Sleeping bag coat for the win

Well friends! IT'S SNOWING IN MISSOULA. First snow of the year. IT FEELS LIKE CHRISTMAS!!! I hope all of you have seen the #lighttheworld video! Sister Crosland and I are brainstorming our plan of action to make it the best Christmas season EVER. :) 

So much happened this week. 

On Monday we hiked the M at sunset. Sooo much fun! We taught Paula that night. We've been teaching her on and off since I've been here. We invited her to baptism again and she said "Yknow, thinking about baptism has been keeping me up at night! I think a God might be telling me something." WOOT. 

Tuesday I was on exchanges in 2nd Ward with the lovely Sister Kezele! Oh how I LOVE her. Literally almost every single thing fell through that day, but she kept the greatest positive attitude. Attitude is so infectious, whether it's good or bad.

Wednesday we had a stellar district meeting and had our first thanksgiving dinner with the Conrads. I have so much love for their family. 

Thursday. Oh my heavens. I've never eaten so much in my life. We ate without stopping from 1pm to 7pm. I wanted to die. The things you do to spread the gospel....haha. 

SUPER COOL MIRACLE. SO. We were filling up with gas at the gas station on our way to our 2nd dinner. We had been meaning to fill up with gas allll day and kept forgetting. So. I was filling up the jeep and I turned to sister Crosland and said "hey. You have to get two people to write down what their thankful for on our thankful turkey before the car finishes filling up with gas." Of course she was up for the challenge, but there was no one to be found. I saw some people walking on the sidewalk a pretty good distance away and so I disregarded the prompting to talk to them. But Ikept getting this nudge that we needed to. Then, one of the girls turned around and I recognized her! Sister Crosland and I had BOTH taught her in St. Ignatius! Sister Crosland RAN and caught up with her. Turns out, SHE LIVES IN OUR AREA NOW! SO GREAT. 

Anyway. Thanksgiving was great :) I never want to eat turkey again. Ever. Grateful highlights for me: Not throwing up on Thursday, being a missionary, Serving in the MBM, my family, and my comfy bed :) 

Friday I was on exchanges with Sister Thomas! Man oh man I love her! She's so stinkin happy all the time and just brings light to EVERYONE. We had a ton of fun street contacting, tracting, and finding almost all day long. 

We also taught a lesson on Friday morning before exchanges that was pretty interesting. This person was telling us all of the things she believes and they were all totally in line with doctrine. The spirit was super strong as she talked about how she has come closer to God. And then she started saying that God and Jesus Christ are the same person and INSTANTLY the spirit left. It was a cool experience for me being able to very strongly feel that the role of the Holy Ghost really is to testify of truth. 

Saturday Dakota got baptized! She's in the YSA ward and I was able to teach her a few times. What a happy day! Lots of tears. That night we had a lesson with the Munnerlyns. They are a less active couple and I know they are a major reason why I needed to stay in this area for one more transfer. I to,d a bit of their story last week. About 6 months ago, Sister Hodgson and I went to help a family move out of first Ward, thinking that they were moving into our ward. Turns out they actually were moving into the elders ward. We were pretty discouraged that we had spent a lot of time with them and were so excited to have them move to 3rd Ward to finally feel like our efforts were a little bit wasted. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. I was going through the ward list and recognized the last name of this family as the ones we had met 6 months ago. There wasn't a phone number, or even a specific address, but miraculously we still had their phone number in our phone! We texted them, set up a time to go back, and this week was our 3rd time meeting with them. While we were there they found their scriptures that they had received when they joined the church 5 years ago. Both of them had tears in their eyes as they reminisced and told us their conversion story. The light just came flooding back into their eyes. They spoke of getting to the temple to be sealed as a family. The spirit was so strong. As we left their house that night, I cried and cried and cried. This. Is. What. It's. All. About. Families being together forever. What a miracle it was that we found them again. Gods timing is perfect. 

Life is good :) Christmas zone conference tomorrow. Life's about to get REALLY crazy! 

