Stuck in Georgia

March 26, 2020

Gamarjoba Chemo Megobrebo! 

Well, I didn't send anything last Monday, but a big thanks goes out to my mother for sending a nice quick update to you guys.  As you may have read before, there are now four Elders and two Sisters here. Our mission president is in Armenia and can't come to visit us across the border and the senior missionary couple went home with the missionaries with asthma. Across the mission, we now have half the number of missionaries that we used to. We have less than 35 missionaries in both countries. We have all gathered to the capital cities, Yerevan and Tbilisi.  Here in Georgia, we have to get rid of most of the apartments since most of the missionaries are gone. This has kept us very busy.  It gives us more to do, but I'd much rather stay in and study. We are staying active. We can go outside for about an hour each morning, so we play wiffle ball, basketball, and spike ball. We are still in contact with the missionaries that left. It is hard on some because we all love serving the people of this country, but we are separated and neither of us can really do any missionary work. 

We may be able to teach a few people via Skype or Facebook, but we will see. A couple of the Armenians want to do a Doctrinal Discussion night every Wednesday, so that'll be fun. I'll have much more time soon to read and write, so if you want to send a nice email update, I'll have the time to read it and respond. 

I listened to a wonderful talk about the Bible as a sealed book. In the Church, we don't typically speak of the Bible being a sealed book. But in a way, it very much is sealed. The speaker went through keys that we should use to unlock this sealed book. The first and foremost key is, naturally, to read it. The greatest key was to seek for answers from the Holy Ghost. This applies to all scripture and all the words of God. I implore you to read the scriptures and words of the prophets and do it with the Spirit so that you can more fully understand the ways of God. 

I'm glad that I'm staying here as a missionary. I hope that there is a good reason that I am staying here during this time of quarantine. Anyway. Have a good week everyone. 

--უხუცესი ფიშერი 

News From Georgia

March 23, 2020

      This is Jacob’s mom.  I had hoped he would send a letter today but he didn’t.  Some of you may wonder what is happening with the missionaries over in Georgia.  We have been in contact with Jacob several times over the last week as things have changed almost daily.  Here is the latest.

       Last Friday, the missionaries in Georgia were informed they were being sent home except for only four elders who were selected by the mission president to stay.  Jacob is one of the four who is staying in Georgia. Then two sister missionaries also stayed due to not getting a flight home. The other missionaries flew home on Saturday before the airport closed.  There are now no flights in and out of Georgia except for cargo. The border is closed so the mission president, who is in Armenia, cannot come. The president does have communication with the missionaries in Georgia through their cell phones. 

       As you read in Jacob’s letter last week, the missionaries were in quarantine all of last week.  The country of Georgia has now mandated that everyone self-isolate until April 21. The six missionaries left in Georgia have plenty of food because they have all the food the other missionaries left when they had to leave the country.

       Jacob is in good spirits and is thankful he is able to stay in Georgia. 

       We trust that God will watch over Jacob and the missionaries he is serving with.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for them. 

Quarantine? Yes

March 16, 2020

So, the original subject line of this was going to be "Quarantine? Maybe, but not now". I have since had to change that title because we are now in quarantine. 

Well this is exciting! The missionaries in Armenia are now quarantined for 30-40 days. We are also going into quarantine for the time being. We don't have any details right now, but I'll certainly provide them when I find out. We currently have a two-week supply of food plus a bit more. I'm pretty excited.  The work will be much slower, if not non-existent. But this will give me time to do a lot of things. I have a lot of materials that I have collected over these past several months. Lots of stuff to listen to, read and watch. I'll also have a bit more time to play trombone and work up to where I used to be. Plus, I have an entire language to learn. 

Other than that, all is well. Because all church meetings are suspended worldwide, Elder Bergeson and I had sacrament meeting in our home. We got approval from the Branch Presidency and held a great service together. We cleaned up the apartment nicely. We started at the same time as normal. (Like I've said in previous emails, I love the organization of the Church. It is standardized and connects. We follow the order of things even in times of change.) I conducted the meeting. We had an opening hymn, an opening prayer, and sacrament hymn, then we blessed and passed the sacrament to each other, we each bore testimony of the work, the Gospel, and the priesthood, then closed with a hymn and a prayer.  And it was ALL IN GEORGIAN! (Except for two hymns). Then we had Sunday school. We discussed Jacob 1-4 in the Book of Mormon. We each learned a fair amount from our little talk. I greatly encourage you all to read The Book of Mormon. There are many doctrines of the Gospel that are clearly explained, especially when read in conjunction with the Bible. 

I hope everyone is staying healthy. I'm honestly very surprised by the measures that are being taken by governments right now. From what I understand it's been over 100 years since this kind of response has happened to a disease. It's an exciting time to be in another country. But if we're being honest, it's probably pretty interesting being in the U.S. as well. Well, I have little else to say, so bye-bye! 

--უხუცესი ფიშერი 

The Book of Mormon plus Learning and Teaching the Small Things

March 9, 2020

Good news!

 This week not much happened, but something monumental did happen. We finally got the first unofficial, church-approved printed copy of the Book of Mormon translated into Georgian! We got it printed into four volumes and we're going to library it out to members and people we are teaching as they are ready to read it. This is for people who don't like reading on their phone or computer. 

 Oldest known Georgian writing (dating back to the first century B.C.)

 The Plan of Salvation written backwards. The sisters taught a lesson via skype and they had to write that whole thing backwards. It's pretty impressive. There is one picture of the backwards board, then one taken with the front facing camera with Sister Reynolds, there to claim credit.

Me with an American family's dog.

 Lately, I have pondered a great deal about teaching. We all come across times in our lives when we are in the position to teach something. Sometimes it is obvious. One may be in a position of leadership. One may be a parent. One might be an actual teacher by profession. But too often do we miss those tiny opportunities to teach. They arise and we let them pass by. Leadership amongst missionaries is always young. We have our mission president and his wife, but all other leadership is other missionaries. Really there is a leader for every two missionaries. One missionary is a senior companion and the other is a junior. The other positions of leadership are Trainer, District Leader, Zone Leader, Sister Training Leader, and Assistant to the President. In reality, half the mission is leading the other half. So, why is it that they/we are so bad at teaching? I couldn't tell you. But I want to do better and I want everyone to do better. Look for times to stop and teach. Ask questions to those you teach. Do not let ignorance prevail when you have the position and knowledge to end the ignorance. But most importantly do it in love and meekness. That's a whole other topic. Meekness, what a good Christlike attribute. Anyway, I ask you all to teach and learn, ანუ ისწავლეთ და ასწავლეთ! (That is, learn and teach!)

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