I'm on a horse!

Me and Sorella C's favorite Italian expression is "Siamo a cavallo," which figuratively means "I got away with it" and literally means "We are on a horse." We mostly use it out of context. 

"How's it going?"

"We're on a horse!"

"Where are you?"

"I'm on a horse!"

"How long will it take to get there?"

"We are on a horse!"

It's the phrase that says it all!

Next: we are in Catania this week for ZONE CONFERENCE! We spoke about how sometimes missionary work goes down during the month of December. Now this is just a theory, but, I have a feeling that for all the good warm feelings that come about at Christmas time about serving our fellowmen, we get a sense of entitlement at Christmas. Maybe it's because we missionaries are missing home, but the thought trend tends to be, "I work ALL year round, without vacation days. At least Christmas should be a break, eh? Eh? Don't I deserve something for all that I do?"

At least I know I think like that sometimes. And I've found that entitlement always brings me sadness and a tendency to sing overly dramatic music. But, I realized something the other day. Maybe I'm wrong, but if we, as weird and weak as we are, feel entitled for the little that we do, imagine how God feels. "I gave you ALL of this. I gave you life, I gave you your understanding, and I'm here willing to give you the happiness and peace you want in this life and in the life to come. Can't you at least now, at least at Christmas, remember all that I have done and do what I ask?"

The difference between us and God is that when we feel entitled, we want people to do things for us for our sake. God wants us to do things not for His sake but, ultimately, for our sake. Thanks Heavenly Father!

Ok, time to describe the pictures!

Photo ...824: FIRST SNOW OF MISTRETTA! We've hit freezing and had a HUGE storm. It thundered and lighteninged (?) all night while the snow came softly down. It's very strange to have the roar of thunder without the patter of rain, just the white white white silent snow. But we escaped from our mountain just before the storm got really bad. 

Photo ...813: Our first Young Woman's Activity! The 2 daughters of our branch president make up our entire Young Women's group (and his 10 year old daughter is the primary). They don't have any other leaders besides their parents so we decided to do an activity for them. Their favorite pasttime is listening to American music and they love replacing the word "sexy" with "Mormon" (as in such Top Hits, "Heeey, Mormon Ladies", "I'm Too Mormon for My Shirt", and "I'm Bringing Mormon Back."). We made a tshirt stencil for their favorite song: "I'm Mormon and I know it." NICE.

Photo ...810: Us and Giuseppe, our favorite Jehovah's Witness turned Mormon investigator! Giuseppe is up in northern Italy and we miss him BUNCHES but he should be back before Christmas. 

Photo ...192: Happy 12-12-12-12-12! We were doing exchanges in Catania and I got to spend a day with Sorella R and Sorella M -- both the bomb! Most of the day was spent me observing them on how I can be a better missionary. And it's always exciting to be out in the city of Catania, aka "The Big Spaghetti," where there's people EVERYWHERE, all of the time.

Thanks to Miss Hayley Paul ... I got your letter with the Eyring Talk. Thanks for always being so consistent -- every zone conference I can count on something from my fav redhead. GRAZIE

That's all for this week. Oh, I also ate at a Chinese buffet this week. CHINESE SPEAKING ITALIAN IN AN AMERICAN SIZED RESTAURANT. I wasn't sure what to do with myself, there was so much culture clash. 

Have a great week everybody! And if you could do me a favor and remember and appreciate the blessings you have -- especially Mexican food. Because I'm not going to get it for another year, so eat a burrito in memory of me!

all of the love

Sister Annie

Master the Tempest is Raging and Giving Tanks

Hello everyone!

Couple things this week: two new sets of amazing investigators. Our pool keeps growing and growing! We've started teaching a family with two little boys (2 and 4). Both the husband and wife are INTERESTED and PRESENT, which is rare. In Italy it's easy to find one person who is interested, but usually their spouse isn't. 

We also found a man named Alex... we were talking to him on the street and offered him a pamplet with more information. He didn't take it, but said, "I would love to learn more!" which plently of people say, before adding: "I can't Monday or Tuesday... but I'm free Wednesday and Thursday. Oh! And here's my number so you can call me beforehand and confirm." For anyone that has ever tried to set an appointment with an investigator knows, this is a missionary's dream. We will be seeing him again tomorrow and we're excited.

AAAALSO. There are insane windstorms here! A boat got beached the wind was so strong. So spiritual/common sense thought of the week: make sure you have a set anchor or else your boat will get beached!

It should snow soon in Mistretta which means we get to have a white/chains on the tires Christmas. NICE.

I realized I never did a very good Thanksgiving email. And I realized I had a lot to be thankful in regards to YOU, my family and friends. And I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for the special things they've given me while I've been out.

to Morelia: thank you for all of my beautiful clothes that help me preach the gospel without looking frumpy. And thanks for your letter, I just got it this week.

to Mom: thank you for all the rest of my beautiful clothes that I couldn't have picked out without you

to Papa: thank you for funding the purchase of beautiful clothes!

to Chris Lameroux: thank you for the Plan of Salvation wood puzzle... we use it almost every time we teach and it is very useful

to Jesse/Jamie: thank you for the care package, especially the chapstick and journal which I use daily.

to Jess: thank you for the missionary appropriate earrings that you made me!

to Taty: thank you for the photos you sent me, the bulldog tatto, and arms

to Tay: thank you for the candy corn and Reeses and the soul soaring leeters you always send

to L'Deane: thank you for the Joseph Smith pamphlet!

to Meish: thank you for the orange puzzle that brightens my day/wall

to Sven: thank you for your advice (I always do comp inventory!)

to Sue Gubler: thanks for the journal, which I have finished!

to my parents again: thanks for the CDs you send me, the magazines (got the Liahona!), the cute cards, the love

to the brothers and sisters: thanks for your emails and help with all the small things that I can't do by myself ("I can't put my arms down!" ... or look up UNO prices...)

Thanks to everyone that has ever written me a letter! I have all of them saved and they are wonderful! To Rebok and Jerry, David Ruvalcaba, and Emily Newman. Kyle H., Hayley, KayAnna, GrandMum and GrandPop, Annabelle, Sue Fu, Michael Jamieson, Brenna, Kayci, and Ingrid! Thanks to everyone who has ever sent an email back to my Mom, that she mails on to me. Thanks to everyone who helped me get on this mission, most especially my parents and Eliza. And thanks to the Kremlin.

Thank you everyone for all of your prayers on my behalf. And on behalf of my companion because she has to be my companion. And if I forgot anyone, I'm very very sorry. But if you are on this email list to begin with you are very dear to me regardless.

Ok, short this week. My companion burned her fingers so I have to type her emails! Love to everyone!

SISTER FULLER

TRANSFORMERS! or, Why Missionaries Should Have RV's

I am learning the value of a traveling home as, in these days, we our gradually moving our home into our car. It's not like we want to -- but we've been doing all this work in Sant'Agata, which is an hour away, and if we leave in the morning it really isn't effective to drive home for lunch/dinner. So instead we just stay out in Sant'Agata the whole day and drive home by 9 that night. I've discovered that our car has many different functions than just a means of transportation (in other words, it's a picnic spot, office, study area, bedroom, and meeting hall in disguise). We are in the car all the time, either driving to and from our cities, eating, sleeping, etc. It's exhausting.
 
