I love my new companion

HI Mom!!!!

So you´re prayers have been answered because I LOVE my new companion. She is the cutest thing. Her name is Hermana Pavez from Argentina (mar del plata y viedma, rio negro) but her family is currently living in the South of Spain in Malaga. She is also 20 years old and she wants to go to BYU after the mission and study journalism. She actually speaks English really well and wants to learn it perfectly so she can study in Utah. So she helps me with my spanish and I help her with her English. She also has diabetes so I´ve learned quite a few things about that, she always has to give herself shots before she eats. She asked me that if there was an emergency would I be able to give her a shot... I haven´t given her the answer to that question yet haha. She also does not know how to cook food... So I´ve been doing all the cooking. All I know is that my companion says it tastes good so I hope she´s right. And yes mom, she is definitely a kindred spirit.  So the new area is super different that anywhere else that I have served. The area is a lot bigger and I´m closer to the center of Madrid. I´m also serving in my first Ward which is really interesting. There are 8 missionaries in our ward 6 elders and 2 sisters (us). This sunday there were also two visitors from utah that came to visit so I had to transalte for them... It was pretty interesting. I think I´d really love to learn how to translate really well. and Yes they do have some stakes here in Spain although I´m not sure how many. (But the north, where I was serving in Gijón is only a district). I´m super excited to get to work here and see what miracles are waiting for us. 

So this week I have been reading in Alma 46-50 about Captain Moroni. I have particularly focused on how Moroni, with the guidance of the spirit, prepares his people and the city to defend themsels against the lamanites. This has made me think of the wonderful verse in Ether 12:27 that says that if we come unto Christ he will show us our weaknesses, but that through him, weak things may be made strong unto us. Our quest to overcome our weakness and become more like Christ never ends. In fact, the more we come unto christ the more weaknesses we realize that we have. But it is through the atonment and merits of Christ that we can overcome our weakness. (Alma 49:14)  Just like Moroni strengthen his people and his city against their enemies, we too can strengthen ourselves, our spirits, our testimonies, and others around us to be able to withstand our temptations and overcome our weaknesses. This spritual strength that we need comes from Jesus Christ and consitently living the things he taught us. and being obedient to his commandments. (because obedience simply means to be more like christ.) I know that through Christ we can overcome our weakness and we can become strong in Him. (Alma 26:12).

We have some really great investigators that I have met. We have Naomi who is a 9 year old girl, Alexia who is 12, Bartolomé who is 75ish, a really sweet family from El Salvador, and a sweet dominican lady named Charo. Naomi is going to a catholic elementary school and they are currently getting ready for the first communion. Her mom is a member and she just barely decided to come back to church. In our last lesson she told us Naomi told us that she had a testimony of the restaration and that she wants to be baptized. She has a baptismal date on May 30! I´ll let you know more about our investigators next week once I get to know everyone a little better:)

Tell everyone Hi and I love them and the mission is AWESOME. I´m super happy and learning a ton. Be member missionaries.

You are all in my prayers:)

Hermana Ariana Fuller

Simplify

Dear Mom


Thank you so much for all of the recipes and for the family history stuff! I´ll see what we can get going  here.

Welp, this is the last week of this transfer! How crazy is that? Really anything could happen next because both my companion and I have been here together for three transfers. So we will see what the Lord has in store for us now. My companion and I have also gotten super close. Everynight after we finish planning we end up having almost hour long deep gospel conversations until we realize we only have 15 minutes to get ready for bed. Also, contacting and teaching have gotten really funny lately because we keep saying the same things at the same time. Don´t know whether we´re super united or if we´ve just been together for too long. 

My companion and I have also been super inspired this past week to simplify everything. Our companionship study in the mornings has turned into arts and crafts time as we have been making a bunch of visual aids and coming up with ideas to really help our investigators understand the doctrine of the gospel. If you have any ideas for that (we´re talking on primary level - I remember you doing some really cool things when I was in primary. What was that thing that we made the treat inside the bag??) please let me know! Ps Mom, I think I take after you because my whole district here calls me the Primary President. 

As we all know, Fast sunday was yesterday. The past few months it has been really really hard for me to fast. And I believe the hardest fast I have ever had was yesterday. After only about 3 hours of fasting I literally felt like I was going to die I was So hungry! I told my companion multiple times that I didn´t think I was going to make it. Well, when we got home that night I took a mintue to say a quick prayer to ask for help with my fast or else I was really considering breaking it. After I knelt down and finished my prayer, immediately after I did not feel the hunger or thirst any more. I felt 100% completley fine. It is amazing the power the comes from a humble prayer of faith. God is always there willing to help us, He just aks us to get on our knees and ask. The next day I was able to bear my testimony to one of our investigators by sharing this experience. Isn´t God just so good us? 

I don´t have anymore time because we are going bowling! But Mom I love you so much and I can´t wait to skype with you on Sunday. I always love reading your emails.:)

Te Quiero Chica,

Hermana Ariana Fuller

The Atonement is everything

Dear Family

We have realized that a lot of our investigators or even just the people here in general do not understand who God is, who Jesus Christ is, and what they mean to them. So we have focused many of our lesson on talking about who they are and the atonement. (Because the Atonement is Everything!) We have showed just about every single person we teach the Easter Video from the church (easter.mormon.org or pascua.mormon.org). I love this video. It helped me consider even more what the atonement means to me and the people I teach. On Wednesday my District leader asked me to speak on Helping Investigators Overcome Addiction in our district meeting. I talked about how it is our job to help the people we teach learn and understand more about the atonement, because it is the atonement that makes everything possible. It is through Christ´s atonement that everyone can change and overcome the natural man. I decided to show that video and after we had finished watching it we sat in silence for about 10 minutes. The spirit in the room was so strong that none of us could speak. At the end I bore my testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that there is so much I still don´t understand about the Atonement, but my understanding of the atonement has grown tremendously on my mission. I have this overwhelming feeling that I can be and become whatever I desire (whether is be for life or for death Alma 29:4-5) , because of the atonement. And this gives me so much responsibility to desire God´s will for me. I encourage all of you once again, to study about the atonement of Jesus Christ and then to act according to the knowledge that you receive. It will change your life. 

Last night we also had a really cool experience. We were visiting with Eva and one of her friends from Argentina was there. We asked him if we could share a scripture with him before we left and he accepted. We ended up sharing the Easter video with him as well, and then sharing Alma 7:10-12. We also shared the Book of Mormon with him and Eva (His Friend!) was able to bare her testimony of the book to him. He was very grateful to have received the book and we´re planning on seeing him again this week! Just like it says in Preach My Gospel, we don´t know who God is preparing to receive this gospel until we act. Now is the time to act: repenting, living, and sharing the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Oh and mom, did anything ever happen with sharing the book of mormon? And I´m so sorry I just realized I never replied to your question for your relief society lesson! How did it go? 

And a couple favors... Could you send me some mesh garments. They don´t sell them here in Spain

. probably the second to the smallest size. And could you see if they have any one pieces?? And also we are going to try to get some family history things going here, could you send me a few family history stories and maybe pictures?? 

Thank you so much mom!!! I love you:)

Hermana Ariana Fuller

Easter

Hola:)

Well this has been quite an interesting week. This Easter has probably been the least Easter Easter I´ve ever had. They didn´t even mention it in church, nor did we sing a single Easter hymn. But my companion and I made up for that by talking about Easter in every single lesson we had and singing the Easter hymns for companionshiop study. 

It was, however, Semana Santa and so many people were out of town making it hard to have lessons. Quite a few of our investigators are undergoing many trials so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. We have also had to drop quite a few investigators these past couple weeks. We are having a hard time finding people that are really interesting in learning and actually acting on the principles of the gospel. But we have the faith that we continue to focus on service and working with the members that we´ll be led to have success. 

We have been trying to work more with the members in order to find people to teach. We haven´t had a ton of success from street contacting. This week we had a really great experience while visiting the President of the Branch and his family. We talked about how we could help them share the gospel and they accepted the challenge to pray together as a family to find somebody to invite over to come have a Family Home Evening in their home. They also told us of a few different experiences they´ve had from sharing the gospel. At the end of the lesson they gave us a the address of a person that was interested in hearing the gospel that lived in another area. This was one of the best experiences I´ve ever had working with the members. I would also like to challenge all of you to invite a friends of family members over to have Family Home Evening with the missionaries. It is a great way to unite families in the missionary cause. 

I would like to share a thought that I learned from conference with all of you, especially because it was just Easter. As I listened to Elder Bednar´s talk on the Atonement an idea came to my mind, "Debo actuar de acuerdo con la expiación de Cristo." or "I should act according to (in accordance with) the atonement of Christ." This thought has led me to a lot of personal introspection and revelation. In all of our actions we need to be thinking about and applying to atonement of Jesus Christ. It is through him and through this sefless act that we can change and that we can become the people we desire, the people that God desires us to become. When we feel like we can´t do anymore, through the grace of the atonement, we can. When we feel like we are giving all we´ve got but wish to give more, it is through the power of the atonement that we can give more than what man can give alone. I have a strong testimony that Christ is our saviour and that He died so that through him we could live. Because of this grand sacrifice that he offered for me I should act and live my life using his atonement. 

Que tengan una buena semana.

Hermana Ariana Fuller

Conference has inspired me

Dear Mom!

First off, conference has inspired me. I´m really going to take these next 6 months to try to apply conference to my life. While listening to Elder Ballard´s talk, I recieved the impression to send home a weekly message on something I learned during my studies, particularly something from Preach My Gospel. In conference they said that the members should talk to the missionaries about what they are learning and also study Preach My Gospel themesleves. So if anyone has questions, please send them to me! As a missionary, I am here to help you all be member missionaries as well, even if I am far away in Spain. This week I did the activity in Chapter 11 of Preach My Gospel, Keep Commitments, under Promising Blessing. I took all the commitments of the first lesson, The Restauration of the Gospel, and wrote down the promised blessing we recieve for keeping this commitment. The first commitment in this lesson: Will you read the Book of Mormon? Blessings we recieve from keeping this commitment: We will draw nearer to God, Strengthen our testimony of Jesus Christ, Feel the spirit, Receive strength and conviction to keep the commandments, Find answer to our questions, Recieve a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet, Recieve a testimony that this is the true and only Church of Jesus Christ in it´s fullness, Learn the doctrine of the gospel, and We will know that Jesus is the Christ. Wow. There are so many blessings that come from just reading this book. (Not to mention the blessing that if we read it in another language we will have the power to learn that language). My testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Jesus Christ have been so strengthened during the course of my mission. I have a strong conviction that everyone everywhere needs to read this book, because when they do, it will change their lives. I invite all of you to invite someone this week to read the book of mormon. I know that if you pray with faith and have the real desire to do this, you will find someone who will accept your invitation. 

This week we have changed our working methods to focusing more on working with members and service. This week we are starting a Quit Smoking support group (we have two investigators that we are helping to quit smoking) and a weekly Bible Study Class. 

María - María is our adorable Spanish investigator that we are currently helping quit smoking. We make her a "Quit Smoking Kit" with a bunch of things like little candies, a new toothbrush, air refreshener, oranges, etc. When we gave it to her she was so touched that she started crying. Then we all started tearing up. For me it was nothing to make this little kit, but to her it meant the world. We never know what the service we offer really means to other people. We are also helping our Muslim friend (that took us to the Masque) last week, quit smoking!

This week we also had 6 investigators at church! The most I´ve ever had in my whole entire mission. One of them was our Chinese investigator Jie. She is absolutely adorable. We haven´t been able to teach her much because she is really busy with school and always studying. But since this week is Semana Santa she was able to come to church. She is also reading the book of mormón and she is loving everything. We are hoping to start teaching her more consistently when she ends school in June. 

All in all the work is going and I am doing great! Learning and growing a lot everyday. 

ps.When you´re in Hawaii... can you send me a coconut?? haha

LOVE YOU!!!! 

Hermana Ariana Fuller

Staying for one more transfer

Dear Mom!

Don´t worry cause in the end I ended up with this email from you. I loved your email. It made me laugh so many times. Hang in there with boy scouts. But you are super good with that kind of thing. I´m sure they love you, not many women would be so diligent as to hunt and capture a scorpion for their troops. And also hang in there with the construction. Oh I wish I was there to speak spanish to them! I can´t tell you how much I LOVE learning a language. It is hard but so rewarding. I want to learn about a million languages now. Is there a major that allows you to do that?? haha Ps. you should have dad try to share the gospel with those workers. Are there spanish speaking missionaries in the area? maybe they could come by when the workers are there! Oh and how was your lunch with the sisters the other day?

We are trying really hard to work with the members here. We are losing about 3 or more families and 2 recent converts from the branch coming up here soon. The crisis is really bad and there is not a lot of work. A lot of them are leaving for other countries to try to find work. On sunday we were in charge of the combined women and men class. All 6 of us missionaries taught a class about missionary work and how the members can share the gospel with their friends. At the end we passed around a sheet that all of the members wrote down one thing they were committing to do for missionary work and when they were going to do it by. I am super excited to get this going. We are also working on planning a branch activity and an activity with the young women´s. Would you have any ideas?

Well this week was the last week of the transfer and my companion will be staying with each other for one more transfer! Yea, I´m excited. Also they made my area our own district so that should be really fun. We have all gotten really close this past transfer. 

More on the Muslims: We now go and visit two of the moms of the Children that come to English class. Yesterday we went to one of their houses and we talked so much about the gospel. We really have a lot in common, especially when it comes to the commandments. Hassna, the mom, brought us out a whole table of morrocan food and treats. Their food is soooo good. Hassna also has a spanish friend named Marisol who was there with us too. Marisol and a bunch of questions for us! We are going to start teaching here this week. At the end of our visit all of the children came in and we sang a few hymns for them. After they told us they felt really peaceful. The gospel is amazing. And there are so many ways to share it. 

Getting Kissed by Jesus: On friday one of our investigatores was in a play for Easter. We got permission to go see and support her in it. At the end of the play our investigator Nataly was introducing us to people and the man that played Jesus just came right up to me and gave me the besos. Afterwards Nataly was trying to explain to him that we weren´t allowed to give the besos and I said "Es Jesus, Puedo besar a Jesus." It was pretty funny. Then she took us to the cast party and we met this one lady that had lived in England for awhile and speaks English. We took her referance down and she said she would loved to have the missionaries come visit her. 

Miguel: On Sunday morning before church we were waiting to pick up another investigator when this old spanish man, Miguel, came up and started talking to us. He asked us where we were going and when we told him Church, he asked if he could come with us. He then stayed at church the whole time and really enjoyed it. 

From all three of these experiences I have gained an even stronger testimony that God is guiding us every second, that is, if we let him and if we are willing to follow the impressions of his spirit. He leads us (Both members and missionaries) to the people that need the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hope you all have an amazing week. I love you and miss you all and I´m praying for you everyday. :)

Te Quiero Mamá,

hermana Ariana Fuller

ps. Today we went to toledo!!!

The Strike

Small miracles and tender mercies

Dear Mom,

I don´t have much time this week because my companion and I went to get her hair dyed today. She dyed it a nice Strawberry blonde, it looks awesome. I have convinced two of my companions now to dye their hair.... haha 

Anyways, if you haven´t sent the easter package yet, I was thinking it would be really fun If you sent me a recorder and every week I could send you a little recording of me speaking or something? What do you think. Nothing expensive but something that I could hook up somehow to the computer and email. 

This week we have really seen small miracles and tender mercies. It seems like lately we have been running into quite a few people that are not exactly our biggest fans. But the other day as we were walking to the church, we past by this restaurant and this young guy started talking to us in English. He said he lived in England for a while and that is how he learned english, but He is a spaniard and believes in God (Almost all spanish youth are atheists so this is incredible!) Well, he told us that we could come back any time. So the next day we came back and had a lesson their with a recent convert while eating Chocolate with Churros. He then cam up to us and asked us if he could talk to us for a second. Both me and my companion thought for sure he was going to tell us that he didn´t want us having lessons there... BUT he did the exact opposite. He said they wanted more people like us there and that if we ever had a lesson we were free to come there and he would give us a discount. This was such a tender mercy from the lord. 

 Okay more

Yesterday I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting on missionary work... And It went super well. I was praying so hard to have the spirit with me so I could really communicate what God wanted me to. I felt the spirit super strong when I was speaking and I completely forget about worrying about the language. I only followed the spirit and all of the words came. Experiences like this make me remember when I was first a missionary. I was SO nervous when I had to give my first talk in sacrament and now I am able to forget about my own nerves and follow the spirit. I feel so blessed to be growing and learning so much. 

Also on my mission I have grown a deep love for muslims. There are quite a few of them here in Alcorcón and I just love them. They are such a good and giving people. Every week my companion and I teach the children´s english class and this week as we were playing duck duck goose one of the muslim mom´s came in and she and her oldest daughter played with us as well. I just felt really happy that we could come together despite our religions. That is was Christ would have us do. 

Okay I´ve got to go but thanks mom!! I love you and I´m praying for all of you. Tell the family hi:)

Hermana fuller