Sickness and fires

so they are changing the email system so my new email is lisa.ferguson@gmail.com. If you send them here at the myldsmail they will get forwarded but you can send them to the gamil from now on.

Ok so welcome to my yesterday! So cool! It's so different, the times here and there. I was thinking as I was going to bed, which was stupid because then I couldn’t sleep, about two things one I get to play basketball tonight and as I was going to sleep ending my day, you were wakening up getting ready for yours … ha you get a used day lol just kidding.

As for this week it was, well when they tell you that missionary work is hard and you don’t like it all the time... they were referring to this week lol. I got way sick lol not a huge shocker but it was a weird sick. I had a fever for about 3 or 4 days then I couldn’t get out of bed for a day and a half. I sleep for like 18 hrs then was up for 5 and sleep for another 9 or 10 that was on Tuesday. We had to stay in and the elders came gave me a blessing. I started to feel a little better. A few days later we went to a small city and had a really good day that was heaven sent. It’s the only reason I got through the week. Friday my comps got sick with the same thing… 3 days inside in one week will drive a missionary crazy!!! I’m so blessed to be almost better but my comps are still really sick…

But enough on the bad sorry, but I had to tell you that for you to get how good a day Thursday was. So I was able to walk around that day so we went to Arteek. In a normal day we get 12 to 14teen conversations with people about the church. We keep track to see how were doing. Well on Thursday my Comp Christensen and I didn’t have our Mini to help us and we got 40 on our own and our mini got like 36 so together we got 76! So so cool!!! And we found a bunch of people that want us to go back! If it keeps going like it has been out there we’ll open a branch out there!!! It’s so cool to walk in town that has never heard of the church and watch it explode with people that want to learn about it. Lol we had one lady that saw us on the street walking and had us come to here house for lunch. We taught her while we where there but that almost never happens here. It was so cool we took phamphlets with us and ran out so they had us promise to come back next week and teach them more about our church.

Oh one funny thing, so mom don’t freak out. But I may have had two fires in my apt in one day lol my stove; we have a gas stove top and the knob caught on fire, don’t know how… but I was able to blow the knob out and get to the gas switch on the stove and turn it off. Then that night I was plugging in the thing we take showers out of and the cord hangs on the wall it sparked and caught the wall on fire but when I unplugged it the fire went out. 4 reals I love Armenian stuff, there is never a dull day when the whole country is taped back together… but they don’t have duck tape here so I don’t know how they do it…


Questions from people

How cold is it there? It's warming up a lot I didn’t have to put on longjohns yesterday or today and it rained today not snow… doing well. 

Are you in a ward or branch? I’m in branch. They are so wonderful! We have a lot of inactive… we have 400 ward members 50 that come…. Lot of work but so far we have got 5 to start coming back which is so cool!!!

Can you buy powdered milk? Ya that’s what I eat my cereal with most days. That or just water. Lol you said to eat leafy greens to get calcium lol it's winter there are no greens, lol all we have to eat is potatoes and bread. We get creative 

Can we ship you food products? Ya you can: peanut butter,  and if you get splenda brown sugar it weighs less and you don’t have to use as much of it. I’ve seen missionaries get chocolate chips before. It’s really what ever. Then the packets of ranch and packs of seasonings to make stuff are awesome. Like pudding and onion soup mix, enchilada, and salsa packets are really good. Just stuff like that. They make everything from scratch. So they don’t have mixes like muffin mixes, if you wanted to email me some recipes for easy foods to make that would be cool. I can make Doma and Palmini and other Armenian foods now that I have a mini we cook a lot, I can also make pancakes form scratch … my poor comps we were all really sick this week and I got better faster so I was making the food and the labels are all in Russian… baking soda and baking powder make for better and worse pancakes… we ate them anyway lol. I also can make a mean carrot cookie I think its way good!

Do you have a calling in your ward or branch? No we have a really good branch like we have a first counselor most here don’t but the branch pres is moving to Provo some time. 

