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 :)

My oh my what a wonderful day

Hey y'all! 

I'm currently sitting in the Krantz's kitchen. Just finished the best Chinese food from our favorite food truck. The smell of the wood pile outside, the roaring of the fireplace, and the over encompassing nostalgia of sitting in this house that became my home for the first 6 months of my mission. Oh man, best day ever :) 

I was looking through my journal last night from this last week trying to remember everything that has happened and realizing how crazy it was. I have faithfully written in my journal nearly every single day of my mission, and I don't know what happened this week...but journaling was a struggle. I get home at the end of the day, plan, and pretty much as soon as my head hits the pillow, I'm out. I love feeling exhausted. I never thought I'd say that! 

I forgot to mention this last week...but Kristy came to stake conference! We didn't think she was coming, so we went and sat down in the back. About 5 minutes into the meeting Brother Henderson tracked us down and told us "Hey, there's an investigator in the foyer. She said she's catholic and loves Mormons and wants to talk to you" I about fell over dead. That's Kristy! Hahaha She LOVED stake conference. We walked her back to her car after the meeting and she said "This is why I love you Mormons and your services. Because every talk, every speaker, every meeting always ties back to Jesus Christ. That's how it's supposed to be and I love it" We had another cool miracle with her this week. She has been trying to find the missionary that taught her 15 years ago. She knows his name and where he's from, but that's it. We tried finding him on Facebook, but to no avail. So we brought the Hawley's to Kristy's lesson and as we all talked Kristy told them about this missionary she has been trying to find. Unbeknownst to us, Sister Hawley's grew up in the same small Canadian town as this elder AND HAS RELATIVES WITH THE SAME LAST NAME AS THE ELDER THAT LIVE THERE STILL. MIRACLE MIRACLE MIRACLE. It was so cool. Keep in mind, this is the missionary that she told, "you can baptize me when I'm 80" She's in her 60's now and will definitely be baptized much before she's 80 if we have anything to do with it ;) 

We weren't able to connect with Melanie this week. Tawny is doing well. She doesn't understand why it's bad to drink and do drugs....oh man. She cracks me up. We taught the plan of salvation and focused on our purpose here on earth and agency. She's doing great overall. Her scriptures are all marked up and she reads them everyday :) Bonnie and Mary came to church yesterday :) They are two less actives we are teaching. Both are progressing well towards the temple. 

I've been reading a lot in Jesus the Christ lately. I'm just about halfway through and loving it. I read it a year ago, but there is so much more that I have learned this time. That probably has a lot to do with reading it on my iPad this time so I can define all of those crazy big words that Elder Talmage uses. It has been so fun to delve into the scriptures and other words of the prophets and learn who Jesus Christ really is. My favorite attribute that I've studied this week is hope. Truly, Jesus Christ is the source of real, doctrinal hope. Hope that lasts forever. Not just wishful thinking, but a sure knowledge that it's going to work out for the best :) 

Well, I'm going to go roam my old stomping grounds again!! Best day ever. Love you all! 

Sister Fletcher

My favorite elk friend :)  

 waiting to Skype into a meeting

 Exchanges with Sister Dayes! <3

 That awkward moment when you think you can make a u-turn and then end up in the middle of a 3 inch deep puddle. "Hey...sister Crosland...you're going to need to get out and back me" This was the look I got. Hahahaha 

 Reallllly big leaf 

 The cool bus. And some people trying to be cool.

 Describes our companionship perfectly.

The best Chinese food...ever. 

Four boxes of tissues

Hey everyone!!

Man oh man. It was a crazy week. Between insane lessons, exchanges, being sick, and awesome reunions with some of my favorite people...I'm not quite sure where to start!

Birthday shout out to my sister Aubrey! SWEET SIXTEEN. Where has the time gone?! All you Utah people stay off the roads! ;)

On Monday we had what was probably our final lesson with Mark. He refuses to see things with an eye of faith. I've never been so sad and so frustrated in my life than I was after that lesson! I know he still wants to know but only time will tell if he will pray about the Book of Mormon and read it will real intent. *sigh of exasperation*

I was on exchanges in the YSA Ward and we had an awesome lesson with two of their investigators about the plan of salvation. When we asked one of them what her understanding was of the three kingdoms she said "Well Celestial, that's where we go and chill with our families and God, and then Terrestrial...that's where all of the extra-terrestrials lives. And Telestial...that's where the dinosaurs are" hahahahahahahahaha so close. We spent a lot of time explaining after that. Hahahaha

Funny story: I had a pretty bad case of the hiccups in the car when we pulled up to a house we were going to knock on. I lingered for a bit because I knew the hiccups would be SO distracting to whoever opened the door. We finally decided after some time that they weren't going to go away...so we said a prayer and got out of the car. I hiccuped allll the way to the door and right up until it opened. Once the door was opened they disappeared! HOW COOL IS THAT?! They came right back as soon as the door closed. It's also true with sneezing in lessons. Hahaha

We had zone conference on Thursday! It was so great! The Wadsworth's and the assistants came to do some training and I learned so much. I. Love. The. Wadsworths. :) We talked a lot about becoming who God wants us to be by doing what we are supposed to do. I especially loved the training the assistants did on obedience and teaching repentance. In order to teach repentance, we need to be applying that in our own lives.

