Divine Orchestration-it's everywhere

Howdy Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a good summer. The Temple has been closed this month and the Choir has been on tour for the last few weeks, so I'll admit Temple Square has definitely felt like something was missing. But all is well! The choir is back this week and the Temple will be reopening next week. So we will go back to hearing people cheering every 10 minutes because someone just got married.

This week though we were able to meet a lot of people from all over the place. I have started keeping a list in my journal of countries that I have met people from and then a list of states where I have met people from on the Square. My list is getting pretty long! But this week we were able to take a really cool tour with this sweet family and some nonmember friends. So the family is from Utah but for about 6 months of the year they live in the Virgin Islands. The mom teaches seminary there, and the church is very small. She said that she has about 4 students and most of the kids were her own kids. Well she promised the kids that if they went to seminary every day that she would take them to Temple Square and so that's what she did! They also brought some non-members friends and we were able to take them around on a tour. It was a wonderful experience partly because we were able to see these wonder members being missionaries, because really they gave most of the tour by teaching and bearing testimony. We just added the cool facts here and there. We were able to give the friends copies of the Book of Mormon so that they could read. Having the church grow in different countries is so wonderful! It's allowing so many more people to have access to the blessings of the atonement in their lives. I guess one bonus of being on Temple Square is that you get to see a small portion of that all over the world.

Our teaching area is also doing wonderful, the sweet man who called in for a Bible is now preparing for his baptism in August. We called him this morning and he shared with us what he had just been reading in the Book of Mormon which was the story of Nephi getting tied up on the boat and then how the storms came and the Liahona stopped working. To quote this wonderful man: "You would think by now that they would just listen to Nephi. Nothing ever works out when they are not following or listening to him." He was exactly right and we were able to bridge that wonderful story to having living prophets and apostles today! Things will always work out when we follow our leaders today!

We have also been working with a lot of other wonderful people. We have been praying really hard because we have some solid people and we are just waiting for the local missionaries to get involved. I'll admit sometimes it's hard to be patient at this point. The Lord always provides a way though! We know and have faith that the missionaries will make it to them!

This week was also President Packer's Funeral. The entire square was shut down so they allowed us to go to the funeral. (it's the only way they could keep us out of trouble with the square shut down). It was a wonderful service. And it all worked out so well, Sister Sommerfeldt got an actual ticket since I got a ticket for Elder Perry's Funeral, so we went on exchanges and sat in different places. I was with Sister Mahoney and the lady that we ended up sitting next to was a school counselor. She was an answer to Sister Mahoney's prayer because she was starting to get worried about school applications and different things. This lady was extremely knowledgeable about everything school related so she was also able to give us some hints on how to get into schools and how to pick a school. So that was nice, divine orchestration-it's everywhere :) 

One of the songs that the choir sang for the funeral is supposedly President Packer's favorite (the lady who sat next to us told us that...don't know if it's true though) The hymn was "The Wintry Day, Descending to its Close" and it actually talks about the pioneers and Temple Square! Which means it has become a favorite of mine too! With Pioneer Day coming up I love that I am where so much history happened for the church. Everyday we get to testify of the faith that the pioneers had and their willingness to follow the living prophet. I've been told that Pioneer Day in Utah is a big ordeal, I don't know how much we will get to see of it but I am excited.

Today though Sister Sommerfeldt and I continued our exploring and we visited the National History Museum of Utah. I learned that I really like this Museum, or maybe I just like looking at cool things. But this one had a lot of cool things!


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Like for example, this is supposedly the largest mammal in history...yep it's pretty big.

Well I love you all, here's just a piece of my week.

XOXOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

Work Work Work

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope that you all enjoyed fireworks for me since there is no time to rest on Temple Square. 

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Well, the weather has finally cooled of for once. We have been having some sprinkles and some thunder. It will last for about a hour and then the sun will come back out and be super hot again. But it has kept our week interesting. 

Aside from the random bits of rain it has been a wonderful week!  We got to celebrate the 4th of July. I mean we are still missionaries so it's not like we had a day off or anything like the rest of the world but we did have a BBQ which was so fun. We all took turns and were able to go to the Brigham Young Park for about an hour with our zone to have some Hot Dogs and ice cream. The perfect American BBQ.

​And President and Sister Pouslen looked great in their matching aprons :) So it was a wonderful day!

This week has been transfer week. Now that I'm not in the office and because I have already been outbound this transfer week was a breeze. Didn't have a thing to worry about besides the normal 'the investigators better make it to sacrament this week.."

