Monday, November 6, 2017

Perdido Appreciation Day

Hey everybody!!
How has your week been?! First off, I want to say thank you SO much for all the emails and letters recently (and throughout my whole mission). I just feel so loved! 

This week was one of the best. I feel like I say that every week ;) but seriously! Heavenly Father just keeps blessing us. HOLY HECK I love being a missionary. It's become so exhilarating and exciting finding people to teach. I have truly come to love contacting (where you approach random people and share the gospel with them..usually the Book of Mormon). It makes me so happy to just boldly testify of something that has brought me so much joy!

In our zone, we do something called "Perdido Appreciation Day" every other Saturday. It is a day where every companionship in the Pensacola zone goes without their car for a day and they bike everywhere! (which can be difficult when your area covers over 25 miles). The reason why it's called this is because the elders in the Perdido area just had their car taken away this transfer so they have to bike everywhere!  We decided to devote a day to walking and biking to show appreciation for the Perdido elders, and also to provide a way to find more people to teach, and guys...we had the most incredible day this Saturday!!! We found six new solid investigators as we biked and tracted like crazy and talked to everyone we saw! 

Later in the day, we knocked on this apartment complex and this middle-aged man named Daniel opened his door. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him and told him what it is and he didn't agree with it at all. He just wanted to bash us and tell us that the Book of Mormon is false. He had all these factual and historical questions and his heart was just super hard. I ended up just testifying and promising him that if he read the Book of Mormon with sincerity and really pondered and prayed about it, he would know it is true and how much Heavenly Father loves him. When he was about to shut the door in our face, we heard a voice from inside yell, "Is it free?" We replied, "Yes, yes it is!!!" His fiance ran over to the door and said she heard us talking about how the Book of Mormon tells of the Native American encounters and she explained how she is Native American and would really love to learn more about it. Daniel was rolling his eyes and upset but she was so excited about it (hahaha). We gave her a copy and are meeting with her this week to teach her the restoration of the gospel. It was such a cool experience! I know Ana, his fiance, felt the spirit as we testified of the Savior and the Book of Mormon and something in her, the spirit, is urging her to find out more. 

I cannot believe this is my last week as a missionary! I feel so overwhelmed. It honestly hasn't quite hit me yet...I just want to make this the most memorable and incredible week. 
This past week I have been contemplating change. What it feels like to truly change. I feel as though for someone's heart to truly change for all eternity, it has to come from an eternal source. We are inviting people to change and repent every day as missionaries, but people won't want to change or be able to change if their motive and the source of change wasn't coming through something eternal (the Atonement of Jesus Christ.) Witnessing people change on my mission has made me realize that for the change to be real, it can't be quick and it won't be instant. It takes time. We have to allow the Savior to change us and heal us and mold us into something incredible that we can't comprehend on our own. I am so grateful for the change I have been able to witness in those I love out here in the Florida Tallahassee mission and the change I've been able to see in myself. It is ALL because of my Savior, Jesus Christ!

I love you all! Have the best week!

xoxo,
sister fletcher
Our dolphin mascot

Silly Elders
Cute Emma gave me this bracelet
at church yesterday
Sister Stephens is from my stake back home and came to church on Sunday!
What a small world!
Sister Adams is from Simi Valley but has been in the Gulf Breeze ward for two years.
Such a tender mercy :)
Sister Taylor <3
We went to the beach this morning with Aliza and her family
and found lots of shells! Also, we saw like twenty manta-rays
right along the shore...so so so cool
An old picture

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