letter to ward

Hey guys! Looks like you had a great Christmas! I did too! I loved talking to you guys! We didn't have a lot of lessons this week but we did see a lot of people and give away lots of cookies! That is what I did on Christmas day is bake and decorate cookies! Also one of our investigators, Tim Forsythe got baptized Saturday! (the Guy on the left is Tim and the other guy is his friend who baptized him) It was so good and a lot of fun! Our other investigator, Drew, also cam to Tim's baptism! It was awesome! Saturday was also transfer calls because this Wednesday will be transfers. And the results... Dun dun duuuuuuun..... I will be staying! But Sister Hayden will be leaving me and I will be getting a new companion. He name is Sister Gadi and she is from California. I don't know how I feel. I am excited and nervous and just ready do go to work and work some miracles! 

Anyways,

Here is my message to the Ward....

Claresholm Ward, 

Greetings from St.Louis! I hope you all have had a very Merry Christmas filled with family and Christlike love. I must say that Christmas time is the best time to be a missionary! The message we share with people at this time of year is so good and is completely centered on Jesus Christ! The Spirit of Christmas is just unreal!! Christmas time can get very busy with buying presents, sending out christmas cards and letters, decorating the house inside and out, baking christmas goodies, preparing christmas dinner and on top of all that we have our personal lives to worry about! We've got jobs, church callings, your own personal goals, hobbies and new year resolutions. That is a lot of stuff to worry about so it is no wonder that people can stress about the holidays. With all this stuff we have to worry about it is easy to forget about what christmas is really all about. The first gift of christmas. “The first gift was not wrapped, had no bow, wasn’t purchased online or in a store. The first gift of Christmas was a simple gift, a sacred gift. It wasn’t gold or frankincense or myrrh. It was a gift of love and life and peace and hope given by a Father to all His children. ‘For God so loved the world.’ And so loved you, and every single one of us. He gave His Son. He is the Christ. He is Christmas. He is the Gift...." 

I am sure many of you have seen the He is the Gift video on the home page of lds.org or the home page of Youtube or all over Facebook but I just wanted to share this message with you. And if you have not seen this video please check it out on christmas.mormon.org! 

We have a loving Heavenly Father and He is aware of every single one of us. He knows us each individually. He knows us better than we know ourselves. We are all his children. And our Heavenly Father has given us a gift. "He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) It is the greatest gift he could ever give us. A gift given to you so that even you can return to our home in heaven and live forever in happiness with our Father and our families! How great is that!?

This New year is a new beginning. To start over and set new goals. I encourage you to find ways to discover the gift, to embrace the gift and then to share the gift of Jesus Christ. One of the many things that I have learned on my mission is that people are amazing! I have realized that some of the most spiritual people I have ever met are less actives and non-members. Spend less time judging and reach out to everyone in the ward and outside of the ward and you will learn so much from them. Just love everyone! There are so many good people in this world and so many good things in this life! We are so blessed!! Follow the teachings of the prophet, love others and walk HOW Jesus walked. I promise you that you will find so much joy and so many blessings of finding yourself from serving others. I know I have.  

Okay I am done my lecture :) I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It blesses families and changes lives! I know that there is a God and He listens to us and answers our prayers. I am so grateful for everyone in the Claresholm ward; for my sunday school teachers, priesthood leaders, seminary teachers and the youth of the ward! You have all blessed my life in a special way and have got me to where I am today. I love you all! I miss you and I wish you all a Happy New year! 

Love, 

Sister Brittany Fisher 

Dead Battery

I am so excited to skype! And I think 10 works for me too! And I will also need to know the skype name because I don't remember it haha. 
I am glad that you are enjoying your calling Dad! That is super cool! I am not allowed to call Salt Lake unless the mission president asks me to haha It is in the white hand book. 
But anyways this week was crazy and amazing! our car has been dying a lot and when we woke up it was dead again so we had to call a member to jump it for us and then after spending our whole morning trying to talk to the mission office and at the car shop we finally got a new battery! It's weird because I feel like I was at the car shop a lot before my mission haha. Also we had 3 investigators come to church on Sunday!! How awesome is that! Drew came and Daniel came and Tim who is getting baptized this Saturday came!! We have three progressing investigators!! We moved Drews baptism date to Jan. 24th and he feels a lot better about that! I can't wait to see him tomorrow! things are really looking up because there faith and relationship with God is increasing :) 

Have a Merry Christmas and I will see you Thursday. 

