It is Finished

Dear Fullmer Family,

Well, my time is just about up! It still hasn't hit me that this week I will be coming home. I'm filled with all kinds of different feelings but it will all be good.

This week has been amazing!!! So many crazy, terrible, amazing, and wonderful things have happened. There is no way I'll be able to decribe much if anything that has happened. Our investigator didn't get baptized this week but will be this next Sunday. Her parents asked her to wait a week out of respect for them. It's not going to be an easy week for her. She's really strong and I'm really proud of her and what she has decided to do regardless of the challenges. I have learned so much from her especially what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. She understands that following Christ is never easy but it's the only way. It has helped be want to become a better person. I can't really go into much detail because I kind of want to be able to do it in person. Luckily I'll be able to do that soon! 

This week has just been amazing! Probably the best week of my mission. I truly have worked to the very end and it feels so good! I know that the Lord is proud of me and I want to keep going. Unfortunately I'm not able to be a missionary forever but my mission will always be apart of who I am. 

I love you all so much and Can't wait to see you soon! Please continue to pray for Our investigator this week. It's going to be a very difficult week for her and all the prayers she has the better. Bye!

-Elder David B. Fullmer

Last Week of My Mission

The Key West branch gave this Giant Conch Shell to him 

Well the time as come, if I like it or not, the end is nigh! Ha ha. I can't believe it, I know I say that a lot but I really can't believe it. This week has been a great one though. It flew by but it was great! We were able to have a zone conference where Elder O. Vincent Halleck of the Seventy came to tour our mission. He is an incredible man with a very strong testimony! He talked to us about the Gathering of Israel and the role that we play in it. Very powerful and I learned a lot!

Sorry but this letter will be pretty short. Lot's of activities to do. It's basically my last P-Day and I want to live it up in Key West. We're going with the Branch Mission Leader and his family to see the Ernest Hemmingway house, the Key West Lighthouse, the Aquarium, and the Truman White House. Don't worry, I'll be taking pictures!! I bought a new sd card because I filled up my last one :) It's a beautiful day todeay except it's FREEZING1!! I woke up today and in the trailer it was 59 degrees... I know that's a heat wave for Utah and that fact alone makes me worried for how cold i'm going to be... Ha ha. Ohh well.

I had my departing interview with President Anderson this past week which went really well. I was nervous for it but it went extremely well. I brought my list of 100 things I've learned in my mission which was actually pretty easy to make along with three short term goals and three long term goals. I learned a lot in the interview and he helped me recognize how successful I've been on my mission. He said that every missionary towards the end of his mission feels if he could have done more but he let me know I should feel very happy with what I have done and he said that the Lord is very pleased with my service. It was a very great experience. I had the interview right after zone conference because he won't see me until the day before I leave and he likes to do them before that. He went over my travel itinerary in depth... So I hope you'll be at the airport when I get into SLC! Ha ha.

This week is looking to be a great week. I'm going to make it the best week of my mission. ****** is planning to be baptized on Sunday and I'm so excited for it!! She's doing really well and it's going to be a great day. Please keep her in your prayers this week. Another person was supposed to be baptized this past week but he hasn't been feeling well so hopefully we'll be baptizing him as well this Sunday. I'm going out strong!!

Well, that's about it from my end. I love you all and I look forward to seeing you all soon. I know that the Lord lives and that this is His work. As I was leaving the conference on Friday it hit me that it's about over but I felt the spirit testify that I have fought a good fight and I have kept the faith. I won't stop my final week. Think if the Savior gave up on His last week. Everything he did up to that point wouldn't have made any difference in the salvation of all mankind. My role is quite a bit different than that of the Savior's but there are still people to find and people to influence. It's not over until I get released and I'm not going to stop.

I thank you for your prayers and your faith. I love you all!

-Elder David B. Fullmer

Key West is the Best

Dear Fullmer Family,
What's an amazing week I've had. I hope all of you are doing well and I pray that you all don't freeze to death before I get to see you! I can't believe Christian will be going into the MTC on Wednesday! I remember those days... They seem like yesterday. I kind of with I could do it all over again but unfortunately that's not the case. Good luck Christian! I love you and I know you'll do an amazing job helping all those Argentines :) Cuidate!

