"Do I Know You?"

I get to keep Elder Chardon! He's still here--so we'll be together for another 6 weeks. Then he'll probably transfered somewhere else and I'll still be here in Gloucester (also known as the promised land). Also its his birthday next month (he's super old--he's turning 23). But I don't think its really possible to get a birthday present for your companion when you are always within sight and sound of each other. It makes it a bit difficult.

A few days ago we were riding our bikes and Elder Chardon stopped and tried to talk to this guy that was on the sidewalk.

"Do I know you?" the man asked (make sure you read that in an English accent--I still get a kick out of it every time)

"no"

"What are you pestering me for then?" (don't forget the accent).

"we're missionaries..."

"I don't care."

I thought that was pretty hilarious. On sunday we had an awesome stake conference. One of the bishops of another ward in the stake is a pretty good organist, so it was sweet to hear some good organ playing. The main portion of the meeting, however, was a broadcast from Salt Lake (I'm assuming it wasn't live--I don't think General Authorities wake up at 2 in the morning to talk to a video camera). It was really good. The first talk was given by David S. Baxter, a member of the quorum of the seventy originally from Scotland. He talked about how there are so many problems in the world. And we have the solution to them all--The Gospel of Jesus Christ! We need to share it with people. But we cannot lead others to Christ unless we have already found him. We need to have a fire of testimony burning in us that shines through our eyes so everyone can see it.

We got to meet up with a friend of ours named Daryl this week (we haven't gotten to see him in almost a month because he's been really busy). He's jamaican (so are most of the people we teach--for some reason, jamaican people really like Elder Chardon). He's almost 24 and is going to start a university course in september to learn how to do some sort of electronic music making because that is what he wants to do. He's really cool. He has been a strong Christian his whole life and is really enjoying the new knowledge of The Book of Mormon. We just need him to realize that he hasn't actually been baptized by proper authority yet, like he thinks he has. But when we met with him last week it was apparent that we needed to not touch that issue. He was really down in the dumps because he had been caught up in work and hadn't been reading his scriptures and praying very much. So we talked to him about prayer and scripture study and read Enos 1:1-12 with him. It was an awesome experience. The moral of the story is that you should read the scriptures and pray. Every day. It will make you happy.

Love,

      Elder Poulsen