Europeans, Drunks, and Other Unexpected Adventures

Once again, Hello family and friends! I fully expect you all to say hi back whenever you read this, just saying it out loud at your computer will do ;)

This week was kinda strange, but we worked hard and it went fairly well! Elder Valenzuela was kinda sick all week, so it was a bit harder for him, but he feels better now. I had some pretty unique adventures this week though! And I'll mention a couple from last week that I forgot about.

We managed to teach an Arabic speaking family on Tuesday! We met the eight year old kid, Patrick, earlier that day. He was on a balcony above us, but he was really friendly. He told us he could speak English AND Arabic, which is really cool! We wanted to give him a "Light the World" Card, but he was all the way up there. Well I knew a card flipping opportunity when I saw one, so I took out my "deck" of Light the World cards and started trying to flip them up there! It wasn't my best day for card flipping, so it took like twenty tries, but I did it! :D I was so happy!

Anyways, we had dinner in the same complex, and about ten minutes into dinner, Patrick knocked on the door! He had seen us go in, and said he wanted to tell us a "secret". His secret ended up being a request for us to come by that night! He even brought a sucker for each of us to bribe us with XD

When we went by later that night, he invited us in. His grandparents were there, who speak absolutely NO English, but Patrick translated a bit! We showed them the Light the World video (Patrick made popcorn!) and tried to find Arabic mormon videos, but there wasn't really any. As we were leaving, I said a prayer, and even though they couldn't understand, I asked the Spirit to touch their hearts, and I believe it did! So that was really cool ^-^

I forgot to mention this last week, but on Thanksgiving, we ended up eating one of our dinners with a bunch of drinking people! It was really annoying, actually, cuz a member we were working with was drinking too :( And her reasoning was that "eating mole with water messes up your stomach." I ate mole without water, and it STILL messed up my stomach! :P But yeah, that was pretty much the first time this Utah kid has been around drunk people, it was kinda weird.

Also on Thanksgiving, we sang a bunch of kareoke at a member's house, and that was way fun! I sang all of Bohemian Rhapsody... It took awhile. But it was great!

I have ended up playing the piano for Primary twice, because they need to practice and the other piano player has school. It is actually surprisingly stressful! If I mess up, they all lose their confidence! I have to be the kids confidence!!! But it was really fun too :)

As for investigators, we are still working with Alfonzo. He is being a little dodgy, but he really feels the change in his life since he started the lessons and wants to feel more of the goodness of the Gospel. We have also been working with Oswaldo, a less active. Besides the fact that he taught me some soccer skillz, he is awesome because he has humbled himself to the point where he truly wants to change and become better. 

Speaking of which, I would like to pose a question to all of you: Are you willing to change and become better? Are you willing to let God turn you into the person he sees inside you? About every missionary here that breaks little rules justifies it by saying "it is my last transfer, they aren't gonna send me home" or "it isn't like President will know or care" or "why not?". While they may be right to an extent, what they aren't getting is that rules, and more importantly, commandments, aren't in place just to impose upon you a way of life. They are there to change you. If you just change your behavior, you have only won half the battle. The other half is changing your nature. Once you do what God asks because you want to, not just because you are supposed to, you have made a huge step in the path of discipleship. Just my thoughts on the matter :)

That is all I have for this week. Until next week, in the words of my sister Savannah, "Have courage and be kind!" Hasta luego!

Elder Poulson

Little Christmas Tree (got it in last package from home)

Pretty Funny.....Bry said he was so tired that he forgot to take 

off his black shirt before putting on his shirt and tie.  

He ended up wearing it under his white shirt all day. 

