Brian passed his baptismal interview and is all set to be Baptized on Wednesday!!

Hey mom!

This week was awesome. Brian passed his baptismal interview and is all set to be Baptized on Wednesday!!!! He is such great guy. The Bishop and other ward leaders keep mentioning how it isn't that often that you see an obvious future leader be Baptized. It has been such a great experience being able to teach him and see the sacrifices he has made to be Baptized. He is even doing missionary work already. He is influencing a couple of people just by his example. There are 2 people who want to learn more just because they have seen him accept it and have seen the change in his life. Man it is just such a great situation!!!

One cool miracle that happened this week was an investigator that doesn't want to consider himself and investigator just accepted the lessons. His wife (who he just married last month) called and told us that he has accepted the invitation to listen to the lessons. This is a big deal because he has been coming to church for like 2 months. He just started to practice Christianity only 3 years ago. But he loves to read the manuals and ask a ton of questions. We only had one official lesson with him and he did not want to commit. But the Bishop developed a great relationship with them and he ended up being the one who married them. A lot of people have been putting in effort to help us out with "bringing him into the fold". We were only meeting every 3 weeks and having dinner and just discussing what his questions were. He is in Mosiah chapter 15 and he is also reading the Doctrine and Covenants. Needless to say he is prepared and the fact that he is now ready to have the lessons is huge!!!!!

Funny Story. Because it has been so cold we have started to park in the Garage at night to avoid the ice storms and the snow and just the general miserable freezing car in the morning feeling. So our car was making a ton of noise when we were turning on the Heater. So we take it in and they check out the car and walk back in and the guy has a huge wadding of what looks like cotton in his hand. It turns out a mouse has been building a nest in our air vent hahaha. So members are bringing us mouse traps today and we will hopefully put an end to this problem. 

Other than that Christmas was great. The Friends had us over and it did feel like we were at home! It was awesome. We opened up presents had breakfast and then watched Mulan. After that we did some service for a family. They live way out in the woods of our area. Their son is moving in with them after a really bad situation (thats the best I can describe it) and so he has all this stuff that he brought with him. Well it was all just stored in their garage so we moved it all down to his room or we put it on a trailer for him. He saw us at church and explained that he was dreading having to come home and move all that, that night, but when he saw that it was done already he was so grateful. We had set a goal as a Zone to give 2 hours of service on Christmas and ours really helped someone which was really rewarding to see. 

We had a lady speak at church on Sunday in behalf of her Grandma. Her grandma has Parkinson disorder but our Bishop felt really inspired that she needed to talk. So she wrote up a talk and her grandaughter read it. Then at the end they gave a microphone to her and she bore her testimony. It was seriously one of the most spiritual Sacrament meetings I have been in. 

This week was truly great!!!!

Love 

Elder Powell 

The true meaning of Christmas

Hey Mom!

 

This week was pretty good. We had a great lesson with Tracy Hayens and his wife Wanni. She really wants to be baptized and is working on reading a little bit in Elglish from the Pamphlets that we teach with. We also just found a copy of the Book of Mormon in Cambodian. It has a personal testimony from someone in it so we are going to give it to her next week.

 

We went to the Temple Visitors Center with Brian and Brandelyne on Tuesday. That was tons of fun. We saw Paul Cardall perform. He was awesome! We got there early so we could watcht the video Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration and he loved it. We took some pictures on his camera and we will have him email it to us.

 

We also had a great service project that we did on Saturday. It was the ward Christmas party and they made it service oriented. Basically they chose 7 families consisting of members and non members and they made a list of things they needed doanted and put them as ornaments on the tree in the foyer. The ward members then grabbed the different things they wanted to donate and then they all brought them Saturday morning. We had a great turn out and there the packages that were made for them were huge. It was awesome to see how to change the typical ward party into a service oriented party that showed the true meaning of Christmas. We went with one of the members of the Bishopric to drop one families gifts off and it was really touching. It was a great way remember what Christmas was all about.

 

Other than that we had a slow weeK! Lame but we are working hard at finding new people to teach. One thing President Riggs wants us to focus on is asking EVERYBODY for referrals and to focus on teaching families!

 

Talk to you soon!

 

ELder Powell!!!

Miracles are happening and its such an amazing time to be a Missionary!!!!

Hey Mom!!!!

This week was awesome!!!! First we had a Family Home Evening with the High Priest group leader in our ward and that was awesome. His wife made this type of cider that uses orange juice and pineapple juice and it was delicious. So we asked and got the recipe hahaha. 

