Christmas in Foggia

What an exciting week! 

As this was my first Christmas away from home, I knew it would be different. What I did not know was how enjoyable and uplifting Christmas as a missionary is. At the beginning of the week at zone conference we reinacted the nativity!  It was especially exciting for me because it is a tradition I do with my family every Christmas back at home. The following day at English course as we taught the advanced class we were speaking about Christmas traditions. We shared with them the tradition of the nativity. We were able to talk about the birth of Christ and share scriptures with them. They were all excited and responded well to the message. We finished the lesson by showing "He is the Gift". The Spirit was strong and beautiful! 

For Christmas eve and day we were able to spend time with a family in our ward. They have quite an interesting make-up. There are 2 full time members, 2 less actives, and 2 non-members. During our meals with them we were able to have very meaningful gospel conversations and lessons. I feel like because it was Christmas their hearts were softened to the gospel. It was wonderful to share the season with them and plan to work with them in the future.

Of course it was exciting to skype with my family and hear from them. Such a blessing and wonderful way to spend Christmas. 

 So now I need to share the classic missionary moment I had. I want to tell you all a story of the BEST (or maybe worst)meal appointment!! So our friend, Costance,is from Nigeria and she invited us over for dinner to try some of her traditional food. She fed us a traditional African dish called FUFU and soup... or fufu for short... let me explain...

first off... there is a large ball of flour and water that forms a play dough type of texture and taste

you use your hands and dip the "dough"  into soup.. (please notice that the entire meal is eaten with your hands!!! EW)

then there is the soup... this soup was probably the nastiest thing I have ever consumed! It was super spicy and was the consistency of boogers!!! Inside was chicken on the bone that you had to pick off, liver, whole fishes, and what I think was heart and some type of cartilage. IT WAS SO WRONG!! As we were eating it, I was like... this is not that bad but then the experience just got worse and worse. The bowl was soooo big that after spending about 30 minutes swallowing each hand full and looking at the bowl and still having so much left it seriously felt like a challenge on the tv show Survivor. The cartilage pieces were so big that we had to rip them with our teeth and then swallow them whole!! Then came the fish... I literally saw eyes and the full skeleton of the fish going into my mouth. At one point Costance left the room and Sorella Price and I just looked at each other and she said..."I can not eat anymore, I am going to throw up"... mentally I was doing fine up until this point and then I LITERALLY threw up right there...BUT like a champ I RESWALLOWED the food back down my throat. I could literally feel bones in my throat coming back up! Shortly after we finally were able to leave and I went in a back alleyway and threw up again! I can testify to you that the only way that we both survived that meal appointment was by divine help from above! I am not even kidding! blessed! hahaha!!

This Christmas I recognized the biggest gifts in my life. Family, friends, and the gospel. All of these gifts are given to all of us because of Christ! I am so happy and thankful to be a missionary and teach and share these gifts with others! What a wonderful opportunity! 

 I love you all and have a happy New Year!! On New Years Day we get to deep clean our apartment! Super exciting!!  

M~M~M: Musical Magical Moment!

Hello All!

It's officially Christmas time here in Italy! It is... do I dare say.. magical!! There are Christmas lights everywhere! Over all of the streets there are just stands and strands of lights. On the main streets downtown they close the streets to cars and set up these little booths full of candy and roasted nuts! It's awesome! 

The other night we were walking home from an appointment and we saw a crowd of people standing around a large projector screen. We were curious of why and we learned that here in Foggia there is an old theater. Kinda what you would imagine any old ballet or opera house in Europe. But, it has been closed for like 10 years because of lack of funds, strikes, etc.. (classic Italy) Anyways that night, when we were walking down the street, the theater REOPENED! There was a big reopening concert! It was a symphony by Schubert conducted by one of the most famous conductors in all of Italy! (let me tell you..this is a really big deal esp because it is in Foggia) On the projector screen they were doing a live broadcast of inside the concert hall! Of course my companion and I had to stay and watch it! As we watched the musicians and heard the beautiful music through load speakers all throughout the little streets of Italy, it was an overwhelming experience! I just kept thinking, this is amazing! I am in ITALY right now! I am listening to some of the most beautiful works of art, in Italy! I am not just hear as a random tourist, I am here representing the Lord! I am living here, I speak Italian(not perfect by any means but I do) what an amazing experience! As I stood there I had tears in my eyes, because I was so overwhelmed by the amazing beauty I was surrounded by!  I wish I had more time to describe in detail every element of how surreal the night was! It was simply spectacular! 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas season! Everyone go get a Chick-fil-A Peppermint Chocolate chip milkshake for me! lots of kisses and hugs! xoxo

Sorella Fuller

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas in Foggia!

Hello Family and Friends!!! 

The Christmas season is upon us! So exciting! Today in Italy it is a holiday.. "Holy Virgin day" or something like that! Everything is closed, so our pday(day off) is not as exciting. It is also raining/SNOWING right now so it really is finally starting to feel like winter and Christmas! For the last 6 weeks they have been stringing Christmas lights throughout all of the downtown of Foggia! I think they turn them on tonight so that will be very exciting! 