I Feel Rich, Take Me Back to My Ghetto Long Beach

Hello again everybody :)

Hmm... What general stuff should I write about? Well, I guess I will start with my new companion. His name is Elder Valenzuela, he is from Mexico/Texas. He learned a lot of his English on the mission, so he still has a slight accent. He is pretty enthusiastic about the work, and likes to work hard, which is good! He says "bro" way too much, but I can live with that ^-^

My new area is Huntington Beach. It was really weird to come here from Long Beach, especially since I am now in car. The area is way nicer. Also, our apartment is about 4 times bigger than mine in Long Beach, and is on the first floor instead of the third floor... Basically, I feel rich :P It is kinda odd.

It was really sad saying goodbye to everyone in Long Beach! (Hermano Varela cried) But it is okay, I will surely return some day :) It was strange to say goodbye to my trainer, but it is working out okay :)

We managed to lock ourselves out of our car on Thanksgiving... Elder Valenzuela left the keys in the trunk and I shut it, so I guess it was a group effort :P So that was fun! We ended up walking to someone's house and teaching them while we were waiting for the Zone Leaders to get the spare key from the office. But hey, they brought me some packages from home, so I ain't even mad! ^-^

Since Elder Valenzuela is a District Leader, he goes on exchanges with all 6 of the other missionaries in our District. Which means that will I end up going on exchanges to other people's areas 6 times this transfer. Which I am actually excited about, you learn a lot on exchanges, and usually miracles happen!!! :D For example, I went on exchanges with Elder Hansen on Saturday. He is a white boy from Louisiana who started his mission in Mexico City, but came home after five months because of a stress fracture in his foot. Anyways, because he started in Mexico, he is in the habit of LITERALLY ALWAYS SPEAKING SPANISH. It is mildly annoying, but mostly awesome, cuz you are kinda supposed to do that, and I am really bad at remembering! 

Anyways, while on exchanges, we contacted this guy with tattoos all up his arms and a cigarette chilling on his ear. I didn't expect him to be that interested, but he ended up being SUPER enthusiastic about what we were teaching, and asked the PERFECT questions! So that was awesome! And the reason he listened to us in the first place? He was shocked by how good Elder Hansen's Spanish was! He couldn't get over it XD I have a lot of respect for Elder Hansen. He has more enthusiasm when he is teaching then any missionary I have every met!

Speaking of people I respect, Elder Perez went home this transfer. He was on of my first AP's, and probably the best missionary I have yet to meet. I have always wondered what it was that made him so awesome... Literally everyone loved him and had such respect for him. He was very humble, but I didn't think that was all there was to it. But in his little farewell letter that they published in the monthly missionary newsletter for the mission, he said that the most important thing he learned on the mission was CHARITY. That was the key! He said that he learned how to find the good in everyone and love them for it! That really hit me hard. I am striving to find a more Christ-like love for everybody :)

This email is really long, so I will end with this: if you haven't heard yet, the church's Christmas initiative this year is called LIGHT THE WORLD! It is SO amazing!!! If you go on to mormon.org, the first thing that will pop up is the Light the World video. I strongly advise all of you to go watch it, it is fantastic! The idea is that people are invited to follow the example of Christ in doing a certain type of service each of the 25 days leading up to Christmas. The website explains it way better than I can, so go look it up! :)

That is all for this week. I love you all! Keep spreading the light inside of you :) Hasta luego!!!

Elder Poulson

Elder Valenzuela

Huntington Beach Apartment

Sometimes Your Week Just Decides to Be Crazy

Heyo familio and friendso (no, that is not how Spanish actually works). How is you all? I hope ya'll had a good week.

As for my week... Well, it was a bit insane. We taught VERY little this week, mostly because a lot of random stuff came up that took our time to work. For instance, we ended up going to two dinners Tuesday night, the plumber came for a couple hours on Thursday, etc.

