Email address: lauren.fullmer@myldsmail.net

Sunday, June 21, 2015

June 21, 2015 - My missionary life

Well it's been another busy week in Nishinomiya. That's the name of my
area just so everyone knows. I'm in nishinomiya area, Kobe zone ,and
amagasaki district. Try saying that ten times fast! I've been here for
2 transfers (6 weeks each transfer) and I'm fluent... Just kidding on
the fluent part! I am so far from fluent ,but Japanese is coming.

So this week we did not have a lot of lessons. A couple of people
cancelled on us and we didn't have too many planned anyways. So guess
what that means? We did a lot of finding. Finding is when we go and
try to find new investigators to teach. Sometimes it's just so
depressing because I know with all my heart that this gospel is true
and I want everyone to know that! Sadly a lot of people do not want to
hear our message. It's kinda like when you find this really great
restaurant and you just want to take your friends and family with you
because you want them to enjoy the food and experience. That's how I
think about the gospel. It's brought me so much joy I just everyone to
be able to experience it. However, sometimes that doesn't happen ,but
that's okay because we do find those people who want to hear and are
ready to hear our message.

We went finding down by an eki (train station) a lot this week. It
seems old people and young people are the people who have patience
with us and want to hear what we have to say. We met this young about
12 year old girls because they came up to us. They asked us why we
were here and what we were doing. At that time we had been handing out
English fliers for our free English fliers because a lot of times we
can find investigators thru English class. We told them we teach
English and invited them to come. They were super giggly and friendly.
They kept saying that we had pointy noses and that we were really
tall. A common thing I hear a lot in japan is that we have pointy
noses. Japanese people really love our noses because they think that
theirs are flat (Miyu ,our investigator, told us that).we invited them
to English class and they said that they wanted to come ,so we'll see
what happens.

After some time up and down this street, we walked passed these two
college age guys. And one kinda snickers "Mormons" we were like what!
And turned around and he kept walking but he yelled at us "I went to
BYU!" And we were like hah ya right. We were standing at a busy corner
and decided to approach these young high school girls. We went to talk
to them and they kinda just walked by not even noticing that we were
there. We were like darn and turned around and standing behind us were
these other high school girls we saw earlier. They looked like they
had some attitude and so we didn't know if they wanted to even talk to
us ,but they came up to us saying "pretty. Wow so pretty!" To us. They
really loved my eyes. They thought that they were pretty. We took them
down to this cafe to sit and talk with them. When we sat down I notice
at another table the college guys were there. We were like oh no! The
guy turned around and started talking to us in English. Turns out he
actually did go to BYU Hawaii and he ended up joining the church
there. However, now he's inactive. He lives far from our church so he
would go to another church ,but we invited him to church as he walked
out. We said" church is at 10!" He kinda chuckled ,but at least we
tried. We talked with the girls and invited them to church and to
English class so we'll see what happens. Before we left the head girl
of their group asked to take a picture of my eye. I laughed and said
sure. So now she has a picture of my eye. I wasn't kidding when I said
they loved my eyes. Ah Japan. So interesting ,but so great!

Spiritual thought:
Moroni 10:20-21

20 Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there
must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be
charity.
21 And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom
of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not
faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope.

^ I've come to love three words on my mission. Charity, hope, and
faith. Towards the end of the Book of Mormon, as Moroni was writing
the last bit knowing fully well that he would die soon he wrote about
faith, hope ,and charity. You can't have one with out the other. You
can't hope for better days ,but not have faith that they will come.
You can't be charitable towards people ,but have no hope in things,
same goes vice versa faith and charity, etc. It simply doesn't work.
When you have one you have to have the other. Easier said then done
,but as we strive to walk in the ways of the savior we can develop
faith, have hope, and have charity(pure love of Christ). So hope for
better days, have faith they will come and have charity in your heart.

I love all of you and wish you a great great week!

Love,
Fullmer shimai









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