Let Us All Press On

Hello! How are all of you fine people doing? I personally had another crazy week! A lot happened. Which is a lot better than nothing happening ^-^

Where do I start? We got some awesome gift baskets from a Samoan family whose relative we gave a blessing to the other week! We got lava lavas, amongst other stuff. We ended up going by again to meet the lady. She was half awake and talking, and we got to sing her a song, which she loved. It was great :) 

We had a busy weekend. Thursday we went to zone conference, which as always was PHENOMENAL. I loved it! We talked about using Book of Mormon, family histoey work, and members in our missionary work to be more effective and powerful. It is true. Those are our main tools. We need all of you faithful members in order to get about anything done :) 

Saturday we went to a breakfast fundraiser for the young women's at Applebee's and found a super good friend of a member to teach. We then went to part of a members birthday party and found some people there that might be taught, and had a couple of them come to a mother's day activity the ward put on that night. It was quite the day! 

A little miracle of the week. We ran into a guy on Sunday at church, right as the third hour was ending, who had showed up thinking the Spanish ward started at 12. Apparently he had been taught by missionaries before, and wanted to start from the bottom learning about Christ. We taught him a lesson right then and there. Super great! He lives in another area, but that is okay. Still great. 

Juan and Lesley... Did not come to church. We don't know why yet. But we had a GREAT lesson with them this week, which included a lunch. We also set Baptismal dates with a family that has been investigating for a long time. They just need to get work of on Sundays, so we are trying to bolster their faith that God can make that miracle happen, and he can do it by the 27th of May. Their name is the Familia Arredondo :) We are praying hard for them all! 

I have been thinking. A lot. I tend to do that. Haha ^-^ I have come to a conclusion. There is absolutely no point in living life unless you lose yourself in helping others. I have found that I am not ever happy unless I forget about my own happiness. It simply doesn't happen. We are counseled as missionaries to forget ourselves and go to work. I don't believe that is a 2 year invitation: it is an invitation for a lifetime. We need to take care of ourselves: we are our own greatest creation, we determine who we will become. But none of that will be fulfilling unless who we become helps others on their path to happiness. 

Remember to love. And love first. Always. :) 

I love you all. Let us all press on ^-^

Elder Poulson

EXCITING NEWS!! Got the official flight plans

July 3rd at 10:17 am

Mother's Day!!!

The best part of Mother's Day is being able to SEE and talk to our missionary!!  This was the last of 8 skype calls with our boys over the past 3 plus years.  We are down to the last transfer and Elder Bry will be returning home.  We can't wait...the countdown is on....***JULY 3, 2018***

Forget Yourself

Hello! How are all of you fine people doing? I personally had another crazy week! A lot happened. Which is a lot better than nothing happening ^-^

Where do I start? We got some awesome gift baskets from a Samoan family whose relative we gave a blessing to the other week! We got lava lavas, amongst other stuff. We ended up going by again to meet the lady. She was half awake and talking, and we got to sing her a song, which she loved. It was great :) 

We had a busy weekend. Thursday we went to zone conference, which as always was PHENOMENAL. I loved it! We talked about using Book of Mormon, family histoey work, and members in our missionary work to be more effective and powerful. It is true. Those are our main tools. We need all of you faithful members in order to get about anything done :) 

Saturday we went to a breakfast fundraiser for the young women's at Applebee's and found a super good friend of a member to teach. We then went to part of a members birthday party and found some people there that might be taught, and had a couple of them come to a mother's day activity the ward put on that night. It was quite the day! 

A little miracle of the week. We ran into a guy on Sunday at church, right as the third hour was ending, who had showed up thinking the Spanish ward started at 12. Apparently he had been taught by missionaries before, and wanted to start from the bottom learning about Christ. We taught him a lesson right then and there. Super great! He lives in another area, but that is okay. Still great. 

Juan and Lesley... Did not come to church. We don't know why yet. But we had a GREAT lesson with them this week, which included a lunch. We also set Baptismal dates with a family that has been investigating for a long time. They just need to get work off on Sundays, so we are trying to bolster their faith that God can make that miracle happen, and he can do it by the 27th of May. Their name is the Familia Arredondo :) We are praying hard for them all! 

