Hello :)

Well hi family :) 

Rachel is driving!!!??? Oh. My. Gosh! I saw the picture and it is crazy to think that she is driving! 

This week was a little hard actually, ha. I just felt super unorganized and I wasn´t focused on my purpose that well! With the transfers it was hard to get into a good rythm with my new companion. We both have different ethics in working so we had to compromise a ton! We both just weren´t on the same page. We are both great missionaries and love the work but we learned alot about being exactly unified in purpose. 

Also we had two day intercambios with the assistants and traveling was killer! But that was super fun. The AP who came to work with me used to serve here so we worked super well!

Everything is good now and I feel so excited to work this transfer. My faith is fortifed, our purpose is one and we are ready to see miracles! I love alicante so much! 

We found this african family and they have two kids of age 5 years and the other, 8 months and they are the cutest kids ever. I´m being serious! But they are awesome to teach :)

We are also coming up on three baptisms! The 9th of november! One couple is getting their marriage papers tomorrow, getting married this weekend and then being baptized the next week!! :D SOOO COOL

The ward is growing a ton too!! We have been working with a lot of young single adults and we are in the process of rescuing three. 1 of them wants to serve a mission and it is so awesome to see the power of the spirit. 

Ok cool miracle time:)

We had our reunion de correlacion with our leaders and we decided we were going to fast together for a couple of families and the obra misional. In total we were about 25! Started Saturday and finished Sunday. So on Sunday right at the end of our fast who walked into the Church.. the father and son (aren´t members) of a part member family who we were fasting for! They haven´t been to church in.... well, Never. He came to see his other son be ordained as the teachers quorum presdent and the spirit was super strong!! They invited us to come by this coming thursday!! :D Blessings are coming! :)

The Mission is awesome! Things are good :) I love the mission!

Elder Powell

My Companions are the Best!

Hi Family! 3 National Parks!? Are there going to be any cool things left to do by the time I get back? ;D

This week has been great! Lots of learning, lots of change, and a few let downs.

At the beginning of the week we pretty much passed by a lot of people that Elder Merchan wanted to say goodbye to before he left for sevilla. So we had a ton of eating citas! 3 in one day! It was hard to say goodbye to Elder Merchan, but I also feel super good about the change:) My new companion, like I said, is from Mexico!  3 of my 5 companions have been Natives and I love it. He has already taught me so much. He really knows how to LOVE everyone. I don´t know how he does it but he is patient and loving. I think the lord has given me something to work on for now :P

This past friday and saturday we worked with president in our area! That was freaking crazy! I felt a little stressed out but we had a ton of great lessons! He taught everyone so boldly and wasn´t afraid to ask people to repent of their sins. He literally cried repentance to everyone we met. He knew the happiness it would bring and knew how to show people that. He has set a new standard for me. I love the progression that keeps coming every week for me to work on! Oh we also set a fecha with someone... well he set a fecha with someone.

Story: So we were teaching this guy named Antonio and the spririt was super strong and I invited him to be baptized and he started laughing and wiggling his finger at me "no no no" :) Then president said, " I have a better question. Will you pray to know if you should be baptized? And when you receive your answer that you need to be, will you be baptized?" And of course antonio said yes. then my companion told him that we knew he could prepared by the 23rd of noviembre. Once again he laughed and wiggled his finger, "no no no, I wont set a date" ha. What did president say? "I have a better question, will you pray about being baptized on the 23rd? And when you receive your answer that you need to be, will you be baptized on the 23rd?" And he said yes. Pretty sweet stuff.

This weekend we also had stake conference and this setenta named Elder  Herbertson from scotland to speak to us. It was amazing! Super spiritual and super motivating. He taught us a lot about Hope and Faith! He described the literal power of Faith and how hope is tied to faith. I can´t remember everything he said and I don´t have my notes with me but I can bear testimony of the feelings I felt and that faith can work miracles.

How do we gain faith? Yep, all the little things :) Start small, work dilligently, and see the change in your life for the better. If you ever feel like things are bad or there is no hope or you wish you could feel a little happier; Have faith, Have hope! Say your prayers, read the words of christ and watch you life be blessed :)

I know Christ Lives. He is our saviour. There is no other way to happiness.

I love the mission! I love the people! I love the work! 

