Outbound!

Oh my!

What a week!!

Well I'm sure you all know, but I am going to serve in Atlanta Georgia! I am beyond excited and I will be serving with Sister Mahoney :)

She videoed me opening my call....but I can't send it because it's too large? I'll find a way to get it to you at some point. It's pretty funny because Sister Mahoney was filming but she opened hers first so when I opened mine I read it before I said it out loud and I just looked at Sister Mahoney with this funny looking face...but it looks like I'm making the face at the camera haha woops.

But ya, I am super excited and cannot wait.

This week has been filled with transferring my investigators, preparing for transfers (can't believe that is next week already) and trying to pack and sort through all of my stuff. It's funny when I first got to the mission I felt like I had nothing compared to all the other sisters-and I liked it, they all had problems packing and moving and I told myself that I would become that hehe. Which is funny because I have somehow become that sister now. So now I am just giving everything away.

Something really awesome that has happened this week was our training that we had from our area authority, Elder Clarke, and Brother Donaldson from the missionary department.

​I was expecting it to be a training about the iPads that we are going to be receiving soon but I was so wrong-it was so much better than that. It was a training about us, about who we are and about who we can become. It was an amazing experience.

"This is a journey not an event. This is about becoming" -Elder Clarke

The entire purpose about it was to restart the idea of giving missionaries iPads. Because in the few missions they tested it in, it wasn't working. So now they are giving this training before any missionary gets one. They are working from the inside out, just like Christ does. If they can change the missionaries, then iPads will become a wonderful tool to further the work of the Lord. It was a cool experience. We got to see just how much the leaders in our church work and pray for the missionaries and to help us become the instruments the Lord needs. The idea of giving us iPads was a very long process. I was very surprised when they explained it to us. And even after they gave some missions them they were still discussing it. Something that Elder Bednar told them when they received their training in preparation for training us was:

"Reasonable things do not need revelation. Giving iPads to missionaries is not reasonable-this was all done by revelation"

I'm excited to see what the Temple Square Mission will be like when I get back.

Well I love you all!!! Thanks for all that you do for me. Hopefully I'll have a cute little southern accent after three months of the south. Fingers are crossed!

XOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

Ether 12:4

Hey Fam Bam!!

So I'll admit, it was one of those weeks where, now that I am reflecting back I can't help but think, "did we even do anything this week?"-Things kind of blend together as a missionary I feel.

I mean of course we did stuff, we made contact with all of our investigators. They still are doing great. We met a lot of interesting people as always. The sun is still shining. So things are just the usual here in Salt Lake City.

Although I did find out something beautiful this week, I was talking with one of my investigators/recent coverts. Her ward is taking a trip down to the temple so she is preparing to go and do baptisms with them! Yay! I remember I told her that her baptism day would be her most favorite day-right next to the day when she can go through the temple. So that was a mini miracle-as a temple square missionary is really does mean a lot when the people you teach are in a good ward with good missionaries and good support to help them since we are usually states or countries away from them. So that was really excited this week.

A lot of learning also happened this week which was fun. Both gospel and history. For Relief Society this week Emily Utt came and spoke to us. She is the Church Historian over the church historical sites-and well Temple Square is a big Church historical site!! It was so cool! I'll admit, I learned that a lot of the things that we had been sharing in our tours were a tiny bit false haha. Sister Utt is actually working on a brand new site guide for us to study since apparently the one that we are using has been around for decades and isn't that accurate.

But serving on Temple Square is just awesome! She really renewed a lot of energy of how exciting it really is to be serving here every single day. We talked a lot about why Temple Square was a historic site. Of course there could be like a million reasons why, but she said that Temple Square was a historic place because it is the lace that revelation is received for the church and for the world-and of course this continues to this day! Like cool! I had never thought of it in that way. Then we listed off a bunch of church announcements that have been made since the church made it to the Salt Lake Valley-there are a lot, basically everything from food storage to the revelation about the Priesthood to the missionary age change. Our church is just too cool.

So ya, now I want to study Church History. So I'll just add that to the list.

For preparation day today we did SERVICE!

I guess for other missionaries that is like a 'norm' but on Temple Square it is like a sacred experience because it doesn't usually get to happen.

