February 24, 2014 Coos Bay, OR

February 24, 2014

I am so glad things are going great with the temple celebration. I am excited for that all to happen. I am so glad the missionary work is good in the ward! Keep it up.   It’s such a blessing to have a ward that is missionary minded. Ours is doing better with that but always a work in progress. Sounds like you got a lot of great activities lined up to help so many great people.  I look forward to hearing more about how it all goes. Tell Emma and Lizzy congrats as well for me, on the Cinderella play.

Things are going great here.   I am loving this week! We had a great experience about talking to everyone. Our president said he wants us to get out of our cars and talk to all who is walking along the streets. So last week we saw a lady who is carrying groceries and we drove by her. As we went by I felt we should go walk and help her carry those groceries. So we turned around, parked our car and walked up to help her. Turns out we parked in front of her house but we helped her carry them to the door and talked with her BF that was there for 20 minutes about religion and he is now a new investigator. We then later saw a lady walking her dogs and we parked and asked if we could walk with her. We had such a great conversation of church and members and it was great. She wanted to stay with the church she is with but loved talking with us and had a blast :) We at least planted some seeds. We then had great times doing some finding and got more people to teach and also found new less actives that were lost and are teaching them. So thank you for your prayers.   We are having such great success and it’s been a blast with Sister Crosgrove.   She is so awesome! :) I hope you all have a great week! Keep up the great work! Remember us set apart missionaries are only part time and the members are the full time missionaries because you are always going to be there for the people in that area :) LOVE YOU! 

LOVE YOUR FAVORITE MISSIONARY! :)

February 17, 2014 Coos Bay, OR

February 17, 2014

Mom, Thank you so very much for your package! You seriously were led by the spirit! I needed more lysine and forgot to tell you and you put some in so thank you!  The OILS ARE PERFECT! I really am thankful you got those in as well.   The Ensign magazine was great because I printed out a bunch of talks to read for our investigators and there was one on the priesthood. I was going to use it and take notes on it but was prompted to read it out of the Ensign you sent me so I did and it was an answer to our prayers and we gave him that day the one I printed and so I am so glad you sent me the Ensign because others wise I would have written on the printed copy and not have one to give him. Sounds confusing but I am so grateful you put all those things in there. Everything was perfect and exactly what I need to last me for my mission!

I am so pleased to hear that things are going well at the Gilbert temple.  I admire you going out of your way to help others feel the spirit of the Gospel and the temple.  

Things are good here. President Young organized a huge training meeting on tracking and how we can better improve with our door approaches. He also went over how we can improve working with members and so overall the training meeting was awesome! I learned so much and it honestly was great. With members we are doing this thing called Members capturing the vision. It consists of 4 steps.

Prayer- Pray for missionary opportunities.

Faith- Have faith that the Lord will direct and help you with those opportunities.

Talk- Talk to people all around you. Friends, random people at stores, coworkers.

Invite- Invite someone to an activity.

With these steps we then ask members, who is someone they have in mind that they could reach out to. Then we play the Inviting Game. We gather in a circle with the members and they have 10 seconds to invite someone they know to church, dinner with family, RS activity, etc. and by doing this it helps members feel more comfortable inviting people to things. Helps them realize it’s not so bad talking to someone about the church. It’s a great way to get the family involved and get a feel of inviting. (Please share if you would like).

So with that members have been enjoying it and they are feeling better about talking to us about teaching their friends and stuff.

It’s been a little hard with our investigators. We got some new ones which is great but our current ones are struggling. We have seen many turn around though. The work is very slow and hard but we have seen miracles, which helps us keep going strong. A family who has been recently reactivated was struggling last week. Their daughter who was baptized 2 months ago feels she doesn't have a testimony and is rebelling. We are working with their son-in-law and their grandson who is 8 and was baptized on Friday but the dad backed out.  Their daughter in law was going to be baptized but never did because she stopped meeting with us. This all happened at once and the family was devastated and wondering why these things are happening after they had received so many miracles before and are coming back into the church. Well, this week we ran into the daughter in-law and she said she wants to be baptized again and we set up a time to finish the lessons with her. Their son in-law said he now wants to be baptized and will be ready soon. Their daughter is slowly getting better and being respondent to the church again. And the family is preparing to go to the temple soon. So with that,  it’s been a true blessing to know that God is always going to be there. At times the work will be hard and will have its ups and downs but throughout trials we see many of God's tender mercies and the miracles he does put in our path that may seem small but they are there. I am so thankful for this area. I am so blessed to be here with sister Crosgrove. She is so strong in her faith and is a great companion. I just have loved every bit of this transfer with her and admire all she does for this area and for me. Hope you have a great week I love you! :)

LOVE SISTER FLETCHER! <3

 

 

