I feel like we talked to a lot more Southerners this week. Specifically Florida natives. It's a different world when working with those people. They are very proud of their Southern heritage. I've heard things like: "The Northerners are taking over. We gotta go find somewhere else to live." and "Only Northerners sweeten their grits." and yes, even the very cringey "Did you know the South actually won the Civil War?". It's been really interesting but funny. Oh, and I've actually become very fond of grits. Tasty stuff.
We had a few lessons with Mark this week. For the first one, we taught him the Word of Wisdom and the temple. He was really receptive and it was really powerful. He talked about marrying his girlfriend and getting sealed in the temple. It's really cool to see his desires change over time. The second lesson was pretty dang spiritual. We were planning on teaching the Law of Chastity but when we showed up to the chapel, he looked different. He looked tired, stressed, and annoyed. When we sat down, I instantly knew that we needed to focus on scripture study and prayer. He had a few rough experiences and wasn't feeling great. The lesson was exactly what he needed and it was a huge testimony builder for me. I know God is aware of Mark and his struggles. He touched us so that we would teach exactly what we were supposed to.
Saturday, we had our exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Elder Watteyne came down to Sumterville to be with me. We had a really great time. Elder Watteyne is super personable and always has a smile on his face. We talked a lot about pride and how it impacts our lives. We also of course talked about eternal families. (We are focused but still hyped for marriage). It was really cool to get someone else's perspective on it. We also had a cool finding experience. We were in a neighborhood in Wildwood and prayed for guidance to a specific person. We stopped by a few potentials, formers, and knocked a few doors. Nothing. We had about 10 minutes until we had to leave for dinner, so we prayed again and then decided to stop by one more potential. While we were walking there, we saw a guy walking his kid in a stroller. His name is Jason and he was really friendly, which felt good cause everyone earlier was standoffish. He has a faith in God but has many questions. We told him about the Book of Mormon and he said he wanted to check it out at the library. We told him we would bring him one on Thursday. It was really great because we felt like we were supposed to meet him, and everything we did earlier led us to that point.
One more experience that we had during the week. We had a few lessons that fell through and we didn't have any idea what we were going to do. We prayed about where to go and we got a specific prompting to go visit a less-active family. I felt weird about it because we had tried many times before but they were never home. We decided to give it a try. We went by and she was on her porch. She said that she wasn't even supposed to be home at that time. She was really nice and was grateful that we stopped by. She hadn't seen anyone from the church in a few years. We are going to go over and meet with her kids who aren't baptized yet. It truly was a tender mercy from the Lord.
Thats about it for the updates. Today we went fishing in the Lecanto area and then went all the way out by Crystal River to see the Gulf. Not very many missionaries can say they've seen the East and West coast of Florida on their mission. It's good down here in the FOM.
That's about it for this week. Love y'all.
Elder Poulsen
Phatty
Family Pic
#BonesOnTheBeach
I don't remember posing for this picture