I have some interesting news though. I am being transferred to Huntington Beach with an Elder Valenzuela... No one really saw that one coming. The Huntington Beach part is cool, but my new companion has a reputation for... Well, let's just say most people here don't like him. So we will see how that goes ^-^

We had Rihanna Varela's baptism Saturday!!! (the girl in the white dress in the picture I will send) It took about all day to help set up and such, but it was really cool! I got to PLAY PIANO for it, which was really really awesome for me! And then since I was already up there, they had me be a witness! And then the father had me and Elder Quintana be in the confirmation circle! They really like us apparently :) Plus the Filipino mom had some bomb food afterward, and we got leftovers, so it was just good all around :)

We taught Russel and Digna again this week. Israel fell asleep again, but the parents had a lot of questions and are truly humbled. They already have a testimony of prayer and such, which is awesome! And we got a text from the on Sunday, saying that they couldn't come to church until next week, but that Digna HAD READ MOST OF THE BOOK OF MORMON. If you aren't aware, THAT IS A HUGE DEAL!!! That never happens! So they are prepared. One of my good mtc buddies, Elder Keeler, is one of the Elders taking over my area, so I hope he helps bring them to baptism, because they are truly prepared of God :)

Umm... Yeah, that's about it. Oh wait, I need something spiritual here! Quote of the week: "It is accounted unto you for righteousness if you proceed according to the best light you have." -Wilford Woodruff. That is really important to me right now, going into a potentially difficult companionship. But remember, the Gospel means you get points for trying as much as succeeding. Proceed according to the best light you have, and you will find true happiness in the end :) So ENDURE!!! :D Okay bye :)

- Elder Poulson

Familia Varela (Rihanna in white dress, kiki, and Nayumi)

Familia Chavez

Familia Moscoso (2nd councilor in bishopric)

Familia Quintanilla (Elders Quorum President)

Familia Franco (1st councilor in bishopric)

Familia Genis (Ward Mission Leader)

Jennifer,  Havi,  and Jasmine

Elder Jumonville

Elder Jumonville,  Elder Urbina,  and Elder Quintana

Elder Duran

Study Desk in LB (first area)

It's Not Beginning to Look Anything Like Christmas

Que pasa mi familia and amigos!!! How is you all!? I hope you're doing good and are happy... And if not, The Gospel can help you with that ;)

So backstory for the title. We were doing our wash this morning at a washer place next to our apartment, and the two songs that played were "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" and "There is no place like Home for the Holidays"... It is still 70 degrees here, and that second song was just a nice little dagger to the heart! One of the lines basically said "you won't be happy on the holidays without your family"... Basically, Long Beach radio hates me ;) Haha naw it was actually kinda funny ^-^

Goof of the week: I went on exchanges with my District Leader, Elder Cruz, who is a Honduran that learned English on the mission. He has a really strong accent and is military in a lot of aspects, but he is really cool and helped me a lot. Anyways, after exchanges, we were chilling in our apartment after 10, and we get a call from an unknown number. I answer it, and a thick Spanish accent starts shouting at me about how I took something. After three tries, I finally understood: I took their phone... XD So we had to bike to the church the next morning to give it to them... That was lame. Funny, but lame.

The day of that exchange, Saturday, the city of Long Beach did this cool thing to promote health. They closed down Anaheim St., a main road that goes through the middle of the city, and encouraged everyone to ride their bikes on the road that day and everywhere! There was music and games and a WHOLE lot of people riding bikes!!! It was really cool, and paradise for contacting people about the Gospel!

The exchange itself was awesome though! We had people to teach pretty much all day, and I invited someone to be baptized, who accepted :) That felt really good Spiritually.

We have dinner with the Varela family 2 to 3 times a week! They are very generous :) Their 3 daughters are the ones I keep sending pictures of. Anyways, did the little referral family home evening thing we did with the Franco family about a month ago, and it worked almost as well! We ended up with 10 member referrals. That is A LOT, in case you were wondering. Most people struggle to get one a week. So that was cool.