Sister Sommerfeldt and I are still together..Yay! First time not changing companions since the beginning of my mission. We are excited for another 6 weeks to watch miracles happen. 

We had some cool miracles happen earlier this week though. We have been focusing on connecting with the people that we talk with because most of our contact with guests is less than 20 minutes and so it's really important to earn their trust in that short amount of time so that they are interested in learning more when you invite them. 

We felt like we had been struggling with that a little bit and so that's what we studied and role-played the last week and yesterday we were able to see it pay off. We took a tour with this lovely couple visiting from Alabama. She actually started the tour by telling us: "okay I have never told anyone this and I hope it's not bad but I'm going to tell you, I have never known a mormon in my life but I LOVE them! Everything you promote is just so good and anyone who has the same values as me is a good person, so thank you!" 

I have to say it's not everyday that someone greets you with that. They were very familiar with the history of the church but not so much as the doctrines or beliefs. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and before we could even invite them to read it the husband asked us if we gave out copies of it. It was all just perfect. So we gave them a copy of it and explained and testified to them how our lives were changed from reading the Book of Mormon and how the same thing can happen to them if they let it. They are going to be on vacation for a few weeks but we are going to stay in touch with them and then get the local missionaries involved by the time that they get back home. 

Our other miracle happened in the Beehive!! So giving tours in the Beehive is fun but it is hard to find new investigators. The majority of people who come through the home just want to look at the old stuff and so sometimes it feels like their ears are shut as we teach and testify about living prophets and the Book of Mormon. But this week we took a small tour through and it started off pretty weird, we had an odd mixture of members and nonmembers and we actually thought that one guy was a member when we found out half-way through the tour that he wasn't. (awkward). But this weird tour ended up being amazing at the end. When all else fails just bear testimony..that's our motto. So that's what we did. We just taught and testified about the Book of Mormon and handed out the free download cards and asked if anyone wanted to meet with local missionaries and our friend who we thought was a member but wasn't wanted to meet with local missionaries! Talk about best ending ever. 

So I promise we are still working hard. No lazy missionaries here :) We celebrated Sister Sommerfeldt's last day in her first transfer yesterday but going to Farr's for some ice cream. She is no longer the 'newbie' so we had to celebrate that :)

But this week is just going to be work work work...according to President Benson there is no satisfactory substitute! 

I love you all! Thanks for all the prayers!

XOXO

-Sister Fluckiger

We are of "Great Importance'

Happy Canada Day!

Yep today is Canada Day and my companion has not let me forget it :) Luckily my holiday and her holiday are in the same week or else who knows what would happen...

Just kidding, we actually do like each other-and probably have way to much fun together. There just can't be a limit of fun with us around.

Speaking of fun, this week was filled with lots of it! Brad Wilcox came and spoke to our mission for Relief Society. He is basically here on Temple Square as often as we are because we have multiple youth conferences and he speaks at a lot of them. Well I guess some sisters cornered him one day and was like "why don't you ever come and speak to us..Temple Square is our home anyway" - well I guess that worked. We had a lesson on Grace, which of course is his soapbox (in a good way of course). Before he started talking about grace he shared with us a little history of Temple Square. Which we love! So the pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July of 1847, he shared that by the first winter there was about 1,650 people living here and 54% of those people were under the age of 18. And the statistics remained like that until 1869. "The church was and still is on the shoulders of the youth. I mean what better testimony of this than the fact that missionaries are now being sent out younger and with less training!" Talk about no pressure there, but really it is such a blessing to be a youth in the church...even if I am technically not considered that anymore. Even better, what a blessing it is to have grown up within this church and with this knowledge. I can remember an experience that actually one of my companions had had. We were on exchanges serving in different areas (this was in Georgia) and an investigator was getting baptized in the area that my companion was in for the day. She had the opportunity to talk with him and he asked her how long she had been a member. She of course shared that she had had it in her life the entire time. She shared with me that his response to that was "I hope you know how luck you are. I have been in darkness my whole life. But now I have finally found the light and I am never going to let it leave me" Both of our hearts were touched by this experience. Here was someone who understand more than we did how important it is to have the restored gospel in your life.

