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