Posts Tagged ‘ Elder Lingard ’

Elder Austin Fullmer – Third time is a charm

3 October 2011

Family & Friends,

We had transfer calls this week. It was so nerve raking. Everyone calls in and listens to President Pimentel read off the lists of areas and their new Elders or Sisters. The other two Elders that live near us came over for the call and I made a big breakfast for everyone. Mom: get this. I made biscuits and gravy. I was pretty confident that I could make biscuit. How hard could that really be? The scary part was going to make homemade gravy. The big news: my gravy was really good if I do say so my self. The bigger news: I am staying in Bergedorf, Hamburg, Germany for my third transfer. I am pretty excited for this because I wanted to stay in Bergedorf. Elder Lingard, my trainer and who most missionaries would call my mission ”father” is being transfered tomorrow to a city in the Hannover Zone. He will be district leader there as we was here in Bergedorf. My new companion is called Elder Gunthry. I am not sure if that is spelled correctly. I am excited to get to know him and hopefully he is a hard worker. So my addresses are still the same:

Elder Fullmer

Brook Strasse 19

21029 Hamburg

Germany

or

Elder Fullmer

Deutchland Berlin Mission

Zerbster Strasse 42

12209 Berlin

Germany

The first is my physical address, the second is the mission office in Berlin. It is better to write that address since is is permanently there and my address changes. I get that mail about every three weeks.

My friend Zach sent me a picture of the Academy Cross Country team this semester. Crap, I miss you guys a lot. Good luck with the rest of your season.

I absolutely love General Conference. For those of you that don’t know what that is let me explain. It is a biannual event that is broad casted throughout the world. There are five two hour sessions in which the Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, members of the 12 Apostles, and others speak to the world. It was awesome and a super refreshing experience to hear the encouraging remarks that were spoken there. I also want to share a pretty funny experience. There is actually a sixth session of this conference that takes place a week before the rest of the conference. It is for the Relief Society. This is the woman’s organization of the church (which on a side note is one of the largest Women’s organizations in the world). Anyways, in Germany they showed this session as a recording on the first day that the rest of the sessions were shown. My companion and I had to set up chairs an hour before this session started. I convinced him to watch it with me since (1) we were already there and (2) my Mom and already seen it in the states and said that the concluding speaker was really really good. This is an excerpt from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s talk (who is the second counselor to the Prophet and President of the Church and also a native German) that he gave there:

—”As a child, when I would look at the little forget-me-nots, I sometimes felt a little like that flower—small and insignificant. I wondered if I would be forgotten by my family or by my Heavenly Father. Years later I can look back on that young boy with tenderness and compassion. And I do know now—I was never forgotten. And I know something else: as an Apostle of our Master, Jesus Christ, I proclaim with all the certainty and conviction of my heart—neither are you!

”You are not forgotten.

”Sisters [I would add Brothers], wherever you are, whatever your circumstances may be, you are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you with an infinite love. Just think of it: You are known and remembered by the most majestic, powerful, and glorious Being in the universe! You are loved by the King of infinite space and everlasting time! He who created and knows the stars knows you and your name—you are the daughters of His kingdom. The Psalmist wrote:

“ ‘When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

“ ‘What is man, that thou art mindful of him? …

“‘For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.”

”God loves you because you are His child. He loves you even though at times you may feel lonely or make mistakes.”

—(Austin again). Let’s all try not to forget this concept: You are not forgotten. Our Heavenly Father knows you. And even though I am much less significant, I don’t forget about you either and I pray for your success.

Good luck this week with Midterms, races, games, work, school, calling, travels, and what ever other trials that you have to deal with.

Love,

Tschüß,

Peace,

Elder Austin Arthur Fullmer

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2011
10/03
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Elder Austin Fullmer – The love that Heavenly Father has

Familie und Freunde,

One more week in the transfer and thus, one more week as a Golden. wierd. I have already spent more time in Germany than I did at the MTC. The MTC seemed to go on forever while I was in it, but the time in Germany has flown. So we have transfer calls this Saturday. Either Elder Lingard or I are going to be transferred. I think it is a little more likely that Elder Lingard gets transferred because he has already been here in Bergedorf for three transfers, but he is district leader and he has stayed four transfers in every one of his transfers except for this Golden city. So I really wouldn’t be surprised either way. Honestly I would like to stay here in Bergedorf for another transfer, but you never know and it is the Lord through inspiration to President who decides anyways. Be ready for the news next Monday.

