April 21st to June 1st

4/21

Easter week,

This week has been pretty good, we have a new investigator we are working with. She is great. She has tons of awesome questions and wants to understand everything. She already is starting to develop an awesome relationship with our members. Right after we finish our lesson, Ray and her went on a date. Ray has been the member working with her. Ray is a return missionary. We just have to finish helping her understand the commandments.

We are trying to do our best to find new people to teach. We have been working together on Chinese and improving our Chinese. I am doing great and it sounds like you guys are too.

Today, we are going off to the zoo, It sounds like we will have lots of fun.

Hey, I found a present for Abbi, but I haven't bought it yet.

Tell Mike that I hope everything is ok with him, and that his jeep will get back to normal. Speaking of Jeeps, please take some pictures of mine and send them to me.

Look up “William Kellie Smith” and see if we are related to him, he owned a castle in Malaysia.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellie%27s_Castle

Love you guys so much!

Elder Fletcher

4/28

Family,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! MOM! YOU ARE SO AWESOME SORRY YOUR PRESENT ISN'T READY YET! I PROMISE YOU WILL LOVE IT! AS SOON AS I SAW IT I KNEW IT WAS FOR YOU! BUT this is how you sing it in chinese ask Abbi for help!

“Zhu ni Shengri Kuaile, Zhu ni Shengri Kuaile! Zhu ni Shengri Kuaileeeeee! Zhu ni Shengri kuaile” :) Love you so much mom! your are the best!

Speaking about the exotic foods you are asking about. I don't really try anything exotic here because it doesn't ever come out right... food here destroys me!

That is so cool that the Ogden temple announced its open house and dedication. I miss the temple so much! I want to go when I get back!

 

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/ogden/

Tell Spencer congrats on being ordained to an Elder. That is so cool!

No, I didn’t get transferred, I am still in Singapore. Elder Liew leaves on May 12 and after that I don't know what is going to happen.

It seems like I am always learning.  I was talking to Elder Harper yesterday and telling him that I feel like it has always been 2 steps forward and one step back. I was talking about how hard the last couple of weeks have been. I was telling him that I thought Miri was hard but now I want to go back to Miri because the work there seemed so easy. He told me something kind of profound. "Your mission will never be easy, because the Lord loves you and wants you to grow" I am just trying to keep it positive. It reminds me of football a lot! Just digging your feet in and push back!

I am glad to hear about your conversation with the mom of the future Chinese speaking Elder going to the MTC the end of July. We heard that there are 5 Chinese coming in then. So that is good! We are losing a bunch in the next couple months. I might train one of them! That would be cool! I will keep my eyes out for him, but that is still a ways away haha!

I saw the picture of the Jeep. It looks a little dusty. Send Abbi out to wash it! haha just kidding! You will have to send pictures of you guys driving it. Man, I am so jealous I miss that jeep so much!:)

so this week...

· Ada went to Malaysia for Holiday
· Elder Liew and I saved a man from a fire
· We found a man that wanted to offer 300,000 sin dollars to our church
· We helped somebody move
· We found a housing unit that has tons of China people!
· We have become great friends
· We have been preparing Ada through scriptures for baptism

and that is about it! I love you guys so much!

Your son, Elder Fletcher

5/3

Dear Family,

Well it sounds like you guys are doing good.  It sounds like you are excited to go to the quilt show.  It sounds really fun.   

This week Elder Liew was in KL all week getting his visa for America, so I was on splits with Elder Harper and Durrant.  It is was fun!  We also have been teaching Ada and she is doing great right now.  As we were speaking she was looking at the application for BYU.  She choose a date to be baptized, June 28th.  But  she called us and told us that she is going back to china on the 20th of May.  She isn't sure if she can come back.   So we moved the date to the 17th of May! So we are working right now to prepare her for baptism.  She is basically ready!

 

We found a stack of teaching records that is like 10 years old so we have been calling through them all.  We have found alot of people that still want to learn.  I sent a picture of how our area book looks now.  Each paper represents a person and a soul that God has been working with and preparing.

I told the president that Abbi is learning Chinese and he said that he would love to have her in this mission and that any Fletchers are welcome whether they be Elder or Sister.  He really wants Chinese sisters

Well i love you guys so much.  I am looking forward to the skype call.  see you next week!:)

Elder Fletcher

5/11

Mothers day…

Skype call from Elder Fletcher.  He looks good and was told that he will be an uncle.  His older sister is having a baby boy in September.

5/18

Dear family,

I have been feeling super out of it lately but I think I am doing good now I went to bed early last night! oh and I did get a letter from lexi! I forgot! haha! ok I let him know! he is great! oh and you probably should be getting a letter here soon from my comp, Elder Durrant…well we did this activity for district meeting where we all wrote a letter to our comps parents so expect something. 

Sorry so short,

Love Elder Fletcher

5/25

Dear family,

Losing weight!  I am good at that sorta thing!  you know! except now, i am just putting on the weight except in a good way!  haha my work outs in the morning are the beast!  It is so much fun!  my arms are getting bigger now!  haha push ups and dips and curls!  haha and then every other day i am doing push ups and wall sits and a work out that i made up I’m not realy sure what to call it but it hurts!!   

So, I am trying to improve myself, in every aspect of my life.  I have been learning a lot about president Heber J. Grant.  I love the persistent he shows in improving everything he did in his life

Miracle for the week!  We have this app on our phones called wechat and it is basically just texting, but we found this new feature on it (keep in mind that only chinese people use this app).  You shake your phone and then it searches for someone else shaking their phone.  Well I shook up this sweet guy, and he is legit and is from china and is super impressed with my Chinese and came to church and we taught him.  He is totally going to get baptized!   He loved church on Sunday too!!!  so crazy!!   I love missionary work!  It is was so cool!  He has questions about the book of mormon already!   It is great!  We have contacted 3 more people on it that are all from china and are super interested in the church! We are going to meet them this week!:)

Just and FYI on June 11^th Elder Frey  and I are making a visa run to Indonesia.  This trip will be easier on my passport and I will try to visit the fabric shops.

this is a great letter that our mission president just sent us.  Thought i would share:

Dear Elders and Sisters,

Today is Memorial Day in the US – a national holiday dedicated to the memory of members of the armed forces who gave their lives in defense of their country and for freedom and liberty for all peoples around the world. In the spirit of remembering valiant soldiers, I remember the example of Captain Moroni. In a great conflict between the Lamanites and Nephites, while Amalickiah, head of the Lamanite armies, was obtaining power by fraud and deceit, Moroni was “preparing the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord their God.” (Alma48:7) He was “preparing (them) to support their liberty, their lands, their wives, and their children, and their peace, and that they might live unto the Lord their God, and that they might maintain…the cause of Christians.” (Alma 48:10)

Moroni was a strong and a mighty man who embodied all of the Christlike attributes we are studying in PMG; “…he was a man of perfect understanding (Knowledge); ..yea a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving (Humility) to his God, for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people (Charity, Love, Diligence); …yea, and he was a man who was firm in the (Faith) of Christ,..” (Alma 48:11-13) He was about “… doing good, in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God (Obedience), yea and resisting iniquity (Virtue).” Alma 48:16)

“Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men (and women) had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” (Alma 48:17)

As we conclude our month’s focused study of Christlike attributes, I invite you, soldiers in the army of God, to be like unto Moroni, a man of God. I promise you increased success which will be coupled with more joy and happiness as you labor with your might to “prepare the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord (our) God”

With love, your fellow servant,
President Mains

I wish you the best and I hope you all are safe and sound.  I love you guys so much and from the sounds of it the Chinese missionaries in Singapore are getting a lot of missionaries coming in in a while.  It is all exciting! :) Maybe I will get to train again!   Well I love you guys so much.  Be safe!

Love Elder Fletcher

6/1

Busy busy busy week! I’m sorry about the kidney stones Dad and about all the sprinkler stuff.  It seems like I would be the one out there helping you with the sprinklers.  That is cool that mom had fun at the retreat and was able to meet Elder Wayment’s uncle.  I forget that he told me that he worked at Superior thread before his mission.  Elder Wayment is a Great missionary.  We talked alot about jeeping and cars and stuff!  He likes motorcycles alot more but it was funny because we didn't have the vocab for the conversations.  The vocab was all gone! so we had to... like.. describe what the things did. haha it was funny! ya he is great! i think he is in Bintulu now, but i am not sure.

Glad to hear that you were able to get the quilt group to listen to the missionaries at temple square.  How do they teach big groups? That would be a little difficult to actually teach to the peoples needs and concerns.  That is such a cool Experience, I am so glad that you had that opportunity or That you made that opportunity happen.  Missionary work is the best work in the whole world!

The phone shaker took a test yesterday to find out if he could stay in Singapore.  We have been helping him study. We don't know what he got on the test so we are still waiting.  If he doesn't pass he has to go back to China! So, hopefully he passes! :)

Hey, this week was great!  We have been having a hard time trying to find new people to teach, but we said a pray and put our heads together and came up with a plan.  It kind of felt like we were acting as the Brother of Jared.  We took it to the Lord and asked him if the plan we came up with is how he wanted us to do it.  Then we got up and went to work!  We didn't find anybody or anything... but we did find out that when we labor for our Father in Heaven he will always send blessings.  This week all of our current investigators have made so much progress.  Plus in my life I have grown so much!  I know that the people will come as long as we are consistently laboring and being obedient!  that is huge!  well that was my week

That little spider was scary!! and he could jump/fly.  That was elder Durrant laying down in the road.  I am not sure exactly why, i just noticed he wasn't walking with me and then i looked back and there he was on the ground.

Well I have too go but i love you guys! have fun!

Love, Derek.