I have been thinking. A lot. I tend to do that. Haha ^-^ I have come to a conclusion. There is absolutely no point in living life unless you lose yourself in helping others. I have found that I am not ever happy unless I forget about my own happiness. It simply doesn't happen. We are counseled as missionaries to forget ourselves and go to work. I don't believe that is a 2 year invitation: it is an invitation for a lifetime. We need to take care of ourselves: we are our own greatest creation, we determine who we will become. But none of that will be fulfilling unless who we become helps others on their path to happiness. 

Remember to love. And love first. Always. :) 

I love you all. Let us all press on ^-^

Elder Poulson

Mountains and Valleys

Hello everybody! How are you today? I am emailing your from the highest mountain in Southern California: a little hill in the middle of the city of "little hills"! (Cerritos) I am of course making fun of Southern California. If I climb up to the roof of a tall building, squint really hard, and use my imagination, I can kind of see some mountains, but I am pretty sure that is just the other side of my Utah mountains, which is definitely NOT California ^-^ Haha no I titled my email mountains and valleys because this week was just full of ups and downs. A LOT of them. But I ended on a mountain, so I have a nice view of my life right now ^-^ You must look at yourself through Heaven's eyes. 

Now the highlight of this week is that Juan and Lesley have a baptismal date! :D If they feel the truth of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon by the 26th of May, they will be baptized on that day ^-^ Which is very exciting! However, they did not come to church or to see any baptisms this week. That is where they need help. We'll be praying for and working with them :) Members are a huge help with getting investigators to church. (Offer to help the missionaries in your ward with that. They will love you!) 

We had an interesting Saturday this week. We spent the morning using five gallon buckets to clean out 9 months worth of residue that had gathered in a member's swimming pool. The best description of said water would be a mix of sewage and pond water. One of the buckets had some holes in it, so that was just the cherry on top ^-^ Haha it was fun though! I enjoyed myself at least! We then spent the whole rest of the day moving apartments with the help of two other missionaries. It was quite the process. Poor Elder Myers got fried by the sun! Part of his neck hadn't seen the sun for years, because he was always wearing a collar, so it got charred pretty badly ^-^

After Elder Myers and I taught the Restoration at a recent baptism in the ward, a man walked up to me and asked me in Spanish, "Are you from Brazil." A bit surprised, I responded, "No, I'm from Utah." He said, "Oh. You sound like a Brazilian for some reason." I took that as a sign that my Spanish is coming along well! Haha :) 

You know, The Spirit is an interesting thing. I had an experience yesterday with following the Spirit where I felt prompted to head up to a family at the top of the area. That is quite the time commitment when you are on bikes. But we went. They weren't there. Nor could we figure out any other reason that the Lord would send us there. However all the way back to the apartment and throughout the night, I felt the peace of the Spirit testifying to me that we had made the right decision. How is that? 

I have been pondering that question, and came to this conclusion: sometimes the Spirit guides us to do something, knowing it won't work, simply to:

1. Test our faith. Will we follow the spirit the next time, no matter the result? 

2. Teach us lessons we wouldn't have learned in any other way. For example, I learned how to approach failure with optimism in that moment. 

3. One of my favorite quotes of all time: "Doing God's will without thought to the end result or consequence: that is what serving a mission is." Who are we to say what the results should be? If we are truly instruments in God's hands, we don't need to worry about the outcome. We simply do what He asks and give thanks that He is using us to do His will, even if we aren't sure of the WHY behind it. 

That doesn't just apply to missionaries. The spirit whispers to each of you every day. I promise it does. Will you have the courage to follow what it says, the perseverance to follow its guidance day after day? Who do we "fear" more: man, or God? I feel these are good questions to ask ourselves. Soul-searching questions can cause us to recognize the need for a change inside of us. Then we can repent and make that change, and progress. 

Let us all press on! Love you all :) Have a wonderful week!

Elder Poulson

This Week.....

This week was a bit slow, to be honest. We are building up our area more. Things ARE going well with Juan and Lesley! They are a young couple that are reading and praying. They didn't come to church this week, but should be there next week :) 

What I did learn this week: as important as it is to improve daily, we need to stop focusing too much on what we can't do or lack and start giving to the Lords work our talents and abilities that we do have. Sometimes we compare ourselves to others and think "if only I were like him, then I could serve." No. God gave us talents. We use them to serve others and be happy :) 

Sorry this is short, temple P day is always a bit of a stretch. I love you all! Bye :) 

Elder Poulson

Mission Temple P-day w/Elder Meyers

A Wonky Week

Yes. That is the perfect term for this week. It was a wonky one! In one sense, it was hard. But in another sense, it was just beautiful! I'll try to give it justice here.

