Week 5 - August 14, 2017

Hi Everyone!

Once again this last week in Arlington has been amazing! The Lord's hand is in everything and it's so cool to see!

We had another lesson with Bob and it went really well! It was also really sad because he told us since he isn't religious he doesn't really feel that God loves him. That broke my heart! We challenged him to pray to Heavenly Father and ask to feel His love. He said he will and I know God will answer him. The power of prayer is life-changing! If you haven't done this yourself I suggest you do. It will change your life and your life will be much more positive when He answers you.

We also had a lesson with Wesley! I love Wesley! He had a few questions about the chapter we asked him to read about the Plan of Salvation so we helped him with that. Oh my gosh he's amazing! We asked him if he's continued to pray and ponder about baptism and invited him to be baptized on September 9th. He said he had a question about it but he needed to leave so we couldn't answer it now. (Stinking adversary! 😒) But we asked if he could give us a hint. He said it has to do with timing. We'll see on Thursday! I know he'll be ready by September 9th!

Okay now I'm sure you're wondering about the title. We are now heading into week 5 of the transfer and as many of you know transfers are every 6 weeks. That means this is our last full week as a trio. It's really surprising when a trio lasts more than 3 weeks in this mission (missionaries leave early and they need to find a replacement,) so we have been so blessed to have been a trio this whole transfer. We're going to end it with a bang! These two crazy sisters have blessed my life so much! We don't know what's going to happen this week but whatever happens is what the Lord wants.

I was pondering the other day about a question we've been asked a lot lately. "Why do bad things happen to good people?" We all ask that! It's a human question to have. I saw a quote by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (Southern Utah represent!) the other day and it said, "Not expecting trials just because you're a good person is like not expecting a bull to chase you because you're a vegetarian!" Now how true is that? We all face difficulties unique to us and none of them are easy. When we are in those times rather than asking, "God why are you doing this to me?" ask "God what do you want me to learn from this?" The key is to turn to Him not away from Him. He's always there and He's always listening. We all face trials for a reason and we all learn something from them and come out of them stronger than ever before. Don't give up! Don't you quit! Don't think God has abandoned you because He hasn't! He's always there.

I love all of you and hope you have a great week! Remember who you are and who created you! Love y'all! ❤️

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission

Seven???? August 7, 2017

Howdy!

Wow this week was amazing! I love this area so much!

On Thursday we got together with the elders and did a tracting blitz
at an apartment complex. Wow! Whoever said tracting isn't effective
hasn't served in a YSA Ward! The experience was AMAZING! We contacted
15 people and got 7 new investigators! Wow! Nothing like that has ever
happened my whole mission! The Lord truly strengthened my faith to
find those who are ready to receive the gospel. Honestly, for the past
few months my faith to find was really lacking. But after this
happened, I know without a doubt that the Lord is preparing people and
placing us in their path!

Now let's talk about some of the people we met! We met a man named Bob
who's here for grad school. He was standing outside his apartment with
his HUGE cat! Perfect conversation starter! We talked about the cat
then that led to religion and he said he was raised religious but
isn't religious right now, but he's willing to talk about it with us!
We gave him a Book of Mormon and he told us he's actually been wanting
to read it. Woohoo! We had an appointment with him on Sunday and it
went really well! We hope we can strengthen his faith in Christ and
the gospel!

We had an amazing lesson with Wesley about the Plan of Salvation! He
had so many great questions and he understood everything! We extended
a baptism invitation and he said he'll think about it! Woohoo! I love
Wesley! Again so many people prepared by the Lord!

Unfortunately Deandre still hasn't come to church so we moved his
baptism date 😢 But it's okay we're still teaching him and he's still
super awesome!

This week I've been pondering on our gifts and talents. All of our
talents are gifts from our Heavenly Father. They didn't just appear
out of nowhere! Yes most of them are from practice but who helped us
practice? God did. Our talents are gifts from God we need to
acknowledge that. We should be humble and remember: every good thing
is from God and we need to thank Him for them.

Love y'all! Have a great week! Miss you! Remember who created you and
just how much He loves you! ❤️ He created all the stars and planets
in the universe and still decided to create you.

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission

Pictures!
1.) Matching for Zone Conference 🔴⚪️⚫️
2.) Arlington Zone!
3.) Bob and his huge cat Babalu (yes that's the cat's name.)
4.) Texas pride!
5.) Our new friends at Waffle House.

1 Year Down! July 24, 2017

Hello Friends and Family!

Wow! Have I really been serving my mission for a whole year?! Where
has the time gone?!?! I've had some amazing experiences and met
incredible people. And the best part is, I'm not done! I still have 6
months to enjoy all of it! It's amazing how time flies. Don't waste a
second because you won't get it back!

Now onto this week! I totally forgot to talk about Jason last week.
He's an investigator who's been taking the lessons for some time now.
He's amazing and has a really strong testimony of the gospel. The only
thing stopping him from being baptized is his parents. His dad is
Atheist and his mom is part of another faith and DO NOT approve of
Jason taking the lessons and coming to church with us. During district
meeting someone suggested we fast for him. We brought it up in our
next lesson with Jason and he thought it was a good idea. So the three
of us, Jason, the elders, and the senior couple serving in our ward
met up and started a fast. We fasted for his parent's heart to be
softened and see how happy he's become, and for Jason to have the
courage to talk to them about baptism. We don't know if he's talked to
them yet, but we've been praying for all of them everyday.

A miracle occurred! Knocking on doors looking for YSA aged people is
kind of tricky, but we decided to anyway. We found an amazing guy
named Deandre! Well, first we knocked on his door and he had a blanket
wrapped around him and said, "Sorry I just woke up. Can you come back
in 45 minutes?" Haha! Sure! We came back and taught him an amazing
lesson! He was so excited to read the Book of Mormon when we gave it
to him! He told us he's gone through a lot of rough things in life but
he's in a good place now. He then said, "I feel like God sent you here
for a reason." Wh..wh..WHAT??? This is the kind of thing you only read
about in the Ensign of something! I felt prompted to ask him to be
baptized by the Priesthood authority and he accepted!! He's going to
be baptized August 19th!!! AAAAHHH!!!! The entire time I was sitting
there thinking, "Is this real life??" I wanted to cry! Follow the
promptings!

God really loves all of His children and wants us all to return to
Him. That's what we're here to help with. When you work hard and
follow the promptings you receive, you'll see miracles. I promise you
that.

I love all of you! Have a great week and keep your chin up! Love you ❤️

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission

Pictures!
1.) Cowboys Stadium!
2.) Selfie
3-4.) I don't know which one describes our companionship better 😂
5-7.) Was this really a year ago??

Arlington July 17, 2017

Hi Everyone!

Wow so much has happened this week! It's been CRAZY!!

So the Arlington YSA (young single adult) Ward was just the zone
leader area, but now what we're doing is taking half of their Ward. So
we're pretty much opening a new area IN A TRIO!! Let me tell ya, this
past week was STRESSFUL! But it really helps that I already knew the
other two sisters in the trio really well. And I already know the Zone
Leaders who have pretty much become our best friends since we keep
bothering them about information. Haha!

But let's not focus on the stress! Arlington is great! All of my areas
have been so different from each other! Arlington is the metroplex of
the metroplex. It's great! And I love being in a YSA Ward. You feel
comfortable right away because everyone's your age. Also college
students are great at missionary work!

We have a few investigators! First is Kiemorean. He's 19 and when we
first met him I totally thought he was 23 or 24. He's so mature! He
really wants to be baptized so if y'all could keep him in your prayers
that would be great!

We also have Kevin who has a baptism date for August 19th! We haven't
actually met him yet but according to his teaching record he sounds
great!

Well because of all this craziness going on, I've really seen the
importance of relying on the Lord during rough times. I asked Heavenly
Father, "Why did you ask me of all people to be in this trio to open
this area? Why me?" Then the answer I got was "Because I trust you
with this." We may not know why and sometimes we may feel like there's
a lot on our plate, but Heavenly Father gives us trusts us with hard
situations. And if we turn to Him we'll be able to handle them. He
trusts us so we should have trust in ourselves. We can do anything
with faith in the Lord.

Well that's all for this week! Love y'all! Until next time! ❤️

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission

Pictures!
1.) Texas Rangers Stadium!
2.) Coulson! (Our trio name. Trios are a party!)
3.) Arlington Star
4-8.) Scrubbing our nasty apartment. 😫

Transfers July 10, 2017

Hey hey hey!

This week has been awesome! First off happy 4th of July everyone! It's
an awesome time to remember all of the freedoms we're so blessed to
have in this beautiful country! We have the right to worship our God
freely! I truly am grateful to live in this country!

It was pretty much a Jones week! For 4th of July we volunteered at
something called the Freedom Fest. It's a huge celebration Flower
Mound has every year. There's booths with food, a car show, bands, all
sorts of stuff! We just stood at the gate and showed people where to
go. While we were doing that, guess who shows up at the gate? Alyssa
and her family! They saw us and said, "Hey! What are y'all doing
here?! And you're wearing pants! I didn't think y'all owned pants!!"
😂😂😂 They're my favorite! Then on Wednesday we had a lesson with the
Jones family but Alyssa had to work so we didn't see her. Friday we
brought David (Alyssa's dad) a birthday cake, then Saturday we helped
set up for a birthday party they were throwing him. So yeah we saw
them almost everyday this week! It was awesome!

In other news I'm being transferred to the Arlington YSA Ward! I'm so
excited I've been wanting to serve in a YSA Ward for a long time! I'm
also going to be in a trio with Sister Clonts and Sister Thomson. Yes
it's the same Sister Thomson I was with my first transfer in Flower
Mound! I'M SO EXCITED!!! And Sister Clonts was in my district here a
little while ago so I'm already really good friends with both of them!
I'm so excited!!!! Aaaah!!!

I am excited to go to Arlington, but I'm really sad to be leaving
Flower Mound. My 6 months here have had its ups and downs, but I've
loved it. The people here are amazing and I'm so glad I've had the
opportunity to serve around them for so long. I'm excited for new
adventures and new things to learn!

Hope y'all have a great week! I'll let you know how it is in
Arlington! Remember I pray for you everyday and you mean a lot to me.
Love you!

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission

Pictures!
1.) 4th of July!
2.) Lewisville Zone
3.) They tried to kick Elder Herod out of the picture haha!
4.) 4th with the Jones family! (Alyssa's the one on the very end.)

Week of Miracles July 3, 2017

Hi Everyone!

Hope y'all had a great week! I sure did! The Lord truly loves His
children and blesses His missionaries for their hard work!

First great thing that happened, we saw Alyssa! She still doing so
well! We were worried since she's been gone for so long, but she's
reading and praying! She told us in our lessons that she knows the
Book of Mormon is true! That's amazing! In church yesterday someone
was testifying and said, "The Book of Mormon brings lots of peace to
your life." We looked over and Alyssa was smiling and nodding. I'm so
glad Alyssa's back and she's strengthening her faith in the Lord.

Next miracle! We had 4 investigators at sacrament yesterday! 4!!! I've
always struggled with investigators coming to church so yesterday was
great! In the 5th Ward it was Alyssa and her brother Chase then for
the 1st Ward it was Robert the one who randomly came to church last
month and a teenager brought his friend. We were so happy! I'm so
grateful for the Lord's blessings He gives everyone. They're not
always obvious blessings like these, but He blesses everyone in all
sorts of ways.

Throughout life, especially on a mission, we all need to learn to
submit our will to God. We all have dreams and desires in life, but
are they the same as His? It's hard to learn and it takes a lifetime
to understand, but once we do we understand that He truly loves us and
knows what's best for us. His plan for our lives is so much better
than we could ever imagine.

Well that's all for this week! I love all of you and I know your
Heavenly Father loves you too! Until next time!

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission

Pictures!
1. Selfie
2. Didn't think Texas had these views did you?
3. Quote

Howdy Y'all! June 26, 2017

Hi Everyone!

Exciting news! Alyssa's back in town! Woohoo! We're seeing her this
week and we're so excited and happy!

We saw Susan and she told us about some family problems she's been
having. As she did so I remembered something we talked about in
District Meeting a few days before. When you read scriptures with
them, tell them the background of the verse and how it relates to
them. Then I felt like I should read to her some verses in 1 Nephi. I
told her the prophet in this verse had some brothers who were
rebellious and whined to their father when he asked them to do a hard
thing. I then read 1 Nephi 3:5-7 and told her that when she asks for
the Lord's help He will give her the strength she needs to handle this
situation. She was really touched and the spirit was really strong.
The Book of Mormon is amazing and I know without a doubt it will help
you through ANY situation you're in! Trust the Lord and turn to Him in
times of need. I promise He'll help you!

Well that's all I have this week! Sorry it was kind of slow so there's
not much to update on. I hope y'all have a great week! You're amazing
every single one of you! Love y'all!

"Repentance is His gift to us purchased at a very dear price." ~Elder
D. Todd Christofferson
(Repentance is a happy thing. Don't be scared of it.)

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission

Pictures!
1.) Bowling p-day!
2.) I knew Texas was the best place for me!
3.) our companionship in a nutshell.