You Don't Have to Understand it All....

And the last transfer begins!!

My new companion is such a gem! Her name is Sister Fahey! She is 23 years old, hails from Blanding, Utah, is super sarcastic, loves people, is a great gospel teacher, and just loves to have FUN! Everything you would want in a companion! Oh and bonus, she LOVES Lord of the Rings too :) This is going to be a LEGENDARY transfer. That is my theme for this transfer. MAKE IT LEGENDARY.

So I was with the Poquoson sisters for a bit after sending Sister Nelson off! She will be missed! That was a fun few days! The L's helped us conserve miles a bit and so we got to be with them for a few hours. We called it the party truck, because it was quite the party! They are wonderful :)

We have a pretty new district so we got to meet them on Friday! Sister Jones is training a new sister, and a few of the elders got switched around as well. We did some really fun activities, including playing with play-dough. YUP. Missionary work is fun :)

We had dinner with a less active and his son one night. We had these delicious steak, broccoli, and mushroom kabobs :) But it is so fun to teach these people, and see the light of the Gospel start to fill them again. Ugh I just love being a missionary can't you tell?!?

We got to attend ward council Sunday morning, it was AMAZING. I can't stop bragging about this AMAZING ward that we are a part of!! They just understand what their callings are, and they execute them to the fullest. They understand that we should be focusing on individual families and people, and that is such a relief for us! It takes the burden off of our shoulders. We are so concerned about so many people, so when the ward council steps in and helps out, it is such a wonderful thing!

Something super strange and hilarious also happened! So sacrament meeting had come to a close and just before the closing prayer the high council brother jumps up (literally) and says "Brothers and sisters the bathrooms have been clogged and are not working so there will be no more meetings after this. You are free to go home, thank you." WHAAAA? We totes thought it was a joke at first, but NOPE is it some city rule that if the bathrooms in a building are not working no one can be there. SO church was pretty much cancelled for the rest of the day! HAHA crazy right?? We felt bad because the elders has so many investigators there and we were going to be talking about baptism in the next class! But hey, what do you do :)

Other than that we are just meeting some crazy but wonderful children of God! I am trying to introduce Sister Fahey to people so she can feel confident taking over this amazing area!

Again, if I have not said it enough. I love being a missionary. I love teaching. Serving. Growing. Learning. Something neat I learned from District meeting that I wanted to share for my thought for the week is this:

"You don't have to understand it all to feel it all." 

Sometimes people worry that they want to know EVERYTHING about the church before entering into the waters of baptism. Or people want all their questions answered before trying to come back to church. The list goes on. But, what truly matters is how the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ makes you feel. Do you feel His redeeming love? Do you feel the peace from the Spirit? Do you feel your sins are forgiven as you repent and take the sacrament? Feeling is the key :)

Love you all!!! I love the church!!! I love My Savior!!!
Have a blessed week y'all
Sista Poulsen

Bonus from the Question Email:
Q: How's the weather?
A: Man the heat has been interesting! IT is super nice today, but the humidity that last few days has been killer. It will take me a minute to adjust to the humidity. I don't mind the heat, it's just the feeling of being in a sauna that kills me. :P

Q: What is your last new companion like?
A:She is FAB. Such a funny human, and she just likes to work hard but have TONS of fun all at the same time! It is going to be a good transfer :) She likes to eat junk food and loves lord of the rings :) She's pretty rad.

Note: Tara's cousin is leaving next week for her LDS Mission to London, England.  Kristen will be in the MTC for a few weeks and will fly out on the very day that Tara comes home.  They will most likely pass each other in the air going in opposite directions.
Tara says: Kristen is going to do so good as a missionary. I have a letter for her sitting on my desk right now!  I am going to miss her so much! :( Still praying for a miracle that I can see her at the airport?!?!?) I just love her!

Q: Did you get a homemade/grilled hamburger yet?
A: HAHA almost! Someone said that were going to make us turkey burgers, but ended up last minute not :( SO SAD! Hopefully soon :)

Last Transfer!!

Sister Poulsen and Sister Nelson

Time for another transfer! Sister Nelson is seeing her parents TONIGHT?!?!? They are picking her up, how exciting!!! My new companion will be Sister Fahey, Sister Nelson was comps with her. She sounds great! We are gonna kill it these 6 weeks :)

I hope you all had a lovely Father's Day!

Shout out to my dad for being THE GREATEST DAD EVER. Hands down, LOVE YOU PAP!!! We did something interesting on Sunday, we went on splits so that I could be at Fort Eustis and Sister Nelson could be in our ward with our investigators. So my temporary companion was the senior couple, the Larsens and Sister Nelson went with Sister Corbitt. It was a huge success! Being on base was neat, met a few new guys, heard a beautiful violin solo, and ate some yummy steak! Meanwhile, S, M, and J all made it to church as well!! WOW it was so great to walk in and see them sitting in Relief Society, just soaking in the Spirit! They all had a great experience and they can't wait to come again! So many good things :)

S is just cruising. She told us how before we came she was always depressed and things because she is not in the best living situation right now, but after we started visiting, she says light has really come into her life. She knows this is true it's amazing! What a honor it is to be a part of her conversion. God truly led us to meet her, I know it.

We had a yummy yummy meal at the T family's home as well,- good ol' cornbread and jambalaya . Yes family, I will be making this for you because it's so southern and soooo good. They invited a less active to come as well, and we had a great lesson on the beauty of repentance! Much success that night :)

We also introduced an investigator to the family history center, she really loved it! It is so neat to see people light up with the spirit of Elijah and get so excited! Family History is totally amazing.

We did some service for a less active, as well, Saturday morning. He said that he is just so grateful for us. We make him feel "apart of the church" When he said that Sister Nelson and I said, in unison, "You ARE a part of the church!" He is slowly learning and coming back. It's amazing!

Man, life it just so blessed. Talking to people and testifying of this Gospel is one of the happiest things I have ever done. It is scary to talk to random strangers and the fear of rejection is always there, but after doing it the Spirit just fills me and I know that no matter what, as we testify of the truths that we know, we have done a wonderful thing and God is so grateful for it. So take that as my thought for the week. Testify of the truths that you know, it will fill you with the spirit of God, which is one of God's greatest gifts to us.

This week will be interesting! I won't get my companion till Wednesday so I will be hanging with a few other sisters for a while! But come Thursday, we are going to dive right into the work!

LOVE Y'ALL did you know???? YUP
Be blessed
Sister Poulsen

VA = Virginia with Sisters Poulsen and Nelson

Miracles Will Come

Hello one again!

Another week come and gone, not too much to report on. But an amazing mission tour by Elder LeGrand R. Curtis and his wife! They are wonderful people! It was so neat to be with them for a bit on Friday. To hear their testimonies of the Savior. As a member of the quorum of the 70 he is a special witness of Jesus Christ. So hearing him testify was very powerful. He talked about the difference in hope and faith a lot. As well as his calling and the prophets calling and things like that. He talked about how glorious it is to be in the Lords service! To wake up everyday knowing that you will be strengthening the kingdom of God! Super neat, it was awesome!

We had an incredible church tour with S, and she is now on date for baptism on the 29th of July! She said she felt that Christ was with us as we walked around the church! Sadly her alarm did not go off Sunday morning so she missed church! But she is planning on it next week! I was sad not because we didn't get to report her as a number of investigators at church, I was sad because she was not able to feel of the amazing spirit that was at church. She did not get to remember her Savior as she partook of the sacrament. Church is such an important things in our lives. I have really come to see that.

Our ward is just incredible though! We had a fun activity, a fish fry, Friday night. Our members reached out to our investigators and 5 of them came :O WOAH it was sooo good! Not just the food... haha but the fact that our members are incredible missionaries and our investigators feel so loved and accepted with them! So blessed.

Sunday evening we had a blank schedule, so we exercised faith and prayed and said "Heavenly Father, we will not go in for dinner until we find a new investigator!" BOOM we hit the streets. We were contacting potentials in the GPS but talking to everyone along the way. I even pulled over to offer to help someone with their groceries and we wended up giving them a Book of Mormon! We taught lots of people truths about our church, but none of them technically became new investigators. But we felt God's approval for our hard work for those few hours and He allowed us to go home and make our fajitas (pic included) But it was great to see that as we exercised a bit of faith the miracles that came and the truths we shared! I became happier and happier as we kept talking and contacting! It was a great day in the end!

This week is Sister Nelson's last week in the mission field, so we are going to hit it hard! Can't wait to see the miracles that The Lord has in store for us!

Thought for the week: This comes from out dear Sister Weed. [Mission President's wife] on the mission tour Friday. She said "In the 4th article of faith, it lists the first 4 principles of the Gospel; Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holly Ghost. So where is the 5th principle, Enduring to the End? It is in the 13th article of faith. All the things we read in that article and if we apply them leads us to enduring conversion, which helps us to endure to the end which is to return to live with God and Christ with our families forever." WOAH mind blown! So study the 13th article of faith, but this time with that in mind.

LOVE Y'ALL! Stay amazing, the church is true, and I love to "bring the world His truth!"
Be blessed
Sista Poulsen

Jamestown P-Day

Jamestown Postcard:   Hey There Family! So we took a trip to the historic Jamestown museum! 1/2 of it is inside, the rest is outside.  cool indian village and boat docks to see! But with our luck, the skies opened up and poured! we were drenched and had to go inside cuz of lightning. So we walked around w/our soggy shoes and looked at all the neat relics and information! Pretty neat place! Sadly it was $17 and we didn't get to it all cuz of the rain & time! Sorry for the waste! I'll work extra hard for the this week ha ha j/k.  I'm not sure that's how God works. Pretty cool place I'm in tho! Love it to pieces. LOVE YOU ALL TOO!  I hope trek went well. (Heart) Sista Poulsen

Love God, Love Yourself, and Love Others

WOW! Did this week even happen???

We have had some great things going down! Just full days of teaching and testifying! Our investigators are learning little by little. God is good and the Spirit is working on them pretty hard so that's good :) That is really all that matters.

We had interviews with our mission president and his wife once again. I love them to death! They are just the sweetest and always have such great advice! We are so uplifted by their spirits and it is a joy to be with them.

Another Family Home Evening on base this week as well. They have one at 1 o'clock and one at 6:30 every Wednesday. There are 2 because some of the guys can only attend the earlier or the later ones. Its nice that they do it like that. We read the Living Christ document it was great! Lots of good discussion and spiritualness.

The Living Christ

Oh my!! I cannot stop raving about our members here! They totally understand missionary work! Usually us missionaries have to encourage people to share the gospel, but here - nope! - they already get it and are working right along side us! We had lots of folks who are not members at church and a few were not even investigators! The members just invited them and they came :O SOOO cool. Sunday was super amazing though! Our investigator actually got up and bore his testimony about how he is grateful that us missionaries have shown this to him. Right after that, another brother stood up and spoke right to our investigator and said "Brother, you are doing the right thing being here. I testify..." Then he just bore testimonyof Christ and his gospel and it was soooo spiritual in that room. AND THEN a member came up and invited him and us to dinner tonight to have a lesson in their home!! WOAH. I know right. They are incredible. This work would not progress without them. Seriously.

Great miracles happened on exchanges! I went to Yorktown, which left Sister Nelson here in the News. She was nervous because she has not been here long. But miracles took place! They did some service for members and found 4 new investigators! (something we have been praying for!!) SOOOO amazing!  God is so good to us and truly hears our prayers.

F and B had us over for dinner as well, they are just the best! Recent converts have such a spirit about them! They are both on fire for the gospel and I cannot wait to see them go to the temple and baptize their mother and their niece! What a neat experience that will be for them.

Other than that we are just being diligent and God is blessing us for it! We have been visiting people in our roster that we don't know and the people answer and are so nice and want us to come back to visit them! The past missionaries in this area have truly set it up for success. We are reaping the fruits of their hard work.

Thought for the week: this was given 2 Sundays ago. The 2 great commandments: Thou shalt love The Lord thy God with all they heart... and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. So at first we would think the order goes

Love:

1. God

2. Others

3. Ourself

FALSE. Let me explain. She said it like this. In the second commandment, it says to love your neighbor as yourself. So if you don't love yourself first, how will you love your neighbor? So the real order is this:

1. God

2. YOURSELF

3. Others

When we love God, we come to understand our divine potential so that helps us love ourselves. When we understand that for ourselves then we can come to help others understand it for themselves too and we begin to see them as God sees them. WOW. Sister Nelson and I were just mind blown! How true this is.

We have another mission tour this week by LeGrand R. Curtis of the 70! WOW so many cool people have been visiting our mission lately it has been so neat! Can't wait to hear what he has to say!

Love you all! I hope you feel the love of the missionary spirit as you testify of Jesus Christ and just shine your powerful example!
Have a blessed week
Sista Poulsen

[bonus content:]
Q; You mentioned needing a quarter for the shopping cart at Aldi's grocery store... what's up with that?
A: HAHA oh yes! you put a quarter in the cart to unlock it and then go around  the store and shop and at the end you lock it back up and t spits the quarter out so you can use it next time its so great! Aldi's is its name, cheap groceries is its game! We get lots of healthy food there for a great price!! Wahooo

Q; Do you need more postcards?
A: Nah. I will probably find a few in Jamestown today... yup you heard right we are going to Jamestown to look around today!!!! Get ready for some cool historic pictures next wee!\k!

Q: How are you doing?
A: Life is pretty good! I have been struggling with thinking about home a lot - like smells and sights and stuff just remind me of things from home. Especially campfire and pine smells. It REALLY makes me want to go camping so bad. So that's been a little hard.