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

Dayron

We often hear a lot of different words to describe the mission. Spiritual, life changing, beautiful, humbling, hard, etc. All of which are true. But I think an often forgotten word is fun. I genuinely have a lot of fun every day. From interactions with drunk guys to running from dogs to meeting funny people, I have a blast every day. 

We have put a ton of emphasis as a mission on the importance of two baptismal dates. One for their own baptism and one to do baptisms for the dead. The closest temple is just over 4 hours away (not to terrible to be honest). The retention rate for new converts that within a few weeks do baptisms for the dead is so incredibly high. It is cool that within a few years there will be a temple here in Chiclayo. The faithful members that have traveled hours their whole lives will be blessed and the work on both sides of the veil will flourish. It has been a blessing to be able to help pave the foundation for that beautiful day. 

Jhon and Francesca are a couple we are teaching that have been coming to church and we have been meeting with consistently. They have a little one year old baby that is adorable. They both have the desire to be baptized and would have been but they aren't married. We are currently working on the process. Pray for them. 

This week we were knocking doors looking for an inactive member named Dani. We knocked a door and a lady opened and we asked if she knew a Dani , she said she was Dani and let us in. We talked with her for a while and then she asked us how we found her. We told her we have an aplication that shows us all the members. She said she wasn't a member. It turns out the Dani we were looking for was a completely different person that didn't live anywhere near there. But the other Dani and her family turned out to be super cool and interested. 

In this town there are a ton of people from a place called Incahuasi. They don't speak very good spanish (they speak quechua) but they are super fun to teach because they are super humble.

We had a baptism last night for a guy named Dayron. Super cool kid. He was 15 days from first contact to baptism. Elect. It is crazy how prepared some people are. We are also teaching his parents and they seem to be increasingly interested. 

Good times in the P. Man I love this place. This land and these people will forever hold an incredibly sweet place in my heart. 

Elder Pohlman 🇵🇪

 

Last area ... Ferreñafe

 This week I was transfered out of Chachapoyas. I love that town, that branch, and those people. It was so fun up there. I will always look back on my time there extremely fondly. I don't think it is possible that we could've worked any harder without going mentally insane. It was such a good time. The miracles we saw every day where eye opening and changed my mission and my life. Getting down to Chiclayo entailed a 5 hour combi ride on monday and a 10 hour bus ride on tuesday due to landslides and floods. 

I took some pill that they sell in the paraderos that sister giuria told us to take for travels and not long after I felt like I was flying through the andes like an andean condor. Wasquita. 

I was transfered to what will be my last area. Ferreñafe. It is a really cool town just outside of Chiclayo. I miss the mountains but it feels good to feel some heat, dust, and dogs. It is crazy how different the people are here. I feel back at home. Chiclayo is such a dang cool place. The people here are super charming and sweet.

When I got here the apartment was absolutely horrendous. It still looks like what you would expect an apartment in chiclayo peru to look like, but I deep cleaned it. Like super deep clean. I found some acid in a black bottle, dumped the whole bottle in a bucket and then mixed a liter of bleach with it. It made some devilish concoction that bubbled up and turned a bunch of different colors and got all hot. I dumped it all over the shower and bathroom floor and scrubbed with a brush. It absolutely rinsed the mold and nasty build up. Then my throat started to burn. I left the bathroom and my lungs started to burn. I started coughing uncontrollably and couldn't really breathe for like 3 minutes. It was horrible. I went and sat outide and hacked my lungs out for a good 20 minutes until I could finally breath somewhat normally. Lesson learned, dont play with chemicals. I brushed my teeth after and the toothpaste foamed up and turned orange and my toothbrush turned yellow. And then my spit was yellow for a while. My poor body. 

My companion is Elder Borges. He's Brazilian. One of the coolest guys ever. He's the first brazilian comp I have had and he is a blast. I have now had companions from 5 different countries.

A group of guys won the soccer championship sunday morning and were out drinking with their trophy at 11 am. We passed by at 6 and they were still throwing them back. Congrats to the boys on the big win. Chelebrando

He is risen. We truly are free from sins dark prison. Death is conquered, man is free. The resurrection of our Savior is full of hope, love, joy, and peace.

Elder Pohlman 🇵🇪🇵🇪🇵🇪

Alma 11

42 Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death. 

43 The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt.

Adventistas

 Yesterday our friend Roseli Pakun Wachapa got baptized. Her story is super cool. She is from Condorcanqui and her native language is Awajún. She moved to chacha and has learned spanish and is working here. She works in a hotel. When President Giuria was here he stayed in that hotel and contacted her. He passed us her number and 3 weeks after she then got baptized. So cool. 

