Hey family!!

Another day, another dollar...oh, wait never-mind. 

Anyways, can anyone believe this transfer has flown by? (I'll admit I think my brain is permanently programmed to only think in 6 week periods)

I feel like Sister Merrill and I have only been companions for like a week. I guess the statement, 'time sure flies when you're having fun', is really applicable here. We've been staying busy with missionary work and office work.

Now that the end of the year is over we have finished all of our yearly reports but we finished just in time to start working on things for transfers. It is a little weird working in the office because we know everything that is going to be happening next transfer before any of the other sisters. So the nervousness, anticipation, and stress isn't really present this transfer, which really is just a blessing I think.

But aside from all the boring office work, we had a great week!

The sisters all got their outbound assignments, Sister Merrill is going to Louisiana! It's crazy, a huge group is going out this time because we don't need as many sisters on the square right now since it is a lot slower. So like all the sisters who have just been out a transfer longer than me...and like all the sisters who came out with me are leaving! Crazy! I feel like we all just here yesterday, well I still think we did, but now they are all leaving me. So that will be the weird thing about next transfer. Sister Mahoney and I are both in an assignment that is at least 2 transfers long so we are both staying, and we are speculating (which president doesn't like when we do that) that we will probably go outbound next transfer. Crazy! Another transfer, another thing to learn.

We had some great experience this week. Some not so spiritual ones would be that we helped President Harmon and Elder Skanky (members of the Mission Presidency) with two seperate problems. I've learned that being an Office Assitant means that everyone assumes you can fix everything, be it technical or whatever. So President Harmon came in saying that his mouse for his computer wasn't working, so we went into his office and played around with a few cords, unplugged something here and plugged something in there, and would you look at that we fixed it! Elder Skanky came in another day saying that he needed his folders all organized again for the new year. So we did, we got it all done in a day. Anyways they now both owe us dinner :) Isn't service just wonderful.

So that's been fun, we get to work a lot with them and they are just funny.

Oh, I also learned that Elder Skanky remembers Becca Fluckiger serving here. He has been here for a couple of years and I told him that we were cousins. Small world.

As for the spiritual experiences, we were able to meet a lot of awesome people who had amazing stories to tell and beautiful testimonies. Throughout the week we met a lot of recent converts who had just moved here to attend school and they were working on preparing for their missions. Each one had their own unique experiences with the spirit, but what I learned that even though each one of us takes a different path, our Father always finds a way to get us all where we need to be. He sure does always know what is best. :)

This week we also had the privilege of taking around a new senior couple who will be serving as a director of a visitor center. Apparently, each visitor center has a director and then our mission and Nauvoo are the two that have mission presidents. They are all just two years of service and so each year they call new directors to serve over them. And just like sisters who get called to a visitor center come to Temple Square as part of their training at the MTC, so do the directors and their wives. So we were asked to help out in the training. We got paired with a couple and we took them on a tour, we didn't role play or anything. We just did the tour as we would have done it for any other member of the church. We taught, bore testimony, and invited. It was a very cool experience. The couple that we took around got called to serve at Hill Cumorah and they were just awesome! They taught us so much! They were actually serving in Africa recently but their mission was shut down so they were sent home and released. And they just got a phone call like 2 days before they needed to report to the MTC saying that they had a new assignment to serve on Hill Cumorah.Crazy. Well we took them around, and then we dropped them off in a classroom to have lunch and then to continue their instruction and we picked them up later in the day and they came back onto the square with us, but instead of taking them on a tour they wanted to teach with us. So we walked around and explained a bit of how the mission goes, the difference between online teaching and teaching on the square with tours and things. And then just told them that we would walk around and if they felt prompted to talk with anyone, then that was what we were going to do. Man, did they just dive right in! It's was awesome. We approached the first man who walked on the square as we walked past the gate and they were awesome. They followed all the steps in Preach My Gospel and we ended up taking him on a tour. We were meant to be there to help them with the history and to help them with the little things like 'How to Begin Teaching', 'Asking Inspired Questions' and other teaching skills from Preach My Gospel, but they got it all. They even remembered all the history from the tour that we shared with them. We were able to have a great spiritual, converting tour and it was because of their awesome testimonies. I don't feel like we helped them with anything but we were definitely uplifted and strengthened from spending the day with them.

