Monday, December 14, 2015

Great Job everyone.  You made it. If you are reading this it means you're a real trooper.  You made it to the last email. You made it through all of my bad grammar and crazy stories.  wow.  

This week was full of LASTS...last English class, last Sunday, last WPS, last service...I just try not to think about it. It's all about enjoying the journey. Enjoying the time you have.  Other than that it's just go go go!  Just another week in the life of a missionary

The best day on my mission was this Sunday.  Cai JM has progressed so much in her faith in Jesus Christ and her understanding of the gospel.  But if she didn't come to church this week she wouldn't make her date.  And church was in Taipei this week.  Stake conference. So we invited her and she said if it didn't rain she would come.  So pray we did.  And it POURED ALL WEEK!!! We had to go up Saturday night for the Adult Session of Stake conference.  Sunday broke clear and BEAUTIFUL!!! not a cloud in the sky. We called the Elders in Jilong and they announced that it was the same there! God is pretty good at changing the weather :) So Cai JM came to the two hours of Conference. Also, Jian JM (our RC) came and brought her husband.  Sister Johnson was so excited she literally leaped in the air.  I managed to contain my excitement.  To add to the excitement this stake conference was super special because we were splitting the stake.  Why is that so special? Because with this stake splitting that gives Taiwan a grand total of 15 stakes. And that means we can build another Temple here down north.  What an amazing opportunity :)

Miracles are everywhere you look.  I think my mission has really opened my eyes that God is in every part of our lives helping us and guiding us so we can learn all we need to in this life. 

You know I was thinking about it last week, but do you realize that half of our family are endowed members of the church? How cool is that?!

We met with Cai JM this week. She is so awesome!!! We watched finding faith in Christ video and afterward she was like. wow, I didn't know Christ was that awesome!!! And then she was freaking out about how he raised a man from the dead.  She just has so much faith and is so great. It's kind of sad that she's getting baptized the week after I leave, but everything is in the Lord's time

Well, that's about it. Thank you for sticking with me for the past year and a half.  You're awesome! I love you from Taiwan and back!  See you at the airport!

See you in four days!!

Love you!

Sister Cambrea Fisher

1. stake conference

2. Keelung sign. it's our hollywood sign ;)

Keelung sign. it's our Hollywood sign ;)

Sister Johnson and Sister Fisher

Stake Conference

Monday, December 7, 2015

Congratulations!

You just received a letter from your favorite missionary! 

It's so awesome having progressing investigators. Ones who actually read and pray and come to church. Cai JM is so amazing. The only problem she has is a little one about baibai that she just needs enough courage to get over it. We asked her last week if she believed what we taught her and what she reads is true and she said, "yes, but I don't have a testimony" I told her that her belief IS a testimony. It doesn't have to be some really big thing. It starts small. 

On Wednesday I have a HUGE scribble all over my lesson plans because a HUGE cannon went off during language study.  We ran over to the window to watch what was happening.  The Taiwanese navy was doing a drill of taking over a hostile boat...and we got front seats.  IT was pretty cool to watch.  

During English boarding, we met this cool lady named Sharlene.  She called later and said she was going to qing us chi on Saturday.  Saturday arrives and she takes us to Miao kou which made me a little nervous, but it wasn't that bad and we got some avocado milk which was DELICIOUS! We got to share the first lesson with her and you could really feel the spirit.  I love sharing this glad news! 

I have an invite for all of you! Take a stocking and make it the "what are you going to give to Christ this Christmas" stocking and everyday everyone write down on a piece of paper something they did that day to give to Christ for Christmas.  IT can be anything from a smile to a person or serving someone.  Then on Christmas day, we can read them all.

My purpose as a missionary is to help others come unto Christ by receiving the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, Repentance, Baptism by immersion, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  How great is this calling?  Being a missionary is one of the greatest things ever!  

Zone meeting was great. It was kind of interesting because I thought of some things I needed to work on and I was like, 'what?' I'm at the end of my mission. why didn't Heavenly Father tell me these things at the BEGINNING of my mission? Then I would have had my whole mission instead of half a month to work on them. Then the reply came. You don't need to be perfect at the end of your mission. You will still have things left to work on after you're done. This is what I need to work on now. Life is so personalized. It's not some cookie cutter thing everyone gets, it's a masterpiece hand-molded by our Creator JUST FOR US! 

We saw so many miracles this week! God is Great! 
LOVE YOU!
Sister Fisher

pictures:

here's the action...almost

I saw my baby this week!!! I don't know if she'll be at transfers, but she invited me over to her parents' house for dinner when I go up to Rexburg.  yea. 

