365

Great week. We had a baptism. I'll send pics next week. I spoke in sacrament yesterday. Yesterday and today are peruvian independance days. It is such a huge deal here. The people are so proud of their heritage. To start my talk I gave perú an absolutely enormous shoutout and said how I consider myself part peruvian because a part of my heart is here and forever will be, and thanked the people for letting me share this day with them. People litteraly started clapping. After the talk the hymn was the nacional anthem of perú (I'm pretty sure thats not allowed, but it was hype). 

I've been a missionary for a year! Crazy. It feels like yesterday. People said it would fly. Holy cow is it true, and Im sure this next year will go even faster

This past year has been so crazy. I have learned so much. I've been kept up through the night for weeks on end by diebities machines in the mtc, but also felt of the tangible spirit that dwells there. I have learned to live on my own for the first time in my life in a country super different than my own. I have been dumped into small towns in the andes mountains speaking 0 spanish, sicker than a dog, feeling so alone and desolated. I've spent my first Christmas, new years, and birthday away from home in a small little town in the middle of knowhere with nobody within an hour that speaks my language. Yet those will probably be my all time favorite christmas, new years, and birthdays. I've lived in the middle of the rainforest. I've stood on the muddy banks of offshoots of the amazon river, and chocked on the dust of big cities. I have met the poorest, and the happiest people ever. And realized that those two things usually corespond. Some days I've eaten cow anus and others the most delicious food ever. I have made lifelong friends. Some of them being companions that grew up in my town, and some in towns in the middle of nowhere Perú. I have got my butt absolutely kicked sometimes! Anyone who has read my emails has seen how down I have been at times. But I have learned and grown from every experience. I have been blessed to find a home away from home. But most importantly, I have come to know my Savior on a more personal, real level. I have come to have a true, simple testimony of prophets and the restoration. I have learned to feel and follow promptings of the spirit. I have seen the power of the preisthood. I have strenthened my testimony of the power of baptism and the importance of keeping commandments. 

It has been the best year of my life and I can't wait to do it again for 12 more months. 

Here are some pictures of some of my favorite memories over the past year. If I could send 100 I would.

 This week was great. We absolutely grinded and it was fun. I love my companion so much. He is hillarious. The weather continues to be absolutely perfect. I can wear pants to bed 

We met a super cool family whose son is a member and just returned from his mission in Santa Cruz Bolivia. He came back for a bit and then moved back there to marry someone from there. Anyways, the rest of the family is not members. They are super cool and are from the mountains so they are super nice. The people from the mountains are usually really humble and nice. They are really catholic, but a super awesome family.

I got another chess set (not sure why). This one is full size and the pieces are huge. It is Spanish (catholics) vs. Incans (lamanites). 

I don't usually share the big long stories but I figure I will start to. Here you go. Long one. 

I was buying some fruit at a fruit cart on Saturday. I bought 2 pears. I was pretty hungry and was heavily looking forward to my pears. I ate one, and then we started to share a message with the fruit cart guy. While we were sharing a guy came up and grabbed my arm. He looked at me and told me he was a member of our church. This is a pretty common occurrence because of how many inactive members there are here. We invited him to stake conference the next day or whatever and then as he was about to leave he grabbed my other pear from me. He kinda just stole it and dipped. I'll be honest I was kinda like come on man for real? Not mad but kinda just caught back. I was gonna devour that pear man. Afterwards me and Elder urias were kinda joking about it and laughing about it. The next day (sunday) he came to stake conference. Super cool! We decided we were going to find his house and stop buy in the evening. We are in the city here i dont see many of the little dirt huts that people lived in when I was serving out in the jungle. But when we found his house my heart broke. In the middle of a big city there was his little dirt hut. He has lived there for 50 years. It was the size of my bathroom at home. Dirt floors, adobe walls, tin roof. The poorest I have seen since I got to the city. It was dark and there was no lights. He said how he hasn't had lights for years because the city took his power box because he can't afford the bills. He hasn't had water for years either. My heart completely changed. Instead of seeing this guy as a pear theif and something to joke about I saw him for who he is. What he is going through. He is the happiest guy you could imagine. So incredibly happy. It touched my heart. He told me thanks. He said he hadn't eaten all day the day before but that he shared my pear with his wife for dinner. This experience changed my perspective. As we were leaving the house a motorcycle with two people came by on the street. It's a dirt street and they started to slide out and eventually crash. We decided to go to talk to them and help them. We went and checked on them or whatever. We didn't preach or anything, just checked on them. They seemed shocked to see us. We gave them a card with our number on it and started to walk away. As we left the lady said, hey are you mormons? We turned around and she said she's a "mormona" as well. With tears in her eyes she asked us if I could say a prayer for her. I said a short prayer, asking for their health and that they can feel of Christ's love. Looking up, both were crying. The husband (not a member) and the wife (inactive member) asked when we could come by and share something.  What a cool little 30 minutes of experience. I truly felt like an instrument in God's hands that day. 

