Goodbye to President Martins!

June 23, 2014

Hey everyone! 

This week was GREAT! I can't believe Devin and Dalton are both in the MTC now. So exciting! When does Karin leave? Devin's been in pretty much all of my personal prayers this week, as well as all of you at home. I hope you're doing well! 

I decided to do something a little differently for my email this week. Who's ready for a play by play? (As time allows. We've got 10 minute!) 

Monday: Preparation day, but with four lessons and four new investigators! Woohoo! All of our plans had fallen through, and we decided to visit a contact from the other day, who passed a referral of their neighbor, who gave a referral of their neighbor...and so it went. It was wonderful.

Tuesday:We had until 3:00 to work because of the World Cup. So we went out running!! We had a lesson with Vânia first thing, which was perfect. We marked a new baptism date with her, and she's feeling really good about it! We taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and her daughters were asking us questions about things the kids at school were saying. "Is it true that after we die, we can be born again as a man?" We talked to them about our divine natures as daughters of God. It was soooo special--we told them that Heavenly Father was our Heavenly King (nothing's translating right today, sorry.) and told them that they were his daughters. We asked them, "Do you know what daughters of Kings are called?" and they looked up at us with excitement in their eyes. "Princesses?" 

AWWWWWWW. Hahaha it was very cute, really. 

But Vânia is set on her course, is living the word of wisdom, and is excited. WOOHOO!!! Please feel free to continue praying for her :) I felt the difference this week! 

Wednesday: We got up early to go to Multi-Zone Conference...and President and Sister Martin's "Goodbye". (There's a really good word for that in Portuguese. I don't think we have that in English) Sister Vaughn and I were responsible to give the training for all of the Sisters, and HOLY COW are there a ton of them! I've never seen this many Sisters in my life! (Except in the MTC, clearly. Sidenote: We redivided what areas we're over--we adopted 3 more areas and lost Cerquilho). We spent the part of Tuesday that we were stuck at home praying and planning for what we'd share, and we were really blessed to feel the Spirit guiding us. It was more or less based on that one quote by Elder Holland that......ok. You can find it in PMG chapter 1, under the subtitle of following up or something along those lines. Read it. Love it. Then go apply it. :) We talked about how to teach with power and testimony, and then how to use that same power to effectively follow up. Obviously, the spirit doesn't inspire me in English anymore. Sorry. But it really was good!

We said goodbye to President and Sister Martins, which still feels surreal. I sure do love them. 

Thursday: We worked hard, visited Vânia, had a couple of good lessons with some other people...and that's all we have time to say

Friday:Another good day! LAILA'S LIVING THE WORD OF WISDOM!!! She's doing so great! It's incredible to see her faith growing like this!

Saturday: Y'all ready for this? We taught 16 lessons, and found 14 new investigators. Whaaaaat. That would be my new record! (Not that it's about numbers, but it's fun to be able to see the fruits of our labors!) 

Sunday: We visited a less active woman we had discovered on Saturday with some women from the ward (she hasn't had contact with the church for 40 years). She fell away because she started smoking...but 5 days before we found her, she decided to stop! And did it! WOW. Her 10 and 11 year old granddaughters live with her, and one of the women who visited them with us took them to a church activity! The girls loved it, and are saying they want to be baptized. We'll see where this goes!!! 

Well...I am out of time. This week looks like it'll be full of miracles, and we're so excited!!!! I love you all! 

Sister Fuller

Sure love President and Sister Martins!

"I have a dream!"

June 16, 2014

Dear family, 

I think last week was the first time in a while that I didn't finish all that I wanted to say! Some of the stories already ended though...but there's one that's continuing on beautifully! 

This is a story about Laila. :) Laila is a coworker of Jhessyca. Jhessyca's awesome! She came home from her mission about 6 months ago, and...words can't describe her. But she's great. So she chatted up Laila all about the gospel (Laila's a good 15+ years older than her) and hauled her to church. That's where we came in! 

Laila and her husband, Manuel, are from Minas Gerais. They have a five year old daughter named Ketlin. Laila had a difficult childhood....life....and now, as a result, has a hard time opening up to people. She also has a hard time understanding things, but at the same time is very profound. I can't really explain Laila, but she's really special. In this time that we've gotten to know her, we've discovered that she's never really learned anything about God. King Lamoni lesson, super simple. ("Do you believe in the Great Spirit? That is God.") When we started teaching her she said she believed He had to exist, or how would everything be here. But she didn't feel any attachment, didn't believe He loved her, and didn't trust in Him. But how can you trust in someone you don't know? To trust in the Lord we really do have to do our part to get to know him. So we started there. We talked about how God is our loving Heavenly Father, and that to help us return to live with Him, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ. Well, she had at least the foundation for God the Father, but when we started with our Savior, we had to clear the ground, pour the foundation, and then start building. I've never had an experience quite like this. But we taught her about our Savior. We taught her why we need a Savior, how we can know for a surety of His love and power, and the blessings of following Him. Laila started reading the Book of Mormon every day, and something incredible happened. She started believing!

These are baby steps that we're taking with Laila, but each and every one is miraculous. It's a really humbling experience. 

This week she had a dream. I don't know what it is with Brazilians and dreams, but it seems to be a theme recently! In the dream, her family was being chased and attacked. When it looked like hope was lost, she said the earth started to shake and she saw a man come down from the sky. 

"And you know that video we watched on Sunday? Remember the man in the last picture? It was him!" (We had watched a slideshow put to music of the photos from Reflections of Christ)

This man spoke to her, and told her she needed to follow Him. He told her that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was His church, and the Book of Mormon was true. In the dream she cried out, "I know it is! I know it!"....and then she woke up. 

INCREDIBLE, but she got a little stuck on the first part that really was a nightmare. "If this was my answer, why did it have that part in it?" Honestly, I believe it could have been an answer. But I also believe that the Spirit brings peace, and the God loves her. She'll get another answer if she needs it! 

Vania...I hope you're all praying for her! Her baptismal date was postponed a bit, but she came to church and still loves it. In sacrament meeting, she got really emotional, and when I talked to her afterwards, she told me that she really felt that Heavenly Father was showing her that this was the place He wanted her to be. But she's so full of doubts and worries! We want her to make the decision to be baptized being fully determined to serve Him until the end. She's heading along in that direction, but still indecisive. She has a hard time understanding why this has to be the only true Church. But she's incredible, and we love her! 

I have to go now. But I love you all, so so much. Know that my thoughts and prayers are with you! 

Sister Fuller

Answer from God

June 9, 2014

Dear Family, world, whoever it is that will read this....

I hope you're doing great! We've had a really, truly amazing week. Remember Vânia? She accepted a baptism date!!!! She knows that this is true, but she still feels a little of that fear to make a decision. (Prayers welcomed) She's doing so great....she's reading and praying, and thinking about the gospel all the time. The other day she asked us, "Sisters--how can I know when I have an answer from God? How do I recognize the answer He gives me?" Good question!!! We had an awesome lesson with her and really helped her to see how the Spirit had already answered her prayers, and would continue to do so. Then she came to Stake Conference, and Elder Scott spoke (it was a...what is that word. Transmission? from Salt Lake) and gave his little spheal about prayer! It was perfect! Just going to Conference was a huge act of faith. Her mom was leaving to go out of town for the next 4 months to visit her sister in the states, and there was a little going away event for her. But Vânia decided to use another time to say goodbye to her mom, and woke up, got her three little girls ready, and brought them to church at the Stake Center--where she's never been before. I love this woman......

Stake Conference was great. Saturday night was about the Work of Salvation, and one of the counselors in the stake presidency told a story. There was a stake activity on Tuesday, with the purpose of involving the community and taking advantage of the situation by giving tours of the chapel, explaining a little about the church. There was a woman who looked hesitantly into the hallway after the initial part had finished, and a member noticed. He invited her to come see the church, and the little booths set up to explain about some of the church programs. (Food storage, missionaries, etc) With his invitation, she went. He then went and alerted the missionaries (spoiler--it was me), who went and talked to her, and got her address. We passed the address to the Sisters that cover that area (which just happens to be S. Pereira) and the next day they visited her. But that night, this woman had a dream. She was in a dark room, and heard a knock at the door. She lit a candle to help her get to the door, and when she answered it, there was light again, and she saw two people she'd never met before. They said, "We're here to bring you a message about God." In the dream, she was filled with peace. 

When the Sisters contacted her, the house was dark. The security camera was broken, so she couldn't see who it was. She answered the door a little reluctantly, and there were the two Sisters, who she'd never seen before. And they said just about the same thing the people had in her dream. 

She recognized the similarities between the dream and this meeting, and felt the spirit confirm that this message really was for her, to help her. She's excitedly studying with the Sisters now, and went to go tell her acquaintance that's a member all about it! 

He told the story, and talked about what a miracle it was, how we have to invite and follow up, etc. But what really struck out to me...I knew about the story before he told it. I was excited that the woman was receptive! But...the way he told the story was so special. I don't know, this is probably all just a bunch of rambling for you all. But what I got out of it was that I can not take these experieces for granted. We see so many miracles as we work as missionaries, and we really do depend on them. And they really are miracles! And it's the same thing with so many small experiences. I just don't want to ever take these things for granted. I want to love each and every one of them for the blessings that they are! 

In other news, we started going on exchanges, and it's getting crazy. I'm going to Cerquilho this week! World Cup also starts--on days where Brazil plays, we can't leave the house after 4:00. We'll lose so time to work, but we'll have extra time to plan and pray, soooo....it'll all work out :) 

Good news! I talked to S. Cristoffersen, and all of my recent converts in Salto are doing GREAT!!!! Woohoo!!!!!! 

Oh bother. I had more I wanted to say, but I'm out of time. Um, really quick...we're teaching a woman to have faith in Christ for the first time in her life and it's incredible, and we're finding new investigators with tons of potential! One lives right next to the church! 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!! 

Sister Fuller

Sterling, loooooooved your talk. Then I shared it with S. Vaughn and she copied parts of it into her PMG in the part about christ like attributres. You're famous now!!!! 

"Oh....what do you do in the summertime…"

June 2, 2014

Hey everyone! 

Oh....what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green? (First thing that popped in my head. Sorry)

This week was good. Vânia works way too much and was in the hospital 3 days this week with a bad...throat something or another. I didn't really get it, but it sounded painful. So, there wasn't a lot of time for spiritual progression. We didn't even get to teach her, we just left notes and talked to her on the phone. She had something on Sunday so didn't come to church. :( But she's still solid, just busy. She's feeling better now too, by the way. 

This week we took in three more companionships of Sisters...which means 18 sisters to look over. I'm not really sure how this is possible, but we're trying to do as much as we can over the phone, and are starting up exchanges again. The way President wants it, we're not going to be able to do exchanges with all of them every 6 weeks, but....well, we're still figuring it out. There's not really any guidelines for how to be a Sister Training Leader. But guess what! Sister Christoffersen and Sister Pereira were both transferred last week (by the way, we had transfers. I stayed...surprise!) and now they're our Sisters!!! Woohoo!!!! So fun to have contact with people I love! 

We started a program with the ward called Elder and Sister Rocha. Each week, one family will take on the role of being the Rocha (Rock) family, and for that week they'll put in a more concentrated effort to being the best missionary family that they can. We help them make goals and plans, and work closely with them for that week. The objective is that every family will create a family mission plan that coincides with their interests, personalities, and schedules. The Lord uses all of us, and he wants us to be unique! The way we do missionary work will be as well. Our first week of it went great. We had a family that really just went at it! And this Sunday, we had a devotional to present it to the ward. At church, they announced that the special guest speakers "Elder and Sister Rocha" would be speaking to us. Haha. It was cute. The devotional was great, and everyone left really excited. (We hope so, anyways!) We're excited to see what it leads to! 

I love being with S. Vaughn because she's not afraid to try new things. President always says that if there's anything the inhibits our progress, it's habit. So we try to throw habit out the window a little bit. :) Or, maybe more accurately, we're always trying to add new things, and aren't afraid to throw out things that aren't working great. (Make new friends but keep the old, right?) 

Well. I do believe that's pretty much it for now. This week is ridiculously full of meetings, so it should be interesting! I hope you're all doing great. You're in my prayers!!!

Sister Fuller