WOW

Wow, these weeks are passings by soooo fast!

2 years. I can´t believe i´m almost an RM. 

Awesome week- we saw lots of fruits of our work with the members in the chapel yesterday. Lots of less actives as well as investigators. Including the nonmember parents of a missionary that´s serving from this ward.

Downfall- last night we were locked in the apartment building and couldn´t get out intime to work!!!!! But we did go out at the last hour to do some street contacting. 

This week is going to be very busy!!!!!!! Lots of things to do apart from packing!!!! Wow

I love the mission!!!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

HOLAAAAA!

Wow, i hardly have any time to write!!!

This week has been great. A few struggles but other triunphs! asi es la mision. 

I´ve been reading the Book of Mormon a lot lately to get caught up so that i can finish before I go home. I´ve also been praying more and with more faith for things that I need. 

It´s amazing how doing those simple things allows us to truly access the atonement! 

I love you all and will be able to write talk and hug soon!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

Familia Arrendondo!

Hey everybody!!!

Wow it´s been a great week!!! So many great things! New years was great. We made asado with the Rodriguez family in the afternoon and then we had to get back to the pench pretty early. On new years day we had to stay in the pench all day. On friday morning we attended the wedding of the Arredondo family!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooooooooooooooo!!! It was amazing! They were both very emotional. A little afterwards she had the certificate in her hand and shouted ´i did it after 45 years!!! She was sooooo happy!!! They were both looking good!
Then we had interviews with President. Great to be able to talk to him openly and recieve guidance from him. I love President Goates! 

Saturday we were extremely busy getting everything for the baptism!!! tonnns of things to do. Also, the font didn´t produce hot water so we had to bring pots from the kitchen sink. 

The baptism was amazinnng. The spirit was sooo strong! There were tons of children but they were all quiet and there was a really peaceful feeling throughout the service. 

2 amaaaaazing sisters in the ward had set up a surprise party for the arredondo marriage just afterwards with cupcakes, alfajors, and a wedding cake!!!! Thanks sister rodriguez and sister leal!!!

They were both confirmed on sunday. Sister Arredondo shared her testimony and it was sooo sweet. Things she has wanted for a long time are happening now. They are both very excited to go to the temple in a year. Last night we showed them the mountain of the lord movie and then gave them the little ´my family´ booklets to start working on so that we can go to the family history center in a couple more weeks.

So it was an amazing week. I´m grateful also for the reminders of the Lord to have a soft heart. If we have hardened hearts we can´t progress and even though a million blessings happen to us, we won´t recieve them truly or won´t recognize that they come directly from the Lord. It makes me so sad to see people I live around make bad choices and not seek to truly put God´s will above theirs. I know that our lives are all part of a divine design created for our happiness. But we can´t have that happiness unless we seeks to do the things that please God.

I love you all

Elder Fullmer

[Lots of photos this week, too!]

Families are eternal

"The delicious birthday [I think he meant wedding] cake that hna rodriguez made!!!"

"the amazing wedding party that these to sisters set up!!!"

"Bautismo!!!"

Marriage is official, complete with certificate!

Mr. and Mrs. Arredondo!

New Year's Fireworks

New Years with the Rodriguez Family

Navidad

Heyyyy everybody!!!!!!!!

It was a great Christmas week!!! Awesome talking to the family, playing uno with the elders in the pench on Christmas eve. watching fireworks at 12. 

We were also able to teach quite a bit this week. The familia Arredondo is doing aweeesome!!!!!!!

We gave them a himnal for christmas and they started crying!!! Yesterday we gave them sparkling cyder without alcohol so that can do cheers at 12 on new years night without breaking the word of wisdom!!! In the lesson last night we repassed a few things and they are sooooo ready to get baptized this week!!! We´re working with a few of the sisters in the ward to get a little party-social together after the baptism in celebration of their wedding on friday! 

WOW. 2014 went by soooo fast! I feel like i´ve been sooo blessed this past year. Blessed with friendships, trials, great lunches, great companions! I was very thankful for the opportunity this past week of reflecting more and more on Christ and His life. I know that He payed our debt in its fullness and that He showed us the way. He is the way the truth and the light. I know He lives. Even though i´ve never seen Him, I´ve seen Him in the lives of lots of people. As we learn to recognize Him that way, our faith and gratitud really do grow. 

I love you all!!!!

Love,

Elder Fullmer

Elder Castillo and Elder Fullmer in a photo they printed and gave to the members at Christmas

Christmas with the Rodriguez family

Waiting outside the pench for the other elders to arrive--there's only one key to the apartment. 

A little asian cat that is found in stores everwhere

Eating ice cream with the district

feliz navidad!!!

It´s been a great week here in the Favorita!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had the Christmas party which was waaaay fun. Basketball, deliscious food, cake and icecream. Shadow skits. Friends. Ties as presents. Santa Clause. Devotional. 

