September 1-6, 2015

This is an old story but the same one of how the time just flies by and the end is getting here much too fast.  I had a day where I wondered if we had made any difference in this branch at all but then I stopped and thought of some of the things we have accomplished.  I did a 72 hour kit thing for Relief Society, an awesome Christmas party, we are doing a primary program and we have done lots of temple work.  Elder Fullmer has helped two families prepare for the winter both years by helping them cut and stack lots of wood.  Sister Skeen said we might not have gotten any of her wayward children back into activity but we have certainly helped her family on the other side of the veil. 

Wednesday the 25^th we took Sister Hardman and Sister Skeen and went to the temple where we were able to do the work for Leroy’s brother, Sister Skeen’s sister as well as the sealing for John Milton Cunningham and his wives and children.  He was married to Laura and they had a daughter and then she died, he married Annie and both her and their baby died and then he married Lucy who was Annie’s sister and had several children and we were able to get them all sealed except for one son who we will try and do before we go home.  It was such a beautiful experience and Eva Mae was in tears and said she could feel them in the room as the work was done.  I love doing sealings.  It is just like adding links to a chain.  I really want to get all the sealings done that I can before we leave as it is hard for those in the branch to schedule the extra time to do sealings.  I am afraid when we are not here doing the scheduling the monthly temple trips might fall by the wayside.

Then the best part of last week was the temple trip we made with the Wilson’s and Sister Piatt.  We were able to get 5 endowments done and then sealed Sister Skeen’s great great grandparents and then sealed 6 of their children to them.  There are still two children we have to prove their information before adding them to the family.  It was such a beautiful experience having Evan and I as parents and then having Tim, Cheryl and Fran as three of the children along with 3 other people all kneeling around the alter and connecting this family for eternity.    We also sealed Cheryl’s brother and sister to their parents which she has wanted to do for several months.  We have now sealed Sister Skeen’s great and great great grandparents and all their children and next week will finish the endowments and be able to seal her grandparents and their children.  She wants me to try and find her family on the other side.  These have all been on her father’s side but not much has been done on her mother’s side.  A cousin of hers has tried to find connections but with no success.  They were always told that her grandfather was part Indian but they don’t know for sure.  It will be something for me to do when we get home.

This week we have another temple trip planned with one of the sisters who is 87 and has only been able to attend the temple once in the time we have been here.  She is taking care of her invalid non-member husband and isn’t able to get away often but she called and ask if we could take her one more time.  As it means getting more of the sealings done we are more than happy to.  I also have two times set up with sisters to help them with family history as they try and learn more of the programs so they feel comfortable continuing on their own.  Along with planned visiting and home teaching visits and district meeting the week will be gone again.  Also on Saturday we have a meeting with a member of each of the general women’s auxiliaries and the sisters from all six stakes in our mission and as acting primary president I get to go.  It all makes for another busy week.

Other than the temple trips I have been spending lots of time working on the primary program.  We found out yesterday that two of the young people who were going to help are not going to be able to be there that Sunday so we are going to have to give the kids more parts and perhaps do more of them ourselves.  Our newest convert who is just 16 and lives about 20 miles out of town told us yesterday that her mother doesn’t think she needs to come to church every Sunday and even though we offered to pick her up for the next few weeks her mother said she didn’t need to come that often.  She was going to do a part for us in the program just to help out and she was excited to be a part of it.  It is so hard to see her and feel of her enthusiasm for the gospel and her not be able to be a full part of it.  Hopefully when she gets her driver’s license her mother will let her come on her own.  Her family is also giving her a lot of anti-stuff but she just keeps reading conference talks to keep her spirits up.

That’s all the news from here for now.  We haven’t been to see anything else as I just want to visit old cemeteries and Elder Fullmer would rather stay home than do that.  There really aren’t many more things in our general area to go see so unless we go further afield we won’t be doing much more sightseeing. 

We love you all.  We love the gospel of Jesus Christ and the difference it makes in people’s lives.

