TRANSFERS! Dallin Poulson 1/18/2016

	Hey! This week was super chill. We had a normal week, nothing too exciting! We started playing soccer with whoever wants to at our chapel on Saturday nights. Its super fun but let me just say that I am TERRIBLE at soccer! I am starting to get the hang of it though!  Tomorrow we have transfers! I thought for sure I was changing areas but I found out my companion is! So I´m staying here in La Entrada for 6 more weeks. I was really hoping for a change but it will be good either way! I had a great run with my training companion, now excited for what's coming! Oh yeah I passed 3 months this week! Its going by pretty fast!  Super short email!  Have a happy week everyone! - Dallin Literally didn't take a single picture this week so here´s one of me about to die from the ruins!

"Now watch me whi... Slip!" and no nae nae.. Weston Poulson 1/18/2016

All you older people wont get the title to this email but its a song and a dance that is really dumb but it has some funny meaning behind it. This week was awesome because we got to go do service for a brother in our ward! We went to Menards (Home Depot) to pick up 66 sheets of dry wall! and it was 5 degrees outside when we started but it did warm up to 9! That's not counting wind chill. Anyways we got to Menards and there was a HUGE pile of snow in the middle of their lumbar yard so naturally we took a Squad pic and I'm not sure what elder Norris is doing in this picture, maybe its something new.. not sure!;)

Elder Norris in Blue sweatshirt. None of us were prepared for it to be THAT cold haha

Anyways so after this service project, me being the newest missionary they all wanted me to show them how to whip and nae nae. Something my cousin Seth wanted me to do for him all summer and I wouldn't do it, i found our why. I was like, "Sure whats the worst that could happen" and so we're walking down a little hill on the sidewalk back to the minivan and i decided to throw the hardest whip in the south side of Milwaukee and well, i found out how hard the ground was on the south side of Milwaukee! haha I ate it pretty good on the ice!

But this week the Martin family was not able to make it to church. We'll work harder this week but something cool happened as we were walking out of their house on Wednesday night. We passed a woman and naturally i say "Yo, what it is" .. Nah! haha i say "Hi! hows it going?" and she said "ohh good" and kept waking. About 15 steps later, we here "Elders! Elders!" so we turned around and she was like "That's what I thought!" and told us about how she used to meet with the missionaries 10 years ago but she wasn't ready back then to challenge but wants to meet with us again. We returned Friday and she said that she is fully ready now to do what it takes to make the full change in her life. (Her name is Ruth by the way) and so we gave her a baptism date in February that she can work towards! So far so good with Ruth! I hope she's legit! 

 

 Later this week we went back to the house that we did service for just to stop by and see if he needed any help and so we helped him put a sheet of Dry Wall up and it felt good to get back into a construction atmosphere, I wont lie! hah so something I learned form my dad since I was young that you can put time capsules in your projects and maybe someone will find it one day and think its cool! so we did!

This is what we put in a wall! shortly after Hermano Martinez showed me 100 year old magazines he found in a wall there as well! anyways that was something cool!

The weather here is kind of weird. Its always "Cold" but when it hits 30 im like happy! haha something my brother will have a hard time imagining but two days ago we had to run for a bus and then wait an hour for a bus in -2 degree weather. (Wind chill made it -25 haha) anyways! something cool about this is that the moisture from your breath freezes on your face and eyelashes! not kidding! heres a pictures of Elder Neves hat and lashes!

 

So that's ice on his eyes and hat! haha it's fun though!

Well a lot happened this week! we worked hard and got 8 new investigators but there is no way to fit all this in the time I have! Love you all! Peace!

 Love Elder Weston Poulson

 

TIES, BIRDS, AND POWER OUTAGES Dallin Poulson 1/11/2016

Whats up everyone?

So this was an eventful week! 

First I want to talk about my investigator family I'm working with. 

On Saturday we started off the day with a Super Contact in the park with a bunch of pamphlets, Book of Mormons, and handouts. We contacted like crazy with the 6 of us in our district and 90% of the people didn't even live in our city! Anyway, we started divisions and I had to take one of the zone leaders to our lessons for the day. So he and I had a great lesson after lunch and got a new investigator also!

But later that night we visited the Cotto family with a member who is a family friend of the Cottos. We went back to the restoration. We showed the 20 min video of the restoration and I knew that it was a kind of now or never kind of deal. My companion and I bore pretty sincere testimonies, I won't lie, it was kind of intense. I have grown to love this family and sincerely want them to find their way into the right church with the complete gospel. The father said that he was sorry but he wasn't going to leave his church for many reasons. 

 

They love our messages but he just wont I guess, BUT hear's the weird part. As we were leaving the mother of the family told the member that we brought that she and her husband KNOW our church is true and want to change. The problem is that they live right next to their current pastor and he has given their daughter a scholarship to college and are afraid of losing it.
Boy that was a complex set of emotions for me. I am super happy that I helped a family find the truth but I'm also pretty frustrated with the way they are handling it! 

We´ll see I guess. 

On Wednesday last week, the power was out in the whole city from literally the minute I woke up to about 8:30 at night. We had to return home early because it got dark and the rules tell us to get home if the power is out. So me and Elder Hadley had a nice evening sitting on the couch staring at candles for 2 hours.

