Talk about misinterprtation!!

Hi Mom,

Man this week was really good!!  We had zone conference which took all day because we live so far away that when we got home it was already time for dinner. We have been doing a lot of service and LA work. Its been going really well.

We have 5 progressing investigators and were way excited for them. We had an investigator show up for sacrament meeting and that was way awesome! It was my first investigator to attend church. It was the older lady who we do the service for and shes taking the lessons now. Our whole ward was really nice in welcoming her and she'll probably come back next Sunday! 

It has been raining a ton and me and Elder Perry love it! The area is so awesome. One of the Elders from our apartment had his birthday so Doug and Karen had us over to celebrate it. It was the elder who got in the car accident so as a joke they got him a hot wheel and said it was the only car Pres. Albright would let him drive hahaha.

Well everything has been going really well and i just love this area so much!  We had this really really good lesson with this part member family and the wife is so incredibly close to baptism everyone is so excited for her. She was telling us how shes been to so many different churches and one that she went to only once in florida was this crazy one where they released snakes into the audience and said true believers would not be bitten! So she booked it out of there and was making sure we werent like that. Talk about misinterprtation, right!  We were all laughing when she shared that story. We hopefully will make a lot of progress this week with the investigators and meet more less actives and challenge them all to come back to church. The ward here split because it was too big and as soon as they split both a ton of members went inactive, pretty ironic but gives us more work to do! Well everything is going awesome and we love the work!

I love you Mom!

Elder Powell

It is straight up country here!

Hi Mom!
Its official. I’m in the South! Like the boonies. I’m Culpeper (pronounced Culpepper) in the Fredericksburg Zone. The southernmost part of my mission. It is so much fun I love it!! My new companion is Elder Perry from Roy Utah. He is so cool. We share like everything in common and get along so well. the area around here is awesome. Its straight up country here. My last district leader at transfer meetings was like "I hope you’re a farm boy" hahaha. It’s like that everywhere down here. Threes "caution" and "beware of tractor" signs everywhere hahaha. We went to the Wal-Mart in town and got some groceries and there were so many people with missing teeth it was hilarious. The ward is small but way awesome. Everyone here is all relaxed and calm and jokes around. It’s so much fun. We have a condo not an apartment. Its way awesome as well. Alot of space so it’s nice. We once again have roommates which makes things fun. One of the roommates is elder Hubbard that was in my district last transfer so I already know him and get along with him really well. I’m so excited to be in this area!!!

The first service project we did was dug a tree out of a ladies front yard. (Which took 30 minutes to drive to). We trimmed it then dug it down and used a car to pull it out of the crater once it was done. Then we planned for tracting later that night and as soon as we got to the place, a lady called us and needed and emergency blessing so we made the car ride over there. Her house was made in the early 1900's. There’s a ton of old houses around here. Ones form the civil war and all. Its way awesome. Our area consists of Culpeper county which is HUGE and half another county that we split with our roommates. There the Piedmont area. they cover 2 and a half counties. So were in cars and we have such a huge area that takes a lot of time to get from one place to another.

We received 2 media referrals and one was busy so we went to check on the other. We went literally through this huge windy road and at the end was this long dirt road that was really steep and when we finally got there the lady was interested and we set up an appointment on Wednesday. She had visited the DC temple and excepted a visit from the missionaries so that was how we received her as a referral from salt lake.

There’s this awesome older couple in our complex. Their names are Doug and Karen. they want us to call them mom and dad because they know that we tend to run out of money in the first week, cant sew, and sometimes need food. So when I met them they told me that they are the backup plan for if we are typical 19-21 year olds and don’t have money, food, need clothes fixed. But I sewed a button for one of the missionaries in our apartment, so I go that down. Doug is a civil war reinactor and told me all about the confederacy and showed me all his guns and uniform. He is in the 123rd Kentucky something or other. But this area is so awesome I love it so much! I replaced an elder who served here for 13 months so everyone is joking around saying that might be me hahaha. But I wouldn’t mind it at all. I really like this country southern stuff. O ya there’s confederate flags everywhere!

So even better now than that is Elder David A Bednar is coming to talk to the DC. North, DC South, and Baltimore missions in DC on May 5th. So we have to leave at 4AM just to get there. And he sent 2 talks to our president that he wants us to study so May 5th is gonna be awesome!!!!! Everything is so good and amazing out here I LOVE IT!!

Love you Mom!

Elder Powell

There is no such thing as coincidence!

Hi Mom!
There is no such thing as coincidence. On Wednesday when when I went to get my infusion, we were in the waiting room and these two ladies walked in. One said "Hey Elders!" She is a member and had random time to come with her friend to sit with her during her Chemo. We JUST SO HAPPENED to be assigned to 2 chairs next to each other and had people to talk to the whole time! Heres the best part. We didn’t know how we were gonna get lunch and out of nowhere she asked if she could buy us lunch because she was gonna go get some really quick for her and her friend. She was also able to give us a referral because she new people that lived in our ward boundaries but didn’t know the Elders in it. She lives in the neighboring ward. HOW AMAZING IS THE LORD? He provides so much for us it’s so awesome!

This was the most humbling part though. She at the end of the visit told me how she admired me for the fact that I went on a mission. She told me how her daughter was diagnosed at a young age with Crohns and I could of chosen not to serve because of health issues and no one would of judged me. But she said she was impressed with the fact that I went anyways. She was crying a little and the spirit was intense. I was thankful that she told me that. It was such an amazing experience. I just told her how if Jesus served a mission for 33 years and died for us, if ancient missionaries served for like 10 years, and if the first modern missionaries left their wives and kids to serve, How selfish is it of us in this time not to serve? Thats really how I look at it. Only Laman and Lemuels look at a mission and say "It is a hard thing that the lord asks" as they say in 1 NE ch 2. It’s not a hard thing to serve the Lord for 2 years. Its hard work, but not impossible. 1 Ne 3:7 there’s always a way that the lord has prepared for us.

Later in the week we had great lessons with our investigators. And we had a blitz Saturday night. That’s when 2 companionships tract the same area to get twice the amount of work done if elders need help in their area. It was a perfect opportunity because tomorrow was Easter. We talked with some people that were home and had a great night. Then came Easter. Church service was awesome. The talks were about temporal and spiritual death. And today I just so happened to read Alma chapter 12 and 13 during personal study which just so happened too talk exactly about that. But then we did some tracting and met some new people but didn’t get any real potential investigators but everyone was real receptive to what we had to say about Jesus Christ so that was good.

Then we had Dinner at the Doxeys and they got us Easter Baskets and Sister Doxey made a huge HUGE dinner. It was so good! She told me all about her time in California and that was great to hear. Then that night we had one of the coolest lessons ever. This man named Alan who we have had a lot of appointments fall through the hole cuz he gets really busy or forgets. But he went out of his way and met with us at his house while his whole family was over celebrating Easter. He had a daughter with a different lady than his current wife and this daughter was brought up in the church by her grandma. So we were able to have a member present lesson! The coolest part though was that his 10 year daughter was able to bear her testimony and teach him about Lehi and the iron rod. He had this huge smile and was way excited and having his daughter there, and I knew that meant so much to him. It was awesome! That was this week. And it was way awesome!
Love you!
Elder Powell

Conference is like the Super Bowl for Missionaries!

Hi Mom,
So this week was pretty average. The real best part was general conference. There were so many amazing talks all them were way good. The coolest part is when speakers are assigned to speak in general conference. They are only given an amount of time they need to speak. So when there’s a topic in conference, its complete inspiration. This was obviously families. It’s really coming down to the fact that the world is literally diminishing the family and it’s just disgusting.

When we finish reading all of the missionary library, we can read books written by prophets. My district leader is reading "The Miracle of Forgiveness" by Spencer W. Kimball. It is a book that is so powerful and straight forward. I think it’s a book that everyone should read. It gives them a huge wake up call. And countless things Spencer W. Kimball says in the book that really make you think of how perverse the world really is and makes you glad that you not a part of this decaying society.

My favorite talk was by L. Tom Perry about the Book of Mormon. I’m like addicted to reading it every day, and i find an hour of personal time is not nearly enough. But we had an investigator call us and was mad because he thought L. Tom Perry was diminishing the Bible and so we are gonna go over to his house tonight and watch it with him and explain that Elder Perry even said "The book of Mormon proves the bible, and the bible proves that Jesus is the Lamb of God". (Something along those lines) Long story short the Investigator misinterpreted L. Tom Perry. But General conference is like the Super Bowl for Missionaries and we get it twice a year! It was awesome.

Other than that the week was good and i got a lot of letters and some packages so thanks for all the love and support from everyone!

Love you,
Elder Powell