Oh, and because I'm in the office I already know who my next companion is going to be. I am super excited, I don't know too much about her but I think it will be really fun. She is just a transfer below me and is from Germany. Sister Fingerle, gotta love those German names :D

Oh, and next week is transfer week, but I already know that my p-day will stay the same, so no worries there. :)

I'll let you know all about the crazy transfer stuff next week.

Love you all!

XOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

Divine Orchestration!

Hey Family!

Yay!! I am now an aunt!!! Baby Aria looks beautiful and perfect! Remember to learn from her family, she was just with our Father, so I bet she has lots that she can teach us if we watch and love her.

It sounds like this week was crazy and exciting for everyone back home. Here at Temple Square, it's about the opposite. The lights are now coming down, the snow is melting and everyone has gone back to work or school so it's pretty quiet. Yet, we are still missionaries and we are still finding people that we can talk with about the gospel.

The probably most exciting thing that has happened at the square alone, is that we are now showing Meet the Mormons in our theaters. Which is good because it is bringing a lot of people to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and some of them trickle into the square. We are excited and expecting to see a lot of missionary work happen because of the movie. I hope everyone was able to see it while it was in theaters, if not it is showing at all the visitor centers so Oakland should have it? A trip to the temple is always good :) 

I've decided (and I can't remember if I shared this before) but I really want to live like right next door to the temple for the rest of my life! I love it. We are so blessed to be serving right next to the temple. Even though we can't go in all the time the spirit is still there. There is a story that we love to tell about a visitor of temple square years and years ago, okay not that long ago because Elder Skanky (Mission Financial Secretary) was still here. But a guy came to the square and was just standing in the gates and would step in and then step back out and he continued this for some time. Elder Skanky was the one who saw this man and he approached him to see what he was doing. The man said that he was trying to figure out why he felt different when he stepped into the gates. It's true, we like the think of our little Temple Square as the perfect example of being in the world but not of it.

Anyways, things are good here. We are staying busy, the APs have already started transfer planning, crazy right?! Which means not much happens in the office because they are in meetings all day with President, which means more time for us to be on the square working! Yay! 

We were able to talk to a lot of cool people. One in particular was a truck driving couple who stopped in for the night and came to temple square. She was a member and he is planning on getting baptized pretty soon. They were awesome people! Had an incredible story. But the guy was actually a bit of an anti when it came to the LDS church. I'm sure he knows everything there is to know about the church. He ripped it apart, and yet now he knows that it is true! It was such a testimony builder to me that Heavenly Father knows us perfectly and has a specific plan for all of us to come to the truth. I really do know that everyone will eventually figure out for themselves what God wants for them, sometimes it just takes people a little longer and for some they usually have to go the wrong way to figure out the right way. Which is okay, that's the entire 'Good News' of the gospel!

I taught one lady this week who has another cool story. We were on exchanges with out district leader and I was with her companion Sister Rajah (Australia). We were teaching one of her investigators who wasn't exactly progressing just because of the situation that she was living in and she wasn't ready to change it. When Sister Rajah was telling me about her before we called, it sounded like she was really studying the gospel but wasn't to the point that she was willing to live it yet so of course she wasn't having the spiritual confirmations that this was true. When we called her however, her heart was completely changed. it was evident that the spirit had been working on her since the last time she was taught by Sister Rajah. She ended up just telling us that she new it was true and she knew the changes that she needed to make. The cool thing about it was her story that she shared with me about how she came in contact with the church. Her husband is actually a member of the church who stopped going some years ago, but her family is pretty active. So the in-laws have invited them to church a few times. Even though they didn't go, Sister Rajah's investigator starting looking into the church and eventually met Sister Rajah.

Divine Orchestration, something that I learned from a man on the square. It basically means that there are no coincidences, and that God is very good at leading us to where we need to be. For this investigator, she was led to her husband, then to the church and I bet you she is going to be a key part in bringing her husband back to the church as well. It's an unusual circumstance, one that I will admit that I doubted when I heard before we called her. It'll happen though because God is good :)

Oh, and last p-day we watched Meet the Mormons for a zone activity. We watched it downstairs in our theater and we decided we also needed to have a pajama party with lots of food... so that's what we did. I will admit we put on our Pj's under our coats and jackets and walked to the square. It was a genius idea and even made us ponder doing it during the week (don't worry we haven't done it). But seriously you couldn't even tell. It was a lot of fun, and I really like the movie! Of course, it might be because I'm a missionary but still, it's great.

Well it's about that time. Just want you all to know that I love being a missionary, and I love Temple Square. There is so much that Heavenly Father is teaching me, either through my companions or through my investigators, He always find a way to get me to listen. And it's funny, since we met that man who taught us the word 'Divine Orchestration', I've been able to notice more and more each day in every aspect of the work. He really is the one directing this work, no doubt about that.

I love you all! Have a happy January week!

XOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

New Beginnings

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and you got some sleep this weekend :)

For us, New Year's Eve was just another day, haha welcome to being a missionary.

It's been a good week though, hard to believe it is already 2015!

Did anyone make any new years resolutions? I'm sure I have shared this with you but President Pouslen loves to tell us: "If you always do what you've always done, you're gonna get what you've always had". Granted he applies that to missionary work but I think it can be applied to anything in life. Also there was a fun poem thing that was on the back on the New Year's Eve Temple Square concerts program that I really like and I think Momma would love it :)

"There's something invigorating and inviting about new beginnings. Like a fresh blanket of untouched snow, like a book full of empty pages, the new year lies before us, waiting for us to make our mark"

2015 is going to be a great year, full of learning, adventures, and miracles. Every day is a new beginning, it is so exciting!

Despite the New Year, this week was filled with lots of work but lots of tender mercies. We've had investigators drop us and investigators progress more than we expected because our Father is so good! So it's been a week of ups and downs, but the ups make everything else worth it.

We were able to be out of the office for most of the week. We did have to calculate the months numbers and send it to the missionary department. But that was about it. Which means more time doing missionary work!

We were able to talk with a lot of amazing people this week. I love hearing people's stories. Everyone has their own story and there is always something that we can learn from it. A lot of the people we met, either on chat or on the square, had really strong testimonies of the gospel but were in a situation that was preventing progression. It's been interesting, Heavenly Father is very good at placing certain people in your path to remind you of something that you learned in the past. Sister Merrill and I were both able to have experiences when we were talking with people and were prompted to share an experience that we had, that before then was long forgotten about.

Well sorry this email is short, this p-day is a little shorter. We are meeting as a zone to watch the "Meet the Mormons" movie because tonight is the first night that we are now showing it here.
Yay! :)

oh, and fun fact, we ran into Elder Holland today! He is so cool! Perks of serving in SLC!

XOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

O Holy Night

 

Family!!

Another day, another week. Time plays a mean trick on us missionaries. I don't like it.

I'll admit I keep forgetting Christmas is next week. (Even though I am sitting here eating chocolate chip cookies) You would think being around so much Christmas here at Temple Square that you wouldn't forget, but really it's basically Christmas here everyday.

It's been a great, spiritually uplifting week, which I guess is a norm here in the shadow of the House of The Lord. But it seemed extra strong this week. We had MLC on Monday (missionary leadership council) that I have to attend now which was great. We talked about 8 habits that successful and consecrated missionaries have. We then discussed how we can help the mission improve. President had us present the numbers from last transfer and the goals that we have for the mission. That was so scary. I was literally the youngest (in the mission) one there and Sister Merrill is only a transfer older than me and President had us present and do a training in front of the APs, zone leaders, and the district leaders. It wasn't stressful or nerve racking or anything. Not. Besides that, it was a really good meeting. It was basically a prep for zone conference that was last Thursday and Friday.

Which means President also asked us to do a training at zone conference in front of half the mission. Yep, that was fun as well. It was a very spiritual meeting, but I am glad that our portion is done haha. We've (APs and us) have decided that we are going out to dinner one night to celebrate the completion of zone conference. (it's been a crazy week trying to get everything ready for it) it was a fun experience though. We have discovered the perfect way to explain our calling this transfer, we work in the office and we basically run around with our heads cut off to make sure the APs look all calm and put together haha. For example, today is the second part of the zone conference for the other half of the mission and this morning, (because we didn't go we went about our normal schedule, workout, get ready,study) the APs gave us a call while we were both getting ready, saying that they forgot the program and they needed us to run to the square to get it. So we did. We literally ran haha, luckily no one was on the square because it was so early. Then we ran to the stake center where the zone conference was being held. I'm sure we both looked like death, i.e. wet hair, red faces with no makeup, miss matching outfits, heaving breath. Haha we passed the mission secretary, Sister Moore and she just stares at us for a second and says "hhmm you both look really tired today"

We had quite a morning :)

We also had the opportunity to go to dinner with a ward family this week. That was wonderful! (We actually went twice, because some reason something happened and the APs needed us to go again) The first family was so fun, It was a family like ours, the kids were all grown up. The oldest was married and she was there with her husband, they had a boy who just got back from a mission and then one preparing for a mission. They also had a littler girl who was about 14 who couldn't be there and the oldest son who came down from school for the holidays. It was very fun to eat with them. They had a cute set of Christmas china that we used and a delicious meal. We talked about life on the square and about the missions that their children had served. We were able to sing with them and share a scripture as well. They even gave us a little box of chocolate. The other family was the opposite in ages haha. They had 7 children ages 1 to 16. It was crazy but so so fun! They had this cute little home that was beautifully decorated. I loved dinner with them. The dinning table was beautifully decorated with a big fancy meal and then we ate with paper plates and plastic utensils :) There was screaming and kids running around, yet everyone was very calm. The older kids were helping with the little kids. Even though it was crazy, the spirit was still in the home which I loved. Even some of the comments the little kids gave when we were giving our little spiritual thought it was evident that they had Family Home Evening which I that was so cool. It was a great night. And I really know that when a family is built in the gospel, it is strong.

We have also had a lot of tender mercies with our investigators. One in particular really strengthened my testimony on the love that our Father has for each of us. We have an investigator who I met a few days before transfers on chat. She had been attending church with her member friend pretty frequently and is just interested in finding the truth. So we have been staying in touch with her since. Well she has gone home for Christmas and we got a text telling us that she was thinking about getting a tattoo the next day but her member friend told her that she needed to text us first. It was evident that she didn't know why she was texting us but she did which I saw as a true desire to follow Christ. So we tried to explain about tattoos with the basic, normal "our bodies are a temple" but that just wasn't clicking for her. So we told her that she should just ask her Father in Heaven and see what He says. She loved that idea! We emailed her some links from lds.org, a talk by President Hinkley and then the statement on tattooing and invited her to read those and then pray again and ask whether or not she should get a tattoo, we then wanted her to text us her answer. We then went home to plan for the coming day. We then prayed that she would have a very strong spiritual experience and would recognize what her answer was. Well we then got a text a short time later simply saying that she wasn't going to get a tattoo. It was a really cool experience. Even though we didn't feel like we were able to explain to her in words, we knew that her Father in Heaven would be the best and only one who could resolve her concern. I am so grateful for the spirit that she was able to feel and know that it was an answer to her prayer.

So yes, we are busy working and loving the work. And Heavenly Father is so good, He is always placing little things in our path, to either encourage us or calm us down when things get crazy here.

I hope that everyone has fun and exciting plans for Christmas this year. I really do love this time of year because it's all about our Savior. When we had dinner with one of the families, we talked to them about how we could have Christmas every single day of the year. And really, because the spirit of Christmas is the spirit of Christ, as long as we have Christ in our lives each day and are living in such a way that we are constantly remembering and serving Him, that's living Christmas all year long. And who wouldn't want that :)

I love Christmas and I love my Savior.

Merry Christmas

XOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

P.S. How is the Book of Mormon reading going? ;)

Happy December!

It just clicked for me that we are basically to the middle of December. How did that even happen? I just don't understand.

I hope everything is moving along back home. Christmas lights up yet?

We have ours up :) Well ours have been up for a while now, and we didn't have to put them up ourselves so I guess it's not fair.

 
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We are a little spoiled when it comes to Christmas lights :)

Well because the most frequent question I get is how's the weather, the weather is still the same. Not too cold yet. It basically feels like a Sacramento winter right now, so I am happy and content. We are supposed to get rain either today or tomorrow which is fun! Other than that, it is dry, gray (sunny today) and chilly.

The activity on Temple Square is still busy busy. In my mind I keep thinking that it will eventually die down- but it doesn't. I can now testify that Christmas is more busy than conference. Haha a few weeks ago before the lights turned on I remember chatting with one of the security guys who was here last Christmas and I asked him that question, to compare Christmas time to conference time and he didn't even have to think about it, he just bluntly stated Christmas time wins. And I agree!

Aside from the craziness on the square we have also had a bit of craziness within the mission. Transfer was this week which means everything changes! Sisters went outbound, sisters came back from outbound. New sisters came, other sisters went home. Just craziness.

