This week was really great!

 

Hey MOM!!!!

This week was yet again another great week. Not too many things happened but the things that did were really awesome. The first really cool thing that happened was we had our fun mission Christmas conference. It was up in Oakton so not that bad of a drive. When we got there we watched some missionaries perform talents. So all that means is we herd piano playing and singing. That wasn't the funnest part. Afterwards we went into the chapel and Pres Riggs gave a really good devotional. He started the meeting of by saying that he was going to call on people he felt impressed to call on, for them to come up and share their testimony and thoughts about Jesus Christ. So the meeting went really well and just as Pres Riggs said he wasn't going to call on any one else he sits down and talks with Sister Riggs and then gets up and says that Sister Riggs told him to have me come up. So that was a funny surprise but I am really thankful for the experience. I honestly can't remember much of what I said but I felt really really good and calm and spiritual. So that was a really really great experience that I had. Then after the devotional I was able to see all my friends in the mission. So that was a really fun and great time.

 

Becky and Eleanor started their move on Saturday. Eleanor said that she wanted a smaller place so they found this nice little apartment that is still in the ward. We went over on Saturday night and we just caught up with Becky. She is handling the situation really well and it was a great visit. Its funny because she is so prepared to be baptized that whenever we share a scripture with her from the Book Of Mormon she knows exactly where it is and whats going on during that point in time in the Book Of Mormon. But they are doing really good. We are going to help them move a little bit of furniture on Tuesday and that will pretty much be it. When we came over on Saturday she was drinking a Red Bull energy drink and was asking us if we liked them and we were like Heck YA and she couldn't even finish it lol. Just a funny thing that happened.

 

The other thing that we went to on Saturday was a funeral for this older lady in our ward. She joined the church at the age of 73 and from that point on was able to index over 20,000 names for the church. It was a pretty cool story. Her second marriage was to a member of the church so thats how she was introduced and she was able to be sealed to him just before he past away. But she is the only member in her family so it was a really good funeral because it was at our church and when her hometeacher spoke he spoke a lot about the plan of salvation and it helped them out a lot. The hometeachers were a son and dad almost exactly like Pres B and I were with sister Larson. The son even gave the prayer at the end as well so it reminded me a lot of sister Larson's funeral which in turn made me almost cry, it was very emotional...but its all good.

 

Then we had this really good lesson with the man named Emanuel. Elder Rausch and I tracted into him last transfer and taught him the first lesson. Then we were able to finally teach him L2. Which is the plan of salvation. He really enjoyed it and is very thankful for what we do and says that all young men should serve missions at this point in their lives. But this awesome miracle happened with him. When we were leaving the apartment that day I grabbed a copy of the Family Proclamation to give to him. When we gave it to him he explained how his friend at work who is a member showed this to him on his phone and Emanuel said that he loved it and knew it was straight from god and wanted a copy and we JUST SO happened to bring a copy! It was a pretty cool little miracle. Then we went over to the Richardson one night. They are the awesome family from Cali. They have an 18 year old kid named Keagan who they pretty much adopted who is living with them now. He randomly asked us why there were so many churches off of the Bible. We then were like "a 14 year old boy had that same question" and taught him the restoration. It was a really good lesson because the whole family except a couple were in on the lesson. The rest of the family was watching their cat give birth upstairs. But the lesson went really really well. Sister Richardson is really trying to help him out and she is really excited for him to take this step. Long story short we are going with Josh (their son who is waiting on his mission call) and Keagan to the temple to see the Christmas lights on Wednesday. Then today we were invited to the stake Presidents home with all the other missionaries for a Christmas devotional and lunch. Pres Riggs was there and some other High Priest's. It was really fun and they took some pictures that they will be emailing to you soon! i know youll really like the picure. Its of Press Riggs, Pres and Sister Hilton, and our companionship in front of their Christmas tree. So this week was really great! Transfers are this week so who knows whats going to happen!

 

Love you!!!

Elder Powell