All Categories - Reflectionsof a Chica in Chile

August 10 2015

8/11/2015

Everything went perfectly this week!
The wedding Wednesday was lovely. Weddings here are much more simple. We went to the goverment office, there was a little cerimony and took some pictures. They were very happy! Lots of their family came, and members of the ward here in Los Mares. But the Best part came sunday! The baptism was beautiful : ) We had it in the evening. Yolanda´s Dad Juan, and her best friend, were there with her and Juan. As we left the bathroom she looked in the mirrior and said ¨this is the last time I´ll see this ugly old lady, next time Ill be a new old lady!!¨ As she left the water tears flowed and she got to watch Juan´s baptism. They are so happy! They look as if a weight has been taken off them and I know its true! They are all new and clean : ) And to top it all off Juan (papa) loved it. He talked with the bisop the whole time! When we got the chance to talk to him again he told us all about how the bishop also served int the military and told him that the Gospel has helped heal him spiritualy and emocionaly. I am grateful for this awesome ward who are so happy and willing to help us!!
I know that Truely Through Christ we can be cleaned and let go of all of our imperfecions and flaws : )
Gracias!!!
SED DE BUEN ANIMO!!!
Con amor!
Hna Fullmer!

August 3 2015

8/4/2015

CAN LIFE GET BETTER THAN THAT?

Estoy muy muy feliz : )

I don`t know what I could have possible done to receive all of these blessings, but I am very happy to have them : )

This week was amazing : )

First off, we have been teaching Juan (Yolanda’s soon to be husband) A TON! He is determined to be baptized with her this Sunday!!!!! We are more then happy to help him do it :) They are making new friends in the ward and will be getting married Wednesday at 8:30 in the morning!! Then Sunday, they will be baptized after church!!

Cristobal! He`s just the best!! He is now attending seminary as much as he can, even though he`s still in 8th grade and doesn’t need to go! He read up to Alma 7 this week and was raging about how AWESOME Alma is.

This week I’ve been studying Alma 26 in the Book of Mormon and found a scripture that describes very well how I feel,

My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?

And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?

No I can’t! It would take up too much time to tell of all the miracles I have seen. But I will leave you all with my testimony that God fulfills ALL of his promises. I had to wait a year, maybe you’ll have to wait longer, but I know with all of my heart that God is just and will bless you. These things I share in the name of his son, our savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.

- Doctrine and Covenants 82:10

SED DE BIEN ANIMO

Hna Fullmer

Les Quiero!!!

July 28 2015

7/28/2015

CRISTOBAL

Yay!! Cristobal was baptized this week! It was amazing and the whole ward came to show their support and love : )

Sunday we felt very, very blest! It was like God saved up all the blessings for a month and showered them all down in one day : )

Miracle 1

Cristobal was baptized!!!! He told us that even though the water was cold he felt good, like something had changed with in him : ) All of his family was there and everyone in the ward :)

Miracle 2

We had a lession yesterday planned with a contact and my comp had a different apartment building written down. Even though I was sure that it wasn´t right, we decided to pass by anyway. We knocked and immediately the women who answered (Paola) told us to come in. We didn´t even have time to explain who we were : ) She is great! She isn´t sure if she believes in God but told us that she was looking for something more.

Miracle 3

The 4th Juan was born!!!! Yayayayay! Yolanda is a Grandma now!! And we had a great lession with Juan (papa) and Juan (Yolanda’s husband)!!

More then anything I learned that nothing really progresses in this work as a result of our work, more it moves forward as a result of the blessings we receive in accordance to our obedience :)

I hope all is well, and you are enjoying your summer : )

Sed de buen animo! Hna Fullmer

July 20 2015

7/21/2015

CRISTBAL RETURNS

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn´t write last week! Time got the best of me. Wow, what a whirlwind! I have so much to tell you!

First of all, Cristbal came back!! Do you remember when I told you about that investigator who was 14 years old and was angry because the Sisters had changed his baptism date?? Ya, so he walked into our sacrament meeting (first part the our weekly worship services), and I almost died of shock!! Really, my comp had just told me a couple of days before about a dream she had had that Cristobal was investigating the church again and was super happy. We shrugged it off thinking it was impossible... Miracles really do happen, because her dream has come true! Thanks to TONS of help from the members here. During all of this time, when he didn´t want to meet with us, they have been calling him, inviting him to their parties and church each Sunday. He is preparing to be baptized this Sunday. I really truly can´t believe it either. He has shown lot of humility by coming back to church, and we have seen lots more changes in him. He is a faithful searcher of Truth. True, he is still a 14 year old boy and needs help, but I realized that what he really needs is to feel that he is loved. That is really what we all need. Please keep him in your prayers this week!!

