21 months.............

Dear Family,

  This week was SO hard. We were trying to get 10 people baptized! Two families! But one of the families ended up not being able to get permission from their father who is WAY hard-hearted. We did our best this week to confidently talk with him and to have faith, etc. To no avail..yet. So the mom and five daughters will have to wait. Unfortunately he won't even let them go to church anymore. Doesn't he realize he's STOPPING them from following Jesus Christ. I have a question. If you're fighting against Jesus Christ, who's side are you then on? Satan! Man! I hope this guy will get it! But we baptized the other family. Jorge and Lucia got married on Friday! They finally sealed the deal after 16 years living together. We also baptized the daughter, Georgina and the granddaughter, Angelica. They are such sweet little girls. When Georgina shakes my hand, it "electicutes" me. She loves it. And Angelica's hand "burns" mine. The photos are beautiful, but this computer lab is SO LAME and I'm stressing out!

  We also had a zone conference this week. It was my last time seeing President Jesperson and his wife. We took a photo together. He gave me a hug. I'll really miss having him. I can't believe I only have 3 months left. Tonight there are transfers. Who knows if I'll be changed. Half of me wants a NEW AREA as beautiful as Chile. The other half says I'd love to stay here and work even harder. The ward LOVES me. My converts all LOVE me. We'll see what happens.

  So Cassie is WAY chubby..like Max. And Max sends the most beautiful photos. Mexico is NOT beautiful where I am. Actually though, to marry Jorge and Lucia, we had to go to a pueblo called Tacicuaro, which was SO Mexico. It was exactly what I thought Mexico would be like. I have photos, but this dang computer lab...

  Summer seems really nice from so far away, but I'm enjoying my last times here. Today we're going to make pizza with an hermano who is a breadmaker. He's cool. By the way, Max, since when do you want to get in on the pie business? And don't think too much about life after the mission. It's just going to be the same. And when will you get to go to Chile again?! That's why I'm getting all these recipes though! Yesterday we ate chicharron. Not so good. I mean, it's full of flavor, but it doesn't please me too much.

  Very well family!

     I love you all!

 Love,

    Elder Mitch Poirier

Happy Day!

Family!

  I love you all so much! Happy Father's Day dad! You're the best! I loved seeing all the photos of the house getting painted and all the photos of the fun summer Cassie and Aleksi are having! This week was wonderful! Adad decided to get baptized! He picked me to baptize him. I felt bad because so did Patricia two weeks ago and Emma one week ago. But this week we may be baptizing MANY people, so Elder Turnip will for sure be dressed in white as well.

  I don't have much time today family, but there's SO much I wanted to say! First of all, Elder Turner and I have been having a few conflicts in our relationship. I've been trying really hard to get him to push himself and step out of his comfort zone so that quickly he can become an incredible missionary. I wanted him to learn everything I know NOW so that he doesn't take 21 months in learning for himself. But he was just getting really fed up. I was really doing it with love, but he NEVER opens up about what is on his mind, what I'm doing that bothers him, or what we should do to improve things. He just stays silent.  So I  decided that I'm no longer going to push him to do anything. I'm not going to help him become a better teacher or give him ANY advice that he doesn't ask for. And he said he'd motivate me more so that I don't get doubtful and stressed out. Really, I can't explain all the details for lack of time, but let me tell you that EVERYTHING has been great since. 

  That same day, as we were walking out of the house to go work, the cel lphone started to ring. It was PRESIDENT. I wish I could go into detail about what he told me, but to be fast, he told me that he woke up thinking about me and felt the Spirit telling him that he had to call me. He told me (I didn't say anything the whole phone call of course haha) that he could've made me assistant or a zone leader. I qualify. I'm worthy. But that it's not been the Lord's will. The Lord has me where he wants me. He began to cry telling me this.. And he told me that the Lord is REALLY pleased with me. I was crying too! ahah. What a surprise, huh? He actually was thinking about me! This week he comes to our zone. It'll be the last time I see him. In a couple weeks we'll have a new mission president. Whoa how time flies. This week I complete 21 months! How fast!

  Family, I love you! I hope that you all read your scriptures and work harder to love everyone! I love you all so much! Last night I dreamed of Bentley. ahaha I gave him a kiss on the head!

   Que el Senor les bendiga esta semana!

Elder Poirier

Errors and all...

Dear Family!

