A Golden Week of Learning

January 27, 2020

ძვირფასებო!

I hope my lack of email last week wasn't distressing, but nothing of note really took place. This week we have a lot to talk about, so let's get started. First off, we had a zone conference with the Europe East Area President, Elder Christoffel Golden. He is very knowledgeable about the gospel. He hijacked the Assistant to the President's agenda and taught us doctrine for about 3 hours. He taught some principles that are important for Missionaries to know as well as some very interesting points of doctrine. He threw some of his personal beliefs, but he was very clear to sign-post them as such.

The theme of the Zone Conference was supposed to be repentance, so we all expected to be roasted for not being overly obedient to the guidelines in the handbook. We were all pleasantly surprised when he just taught doctrine and order of the Church. That's another thing I've grown a greater appreciation for this week. I think you would be hard-pressed to find a more organized worldwide-organization than The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When the members prayerfully and diligently fulfill and magnify their callings, the church runs and grows wondrously. In this part of the world, the missionaries do a lot for both the organization and growth of the Church.  We want the church to be self-sustaining here, but that will take a lot of time and work.

I have also grown my testimony of The Prophet Joseph Smith. He really is the Great Seer of this dispensation. He ushered in this, the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times under the direction of Jesus Christ who lives and leads the Church today. Again, we teach some bold doctrine, but we don't apologize for teaching what is true. If you are a good Muslim, a good Georgian Orthodox, a good Catholic, a good Baptist, or anything else, we want to encourage you to continue doing what you're doing, and faithfully following your leaders and church. But if you want more, come and learn about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A few other changes were made just today. One of which is that I'm training one of the new missionaries coming in, so that's cool. Anyway. I'll probably write a good amount next week. Bye bye! 

--უხუცესი ფიშერი 

New Year, New District

January 13, 2020

ჩემო ძვირფასებო კარგებო,

First of all, Happy New Year! Yes it is New Year again, today here in Georgia. That must mean we need some cool changes, right?  We had some cool changes in this past week. The largest of them all was the leaving of our dearest Elder Healey. He left a couple weeks earlier than the rest of the Elders in his group which is saddening. I really looked up to Elder Healey when he was Assistant to the Mission President as well as a district leader, and just an all around good missionary. He wasn't super at the language, but he knows how things are supposed to run. He knows the Doctrine and church history, and although he can be stubborn at times, I have a great love and respect for him.  As a result of his departure, Elder Herr is now being trained by Elder Layton in the southern branch. This now means a couple other things. First, it means that mine and Elder Nilsson's area has expanded to include Temka AND Saburtalo. Second, it means that we are in a district of four. Us two plus the sisters. Third, it means that we need a new District leader, so that responsibility falls on me. This doesn't actually mean that much since there are no other Elders in the district, but it should be a good time in district council meeting. I expect we will become even more productive now. 

The new District

Elder Crapo, Elder Christensen, Elder Fisher, Elder Nilsson

In case you want to know what bread looks like in Georgia

We had a good time last Tuesday at the Christmas celebrations. There was a parade that starts near one of the metro stops and goes up to Sameba, the giant orhtodox church.  There was the whole shabang. An elephant float that represents the elephant that Mary rode to Bethlehem on, music playing, priests spraying people with holy water... you know... that kind of stuff. It was a good time.

Georgian Christmas Day (January 7)

Sameba, giant Georgian Orthodox Church

Georgian Zone minus Elder Hunt and Elder Layton

This week, we also had Mission Leadership Council (MLC). They held it in Georgia this time, so we hosted some of the Armenia leadership. Two of the Zone Leaders, Elders Moline and Tweed stayed with us for a night. They were great. We split with them and met with some Georgians. I decided to meet with two ladies that only know Georgian and Russian to test my Georgian skills. It went pretty dang well. They asked Elder Tweed what languages he knew. Luckily, I know the words for Armenian, Greek, and Hebrew. 

Now that I have more time, I can jump into my summary of the Articles of Faith. I do not remember where we left off, but I will go with the third one this week. It reads, "We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel." 