Now that it's done, I realize it was less service and more just having fun. Our zone went to a little assisted living home and performed some songs for them and then talked and ate with them. It was so fun, we sang 'Amazing Grace' and 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' (they asked us not to sing anything 'churchy') We even had a sister to play the Ukelele for us.

The place we went to was like super fancy!

​This was before all the guests showed up.

It was fun, the people there were just so cute! Made me want to just stay there with them. Some of them were members and some of them weren't so it was a really good experience for all of us I think.

So President and the APs have been transfer planning all week-crazy where has the time ever gone?! I'll admit I usually try to just focus on what I am doing and not think about the coming transfer but it's hard this time because I am really excited. I told President that I just want to go back to being a normal missionary. No more office for me. I have loved it, I have learned a lot, and I have loved serving the mission. But there is still that part of me that just wants to be outside talking with people about the gospel! So hopefully next transfer is just a normal one-then again I don't think there really is 'normal' in this mission, but oh well!

I love you all! Go visit the temple! We went this morning and it was great! I had missed it a lot. It was closed for a good month or so. Having a temple right next door is just cool. We are blessed to be able to visit our Father's home so often. I'm praying that I have a temple close by whenever I go outbound-we are so spoiled that the idea of going three months without seeing a temple like kills me. Oh well, like the pioneers said "All is well!"

Okay, well that's about it for me. Temple Square is fun, miracles happen everyday if you are just willing to open your eyes to see them. A lot of changes are going to be happening not only to the mission but also to the visitor centers- so a lot more miracles are just around the corner!

Love you all!

XOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

Valentine's Day Miracles

Hi Fam!

This week was slow....yet fast. Odd I know.

It was slow because my companion has been sick and has had to stay home, fast because Heavenly Father blessed us with a lot of tender mercies and miracles that made it all worth it!

It's hard having a sick companion, because usually it means you stay home....all....day! As a missionary that is like the worst. I almost read all of Alma in a day, just shy by a few chapters haha, I could have finished it but my zone leaders came and we did exchanges so I could spend a few hours on the square. That's when all the miracles happened! All week I was praying so hard that Heavenly Father would look after and take care of our investigators because I didn't think that we would be able to make contact with them this week because of how much time we were at home. Of course, He is just too good.

On Wednesday, we still had nothing, no contact with our investigators, no lessons, just nothing. Which is very unreal in this mission, but we were just at home so of course nothing could happen. But Wednesday afternoon I went on exchanges with my leaders so that I could at least try to make contact. We had a lesson with one of our investigators that Sister Merrill and I were teaching together. Our focus if we got a hold of her was to just get her going back to church and to get her back in contact with the missionaries because something had happened in her family that made her unable to meet with them for a while. Well she answeedr! But she then went on to tell us that she was no longer going to attend church and get baptized (she had a date) because her minister told her that she didn't have to get baptized to get to heaven. I'll admit my heart just shattered. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing and I had no idea what to do. I remember just praying that it would turn out okay and that we wouldn't lose her. Well that was the moment when the spirit took over. Sister Vasi (Idaho) was my exchange companion and when we talked and evaluated after the lesson about how it went we both agreed that we didn't do any of the talking. I am so thankful for the spirit! We tried to resolve her concern about baptism by reading some scriptures and it of course wasn't working. We then got her to think about why she was investigating the church in the first place, why she was going to get baptized in the first place. We went back to the Book of Mormon and testified about it. We invited her to just read a verse and then to just say one more prayer about it. It was crazy, this was like a 15 minute conversation and after all of that her entire countenance changed. She was back to the upbeat funny person that I met not too long ago. She said that she would read everyday and that we could call her back this weekend. Heavenly Father is just so good :) He really knows how to take care of His kids.

But after that, all sorts of little miracles happened. I was able to get a hold of all of our investigators, see how they were doing, set a new appointment, and made sure they were all going to church this weekend. I think I went on exchanges with like a million sisters but it was wonderful. The sun has been shinning which brings lots of people to the square. The flowers are all popping out of the ground and the work is just awesome!

Another awesome story that starts with a prompting was this morning. We were in the teaching center and I felt like we should try one of our investigators who will be getting baptized very soon. It is like impossible to get a hold of her these days but I figured why not. Well, she answered! That's a miracle in itself. She told us about all the things she is doing to prepare and about how excited she is for her baptism. This is someone I found with Sister Humble-so that's like 3 months ago? Well she actually had a rough night last night so it was a good thing that we had called, we were able to talk about that and how she just has to get to baptism and things will get better. It's kind of annoying as a missionary that the adversary always throws a million things at my investigators right when they get close to baptism. It's annoying, but he has never been able to win. So all is well!

Missions are just the best! And Temple Square is the best! Those two things are the perfect combination for a happy 18 months.

 The Temple is opening up again next week which is even better! I think we are planning on going next week on p-day, which would be wonderful.Well I hope that you all are staying out of trouble. Remember that I love you all, but someone a lot greater than I loves you a lot more! :)

And remember to stay out of trouble!

XOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

Alma 36:22

 

Guten Tag!!!

(That's basically 'good day' in german)

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week, I know that I have. The sun is shining, the flowers are popping out of the ground and I am in the best mission ever!

It's a little odd to have spring in early February, but I like it. We have put away the winter jackets and boots and the colors are coming back out! It's so funny to serve in a mission of all sisters, they get really happy when we can pack up the tights.

More than that, the warmer weather brings a lot more people onto the square, everyone says that January and February are the slowest months of the year, how blessed are we that that hasn't even happened. There are enough people to keep all of us busy all day long.

If you couldn't tell, this week I was able to spend a lot of time outside, which was wonderful! A lot of miracles and tender mercies happened. I was on exchanges a lot because my companion has actually been sick so she stayed at home for a few days.

There are two in particular that really made my week, the first was an appointment we had with one of our investigators. We had just met two Fridays ago, so we haven't been teaching her for a long time but we invited her to be baptized during the first lesson and she said yes. Well the miracle comes that the local missionaries were able to get in contact with her in less than a week (that never happens!) and they were able to recognize just how prepared she was and they put her on date during their first lesson! Yay! When we called her after church this last Sunday she was so excited to tell us that she was getting baptized, even more amazing the date that the local missionaries extended to her was the same date that we were going to extend if the LM hadn't during their lesson with her. Our Father is just so good at what He does! I love it when I am able to get a little glimpse of how the spirit works on individuals and not just missionaries, I know that this individual was prepared way before we met her. I now that our ancestors we working hard on the other side.

Another experience I had was when I was on exchanges with my district leader. We were on the desk in the North Visitor Center talking with people when a man walked in and walked right past us without even making eye contact, he walked in and went straight up to the Statue of Christ. When our assignment was up we both felt prompted that we should go and try to find him. Well we found him and we had a wonderful conversation with him that was filled and guided by the spirit. He's a member but was going through a rough time. At one point while we were talking with him we asked him to walk with us and we walked up to stand right in front of the Statue of Christ, right underneath the gaze of Christ. It was such a testimony building experience. We were able to testify of the love that our Father has for each of us and the love that our Savior has. How grateful I am that we have the gospel and know who we are and that we are loved by someone far greater. We prayed with him before going and after the prayer his entire countenance had changed from when we first started talking with him. Prayer is a miracle in itself, and it really does change people.

I have a lot of favorite hymns but I love #140. "Oh, how praying rests the weary! Prayer will change the night to day. So, when life gets dark and dreary, don't forget to pray."

The conversation we had with this man was another testimony building experience, but I know that nothing that we sharing really helped him, it was the spirit that he felt and the prayer and he said that lifted his spirits and gave him the strength that he needed in that moment. 

Today, for p-day we just ran to Walmart and got some fruit and then after we leave the computers we are heading home to sleep! Missionary work is exhausting, who knew. But I love it, each day it just keeps getting better and better. Being at Temple Square, right next to the temple just makes it 10x better. The temple has been closed the last few weeks which has been sad but it will only be that much sweeter when it opens up again. Today when we were walking past the west end of the temple, one of the large doors were open! That was exciting, you could kind of see inside, but all you could see was drapes. We think they might be repainting some parts of the temple or something.

Well I love you all! I hope you are having fun and making memories :D

Thank you for all the prayers, it really does help.

TTFN!

XOXOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger