THE ONE WEEKLY UPDATE TO RULE THEM ALL!!! (Hehe sorry I had to)

How is it going people!?!? I realize that is pretty much hypothetical since ya´ll will see this on a blog and probs not respond, but I am gonna ask anyways! And assuming you would have asked back, it is going great, thank you very much :)

First and foremost, if ya´ll ever want to send me an actual letter, you can for free on (send to mpm.letters@gmail.com & be sure to put Elder Bryan Poulson in the subject line) as long as I am in the CCM! So if you want to, there is that :)

Umm, so it was a decently eventful week! Mostly I just have general stuff to say that I haven´t had time to say since the beginning of the CCM, so here goes!

Elder Detiege, one of the Elders in my District, unfortunately had to go home. He will return after he clears some stuff up. But don´t you dare think less of him! I have NEVER met a man with the work ethic of that kid! He was the worst at Spanish, but he worked so hard to be better! He said we were all the influence he needed to do what had to be done, and he is grateful for us all :) So he has my respect, and I hope to see him again soon.

Alright, Story Time! There are like five stories I keep meaning to tell but never get around to! But they are pretty funny :)

-I managed to kick my roomate in the hand... While playing volleyball... While trying to kick the ball at three feet in the air... And I drew blood. Hehe yeah I am a bit of a clutz sometimes

-My roomates were talking in our room once a little bit about how they wish they had just half an hour more of free time per day to just talk and get to know each other. And having had our purpose ingrained in to my mind, without thinking about it I said "Yeah. Too bad we aren´t here for ourselves." They thought it was like the biggest slam in history, and I still haven´t heard the end of it!

-My companion, Elder Harrast is, according to Elder Taylor, "HIGHLY favored of the Hermanas!" which is true, and not necissarily a good thing. There are at least three Hermanas here (one in our district) smitten by him, which is kinda a problem when you are supposed to seal your heart on a mission. But it is all good :)

-We have convinced a Missionary in our District that our DL´s real name is Peter Parker Vallinga! XD He loves to act like Spider Man, so it kinda sealed the deal!

-In case you were wondering: My nicknames that we aren´t allowed to use because we are missionaires are Nemo and Sweet Boy (Said half mockingly, half endearingly), my superhero is Captain America because of my undying moral sense, my villain is The Penguin because I am always just "walking around and doing my thing", and my Harry Potter character is Percy Weasely.

-I got put in charge of keeping our district on time... For any of you who have met me in person, that is probably hysterical to you since I am literally never on time :P

A Couple spiritual stuff, then I am gone:

-We had a live devotional broadcast from the Provo MTC, and it was a talk by Russel M. Nielson, so that was pretty awesome! He talked about being clean, obedient, and busy.

-At one of the devotionals, the speaker called us missionaries "Soldiers in the Army of God", but that the only weapon we need is to open our mouthes. I thought that was really awesome! I like the image of us being like the Stripling Warriors, strong enough to turn the tide of the war against Satan and return stronger and closer to God because of it!

-The missionary lifestyle is hard, but I understand the necessity of it. I love that we can completely devote ourselves to the mission and God, and have almost no other worries! And we have been promised that our families will not only be safe, but BLESSED because we chose to serve! I love that!

Anyways I am about out of time! But I love you all and will talk to ya next week!

¡Hasta Luego!

Elder Poulson

FÁCIL DINERO!!!!!! :D

Hey everybody!!!

A lot has happened this week, and I have about 20 minutes left, so I will try to cram as much as I can into this email!

First of all, I want to talk about my District! I am gonna give a little synopsis of each person, just because I can ^-^

Elder Harrast (my companion): Elder Harrast is, in one word, solid! He is surpisingly similar to me! He is very much a thinker, and is sometimes quiet just because he has nothing to say. He loves piano, likes 1 on 1 deep conversations, and is very clear minded (unlike me). He is AMAZING at soccer, but more on that later.

Elder Vallinga (Roomate and DL): Elder Vallinga is a good mix of serious and goofy. He is the perfect choice for our leader, and has a real good voice! He will just randomly do things that make his companion, Elder Taylor, look at him with mock despair, but he is an honest and good guy!

Elder Taylor (Roomate): I don´t think I have every met anyone as similar to Stockton Antczak than Elder Taylor! He is constantly messing around and slamming people, but beyond it all he is very focused and intelligent, and knows what he is doing. He is very good at Spanish, and constantly adds the humor element to the District.

The rest will have to wait till next week, but rest assured they are awesome!