Quote of the week, by one of the Varela girls: "I am going to be a princess, and you are going to marry me, and you will be the queen!" -Yumi XD Those girls are SO energetic! They made me shake all of their heads instead of their hands before I left last time! Also, Yumi made her own "chair" (a piece of cardboard) and insists only sitting in that chair. If you sit by her, she reads you a Dr Seuss book she has, except instead of reading it, she just decides what is happening and tells you. It is different every time. She is adorable :)

We found 8 new investigators this week, for of which we found yesterday!!! It was so cool! We found Alejo and Gama, who were in our area book. They have never answered their door, but this time the son Gama let us in. They seemed sincerely interested, and we taught them a lot. We are going to challenge them to baptism next week.

The coolest thing that happened today, was that we got in contact with the parents of Israel, a 16 year old kid we met like a month ago. Israel is high functioning autistic, so he mostly acts like a normal kid, but he struggles with making conversation and getting "bored". Bored, to Israel, can mean anything from tired to hungry. He is very friendly though, he rode up to us and started talking when we first met him! Anyways, his dad, a red neck named Russell, investigated the church around when I was born. We cleared up some misconceptions that had kept him from joining. His wife, Digna, is a Honduran who is probably one of the most humble people I have met here. She asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon to read, and is excited to read it! My only regret is that I didn't challenge them to baptism... They are prepared of God. But the best part was that we stopped by them because I felt prompted to. It gave me confidence that I do in fact know what the Spirit feels like :) So that was a huge blessing.

So now that I have written a novel for an email, I am out of things to say, except I love you all, and hope you are all happy!!! Have a good week. Follow God's commandments: he knows better than us, and knows what we should do to be ultimately be happy. TRUST HIM! :) 

Until next p day,

Elder Poulson

When People Drop You... You Have Fun Anyways

So yeah! The title is pretty self explanatory on this one! We are down to basically three investigators, and they are all kinda iffy... :P That is okay though, we will just have to talk to a whole lot of people!!!

First of all, some pretty entertaining stuff:

- One of the office missionaries here took Elder Si'a out to lunch for his birthday, and we happened to be with them, so he took us too :) We went to this place called MVP's, this place that serves huge burgers, and it was good... Until, completely stuffed, we realized that a member was going to take us to a chinese buffet two hours later... Long story short, my companion and I were groaning as we attempted to ride our bikes up Signal Hill... Yup, fun time!

- Also at the chinese buffet, when we were ordering drinks, the member with us looked the waiter straight in the eye and said "I'll have a corona". My companion and I both whipped our heads around at him, and as the waiter started to write it down, the member says "no wait, I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" He got us pretty good, it was funny XD

- An investigator, Evelyn, looked up my facebook, and my profile picture from five-ever ago when it was a thing still reads "I am a Mormon." My companion and her had a great time mocking me for like the next 10 minutes... So now it is a running joke.

- We were teaching an investigator at her door, and she gave some water in cups. Apparently my companion's cup was dirty, so when the investigator looked away, he just chucked the water over the balcony behind us without looking XD It felt like something out of a movie!

- Quote of the week: "I put on my ponytail, and I put on my crown, and then I feel PREEETTY!!!" Naumi, Age 3 (See picture of her in her castle)

So yeah, that is my funny stories for this week! As for our investigators... Well, Evelyn pretty much dropped us. It is a good reason: she is going to be super busy working full time, going to school, and getting her driver's license. It is still sad though :( Jesus and Maria didn't come to church, and have been dodging us for the last two weeks, saying they are tired and busy and such... Hopefully they don't drop us too. Griselda is just terribly busy, and it is hard since we can't teach her in her home without a male member with us. So yeah, a lot of dropping... But it is all good! We will find some more people!!! :D

Oh yeah! I did exchanges this week with someone "younger" than me on the mission, which meant I was the senior companion!!! It was terrifying... A fun time though. The guy cooked for me and taught me Dominican Spanish and such, it was fun!

That is all for this week! Remember, dream big and then set goals to reach them! Hasta Luego!!!

