Fletcher's First Car Accident

Hello,

This past week has just rushed by. I guess we've been busy, but most days are much of the same so I don't know if it's cause we are always just all over the place or cause I forget a lot of the monotony. The missionary work is going pretty good, we have two investigators with baptismal dates and then a few other people who we're working with.

The area I live near is called Niles, it's part of Fremont and the downtown part of it is pretty cool. Apparantly it was made notable by Charlie Chaplin. He chose Niles as a the spot to film a few of his films. I heard all this from some old-timers on the street we stopped and talked to. But they said that he filmed some cowboy type film in the hills that surround Fremont and stayed at an inn or cafe or some store in town while on site. So there are lots of paintings and signs depicting Charlie Chaplin in town. My first week here they had a "Hot August Niles" car show. My companion and I walked through it and checked out the sweet rides, and talked to a few people, one car contestant even gave us a doughnut. Then just yesterday they had an Antique Fair in the street, vendors all over the place the road blocked off. And at the same time, the community organizes it so that everyone has garage sales on the same weekend. So about every other house has items out to sell and there are people walking all over the place, so many people it's crazy.

I am getting to know certain families in my ward better and they are awesome people. Our mission President recently gave us a new thing to do after dinner appointments instead of just sharing a spiritual thought. Now we give the family an index card and challenge them to ask a stranger if they like to read and if so they tell them that they can get them book all about Jesus for free if they just write down their name and address. Sort of sounds like a bad scam but it's an attempt to get the members on board with the work so it kind of is a scam.

Today my companion and two other companionships got up early and hiked a place called Mission Peak. It was cold and windy at the top but fun. We attempted to make our own path back down the mountain but it resulted in a number of sticky situations and a couple of Elders getting stung by a bunch of bees. So after that we stuck to the prescribed path.

At Zone conference on Friday my companion put a lot of effort into sucking up to our vehicle coordinator in order to trade up our corolla for a malibu. He succeeded eventually mentioning that he's never been in an accident. Ten minutes after hopping into the malibu we traded the sister missionaries our corolla for we got rear ended when stalled in traffic. It was crazy. That was the first accident I've ever been in. No one was injured but the impact crunched up one of the back corner panels so the frame is out of whack, we drove it until today when we traded it in for a worse corolla than the one we had. Sad times.

Well that is my news from Fremont. Write you all in another week.

From, Elder Miller

First Email from California

I'm in a little house in Fremont, it's the northernmost area in my mission and boarders the Oakland mission. The house we have is owned by a member who rents it to the mission for a dollar a year I think so really for free. We just have to tend to the yard and thing like that. There are two orange trees in the front and an avacado and lemon trees in the back. We have to gather a coulple bags full to take to the owner once a week I think. And then we just give out avacados to everyone in the ward. My first week was a little confusing. My companion is Elder Bludworth from Albaquerque(still don't know how to spell it) New Mexico. He's a cool guy and really relaxed. I think I really lucked out to have such a patient trainer. According to him he was a terrible missionary to train. He didn't really want to serve a mission but is now over it and seems to be training me okay.

My first day here we got off the plane met the mission President and then went to the mission office to eat some snacks and watch some instructional videos and meet the senior couples who work in the office. Then my companion drove me around in our Carolla to meet some of the ward members. Then we ended up at a members house for dinner and it was a good night.

The house I stay in apparantly was not very well taken care of by the previous missionaries so my companion, the first six weeks he has been here has spent the whole time cleaning it up cause his second day here he got chewed out by the lady who owns it while his companion the one responsible hid in the avacado tree.

I'm really excited cause we seem to already have a crazy. I don't want to sound incensitive and perhaps my family should edit this out but I've grown up hearing mission stories of the interesting people that you meet on your mission. There is one lady that we met with at the Bishops request because she just started showing up to church one day and seemed like she was a member but they requested her records from church headquarters and they don't have any record of her being baptized. So we met with her and brought this up and her story is that she works for the government and because she's involved in some pretty hefty government work the government has to keep any records affiliating her with anyone under wraps. It is all pretty ridiculous. She isn't as crazy as some of the stories you hear but I figure if I've gotten this my second day then I'm in store for some good ones throughout my mission.

Anyway things are going good. We haven't really tracted too much. My companion hates it for one but really I think the mission President expects more member visits than is normal because the duty of my companion and I is to sort of clean up the area from some damage that previous elders left behind. Five missionaries were sent home the week before I came out so we're trying to regain trust a bit and establish a presence.

I'm having fun though. The members feed us every night and everyone I've met thusfar is really interesting and cool. A bunch of young couples in the ward keep having us over and they are really fun to talk with. At dinner last night we got on the topic of mission animal stories. The Brother last night said that his Dad went to London and a lady let them in to her house and was preparing them hot chocolate in the kitchen and the ladys cat started really attacking his companions leg so his companion flicked it in the nose and the cat dropped dead. So they stuffed it under the couch, drank their hot chocolate and left as quickly as possible. That is horrible I know but I find it funny.

Then the same Brothers brother served in New Jersey and they were driving and a cat darted in front of the car and they hit it and just drove on nothing they could do. But the guy in the passengers seat felt guilty cause the cat hadn't died and was just suffering there so they circled around the block until they came to a cat in the rode and so they drove over it, reversed back over it and then once again drove over it. They then drove off as a lady started yelling and chasing after them. They kept going wondering what she was so mad about when they had gone a couple blocks and found a cat half alive in the middle of the street. The first cat they had run over, the other one had just been sleeping in the street. Heh heh.

Anyway things are great here in Fremont. The zone leaders had talked my comapanion and I into waking up a 5am this morning on our Preparation day to go hiking up some hill but then they called at 4:55 as we were ready to leave to tell us that one of them were sick. They normally wake up at that time to work out so I'm thinking they were just pulling a prank on us, making us get up early just to mess with us.

My mission president gives us more time to e-mail so I can respond to more than I thought I'd be able to. I had to get a library card but hopefully it will be usable throughout all my areas. That's all I got to say.

Love, Elder Miller

Hey Family, just a note to let you know that Fletcher made it safely to California on Tues. We talked to him Tues. morning as he was waiting to board the plane and he sounded really good. We also received a call Wednesday night from his Mission President (Michael Jackson) who said that Fletcher had arrived safely, thanked us for preparing such a fine young man to serve in the California district and assured us that he would take good care of him for us. Fletcher will be serving in the Centerville Ward and his companion is Elder Bloodworth. I'm sure we will receive more info. from Fletcher later. His new "P" day will be on Mondays. Thanks so much for all your letters, emails and prayers on his behalf, We sure miss him here at home, but we know he's where he is supposed to be at this time..

Love to all, Susan/Mom xoxox

A Couple of MTC Pics

The Elders in Fletcher's district:


Fletcher and his companion, Elder Fultz:


San Jose!


Classic "Matrix" picture that every Elder has taken since the movie was released in 1999:


Fletcher leaves for California tomorrow! We'll update his address once he lets us know what it is!

Letters to Fletcher

I recently sent Fletch a postcard from Disneyland. I'm hoping he likes it considering he himself will soon be the sunny state of California.

I'm sorta just bragging here...but if you send Fletch a letter from a cool place you should let us know about it!