Archive for April 2016

4.25.2016
by K Fletcher

Endure to the End

Well, I had quite the switch of companions this week. The ward (and all our investigators) are a little confused. On Monday I had Hermana Johnson:
On Tuesday I had Hermana Child
And on Wednesday I received the lovely Hermana Coombs!
Here is a little ode to Hermana Coombs:

She's little and she's sweet
But she drops a sick beat
When we go to knock a door
I don't count it as a chore
Her porch approach astounds
and she's not afraid of hounds
And in North Carolina
There's not a girl much finer. 

Yeah, she's pretty great. We are perfecting our southern accents, so when I get home (#35days) don't be surprised when I start speaking like a southern belle. In spanish. :)

Hermana Limb made good on her promise to find me a Virginia is for Lovers sweatshirt. I love this place, I really really do. I think that is the key to having a happy mission: just... love it! Granted, I have been in one area for a long time, but I feel so much love for the people here. Bishop Collins keeps on threatening to move my records to this ward so I can stay after my mission, and then his wife told me I was adopted in every way but paper. Also, I might as well be Hispanic for all the Spanish I speak on Sunday. I love the people. I love the culture (Spanish speaking and Southern). I love the Lord. 
I also love making board games. I think it is a new hobby. This time we made a Plan of Salvation game for the Borja family. It starts in the pre-mortal life until the Celestial Kingdom, and if you sin you have to repent (and take the longer way) and if you land on the wrong square you go to spirit prison and it takes twice as long, haha. It was so much fun. Their commitment was to play it with a friend and explain it.
One of my favorite moments this week was walking out of dinner with a member and it was lightly beginning to drizzle. She's this sweet southern lady and she asks us, "Are ya'll headin' back to Goldsboro? Because the black clouds a'comin'!" Hermana Coombs and I kind of look at each other, trying not to chuckle, and we get in our car and bust up laughing. There was a big dark cloud, kind of an 'impending doom' kind of cloud behind the lady's house and it was now "The Black Cloud". As we were driving suddenly the heaven's opened and water poured down and we just started yelling in 'horror' "The Black cloud! It's here!!!" 
Yes, it is true. Missionaries have a very... different... sense of humor. :)

That's life in the south. I'm finally embracing it. I even say 'ya'll'. 

Have a lovely week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Fletcher

PS- One night I got bored and tried to see if I could make a beard. More experiments to follow.

4.18.2016
by K Fletcher

Here To Stay

Transfer calls. To quote President baker, "Hermana Fletcher, I've thought long and hard about this, and I want you to stay in Goldsboro one more transfer. I'm sure there'll be a statue of you by the time you go." 
Yep, Goldsboro, North Carolina. 9 Months. Hoo-rah!

I'm going to do kind of a boring day-by-day this week:
P-Day we went on a hike with all the other sisters up to Cliffs of the Neuse. It's a very scenic trail with cliffs and rivers and some really cool trees. I realize now that I need to start building up my lungs again because going back to a high altitude with mountains is not going to be kind to me! But for now, I'll just enjoy the pictures:
I also feel that all the media that has come out on my mission has begun haunting me. It honestly wasn't a draw, for nearly all of my mission, but now I'm beginning to realize just how long 18 months is. Keep in mind that the last movie to come out before I left was Big hero 6!

So on Tuesday we were at a less-actives house and they let me hold their lightsaber.
On Wednesday we had a cancelled appointment and therefore we had a little extra time on our hands, so we decided to sneakily sticky note Nancy's door. Well, we are doing okay (even though the sticky notes weren't sticking), but then her little chihuahua starts barking at us! We pause for a second and he stops, but apparently he could smell us because he was messing around at the door. We hear footsteps and start running but... too late! She caught us!
On Thursday Hermana Johnson had her last Spanish food meal on her mission: Hermana Cisneros' soup. Let me tell you about this soup: It tastes AMAZING. But it is made in a small mixing bowl with half a chicken, a whole potato, half a corn on the cob, about half a head of cabbage, a ton of other vegetables and a bunch of broth that you add rice to to soak up the liquid and then eat. All of this was AFTER eating two huge pork tacos. 
It was delicious :)
Also, remember all the horses in Nags Head? Well apparently there are pigs in North Carolina. Ta-da!
On Friday we received a package from Hermana Phillipy (mine and Hermana Johnson's trainer) She sent us our dying gift: RM Planners.
And with that, here is a collection of every single planner I've had on my mission!
Finally, on Saturday we received transfer calls during a big service project for the ward. We cleaned a HUGE backyard. And burned a lot of foliage! 
See you next week with my new companion Hermana Coombs!

I can't believe I'm at the end. One transfer left. 6 weeks. 42 days. Let's go.

"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." -2 Nephi 31:20

Con Amor,
Hermana Fletcher

                                                                                                                                             
    4.13.2016
    by K Fletcher

    Mission Presidents and Miracles

    Recently I was challenged by my father to have fun on Preparation day. So what do we do? Buy a big ball and try and play Volleyball on a windy day! Does anyone know what the missionaries are doing in these pictures? No. Not even the missionaries. We did have a  lot of fun though. I love the sisters serving with me. 
    I finally decided that I needed a picture with the Air force base sign. I have officially become biased towards a branch of the military. It's kind of hard not to after living here for 8 months. They have a really good culture and are just overall great. 
    I'm still swinging. I made a goal earlier in my mission that every time I see a swing, if there is nothing pressing that needs to happen, I am going to swing on it. I've kept pretty true to that promise. So here I am. Swinging. And Hermana Johnson as well :)
    This week has been jam packed with service. We had 5 service projects of varying degrees this week. We organized music, put tags on garage sale items, painted half of a room (pictured below), cleaned a whole house, and we raked a huge yard! It was fantastic. As Hermana Johnson said (in regards to the favorite thing about a mission):

    "It is service. It is pure service, whether it be spiritual, emotional, or temporal. We get to help people all the time." 
    Now, here is a fun little story:
    Once upon a time Hermana Johnson and Hermana Fletcher were companions and when we realized it was President's birthday, we made a card. Well, things got put off and the card got hidden in a binder, and it never got sent. But then a year later miracle of miracles the two Hermanas reunited, and it was his birthday again! So we fished out the card and got a Bueno Bar, made brownies, and bought Zambos chili plantain chips (we really wondered if he would like them or not). When we gave it to him he offered to share with us. Then he said, "But what am I going to do with your container?" You can keep it, President. 
    I sure do like that guy!
    But the very best thing that happened this week was on Wednesday right after interviews. 
    We had a lesson with a single man, which of course means that we have to find a woman to go with us. We have called all sorts of people. We have texted almost everyone within a 20 mile radius. We are out of ideas, and it is 3:30. Our appointment is at 5. Then a moment of brillance happens. The Bakers are here. 
    We run to the interview area, poke our heads into Sister Baker's room and ask, "Sister Baker, what will you two be doing at 5:00?" 
    She ponders for a moment. "Driving to Greenville."
    But she must have seen our faces drop because she quickly added, "But there is no specific time we need to be in Greenville, that's just where we are headed next."
    So we ask her if she could come to the lesson with us.
    "Let me ask President Baker."

    They can! 
    So we hurry off to our lesson at 5, with the Bakers following us. We get in, we start the lesson, translating between all involved. One thing led to another and our investigator, that we have been teaching for 6 months and has never committed to a baptismal date, commits to be baptized on the 21st of May. 
    I walked out of that lesson with my mouth wide open at the miracle that I had just seen. President chuckled.

    I do think that a combination of member support, ward outreach, and a visiting mission president made a softened heart possible. It truly was a miracle! One of my favorite on the mission. 

    I love you all so much and I hope that you are praying fervently for the power to become all that God wants you to become.

    Con Amor,
    Hermana Fletcher
    4.04.2016
    by K Fletcher

    A Short Blog Post

    I'm going to keep this short because I may or may not have stabbed myself in the left hand and it hurts a lot to type. 
    So the first half of the week I was fantastic emotionally and so satan was all like, "Yeah, lets focus on her." So then I got so sick I threw up 8 times in one night and couldn't keep even a sip of water in my body for longer than a few minutes. 100.4 degree temperature and inability to sit up without feeling like I was going to pass out. Luckily I got a blessing and lots of medicine and recovered within 48 hours. Then, right as I was overcoming that, I lean on a weak fence which collapses under me, tearing up the left side of my body and impaling my hand. It hurt so bad that night I didn't get to sleep until a fervent prayer, high dose of ibuprofen and 1:30am in the morning rolled around. 

    My feelings of "Are you kidding me"?
    But overall life is pretty good. Hermana Buchanan left for personal reasons and so I have Hermana Johnson back as my companion for the last two weeks of her mission!
    Us enjoying bueno bars just like we're in the MTC again.
    But on the bright side we've held so many puppies this week I can't even count them
    It is definitely spring!
    We went to conference at the Collins house. I threw together a conference game that was really fun and is good for keeping kids (and adults) attentive and interested, even during the songs and prayers!
    Conference was beautiful. As always I prepared by having questions I wanted answered by listening. Two of my personal questions I had going into conference were, "How can I comfort those that stand in need of comfort?" and "How can I make temple worship more effective?" They were answered, in full. I know that if we enter that sacred time of conference with a question in our hearts and a willingness to act on what the Lord unfolds to us, we will receive answers. We just need to learn what questions to ask. 

    I love you all. Have a stunning week. Keep conference alive in your hearts.
    Con Amor,
    Hermana Fletcher