Hello everyone!!
To start off, I want to tell you all that I am so grateful for you guys, all of you, and I hope you know that I cherish my relationships with all of you! I also want to thank you so much for the emails! I am sorry because I am so bad at responding, but know that I read them all and I am so grateful for them! They have helped me so much!! I think I forgot to say this last week that our showers are soooooooo cold. I haven't taken a warm shower in so long. But this week we found a little thing that is used to heat up water. So what we did this week is we filled up buckets then heated the water up with this little device. So what you do is you just have a bucket and a glass and you just take a shower that way, haha. But man a warm shower is a luxury here in Mexico. I ate adobo and pozole 2 times each this week. If you have not tried these two meals, and I'm pretty sure that most of you haven't, I highly recommend them! They are my favorite things to eat here in Mexico! One crazy thing about our area is that there are sooo many hills! Like every moment of everyday we are walking up hills then walking down, it is quite tiring. I have really come to realize how amazing cars are. So the next time you are driving up a hill, be grateful...I know that I won't ever take it for granted again. At least I hope that I don't haha! This week I also had the opportunity to help an investigator here make piñatas! Super dope! Also, my soccer skills are improving, thanks to Elder Duran:) We have played a couple of pick up games this week and it has been a fun way to meet new people!! Elder Duran has mad skills and he has taught me a few things. Hopefully by the time our time together is over, I'll be ready for the MLS, haha. Once again, this was a week of miracles, especially with my spanish! All of the lessons that we have given the past two weeks, I have given because Elder Duran is still learning and is a little shy. I also am learning more that miracles come after work and are a product of us willing to make sacrifices. For some reason, this week I found myself feeling a little discouraged at the end of the day because we hadn't seen the fruits of our labors throughout the days. However, every night, during our last meeting that we have had, I have experienced a lot of joy and energy, enough to get up and work hard again the next day. Okay, now that I'm typing it out, it seems a bit extreme, things haven't been that discouraging, but hey, a mission is not easy and discouragement even happens when you're on a mission. For that matter, life isn't easy in general. In almost every instance, it is the little things that help us get through the big things. It's always the little things that give us the strength to press on and face our trials with faith. Bottom line, this really was a week of learning. I think the most important thing that I learned this week has been how important it is to focus on what matters most. We live such amazing lives, and sometimes I really don't realize how blessed I am. I know that many of us take even some of the smallest conveniences for granted, until we don't have those things in our lives anymore. Unfortunately, it is so easy to do. I was reminded of this just yesterday as I had the opportunity to talk with a lady from church about her son who is a missionary right now. To make a long story short, he wasn't the best kid growing up but was baptized and changed so much. When he was about 6 months into his mission he wrote home about this same topic, about the things that matter most. He said these simple but powerful words that brought his mother, and me for that matter, to tears. he said " Mom, I'm sorry for the person that I was, I am sorry that I would turn off my phone when you would call me. I wish I had taken the time to care about your feelings and simply to talk to you, because, Mom, I really miss your calls." I know that even though I never didn't disregard my mom's calls, I really do miss talking to her as much as I did before I came on my mission. BUT, I am SO grateful that I get to talk to her each week, because her influence and spirit gives me such a lift each week!!! Things are starting to cool down a little bit and we've had to use our jackets a couple of days. I can tell you that I don't miss sweating all day, every day. So, I'm thankful that I get to use my coat on occasion haha. We are getting to know our new city Poza Rica and the people here better each day. I am enjoying being able to meet amazing new people and to be able to share the gospel with the people of Poza Rica. There is a lot to be done here and we have a lot of work ahead of us, but I welcome the opportunity to do just that, WORK. I am learning that the remedy to all things that make a mission hard is by working hard. I appreciate the email that I received this week from one of my favorite mentors and role models. He gave me some great goals to help make the time here more valuable and rewarding. I am excited to put the concepts and principles into practice and to work harder than I have ever worked in my life. Except for maybe when I completely passed out running gassers during camp at SVU last year haha. That is it for this week. I hope you all have a great week and remember to be thankful for the little things. I love you all and am thankful for your influences in my life! I am so thankful to be a missionary and to be able to be serving the people of Mexico!! Love, Elder Poulsen https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2010/10/of-things-that-matter-most?lang=eng
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