September 15

Hello family!! :)

It has been another fast week. We got transfer calls and there is going to be a change for my last transfer....... We are receiving a third missionary! It is going to be so great. He has about 4 months on the mish and it is going to be a good way to help me work my hardest. 

This week there hasn´t been too many things worthy to note. We have been working steadily with the husband of Maida. Maida was baptized about 2 months ago. The whole family is baptized and we are going to set a goal for him to be baptized next friday on the 26th. :) He is ready but just needs to take the last step of faith. It´s gonna be sweet!

Oh, there is actually something really cool that happened on Saturday. A family here that have been members for just about 2 years were sealed! They were baptized by my trainer and I was able to be here for their sealing. They are so happy :)

We are working had to find a family that has parents who are married and that believe in god. If we can find that I would be in heaven :) We will.

I started the book of mormon about two weeks ago and I´m trying to finish it by the end of my mish. I love the book of mormon. It gives so much power. It heals. It motivates. It does everything. If you are searching for anything you will find it in The Book of Mormón. Unless you lost a pair of keys, then you may just want to pray. ;) I really do love the book of mormon and it´s ability to protect me and help me overcome temptation. It seemed to be that in most of our lessons this week we taught about the book of mormon and it´s ability to help become perfect in Christ.

I still love the mission! It´s so flippin hard sometimes but I love it! :D haha.

Trust in god and he will trust in you.

Love Elder Powell

P.S We hiked a mountain this morning. I love hiking. :)

September 8 - Miracles in all places

Hello Family!!

Well this week was awesome!!

 

We started the week down in Fuen for an awesome council. We were reminded of the power of the Book of Mormon. It really is so powerful!! I hope that everyone is reading it daily. I am, and it brings power to overcome temptations and to have the constant companionship of the spirit. It´s great. :) "The Book of mormon along with the spirit is the most powerful tool to conversion."

I also went on intercambios in Marbella, Puerto Banus and Estepona. It´s the richest area in the whole mission, puerto banus. It was crazy! It´s on the south west coast right next to malaga. Instead of mini vans and trucks going up and down the streets imagine feraris, lamborginis, bugatis, and porshes driving around :D But there were so many prepared people there! We found two new families while we were there and 2 people accepted baptism for this month. It was a fun Intercambio :)

In our area we are continuing our search for new investigators. We found one boliviano this week and he has accepted baptism for the end of this month. That was a real blessing. It is crazy hard but I love the power of faith. Have you ever had the feeling you just know something is going to happen but you don´t know how? That´s one thing for which I am thankful for on the mish. Learning how to confide completely in God. That was something really challenging for me. I relied more on the "arm of my own flesh" instead of that of the Lords. It´s way easier with the Lord ;) Glad I got that atribute down haha :)

The Lord is challenging me every day and I love it. Let the lord challenge you! It´s part of the plan :) Look at the situations in your life and think what the lord is trying to teach you. Always choose the hard right choice over the easy wrong choice :)

Love you all!! 

Elder Powell

September 1 - Hi Family

So I am in Malaga right now! 

It has been an awesome week. I came down earlier to do an intercambio with my old comp Elder Rojas from Alicante and I loved it. He is my AP now.Anyway, I just love cubans! There are a ton here in Malaga and we invited a whole family of cubans to be baptized. They accepted :) Right at the end of the intercambio I also got to my vist my first converts for the first time in a year and a half! They are doing great! The son went to EFY o FSY. What ever it is called. And they might be moving to the States!!! It is going to be awesome!! Super stoked. We planned for when you guys vist. they are excited.

We have been havin a good time in Alcazar. It is still really hard and it is dificult to find people who will listen right now but we are workin on it :)

Sorry but I don´t have a lot of time today.

Highlights of the week and just random stuff: 

We had 47 people in church! that was amazing. I think a few weeks ago we had 46 but that was just because a 70 was there. It was a normal sunday where we normally have 35 or so but we had almost 50. Definitely progression there :) We will be a ward soon.

We had an awesome volleyball barbecue with tons of ecuatorian converts in the forest!

And I shaved my whole body! I´m hairless :D It is a strange feeling. (NEVER doin that again)

 You are all so awesome! Diligence is key to spiritual progression. I love the mission and It is the greatest work to share the gospel. You should try it ;) ANIMO!! :D

Love Elder Powell

August 25 - Official Uncle!!! :D

Yeah this letter is definitely dedicated to my little nephew Boston! I can´t wait to see you!

This week was a good hard week! I love it! We have changed up our focus and are sticking to our little city which the church is in, instead of travelling to the towns that surround our little city. We have seen lots of success in the outer towns but we are seeing that it is really hard for them to get to church. So we are sticking here in Alcazar. It has been hard because we started the week with nothing! 1 investigator in the whole town and a few futures and antiguos. But it has been good!

Here are a few miracles! :)

In the beginning of the week we were going to an old investigator and they weren´t home. But we saw this lady turn the corner of the building out of sight. We walked after her, turned the corner and called out to her. She gave us her information and we went to her house but they were in the process of moving and weren´t home. So we talked to the neighbor who knew where the new house was. So we went down the street and knocked on the new house. A young man answered the door and it just so happens that he is on a few days of vacation and he is golden!! So from an antiguo, to a future, to talking to a neighbor, to finding the son in another house was quite the miracle :) We taught him twice this week and he is preparing for baptism!!

We also found some gold mines. or southyvilles. They are little neighborhoods or stores that are just full of south americans and they are super humble and prepared people to recieve the gospel! (It isn´t racist, God even says they are a prepared people haha.)

Other than that though, we know it is just going to take a lot of work for a few weeks before the area is built up and we see alot of fruits. So that is the game plan right now. Just work hard and be patient! 

This week I have been studying in Acts in the Bible and it is amazing how the apostles are so diligent! It is rediculous. They go to one town and are accepted by some and then rejected by the rest, go to another town and many accept them and the rest kick them out of the city! They are cast into prisons and Paul is like my hero! He was stoned to death.... but then came back to life and kept preaching!!  That is some strength man haha. It is rediculous. But I love what the lord says about Paul, "for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:

 16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake."

What have we been chosen to do? God has called and chosen us to do many things but what have WE chosen? We have chosen to take the name of Christ upon us and Christ will show us "how great things we must [do] for [His] name´s sake." This is the Gospel of christ and is a gospel of Sacrifice. Christ is our perfect example and has shown us quite well how to sacrifice. We are called upon to sacrifice our time, our talents, and strengths to serve and love. We have callings, we have duties and they should be considered sacred. God has called us to do His work. We have chosen this by accepting Christ to be baptized, and by doing so we are accepted as His Chosen people. Chosen to do His will. 

I love being a missionary and I am really excited that I am now an Uncle ;)

I know the importance of this life and our decisions we make are crucial.

Love Elder Powell

August 18 - Sick Week but Miracle Week :)

Hello family!!

I think this is going to be a pretty short email but we had a great week. My companion is a great worker and we are doing awesome together. About half way through the week I got strep and my whole body just got super sore. I think it´s because of the fever... But here are some of the miracles!! 

So we are usually always in the car but we were walking in our little village contacting some references when we contacted this 17 year old spanish kid. He knows english, wants his doubts solved about religion because he feels like the catholic church isn´t true and he is a firefighter like my comp! Coincidence, I think not. We had a ton in common and he is just so normal! There aren´t many normal families here haha. They are either out of work or smokers and drinkers and this kid has a working father, stay at home mom and it is just great! :) So we will see him alot this week. Also this south american kid we contacted in a restaurante two weeks ago saw us in the street and said "hey I am still waiting for you to come by and teach me." God is just sending people our way :)

The biggest miracle was on sunday though. So as missionaries we have goals and standards and stuff, right. We try and have 3 investigators in church every sunday, and we have to find 4 new investigators every week. We also have alot of other goals but these were the two that we were struggling with this week. So sunday morning evreyone was calling us and telling us they couldn´t come to church and we were a little bummed because we had been working so hard all week. Also we had only found 2 news this week. So we get to church and no investigators were there :( One said he was going to come but he didn´t show up.... So as church is starting one comes in. Yes! Then after the sacrament part, I was speaking when one of our investigators that we found on thursday and lives super far away, came in. Yes!! I thought to myself, "Well at least 2 are here." When his son walked in right behind him! It was great! We did everything we could and had invited about 20 people and the Lord did the rest to reach our goal. So that afternoon we had three hours to find two news and we got to our last plan with about thirty minutes left in the day when we found an awesome nigerian family. So we reached all of our goals :) It was a really good feeling to feel that this really isn´t our work but the Lord´s work! We put forth our greatest effort and we saw his hand. It was cool. Anyway, I love being a missionary. This is the Lords work and it is his church. Everything that we are asked or commanded to do, we CAN do. But not by ourselves. We have to, and need to rely on Him. We need to become like Him. It is my greatest desire.

Love Elder Powell

P.S WE HAD 12 BAPTISMS!!!! 

It was actually just a dance activity for the youth :P