Roque Nublo

These are my island people!!!

ROQUE NUBLO!!!

ROQUE NUBLO!!!

Sister Larsen is my second mother here in the islands hahah She made us cookies and everything!!!

July 28,2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 47

Hey Dad!!!

Sorry these will be really short emails this week!  We had a really good p day activity, and I´ll try to make up for it by sending you guys a ton of pictures!!  We went up to an area called roque nublo, which is the highest point on the island... It was way cool, and we went with all the missionaries on the island!  So ya i just got back a few minutes ago and I'm super tired!  Transfers happen in a week, and i am really REALLY hoping that i get to stay here in the islands for another six weeks, but i´ll keep you guys posted on that. Things are going really good here as district leader and everything... Like we had an amazing meeting last week, and i asked elder Larsen to give a talk on conversion, and it was amazing.  He used a talk from elder Bednar about conversion and testimony and it was really good!  Other than that a lot more of the same.  Seems like everyone else in the world is having weird weather and stuff, but here i am having sun every day... Sounds pretty crazy between your storms and from what Kendal told me a hurricane just ripped through her area, so that´s pretty crazy too!!  Hope everything is going well with work, and the free time you have with all of us in other places haha, i´ll try and send as many pics as i can!!  Have a great week!  Love you!

Nate

July 28, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Hey Momma!!!

Sorry sorry sorry really short emails today again!!  It feels like these past 6 weeks have been sooo hectic, but I'm really having a good time and I'm happy out here!  I´m gonna try and send some good photos of the activity today, but i know sister Larsen will post some better ones and describe it all even better!  We went up to the highest part of the island, and it was sooo beautiful!!  Like ya i have a million pics, and i´ll see if i have time to send them!  If not next week if I'm not sent back to Madrid :(  I really hope not!  Next week are changes, so we´ll see how things go!!!  Hmmm let me get your questions really fast!!!!

1.  No i have enough here in the islands, and like an ABUNDANCE left in Madrid ... gracias!

2.  Ya i got them last Thursday!!  Dang that came fast!!  Thanks mom!!!  Love you!  They all fit me good, like i still wanna get skinnier so they are looser on me, but they fit me like they should.

3.  ummm pictures of the family??? I have a wall where i put up pictures, and i don't have a ton from you guys... I have the big one from valentines day up still!!! hahha

Gahhhhh no time :(  It has been a great week!  What i have learned more than anything is about conversion... Like how peter gets a testimony of Jesus quickly which we can see by him saying that he is the son of the living god, but even after all of it Christ told peter that once he is converted, to strengthen his brethren... It shows that conversion is a long process that includes even after we are members, and that lots of us can still convert ourselves a lot more! The conversion is kind of like your testimony in action.  We know all the things we should do, but we can tell how converted we are by whether we do them, and the attitude we have in doing them... There is a quote in PMG that says we cant convert anybody if we aren't converted ourselves, so i guess that's something I've been try to better in myself!!  Sorry momma i gotta go can't give you a super profound spiritual thought or anything, but i love you!!!  You really are the best mom ever!  Have a great week!!!

Nate

July 27, 2014 - From Sis Larson's Blog

We had a wonderful district meeting with the elders from Vecindario and Telde on Wednesday.  I am always very inspired by the testimonies of the wonderful young men.  Elder Larsen gave us a wonderful message from a talk by Elder Bednar, "Converted to the Lord," about the difference between having a testimony of Christ and truly being converted to Christ.  I will share just one line from that talk.  "Conversion is an offering of self, of love, and of loyalty we give to God in gratitude for the gift of testimony."  I think we were all very inspired by Elder Larsen's message.  

And after the spiritual feast, we had a temporal feast of apple pork chops, baked potatoes (from the potatoes that we bought from the local farmer), green beans, and a favorite, Jewish Sweet Bread, topped off with chocolate cake.  I love these missionaries!

Elders Dyer, Gentry, Rawlinson, and Poulson

These happy missionaries are holding their portion of the leftover Jewish Sweet Bread.

Elder Poulson is holding some vanilla extract that he asked for.

