1 March 2026
VOLUME 14 – NUMBER 639
Gloria her training, Sister Allen
Gloria
So many new changes have happened last week. I just want to start off by saying I had the best district at the CCM. It was so hard saying goodbye to them. They were like a small family to me.
On Wednesday morning, at around 1:00am, my companion and I got up, and at 2:30am, the bus came to take us to the airport. The roads were empty, so we didn't have to worry about the traffic. Our flight left at around 6:30am.
Once we landed, we met the mission president and his wife—the Hendricksons. Next, we went to the church building where the mission offices are, and I met my new companion, Hermana Allen. She’s always trying to teach me things, and she’s a great trainer. She is nine months into her mission. Our area is Temecula, California. We are in charge of two wards—the Spanish ward and our English YSA ward.
Gloria and Sister Allen with friends
For the first couple of days, I had jet lag, and I was just so tired. So my companion had me take naps after we finished planning our day. Thank goodness for those. Our area is also one of the biggest areas in our mission, which means a lot of driving for us. My apartment is decent, but it’s just so messy sometimes, and I always try to clean it.
This week I hit one month as a missionary! Time has gone by so fast. I enjoy being a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I saw a quote in Preach My Gospel that said, “Te people you often meet do not realize that they are looking for the restored gospel until they find it.” I really like this because people are lost and need the gospel in their lives. Once they find it, their lives become so much better.
Hermana Allen and I have had such a great week; we’ve seen so many miracles.
First miracle: We met this one person named Dora and gave a porch lesson. She was sick, so we talked about priesthood blessings, and she really liked the idea, so we went back with the elders and gave her a blessing. Afterwards, her husband came and sat in. They had so many questions about the church, and two hours later we finally finished!
Gloria and other sister missionaries
On Saturday night we sent a picture of Jesus holding the lamb and wrote, “Jesus loves you.” She answered by saying that she’s coming to church on Sunday! Wow, that just blew our minds, and see came with her son! She was emotional when we shared our testimonies at church.
Second miracle: We invited Miguel to English class, and afterwards, we asked if we could teach him a lesson, and he said yes. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and we read a few scriptures. We taught him that we need to have faith when reading so we can know the truth that comes from it.
He’s a really cool guy and really wants to come closer to Christ. We also invited him to church. He did come for the second hour, because he overslept. He told us that he enjoyed it.
Gloria and Sister Allred
Third miracle: We haven’t really had much luck in the YSA ward. A guy from Utah referred his friend, Damoni, who really wants to get into religion. She had already started reading the Book of Mormon, and when we got ahold of her, she had read half the Book of Mormon in one day!
On Saturday night she told us that she finished the Book of Mormon. She came to church with us, and since it was testimony meeting, she went up and testified about the Book of Mormon and the truth that it comes from it. She got everyone crying. When church was over, most of the ward came up to Damoni and thanked her for her testimony.
I just want to testify that God is real and He knows the timing of things. The power of prayer is so powerful because He really does listen to each of our conversations with Him. He loves us and we are His children. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Misha and Emmett
Isaac
I’ve been reading a lot in a Brandon Sanderson book called The Stormlight Archive, and I’m almost done with the whole series, spanning over 4,800 pages and 1,789,876 words. It’s really good, and everything about it is fantastic. The world-building is awesome—the lore, the action, and the battle strategies.
I’m about halfway through the fifth book, and it is incredible. It’s definitely one of my favorite book series ever, and I’d recommend it to everyone. The plot is so intricate and deep, but still quite understandable, and the characters are all written very well.
Isaac playing video games with Emmett
It’s super cool because all of Brandon Sanderson’s books are connected in the same universe called the Cosmere. In some ways, each of the books has ties to other books, while still being able to be standalone series in their own way.
There are about 20–25 Cosmere books, and I’ve read about 17–18 of them. It’s so cool to see callbacks and references to other books in its universe.
Owen eating ramen
Veidi
This week I planned a Presidents’ Day party. Once we were done setting up at the church, we played basketball until people started to come. Then we played crazyball for a little while, and a round of hide and seek.
After that, we played a game kind of like sharks and minnows, but once one of the people catches you, then you sit down and wait till you have four people to take you back to safety. Ashton came when we were playing that, and when me and him were the catchers, we were undefeated. After that, we just sat down and talked for a little bit. Then we went home and ate pizza.
Children playing at the counter
Later on, Yaretzie left to go home, but soon after there was a knock on the door, so Mom went to go see who it was. I thought that Yaretzie forgot something, but I was wrong. Mom said it was for me, so I went to the door and saw it was a container that said my name on the top.
I opened it and it said, “I’m o-fish-ally asking you to prom! – Nash.” Inside, there were goldfish crackers, Swedish Fish, gummy worms, and gummy sharks.
Ashton was there for it, and of course he wanted to help me with the response, so we came up my response to Nash. A few days later, we delivered it. For the response, I had Nash put together a jigsaw puzzle with an image of the sea. On it, it will say, “Out of all the fish in the sea, I’m glad you asked me! I would dolphin-ally like to go, and it would be turtle-ly fun!”