Yolanda update!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FREAKIN´ love Yolanda : ) Really, she is the best!! She is progressing like crazy, her new favorite book is Jesus the Christ, and she loves reading the Book of Mormon and General Conference talks! Her husband, Juan, is going to get baptized with her on the 9th!! We stopped by yesterday and talked for a minute, while Yolanda was frying Papas Rellenas, and he told us that we radiate peace : ) The best part is he used the frying as an example, “it’s kind of like how you can smell the food frying from all over the house... but with peace.¨ hahahahaha Yolanda scolded him and telling us that we do not smell like fried food : ) ALSO, her father, Juan, who was a little (or a lot) closed off, wants to come with us to church too!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!! Life is Good!!

A funny side note: Yolanda lives with her husband (Juan), her father (Juan), and her son (Juan). Her father is going to have a baby with his girlfriend, and guess what they are going to name him.... Juan : ) )

I feel like I have worked and prayed and fasted for these blessings all of my mission!! I just feel happy to be a tool in God´s hands and pray that I never loose my faith or hope in this great work!

Please keep Cristobal, Yolanda, and the 4 Juans in your prayers this week : )

SED DE BUEN ANIMO!!

Hna Fullmer

PS. The first picture is of Yolanda, my companion (hna Van Cott) and Hna. Nuñez and Hna. Chavez, making cheese empenadas last Monday : ) YUM!! The next two pictures are of our adventure today in the hill of Saint Cristobal (a giant hill in the middle of Santiago) with Yolanda and Juaquin (a little boy she takes care of)

July 6 2015

7/7/2015

SAVING PUPPIES . . . AND PEOPLE!

First off, guess who one the American Cup?  CHILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It just so happened that the game was on the 4th of July : ) Everyone was decked out in Red, White, and Blue (Chile´s colors, too). There was much shouting, yelling, dancing, screaming, flag waving and more : ) We pretended that they were also yelling for us : ) My two favorite countries celebrating together : )

Yolanda Update! She´s progressing TONS!! This week was Fast and Testimony Sunday, a special Sunday once a month on which everyone has the chance to share their testimony during the Sacrament Meeting).  Guess who gave the strongest, most heartfelt testimony I´ve ever heard... YOLANDA!!!! During the meeting, she leaned over and asked me who can give their testimony.  I told her everyone is welcomed, and she could too! She latter told me that she felt the Spirit telling her that she needed to share her testimony : ) Yay!

We also gave her a new Book of Mormon that has the Doctrine and Covenants included. She nearly died of pure joy : ) AAAANNNNNNDDDD Juan, got to come with us too!! We were all very happy to share with him!

We also saved a puppy : ) One of our investigatores just got two new puppies, and we passed by last night to find one of them outside of the fence. Both were crying and trying to dig under the fence to let the other back in. The family wasn´t home, and I couldn’t leave the little thing outside in the dark.  It would be dangerous for the little guy with all the other bigger, street dogs. I tried to catch him and lift him over the gate, but he wouldn´t let me! My companion pointed out that we often do the same thing, God offers to help us, but we refuse thinking its better to do it on our own. We chased him for a while with no luck. I decided to stop and pray and try one more time. Just as I finished the little guy wiggled through the fence! Awesome, right? At least that’s what the dog, my companion, and I thought until we realized that he could not get all of the way through, because the fences have chicken wire attached to them. . . at this point I feel like singing ¨dumb dog¨ with Annie. How in the world can I help him now!! Luckily, he started wiggling back out himself again, and bam!!! I realized he CAN’T run away from me now!!! Hahaha, so I grabbed the little guy and shoved him through the gate above the chicken wire!! Yay! Fastest answered prayer I´ve ever experienced :) I decided that I should learn from this puppy that it’s better to be humble and accept God´s help the first time : )

I love you all!!! And hope this week is wonderful!

Love,

Hna. Fullmer!

June 29 2015

6/30/2015

Spider Wars

God is so good. It’s true. I realized this week how much God has been protecting us : )

So this week we had to pack up our house, so that they could fumigate it to kill all of our spider friends : ) The office Elders had to come and help us throw away old easy chairs, rolled up carpet, and such (all of which had become homes for the Aranas de Rincòn living in our house : ) ) and the next day Our new best friend Heber came by to fumigate (mom I don’t know if that’s how you spell it they but poison in our house to kill the bugs) The only problem is that they did it at 5 in the afternoon and when we came back to the house at 10 pm, we had 2 big problems 1. It still smelled like poison... I think if it kills spiders it kills people too, and 2. All of the huge poisonous spiders came out of their homes... and WERE NOT DEAD!!!!! We know this because Hna. Van Cott poked them with a stick.... they were much slower, but that does not cut it for me, so we grabbed our emergency backpacks (they have everything you need for 3 days : ) ) Boy, am I grateful that we were obedient and made Emergency Backpacks, because let me tell you, when your house is chock full of deadly spiders, the faster you can leave the better! We then trekked across Pudahual in bus to a part of town not highly recommended at night to the house of Hna. Nunez y Chavez (the nearest sister missionaries).

The next day when we returned to the house, we found the all of dead spiders..... well, we have been very protected, we had no idea how many or how FREAKIN' big these spiders were! Wow, God really loves us, He tamed lions for David and Spiders for us : )

¨And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changed not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceased not to be God, and is a God of miracles.¨ Mormon 9 19. Well, I think we proved that this week : )

All is going well with Yolanda! She has a date to get married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This can be complicated and long here in Chile, you have to go to a government building and ask for an hour to get married and usually it’s not very fast, so we are super happy that she was able to find an hour for the 5th of August!!!! And will be getting baptized the next Sunday (the 9th). This week she’s given up smoking!!!!

God is a God of miracles, and I know he is working miracles in your lives too! You just need eyes to see them : )

SED DE BUEN ANIMO!!

Hna. Fullmer

PS the pictures are of the spiders and when we got the ^Safe house^ AKA the house of Hna. Nuñez

June 22 2015

6/23/2015

SPIDERS!

This week was full of adventures!!

So I´m sure you´ve all heard those old mission stories that seem all too extraordinary to believe, and you think to yourself, no way it happened like that! Maybe in all of the retelling, the fish got bigger and bigger, Nope it was just that big : )

Yolanda is a HUGE miracle! I really truly cannot believe how prepared she is. I feel so blessed and loved to be part of her story! This week she got to go to church with us! We walked by her house to go all together, and she was wearing a skirt and everything! When we got to the church building, at least three people ran up and started talking to her like they were old friends.,., as it turns out the were : ) At the end of church, she told us that she felt as if she wasn’t learning anything new, just remembering something she had always know but had been stored away. She said that she felt so special- like she had been preparing all her life to learn these things. And that she felt like she was just waking up : ) She also told us that she smokes (we didn’t know this before), but she decided to stop (she said she’s tried this before more times then she could count)... but this time... she did stop... what?!?! We haven’t even talked about how she needs to stop smoking to get baptized!

O MY GOODNESS! Christ lives, he loves us and if we are willing to act he prepares us! He doesn´t just choses to prepare his favorite children, he prepares us and blesses us according to our willingness to act : ) Yolanda was just SUPER willing to follow whereever He leads : )

Aaaaand, we have spiders . . . we’re talking big ones that like to bite people... well we’ve had them for a while now but they don’t really bothers us. That’s what Raid is for, right? Last night we found a big one by the door, and as we were getting ready for bed my companion jokingly asked me what I would do if she got bit. I started to laugh, but stopped short when I saw another spider right above her bed! Da, da, da, daaaaaa! While we were spraying more than enough Raid, it FELL.... into her bed!! We searched and searched, but could not find it . . .untiiiiiiil we checked behind the poster I had stuck on her wall that said ´Le quiero´ (hahaha saved her life with love : ) ) We sprayed more Raid, and then moved the beds away from the wall. As I was meditating how much I didn’t want to die in Chile, I found a scripture that gave me a little peace.

Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds (and webs) are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man (or spiders) can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever. (Doctrine and Covenants 122:9)

I felt better, but not convinced, so I opened the scriptures again and found,

Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God? (Doctrine and Covenants 6:23)

No joke, I just opened them up : ) Wow, God knows us so well and cares about us : ) We decided the spiders must be a trail of faith and if God tamed the Lions for Daniel, he can keep away the spiders from two missionaries! But I’m sure you can guess who was the fist person I called in the morning ; ) The office is fixing up everything now : )

God bless!

Sed de buen animo!

Hermana Fullmer

PS. One picture is of us and Yolanda : ), the next is of our group of Sisters, and the last is of the Peruvian lunch we made today with the sisters from are group because half of them are from Peru : ) WAY yummy : )

June 16 2015

6/16/2015

FAMILIES

Happy Fathers’ Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to all you fathers! Really, we wouldn’t be anything without you!

Well, this week was a bit of a roller coaster : ) Some days we walked and talked with people on the streets and others days we had lession after lession of awesomeness :) Welp, that’s life for ya : )

The highlight of my week: WE FOUND YOLANDA AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We sort of lost her for a week, we called, passed by for our appointments and nothing. Then on Sunday we decided to call again and..... she picked up! We got to have a lession with her yesterday! She told us ¨I am going to get baptized and nothing that anyone says is going to stop me¨ can you believe it?!?!?!?!? This time we got to talk with her boyfriend (I don’t know the word in English . . . they have been together for 8 years but are not married) Juan, he’s just great! And we talked about how they had to get married before can get baptized. He has a baptismal date now too : ) Juan told us that he had asked her to marry him a couple of years ago and she said no. Woops! We all laughed, and then Yolanda asked ¨So do you want to marry me??¨ Hahaha, yup, I think we witnessed a proposal : )

This week I´ve been studying a lot about the Atonement of Christ. I believe that the Atonement is so vast and miraculous that we can´t begin to understand it all. We can only see an itty-bity part of the great big picture. As I was studying, I found a scripture I love in John 15:13, ¨Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.¨ Maybe we can´t understand everything, but I know that He loves us unconditionally and eternally. For that very reason, He suffered all he did in His love and compassion for us, and thanks to His sacrifice, He has even more love and sympathy for us!

