The gospel changes lives!!!

Hola,

It has been an amazing week down here in Mexico.  Christmas was very special, as I think it always is as a missionary, because we really come to appreciate the birth and mission of the Savior a little bit better.  It was hard to find a computer this morning because everywhere was closed but we finally found one so that I could write you.  It was cool talking to all of you on Christmas!! I am glad to hear that you are doing well and that you had a nice Christmas too.  I hope you enjoy your New Years eve/day. Today we will be working but the mission president wants us to write today because there will not be any computers open tomorrow.  Tonight we are going to eat with a family from the ward, they are pretty cool and it should be really fun. 

 

The baptism of Julio was amazing!!!! The change that I have seen in him has been amazing.  I know that the Gospel can bring hope into the lives of those who have none.  His baptism went smoothly.  The both of us, Elder Chronister and I had to baptize him as well as help him in and out of the font.  He has changed so much.  When we went to pick him up for Sunday, he was dressed in a nice shirt and sweater, his hair was cut and combed and he had a big smile.  When we got to church and sat down, he got up and went around and shook eveyones hand, it was cool, I like how the gospel can bring such happiness into the lives of our investigators.

 

We had many awesome experiences this week in arriving at the perfect moment.  We arrived right when one of our investigators had been having troubles with his brother, and afterwards he said that we were sent from God to give him the peace that he needed at that time.  We also went with a recent convert who felt like she is imperfect and that the members of her family don't love her.  Elder Chronister and I are trying as hard as we can to become instruments in the Lords hands and when things like that happen we always feel really good.

 

The teaching between Elder Chronister and I has been great!! There has been a couple of times when we are teaching and he says what I am thinking or the other way around.  It is super cool when that happens because I know it is by the spirit.  That happened a lot with Elder Rios and I and I am glad that the spirit is working through us now as well.

 

We had to go to the doctors this week because my companion has an ingrown toenail.  They couldn't cut it because it is infected.  I told him to go to the doctor before but he wouldn't call him because he is afraid of doctors ha ha.

 

Remember how I told you about our tops we got for Christmas?  Well we have started a top revolution with all the missionaries, almost everyone has them now, ja ja it is pretty funny, I will have to show you all my cool tricks in may.

 

That is pretty much everything, I love you all and will talk to you next year ja ja.

Con Muchísimo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell

No time to waste!! (Pics)

Hola, it has been an amazing week here in Mexico.  I have so much to
tell you guys.



Joe bowling with his District



We will start of with Monday.  We went bowling.  I really don't like to
bowl at all but it was fun because we went with the whole district.
My district is super awesome I love it, we have a lot of fun together.

Remember how last year I played the guitar in the Christmas devotional
for the missionaries?  Well, this year I got roped into it again but
this time was super cool because I accompanied Elder Alvarez on the
Piano with our own arrangement of "What Child is This".  It was soooo
awesome!  All of the missionaries loved it and my companion recorded it.  



Joe and Elder Chronister and their baptisms



He said he will post it of facebook in 19 months when he gets
home.  It was so good, that we performed it for the ward fireside and
they liked it so much that we performed it for the stake fireside!  It
was cool.

We had three baptisms Saturday, it was great.  The only thing that
went wrong was that there was no water and that this baptismal font
is 3 times bigger than any other one I have baptized in.  So we were
filling it up with buckets,  It was horrible!! Every time we baptize
more than two people something goes wrong with the baptismal font, but
we were able to fill it up in two hours, and although the water was
cold, it was one of the best baptisms of my mission.  The spirit was
super strong.

We saw a huge miracle this week with an investigator named Julio.  We
were just cruising down the street at a super good missionary pace

because we just have so many people to teach that we don't have time to 

waste.  Well we are going along and a lady starts running after us.  She
wanted us to go talk with her neighbor who is Julio.  Julio has one
leg so he couldn't walk after us.  He talked to the missionaries 3
months ago but they never came to his house.  So he was thinking about
us and said a prayer that he would be able to contact us.  At that
moment we pass in front of the street were he was praying and he sees
us and sends his neighbor to run after us.  He is super awesome! We had an appointment

so we couldn't stay long.  We got his information and we
left a pamphlet with him.  He read it like three times and he came to
church yesterday and loved it!!  Afterwards he told us that he prayed
about the pamphlet we gave him and he felt a huge feeling of happiness
in his heart.  It was super awesome!  I am grateful for the opportunity
we have to help him come closer to God.  He will getting baptized on
the 29th.

I have got more stuff to tell you to about a lot of other miracles,
but I don't have time so I will tell you on the 25th.