Love

Elder and Sister Fullmer

August 17, 2015

This past week was again a very busy week.  Is there any other kind in life?  On Monday we went out to the Lincoln Boyhood home State Park which is only about 30 miles from where we live.  It was very interesting to read of some of the things he did there as a boy growing into a man from age 7-21.  We learned about the milk sickness which killed his mother (from cows eating a toxic snakeroot plant).  His mother is buried in the cemetery there as well as a number of others.  There is a path of twelve stones beginning at the home site and going to the cemetery which were taken from various places where Lincoln lived or worked.  They are from such places as his birthplace, his wife’s home, the White House, Gettysburg, the store he owned, the Anderson Cottage where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation and The Peterson House where he died.  It was especially interesting to learn how little formal education he had but what he learned from reading and applying himself. 

 It was a very enjoyable day in spite of the heat, humidity and the gnats.  We were certainly glad to get into the Memorial Building and look at all the displays there.  We saw the chapel in the memorial building where two sets of our friends were originally married.   I of course took lots of pictures.

The real highlight of the past couple of weeks was our mission conference with Elder and Sister Zwick.  It started even before the conference when we were able to have 3 of our favorite Elders with us.  Because of the early start time for the meeting and the travel distance some of the Elders came to Tell City to stay overnight.  It meant that we had Elders Stewart, Riphenburg and Gould with us which makes for some fun time.  I fixed dinner for the 6 Elders, our regulars George and Sydney and then later Elder Riphenburg and his companion slept on our couches.  I felt as if I had grandsons back with me.

There is no real way to tell of the spirit we felt at the conference.  Both Elder and Sister Zwick spoke with so much spirit and love.  I wrote several pages in my journal of the talks they gave and my impressions but just want to share one or two of their stories.  It makes for a long email but worth it I hope.

 

Sister Zwick based her talk on Alma 5:26 “If ye have experienced a change of heart…can ye feel so now?”  She told of their son Scotty (named after Elder Richard G Scott who was Elder Zwick’s mission president) who was born mentally and physically handicapped who cannot read or write but who loves people and is always happy.  When his younger brother Spencer was called to serve in the Bangkok Thailand Mission he said to Scotty that he was serving for both of them.  He would send Scotty pictures of his investigators and ask him to pray for them.  Scotty had a whole wall of pictures.  When it was nearly time for Spencer to return home from his mission, Elder & Sister Zwick had an assignment in Europe and contacted the mission president to see if it would be okay for them to pick Spencer up from his mission on their way home.  The mission President called them and said that he gave permission only if they would bring Scotty on their way to their assignment and let him be Spencer’s mission companion for the week and then pick them both up when their assignment was done.  Scotty was set apart as a missionary and they left him with his brother.  Spencer gave him a Book of Mormon and told him that they would find someone who spoke English for him to give the book to.  On the train one day Spencer heard a couple speaking English and went and talked to them.  He found they were from New York and had come back home to visit with family.  He went back and told Scotty to go and give them the Book of Mormon.  Scotty went and sat by them and said “  I can’t read but my family has read this Book to me and I know it is true and that it will change your lives if you will read and pray about it.”  They took the book and said they would read it.  Spencer and Scotty had other experiences in that week that changed many people’s lives.  Some months after they returned home they got a letter from the couple from New York telling them that they had just been baptized.  They were so touched by the spirit they felt when Scotty told them of the Book of Mormon and his testimony of it that they looked up the missionaries and were now members of the church.  In all from that week Scotty spent in Thailand five people came into the gospel.  She talked about how Scotty has always had that “change of Heart” which we should all feel and continue to work to have.

Elder Zwick told of an experience he had back in 1995.  He was on several committees working with the Utah Highway Patrol.  One of the officers had told him that he had heard that in Manti there was a group building up a militia and were going to take over the temple.  Just a short time later President Packer called him into his office and asked him what he knew about Manti and when he told him of the rumors he had heard President Packer told him that the gospel would never be overthrown by anti-literature or guns.  Nothing ever happened in Manti but it all just went away.  The Lord is in control.

He also told us that the father of the sister missionary who was killed in Atlanta Georgia in May had just gone to Georgia to baptize five people his daughter was teaching at the time of her death including a couple she had just found.  He stressed that we are not alone in this work but we have those associates “from another realm cheering us on.  The work is supernal and that is why family history and temple work are going on.  This work is not about us”.    

That part of his talk really helped me to not ever feel guilty when I am helping members of our branch do family history even though I could and sometimes do spend way too much time at it.  It was such a spiritual high.

