The Armpit of Montana

Oki everyone!

Oki is hello in Blackfeet :) my new companion learned it while she was on the Rez and she has been teaching little phrases to me :)

Well my friends, family, and loved ones, it's been a psycho week. I can only hope that this email gives you at least a little glimpse into the head of Sister Fletcher. Let's go right to an explanation of the title of this email. Stranded in the armpit of Montana. Yep. It was a grand adventure. Good ol Butte, Montana. Yes. I DROVE TO BUTTE. Like. I was behind the steering wheel for 3 1/2 hours through the most INSANE canyons I've ever seen. Scary. But, missionary protection is real and we were safe and didn't have a problem :) So we meet the sisters there and swap companions and then decide we are going to head to lunch together really quick. Sister Hallett is driving the truck with Sister Hurst and I'm in the Rogue with Sister Wach. We are following the truck. Turn out of the parking lot, and go less than a quarter of a mile and we see the back left wheel of the truck FLY OFF and the truck skidding to the side of the road. We were luckily only going 20 mph so no one was hurt.

Picture this.
4 sister missionaries
On the side of the road
It's snowing
30 degrees (if not colder)
Stranded in the armpit of Montana

There were many miracles that came though :)
M1: Sister Wach is a master mechanic. She braved the wet and the cold and got her hands dirty trying to fix the truck. She's awesome.
M2: After 2 hours of being stranded the vehicle coordinator FINALLY called us back and reaffirmed with us what we had already been planning on doing. Good to get some help ;)
M3: My fingers and toes are still attached.
M4: Lots of laughing as Sister Wach and I huddled next to the truck and prayed that our phone wouldn't die and that the sisters would come back with the Rogue and food.
M5: 2 hours later.....McDonald's never tasted so good.

We made it back to Billings safely and have been trying to catch up with life ever since! Thursday we had Mission Leadership Training in The Heights. That's what the locals call the part of Billings on top of the rims. The spirit that was felt and the things I learned were all MUCH NEEDED. It was focused on listening and love. :) There's a quote in PMG by Elder Holland that has grown to become my favorite one, "if we listen with love we won't need to wonder what to say." It's so so so so soooooo true. I've been trying really hard to implement that in teaching this week and have seen so many miracles with those we are teaching opening up to us about their concerns.

My testimony has also grown a lot this week in my understanding of why I was called to the Montana Billings Mission. I wasn't just called here to teach specific people and bring them the gospel. That is a VERY important part, but I've been learning that there is so much more. I was also called here to be with specific companions. To serve closely with specific ward members. And especially I was called here to have a President Wadsworth as my mission president. I have so much love for him and Sister Wadsworth. They are superheroes. Honestly I don't know how they do it all, but they do. I know that I will be forever grateful for the example they have set for me and the counsel they have given me when times are great and when times are hard.

The work is rolling forth here in the Mighty Monad ward :) We finally will get a ward mission leader next Sunday! Going on 5 weeks without one! Haha needless to say, I'm stoked. We can do so much more when we have one. :) lots of progressing investigators. Annika and Shelby (the two 9 year olds we are teaching) are doing AWESOME. Pray for them and their families. Shelbys family- the Realbirds- came to stake conference yesterday :) also. Stake conference was AWESOME. "Spiritual
patterns are better than spiritual events" Think about that for a second. Spiritual patterns are better than spiritual events ISN'T THAT GREAT!? It's true true true. When we have built up spiritual patterns in our lives, we will have more spiritual events. :)
The church is true.
I love Montana :)
And I love all of YOU! :)
Love,
Sister Fletcher :)

 

First off. The dog in the car. SO FUNNY, Sister Styer snapped this pic as I was galloping to the car.

 


Elk burgers! Also. Ignore the trashed apartment. Still unpacking and deep cleaning ;)

 

Sister Styer and I stalked each other on Facebook before our missions and she is basically my favorite human. Such a good missionary. Keeps me laughing.

Coolest compi ever.

