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

 

Week 30

Hello everyone! I have so many cool things to tell you this week!

First of all, early in the week, my companion, Elder Oliveira, got a foot infection, so we went to the foot doctor two or three times and he couldn't walk for a few days. So, we did a lot of studying this week.  Nothing really exciting happened until Saturday. Our zone sang the Portuguese version of the hymn "Abide with me 'Tis Eventide" at a stake activity, and we had a few practices throughout the week for that, and that was pretty fun. 

On Sunday morning we were doing what we normally do, picking up investigators for church but no one was really feeling it. At one house we stopped by, there was a group of guys drinking next door (yes, at 8:30 in the morning). One of them started asking us questions, and as missionaries, that's what we do, so I started answering.  He asked us if we were from around here, and I said no, I'm an American, and my comp told them that he was Brazilian.  We went on our merry way to church, without any investigators. As we were turning onto the street where our chapel is, this guy runs up behind us with his hand under his shirt like he has a gun (he didn't) and starts yelling. It took me a minute to pick up on what was happening (I'm still new here) but I finally picked up that he wanted the cell phone. So he took it and ran off - in the very street of our chapel, people!  So we went a day without a cell phone. No worries, we picked up a new one at the mission office today. Anyway, we're pretty sure that guy was in the group that we saw earlier. We went to church and I gave a talk which was 100 times more scary than getting robbed, for the record haha! But I prepared for it, stood up and started, and before I knew it, 15 minutes had passed! 

Our prep day was a bit of an adventure too. We got up early to go to the foot doctor for Elder Oliveira again, and the bus took forever to pick us up, and the traffic downtown is really bad Monday mornings. After about an hour on the bus, we got to this street that was completely blocked off because a bunch of construction workers were starting a strike, so everyone had to get off the bus. We eventually found the foot doctor, 3 hours after Elder Oliveira´s appointment.

That's about it for this week....and I'm still loving it down here! Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers! Have a great week!

Abraço,

Elder Poulson

Week 29

Today at 2:28 PM

This week was a little different...we had a companion exchange for two days instead of one with our zone leaders. It was different, but it helped me a lot. I stayed in our area with Elder J. Souza. He has the J. because half the people in Brazil are named Souza, and the other half are Silva. The J is to avoid confusion with other elders haha.  Elder J. Souza is awesome - he really showed me the potential that this area has. Something that I still struggle with is talking to new people (especially in Portuguese) so finding new people to teach has always been a challenge for me. That's something I will be working to improve on. 

This weekend was a little tough because people were all going out of town, and only one investigator came to church, Paulo. He brought his wife and daughter, and they liked it, so its something!  Next week will be better for sure. 

There is only one week left in the transfer....I cant believe it!  I'm also coming up on 7 months of being out, which doesn't seem possible. It's definitely going by faster than high school did!

My Easter was pretty ordinary, nothing crazy happened. But as we were getting ready to go to church, I was thinking about the last few days of the Savior's life, and as we left the house and started walking, I was thinking that on a morning about 2000 years ago, our Savior left the tomb, never to return again. And as I thought this, I could picture it happening in my mind, and I felt in my heart that without a doubt it is true. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he has conquered death and hell to make possible our return to the presence of our Heavenly Father with those we love. I am so grateful for this opportunity in my life to testify of Him and His divine mission. 

I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Poulson

Week 28

Christmas boxes finally arrived!!