This past Tuesday was pretty interesting. First off we had five appointments. Only three of them went through, the other two either were not at home, or told us that they didn’t have interest anymore. We had one appointment with a woman from Ghana. Her name is Marie. She is what Germans call an auslander or foreigner. She like many auslanders lives in a community compound that is provided by the German government. It was crazy to see the poverty that some people live in. It was super humbling. The craziest part about it is that there are people in the world who live in such greater poverty that Marie does. We went from her house to the Urbanscyk family. They live a lifestyle quite different from Marie. Herr Urbanscyk is a layer and he and his wife live in a very wealth part of Hamburg. The stark difference really made me ponder my own blessings. We should be very grateful for all of the success that we have. One of my favorite parts of being on a mission is getting to know people. Seeing people in a light that I never have before. I hear so much about people’s lives, their worries, their faith, their families. There are so many people in this world and everyone has a story. I have grown in my testimony of the love that Heavenly Father has for every one of these people.

We had President Interviews this week. That is when our Mission President Interview every missionary in the mission. He spends a day in every Zone (some Zones combine). He was here with the assistants to the president (a set of missionaries who are called to support and help the president) in Hamburg on Friday. He gave a lesson on the Atonement and then interviewed everyone individually while we went to different workshops. It was good. My testimony of the Atonement was strengthened. I hope that you all have a fantastic week and lots of success. Remember how blessed we are!

Peace,

tschüs,

Love,

Elder Austin Arthur Fullmer

2011
09/26
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Elder Austin Fullmer – Treasure Hunt

Familie und Freunde!

I hope that your week was outstanding! My week started of so much fun. Last Preparation Day, we were asked to help out at a Primary Activity for the kids in the Begedorf Geminde. We went out into the woods with about 8 or 9 kids and three other adults. It was boys against girls. The missionaries took the boy and two of the adult women took the girls. We created a treasure hunt for the other team and hid a box full of unknown stuff. Once we were done we went on a treasure hunt for the other box. Elder Lingard did most of the searching with the older three boy and I followed behind with the three and six year old. They are about my level of German so it was fun to speak with them. One of the moms there usually lives in America, but her husband is in Afghanistan right now, so she spent the last year living here in German near here parents who are the Imbecks. We talked for a while in English about her husband and my dad who are both officers in the Army. It was funny to hear her speak in English. She makes the transition from Native German to Patriotic-Mormon-American Mom really fast.

Better food this week. I had both Schnitzel and Spetzel. My two favorite Deutscher foods.

Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of September Eleventh. I was a good time for me to ponder. I am so grateful to be an American and a member of the Coast Guard. My thought and prayers were with the people that lost family on that day. It is crazy to think that that day was ten years ago. I was a fifth grader in New Baltimore, Michigan on that day. My school went on lock down and I ended up being one of two kids left in the class room by the end of the day. 10 years later I am a 20 year old serving the Lord and learning German very far away from that fifth grade class room.

We continue to look for people who are ready for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Chirst, das Wiederhergestellte Evangelium Jesu Christi. Most people are not. We went on exchanges this week for a day. I went down to Lauenberg which is south of Hamburg and was companions with Elder Colton.

It was a good week. I hope that everyone has success with school, work, and play this week.
Peace,

auf Wiedersehn,

Love,

Elder Austin Arthur Fullmer

 

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2011
09/12
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Elder Austin Fullmer – Pecan Ketchup

8 August 2011

Family and Friends,

I love you all so much. This computer is making me crazy because the y key and the z key are switched. Silly Germans. I love getting all off you emails. Cori, I loved the pictures and I wish you and everyone else luck in the last parts of swab summer. You will all be great. Melissa, thanks for the update. I too have yet to get the new Death Cab for Cutie CD. Unfortunately it is going to be at least two years before I get it. Think of me when you listen to it. Aunt Sarrah, as always you are the best. Uncle Bill, thank you for your letters too!

So second P-day in Deutschland. It is good. First I want to say Happy Birthday to two very important people: Trenton Fullmer and Cate Giguere. You are both AWESOME and I love you both. I hope you 14th and 20th respectivley are great. Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday, Trenton and Cate. Happy Birthday to you. The thing with that song is that it has an unnecessary amount of the letter y in it. I typed z every single time. 🙂

Germany is great. I continue to learn a lot about the language. My favorite day this week was when I got to go on exchanges. My companion is District leader and so the Zone leaders have to do exchanges with us. I went up to the Hamburg area and was companions with Elder Thorley for 24 hours. It was a great experience. It was nice to be companions with someone new for a day. Elder Lingard is great, but he and Elder Thorley have very different priorites. So it was nice to see a different side of Missionary work. Elder Thorley concentrates a lot of finding. You know, just talking to people. I was really nervous when I heard that was what we were doing, but I sort of asked if we could do a lot of finding. Elder Lingard does not really like to talk to people on the street and I get really nervous to speak to people in German. Regardless, long story short, with Elder Lingard I ended up talking to like 30 people. I would be able to start the conversations and then Elder Thorley would finish them. Lets be honest though, most of these conversations were never really long. People are always busy here in Germany.