Thus, I propose that all missionaries should have an RV. That way we wouldn't have to spend money on rent and gas... just bundle it all up! It would be great. We could even set aside a little meeting spot to meet investigators if the weather gets bad!
 
But, for now we have our dear Sorella Benzina. And she's not bad, in fact she's a really blessing and helps us get to a lot of places and do a lot of things. For example: Thanksgiving! Our branch in Mistretta still doesn't have their church building in the city, so they haven't been able to do any activities. So instead the missionaries in Palermo invited us to the festivities there. At first we didn't feel like we should go, since Thursday is a great proselyting day and we'd be driving all the way to Palermo just to eat food... but we both thought about it and for whatever reason it felt right. So we saddled up ol Sorella Benzina down the highway to Palermo Thanksgiving. We brought mashed potatoes (with the famous Fuller recipe) to accompany all the other traditional dishes brought, namely: 10 lbs of sausage by the elders (turkey was too expensive for the missionary budget), pizza, cous cous salad, and pastaries. Just like the Indians made! While we were there we ended up talking to a girl who has been thinking about going on a mission but is up in the air and wanted to know about our experiences. So we talked, we ate, and right before the sausage triptophane kicked in, we scuttled in the car back home. Nice. We think that girl might have been the reason we went. But. Chissa? (Who knows?)
 
Also the car is great to teach all our different people. We just started teaching this man and his family of four. 
 We also got to teach an adult family this week. We have one contact named Brigitte, who's from France but has been living in Sicily with her family for years. We've been teaching her at work and offered to share a family night with her (i.e. bring a treat, teach a lesson, play a game) and she accepted. We show up Sunday night, treatless (I burned the zucchini bread....) but with UNO in hand to find that two of her grown daughters had their boyfriends over and one of the boyfriend's mom as well. With Brigitte and her husband that made 7 adults who, as soon as Brigitte called them all together, sat down intently focused on us. It was intimidating for sure... what was supposed to be a five minute movie about happiness turned into an hour long discussion... and we didn't even get a CHANCE to play UNO. But it was good. Good things were said and hopefully we'll be able to go back and teach the few of the seven that were more interested.
 
Ok, thoughts of the week: it's been a hard week. Probably because it's the first week of a transfer (a transfer is a six week period where you for sure stay in one zone, in this case Mistretta). I think it's hard to just get geared up again when I've already been here three months. But, the time does fly. And I think... sometimes it's crazy that I'm doing this. Running around Sicily doing, in the words of Sorella Christensen, everything my parents taught me not to do (knocking on doors, talking to strangers, giving out my phone number, etc.). And I've been thinking about why Heavenly Father asks me to serve a mission... after all, if He is God, why does He need me to do this work? Why can't he just help people see the light on their own?
 
I haven't fully figured it out yet, but I'm prone to believe that this whole "mission thing" is a lot for my benefit. ...it's not so much that I'm going out, doing good and helping peeps. It's that, in the process of doing all this, I am becoming something that Heavenly Father needs me to be. There's a scripture that says that others' salvation is essential to our salvation (to parphrase D&C 128:15). I don't think that means going out and teaching people the gospel will rack me up "salvation" points in the next life. But I think the mission is teaching me things I need to learn to reach my highest potential. Yes? Yes.

Disco Sberna

Hello all,

Hey! Great week in Mistretta/Sant'Agata! The work is really exploding! We've found more new investigators and met more interested people this week than we have in my past three months here. I feel this is a good sign for opening up the city of Sant'Agata. There are people here prepared to here the good word!

One of the reasons for our success is the work past missionaries have done. Missionaries in every area keep track of the people they contact and potentially have interest and record them in an area book. We are then able to follow up with these people even years later to see if they remember us and if now is a good time. It's always so funny to look through the area book and the descriptions old missionaries write down about people. My favorite this week: "We met Pippo on the street one day. He is a gunseller searching for truth." I can see it now... "Pippo X: GUNSELLER OF TRUTH. COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU."

The other important thing to remember when you're looking people up is that in Italy, women usually keep their maiden name when they get married. So you have to make sure to ask both the man and his wife for their last name if you want to find them. We had one woman we were trying to contact forever before we realized that she had already been taught by the missionaries, but had been put under her maiden, not married, name. I like the maiden name keeping because you can get some great name combinations... this past week, we rang the doorbell of a "Re" and her husband "Aragona," which translates to King Aragon. They didn't answer, but I just assumed they were off protecting Rohan. (I attached a picture of their mailbox so you know I'm not making it up.)

However, we are stumped in our olive reaping service opportunities. EVERYONE in this area has a little countryside where they grow olives that they gather every year and press to make oil that will last for the rest of the year. We've asked everyone if we can come help them and everyone says yes, yes, they'll call us, but no one has taken us up on our offer. This week we were SO CLOSE... one of our investigators said we could come help him and we hadn't seen him in several weeks so we were extra excited for the opportunity. We even got all suited up in jeans (only the third time I've worn them on the mission) and drove out to the spot where he was going to meet us. He called us fifteen minutes late to tell us he wasn't going to do olives today since it looked like rain. OH! Soooo close! We were more crushed than an olive in an oil press. I never thought it would be this hard to serve people... Yet. We keep trying.

This week we had Stake Conference, which meant we all got to go to Palermo! Because most of our members don't have money for gas, the church reserved a private Sberna bus for our whole branch. That's right, all 15 some of us piled in a bus for an hour and a half ride to Palermo. I attached a picture of us and our branch, whoooo! That's Mistretta! Coming back was the FUNNIEST -- first the branch president and his wife started singing traditional Sicilian songs in the back. This quickly turned into the bus driver turning up the music and everyone shouting song requests. THEN the bus driver turns on these FLASHING DISCO LIGHTS. What short bus is equipped with DISCO lights? (It was the emergency LEDs just flashing from blue-green-red.. but still). The whole branch went crazy and everyone joined in for a round of "What Is Love?" (the answer is charity! the pure love of Christ!) Me and my companion are a little frozen, since we haven't heard any music besides hymns since we've started our mission and we're thinking, "Is this okay? I mean, the relief society president is dancing to 'Waka, Waka' in the back of a church bus..." But our poor branch hasn't had an activity in almost six months because their church still isn't ready yet. I think they deserved a little fun.

Every week we meet with the male missionaries from Palermo. Usually they take the train to us or we drive to them, but this week we decided to meet halfway in Cefalu. Since we don't have a church building there, we have an improvised meeting on the coast, which has to be the most spiritual spot. We really do work in the most beautiful area in the mission, with our nothern shore and sea side villages. I am VERY LUCKY.

OH. Letter shout out to JESSE SHEETS for your beautifully stationaried letters (as always) and TAYLOR JACKBOY and your package of joy... you know me too well! Also, I apologize to everyone who has sent me a letter that I haven't responded to yet. I have all of your names written down, there is just so little time. But you are not forgotten and everyone will get a letter sooner or later, hoepfully sooner.

Alright, that's all for this week. Say a little prayer for me and my companion. We have a lot of work ahead of us and we need lots of energy.

And in the words of my favorite Japenglish tshirt: "Smile and the world is happy!"

lots of love
Sister Fuller

Saint Aggy and the Lonely Hearts Club Band

This week!

To put you in the shoes of a missionary, we have a very tense day every six weeks when we receive a call from the mission president about if we will stay in our area or leave for another. It's always a wild guess because even if the mission president indicates we might stay or go, the decision can always change at the last minute.

So Saturday comes and we were both playing it cool, since we never get transfer calls before 2 pm. But come 9:30 am the phone rings and to our immense surprise it's our mission president. He had called to tell us he had received permission from the stake president (a local Italian church leader) to open a new group in our area, Sant'Agata. He said with this change, I was guaranteed to stay, but Sorella C. (my companion) might stay or go. Several hours later we got the official call that we would both stay in Mistretta to start building this new group in Sant'Agata.

It works like this -- Sant'Agata is an hour away from Mistretta, but much larger and more central to the other big cities on the island (as opposed to Mistretta which is up in the mountains). While missionary work goes forward in Mistretta, it's hard to teach people in Sant'Agata and ask them to come to church every week an hour away, especially when they are just starting to investigate the church and aren't committed to it yet. Lately we've been seeing more potential to grow in Sant'Agata and, while the church would remain in Mistretta, we proposed opening a "group" in Sant'Agata. This means that the church will rent a building where we can hold church services (at least sacrament meeting), our free English course, activities, etc. The stake president agreed and decided to do a trial run of six months -- if we see growth and progress in the area after six months, the church will make something more permanent in Sant'Agata.

We're super pumped for this and started doing a flurry of work in Sant'Agata right after we got the news. What's awesome is that this "group" was an idea my old companion and HER companion had about six months ago. Although they aren't here to see it realized, I know that it was their work that is making this possible.

I'm learning that change is slow and hard, especially here, but it does happen. I know that change doesn't come easily to a lot of people, but I know that when we are open to change is when we grow the most. I've met some real examples here in Italy -- people that make far more sacrifices and work when the conditions are much more adverse. I'm told that when the first Mormon pioneers came to Salt Lake City, Brigham Young said it was a "Good place to raise up strong saints" because it was such a hard land to work (that's a parphrase).

Strong, brave, impressive people aren't made in soft, easy conditions. If we are to fulfill our full potential, it has to be hard. And I think Mistretta is like that, both as a member of the church and as a missionary. I know that this is a hard area to work in and I'm tired. It's hard when it's a small town, where everyone knows everyone and is afraid to change. It's hard that there's not large groups of people we can talk to, but we have to walk along empty streets until we come across one person who (hopefully) will want to talk to us. It's hard for the members that they don't have a church building in their own town where they can hold activities and church. Instead, they have to spend gas money they don't have to a church building they have a half-hour away.

But I also know that I have all the more respect for these church members and people we're teaching because of what they will give up. These are people I will never forget. And I know that I'm here in this area to learn things about myself and from them. I hope to be able to help those around me here as well. And hope to be stronger (than yesterday). Or in the words of my companion, "If you want to meet awesome people, you have to do awesome things."

Anyway, in the end, life is good in Mistretta! Even if I can't see the distant scene, I've seen enough of the Lord's miracles to know that the small work I'm doing now will eventually have a larger impact on the future. Just like Grandmother WIllow said to Pocahontas: it's all a ripple effect, every action!

Love you all! Watch Pocahontas if you can, as I cannot. 
Peace,
Sorella Fuller

(1) Sick (2) Olives and (3) The Most Important Things

Hello all,

Arright! This week:

(1) Sick (2) Olives and (3) The Most Important Things.

(1) I was a little under the weather (which might explain why my email last week was a little jumbled) and spent many, many hours sleeping it off this past week. I had the opportunity to ask our branch president (the local church leader) for a blessing of healing. (In the LDS church, all worthy men hold the priesthood and are able to give special blessings of heal, comfort and counsel). He said he would and we went by another member's house who would also participate. But when we showed up, there was a return missionary visiting that served in Mistretta four years ago, as well two other of our church members. Needless to say, it was a party (for Mistretta, 10 people is definitely a party). I was able to receive a priesthood blessing of healing from the branch president and the two other members and return missionary participated. And then I got a giant pot of honey that I was instructed to drink with herb tea until I felt better. Needless to say, I was a pretty happy missionary/Winnie the Pooh.

(2) It is olive gathering season here in Italy! We were invited by our branch president to go to their countryside lot and help gather olives. The process is thus: they lay giant nets on the ground and then climb the trees, combing through the branches with rakes until all the olives fall on the ground. Then we (the weak ones/missionaries in skrits) gather them in buckets. They will then be squished and made into oil. Great!

(3) Laying in bed a lot gives you some time to think. This was the first "break" I've really had since being on my mission. As missionaries we have time for meals, in the morning and evening to prepare, and a half-day to do shopping, write our families, clean, etc. But missionaries, for a year and a half to two years don't get a vacation day. Unless we're sick, we are working to teach, serve, and strengthen people in our area the whole time we're serving. Which. Is not a healthy way to live your entire life. Mentally, physically, emotionally... it's very natural to have hobbies and recreation, down time and social time, time with family and friends. And it's not that I don't miss those things. So why did I take a year and a half out of my life to focus soley on these things, leaving behind family, friends, yoga, Moab, world news, nachoes, and all the things that I love?

It's because that all of those things are great and they are wonderful, beautiful ways to fill my time. But when I am home -- sad and crying about a horrible day, or depressed and alone because everyone in my life is busy, or angry because I didn't do well at some random project --- it's not yoga or nachoes that give me lasting peace and comfort. It's not trips to Moab that tell me it will be ok. It's not world news that tell me WHO I am.

It's kneeling in prayer and speaking to my Heavenly Father. It's communicating with Him and trusting and knowing that He gives me answers. That He made me and thus knows me better than I know myself. And He can give me advice that I can trust.

I promise that He does. He speaks to us today, personally and privately. And that's why I've taken this year and a half. Because I have the rest of my life to perfect my yoga poses and learn how to kayak. But now I get to share with anyone who will listen how to access the same lasting peace and happiness that I have found. And that's the thing that is most important.

Thanks so much to Hayley Paul... I finally got both of your letters, delayed, because I live on an island of the sea and they don't believe in forwarding us our mail in a timley fashion. But I loved what you sent and I have faith in all that you do! You're inspiring!

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and love.

Peace,
Sorella Fuller

Good News Bears

Hello all,

So this week was zone conference, meaning we took a couple days out of our normal proselyting week to travel to Catania, two and a half hours away. There we had a day-long conference. It's always a good refresher for several reasons: 1) usually, we exchange and get new ideas on how to do missionary work. 2) We get correction on the things we're doing not so well and how we can improve (because if we don't learn from our mistakes, then we just repeat them, eh?) 3) We are quite isolated in little Mistretta, and a refresher in the "big city" is nice. 4) I always get lots and lots of insight into how I can be better because the Spirit is there and helps teach me a lot of things.
 