Chachapoyas is a town of super strong religious beliefs. If you are catholic you are a strong catholic, if you are JW you are a strong JW. Everyone is very strong and practicing which is really respectable. Lately we keep getting social media references from Adventistas that act like they are super interested. We set up times to meet thinking they are elect people, have super cool lessons with them, start thinking they are super elect, and then they slowly start to contend after 20 minutes of talking. It has happened a couple times lately. I genuinely do not understand. They just waste our time and theirs and it never comes to anything. It is actually funny. They have a few go to strats. First they try to make us feel bad for not having every single scripture of the Bible memorized. Then they spend way to much time trying to convince us of something super obvious that we obviously agree on and acting like it is some new crazy thing that we have never heard up. This week one of them spent lime 10 minutes trying to explain to us why it is important to follow the commandments. I just sat there smiled and said "estamos de acuerdo amigo" probably 25 times. Then they never answer our questions. Any question you ask them they take a 5 second pause and then ask you the exact same question. It is so weird. Contention is not of God and I know that if I sit there and talk to them I will get fired up and that it what they want 

so I just laugh and walk away. We are all sons and daughters of God just trying to be more like him. I genuinely repect anyone that actually practices their religion and loves God. The Jehovas whitnesses for example are so nice. I don't know why Adventistas just decide to wake up every day and go tell everyone they are going to burn in hell for eternity because they go to church on sunday. 

My main takwaway from any time someone contends with us is how true what we teach is. The need for a prophet in these days to lead us and help us understand the word of God. We are so blessed to be lead by prophets and apostles. I feel of their love when I listen to what they have to say. 

We met some scouts. I made sure to tell them I was an eagle scout. They were amazed. 

We went to magdalena to visit David this week and there was a landslide that covered the road on the way back. I figured we were toast but just absolutely sent it and went right over the mountain of dirt covering what was a road. 

I am amazed every day at how many times I see the Lords hand in the work we do. I will be home in under 3 months and it seems like every day the miracles I see seem to be bigger and bigger. The end is so cool. 

I love perú 

Elder Pohlman 

Gocta/General Conference

 This week was great. Last Pday we went to Gocta. I love that place so much. Definately one of my favorite places on earth. 

General conference was incredible. It is like Christmas as a missionary. It is one of the things I will miss most about the mission I think. This was my 4th and final one in Perú. Every single time it is seriously so awesome. I went all out and bought so many snacks. I had all my favorite fruits, some esprites, some pecsi, chifles, you name it.

I think the theme of the conference was pretty obvious. The Lord is coming. Soon.  

This time I didn't just write down everything that was said like I have before. The notes I have taken on other conferences were great and all but after reading them I basically had just copied everything that was said. This time I only wrote down what the spirit told me or phrases that really stuck out to me. Here are a few of my main takeaways. Some of them just seem more powerful to me in the Spanish translation so I will leave them in Spanish. 

Prayer and scripture study can "restore our lives" 

Many are called, but few choose to be chosen. 

The Lord has "DESTRUIDO LA MUERTE" (destroyed death)

Give the Lord our time, not just our left over time. 

"La mejestuosidad de este momento" (the majesty of this moment) 

Set apart time consistently to contemplate the divinity of the atonement. 

There is a difference between doing good and doing our best 

"Esta es su iglesia" (this is his church)

The best way to grow closer to the Lord is serving his people 

The law of chastity is not a law. It is pure protection and love from on high. 

The preisthood is a beautiful gift from God. We need to treat it that way. 

The best thing we can do to prepare for the uncertain complex and scary future is follow the simple straight forward peaceful teachings of Christ. 

God wants us to be US. HE WANTS US TO BECOME THE BEST VERSION OF OURSELVES 

Our meetings dont need to be perfect. The spirit of love is what will teach.

 We dont need to change people to be like us, but help them to be like Christ and be what he wants them to be 

The way we live is the best form of worship 

Pray EXECTING to receive an answer and ACT on it. 

The commandments dont save us because we check them off a list. The people we become as we live them with love is what saves us. 

God doesnt want perfection. Peter lead the church and wasn't perfect. The church was restored through the prophet Joseph and he wasn't perfect.

 

When we consecrate our best efforts, even if they are a disaster, they will be consecrated by the Lord. 

Heaven is not for the perfect. It is for the forgiven. 

God cares more about how we react to our sins than he cares about our sins.

"Arrepentíos, arrepentíos = os amo, os amo" (repent, repent = I love you, I love you) 

We dont stay on the covenant path for not sinning, but for repenting from our sins

Satan wants us to think WE are our errors

Obedience brings blessings, but our value is not one of them. It never changes.

Perfectionism is not healthy and is not not what God wants. In fact, that is what satan wanted. 

Oposition>growth

Charity is love in action. 

When we try to justify or hide our sins we are like adam and eve when they hid from god after eating the fruit. They looked silly for that. We do as well. God knows our sins but also knows how to help us. 

"Todos tropezamos sin dejar de progresar." (We all stumble without stopping our progress) 

The Lord always loves us, but especially when we repent 

Baptism is a commandment

 Depend on christ. He will never fail us

Slow down to remember that we are sons of God.

 We can CHOOSE to be happy if we live the Gospel. 

Charity and virtue bring us confidence before God

Contention never leeds to inspired solutions 

The Lord is COMING 

What a blessing to be lead by prophets, seers, and revelators in these, the last times. 

I read these verses this week and they really impacted me. 

Mosiah 14: 4-7 (Isaiah) 

4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 

6 All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

My heart is full. I am grateful to be apart of the greatest work on earth. 

Elder Pohlman