January 26, 2015

It seemed as if the week flew by and as I look back at my journal to see what to write I find that it has just been a typical week.  We did some service, visited less actives, visited the sick, helped plan a baptism, baked food to take to people, encouraged the down trodden(texting is great when they won’t answer their phone but will text), prepared lessons for Sunday, fed the Elders, drove to Louisville for transfer meeting which ends up being nearly 300 miles, made numerous trips to Bristow (45 miles round trip), stopped at the gas station a lot (thank heavens for cheaper gas), had weekly District Meeting and even babysat 4 little boys so their parents could have a date.  Our mission call is to help in the branch where ever needed and that about sums it up for the week.  Sometimes it doesn’t seem as if we have or are making a big difference but we just keep going.  Who knows what soil we are preparing or what seeds we are planting?  We did meet with a less active man who is just working here temporarily and he seems sincere in his desire to come back to church.  He was very active at one time but let things slip away when he got divorced.  We are so thrilled about the baptism coming up next week.  Every time Sydney learns something new she is so excited to implement it in her life.  She reads her scriptures any time she is feeling down or discouraged or faces some challenge.  She is truly an inspiration to this branch.  She went to primary with me yesterday to see what it was all about and bore her testimony to our boys about how much she already loves the scriptures and how blessed they are to have had them their whole lives.

We just passed our 11 month mark.  Time really does fly when you are having fun. We love the opportunity to share our testimonies of our Savior and His atonement.

Love

Elder and Sister Fullmer

Ps.  Kimber: thank you so much for the sharing time idea.  I used the punch cup thing in my lesson and of course the 5 boys loved it.

Kara:  Thanks for the long email.  It was so good to learn of what is happening in your family.

Joe, Josh, Cami and Jake:  Thanks for the phone calls.  It was good to visit.

Connie:  Thanks for always sending your notes.  We appreciate any communications we get even short ones.

Amy:  Congrats on the upcoming grandchild.  You will make a wonderful grandmother.

Gary and Wanda:  We have really enjoyed your blog.  You certainly don’t have time to get “trunky”.

Dale and Ivalue:  It sounds as if your busy schedule has started up again.  Keep up the good work.

Val:  We have enjoyed following your mission.  You certainly have served a little bit differently doing so much of it on your own.

Charlie:  Thanks for the information and the help.

January 19, 2015

Hello all from sunny Indiana.  Our weather has been so beautiful the last 4 days we are hoping it isn’t the calm before the storm.  It has been jacket weather which has sure been appreciated.

The best part of the last couple of weeks has been the decision of our friend Sydney to be baptized.  She is nineteen and really didn’t know anything about God when the Elders started teaching her.  She has come so far and is so excited.  We were with them last week when they taught about tithing and she just said “hurry and ask me the will you question”.  That is how each lesson ends.  Will you live the law of tithing or will you live the word of wisdom (she wasn’t sure about giving up an occasional glass of wine but did make the commitment.)  That is one way you can tell if someone is really understanding and changing their lives-if they answer the Will You questions and then keep the commitments.  We also watched the Mountain of the Lord video with her and she is so excited about going to do baptisms for the dead.  We looked and perhaps we can take her to the Indianapolis temple open house in April.  Sydney just announced at Family Home Evening that she has moved her baptism date up two weeks.  At one lesson she told us all that she didn’t think she was feeling the spirit like we all talk about feeling. She said that she hadn’t ever really felt a burning like the Elders had told her could happen and Elder Fullmer told her that it might be more a feeling of peace.  That made more sense to her and she said that even though her life is not perfect and she still has some problems she really has felt peace since she has learned about the gospel.  Our branch has really taken to her and are all fellowshipping her.  She said tonight that it would be hard to see “her missionaries” ever go but knows that is what happens.  She has especially bonded with our friend Carolyn because she is just the age Carolyn was when Carolyn joined the church so they have that in common.  Sydney was feeling a little down because she has told some of her friends about being baptized and they are giving her a hard time about it.  She is so excited for her baptism that she wants everyone to be happy with and for her.

I spent 4 hours one day going visiting teaching to two ladies.  About an hour and a half of that was travel time and then we just make long visits because we never take the time to visit on Sunday.  One of the ladies is in her 80’s and comes to church when she can but she needs to visit.  She has been really sick so hasn’t been to church for several weeks so we had a good time catching up.

We have to be in Owensboro by 6 a.m. tomorrow to take a set of Elders to transfer meeting.  We really did want to go to this particular transfer meeting because both Elder Davis and Elder Gerard finish their missions tomorrow.  They were the Elders here in Tell City when we arrived on our mission and we love them both.   It means for a very early morning and a rather long day but so worth it.  We love transfer meetings because of the enthusiasm of all the missionaries.  There is nothing like Greenie Fire.

