"Family" picture
Pictures!!!
1. This
is a pretty typical street on Gloucester. Everything is made of brick. And its
pretty old. (There is a new are of town way far south at the bottom of the
city, but its still all made of brick). I don't know if you can tell in this
picture, but every building has two front doors. That’s because they are all
two houses in one, basically. That is also very typical. Most of the
neighborhoods are like that--two dwellings per building. There is a wealthier
neighborhood I was in yesterday that had all freestanding houses. But mostly
they are all duplexes. And they are all much smaller than houses in Clovis.
Also, the sidewalks are called pavements and they are made of asphalt and they
are really awful and bumpy (so are the roads) and in most places you can park
with one set of wheels on the pavement. So you go around town and all the
parked cars are slanted. I still think its pretty weird. Also, people park on
the side of the road even on the roads that are only wide enough across to fit
two cars. This makes driving very interesting, as you might imagine. Its kind
of frightening, actually.
2. This
is a beautiful chapel. But its not the one that my ward meets in. Its the one
in Cheltenham.
3. This
is an iTunes card. Hold it up next to an American one and see if you can find
all the differences (I only see two).
I hope you are all confused by my question in the subject line. And the answer
is...get it hit by a car! So yes, I managed to get hit by a car already. I
thought about not telling you until I got home in a few years. That would have
been pretty funny. But I realized that I need to supply you guys with a story
like this every once in a while. If I don't, you might forget what a dork I am.
And that would be a shame.
I was biking to Zone Meeting on Tuesday and I was about to cross a street. As I
started going across, I realized that the car was also starting to go. So I
stopped. But my front wheel was already in the road. So I sat there and watched
the car drive through my front wheel while I screamed my head off. The wheel
had a very interesting shape to it after that. I wasn't hurt at all though--my
body didn't hit at all and I stayed on my bike the whole time. Thankfully, only
the wheel was damaged so it was a relatively cheap fix--24 quid for a new rim.
I was scared that there was going to be all sorts of trouble with the police as
well. The accident was probably partially both our faults. The lady was just
afraid she might have hurt me and thankfully wasn't worried that the side
mirror of her car was dangling by cables. But we didn't have to fill out a
police report or anything, the law just says that we have to exchange
information and we can be on our own jolly way. So the lady could try to file a
claim against me if she wanted to. But I doubt that will happen.
Last Monday I was way sick--I had a ton of back pain and stomach pain. It was a
somewhat miserable day. But that night Elder Chardon gave me a blessing that I
would have a quick and full recovery. And I did. The power of the
priesthood and the power of God to work miracles is amazing.
We got to see Phil more this week--and we learned that our finding him was even
more of a miracle than we thought. He told us about how his whole life he has
always had a very strong belief in God. His mother always taught him, "God
will provide," and he shared with us some instances in which he really saw
God working in his life. A few months before we met him, he said, his faith had
started to waver. Now it is again as strong as ever. He didn't come to church
on Sunday because he had a family gathering, but he said he won't plan things
on Sunday anymore so that he can come to church with us. He already considers
us to be great friends to him. Hopefully we will set up a date for him to
be baptized next time we meet with him.
We have another new investigator who is also awesome. He actually stopped Elder
Chardon and Elder McFarland (I was on exchange that day in Forest of Dean) in
the street and told them that he wanted to make things right with God. We are
going to teach him on Tuesday and we hope to have a baptismal date set up for
him as well.
Before I left on my mission, dad told me that it really is a blessing to be
able to have the opportunity to serve the Lord full time for two years, not so
much a sacrifice. I am finding that to be extremely true. I am grateful to God
for every minute that I am able to spend as a missionary--for every moment that
I get to wear this nametag and tell people that I am a witness of Jesus
Christ. I get to share with them that through living the Gospel of Jesus
Christ as it is restored to the earth today in its fullness, they will find
great joy and peace in this life and in the world to come.
Jesus
Loves You. So do I.
Elder
Seth Poulsen
*Mom's note* -
exert from personal email “My companion is also super loving. He cares so much
for everyone. He has such an awesome positive attitude--he has not said a
single negative thing the entire time I have been here with him (even when
people shut doors on us). He is really good at just making friends with
everyone, which is very important for a missionary, obviously, and I wish
that I was better at it. He sees the hand of the Lord in our lives as we go
about doing work, and is always wanting to share our miracles and have other
people share their miracles with us. Also, he is the only person I have met in
my life that out eats me. He eats so much. He's from Holland but he is half Filipino
so he is dark and he grew up going to church on the U.S. military base so he
sounds American. So no one ever guesses that he is Dutch. Its pretty funny.”
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