This last week was transfer calls (when we find out if we will stay in our area or go somewhere new) and everyone(us 6) in our district is staying in Foggia for another 6  weeks!! Thank goodness! We were all super excited because it would not be fun to leave right before the holidays! 

This week there were so many miracles! First off.. we found two new investigators! An old lady and her 40 year old son. The son got in a major car accident a while ago and has some brain damage. We found her wondering around the street and she told us she was really lonely! We went to visit her and said well… "We are going to teach her about the church...if she doesn't like it..well then, oh well!" She seemed to like it and invited us back over. We don't really know how much potential there is...and we don't really know if her son understands what we are talking about.. but it is good to teach some new people!  

Also we have our less active friend Costance. (she is the one who was/still could be a prostitute) We had a break through lesson with her. We were talking about going to the temple.(Temples are places of worship that require a high standard of worthiness to enter) You have to have a interview with your Bishop to obtain a recommend (basically they want to make sure you are living all the commandments) We were talking to her about going to get a temple recommend.. then she would HAVE to repent and stop being a prostitute. She told us that she wanted to.. that she had tried but was offended that she wasn't allowed to have one. So she stopped going  to church... she was upset.. and we were the first set of missionaries/church members to reach out to her in a while. I felt sooo bad!! I couldn't believe how NO ONE EVER REACHED OUT TO HER!! Even though she definitely needs some major help, and needs to change her lifestyle.. you would think that SOMEONE would reach out! This went on for about a YEAR! FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR NOT ONE PERSON CONTACTED HER!! WOW! We told her that we would be with her the entire time on Sunday if she came to church! She said "ok i will come."

So on Sunday COSTANCE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! It was such a happy feeling!! But even better was that SHE BROUGHT WITH HER NOT ONE BUT TWO FRIENDS!! Her friends are students at the university and they loved church! So now we have two MORE potential investigators! IT'S A MIRACLE!! Do I dare say it's a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE?! 

Sorry for all the CAPS! Missionary work can just be so exciting! 

Also the new video "He is the Gift" or "Egli è il Dono" came out this week!! I think I can say that I was one of the first people to ever see that video. I saw the rough cut in the MTC! It's so good! Everyone go and watch it right now on mormon.org or youtube! It is only 3 minutes and it will be the best 3 minutes you spend this day! If you haven't seen it go watch it NOW and if you have seen it go watch it again NOW! It's so great! So much love!  

I love you all and have a wonderful week! xoxoxo 

Sorella Karin 

Short but very Sweet!

Hello family and friends!

What a wonderful week!! Last night when we reported our numbers it didn't look like we had a wonderful week but we did!! 

We have been spending some time with a 14 year old girl named Patricia. She and her sister were baptized last march. Her sister is SOLID in the church... like finished her personal progress in two months after baptism… I'm like that took me 6 years! But Patricia struggles. We knew she was having a hard time but we didn't know why...but every time we would visit she would act like a total punk to her mom and she wouldn't go to church. We felt like we should befriend her and gain her trust. This week we had a breakthrough!! She totally confided in us her struggles and questions with.... boys,the Word of Wisdom, church, God, everything! Sorella Price and I really both feel like we can help her. She already says that she feels a difference when we come over to her house. Also a plus is that her mom is not baptized (her dad is not in the picture anymore) so when we go see her mom also listens to the lessons. I really see some good potential in that home!! 

Also this week we challenged Costance, (our less active, maybe prostitute) to invite a non member friend to a lesson. We didn't really think that she would actually follow up on the commitment but she did!! Costance is from Nigeria and brought one of her friends from her original tribe in Nigeria to the lesson. Let's just say that her friend was REALLY receptive. Boarder line hilarious on how receptive she was. We taught the restoration and she was like 'yes, I know that boy had a vision... I know it!' We were like yes.. he did! It was SOOO different than any other lesson ever!!! We will see how that goes.. I will keep you updated!! This is how imagine South America....no words

This last week for P day my comp and I wanted to go to Eataly! It is an amazing Italian specialty food store. There is one in NYC that I have been to but we really wanted to go to the one here in the Puglia area! So we took an hour and a half train to Bari. We then got off the train and we realized that neither of us knew how to get there! Ooops! I remembered that there was a billboard sign for Eataly that said 4 minutes and a giant arrow. We decided to follow that. My comp had absolutely no idea what was going on so I just kinda took the lead and pretended like I knew what I was doing. We ended up walking for two hours in the middle of nowhere following random billboards that totally were miss leading!The entire time the only people were old men drinking and playing cards and some gypsies! Kinda sketch! We were like WHERE IS THIS PLACE!! We finally found it and it was such a beautiful sight!! I walked in and it felt like entering the Celestial kingdom!! I think I shed a tear!! I got a giant gelato because I was starving and dehydrated! Looking back the story cracks us up but during the moment it was not funny!! 

Love you all!! xo

Sorella Karin Fuller

(some of the guests/friends at our English class)