Shalom!

Hi everyone! Hope you are all doing well this week :)

We found 2 new investigators this week named Mahala and Brian. We met Mahala last transfer but never really taught her. I was on exchanges with Sister Peterson and I just felt like we needed to work in Morrow. It was around 10:30 when we were there and no one was home/awake/wanted to talk to us, but we kept going. We knocked on a few doors and when it was close to noon we started  walking back to our car. As we were walking we walked passed Mahalas home and she was outside  with her boyfriend Brian. We went up and talked to them and they invited us in! We were able to teach them the Restoration and commit them to church. They loved it and were excited for church and to learn more. This whole story is really cool because when we had walked her house earlier, I didn't see a car outside and decided not to knock  thinking they weren't home. God knew they were and so he made it so they would be outside when we went by! God's hand it truly is in every phase of this work. Sadly they weren't able to come to church do to a health emergency in the family, but we aren't discouraged. We know they are prepared and we are so excited to be able to teach them more!

We had a zone meeting this week. We did training's on how to rely more on God. We also did a fun little activity with a green lighter saying to keep the "greenie fire". It was pretty creative ;) I have really loved the emphasis in our mission to be more in Preach My Gospel. As I have applied that I have learned so much more about how to be effective. I've found that I am more happy and fulfilled in my work. It's like President Welch is inspired by God or something.... ;)  These passed few weeks I have just been able to feel so much love for my mission and my area specifically. I hope to stay in Little Miami a wee bit longer, like the rest of my mission ;)

It was a pretty slow week, so that's all folks!

Love,
Sister Fultz

We played in some leaves this week, and we played around with the settings on my camera :)

Hey everyone!

I taught a lot of people this week under the influence of alcohol... it was really sad. Not only is the smell horrible, but just the way that it makes people act! It's heartbreaking. We are really working to help one of our investigators break her addiction. I know that the Savior can help us through anything! Sometimes it's hard to remember that when it's such a physical  and painful addiction.

We had leadership council this week in Western Hills. Usually we carpool with the Cherry Grove sisters, and we have to leave pretty early in the morning. The CG sisters decided to ask President Welch if we could just sleepover at their apartment Thursday night. President Porter never allowed that for anything, so we thought President Welch would be the same. We didn't get our hopes up. We got a call from the sisters at around 8pm Thursday night and they told us that President had said yes! What in the world. So we got to go pack our stuff and drive to their aparjmtnet and sleepover! We didn't go to bed until about midnight, then we laid in bed talking for another hour or so. The next moring we all got ready and headed to Western Hills. It was an awesome leadership council. The Welch's have a grand baby that was born last transfer that they haven't met yet. Their son surprised them at leadership by bringing the baby! The baby's name is Timothy Benjamin Welch. Sister Welch started crying of course. They knew their son was coming and their oldest grandson, but they didn't know the little baby was coming. It was exciting :) We also ate cake and sang happy birthday to Sister Welch. Afterwards we stopped in downtown Cincinnati and got sushi for dinner with the Cherry Grove sisters and the YSA  sisters. Such a fun night! The sushi was super good too. It was funny to be "in the world" so much. People were yelling and drinking all around us as we prayed to bless our food. Such missionaries  and it's awesome!

Also at leadership I found out that Mark, from when I was in Cincinnati, is getting baptized next Saturday! He is living the word of wisdom!!!! Yay!!! So exciting.

Saturday was a day for miracles. We got out after lunch and we were heading to Morrow. We turned around the corner and there was a woman walking on the side of the road. I felt like we needed to stop the car and talk to her, but I didn't say anything. Next thing I know... Sister Baker is pulling over and saying that we needed to go talk to her! The spirit is so real. We went and talked to her. Turns out that she is going through a divorce right now and felt so alone. We were able to testify of the Savior's love, and we told her that we felt like we needed to talk to her. Now we are going to start teaching her! Grace. Miracles happen when you follow promptings. When one companion doesn't listen, He sends it to the other companion :)

We stopped  by to see an investigator, Jo, the other evening. It was pretty late and we didn't know who to see. It had been a pretty sad day and we were down in the dumps. Turns out Jo was too! So we went out to have a fire in her fire pit. It was exactly what we all needed. We read the Book of Mormon by the firelight :) A good way to end a sadish day.

