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 

Xiomara

 Another great week. I love doing this work. There were so many moments this week when I felt the hand of the Lord guiding us. 

Xiomara was baptized this week. Super cool girl. She has a boyfriend on a mission and he hit one year recently and then she got baptized. Got baptized exactly one year before her boyfriend got home. Auto temple marriage. 

Jhon and Francesca have officially started the marriage process. We are about to go to the municipality with them to help them this morning and get the rest of the documents and tests done. We aren't sure exactly how long the process will take, but as soon as the municipality gives them the green light they will get married and baptized the same day. Should be within the next few weeks but ya never know with the Peruvian gobernment. Keep praying for them. They are the coolest little family. So humble and awesome. I love them so much. 

"Sometimes missionaries do things backwards. They focus on getting people to read and pray, then they focus on getting them to attend church. They give their heart and soul to help them live the Word of Wisdom and commit to paying a full tithe, and then 

they are ready to commit them to be baptized. This is backwards.Missionaries 

should give people the vision of the remission of their sins by baptism and the Holy Spirit, teaching them first about the blessings of redemption(forgiveness of sins) and the Holy Spirit, and inviting them to prepare to be baptized at the beginning of their teaching. Give them a reason to do all the other things. Otherwise, it will just be a long list of difficult things to do and sacrifices to make understanding why. Many missionaries are not baptized in baptizing and the gospel, which is, faith in Christ, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, by one who has the authority, the laying on of hands to communicate the gift of the Holy Spirit, and perseverance to the end. They think they are focused because they want to baptize, but most are not, not really into baptizing. If they really understood the gospel as the Lord has defined it they would talk about baptism all the time. They would talk to everyone, think about baptizing, talk about baptizing, dream about baptizing, and most importantly they would teach and re-teach and re-teach about remission of sins by baptism and by fire, yes, by the Holy Spirit (D&C 19:31) and persevere to the end.That would be their message, everything would be directed to that point. Everything that is taught would be pointed and directed to this end. That is the reason why they leave their homes, and family and leave their friends behind, and would go out again and again in all that they teach. That would be their message, their motto, their dream, and their vision." 

-The vision to baptize 

This transfer it is our goal to extend baptismal invitations in every single lesson, contact, etc. Not necesarily put people on date, but leave them with the firm invitation and expectation that baptism is the way to open the door. 

I had a cool idea of a way to help people understand this this week and it actually turned out really cool. We actually ended up presenting it to the whole mission in a presentation. There is a man drowning in the ocean on the verge of life or death. He is given two options to save his life. A boat, or a wave. What will he pick? Not a trick question... obvious, he will pick the boat, duh. Now that he is on the boat he needs something to help him get to shore. Now he wants the wave. The wave helps push him to shore. He gets to shore and is saved. How does this apply to missionary work? The person in the ocean drowning are the people in Chiclayo. They are spiritually dead and need something to "save" them. The boat is baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is the thing that makes the most logical sense in order to save them. If they don't pick it, the wave will drown them and they will die. The wave is praying, reading the scriptures, and attending sacrament meeting. It is cooler in spanish because pray (Orar), read (Leer), attend (Asistir). Make the acronym OLA which means wave. Anyways, once they have boarded the boat, then the waves can help push them and work together with the boat in order to push them to shore (eternal live, temple covenants, exaltation). If we think about it this way it makes more sense. The boat (baptism) is the key piece, without it the wave makes absolutely no sense. A lot of times we try to push people to shore with just a wave (almost imposible) just so they can get on the boat that is waiting for them on land, which obviously sounds ridiculous, but that is what we are esencially doing when we try to throw a bunch of commitments and commandments at people before they even understand why. 

I am grateful for the prophet Joseph and all that we can learn from his story. For many, the fact that a far from perfect boy would be chosen as the instrument for the restauration of Christs church is a testimony against the church. But for me it is a testament of the love and power of our Savior and his atoning sacrifice. 

There was a naked special needs guy sitting in a bucket outside of the house of a person in teaching. He splashed water all over us and it smelled like pee. He's a super funny guy and always gets super hyped to see us. Pedro. Good guy. He always makes my day. He sees us walking down the street and starts yelling WOOHOO. His sister is the lady that I talked about last week that we found while looking for a member with the same name that said lived where she lives. The member had moved a while ago but we met her (has the same name) and happened to be interested. She came to church yesterday. Cool little miracles that turn into big miracles are so cool. 

Many have asked how I am health wise. I complain about my health and get in trouble for being honest and I be positive and get in trouble for being too positive. Just kidding. To be honest, my health has not gotten any better than it was. My body still hurts in just about every part, I still feel like an old man. But, my mindset it seems has changed. I think there just came a point about 7 months ago in which I was forced between stick it out just to stick it out or truly be here. I think my mindset has completely changed. Maybe it is the fact that I am coming down to the end. I just dont find myself thinking as much about myself and the pains in my body. I truly have felt "lost" in this work for the past 6 months or so, and because of that I havent been so worried about all the things that are wrong with me. I will come home in July litterally in pieces, but I think it will feel good to know that I put my shoulder to the wheel. And not that I just finished, but that I found a way to forget about myself completely and serve the Peruvian people, something that quite frankly, I didn't used to believe possible. 

Right now is dragonfruit season. They are so good. They have three types here. The purple one that is purple inside, the purple one that is white inside and a yellow one that is clear inside. The yellow one is year round but the purple ones are only during this time. They are so incredibly good. It costs 3 soles a kilo. I am tempted to buy a 20 kilo (44 lb) box of the purple/white ones for 58 soles (about $15). Very tempted. 

Life is good. 

Elder Pohlman 

Click this link and watch this video. It will be the coolest video you see this week 

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM4vcmsg0hYl-o3N_J--neVNBAyXJMDmBh-FQgJkU7mp8aiJIwMtV44RzE9K02FDA?pli=1&key=VFZid0kwMHRSZVowdXZUeG53WV96dzR0Ukw3UWN3