Monday, November 30, 2015

This week was crazy...where to start?

haha. monday we had a peike set up for one of our progressing investigators.  We had two brothers help us out because our investigator responds better to guys.  Well, one of our peikes didn't get the memo that you're not supposed to leave and left halfway through the plan of salvation to drop off his grandkid or something and DIDN'T COME BACK! so we pretty much had to leave our investigator on a huge cliff hanger in the middle of POS. But it's okay because our other peike stayed and talked to him about an hour after.  members :)

Tuesday we had one of the new apostles, Gary E. Stevens come talk to us. HE is going to be one of my favorites. He's pretty hilarious and humble.  I learned a lot from him.  He mostly talked about finding your vision for your mission and how to become vision finders.  He did talk a little about after the mission.  He told the Elders, "Elders, you can do it! We don't know how President found Sister Jergensen. We don't know how I found Lisa, but I did.  And no, this is not part of the finding activity right now" He's a crack up. 

Friday was a CRAZY day. Just for fun, we decided to have lessons all afternoon planned on different mountains.  My legs are still sore from it.  But it was worth it because we were able to set a date with Cai JM :) She is ready, she just needs to make the hard decision we all have to make and take a step of faith in the dark.  

Saturday we ate with Mandy before her baptism.  I love baptismal services because it's the real thing.  You can tell investigators all about it but when they see it, especially if it's someone they know something just clicks with them.  Because of the baptism we were able to set a date with Doris, another investigator. 

Truly Good without Guile.  Such a good talk from April's General Conference.  It's all about doing things to serve God.  A lot of us do things without other people recognizing it or realizing it was us that did it.  I thought I learned my lesson at the beginning of my time in Jilong, but apparently, I needed to learn it again.  A lot of things God needs us to do small things.  We are all His tool and sometimes He only needs us for a scratch on this person, a dent on that person, but only we can do that.  

so I hopefully will get the package this Tuesday.  so you said there are stockings and some torture object I can't open until I get on the airplane? It's okay...it'll develop my patience and endurance...resist temptation...good training before I go home ;)

so far so good.  It's started to get cold.  I've started taking small amounts of time to organize my stuff and go through and figure out what I want to bring home and what I'm leaving here.  IT's a little hard, but hopefully, I won't end up staying up until 2 the next morning packing.  It will be my last time to receive the blessings from going to bed at 10:30 and getting up at 6:30.  

umm...for thanksgiving we got a qingke at a members house.  IT was interesting but they're super sweet and gave us tons of food...including granola bars! 

I am so grateful for an AMAZING FAMILY THAT LOVES ME AND CAN'T WAIT UNTIL I SEE YOU!

Well, hope you made it to the end...if you did you're pretty lihai and you either really love me or you're really bored.  take your pick ;)

Keep up the good work.  Stay awesome! Read Alma 42...it's the best! POS is amazing :) 

Sister Fisher

We got to take our LA to the temple for his first time.  He's super excited to go get his endowment out in a couple months.  He keeps trying to get things out of us about what is in the endownment...haha. my lips are sealed ;)  The next one is Mandy in the baptismal outfit.  She wouldn't suan as our baptism because she's not in our area, but it was a huge group effort to help her get baptized.  :) she's adorable.

Monday, November 23,2015

When you tax your talents, God will match it. 

This week was crazy. We made plans, planned with the spirit, then the next day everyone canceled their lessons with us.  then our back up plans would cancel...and we were stuck plan- less. 

just kidding there's always finding.  

also, I actually got a cold this week.  weird. I haven't had a cold in about a year and a half.  But I did get to wear a kouzhao...they're not as cool as they're cracked up to be.  especially when you ride a bike.  

So our most progressing investigators are Cai Jie Mei and Li Dixiong.  Cai Jie mei would be me if I were an investigator.  She has a desire to know if it's true and she reads every day, prays, and comes to church. She just is struggling with recognizing the promptings of the Spirit.  

Li Dixiong is already Christian and is really curious.  This means he looks on the internet about our church...bad idea. He has a lot of questions that we're trying to help him understand.  He really needs to read the BOM and pray.  We invited him to baptism last week and his response was, "Man...man...lai" which means REALLLYY SLLLOWWW. HA. 

Wednesday we were biking and my planner dropped on the ground in the middle of a huge intersection.  I frantically started ringing my bell for sister Johnson to stop because a part of my soul was getting run over along with all the numbers of people we needed to save.  So we stopped and ran through traffic to rescue my planner. It's a little handicapped now but it'll make it to the end of the transfer.  Yes, my last transfer was that renzhen ;)

Thursday we went to the chapel for one of our lessons and it had flooded! fortunately, our peikes were brethren so they helped stop the flood and when our investigator arrived we all pitched in to help clean up the flood.  it was fun seeing the patriarch (this cute little Asian old guy) with his shoes off pants rolled up ankle deep in dirty water. 