My compaion is a good guy. He is from Mesa, Arizona. He also is a Marine. Although he only ways like 10 pounds more than I do. He likes to concentrate a lot on teaching and having charity. That is the christ-like attribute is is always trying to work on. I am trying to get him to be more excited about finding and just talking to people. He has been on his mission here in Germany for a year and a half and is 21 next week.

On Saturday we did a lot of service. We went over to woman´s house who just recently lost her husband. Elder Lingard and I picked all the weeds from her Garden. That is sort of generous way to put it. It was not so much a Garden as a bed of weeds! 🙂 It was really great. I am glad that we could help her. Then we went over to the Richter´s home. They are this awesome couple in the ward that are ancient. Brüder Richter looks exactly like Bilbo Bagins from the Lord of the Rings. I might have already told you about them. We go to there home every Mitwoch, Wednesday, for lunch. They are super nice. They have tons of animals and a huge Garden. That is part of what we helped them with. Elder Lingard helped prune bushes and I swept the roof of their green house. Then they made us dinner. Fried egg sandwiches. A little bit of America. Except their ketchup. They have tomato ketchup, but they perfer their own type which they still call ketchup, but is actually made of pecans.

Usually we wake up at 0630. We have time to work out right when we wake up. It was pretty aweful, because I could not stay awake. I realized that if I did a set of push ups right off the bat then I would wake up. Then Elder Lingard and I take turns in the bathroom and eating breakfast. Then we have study time. Personal Study is from 0800 to 0900. Companionship study is from 0900 to 1000. Language study is from 1000 to 1100. I try to take this time really seriously. We try to leave the apartment by 1100. Then we have appoinments during the day. We have an eating appoinment about every other day and atleast one or two investigator appoinments everyday. Which is really nice. We get back to the appartment by 2100 and eat a light dinner, plan for the next day (sort of… Elder Lingard is not a huge fan of this), and get ready for bed. I usually right in my journal and then look up words in my notebook. When I hear a word that people use a lot in conversation that I do not know, I write it down and look it up when I get back to the apartment.

When we first got here in Germany, I recieved a debit card. 175€ are put onto the card at the beginning of each month. This is for food and other missionary needs. Any traveling we have to do (ie: train tickets) we send into the mission home to get reimbersed. It is really nice.

I love you all very much. As always feel free to email me at austin.fullmer@myldsmail.net or check out the blog at elderfullmer.wordpress.com. Pretty sweet. These emails get posted there.

Love,
auf Wiedersehn,
Peace,

Elder Austin Arthur Fullmer

2011
08/08
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Elder Austin Fullmer – Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

1 August 2011

Family! I am so grateful to be in Germany! I am going to take this letter from my journal entry:

The past few days have been bizarre. I woke up on the 24th of July really early so I could see the Frankfurt missionaries off. Then at 8 AM, The Berliners set off for the airport. We found out that our flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam was not direct. We had to stop in Detroit. At the SLC airport I called Mom real quick to tell my family that I would call them when I got to Detroit. That first flight was fine. When we got to Detroit, I called my parents. It was awesome to hear from them. They were all in Oklahoma for a Family Reunion. After talking, my companions and I grabbed some dinner from McDonald´s and boarded the plane to Amsterdam. It was super hot on the plane, but it started to pull out of the gate. There were so many people on the plane. It was huge. Before we took off, the pilot came on and said that we had to go back to the gate. We pulled in for some problem and stayed in the gate for two hours. There were 14 missionaries on the plan and we were all nervous because we all wanted to speak to people about the gospel. At least, I was afraid to. Either way they eventually took us all of the plane. I went to call my parents again. It was nice to be able to hear from them again. We ended up staying off the plane for four more hours. They got us a new plane, but had to re-seat everyone. I went up to the counter to make sure that all 14 of us had a seat. I took all the boarding passes and passed them out. Our flight from Detroit finally left Michigan at one in the morning on 26th of July. The flight was like seven hours long and I believe that there is a six hour time change from Michigan to Amsterdam.

