OCTOBER 5, 2015

This week flew by. 

monday night we left from TBO at 145 in the morning for montevideo and then we had concilio. in Concilio we talked alot about what we have learned adn how we can grow from eachother. something that i really liked is we talked about the plan of salvation and the premortal life. it helped me understand the big picture on the entire plan of salvation. and also that there was only one plan which was Gods. Satan di not have a plan nor did he understand Gods plan. because if someone understands the doctrine they never miss a sunday taking the sacrament. so if he understood the plan he would of wanted to come down to earth to obtain a body and receive all that God has for him. it is interesting to think about that thought with patciene. he wanted it now and could not wait. 

also there was a though, that satan was intelegent. . . . He is not. intelegence is light. he was pure darkness. he is very cunning. but intelegent he is not.

it made me think during conference, everytime that light was mentioned I related it to our brightness of our intelegence. it is a different way of thinking about it. we have to let our brightness shine.

light your light so shine

and then the leaders from Tacuerambò had the privalage to go to the temple afterwards. and to think about all the things we had learned from the plan of salvation and also all of the studies that i have had personally and with my companion and then to go to the temple. alot more things s¡made sence to me. but still alot to learn

and so we got back home after the buss at 5 in the morning and went straight to work the next day. then thurseday i did divisions with elder whitacare. he is a new missionary from north carolina. he reminds me of me when i started. it was kinda of fun to look back and to see the change that has taken place in my mission.

so on the 1st of october pte smith called me up and asked what i had planned for my birthday. i told him nothing. he said it just so happens that i am going to be there in tacuarembò tonight and i want to take you out to eat and then i want to take you with me to artigas. would you like to go back to the area where you were born? 

so we eat dinner at the hotel with him and we started at 10 and so i got home around 1130.

the next morning we left at 8 for artigas and then we went on divisions all day. i went with elder baggat and it was very fun because he teaches just like elder woodcock and i did so there was no problem to teach together. we taught a lesson to the hermana fulco. we got her going back to church after 8 years when i was there. she used to be the releif society president. it was sad to see she hadnt gone since. nor had he family. i felt and told her that the lord has sent me here today to teach you these things that i now know to help you reach salvation. i told her the lord called me 2 years ago but i could not speak and did not know the doctrine. however He alowed me to come today and teach it to you. . . and so we taught. she comited to return as she felt the spirit so strong. it was funny when she opened the door and saw it was me i feel the spirit touched her knowing that what i just wrote was true.

it was also awesmoe to she various families active in the church that werent so much when i had left. when we went in there house and noticed that they were on fire we figured nope we arent going to waiste our time. lets continue working. we turned down 4 lessions and then had 5 more through out the day.

so when we got home from artigas it was already 2 in the morning so we took a taxi from the hotel and hurried home.

we then had a zone capacitation and then conference all of saturday and all of sunday. i really enjoyed it and learned alot from it. 

i Really like the pnderizing i am going to make that a goal and i will send home my scripture every week.

1. Familia Fulco

2. Familia Bueno.( stake president in Artigas)

3. our church building got hit by a lightning bolt.

--

Elder Pulsipher

¡HOY ES EL DÌA!

September 28, 2015

this last week we had changes and my comp went home. i am really going to miss him. i think with him i progressed the most. we both learned more in the last two changes then we had our entire mission. we worked super hard and had a blast. we were complete opposites but we had the perfect ballence to ballence eachother out. but we both pushed each other in all things especially work outs because we hated to lose.

but i sent him off at 2 in the morning and then had to stay at the terminal and send another off at 4 and then at 6 and 7 and then 10 and then 1 and 3 and 5 and 6. and then had to come back at 11 at night. bottom line i slept 30 minutes and spent 15 hours at the terminal doing changes.

but i think i have recovered on sleep finally. 

this week i was studying into the atonement of christ. it was interesting to study in 3rd nephi 8 and to see all the destruction. and we know that that is when jesus died. but the interesting thing is the verses before the destrucion it calls him jesus. and then afterwards he says I AM JESUS CHRIST. i made me think why. he had to suffer and attone for us in order to be worthy to be called the christ. the savior of the world. he still had the agency to deny his calling. but his attonment changed him.

i truley feel to be called christan or to take his name upon us, we too have to allow the attonment of christ to mold us and to change us. we have to permit a change. and if we let it change us we will be able to return and live with him again.

i hope that everyone of us can humble ourself before the lord and allow the attonment of christ to change us.

my companion now is elder quintanilla. he is a little energy ball. its a huge difference from my last comp. 

 

this week we have alot of capacitaion. tommorow mission council and then temple and then friday zone capacitaion and then conference saturday and sunday but i am excited for it. 

keep working hard everyone. i love you all.

--

Elder Pulsipher

¡HOY ES EL DÌA!

September 14, 2015

this week we had interveiws with preident and they were super interesting. we started talking about the preisthood. we pulled apart the hymn elders of isreal and d and c 20 and 42. we did all of this and then president showed he talked about the resterationa dn how to teach it in 3 minutes with bold powerfull statement. he talked about the best leaders leave room for others to fill it. the best teachers leave room for the spirit to testify. it is super true how that changes how i thought about teaching everything else. we have to shorten our sentences. less is more. powerful statements that are open ended. 

that sounds like the team is really obidient to the honner code this year. 

we had interveiws with president and he started of my interveiw with hey elder pulsipher you wont beleive what happened of saturday. byu won on a hail marry pass. when i take you out to dinner tonight i will show you the highlights.

but then we got talking about the team and relating it to the gospel. for example in helaman 4 i think it says how they couldnt beat the lamenites because they were bigger faster and stronger and they had lost the spirit.

when i was at byu in a team meeting coach mendenhal walked in and said guys you know why we are not having success. it is because you  are not keeping the honner code as a whole. get your act together. the lord will not bless us unless we change.

and it is very true. byu isnt the biggest, strongest fastest. but the have the spirit of the lord. and they win. coach mendenhal is a true beleiver of that.

i was joking with president how my dad in his mission was able to watch the byu games. yeah he didnt budge on that one. but that was after he told me he was going to show me the highlights. it was funny because at the end they did the fight song. and he told me he had woken his kids up to the fight song when they were growing up

then we went out and worked with president after the interveiws and we went to luciana and she when we walked in she told us that they had pulled out a date to get married. we were super happy and then she picked out  here own  date for the mission. 

we then taught her and him about the law of chasity.and it is super interesting in the lession. i was inspired to share something about adams sealing. how the sealling is done on a altar of sacrafice. and that is true and they have to make sacrafices even know before they get married. and the sacrafice now is that they wont have sexual relations until they are married. 

and that they wont sleep in the same bed or even room. and fedrico(the spouse) will take his mattress and sleep on the ground in the other room.

it is interesting what someone will do when they know it is true.

--

Elder Pulsipher

¡HOY ES EL DÌA!

Sept 7, 2015

that sounds like the football game was nutts. and that adam and matt could both play.


this week we worked alot with members and we have been working alot harder to teach in a even humbler way. to leave the peopl even more to figure the things out.
on divisions this last week i went to the ward that shares a church with my last ward. and we stopped by to visit the elders quorme president like President asked, because they dont have any missionaries right now. and we are supposed to check up on them every once in a while.
crazy thing is that we went there and we found a son of someone in our ward in la matutina(were we are at right now) and he is not a member. we have always wanted to teach him but we never could. and i feel it is a pride issue. he is 26 years old married and with one kid. goes to his own church, so why would he ever want to have the missionaries infront of his parrents. i understand that. but he was at his uncles house and his cousin is the doctor that just got back from cuba(she was studying there and just got home. i wrote about her 2 or 3 weeks ago) anyways he was super open to listening to us at that time. i felt he was a dry member. he just has to go for a swim and he is a member. he had read the book of mormon before and he knew his way around it. he also was participating just as much as the family.
i was with elder macias. he was my last comp right before my current one. and we taught the lession in 3 nefi 17 about compasion. and he loved it. we left. and then his ``friend`` slash cousin continued talking to him for the next three hours. it just goes to show if  afriend talks to you about the gospel you will listen. but if it is some one of authority, you wont. we all need to be that friend inorder to find those people that we are looking for.


and i thought what is our weekness. it doesnt say our weeknesses. but our weekness. singular. i thought. the natural man. and then i thought right here it talks about if we are humble we over come our weekness. and then i made me think oppisite of humble. pridefull. and there it is the natural man equals pride. then it made me think in either 12 27 it says if we are humble we get the grace of God. where else do we here about the grace of God in the book of mormon. or how we can receive it.... 2 nefi 25 23 by grace we are saved after all we can do. what is all we can do. what is the sacrafice we are told to give. a broken heart and a contrite spirit. we are save after we drop our weakness, whick is our natural man, or natural women, and that is our pride. we drop that. we fast we pray and we become humble. and becomeing humble having a broken heart and contrite spirit is litterally all we can do. and then and only then will the Lord help us with his grace.
i was studing in church on sunday and i read either 12 v.27
and i thought what is our weekness. it doesnt say our weeknesses. but our weekness. singular. i thought. the natural man. and then i thought right here it talks about if we are humble we over come our weekness. and then i made me think oppisite of humble. pridefull. and there it is the natural man equals pride. then it made me think in either 12 27 it says if we are humble we get the grace of God. where else do we here about the grace of God in the book of mormon. or how we can receive it.... 2 nefi 25 23 by grace we are saved after all we can do. what is all we can do. what is the sacrafice we are told to give. a broken heart and a contrite spirit. we are save after we drop our weakness, whick is our natural man, or natural women, and that is our pride. we drop that. we fast we pray and we become humble. and becomeing humble having a broken heart and contrite spirit is litterally all we can do. and then and only then will the Lord help us with his grace.
this week we finally have interveiws. and they got changed again. they are now tommorow. pte called this morning and changed them again.

today we had a zone activity and we had an asado
TACOS
its game days
--
Elder Pulsipher

¡HOY ES EL DÌA!

August 31, 2015

this week we found alot of people that are part member families. they also have desires to return to the church. the only hicup is that in the area that we are in right now, no one gets married. so we are workig super hard for the people to say ok we have to get married. and not us the missionaries demanding that they get married. so we are just guiding them and helping them come to the conclusion that they have to do it in order to progress. 

with 2 of them they have come to that conclusion already. 

one of which is luciana. we have given the comitment to her to pray and fast and get a day for her baptism. they arent married and she said we need to get married first. and we asked her to pray and fast for a date. and if the Lord tells you a date everything will fall in place. because here
it can take a while sometimes to get married. but sometimes it will come within a day or two. so we are helping them look for the will of God. and then they will follow it. and they will strive to acheive there goal that God gave them.

we are trying to help the people receive more of there own revelation and we feel that it is working well to help the people Acheive the salvation. and to also help other people along the way.

we also had stake conference this last sunday. we had a good turn out and it was a video brodcast from salt lake. elder Cook Spoke and elder Hales and sister Marriot and richard g maines all spoke. we also heard from our stake president and also from Elder Gonzalez. the president of south america sur. it is super interesting with technology now. becuase the speakers spoke from 3 different pulpets in three different churches. it is amazing how much the church is growing and progressing with the technology. and the even crazzier thing is that each person talked on the same exact thing. and none of it was planned. our stake president and the area president didnt even know who was going to be speakig.

but everyone spoke on missionary work and also on the sabbith day. they hit that very hard. it was also a spiritual testament to her elder cook talk about what i had studied in 3 nefi 17 he spoke on that chapter. it was a cool experience to know my understanding of it came from above, and the lord wants everyone to understand the things that are found within this chapter

last week pte canceled the interveiws and changed them to the 10th of september. he had to stay in montevideo and couldnt make it out.

1. training table

       me and my comps workout food

2. out of our front pourch

--

Elder Pulsipher

¡HOY ES EL DÌA!

August 24, 2015

concilio was great we dug down and looked at why we werent having success. and the key thing was the following bad belifs that the mission has.

1. we have a key indicator. new investagators with member ( we only count new investagators if members are with us)

                   the bad belief or culture is that we dont find unless we have a member with us. and we dont contact either. 

  it was funny i was sitting and people were skirting that reason. they would give any other reason or excuse. and then after about  5 minutes of them trying to explain why the numbers were so low. i said the beleif the mission has made. and president was kinda releived someone said it. he said thank you and for that we are taking away this key indicator. we will no longer have news with members. he said it was his favorite but it was hurting in final.

and then as it continue. we hit another. and i think i learned this from dad. i am not afraid to touch the topics people dont like to touch. you might as just take the bull by the horns.

next one is that the missionaries are not living there purposes baptizing. they are more focused on less active and not worring about baptism. but what is our purpose as missionaries. D and C 42. to Baptize. and once again. president was thankful some one would say that. we have changed our foucus with all the things we are doing in the mission. we are now focussing on our true responsibility. even i have to change.

the entire mission as a whole. even president fell off track. we were so focused in on the memebers. and yes we helped them alot but i feel that this change will help out uruguay.

