New Companion

I have a new companion, Sister Peardon! She is from Roseville, California and she has been out about 10 months. We have had so much fun this week and I just love her! I am teaching her to play the piano and we try to play Pokemon together.

We tracted a bunch this week in efforts to building our teaching pool. I have tried most of the potentials in the area book so we are trying new stuff out. It was my first time really tracting and it brought forth some good things, but mostly just being tired, haha. We are still working hard to build up our teaching pool!

A funny story from this week: We knocked on a potentials door and her son answered. He started saying how he is a "TI", which is a targeted individual. We asked how he became one and he acted all weird and said "various ways". Well okay then. He said that he thought we were trying to break in the other day when we knocked, but it wasn't us. Then he said "I thought some redneck gangster was breaking in to kill me and my mom". Later we asked him what religion he was and he said "I feel like I shouldn't say...the one everyone hates." Well okay then. As you can imagine we probably won't be going back there.

A member took us to Red Lobster this week, and I loved it! I used to hate fish but since being on my mission I have grown to love it. The member that took us was baptized last year and is now less active due to work. He is one of the coolest people I have ever met, he has the most interesting conversion story. He used to be heavily into drugs and he says that if he hadn't started meeting with the missionaries he probably would be dead. He has to work every Sunday to support his ex wife who he pays a ton of alimony to and also he has two daughters who he pays for to go to school. Since he is a single guy we can't meet at his house, instead he takes us out to dinner every single week! We try something new every week and its been fun to get to know him. This week we found out that he likes Tumblr. He also freaks out when there is something with gluten that I can't eat. I just love him!

Yesterday after church a kid got hit by a car in the parking lot. I didn't see any of it happen I just heard. It was the son of our primary president and they had to take him to the hospital. He's okay now from what I have heard and is back home. But how scary is that! I'm glad he is okay. To makee the story a little less scary, an investigator saw it happen and yelled the "S" word and I thought it was pretty funny.

I love you all! Talk to you next week.

Sister Fultz

Another Week

Hello everyone!

This was the last week of the transfer. I will be staying in Eastgate and will be getting a new companion. Her name is Sister Peardon and I am seriously so excited to be with her.

The zoo on Monday was so fun! Not many animals were out due to colder weather, but we saw enough to make it worth it (aka the elephants).

We got a new investigator this week named Gary. We found him looking for his dad who passed away (those situations are always a little awkward). Gary wonders what the truth really is and how you can tell it, and he really has real intent. The sisters found him on exchanges so I wasn't there, but when I first met him his dog pee'd on my foot. Reminded me of home.

This week we went to the temple!! It was much needed and I loved every minute of it. We went to the Columbus temple with the Cherry Grove sisters and Sister Allred from our ward drove us. I ended up losing my recommend somewhere at the temple and couldn't find it after we were done. Luckily President was able to give me a 3 month one. After the temple Sister Allred took us to a classic place called Bob Evans. It turned out to be a really great day.

Today we had a zone fun day at a members house and they had a basketball court in their house! The only downside was that it was decked out in Utah State University... but alas I played on it. They also had a pool table, ping pong and chess. The members also fed us pizza (I just ate the cheese and toppings),

Love,

Sister Fultz

 The Elephants!

 The Columbus Temple

 Sister Winterton and I in the car going to the Temple

 Sister Winterton and I driving around Eastgate

 Our District :)

Sister Winterton and I at the zoo

Hello!

The work here is getting better, more people are letting us in! Hallelujah.

We taught Melissa the Plan of Salvation this week and it went really well. She wasn't able to come to church this week sadly :( But she is planning on it for next week! She is so awesome and understands things really well. I love teaching her! Well, I love teaching everyone, but especially her.

In Ohio you always get an earful from people about all the heroin and weed problems that are everywhere. I love listening to it honestly, its so interesting to me. It's hilarious when one of your investigators tells you that another one of your investigators is selling heroin. Woo!

On Saturday we got to go to Lakeside Park, Kentucky, to help with a Tri State Priest-Laurel activity. It was so fun! We helped with the games during the race, we did the puzzle room. The youth were so funny to watch and it reminded me of when I was in their place :)

To add to the time with young people we also taught Primary! We taught the 5 year old kids and they were a handful. Two of them just loved to talk and didn't know what "shhh" meant, haha! One of them commented on my deep voice, and I just smiled. Awkward when little kids just say what they think, I love it.

We are going to the Cincinnati Zoo today with our District, the assistants, and President and Sister Welch. I will send lots of pictures next week!

Love you all!

Sister Fultz

Best Week Thus Far

What an amazing week!

When I was in Cincinnati at the beginning of my mission, I had heard of two boys name Lamatrics and Lamaine Coleman. I could tell that the ward really loved them and cared about them by the way they talked about them. Members in Ward Council talked about how they weren't sure where the boys had ended up, but that they thought they had moved to Western Hills ward. I left the ward after 4 transfers and never head much about the Coleman's. I was lucky enough to go back to the Cincinnati ward training a new missionary. Ward Council still was talking about the Coleman's a few times every now and then. One day we were driving to meet the Highland Heights sisters for exchanges. We stopped at UDF to get ice cream, as we usually did. While we were ordering our ice cream, the boy scooping the ice cream said "Oh hey, I used to be Mormon". I looked up at him and read his name tag and it said "Lamatrics". I talked to him briefly about his love for the Blackwelder's in the Cincinnati ward. The next Sunday I told the ward council whereabouts the UDF was, and they were confused because it wasn't anywhere near Western Hills. They then gave my companion and me the assignment to go see his grandma Mamie Parker. We had limited miles and she was very far out of our area. We weren't ever able to get a member to drive us out there and we didn't ever end up fulfilling the assignment. My companion and I got transferred away from Cincinnati, and I ended up in the Eastgate ward a few transfers later. We got a call from the Cherry Grove Sisters to go see a member in our ward whose records aren't here. The members son in the Western Hills ward told them about her. We finally were able to go and see her a few weeks after they told us. Turns out... it was Mamie Parker along with Lamatrics and Lamaine Coleman!! I had finally found them month after I had heard about them in the Cincinnati ward. It's amazing how I am the only missionary other than my companion that would've known anything about them. I really have been wondering about them for months and have always wanted to meet them. The Lord led me to them in the last place I thought  would find them! Mamie and Lamaine both came to church on Sunday as well! I am so excited to help this family progress and to teach Mamie's grandson who isn't a member yet.

Another great thing that happened this week was Melissa. We found her in the potentials list, and she has had missionaries come every year for 16 years, and so she is taking it as a sign. We taught her the Restoration on Saturday and the spirit was so strong. She said she would study and pray, and she's already started praying about it. I can tell that she has real intent. She even came to church yesterday! She almost didn't. The member we had set to give her a ride got the flu, and to make it worse we forgot our phone when we went to ward council. We ran home after before church started, and we got home at 8:40 when church starts at 9:00. That's when we saw the text from the member. We started to panic because we weren't sure who to ask. We called Melissa and turns out the members husband just decided to give her a ride despite that he would be alone with her, he just had a video call with his wife to be safe. So she was able to come to church! It was so amazing. She stayed for all of it and was so involved. At the end she said she had a lot to think about and pray about, she also expressed that she felt so welcome. It was so amazing. I really can see her progressing in the gospel.

Here are a few pictures from last week! We had a district meeting, and made a Title of Liberty and then us at a less actives house :)

I love change!

The most exciting thing that happened this week was the missionary schedule and key indicator changes. They changed up our morning schedule so its more relaxed and we can decide ourselves what to do. The council decided to give us more agency in deciding how we want our mornings to go. It's been a lot of fun to have a different schedule! They also took us from 9 key indicators down to 4. They have identified what the most important things to conversion are, and that's all that we report. Missionary work is a lot less stressful now, which is great :)

We almost got sucked into a Bible Bashing this week. I got really nervous because I try my hardest to avoid those... which I didn't used to, haha. They seemed really nice at first but then they started asking probing questions trying to get us to say the wrong thing so they could prove us wrong. Luckily, and of course, they couldn't get us with anything. We stayed pretty calm and politely answered questions. We did leave them on good terms by letting him rant to us about Donald Trump and how it is related to God. It was interesting to hear his point of view, and mostly his wife just sat there and listened to him rant. Once we were finally able to get out of there we went and had a great dinner with the Allred family, some members in the ward, and it made it all better.

