Email address: lauren.fullmer@myldsmail.net

Monday, December 28, 2015

Dec. 27, 2015 - Happy holidays!





Hello all! Merry Christmas! And happy new year too!

I've been reflecting a lot because the year is coming to and end and
I've been thinking a lot about this year. Sometimes is feels like
yesterday when I waved at my parents and boarded a plane for the Mtc.
It felt so fast. It's still feels fast. See the crazy thing about time
as a missionary is that it is fast ,but at the same time slow. They
say the days feel like weeks and the weeks like days. This is so true
,and the months feel even faster sometimes.

This past week was full of busy days and lots of train rides. I think
I was the most tired this week because we were always going to places.
This past Monday we went to nishiwaki and hiked a small mountain but
according to my companion it was hill. Ha! And when we got to the top
we talked about love and how we are going to focus on the youth, it
was so good ,but man I was exhausted. We had to go 3 hours by train to
get there ,so by 2ish we had to run down the mountain to catch our
train. I was covered in mud and completely exhausted by the time we
got home. I think I fell asleep ,but I'm not entirely sure. I don't
really remember the ride back.

We baked cookies for the Christmas party. Gosh not a good idea. Our
oven is a microwave that converts into a oven, we could only cook 3 at
a time.. Not fun. We finished the next morning. We made cookies
because one of the activies was to frost sugar cookies and decorate
them. I wish I could tell you how surprised everyone was when they saw
the frosting. They kept asking is this food? They were shocked because
the colors where so bright , they thought it wasn't real food. So they
don't have frosting here and so frosting is scary and also way way too
sweet, towards the end of the frosting of the cookies people just ate
the cookies the way they were because without frosting "it tasted
better" but the point was to frost them! After the party, we headed to
Kobe for our Christmas meeting with all the other missionaries. Which
was the funniest ever. I got to see one of my old companions and some
other missionaries I knew. We played sports in the morning ,ate lunch.
Tacos! We had tacos I didn't know how much I missed mexican-ish food
well Americanized Mexican food until i got to a place that doesn't
like Mexican food.

Okay funny thing, so because I am not blonde and blue eyed to Japanese
people I am not American. They see my companion and say oh she's
American and then they see me and say Mexican? Everyone thinks I'm
from Mexico. So the joke in the mission is that I'm from Mexico ,so
when we were having tacos a lot of people  kept saying "ah this
reminds of you of home huh?" So call me hermana Fullmer! Actually one
member is totally convinced I'm from Mexico. I haven't told her I'm
not yet ,so ya.. I think I'm not going to tell her.. It's too funny!

So yesterday, I went over to ask a member of we could set up an
appointment with her, her husband is less active and she doesn't
really like him. She asked me if spiritual stuff or love is more
important to share. I thought about it for a bit and I told her that
the gospel is love and that the commandment that Jesus gave us was to
love our brother. She said she knew ,but that it was hard because he
is kinda cold. I told her that when we do things through love that
people's hearts soften. I shared this scripture with her and she loved
it.

 1 John 2:10-11
10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none
occasion of stumbling in him.
11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in
darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath
blinded his eyes.

^ you cannot force people to change. They will change through love,
the only way people will change is through love. If we love people,
that light of Christ that burns within us will burn brighter and touch
more people's lives. So spread the love and reach out to those in
need!

Love all of you!
Love,
Fullmer shimai



Monday, December 21, 2015

Dec. 21, 2015

Dear all back home!

Wow this week flew by. So transfers came and went. I'll be in Toyooka for 1 more transfer I think. I'm excited ,but so nervous. It snowed one day this week and I'm not so much Afraid of the snow I'm more afraid of how fast it comes. One minute it was raining and then it changed to this beautiful snow blizzard. I can't saw I love blizzards but boy they are beautiful! 

This week we seemed to be teaching a lot of children. I've heard once that children can recognize that we are disciples of Christ so they know we are different. When we were out finding earlier this week, we were at this neighborhood and we saw a group of six kid and so I said hello to them and they all came to us and we talked to them. I asked them if they knew the true meaning of Christmas and this little 5 year old boy said "yes" so I asked him well what is it? And he got really quiet and nervous, luckily the 11 year old in the group said "Jesus's birth right!" Turns out she was taught by the missionaries a year ago well at least her family was. She wanted us to come to her house because she loved the elders that visited her. She told me that one elder was Brazilian and then she didn't remember the other one I have a hunch that it might be an elder I served with in my first transfer. So cool. 

I believe in miracles I believe that God provides miracles for his missionaries. Though often they seem small and we might not even see them at all they are there ,but I saw one this week. We were on our way to visit an investigator. And we went by this house and I saw someone in the window putting something up in the window,so I said hey let's stop there ,so we did. Turns out we found the house of one of the kids we taught before. 3 little girls answered the door ,and we talked to them. We taught them how to pray and we said a prayer with them. One little girl said wow I really feel good. It was so cool to find and teach them. I have so much faith for them although I don't know the future I know it's so good. In all things there is good and bad ,but if we have faith in God and a belief in our savior, we can overcome anything. I know that this is true. I know that this is Jesus Christ's true church on the earth. 

I found this story in a talk by president Thomas s monson "see others as they can become" 

During the 1940s and 1950s, an American prison warden, Clinton Duffy, was well known for his efforts to rehabilitate the men in his prison. Said one critic, “You should know that leopards don’t change their spots!” Replied Warden Duffy, “You should know I don’t work with leopards. I work with men, and men change every day.”

Through Jesus Christ we can change . Any bad habit, characteristic, mistake we can change and fix through the atonement. I know that anyone can change. And if you follow Jesus Christ you will change for the better. Life is not meant to be easy ,but we are not meant to suffer until we die. God wants us to be happy , and you know what we can be happy and rejoice because of one thing. We have a savior! He lives. He was born and he died for you and for me. He loves us with an  incredible incomprehensible love and he died for us. He died so we can be clean and move on from the past. It's amazing. So amazing. Please let Jesus Christ into your life and I promise you will never be the same. 

Love always,
Fullmer shimai 

Monday, December 14, 2015

Dec.14, 2015 - I'm 20!

Hello people!

I'm 20! Ah oh no I'm an adult! 

This week I had a taste of America seriously! It was awesome. It's been too long since I've had a s'more and guess who is teach the Japanese people all about s'mores.. Yes it was so fun. So for game night this past week we decided to make s'mores. Problem is we had to improvise. We had no frying sticks or fire pit at the church and gram crackers aren't sold here so we made a few adjustments. We bought some hangers at the dollar store and bent those into sticks and we had a member bring his grill thing for the fire. We found marshmallows and chocolate, but we couldn't find gram crackers anywhere. So we bought these little cookie crackers because most treats here aren't very sweet. We opened the pack and discovered the cookies were slightly smaller than the standard size Oreo ,but we didn't let that stop us. The Japanese people were so amazed "this is the best!" "Holy cow! Wow this is so good" was said over and over. I sat there in the camper chair with a bit of a smug look on my face because earlier one of the members who was exclaiming "soooo good!" Had some doubts about it earlier. He gave in and said "you were right! This is the best American food I've ever eaten" after sometime, we decided to tell ghost stories. I know ghost stories but explaining them in Japanese was a bit harder than I thought it would be. The scariness went down because my vocabulary for describing scary things is something like "very scary" or very very scary. But with hand motions and a fire creepily lighting your face the stories can become scarier. 

December 12 the weirdest birthday of my life.
So this morning we went to the train station to met with an investigator. We ended up going to the city over to make Christmas ornaments with her and her friend. I thought they were our age. Nope they have 7 years on us. I don't think I'll ever be able to tell you how old a Japanese person is because they don't age until they get to be about 65ish. So we went to this place with them and made these wooden monkeys because this year is the year of the monkey. We were the odd ones out in a class full of old ladies 2 kids and our group. They sure thought we were cool because we are Americans. They also thought that we didn't speak Japanese ,so they were saying stuff and I replied to a question about me ,but not directed at me. I love doing that, the looks you receive are priceless. Wide-eyed and jaw dropped and this confused look kinda like "how?what the.." I sometimes pretend I don't speak Japanese with kids and then you say one thing and they go crazy! So that was fun. After that we got lunch with them. We got soba. Sobs is cold noodles in raw egg and various of sauces. Man it was so good! All throughout this exchange we were telling them all about God. They asked about if we could ever get rid of sin or sadness. I told them about baptism and how when we get baptized all our sins are washed away. I told them that when we have faith in Jesus Christ we can overcome anything, despite what the odds seem because in reality that's the truth. We can do anything through him. We invited them to come to church with us ,but they said they couldn't because they were busy.
Last week met a woman named Annie. She speaks fluent English and she is a skate boarder. She told us that she has a boy friend in London ,but she doesn't really like him. She told us to meet her at the skatepark at around 2:30 so we went over there. She was there and she was skating around she had this huge old school radio playing rap music. She tried to teach me how to skateboard.. That didn't go over well most of the time I was holding her hand. I hopped off because I didn't want to get hurt. She then said that some of her friends were coming over too.  We got excited because we thought it would be some other skater girls we could teach and then She told us " they're really cute boys". My companion and I looked at each other and just thought "oh no she's trying to set us up." We told her about the church and about what we do as missionaries. And she said "oh I've got lots of Mormon friends!" Her friends were really late showing up ,but we figured it would be better not to meet them. We both felt it was better to 
Leave. She is really trying to set us up with people! No! We decided that if we went down to the skate park we would bring the elders or just not go maybe meet her at a cafe. 
After that we had a lesson at the church with setoura shimai. She's such a sweet heart. I love her so stinking much. During the lesson, Tada kaicho awkwardly came in gave me cookies and cake shook my hand then left. It was so funny! 