Love Britt 

Glenn Beck

I am loving the pictures that you sent to me. We like Elder Fisher also had a slow week. But we definitely had some miracles! As we go tracting we leave cards at the door if they don't answer the door. Well we got a phone call from this random lady thanking us for leaving a card and said that she ordered a Joy to the World DVD and she is so excited to get it! She was the sweetest lady ever! haha And I think we will be the ones delivering it to her! we also met this one Muslim guy and he was not interested so we asked him if he knew anyone who would like to hear our message and he referred us to a catholic guy that lives a couple houses down. The catholic guy was not really interested but we were talking about the Book of Mormon and asked if he would like a copy and he told us, "You know what? I will take it, only because I love Glenn Beck." Hahaha! I was killing myself when he said that! Way to go Glenn Beck! Helping us out with missionary work! 

But like Elder Fisher, people keep telling us to come back after the Holidays. So we are thinking of making cookies and dropping them off at houses and just serving a lot! And of course constantly trying to find new people to teach! We couldn't meet with drew this week and Mr. Kruger is not replying to us. He answered his phone earlier this week and he just got his tooth pulled. But I haven't heard from him since. We are still expecting Tim to get baptized on the 27th and he is still super excited for that! I am so excited for him! 

And CHRISTMAS IS IN 10 DAYS! So I need to know when you can Skype! I am Skyping at a members home in my ward and they said that we could come over at anytime and skype and they are gonna feed us too. I don't know how early Elder Fisher is Skyping. Maybe we could skype at the same time?? My companion wants to skype with her brother at the same time too but her brother is right next door in Iowa. Not in England. But if not that is cool. I just want to see my beautiful parents!! And Justin! And who ever else is coming over to party! 

I got packages from both grandparents and I got a package from you too dad! But I haven't opened anything yet. not even your package brandon so don't tempt me!! Elder fisher I am going to send you a small package and when you open it I want to see a picture with you and your companion in it! haha :) 

Have a fantastic week and have lots of fun with basketball, christmas parties and stuff :)

Love 

Britt

Life is GLORIOUS!! 

http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/articles/watch-glorious-by-david-archuleta-from-meet-the-mormons?lang=eng

And you know I love my Youtubers!! Check out what the Piano Guys did!!

http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/articles/mormon-tabernacle-choir-record-breaking-nativity?lang=eng

Walking the Zoo

Hey guys! 

This week was so good!!!!

After I emailed you last week I went to the St. Louis Zoo with some other sister missionaries and took some pictures for christmas cards we will be making! It was awesome because it was kinda cold that day and so there was literally no one at the zoo! we practically had the whole place to ourselves! I saw some Sea lions and penguins and butter flies but that is pretty much it. a lot of the exhibits were closed. I could have saw some orangutans but they were inside and we didn't know that it was still open until it was too late. The ape exhibit closed at 5. But we had fun taking pictures!! Hopfully I will be able to go to the zoo again and see the orangutans AND they are getting polar bears this coming year! How cool is that?! We got to talk to so zookeepers in the butterfly exhibit and they told us a bunch of stuff about butterflies and the zoo and it was so cool! we also got to share with them about who we are and what we do! So we gave them a He is the Gift card and told them to check out the video at mormon.org. They call it the He is the Gift initiative so the idea it they are trying to get more missionary opportunities with this video for missionaries and members. As missionaries, we track how many referrals, investigators, and baptisms we get each week with the use of this initiative. Like Brandon said this idea is truly brilliant! You NEED to check out the video dad!! It is so good! And then in the december ensign you get your own pass-a-long cards in a extra little booklet so you can share the gift yourself! It really is a easy non-threatening way to share the gospel with others. 

