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!

Proof

Hey everyone!

Its definitely feeling like fall here in Missoula! The leaves on the trees are turning vibrant colors and it makes everything seem so much brighter despite it getting darker earlier. TRANSFER NEWS. I will be staying in this great city and Sister Crosland will be coming here from Wyoming to be my companion! Sister Crosland also served in St. Ignatius for 6 months after I was there so I'm STOKED to serve with her. :)

This week has been pretty crazy. The theme of the week seems to be "Where is the proof for the Book of Mormon?" This is a subject that I already was pretty passionate about, but the further I've delved into it, the more sure I am that The Book of Mormon truly is divine. We are teaching a guy named Mark. Mark is a youth pastor for a local congregation and holy cow does he know the bible. We met Mark while teaching his friend Chris. (Chris is doing awesome. Super prepared) Anyway. Mark wants evidence for the Book of Mormon, and although we've tried to explain SO MANY TIMES that the Holy Ghost is what really testifies to us that it's true, he wants more of an explanation. So, we are teaching him today in hopes of explaining more how the Book of  Mormon came to be and the miracle it truly is. And most importantly that it a testament of Jesus Christ.

One thing really struck me as I have studied this week about the Book of Mormon was this quote by Tad R. Callister: "Years ago my great-great-grandfather picked up a copy of the Book of Mormon for the first time. He opened it to the center and read a few pages. He then declared, “That book was either written by God or the devil, and I am going to find out who wrote it.” He read it through twice in the next 10 days and then declared, “The devil could not have written it--it must be from God.” That is the genius of the Book of Mormon--there is no middle ground. It is either the word of God as professed, or it is a total fraud. This book does not merely claim to be a moral treatise or theological commentary or collection of insightful writings. It claims to be the word of God--every sentence, every verse, every page. Joseph Smith declared that an angel of God directed him to gold plates, which contained the writings of prophets in ancient America, and that he translated those plates by divine powers. If that story is true, then the Book of Mormon is holy scripture, just as it professes to be; if not, it is a sophisticated but, nonetheless, diabolical hoax."

That is the essence of the Book of Mormon. There is ABSOLUTELY NO MIDDLE GROUND. Zero. It is either from God or it's from the devil. We can know of its truthfulness by reading it and abiding by its precepts. By judging if it truly does help us to come unto Christ. And, I think it does. In fact, I know it does. Nephi sums it up pretty amazingly at the end of his writing in the Book of Mormon "And now my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all the ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if he believe not in these words believe in Christ . And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words for they are the words of Christ and He hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good."

So. If you are reading the Book of Mormon, read it more. Find out how it testifies of Christ and supports the Bible. Find how the bible supports the Book of Mormon. (Hint hint. Preach my gospel chapter 5) If you aren't reading the Book of Mormon EVERY SINGLE DAY...repent and do it. It will bless your life more than you can even imagine. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It truly testifies of Christ and contains the fullness of the gospel.

Well, I'm outa time! Love you all!
Love, Sissy Fletch

Laser tagging.  Guess who got second...

 Missoula Zone

 Sunrise 

 Updated sticky note wall by my study desk

"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*

Rainy days and smiling faces

Man oh man

This week was insane.

One second I was in Hamilton....then the YSA....I blinked and was back in third Ward...and now I'm sitting here stunned that Monday has already rolled around.

Because I was outside of the area most of the week on exchanges, I'm not too sure what to update you all on other than...
1. We found out that May and Ray are actually outside the Ward boundaries....by like 50ft. So bugged. But their daughter is in our primary program so they will stay until then. It's just a matter of when and how to tell them...
2. Still dropping a lot of investigators and cleaning out the area book.
3. Had a lesson on the temple with Jessica, Ray, and Ty. They're doing so great and are SO excited to work toward the temple.
4. We met with Morgan again. She's doing well. We showed her the video "the hope of Gods light" and she LOVED it.
5. Finding lots of promising people! Just praying it all goes well.

We're chugging along :) it's getting colder. Mixed feelings about that. We went BOWLING today!!! So fun :)

Okay. Ready for a cool story!? So I was sitting in gospel principles and our Ward mission leader, Brother McBride, was teaching the lesson. In the lesson he shared a story about how he served his mission in Oakland California. While he was there there was a huge earthquake. Well hey...my dad served there...and it was during a big earthquake...hm. So afterwards I asked Brother McBride about it AND GUESS WHAT. Not only did they know each other on their missions...They were in the MTC together and were best buds throughout it! SO COOL. So I got to spend some time looking at pictures of my dad on his mission. :) It was a pretty sweet experience. God really had to orchestrate all of that to work out the way it did. It was a testimony to me that He truly knows each one of us and wants us to be happy. Truly the essence of a "tender mercy" :)

Other than that... I'm excited for this next week! We're working hard and excited to see miracles everyday. I love being a missionary. :)
Over and out :)
Sister Fletcher

 Bowling!

(mom didn't get an explanation of this one...but yes, that's a snake.)

 YSA Sisters

 My daddio breaking into his car on his mission ;)