July 14, 2014

Another week has flown by and we have been busy as usual.  The highlight of this week was that we got to go to Zone Meeting and meet our new mission president and wife-President and Sister Brough.  They are so full of greenie zeal and fire that it is amazing.  They told us a little bit about themselves and their family.  When we broke into groups we first went to the group with President and Sister Brough.  President told us about their 4 days at the MTC.  I wish I had recorded it and could listen to it over again.  He told about how the first evening after class and dinner they got on a bus with Elder Bednar and went to Thanksgiving Point to the theater for a movie.  He was so excited telling the story.  They saw the new Meet the Mormons movie that the church has produced.  It will be really neat when we get to see it.  It is meant for investigators or just anyone to see and learn more about us.  On Sunday they had sacrament meeting with the whole first presidency, all but Pres. Packer of the 12, all the auxiliary leaders and many of the 70’s.  He told about the young missionary who got to pass the sacrament to President Monson and what a memory that young man will always have.  They spent the rest of the days with different members of the 12 and the 70.  He then told us about the new focus of the missionary program.  It is FIND, TEACH, BAPTIZE, RETAIN and REACTIVATE.  ALL FIVE EVERY DAY.  Every missionary is to now do all five of those things and try and keep those they baptize.  It is important that those who find the truth don’t lose it by inattention.  We also were told about the new THE FAMILY book that is coming out which we will give to investigators to help them get started on family history.  I am excited.

We then went to the AP’s class where they talked about the promises we could have made with some of these people in the pre-existence.  Angie M’s name just kept coming to my mind.  I feel as if I did make her a promise that I would not give up on her even if she was stubborn.  I felt the spirit so strongly in that session and really want to try and focus on her.

The last session was with the Zone leaders and was focused on teaching the members how to do missionary work.  It really takes all of us, missionaries and members alike to retain those who come into the fold.

On the way home from Evansville we stopped at the little cemetery I have wanted to stop at since we first got here.  It was so interesting to see some of the old headstones.  One of them had every bit of information a person would need to do her genealogy.  In the picture below you can see that it has her name, spouse's and parents names, where she was born and her birth and death dates.  I went into Famliysearch.org and found that her work has not been done at all.  I want to do more research when I have time and see what else I can learn about her.

 

Saturday evening we went to visit Sonny and Sue. They started out telling us that their children were concerned about what they are doing and are discouraging them so they want time to think about things.  I wasn't surprised but it still broke my heart.    Sue had checked a book out of the library which talks about several different religions and when Elder Gerard skimmed through it he tried telling her not to read it.  I told her if she wanted to really know the truth to not go to someone who didn't believe it to get her information.  The Elders stopped to see them last night and think we need to go back to the very basic Restoration lesson again to make sure they understand.  Sonny is really close to the daughter who is putting the pressure on them so we don’t know if he will have the strength to stand up to her.  This work can be so rewarding but so heartbreaking at the same time.

We love you all and appreciate the notes we get from you.  

Love 

Elder and Sister Fullmer

etc.

Picture 1 & 2 are the headstones.  3 is Evan standing by a cornfield.