I'm glad to hear that all of you are doing well and you're all happy. Sorry to hear about Sam's falling experience but I hope you start to feel better soon! I know how sprained ankles are... Not fun! Happy Birthday Marc! Sorry to hear that you caught strep throat and that you have to start school today but I hope you have a great day :)
Everything out here has been pretty good. I've still been feeling sick but I have an appointment with a doctor this Friday so hopefully we'll be making some progress to figure out what's going on. Belle Glade/South Bay is an interesting place. I love it! There are so many nice, friendly and loving people. I'm still not used to it but I'm getting there. Haha. One thing I know for sure though is that I love this branch. They are so amazing! They're small but so strong and so willing to help. We have two investigators that need to be married. They came to church yesterday for the second time and just absolutely loved it! The Branch loved them as well. After church after our investigators left we were talking to some of the members of the branch and asked us how they're doing. We told them that they need to be married and that they really don't have the means to afford the marriage application. The woman that we were talking to said, "Well, don't worry because we're going to have a wedding. I'll pay for the application (which is like $100) and we'll have a nice little wedding here at the church!" They went to the ATM right after church and gave us the money. All of the members are starting to plan what they're going to do to help. It's so great! They didn't come to church last week because the man didn't have any church clothes and didn't feel comfortable coming in gym shorts. That's about all he has. So my companion and I went to Goodwill to see what they had. Well they had a very nice gray suit that fit him perfectly and we got it for $11. I'm learning from Sam how to shop, "the thrift" :) We brought it over to them on Tuesday and he was so happy! Their date for baptism was supposed to be yesterday and it was so hard to tell them they couldn't get baptized yet because they're not married yet. He was so sad! He wants to get baptized so badly! Tomorrow we're going to the court house so they can get their marriage certificate :) I hope everything works out! Needless to say, I'm really excited for this week!
Unfortunately our other investigator and her daughter didn't get baptized this past week. They went out of town for the last weekend of the summer but we're hoping they'll be baptized with the married couple this weekend! Things are doing well in the area and we're finding some really cool people :)
This past week there was also a death in the Branch. An older man died and had his funeral on Saturday. It was a very nice, small funeral. This town is so closely knit. Everyone knows each other!! It's so great! We had a potluck after the funeral and I had some amazing food! It's definitely very different being here but I'm really starting to love it :)
We also were privileged to have zone conference this past week. It was one of the best ones that I've ever had! President Anderson talked a lot about being discouraged. He talked a lot about why hard things happen to us. He talked about Paul and all of the trials and challenges he had, being beat, put in prison, whipped, almost killed many times, etc. all because he preached the gospel. It also talks about how he had some sort of health problem, in the bible it uses the word "thorn" and he asks the Lord to take it from him. However, the Lord doesn't take it away... All of us have our thorns and sometimes they aren't taken away. They are there so that we can humble ourselves before God and rely on His strength. President said, "many times we are put in situations where we begin to pray so that the Lord with change our circumstances. However, there is a better way. Pray for the strength to change your circumstances." As I've been applying that this week I've begun to see the power and how my perspective has changed to be able to handle my challenges with confidence and with the strength of God.
Thank you for all of your help and support and the love that you have for me! Things haven't been easy but I know that the Lord is strengthening me through your prayers and I'm really grateful for them :) We are getting closer to having missionaries enter Cuba. How exciting is that? Pretty cool! I also heard that they changed my release date from March 6th, 2013 to February 28th, 2013. So I'm going home a week earlier than planned. Mom you asked about applying to schools, I'm almost positive that I'm going to go to the U at least for my first year back and might take the summer semester. If you could begin to search for my records and stuff like that, it would be great :) I love you all and hope you have a great week!
con mucho amor y carino,
-Elder David B. Fullmer
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