"That's Awesome!"

My favorite people!

Hey :)

Whata week! :) it FLEW by. I must sound like a broken record at this point, but really, everyday just goes by so fast. Things are great here in the Missoula. We got on the bikes a little bit this last week which was FANTASTIC. I never thought I'd enjoy biking in a skirt...but lo and behold I DO! Don't get me wrong, it's probably one of the most complicated things ever. You have to wear the right kind of skirt. Not too long, not too short, not too tight, not too flow-y.  Just right. Like baby bear's porridge ;) Once you have the skirt figured out, the balancing act begins. You have a bag full of tons of stuff. Typically 2-3 copies of the Book of Mormon, 5-10 pamphlets, the iPad, a water bottle, granola bars to snack on, and any other odds and ends. So the bag makes riding a little lopsided. Then you also have to use correct hand signals and be prepared to stop suddenly to talk to anyone and everyone, while also being super dignified while getting on and off and making sure your skirt doesn't blow up in the wind. It works out for the most part ;) The wind though. Not possible in the wind.

I spent some time in Frenchtown this week. Oh how I love that little town :) we had a super cool miracle! The sisters there are working with this lady, lets call her Lynn, and she is SUPER busy all the time but GOLDEN. So we had this member drive us to Lynn's house which is CLEARRRRRRR up in the mountains of Huson. It took us a half hour to get there. Lynn didn't get home until 8:50, curfew is 9:30. PANIC. So we sit down and teach a very brief part of the plan of salvation to her and her 10 year old daughter. Lynn and the member we brought really hit it off. Their daughters are the same age and know each other! PERFECT. So anyway, we get to the end of the lesson and ask Lynn to pick who she would like to say the closing prayer. Her 10 year old raises her hand and asks if someone can teach her how. We explained how to pray, and then got to witness this sweet 10 year old say her very first prayer. The times I have felt the spirit the strongest is when I am able to hear someone pray for the first time, and this moment was no exception. It was such a simple prayer, but so real and so heartfelt. Instant tears. I love being a missionary!

We had interviews with president on Wednesday. Oh my heavens. I JUST LOVE THE WADSWORTHS SO MUCH. President was super behind on interviews, so we ended up having a lot of time to talk with Sister Wadsworth. Her testimony of the gospel strengthens mine so much. You can just tell that everything she says about the gospel- she lives it. It was good to reminisce and talk about the miracle that missions are :) And then President. Oh man. We had interviews in the same room that we had had our very first interview over a year ago. It was amazing to see the change. I love soaking up all the knowledge I possibly can from him. I LOVED what he said in his weekly email to the mission this last week. He said:

"The nature of the work that we are engaged in requires us to have faith and a determination to push forward.  “…shall we not go on in so great a cause?  Go forward and not backward.  Courage …: and on, on to the victory!” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22)  It is easy to slide backward because it requires no effort—gravity and nature take its normal course.  Going forward requires focus, effort and determination. Many of us are comfortable with who we are and where we are at in life.  That is a mistake that will have eternal consequences.  We should never be satisfied with the status quo.  The expectation for our lives is to be growing and changing.  E. E. Cummings said, “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”  Heavenly Father and the Lord know who we really are and what we have the potential to become.  It is only through giving ourselves up to Them that we will be in a position to find our true selves.  Elders and Sisters, courage, and on, on to the victory!"

It's so true! I am so guilty of letting gravity chart my course. It's hard to figuratively paddle upstream when you can see everyone else floating down the lazy river. And the hard part isn't really even the paddling! It's seeing everyone else enjoying themselves floating the river while you are fighting your way up. The only way we will continue to paddle upstream is if we know WHY we are doing it! So when it comes to those real life situations where we are doing exactly the opposite of what the world is doing, we need to have a firm knowledge of why we are doing what we are doing. That is why we are asked to study the scriptures everyday. That's why we should pray always. And why we attend church! It guides us to what our motives should be in living the gospel. I've found that for me most often the answer to why we do the things we do is: Because our Heavenly Father has asked us to. I strive for that answer to be sufficient for me in any commandment I need to keep. I love how Elder Ringwood put it in his talk "Truly good and without guile." He said "All I really want in life is to please my fathers--both earthly and heavenly." When that is our goal, everything falls together so much easier. We are able to happily obey and see the blessings, sometime immediately. We can be
paddling upstream with a big grin on our face when we know that we are paddling towards eternal life.

This ended up being a lot longer than anticipated...haha :) I love you all so much. I'm so grateful for all the support I have been given from friends and family to help me come on a mission and stay on a mission. It's the best day ever so far every single day.

Be happy, work hard!
Love, Sister Fletcher

Oh. The title of the email. Funny story. Sister Pearson has this funny habit of saying "that's awesome!" in response to just about anything and it's starting to rub off on me. The best ones are when we are at the doorstep and they say "Oh I'm not interested" to which she responds.... "That's awesome!" Hahahahahahahahaha No! That's not awesome that they're not interested! 😂

 

Sister Thacker and I :)

 

Exchanges with the Frenchtown Sisters! :)

The Clark Fork :)

  Brittany and Jeff got married! Sister Hodgson and I taught them
for a bit 3 months ago and then they moved to 1st Ward and the sisters
there as well as the bishop worked it all out so that they could get
married and Brittany could start working towards baptism! WOOT!!! :)

Biking yesterday...There was a storm that came out of nowhere. *shivers*