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

Mother's Day!

Wow, 

It´s been a really good week!!!!!!!!!!!!

nutshell=

aquarium on monday, we made alfajores and had a great family night with pablo and daiana, on tuesday we had a really good zone meeting where we talked about gaining confidence with the members and working with them, on wednesday we went and knocked a door that we´d met somebody at before and knocked it like 7 times before but we decided to knock it again and a young man came out let us in and we taught him lesson 1 and wow! he knows the scriptures really well! and then in the closing prayer he asked for "revelation to know if these things are true as it says in Jeremias" or something like that, but wow, this kid is really really cool! he lived in the states for a few years and speaks english better than i do and then before we left he wanted to take a picture with us hashtag selfie. and then on saturday we did an activity that turned out to be really good!!!!!!!!!!! and then sunday, wow, one of the coolest sacrament meetings i´ve been in. 3 amazing speakers and gonzalo, mateo, and the palma family!!!!!!!!!!!! right after the closing prayer, gonzalo looked at each of us and said "gracias" and shook our hands and then looked at mateo and said "we´re going to keep coming, aren´t we", and then the palma family wrote us down for lunch on friday. wooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we got to talk to our families on sunday afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love my mom and I am soooooo grateful for everything she does for all of us!!!!!!!!!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer