Leer y Orar: Week 5

Hola Todas Las Personas,

What a week it has been!! I have seen many miracles and seen my Spanish improve!! Even though I am improving every day, I am in no means ready to speak it fluently out in the field. I only have a week left in the MTC which is honestly so crazy! Time is flying. But last night I was thinking about the mission field! Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to get out there but man!  its very humbling to thing that in a week I will be preaching to actual investigators in a language that I knew nothing about 5 weeks ago! With out god on my side this would simply be impossible. I found so much comfort last night while reading the Book of Mormon! I am honestly so baffled with the power that book contains and the guidance it brings if you read it with a question and prayer in your heart. 

Basically going into scripture study I wanted to be assured that I would be okay going out in the field. So I began reading the book of mormon. I began with a prayer, "heavenly farther, please help me to feel of thy spirit and receive assurance through scripture study this night." I began reading Alma Chapter 58 in the Book of Mormon. This chapter talks about how Helaman and his army were not sufficiently strong to go and retake cities that the Lamanites had took. So they were forced to wait for reinforcements from Zarehemla the capital. It said they were struggling and almost starving because of the lack of means. Finally some supplies and soldiers came. However, to their embarrassment they received very little means and only 2000 more soldiers. Which was not near enough to fight the seemingly endless laminite army. Because of the little support they received they feared greatly that they would be over run by the laminites which would be devastating to the war effort. Then here is the point that matters the most. They raised there prayers to god that he would deliver them. Then in verse 11, "yea, it came to pass that the lord our god did visit us with assurance that he would deliver us." So they took courage and went off to take the city of Manti from a big laminite army. It goes on to show that Helaman and his insufficient army according to their numbers where able to take this big laminite strong hold with out losing a Nephite soul. Now as to what the world would think! Some thing like this should be impossible right? But nothing, let me repeat, nothing!!! Is impossible with god on your side!

I applied this story to my situation and some of my first investigators I will have out in the field! Just like helamans army was not sufficient in numbers my Spanish is not sufficient in ability. However Helamans amy and I have something even better! We have faith, and the spirit of god on our sides! We have raised our prayers to go that he would deliver us from our enemies and prosper us. I will be able to pierce the walls of that the adversary has created around peoples hearts not with my fluency in the language but with the Holy Ghost. With god, I will be able to take back the "city" of peoples hearts and help then regain that testimony of truth they had before this life. God will not allow me to fail or be harmed!! I know this to be true!!

Now everyone, I want you to consider something. Please consider the miracle that you just read in my email. Here I am, aninsufficient 19 year old boy who just had a life changing expirience from reading one chapter in one book. Here I am, receiving assurance from the most powerful being in the universe. He cares about me!! He cares about all of you.

In our Tuesday night devotional this week President and Sister Bennet spoke and it was amazing. Never have I felt so much love from people when they were speaking. Sister Bennet recognized that yes, missions are hard! The reason is because we are in a war with the adversary. War is hard!! But we will win and Christ can turn all fears to light. She said "fight the battle within yourself and become victorious through Christ." Then president Bennet got up and started sharing a message about peace. Philippians 4: 7, Mornoni 7:3, John :14 27, John 16: 33. He then shared that those who have repented of their sins before the mission, and those who have kept them selfs unspotted from the word, these scriptues are for them. I then recieved the promting "Bowen you are deserving of this peace." He then begged missionaries who are unreppentent to claim the peace of repentance. It was the most loving way I have ever seen someone invite people to repent. AMAZING

I have a challenge and a promise for all of you!! Today sometime, take a moment of your day to read onechapter of the Book of Mormon. Think of a question in your heart! Pray before you start reading. Then read the chapter ready to write down every thing the spirit tells you! I promise you will find great assurance and answers through this. The ability to meet all of lifes challenges lies with our willingness to read the Book of Mormon and allow the spirit to guide our lifes.

Please accept the challenge! I love each of you

-Elder Fuller 

Hola Familia and Amigos: Week 4

Hola Familia and Amigos

This week was full and very spiritual! We watched two apostles speak televised from the Provo MTC! I gave a talk completely in spanish! I stood up during one of the devotionals with the whole CCM and bore my testimony about the light of christ and how I have seen it in my friends and families lifes! Hahaha both of those were pretty terrifying! When I bore my testimony I received a prompting that I needed to share something and I emediately pushed that thought away cause I was thinking ´´no way i´m going to bear my testimony right now in front of 100s of people´´ but the thought kept coming to me. So I said all right heavenly father I trust you and I raised my hand and did it! Faith in Jesus Christ pushes you to do things you other wise would or could not do! With out faith in Christ I wouldnt be out on a mission! With out faith in christ the sons of mosiah could have never had the courage to go teach the people of the lamanites. With out faith in Christ Joseph Smith could have never restored the gospel to the earth! Think about it! Every time you have a prompting to do something good that comes from a heavenly source! Sometimes that good thing is completely out of your confort zone but you just need to follow it because god will never let you fail and you will grow so much from it. Even Gordon B. Hinckley, who would become a prophet, was terrified on his mission to preach to a crowd, he wrote a letter after telling his father he didn´t want to be on a mission. His dad then told him to forget himself and get to work. I know if we forget our self we will be able to find the person with in us that god wants us to be. In the MTC you notice this growth tremendously! When you follow Christ you grow exponentialy, not by ones and twos, but by tens, hundreds and thousands. Its a powerful powerful thing. The blessing is true that Christ will bless you 10 fold.

I had and experience the other day where I was able to help an Elder in my district who is struggling with some mental illness. Know one really noticed until one night after we finished studying he opened up to me and said ´´elder fuller how do you deal with stress in your life.´´ I could see that he was distraught and he had watery eye trying to hold back crying. I was prompted to tell him ´´I deal with stress by talking to others and praying´´ then he walked off back to the Casa. I then went and told my district leader what happened and we went back to the Casa and found him in the living room praying and crying. My companion, my district leader and I then say down and started talking with him in which he opened up and said he had been struggling with thoughts of beating him self up for years. When ever he does even little things wrong he feels like it is the end of the world. We all expressed our love for him and how much our savior loves him and I was able to tell him that he is doing the right thing by coming out in the open with this. Also that by doing this he is inviting heavens help into his life. We walked with him to President Eves and president emediately calmed him down. The next day he was able to get a blessing of confort from President Lyons. We also were able to get him and appointment with the counselor and he is doing so much better! The reason he was scared to tell people is because he didn´t to get sent home. However that was Satan tempting him to feel alone. The mission and the MTC will always do everything they can to keep an Elder out on a mission.

Mental illness is a real thing! I know that for a fact! If anyone every is struggling with painful mental things they need to come out in the open and talk about it! They are loved and that is the saviors path to healing.

I love you all and would love to hear from each of you! 

Con Amor Elder Fuller

Everyone Read! Week 3

It feels some what impossible to start this letter!!! My heart it completely full. Hearing from each of you and the things that are happening in your life's keep me motivated. In one of the first devotionals here we were promised that the more committed to our missions we were the more blessings our friends and family back home would receive. I'm here today promising you that I will be so committed and work so hard for each and every one of you. I'm not just out here to change my life, serve others, and do the lords will. Im also out here to bless you guys back home. I was promised this by one of gods servants and I know it is true.

This Sunday was fast and testimony meeting for my ward here. Wow what a day that was. I was feeling for a couple days before hand that I needed to get up and bear my testimony. I was kind of nervous because every one was getting up and bearing there testimonies in super good Spanish. All these 5 weekers who know the language super well. Then President Lyons got up and said if anyone feels like they want to bear there testimony but our nervous about their Spanish you can speak in spanglish. I took this as god telling me to quit thinking of my weakness and get up because he was with me. So I got up. I bore my testimony in Spanish for about half and then I said ( Im going to share the reason I came out in english). I then expressed that the reason I am out here is to bring to other families the happiness of the gospel that my family has. By the way, everyone who is reading this I consider you family. I then shared exactly what I shared in my farewell talk. The story of my Uncle Michael. I said that because of the gospel, even if I do not see him in this life again I will see him in heaven, glorified and perfected. Because of the gospel my family can have peace in these times of hard ship. I owe everything I have to my Savior and I promise to never give up on any investigator even if they are stubborn to except the good word of Christ. I won't because I know what is at stake! Eternity is at stake! Please each of you be motivated to be an example of Christ in your lives. Let's work together to save our brothers and sisters. Trusting in our Savior Jesus Christ and doing his will.

After the testimony I was pretty emotional about what I just talked about but It wasn't until district meeting I became overwhelmed and I almost had to go out in the hallway! This gospel is true, there is no way it isn't!

Ok, funny story haha. This week my companion and I were running late to a devotional and one of the leaders just sat us in an open spot right in the middle of everyone. Then the kid next to me leaned over and said you are now in the choir. So my companion and I had to sing with the MTC choir with out even practicing once with them. My companion loved it so much he has pushed me to go to every choir practice since hahah. That's okay singing is fun! 

Also this week Nate Fletcher from MVT arrived and Nate Owens. It was so good to see faces I knew before the mission!

Challenge to each of you!

Say a prayer, open the book of mormon to a random page, read the page and mark where god is in the page, then write down your feelings and the promptings of the spirit that will come. I promise that the message you receive from the spirit will be specifically for you. Don't be afraid to follow promptings that come.

Every email me and update me please!

Con Amor Elder Fuller

Ps. Sorry there is no spell check or grammer check so pls dont grade my spelling and puncuation haha.

Week 2

Hi Everyone Bowens mom here...He would like you all to know you can also send him letters through this website 

https://www.missionarypackagemx.com

that they will print out and deliver to him the very next day. He loves getting mail! Its a free service and I have used it a few times and he says he loves getting the letters. 

HOLA familia y amigos,

What a full week!!! I love each and every one of you so much. Last week we did not have much time to email. First of all, because my district leader was misinformed and thought we had less time than we did and secondly because we went to the Mexico City Temple and did a session which is like an hour away. Making it a 5 hour trip! But it was well worth it and it was an amazing experience!!!!

I love my district so much! We are constantly laughing and having so much fun. The other night we had what what we call a porque sesh (don´t ask why it is called that hahah) and we were laughing all the way up until we had to turn the lights out. Basically a porque sesh is when we search for funny bible stories, make up our own parables, or just say random things and crack jokes. Hahahah it is so funny. As many of you probably know, I am super good at making up or saying random things. My district has a notebook dedicated to inspiring, random, and sunny things I say. The book is called 3 names, Fullerism, El Libro De Fuller, or Elder Fuller´s Filosophia. If you want specifics on what it contains you will have to ask Elder Lyman who is keeping the record. ahaha

Don´t worry Mom, with all the  fun we have we also work tremendously hard. I heard that out of all the American districts that came at the same day as ours  we are either the top or very close to it. All of us did very well on the basic core test well above the average. I got a 57.5 out of 61 on it. It is where you are tested on all the words, phrases, scriptures, and principles you have learned so far. So I guess my MTC grade is an A right now. Regardless of how well it says Im doing on paper, speaking the language is a whole different story. We teach a fake investigator every day and it is always so difficult. For example, in our last lesson we asked our investigator if they had any questions about the Book of Mormon. They then asked us who the lamanites and nephites were and where they came from and stuff. Something that would be so easy to explain in English was so incredibly difficult in Spanish. Also this Saturday we are teaching in what is called TRC. This is when a random person from outside the walls, could be anyone, volunteers to come hear the gospel. So this Saturday my companion and I could be teaching a real investigator. Scary to think about. Although I know God won´t let me fail if I have faith in him and even if my language is bad they will still be able to feel the spirit. Also starting next week we are being put in a pilot program where we are with a latino companion 8 hours a week. So I will be put with a companion who doesn't´t know my language and I don´t know his. Really crazy to think about. Don´t get me wrong, I am improving every day and taking strides towards where my heavenly father wants me.

I have a challenge for every one of you guys. Whether you are a missionary, return missionary, or not either. Go and watch Elder Hollands MTC Devotional January 11th 2011 address.The lord needs all of us to love him more than we love our worldly things, come follow him, and feed his sheep. Please watch the entire talk and really ponder how you can leave behind the world and never turn back. My friends and family, I am feeling the spirit as I type this sentence. We have treasures in heaven that are waiting for us if we follow what our Savior wants and needs. WE ARE THE HOPE OF ISRAEL!! and we need to feed His sheep. Look for moments, small or big where you can serve others, lift others, study the gospel, work on talents, be a light. My Mom always tells me (remember who you are)! Well, I am a child of god, each of you is a child of god and there is great power in that. Any reading this has been gifted to have this gospel in some way a part of their life´s and we need to live as an example an spread the light. Be good my friends. I love you all.

This week we had and intense talk given to us be the 2nd counselor in the MTC Presidency. I honestly loved it so much however, a lot of missionaries were super offended by it haha. President Eves the man who gave the talk is a prior air force academy commander. SO he definitely singed our eyebrows off. On thing he said was (IF YOU HAVEN´t GIVEN ALL THEN STOP PRAYING FOR MIRICALES) hahaha holy cow I love it. After the talk we had a district meeting in which every in my district shared their feelings about it. The begging of the meeting was about half our district kind of complaining about things he said and saying how they didn´t like it and were offended. When I was hearing this I could just not say anything. So I said a quick prayer than said ( I believe everything happens in our life for a reason, President Eves spoke to us boldly tonight for a reason, and the spirit is trying to tell us something!! We can do better! I want our district to be the best district that has ever stepped foot on this MTC!) and at that, every one was silent for a good ten seconds. I know that god wants us to work harder than ever these 6 weeks here and I hope I can live op to those expectations.

Ok everyone I need somebody to update me on the Utah Jazz, BYU football, any sports honestly, and I want all my friends to send my an update on their lives. I love you all and please turn to god in every thought

Con Amor Elder Fuller