Former Branch President

Hello,

Well this week has been fun. I have been in Canje in a trio this whole week because the missionary in New Amsterdam that I am replacing couldn't fly out to Aruba until today but Elder Sanchez, my new companion, fly's to Trinidad today for MLC and won't be back until Thursday. I am going to go to Rose Hall Coryntyne with Elder Griffeth who's companion is also going to MLC. 

Tomorrow after District meeting there is an exchange planned with the Corriverton Elders so I will be over there until Wednesday and back to Rose Hall Thursday when I can finally go to my new area. 

This week we went looking for less active members with Brother Morris. He is new to the area and returning to activity and so he wants to help with the missionary efforts. While looking for the Ramlochan family our journey took us to lot 57 Reliance Abandon. We found the house and the person who lived there said it was a wrong house and that we need to go further down the street and the numbers all start over again. We go down to the end and around a corner feeling a little lost so we decided to ask some people leaving there home if they knew where lot 57 or the Ramlochan family was. They said no but that there Dad was a member of our church and then left. We then met Brother Brown. He is a former branch president and it was one day before his 65th birthday. He said he's not sure why he fell away. I am excited and cant wait to hear how the missionary efforts go with him here. Things are going well here.

Elder Fisher

New Amsterdam Transfer

Hey

Sounds cold back home. We have been getting lots of rain here and when the wind blows at night and we are teaching people they run and grab blankets or towels and wrap up in them. I will admit it feels a little cool but they definitely look colder then us Americans and Canadians. 

This week has been good. We have been pretty busy. Yes we bike a lot. Every area has 3 bikes that stay in that area and so when we get transferred you just take the last missionaries bike. The teaching assistants who are kinda like Guyana's AP's then drive us to our new areas so you just hope the last missionary took good care of his bike and make the needed repairs. They also break a lot so that's always fun. 

Speaking of transfers we got our transfer calls this week and.... I am being transferred too... New Amsterdam! Not very far at all. Just going over the bridge. Its like a 5 minute bike ride there from our apartment. I will be with Elder Sanchez. He is from New Mexico. It should be fun and it will be nice to be able to follow up with how everyone is doing here in Canje.

Love you! 

Elder Fisher

Berbice Zone Activity

Hey 

This week has been good with lots of sun and rain and mosquitoes. To answer you questions on money over here, we always have to use cash because the only places here that use cards are the banks. Every store or market or really anything, you have to use cash. There are only cash purchases here there is no other option. 

We are having a hard time meeting with Mandy and Anike again. They seem to never be around. Anike got a new job and works every day from 8 am to 10 pm except Sundays which is her day to shop and go out so its hard to meet with her then. Mandy just kinda disappeared again. We don't really know what happened to her but we are still trying to work things out with them. 

We have been praying a lot for Sister Allison so her work will allow her to be baptized. The problem is she works from Saturday night from 11 to 7am Sunday morning but can't leave until the next worker releases her from her security post at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital. The person who releases her however hasn't been coming into work until 10 or 11 every morning causing her to miss church. She said that she heard a rumor that the person who takes over for her might be getting replaced soon so hopefully she will be able to come to church. She is great and really wants to share her newly gained knowledge with others. 

We are getting close to finishing the lessons with Prakesh and he comes to church each week so we decided to try to talk to his parents and let them know that he could be baptized this week if they allowed him to and supported him. At first his mom came straight out saying no baptism, but as we explained we are finishing his preparation his Mom and Dad started talking and said they would support him being baptized after his exams in March but that they want him focusing on his school and not baptism. They are really kind to us and are happy he is going to church just the baptism part has been tough but that was the best answer we have gotten so far and also a definite answer to our prayers.

On Friday we called Ackleema who has a baptismal date for the 21 to see if we could visit her that afternoon. She told us no because she got a job in Skeldon yesterday and is moving later that afternoon. It came to us as quite a surprise especially since she wanted to be baptized so badly, and as soon as possible. We told her this would post pone her baptism and that the Corriverton Elder's would have to start teaching her and finish the lessons. She understood. 

I don't know if you remember when i talked about when we contacted Derek Mohammed one night a couple of transfers ago with Elder Buxton but he is progressing really well right now. As the Transfers go by we have been learning to teach slower and slower and so we teach the Restoration lesson here in about 7 lessons. Derek has also been really tough to meet with and sometimes likes to go off topic. We were planning on dropping him but when we got to the lesson on the Great Apostasy we just didn't feel like dropping him that lesson. After that lesson everything started to click with him. We have been able to meet with him more frequently and he understands why all of the other church's are wrong and that we need prophets. He loved the lesson on The Restoration through Joseph Smith. This Week we were able to teach him on Wednesday about The Book of Mormon and on Saturday about Prayer and the Holy Ghost (How you can know the Book is true) He told us on Wednesday that "This book is important because it was written and inspired through revelation" On Saturday we invited him to be baptized and he accepted. We asked him why will this be different from your baptism at the Lutheran Church and he said "I must be Baptized the way the revelator wants me to" We also explained that this is the way Christ was baptized  and wants him to be baptized. By the end of the lesson he told us these exact words " You guys reopened my heart back". He was also at church this Sunday for the first time. He told us he plans on coming back! We are really excited for him. 

Today we had our Berbice zone activity. we played ultimate Frisbee and soccer. it was really fun. Its been a good week!

Elder Fisher  

A decent update

Hey 

This weeks been good. 

We were asked to prepare a 8 year old child of record named Varsha. She is the a really crazy and fun little girl. We had been preparing her for Saturday. Saturday morning came around and we called the Branch President to make sure he had interviewed her and arranged for someone to fill up the font. To our surprise he was expecting us to call him to let him know when to interview her and expected us to set up the entire baptism with the branch mission leader who we haven't been able to meet with in the last 5 weeks. We realized no one had done anything to prepare for the baptism that day. We quickly called a returning member, Brother Morris, who we planned on seeing that morning and asked if we could meet at the church and if he could fill the fount so we don't have to cancel all of our appointments for that day. He agreed. We did our studies and went to the church where we met with Brother Morris, cleaned the fount, made sure there were clean baptismal suits and assigned talks. By the time the baptism came around, everyone was on time and everything went perfectly. I learned how important having good communication with the Branch is and why we need Branch mission leaders. 

We have been trying to help Ravendra's family come to church with him. They are very good at supporting him and helping him come but they never stay. They keep promising us they will be there each Sunday but never come. 

Prakesh is doing great and never misses church. He even comes on time each week but we are having no luck with his parents. They still think he is too young to be baptized and needs too wait until he gets older. 

We fasted with Sister Allison this Sunday so that she could get Saturday nights/Sunday mornings off so she can come to church and we are working with Sister Ackleema to help her become more self reliant in coming to church by giving her numbers of members who can pick her up rather then setting up rides for her. Anyways I think that's a decent update. 

Love Elder Fisher