Weekly Update... 1 year mark (February 27th, 2012)

 Dear Fullmer Family,

This week has brought many new changes and wonderful experiences. To
start off I will tell you where I am. Surprisingly I did not go north
but actually south! I'm in Key West! Just kidding... Ha ha. No I have
been transferred to the area of Killian East which is in Kendall
Florida. My new companion is from Salt Lake City, UT. He went to Skyline 

High School and lives about 5 minutes from our house :) He has been out 

about 1 1/2 years and was actually my Zone Leader 2 transfers ago. 

We are both serving as Zone Leaders of the Miami Zone. There are so 

many things that I'm learning but so far. I love being a Zone Leader! 

I get to help all of the wonderful missionaries in the zone work more 

effectively and it's great to be apart of that. My apartment is really nice! 

I, again, have my own bathroom, and we have a car! I couldn't be happier!

Well this week has been so wonderful! Before I left my last area. The mom 

and daughter we were teaching were both baptized! It was such a wonderful 

way to leave the area and a great feeling to see them be baptized! I heard that
they got confirmed yesterday and were just super happy! Nothing better
than that! My former companion  is now with another Latin companion in 

NMB and I hope they're doing well.

While I've been in Killian, so much has been going on. We had a
baptism yesterday morning for _____________. She is 87 years old
and was so happy. Her daughter who lives in Utah came down for a
business trip with her husband and was surprised to hear that her mom
would be getting baptized this weekend. The daughter was baptized 26
years ago and has been praying for that long that her mom would get
baptized. It was a very spiritual experience. The other daughter and
her family who are not members... YET... came to the baptism and
definitely felt the Spirit strongly. I have a feeling it won't be long
until they get baptized.

I just have to say that I absolutely LOVE this ward that I'm serving
in. It's an interesting ward because it is bi lingual so it's pretty
much Spanglish ward. There are translators so if you don't know both
English and Spanish you put on the headset and get the translation
when you don't understand. It's very different but it's nice because
we can teach whomever we meet! 

Yesterday a family of 5 came into church and the moment they walked 

into the chapel there were like 5 different families just waiting to fellowship them. 

They sat by a family and so many people came up and welcomed them! This 

ward is like a well oiled machine! That was one of the biggest problems in my 

last areas but this ward has it down to a science! I love it! The Bishop
came with us to a lesson the other day and he is such a powerful
leader. If you can't tell already I'm happy where I am!

The other day we were teaching a person named *****, who is mostly
blind and autistic, on the campus of the local collage here. Miami
Dade Collage. As we were teaching him about the word of wisdom a girl
came up to me wanting to know if I could tell her about the church. So
while my companion was teaching the person in English I was teaching this
girl from Cuba in Spanish about the Restoration. She is very
interested. However being on a collage campus there were so many
people waiting to go into a class listening to us. One girl
inparticular was standing in a corner and as I glanced over to her
after I was teaching about the first vision I saw her crying. We're
not really sure why she was crying, if it was because of the message
or something else, but we know that other people learned more about
what we believe. It was a great experience!

Another cool thing that I love being a ZL is that we get to do more
baptismal interviews. This is one of my favorite parts! I love it
because you get the special opportunity to see these investigators
differently than anyone else can. You can feel their desires and their
testimonies of the Gospel. This past week I was able to give 2 of them
and both were such great experiences for me!

Sorry one more thing about why I love this area... People don't slam
doors in faces! Everyone, for the most part, is so nice! They don't
all let you in their house but they will talk to us and politely say
no. It's so much better than my last areas. Now I don't mind knocking
doors. I love this area! I think that's like my 5th time saying that
but it's true.

Again I have the opportunity to split this ward with Sister
Missionaries. They are awesome and have such strong testimonies! They
bring a special spirit to the ward. I was able to share my testimony
in the ward yesterday and then after me the new sister,
went up and just had so much energy! I had energy but just quite not
as much. After her a sister got up to give a talk and said, "I want to
apologize that I will never be able to have that much energy."
Everyone started to laugh.

Well that's about all that's been going on with me this past week...
It's been a lot but it's been really great! I have seen myself growing
so much already this past week and I'm very excited for this next
transfer. Ohh yeah, one more thing. As zone leaders we came up with a
challenge that we are giving to our zone this next transfer called,
"Wilt thou accept my very best effort?" As part of this challenge we
tell the Lord every morning that we will do our very best that day.
During Companionship Study we will tell our companion how we will do
our very best, for example, "today I will focus on talking to everyone
I pass on the street." Or "When I bear my testimony I will give
everything I have." Something like that. And then as we end the day at
night we ask the Lord, "Wilt thou accept my very best effort" and then
wait for His reply. As we have been doing that we have been seeing so
many wonderful miracles and we've all been growing and strengthening
each other. I love it! I invite all of you to try and include this in
your days and give it your very best! I love you all so much and I
know that the Lord is guiding us and is helping us in every step that
we take! Please keep me in your prayers!
With Love,
-Elder David B. Fullmer