Have you ever found a machete and just wanted to chop down a whole bunch of forest to get to that one person that needs to hear the gospel?

I have.

Have you ever driven past a small moving object on a road, pulled over immediately to the dismay of your companion, run back and saved a turtle from certain death?

I have.

Missions. It's the life.

This week has had a real focus on members. Did you know that until the members are strong and ready to support missionary work it is almost impossible to do missionary work? We've developed a plan to build all the members in our ward. We visit them. We share with them the story of Nephi building the boat (1 Nephi 17). We ask them what their vision is for their family. We ask them what their tools are to get there. We help them make the tools. And the tools are a series of steps:

1. Daily prayer and scripture study (individual and as a family)

2. Attending church regularly

3. Regular Family Home Evening

4. Keep the Sabbath Day Holy

5. Keep all the commandments (10 commandments, word of wisdom, tithing, chastity)

6. Participate in sharing the gospel (visiting teaching/home teaching, missionary work, family history)

7. Attend the temple regularly

Where are you in your vision? What do you need to do to change? 

Now, we can't just walk into a random person's house and start interrogating them on how they are living the gospel (though sometimes we do just that). So to build trust and show our love (WE MISSIONARIES ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOU. Please remember that) we do service! Service is how we show our love.

So for a few hours we visited the Shafer's house and sorted through all of his collected metal, looking for aluminum! We did it with the elders. Have I ever told you have much fun elders are? They are fun. See following picture for demonstration (both of these bikes are broken):

and this is the whole yard:

I think the whole point of this blog post is that we, as Missionaries, love you, as Members.

Also, it is no big deal, but this is my last zone picture ever. 

#3weeks

#seeyousoon

Con Amor,

Hermana Fletcher

If you ever want to know what a week in the life of a missionary is like, enjoy my week. 

Monday: 30 minutes knocking

Tuesday: 3 hours knocking

Wednesday: 4.5 hours knocking

Thursday: 30 minutes knocking

Friday: 30 minutes knocking

Saturday: 2 hour knocking

Sunday: 20 minutes knocking

For a grand total of 11 hours and 20 minutes tracting this week. 

But we had a TON of fun. Let me tell you, all the best mission stories start with, "This one time we were tracting..."

We got sno-cones, came up with a synchronized dance, got temporary tattoos, (Mt. Olive pickles), tried some vegan recipes, made a bouquet out of dandelions, and ran away from a tiny terrifying dog.

Really thought, that dog is crazy. If you come within 10 feet of his property, even if he was literally just sleeping he will jump up, bark and snarl like crazy and try and kill your companion. This next picture is of us taking a "sad tracting face" picture, and right after words (we didn't realize we were near the house) the dog appears OUT OF NOWHERE and tries to kill Hermana Coombs! We proceed to protect ourselves with our purses while we run away in terror. The dog is literally shorter than our knees. I'll get a picture this week. 

Another time we were walking about tracting and we see this nice black man sitting on his porch. So we go over and start talking to him. He's pretty open to the gospel and gives us his info to give to the Elders then he asks, "Would ya'll like somethin' to drink?" We say sure (as he was inside we take this picture) and when he returns he gives us both a big chilled bottle of sweet green tea. We awkwardly walk away and dump it out at the next house. 

Finally, because sometimes you really do have to take a break while tracting, we decided to smell the roses. Well... we were in a trailer park, so there were only dandelions. So we made a bouquet and gave it to the little girl at the next house. And we got a new investigator! 

So remember, if your week was bad, at least you weren't knocking on doors for 11 hours in hot humid weather getting rejected by all but two people. Never give up. Okay?

I love you. I'm praying for you. So keep going strong.

Con Amor,

Hermana Fletcher

PS-

This is how I feel about my last month in the mission field:

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.

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