I've been really struggling this week because there are so many people to talk to and I've been thinking about my mission and how many people I've talked to.  sometimes our best is super low but I've been thinking about whether it really was my best.  I mean, I didn't come home and pass out or anything, but I did try.  I don't know. How do you know when the Lord is pleased with your work.  

But then in my BOM reading, I'm in alma in the missionary chapters and I got to Alma 26 and 29 where he wants to be an angel preaching the gospel to everyone.  I could really relate to him.  I thought to the things I've accomplished on my mission and I wish I could do more.  I just want to help more people know this beautiful gospel.  I wish they would just listen! But I've learned that God has a certain part for each of us to play. A lot of times we don't see the effect of our work. We don't see our effect on people.  We have to trust that we are doing what God wants us to do. I'm still working on getting to that part.  finding that confirmation that what I have done is what God needs me and needed me to do.  

I've been reading in Alma this week about Alma wishing he was an angel.  I've been learning to be okay with what God needs us to be.  God has a perfect plan.  we are part of that plan.  we need to find joy in what we can do and not focus on what we didn't accomplish or what God didn't need us to do.  We are just a small infinite part in God's plan, but He knows and loves us infinitely.  You mean the world to God.  It's so amazing that God is pleased with what we CAN accomplish.  He loves each of us.  He knows us.  This gospel is true.  It's simple.  

Love y'alls! 

Sister Fisher

Cleaning up the flood

Monday November 16,2015

We said goodbye to Sister Hu this morning and drove her to the airport.  It was a fun drive, but now me and sister Johnson are empty nesters and don't know what to do with our lives. Not go to Taipei as much that's for sure!

Last week we went to Taipei 4 times. ouch. that's a lot of time outside our area.  We went to pick up Sister Hu's visa, an English meeting, and then twice for exchanges.  It was great fun, but also really not super fun.  who wants to ride a bus for about an hour both ways when you can just ride your bike and talk to people.  Although we have honed our bus contacting skills I might mention.  Even if they've got headphones in :) yep, boss

It rained a LOT this week.

Note to self, when you pray for faith, diligence, charity, spirit to recognize opportunities, and anything else the Lord wants to teach you expect a hard week.  Praying for one is hard enough.  

But the Lord wanted to strengthen my testimony of trials of faith.  The miracles don't come until you wade through the hard stuff.  If you had the miracle right off the bat then you would be satisfied and done.  You have to go through all that rejection so it's all worth it when you find the one who's willing to listen.  

I've been reading in alma recently about Ammon.  I've really gained a testimony about how every mission is different.  Missions are so individual because they're from the Lord.  Ammon and his brethren.  His brothers like Aaron weren't bad missionaries or even worse than Ammon yet they didn't see as much success as Ammon, especially in the beginning.  They waded through affliction and suffered much.  Yet they were patient.  As we remember this life is a time to prepare, keep that perspective that this isn't the end, we're able to have more patience with the Lord and what life throws at us.  We all have to go through different challenges, we may not see as much success as others, but when we give our all to serve the Lord we will receive the same blessings as those who saw success.  The Lord will be proud of us :)

my week was hard, but it ended on a good note.  I've learned a lot about myself this last week.  The Lord is teaching me a lot about everything this last week.  There's not enough time to do anything.  It's just go go go! I've been having really weird dreams about leaving and not having my stuff in my suitcase or about giving a talk in General Conference.  crazy

stay awesome over there! remember the Lord is on your side, in your life, guiding you.  Trust Him. He will lead you in the path you need to go.

And don't forget to go to church Psalms 6:9-10...don't be lazy :)

Love you all!

Sister Fisher

魚曙光 姐妹

one of the times we went to Taipei our umbrellas actually came in handy!

Umbrellas come in handy in Taipei

Monday, November 9, 2015

Sacrament. What a beautiful gift. What a beautiful opportunity to be clean again.  This week I gained a testimony of how amazing the sacrament is.  That is the time to be cleansed from the everyday mistakes we make in our life. Every week we can partake and be perfect again and again. It's like baptism every week. 

Oh, yea...6 weeks. Where has the time gone? I'm not sure what to think about going home, but it's kind of crazy to think about. 

Oh yeah, and HAPPY 16 MONTHS!!! I haven't taken a picture yet so expect it next week. 