On Tuesday we helped a family move. That took a while. For the first couple of days this week there was ice all over the ground (we had an ice storm which froze all the water and snow) so we could drive anywhere. Well after the move we had a lesson with Brian and went out to give a Baptismal interview out in Sterling. Long story short it was an adventure! Everything worked out well and we had  a great time. Brian is doing amazing. He is coming to church and they are reading the Book of Mormon and keeping all their commitments! When we asked him if he had received an answer to his Prayers if Joseph Smith was a Prophet he said that he felt like he did because every time he reads the Book of Mormon he knows he is feeling the Spirit and that it all makes sense. Man he is so awesome. The ward leaders are really excited for him to be Baptized because they feel that he is such a special soul and everyone is just really excited for him. 

On Wednesday we had this really long meeting during the day. But after I renewed my temple recommend with President. That was awesome. He told me how he really wants me to stay in this area for my last transfer (which was really exciting to hear). After we had a Stake Meeting where we meet with the Stake High Counsel Representative over the Ward Mission Leaders and all the Ward Mission Leaders in the Stake. Basically they set a goal of achieving 50 convert Baptisms. Last year the Ashburn Stake only got 25 and the year before that they got 23. Well as of today we are at........49!!!!!! It is so awesome. Everyone is so excited. There are still 2 people being baptized this month and possibly a 3rd. But all the ward mission leaders really want to attend the 50th and are really focused and pumped about missionary work. It is awesome to see how people are catching the Lords Vision of the hastening of the work. Miracles are happening and its such an amazing time to be a Missionary!!!!

We had the Christmas conference on Friday and that was really awesome. I got to see friends and past companions. We had a lot of fun but also focused on the True meaning of Christmas. President as usual delivered a great talk.

Then yesterday we had a great day at church, and had a lesson with Tracey Haynes and his wife Wanni. It was a great lesson! She understands and speaks a lot more English that we thought. She totally has the intent, but stated she wants to know 100% that this is true. It was a humbling teaching experience because we really had to teach very basic but still be able to teach the correct principles. A couple of times we had to stop and think "ok how am I going to explain this" but it turned out so well. 

Things are going great. We get transfer calls tomorrow so most likely I am staying here with Elder Fink. We are excited about that and for all the work we have to do!

Love 

Elder Powell 

Great....more snow

Hi Mom,

This week was awesome! The 2 biggest things is that Brian is still doing amazing, and.........I got to submit Keagans mission papers!!!!(I will explain)

We had zone conference and that was really good. It was only a short 3 hour one because we are on a short transfer this time and so they have to squeeze in 10 zone conferences. Pres and Sister Riggs gave 2 really great lessons. Sister Riggs was all about Faith. She was talking about how when the Apostles said "Lord increase our faith" and she talked a lot about how there are things that we need to do to increase our own faith and that is what the Lord expects. Then President talked about Repentance. He was at a mission Presidents seminar and they trained them on how to effectively teach repentance. He taught us the true doctrine of it and we discussed how when we teach it, it needs to be about how amazing it is that we have the chance to repent. Teach it more positively and that it is a happy thing, because it truly is! 

The lesson was great with Brian Tuesday. In it he asked me to Baptize him. I was really shocked because there is a member that we have been taking and it is like his best friend and he asked for me to Baptize him and for the friend to confirm him. I dont know why but I really did feel the spirit extremely strong when he asked me. It was really humbling and after he even commented and was like "I could tell you were feeling the spirit when I asked you that". He keeps doing so much to be prepared for Baptism. It is going to be such a great day to see them be married and to see him make that next covenant in his life and prepare him to go through the temple in a year!

Now for Kegan. We had to drive somewhere in the mission for some car maintenance, on the way I thought hey lets stop by the Richardsons and say Hi. When we did we found out that all he needed to do was take his picture to submit his papers and he was being difficult hahaha. He for what ever reason was not wanting to but when we showed up he did and then they had me hit "submit"on mission papers to the Bishop. It seems like something so small but it was a big thing for all of us. Im just amazed at all that has happened with Kegan. He is almost on a mission and that is such a big deal for him!

On Sudnay it snowed. Now in Virginia, the snow is NOT enjoyable. First it snowed, then rained then it froze. We weren't aloud to drive anywhere or go out and work. So we had dinner set up with the Friend family. Brother Friend picked us up, we had a great dinner and then talked and played some games and then watched the Christmas devotional. They want to do so much for us because their son is serving in the Irvine mission and they really miss him. They want to have us all over for dinner on Christmas. They are an awesome family! 

That was pretty much the highlights of the week. Also I gave a Baptismal interview and the lady was really prepared. We have a stake goal of 50 baptism for the year and we are at 45! We are trying so hard to get there!

Love Elder Powell 

Miracles CAN and WILL happen!

Hey Mom!!!!

