Awesome Weekend!!

Hello Family! This week has been super awesome and we had some hilarious experiences :)

We started off the week kind of normal and nothing really happened. Pretty slow. But Starting on Thursday everything was sweet! Francheska finally got back from Holland (she travels alot) and we were able to teach her about the temple and she is going at the end of may with the ward to do baptisms!! She is super excited and on Sunday she set everything up so she could be interviewed by the bishop. Super Awesome. Also Thaynara another brazilian recent convert is going too! 

After we taught them both I headed to Malaga to finally get my residency card renewed. Yep, Ive only been living here illegally for like 3 months now haha. It was great though because I saw a ton of people from my group who are leaving at the same time as I am. I love the MIssion!! I hit my year and a half mark a few days ago. That is weird. But there is still a ton to do. 

Right When I got back from Malaga We headed to a Law University to give a presentation about the Church. It was super cool. A member here is a professor and we got invited to present the relationship between the church and state. It was incredible. We gave away like 40 book of mormons and we were able to answer a ton of questions. I felt like Alma as he was talking to Korihor because a ton of these law students were basically atheists and we were just testifying it up. I have never been in a debate class but I felt like everyone was trying to debate about what we were saying and then we just testified with the power of God and they couldnt do anything about it hahaha. Super good experience.

That night we had our correlation meeting and our goal is to have 12 baptisms as a ward with 4 companionships on the 10th of may. (two weeks) The only problem was that we only had three baptismal dates and we needed more investigators to be at church. So we set some goals to fast and go through the are book to see who has been to church at least once so they can come one more time to be baptized.

So you know what happened... A miracle is what happened! We were starting our fast, went by an old Investigator and he wasnt home. Knocked the whole building and :)...... nothin. As were were walking out the door though we contacted this guy, he invited us into his apartment, he came to church, and we are having a family night with him tonight. It is like another Francheska story!! Super awesome. United prayer and fasting is super powerful. His name is Jose.

We thought we were going to find this other miracle because we called an old investigator and he was super excited to have us over and we went to his street but we couldnt find his door. We called him up and he came down onto the street and he couldnt see us! We were super frustrated because we were both on the street named seneca by a chinese restaurant and we couldnt find him! He then asked us, "wait a second, are you in Granada?" 

"Yes!"

"Hahahaha I am in Malaga" 

Yeah so we passed over this investigator to Malaga who is super prepared and has already been to church but he just lost contact when he went to Malaga.

Wow sorry this is a long letter. But this week I am continuing to see the power of Faith and Patience. Everything is going decently well but it is still hard. We are becoming more dedicated and united as a companionship. So that is definitely good ;) It was kind of rough before. But this week we are having a week of consecration as a mission to be exactly and perfectly Obedient. It feels good to have everyone being obedient. There is a great spirit in our mission right now.

You know that spiritual thought that Kameron shared a few weeks ago about "Breaking a covenant with the Lord is never justified." I want to testify of that too. Obedience is so powerful and that is how the lord can fulfill his promises :)

I love you all, I love the mission. I wouldnt trade it for anything!!

Elder Powell

P.S My apostrophe button on my keyboard doesnt work so that is why there arent any :)

April 21, 2014 - Hey, Hey, Hey

Hi Family! I loved the pictures of everything! I am super jealous :) 

Hahaha tanner your hair is so long! I´m thinkin about doing the same when I get back from the mish to just grow out my hair.

Today has been really fun! We headed to the center of the city and toured around while it was just pouring down rain haha. It was really cold and wet but it was super fun :) We found this tour group lady on a segway and she let all of us ride one! It was my first time on a segway and it was awesome haha! It was kind of funny because I fell off of it and the segway just went crazy and the lady had to run over and help me :P

Anyway, it has finally happened. I have finally received a really hard companion.... My comp has finally opened up and it has been pretty challenging. But hey, everything happens for a reason right. I said I´d probably learn a ton this transfer, and boy am I learning :P It is helping me to rely more on the lord and make me a stronger missionary.

This week we saw some awesome miracles! I have been focusing a lot on following the spirit this week and it is the coolest hehehe :). This is going to sound really weird but We were walking down this street when I saw the number 1 on this door. I then saw in my mind the number 5 and and we just stopped to toke the 1. Then we knocked door three and then we walked a little further down to door 5 and it was the exact same looking number that popped into my head earlier! So we knocked it and this man came out and he was perfectly prepared! A friend of his died recently and we taught about the plan of salvation! Sweet miracle!
Then we were walking in the centro a few days later and this man came up to us and was like "hello, My mom is mormon in Barcelona. I have been to your church. I really liked it. Can you come teach me?" It was crazy cool :)

Other than that we have just been workin our butts off and doing all that we can to find prepared people :) We don´t have like anyone progressing which is a bummer. We just set a baptismal date with this man but we then figured out that he isn´t married!! It was so disappointing. So we are in that process now.

The mission is the best!! I love it.

Love Elder Powell

P.S Mom I know this is a huge favor but can you send me a ghiradelli browni mix bag! :) That would be awesome. And can you send me the chocolate chip cookie recipe! Love You!

April 14, 2014 - The Lord's Work

Hello Family!!!

 

I love learning :) It is the best to learn something, apply it and then have it confirmed that it is true. How did you like conference?! I loved it. I finally got to see all of it haha so I know it is kind of late but one of my favorite talks was in the final session by L Tom Perry. He spoke about Obedience. I LOVE obedience. I feel so good when I am obedient and there are so many blessings that are received. At one point he talked about how we need to teach our spirit and our body to obey the Lord. I had never thought about training both my body and spirit to obey the lord.  I still don´t fully understand how to train them both, other than by being obedient and praying so that I can be taught. This week I have been working on that and praying so that I can recognize the spirit. What I have seen is that obedience strengthens my spirit. As I am obedient i am more succeptible to the spirit. With that spiritual help it is easy to conquer any physical weakness or spiritual temptation. The Constant companionship of the spirit is definitely necesary to b strengthened and to be taught.

Just how Jesus Christ grew in his physical life spiritually, he learned precept by precept. We can not rush our spiritual progression. It takes obedience, prayer, faith, action, desire, and patience. It is So hard hahah! But it has been so rewarding to progress. I have seen the difference over my whole mission. I become more dedicated and consecrated to the lord. No I´m not perfect, and Yes I ¨fall¨ alot, but there is no excuse to not choose to follow Christ. President Holland was being driven to a conference when the driver saw that his head was bobbing in exhaustion when he asked president Holland, "how is it that you keep going? Can´t you rest?" A change occured in Presidents posture as he sat up straight, looked at the driver and said, "I will serve the lord until my final breath."

As our Leaders are physically working with little rest, We can not rest spiritually! As we do so we become spiritually weak. Don´t Rest! :) There is not time or reason to rest. The Lord will strengthen us and will be there for us. It will be difficult just like anything else in life but I testify of the happiness and peace that comes. There is no greater reward :D

 

This week was awesome. We found alot of new investigators and there is little progression but that is ok! I continue to work in faith and I continue to work hard. It is the best! :)

 

The mission is the greatest! I will always love it!

Until next week,

Love, Elder Powell

Family :)

Hi Family!

Well first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rebecca! I hope you have an awesome week and know that I love you :) Well I love all of you but Rebecca just a little bit more this week ;)

This week was super weird! like really though. Ok so my comp gets here and he is awesome! A little weird and everything but hey, he is still a good guy. We had visited practically everyone in the beginning of the week so Elder Sykes could say goodbye to people and by the end of the week were were just contacting like a ton! Anyway things starting getting crazy once the weekend hit. 

We were really excited for conference like every missionary should be. So we get home from a lunch appointment and my companion says, "um, elder.... Is there supposed to be water all over the floor?"  "What?" I say as I run into the room. So it turns out all of our pipes clogged and when ever anyone used water in the apartments above us it flooded down into our piso. It was pouring out of the sink and the dishwasher and the washer and it was crazy! Like one of those hillarious movies where the guy is shocked as he sees water running everywhere :P But after a few minutes it all stopped so there was just water on the floor.

Then my companion says, "welp, I need to go to the bathroom...." So he leaves the kitchen like it is no big deal hahha. Wow, so I called around and no one was answering when all of a sudden more water started pouring out of the wall behind the Washer! "Oh NO Oh No" I start yelling as I run to the bathroom to tell Elder Navarro more water is coming! Then the water stops again, So we walk over to the president of the building and he comes and we kind of got it figured out when MORE water start flooding in. But ALOT! So he started freaking out and tried to run to call someone and was slipping everywhere. My companion was just sitting  in the family room saying to himself, "Why, why, why. Why do such inconvenient things happen on days, when we are going to hear the prophet. That is going to be my "question" I want answered in the conference." And then I was just standing in the middle of the kitchen in a pond of water, laughing. It was so hillarious :) So we missed one session.

Then we missed another session because we were teaching which was ok. But then we got permission to watch the last session in the Church at 10 PM because of the time difference and everything when 30 minutes before it was about to start a virus attacked the computer and it shut down!!! It was the craziest thing ever! So we missed alot of conference. But We ended up having a miracle as we were trying to fix the computer. After about 30 minutes one of the heremanas who is brand new with 6 weeks on the mission was like, "why haven´t we prayed?" So we prayed, finished and clicked the mouse and everything was fixed!! Super awesome! Prayer is super powerful. Especially from someone with such pure faith. But it was then too late to watch it.

Anyway, :) It was quite the weekend and an interesting way to start the transfer.

I saw a theme though in conference to show courage and stand up for what we believe in. We ARE members of the church of JESUS CHRIST. We ARE happy. We ARE hopeful. We DO have a great message that everyone needs to hear. SHARE your testimony please :) It is necessary. You NEED to do it.

I love the mission and will always love my mission.

Love Elder Powell

P.S Summer is coming to Spain. It is the Best :D