Mom, Dad, and Connor Come to England!

(Written by mom)

3-11-15

After spending a week in Germany and France, Eric and I arrived in London and picked up Connor from the airport on the 10th.  We drove up to Birmingham and checked into our room at the Standbridge Hotel.  We did some laundry at a laundromat and tried not to get too distracted by our excitement to see Seth.  When we pulled into the parking lot of the mission home first thing in the morning Elder Poulsen came running out.  Somehow Connor beat me out of the door and hugged Seth first.  I must have forgotten to mention to him that that was not allowed.  

President Rasmussen and his wife had such wonderful things to say about Elder Poulsen and his service.  They said they could always count on him to handle any assignment.  He was placed in some very hard situations and handled them all well.  He told us that he knew he could have called Elder Poulsen to be an A.P. at any point in time but he needed him more in other areas.  

Next we took a quick drive up to Preston to see the temple and meet with Leah and Andy Loynes.  She is the daughter in a family Eric taught the gospel to on his mission in Ireland.

Then we drove back down to Rugby to have a typical British dinner with the McSweeney family.  They were such lovely people!

Next we visited the pole that Elder Poulsen and his companion use to lock their bikes when they went to visit the next person we visited.....

This is Julie, a wonderful woman that Elder Poulsen contacted and taught, that was baptized.  

We stayed the night at the Grosvenor Hotel in Rugby.  It was a fabulous place up on the top floor of a rambling old house.  The windows looked out over the rooftops and you could see rows and rows of brick chimneys. 

3-12-15

 Elder Poulsen said when he woke up in the morning and realized he was sleeping in the same room with his family, for a minute he was scared he was dreaming.  After a walk downtown and some breakfast we drove to Redditch and Studley to meet with members of the Dobbins Family.  I had connected with them through Brenda Summers, a faithful church member who was doing genealogy work for her son-in-law, Keith Dobbins.  His father, Jack was there at 93.  He was so healthy and vibrant.  Apparently his mother had gotten pregnant out of wedlock and her family, the Greenhills, had disowned her; so sad.  I guess we are distant cousins.  

Next we drove to Swindon and checked into the Great Western Hotel.  Connor and Elder Poulsen visited a skatepark and then we were off to meet Carly and Maddisyn.  What beautiful people!  It is so wonderful to experience a new convert that has such an amazing grasp of the gospel.  She really gets it.  It was a treat to hear her tell her conversion story to us personally and to understand the spiritual experiences she had that led her there.  

We were also able to take a few minutes and make a short visit to a few struggling investigators/members that Seth felt it was important to visit and let them know he was still thinking of them and praying for them.  We had a wonderful visit with Chris,

as well as with Martin.

3-13-15

Off to Wales!  On the way to lunch with Harold and Val Peters we stopped for a quick look at Caldicot Castle

Our meal with the Peters was the most perfect Welsh experience.  All the missionaries in the area call them Grandma and Grandpa.  I seriously felt like I was in a Lord of the Rings movie standing next to them.

And then we had dinner with the Chavarrias. They were originally from El Salvador, so Elder Poulsen had to learn some more Spanish.   They made one of Elder Poulsen's  favorite meals, Pupusas.

On our way to Llanelli we stopped to visit with Jenny and her sister.   Elder Poulsen had actually taught her while living in Gloucester, but she had moved back home to Wales and he was excited to help her make sure to connect with her new ward there.

We checked into out room at Llwyn Hall and slept well!

3-14-15

After a beautiful Welsh breakfast we hurried off to meet Alex Watkins.  He was anxiously awaiting our visit.  We spent the day with him enjoying the Welsh countryside as well as a walk on the dramatic coastal cliffs of Rhossili and Worm's Head.  

We even made a stop at the house Alex lived in when he met Elder Poulsen and checked out the fateful street corner where they actually had their first conversation.  

Alex's baptism was an important experience for both him and Elder Poulsen.

Before leaving we spent some time with Elder Poulsen's Welsh Mammy, Alex's mother.  It was a tearful goodbye when we finally left.

