Wonderful Week

Dear Family,

   I'm jealous of your tans. When we went to go buy toilet paper this AM they were showing the Olympics. It was the men's synchronized diving. They were really tan too. I miss my swimmer's body! And my swimmer's tan! You are not going to want to go anywhere with me when I get home! I'm happy that you all like Nick. From the vidoes Aleksi and Cassie sent me, I assume his voice is the one that has a HUGE Utah accent. He talks like all of my Utahan companions. Very well. I'll get to know him soon enough. And I will have to be the one to tell Max the truth! I remember when we were younger, mom told us that she'll be blatantly honest about who we're dating until we decide to marry them. I'll be the same.

  This week was wonderful. Merry Christmas in July! The celebration was a blast! My favorite Hermana made a ton of tamales. Two of my converts made a delicious cookie atole (which is a drink). We watched certain Christmas videos and did a tour of the church for the non-members. There were in total 169 people there (including children), but only our converts were the ones who brought non-members. Lame. Really. I'm grateful for our converts, but are the members that selfish and uncreative? One hermano played the guitar while a few of us missionaries sang "The First Noel." I messed up and started singing the second verse too early. SO embarrassing. jajaja! At the end of the activity I shared a brief message about how we can remember Christ and Christmas all year (the sacrament). Then I asked everyone to say "FELIZ NAVIDAD!" to me since it was my last Christmas in Mexico. Jorge (one of my converts) said the closing prayer. He prayed for me especifically. It was sweet jaja. So Christmas was wonderful here.

   Yesterday was the best day! Nivardo, a scientist husband of a less-active woman (who we've activated), is one of my favorite investigators. He's now ABOUT to get to 3 Nephi 11. Yesterday he FINALLY accepted to be baptized. Coincidentally, he found that in two weeks is his anniversary. So on August 11th he's going to get baptized. We're thrilled. The best part was that he wouldn't answer ME as I commited him to get baptized. He wanted Elder Turner to do it. But he made Elder Turner do it THREE times. Elder Turner is dry and nervous in his teaching and committing. So Nivardo took a moment to kind of grill him on how to convince people. He told Elder Turner that if he gets another companion who is the same as him, they're going to end up crying on the sidewalk. Jajaja harsh! So Elder Turner took heart and with a simple testimony, invited Nivardo to get baptized. The Spirit was really strong finally. That's when Nivardo pulled out the calender on his phone and said, "The 11th sounds like a good day." Wow. It was neat how he already wanted to do it, he just wanted to help Elder Turner learn something really important. Wow.

   I love you family!

Love,

  Elder Poirier (Mitch Poirier)

2 Months to go...

Dear Family,

  This week we spent almost EVERYDAY in the house while my companion slept. He got a stomach infection Tuesday morning that kept him down all week. When that started to get better, he got ulcers on his tongue, supposedly from the fever, and had a headache that was so huge he just had to sleep all week. So I was SO BORED. There's no TV, video games, Harry Potter, or  computer to keep me busy. Instead I ended up playing chess by myself.. Really. So not much to report.

  All I can say is that I love my converts. They are so anxious to share the gospel with their friends and family! I'm so grateful we baptized them before these rules changed because THEY are going to be the ones who help us keep baptizing. Honestly, I don't enjoy visiting less-actives. One of them is a returned-missionary sealed to his wife in the temple. The whole family is less-active. How sad! And there was vodka on the shelf by the TV, half empty! What?! It makes me so sad. I don't want to stray from the iron rod! I've committed myself to read the scriptures everyday for the rest of my life. It's what's going to keep me safe and sure. I recommend you do it too.

  I have nothing else to say. I'm sorry. I love you all!

 Love,

   Elder Mitch Poirier

Incredible!

Family!

  I don't have a lot of time to write today unfortunately. Plus I won't be able to send photos either. The family got baptized! It was incredible. This Thursday that we went to see them, Nora had been upstairs reading the Book of Mormon. Earlier that day she took her son Omar to the doctor. He's got a severe diabetes that NO child in all of Morelia has ever had, so the doctors haven't exactly known what to do. That day they told her that Omar's kidney was really bad. So she went home feeling so sad. She couldn't control her crying no matter what she did until she went into her room and began reading. That's when she said she felt a great peace come over her and the feeling that says "everything is going to be alright." They've had rough times, but she is filled with faith and hope. So much so that as she was telling this story to us that evening, I had the impression, "She's got the faith for you to give Omar a blessing." So we did. We gave him a blessing. The hermano that was with us said the prayer. He blessed him to be able to heal completely. They got baptized on Saturday while it was raining outside. The water was warm. The spirit was really strong in that service. The dad, we found out, is a member. We found his lost record, so the rest of the family got baptized. My companion and I walked home in the rain feeling such a peace and joy. I feel so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord. I trust that this family will be strong. Ever since Thursday, Omar has been feeling much better. I trust that soon all will be okay. God is a God of miracles still. I know that He lives. I love you family. I love you mom and dad for letting me lean on your testimony so many years until I decided to read the Book of Mormon for myself. I love Heavenly Father for the Plan that He created so that we can grow so much on this Earth and return to His presence so much greater. Read. Pray. I love you all!

  "This is a work of FAITH" President Jesperson (who I really miss). PS the new President is way strict. Oh and by the way, David A. Bednar chose our mission and 4 others in Mexico to begin a pilot program. We are NO LONGER allowed to knock doors, contact people, or do anything of the sort. If we want to find, we have to depend on the members to talk to friends and family. They have to set up the appointments to teach in their house. We are just teachers from now on. Cool. But we found NOBODY this week. haha. I'm STILL in Itzicuaro. Changes are the 13th or so of August. This is my longest area now. Five transfers in total. But since August will be the beginning of my LAST transfer, who knows if they'll change me. I hope not. Everyone loves me here. And we have 13 converts since August who still remain active and faithful! WOW.

   Love,

Elder Mitch Poirier

Christmas in July

 Not much to report here in Mexico. We plan on baptizing a family of five this Saturday! I'm pretty excited about that. I don't know what else to say. This week I get to meet the new mission president. I don't know how I feel about that. It's weird. I only have 11 weeks left on the mission. I'm interested in what he'll teach us. Starting in August we're going to be promoting Mormon.org here in Mexico because it's FINALLY going to be translated into spanish!! All the cool videos and the blogs, etc. We're going to be required to go online everyday for one hour to look up things that will be helpful for our investigators. That'll be pretty cool.

  As for college. Um. I don't want to go to BYU I've pretty much decided. I think just visiting Utah every once in a while will be enough. But I do want to go to UF in January. I think October, November, and December is enough for you all to get used to having me back haha and then you won't miss me so much when I'm in college. I   feel like I'm needed there in that branch kind of. I also feel like that would be best for my future. 

  I love you!

Love,

  Elder Poirier

Happy 4th of JULY

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My beloved brothers and sisters,

  (That's how President Monson always starts) I first want to wish Max a very happy birthday this week! I'll be sending you a letter and postcard today! It's so weird to turn twenty! As for the USA, happy birthday as well! I love to celebrate the 4th of July. I feel a longing desire to be in the Keys with you all this week. But I'm in MEXICO! And that's still really amazing to me! Everyone at home and abroad seems really happy, especially Bentley! I love you all so much. These next three months are going to fly by, but I'm not letting myself think past my mission. Not yet. That plane ride home will be for thinking about the future. Let me tell you though, it's hard not to think about it. Even reading the Liahonas (Ensign) makes me think of whether I should live in Utah or stay in Florida. But I won't make a decision yet.

  Anyway, this week we didn't baptize. It felt a little bad after four weeks in a row. We still have a handful of great investigators though. There's Nivardo, who only is home from work on Sundays because he works in a city that's four hours away or more. He's in Alma 58. He's a scientist (like me) and was saying that he wants me to look up exactly which prophet said that "hot drinks" referred to tea and coffee in DyC 89. He wants to see the evidence, etc. He says it's the scientist in him. So I decided to pull out the scientist in me and proposed an EXPERIMENT. He LOVES coffee, but my hypothesis was that if he gave it up completely for one month, then he'd 1) find other things that are still delicious 2) have more energy in the day and 3) feel the promptings of the Spirit guide him more in work and in his home (He has a wonderful family of members). Well, I got him! He couldn't get out of that one. So for two weeks he hasn't drank coffee. He says that he feels tired, but that he's not so nervous in work. He feels more calm and less stressed. Two more weeks and he'll be convinced. I have faith.

  There's the Familia Martinez, the two parents and FIVE sons (but only three sons are of baptism age). The dad said he was baptized in the US 14 years ago, but we found out that the Church actually has no record of him. SO he has to get rebaptized. The sons went to what would be considered youth conference. They loved it. The 12 year old boy is already in 2 Nefi 8! That's incredible. He was telling us that the destruction of Jerusalem is a lot like what is happening in his life because... etc. It was WAY incredible. Smart kids here in Mexico!

  We have Hector, the father of Patricia. He's 69 and talks A TON, like all old people. But he says he's been thinking a lot about all the things that we've been teaching, and that he just feels happier.

  We have a few others, but we're just going to keep working with faith. President Jesperson now went home! So sad! I don't really feel the desire to meet the new President, is that wrong? By the way, I'm STILL here in Itzicuaro, making this my new LONGEST area! But the ward LOVES me and doesn't want me to go yet. They want to have a going away party for me when I go home. We'll see. Six more weeks in Itzicuaro and then are my last changes. We're planning as a ward and missionaries to have Christmas in July. It's going to be a big dinner, Christmas play (the Christmas Orange), and a tour of the church for all the visitors, etc. We're looking forward to it. My companion and I were just SO bored of the way we were working. We had to change something. This will be exciting. My second Christmas in Mexico kind of!

   I love you family!

Love,

   Elder Mitch Poirier