After that we decided to go to dinner. We went first to this new sushi place that opened up ,but it said we wouldn't get seated for 2 hours so we decided to go some where else. We went to this way good omelette rice place and the elders got this huge 12 egg omlette rice plates and ate the whole thing, well towards the end sugimoto choro looked sick and he started to sweat from eating so much. It was so funny!

So Christmas is coming up really soon. You know what that means? We get to celebrate the best thing in the world! Jesus's birth. Often it seems we forget why there is gift giving and this whole happy spirit. The best gift ever given was from our Heavenly Father and he gave us our savior. I absolutely can not express how grateful I am for that. I am far from perfect and I make mistakes over and over again ,but through the grace of his son and through faith in Jesus Christ. I can have a second, third chance. Amazing huh? Ever wonder why me? Why did I get this amazing gift? I sure do wonder that sometimes ,but I know it's simply because of the love that God has for each and everyone of us. 

So as the season rolls around, be a little kinder, love more, and spread the good news of or savior's birth because it is the most important thing we can celebrate! 

Love,
Fullmer shimai 

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Dec. 6, 2015 - I'm afraid of Cars....

Gosh this week was an interesting one. 

Tuesday 
I was so so sick we didn't go out. I've been so sick lately, but this day I had a fever and it was just a rough day. You know when you feel like your head is heavy, that's what the feeling was. I was so nauseous. Not the funniest day that's for sure.The elders weren't here because they are the zone leaders so they were at meetings in Kobe ,so I texted a member to see if they could put a sign on the door that said we didn't have English class. The member asked if I needed to go to the hospital and I was just like no I'm good it's just a fever I'll be good if I get some sleep. So if you are sick at all they tell you to go to the hospital ,even if it's a little thing like a cold. 

Friday
Today was a hard day for me. Well in the beginning. So we had zone meeting. That's where go a meet with other missionaries and talk about what we can to be better missionaries and how we need to teach people. Well our meeting was in fukuchiyama so we had to get a bit earlier and we were kinda later leaving ,so we were biking fast. Bad idea. I got in car accident...and I don't have a car. I was going on the crosswalk and this car turned in front of me and I ran into the side of it and fell off my bike and fell on the right side. I'm kinda scraped up ,but other than that I'm fine, I just busted up my hand and my knee and my shoulder kinda aches. well really small accidents here are a super big deal. So some one else pulled over and he came and asked if we were okay. I was just worried because I felt like it was my fault for going fast. It was green so I had the right away ,so he wasn't supposed to turn in front of me ,but I didn't see him. Gosh I felt so bad for the accident. we stood with the guys for about an hour waiting for the police to show up. It was so so cold this morning, but me an my companion just stood there waiting. And then it started raining, and shortly after hailing.. -_- The policemen showed up and it took 6 of them to look at the scene and everything. It was so so cold this morning, I'm not much of a fan of rain in freezing cold . I was so soaked through,by the time we finished everything we did. I had made cookies yesterday for the other missionaries ,but I decided to give it to this man because he seemed so shocked and scared kinda for me ,so I thought it would be good to give him the cookies. He was way surprised and I decided to just give him a Book of Mormon because hey I know how it's blessed my life ,so why not try and help him out too. He was surprised ,but car accidents are kinda the worst. He was like I'll give you candy! And I was just like no no it's totally fine! ,but he did come to the church on Sunday and gave me a cake. Japanese culture... If you give someone something, they are going to give you something back. 

Sunday 
So despite the ups and downs this week. I was so happy on Sunday because this recent convert that was starting to go less active came to church! In the end of last transfer ,he stopped coming to church ,but we didn't stop teaching him. We kept going over to teach him and tell him that the ward misses him and so do we! This Sunday was testimony meeting and he got up and he said "I've felt so much love from the missionaries, they showed me so much love, even when I was busy or I didn't feel like coming to church" he called later that night and thanked us. He said "thank you so much for always coming even if it was cold or you guys were tired. I really came to church because of you. Thank you so much". I'm still recovering from the car accident and the sickness ,but seeing him come back to church was so worth it.  On top of that a less active family we work with came to church as well! It was just so good to see people coming to church. I shared my simple testimony today and a recent scripture I found:

Mosiah 14: 6 All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.
^ I found this when I was reading my Japanese scriptures and the meaning was just so much more profound it just hit me so hard. I just sat there thinking about this scripture and about Jesus Christ. Why am I here? To help people come unto Christ. No matter what any of us goes through, the happy times, the bad times, he's experienced it too. He knows us better than we do. I told the Japanese elder we work with that Jesus is my best friend and he asked "why?" And all I said is "because he knows me". Because he really does. His love is like the best hug you ever got probably from your grandmother because grandmas give the best hugs :) when you get hugged by a loving grandmother you feel warmth,safety, and peace. That's the same with the pure love of Christ. My most sweetest times where when I felt his love stronger than ever. It's incredible to feel that love despite my faults and mistakes. And to know that no matter what he'll always love me.

Well I love you beautiful people! 
Have a fantastic week! 
Love,
Fullmer shimai 


My zone!

Monday, November 30, 2015

Nov. 30, 2015

Wednesday 
Sometimes we go teach a recent convert outside his house because we can't go in his house ,tonight we took a walk he bought us hot chocolate. Well me hot chocolate, he bought cannon shimai warm lemon juice, I like chocolate so I chose chocolate he laughed ,but chocolate is my favorite! He told me to stop pretending to understand stuff if I don't understand it. He said to be honest and say I don't understand ,so I'm trying the whole be honest thing now. He teaches lots of new words to me now. Thanks! He's awesome! We talked about charity with him to night we actually accidentally shared his favorite scripture. He quoted it back at us Moroni 7:45-47. So little did we know that's his favorite scripture and he has it on the back of his front door and he reads it every morning before he leaves. He told us he joined the church because of the principle of love that the church teaches. 

Thursday
Today our stls came to tooyoka for a comp exchange.I went with Allen shimai. She's so legit! She is so fun! First we went and visited Mizuki shimai and Kishida shimai answered the door. She was home teaching i think if you can even home teach Mizuki shimai. So she didn't act out as much. Then we went out to go find a less active Kishida shimai took us and we met her. Man that woman was so small! She was so short! She didn't really want to talk that much which is okay. Then we went back to where our bikes were and went to go teach someone. That person wasn't home ,but some kids were out so we talked to them. They were so cute and they pretty much self referraled themselves to us! It was so funny! I gave them some candy and they freaked out. Gosh I love kids. We played with them for a bit and then we headed out. My toes where so cold I could feel them ,so we stop in a shop to warm up a bit. Toyooka is going to get so cold though. I am going to die. We headed back and stopped by Ueda San (a recent referral from the elders). We got to her house and we're talking a bit. She walked up the stairs and we accidently scared her. Oops sorry! We just want to teach you about Jesus is that okay? We taught her about prayer a bit and she liked it I think. So we might keep teaching her! Yay! Investigator! Then we went and visited yoshiyoka shimais house and taught her a short lesson. Then we biked over super fast to tatsunori  house for thanksgiving dinner which was big fried chickens and rice and salad. Wow I could not believe I ate as much as I did ,but I wanted the usual feeling of hating yourself after thanksgiving ended ,so I went for it... Bad idea. Right after that we went to the church for apple pie and ice cream... Yup definitely hit the point of hating myself and regretting eating that much food. My stomach growled at me and just ached for days afterwards

So I got pretty sick Saturday night, Sunday we went to church and then came home and I attempted to sleep for a couple hours. Sunday night tatsunori stopped by our house and gave us stew because we were sick. The stew was adorable! It had little hearts in it. He took the time to cut up carrots like hearts. Gosh warmed my heart. 

" [the] blessing[s] come when we open our hearts and receive, truly receive, the Lord Jesus Christ, His doctrine, and His Church into our lives. We do not have to be perfect, but we need to be good and getting better." 
-"Eyes to See and Ears to Hear" By Elder Kim B. Clark of the Seventy
^ I read this is morning and I was just thinking about being grateful. Sometimes we forget the blessings we already have and focus on the things we don't have, it's so very easy to focus on the "wants" rather than the "haves" . I made a grateful list on thanksgiving because I figured hey that's a good reminder to remember how blessed I am. I've got an amazing family and I've got the gospel in my life. That's why I am here. I'm trying to help other people come unto Christ because I can't describe how amazing it is to come unto him and realize that absolutely anything is possible through him. 

Well I hope everyone got nice and fattened from the turkey on thanksgiving. (We couldn't find turkey ): here)! Stay lovely wonderful people! 


If you close your eyes the rice tastes like potatoes (not really, but I tried to trick myself like it was potatoes)




Monday, November 23, 2015

Nov. 23, 2015 - Red scarf, red hat, red face

Thursday

Today I had the great joy of going to the dentist. Apparently they found another cavity. I hate the dentist he does all kinds of weird things! He dug out my tooth so right now I have a temporary filling. Their methods are way weird too. He melted something and then he put it in my tooth. I saw smoke coming from my tooth from what ever he did. Gosh I hate the dentist. I have to go back again next Thursday. So after that we went to aity to buy some chocolate for Suzuki shimais daughter's birthday. On the way over there. We saw Suzuki shimai. She ran after us and said shimai! I have a question! And we were like okay ya what? And she pulled out the chocolate cake recipe  I gave her and started asking all kinds of questions. She's such a cute lady! Probably the cutest lady in the ward. I love Suzuki shimai so stinking much.  So we went to the church and suzuki shimai had brought her oven to the church and all kinds of ingredients too. So we had agreed to help her make a cake for her daughter ,So we made a cake. It kinda worked ,but at the same time it didn't really work that well. We had too much batter so it rose over the top and burnt. And then the middle was uncooked ,but we made it work. After we finished the cake she invited us and the elders over to her house. We were a bit surprised so we biked all the way over there and were so tired when we got there. The most adorable thing ever is that she set up her dining room like a restaurant and there is a menu and some paper you can order the food on.  So we jokingly ordered food and she gave us a lot of curry and by a lot I mean a lot! Man I was so stuffed and then she gave us udon curry. And then a yogurt treat and then after ice cream and chocolate. I was beyond stuffed. My body hurt so much. They always stuff us so full of food. If I knew we were going to eat at her house, I wouldn't have eaten breakfast or lunch. We shared part of the first lesson with her and her son

Friday
Today we had district meeting. After we all went out to eat, While there our Japanese district leader takahashi choro told us if he was a sister missionary, he would be "stylish" and have "pretty shoes" and "pretty clothes" and "do the makeup" and have "nice hair" I think he's trying to tell us something. Hmm.. I don't think I'm going to change anytime soon.  Today we biked around a bit and we got to this crosswalk and a couple was walking across the street they weren't Japanese. So we were saying hey look gaijin! And they waved at us and said "sister missioanries!" And then the man said "shimai senkyoshi I served here!" We talked to them and it turns out that he served here in 2006 and he and his wife are from Texas about 2 hours from where I live. So cool! 

Sunday

Red scarf red hat red face. So a reoccurring thing in my mission is me choosing to own red things like my bike is red I got a red jacket from my past companion, and I just pick red things now like my hat and scarf.  We had normal church and the Hamada family came which is good because we had visited them recently they only came for sacrament ,but they came! After sacrament, I had to teach gospel principles. I hate teaching gospel principles. It's not that I don't know the gospel ,but it's more that I don't know the deep deep things yet. I didn't study the doctrine before my mission as much as I should have. I really just graduated from young women's so teaching 40+ aged people about doctrine I don't really know well in Japanese is really really hard. Today the topic was on exaltation or in Japanese "shōhe" So my companion can't help me at all because she doesn't really know what's going on so I told her she could just sit and try to understand. I got up there and struggled through the lesson. Then everyone started asking questions about exaltation. I don't know. The first question was why kind of place is heaven? "My response was "a good place, a wonderful place, somewhere you want to to go" they said "no what kind of place what can you do there? Well Uhhh... I don't even know how to answer that in English let alone Japanese. I have never been to heaven ,so I'm not sure how to explain it because i don't really know how to explain that. I stood up there just turning red and trying to hold back tears because I had no idea what was being talked about. There was awkward moments of silence and I had no idea what to say or do so I asked the class in anyone had any questions. Bad idea. Suzuki shimai came up with great questions ,but I had no idea how to answer them. One was do we age in heaven? and the other was  what does heavenlook like? Uhhh I have no idea. And I said I don't know and yokochan put something in on her phone in English so I would understand -_- and the translate said "grow up" yes I understood that ,but I really don't know what happens in heaven or what it looks like. Ahhh it was awful.  My face was bright red the whole class it probably matched my scarf. I just kept looking at my watching my watch just praying that the class would go fast because it felt like an eternity of me floundering trying to teach everyone. I hate teaching Sunday school...After class I went and took a quick break and just sat down in the bathroom stall in the corner just to kinda take a breath and destress right before relief society. We went to relief society and it was fine.. But I was just so tired from teaching that lesson. Even now if you ask me what exaltation is I can't give you a good answer because I don't really know. I don't know a lot of things but I do know this church is true even if I can't explain the really hard things. 