Everything went wrong. We had a rocky start as companions, we couldnt get a rhythm down for anything. We didn't find too many to teach, we were failing at talking to people, very few went to church. I was sneezing and sniffling all Saturday and Sunday. For multiple reasons I will not elaborate on, our entire Sunday was shot by a flat tire and many unsuccessful patch attempts. Every set appointment we had fell through. Every single one. 

I like what my friend Elder Antczak said this week. It was a hard week, and it seems like it was also a hard one for the rest of my missionary friends, so Satan must really be attacking the work of the Lord. I suppose the post-illumination affliction has extended into this week. 

BUT let me testify to you all: I have never learned so much, grown so much, and felt so much in one week without the aid of some sort of conference or abnormal spiritual experience. Or in others words, I have never seen a normal week change me so much. Why? I had to rely on the Lord. I had no other option that could keep me content and happy during a horrible week. And it worked! 

 

I have learned this week how different life is when you love first. It doesn't just make a difference. It makes ALL the difference. There is a quote from conference that is repeated three times in one talk: "Pure love is the true sign of every true disciple of Jesus Christ." That is so true. I have prayed so much this week for humility and love. Christ has helped me so much to obtain it. I am grateful for Him, more than I can express. 

I love you all! Go find someone to love :) 

And if you pray to find love for someone, you will find it. You will.

Good luck :) 

Elder Poulson 

Post-illumination Afflictions

Good Morning family and friends!

This week was just... horrible! Yes, horrible would be the word. Absolutely, completely horrible! ^-^ Haha I'm cheery now, but it was just not a fun week. A week of post-conference afflictions. Let me lay out the days for you:

Monday: Good P-Day

Tuesday: Long exchange during which we taught no one

Wednesday: We went to the temple with Gerry so he could be baptized for his deceased father! It was actually really amazing. Teresa came later with her kids and took the temple tour again! This was the highlight of the week.

That night, I started feeling a little queasy. By midnight, I had a repeat of the spamusubi incident: a sleepless night of puking! Yay... It was rough. 

Thursday: Running on no sleep, we stayed in all day so that I could rehydrate and recover strength. 

Friday: Still kind of weak, but we left that night to a set appointment. Well it turns out that the investigator had very kindly invited half of his congregation to come listen to us: WITH the pastor. At first it seemed pretty good, they let us teach them all. Then the pastor pulled out a pre-prepared discourse with as many false allegations and twisted words and verses he could find to attack everything we believe and the history of our church, especially Joseph Smith. He (likely intentionally) did it in a long rant so that we couldn't really explain how each one was wrong. Well we responded the best we could and bore our testimonies, but this man wouldn't let us have the last word! Every time we left our testimonies or tried to leave them with an invitation to ask God for an answer, he threw out a new allegation or something! It was very frustrating. Anyways, I felt at peace about it, but it wasn't an easy thing. 

Saturday: We did find one or two people this afternoon, but nothing that night, which is unusual.

Sunday: Church was hard, I only half fasted, but that was a mistake. I still lacked some nutrients, and I was pretty weak until dinner that night even though I ate lunch. My companion had a couple mishaps I won't detail that held us up at dinner until 7, and we didn't really teach that night either...

It was just... It was just hard. 

BUT! Do you know why it was hard?

Do you remember what Elder Holland said: "The author of Hebrews warned us of this when he wrote, “Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions.” That post-illumination affliction can come in many ways, and it can come to all of us. Surely every missionary who has ever served soon realized that life in the field wasn’t going to be quite like the rarefied atmosphere of the missionary training center. So too for all of us upon leaving a sweet session in the temple or concluding a particularly spiritual sacrament meeting." (Elder Holland, April 2016) Conference was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. It would follow that Satan would put on his best "general conference" of his ranks of devilish soldiers to attack the missionaries and followers of God.

But it matters not. "They who are with us are greater than they who are with them." Or as our dear prophet quoted the hymn in conference: "But an unseen power will aid me and you in the glorious cause of truth. Fear not, courage though the enemy deride, we will stand tall for the Lord is on our side! We will fear not what the wicked will say, but the Lord our God we will obey!" There is peace in Hymns. I've been listening to them in the mornings, it has helped me persevere. 