 

Selfies cuz #stranded

The Fab Four

Words Typed by The Thumbs of Sissy Fletch

Hey y'all :)

It was a wonderful week full of learning and growing and smiles :) I hope yours was the same! I just found out about some pretty big news. Sister Hurst is getting transferred to Polson! SHE GETS TO DRIVE THROUGH ST IGGY AND I AM SO JEALOUS. Ah :( I'm going to miss her and I know the Monad Ward here will too. We are driving to Butte tomorrow to swap companions. My companion will be Sister Wach! Shes great. I'm excited! SO. Our plans for today have drastically changed. Not a ton of time to email as we will now be running every which way. Here's some journal summaries from the week:

I feel like this week went by SUPER fast.

Monday we had another lesson with Gary and Nicole. They want evidence of the Book of Mormon and won't take a "feeling" for an answer. We had a "Hey yo. You can't just search the Internet for the answers. You probably should read the Book of Mormon too" type of lesson with them. I think we made some headway? Hopefully they read this week.

Tuesday allllll of our appointments fell through. Lots of driving and walking. Shout out to Nat for sending those CD's during Christmas! #savedmysanity Its amazing how music can bring the spirit in or drive it away. Choose carefully!

Wednesday we had district meeting and didn't have the car during the day so we spent the whole day with members and pretty much felt like hitchhikers. We went and visited Vanessa again. She's doing really great. Still reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible! :) Later that night we were with an older sister in our Ward....who's driving....could be improved a bit....Lets just say that MANY silent prayers were said. We arrived to our appointment in one piece and she was a great help to have at our lesson with Aaron. He hasn't come to church since he came a few weeks ago. Boo. Next week.

Thursday was THE BEST. We went to the temple and helped clean the grounds :) Turning the corner into the temple parking lot and feeling the spirit come SO strongly made me grin from ear to ear the entire time we were there. There isn't a doubt in my mind that the temple is LITERALLY the house of God. There were about 50 of us missionaries that came and we were all assigned to pick up the pine needles that had fallen due to an early frost. PINE NEEDLES. Yep. There were so many of those little guys. We had the entire dumpster full of them by the end! Although the task was very tedious I enjoyed it thoroughly because of the constant spirit on those grounds. :)

Friday- So. Much. Weekly. Planning. Later in the day we went and met with Shelby and her family (Her Step-dad is Rama's dad) and we watched the Restoration with them. It was so cool to watch them as they began to connect the dots on the importance of the restoration. They all came to church on Sunday and Barry (Shelby and Rama's dad) bore his testimony on the Book of Mormon. :)

Saturday we did a whole bunch of finding and street contacting! There was one street where there were a lot of people outside, I didn't know quite how to talk to the first guy on the street...so I did what every good missionary does- asked for directions ;) Turns out, the house number I asked for actually doesn't exist. It really concerned him! Haha I felt so bad. BUT. We are going back to visit him and another guy down the street next week :)

Sunday was wonderful and also terribly frustrating. JUST COME TO CHURCH PEOPLE.

I am so grateful for my testimony of the Plan of Salvation. It has helped me this week to know that through using the atonement we can get through everything. I honestly couldn't even comprehend life without knowing that my Heavenly Father loves me unconditionally and is always just waiting for me to turn to him. I don't know how to explain it. But basically we are the ones that decide how much light we want in our lives. We choose if we are okay with settling for a dimly lit room and not really seeing much. We add more light in by using the atonement, by really applying the teachings of the Savior in our lives. The room gets brighter and brighter and it's at that point when we can really see the entire room. I guess in that analogy seeing the room would be like seeing the hand of God in our lives. We no longer have to wonder what he is doing, we know that he is taking care of us!

Not sure if that made any sense at all. Haha BUT. I just want all of you to know that I know that our Heavenly Father loves us SO much. He doesn't want us to sit in a dimly lit room. He wants us to be able to see the amazing light and brightness that comes from living the gospel. I know that this church is true, I wouldn't be here if I didn't.

Love you all sooooo much :)

Love,
Sister Fletcher :)

 I made a case for my little Book of Mormon. It was starting to get pretty thrashed. 

Hooray for ensign pictures and lots of tape! 

 Much love for the temple

50 missionaries and a whole lot of tumbleweeds and pine needles

First one to find Elder Fox wins!

 

A less active we teach owns a pizza place and he gives us water otters every week.

 It's the little things that matter:)

This-my friends- is a carmel cookie waffle aka a round circle straight  from heaven