In other news... Happy Halloween! Today, Sorella C and I dressed up as each other, with some success! The Elders from Palermo came for a visit so we decided to go exploring on this our preparation day. There's an odd pyramid on top of a tunnel -- we see it every time we drive by on the highway. We did some research and that's where the attached picture is from.
 
Speaking of pictures...
PHOTO 1: Me and the sisters in Siracusa (including my old roommate, Sister S!)

PHOTO 2: Sorella C and my picture for our English course publicity. We put this picture on our ads to invite people to a FREE ENGLISH COURSE! Who wouldn't want to take it from us?

PHOTO 3: Sorella C and me with the sisters in Catania during zone conference.

















PHOTO 4: The pyramid on the 38th parallel and our third companion, Sorella Benzina (aka Sister Gasoline).
 
Things are going well. We're trying to better publicize our English courses. Currently, we have an English course in Capo Dorlando, the city farthest from us and we're not there very often to do publicity. But we've been leaving signs around town and our numbers are finally starting to grow! It's exciting because English course let's us meet more people who would never talk to us otherwise. We're also starting another English course in Santo Stefano (the city right below Mistretta, 30 minutes away). Tonight will be our first night, fingers crossed for a good turnout.
 
We've started teaching a wonderful French woman named Brigette! She's a very genuine person -- she makes no pretenses about herself. She is very open about finding something that she can root herself and her family in.
 
Sorry for the boring letter this week -- hopefully the pictures make up for it. But everything is going great. Mistretta is a hard area, because everyone we are teaching is so far away from where we live (at least a half hour to an hour and twenty minutes). Which means we either have to teach them less or just be gone from our house all day, every day (from 10 to 9). But Sorella C and I have a great time in the car. And our dear car is so very good to us. We've named her Sorella Benzina (Sister Gasoline) and she is our third companion.
 

 

A letter shoutout to Kyle for the funniest postcard I have ever gotten. Thank you for that treasure.  Shoutout to Meish and Rebok -- oh my, starry eyed surprise! Thank you SO much for the puzzle, it was wonderful.
Also, some of you replied to my Mom, and she printed out your notes and mailed them to me -- so thanks to Dylan for your note and CONGRATS on baby Emma! Love you and Ali, you're great. And thanks to Elder and Sister Phippen to the sweet note you sent my parents. Glad to hear the church is still true in Arizona! And thanks to Mom for always sending on emails.

Hey, you're all great! Thanks for all your letters and prayers! 
Today I made homemade Mac and Cheese. The only thing missing was the hot n spicy cheetoes. But, hey, you can't have everything. And you can't take it with you!
 
Speaking of which, thought of the day: Money is not important! Don't stress about it, because stressing about money is not what this life is meant to be about!
 
All my love,
Sister Fuller
 

Chalk it up :)

Hello all,

It's funny to see how one activity can work very well in one area and lousy in another. One of our newest activities to draw attention is "GESSO," which just means chalk. Maybe I already talked about this, I can't remember, but it's where we lay a sheet in a public piazza and just start drawing things about the Gospel that interest people. "What is the meaning of this life?" "Do we have any guidance today?" Things like that. Then people mosey on up and ask us what we're doing and we get to explain. It's nice because (1) people come to you and you don't have to hunt 'em down like a creeper and (2) it's the closest to being on a soapbox I'll ever get on a mission.

So we did it once in SANT'AGATA, but had little success. It's probably because (1) the town has a high population of Jehovah's Witnesses, and the people there seem generally suspicious of anyone walking around in pairs in Sunday dress and (2) a giant thunderstorm washed away all our chalk while we were drawing it. 

The other time was in SANTO STEFANO, which is an "artsy" town known for its ceramics. Maybe that's why they were more intrigued in our "street art." But the gesso actually sparked a huge debate where one man came up and started yelling, saying we didn't believe in Christ and we were preaching dangerous things. But we didn't even have to say anything -- half the people there came to our aid. One woman, who is probably strongly Catholic, grabbed one of our pamplets and said, "Look, there's pictures of Jesus! And a family! Look how happy that family is! How can you say they are preaching bad things, look at that family!" Man, Italians are great.

And you could say they came to our aid because we're two American girls drawing on the ground. But I chalk it up to the gospel. OOOOOOHyeah.

Uh, what else? I've discovered a great new German cereal named Master Crumble. You can just tell from it's name that it's good. I may name a child after it one day.

The last thing I wanted to say was that I'm learning how I can't explain everything about this gospel. Wow, I can't really explain anything very well. And as a human being, I just have these HUGE GAPS of knowledge in any subject. As an individuals, and as humanity as a whole. So, for lack of anything else, I just live what I feel to be right. And I feel this is right. When I pray and read the scriptures and apply the lessons I know in my everyday life, I feel it's right. And when I mess up, I start over and try to apply them again. And I feel it's right. Past experience helps me translate that "feeling of being right" into a certainty that it's right. Not that I've lived very long, but I have a track record of a few years doing these things and I'm still going strong. 

That's all I'm trying to help people to do. Is to help them find a life where they can feel is right. And then, with time, they can know it's right too.

I got wonderful letters from Emily Newman (BRAZZZZZZZZIL!!!!! baby) and David Ruvalcaba (thanks so much for printing my letters out for Jerry. HI JERRY!). Thanks for your examples. And thanks Mom and Dad for all yor love. Love you lots and lots! 

PEACE
Sister Fuller

As for service, I'm for it!

Well, hello!

What a delightful week! I'm back in the same city, but I have a new companion and it's like we've gotten a fresh start.

I got to spend a whole day in Catania (one of the largest cities in Sicily) working with a sister there. We have a car and I'm the only one allowed to drive it right now, so they like to take advantage of me. Working in large cities is a lot of fun --- you and a million people you are never going to see again. Unlike here in Mistretta where we pass by the same old men sitting in the piazza every day, heh. But our little town is special, oh yes it is. And a lot of other areas in the mission are big cities, (e.g. ROME), so I hope to get the opportunity to serve in one.

I got my new companion: Sorella C. (SISTER C!) and she is just great. She also lived in Italy before (in Moltepulciano, northern Italy and fairly close to Siena where I did my study abroad) so she knows lots of lil' tricks about living in Italy. Today we made a delightful vegetable/cheese pastry thing that I never would have thought of to make. But she just knows what all those things they sell in the store are! What a treasure.

We're also working on eating well! This may hinder me in my mission goal of tripling my chin size (campaign chant: "TWO MORE CHINS! TWO MORE CHINS!"), but I'm sure I'll eat enough pasta to counteract any healthy eating or exercise I'm doing.

Our first couple days together were spent watching General Conference -- a biannual televised conference where the LDS prophet, apostles, and other leaders speak to all the members. They each give short discourses on different subjects, but that all boil down to how we can be better disciples of Christ in this cuhRAZY life. Pretty helpful stuff, if you ask me. We watched about half in English (where I took copious notes on the things that were said) and half in Italian (where I took copious notes on the things I felt impressed to write down, since I understood about half of what was said). There's five sessions and between the internet at the church and satellite at a member's home we watched four of the five.

