Feb. 22, 2016 - "Are you half?" Last weeks email... That didn't get sent out :(

Hello people's
So this week we met some pretty awesome people. Well first we got to
meet with our girls. 3 girls that had come to eikaiwa randomly out of
the blue came again. We meet after eikaiwa a little bit and just
talked some and then Kiku (one of the girls) told me that when she
stayed in America she lived with a Mormon family. Her host family was
Mormon! So she had gone to church and she even seminary( morning
Sunday school class). I showed her family pictures later and she told
me she even went to a temple! We set up a dinner with them the next
day, and that Wednesday we went to the best okonomiyaki place
ever. It was just a little hole in the wall ,but boy it was good. We
gave the girls book of Mormons and hiro was already reading through it
like crazy. We are so so excited to teach them because they have got
so much potential.

We met a woman on Friday named noriko. She's about 70 ish looks 60ish
wears bright pink and purple eyeshadow and just laughs at anything.
She actually approached the missionaries first. We asked her why she
wanted to meet us and she said because "I want to learn about Jesus,
I've heard of him ,but I want to learn about him" well for two
missionaries teaching about God and Jesus that's just the best news to
hear. So we talked with her for sometime about Jesus, we tried to give
her a Book of Mormon ,but she said not right now. She told us " I
think it will take me sometime to learn ,but I do want to learn". She
told us before we left that we were cute and then she said "she looks
American"(pointing to my companion) "you look Japanese... Are you
half?" She said that I had Japanese mannerisms too. I told her nope
and she didn't believe that I was American they never do. They always
think I am from Spain or Europe. It's the brown hair I think.

While we were talking to some people near our huge outdoor mall, we
talked to a woman about God and she said "ya we're all related because
of Adam and Eve right?" Japanese people don't know about Adam and Eve!
Turns out she likes to study Christianity... Crazy awesome. We also
were at a stoplight and a man approached asked us "which country? " in
English. He told him America and that we were church volunteers and I
was holding s Book of Mormon at the time and he said "you guys just
study the bible?" And I whipped it up and asked him if he's ever seen
it before. He said yup and pretty recently too, turns out he was
studying in marugame last summer with the elders there and then he
moved. Crazy! He's a little crazy though because he was telling us
about how to take pictures in the perfect light then he gave us
pictures of rainbows he took and some flower pictures and gave those
to us.

What do you do on Saturday nights? I participate in a 3 year old's
birthday party. We usually have game night every Saturday ,but an
American family in our ward son had a birthday last week and they
wanted to do a little bit of a party on that day. So that night the
elder, our mission leader, ourselves and our investigator kana went to the
birthday party.

Kana... She's a fun girl. She about 29 and she loves food and English.
She would ask brother Solomon if she could have more cake and every
time he would say "ya go for it" so she did. She is so funny.

So on Sunday kana came to church she's been a couple times, we've
talked about baptism with her a couple of times,but she still has some
worries that we are working through. This Sunday we went to class with
her ,but the teacher was sick so it was us and the elders. We asked
kana what she would want to learn. She picked repentance. So we taught
repentance with the elders. Gosh matsuhisua choro is such a good
little missionary. He had so many good symbolisms. Towards the end of
the lesson. One of the old members shuffled in the room. I thought he
was unaware of the lesson, but he sat down and cuffed his hand around
his ear so he could hear. We were about to finish up, then he jumped
up and said "if we didn't have Jesus we would be lost!" Or something
to like that in English. He made an elder hold out his hands and he
piled books on his hands and say "this is was sin does to us, it
weighs us down and we can't do anything" (lifts books up) "but he
takes the burden from us". He went on for a few minutes and it was
really good ,but I had no idea that he was even aware of the lesson.
Gosh I love people.

So Sunday was Valentine's Day, we got some chocolates from the church
members and someone made a cake. Kana had to go, so she couldn't stay
for afterwards for some cake, we told her we would save her a piece
and that she could get it later. We went home for lunch and she called
us saying "where is the cake??" We told her it was in fridge "I can't
find it I don't see it!" She said. We put it in the middle shelf in
the very middle, but for some reason it was hard to find. After a
couple minutes she said "yay. I found it thanks ,bye" and hung up.
Gosh she's a funny one.

D&C 18:10-13
10 Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;
11 For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh;
wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent
and come unto him.
12 And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men
unto him, on conditions of repentance.
13 And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!

