Email address: lauren.fullmer@myldsmail.net

Sunday, July 26, 2015

July 26, 2015 - My missionary life

Hello all! My week has been a lot of fun. Well a lot of something! I
just know I'm tired.

Okay, so we did a lot of contacting. Housing and Streeting. Lately all
our investigators have just been busy or they don't answer
calls/doors. So we decided to go visit one last PI and see if she had
any interest. So we biked down to her house and she was outside
playing with her kids and some neighbors were out there too. We went
to say hello ,but she ignored us and picked up her kids and walked the
other way. Interested? Perhaps not. So we shrugged and figured hey we
could go housing here just because we're here. So we tried housing the
a couple of doors. 1,2,3,4 doors slammed or "we're fine, please go
away"s. It doesn't really bother me that much because 1 they aren't
reject me or my companion and 2 half the time I'm not sure what they
just said. So I think that's a plus! Anyways we get to this last house
and I decided to try I different approach. I said " we are voulnteers
can we help you with anything?" And the woman opened the door and said
"what kind of thing?" And we said "cleaning or anything." She then
started speaking perfect English. So she said "oh please come back any
day. I need help with my English" ,so we found someone we could
potentially teach! Yay!

This Past Friday, we got a text from a investigator(in a different
ward)who is friends with one of our less actives we work with. She
texted us and said that the less active's father passed away. Well we
decided to go visit her and see if we could cheer her up. I could
vague remembered where she lived. And my companion has never been
there before ,so I was leading. I kept praying please please help us
find her house. So we went down the way I remembered and I got this
picture in my mind of the apartment complex and at that moment. It
seemed like I got the whole map in my mind. We made it there just
fine. For some of you who don't know I am directionally impaired ,so
that was a huge blessing! We got her house and she wasn't home so we
put hearts all over her door and wrote her a letter. As we were
leaving, she came up the stairs. She was so happy to see the door and
she said it made her feel better. We hugged her and told her that we
would help her with anything. It really seemed to lift her spirit.

Ok spiritual thought:

Alma 34:32
32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God;
yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their
labors.
^ I love this a lot. Because it is really true. This life is for us to
prepare ourselves to meet God. We have trials so that we can learn and
grow and so that our faith in God grows as well. I once read somewhere
that God sometimes withholds an answer to our prayers so that we can
show our faith in him. I know this is true. Life is a rollercoaster of
ups and downs ,but through God absolutely anything is possible.

I love all of you!

Love,
Fullmer shimai


Monday, July 20, 2015

July 20, 2015 - My missionary life

Hello all sorry that I didn't email earlier. We were in Osaka! We went to meet some other missionaries to go to the Pokemon center! Wow talk about a lot of Pokemon and a lot of random things that I don't need ,but now have! Sorry everyone if you dint get email responses I just don't have a lot of time so I'm only going to send out this email sorry! 

Okay this week I learned a new word. Taifu... It means typhoon. Talk about a lot of rain and wind! It started a couple days ago it's done now ,but man it was scary. And we don't really have cars here ,so we bike in that. You know pictures where the rain is up to people's knees yes that's the kind of storm we biked in. When we biked I could feel the wind push me back. It took us almost an hour to get home when we were really close. I am so thankful I got rain boots and that my mother got me a nice raincoat. Thanks mom!

Ok miracle: so we biked home after a long day of Streeting in the taifu weather. We got home a little bit before planning. We were completely exhausted from biking and just the day in general so we were about ready to collapse. Man I was so tired. Anyways, we walk to our apartment and my companion tries to pull out her keys. Guess what she doesn't have. We lost the keys! So my comp started to get a little upset saying things like "don't be mad at me! I'm so sorry! Im so sorry!" I could tell she was getting really upset to a point to where she might cry. I wasn't upset at all. I just thought "cool sleep over at that church!" So we went around to the back of the apartments and see if we could scale the building. We live on the second floor and so maybe we could get in thru our window. It was a bit dangerous though and I figured my parents wouldn't like to get a call from Japan saying "is this Sister Fullmer's parents... Well she kinda fell from her apartment and broke her leg ,so she has to come home now." So I thought probably not a good idea. We walked to the front and sat and then prayed. After our prayer, we thought about our options 1- sleep at the church 2- scale the building 3- possibly spend the night at a members home. Then we called welch shimai( presidents wife). She said that they had an extra key in Kobe ,so that meant we had to brace the taifu again and bike 20ish minutes to the nearest train station then run to the home office then come back. I was like ok we're coming. We emptied out all our stuff and I just kept praying and praying please help us find these keys I know we have them. I got the impression to check my pocket one more time. I already checked it ,but i figured what's wrong with checking one more time. So I checked and they were there. You might be thinking "oh you just didn't check your pocket" or " it was there the whole time". I did not have the keys at all that day. My companion hangs on to them because she is the senior companion. She DID NOT give me the keys. It doesn't make any logical sense how they got in my pocket. That my friends was a miracle. Right then and there in the pouring rain we knelt and gave a prayer of gratitude because we both knew that the Lord had given us this miracle. It was a really cool experience even though it was just a small thing. It still boosted my testimony. 

