Friday, August 28, 2015

こんにちは!私はフルキガー姉妹です!カリフォルニアから来ました!!

(Hi! My name is Sister Fluckiger! and I'm from California!!)
I'll be fluent in Japanese before you all know it :)
This week has just flown by but it has been filled with many many miracles.We are teaching a lot of different individuals and we have been able to get a lot of them in contact with the missionaries this week. Yay! That's probably the biggest mountain that we have to get over with each individual that we meet - making them want to meet with local missionaries. One investigator that I have been teaching for a few months now is having a hard time getting in contact with the missionaries in her area, every week something new happens. Either the missionaries cancel or she cancels or they don't answer the phone. I'm sure everything you could think of has happened to delay her from meeting with the missionaries. This week when we called we reviewed the Plan of Salvation with her and we invited her to be baptized again and again she said yes! Only this time her response was "Why can't you just fly out to Jersey and baptize me...that would make all of this a whole lot easier." If only that could actually happen... All is well though, the work will continue to move forth and eventually she will meet up will the missionaries and be able to plan her baptismal service :)
I also received a letter in the mail from a recent convert, it was really sweet and it just made my day. There's always little things that just makes it all worth it and that was one of them. Then to add to that I was reading in the Book of Mormon this morning and I realized how important prayer and faith are- and that we can never see or know how things will turn out. I am reading in Alma again, all the great missionary chapters! I read about the conversion of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, in Alma 23:6 is tells us that there conversion was so strong that "they never did fall away". That's the conversion and testimony that I want and that I want for everyone else in the world. Then it clicked for me that all of this was made possible because of the prayer that Alma the Elder prayed on behalf of his son and his friends (the sons of Mosiah). Mosiah 27:14 is the account of the angel visiting Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah all because of the prayer and faith the Alma the Elder had. From that point the domino effect rolls into motion. I'm so grateful for all those who include the work of missionaries in their prayers! Never stop praying, those prayers lead to families and communities being brought to the truth of the restored gospel! 

This week we were also able to attend Brighton's Camp for a few hours. I loved being up in the mountains again, it was like Girl's Camp all over again.


We were given these bright neon green shirts and on the back on them is a silhouette of the Temple and it says "Temple Square, Teaching All Nations" - there's never been a truer statement, except of course the statement that the Church is true!
Did I ever tell you that Utah is named after the Ute Indians? And that Ute means "top of the mountains" so we sang High on a Mountain Top and then our mission song Called to Serve. There's nothing like serving the Lord and our Brothers and Sisters in the 'top of the mountains'!
I love being a missionary on Temple Square, it's hard but that's why it's also the best. Yesterday I got a little piece of South Korea as I went on exchanges with a beautiful Sister in my district, Sister Bae


Which means I was able to take Korean tours and teach Korean lessons. Seriously how cool is my mission! Miracles are always happening when we go on exchanges and this time we were able to get a hold of one of their investigators and she was finally able to confirm her baptismal date with the local missionaries! Yay. Sister Hara then was able to get a hold of some of our investigators who have gone MIA over the last few weeks and committed them all to call the missionaries again and to go to church. God is really good at what He does, that's all I can say about it.
This upcoming week we have Mission Leadership Council which takes basically all day, and then I'll be going on exchanges a few more times which means I'll be traveling the world! I'll be going to Australia and possibly Columbia as well. Another busy week filled with preaching God's word.
I love you all and am grateful for your wonderful example and support!
XOXOXOX
-Sister Fluckiger

Friday, August 21, 2015

1 Nephi 2:20

Hello Everyone!
I have survived another transfer week and it has been great as always. My last few days with Sister Sommerfeldt were filled with lots of little exciting adventures and miracles.