On Friday, we got to go to Santa Rosa to do a baptismal interview since the ZL´s were in San Pedro Sula. While we were there we found a store with a GIANT bag of ties. We talked the guy down to 50 cents a Tie! I bought 16! 

On Saturday, I shook hands with a monkey at a restaurant!

Today is P-Day and this morning we went to Copan again to go the the Bird Park. They have a ton of parrots and other birds there and I got to do some cool stuff. The lady was feeding the Toucans and gave us some to feed them out of our hand! That was awesome! I also got to hold 3 parrots on my shoulders and arms too! They kinda bit at my hair and shirt though haha. It was super cool!

Spiritual thought of the week:

Share your testimony. Share it with SOMEBODY. Don't have a solid testimony? Neither did I about 3 ish months ago. It´s a process, but right now, I can tell you without a doubt that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the church that Jesus Christ established when he was on earth. It was restored by the power and authority of God given to Joseph Smith. And that the Book of Mormon really is the word of God. I couldn't have told that to any of you before my mission. I didn't know for sure, but now I do. And the best way I have found to strengthen a testimony is to share what you do have a testimony of. The best experiences of my mission so far are when I am pouring my heart out, full of the Holy Spirit, letting people know what I have come to find is true. I promise that you will feel the spirit when you share with others. 

Lots of colorful photos!

https://goo.gl/photos/Z4qLuHC3NYmCbBMfA

Have an awesome week everyone!  Love you Elder (Dallin) Poulson

NEW YEARS EVE AND STILL ALIVE! Dallin Poulson 1/4/2016

We made it through New Years Eve alive! I thought Christmas was bad but New Years was straight up Armageddon. At midnight bombs were going off, shaking our house. People were burning dummy's filled with fireworks and there were just a ton of fireworks everywhere. People were driving four-wheeler's and cars through the streets. Music was blasting until the early morning. New years day however, was silent. Everyone partied too hard i guess and no one was working or even out side. It was kind of funny.

We had a pretty fun activity on New years at the church! We played American football! I also got on the roof to retrieve a volleyball. It was super fun!

 We got some new investigators this week. One really nice catholic lady that seems pretty interested in our doctrine. The other was a guy who was a little intellectually challenged. He invited us in and we taught him. The second time we taught him we weren't sure how much he was understanding us but still made our way the the baptismal challenge. After we invited him to be baptized we heard a banshee or something like that in the other room SCREAMING that he was already baptized. Oh.. okay then..wellp, gotta go!.. sorry mam! We tried to bring him to church but he lost interest.

Nothing too exciting this week! 

Oh, this week I have seen FOUR Adventure Motorcyclists going down the road. These guys are living the life! They ride through Latin America on their awesome BMW, triumph, or other awesome motorcycles. Totally doing that at some point in my life! I miss motorcycles so so so so so so so so much.

Spiritual thought of the week is the importance of gospel study! First, I´ll admit, I didn't read scriptures until like two months before my mission. So please don't think I am a hypocrite! But I learned in Sunday school this week that there is no way to fortify your testimony without frequently reading something from the Book of Mormon. I also highly suggest the ensigns as well. We have some great Apostles and Prophet! 

Also, pray before studying to feel the spirit, to let it testify to you if these things are true!

Have a great week everybody! Elder (Dallin) Poulson

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Our names on a local restaurant wall!

 

COLD! Weston Poulson 1/11/2016

This week was a huge week to say the least but I don't have a lot of time at all. Today our p-day (planning or play) schedule went nothing as planned to conserve as much time as possible. Usually we go do our laundry, shop, eat lunch at Pizza Hut all at the same time! But Wisconsin had some other plans in mind for us! So far since I've been here it's been pretty nice weather! Only got down to like 20 degrees but the last two days, the high has been around 10! So we went to do our laundry this morning and all of our detergent (we leave it all in the zone leaders van because we ride with them on pdays) was FROZEN! So we ran other errands this morning and put it on the floor next to the feet heaters and blasted the heater on it! So we just started our laundry and basically our soap was more like slushy but I think it still works..

We had a Zone Training meeting this week out in Kenosha and so I got to go see Lake Michigan! It looks like the ocean.. It was so nice to travel out of the big city and go see the country of Wisconsin!

This week was transfers though and my companion who I thought I would be with a lot longer is getting up graded to Zone Leader! I'll still see him like 3 times a week in case I need help but now I have to take over the area and know where everything is! HAH! The streets are all named and its so confusing compared to Utah.. oh well, you know I'm good for it!! My new companion is Elder Neves. He played basketball for Payson High School so this will be so fun!

This week we had finally got one of our families to commit and come to church with us. The dad was our hardest challenge through this and then all of the sudden in our lesson before this Sunday (Friday I think) the family started answering his suspicions instead of us and they were testifying about how the way we pray makes more sense than how they pray! It was so awesome because it's not even a part member family! So now my companion (Elder Reina) has been pressuring me to stay on them no matter what and work hard with them, and I will!

This morning we took the trash out and I noticed some fairly familiar tracks in our yard so I decided I'd try my best to find it!!

Obviously my hunting and stalking skills are off cause I never did find it! Just a little rusty that's all.. I'll just have to practice more in a couple years;)

Love and miss you all so much! Thanks to all of you for being so supportive! 

~Elder (Wes) Poulson