So my first week in Gutierrez Zamora was probably the best week so far out here in the mission! My new companion is so dope! Speaks no English, which helps me with my Spanish so much! Every day, all day, solamente español! This also wears me out soooo much. At the end of each day my brain and body are just fried! Oh I forgot to mention, my zone, Papantla, is infamous for its cerros or hills! I swear we are walking up and down hills constantly throughout the day. And these aren’t just your normal hills, they are steep and they just keep going! So yeah, at the end of the day my brain and my body are just dead!
My new house is better than the last and we have a river right by our house which looks exactly like the Missouri which makes me think about home! We are legit 10 minutes from the beach! My first day we ate at a members house who lives on the beach so I was able to see the ocean and all that jazz, ‘twas super dope!
But yeah Elder Tapia is the man! We have such an awesome time together! We talk a lot during the day, he helps me with my conjugations and I help him with his English! The coolest thing about him is he legit reminds me of a Latino version of my dawg Elder (Apolo) Ta’Ase so that is hype! The members here are so awesome! There is a lot of work to be done here and I’m happy I have an awesome comp to get to work with! I also forgot to mention, my companion is new to the area too so neither of us know a thing about Gutierrez. In the mission this is called a "white-wash" and it’s usually not common. Funny thing about that is my first two areas have been a white wash! But hey, we love turning lemons into lemonade!
So yeah on to happenings of the week!
1. In out second day in Gutierrez Zamora we had all lot things we had to do and not a whole lot of time to contact and meet new people. We had to meet the members, situate our house, go get some groceries, but we found time from 6-8. In those 2 hours we found 8 new investigators!! ‘Twas crazy!!
2. We already have a baptism date for a 14 year old named Israel! He is the man! We also have a family who wants to get baptized, the parents just need to get married but at the same time they don’t really want to get married so we will see how that goes
3. Found a guy who was a district attorney so I was able to talk to him about being an attorney, was actually sooo awesome! When he met us, he already knew some stuff about The Church but he didn’t want to read the Book of Mormon! I hit him with “to become a better lawyer, don’t you thing it would be a good thing to learn the plenitude of the law, don’t you think it’s a good idea to always increase our knowledge” the spirit was so strong and he was down to read after that, I could see it in his eyes.
4. So in my area, we have a lot of fresh vanilla, and it is so good! The pepitos here are almost all vanilla and they are soo good! I also had some ice cream this week and it was bomb. And as you probably guessed, i got vanilla ice cream
5. So here, when people want a drink it is either water, agua con sabor, or Coca-Cola! I have some crazy good agua con sabor each week! This week I had mango, was my first time having it but it was so bomb!
6. I needed a new belt because my other one is a little big (lol) so we went to the tianguis which is practically a place where they have a ton of outdoor shops! Was looking and found a Gucci belt for 100 pesos or 5 dollars! So now a days I’m rocking my Mexican Gucci belt!!
7. I learned if you buy groceries and have about a 2 mile walk back to your house that mainly consists of hills, it’s a good idea to double bag your milk.
8. Everyone here walks around with a towel around their belt because it is so hot which just means that everybody is just constantly sweating! All good though because I found a yellow towel!
9. So a common dish here is called Molle and I think it is pretty good! So this week we found some tiendas with signs that said pasta de molle! I was hyped because I was like “molle with pasta, that would be so good” turns out pasta de molle is just molle that hasn’t been made yet so you could like buy some, take it home and make it! It was pretty funny in the moment when I asked if we could try pasta de molle sometime lol!
10. A common sabor por agua here is Hamika, we will probably have it once a week here but honestly not a huge fan
Random thoughts and funny things
1. There will be at least one moment each week where I just think “what the heck is in Mexico right now.”
2. So in Túxpan I was usually the holder of the keys for the house! One thing I forgot to do was give Élder Saldaña the keys before I left for Gutierrez... but all good he got into the house!
3. If you can understand the really old people here, you have mastered Spanish! The old people are so hard to understand! Also it’s super funny, I totally have my days with Spanish! Somedays, I feel like I can just chat it up and some days I’m like “do I even know Spanish”? It’s kinda funny but the good thing is that the majority of they says I feel like I can speak.
4. I miss driving!! Like just a late night drive listening to music :/
5. So in college, me and my buddies would watch a sad or like a romantic movie every Sunday and call this sad movie Sunday. For some reason I talk about it 3 times this week haha!
6. Everyone here thinks I look like Paul Walker
7. This week we had lunch with a lady who could not say my last name to save her life. She kept asking if there was a translation for Poulsen so I decided to help her out and say Pepe. So my second name for all the people in Mexico who can’t pronounce Poulsen, is Élder Pepe
8. I saw a lot of dole whip stands this weeks so it made me think about the Tiki Room in Disneyland lol. I miss Disneyland!
Im going to be honest with you guys, a mission is difficult. At times I think how on earth am I going to be able to do this for 2 years! But the work of the lord is not easy, never has been and never will be. In Alma chapter 17 we read about the sons of Mosiah who labored for 14 years and these were the things that they had to deal with. "Now these are the circumstances which attended them in their journeyings, for they had many afflictions; they did suffer much, both in body and in mind, such as hunger, thirst and fatigue, and also much labor in the spirit." They gave up a kingdom, their riches, their lives in exchange for these hardships. The question is why the sons of Mosiah and so many others wanted and want to trade their normal lives for one that is much harder. There is a scripture that says when we loose ourselves in the work of the lord, we in turn find ourselves. In my mind, these missionaries of old found what really mattered in life. Not riches, not the things of this world, they found that when they gave their lives to this cause, heavenly father was able to mold them into the people he intended them to be! This is why I am here, this is why i
work, because I am trying to become the person that my heavenly father has intended for me to become! I know that when we trust in our heavenly father that our lives can be changed only for the better! I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and contains the fulness the Gospel! I know that families can be together forever, and that our father in
heaven wants to bless his children in all things, but is important that we ask! I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it has changed my life. I hope you all have an amazing week!!
Con amor Elder Poulsen (Pepe)
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