WE love all of you and appreciate any texts, emails, phone calls or letters.  We both love the gospel and love being here with these good people.  We know we can all make a difference if we just let out light shine and not be afraid to share the truthfulness of the gospel.  Just remember that so many are seeking the truth but don’t know where to find it.

Love

Elder and Sister Fullmer

January 12, 2015

Dear One and All

Like our friends the Hatch’s serving in Nauvoo and my sister-in-law Sister Hawkins serving in Missouri we have had the bitter cold this past couple of weeks.  We haven’t had any snow and luckily didn’t get the freezing rain that was predicted but it is cold and that makes it hard to want to go out and visit anyone.  I am finally over my cough for the most part so didn’t need to stay in but we did still have the unpacking to do from the big move.  We finally got pictures hung and all unpacked and it feels like home.  It is hard to remember that we ever lived anywhere else.  Because we lived in a house where two other Senior Couples had lived there was quite a bit of stuff collected by both couples.  We tried to weed out anything we didn’t feel was necessary except beautiful pictures one couple had purchased which make our home look so much homier. 

 

Some of our grandson’s sent us little cards with jokes on them and we have had such a good time taking them with us and sharing.  Our friend Leroy who has been paralyzed from the neck down for about 30 years always tells us a joke when we go see him.  His speech is hard to understand but his family can with work, interpret for us.  We stopped one day and he was alone (his wife only leaves him for very short periods of time) and we told him one of the jokes.  The next day when we stopped to see them again the first thing his wife and one son told us was that when they got home Leroy told them the joke.  He has such a sense of humor.  Everyone tells us that he was so fun before his stroke and we can see that he would have been.  The joke we told him was “What do you call old snowmen?”  “Water”.  Thanks Justin and Hyrum for sending the jokes to us.  We still have several more to take to Leroy to add to his collection.

 

We had such a great experience of following the spirit last week.  On Tuesday we didn’t have any set appointments but needed to do a few things in the morning.  After lunch Evan said that he felt we should go visit our friend Carolyn.  I was kind of hesitant because we had an appointment to be there on Wednesday for a lesson and dinner with an investigator Sydney and I thought we should visit someone else.  He just said he really felt we should go there so we went out and when we got there Greg her husband met us at the door and said “I am so glad you came, Carolyn really needs you right now.”  He was getting ready to go to work so we only talked to him for a few minutes before he left and then we spent time with Carolyn.  She has been going through some really rough things and needed to talk to someone.  Evan was really in tune with the spirit.  It feels so good when you know you are in the right place at the right time.

Evan has some new responsibilities in the branch.  They can’t officially call him to them but because we are called to serve wherever the branch president needs us, Evan was asked to be the Young Men’s President as well as an assistant clerk.  Our clerk is moving to Utah this week and they are facing the yearly audit so needed help.  Because Evan has been a clerk before he knows what goes into that audit so can be of great help.  The branch had a Young Men’s President but because we didn’t have any boys coming he was never there for that last hour of church.  We now have a family coming that has 14 and 12 year old boys.  The 12 year old hasn’t been baptized but comes.  We also have a boy who comes every other week who is 12 and his mother says he can now choose to be baptized if he wants.  He has just been going in with the primary because he has a half-brother who comes all the time and there were no other boys.  Evan is trying to get the three boys and their fathers to come to Aaronic Priesthood.  This was the first Sunday since he was asked to do this and the boys didn’t come this week.  I have never seen Evan put so much time into preparing a lesson as he did the one for the boys.  He really wants to make a difference in the lives of these boys if he can as well as their less active fathers.

 

I was able to help in the Primary yesterday which I love.  We had our little William start primary and he was so good it was amazing.  He didn’t get off his chair the whole first hour.  He wasn’t sure he wanted to come back in after getting a drink and going to the bathroom but I told him we were going to talk about puppies and kitties and he came in.  I am going to be teaching a lesson in there each week.  Because of the size of our primary they haven’t really been giving them a lesson each week but just trying to keep 5 boys from 7-12 learning.  I talked to the older boys after primary and told them we would be gearing the lessons to Williams level part of the time and just be patient with us.  They all said it would be fine because they were still just kids too.  It was sweet of them. 

 

Time is flying by so quickly.  When we think that it is less than 8 months until we come home we feel such an urgency to work harder, be more in tune and find all those we haven’t yet found.  Now with Evans calling as the clerk we want even more to get the branch lists in order so the next Senior Couple won’t have such a challenge finding people.  We love this gospel and want to help those in this area especially in this branch feel of the love of our Savior and understand the Atonement. 

 

We love you all and want to hear from you. 

Love

Elder and Sister Fullmer

Mom and Dad

Grandpa and Grandma