No, We Aren't Getting Trunky, President Harding

July 31, 2019

No, We Aren't Getting Trunky, President Harding

     Alrighty, let's jump right into it.  Not much has happened this week, but there are a few things of note.  First off, I am now the district leader.  This means that I get the mail, lead the district meetings, and send and extra email to the Branch President on P-day.  We got new zone leaders as well.  Elders Crook and Shamshoian.  It's crazy.  we have been calling this since the second day here.  Other zone news: today we get 23 new missionaries. 21 Elders and 2 Sisters. They all are learning Vietnamese! It's going to bring a much different dynamic and feel to the zone that's been mainly Armenian and Russian speaking for the entire time that we've been here.  Hopefully they can make the four-square meta more interesting.  

     Our Branch President, President Harding, has made sure that we know that we shouldn't be getting trunky.  But we are leaving in less than two weeks.  We get our flight plans in three days.  How can we not?  But we are resolved to not talk about it in front of anybody else in the zone.  Anyways.  My Skype TRC was much better this time around.  It was with an Armenian lady that lives in Georgia.  She was awesome.  She also spoke much slower, but she had a screaming baby in the background, which was not ideal.  I understood pretty well, and had good balance in the lesson.  

     The Russians all left and it was really sad.  We got really close to them over the past seven weeks.  We cleaned the temple today.  It was good.  We discussed what language was hardest.  We decided since President Bostrom (the last mission president of our mission) said that Georgian is the hardest language, that it goes Farsi and/or Arabic (that's a maybe), then Georgian (maybe beating out Farsi/Arabic), Armenian, Finnish, then probably the Asian languages.  The other heavy case languages might beat out the Asian languages.  Before we discussed this, the sisters were saying how bad they feel for their friends that are learning Asian languages.  Pretty much all the Elders have experience or close friends with experience with Asian languages.  This was a collective decision of the district, so please address any qualms with President Bostrom and my district.  

     In the devotional yesterday, we heard some really great messages from Sister Michelle D. Craig and her husband.  Afterwards, Elder Lott and I discussed how we should never be content with where we are in life.  There is constantly more to learn.  You can always grow.  If you are not progressing, you are regressing.  I do not have very long to write more, so enjoy the pictures and please improve in your life.  Remember how much people care about you.  Remember that I care about you all a whole bunch.  ნახვამდის!    --უხუცესი ფიშერი

Favorite part of the Georgian to English dictionary

Sister Johns and Elder Fisher

The Zone before they all left

The Room

July 24, 2019

The Room

This is a story Sister Maisey shared with me.  I really like this story, but I have grown to appreciate it more recently.  It is important for us to allow Christ to enter into our lives.  We need to accept his Atonement and embrace his love.  We need to live in a way to be more like him.

“The Room,” by Joshua Harris In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in a room. There were no distinguishing features in this room save the one wall covered with small index card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files, which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemingly endlessly in either direction, had very different headings. As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read "Girls I Have Liked". I opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one. And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalog system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldn't match. A sense of wonder and curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within me as I began randomly opening files and exploring their content. Some brought joy and sweet memories; others a sense of shame and regret so intense that I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching. A file named "Friends" was next to one marked "Friends I Have Betrayed". The titles ranged from the mundane to the outright weird. "Books I Have Read", "Lies I Have Told", "Comfort I Have Given", "Jokes I Have Laughed At". Some were almost hilarious in their exactness: "Things I've Yelled at My Brothers." Others I couldn't laugh at: "Things I Have Done in My Anger", "Things I Have Muttered Under My Breath at My Parents". I never ceased to be surprised by the contents. Often there were many more cards than I expected. Sometimes fewer than I hoped. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the life I had lived. Could it be possible that I had the time in my 20 years to write each of these thousands or even millions of cards? But each card confirmed this truth. Each was written in my own handwriting. Each signed with my signature. When I pulled out the file marked "Songs I Have Listened To", I realized the files grew to contain their contents. The cards were packed tightly, and yet after two or three yards, I hadn't found the end of the file. I shut it, shamed, not so much by the quality of music, but more by the vast amount of time I knew that file represented. When I came to a file marked "Lustful Thoughts", I felt a chill run through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not willing to test its size, and drew out a card. I shuddered at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a moment had been recorded. An almost animal rage broke on me. One thought dominated my mind: "No one must ever see these cards! No one must ever see this room! I have to destroy them!" In an insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its size didn't matter now. I had to empty it and burn the cards. But as I took it at one end and began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became desperate and pulled out a card, only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear it. Defeated and utterly helpless, I returned the file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out a long, self-pitying sigh. And then I saw it. The title --- "People I Have Shared the Gospel With". The handle was brighter than those around it, newer, almost unused. I pulled on its handle and a small box not more than three inches long fell into my hands. I could count the cards it contained on one hand. And then the tears came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that the hurt started in my stomach and shook through me. I fell on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame, from the overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of file shelves swirled in my tear-filled eyes. No one must ever, ever know of this room. I must lock it up and hide the key. But then as I pushed away the tears, I saw Him. No, please not Him. Not here. Oh, anyone but Jesus. I watched helplessly as He began to open the files and read the cards. I couldn't bear to watch His response. And in the moments I could bring myself to look at His face, I saw a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to the worst boxes. Why did He have to read every one? Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room. He looked at me with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity that didn't anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and put His arm around me. He could have said so many things. But He didn't say a word. He just cried with me. Then He got up and walked back to the wall of files. Starting at one end of the room, He took out a file and, one by one, began to sign His name over mine on each card. "No!" I shouted rushing to Him. All I could find to say was "No, no," as I pulled the card from Him. His name shouldn't be on these cards. But there it was, written in red so rich, so dark, so alive. The name of Jesus covered mine. It was written with His blood. He gently took the card back. He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards. I don't think I'll ever understand how He did it so quickly, but the next instant it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, "It is finished." I stood up, and He led me out of the room. There was no lock on its door. There were still cards to be written.