We both decided that we wanted to have a very strong last few days together and that's what happened! We were able to take a lot of tours and meet a lot of people. In our excitement to take as many English tours as possible we actually ended up taking a Chinese tour. Being surrounded by so many international sisters I sometimes forget what languages I actually speak...just kidding :) they actually requested an English your because there were no Chinese sisters available. So we basically gave the tour to the teenage son because he has been living in Utah so his English was pretty good and then he translated everything for his family. It was quite an interesting experience, the boy enjoyed it though.
We also were able to have a miracle happen with our flagpole tour. We ended up taking a very large group around, 30+ people, which is fun because it means we are able to share our testimonies into a microphone. Which also means your tour grows larger and larger the longer you talk because everyone can hear you as they are walking past. Nothing can beat summertime on Temple Square. This particular tour though we were able to do exactly what we had received training on a few weeks prior, the teaching skill is called AMPED which is an acronym for 6 different gospel principles and the idea is with large groups tours to share 'sneak-peaks' of all 6 gospel principles and then invite to learn more. With such big tours the needs of the people are all so different and so this helps us be able to meet so many different needs at the same time without the people feeling like they learned it all. That way they will be curious enough, and will have felt the spirit so by the end of the tour they have more questions. This flagpole tour went great and we were really able to touch an individual who actually doesn't really think that God's there. It was when we taught and testified about the Book of Mormon when he started really listening to us. At the end of the tour he came up to us and asked us a few questions and we gave him a Book of Mormon. We are going to continue teaching him and then when he makes it back home from his vacation we will be getting him in contact with the local missionaries. Heavenly Father is really good at what He does. I am so grateful He leads so many of His children to Temple Square because it is such an easy place for them to feel of His love. It's a little piece of heaven on earth.

Being with Sister Sommerfeldt has been a blast, we both were able to learn so much and see so many miracles happen with the people that we were teaching. A very sweet member who visits Temple Square often gave us a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory and so to celebrate our last days together we went and bought a slice of cheesecake. it was our snack while we finished watching the district videos that are part of the training program for new missionaries. 
So Monday we found out our new companions and assignments and then on Wednesday was transfer day. I'll admit I was more nervous for Sister Sommerfeldt's new companion then I was for my own. But luckily when it comes to the mission, Heaven's in charge of what happens. 

 So meet my new companion,

​ Sister Hara from Japan....she's actually the one behind me with the necklace.
She's the best. She has been out a little over three months and is excited to go go go. Our assignment is Guest Services again. President must think I'm really good with computers because he seems to keep putting me back in the basement with all the assignments that have to do with a computer. I'm not sure what Heavenly Father is trying to teach me but obviously I haven't learned it yet. It's good though, I have the opportunity to serve with some amazing sisters so it's all worth it.  (also been called as a District Leader)
The last few days we have been able to take a few Japanese tours...so far all I can say is my name in Japanese, and it's still not the greatest. But practice makes permanent. It's going to be a great transfer though, she has some great people who she has been teaching. I gave all of my investigators to Sister Sommerfeldt because I wanted to make sure she always had people to teach and so we are working on building our teaching pool back up. We're not too worried about it, Heavenly Father always provides things for us to do and people for us to teach. Just this morning actually we saw His handy work, our P-day schedule doesn't have any square time scheduled in because of our assignment but we do have a tiny it of Teaching Center time before our preparation day starts and so last night when we were planning we were both very determined to find a new investigator today. So with all the faith we could muster we prayed and asked God for a miracle today. Well, like I said God always provides, in the short time we were in the Teaching Center we received a chat from a individual who was given a mormon.org pass along card. She didn't know a lot about the church, wasn't really religious herself, but she told us that she did believe in God. After some chatting back and forth we testified that God was real and that He can actually have a huge part in our lives if we let Him. We asked her if we could call her to tell her about how we came to know that this was true and to teach her how to can find out as well. She was super grateful and excited to hear from us soon. God is just too good to us :)
Well this upcoming week is going to be great! A lot of hard work and miracles ahead. 
I hope you all are staying cool, I'll admit I'm ready for fall to begin. :)
Thanks for always keeping me in your prayers. The work will continue to go forth!



