Mission Savy : June 2016

Tuesday

It just keeps getting better

OH. MY. HEAVENS.

Are you ready for THE BEST NEWS IN THE HISTORY OF EVER?!?! Sister Hodgson and I.....are.......BOTH STAYING IN MISSOULA. We screamed. And cried. And pretty much ran a victory lap around the car when we found out. THE WORK MOVES FORWARD. I'm so so so so sooooo excited. We have a good thing going here in the third ward and it just makes me SO happy that we get to keep chugging along. :)

The past 5 days have been crazy. We biked about 35 miles in 2 days. That was pretty insane. It just so happened to be raining for about 20 of those miles. I've never been so wet and cold and covered in mud. It was so fun :) oh and along with biking crazy amounts...here's a funny story for you. Definitely one for the books. Sister Hodgson and I had just eaten a HUGE dinner at Good Food Store with a member. We were stuffed to the brim and then she bought us desert. We were so full. So then we biked around finding people and then headed over to Jonathan's to have a lesson with him and he brings out a MASSIVE slice of chocolate cake for us. I was convinced that that was the end of me.
I prayed so hard to get that cake down. Miraculously got it down, and we start to bike home. We get about 5 minutes away...and Sister Hodgson pulls over on her bike and starts to gag. Still no vomit to be seen. We continue biking and she pulls over again a minute later and nearly vomits again. This happens about 5 more times before we get home. Poor girl. Never eating that much again. "That was the longest bike ride of my liiiiife" -Sister Hodgson. TMI? Oh well ;)

We had TONS of miracles. It has been so cool to see how excited the members have been getting over here about missionary work. Yesterday, we had a group of about 12 single adults in the ward and a few from the stake meet at the church to try and find the 199 other singles in the ward. Yep. You read that right. 199 single members of the ward. CRAZY. Sister Hodgson and I split up and went with two sisters. I ended up being with Sister Savage from the St. Ignatius ward! My first area! Her and her husband are the stake single adult reps. We had a list of people to go and see. Many of the house addresses were wrong or the people had moved, but we talked to tons of people! And we have a few
return appointments. I love splits. It helps remind me that missionary work NEVER ends :)

When Elder Anderson was here he said something that really stuck out to me, "we do things not because of our callings, but because of our covenants." When we are baptized and when we go to the temple we essentially covenant to be Christlike. To minister to others. To uplift them. To "mourn with those that mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort." When we receive callings to serve in the church we serve not because we are the relief society president, or the nursery teacher, or even a full time missionary! We serve because we promised to keep covenants and serve in whatever capacity we are asked to! Pretty cool. Puts a "why" behind everything we do in the church.

Morgan is doing well. Sister Hodgson went and visited her when we were on splits. Turns out it was the perfect time because Morgan had just lost her job and was having a rough day. AND. The member that was with Sister Hodgson just so happened to have a very similar background to Morgan and so they hit it off and now the member is bringing Morgan to the single adult activities. WAHOO! Jonathan came to 2 hours of church on Sunday. He loved it. It's the first time he's been in 6 weeks! Mary also came, she's a returning less active and it was her first time coming to church in over 6 months and she stayed the whole time! I strongly believe that both of them came because we had the right member at both of the lessons we had with them this week. We had a returning less active bring Mary so that was awesome! I love serving in this ward :)

Also. HOW IS IT THE 4TH OF JULY NEXT WEEK?!?!? My favorite holiday and I didn't even notice until this very moment that it's in a week! Crazy. Go watch the fireworks from my spot for me k? :) I think that's basically my update from me for the week! I love being a missionary. I love the joy it brings. This is truly the work that brings the most happiness.

Love, Sister Fletcher

Remember this song? I tried to explain it to Sister Hodgson and I have never seen anyone so stressed out. Hahahahahahahahaha

Hokulia Smiles

We got a note from the friend of a potential basically telling

us that we weren't Christian, hadn't been saved, and that "we are
truly sorry that you have been misguided" so...we wrote one back. And
then Xong called us and said we could come back! WOOT!!!

for jwall ;)

Thursday

Sisters, we have a general authority here, can you please behave yourselves?