Its that time of the year again so that means I'm breaking out the Christmas tie and wearing it from December 1st until Christmas hahaha. This week was pretty good. We had a SUPER long thanksgiving.....we had 5 meals. It was insane. So this is how it broke down. We went to this families house and had pie for breakfast. It is a tradition that they have and they invited people from the ward so a lot were there. That was a good start. Then we went out to eat lunch with another family. The took us to a restaurant named Bob Evans and we had a turkey dinner for lunch. The family is a less active lady and her non member Husband that we do service for. They are a great couple and the Husband is hysterical. But that was tons of fun. Then like 3 hours after that we went to Victoria's and had a Turducken dinner. Holy cow let me just say that was delicious! Its a Chicken, stuffed in a Duck, stuffed in a Turkey. It was so dang good. That was a huge meal. Then after we went and had dinner at Hanna's. Her mom was having another house party for her family and we had some more Thai food. It was the order I would of picked to have the Thai food as the 4th meal but I am thankful for it! That was a lot of fun. We always meet new people when we are there and they are all really nice. After that we went over to Alexis' house. The 9 year old that was baptized. That was really fun. Her family is so awesome and they all love the missionaries. They are all from Guatemala so we had some spicy stuffing hahaha. But after it was all said and done Elder Fink and I went home and crashed. We didnt move for like 30 minutes and once we were done with planning we went straight to bed hahaha. But it was a great day.

On Tuesday I had my last appointment with my GI. That was a good visit. But the problem was the traffic on the way back. Traffic is terrible in Northern Virginia hahaha. It took us 2 1/2 hours to travel 28 miles. But anyways, that night we had a lesson with Brian and Brandelyne. We didn't have much time but it was a great lesson. We went over the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. He accepted them and went on to explain how they had already been living these things and are talking about what will need to happen before they are married on the 1st. Brandelyne is a member and she has been making the necessary changes and so has Brian and they are so prepared for him to be baptized and for them to be married! Its going to be great!

On Friday we met the Richardsons at Cafe Rio. It was so great to see them. Kegan is doing so well. He was officially ordained an elder and he is almost done with his mission papers!! He has done all the interviews and he is just finishing his medical stuff. They are trying to get it all done so he can go through the temple in January. That would be like the coolest thing if I was here for that. 

Really other than that not that much happened because a lot of people were either out of town or were sick this week. But we are working really hard right now. Our Bishop set a goal of 6 more baptism for the end of the year and we have had 2 from September to January. So we are really trying to work hard and we have the faith the miracles can and will happen!    

Love Elder Powell!!!

 Show message history

This week was really great!

Hey Mom!

This week was great! The biggest news is that Brian (a man that we just started teaching who is living a member) announced that they are getting married on 1-1-14 and he is being baptized that same day! Also Nicole is on date for 1-25-14. But we might try and move that one up. 

We had a great time at church. President and Sister Riggs were there. They spoke in Sunday school and in the different classes and 3rd hour. They did a great job at getting the ward even more excited to do missionary work. 

We spent some time on Saturday morning helping a family put up chandeliers. That was long but fun at the same time.

We started working with a man named Grady. He works with a member of the ward and is his neighbor. We had a great first lesson and Grady even said that the first vision was "Profound". He wants to believe it. We are really excited to be working with him. 

We also started working with this 19 year old named Omar. He is a kid that we tracted into. His family is Muslim but they aren't practicing. He said that he was interested in learning more especially about Jesus Christ and what we believe about him. 

On Wednesday we had a Zone conference with Elder Teh from the first quorm of the 70. Is is awesome. He is pretty funny and it was a great conference. He talked a lot about staying as far away from "The Line" that separates good and evil. He also talked a lot about developing the Faith to Find and Preparing to Teach by the Spirit. It was a really long conference but it was really good. 

This week was really great! Our Bishop set a goal for our ward to get 6 more convert Baptisms by the end of the year and we have had 2. Its getting close so we are working really hard to achieve that goal!

Love Elder Powell  

KEGAN IS AN ELDER!!!

Hey Mom!!,

First things first. KEGAN IS AN ELDER!!! HE IS ALSO GOING THROUGH THE TEMPLE AND INVITED ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im so happy for him and the Richardsons!!!!!!! They just informed me!!!

This week was awesome. My companion finished his mission this transfer and so I got a new one. His name is Elder Fink. He is from Bakersfield, CA. NOT UTAH!!!!!! hahahaha. We get along really well. Miracles are happening left and right out here! Part member families are being prepared. We had a great lesson with a man named Brian. He was been coming to church for a couple of months. He already has a calling. He works with the scouts. His girlfriend is a member. They are so ready for the Gospel. Brian is really prepared. He does a lot of reading out of the Gospel Library on his Ipad! The lesson was really spiritual and awesome! We are seeing him every Tuesday night so we are excited for that. 