We had a wonderful day on Saturday.  Elder Poulson and Elder Dyer, from Telde, had asked us if we could meet with an investigator couple, Maria and Ignacio.  A couple of weeks ago, when we were with the elders, everyone was speculating as to who would be transferred next.  Elder Poulson has been here a long time, and I am very sure he will leave us on the next transfer.  He doesn't want to leave, so he made a friendly wager.  He heard that I had made an apple pie for Hermana Grover's birthday, and he asked if I would make one for him if he stays.  If he gets transferred, he is going to send me something valuable from the States, when he gets home, (something precious like brown sugar, chocolate chips, or some cans of green chiles!)   Anyway, I had offered to bring a dessert to the investigator's house and decided I could make an apple pie and that way Elder Poulson could have some, even though he is most likely going to be transferred.   Was I ever surprised when we pulled up to the church in Telde and Elder Dyer walked out with Elder Gentry!  Elder Poulson had to go to Vecindario to give an interview to an investigator.  

We had a wonderful visit with Maria and Ignacio.  They are such a friendly couple, even though Ignacio does not appear friendly on first sight because of his size.  Maria had fixed a huge pot of paella, and we also enjoyed her homemade mojo sauce.  It was all delicious.  Afterwards, we enjoyed some watermelon, and then somehow found room for the apple pie.  Elder Poulson was lucky that there was a piece left to send home for him.

July 22 - Letter from President Jackson

22 July 2014

The Poulson Family
13157 Woodmont Street Poway, CA 92064 USA

Dear Brother and Sister Poulson ,


It is a pleasure to inform you that we have assigned your son, Elder Poulson, to serve as a district leader in the Vecindario District. This position carries with it increased leadership responsibility. The District Leader is to set an example for the other missionaries in his district through his study of the scriptures and the gospel, obedience and hard work, proselyting skills and other aspects of missionary work. Elder Poulson will be responsible for planning and conducting weekly District Meetings, and in supervising, teaching and inspiring the missionaries in his district. He will also interview baptismal candidates, which requires spiritual sensitivity and maturity.


This assignment is in addition to his regular proselyting responsibilities. We have confidence in Elder Poulson's abilities and know that this will give him opportunities for growth as he strengthens those he serves.  You can be proud of your son. We enjoy working with such a fine Elder in this great work.


May God's choicest blessings be with you and your family as you support your son in his missionary service in the Spain, Madrid Mission.

Sincerely,


President Scott T. Jackson  

Spain Madrid Mission

July 21, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 46

Hey Dad!!

Woah that compass rose is way cool!!!  Good job!!  That must be a pretty fancy elevator, where are you putting it in at, in coronado???  That´s pretty awesome.  It has been a decent week here.  I´m super stressed over a million and one things that I'm doing, and how everything is working out, but over all things are good!  At the beginning of the week, we were in a trio down in the other area, because one of the missionaries had to go to Madrid for a meeting, so that was the reason I could barely write anything to anyone last week, but it was alright.  While we were down in the super touristy part of the island on Monday night, the other elder left the keys to his car inside and locked it... It was pretty funny looking back on it, but he was pretty stressed and we were trying to find ways to pick the lock and stuff and we ended up taking a bus home and getting back late.  The next morning we had to wake up early and get out thee, and we tried to get into the car, but it wasn't working out.  We had a way that would have worked, elder Larsen was trying it out, but he didn't want us to do it because it would look weird having a missionary break into a car, so I didn't get to do it, but he was wedging a coat hanger into the door and getting it down to where the lock thing was to open it... Didn't seem too complicated, but they couldn't get it to work so he ended up breaking the small quarter window in the back and then paying to get a new one...It was one lonnggg day, plus we taught some people and did some other stuff... Up here in Telde it was a decent week as well!  We taught the few investigators we have, but they are all doing really good and one of them came to church this past Sunday as well!  I have talked about him a couple times, his name is primitivo and he is the best!  I really hope I can stay here a bit longer because I think he will get baptized!!  Other than that there isn't a whole lot of stories to tell. 

The Larsens are awesome, and they are coming to my district meeting this week!  We´ll see how that goes... I'm going to teach about conversion, and how we need to be converted before we can convert others... Its not all planned out yet but that's the idea I'm going for at least!  Yes I´m starting to get a little skinnier out here in the islands, but I want to get even more!  Problem is my clothes are already pretty baggy, so I'm gonna have to go and buy some new ones!  But I guess tha is a good problem!  

Good luck with work and everything this week!  Hope it all goes smoothly and you guys have a good time with Justin!  Have a great week!  Love you!

Nate

July 21, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Hey Momma!!!

Hope you are having an amazing week!!!  Things are going alright here, and overall I'm doing pretty good!  I´m not sure if you and dad share emails or anything, but I wrote him the funny story that happened this week and I´ll share like the summary of it with you too!  Soo we were down in the south in a trio, because one of the other guys was in Madrid, and one of my buddies locks the keys to the car inside, sooo we were all stuck in like the worst part of the island late at night with no way to get home... We end up taking a bus home, and getting back there super early so we don't get ticketed!!!  We tried breaking in without breaking anything, but after a while it didnt work out and we ended up having to break a window, but all is good now! It was even worse(funny now) that like just two days later my companion forgot to bring the keys to our piso, so we got locked out of that too!!  But we were able to pick the lock and got in without any further expenses or problems haha So that´s that!!  I´ll answer some of your questions first I suppose...

1.  I actually don't really talk to them that much it makes me sad, but from what I hear most of them are doing good!  Mario the dominican guy has had trouble getting to church because his work schedule got changed, which is a bummer, but I hear he is still doing really good :) 

 

2.  We´ve been to some, but president ended up telling me to to go as much as I was planning on.  He said we should like stay in the highly populated areas of our area, if that makes sense, so I guess thats that!  

3.  I´ve done a couple since I got called as the district leader, and then this past week was a ton!!!  I was down working in Vecindario on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, then I had an afternoon here in telde with a zone leader from tenerife, then on Saturday I was back down in vecindario again for a baptismal interview!!

4.  Well i guess I just answered that, but ya I gave my first one just a couple days ago to a guy from Peru.  Really nice guy and he is going to be Baptized this Saturday in Vecindario!!!

5.  Not exactly sure... I suppose its a natural pose of mine??  No I reall dont have any logical answer for this question haha sorry?? :)

Sorry I wasnt able to write barely anything last week!!  We were up in the Larsens house, and like all the missionaries take turns there, but we had to leave early to take another guy to the airport, then drive all the way down south and by the time we got there we only had a few minutes to write, buttttttt oh well it has been a decenmt week here in Telde as welll... The guy with the water, his name is Primitivo and he is doing really well!  We are always able to meet with him a lot, and he came to church again this past well yesterday!!  I bought a pizza for him cuz that's what he wanted, but he ended up making us a spaish tortilla to eat after church yesterday, so it all sort of balanced out!  If all goes well we are going to invite him to be baptized this week and we´ll see how that goes!  Hopefully well!!!  

Sounds like you guys are having a busy week as usual!!  Justin sure has a lot of baseball games nowadays, and I hope he is doing good!  He hasn´t written me in a REALLY long time, like a month I think and I miss hearing from him, but I hope he´s doing good!!!  I miss all you guys, kara wrote me and it sounds like she is doing good, but stressed about a talk she has to give in church.  I'm going to try and think of any story idea I can send over to her.  Kendal didnt write me, so i´m pretty sad about that, but I guess she is in the philippines and who knows what's going on over there.  Hopefully she's all good and safe and everything, I'm sure she is.  Well let me see if i have anything else noteworthy to share from this week....  No I didn't have any meetings this past week, but this next week I'm going to teach a lesson, and I think I´ll be trying to focus on conversion.  And like teaching off of a quote that I have no clue where it is now but I'm going to find it, it basically says we can't convert people more than we are converted ourselves.  ALSO I wanted to share how conversion isn't just a point we get to, but something that is continual and even though we are missionaries we should continue converting ourselves to the gospel and getting better day by day :)  I think it should turn out pretty well, but we´ll see!  I´m glad you found the Larsen's blog!  She told me that you left a sweet comment on her blog when I saw her on Thursday!  The Larsen's are the best, and ya she cooks a lot!!  But she cooks way good! hahah Maybe she´ll post more pictures of us this wednesday, cuz they are coming to my district meeting, so we´ll see !!!  Well I think that´s just about everything!!  Hope you have an amazing week, and good luck with work and everything!!  Love you Mom :)  You're the best!  Really :)

Love,

Nate

July 14, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 45

Hey Dad!!

