Fuller Family Pictures 2016

  

Thanks to a very talented gal in our ward, shout out to Melissa Fullmer Photography Blog!!  She took these pictures for us back in September in an open field. It was so hot and muggy that day with dark clouds on the horizon. A picture is truly worth a thousand words.

Benjamin wanted to pose with an umbrella to look like an refined English Gent, I say he nailed it. Rachel had the idea for the flags and props that we used, the sun brought out the auburn in her hair. Daniel could probably be the model of the bunch but laughs really hard at the thought of it, because that would be so unlike him, he is no poser. We are so proud and excited for our missionaries!!

Welcome Elder Fuller! DTF Dec 28 2016 Johannesburg MTC

I know one of the Nairobi Missionary Mommas was concerned since she didn't hear anything from her son in 3wks.  They worked hard to get her some news.  He had been helping the survival of babies and new mothers organization of some sort.  Things are different there, he will be giving up all forms of technology including microwaves, although some elders have them.  They definitely have to wash their clothes by hand and hang them out to dry.  Also I know they have to be in before 9 at night when the animals start coming out.  He read a story from a previous set of elders that told of getting out of the mission office a little late.  They were almost to their fence which surrounded their house and heard the hyenas behind them whooping at each other to come in for the kill.  He said it was a matter of him getting the key in the lock in time without dropping them, he opened it just in time.  Very harrowing experience and one that he learned a lesson from immediately.  Obeying the mission rules is paramount in any area, but especially Kenya!

So happy to hear from Daniel:

Hey! i made it alright! turns out it is the longest flight delta offers! im safe here in the MTC i was on the plane with four other elders! their all awesome! i can email yall more on Tuesday. love ya! bye!

Short and sweet...to the point.  I hope this isn't foreshadowing of things to come.  
It appears I will have Monday Pday, Tuesday Pday, and Saturday Pday.  How am I going to get anything done?!

            

 

Welcome Hermana Fuller! RLF Dec 28 2016 Madrid MTC

I am so excited to add Rachel and Daniel to my blog posts!  They each have their email lists.  Rachel will be doing her own blog and if I know her, there will be oodles of pics and probably too much to post here.  This is a minimalist approach since there will be 3 weekly emails to keep up with.  I don't know about a weekly one for Daniel.  Sometimes they are travelling far outside the mission office.  Rachel had to buy a certain type of ipad and Benjamin has one the mission provided.  Daniel, not so much, if word got around that missionaries had electronics...well, let's just say they would be a major target for theft.  He is in a 3rd world country and we will be learning much from him about what that entails.
Rachel is in a completely different setting and basically will be living near the Mediterranean Sea.  This is a tourist area and transportation is completely accessible everywhere but she will be mostly walking like she did in Russia.  While in Russia, through the ILP program (International Language Program) out of Utah, Rachel learned a lot about living on her own and making things happen to effect the program in a good way.  It was only through skype and immediate response with texting that I could have let her do that.  Also through LDS organizations, it put my heart at ease.  I know things can happen but now especially with the mission, there is an understanding of the fact that these 3 are on the Lord's errand.  That things can happen, but the idea that there is a time and place for them to be with the direct admonition from God gives me great peace of mind.  It will be an exercise of all our faith as a family.  I know that seeing each other out and struggling to learn the language and having ups and downs, will help them to be more dedicated and devoted.  They are up for the challenge!

       

WELL HELLO!!! I am officially in spain it´s about 4:30 in the afternoon and holy cow.  It´s gorgeous, the people are so nice and everything is okay!
the flight was insane!  we finally got to London at 5 in the morning and got to see the sunrise only 10 hours after we left America. (weird)
There are 5 elders from America and 1 other sister from portugal. 

The mission president knows each of us by name and where we´re from.  then when the Mission mom hugged me, I knew I would be okay, even after all the stress of the airport and sleeping 3 hours here and three hours there.  It was like she was giving me a hug right from my momma.  I´ve got my key, my bank card, my medical card and 40 euros for chocolate ;) 

I haven´t been to my room yet but I´m excited to put all my stuff away. 

HA when I picked up my bag they put stickers on my luggage that said ´very heavy, lift with legs´ ohhhh kaayyyyy apparently I´m the only one who utilizes the 50lb rule! 

WELL we´re about to go play football so I will write to you a week from this Thursday, cause I don´t get a Pday this week. 

I love all of you and I will reply to each of you individually in about 10 days!  write me lots and tell me all about your lives. 

Love, Hermana Fuller

--
This is her missionary plaque scripture:

Send Packages for Hermana Fuller to:

Calle Calatrava Nº 10-12, 1º
Barcelona
08017 Barcelona
Spain

Send Letters to:
Calle Calatrava Nº 10-12, 1º
Barcelona
08017 Barcelona
Spain

Dec 27 2016 Shipping Out

Dearest Ben,

Tried to get some pics for you...I know its not much but it gives you a peek into the crazy and emotional day we had today. As I am writing, it is 10pm and the screen shot of gps of them over open ocean is right now!  

Dan will arrive the 28th at 5:30pm, 15hr flight (actually 22hrs from DFW). He met up with 4 other elders in Atlanta and they all are flying straight thru together. Rach is flying with Elder Farmer who's bro is serving in Madrid and is going home in March, he will be able to see his brother tomorrow since they live right by the madrid mtc , which is called the CCM. They will arrive in London at midnight and she will be in Madrid at 9am your time, same as Germany!

So exciting and cannot believe what we have talked abt for so long has arrived! Surreal or in German - nicht zu fassen :)

Let me know if u get the videos as they may be had too much data, I think.

Actually dad is uploading to utube so I will send u a link. They are big so take time to process.

Welp! You may not even have wifi to see them anyway! But hopefully at least see these pics for now.

We love you and missed you so much today. Everyone said so and of course they all love your letters and correspondence.

Fight the good fight!

Keep the Faith!

Never give Up!

Xoxo,ma

Our Happy Sad Day!

Week 7 TOO BJF Dec 26 2016

I screenshot this last night, everyone's expressions are perfect.

The oddly poetic part is up at the top. Look at the time, I took the picture at 20:18 at the end of our call. Coincidentally at the end of 2018 is when we'll all be together again.

Now I'm in my feels.
Love y'all, make sure to cry plenty.
I made sure no one cried when I left, maybe y'all can compensate for that.

Week 7 BJF Dec 26 2016

Twas Christmas yesterday, here in Germany Weihnachten is on the 24th,
25th, and the 26th so everyone is still celebrating. But the 26th is
Pday so we kinda get another holiday too. Course nothing's open so we
can't go shopping haha.
Anywho, this is what's gone on this week.

Earlier in the week we spent some time in Frankfurt with our new
district. (They're all crazy.) We met up in the Frankfurt
Weihnachtsmarkt and we went caroling (Don't be surprised, I can carry
a tune when I need to.) and a couple of us talked to people about
Christ, Elder Deus literally ran down people on bikes. It was a fun
time.
First we sang all of our English Christmas songs then used all of our
German ones. When we ran out of songs it just so happened it was time
to leave. So then Elder Davis and I went on a split and I took Elder
Campbell to Offenbach for the next day. He's only one transfer older
than me, he knew the Armenian Elders in the MTC, and our Deutsche
Sprache is about the same.

The next day I took Elder Campbell to a investigator lesson with a man
named Mohamed and a member, Sister Höcht. Mohamed had some interesting
beliefs, according to him the USA is going to be destroyed by a giant
meteor. So I guess y'all better watch out back at home haha. But
otherwise he's a nice guy although a bit verrückt. I was able to keep
up with their German which was a nice blessing as well.

We met with 4-5 other families through the week. They're all very kind
and I think I'm gaining weight from all they're feeding us. We got to
see what the Germans here do for Christmas. It's honestly pretty close
to American traditions so we weren't too far from home.

