What even happened this week? I don't really know...

This week was pretty normal. Nothing too eventful... or uneventful.

On Wednesday we went to the Farmer's Market, we pretty much go to talk to P--- the Popcorn man now. He has finished the Book of Mormon, prayed about it, and said it is the most accurate book about Christ that he has ever read... what? P---! YOU MAKE ME SO HAPPY!!!! He doesn't live in our area, but he said he's never home because he's always doing popcorn stuff, so we asked him if we came to the Farmers Market a little early (when he's setting up) if we could talk with him about the Book of Mormon and about our beliefs, and he said yes! Yay P---!

On Thursday there was a Pioneer Day multi-ward party. It was weird to think back home there were parades and fireworks and people had the day off and in Missouri it was just a normal day! The party was a lot of fun. We went with the Ward Mission Leader's wife and our investigator ----.

On Friday we delivered bread with Sister ---. It was a really good bread day. We saw a lot of people and had good talks with everyone we saw!

On Saturday --- had her baptismal interview. She was kind of nervous, but she did awesome! Just like we knew she would ;) she is such a sweetie! We also saw ---- and the ----! All of the ingredients for a really good day! After the interview, --- called us and asked if we could help her move. --- said she would have done it herself, but she had done that on Friday, and hurt her hip. So we gladly went over and helped her. --- was busy and could only help at the end, and --- could barely walk, so she stayed in the trailer and organized the boxes.

On Sunday we helped --- and --- move, I know it was a Sunday, but it was kind of a crazy situation and that was the only day their landlord would let them move their stuff in. Their stuff is there, but they can't move in until the first. Someone announced it in the priesthood and we ended up having 15 people total helping! It got done so fast! It was great! It took about half an hour to unpack what it took Sister S--- and me an hour and a half to pack about half of (I hope that sentence makes sense).

Anyway, this week was a lot of fun. We did lots of service, which we both love!

Oops, I forgot some stuff I wanted to add at the end. I am so grateful for service! It is such a good way to show others how much you care! It is such a crucial part to missionary work too! I know that Heavenly Father loves it when we do service, and I know that because of how I feel when I serve others! I get the best warm-fuzzy feelings! I am so grateful for that confirmation from the Holy Ghost that I've done a good thing! I challenge you all to do at least  one act of service for someone! Big, or small, but make it something you wouldn't normally do. In other words, if you have kids making them dinner tonight wouldn't count ;) The warm fuzzy feelings will be worth it!

Sorry for all the extra messages today! I've been a little forgetful today!! HAHA

Love,

Sister Fleck

A Baptism!

This week was crazy!

This transfer and last transfer President Shumway has had a calling called "Traveling Sisters", basically there are two Sister Training Leaders who travel the whole mission for two transfers and go on exchanges with all the sisters. Since they don't have an actual area, though, they are both in the area of the sisters they are visiting. So there are two sets of missionaries in an area. On Sunday they texted us and told us they would be in Ozark on Wednesday. Needless to say, we were a little stressed! We had to plan for two days, in one! We also wanted both plans to keep us busy all day, and we have a hard time keeping ourselves busy from day to day. We got it all worked out though. The sisters came Wednesday morning, I was with Sister G--- and Sister S--- was with Sister M---. It was kind of cool because Sister M--- was Sister S---'s trainer! Sister G--- and I delivered bread with Sister ---. We found a couple of less-actives that we hadn't contacted yet, so that was cool! Sister S--- and Sister M--- found one too, it's an awesome story!

--- (one of our investigators) and his wife (an awesome member) --- have been looking for a new place to rent so they can move out of her sister's house. They found one that they were pretty confident would rent to them, so they told us the address so we could drive by and see it. Wednesday morning I was looking through the directory and I noticed that there was a less-active who's address was the same as the place --- and --- were going to rent. Sister S--- went by to see if she could find out from the neighbors where they had moved (we already knew the house was empty), so she knocked on one neighbors door and asked if they knew their neighbor, he said they had been gone for a year. She knocked on the other door and the man that answered said the same thing. Sister M--- asked Sister S--- what the last name of the person they were looking for was and Sister S--- told her it was ---, the man said "Well, my last name is ---(same last name), and my wife is a Mormon." WHAT?!?!?!?!? They're older, and don't have a car, but she has been wanting to get back in touch with the church! I thought it was cool that even though it was wrong on the directory it was only a house off! Also, it's kind of cool that Heavenly Father lead --- and --- to that house, and that because they are moving there, we found a less-active that we were looking for!

