3 Baptisms!!!!

Hi Mom,

It was an AWESOME week, Matt, Jessica, and Tiffany were all baptized this weekend!!!!!!! It was crazy. SO much was going on. IT was a very stressful but such an amazing week. Tiffany has always had a fear of water.It took her about 3 minutes to get in the water. Then (her uncle was baptizing her) she and Her Uncle sood in the water for about 10 minutes while her grandma was talking with her and then she felt mor comfortable being baptized forward. So she knelt on her knees and she went forward in the baptismal process. BUT she did it!!! Everyone was so happy for her as were Elder Ravia and I. It was a great day! 

Then on Sunday Tiffany was confirmed by her uncle. Matt and Jessica were at church so they were eligable to be baptized right after church so thats what we did! We were planning on it the whole week so it was depending on if they came to church or not.  During church Jessica didnt want to go to Relief Society by herself but when we went to pick her up her and Matt were like "how did you like your class???" and they both said"I loved it!!' so that was really cool to hear. Then we had the baptism right after church. Elder Ayala and I were asked to perform the baptisms so Elder Ayala came all the way down from fairfax. All the office senior missionaries are in his ward so they couple in charge of the cars (Elder Harris and Sister Harris) drove him and his comp (Elder Yates He plays Lacrosse for BYU so we love talking lacrosse with each other) to the baptism. So it was a awesome event. A ton of the ward stayed for the baptism. Matt and Jessica were so happy and everything worked out so perfectly!!!! 

The rest of this week was pretty fun. We had district meetings at the new Spotsylvania bulding. It is all brick and has huge white columns. It looks like a 1800 buliding its soooo awesome. Then the night of all the interviews was chaos trying to get everything done was stressful but way worth it hahahaha. Then we went to the Craigheads for dinner and they had to get stuff from the store for dinner so Wiley took us in the Limo to the store it was a ton of fun! This week was way awesome!!!

 

Love Elder Powell

Welcome to Culpeper!

Hi Mom!

Great news!!  Im stayng in Culpeper again! My new companion is Elder Ravia. He is from the Island of Fiji. He is about my heigth but way bigger than me. He is really nice and he is way awesome so i am excited for this next transfer. This week was pretty slow but sill a good one. Matt and Jessica have fallen of date again. They had mess up with smoking and didnt come to church this week so they have to be postponed for a little while. But tiffany is still on date. She is going to be baptized this week on saturday. We stopped by Mrs Kelsey's yesterday. She just got back from the beach house out in North Carolina. She was telling us all about it and all the fun she had. Her nickname for Elder Ravia is Tank hahaha. Its definitley fitting.

At the transfer meeting right before the calls president riggs took about 20 minutes talking about change hahaha. Everyone was like "o boy". Then as soon as we got home the ZLs called and told us that our weekley meetings were all changed now.  The way they have it set up now, you only see everyone in your Zone at Zone sports. Everyother week we drive to Spotsylvania and only meet with them and our roomates. Then the other weeks they drive here and meet in culpeper with us. So it saves us a lot of miles. But its is just going to be wierd at first but its for the good.

O ya here is the big story for the week. We got this text from a member on thursday telling us not to use our water at home. He then told us that they were doing construction and broke a water line and that all the water was contaminated. So he took us out to get groceries and bottled water after he got off work. I told elder Ravia this was his welcoming to Culpeper hahaha. So ya other than that it was just a normal week. Wiley Craighead (the man we have been working with) bought a limo so we took some pictures in that and he said that he would drive us to Fredericksburg to pick up other missionaries and bring them back for a cook out so thats gonna be fun.

Tell everyone I said hello and I'm doing great!  I haven't gotten the packages you or President B had sent, but hopefully I will this week.  Sometimes it just takes a while to catch up with us.  Have a great week mom, I  love ya man!

 

Love Elder Powell

My oncology nurse got baptized!!

Hey Mom!

Man this week was way awesome! On monday we had a really fun Pday and drove an hour out to zone sports and had a lot of fun playing basketball and gatorball (a random game that has like random sports included in one). Then on Tuesday we interviews with Pres Riggs. He is so awesome!!!!! He gives really really good advice. So that went really well. Wednesday was pretty average we had a couple lessons but nothing major happened. Then on thursday we taught Matt and Jessica again. That went so well! We taught them most of the commandments and they had no problem with obeying them. They didnt have a couple relapses with the smoking but they are trying really hard to quit by next sunday for their baptism. At the end of the lesson they were like "what do you guys want to eat next time we'll totally feed you" Man we were so excited for that they are so awesome!!!! And they were holding their little son nathan the whole time. He is doing a lot better. He is a premature baby and is only 6 months right now and they are really watching his health really closey. Hes like the cutest little baby i have ever seen. Elder Ayala and I are way jealous of him tho hahaha. A couple of months ago the Redskins Cheerleaders were in town for something and Matt and Jessica got all of them to take individual pictures holding nathan. They have all those pictures in his photo album they were showing us and we were like LUCKY!! hahaha. So then on friday we took "see you later" pictures with Mrs Kelsey. She was really sad because she doesnt want any of us to leave and as we were walking out she was crying hard. SO that was hard at first. But we wont know who is leaving until tomorrow so who knows if ill get to see her soon. She just went out of town for this whole week. So ya that was hard. 

