Photos from Quarantine Time

May 25, 2020

Life in quarantine consists of staying inside all day except for a weekly shopping trip and exercising outside the apartment building between 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Staying indoors has given us a lot of time to study, cook, do puzzles.

Elder Herr and Elder Fisher both make Poutine for dinners.

At the end of May, the elders celebrated Elder Herr's birthday.

Elder Crapo, Elder Herr, Elder Fisher, Elder Springer

Milk shakes and birthday cake for dessert

Over a Month

May 11, 2020

Heeeellllllloooooo Everybody! 

So we've been in quarantine for over a month now and we've got two puzzles done and we're starting on a third. That's the big news. I made a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon in Georgian before my year mark of being in country, so we'll see how that goes. It's still hard to understand, but I'm getting the vast majority of it. It just takes a long time because my brain is still not used to quickly reading this alphabet: აბგდევზთიკლმნოპჟრსტუფქღყშჩცძწჭხჯჰ

Speed is tough. 

We've been lucky enough to find a few people to teach online, but it's a bit of a challenge because not everyone wants to meet via video call. Companionships got switched up so I'm with Elder Springer now and Elders Herr and Crapo are together. Every Saturday, we have calls with a former missionary that served in Georgia which is great. He is probably in the top five missionaries to have ever learned Georgian. He's great to ask questions to. I really wish I had more to say, but I guess I'll give a short quote that I shared when it was my turn to share a quote from General Conference in the mission group chat. 

I've always been fond of the lawyer general authorities, so I've got a quote here from President Oaks. 

"The power of the priesthood exists both in the Church and in the family organization. But priesthood power and priesthood authority function differently in the Church than they do in the family. All of this is according to the principles the Lord has established. The purpose of God’s plan is to lead His children to eternal life. Mortal families are essential to that plan. The Church exists to provide the doctrine, the authority, and the ordinances necessary to perpetuate family relationships into the eternities."

The connection between family and church government has been a point of pondering for me over the last few years. We are given immense blessings because of the Church organization. As President Oaks says, we wouldn't have the doctrine, authority, or ordinances without it.  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. The Church not only stimulates the growth of righteousness within individuals but within parents and families. Parenthood is the most important calling to be magnified. When parents exercise priesthood power for their children in the home, we can compare it to God using His power to bring forth eternal life for us. This is a preparatory state so that we can be more ready to eventually live the kind of life that God lives. I would say that there is no better way to learn how to become like our loving Heavenly Father than to righteously exercise priesthood power as loving earthly parents. 

That's all I have for now. I'll see you all soon. 

--უხუცესი ფიშერი 

Passing the time in our apartment

(Elder Crapo and Herr and Elder Springer on the chair)

Cutting each other's hair

Elder Herr and Elder Fisher

Quarantine gives extra time for baking

Views of Tbilisi from our balcony.

There was a beautiful rainbow in the distance.

Elder Fisher and Elder Springer

Sunday, May 10, we had permission to meet for church with sister missionaries for the first time in two months.

left to right:  Elder Fisher, Sister Gehring, Sister Mafi, Elder Crapo, Elder Springer, Elder Herr

One Month Quarantine

April 23, 2020

This is Elder Fisher's mom. 

Elder Fisher continues to have weekly video chats with us and he is doing well.

Last Friday was their one month quarantine anniversary.  To celebrate (I use that term loosely) the Georgian and Armenian missionaries all met in a video conference where their mission president and his wife gave them words of encouragement. They have been notified that their quarantine will continue for another month.

The four elders celebrated Easter on April 12 and the Orthodox Easter on April 19.  

The days seem to blend into each other since every day is the same when they are stuck inside.  I'm sure you can all relate.

Occasionally, they order food and have it delivered so they have a treat of sorts.

Puzzle Time

April 13, 2020

Hello Everyone! 

Well, like many of you, I'm still stuck in quarantine. It hasn't been too bad.

President Picard asked us to get the other apartments ready for closing in case we have to leave on short notice. Now, of the three we had left to close, one is closed and another is ready. We have tried to keep ourselves busy with puzzles from the other apartments, great Gospel reading, language study and the like.  

We watched General Conference which was really exciting.  We wished that we could have watched more than the two morning sessions live, but we were grateful that we could watch it as quickly as we did. (You can watch or read at churchofjesuschrist.org). We had some wonderful discussions about all that was shared by the prophets, apostles, and other church organization leaders. Elder Crapo's birthday was Friday, so we celebrated with a nice steak dinner and a game of monopoly.  That really is it. We make goals to keep ourselves accountable and so that we stay at least somewhat productive. All is well with us. Stay healthy out there. 

--უხუცესი ფიშერი 

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