7/13/09

family!

Okay so this week was different. we had a good week of work. then friday night we found out that we are no longer having sacrament meetings here in goianinha. because its taking to long to grow. so sundays we have to bring all our members and investigators to another city for sunday meetings. wait it gets worse.... they have to pay 4 reais(more or less 2 dollars) to go to church every week. and they dont have money. wait it gets worse.... they have to travel 40 minutes too. and its a sacrifice that many are willing to make. but its going to be hard when we teach people about the gospel and then say ``okay this sunday we have a meeting you have to travel 40 minutes and pay to attend.´´

so tuesday me and elder de oliveira are going to have a meeting with the mission president. we are thinking that he is going to close the area. which is sad. this area is good.

so on friday we found all this out and they said next sunday this starts. so yesterday was going to be the final sacrament meeting here in goianinha. me and my comp prepared talks on the blessings of sacrifice and it was going to be a beautiful final meeting. but then the lady that has the key to the school where we have meetings left for the weekend. so we had to travel 40 minutes to the other chapel at the last minute. wait it gets worse... we had 6 investigators who were going to be baptized. but they didnt have money to go. so we used our money and were able to bring people to church. 3!! was not good. so we are going to plead with president for the mission to pay for a bus to travel every week. that would be perfect.

anyway i dont think you care about that. but its whats on my mind.

wow almost 5 months here on the mission. time is passing fast. yet slow also.

mom i still havent got the card. so tomorrow we have interviews with the president and he brings the letters that arrived in the mission home. so next letter i will let you know wheter to cancel or not.

oh before i forget. next week is transfers so i wont email until wednesday of next week.

other than that im doing great, being blessed beyond belief. and portuguese rocks. i cant wait to be 100% fluent because its such an interesting language. you guys are going to like it. well i dont know what else to say. the next time i write ill probably will be in another city.
Im happy for the things i learned here in Goianinha.

well i love you all. keep rocking in the USA!

love
elder fletcher

p.s. john 16:33 rocks

p.p.s. are they still going crazy about micheal jackson? because here its non stop!!

7/8/2009

family!!

so im writing now cuz we had pday with 4 zones on monday!! so i didnt have time to write. well thats good you guys are out of the house, im sure you wont be completly settled in for a while, but it will happen. Whats with the cats? im so glad you guys have cats, but i wanna know what brought this on? haha. im so glad to hear that everything is good. it makes the week that much better.

now with an experience. remember that kid that was in Lauras ward and he had the same bday, same mission call, same day, same birthday, same airplane.. all these things the same as me? well his name is Elder Leseur and he has been in my district. and on friday we did divisions and me and him got to teach together. we are both the exact same age, our famlies live 5 minutes away from eachother, and we have been on the mission for the exact same amount of time. and we got to teach alot of people together. it was so awesome.

okay and so pday with the zones. 4 of the 10 zones had pday together. we played soccer, ate alot of candy, and played a ton of games. The president had prizes for the winners of all of them and it was a blast!! so much fun!!! then me and my companion got to spend the night at the house of other missionaries. so much fun too. then tuesday morning we had zone conference. it was amazing. i learned so much and president taught us things that are going to help so much. these past two days have been so much fun. but now its time to get back to work. im excited.

Okay mom the card didnt arrive so i when i write on monday i will tell you whether or not to cancel okay?

well all is well here and im glad to hear from you guys every week. keep doing whats right and the Lord will bless you all. i love this work and the gospel. its true.

Love

Elder Fletcher

6/29/09

family!

okay to start mom i didnt get the card yet. i only recieve letters once a month so if it doesnt come by the end of june then ill tell you to cancel it.

okay so the big news is michael jackson. wow. hes dead. People here are nuts about him, so i cant imagine there. Dad that brazil v usa game makes me crazy. Im getting reamed here because usa was up 2 nothing. everyone here is giving me crap. its way funny. the teaching is good. we have zone conference in a week and president told us to study chapter 10 in preach my gospel which is teaching skills so i think were going to learn alot of new things. im excited.

im glad to hear about the house and about how everything there is good.things are good here. We had a lot of baptisms this week and good success. we worked our butts off. im so tired. pday is like heaven.

im still in shock about micheal jackson. but at least tons of children are now safe. one thing weird about here is that everyone listens to the same music as us. they have no idea what they are listening to. its way funny. and all the kids ask me to translate...

remember that women i talked about that hid from us. well we talked to her during the week and she said she is ready for baptism, so the zone leaders came again... and guess what? she wasnt there. they got mad. we got more mad. so we went to her house yesterday and told her if were not going to teach here anymore. kinda sad.

i dont have many details. i remember when devin was on his mission he sent a lot of letters without details and i was mad. but i understand now. not that things dont happen but its not like crazy exciting things every week.

oh i just remembered a thing that happened... haha... so we taught this girl the 1st lesson and she loved it. so on saturday we went to her house and we clapped at her door but no one answered. so i looked in the window and here entire family was there. they didnt want to let us in. so we basically forced our way in and we asked her parents if they would like to hear our message. they said no because the are christians. i said so are we. they laughed. so i asked if we can teach her daughter. so we started reading with her in 2nd nephi 31.. about baptism of Jesus and that we need to follow his example and be baptized the same way he was. (1. proper age 2. Immersion 3. proper authority). and they laughed some more. it was ugly. then my comp stopped and asked the her are you going to follow the example of Christ abd be baptized by someone who has authority. she looked at her parents and they were laughing. so she said no. we were upset because her parents influenced her. so after this the were laughing and said our church has problems. then my comp just bore sincere testimony that this is the only true church and then i followed. when we did this the spirit entered the room and they became silent. dead silent. they knew we knew. it was awesome. this made my testimony grow. we entered there house thinking that she would be baptized, left knowing that she probably wont, but yet we were happy. this is what the knowledge of the truth does. HAPPINESS.

okay well i gotta run. my comp has been done writing for ten minutes!! haha. well i love you all so much. until next time.


Elder fletcher

p.s. RIP MJ

6/22/09

Family!!

Im seriously so stoked about Davids mission call. When i read it, i had the EXACT same feelings when i opened my call... basically this (overcome by the spirit) 创yeah that makes sense创 i really felt like i already knew it. its so perfect.. i cant really explain it. but wow thats so awesome and he will joining me in 2 and a half months.

So this week was okay... to answer your questions mom yes we are keeping ours spirits up. its difficult to do so. but we are. we had 6 baptisms scheduled for this week and we had 2. it was way depressing to see that the people we have been teaching werent truly ready or wanted to be baptized. but i thought to myself that we did all we could. we served them taught them the gospel and loved them. the rest is up to them. its still difficult though. but whatever.

I only get to call home on mothers day and christmas. but happy fathers day!!

so one of the ladys that we were teaching and she was excited to be a member had an interesting expericence. before baptism our investigators need to be interviewed by the zone leaders. they live 1 hour away. so they arrived to interview here but she wasnt at home like she promised she would be. so then saturday night we talked to her and she said im sorry and she really wants to be baptized. so then we called the ZL and begged him to come on sunday to interview her right befor baptism. so he came and... you guessed it. she wasnt home.... well actually she was but here sister said she wasnt. we knew she was. so we went to the back of her house to see and we saw her run to the front. then we went to the front and she ran to the back... it was ridiculous. and truly sad. but whatever haha.

So im glad to hear that all is well there. i miss you all. today i was studying in alma and i came across alma 39:14 which talks more about not setting our hearts on riches. (dont worry im not starting with that again) haha but i want to clarify what i meant. i want a nice house, i want really nice things, and i want a 2010 range rover. there is nothing wrong with wanting these things. its just when we put these things ahead of what really matters is the problem. so sorry if i made someone mad about calling americans idiots. i love americans!! haha

So all is well here. life is good. OH yeah. me and my comp got pink eye this week. when we entered peoples homes they thought we were on drugs. it was way funny. but it sucked cuz it hurt like crap and these past few days i have had a headache.

the language is going good. i feel comfortable in almost all situations now. im blessed cuz there is no way i could learn a new language in 4 months without the help of the Lord. 4 months? wow now that i think of it time is passing way fast. wow.

well i love you all and i cant wait to here from you all again. keep living the gospel and youll keep being blessed.

love yall

Elder Fletcher

ps sorry about my closet mom. ill make up for it someday. i know its a disaster.