Then on saturday there were 2 baptism. In our ward was an 8 year old Thomas Bridges. Hes a really cool little kid. So we went to that and Matt and Jessica were going to come but they couldnt make it. But Thomas was way excited. We had dinner with them on wednesday and for his birthday someone gave him toy volcano that you put baking soda and vinager in and it errupts. So when we were there he wanted us to set it off so i have a picture of that. THen we taught this former investigator that was about to be baptized but at the baptism backed out because she is afraid of water. But this was 3 years ago. Now she swims, so we put her on date for august 25th. So that was way cool. Then a member drove us all the way out to Mclean to Marshas baptism! (my oncology nurse!!). That was so much fun!!! The chapel their is soooo cool. I had to get special permission from president riggs because it is so far but since i was involved he thought it was cool and let us go.  she was confirmed and i was asked to be in the circle so that was really cool. Then afterwards i got a picture with her and she told me she was thankful for what i did in helping her in this journey to be baptized and that was really cool to hear. So it will be really fun to see her at my next infusion. 

Then on sunday everyone and their mother showed up at church. Matt, Jessica, and Tiffany (all the people on date) so that was way fun. But because it was so packed we were setting up a lot of extra chairs during the sacrament and more people kept coming so that was fun because this ward hasnt had an attendance like that in for ever. Then we had dinner at this really cool families house. Their name is the Palmers. Their kids love the missionaries. At the end of dinner brother palmers was talking about how he had been recenley really sick and said that he was just diagnosed with Colitis and i was like dude i have Crohns! and he was like no way! so we talked for like another about ALLLL our experiences and he was like your like my brother hahahaha. He has Kaiser as well and his GI is a 7 foot tall man who is a Jew and they talk a little about religion he says but his GI calls everyone "Baby" so he says he is really cool. Apparently our bishop has Colitis as well and we were like we should get a Mormon Therapy group going hahaha. But at the end of dinner brother palmer was like im proud of you for serving in your condition. That was pretty strong to hear and i just thanked him and as we walked out him and his boys yelled "missionaries rule!!" hahaha.

One of the coolest things happend. On my 6 month mark exactly, i got this package form uncle steve. As i open it i saw what it was and i dropped the package i stood up and was screaming NO WAY, NO WAY, NO WAY!!!!!  Elder Ayala and our roomates were like what??? and i proceeded to open up and put on a Stanley Cup Final Michael Richards LA Kings Jersey!!!!!! I was sooooo exctied. They were all laughing and i was wearing it like all day in the appartment hahaha. I explained to the elder form Norway what it would be like if his soccer team won the championship and he then understood hahaha. So that was way legit! This week was amazing!

Love ya!

Elder Powell

Don't sneeze while cutting your hair!

Hi Mom!

This week was epic. Nothing reallly bad happened but so the lows were just funny instances. On tuesday was the biggest miracle. On monday we got a call for a referal. On Tuesday (i was on an exchange in the Chancellorsville area) the referal family called and elder Ayala and the other elder went over there. It was amazing what happened. They were taught lesson 1 (the restoration) and loved it and agreed with everything. At the end the Husband (matt) asked what the purpose of life was. So they proceeded to teach lesson 2 (the plan of salvation) and they loved that as well. They are a newly married young couple and his friend who talks with him about the church mentioned the Sealing ordinance and when they talked about it during the first lesson they grabbed each others hands and were looked at each other and said "doesnt that sound amazing honey". Ya it was incredible Elder Ayala said the spirit was so incredibly strong. But anyways they agreed with and said everything made so much sense. So they were Athiest their whole lives they said before that lesson and now they have a huge belief in God. Then we taught them on Friday and they even fed us a LEGIT Italian dinner. But not as good as Mrs Langones hahaha. But it was still way good. Then we taught them lesson 3 (the gospel of jesus christ) and watched "The Lamb of God" with them. Matt said his first prayer he has ever said in whole life and it was such a great prayer and his wife (jessica) was so proud of him. They are so prepared it is rediculous. They told us the day before they met us they decided to quit smoking and havent since. They have a 6 month year old baby named nathan. He was born prematurley and they said that because he already has health restriction they thought it was just best to stop smoking. And they are married. So we put them on date for August 12th after church to be baptized but nathan was sick yesterday and they were not able to come to church so it got pushed back a week but they are so excited and this is just such an awesome situation we are so exctited for them!!!!! 

So other than that just a lot of funny stuff happened. When we wen to help Brother Haught this week at his house we spent 2 hours cutting down a tree and that was fun lol. Then after that we went to lunch at Chick Fil A and just guess what day it was. Yep, it was gay kiss day at chick fil a. So ya,  us 4 sweaty guys walk in and everyone was staring at us and a member was there and she walked up to us and was like are you guys here to kiss? we were like WHAT? she told us the story and we were like O NO!! hahahaha. So thats what you get for not watching the news and it was just a really funny situation. I thought it was really funny but Elder Ayala not so much hahaha. But the food was good lol. 

Also as i was cutting my hair the sizer popped off and i put a big shaved spot in the back of my head so i couldnt help but laugh at that. Luckily my hair grows fast so it isnt as bad as it was earlier in the week hahaha but i took a picture of it cuz i have to admit it is funny. I just tell people "thats what happens when you sneeze and are in the middle of cutting  your hair" hahaha. We helped Mrs Kelsey some more and shes always a blast. She got us all bottled IBC root beer as a special treat after we were done so that was pretty fun. Then We say Wayne Paffinbavger again. He said the freaking funniest thing to Elder Ayala. He asked him if his name was spanish and he said ya and then he asked him if he was a citizen. It was so funny! I started laughing really hard and Elder Ayala was like "ya why?" and Wayne was just like "o well you can never be to sure" hahahaha i was dying after that. But thats what you get when you be teachin them rednecks lol. 

Love ya miss ya!

 

Love Elder Powell