Well ni modo. Things should turn up soon! Transfers came, and I am getting an Elder I've known for awhile, Elder Myers. He has been in this zone but is hopping areas. He has a heart of gold, it should be a good time ^-^

Love you all. Go be warriors of God's great army. :) 

Elder Poulson

I Love General Conference!

Call me uncreative, but I couldn't think of a more fitting title for this week. I just LOVE general conference! It was SO good! I can't even begin to express how I feel about it! I wish it wasn't over yet, but I look forward to studying it, even repetitiously, over the next 6 months, as the prophet has counseled. 

Now look. The good feelings any of us have had these last few days, the guidance we have felt and received, the increase of love or humility that may have come upon us, none of that will matter or persist if we don't put in the time to study these talks. On the other hand, if we make the sacrifice to study and apply these teachings, we will have a continually flow of heavenly light that will illuminate our lives and bring us more of everything we want. Your choice.

On a less serious topic, kids + eggs + dye = chaos. I'm sure all of you parents could have told me that, but I had to find out the hard way: by having an Easter missionary activity with egg dying and egg races and then invite member and investigator parents with an army of little kids in tow ^-^ Haha it was quite the scene! Everyone loved the activity though, we got compliments left and right about it, so it all worked out! Let me tell ya though, Elder Brant and I boiled A LOT of eggs!!! I didn't even know they made pots that big! It was great! :D I have a lot of pictures a member took, so you can see what I mean :) 

We found out this week that our mission president, President Patterson, is in fact a prophet. In preparation for our last zone conference, he asked us to listen to "Let Us All Press On" and memorize the words: The EXACT same arrangement that the Tabernacle Choir sang right after President Nielson shared the lyrics of it! All of us missionaries were singing along! It was awesome! :D

None of our investigators were able to watch conference :/ BUT multiple came to the activity, including Monica with a friend that we are going to start teaching! So that was pretty exciting :) We are going to be using a lot of conference references to teach coming up here, it should really help people progress. 

I want to thank you all for existing haha :) You are all wonderful, because you all have your own wonderful. That is the beauty of this life. We are all a "kaleidoscope" of monarch butterflies: all beautiful, yet all different. Together we make quite the pattern :) I love the song "Heavens Eyes" from the Prince of Egypt. The lyrics inspire me to be more aware of who I am and what I can be. I'll put the lyrics at the end of the email for all who wish to read them, but the song is much better of you want to look it up :) If we all, as one, love each other, we will all grow together, and rejoice together! The talk on love by Reyna Aberto is one of my favorites from this conference. I can't wait to re read them all! 

A single thread in a tapestry-
Though its color brightly shine-
Can never see its purpose
In the pattern of the grand design.

And the stone that sits on the very top
Of the mountain's mighty face-
Does it think it's more important
Than the stones that form the base?

So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man
You must look at your life,
Look at your life through heaven's eyes.

A lake of gold in the desert sand
Is less than a cool fresh spring-
And to one lost sheep, a shepherd boy
Is greater than the richest king.
If a man lose everything he owns,
Has he truly lost his worth?
Or is it the beginning
Of a new and brighter birth?

So how do you measure the worth of a man-
In wealth or strength or size?
In how much he gained or how much he gave?
The answer will come,
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through heaven's eyes.

And that's why we share all we have with you,
Though there's little to be found.
When all you've got is nothing,
There's a lot to go around.

No life can escape being blown about
By the winds of change and chance,

And though you never know all the steps,
You must learn to join the dance-
You must learn to join the dance.

So how do you judge what a man is worth?
By what he builds or buys?

You can never see with your eyes on earth-
Look through heaven's eyes.
Look at your life,
Look at your life,
Look at your life through heaven's eyes!

Well I sure love you all, have a wonderful week being you :)

Elder Poulson

Rally the Hosts of God

Good Morning all! This has been good week! And by a good week, I mean it was actually a pretty rough week. But I kind of but a good week by force of habit. Either way, let me tell ya about it ;) 

We stopped teaching quite a few people over these last few weeks. They simply weren't making changes or progressing in the Gospel, and many of them were hard to find. Those we do have to teach are doing pretty good. Hilda has been kind of hard to work with, we haven't been able to get her to church. But she has been reading! We were also able to have a lesson we're the Osorio mom opened up to us about what has been holding her back from coming to church. We sure hope she comes with her kids this next week as we help her with that barrier. 

Everyone here seems to love bounce houses... AKA "Kid Distractors". The lifestyle here is definitely one of work and play. It can be frustrating sometimes though. People throw out the funniest excuses sometimes. When they say their husband's sister's husband's father's roommate's parrot dies and they have to go to the funeral on Sunday morning, you begin to the think that they don't want to go to church ;) Don't make fake excuses. 

Have you ever heard the hymn "Behold! A Royal Army"? I have come to love that hymn over these last couple transfers. We tend to make quite a few comparisons between soldiers in an army and missionaries in God's Army. In that hymn, the soldiers essentially rally around there General, who is Christ, and remain faithful until their day of rest. I suppose the greatest trait a soldier can have in any hymn or scripture is a faith in God. War is far more terrible than most of us realize. The faith that, for instance, the striping warriors have in the face of terrible danger is remarkable and inspiring! Their faith leads them to obey with exactness their leaders commands. "They did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them." They are thus such a powerful force, they turn the whole Lamanite army around just to face them, and after finishing battle, not one of them is slain. 

One of my favorite phrases that our Mission President says: "We Are At War." We are all at war! At war with what? The darkness of this world. And we must be powerful, faithful soldiers of light in order to come off conquerers. We must obey our General, who is Christ, by obeying those captains under his charge, from Captain Moroni to Captain Nielson. Not just obey, but obey with exactness. Not just faith, but strong faith and firm minds. What kind of soldier will you be in the Lord's army? To you stand ready to observe and perform with exactness every command and direction that you receive this general conference weekend? Will you stand firm and undaunted despite the opposition? I ask myself these questions. I seek to be as the army of Helaman. 

Well. I am beyond excited for general conference! I can't wait to talk about next week. Until then, onward Christian soldiers! :) 

Elder Poulson

I begged Elder Bry to send me a photo (no matter what it was) 

and this is what I got.  :)

Bashes, Clashes, and Brash Engagement Matches

Well hello family and friends! I hope you are all doing good yesterday, great today, and fantastic tomorrow ^-^

We had quite the week. Some weird experiences for sure, but we did some good work ^-^ We were able to find quite a few new people to teach, so that is always good. 

SO! One day Elder Poulson decided he wanted to meet the nonmember husband of a faithful member in his area. So he told her so, and they ended up taking us out for dinner! Well we had a pretty normal conversation, but a day or two later, as we were flying down the street, some man on the street flagged us down. He said he had a question. Usually when people say "I just have a question," they are looking to tell us how we are wrong. But we stopped, and to our surprise it was this same members husband! He was in a hat and hard to recognize. So we chatted for a minute. Well, somehow we went from talking about seeking Jesus Christ in our lives to him telling us that our religion is incorrect and why. Always an adventure. But I left him with my sincere testimony, which he kind of just avoided talking about afterwards, so I feel good about it ^-^

We had a competition going with another set of Elders in our district to see who could find more new investigators this week! P-Day lunch was on the line, so it got pretty serious by last night ;) We were tied up by yesterday morning, and ended up both finding two more Sunday, so no one gets free lunch :( (yet) It was fun though! It really put us in the zone yesterday ^-^

A bit of a shocker came in on Tuesday... Or at least it was a shocker for my companion. His girlfriend from before the mission got engaged! She had written him off earlier, but it was still super quick to get engaged. So that was weird for him! Kind of funny for me though ;) 

Spiritual thought: I read a talk by Uchtdorf from back in 2015 that I vaguely remembered, and I loved it! 

It is called "a summer with great aunt Rosie." There was one line in particular that I appreciated:

“You see, everything else in the gospel—all the shoulds and the musts and the thou shalts —lead to love. When we love God, we want to serve Him. We want to be like Him. When we love our neighbors, we stop thinking so much about our own problems and help others to solve theirs.”

As you might notice from my emails, I have been thinking a lot about loving and serving others. I think that we might forget that sometimes: just as everything in the law Moses pointed to Christ, everything in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the commandments of God point to LOVE. Everything else is peripheral to love, to the pure love of God and Christ. 

Well, I sure love you all! Have a great week :) Oh, and I would encourage you all to smoke err I mean focus on what matters most! ;) Bye! 

Elder Poulson

I found this on facebook today.  It's from a while back, but it was 

such a fun picture to find.  I had to post it :)