Repent. All we need to do to be happy is to repent. There is nothing
more wonderful than being relieved a guilt from your shoulders and
receiving forgiveness. Jesus suffered on the cross for us. He suffered
all the sins of the world. All we have to do to be forgiven is to
repent. Repentance isn't just a confession type thing, it's changing
our heart and turning towards God. It's leaving the past in the past
and moving forward with a bright hope and faith for the future. So
friends I encourage you to repent and look to the future.

Feb 8, 2016 -Hello from the city of tall pine tree!

Hello friends and family,

Week two on the island. :) something I like about the island is all the interesting people that I get to meet. I've met my share of people out here, but this week was one of the funniest.

We teach an kids English class here and 3 kids come to that. They are the cutest craziest kids ,but we had a good time teaching them. We aren't allowed to hold kids as missionaries, but when we were sitting down to teach the kids and one of them hopped on my back. It's always the worst because they try and climb into our laps and we just have to push them off. (In a loving way). But the kids were so funny! I don't really know if they even learn that much English from us, but it's always fun.

This week we had English class. 3 college girls came to our class because they had got online and found the place.... What?! No one gets online from the English fliers. We were so excited, though because they are young and want to learn English! We had a pretty fun English class with them, and  One of them plays softball guess who might be playing ball this week... Gosh I hope.  

Last night was an interesting experience. We met probably one of my favorite less actives ever. So this guy, is the funniest person I have ever met. So right now his wife is in Canada finishing up college ,so he doesn't really have much going on. He's American ,but he didn't serve in Japan and his wife isn't Japanese. She's Canadian. He literally one day decided to just come to japan and teach English with his wife. He is the most interesting people I've ever met. So we ping ponged the door, and we heard scuffling and then a "hello?" Who's there?"... "The sister missionaries".. "Oh okay.. I don't need a weapon then" he asked the door and the first thing he said was "I'm sorry do I look like crap?" "So how's missionary-ing" we laughed and asked if he woke up and he said "no I was just kinda laying on my bed looking at the ceiling"...  So this man has a katana ,but he didn't bring it to Japan. (Japanese sword), but we went with him for a walk and he told us how when someone tried to break into his house, and he scared him off with the sword ,but he lied to the landlord and said it was a butcher knife because you weren't allowed to have a sword were he lived. 

Other funny things he said:

When asked how he met his wife: "we worked at the same website..you get to meet people at meetings and sometimes things come up and you drive 20 hours to go to a concert in Canada"

Pulled out candy of his pocket: "dangit I'm like a grandpa pulling candy out of my pocket. I'm 32 I look 45 ,but I'm actually 70"

Asked us if we had eaten at a hotdog stand near his house: "good don't it tastes like garbage anyway, they offended me with the thing they made called a hotdog"

When he had to leave: "so I don't know how to end a conversation, I'm just putting that out there." 

Gosh it was so funny! This guy is the funniest my email didn't do it justice. 

We now call elder Matsuhisua.. Elder pine tree because his first kanji means pine tree. We are working in a place called Takamatsu, which means tall pine tree... I love this place! So much awkwardness and weirdness it's awesome! 

So something we shared with the less active guy was one of my favorite scriptures.

Helaman 5:12

12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Well if we build upon the rock our savior Jesus Christ, nothing can hurt us. Nothing can ever drag us down. Though sometimes those storms and winds will come our way and I have no doubt that they will, if we are built upon the rock we will not fall. 

Loves,

Fullmer 姉妹

Jan. 31, 2016 -まもなく 四国 です。(presently/shortly Shikoku) banished to the island...

Hello folks. As you can guess I transferred. I am now in a wonderful
place called takamatsu on Shikoku (island). Once you go to the island
you never com back. Or so they say. They also say when you go to the
island you get fat,so there's that too. Yay. They changed transfers
from how they used to be. Now they are really different. Before we
would hear on Monday that we were leaving ,but now we just have to
wait until we get called sometime this week and pack really fast and
have no time to say good bye to people.