The high light of the week was that on sunday we had 6 investigators at church. But not just that. Afterwards a boy in our ward got baptized and so they all stayed to see it. MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was wayyyy cool! Cause that´s probably the most number of investigators i´ve had in a sacrament meeting and the only time i´ve gone to a ward baptism right after church. Unmistakabley the Lord´s hand!!!

The Familia Arredondo HAVEN¨T SMOKED SINCE LAST SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The tobaco tea did the trick!!! They don´t have desires to smoke anymore!!!!!!!!! It´s awesome!!!!! We´re sooo happy for them. Horacio and Astrid are pretty much ready to get baptized next week!!! 

THings are going awesome. Christmas is coming! Excited to talk to the family. 

And grateful for my Savior and Redeemer!!! Here on the mission I have recieved a much greater understanding and gratitud for His life, love, example, teachings, and Atonement! I would be nothing without Him. 

I wish you all the best!!!

Hasta Christmas day

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

WOW

It´s been an amaaaazing week here in the favorita!!!!!!!!

We´ve taught sooooooooooo much!!!

Just a couple of the highlights...

One lady that we taught has gone through tons of problems recently. Her son in law got into drugs and started selling things in their house, and there´s been a lot of fighting and tension in their house. She told us at the beginning that she´s catholic but doesn´t attend much. She also told us she would have to be very sure of another church to attend, but is very willing to listen. We had a great lesson 1, and at the end she asked us how somebody can attend church!!! She really felt the spirit and we will be teaching her entire family soon. We also met her son in law later that week and he was really open to listening to us. 

The Arredondo family is doing... awesome!!! They are an amazing family to work with. So humble and willing!!! They come to church, read the scriptures and pray. They only thing they are lacking is to stop smoking and drinking!!! Yesterday we did the tobaco tea with them. Where they drink a tea of the contents of cigarrettes so that it becomes disgusting to them. They drank plenty and the sister was about to throw up. It worked well. We´ll check in tonight to see how the effects have turned out. 

A brother in our ward brought his 17 year old friend to church. He´s way mature, graduated from high school already and so he came to gospel principles with us. He had tons of questions and talked a ton. The ex ward mission leader who used to be bishop as well was there. At one moment, the investigator, maxi, was talking and then the ex wml started talking and said, hey, i like the way you think, so you know what, I challenge you to listen to the 5 discussions that the missionaries are going to give you, then to get baptized, and then i´ll prepare you to go on a mission! WOOOOOWWWW!!!!!! And Maxi was like uhhhhh ok!!! So we will be passing by tonight or tomorrow to talk to him. He´s way cool!!!!! Miracle

So things are going awesome, it´s been raining a lot this past week wich is wayyy abnormal for mendoza but i´m loooving it!!! 

I love you all, 

Have a great week!!!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

The Gift

So it´s been another great week here in the Favorita!!!

 

The Arredondo family is doing awwwesome! They came to church again yesterday and are smoking less, little by little. We are really excited for them! It´s cool to see how much the Gospel blesses families!!! Astrid reminds and encourages her parents to stop smoking, the mom reads the Book of Mormon with Horacio and Horacio loves listening and participating in priesthood. He´s excited to be able to bless his family within a couple of months. They´re doing great and progressing well. 

 

One crazy story for the week happened last night. We were in the bus going home and we think the bus driver might have taken a bad turn and almost hit somebody because when we were waiting at the next stop light a guy on his longboard came flying to catch up to the bus and then used his longboard to bash in the front windows where the driver was sitting, then went running on his friends bike. We got off the bus and walked like 10 blocks to another bus stop. 

 

As most of you know, as fultime missionaries and members as well, we´re sharing ¨the Gift.¨ The gift is Christ, who was a gift given to us by our loving Heavenly Father so that we can be find peace, joy, strength and understanding in this life and so that one day we can return to live with Him one day. In this time of Christmas we often get all busy with presents, parties, and traditions, and although each of those things are good, we should all remember to focus more and more on the reason for Christmas, Christ!!! I´m so thankful for that perfect gift! http://www.mormon.org/christmas

 

Have a great week!!!

 

Love, 

 

Elder Fullmer

Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A short list of some of the things that i´m very grateful for--- The Savior, the family, the mission, the scriptures, friends, food. 

We ate tacos for thanksgiving. I was going to take a picture but when i finally remembered, they were pretty much gone. 

It´s been a great week in the favo. We´ve found quite a few people. We were able to teach a new family. We were outside the gate and the mom was outside the house working on some things, she said that we couldn´t be attended then but then elder castillo saw that they had a disc from some chilean group so he asked if they were from chile. They were and started talking about chile and then the lady let us in and we taught her and her kids the restoration. manso! We´ll be visiting them again tomorrow. 

We found a few other people and taught several lessons but the most progression that we´ve seen is in the arredondo family. The part member family that came last week. The mom wasn´t able to come to church yesterday due to work but the husband, oracio and their daughter astrid came all the same! Awesome! They had a great experience. Earlier on in the week, we were planning to go by and visit them and that day the mom called us to let us know that she had taken out like a date for them to get married!!! January 2nd!!!!!!! WOOOOOOO!!! And on saturday they accepted a baptismal date for the 3rd!!! WOOOO!!! So they are doing great. Law of chastity, check. Word of wisdom... we´ll be working on that! We taught it last night and will be making a plan with them this week. On saturday we did service for a different family. I got blisters that hatched right open and were kind of painful, considering how many hands we shake a day. When we visited the arredondo family last night they cut off a leaf of their aloe vera plant and put the gooey juice on my hand and gave me the leaf to take home. They also made a tea... hot water and a plant from outside their house for elder castillo because he had a cold. So they understand really well the good use of herbs, they just need to work a little to stop smoking. 

Yesterday morning we were running a little late getting to church. Elder Castillo mentioned how funny it would be if President and Sister Goates were there at church. We get to church a few minutes late. It hadn´t started yet but guess who was there... President and Sister Goates!!! Haha Elder Castillo has a gift for calling things like that! (not that we run late often). 

So it´s been an awesome week. Things are going well! Always looking for new people to teach!!! Getting excited for Christmas!

Hope you all have a great week!!!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

hola!!!

Hola!!!

It´s been a great week!!! Some really great things and a few hard moments. 

One of the ups was that last monday a lady in our ward presented us to a part member less active family. The member mom is living with a man and they were coming to church over two years ago but he couldn´t get baptized cause they weren´t married, and they weren´t married because he couldn´t get divorced from his last marriage but his previous wife passed away a little while back so we´ve started teaching them. They´re want there daughter who´s 8 to get baptized and the dad committed to baptism but we haven´t invited him to a specific date yet. The mom is going on wednesday morning to figure out what the situation will be on marriage there in the Favorita. It´s a way neat family. They came to church on sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They got along really well with the members and knew from beforehand a few of them.

A down for the week started thursday... we talked to a really cool elderly man in the street. He is lonely and a widower. He loved the idea of living with his wife for eternity. We taught him the plan of salvation on friday and it went great. The spirit was strong and he accepted a baptismal date for the 20th of december. He also committed to coming to church on sunday. On saturday night we called to confirm and he said he was going to the hospital at 6 in the morning with his daughter.... On sunday evening we passed by and he came to the door and told us sorry for letting us teach him and that he was out of his mind when he was listening to us because he´s actually catholic............. We were pretty bummed. 

Another up is that Oriana, the lady from Chile is doing well. We taught her the word of wisdom early in the week and she mas o menos committed to living it. When we went back she hadn´t really seen any progress. We talked to her a lot more seriously and made a specific plan of things that she will do to help stop. She committed to it but with a lot more intention this time. She usually smokes 10 a day but on friday had only taken 4! So she´s doing better. She was in chile for the weekend so we didn´t see her but should be seeing her tomorrow. 

One thing i´ve been studying this week is Christ´s ministry in the americas and working to apply it better to my ministry in the americas... argentina. I was looking for comparisons and things i could do better. and two that i found from chapter 11 were that he was wearing white. It reminded me to wash my shirts really well even though they are starting to look a little yellow after more than 21 months. The other one was that after presenting himself and testifying of the Godhead He let all of the people one by one have a very personal and special experience feeling His wounds. Although my investigators won´t have that very same experience I can help them to have a very personal and special experience with feeling the power of His atonement by living the gospel of Christ. I´m very grateful for the scriptures and what I was able to studay this week. I hope you all have great experiences reading and studying the scriptures.

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

a great week in favorita

It´s been awesome here in the favorita. We found 8 new people to teach this past week and taught lots of lessons considering we´re washing. The members here are amaaazing!!! Tonight a sister is going to take us to a reference of a part member family that is really interested in getting to know and coming back to church. 

It´s been great to be with Elder Castillo. Sometimes as older missionaries i feel like we fall into just routine mode but with a new elder it helps to go back to the basics, have a lot more excitment for the work and it´s great becuase he already takes a ton of iniciative. It honestly hardly feels like i´m training him which is nice!!! It´s been great to really focus on the specific needs of each and every investigator. There are tons of people in the favorita that need the gospel. We´ve been talking to tons of people as well. 

It was a little difficult on sunday morning when non of the investigators we had invited, including those that we talked to and said they were coming on sunday morning and those that we had gone to pick up made it to church... But another old investigador and a less active couple that we´re teaching showed up so we were really happy about that!!! At church yesterday morning i had a few unexpected stomach problems. I think my stomach is just about spent haha. 

One thing that really stuck out to me as I reviewed my notes from elder christofferson was that we are and always will be indebted to God. That as missionaries, when we finish the mission we have more debts than we did when we started. That´s one thing that I didn´t really understand a year ago but that I´m a witness of now. I love the mission and I´m soooooooooooooo thankful for the opportunity that I have to serve here in the Mendoza Mission!!!

Have a great week!!!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

[Lots of photos from Christian this week. Don't have a lot of details on all of them, but I'll include what he did offer.]

wasabi, etc. with the Kim family. 

Elder Castillo, Christian's trainee from Chile

Chilean hot dogs!