Feet are used to move forward; not backwards.

Hola Familia!!
 

It was super nice being able to see you and talk to all of you! I feel like I really haven't been gone for that long, but you guys seem to be doing really well. And it's nice to be reassured that I'm still the most handsome brother in the family! jajaja Anyways, It was good to see you, and I look forward to talking with you in May! But for now, I'm back to work.

Christmas was nice! After skyping with you guys, President Bunker made us HUGE omelets! It was great, especially because we normally only eat tacos. It was super good, then we just went around visiting families and spreading Christmas cheer! The rest of this week went by pretty fast and I cant remember much of it. But I do remember that we have moved Vicente's baptismal date to the 11th of January! He needed a little more time to prepare, and we think it was a good idea considering we still have some things we need to teach him.

    

This week, I've been thinking a lot about creating good habits. And to create a good habit usually consists of giving up a bad one. A quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson says, "Don't look back unless you plan on going that way". I really like that because it shows an important principle of getting rid of, or forsaking, a bad habit. Forgiving yourself and moving forward are often the hardest things that we can do. We are usually judge ourselves much harder then the Savior would. Fortunately, The Lord loves us more then we love ourselves. He will always forgive us. We need to learn to forgive ourselves and move on. Proving everyday that we have changed and continue to change. The same with repentance. Tell yourself you will change, and mean it. And then, prove to the Lord, everyday, that you have repented. Remember that this New Year. Change a bad habit and put a good one PERMANENTLY in its place. I'm so happy for our ability to choose and to change. We grow so much when we place the Lord at the center of our lives and base our thoughts and actions off of his teachings. I pray that we can accept the things we cannot change, have courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Con muchisimo amor,

Elder Dallin Fuell

"I believe in Christ, so come what may"

Hola mi familia!

   I hope all is well in the Fuell household! I know it can be hectic around this time of year, but I pray that we can remember the Savior of the world, and that our thoughts can be consistently directed towards him. He literally is the gift to the world. I can feel his Infinite Sacrifice everyday as I struggle with the Language, as I pray for forgiveness, and as I am trying to share that gift with all who will listen. This really is HIS church, and we are HIS disciples.
 

    This week has been great!! I love it when we can see the blessing of our sacrifices. This week has been tough, and I needed to really dig deep and dust off my own, personal title of Liberty, so to speak. And as I recommitted to those reasons why I am out here on my mission, Miracles started to occur. We have 3 baptismal dates set now!! Kevin and his Brother Jaime are set for the 4th of January, and Vicente is set for next Sunday. These young men have been prepared by the Lord to be baptized. They are the most courageous young men I have ever met, and I wish I could be more like them. They truly are some of the 2000 stripling warriors, in the modern day. I am so blessed to know them and to be able to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. We are still working with Vicente's younger Brother Genaro, He is good friends with Kevin and Jaime, so he enjoys coming to church and he is a really good boy.

    The reason for the title of this letter is because I've found a lot of strength from this simple phrase lately. I had the opportunity to go out to lunch with a member of my mission presidency, his name is President Ellis. He is a really cool guy. He was the Vice President of Callaway Golf Company, and he helped design the first ever full sized Driver called "Big Bertha" or something like that, I cant really remember. But we'll just say that he is blessed with the material things of the world. Because of how much money he was making, he decided to take 10 years off of work to help raise his kids, so he did that! So he's just a really cool guy! But he told us a story at lunch about how he went on a humanitarian project to Peru, and when he was there he met a man who was a member of the church, who couldn't read or write, but he described him as "The most faithful member of the Church he had ever met." And he said, that what he concluded was, is that the Gospel is SO simple, that even a man that cannot read, or write, could make it to the celestial kingdom. I love that. This Gospel is SO simple. And for me, It boils down to this simple line that comes from a hymn, "I believe in Christ, So come what may." I bare witness to you all, that this Gospel is true. It is simple, and it is true. Jesus Christ is our Savior. And we are those who he saves, after "all we can do." I pray that we can all have the faith of that Peruvian man. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Con amor,

Elder Fuell

P.s. Talk with you on Thursday!! :)

Mexican Christmas Party!!

Hola Familia!

    This week has been awesome! But it has also flown by. Transfers was on Tuesday and I stayed with my companions in San Juan, So it was pretty normal. On Saturday he had a Christmas Party with the Ward and holy cow, it was nuts. They had a DJ and tons of Tamales and Mole, and rice and beans, of course. It was just crazy. It felt like I was there forever because we helped set up and we helped take down, and because there are so many missionaries in our ward, (9), They had us be the waiters and waitresses for the food. Haha It was cool. Kevin and his Brothers came and they like it a lot.

   Also, this week we have been teaching a 19 year old boy named Vicente. He was born and raised in La Zanja, which isn't the nicest area, so he's had some troubles with drugs and stuff like that. But he has been SUPER receptive and is keeping all the commitments we have extended to him, and I think he has a lot of potential. We're still progressing with Kevin and his Brothers, but their Mom has been kind of more hesitant lately about them getting baptized..which is why we want her to come and learn more about the church. 

