Apples

Oh my goodness dad... your emails kill me. I am suppose to be quiet in the library but I can't help but laugh out loud when I read your "news letters." Happy Birthday Justin and Baxter! I have been thinking about you guys! And congratulations Justin on your race! Sounds like a blast! I will train every morning with you because I have to work out in the mornings anyways! I know you will do great! 

 I will be in this same area until after Christmas. I left a green paper on the fridge that gives details about what you should do when you mail things so read that and decide for yourself. :) 

No we don't have I-pads yet but we might get them in the near future. If we do eventually get them then I would have to pay for it with my own money and then after my mission I would get to keep it! Which is kinda awesome. 

I don't get to watch the news so I haven't heard about any tornadoes... The weather has been really nice recently. The leaves are changing color and the temperature is perfect! Some missionaries think it is getting cold but I think it is beautiful out! It was raining a lot the first couple of days I was here and it was weird because the rain was like a mist. but other than that, it has been very nice in the St. Louis area.

I have had quite the week and I am definitely learning more and more every day! On tuesday had exchanges so I got to spend 24hrs with my Sister Training Leader and she is from Toronto Canada! She doesn't have a drivers license so I had to drive everywhere. which was interesting. Lets just say I am very grateful for GPSs. But I got to meet some of her investigators and they are some amazing people! I met a guy with an eye patch! He was very nice. And old. He liked fishing though so he really liked my name and told me, "I'm just going to call you fish." I hope I get to see him more. 

On Thursday we had Zone Leader Training which was awesome. I got to officially meet everyone in my zone. We got to learn and do more role playing. Even out of the MTC we do more and more role playing! I am learning to love it though. It really does help. I really learned the importance of studying at this meeting. We listened to a part of a talk from Elder Jeffery R. Holland. He talked about how you wouldn't want an unpracticed heart surgin to do heart surgery on you. It is the same with missionary work. You wouldn't want an unpracticed missionary preaching the word. I know the Spirit is the teacher and brings things to our remembrance, but if you haven't studied then the spirit has nothing to draw from your mind. Another thing that he said is, "Tell me how obedient  you are and I will tell you how the rest of your mission will go." Or something like that. And that is SO true! Our obedience determines the out come of our mission. And even life! Decisions determine our destiny (Thomas S. Monson) So it is important to make good decisions. And you said it from the beginning dad and I am so grateful! Me and my companion made a goal for our time together to be 100% obedient! And it has brought so many blessings! To get up at 6:30 and work out every morning, to have personal and companion study, to stay out of our apartment until 9:00 at night and to have lights out at 10:30. It might be easy to say that we are tired and want to sleep in or go home early, but putting everything I got into this mission really bring blessings! Another rule that our mission president gave us is to only listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir through out the week and then on P-days we can listen to any of the music on lds.org and that is it. That is all I get to listen to for 18 months. (So feel free to send me Mo Tab music for christmas gifts haha) But still by just listening to Mo Tab it really helps me focus on why I am out here and to focus on Jesus Christ. It helps me have the spirit with me always. Not all missions have that rule but I am glad that our mission president is a little more strict. It makes me want to work harder. 

We also got a new investigator this week. He was a referral from these other missionaries. When we first met this guy he seemed almost perfect. He was well studies of our church and searched for missionaries to teach him so he could learn more and eventually become a member. He told us that he feels well in tuned with the spirit and he felt like the mormon church was the way to go. He has been to Nauvoo and Salt Lake City and he has talked with many members and missionaries. He even told us that he knows the church is true. I almost thought that this was too good to be true. I even thought, "This can't be that easy. Does God really put someone this prepared and this ready into missionaries paths to receive the gospel?" We even invited him to church the next day and he said he would come. And he did come! After we met with him the first time he gave us apples and I told my companion, "I almost feel like these apples are poisoned because of how easy that was." Maybe I shouldn't have doubted God...  

Well. Things have changed. Yesterday we went over to teach him the first lesson. God is our loving Heavenly Father. He was good with that. Gospel Blesses Families. He was good with that too. Then we got to God calls prophets in every dispensation. This is where things turned into a debate. And that is how he saw it. He saw that we were the sales people trying to sell him this product. And it was almost like he invited us over just so he could see if we could "win him over". And it got to the point where he was coaching us how to be good salesmen because he worked in the sales business in the past. This guy is so weird! Luckily we had a member over with us too to help us. He just did not understand priesthood authority and that a prophet called of God is the only one who can act in his name and under his authority. He doesn't believe that that authority was ever lost because of people like Martin Luther, Good people who preached of God and brought people closer to Christ and His doctrine. Yes they were good people and followers of Christ and yes many other denominations have a lot of truth to them but one thing that they don't have is that priesthood authority. Someone who can act in his name and authority. Someone who holds that power of God. We have the fullness of the gospel on the earth today. We did our very best to explain that to him but he just kept rambling and trying to talk over us. It exhausting. This guy is really smart. And is well studied in many books and religions. He likes to use big words too. But he is not humble what so ever. It makes me think of the scripture 2 Nephi 9: 28-29. When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God... I hope that we can soften his heart with the spirit. We will see how it goes. But I am still not going to eat that apple. 

One thing I would like to ask you guys is if you could send me good talks on Priesthood Authority. It is a common thing people get caught up on and I think if I had a better knowledge of it I could explain it better to people. Give the spirit something to draw on.

But oh my goodness guys! The church is SO true! I know it! And nothing that anyone could say could change that! God loves all his children, including you and me! And he blesses us everyday! We just have to open our hearts and minds to notice those everyday tender mercies! I am growing everyday from this missionary experience and I am loving every minute of it! Have a wonderful week and I will hear from you next Monday! 

Love,

Sister Fisher