I love you all!
Con muchísimo Amor,
Elder Joe Fuell

manda saludos a buster (Tell Buster hi- A missionary from our ward who just got home from Taiwan on Saturday night)



Joe with his District in Istapalapa when his companion was Elder Stauffer





Joe saying goodbye to Elder Rios and welcoming Elder Stauffer (Sep)





Joe and his current companion Elder Chronister...They dont want to be Fritos (lazy)





Goofing off after a long day!  How do you like the short ties and colorful shirts?  Of course we didnt go out like this!!



Pray for my shoes!!

Hola,

 

It has been an amazing week here in Iztacalco.  So amazing that we haven't had time for anything other than teaching a ton of people who are super awesome.  I don't even have time to sleep because I teach all night long in my dreams and I wake up feeling exhausted.  But my teaching is getting a ton better for the same reason.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!  I cant believe you are 44 years old, wow, I remember your 30 birthday, time just goes by so quick.  I sent you a card, you will have to let me know when you get it.

 

I bought new shoes the other day because my other ones had huge holes in the bottom so a bunch of dirt got in my shoes and every night when I got home and took my shoes off, my feet would be black.  It was gross. So I bought new shoes.  They weren't too expensive, but they are super comfortable.  I just am hoping they will last me another 5 months,  please pray for my shoes. 

 

We have sister missionaries in our district, I have never even seen sister missionaries before in any of the other areas I've been in.  It just kind of tells you about the kind of area we live in, it is crazy. 

 

This week we taught a lady named Osbe.  She is super cool and her son Luis and Haytami are also way cool.  They are all just awesome.  The husband of Osbe died a while back and we felt prompted to teach her the plan of salvation focusing on the temple work and how families can be sealed together for eternity.  It was perfect.  She will be getting baptized this Saturday.  We have about 11 people planned for baptism this month.  It is just getting crazy!!!  We cant even put any more appointments for this week because we are so booked with appointments until next week. 

 

I got your package.  Thanks a ton!!! Elder Chronister and I loved the cookies, and I wear the scarf every morning in my personal study because it is super cold in our house.

 

I love you all a ton and hope you have a great week.

Con Muchísimo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell

Burger King Delivers?

Hola,

 

Wow! it has been a couple of amazing weeks.  Last week was super hectic!! I had the trio (three missionaries together) with Elder Anderson and Elder Diaz and it was fun but super crazy!!!  We worked super hard and played super hard and had a great time.  We celebrated Thanksgiving together it was great.  We were going to buy KFC but they wouldn't deliver to the house because we ordered it from a cell phone (dumb rule). So we called burger king and they brought us a bunch of hamburgers it was great.   I was with them only until Friday night and then I went and stayed in the mission office and helped all the new missionaries come in.  It was really wierd because they didn't know Spanish.  Spanish is like something natural now so it was just weird to see them struggling with it.  But it made me remember when I got here. 

 

It was super fun in the office.  I know everyone there pretty well so every day there was a party too. And I got some good pictures but my camera is being funny so I will have to send pictures to you guys next week. 

 

Oh. when I was in the trio we had to go to the doctors because Elder Anderson needed surgery on his ingrown toenail.  Dr. Ruiz let me help him out a bit and I bandaged everything up.  Didn't think I would have a chance to work in surgery in the mission, crazy huh.

 

This new ward is great!  The name of my ward is Iztacalco...It is the ugliest area of the whole zone or stake that I am in now, but it is 100 times nicer than Iztapalapa and at first I felt weird but now Elder Chronister and I are running at full throttle.  Here in Iztacalco the children play with Ipads at church! In Iztapalapa they had to play with the hymn books because that was all they had.  So, super different but super awesome.

 

In this last week we have put 6 baptismal dates for this month and we found 12 new investigators.  I am just enjoying myself a ton!  The bishop of the ward is really young, like 26 years old and only has two weeks as bishop, but he is just awesome.  He got up and bore his testimony and everyone was just sobbing because the spirit was so strong.  We have a bunch of people at church more than 150 so that is pretty sweet.

 

But the best thing of All is my companion Elder Chronister!!  He is a stud.  He is new but he is already great at Spanish, and he is always just excited to work and share his testimony with everyone.  Life is fantastic.  I love you all and hope you have an awesome week.

Con Muchísimo Amor,

Elder Fuell

Short letter! Transferred!!!!

Hola,

It has been a super great, busy awesome week here in Mexico.  I don't have my preparation day this week and I got to go work so I am just going to write this really fast.  It was a pretty cool week. I was in the trio with Elder Anderson and Elder Diaz and that was so much fun. We celebrated Thanksgiving together but I will have to fill you more in on that next week.  The other half of the week I worked in Coyoacan, the richest area of the mission.  It was pretty wierd but it was cool.  I worked there with the assistants and the secretaries of the mission.  We also had a ton of fun.  but I am most excited for my transfers.  I will be going to Iztacalco!!!!   Yep I am leaving  Iztapalapa for the first time in 18 months.  I will have to fill you in more about Iztapalapa when I get home.  I will not be a zone leader this next change and I am super stoked for all the time that I will have!  I will be with Elder Chronister from Las Vegas.  I don't know him but everyone tells me he is super cool.  He has 5 months in the mission, so this should be pretty dang fun. Thanks for your letter mom, I will write you more next week and let you know whats going on. love you tons.

Con muchìsimo amor,

Elder Joe Fuell

I love to see that kind of change in people. It is the favorite part of my mission. Without a doubt!!!

Joe and other missionaries in his district and zone

Hola,

It has been another great week in Mexico, or as you could say, mexi-cold.  I know it is really not that cold, but the slight drop in temperature has been killing me.  Especially because we have been bathing in cold water every morning since our water heater blew up.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANAYE!!! I am super excited for you and I sent you a letter. 

 It has been a pretty crazy week because it is the last week of Elder Stauffer.  I didn't let him be frito and he did really well enduring to the end.  He just wanted to eat all the Mexican food he could because its just not the same in the states.  So we went out to eat almost every night.  It is a miracle that we didn't get sick.

This week I will be in a trio with Elder Anderson (he started the mission with me and he is from south Salt Lake) and Elder Diaz who is from Guatemala.  We will be working our two areas and I have a feeling that it is going to be a wild week ha ha.  So we will be celebrating Thanksgiving together.  Its not celebrated here but we are going to see what we can do to celebrate it.

We saw a ton of miracles this week.  This week a 93 year old man contacted us.  His name is Fermin and he is progressing very well.  He is very active for such an old man.  He plays tennis every day.  Without a doubt he is the oldest person I have taught in my mission.  I don't know if I had told you about Cristina or not, but she is one of our investigators that we have had for a while.  She just wasn't progressing really well and we were praying for her and trying to figure out what we should teach her and we felt like we should show her a conference talk.  We did that last week and since that day she has changed 180 degrees.  She always reads in the bible and the book of mormon and is attending the church every week.  We still have a few more things to teach her but I am sure she will be baptized soon.  I love to see that kind of change in people.  It is the favorite part of my mission. Without a doubt!!!  It was super cool.

Hey Dave, keep your shoes on at school! ha ha.  

Kate,  I believe I left a list in my box about 100 ways to be a member missionary that President Baker gave us.  Could you check if its there in my books, I believe its in mormon doctrine or one of those church books.  If you could retype that and pass it to me, that would be great, and if you could translate it into Spanish it would be even better!

I love you all and am glad that you all had a good week.

Con Muchísimo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell

I can't believe that it has been 18 months!!!!

Hola,
It has been another great week in Mexico.  I cant believe that it has been 18 months.  Its like the last leg of the 400 meters. ha ha but I am excited and ready to do all that I can to endure to the end.

This week was super cool!!  We were so busy teaching people that I didn't even have time to buy bread because we where running from appointment to appointment.  I hope I can buy bread now that its preparation day.

This week we found a really cool old man named Andres. I would think he is 60 years old by the way he looks but he is really 80 something.  He has known about the church for some 40 years now but just barely is opening up his heart to listen to the missionaries.  He is not even a member and he wants us to talk with all of his children and grandchildren.  We have no problem with that.

We had Stake Conference this week.  All the missionaries say that I am the most popular guy in the stake cause of all the people that knew me.  After the conference  we needed to leave but a ton of people, converts and members, came up to me and wouldn't let me through so we could leave.  I guess that is what happens after serving in the same stake for 18 months. ha ha.  I have also worked in every ward in the stake through intercambios (exchanges).  I had intercambios with Olivos Ward this week which was the only ward where I hadn't worked, but its cool to get to know all these people.

Two of my converts received the melquisedec (I don't know how you spell that in English) priesthood (It's spelled Melchizedek.  His spelling was bad before he left...  I cant imagine how it's going to be at the end of two years).  It was super cool.  The Conference was over satellite transmission from Salt Lake and Elder Scott spoke to us.  It was super cool.  He talked about temples and strengthening the family.

It is the last week with my companion so I am going to help him endure to the end.  It is going to be a super awesome week.  I will let you know everything that happens next week. My companion is going home a week early for thanksgiving but the changes arent until two weeks so I will probably be in a trio next week. So I might write on monday or on tuesday, I will find out sunday.  I love you all have an awesome week.
Con Muchísimo Amor,
Elder Joe Fuell