February 10, 2013 Coos Bay, OR

Feb 10, 2013

Things here are going good. I am sending you and dad a letter with some things and hope to get something else off to you this week as well, but anyways things are good. Sister Crosgrove is just amazing! We have been really enjoying this transfer together. No problems really and I am glad because she is so great. We learn so much together and try to help lift one another up.   It’s so nice. The work is been really hard. Lots of people we are working with are not responding anymore and some of the people who were recently baptized are not as active so it’s been hard watching these things happen and being limited on what we can do for them. We are working though with some great less actives. That is one thing that is a focus here in our area is less actives work because there are so many. A lot of them don’t get many visits from their home teachers or visiting teachers so we try to help them out and get them to come to church and it’s been great. Many are coming back and are working towards the temple. We do need to find more investigators though, so we are trying to do 1 hour of finding people each day.  Sometimes it does not happen and we need to be better at that because there are so many areas that have not been contacted yet and need to so that we are doing all we can to spread the Gospel. There is just so much work to do here is Coos Bay.   It’s been hard to juggle it all but I know that if we start doing better and putting all our efforts into this work it won’t seem as big of a load and the Lord will help us get the work done and going. I love this Gospel and really pray and hope for the best in this area. Sister Crosgrove and I are setting new goals and ideas to find other ways to share the Gospel. One way that has been very effective is dodge ball on Friday nights. All ages are allowed to play and what we do is we have members bring family and friends and we have a huge game of doge ball and then after share a scripture thought or share a principle of the gospel and those who are nonmembers get to hear the message along with being in the church building. Last week we had over 40 people come and it was massive. A guy brought a ton of College teams to come play and the missionaries introduced the Book of Mormon and handed out copies after and on Sunday most of the teams came to church. It was the greatest turn out we have had yet! So good things are happening.  It’s just hard at times. I love serving here I am growing so much and I am really happy here. I love and miss you all so very much have a great week! :)Love Sis Fletch

PS.

I wanted to tell you we got the opportunity to go to the temple which was so great! Meadford is the smallest temple I have ever seen but it was so great! I received so much revelation for Coos Bay.  The feelings were so strong. We got to see the new video which was really nice.  Not sure which one I like better but it was great going with a bunch of missionaries and we had a blast! I am so grateful we have one close to us at home in AZ.   We have to drive 3 hours to get to the Medford temple and most people in Oregon have to drive that far because there are just not many here. I am so thankful for temples.  They just bring such peace and such a spirit that I just love and appreciate :)

 

 

Where to go in case of a Tsunami

Medford Temple

February 3, 2014 Coos Bay, OR

Feb 3, 2014

Things are going great here. My new Companion is Sister Crosgrove from Utah. She is just so great I love her. We are a lot alike and that has it’s up and down sides and I have only seen good So hopefully it will be a great transfer with her. I know it will.  I am excited to have her as my companion. She is very hard working and we are doing some great work. It’s hard when transfers happen and companions come in and out of an area because the people have a hard time letting go of the old one so the work has been a little bit of a rough transition but we are going strong and going to do all we can to share the Gospel with all and help them work towards baptism. Sister Crosgrove is doing great with the transition and is on top of knowing the area and the people and the ward.
We had a baptism on Saturday so that was great! We had a great time and it was very special for her.

Nothing too crazy has happened I will say. We had a few people really get mad for us knocking at their door and it was a bit of a shock of how they treated us but it is normal for missionaries to have moments like that. We do have a one eyed cat who follows us around our apartment. I strongly dislike cats so I am always running away from it and it tries to catch me haha it’s funny but yet creepy...

Our ward has made a lot of changes with different presidency and such so we have a great new ward lined up for us. We also got a new ward mission leader. He just moved into the ward so it will be great to get to know him. He is awesome though. President Young challenged the whole mission starting now to study on the atonement of Christ and his life on earth till Easter Sunday. Then to write a 15 minute talk about what we learned and studied and send it to him. I think it’s because He is getting released this summer and wants something from all the missionaries so that will be nice to give him. I challenge all to do this though by Easter. I think it will be great to prepare for Easter to learn about our Savior and all that He has done for us and to get to know him better and understand him more clearly. It will be great to do this challenge I know that by doing this each of us will gain a personal witness that He is our Savior and have a growing personal relationship with Him. . I miss everyone so much!

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! HAVE A GREAT WEEK! :)

LOVE

SIS FLETCHER

                                          Catherine, Meredith, Sis Crossgrove

                                          Catherine, Meredith, Sis Crosgrove

                                          Catherine, Sonya, Meredith, Sis Crosgrove

January 27, 2014 Coos Bay, OR

Jan 27, 2014

Well I am staying here in Coos Bay but sadly losing Sister Stirling. She left last night to go to Santa Clara. She will do great. She will be training a new missionary and I know that they will truly make a difference and work great together. It was very hard for her leaving though. I am trying to stay strong for her and for my companion sister Crosgrow who I will have with me later today. I do miss her tons though she really has made the biggest difference in my life and one of the greatest sisters I know. I hope I will get to see her again someday.

Sister Crosgrow will be great though I am excited to work with her. She was trained by Sister Stirlings trainer so I know it will be a great working with her. I can’t wait for us to get started on the work together.

This truly has been one of the greatest transfers I have experienced even though I have had only 2 haha. But really though, I have grown so much and really have seen myself change into someone amazing I never knew I could become. I love the people here in Coos Bay.   They are so great!

One experience that I have loved is working with the LA family who are now fully active since November and are now working with all their family members and baptizing them and it’s just gonna be great! I really loved working with Sister Stirling with them. They are an awesome family!

Sister Stirling and I have had so many funny experiences and adventures in our apartment it was crazy! I cherish all those moments we had together and will hold dear to them all. She knows so much about me its NUTS! But there is a reason I told her so much about me because I needed her and we grew so much together. She is a forever friend and that I will always have and remember. Facebook is going great.   Please tell everyone to keep responding and sharing! It’s made such an impact on the people we teach and who all see it. I am working with someone and answering his questions because of it! THANK YOU!

Thank you so much for all you guys do. I love you so much and can’t wait to hear about next week. Keep up the great work in AZ and everywhere else. I appreciate the support and love and letters thank you so much! :) Miss and love you all have a great week! :)

LOVE SIS> FLETCHER

PS. I have to get a GPS today at walmart due to Sister Stirling leaving and me not knowing the area perfectly so they asked for me to get one. I have some money that people sent me on Christmas. I will use that and hopefully it will not be too costly. It will last me the whole mission and even longer and it will have great use getting around places. I hope that is okay. I love you tons! :) Thanks again!