I LOVE how you had a missionary experience with Robin Chisholm. That is so cool! What did she think about meeting with missionaries? How long did they meet with the missionaries for? Has she ever owned a Book of Mormon? Why did they stop? I think that is a great idea to invite them to the cantata! You could even give her a conference ensign or the december ensign! Modern day scripture can be just as powerful as the ancient scripture in testifying truth! Missionary work is so good when members are involve! Keep planting those seeds Dad! Awesome!

Update on Drew: we met with him twice this week. First day we taught him the Word of Wisdom and it surprisingly went very well. He totally agreed with everything and told us that recently this is what he has been trying to base his life off of and improve. He was actually very excited about the word of wisdom. I was confused. But he commited to live it so that is awesome! 

the next lesson that we had with him was on prophets and we watched the restoration video with him. He liked the video. He doesn't deny that this is all true. He likes the idea and the technicalities of the church. I guess the only problem that drew has is that he is a very deep thinker. Into Philosophies and what not. But we need him to understand the spiritual side of the gospel and gain a testimony. Anyone wont last on there own human knowledge and theories. He needs to rely on the Lord. It is that spiritual confirmation that truly converts them. And that is something he needs to find on his own. We could tell him anything. But until he acts and asks God for himself, he wont get that spiritual confirmation. It is hard to understand him sometimes. He confuses me. But I wont give up on him. He is so close. And he didn't come to church again. He slept through his alarm. So like I said he needs to exercise his faith and gain that spiritual confirmation.

Thursday and Friday was the 24hr exchange and it was my turn to stay in my area. And we got to see Mr. Kruger on Thursday! He is doing so good! He is reading his scriptures!! He is asking questions!! He told me that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true!! He just has a hard time understanding the Book of Mormon because he has dyslexia so he said that he read the first chapter like 3 times. But he is trying and learning and that is all that matters! God will bless him I know it! I felt like I could really help him in this lesson it was so good! But there is one problem... He got a new job offer. He is moving to Seattle in 2 weeks back with his family. He is so excited to be back in Seattle with his family for christmas and I am so happy for him but the prideful side of me is a little upset. haha. But he still wants to meet with missionaries so we will have to make sure the missionaries in Seattle know about him and help him move in. I want to stay in contact with him.

On exchanges I also got to go to a members home for dinner. We finished dinner and we were sharing a spiritual thought with them at the table. the daughter that was sitting to the left of me was kinda rocking on her chair and then all of a sudden her chair slipped and she fell forward and hid her head on the table. She started screaming the most horrifying scream I have ever heard and I saw a big gash on her forehead. everyone stood up and tried to move the table. Luckily her Father is a Doctor so she got medical attention right away. It was awkward too because I wasn't sure we should help somehow or how we would continue our spiritual thought. The mother told us we didn't have to stay but I didn't want to just leave! haha It was awful!!! The daughter ended up getting stitches right in her own home! It was crazy! We wanted to help somehow so we helped them tidy up there basement because there were toys EVERYWHERE! haha I don't even know how to explain that situation it was awkward and traumatizing and... well everything is okay now and she was at church on sunday so she is alright. 

But if there is one thing that stood out to me in my experience with exchanges is that the spirit is powerful and that Heavenly Father work through us! His servants! 

In Preach my Gospel PG94 there is a quote by Gordon B. Hinckley and it says:

"Every Morning..., Missionaries should get on their knees and plead with the Lord to loosen their tongues and speak through them to the blessing of those they will be teaching. If they do this, a new light will come to their lives. There will be a greater enthusiasm for the work. They will come to know that in a very real sense they are the servants of the Lord speaking on His behalf. They will find a different response from those they teach. As they do so by the spirit, their investigators will respond under the influence of the same spirit."