So on Sunday I got sick. I threw up at 3 in the morning. It was weird because I only threw up once. I slept in in the morning (upon approval of course), and then we went to church. I didn't feel great, but I wasn't throwing up so I worked the whole day! Sunday night we had a choir rehearsal for a fireside that our mission is doing in a few weeks. It's a choir with missionaires and youth. I really don't lke singing... but I did it anyway. It was fun to see other missionaires. I found out from the Cincinnati sisters that a member from the Cincinnati ward passed away:( He was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was there. So Sad!

This transfer is going by so fast! We are already into week 4. After this transfer I will only have about 3 transfers left. WHAT. Where did the time go???? I'm not trunky I promise. :D but really though I love being here and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Love you all!

Sister Fultz

Happy Halloween! Today involves no working at all. We will be in our apartments at 6pm today and won't leave the rest of the night. We will be doing some cleaning and studying. I am excited! I love being able to clean and study! :)

This week we did exchanges with Montgomery on Tuesday and Wilmington on Thursday. Both times I got to go to the other areas. Tuesday in Montgomery with Sister Winterton was so fun! Especially since I served there. I got to see some of my favorite people, including the Koth's. Even Danny! I worked hard with that boy to help him overcome addictions and come back to church. Sadly he has gone back to old habits. Turns out though that he is living with his dad who is in our ward! So hopefully the Elders will be able to go see him. Then on Thursday I got to go to Wilmington with Sister Coleman! I got to be with my baby for the day! She is doing so awesome. Wilmington is a fun area too. Lots of character.

Jess won't be getting baptized on November 19th anymore :( She hasn't come to church yet. She has some health issues that make her nervous to be far from home for a long time. We are working on it with her. We had a lesson with her about the Word of Wisdom, and she took it pretty well! The next time we saw her we talked about the Sacrament. I ended up having to distract her son the whole time so she could pay attention. So Sister Baker and a member, Sister Riedy, taught it all. It was really great! Jess understands the need to take the Sacrament and she is excited to take it. I had lots of fun coloring with her son Levi while they had a spiritual lesson :D

Remember when I talked about Ling? Turns out his name isn't Ling. He was telling us his last name and it's actually Lin, no G. His full actual name is Qinglan Lin. We just call him Hayden. We gave him the Book of Mormon and the commitment to read the first 3 chapters of it. He texted us and said that he is almost done with it... dang! He read it really fast and said he understands it really well. Once we were able to teach him the actual discussions, and he comes to church, he will be baptized in no time :) He felt really bad for missing church on Sunday even when we went by to wake him up with pancakes. He sent us a funny text apologizing for it.

We had our ward trunk or treat this week! We coordinated with some of the young women in the ward to dress with similar colors, and the yw made themselves fake name tags, and we were all missionaries! Then Sister Baker and I switched name tags and were each other for the night. ;) Hayden came to it towards the end and ate some chili, and then it was over. At least he came and was able to meet some people!

Love you all!

Sister Fultz

 My name!

 Sister Winterton and I

 Sister Coleman and I

 Sister Coleman, Mike, and I. Mike was baptized a few weeks ago.

 Funny Faces

 Pretty tree at the church

 Hayden apologizing for not being at church

 Hayden calls bugs animals, haha

 The leaves are all dying!

 Neighborhood feud...

 Calvary!

 Funny faces

Halloween colors and our clean apartment ;)

Lovin' Little Miami!

What an amazing week. We have some really amazing people that we are working with. First off we have Jessica Johnson. She was found a few months ago and has recently made a lot of progress. She is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober for almost a week. Before her most recent slip up she was sober for about 40 days. She is a single mom with a 2 1/2 year old son. She is committed to being baptized November 19th. She is on the 3rd chapter of the Book of Mormon and is praying every day. Jess, as she likes to be called, hasn't been to church yet due to some medical issues and anxieties. Our ward mission leader and assistant ward mission leader went this last Sunday and gave her a Priesthood blessing. She loved it and she felt the spirit.

