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

Stuff Here

The last week has been good! A few days were a bit rough, but overall it was good. We had some really cool experiences.

On Christmas we visited some people and sang to them and read scriptures. One member we visited gave us a referral! He said that after we left he prayed to know who we could share the message with, and this friends name came to his mind. Yesterday we went by and were able to set up an appointment with her! So I'll have to let you know how this works out.

We also had a really cool experience yesterday with a member couple who stopped coming to church about 10 years ago. We sang a few Hymns and watched the He is the Gift video, and we talked about our Savior Jesus Christ. They really felt the spirit. So did we. It was incredible.

Seeing you all on Christmas was awesome too. I really hope that I can do what the Lord wants me to do here in Newport--meet the people He wants me to and serve the people who I need to serve. I'm definitely here for a reason, because we know that "all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things" (2 Nephi 2:24).

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

Wales!!!/Skype!!!

I got transferred back to Wales. It’s great here. We live next to a river. Anyway, I'll tell you more about it on Thursday when I talk to you!!! Today is actually not p-day this week, so I don't have too much time to write anyway. P-day is going to be Friday, which is a national holiday here (Boxing Day!). I've made arrangements so that I will be able to Skype you at about 6:30 or 7:00 here, which is about 10:30 or 11 there I believe. Hopefully the smoke will have cleared by then. I'll see your lovely faces in a few days!!!

Love,

Elder Poulsen

People

People here keep on cancelling appointments, not showing up for appointments, etc. Its pretty annoying. Its ok though, we still love them because they are all children of God. We're not too discouraged about it though, we'll just have to keep at it and we'll find the one. I might get transferred this week--that will be fun! Staying here would be great too, I love Swindon. I'm sure Carly will probably Facebook you sometime tonight or tomorrow to let you know what's going on.

After church this week I took some pictures with people. Here's another good one of me with my companion Elder Farrici (the rr is a rolled r sound and the "ci" at the end is pronounced "tsi") one with Carly's daughter Maddisyn (so that when she's a full-time missionary in 16 years, I can prove that I knew her when she was 3), and with my ward mission leader Brother Smutek (he said his hair is white for the same reason that Moses' hair was white). The idea of leaving here is sad because I love it here and I love so many of the people here, but going somewhere new could be exciting too. I hope that wherever I am, I can continue to serve God's children and help them to receive the gospel. Being a missionary is great. I highly recommend it.

I want to share a simple yet lovely insight that I had while reading the scriptures on Saturday morning. These are the verses I was reading, from John chapter 15:

 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

So first, Jesus says that we should love each other in the same way in which He loves us. Directly afterward, he clarifies that the way in which he has loved us is by giving up his life for us. So basically, we need to give up our lives for one another. In most cases, this probably doesn't mean dying for each other. Its more along the lines of what President Monson said in October 2009 General Conference: "unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives." I hope that this was insightful, and I hope that you were able to feel the same spirit that I felt when I read these verses.

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen