Sister Fletcher in the Florida, Tallahassee Mission: Coming @ you live from the happiest place on earth!

HI!!!

Today has been a blast. This week has been amazing. Life is just SO GOOD! Sister Hart and I just got back from the beach and pier park and it was such a nice little break for the week. I seriously love Sister Hart so much, I feel so blessed to be her trainer. We have truly come to be the best of friends!

Every day was great this week, except for Tuesday... Tuesday was rough. We had literally five planned appointments, all with members planning on coming, and every single one fell through. It was pretty discouraging. For our back up plans, we decided to go tracting. In the afternoon, we tracted a couple streets and didn't have an ounce of success. We even got a couple doors slammed in our faces (don’t worry we just laughed it off) haha. We were pretty bummed and after our 4:30 appointment got canceled, we just decided to tract the whole street where the canceled appointment was. We finally saw some miracles! We met a man named Matt who just moved here from Israel who is looking for a church to join. You bet we were stoked out of our minds to hear that! We talked with him for a bit, got a return appointment then went on our way down the street. We then ran into three more people interested in having us come back and share with them a message, so we are so excited to see what happens! I’ll keep ya posted :) I was just so grateful for the tender mercies we saw in what seemed like such a bad day. Although it was rough, amazing things still came out of our efforts.

On Wednesday we met the most prepared lady EVER! Her name is Deborah and she was actually a referral from her neighbor (a member of the church in the ward). We taught her the restoration of the gospel and established with her our purpose as missionaries. At the end of the lesson she said, "I do have one question..." we replied, "Yes?" She asked, "What is that health law about not drinking caffeine?" We then explained the whole Word of Wisdom. A little worried, she asked us, "So can I not drink my Diet Coke?" haha We were so relieved! She was laughing and told us she can definitely do without coffee and tea but needs a Diet Coke at least once a week. haha I love her already :)

That night we also had the most amazing lesson with our new investigator Erica. Brother Dame, a member in our ward, owns a hearing office and told us about his new receptionist, Erica, and asked us to come to the office one day to meet her. We came in and acted like our ears hurt. (it was hilarious) It turns out he actually did need to clean our ears out! haha. Afterwards, we went up to the front desk and Brother Dame told Erica about what we do as missionaries and how this gospel really could bless her life. She has had a really hard home life. She is 25 years old with two young children and one on the way. She is recently divorced and is now dating a new guy, Trake. She sounded really interested in having a lesson with us, so Brother Dame invited all of us over for dinner. The dinner was amazing and the lesson with Erica and Trake went so well. The spirit was so strong, especially as we talked about Joseph Smith's First Vision.

Our investigator Cathy, who we have been teaching for a while and has a baptismal date for next week, is going through a lot of horrible things and apparently, the bishop told us she is putting us in danger because of her home situation, which is out of her control. I love Cathy so much, and she knows this gospel is so true. It’s just heartbreaking, but now is not her time. I just know one day soon, she will be baptized into this church!

I have been studying a book we have as a part of the missionary library called, “Our Search For Happiness”. It talks about what Mormons believe, and how all of our beliefs really do bless families and bring so much happiness and joy in this life and in the next. As I was reading this week, this thought came to me: If we could really know and experience being in the presence of Jesus Christ now, falling down at his feet, feeling his scars, we would give EVERYTHING to Him and His work NOW. We would serve to the best of our ability and always live worthy to be in His presence. But even if we don’t get to physically be in His presence now, we can still feel Him there. We can allow Him to carry our trials with us, we can turn to Him for peace. I promise with everything inside of me that Jesus Christ and His teachings (the gospel of Jesus Christ) are the ONLY way to lasting happiness. I have seen it in my life, as well as the lives of those who turn their lives around and repent as we have taught them here in Florida.

This is such a beautiful work and I am so blessed to be a representative of Jesus Christ to fulfill His sacred work. I love you all so much. Thanks for the love, letters, and prayers.

-Sister Fletcher