Ling Lin! Our Chinese Investigator :) He has been reading a few chapters in the Book of Mormon that we have assigned him and is now going to start from the beginning. He didn't come to church because he overslept. We have had two awesome lessons with him in a members home who can speak Mandarin. This last lesson, the member said that the spirit had spoken to him during the lesson. Ling, surprised, said "Oh he already spoke to you?". It was funny and amazing to see the excitement in his eyes when he learned about the spirit and how it can speak to him.

Last week I talked about Edith... shes gone now. She called us and said she was too busy to meet with us. Silly lady. Oh well!

Funny story: after Ling's lesson, Sister Baker was really excited. She was dancing in the car when suddenly she made a sound like she was choking. She was moving too much that her seat belt locked and it choked her... I couldn't stop laughing. We always have a lot of funny moments. I really love her.

Remember Greg? Yeah he's still creepy. This last week he said that he prayed for a connection... not a connection with God... but for a connection with Sister Fultz (Me). Awkward! So we had to laydown the law (a few times) and tell him to stop calling us and that we can't talk to him anymore. He called us a few times that day and once on Sunday. We've been ignoring his calls. Hopefully he'll get the message. We were pretty blunt with him. We're pretty sure he was intoxicated though, so he probably won't remember. As long as we don't answer his calls I think we'll be fine!

Love you all!!

Staying in Little Miami!

Hey everyone! I am staying in Little Miami with Sister Baker and I couldn't be more excited!

This week we weren't able to teach Ling, and he didn't come to church :( but we have an appointment with him on Friday, so hopefully that will go well! He seems to think he never has time, who knows if that is really true. Usually it isn't.

We have an investigator named Greg who is crazy. He hits on us a lot  and is always drunk (we found out yesterday). Our Ward Mission Leaders wife doesn't want us to see him anymore, and I don't really want to either. He makes me uncomfortable. We will prayerfully consider what to do! Haha. His neighbor is a member that said he was going to watch for us and make sure we were safe when we went into his house. This ward is awesome.

We put someone on date for baptism this week! Her name is Edith. She's a cute little old lady that smokes a ton. She's on date for November 19th. She has a long way to go, but I have faith in her! When we taught the Restoration and we shared the first vision, she got really excited to read the pamphlet. Later we taught her about the Book of Mormon, and she got really excited to read that too. She's just so great! She has a ton of Elvis stuff in her house but claims she doesn't really like Elvis.

We had dinner with the Fink's on Sunday. Elder Mafoa, who is from Tong, told us some funny stories. When he was first in the field they had dinner with a member. I guess they don't have ranch in Tonga, because Elder Mafoa thought it was soup and started eating it like soup! I died when he told that story. He is getting transferred and I'm really going to miss him and his funny stories!

The Primary President gave us the assignment to go and see a new move in family. We went to meet them, and it went super well, except they claim that they aren't members (aka they just don't go anymore). That's something that I won't ever understand. A lot of people think that if they just stop going to church that they aren't members anymore, but their records are still there. Kinda funny. I'm just kinda like "If you weren't  a member we wouldn't be here and know all your names and birthdays...". They were nice but weren't interested in contact. At least we got a soda out of it.

We went to UDF for ice cream on Saturday to celebrate my 13 month mark that was on Sunday. While we were there a lady came in and started talking to this boy waiting in line. You could tell that it was heated. She was getting mad at him for something he did while driving on the road that this lady witnessed. Not really sure what happened, but we saw them stand about, but I wished I did. Also while I was waiting in line to buy my ice cream, the guy waiting in front of me informed me that the Great Barrier Reef died... he seemed a little off to be honest.

That is really it for this week. Nothing terribly exciting!

Love you all!

