Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Milagrasos! Miracles!

Hello Family!

This week was just weird. My comp went home to Barcelona.... It was sad :( But only for a day to renew his residency papers :D It was super weird because he came back like on cloud 9 because he was with his family for a day and he was treated like a king! So I was on exchanges for monday and tuesday. Then we had a few days to work and then I headed to Malaga again to pick up my DNI Card for Spain. I can live here until 2016!! So I´m thinkin about staying for a while. Maybe find work, study for a year, who knows. ;)
But I went on this awesome bullet train that goes 300 kilometers an hour. It was a dream!

We are doing good as comps. Elder Peroni ALWAYS has energy. It is great. We are still working hard and seeing miracles. Our number 1 right now is this girl from Ecuador named Estefania. she is 21 and really nice. she is a friend of one of the recent converts here.

 Anyway we taught her this past week about the Law of Chastity and she asked if she was sinning and we said "Yes!" It was kind of bold but exactly what she needed. Right after she asked, "how do I correct it then? Is it hopeless?" There was this pause......
The recent convert then looked at us, "Are you going to tell her or what!?" We said, "You tell her."
 So she looked at her friend and said, "You can be baptized to become completely clean. :)" It was super special. Someone who had recently been baptized, invited her friend to also be baptized! We then kept teaching and finished. A few days later Thalía, the recent convert told us that Esefanía is going to be baptized.
Estefanía invited us over on Sunday again and we taught her boyfriend the gospel. we shared about Joseph Smith and we asked him if he wanted to learn more and he said, "NO." Super nice but didn´t want anything to do with us. But Estefanía looked at us and said, "I still do. I feel something good and I know this is true!" She is super prepared. We now just have to work with them to see if they are going to get married or move out for a while.....
The Spirit is powerful. As we share the gospel with pride and with out temor the spirit can testify powerfully. I am proud to be a missionary of Christ. It is great :) The message we share is so amazing. There is so much mercy and love on the part of our heavenly father and so much courage and sacrifice from the people we teach so that they can change. It is such a privilege to see.

I love the mission and I love being a missionary.
Love, Elder Powell

May 19 GOOD, HARD, WORK :)

Family! Como estan?!
I got your package the day before I left so that is good. I got to make brownies for two families here in the new branch and they loved them so thanks :) I also love the Shirt ;)

Hahahha I am finally with a missionary that works harder than me!! (can you believe that) It is the greatest :D We are in a branch where about 35 people come to church. My companion and I have a year and a half and we are working like machines! We found 6 new investigators, set 3 baptismal dates and taught 18 lessons....... in three days. I have never worked how I am working now but it is the greatest feeling! I feel like I am in star wars where they blast into hyperdrive and there is nothing holding back. It is going to be a good transfer :)

My companion is from Argentina and we both started in Malaga together. We told eachother that one day we would be comps and now we are! He is super spiritual, focused, hard working and just an excellent missionary! He might be a little crazy but it adds a little bit of fun to the work. ;P

This week I have been focusing on repentance..... again. There are so many imperfections and things to get better at. Repentance is one of the most rewarding things in the world. We set goals, pray, work, and then feel as the lord works with us. It is the best! At least for me anyway. The only way I can progrees is through Jesus Christ.

In church we were reading, and a quote popped out to me that I think is really important. It is talking about worldly knowledge and spiritual knowledge. " It is 1000 times more important to have a knowledge of God and his Laws, to be able to do that which will bring salvation..." Everything I am learning in the mission and the goals I have been setting and accomplishing are priceless. I know how to follow the spirit. I know how to repent. I know how to share the gospel. As I have learned the Laws and Ways of God I can apply it and progress even more. "Now is the time to prepare to meet god.." I am 100% confident in my Heavenly Father. I know what I need to do and I have faith in the things I am promised by him. Do we think about that? Do you think about the covenants you have made? Do you think about the promises? :) Do you think about how to come unto Christ? Do you think about the Blessings? :) The Gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect and I love it! 