You are probably wondering why I titled this email "FACIL DINERO". Well let me tell you! :D My roomates and I, plus elder Wengler, formed THE MOST LEGENDARY CAGE SOCCER TEAM THERE HAS EVER BEEN OR WILL BE IN ALL OF HISTORY!!! (Or at least that is the goal by the end of the CCM) We played soccer in this caged in soccer/basketball court one day, and found out two things: we all actually really love soccer, and Elder Harrast is literally the best player in the CCM. I don´t exaggerate: without him, we would be a bunch of silly kids trying to play a sport we don´t know anything about. But anyways, we play during gym time every day, and we played for like three hours today, so that is awesome!

I ran into one of my friends from home, Elder Sierra, today! It totally caught me off guard, but it was way cool! I can´t wait to see Christian Paul (AKA The Legend) next week!

The Spirit of this place is amazing! Every waking moment on every day except p day is planned out for us, which is both really nice and really exhausting! I had no idea it was possible to learn so much spanish and so much gospel doctrine in two weeks, but they stuff your brain to the limit here! They really force you to lose yourself in the work, surrendering your will to God, which is difficult, but AMAZING!

My roomate and I taught our last lesson to our first "investigator", Alejandra, last Friday. We totally felt the Spirit and power of our words, despite the language barrier, and Alejandra said she expects great things from us! Which is ironic, since she is now our afternoon teacher and gets to see us in class, when we are significantly less serious and composed ;)

The devotionals here are pretty great! We have one every Tuesday and Sunday, and they are awesome! Last week we watched a talk on prayer by Elder Ballard, and I don´t think I have ever been affected so much by a talk! He reminded us that we are literrally the children of the greatest being in the Universe, and all we need to is talk to our Father to be able to eventually receive answers from him. And we can talk to him anytime, anywhere!

Time here is weird. I know, techinically, that it has been two weeks, but it feels like the first week was a month long and the second week was two days long. I expect it will get even weirder on my mission, so here goes nothing!

I have been able to play the piano a lot here, just for a couple minutes here and there, not for hymns or anything, but it is such a stress reliever! I love it!

I LOVE the rain here! It literally rains about every single day, for like an hour! And otherwise it is perfect weather! I love it!

I feel like Hercules here, singing "Find Where I Belong", except "I would go literally anywhere to teach the word of God." Those kind of thoughts give me great strength here. It is hard, but I know it will be worth it!

Well gotta go! Hasta Luego!

Elder Poulson

Week One in this Wonderful New World!

July 27, 2016

HELLO ALL YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE!!!

 I am SO happy I get to email home, and thanks for all the emails! I will try my best to answer them soon :)

      Hmm... Where to start... I guess I will start with the airplane ride here. Once we left our families, me and Elder Myers found our flight entrance almost immediately, mainly due to the literally 40 missionaries waiting to board the plane! XD It was great! We met a bunch of people and talked until our flight left. About halfway through the flight, Elder Myers asked if the missionary next to him would switch seats with me (since he was pretty much just sleeping). So that was good! Plus I got a window seat, so I got to see Mexico City as I landed

     

 Speaking of which, Mexico City is pretty insane! From above and below the entire city looks like some sort of children's painting, with all the colors you can imagine on buildings mixed together throughout the city! When we drove to the MTC, all of us missionaries got a nice bit of culture shock. All of the buildings are built next to and on top of each other, and all of them are in a state of disrepair to some degree. And the roads are ridiculous! All of the people expect each other to just merge when ever, counting on whoever is coming to stop dead in their tracks! Riding in a bus was pretty sketchy, but don't worry mom, before you have a heart attack, the MTC drivers are easily the most cautious on the road! They get us around safely :) Plus, we only go on the roads 5 times here, twice for airports and three times for temple

     

It took about twenty minutes to get to the MTC, which I immediately found out was actually called the Centro de Capacitacion Misional Mexico, or the CCM (pronounced say say em-ay). I later found out that it was originally a college, but because of the influx of missionaries, the church bought and turned it into an MTC!

    

 After a warm welcome from missionaries and getting through orientation and such (during which I got to play a piano for like five minutes to see if I could play a hymn the next day :D), I was off to find my room and companion. Me and my district are lucky enough to get houses (some have apartments). I ran into my companion when I walked in. His name is Elder Harrast, and he is a solid guy! He is actually surprisingly similar to me in a lot of ways

     

 In my little farewell post on Instagram, I said I was going on an adventure to a new world. I had no idea then how accurate that description was! After a devotional Tuesday night, my district (5c) and I were thrown headlong into spanish and lessons! When we met our instructors, they immediately started talking to us in Spanish and haven't stopped! Of course, they understand English, and will use it if we really aren't getting what they are saying, but it was still pretty crazy!

     

 That first day was literally the longest day of my life. Other than meals, everything was orientation, spanish and the Gospel all day! It got better as the days went on, since we started getting gym time for an hour each day and some study time where we could slow down a little bit. All of the missionaries kept telling us "just make it till Sunday"! We heard it so much, it became a joke, and we do not even agree with it. After the first two days, life is pretty good!

     

  The food here is actually pretty quality! They usually have two entrees, one Mexican and one English, so if the missionaries are picky (like me), we can usually find something we like. Plus they have sandwiches with peanut butter jelly and nutella every meal!

       

The weather here is fantastic! It rains at least every other day, and it never gets above like 85 degrees or below 65! It is like a little slice of paradise in the middle of Mexico City

       

I have felt the spirit so much here. Everyone is so united in purpose, it is easy to make friends, and I feel like I have known all of these people for months! My district is straight up the best! I room with my companion, and then Elder Taylor and Elder Vallinga, the second of which is the District Leader. It is pretty awesome! :D

      

 I am about out of time, but I will send more next week! Just know that I love it here, I love you all, and I can literally feel your prayers pushing onward and comforting me! I have gained such a strong testimony of prayer, thank you for all you do!

      

 Til next week

           

 Elder Poulson

A few bits of info from emailing back and forth with Bryan…..

Umm a quick summary of the answers to your questions! I see Elder Myers (Landon) all the time, we always talk when we see each other. The food is pretty good, but packages are always nice ;) I got pictures, but no letter yet, they get behind in the post office a lot. I am sleeping pretty well thanks to melatonin. My teachers are LITERALLY THE BEST! I love them! They are such wonderful people!

I am actually not very homesick at all! God said he would take care of yall, and I believed him, so I am not really worried, that is good!

Arriving at the MTC with Elder Myers

Breakfast at the MTC (nice chewing picture Bry :)

Elder Poulson's District 

Elder Poulson and his companion Elder Harrast

"The Hardest Thing I Ever Loved to Do".....The Airport Goodbye!

There is nothing easy about saying the final goodbye and watching your child walk away from you knowing they'll be gone for 2 years.  I've decided I'm terrible at goodbye's and no matter how hard I try, it's still going to be the hardest thing EVER!!  It was SO hard with Garrick and I was determined to make it a celebration the 2nd time around, but it was still the hardest thing EVER!  I am so proud of Bryan and his decision to serve the Lord and I wouldn't want him doing anything else, but my mommy heart just doesn't know how to handle saying goodbye.  It truly is the hardest thing I've ever loved to do!!!

SEE YOU IN TWO.......

Officially A Missionary

Tonight Bryan was set apart as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  What an amazing experience for our family!!  We gathered together with the ones we love and listened as Bryan was given council & advice from the Stake Presidency and then set apart as an official missionary.  The blessing that President Eddington gave him was so beautiful and said so much about the incredible young man Bryan is.  We were all very teary and I don't think Bryan ever stopped crying from the moment he walked in until the moment he left as a missionary.  One of his best friends, Luke, was just made an Elder in preparation for leaving on his mission and was able to stand in the circle at Bryan was set apart.  Just a few days before this, Bryan was given the honor of being Luke's escort as he went through the temple for the first time.  The spirit was very strong in that room and I will never forget the sweet feelings shared between those I love most.  We wish Garrick could have been there, but he was there in spirit!

                              Bryan being Luke's escort at the Provo City Temple

Bryan's Last Words.....

Bryan posted on instagram just before he went to be set apart as a missionary.
I LOVE what he wrote......

"Tomorrow I leave my family, friends, and life as I know it to go on my greatest adventure yet.  My mission: to bring souls unto Christ and eternal happiness.  I know that what I am doing is right, for I know that The Gospel is true, and I will so testify today, tomorrow, and forever.  I love you all, and I'll see you in two years!"

Last Minute Prep and Goodbyes.....

Nothing like waiting until the last possible second to make sure Bry knows all the basics for heading out on a mission.  It wasn't until today that I showed him how to sew on a button and John taught him to iron a shirt (Yes....John's much better at this than me!), but at least we got it done.

Bry had one last get together with his squad.  These guys have been the best friends ever and they have spent SO many hours together.  Both Bry and Landon head for the MTC in the morning.  

I think he's all packed and ready to go!!! Here we go.....again!

Farewell Sunday

Bryan's farewell went SO well!!  It is always stressful planning and preparing for such a big day and huge gathering, but we got it done and everything went smoothly.  Bryan gave the most amazing farewell talk on the Book of Mormon.  At the end he bore his testimony in word and then in music.....he played the piano.  He arranged the piece he played and put so much feeling into it.  It was such a parent payday for us and we couldn't have been more proud of our son.  So many helped to make this day possible.  We could never have done it without the help of our incredible family and friends and the best ward family ever!!