Well this week I finished up my ulcer medication. The day after I took my last pill I started to get some tummy troubles that have lasted all week so it would probably be good to get me to a doctor as soon as possible when I get home. Ohh joy! However, that didn't slow me down this week in the slightest. Last Sunday was Fast Sunday and I specifically fasted for two things. 1.) That one of the recent converts in this area who has had work on Sundays for the past four months or so, would be able to come to church on Sunday. and 2.) That one of our investigators would receive an answer and her family would be receptive to her decision. Well both of those things were fulfilled this past week. The recent member called us up on Friday and said, "You'll never guess what just happened!! Someone just randomly called me and asked if I wanted Sunday off!" We were ecstatic! He came to church Yesterday and said once he got back home, "I didn't want to come back home. I was afraid I'd get off my LDS high." Ha ha. It was so great to see him there at church. Now with one of our investigators... So her birthday was this past week and I wanted to make her a birthday cake. So on Thursday I made a chocolate cake from scratch and man was it good! We surprised her with it at the lesson on Thursday and it was a lot of fun. Up to this point, her parents didn't know that she had been meeting with us. There were a lot of extras and he took it home. Well she ended up telling her mom that we made her a cake and she told her that she had been meeting with us for the past two months. Her Mom actually took it very well and basically told her, "As long as you're still a Christian, it doesn't matter what church you go to." We haven't seen her since that happened since she went with her Mom to tour a Catholic College in Naples. Ha ha. It's pretty exciting! Also, This past week she saw a post on facebook that said something along the lines of "Don't put off your baptism invite!" She's really cool and there are a lot of miracles happening!

Also this past Thursday we taught Early Morning Seminary! Man, that is so early!! It started at 6 AM! I'm glad I lived in Utah for Seminary. The lesson went really well. It was all about Saul on his road to Damascus. Also, Yesterday both of the sacrament talks were in Spanish and the majority of the members don't speak any Spanish so lucky me, I was the translator for everyone! It was pretty hard especially since I haven't been in a Spanish ward in almost eight months. Ha ha. During this week our Zone Leaders decided to make the long trek down here and have an exchange for the day in Key West! It was a lot of fun being able to be with them, who were both in my zone when I was a zone leader. A lot of cool things happened.

Well this week I'm going to have my departing interview with President Anderson. I'm kind of freaking out about it! We're going to be having a General Authority come and speak to us. Elder Halleck is coming. I get to have my interview right afterwards... Yippee! So he has asked me to put together a list of 100 things I've learned on my mission along with three long term and three short term goals. It should be a great time! Anyways, I need to get going. I love you all very much and I know these last weeks will be the best ones yet!
-Elder David B. Fullmer

Last Leg of the Race

Dear Family,

Wow! What an amazing week I've had! It's just been fantastic. Most of the great experiences happened yesterday which I will be talking about. However first off I was kind of bummed that the 49er's didn't win... Que sad :( Ohh Well. I don't really care! Haha. I'm glad to hear that the weather is slightly improving in Utah. It's been just beautiful here as always. Gotta love Paradise! Haha. Hopefully it stays this way for a while. Today is absolutely gorgeous! It's nice and cool with a slight breeze! I just love it here.

Well things with our investigators down here are going really well. We had a couple great lessons with an investigator this past week and she's getting close! The first one was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the last on was on prayer. The last one was on Saturday and we got a text from her friend and said she wanted to meet with us.  We set it up for 2:00 and didn't have much time to prepare. My companion basically said, "this one's yours" since he wasn't feeling very well that day. As we were doing our other activities, some service for a recent convert, I had a very strong impression to teach about prayer. We talked all about prayer and I asked her about experiences she's had with prayer and she opened up... A lot! I had never seen her talk so much especially about things that were very personal to her. We talked about where she was at and helped her recognize things that she could do better to receive more guidance and answers from the Lord. We committed her to pray specifically about a date for baptism. Yesterday for my fast I fasted specifically for her. During the day we got a text from her friend saying that the investigator wants to meet with us so she can ask us about baptism. I have a strong feeling that she's really close and is receiving answers. I love fasting so much!

