I love Christmas on the mission

Hey Everyone! 

Christmas was so beautiful:) I love Christmas on the mission. On Christmas Eve we went caroling with all of the missionaries and some of the ward members. We sang in the Gran Manzana de Alcobendas so a lot of people heard us. Hermana Grover wrote the link for He is the Gift on the sidewalk. Then as we were singing we had a few of the children pass out pass a long cards which went SO well. They would literally run up to everyone and give them a card, it was perfect. They even placed a couple book of mormons:) I think we always need to have 4 year olds with us when we are contacting haha After caroling we had a little devotional in the church and we watched Joy to The World and the each bore our testimonies about christmas and Jesus. A few investigators came, including Marcos, so that was really fun. 

Christmas day the other hermanas came over to our piso and we ate Oven Pancake, Spanish Tortilla, and Pumpkin Chocolate chip muffins. Then we all opened up our gifts and read the christmas story. We had lunch with our ward mission leader, Segundo, which was delicious. And then I skyped with you:) Later that night we went caroling to various ward members and investigators and we gave them cute little treat boxes. So it was a very fun Christmas. 

Our miracle of the week was Felix. We met Felix in a street lesson we had the other week. He is an older Spanish man and he also was a little bit duro at first, but he has faith in God. We were able to have a lesson with him this week and everything went so well. He asked the best questions and wanted to know what made us different from other churches. He has a really strong testimony of God and believes a lot of the same things that we do. He is very interested in learning and there was a very nice spirit in the lesson. He also gave a very beautiful prayer to end the lesson. I´ll keep you updated on him! 

ps. The romanian investigators of the Elders got baptised this week! It was such a beautiful service!

Os Quiero Mucho:) 

Hermana Ariana Fuller

We´ve been hitting the streets

Dec 15

First week of the transfer and we´ve been hitting the streets. All of the investigators that we´ve been working with seemed to have dropped of of the face of the planet. But we are keeping up the animo. We have managed to have at least one street lesson everyday which has been a very edifying experience. It´s really amazing to be in the middle of a busy street testifying of gospel truths to people.

My new companion is great! Her name is Hermana Griffin and she is from Port Huron, Michigan! So we´ve definitely been talking about Michigan. She is 20 years old and the youngest of 6. She has a boyfriend serving a mission in Provo! She is already doing so great with Spanish and has a ton of potential as a missionary. It will be so great to be with her for my last transfer!

Cecilio - is a new investigator that we found by having a lesson on the street with him. He is an older Spaniard man and was a very hard egg to crack when we first found him. It took us 45 minutes of talking to him to be able to get his number and agree to meeting with us again, but after those 45 minutes we became his best friend. He has a lot of doubts about churches and needs to develop more faith in God, but that is why we are here. He came to the chapel and we were able to give him a tour and then show him the Christmas video "He is the Gift" and talk a little bit about Jesus Christ. He then came to the church again Sunday afternoon to watch the Christmas devotional. Slowly his heart is softening. Miracles!

News from Barrio 2:

Valentin is doing so great! He bore his testimony, in Spanish, in church on Sunday. He also received the Aaronic Priesthood!

Take care everyone and know that you´re in my prayers.

Os Quiero

Hermana Ariana Fuller

One miracle

Hello everyone!

I might not have that much time today to write because today is transfers! So I´m just gonna do a little copy and paste from my mom´s email :)
"My companion is leaving to the canary islands! and hermana Grovers companion is going to Vigo in the north. and guess what..... I´m training again!!! I´m really excited!! so that means tomorrow I´ll be going and picking up my new companion. Hermana Pavez (my argentinian companion) is coming here to be with Hermana Grover... and they will be training a new sister too! So they will be in a trio for three weeks until Hermana Grover goes home and then Hermana pavez wtih stay here and finish the training of the new sister. So crazy things are happening but it will be fun."

One miracle that happened this week was with a young woman from the ward named Sarah. She is 18 years old and turns 19 in March. Her mom is a ward missionary so she is always helping us on visits. Her mom has been kind of worried about her because she hasn´t been showing much enthusiasm about church so my companion and I decided to invite her to come out to some lessons with us. The first time she came she seemed to really like in and the second time she came our lesson ended up failing so we had a Missionary Work lesson with her. The next day we saw here mom and she came up and asked us "What did you say to Sarah last night? She came home all glowing and happy and then told me she had been thinking and she wants to go on a mission!" We saw them both here on Sunday and they told us that she started her papers and Zully just started crying. She said she had been praying a long time for this to happened. It was such an amazing experience and we really felt like tools in God´s hands. Miracles exist!

That´s it for this week! More on the week to come:)
MUCHO AMOR

Hermana Fuller

Great Week

Hola:)

What a great week we had here in alcobendas:) The sign up sheet that we passed around in relief society last week, for the women to come with us to lessons, worked wonderfully. We were able to pass our goal for lessons taught with a member. We are also preparing everything for the packets!

Araisa - Ariasa is married Dominican investigator that has a cute little 4 year old son. We have been trying so hard to get her to come to the church and on Friday she finally agreed to come to the Noche de Hogar.... And she Loved it. We played a game at the end and she was laughing to hard. Next step...Sacrament Meeting.

Polin - Polin is doing really well. The members are so great and patient with him in the lessons. He also came to church on sunday and he reads everything we give him. His prayers are also very beautiful and very heartfelt. He just has a hard time really understanding what he is reading and recognizing the spirit. He lets his worldy knowledge get in the way of his spiritual progression. 

Nela - Is doing so well. We had a beautiful lesson with her on families and eternal marriage. She told us that she has a brother and sister that are both in orphanages in Romania and that she was getting ready some packages of clothes and shoes to send them. She was having a hard time finding things that would fit her sister and so luckily me and her are around the same size and we were able to find her some things to send her. God always opens up opportunities to serve and help others!

Marcos - Is our new miracle! We were proselyting on the street one day and he just said "hola hermanas" as he walked passed us. I asked my companion who that was and she wasn´t sure so we decided to run up to him and talk to him. Turns out about a year ago he was taking the lessons with the sisters but they had to stop because he was travelling to much for work. We had the first lesson with him this week and he told us he already knows that the book of mormon is true, that he already got his answer. He also agreed to prepare to be baptized December 6!!! So start praying for him:) He´s really great!

Otras Cosas:

Last Sunday in relief society I sat by one of the Elder´s Romanian investigators. This week the elders came up to me and said "Hermana Fuller you have to sit by her again...She Loves you! She told us that you´re friends." I sat by her again and then after she wanted to take a picture with me. It made my entire day:)

Valentin - Is doing so well! Hmna Seegmiller told me that he goes on visits with the elders all the time. and... I got to see him! We travel all the way to Barrio 2 to have our district meetings on wednesdays and so we planned it out so that we could go eat lunch together after:) It was so awesome to see him again. Love Barrio 2. 

That´s the summary for this week. The work is pressing forward! Love and miss you all:)

Hermana Fuller

Many are called....But few answer!

Hola:)

As you can see from the title of this weeks email, we have been calling everyone and their dog.... but nobody seems to be disponible. But that has not gotten us down. We have done a little work in our area book this week and we have met with a few old investigators so we have high hopes for them. We also are continuing our contacting quest in the street which is going pretty well.  

El Barrio - I´ve been super happy with the desire and involvement that the ward has with the missionaries. On sunday my companion and I got permission to pass around a signup sheet for some of the women to come with us to lessons and it happened to be that the lesson for that day was on missionary work. (Perfect!!) And a bunch of the women in the ward gave testimonies about going with the missionaries on visits so that made everyone excited to participate with us. All of us missionaries are also in charge of giving the class the 5th sunday of this month. I brought up the idea of doing packets like we did in Gijon and then also doing a 7 day prayer and scripture reading as a ward ending the with a ward fast for missionary work the first sunday of december. They really liked this idea so this week we are going to start working on the packets. We are also planning on doing a combined young womens and young mens activity and have them come with us on lessons and do contacting on the street. So... good things are happening in alcobendas. 

Nela - I just met Nela this week. She is an adorable Romanian woman that is married and has a 4 year old child that is deaf. We had an incredible lesson with her. She has so much faith in the restoration of the gospel. Her husband was really against the whole church thing at first but we thing he is starting to soften so we are going to try to have a noche de hogar with them sometime this week. 

Karen and Angel - Karen is a less active that really wants to get reactivated in the church and Angel is her pareja and our investigator. They aren´t married and for various reasons karen has been really struggling with the idea of them getting married... BUT this week was a miracle and Karen told us that they decided to get married in December:) 

Wellington - Recent convert here in Alcobendas... Blessed the sacrament this week! So he is progressing so well! 

Eusebio - the old adorable paralyzed Spaniard:) For a long time he has not been wanting to take the sacrament but this week we had a great lesson with him about the importance of it and he finally decided that he wants to be able to take it every week. so we are going to make arrangements for him to be able to receive that sacrament:) 

Polin - Polin is a german-chinese man that we found in our area book. We had a lesson with him this week and he has a lot of doubts, particularly about the book of Mormon, but he says he loves that way that we act and behave ourselves and he wants to know why we are so different from everyone else... So there is potential there!

That´s about it for this week. We are still on the search for new investigators so keep up your prayers and thank you so much for the ones that you are offering:) I can feel their strength. 

BESOS

Hermana Fuller

Little Special Surprise

Hola :)

So my first week in my new area started out with a little special surprise... So my second companion and half trainer Hermana Cançado just finished her mission. Her parents were coming to pick her up and do a tour of spain but they where scheduled to come a week later than the transfer So... she got to come be companions with me and Hermana Shurtz for the week. It was the best surprise Ever. It was so fun to be able to be companions with her for the second time and also be in a trio. 

This week we have been street contacting A LOT. There is actually quite a lot of work here. We have quite a few investigators but only a couple of them are progressing. So we are in the finding game right now. Keep your prayers up, I know there are prepared people here, we´ve just got to find them.

The ward here is fantastic. It is the best functioning ward or branch that I have seen or been in on my mission. Everyone is very on board with missionary work and they all are really fulfilling their callings within the church. 

Here are a few of the people I´ve met so far:

Hermana Shurtz - My companion:) She is from St. George Utah and she is 19 years old. She is majoring in English with a minor in mathematics. She is super fun and hilarous. She has been in the mission about 4 months now. 

Wellington - Wellington is a 22 year old recent convert from ecuador. He is basically the coolest kid ever. He has an awesome man-pony and he just happens to speak japanese, which I was a bit excited about. He has the sweetest testimony and you feel the spirit so much when he prays. 

Juan - Juan is a Spanish investigator. He got in a car accident a few years back and he has never fully recuperated mentally, but he loves coming to church and learning about the gospel. 

Eusebio - is an 80 year old spaniard that was baptised by the granddaughter of Gordon B. Hinckley. He lives in a Residency because he is paralyzed so we go visit him once a week. He is the cutest man ever and has the strongest testimony. He has a whole library to himself where he puts all of his church books. Such a sweet strong convert. 

Updates from B2:

Bartolome - Is preparing to recieve the priesthood!

Valentin - Has a job interview in Leganes sometime this week. (lots of prayers) 

That´s it for today. Love you all mucho!

Hermana Ariana Fuller

My time Barrio 2 has come to an end

Dear Family and Friends

My time in Barrio 2 has come sadly come to an end. I am currently serving in Alcobendas! Which is really close to the mission home. My new companion is Hermana Shurtz. She just got done being trained and she is a really good friend of my last companion, Hermana Seegmiller. I also get the amazing opportunity to serve with... Hermana Grover!!! She is the sister that I began my mission with in Gijon and now we are able to end the mission together as well. We are pretty excited about that. Tonight we have a Noche de Hogar together. It will be really nice to be serving with more hermanas once again. 

Anyways.. the last week in Barrio 2:

We´ve been working quite a lot with our recent converts and less actives who seem to be doing really well!

Alexia - We were able to see her once this past week. The family situation is a litte hard right now so she still isn´t able to come to church consistently but we went over there and I took her a bunch of clothes I was going to be leaving behind, and she LOVED them. She´s adorable. 

Valentin - Valentin is doing amazing. This week he has started coming with both us and the elders to lessons. He gives the most beautiful testimony at the end and everyone says that they can just hear the spirit when he talks. He´s going to be an incredible missionary someday. 

Bartolome - We had a lesson with Bartolome this week and I finally learned how to make spanish tortilla. So I´ll get to practicing on the so I can make it for you when I get home. He is doing really well and I think having Valentin there with him for a little bit is really going to help him in his progression. 

Estefan - Estefan is a new investigator that we found this week. He plays a little flute outside of a supermarket and we have talke to him a few times. We had a little extra time so we decided to go talk to him and give him a book of mormon. He´s from Hungary and he´s had a pretty hard life. We had the first lesson with him this week and Valentin came with us. It was so cool because you could see a change in him from when we started the lesson and when we finished. I hope that he will start progressing. 

Hans - We were finally able to have a lesson with Hans... a really extremely long lesson with Hans. haha He really likes to talk. But it was so amazing. He seems so prepared to receive the gospel. He loved the first lesson and already has faith in that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He is really excited to read the book of mormon as well. 

Los Wilder - They are doing so awesome. Now Monica and Wilder are being such great missionaries to their son. They don´t push him but they always share their testimonies with him. Wilder also shared the gospel with one of his university friends and passed us her referance. Recent converts are so awesome. 

Silvia and Teresa - We haven´t been able to meet with them for a while but we passed by yesterday to say goodbye and we were able to share a scripture with them. After we shared the scripture we all felt the spirit so strong. We read Alma 17:2-3 and I told them that I hoped that the next time I saw them they would be stronger in their testimonies and in the gospel. 

Fiesta!!! - As you all know, I turned 21 this week. So on saturday at the Noche de Hogar we held a little party and we brought cake and I got sang to in Spanish and Romanian. My companion was also super awesome and made me breakfast and gave me this super cool spidermad mug. Thanks for the cards and gifts family! It was a really beautiful birthday!

That is all for this week but next week I´m sure I´ll have a lot to tell from my new area and new companion. 

Con Mucho Cariño,

hermana Fuller