  This week I don't feel like writing because everytime I make a mistake, the backspace button doesn0t work right away. Soyou now what?= I'm going to leave the errors . Sorry. It's jsut wey esier. Oh my gosh. I'm not doing this ion purops.OH MY GOSH hahahah! really? NAyway, this week has been pretty fun! President came to visit us in our humble apartment. He interviewed us tand talked about FOCUS. (i just typed "focus" all wrong, but it looked too much like a foul word, so I took the time to correct it). He told us to kae (TAKE) 5 minutes 12 times a day to just meditate on ONE topic without letting the mind wander. IT IS SO HARD. Try it. Then onece we can do it, he told us to take 10 minutes 6 times a day. then 15 minutes 3 times a day. Once we can do that, we'll be way better at focusing and receiving revelation for our investigators. Elder Turner, who had been feeling SUCH a lack of desire (seriously, i was doing all the work, all the thinking..." What's on your mind?" "Nothing" "Really? How can you have NOTHING on your mind?" "I really don't.") now is all up and wroking angain. That's good. President told him that I'm a great missionary who know s how to do everthing and that he needs to become like me ASAP. Wow. That made me feel good. This week we had s

  This week we had success too! We baptized Emma!!!! She's so cool. After the baptism she came up to me and told me "thnak you for being that lucecito that (the little light) lead me to this" and had tears in her eyes. I didn't realize how much she really felt this was true and wanted to do it. I felt humbled. She's really tough too because ALL of her family rejected her now. Even her 3 daughters. Whoa. And I spoke in sacrament meeting. It's one of my favorite things to do, speak in church! Everyone here gives boring talks,s o i Get to spice things up. I talked about OBEDIENCE: and commpared it to a pie. In 1NEFI 20:10 it says in spanish that we're all pies in an oven of affliction. So if we want to turn out right, we've got to follow God's recipe. WE CANNOT DISOBEY. I compared three obstacles to making a great pie 1) mixing the ingredients mal (priorities all wrong. 6 days work 1 day God. Family > sports etc)  2) never putting the pie in the oven! (like not doing hometeaching, reading scriptures, family prayer.."YOU AREN'T PUTTING THE PIE IN THE OVEN")  3) leaving the pie in the oven too long (being in the world not of the world). I talked about how IF WE LOVE HIM, WE KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS. I told about how dad USED to be a firefighter and would come home with sad stroies of childern drowing or accidents caused by drinking and driving. The commandments are for our PROTECTION. STOP JSTIFYING SIN. It was great.

   The part that I want to tell you about was this: at the beginning I joked, "I'm really nervous and am shaking. Let's say it's because I only have.. one month in the mission." Everyone chuckled. haha. At the end, wehn I bore testimony, I told them, "The truth is that I almost have 21 months and soon will be going home. Wow" AND IT HIT ME. And I started to cry. I had to take a pause and collect myself. We had 11 people we'd brought to church (families are way more effective that just one person, Max. DO IT! :) ). I didn't want to embarrass myself. I ended fine, control. I sat down. And I just wanted to cry. I really really feel I've been serving with all my heart might, mind, and streght and I know that the Lord is very pleased with me. He loves me. I feel it strongly. But I'll never get to be a missionary again. And I just feel such a love for everyone here! Everyone kept complimenting meon the talk. They felt such inspiration to be obedient. I'd told them (in the talk) to take a few minutes and analyze what they could be doing better to be more obedient and to do it!

   Have I told you that I love going to church! I never recognized the peace and sweet spirit that I ALWAYS feel in church. Probably because I felt it at home too, but here I really recognize the spirit just being in the chrch. I have converts and investigators that tell me things like this "I want to get to church early so that I can ENJOY all of sacrament meeting" or "when church is over, I want it to be sunday AGAIN SO THAT I CAN COME BACK" WOW. That makes me want to cry. I think we all really underappreciate (not a word?) the spirit we have by being part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Others don't even know what it feels like!

   May you all take a few minutes to analyze what else you could cahnge to foolow Jesus Christ more fully. I love you all! I love you for loving me enough to have prepared me for and now support me in this mission. Thank you for loving me enough to say goodbye to me for two years. I can't explain the joy I feel knowing that I have served with my ALL and the gratitude that I feel that I still have another 3 months here to serve!

   Love,

  Elder Mitchell Poirier

Esta Semana En Mejico

Me Querida Familia!

   This week was excellent! Monday evening we found a family of SEVEN! There are five little girls between 8 and 15! Incredible! And all of them ended up in church on Sunday! We brought 15 investigators to church! And we BAPTIZED finally! Patricia got baptized! And the water was nice and warm in the font, which is funny because afterwords she told me she would've preferred cold water. Apparently even in winter she showers in cold water. That's actually pretty common here in Mexico. We went through the hassle of heating the water assuming that that's what anyone would prefer. Sunday night she and her son Adad (who is getting baptized this weekend!) made us enchiladas! Real mexican enchiladas! I'm going to get the recipe. So far there are three hermanas that owe me recipes. 1) The Hermana Vazquez made us Pozole de Trigo 2) The Hermana Araceli bought us Corundas and knows how to make tamales! 3) And the Hermana Zaragoza makes her OWN chocolate! And now I want the enchiladas recipe! WAY different than the ones we make at home! WAY different!