Hey everyone :)

Subject line...quote President Wadsworth ;) He thinks he's funny. I'll have you all know that when he told us that we were very reverently sitting in the chapel. ;)

I have no clue how I am going to put this past week into words. Possibly the best week of my mission. Or ever. Yep. It was that great. I just...ah. I love being a missionary. I love it so much. I wish all of you could come and run around with me for a day and just SEE. There are miracles in every single moment. I have never been so happy. I've never worked so hard. I've never cried so much. I've never laughed so hard. I have never seen such a beautiful place. I've never felt the spirit so strongly. I've never loved anything or anyone SO much as I have being a missionary. This work of salvation is amazing. And I will never ever ever be able to express how grateful I am that God called me on a mission through personal revelation and by a prophet of God. I want this to last forever. :)

I have been SO BLESSED on my mission. I can look back and see that each experience I've had has been for my personal spiritual education. Missions are like the MTC for the rest of your life. Everything I'm learning and doing every single day has application to what I will be doing later on in life. GOD IS SO GOOD. :) I can't say it enough. I'm just so HAPPY. :)

There is so so so so soooo much I want to say. I'll try and get as much down as I can.

This last week started out wonderfully. We finished up the last exchanges of the transfer. I love love love the sisters here. They teach me so much. I spent some time in Frenchtown (cute little town. I about cried of joy. I've missed the good ol country) and also had the YSA sisters both come to our area to do an exchange. So much fun. We worked hard, pounding the pavement and taking to everyone all day long, and then came home and planned and laughed the night away :)

We were positive we would have a bunch of people at church on Sunday...but none of them came :( Something came up with Jonathan, Morgan, and other families we are working with. LAME. But, they'll get there. We learned a lot the past few days about how to teach them better. Jonathan is doing AWESOME besides coming to church. Keep Morgan in your prayers. We had a great lesson with Darlene. The Ward is excited and giving us lots of referrals :)

Ready for the craziness? So on Sunday we got to church at 7:30 for Ward council. Stayed at church until 12. Came home and loaded stuff into the car and drove 2 hours to Helena to meet up with Sister Pearson and Sister Anderson. Drove with them about 5 hours to BILLINGS. My stomach was in knots being in my old area. It was so weird. We took a little walk around the temple and then stayed the night in the heights with Sister Lyon :) The next morning MISSION TOUR BEGAN. Elder Wilford W Anderson and his wife were there to teach us. They know the scriptures SO well and are master teachers. It was so wonderful. After mission tour ended that day at 3 we had MLC. Best meeting ever. I've never enjoyed being chastised so much! Hahaha That ended at 5 and then we drove 4 1/2 hours back to Helena, talking about what we learned the entire way.

We stayed the night in Helena and headed to round 2 of mission tour there. Because our mission is so big we can't ever gather all together, so it was SO cool to be able to see every single missionary and to see how both parts of the meetings ended up. The principles were all the same, but were taught totally and completely by the spirit when the time was right. My biggest take away from it all was how EXACTLY the words of the prophets and apostles translate to the 70's and then to the mission president (or stake president) and then to us. Gods word never changes. I have a sure knowledge of this. I have never wanted to badly to apply what we learned and BE a missionary, not just do missionary things. After the meeting, Sister Hodgson and I were invited to have in interview with Elder and Sister Anderson. It was so amazing :) and such a blessing. I KNOW that I am here in this mission for a reason. I know that President Monson is a prophet of God, that he holds all of the keys of the priesthood and that he has called people to operate with and under those keys. As a missionary, I am called to teach repentance and baptize converts. There is no greater work on earth than missionary work except that of a parent. But in the end it is the same work isn't it? :)

I couldn't be any happier. I can't wait to get out and WORK for the rest of this week. As fun as it was to learn for 2 days straight...I'm ready to put it into action. :) The gospel is nothing unless we take it from our minds and hearts, and put it into our souls. And we do that through ACTION. More on that next week.

Love you all! Love, Sister Fletcher :)