April 7, 2014

     We had our first taste of the downer side of missionary work.  We had two days when we couldn't get answers to phone calls and the appointments we did have fell through.  There were many reasons but just the same it made for a bit of a discouraging week.  We have been going with the Elders for some of their lessons and they didn't even need us this past week.

We did go to Arby's for lunch one day just because we had a coupon and a lady came up and introduced herself.  She is one of our less actives but made herself known to us.  We had a really good visit with her and will be able to visit with her and her husband later.  She freely admits that she is just offering excuses as to why she is less active so perhaps we can help her see the importance of partaking of the sacrament each Sunday and feeling of the fellowship of other saints.  One of the sisters in the branch came over and spent 3 hours talking about her troubles and concerns with her family and how she feels we were sent here to help them come back to church.

We did visit with an older couple from the branch on Wednesday.  The sister has Alzheimers but was pretty coherent while we were there.  They were both very fun and interesting people. 

     Thursday we had a baptism for a young boy in the branch.  It was a small gathering because there is some sickness going around but 3 of our 4 primary kids were there. 

 We had been having pouring rain for two days and because the rain and thunder storms cause the tornadoes we got to hear our first tornado siren.  The thunder here seems to go on so much longer than it did at home.  The friends we were with checked to see if it was anything to worry about but it was more for flash flooding.  I wonder if people get to where they don't pay attention to the sirens because they go off as often as they do. 

     Friday was our usual District Meeting which takes a good part of the day with the travel involved. As we crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky we could see a lot of debris in the river and the water was very high.  All the way to our meeting we saw so much water. The farmers are beginning to worry because they are usually in the fields by this time of year.  

We have two new Elders in our district and one new Hermana.  One of the Elders is from Chubbuck and the Hermana is from Shelley so with Elder Gerard from Idaho Falls and us we have a really good representation from southeast Idaho.  We didn't have to do any role plays this time and I was glad because I am still not comfortable doing them.  When we told the missionaries about our downer days they all just said welcome to missionary life.  I guess it is to be expected that every day is not going to be easy.

Because it was a rather slow week and not much to tell I thought I would put a couple of pictures on that we have taken.

     The first picture is the Community of Christ or RLDS church in Independence.  It is right across the street from our visitors center.  We stopped here on our way out.



This picture is of the Cotton Mill apartments.  It was originally a cotton mill built in 1849 and was abandoned for years and then refurbished into low income apartments.  It is just as long the other way as this way so very large.  The rock work is really pretty and you can look through some glass they have put up to keep people from climbing the old steps.


This is a picture of the Elders at our first district meeting showing support for each other.  They each sat on a chair, leaned back onto each other and then the chairs were taken away.

     I have lots more pictures but don't know how well this will send.  I am still learning how to attach pictures in a way that can be seen. 

We love you all and enjoy getting any news from you.  Just because our life is so different than it was doesn't mean that your lives aren't interesting to us as well.

Love Evan and Trudy

Elder and Sister Fullmer