We went to the Farmer's Market and talked to P--- the Popcorn Man, he has read the Book of Mormon all the way to Helaman! WHAAAAAT? Way to go P---! He said he would call the missionaries in his area when he finished it! Lucky Republic Elders! He'll call them and say "I've read all of the Book of Mormon" he'll probably tell them he wants to be baptized too!

On Thursday we got a new investigator, ---. Last Wednesday we went to see a less-active lady, she wasn't there, but another member of the ward was (the less-active lady runs a small retirement center kind of, she has about 3 patients and they can't be left alone, so if she has to run an errand she has to have someone come sit with them), it was cool because when she answered the door and invited us in she said "I've been needing to talk to you, sisters! I have someone for you to teach!" Her niece just moved in with her parents (the girl's grandparents), the girl (who is 18) is moving out of her parents house, but she loves visiting her aunt and grandparents, because of the spirit and the love that she felt there. Now that she's 18 she wants to start going to church and get baptized!!! After we finished the lesson they brought up setting a date, so we invited her to pray about a date and her aunt said that she had asked how soon she could get baptized! WHAAAAT????

Saturday was a magical day! --- GOT BAPTIZED!!! YAAAAY!!! --- getting baptized has been a three year process. From the sounds of it, he's wanted to get baptized most of the time, but there have been different things holding him back, so Sister S--- and I are just the missionaries that were blessed enough to be here when it finally happened! It was awesome! --- is so amazing and has such a strong spirit! He got confirmed on Sunday, and we were just so excited all day, both days! He's now officially a member of the church!

On Sunday we also saw --- again and had a superb lesson! In Relief Society we have a missionary moment, so we get up and make any announcements that we might have and then people can share any missionary moments they had this week and --- raised her hand (which is kind of awesome because she's super shy) and said "I had my first lesson with the sisters this week!" :') I get all teary eyed and have warm fuzzies just thinking about it!

We also saw the ---'s (the family of 5) and finally got to Joseph Smith, sometimes it takes a while to get there, it was really good and very powerful when we shared the First Vision.

It's so cool though, all of our solid investigators and recent converts are all from member referrals. I've noticed that as a missionary, I don't want the members to help me with my missionary work, I want to help them with theirs. As missionaries, we need members! I think when we imagine missionaries, we normally imagine them tracting, and there are a lot of really awesome people to found through tracting, but it isn't the most effective way. The majority of the investigators I've known that are member referrals, get baptized, where as very few investigators found through tracting end up getting baptized.

The Ozark ward has set a goal for the ward to read Preach My Gospel together. They decided that each family should read 20 pages a month and that their first FHE every month should be from Preach My Gospel. I think this is a fabulous goal! I am so excited to see how much more excited the members get about missionary work! Preach My Gospel is awesome and it has a lot of great things for everyone, not just full time missionaries! I would like to extend this same invitation to all of you!  Read Preach My Gospel! 20 pages a month is not much! That isn't even a page a day! Just 5 pages a week! How easy? I promise you will get more excited about missionary work, and you will find that you have more opportunities to share the gospel! I would also like to invite you to take Elder Ballard's invitation to "Prayerfully set a date with your family to have someone in your home for the missionaries to teach." (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2003/04/the-essential-role-of-member-missionary-work?lang=eng) I know as you read Preach My Gospel that you will find that person and you will have the courage to invite them to meet the missionaries in your area!

Love,
Sister Fleck

Another week in the life of a missionary!

This week was crazy long for some reason! It felt like two or three weeks!

Monday was a lot of fun. We went mini golfing with the Nixa elders, and another set of elders (I can't remember where they are...)  It was a lot of fun. Sister S and Elder N were playing for her bag strap (long... weird story), Sister S lost, but Elder N let her keep her strap haha. We had dinner with Brother --- and ---, they took us to Nakato, a really delicious sushi restaurant :') It was so so good! Brother ---ok us to see his plane, that was really cool, we got to sit in it, but not fly, he said he couldn't fly it right now (for one reason or another), plus that's defiantly against the rules.

After that we went to go and see ----... We knocked on the door, --- answered, said, "one second," and came back with the copies of the Book of Mormon, Restoration pamphlets, and Restoration DVD that we had given them... he said that it wasn't time right now and that there was too much going on and things were just too stressful. We insisted that they keep the stuff, they need it more than we do. It was really hard. I hadn't cried over a dropped investigator yet, and now I have. It happens, though, and I know they'll find the way back one day. I am confident of that.

On Thursday, some plans fell through, so we went to visit a less-active family. The mom wasn't home, but we sat on the porch with the girls and talked to them. We ended up talking about how they stand up for their beliefs at school. I really admire them! They're pretty strong!

