So our big story this week!

Our little car, Gordito, was nearing his death mileage of 50,000 miles. So we have Gordito:

Our replacement minivan for the day:

And our brand new 2015 Toyota Corolla. In red. His name is Dante's Infierno.

And so, we have in our line-up...

Old Car, Used Car, Red Car, Robbed Car.

Oh yeah. 

We got robbed.

I don't leave anything in the car, but Hna Nyre had her wallet, GPS and flash drive stolen. also, some donated blinds in the trunk of our car were stolen as well. It was a pretty random thing to steal. And, of course, they tried to steal our radio but it is literally built in the car so they just succeeded in dismantling it. 

So in case you were wondering, yes, a man will rob God. Or at least his representatives.

In other news, I am now in Alma in my Atonement reading of the book of Mormon. And I just want to share a few quotes from the apostles on this subject:

"The atoning sacrifice was designed to motivate us, to draw us unto him, to lift us to higher ground, and ultimately to assist us in becoming as He is."

 -Tad R. Callister

"And we do not need to achieve some minimum level of capacity or goodness before God will help - divine aid can be ours every hour of every days, no matter where we are in the path to obedience." 

- D. Todd Christofferson 

"I repeat, save for the exception of the very few who defect to perdition, there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no apostasy, no crime exempted the promise of complete forgiveness. That is the promise of the Atonement of Christ." 

-Boyd K. Packer

Which leads to this: "the result of His sacrifice is to free us from the effects of sin, that all may have guilt erased and feel hope." 

-Boyd K. Packer

The Atonement is our Message. It is the point of all that we preach. Everything else is a tangent of the great atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

"Remember, Remember, that is is upon the rock of our Redeemer that we are built."

Have a blessed week!

Con Amor, 

Hermana Fletcher

Hermana Nyre and I were walking, trying to talk to as many people as we could and find a few more potential investigators. It was about the time to go home for dinner that we pass this lady and an older man struggling to get a bed up. They look totally white, but our call is to talk to everyone! We go up and introduce ourselves as the missionaries in the area and how we are called to serve and if they have any service they need done we would love to help them.

The lady laughs and says, "You don't even know what you are getting into" and kind of brushes us off. I persist that we really do want to help her. It gives her pause and she considers it. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but we ended up getting a 40 minutes story about her life (Yay for using dinner time!). We find out that for the past 5 years her life has essentially been a living hell and after her fiancé left her with this broken down trailer to fix up so hasn't caught a break. But then these two well-dressed, willing to serve young ladies walked up and asked if they could help.

Not only that, but she speaks Spanish fluently and is from El Salvador. She says she won't convert because she is a "born-again Christian", but we shall see. The entire time she was speaking all I could think is "The gospel! The gospel is what you need!"

And because school is out soon and we no longer have planned service helping the Pineda kids with homework, we've been needing a new service opportunity. Divine providence. It's real.

But if we had not stopped awkwardly and talked to these two people that really did not want to talk to us, if we had just allowed her to brush us off and taken our dinner, we would never have found this diamond in the rough.

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One more miracle.

So you've heard about Miracle May, about how every companionship in my mission could receive a baptism in May if we gave it our all and were exactly obedient.

Well. We didn't get one.

Or did we?

We were sitting with Eduardo on the 31st of May in his front lawn teaching him the 10 commandments. Hermana McCoy (To whom I could give accolades to all day long) asks, "Hey, wasn't your girlfriend supposed to get baptized? When is that happening?" He looks down at his watch and responds, "Right now."

We taught Eduardo ages ago. His girlfriend was interested to find out what he was learning about and so, over Skype, she received the Restoration from Hermanas in Virginia Chesapeake. Later, Eduardo sends missionaries in Mexico. One May 31, 2015, she was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Talk about a miracle!

Don't give up on miracles everyone. They can happen to you.

Con Amor,

Hermana Fletcher

It's a rough joy, finding joy. But the way I look at it, Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy. This gospel is the greatest news in the world and with that knowledge we have a responsibility to be happy. "Be of good cheer" wasn't just a nice suggestion from Jesus Christ, it is a commandment. If we truly come to know this Gospel and we still can't find joy, we are doing it wrong.

We are not commanded to be perfect teachers, perfect companions, perfect saints, o sea... perfect. We are commanded to try our best. Grace, after all that we can do. Do all that you can do and at the end of the day you can go to sleep with a smile, because you are doing what you can do. I'm not really sure how to explain it. You just have to be happy in the path that you are pursuing and keep on trying. Saints are sinners who keep on trying. We aren't going to be perfect, but if we do everything we can do in the mission, God will pick up the rest. We just have to be humble and be willing to help others.

The best example of this was my last zone leader. He was from Tonga and learned English on his mission. He went home just last week, and I'll be honest, his English still wasn't that good. And it makes me nervous that after 2 years fully immersed, if he can't speak the language, what hope do I have? But he was the best missionary I've known. He was humble, he was loving, and all he wanted to do was share the joy of the gospel. We can't worry about teaching people exactly. Teach them with love, and no matter how the Spanish comes out, they will be touched. The elect are ready to hear, no matter the language because the spirit doesn't speak to ears, it speaks to hearts.

I hope this makes sense.

Long story short, have joy. Because it is all worth it.

Con Amor,

Hermana Fletcher

Plan of Salvation Sugar Cookies we made, just for fun to thank a member for all their help

Saying good-bye to Hermana Johnson

Saying hello to Hermana Nyre!