A hurricane for Halloween

Hi Mom-

This week was pretty interesting.  We had some really good lessons with a lot of people. But the highlights were these: We went to the ward trunk or treat and they said it was a "Chile and Chocolate cook off", I was like OH GREAT! Then before we went there Elder Rausch was joking around and said that we were going to be judges. Well sure enough we got there and yup we were. I just let Elder Rausch do it, it wasn't worth it to me, for obvious reasons. But this lady in the ward made chicken and dumplings just for me so i was able to eat without any worries hahaha, it was awesome! The deal tho was that we took her son who is really autistic trunk or treating. We agreed. Well he dressed up as a missionary so that was pretty fun. He read the first car a scripture and after that I just told him to tell the people to repent and be Baptized, and he totally did. Every single car. One person was like, I have already been baptized. So Randy told them to repent and be baptized for the dead hahaha. It was a very fun night. 

Then the next night we had a really good lesson with a part member family. That went really well. We also went to a ladies house to help her with some yard work, and she asked us to chainsaw some stuff. So sorry but that was before you got that email from President Riggs about no chainsaws, I promise  ;) and it was not Hurricane related. But then the Hurricane hit. A lot of wind and a lot of rain. But we did not lose power. We were really safe and everything is fine with us. But Brother Schmidt told us that it pretty much destroyed Queens and I just got a letter from the Langone's saying that Mr. Langone is in Queens. What bad timing. I hope he is ok. But everything is fine now. There is just a little bit of rain. All is well. As a joke Brother Schmidt got us Frankenberry cereal for Hurricane Sandy because its being called Frankenstorm hahaha. 

I LOVE YOU!

Elder Powell

Things are picking up!!!

Hi Mom,

This week was a pretty good week. Last P-Day we had a BBQ at the Centreville stake center with the whole zone. That was way fun. I brought my LAX stick so Yates and I played catch. We were both in heaven. We both cant find any goals anywhere to go shooting but we finally had a chance to use our sticks. (besides using them in the new appartment with tennis balls annoying our new neighbor hahaha). But that was way fun and we played a lot of diffrent things.

 

Then that night we finally had a 1st lesson and picked up a new investigator!!!!!! Its the african american man named Emanuel. He is pretty dang nice. He wanted us to have the first lesson with just him then the next ones will be with his whole family. He really liked the lesson. He said that he will take it seriously and will pray and he feels this would be really good for his kids. We are so excited. Then on Tuesday was the longest zone conference of my life. It was 7 hours long hahaha. What was cool though was that it was at the Ashburn Stake Center where I fisrt started my mission. So it was really fun to be back in that bulding. We spent a lot of time teaching each other. But it just kept going on and on hahaha.

 

That night we did some more tracting and met some potentials. We have been trying most this week to meet with this family in particular. We tracted into his wife but everytime we come back they are busy but they do actually seem interested. They were one of the only few people that didnt think anything when we said what church we were from. Wednesday went pretty fast. There is this 15 year old that the missionaries have been teaching for a while and said she would like to be baptized on her birthday which is november 25th. So we stopped by her house but barley talked for a little bit outside because she has strep throat that was a very very short visit. Something very funny happened that night, Rausch locked us out hahaha. So we spent the night at the Vint Hill Elders appartment and slept on some.......old missionary abused couches hahaha. The next morning we were helping a family move. That was pretty fun because they didnt rent a big enough truck they thought they had less stuff. So when it started to get full thats when it was funny. Trying to cram all sort of stuff in. But they did it and it worked out. The dad and son took us to lunch and we were all talking about funny mission stories. They were both RM's. The son served in England but not one of the London Missions and the dad served somewhere else. But that was dun.

 

Then later that night we helped out WML with a blessing, that took up a lot of time due to the fact that the lady talked for like 2 hours. But the blessing went well and she had 2 awsome dogs. One was boxer and one was pug. They were funny dogs so i spent a lot of time playing with them. Friday we spent planning and tried some more tracting and had a lot of dropped appointments so that was a long day. I started getting a cold on Wednesday because its the end of the month and we are running low on miles we decided to ride our bikes. Well Elder Rausch's bike had problems one right after the other. So we spent a lot of Saturday fixing all of that and trying to get to diffrent places and it was just a bad day. And on Sunday i was pretty sick so we spent the whole day inside but I am feeling a lot better now. So this week was very up and down but a good week. Im excited for the people we now have to teach so things are picking up!!!

Love Elder Powell

Rolling in Haymarket!!!!!

Hi Mom!

Well this week was better than last hahaha. We picked up some new and taught some really strong lessons. So last moday was allllllllll moving. We didnt get done until 1130 at night. Only one man showed up to help and he was the one with the trailer. But it was perfectley fine. On tuesday we had zone training so we met with the zone and that was awesome. (we are having a BBQ right after we are all done emailing). Then we had a really really good lesson with a man named Tim Havrilla. His wife and step son are members. He has taken the lessons a ton and is just waiting to know 100% wether the church is true or not. He told us is deep concerns so it went really well. On wednesday we did some service. We dont get that oppertunity that much like we did in Culpeper. Im bummed about that. We offer to everyone but most people have hired people already that do all their yardwork. But service was pretty fun. Thursday was way legit. We started off by doing service again and that was fun. We were making a burn pile of all the trees that had fallen over from the wind and burnt it all. Then we changed and went on exchanges. I stayed in our area and was companions with Elder Yates. Rausch went to Warrenton. Man Yates and I had so much fun!!!! He is so awesome. He plays lacrosse for BYU. So we had a lot to talk about.