Love, Sister Fletcher 

 Missoula :) 

 I sometimes try to be creative...

 

Conrads, Hebert, and turkey

 

 random mural that I love 

 Sister Thomas! 

 

DAKOTA

 

 hot chocolate 

  SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW

Pop pop pop popcorn

Hey y'all! 

This week went by super quick.

On Monday we had some SUPER cool miracles. We met a family that recently moved into our ward. I saw their records pop up but without an exact address and I recognized the last name as a family we helped move out of another ward about 6 months ago. They didn't have a place to move to, so they were going to live at the KOA for a while. Anyway, we still had her number so we texted and asked her if she ended up getting settled into a house. She did and it's in our ward! We stopped by to see her that night and her little grandson came running up and gave me the biggest hug. This family wants to work towards being sealed in the temple. They are so ready for it. We also have a surprise for them this next week. They had zero food in their fridge, so we are surprising them with a turkey dinner and copious amounts of food :) 'tis the season! :) 

We also got to meet with Jonette and Saul. We taught the restoration and WOW they know their stuff! The spirit was super strong. They know it's true, they just have a lot of bad influences around them lately. We haven't been able to catch up with them since, so keep them in your prayers.

Tuesday was quite the day. Interviews with El Presidente! Oh how I love the Montana Billings Mission and the wonderful people I've met because of it. During the interview we ended up talking about a blog post on lds.org titled "the perfect lie" if you haven't read it, go read it now. 

https://www.lds.org/blog/the-perfect-lie?lang=eng

We had a great talk about how sometime we have a misconception that the more things we do, the more Christlike we become. That it's in the doing of as many things we possibly can that we achieve perfection. WRONGO. That will make us crazy. The way that we should see it is through the equation Me + Christ = More. Through Jesus Christ we can become infinitely more. More of the person that he wants us to be. 

We ended up having 2 dinners on Tuesday night. Oh man. Thanksgiving will be the death of me. #5dinners. As Sister Crosland always says, "Go big or go home...or go home big." Hahahahahahahahaha

Wednesday I was on exchanges with Sister Nez in the Missoula YSA ward. We got to teach SO MANY PEOPLE preparing for baptism. It was fun to teach people I've taught before and see their progression. Dakota gets baptized this weekend and it was probably one of my favorite moments ever to see her just light up every time we talked about baptism. We also put Michael on date for baptism! (Yes the sandwich one from last week) 

Also, played the piano in district meeting. I haven't played in 7 months. The fact that people could sing along to whatever hymn I played, in and of itself is a miracle. Hahaha 

Thursday. Taught the Pepions and I CRIED. Brother Pepion is struggling, but he knows the gospel is true. We talked a lot about blending culture and religion. It's a hard balance, but totally possible. For some reason, I just sort of lost it as I bore testimony of the blessings the gospel brings. I have seen them. It's absolutely and completely evident to me that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to achieve true and lasting joy, peace, and comfort. 

Friday was another exchange and I was in Missoula with Sister Cannon! We found some new investigators and just had a whole lot of fun being missionaries. She was such a trooper. Poor girl had a dog pee on her. Welcome to missionary work! 

Saturday we had some super sweet member present lessons. We taught Marie again. As we taught the plan of salvation we found out that she's pretty set in her idea of reincarnation...still a little stumped as to help her with that one. But she's reading all the way in Mosiah now! 

We also taught Flo, Mary, and Kaylee! Mary and Kaylee really participated in this lesson and we had the Conrads there with us. We taught about prayer because last time it was a struggle to get any of them to say the prayer. This time Flo AND Mary prayed. SO COOL :) 

Sunday was wonderful as always. We had a super great Ward council with the new bishopric. We have a goal as a Ward that instead of just giving food to people for thanksgiving that we should invite them to our homes. We met a less active the other day and I felt prompted to invite her to one of the dinners we are going to on thanksgiving. It was kinda scary, because we pretty much invited her to a strangers home, and we had no clue if the member would be okay with it, BUT it's totally going to work out! :) 

So many wonderful people and so many wonderful miracles. :) I am so grateful for this time I have to serve in the Montana Billings Mission. I know that God is mindful of each one of us :) 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  Eat lots of green jello for me! :) 

Love, Sister Fletcher 

Ps. Whoever can guess where the email title came from will get....a viral fist bump Hahahaha that's all I can do right now ;)

 Sister Cannon 

  Exchanging back in Stevi

  Marie. She cracks me up 

 Paper frog- lego tree of life lesson with Jessica... don't ask.

Goodness Gracious

Hey Y'all! 

This week was INSANE. So many wonderful miracles. There were so many experiences I had that I will hold dear for the rest of my life. Where do I start?! 

Well I guess first off, I forgot to mention last week that we got a call from a woman and she asked what she needed to do to get baptized. Sister Crosland and I were speechless. We set up a time to meet with her that day, invited her to be baptized. And she is! December 10th. She's in the YSA Ward, but we are SO EXCITED for her! 

On Monday we drove out to the furthest corner of our area. It's 12 miles from where we live, literally the middle of no where. But we had this awesome part member family to teach. Seriously the cutest little family ever. The dad is a member, the mom isn't and they have 3 cute kiddos. We taught the plan of salvation and it was so fun because these kids had never heard about any of it before! And it was so cool to see the Dad trying to remember things again. We are hoping to invite them to work towards the temple in the next lesson we have with them. 

Tuesday. Tuesday was the most bittersweet day ever. We drove down to Helena for MLC. It was so good to see some of my favorite people. I just can't say enough about my love for President and Sister Wadsworth and Elder and Sister Baird. They have changed my life. The entirety of MLC was focused on the Book of Mormon. It was so powerful and exactly what Sister Crosland and I needed to hear to help our investigators. This MLC was my last...and man that was rough. I had to give my departing testimony alongside 3 of the sisters in my MTC district. I think we went through half of a box of tissues. I can't express adequately how grateful I am for my mission and how it has changed my life. 

On Tuesday night we had an awesome miracle! We went to try a part member family that recently moved in. I can't remember if I said anything about Jonette? Well anyway, we had super high hopes for her and Saul (her boyfriend who is not a member but wants to get baptized) but they dropped off the face of the earth! So, I went up to the door grumbling a little bit. "They're not going to be home and we'll have to knock on doors in this trailer park in the dark" "they probably just wanted the churches help and really don't have real intent" Awful right?! Well. I got a spiritual slap in the face when Jonette let us in and we got to teach her all about the Book of Mormon and remind her of the covenants she's made. It was amazing, the spirit was SO strong. That experience really made me reflect on my faith, or lack thereof. 

On Wednesday we found Marie! She was just walking on the street with a grocery cart. We initially passed her in route to another appointment, but then felt prompted to turn around and go back. She's awesome! We met with her again on Saturday and she read ALL of 1 Nephi!!! HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!? I about fell over I was so excited.

So much planning on Thursday. But some amazing tender mercies. It's a miracle to just see that everything happens for a reason and that trials are never in vain. We can only have true empathy for others when we have gone through something that they have too. The Savior has complete understanding and total empathy. It was cool to get a glimpse of that. 

Exchanges on Friday with the lovely Sister Parsons. She's wonderful :) We found Michael! Street contacting again. We might have interrupted his sandwich eating by teaching him the entire restoration...BUT.....

HE CAME TO CHURCH. Seriously the entirety of 3rd Ward attacked him. They are so awesome at fellowshipping investigators. He stayed for all 3 hours. After when we asked him what he thought he said "it was everything I had hoped for" Ah. So cool. OH. And another part member family (taught them Saturday night) we are teaching came to church as well. We were absolutely STUNNED. BEST SUNDAY EVER. We were running all over the place. We also got a new bishopric in 3rd Ward. Bishop Thornock! I'm so excited to work with him more! :) 

Oh man. This email is a mile and a half long. I congratulate anyone who actually read up until this point. 