Elder Poulson

Halloween on the Mission

Hello Family and Friends! Happy Halloween!!! :D

Hmm...  In case you were wondering, Halloween is less exciting on the mission, even on P-day. We have to stay in our apartments from 6 on... It is for our safety and so that no one can accuse missionaries for doing something people dressed up as missionaries did, but it is still kinda sad that we will be in our apartment CLEANING on Halloween :P It is okay though, it does make sense.

Umm... This week was pretty uneventful, actually. Although yesterday was awesome! We taught a member family, the familia Franco, and they were awesome! We did this activity with them where we help them find out who they can share the Gospel with, and the Spirit was so powerful! Sister Franco called us angels come to declare the Gospel, and I teared up a little bit. I truly felt like a missionary.

Oh! I gave a talk in church on Sunday! That was terrifying! Ten minutes straight of Spanish tends to do that to you. But God filled my mouth ^-^ All the members said they understood everything I said, and that they loved it! Also, it happened to be on faith, which I had been studying the week prior, so that was a tender mercy for me :)

Hmm... Yeah, that is about it. Oh, my favorite quote of the week: "It is never to late to be who you might have been." Keep in mind that you are only limitted by how much you believe you can accomplish! Follow your dreams, and become who you want to be :)

Til next week!

Elder Poulson

Bryan forgot his camera....so, decided I'd send cute Halloween pics of our little missionary ;)

Messing Up is a Pre-Requisite to Success

Mi familia y mis amigos!!! Como estan!? I hope the answer is a capitalized BIEN! :D

Alright, so this week was quite better than last week. We put in a lot of work and it payed off! More on that later. But because of that, I have some... Interesting goofs I managed to pull off :P

I managed to:

- Fall asleep for fifteen minutes in a member's bathroom during dinner.

- Wake up an hour late without realizing it, and then sit down for studies just to be told by my companion that we are about to leave for church.

- Ask a woman that said we shouldn't come by because her husband is jealous of us if there was another day we could pass by later that week, because I hadn't understood a word she said before.

So yeah, quite a few mess-ups. That was fun XD But it was worth it, cuz we had FOUR INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH!!! To put that in perspective, we have never had four investigators at the branch between all eight investigators, and Elder Quintana and I had four of our investigators there :) That was really cool, because once people come to church, they feel something special about it. It makes them more interested and likely to keep commitments until they see the truth of the Gospel. The investigators were Jesus and Maria, who also came to church last week, and then a 29 year old, Maria, and her 14 year old sister Piedad. The cool thing was, when they came to our missionary activity on Friday (we played volleyball and basketball), a less active, Jennifer, who we have been working with, knew Piedad! So then Jennifer came to church too, to help Piedad :) Yeah, really cool tender mercies of the Lord.

I realized that I haven't really said much about my companion. Really, he is awesome, but he is very... sarcastic, in a way. He will jump into acting like a punk from Denver (which he technically is) and he so good at it, that sometimes I don't realize he is messing with me. Here are some Quintana Quotes that might give you an idea of what he is like:

- "Walk what you preach." He says this at least three times a day. He is actually serious with that, he hates hypocrites.

- "Don't try, do." I literally can't say the word try without him saying that quote right back at me. So basically, try is no longer part of my vocabulary :)

- "My companion is a beautiful man." "Elder Poulson is the squat king, he can teach you!" Okay, here he was obviously joking, talking to a less active that is about 13. It cracked me up, actually XD

- "[Insert the lyrics of any song by Drake here]" He literally sings Drake songs all day, every day. He is basically his role model. And Elder Quintana is pretty much just as good as him! Not exaggerating: if you are curious, go look up his youtube channel, the_los_main, and you will see.