Everything Is the Same, Just More Complicated

July 24, 2019

Everything Is The Same, Just More Complicated

July 24, 2019

Բարեւ Ձեզ!  ==>  "Hello" in Armenian

We have created some great inside joke within the district and created new one.  One of them is the subject line.  Others are of the topic of four square, going to choir, screws, the Armenian word for wife, the Georgian word for lobster, Cuban sandwiches, Bad melon, etc.  We are now six weeks in the MTC.  This makes us more experienced than every person here, other than the really hard languages.  That's kinda cool.  Anywho, I have received requests to have an outline of my schedule for the week.  My apologies to those of you that have recently been in the MTC.

Sunday

Wake up-- 6:30

Breakfast--?

Sacrament Meeting--8:30

Priesthood Meeting--9:30

District Council Meeting--10:30;  We council as a district to determine goals and ways to improve ourselves and our group.  We have a short discussion on a Christlike attribute and read a page from Appendix B of the Missionary Handbook

Lunch--11:50

District Doctrinal Discussion--2:45;  We discuss a piece of doctrine determined from the week before by the Zone leadership

Choir--3:45

Dinner--5:00

Devotional--6:45; Usually a general authority of The Church along their spouse will address us.  Sometimes we hear from the MTC presidency's family or the presidency themselves.  

Films--7:55; They show different General conference addresses and MTC addresses by general authorities of The Church

Doors closed/District Hugs/Zone Hugs--9:45; We prepare for the next day.  We are a hugging district and a hugging zone, so the leadership comes and gives hugs.

Lights Out--10:30

M,Th,F

Wake up-- 6:30

Breakfast-- 7:30

Class-- 8:30; I go to class by myself for three hours.  I am not distracted by the silly Armenians, so I learn soooo much by myself.  

Lunch--11:30

Giant Break--12:10; During this time we have Exercise Time.  What a good part of the day.  The Armenians will play volleyball because Elder Crook is CRAZY AMAZING at it.  I play four square.  This is a meme.  Every single story we tell starts out, "So, I playing four square..."  It's a good meme.  During this time we also do our personal, companion and language studies.

Dinner--5:00

Class--6:15; I go to class by myself for three hours.  I am not distracted by the silly Armenians, so I learn soooo much by myself.  Previously, on Thursday we had TRCs.  We teach a lesson to a return missionary in our language.  they always went really well and were really fun.

Doors closed/District Hugs/Zone Hugs--9:45; We prepare for the next day.  We are a hugging district and a hugging zone, so the leadership comes and gives hugs.

Lights Out--10:30

Tuesday

Wake up-- 6:10

Service--6:25; We go to another residence and clean it for 75 minutes.  

Snack Line--7:40; Since we have to be in mission attire to go to the cafeteria, we get snack line which usually consists of Cookies N' Cream Milk, Bagels, Cream Cheese, Muffins, etc.

Class--8:40; We now have Skype TRCs.  This is where we Skype member in Georgia/Armenia.  It was terrible.  The connection was bad.  She kept speaking really fast.  I don't know this language.

Lunch--11:30

Giant Break--12:10

Dinner--4:30

Choir--5:15

Devotional--6:45

Devotional Review--7:55; We go have a doctrinal discussion about the devotional.  