Tomorow marks 1 year as a missionary. What an absolute ride. I wouldn't change it for the world. I am so grateful for my mission and everything it has done for me.  

Love you all! 

Ad

The weather here in Chiclayo has been absolutely heavenly. I am very very grateful for it. I have been pretty sick this week and one day I had a pretty nice fever. We were walking around at about 9 pm. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and I can't believe I am saying this, but I felt cold. For the first time in almost a year. It was a pretty weird feeling honestly, I had literally forgot what it felt like to be cold. 

We found some really awesome people this week. One day we thought to invite a recent convert we usually dont't invite out much to come with us to some lessons. The lessons fell and the guy ended up just taking us from house to house meeting his friends. Jackpot. The Lord has blessed us with some people to teach. We are in down town chiclayo so we don't usually have many people to teach. We have been blessed with some though. 

I had a really cool experience this week while reading the Resoration Proclamation from 2020. It was one of the first times in my life that I have received a loud, powerful confirmation from the spirit. I have had inumerable experiences in which I have had beautiful experiences with the spirit, but I have never been a person to have crazy spiritual experciences. My testimony has been built by small experiences, but having super cool spiritual experiences is something that we are able to feel more often as missionaries. 

Got a chess board that is Incans vs. Spanish conquistadors. It's super cool. Photo attached. 

We had 3 people ask us in one day this week, "what is your missionary message". This made me think. What really is it? Preach my Gospel lays out our missionary purpose clearly. But what truely is our message at its core? What is it that I (elder Pohlman) want these people specifically (the people of Chiclayo Perú) to know. What is my specific message personalized for these people specifically? Jesus, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Endure to the end, The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Prophets, the Plan of Salvation, English class this saturday at 6? I realized that I actually couldn't give a short, direct answer. I decided that if I've been walking these streets for a year it was time for me to figure out for myself what our message truly is. I needed a short, direct, real answer. I studied PMG and on page 10 it lays out our missionary message. After studying it I think I have come up with my simple straight forward answer to the question "Hey you mormon kids, what is your message? What is it that you share?"

The Restoration of the Gospel: Our missionary message 

Jesus is the Christ. Our Savior and Redeemer. Through a modern prophet, Heavenly Father has restored the knowledge of the Gospel (his plan for our salvation). The Gospel is centered on Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. The good news is that through His atoning sacrifice, the Savior makes it possible for all of us to be saved from sin and death and return to live with Heavenly Father. 

I love this work. I love Perú. These beautiful people have my heart. 

(No subject)

 I don't have much for you guys this week. All I remember is that my knees hurt really bad. Seems to be a trend. That's all I can really remember from the last month of my mission honestly. It's pretty physically and mentally grueling being a walking missionary in Perú when it hurts to walk. I try focusing on the people. Easier said than done. I love them so much. Hoping it gets better soon 🥲 oh, and we got a gun pulled on us🫥 we left and didn't have any problems👍 we met an argentinian. Coolest guy ever. A lady and guy in teaching speak fluent english and they asked us to teach them in english. I realized I can't even hold a conversation anymore. I'm so weird. oh and happy fourth of July 🇺🇸 God bless America

Here's a picture of a big spider in our house