2/22/2010

Family,

This week was awesome. We baptized 2 young women. One is named Elisabeth and the other Macarena (like the song) they had an amazing conversion. Maca read the entire BOM before her baptism and only has 15 years of age. During the baptism service she was crying and it was really special. I felt the Lord pour out his blessings on me and I felt his love. It is amazing as I strive more and more to serve the Lord, I only find him serving me.

Wow mom 2 weeks away from home, que fomi lol. No jk. Sounds like you have had a good time. I was thinking I would love something from the book store there because I love reading about church doctrine and learning and things like that...but I would need to look around. I don’t know any of the books or anything. But you could look around at writings of the prophets and stuff and buy me something. Especially if there are some teachings of Joseph Smith or something like that there. I love reading of him.

I can’t believe my sobrina(niece) has two weeks! lol how is Madi doing? Also how are Britt and Bruce? Oh man someone just brought in some fries and they smell good I want some...anyways, lol funny story: so we were walking in a "ghetto" area and we past by a woman and she said a word that is like slang for hottie or something like that and I was with Elder Scow and he thought she just said hola so he said hola back. lol so then she said something else that was a question that leads to action and Elder scow was about to say something but I just told her no gracias and we went on. lol he was hitting on her and didn’t know it and I pretty much saved him. It was so funny and awkward though. Anyways I am going to get to my spiritual thought so I can send photos.

So I was thinking this week about studying the scriptures. We all know we should and that there are ways to study them and that all are good. But I started to think about what has helped me and what ways really help us "feast upon the words of Christ” One method is to read the scriptures all the way through. This helps you understand the spirit a little and understand the story. Also you can study by topic, such as what is faith in the Savior, why is it the first principle of the Gospel, why and how does faith in the Redeemer lead to repentance, and how does the atonement strengthen me to do things in life that I never thought I could do? This is also very effective and gives more room for the spirit to enter in your heart and teach you. Then we have the third method and the most powerful method. This is to look for connections, patterns, and themes in the scriptures. For example – themes, I chose to look at the theme of the Book of Mormon and also all of the parables of Jesus Christ. In every story and prophecy has the message of come unto Christ. For example, the vision of Lehi, the tree of life in his vision is the central feature in the dream and is a representation of Jesus Christ. Now let’s take this same story and apply it to scripture study. We see that there are three groups in the story. The first group encountered the mist of darkness and fell away and let go of the Iron Rod. The Iron Rod is the word of God or the scriptures. The second groups of people were clinging to the Rod of Iron. They were clinging to the scriptures, reading, having faith and were doing good things, but they too fell away into temptation. Notice the statement "clinging to the rod” this must mean that they occasionally read their scriptures and occasionally went to church. Then we read about the third group. They "continually held fast" to the rod. They continually read their scriptures and continually went to church and said their prayers and they partook of the fruit and were saved and arrived at Jesus Christ.

My loved ones reading this right now, just like every scripture there is, I invite all of you to come unto Christ by receiving his restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism (if you haven’t already) receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end by studying the scriptures every day and going to church and praying. I promise you all that this is the only way to find true happiness. Because the happiness in the gospel is described as a joy and is a never ending happiness.

Love you all

Elder Fischer

The Lord has commanded it and i must obey