Wow. I'm just so grateful for my mission. Miracles happen every single day. I came across a quote this week by Matthew Cowley that I'll end off with this week. It was in a letter home to his family when he was serving his mission. 

"With all this work before me … , you can expect me home sometime during the millennium.”

Love you all :) 

Love, Sister Fletcher :) 

Exchanges!

Sisters at MLC

 Birthday shoutout to my MTC companion Sister Linney! 

 She's the best. I love my compi comp

 Watching the dogs....not a good idea. 

 it's a good thing they're cute.

 Moving in the next couple weeks. I'll miss this place!

Only in Missoula

Hey everyone!!! 

It's been a fantastic week over here in the bitterroot. It's definitely getting a whole lot colder and a whole lot darker. We spent quite a bit of time traveling this week with transfers. It's been pretty cool to see the drive from here to Helena in each different season. I'd definitely recommend  visiting Montana in June or September. SO PRETTY. :) Road trip anyone? ;) 

We have been working hard at finding new people to teach, and we found quite a few and had follow up appointments with them this week! Many of them are interested in knowing what we believe, and are in fact searching for truth. BUT THEY WON'T READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. Many of them have had bad experiences in the past and it makes them hesitant to read something and be "deceived." So, we're finding ways to read it with them. I have never learned so much about various Christian religions in my life. It's been cool to delve deeper into how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together. If you haven't read the talk "The Blueprint of the Church" READ IT. It explains so much about how our church today is the same as the one established by Jesus Christ.

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2014/01/what-is-the-blueprint-of-christs-church?lang=eng

A highlight of the week was getting to be in a trio with Sister King. Her and I talked on Facebook the night before we entered the MTC and ended up being in the same district! It's been a year since we have served around each other! It was such a sweet experience to be able to run around Missoula talking with everyone and teaching the restored gospel with her. Such a great tender mercy :) 

I'm at my absolute favorite part of the Book of Mormon right now. The beginning of the book of Alma. SO GOOD. I wish I could put into words everything I am learning. This week I learned so much about humility. It's absolutely essential to be humble if we want to return to heaven. Amulek talks about how "I was called many times and I would not hear." That really hit home for me. So often we think "I can do it myself" or "I know better than my leaders/parents/teacher." Pride. Pride. Pride. Sister Crosland and I had a funny experience that illustrated that this week. We had gotten home on Saturday night absolutely EXHAUSTED. Everything after walking into our room is a complete and total blur. The next day we got up and got ready for church and couldn't find the keys to the car. We. Looked. EVERYWHERE. We said a prayer and continued looking, moving the beds, looking through drawers, coats, and pockets. Finally, we had run out of time and decided that we would just need to walk to church. Sister Crosland went to turn off the bathroom light and looked on the counter to see...THE KEYS. She ran out to show them to me and at the exact same time we exclaimed "I had the thought to look there!!" I had the thought multiple times but pushed it aside thinking "no, I was just in there doing my hair and didn't see them. Hey aren't there." It was a great lesson in humility ;) 

We had a regional broadcast yesterday and we're privileged to hear from Elder Soares of the seventy and Elder Rasband of the quorum of the 12 apostles. It was SO good. They talked a lot about temples. Elder Rasband spoke about how the temple is the "higher ground" to get away from the storms of life. We are able to have a clearer perspective of what our Heavenly Father wants for us. I MISS THE TEMPLE SO MUCH. Can't wait to go again :) 

Well! I love you all TONS! 

Love, Sister Fletcher

 Driving the sisters to Helena!

 you know it's hunting season when....(yes. They have 2. Ridiculous.)

Totally normal.

 

Trios. So much fun :)

 Sister King!

Breakfast at President Prices(Missoula Stake President) 

 Billings temple <3

Smashing spiders and burning breakfast

Hey howdy hey! 

