The Miracle of the Week

We had the pleasure this week of being able to sit in the back of the chapel next to our friend Melissa and her 4 year old son, they were back at church for the first time in over a year. As we sat and listened to the testimonies being borne, something incredible happened. Melissa got up and began to make the long walk to the front of the chapel to bear her testimony. She spoke of how Satan always wants to keep us down and out and keep us away from the Church, but our Heavely Father wants us back. She said she knows its true and she always has, she's just been lost at times. She spoke of how grateful she was for us missionaries turning up at her house to bring her back (what's funny, she said, is that she never needed the missionaries to show up at her house for her to join the church--she just walked in one day about 6 years ago and said she wanted to join, but I guess she needed us to show up for her to come back).

We also had the great pleasure of teaching a great guy named Nyasha this week, he is from Zimbabwe. He was meant to come to church as well, but that didn't work out, but hopefully we will be able to see him more this week.

This morning I read a fantastic talk by President Utchdorf, about being grateful, regardless of what circumstances we are in. He teaches us that we should "see gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that stands independent of our current situation." Such gratitude, he says, "heals the heart and expands the mind."

I love you all and hope you have an excellent week.

Elder Poulsen

Lessons

We saw a few more incredible things happen this week.

We got to teach Sharon again, and we will continue to involve the members more in her teaching. One family has offered to have her and her boyfriend over to their house for dinner and lesson. That will be really good.  

We also had a really good visit with a less active member named Melissa this week, we felt the spirit and she felt that it was a turning point for her. I think she actually sees herself maybe coming back to church now, whereas it seemed impossible before.

Aside from that we have, of course, had plenty more lessons fall through and plenty of people not want to listen to us.

Anyway, I will continue to try to do my best to serve the Lord. I hope that you all have a really incredible week!

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

More

More ups and downs in the missionary work here. We spent sooooo many hours this week out talking to heaps of people on the street, knocking on doors, etc. It was quite intense. But the amazing thing is, we actually had a lesson today!!! We just came from it actually. It was great. It was this awesome Jamaican lady named Sharon. We also got to teach this really cool 19 year old kid named Alex (oh my, another Alex...this is going to get way too confusing) yesterday. We are waiting on them both reading and praying about the book of Mormon, and hopefully we will be able to teach them both more this week. So, things are looking up here. We are looking at having a really amazing week this week. Transfers is next week, so maybe I'll just leave this place on wings of glory...or maybe I'll just stay here for longer. I haven't been here for long, anyway. Anything could happen though. It is actually getting quite hot here, today its in the 70s. Killer, I know. I hope you are all having an amazing summer. Remember, Jesus loves you.

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

Brown and Blue With Jordan

There were four people baptised here this weekend. That was really cool. Unfortunately, none of them were people that I taught, but I did have the opportunity to interview 3 of them in preparation for their baptisms, which was really good. I gained a testimony this weekend that God doesn't just send us to certain areas to teach certain people, but sometimes to interview certain people as well.  I'm sure this applies to pretty much everything, God will always help us, as we are willing and obedient, to be able to be where we need when we need to be there to serve and help the people that are prepared for it.

This is a really cool picture of me with Jordan Whittaker, one of the Priests in the ward here. We have the exact same suit size. And he loves studying maths (that's not a typo, that's how they say/spell math over here) and physics. So we're basically the same person.

I hope that you all know that I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He is our Saviour. I know this from personal experience. It is something that we can feel helping us in our lives, and we can have the Holy Spirit witness of its truth to us as we read from the scriptures. I also know from my study and experience that The Book of Mormon is divine scripture and a great gift from God. And so Joseph Smith must have been God's prophet, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints must be God's kingdom on the earth today, preparing us and the world for the second coming. Just beacuse people haven't been listening to us here doesn't mean it isn't true. Because I know it is, and I know that I've been called by a Prophet of God to share this message--so I'll just keep on doing it. I love you all, and hope that you have an amazing week.

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

"Am You?"

That's what people in this part of the country say instead of "are you?" Its pretty funny. They also say "them" instead of "they're." For example, you knock on someone's door and a kid anwers it. To say that their parents aren't home, they say "them out." Sounds really weird, but its normal here.

We had some really awesome experiences this week (no, we don't really have any more people to teach [yet], but we did have some cool experiences). Last monday we had dinner at the Mitchell's house, a part member family in the ward (the father, Don, is not a member--his wife was taught and baptized about 6 years ago and they have two sons who are members as well). Afterwards eating dinner, we offered to give James, the older son, a blessing of comfort as he was really nervous for his upcoming exams. He accepted, and we were able to do that. The whole family really appreciated it, especially Brother Mitchell. Its funny because he will decline the invitation to pray himself, but he has all the faith in the world that when we do it, it works. Apparently the exams went really well this week, and Brother Mitchell attributes a lot of that to the blessing we gave his son. On Wednesday, I was asked by a councilor in the Bishopric if I would speak on Sunday. I used this as an opportunity to invite Brother Mitchell to come to church to see me speak. He only stayed long enough to listen to my talk and then he had to go somewhere, but it was great to have him there.

So I had this crazy dream the other day, I guess I'll tell you about it. I can only remember a few seconds of it. I was at the mission home and one of the Zone leaders or Assistants was talking to me, and they had a sheet of paper in their hand. They said something like this: "President wants you to work more in the Low Hill area." That was it. Low Hill is an area of town which is part of our proselyting area. Yesterday after church, we were cycling around Low Hill and we saw a kid trying to saw a large tree branch into peices, so we stopped to help. We dragged it into the back garden to find a yard full of large tree branches, and we spent over an hour helping saw them to smaller peices so they could later be burned in a controlled fashion. We met a bunch of the neighborhood kids while doing so, so that was quite cool. Afterwards we saw a lady painting a fence and spent a while helping her paint while she asked us all sorts of questions about what we do and what we teach. We hope to have another opportunity to teach her more.

Everybody, have a fantastic week.

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

"That's Rubbish"

Do you remember how Alex used to always do his subject lines in Portuguese? Maybe I should start saying really english things in mine, like "lets go to the chippy for lunch” and that’s rubbish”

 This has been another week of hard work. We had plenty of lessons fall through, as in every week I've been here in Wolverhampton. But we did have one amazing lesson with a guy we met named Stephen. He seems ready and prepared to change his life. He is a great man. He is currently an active Catholic, but he is willing and open to change. We were able to share with him the message of the Restoration of the Gospel. Hopefully we will be able to teach him more this week. Please, pray for him if you get the chance.

Aside from that, I think we're going to be targeting more working with members and following up with them on the stake missionary program. Its actually pretty cool, they were given a list of a bunch of missionary things they can do and they are supposed to do four each month. And as always, we will be on the streets talking to people. I pray we can be led to those seeking for truth.

Have an amazing week everybody, I love you all.

Elder Seth Poulsen

I Love It Here!

1. This is me with my new companion, Elder Tupou. He is from Tonga and he is SO awesome. His English isn't amazing yet (he has been here almost 5 months now), but he is still hilarious. And he is super excited to do the work all the time. It was his 20th birthday yesterday, so I made some candles and birthday hats out of paper. The sign is for his younger twin brothers who he wanted to send the picture. He has 2 older brothers and 4 younger brothers. Pretty crazy. Just so you know, "Repent and be Baptised" in Tongan is "Fakatomala pea paptaiso." (There is no b in Tongan, only p. which make it a bit hard for Elder Tupou to hear the difference between the two). So next time you meet a Tongan person and you want to Preach to them, you can say that to them. 

2. The Wolverhampton district! Although there are a few different people now after transfers--I am now the smallest elder in the district. Frightening, I know. 

So I thought that my accent hadn't changed much since I have been over here. But the other day I met a missionary who has only been out for like 4 weeks and he sounded SO American. So maybe my accent has changed a bit. 

On transfer day last Wednesday, I was at the mission home and I ran into a missionary who was getting transferred from Llanelli. He told me that President Rasmussen went to the recent stake conference down there, and he met Alex Watkins. Apparently he shook his hand and gave him a five pound note, telling him to use it to start his mission savings fund!

The other day we met someone who said he was not as Christian, because he was a "messianic gentile." Think about that for a minute. Anyone who can figure out how that is different than being a Christian should probably be given a prize. 

I love my mission. I thought you all should know that. It seriously is awesome. Funny enough, having my companion go home did not make me want to go home. It made me even more grateful that I am not going home yet. I love it here. I know that I have so much more work to do here, so many more people to teach, before I go home. I'm sort of freaking out that I only have 7 transfers left, I've already completed 10. The opportunity to serve the Lords as his representative is such a great privilege. I truly love the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the great message that we can change, and how to do it. 

well anyway, I hope you all have an amazing week. 

Love, 

Elder Seth Poulsen