Banana/sprite

The weather is beautiful now in Rantoul Illinois!! Everybody is out BBQing and playing outside and the birds are making lots of noise! It's fantastic! 

I had a great week. We picked up a new investigator named Beverly. She is a Black lady who fosters a bunch of kids. She is really nice. She thought we were nuns. A common mistake it seems like a lot of people make. But we had a lesson with her and at the end before we left she said, "You guys pree coo! We gon' have fun!" haha I love it! 

We also found another girl who lives with her boy friend. I thought she was 16 when I first saw her. She is so tiny but she seems pretty cool so we picked her up as an investigator. 

We had two investigators come to church this Sunday! One was Von who plans to get baptized this weekend!! I am so excited for her! Von's daughter is a recent convert. Von's family and her boyfriend came to church! They really liked it. 

Also my companion is weird. She tried to do the gallon challenge this week because a member in our Branch (Brother Peterson) convinced her to do it. It did not end well. She was so sick and she was trying to make herself puke. Me and Brother Peterson did the Banana and sprite challenge but it didn't work. We felt fine after. It was funny. 

I also made a skirt this week! In our branch, one of the members mother (who is not a member) taught us how to make a skirt! She has no interest in getting baptized (We have already asked) but she loves us! I don't know her name though. Everyone calls her Ma. But she is so much fun! I love her! 

Also I went to one of our investigators Tumor, Cyst party! haha she found out that she got a tumor on one kidney and a cyst on the other so she invited us to go to Olive Garden with her. When we were done eating we went to the bathroom and Julia was in the bathroom stall and Julia then shouts out, "Thank you guys for coming to my Tumor Cyst Party!!" haha everyone in that bathroom had a confused look on there face it was funny. Julia has such a strong faith in Jesus Christ and a love for God. She always says that she is a conqueror. And she is the one who always says, "Get yo praise on!" She doesn't believe in organized religion though. She is non denominational. 

 Is Brady Broderson taking the discussions? I remember you guys telling me that he was going to church a lot. 

Anyways, I can definitely see us being blessed. Missionary work is awesome and I know that God will continually bless you as you continue to invite friends and be good examples. A scripture I really like in the Book of Mormon about missionary work is about the sons of Mosiah. They decided that instead of taking the place of there Father as king, they wanted to give there life to God and preach the gospel to the Lamanites. As we know the Lamanites were not an easy people to preach the gospel to. But in Alma 17 the Lord comforted them. In verse 11 the Lord said to the sons of mosiah, "Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long suffering and afflictions, that ya may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls." This is the Lords work and as you continue to be a good example to  your friends, the Lord will use you as an instrument in his hands. He already has!! It is as simple as that. 

And in verse 13 it says that the sons of mosiah departed, "trusting in the Lord... for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken" I LOVE THAT! Missionary work is so great! So trust in the Lord! Have faith! Have confidence in God! He will make us instruments in His hands!

I was thinking about that recently. At home, it was so easy to do what was right. To just believe because that is what I was taught. To just go with the flow of things. But now that I am on my mission and I have had to put my trust in the Lord. I have so many weaknesses. But now that I have relied on my faith because at times that was all I had, I have seen the Lord work through me. I have been an instrument in Gods hands. It is so cool and makes me so happy! It is more clear.  

Even seeing Bandon have success! That is so cool! I think it is fair to say that the Lord is blessing us all because of the work we are all doing! I can definitely see the blessings! 

Anyways I hope you all have a great week! and notice God's tender mercies because they are everywhere! 

Love and miss you! I pray for you guys and Brandon daily!

Sister Fisher

P.S. got any ideas for fun object lesson for dinner thoughts?? :)

Pictures.... This is Julia

                 And my skirt! 

Being Cool

HELLO! 

This week was good :) Mostly goofing around with my companion.

It really warmed up this week. Everything is melting really fast and there are puddles and mud everywhere. But still lots of snow.

We picked up a former investigator a couple weeks ago and we figured out that a recent convert who we lost and thought moved away lives with her. AND her son apparently was taught the lessons and was going to get baptized but then he didn't and we didn't have his records in our area book so it was kind of a nice surprise to talk to him. I asked him if he still wanted to be baptized and he said yes so we will pick him up this week.. 

We also found this big burly guy who is into motorcycles and restoring cars and I want to teach him soooo bad! He looks awesome! He says he doesn't look like the religious type but he goes to a bible study every week! I will keep you posted on him :) 

But other then that nothing too interesting. Just tryna be cool. Sharin the gospel like some crazy fools.

​LOVE YOU ALL! and

GET CHO PRAISE ON!

love,

Sister Fisher

Springfield & Fisher

Hello! It's been a good week :) We had Zone Leader Training and Exchanges so I got to go to Springfield with the STL. In Springfield they are all about Abraham Lincoln. Springfield is the Capital of Illinois so it was kinda cool to serve there for a day. They have a big Abraham Lincoln Museum and Lincolns tomb is there. I never really got to sight see but we got to drive around some cool stuff. Definitely a place I would like to return and explore a little bit more.

I also got to go to Fisher this week! I had to take a picture with the sign. 

We pray a lot. We have a companion prayer right when we get out of bed, then a personal prayer; we pray before meals, we pray before we leave the apartment, we pray before appointments, we pray to start a lesson and to close a lesson, we pray before and after companion studies and planing sessions, and we pray before we go to bed and we pray when necessary. To many times to count. 2 Nephi 32:9 "that ye must not perform anything unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."

I want my Heavenly Father to consecrate my performance so that is why I feel it is very important to pray before we do anything. 

I feel like I receive promptings quite frequently. Whether it is to say something to someone or teach someone something, or just talk to a random person. And I kick myself in the butt sometimes because when I feel the prompting to talk to a random someone sometimes I don't do it! But for me promptings come as a thought. And a strong prompting comes as a thought and a feeling. Two interesting examples come to mind...

On exchanges this week we contacted a potential named Jennifer and when see answered the door she was in tears. She had just found out that her husband had been sent to jail and that she wouldn't be able to see him for how ever many months. We showed her our sympathies and and gave her a hug. Of course at a time like that people often say that they don't have time to hear lessons from the missionaries. At that moment I remembered a talk from the MTC by Jefferey R Holland when he was addressing the missionaries at the MTC. In that talk he talks about an experiment that some people did where they set up different scenarios of investigators with different issues. And in some of those scenarios the investigators make the point that they don't have time to listen to the missionaries because of what they are going through. But Elder Holland makes the point, "Isn't that the time when they NEED the missionaries??" Anyways so I felt like I needed to tell this lady, "You know, this may be what you need right now." She then said "you know what I think your right." And then we were able to talk to her for a bit and set up a return appointment.

Another time this week my companion was struggling of what we should teach our investigator Christine. She was going to teach her while I was away in Springfield. I pondered for a bit and said, "Maybe you should teach her about Temples and Family History." My companion was a little hesitant about that because Christine can be kind of crazy and Temples can sometimes be a hard thing to teach because of how in depth the questions of the investigators can get. But I told her, " I really think you should teach her about Temples and Family History." She when we got back from our exchanges My companion told me how the lesson went. She said, "You know it was really inspired that we taught her about temples and family history. When we told her that that is what we wanted to talk about she stopped us and was like, 'Family History?! I have been thinking about that recently and I really have been wanting to get into that!'" Maybe Family History is what Christine needs to progress. We are going to go to the Library soon and get here started on the Family Search website. Family History is really a great way to share the gospel!! That is why I am so excited that Justin is getting involved with it!! 

I can't really say how many times a day I receive promptings but it is pretty frequent. Especially little promptings that we might not think are that incredible. But they turn out to be little miracles. 

Love you!!!!

Have a great week!

Sister Fisher

We got lots of snow yesterday and our zone leader told us we had to park our cars and church was cancelled. I don't think I have ever had church cancelled because of snow before. This is my companion. She is from Las Vegas so she is not used to the cold snowy winters. haha :)

I also cover a very small town called Fisher! I had to take a picture with the sign :)

Morning Toad

 I am adjusting just lovely! I am starting to grow a love for this little branch. I had a lot happen this week too! We did service at the Air Museum cleaning glass. The people that work there are hilarious and love to tease. We walked around and looked at a bunch of air planes too. There are some big ones. The member that works at the Air museum said that President James E. Faust did his training in Rantoul. 

Eat a small toad in the morning and it will be the worst thing you do all day.

​
Me and my companion had to try Frog legs. In Rantoul of all places. But it wasn't that bad! Don't think I will ever order it again though.

I went to a members house for dinner this week and they made me poutine and we have Nanaimo bars for dessert. They even had little Canadian flags in the drinks. It was so cute. I love the members in our branch they are so fun! 

And then this Sunday was crazy! I gave a talk in sacrament meeting and then we had three baptisms! Tyler, Mersadies, and Destiny are siblings and they all got baptized! I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost at there baptism too. It was a stressful day because these kids are crazy but I love them so much! They are a lot of fun! I love this area because all of our progressing investigators are youth! And they are so sassy. It reminds me a lot of chillin with the youth back in Claresholm. I am having so much fun with them.

My companion, Sister Sims, is from Las Vegas and she is a convert to the church. She is 21 and she got baptized when she was 18. She loves whales and she is super weird but she is so much fun! she is such a goof ball. She has been out for 13 months so she is a pro at being a missionary. She has 5 other siblings with the same dad but they have a different mom. She is still really really close with her siblings but her mom raised her as a single mom. And her mom is not a member. She is pretty amazing :)

I wouldn't say that Illinois has a distinct accent. But we are teaching a lot more black people then I did in St. Louis so I am hearing a lot of the Ebonics accent. A lot of, "What up durdy!? Guurl we be baptizin all up in hur. Ya das jus how we do! Fenna go tracting all day, praisin Jesus!" haha I don't know what I am saying. But I need to practice my Ebonics. And sometimes you hear a southern drawl in some white people but other then that no accents. A lady in my branch thought it was weird that I didn't have an accent. She is crazy.

The teaching goes good. We have 16 in our teaching pool but only 2 now with a baptism date. We have a lot of people who love to meet with us and talk about Jesus but they do not what to get baptized. That is the struggle. It might just take some time with some of our investigators. And we are always looking for more to add to the teaching pool.

Well I am loving Rantoul! Justin keep up the steady family searchin. Talk to ya next week  

Love Sistaaa Fishaaa

Cold dead cornfield

 My first impression of Rantoul.... Well I have heard lots of talk about Rantoul from other missionaries. Yes Rantoul has some interesting history but unfortunately it is not like that anymore. Rantoul is ghetto. It used to be popin' when the Air base was in action. My companion told me that Elder James E. Faust did his training at the air base in Rantoul. I don't know if that is true. You should look it up for me. We do service at the Air museum so I will send lots of pictures of it next week. But after they closed the Air Base, Rantoul not much. Missionaries have told me that the rejects of Chicago live in Rantoul. haha But ya definitely a lot sketchier than Webster Groves. My companion carries around pepper spray and a pocket knife. Not even joking. She said that her last district leader told them to buy pocket knifes. We don't go tracting a lot here. Especially at night. I also cover some other little towns in the area and one of those towns is called Fisher! I haven't gone there yet but I want to check it out soon!

 We have lots of investigators! 5 with baptism dates. We are teaching a lot of young woman and primary aged girls. They are a lot of fun. We are teaching a lot more black people here. I got to watch someone weave hair into a black persons hair. It was so cool! The people are pretty interesting. You hear a lot of stories of people going to jail. Majority of the active members don't live in Rantoul but in Champaigne and the surrounding towns. 

Our Branch is definitely small. I have never been to a branch before. I am actually speaking next sunday and saying closing prayer in sacrament meeting. It is kind of amazing to me how these members dedicate so much time and effort into keeping this branch up and running. The church is definitely true. Even in a little Branch way out in the middle of the corn fields of Illinois. Literally out in the middle of a corn field. I love the Branch. The members are really great and keep up busy. They love us and watch out for us.

My new companion is Sister Sims and she is from Las Vegas! What are the chances right? You are going to Las Vegas and I got a companion from Las Vegas! She is a convert to the church. She is really fun! 

I have not got the Valentines Card yet. I will probably get it tomorrow because we are having interviews with the Mission President tomorrow.

I want you to know that I am safe and happy! Don't research too much about Rantoul. The Lord blesses and watches over His missionaries! 

My companion also told me that Elder David A. Bednar's son is in the Stake presidency of our stake and on Christmas the Elders of his ward had christmas dinner at his house and Elder Bednar was there! They had Christmas dinner with Elder Bednar!! I thought that was pretty cool. 

Have a great week! Love you!

The Elders and Sister Gadi who I served with in Webster Groves

My new branch build in the middle of a cold dead corn field :) haha! 

Rantoul Illinois

Sup Ya'll 

So this week was pretty crazy and exciting. Where to start....  

We asked for bus passes because we wanted to try and contact people on the bus for more finding ideas. So we took the bus one day. The Elders in our ward liked that idea because that meant that they could use our car instead of using the bus. I was scared. I thought we were going to get lost. But it was kinda fun. I have said it before. People in St. Louis are really nice and receptive. But sometimes I wish they weren't so nice and would just say that they are not interested and would tell us to go away. It saves so much time. haha jk kinda. We talked to a lot of people who did not live in our area so we gave out a lot of referrals to other missionaries that day. We also met a homeless guy and we got him to sing How Great thou Art to us. It was awesome. I wasn't excited to take the bus but it was actually fun. Until a creepy man told me I had nice eye lashes and then I was like okay I'm done. I want my car back. 

Also transfer calls was this week and I was antsy for that all week. Usually we get transfer calls on Saturday night but our district leader called us Friday night and told us that our area is being white washed. Meaning me and Sister Gadi are leaving and they are putting two new sister missionaries in our area. I thought he was pulling our leg. But it was true and I may have cried. My first thought was how am I going to prepare my investigators for this? This is my baby area and I am going to miss it. But I 100% sustain our leaders and my mission president and I know that they are inspired men of God. And the more I think about it, Heavenly Father has been preparing my investigators, and recent converts for this long before we got the call. Because Drew meets with us and the Elders each week we are going to pass Drew off to the Elders and I know they will take good care of him.

And Daniel and Carolyn called us after we got transfer calls and said that they found out that they are moving to a different area in St. Louis to a facility that gives people with mental disabilities work so they can earn money for themselves which is awesome! So we would be passing them off to new missionaries anyways. I know I have met these people for a reason. And although I may not see them get baptized, I know I have touched there lives in a special way and have helped them prepare to make that covenant with God. Daniel is a 30 year old guy who lives with his parents. He suffers from schizophrenia and depression and I helped him realize that he has a loving Heavenly Father. I remember when I first met him he thought that he was doomed to hell and that was the first thing I asked him. "Do you think God loves you?" He said that he didn't know. You can definitely see a change in his countenance since then. He smiles a lot more. And you should hear the songs he has written. He knows that he has a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior. Of course we have had to remind him many times of this because of his condition, but he now has the Book of Mormon and prayer and his music to go to when he forgets. The Gospel blesses and changes lives! It gives people hope and happiness! I love it! But man I am going to miss Webster Groves. My time is now done here and I know that someone else needs me in my new area. 

Anyways, we got the call on Friday that we were getting white washed but our district leader didn't know where we were going. So we had to wait for Saturday night to figure out where we were going. The next day it was 6:00pm and we were about to visit a sick member and we get a phone call from President Morgan. I was nervous. It is not too often you get a call from the mission president. He called to talk to us about the fact that we were getting white washed and he wanted to assure us that we did nothing wrong but this change was being made because many sisters are leaving this transfer and zero are coming in so a lot of changes needed to be made. Personally I think it is because they needed two fantastic missionaries in different areas so that is why they took me and my companion out haha ;) There are 16 sister missionaries leaving and 0 coming in there were a lot of changes made in the mission. Only 208 missionaries are in the mission now. And we will be loosing 11 more missionaries next transfer. So we asked him if he would tell us where we are going and he told us! We got to know where we were going 3 hrs before the actual transfer calls from the head source! haha I love President Morgan. He is great. My new area is Rantoul Illinois. I will be in a Branch out in the corn fields! So I wont be in the city any more. On this map here you can see Rantoul Branch way up in the right corner of the mission. My new companions name is Sister Sims and that is all I know. 