Nicole is doing great. She wanted to wait until January to be Baptized because she didn't feel she was ready. She is going out of town a lot for the Holidays so they decided that at the end of January would be best. We are still teaching her every week and she still has the desire and wants to be Baptized.

We are teaching one of Victoria's friends named Hanna. She has a lot going on in her life right now. Her dad passed away so the Gospel is going to help her so much. We had a great lesson last night and had her kneel and pray. While she was praying we had her pause in the middle and just listen. After we talked with her about it and she totally could notice a difference in how she was feeling. 

They made the announcement and we are getting Ipads on December 11th. That will be interesting. Facebook is going decently. But things are going really well!!!

Love Elder Powell

Victoria was Baptized!!

Hey Mom,

This week was pretty good. Victoria was Baptized!!! The Baptism went really well. There were a ton of people there. The whole ward has been waiting for her to be Baptized. Victoria has been pushing for a while to get her mom to let her. In fact at the Baptism her Brother who originally converted 5 years ago was bearing his testimony about the whole situation and said that Victoria was trying to get her mom to allow it by nagging her everyday and her mom says "It was so annoying!!". It was so funny everyone was laughing. A ton of missionaries were there. One of them was my trainer. He has changed so much since we were companions. He actually goes home this week. But it was really fun to see all the missionaries there that have been praying for this moment for a long time.

We finally had another lesson with Nicole. They took a 3 week break from us hahaha. But she has decided that she is going to wait until the end of January or end of February to be baptized. It was a pretty good lesson for the fact that the only reason why she is being baptized is because our Bishop talked to President Riggs and they were cleared. She is living with her Boyfriend and we had a lesson where we taught the law of Chastity and we had to be the bad guys a little bit. Nicole didn't handle it too well. But she is still wanting to have lessons and is reading and praying. So it is what is. 

We had meeting this week where we talked more about online proselyting. It was pretty good. We presented it to other missionaries today and they were all excited. But its funny because President doesn't have too many answers about all of the online Proselyting and stuff so a lot of the questions were answered with "If it helps you fulfill your purpose as a missionary then yes you can" hahaha. 

We have been doing what we call "Family Fun Nights" where we have a family home evening with families and play games with them. Its a really nice time for them to have a lot of fun with us and we ask them "who do you know of that would enjoy a night like this?". It is great time for people to realize that the contact they have with us does not have to be uncomfortable and so serious all the time. This will really help members realize how easy and fun missionary work can be. 

We had an awesome dinner with a family that we are working with. Its an older couple that we do service for. The husband is not a member. He is a business man and is very vocal about his point of view. Its funny because the closest thing I can think of to compare him to is a 70 year old version of Jim on According to Jim. Funny thing is his name is James and he goes by Jim hahaha. 

We helped someone pull up their carpet this week. Believe it or not carpet is extremely easy to pull out. The hard and annoying part is getting all the staples and tacs in the ground. 

Not too much else happened. But the ward here is awesome. The Bishop, Ward Mission Leader, and the Seminary teacher are all brothers. They use to live in Newport Beach and so I get along really well with all of them. But our bishop is really inspired and receives a ton of inspiration and is really such a great Bishop. I would be blessed to finish my mission here!

Love Elder Powell

Happy Halloween!

Hey Mom,

This week was really good. We are working with a couple of people that are ready to be Baptized. Victoria is being Baptized this weekend. The whole ward is so excited for her. She has persevered so much and she past her Baptismal interview and everything is set for Saturday.

We had a great time on Halloween. I got the package thank you so much. The other Elders loved their candy. We had some meetings in the morning and after the whole day was done we met as a Zone and had a potluck from 5-6 and watched movies from 6-9. 

We  also had a really fun family home evening with a member of our Bishopric. We carved pumpkins and that is what the other picture is. 

Not too much else happened this week. But this next week should be great!

Love you

Elder Powell

One crazy little Texan!!

Hey mom!

This week was pretty good. We had interviews with President on Tuesday, received a call saying we are starting online proselyting (Facebook, email, mormon.org, and skype) and in December will be receiving Ipads (each missionary will has their own personal one and yes President is worried about that hahaha) and Iphones, and lastly had some awesome lessons and found some new investigators!

Interviews were great. President radiates love. He cares about each missionary individually and you know its genuine. We had to spend the whole day at the Stake Center because we also did some interviews with the rest of the zone while their companions were in with President. But the funny thing is that one of the sisters in our Zone is Sister Eddy. Her Mom is best friends with Aunt Michelle. Small world huh? They use to live in Norco.