   This week, My spiritual focus has been... FOCUS. It's so stinking hard to focus sometimes. But I realized that we need to be focused to hear and feel the promptings of the spirit, which is probably one of the most important aspects of missionary work. But, something else that feeds into focusing, is knowing what to focus on, and cutting out the stuff that is destructive or negative. I was reading a talk the other day called, "Following Christ to Victory", given by Elder Hartman Rector Jr. in 1979,(Read it, It's really good), and he said, "How to perform positively? Easy: eliminate all negative words and phrases from your vocabulary. Refuse to think negatively, for as a man “thinketh in his heart, so is he”. Being focused on the good things is what makes the difference.
    I hope everyone had a good week!! I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Dallin Fuell

Another Great Week in Cali

Hola Familia!

    This week has flown by! I can't even remember what we did! haha Here is what I can remember: We helped the city again with service at a big Christmas Tree lighting event! And I was on exchanges with an Elder named Elder Halling. He is from Riverton, but he went to Herriman High School. He said he knows Braden Jeppson! It was good talking with him. I've known Elder Halling my whole mission because he's in the Spanish zone, but I haven't really had the chance to talk to him about that kind of stuff. I think his first name is Bryce. Also, transfers are this week, but I'm staying in San Juan with my Comps. So I'm excited about that.

     Our progress with Kevin and Jaime is going well, I think that they want to get baptized, but we haven't had a chance to sit down and have a real lesson with them all week. They are in a tough situation right now with living conditions. We are trying to help them out though so that they can have a good place to live during Christmas.
    It's weird to think about how fast everything is going by, Weeks seem like days, days seem like weeks, and transfers feel like hours. I hope and pray that everyone is doing well and enjoying the Christmas season.

    There is no use on dwelling on the things that continually tear us down. So try to focus on the good things, and you will always find Christ at the center of all those good things. Share the gift of Jesus Christ with people this Christmas Season, it's what they need. As you share, your understanding of His Eternal Love will grow. I know this is true.

Con Amor,

Elder Fuell

Busy Week!!

Dana Point Harbor Marathon.  I like my hat!!

We went and provided service at a marathon @ Dana Point Harbor

This lady is a miracle.  She prayed to find Mormon missionaries because she needed help moving some of her storage and she couldn't hire anybody, and the next day, she felt prompted to drive in a certain apartment complex, and my comps and I were leaving out apartment. She came running up to us, and it freaked us out because people don't normally do that. And she was yelling that God answered her prayers, which honestly freaked me out a little bit more.   haha. She told us the story, and we helped her out. The missionary that has his arm around me is Elder Fetuani. He's from Tonga. He's super cool. 

Weekly Letter-

Hola!

This week was really busy! We had a lot we had to do and a lot we are doing. For Thanksgiving we were invited to two dinners and they were both really good and fun.  I'm sure we were more stuffed then most of the Turkeys. It was Elder Corcus's first Thanksgiving.. He didn't quite understand what we were celebrating for, but he enjoyed himself.
     The reason this week has been really busy is because we picked up a new family that we've been teaching. There is a single Mom, Fransisca, and she has 4 boys... sound familiar Dad?? hahah. One of the boys is CRAZY. But the rest are all pretty well behaved. The oldest one's name is Kevin, he is 14. And his Brothers names are Jaime, he's 12. Mark is 9, and Ethan is 6. We just met the boys at the park and started playing around with them, and they dared Elder Corcus to do 15 pull-ups on the Monkey bars and he said that if he did 20 they had to come to church. They agreed, and he ended up doing 21!  It was pretty funny. So they came and they really liked it. And the other day, I was talking to Kevin and I said, "Kevin, your new haircut makes you look like a missionary", and he looked at me very seriously and said, "I really want to go on a mission Elder Fuell, can you show me where to sign up?" I told him that he needs to keep coming to church and we'll help him go on a mission, but that just is an example of how ready this kid is to hear the Gospel. Hopefully we'll have a baptismal date set by next week and he'll get baptized this month.
     Some things that I've learned this week are that God knows Infinitely more then we do, and we need to trust in his timing. Sometimes it's hard to remember that we don't know everything,  We can be quick to forget the Lord when things are going well for us, and slow to remember him when we might need his help the most. The words of the Sacrament Prayer have been ringing through my head, "always remember Him". We covenanted to always remember him. I don't think I realized how sacred Covenants are until I went through the temple. But now, I see how sacred covenants are, and how magnificently important it is to "Always remember Him". One of my goals this week is to work on that, and because I'm a missionary, I can't share a spiritual thought without extending an invitation, SO, I would like to invite anyone and everyone reading this letter to try to Remember Him more, and to remember Him better. By doing so, you'll find more meaning in the daily mundane tasks, you'll find more motivation throughout your week, and more importantly, you'll find Him and His Atonement strengthening and sustaining you. I have a testimony of these things, I know they are true.

I love you all, and I hope you have a good week!

Con Amor,

Elder Dallin Fuell