So we have been going crazy organizing the area book, updating everything and writing notes to inform them of the recent converts, investigators and potential investigators. Writing notes for everything they need to know.

DON'T send anything to my apartment this week. I will be gone by the time it gets there. Send it to the mission office and then next week I will let you know my new address. 

Congratulations at the Basketball tournament! you guys rock! and thank you for the spiritual thoughts/facts/Proverbs. I really do look forward to those. 

That makes me so excited that Justin is doing Family History work. That is so exciting! I bet you will find lots of cool stories! The people on the other side will be grateful for your work! Remember Justin "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!
And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" (D&C 18:15-16)

That goes for Family History work too! Those who are in the spirit world can chose to repent and progress and by doing there work on earth you are giving them that opportunity. Keep on saving souls! You are going to have so much joy in God's kingdom. He has got a nice big mansion reserved for you! haha ;) 

I have no plans yet... for valentines Day Just loving people I guess. haha 

The weather here depends on the day. Or the hour haha. They say if you don't like the weather in St. Louis, wait 5 minutes. But we did get some snow this week. It is kind of ridiculous. The first site of snow and they cancel everything. The snow was gone by the next day. It is nothing like we get in Canada. But it sure does get bone chilling cold. It was nice and sunny yesterday. Today is pretty chilly but I am just wearing a light jacket so it is not that bad. 

Oh and I tried an appetizer that is popular in St. Louis this week. It is called Toasted Ravioli and you dip it in marinara sauce. It is pretty delicious. 

I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for the love.

Sister Fisher   

Alma 45:3

 I am feeling pretty good over here in Missouri. I don't know if I told you this but our mission's goal for baptisms this year is 453 based off of the scripture Alma 45:3 "Yea, I believe" I am so excited for this goal! I believe we can reach it!! And just reading the mission president's email today he says that our mission has 101 baptism dates set so far! That is so exciting! And here are some more statistics for ya, transfer calls are this Saturday and 22 missionaries will be leaving and 3 will be coming in. And the transfer in March:16 missionaries will be leaving and another 3 coming in. And with those 2 transfers 19 sisters will be leaving and 0 will be coming in. So at least I know I wont be training anyone any time soon! haha but there will be a lot less wards with two sets of missionaries. My guess is I will be leaving this area at the end of this transfer. Stay tuned for next week!!

My week was pretty good. I did the training in district meeting last Tuesday and surprisingly it went really well! I got a call from our Sister Training Leaders congratulating me on my training. The assistants to the president (who are in our district) talked to them and told them that they were really impressed with my training! Anyways it made me feel good. I had to give a lot of thanks to the Lord for that one. My Savior loves me and has been and has been blessing me and watching over me every step of the way. I know I can do all things in the strength of the Lord. It definitely hasn't been easy. I have definitely had to step out of my comfort zone but I have been given the strength and endurance to get through anything. And knowing that my Savior loves me makes me so happy! And I want to show him that I love him back! 

We have had some success finding this week! We found 3 new investigators and I really hope they stay with us! One of them was a member referral and she is a sweet lady with a small little boy. She is originally from Argentina and we just so happened to have a return missionary with us who served in California and learned some Spanish so they were speaking Spanish to each other. She is great I want to continue teaching her family so bad!! We will see them again this Wednesday:)

Also another awesome thing that happened this week is this... Andy's frozen custard is a thing in the Missouri area. A great place to get concretes (Concretes are equivalent to Blizzards). So the person who owns Andy's frozen custard is LDS. And if missionaries go to Andy's and tell the workers there that, "Scott from Colombia Missouri sent us for the mess ups." They give you the ice cream they messed up on that they usually end up throwing out at the end of the day. The Elders in our ward called us, told us this and told us to get ice cream for them (because they don't have a car). So we tried it and they just gave us two big boxes full of ice cream! It was awesome!! We even tried to give the lady that worked there a pass-a-long card but she wouldn't take it haha :/ So I will never have to pay for ice cream on my mission ever again! haha And I will probably be a fat kid too! :) 

I am so glad to see you are all doing great! Justin you look fabulous in that sweater! Nice hair cut too! 

Love you all and count your many blessings! 

Love 

Sister Fisher