The miracle of the gospel

This weekend I've had a very special occasion happen. As the Nashville Tribute Band song goes:

"as someone I've come to love got dressed in white, my eyes caught their first glimpse at heavens light"

I've been a witness and an observer to the power of God, and of his grace, and his love. I find much comfort in the words of Christ, as he explains the purpose and plan for the church in 3rd Nephi 27. 

14 And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—

15 And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works.

16 And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world.

This is why our church exists, this core message needs to be sent unto the hearts of every person on earth, so they can choose to let it enter into their hearts by their own agency.

I'll send pictures when I get to the church like usual. 

Fun experience! Last night after all of us got back to the apartment, we slightly filled up the other elders bathtub with hot water and soap, and put our dinner table in the tub and ate cereal (this bathtub is massive). So we all soaked our feet and ate some cold cereal and beef jerky. I'll likely be getting those pictures soon, and if I do, I'll send them home.

One picture is with the bishop, and the 3rd pic was on Christmas day, it was super bright and extremely windy that day, so I had to be very bundled up. 

Elder Fisk

Yesterday was Christmas Adam

Because today is Christmas Eve 🔥😂😂👌

Oh it's been another great week. This week is the last week for Elder Smith, one of the elders in our apartment. He goes home on Thursday, so that means his Skype call home tomorrow will be pretty tame

"Hey mom"

"Hi son"

"Soooo.. see you in two days.."

So many great things are happening in this work, and I'll report one a most wonderful event next week.

It's so cool that I've already been out for 3 weeks. Times are really going by quickly. There is so much good in this work, and it's so easy to be obedient. Obedience always brings blessings.

I went on exchanges this week with the elders in charge of the YSA ward and I came in contact with my MTC presidents wife!! President bunker wasn't home but she told me they will visit my wards one of these weeks.

So we went to a really tasty pizza restaurant, and we got a BBQ bacon and chicken deep dish bad boy.

I got an ear of Street Corn, which is omega tasty. Highly recommended. I wrote down the ingredients so if you want it I'll let you know, at zone conference this week they gave each missionary 3 boxes of cereal, so we in total got 15. I think by the time I took this photo one was already gone, not sure.

And then there's a picture of my MTC presidents wife. She actually remembered me and a sister from my mtc group. That was way cool!

There is peace in this life

Wow ok this week was amazing. I have never before felt the guiding light of the spirit in such an abundance for as long a period of time as I have this week. The amount of blessings and miracles I've seen are even more abundant in my heart than they have ever been. 

One thing that has heavily contributed to the amount of success I've had this week most definitely comes from our missions lack of focus on the numbers. As a general mindset, we are fixated not on the numbers we have, but the people in our area that need to be taught. Due to not focusing on numbers but rather the spirit led guidance on daily goals, we have in one week turned an area that has had longstanding zeroes for the last 8-9 months into a competitive and harvest ready area. The field truly is white to those who are guided by the spirit. 

I can also testify of how crucial the last minutes of every day are. The most impactful moment of this week were when we had 5 minutes before 9:00 pm, and we felt prompted to knock on one last door. 

I'm seeing lives changed by our simple words because the spirit guides them. Just yesterday we had a lesson where in my opinion was hot trash on our side, but because the spirit was able to bear a sure witness, the family we were teaching knew for a surety of the things we said, that they were true. 

Fun experience time, we knocked on a former investigators door around 8:30 pm in a really shady area. He opened up and immediately was like "boys I'm not interested" but before he could say anything, I felt prompted to testify of the doctrine of Christ. It caught his attention, and after I had finished, he stopped, and told us that he's been in a rough patch, and that he really feels he needs to start going to church. We have a followup appointment with him tonight. After we were walking away, we stopped about 20 feet away from a light pole and stopped to make a report on the lesson we just had with this guy. After a few minutes, a car from the other end of the road came driving by and randomly slowed down and nearly parked next to us, and rolled down their window, and the guy in the car looked at us and said "nah just kidding" and turned around. He went near the back end of the street and turned off his lights. After about ten seconds, a guy walks through the shadows and approaches the vehicle. He hands the driver "something" then walked away, back into the darkness, after about ten more seconds, the driver turns his light back on and drives out of the neighborhood. Uhh. K I guess that's what happens when you and your companion wear black in dark streets in Vegas.

I've got many experiences to share but I guess. That's not as important as knowing I'm safe, I'm following the spirit and all will continue to be well.

There is peace in this life. When your words and your actions are in sync with your thoughts and intentions, you experience a peace only found in this gospel.

I know why I was sent here. And it's a simple and profound reason.

The cookies in the picture we got from a German lady who liked what we were out doing. The middle guy in the picture of the three of us is my companion, Elder Settle. The last pic is the church I'm emailing from.

Elder Fisk

                   

                   

6 hours of church, guns, and blessings

Wow this week has been fun. I've got so many things to talk about.

Ok so this mission is Awesome! I've had a fantastic time here, and so many amazing experiences already. I've met close relations to the home ward! the Clarks relatives, a friend of the Bentschnieders, and tons of people who have lived in Springville before, all in like 2 days of service. 

My companions name is Elder Settle. He's from Colorado Springs. He and I are already good friends. We white washed into an area that had a history of zeros for weeks, so we came here and broke it.

This is a technology mission, so I've had a smartphone, and I must say the apps we get to use make missionary work soo much cleaner. It's kind of hard to explain to someone who doesn't know different, but I'd be able to describe it to all my friends using pen and paper in the Scotland Ireland mission. My area covers 2 wards. Palmhurst and westcliff from the Las Vegas Stake. 

This area I'm in we bike, and in our apartment we have 5 elders, so we party every night. 

I can fill more details in further emails, I want to talk about some crazy things this week. Our wards start at 9:00 and 1:00 respectively. This means we are at church from about 8:30 to shortly after 4:00. That was good. This will change at the start of the year, so I'm excited for what's coming. 

So I got in Vegas about Wednesday evening and my companion and I headed out to see what's with our area. We white washed in, meaning both elders in the area were replaced. While locating some formers, we walked by this guy named William who was hanging out near his friends house making sure no sketchy guys we're coming. He called it holding down the fort. Later that evening we passed by him again while he was talking with one of his friends who had been through a lot. After we talked with him for a while, he asked us to give him a blessing, so we pulled out a chair and I gave him a blessing right out on their driveway. Day 1! 

Since then time has been flying by, which I'm grateful for.

We've had guys point guns at us, brave old ladies defending her house from us, members bringing us in for lessons and dinner, and everything has been so fun. 

I'm not at a church, so I can't send photos home right now, but if we are later today, I'll send them home.

Love from Vegas!

Elder Fisk

Vegas Baby! Elder Fisk's mission....take 2

While Tyler waits for his new UK visa to be approved, he has temporarily been assigned to the Las Vegas West Mission. We dropped Tyler off at the MTC Wednesday morning to take a shuttle with 16 other missionaries leaving the MTC also heading to the same mission. Tyler arrived in Vegas safely Wednesday afternoon. It is anticipated he will be serving the the Vegas area for about 6 weeks and then will return to the Scotland/Ireland Mission. Pdays are Mondays.

Aaaaah

First of all apologies are in order. I'm really sorry I wasn't able to email till now. It's been absolutely miserable. 

I cannot as of yet explain what is happening to me because the doctors in Ireland have no idea what they are doing. I was able to have a first hand experience that i'm very very allergic to penicillin. I went to the doctor last wednesday because I was feeling absolutely terrible. After about 3 minutes she looked at my throat, didn't check anything else and said I had a throat infection, prescribed penicillin and I was on my way. Well it wasn't long till I was covered in rashes and in a worse condition than before, but after 3 days the rashes went away so I kept taking the penicillin. I wake up monday morning to find that my throat had nearly closed up. I was not able to get out of bed for more than just enough time to go to the bathroom, before being exhausted and returning to bed. I woke up Tuesday feeling just as terrible, but I had just enough strength to get to the store to buy food, since we didn't have any, then I was down the rest of the day. Then yesterday I wasn't able to get out of the flat again. Today i've enough to get here, which is at a members house who is accommodating us for dinner, that I've been able to email.

This is just the catch up, I won't be able to have any proper diagnosis as to what's going on till maybe Saturday at best.

Elder Fisk

No Email from Tyler

Tyler is still quite sick and rested in his flat this pday. Hoping and praying for a quick recovery and for happier news next week.

New Transfer, Not so Fresh Start

Well Good news is my companion is awesome. He's hard working, obedient, and a solid guy to have around. Bad news is I've been sick all this week. 

On Monday I had a MASSIVE migrane. - couldn't eat the whole day

Tuesday I developed a fever of 102.6 degrees - couldn't eat the whole day

Wednesday the muscles in my back and neck were seized up - forced down some food and water

Thursday things started going back. I started to get my appetite back, still sick

Friday I was feeling good enough to leave the flat

Saturday I worked the whole day - re opened my toe...

Sunday worked most of the day, still got sore muscles.

and today. 

Well today I'm doing better. We are planning on going off to some castle ruins about an hour away from mullingar. I'm going with our district like last time. I'm excited to be there. The weather is really spotty. there are clouds all around with small gaps, and rain is really dodgy here. It's sort of rainy in some areas, down pouring in others.

Also due to some pretty extreme circumstances I've been hit by, I've learned a few things about myself. I've also been able to recognize spiritual gifts I've been given. On Tuesday I was looking for my thermometer, and after giving up, I decided to just go to sleep, I was really tired. In my dream, which lasted about 5 minutes before the muscles in my neck woke me up, I was shown exactly where they were. I woke up, walked into the bathroom, and lo and behold it's exactly where I was shown it was. I'm noticing more and more the gifts I've been given. I've had many more sacred visions I won't bother mentioning, but I can assure you that I know what's going on. I know with exactness where I am on the path, and I know exactly how My Father in heaven feels about me. I'm still out of energy, my body isn't processing food as it should be, so I've still got problems to solve, but I now have a testimony of perspective. I know with a surety that everything will be ok, not just from my perspective, but from His.

Also the members of the branch are awesome. They could tell I was sick while I was visiting them on friday, and as soon as I mentioned what was going on, they were like 

"What do you need? medicine? painkillers? dinner? A nice bed? ANYTHING you want you call us and we'll give it to you."

"NO STEVE YOU CAN'T OFFER ELDER FISK PAINKILLERS, ARE YOU JOKING?"

"HEY IT CAN HELP"

This library will not allow me to plug in my camera so I can't share pictures with you here. But next week I'll be in Sligo on P-day so I can share them with you then. I got really bored while I was sick this week so I took the laser pointer and messed about with the camera.

Transfers

Well transfers have come and gone and I'm staying in Sligo. I'm getting a new companion. His name is Elder Keenan. He was my last companion's last companion. He should be getting here by 10:00pm. then it's off to Sligo in the morning. I'm ready to work and go hard. I'll be honest I'm not feeling great but I know that will change. Nothing to do with missionary work, I'm just sick and sore. It's been a long day running missionaries all across the mission. It's what happens when you stay in Dublin over moves. I don't have a whole lot to say, It's a good day, I'm with good missionaries, and I get a day in Dublin with a friend from the MTC.

Here are pictures from my p-day in Mullingar last week.