Lots of good tidbits, but one quote I like was from Elder Neil L. Andersen who said, "With faith comes trials of fatih, which brings more faith." It's interesting how the faithful are tried... in theory, we know that trials makes the faithful stronger (the "refiner's fire," if you will). But often the trials that should make us stronger and more faithful make us turn away and leave Heavenly Father. Why would Heavenly Father give us these trials if they had the adverse affect of what He wanted? Seems pretty dumb.

Or not! I firmly believe that every trial we have is specifically shaped for us. Heavenly Father sees the end from the beginning and, like a master conductor, has orchestrated every trial, blessing, and situation to make us into what we need to be. The only thing he can't control is our ability to choose. God knows we can overcome the trial (if not, He wouldn't have given it to us). But we still have the choice to go for it or to give up. I like to try and go for it.

As far as the work, I couldn't be happier. Yesterday was a wonderful day: we had scheduled appointments with two people who have stood us up before (one of them is Jake, the man who we met once at the post office and then an hour later at the permesso office. Coincidence-I-think-not!). For whatever odd reason, everyone we meet here will only meet us at their work. So far we've had lessons in Stefano's abandoned "office," in a mechanic shop, at a store where they assemble and sell fire extinguishers, and at a gas company in a back office. And sometimes we go to their work and they are "not there." Boo. But yesterday, BOTH of our appointments showed up. And our lesson with Jake went so well that he said we could do the next appointment at his house. YES! You don't think it's hard to teach lessons in places beside the home until you're trying to say a pray while other people in the room are typing on their computers...

After that, we were just on a high for the rest of the day. We did a sneak attack on a less active who we've never been able to see (we went during "pranzo," lunch, the sacred time when NO ONE works because everyone is at home eating). We had another lesson with an investigator who won't ask Heavenly Father if these things are true because he think he'll make up in his head the answer he wants to hear (a real concern), and then we did English course! We teach English as a service in Capo D'Orlando and just have the nicest people. I'm pretty content.

And today was the best Pee-day (copyright Eliza) that I've ever had! We finally didn't have things we HAD to do, so I could just take a minute and do some things I want to do. Design, cook, a little bit of yoga. It was much needed and I feel ready to go out and take on the Sicilian coast. Because the COAST GUARD CAN'T STOP THIS!

You're all great! Everyone go pet a dog today and do a good turn! You'll be happy you did.

lurv
Sister Annie

Italian Driving, Chalk Drawings and Lightning!

Hello all,

First things first! I'm staying in Mistretta for the next six weeks, but Sorella Sobeck is being transferred to Rome. Instead I'm getting Sorella Christensen -- I've met her before and she is a hoot and a half. She also lived in Redmond, Washington right before her mission, so I think it's going to go swimmingly!
 
We've been in Palermo a couple times this week. As missionaries in the Rome, Italy mission, we're subdivided into districts (4 to 6 missionaries, depending) and zones (made up of about 2 districts). So we as missionaries in Mistretta are paired with some missionaries in Palermo and we meet up at least once a week for training and sometimes for our preparation day (like a day off, but where instead of resting you shop and do laundry).
 
So Palermo. It smells ... awesome! Like the garbage in New York City, but hotter! And driving there is a insane. Everything is double parked and people just like to stop in the middle of the street and get out to run a quick errand (while their blinkers are on). It's fun to go to the big city (we country folks in Mistretta aren't used to things like stop lights)... just not fun to park there.
 
The picture is of the four missionaries in our district, with P-Town (Palermo) in the background.
 
This week we tried to do some Publicity! We got out a bed sheet and put it on the ground and used chalk to draw all sorts of cool things (about prophets and God's plan for his children). Attached is "The Cycle of the Prophets" that you can kind of read/decipher my crude stick figures. We got this idea from some other missionaries in Sicily and were really pumped to try it. The wind had other ideas (thus the sheet is being held down with 3 boxes and 4 Book of Mormons).
 
LIGHTENING. We finally got some rain here in Mistretta... it's been July hot for way too long, so this rain is a long time coming. There was a giant lightening storm. The picture is of the Madonna statue in Mistretta. It's been hit by lightening twice already... destroyed and continually rebuilt. No comment.
 
The last picture is me and Sorella Sobeck on our last day as companions!
 
Okay, I don't have much time because we have to leave for Catania. Sorella Sobeck has to catch a bus! But hopefully next week I can write more.
 
Letter shout out to Rebok in Hungary (!?!?) and Jerry!

Remember that if we were perfect we'd have nothing to learn in this life! So get messy, make mistakes, repent, and ask Heavenly Father how you can be better! Because TOMORROW IS A NEW DAY! And I'll be in Catania!
 
Love you all,

Sister Fuller

Perspective is Great!

Hello all,

We are back in the apartment! The car was fixed and we were able to move back to our mountain city of Mistretta! It takes more time to drive to and fro, but we are sleeping much better.

Here's the skinny on this missionary thing called "transfers." Every six weeks there's a possibility we may get transfered to another city with another companion. It doesn't always happen -- sometimes a set of companions will stay together in a city for several months -- but it can also happen quite frequently, depending on what the president of the mission directs. Upside: fresh faces, fresh places... downside: suitcases (aka moving). But change is good! Even if it's just 50 cents!

Anyway, my companion has been in Mistretta for three "transfers" (3 six week periods), which is pretty long for a sister to stay in Mistretta, so she's most likely going to ship out this transfer. We find out Saturday night and transfers are on Thursday, so you'll find out next Pday. Since my companion is probably leaving, I'll probably be staying, so I can show a new sister all about Mistretta and the people we are teaching there. So I'm expecting to stay, but we never really know.

We are teaching some wonderful people! One of my favorites is Stefano... he's a quiet, hard working man who we met outside of his work one day. We teach him in on an abandoned porch right across from his work (we call it his "office") and he always wipes down the ancient plastic chairs for us. Yesterday we asked him, "What do you think God's goal is?" and he said, "To have as many people as he can to Him." Then he gave us some herbs to rub on our mosquito bites. Everything he does is great.

The tricky thing now is that most of the people we are teaching who are interested live at least an hour away... while most of the members in the church live in our city. We are stretched thin, trying to work in the small country town of Mistretta and the bigger coastal cities. There are completely different mentalities of the people in each of them.

Okay, today's spiritual thought will be brought to you by the letter H. H is for Hard! Life is hard! I see that not only in the missionary life, but also interacting with lots of people here. People have hard lives. Loneliness, young children dying, sickness, and just downright exhaustion. There's very little work in Mistretta (and they always remind us: "There's an economic crisis!" is a constant phrase) and people are poor and struggling.

I read this week: "Learning to become like Christ is a lifelong pursuit." Which means if I manage to survive all these hard times, I have not to fear because more hard times are coming! Why? Because I'm still a pretty imperfect person and if I didn't have all these problems, I'd never get a chance to really know who I am. To know what I have the capacity to become.

I don't wish these troubles on any of the people I meet. But I do know that it strengthens them. It helps them understand empathy. I learn a lot from their examples, both those who react positively and negatively. I want to be more like the people who are humbled... not hardened. Nothing is sadder than talking to someone who has just given up.