We once again will be going to transfer meeting tomorrow.  We haven’t missed one in 18 months.  There has always been someone from our district who we could take to the meeting.  We love the spirit and enthusiasm as we see some going home and the new missionaries coming.

We love you all and encourage each of you to be good member missionaries.  Most baptisms come from member referrals so we each need to step up and do our part.

Love

Elder and Sister Fullmer

Augt 17-24, 2015

This past week was another week of travel.  We went to Jasper to pick up the Elders, Louisville for transfer meeting and back to Jasper on Tuesday a 300 mile round trip.  We got a new Elder who comes from a family of 20 children, 11 adopted from all over the world.  He seems like a very nice young man. 

 

Wednesday we went to Ft Knox and met up with the Liscombs and Chertkows who are two of the Senior couples left in the mission and we did some sightseeing.  Liscombs are serving a military mission there.  They took us to the Red Cross building they work in twice a week which is basically a large second hand store.  I got a couple of pictures and a game and book all for $1.  We then went to the George Patton museum which was very interesting.  Patton had a big role in World War II and he also had many statements about morals, leadership and integrity.  After that we went to a Mexican place for lunch, to the Lincoln home and school and then in pouring rain just drove around to see some of the places they have been.  The company was the best part of it all—talking about the experiences we have each had about our different missions.  It was another long day but we wished we had started doing it when we all first got here.  The friendship we have would have helped each of us in our missions. 

 

Thursday Evan took the Elders to Owensboro to exchange while I worked on Primary and then that evening we had dinner with the Osborn’s.  I asked Brother Osborn about the primary boys singing our last Sunday and he asked if we would do a whole primary program.  It will be quite a challenge as we have so few kids but we can do it.

 

Friday was district meeting so back to Owensboro and Saturday was a temple trip.  Only Mike V and the two of us went but we were able to get 10 baptisms (temple did), 30 men’s initiatory and 4 women’s initiatory and 1 female endowment done.  I really want to get those other initiatory done before we leave so no one else has to try and plan to get them done.  Mike took us to Cheddars for lunch where I had a delicious steak and shrimp and they had ribs and shrimp.  He said he had wanted to take us out to eat and this was his chance.  After we got home I just worked on Primary as the Elders said Sydney was going to a party so I didn’t figure she would come to church.  I also did my talk for the baptism tomorrow.

 

We had Alyssa T’s baptism after church and it was so beautiful.  She hugged me and said she was happier than she had ever been.  I know it is going to be hard on her not having any other young women in the branch and with Osborn’s moving so we are losing our Young Women’s leader, I hope she can stay strong.  Her mom and her grandma Jane were both there.  This might be what her mom needs to come back into activity and Alyssa has a whole bunch of family who are less active.

 

The very best part of this past week was that we got the word that we are going to be great grandparents for the first time.  I already knew that I was a “great” grandma but this is just more joy to spread in the family.  Our granddaughter Erika and her oh so special husband put a cute video on Facebook announcing they are expecting.  I am excited to know they aren’t moving to Colorado as first planned but are staying in Rexburg so we will be able to see that baby often.

 

As I am the queen of list makers I sat down and made an ever growing list of things I want and need to do before we leave in just 7 short weeks.  Along with the continued visits we will make are a number of things that will keep me very busy which makes the time fly even faster.  As I try to schedule things I find there aren’t going to be enough hours in a day but I always did work well under pressure.

We so love the people here and want to continue to help in any way we can.  We both know of the truthfulness of this gospel and the importance of actively participating.  Having a testimony does us no good if we don’t attend church, pay tithing, serve and especially attend the temple.  The greatest blessings are there for us as we fully engage in the gospel.

 

We love you all.

Elder and Sister Fullmer

A couple of pictures from last weeks trip to the Lincoln Memorial.  Elder Fullmer at the Lincoln Memorial Building.  This building has five panels representing the different stages of Lincolns life.  The plant is the milkweed plant which was the cause of Lincoln's mother's death.  The next one is of Evan in from of the Patton museum and the last is of a very distant picture of Ft Knox where all the gold is and no one can go into..  

 

August 5, 2015

One of the fun things I did last week was go see the performance the city put on of Mary Poppins.  Evan didn’t want to go so took the Elders on splits and I went with a couple of sisters from the branch.  It was so much fun and the scenery was just as good as any professional production.  This community has done some kind of play nearly every year since 1989 as part of their annual Schweitzer Fest which is a big celebration of the settling of their city.  I also met some very fun people.  Everyone here is so open and friendly.