Sorry my email is going to be pretty short today as well.  We went to the married couples house to have a fun day with all the missionaries, and I have a hectic afternoon traveling getting a missionary to the airport so I won't have a ton of time to write, but it has been a great week!!  We had good lessons, and ya everything is going great!!!!  This guy that we helped carry his water up two weeks ago keeps progressing, and he has come to church the past two weeks and is doing great!!  Hope everything is going great!! Sounds good that work is going steady and everything!  Hope you have a great week dad!  Sorry this is really short, I´ll write more next week!  Love you!!

Nate

July 14, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Hey Momma!!

Sorry I barely have any time to write anything today :(  I am at the Larsens house right now, and all the missionaries here are having fun and everything, but we have to take another elder to the airport to go to Madrid, so I won't have a ton of time left for p day...  But anyways I´ll try and write a little bit to you before I go!!  

It was a great week!!  We actually had decent week this week!!  Like lessons actually happened, people accepted us, oh and there was a wedding yesterday!!  I´ll explain that... We went to these two investigators named Daniela and Denis, and they told us they were getting married on Sunday, and ended up inviting us to the wedding!!  So that was the fun part of the week.  Yesterday, we went to the catholic church hahaha and were there for the wedding ceremony and everything!!  It actually turned out well because we met some less active members of the family, and were able to get some references :)  And the guy with the water is doing really good!  I actually owe him dinner right now :(  hahaha somehow I got sucked into a silly bet over the world cup finals, and my team lost so now I owe him dinner!  And of course me not wanting to lose forever made a bet with Sister Larsen just right now... She is convinced I am leaving the island in three weeks, and if I stay, she will make me a homemade apple pie :)  Yummm I hope that works out!  Not to much else happened this week, but it was good!  Sorry you had a crazy week with work and your calling and everything!!  I´m sorry p day ends now and I really have to go :(  Kind of like you nobody gets emails from me this week :/  Only you dad and kendal just gets a little note to say hi and I love you and that's it :(  grrrr Well have a great week mom!  I´ll write you more next week!  Love you!!!

Nathan

Entry from July 13, 2014 - Sis Larsen

Excerpt from Sis Larsen's Blog:

Thursday we did more piso inspections.  Even though it wasn't July 4th, I thought the Elders would enjoy some chocolate chip cookies.  I have to share the game that Elder Larsen told the missionaries that we were going to play while doing the inspections.  He shared with them that there was a time when our children were little, and rowdy during church.  To help motivate them to be quiet, we started rewarding them with ice cream after church.  If they were quiet, they could have 4 scoops of ice cream. If they were acting up and wouldn't listen to us, then we just held up 3 fingers, and they knew they had lost one scoop of ice cream, then 2 fingers, etc.  Most of the time, this worked really well, but we did have certain children who sometimes got down to no scoops, and the motivation was gone.  Nothing is perfect!  Anyway, we had a list from the office telling us what to look for  in the apartments.  Elder Larsen told the missionaries that for each item that wasn't clean, they would lose a cookie.  All of the missionaries were happy to find out that he was only kidding!

Hermana Larsen, Elder Poulson, Elder Dyer

Elder Larsen had his first high council assignment to speak at the Telde Branch today, so we got to see these two wonderful elders.

 Elders Dyer, Larsen, Poulson

July 7, 2014 - Letter to Dad - Week 44

Hey Dad!!

Good to hear from you!!  It has been quite a fast week, and a pretty rough one at that!!  Lot´s of time out on the streets trying to find people, but I guess that is what I signed up for, so I gotta keep working hard and trying.  Hope all the work keeps going well!!  I guess it´s better to have a lot right??  Even if it´s super tiring!!  Here we had an investigator come to church!!  And we got to meet with him quite a few times last week as well, so I guess the week wasn't as bad as I thought it was!!  But other than that it really is a lot of time walking the streets!  My feet are killing me!  Hopefully we find more people this next week!   Well hope you have a great week dad!!  love you!!

Nate

July 7, 2014 - Letter to Mom

Hey Momma!!

 

It was a pretty decent week here in Telde.  Well actually it was super hard, but we had some good things happen as well.  Lots of walking around and lots of people rejecting us, but do you remember the guy I talked about last week?? He needed help getting wáter up to his roof, so we helped him out and were able to teach him??  Ya well we ended up teaching him 4 more times last week, and then he came to church and really liked it!!  Church was way good yesterday not sure why!!  Like usually one of the meetings is kind of ehh but all the teachers were amazing and the testimonies were great.  The investigator even said after that next month he wanted to share his testimony and everything!  So ya that´s cool.  We really didnt have much else going on, and I don't have any other stories I dont think :(  I´m lame... But I did have an Exchange with the zone leader, so that was fun.  We ended up going out to the ghetto and contacting, then like just contacting all over Telde the rest of the day!  Oyy I´m exhausted.  I was having like weird sleeping issues all this past week and I couldn't fall asleep until like 2am and it was all weird.  Doesn't dad have some anxiety stuff like that as well sometimes??  Not sure but it was rough and I still am recovering from like lack of sleep.  But anyways i´ll try and answer all of your questions!!!

1.  I am really not sure!  Seeing as I have never Heard a thing about it here I highly doubt it, but that would be really fun!!  I still remember being up at Provo once for pioneer day, and we went and bought Fireworks with Keith and were like blowing them all up on grandpas driveway!!  haha Good times!!

2.  It went way good!!  And then I had another one this past Wednesday like about the power and authority of our callings as missionaries, which also went amazing!!  I´m still super stressed about what I want to teach this wednesday, but I think we are going to do some sort of thing like about teaching more like chrsit, more specifically using like examples from peoples lives and likening them to principles of the góspel.  Something like that and I hope it all turns out good!!  I dont remember what I was going to say because my internet shut off and we had to go and find a different place righ now!!  But ya it was good!  I shared all about John 15 and like how we are the branches and christ is the vine!  I usually have like problems my whole life with freaking out about filling time and stuff, so I always plan a ton of good stuff and then I´m bummed because we don't ever get to it all here!!  haha It´s different with missionaries because everyone is always `participating and talking, so that definitely helps!!

3.  I´m going to head over to the store one of these days and see how the short sleeve white shirts are, but ya everything is too big on me haha But it´s what I got, so hopefully you sent me some smaller pants!!  And lame europe always just has super skinny leg pants, which definitely is hard to work out with my big legs, but I´ll try and figure out if I can buy a couple here as well!!  But hmmm I definitely have no clue what size my neck... Like the shirts I have now are 18, and they are definitely quite big in the neck, so I would guess like 17 or 17 and a half, but who knows! I´ll try and find some way to give you an exact measurement! haha everyone is asking for my sizes!  You ask for my neck to get me shirts, and Kendal wants my waist size because she said there are like super cool belts in her area for guys or something like that, so haha I guess I get clothes yay!!!

Well not sure what else to share!  I am definitely stealing the game you told me about last week for comparing things to christ, and I plan on using it in my district meeting this week, just not exactly sure how I'm going to do it yet!!  But I´ll be sure to tell you all about it!!  Kara sounds like she is doing good up at BYU.  Love you momma!!  I miss you and think it would be wayyy cool if there was some sort of 4th of july skype, but oh well gotta be patient!!  Oh btw we didnt really do much for 4th of july... I wore a red tie haha and ate hot dogs that I had in piso, and like idk talked about american stuff... not super exciting but oh well, I am only gonna have two of them outside of America!!  haha Have a great week!!  Love you mom!

Nate

Entry from July 6, 2014 - Sis Larsen

Exerpt from Sis Larsen:

I got up early on Wednesday morning and started my Jewish Sweet Bread first thing.   I was just starting to make a batch of cookies when the electricity went out.  It has flickered before, so I wasn't too worried until 5 minutes passed, 15 minutes, 30 minutes and still no electricity.  I am totally not equipped to prepare meals without electricity.  Elder Larsen went next door to see if the neighbor had electricity. Apparently they posted flyers on the doors saying that the electricity would be out that morning for 3 hours.  Seriously!  Immediate change of plans.  We were late for the district meeting as I had to have a blow dryer before we could go.  Elder Poulson, who is our new district leader, gave a wonderful message about John 15.  He talked a lot about the Lord being the gardener of the vineyard and how He will cut off the branches that are not bringing forth good fruit.  Then in verse 14 it says, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”  What a wonderful message that the Lord truly can be our friend.  That is the relationship that He wants to have with us.  A great lesson from Elder Poulson.  

Afterwards, no home-cooked meal.  

Instead, we treated them to the local Chinese Buffet in Telde.  

The food was tasty and enjoyed by all.  

Elders Dyer, Gentry, Poulson, Rawlinson, and Larsen