"We are all important because we are all children of God. But you have great importance because you have the message of the restoration. Please use it to bless the lives of others" -Man I met on the Square

Some other great things that have happened this week was our focus on bridging anything to the message of the Restoration. A lot of people will call in asking for a free Bible and really something that I love to do it to give out copies of the Book of Mormon and invite them to meet with missionaries. So I don't know if it was my time that I spent serving in the South but now I love it when people call in for a free Bible because I can always get them to be so excited about getting a Book of Mormon to read with their new Bible. It's great! So that's what happened this week, and Sister Sommerfeldt is awesome! She answered one of these phone calls and even got the guy to invite himself to church this Sunday! When people truly understand was the Restoration means, that God wanted to clear out any confusion that was made because of the apostasy and He did that by bringing back ONE church, they are always excited and ready to learn more.

One guy in particular who actually called in the same week that I returned from Georgia asked for a Bible and shared with me that it was because he felt that something was missing in his life and he guessed that a brand new Bible would fix that. We talked a lot about the patterns that God has had throughout the Bible, namely his pattern of calling prophets. We also talked about the record of the Book of Mormon and he was curious as to what the Book of Mormon was so he was willing to get a copy. Well that was about 6 weeks ago and the Book of Mormon has changed his life! He is now meeting with missionaries and attending church and they are planning a day that he can enter the waters of Baptism to make promises with our Father. The Book of Mormon truly changes lives. I just love being a missionary!

So that is some of the exciting things that have been happening on Temple Square. Now to share the not as exciting stuff :)

Last P-day after we emailed we decided we wanted to be tourists and we went and explored a lot of different places. 

-We hiked the U....which really means we just drove up into a neighborhood and parked and 'oh look there's the U' 

-We went to a place called Gilgal Gardens (so cool!)

-Toured the state capital 

-Walked around the Pioneer museum for a bit

-And then we went to a Baseball game!



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Well the work continues to move forward and another transfer nears it's end. Sister Sommerfeldt and I will probably stay together since President likes trainers and trainees to stay together. This will be a change since I've had a new companion every six weeks since I finished being trained. We aren't sure yet though if we will be staying in the Beehive House or not. We find out on Monday. So if we are getting moved out P-day gets moved as well, so you may or may not hear from me next week. If not Happy 4th!!

XOXOXO

-Sister Fluckiger

P.S. Hippos can open their mouths so wide that their top and bottom jaws almost form a straight line. 

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Let's Remember the Wonderful!

Well, another week has come and gone.

Each day is just so jammed pack that it's hard for me to separate what happens when. (Or is that just a sign of old age?)

Well lots has happened this week! There is always opportunities to do missionary work every day so we stay really busy. Something fun though that we have been asked to do this transfer is to help with the Visitor Center training at the MTC, so every week we get to take a group of sisters who will be serving at a visitor center around on a tour of Temple Square. We get to give them the 'guest experience' so that they can have a vision of what a Visitor Center Sister really does. This week we were able to take about 5 Sisters who will be going to the Hawaii VC and the Mesa, Arizona VC. It was great. These tours are always so spiritual because these missionaries have just had a crazy week of MTC training and are all on a spiritual high and they usually all have mixed emotions about the next year and a half of their life. I remember being in the MTC and experiencing all of that, and Sister Sommerfeldt and I pray so hard so that we can be that instrument in helping these sisters be excited for their missions and have any fears just washed away. It's fun, I love being around missionaries, it's just a lot of fun :)

We also had a wonderful miracle in our area, the local missionaries for one of our investigators made contact in less than a week! Really, that's how it's supposed to be but it just never happens and so when we called our investigator and he told us that the missionaries stopped by and gave him the Book of Mormon I was just so taken aback. And now he has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and he is so excited to attend church and be baptized. Hearts are being prepared for the restored gospel right now as we are sitting around at these computers. There is always work to be done. 

Elder and Sister Clayton of the seventy paid our mission a visit and actually came to speak in our sacrament meeting. It was great. I loved Sister Clayton's testimony. She talked about "having the eyes to see the wonderful and the heart to remember". She also shared a letter that she received from a sister missionary. The sister shared how before her mission people would always tell her that missions were hard, but when she asked why she would only get the answer "they just are" and so when she went on her mission she decided she wasn't going to be one of those people and so she actually made and kept a list of why missions were hard. She shared some of the reasons that missions were hard and it made us all chuckle because she's right. Missions are hard for a lot of reasons, a lot that probably wouldn't make any sense to people who haven't had a chance yet to serve a mission-like the struggle of texting on the brick of a phone that we have. 

But then she went on to share about why missions are wonderful and missions truly are wonderful. It's wonderful to see the light of the gospel come into a family. It's wonderful when you realize the scripture you studied that morning is just what this individual needs. It's wonderful to hear the water running in the baptismal font. It's wonderful to testify each and everyday of a living Prophet. It's wonderful to be able to represent the Savior and to teach His gospel. 

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We also were able to take our lovely Zone Leaders, Sister Ryan (Australia) and Sister Orndal (England) around on a tour so that they could see how our teaching was. (See above photo) 

This is actually something that every new sister and trainer has to do and depending on how you are doing you either do it again or you 'pass off' and get to have a free meal at the Lion's House!

And guess what! We passed off! Woo Hoo! Sister Sommerfeldt did amazing and it was so fun. Now we get to go and feast this week as soon as we get our little certificate from the APs. 

Today for our P-day we are actually going to explore a little of Salt Lake City with Sister Ryan & Orndal! Sister Sommerfeldt and I are going to be pro tourists by the end of our time together :D

Well I love you all!

The Church is true and I know that you know it too!

XOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

P.S. Herons and other water birds land on hippos in the water as though they were rocks or tiny islands. 

Top of the Mountain

Howdy Ya'll!

First off, thank you everyone for helping make my birthday the best! Sister Sommerfeldt and I had a wonderful day. Everyone always says that birthdays on the mission are the best. They were right!

It started with Sister Sommerfeldt getting up a few minutes before me and decorating our apartment and then she jumped me when I walked out of our room. Talk about making sure that I was awake. And then the rest of the day was filled with littler missionary miracles and sisters giving us lots of sweets and goodies. Sister Sommerfeldt was so excited about it being my birthday that she felt the need to tell everyone! I mean everyone. We were even talking with guests on the square and somehow she found a way to mention it in our conversation. So I'm sure that the entire square knew that it was my birthday. Haha


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This week though was filled with lots of working and lots of fun as well. I vaguely remember one of the apostles saying that 'it's not missionary work it's missionary fun!' and that's how I feel about it. We have really been focusing on talking with everyone and making sure that everyone who comes to Temple Square feels of the spirit and the sacredness of our wonderful home.

Actually, ready for some fun numbers. We did a little math this week as well. So we take on average about 50 tours a week, some weeks are a lot more and some are a little less. But generally it is usually 50. So...as a sister missionary our mission is about 78 weeks long and we estimated that you could probably average out the tours with 2 individuals per tour. Which means that on Temple Square we take about  7,800 people around on a tour over the course of our mission. That's 7800 people we share our testimonies with! Crazy right? That's more than how many people will fit into the Tabernacle and the Assembly Hall combined. And really that number is probably a lot bigger because of all the motorcoaches (aka, bus tours of 40 people) we take during the summer. Our mission is so cool.

Okay enough with the math. Besides working our butts off with inviting other to come closer to our Savior we also took some time to explore so that Sister Sommerfeldt is more familiar with the resources that we are given on Temple Square. So we had a tour of the Conference Center and it was really cool. It's always a little bit odd being the tourist instead of the missionary. But it was fun. We learned a lot about how it was built. You could easily relate how people reacted to President Hinckley wanting to build the Conference Center to how people reacted to Brigham Young wanting to build the Tabernacle into what it is today. (Do you like how I always find a way to bring up Brigham Young in my emails.)

Also I have to share about what we did for P-day today! We went hiking! I haven't been hiking for probably more than a year! We went up to some mountain behind Utah University, we learned that we are all out of shape. We trying to hike up to a place called the "Living Room". Apparently it's some rocks that are in the formation of chair and it looks like a living room. We actually didn't make it to the top though. We ran out of time and had to head back home so we had the car back in time for the next sisters. But it was fun, hot and beautiful.

It's fun to be serving 'in the top of the mountains...' where all nations flow unto. Being on Temple Square we get to see the light come into the eyes of others as they feel and learn that God has not ceased speaking to His children and He has not ceased calling Prophets. There are so many people in the world who are waiting to find the restored gospel, and how neat is it that many of them come and wander onto Temple Square. We were able to meet a few individuals this week who shared with us their story about how they come to have faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. Angels are preparing the hearts of so many. One individual in particular, it was evident that he was able to have different experiences in his life because he was being prepared to receive the restored gospel. And now he is reading the Book of Mormon and going to meet with missionaries.

The church is true and the sky is blue!

XOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

P.S. "Hippo" is a nickname for the Greek word "hippopotamus" which means "river horse"

O Canada, O Canada

So funny enough, Sister Sommerfeldt and Sister Mahoney have been singing their national anthem which means..... their national anthem has been stuck in my head all week. Oh Canadians, you gotta love them :) I'll let you know when I start saying "eh" at the end of all my phrases.

