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