Oct. 27, 2014 - WO!

Well familia, It has been a fantastic Last week of the mission :,)

It´s kind of sad, because when I think of this week and the coming weeks I just think of what I need to do to help my investigators and converts continue to progress. haha. I am going to miss it here in the field.

But get this! We passed our goal as a mission to find 888 new investigators this week and we found 897! It was great :) We have been working so closely with all the members and investigators here it is wonderful!

This past week a member family of 5 were waiting here in the city to pick someone up at the tren station and had to wait a few hours. so they passed by this investigator who is 19 and he ended up cooking for all of them! The member family got to know him AND his two sisters. The next day we went by the member family and they had invited the same young man and his sisters for a noche de hogar. What great family member work! He is getting baptized on the 15th. Im gonna miss it by that much. :P

In these past 2 weeks the work has just been like that every day. Lots of new families, lots of member work and lots of baptism dates. I love progress in a branch ;) And I love being able to be here to see it.

I just realized that this probably doesn´t interest a lot of people and I should be talking about home hahaha ;) 

Well it is going to be great to come home and see everyone. I´m super excited for ski season, finding a job, going on dates, watching movies and starting College! But let´s get real, is there anything better than teaching people in Spain about Eternal Salvation.....? Ok, maybe teaching someone about Eternal Salvation WHIIILE skiing down a snow covered mountain ;) but that´s about it! It really is so great.

I have learned so much during the mission that is going to help me stay strong in the Gospel for my entire life. And do you want to know what they are: Reading, Praying, and going to church.:D If you don´t believe me I dare you to do it and see what Happens ;)

There is so much more to it but that is the foundation.

I know my strengths, my goals, my standards and I will stand for them always. This is the work of an Eternal Being. This is the church of Jesus Christ who is the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. There is no doubt in my being! I have testified of this for years and I will continue to do so. I am a missionary,  "And I, [Elder Powell], will not deny the Christ... (Moroni 1:3)

Oct. 20, 2014 - Week 104 .... final week of proselyting!

Hello Family!

Well this is it. 7 Days of crazy hard work left! It´s gonna be a good week!

This past week the Lord has blessed us so much. We were introduced to three friends of members and all three of them are solid! We started using the prayer list for all of our investigators and they are progressing rapidly! I love it :) I don´t think we will have a baptism before I leave... :( but it is great to see so many people coming unto Christ! We also had an activity in the mountains on Saturday and that was amazing!! We hiked, saw the sunrise, hiked to a cave and it was all the young adults in our branch as well as an Investigator! Good Times :D

This week is a week of finding and as a mission we want to find 888 new investigators! Pray for us :)

I don´t really know what to say right now sooo.....

I´ll write my last letter next week.:)

Love Elder Powell

Oct. 13, 2014 - More General Authorities!

Hello hello :)

This week has been great! We have found a few new families and they are awesome! One of them is a dominican Family! We started a family scripture study for 20 minutes a day with them. They are awesome. The mom really wants their family to be eternal. It all starts with prayer, scripture study and church.

 

We also saw a little miracle with the brother of a less active lady we met this week. Ok so first you need to know that our church is in Alcázar. He lives about 45 minutes north in Socuellamos, but is now living for a time 30 minutes east in Villafranca. So we go by Beatrces house in Villafranca and meet Marcos the brother. He told us that just yesterday he had met an older missionary couple in Alcázar and he had seen an anouncement for our english classes as well. Then, While talking we come to find out that three months ago he sold a car to a member family who needed a car to come to church. They live up in Socuellamos. 

So basically this man had contact with the church like 5 times in 3 different pueblos that have thousands of people where there are only 35 members..... He will now be hearing the missionaries three times a week, coming to english classes and coming to church with his sister. Talk about prepared!!

I love the gospel! We sure have a perfect Father in Heaven who is working WITH us :)

Also a seventy came on saturday and Sunday and gave some great talks about member missionary stories! It got me pumped up! But he mentioned three points that will strengthen the work of Salvation. 

FIRST: Family home evening with missionaries and Investigators at least twice a month. He said that in the summers he was having up to 2 family nights with the missionaries a week! It will strengthen yourself,  your family, ward and investigators.

SECOND: Tell your ward missionary your availability during the week to work with the missionaries.

THIRD: Have a MIGHTY prayer once a week for all those in the world who don´t believe and need to find the missionaries.

LAST: (This is more the missionaries part but maybe you can let your missionaries know) Prayer name by name, each day, as family for every investigator that the missionaries are teaching. They should give out a small list every Sunday to evry member.

Talk about Unity right! :)

I LOVE being a missionary! Be the Lord´s hands and feet. Live worthily and just be HAPPY :D

Lots of love. Elder Powell

Oct 6, 2014 - CONFERENCE!!

Wow what a great weekend!! What a great week overall! :) 

I loved conference and we saw some great miracles this week. One of the greatest miracles was on a day of trials! Tuesday we had done everything we could, passed by everyone, hit every plan we had and still had an hour left to the day! (That last hour is the worst when you have no plans left, just so you know ;) So I finally just sat down and called every old investigator in my phone. I called about 50 people and only 1 said we could come by later in the week on Saturday. We didn´t think much of it until we finally visited her. We come to find out that she had been taught all the lessons and was ready to be baptized about a year ago, but wasn´t married to the man she was living with. But this week that man had left her and moved to a different city :D She came to conference, is living the commandments, is coming to church next week and is a super prepared lady. I love this work!! 