Spiritual thought: 

Jacob 4:7 
Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things. 
^ weakness aren't necessarily a bad thing, not only can our weaknesses become our strengths ,but they can help us turn to God and learn to do things through God and through his great and infinite  power. 

We found this orange temple thing and that's the couple that found us we decorated a door for Christmas too! 





Monday, November 16, 2015

Nov. 16, 2015 - Rain, love, and oden

Cool thing on Thursday so if anyone knows me they know that I am not good at finding places. I am what you call directionally impaired. So Thursday's we go to seminaries at our branch president's house for seminary. Seminary is class for the youth where they study the scriptures before school ,so that they can be prepared for the day ahead. Seminary is really an awesome thing because you feel the spirit in the morning and just start  day off with a prayer in your heart. So in order for us to get to seminary on time we had to leave at 5:45 ,but we left at 5:30 because I was a little nervous we might get lost. So another fun fact about me not only am I directionally impaired ,but I'm also not a morning person at all. I don't really wake up until about 10:00am. If you ask any of my companions They will tell you I am quiet until we have companion study. So I found these really cool eye drops that are minty and the whole reason to buy them is to wake yourself up.... I have used them so many times. So I used those crazy miracle eye drops and we left the house. It was so foggy and cold this morning. We biked down in the general area and I got a bit queasy going up this hill because I kept thinking this isn't the right way we are lost! So I told my companion "hey we're lost... I'm so so sorry! I think we should pray.." So we pulled over and prayed. I said a simple prayer to find the house and then I got the thought to go back to the fork and go left. So we did and we found the house shortly after. I almost wanted to cry because I was so worried we wouldn't find the apartment.We said a quick prayer thanking Heavenly Father for the amazing miracle, and headed upstairs for seminary. 

I can't say I love seminary I understand why it's a good thing ,but I can't say that I love it especially in Japan at 6:15 in the morning. Gah I was so tired. Seminary was good though we talked about prophets. Well we only have to go to seminary one more time this year which is so great. After seminary we biked to the church because we usually have a lesson with hideko San. So we went to the church ,but it turned out that she didn't show upm At about 10:00 we went to the dentist for this cavity I have.. I got a root canal... What. I didn't even know what they were doing. So yes folks I got a root canal in Japan in where they try to give you gold teeth ,so I think I'm done going to the dentist for awhile. 

Sweet thing. Yesterday we taught a member who is probably the definition of love. She is so wonderful! She after our lesson she whipped out oden(crazy awesome soup) and she said "I got this for you because I love you!" My heart melted. She is so sweet. When we got home I found a note in the bag and it said in English " Fullmer shimai. How are you? Mission thank you! I love you! I really really like you! Everyday thank you! I love you! " I sat back with tears in my eyes because it was just a simple note ,but I just had a bit of a hard crazy week and this little note helped me remember that no effort of mine is ever wasted. It's fun training ,but it's a bit hard because you feel like you have more responsibility and someone that you are supposed to train to be a good missionary. This week I prayed so much for help and for the faith to find people. The best thing about time is it always keeps going. We can forget the yesterday's and live in the nows. We can't ever go back to the past a much as we want to ,but we always have the future to look toward to. " the future is only as bright as your faith" - president Thomas s monson. 

So friends I hope you all live forward in the best way you can!

Love,
Fullmer shimai 






Sunday, November 8, 2015

Nov. 8, 2015 - My missionary life

Transfers... Guess who is now a trainer. It's kinda scary to know that
I am supposed to influence another missionary. I feel less than
qualified ,but maybe that's a good thing? I am not a perfect
missionary by any means ,but I'm trying to be the best missionary I
can be.

Thursday: so typically we have transfers on Thursdays and we are
supposed to go to our meeting point which is at this train station
near Kobe. We stayed the night at some other sisters' apartment
because from Kobe to toyooka it's really far and we had to be at
meeting point at 8:20. So we went to transfer point and all the
trainers got together and We headed to Kobe. I was a bit jumpy and
nervousness because I have no idea who my new companion will be and I
would be her very first companion. I was tired ,but so awake because I
was so nervous. So we got to the home office and we heard that 7
elders and a sister got left in Tokyo,so they were still On their way.
We went to the trainer's training and there was only 2 elders there
and the rest were sisters. We waited with anticipation, just itching
to see our trainees. We could hear them in the other room and we I
just had butterflies in my stomach! Finally the new missionaries
walked in and sat down. President Welch was at the front of the room
with his envelopes. It always feels like the Grammy awards! There's a
huge map of the mission on the wall and president Welch opens these
envelopes supperrrr slow to kinda build up the anticipation and man he
always does such a great job too! So one by one everyone got there new
companion until it was just me left by myself. Turns out my companion
was the one who got left behind in Tokyo! So the rest of training
continued and president Welch had everyone turn to their companion and
get to know them. Guess who sat awkwardly talking to no one. So they
told me to go sit with the sister translating  and her companion so I
wasn't all by myself. The other missionaries showed up at lunch time
but they didn't get any training so it was determined that they were
going to stay in Kobe and get trained tomorrow. It was supposed to be
a surprise that I was my companions trainer ,but when she came through
the door that surprise disappeared after all the other trainees ran
over to her and pointed me out and said that's your trainer!

Friday: because the trainees didn't get training before they had some
training on this day. And because there was only one sister (my
companion) I went through the training with them too. We got to the
iPad training and one of the office elders asked me to translate for
the trainees because his companion is Japanese and they thought it
would be a good idea for me to do it. Elder Williams is way good at
Japanese ,so he could have easily done it ,but he told me "it would be
a good growing experience". Gah growing experiences... Love them ,but
sometimes you wonder why you have to grow so much. So I waited until
his companion got up for the iPad section. I looked around the room at
the trainees with their earphones in and I was holding the translator
mic just thinking "oh no.. I can't do this" I prayed so I could
understand and be able to do this simple thing. Then his companion
elder usui got up and started the presentation. I took a quick breath
and started translating. I went through the program without any
trouble. It was so amazing to just sit back and see how far I've come.
I mean I was translating Japanese to English which is easier than the
other way ,but it kinda just hit me that I do actually speak Japanese
sometimes on a good day! Haha, I'm kidding I can speak some Japanese.
But elder Williams was right it was a good growing experience.

Ahh I almost forgot. My trainees name is cannon shimai. She's from
Provo Utah and she's a cute girl! She's pretty patient and just ready
to go out and work! This transfer will be so fun!

Spiritual thought:
D&C 18:18
Ask the Father in my name in faith, believing that you shall receive,
and you shall have the Holy Ghost, which manifesteth all things which
are expedient unto the children of men.

So my little translating anxiety wasn't really anything ,but Heavenly
Father still heard my tiny prayer for help and he helped me. It's the
little things like that ,that reminds me he's always aware of me and
my trials. I know if we really rely on our Heavenly Father he will
help us when we need it most, and if we don't see those fast answers
it's not just him not answering he might be answering in a different
way instead of instantly giving us what we want. Life is good y'all
God is good ,we have just got to rely on him! Well, have a great week
everyone! I love y'all!

Love,
Fullmer shimai




Sunday, November 1, 2015

Nov. 1, 2015 - Transfers

Hello people's! Transfer calls.... So big surprise! I'm going to
train. Ahhhh! That's so terrifying. I'm so nervous,but I get to be a
mama! Yay! I hope my trainee is ready to teach people . Gosh it's
going to be so fun, but scary!

So it's starting to cool down quiet a bit here. I think the snow with
start coming. Gosh my poor trainee's first transfer is going to be in
the coldest area in the mission. Gosh that is kinda rough! Anyways, I
found out I have to buy some thermals or I will freeze. Last year my
zone leader got frostbite on his ears and his toes... He wasn't in
this area ,but he was in a cold area. So I'm a bit nervous for the
cold ,but I think it will be okay. Probably.

So recently we went and visited Mizuki shimai. Ha Mizuki shimai is an
interesting person. She has a doll that she feeds.. And she also sees
ghosts sometimes.. And she just hums and sings  She's a little crazy
,so when we go to visit her we just sing her a hymn or we talk about
Jesus with her. So we showed up to her apartment and she came out and
told us we could come In, she said we need to go down stairs to visit
her friend, So we went for a little walk with her around the apartment
complex she took us to a little cemetery near the apartments and
pointed at the sky saying something about her grandma. I was just
sitting there thinking what the heck is going on? So we thought we
should get her back in her house so that she wouldn't get lost ,so we
told her "hey let's go home". She said no and started to "run away"
more like hobble because she is like 74. My companion and I kinda
chased her down and said "no Mizuki shimai! Let's go back to your
apartment!" She got angry with us and said no then she tried to kick
us. She lifted up her leg to kick us ,but like I said she's very old
,so she couldn't really kick us. We got the idea to bribe her with
candy. I whipped out this treat we had for her and we told her she
could have it if she went back inside. She got really excited and said
okay let's go inside. So we won't visit her for sometime especially
not with my trainee at first.

Spiritual thought:

Mormon 9: 31 Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my
father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written
before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest
unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we
have been.

We are all different right? But being different isn't always a bad
thing. We have weaknesses so that we can learn from them. Everyone is
struggling with something even if on the surface they seem to be doing
fine. So don't judge people based on what they do or what they have
done. Don't judge them because they sin differently then you do. Judge
them on the character they are becoming. I know we all have problems
,but sometimes those problems are just blessings in disguise. We just
have to figure that out. God loves us so he gives us hard things. I
know he loves us because he trusts us to be able to do those hard
things and to climb those mountains through the help of his son. Have
a great week yall!

Love,
Fullmer shimai

Mizuki shimai, one of our lessons, our zone, me and my companion Gibson shimai





Monday, October 26, 2015

October 26, 2015 - Missionary life..... Sorry!



Hello friends and family..... My entire email just got deleted... -_-
why. Grr so I don't really have too much time to retype ,so I am
sorry! But here's some pictures to make up for it!
Love all of you!

Awesome Quotes by apostles and prophets! :
"We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to
become each day"(The Transforming Power of Faith and Character,
Richard G. Scott)

"To effectively serve others, we must see them through a parent's
eyes, through Heavenly Father's eyes. Only then can we begin to
comprehend the true worth of a soul. Only then can we sense the love
that Heavenly Father has for all of His children. Only then can we
sense the Savior's caring concern for them." ( Through God's Eyes By
Elder Dale G. Renlund)







Monday, October 19, 2015

October 19, 2015 - My missionary life

Hey all!

So this week was full of miracles!

We have been so busy and just been working hard to teach people and find new people. We were doing pretty well with being able to teach people. We got to Sunday and it seemed that we were still below our goal. We wanted to teach just a few more lessons. Well Sunday morning we woke up and Gibson shimai was as sick as a dog. All the color was drained Sent from my iPad

We went out in this new area really far from where we usually go and we tried to talk to some new people. We had no luck with that. We went back up to the pretty busy area and we walked up the street because we felt like we should. We walked for a bit and we saw this guy walking his dog and we were like "woah we know him!" And we waved at him. We had met him before and so he recognized us. He waved back and picked up his dog and ran across the street (dodging cars) to talk to us. He walked over and we started teaching him and invited him to come to church next week. 

Later Sunday evening we decided to go visit this girl who had previously wanted to go baptized. We showed up at her house at about 7:45 and she wasn't home ,but her mother and father were. So we asked them if we could sing a Hymn to them. They were a little confused ,but they said sure. It was cold out so they invited in to their door way. We walked it and pulled up the song book on our iPads. The song we picked was "I am a child of God". The lyrics go like this:

301
I Am a Child of God
1.I am a child of God,
And he has sent me here,
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear.
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.
2.I am a child of God,
And so my needs are great;
Help me to understand his words
Before it grows too late.
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.
3.I am a child of God.
Rich blessings are in store;
If I but learn to do his will
I’ll live with him once more.
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.
After we had finished singing, the husband wanted to read the lyrics again. So we let him, he didn't say much ,but he turned to his 10 year old daughter on his left side and said "you are a child of God". It was the coolest moment of my mission to see this love in this family. At that moment I could see this family all in white. There we were in this family's home they are kneeling and singing "I am a child of God" with this sweet family and I could just see them all in white getting baptized. I've never felt such a pure happiness in my life. 

Nephi 11:17, 22-23
17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.
22 And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.
23 And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.

I don't know a lot but I do know that God loves us his children, and his love is something we should want above all things. I promise if you feel that love that you will never be the same. It's awesome! I love all of you! Stay happy! And keep being awesome people!

Love,
Fullmer shimai