I never thought I would make it. 1 year. 365 Days. 525,600 minutes (please sing the song).
Through a picture essay I will describe the events of the past few days:
We
had another sisters conference that I believe I've talked about. This
was the Nags Head reunion picture. Left to right: Sisters Limb, Earl,
Brakey, Evans, Fletcher, Barker. During the conference, which was all
about light and letting our light shine, President Baker gave a talk
about humor. May I just tell you all that President Baker is the
definition of an engineer. I knew there was a reason I liked him so
much. Who else would make a zipline with brakes made out of bungee cords
and test it by using a living human being? My president.
This
is a mini celebration of Sister Brakey's birthday. She saw my painting
and art supplies and asked me almost a month ago to draw her an octopus
and I feigned disinterest and told her I would get around to it. Little
did she know I knew that her birthday was coming up!
One
of our favorite investigators texted us one day and asked us, "Are you
allowed to wear lotion?" We replied with, "of course we are!
#bedbathandbeyond" (yes, I still hashtag on my mission. It's a habit).
She told us that her husband told her we weren't allowed to! We all
laughed and then that night we went over for a lesson and she had bought
us lotion, earrings, and lip gloss... from Bed Bath and Beyond! It was wonderful and I LOVE them!
And
a member bought all the missionaries in our ward super deluxe caramel
apples! We just about died of happiness. Thanks, Brother Shafer!
And
in case you all were wondering how we've been extending Halloween and
having fun on P-days, we paint our faces and scare the sisters that live
in our apartment complex. We take turns doing each others. Keep an eye
out for more!
This
is my beloved companion practicing a very difficult piece to accompany
an elder when Elder Mervyn B. Arnold of the Seventy came to our mission.
We had a mission tour where he came to us and helped us to build a
mission with more conversion and more strength. I learned a lot and most
of all it was that our job as missionaries is not to knock doors. We
are willing to do it, and we will, but of the people that missionaries
find of their own efforts, 1 in 70 get baptized. If we have to knock 10
doors in order to find someone that will listen to us, that means we
have to knock 700 doors to have a baptism. But when we receive a
referral from a member and have their help in introducing them to the
church, 1 in 6 investigators get baptized. What on earth are we doing
knocking on doors?!
Here is your lesson of the
day, "introduce your friends and family to the gospel". 1 in 6 could be
baptized. How wonderful would that be?!
And
then I learned even more about how to apply that from going on
exchanges with my new Sister Training Leader, Hermana Johnson! What
miracles we have had from reuniting old companions!
(And of course we
match. Yes, it was planned)
Another
miracle/really awkward experience was when we were tracting and while
we were on exchanges. It was a really good exchange. We were finding so
many people to teach and we were getting so many referrals. So we
decided to contact an investigator's family. We knew where they lived so we thought we would stop by and see if they were interested. We
knocked on the door and our investigator opened the door. We knew
him pretty well and he tells us to come in. We
come in and sit down and they are all watching this really big soccer
game. He looks at us kinda awkwardly because he doesn't know what to do
next. We then look around awkwardly because we don't know what to do
next either. After a few awkward moments we ask if we can share a
lesson. He turns down the TV and we go through the Restoration. It was a
pretty good lesson but in the middle of the first vision a really
inappropriate commercial pops up on the TV. Moral of the story: always
turn OFF the TV, not just down. But on the bright side, we are now
teaching his mom! Maybe she will come to church with him next week :)
I love these people. I love this mission.
The
greatest miracle of this week was that after knocking on the door of
the hooligan 14-year old son of an investigator for over a month, every
time we go over there, he finally joined us for a lesson! He didn't
really participate, but he knelt down for the closing prayer. And then,
fast-forward to church: Hermana Limb and I are sitting in the back of
the chapel, translating, and in walks that same family with their son, and another neighborhood boy! We couldn't stop smiling the entire meeting.
Life is good. God is merciful.
Con amor,
Hermana Fletcher
PS- enjoy this picture of me holding a tiny fat puppy.
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