June 8th to July 13th

June 8^th

This last week I have been trying to learn chinese at a new level.  I can communicate with anyone and understand just about anything, but i want to be better.  I don't want to come home with just a missionary vocabulary.  I want to be able to speak like a native and just have fun with it!  So, i have a renew desire to study and learn chinese better!

Also i want to be opening my mouth more and talking with everyone! it is amazing how much better i feel when i do that! Not much really has happened this week! i do have a visa run coming up on wed. the 11 so that will be fun! i am heading off to Indonesia.

i am doing good health wise! maybe a little on the mental side.  I might be a little wierd but that is ok! i have been working hard! and i will keep my Heavenly Father involved!

keep up the good work and if you get a chance to read the july liahona read the very last page right before Thomas s. Monson! it is really good!:)

June 15^th

My week has been great! we have been just going crazy trying to help our investigators.  It has been great!  some life advice: never judge anybody! we are all out here to learn and we are all out here for the same purpose remember that everyone can repent even if they are trying to do what they should be! i have to do it everyday! haha i am not the missionary i should be! i should be talking to more people and i should be inviting people constantly to make and keep commitments! but i love the fact that i can repent and change!

well something that is really cool in chinese! is the word 悔改 so the first character is 悔 it can be broken up into 2 parts 心 and 每 which separately is heart and everyday then next character is 改 which means to change so when you put them together it means repent! or everyday change your heart! so consistently get better!:) everybody can be doing this! and it is so great to just love people into doing it! you are a great mother and father! Keep your head held high and you knees on the ground!:) I read this quote today during personal study it is from Elder Richard G Scott it says " To become what you want to be, you have to be what your want to become everyday." it makes me so happy that we are able to just keep progressing! well i hope you had a great week!

Hey Dad, Happy Fathers Day!!!!!

i was reading your letter from last week!! and i am so glad! ulu emailed me this week! i was so happy for him! i can't wait for him! there was alot agaist him going out on his mission that just means that he will be an even better missionary! he is so powerful when he speaks i have no doubt that he will just do wonders! i will be on the front row of his homecoming! he is such a great example to me! and i am trying to be bolder! i can rest when i get home!

Elder Frey is our zone leader he actually is my grandfather in the mission i actaully am what you could call royalty here! because he was trained by one of the best chinese elders ever and then elder frey trained elder mitchell and elder mitchell trained me and we are all the first borns if you will in that line.  elder frey goes home in just a little bit.

no transfers so no worries! im stil in singapore! well i have too go now! but i love you guys! keeping being awesome! bye bye

Love Elder Fletcher

June 22^nd

Hey you guys! i can't believe it snowed it is the middle of june! almost july! that is crazy!

well some things that happened this week is we are having a hard time trying to get our investigators to do anything, but we were contacting out at china town and as i was talking to this old chinese man (Mark) about the church some members came up and started talking to us well it was a mom and a daughter and the daughter just got her call to taiwan and the mom was so happy! haha then they gave us some chocolate shakes and some durrian well then Mark got up to leave and i was like oh no! but then he came over and asked for my name card and something about our church! it was great!

i met james on the train this morning! he is a christian and wants to go teach the gospel to the jews he just got back for michigan that this how i contacted him i saw his shirt it said the lake of michigan and yep haha i told him that my cousins family lives up there! Steph's husband!

then i got on the train to chinatown and i met lucy, Yuling, and jessy they are all family yu ling had a baby that was 9 months old i told her about my beautiful sister that is pregnat and they just loved talking to me and thought my chinese was great! haha they said i sounded like i studied in china because of my accent. when i told them that i studied personal and in singapore they were amazed then they ask how long i have been learning i told them 11 months and they about fainted haha! that is basically every contact you have in chinese! everybody just goes crazy for white guys that speak chinese! haha well now i am here!

oh and our investigators Ramona and Isabella have been taught all the lessons and now just want to finish the book of mormon before they get baptized!

i love talking with people if i ride the train or a bus and dont talk to somebody i just feel like the worst person on the earth!

what would you suggest for us to do with our investigators that have been taught everything and just want to finish the book of mormon but are reading very slow? haha i know it doesn't matter if i get the baptism but if the keep delaying i feel like something could come by and destroy their testimony! and i don't want that! one of them is in 1 nephi 25 and the other one in in jacob??

i was thinking a mosiah 18 and saying look you don't need to read this book all the way there to know that it is true and this is what you need to do! and ask them to commit to be baptised in 3 weeks and pray about it right there with us but it needs to be super spiritual!

“If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” (Michael Jordan)

 

June 29^th

Hey Family,

This week is transfers so i will let you know what is up! Well this week has been sad... all the chinese elders in singapore have had the worst luck with setting up appointments and keeping investigators.. this week isabella dropped us... she said that she wasn't ready and that there was something wrong with the church... that was really sad... well we thought we were going to lose ramona and lily too when isabella said no but they both still have desire to learn so that is good!

we met with Hanfei and she brought a new friend so taht was good! and we went out to get a pass off lesson from the english elders but she never came! but there is still hope! well I have alot of cool presents that i have gotten for everyone! and i will put some sneak peaks on the pictures! well my week was ok i have learned alot we had zone conference this week the topic was repentance i had to give a talk it was ok! i shared Either 12:27 about how we all came on our missions and now more then ever i have learned my weaknesses and god has been showing me them so that way i can humble myself and repent and become better! well it went ok i just shared about how that has really helped me in my mission so that was cool!

Well the pain from a couple months ago is coming back.... i think it might be due to stress because it happened up in miri when diana told us she wouldn't be able to get baptized and it happened again this week right after isabella told us she didn't want to learn anymore.. so i am not sure i don't want to tell president yet because i don't want it to affect transfers but i am going to email and tell him today after transfers come out so no worries!  i am trying to learn all i can from the tough moments!

we are going to play on the beach today and it just rained so it wont' be to hot! that is always nice! and i know the package is here but we could grab it yesterday it because it was sunday! but i do know it is here i am going to grab it tonight!

Transfers just came in, I am Staying in Singapore and Elder Wang ( from china is my comp) yess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  he is like 2 months younger then me! haha it is interesting that I have never hand a companion that had worse chinese then me!

Love you guys to so much thank yo for the support! you guys are great! I love you so much! is there anything that you want from here i like dad got alot of cool chinese things but what else is there be thinking! oh and something i want in my next package is........... home made cookies!!!!!:) love you guys!!! take care talk to you next week!

July 6^th

so i got my package!!! holy cow!!! that is so much!!! haha i love it so much thank you guys!!

oh the humidity!! well i have basically gotten used to it... so it will be weird when i come back and it will be all dry!! i got the youngs letter and just finish writing them back, i just need to go buy a stamp! and then i will send it off!

well this week has been abosolutly crazy!!! we have just so much work now!! Elder Wang and I went to chinatown one night and everybody that we talked to was from china and wanted to learn about the gospel! it is insane with in 30 minutes we had passed out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon and taught them the first lesson they all had so much interest in everything! and want to learn more! we didn't have any more copies with us so we just used pamphlets and just tried to talk to everyone! it was crazy! we talked to so many people and we got so many numbers then later that night we went to a party and we talked to tons of people there and alot of them came to church! one said that she wouldn't be able to make it but told her friend about it and her friend really wanted her name is Miao Miao. she loved it and wants to learn so much!

This week the Lord has decide to bless us and we have just seen mirical after mirical! it was insane! we can't all that has happen!

well something interesting.... my companion can't speak English... so everything i say to him has to be in chinese or else he doesn't understand! and when ever somebody speaks english to him i have to translate for him... haha so this has just been great he has been helping my chinese so much and it is just great! members say that his accent is rubbing off on me because i sound like a person from china!

oh and in other news I am now having an eat off with some chinese people! they said that i couldn't eat hot stuff so i am used an ancient chinese idiom and then they challenged me to a spicy eat off! haha so that will go down this week!

well that was the short verse of my week! i feel like Mormon when he says that he can only write 1/100 of what happened this week! but no worries my journal might contain 2/100 haha! hopefully i try not to forget anything!

haha the highs and the lows are crazy! i really does show that the Lords hand is in everything! because we need those lows with out the Lows we would not appreciate the highs and work as hard as we are to keep it high!

Love your son/brother,

Elder Fletcher

July 13^th

Hey Family!! i am doing pretty good today sorry i am so late at emailing my companion was struggling this morning he is a little sick!

Speaking of your foreign exchange students: Tina and Rain! I am uploading a voice recording for them! it should be good!

 

 Voice Recording

 

Here is the translation of the voice recording:

hi, im elder fletcher i know you guys are at my house, sorry i don't know your names, but i am very happy you were able to arrive at my home. right now i am in Singapore being a Chinese missionary i hope you guys like utah. if you guys have any questions you can come and ask me. right now i want to introduce my family, my mom likes to quilt my dad likes to drive jeeps my older sister is pregnant her husband likes to fish my younger sister likes school and i like to speak Chinese. i hope you guys are able to enjoy your short time in my home. but remember keep everything clean also clean the toilet, don't flirt with my sister. when it is night time don't be to loud. and before you go to bed don't forget to pray with my family. remember I Am Elder Fletcher. after my mission we can play football together also remember send me an email.

If you try writing the words that they don't understand they might be able to pick it up because people from china learn how to write and recongnize words but they don't know how to say them or hear them! it but the written language they comprehend a little better!

Abbi, i dont' know why but i woke up in the middle of the night last night and had the feeling that you need to remember that God loves each of his children and really does know each of us individually! I wrote this down last night in my journal so i wouldn't forget!   I love you so much!

wow that is so amazing about all the gifts your Chinese kids gave you.  people from china are so nice! i don't have a nice pair of chop sticks! but i am planning on buying some sometime!

I learned a lot this week and i am trying everyday to get better and better! this week we have been working with alot of new investigators and potentials and been trying to help them all learn! we also had a lot of appointments at members house and activities with members! i hope that you guys are going to have a great week this week too!

Love you,

Elder Fletcher
 
God is at the helm! he loves each of us! and will show so much