John 16:33

Family! It's April!! Where has the time gone?

This week has been a crazy roller coaster. Feels like we have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get everyone at conference. But it was all worth it!

The area that I am serving in is a wonderful area! I'm sure that I have mentioned that many times but I thought I would mention it again. There are so many people though, we seriously need like 20 more companionships of missionaries in this area to help get everyone to the waters of baptism. It's also hard being the only sisters here, I did find out that there used to be two sets of sisters in this area but they have decreased in their number of sisters in the mission and so now it's just us. So we just drive all over kingdom come trying to get to all of our appointments on time while also stopping every time we see a family -which happens a lot. So we are blessed to have a pretty solid teaching pool.

It's a blessing to serve in the South because the majority of everyone we stop and talk to will talk with you about Jesus Christ! And the majority of those people will set up another appointment for you to come back! The hard part about being in the South is people are really relaxed and don't have such a sense of urgency as we do as missionaries. But hey, no one is perfect right?

This week though was crazy! To start the week off we had our week filled with appointments and members to come out with us and then every morning all our appointments and members would cancel! I don't know what it was about this week, but I am not exaggerating when I say that everyone canceled. By the time Friday and Saturday came around it was beginning to just be comical. All is well though because we spent that time out finding and getting everyone to conference.

Tracting is pretty fun, and adventurous! You never know what's going to be behind the door. And the people here are great because every single home has a different story! I mean very different :) So some fun tracting stories from this week:

I think it was Tuesday evening, we had dinner at a members home and then had plans to find near them. While we were eating dinner The member's phone buzzed and I  guess they got an alert for severe weather. Well we didn't think anything of it because if you looked outside it was bright sunshine and happy :) So we finished dinner, shared a thought and went out on our adventures. Well we found a cute little neighborhood to knock on some doors, and again I don't exaggerate, but it started thundering, lightening and poring down rain right when we parked the car. Sometimes I wish we were on camera because I would just laugh if I could watch myself. Sister Perry and I just looked at each other and then looked in the backseat to see if we had grabbed our raincoats only to see that we didn't. So we just kind of shrugged our shoulders, hopped out of the car and ran to the first house. You would think that more people would let you in if they saw two soaking wet girls holding scriptures right? Well the only people who let us in was a cute Vietnamese family who didn't speak a word of English. So we prayed and left them with a pass-along card. So even though we didn't really find anyone that evening it was fun and exciting!

Another cool thing that happened started with me making a wrong turn and it all turned into a great miracle of being guided by the spirit! Or at least that's how I like to tell the story :)

Well we were on our way to a members home for dinner and it was up in an area that I hadn't been before and I was using the GPS but our GPS is kind of funny when it comes to apartment complexes. Well Sister Perry was on the phone with one of our investigators and I knew that we would be arriving like any second to the complex where this family lived. But of course I turned into the wrong one and got us stuck in the maze of apartments. As we were trying to find a way to turn around and get back out we saw this cute little family taking a walk. So we pulled over and I rolled down my window to talk with them and the mom's eyes just lit up! Turns out she can't speak a word of English but her son does! They are from Moldova. Well we parked and got out to pray with them. The mom was just so excited and we don't really know if she recognized us or anything but after we prayed she just said "Church, Church ,Church" turns out her son told us that she wants to go to church! So we set up a return appointment for the next evening to talk with her about the church and General Conference this weekend. It was amazing! The lesson that we had with her the next day was great. Even though I don't think she understood a lot. When we showed up for it she was waiting outside for us and had both her Bible in Russian and her Bible in English on the table all ready to go! It was great! She definitely felt the spirit and we were able to have them come with us to the Sunday Morning session of General Conference.

Her family is super cute and her son speaks perfect English which is a blessing. We are right now in search of someone in the ward who speaks Russian and we ordered some Russian materials. But despite the language barrier I know that the Lord has great things in store for this family :)

So ya, miracles happen everyday! Conference just added to that. We got to watch all of the sessions at the church. The Sunday Afternoon session we ended up listening to it in the nursery because one of the families that we are teaching came and they have the cutest little 1 year old, but she is a bit of a handful so luckily conference could be speakered into the nursery. That was fun! It's hard being a missionary though, because all I wanted to do was take the little girl so that her parents could actually really listen with spiritual ears but everything will work out! They are reading the Book of Mormon and they come to church regularly. But things always come up and take their attention like work and medical things for their daughter and so that's been a little difficult. But it's the Lord's work and I know that He'll help us make all these things work out.

But ya, it's been a crazy week. Sister Perry goes home this week and I will be getting a new companion. We got the phone call this morning from the APs to tell us that we need to go to transfer conference. I am staying in the area so that's good, President had already told me that that would be happening though so I wasn't worried. We have tried to figure out who my companion will be but I don't know any of the other sisters and Sister Perry can't decide who it'll be so I guess I'll just find out on Wednesday. Out here you like never see any other missionaries so that's a little bit different. But it's okay because we are just so busy that I haven't really noticed until now. I'm excited to stay in the ward, they are great and I just want to keep working with them!

There was one family that we had dinner with and it's one of the few families who like forces us to eat a lot! At dinner with them this week (this was my second time over at their home) I got seconds and I told the Brother that I had learned my lesson from the first time. Anyways he muttered to his wife that he was going to get "meat on that girls bones by the time she leaves" haha it was really funny. I told him that you all would appreciate it and wouldn't be worried if I was getting fed enough.

So that's a piece of my week. Also studied the book of John the past few weeks leading up to Easter :) Easter is such a special day. I hope all of you had a great day listening to the words of our Prophet and Apostles. I can't wait to get the Ensign! So if anyone had any favorite parts or learnings, please feel free to share :)

Love you all!

XOXOXO

-Sister Fluckiger