 

We had talked to Tim and Cheryl Wilson about going back to Mammoth Caves and taking one of the better tours.  They agreed it was a good time so they picked us up about 7:30 Monday morning.  We also took Kaden their 6 year old grandson with us.  We got there thinking they were on Eastern Time and we would make the 11:30 tour but it was sold out so we were trying for the 12 one but it sold out before we got to the front of the line but we heard a person ask about the 10:30 tour and there were still spots.  We learned they were Central time and we had just enough time to get to the tour.  We were glad because we didn’t want to wait clear until 1:15 for the next tour.

 

The tour was amazing.  We were more than 300 feet underground and went up and down 440 stepsand had to go through Fat Man’s Misery which was very narrow and low.  We actually had to duck down to get through some of the places and even turn around at one point to get down the stairs.  I was really glad we went down first because my knees hurt more going down than coming up stairs.  At the end we climbed up 155 stairs in a square tower of steps.  The guide was very good in explaining what had gone on in the caves in the past 200 years with the mining of the saltpeter for gun powder during the war of 1812, the tuberculosis buildings and some of the finding of new caves. We learned that many mummified bodies had been found in the caves in the past and Cheryl can remember as a little girl that one of them was on display.  It wasn’t until 1979 that this was discontinued.  We learned about the eyeless fish and the myriad creatures that live in the caves.  In one room it was very warm after the 55 degrees we had been in.  It was due to the high water level of the river which runs through part of the cave.  There have actually been times when some parts of the cave have been flooded because of the rain.  When the guide turned out all the lights we truly saw what total darkness is.  You couldn’t see your hand even right in front of your face. It really brought to life the story in the Book of Mormon when the Savior is crucified and the blackness covers the land.  I can’t imagine what the tours used to be like when only a kerosene lamp was used.  It was a wonderful tour but we came out pretty worn out.  Two hours of climbing put some strain on our old out of shape bodies.  The tour was only 2 miles of the over 400 miles of caves that have been found and opened.  I wish we had the time and money to take every tour but there is no time.

We stopped in Cave City for some lunch and then went to Mike’s Rock shop so Tim could find his directions.  I took Kaden and we went into the rock shop to look around and found some cute rock animals and I bought him a little wolf.  He is such a sweet little boy.  He kept taking Evan’s iPad and he played games for a little while but mostly loved playing the primary songs.  He comes from a very less active family and only comes to church when his grandparents can get permission to bring him. 

 

Our time for sightseeing is all too quickly coming to an end as we have only about 10 more Mondays so we plan on trying to go somewhere every Monday which bums the Elders because it means they have to do their own laundry and fix their own breakfast on Monday.  I think we have spoiled them a little bit.  We plan on going to visit the boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln next week which won’t be nearly as long or hard as it is only about an hour from us. 

 

We have continued to search for lost members of the branch.  It seems as though the time just seems right when we find a new family we have been searching for.  It is hard to think we are just finding some as the time is growing shorter but we will do all we can to help them come back while we are here.  We just found another couple on Sunday who was so welcoming.  There are two brothers who live next door to each other with their families.  They live about 30 miles out which makes it harder to get to them regularly.  Their parents are active in one of the wards but they both married Catholic girls and have had nothing to do with the church for a number of years.  We will just continue to try and fellowship them so they have a positive feeling towards the members here.

 

We are both so grateful for the time we have had to get to know these people.  This branch is so amazing.  We only had 27 people to church on Sunday but testimony meeting still didn't have any pauses.  The people here really know how to testify of the truthfulness of the gospel and the Savior.  We have been here for 17 Fast Sundays and it never ceases to amaze me.  We have been so blessed to be a part of this branch.

We love you all and hope you are taking every opportunity to share the gospel.

Love 

Elder & Sister Fullmer

 

Below are a picture of the temple trip I took with the Sisters,  The cave pictures are Us on the stairs coming out of the cave, Fat mans misery where you have to turn to get, through and Evan goofing off and little Kaden at the rock shop with crazy windows. The last two of us on the steps of the Indianapolis Temple and just a picture of the temple.

July 27, 2015

This has been a very busy week with lots of travel and some unexpected service.  On Tuesday I was helping a sister work on her family history as she is going on a long vacation and plans to visit 8 temples and wanted family names to do.  When we took a break we happened to check Facebook and saw that Leroy and Eva Mae had been flooded badly from last night’s rain so we quickly had lunch, changed clothes and went over.  There wasn’t much we could do at first because they were waiting for the insurance lady but after she came we helped load the furniture they were trying to save. We took boxes of stuff that had to be moved that hadn’t gotten wet upstairs  It had all happened so quickly on Monday night.  They had to get the EMT’s to come and get Leroy and move him upstairs while they tried to get the water stopped.  It wasn’t just rain water but backed up sewer water from the faulty water system in Cannelton.  The Cannelton Mayor says it isn’t the cities fault and they won’t help them with any of the costs.  They have ended up having to tear out walls 12 inches up as well as the lower cabinets and her island in her kitchen.   It turns out that Leroy’s motorized wheelchair was ruined from the water so he isn’t able to go anywhere at this time.  These are the best sweetest people in the world and seem to  have one trial after another.

We left at 7 with Tim, Cheryl and Sydney to go to Carmel Indiana for the temple open house.  It takes nearly 4 hours to get there and with the time difference it was noon before we were there.  I had the wrong address for the temple and we stopped and ask at a station and got the right directions.  As we got to the temple there were people standing outside the gates handing out anti propaganda and we took their one handout not even thinking.  We had a wonderful tour of the temple.  Sydney just kept saying that she wanted to be there.  When they said the first endowment room was for instruction she said “if it is just for instruction can I please go to that part.”  She didn’t want to leave the celestial room at all.  It is such a beautiful temple with gorgeous woodwork and paintings.  We took lots of pictures after the tour and then left for home.  She was reading the anti-literature and getting very indignant about what they were saying and why they couldn’t just leave us alone.  For some reason the GPS started taking us north instead of south so we took off on a road but it turned out to be a good thing because we found a great little gyro place to eat.  We visited with the owner and gave him our card and told him about the temple open house.  It took us even longer to get home because of the stop and go traffic so we didn’t get home until 5:30.  We were both pretty worn out and knowing we had another travel day on Saturday just relaxed and worked on lessons when we got home.  It was a good day and just what Sydney needed.

We left at 9 for Louisville and with the time difference got there just about 11:30 so had some time to visit with the other senior couples.  It was good to spend time just visiting and comparing branches and the work we do.  It made me really glad we are in Tell city when I hear about Monticello only having 6 people to church some Sundays and Beatyville sometimes only has 15.  We at least average about 35.  Also those two towns are so far out and on such winding roads that it takes them 45 minutes to go 19 miles to get groceries.  We had a very nice salad lunch with ham and shrimp as well and just visited and each couple told of experiences and some about themselves.  It was good to meet the Carbine’s who are taking the Moulton’s place in the office. 

We then left for the temple where the seven couples made up the session except for one other sister.  We did all branch names which made it nice for the branch to get that much work done.  Most of it was on the Cunningham line.  I did Martha Anna Spicer’s work.  She was only married for a year when she passed away in 1893 probably in childbirth as they had a baby die in 1893 as well.  When I got to the veil the spirit was so strong and such a feeling of joy.  I know she, John Milton and their daughter were all there and thankful that this work is being done.  I can hardly wait to seal her to him and then seal Ada to them. 

We were able to find another less active and to meet up with a family we had found once before who now seem interested in learning more.  The husband was very active at one point but has let life get in the way.  We have a return appointment on Sunday.  The first time we were there I told the lady I would bring her a loaf of bread and she hasn’t forgotten that. 

The work goes on and the time continues to fly.  Every time I think of leaving these people I get a little emotional.  We have made such good friends who really do feel like family.  Our Stake President told us last Sunday that we could solve that by just moving here for good.  I would miss my grandkids and kids way too much.

We are both just so thankful for the opportunity we have had to have this experience.  Nothing can compare to it.

We love you all

Elder and Sister Fullmer

Amy—congratulations on that new grandbaby.  He is adorable. 

Robert & Connie—were you by any chance in Indianapolis on Friday.  We passed a semi with a load of pigs and wondered.  It made us think of you anyway.