So I was called Tuesday night and found out that I was coming to the
island. Woo! No snow! Was my first thought, but I like it here.
Everyone is really fun and we've got a fun branch. Love it the people
here are awesome! I was sad to say good bye to Toyooka though I sure
had a lot of fun there. I am not training anymore, Cannon shimai
stayed in Toyooka and I came up to Takamatsu almost alone. That was
fun! But my new companion is awesome. Turns out that I was not social
in college because guess what she was in my ward at college and lived
above me! I knew some of her roommates and she knew some of mine ,but
we didn't know each other. We had gone to some of the same ward
activities ,but I guess we had never really met. Super weird. So her
name is sister Folkman. Folkman and Fullmer fun for 日本人Japanese people
to say. Just kidding it confuses them kinda. But yes, she is pretty
awesome. She is a 4th transfer so still young, but she's awesome! I'm
8th.. Im old. It kinda makes me sad. I'm so old, and I still have so
much to learn. I have about 6months left. Where did the time go?

This week we taught a couple of interesting people. We have met a few
really nice people, and met more weird ones. I like this area from
what I seen ,so far. Nice people, great companion, it's just a matter
of finding the people who are ready to hear our message.

Sorry it's short this week, I'm kinda tired.

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.

I like this because no one is perfect, life's biggest test is becoming
like Jesus who was perfect. But we shouldn't let those little things
hold us back from becoming the best we can be. I feel like I become
aware everyday of my imperfections and what I need to do better and
what I should be doing better ,but it's good it pushes me to improve
on what I'm doing right now. Well folks I hope you work hard this
week, learn from mistakes, and share the love!
Love,
フルマ姉妹

Oh I forgot something really funny. When we where housing we met this
guy named Joe. In my defense,he is Filipino,but he answered saying
"hey how are you guys? " and he was wearing a ISU sweat shirt, but I
thought he was Japanese, and I said "wow your English is so good!"...
He's American. He grew up in Florida. Go Fullmer shimai. That was my
bad. But hilarious!

Jan 25, 2016 - White Toyooka

Well the snow has hit Toyooka. I guess I'm warm blooded or maybe now a
Scrooge ,but  when I see the snow fall I'm not too excited. It's
beautiful and wonderful yes, but I can't say I love it very much. It
was snowing pretty hard on Sunday morning and I said "Holy cow
blizzard!" My companion laughed and said "no it's not, if you couldn't
see that pole over there then it would be a blizzard." Well if you
have a hard time seeing the pole is it a blizzard? I'm still convinced
it was a blizzard. But yes it was snowing very hard ,so we don't bike
anymore ,because it's extremely dangerous to bike now.

Fun thing about the snow though, you can throw snow balls at the
elders. Yes I hit sugimoto choro with a lot of snow. We had been
cleaning up the church on Sunday for church and all the missionaries
were shoveling snow after church ended and he acted like we was going
to throw snow at us in the shovel ,so when he turned around I got him
good. Then it turned into a snow ball fight. With the rest of us.
T'was fun.

Last Monday I bought new boots. Just in time for the snow fall! I've
got this system down with gloves, so I have a bunch of extra pairs
that I found and we don't have dryers so you just have to wait for
your clothes to dry ,so I do 2 pairs of gloves everyday and then at
the end of the day, when they are pretty wet I change gloves for the
next day. It works pretty well.

So Monday night we went to Kobe for TTT (Trainee, trainer, training).
We got to the Kobe sisters apartment and we met some other sisters who
were also staying there on the way over, turns out just about everyone
was told by their zone leaders to stay in Kobe. The final count for
sisters was 15... 15 sister missionaries in a 1 room apartment
squished into the study and bedroom. It was fun except when it was
time to go to bed because the. They we had to squish in there. It was
so packed that I was pushed up against a wall with someone's feet
inches from my face. I don't think I slept. I just kinda waited until
it was morning ,but I got to see Gibson shimai! My last companion! She
is also trying ,so we were pretty much latched at the hip that night
and the next day. Gosh I love that girl.