Spiritual thought 
Moroni 10:19
19 And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that all these gifts of which I have spoken, which are spiritual, never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand, only according to the unbelief of the children of men.
^ I read this this morning. I just like it because it's true he is the same forever and always! 

Sorry! I have no time! 

Love you all 

Love,
Fullmer shimai 





Sunday, July 12, 2015

July 12, 2015 - Missionary life :)

Hey peoples!
So this week we tried to find less actives. The majority of our ward
is less actives. All together we have about 200+ people in our ward,
but only 30 people are active, so guess what that means... We need to
help reactivate them :).

Less active family:
So we decided to start with some families. We found a teaching record
of a pretty decent size family with 3 kids,so we were like yes let's
go find them. It was in a place called takurazaka. For the record the
takurazaka eki is about 40ish minutes (via bike) from the church. So
we headed off. It was a really humid day.. And usually after humidity
rain follows. The weather was decent when we had left ,but as we biked
the clouds started to darken. Then it started to drizzle then pour. We
didn't have our kappas with us ,so we were soaked. Honestly it felt
great! We had been dripping with sweat anyways so we were already wet
,but the rain felt so good!  when it rains I sing this part of song we
listen to by owl city? Were it says "and though when it rains it
pours.. All I have is yours... I believe that God is love and he is
all I need from this day forth for all eternity!" It makes me laugh
and my companions laugh ,so I sing.  So we continued on our trek and
slowly but surely we biked through pouring rain until we reached the
bottom of the mountain. The less active family lived at the top.
Everyone always lives on the top floor, mountain, etc. it's never the
first floor or by the church. But anyways we reached the bottom and
started to bike up. We kept going and going covered in sweat again
because the rain stopped ,but we were so determined to find this
family. We checked our map a few times and we saw this zig zag design
along this trail and we weren't sure what that meant ,but we continued
on. Finally we reached the bottom of some stairs. This was the zig zag
design. We parked our bikes and slowly climbed the stairs when we got
to the top we hiked a bit higher until we found a huge apartment
complex. It had a fence surrounding the apartments so technically we
aren't really supposed to go in unless we live there. There was no way
we were going back after we had conquered the mountain ,so we waited
until someone went through the gate and we followed them. The family
wasn't home or didn't answer ,so that was a little sad ,but we left a
note for them.

Funny story:
Ok so this past Tuesday one of our members named senba shimai told me
it was her birthday on Wednesday. So I was like ah we have to go visit
her! And heart attack her door! I know her favorite candy ,so I
figured we could also bring some of her candy. We invited the elders
to come and sing happy birthday with us to her because she is
completely fluent in English. So we went to her apartment complex. And
out hearts all over her door. We pinged her door and said "hey it's
the missionaries" and as soon as she opened the door we started
singing happy birthday. Well too bad it wasn't her. We were like
"happy birthday to youuu haa... " awkward silence. And all of us
missionaries just like oh man. We apologized and after she closed the
door on us we quickly grabbed all the hearts of the door then we
laughed for about 5 minutes. Then we went to the right door out of
habit we went to the first door instead of the second door. We did
sing happy birthday to senba shimai and she invited us. We all ended
up sharing our testimonies and in the middle of elder Seagle's
testimony she just started laughing so hard. We thought it was some
Japanese thing he said or something ,but she said sorry sorry and
tried not to laugh and then she just kept laughing and said alright
I'll tell you. She said to him " you know who you look like? Mr.
Incredible!" And he just put his palm to his head saying " nooo
everyone says that!" Because honestly he really does. It's quite funny
but he hate when people say it because he says "he's a chubby old
man!" It's so funny.

Okay final story it's funny too:
Alright so 2 days ago we were teaching an 60ish year old couple
(okamoto fufu)we have been teaching for sometime now. We were teaching
the restoration and decided to show our video we down loaded. So we
set it up on and iPad and watched. I was sitting behind the iPad and
just listening. So fun fact in Japanese culture you sit on your knees.
It's difficult and usually my legs hurt for awhile then they fall
asleep after about 30 minutes ,but it's polite to sit like this and
then if your host says so you can sit on the side. So I had been
sitting like this for about 45+ we were way past my legs being asleep,
I couldn't feel them at all. Well the Okamotosan was like "oh Fullmer
shimai needs to see the video too" ,so he was like oh come sit over
here so you can see. So I was like nooo I can't feel my legs. So I
just kept thinking to myself " ok just stand up. And then slowly
shuffle to the seat" well I almost stood up but I couldn't feel my
legs at all so when I tried to stand I fell and whacked my arm on this
stand next to the table. Everyone was like "are you okay? Are you
okay?" I was on adrenaline ,so I didn't feel anything. But I scrapped
some skin off my elbow and arm and whacked my elbow pretty good in the
corner.  They patched me up with gauze and medicine. The next day man
my elbow was so swollen and it hurt so bad to bend. I went back to
biking with one hand again. It's still swollen ,but it's way better
than it was!

Spiritual thought:

Alma 1:25
25 Now this was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the
faith; nevertheless, they were steadfast and immovable in keeping the
commandments of God, and they bore with patience the persecution which
was heaped upon them.

^ so this is about the persecution of Alma's people because they
belong to the church of God. Although the it was difficult for them to
bear the burden of persecution, they continued to keep the
commandments. I love this scripture. So many times in my life I've
heard the phrase "why do bad things happen to good people? Or Why does
God let bad things happen?" I have wondered this before Many times.
This is what I have concluded. Trials perfect our character. They bend
and mold us into something that was better than before. We don't know
god's will for us ,but we just need to trust him and have faith in
Jesus Christ. We can't see the path ahead ,but we need to take a leap
of faith and believe that it will be okay in the end. There is one
person that knows every single thing that you have ever felt and he
waits with open arms. We can turn to him and he will help us along the
way. That doesn't mean life will be easy.. Ha no! Life will be the
hardest thing we ever do ,but as trials come our way we can be
steadfast and immovable and learn and grow from them.

Well I hope you have a great week! Sorry this email is really long!

Love,
Fullmer shimai



Sunday, July 5, 2015

July 5, 2015 - My missionary life

Hello all! Just another week in Nishinomiya.

It seems that we are getting into typoon season. Don't get me wrong I
love the rain ,but it makes it hard to contact people. Most people
don't like to stand out in the rain and talk they kinda just want to
get going.

Okay ,so I have my second companion! She is awesome! Her name is
Chapman shimai. She speaks 4 languages. French is her first language,
however her English is very good. So we communicate via Jenglish (mix
of Japanese and English) if I say something in English and she doesn't
know what I'm talking about I try and say it in Japanese and the point
kinda gets across.yes it's a little difficult sometimes but that's
okay because I know she is ready to work!

Okay housing. So this week we did a little housing. I prefer street
contacting because then you are face to face and they don't just hang
up on you, but we decided to try housing then street contacting. So it
was pouring rain like always and I we ping ponged a huge house. The
woman said hold on a minute and hung up. I was a little confused. Then
she walked outside and down her driveway to meet us. I think she was
maybe 70ish years old. she walked down to us and started talking
really really fast. I still don't know very much Japanese ,but I can
understand a lot more now, but with this woman.. Ahh I don't know what
she was going on about. The she said the word "doll" (Japanese) and I
was so confused! Then she said "cute dolls" and came up to me and
squeezes my checks and they I put two and two together. She said we
looked like cute dolls and wanted to come talk to us. Gaijin power!
(Foreigner) she ranted one bout having her own religion and her kids
going to a Christian college. She just wanted to talk because we are
gaijin. Ahh old Japanese people are the best!

Spiritual thought:

Mosiah 4:19
19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the
same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both
food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches
which we have of every kind?
^ I read this scripture this morning and for some reason it really
stood out. We really all are beggars. In God's eyes we are all at the
same level. We all ask for things from God ,but do we ever take the
time to thank him for what we already had? We challenged a less active
to make a list of 50 small things she was thankful for. We did the
challenge with her. When I made my list I came to realize how much I
have been blessed with and began to wonder have I offered a prayer of
gratitude or have I been asking for things. Don't get me wrong asking
is great! Don't stop asking for help or blessings ,but we (especially
me) have to remember that we already have wonderful blessings even if
it's just the tiny things. Ok so my challenge for all of you this week
is to give a prayer that is just of gratitude. Thank Heavenly Father
for even the tiny things. I promise if you do that you will see all
the things in your life that you have been blessed with!

I love y'all! Have a greattt week!

Love,
Fullmer shimai