The end, and the begining 🇵🇪

 My heart is so full. I don't know quite what to say... but here are some thoughts. 

I remember the day I got to Perú standing on the roof alone and looking out at what at that time seemed like another world. I wanted to get on the plane and go right back to my comfortable world. I was so incredibly nervous, scared and uncomfortable. I wish I could go back, put my arm around myself and tell myself the love that I would have for this place, these precious people, and for the restored gospel that I would share for two years. 

Motupe, Jaén, Chiclayo (Imperio and José Olaya), Pomalca, Chachapoyas, and Ferreñafe will always have sacred places in my heart. It was there that I learned and grew and came to understand invaluable truths about myself, about God, and about others 

I can't properly put into words my love for Chiclayo. I think the most precious things in life are the things we have to learn to love. I have always loved it here, but being honest it took me a good while to learn to love certain aspects , but now those things are just beautiful parts of what makes this place my favorite place on earth. Siempre me creeré chiclayanito. Más peruano que la (y el) papa. 

They really were the best two years. The most valuable. The hardest. The happiest. The saddest. The most stretching. The most fun. The most spiritual. The most crazy. The simplest, yet most complex. The funniest. And they were worth every single second. But I have made the promise to myself that although these two years will always have a special part of my heart, I will not be the best version of myself yet. I have not peaked. I still have a lot to learn, to do, to acomplish. Up until now they have the best years of my life but I vow that it will not be the ending point. Everything I have learned I will apply to continue growing and changing. My disciplship is not ending, it is starting, and I vow to continue throughout the rest of my life refining that discipleship and trying to be more like my savior. 

My time as a missionary means everything to me. I am excited to always look back at these two years with a thankful heart for this time, these people, and this land. I will leave a piece of my heart here and take a piece of Chiclayo in my heart. 

I have met so many incredible people over the last 2 years. Every single one of which made up a beautiful piece of the puzzle of my mission. I am thankful for the members of every ward and branch that I served in, my pensionistas, every single one my companions, the people that we taught and baptized, the people that we taught and didn't baptize, the people that invited us into their houses, and the people that slammed their doors in our faces, Presidente and Hermana Guiria, two of the greatest individuals I have ever met, the people that sold fruit to me, the mototaxi/combi drivers, the drunk guys that yelled "ELDERES" and then thanked us for our service, etc. But the person that I have met on a more deeper and personal level is my savior. He was there reaching out to lift me out when I felt like I was burried in a 50 foot pit, and to humble me when I felt like I was on the top of the world. My relationship with him has strengthened and my understanding of his sacrifice has deepened. I know that he shed drops of blood for me, and these 2 years are a pitifully small gift that I have given him back to thank him for what he did for me. 

I bare my testimony of a an all powerful God. And of his perfect son. What Christ did in the garden of Gethsemane, on the cross at Calvary, and after tree days leaving the tomb have the power to change our lives and our very identity. In 1820 a boy Joseph Smith humbly prayed. As an answer to this prayer God the Father and his Son appeared to him and talked with him. I testify of the divinity of the prophetic call of the prophet Joseph. The Book of Mormon was brought to light to bring us additional knowledge and understanding of our savior. It is a true. President Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God. God's voice on earth. Preisthood keys have been restored to bring us power and light, and to seal families together forever. The temple is the house of the Lord, and what we do there is just as important to us now as it will be into the eternities. The Lord will come again in glory. I look forward to the day when I can kneel down before him and praise his holy name. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is Christs restored church. This is the greatest work. I love my savior and testify of his love, mercy, justice, and perfection, in his sacred name, Jesus Christ, amen. 

It seems fitting to end with my mission scriptures. These scriptures have always been special to me, but now they seem to be just a little more sweet. 

Alma 36

24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. 

25 Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors; 

26 For because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God. 

27 And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me. 

28 And I know that he will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; yea, and I will praise him forever

I will see you all on thursday. I get home around noon and would love to see everyone in the airport. Shoot my mom a text for details. I will also be speaking with my brother Max in sacrament meeting this Sunday. 

One last time, 

Élder Pohlman 🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪

Misión Perú Chiclayo

July 2023-July 2025

The end, and the begining 

Omnilife

This week we knocked a door and a guy opened up and smiled, opened the door and imediately told us to come in. My missionary jackpot button was buzzing. We walked in and he sat us down in a little room with about 10 chairs. We realized that it was an Omnilife shop. They started giving us cups and all sorts of powders to mix. Then all of the sudden a seminar started. They started telling all about the products. The guy told stories about how he broke his leg in a moto crash but drank an OMNI+ and was fine 3 days later. His mom was on bedrest for 5 years until he gave her omnilife and now she is completely fine. He lost 15 kilos in 2 weeks after drinking the weight loss powder. I was in awe and had no Idea how I had never heard of this magic powder. Then they tried to get us to sign up to be sellers. It was a pretty crazy/mind blowing moment 

We spent quite a bit of time this week contacting in the park and knocking doors. In chiclayo this usually doesn't usually work but we had visited just about every member point, old grey dot, and just about everything else that usually works so we contacted quite a bit. We actually saw some cool results. We met a bunch of really cool people that we think will progress. One guy Hilton that we found knocking doors game to church as well as a guy names Josue that we met contacting in public. We are hoping they will progress. 

I have eated at least 2 chirimoyas a day. I have been saying for 2 years that I wouldn't get sick of it and I still havent. 

I am grateful to be a missionary and reresent the Lord as his servant. I am grateful for one more full week to live, serve, love, preach and enjoy here in Chiclayo. I hope that this week is everything I have always thought it would be. 

29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again. 

30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some. 

31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us.

Hasta pronto 

Élder Pohlman🇵🇪🇵🇪

Travel Home Documents

 

Pedro 🌊

 My goal this week was to just have fun. To just enjoy peru, these people, the food, and just soak it in. It was easily the best week of this transfer. We worked hard and had a great time. A couple times this week elder Alves and I broke out in full blown one block sprint races. It was so fun. Little moments like that are things that I will always remember. It changes the pace of the day, gets the vibes up and brightens the mood. 

We went to Monsefú last pday and got some incredible encimadas. So good. 

Pedro was baptized yesterday. We met him 15 days ago and taught him shirtless sitting on a curb. We invited him to be baptized in the first contact and he accepted. His life, countanance, and desires have completely changed. It was a beautiful baptism. 

Something really cool about the story of the Church is how Martin Harris came to believe in the work. Joseph Smith had seen angeles, talked face to face with the Father and the Son, and held the plates in his hands. Martin Harris simply prayed and asked God if the work was true. He felt a still small voice and knew that it was. 

At midnight one day this week we woke up to a bunch of yelling outside the apartment. We looked out the window and there was a full blown fight going on between a mom and the dad of her kids. They were yelling at each other for a while. It was really sad. I couldn't sleep for a while thinking how gratefull I am for my family and the important truths I have learned on my mission about the family, the law of chastity, and the importance of a united family. I am gratefull for these truths. 

 

David, the miracle man from Chachapoyas that I shared the voice message about a few months back went to the temple in Trujillo this week. He was hyped and sent me pics. The gospel changes lifes. 

Short one this week. All good down here. The church is true 

Elder Pohlman 🇵🇪🇵🇪

Gripe

 I cant lie this week was a harder one. Mostly mentally. I am trying to find the fine line between being focussed on what I am doing here in the mission and also preparing myself to return home. I am a firm believer that having one foot in the mission field and one back home leads to misery as a missionary. We need to be all in. But I feel like I also need to start preparing myself a little bit, doing myplan, and all that good stuff so that when that day comes it doesn't hit me like a train. I have been feeling really bogged down by this. I feel like the second we have one foot ouside of the mission field our spiritual power and desire go down. I feel like up until now "well, just don't worry or think about it yet" is a reasonable answer. But I feel like at this point accepting the fact that I won't wear the tag forever and starting to think about my plans after is kind of necesarry. Anyways I am hoping to find a good healthy balance in these few weeks to be able to truely enjoy these last moments but also acknowledge the fact that I need to prepare myself. I know that I will learn a lot from this experience. 

This week was the first time I have enjoyed cuy (guinea pig). I would never go out of my way to eat it but I enjoyed it this time. 

I got the flu this week. I had a fever for a few days. All the flu pills I had brought on the mission were expired. That was a sad experience. But luckily there are a million pharmacys on every corner here that sell all sorts of pills and was able to find a good one that helps. The best part about having the flu here is that everyone tells you Its because you drank cold water. It's pretty hillarious. Every time time I cough the old people tell me I need to be carefull with the cold water. 

I don't know how I just found out about this but aparently Perú is famous for its "batidos de Rana" (frog smoothies). Aparently they're a whole frog thrown in a blender with honey and other stuff. Aparently you didn't go to Perú if you didn't drink a batido de Rana. They say it works health miracles. I think it could be the magic cure to all of my many physical problems.

Yesterday 2 people that we contacted on saturday came to church. It was super cool. They both have a ton of potential. One of them is named pedro we met him on saturday and taught him a quick lesson then on sunday he came. He loved it. Super cool guy. 

Life is good. I love these people more than I can express. I am also grateful for the atonement of our savior and his love for us. 

Matthew 16: 24-25 

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

 

Elder Pohlman 🇵🇪

Doble🐲

 My new (and last) companion is another Brazilian, elder Alves. Really cool guy. Hes from Fortaleza Brasil and is a stud. He is in his first transfer and I am in my very last. Because he is brand new the language barrier has been extremely hard. I for some reason just thought brazilians would understand and speak at least a little bit of spanish. It makes me grateful for the peruvian companions that were patient with me when I got here. It has lead me to a lot of reflection about everything that has happened in my life since I got here. 6 more weeks and I will have the rest of my life to reflect on this time. I am trying to do everything in my power to be able to sit on that plane in 6 weeks and feel complete, proud, full of gratitude, beat and on empty, and like my offering has been accepted. I know that my offering hasn't been perfect, and that in mortal live we cannot give a perfect offering, but I have hope that it will be made perfect through my efforts and the grace of my savior. 

We had some maracuya cheesecake this week. That stuff is so good. 

I have used the same razor to shave my entire mission. I have a bunch of replacements in my bag but at this point it is a pride thing. That razon has stuck by my side through it all. 

I got extremely sick the very first night of the transfer. I threw up 6 times and was sittng in the bathroom from 2 am - 6:30. Throwing up is my worst nightmare. I will miss just about everything about my lindo Perú, even the things that sometimes drive me crazy, but being double dragon all night here is easily one of the most miserable things I have experienced in my entire life. There is just no relief. Being sick in Perú is an absolutely humbling experience. I have seen it bring the strongest of men to their whits end. The most unfortunate part of the whole ordeal is that what got me sick was lomo saltado (my very favorite food here) so I don't know if I will want to eat it again for a while. Big bummer

Somehow after a night of almost 0 sleep and battling the double dragon, I had all the strength necesary to get through the next day. The Lord blesses and protects his missionaries with exactly the strength they need to do what he requires of them. My testimony couldn't be stronger about that. But it is a testimony that has come at a high cost. 

The work has slowed down a bit but we have hope. I still don't understand how a kid can answer a door, we ask him if his parents are home, he runs in and askes his parents if they're home and he runs back and tells us that his parents said they aren't home. It's the greatest trick in the book. Gets me every time. 

31 And of tenets thou shalt not talk, but thou shalt declare repentance and faith on the Savior, and remission of sins by baptism, and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost.

Job finished? What's there to be happy about? Jobs not finished. 

-Brother Kobe Bryant 

Jhon and Francesca 💍👰‍♂🌊

 One of the best weeks of my mission for sure. On thursday Jhon and Francesca got married and baptized. It was probably one of the best days of my entire life. It was so incredible. There were so many obstacles but they ended up doing it. It meant a ton to me to be apart of it. The main reason I came on the mission was to help families find the joy of the restored gospel. I have been blessed with such a beautiful family and have always wanted to find families to help bring to the light of the gospel. It has always been my goal to baptize a husband and wife together. When I got to Perú I was pretty discouraged when I realized that that almost never happens here because it is very rare to meet a married couple and extremely hard to get people married. It has still been one of my main goals and one of the last mission goals that I still hadn't acheived. At 22 months in the mission I was finally able to he apart of it and it had been a life changing moment to see how the gospel truely changes lives if we let it. What a special moment. 

I think what made it such a cool experience was how Perú it was. Every single thing about it was textbook Perú. Satan was working really hard to try to get them to not take this step. The day before we got a call from Jhon and he was crying and saying how he had changed his mind and no longer wanted to because he was scared. We talked to him for a bit and shared a few scriptures and stuff. Then the call ended. So we had no idea what was going on. All day we were on edge and had no idea what was going on. The ward was coordinating to bring food and stuff for the baptism and we still weren't even sure if the wedding or baptism were going to happen. We passed by at 8:45 pm that night and talked to him. He said how he was in Chiclayo working and he felt like he didn't want to do it anymore and then his phone died on him so he didn't have a phone the whole day and just had time to think. So he said a prayer and asked God what to do and received the answer that he needed to get married and baptized. So cool. 

The next day in the morning we had the wedding at 11 am. We showed up to their house at 10:30 and they still weren't ready and we had a 30 min drive to get there and still had to go pick up a paper from another municipality (that we weren't even sure would be ready or no). It was so stressfull. We hurried them up and then 7 people hopped in their tiny little car and went to get the paper. Somehow out of some miracle the paper was ready. That paper being ready was the only non perú moment of the whole process. We got to the other municipality and they got married. Elder Borges and I were the whitnesses. It was awesome. Such a happy moment. 

That evening was their baptism. It was supposed to start at 7:00 but nobody showed up until about 8:30 (par for the course). It was such a beautiful baptism. I baptized Jhon and Elder Borges baptized Francesca. While Francesca was being confirmed a dog came into the chapell and jumped up on her. The bishop was confirming her and we were in the circle. In the middle of the confirmation, with my hands on her head I kicked the snot out of the dog and it whined left. Don't think I will forget that one. 

 

Jhons testimony after the baptism was super cool. He told a story that we hadn't heard before. He shared how 3 days before we knocked his door he had prayed to God for the first time in years asking him to send him a sign and a way to change his life and grow closer to him and help his family. We knocked his door 3 days later. This truely is the work of almighty God and we are instruments in his hands. They used to refer to each other as gorda and gordo (fattie (that is normal here)) but now they refer to each other as husband and wife. How wholesome. 

The Lords timing is perfect. I was kinda bummed to leave Chachapoyas (my last area). But now looking back it makes perfect sense why. Jhon and Francesca were the very first people I met here in Ferreñafe. The very first house I entered. It makes perfect sense to me now why the Lord needed me specifically here in Ferreñafe and why I am here in this mission. I see reasons every single day as to why I was called to this mission. With this couple it feels like I was specifically sent for them and they were specifically waiting for me and my companion. So cool. 

A cat got ran over right in front of the church. There was another cat there and it started crying. It was kinda traumatizing. 

I am thankful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. One of the greatest blessings I will take from my mission is learning how to recognize the impressions I receive from Him. As we live santified lives he truly guides us. I have a strong testimony of the importance of being virtuous, keeping the comandments, obeying mission rules, repenting daily, and seeking the guidance of the spirit. When we do that he will take the wheel. There are so many times every week that I feel like he has complete control of what we do as missionaries. It is the coolest feeling every time. 

I love these beautiful people. This is a special place 🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪

El papa🥔

 The new pope was elected this week and has peruvian nationality. He was the bishop of Chiclayo for a long time

It is all we heard about this week. People here are going absolutely insane. I don't know what sky rocketed more, church attendences in the Catholic church or beer sales to celebrate. 

In his acceptance speach he stopped speaking in Latin for like 10 seconds and gave a shoutout to Chiclayo Perú in spanish. He said, thank you to the beautiful people of Chiclayo Perú who have made this church the Church of Jesus Christ. People here could not be more proud. Everyone who was "catholic" before but now are 10x more so. When he first got elected we were joking about how it would make the work harder, but it actually has. Crazy. Obstacles in the Lords work, but the truth will press on. 

Our friend Eliza is on baptismal date for this Sunday. Her story is crazy! She was a catholic nun. She spent the first 24 years of her life completely dedicated to being a nun. She spent multiple years living in a monastary without contact to the outside world. Eventually there came a point about 16 years ago when she decided she didn't want to continue being a completely dedicated nun, and left the monastary. She continued being extremely Catholic, but no longer a nun. She had a kid and started her life out. Recently her daughter started going to our church with her extended family that are members. Her mom gave her permission to be baptized. We started teaching Eliza and a couple weeks ago we threw up a hail marry in one of the first sit down lessons with her and invited her to be baptized in 3 weeks. She accepted and now will be baptized on sunday if everything goes smoothly. Like every single heavily practicing religious person that I have seen get baptized in our church, the BOM was the ticket. We read Alma 7 with her the day we invited her to be baptized and it absolutely blew her away. Any person who reads it with true intent, humility, and a desire to know if it is true, will decide to take any necessary measure and be baptized. 

The couple that I talked about last week was going to get married this week. The husband is a taxi driver and they had been saving up money and everything but then his car broke down and he had to spend everything he had saved on the car. Its crazy the obstacles satan throws at people. He got it fixed and has been working around the clock to save up. We are hoping they can get married this friday. Asking someone that works day to day to feed their family to save 400 soles to get married is such an insanely hard thing to ask. It amazes me how humble they are and their desire to follow God's commandments. 

The talk from James R. Rasband from this last conferece is beautiful. He talks about how the best way to know that the BOM is true is to contemplate the mercy and loving plan that it teaches about. 

"If you are struggling, may I invite you to follow Moroni’s counsel to ponder on the many ways the Book of Mormon teaches “how merciful the Lord hath been [to] the children of men”? Based on my experience, I hope that when you do, the peace of the Holy Ghost can enter your heart and you can know, believe, and feel that the Book of Mormon and the plan of mercy it teaches are true." 

El campo blanco está ya para la siega 

The field is white and ready to harvest. 

Elder Pohlman