This week though has been filled with miracles. Since starting this transfer with me coming from Georgia and my sweet companion coming from the MTC our teaching pool was a little bit nonexistent...well more like a lot. But the Lord always makes things work out and that's exactly what He did. We were able to get a hold of a lot of investigators that I taught at the beginning of my mission who somehow got lost for one reason or another, well they are all back on the train and excited to keep learning. We also got to meet a lot of neat people on the square this week. So we are still working hard and finding lots of people to teach.

Something that our zone is doing this transfer is sending out #Mimo texts to everyone :). Mimo stands for 'Miracle Moment", so whenever something exciting or funny happens we send out a text to our zone so we can all celebrate together. Here are some that we have sent this week:

June 4th :

#Mimo

Took a family around from New Zealand. Felt the spirit and referred. #onetruechurch

June 7th:

#Mimo

Called a former. Has baptismal date for June 26th. #localmissionariesdidn'tgiveup #thanks

June 8th:

Talked with a couple. They left and then came back asking for a Book of Mormon. Referred and then we found out they were siblings. #awkwardbutBOMistrue

It's been a lot of fun, and it keeps us motivated about the work. And it's neat, we have learned that when we expect miracles to happen and we do our part... they happen. It's the best.

Here's some photos:

Me and my lovely companion in front of the Beehive House...no it's not raining...we are just weird.




​​Oh we also participated in 'High School Musical' today.
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We're cool.

It only lets me send 2 in one email...so more are to come :)

Love you all!!!

XOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

P.S. Hippos have almost no hair on their bodies, and their skin can be one to two inches thick

The Lion of the Lord

Hey Y'all!

So yes, I am still saying y'all and it's really funny. People will always ask me where I am from and when I say California they always look at me funny and ask why I talk like I'm from the south. Oh Georgia.

And then it gets better because my companion says 'Eh'. Oh Canada :)

It's been another glorious week on beautiful Temple Square. I still love being back and we are just busy working and talking with everyone! It's even cooler because I have an international companion, I'm sure I've said this before but so many more people actually want to talk with you. It's absolutely the best. And I've learned that Canadians all know each other basically, or know of each other. I have a pretty famous companion.

Oh and funny thing that happened this week, we were on desk in the South Visitor's Center and this cute family walked past. I said hello and tried to start a conversation but sometimes people just don't want to talk and that's okay. Anyways they just walk out the door after saying hello, but then the dad stops turns around and looks at me through the automatic doors and then walks back in. He asked me my name and then begins to pull out his driver's license and hands it to me...I'll admit I was thinking this was a bit odd.... Well turns out that he was a Fluckiger. And because I am such a handy person I actually had my family tree on me. He didn't recognize any of the names so we are probably like 16th cousins or something crazy like that. Temple Square makes the world a very small place.

We have been spending a lot of our time in the Beehive House. It's the coolest.

“'Mormonism' has made me all I am; and the grace, the power, and the wisdom of God will make me all that I ever will be, either in time or in eternity.” -Brigham Young
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Brigham Young is such a cool guy! I mean he was having Family Home Evening every night 60 years before Family Home Evening was even instituted. Talk about cool!

We have been able to have some neat experiences as we have served there. It's always different and we always try to make it fun while also having it very spiritual. It's great. We also were able to serve there on his birthday! June 1st 1801 Brigham Young was born. On one of our tours we told them that it was his birthday that day and they just looked at each other and was like "how cool is it that we came today" and then they looked at us and ask "are you doing anything for his birthday? can we take part in it?" So if you want to wish Brigham Young a happy Birthday-now is the time.
We also have two jokes that we like to share, and it's really funny, sometimes the people will laugh really loud or they will just look at us and we will hear crickets in the background. Oh the life of a Temple Square Missionary :)

The rest of the week should be interesting. The Square is being closed down for Elder Perrys funeral this weekend. It's been interesting to be here in SLC while that is going on. How wonderful it is that we have the knowledge of what happens after this life. Sister Sommerfeldt and I were talking about it the other day, wondering what Elder Perry is doing right now. Well we don't need to wonder, we figured it out pretty fast. He's doing just what he did while he was here, preaching the gospel! :)

I love you all!
I know that we belong to the coolest and truest church on the Earth.

XOXOX

-Sister Fluckiger

P.S. A hippo can eat from 80 to 150 pounds of grass in one night.