miracles

Wow it has been an amazing week here in Rivadavia!!!!!!!!!!!

So on tuesday we went to meet with the Correa family that we met on saturday and went to church last sunday. We taught them the Gospel of Christ and invited them to be baptized. All that were present in the lesson accepted (Mom, german, valentina, jeremias). They already had attendances from when they were listening to the elders before and so we invited them to be baptized on saturday. German (12) said yes before anybody and then the mom, mariela, said that before she didn´t feel like it was the time but that now she needs more guidance and to be closer to God and that she will be baptized as well. And the twins, Valentina and Jeremias committed as well. That evening we spent letting all of the members know and getting ready for the baptism. On wednesday we had set a lesson with them but then they cancelled. On Thursday we taught them the plan of salvation and like half of the commandments. They all have gone to lots of catholic sunday school so they understand things pretty well. Then on friday they cancelled again! And so we were freaking out! but we went by saturday morning and the dad was there with german and jeremias. He was totally supportive of them being baptized and sat in the lesson on the plan of salvation. They were really excited for their baptism that afternoon. So we went to lunch with the stake president, helped them wash their cars and then went to a lesson with reference from the sisters who we contacted and then came to church on sunday, and then we went back to correa to go together with them to the chapel to have their interviews and then the baptism. They were all their ready with clothes and all. The oldest brother Enso is 15 and we met him that day and mariela wanted him to get baptized and he was on the fence but we hadn´t taught him yet, so he decided to come to the baptism to see and would plan on getting baptized next saturday. 

So we went to the church and they all had their interviews from a district leader here. And then everybody started to arrive! Marielas mom, sister, neice and nephew came. The sisters had a baptism as well of a 9 yr old kid, lots of his family came and several investigators. It was a really really good baptism! Elder Garcia baptized the mom, I baptized valentina, a recent convert of elder blackman baptized jeremias and a korean man in our ward baptized german. The messages were great as well. On sunday they came and were confirmed. All of the kids loved church and have made some great friends. Enso asked us for his own book of mormon and one of the talks was about the temple and he talked about the trip to chile in october and so all of the kids were telling mariela that they want to go! She said we´ll see. We´ll be teaching them more about the temple and watching between heaven and earth this week. After mariela was confirmed, she was giving everybody kisses and I put my hand out for the handshake but she went in for the customary little kiss and i didn´t want to embarrass her so it happened. I kissed a woman in front of the whole congregation. Then after the confirmations, bishop had them all stand up as a family and said that they are now part of our family and invited everybody to get to know them, visit them and have family nights with them. It was AWESOME! 

So it´s been an absolutely amazing week. And what was amazing was that it wasn´t even anything we did, it was just a reference of old investigators that weren´t ready 2 years ago but now they have been really prepared. It was a miracle. Mariela gave a really sweet prayer in gospel principles. Probably the best prayer i´ve ever heard.

I love the mission!!!

Love,

Elder Fullmer

A good week in Rivadavia

Hello all and happy friend day(yesterday) in Argentina, 

Things are going pretty well here in Rivadavia. My favorite cookies ´toddy´ were on sale for 15 pesos at walmart!!! But more importantly, the work is going well. We found a really cool family on saturday night that came to church on sunday! 

We´ve been able to teach franco a few more times this week and have been helping him to understand things better so that he´s have his own desires to get baptized cause his mom won´t sign the record until he really wants to. We met her and had a good chat with her this past week. 

On thursday I went to Mendoza for errands about the visa. Elder Magdaluyo was there too as well as elder Connolly. It was way fun seeing them both again. It´s been a long time since i´ve seen elder Magdaluyo. And in the offices i got bad and good news. bad- Elder Pereira went home. I have no idea why but i´m going to try to contact him. good- Elder Pyne is coming back out!!! 

So the whole week was pretty good, we had taught more lessons than usual and then we had a little extra time on saturday night and we decided that instead of visiting investigadors that are struggling to progress and not keeping committments, we would go contact a family that the sisters had told us about. So we went and they invited us right in. They were wayyy cool!!!!!! Super prepared. They had heard the missionaries before a few years ago and even come to church. The mom´s sister is a member in another province and has told her a lot about the church. After we taught them the restoration, she said that one thing she loves about the church is that we have the fullness of the gospel. that we know the plan that God has for us because that´s something her church doesn´t have. SWEET. and then he´s a little bit more tough but way cool and loves talking and listening. So she came to church with three of her kids. I sat by one of the kids at church and he knew some deacons that sat by him and invited him to mutual. SWEET! And the mom loved it and knew a few people. They all fit in so well!!!!!!!!!!!! So they are easily first priority for us now. And amazingly prepared family!!! the family Correa. 

This morning we went to hike a mountain with a brother in our ward. It was tough but way good to get out in nature. Before leaving we passed by a radio station to give a guy in our ward something. He was on air and when we entered he asked us to sit down and we got to talk a little bit with him on air about where we´re from how we like argentina and our message for just a quick 3 minutes or so. It was way cool!!!

I know this is the work of the Lord that he guides and directs it and is constantly seeking to help us. 

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

back to albardon!

It´s been a decent week here in Rivadavia. We have found a couple of families, one that pretty much already dropped us and one that seems a lot more interested and sincere.

On Saturday morning there was a youth activity for both of the stakes of san juan in albardon. We got to go for like a missionary blitz hour where we all went out and handed out pamphlets to people in the plaza and invited them to hear the youth choir sing a little later on. I saw Natali from the alganaraz family as well as Valentin from the Munoz family!!!!!!! He´s doing really well! he told me he´s going to church and passing the sacrament. I´ve heard Luci and her dad aren´t doing quite as well, but i´ll be back there to do exchanges one of these days. 

On saturday night we went to teach a lady, patricia that we had met last week and she invited us in. Her husband was nice but wouldn´t come listen when she invited him, but her daughter Florencia listened as well. 

yesterday Argentina played against germany in the world cup final and lost. We had to be in the pension before it even started, it could be a little dangerous especially since i look german haha. 

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

pictures

Gonzalo Ochoa

goodbye Elder Periera

Saying goodbye to President and Sister Avila

Message from Sister Avila

The Avilas are done

Hola Pte. y Hna Goates!!!

Ups and downs ups and downs! 

It´s over all been a good week here in Rivadavia, definitely some struggles, but we´re figuring things out. So on monday night the assistents told us we would be cancelling the zone meeting on tuesday and have the zone meeting this week instead, with the information from the counsel with pte Goates. So Tuesday evening we left for mendoza. It was fun seeing all of the other zone leaders even though we saw them all just a week before haha. In the morning we were ate facturas (Argentine wannabe donuts haha) and drank some juice while waiting until presidente and hermana Goates walked in. He´s pretty tall!!!!!! They are both so nice and happy to be here. We could tell that they already love us so much! They both speak spanish really well, with lots of accent but great grammer. She spoke about the atonement and everything Christ went through and suffered during his life and at the end of his life. She counseled us to mark and study the character of Christ in the scriptures. President Goates talked a lot about unity. and read lots of scriptures from D&C. One scripture i loved talked about how a group of early church leaders united their hearts and then were able to recieve a revelation which is related in the rest of the section. He talked about how the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one in purpose and how Christ mentions that over and over again, which shows how important that is to Him the relationship that he has. All that he said about unity was very applicable to Elder Garcia and I. We´re were like floating on different boats generally headed in the same dirrection but not really on the same page. But we´ve been able to talk and work a lot better since then. Pte also talked about the quality of baptisms. We are going to be teaching lesson 5 before baptism now and then working a lot more closely with investigators to fulfill the baptismal requirements in d&c 20:37. And then after baptism we will be working a lot more with them to keep them active with their eyes on the Temple. He told us that the Apostles had promised that by focusing on getting conversions and not just baptisms the number of baptisms would increase. The recent converts will be sharing the gospel, members will be more animated and willing to help with the work. He also told us that the act of baptism isn´t what cleans us of our sins. But rather that keeping that covenant. And so if we are really desiring the salvation of these people, we should be looking for more than just the number. It was a really good meeting! They didn´t talk much about themselves because they are going around to all of the zones to do that and wil. be coming here tomorrow.