  On Tuesday we made salchipulpos and salchitacos with the Familia Valdez Villa. So delicious. But I actually stressed out. Really. I haven't stressed out in MONTHS now, but I was walking home that night when I realized, "I'm stressed out! That's why I'm feeling so unhappy!" And since then I've been trying to control it. I'm still training Elder Turner from England technically. He was part-trained in Washington and here we finished, but I figured out this week that we still have a lot of work to do. He kind of is giving me ALL the work to do, which is understandable in the first two weeks, but he's got five months in the mission and should be able to take the lead in planning, teaching, or finding. But no. So I'm working on patience and charity. Elder Willett is a great zone leader and is really helping me to stay positive and feel that I'm doing my best.

  I love to teach. I feel like every lesson can be so fun if you just turn on your charisma, which I've developed here. You've got to know how to get people to smile, open up, and feel the Spirit. I love being a missionary. Really, I had a dream this week that I went home and was SO bored. SO BORED. I was just walking around the house with nothing to do. So I need to count my blessings, and every day in MEXICO is a great blessing the Lord has given me. I'm starting to really feel that I love Mexico in a way muy diferente than a tourist would feel. It's not so much of a love for the culture, but a love for the experience and people and places that have shaped me into the person I am right now. I really am happy because I know that I'm doing my best. 

  The only thing that is worrying me is that I'm like 10 days behind in my journal. My OCD says, "You CANNOT just skip those days! GO BACK and write them!" And there's NO time.

 I love you family!

    Love,

 Elder Mitch Poirier

The Field is White

My Dear Family,

   So I'm glad mom and dad are enjoying a great Memorial Day weekend. That sounds like the great life-- reading, cleaning, eating, rain, boat, dogs, and church. How relaxing! And HOORAY for Cassie now entering summer and then soon beginning her SENIOR year. Whoa. And one month after she starts school, I GET HOME. Whoa. How quickly time has flown. But enough about time. We had a wonderful week this week! Really. It was so fun!  Elder Turnip and I are getting along great and doing a bunch of creative things. Plus we have really great investigators.

  1) Patricia is going to get baptized. She says she has just felt SUCH peace everyday and that she LOVES the Book of Mormon. All the hermanas in the ward are ready for her baptism this Saturday. Adad, her 21 year old son, is still a little unsure that he's ready for baptism. He says he believes this is all true, but he wants to really be sure about baptism. I just want to make sure if he does it, he does it for himself  and not for us or for his mom. Everytime we teach, he asks ME to say the closing prayer--even if he says it, he'll ask me to say another prayer right after. I guess he likes how I pray? There's one hermano named Ruben who is really prideful and serious. He wanted to come with us to a lesson with Patricia and Adad this week. He told them that he was going to bear his testimony, something that he never does because it's so powerful... Adad told us the next day, "Me cae gordo" or "I don't like him." Haha. Well this week Elder Turnip and I made molletes for some members and investigators in the church. Patricia and Adad came. The Hermano Ruben arrived after an hour for some reason, saw us, and asked me all offended, "Why didn't you invite me, Elder?" SORRY. It wasn't a ward activity! He stayed in the kitchen with us, but didn't eat or participate in the game we played (MAX, we played Mafia. Remember that from the Bahamas. Except we made the Mafia be the Gadianton Robbers and the citizens were Nephites. And the detective is the Chief Judge. It's a BLAST).

  2) Emma has been watching her granddaughter who has chicken pox all week in the other side of Morelia. So we hadn't been able to see her. But on Thursday we went all the way there to give a blessing to the 2 year old girl. She was scared of us because she thought we were doctors. Little kids don't like getting shots here. But she was totally calm during the blessing. It was beautiful. Afterwords she began playing and even talking, feeling a little better from the fever. Emma came to the activity we had with the molletes and to church on Sunday. We had 9 people in church on sunday!

  3) We have a bunch of other investigators as well, and a lot of them are progressing. It because we've been focusing on and praying to find FAMILIES. Full families. This week we found another 3 full families!! WHOA. So I look forward to sending you all a bunch of baptism photos. All this work is making me behind in my journal. I'm 12 days  behind. Ugh. OH. So this week some young men asked Elder Turnip, "Where are you from?" He said, "I'm from England." Then they asked, "Y como le gustan las mexicanas?" which means "And how do you like the mexican women?" He of course didn't get it and thought they had asked "Como le gusta mexico?" so he said, "Me gustan MUCHO." or "I really like them!" AHAHAHAHA everyone laughed and he didn't know why. I explained it to him and now he thinks it's SUPER funny too.

