Small World Moment

So about a month ago I had dinner with a couple in the ward here and upon my mentioning that I was from Fresno area, they asked if I knew Reed Van Wagenen. I said yes, and they informed me that he, Terry Reynolds was taught the Gospel and later confirmed a member of the church by Elder Van Wagenen 30 years ago. Crazy how these connections can happen. Also crazy that I am laboring in the same area as someone who we know did decades ago. Anyway, I thought it would be cool if you could give Reed their email address so they could be in contact again.  

The work here is going so well. Jan, our miracle door knock find, will be interviewed for baptism this week and probably baptised the week after that (if not that one, the week after that). We have another awesome guy we started teaching this week, a friend of a member in the ward. 

One thing I have learned so much on my mission and I keep learning more and more about it even when I already think that I have already learned a lot about it is loving people, really trying to understand them and their point of view, their situation. Being patient with them. Explaining things in a way that they will understand. Seeing not the bad things about them but the good, and helping them to overcome their weaknesses without focusing too much on them. One Elder in my district taught me about how constructive it can be to use "and" statements in helping people. For example, "I think you are great at x, y and z, and you would be even better if you were to a, b, and c." Above all, I know that God is awesome, He loves us and wants us to be able to learn and become better, so we need to be humble and let Him teach us. Its so awesome! 

Love, 

Elder Seth Poulsen

Julie's Baptism

I unexpectedly had a notice on my screen come on that this computer is about to shut off real soon, so I have not time to write anything. The baptism of Julie went well this week, enjoy the pics. I can explain them more later. 

The other pic is us with a mini-missionary who was with us for a few days, the other one is a reunion of our MTC district, almost a year later. 

Elder Poulsen

*Elder Poulsen's answers to these questions:

Boone: Hey Seth. I am sad to have you not here but it makes me happier when I read your letters. So here is my question: Have you ever cried of joy or of sadness?

Elder Poulsen: Boone, I feel the same way. I am sad to not be with you, but I am always so glad to hear from you whether it be a letter, an email, a picture, or anything. I have cried many times in my life, both of joy an sadness. I think both have happened on my mission as well, as we have many sad and many happy things happen. For example, it is sad that there are so many people that don't want to listen to us teach them about the gospel, but then we also have amazing things happen like J, our friend who was able to overcome her addiction to alcohol and on Saturday she was baptized! 

David: Can it be fun at sometimes while being a missionary?

Elder Poulsen: David, being a missionary is fun all the time. Being a missionary is like going out and making great new friends, and then you can baptize them so you can be friends with them in the celestial kingdom forever. Its so awesome!  We definitely had tons of fun with Alex Watkins, who we taught when I was in Wales. We would play sports with him on p-day and stuff. And even on days where no one really wants to listen to you, you still always have your companion to laugh and joke around with. Its awesome! You also get to do fun stuff like ride your bikes down big hills, ride on trains and on double decker buses, and more. Its different depending on where you go on your mission, but that's some of the fun stuff we get to do here. Today after I'm done emailing, we're going to go play football (soccer) and table tennis with some other missionaries. Its going to be a blast!

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Alex's Question

The only person that had a question for me to answer was Alex, so I will go ahead and answer his question, about what the deal is with the people that we have on baptismal dates. 

J: She's getting baptised this week! She was interviewed by one of our Zone leaders on Saturday and so she is ready to go. At the same time I interviewed a lady that the sisters are teaching, and they are both going to be baptised on Saturday! Double baptism in Rugby. It's going to be awesome. Hopefully the Elders in Banbury who are also in our district will be getting some members to drive them and some of their investigators over to see the baptism so that they will be inspired and they will get baptised too!

J: This lady was a total miracle, I told you about that already. She is currently set to be baptised on 1 March but that probably won't happen because she hasn't been able to make it to church yet due to a family situation. But soon that should be resolved and she will come to church and be baptised! She's in Mosiah in The Book of Mormon.

M: Super awesome guy, he's a retired art teacher. He's the one Elder Eldredge and I were painting with a few weeks ago. He is Church of England but said he would be baptised on the 8th of March if he knew it was the right thing to do and if he had a witness that The Book of Mormon is true. 

G: Really sweet Filipino lady. We haven't seen her in almost a week now though, which isn't good. We've had a bit of a hard time getting a hold of her. She is set for baptism on the 8th of March, which will happen given we are able to help her understand everything she needs to by then (and she comes to church). 

Ya that's pretty much it. Other than that we are struggling a bit for more new investigators. We met this awesome Polish guy named Radek the other day. He said he was atheist. But he also admitted that he isn't really happy with his life, so hopefully his heart will be softened to the impressions of the  Holy Spirit. 

That's all for now, everyone have an amazing week and remember that the Lord is always preparing people to receive the message of the restored gospel. 

Love, 

Elder Seth Poulsen

*Mother's note:  I felt awful because Sunday night I had drafted an email with questions from his little brothers and somehow forgot to push send!

Write Questions to Me

I really have no idea what to write this week. I'm coming up completely dry. Maybe you guys can all write questions to me that you would like answered and I can answer them next week. Then I'll actually write more haha. 

The other day I was cycling and half of my bike lock fell off. I guess it broke. That's okay though, it was a cheap one that I found in my last flat. 

The work is going really well now, we now have 4 investigators with baptismal dates. Hopefully they will actually get baptised! Julie is coming back from alcohol rehab this week, so hopefully she will be baptised next weekend. That will be sooooo awesome! 

Just remember always that God is awesome. What is important to us is important to Him, because He loves us so very much. He is so Good. Never fail to appreciate all of the things He blesses us with. 

Love, 

Elder Poulsen

I Got Another One!

So this week I got...a new missionary! That's right, another one. Funny enough, my trainer Elder Chardon is training another new missionary too, and my firstborn Elder Thurgood just got transferred to the same district as Elder Chardon and the Elder he is now training. Furthermore, my new companion is Albanian. That's right, another one. I never would have guessed, when I came on my mission, that I would have a companion from Albania, and I certainly never would have guessed I would have two. Elder Lapi was the first to come in, and Elder Myrtaj (my new companion) is the fourth to come in to the mission. So I just need to serve with the other two and I will have served with all the Albanians in the mission!

1. Me and Elder Myrtaj (pronounced Muir-Thai with muir as in John Muir and Thai as in Asian people)

2. this is Elder Eldredge and I painting last p-day

3. my painting

Elder Myrtaj is so excited to be here, which is awesome. When I asked him how long he had to wait after he got his mission call, he told me in days. Also, he just turned 18 last June, while I was already on my mission. That's pretty crazy. Also it means that he is closer to Connor in age than he is to me...

Julie is doing well, she will be baptised sometime in the next few weeks. She has been to church for 6 weeks in a row now, which is totally awesome. 

When I went to the mission home to pick up Elder Myrtaj, I ran into Elder Debeikes, the Elder who replaced me in Llanelli, who was also picking up a new missionary to train. So I was able to hear about how the Watkins family is doing! Alex is still as awesome as ever, I actually got a letter from him too. He still passes the sacrament every week and still hasn't missed a week of church since before his baptism. His mum (and my adopted welsh mammy) Fran was finally able to have a much needed surgery this week and so her health should improve dramatically, enabling her to attend church each week. 

I hope all is well at home, and keep on going in the work of the Lord. 

Love, 

Elder Seth Poulsen

Hard Work

So basically this week was a lot of hard work. But that's how being a missionary is. There have been at least a few days in the last few weeks where I have just been so tired at the end of the day, but its a good tired because I know that its is because we have been working hard doing the work of the Lord. 

Its been a bit cold here. Given, its been an extremely mild winter. A year ago there was snow everywhere. But you know you're cold when you are riding your bike past cars that are having to use their defrosters on their windows. And its humid, so it cuts you to the centre (when I write center it puts a red squiggly line under it). 

We have certainly been blessed much by the Lord for the hard work which we have put in this transfer. Tonight we'll find out what moves are happening on Wednesday. Its Crazy! But that's how mission life is. But the hand of the Lord certainly is in it, He loves us so much and takes care of us when we do what's right. I know it. 

Love, 

Elder Poulsen

That's What I Do

Missionary work. That's what I do. It never hurts to take a chance to get on TV though haha. There was a Cafe that opened up in Dunchurch, a village just south of Rugby, on Saturday. We had to go down there anyway to try to find someone. So we went to have lunch at the cafe and BBC was there filming for this show to help start up restaurants. So on January 29th at 8:00 on BBC 2 we'll probably be on the show "The Restaurateur." Good luck figuring out how to find the show and watch it. If nothing else, it will show up on iTunes eventually I would assume. I'm just imagining members of the church here watching the showing and getting really excited when they see missionaries. 

The work has been so good this week. We have seen some awesome miracles in the work. When I was on exchange out of my area, my companion and the other elder that was with him had an appointment that was cancelled so they decided to go through and call a bunch of the people that were saved in the phone by previous missionaries, and they set up 4 appointments! That was pretty awesome. They taught one lady the next day, a filipino lady named Gina who was really excited about everything they shared, and even suggested that they could skype her family in the phillipines so they could be taught too. Fortunately, that won't be necessary. There are plenty of missionaries there too!

Being with Elder Eldredge is way awesome. We have become more and more unified in our teaching. We can really feel the Holy Spirit in the room, testifying of truth, when we share with people the message of The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Another miracle this week was a lady named Jan. She was brought to church by a foster family she was with as a teenager. She rebelled, however, because she preferred the Catholic church, which was what she was used to. Four years ago she was going through a rough time and the Elders knocked on her door. They began to teach her and she came back to church, but she ultimately never was baptised and stopped going to church. Recently she has been having a rough time again, but with great faith she made the decision to try quitting smoking again, and Wednesday was her first day off the cigarettes. She was having a rough time, and prayed to God that he would send help. On Wednesday night we had an appointment nearby, but the man we were supposed to see wasn't in. So we started to knock around the doors in the area. And we knocked into Jan. What a miracle! We were able to teach her Friday evening, and we will go back around to see her again tonight. I have faith that she will progress in the gospel. 

Julie was at church again this week, her desire is great. We are not sure when she will be prepared for baptism, but the current goal is the 1st of February. 

Keep on doing the work of the Lord, the blessing and miracles are great. 

Love, 

Elder Seth Poulsen