Doors closed/District Hugs/Zone Hugs--9:45; We prepare for the next day.  We are a hugging district and a hugging zone, so the leadership comes and gives hugs.

Lights Out--10:30

Saturday

Saturday is similar to all other days, but we do snack line in the morning and we have class in the afternoon as opposed to the morning.

As a spiritual thought today I would like to share a great story that Sister Maisey has shared several times. (See the next post.) Shout out to Sister Maisey for resending it recently so I could share it will you all in addition to my district.  I really like this story, but I have grown to appreciate it more, recently.  It is important for us to allow Christ to enter into our lives.  We need to accept his atonement and embrace His love.  Likewise, we need to live in a way to be more like Him.  Anyway, have a good week, everyone.  And remember:  Everything's the same, just more complicated.

ნახვამდის!  

--უხუცესი ფიშერი

A plan for an Armenian to stop smoking.

Brother Muir

A meme about exercise time.  Elder Crook is that good.

Missionary name badges

OKay, So Apparently I Can Understand Armenian Extremely Well

July 17, 2019

OKay, So Apparently I Can Understand Armenian Extremely Well

გამარჯობა!

       Okay, I have little to report on, so I am going to write and try to think of things to say.  ძმა მუირი (Brother Muir / Dzma Muiri) came back a couple days ago.  Ten days without one of my teachers was a little weird, but we were glad to see his short ties again.  და ფარსონი (Sister Parsons / Da Parsoni) will be gone from Friday to Friday, so I'll be with the Armenians a few times next week.  The Armenians had a language fast yesterday and I was able to translate surprisingly well for them.  The new Russians especially needed some translations.  It's crazy how well I can understand Armenian.  The Gift of Tongues and the Gift of Interpretation of Tongues are real. 

       We hit our halfway point on Saturday.  We are now five weeks into our MTC stay.  Next week we will have been here longer than any of the English, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, German, French, etc. speakers.  It is so crazy.  We are getting to the point where the missionaries in our zone will be leaving us.  Soon we will be the most experienced missionaries.  First the zone, then the MTC.  We of course will share this honor with the Fins (from a different zone) that came in with us, and any of the Asian languages that happened to come in our week.  

       These are some notes I took from our devotional last night.  Elder Walker (his first name escapes me), an Emeritus member of the Seventy.  He spoke on 10 ways to be a happy and successful missionary.  My mother has informed me that these are applicable to probably everyone.  

1. Think about The Lord
2. Love the Scriptures
3. Love the Church Leaders (their words are modern scripture)
4. Forget About Yourself
5. Love the People    Love the food, culture, country, cities, land    Love your Companion 
6. Follow & Love the Mission President
7. Learn the Language of the Spirit -- Alma 5:4
8. Work Hard
9. Be Obedient 
10. Be a 'Preach My Gospel' Missionary
11. Prepare Yourself To Go Home and Be A Faithful Member the Rest of Your Life 

       An update on the translation of the Book of Mormon.  They say that it will be printed in December!!  Every Georgian return missionary I have talked to does not believe this timeline, so that is unfortunate.  Anyway...

       I have very little else to say, so I will say this.  I love this work.  I love this language.  I love these missionaries.  I love my family and my teachers.  

ნახვამდის!  

--უხუცესი ფიშერი

Notes for a Church talk

Meme

My Armenian is Getting Better (And the Russians Are Coming)

July 10, 2019

My Armenian is Getting Better (And the Russians Are Coming)

გამარჯობა!

      This week has been great!  I have decided that Tuesdays are always the best day.  Only one period of class.  Devotional and devotional review are both amazing!!  The speakers are super great and the insights that everyone gets in our district meeting are always enlightening.  Brother Muir is gone for the rest of the week, so I have had substitutes that don't know the Georgian language so I have to just work on my own.  So far I have had a Russian teacher, Brother Belnap, and a Ukrainian teacher, Sister Stromberg.  Apparently, a good number of you may know Brother Belnap if you learned Russian at the MTC in the past 2 years.  Crazy number of connections with him.  I also had some really good doctrinal discussions in English with both subs.  The spirit was very strong and I gained some new insights each time.  With Brother Muir being gone, the Armenians have lost a source of humor.  His ties are hilariously short all the time.  And he always looks unimpressed.  We love him.  But he needs to fix his ties.

       The Armenians had an English fast this week.  That means very little communication with them throughout the day.  Luckily, I am able to understand a good amount.  They all had their "NO ENGLISH" signifiers, so that everybody knows that they can't communicate with them.  I put on a little tag that said "ENGLISH TRANSLATOR".  Since I have a better understanding of Armenian than anyone else at the MTC, I am able to help others communicate with the Armenians.  Sometimes it turns into a big game of charades where they include some Georgian and other Armenian words I know.  It is fun to do that, but a bit unfortunate that I can't easily speak with my district. Whatever, it's important for their development.  I don't really get that opportunity, but there's a reason God has for me learning Georgian alone, so it must be for the best.  

       Independence Day was good.  We had a short devotional with our zone about religious freedom.  We were forced to stay up late and watch the fireworks.  My companion and I were not fans.  Choir this week was good.  The normal choir director was not there, we had a sub.  Elmo Kek.  Brother Elmo Kek (This may or may not be the correct spelling of his last name).  That is right his first name is Elmo.  As a result, Elder Lott has decided to name one of his children Mo.  He has good list.  Almost as good as mine.  Today we are getting 22 new Russian speakers.  It's so crazy.  There are so many new missionaries here today.   

       To end, I would like to have a word with you all on the power of asking questions.  I'm finishing up this email and, my companion, Elder Butterfield is doing some study on The Book of Mormon.  He going through and finding each time it refers to Jesus Christ.  There's some ambiguity in who is being discussed.  The God of the Old Testament, Jehovah, is the same as the God of the Book of Mormon, but sometimes it does appear to be referring to God the Father.  About ten times as I've been writing emails today, he's pulled me away to ask who is being referred to.  We discuss, reread, look at footnotes, and we come to an answer each time.  He asks the same question, but in a different way each time.  I learn and he learns.  I've seen the power of a good question do a lot.  Be able to answer good questions.  Currently I'm reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage.  The insights in that book are incredible.  Of course I will recommend The Book of Mormon to you all first because its insights are unmatched, but both are worth your time.  Not only should you be able to answer questions, we should be able to ask excellent questions.  Ask me questions.  Ask your parents good questions.  Ask your spouse good questions.  Ask your heroes and teachers good questions.  There is a lot to be learned on both ends from a good question.  

ნახვამდის!  

--უხუცესი ფიშერი

Elder Lott staring at Crazy Aaron Putty

Elder Butterfield and Sister Mittens the cat eating breakfast.

Elder Fisher dressed as Brother Muir

Elder Lott and Fisher at the temple looking at the fountain.

A re-creation of the above photo

Aaron Is Crazy

July 3, 2019

Aaron Is Crazy

გამარჯობა!  

       This has been a week and a half.  It's strange that I have so much to say, yet I feel like I can't say any of it.  There's been a lot of learning this week.  It wasn't a language week or a gospel week, but certainly a mix of both.  I made quite a bit of language progress through Wednesday to Monday, and I got some amazing gospel study done from Saturday to today.  For language, I was able to summarize each point of the first Preach My Gospel lesson in Georgian in at least one sentence.  My favorite was probably: Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon through the gift and power of God.  The only word I didn't know was past conjugation of translate.  I love this language.  As for gospel study, I am now studying.  1) The Infinite Nature of Christ's Atonement  2) Last Words of the Prophet  3) Power of Words   These are fascinating topics.  I was reading in Revelation 12, and verse 11, amazingly enough, covers some of these topics.  In our district council meeting yesterday, I brought up several scriptures relating to these topics.  I love when I can bring my studies into those meetings because I can gain greater insights from each of the missionaries.

       Last Wednesday, we met with our new mission president and his wife again.  They are so cool.  They are French, but his ancestry is from Armenia, and has friends from Georgia .  They have a love for the people of Armenia already and they are so ready to serve the Lord.  

       We all got pretty sick this past week, which was not fun.  It makes learning the language harder and studying harder and sleeping harder and eating harder and waking harder and giving our goodnight hugs harder.  All around, not a good time. A more positive first this week is our first TRC.         Nobody really knows what it stands for.  Maybe Teaching Resource Center, but if that's what it is, saying "we have one TRC a week" just sounds weird.  Previously, we taught our teachers while they acted like people they met on their missions.  This time we were teaching return missionaries as themselves.  It was way different.  We teach two people for twenty minutes each.  One of them was actually Brother Muir's wife.  Crazy.  We have another one scheduled for tomorrow, but I don't know who would volunteer to come on Independence Day.  We'll see.

        Anyway, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true.  We here in District 9F know it, and we want everyone else to.  Like, KNOW it.  Literally everyone.   I have learned that, much like Nephi in the Book of Mormon, I delight in plainness and in truth.  I implore you all to study the words of God.  Find simple pure truth and delight in it.  Until next time.  

ნახვამდის!      --უხუცესი ფიშერი

Study of the first lesson in Georgian

President and Sister Picard with District 9F