Now with another investigator, I'm not sure if I've talked much about him but he's our investigator who's mostly blind. He is so humble and teachable. On Saturday we had a lesson about the plan of salvation and we taught it Star Wars Style! He's a huge star wars fan and so we taught it to how he's be able to apply it. We weren't planning to teach it that way but it kind of just happened. Haha. Don't join the Dark Side! Haha. he loved it! He came to church yesterday and was very enthusiastic in the gospel principles lesson which I taught. I've been doing a lot of last minute teaching this week! It's alright though because I love doing it. We're hoping to baptize him this weekend.

Now it's time to talk about what happened yesterday! A lot happened! So first off we had a total of eight investigators in sacrament meeting between the two branches which was really exciting. Then during testimony meeting a young man walked up who I didn't recognize at first. He said that he wanted to bear his testimony on how the Lord leads and guides people to those in need. At that moment I remembered who this guy was. Last Friday evening we felt like we needed to follow up with someone we had met a few days before. We went there but she wasn't home... As we were walking back to the car a young man on a bike rode up to us and asked, "you guys Jehovah's Witnesses?" I thought, ohh great... Time to get ridiculed but I said, "Nope! We're Mormon's!" He responded, "Where's your church at?" I gave him a chapel card with the address and he said, "I'll be there!" We got in the car and then left to another appointment. In his testimony however he explained how he had been out of jail for 46 days and was really wanting to learn about Christ and turn his life around. He prayed and he saw us. He said how grateful he was that he met us! The branch absolutely loves this guy and made him feel so loved. We'll be meeting with him on Tuesday. Pretty cool right?

Okay next story! So when we were up in Marathon on Thursday we made return appointments with everyone we met for Sunday afternoon. We got a call on Saturday from the Branch President who said that while he was home teaching, he learned of a person who wants to know learn about the church. He told us that he had made an appointment for Sunday at 4:30. We were in a predicament. We needed to be in two places at once. Luckily we got permission again to split up. This time, my companion went up to Marathon with a recent convert and I stayed down here with a member. It was fun! I went and visited a few of the people he home taught and then went to the lesson at 4:30. The lesson was amazing! It was all in Spanish so the member couldn't say anything or understand anything so it was all on me. I taught the restoration and the Spirit was so strong! She didn't talk much during the lesson but she said she'll read and pray. She's got a lot of potential. Later on in the night, the member got a call from his son that he had gotten in a car accident as he was leaving work from the airport. We hurried over there and when we got to the crash sight a woman came out of the other car and ran up to me and said, "I cant believe you're here! We're members of the Church!" Luckily no one was injured and it could have been a lot worse than it was. The driver of the other car was a little shaken up and her neck was hurting a bit and asked if we could give her a blessing. We graciously did. I knew that I was supposed to be there at that time! What are the chances that the son of the member I was with, accidentally hit another member from out of town and that a missionary was on a split with his dad? Not very likely! It was an awesome day! I wish I could keep telling more storied but I'm out of time.

I know that the Lord guides his servants who are on His errand! I love this work and I'm going out strong. It's the very last leg of the race and I'm not quitting! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Cuidense mucho.
-Elder David B. Fullmer

A Wonderful Week in Paradise

Dear Fullmer Family,
I'm so sorry to hear about all the horrible weather that you've been having... It sounds absolutely terrible. The Branch President told me this morning, "When you go back, you're going to freeze!!!" I'm a little scared about that. Haha. Hopefully I'll bring the warmth with me to Utah. Haha. Hopefully none of you get frostbitten and I'll try not to get sunburned :)

