We're having a baptism on Sunday! Myriam, who has been inactive for like 19 years, has now been to church like three times. And her kids are getting baptized! And her husband gave his permission, which means that his heart truly was softened by our prayers and fast. We're super excited. And I was just telling President Summerhays that we have like 4 other people that are pretty much 90% going to get baptized. So it's pretty exciting. And Ifrain went to scout camp this week so he's going to be gone all week. We had to pull some serious strings to get him to go.
So we don't have too much time today because they're cleaning the carpets and we have to be done soon. So I'll just say thank you for the emails! Sounds like the soccer tournament was good. I've been fairly sore recently as well. It sounds like next emails will be filled with some fun and adventure.
Happy Pioneer day, by the way.
It'll be kind of weird reporting to a new ward. Are we still going to the stake center?
OK, well, we'll talk to you later! Oh, so there's a chance that I might be leaving Immokalee for my last ten days. We'll see what President wants to do with me!
Love,
Elder Fisher
My stomach is already full of whirling butterflies. Sean comes home in 18 days!!!
Here are some events to be aware of. YOU ARE INVITED TO ALL!! PLEASE COME! We want to see you.
Saturday, Aug. 13 4:00 pm Arrives at St. George airport
Saturday, Aug. 20 7-9 p Welcome Home Party. Our backyard. Swimming and food.
Sunday, Aug. 21 Report home. Sacrament meeting 9 am. Hurricane Stake Center (food afterwards)
Thanks for your support of Sean throughout his mission! Much, much love.
Jenni
Sean,
I guess it's time again to write my weekly letter.
I think I'll tell some more stories about my time in the mission field. I was thinking about all those rules, and how people can get caught up in the letter of the law. One of my good friends, David Griffin (who I lived with in a house, and later requested to be his companion - he killed me actually) was training a greenie and there was an amazing down poor of rain - much more than was usual in puerto Rico. It was causing a lot of flooding in the streets and my buddy Dave was sitting on the porch watching the cars go in and get stuck. Eventually it became dangerous for some of them and Dave jumped in the rushing waters, swam to the people stuck in the cars, and helped them get out and to safety. He continued to do this for most of the night. When he was done, his greenie junior companion was furious - stating how he was breaking the mission rules for swimming! I always loved that story - that poor greenie. Hopefully he wised up a little.
Another time, in the mission office (I wasn't there - heard it from my buddy the secretary), someone had brought in some fast food takeout. A small argument broke out between someone who brought the food and one of the AP's over the fact that only Coke soda was purchased. After words were spoken back and forth, my awesome mission president calls out from his office "If he's not gonna drink it, bring it in here for me!" I love that too. HAHA. Like father like daughter I guess, because another story an AP told me was similar - a general authority was visiting the mission, and the mission pres, his daughter, and the AP's were at McDonald's or something, and the Mission Pres says to his daughter - "what would you like to drink?" She replies, "a coke". The GA was incredulous and spent the next 5 or 10 minutes giving her a lecture on how she should act and how she needs to be a leader and example, etc. After his diatribe, the Pres said, "well Jen, what would you like?" Without skipping a beat, she replies, "Dad, I TOLD you, a Coke." HAHAHAHA. Another great story. I loved my Mission President, and his family. He was such a wise man. One of my first roommates on the mission (actually my first area, not companion but roommate) ended up being AP and eventually came home and married the Pres' daughter. He is the dentist at the prison in SLC. Anyway, my mission president told us that we should obey the rules, but if we don't enjoy a sunset or sunrise on the beach there in beautiful PR at least once, we were nuts. He also, going against the grain of common Mormon folklore, said to his missionaries - don't rush home and get married. Take your time. Do it right.
One of my favorite companions, Elder Haskell, was companions with on of the more famous missionaries that had stories passed around about him. He was an incredibly efficient missionary and led the mission with baptisms, but struggled with some of rules (nothing real serious, stuff like curfew, etc i think). The President had once told him after sitting in the office after getting in trouble for something (he was zone leader at the time) "I sure wish you could stay out of trouble so I could make you my AP." He was really an Elder that was full of love and goodness. Anyway, Elder Haskell told me that this guy found one of the best families he ever baptized while he was in a movie store renting a movie! Holy smokes...that's kinda funny too. Imagine, you are in the movie store where you shouldn't be, but you preach away. Another time, Elder Haskell and his companion had found a golden investigator, and she wanted to get baptized, but was really afraid of cold water. (The way water was heated for a shower in PR was from this heating element in the shower, right after the water came out). Anyway, this guy took one of those heating elements out of its casing - broke into the church, filled the baptismal font, dropped this element in it, and heated it all night. In the morning when the baptism was planned, the water was a nice bath water warm.
By the way, I'm not encouraging rule breaking by the way - just sharing some of the stories about broken rules that made me smile. I, for one, tried to live the rules as close as I dared. One broken rule I don't regret it is my reading list. I know we were only suppose to read the Scriptures and maybe Jesus the Christ, but I read some of other church books - for one, I figured books like "Spiritual Roots for Human Relations" by Steven Covey, would have a very hard time competing with books like Harry Potter once I returned. And it has turned out to be true. I have only read a handful of church books since returning, despite my goal to re-read Jesus the Christ. Oh, I also listened to the Joseph Smith tapes by Trumen G Madsen.
Anyway, that is my report. I am very excited to see you soon. Hang in there.
Jeremy
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