Anyway. I love the mission. I finally get to see stars at night. I finally get to see the sunset. It is the best! :)
 
Love elder Powell.
 
P.S I hope everything is working out with my drivers license. It´s a little important so we can do exchanges with the missionaries. How is it going? How much longer do you think it will take? :)

May 12 - hi

Hello family!! :) 
So it was great talking to you all yesterday. I finally got see my nephew/niece in live time! So that was cool. Tori I hope you feel good every day until it is born :) 
What to say, what to say. The main thing in my head is that I am being transferred. I really got to love this ward so it is going to be really hard to leave :( But I feel good about the change! Alcázar de san Juan is my new area in La Mancha. I am going to be zone leader again so that is pretty crazy. There really is no time to rest on the mission and it is the best. It is making me who the Lord needs me to be :)
One thing that i hold really close to me on the mission is how much I have learned to confide in my Heavenly father. I am so confident in all of my decisions because I know they are the decisions my heavenly Father would make. 
I will talk to all yall next week to let you know about the new area :)
I love you all and I love the Mission!
Elder Powell

May 5 - Mothers Day

Hi Family! Que pasa!? :)

Yesterday was Mothers day here in Spain so happy mothers day mom! But I will give you all a call next sunday so we can Skype! :) When is your church now? I can skype pretty much when ever but the best time would be 6 spain time on sunday. Send me an e-mail :)

Alright this week was awesome! It was called the week of consecration and it was pretty consecrated! We saw so many miracles! One of the biggest miracles was how fast our investigators are progressing! That guy Jose Antonio we found last week, is doing great! We had the family home evening and he accepted baptism for the 11th of May. which is this Sunday! :) So he came to the BBQ we had as a ward, which I will explain in just a sec, and we were talking how we needed to teach him about 4 times. And he said, " ok... well can you just teach me everything in one day?" This guy is super prepared! So we sat down with him on Saturday morning and we taught him lesson 2, lesson 3, the word of wisdom and the Law of Chastity. Yep he was ok with all of it. The Lord is good :) We just have a few things left and he will be set.

Also this other family who wasn´t really progressing decided to come to the activity! they came, they met another family who they are now good friends with and will be coming to church this week. This is the family that we contacted like two months ago and she was a less active from over 20 years ago. Yeah, they are now progressing really well. Vicente, Marianella and Carlos. SO AWESOME

So this barbacoa we had was up in the mountains. Yeah, I still miss the mountains of utah :) But it was so great. There was a ton of food and we played soccer, card games, rope games, arm wrestles and a ton of other stuff. There was about 120 people so it was a huge turnout :) It helped everyone I think. This ward is awesome! We also started some karate classes and those are sweet too. Our ward has so many things going on every week that it is easy to get our investigators involved in the ward.

So a miracle/message of the week is about prayer and faith. Late saturday night we got a call from the sisters and they found out that one of their investigators couldn´t come to church the next day. They were a little upset because they needed her to come to be able to be baptized the next week for the "Dia Blanco" or the day when every companionship is going to baptize. So I told them to call the investigator back and then hung up. In the mean time me and my comp knealt down and started to pray....
 Have any of you seen the best two years where all the missionaries are praying so that the main Investigator can call, and then in the middle of the prayer the phone rings and they hurry to end the prayer....
Yeah so thats what happened. The phone starts buzzing, we look at the phone, hurry and end the prayer and answer,
"Hello..."
"Woooooo She is coming! She is coming" :,D
"Woooo Yeah thats what I´m talkin about!" :D
It was a joyous moment.

I am always amazed at how fast the Lord works. Also I have never had such greater faith. Before we even started praying I knew she was going to be able to come. I just wanted to share how powerful Faith can be. It really can move mountains and work miracles.

This is the Lords work and I love it! :)
Love Elder Powell

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