Our last visit of the night was with 'The Captain', Alan Phillips.  He was the ward mission leader in the ward there and made a wonderful impression on Elder Poulsen while he was serving there.

3-15-15

Next morning on our way to London we couldn't resist stopping at Stonehenge.

Then we turned in the rental car and found our way to our room at the Avonmore Hotel

There was lots to see on the streets of London!

3-16-15

Next morning we visited the National Musem, the Tower of London, the most famous London skatepark (Southbank), Westminster Abbey and all the sites along the way.

3-17-15

We flew out in the morning.  Elder Poulsen was happy to have his first American Burger in two years during our layover.

And this is who he had waiting for him when he got off the plane!

Welcome home Elder Poulsen!  You have returned with honor!

Baptism!

The baptism of Iris was great! Her uncle Dennys practised with us so he could do the baptism and confirmation in English. It was awesome. Her mother (also named Iris, not a member [yet]) really enjoyed the baptism and confirmation. I taught about the restoration for the gospel principles class for her and other members of the family. In spanish (that was interesting). There was probably some divine aid going on there, because my spanish really isn't that good. But I was able to bear testimony with all my heart about the truthfulness of the restoration. One thing that's really cool that I have learned from being able to teach in another language is that the Gospel and the Spirit are still the same in different languages.

Chris has disappeared for the latter part of this week, hopefully we will see him tonight. There are some other people we're working with too, and there are always more people being prepared. We're going to make these last few weeks amazing.

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

Missionary Work!

This week has been great, Chris came to church with us for the first time yesterday! He is so awesome. When we went to see him on Saturday, he basically bore his testimony of The Book of Mormon to us without even knowing it. He really feels the spirit when he reads The Book of Mormon. Also on Saturday, Iris passed her baptismal interview! She will be baptised by her uncle on Saturday. There will be a primary activity right beforehand, so hopefully all the members will stay for the baptism. 

On Friday I got to go to the mission home in Birmingham for a District Leader training meeting. It was great! Our mission President is so inspired. He taught us about how the love for the missionaries we lead and the people we teach is shown through how well prepared we are to help and serve them. He also told us that we were all foreordained to have the callings that we have. How cool is that!?

I'm so glad I have the opportunity to be a full-time missionary and to share the Gospel with God's children. It is a great experience that helps both myself and the people I meet to be better equipped to face the challenges that we all have in life. God is so good.

Love,

Elder Poulsen

I think Elder Poulsen is getting lazy......

*mother's note*  I questioned Elder Poulsen about his lack of a general email this week.  His reply was, "I thought I sent one."  Well, maybe he forgot to click send.

It's Cold Here

People didn't really want to talk to us the other day while it was snowing. Thankfully, it stopped pretty quickly haha. Things have been going great here. On Wednesday I got my new companion, Elder Palu from Tonga. He has a huge burning desire to do the work of the Lord. This transfer is going to be amazing. Crazy story--he has a cousin that plays for Newport's rugby team and for the Wales team and apparently he is one of the best players in the World for his position. Also the Rugby world cup is here in the UK later this year.

We have been teaching Iris this week, she is really bright for a 7 year old kid. Hopefully she will be ready for baptism on the 21st.

We also have a really cool guy named Chris who we have been teaching who I also think will be baptised. He has been reading The Book of Mormon and loves it. He hasn't been coming to church yet, but he has been trying to convince some of his family members to come with him when he does! He's so awesome. He works as some sort of engineer. We met him just by knocking on his door a few Sunday afternoons ago.

Thank you so much for all the love and prayers all the time, I love you all a ton.

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

Missionary Work in Newport

Pictures!

1. This is my companion and I about to replicate a roman gladiator fight. Not really, but those did actually happen here.  This is in Caerleon, (pronounced kuh-lee-un, with the stress in the middle), a town just north of newport that was a roman settlement. There is also remains of a roman barracks there. This ampitheatre used to have a wooden structure extending 50 feet above the foundation where the seats were. 