Elder Powell

1 Nefi 21:15-16

P.S The photos are from this farm cabin place of a member :) 

Hola mis Amigos :D

Hey! This Elder Powell again! :) How is the world doin these days.

 It has been quite the week this week! Lots of people are going to be transferred this wednesday and they are also going to open THREE new areas in our Zone :D Busy Busy! Our zone has 15 companionships now!! It is the biggest Zone in our mission! I´m also going to receive a new companion who is from Mexico. Elder Rojas. We served in the same zone when I first started the mission. He has 9 months in the mission. So young we are :) But I am super Excited. 

We also had a zone conference on saturday that was combined with the Mission president and the Stake president and sus consejeros. They are super inspired and talked to us about the growth we are going to see in these next few months. We are opening areas, building more capillas and sending more missionaries. They had a great vision and we were all filled with such purpose. I love the urgency of it all.

We also set three fechas this week! It was a miracle week. Really! I am super excited for them. One is this boy who had discussions with jehova´s witnesses and decided they weren´t true and we found him right after he dropped them. The other two are a couple! So sweet :)

One huge blessing we saw this week was someone we found yesterday after church. David is his name. We had talked to him about 2 weeks ago and had kind of forgotten about him but we finally set up a time to stop by him. He is 28, believes in god, lives alone, doesn´t smoke, a clean cut guy, lived in Florida for 8 years, and has never belonged to or even been taught by anyone of any religion in his house. 

He accepted everything we taught and he was so open to the ideas. He was very prepared. :) I am super excited to go back.

We have started the Book of mormon as a mission again and this past week I was readng about lehis dream ín the book of mormon. It is when Nephi was having the vision actually of the tree. Anyway this was my experience:

I was reading and trying to apply all the sybolism and everything to our investigators. But I got super frustrated because it was about to explain a part of the dream and its sybolism. like the fruit, or the building, or the iron Rod, but then it started talking about christ! And i was like, What the heck! So I was wondering why it was talking about christ. When you read it, Nephi asks a question and then the spirit says "look" and Nephi sees a part of christ´s life and then the spirit tells nephi what theparts of the dream represent. I learned that every single part of jesus christ´s life can be related to the dream of Lehi! Christ being born and living as a GIFT, like the fruit. Christ heals the people and then it talks about the healing fountain. Christ speaks and teaches the people and then it talks about the iron rod. The people persecute jesus and then it talks about the people in the great and spacious building persecuting those that have partaken of the fruit. Christ is crucified and there are tumultuous quaking and then it talks about the great fall of the building. It was dark for three days and then it talks of the mists of darkness in the dream. Maybe everyone knows that but it was really cool to read through the whole dream and then read of the life of Christ. :) 

So.... Keep reading the scriptures and every part of the book relates to Christ :) 

The Mission is the greatest! I love you guys.

Love Elder Powell

Revelation

Hey family :) 

Imagaine dragons.... Wow. That is just so great for you.... together.... with out me.... wahh

Hahaha just kidding :) That is awesome you guys saw them though.

This week, lets see. 

General conference! I haven´t seen the last session yet but I think the first session was my favorite by far. Soo good!!! i was taught alot by the spirit in the first discourse by Elder Hales. I leaned so much about revelation and I loved it!! Ahh it was the best. :) 

Elder Dube! What an awesome Man! 

And Uchtdorf... That was some pretty powerful stuff.

As far as the work goes we have 4 fechas right now! It is awesome to see them progressing and working towards baptism.

We had mission counsel this week and President Deere also shared with us about revelation and how he receives it. That was really cool.

I think I am going to focus on that in this letter. REVELATION.

There were four things that stuck out to me.

The first is that when we receive revelation and when the spirit speaks it is a voice unica. It is something specific that you WILL be able to recognize as you focus yourself.

Prayer is crucial.Always start with prayer to let your heavenly father what you are focusing on or wanting to receive.

Revelation isn´t Passive.  this point includes alot of stuff. We need to study out our questions, meditate it, write it out, ask the lord, wait, receive (Yes, we will receive), thank the lord, write down the revelation and then act on it.

And lastly, being spiritually autosufficient . I haven´t figured out fully this point yet, but we need to rely on our own knowledge of things that we have learned and received.

I know our Heavenly Father is waiting to teach you. He will teach you so much if you are willing to learn. :)

I love the spirit. I love the Lord. I love the mission. :)

Elder Powell