August 26, 2019
“Do You Like Georgian Girls?”
მეგობრები!
Hello to you all
once again! What a time to be in თბილისი!
It's hot. Roads are closed for Fast and Furious 9. People aren't outside in the middle of the
day. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.
And sometimes people are willing to talk about it. We had some good success this week. We
met with some new friends and some old ones.
We had a goal to get four people to church this week. We got six.
And that was just from our area. The other areas in the branch
got some people to come as well. This is extremely unusual. We all had very high goals set this week, and
everyone was pretty skeptical that we would all meet them, but we did
well.
My language
abilities are progressing. Apparently, in this area, it is really hard to find people to teach in
Georgian. Either they don't know Georgian or they would rather speak
English. Elder Hunt tells me that we
have been teaching more Georgian people than normal in this area. I can
usually get the very basic baseline idea of each conversation and I can usually
get quite a few individual words. We
have a few people we meet with that really want to help me learn as much as I
can. Georgians are so great.
They also really want me to marry a Georgian girl, which means I need
to learn better Georgian so I can.
People always
think I'm somehow related to Bobby Fisher the chess player. As a result,
I now know a word that most of the other missionaries don't know.
Chess. People also are really interested
when I tell them I'm from Alaska. It's
surprising how many people know about Alaska here. They all know that
it's very cold. We did run into somebody
that thought America had to give Alaska back to Russia soon because they
thought America only bought it for 180 years or something. Really
interesting.
Our friend, Luka,
owns a TV channel that helps small businesses. He really likes the
missionaries and has had them do voiceovers for him. He really likes
Elder Hunt, so we did a little TV spot for him explaining what TV 24 does.
What a great service project!
Luka is also hosting the Mission President, and doing an interview with
him. It'll be great to have the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints be more recognizable here in Georgia.
It's so small and it'll be great to have people know more about who we
are and what the missionaries here in Georgia do.
We use the Book of
Mormon so much here. After over a decade of not being able to use the
Book of Mormon, the missionaries here have been anxious to talk about it
more. The last step is getting it printed, but it may be another long while. I placed my first Book of Mormon this week to
our new friend Tamazi. It was a Russian copy, but that's what we have. English,
Farsi, and Russian. When we get
the chance, we show people the Book of
Mormon online and have them read the introduction. We always tell them
it's a great book and that we love it.
It really is good and it's worth reading over and over again. When you actually take the time to read and
ponder over it you can gain great insights. This week I shared a verse
with a member. Ether 12:17. This isn't the normal verse that is quoted
from Ether 12, but I thought it would be good for this member. It discusses how only after we demonstrate
faith can miracles, such as John and the three Nephite disciples of Christ
living until the Second Coming, take place. We need to recognize the miracles in our
lives. If you think there aren't any,
pray for increased faith and then open your eyes to them.
That is about
it. Anyway. Goodbye for
now.
Name badge in Georgian
Elder Fisher
Outside our Apartment
Tbilisi
