Feliz navidad

We rode in a car with seatbelts this week. First time in over 15 months that I had put a seatbelt on. My mind was absolutely blown. I felt like I was going on a roller coaster. So weird. I cannot belive that is a normal thing back home. It seriously blew my mind. Its weird how used to a culture you can become and how fast your body can create habits. 

We stood in the town center and sang carols every night this week. It actually worked incredibly well. Three white guys singing. Who wouldnt want to watch. We probably sounded horrible, but it is probably all over tik tok. 

I absolutely love paneton. Dont know why so many people dont like it.

One evening this week things were not going for us. A bunch of stuff fell, including a baptismal date for 3 days later. I was absolutely beat. We had been walking around to little towns all day and I was absolutely exhausted. We were standing in the street trying to figure out what to do because we literally had nothing. While my companions were calling someone I went and knocked the door we were standing in front of. A lady opened up and said she was busy. I asked her if she would have 3 minutes to talk about Christ’s birth. Another no. I asked her if she knew that the authority that Christ had and gave to his apostols to do miracles and do his work had been restored to the earth once again. The door opened. We went in and she told us how her daughter was having bad health problems. She asked if we could give her a blessing. We did it and it was incredibly powerful. I dont even remember what I said, but when we finished, everyone in the room was crying. They told us the classic "there is something special about you guys". Cool experience. Something that I have changed as a missionary is that every single time I talk to someone I mention a restored truth. This was really hard for me to start doing at first but I have seen huge results from it. Everyone down here knows that God loves them and that Christ died for them. What they don't know is that there are prophets on earth again, the preisthood is again on the earth, Christ came to the Americas, God has blessed us with another testiment of Jesus Christ, families can be together forever, etc. 

I still no sabo espanish. Said "hermano, vaya a el iglesia para que puede sentir la amor de Dios" this week 🤯🤯🤯🤯 im locked in. No wonder a guy thought I was crazy when I told him joseph smith was called "para que tradució" el libro de mormon. 🤯🤯🤯 I think I've realized my problem. I need to stop thinking about what I say and just talk. On a more serious note, I am fine. I havent forgotten how to speak, I am just way too up tight about it and because of that I make errors. Ill be ight though. 

The only thing I remember from my high school spanish class is the burrito sabanero song. Little did I know that that is litterally the only song I would hear for a month straight 5 years later. And cholito jesus. Banger. 

Got asked to speak right before sacrament meeting again this week. Kinda crazy. Second year in a row down here that they have asked me to speak at the christmas sacrament meeting. I actually have a recording of my talk and will throw that in here so that you guys can listen. Talked about christmas and baptism. There was a huge lady breastfeeding on the front row smiling at me weird. Definately won't forget this talk. 

Last night was absolutely insane. The whole city turns into an absolute war zone. So many fireworks, parties, and just craziness. We went up on the roof and were almost getting drilled by fireworks. We bought like 4 panetones, a few chocolate panetones, a bunch of empanadas, some besos de moza, inca kola, you name it. It was a blast. Definately one of the best nights of my life

 

Missionary work during christmas is magical. The peoples hearts are softer. My whole life I thought that Christmas on the mission would be hard. I figured that being away from family, friends, food, traditions, culture, gifts, snow, santa, etc would be hard. I was thinking last night about how these two Christmases I have spent in Perú have probably been the two best ones of my entire life. How is that possible? Because I have not put one thought into any of those things. I have had the privilege of spending christmas spreading the good news of Christs birth with the Peruvian people. I seriously love this place so much. I love these people so much. There is no place I would rather be than here this Christmas. 

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

May we all remember that he is the reason for the season. He is the king of kings. The lord of lords.

Cuy

Transfers were this week. Should be a good transfer. I'm staying in Pomalca and recived two new comps. One is elder Rice from Alaska. We have about the same amount of time in the mission. We were together out in the jungle and did a bunch of exchanges out there so we knew each other well. We are also training an absolute stud named elder Martin from Idaho Falls. Hes an absolute unit and such a cool guy. Prodigy of the MPCH. He will be carrying my torch for 17 months after I leave, so thats kinda cool. I couldn't say enough good things about this guy. The bishop asked one of us to speak in sacrament meeting so we had him do it. He did it like an absolute champ. First sunday in peru and he absolutely nailed it. I think the Lord hears me every time I say I don't like trio training because he keeps having me do it. I am actually pretty excited this time though. Pretty cool oportunity to help a new guy learn and grow with two experienced missionaries. 