The work has honestly been pretty hard. Appointments have been dropping left and right like flies, but with the new unity that we have we are staying positive and hoping for things to get better. We stopped to buy some asado on the street and one of the guys that worked at the meat place spoke really really good english. He was really interested in talking to us and got our number and we got his and we may go to his english class at college in a few weeks to talk to everybody about what we do. and should be going to teach him on wednesday. Really cool guy! Also, an active family brought a nonmember youngman friend to church on sunday that we´ll start teaching this week! So we´re excited about that!

Have a great week!!!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

Adios Presidente y Hermana Avila

Shoutout to Mom and Dad, Happy 23rd anniversary!!!! You´re the best and i love you both so much!

Shoutout to Peter, who leaves for his mission to st louis this week!!!

Shoutout to America! Happy 4th of July everybody!!!!!

Well it´s been a week of some ups and downs.

Monday pday was awesome! It was way fun to get together with everybody and play soccer and basketball and then do some activities. and then there was also like a president avila joke telling time. hilarious!!! I love the Avilas. 

Tuesday we had mission counsel and it was great. Pte Avila analized tons of verses from Jacob 5 and got choked up as he talked about how it´s his last time training missionaries... WOW.  and Presidente Goates got here on saturday and wants to meet with all of the leaders on wednesday so we´re going back to mendozatomorrow night haha. 

We´ve been teaching some really cool families but had a lot of last minute rejections and nobody came to church......... 

I loved a talk yesterday from a high counseler who mentioned how when Christ went to raise lazarus from the dead, mary and marta had to move the stone and then Christ did what they couldn´t by resurrecting lazarus. really cool. never seen that before. And last night we had a church tour with the reference of marina and daniel that we got a couple weeks ago. 

I love you all! Keep the faith!

Elder Fullmer

pday but not pday

So i´m writing today because on monday we´ll be in the offices for pday and so they gave us permission for today. 

It´s been good but realllly busy week here in Rivadavia. 

highlights

Tuesday at lunch, the family we ate with told us they have a reference for us, or a lady they know that had cancer, is going through chemotherapy and its really tough and she accepted that we could come to give her a blessing. So we went that evening with the brother and his sister in law that knows the lady, Marina very well. It was really cool to teach her a little about the priesthood and faith and then give her a blessing. Her and her husband were suuuuper nice. And they told us to come back whenever we want. 

Then on thursday we went back and taught lesson 1 which went really well. They liked it, had a few questions about the Book of Mormon and accepted to read and pray and may possibly come to church tomorrow. 

On wednesday there were transfers, and we stayed the same but went to the terminal to make sure everything went smoothly with those leaving and those arriving. It´s way fun to welcome new missionaries to the zone. Wednesday evening we went back to the terminal to recieve a the 3 elders that are training and their new comps!!!!!!! We got to meet them all and then we took elder Wengert (he came down with me and has a transfer less than me), and his companion elder Willard to their pench in Benavidez cause they will be washing the area aka they´re both new to the zone. 

We´ve called and passed by rodrigo several times this week but haven´t gotten in contact with him. I feel like somethings probably wrong cause he´s usually pretty easy to get ahold of. 

We taught Roberto this morning. He listens to us and all and commits to doing things but really hasn´t kept the commitments. So we talked to him about seeking first the kingdom of God and he committed to coming to church tomorrow so we´ll pass by to go with him. 

Other than that, we´ve been really busy planning a ward activity for this afternoon where we´re all getting together to go visit people that aren´t coming to church. We´re hoping it will be a big success! 

Also, another great news.... we were told this week that Miriam and Jorge gutierrez from san miguel got married on wednesday like we had planned out with them my last week there and will be getting baptized today!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooooo!!!!!!!!

I love you all!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Fullmer

Transfers....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! all stays the same for us!

Well it´s been a fairly good week here in Rivadavia. 

On monday we made (thanks to the elders from mexico in the zone) the best tacos i´ve ever eaten. Suuuuper good. wow. I get hungry just typing about them. 

