Uruguaiana

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Well here I am in Uruguaiana. It's pretty nice. There's a picture from my house up there.
The weirdest part about Uruguaiana is that it is completely flat. Cruz Alta was absolutely hilly. It took me about this whole week to not get weirded out by it.
We met some excellent people this week.
We taught a recent convert's mom named Deizi. She said that she had read some of the church pamphlets and felt like it must be the right church. She also said that she saw pictures of here daughter´s baptism and felt like it was the true baptism. We taught her and she wants to be baptized.

We found some other awesome people too. But other than that the week was tough. We are both quite new here. I am brand new, and Elder Belnap only has 3 weeks here. That brings me to my next subject, my new comp.
Elder Belnap is a pretty awesome guy. He's way funny. He's fun to work with. He goes home in 2 transfers. We also found out that I know his cousins. They used to live in Clovis. Do you remember the Grigg family? They lived in Clovis a while ago, then moved away, anyway, they are Elder Belnap´s cousins, his first name is Greg.
This week we baptized Luis. He is 15 and the son of a recent convert - a cool kid.
Uruguaiana is going to be a sweet city to work in. I'm in Vila Julia. I'm excited!

Have an awesome week - gotta go!!

Yet Another Crazy Week!

Livin it up at the Hotel California.. in Brazil...

Baptism of Rafael and Alice

Well, as I stated previously on the phone, this week was crazy. Now let's talk about why.

I spent the whole week in division with Elder Silva, so Elder Marx could get to know the new area.

Tuesday, President Ribeiro came to our district meeting here to help get everything sorted out here, and he then told me I was going to go to Uruguaiana! That was kind of a surprise but also not. I suspected that I would leave.

Then, the next day, Patricia, the mother of Rafael and Alice, got back from her trip to Curitiba (she had been there for 11 days or something) and she was not happy when her kids told her on the phone that I was leaving the city. She was furious as matter of fact. I walked into her house on Wednesday and the first thing she said was, "NOBODY is getting baptized!" So that was kind of a shocker, given that we have had these baptisms marked for the last 3 weeks, hoping, praying, getting excited.

Patricia loves the church, but has a LOT of doubts. But it was awesome. We sat down, and talked, and it proved to me that Rafael was actually way more ready to be baptized than I thought he was. Patricia ws just bringing up a ton of doubts, and Rafael was standing up for the church boldly in every one of them. Wow it was impressive. Rafael's entire family, plus their visitors that were there were like, "are you sure about this?" But he was totally firm. Wow.

So anyway, that showed Patricia that Rafael was ready. Then we just had to take care of Alice. So we shared Mosiah 18, to show how to get baptized, someone jsut have to want to serve God and obey his commandments, and then they will recieve his spirit. Patricia was very doubtful about their readiness, but I felt like I had taken care of stuff.

Then on the next day we came back, and she still didn't known if she wanted to let Alice get baptized. So we started up again. She was just so full of doubts. I tried responding to them all, be then I just decided to teach her the Restoration again, very impromtu. I was very specific about the Apostasy, talking about how without a Prophet, the doctrines of Christ were discussed and changed by men.

One of the reasons she is doubtful about baptism is because she realizes that its a big commitment for her kids, and she had asked the day before, "How would it be before God, if they or I are baptized and we don't follow our whole lives?" We have taught Patricia for a while, so after teaching all of this again to her, I said, "Look Patricia, I'll now tell you how it's going to be before God if you do not accept this. One day after this life, you will be before God, and he will say to you, "Look, I sent Elder Ball, Elder Wiscomb, Elder Poulsen, and Elder Marx to teach you my great message, and you did not accept. My gospel was presented before you, a chance for you to unify and strengthen your family, a chance for you to have a nicer and happier life, but you rejected this chance, and I cannot give it to you again."

As I said these words, I can tell you the spirit was very strong. She understood. Then I said to her, "Patricia, we have taught you so much. you must now make a decision for yourself if these things are true, or a lie. But do not do it, without praying with an extremely open heart." I then talked to her about how the best thing for her to do at this point is to support her kids. I said, "They have made their decision, and they are setting a good example for you. You must support them."

At the end she said, okay, we'll see you at the baptismal interview tomorrow. It was somewhat reluctant, but I won. It was like, "You win this time Elder Poulsen, but I'll get you next time!" Haha. It's a good thing we are such good friends with this family, or none of that would have worked. But yea it was quite the battle. It was a powerful lesson. We had the baptisms on Saturday. All was well. And the confirmations on Sunday were excellent and very spiritual. But anyway, that's more or less why my week was crazy.

***Mom's note: This one totally made me cry!

Lots of Pictures of a Tall American!

A painting an investigator made- pretty awesome.

Us with David and his Mom and Stepdad who are also going to get baptized once they get married!

Us with our Bishop.

Our Chapel

Erico Verissimo Museum we went to.

Elder Rodrigues, me, and Elder Martini

Well , this week was a sweet week. On last P-day we finally went to this Eric Verissimo Museum. Have you ever heard of him? He's a famous writer that was born and lived in Cruz Alta. He wrote the book ´´The Time and the Wind´´ maybe you've heard of it.

The other day we did a family night with someone, and we made pancakes for them. They decided to make a meat sauce topping to try in addition to the syrup we made. I refused to try it at first, but it was actually really good! Who would have thought?

Anyway, that was the least crazy part of the week.

On Tuesday the sisters in our zone were robbed. So we had to go down (walking like an hour) to the police station to see how they were doing and stuff, and that basically ate up our whole day. This is the third time in my time here in Cruz Alta that the sisters have been robbed. So President Ribeiro decided to take them out of the area. It was quite a crazy day for us.

Then the next day we had a meeting with President Ribeiro and the Cruz Alta Stake President. The Stake Presedent told Pres Ribeiro that he wants the Zone Leaders to be in 4th ward (that happens to be the ward the sisters are in), because it's the ward that needs to divide to make a new Stake here in this region. So suddenly Marx and I were going to be transferred to the other side of the city, opening up the area the very next day.

Then we called President later, and because of the confusion that it would make, switching houses right now, he decided to postpone the trade until the transfer, next week. That was a relief. Then the next day we organized and did this huge ward activity, that basically ate up the whole day, but it was way good.

This week I had an awesome experience with David. At church he was taking about how much the church had changed his life and stuff. It was so awesome. His mom also talked about how much he had changed. Next week we will baptize Rafael and his sister Alice. Rafael is 19 he is way awesome. I'll tell you more about him next week. I've gotta go!

Well, One Thing I Did Not Do This Week Is Get Hit By a Car!

Well, sounds like another exciting week over there in Fresno. ( did I ever tell you all that Fresno is the name of a famous band here, everyone tells me that when I tell them what city I'm from)

My week here was also quite exiting. This week I did a two day division with Elder L. Silva, and Elder Marx went to Ijui for 2 days. Elder L. Silva is a cool guy, he's from Fortaleza, the other side of Brasil, and he's Indian, or in other words, LAMANITE. It was pretty cool, but he did some crazy stuff, like grab limes off trees and eat them whole. I tried it, but it was quite sour, also the skin was hard to bite, haha.

It's pretty cool here, there are citrus trees ripe EVERYWHERE here. There's orange, tangerine, lime, even cumquat! So we basically just go around grabbing tangerines all over the place and eating them on the road since they are way easy to peel. This week I also learned that avocado is something you can make a smoothie out of , and you can also just pour a bunch of sugar on it and eat it with a spoon. Imagine that.

Then on Wednesday, Presidente Soares, the 1st quorum of the seventy presidente of the area of Brasil came to our mission. Wow that was awesome. He has the potential of being an apostle someday. We had a big meeting with 4/7 of the mission, but beforehand, he had a meeting with us 8 zone leaders that were there. Pretty intense. It was fairly awesome.

Sunday was awesome because David, who was baptized last week, already got the a

Aaronic priesthood, and already went home teaching with the Elders Quorum President yesterday, awesome! He has been reading a chapter a day in the Book of Mormon. He is so awesome. His mom and Stepdad are going to be baptized in a month and a half, they just have to get married ( which takes longer here) and stop smoking.

Also, we visited Rafael and Alice on Sunday. They will be baptized in 2 weeks. They are also awesome. They have been going to church for a while, Rafael just had some doctrinal issues because he comes from a strong Spiritist backround. He is 19, and Alice is his little sister. He basically taught her the Joseph Smith story. Rafael and Alice´s mom, Patricia, will also get baptized soon, she just has to get some problems worked out with her marriage. We showed upon Monday there, and she burst open with a bunch of stuff she had found on the internet about poligamy, and other deep and difficult doctrine. We responded to her questions, she understood, and said, ´´I got really worried and confused about all these things people say about the church, because in the church, I can feel a peace that I can not feel anywhere else in my life.´´

Being a missionary is awesome, be prepared brothers!

*Mother's note: the title is in reference to what his brother DID do this week!

Another Use for a Fire Hose

"This week was a tough week for us, but we had an awesome baptism!

I'll give you the excerpt from my journal-

Well today we left a bit earlier to fill up the baptismal font. We filled it up, and then went to lunch. After the afternoon, we went back to the chapel an hour before the baptism to check on things, and the font was empty! I don't know if there was some type of leak or if someone pulled the plug, but it was empty and it takes a while to fill up, so we immediately went frantically trying to fill it up!

We turned it on, and then grabbed hoses, buckets, and everything possible to get it filled up, even the fire hose! It still wasn't full when the people got there, there was just a huge mess from us trying to fill it up, haha.

Anyway, the baptism was very nice, David is awesome, here's a little bit about him-

His family was originally encountered by Elder Ball and Elder Vianna around Christmas, and was then taught a bit by Elder Ball and Wiscomb. He even went to church once with them. Then he moved to Santa Catarina to work, that's on the coast like 12 hours away.

Then I showed up in the area. I heard a little bit about him from Ball and Wiscomb. He lives with his mom and his stepdad very close to the church. About a month into my time in the area, David´s real dad was killed. David's dad owned a lot of nightclubs and apparently made himself a few enemies. David didn't really spend much time with him, but he was his dad. His dad left him everything. So david came back to Cruz Alta, took care of all the stuff, sold the nightclubs, got a job, and started going to school.

Then we started visiting him again. When Elder Wiscomb and I started visiting him. We didn't visit much because of his super busy schedule, just once a week or less. We didn't get to teach much. Then Elder Wiscomb was transfered. The next visit, I invited him to be baptized, and he accepted. He has a personal goal about reading the Book of Mormon and all that stuff.

He is going to be an awesome member of the church. He is also going to go to Institute and stuff and he goes to church in a suit, btw that NEVER happens, haha. We talked to him about the preisthood, he is going to get the aaronic preisthood this next week. He is 20, and so serving a mission would be a possibility for him. That would be so awesome.

Being a messanger of the restored truth is the best thing ever.

Other than that, we are teaching a ton of awesome families right now, and I'll tell you more about them next week! This week we need to find new people that will progress quickly. We are teaching awesome famlies, but they have to get married and marriage is something that takes like a month here for the papers to go through.

Bye!!!!"

Another Sweet Week

"This week was a sweet week. Monday and Tuesday we were in Santa Maria for Zone Leader counsel. It was really good. Monday was P-day, so we spent our time walking around the ´´big city´´ for most of it with Elder Albrechtsen and Elder Anderson, the guys from Uruguaiana, another city. Then we went to President's house at 6 to start the meetings. It was pretty sweet. Elder Black and Elder Wiscomb were there, along with a bunch of other cool guys, we learned a lot of important stuff about being leaders. Then Tuesday we did the same exact thing, except we went to the chapel in Santa Maria to do it. Once again, it was awesome. We learned a lot of important stuff.

This week I have been learning a lot about being more organized. With every companion, you learn something different and extremely important. With Elder Wiscomb, I learned a lot about really loving the people, with Elder Marx I'm learning a lot about be more organized in the work.

This week I felt that we did a specifically awesome job in using members in our lessons, and integrating the people very well with the members. A few of our investigators went to the Relief Society activity this week and loved it! We are teaching a lot of awesome families right now that will strengthen the church here a lot, but unfortunately they have to get married before they can be baptized. A lot a lot a lot of people in Brazil dont get legally married. They just live together and say they're husband and wife. But this week we will baptizie an awesome guy named David. He is already coming to church in a suit! (PS thats super rare here) We have various investigators that have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot which is key. It's awesome.

This morning for p-day we watched 'The Best Two Years'. That was cool and funny. It gets a whole new meaning when you are a missionary. Haha. Well I hope you all have an awesome week!"

Birthday Report

Well this was a sweet week. I'm now companions with Elder Marx. Tuesday was really busy, we spent a fair part of the day picking people up at the bus station, because this was tranfer week. The bulk of this week was hard, a lot of lessons fell through, but it still ended up really awesome.

Elder Tafoya, Elder Rodrigues´s new companion is a pretty sweet guy, but he also got this crazy bug in his leg. I don't know if you have heard of those. There was some bug in his leg that was eating his flesh apparently, but they got that taken care of, but he still couldn't walk for most of the week. We did some divisions with Elder Rodrigues to visit their investigators.

Contrary to my birthday for you all, my birthday here was awesome. We taught an awesome family, Petri, Jossara, andTiago, their 17 year old son and we brought a super awesome member Tiago, who is a radio host. The lesson was way good, Tiago (member)´s testimony was way good. It helped the family a ton. We marked their baptismal date for the 28th. At the end of the lesson I asked them if they believed that the church was true, Petri said, `I think there is a great probablilty that it is´´ haha, Petri is an awesome guy.

Then we visited David, he is awesome too. We also planned his baptism for the 28th. He is 19.

I didn't really tell anyone it was my birthday, I was kinda hoping I would be able to get away with one birthday of my life, without anyone telling me Happy Birthday, haha, it would be some sort of record. Kind of silly, I know.

It lasted until 9:05

We were walking home after teaching David, and then President Ribeiro calls me of all people to wish me Happy Birthday, haha. Then when I got home, Elder Marx made cookies for me. That was sweet. So my birthday was awesome.

Then yesterday was also way awesome. We had some really cool investigators at church, among them, Petri and Jossara. I dropped off Jossara at the Relief Society, nervous about just leaving her there, but I got back after the class, and she had made great friends with the Bishop's wife, sweet! They are liking the church a lot, liking the Book of Mormon. Awesome.

Right now I am in Santa Maria. We have a conference thing of the Zone leaders here at President's house, it's gonna be awesome.

Have an awesome week!

Mother's Note: I think one of the few words he remembers in English is 'awesome' and he has converted the word 'way', for his convenience, into an explicative that can be paired with it.

***11 'awesomes' in this email***