We had a lot of investigators and converts come to church which was great. Conference brings a powerful spirit. I like watching it in english way better to hear the emotion in everyones voices but spanish was good too. :) In Cheryl A. Esplins talk the translator started crying when she started talking about how Christ is really the one offering us the sacrament. It was super powerful to hear the translator struggling through her tears. I love the Gospel! :D

I Loved every talk! All of my questions were answered, like always, and many other things were learned. I feel like we are continually being taught little by little higher laws to follow and I love it! I love the continual progression and continual conversion. I don´t have all of my notes with me but one talk that comes to my mind right now was the talk by Jorg Klebingat. Packers talk was great, Hollands talk was great, and many other power houses, but I loved how Elder Jorg stated, "I will speak boldy hoping to edify and not to offend. 1 TAKE responsibility for your own spiritual well being. STOP blaming others or your circumstances. STOP justifyng and STOP making excuses for why you aren´t fully striving to be obedient!" I loved it. It was bold and powerful. I feel like I have mentioned this subject a few times but I LOVE Obedience and I love the feelings of being obedient as we give into the will of God.

 I love the mission and I love the people here. We are Gods children. He is our Father. 

Love, Elder Powell

Sep. 29, 2014 - Hola!

Hello family!

This week has been Great! Thanks for the birthday wishes last week and this week! It was a great day! I was in Malaga so I got to be with a ton of mission buddies!! That was good. It was my last mission Conference and I HAD to bear my final testimony. I say "had" because there is still so much time before I end I didn´t want to give it yet, ha. But it was a bittersweet moment. I cried right when I got to the microphone. It was really good though to be able to bear testimony to other missionaries. It was a powerful experience. :)

We found a great ecuatorian family at the beginning of the week and the father came to church. It was fast and testimony meeting which was great!! The only problem was that the whole branch had gone to the temple the day before so everyone was bearing testimony on some doctrine that isn´t too common. Afterward Joni, the investigator, asked, "So why was everyone talking about being baptized obçver and over again, and what is endowment?" Hahaha we just smiled and said don´t worry, It will come with time. He was ok with that :)

Oh and Thalia finally got back from Suiza. She is a recent convert and super solid. While in Suiza she went to the temple and is going to be such a help back in Alcázar :)

Studies this week were based alot on faith leading to action and action leading to conversion. You can study a ton about conversion, and how people are converted, and what it means to BE converted... but I will leave that studying to you guys. :)

I just have to say that our Heavenly Father is WILLING and READY to bless those that act on Faith. Conversion comes after our acts of Faith. It´s a great little cycle :)

Also, CONFERENCE IS COMING!!! Prepare questions, fast, get ready for a spiritual high and then ACT on the revelation you recieve with FAITH :)

I love you all!

I love the mission!

Love, elder Powell

Sep. 22, 2014 - New Comp :)

Its a new day and a new dawn! :)

How are all of you you doing!? 

We have had an awesome week! We picked up our new comp elder Chacón and he is a champ! He is the youngest missionary in the mish right now. 18 years old and 4 months in the mish :) He´s from Ecuador and still has loads to learn ;) We´re workin on it. :)

Well I don´t think I have ever done that much service in the mission but this week we did a ton.The coolest thing about this week was working in the Vindimia! It is the month of harvest for the grapes. Tomelloso is the largest harvest place for grapes in all of Europe and the second largest in the whole world!! Weird right. Anyway, We went and worked in the vineyards with our convert family and did service with the dad of the famaily who still isn´t a member yet. It was sweet. We worked about three hours by cutting grapes off the vines and throwing it into a huge tractor. While we were there we collected about 4,000 kilos of grapes. By the end of the day they had collected 13,000 kilos!! Yeah it is tiring work and our backs were sore this whole week HA. But it was some good bonding time with the Investigator. Then on saturday we went by in the morning to help them with more service at their house and it was great. He is doing great and came to church with his family again. This is about the fourth time he has been! I really want him to get baptized before I leave :)

Also we worked in this association collecting food for those in need in our town. That was really good too. Like I said lots of service.

We have been working hard though. With three missionaries we are going to start with splits to see all of our investigators and members. 

Right now I am reading in Mosiah and I just reached Alma the younger where he was visited by an angel. Also I just read an article in the 2002 ensign about a man whos heart was softened after twenty years of being married to a member. In both situations prayers were answered to soften the hearts of these two men. Alma was visited by an angel in power and glory thanks to the prayers of his family and people. Talk about an example of Power! But in the same way, a man was converted in the very act of two missionaries bearing sincere testimony and showing loving acts of kindness.

Whether it be an angel or man, it is the same. We both have rights to the spirit that bring power to our words, and the capability to bring conversion. Our Heavenly Father IS perfect and will act in HIS time. But it is good to know that he will ALWAYS act. If anyone knows my missionary scripture I still hold strong to those words in Doctrine and Covenants, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." These words are true and spoken by the mouth of the Lord. Trust him, love him and spek with him.

Life is great! The mission is Great! I love it :)

Love Elder Powell

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. :)