Anyways, yeah, that is my trainer ^-^

Spiritual thought of the week: The Slippery Slope. I was thinking about all of the experiences I have had thus far on the mission, and I realized that everything is a slippery slope. With anything from exercising, to talking to strangers, to commiting sin, it is a slippery slope: if you give in just a little bit, it becomes harder to stop later. For instance, look at David in the Bible. He wouldn't have seen that one woman bathing if he had been at war with his people (which he was supposed to be). That seemingly insignificant decision, to stay home from war for a time, led to serious sexual sin, and each thing he did afterward made it harder from him to stop.

The moral of the story: don't even get close to the edge of the slope. If you decide to or not to do something, don't let yourself give in when it gets hard. By small and simple things, great things come to pass: that isn't just for positive things, it works the same for sin and transgression.

I'ma leave ya'll with a poem that is in "the missionary's little book of inspirational stories", which my trainer gave me cuz I loved it so much! :D

"Be like the bird, who,

Halting in his flight,

On limb to slight,

Feels it give way beneath him

Yet sings,

Knowing he hath wings."

Victor Hugo

That is all for this week! I love you all! Do good and be happy! :D

Elder Poulson

**We've requested pictures with Bryan actually IN them!!  haha!

Elder Quintana and the District Leaders

This is a less active members son in his Halloween costume

Transfer mk2!!!

Hey Family and Friends!!!

This will probably be kinda short. Sorry :/ But this week was pretty crazy! A lot of ups and downs!

We had some members at lessons AND some investigators at church this week, which are both firsts for me! It was really cool! Two people we are teaching, Jesus (pronounce hey soos) and Maria, came after just two lessons! We also taught Evelyn some more this week, she is really solid. She is willing to listen and keeps her commitments. Except... She didn't go to church :P We'll figure out why this week though.

So spiritual thought of the week. I have seen SO many families here that only have one parent, or some of the siblings are off the deep end, or whatnot. Very rarely do I meet a "complete" family. But they love whatever family they have, unconditionally. So all of you with your wonderful families, appreciate them! Love them! According to Elder Uchtdorf, love is spelled T-I-M-E! Spend time with them!

That is all. Till next week

Elder Poulson

This is the tree at Healthhaven Hospice where they hung the blue butterflies 

they all wrote their loved ones names on.  Bryan wrote about it last week.   

When New Zealanders Come to Town

Hola familia y amigos!!! I hope ya'll are doing well!

This week was a little hectic, but pretty good! We had a Zone Conference this week because Elder Ardern of the Seventy came to visit the mission!!! So that was really cool :) Him and his wife had really strong accents from New Zealand (hence the title), so it was really easy to pay attention to them when they talked! ^-^ They gave us a lot of gems about missionary work, it was really cool!

We had an event Saturday for the Hospice Company we volunteer at, called HavenHealth. We generally help for two hours every Friday, doing office tasks like folding stuff and sealing envelopes and organizing binders. Anyways, they had an event on Saturday where they held a service for everyone who had lost a loved one during their hospice care. They had a cool little thing with some poetry reading and singing, and they had every family write the name of a loved one on little blue paper butterflies (that we made, by the way), and hang them on a little tree up front. Then they gave each family a life monarch butterfly in a box to release into the wild, to represent their loved one! It was really cool! I got to write my Grandpa's name on one of the butterflies, so that was really awesome!

So tomorrow is transfers, which this time are crazy!!! We are adding another companionship to my District, which is also going to be a training companionship. So Elders Jumonville and Urbina are going to split their area. And then Elders Jumonville and Urbina will be trio training somebody (which never happens). Then Elder Avilles is leaving, and another Elder is replacing him. For the little amount of that that made sense, it is crazy!

I learned a lot spiritually this week. It was kinda a rough one for me, but yesterday I fasted and prayed for help. Last night, I just felt... Good. It had no reason or cause. I just felt comforted. If that wasn't the Spirit, I don't know what is! So that was really inspiring to me. Never understimate the power of prayer and fasting :)

Yup. That is it. Until next week!