Sister Fultz

Our last district meeting

Do you speak Mandarin?

Sup y'all!

To start off... We have an awesome new investigator! His name is Ling Lin. His American name is Hayden. He was a referral from the missionaries in the DC South Mission. He was learning English from them and they taught him the Restoration. He moved here for a job, and so we get to teach him! We met him on Friday, committed him to church, and he came! It was so awesome! It was so amazing to see everyone in the ward reach out to him. We have a member who served in Taiwan, and so he speaks Mandarin, which is Lings native language. The member, Brother Poulter, reached out to him and took him under his wing for all of church. He invited Ling to play basketball on Wednesday. Yay for fellowship! Sunday night we had a lesson with him and Brother Poulter at Lings house. We couldn't go inside, so we had to sit out in the cold and mosquitoes. Such a powerful lesson! Brother Poulter pretty much got to relive his mission. When teaching someone without a Christian background, it is almost pointless to go straight into the Restoration. We (AKA Brother Poulter) taught simply about prayer, God and Jesus Christ. Ling seemed to understand it pretty well. It was a blessing to have Brother Poulter there to translate a few words he wasn't familiar with. We have another lesson set for next Sunday at Brother Poulter's house, and Ling is coming to church again! I am so excited to see his faith increase.

We had Mission Leadership Council (MLC) this week. My first one! It was a lot of fun to see some of my missionaries friends! Also I just love President and Sister Welch. They are so hilarious. We just laughed a lot during MLC. We had a few serious moments too ;) It was a really uplifting experience.

What a busy week! We even had interviews. Got to see President and Sister Welch a lot. Interviews are always fantastic! They aren't as long as they used to be. We don't do area books or planner checks, and we don't do role plays anymore. Just get your 2 interviews and leave! So much more efficient. President Welch and I talked about school, and where I should go... still trying to decide. President Welch always relates things back to marriage. So we talked about how I'm going to find my husband. It was a good time.

To end the week we went on exchanges too! I stayed in Little Miami with Sister Carlisle. We had a good and busy day. We spent the day in Morrow, like I usually do on exchanges. I got hit on by an investigator who we have met once. Sometimes its bad to give your phone number to people. Oi Vey. The guy is even married! People nowadays. On Sunday we had another investigator admit that he was attracted to us and wants to hang out after our missions. Awkward!

On Sunday we got to see a recent convert, Matt, receive the Melchizedek Priesthood! He was baptized about 6 months ago and is preparing to go on a mission. That day after church he came teaching with us too! So precious.

This was an eventful week! I loved every minute of it. This is the last week of the transfer, and I am hoping to stay with Sister Baker in Little Miami.

Love you all!

Sister Fultz

Conference Weekend

This week was a slow week, and so I would just like to share with you all my insights from conference!

The talk by Elder Nattress stuck out to me in so many ways. He has so many insights that I want to be sure to apply to my own parenthood in the future. The promise that he talked about from Marion G. Romney "you will not lose them" is something that stuck to me. Read the Book of Mormon with your children every day. This gospel is for that one lost sheep, the prodigal son, and the boy who isn't listening. <3

President Nelson pretty much stabbed me in the heart! "Joy has nothing to do with our circumstances, but everything to do with the focus of our lives." Its amazing that we really can have joy in our trials. Boom.

I enjoyed many other things about conference, but those are two things that stuck out to me the most :)

Side note, have you heard about those clowns? They are here in Ohio! The Wilmington Sisters were freaking out because they were seen right across the street from where they live. I hate clowns.

This week our mission did a Sister Conference! I am sure Sister Welch posted the videos of us dancing... so you can all enjoy that. Sister Conference was very enlightening. President Welch talked about how we have the power to overcome Satan, and we keep giving him the power to tempt us. We need to take it back! It was an empowering message.

This was an awesome week, conference was amazing, the church is true, Jesus Christ is our Savior. I love life, and I love you all. Have a great week!

Sister Fultz

no pictures this week... sorry! unless you want more pictures of spiders and sunsets, haha