 

2. A closer picture of us. 

 

3. Some more detail in the foundation of the ampitheatre.

 

We have a bunch of really incredible people we are working with here--unfortunately none of them are doing all of the things they need to do to prepare to be baptised...yet. We hope that will change soon as we help these people to have spiritual experiences to help them to change their life. 

 

This week we are also going to start teaching another member of the Chavarria family (the part member family from El Salvador). Her name is Iris, she will turn 8 next month. I'm really excited for that, it should be awesome. Kids are great. Also, she's been going to school for the last year in English, so her English is pretty good and we won't have to try teaching in Spanish.

 

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary and to seek to help and serve the people here. It truly is an amazing opportunity. I really hope that we can see some amazing things happen here in the work of the Lord in the time that I have left. This week I'll probably get my last companion! Its pretty crazy. God is so good. 

 

Love, 

 

Elder Seth Poulsen

This Week

This week has been good, we have been able to teach a lot of awesome people (mostly the same ones as the week before). We're hoping that some of them will really begin to progress toward baptism. This week Rafael's son Dennys (who is a member) didnt' make it to church, but Rafael did. That meant that I got to sit with him and had to attempt to read along with the lessons in the spanish manuals on his tablet and occasionally try to tell him in Spanish what the teachers had been talking about. It was a cool experience. Unfortunately our Angolan friends didn't make church this week. But we'll be teaching them still, and praying for them to receive some good revelation. I've been told by more than one person that I need to send pictures, so I'll have to work on that. Thank you so much for all the love and prayers, I love you all a ton.

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

Cwmbran

This week has been really good. I got to spend a couple days up in Cwmbran working with the missionaries there and interviewing a kid named Daniel for baptism! I also got to go see his baptism on Saturday, that was great. Great things are happening in Newport too, we had three people come to church yesterday! One was Rafael, our friend from El Salvador. The other two were a guy from Angola who we met on the street named Antonio, and his friend Eddy who he brought. I think they really enjoyed it. We had Dennys, Rafael's son who is a member, teach the Gospel principles class in Spanish! It was so awesome. The guys from Angola grew up speaking Portugues, and they can understand Spanish too. They have different levels of English comprehension, but its not too bad. I managed to understand a lot of the lesson as well, so that was really cool. I'm probably getting some sort of Divine Aid because I am understanding a lot really fast it seems.

I'm so glad to be a missionary, its such a great blessing. We had a really cool District meeting this week where we talked about how great our calling is and the amazing things we can do to help people. Its great!

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

Happy New Year!/Feliz Ano Nuevo!

I figured I can justify putting a subject line in Spanish since I taught two lessons in Spanish this week. It was very difficult, but awesome. It was to the father of a Part-member family in the ward here--the Chavarrias, from El Salvador. They are so awesome. Thankfully one of our investigator Rafael's sons, Dennys, who is a member, can translate for us. I have managed to teach the principles of the lessons in really simple Spanish, after lots of study, but I still have such a hard time understanding what they say when they talk so fast.

We also had some other really cool experiences this week, like being able to see a well-loved member of the ward who hasn't been out to church for a few more than a few years now, and seeing Georgia, the girl that was baptised just before I came here, get up and bear her testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday.

     2015 is here and 2014 is gone! How crazy is that! 2014 was the year that I spent entirely in the full time service of the Lord, and at the end of it, I'm still the one indebted to Him, "and will be, forever and ever" (Mosiah 2:24). I will forever be so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve as a missionary.

      Our Bishop gave an incredible lesson in church yesterday to present the area goals by the Europe area Presidency to double sacrament meeting attendance in 10 years. The plans for each person to do individually are to bring a friend, become physically and spiritually self-reliant, and to find an ancestor (it matches the 3-fold mission of the church). Anyway, I'm pretty excited about it because if the members do there part we will see some amazing miracles here.

I love you all a ton and I hope that you have an amazing week!

Love

Elder Seth Poulsen