Of hot days and knocking down doors...

What. A. Week. I swear I haven't even blinked and yet it's Monday again!!!! Very grateful that we keep busy, and also very grateful I got to go grocery shopping and get another jar of Nutella. I ran out on Friday. Yep. It took me 11 days to finish off a jar. Sheesh. It's a good thing we have bikes. 

Speaking of bikes. I'm the epitome of blind Smith. If you don't understand that reference, go over to my family's house and ask. You're in for a treat. I also identify quite a lot with Elder Calhoon now. Hahahaha. I love placing some Books of Mormons. ;) 

Mmmm. My emails are going to be a lot more scattered now because I never have time to write in my journal anymore! We did SO MUCH TRACTING this week. And I loved it. :) Well, not so much when we went at 3 in the afternoon in 100 degree weather. I'm still learning to love that ;) I'll send a picture soon of the tan lines on my feet.  Terrible.  Just terrible.  But we found a few more potential investigators this week through good ol knocking on people’s doors. Most people are really nice. They usually turn us down with, "I already heard the word. I found Jesus. Have a good day."  

We started up online proselyting this week! I'm on there as Sister-Savanna Fletcher. You can stalk me on there as much as you want, but you can't friend me, comment, or like anything. Mission rules :) We are on there about an hour every week, and I think it'll be a great way to stay in contact with our investigators and less actives!

Our focus this week has shifted to working with part member families.  I'm SUPER excited to get it all organized and go find people! Most of the part member families are also less active, so we should be able to do a lot of work in this area with that. We are hoping to have a baptism in a few weeks!!! Kiersten is 9 and is SO prepared for baptism. I wish everyone we taught understood the simplicity of the gospel like she does.  Her sister was just baptized a few months ago, and they are the only ones in her family that go to church. She's so sweet.

For Prep-Day today we went with a member, Sister Peterson, to Ninepipes Museum! It's all about the history of our area here.  Lots of native culture and history that I didn't know about! It was super cool to see how everything here came to be, and it made me love the people here all the more :) They have quite the heritage.  

WELP. Sorry this email didn't make much sense today! I've barely had time to breathe, much less collect my thoughts! We are meeting the new mission president this weekend in Helena! SO EXCITED. Watch the fireworks for me k? And take pictures at my spot.

LOVE YOU ALL.

Sister Fletcher

Awesome Views

 

Ate dinner at this 100 year old lady's house. She's mostly blind, and so when she was cutting the cake she didn't know how big the pieces she gave us were. It looks deceiving in the pic, but I kid you not, the slice was bigger than my face. Did I eat it all? Yes. Regret it? Meh.

Goat followed us up to a doorstep when we were contacting. Only in Montana!

Like 10 feet tall. Shot in Montana. Eeek

Just another moose!

Used to be...alive.

Cows don't move when you honk at them.

Bo the Bison

I like to ride my bicycle, I like my bike.

Yep. Conquered the bikes this week! So fun. I love it :) Terrible when it's windy, but hey, you can't have everything right? This week was a hard one, but there were a lot of great moments. Maybe not great actually...but memorable. Hahahahaha just keep reading.

So. I started out this past week by getting bit by the biggest dog you'll ever see. Jk ;) It was a dumb little one that was just being protective of its owners. I mean, the gospel and girls in skirts? Scary stuff. But I don't have rabies, and it's just bruised now, and Sister Krantz gave me ice cream to make it all better so I'm thinking it was mostly a win situation! Haha.

On Tuesday we had mission conference with the Missoula zones, the AP's, and the Mechams. I got to see some of my MTC sisters! We did training for most of the day and I got to know some of the other
missionaries here. Being in a chapel with only missionaries for the majority of the day brought a spirit I'll never forget. President and Sister Mecham shared their testimonies with us, and I bawled through the entire thing. I've known them for just two weeks, and I felt like I was saying goodbye to my family all over again! President Mecham bore a powerful testimony, one that summing up would not do justice. But it was comforting and good to know how much love he had for us missionaries. We all lined up and took a picture and hugged the Mechams goodbye. TEARS GALORE. I'm excited to meet the Wadsworths (new mission president) though. They'll be just as great!

Let's see,Sister Rammell and I got lost in the wilderness the other day. Hahaha and we saw a bear! Apparently they see a lot of those here. BRING IT :) It's gorgeous here. I wish I could see more of it! We are over two wards so we barely have time to breath, much less go and sight see! I'll simply just have to come back!

Lost in the beautiful wilderness

zoom in and there's a tiny bear just roaming.

None of our investigators are progressing. Meep. We can never find them, or if we do find them they haven't kept their commitments. One investigator was on date for baptism and she told us on Saturday that she doesn't want to waste our time. She doesn't believe that there is a prophet, and won't read the Book of Mormon. Sad. But it's strengthened my testimony a lot, seeing people reject the gospel. It's HARD. Watching someone who has felt the Holy Ghost testify of the truth of this gospel, and then they get caught up in stuff on the Internet, or the logistics, and forget that this gospel is a spiritual thing, not a logical thing. Just yesterday, we started talking to a man named Roland. He flagged us down when we were biking and told us about how he took the lessons once. The missionary in me came out, "so why didn't it stick?" Hahaha he was a bit taken aback by that ;) but basically he didn't believe that Joseph Smith is a prophet, he thinks everyone is a prophet and that those in the Bible are just "helpers", and thus never read the Book of Mormon, silly Roland. I listened to him explain and basically preach to us about how organized religion isn't needed, and then he said "I can see a light in both of you." And then he turned to me "and especially you". You have an honest spirit that wants to know truth. I can tell." I stood there for a minute, and then told him, "the reason why I know what I do, and why I have that light is because I know my Savior. And I know him because I've searched for him. And I didn't really develop a relationship with him until I read the Book of Mormon." He started to argue, and I could tell he wasn't quite ready for the truth. So I waited and then told him to learn about what a prophet is in the Bible, and then left! He needed to learn for himself, and me telling him wasn't going to change him. But that experience made me realize more than ever that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Every time he denied that Joseph Smith was, the spirit left and my heart sank more and more, but the second I testified of it, it came back even stronger.

The gospel is true :) I hope all that made sense, emailing is STRESSFUL. Haha, love you all so much :)
Love, Sister Fletcher

So beautiful here.