Week 60

November 24, 2014

I am missing all of you a lot, especially seeing all the Christmas lights come out. 

Something that I have started doing is every night when I write in my journal, I go back to the day I wrote last year to read what happened.  A year ago, I was still in Los Angeles, but it is crazy how much I remember when I read what I wrote back then! It´s making me appreciate keeping a journal more. Sorry I didn't take any pictures this week either....I'll do better this week! 

I am completely over being sick, and I am doing well!

My week was ok...we did a lot of visits to our recent converts and less actives. We have been helping a lot of people to fill out their family history packets that we gave them when they got baptized.

We are having some problems with that one big family that we started teaching a few weeks ago....they said that they don´t have enough money for everyone to take the bus to church, so that makes things a little hard. We should be opening up a branch here in Eusebio soon, so it will be easier here for everyone to get to church. When that happens, we should also see a lot more baptisms!!

This Saturday there was an activity at the church where a whole bunch of members who offer services like dentists, doctores, cardiologists, hair dressers, things like that got together to offer their services for free that Saturday morning. So our whole zone went there to help out. We got a room where some missionaries stayed and where the visitors were directed after they had their services done, where the movie "the testaments" was playing. I stayed in the room with one of my Zone Leaders, Elder Kennedy, and we explained the Book of Mormon to people and answered questions about he church and the movie. It was a really cool experience!

I am running short on time because the internet house is about to close down for lunch. I love you and miss you! 

Have an awesome thanksgiving!!

love,

Elder Poulson

Week 59

 November 17, 2014

This week was a little crazy....we started working in a part of our area where we haven't really had much success before, but right now its going good! We are teaching a family of 7, and there are about 10 other people we are working with as well that are awesome! The hard part about working with that big family is that they don't have enough money to pay for everyone to catch the bus to church. We are thinking about talking to the bishop about renting a van or something to pick people up, so we´ll see where that goes. But, the stake is wanting to establish a group or branch in the city of Eusébio where we work, so that would be awesome! We would have a lot more people come out to church. So hopefully that will happen in the next month or so! 

So remember how I got really sick? Yeah, that was not fun, but the good thing is that I lost about 6 pounds in that time! And I have been working to keep losing. I haven't weighed myself in a while, but I have already gone to the next loop in my belt, so I must be doing something right!

On Wednesday, we had a zone training with the mission president and his assistants, and we also had interviews with the mission president. The training was really good, we talked more about the new way that missionaries are going to work here in Brazil. We will be putting more focus on helping recent converts and inactive members. I love teaching the recent converts, so I am pretty excited about this! My interview with President Fusco went well, he told me that he recognized that I am in a good part of my mission, I am happy, I am working, and everything is going pretty well. He told me to keep it up. 

So yeah, for me everything is going pretty good! The toughest thing right now is a little homesickness every once in a while, but that´s part of the experience and you can´t really avoid it haha. Overall I'm loving it! I hope you have a great week!

um abraço,

Elder Poulson

Week 58

 November 10, 2014

This week, I was basically sick the whole time. But, I did have a spiritual experience on Friday.  I had had a fever off and on all week, but it got pretty steady on Thursday and got worse and worse. So Friday, I think I was at about 104 - we were out working, and almost everything we had planned to do was falling through, and we were doing a lot of walking. We really had nothing else to do, so we started knocking on doors. The first few didn't work out, and as we were walking down the street, we passed this one door with the door open. As I walked by, I glanced inside and saw someone very briefly, but we kept walking. I got a feeling that we needed to go back to that house. So, I stopped my companion and we went back. We taught a mom, a daughter, and a son, and the lesson was one of the most spiritual that I've had on my mission.

Sorry, I have to go already, I ran out of time. I love you!

Elder Poulson

Week 57

 November 3, 2014

Well, this week was full of surprises....to start off, on Tuesday, I got my Christmas package! No, I didn't wait. I don´t have the willpower to let a package sit unopened for two months. But it was an awesome package! So another surprise came on Thursday. Actually there were a few on that day....our zone leaders came to our area to work with us for a little bit. I went to work with the American one, Elder Kennedy, and guess what we found? A family of Americans! They have lived in Brazil 11 years now, and they work with some kind of church mission youth organization here. So, they weren't too interested in our message, but they were super excited to see other Americans and they said that we can visit them any time we want, and they even mentioned something about a thanksgiving dinner....so we´ll see where that goes! The other surprise of Thursday came a little later....I got sick. It started with a fever, and then I found myself in the bathroom with more frequency than usual that night. I think it was because of the lunch we had that day....its a long story, but lets just say I think the dude gave us spoiled meat. Anyway, the surprise of Friday, was that the whole way that our mission is going to do missionary work, changed. From now on, we are told to AVOID knocking on doors!!! I got pretty excited to hear about that.  We will now be putting more focus on reactivating people, and helping new members to stay in church. It will be a little different adjusting to a new way to work after a year of doing it another way, but it will be good! I'm excited!

So, my sickness continued into Friday, got  little bit better, but on Saturday it was suuuuper bad, so we didn't get too much done. Sunday was better, and today I am almost normal. I am under orders from Sister Fusco to eat only rice, potatoes, and tapioca until my stomach feels normal again. 

Anyway, this next week we will spend re-adjusting to the new way of doing things, so I will let y'all know how that goes for us. Thank so much for your thoughts, prayers and support!

um abraço,

Elder Poulson

Week 56

October 27, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

This week was pretty good, mostly because we had a baptism! I think I've talked about her before, her name is Lidia. She is the investigator who watched General Conference at home, started reading the Book of Mormon by herself (she is somewhere in Mosiah right now) and basically taught herself all of the lessons as well. We gave her the pamphlets, and she would explain them to us in our next visit. She was baptized yesterday and it was actually her first time at church. she works/lives in the house of an older lady, and she only gets every other weekend off, so she hasn't been able to go until yesterday. 

We have a few other people we´re teaching who have baptismal dates scheduled. One of them, Manuel, would have been baptized on Sunday the 2nd, but this last Saturday night he went out drinking...so we´ll work with him on that. We have several others who are scheduled to be baptized on the 9th of November. Edikesia, who we found just knocking on doors, is one of them. She is very interested and does all the reading assignments we give her, so she has already read parts of the Book of Mormon, prayed, and received an answer that the book is true. Her neighbor Gregory, who we met at her house, also is planning on being baptized the 9th. 

Last night, we went to Leila´s birthday party. We are teaching her, her mom Irisneida, her sister Keila, and her aunt Raquel. We helped out a little bit with serving the food and getting things ready. Some of the people there probably thought we were waiters because we were the only guys there with ties and name tags.

Today we ate lunch at Carla´s house. She was baptized about 6 or 7 months ago, and she actually feeds us about 3 times a week. We are really good friends with her and her family. In fact, Neto who was baptized last week, is her cousin, and Webson, is her daughter Victoria´s boyfriend. Sometimes we do family home evening activities at her house as well.

Everything is going pretty good for me! I am loving it!

Love,

Elder Poulson

Week 55

 October 20, 2014


Hey mom! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope it was a great one! I got my whole zone to sing happy birthday in Portuguese for you, i am uploading it onto 4shared right now! is about 30 seconds long, so I will have just enough time to send it! haha. 

This week was really good, we had two baptisms, Webson and Neto. They were super happy, even though they aren't smiling in the picture....I promise!! haha We went to visit them later that night, and Neto was almost a completely different person! He has been pretty reserved the whole time that we have known him, but last night he was laughing and joking around like I've never seen before! 

We started working in a new neighborhood where I don't think there have ever been missionaries, so we are finding lots of new people to teach. 

I had to go to the doctor to get an ingrown toenail taken care of...and then he told me I had to use flip flops AGAIN. So I have been in flip flops since Friday, but I'll be back to shoes tomorrow. 

Well, I don´t really have any cool stories this week, I'm just going along and teaching people. It's going great! Its hard to believe I have less than a year left. It really does go by fast!  It's crazy how much I miss the simple things that I always took for granted....I really miss Sundays at home. 

I love you! Talk to you next week!

um abraço,

Elder Pouls

Week 54

October 13, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

It was a pretty crazy week for me, I taught more lessons this week than any other on my mission, I think...I haven't had a chance to write Grandma Billie, but I will soon.  Please send her my love.  I wish I could have been there to go with y'all to Grandpa Randy's funeral. We´ll have to go visit some other time after I get home. 

This week was really good, I am learning so much every week! I feel like I am gaining a new understanding of the gospel the more I teach it. That is definitely a great thing about serving here, there are so many opportunities to teach. It has been cool to see my ability to communicate ideas and concepts improve over time. Sometimes when I look back to my first couple of transfers (which really don't seem too long ago) it's crazy to see how far I've come! 

This week was great, we taught a lot of lessons and found a lot of new people. But our baptism scheduled for this week didn't work out. Her name is Lidia, and she is one of the best people I've ever taught! She watched General Conference at home, and she is already in 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, and we found her like two weeks ago. We have two other people who will get baptized this week, Neto and Webson. They are both solid guys. They have already been to church a few times, and they are ready for baptism! 

I am running short on time again, but I would just like to say how much I am loving it here! I have come to such a greater appreciation of life, what a gift it is, what great opportunities we all have. I am amazed at the love that God and Jesus Christ have for us. I know that they live, God is our Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ is our Savior. He paid the price for our sins, so that we can become clean through sincere repentance. I love having the honor to represent them these two years in Brazil.

Thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers, and support!

um forte abraço,

Elder Poulson