Howdy!

Hey Everyone!
This week was awesome! New investigators are popping up out of no
where! The past couple weeks have been kind of slow here but now it's
hopping! I love it!

Every missionary's dream is coming true......we're teaching a
family!!! Yay!! They're neighbors with a member of the Ward and
they've been looking for a church to bring their kids to. Hey! We know
a great church! They've had some hard times and we know the gospel
will really bless their lives. We're really excited to teach them!

Since Thanksgiving is coming up, I read a conference talk about
gratitude that I recommend for everyone to read. It's called,
"Grateful in Any Circumstances" by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. You can always
think of something to be grateful for. You may not have the coolest
house or the fanciest car, but think of what you do have. Even if it's
just something simple, the Lord has blessed you. And that doesn't just
mean material things. He may have blessed you with knowledge or
freedom. Every good thing is from the Lord. We just need to take a
step back and think about what we have.

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission

Pictures!
1: Me and Sister Marks
2 & 3: Zone Conference (in pic 3 the mission president looks so done with us 😂)
4: helping decorate the Boren's Christmas tree
5: lizard came along for the ride!

First week as a Trainer!

Letter from 11/7/2016

Hey Everyone!

Well I'm training a new missionary! It's super fun! Her name is Sister
Marks from Sandpoint, ID. She's a really hard worker and a really
faithful missionary! Way more prepared than I was when I first got out
here! (But then again that wasn't very long ago.)

Azle's still awesome, and since I'm training, my mission president
said I'll be in this area for 3 more months. So I'm going to be in my
first area for 6 months 😳 At least I like it and I love these people!

I was pondering (see, I'm using big words now) and I read this
scripture that lists all the "Christlike Attributes" we're striving to
have. "And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the
glory of God, qualify him for the work. Remember faith, virtue,
knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness,
charity, humility, diligence." I've decided, and I realized I was
doing this without even knowing it, every 6 weeks I'm going to focus
on one attribute to improve on. The 2 I've been focusing on recently
are charity and humility and I've really improved with those. These
next 6 weeks I'm going to focus on patience. I know you're all
thinking, "Hailey are you crazy? You're the least patient person I
know." Well, this is the perfect time to work on it. As a missionary
you're a literal representative of Jesus Christ, so this is the time
to become more like Him. Of course we should strive for all of those
things, but if you focus intently on one at a time, the others will
come over time. I'm not saying it's easy, we all know how patient I
am, but it's something I know I've been needing to work on. Time to
actually do it.

I recommend doing this for yourself. It's given me a new perspective
with certain things. It doesn't have to be patience, but one of these
attributes you may be struggling with. It's changing me and I'm glad
I'm trying it.

Hope y'all have a great week! Email me! I love hearing from you! I'm
praying for you everyday! Be safe ☺️

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission

1. Picture sent to Mom from an awesome member, Sister Lutz! 
World, meet Sister Marks! 

President, you want me to do.....WHAT????

Letter from 10/31/2016

Happy Halloween!

So....transfers are on Wednesday and I knew I was getting a new
companion because Sister Nye is going home. The mission president
called last night and........I'M GOING TO BE A TRAINER!!!!!
AAAAAAHH!!!!! I'm really excited!! I get to train a new missionary! Oh
my gosh!!! Of course I'm feeling a little nervous. I've only been in
one area and I've only been in the mission field for 3 months, but if
the Lord wants me to train and thinks I'm ready to then I'll do it! I
meet her on Wednesday and I can't wait to show her Azle! I'm also
getting a new district leader and a new zone leader. It's going to be
really fun!

Anyway, on to what we did this week! We did a lot of service so that
was fun! A member of the Ward is getting ready to sell their house and
they asked us to help paint some rooms. And we volunteered to help
with an Eagle Scout project!

Other than that it's mostly been knocking on doors. That's fine I like
meeting new people while tracting, but it's not the most effective.
But hey, maybe we started something and they'll remember missionaries
knocking on their door!

Other than that there's not really much to update. I'm so excited to
be a trainer and have new experiences!

Hope you have a great week! I pray for all of you!
Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission

Pictures!
1. Painting the Haughawout's house
2. Sister Lutz tagging along
3. Our district is CRAZY

Texas! (I've run out of creative titles.)

Hey Everyone!

Honestly I can't remember very much from this week. Does that sound terrible?

Lately it's been harder to meet with the people we're teaching because
of schedules, and that happens. This week just wasn't super eventful.
We were kind of upset about it and just kept thinking "What are we
doing wrong? No one wants to listen to us! I'm listening for the
spirit! What are we doing wrong?" Then we listened to a talk Elder
Holland gave to mission presidents a few years ago and he said
missionary work isn't easy because salvation isn't easy! When Christ
was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he asked if there was some other way.
Is there an easier, less painful way? No. No there wasn't. If it
wasn't easy for Jesus Christ the son of God, the only perfect
missionary, the only perfect person to ever walk the earth, then why
would it be easy for us? That put a new perspective on it. Why would I
expect this to be easy? Why would anyone expect this to be easy?
Everyone has the freedom to choose whether or not to listen to you or
choose to accept your message.

In other news, me and Sister Nye were sick all weekend so we stayed in
the apartment which drove us CRAZY! We were sitting there thinking "I
just want to go and teach people but every time I stand up I feel like
I'm going to pass out!" That was a struggle, but now we're feeling a
lot better. And it wasn't all bad. It actually gave us an opportunity
to study a lot of the New Testament together. We've thought about it
for a while but we actually had time to since we were stuck in the
apartment. A lot of people here know the Bible like the back of their
hand so we thought we should catch up a little bit so we can be more
prepared when someone tries to bash us. (Bible bashing's bad. Don't do
it!) We read the first few chapters of Matthew and our mind was BLOWN!
A few of them have Christ's sermon on the mount and when we were done
reading it we were like, "I think I need to rethink my life" 😅 As we
were talking about it we realized that we tell people all the time we
use both the Book of Mormon AND The Bible, but do we really study The
Bible as much as The Book of Mormon? I'll be honest I don't. I feel
bad about it, but now I'm going to change that! The gospel library app
has Institute manuals and that's what we've been studying from. I
highly recommend it!

Well that's how this week has gone! We're determined to make this week better!
I pray for all of you everyday! Love you!

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission
Weatherford Zone
Azle Area

1&2.  The other missionaries in my area surprised me with a little party at the home of a man that was recently baptized!
2. I got to play with bunnies today!

It's October 17th!

Hello Everyone!

I just want to say that I'm so happy I can email today. October 17th
is super special. It's my favorite day of the year. Why? Because 20
years ago today a crazy girl was born. Who is that crazy girl? Me! My
birthday's on a p-day! Yay!!

Anyway, this week was super awesome! Kim B. Clark of the seventy came
to our mission and talked to us about how to be better missionaries!
It was amazing! That man is truly inspired of God! It was amazing to
spend almost the whole day with someone with that authority in the
church. It felt like I was on a spiritual high the whole day! It was
amazing!

We tracted an apartment complex and met some super nice people we're
going to go back and see! Apartment complexes are the best to tract in
because there's gotta be one person who wants to listen.

This weekend I realized how much I love the people here. This Ward and
these people feel just as much as my family as my ward at home does.
Some people found out it was my birthday and they invited us over and
offered to do things for us or take us places. When people talk about
their mission they always say how much they love the people who live
there, but I always thought, "How could you love all these people? You
weren't there for very long." Now I understand. When you have the
spirit with you, you start to see people the way the Lord sees them.
We're all children of God and He wants us all to return to Him. You
love as the Savior loves and it's amazing. It's hard to describe all
the love and joy the people bring.

I love all of you so much and I pray for you everyday. Remember that.
You're all amazing.
Love ❤️
Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission
Weatherford Zone
Azle Area

Mom's edit: These are pictures I got from the awesome people of Azle that are looking out for Sister Poulton on her birthday!
1. She went and got a haircut from Sis Calaway in her ward and was surprised with 40 red balloons (her fav color!) and a new hand-knit scarf!
2. She was taken out for a Mexican dinner by the Haughwoat family.
3. After dinner they came back and sang happy birthday and ate red velvet cake, her favorite!

 

Building a Relationship with Christ

Hey Everyone!

This week we've been doing a lot of finding. I'm getting a lot better
at talking to people and not being scared of what to say! I'm actually
really enjoying tracting. I thought I wouldn't like it very much but
(right now) I really enjoy it!

We only saw Denise and John once this week but we're kind of letting
them sort out some of their issues. They need to figure out some
things between them first so it can be easier for us to teach them and
have the spirit in their lessons.

I realized something one day during personal study. Until I came on my
mission, I hate to say it, but I never really had a relationship with
Jesus Christ. I have a great relationship with my Heavenly Father, but
I never really tried to have one with Christ. I knew He's my Savior
and I'll forever be grateful for that, but I never really thought of
trying to have a relationship with Him. We were eating dinner with
some members of the ward and the husband told us that when people
around him say Christ's name in vain, he says, "Please don't say that.
He's my friend." Then they look at him all confused and ask "How is
Jesus Christ your friend?" I've been pondering on that for a little while
and I thought to myself that I want to call Christ my friend.

Jesus Christ is my best friend. I want you to think about that too.
How can you have a relationship with Christ? If you already have one
awesome! How can you strengthen it?

I hope you have a great week! I pray for you everyday!

Love,
Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission
Weatherford Zone
Azle Area

1. Exchange with Sister Havea
2. Sisters ☺️
3. Don't ask

Conference Weekend!

Hey Everyone!
Hope y'all enjoyed conference! I know I did! My favorite talks were
probably Pres. Uchtdorf's and Elder Bednar's. It was so weird Elder
Holland didn't speak! I needed him to yell at me!

Anyway, I loved that most of the talks were on the gospel of Jesus
Christ! That's what we're teaching to people! It's so cool to see it
all tie in together. And of course it's all centered around Jesus
Christ. That's the most important part. Everything we do in this
church is centered on Jesus Christ, whether you're a bishop, Sunday
school teacher, missionary, whatever your calling is, your purpose is
centered on Jesus Christ. I LOVE that about our church (and people
here say we're not Christians. 😆)

Update time! We have a new investigator! Her name is Murri and she's a
senior in high school. (Seriously the teenagers here are awesome!) We
were eating dinner at a member's house and Murri is friends with their
daughter Kelly. She stayed for dinner too and was asking a lot of
awesome questions! We had a lesson with her a few days later and she's
awesome! She's really open and willing to learn! Love her.

Sadly, the Hunt's moved this week. But they brought some of their
friends Denise and John to church the week before last and they're
taking the lessons from us now! Their's will be a longer process but
that's okay. They want to learn and that's awesome!

I hope y'all have a great week! Please email me so I know how you're
doing! ☺️  Love ya!

Sister Poulton
Texas Fort Worth Mission
Weatherford Zone
Azle Area

From Mom - I received these pictures last night from the awesome Lutz family! Thanks for 

looking out for my girl!