somehting i was studying was in 3 nefi 17. it is super interesting. i love it. it is interesting how many times christ says i have to go. but yet he continues to help them. i love this do you have any sick people. bring them i will heal them. and it goes to say those that are already healed and those that got healed rejoiced. and it could be of any afliction. with the aflictions we bring to christ. he will heal. those that we dont. or we dont confess will not be healed. and then he brought the children to him. and it was very powerfull what he did with them and then he said i have to go. and then he continued. and then with the most powerfull thing i feal that he could of ever done. he new they were sinners. he knew they werent perfect so he established a way to  make more coventents with him and to repeant. he established the sacrament. and he gave it to them to learn and to testify to the father. or the judge. that they remember christ. and they are willing to follow him. and he did this all out of compassion. but what does compassion mean. to suffer with someone. to understand some one to have missery for one another. it made me thing. and i want you all to think, do you have compasion. do i have it. even though my time is short. even though i will have to run instead of walk. even though i will miss the first part of my favorite tv show or miss the first part of the football game. am i doing everything i can to be like christ and to do more. am i giving up my personal desires to do those of christ. am i helping those in need. am i holding the door open for others. am i serving those in need. am i sharing t he gospel. 

thats awesome that i am as a missionary. but am i as a member of the church when i get home. am i really following the example of christ. 

home teaching

calling

talks

church meetings.

service.

     how do i serve. do i do as much as i am physically capable.

what do i do if i have free time.

     what would christ do.

i have truely learned what compassion is this week in the scriptures. and i have been able to aply it in my life.

and then in 3 nefi 18 at the end of the chapter it says i have to go. its for your own benifit. and i made me think why. its so they could grow and show faith in what they have learned. i feel like i could give a 5 hour capasitation in just using the 2 chapters. 17 and 18. there is so much in there.

also i am helping my comp with his aplication to byu. he is a convert and lives in arkansas. his parents arent members and hes working on them. and hes asking them if he can go to byu right now. so we will see how this goes

--

Elder Pulsipher

¡HOY ES EL DÌA!

August 17, 2015

this week in the new area we went around getting to know everyone. the ward has alot of potential. and we are super happy. they just need a little push. the leaders in the ward want to work. we talked with the stake president because he belongs to that ward and he went there just to be with us. he is an awsome guy. we talked with him and we both came to the conclusion that we are going to start over. we are happy about it though. the area book is basically empty or really old. i think we will just start 100 percent over. we have a ward list and we have been contacting like crazy. we are working really hard. we are teaching everyone here the doctrine of christ. there is a ton of part member families. we were looking and the word is bad but the idea is right. easy pickings., or a better phrase the fruit is ripe. there are alot that are really close to baptism. so i hope with dilligence and obidience we will be able to harvest this area. 

we have concilio tommorrow so that will be interesting on what we will learn and apply for the zone.

and saturday night i got a call from hermana smith at like 1015 she said that she was talking with chelse. they went to the scrimage and said that  pulsipher was all over the place. she said when did elder pulsipher get home. because she came out here for thanksgiving last year and we had a fireside with them. luckly i was in montevideo and was able to go. and she thought i was adam. so she call hermana smith and said that ëlder Pulsipher¨was all tearing it up. she was able to tell her nope thats his brother. Elder Pulsipher Goes home in December. but she called me just to tell me that. and that adam was doing really good at  the scrimage. i completly forgot that fall camp had already started. it was funny though she called and said.¨i just wanted to call you and tell you that, i even got permision from The Preident¨ and then he talked to me about the zone and how everything was going...... Got to love Hermana Smith.

this week for yoga i was doing sitting hamstring stretch and i put 6 Book of mormons on my feet and then rapped my hands around that and was touching fingertip to fingertip. so i am happy about that. and we are on bikes here so my legs are getting bigger. i am going to start focussing in now on power things. 

but this week we had success with leading and guiding members to know the truth. we are helping people understand for them selfs. asking them what they need to do better. and they through it on the table. it works like magic. i feel like this will  be a very good change. i am killing my comp this change. he is happy that we can have a blast and work our butts off this last change. 

i hope all is going well at home and with school stating back up. 

we had someone from our ward that came home from cuba. she was studdying there and finished up she is now a general surgeon. it is a huge deal here. the entire city of tacuerembo is happy for her and that now there is one more doctor that will help all of the nothern half of uruguay.

-- 

Elder Pulsipher

¡HOY ES EL DÌA!