Elder Poulson

Life Isn't Easy: It's Worth It

If you so happen to have questions such as "How fashionable are the clothes of a 350 pound Samoan?", "How much does it cost for a locksmith to pick a lock?, or "Has anyone ever bothered to make exactly 9 cookies?", keep reading. If not... Well, keep reading anyways, you've probably got nothing better to do! ;)

Haha so yeah, it was a pretty crazy week. Not much teaching, a lot of unusual stuff, but it was good ^-^

So... Tuesday of last week, we were leaving our apartment, and as I pushed my bike out, I took a glance at my desk where my spare key sat. And I thought "meh, I don't really need that, Elder Quintana ALWAYS has his keys". Well about ten seconds later, I felt pretty stupid when Elder Quintana froze, turned to me, and asked if I had my spare key. Sooo... We locked ourselves out :P

So after calling the office, having on of the senior elders come over with the spare key to find that it was made incorrectly and didn't work, I was ready to climb around the corner, where our open window sat tantalizingly close to the balcony. But of course, it was "too dangerous", so we went to plan B: sleep over with some other Elders, find a locksmith in the morning. Sooo we ended up sleeping in Elder Avilles and Si'a's apartment.

Elder Si'a was gracious enough to lend us some extra clothes so that he could wash our proselyting clothes for the next day... Elder Si'a also happens to be a 350 pound Samoan Elder! XD Yeah, it was a sight to behold. His shirt went down to my knees ^-^ So that was fun!

The next day, we had a locksmith come, who took a look at it and said he could pick it... For $175... Before I could offer to climb in the window again, the senior Elder said yes (since he was paying for it with missionary funds) and in about 1 minute, we were in our apartment again! So yeah, that was a rip-off, and we felt really bad. Fun adventure though!

As for the cookies thing... Well, my mom sent me a BOMB package, and in it was almost all the ingredients to make cookies already mixed in plastic bags. So I made my comp cookies! They pan was really small though... So I only made nine. Long story short, I ate 2, he ate 7. When I told the other Elders this though, they didn't really care about anything except the fact that I made 9 cookies. "Who makes nine cookies?" So for the week, that has been kinda a running joke :)

Alright, some awesome spiritual experiences of the week:

-We were teaching a lesson to Ismael, and I decided to start testifying about prayer, which we had been trying to convince him to do since we met him. With my companion's help, I managed to teach him an entire mini-lesson on prayer! The Spirit was really strong, it felt great :) So that was a huge confidence booster for me.

-I got to the temple today!!! The LA temple is HUGENORMOUS!!!! Seriously, I thought Utah temples were big, but this one is giant! But I missed the temple and the Spirit of it a lot, so that was really wonderful for me.

-I went on exchanges twice this week, once with Elder Jumonville, my district leader, and one with Elder Urbina. That was really cool (and weird, cuz my whole time here I have been with Elder Quintana), and I learned a lot! Plus Elder Jumonville and I have similar backgounds, so it was easy to relate to him ^-^

-And last but not least, Conference!!!

Let us talk about that for a moment, shall we? It might just be because I am on a mission, but it seemed to me that there was a lot of talk about missionary work. I would highly advise that you don't de-emphasize those because you aren't on a mission. I am currently in an area where the members are really hard to work with... Without the members' help, missionary work almost doesn't happen. So I would encourage yall to offer to help your ward or stake missionaries, if you can. I know it is different in Utah, and it can be hard when you are busy. I doubt I would have listened when I was home if someone had told me to go work with missionaries. But without members, missionary work doesn't work. Just a thought ^-^

Also, my favorite talk was the one by President Nielson on joy! Don't forget to find joy in your lives, and more importantly, in your afflictions. Which is, of course, easier said than done, but through Christ, it is possible.

Umm... So yeah, that is about it. Thanks for reading! Sorry this week's was so long :P I'll email ya'll later ;)

Elder Poulson

Bryan in the Samoan Elder's clothes

Exchanges with the District Leader

Map of Bryan's Mission

He found another Elder POULSON