Week 37

Dear Family & Friends,

This week was soooo great. We are basically just teaching the Restoration to everyone, because we are opening the area!  I'm loving it, it's so great. All of the people here want to talk with us because they have never seen missionaries before. We have run into a couple people who have already been baptized, or have at least gotten to know the church before in Fortaleza. They have run up to us with the most excited looks on their faces telling us how they have been praying so hard for the church to arrive in Quixada. It was so great to see those people have their prayers answered!

Sacrament meeting is in a house, because there are only about 15 members right now, and it will be a while until a chapel is built. This Sunday was a great meeting, we had about 6 investigators there, and they all liked it, felt the Spirit, and we will have baptisms next week! 

I'm loving it here, I am seeing the Lord's hand in His work almost every day, and I love serving Him and the people in this city. 

Love,

Elder Poulson

3 Nephi 9:14-18

Week 36

Dear Family & Friends,

This week was pretty different. We got to our area late Tuesday night. We had to take a charter bus out there, and it's about 2 and half hours. We are staying in a hotel until we find a house to live in. We worked in the new are for two days, and it is the coolest thing ever, because virtually no one has seen missionaries before, and everyone wants to talk to us. The two days we were there were pretty awesome, but on Friday, we had to come back to Fortaleza, and we've been here since then. We should hopefully be going back tomorrow. 

One of the coolest experiences I had last week, was when we started teaching this little group of people, 3 or 4, outside their house. As our lesson continued, more people started showing up to listen, it was so cool!  By the end of the lesson there were about 10 people there. Afterward, one of the women there offered to feed us dinner!  We were complete strangers to her and she wanted to feed us dinner. 

I'm loving it here!  I hope you all have a great week!

love,

Elder Poulson

Week 35

Dear Family & Friends,

Today I am being transferred. I am leaving the Castelão area and going to a place called Quixabá, which is about 3 hours away. My new companion is Elder Botelho. This is his very last transfer, so hopefully he'll have a lot of good stuff to teach me! So what I know so far about this area is that it only has 4 companionships, two of elders and two of sisters. My companion is the district leader. I don't think it's even a zone. That means that the church isn't too well known there, and that means a lot of people for us to talk to and teach! We'll be leaving by bus here this afternoon. 

This past week was a pretty crazy one. We spent all of Wednesday in the hospital for my old companion, Elder Oliveira. Literally all day. We arrived at the hospital at 3 o'clock, and got home at 11. One of the longest days of my life haha. Thursday was interviews with the mission president and training at the mission office, and that took up most of the day. Then when we all went to leave, the buses had all gone on strike, so we couldn't go home! The mission president had to taxi us all to our houses with his car, so we got home a little late. I got sick on Friday, nothing too serious, fever and a few other things that don't need to be mentioned but it's all good now. Saturday, we were finally able to move!  I found out about the transfer yesterday, so that means I just got to pack my bags twice in 24 hours. Our week last week was pretty slow for teaching and proselyting, so I'm excited to get to work this week! I wanted to send some pictures but I left my thing that puts pictures on the computer in my suitcase, so it will have to wait until next week. But thank you for your thoughts and prayers! 

Um abraço,

Elder Poulson

Alma 7:10-11

Week 34

Dear Family & Friends,

My week was pretty good, until Sunday rolled around. Its been so hard to get people to come to church lately. A family that we have been planning to baptize has been a bit of a challenge....they are awesome, they love being taught, but it's so difficult to get them all to church. Yesterday, only the two daughters came because their mom had to work. They want to be baptized this next week, if we can them to the church on time! (9 o´clock)

We have met a lot of great people to teach this week. We have recently started using the Book of Mormon more in our teaching, and we read and explain chapters from the book with our investigators. I can definitely see a difference for the better. Sometimes missionaries are a little hesitant about sharing the Book of Mormon with people, and I was for most of my mission up until now. Sometimes we are afraid that people will judge us because it's different.  We always make sure to explain very clearly that we believe in the Bible the same way, and that the Book of Mormon is literally another testament of Jesus Christ and His divinity, His mission, His Atonement and His love for each one of us. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and that it will help us understand the gospel in a way that wouldn't be possible without it, and I love sharing it with people!

We have four missionaries in our house, but the past couple weeks some new residents have moved in....mice, which we affectionately call, Mickey. They have been causing a ruckus at night for a while, waking us up. A few weeks ago, one of them broke a mug!  The most daring act so far has been to get into Elder Molina's bag, and eat his ENTIRE snickers bar he had in there! During the feeding frenzy, his scriptures got covered in chocolate. but the good news is, that Elder Oliveira and I were able to kill one when we got home last night! We got into the house, and I went to use the bathroom, and all of the sudden he appeared and ran across my foot! I yelled for my companion, and we cornered mickey in the other elders' bedroom. We chased him around with brooms and sticks for about 15 minutes, until I was finally able to strike a fatal blow!  We celebrated with a big hearty plate of rice! 