Veidi with prom invite from Nash Horner
The words on the puzzle are in invisible ink, so when he completes the 500-piece puzzle, he can see what I wrote. I gave four steps in my instructions: 1) complete the puzzle, 2) turn off the lights, 3) shine the black light on the puzzle.
When I went to deliver it, Ashton, Kai, Isaac, and Cougar all came with me. It was fun having them come with me to drop it off. Ashton got video of me doing it, and after we got home, we all watched it, and their comments on it were pretty funny.
Mattias sleeping on Grandma’s bed
Kai
Braden decided to create a monthly boys poker night where we keep track of everybody’s earnings and see who wins. I was so excited for this.
When it finally came, I did a pretty good job! I stayed in the positives and earned! That’s a great start to a new season!
Children relaxing on couch
Troy
On Monday, Veidi had a Presidents’ Day party, which me, Quinn, Joanna, and Dad did not go to. However, Ashton came over that day, and so we had a party.
We went to Panda Express and Dad took Ashton and us to the movie theater and watched Solo Mio, which was a great movie. It was also really funny.
On Saturday, Braden hosted a poker night at his house, and it was fun because we had snacks and watched basketball games.
Jenny and Ava playing with stickers
Braden
Over the last four years or so, the boys in the family have been known to play the occasional game of Texas Hold ’em. As part of our games, we have kept record of everyone’s lifetime earnings/losses starting in about 2024.
Our games have been sporadic, so I had the idea to start hosting a regular poker night at our place for those who have shown interest in playing in the past. To help it feel official and to set the vibe, I bought a poker table and had all the boys over this week for our first poker night.
We decided that we will have our lifetime totals continue to be recorded, but we will also play six-month seasons where, once a month, we get together to play. At the end of each season, the winner will be whoever had the highest earnings over the course of those six games.
Cougar started the season off very strong with an almost $700 profit (we play $1/$2, where everyone’s starting stack is $200). Kai made $257, and Ashton made $173 to round out our top three finishers.
Boys playing poker at Braden’s house
Quinn
Hello everybody, I just got called to the Primary Stake Council, so this is the story. I was in Primary, and the teacher had nobody else raise their hand when she said she needed volunteers from this ward, so I raised my hand. Then somebody else raised their hand, and now we have two meetings to help plan a stake Primary service project. I have to go to help lead the Primary activity.
Later that week we went out to Panda, then to the movies on Saturday with Troy, Ashton, Dad, and Joanna. It was really fun, then Ashton left to go to the church to play with the Olders.
Monte and Elder Poulsen with family
Monte
We had intercambios last week. I went with one of our zone leaders, Elder Morsewleski. We did get told by a Testigo de Jehovah from the U.S. that our Spanish was awful, and that our missions were worthless. Well, we just kindly smiled at her and proceeded on with our day.
We also had a baptismal interview for our friend Jimena! She’s going to get baptized on March 8! She’s 14, and her step-dad is a member. We’re also in the process of helping her parents get married so her mom can get baptized as well.
Here in Bonfil—and across Mexico—it has gotten a bit crazy. Because a key drug lord was assassinated in on the western side of Mexico, we had to got into lockdown for a few days.
Monte and Elder Poulsen giving service
However, even here in Bonfil, the cartels here are fighting. We got told by the members that someone was decapitated last week, and that we need to be extra careful while walking through the streets, especially at night. I know that everything is in God’s hands and that we’ll be safe as we use our common sense.
So I’m nine months in already! During interviews, President Witt asked me how I was handling being a district leader.
On Thursday morning, we had a lesson with our friend Zanya right before our district council meeting (mixup in the schedule). We had a super potente lesson with her, and she asked us what she needed to do to get baptized. We looked at our watches. It was 10:50am, and district council started at 11:00am. Might I remind you that we have to take two combis and a slight walk to get to the church building. We were cooked.
Monte and Elder Poulsen eating
As missionaries, we are told to ask for miracles, and so I did. We were able to take a moto taxi to the main road, where we immediately got onto a combi. Then we got off that combi and immediately got onto the next. There was no wait time. We got to our final stop, and now we had to do our part in the miracle, so we booked it to the church. We made it there in record time—just under 15 minutes. God really does bless us with miracles.
To finish off, Jimena is still on track to get baptized this upcoming Sunday, and she's so excited! It's so great because we get to work with her aunt to help plan her baptism! I'm so hyped for her! Well, love you all, and I hope you are able to see God's hand in your lives this week.
Dad playing game with Quinn
Dad / Arkin
Things have been going good with MyPack. Last year’s revenue doubled the year before, and the first two months of this year have been incredible. February was almost double a normal month. We are so grateful that Heavenly Father continues to bless our efforts and grow our little business.
I also had my annual stewardship interview at BYU, and my director told me that my students love me. She told me to just keep doing what I am doing. When I brought up an area of improvement that I have been working on—my grading is still a little above average—she told me to not even worry about it. It is always a relief to know that my students and my director are happy with my efforts!
Endia with Owen and Emmett