XOXOXO
Sister Fluckiger

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Temple Square saves the World

What an exciting week that has happened here in the great Salt Lake City. Each week just gets more and more exciting the longer that I get to serve here. 

But really lots of miracles were witnessed this week. To start, I have been blessed with a wonderful companion. She's so good that Sister Poulsen (our mission president's wife) trusted us to teach Relief Society this week. It turned out to be a great lesson! In our Relief Society the lessons are always varying, it goes back and forth from the sisters teaching to special guests coming and sharing a lesson with us. But when the sisters get asked to teach we teach out of the Teachings of the Presidents manual. Our lesson was all about Jesus Christ and we taught it with another companionship - Sister Xia (Hawaii and China) and Sister Chiafitela (Brazil). It was a great opportunity and we were able to learn a lot while we prepared but our mission is HUGE and so it was also kind of scary. Who knew that giving a tour of 40+ strangers and teaching about the Restoration would be more appealing than teaching a bunch of missionaries who are actually all your best friends? But the mission was accomplished and the spirit was felt. What more could you ask for :) 

The transfer is also nearing an end which is crazy to think about. Sister Sommerfeldt and I have been together for 3 months! Best companionship ever. Even our district this transfer was wonderful and we were able to see many miracles as we worked hard together as missionaries. 


​(this isn't the best photo....but it's actually the best one out of all of them).
Each transfer we set a lot of goals for different things to help us work effective. A baptism goal is something that is set with the Lord each transfer and this transfer our entire district was able to reach our goals. It was truly incredible, so many of our brothers and sisters were able to make covenants with our Father in Heaven and they are all now starting to see the wonderful blessings from the decision that each of them made. To celebrate the end of the transfer and the success that the Lord had over these past six weeks we had a scavenger hunt with our entire zone last Preparation Day. It was a lot of fun, we had to do different things like: act out a Book of Mormon story, make a card tower out of pass-along cards, spell out B.O.M. with our bodies and other ridiculous things like that. It was quite an adventure. 
It has been such a blessing to be able to serve in the Beehive House to teach and testify about Brother Brigham Young and our living Prophets today. We usually only serve in the Beehive House a few hours each day and we actually aren't even there every day. However yesterday we covered a few shifts and we ended up being there for 6 hours straight....that's a long time. It gave us some time to also read the Book of Mormon. The Beehive House isn't always busy and so when we are not on a tour we sit in the back and study. This week I finished up Mosiah  (such a good book!) and I just love how different things stand out to you each time that you read it. This time I was able to really gain a testimony that things always work out when we are following God. I just love how simple life is. Well it's meant to be simple, I think we mess that up sometimes. 
Sister Sommerfeldt and I have really been trying to help our investigators see really how simple the gospel is and how much happiness can come from it. We had a miracle happen this morning when we were teaching a lady that I met many months ago but then I lost contact with and now we are teaching her again. She made it to church this last Sunday and she even brought her teenage son and he really enjoyed it. He did have a few questions and they were able to chat to the missionaries a little bit but it didn't sound like the missionaries were going to visit them soon. Well during out conversation with her we asked her how her son liked church and instead of just telling her what she thought she just grabbed her son and put him on the phone. You gotta love investigator referrals :). We were able to have a great conversation with him, we introduced the Book of Mormon to him and he is going to start reading it today and tomorrow we are going to talk to him more about it. One thing always leads to another, and that's how it is with missionary work. Teaching one person always leads to teaching others! God's plan is a great one. 

Well Sister Sommerfeldt and I are going to be split up this next week. 

​We have had two crazy transfers together and have been able to see many miracles happen. Serving on Temple Square is a wonderful experience and I truly have been blessed to serve with wonderful companions. Monday morning is when we find out who our new companion is and what our assignment will be and the Wednesday is when the switch happens. If I am switching zones, my preparation day will also most likely switch as well - so just a warning. 

Thanks for all of the prayers! We most definitely feel them each and every day.
Lots of Love!!

XOXOX
-Sister Fluckiger