Anyway, I'm loving this mission! Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers! 

love,

Elder Poulson

Week 33

Dear Family & Friends,

So the first thing I need to say is that this morning, my mission, Fortaleza East, and the Fortaleza mission, got to hear the Apostle Neil L. Andersen speak! He speaks Portuguese too, so that was pretty cool.  Every missionary from both missions got to shake his hand, and I was the first one in hand shaking line! Elder Andersen said something to me that I'll never forget............."Nice to meet you." 

The training that he gave us was great. He focused on how we need to help people to understand Christ´s Atonement for our sins, and that we need to really understand it and apply in our lives as well, in order to teach it. There was a lot more obviously, but that's was the main message.

So as far as the work went this week, it was a little rough. We had a hard time meeting new people to teach. We were supposed to have 4 baptisms, but the water from the chapel ran out, so we couldn't fill up the font!  That was a little frustrating, but the baptisms will happen for sure next week. They will be Gilliane and her three kids, Eudes, Isabel, and Raiane (hi-on-ee). They are an awesome family, and we have loved teaching them! 

That's about all I got for this week. Have a great one!

Abraço,

Elder Poulson

                                                  Some critters we encountered

A huge spider

a caterpillar that the member told me burns you, gives you a fever, and body pain. so i decided NOT to touch it!  haha!

service project we did this last week

Week 32

 Dear Family & Friends,

This week improved a lot. We had more people come to church this last week than any other week that I've been here in Castelão, so that was great! We officially have baptismal dates for the family we have been teaching, and their baptisms should be this next Sunday the 18th. We are super excited for them.  It's been great to see their testimonies of the true church of Christ grow. We also have several other people that we're teaching that are progressing well and reading the Book of Mormon. 

The highlight of this week was definitely last night when I got to SKYPE with my family! I absolutely loved seeing them and hearing their voices. At first, there were a few technical issues because the microphone on my end wasn't working, but we got everything figured out and we were able to talk. The next time I'll get to do that won't be until Christmas, which is just around the corner. 

I am still loving being a missionary. It has its ups and downs, but its always a good experience! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Abraço,

Elder Poulson

In honor of Mother´s Day yesterday.....

From the Book of Mormon:

Alma 56:44-48

 44 Therefore what say ye, my sons, will ye go against them to battle?

 45 And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that never had I seen ^aso great ^bcourage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites.

 46 For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young) even so they said unto me: Father, behold our God is with us, and he will ^anot suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone; therefore let us go, lest they should overpower the army of Antipus.

 47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the ^aliberty of their ^bfathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their ^cmothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

 48 And they rehearsed unto me the words of their ^amothers, saying: We ^bdo not doubt our mothers knew it.

                                        just some touristy pictures I took haha.

 trash prohibited (with a pile of trash)

big pink car

Week 31

This week was a bit of a roller coaster for me, but everything is OK!  We had transfers last week, and I stayed in Castelão with Elder Oliveira. We found an awesome family to teach last week, and guess what? We found another awesome family to teach this week!  We are super excited to be teaching families, which is what every missionary loves to do, because the gospel is the best way to help with all the aspects of the family. It's so great to see a family learn and accept the gospel together. Our first family didn't make it to church this last week, which was really disappointing for us, but three of the daughters from the second family did. We have been using the Book of Mormon a lot more in our teaching lately, so it was awesome to see each of these three girls with their own copy of the Book of Mormon when we went to pick them up for church. 

 

One of the elders who we live with got transferred, and his companion is training a new missionary from Honduras, named Elder Molina. He is really cool, and he speaks English! 

 

We should be moving apartments this next week, which will be awesome because the apartment we have now floods when it rains, and has only one bathroom for four 19 and 20 year olds, with a toilet that doesn't flush. We have to fill up a bucket with water and dump it in, so you can imagine how lovely that bathroom is. Our new house will be a lot better, and we're all super excited to get there!

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers, and have a great week!

Abraço,

Elder Poulson

 

a church sign that someone found and used to build a wall around their house. we asked the guy where he got it and he said he ordered it from the Liahona......soooo yeah

 

my family in the mission! from left to right, is my older brother, my younger brother, my dad, me, and my son. 

 

my comp playing caterpillar in the hammock