May 27, 2014

We had two very good experiences this week.  The first started out with a phone call from the former senior couple from here who called to tell us about a family Jessica and Samuel who they had helped some while they were here but the family was not ready to listen to the gospel.  The family was in need of some help and wondered if we could help them.  Through texting we were able to find them and met with them.  I must admit that I was a little bit judgmental about them.  It seems that too many people here are on the welfare system and feel entitled to a handout but when we met them my attitude really changed.  She was so apologetic about having to ask for some help that I wanted to give her everything I could.  They have a young family and were just having a few struggles.  She said that when the other couple was here she wasn't ready to listen to the gospel message but that now she is at the place in her life that she really wants to make a change in her life.  She was raised in the foster care system until adopted at age 10 by a "pastor who preached one thing on Sunday but lived a different way during the week".  They are both willing to come to church and to listen to the lessons so we will see how it goes.

The other lesson that was very positive was with Saundra.  She lives across the street from the Elders and they saw her scrapping her porch one day so went over and asked her if they could help her and she was willing to have them help and then to listen to a lesson.  We went back with them and had a wonderful lesson.  She asked a lot of questions and seemed very sincere about her desire to learn more.  I could really feel the spirit there with her during the lesson.

Neither of those paragraphs really express how good the experiences were.  It is such a wonderful opportunity to be a part of this work.

Other than that we visited with several other people many of whom are less active but very good people.  I went visiting teaching with one of the sisters which took 4 hours with the travel time involved.  We helped a family move, did some genealogy for a man, worked on a book of poetry for one of our members (82 year old sweetest sister in the world), talked to our non member friends and made a lot of bread.  

The gospel is true.  We all need to be more involved with missionary work.  We love you all.

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Evan and Trudy

Elder and Sister Fullmer

May 19, 2014

The time is flying by so quickly.  Our friends the Yearsley's and my sister in law Sister Hawkins just hit their half way point and we are at 3 months already.  I can sure see that anything less than an 18 month mission doesn't give you enough time to hardly learn the ropes but that the Lord can use us no matter how much time we have to serve.

We had a week of 80 degrees one day and 50 the next with lots of scattered showers nearly every day.  Only one big thunder storm with flash flood warnings though.  The scattered showers just make it humid and muggy here but also has everything so green and gardens are growing.  We have blossoms on our tomatoes and the radishes and carrots that Evan planted in a couple of bales of hay that were in our backyard for some reason are growing.  We have also picked some of our onions.  We have been told by several friends that we will get all the garden produce we can use when their gardens are ready.

This week we got to go to transfer meeting.  Elder D was transferred to Louisville Bike and we now have Elder A.  He is from Canada not far from Edmonton.  Transfer meeting was a time of happiness and some tears.  The Elders going home gave short heartfelt testimonies and the new missionaries looked ready to go to work.  The new companionship's seemed happy with the changes.  We met another Senior Couple who are serving in a small town of 870 people with about 25 in their branch and they still meet in a store building which they have to clean before they have meeting.  We are so grateful to be where we are and at least have a building.  We have lots of possibilities of new contacts whereas they have a more limited number.  President Woodbury spoke and stressed how important it is to have a clean apartment.  He told of his experience of being able to go to a Notre Dame football game before coming out as mission president and getting to go into the locker room.  He said that it was so clean and organized and not what he expected at all from a college football locker room.  He asked the guide if the players had cleaned it up the night before just for this occasion and was told that the last coach had had no standards of keeping anything clean and the locker room was always a disaster.  Notre Dame was going through a really bad time and not winning any of their games.  It had gone on for a couple of seasons and so the coach was fired and the new coach was brought in.  The first thing he did was set standards of how the locker room was going to be kept.  Within two years Notre Dame was at the national finals (whatever it is in football).  The coach said that when your personal life is in order the game would be in order and it certainly showed in their winning.  President Woodbury said that it is the same in missionary work.  They need to keep their apartments and cars clean in order to have the spirit to teach.  I know that when our house gets into disarray we find it hard to be organized about our visiting and teaching.

We also had zone conference which is always a learning experience.  We were trained on what to say when someone asks us about The Book of Mormon musical which is coming to Louisville in July.  We can just tell them that the musical will entertain them  for a couple of hours but we can teach them of the book which will change their lives forever.  It is nice to be prepared ahead of time in case we are asked.

The rest of the week was spent with meeting more less actives and teaching with the Elders.  There has been a lot of sickness causing a lot of cancelled appointments but we press on.

Much love to all

Mom and Dad

Grandpa and Grandma

Elder and Sister Fullmer

 

 

This is a picture of our house.  

The 2nd picture is of a barge going down the Ohio.  It was actually two loads long full of gravel.

May 11,2014

The real highlight for this week was the opportunity for us to actually teach a first lesson.  We were given a referral by a member who thought it would work better for us to teach this man than the young Elders.  It was a nervous thing to face but it seemed to go well.  We talked about the restoration and what it means to us.  The member also helped lots in the discussion.  Bill did agree to read from the Book of Mormon and also to have another appointment.  Evan and I seemed to work well together each teaching parts of the lesson.  I guess those role plays that I dislike so much at meetings are helping us be prepared.

 

We had a treat when Sister Halvorsen called from the mission office to give us a message from Elder Yearsley in California.  Her son lives down by where Gary and Wanda are serving and as her son was driving down the road he saw a man in a white shirt and black pants moving mattresses so stopped to help him.  He told Gary that his parents were filling the same role on their mission in Louisville Kentucky.  Gary told him about us serving in that mission and to have his mom tell us to have a good day.  Thanks Gary for the wishes.  It is a small world.

Evan spent one day helping a less active who has become such a good friend.  Between mowing lawns and cutting wood they have really good gospel discussions.  We know this man will come back into full activity.  He feels the spirit and loves the gospel.  He feels that we were sent here to help him.

We learned that one of the young men that we have been teaching doesn't know how to read so we asked him if he would like us to help him learn and he was very receptive so after the discussion on Wednesday and the rest of the group left we started trying to help.  I had made cards with sight words on them but it became apparent very quickly that he didn't know any of them and we found that he can write his name but that is about all of the alphabet he knows so we started working on his alphabet.  I think he knows more than he lets on because when we would ask him about the letter that would make a certain sound he wouldn't point to the letter but he would look at it.  I think he has been told for so long that he is stupid that he is afraid to even try.  We went to the library and then to the Dollar Tree afterwards to get more materials and we will see how it goes.  He says he wants to continue but we will see if he puts out any effort to practice what we gave him to do.

 

We were able to take a sister to the temple on Saturday.  Another sister had planned to go but had to back out at the last minute.  We schedule a monthly temple trip as one of our responsibilities and it was rather nice that this one ended up just being the three of us as it gave us a chance to really get to know this sister.  We did a session and then a few sealings which made for a nice day.

Gas prices are still going up which makes it tricky where we buy gas.  If we can find a reason to go into Kentucky we can pay from 10 to 20 cents less for gas so we are always checking the prices.  This week is going to be pricey because we have a trip to Louisville and one to Evansville.

One of our Elders received a transfer so we will take the Elders to Louisville for transfer meeting and then bring the new companion back.  We hate to see Elder D. leave because we enjoy him so much.  We can see why people get attached to the Elders and have a hard time when they are transferred because that is how we feel.  I am sure the new Elder will be just as great as Elder D. and we will love him also.  These kids are all remarkable missionaries.

I talked to all 11 kids on mother's day.  It was good to have even a short visit with each of them and find that generally all is well.  We are anxiously awaiting our trip to DC to meet out newest grand daughter Madelyn Quincy who was born on Saturday.  We will also be blessed with another grand daughter this week.  

Brother and Sister Parkinson-I talked to Sister Lunt at the temple on Sat. and she said to tell your son Hi for them.  She remembers him well.

We love you all and would enjoy hearing from you.

Mom and Dad

Elder and Sister Fullmer

Evan and Trudy

The picture is of the five of us who live within 80 miles of each other in Idaho.  Elder Fullmer, me, Sister Wadley from Shelley, Elder Holt from Chubbuck and Elder Gerard from Idaho Falls.  We all serve in our district so this part of the mission is in good hands

 

May 5, 2014

Another week has flown by with beautiful sunny mornings and cloudy cool afternoons.  The trees are all budded out and it is green everywhere.  We have had a busy week of service.  Evan spent several hours helping a member cut and haul some trees from the hill behind his house that he was afraid would blow over onto his house.  I just spent time reading President Monson's biography while they did that.   We also helped a non member family move some of their things with the Elders and the help of our neighbor who lives across the street.  We couldn't find a member with a truck that was available so just went across the street and asked Jerry our other non member friend if he would help.  He at first thought Evan just wanted to borrow the truck and said sure and then Evan said we wanted him to help as well and he said "Oh, I see what is going on."  He came and helped and he and Evan really hit it off.  Jerry now calls Evan Preacher Man and me Sister T.  On Sunday Jerry was sitting out on his porch so Evan went over to talk to him and he asked questions about how our church operated, what our preacher got paid, how the priesthood worked and about resurrection.  For someone who says he isn't interested he sure asks the questions.  He also thanked Evan two different times for getting him to help move the Parkers.  He said he really enjoyed helping.  We have less than 16 months now to help him learn more of the gospel and to bring him closer to our Savior.   On Saturday Evan wasn't feeling well but I went to help our Branch President and his wife Penny work on their house they are trying to get ready to sell.  It is a beautiful old home but the renters trashed it and it needs lots done.  The Elders had one of our less actives Tom with them helping which he loves to do.  We worked for several hours and got a lot done but there are still many hours of work to do.   Saturday evening we met with Jeff Taylor and watched the Joseph Smith movie.  Jeff really felt the spirit and did commit to coming to church on Sunday.  He has such confidence issues that he usually just says he can't commit to coming because he doesn't know what is going to happen but this time he actually said he would come but when Sunday came Jeff didn't.  Scott Keller did come and brought his granddaughter with him.  Later in the evening we went to Scott's house and taught his granddaughter a lesson.  Evan asked Scott when he last read the Book of Mormon and Scott said it was three years ago.  He must still have a testimony and now that his anti-Mormon wife has passed away maybe he can make a change in his life and hopefully in the lives of his other children.  We had the best testimony meeting I think I have ever been in on Sunday.  We have a little boy Jackson in our branch who is just 8 and was baptized just before we got here.  His father is a less active member and his mother isn't in the picture but his grandmother is the real force in his life.  Jackson bore the most beautiful, heartfelt testimony about his Savior and Heavenly Father that  I have ever heard from a child.  Brother Hinkle later bore testimony of the great ones spoken of in scripture and said that we have one of those great ones in our midst.  I feel that it is Jackson but he isn't the only one in this branch.  There are some amazingly strong people here facing some daunting things.  Every testimony borne was an addition to the spirit.   Of course later Jackson had a meltdown in Primary because he couldn't say his 4th Article of Faith right.  The 8 year old showed through then. We love you all. Elder and Sister Fullmer Evan and Trudy