So this Saturday we had temple tours.  I've only done it once before but it was a looooong day.  So this time we were really praying to find miracles.  God doesn't let you down.  After we had a tour with this guy who wasn't sure if he wanted to serve a mission or not this HUGE group of kids came through the front door.  Their teacher (an American member from Utah in Taiwan for 6 weeks teaching English) said they were taking a tour of Taipei and they wanted to know if we would give them a temple tour.  Wow.  So we talked about Christ and the temple and ended with showing them a video on the Temple.  Afterwards, ALL of them filled out referral cards and were interested in learning more about the Temple or families or the Book of Mormon.  The power of everyday missionaries. 

A lot of our investigators died this week.  But we have a lot of potential investigators we are going to be working with this next week.  

We made an awesome board game for going to the Temple.  It's pretty ingenious and cute. 

Last story.  Last Night we felt like we needed to visit an LA who lived up a HUGE hill.  I'm pretty used to hills by now, but we can't even bike up this hill...WAY TOO STEEP.  So we walked up this hill to visit this LA.  We decided to start by playing our Temple board game and she invited her boyfriend to play with us.  It was a good way to introduce him to the gospel.  It was really cool to see that she had a desire to share the gospel with him she just didn't know how.  

I've been reading in Alma recently about faith and how Alma and Almulek had a huge trial of faith before the miracle.  In our lives sometimes we don't get answers to our prayers because Heavenly Father needs us to learn something from it.  Faith is a strong powerful thing.  It can move mountains. I've been thinking about what qualifies you to have enough faith to move mountains.  Not that I want to move mountains, but I want enough faith to do whatever God needs me to do. 

I think I've become an effective tool in the Lord's hands on my mission.  I still have 6 weeks left, and I'm still going strong.  I won't let up until I step my foot off that plane. This mission has changed my life.

The plan of Salvation is beautiful! It's so simple and clear! 

Stay sweet out there :) 

Sister Fisher

Monday, November 2, 2015

So me and my little bundi friend spend a good portion of language study trying to figure out how to say master commander, but no matter what we tried, 大首領 (da shou ling) to 主帥領人 (zhu shuai ling ren)...but nothing worked :(

So we spent all week in the 網咖　(wangka)...just kidding. We did spend a lot of time there getting our little bundi friend's visa work done.  I'm kind of understanding why everyone wants to learn English. EVERYTHING WAS IN ENGLISH! The did have translation things, but not a whole lot.  

Exchanges this week! Sister Wright came to party in Jilong with us. She's a homie from the MTC so we talked a LOT...in English. my poor bundi companion :)

簡姐妹 (Jian JM) got confirmed this last Sunday! It was so exciting! Her blessing was beautiful and had to do a lot with the temple. Her husband isn't a member, but we're working on that.  That woman has such a huge testimony I'm sure it won't be long :) 

I've been thinking a lot about change lately.  Not a lot of people like change.  People get into patterns of living, get comfortable, get stuck in a rut. When change comes most of us are happy where we are and don't want to make that jump into the unknown. It may be because we've become comfortable where we are or perhaps we don't trust that there's as much happiness in the future as we have right now.  Something I've learned is God is guiding our lives.  Whether or not we realize it He's helping us find happiness and joy in the present.  Why would He stop? We have to trust Him. Take that leap of faith into the dark unknown.  Then we will find that He's right there waiting to take us on to more blessings and happiness. 

I went on exchanges with the STL's this week. it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Sister Wright, a homie from the MTC came with us.  It really strengthened my testimony that our leaders are qualified by God to lead us.  She invited me to make a study plan for after my mission.  I've been thinking a lot about how I can stay strong and read scriptures every day and she was an answer to my prayer.  If I have a focus of what to study when I get home I'll have a goal and something to push me to study. We'll see if it works. 

We went to this really touristy place where you can spend a ton of money on little trinkets...but all I got was this burrito thing...it was soooo good. Basically this really really paper thin rice paper tortilla and they shave this peanut brittle block and put the shavings on the tortilla thing and then they put ice cream on it and wrap it up. So delicious. :)

Also, we helped paint this lady's house's ceiling...it was basically paper and will not last long, but we got it done.  Taiwanese builders...sometimes it just doesn't make sense. I've learned a lot about not collecting crap that I'm never going to use just from watching people who have a ton of crap but they don't want to throw it away.  

We took our RC (recent convert) to Taipei for a testimony meeting.  Pretty much the whole ward came to support her :)  

Well, that's about enough of my wise words of wisdom.  See you all next week ;) stay cool!

Sister Fisher

selfie Monday: this is us acting out our time in the wangka.  We did make good use of it by making a LOT of calls :) 

Group selfie