6/15/2009

Family and friends,

So these past 4 days were good. i dont know why only kendal wrote me. did i not send a letter on wednesday?? anyway its all good. i had a good week. although we had crap results. we have about 25 active members. and with the people we bring to church that are investigating the church and friends of member usually we have 45 people. yesterday we had 20 people total. and we gave talks, mine was about the importance of member in missionary work. i had quotes from prophets scriptures the whole deal. but no one was there!!! ughh. the people here are awesome but they have problems coming to church. i think its cuz its in a house and not a beautiful building. other areas have these unbeliveable chapels, more beautiful then the new ones there in the usa. but we dont have one and it makes it more difficult. but this shouldnt be a problem, they should want to come to church to learn about the savior, not for the beautiful buildings. i guess it falls on us and we need to stress the importance of sunday worship.

this week i have realized how unbealivably rich we are in the USA. wow. here the people have nothing. the rich families have a bike. the really rich families have a motorcycle and the loaded families have one car. people have one bedroom for 8 people. some families have no refigrator, no one has a dish washer, washing machine, or dryer. no one has a computer, no one has a tv more the 24 inches, no has more than 2 pairs of shoes, no one has carpeted floors, no one has 2 stories, or a basement, no one has more than 3 couches..... etc etc etc

whats my point? we are so unbeliveably blessed to live in the USA and to have what we have.. but americans are the people who complain the most, most selfish and greedy, most envious, most depressed, most rude... why? because money truly does not bring happiness. family, friends, the gospel, and love bring happiness. truly thank the Lord everyday for what we have.

in the Book of Mormon we all know the pattern of humility, blessings, wealth, pride, trangression, destuction,... then humilty, blessings....etc etc. Well the BOM is the record of the people on the american continent. this pattern hasnt stopped. we are ripe for destuction again. Be humble.

i have no idea why im talking about this. haha. but we need to be more thankful because we truly are blessed!

well all is well here. i look forward to hearing from you all again, and to hear where david is going. i love you all so much!!

Elder Fletcher

6/10/09

ok to start off i didnt write moday cuz this week is transfers. so pday is today. every 6 weeks one pday is wednesday. but yeah. so me and my comp are staying in goianinha for 6 more weeks. i thought he was going to be transfered for sure, but no. im glad. i still need a little more training. haha. but before i forget Devin F., scott jensens little brother is in my mission. i saw him at interviews and he was like is ´´is your brother devin? he was excited. he had 7 months on the mission and he is already a trainer. he rocks. any way mom i havent recieved the card yet but its still all good. i think i will next zone conference. and the weather is crazy! i have never seen it rain this hard. its unreal. and after it gets way hot. food is still way good. way good. oh and the man stopped his drinking binge and in church he bore his testimony and apologized to his family and everyone. it was good. so this week was good. we also had a training with a member of the seventy Elder.... i dont remember but it was good. he talked about alot of things. so im glad im staying here for another transfer. we have alot more investigators. and the language has come so fast, i feel like i will be fluent in a month or so. its crazy. thats good about the house and continue to adjust. itll take time, just be patient.


ok name the cat after me!!


umm ill be writing you on monday again. i feel like im forgetting something... oh well i love you all sorry i dont have anything interesting! continue to do whats right and the Lord will bless all of you!!

love yall

elder fletcher


ps read the book of mormon already!!!!

my guess for david...

Orlando Florida- Portuguese Speaking!!!!

love ya!!!

until next week!!!

6/1/09

family
so this week was pretty good. we didnt have much success as we would have liked. probably because we didnt work as hard as we would have liked. makes sense right? so here is the week:

A man in the ward with 8 children is on a drinking binge for this whole week. its sad. his family is so strong and they are just so amazing. we are trying to rescue him but he is either at the bar all day or asleep in the house or drunk as can be and we cant talk to him. and he was our hope to help the church grow here in goianinha. because we need 5 men with the M. preisthood to be considered a branch and we was going to be number 5. its sad. but anyway a crapadoodadledoo thing happened. the girl that i let borrow my camera erased ALL the photos. it was bad. it was an accident but all my photos of you guys are gone! so that sucks. umm what else.. tomorrow we have interviews with the president and then the following week is transfers. i hope i stay here in goianinha for one more transfer. but who knows. i sent a letter through the mail for yall and one for D. urbina... what else... i bought a basketball and im going to start practicing ballhandling for 15 minutes every morning. well i cant think of anything else... we had one baptism yesterday and it was great and we had an amazing sacrament meeting. the spirit engulfed the room. this week we need to find a celestial family. thats our goal. im way random today haha sorry i have nothing interesting.

i came across a scripture today in jacob 7: 5 about how becuase of the things that jacob knows he could not be shaken. lets all take this approach. we know what we know. the gospel is true. so because of this, lets not be shaken. satan is going to try and stop us in all the right things we do. LETS NOT BE SHAKEN!!!

well i cant think of anything else. RIP baxter. im sorry max and noah.. he is in a better place.....the ground.. :)

love you all,

ELDER FLETCHER

5/25/09

hola minha familia eterna,

How are things? okay i know i promised pics. i lied again. haha. i let a memer borrow my camera because she needed it for school. so sorry again.

well this week was awesome. wednesday we hade zone conference and it rocked!!!! 5 zones together. those who are leaving at the end of this transfer had to give there farwell testimonies. was awesome. then............. the newbies. haha i was suprised, but it was real good. i got to see most of my mtc buddies there and we all conversed and told our stories so far. we had trainings from the president and his wife. awesome and then trainings from the assistants. and then we had to practice the trainings and the APs called me and my companion to demonstrate teaching a lesson with what things we just learned. once again i was shocked, but it was good. then later president called me up to the pulpit to explain 20 passos. (the 20 things we need to do everyday) i guess i was the only newbie that even knew that 20 passos exsisted. thank my companion for that. and then president was giving his final training and he was telling the story of david and goliath. he called a really short missionary to be david and of course i was called to be goliath. it was a crazy day. but way fun.

this week was good. we applied what we learned from the president and we had instant success. it was cool.

well something you should know about brazillians is that they say there going to do something and then they dont. okay thats being way stereotypical, so ill just say the people in this area. but other missionaries say the same thing. We had so many investigators this week and when we say ´´voce vai a igreja este domingo?´´ they all say ´´Eu vou`` means... you going to church this sunday? and im going....... BUT when we clap at there door there excuses range from..... ´´i dont want to leave the house empty´´ to ´´i dont have any clean clothes´´ Its so annoying. my companion said that the greatest gift we gain on the mission is the gift of patience. so we had more baptisms this week and it was beatiful. we still have two families that need to be married and one family that is so intersested in the church and they want to be baptized... and tomorrow we are going to teach them the word of wisdom and sabbath day holy.... they smoke, they drink and work on sundays. its going to be tough. i think that they have no idea that we believe in these things. its going to be interesting. and they have a 21 year old daughter that already commited to baptism but she went to a catholic church this week. our main focus is going to be on them i think.

ok enough of that. so school is out!! max and noah are in heaven right? haha so whats new any crazy stories??

i almost got bit by a crazy dog. it bit my pants and it should have torn right through and got my leg. but it didnt. i honestly believe im being protected now more than ever.

so how is the BOM reading going? good? started? hah

okay well i dont know what else to say. im excited to hear where david is going. hopefully joao pessoa brazil!!

anyway mom thanks for sending the card. it should come soon, i love you all and miss you!

Love Elder Elliott Ainge Fletcher

5/18/09

Hola familia,
Ok i know i promised pictures but this computer doesnt work very well. so sorry. next week.

So this week went pretty well. to start off ... last monday i weighed myself and it turns out i have lost 11 pounds. not good! so i have been eating like crazy, well in the process of eating like crazy i ate something bad. ha and now im sick. but i am getting better. anyway we found out that we have to move out of our house. idk why. so we called President and he said we need to find a house. so we have been looking. pray that we will find one cuz if not soon we will have to close the area which equals Not good! im sure we will find one. im going to miss our house. so today is the 3 month mark of the mission. i am 1/8 of the way done. haha. i was thinking of devins song... ´´ i wont see you this summer or the next´´ haha. anyway yesterday we had stake conference in Natal, so we rounded up the investigators and members and got on a bus. the meeting was good. our president was there and he gave a talk, along with his wife. he is so funny. after the meeting we had our baptisms. it was nice to do them in a real font. haha. all in all this week was good. we have alot of investigators this week so we are going to teach like crazy this week. but we have zone conference on wednesday so its going to be a challenge. im stoked for zone conference. everyone had to write a 10 min talk on the blessings of obedience and President is going to call on 1 missionary to talk. so that should be exciting.

one other thing i would like to say:
anyone who is reading this i would like you to read the book of mormon. As true as the sky is blue, grass is green, the book of mormon is the word of God. It truly is true. Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and he really did see God and Jesus Christ. i have come to know with assurety, you can too. just read like 10 pages a day and in two months you will know.

because i teach it everyday and testify of it too, its made my testimony grow. and putting aside the spiritual aspect for a moment it just makes senses. learning about how God has always called prophets and how Christs church was established, it makes sense. The same church that Christ established on the earth around 2000 years ago, exists on the earth today. The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter day Saints. It does.

okay anyway im doing good and thanks for all the love and support. i appreciate it so much. it truly helps to have family and friends that support. most of the brazilian missionaries are the only ones in there families and the dont recieve support. i am so greatly blessed, i cant even believe it. i love you all so much and keep doing whatcha doing! ha love yall

Elder Fletcher

5/11/09

Hola,

i wanna start off by saying how great it was to talk to you guys yesterday. i didnt realize what was happening till i hung up and i wanted to call back soooo bad. so bad. but it was real good. im so glad to hear that everything at home is going good. so glad. ok so i have alot to say today and i dont want to forget anything so ill start now..

my address:
Elder Elliot Fletcher
Rua Deputado Jose Mariz 515
Tambazinho Joao Pessoa PB
58042 020 Brazil

So mom when you send the card put pictures of jesus or draw crosses on it so the mail workers wont steal it. no joke. and when i recieve the card i will withdraw money to give to the guy that allowed me to call yesterday. so yeah.

Okay so back to the letter:
Im going to send photos of my house and baptisms today in a different letter and ill send photos of the town next week..

ok so everything here is good, we had 2 baptisms yesterday and we were supposed to have 4 but 1 of our investigators was ´´sick´´ and the other is not ready. but all is well. there is always next week to make covenants with the Lord. So yeah its all good here. i dont really know what to say. everyone send questions and ill answer them all for next week. dad they call me..mais grande.. which translates to more big. haha. what else.............. so it rained like crazy last night and my camera was in my backpack and i took it out and took pics but it was all foggy, i was super mad. but i fixed it. its as good as new. what else... i am teaching alot more now. its still a little diffucult and i still get laughed at every once and a while but its so much better. and talking in english yesterday was so hard. i dont know if you could tell............. yesterday i gave a talk in church and i found out like 4 hours before. now in english thats no problem, just open the scriptures read and talk about it. in portuguese however.... a little bit harder haha. i prepared somewhat and it turned out decent. only one person laughed!!! haha. being a missionary is so cool. haha


Ok so david that is soooo awesome that you turned your papers in, and i heard about braden and matt. thats cool. i know nothing about being a missionary yet but from judging by these too weeks, it may have its ups and downs, but its great. it reminds me of the conference talk by.......... dont remember but its something like... ´´when your not living the ways of the Lord nothing can be permantly right. but when you are living the ways of the Lord nothing can be permanantly wrong´´ i dont know if thats how it goes but i know that its true. i gave my talk on charity and i learned alot. we all know the scripture that when you serve your fellow being you serve God but its becoming more apparent here because i can ask the Lord for blessings that i need for other people. and he gives me them. because its for other people, and by helping other people its bringing his work and glory to success and therefore he grants the blessings. okay i dont know if that made sense. but basically just serve other people before yourself and you will be blessed. okay. i love you all and i miss you dearly. devin thanks for the portuguese tips. haha. i can pretty much say anything i need to i just cant understand. thats the problem.they talk so fast. so fast.

okay i gotta go. until next monday

LOVE
elder elliot fletcher

5/4/2009

Hey family,
okay i have Alot to say today. first, i can not send emails to other people besides family. so friends... im sorry. okay second is congrats to mom and patric, parabens!. third, last week was the day that i transfered and i was on a bus or in a bus station for the majority of the day. so sorry. but ya. so ya hear it goes....