This weekend we had stake conference! Sunday was pretty much the best day of my life. It was so wonderful.  By the end of this transfer I will have spent a year of my mission in the Missoula Montana Stake, so it was almost like a big family reunion at stake conference. There were so many great moments. Sister Crosland and I were standing at the door talking to someone and turned around to find brother Krantz standing right in front of us! I immediately burst into tears! (I'm not kidding about 4 boxes of tissues. It was mostly from being sick though ;)) There was no stopping them! I haven't seen him in almost a year and memories of chopping wood and coming home for the night to talk to him and Sister Krantz just flooded back! SUCH A HAPPY MOMENT!!! It was also absolutely amazing to talk to C. Oh my goodness, we tried to hard to teach C while I was serving in St. Iggy. We would make excuses to go to the store he worked at just to try and make contact and do anything we could to get him to come back to church. Well, 4 weeks after I left the area, Sister Crosland came. And she tried the same route with C. Pretending to buy light bulbs, using the fax machine, anything! Haha But this time, the time was right. She began teaching him, and the walls that kept the light of the gospel from his life came tumbling down. When we saw him at stake conference there was an unmistakable light in his eyes. He was SO HAPPY. After conference he told us his story since we had both left the area. He went back to the temple and had amazing experiences there. Tears were in all of our eyes as we talked about the joy the gospel brings. It was an amazing moment. :) The gospel of Jesus Christ truly does change lives. :)

We talked a lot about the Sabbath day in stake conference and there was one part in particular that stuck out to me. Elder Scott shared the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 123:17 "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." He explained that when we do something cheerfully, we are doing it with faith. We see the big picture and trust in God that it will work out. I loved that perspective of faith! It's so true!

I love you all. I'm so grateful to be serving in Missoula, Montana as a missionary. :) I love my Savior Jesus Christ. He is my best friend. I'm so grateful for this wonderful church and the blessing it is to be a part of it. :) Miracles happen everyday :)

Be happy, work hard!
Love, Sister Fletcher

 

YSA exchange

 

Man, my boots didn't make it.

Ah!

Hey everyone!

So, I have approximately ZERO time to email. It's been a crazy day! I'll send lots of pictures but here's a little summary of the week.

 -Most of my week was spent in areas other than 3rd Ward.  I was in 1st ward and in Lolo. Lots of fun, but I feel like I'm so out of the loop here!

-I started reading Jesus the Christ again. Oh my goodness, that book is usually WAY over my head, but the parts that I do understand have strengthened my testimony of the Savior so much. He lives. He loves us. I know that to be true.

-We had lunch with Sister Krantz today. I lived at her house for the first 6 months of my mission. Her home is still my home away from home. Between the tears and the laughter and catching up on everything, I just couldn't stop thinking about how perfect Gods plan is for us. The plan of salvation truly is the great plan of happiness. Montana...oh man. Best place ever.

-Melanie: I'm not sure if I've mentioned her before. She's less active. We found her a few weeks ago. I was prompted many times to stop by her house, and she was never home or never answered. Last week I didn't even have time to realize that I had turned my bike around and was riding to her house again- much to the confusion of Sister Crosland. But Melanie was home! She was pretty angry and had a lot of walls up at first, but they slowly came down. We stopped by again yesterday and she has made a lot of progress. "I know that this is God telling me I need to listen. I need to take the sacrament more than once a month, I want to go to the temple." We are going back this week. :)

That's all I've got time for! I sure do love you all soooooo much :)

Be happy and work hard.

Love, Sister Fletcher :)

 Last Best Pl

 

 Sister Krantz

Crunchy leaves and rainy days

Hi hi hi!

I cannot believe how much happened this last week! It's been absolutely crazy busy and I've LOVED IT. MLC was awesome as usual. I came away with a huge motivation to be better, and an equally huge headache haha. Our car was in the shop from Monday to Friday, so we were on the bikes all week minus driving to Helena when we stole the Hamilton Elders' car. There was no way I was biking to Helena. Nope. That aside, I really do love biking. And we found this fancy trail that goes straight through our area so biking was much more enjoyable and safe ;)

Still having the struggle of a lifetime with our teaching pool. I feel like I've never worked so hard in my life, and yet nothing seems to be happening! There are always little miracles everyday though and I'm confident that things are going to pick up soon :)

Wasn't general conference the best?!?! I felt like every single talk was directed exactly to me. I had about 6 questioned written down on my iPad that I was searching for answers to and I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of answers I received. Each question had multiple answers from multiple talks. It strengthened my testimony that God truly is aware of each one of us and he wants us to get answers to the questions we have.

Some highlights for me:

"As she looked to the book, she looked to the Lord" -Elder Stevenson.
Was it just me or did they talk about the Book of Mormon and the restoration A LOT?! I was eating it all up.

"We teach and baptize to bring JOY to the people of the world."- I can't remember who said that... But I loved it. And I loved all of the talks about increasing joy by repenting and living the gospel. Russell M. Nelsons was a favorite of mine.

Craig C. Christensen. Nuff said. I wanted to run a victory lap after he spoke. I've already listened to his talk twice since they posted the video on click here. SO GOOD. Joseph Smith truly is a prophet of God.

I just loved it all so much. My testimony of the gospel has been strengthened so much since being set apart as a full time missionary. I have never come across so many people that hate and revile against Jesus Christ and his church. I've never been asked so many hard questions about church history. I've never reexamined the truthfulness of the gospel so much. And yet, with all of the questions, attacks, and negativity thrown at me, I have never been so sure in my life that Jesus Christ is at the head of this church. He speaks to the prophets and apostles we have today.  Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration of the gospel. He did, in reality, see God and Jesus Christ. He held priesthood keys, keys that are still on the earth today. As a missionary I operate under these keys. It is the greatest blessing I've ever experienced to be serving a full time mission. I have a Heavenly Father that loves me exponentially more than I can even comprehend. He loves me so much that he lets me suffer, and struggle, and hit low points, so that I can learn for myself how incredibly blessed I am to KNOW that He has a plan for me. His plan is perfect. It's oh so very perfect. His plan provides for us the opportunity to experience so much joy. Like Ammon "I cannot say the smallest part of which I feel." I know that this time I have as a missionary is short. I can't believe how short it is. An Elder said in his departing testimony on Tuesday, "it goes by so fast it's not even fair." *Sister Fletcher ensues BAWLING* But I am so grateful for the time I DO have. It's such a blessing.

Gearing up for a great week! Missoula is absolutely breathtaking this time of year. I find myself following the trails of crunchy leaves with my bike, trying to hit as many as I possibly can Hahaha I'm pretty sure Sister Crosland thinks I'm crazy ;)

Love you all! Be happy and work hard! Email me your favorite parts of General conference!

Love, Sister Fletcher

 Beautiful Missoula. I don't know who that weird missionary is....;)

 Clark Fork

when the power goes out during studies...

 MLC with the Wadsworths :)

 

my Mtc group at MLC

 

biking allll the days

Oh my heavens

Hey everyone!

Oh my HEAVENS.

This week was nuts.

I loved every second of it :)

Seriously, this crazy experience of being a missionary is one that I will never forget and hope to never take for granted. It goes by so incredibly fast. There were so many tender mercies this week and I wanted to share a few of them with you all.

I'm just so grateful for the companions I have had on my mission. There were so many moments this week where I so clearly needed to be with either Sister Pearson or Sister Crosland to have the experiences we had. It's so amazing to see the different talents and gifts that God gives us each individually. I've also realized that with each companion I get, I am reminded of weaknesses of my own that I need to overcome. It becomes so crystal clear that my Heavenly Father has a specific plan for me in his grand plan of happiness for his children. He molds us and makes us into the person we need to become in order to inherit the celestial kingdom.

Tawny. Oh goodness I loooooove Tawny. She's so funny. We taught her the restoration this last week and she knows it's true! We read Ether 12:27 with her and her reaction was the greatest. We explained how the Book of Mormon can answer questions we have and what Ether was trying to tell us. Her eyes got big....her jaw was gaping open...and she exclaimed, "WOAH. That's flippin INTENSE!" We send her scriptures everyday and get similar responses. Hahaha I love the Book of Mormon! It boldly testifies of truth.

Mark and Chris. Man oh MAN. They know the bible so well and it sure is throwing me for a loop. Our lesson with them last week did not go as planned. It was so frustrating. Their questions have been occupying my mind for most of the week. Marks big thing is that he thinks that you have faith AFTER you receive some evidence. Which is totally not true doctrine #alma32. He used the reference of faith without works. But since he doesn't yet have a testimony of the Book of Mormon...we are at a bit of a standstill. Many of the people we have met this week have also questioned us on how we can go on blind faith since we cannot see the gold plates and cannot see where the ancient prophets lived. So. All of these thoughts are swirling in my head all week, and
I'm starting to feel like I'm kinda crazy! What really is faith?! And then...Woman's Conference. The tender mercy of all tender mercies.

President Uchtdorf point-blank said, "Faith is being certain of what we do not see."
Yep! THATS RIGHT! Faith is being CERTAIN of what we do not see.
CERTAIN
aka
KNOWLEDGE. FOR SURE.
So.
I'M NOT CRAZY!
We have a lesson with them tonight and I'm STOKED. I can see glimmers of hope if they will just soften their hearts. I feel like Chris has some real intent and that Mark is willing to test it out...so...fingers crossed!

We got to have lunch with Ron and Shoni this last week. I taught them in my first area. I just love them :) it's a tender mercy to hear so much about my first area from Sister Crosland and to know that people I love oh so very much were being very well taken care of after I left. :) We also got to see many people from mission at woman's conference.

Well my dearest family and friends. The church is true, the book is blue. I'm having the best day ever so far :)
Be happy work hard!

Love, Sister Fletcher

 Oh just some Book of Mormon stories scavenger hunt. (Ammon:)

 Nephi building a boat...Laman and Lemuel just chilling.

 The Liahona pic...hahaha

 President Lindsey's!