Monday, December 9, 2019

Next Week Will be a Banger of an Email

December 9, 2019

ძვირფასებო!

Alright, it looks like I'll be able to actually write some stuff this week, so let's jump right into it. Last week all the Elders went to Telavi with President Picard. We saw some cool monasteries and some beehives. This doesn't compare in any way to what we did today. Wow it was a good day, but you'll have to hear about that next week.

Photos from Telavi

Tractor in Telavi

Beehives in Telavi

900 year old treee

Aleverdi bag.  Ya, I would buy that for 4 lari.

Elder Whittaker and Elder Herr

Elder Herr looking into the distance

Statue of King Irakli

Snail figures

We set a very high goal of members to meet this week. We were not very close, partly because of the record-keeping of previous missionaries. That's okay.  We will be persistent. If we can get more members to be active, we will be so happy. This church is run by the members. The branches in Georgia do not run exceptionally well.  Our branch here is not super. The missionaries certainly run the church. We try as hard as we can to get the members to understand that they need to do things. We try to get them to become self-reliant, but for some reason, it doesn't work here.  We try and try and we will continue to try.

This week, Elder Healey and I taught the youth at church which was quite fun.  I always have a good time teaching people who are genuinely interested in learning about the Church and the doctrine of Christ.  Plus doing it in English makes it all the easier and less stressful. One thing we discussed was the doctrine taught in the second article of faith. "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression."  This goes perfectly with a verse from the Book of Mormon Alma 30:25. "Ye say that this people is a guilty and a fallen people, because of the transgression of a parent. Behold, I say that a child is not guilty because of its parents." We illustrated a second point with this verse that I may or may not have time to discuss in this email. Anyway. The youth brought up the point that many do not believe this fully.  We believe that we are born without sin, but because we are in a fallen or imperfect world, we are prone to sin. We also believe that the age of accountability is eight years old, so children are not accountable (meaning they do not yet know enough to truly know right from wrong) until that age. This is a real blessing. And in reality, it makes sense. Why would we be punished for something we did not do? Certainly, this may happen at times in life, but in the eternal perspective? Is it just for our loving Heavenly Father to punish us like that? No. Not only that but we can be cleansed from sin by applying and actively using the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

I enjoy emails all the time. I wish I didn't procrastinate in writing these so I could write more. Maybe that will happen next week. I hope so because today was just soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Anyway. 

--უხუცესი ფიშერი 
Max the Sax and Band the Five

 Me getting mad at some John Lennon graffiti

A great Georgian meme

A meme about chess because Georgians love to play chess

A meme from Elder Nilsson

A wonderful Christmas tree from my parents and sisters.

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