tuesday:
we got off the plane in joao pessoa and the president, his wife, and the APs were there waiting for all of us. we went to the mission home and had a couple hours of training, interview with the president, etc. then we had a great dinner with a slide presentation that showed our area, zone and a video of our companion. then bed.

wednesday:
woke up, got ready, and headed out on a bus. after the bus broke down and we were stuck for and hour we got to Natal and i met my companion Elder De Oliveira. He has been out for ten months and he is awesome. he speaks no english. then after 4 or 5 hours in the bus station we went to our area. called Goininha. we are the only missionaries within like 45 minutes. so the town is all ours

Thursday
first real real day. we went out and started teaching. really hard, i thought i knew alot of portuguese. turns out i know none. haha. its 100% normal for missionaries to say that the first week of there mission in the field is the hardest week of there life. it was really hard. but if this is the hardest week of my life, then i will have an amazing life. it is truly difficult to teach and have investigators and members laugh at you. ha but they say it takes 6 to 7 months to get the language down. thats if you hardly study. im not waiting 6 months!! my goal is to be able to communicate with everyone in 2 months from today.

anyway the people here are receptive to the gospel, and i love them already, and they love me. the love americans and they LOVE tall people, so its good.

for friday and saturday basically copy and paste thursday. haha. teaching alot and walking in the heat and rain, and seeing all sorts of animals and beatiful things. and i ate goat. yes goat. and it was sooo good. i didnt know what is was till i was done and then companion told me. ha.

oh before i forget, monday is my pday so u will get letters every monday.

ok so sunday. we have to walk around the entire city and pick up out investigators. its a long walk and even longer when you are soaking wet, but once we got to church it was great. we had more people at the church this weel then ever. its a group of 20 people. no bishop no branch president, a leader. 2 people not including us have the preisthood. so we perform all the ordinances. but this weel we had 43 people at church. doubled the usual. its was awesome. oh and i had my first baptism. a 16 year old boy named romulo. we taught him this week everyday and he chose me to baptize him. so cool. such a nice expericence. we have 2 set up already for next week. so excited. well im going to go. i love it here. its hard. its stressful. and it sucks not being able to be myself cuz i can hardly communicate. but i love it. thanks to all of you for everything. i love u all

Elder Fletcher

4/15/09

hola familia

every time i read your letters (everyone's letters) i feel so much love. so i want to start by saying thank you for that. it is so good to know I'm not alone in this, well obviously the lord is with me,but its good to know that there are some less important people with me too. haha I'm jk. and speaking of the lord he is blessing me so much. learning about the savior all day makes me realize how much he really went through for us and how worthless we all are. its a way humbling experience. I'm way excited to get out in the field, and I'm also way nervous. the language is getting a lot better. i can teach pretty much all i want to say. i just cant talk about too much other then the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. so i think its good, if i want to talk to someone it has to be about the church, so that's way good. haha. but everyone says once you get in the field the language comes a lot faster, and the work gets way harder. but that's what I'm here for. my testimony has already grown so much, and its not even close to where it should be, but i do know this, this church is true. that's the truth. anyone reading this know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true.

anyway i dont know what else to write about. i hope you got all the pictures from last week... i dont know tho. ill send more next week. i love you all, and i am so thankful for all the support, and how great ive been blessed to be in the fletcher/ainge family. i wouldnt trade it for ANYTHING in this world. im sorry for all the contention or problems i may have made in the past, and i hope you can forgive me. and anyone reading this if i have ever offended you in anyway please forgive me.

well i love you all

elder elliot fletcher

ps sorry i dont have any way cool stories. there will be some soon.. just 2 more weeks!!!

pps are u putting my letters on my blog?

Dear Elliot,

Yes.

Laura

4/7/09

thank you so much mom. i think the best way to send it is in a letter. but put a sticker or picture of jesus on it. no joke. cuz usually they wont open it if you do so. i really appreciate this letter. it really helped. the quote that you sent was said in a fireside last night about being receptive to personal revalation. thats so cool. im glad to hear about the house. i need the address so i can tell the mission president of a change of address and cuz all my amigos here really want to know. so just send the address in the next email por favor. here is a question for devin fletcher... on your mission did you know an Elder Argueta? my companion knows him.. anyway. yeah so this week was pretty good. portuguese is still coming along okay . the more i work the better i am at it... crazy huh? i sent a real letter to you guys, and one to david urbina... but i sent it in the same envelope. haha sorry. but yeah so my companion is great, the food is.... idk. haha but the highlight of the week was conference. i have never been so happy for conference. it makes me mad because i know that they are always this good i just was an idiot in the past and didnt pay attention. boy how much i wish i would have, thats one of the many things i regret. but yeah.. so my testimony of these 15 men grew so strong. i know they are men of god. i love jerrery r hollands talk. it was so good. so powerful. so inspiring. im ready to teach about the savior and his wonderful sacrifice. i want to get out in the field but i thank the lord for the time i still have left. its so good i still have it. i thank anyone who is reading this letter for the support. i love you all. mom the date is coming sooner and sooner. i assume its still happening on the 1st right? well i love you and the more emails i get here the happier i am. eu amo voces muito

okay so as i promised here are some pics. and before i forget tell devin happy birthday in a week or so. ha okay

me with my pants pulled way high teaching my district ha

thumbs up brazil

thumbs down usa


this brazillian elder piphone and elder holt

3/25/09

thanks mom that email helped alot. things are going great here and its now five weeks until im out of here. im so excited to leave here but im so not ready so its good i still have time. so these week was good. the language is getting better. its going to be a while before i get it but its coming. i assumed before entering the mtc that the language would just come, definately not the case. a couple times this week i was thinking how nice it would be to speak in english. but hey no need to complain, cuz this is where i am called and who the lord calls the lord qualifies. im going to send some pictures in the mail pretty soon, so you can see how cool brazil is. its great to hear from all of you. sorry i only have one hour so ill try to respond and im only supposed to reply to family, so ill do my best to respond in this big letter. Dad thanks for the letter, its good to hear about that. im getting more and more excited to teach the gospel. today i went to the police station to get finger prints and get legalized and i saw missionaries who are out in the field and it got me excited. they said the language comes after like 2 months in the field and then you just role.... so im excited for that. its hard every week because we make great friends with the brazillians and there only here for a short stay so we have to say goodbye every week. but then more come and we make more friends. dad if you can send that blessing id be greatful, if not thats fine too. well what else.... kendal thanks for the letter. and david that email was awesome, im so glad to hear that. get ready cuz your time is right around the corner. mom you dont have to rush on the credit card because i cant use it till i get it the field. they give us money here its called reais (hey-eyes) and they took our cards and money from us until we leave to go on the mission. hmm well im having a great time. there is not much to report about, just class. and im having alot of fun and good experiences. and im growing closer to the savior each day. Mom i really apprieciate all the support, and from everyone. its so good to get on the comp on wednesday and see what you guys have to say. say hi to patric for me. and just try not to worry about me. im in the Lords hands. i miss you guys tons but im happy where im at. again you should receive pics in about 10 to 12 days. i love you all and continue to pray for me! thanks for everything


Ate mais

Elder Fletcher

3/18/09

i am excited to do the lords work. i cant wait to get out in the field but the ctm is helping alot. its hard to focus 24/7 on one thing but I'm doing my best. i heard a quote from the area 70 in brasil, it goes like this "pray as if everything depends on the lord, and then work as if everything depends on you" i believe that if i do this i will be just fine. i know this church is true, i know that joesph smith was a prophet of God and he restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ back to the earth, i know that Christ laid down his life for us and through him we can return back to our father. i have a testimony of the prophet Thomas s monson, i know he speaks directly with God. i am so grateful to be serving, i feel like i dont deserve to be a part of this great work, but the Lord has called me and i know i can do it, or i should say the Lord can do it through me. i am thankful for all the support of family and friends, i know i couldn't do it without that, it sounds wierd to say but i have a testimony of the power of satan, he works so hard on missionaries its unreal. he knows that we are about to bring many people to the Gospel and he is working so hard to not let that happen. this truly is hard work but i know its going to pay off. im really excited.

Love Elder Fletcher

P.S. if you could send that blessing you gave me like a month before my mission and put it on an email that would be great.

Tchau!

3/11/09

Hey family..
mom i hope that this is your email, i couldnt remember. But im in brazil right now in a cookie/internet shop.. this is where the missionaries have to go in order to email. so today i went to the Campinas Temple and it was muito linda!! it really helps to get out of the CTM it feels like a prison.. ha but its all good. so i can send an email once a week and you can email back on this address. so im loving it here, its really cool and i cant wait to start my real mission. it seems like i have been gone for like 5 years and its only been 3 weeks. but from what everyone has been telling me the CTM is like a time warp. and once you get into the field time starts up again. my pday is wednesday so ill be maybe to email every wednesday. ummmm... oh this friday we get to go out and do street contacts. its kinda crazy, but my new companion Elder Gomez speaks spanish and he can understand portuguese very well. and speak it pretty darn well. as far as my portuguese.... its okay. its going to take alot of effort and faith to be able to speak it well enough to teach by the end of april. so keep praying for me. well i dont know what else to say, other than i love you all so much and i miss you alot. but this is where the lord wants me and this is where i want to be.
love
Elder Fletcher

P.s. Pray for me

P.P.S. im also going to send this to dads email just in case this isnt moms..

2/27/09

Famila,

This week was good. I had a couple tough days in which i was quite homesick. But, I'm getting over it. I miss you guys so much. I know what I'm doing is exactly what I need to be doing! I love this gospel and I KNOW! I KNOW! it is true. So I can start by telling you about this boring week, or I can just say...I got my visa! We are leaving March 4th! So I'm pretty pumped about that! Dad will you send my blessing that you gave me? Por favor? And I will give you my email and all that good stuff when I get to Brasil. Pray for me!! I got to go to the temple today. Awesome! The thing you go through before the last room had 25 spots. Crazy. I love Provo and I love this MTC but I can't wait to get to Brazil. Like it was such a relief to get the visa! Well I miss you guys and I love you so much. Thanks for the yellow card mom and for the letter. Kendal you too. Dad and Devin as well. Thank you all! It is really nice to hear from you guys. It's going to be a lot less communication once I get to Brazil, but I will be fine. I hope! Well I got to get going. I love you all so so much. You are in my prayers ever second. Love you ALL!

Elder Elliot Ainge Fletcher

P.S. Here are some pictures (pitchers) <-----That's for Patric

(pictures to come)

Familia,

The MTC is awesome. I love learning about the gospel and Portuguese. I miss you guys but there is so much to do that I never have time to sit and think about how much I miss you. Until now! Well I love you all and please pray that I will have the spirit with me. Anyway my companion is awesome, my roommates are awesome, the MTC is awesome, the food is awesome and the gospel is awesome. Me and my roommates decided to help us learn Portuguese faster by at lunch only speaking Portuguese, oh and at dinner and breakfast. I have wonderful teachers that care so much about us. And its just so good to be here. No word on the visas yet, but we are the 3rd group of Brazilians (there are 34 missionaries waiting for visas) and it usually takes 2-3 weeks. Since its carnival there, the people who sign the visas are way behind. Ina couple of days I will send pictures but I am too busy to do it right now. But I love you all and I'm so excited to serve the Lord. Pray for me that I will be able to always have a desire to serve. You are in my prayers. I love you all so much! And may you please not worry about me. I don't want you guys too. I'm sure you're not, I just thought I'd say. Well I gotta go and get my laundry.

Love, Elder Fletcher

P.S. Use DearElder.com

(ask David Urbina or Devin Fletcher about how to do it)

Let us all press on in the work of the Lord

Mev familia,

It has been amazing, stressful, crazy, funny, tiring and everything else you can think of. But this is going to be such an amazing experience. Saying goodbye was so hard but I don't have any time whatsoever to think about it. The day was so jam packed!! But it was also really cool. While I want to go down to Brazil so bad, I really do enjoy it here. We had two great meetings today that were full of the spirit. And we are cramming all this info into the next 3 or so days. Being a missionary feels amazing. OK listen up mother, this is VERY IMPORTANT. In my room or the living room couch is my call packet/folder/book thing. Inside or around it is a yellow paper folded up and it has my yellow fever/typhoid immunization record. I need you to overnight it ASAP because I can't get into Brazil without it. Sorry for the hassle but it needs to be done. Well I'm extremely tired and I'm going to "retire". So I'll keep in touch!! Love you all!

Elder Fletcher

P.S. I will be starting an email account shortly. (I'll let you know the details.)

P.P.S. Tell David and Devin that the MTC is awesome and they would love it.