Pictures of life at the Madrid MTC

I am learning so much everyday and their is still so much to learn about this gospel and the will of god in our lives

Dear Family and Friends,

How is everyone? Thank you for the letters from Grandma and Mom! This week has been a truly amazing week. I am learning so much everyday and their is still so much to learn about this gospel and the will of god in our lives. I have a strong testimony that I am doing what God wants me to be doing right now.

This week I am very grateful for the little glimpses into the eternities that Heavenly Father gives us. This started last P-day. After we got back from teh Prado (an amazing museum here in Spain) we ate dinner and then had a devotional. After the devotional we have a distrcit discussion. A few people in my distrct have been going through some trials so the Elders gave them blessings. The spirit was so incredible. I am continually amazed by these Elders here. They all work so hard and have the sweetest spirits and testimonies. I love my district. After the blessings we had a heart-to-heart and all bore our testimonies. It is going to be so hard to leave them. On Saturday my companion for the park was Hermana Galvez. As we were walking we saw this lady on a bench and I knew that I really wanted to talk to her. We decided to ask her where the fountain was but after that we kind of blanked and walked away. As we were walking away I just said I really think we need to talk to her. So we turned right around and decided to ask her where the drinking fountain was. It was actually pretty funny. Well, after that we found out that she spoke english (yay!) And that she was here for 6 months for school getting her PHD in financial law. we had a long conversation with her about places we should go and see in spain. She loves Toledo but doesn´t like Barcelona. Anyways, after we talked I asked her if we could leave her with a message before we left and she said of course. I pulled out my book of mormon and started talking to her about God. She said her and her mom are catholic but she has friends that are mormon. She also said she has a Book of Mormon but hasn´t really read much of it. We read Moroni´s promise is 10:4-5 and I testified of how powerful the book and promise are and how much God loves us. she then told us that she has been going through a rough time and she was searching for an answer to a praywer and we were her answer. How powerful is that? I was an answer to a prayer and nothing feels better than that. I have her name and e-mail so I am going to keep in contact with her throughout my mission. Another cool experience happened when we were bearing our testimonies about the park. Two elders from my district, were istting in the front row. As I was bearing my testimony about the plan of salvation I looked at the Elders from my district and I just knew them as my brothers. They looked at me with so much light and love. It was a glimpse at teh eternal family of God. We have been brothers and sisters for a long time. In my testimony I said, I´m here to find the people that I cam here with and make sure they come home with me. I hope to always remember that throughout my life.

This week we started a game called Whos the Native. Everyday someone is the native and they are always supposed to speak spanish. The next day we all vote for who we think the native is. You get points if the people vote for you. We are getting really into it.

Everyone here loves my oils. I am always healing everyones problems with them Now whenver they smell peppermint and lavender they said they are going to think of me.

Well congratulations Kahana on your job, Kenyra on the baby, and Jenny on your baby. I hope and pray that me serving a mission will bless all of your lives and I´m grateful for the blessings I´ve heard about so far.

I would like to end with sharing something Elder Timothy said, ¨"There is a saying: Hold on loose, but never let go. In life this means that one must keep a distance in all things. That one much learn a balance between havning a hold on something, being involved with it, and keeping a distance so that it does not ruin your life. for when we let go we fall, and when we grip too tight we become immovable. this is the reason that we write. It allows us to hold on loose, without letting go. so that we can keep each other from falling."

I love you all and can´t wait to hear more from you.

Hermana Ariana Fuller

So I´m halfway through my time here at the CCM

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for the Package! You should have seen me and my companion freaking out! Getting things in the mail is the best thing in the entire world. Wehn we found out grandma and grandpa were taking our house we both screamed and said " we have a house!" How is the house search in AZ coming? I also got a package from the Days which was super nice. Thank you Grandma for the letter you sent me on Dear Elder.

So I´m halfway through my time here at the CCM. How crazy is that? This week my district sang Come Thou Fount at the fireside Sunday. We are going to have our teacher record it and put it on facebook. Add him as a friend, his name is Mauricio Javier Larrea Baque. The number turned out so beautiful!

Lots of funny things have happened this week. This time things I have said... First was when i was giving the closing prayer for our class. I accidently called our teacher HermanO instead of HermanA. Our whole district started laughing until I could mutter "Lo Siento En El Nombre de Jesucristo, Amen." It was hilarious. Another happened during a lesson with our investigator, Carlos. My companion asked me "how do you say we love you?" I thought about it and suddenly blurted out "Te amo." meaning "I love you!" We all started laughing and didn´t stop until our lesson was over.

This week we also had the most amazing lesson with Alejanra. during the lesson I had the prompting to share the story of when Mary Abbey passed away. The spirit was so strong and even though she is not a real investigator, I know she felt the spirit.

This week I have learned a lot about the Plan of Salvation. Our district had a deep discussion about it where I became so overwhelemed i started crying. I realized how beautiful and how grand it is. I feel incredibly humbled to know God put his trust in me to teach His plan to His children, my brothers and sisters. We are so blessed to have the atonement and a God and Savior that are merciful and have so much love for us. the most important thing i learned is that it is called The Plan of Salvation, Plan of Happiness, Plan of Redemption - Not the Plan of Condemnation. We have to do all we can but we should never feel like it is impossible to receive salvation. God loves us so much. I realize this more and more everyday. I am so overwhelmed when I think of God´s love for us. Elder Rassmussen put it perfectly, ¨God is like your little old Grandma. Even when you break her 1000 year old vase she still gives you a cookie." I love being here on a mission and I´m so thankful I´m blessed to be in our family. 

I Love all of you.

Love,

Hermana Ariana Fuller

I have had a lot of opportunities this week to bare my testimony

Hola!

Wow this week has flown by. The saying days seem long but weeks fly by is very true in missionary work. Well, how is everyone. I need to apologize if I dont answer everyone´s questions, it is really stressful trying ot email with 30 missionaries around you and a timer counting down every second.

This week has been good although I´m a little frustrated with my spanish. I´m still not understanding as much as I should be and the sentences I form are definately missing words that probably make everything else make sense But I know I´ll get it. If I put in the effort God will make up the rest. It´s amazing how the atonement is apart of everything. Everything literally boils down to the atonment.

What have you guys decided about the house? How is my stuff? I stuck that scrapbook in the guitar case front pocket so make sure the guitar and the rest of my things stay safe! Thank you

I have had a lot of opportunities this week to bare my testimony. Every week after proscelyting at the park we have a testimony meeting. My companion for the park was Hermana Crandall and she is awesome. we even got one referral! We contacted 11 people. It was the best. When we bore our testimonies the spirit was so strong. Right when I started speaking all of the missionaries eyes were on me and they became completely silent. I don´t remember everything I said but I know God helped me to reach the hearts of everyone there. I had been praying to feel the spirit very strongly and God answered my prayers. another time was with my district and after we went around sharing our thoughts. I shared my experience with deciding to go on a mission. We also decided as a district to bare our testimonies on Sunday. When the meeting started I opened my hymbook to Ï´ll go where you want me to go¨I knew immediately I had to share my song. I had already sang my song for my district. (we love singing! we sang for a whole hour as a district during study time... oops) Anyways I literally bore my testimony through song. I sang the first verse in Spanish. I can just see dad cringing as he reads this but I know I can reach peoples hearts through music. Music is really so powerful. One of our teachers, Hermano Larrea, sang Come Thou Fount for us. Because we kept bugging him to sing us a solo. He did not have an amazing voice but he shared with us the sweetest spirit.

This week we got two new elders from the Provo MTC in our district. Can I just say how much I love my district? Everyone talks about how there is so much love for each ohter in our district. Really. We are So close. On sunday we all went around and said each other´s talents. Everyone said the most sincere things about each ohter. some things they said about me were I am always positive and happy, I love everyone, I´m not afraid to be myself, and I am very close with the spirit. I was super humbled by the things they said.

Some funny things that have happened this week, Elder Rassmussen was contacting on the metro on the way to the park. His companion on the metro, instead of saying "Somos nuevo" "we are new" he said "somos nuvios" "we are boyfriends." We all got a pretty good laugh out of that. Also with Elder Rassmussen... he is always messing something up in spanish. Instead of saying "Jesus performed a lot of miracles" he said "jesus performed a lot of Miercoles" which means Wednesdays. Now every wednesdsay is Miracle Wednesday.

Well today we are going to see the REAL Madrid Soccer stadium. I´m very excited. Also i need to thank you, Mom and Grandma, for helping me with my clothes. I get so many compliments. Also thank all of the cousins for the letters I got. I was so excited. And Dear Elder worked! Thank you for your letter, Mom! Getting letters in the mail is the best thing ever!