Do you teach people in their homes? Always it’s crazy some live in old train carts others have make shift homes out of cement and garbage. Others have really nice apartments. Some have nice houses. It's really sad some had nice houses then the earth quake came in 88 and its not rebuilt yet, so if they have a good house some times just depends on if the earth quake got to there house or not.

Ok so I love hearing the news from back home! Keep it coming. I’m way excited for Jon who would have thought he would find a girl to married him that was so cute (just kidding Jon); even cooler Preston is getting baptized! Man I have the best family in the world and I can say that for reals now I’m half the way around it and have found the second best here but you all still are the best.
Hey if any of you have recipes that you think a missionary would like you can send them my way and if you have any lesson ideas that would be way cool to.

Love you all so much you have no idea how proud I am of all of you!!! And never feel that something is to lame to tell me. I like knowing what’s going on.
on a weird computer so no pics today sorry.

Your Queer Fergie

PS> Hey mom could you send me Velcro some time not any time soon just when you send a box next, I have had some down time so I made some visual aids for lessons and Velcro would be cool to have, along with that stuff that looks like gum and you can stick pictures up on the wall with it. But no rush

Love your crazy missionary

Things here are going good here I can see a lot of growth this week I had no idea my mouth could be opened up like it has been. I’ve been feeling really bad about my ability to talk or the lack there of. But this last week the language has caught up to what I thought it should be and more, in most cases I say stuff that I didn’t relies I had the words in my vocabulary.

It’s really neat to see how much God loves the people of Armenia. As I serve them I can feel the deepest love I’ve ever felt and I know that it’s not just the love I have for them its coming form a much higher place.

I really love my mini I’m so lucky to have Sarahnosh as my mini she is like an American that doesn’t speak English but that stops nothing she is my best friend here by far! Sometimes when were talking I forget she doesn’t speak English and I slip into English its funny when I happens in the coolest Armenian ascent ever she says “What the Heck Queer Jon” in English its really funny! I just drop every time.
Sister Christensen is so amazing she lived in Paris and was a Jr. high English teacher there. She brings out some much good in me as I see how much she loves and all the good things she does. I just want to be more like both of my comps.

I am seeing a lot of weaknesses that I have this week but it’s like in Jacob 4: 7 I think it is where it says God gives us weaknesses so that we can lean on him and see how he has blessed us. It is really cool to see how much he is in my live. I really have been humbled this week, I can see where I couldn’t do a lot of things last week and this week I’ve had to do them and it works out way better than I thought it could. And I know it’s not me, it’s all him. There is 2 rules that have been passed down. 1. Don’t stand on a street corner to long and 2. don’t take credit for anything! If it’s good it wasn’t you and if it’s bad you don’t want the credit anyway. This is so true!!!!!

My new companions and I are getting along really well and it totally shows on our work. We are both so new on the mission so we have learned what the phrase do or die means I do or WE die… you would be surprised what can be done. I don’t think my mouth has ever been this opened in my life! I know that’s saying a lot.

Sister Christensen and I haven’t really had comps that liked taking finding Hr’s but we went and did that the other day holy crap. I had no idea how much fun it was!!! I could just do that my whole mission and be way overly happy it’s nice to find something I’m good at. I can teach ok it’s not beautiful by any means but I can say what I need to. But on the street its fun and you get to talk to so many people most of the time they try to get me to talk to them so when I do in Armenian it totally floors them its SO MUCH FUN!!! I really wish we could open proselyte but that does add to the fun. I just have to prompt them to ask about me and I’m a cute American so it’s really not hard at all. (Still have a way to go with humility in all things.)

