Baptism this Saturday Week 12

Hey Family,

We just visited the temple we didn't have time to do a session. I go to write my letters in the public library. It is closer to us than the church and we only have one key to the clerk's office and the other guys in our apartment have it because they are the zone leaders. So you guys as well as Momma D asked where I went to watch conference. We watched the first 4 sessions at the church. They had it playing over a projector in the chapel. There was just a few other people at the church with us (mostly older people who aren't too familiar with how to find it online haha). We watched the Sunday afternoon session at the Oliva's house. They fed us dinner between the sessions and then watched it together. It was weird not having a morning and afternoon session, instead we had an afternoon and evening session and then the priesthood session was late evening.

So we have been teaching Sharon Oliva. She is Aly Oliva's mom (Aly was baptized back in July). They are RLDS so they already believe everything that we do up until the time when Joseph Smith died. It is a really interesting situation. She seems to be coming around though, it is just real slow going. We are teaching Aly's cousin Jen Fish, she is 24. We started teaching Jen and now she is getting baptized on Saturday!! It is so cool to see somebody change so much! She used to be smoking about a pack of cigarettes a day and about 4 cups of coffee and she has completely quit. We are teaching Jen's boyfriend/fiancee and he is coming along pretty well. His name is Vincent and he is 34. He is Irish Catholic and his mom is a very staunch Catholic. He is scared to tell her that he is taking the lessons so that has been hindering him quite a bit. We have been teaching this guy named Carl, he is about 28. He loves coming to church with us and loves when we come over... However, setting up an appointment with him is like trying to catch a fish with your bare hands. It is near impossible and he only comes to church every other week because he feels obligated to go to his parents church as well. He loves the interaction he gets to have with our church. We started teaching a girl named Brynn she is about 25. She is the girlfriend of an extremely less active guy named Dylan. They live with Dylan's parents who are members and asked us to come start teaching Brynn. So we are working on teaching her as well as reactivating Dylan. We have also been teaching a 15 year old kid named Danny. I told you about him a little before but he is slowly progressing. He got into some trouble trespassing and we have been helping him out with finding community service. He then pulled the fire alarm in his school last week and they are still waiting for his trial to find out what his punishment will be. He is an only child and his parents just don't know what to do. It reminds me a lot of what happened with Bryce. Except for you guys had 4 other kids to deal with. I am so thankful for all that you guys did for us and how you handled everything with Bryce. I know the gospel is what kept us strong and together. It is really interesting to see another family go through some of the same stuff and how the manage and deal with things.

Mom it sounds like you are really loving your new job. That is great that you are getting to pick up a few more hours with the field trips and things. I wanted to thank you for always making me do chores and especially cleaning the bathroom. I know it sounds weird and you will probably have a heart attack reading that but its true. Elder Nevarez will usually clean up the kitchen and vacuum the living room while I clean the bathroom. It gets pretty gross with 4 guys living there. I'm glad I don't mind doing it especially because the other two that we live with will never do any chores.

Dad I am glad your surgery went well. I'm sorry to hear you are still sore from it, hopefully that goes away soon! I wanted to thank you for the example you always set for me to be a worthy priesthood holder. I always took it for granted before because it was always there.

Spencer and Michael it sounds like you are both living pretty busy lifes! I hope you guys are having fun! Keep preparing yourselves for missions. It is ABSOLUTELY worth every minute of it and no matter how ready for it you think you are you are completely wrong. haha There is so much to learn so the more you learn now the easier it will be for you when you get out here.

Bryce and Crystal I bet you guys are having fun getting ready for the baby. Crystal I'm glad you are starting to feel a little better. Bryce hopefully you can get that re-zoning stuff done soon. Then you need to take pictures of the yard with all the Halloween stuff so I can see. :)

Staci and Rob I hope you guys can keep enjoying life. It sounds like work is going pretty well for you guys. Are planning to do anything fun soon?

Momma D and family thank you so much for the package you sent! I love getting things from you guys and love getting to hear all about what you guys are up to. My roommates love all the food you send as well! :P I loved receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost haha.

So this Saturday along with the baptism we get to hear from Elder D. Todd Christofferson! I am so excited!! I can't wait to hear what he has to say to us. We were told to bring his talk with us so I assume he is going to do something with that. I will have to let you know next week.

I love all of you guys and can't wait to hear from you next week. Hopefully I answered most of your questions from the last two weeks if not just ask me again and I'll try and answer it. Stay safe and keep having fun!

Love,

Elder Fuller

Trip to Manhattan Week 11

Hey guys,

Sorry I couldn't write yesterday. We went into the city. It was so much fun! We had a member drive us down to the city and we spent all day there. We drove past the U.S.S. Intrepid which was pretty cool to see. We took a tour of the world trade center site. What an incredible place that is! The Freedom Tower they are building is way awesome. We then walked through China Town and got to see some of the craziness and business of that place. We then rode the subway downtown more and walked 5th Avenue. It was cool to see a lot of that. We walked past FAO Schwarz and went in the NBA store. We got to see the Trinity Church (yes the one from National Treasure and the little cemetery right by it that he runs through). We saw the Manhattan Temple it is cool how you can go from the loud crazy streets of Manhattan walk into the Temple and it is dead silent. It was a really fun P-Day. Sorry this letter is short I will try and answer some of your questions next week. Have fun and thanks for the love and support.

Love Elder Fuller

Ryan the Lumberjack Week 10

Hey guys,

My week was pretty good. It has been so stormy here lately! This entire week it has been raining and really windy. I never thought I would say it but I love Utah weather! haha We have been doing a lot of service stuff lately which has been really fun. We helped chop up a huge tree branch (it was bigger than the trees in the front yard) and the chainsaw that the lady had was broken so we had to use an axe. Needless to say we were both pretty sore after that one. In between rainstorms we have helped mow lawns and pick up branches that have fallen down because of the storms. It is fun to have a little break from the regular missionary work. So each week I gain some weight and then I lose some but since I have been here I have gained a solid 10 lbs and I cant seem to get back down below that. The more seasoned missionaries tell me it is pretty normal to gain about 15-40 lbs while upstate and while you are in the city it is normal to lose about that same amount. On Sunday the lady we cut the tree down for fed us dinner, she cooked these huge chicken breasts, a whole pork loin, lasagna, steamed vegetables, Caesar salad, crab salad, an Italian salad which was just olives and cheese balls soaked in oil, pickled vegetables, pie, and ice cream. Every time we would finish what was on our plate she would immediately load it up with more. We were so sick by the end. It was like 100 times worse than any thanksgiving meal! It was pretty bad, especially because she gets really offended if you try to tell her no to food.

Dad, I am sorry to hear you are in a bunch of pain. Hopefully that will go away soon but I am glad the surgery went well. That is great to hear about Kramer! If you see him tell him I say congrats and am proud of him. That is wonderful to hear Mikey ran that fast as well! I wish he would have run Alta as well to get the experience racing. It sounds like he is having fun running though. Is he thinking about running track?

How was the last day of work? Was it weird knowing that you would never go back there with that sweet purple shirt on?! haha I bet everyone there was pretty sad that you left. That's fun that you will now be free to do more stuff.

Spencer you need to stop switching jobs on me man. I'm pretty sure every week Mom tells me that you have a new job! haha I bet that will be fun working at Blimpies especially where you know half the people already and are way familiar with everything. That staff has always been pretty cool. I'm glad the pain went away pretty fast with the braces.

It sounds like both sets of grandparents are doing great! That is good to hear! So my hip gives me some pain every now and again mostly just some stiffness but nothing too serious. Elder Nevarez is a fairly good runner we run a lot slower than I normally would but that is probably better for me anyways. I know I keep asking you for more stuff but that next package you send I could really use that black jacket, the under armour as many of the long sleeve ones as you can find (there should be 3), and maybe 1 or 2 of my flannel shirts. Maybe you can put them in a space bag. You can send it by the end of October.

Thanks so much! I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Fuller