This is so true!! I have experienced it!! Especially during exchanges. To be honest I was nervous for exchanges. We had 2 lesson with investigators that day and one lesson with a less active and one dinner thought with a member. And I was very responsible for how that day went. I had to inform the STL (Sister Training Leader) that I was with who these people were, what we were teaching them and what she needed to know to help them. I was very much pleading with the Lord that morning to help me. To work through me and also bless those we were teaching. The Lord was with me that whole day! The lesson with Mr. Kruger was great! My tongue was loose and I could answer all the questions he had. I love how at the end of that quote it says, "As they do so by the spirit, their investigators will respond under the influence of the same spirit." And that is what was happening in Mr. Krugers lesson. The spirit is so powerful!! 

The second investigator we saw during exchanges was Tim who has the Baptism date for December 27th. He is the one who is so set and has a testimony and is just waiting to be baptized on the 27th just so his friend can come home from school and baptize him. So before this lesson we asked him what HE wanted to learn more about. He wanted to learn more about the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. Just what they are and how they came about. So I had to study a lot for that. But that lesson went great also! This was an experience that really showed me that the spirit brings things to our remembrance. Every question that Tim asked me was something I studied or highlighted in my studies! It was crazy amazing!! We were definitely responding under the same spirit! I have that quote by Gordon B. Hinckley by my bed so I see it every morning. 

I love this work so much! I feel so incredibly happy! It has been hard, I have felt nervous, and frustrated and stressed. BUT I know without a doubt that my heavenly Father loves me and is very aware of me. I love Him. And the Christmas season is just overwhelming me with the spirit! The church is SO true!

I am reading in Alma for my scripture study and chapter 26 is my favorite chapter in the whole wide world!! Because it is exactly how I feel!! Ammon is my Book of Mormon hero! I feel like me and him would get along very well. In this chapter it is Ammon saying how awesome God is and how much God has blessed him while he was sharing the gospel with the Lamanites. Just read the whole thing and that describes perfectly of how I feel right now!.= 

Alma 26:36 is my absolute favorite! I want that on my missionary plack! "my life, my light, my joy and my salvation" This Gospel is who I am and I am so happy :) 

Anyways.

All the Christmas traditions are pretty similar here in Missouri. I haven't heard anything that is too out of the blue.

I really like my ward. What I like about my ward is that a large majority of the ward is doctors or works in the medical field. It is kind of ridiculous actually haha And also, so many people decorate for christmas here! There are christmas lights everywhere!! It is awesome. I love it here.

I love you all and think of you often! 

Love, 

Britt

P.S. I got Grandma and Grandpa Fisher's package yesterday! The AP's (Assistants to the President) are in my district and they go to the mission office often and got the package for me. My district is kind of luck that way. We don't necessarily have to wait for meetings like Brandon does so I should get all packages before Christmas. 

Walking around the zoo :)

Stuffed on Thanksgiving

Hey guys! It is so good to hear from you! Thank you so much for the addresses! It doesn't snow barely at all in Missouri but we sure had a thick coat of ice on our windshield this morning. The weather is weird here. It felt really humid yesterday and then it all froze this morning. which makes icy roads so we are always asked to drive carefully. 

Speaking of weather I am reading the book Our Heritage which is a brief history of the church and I was reading about the Mormon people being driven out and travelling to Illinois and settle in Nauvoo. I am talking about the time when Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail and he was hearing about the suffering of the people. Some of the people didn't even have shoes and they would leave foot prints of blood on the frozen ground. That was around the beginning of December. It is December right now! Those early members of the church had to experience the weather I am experiencing right now except they had close to nothing! They walked through this area I am serving in! It is pretty cold here! It doesn't get a lot of snow but it sure gets cold! It made me better understand what pioneers really had to go through. 

That is enough Christmas stories that you sent me so thank you!

The Michael Brown Case. All I know about that is the verdict came out like Tuesday of this past week and the verdict was that the officer wasn't indicted. Which caused a lot of rioting and crazy people acting out. I don't really know if things have calmed down yet. I don't watch the news haha. But For this past week, Missionaries in my area and in the areas in and around St.Louis are not allowed to go tracting after dark. We are only allowed to go out after dark if we have an appointment in a members home. It kind of sucks but it keeps us safe. I haven't seen anything crazy yet but I guess that is a good thing haha And this rule is still in affect until the Zone leaders tell us other wise. 

Have you seen the new Christmas video that the church put out called "He is the Gift"?? It is what we are sharing with people this Christmas! Last week we got a email telling us about it and ideas of how we can share the gift. In the December Ensign it comes with a little booklet talking about this "initiative" and gives you the same cards that us missionaries hand out! Check out the video on christmas.mormon.org! AND on December 7th this Christmas video will be taking over Youtube! It will be the only advertisement on the Youtube home page. I think that is so exciting!! haha SO make sure you check it out and share the gift with others! In mom"s email she was talking about how Christmas shouldn't be all about presents and wrapping paper and flashy lights. It's about the love of Jesus Christ. The greatest gift that God could give us. For God so loved the world that he gave his Only Begotten Son! Being together as a family and remembering what the season is really all about. It all started with a little baby in a manger! Ahh! I love it! It is so exciting! I love Christmas! I am actually really excited for Christmas this year! I get to hang out with cool members in my ward and share an awesome message with people! People always love to talk about Christmas! Being a missionary at Christmas is actually pretty awesome :) What do you think about the initiative Elder Fisher? Do you have to hand out 10 Cards a day too? 

Yes I love it when you send pictures with your new lens! Keep sending pictures! and Congrats on the deer that you shot this year Justin! 

Update on Drew: We finally set a baptism date with him!! He will be getting baptized on December 28th and we will now be seeing him twice a week! Ahh! We just have to keep his motivation up and strengthen his testimony! I know we can get him ready by then!

Also we have a new investigator! His last name is Kruger!! How awesome is that!? So in my Emails I will call him Mr. Kruger. (As in Mr. Krugers Christmas haha) Mr. Kruger is a Former investigator who is a single man dude who is I am guessing in his early 30s. We knocked on his door last week and set up an appointment with him. He told us he was going to have a lot of hard questions for us. haha We accepted the challenge. Then this week we taught him the restoration and answered all his questions. His questions were nothing we haven't heard before. He says he has trouble trusting people so believing that someone is a prophet is hard for him. We shared with him a scripture in Matthew 7 teach us how we know who is a false prophet and by their fruits ye shall know them. We told him that the Book of Mormon is the fruits of Joseph Smith labors. And if he reads it and asks God with real intent if it is true, he will know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. I then asked him, "When you know for yourself that the church is true, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone who holds the priesthood authority?" And Mr. Kruger said yes!! haha That was the first REAL person I asked to be baptized! It was cool. I should have set a date with him but I forgot. But we will see how his next lesson goes.

We had American Thanksgiving this week so I ate a lot. We were not allowed to proselyte on Thanksgiving so we went to a members home for a breakfast buffet and then hung out with some other sister missionaries and then went to another members home and ate dinner and played games. It was fun! We also had an appointment Thanksgiving evening with one of our investigators that is getting baptized on December 27th. The day before Drew! He had his date set before I got here. So ya! It was a great week :)  

You know what is weird? We were talking with this one guy on the street outside of his house and he was telling us how we don't know our temples very well. He told us that on the top of every temple there is a seagull on a gold ball. We were trying to be polite as we were correcting him that he was confusing a seagull with the angel Moroni haha Are there seagulls on any of the temples?? I don't know but he did not think that angel Moroni was on the temple. He was very positive that it was a seagull. Too bad we didn't have a picture to show him.  

People are weird but I love them all! that is what makes a mission fun is all the crazy, amazing people we get to meet! 

I will try and tell you more about the people I meet in more of my emails haha 

Love you all and pray for you every day!

Love,

Sister Fisher

Haha this is what is in my apartment on the wall :) 

Thanksgiving with the ST. Louis Hills sisters