Ups and Downs

3/16
Hello Family!
Well this week has been full of ups and downs. We flew so high coming into this week with some of the best and funest times we have had on our missions ever. We are teaching in unity and are doing everything we can to bring about miracles and blessings.

But, I got sick.

Despite that, we went out, and taught some amazing lessons but on Thursday all our plans fell through. Despite our goal being to never knock on doors, the spirit told us to knock on this one. The people in the house came out and were super pumped to learn. Too bad they only spoke Malay. So, we had to pass them off.

We continued to put our faith in the Lord and his plans for us. Friday started the same as Thursday with all our plans falling through. But we decided to re-try meeting up with our favorite investigator. We had an appointment with him earlier, but he didn’t answer his door. This time he opened it, he was about to push us away when the thought came into my head to ask him if we could just sing a song with him. He said “yes” and let us right in. It was insane and then about 10 minutes later we put him on date to be baptized on may 17. Hurrah!
After that we started seeing miracles all over the place it was crazy. 

We are now teaching a less active return missionary's daughter. She is 11, and has the strongest desire that I have ever seen for truth. She is Vietnamese and doesn't understand English very well or Chinese at all. We are teaching her in super simple English and having her read a Vietnamese Book of Mormon with us. We have appointments all this week and are super busy. I love this work! It has been so much fun!!

Love you guys so much!!
Elder Fletcher
 

3/23
So I went to go see the doctor again this week. The infection hasn’t gone away yet. The doctors want me to take this medicine for the next 6 weeks. They said it will take a while to take affect. President Mains didn't tell me that he talked with you guys about it. He really does care about me and wants the best for me. I am open with him. He said to give him a call this coming Sunday if the pain is not gone and he will send me to Singapore to get it looked at during zone conference.

On a happier note:)  This week has been great. One of our investigators stepped on a nail at the start of the week. He didn't tell us till Thursday, when we were on splits with the APs. His foot was huge and swollen. We were very concerned that he had Tetanus and that he didn’t have the money to go to the hospital. The next day we went to their house with a member. We offered a blessing to him after teaching him about the priesthood and he accepted. As we gave the blessing in Chinese the words coming out of my mouth were not mine. I told him that he would be completely healed. Additionally, I don't even remember what I said in the blessing, Elder Wadsworth told me what I said after we left. When we came back the next day to see how he was doing, his foot had almost no swelling and he felt no pain. So cool! We also had them pick the date they would be baptized. They chose April 26.

We also met up with our 11 year old investigator this week. We helped her dad teach her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was awesome! She reads her scriptures and says her prays!! so cool! We offered a soft baptismal commitment and She said that she wanted to be baptized. Then her and her dad picked a date together to work towards. April 26 is their date. So cool! This week was just awesome.

This week I also got the opportunity to translate for Elder Larry Y. Wilson who is a member of the 70. 

Elder Wilson is the Boss! After the meeting he personally thanked me and then told me that he loves Chinese. I taught him how to say a few simple things in Chinese and then he practiced them with the Branch President. We laughed together about his pronunciation and then he gave me a "back rub" and then told me to never forget Chinese in my life, because I will be able to use it through out my life to build friendships for the church in China.

Despite being sick and having a rough start. We started the week with only 1 person committed to baptism and now we have 8. This work is awesome!

Love your son,
Elder Fletcher

Update: Derek notified us that he will be transferred to Singapore on Tuesday. He assured us that it wasn’t because he was sick. He is going to train a new missionary. The missionary is a native from Ipoh, Malaysia. Derek is very excited! He is also is frustrated for having to leave Miri. He truly has fallen in love of the people in Miri.

Things are busy

3/2/14

Hey Mom and Dad and Family,

This week has been Great Elder Wadsworth made it in safe! The Risers and I went and picked him up from the airport he seems like he is adjusting pretty well. We both have decided that Miri needs to change and so we need to change how we have been working with it for the past 5 months! Because that has not been working! We decide that we want to have a 6 week vision and in that vision we want to find 5 new investigators and have 1 baptism! I have seen so many miracles as Elder Wadsworth and I have put our faith in the Lord to help us with this work!

Something super cool happened…So it was Elder Wadsworth’s first day here. We were going to go have dinner and I saw a car broken down on the bridge that we were going over so I stopped and talked with him for a minute in broken English. He said his friend was on the way and so I gave him our number and told him to call if he needed help. That was the end of that, until we went out on Saturday. Elder Wadsworth bike had broke so we were going to take the bus. We go to the bus stop and sit down. The buses here are a little slow sometimes so Elder Wadsworth asked me to pray. In the middle of my pray literally that same guy pulled up and asked us to where we were going. We invited him to church and English class and he said that he wanted to come!! So cool!! We are going to have to pass him off, because he speaks Malay... and not very good English and no Chinese... but it was still really cool!

Adventures this week!

*we went Shop lot contacting and found a lot of people interested!
*we contacted Two Chilians at a bus stop!
*decide that we are going to make business card they will be ready tomorrow!
*start a basketball class
*get English class going big
*making awesome food this week we are making Calzones and Breakfast Burritos and awesome Spaghetti
*we have also made a deal with the sisters and they are going to make us brownies every week.
*we might be moving houses so the sisters can move into the house we are in...
*Elder Wadsworth bought a crappy bike so we are going to go get his money back!
*On March 20 there is one new Chinese speaker coming to the mission and there is a 25 percent chance I will train him.

Helaman 10:4-7 I want the Lord to trust me this much!! That would be so cool! So I have to prove myself to him!!

Elder Wadsworth is great! We are getting along great we are basically the same person it is crazy!! It sounds like you guys all have been busy!! I am doing great though i love it here. Love you guys so much, thank you for everything you do. I pray for you guys every day. I hope I can make you guys proud of me out here!!

Love your son
Elder Fletcher :)

PS The car/pedestrian accidents aren’t that bad in Miri, for the most part. But I do light myself up like a Christmas tree.

3/10/14

Wow, time has really flown! I can't believe how long I have been out! It has been crazy! This week we have had so many miracles. We started our new companionship with one investigator and now we have ten, it has been crazy. Members are referring people for us to teach. People have been keeping commitments. We have been seeing so many things happen.

We met with a family last night and they didn't even know our names, but they invited us in. They wanted to talk to us and have us teach them. We have been doing great as a companionship and have some great unity. Home teaching is now up and going. We reached and exceeded all of our goals this week. Everything is booked and we have appointments almost every day. People want to hear the gospel!

Saturday we taught kids how to play basketball and this next Saturday we are learning badminton. I suck at basketball but it is so much fun. The kids all are going to bring friends.

I sent you home pictures of our service project. Yes, mom I wore shoes. But that is Ibans for you. They don’t wear shoes.

 

Did you like the greasy hands?  One of the sister missionaries got her skirt caught, so I fixed that but then her gears freaked out, so I adjusted those too.  I have learned a ton about bikes out here.  We have to keep our sister missionaries working.

 

We are doing so much work and we are having fun with it.  We have also come up with a new idea we call it “Sweep the Nation”.  We will let you know how it goes.  We still want to find new investigators.  This week we have the potential to get a lot it is so amazing to feel the love God has for everyone.

Oh by the way, I had some American candy the other day and it is too sweet.  Later today, we might be going to the beach.

Remember, God wants us to learn and grow here and everything will work together for our good.

Love your son,

Elder Fletcher!