One family in particular, the O family. (my edit here since the church has asked that we be sensitive to names of families that missionaries teach.  Names are not not necessary for the story here.  I will respect their privacy.)  A single mom with three
kids ages 12, 11, and 5. They've got one of the biggest apartments
I've seen here and everything was covered in Weihnachten decorations.
We ate a meal of French fries with some sauce. (I kid you not we ate
straight French fries for dinner, Kartoffel is everything here) then
the kids had a massive plate of various cookies they made and we got
to try lots of different kinds. Later the kids got to open some
presents and stuff, Elder Davis and I even got a present. The oldest
daughter Selina and I share a love of Legos. Since one of her presents
were a set of Legos we got to prove to everybody why Legos are the
best, it was a lot of fun. Then Sister O shared a short
Christmas story, something about a mouse and a horse I couldn't
interpret her German very well as I was childishly distracted by Legos
(I regret nothing!).

The next day (Sunday) we had a combined sacrament meeting with the
Wiesbaden American military ward so our building was properly stuffed
with people. Later Davis and I joined our Friend Troy for Christmas
dinner. Somehow he got his hands on a 6 kilo turkey and cooked it
perfectly. It was nice to have that feeling of a miniature food coma.
After dinner, as a missionary we get to skype home twice a year (once
on Cmas and Muttertag) so I got to see Daniel and Rachel before
they're shipped off to Nairobi and Barcelona tomorrow. I honestly
don't know what my Mom and Dad are going to do with their freedom from
us kids haha. We've got to keep our heads in Deutschland but it still
hurt to end the call.

Earlier today we had an appointment with the Obst Family (another "O" family). 
Oddly enough she had made a Mexican style dish which was
pretty close to the Mexican food I know. We ate with the Father,
Mother, and youngest daughter. All super nice. M (the daughter)
had studied at byu Idaho for a semester or two so she speaks perfect
English and has a fascination with the Russian language like me, so
we'll probably learn some from each other. We played a game of
Yahtzee, Elder Davis hadn't played before but he wiped the floor with
the rest of us. Very nice family, super strong members too.

Anywho, as it goes here in Germany we're making progress, it's
surprisingly not that cold, getting ever closer to the spiritual side
of the work, learning new stuff as we teach it, still meeting odd
people, not any super weird foods yet, all in all I think it's going
pretty well.

Bis zweithousandsiebzehn -Elder Füller

Elder Davis und ich

Empty Marktplatz Bahnhof (it's like Never empty)

Feeding pigeons underground. Fun

Week 6 BJF Dec 19 2016

What's up.
End of the transfer. We're getting close to Christmas I'm sure y'all
are excited.
bunch of little things this week so my email may not totally make sense.

If you're on a mission and somebody suggests half an area be shut down
be sure to slap them across the face and say "Elder Fuller hat gesagt
Nein!" They'll have no idea what that means and will probably be upset
about the pain on their face BUT you gotta think of the people who's
area you're closing. (though I understand it's necessary at times,
it's frustrating.)

Since we got swapped districts last week we're meeting a bunch more
missionaries,
although it's still just the two of us most of the time.
Most people are from Utah (it's like Utah is full of Mormons or
something) some are from elsewhere, some from Britain some from Texas
others from Arizona or born here in Germany. Mostly Utah though.

ON ANOTHER NOTE. Learning a language is pretty easy when that's all
you hear most days. Even though German is a super weird language it's
not that hard. I'll spend two years with it then I'll have to re-learn
English.
We go into Frankfurt a lot and a lot of people will start speaking in
American English, I'm usually genuinely surprised to hear it. The
other missionaries are pretty much the only people I talk to in
English so it was odd. In Offenbach most people can speak a lot of
English but it's clear it's not their first language. A lot of the
members can speak fluently though.

Since last week we have gone from teaching 2 people to 7. two of which
are a couple, Daniel and Nika. The other Elders were teaching them
before. Daniel is a native German who has a fascination with America
and Nika is from St. Petersburg in Russia. She really like that I
named my dog Maula (as in the Russian word for 'little' мальчике) also
it turns out Bailey (my other dogs name) is also very close to a
Russian word белье. Nika wants us to help her learn some English, and
hopefully she can help me remember the Russian I learned. Daniel is so
interested in the gospel it's amazing and he has a baptismal date in
January. I love these two and am excited to meet with them more.
Btw if the Russian words aren't correct please don't smite me. I've
got too much German in my head to be sure about Russian anymore haha.

