I. Love. Spain.

Hi Family :)

What a great week! We got a ton of referencias this week, found a lot of new people and we had a baptism :) Ahh it´s awesome. I also loved the package. I loved adam´s picture! Hey adam, is that person holding my hand you? And if it is why doesn´t he have a head haha :D Its just a mouth and eyes? I thought that was pretty cool.

What!? Devrie. Going on a mission!? Ok. I can handle that.

Shout out to Hayden Duffin: I´ll take 5 ciestas for you. :) what is your email adress?

 Nope, St. Patrick´s day doesn´t exist here. But it did in our piso. I taped those green ballons all over our room haha. Cooincidently (I have no idea how to spell that word) there was a cambio of Jesus and Mary on st. patricks day though.

Ok story time: So I was talking about how on alot of the corners they have shrines with jesus or mary or something like that; well last week we were walking and then i here these drums in the distance and they are getting louder and louder. I was like what the heck! I look down the street and there is this huge throne coming down the calle! So out of curiosity i just started walking towards it. In preparation for semana santa they move the statues out of their so called "homes" and they have these huge processions to move them somewhere else in the city. There were about 80 women all in white carrying statues and there were crowds just following it. Some of them were blind folded. "Pure Apostacy" said my companion. I just couldn´t believe it. It was super cool looking though. And that was just one procession. Next week there are going to be about 40! I´ll send some pictures after it all.

The baptism we had was great! The hermanas working in our area as well, commited this lady like three days before the baptism and she got baptized. That was a cool miracle. The reason I liked it so much though was because Luis, the guy we baptized last week received the priesthood and was able to baptize Ismael this week! Super Awesome! He had to re baptize him because he didn´t go all the way under the water the first time and he had to resay the prayer a few times too but it was awesome :) We hope to help ismael´s mom and dad, Palma and David, get baptized but we still have some work to do with them.

Oh I am finally a citizen of Spain. We went to the mission home for a day, which was awesome, and then we went to the embassy here and we signed my right to attorney and then got my citizenship card. That was fun. Super weird though because after one day of being out of my area i felt weird to be somewhere else. I don´t know how to explain it. President Deere and his wife talked to us about working with members and how crucial they are. Also the talked about locking your heart while we´re out on a mission because there are about to be a lot of new hermanas our age in the field soon. It is going to be interesting how all that works out.

One more story: Yesterday we were in our piso studying and it was getting pretty close to church and I said elder are we going to go now. He´s like "To where?" "um, church," I say. Then he looks at his watch and says "oh my gosh we have to be there in 20 minutes!!" (we live 35 minutes away) :P So we just grab our mochillas and start booking it. Picture this: two americans, running down these streets and alleyways, wearing suits, and then it starts raining. By this point I am just laughing. I look back and elder jones´ shoe was falling apart. That just made me laugh more! So we get to church sweating and wet but we made it two minutes early :) 

I´m excited for this week because we got a reference for an argentine family of 6! South americans are the best. Especially when they have big families. 

It is amazing how big a difference the gospel of Jesus Christ can make in peoples lives. I see it every day. Even just the knowledge of the gospel pushes me along every day. I love the perspective it gives. The hope it gives. Just knowing that there is a purpose to this life. I love it. Life is long but eternity is longer.

Love you all!

Vaya Con Dios!

Love Elder Powell

pics of baptism for ismael

I ate the mike and ikes in like two minutes :)