July 20, 2015

July 20, 2015

The highlight of this past week for me was the temple trip that I took with some of the sisters from the branch.  We have been working very hard to get names ready for the temple and last
Wednesday 8 of the sisters and I went to the temple.  We were able to do 121 baptisms( 37 family names), 40 initiatory, 6 endowments and a number of sealings.  The best part of the day was that one sister did her sisters work, one did her grandmother’s work, I did a man from our branch’s mother’s work, one sister did her aunt and the other two sisters did aunts of another sister.  Our newest converts did baptisms for their grandmother’s and great grandmother’s so it was a wonderful productive day.  We are hoping to do more research so that we can have another such day before we leave to come home.  Most of the sisters have really caught the vision of family history and we are working hard to make sure they are comfortable with the family search program so they will continue after we are gone.  Evan took the Elders to appointments and then had coordination meeting with our branch mission leader while I was gone.  One of the blessings and opportunities of being Senior Missionaries is that we are able to help just where we are needed and don’t need to be together at all times.

We attended another Baptist funeral this past week.  It is such an interesting experience that makes me even more thankful for knowing what I know about the life after this one and the comfort it brings. 

This week is so scheduled that the time is going to fly.  We are going to go to Indianapolis to the temple open house this Friday and are hoping to take Sydney and her mother and possibly one other lady.  Along with Zone Conference, a Senior Missionary temple day, visiting teaching, some of our regular appointments and helping a sister do some family history before she leaves for her extended trip in which she hopes to visit 8 temples, it is going to be a very busy week.

We just had Family Home Evening at our house and with 13 people in our little living room it made for quite a crowd and we laughed so hard at some points that we were afraid the lady next door might call the police on us.  We certainly do have a good time when we are together.

The water has started to go down in the Ohio a little so the threat of flooded roads has abated somewhat but as I type I listen to the thunder and watch the lightening.  The thunder here seems to roll on forever.  I do love the rain but we are feeling a little water logged.  It also makes for very humid days and it is hard to be out in the heat for too long without feeling as if another shower is needed.

The gospel is true so what else matters.  We know it, we love it and we are trying to show by our example what joy it brings.

Love

Elder and Sister Fullmer

July 13, 2015

July 13, 2015

Dear one and all.

Not much different has been going on this past couple of weeks.  We have had so much rain that we thought for a while that we should build an ark.  The days it hasn’t rained have been so hot and humid that we wish it would. 

We had to buy a car as our air conditioning went out of the old one and it was going to cost so much to fix it that we decided to look for something new.  We found something that will meet our needs and has many fewer miles than the 298,000 miles that the other one has.  We still plan on bringing the old car home as we won’t need the ac while driving home in October or for several months when we first get home. 

We got a new Elder this past week on transfer day.  It was another of those really long days as we first took our Elder Stewart to Jasper where he will serve in a trio for another 3 weeks until his one companion goes home and then two weeks later his other companion goes home and he will probably get a greenie to train.  We got 16 new Elders this transfer and get 14 more next transfer so a good number of missionaries are training.  We then went to Louisville to pick up Elder Jessen who is from Orem Utah and has been out for 6 months.  He was awfully quiet for the first few days but is now opening up.

We have a sisters temple day planned for this week where 9 of the sisters from the branch are going.  Some will be doing baptisms, some initiatory and then hopefully the time will work out that we can do a session.  We have done a lot of family history and the excitement is high especially with our two newest converts.  This will be the first time they have been to the temple and they are both doing family names.

We found a lady we have been trying to contact since we got here and had a very nice visit with her.  She joined as a young lady but has since gone to the Catholic Church because her husband will go there and she wants some kind of church in her life.  When she lived in a different town she said the missionaries were always at her house.  We will be able to see her more now as she has lost her job and isn’t really looking very hard for another one.  She showed us her father’s Book of Mormon and the very old pamphlets he had from when he joined the church many years ago. 

As I was reading in Ether this morning it really struck me as to how much our world is sounding like what was going on during that time with all the contention that is happening.  We each need to stand up and speak out for what is true and right.  We have the fullness of the Gospel and know what joy it brings us and we need to share with everyone we meet.  Never be afraid to bear testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.  We both know it is true and are so thankful for that knowledge and the peace it brings.

We love you all

Elder and Sister Fullmer