Tuesday

TTT we had out meeting most of the day where they split the trainers
in one room and the trainees in the other. And we got trained ,by the
assistants to the president and then by our mission president. I got
to see another past companion uchida shimai! She looked so happy and
it was so fun to see her. I laughed with her and talked with her and I
was telling her hey I speak Japanese now! And she laughed and told me
I did when I was with her. After training we walked back to train
station with the fukuchiyama elders because I am directional impaired
when traveling far distances I latch on to people going to the same
general direction ,so we went with them because we would catch a train
from fukuchiyama. The poor trainer was battling strep and so he was
half out of it. I told him "don't worry if you fall we will catch" We
got our tickets at the bus station then we had to sit and wait for a
bit. I thought what would I want if I was sick.. Well something warm
and something for my throat, so I grab my comp and we went to this
place that we know sells good nikumons (little bread things with meat
and goodness inside) and then found some cough drops and yuzu juice
(lemon like fruit) that was warm and ran back to the elders, when we
gave the elders the food he had got them the trainee said " wow, I
just feel so loved!" We safely got on the bus and his trainer was out
when he sat down. We parted ways at the station and we caught a train
to Toyooka as we came in it was snowing hard. We got in and I was a
bit worried. We walked out bikes back and because biking was
impossible. From here on out we are walking. We got home pretty late
and we pulled at the phone and turns out we had a lot of missed calls
from the zone leaders. We called back and they were saying "did you
guys make it home? Are you okay?!" We said "ya we're fine," " (sigh of
relief) good! I don't mean to be your dad, but you guys need to answer
when we call! It's snowing pretty bad tonight!" We apologized and then
headed off to bed because we were so tired!

Wednesday
We went out and visited some of our potential investigators, they were
all asleep I think. Ya probably sleeping maybe everyone just likes
afternoon naps. We had to go back to Kobe again because on Thursday we
have another meeting with elder choi he's one of the area 70 and there
was a mission tour! So we had to go back to Kobe. As we left it snowed
pretty hard. We got to Kobe and it was just us at the Kobe sisters
apartment, yay!

Thursday
So we had the elder choi meeting! It was awesome. He's from Korea ,but
his English is almost  We all took a huge picture with him, when he
walked in the first words he said to us was "do you think I'm
handsome?" We all laughed and said  "yes". "Good I think so too." He
replied. Our mission tour was really cool, we learned a lot about what
we need to do and how we need to do it. They really put a huge
emphasis on teaching repentance and baptizing people. One thing I
loved was "if you don't know what to say talk about the savior because
you can never talk about him too much.. Always have you name on your
lips"after our lunch 3 people got an interview with elder choi. I was
one of the 3. I was beyond nervous. But it was really cool and I got
good advice for some Questions that I had and he told me how I could
go about doing it. After the meeting we went to nishiwaki to stay the
night there, we got there with some time so we tried to find some
people in the area. We didn't have much luck and when it was time to
go we went to the apartment, we got In and as I was stepping inside I
tripped over the stair and fell on up the stairs because I was
exhausted. My comp freaked out and some of the other sisters did too,
see I would have been fine except I had a huge bag on my back because
of all the traveling so I had no balance. I was fine and I am fine I
just got a narly bruise now.

This week we visited a woman named Sugiyama. She's got this glow and I
am convinced she is one of the nicest women I have ever met, but we
found her on accident. We were looking for a less active members house
and we stopped in front of her house and she had came out thinking we
had a flat tire and she wanted to help ,but she helped us find the
way. We had visited her before and gave her a plan of salvation
pamphlet and decided to visit her again. We went to her house and she
opened the door just smiling she came back with our pamplet and showed
us the copy that she had made herself with highlight marks in it she
told us she made her own ,so we could give it to someone else. We
talked a lot about the plan of salvation and she said she didn't
understand the part about heaven we explained and explained ,but she
said that she just didn't get it. I testified about Christ and about
his atonement and about how since we are not perfect we cannot go to
heaven unless we believe in him and use his atonement. We taught her
how to pray and she got really quiet after. She said she would pray
everyday and she is really really just awesome!

"There is no lasting happiness in what we possess. Happiness and joy
come from what a person is, not from what he or she possesses or
appears to be."(how to find joy). You know I've met a lot of sour
people not just in my mission ,but just in life. And I used to wonder
why are they that way? Maybe something bad happened this morning, but
honestly no matter what happens you can always choose to be happy.
Happiness isn't something we just get, we have to choose to be happy
and then we actually become happy. The happiest people I have met are
the ones who went through the hardest things. So friends choose to be
happy! I promise it's probably the best choice you'll ever make!

Loves,
Fullmer shimai

Here's some pictures, for bean shimai and the rest of you who just
scroll to the bottom!

Got in a fight with the stairs and they won

Jan 18, 2016 -Jaw-breaker

Hello hello lovely people.

