La Ciudad del Pecado Dallin Poulson 4/26/2016

False alarm everyone! I am not training a gringo, thank goodness! I am finishing the training of Elder Balderrama from Bolivia though! Awesome guy! He is a work horse! 

I am serving in LAS VEGAS! honduras also known as Mochito! Its a small mining town up in the mountains! Its a  lot cooler up here so I am pumped for that! Good news for mom and dad is that it is probably the safest area in the mission! A ton of the houses are made of wood instead of cement and are on stilts on the mountain side. Crazy stuff!

There is a ward here instead of a branch so thats cool! There are plenty of investigators already that we are working with so we are pretty busy. So far it has been a much easier area than my last one. All gas no breaks though! We may have a baptism this Saturday! He backed out of last Saturday so we will see. His name is Christian Sanchez! The same as one of my good old pals from Orem! Shoutout to Christian! 

Said goodbye to a bunch of people on Monday. Josue and Edgar and their family bought a giant 3 leches cake for us! SO delicious! We also had a nice meal at the other converts house afterwards. 

Ohh I forgot to tell you that some american biker guys were riding by and I did the motorcycle ´´wave´´ to them and one did the ´´wave´´ back. I am still one of them! hahah 

Most of you have seen the Mormon Missionary parody of Hello. Well that video hit it BIG here for a couple days. The zl´s I lived with were contacting and the video was on the TV. The guy inside just looked at them like ´´woah its you!´´ and invited them in! So awesome! 

Saturday night we woke up at 4 am to something hitting my comps mattress a couple times and mine once. He woke me up and we couldn't find ANYTHING that could explain it. Like pretty good hits.  It happened as I went to sleep too. spoooooky. 

One of our investigators had a giant circle and scars. He got hit by a guy with a bottle and got stitches. Rough stuff but he is super interested in the Book of Mormon. 

I teach an English class 2x a week. Kinda don't have a choice since I am the only one that speaks english. Its super hard! But I will get better at it! 

Today we went on a little nature walk and saw Lake Yajoa! The only lake in Honduras! 

That's all for this week!

Photos! sketchy bridges and 9 people in a mototaxi!  Lots of pics

 https://goo.gl/photos/WYdLXdmSTFRFkHcd9

6 months! And Singing In Another Funeral?? Weston Poulson

This week was pretty great!! we found a lot of new people! And some pretty crazy stuff happened again! Lets hop to it.

On Tuesday, we got a phone call asking if we could Dedicate a grave for Herminia Olivares. She is the woman that we gave a blessing to a couple weeks ago so please keep the Olivares and Salas family in your prayers! By what I heard at the funeral, she lived a great life. During the part of the funeral where people have time to share what they want, a family in our branch asked us if we could sing one of our church hymns so people could here something from our church. At first we thought we were going to sing with them but nope! just us two! haha so after a couple run through's in the parking lot of singing "Soy Un Hijo De Dios" we were ready! and we (Just me and Elder Neves) actually did really well. There were like 80 or 90 people there it was so scary! haha good to share the spirit though!

Then on thursday we had a great day! I hit six months and burnt a tie! pretty fun day and we got a lot of tracking done too! Found a lot of pretty awesome people! Heres a picture of me burning my tie.

This Sunday Moises made it to church! It was great, he stayed all 3 hours and was looking up the scriptures in the Book of Mormon on his own when they were mention in talks and in class. After church Me, Elder Neves and Brother Rivera showed him the baptismal fount and taught him about it! it was great! he even came to the Rivera's later sunday night for dinner and hung out with us and the family for a bit. We are really excited for him and seeing him progress is awesome! 

Heres some pics from the week! Love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week! Enjoy the dry heat in utah!;)

~Elder Weston Poulson

I'M 19! hah.. wut. Weston Poulson 4/18/2016

Heres a picture of me and Elder Neves being goofs on the bus! Hah we love lookin nerdy in our helmets! Not cause we want to but cause we have to! haha

 Haha I look fat but I promise I've only gained 1 pound!! not bad for a Wisconsin Winter;) !

Here's a pic of me and Elder Norris at our party thingy! hahaha not sure what Elder Norris is doing! and also Jonathon! He's so cool!

Well as you all know I turned 19 this week! Pretty cool and the Perez family actually held a little party for me and Elder Norris (his is on the 30th, hes transferred now though) on tuesday! It was pretty awesome and I'm so happy to have them in my life, they are so awesome! 
The dad Ramon we get to work with now that the ZL left! Pretty excited to work with him. He's the only non-member in the family but comes to church like every sunday and knows its true! getting baptized is more of a pride thing for him because his whole family is catholic! Thats okay though! Mondaywe actually had a family night with him and his family! 
Also Hma Perez (His wife) Invited all of her extended family to join us! Me and Elder Neves were in charge of it and had a good night! We talked a little about overcoming trials and also related it to the atonement of Christ. We had a bag of doughnuts and we called Elder Norris up to the front of this family. We asked if everyone would like a doughnut! (doughnut, donut, whatever! haha) They all of course said yes but we said Elder Norris had to do 10 pushups for every person to receive their doughnut! As I went around the room every ten pushups handing one person a doughnut Elder Norris started to wear down! 
At this point a thought came to my mind from an email from my dad. He was at my friend Matt's Homecoming and a member of the 70 spoke there with them. He said that when Jesus was in the garden, all of us were in heaven cheering him on and encouraging him to do it and that he could do it! Something along those lines but I shared that and so we all started cheering him on for every ten pushups! 

He really started to struggle and this is when the lesson came into play. Her extended family asked for someone else to do it instead of Elder Norris so he didn't have to suffer so much. We kind of paused and taught how Jesus Christ was the only one ever able to suffer for all of the sins of the world. There was no other being who could do it, only him. By the end of it, Elder Norris did 120 pushups in about 15 minutes and it was GREAT! The reflection on it afterwards was great and I think that it was pretty good! plus Elder Norris got his workout in so that was good! haha

Awesome week! Ill send more pictures and a video of me seeing how fast i can run! haha ive gotten slower.. ITS THE ELEVATION! haha love you all, have a great one!!

Weston

Elder Neves on a long stretch of country road! haha

¡Estoy Embarazado! Dallin Poulson 4/18/2016

We had 3 baptisms on Saturday!!! WOOOHOO.

Josue (15) and Edgar (12) are receiving the Aaronic Priesthood next Sunday! How awesome is that? They even shared their testimonies to us! Super happy about that!

On the day of the baptism we got a call from Jessica, the mom of Angelique (9). She said that Angelique had been fighting with her sister and isn't ready to be baptized. So we went over to them and they were furious!!! We read 3 Nephi 11:28-29 where it talks about the spirit of contention and how it is from the devil. We explained that Satan does not want us to make covenants with God. He knows that it helps us on our path to be saved and he will do whatever he can to take that from us. I know that in my experience, i have seen that and heard stories, too. He causes arguments a TON before baptisms, and when people are going to the temple also. 

We ended up resolving the problem and she got baptized! 

Speaking of the attempts to ruin ordinances, Josue and Edgar were 30 minutes late to sacrament meeting due to the power going out! Almost missed their confirmation! 

We are always in a constant battle against Satan and his followers. Time to put on the armor and pick a side! Gotta be smart! 

We had a super fun Fellowshipping Night with a fun balloon game. 

Well i am finally getting a NEW AREA! I love this place but i am definitely down for a change! I also found out that i am also finishing TRAINING an Elder! Thats scary! He is also a Gringo so we are kinda in trouble haha. Neither of us are gonna know a lot of spanish! IT will be an interesting transfer, thats for sure! Super nervous, I won't lie! 

That's all I got for this week! 

Adios!   Dallin

PHOTOS! https://goo.gl/photos/fwB2XFhWaAfRBWoW8

¡SALVAJE! Dallin Poulson 4/11/2016

So I guess last week on the bus ride back from the ruins I fell asleep on the ´´rapidito´´ (van) driver's shoulder!! How hilarious is that! I was super tired! Here´s a video! 

https://youtu.be/bGu4fg5EAoI

We did divisions this week and I went into the area of the ZL´s.  It was a great experience! Elder Toolson is an awesome guy and can really teach with the spirit! He's going home in a week! Well actually his family came to pick him up. haha

We lined up another baptism for this Saturday! So we have Angelique 9 yrs old, Edgar 12 yrs old, and Josue 15 yrs old! All of which are super super excited to be baptized. Josue even testified in church yesterday! Super awesome kids. They say they want to go on missions too!  Booya! 

We baptized José Betillo this week! Just his family and some members were there but he was super happy. His family is less active right now so I am hoping this helps them get back on track.                                                        

                

We had a great Fellowshipping night on Thursday! We had 12 investigators there between us and the ZL´s. Also some random people that were playing soccer out on the church's court joined us! It was AWESOME!

My spiritual thought  is just D&C 58:42.

42 Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.

We taught a lady in our branch yesterday and she would not believe this. She really does not believe that she has been forgiven, even after the branch president said she had been. It was really sad. So just remember that repentance is a happy process! The best gift we have ever been given!

Have a super week everyone!

Adios! 

Photos!

 https://goo.gl/photos/X3BvdyNwvNxj2Txs5

Staying in the MKE for 6 more weeks! Weston Poulson 4/11/2016

So my address will stay the same! Me and Elder Neves are going for our third transfer together! You know, I feel bad for him but the Lord knows! We are pretty sure we get a car too.. A MINI VAN! wooh! haha but this week we had some bike troubles. Well, Elder Neves did.. hah he went through 4 this week! Good thing a bunch of past missionaries left a bunch of bikes in our area! We had to frankenstein a bike together but it sure does ride purty! If that makes sense.. here's a pic of us in our living room making him a bike!

We also went roller skating last week and I got right back into my old grooves! haha it was so fun!

This week was pretty weird! As far as our promising Investigators go Santana actually dropped us this week. He's still super awesome though and promised us that he would let future missionaries in if they ever knock his door and listen to their message.But Alejandro is still super solid! This week we actually met with him twice so that was great! We read a chapter in The Book Of Mormon with him on Tuesday because he didn't have time to read but on Saturday he did! That was great by its self but in the lesson on saturday we were teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. The whole time he just kept saying how much he loved the pamphlet and he was marking scriptures in the Book of Mormon which was so awesome! That is something I haven't seen yet on my mission so we are really excited for him. He still has not accepted a baptismal date. He says he'll let us know when he thinks he can set a goal so I'll keep you updated on that! He said he would come to church for sure but when we went to remind him Sunday morning he said he couldn't because he was going to look at a house! I haven't lost faith in him at all though, I've never seen someone who's kept their promises as well as he does! 

Fun week! Looking forward to working another hard transfer out here in Milwaukee and helping the area and branch progress! 

Love you all and hope you all have a great week! 

~Elder Poulson

¡QUE BARBARIDAD! Dallin Poulson 4/4/2016

 Hey, what´s up, hello! 

Conference was awesome! Probably the most I have ever enjoyed it in my life! It blows my mind that our prophet and apostles can receive revelation directly from Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. Just knowing that made conference  so much cooler. I got to watch all of the sessions in ENGLISH! The american missionaries were allowed to meet in the ´´ bunker´´(clerks office) of the church and watch conference in english! With air  conditioning too so I was really happy. Although I do have a cold again right now so maybe I  took too much advantage of the AC! But we ended up having 8 investigators from 3 different families come to at least one session! Two of which are young men (12 and 15) and afterwards said they want to serve missions. okay then lets go take a dip in the font real quick! hahah jokes! 

Speaking of baptisms we have 3 lined up for this saturday. One is the 9  year old sister of Monique who we baptized in February. The other two are 9 and 10 year old boys from less active families that didn't get baptized yet. So booya! It will be fun to have a baptismal service just for little kids!

I may be leaving when the other investigators get baptized but i am totally okay with that. I just hope they keep on keeping on, ya know? 

I was teaching a not-so-sober man on the side of the street but didn't realize he was probably under the influence at the time. I used an example about authority, trying to explain priesthood authority, and asked if he would let a stranger or a drunk come into his house without a warrant. He went off about how you cant trust those people and that strangers can do bad things and that they will steal from you and kill you or something! Then i asked him if he would allow the police to come in if they did have a warrant to search your house. Then he went off about how the police here would just walk in no matter what anyway. ... Welp... failed attempt...that example usually goes really well!

It wasn't until afterwards my companion told me he was drunk! But he was super nice and agreed with everything at least! 

He isn't even the only weird person we talked to that days. SOO many people tell us their dreams that they have as if we are supposed to interpret them. Its fun though!

We had a really good lesson  about temples with the mother of Monique, Jessica, the other night. I have been wanting to teach it so bad to her but the situation hasn't allowed it recently. She really understood it and was in tears talking about her mother and what she could do for her. Slowly but surely she´ll  come around! 

We went to Copan RUINS  again today. It was cool, we brought a football to play in  the giant field but they didn't let us for some reason! I was super bummed! its all good, we still had a good time! 

PS. People are way too chill with the giant spiders here. Normal spiders are GIANT. Like 2 inches or more accross. Not happy with that at all!

Toodles!! 

Dallin

Photos!!! (Emperor´s New Groove reference! And abduction by aliens?)

https://goo.gl/photos/jNu8B15T7LfdjuBm8

Bunny Hop Fails,General Conference and A Possible Address Change! Weston Poulson 4/4/2016

This week was pretty awesome! We played ultimate frisbee again last pday (Prep/laundry/free day) but me and Elder Neves could only stay for like 25 minutes! We had to get haircuts but thats all good cause we were playing in the mud anyways! That was a ton of fun for those of us who didn't care to get some mud under our nails! hah the others missed out! thats for sure! 

Tuesday to Wednesday we went on a Blitz! our mission doesn't do Exchanges with the zone leaders anymore its only a blitz so me and Elder Neves went to their area and their house for two days! Well it started off awesome because we had a dinner at and investigators house (Who is basically a member, just needs some legal documents so she can be married) It was so good!!! We had ribs, mexican rice and MAC AND CHEESE! lol still love mac and cheese! Anyways it was around 4 so I figured eh, what the heck, I'll pack myself to the brim so I don't have to eat dinner tonight! Well, I did just that, I ate four plates of food and enjoyed every bite of it! She (guille) loves me now! The Latinos love elders who can put it down here. well, I had forgotten that we had another dinner following that.. oops! Luckily we were on bikes and we took the long way there so I could work up an appetite! On our way over, Me and Elder Reina noticed as we went down this hill that the entrances from the road to the sidewalk made nice jumps! And I've developed a good bunny hop out here as well so I was catching some good air! this comes into play later in the email.. We ate again and i can say I've never been so full in my life! haha good stuff though, never mad and being blessed with food! Coming back from that appointment Elder Reina about ate it because his front brake went out and he forgot there are back breaks. A quick lesson resolved that! Heres a pic of us on the blitz!

Wednesday night after me and Elder Neves were reunited into our own area, on the way home I wanted to show Elder Neves my new acquired talent of bunny hoppin the sidewalk entrances! Well, be humble my friends! Cause I met the concrete monster this week! haha I hopped a little too late on one of the entrances and my brain farted mid air or something cause my front wheel ended up facing sideways when it was time to land! Hah I aimed for the grass but my lower have didn't quite make it! Tore up my brand new week old shoes I just got and my new pants! The pants were only 6 bucks though! 

Anyways the next day I was riding saddle side on my bike while we were tracking. I came to a stop and forgot it wasn't a four-wheeler I guess and tipped right off the wrong side of the bike. What is so sad about this one was how slow it happened.. Its been rough!:') haha jk

But, believe it or not things got better! Conference was great as usual! I cant say i have ever LOVED conference growing up! I can say now that if you go in as you do with your scripture study with a humble heart and an open mind to everything you will be blessed with personal revelation and the spirit the whole time. The MTC is indeed a spiritual high the whole time and conference made me re- live that. There is no way I can just pick one thing to share out of conference! They talked a bit on families. I loved how Uchdorf said that there is no such thing as a perfect family. They all have their issues and their problems. Then M. Russel Ballard gave a talk on family meetings. I can't remember right now what he called it exactly but I think that those two talks put together and applied into life are the key to family happiness! 

Elder Holland hit it out of the park again, as we all knew he would! That is a talk that I highly recommend to all of you to print and study! He is a mastermind with words and always says just what we need to here in these latter days! My personal testimony grew a ton these last few days and i hope all of yours did too! 

After conference we got to teach a new investigator that we have named Santana. I think i touched on him last week but man i think he is awesome! We met with him and kind of his wife this week! She was busy cleaning around us but she still listened. Santana was filled with questions and it made the lesson so awesome. We helped him understand a ton of what the gospel of jesus christ is and how it was restored to earth today. He does want to be baptized really bad he just wants to make sure that he will live worthily afterwards and not go back to bad habits. So he hasn't said yes to a date yet but we will further teach and help him this Wednesday!

Heres a pic of me in President Cutlers desk at the mission office that he hasn't ever used.

This week was great! Sorry i wrote so much! Have a wonderful week everyone!

~Elder Weston Poulson