On the road again!

Hello fam! 

I will see you soon and I will tell you of all the adventures, miracles, craziness of the past week, but just to let you know that I am well, and full of mixed emotions! But beyond excited to see you all! I will see you wednesday night :) :) :) :) :)

I love you!!!!!!!!! 

Signing out for the last time,

Hermana Stacie Fleischer

A vencer!

doing service

Hello fam!!!

This is probably the second to last email you will get from me while I am a missionary. 

President and Hermana Garcia!!!

This week was full of meetings and doing a bunch of random things. We had a meeting with our mission president with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders! It was super awesome! The spirit is always so strong and President Garcia is really awesome. They always have the missionaries going home in the transfer bear their testimonies and this time it was my turn!!! It is a super weird feeling to be on the last stretch but the most strongest feeling I have is gratitude! I am so thankful I came here, for everything I have learned, for all the people I have met, and the experiences I have had, for a WONDERFUL family, and the gospel in my life :) We are truly, truly blessed.

our district

We also had a zone meeting and I talked about good attitude and faith. 2 key ingredients in missionary work, and really in everything we do. One of my favorite things that I have heard in the mission is when the seventy Elder Valenzuela came to our mission and his wife gave a little message as well, she said "Tire el desanimo en la basura, no sirve para nada" or "Throw discouragement in the garbage, it doesnt work at all."  It makes more sense to me in Spanish, but if we have negative thoughts or bad feelings, the best we can do is just throw them away, and look towards the light, which is our loving Heavenly Father who will never leave us.

John 14:18 {I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you}

I have felt this promise time and time again in the mission and this is what gives me hope and faith for an unknown future.

my last zone meeting! it is fun because I have a couple old companions in the zone :)

This week we found a couple less-active families who are super awesome and ready to come back! One of them came to church and he was really happy.

Our little family Ximena and Idar are doing really well. But conversion is never without opposition. We have a lot of faith and if everything goes well they will be baptized this weekend :)

This is my last week!!!!!!!!!!! It will be a good one.  I sure will miss this little patch of the world. Today we are going to eat lunch with a family in my old area! Familia Aguilar! I love them tons. I hope there is room in the house because I invite everyone to come visit me in Utah haha.

Have the most wonderful week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Love you all and see you soon.

our pet moth

a truck full of minions at the gas station ??

hermana bailey and I!

waiting for the rain to pass

Pictures

Hna. Alma, the relief society president. She is so short haha. And really great.

 Pics from my area:

My companion.

This week!

Intercambios with Hna. Diaz, from Zacatecas!

Hello family!!!!!!

This was a pretty good week. We have been talking to a bunch of people, in the streets, in the buses, meeting a lot of less-active members and its been a lot of fun. Even though not all of them accept the gospel in this moment, we are planting lots of seeds!

Intercambios with Hna. Lopez, from Veracruz! She is probably the sweetest missionary I have ever met.

It was kind of a crazy week because we did 2 intercambios! When we do intercambios either Hna. Bailey or I goes to another area to work with an Hermana for a day, and her companion comes to our area and works with the one that stayed behind. This week we did intercambios with the missionaries in Industrial! The last ward I was in!! I went there to work with Hna. Lopez and it was super strange walking the same streets I walked for 6 months. We saw a couple of my converts that are still going strong and that was really fun. I really miss that area and that ward, but I know that I am where I am supposed to be right now! We will always need change, we cant have things be the same always, or wish that things were how they used to be. We will always need opposition, because it will help us learn and improve. 

Intercambios with Hna. Diaz, from Zacatecas!

Ximena and Idar, our adorable family that we are teaching are doing so well! This week we had an awesome lesson about the plan of salvation. We talked about the temple and they were like, wait, we can get married there? and they were so excited about eternal families, and they asked us if they could get baptized, we said yes of course!!!!!!! They have come to church 2 weeks now and they are really happy. I feel so much love for them, and I am so grateful Heavenly Father allows us to meet people like them and share the gospel with them. God really has a plan for each and every one of us, and He has a time. For this family, this is the exact moment they are prepared for the gospel, its possible that a few years ago they wouldn't have accepted it or maybe a few years in the future would have been too late, but it is the moment and I know that sometimes we don't understand everything, but if we are obedient, we WILL feel His love and know that His arms are ALWAYS open, waiting for us to come to Him.

Familia Tec Poot!

Ximena and Idar!

I love you all and I love our Savior, because of Him, we can be together forever.

Thanks for being the best family ever. Time is ticking and pretty soon I will see you guys. We can actually talk and hear each other instead of waiting for an email every week haha. 