Friday was Zone Training Meeting, it was awesome!  Then, our investigator --- had... HIS BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW!! Woohoo!! We also had a lesson with the family that we've been teaching, it went really well. The dad asks awesome questions! They all pay attention, even the 11 and 13 year old!

On Saturday we delivered bread with Sister ---, after dinner we went to ---'s because transfer calls were later that night and we wanted to be in our favorite place before transfer calls so we would be distracted and not nervous. When we got home, we planned, got ready for bed, then went upstairs and sat with --- while we waited for the Zone Leaders to call or text. After an alarm to text the ward mission leader, and a reply from him, gave us a heart attack because we thought both of them were the Zone Leaders.... we got a text from the real zone leaders... saying... WE'RE BOTH STAYING!!!!! YAY!!!

I hope you all have a great week! Remember how much Heavenly Father loves you!

Sister Fleck did have a PS later: OH! On Wednesday we went to see a less-active lady, she wasn't there, but another member of the ward was (the less-active lady runs a small retirement center kind of, she has about 3 patients and they can't be left alone, so if she has to run an errand she has to have someone, come sit with them), it was cool because when she answered the door and invited us in she said "I've been needing to talk to you, sisters! I have someone for you to teach!" Her niece is moving in with her parents (who live in the ward too), the girl (who is 18) is moving out of her parents' house, but she loves visiting her aunt and grandparents, and loved going to church with them whenever she visited. Now that she's 18 she wants to get baptized!!!

Pictures :)  

Sister S, --- and I at Nakato

Yummy Rolls at Nakato (oh how she was spoiled!)

Sister S and I in Brother ---' plane!

Happy 4th of July!

This week was a lot of fun! There were hard days, but there were also magnificent days!

Wednesday was one of those hard days. We had planned to see our investigator, Zac, who is getting baptized in 2 weeks. When we knocked on the door, no one answered. We were a little discouraged because we haven't seen him for a very long time, his life is super busy, and we really needed to see him to go over stuff that he wanted to review before his baptism. We didn't have anything else that we could think of to do, so we decided we might as well walk/tract. We ended up doing that for about 2 hours! Not many people answered because it was the middle of the day and they were at work... the few that did answer weren't interested, nice, but not interested. We called Sister Worley to come pick us up because we didn't really know where we were in relation to our car. She came and got us and took us to a lesson that we were going to be having with her. On Monday we found two less-actives who hadn't been contacted, we had an appointment with one of them on Wednesday, when we got to his house there was a note on the door that said that he had to go somewhere, he considered himself invited to church, but didn't want to meet with us. After that we had dinner with some pretty awesome members who are trying really hard to be awesome member missionaries! After dinner we went to the Farmer's Market because we had promised Pete the Popcorn Man that we would come back and buy popcorn. So, we found it his booth, and started talking to him. We asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon at all and he said he read 3 Nephi, then he went to the beginning, read 1 Nephi and he was now in the middle of 2 Nephi, WHAT? Way to be future Brother Pete the Popcorn Man! So, Wednesday evening was pretty good, but the day was kind of poopy.

On Thursday we went on exchanges and I stayed in Ozark with Sister Stout, the Sister Training Leader. We saw a lot of people, but we also had time that I was struggling to figure out who to see. It was really good though. Sister Stout is awesome! She is a great teacher!

On the 4th of July I decided to study some cool stuff in the Book of Mormon about America, instead of where I was. I found some pretty cool stuff! I started in 1 Nephi 13:9-20, because I knew that's when Nephi saw the Colonizing of America and cool stuff like that, then I followed some footnotes and found cool stuff!
Ether 2:12

2 Nephi 10:10-11

3 Nephi 21:4

I just think it's cool that Heavenly Father prepared this place for us! He helped us gain the freedom we needed so that the gospel could be restored and the church could make it! It wasn't easy, there were lots of struggles along the way, for both America and the church, but both made it because Heavenly Father was paving the way all along!!

Sister Stockhoff and I made 4th of July cookies and took them to people, that was a lot of fun! When we had finished handing out cookies we went to a 4th of July party that some members were having, it was a lot of fun. There weren't as many non-members there as they were hoping, but Sister Stockhoff and I got to spend some time with some of the Young Women in the ward, we had a lot of fun!

Saturday night was awesome! We had a lesson with some potential investigators at a member's home. We met this family last week when we went over, and taught them about families. This week we talked about 3 Nephi 11 (what we invited them to read). We were able to make them investigators, so we had 5 new investigators (WHAAAT?) Plus, it's a whole family! We're teaching a whole family, all at once! Wahooo! It was a really good lesson. The members were great, they said the perfect things!
I hope you all had a fantasmical week, and are excited for the week to come, I know that it can be magical and wonderful!

Love,
Sister Fleck