August 12, 2013 E-mail

This past week we finished up the fair here, we have hundreds of new people to teach - around 3 to 5 hundred referrals. We will be busy...   So it is a transfer week, we found out this Saturday that Elder McCuchen is leaving and I am staying here in Franklin again. I am so exited to stay. I been here since Feb. 27.  It's so cool to stay here I really like the ward...

 

So this past week we got a referral for this gal named Kristen ways. She came across Mormon.org and read everything so she called and had us come over.   She is so ready to receive the gospel, she is already going to try to go on a mission and wants to have a calling in the church.  It's pretty cool :)    

 

 We had a rain storm that rained like 3 inches within 2 minutes.  It was raining so hard the roof and gutters were creaking and popping from the weight.  I took a movie of the mail man getting wet in the flood lol :) .   We went to a Church of Christ yesterday morning (because we had a 3 ward sacrament meeting at 2pm). They were preaching Mormonism (dun dun dun). Any way, we were sitting there listening to the preacher and he said "go visit the Mormon stakes" and someone in the front said "They're wards" and the preacher kept going on and on and people kept correcting his terminology he was using...  so I started looking around and most of the people who came were from the wards here in Franklin. Even the stake president was there, lol :)     It was the coolest thing ever the preacher was trying to be anti but he ended helping us more then hurting us.  We have a lot of people to teach now and we did not say a word...            that's the adventure for the week.

 

Elder Caleb 

July 8, 2013 E-Mail

So with all the new missionaries coming out the past few transfers, we keep getting lots and lots of new rules to follow, lol, like elders don't call sisters and sisters stop flirting with elders.  It's all really funny to hear about, lol. Any way, it is 99 degrees out side and super de duper humid. You sweat a lot. lol. But all is good, you just need to catch your sweat and drink it again, lol (not really yuckky).  So I am now serving with a new companion for Redmond, Ut.  His Dad once pulled me over in Mt Pleasant lol...

Elder Poulson

May 28, 2013 E-mail

P-day was moved to today due to a mission emergency meeting yesterday. Any way, President Mckee is being released due to sister Mckees medical needs.  On July 1 the new mission president will be coming in, President Andersen from Ogden, UT.  I didn't see it coming, except for President Mckee was only at a 1/4 of the meetings that he usually goes to...      

 

  This past week has been pretty interesting. It felt like a lazy week, but we taught the most lessons. We are getting home just exhausted.  We were teaching a friend and started to talk about the civil war. Any way, he has a confederate grave yard in his back yard. We are going to get some pictures this Thursday hopefully.

 

  Oh ya, we watched the police chase a guy on a bullet bike this Wednesday. We were having a picnic next to a fancy bridge here. We watched the police come, stop, and set up a road block at the end of the bridge. We see the guy come up, slow down to around 25 mph and just simply drive through the road block (it was pretty funny actually), then take off.  He hit 220 mph in about 7 seconds and lost every cop car in about 8 seconds from the road block. (A couple of the police radared him and were blown away at how fast the bike was).  It was like watching a drag race, only the police were on tricycles,  lol.

 

Caleb

May 20, 2013 E-mail

Baptized minister ... this Saturday we had the opportunity to see Alvin Travice be baptized. He is from Paris, TN. It was amazing to see. When he came up out of the water he yelled "HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD! THANK YOU CHRIST JESUS!!!"  It was really cool. :) It was the beginning of an amazing day; the whole rest of the day went like clock work.         

Last night we went to a part member less active family and they were home finally ... any way, we had an incredible lesson and they asked us to come back every Tuesday. Woo hoo:)  That's the gospel truth...     

Caleb

May 6, 2013 E-mail

This week was really cool.  We had 2 baptized and a lot of friends progressing to the gospel here ...   We were not able to see Gwen get baptized.  It would have made the two year sacrifice worth it for that one event :) but our ride cancelled. BUMMer! And we could not get a ride out there in time so instead we went to our baptisms here in Franklin. Oh well. lol.

Elder Poulson

April 29, 2013 E-mail

Do you remember a gal named Gwen Mcnut?  She is getting baptized this Saturday the 4th of May. It's pretty exciting.  We are skipping out on a baptism here so we can go see Gwen get baptized
over in Paris. :)    This is truly a wonderful thing.