But anyway. Don't give up! It makes me sad! "Never give up, never surrender!" as the movie Galaxy Quest teaches us! Here's another good one: "Keep running! And when you can't run, you walk, and when you can't walk, you crawl. And when you can't crawl, find someone to carry you." That's from the TV show Firefly. So go forth and keep trying.

Letter shoutout to the Pallets and Jesse Sheets! Pallets, thanks for your thoughts on being in a small branch in England. Perspective is great! Jesse, you're not on my e-mail list! Emily, if you are reading this, can you show him my blog?

Okay, time's up! All my love.
Sister Annie

Tired Bears

Hello all,

Oh this week. Ooooooh dear. Well, last Wednesday we were supposed to get the car fixed but there were some problems with our credit cards that couldn't be resolved until at least Monday. We had Zone Conference in Catania on Tuesday (about two and a half hours away) and we were running around like headless chickens trying to figure out solutions. Every time we came up with a solution for how to pay for the car or how to get to Zone Conference (because we can't take our broken car long distances), it was swatted down. We're pretty sure there's a reason for all of this... but it's always frustrating to take a couple hours stressing over solutions just to have them washed away like a castle in the sand.

But we took some breathers and stared at the ocean for a little bit until we got ourselves together. And in the end, it worked out. Our final solution was to wake up at 4:30, drive to the train station, take a train to Messina, and then have the elders in Messina give us a ride from Messina to Catania (about 3 hours). Our other option was to drive through cow-strewn roads for an hour or so and hope to take two buses to Catania (4 hours). Yay Sicilia! But we made it, and Zone Conference was great. We got a chance to interact with other missionaries, which is rare for us. In Mistretta, we're pretty isolated, so it's nice to swap stories and get support with people who understand the work. I feel recharged and more ready to face work when we get back to Mistretta.

Let's see. Here's a good story. We've been doing more finding in Capo D'Orlando, a city relatively unexplored by missionaries. We were walking down the street and a man, Antonio, was coming toward us on a bicycle. He took one look at us and make a sharp stop, wanting to know who we were and why we were so "clean." He is very very Catholic, but you can tell he's a reader and a thinker. He told us, "I know my church is the true church because it was established by Jesus Christ!" and we said "Hey! Us too!" Chuckle chuckle chuckle. He said he would talk to us more, but were we willing to take the risk that we might convert to Catholicism? We said, "Yes sir! As long as you can take the same risk!" Then he got on his bike and said, "Follow me, I'll take you to my house!" We haven't taught him anything yet, but it's always encouraging to talk to people who are open. So thumbs up for Antonio!

Then yesterday we had Zone Conference. Zone Conference is a big gathering of missionaries from all of Sicily... it's always in Catania, so some missionaries are already stationed there. Other missionaries spend sometimes half a day getting to and from. But all thirty missionaries on the island of Catania are together, and we spend most of the day getting encouragement, training, and lunch.

The gem from Zone Conference is a quote by Richard L. Evans:

"If we cannot learn to love imperfect people, we will live a life without love."

Amen. Well said!

After Zone Conference, we came to Sircusa (an hour south of Catania) for our preparation (break) day. It's a nice big city and a nice refreshing change. Yay change. Yay for me learning lessons from these hard things! Yay for me changing!

Shout out to Apple Valley: Elder Clay Lacey is in Siracusa and says hi to everyone.

Also, letter shout out to Mom (thanks Mom!), Ingrid (GLITTER!!!!), David Ruvalcaba, and Jerry B. You guys are great! Your letters always manage to get to me. So thanks!

Late posting

Dear Family and friends,

Annie sent this letter last week, however, I was not able to get it sent out to all of you. Our area experienced flash floods last week and then a dam broke flooding homes and families near us. We are fine and thankfully no one was hurt, but the destruction is unbelievable. We have been helping with cleanup efforts and hence the delay in sending out Annie's letter. She is doing well and we so appreciate all your love and support. 

-Marybeth aka Annie's mom

Hello hello!

This week has been good and tiring! We've had to run a lot of small errands, especially with our car problems. But in some ways, I like it when we can run errands. Running errands gives us a chance to meet and talk with people that won't give you the time of day as they're marching down the street (singing "Do a diddy, diddy dum, diddy do"). For example, here's my awesome SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE OF THE WEEK:

To live in Italy, I have to get what they call a "Permesso di Sogiorno" (Permission to Sojourn... sounds like the name of a Christian rock band). Very, very important that this happens, it's what makes me "legal," as they say. There are numerous steps involved, which take us all over town. We have to go to the post office, the passport office, the tax office, back to the passport office, etcetera etcetera. Anyway, we had, what we thought, were all the steps completed to go to the passport office for the last time. We got there ahead of everyone else and were super pumped because we got over the line. But once we got in, the worker told us that we hadn't paid the full amount and we had to go back to the post office to pay, and then come back. Bummer summer.

So off to the post office we went. I started talking to a couple people in line about our message and one woman was a little bit interested. One man started getting a little irate when I handed him a card that said, "Heavenly Father has a plan of peace and happiness." He started talking about how I didn't understand the meaning of patience or peace (and the cards that we hand out can sound a little patronizing if you don't explain then). But he didn't really give me a chance to explain and everyone in line was talking all at once. It was our turn in line, and so I had to skaddadle, without saying or explaining anything more.

After running a couple more places, we ended up back at the passport office to finish our business. And looooo and behold, there was the same man (Jake). We were in a waiting room and so I got a chance to sit next to him and really listen to his story and his concerns, what had made him so upset back at the post office. I was able to share a scripture with him. And then A MIRACLE HAPPENED! He corrected my Italian!!! Hahaha. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but it really is. Italians never correct my Italian and I wish they did. And he did. And I learned from it. And it was good. That's when I knew I was supposed to meet him. That, and the fact that he let us have his phone number to come see him another time. Ha! It was probably my favorite experience this week. 

Also, the yogurt here is great. I eat it every day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I love the yogurt!

The part for our car arrived today, so we will be getting it fixed and moving back up to our apartment in Mistretta, which we are both looking forward to. It's been great being able to sleep in the church, because we don't have to drive up and down and mountain every day. It saves time and let's us meet with more people at a time that is convenient for them. So I'm glad we get to. But I'm also ready to have showers with hot water again. Yeeeeah.

I'm learning again and again that you can't make people change, only Heavenly Father can. People only change when they feel something. When they feel something changing inside of them. That something is the Holy Ghost telling them, "Yep, you're doing something that's good." It's like the feeling we get when we watch a movie musical. We as missionaries can't create that feelings, we can only faciliate it. Because it happens between that person and Heavenly Father. And sometimes it takes people a long time to settle down and listen to that voice and feel that feeling.  And it requires a LOT of patience from us to deal with their same problems over and over and over. But it motivates me to study harder. Not so I can know more scriptures to convince them that this is all true. But that I can do "my part," and be worthy to have the Spirit with me. So they'll feel something special when they meet with us. And then the change can come through them and Heavenly Father. People changing is awesome and it happens! Even to crusty ol' Sicilian Catholics, who smile at us with only 3 teeth and ask us if we have Padre Pio in our church. I love em, I love em.