For Pday we went back to Frankfurt cuz I wanted to buy some
gymnastisch rings and Elder Davis wanted to buy some gifts for his
family before he goes home in a few months. Turns out the rings were
"display only" so I'll have to look elsewhere. But we spent the day
running back and fourth through the Frankfurt Weihnachtsmarkt (I'll
have pictures eventually) and trying some different foods. And Elder
Davis bought a Rauchen Man and some ornaments to send home.

But that's pretty much it.
Hope y'all have a wonderful Christmas
-Elder Fuller


Here be some pictures.
Standing outside the Offenbach Gemeindehaus, it's a pretty nice chapel

I got a new scarf (first of many)

I sent this picture to someone last week, I thought I'd share it with everyone.
it's a bunch of Christmas light reindeer jumping through a mall in
Frankfurt. I should mention that mall is massive, about 7 floors with
weird architecture.

Davis and I got our hair cut by some Turks today. Nice guys

    

Week 5 BJF Dec 12 2016

Another week gone by.
Lots of appointments, trying to get a visa so I don't get kicked out
of the country, discovering the many ways to use Bratwurst and
Kartoffel, I'm probably eating too much sugar and seeing all sorts of
weird stuff on the streets.

This last week I went on another exchange/split this time with one of
the zone leaders (Elder J). so I got to spend the day in Frankfurt
then later in the evening we went to Mainz for an interview the ZL had
to do. So I went on a mini-split with another Elder (Elder D) who
was also on a split with the Mainz Elder (Elder S) so while
Elders J and S did the interview I went street contacting
with Elder D
(we did a split while we were both on a split, a split within a split,
like splitception or something)
What's really cool about any other missionaries is you see them for
the first time ever and you're already best friends cuz you're both
missionaries. "Oh you're a Elder? Me too! Did we just become best
friends!?" And it's literally every missionary, Senior and Sister
missionaries too.

On Saturday we had a Weihnachtsfeier (Christmas party) so the members
had a program then all the kids dressed up and made a little nativity.
The kids here are starting to become my favorites. They speak German I
can understand and they're all so much fun to mess with.
I was moving some tables so naturally a few jumped on and demanded I
roll them around, so instead of giving into their demands I called
them fat and they just kept giggling and arguing that I'm the fat one.
They're all between 3-7 and have teeny German accents.
(Yeah I know the 5 year olds speak better German than me, hush)
The members here are very helpful. We don't have many in Offenbach but
they join us for investigator lessons, we even got a few investigators
to come to the Feier and the members were inviting and super helpful.
Regular members are normally better missionaries than we are.

This next week we've got transfers so since a bunch of people are
going home and not so many are coming in, we've got a bit of an odd
situation. Elder Blau is going home this week and We found out Elder
Barker is getting transferred to Wesel. In the end since we don't have
a lot of newbies they decided not to give us any other Elders for back
up, from now on it's just Elder Davis and I in all of Offenbach. This
will be a challenge as the other Elders were doing a whole lot of work
so now we've got 2 missionaries to do the work of 4 and then some.

Today for Pday since it's Elder Blau's last one we went to the
Weihnachtsmarkt in Frankfurt. It's a massive place with countless
shops for food drinks and trinkets. We've bumped into about a dozen
other missionaries exploring just like us.
Other than that there isn't much too say.
Until next week-Elder Fuller



SO FOR PICTURES....

3-5 it has gotten colder and it's usually very foggy. I understand why
so many ghost stories come from Europe. (this was one of the less
foggy days)

6 -the spiderwebs are covered in ice and are fun to mess with.

7- Elder Blau stretches his Lederhosen while Elder Davis makes a sandwich.
Not the best angle as this is the clearest picture I got.

8-9 the view from the top of galleria Kaufhof.