Could you look up how much the postage is from Spain to Japan so I can send Tim a letter? Did you get his package send? Thank you so much! I love you all! Oh if you´re sending me something maybe cute tshirts for pday and working out. and colored pencils.

I love all of you and Love hearing from home. Grandma and Grandpa fuller want to be added to the email list so make sure to do that.

Love,

Hermana Fuller

I LOVE IT HERE

August 1, 2013

Hola Familia y Amigos!!!

Wow, I don´t even know where to start. We have such little time to write. Everyone is so happy to be writing their families. WE LOVE E-MAILS AND LETTERS. So tell everyone to send them. Also, if you could get me any e-mails and addresses people posted on facebook I would love them. Could I get Alashtay´s e-mail?

First of all, I LOVE IT HERE. Seriously, everyday has been amazing. I am so blessed to be able to go to the MTC here in Madrid. My companera is Hermana Dunn. She is fantastic. We get a long really really well. There are 6 elders and 4 hermanas in my district. We all have a lot of fun together, probably too much fun. I especially love the hermanas. The other two are Hermana Durham and Hermana Thunborg. I already feel so close to them. I remember right after I met my companera I felt so much love for her. We all have become very close and I already know it will be hard to say goodbye to them. Two of us are going to Madrid and the other two are going to Barcelona.

Okay, where to begin... The food. The food is SO YUMMY. We get really authentic spanish food. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we have fresh squeazed orange juice. My favorite is when we have nutella and croissants for breakfast. I have also tried shark this week. We have a lot of potatoes and fish. I would say we are pretty spoiled. On Saturday´s we get to go the park and proscelyte. The park is so beautiful. It´s more of a forest than a park. This Saturday was a little difficult because we speak so little spanish still, but me and my companera had a great conversation with a man named Majid. Turns out he spoke english which is why. haha. The language is actually going so great. Everyone here tells me I have a really great accent, which I was surpised to hear. When I was introducing myself in front of the whole MTC I even surprised myself at  how the word Hermana sounded coming out of my mouth. Dad - I am learning with the Zeta. Two of my teachers speak with the zeta and they are both from Spain. The other teacher is from Ecuador. I love the Zeta though, I think it is beautiful and it also helps you learn how to spell. You only use the zeta in specific circumstances. In one of our first spanish classes I literally started crying because I was so happy and so excited to be here. Now everyone in my district says someone is pulling an Hermana Fuller when they want to cry because they are so happy. haha

Some funny things that have happened with my district: Elder Rassumussen is hilarious. We are curretly teaching "investigators" who are really our teachers. In one of the lessons he accidently said that the pope was in the Book of Mormon. In another lesson the other Hermanas in our district accidently read John 8:21 when teaching about baptism. Go read it. It is not one you want to read before you asked someone to get baptized. We laughed a lot about that.

I met the Hermana who is sister´s of the girl in you ward in AZ. She is super nice. Also, Abbey Smiley´s cousin is here. haha random. We  also get to sing here, a lot. I love singing in Spanish! We sang at the park on Saturday and then we sang on the steps of the temple grounds on sunday. I think there is a video of us on the facebook page. You should check it out. The Elder who was in the Train crash is here in the CCM. He spoke sunday. He is a very nice elder. But no mom, I wasn´t on the train, thankfully.

If you want to send me a package send me pens and highlighters and sticky tabs and suckers (they help keep us awake). Also candy or chocolate.

Okay, I have to go! I Love you all!

Adios,

Hermana Ariana Fuller

ps. when will my glasses get here. i have a minor eye infection.

Hola!

I have a little more time to write and a few more things to tell you all.

Okay, so we started teaching investigators the third day we were here... and in spanish! It´s been tough, but we finally had the most amazing lesson. Yesterday our first lesson went, well, horribly. We had a difficult time communicating anything we wanted to say. The next lesson was the complete opposite. We were finally able to communicate everything we wanted and the spirit was so amazing. My companion bore a beautiful testimony. After we were done we were both squealing because we were so happy and I started crying. Then our teacher came and told us something in spanish and said "you are champions. the spirit was so sweet." I started crying again.

A few other things. I memorized "My purpose" in spanish! Yay! There are 90 missionaries here, the most they have ever had in the CCM. I have gone to the Madrid temple twice. I see it right outside the window of the CCM everyday. If I have a plaque I want D&C 12:8 on it. Another food we have is peaches and creme. We cut up peaches put in sugar apckets and whipped creme on top. We have snack time everynight... it´s our favorite.

Photo in the Airport

First Companion Hermana Dunn