 

We recieved a media referal that day that we went and contacted. Basically the lady went through a lot, was trying to find a website that would help her and when she was looking up religions mormon.org was the first website. She said it answered all her questions. So she asked for us to show up. Unfortunatley it was a short visit so we left her with a BOM and prayed with her. She is in the hospital right now but we will meet with her as soon as possible. Then we met with this teenager who played lacrosse in high school so that was fun. We all played catch for a little bit. Then we had a crazy dinner. The family has the craziest kids. It was hysterical. Yates doesnt get family dinners that much in his ward so he was so happy the whole time. But Thursday was like the best day of the week. i loved it!

 

Friday was fun we met with this old couple. Their names are Emma and Ray. The missionaries Have been helping them out for along time with diffrent acts of service. They invited us to a cook out for Rays birthday the next day. So we went and thats fun. We didnt get to stay for that long but it was fun to meet their family. Its always fun when you meet the family of people you help and they are just so thankful. It was funny though but we werent the missionaries that did the help, but we were reaping the rewards. On Saturday we burnt some more stuff and visited some diffrent people. Church was good and all on sunday and we were fasting for the mission and saw some diffrent people.

 

This week was definitley better from the last but our teaching pool and people we just serve is not where we would like it to be. So we are trying and trying to meet new people and find new people to teach. But the ward is awesome feeds us a ton so thats just awesome. Well i love the work and am excited to get things rolling in Haymarket!!!!!

Love Elder Powell

Onward and Upward

Hi Mom,
This was one of the hardest weeks so far for me as a missionary and Satan is just trying super hard to get to us. The area we are in is difficult because it is all gated communities and it makes tracting impossible.  The work is slow and we get bored easily, which is not good.  I am trying to stay positive and look for ways to serve.  I have to realize that last week is in the past and this week can be better.  It was great to be able to watch General Conference and hear the messages there.  Talk about uplifting.  I hope you were able to enjoy it in the mountains with your friends.

When I got your news, I felt so bad, I couldnt believe it.  I know what is happening is part of the plan that Heavenly Father has for you.   I have prayed mightily about it and am not worried anymore. Well mom i could not of asked for a stronger woman as a mom. you will definitley be blessed in one way or another sooner or later. I really dont know what else to say but keep the faith. thats all we can do. I love you so much mom keep being my example love ya!

Love
Elder Powell

On to Haymarket!

Hi Mom,

I was transfered to the Haymarket ward in the Centreville stake. Now it is Centerville but they spell it Centreville. Best part. My new comp is like the coolest kid ever!!!!! We were seriously best friends before we even got home fro transfer meetings. His name is elder Jacob Rausch (rowsh) from Kerns Utah. He went to high school with my trainer which is pretty funny. But we literally share like everything in common and are having soooooo much fun. The new ward is really small but most wards out in northern Virginia are. The area is incredibly wealthy. Most of our area is all gated communities. So we are trying to come up with diffrent effective ways to find. So Haymarket has a lot of history in it. In our boundries is the battle of Bull Run. We are in Prince William County and the library we go to is called the Bull Run library. Even the elementry school is called Battlefield elementry. i just think all that is sooo cool hahaha. But i love this area soooooo much!! and my new comp he is sooooo awesome we get a long so well. We were talking with president and he was saying that he really feels food about or companionship and is excited to see what happens. Our district leader is elder Yates. The reason i mention it is because he has a lacrosse scholarship to BYU and we would talk all the time at diffrent meetings and now hes my DL!!!! One of the sisters that was in the MTC with me is in our district so thats going to be fun. She is really nice so meetings are going to be awesome.

 

It was pretty hard saying goodbye to the people in Culpeper. Mrs Kelsey held it together and didnt cry. But i called her on friday to let her know where i went and she is really happy for me. Whats funny is Chris Thug Poet and Sister Craighead both offered to buy me a cheap phone to keep on vibrate to stay in contact with them hahahaha. I do really miss Culpeper but i love my new area and comp is its bittersweet. Just like it will be when i leave any area or when i come home. But it all works out everytime!

 

On saturday we helped out the ward with the day of service that was going on in Northern Virginia. Basically last year the church did a food donation drive because september is hunger awarness month. So the governor of virginia got word because the area seventy wanted to approve it with him. Well he loved it so much that he adopted it as his own and then the govenor of Maryland, West Virginia and the Mayor of DC all made it a state wide thing. So there was A TON of effort being put in by the state and church leaders. Elder Rausch and I stood outside Giant (a grocery store) with other members and would ask them if they wanted to help by buying or donating to the Haymarket food pantry. It went really well but a lot of people blew us off because we were missionaries hahaha. But we exceeded our goal of 250 thanksgiving baskets and had enough food to make almost 400 and had a ton of money and extra stuff donated. So everyone was really happy.

 

The other news is we are getting a diffrent appartment and it is incredibly nice. It is the only one in our area that is available now. Our appartment now has a ton of 2nd hand smoke that comes through the vents and is just a filthy place. So the new place i swear looks like the Boardwalk Hotel out in Florida in downtown disney. it is crazy how nice it is hahaha. But ya we got the news we could get a new place a couple of hours after i unpacked all my stuff lol. But all is well and i love where im at and my new comp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! everthing is awesome. O ya my first sunday in the ward Elder Rausch, our WML and I all spoke on missionary work and the stake president was there hahahaha. But it was all good.

LOVE

Elder Powell