Welcome Back to 100 Different Types of Monkeys

Hi


today is monday


it is 1:58 pm. Actually after rereading this email it is now 2:17pm.


I am wearing shoes.


All of our appointments fell through this week but we worked our butts off trying to find new people to teach. Got yelled at, got smiled at, and pet a couple cute kitties. Went to this one house to try this former investigator named "Tata" I was not about to ask for tata, that wasnt gonna happen. The lady that lived there was not tata so thank goodness I didnt ask for tata. Her name was Debbie and we got another appointment so that was cool. She had a nice kitty.


We are trying to share a message with people that will literally CHANGE THEIR LIVES but they usually don't care. Feel like a worked my butt of for no results this week. That's alright though


This is a wall and a door

This is Elder Elkins on our exchange this week

This is me with a toilet

This is me when I found an Independent trucks authorized dealer in front royal!!! Whaaat? Tiny little "skate shop" in the back of an antique store hahahah. VA rippers holding it down...kind of

SPOTTED IN VIRGINIA BEAUTIFUL SILVER FD MAZDA RX7. SOmething other than a rusted f150 thank goodness

this is Elder Schick walking through an alley

this is Front Royal. Please enjoy all details of this photo

"Virginia is for lovers" - Virginia license plate...


" "- Alma 29:5-6

With love from my bananas to your oatmeal
- Elder Poulsen

Broken Things of Front Royal

Dear Spike,



Hello frends. Sorry I didn't write yesterday, or the day before. Sometimes libraries close & then you get real busy doing wissionary merk. Today I am writing an email, this is that email.


Elder Schick and I hit it hard this week! We did a lot of street contacting and tracting and came up on 2 new investigators. The first one's name is Anthony, we met him on the street on Friday night and had our first lesson with him the next day and probably another one later this week. Only problem is im 99% sure he was high when we taught him. Hi investigator, high investigator. The other one was a member referral from the ultimate ward missionary, Brother Selino. He called us the other night and was like"Hey elders I met this guy at the gas station today and he wants to come to church and he wants me to bring you guys over." So he did! We showed up and met Charles, a really nice guy who told us he needs Jesus. Teaching him again on Saturday. He has lived in front royal his whole life.


The snow ran away this week, thank goodness.


In other news, we saw a guy get hit by a truck the other day, like pretty bad. We pulled up to see if he was ok and when we got closer, he sprung up after laying motionless since the impact, and ran off after the car that hit him...20 minutes later tha truck rolled up with the guy it hit in the passanger seat...super bunk. Welcome to front royal.


Please enjoy this week's 4 -part photo series, "Broken Things of Front Royal"

here is "downtown front royal" hahahahhaha

here is elder schick mobbin

here is the only pic of me this week

unless you want this junky screenshot of me doin a little thing in the little pool

much love and good tidings, enjoy your january and your banana pudding


- Elder Poulsen

We Have it Made in Virginia

Hello creatures and swamp critters of the north and south and everywhere in between


On Wednesday I was picked up in a Dodge Ram and driven to Virginia. I'm still in Virginia. It's freezing cold and I'm pretty sure my toes have been frostbitten. Some people in Virginia haven't been trained on how to talk properly. This town has a target, a taco bell, a surprisingly good skatepark, and not much else. Front Royal is in the Shenandoah Valley and has some nice scenery and the closest things to mountains I've seen on the East coast.


We have some great members here in the Front Royal ward that are really willing to help us out and do missionary work. One of our ward missionaries, Brother Selino, is pretty much as close as you can get to being a full-time missionary without being one. He calls us up and is like "Elders! Come talk to my neighbor!" Or "Elders! I'm going to come pick you up to visit people that I think might be interested." And then he feeds us pineapple and hot chocolate. We've already received a couple referrals this week from members and have talked to their friends, so hopefully we can start teaching them soon. We're also working hard to find people on our own. We're out in the cold talking to people we see and visiting former investigators. Got a couple loosely set up appointments for this week.


here's pix

1&2. hidden in the Shenandoah valley, around the corner from our apartment is the greatest contribution the state of Virginia has given to Front Royal. This beautiful skatepark.

3. here is my killer companion, Elder Schick from Chandler, AZ. Him and I don't really deal with the cold well, so we get along well. Also once again ignore my hair. It hasn't been the same ever since i tried cutting it myself like 4 months ago

4. E Schick mobbin the streetz of front royal

5. a couple months ago when i was in maryland i bought this virginia pin and put it on my hat. It was funny to wear it in maryland, and now its reality. We Have It Made In Virginia

Slappy New Year

Hello rangers of the deep sea. Transfers are this week and we got a surprising phone call on Sunday night. Elder Meyer and I are both being transferred out of the CYSA, or shotgunned or whitewashed or whatever term you wanna use. I'm being transferred to the middle of nowhere to the Front Royal ward in Virginia and will be the district leader there. My new companion, Elder Schick, just finished being trained by my good friend Elder Garcia so he's pretty fresh out. I was only in the Columbia YSA for 2 transfers and I really thought I was going to stay one more. I'm pretty upset to leave so soon but I guess the Lord needs me somewhere else.

In other news I found out this week that Dylan Reider died in October but I didn't find out until this week, missionary life. RIP Dylan, one of the hardest shredding skateboarders of the past 10 years.

So yeah starting Wednesday the 4th I'll be in Virginia. My new address is
512 W. Main St. Apt. C
Front Royal, VA 22630



Sorry this one's a downer, hopefully I can develop a better attitude this week



slappy new year, spend some time on red curbs for me

- Elder Poulsen

1. Rylan King, the ultimate YSA

2. Last district meeting here, goodbyes

3. Goodbye Columbia

bunk hair all the time ignore it

What's up big Christmas

Hello space cadets and rangers of the deep sea, I hope you all had a killer Christmas and got the red pontiac aztec you were wishing for.

This was quite the week, on tuesday we were asked to go to Gaithersburg to pick up new mission cars. So 6 missionaries, went out of the mission to pick up cars and drive them back individually by themselves. So i drove out of the mission by myself with no companion and no tiwi (for those that know tiwi the biggest bully ever). Super weird but we were asked to do it. I might have forgotten what the speed limit was due to my excitement of having no tiwi to govern my speed. Also that same day I went on an exchange with Elder Funk who is a brand new missionary. We biked around his area in the freezing cold and got a return appointment with someone by tracting. Elder Funk is a creature. He is super funky, such a riot to be around hahahha

Karina is doing super well, she soaked up the Plan of Salvation this past week and is hungry for more! She wants to come to church so hopefully we can make that happen this Sunday.

Friday we had our mission Christmas conference which was super fun and i got to see some homiez.



Christmas was super tight we spent a lot of the day with the Larkins, a family in the Clarksville branch. They fed us breakfast and we played ping pong and all sorts of stuff. shoutout to my family for being super sick and having a good skype sesh.



keep on lurkin keep on wurkin and always remember to read yur scriptures!


here are some pics you can print out on mugs and save them for your grandchildren. Probably not though because my hair looks like a garbage can

"the whole crew's here, the haters cant keep up. Now they are in fear, they're gonna get messed up" - Lost Cause me, e mink, e ressler, & e meyer

Elder Garcia shoutout to my boiz from the shepherd ward priest quorum

Street Rangers reunion

Skype city

cruissssssin into 2017

Christmas in July. Actually it's December. Christmas really is in December.

What's up space cadets, thanks for tuning in to another week of alligators on skateboards

The long night is o'er! We have found an investigator! Yes you heard me! After two months of nothing we have an investigator! Her name is Karina, we met her last week at our stand at the community college and we had our first lesson with her this week which went super well (aside from one thing I'll describe in a second)! She understood the message of the restoration and the need of a prophet. She doesn't have a whole lot of religious background, so she just soaked up everything we taught her! We are seeing her again this week.

So before I explain the one thing that didn't go so well about the lesson, I'm going to put this in to context. So we met with Karina on campus at HCC, so there was other people around. So about 5 minutes in to the lesson some punk who I'm pretty sure is part of the school staff, walked up to us and was like, "did you tell her that you believe in a different Jesus than in the Bible?" and started saying some other completely false stuff and I kinda lost it. We've spent two months working to get an investigator and I was NOT about to let this fool mess it up! Basically long story short i kinda lost my temper and told this guy that he was absolutely false and that we weren't going to let him tear down our faith and then I demanded that he leave, and he did. So aside from that it went really well, and thankfully Karina was really understanding of what happened despite my lack of self control and understood that we aren't lying to her.

In other news, we went on exchanges with our zone leaders and me and Elder Hawley were kickin it in my area. We went street contacting at a lake in the frigid cold and had a good time. We spent like two days this week volunteering at a food bank which was such a pleasure. It was so nice to help the people in need this holiday season. Also it snowed the other day, and then rained. Gross.



Friends and baby alligators, and adult foxes. Do not forget to do the elf boogie this holday season. And stay away from eating paper bags. Paper is not meant to be consumed. Also make sure to focus on Jesus Christ this week and why it is so important that he came to earth!

snow I look like a penguin not sure why

exchange

snow

my companion is a freak

The Best of Elder Poulsen and Elder Meyer Volume 0

Last week I complained that it was a boring week, this week I got what I asked for! This week we:

1. got in a car accident
2. got kicked out of our apartment
3. lost our phone

Now I must inform you these are not quite all as bad as they sound. We got rear ended by some lady and we were all fine (though we did get thrown into the middle of an intersection during a red light but thankfully nobody was coming and we didn't get hit again). The mission office called us (5 minutes after we found our phone) and told us we need to be out of our apartment so that a senior couple can move in to it, so we had to move apartments with a day notice, my new address is
5455 Columbia Rd #213
Columbia, MD 21044
Lastly, we lost our phone over night and found it the next day 11 miles away in the grass on the side of someone's house, all I can say is the spirit guides us in times of need.

So yeah our life kinda got turned upside down this week but not really, in other news, the greatest thing that happened this week is we finally got to set up a stand at Howard Community College (HCC)! HCC is the number 4 ranked community college in the country and has a lot of people. We have been trying to arrange this ever since I got here and finally got to do it. We worked with the branch missionaries and set up a stand complete with hot cider, donuts, and tons of materials! We mainly focused our efforts on the church's Christmas initiative #LightTheWorld. We gave out hundreds of pass along cards and talked to tons of people and got one return appointment! Which might not seem like much but is pretty exciting for us right now. One of the branch missionaries put a video of our stand up on the stake Facebook page and it got like 1000 views so were making good things happen!

Oh also, when we got rear ended it was on our way to set up our stand, so we were late to this thing we've been planning for months. supr cool

in other news we went on exchanges on tuesday and I went to Savage Mill with elder Wilson and walked around in the pouring rain for a few hours, it was good fun.


here are some pictures you can hang on your Christmas tree

Here's our stand

exchange

chopped car

best fortune I've ever gotten

super cool pic of me in our new crib new address 5455 Columbia Rd #213
Columbia, MD 21044 i repeat