I love you guys! Thanks for your letters and love!
looooove
sister annie

Simon and Garfunkel

Hello all,

Sicily is great! Sometimes I forget I'm in Sicily... I think, "Yeah I'm just in Italy!" and then I realize that I'm on that TRIANGLE island beneath the boot. It's awesome.

So I've been plopped into this small little town on a mountain called Mistretta, population 5,000. It has a branch of the church with about 13 active members, which is very very small. The only reason there's even a Mormon presence in this small town is that two brothers were converted up in Bologna many years ago, and then they moved back to Mistretta, bringing the church with them. Since then, there have been missionaries to work not only in Mistretta, but in the surrounding little towns up and down the northern Sicilian coast. The closest costal town to Mistretta is Santo Stefano and it's pretty gorgeous, right by the ocean. Almost every other town we visit is bigger than Mistretta, but for the most part they are not what I would call large cities.

I'm still trying to learn all the cities, but right now we have

Mistretta
Reitano (just down the mountain, between Mistretta and Santo Stefano)
Santo Stefano (where the church building is)

... from there, going east, we visit
Aquadolci
Sant'Agata
Capo D'Orlando

with lots of little places in between.

We do have a car here -- the only area in Italy where sisters get cars, and I'm here! I'll have to learn to drive this funky little Italian Opel car. It's a manual transmission. My trainer, the other sister missionary who has been serving longer, assured me that she never knew how to drive manual before and she learned just fine. Whooooo.

We live in a great little apartment. I don't know what it is about Italy/Europe, but I really like it. I like how all the food smells in the fridge, how the blankets feel, how the tile in the bathroom looks, how everyone hangs their laundry out to dry... One of the missionaries in the Book of Mormon, Ammon, describes how when he visits the people of his mission that he "desires to dwell among this people for a time, yeah, and perhaps until the day I die." I could honestly say the same right now. That will probably change in the future (and I like to think that Ammon maybe didn't always feel that way), but for now, I'm pretty much in love with the Sicilians.

Being in such a small town/branch has its challenges. We visit outlying cities and are working with some investigators, but several of them have to drive a half-hour/hour to church. While that's not a huge deal compared to other parts of the world, it makes it hard to get people who are starting to become interested to begin coming. The nice thing, is I already have two automatic callings, as ward pianist and Primary teacher here. The one member of our primary, Lucrezia, is the daughter of the branch president and is getting ready to be baptized. Since she's a little older than 8 (the tradititional baptism age for Mormon youth), we have to teach her the missionary lessons that we teach all potential converts. So last week, I taught her a VERY SIMPLIFIED version of the Law of Chastity (using an awesome idea from another sister missionary). It was grand.

My trainer is fantastic. She is from Fresno, California. I love seeing the differences between missionary work in America/Arizona and Italy. In America, there was a lot of emphasis on diligence. Here, there's a lot of emphasis on patience, which has been great for me. I'm still trying to figure out how to be a good missionary without being a crazy/robot missionary, and my trainer is understanding and instructive. We also have a lot of fun.

Here as a missionary, I feel like I do a lot more missionary work (at least how I had imagined it before I went on my mission). I am enjoying each aspect of missionary "work" . I think it's a combination of things, like lessons I've been learning and the mission culture in Italy. But I'm pretty sure this mission is exactly what I needed.

For example, we do have a cellphone, but no one has answering machines in Italy. AWESOME. Really, the style of missionary work is completely different here and I'm digging it. In the words of Simon and Garfunkel

O Sicilia! You're breaking my heart! You're shaking my confidence daily!
O Sicilia! I'm down on my knees! I'm begging you please to come home (to the gospel!)

 much love!
sister fuller

Safe, Sound and Jet-lag Stupid

I have lost track of the hours, but I woke up at 4 am in Arizona, August 21 and am still awake 8 pm in Rome, August 22. Whatever that means!

Their whole goal for today is to keep us entertained long enough that we don't fall asleep until night time. The mission president, President Kelly, and the assistants picked us up at the airport. On the way to the Mission Office, we drove by the half-built Rome temple. Lookin' good! They won't give a finish time, but it sounds like it will definitely be after I'm gone. And the rumors are true: the Cristus--the iconic Christ statue in Salt Lake City--is being replicated in the Rome Visitor's Center, but they now have permission to also replicate the statues of the 12 apostles along with it.

Then we got some basic orientations on how to stay legal while staying in Italy (in short, don't carry any valuable documents with you and paperwork paperwork paperwork). Then we came to the mission home, where I'm now staying the night. The mission home is a short distance from the mission office and is a villa built in 1924 by Mussolini for one of his daughter's. There's nothing like a fascist nepotism legacy for an LDS Mission Home! But it's a beautiful villa. They fed us -- forgot about the food, I forgot how good Italian ingredients smell. Maybe I was suffering from jet lag, but I could have smelled all the food in the fridge for several minutes.

Aaaand the real carrot to keep us up was our new assignments! I will be serving in Mistretta, Sicily! It's up in the hills and has a car (luckily, I won't be driving... yet...). I was hoping for walking! But it is the "coolest" part of the mission (temperature wise). Which is a shame, because I was totally prepared for this summer weather after Mesa! Even with humidity, Italy at 95 degrees with 70% humidity is nothing compared to Mesa at 115 degrees.

I'll travel down to Sicily tomorrow (yay, more traveling) and figure all that good stuff out.

Italy Rome Mission

Piazza Carnaro, 20
00141 Roma, Italia

Okay, I need to fall asleep now! Give a letter shoutout to Jesse, Bekah (they forwarded your letters from forever ago to Italy!!!), Kayci, and Sister Puttapong. 

Thanks! 

Love!

sis fuller

This Week is Brought to You By the Letter "Baptism"

Dear Family and Friends,

I am going to send a little mini-diary of the things I did each day. That might help my e-mails make more sense. How about the beginning... a very good place to start....
 

Last Tuesday, 14 august
We had this thing called "Mission Tour" (or "Tour de Mission," as they say in Europe). They brought in a church leader of a general area (called a "seventy") who specifically works with missionaries a lot, Elder Marcus Aidukaitis (from Brazil). He gave us lots of advice on how to plan -- as missionaries, we always talk about "miracles" and "faith," but we always need help in doing the footwork and planning, as well as the praying and fasting, to facilitate these miracles. I took several things from Ye Ole Mission Tour: (1) don't get dehydrated. I was super dehydrated during the meeting and so cranky for the first part. Not good for a missionary, or anyone. So drink water! (2) We are able to be diligent only if we have faith. If we have no vision in mind, then there's no real motivation to stick anything out, easy or hard. We have to have faith in whatever we are doing (missionary work, finishing a degree, seeing a goal through) and from that we can be persistent, dogged hard workers. If anyone wonders why I'll stubbornly see something to the end, it's because I have faith in it. Yep, that's the secret. Lots of other great things too. Write to me and I'll share one.
 