Then on Tuesday, we had district meeting in the morning and a training meeting with president that afternoon in the stake center of the other zone here in sanjuan. It was the last time he´ll see most of the missionaries here and it was absolutely amazing! He talked about how we often as missionaries think "I should be like this" or "I´m failing because i´m not like that", and how even though God has comanded us to be perfect he knows we aren´t going to be right away and how that thought of "i should" would be better as "i would like to", because the Lord grants us according to our desires. He did a question answer moment, and someone asked "after leaving an area or finishing the mission, how can i know i´ve i really did my best and gave it my all?" and President said that the better question to ask is whether the Lord is pleased with our work, and to know that we can count all of the blessings that we recieved in that time of our service. He said that with every calling he´s every had, he´s been able to look back and say "i could have done that better" or rather there hasn´t been one calling he´s had that he´s done perfectly. He talked about how we are eternal beings intelligences then spirits and now mortal bodies and later immortal bodies. He talked about so many other amazing things but one scripture that he shared was from Romans and talks about how our faith grows as we hear the word of God or that our faith grows with our knowledge. Although it´s quite possible to have tons of knowledge but no faith. But wow, I can really feel my faith growing everytime i hear President Avila speak! It was amazing. Then, Hermana Avila spoke as well about our eternal potencial, and had us each go look in the mirror in the bathroom and then return without talking. Then she showed us the ugly duckling mormon message from President Uchtdor which was amazing. 

So this week has been really good. One highlight was doing exchanges here with a brand new elder, elder carroll who´s working really hard on his spanish. We talked with tons of people and he liked that a lot, he was surprised when people said we could come by at another time. We taught Roberto and his daughter on saturday morning the plan of salv. At the end, we invited her to say the prayer and she didn´t want to but we promised her she would feel good inside if she did. She prayed and then afterwards she told us she really did feel good. 

Nobody came to church which was hard. We were fairly sure Rodrigo was going to come but when we went by and clapped, nobody came out. And nobody picked up the phone... 

So last night we got transfer calls. Elder Connolly is leaving the zone, and his comp, elder Barton will be the new secretary. So they´ll be washing that area as well. There will be 3 more elders training in the zone which I like a lot. 

I love this work and I´m grateful for the Spirit that I strive to have each day and for His grace which is suficient. 

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

I love you all!!!

Week 3, Rivadavia

This week was a lot better here in Rivadavia! On monday we went to Zonda, a mountain hike place here in the zone and it was way fun. Way relaxing to be out in the wilderness. 

Then on tuesday, we had the zone meeting that went really well!!! We relayed well what President and the assistants had taught us in mission counsel. And we gave them all the titles or banners which are actually front and back stickers for the agenda with 3 Ne. 5:13 and our zone goal of 3 and CHIMBAS, SOMOS UNO. (we are one)

And then Elder Briceno came with me back to the area for exchanges. We found some way cool people to teach. Other highlight was that we taught Rodrigo for the first time. He´s a guy that just has one arm, but he knows a few members and ended up coming to church with us yesterday! WoooohoooO! Another highlight of the week was that on a different exchange where i was in necochea where we used to do exchanges with elder pine when i was in albardon, so i went there with elder fernandez and we taught a really powerful lesson to a partmember family. and the Dad ended up coming to church the next day for the second time ever!!! Woooooo!!!!

I love you all, but we´re going to go make tacos now!!!

Chau!

Elder Fullmer

Week 2, Rivadavia

It´s been a fairly good week out here on the mission. On monday night, we left on a bus to go to mendoza for a mission lidership counsel. We got there around 9:30 to the office pension and a bunch of us slept up in the birds nest aka 3rd floor guest room. It was cool to see some elderes i know really well like elder Gomez from lujan. Then tuesday morning we all walked over to the offices, ate some deliscious churros and hot chocolate and then sat down to be spiritually fed by President and Hermana Avila and the Assistents. President talked about being one, with unity as zones. He talked about standards or titles, like the title of liberty and then invited us all to make standards for our zones. Ours are wayyyy cool! And then he talked about teamwork, and showed a few videos of soccer players that were able to make amazing goals all by themselves but how that almost never happens and then he showed another couple of videos of team work pulling through. It was way cool. We were able to analize and discuss the videos and how we can work more as teams in our zones. The AP´s talked a lot about opening the mouth and talking to people. They made a funny cool and inspiring video of them opening the mouth, getting rejected sometimes and then at the end there was a video of two elders who set the goal to always talk to 10 people each day and they were there sitting with a recent convert that they had talked to in the street. It was way cool! Then Hna Avila talked about being true disciples of Christ and really understanding where we came from, that we are children of God, and what our potencial is. Fantastic. It was a great meeting over all! The last week of this month we´ll be having a P-day with all of the zl´s and sister training leaders and then counsel the next day. 