Anyways, this past week has been great! We finished "Temple Worthy" by BroTab and it's awesome!! We really love it. We went up on Wednesday to Marathon to burn the CD's and also we made an album cover. It's pretty cool. We went up to the training on Friday and President Anderson said he'll think about it. He's a little hesitant to approve it because he doesn't want it to "open the floodgates." Especially with all of the new missionaries coming in he doesn't want the obedience level to drop. I understand what he's saying. However we gave the cd to him to listen and we feel like he'll approve it. At least we hope so :)

The training meeting was awesome! He talked about how we need to improve our ability to "liken" the scriptures to our investigators. During this entire part of the training I couldn't help but think of the time when mom was on a "Liken" phase and used the word all the time. I don't know if you remember that but I sure do. He also talked about the importance of working with the members. We have been making that a huge focus lately and what President talked about was exactly what we needed. Basically he said how we need to have members in everything that we do and we need to support them and help retain the converts. It was really nice. The final part of the training was about faith. I thought I was pretty good on faith but during the training I realized how much I lacked in it. He described the pattern of faith from Alma 32. The part that stuck out to me was where it says, "Don't cast it out by your unbelief (or something along those lines... I don't have my scriptures or notes with me)" We can be nurturing our faith but unless we truly believe it won't do anything. Faith is much more than a desire but it's gained and strenthened as we act! It was a really amazing training and it was great to see some other missionaries that I might not see again... It's weird but it still hasn't really hit me yet that I only have like a month left... Wow, it's actually a month from today. Weird.

Well yesterday we did something that has never been done before. We were expecting some new investigators to come to church in both Key West and Key Marathon.The ones in Marathon needed to have Spanish translation so we were trying to figure out how it was to be done. So what we ended up doing is that we got permission to go on a split. We drove up to Big Pine (about halfway to Marathon) with a member and we met **** (our recent convert) there and I went up the rest of the way with him. Let me tell you it was weird to not have a companion with you... Well I did but he was one of our recent converts. Haha. Unfortuneately the family who was supposed to come to Key Marathon didn't show up but it was fun to be able to see the members up there. I also got to see **** pass the sacrament for the first time and I taught him how to tie a tie. It was a great day! Last night we went to a member's work at the airport and got to see all of the little planes that he flys and takes care of. I forgot my camera but next time I'll go I'll make sure to take a bunch of pics. Then we went out with him to follow up with some of the referrals he gave us. It went really well! None of them were very interested but we were planting some seeds. His girlfriend is doing well... She's a really nice girl and it's helping him to prepare for his mission. He's going to be an amazing missionary!

Well that's about all that I've got to say. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! Take Care!

-Elder David B. Fullmer

Last Tube of Toothpaste

His P-day was delayed a day because of Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Plus, he is unable to send pictures on the tablet he is using to write emails from the military base.  

Dear Fullmer Family,
Thank you Marc for your comment on the last tube of toothpaste. I actually might need to buy another one before I go home but we'll see :) Time is flying! I can't believe I'll only be writing home five more times. It's a really strange thought. However, I'm not stuck on that thought but I'm going out strong! Haha. Things are going really well for us down here. The branch absolutely loves us and is working with us a lot! This week we arranged to play a musical number in church. We called and set it up towards the beginning of last week actually. Then a few days later we got a call asking if we could both speak in church. We didn't want to turn anything down so we accepted. Then the day before Sunday, we got another call from the Youth Sunday School teacher asking if I could fill in for him because he would be gone. I said of course and started planning for it. Sunday was, to say the least, a very busy Sunday! We both spoke in sacrament meeting, which went very well. I used a story from a talk given my President Hinckley called "It's true, isn't it?" I'm sure you've all heard about it, but for you that haven't it talks about a young Pakistani man who comes over for military training and while he's here he get baptized into the church. Right before he is about to go back to his native country he meets with President Hinckley. President Hinckley asks him, "Your people are not Christians, what will they do when they find out you are now a christian, and more specifically a Mormon christian?" He responds, "My family will regard me as dead and as to my career I will never have a promotion." Hinckley responds, "are you willing to make such a sacrifice for the gospel?" The young man looks at him with tears in his eyes and responds, "it's true isn't it?" President Hinckley responds, "yes it's true." The young man then declares,'then what else matters?" In my talk I talked first about how we can know if something is true and be able to have a strong testimony and then I spoke about what the Lord expects of us after we know something is true. I think it went really well. I then taught the youth and that was one of my favorite lessons I've ever taught. The youth are so amazing to teach, especially with the new teaching program. We learned about how to lead by the Holy Ghost. It was a very memorable lesson. While I was teaching that class, my companion was teaching gospel principles. Haha. It was a very busy Sunday! Oh and the musical number we did was "This is the Christ." It went very well!

Both my companion and I and I have been really trying to work a lot with the members and so we've been leaving blessings in the homes of the members with the spirit of missionary work. This week alone we have gotten 12 member referrals! Incredible!! Never has that happened before on my mission. Great things are happening here. We were able to meet with and investigator last night where we taught her the Plan of Salvation. It went really well and she really loved it. A really close friend died this past week so it was a great reminder of the plan. It went well! The woman at church has yet to be seen again unfortunately... Hopefully we see her soon!

So this past week my companion and I have been doing a little project of sorts... I don't think you'll be too surprised as to what it consists of. So to begin, for nearly two years I have had the privilege of listening to only MoTab music, which is great but gets old, really old, after a while. My companion agrees and I have heard the same thing from many missionaries. We understand why the rule is in place but both my companion and I were thinking about how we could listen to other music approved by President. A while ago I bought a little digital recorder and the thought came to us... "Let's record us playing and singing different songs, put it on a CD, have President approve it and give it to everyone in the mission!!" So it's called, "Temple Worthy by BroTab" That's our band name... BroTab... Get it? Yeah. So we're just about done with it. Most of the recording was done last Pday but we're going to finish it up today and present it to him this Friday and a specialized training. Hopefully he likes it and accepts it. Haha.

Well anyways that's about all that's going ! Thank you for everything and I love you! Please keep me in your prayers, it's tough knowing the mission is coming to a close...Have a great week!

-Elder David B. Fullmer

Staying in the Keys!

Dear Fullmer Family,

Well we got the info and we're both staying in the keys for this transfer! We're really excited about that. We get along with each other really well and we're both really excited, especially since I'll be finishing my mission here! I love it here so much! This is probably my favorite area that I've served in. The branch is so amazing... FYI this letter might be a little short since we're a bit low on time but I'll try to write as much as I can.

So this last week we had an awesome lesson.... However, she's reading the Book of Mormon and is about a half way through and we had a lesson with her this past week. We had met with her a few times before and she was always un comfortable around us so we were worried about how the first lesson would go. Her friend suggested that we wear like P day clothes for the lesson so it takes it down on the weird level a bit, so we did. It ended up being a really good lesson! We taught the Restoration and it was just a really fun lesson to teach. After the lesson, there was a branch activity of balloon volleyball which she stayed for and she had a great time! She was able to see us as regular people and definitely warmed up to us. She's a really cool person who will hopefully get baptized before I go home but we'll see.

We also we and visited one of the recent converts in the Branch, who are planning to be sealed in April. Last Friday, I believe, I had a feeling that we needed to stop by them all day long so we stopped by but no one was home. I was a little confused why I had been feeling like they needed a visit so we left a note at the door and then we left. We went by a few days later where we found out that they had been out of town and the wife said to me, "One night while we were gone I had a dream that the missionaries came looking for us and it brought me a lot of comfort. When we came home we saw the note and it helped me know that God is watching over us." It was a pretty cool experience!

Also, this week while we were leaving the church on Wednesday there was a woman sitting ouside the chapel wondering when the church services were at and we said on Sunday. We didn't think much more on it and then we saw her at church on Sunday! The branch just completely fellowshipped her and she loved church! It turns out that she's Jewish but she really felt like she needed to come to our church. We tried to visit with her yesterday but she didn't show up to the lesson... We'll keep trying with her though.

Well, all in all we've had a pretty good week. We have a new Branch Mission Leader who is really excited about the work. It'll be nice because we didn't have a mission leader before! We're looking forward to this next week! Well I hope everyone has a wonderful week! The senior couple loved their gift. Thank you so much! I love you all so much!

-Elder David B. Fullmer

Note from his mom: He is feeling much better and had just got back from the dentist.

Come What May and Love It (A trip to the ER)

Dear Fullmer Family,

Happy New Year! I hope you all have a bright and wonderful new year knowing that the Mayan's were wrong and that the world isn't over! Haha.

This week has definitely been an interesting one. As you probably have heard it's been interesting. One of Elder Wirthlin's talks has been of help this past week, as he said,

"Come what may and love it!" In a General Conference Address he said, "When I was young I loved playing sports, and I have many fond memories of those days. But not all of them are pleasant. I remember one day after my football team lost a tough game, I came home feeling discouraged. My mother was there. She listened to my sad story. She taught her children to trust in themselves and each other, not blame others for their misfortunes, and give their best effort in everything they attempted. When we fell down, she expected us to pick ourselves up and get going again. So the advice my mother gave to me then wasn’t altogether unexpected. It has stayed with me all my life. “Joseph,” she said, “come what may, and love it.”

I have often reflected on that counsel. I think she may have meant that every life has peaks and shadows and times when it seems that the birds don’t sing and bells don’t ring. Yet in spite of discouragement and adversity, those who are happiest seem to have a way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and happier as a result.

I love this talk because with all of the challenges that we will all face in life, the way we act after the trials is directly correlated with the strength, knowledge and understanding that we will recieve as consequence. I am continually reminded of that throughout my mission. I never thought, going into my mission, that I would have the trials that I have had. However as I have reacted to them with a possitive perspective, they have influenced me in ways that I see them as blessings rather than hinderances. I have, like many of us, on occasions responded to the problems or hard situations in a negative matter only to have my attitude be equally as negative. It is much better to take what ever the Lord sees fit to put in our way and love it.

This past week has been another example of that. This past Friday night after dinner I had a pretty serious pain in my stomach. Trying to forget about it we went back to the house, and I attempted to fall asleep. I only slept for about two hours because of the pain. I woke up at 6:30, as usual but didn't have much desire to do so. I showered and tried to get ready for the day when my companion said, "Elder, you really don't look very good. You're sweating a lot. How are you feeling?" I wasn't feeling well at all. He said that he would call the nurse for the mission and she responded after talking with the area doctor that I needed to go to the emergency room. When he relayed the message to me I did not want to go. I really had no desire whatsoever to go to the ER, something I had never done nor ever wanted to do. I was frustrated and I tried to mask the pain and pretend nothing was wrong. However, as I offered a short prayer I had the feeling that I need to follow the counsel that I had been given because it was the will of the Lord. I was scared but had the confidence that God would guide my steps. We got to the ER and I admitted myself and soon saw the doctor. After talking over my symptoms and my past history and after some tests they came to the conclusion that my ulcer was acting up and had started to bleed. Luckily I went in to the doctor at that time and I received the medicine that I need to heal the ulcer. These past experiences have taught me to turn to the Lord and Remember Him.

I love Helaman chaper 12 where it talks about Remembering the Lord. The word "remember" is used more times in this chapter than any other chapter in the Book of Mormon. It's of a loving father teaching his sons on how to recieve salvation. Not only remembering Christ will save us from our sins but our challenges and afflictions as well. Just as Alma states in Alma 7 that he will go forth suffering the pains and afflictions and temptations of all men that the word might be fulfilled that he will suffer the pains and the sicknesses of his people. As we always remember him as the sacramental prayers instruct us to do we can be relieved of the challenges that we all encounter in our lives. I know that my redeemer lives and as we remember that in the midst of our afflictions rather than self pity or complain, we can recieve the peace that surpasses all understanding, which peace is only found through Him. I love you all and pray for you constantly! Have a wonderful week :)

-Elder David B. Fullmer