From dad’s email-
Do you have a refrigerator? – yes its one of the small ones you find in a hotel
How do you heat your apartment? -- We have a box that heats our water (when we have it) and it works like a radiator taking hot water to different parts of the house to heat it.
Do you eat normal foods or is it kind of different?—I don’t even remember what real food is any more we eat bred with EVERY thing. Ranch packets, Peanut Butter and Brown sugar is like gold here.
They have been cracking down really hard on all the gas appliances that we have I’m sure you all heard about the missionaries that died in Romania there are close to the we have the same area prez. as them so they have checked out appt to make sure its all safe. I think one of them was from Highland.
My tummy has even started to play nice with me. That’s one of many blessings I can see from God, I can now hold down most of the food here.
Did you watch the Olympics? My trainer’s brother was in them. It was his first year, Eric Fisher. Down hill skiing.

Love you all have a good week. your crazy missionary

Lot of love

So last week there were no pics because a virus got on my sim card and wiped all my pics so I took some new ones to send you this week.

On this email is my apartment.


1st email the pics is my DL your first district leader they call your “Dad” so the one next to me is Elder Larsen my DL and the one sitting by him is the AP who trained him so it’s a 3 generation pic



2 the church house we went to this morning, it was way sweet!!!

And the 3rd is a church house we went to last Wednesday



Second email the first one is of a pic I took this morning we found a paint brush and made it look like I was panting the pic.

The second one is more of the church house we went to this morning.

3rd is big Armen my hero he saved us one night, form a group of about 8 lockcoats I will always love him we tolled out DL when he called that night to see how we were doing (he does this every night) that we met one of the 3 Nephits that night. He got off work early one night and saw us waiting for the bus and come and talked to us. And not 5 min later this group of about 8 men came and he puffed up looked huge and the men just said some stuff and keep walking.


The last one is my name tag by the church I really like all the beautiful stuff here holy cow you would not believe how beautiful it is here.

Hey it wonderful to hear form all of you as normal. I hope all is going well with you all.
So here they will sometimes have members serve what they call mini mission they only serve for the 6 weeks and they can serve as many as they want. So the Saranoosh the girl I’m always telling you about she comes around with us a lot. She is my new Companion crazy!!!! But I’m so excited we get along really really well and they are bringing a Sister Christensen up to serve with us to so we’ll be in a 3 some. Sister Christensen and I got are call at the same time beginning of June so she’s been here for 4 months and me 1 month so I just have so much excitement God is going to have to bless me and my companions there is no way we’ll be able to do this with out him. (Lol it took me a min to remember the word for bless in English) My English is gone!!! It’s so hard to speak in English now and Armenian hasn’t come yet so I never know what to say it’s hard sometimes.

Sussan and Harutsun (my transliteration skills are not what they should be) they have got a lot of crap happening. Sussan, her grandkids are way sick and she had them live with her. She has 2 kids but her daughter had like 11 kids witch is wildly unheard of here. They freak when I tell them I have 4 brothers then I tell them I have 3 sisters and it's way funny. Harutsun, his name means resurrection in English, he needs surgery but he’s to scared to get it. (I don’t blame him if I had to get surgery I would try going to Frankford Germany to get it done.) So teaching them hasn’t happened that make me so sad you just have no idea. On a mission the people become just like family if not closer to you. Ya give your heart and soul to them; you do so much ya think of them all the time. I’ll give an example: My comp is really sick that’s why she’s getting transferred they're trying to get her somewhere warmer. It will be so cold that our noses are froze like ice in your nose I swear it happens, A lot! Well she is my hero she has lung problems and I try to make her take it easy. This never works she never gives up she will be dead form the day and some one wont answer there phone to see if they can come to church so we go to their house what I didn’t know was that they live up on the 6th floor I told her there was no way I was letting her huff it up 6 flights but before I could catch her she was on the 4th floor. To make it even better we had the wrong stairs so she goes down and runs up another flight of steps to the right door she goes up 12 flights of stairs dead anyways riding on a prayer to have the people say they couldn’t make it that week. So you make an appointment for later in the week and go, it breaks your heart not for the fact that you went up stairs that’s not the point the point is that you just want to cry that they don’t get it. They feel the warmth and peace when your there but just don’t take advantage that they can have that always with them not just when your there.