On Friday I did intercambios with Elder Connolly! It was way fun! He was my district leader in the mtc and is again now! It was good to catch up a little bit. We were going by lots of investigators, with a young man that´s about to leave on his mission, that weren´t home and then saw a lady sitting in her window and felt like we should go talk to her so we did and she let us in and we taught her the restoration. It was really good!

So besides that we´ve been planning a ton for the zone meeting and hardly had any time to really work in our own area which has been hard.... but this week should better after the zone meeting tomorrow morning. 

So things going pretty well here. Hope you all are well!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

Washing

Well it´s been a great week here on the mission!

On tuesday, Elder Gibbons called me from the airport and told me goodbye (he´s home now) and that I will be washing an area in chimbas with elder Garcia. The area is Rivadavia and it´s where Elder Blackman started actually! Elder Garcia did exchanges here a few times last transfer so he knows a few members and a little of the area. 

So wednesday, the terminal, and i got to see elder lafleur again, and elder magdaluyo and a few other elders that i know well. and then off to chimbas!!!

On Wednesday night we went to go see the bishop and he´s great! They´ve got lots of plans going on missionary work and retention and reactivating! It´s a great ward! 

We´re also working with a less active family, the de los Rios family. They are way cool and saturday we were able to go with the brother to teach his mother in law and brother in law as well! They were committed to coming to church but then didn´t show up.... On Saturday we went to meet the poblete family of members. The mom doesn´t have arms! But she prepared malta for us, searched through my scriptures, handed stuff to us. she does it all! Wow it was way cool to meet her! And then on sunday, we didn´t have lunch and so they invited us over! Church was really good! The members here are awesome and love the missionaries. The youth program is really strong here. I believe there are 6 missionaries out! We also got to meet on sunday night with the ward mission leader and 3 of 4 ward missionaries! Way cool! I´ve never been in a ward with ward missionaries down here till now! 

Well i´m loving it here in Chimbas. We´ve also got walmart like right next to the pension. literally 3 minute walk. The investigators are starting to come. I´m learning a lot from Elder Garcia. He works a lot different. A lot more relaxed but thinks things out really well and is a great people person!

I love being the mission and i love you all, 

Elder Fullmer

Transfers, goodbye Mendoza, hello again Chimbas!!!

Well it´s been a good week here in San Miguel. 

On Tuesday we had a zone conference so in the offices with President, and Hermana Avila and the assistants. President started out by talking about the new President Goates who will be coming in like at the end of June. He told us that there will be changes for sure, and that we need to take those changes with faith and without hesitation. I will really really miss President Avila, i´ve loved serving with him as my leader, I´m also excited for President Goates to arrive and bring things even more forward. President asked us what our purpose is as missionaries and we told him, and then he an elder what his second purpose is and after a few seconds came to the conclusion that there is no second purpose. We are called to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the Restored Gospel. Then he talked about an effective study and really preparing well for our investigators and after planning a lesson, asking "what does it lack?" and when we do that it gives room for the Spirit to tell us what else we need to teach or add. He compared it to a salad and how we can serve them a salad of plain lettuce but to make it a little better we could add some ranch, and a little better add some croutons and a little better add some bacon bits!!!!!! haha. yum.and so then he talked to us about following the spirit and really meditating things and finding out what God wants, and about having a goal to always follow those impressions that we feel. I loved it. One thing I notice with Pte Avila is that as he teaches ever few minutes he takes about five to ten seconds at least to just look at us or think and recieve guidance. It was an amazing conference. To end it there was a testimony meeting, Elder Blackman who was in the offices shared his testimony  and told us we need to use well our time on the mission because we never know what can happen. On monday, president had told him that he´ll have to go home to get the surgery he needs for his knees and then on Thursday he left. I also loved the testimonies  of Hna y Presidente Avila. I´d never seen them that emotional before. 