My trainer, my last companion, and the sisters that got here with me all went home this week. That one stung a bit. 

Ate cuy (guinea pig) this week. I hate that stuff. Its so nasty. We sat down to eat it and I really struggled to find any meat whatsoever on it. The whole family just went at it whole, crunching the bones super loud. Absolutely sick. People here kill for that stuff. You can get two whole chickens for the price of one tiny little meatless piece of garbage guinea pig. So nasty

I love christmas in the mission. Boy is it getting toasty though. We had an hour long car ride the other day to go help some sisters way out in the boonies move houses. The taxi driver would not role the windows down or turn on the ac because "mucho aire hace daño". It was probably 95 in that car for an hour straight. I had a headache the rest of the day. 

Some guy showed up at church on sunday saying he wants to get baptized asap. The problem is that his is currently living with some lady but she is legally married to another guy, so its a whole vaina trying to figure that out. The lady will have to find a way to divorce and then they will have to get married. 

Is it posible to be completely confident in spanish for over a year and then wake up one day and feel like you forgot it? Yeah. Still struggling with trying to figure out what happened there.

I have almost collected all of the coins in perú. I have a pretty cool looking set. I bought a book for them and I think its pretty cool. I'll throw a picture in. 

"Whats the best way to fulfill your missionary pourpose? Baptize people." -President Giuria. 

I think we often overlook the gift of the Holy Ghost. Sometimes as missionaries and miembers of the church we focus so much on baptism and not on this Gift. The Holy Ghost is truly whay purifies us and helps us to live better lives. It has been interesting to see how it works in me. I wish I had a bunch of crazy mission experiences when the Holy Ghost told me exactly what door to know or who to talk to, but in reality that almost never happens. In fact most of the time those miracles that come from him just feel like coincidences. But it is always cool to see how he influences us and the miracles that come from him. 

Darian/Brallim🌊

The heat has me drinking a lot of sprite (esprite) and pepsi (pecsi). There is a limited edition sugar free pecsi that has ancient incan and mochica figures on the little wrapper thing on the outside of the bottle and I got the Señor de Sipan one this week. He's some ancient figure that ruled this area of chiclayo. Pretty cool. I think the incan culture is really cool. Call me a nerd but I am going to collect every single special edition pecsi wrapper. 

The guy finally showed up to fix the moldy wall (4 weeks later). I was joking with Elder Quintero about how he would probably show up, slap some paint over it and call it a day. He showed up at 8:30, threw some paint on it, got paint all over the floor, and was out the door in 20 minutes. Put no thought into the fact that he had gotten paint all over the floor and not even kind of fixed the problem, and that it still looked and smelled rank. Par for the course. Sometimes all I can do is shake my head. I wonder if the ability to just take garbage situations and be like "ope ok well thats alright" that I have developed on my mission will help me in life or just make me complaicent and willing to settle for crappy situations. I truly love peruvians and peru, but things like this make me really really really miss the U.S and the general sense of do stuff right (or at all) that there is there. 

I am convinced there is nothing harder than convincing a peruvian that the elders have the same preisthood authority as the members and that us giving blessings doesn't bring more blessings than if the members do it. We have been having a ton of completely worthy, active, incredible members coming to us to have us give blessings to their wives and kids. Our mission president has encouraged all of us to discuss with the members how we are not superheroes and how we are more than willing to give blessings, but that the preisthood they have is the same as ours. Yesterday in the Elders Quorum class the EQ president actually brought this topic up, so it was a great opportunity to talk about it. It ended up with some guy bearing his testimony about how he gave his sick dog a preisthood blessing and the dog was healed immediately and how he did it himself and not the elders so we need to trust in our own preisthood power and not just the elders. Everyone was super hyped about that. No comment. I wish I was kidding.

We ate a bunch of sting ray this week. I don't mind it, not my first choice though. The skin is soft and they kinda just eat it, but its kinda a nasty texture. Its like eating a soft banana peel. 

Something I find hillarious (and often times extremely irritating) is that the concept of waiting in line does not exist here. People just kinda pull up and hop right in front. Just about any time we go to the panadería (or any store really), someone will come hauling in, yell "a ver!!!", walk right up in front of everyone, throw coins on the counter and start yelling at the workers what kind of bread they want. Ok, maybe not every single time, but I would say more often than not. Its just another one of those things that all we can do is laugh about. 

I realized this week that being an eagle scout isn't going to garuntee me billions of dollars, free school, and whatever job I want like I was told it would. Hard to come to grips with that one. Still thankful to be apart of the eagles nest though. One of the most elite groups out there. 

We had a few baptisms this week. One was an 11 year old kid that a couple weeks ago a family coming back to church brought to us and said "elders we want him to be baptized asap". The other one is a 27 year old stud. Exactly what the church needs. His brother is currently serving a mission in Lima so we have been teaching him with his brother on facetime. He is an absolute champion. The BOM played a huge role in his decision to be baptized. I stand almost 17 months into my mission and am yet to see someone read the Book of Mormon consistently, pray about it and not end up getting baptized. It makes missionary work so much easier. 

Transfers are this week. It was definately one of my favorite transfers of my mission. Elder Quintero is a lifelong friend. With the baptisms this week we were officially able to complete our goal and baptize at least one person every week this transfer. Hard to complain about a transfer in which we have a baptism every single week. 

The sisters that I started my mission with are going home this week. Crazy 

I promise this talk will strengthen your testimony! 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2011/10/the-book-of-mormon-a-book-from-god?lang=spa

Camila

Went to the big mall in chiclayo last pday. They have a mcdonalds there. They have Maracuya sundaes. Turns out the icecream is exactly the same as mcdonalds in the states. Probably one of the best things I have ever eaten in my entire mission. 

Had some cow heart this week. I wont lie, it was pretty dang good. I genuinly enjoyed. I don't know why i have avoided it my whole mission.

We had a baptism yesterday. It was really good. Super sweet 13 year old girl named Camila. 

I have been facing a weird challenge lately. I have felt the last few weeks that I cant speak spanish. Or express myself how I want to. It is really weird considering I have felt almost 100 percent comfortable for about a year now. I am trying to figure out what my problem is. I feel like I am forgetting words and grammer rules. Really weird. I think its a mental slump that i am letting get to my head. 

I am so sick of rice. Like seriously so sick of it. I think I am being traumatized by it. I dont think i will voluntarily eat it for at least 5 years after getting home. I would be lying if i said I love eating an absolute mountain of rice and then knocking doors in the heat. 

Yesterday was stake conference in our stake here. The stake is actually huge. It includes a bunch of wards scattered throughout the sugar cane as well as a few branches. It is a huge deal here. The chapel was absolutely packed as well as the overflows. I'd say there were about as many people there as at stake conference back home. I always love the stake conferences on the mission. I think its a blast to get to go to sacrament meeting with a bunch of other missionaries. The 70 that was there was the last speaker. He got about 10 minutes into his talk and then stopped. He said how he was going to do something he had never done before at a stake conference. He turned around and said to president Giuria (mission president) that he wanted him to pick two of the missionaries to come and talk about anything they wanted. The 70 went back and had president tell him who, walked back up to the stand and says "ok elder pohlman y su compañero, su tiempo". I was pretty dang nervous honestly. I dont consider myself someone who likes to speak so to be thrown on the spot like that by a 70 with 0 preperation 0 topic or anything in front of a ton of people was kinda scary. I walked on up to the pulpit with no idea what to talk about. I honestly still dont even remember what I said. But hopefully someone was touched. 

I was reading Luke 4 this week about how Satan tempted Jesus. I think it is very interesting. In verse 3 he tempts him with hunger. In verse 6 he tempts him with power and glory. In verse 7 he tempts him with material wealth. In verse 9 he tests his pride. All of these ways that Satan tempted him were attacking or tempting his natural man. Satan loves attacking and using our natural man to make us fall. I believe it was President Nelson that talked a couple conferences ago about how we need to "despojarnos del hombre natural" (strip ourselves of the natural man). When we learn to control our natural man, we become stronger, more converted people. 

Elder Pohlman