Monday
So this Monday we put together a little dance with glow sticks I stole
the idea from my last companion Gibson shimai ;). We did it for our
game night. Well game night was sad because it was us the elders and
the one primary kid in our ward ,but it was fun though and we still
made the video with just the 5 of us.

Tuesday
Cold... So cold. I don't know if rain or snow is worse ,but I can tell
you a mix is the worst thing ever! We went and tried to talk to some
of our investigators ,but sadly no one was home or maybe everyone was
sleeping. I'm going to say they were all sleeping. We had ekaiwa, only
2 people came. Tom and the other guy. Man I feel awful I can't
remember the other guys name ,but gosh it's so funny. Today was
emotions and we some how got to the topic of what I did before my
mission. Tom could not understand that I lived in Texas ,but went to
school in Utah. "You go every day to school? By airplane?" "No one
time I flew to Utah, and then I stay there." " but house in Texas? So
fly home everyday?" I laughed and just said I moved to Utah and just
lived there because it made more sense that way. 10 minutes passed and
the other Guy said "dormitory.. You lived In a dormitory." I stood
there with my mouth wide open saying "how do you know that word?? But
ya that's exactly right." Sometimes the words they know surprises you.

Saturday
We got to see our skateboarder investigator and the elders met her
too. Turns out Dale choro is really really good at skateboarding. Was
I surprised? Yes. He was doing tricks and going off jumps and the rest
of us stood there kinda in shock. Annie (our investigator) said "ya
it's cuz he's an American". I guess me and my comp aren't true
Americans because we can't skateboard. Darn it. I better step it up
then. We played basketball today.. Man did we play. It was probably a
funny sight to see because it was the elders and us and our young
woman (mako) and we were at this really dark park using our lights to
see. So it was us against the elders. Mako is pretty good ,but I now
know why they say to be careful playing basketball. So the elders were
talking and of course when a game gets heated words are Said and
people play a bit tougher. It's all fun and games until someone gets
hurt. And usually that's me. So I was standing by the hoop throwing my
arms up when someone came near, well one of the elders charged and I
fell down and my jaw bit down biting through part of my tongue and
then slamming shut. I sat on the ground and pointed at the elder and
said "not cool! Not cool man!" I sat out the rest of the night. When
we got home my jaw locked up and I couldn't move it. I couldn't talk
or eat the rest of the night.
Sunday
I woke up with a pounding pain by my ears and my jaw was still locked.
We didn't go out today because I couldn't move my mouth to talk
anyways. We called the mission president and she said to go to a
hospital and get an X-ray. My trainee did so well. I'm so proud of
her. I had her call members and we got a hold of one who too us to the
hospital when we got there, the member had no idea what happened and
my comp tried to explain ,but the person we were with is Also like 65
so she had some trouble hearing and piecing together what she was
saying. I tried to talk but my jaw was still locked up and shooting
pain would go up my jaw through my ears ,so I just didn't move.
Luckily the hospital had a nurse who spoke English so my comp
explained it to her. I got X-rayed and turns out no fracture or
anything just a sore jaw. And a bit of some swollen joints. Yay lucky
me ,but I will be fine I just have to "not use my jaw" so take it easy
for sometime. No singing or talking really big. Or moving my mouth in
crazy ways.

"One of life�fs early lessons should be that there is great power in
the compounding effect of little things that we do each day. Small and
simple things are at work in your life right now--working either for
you or against you. Just as the Lord uses such things to build you up,
Satan uses them to distract you and lead you slowly, almost
imperceptibly, off the path."

^this is a quote I found this week that I really really liked. I have
a testimony of the small things. It seems that the little things build
upon each other. Little by little we get better or little by little we
get worse. If everyday I do something kind for someone my heart will
change and slowly my personality will too. If I let the little
stresses build up in my life, (school, work, social life, etc) build
up they become this sea of hopelessness and I will sink and drown. But
want to know something amazing? even if we feel like we are drowning
in this sea of hopelessness we are okay because we have a lifeguard
who walks on water and will grab us by the hand sighing "oh ye of
little faith". Because honestly anything is possible with Jesus. He is
in our midst. He is with us.
Love you!
Love,
Fullmer shimmy

Jan 11, 2015 - Little Band

hello all! It's been a good week that's for sure!

On wedenesday we got to go over to Nishiwaki. We had a companion exchange with our sister training leaders, which happens to be my lovely trainer Bean shimai and her companion Allen shimai. Those two are too fun! so funny story we took a 4 hour train ride to get to Nishiwaki ,and we got off at the wrong stop. -_- My bad! So as we got off the train I got a sinking feeling as I looked around and I was thinking oh my gosh.. I cant believe I got off too early ,and of course my trainee will always follow me. And right after the STLs called and were like "hey where are you guys?" we decided to meet in the middle ,but there wasn't really a middle. It was dark and we don't know the area very well at all I mean I had only been there once, but it was okay because I had this cool pen that had a light in it. THANKS MOM! who knew I would need a pen with a light in it! so I used that to light the way. We went up this bridge and in the distance I heard some kind of screaming sound and saw lights moving up and down. Bean shimai called and said "GO BACK TO THE BRIDGE AND WAIT!" and then hung up so we went to the bridge we were just at and low and behold the STLs came around the side of this cliff carrying their bikes on their backs. needless to say we found each other.

Thursday

So I got to go with my trainer again! That's always really fun! We were walking back towards the church after lunch when the elders called and said "hey there are two people at the church and they want to talk about God , you might want to come over here." So we booked it over there and when we got there we were introduced to these two women. One was 21 and the other lady was her mother. They were so prepared! They just said teach us about God. So we all did. Bean shimai alluded to the restoration and the mom asked can you teach that to us right now? Sadly we couldn't because they didn't have time ,but Bean shimai asked them to be baptized. They both said "what is that?" and as we explained the mom got a bit worried and she kinda went quiet. She then told us this crazy experience that happened to her about 20 years ago. She and her husband went swimming in the ocean and these two foreigners came up to them and said to them "do you believe in God?" and they said yes and then the two guys dunked them and said "hallejuha! Congruations! Praise God!" and then ran away. They were just thinking what the heck was that?! so she thought that was what we were talking about we all jumped up and said "No no no! its completely different!" the daughter just laughed and laughed and so did we ,but we all made sure to let her know that it was not that at all! After the really neat lesson with them we headed out to go talk to some people. We met the coolest guy named Hiro. I called him super Hiro and he loved it! He was way way cool! I hope that they teach him again.

Friday

We got home later than we wanted to ,but we decided to go visit a member. She offered to doseki for us whenever. So we have a member who will do lessons whenever. She wants to help us practice teaching lessons so we have an appointment for next week to practice with her. Then we went to see a member we hadnt seen in some time at church, we went to her house and brought chocolate with us for her. We got to the door and she wasn't home ,but as we turned around she walked up the stairs! Yes! We got to teach her and we found out that she has been telling her friend about the church and stuff, she is trying to set up an appointment ,so that we can meet her sometime next week. YAAAA! I'm so excited! 

Saturday

Busy busy busy day! We went to visit a less active member and she had a friend over. Her friend decided to stay for the lesson. I said the opening prayer. After we opened our eyes, she was crying, she kept saying "I feel something! What is this feeling?" She said she felt warm ,but it was a good feeling. :) The spirit is so real! The less active bore her testimony through out the lesson and we it was amazing to me the same woman that told me that she didn't believe in God anymore was bearing her testimony about how she knows that he lives and loves her! The spirit was so awesome and real. We are meeting next Sunday and during this time we decided that we were going to form a band called "Little band" so I will be on the triangle. Gosh it was so funny. After that we headed to the church for a lesson we had with a recent convert, and that went really well, then we tried to go to the park to play basketball with our only youth ,but the court was completely covered in mud, so we all sat staring at the muddy pit.. and someone went "Well... Anyone hungry?" and went and got sushi instead. 

Shogatsu= new years

So I've been teaching alot about new years lately, one thing I like about new years is that we can look forward with this hope for the future. What is in the past is in the past we can only move forward we can not go back even if we wanted to. Reflecting on the past isn't a bad thing ,but longing to be in the past or dwelling on past mistakes is not a good thing. I can't say I will ever forget my past mistakes as much as I wish I could I simply can't ,but the guilt and pain that comes from the mistakes is gone. I am changed. It wasn't simple. It wasn't easy ,but I am changed. Jesus is my savior. My redeemer. He is everyone's savior. He will never say no not you again or turn you away, the times that you need him the most he is there. I promise that he is there. I know he is there. He always walks along side us. The first step is wanting to change and repenting. Repentance sounds scary and painful ,but it is the exact opposite it's freeing and changing. It's turning away from your past mistakes and turning towards God. It's letting Christ in. The Atonement covers everything, absolutely everything. Every heart ache has been felt and he knows what you are going through because he went through it too. Just let Jesus in and I promise he will heal every broken heart and wipe away every tear. Live forward in the best way you can!

Love always,

fullmer 姉妹

Jan 4, 2016 - First sunrise of 2016 🌅

Happy New Years everyone! I hope everyone had a blast and got to celebrate with their families. The holidays are busy busy busy, good and bad because people come home for the holidays bad because people are gone during the holidays.

So so this week was crazy weird, you would think that everyone was staying up late with fireworks and celebrating like we do in America. For some odd reason everyone wakes up at 6:00-6:30ish to watch the first sunrise. Well we were up anyways.. But we didn't have time to go watch the sunrise, we had to go to fukuchiyama for district meeting, so we did like normal and then we headed to the store to grab food because we were going to make nabe as a zone. Well unlucky for us.. The grocery store wasn't open... Almost nothing was open on New Year's Day because it was a holiday. So as we were going to fukuchiyama.. No one was on the trains and no one was out. I'm not kidding and just saying no one was out like a few people.. I mean absolutely no one was out. I asked sugimoto and he said that its because everyone was sleeping and they wouldn't be awake until around 9:00-10:00. New Years is the only day people really have off from work so everyone just stays home and relaxes. Wow.. Quiet the opposite in America. I was not expecting that. We had a really good meeting, it was all in Japanese ,but man it was so good we talked a lot about the atonement and about why we need Jesus Christ and how to teach people of the importance of the atonement. The poor trainees didn't understand a lot of it. No one felt like translating for them, so they just had to try their best , to understand... My trainee said she got like maybe 15%. Yay she's learning! 

When we came home we biked over to the Tada's house with the elders because we were invited to have dinner with them and share a message, we got there a little early so we planned out a bit of a lesson with them and while we were doing so , Tada kaicho (president Tada.. The branch president) pulled up in his car and we freaked out and hid behind another car. He walked up to his door and then he turned around and walked towards the car and we were still hiding, he gestured to the door and walked to the side of the car we were hiding behind and we just scooted over when he came. Windows are clear so there is no doubt he saw us ,but in our minds he didn't see us ,but we refused to be seen.. Finally he kinda just gave up and walked inside and then we all went to the door about 5 minutes later, his wife said she could see us from upstairs. So ya no point of even hiding! So we had dinner and then randomly Tada kaicho set up this projecter and he showed us videos he had put together for missionaries who end their mission here. It was really cool to see and then after we had seen quite a few.. He turned to elder dale and he said "you are next... Send me pictures" we all got a good laugh, but the older missionaries will never say they are going home soon and if you joke about it with them, they sometimes get mad! We taught them about hope today, and about when you have hope you hope for better times even if right now is hard, but it's true when you have hope, you have faith that even though right now is hard or something will be hard it won't be forever.

I believe life is made up of little moments. Those moments are the sweet times that we will look back on and sigh "life was good". Life is good. Life is to short to worry about the small things. Actually I think it's too short to worry. 

I read this the other day and it made me rethink life. 

"So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment. … We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude.” (President Thomas S. Monson, “Living the Abundant Life,” Liahona, Jan. 2012, 4)

Oh and I like this one a lot too

Elder Richard G. Scott (1928–2015) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “I witness that with faith in the Savior and obedience to His teachings, happiness never ends, but sadness does.”("finding joy in life" general conference 1996)

Oh and also here's a scripture too: 

"Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)

I feel like they say things better than I do ,but I know that we are meant to be happy in this life, b if we didn't experience sadness we wouldn't really understand joy. The trials are blessings because they teach us that Heavenly Father trusts us and knows we are strong enough to handle  trials. Don't get me wrong trials are not my favorite ,but I know because of them we become stronger spiritually and we become closer to God. Remember , we are never alone in this world and we will never be alone because God loves you more than you can even imagine ,so because he loves you so much he gave you a savior. And you know what else is amazing? Jesus Christ loves you too. He gave his life for you, that is truly the purest act of love. I know that he lives and I know he will always help us. I love you guys! 

Love,

フルマ姉妹

愛しているよ!

Here's some pictures for you people who just scroll to the bottom to look at pictures.. You know who you are!