That night we went to the Palma family house to see how things were going. They shared with us that they are really enjoying going to church and he said for the first time in at least a year or so he really felt the spirit, which was in sunday school. There kids are also really enjoying it. They´re working on being more and more reverent. Then on thursday to friday we did an exchange and I went with elder Wyckoff who you guys met last week. It was really good. We went to meet with an investigator at his fruitstand and his friend was there too. He had been taught the plan of salvation with the little wooden pieces the day before and was able to explain to his friend each part after putting them in order. way cool. Elder Pereira and elder Chamorro were able to talk to the Gutierrez family and set up to take out their marriage liscence which we did this morning!!!!! So they will be able to get married the week of their 28th ´together´ anniversary, and then baptized that weekend. marriage the 18th and baptismal fecha the 21st of June. 

There were a few difficult days this week, but saturday was a great one! We started out by going to meet the cousin of a recently returned missionary in our ward, the cousin is way cool and way funny. His wife is actually a member but less active. They lived in the states for 13 years and got back less than two years ago so he speaks way good english. He´s gone to the church a few times and we set up to do a family night with them sometime this week but his work is way random so we´ll have to plan the night the night before. Then we went to lunch with pablo and dayana, but he wasn´t there so she made empanadas for us to take back to the pench, which were wayyyy good. As we were waiting for the bus, Pablo drove up in his car as he was driving from job to job and he took us back to the pench. I love that family. 

Then we went and taught Gonzalo the law of chastity. Having only gone to church for a short while like 6 years ago he didn´t really remember it and as we taught it we could see on his face that there would have to be a few changes in his life. We told him that he could pray to God to get the confirmation that these things truly do come from Him and it´s His will. He asked us how he would know and we told him how the spirit often feels. He said the closing prayer and then after words he looked at us and said he felt the good feeling. It may be hard but I have faith that he will do it. 

Then we went to see a brother who spoke last week in church and brought his nonmember ´friend´ that´s a girl. He had 5 minutes before having to go to work but she was there too and so we got to know them a little bit better and then shared a scripture. We´ll be back soon to share a lesson and set a return visit. Then we went to meet a brother, brother Pages, in the ward and his elderly mother in law who is also a member. We got to know them better and shared a message. (little did we know that the next day he was going to become bishop).

Then we went to look for a member who´s record we found in the directory and we taught lesson 1 to him and then he asked if we could give a blessing to his mom who´s having withdrawels because she´s stopped smoking. She was really catholic but wanted the blessing so we taught about the priesthood and then gave the blessing after which she did the little catholic hand signal. Carlos the son told us he would for sure be at church the next day and would try to take his mom as well. But on sunday they didn´t make it neither did gutierrez nor mateo nor gonzalo...... the stake president, a counselor, and like half of the high councel was there so the whole ward kind of figured that the amazing bishop of 7 years would probably not be bishop very much longer. And brother Pages was called to be the new bishop. The leaving bishop and the new bishop both shared their testimonies followed by their wives. Then the stake president spoke and first off said that the counselors in the bishopric were released but everybody else was not, and they were not supposed to just stop doing their callings until they were told what to do. 

On sunday night at like 11 we got the transfer call. Elder Wyckoff is staying and going to be senior comp with an elder from elder lafleurs group, Elder Child. Elder Chamorro is going to the offices to be the new pensionista, make sure all of the missionaries have everything they need including a place to live. He´ll do great! Then Elder Pereira is staying here which he´s completely ready for and Elder Peters is coming to be his new comp and the district leader here. And i´m going to be zone leading in the zone i started out in! Chimbas! Elder Blackman´s comp before i got here is up there and will be my companion. His name is elder garcia and he´s from Mexico and is the youngest zone leader with like 11 months or so. So that will be exciting. I definitely did want to stay another transfer here (this one is just 4 weeks) but I´m sure Chimbas will be great, and i´m excited. I know that I know a few elders in that zone and then there will be more to get to know. I´m excited to be back in Chimbas, since i left i was hoping to go back. The area Retiro is like the best ward in the mission and they baptize a lot, the people are humble and more receptive. And i already know a few members from that ward from exchanges i did with my first zone leaders here in Argentina.   

I love you all so much!!!!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer