The week that I was transferred to Chile for 5 hours

This transfer has gone by way faster than any of the others, probably because i{m past the 18 month mark. We´ve had sooo much going on. 

Last week on tuesday we had our zonemeeting. Elder Garcia and i made licenses to place date, baptize and confirm for all of the missionaries in our zone so that they lose their fear and always focuse their teaching on helping people live the gospel of Christ. Each missionary had to come up to one of us and invite us to be baptized to be able to recieve their licence. We also shared Mate de la vida with them. When we were planning the meeting I felt like we needed to include a video called ´missionary work and the atonement´, which is a ten minute video of clips from two talks by pte eyring and elder holland. It is amazing. At the end of the meeting there was very little time left or rather,we had gone like 40 minutes over and the elderes were going to get late to lunches and i was thinking maybe we should just cut the video but elder garcia decided that we would go ahead and watch it. It was a great end to the meeting. The spirit was really strong and an elder, that i{ve been in the same zone with for like 10 months and part of that the same district, and has a hard time being serious about the work, got emotional as he said the closing prayer. 

After the meeting we did exchanges. I went to be with a fairly new elder from nevada. I love serving with new elders. We brought two books of mormon with us and had a prayer in our hearts to be able to hand them out. We met and taught a lady that was a little interested but then we went to visit some members and two nonmembers were there. We had brought the restoration for another lesson that we were going to have but then decided to watch it with them. They loved it and really got a lot out of it and had great comments. We left them both with a book of mormon and invited them to read ponder and pray. 

On thursday we had a zone conference where president and hna goates came. It was great! Lots of activity and really fun and spiritual. We are going to be working a lot more with new converts. We invited President Zanni to come for a segment we had about working with members and leaders. He gave a great presentation. He invited all the missionaries in our stake to work more with the members and help them to have missionary experiences by coming with us to lessons to share their testimonies. 

On friday we went with a priest to go visit a few investigators including sabrina salinas. She is doing well and has been reading!!!!!!!!! woooo! She has also not been smoking as much. 

On saturday and sunday we had stake conference. It was great. We have a great stake presidency! Really focused on missionary work. In priesthood they showed the numbers from the past 7 years of converts and atendance levels in the stake. They showed how if we had conserved all of the fruits from those 7 years our stake could have split by now. We will be working with lots with the members and leaders to activate and rescue those people. 

On thursday the mission secretary called me because theres a group of us that have to go to chile to be able to renew our visas. Elder Magdaluyo and Elder Conolly were both in the group. We went to the offices on sunday night and got on a bus monday at about noon the was full of elders and sisters from two other missions here in argentina that also had to renew their visas. So we spent 3 hours going their a couple hours waiting at the border then we went to the first town in chile to go eat and then came back waited a couple more hours and then came backto argentina at about 7 oclock in the morning on tuesday. We watch the testaments, work and the glory 2 and 3, 17 miracles and ephraims rescue. It was way fun! It was also great catching up with elder magdaluyo. 

Also, family, I love the ties and pants and insoles you sent, but not as much as you you see, but i still love the ties and pants and insoles, always and forever. Really good taste on the ties! I got it all in the offices yesterday. 

Last night we taught a couple of really good lessons. One to the nonmember dad of a part member family. It was great!!! He{s really interested in discovering for himself if its true. This week on friday I{m going with another elder from the states to the college class of an investigator we have, to teach them in english about what we do as missionaries and what we share. So that will be sweet! Then on saturday morning we are getting together as a zone to paint the school where an investigator in the zone works. So that will be wayyy cool! Then saturday evening we will be having an activity where we will put all of the members through lehi´s dream!!! and then transfer calls on sunday night. 

I love the mission and I love you all!!!

Elder Fullmer

I love you all

[A few photos from the trip to Chile]

[Argentina flag on left, Chile on right]

who's area is this anyways???

Hey everybody!!!

It´s been a way good week here on the mission!

A few funny little things that happened. 

Well we had mission counsel and it was really great. It gets crazier and crazier each session of final testimonies. This time i felt like i learned or realized how much I love the argentina mendoza mission. It really is sacred ground for me.

We also presented Mate de la Vida and that went well! I sent a picture of the stickers that we´ve been giving to members and will give to missionaries in the zone tomorrow. [This is the background from his letter a few weeks ago: "last week i recieved divine revelation. ´mate de la vida´. or the mate of life. like tree of life. Mate is a drink that everybody drinks here. everybody in a room shares the same cup, so as we were sharing the story of the tree of life with the fam correa last week, this idea came to mind, all of the members a more than willing the share mate with a friend, so why not the gospel. Right now we´re working on making a design of a sticker or flyer to give to members where the mate cup says mate of life,  with the straw of iron that lead to the mate of life, the herbs desirable to make one happy and the sugar most sweet and white that i had ever before tasted. hahaha. We have also created 1 Nephi chapter 8 according to elder garcia and elder fullmer AKA elder garcia and elder fullmer translations #apostasy #justkiddingmomanddad :)"]

On the way from mission councel to the terminal to take the bus back I saw 3 people from my last area. I felt like those were little blessings from the Lord. 

Then from wednesday to thursday we did exchanges. I was with a brand new elder from bountiful. Elder Cheney. It´s wayyy fun being with new elders. They´re excited about working and teaching and really give it there all! I really would love to train next transfer or if not, my last two transfers. But i´ll be happy wherever. We got to teach a few lessons. One of those was with the family aciar that i think i talked about last week. Way cool family and the parents have baptismal dates for the 20th. We were in their house about to start the lesson and then their little kid comes to the door and says hey mom and dad someone wants you and guess who was at the door!!! Two other elders in our zone!!!!!! haha they had shown up there with a councelor from their bishopric. They were looking for someone else but ended up knocking that door to ask for directions. So right now we all aren´t really sure who that part belongs to. Because in some of the maps it says its theirs but then the members from there are in our directory haha. It was like such a weird experience for them to show up there i felt like i was in a dream or something. It was funny, crazy and a little sad cause we´ve been teaching lots of people there. We had actually taught a lady that had accepted a baptismal date just before going to the aciar family. But we´re going to talk to the stake president cause the members here tell us one thing and the members in the other ward tell them somehting else haha. So we were a little bummed about that happening cause it seems like it´s probably theirs but the Lord sent us a couple of blessings. 1 we met a new family that used to talk to the missionaries. We taught 5 people but theres like 11 that live there. 2 it was raining when we left the lesson. I love the rain! It hasn´t rained for like 5 months or so.

So things are going well. We have a really busy week now. zone meeting tomorrow, zone conference on thursday and then stake conference friday and saturday!!! Lots to do!!!!!!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

[Here are a few more photos that he sent:]

(Subliminal message that he needs some new pants.)

(Looks like skinny ties are in! Not sure what the brushing teeth is all about. Maybe just to let us know that he is.)

(He didn't include any explanation for this or the following.)

Lots of lessons

HOLA!

It´s been a really good week here in Rivadavia. We´ve taught a ton of lessons and placed several baptismal dates. Pretty much everybody we´re teaching is partmember family or a reference from a family member, which means they´re solid investigators. One of them is the son and family of a less active guy that we´re getting back to church. They are the aciar family. They recognize the spirit really well. The used to have the missionaries over all the time and went to church a few times. They accepteda date for the 20th of this month. They also have three kids which we haven´t been able to teach quite yet. The mom wants the kids to go to mutual and everything to have better influences in their lives. 

Then on saturday we met brother garberoglio who has a wife and daughters that are catholic. He got baptized like 10 years ago and had an amazing testimony. With the time he stopped doing small and simple things that nourished his testimony and started doing small and simple things that held him back. We will be working with him to get him back to church. His wife is amazzzing! She used to tell him to go to church and supports him listening to us. She loved the missionaries who have passed by in the past. She recognizes the spirit and says that even after the missionaries leave the house a peace and tranquility stays there with them for a time. WOW. 

German Correa passed the sacrament on sunday!!! Wooo!!! They are doing really well. We taught the sister in law of sister correa who had a ton of questions and thought we didn´t celebrate holidays or birthdays and didn´t vote. I wonder who she got us confused with. We answered the many questions she had and she was a lot more okay with her family being members of the church. 

Mate de la vida is a go. We´ve presented it to the stake president and his family as well as our bishop and a counselor and their families and they´ve all loved it. It helps them to get more excited to share the gospel and remember to do it every day. 

Things are going really well here. There´s a lack of excitment for the work here in the zone so we´re going to be doing lots of exchanges as well as having a great zone meeting to get things going again. 

I love you all!!!!!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

Elder Vinas

Well it´s been a great week here in the SJ de ARG. 

We´ve found a ton of people this past week, including an unbaptized lady in a part member family. She´s way cool but can´t leave her house cause she´s on house arrest for stuff i´ll tell you guys about later. We were in a lesson with her and about to finish and then a scripture i had read that morning came to mind from Luke, where the scribes and pharisees ask Christ why he´s chilling with publicans (sinners) and he says that he came to earth to call sinners like them to repentance, and because healthy people don´t need to go to the doctor. We´ll be helping her get healed spiritually!!!

When we went back to Francos house this week we asked how his prayer went and he said he got his answer that the 30th feels right. When we talked to him on saturday he had changed his mind............................ ¨mas adelante¨. More forward.............But he did come to church on sunday. 

 So like 3 times here in Rivadavia, this guy has come up to me in walmart and started speaking in english. he speaks real good ( haha ). And then this past week he finally got to have a lesson with him. Mario. He lived in orlando for like10 years has 3 kids, used to be catholic but got bored of doing the same thing every week at church and then went to the Jdubs cause a cute girl went there but then they wanted him to start paying tithing and stop donating blood right off the bat so he got away from there and now doesnt go anywhere. We had a great lesson 1 with him and will be passing by this week to see how the read has gone. 

I don´t know if i wrote it last week but i recieved divine revelation. ´mate de la vida´. or the mate of life. like tree of life. Mate is a drink that everybody drinks here. everybody in a room shares the same cup, so as we were sharing the story of the tree of life with the fam correa last week, this idea came to mind, all of the members a more than willing the share mate with a friend, so why not the gospel. Right now we´re working on making a design of a sticker or flyer to give to members where the mate cup says mate of life,  with the straw of iron that lead to the mate of life, the herbs desirable to make one happy and the sugar most sweet and white that i had ever before tasted. hahaha. We have also created 1 Nephi chapter 8 according to elder garcia and elder fullmer AKA elder garcia and elder fullmer translations #apostasy #justkiddingmomanddad :) So nobody else knows this but you that are reading the email, on tuesday next week we will be releasing it to the mission leadership counsel. So if you know missionaries in this mission, don´t drop the beans!!!

On wednesday this week Elder Vinas of the seventy came. It was awesome. He  read some of 2ne 2, about how the law none of us are justified, only through repentence and the atonement of Christ. It was amazing how he could read and expand upon the scriptures seemlessly quoting other scriptures and prophets with lots of quotes from Paul. Then he let us all take turns talking briefly about how the atonement shapes our work as missionaries. A few other points that he made were that we don´t baptize, people choose to be baptized. And confessing the hand of the Lord. Which is one thing i´ve been trying to do better this week. On monday and tuesday we got together a musical number, nearer my God to the to see at that meeting and it turned out really well! That was one of the many miracles of the week. 

Side notes... I bought a tie and a pair of pants this morning. My favorite cookies are on sale at walmart. Elder Garcia is a stud and we got along really well!

