Another week in Alcorcon...

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week in Alcorcón. I´m still getting to know the area more and more. My companions and I have bonded a lot over this past week and we are really starting to teach with a lot of unity. It has been really amazing working and meeting with a bunch of new investigators. Our investigator, Peter, has a fecha bautismal for this coming Thursday!! and our other investigator, Ronald, who has a fecha bautismal for the 1 of February, came to church for the first time this Sunday. I am so excited for these people that are progressing in this wonderful Gospel. 

 

Un-expected cool experience: The other day when I was making a bunch of calls to future investigators, I accidently dialed one wrong number for one of our contacts. The man told me I had dialed the wrong number but I started talking to him anyways. He said his name was Christian and he was from Menorca (that´s a long ways away from Alcorcón.) I introduced myself and started talking to him about the church. I was able to bear my testimony of the church, God, and my Saviour, Jesus Christ. After we said bye I sent his number to the missionaries in Menorca. This experience was a huge testimony to me that God is in all things and that if I am doing my part He will use me to accomplish His great work. 

 

Funny(ish) story: I am always in charge of calling the elevator and opening the door. There is usually never someone in the elevator when we are using it. The other day as I opened the elevator door, I was so surprised to see someone in the elevator that I jumped back. Then the lady that was in the elevator said, "Que fea, ¿no?" We all couldn´t stop laughing. 

Funny(ish) thing: My companions call me "The African Whisperer" because I´m really good at teaching/talking to them for some reason.

Today I feel prompted to share a bit of what I wrote in a letter to a good friend of mine. These are three simple things that we teach to our investigators every day. They are the three things that everything else rests upon. Three things that increase our faith, strengthen our testimonies, bring us answers to prayers, and grow our relationship with God and Christ.

1. Pray - Of course. Sounds simple. Well it is. And it works. My mom has a board with the quote, "Prayer changes things." Prayer DOES change things, including us. Including our situations. And as members of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, we are blessed with the beautiful knowledge of how to pray. That we pray to God our Heavenly Father, in the Name of Christ, our mediator. That we can pray anytime and anywhere, about anything. Use this wonderful knowledge and gift of prayer and you will see and feel the differance in your life. 

2. Read - (Study) The scriptures. There is a saying that goes, "If you want to talk with God, pray. If you want him to answer, Read." The scriptures are the word of God, I have gotten some of the most powerful answers to my prayers through the scriptures. The more you read the more you will want to keep reading and you won´t be able to stop. If you have doubts or questions pick up the scriptures and start reading. 

3. Attend Church - CHURCH IS SO IMPORTANT. It´s a place where the spirit dwells in abundance. And most importantly, the time and place we dedicate to God to renew our covenants with him and ponder upon our Savior, Jesus Christ. Through repentance and partaking of the sacrament, we are cleansed from all our sin. But not ony this, from all of our sorrows and pains and heartaches as well. If you struggle with making it to church every Sunday, Study the Atonement, Study Repentance, Study the Sacrament. Then Pray. As a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ, I Promise you that if you do these three things (prayer, study, and church attendance) your life will be changed, and you will never forget to pray, you will never be too busy to read, and you will never want to miss going to church again. 

Os Quiero Mucho,

Hermana Ariana Fuller

Ps. Friday is my 6 months!!!

Baptism

Trash Strike

 Baptism

Emergency Transfer

¡HOLA!

EMERGENCY TRANSFER. I´m no longer in Móstoles. I am in an area close by called Alcorcón AND I´m in a trio. I am still with Hermana Shauman (20 from Tenessee. She´s been on the mission for 10 months and her previous area was Las Palmas in the Canary Islands) but now I have a new companion, Hermana VolQuardsen (26 from Texas. She has been on the mission for 13 months and she has been in Alcorcón for 3 transfers already.) So we have one from the north, one from the islands, and we both met up in the middle with one in the center. Hermana Shaumann were in Móstoles for less than 24 for hours and halfway done unpacking when we got the call that we were being moved. It´s been a crazy stream of events but I am excited for this new area and I can´t wait to see how this transfer goes.

Madrid is Completely different from the north. There are a lot more South Americans than Spaniards (but I am determined to start getting some Spaniard investigators). The first time we went contacting we received 5 referances in about only half an hour....I started crying. We would contact for hours at times in Gijón and still not have 5 referances. I have become even more grateful for my time in Gijón. Being in the North really taught me to work hard, and because the work was harder the success was that much more rewarding. 

The one investigator I would like to talk about this week is Peter. Peter is a 45 year old man from Nigeria. He has been taught by Hermana Volquardsen for some time and we met with him last Friday. He made us this delicious Nigerian dish that we had to eat with our hands. (I had no problem with that). After we ate we had a lesson with him and went over the Restauración. He had a date to be baptized the first of february, but after we were done teaching he told us that he wanted to be baptized before that. We are hoping to have a baptism with him this Saturday :)

I believe that is all I have for now. Next week I will send you more :) 

Thank you for all. Keep praying. Keep reading. And Keep pressing forward.

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Ariana Fuller

Emergency Transfer:

Two Hermanas needed to be switched out so they transferred us over here. That´s all. I LOVED all the pictures you sent me. I cannot wait to see the house! It looks so beautiful. That´s awesome that you are going to the temple. I will get to go to the temple once a transfer now because I´m in Madrid. Why did they have to change her name? It´s a beautiful name though. Do they still call her bree? Did you get my new address? Sorry, I don´t have my chord again because it´s in my suitcases somewhere but I´ll try to send pictures next week. I LOVE YOU:)

Two Hermanas needed to be switched out so they transferred us over here. That´s all. I LOVED all the pictures you sent me. I cannot wait to see the house! It looks so beautiful. That´s awesome that you are going to the temple. I will get to go to the temple once a transfer now because I´m in Madrid. Why did they have to change her name? It´s a beautiful name though. Do they still call her bree? Did you get my new address? Sorry, I don´t have my chord again because it´s in my suitcases somewhere but I´ll try to send pictures next week. I LOVE YOU:)

New Year Goals

Querida famila, 

It was so amazing to talk with you over skype! It seriously made the past few days so amazing. I was so blessed to be able to talk with you and share my testimony with you all. Only 6 more months till we can talk again... haha :)

The rest of my week has been great. I finally got my new Scriptures! Mom, Thank you so much. I will talk to Sister Jackson to figure it out but no worries. I love them. Also, Everyone that sent me anything at all MUCHAS GRACIAS. I seriously felt so loved this christmas. 

Welp, the work it still goes. We have had a few very promising first lessons this week with future investigators. And on Saturday all of the 5 lessons that we had planned went through!! Whaoo. That is a big deal. 

The past few weeks I have been thinking about the new year coming up. I am usually not a person to make new years resolutions, but the thought that this whole next year I´m going to be a missionary, really impressed me a lot. As I pondered about this I came up with two new years goals that I have set for myself:

1. Read all of the standard works this coming year. (ALL of them :))

2. Bear my testimony of my Savior, Jesus Christ, everyday. 

Now I will be accountable to all of you so that I make sure I do these goals. I would just like to leave you with my testimony. I know this church is true and that it is led by a living prophet of God. I know that God lives and loves each and every one of us so much. I pray every day to become more like my Savior so that I can truly be a witness and representative of him. Keep praying, reading your scriptures and attending church. And know that I am praying for each one of you everyday. 

Hermana Ariana Fuller

NEXT P-DAY IS CHRISTMAS

Dear Family and Friends, 

NEXT PDAY IS CHRISTMAS!!!!! I am so excited to be able to Skype you!!! Also, it will be my 5 month mission birthday the 24th! Craziness! 

  

 Right now our main focuses are working with the members and service. We are trying to fortify the members by helping them learn to serve one another as well as their family and friends. We have been visiting all of the members of the branch to see how they are doing with our branch goals to share the gospel and also if their is anything we can do to help or serve them. One thing that really impresses me about this ward is that all of the members are really passionate about their callings. I hope that we can get some of this same passion for the Obra misional. 

At this Christmas time I have been especially impressed with the example of Jesus Christ and how he was constantly serving. Everything He did was for Us. And Everything He did was the will of God. If we follow the spirit and God´s plan for us we will naturally be serving others as Christ did. I love being on the mission and having the calling to serve my brothers and sisters 24 hours a day. I pray continually to find opportunities of service and to become a better servant of God. 

I wish you all a very very FELIZ NAVIDAD. And family - Can´t wait to see your faces next week!!!!! 

Love,  

Hermana Fuller

Dear MOOoOooooommmmm (said singingly)

how are you and the family. Okay details for next week. We are going to be skyping around 4pm  (MY TIME) which I think will be about 10am   (YOUR TIME) Yayaya So be ready. Then my Pday ends at 6:30 so depending on when we start skyping we will have until that time!!! I am SO excited! And don´t worry Mom! if you want time where everyone leaves and we can just talk, we can do that too. Oh also BE ON YOUR EMAIL. Because I don´t have your skype information. I am going to try to make an account now and send you that information. 

Anyways about spain, here they celebrate the Three Kings. So the three kings that delivered Christ presents are the same ones that deliver them to the children here. But they also have Santa depending on the famliy- Also I´m sending you a package with these amazing christmas treats called Turrón. They onle sell them here during christmas time but they are AMAZING: I´m sending it to Utah because you´ll be there! 

As far as transfers and companions. I still have my same companion and she´s awesome! But i feel like this next transfer coming up I´ll be going. the next transfer is Januray 5. it´s a little nerve wracking but I think I´m up for a change. 

I can´t wait to see the house in Arizona. i am still not sure what I´m going to do when i get back but I still have a while so plenty of time for some personal revelation... I hope. haha 

I love you all and Im glad colling is doing better! Could you send me the russian tea recipe? Thank you!! LOVE YOU MOM!!!

AND TALK TO YOU NEXT WEEK ON SKYPE!!!

Love, y our Hija

Hermana fuller

Shifting our focus to service

Hey mom!

 Sorry I have no time this week to write to everyone. Do you remember me talking about the ladies that worked at the Florería. Well, Marta and her family planned this whole excursion and they drove us all around Gijón and such. It was SO much fun but we ran out of time and didn´t get the chance to write. I loved hearing all of your e-mails and sorry I can´t reply more. We are shifting our focus to service so if you have any ideas at all PLEASE let me know :) and here is a little clip from the letter to the president. 

"I would just like to share the highlight of our week, Our new investigator Ricky. We met Ricky in a locutorio where we ended up teaching him the first lesson. This week we have been able to consistently teach him and he has progressed really quickly. He is from Ghana and is muslim but he has the biggest desire to learn more about the things of God. He said he chose to be muslim because all of the different christian religions interpreted the scriptures differently from each other... He relates a lot to the story of Joseph Smith. Our last lesson we had with him we challenged him to pray about getting baptized. I am very faithful and excited to see what happens with him. It has truly been an honor to teach him so far." 

I love you all and I´m praying for you! Can´t wait to talk to you so soon!!!!

Hermana Ariana Fuller

Hard week

Dearest Family and Friends, 

Hermana Cançado and I have had a hard week but we have also seen many little miracles. We have both been striving to live up to our calling as disciples of Christ and serving others. Two of our investigators we found out will be leaving the country in the next month and neither of them will be ready for baptism before. So we continue our search to invite others to come unto Christ. With every struggle we have also received some sort of tender mercy from the Lord. I feel humbled and all I want to do is contintue to become better, a better missionary, a daughter, a better disciple of Christ. 

As Hermana Cançado and I fasted and prayed this week, we both feel we are being guided in the direction to work even more with the ward members through teaching them to serve one another. We have many ideas and things that we are working on that I am very excited about. (If you all have any ideas as well, don´t hestiate to send them my way.) I don´t know if you remember hearing about the packets we made, but this week we received a tender mercy about those packets. One of the ward members, Elena, came up to us and was telling us that those packets were exactly the push she needed. She then told us about 5 missionary experiences she had had that week. Last night we went over to her home and she had a list of Family, Friends, Aquaintences, and Less Actives that she was praying for and looking for opportunities to share the gospel with. We were able to help her with ideas and then pray together by name for each one of these people. I feel so blessed to be working with such amazing people here, both members and missionaries alike. I feel inspired and motivated to work even harder and show God how grateful I am for the love and knowledge that I have. 

Estoy muy agradecida por cada una de vosotros y por mi oportunidad servir también. Yo sé que Dios contesta oraciones y que tenemos una grande potencial como hijas y hijos de Dios. Tengo un testimonio fuerte que esta es la Iglesia de Jesucristo, y mediante él y su expiación podemos hacer todas las cosas. Os quiero muchísimo. 

Hermana Ariana Fuller

Starting from scratch

Querida Familia,

This week we are finding that we are going to have to start from scratch. None of our current investigators are keeping up with their committments or seem really interested. However, I feel like we have some promising future investigators:

Mara and Isabel- Mara is an employee at a Panadería that we love to go to. We have become friends with her and she always recommends yummy pasteries for us. She is 27 and has a little boy. One day we as we were buying pasteries we started talking about our beliefs with her. She invited us to go get drinks with her and her friend. Of course we couldn´t get "drinks" but we were able to meet with her and her friend and share more about the gospel. Her friends name is Isabel and she has a little boy and a husband. They both are from España and grew up here together. They loved talking with us and want to bring their husbands next time to meet us. 

Tomás and Sandro - Two men we contacted from France. We contacted Tomás first and then when his friend Sandro walked up he asked him if he believed in God. His reply "Are you drunk? Do I look like I´m drunk?" We talked with them for a little bit before we had to leave. Then a few days later we saw Sandro outside of a grocery store. He remembered us and was pleased to see us. It was raining really hard and he didn´t have an umbrella so we gave him one of ours. If anything I am happy that he has a better opinion of our church now and that we were able to serve him. 

Alejandro - Alejandro is a homeless spanish street musician that plays the guitar near our piso. Everytime we pass him we say hi and talked with him a little. One night we passed by him and he was terribly drunk and depressed. He began telling us about different things that had happened in his life. We stayed with him for a while to give him comfort and we read him a scripture. We went back everyday after that to try and find him with no luck. The other day we were walking in that area and we hear "Hermanas." We turned around and it was Alejandro. He was looking so much better and getting help. He was really grateful for what we did for him. We are going to try to start teaching him.

Marta and Her Mom - Marta and her mom are from Gijón and own a flowershop on a street near the capilla. We met them one day when we were buying flowers for Isabel for her baptism. We ended up having an hour long conversation with them. They were so sweet and said if we ever needed anything they were there for us. We are hoping to have a Noche de Hogar with their family and begin teaching them. 

Paulino and crew - One night as we were contacting near the capilla we ran into a couple of old spanish men. As we began talking with them about the gospel more and more old spanish men came in a joined the conversation. Paulino doesn´t believe in anything; religion, God, life after death. Basically what he told us was that serving the mission was stupid and that we should go home and spend time with our boyfriends. It was a little crazy with all the different opinions and beliefs going around but with the help of God my companion and I were able to hold our own and speak with the spirit to the point that at moments they were silent. The next day we ran into them again and it was almost like Paulino was a different man. This time he defended us to his friends and said if it wasn´t for the mission we wouldn´t be there learning a new culture, language, or talking with him. Overnight he went from thinking we were wasting our time to defending us. It is amazing to see how the spirit works on people. I am excited to see what miracles the spirit can work on this man. 

Carlos - Carlos is an Evangelist pastor that has the bible memorized and has read the Book of Mormon twice. The first time we met with him was really difficult and he was trying to tell us why our religion was wrong. The next time we met with him was literally the complete opposite. The spirit was so strong in the lesson and we were able to teach about the Restauración of the Gospel We teach him with the other set of hermanas in Gijón and after that lesson we were all in shock. It was a miracle. 

From all of these experiences this week I have learned so much about life, people, and missionary work. The best way to be a missionary is to be a friend. As we form relationships with all of these people around us they are more willing to hear our message and their hearts are open to feeling the spirit. This is especially true with the people of Spain. As I form these friendships with the people of Spain I can feel how much God really loves them, as He loves each one of us. He cares about every single one of His children. I love serving this people. The people here are stubborn and prideful, yes, but they are also passionate, dedicated, and full of love, and once you touch their heart you are there forever. Everyday, through little miracles and tender mercies, I see how much God loves this people. I am excited for the miracles that God has in store for me and the people of Spain.

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Ariana Fuller