Monday, May 28, 2012

For shall we not go on, in such great a cause!

Dear Family, I always knew I liked the 25th! It was such a good day! I decided no matter how many people we teach, I will always be terrified of it ha ha. But it is so worth it. It is funny how I go into a lesson terrified, and usually I go out wondering what I was so nervous about. When the spirit is there then it doesn't really matter what I say, it matters what they are feeling. We finally got in contact with the 27 year old Baptist again, I was surprised but so happy that he answered the phone! It was a great call! I love that I get to have a portion of the Saviors love for these people, because it is such an amazing experience, I can't help but feel that he is going to do great things! And that his future and present family will be blessed beyond he knows if he follows Christ's example and follows through with baptism. I wouldn't be surprised if he was an apostle some day. The call ended and he desired himself to read and pray again. I love when it is their own decision and they desire to read and pray without being invited to. It is sad how when we don't read our scriptures or say our prayers how vulnerable it makes us to feel confused and allow Satan and temptations into our lives. It was the first time in a while that I had a good feeling that things were going to be good when we hung up the phone with him. Later that day we met with Carol. She came and did a temple grounds tour. I love how eager she is to learn! She is so hungry for the spirit. She told us that we had her permission to baptize her when she died... my thoughts: "why not while your living?" lol Thing is I believe she will get baptized. (after months and months of meeting with missionaries, she is finally progressing :) ) I can see her in a year from now going into the temple and being right by her side the whole time. She told us she realized that we were not there to recruit her but there to offer her a gift. Which is exactly what we are doing! Made me feel like I was fulfilling my purpose as a missionary. I decided one of my biggest pet peeves is when people say "NO... I don't need the book of Mormon, I know enough about Christ with the Bible" I just wish I knew how to explain to them that there is more. More blessings, more love, more understanding, well.. just about more everything! I feel blessed to know. Reminds me of that scripture, : 2 Nephi 29: "6 Thou fool, that shall say: A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews? 7 Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth? 8 Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also. 9 And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever." Sometimes I feel like i have to help everyone, and sadly that is just to much work for me! So I will just help who I can! I want everyone to understand that it isn't "Mormon's" church, nor is it my church.. It is the church of Jesus Christ, it is His church! It is essential to be baptized with His authority, because us men have no authority to bind anything on earth to heaven, only God himself can. People dislike the polygamy thing.. gay right.. so on, but let’s be honest, if God says what it should be, then who are we to say we know better than him? Anyways.. I am done with that tangent ha ha. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all your love and support! Love eternally, Sister Poulson Weekly UN'funny: After much effort on getting one of our investigators to church. The member, who referred them in the first place, decided that it would be fun to go out to lunch with them after church.. BLARGH!!!! Weekly funny: We taught primary yesterday and as we walked up to the front of the room one of the kids said with a gummy bear stuck to her chin "I bet they really are sisters.. giggle giggle giggle"

Monday, May 21, 2012

Know who you are, and who God expects you to become

Well Hello Hello! (which reminds me I have to send off grandma her Little Ricky pic) Life is great! Isn't it?! Aren't we just the luckiest people in the world, we are so blessed!! This was a fantastic week, at least I thought so! It is funny.. I feel like I haven't written a family email in months. Forgive me? Time is crazy.. it will be nice in heaven when time doesn't exist. So I decided I have one investigator who I just love to meet with, no matter what the lesson topic, there is such a strong spirit! She is 82, and I never loved old people so much! I decided the reasons I love the lessons so much is because I love her so much, and I think she kinda likes us too. Which makes all the difference! I have come to the conclusion that if you ever want to teach anyone about the gospel, you cannot bring down their beliefs that they hold so dearly.. we can't just say "well you are wrong and here is how it really should be..." but it should be handled with love "you are right, we agree with that, we also believe that this is important.." Can I just tell you that makes so much of a difference! Lets be honest, no one wants to be wrong, nor be pointed out about it. Being humble usually comes from finding out for yourself that you are wrong, not someone telling you. Anyway.. random tangent over! It was funny because when Carol (fake name.. forgot what her original fake name was) first came to our lesson she had one rule.. "No crying today, ok!" That was one thing I could not promise to her. I knew before the lesson even started that there would be tears. Tears full with the spirit of God. We watched a film in the Center called On the Way Home (all about a family each with individual problems, getting ready for the day of their baptism and looking at how far they have come). I have never felt the spirit so strongly in that movie, there is such a strong spirit in the Center and especially when Carol is there. I couldn't even speak after because my emotions were way too connected to the spirit.. (strong lol). We invited her to be baptized again... I decided asking someone to be baptized is like asking someone to get married. Because it is a lifelong commitment and a huge change. But that's beside the point. She wished so badly that she could convince us that she had already joined our church. Thing is.. spiritually she has! She still has a struggle with Joseph Smith.. which if she read the Book of Mormon a little more, that might not be an issue at all. She knows the gospel is true, and I believe that someday that puzzle will all be connected. We have been trying since I got in the field to meet with this very less active family.. and it just hasn't happened. Anyway, the other day she called us and invited us over to see her new puppy and have dinner with them (little did she know of my lack of puppy love). We went over and it was great! At first I felt like we should try to push in a lesson because well.. we are missionaries and that is what we do. But for some reason it just didn't happen. After Sister Piggott left all her stuff at their house.. ha ha which was totally the spirit I believe. The mother had to come and drop it off at the Visitors Center to bring it back to her. While she was there she talked about how much she wanted to come back to the center. Then she pulled us aside and said that she needed our help with something. She went on to tell us that her son had just turned 9 and that he wasn't baptized. God knows exactly what he is doing! It is funny that we didn't push the lesson because normally that is what would happen but instead we built a friendship so she was able to trust us. Because he is 9 it is considered a convert baptism, which lucky for us means we get to teach him the lessons! Not only that, he needs to come to church 3 times before he can get baptized. Long story short, children really are the best kind of teachers! Funny how society thinks otherwise.. They came to church yesterday and it has been years since that has happened. I love that God knows how to bring back all of his sheep! Not just one! So much more has happened this week, and I wish I could tell you about it all because it has helped me learn so much and I wish you could have the same experiences. Thing is you are having great experiences that are personal and made specifically for you. We all need our own experiences and God will help us learn from where we are at, I love that we are all known and loved personally! I love you all so much! Love, Sister Poulson