The End of the Street Rangers :(

Helloooo everyone first things first transfers are on wednesday and Elder Mink is getting transferred :( but guess what! SISCKEST THING EVER RIGHT NOW Elder Mink is being Transferred to the Lancaster ward so we're still in the same district and wards meet in the same building so we'll still see each other all the time its insane! So sick haha and my new companion is Elder Madsen and i dont know anything about him just like i dont know anything about most people in this mission i got thrown into.


So first big development of the week is we saw Mac annnnnd he told us his mom baptized him when he was young...so we had a very interesting lesson on priesthood authority doing our best to not offend him and not do what elder Murray does in "The District" for those of you who know what im talking about (lololol). We invited him to pray about authority to know if we truly have the priesthood authority of God through the line of Joseph Smith


Awesome thing that happened this week! Last week Bishop Bowe gave us a call and told us that there was a part member family moving in to the ward boundaries and so we called them up and saw them twice this week! They are the Snyders. Brother Snyder was baptized 14 years ago but hasnt been to church in a long time, and his wife, Patricia, and daughter, Mackenzie, aren't members. They have had A LOT of misfortunes and hardships in the past year, the main one being that their 3 month old son died in December. So they've really started to turn to the gospel at this tough time. We taught them twice this week and in two days Patricia read in the Book of Mormon all the way to 1 Nephi 18 and she wants to be baptized! So exciting!!! And Mackenzie has also expressed interest in being baptized and they all came to church yesterday so were real excited! We are already seeing the gospel bring a greater light into their lives.


We made a tie for Banjo Jimmie this week and went and saw him and his band play a few songs at this Amish tourist place and he was wearing it, so sick!


So its been a good week, the Pilsners had us over for dinner yesterday and had a Pokemon party for Elder Mink's birthday, we are teaching the Snyders, everythings sweet! I'm so excited to continue to see the Snyders accept the gospel and to see the light it brings in to their lives.


Thanks for da support everyone much love


- Elder Poulsen

We Moved

Hello everyone biggest development of the week is we moved from New Holland to Ephrata to be closer to a lot of our work. There's a lot more people in Ephrata to meet and talk to. Unfortunately we had to say bye to our neighbor Jim but we will visit him when we can.

On Tuesday we went on exchanges and I stayed in our area with our district leader, Elder Scott. All of our lessons cancelled so we went street contacting around the Ephrata library and met some nice people. Also went home teaching with Brother Wilson at the Parsons and turns out sister Parsons is from Fresno! So sick!


We saw our friend Banjo Jimmie this week and had a great time playing guitar and eating sandwiches. Hes so sick! We also met some people at the skatepark and handed out some pass-along cards and skated a bit. We taught this Pentecostal guy and it got a bit argumentative and then he beat me in a game of skate which was humiliating he did all these switch & nollie tricks, so lame when people do that crap haha. We ended on a good note though, he was a nice guy.


Our investigator kristy dropped us this week which was a bummer. Everything has been really slow lately. Mac has not been making our appointments a priority anymore. We didnt see him at all this week so that has been really upsetting. Sometimes I feel like we are literally getting nothing done but its ok, just gonna keep on working.


Oh one last thing forgot to share last week, so last week the young men asked me and elder Mink to teach them how to make ties for their mutual activity so we did and the past two weeks some of the young men have been wearing them to church! so sweet haha their parents were hyped and these two kids already bought fabric to make more!

bummer

Hey everyone so first things first Mac did not get baptized on saturday :(. We showed up on Tuesday for his baptismal interview and he was nowhere to be found, and me and Elder Mink forgot our phone at the apartment that day so we couldnt call him...learned our lesson there. So after waiting for him for an hour with the member who took us and the spanish branch elders so Elder Scott could do the interview, and eventually just went home and we called Mac right when we got home. Wer talked to him for a half hour and what happened was a ton of stuff came down on him this week, he has been really stressed over caring for his ill grandmother, and he started to have haunting memories from his accident come back (he was hit by a drunk driver going 55 mph and he was not in a car, he was walking and he survived) and all sorts of stuff and it is so clearly the works of Satan because he doesnt want Mac to be baptized and to be happy! Such a bummer :( We saw him saturday night though and he is doing better. He still wants to be baptized, but said he wants to have a clear mind so it can be the great experience that he wants it to be.


We saw our friend Banjo Jimmie again this week and this fool shreds the Banjo! So sick and he had 2 guitars so we were jamming playing folk songs with him cause me & elder mink both play (except Elder Mink actually shreds and I suck) and it was way fun! Such a great guy who needs friends.


Oh man last monday elder mink bought those rubber dress shoe coverings at the thrift store and wore them over flip flops all day on tuesday so good! nobody noticed it was way raw.


Kind of a slow week i guess because i cant think of much else that happened. We went on a little hike this morning with the Lancaster elders which was sweet.


s/o to all of you guys for being super raw keep being awesome and dont forget to always drive a vdub. The gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives!

LMS4TBH @eldermink

greetings erryone hello so hello so this week we have made extra effort to talk to the Amish. Last monday we went to an Amish produce roadside stand and started talking to this nice lady. Elder Mink brought out a dollar to buy a 75 cent whoopie pie and then she was like oh you can both have one. And then we talked about how were missionaries and she was like are you walking? And we said yeah and then she gave us homemade Amish Root beer and lemonade for free! So sick and we gave her a pass along car and she was such a nice Amish lady! Her name was Rachel. So we wanted to return the favor, so a few days later we made some horchata (bc me and elder mink both love horchata and have made it a couple times) and brought it to her as a thanks and we met her husband and talked to them for a while! Such great Amish people! Before we thought all Amish people were really reserved and didnt want to talk to us but as we put in more effort they have talked to us more and they are the nicest people! Were hoping to continue to develop a relationship with Rachel and her Husband Aaron. We also taught an ex-Amish guy the restoration this week! So sweet his names Giddeon and his wife was a potential investigator. They used to be Amish and bailed on it and now they are non-denominational Christian.


We went to the DC temple on Wednesday which was sweet and i was able to see Elder Garcia (Ryan) s/o to the Shepherd Ward Priest Quorem! But no picture because we saw each other inside the temple and couldnt take a pic. It was a great day and an awesome temple experience!


Mac continues to be super killer yesterday in fast and testimony meeting he went up and bore his testimony! So sweet cant wait for his baptism on saturday! He is so excited and the ward is welcoming him really well! I love that guy he is so great. Everything we teach him hes like "i already believe that" "ive been doing that my whole life" its so perfect like wow and he understands everything so well!


We had dinner with a part member family, the Parkers this week and Brother Parker who is not a member was there which is rare because he works a lot as a truck driver. Hes such a sweet guy tho me and him started talking and really hit it off we were talking about skating and cars and he was in fresno last week for work so thats cool so yeah hes a super sick dude! Me and Elder Mink really feel that there is something special we can do for that family.


Some little things that happened this week that made my day on tuesday:
1. I saw a black MK3 Jetta on Porsche Turbo Twist wheels! SO sick flippin dream jetta right there! Exactly how i want mine! I used to scour the internet for pics of mk3s on turbo twists but nobody had done it but this guy did!
2. we saw some people kickin it in a parking lot playing pokemon go so we talked to them about pokemon and this one kid had a skateboard and i was doing tre flips and kickflips on it and these fools were so hyped haha. they were like nah dude you cant skate in a tie & i was like nah fool lets skate and then gave them pass along cards


So much sweet stuff happening! I love this area and I love being a missionary!

Street Rangers update August 1st 2016 edition

Hey hey everyone some sick stuff going on out here!


So we picked up a new investigator named Kristy! We were walking down the street in Ephrata looking for a potential investigator's house and we started talking to kristy on her porch. At first she wasnt very friendly to us and told us she has never been religious but as we talked she started to warm up to us! It was really cool to see the spirit work on her and her warm up to us as we talked to her about the Book of Mormon, and then she invited us back! So we went back a couple days later and taught her and her daughter the restoration. She really was interested in coming to know if this really is the truth because there is so many churches out there. She invited us back to teach her again this week, so sick!


Mac is doing awesome! We taught him commandments this week including law of chastity and the word of wisdom. He was like "oh this is perfect because im already working on quitting smoking. i smoked my last cigarettes yesterday and im not buying more" he is so prepared for everything we teach him and then law of chastity hes like oh yeah i already believe that. Ive been living the law of chastity my whole life! And then he came to church yesterday and in gospel principles he said the closing prayer and it was so powerful! He loves the gospel! Can't wait for his baptism on August 13th!


This week we started doing service at a place called the Ephrata cloister. Its a really interesting historical sight of the original settlement of Ephrata. It was settled by a religious group who were all celibate...so they all died off. what a surprise haha. But we did some yard work for them and got to drive the "GATOR" flippen sweet 6 wheel golfcart to haul branches in. Were going to go there every friday now! They already really like us which is sweet!


So theres some highlights of this week! I also hit 6 months which is crazy how did that happen? I burned a tie while wearing it around my neck cause you know i only do it big yaimshayin


Have a sweet week everyone!


- Elder Poulsen