Monday was transfer conference, and we had it in the Assembly Hall again. We found out our new companions/assignments and all that jazz and then got to hear from President. We are so blessed in this mission to be so close to our mission president. We really get to see him every day and He speaks to us basically every week. I'm sure this is the hardest mission to preside over but he does it perfectly and I am so grateful for that!

Actually for my new assignment I get to work very closely with President and the APs which is super fun. I'm still downstairs in the mission office but now I have my own office haha. I'm the new office assistant. Which is really hard to explain what we do because other missions don't exactly have this calling. But basically we do everything for President/APS/secretary and we are in charge of all the mission reports and the mission statistics. It's crazy and fun though. We do a lot more than I even realized. But I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve in a different capacity. Even better Heavenly Father knows me so well, because this is an assignment that you have for two transfers, one transfer to be trained in it and the next one to train the next sister. Which means I will be in it till about march, which means I'm going to be downstairs the majority of the time when it finally starts snowing! Haha God is good!

Speaking of working closely with the APs, Mom, Sister Brock is the new AP this transfer so we are now working together, it's super fun haha. We figured you and her mom would get a kick out of that.

Sister Merrill is my new compy. She's awesome. She's from Idaho and comes from a family of 7. She is definitely the perfect sister to be in the office. The last few days we have been crazy busy working on transfer stuff so we have basically just been in our office but we work hard and have a lot of fun which is the best. I know that we'll be able to do a lot this transfer but also have a lot of fun.

That was like the extent of my week. Saying goodbye to sisters and hello to new. Moving. Getting a new companion and starting a new assignment. Continually doing missionary work.

Sister Merrill has an investigator and a recent covert in Northern Ireland which is fun, we taught them yesterday. We really get to hear every single accent in this mission. It is so fun!

A little miracle also happened yesterday evening. I was adding all of my investigators into our new phone and texting them so that they had our number. Well I texted a less active we have been teaching who we met because she called into guest services last trasnfer. Well she has a little girl who was never baptized, and the mom wanted to start going back to church again. So we helped her find her local church and we got her in touch with the missionaries in her area. Well I texted her last night to see how everything was going, turns out her little girl was baptized last Saturday! That was super special. We got to talk with her a little bit, and you could just feel the happiness that had come into her life since she started going back to church. I love it! The gospel changes lives and it changes them for the better. I know it because that is what it has done for me since I have arrived here at TMSQ. There is no better gift at Christmas time than the gift of Christ. 

I love being a missionary at Christmas time. It has really opened my eyes at the world around me. It's a little bit sad, everyone we see is in such a rush to go to the next thing or to check something off their to-do list. I think a lot of people even forget to realize that when then come to see the lights they are right next to the Temple.
Christ is Christmas, so when we forget that the only thing that is left is just a lot of material things. Which at the end of the day don't matter. Family, friends, and Christ matter. Those are the things that can last for a eternity. Those are the things that should be our priority.

I found this quote yesterday in my personal study and it just stuck with me.
“There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus Christ."

I do know that there is no better time than today. For today becomes tomorrow. I have felt that since being here. But even better I know that Christ will help us have the today and the tomorrow that we want. Because of Him anything is possible :)

I love you all so much!!

And Lincoln 6th is the best ward! Thank you for the letters and the sweets! I'll admit though, the hand-written letters were my favorite :)

I want to answer some of your questions:

It's funny like all of you asked about the food. I'm living in SLC Utah and I cook all of my own food. So...the food is the same as back home hahaha. I'll admit I laughed each time I read that question. So original.

My favorite scripture, it actually changes quite often depending on the situation or the experience I am going through. Which means, today my favorite scripture is found in Isaiah. Isaiah 64:8
"But now, O Lord , thou art our father ; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand."

Because really, the potential we have for ourselves is so minimal compared to the potential our Father has for us. And we can only reach that potential with the help of Him and His Son.

I love you all dearly. and I hope you all have a fantastic December week!

XOXOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

He is the Gift

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope you all have a happy day filled of many blessings being counted :)

Gratitude is such a powerful thing and it truly is a gift of the spirit. Thursday morning was relief society and President Harmon (in the mission presidency) shared with us some fun facts about thanksgiving and where it came from. Fun fact, Nephi actually talks about the first thanksgiving in 1 Nephi. You should go check it out.

1 Nephi13:11-13

It talks about Christopher Columbus but then it also talks about the Puritans, or the pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower. Nephi was so cool, I'm pretty sure that he just knew everything.