By the time to we to Amsterdam we had obviously missed our flight. We finally got through security and to the right people to ask about our flights. We found out that the last half of the alphabet (six people who were all connected in the travel system) all had flight to Berlin via Frankfurt. The rest of us, including me had no flights. We talked to a Danish woman behind the counter. She said that she could get us to Berlin via Copenhagen, Denmark. We asked if she could hold that option for us while we tried to get a hold of Church Travel or the Mission President. We could not get a hold of either. Eventually we decided to accept the flights. I reasoned that it would be better for us all to get to Germany even if we had to be separated. We all said a pray together and the people flying through Frankfurt ran off to catch their flight. We worked on getting our boarding passes. I had to speak to a woman who needed our passports and baggage claim tickets. She had to go talk to the other lady that I had spoken to. Eventually we got our boarding passes. They gave us all a bunch of coupons because of all the trouble. They included a five minute calling card that allowed us to get a hold of the mission home. We quickly told them what was happening, got some food and then left on the plane for Copenhagen. By this point it was about 1730 on the 26th of July.

We got to Copenhagen quickly, went into the airport, and stayed their for about 30 minutes. Then we got back on the same plane. It was very little so we got to walk outside in both the Netherlands and Denmark. I`ve breathed outside air in both countries. I got super excited when I saw Germany from the plane. It was super cool. We got off the plane to find our luggage. Miraculously it was almost all their. Elder Burnett was missing both of his bags and Elder Cloward was missing one of his bags.

Once we got our luggage, President Pimentel and Sister Pimentel greeted us. They are awesome. I really love them a lot. he assistants to the President were there too. The Frankfurt group was not there though. Their plane had been delayed again. Crazy. The two Elders that were the assistants took us to a restaurant to eat. Sister and President Pimentel stayed at the airport to meet the other missionaries. After dinner we went to the mission home, which is where the President and his wife live. By this point it was 10 PM of the 26th of July. We were at the mission home with out the Frankfurt group for another hour. Finally they came in and everyone was together. President then did his initial interviews with us and we got to write a quick email home. We stayed at the hotel that was above the restaurant. I finally got to take a shower. It had been like two days of traveling. We spent the night there and in the morning we woke up and Elder Burnett, Stovall and I said our last companionship prayer together. It was kind of sad. Breakfast was at the hotel in the same restaurant Everyone was there so I got to talk with the sisters and a bunch of the elders again.

We then got picked up by the President and his wife. They took us to what they call Maurplatz. The place of the wall. It is a path that marks the Berlin Wall on the south side of Berlin. We walked through a park which used to be called “no man´s land.“ If someone crossed into this land, they were likely to get shot by East Germans. We crossed it to were the final wall would have been. Here we read the two dedicatory prayers for different parts of Germany for missionary work. They were awesome. We then got a chance to pray by ourselves and dedicate our own missions. It was a really sweet experience and I felt at peace. We came back together as a group and left for the mission office.

There we got our permits to preach, our debit cards, and filled out a bunch of paperwork. We paid 200 € for the bike fund and then we went off to the Golden Conference. The Berlin Mission calls the new missionaries Goldens. It was nice to have all of the Goldens together. I guess I did not realize how much I loved them and how much I would miss them until I was not with them anymore. It was exciting to see where I would go. The assistants conducted most of the meeting. They went through a map and let each trainer talk about his or her area. Then President Pimentel got up and announced who would be training which Golden. When he called my name I went up. He called me to go to Bergedorf and to serve with Elder Lingard. You can imagine how excited I was when I found out that the city was in Hamburg. That was one of the places that I wanted to go! We took pictures with the Mission President and his wife (I think they are sending this picture to you) then my companion and I helped to make the sack lunches. Then we lugged my bags to the train station and we head to Bergedorf. It took at least four hours to travel there. By the time we got to our apartment, I was exhausted. The chapel is beautiful as well as the land, people, and houses. I am glad to serve the Lord here in Bergedorf.

So I have been in Bergedorf for 6 days now. I had to speak in church yesterday. It was super scary, but a really good experience. The branch members are super nice and they all complemented me. I am not sure if they are all just really nice, or if they could actually understand me. The talk was on missionary work.

My new address is:

Elder Austin Arthur Fullmer
Brook Strasse 19
21029 Hamburg
Germany

I will be at that address for at least four more weeks. Just for your information the mission office address is:

Elder Austin Arthur Fullmer
Zerbster Strasse 42
12209 Berlin
Germany

My apartment address is best to send stuff too.

Feel free to email me at austin.fullmer@myldsmail.net and check out the blog.

Love,
auf Wiedersehn,
Peace,

Elder Austin Arthur Fullmer

2011
08/01
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