Now, the notion of being saved by grace alone is fairly common. We hold this notion to be incorrect. Because of what Christ did for us, all of God's children are able to return and live with Him. We believe that all people that die, will be resurrected, that is, be reunited with a perfected form of our physical body. We will have a perfect body and live forever. This is immortality. But as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that immortality is not the end goal, for it is everyone that will be resurrected and obtain immortality. The second piece to this is Eternal Life. This is the life that God has.  Not living with God, Our Eternal Father, but being like He is. That is right, we teach in our church that as children of God, we have a divine heritage and the potential to become as God is.  None of this is possible, however, without the sacrifice of God's Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  In my last email in which I discussed an article of faith, I touched on our belief that humans are not born with sin, but because we live in a fallen world, temptation and sin are all around.  We all do sin. We can however overcome that through Christ, but only through faith.  Faith in Christ is the first step, but that is not all.  We must follow God's commands. We must perform ordinances (sacred rites and ceremonies) and keep covenants (promises with God).  

We will discuss the necessary principles and ordinances of the gospel with the fourth article of faith.  But I will leave you with this.  This life is all about progression towards eternal life.  Our existence is about that.  We are all supposed to be better people, and we can do that with Christ as our example, and as our mediator with our Heavenly Father.

Well, I cannot think of much more to say.  Georgia is cool.  The language is tough. I love you all. And that is enough.  Anyway.

--უხუცესი ფიშერი

Okay Okay Next Week Will be a Bit Better

ჩემო ძვირფასებო კარგებო,

January 7, 2020

What a crazy week! It felt very long because so much happened, but not much is very important for you to know. I also got the question of the time difference. I am 12 hours ahead of the West Coast in the US. Alrighty, I'm typing this while I'm on a district call, so I'm not super focused. Today is Orthodox Christmas, so Merry Christmas!  We went to the parade today which was pretty neat. We had waffles and some really good fruit and herbal tea.  We beat the parade to the giant church here, Sameba. Great place. 

Last week was cool. Elder Nilsson was having some health problems, so I spent some time with the Temka Elders for New Year's. It's crazy how many fireworks there are everywhere in the city. We got a 360 view and it was incredible. We actually have been hearing fireworks go off for about two weeks. 

Time is short, but I will leave you with this. When times get hard or scary or dangerous, pray. Prayer can be powerful if you do it in faith.  I had an experience this week in which I felt very real physical protection immediately after a prayer. Our Heavenly Father knows us and he listens to and answers our prayers. I love you all. 

Well, I'll try to send a better email next time and I'll try to get you some pictures to go along with them. 

სიყვარულით, 

უხუცესი ფიშერი 

Down South with the Old Armenians

December 30, 2019

აბა ყველას. როგორ არის ცხოვრება?  

Due to some unforeseen circumstances I was unable to finish my email today. Longstory short, we went to Armenia. We are back. It was good. Details may or may not come as to why I could not write my email today. I love you all.  Anyway. 

სიყვარულით, 

--უხუცესი ფიშერი 

A good old "Citizen Kane" reference

The missionaries -- Christmas Eve

Isani Sisters on Christmas Eve:  Sister Jensen and Sister Mafi

Rustavi Elders on Christmas Eve:  Elder Crapo and Elder Christensen

Varketili Sisters on Christmas Eve:  Sister Reynolds and Sister Mercer

Christmas Day:  Elder Nilsson and Elder Fisher

Christmas morning

Cookies and milk for Christmas

Christmas Day white board activity

Elder Fisher, Sister Gehring, Elder Nilsson, Sister Workman

Azerbaijan on the way to Armenia

Elder Christensen and Elder Crapo on the way to Armenia

Elder Crapo on the way to Armenia

Elder Fisher on the way to Armenia

Our gingerbread man on the way to Armenia

Sister Mercer, Elder Healey, and Elder Nilsson on the way to Armenia

Elder Hunt shaking a dog's hand

Caroling in Armenia

Elder Kamber looking like he's going to punch my bell.

MTC District together in Armenia

Elder Fisher on the way back to Georgia

Merry Christmas, But Actually No

December 23, 2019

შობას გილოცავთ ყველას!

Simply put, we are having a wonderful Christmas Time over here in Gerogia. Funnily enough, Christmas is not actually that big here. They prefer New Year's. Every Christmas tradition you can think of is all for New Year's. Plus, Christmas is actually celebrated on the 7th of January, soooo....

Anyway, it was a weird week. We spent a lot of it trying to invite people to our Christmas activity on Saturday and our special Sunday service the next day. We got a good amount to come to the activity, but almost no one other than the usual people showed up to church. I do not know why Christmas isn't a bigger holiday. They are so Christian here. Even the 7th isn't that big for them. It's very strange for all the missionaries, not even just the Americans. 

Last P-day we went to Temka rocks. They are giants stones that have Bible stories carved onto them. They are really neat and worth going to again since they are in the city. We had a whiteboard activity and we went caroling. It is fun to see others get into the Christmas spirit even when it doesn't mean too much for them. 

Temka rocks

Sister Workman, Elder Nilsson, Sister Gehring, Elder Fisher

Carvings on Temka rocks

View of Tbilisi from Temka rocks

The big news is that we are going to Armenia this next week! All the missionaries in the mission are going to celebrate Christmas together and it'll be a grand old time. We are going to have a talent show that I'll get to play my trombone for, so my Christmas is made. I cannot think of much more to say. 

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I wanted to send some of you more personalized emails today, but it turned out to be a very weird day. I wish all of you the best. If you do want some one-on-one communication with me, just send an email and I will make time for you. 

Georgian nativity scene

Armenian nativity scene

Anyways. 

სიყვარულით, 

--უხუცესი ფიშერი 

Three Little Churches, Two Great Baptisms, and a Picnic in Between a Pair of Trees

December 16, 2019

ჩემო ძვირპასო კარგებო,

So the highlight of the week was definitely preparation day last Monday.  We went as a district just past მცხეთა to a little monastery.  It was pretty neat and we all really liked it. 

Gold khati of Saint George

This, however, was not where the fun even began.  The best part was when our driver suggested we go to this giant cross that overlooks Tbilisi. We were planning on having a picnic somewhere and he said there would be the perfect place.  When we made it up to the cross, we were pretty surprised at the setup. One elder described it as a mix between Mad Max and the Georgian Orthodox Church.  It was such a different thing from what we have seen anywhere else.  It is a 60-meter tall cross. At its base is a little outpost of sorts.

 We walk up and an old lady asked us if we wanted to just look around or if we were more interested in the spiritual aspect of things.  We said both. She showed us around and asked if we wanted to talk with their priest.  Naturally, we said yes.  She took us into their humble abode and we spoke with this 80-year-old priest through translation since he only spoke Russian.  

This great guy named Constantine came in and showed us around. He took us around the grounds and explained the history of the cross.  He showed the base of the cross where a bomb went off that was allegedly put there by the orthodox church, decades ago.  He showed us three little churches that they used up there.  They were very simple.  Just rooms, really.  It was great to see people so humbly worshiping.  The last of the churches was literally a cave.  They dug it out themselves.  It was incredible!  It was pretty sizable and extremely dark even with the lights we had.

Afterward, we went into a church that was right next to the cross.  It was not nearly as cool. The cross was so not touristy.  The church was cool, but there is always that slight touristy atmosphere there.  Afterward, we had our picnic which was just such fun. Picnics are great. 

Later in the week we did a whiteboard finding activity. We wrote on the whiteboard, "რატომ გიყვარს შობა?" Why do you love Christmas? We started out thinking it wouldn't be very good because the park we were planning on doing it at, was dead. No one was there. So we went a bit outside of the park entrance and it was incredibly successful. I had my speaker playing Christmas music and we had Santa hats to lighten up the mood even more. It ended up being super fun. We gave out invitations and hopefully, we'll get at least a few people to come to the Christmas activity and sacrament meeting.

Elders Healey, Herr, Fisher, Sisters Workman and Gehring, Elder Nilsson

The whiteboard with people's responses.

We also had two baptisms here in Georgia which is abnormal. Even more so since there will be a third this Wednesday! President Picard talked to the leadership in the mission about the need to be more optimistic about baptisms in this mission. We are not the lowest baptizing mission, but it's low here. I like to think that I'm very realistic in my view of baptisms in Georgia. The problem I see is that sometimes the missionaries will push for baptism for someone that may not fully understand the responsibilities that are put on them when they make this important covenant with God.  Anyway. 

Last, but not least, is the news that we got this week. One of the most experienced missionaries is going back to the USA for surgery. He may or may not come back to Georgia. In six weeks, the three most experienced Elders will also be leaving. This means that in six weeks, there will be three Elders older than me and the younger. This almost guarantees that I will be either in a leadership position or training one of the incoming Elders. This also makes things tough because there will only be three Elder companionships. The dynamics will change a lot. All of the Elders will have to step up in big ways. Well. I think I'll have to save an Article of Faith for two weeks from now. Everyone have a great Christmas season! შობას გილოცავ!

--უხუცესი ფიშერი 

More pictures from the week:

Iranian food we ate at an Armenian restaurant.

Sister Gehring trying to play my trombone