I want to express my gratitud especially to my family this week. As i´ve tried to become a more patient, happier, cheerful missionary, i´ve been reminded of the great examples and lessons i´ve had inside my home. I love you all so much and pray for you all the time. So, D,M,S,J,M,L,P,A,H,R,J,J,E,G and E, Have a great week!!!

Love, 

Elder Fullmer

(a really quick hello)

Hello family and friends!!!

I don´t have a whole lot of time to write today, but it´s been a great week!!! 

Elder Garcia is way cool and we get along really well. We´re working hard and finding lots of less actives and part member families. The stake is working well and have made maps for us to coordinate all of our work with them. I will explain it more later. 

I read 2 Nephi 2 and it´s amazing. It helped me understand so much better why we´re here on earth and why it´s hard. 

I love you all!!!

Elder Fullmer

Transfers!!!

Welp, It´s been a really good week here in Rivadavia. 

We were heading to visit some one and then felt like we should go visit a less active family. We went and met them for the first time and found out that they had a non member son living with them with his wife who is about to have a baby! We set up an appointment to go back. 

On friday we taught the restoration to the family and the daughter in law who was a little quiet but really receptive. On Saturday the hermanas by chance ended up going to teach them and taught lesson 2. and they were committed to going to church on sunday but didn´t show... Last night we went by and taught a little better about the book of mormon and the spirit giving us answers. She had read the part we left her and accepted to reading 3 Nephi 11. She has been with lots of pain and is really nervous about having the baby because she lost a baby a little while back. 

For a couple weeks now we´d been expecting it, and on saturday afternoon it became official. President called elder garcia and asked him to be assistant. He left on sundayafter lunch. He´ll be a great ap. I verified and recieved transfers with him that night haha. 

I have staying with me a guy from the stake that´s about to leave for his mission to mexico. He´s way excited about going on the mission and is trying to learn everything he can. So transfers were pretty crazy! Lots of areas being opened, areas being washed, people staying in areas that have been there for 3 transfers and people leaving that have been in areas for a transfer. It´s pretty exciting to see everything happening and I feel like we´re going to have a really good zone this transfer! My comp is going to be Elder Garcia. again!!! But this elder garcia has a transfer more than me and is from Chile. It´s the first time that i´ll have a comp with more time than me since elder gibbons haha, but elder Garcia is just going up as zl so i´ll be training him in that. I´ve heard good things about him and am excited to start working with him this week!

So a few months ago, a friend from college sent me a talk and told me to read it. I didn´t read it but then last week a brother in our ward mentioned the talk and then an elder at mission counsel was reading it so i felt like i should print it off and last week at cyber i did. It´s called the fourth missionary by Elder Corbridge of the seventy. He talks about four different types of missionaries. 

The first two, disobedient, don´t help others really, and aren´t changed. 

The third, obedient and worthy, works with all of his might and strength, has success in the mission, does what the Lord wants him to but wants to do other things, the grit and grin method. but he himself doesn´t actually change much at all because his mind and heart aren´t in the work, he is constantly having an internal struggle between what he wants to do and what the Lord wants to do. He works hard for 2 years but goes home with regret. 

The fourth missionary is very similar to the third missionary. He is obedient and worthy, has success, gives up his own desires and gives them to the Lord. He gives his mind and heart to the Lord and that way the Lord can actually change him. Because God can´t work with something that He doesn´t have. The third missionary isn´t perfect and isn´t necesarily the best missionary ever, but accomplishes the Lord´s will with the people around him and in his own self because he turns himself over to the Lord. Anybody can be the fourth missionary. All it takes is to make up your mind. In the long run it´s a lot easier because you don´t have to go through regret and pain. The fourth missionary is happy, and blessed eternally for his mission. 