For Thanksgiving in the morning we were in guest services until the afternoon and then we were picked up by a sweet family who lives in Bountiful who offered to feed us. It was fun to be with a family. The food was delicious, I think food just automatically tastes better when you didn't have to cook it.

We were only there for a the afternoon and then we came back to the square to work. I always love coming back to the square after being away from it for a while because it is such a "at home" feeling the second we walk on. If I could live on the square I definitely would.

The rest of the week was so fun and busy as always. We had a little snow which was pretty, but still not enough to stick. Besides the days that it snowed the weather has been pretty warm, no need for a jacket which has been nice. I would love for it to stay like this all winter long. Of course every time I run into someone from Utah they always like to remind me that it is very unprobable for that to happen. But hey a California girl can dream right?

So has anyone seen anything the church is doing called "He is the Gift" I am super excited about it. Today is the day that everything is really coming out. On Tuesday we had training in the morning for the He is the Gift initiative and someone from the missionary department came down and showed us all the amazing things the church is doing this next month for Christmas. For one they bought the big, first screen thing on YouTube (don't really know what to call it. But if you go onto YouTube you should see a giant red banner with Mary and Jesus) They also bought tons of billboards in New York City. They have completely redone mormon.org and come out with a new video. It is so cool to see everything that the church is doing. They have also redone a lot of the North Visitor Center. Put in beautiful pictures from the Bible videos and redone one corner entirely, they added in a TV screen so that we can play the video for guests. They also have a new hashtag #SharetheGift.

So I invite all of you to go check out mormon.org and share everything with the new hashtag.

Also they have made a ton of new videos that are cute, informative, and short that we have been able to send to a lot of our investigators to watch.

http://beta.mormon.org/beliefs/jesus-christ.php#what

This is one of my favorites, it's only about a minute-go check it out :)

But really, this initiative is so smart. The title "He is the Gift" has really made me think these last few days. How often do we get caught up in the business of the holidays and really forget the reason for the season. Even more, do we forget what the greatest gift we have ever been given is? Or even who gave it?

Every single thing that we teach from Preach My Gospel goes back to the fact that we have a loving Father in Heaven. We have Christmas because we have a loving Father in Heaven. Everything is because of Him. Christ is our Savior, and the atonement is the greatest gift that we could ever be given in this life. It is a gift that will allow us to live with our Heavenly Parents for ever. Who could ask for more than that? But how many people in the world don't know that or have forgotten that? What could we do this holiday season to help remind ourselves and those around us of this amazing gift that we can access everyday. Even better what could we do to give a gift back in return?

As for the missionary work it is going great. We have been able to find so many wonderful people and have been getting them in contact with local missionaries as soon as we can. It is so much easier when we do that because we have so many people who we are looking after and teaching it is just less stressful when we know that there is another set of missionaries also looking out for them. Tomorrow one our our investigators who we just met a few weeks ago is getting baptized! We will be able to skype it, and I am so grateful, we are blessed with so much cool technology that allows us to do that. We found her on chat and she shared with us that she found a Book of Mormon while cleaning out her Father's house and didn't know what to do with it. She wasn't religious at all but she came onto chat to talk with us. She is so sweet and I just love every time we get to call her. I am so grateful for my mission. I love that we are able to stay in contact with so many wonderful people that we meet from all over the world. It's like I get to travel the world without having to go anywhere.

The lights will be turning on tonight which means madness and miracles start tonight.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with family and friends!

I love you all!

XOXOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

 

Hello Family!!

I feel like I should be wishing you a Merry Christmas, and then I realize we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet...woops.

It is all Christmas here at Temple Square. The nativities are beginning to spring up, there are Christmas trees all around us and it snowed yesterday! Yes I survived the snow. Nothing has really stuck yet, on the way to the square yesterday morning there was a thin layer of snow/frost but that was about it. But while we had square in the afternoon yesterday it was snowing, it was so pretty when it fell between the temple and the lights, it just glowed and made the temple look really pretty!

We had our Christmas Training for Relief Society yesterday. That was fun. Our schedules will be changing the day after Thanksgiving because we begin the Holiday hours on the square. The biggest thing is that my P-day will no longer be in the evenings, it will be jumped to the mornings like normal missions? I don't know but I am excited, everything on the square changes for Christmas, there are more assignments to accommodate for the large amounts of people that will be on the square. There is one assignment that will be added this year because we have such an amazing and inspired mission president. President Poulsen wants sisters to be on the square caroling during the evenings. So fun! There will be three different locations where a district will be scheduled to stand and sing for about an hour. The assignment is called Sing and Smile. :) We are super excited for that, Sister Humble and I sing basically all the time. She has a tendency to put her conversation to the tune of a hymn, so fun!

Speaking of singing, Savior of the World also opens next week. I am so excited, and I am even more excited because Elder Clark, who I believe is the area authority over us or something, is doing all he can to involve the TMSQ (Temple Square) sisters. He has given us tickets so that we can attend and really know what it is so we can tell visitors and our investigators about it. And each performance will be opened by a companionship with a short introduction and a prayer, then at the end of the performance we will come back to greet the guests as they leave. Also they are now putting a referral card within the program that people can fill out if they want to learn more about the church or if they have a friend they want to refer. And we will be able to get all of those referrals. So exciting! I love how Christmas just opens up so many opportunities to share the gospel with people. I can't wait to see what miracles are awaiting this Christmas season.

Miracle:

1. such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.

2. a wonder; marvel.

Miracles do happen everyday, and it is so strengthening to witness and be a part of. The last two weeks of the Transfer, in relation to teaching, had been very slow. The square was dead, no one was calling in or coming on chat, and none of our investigators were answering their phones. It literally seemed like everyone had just jumped off the face of the earth. For the longest time we just couldn't understand it. Before the transfer President talked with us about 'slow seasons' and about how it was  normal to have a slow time every once in a while, but if it persisted then something needs to change. "If you keep doing the same thing every day and expect a different outcome, it will never happen. In order to get a different outcome you have to change something." So every single companionship study since the start of the transfer we talked about what we needed to change so that we could find people to teach. We made what we call a macro plan for all of our goals for the transfer and we have been very good everyday at working towards those goals but we were never able to find new people to teach. It was a very slow two weeks of us doing everything we could to teach people. So at the end of last week we came up with this project, the gratitude project. We challenged each other that we were going to go through the entire week and not ask Heavenly Father for anything, not one thing. Because really, we had been praying since the beginning of the transfer that we would be able to find new investigators, so Heavenly Father already knows what we want. So instead we decided to focus on what we already have and what we are grateful for. Let me say, in the beginning it was really hard. It's funny how used we get to just asking Heavenly Father for the things we need, not that we aren't grateful but maybe because it's more of just a habit.

It was such a cool experience, all week long we were able to receive revelation about the importance of gratitude. I mean when you think of it, you should be able to have a conversation with your Father without having to ask Him something. And even better we learned that gratitude is what heals everything, it cures pride, selfishness, and negativity. It just makes you a happier being. And since the beginning of the week when we started this the blessings have just come and we have seen miracles everywhere. Day 1 we found new investigators and were able to get them on date in that first contact. Day 2 and 3 we were able to get them to meet with the local missionaries and have their date confirmed and now we are helping them all get to church this weekend.

I now understand why and am so grateful that I had to give a talk on gratitude like a million times when I was back home, but I am even more grateful that I am now seeing the importance of gratitude in our lives and the power that comes from it.

The square is literally still dead and will probably be like that until the lights come on so I don't have really any stories of people who have come to visit us. I did get to give a tour to a guy's cutest nieces, they were 5 and 2 years old. The mother wasn't religious, but the uncle was a member and the little girls had started to ask questions about who Jesus was. So the mom allowed the uncle to bring them to TMSQ so they could learn about Him. It really felt like I was back in primary :) We took them to the New Testament paintings in the North Visitor Center and went through them and taught them about who Jesus was. It was super fun, we were able to turn it into a game where I had the girls guess who was Jesus in each painting we walked to. We ended by taking them up to see the Christus, when we got up to the top of the ramp where you can see Him the youngest said "it's Jesus! I really like Him" :) Yep I still love little ones.

For P-day today we had our zone activity and we did some exploring, we went to the cemetery where all the prophets are buried and looked around. We found John Taylor, President McKay, Hinckley, Joseph F. Smith and Fielding Smith. We also found Sister Monson and Mary Fielding Smith.

It was super fun and freezing, it started raining while we were there, I'm starting to see just how gray Utah is in the winter. Afterwards we drove to a really cozy cafe and got some hot coco and muffins. It was fun and tasty.

Yep, that was my day. I love you all and hope you are having fun where ever you might be. :)

XOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger