a testimony and he thought about it a lot.  We talked about some really cool things for a while and it really helped him and it helped me too.  One thing you learn quickly on your mission is that you never know what will happen next and to expect just about anything.  

This week we had a district party and we got to go bowling and eat some burgers! We celebrated getting our baptism mission goal this year!  I love the Mission and even though it can be brutal at times, I know that God is always pushing me through.  I've had a lot of times where I've thought "Why am I out here?" And something will always happen that will remind me why. I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and I know this Church is true!! I’ve got a challenge for everyone this week…. I want you all to read just a chapter in your Book of Mormon and try and pray every day and see how much happier you feel by the end of the week….  I know it will help!! I love you all and I'd love to hear from you so shoot me a quick email!! 

Love, 

Ældste Fisher

Pictures:

1) Me and my B of M in the forest

2) What my name tag looks like most of the time

3) My district bowling

Week #&$%

Hello and another week down in Randers.  This week was a good one, but I don't have very much time to write.

One cool thing that happened this week is that were able to meet with Niels and Shelly, who we decided to contact on our less active list a month ago.  Shelly was a member as a little girl but she really doesn't remember anything about the church.  She married Niels (who is not a member) and moved to Denmark.  For the past few weeks, they have driven about 30 minutes to meet with us every Thursday.  Unfortunately, Shelly had a heart attack this last week so she asked us for a blessing.  I was able to give her a blessing in Danish and it was awesome and the spirit was so strong.  They are planning on coming to church on Sunday so that will be something to look forward to this week.

Zone Conference was on Friday.  It was awesome to get together with all the missionaries in our zone and learn from each other and from President Olsen.   One thing I have learned on my mission is that God speaks to us through prayer and if we listen he will help us with the things we need to know.   Take time to Pray!

It's starting to look like a lot like Christmas around here in Randers! It should because it's dark (like really dark) by 4-5pm and cold.  I am excited for my first Christmas in Denmark and from what I can tell they celebrate it like champs!

Have a great week and I'm praying for everyone back home.

Elder Fisher