   I love it here in Itzicuaro. I feel like I'm having a lot more fun and really love the people. Everyday we try to find more people. The more we find, the more we're going to baptize. Plus if they're families, then they'll be a lot of baptisms as well. Our joy would be great with one, of course, but will be greater with many! I'm not here to plant seeds! MAX, cross that part out in Preach My Gospel about "No Effort is Wasted" in Chapter 9. That's for after the mission when you have to help yourself realize that you DID have a successful mission, but DURING the mission, you can't tell yourself that you're here to plant seeds! FIND AND DROP TO FIND MORE. The field is white family! BUT A TON OF THE FIELD IS NOT.

     Love,

Elder Mitchell Poirier!!

I love you all!

Mexico News

Dear Family,
   I'm glad to hear you're all doing well. I'm waiting patiently for Eva's opinion of this Nick. How fun that this is the LAST week of school for Cassie. She's going to be a senior. How did time fly so quickly?! As well, I'm glad that the weather is really nice in Florida. Yes, sunshine and then afternoon storms are really nice. Here in Itzicuaro it's not humid at all. It's getting close to rain season though. I hope those shoes get here quickly, mom. I hope that they kind of look like penny loafers, or it'll be like asking for pancakes and getting waffles. Same, but different. But I'll appreciate it nonetheless. Lilli wanted to know a little more about the pudding at the tree idea. Well here in Mexico they don't sell instant pudding mix, so I bought cake mix instead. We made the batter with Jorge, Lucia, and Georgina and then took it out to a tree, taking turns throwing spoonfuls. "This is one is for my brother who stole my girlfriend!" (Max....) or "This one is for my sister who doesn't write me!" (Don't worry, that one Elder Turnip said). I say Elder Turnip because of Jaz from Angus. ahah. I don't say it to him though. "Jaz, sometimes I think you're half girl, half turnip." Georgina especially loved it. "This is for my parents who don't take me to the carnival!" "This is for my teacher who didn't accept my homework" etc. The point was to help them see that all the times we've felt hurt or stressed, we can give it all to the Lord and He'll lift the burden from our shoulders. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light (Mateo 11). If we do His will, life is a lot easier.
  This week we found FOUR new families! That's great! And I'm super excited to tell you that Elder Willett is now my zone leader!!! We had changes last night, but we two are still here. Elder Willett!! WOOHOO! So I'll get to call him without it being against the rules!
  I've got to go! Our laundry is done and we're going to go to Centro today. I'll be on the lookout for those silver bracelets you want, mom. 
Love,
 Elder Poirier the first. 

ECT...

Hey Family!

  It was so good to see you this weekend on skype! SO motivating! I can't believe I only have about four months left! That's going to FLY by. I hope Max enjoyed the video I made! I told Nana that you had a girlfriend! She probably asked you about her. It's that first she asked ME. Um Nana, I'm a missionary! I can't have a girlfriend. She says she wants me to find a sweet mexican senorita. haha. I mostly loved seeing Bentley. Or how when I called out "McGraw!" He turned the other direction attently! Haha. typical.

  This week my companion and I got sick after eating at the ward Mother's Day activity. We both vomited. Gross. I HATE vomiting. I hope that was the LAST time I vomit on the mission! It went up my nose! GROSS. But I feel way better now.

  So my companion and I are teaching a few WONDERFUL people. There's Emma, who is in 1 Nefi 15 and loves church and everything she's learning. Yesterday we helped her realize that she doesn't have to know EVERYTHING before getting baptized. She's got to show her faith and do it because she feels God is answering her prayers. She says that if that's the case, she wants to get baptized! We're planning the baptism for May 26th. There's Patricia and her son Adad who is 21 and about to be a dadahaha. Ironic, right? His girlfriend is pregnant, but it's making him think really seriously about what he wants in his future, how he is going to make a happy family. Patricia has just been feeling such peace since we began coming. She's incredibly happy. The Spirit is so strong in their house every time we go. I love them a lot. They're going to give me recipes to include in my pie shop/diner. There's Jorge and Lucia and their daughter Georgina. They need to get married, but because of the bad experience of her last marriage, Lucia doesn't want to do it. They both have been coming to the church every Sunday for a month, they read, they pray. They love this. So we need to teach the Atonement and help her heal her wounds from the past, and set the future straight. Guess what! We're going to throw pudding at a tree with them! Remember how we did that, Cassie and Max? It's going to help her get over the past. It should be really fun. Little Georgina is 9. When she shakes my hand, I pretend it electrocutes me. She thinks it's great. Those are the best investigators we have!

  Elder Turner says "alright! put your willies on!" because it rained. Read that with an english accent and look up what "willies" means.

  Yesterday an hermana gave us chocolate. HOME. MADE. Chocolate. It was INCREDIBLY delicious. I asked her to write the recipe. I'm hoping that she'll actually follow through. I want to make chocolate at home! How cool!

   I love you family!

Love,

   Elder Poirier