Franklin is doing good.  From October of last year until March this year Franklin area had 0 new investigators.  In 8 weeks of hard work and being real with people we have 35 new people to teach, making the ward take a turn for the better.  It only takes one person to change the attitude of the ward.  :)

Any way, I have a new companion.  There was an emergency transfer. Elder Wells from Washington state is my new companion ... he is really cool. He has been out for 6 months.

Catch up on e-mails

March 11, 2013

Hey, all is good. We had a fantastic week - we picked up five  new friends to go teach this week and we got 9 member referrals from the ward.  It's a lot of fun here in Franklin.  Sorry it short but we are going to our p-day activity.

March 18, 2013

I am going to have to e-mail later ...there are 6 missionaries who use 2 computers ...  sorry for not being able to e-mail more yet ...

April 8, 2013

Things are going good in Franklin.  This past week we saw this investigator that has received lessons from missionaries for a year.  She has been to church at least every other week for the past year.  We read from the Book of Mormon with her then boldly asked her if she would be baptized.  She said no  :) but we don't take repentance lightly here in Franklin, so we asked her again using the scriptures if  she would be baptized and she said she was not sure about it.  So we invited her to take it to God through prayer if she should be baptized. (It was amazing experience) after she agreed to pray we invited her again to be baptized, this time she said yes :) April 27.

  

 We are having lots of success here. There are hundreds of stories like this. 

So a funny funny story this past wed: we went over to this older couples ( they are in there 90s) house to move a laZboy for them. It was in there bedroom up stairs.  Brother Williams had us come up stairs and he heads right in to the bedroom, and I am right behind him. As soon as I turned the corner, there is his wife sitting in the chair naked. She starts frantically trying to put her robe on.  I had turned around and started pointing back down the stairs.  Elder cherry and the member that brought us to their house (brother Kennely ) both stopped in their tracks and looked down the stairs.  We waited a second then brother Williams said "Get in here and move this chair." .... so we went back up and made the turn an there was sister Williams half way to the bathroom still not covered. :(   I never want to get that old.   So again we turned around and waited until we heard the door shut.  So we moved it out and brought up a new one.  Any way, there was a little port a potty for old people just inside the door.  Dun dun duuun...as we were walking into the room Elder Cherry tripped on it and it tipped over and got all over him (he was in church clothes).  lol :)  I could not stop laughing about it.  We had another appointment right after so he had to sit in the lesson with it all over him.  (She is getting baptized on the 27 of April)    so whether you stink or not, the gospel moves forward :)  ;)  

 Elder Poulson    

April 15, 2013

It's really cool to be next to the temple. We use it to refer every body to church. It's really cool. Yesterday we had 9 of our friends (investigator peoples) at church we had a really cool experience. After church we asked if they wanted to see the baptismal font. They were like "Ya we want to see it." so we opened up the doors and showed them.  I announced it like the announcer for the Price is Right (not very spiritual, but boy I tell you it was fun. lol) They had a good time.  It's really cool to see people change their lives.  The best thing I like about being out here is we get to go see people who are frustrated with their lives.  We smack them up the side of the head with the Book of Mormon, lol (not really) and for those that read, we see first hand the spark of hope and eternal happiness. That is the coolest thing ever ... 

 We are at the church and around  20 min ago I went in to the bathroom and heard a voice i knew.  Lo and behold it was someone  we taught and brought to baptism a year and a month ago.  It was amazing.  :)     PS-   he is really cool and Italian.  He like the meata balla :) 

 Elder Poulson

E-mails

This post includes e-mails from the past few weeks.  As you all may know, Caleb is not a big writer and his e-mails are usually a few sentences long.  So I have combined a few of them to make the post a little bit longer.

February 11, 2013
We lost the internet at the church, it's completely out there. Lots of craziness has happened here in Paris in two weeks.  Things are going really good for missionary work. We are baptizing someone on March the 2nd.  We got stopped by the sherriff two times this past week.    There is a no knocking on doors after dark policy for Paris because of the big jump in crime... with every good thing there is a bad :)


February 18, 2013

Everything is going good here. So the past 2 weeks we dropped all but three of our investigators.  Results of that are we have 1 getting baptized on March 2 and three others looking to be baptized on March 16.  Everything is hoppin'!      

 

 

February 25, 2013

Hello,

This past week consisted of lots of travelling; it's real tiring...  So I was in Murray for 2 days and then we went to Paris, then to Lebanon, TN (3 hour drive one way), then back to Paris.  Then we had another meeting in Paducka, KY, then back to Paris.  Lots of driving, lol.   But this is not all: my days in Paris, TN have came to a end. Dun dun dun! (or something like that).  I am being transferred to Franklin, TN, the same area where the temple is.    

 

I will be in Franklin tomorrow morning which is another 2 and a half hour drive. I am so tired of driving all over. But am very excited to go to a new place ...

P.S.     I got my companion hooked on sun flower seeds. lol.

Love,  Caleb

 

 

March 4, 2013 

Hello,
all is well here. I am right next to the temple.  I can see it where I'm emailing from... lol.  It's realy small though, but it's still really cool.  I am really excited to be in Franklin, TN.  I have spent the past year exiled for everyone and I thought President Mckee had forgotten there was missionaries in the sticks... :)   Franklin is a very rich area, completely differnt from Paris.  It's different to have a small area.  This area is as big as Ephraim, UT so it's interesting...

January 28, 2012 E-mail

Hey all!

 

Everything is going good in Paris, TN.  I was kind of hoping I would be leaving Paris so I could get a new start in a new area, but I guess he says I need to have more patience and diligence. lol :)

   

This past week we made Gwen Mcnut a birthday cake; she was really excited :) ....

Sister Mckee is doing great. She is getting out of the hospital this week and is doing very good...

 

So I have something interesting: this past week I have learned how smell can affect how someone feels the spirit... There is a family in the branch that has lots and lots of animals living in their house and they smell really, really powerfully (it burns your eyes because of the ammonia on them).    Any way, we had 2 investigators come to church and sat in the row in front of this family. 5 minutes later they got up and left never to bee seen again.  This is the 4th time this has happened since I have been in Paris.    Moral of the story: your body is a temple. People see your face value every time you are around them. This is why we have to wear nice clothes and bathe daily, lol . :)

 

Caleb 

Jan. 21, 2012 E-mail

Hello out there in the big big world!

I have finally got it a way to describe Paris, TN: Paris is like the movie Ground Hog Day. lol. Once you get here, you're stuck. lol. We can do different things, but everyone else does the same exact thing every day. :) It's weird to say but so true. We have around 50 different people we have been working with (just investigators) who are interested and know, but don't have the drive to self-commit to anything. lol. So once the ice is broken, great things. But until then, still woking in Paris...

Caleb

Jan. 14, 2012 E-mail

Hello everyone, how's it going? 

I am still in Paris, TN.  I have been here since the first part of August and am kind of looking forward to a change. lol. We have one week left of the transfer and then I find out if I'm staying or if I'm going...  It's 29 degrees outside right now. The past 2 days it has rained about 8 inches of rain. This past week has been pretty cool. So a funny story, we had interviews Friday and as soon as I sat down President Mckee told me I need to drink more water, lol. I was also told I have been put in the hardest areas in the mission... I don't know what he meant by that, but it's good to know it's supposed to be a hard area. (It's not really a hard area, other missionaries just complain a lot. lol)   

So some cool things that's happened since I have been in Paris: I have really studied the quad and I'm almost done. lol  I'm either 60 or 80 % of the way done.  I have not been studying  the D&C too much, though.   I have broken down all the writings into styles of record keeping, use of words in cultural meanings and I have come to this conclusion abought the bible: the only way to understand it is to rely on the Holy Ghost and personal revelation.  That being said, the bible or (books in greek) is supposed to support the Book of Mormon and the other testaments of the 12 tribes...and the testimonies on the Gentile nations ...   It's pretty cool.    

Love,
Elder Caleb Poulson

December 31, 2012 E-mail

Happy old year and hello New Year :)   For today and tomorrow we don't have to do any missionary work, we get to play.

 

So... a funny story from last night. At 6:00 we decided we were going to go visit a member who lives 30 miles from us. We get in the car and drive down the street, then we realize we forgot the ward directory. So we drive around the block and I parked in the street and walk across the grass to our duplex, find the directory, then head back to the car. We're back in the car driving to the highway when all of a sudden it starts to smell like the sewer plant, lol.  I'm thinking, "Man, why does it stink so bad outside?" ... so after 3 more minutes of smelling it I was struck with the thought of "you crossed the grass". . . .  so I stopped the car and got out to see and sure enough I stepped in a giant dog turd and it was all over! So we went back to the apartment, I changed my shoes, threw out the floor mat and then we were finally able to get on our way ...    So the lesson from this is no matter how clean you are, it only takes one misplaced step to really make a mess of everything. And until we change our will to God's, we will always stink.

     

Lots of love! Hope you like the story.  

Caleb