Well, that is all for this week. Love you all!

Sister Fultz

We are pro at catching mice!

Hello Friends and Family!

This week Sister Winterton got attacked by an old woman at the nursing home where we do service. It was hilarious! We were playing with a parachute flapping it up and down with balloons in the middle and I guess the lady didn't like her for whatever reason. She started hitting her pretty brutally and then she grabbed her shirt and hair and pulled her. I was sitting on the other side of the room and I couldn't get to her, so I just had to watch. The nurse turned around and yelled "Martha! Let her go!". Martha had a pretty tight grip on her so it took a second to get her off. As she was getting wheeled away in her wheelchair, she pointed her finger really angrily at Sister Winterton. Later when we walked out I saw her and she said "Don't give him anymore" while pointing her angry finger at me. Then on Sunday morning we caught a mouse in one of the sticky traps that a member gave us, and then another Sunday night. That makes 4 total that we have caught in our house since Christmas. We need a cat! I hope we don't have anymore, but I have a feeling we do. We live in a members house and all there is under it is a crawl space. Our house is coordinator is coming over today to check it out, so we might end up moving!

Chris is still MIA. The other Sisters tracted his street and couldn't find him.

One of our investigators ended up in the hospital this week for attempted suicide. She's home now, which probably isn't the best. Her grandma told us to keep going back to help her. She is such a sweet girl with just a skewed thought process. I am praying a lot for her and hope we can help her.

The weather this week was so nice! It's been warmer and we don't have any snow. It's prime missionary work weather! Although I do wish there was some snow... but I hear Utah has a lot! I'm not sure I would want to missionary in that much snow. The past two winters in Ohio have been so mild, I am blessed!

Sure love you all!

Sister Fultz

My first week in Eastgate

My first week in Eastgate was eventful!

My first full day we got a member referral for a man in the hospital where this member worked. We went and met him, his name is Chris. He took the lessons in California where he almost got baptized, but then he was attacked and stabbed (crazy, right?!). Then he lost contact with the missionaries. He since has moved to Ohio to be near the better hospitals to treat his lupus disease. We taught him the Restoration and gave him a new Book of Mormon. He remembers pretty much everything! It was so amazing to meet him. Since he has been discharged from the hospital, and we kind of lost him. He didn't give us his address, and he doesn't have his own phone. WE HAVE NO WAY OF CONTACTING THIS PREPARED AND ELECT MAN. We literally lost him. Oh my. I don't know what to do! He told us he lives on a street which is actually in Cherry Grove. I told the Sisters they just need to go tract that street so they can find him, haha. Pray that we find Chris!

The rest of the week was pretty slow. We are trying to find new people to teach. A lot of people will listen to us, but it's always a question of who will actually commit and do something about what we teach. Like this one guy, we shared the First Vision, and when we were done he said, "That's cool, can we wrap this up? I gotta go." I laughed right then and just didn't know what to say. Needless to say, we probably won't teach him much more.

We tried tracting this week. One of the doors we knocked on the guy looked at us and knew who we were. Once someone knows who you are, a rejection is coming. But there wasn't one! He wanted some "literature" to read. I guess we were amateurs and didn't have any on us. Awkward. He said he would talk to us more but he was....knitting. Priorities, right? We did manage to go by a few days later and give him a Book of Mormon. We are going to see him this week, so we will see what happens!

Today we went to a Jungle Jims with the Cherry Grove Sisters. It is pretty much the best store ever! They have all kinds of food from different places. It was so fun to just walk around and see the weird things they have.

Sister Fultz