July 28, 2014

recent convert Jazibe and her cousin Belen

Hola mi familia maravillosa!

This week twas a good one. We had intercambios with one of the sister training leaders (who is a missionary, but goes with all of the companionships one day to see how they are doing) and she helped us out with some things we could improve on and I loved it so much! We also had interviews with the President and he gave us some advice and I think it will really help us.

I found Hermana Harper! O-town shout out!

Our ward, Caucel, is the biggest ward in the whole mission! There are 6 missionaries in this ward. With all these members, we gotta put them to work! We made a lot of plans and coordinated with a lot of members on Sunday to come with us and to visit people and I am really pumped for this week.

The Lord is hastening His work!! In the scriptures it prophesies of this and it is says the gospel will be taken to all the world. When I read it, I know that this time is now!!!!

One thing that happened this week, on Saturday we were walking down the street when a car pulled to the side and a lady got out and said Sisters! I have a reference for you! I just visited my friend and I was hoping I would find you. She gave us the name of her friend and then gave us a ride to where we needed to go (we had to walk to the other side of our area). She was a member from another stake. On Sunday (last night), we went to go visit her friend, Jose Luis, and we found him and we had a super spiritual lesson and he accepted a baptismal date. I could feel the spirit so strong in that lesson, and I know that Heavenly Father puts people in the right place so that people who are prepared will hear the gospel! 

This week hermana Price and I went running a couple times in the Forbidden Forest by our house and we couldn't believe how sore we were the next day haha.

I love the scripture Matt 11:28-29 

Please read them. Jesus Christ will help us in everything in our life.

Have a wonderful week! I love you all and I definitely feel your prayers everyday :)

Hermana Fleischer

We wash our clothes early in the morning before our meetings with a bucket and a plunger, (definitely a different plunger than the bathroom plunger)

July 21, 2014

 Buenas tardes mi familia!

Some highlights of the week!

So in front of our house the tree branches were super low and the weeds were a little crazy so we had to crawl through the jungle to get to our door, but on Saturday the bishop and one of the boys in our ward came and cut it all back and pulled all the weeds!!! We were so happy and we felt so loved! Especially because we know the bishop is really busy and he took the time to serve us. Picture included of me infront of our house. It finally looks like a home!! Today we are going to deep clean our house because it really needs it... we wil see how that goes.

One of our investigators is really loving the book of mormon and church but we knew he smoked so we taught the word of wisdom and set goals to help him stop smoking. He has a lot of determination!! And faith. He aso drank coffee and tea but he completely stopped right away. He is a really intersting man, he is from cuba and had fought in a war in Africa in one point of his life. 

La Familia Reyes (from my ward) says hi to the Fleischer Family!

This week we had a lesson with someone and they gave us jugo de tamarindo to drink! I was really excited because I drank it all the time in Campeche but it was the first time I had it in Yucatan and it brought me back to my first area :)

We went to visit a future investigator whose house is a panaderia (bakery) and we visited them and they gave us tons of free delicious bread! We were so happy.

My 5 month mark this week and i feel good.

I love being a missionary! It is the best ever. I love it more and more everyday. I love the history back in New Testament times when Jesus was with a large group of people, teaching them. It was passover time and they were supposed to have a passover feast but there was only one lad with a few loaves of bread and a few fish. But he gave everything he had to Jesus and He miraculously broke it and fed the thousands of people. 

We may not feel adequate for what we are asked to accomplish, we may fear that we will fall short, but when we give all we have to our Heavenly Father and continue to serve Him with all of our heart, he will multiply our efforts and we will be able to bless others! 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Hermana Stacie Fleischer

July 14, 2014

Buenas Tardes Familia!

Hello again! I cant believe how fast time is passing, this week I will hit my 5 months mark! I am really blessed with my Spanish and I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for helping me out tons and tons with it! 

This week was a good ol week in the mission field. We worked a lot this week and found some awesome new investigators. The Lord works in mysterious ways sometimes. Some days we go and try to find references and we cant find anyone, or our appointments fall through and we are walking around a lot with little success, but 

then people are put in our path and it is always unexpected!

This week we were walking down the street without having found anyone when a Senorita ran out of her house and said Hey! We are selling freshly made cake! Come and buy some! So we went in and starting talking to her and her family and we sang a hymn and talked a little bit about the gospel but then it was cut short because her son ran in the house and said that he had his school festival so they hurried and packed up the cake and left. But then later that week we were walking down the street and she drove by and picked us up in her car and we went to her house and had another short lesson and the next day she came to church! 

On Sunday we left a couple hours early to go pick up people to take the bus to church together and we got 4 people to come! So that was kind of fun. Our church is about 20 minute bus ride from our area.

Remember when you read the scriptures and go to church, that just listening to the words and feeling the spirit for a small moment is not enough. We must work to put the things we learn into practice in our lives! It will take humility, diligence, and patience, but it is so worth it.

It is like if we have a cake recipe, we can read the recipe over and over and over again, we can memorize it, but we are never going to have the cake unless we put it into action. Sometimes we wonder why it isn't easy, and also why missionary work isn't easy, but Elder Holland said that salvation was never easy, when Jesus Christ suffered for all of us, of course it was not easy, so we should not expect it to be easy for us.

What is important is that we are not alone! We have to spirit to guide us and sanctify us everyday! I love the gospel and I know that it has been restored in these days! I love being a missionary, I am so happy to be here.

I love and miss you all! Have the most wondrous week! :)

Hermana Stacie Fleischer

July 7, 2014

Hola Familia!

Este semana fue muy buena.

We are working hard and improving as a companionship and having lots of fun too. Some fun things that happened this week. Yesterday al of our zone went to go work in an area and we visited some less active members. We went with a couple members of that ward and they took me and Hermana Price in their red 1970s Volkswagen bug and it was too funny because it was just such an old little car and the members were so nice to us. 

 

Also this week we had a big rainstorm! Those are always kind of fun, as long as we have our plastic to keep us dry! Which we did. :)

 

We found someone playing the drums outside and I was really excited so we went up to him and I said I played drums and he invited me to play a little bit and it was too fun. We made an appointment to teach him a lesson, and he told us his name was Alex. We went back to his house the day we had scheduled the appointment for and we asked for Alex and a man named Alex came out but it was definitely not the same person and we were super confused... haha but he said it would be ok if we taught him a lesson.

 

Hermana Price and I celebrated 4th of July by buying an ice cream cone that night.

 

The people here really are so nice! Lots of people give us food, and one day a perfect stranger saw us on the sidewalk and invited us to come eat with them and gave us a papaya.

 

At the beginning of my mission, I could hardly understand Spanish and I couldnt really speak that much either. I thought to myself, why would Heavenly Father send me here, if I could teach much more effective in my own language and be able to help more people?

I also asked myself, how can I train someone who doesnt speak Spanish, when I myself am still learning Spanish and learning my area and learning how to be a good missionary.

But I have realized that I am here for a reason! And I have learned so much about patience, humility, and putting my trust in Heavenly Father to give me all the fortaleza that I need to fulfill my purpose, to speak the language, and be a good missionary!! I love Heavenly Father so much. I hope that each and everyone of you can pray to Him this week to receive the strength you need.

 

Love you tons!

Hermana Stacie Fleischer

Dragon fruit

June 30, 2014

Buenas tardes familia!

This week was kind of a crazy one! My new companion is Hermana Price! She is from Syracuse, Utah! She is really awesome! I was surprised to get a companion that didnt know Spanish, and also to train in an area that I dont know very well, but I have seen how Heavenly Father has helped me so much with everything this week! I am so greatful and I feel more than ever like a tool in the Lords hands. 

Being a trainer is fun, we have an hour everyday that we study some things together and we do practices and do things out of our little training book. I know I need to be a good example in everything because this is where she will learn a lot of things for the rest of the mission. I am so grateful for Hna Martinez and for her example, I know she helped me be obedient and diligent. Also the first few weeks of the mission are kind of hard to adjust to everything and start learning Spanish, so I hope my companion feels comfortable here and that I can love her and serve her so that she will love the mission!

An experience of the week, we were going to contact a reference and we went to go find the direction and we were on the right street but the house number we had was nowhere near that area, so we had no idea which house to go to. There was a boy outside painting a fence so I thought I should ask him if he knew where this person lived, but then I was like no, that's too random, but then we did ask him, and it turns out the reference lived in that house! We had a great lesson, and we will see what happens next. I know the spirit was guiding us to that person and that we should always follow the promptings we receive!

Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Hermana Fleischer

June 23, 2014

Buenas Dias familia!!

Yesterday was cambios, and I am going to be a trainer! I am super pumped but a little nervous too, I hardly know my area because I just got here! But I know that I can do anything with trust in my Heavenly Father! I will miss Hermana Delgado a lot! She was really great and we had tons of fun together. I will receive my new companion tomorrow, today we have a little bit of training and then I will stay the night with another trainer. Last night one of the members stopped by our house and gave us cake because they love Hermana Delgado.

 

This week we had planned a baptism for the little sister of Stiff, who was baptized a couple weeks ago, but the night of her baptism we were waiting and waiting and she never came! We called and her mom had to work really late and nobody could bring her. We planned for the next morning at 10 am and they said they would come, we called them at 8:30 ish am and they said they would come, but about 10:30 we were waiting in the church and they didnt come!! We called them to see what happened and her mom had to go to the airport to pick up her boss or something. Ah! It was such a bummer. We are planning for the next week and we hope that everything will go ok. Shannyk (hermanita de stiff) is 11 years old and really smart and has such a pure spirit. We are teaching their parents too, but only once in while because they always work.

 

This week we came upon a portable Burger King... picture included.

 

Also this week we forgot the keys one day! We came back to our house and we said uh oh! Luckily! the screen door to our window was broken so we were able to reach through the window bars and take town the curtain rail to use to reach the keys on the hook on the wall. Haha it was very intersting but we were able to get our keys through the window and open our door!

 

Missionaries in our ward- the boundary is huge!

I am getting more brave and killing cockroaches with our squeegie. But still so gross. blech.

 

One thing I learned this week is that the gospel can help us in so many ways. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is infinite, meaning that it can heal anything. To put it the Atonement in our lives can be hard, it can be very humbling, but as we turn our hearts to our Savior and try to follow His example, He will strengthen us. Through prayer, we can communicate with our Heavenly Father and feel His love!! Heavenly Father loves us so much. I know it, because He has given us so many things to help us. He lets us pass through trials, because He knows that in each obstacle, we will learn more, and grow to become more like Him. We pass through things that require a lot of patience, that humble us, that cause us to rely on others and on our Heavenly Father. We may pass through things that help us realize what is most important in life. But we dont pass through these things alone!. We have our family, prayer, the Holy Ghost, the scriptures, prophets, so many things! How wonderful to know that we are never alone!

 

Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Please send me pictures! And any spiritual experience or insight you have had this week.

Pray for me to be a good trainer and to help my new companion.

Hermana Stacie Fleischer

June 16, 2014

Hello Family! 

I feel like I just barely emailed yesterday. This week passed by so fast. I like this area and the members are really good to us. It is super hot! But one day we were in a lesson and it started pouring rain!! So hard. Luckily, the person we were with had 2 huge clear bags and cut a little hole for our faces so we could go out in the rain. It kept us pretty dry except for our feet.

One of our investigators has a drum set!!! I played a little bit one day and it made me so happy. In my last area I heard someone playing the drums one time and the next few nights I dreamed about playing the drums haha. So it was about time.

This week we had a super powerful lesson with a boy in our ward whose family is inactive and he has been inactive, he said the bishop and counselor came to his house to talk to him about going on a mission. He told us he wasnt sure and he has fear that he cant teach people about the gospel when he has made so many mistakes. This is the wonderful thing about the gospel, that it doesnt matter how many mistakes we make, because through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can change and be cleansed of our sins. Everyday we can turn our hearts to our Father and follow the example of Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father doesnt look at what we`ve done, but who we`ve become. During the lesson there was a moment where the spirit was really strong and all 3 of us had tears in our eyes and we asked him what he thought, and he thanked us and said he had made the decision to go on a mission. It was a special experience and I am looking very forward to seeing him as an elder one day.

This week we had Stake Conference and it was so powerful. I am getting to the point where I can understand most things in Spanish. We had a Seventy come (I don´t know what quorum or what his name was, I think an area seventy) and also our mission president spoke and the president of the Merida Temple spoke. Fun fact, our mission president and temple president are brothers!

My desk

 Well thats all for this week!

I love you all! Have a wonderful day!

Pics include my district

our street

our house

Con mucho amor!

Hermana Stacie Fleischer