Wow, it's already Monday? Crazy. We got transfer calls yesterday and I'm excited to report that Sister Crosland and I are both staying in Missoula!!! :) I love this beautiful place and the people here and I'm grateful that I get to spend these last few weeks here :) 

Wanna hear a cool story? So Kristy. I've mentioned her before as "the catholic lady that loves Mormons." She called us yesterday with the wonderful news that the elder that taught her 15 years ago called her!!! She was soooo happy. Elder Heggie (now Cody) is still strong in the church and now has a wife and three little kiddos. He asked if she still wanted to be baptized and her answer was "not yet." Aka, she will, she just doesn't know it ;) That whole event for her was truly a tender mercy.  We are super excited to teach her this week and invite her to be baptized again :) 

We had a lesson with Beth. She's pretty similar to Mark, but nicer ;) haha She believes that only a few of us are chosen to be saved, that whatever you do here on earth doesn't matter, if you're "saved" you're saved. Weird. As she explained why she believes what she believes, I couldn't help but reflect on how I know what I know. The spirit was so strong as Sister Crosland and I bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and the knowledge and power it gives us. Beth seemed reluctant to read it, and so we walked out of her house without setting up a return appointment. We just don't think she's ready yet. About an hour later we got a text saying, "I read that chapter you left me. I have questions. Can I email them to you?"  I think that shows she is still searching. I just hope it's with real intent. 

We have spent a lot of time this last week with the sisters in the two zones we cover as we have been finishing up the transfer. We had a breakfast and testimony meeting this morning with 12 of us together. It was so great :)  I never get tired of hearing missionaries bear testimony of the Savior. This last week as I read Jesus the Christ, I pondered a lot on how he is able to bring peace to our souls and to the world around us. From the story of raising the daughter of Jarius to life, to healing a man possessed of demons, to calming the waters on the Sea of Galilee. He calms all of the storms of life. My favorite part I read was after he healed the possessed man. . .

"The man who had been rid of the demons feared not; in his heart love and gratitude superseded all other feelings; and as Jesus returned to the boat he (the man) prayed that he might go also. But Jesus forbade, saying: “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.” The man became a missionary, not alone in his home town but throughout Decapolis...wherever he went he told of the marvelous change Jesus had wrought on him." (Jesus the Christ chapter 20)

I LOVE THAT. The man was healed, and he did just what Jesus invited him to do, go and tell others that they too can be healed. I think that's my favorite part about being a missionary :) seeing the healing power of the atonement work in each persons life. It truly is amazing. I talked to a sister last night about a few experiences I've had on my mission. She asked "how do you love your mission so much when all of that has happened?!" Huh...good question. I have been thinking about that ever since and I think I figured out a small part of the reason why. It's obvious missions are no picnic, they're hard. But I've realized that every single day I have Jesus Christ standing right there with me helping me along my way. And that's something I wouldn't trade ANYTHING for. Perspective. When I remember that he's here with me, it really doesn't matter what is thrown at me. 

Well my friends,  It's going to be a great week :) 

Be happy work hard!

Love, Sister Fletcher

Oh. Funny story to end off. We're driving down Mullan rd trying to find this house. Going about 50mph which is 5 UNDER the speed limit. All of the sudden. SPIDER. ON THE INSIDE OF THE CAR. I screamed. Sister Crosland screamed. We panicked. It crawled across the windshield totally oblivious to our screams. We quickly pulled over, and smashed it quite thoroughly. We didn't laugh about it then, in fact we pretty much almost cried. Hahahaha awful. 

Also. I burned the hash browns this morning #somethingsneverchange

 Always gotta have those Halloween candy piles. There you see the pile that will kill me...and the pile that won't. It's a lifelong struggle ;) 

  Missoula North district. I've spent...over 1 year of my mission in this district. Crazy right?! 

When you're trying to eat orange chicken and it jumps out of your to-go box...

 End of transfer breakfast 

Our "president-you-can't-send-Sister-Fletcher-home" faces

 Missoula Zone :)