Mucho amor,

Hermana Stacie Fleischer

Moroni 8:3

{I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.}

familias eternas!

Buenas Tardes Mi Familia!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this week was a pretty good week in the mission!

In front of the "haunted house", in Vicente Solis, Hna Montoyas area where we worked on friday.

We are teaching a family, Ximena and Idar, and they have 2 little kids. They are super awesome! We found them coming out of their house one day and we asked them for a direction that we were looking for and a couple weeks later we went back to visit them. They came to church with us this week and they totally loved it! It was super funny because when we got there, Idar sees the bishop and gives him a big hug, turns out they were good friends when they were little kids. 

They are just the sweetest couple and they are really interested in the gospel! 

little house that we ate in, the older houses in the city are made from mostly rocks, not blocks

just a little pedazo of our area

 Well the time is ticking and we are working hard! A giant problem down here : lots of recent converts that fall away shortly after their baptism. It is super sad. But in this ward we are working a lot with the converts and they are progressing so well!!!! Almost all of them come to church and are participating and everything.

intercambios with Hermana Montoya from Honduras! She is a convert of a couple years and she is an amazing missionary!!!

Another side note.. it is SO hard for the people to find a job here that doesn't require them to work on Sundays, so that can sometimes hurt the progress of a lot of members. But it is a test of FAITH and all things are possible with faith in God :)

So our area is pretty can be pretty bustling sometimes. We were walking down one of the main streets one day and we see a tourist bus at the stop light and some white people waving frantically and we were confused and then realized that they were waving at us so we waved back and I am pretty sure they were members of the church haha.

streets of merida

Well that's about it for this week. I love you all so much. This life is amazing. I know that we are here on the earth for a grand purpose, and all of the trials shape us to reach our potential as children of God! The Atonement is real! We can feel it in our lives when we pray with all our heart, keep the commandments, and make covenants. Miracles happen, and Jesus Christ lives.

Thank you for being the best family ever!!!!!

Hermana Stacie Fleischer

P.S. We had a WELL of a time. (see pics below)

la prueba de nuestra fe

Intercambios with Hna. Argueta

Buenos dias mi familia :) :) :)

Another week flew by in the mission! This week was pretty interesting! We found a lot of new people to teach and one of them is this adorable family that is super awesome and really interested. But this sunday they were sick and went to the doctor so they couldnt come to church :( but we know they will come next week!!!!!!!

Posole-- heaven on earth

On tuesday we did exchanges with some hermanas on the other side of the city, I worked with Hna. Argueta from Guatemala!!! She is super awesome. She has the same time in the mission as me and so it was cool to talk about all that has happened and all that weve learned. On the way back from the exchanges we took the bus that goes all around the city, we got on and it smelled like burning rubber, after about 20 minutes it makes a bunch of weird noises and fills with smoke so we all got off and they gave us our money back. It was super strange haha.

So we rent a house from some members that live right next to us, Familia Bobadilla ... like the houses are basically connected. So we always see them, and we get to use their washing machine out back!!! Thats a bonus. They are an elderly couple in their 80s. They are so nice and so adorable. Sometimes we eat with them. After we ate lunch with them this week we asked them if they wanted to sing a hymn and they said "Asombro me da" (I Stand all Amazed). They cant read anymore but they knew all the words by heart and they sang it with all their energy and the spirit was so strong.They are an awesome example of enduring to the end.  Hna. Bobadilla uses a walker and a wheelchair and her husband is always helping her walk and does all the chores. Sometimes I look out the window and I see Hno. Bobadilla on top of a ladder cutting the leaves off of the banana tree and it gives me a heart attack because he is so old but he is still going strong!

ripped skirt... missionary probs!

Well I am loving being a missionary! There are good moments and bad moments, but the good always outweighs the bad :) If we have the right perspective, we can learn from our trials, choose TODAY to follow Christ, and make a difference by helping others. :) Every moment counts, every act of kindness is cherished. 

http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/you-never-know

I will see you all in T-minus one month. I love love love you all and I am so lucky to have a wonderful family. I pray for you everynight. Have a wonderful week! 

See who's day you can brighten this week!

Hermana Stacie Fleischer

Amor puro de Cristo

Buenos Dias!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was interesting and good! We got to know a lot of members in our area and they are working with us more and more. There is this super cute member named Elsy, she is 70 something years old but she is super tech savvy, always texting her grandkids on her iphone, and she is way into family history. We went to go help her clean her house one morning this week and the next day she came with us to teach a few lessons. 

Hna. Elsy -- a cute little member who loves helping us out.

We had an experience that really changed my perspective. Last week we went to a little store and we contacted the person that was working there and talked a little bit about the gospel and we made an appointment to visit her this week. Her name is Alejandra. We went to her house this week and we were talking to her and she told us that about a year ago, she was studying in the university and working but she was passing through some hard things in her life and was super discouraged and was about to quit everything and drop her classes and throw everything away. She was on the bus and a sister missionary sat next to her and started talking to her. She asked her about if she was studying or working and Alejandra told her the situation. The hermana talked to her and told her not to give up, that she was going to help a lot of people if she continued and that she has a lot of potential. Alejandra didnt end up giving her her address for missionaries to visit her, or make an appointment or anything, but after that day, she decided to keep going. Now she is working and really happy that she listened to the advice that the missionary gave her that day! For the missionary, she might have gotten off the bus saying, well I didnt see results out of my efforts, and probably forgot all about it, little did she know that she changed Alejandra's life by helping her make that big decision!

I felt the spirit so strong when she told us that and I realized my purpose here, and our mission as children of God, to help each other feel the love that Heavenly Father has for us! If we have helped even one person, it is enough! We may not know the extent of our influence and we may not see immediate results, but the service we give and the love we extend to others is far greater than recognition.

intercambios with Hna Fernandez (from Guadalajara)

This week had lots of little miracles, finding people who are lonely, teaching adorable families, feeling the spirit, and seeing the progress of these children of God.

I love you all and hope you have a great week :) :) :) :)

Hermana Fleischer

Comida yucateca

bautismo de Christian!

we just wore these to take the picture.... and we sang some patriotic hymns in the morning.

hello fammmmmm!!!!!!!!!

Happy 4th of July! Its just not the same to celebrate it in a different country.... haha.

Well this week had its ups and downs, but it was all good. I am very happy in the mission and happy to serve the Lord! Sometimes He asks us to do things that we dont understand, or that we feel is not the best for us, but He always knows best, and if we go forward with faith, He will make things right :)

Christian wanted Manuel, our recent convert, to baptize him!!!!!

Christian got baptized this week!!!! He is the son of our recent convert, Lizet. He is 11 years old and he is a super good kid. He is reading the book of mormon and goes to all the primary activities and he is super goofy. 

we got to the stake center to teach a lesson and I find all of the young women from my old ward!!!! We were pretty pumped to see each other

We have been working a lot with the recent converts!!!!! our end goal is not baptism and confirmation (even though it is part of the goal), but the end goal is that they can be sealed together as a family in the temple and endure to the end!!!! We are visiting a lot of the recent converts and teaching their family members who arent members of the church (yet :) ). Lizet, mauro, manuel are progressing really well!!!! It is such a great work and a wonderful privilege to be with them and help them make the steps to receive an abundance of blessings in their lives!!!

The rain is coming down!!!!! Which puts a downer on things, because when it rains, it POURS!!! like youve never seen. So we were walking to the church for our family history activity and it starts to sprinkle, we turn around and see giant dark clouds heading our way, we ran to the church and opened it just in time to not get completely soaked. Nobody came because of the rain and the crazy lightning. :( but we will pray lots so that next week it will choose a better time to rain :)

This week we found a cute young couple that is really interested! I hope they can progress! 

Well, today is the first day of my LAST TRANSFER! Yikes! 6 more weeks of really hard work! It will be pretty fun! Hna Bailey and I are still sister training leaders. I love her lots and I am glad we are companions.

I love you all and I miss you tons! I will see you pretty soon, which is weird to think about. Leaving will be the hardest part. But for now I just want to work without thinking about afterwards. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to be a missionary! It will always be one of my greatest treasures. I came to teach, but I have definitely learned much more than I have taught. I know that if we have hope and trust in our Father in Heaven, He will guide us to what is right, He will protect us from temptation, and put us in the place we need to be to help others. If we lose ourself in the service of others, we will be HAPPY!!!!! I have way too many blessings! But when I try to share them, I just get more and more. Thank you for being a wonderful family for me! Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Stacie.

A picture with a recent convert in our ward, Mishel. It was pretty cool because Hna. Bailey was in this stake several months ago and talked with Mishel in the place that she worked, and asked for her direction so that the missionaries could visit her, but Mishel lived in another place and taught by other missionaries, and now she is baptized and Hna. Bailey could see her in her home and see the great progress she has made since that first moment that they met and she invited her to learn more about the gospel.

We are all little parts of a great plan! And every part is important :) :) :) 

banana trees in front of our house!

Taking the moto-car home from church.