So I'll try to just answer questions that mom has sent me. Then I'll try to answer your individual emails as well :)
First off, my companion. Her name is Sister Pickett. She is hangry, hates chocolate Twizzlers, and is a total crazy human sometimes... But I love her :) She's from Gilbert Arizona. So when it snowed, she was in awe. She seriously has never seen snow fall from the sky before! We went out and danced in it. Glad I was able to experience that with her :)
I live in a room with another companionship, so there are 4 of us total in a 6 person room. Their names are Sister Frame (Beautiful red hair and crazy fun attitude, from Orem) and Sister Black (A shy, but sassy little girl, from Provo). Super fun girls! We are all going to the very same mission, so we are gonna all be going through the same things!
Now as for the Elders in our district... There are also 2 companionship's. Elder Douglas (District leader) and Elder Alberts (sacrament guy). And the other two, Elder Minson (Zone leader) and Elder Johnson (Also zone leader). Sister Frame and Black are the sister training leaders. Sis Pickett is the computer lady and I'm the music coordinator (didn't see that one coming) If you're a little confused at this point, welcome to the last 7 days of my life. Hehe yeah, confusion and awkwardness is pretty much our lives. If you're confused about zones and districts and what not, let me know and I'll try to explain. Maybe Dad can tell ya too.
Classes are cool, lots of role plays. Our teachers are super cool! Sister Brock is way fun, and super spiritual. We basically learn how to simply teach principles and lessons. And sharpening social skills.So that first night was super hard. Cried when I wrote you. Cried when ever the word family or home came up. Pretty much cried all day, all night, and then was sick the next day probably because of the dehydration. But thankfully, I felt a lot better the end of the second day and fabulous the third! Don't get me wrong, I still miss ya'll with all my heart, but learning how to teach and diving into the gospel is super super cool! Night 3, I didn't even want to go to sleep because I just wanted to learn more! A thought from one of our classes, "Your purpose is to invite and help others to come unto Christ, not to preach and teach them."
Our sister training leaders kept saying "Just get to Sunday! You'll feel so much better!" Honestly, I felt the same. But yeah, Sundays are different. You start with RS. Then we had personal study. Then Sacrament meeting. To choose the speakers, we all prepare a talk, and then are called up on the spot to say it... SCARY! They called up an Elder and Sister from the other district. But this next Sunday it will probs be one of us. Then there is was a devotional. This one was a church history lady. Basically learned about the beginning of missionary work. Then her husband got up and said something I really liked. "You don't have to have self confidence, you have Christ's confidence." No pressure!
So, we practice teaching our teachers who pretend to be investigators. So no pressure to convert right? Wrong. Starting this week, we begin TRC's. This stands for Training Resourse Center. There are people who volunteer to be taught. You have a 50/50 chance of having that person being a real investigator who is wanting to learn more about the gospel. WOW! It's pretty scary, but at the same time, easy. You just talk to them about their concerns, and either teach the lesson we have planned, or go wherever the spirit tells ya to go. That's hard for me - to rely on the spirit to tell me what to say. But I just gotta have faith, and that's funny cuz this is basically everything we have been teaching our investigators about - Faith. One girl we teach is way sweet and had prayed and felt the spirit. So we are excited to see where she goes. When we invited her to be baptized, she said maybe! But, we are kinda guessing that she is a member. Our second lady is kinda depressed about life, and feels like she's not going anywhere. So we are gonna teach her the Plan and hopefully lighten her understanding of her purpose as a Child of God. Please pray for them, as well as us!
The Tuesday devo was way cool! Sister Wixom (the primary general president) came and spoke. One of my fav quotes was "What have you learned from a child today?" Reminded me to be as a little child and remember to love.
Now kinda talking about the schedule, yeah it's a ton! And they expect us to do daily planning, but our day is already planned so we, like, never do it. It's pretty much stake girls camp on steroids. The food is come and go. It's basically glorified school cafeteria food. I really liked the turkey sandwich and the orange chicken. So, it really depends on the day. There was taco bell one night and (no joke!) one of the Elders in our Zone ate 5 tacos and 2 burritos in one sitting. He's not even fat. Boys are crazy...
Hope those were all of your logistical questions! Send me back the ones I didn't answer.
Some funny stories are how me and Sis Frame got so mad at the girls who were staying up till 3 in the morning keeping us up. We walked over to the emergency phones that go directly to the front desk and told them what was going on. 30 seconds later a security guard comes into the commons and tells all of them to go to bed. It's been good sleeping since then :)
Thought for the week: "Missionary work is scary because of Satan. He wants to strike fear into you to make you doubt. He does this because missionaries are bringing people unto Christ. He will try to destroy you and your investigators. Be strong." This is so true. I have felt it. I have learned so much about God, but also about Satan. Sometimes I have that shred of doubt. And question the whole church, if it's true and why I'm even here. But I will continue to press forward in faith, relying on the teachings of the scriptures and the prophet. We went to the temple today, that was wonderful and helped me a lot. Satan is real, but just as he has the power to bruise our heal, but we have the power to crush his head, through Faith in Christ.
Thank you so much again for your letters and packages! If you would maybe in the next package, send me my belt? Totes forgot that. I'll let you know if I need anything else. I'll try to send my pics today, but the computers are weird and some won't allow us to download. So keep an eye our for that.
Anything else?
LOVE YOU GUYS!! Thanks for the updates and stuff. Really really! Keep up all the good habits you are doing. Lots of love! The next time I will talk to you guys will be from Virginia, so be excited!!
Love ya, God bless.
Love, Sista Poulsen
