How Do You Get a Bicycle Wheel Shaped Like a Banana?

"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.”

Proper

Pictures!!!

1. My companion from the MTC, Elder Harris. What a stud. I don't even know where he is anymore though. Somewhere in the mission, I guess.

2. This is Brother Smart, one of my MTC teachers.

3. Clouds between Holland and England

4. Elder Chardon!

5. The sun exists in England! Its actually been really sunny this week. People are saying it hasn't been this sunny in a year though, so I guess I shouldn't expect any more of it.

6. This is Jenny's baptism!!! The two elders on the inside are Elder Retzer and Elder Lyman, the Elders that found her in Cheltenham (remember its pronounced Chelt-num) and started teaching her. The guy with the purple pants is Mark Chesters, a fellowshipper. He has quite the style if you can't tell. This afternoon he is supposed to hook me up with a proper English suit. (notice the proper English usage of the word proper. I really like how people use the word proper here. Its very entertaining. For example, someone asked me if I played tennis "properly." I also enjoy the way they use the word brilliant.they just basically use it for anything that is good. e.g. "I got this tie for super cheap" reply: "brilliant")

     Jenny's baptism was so good. She finished reading The Book of Mormon the night she was baptized, before her confirmation and she is excited to start over and read it again and again. One thing that we need to have as missionaries is a vision of what people can become--for example, we met a 22 year old guy the other day (CJ, the black portugeuse muslim), so as we prepare to teach him, we see him in the future being a faithful member of the church and serving as a missionary. He would be awesome at it too because he is super bold. With that vision, we can help people to see that vision for themselves and to work toward it. One of the great things about Jenny is that she already sees the vision of her future self. Even though she only met the missionaries a month ago, she has completely turned her back on her old life and already sees herself being a lifelong member of the Church and raising children in the Gospel. And she will.

     We didn't get to do a whole lot of teaching this week, but we did a lot of finding people to teach and setting up appointments, so the coming week is going to be full of teaching. When I first got here I was really scared of just going and talking to random people but I'm getting better at it. Every time we follow the spirit in going to an area to find someone to teach, we find a person that is awesome and might become an investigator. Its a bit magical. Or maybe God is watching over us very carefully, and guiding us every step of the way. We'll go with the latter. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get ahold of Phil (our miracle find from last week) at all this week, so hopefully we will be able to this week. I also realized that if we truly have Charity, the pure love of Jesus Christ, and we love everyone we see as well, finding isn't so scary. Its more natural to want to talk to people about Jesus when you love them and desire their salvation. It can also make it very frustrating, though, when people reject you and you know that they really need our message.

     This morning Elder Chardon and I prepared a sweet lesson to teach people at dinner appointments and family home evenings to help them feel the spirit with power and have a desire to share the Gospel. We're going to leave all the people who feed us (we usually get fed a few times a week) with committments to take missionary action, and follow up with them later. Its going to be awesome.

     My favorite scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 20:15. "shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?" It is a reminder to us that we are merely tools in the hands of the Lord as He pushes His work forward.

Have a wonderful week, I love you all. (that includes you).

Elder Seth Poulsen

Gloucester is Awesome!

 I urge you to resist the temptation to pronounce every letter of that name in your head when you read it. I may never fully understand British pronunciation, but it really is pronounced glos-ster. (The next town over is Cheltenham, pronounced chelt-num. Go figure.) The city is so cool though. All the buildings are really old (including a few cathedrals), and mostly made out of brick. I apologize for no pictures yet--I'm at the library and I forgot my camera back at the flat (its not an apartment here, its a flat). They have a lot more character to them than the western suburbia I am used to. It is really confusing to get around because all the roads are curvy (you should check out a map of the city--its ridiculous), so I'm still pretty lost most of the time. I'll get it eventually, I guess. Remember how I joked that I was going to be biking in the rain every day of my mission? Well I was wrong. On the first day I didn't, because I didn't have a bike yet. The next day I got a bike, raincoat, and rain trousers (basically just trousers made of tent fabric that you put on over your slacks when it is raining) so I'm all ready to go. I also picked up a cool watch for 18 quid. I really just wanted to say quid. Because I can. Unfortunately, pounds don't actually fit in my wallet because they are wider than dollars. So I might get a new wallet. Or I might just go around with them hanging out of the top.

     My trainer is pretty awesome so he had a few appointments lined up for the night that I got here. The first person we visited was Jenny Davies (pronounced Davis because she is from Wales and that's how they do it there apparently). She's is totally amazing. She read the whole book of Mosiah that day. She just has an immense desire to do what is right and to learn a ton because of the great blessings she sees from it in her life. The missionaries in Cheltenham ran into her one day on the street 3 weeks ago (she just moved to Gloucester a week ago) and she is being baptized this Saturday.

     The people here are great. I love their humor. I also love that they all have accents. I just can't stop being entertained by it. Every time that I talk to someone I get a kick out of the fact that they have a British accent. What makes it even more fun, though, is that there are tons of different accents. People speak slightly different depending on where in Britain they are from. Once I've been here a bit longer, I'll hopefully be able to tell where people are from based on their accent. Also, they actually say things like, "what he's going on about" and "he's been going round" just like they do in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

     There is just one ward here in Gloucester (city of about 110,000 population I think) and it is great. We share it with a pair of Sister Missionaries, and they are probably going to give us another set of Elders next transfer (there are another 30 missionaries coming to my mission in a month, and probably an equal amount for the next few transfers after that too. It wouldn't be a surprise at all if I end up training right after being trained). Don't worry, the Church is the same here in England (except that everyone here has a cool accent). The chapel here has a really sweet organ that I am going to go play this afternoon. I'm excited out of my mind because I haven't gotten to practice in three weeks. There are a couple people here that sort of know how to play it, but not really. So there putting me into the rotation right away (I'll be playing opening & sacrament hymns this week) and I'll probably teach them a few things about the organ as well. I'm pretty excited for that. There are a few guys in the ward who play tennis too so I might get to play sometime. Tonight we are having dinner with a family that has their sixth boy on the way--just like us except theirs are a lot closer together in age (their oldest is 8). Elder Chardon and I have been talking together about how we can help families in our wards make mission plans so that they can share the Gospel with their friends. It is going to be way good.

     We had an awesome miracle the other day. We were on our way somewhere and Elder Chardon pointed to one of the houses we were biking by and said, "we need to stop by that house on the way back."

     "Why?" I asked.

     "Because the Spirit said so."

     A couple hours later were headed back the other direction so we stopped by the house. After we knocked, a man opened the door. He looked at us and said, "well, why don't you come in then." His name is Phil. We didn't get to talk to him much because he had to get going somewhere, but we are going back to teach him tomorrow and I'm am super excited for that. There are a few other people we are going to be teaching this week that I am really excited for because they can really use our message. There are also people that totally rejected us that really need our message. Which is sad. Anyway, our miracle got me thinking about miracles in general. People (all people, including members of the Church) seem to think that God doesn't do miracles like he used to anymore, because we don't hear of people being instantly healed from sickness or seas being parted. Well, they're wrong. God works miracles in the ways by doing things that are completely incomprehensible to people, so there is no way that they can be explained away. He has always worked that way. Modern medicine is so advanced that healing from sickness is not much of a miracle anymore. Man can do it, just like the Pharaoh’s magicians were able to make frogs appear and whatever else it was that they did. So in this day of technology being everywhere, one of the ways that God works miracles is by making known unto us by the Holy Ghost things that we could not have known any other way, such as Elder Chardon knowing that we needed to stop at that house. Not even the Internet could have told him that. The only thing that would stop the miracles of God is the unbelief of man (Mormon 9: 18-20). So then, choose to believe, and you will see miracles. 

Gloucester!

I don't have much time now because I've got work to do. P-day is

Monday, so I'll get you a longer email then. For now I just wanted to let you know that I'm safe and sound in jolly old England. I'm in Gloucester (pronounced glos-ter), and my trainer is Elder Chardon (pronounced shod-own) from Holland (but he's half filipino haha). He's great and we'll be doing amazing things here.

Love,

     Elder  Seth Poulsen

Looks Like He Made It!!!

Hello there!

We just wanted to let you know that your missionary arrived safely today!  They were quite tired from the long plane ride, but they've been well taken care of.  Here are some pictures of them with President Rasmussen and I  and also their trainers.  We also have a mission blog that we upload mission pictures to periodically.  Please check it out and you can see what life is like in the EBM. The address is: http://ebmission.blogspot.co.uk/

We appreciate your missionary's sacrifice and dedication to the Lord.

Love,

Sister Rasmussen

The 2 Minute Airport Call

*Mom Note:  Today is the day Elder Poulsen flies to England.  I have spent the whole day so far with my cell phone in my pocket, with the ringer on high volume so I wouldn't miss a call if he was able.  Finally, my phone rang and I checked the screen - a random number from Atlanta, Georgia - must be him!  Yes!  He said they had no time to call in Salt Lake and the plane landed late in Atlanta.  His next flight to Amsterdam was boarding already, so he could only speak to me for two minutes.  He sounded great!  He said he was really excited, but sort of nervous.  I reassured him that he would be great and reminded him that his brothers pray for him everyday and the power of children's prayers are great.  Next post will be his first email from England!

"Our Brains Were So Fried"

     Alex dropped me off on Wednesday and I got put in my classroom to wait for the rest of my district to show up. I was way excited to go, but when I got there I was a bit scared and apprehensive, until my companion showed up. He was way excited and it got me right back to being way excited again--and the excitement hasn't stopped since. Elder Harris is a total stud. He's from Lindon, right down the street from here. We have been working super hard together and learning a ton. There are six guys in our district, all going to our mission and all super awesome (a couple of them baptized friends of theirs recently). We all love each other. A few of the guys are 18, and since many of us changed our plans as a result of the age change, we're all super pumped to be here. One missionary in our district, Elder Williams, is a legit musician so we've had fun singing hymns and stuff together. If we get to serve in the field together we'll probably have to use street performing as our method of contacting. Also, we have met 5 (I think) other districts full of people going to our mission, and we're all going to be on the same flight next Tuesday. Since they gave us Wednesday P-day, this is my only P-day in the MTC and the next email will be coming from jolly old England. I'm way excited but also scared that in just a week I will be in the field teaching people.

     Every day here my brain explodes from the amazing things that our teachers teach us. And we have to learn so much every day. After six hours of class (with lunch break in the middle) last Friday, our brains were so fried that we couldn't focus anymore. It was really frustrating because we wanted to keep learning, but our brains were just done for. That night, Elder Harris and I prayed that we would be able to have our mental capacities expanded so that we would be able to learn all that we need to. Since then, it has not been a problem. This truly is a miracle.

     They already have us teaching people acting as investigators. Its way hard. The only way it is possible is to know your stuff really well and on top of that to be led by the Spirit. The first few days I was getting really frustrated with myself because I felt that I was not able to teach as well as I wanted to. I realized that I need to be humble and patient as I do my best to learn how to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to invite his children to come closer to him. I'm not in charge of how the lessons should go, God is. The Spirit is the real teacher, and we must continually confess the hand of the Lord in all things (there is a scripture in D&C somewhere about that--its way good).

That's all for now. Remember that the Atonement is awesome. Don't let a day go by without using it to make something about yourself better than it was before.

Elder Poulsen

*Mom Note*  I love that he signed it Elder Poulsen!