Love you!

SED DE BUEN ANIMO!

Hna Fullmer

June 8 2015

6/9/2015

This week was awesome!

I got to meet the Ward here! There are a lot of young single adults here who are really tuned in to missionary work! They are always helping and are excited to be part of this work!

My companion, Hna. VanCott, turned 1 year old in the mission and 20 years old in life : ) So we partied it up with Great Value brand no-bake cheese cake that we found in Lider (its Wal-Mart, only Chilean : ) )!!! I love birthdays and doing fun things for my companion : ) She is really wonderful! I feel like we are friends and not just companions.

We got to teach a lot of people this week including Yolanda! She is about 45 and is very spiritual. The first time the missionaries met with her (right before I got here) she said that she would never get baptized. The next lession she said maybe, and on Friday she said YES!!!!!!!!! Yay! It is amazing to see the changes that she´s making in her life!

This week we had a sad parting with an investigador named Cristobal. He is about 13 and very, very intelligent (think teenage Sherlock Holmes) He was going to get baptized this past week but there were a couple of things that he didn´t quite understand, so the sisters pushed back his date for this week. Well, he felt very hurt and upset. He told us this week that he had wanted to get baptized so badly, and he felt like he was prepared. He ended up telling us that he felt angry and hurt and now doesn’t want anything to do with us. Wow. I just kept thinking about this experience over and over again. I felt badly, because he really did want to get baptized, but didn’t understand the importance of being prepared.

I was reading about Joseph Smith in my personal study, I realized that when he first prayed and God and Christ appeared to him he had the same age as Critobal, and poor kid, he had to wait YEARS until God explained everything to him. In fact, he went to see the gold plates four times in four years before he was aloud to take them and translate them! (The Book of Mormon was written by ancient prophets here in the Americas on gold plates and then was translated by the power of God by Joseph Smith : ) )

Sometimes you have to wait for the blessings you want. God knows how much we can learn by waiting. We learn patience, to be calm, to be steady, and to trust in him when we have to wait. I can see how in my mission waiting out the bad moments to get to the good has shaped me. I know that God loves us, and everything He does is for our good.

His purpose is ¨to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man´ (Moses 1:39). He loves us and wants only the very best for us : )

I love you all and invite you to wait for it this week : )

SED DE BIEN ANIMO

Hna. Fullmer

June 1 2015

6/2/2015

First off, HAPPY WEDDING to my brother Austin and my, now, sister, Ariel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess what?! We had transfers! They were very bittersweet. I was ready for a change, but not so ready to leave all of the people I love there. I will add a couple of pictures of Angelina and Francisco, two people whom I adore, and my new comp Hna. VanCott.

Before I left, we found a new investigador in Simon Bolivar named Paul Westly J His mom liked cowboy movies, so she gave him a good old gringo name. He lives with his wife and 1 year old daughter. I loved teaching him because he understood everything!! In the end, he told us ¨well, this just makes sense that we should have things like apostles and the priesthood.¨

Most of the week we were sick : ) My companion couldn’t think straight. It was way funny : ) she is adorable, and I´m sad to leave her! Speaking of Hna. Ward, she is deathly afraid of the dogs here and has a bad habit of running when they are aggressive... just so you know that just makes them more aggressive... the dog then starts running too... so I’m the only one not running, and well, the dog usually catches up to me... I´ve had a couple of close calls.... my skirt was not as lucky as I was : )

Hna Van Cott is my new comp! She is actually my ¨sisters´ (Hna Dodds trained us both) I always wanted to be her companion, but I didn´t think it would actually happen : ) yay! We are in the community called Pudahuel in Santiago (close to the subway Laguna sur if you want to Google map it : ) ) Its full of houses!!!!!! WHAT!!!! It seems so very normal and country after Santiago Centro ; )

I´m ready to work hard and help her here : ) I will now be the sister who travels yay! Which means I get to visit a couple of sisters who are working in the country! Way fun!!!

Life is so good : ) We’re enjoying every minute of it!!

SED DE BUEN ANIMO!

Hna Fullmer!

Hermana
Madi Fullmer

I'm a college student ready to serve the Lord and the People of the Chile Santiago North Mission from February 2014 to August 2015

For more on my beliefs and why in the world I choose to go on a mission visit my I'm a Mormon page http://mormon.org/me/CWP1/MadiFullmer

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