Missionary Christmas

Hello there!

Even though I talked to my fam yesterday, I still had a few fun things happen during the week I wanted to chat about! But it was great to talk to y'all, love ya bunches!

Monday evening, we went out with a family and made chocolate covered pretzels and caroled! We went to many different members houses and sang quite nicely I would say! It was a great way to feel the Christmas spirit even though we had a green Christmas.

Our mission conference was amazing! There is so much talent in our mission! Even though 3 different people sand "Mary did you know." It was still awesome! But the best was when president and sister weed sang a cute little Christmas tune with us, it was so awesome! Love them :) The spirit was strong and it was great to be with other missionaries during the season!

Then we had an adventure trying to meet a less active. She lives with her son, and his 7 dogs... 7! 3 of them are HUGE! They were all nice though except for one who bit Sister Merrill and I both. No blood though :) She said she wasn't sure where the church was around here, and was afraid to ask people for rides. We assured her that this ward is so good at picking people up!  So she was at our Christmas service on Sunday, she was so incredibly happy to be there! It was great to see her so happy!

Speaking of that, we had an amazing church service! There were some fantastic musical numbers! But the one that took the cake was Brother A and J singing. J is mentally handicapped, and is a 4 year old in a 35 year old body. So  you can imagine how sweet it was for him to sing to us. The spirit was so strong, not a dry eye in the room. The whole meeting glowed with the spirit! Wow, I just love music :)

Backtracking, a few days earlier our ward mission leader held a party for us missionaries and the ward missionaries! It was so fun, and he is a great cook! We had a lot of good laughs :) He is awesome!

We met the sweetest 99 year old lady too... wow she is awesome :) She is really hard of hearing so we were basically yelling at her, but she's awesome! We are hoping she will get to 100, how cool?!?

Our ward is just awesome, can I just say that? There is a member who is struggling financially, and the ward swooped in! So many people bought food for a Christmas feast and they got presents for all her children. It was great, and the true meaning of Christmas was truly brought forth!

On Christmas eve, we went out with Sister D and snowflaked a ton of people! It was a great time, and after all 3 of us joined the B family for a Christmas feast! What a wonderful way to spend the day!

 And Christmas of course was fabulous! We woke up and opened up our wonderful presents under the tree! Then we had that great church service, and then headed over to the D for some of his famous hot cocoa... it was super good!!! Then we spent the rest of the days at L's(member)! After eating some meatballs and potatoes, we Skyped our families, and then opened more presents! Then we did the traditional after-Christmas Crookston family game night! I convinced everyone to join me in a puzzle and then play Heads Up! We had loads of fun :)

Phew what a great week! We visited some of our great investigators as well! we shared with L (investigator) the plan of salvation. I always love sharing that with people :) And we taught a little boy who is preparing for baptism the Restoration of the Gospel. But the best was just dropping by people and wishing them a Merry Christmas, whether we shared a message or not.

Thought for the week: Well, first, keep sharing the light of Christ! In 3 Nephi 15:12, it talks about always being a disciple of Christ, ALWAYS! So just because #LightTheWorld is done away with, we shouldn't let the light dim! We can all continue to serve! And since New Years is coming up, a scripture I found in 3 Nephi 12:47 says "Old things are done away, and all things have become new." A new year, a new you! If you regret anything, put it behind you and move on because tomorrow is a better day, and you are going to be making new memories! Strive this upcoming New Year to think of something you can improve in your life, or better yet, how you can help others with their lives! See how I full circled that back into sharing the light of Christ always? Yeah. You got this, I believe in you :)

LOVE Y'ALL!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  2017 Here We Come! :)
Love, Sista Poulsen

p.s. Sister Merrill and I did get the unfortunate news that she will be transferred... Franklin will miss her so much. I will miss her so much! These past 12 weeks have been awesome and I will miss her, but she is going to Kempsville and I am so excited for her for that adventure! She is amazing, I know she will be loved where ever she goes! Shout out to you sister, love ya!

Christmas Phone Call

Lisa Says: "It was so wonderful to get to Skype with Sister Poulsen this afternoon. Of course, it was super emotional to see and hear each other.  Sister Poulsen had some technical issues and so she couldn't see us very well and there was a little delay in the sound.  I think that made her a little frustrated but we were taking everything we could get. She looked so happy and just kept telling us how great everyone was was.
Earlier in the week, my contact in Franklin (The wonderful sister that sends me pics of the girls) texted to find out about any breakfast traditions for Christmas that our family might have.  It was so sweet!  We sent out Sticky Buns recipe and Sister Merril sent a recipe for a breakfast casserole.  This wonderful family showed up Christmas morning at the sister's doorstep with these yummy foods.  Sister Poulsen said that it made her cry! Then she started to tear up telling us about it.  Much love to these families that think about our missionaries and try to help them enjoy the day! #blessed
We had a great chat!  We talked about everything from bugs, to bikes, to southern BBQ, and her new found love of salad.  She also talked very proudly of being able to run for 20 minutes now.  YAY! She talked about how much she loves her mission president and his wife and how wonderful the members of her Franklin ward is.   She is very much looking forward to the mission-wide conference that they will be having in January when Elder Cook will get to come and speak to them. She is very excited to hear from him, but almost as excited to see all the other missionaries in her mission - especially Sister Smith.
And we got to have a family photo and a prayer together.  The photo was a silly selfie.  We gotta figure out something better for our next and last phone call at Mother's Day.  #glare
But I do like that we got a pic of both of my guys smiling in the same shot!  #ChristmasMiracle
Before the family prayer (which was super tender and awesome) Sister Poulsen and Sister Merrill sang a pair of duets of some Christmas songs.  They both have beautiful voices - I have really missed singing in this house. Then Sister Poulsen surprised us by beatboxing the second verse (a la Pentatonix) while Sister M finished out the song.  It was super cool.  We cheered loud! By that time our SD card was full so we missed that and the recording was poor on the cell phone - plus the Skype reception was not great.  They promised that they would do it again and get it recorded on Sister P's camera so they would have a good copy of it.
Sister M will be transferred this week and so this a farewell two days for them.  Goodbyes are hard and this phone call was no different.  Before signing off, Sister Poulsen sweetly bore her testimony that she had come to know, for herself, that Christ lives.  She has a very strong testimony of fasting. And loves talking to people about the gospel because it is true.  She said that a way that she has really grown is that she really knows what Charity is now and she has a lot more patience.  She knows that this is were she is supposed to be and this testimony helps her to stay and keeping doing this work even tho it is a very hard thing to do.  We love her so much and are so very proud of this incredible sacrifice that she has been making now for that last 10 months.  We are so grateful for the companions that she has had and for the wonderful mission leaders and ward members that have been so supportive and helpful to our girl.
We love you, Tara Bean! #8monthstogo

Christmas in the South

Ho Ho Ho!

Holy what!? Christmas is in 6 days?... NAH. This came way too fast. Christmas on a mission is super weird... It totes does not feel like Christmas. It was a crazy 70 degrees here yesterday so that didn't help. But no worries Mother  Nature got back on track and it is 30 degrees again. But the lights are beautiful! People here are real old fashion and they do wreaths on every window and candles in every window. I love the south!

[Lisa's Note:  Here is a link to how the window candle tradition started. ]

This week... oh man it was packed with service! First, we helped out down town with a local toy drive. They had enough toys for at least 600 kids, 4 toys each. Do the math... yeah! It was awesome to see people come in and be so excited to get their kids presents! The next service thing we did was to help out one of our friends wrap Christmas presents for her family! With me wrapping and sister Merrill's pro bow tying skills, they looked super good! And then she provided the best dang fried chicken I've ever had. Then we helped L (member) out a ton! Her arm has been giving her a lot of trouble, so we painted her bathroom and some of her walls to prepare for her son's to come up for the holidays! We also helped her wrap presents. We also helped clean up the room her boys are going to sleep in. It was a big junk room, packed to the brim! So we organized it and made it look all good for her!

Then we had the Relief Society Christmas dinner! Yum! One sister made 2 HUGE pots of spaghetti and some delicious sauce to go on top! There was salad to start, and cupcakes to finish! With the spaghetti Sister B made her famous rolls... they were gone in a hurry! It was great to sit down with the ladies in the ward and just chat! Then they watched the forgotten carols, so we had to leave because mission rules... but we helped clean up! It was so fun!

Lately, instead of heart attacking people, we snowflake them! So we have been doing a lot of cutting lately! We got our ward mission leader pretty good! And several other members. We love to do it, especially when we knock and run! As Sister Smith would say, "it's our James Bond moment for the day!"

Man, I hit my 10 month mark Saturday... woah. Double digits baby! It's been quite the adventure! Just 2 more months and I will have been out a year! Crazy.

This week is pretty exciting! We are going caroling tonight with some members! Then tomorrow we have our Christmas conference with the mission, can't wait! Saturday we are having Christmas eve dinner with a members, and then celebrating Christmas with L (member) and her family! Wow! We will be delivering some cute things we made to members this week as well. I can really feel the Christmas spirit now!

President Weed has given us some good guidance on what to do Christmas eve and day. We can't knock door to door, and we can celebrate with members if they invite us. If we have no where to go, we must be in by 5 to have our own celebration. Members have already invited us so no worries there! We are so excited to be with people and be able to joy in the season with others!

Thought for the week: Well since it's Christmas... I will quote President Monson about his thoughts on Christmas. "As we seek Christ, as we find Him, as we follow Him, we shall have the Christmas spirit, not for one fleeting day each year, but as a companion always." It is so important to remember that even though we may take the tree down, the lights turn off, and the cookie trays are empty, that we still have the true meaning of Christmas always with us. We are all filled with the light of Christ. How do we keep it glowing all year do you ask? Well around Christmas time we serve others... so serve others just as much all year as you do during the Christmas season. That is how we keep the true spirit of Christmas with us year round.

I know that Christ was born. He was born in humble beginnings, but by small and simple means, great things are brought to pass. I know that  He lives again, and that as we serve others, His loving spirit can be with us always.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! I sure hope y'all have a wonderful holiday season :) Better yet... a blessed holiday season :)
LOVE Y'ALL!!! Peace out
Sista Poulsen

[Lisa's Note about photo below:  Sister Merril's mom sent the girls these full size Reindeer and Frosty onesies to enjoy. And boy did they!  Complete with a video and interpretive dance as Rudolph and Frosty.  Fabulous! ]

Playing Possum and Hurling Love

Hey hey!

Burr it is getting cold around here! It is raining today, which is lame. But we will just have to snuggle up with some hot coco and a blanket, that sounds good to me!

The best thing about the week is that we finally saw our investigator T this week! It has been 4 weeks since we have been able to visit with her! It was a great lesson about her understanding of our missionary purpose and such. And if she is serious about joining the church. She is totally ready, there are just a few things that need to be worked out first, so we are praying for her and we are so excited! We should also hopefully see our other progressing investigator L this week! She is the one that stayed up all night studying the restoration, and could not wait to get a hold of the Book of Mormon! Good things around here!

We had quite the biking adventure... in the rain... on a busy road. We showed up at the members house soaking wet... they were not too happy. We will be sure to ask them to pick us up next time :)

We helped L put up all her outside Christmas decor! How fun :) We drove by the other day and they look great!

Guess what, last night I saw my first real live possum!!!! WOAH They are way bigger than I thought they were. It was dark and we were just driving along when we see something reflecting in the light in the middle of the road. I slow down only to reveal this huge possum trying to be all big and tough. It eventually scampered off. It was basically an ROUS (rodent of un-usual size) But not an un-usual size... a normal size... yeah. Get what I'm saying? I basically felt that I was in the fiery swamp.
We'll say that.

"Princess Bride" scene of ROUSes in fire swamp 

The ward Christmas dinner was a blast, and I ate wayyy too much but hey, it's Christmas! We helped set up for it as well, so it was nice to see that all worked out well and things went smooth. People seemed to really enjoy themselves!

This last Sunday was also the Christmas program in the ward (we did it a bit early). Sister Merrill and I participated in the cute little choir they had. It was so fun! We sang "Guard Him, Joseph" and "Still, Still, Still" They are some of my favorites! It was great, and the spirit was totally there!

Speaking of the spirit being there, the stake also had their Christmas Musical Performance! WOW! It was so wonderful! The choir was big and beautiful, there were some great solos, and they had a bell choir! I was totally being a band nerd and a wanna-be percussionist.  Moral of the story: I LOVE MUSIC!

We also saved a baby kitten! We were walking back from the church when we heard a "meow, meow!" There she was under the cars! She was a tricky bugger and was timid. With a lot of coaxing and kitten food we finally snatched it! Turns out she hitched a ride under our neighbors car and they had been trying to get her for a while! We handed her back and they were gonna take her back to where she belonged. About an hour later we heard a knock on the door, and it was our neighbors telling us that she got out again!! So we were down on the asphalt again! We finally caught her and they drove off. Good luck kitty!

Thought for the week: "HURL love at people" HAHA I saw this quote and I just thought it was great! What a perfect time of the year to truly show great love to people! Because Christ was born, we have a reason to rejoice, and be happy. And with happiness just naturally comes love! So combined with #lighttheworld, go hurl love at someone today!!

Oh!! Did you hear bout the LDS media's news?!?! They are making Book of Mormon videos?!?! Just like the bible videos... I am so excited! Hopefully when I go home they will still need actors cuz I totally want to be a part of that!!!

Book of Mormon to Come to Life in New Church Video Series

LOVE YOU ALL! Hope you have a merry little week, and a happy weekend!!
Sista Poulsen

It's Just Cool and Awesome and Stuff

Helloooooooooooooo!

December is in, and so is the new Christmas initiative for the LDS church!!! Wow I just love Light The World! It is so neat to share the pass along card with people and talk to them about Christ! Sister Merrill and I have been really trying to talk to everyone we see! It's been great, and many miracles have come from it! Wow it's just cool and awesome and stuff to be a missionary :) I hope y'all are participating in #LightTheWorld! I hope you are posting stuff too, if I were there I would be all in! So make some posts and light the world for me!

Light the World - Mormon.org

We helped Sister B. set up some of her Christmas decor this week! We hung wreaths on her 180 ft. hedge that sits in front of her house. It looks pretty good! and then there was a cute little Christmas tree in her window. She's hoping to get some candles too to make it real traditional. I will take pics of the candles, it is a very southern thing. Then we had chili and cheesecake... let's just say it was a jolly day :)

We saw Sister D. [Tara calls her by her first name so we will switch also to L and her husband K.] too and talked to her about the stripling warriors... but that wasn't the best part. Her husband was so sweet and was trying to make us a Christmas CD for the holidays. But the music he was playing wasn't your usual, sweet, Frosty the Snowman songs. It was hard core, rock and roll instrumental Carol of the Bells kind of a jam. Woah. They were awesome. But the best part was when we were reading the scriptures, and the music was totally going along with the story! When the stripling warriors were running from the Lamanite army, the music was intense! When Lehi's army was being defeated, it was all sad. And when the stripling warriors were going back to help and yelling "we do not doubt because our mothers knew!" It was all heroic. God is funny :)

[Lisa says:  My guess is that the Rock version Christmas Music was Trans Siberian Orchestral:

For the Book of Mormon story of the Nephites/Stripling Warriors vs Lamanites read that in the Book of Alma begining here: Alma:53]

We then went on exchanges! I went to Great Bridge, VA with Sister Lundquist! It was a blast! I met a lot of great people, and did some great service! There is a place in town that is called "Parents in Need" that helps those who have children but don't have means to afford clothes and stuff for them. It receives donations of clothes from lots of places, so there is plenty to go around! Someone in need can call ahead and set up an app to come in. When they come in, they can just take clothes, PJ's, shoes, diapers etc to their needs. It is so great! We see so many tired, sad looking people come in, but they left grateful and happy! It is a really neat organization, good people!

[Here is the link for them on Facebook: Parents In Need - Hampton Roads ]

While we were there, the Chesapeake Bridge just happened to come up and let some boats through... yeah... THE Chesapeake bridge... it was sooo cool! No worries I caught it all on camera!
Then we attended a baptism of a sweet little 8 year old in the Great Bridge ward. His grandma gave him this big white quilt to symbolize the Holy Ghost. It was great!

Some things are getting switched up around here though in the mission! Usually, if we teach an investigator without a member present, we call those other lessons and we can count that and report it at the end of the week. But now if we don't have a member present, we can't count it as a lesson and it does not go toward out numbers... woah! I was shocked at first to be honest, because it is hard to get members out, and a lot of things us missionaries do will go unnoticed... But I am also seeing the benefits of it. That when we talk to people, I am not inclined to turn it into a lesson to get a number, but I truly desire to just have a honest to goodness conversation with them and desire to help them come closer to Christ. So it is totally awesome! And plus, member presence is so key in peoples conversion, so this is sooo great and I think a lot of blessings are gonna come of it!

So the First Presidency Christmas Devotional was amazing!! Wow so many good thoughts, and I just love christmas music! We went over to the C Sr.'s house to watch it with them. It was great!

Now... reading descretion is advised on what I am about to tell you. If you have a fear of big gross bugs falling on your head in the night time... stop reading.
It was 5:34am. I roll onto my side thinking "Man, I've got a whole hour left, how wonderful!" I close my eyes and start dozing off when something hits the side of my temple, wings flailing. Surprisingly, i didn't scream. But I flicked that thing off so fast you would have barely saw it! Frazzled, I sit up straight and do a whole face rub down. But it's not good enough for me so I stumble into the bathroom to check things out. All is well. So I walk slowly back into the room, heart racing. I very quietly ask "Sister Merrill, are you awake?" She grumbles "Yessss." I tell her,"Something just fell on my head... it was big and had wings." I start searching all over my bed. There are covers flying everywhere! The phone light is helping me very little. But after a few minutes of searching I couldn't find the Wanna-Be-Batman bug anywhere. So I layed, face up, legs curled, covers at the edge of the bed, till the alarm went off. I go back into the bathroom... when a few moments later I hear "I found the bug!!" I open the door and she says "I stepped on it..." I walked around her bed and there... face up on the floor was a cockroach... EWWW x56. We captured it in a jar... yup it was still alive after it's suicide attempt onto my head and Sister Merrills crushing foot. And it has been in a jar on our table ever since. if anyone has any suggestions on a name for the bug... please send me a letter and contribute to the "Name the Bug" Program. Thank you... your participation is much appreciated.

So yeah... my week was awesome!!!!
Thought for the week: "Christmas isn't just about how He came to this earth, but why." This was from the Christmas devotional, by Elder Christensen. I just loved this line. That this season is to celebrate everything about Christ! If there was no Christmas, there would have been no Easter, and vice versa.

LOVE Y'ALL!!!! Have another light filled week :)
Sista Poulsen

[Lisa's Final Note: Sorry no pictures this week... but they might have been of gross bugs in bottles.  Also, for those that have been as concerned as I have been about these short-legged darlings trying to dismount from boy-style mountain bikes whilst wearing skirts - no longer worry.  Their local ward has been on the case and come through.  They found them some loaner girl style bikes to use for the rest of the transfer. Sister Poulsen also says that the elders might get a new car after this transfer ends on the 26th. Which will mean no more bike riding needed for the sisters.  Whew! I really hope they have video of how the bike riding thing was accomplished because I cannot even imagine how that was safely done.  *mother's heart starts beating again*]