Wed, 15 august
I had to start saying goodbye to some of the people here that I knew I wouldn't see after this week. When that happened, I realized "Waaaah, I LIKE these people." I really want to stay in contact, especially those who I've seen progress so much in the past six weeks. For example, our dear Brooklynite (who calls the Book of Mormon "da Book"), was preparing to get baptized. He had already missed one baptismal date due to family concerns, but we had worked with him and rescheduled another. I had just figured, "Airight, we'll just work with him for a week or two until he gets baptized, and then he can start progressing." But NOOO. We were able to teach small lessons that have made such a huge difference. For example, we taught him to pray and ask God for specific things instead of just saying, "Please bless everyone." And every day after that, he would see us and tell us, "You won't believe it! I asked God for xxxxxxx and right after my prayer, the phone rang about just that!!!" That happened several times over the week. Even though he was baptized on Saturday (uh oh, getting ahead of my diary thing...), seeing these moments was actually more special to me. It showed me that he has real and lasting faith in what he is doing. And that is more valuable than be baptized (or as he calls it, "swimmin' without the floaties").
 
Sat, 18 august
Okay, I'm not very good at this diary thing, so I'm going to skip to Saturday. Not only did we have our AWESOME baptism in the morning (lots of church members came and so did the new convert's older daughter), but had a great lesson in the evening. We met with Dennis, an author, poet, biophysicist, and single father of 8 (children now grown and since remarried). He is SMART and that is FUN to talk with. Why? Well, sure, our "getting to know you" time is enlightening for me. But when we teach, we cannot rely AT ALL on any argument (true ones or false ones) about how our church is true or that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Because he can easily deconstruct any argument. The solution? We do what you do with every investigator -- you teach them what you know, you let THEM pray about it, and then let them receive a confirmation from God that it is true. No convincing or anythin'. Just simply teach and have faith--faith, faith, faith--that they'll get their answer.
 
We posed it to Dennis as the scientific method -- we have a hypothesis, based on our own personal reserach, that our church is true. So we are asking him to experiment. We are asking him to take the discussions, to read the Book of Mormon, and to pray. Then he will analyze. What answers does he get? What are the fruits of his labors? etc. etc. And then he will make a theory: either it's true or it isn't. From there, he will continue to work on that theory, or as well call it in the church, a testimony.
 
I'm super bummed that I can't continue to teach Dennis, among many others, but I will write him (and if he is reading this, I am eagerly awaiting to hear about your progress).
 
Sun, august 19
HERE WE GO! So because of all the crazy companion changes, we are actually short on sisters in the Arizona mission. That means, this upcoming transfer, I'm leaving for Italy and my companion S. Taylor is going back to Mesa. In our place, they are sending to completely new missionaries. This doesn't happen very often, because it makes it hard to keep up continuity in the area. They'll send in two completely new missionaries who have no preconceived ideas about the people in the area. This is called whitewashing. Now, as we know, whitewashing is not as much fun of an activity as Tom Sawyer makes it out to seem. The new missionaries have to rely soley on notes we give them and have been attempting to record over our time here. So we've been scrambling to do that and it is EXCITING and STRESSFUL. The other crazy thing is that it's elders (male missionaries) coming to this area. Which they haven't had for at least 6 years. But one is apparently from Japan, so I'm leaving lots of Japanese messages around the apartment. I really hope I wasn't told wrong and that he's actually from Korea....
 
Alright kids! I leave tomorrow to fly out to Rome, Italy to start my second mission. So wait for that! And I have one last thing to share... it being an AWESOME scripture that my old Canadian companion found for me.
 
"So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also."
(Romans 1:15)
 
Set cruise control for Italy! :)
Love
sister fuller

Floss and Dross

Hi,

What a whirlwind of a week! I've played musical companions. In the mission field, we always go out as two companions, and occassionally we'll have a third. Y'all have known that I was in a group of three, with the Cambodian and Canadian sister. Well this week the Canadian sister went home unexpectedly--she didn't even realize how fast she had to go. But in less than 36 hours, we got the call, got packed, and sent her out. The problem? Neither me or my companion were allowed to drive the car! (As an international sister from Cambodia, my companion can't drive in the U.S. And missionaries are supposed to be in the mission at least 6 weeks here before they can get permission). We got a special driving test so I could take both of us around for a day and we could meet our appointments. And the next day, I switched out my Cambodian companion for a new one that can drive, Sister Taylor!

Sister Taylor was actually here in my area my first night and just barely left the area a month ago (when I arrived). Now she's back and better than ever! It got a little more interesting when we picked up a third sister, a new visa waiter for a night, Sister Bambrough, who was actually my roommate in the MTC. She's a little spitfire, going to Sydney, Australia Mandarin-speaking, via Mesa (for those that have seen Support Your Local Sheriff, she's "just on her way through to Australia"). We only had her with us a day and now things are settling down a bit. I only have a week left in Arizona (I leave next Tuesday), but with all the changes, it's like I'm starting a whole new part of my mission.

For example, last night we got a referral to visit someone who would be interested in the church. When we arrived, we realized that it was a family that had been taking lessons a long time ago and nothing had come from it since. But we decided to give it another go and invited them out to an activity. Not only did they accept the invitation, but we managed to say a pray with them and share a little scripture about the importance of family, and one of the young sons got pretty excited to learn more about the Book of Mormon. It's another sign to me that there are more things I still get to do in this area though my time is short.

Teaching is going better. It helps to have a companion familiar with the people and the area. Sister Taylor has just picked up where she left off and we're both working hard on teaching simply. Has anyone tried to teach complicated things in a simple way before? It's HAAAAAAARD. But, hey, if I don't work at it, how will I get better? Here's a good scripture that I told myself a week ago I should share with you: "Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer" (Prov 25:4). I like to think of a mission as a de-drossing process.

Oh, and weather. So it's supposedly the hottest week of the year in Arizona (110-120 degrees Farienheit 451). But... I'm fine. Sometimes you walk out of the car and just get completely drenched with sweat. But as long as you accept that you're gross, then you just kinda dawdle around in the heat like a happy little gecko. Also, there have been a few monsoons since I've gotten here. They are (sometimes) rainstorms that are always preceeded by a giant dust storm that darkens the whole big blue Arizona sky. These storms are also called "haboobs" (that's how it's pronounced, if I spelled it wrong I'm SORRY) and are just a wall of dust and dirt that air pressure has thrown up from the ground. When you're inside the car, it's like being in a car wash where it's all dark and the car is being buffeted. It just has the opposite effect on the car's general shininess.

Okay, a letter shout out: Thanks to Annabelle, Sue Fu, L'Deane, Bishop Caffaro, Kindra, and Chris for the e-mails you sent through my Mom (and thanks to Mom for printing them out and forwarding them to me!!!!). Always thanks to Tay, Kuuuuurt, and Taty for your correspondance! And a HUGE thank you to Jamiestown and Jester in Moab!! Your package was unexpected, awesome, and melted (the chocolate didn't do so well in the Arizona sun, but we managed to salvage most of it)! I just want to know how you picked out the exact journal I would have bought for myself. It was really awesome and I'm going to send you something with Italian postage on it in the near future. That goes for everyone who writes to me.

Time has gone fast. Always remember: TIME FLIES LIKE AN ARROW. FRUIT FLIES LIKE A BANANA.

I love you all! Don't forget that God loves us! And to floss!
Annie, Sister