As i read this talk, sooo many things that i´ve seen and experienced on the mission became so much clearer. And gave me a better direction for what I want to do but more importantly who I want to become these next 5.5 months that are left. I recommend it to all of you. It´s for missionaries but can totally be applied to anybody in your callings and lives. the fourth missionary it´s called. 

I love this work, my testimony grows of it every day. I know that if we can have a soft heart we can learn and grow in knowledge and through that knowledge our faith can also grow and we can become instruments in the hands of the master. 

I love you all, 

Elder Fullmer

enzo!!!!!!!!!!

It´s been a great week here in Rivadavia. On monday night we went to mendoza for mission counsel. It was really really good. We talked a lot about having an excitement for the work, praying and working with faith, and working well with members especially leaders. Lot of zone leaders and sister training leaders are leaving this transfer so it was kind of a good bye fest at the end. President also told us that lots more missionaries will be going up as leaders earlier on and then people won´t be finishing as leaders. In the trainings in provo they said that being a trainer is the most important assignement for a missionary to have, so at the end of the mission, the good missionaries will be training. So a little bit of changes. I´m content that i won´t be ending as a leader, but rather in an area probaly with a young comp or training and working really hard. 

On thursday, we went to albardon to do an interview for a blind lady that got baptized on saturday. I saw the Alganaraz family and also went to see Maria Munoz. She is doing pretty well praying and reading the scriptures but i had to talk to her about her covenants from baptism because she has had a hard time getting to church lately but it was really good to talk and visit and remember old times with elder gibbons and them!!!!

On friday morning we had interviews. We also got to talk to hermana Goates one on one. She talked to us all about covenants and helping the members of argentina to keep theirs and helping converts and investigators know what they are and how and why to make them and keep them. It was really cool. My interview with President Goates was great as well. I love him! We talked about the zone and the success we´ve had, about my family, comp relations and everything. It was really good. Then we left with elder rainock the asistent who came with us for an exchange. We went to do a baptismal interview first in one of the areas. I got to do it and the lady was really prepared. It was cool to talk to her about the coventant she was about to make for the rest of her life. She´s really ready to get baptized. Then we went to eat lunch with the Kim family. I don´t know if i mentioned them before but they´ve gotta be the coolest family in the ward. they always clean clothes and give us some of the best lunches every. For lunch, at the beginning it was just us three and brother kim (from korea). He said with his accent, alright i will present to you korean meat and then argentine meat and you will tell me which is better. The korean meat was a little sweat, prepared with coke, but really really good. The argentine meat was classic asado and he had cooked both of them in their back yard. He had all the meat on a platter in front of him and would cut pieces off and give them to us as we finished up what we had. One of the best lunches i´ve ever had. and desert... fresh brownies with icecream. WOW. 

Then with elder Rainock we went to visit a few other people. Not many people home, but Daniel and Marina were home. We tried to teach them a lesson but then they were making pizzas for us to eat. But we committed them to coming to the baptism of Enzo. 

On saturday morning, Elder Rainock and us talked about how the zone is doing and changes to be made. Some of the areas and districts will be changed this transfer. There will be two new areas including the area of Albardon will be split!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That´s way exciting! i remember talking with elder gibbons about albardon having 4 missionaries a year ago and now it´s going to happen!!!!!!!!! and I´ll almost for sure be here to see it happen. Enzo´s baptism was really great. simple and sweet. Daniel and his sister in law came and loved it!!!!!!! A priest in the ward that he knew from school baptized him. Enzo is 15 but will turn 16 at the end of this month. He´s super solid. He´s been going to seminary this week and has a lot of friends in the ward. I´m confident that within a couple of years he´ll be on the mission. 

Sunday was great. Fast and testimony meeting. The priest that baptized enzo bore a sweet testimony and lots of other people mentioned the correa family in their testimonies. It´s been amazing.

Transfers are next week. I´m pretty sure i´m staying and pretty sure Elder Garcia with be assitent. he´ll do great. I love Rivadavia. 

Love, 

Elder Fullmer