actives here and trying to reactive them. Since I have been here with
my companion, we have seen 2 less actives come to church and recently
1 less active that calls us every night to read the scriptures came 2
weeks in a row! It's awesome to see people come back to the church.
People being baptized in the church is super special, but I think
something equally special to that is being able to see people come
back. It's always so amazing to see old friends Reunite. It's so cool
to see people's eyes light up when the less active member walks
through the door. I feel like when it happens the person is
immediately wrapped in love and I'm grateful to be apart of it.
Speaking of less actives. Gosh we have one guy named brother ishitobi.
He calls us every night to read the scriptures with us. It's so fun.
But sometimes we have no idea what he says even the Japanese members
don't know what he says sometimes. The new elder here is Japanese and
sometimes at church we look at him if we don't know what he says and
he just shrugs his shoulders and says "I don't know what he is
saying." In English. Anyways, he called us all this week to read and
after we read with him we would talk about the scriptures and teach
some doctrine from the scriptures. After we would finish he being a
little older would then go on some kind of rant usually involving food
or the potluck this week or us or something. He asked if he could
bring non alcoholic alcohol to the potluck this week on Sunday, I told
him no and he said" but it's okay because there is no alcohol.." I
told him that he shouldn't bring it and he said okay. The way he says
good bye is the best : choi- choi(Portuguese), bye-bye, I love you so
much, and recently something he learned German "i love you" but he
can't really say it so he says "he-bi-di-bi-di!" Gosh he's so funny.
Hospital visits :/... We have a member in the hospital right now and
we go and visit her. On Wednesday morning I felt like I should bring
some pictures with of Christ with me and give them to members that we
see or anyone because you can never go wrong with a picture of Christ.
Well, we went up to the hospital and we ran into some members going to
visit her too ,so we went together and talked with her. Apparently
this member really liked paintings and portraits and things like that.
The members had brought pictures of paintings and books on art. I
pulled out my small picture of Christ, and told her about my love for
the savior and his love that he has for her. I wish I could take away
her pain ,but I can't. I wish I could understand her trial better ,but
I can't. I wish i could help her more, but I can't. But it comforts me
to know that I can help her spiritually and pray for her and be her
friend when she needs one right now.
Gosh the hospital, I don't like going I've gone to it to visit members
and been there once myself here, and I hate it. There's so much good
in a hospital ,but there is also so much pain too.. It makes me want
to do more, something more to help those people who are there.
You know have you ever thought about how church is like a hospital for
our souls. We all need to go to the hospital sometimes, if it's for a
check up or for something major. If we broke a limb or something we go
straight to the hospital, likewise we go to make sure our bodies are
okay and working okay. Church is like that we need to hold on and stay
close to the church and its teachings especially when we go through
hard times. Our pain or spiritual heartache will not get better if we
don't stay close to the church. But unlike a hospital we should go
every week ,so our spirit and be uplifted and be ready for the next
week. People say "well the week starts on Monday, and Monday's are the
worst." I like to think that my week starts on Sunday right after I
get to partake of the sacrament. It's like a mini baptism and a time
for me to reflect on the week and figure out what I need to do the
next week to be better.
This Sunday was great. In the morning we had a meeting with all the
ward leaders at 8:30. I woke up not really wanting to go ,but on the
bike ride to the church I put a fake smile on my face and when we got
to the church I was smiling for real ready to go and ready to work
with the members. The meeting went well, and then we had class. It was
our turn to teach the class. The class was us the elders and my
favorite crazy grandma sister yamane, and brother ishitobi. We taught
about the sabbath ,but the two people in our class didn't really pay
attention. Sister yamane cut me off in the middle of my sentence and
pointed to ishitobi and Said " you see this guy, he's really good at
cooking, one time he cooked this one thing and it was so good." We
laughed because they just weren't getting anything we said. The elders
told us "great job! The lesson was great. Y'all are great!" All while
chuckling.
After church we had potluck which ishitobi brought his not alcoholic
alcohol to! Some other people took care of it and told him it was not
a good idea. We ate good Brazilian and Japanese food. I love Brazilian
food holy cow! After that we did a awesome thing with the members we
and the elders went on splits with a member and went and taught
lessons. We only had 2 hours with the member ,but we went and taught
like 4 lessons. It was awesome! And then to end the night we got to
teach our recent convert, and then teach the Brazilian twins in our
ward some English and have a great Brazilian dinner. It's a good thing
I didn't go to Brazil on my mission because I would have put a lot of
weight on!
Have a great week y'all!
Love always sister Fullmer
Find me! I was trying to scare the elders.. Didn't work they saw me!
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