But don’t worry you have your heart breaks but there is this joy that you can't even imagine! Like the first time I was on a bus going to Arteke from Gymeri, normally in America you just don’t talk about gospel things. I could see a lady looking at my tag so I started talking to her she asked if I would was married. I said no then she asked if I would marry her son (I get this a lot) so the Queers have this system that works well. I pull out a pic that I have of Jon and show it to them and tell them he’s my boyfriend (I do a good job of holding in the vomit lol) and they give me a hard time for not being in the pic. But hey get the point that I’m taken. So she asked me why I was here away from my boyfriend, But that’s my “in” I told her how I was here to teach about Christ and that we use this book called the Book of Mormon to teach of him and all the wonderful things he has done for us and our families and I want ppl to know about the happiness that I found. This was the first time I gave away a pamphlet all by my self, and the lady’s friend took it and started reading, they were both really excited. I put my number on it so they could call me. But they wanted to know more so the best I could I explained how God loves us so much he gives us families that we can be with for ever. They loved it! At that time when it finally comes you have the word but more important the spirit telling you what to tell them. I told them that they can be with there loved ones for ever and this is their first time hearing it. I cant help but feel a new type of joy in my heart it makes everything worth it makes up for the heart aches and your just filled with over whelming joy as a missionary ya learn to ride on moments like that. Totally makes up for all the times people just laugh because you can’t think of any Armenian to say. Worse when we find the words and they don’t care and don’t want to hear it. That hurts way worse than anything they could say is when you see people that believe in what your saying and want to learn more but there friends don’t so they walk away and you know they felt it they wanted it but just didn’t have the courage to stand out and take it.

I know that I’m here with God at my right hand I feel his love so strong I know that this is the best thing I’ve ever done! The joy and love I feel every day is awesome I can’t describe it. I really hope that Mom and Dad you go on a mission someday together. There is so much work to be done. But you don’t have to have the tag to be a missionary. Get your friends that you think might want to know about the church don’t be pushy but offer it to them just having your eyes open can do so much. Let the missionaries teach them at your house or go with them, the lessons that we have a member go SO much better not only do your testimonies help but it gives them a friend when the missionaries are gone.

I love you all so much hope your week goes good the pics on this is of my apt. its huge and way nice for here the shower is a thing we fill at night because we only have water at night.
Love your Queer Fergie

Way glad to hear that you all are doing good keep me updated on the world around you no news is to small to let me know about. thanks Rachel for letting me know that Wes is getting married pleas some one kick him for me and tell him to write his fav cousin (I know he’s not there but make him anyway)

Short and to the point

Hey family how is every one??? How is your winter? As it turns out I love the winter when I don’t have to drive in the snow. What could be better than just getting to walk around in the snow!? The best part is I put long johns under my tights so it feels like I have pants on but I look like I just have tights on. It's wonderful!

So today we traveled down to Yerevan, it's like a 2 hr taxi drive. It was ok. I was sitting next Elder Wainwright and his coat got all over me so now my arms a little dirty today but not bad lol it will clean off.

The Girl and Mom I told you about, we haven’t been able to meet with them and that’s sad but I have a feeling they’ll come back. I’m getting better at the Lang and I’m picking it up faster now.It’s nice to have an idea of what people are saying to me and get to know the members more.

This week has been weird, my Comp is still really sick so we have to come in at 8 instead of 9 and she can’t go very hard so it makes is harder to get a lot of appointments in but She is a fighter!!! Holy cow she’s amazing! So my Comps brother made it into the Olympics so look for a Erick Fisher, that’s her brother. It's way cool, so we partied. I also hit my one month in the country on the 30th so that was way fun.
Sorry this is short I don’t have a lot of time today.

Eileen they have soap here they just don’t use it. I don’t understand ether.