We had a conference call with all the leadership of the mission and that is when they told us about online proselyting and it is some huge news. We then had a meeting on Friday when they trained us on it all. Its all purely proselyting so I made a new account and will only be focusing on people out here so do NOT add me!!!!!!!!! The ward is really excited for it and it is going to be a huge tool in the Hastening of the work!

We had an awesome dinner with a member on Sunday. They had one of their friends over and we had a great lesson. The lady moved here when she was 13 from Honduras when she was 13 and knew no English. She had to start off all on her own and right now feels that she needs God in her life and feels that he is directing her right now. She is YSA age though so we will be handing her off. Oh well it was a great experience to have hahaha. We had another great lesson with Victoria. She is on date for November 9th. She has gone through a lot to be able to be Baptized and the whole ward is so excited for her. That is going to be awesome. We tracted into one man a couple of weeks ago who is a football coach for a High School and we had a lesson with him and his wife and he is really interested in learning more about the church, He is especially interested in the Book of Mormon and the fact that it took place over here in the Ancient Americas.

I also went on an exchange with the crazy little Texan and have a picture attached of him. He is so funny.
I don't have much time sorry but I love you!!!!

 Elder Powell

Alexis was baptized!!!

Hey Mom!

Alexis was Baptized!!!! It was awesome. But it was the typical Latin American Baptism (her family is from Guatemala).  What I mean by that is it started 25 minutes late, her whole family was hugging each other and
celebrating the whole time. It was so funny. Everything went really well and she was confirmed yesterday. While we were waiting at church for Sacrament to start, the Grandma came up to us and was wanting us to come over for family home evening tonight but couldn't say it all in english so I said "Family Casa Evening?" as a joke and she started laughing and said that what she was talking about. It's always really cool when you see how one persons decision to change affected their family and that is what we are seeing with Alexis' family! It will be awesome to continue to be able to work with them.

On Wednesday we were on exchanges with the AP's. I wen into their area and worked with Elder Cluff.  He was in my District at the beginning of my mission. It was fun to work with him again. They cover George Mason University which is in my old are Wakefield. We did some street contacting there. We also had to deliver a car to some missionaries so we had to drive separately. That was awesome!

We had a couple of meetings this week and all went well. We were able to meet with this one less active man named Brother Rodriguez. He is really nice. One of the pictures I am sending is with his dog. It was a little yorkie that just laid right next to me and let me rub her belly the whole time. It reminded me of Trixie.

We had a lot of people at church on Sunday. We have a couple of people we are working with and 2 of them are progressing and will definitely be Baptized. One of them however is living with her boyfriend and his family. So we are teaching the law of Chastity tonight and really need to address that concern because that is holding her back from being baptized. She says she is ready and is on date for November 16th and wants it to be closer but obviously there needs to be a change made.

The 18 year old little Texan continues to be immature but it is funny. He pulled a good prank on us this week. He put flower on the Ceiling fan in the dining room and as we were all eating breakfast one morning he turned the fan on and flour went everywhere and got all over us. It was pretty funny not gonna lie but annoying at the same time. So that's what I'm living with hahaha.

Everything is going really well and we are loving the work!

Love

Elder Powell

Ipho for you!

Hey Mom,

This week was really good. But it was raining all week! It was insane and really annoying. We had a lesson
with all of the 3 people that we have on date for Baptism. The first one was a 9 year old girl named Alexis. She is getting Baptized this weekend. She has been taking the lessons for about a month or 2. She has been coming to church with her mom who is a member and has been doing her reading and praying. So that is really good. We then had a lesson with Nicole. Her Boyfriend is a less active member. She has been taking the lessons for like a month. We out her on date for the 16th of November last week but this week she said she wants it moved up hahaha. She has been doing her reading and praying and is really prepared. The problem is though her and her boyfriend go home after sacrament meeting every week. They never stay for all 3 hours! That is one thing we are really trying to focus on with her. We also had a lesson with another girl that is on date for November 9th. Her name is Victoria. She has been taking the lessons for about a year. Her mom is a strong Buddhist and would not giver her permission but told her she had to wait till she was 18. Well then last week she just told she could be baptized when ever she wanted, so she is all good for November 9th.

We had a really long missionary meeting on Thursday that was all about new things that President Riggs wanted to implement. But part of the discussion was Halloween. Every year they do the same thing. We get to watch approved G or PG movies. So this year we are watching Monsters University and Despicable Me 2. That should be fun. We are going to get together as a Zone that night and do a Pot-Luck as well so that is going to be fun. The little Texan roommate we have is a crazy little ball of energy. He loves to pull pranks, cook, and go to thrift stores. We went yesterday and we found 5 of these brand new Varsity Tennis team jackets. They are so funny because on the Back are these random names. They are Dooley, Lu, Peck, Levitt, and Coleman. We thought it was way funny so we bought them (only $3.95) and took pictures so that is one of the ones that I am sending this week. The other picture is a of a shirt that a man gave me. We were trying to get in touch with this new family that moved into the ward and one of their neighbors were outside and we went over to talk with him. He is from Vietnam and I was joking with him and asked if he wanted to make us some Pho which is a noodle/ meat soup they eat all the time in Vietnam. They have a million Pho restaurants here and we love to go get it. Anyways he told us to wait right there and he went into his house and came out with a shirt that says "Ipho" its designed like an Iphone. It was way funny so that is the other picture. Other than that not too much happened this week. We are really trying to find new people to teach because we don't want to start from scratch when the others are baptized. But we should be finding on a weekly basis anyways. Its nice weather this week so that is awesome. Not much else to report on!

Love you!!!!!
Elder Powell

I got transferred!!

Hey Mom (EXCLAMATION POINT)

Conference was great!!! This week was great! But I was transferred. It is very bittersweet. I am in the same
zone as my first area. I am in the Tall Cedars ward. I am serving as a Zone Leader. My companions name is Elder Frazier. He is from St. George Utah. He is really tall. But he is a great guy. We live in a 3 story town house. Its owned by members but they are on military leave so the church is renting it. It is HUGE and so nice. We have 3 roommates. One is from Nagadocious Texas. He is hysterical! He is seriously the cowboy, Missionary, version of Jeff Kay. We all have a lot of fun.

The work is great in the area. We were able to put 2 new people on date. We are working with one Lady who is dating a member and is taking the lessons and we put her on date for November 16th. She is reading a lot and has solid good questions. She comes to church every week. We are also working with a teenage girl who's older brother converted a couple of years ago. Her name is Victoria. Her parents would not let her be Baptized until she was 18 but we were having dinner with her and her family and her mom out of nowhere, earlier that day, gave her the permission. She is on date for November 9th. She is a total missionary and we are teaching her friend Hannah and they are both working towards being Baptized on the same day. We had a great first lesson with this man named Nick yesterday. He is either part of the Navy Seals or works with them but he was introduced through some of the Seals that are Mormons. He told us a lot of Navy Seals are Mormon, and it makes sense. He is really prepared. He is Greek Orthodox and says that he has seen a lot of hypocrisy and wants to know the truth. We are really excited for that. The ward is amazing. They love the missionaries and Pres Riggs said that they are one of the most missionary minded wards in the Mission. There is a lot going on and I'm am super excited to be in this ward and for all the work that we have to do!!!

 Love ya!!!
 Elder Powell

Jordan was Baptized!!!

Hey Mom!!!
This week was great!!!! Jordan was Baptized!!!! It was so great to be able to go back and see people from that ward!!! That was on Thursday. That same day we had Return and Report. That is the meeting for all
the new missionaries. Elder Cannon (the first one I trained) was there because he is training as well. After they worked with us for a little then we all went to Jordan's Baptism. Elder Cannon and I gave talks at the Baptism. It was just a really cool experience to be able to see her get Baptized. When we were teaching Kegan (he was working so I didn't get to see him) Jordan sat in all the lessons. We felt bad because she couldn't be Baptized yet. Brother Richardson is a convert and they didn't have full custody of Jordan yet. It must of been hard on her and we felt bad but her day finally came!!!!! A lot of the people that I just love from the Haymarket ward were there. It was like an awesome reunion! Now the whole Richardson family are members!!!!

We had an awesome dinner with the Gregory family. They love to pull pranks on the missionaries and
just love the missionaries in General. One of the pictures I'll send is of us at the dinner. They made Meat Ball
subs and gave us some dorky aprons to wear. They are an awesome family and we are working with someone who lives pretty close to them and really hope to be able to have lessons in their home. We asked the Gregory family about it and they would love it. So that would be something really cool to get started.

We have had absolutely no contact with Blake and Tracey this week. It is really sad. We cant have
any contact at Blakes home because he lives with his Parents and they hate the church so we can only call him to get in contact with him. But he won't answer any of our calls. That's what is so lame!!!!

We have not had the "best steak ever" yet. We are going to call him this week and see when a good time would be for us to come over.  We were able to find a family this week! Their name is the Siepel family. They use to meet with the missionaries a lot but the Sisters pushed them to hard and they told them to stop coming over. They live all the way out in a little town called Clifton that is in our area. Its almost like Culpeper. We do service for them and also teach them. They have a lot of questions, especially the
mom. Her son died in a tragic Go-Cart accident. She is still grieving over it. But the 2 daughters have never been Baptized and are the ones that show the most interest.


Other than that transfers are this week and it will be interesting to see wht happens there! We have
a BBQ with Pres today so that will be fun!

Love Elder Powell

I received an AWESOME phone call!

HeyMom!

This week was insane!!!! Monday night we were checking on Former Investigators and got let
in to a Muslim Family. They are interested in learning more but we always have to be careful with Muslims because in their religion if you convert to any other religion and you return to your home land you will be killed for it. So there is always a caution when teaching Muslims. But they seemed more like they wanted to just see what our religion believed and see what was similar to theirs. Tuesday was a big day. After our meetings we had a lesson with a less active man at the church. His name is Blake Woodhouse. 2 weeks ago when there was a choir practice for the fireside with Senator Hatch he just walked into the church and said that he wanted a DVD about the church and that he wanted to come to church. They eventually found out that he was a member and that he lived in our area so he was referred to us. When he came to the church he had his fiancé, Tracy with him. She is not a member. The lesson we had was awesome! We talked with Blake a lot about Grace and then Tracy had a lot of questions. She grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school and went to a Catholic University. We thought it was so fascinating that we believed in an Embodied God. A couple of days after the lesson Blake called and said that Tracy really enjoyed the lesson and felt that she could open up and ask what ever questions she had. It was just a really good lesson and
feels really good to finally be working with some people!!!!! Later Tuesday night we were checking up on more potentials and we were let in again to teach a family that use to meet with the missionaries. They are the Watson family. The parents both work so their schedule is crazy. The mom works at the Dulles Airport which is the Biggest Airport in Virginia. So they fly to different places a lot. It will be hard to find the right time to meet with them but it will be great to be teaching a whole family!

We had Splits on Thursday and Elder Westover and a recent convert were able to teach Elizabeth (A lady we found 2 weeks ago). She apparently talks a ton and so it was hard for Elder Westover to be able to teach but at least she is willing to let us teach her. Then on Friday night I received an awesome phone call!!! Remember Melissa in my last area? Elder Cannon and I started teaching her and then were both transferred out. Well Melissa, the Mom and the Dad are all on date for Baptism for October 12th! The Brother who is the only member (Douglas) told them to tell me. So im really excited to go back for that!
Saturday night we had a lesson with a less active man who does  Mixed Martial Art's, Kickboxing,
and Boxing. He is HUGE. He has a lot of things he needs to work on. But he is really nice. He asked us how long we have been out and when Elder Westover told him he was new the guy just laid it on him. He told him a lot of things that he is going to learn on his mission and all this stuff. Its was pretty awkward. But he invited us back and said that he would make us the best steak we have ever had.

Sunday was a good day at church. The ward is great and does a lot for us, They really do love the
Missionaries. Excited to be hear!!!!

Love you!!!!

Best moment ever....Bryce Harper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok so this week was huge, this email is going to be really long. This is how it started. Pday was awesome. Like 12 of us elders all got together at the Haymarket apartment and played some games. After that we all went to Zone Sports and played some kickball. Then not that much happened until Thursday night. We went on Splits and a recent convert came out with me. We checked up on a potential investigator. Her name is Elizabeth. She was home and let us in. It turns out her Ex Husband is a Mormon (not practicing). She is from Peru and went to church with her friends out there and knows a lot about the church. She is Catholic and is really into her religion but she is allowing us to come back and teach
her. That was an answer to our prayers. We have been trying to find people for so long!!!
 
Then I received some really great news. Remember Kegan and the Richardson's? Well Sister
Richardson's step daughter Jordan is not a member of the church because her husband converted and they did not have full rights of Jordan so she could not join. BUT they just got full custody and on September 28th she is being baptized and they asked me to give a talk so I will be going to that baptism and will have pics in a couple of weeks! It is soooo awesome! Sister Richardson is way excited and Elder Cannon is giving a talk as well and will be there also! I way excited for that!

Now comes the longest part of the email. THE NATS GAME! So we were taking the metro in to D.C. because it takes you right to the stadium. So we are in our huge group of Elders and we are taking one
metro and then hoping on another to get to the stadium. Well when we went to go switch it was chaos. Tons of People were flying in and out and so we hopped and as the doors shut I turn and look and everyone except one other Elder and I were not on the metro. We got on the wrong one hahahaha. They were all yelling and everyone in the metro was laughing. It was pretty funny. When I realized what happened all I could do was look at the group, smile, and wave hahaha. As soon as we took off I tried getting a phone
(both of us didn't have one) and the Elder I was with is on his second transfer so his greenie fire kicks in and he starts trying to teach a lesson to people on the Metro while I'm trying to borrow a phone. It all worked
out. The first stop we went to we hopped on the right metro and met everyone at the park in like 10 mins. Our whole group was laughing so hard when we met up. It was pretty funny. Then the game. Man what a game it was! The Nats destroyed the Phillies 6-1. I was able to see like all my friends from the mission and get pics with them. Something cool about the Stadium is the Capitol is right to its West end and you can see it from part of the Stadium. They put the DC north missionaries on the Jumbo tron twice and they were dancing and jumping around so after the game people were coming up to us and were like, Man you guys are famous! During the game out of no where some one behind me put their hand on my back and I turned
and it was brother Nieman! Him and his son Brandon came to the game and were looking for us! Elder Cannon (my comp for 3 weeks in Fairfax) was with me so we took a picture with the Niemans. That was awesome.

Then after the game one of the Elders from our group was trying to get some stuff from the Team Store and he was taking forever. Finally we were leaving the park and you will never guess what happened
next. So this white Mercedes pulls and says "whats up missionaries". The person driving was none other than Bryce Harper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The elder that was taking for ever asked him to come take pictures with us and he did!!!!!!!!!! He gets out of his car and is like "Whats up guys lets take some pictures". COOLEST MOMENT EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He took pictures with all the companionships! We all had him sign our white handbooks and then I also had him sign my ticket. Holy cow like seriously we are all still amazed that that actually happened. He is so nice and he is massive too. Just a solid person of pure muscle. Man it was so awesome. We have told some people and Pres wants us to email him the pics. It was priceless!

On Saturday as we were driving around, we were by a storage unit and someone was towing a Batmobile!
So we drove by it and I got some pictures. That was fun. Then on Sunday we had a "Why I Believe" Fireside and the speaker was Senator Orrin Hatch. He gave a great talk. We sang in the Choir for it. After I got to shake his hand. That was fun as well.  Pretty much that was my week. It was insane!!!!!

Love Elder Powell!!

This week was....a great learning experience

Hey Mom!
This week was....a great learning experience. We had a lot of meetings such as Zone Conference and Launching Leaders. I can't remember if I have told you before but there is a senior couple in the mission named the Ritchie's. Elder Ritchie has served as a mission Pres in the Virginia Roanoke Mission back when
there was one and MTC Pres in Gahna and in total they are on their 9th mission right now. Elder Ritchie has been a successful businessman and retired at 35. He is assigned to handle the YSA wards and they teach a class called Launching Leaders. It is all about the how to develop the skills, qualities, and habits to be successful and they are teaching the missionaries this class and gearing it towards missionary work. It is an awesome class! We have a class twice a transfer. So we had that and then we had Zone Conference. That was awesome. We learned a ton and man I just love Pres Riggs. He teaches us so well and you can
really feel the love that he has for you individually.

Other than that, I had a cool experience on Splits with our ward mission leader. Last week we were street contacting and talked with this Lady for just a little bit. She told us how her dad has cancer right now so
we offered to pray with her for him. After she gave us her address and said we could come back to talk with her family. Well when we came back at the set time, she was not available. So we went and tried some other people and then Brother Stark our WML asked if we should go and see try that lady again. When we went back her husband answered the door. They are Armenian and he was telling us all about his religious history (Orthodox) and then asked the Golden question. He says "What makes your church different from mine?" It was a perfect opportunity! Brother Stark and I taught him for like 45 minutes and it was great. But he is so busy that he said he wouldn't be available for like another month because of the funeral and stuff for his father in law. But he is sincerely interested and kept asking really great questions. So we aren't working with him right now but we are way excited to go back and see if later on.   The sisters gave us a list of single less active men for us to go and try and when we stopped by one we met his wife. It turns out he is deployed in Afghanistan and she is living with her parents right now. But we set up and appointment with her and had to hand her over to the sisters because she is technically in their side of the ward. They went over and had a great lesson apparently so that's good for them. But that's how everything has been here. We haven't really found and work to do and keep hearing about how great the sisters are doing hahaha.  

We did have a really funny experience though. One night we went to McDonalds at like 830 because when we had dinner that night the family didn't make enough food so we were still hungry. Well there was this young couple that as we were finishing up called us over. They asked if we were JW's (Jahovas witness or J-dubs as the elders our here call them) and we explained that we weren't what church we were from. They
then told us how a couple of nights ago the Sisters knocked on there door at like 830 and scared the crap out of them. But they mad us laugh so hard because they were describing the sisters and like acting like them. One is short and just a really REALLY smiley always laughing person and the other is tall and straight faced serious. So we were busting a gut laughing while they were acting like the sisters. Then we talked with them for like 20 mins and the lady was finally like "I think we have been blessed to be able to talk with you guys tonight" as we were leaving. It was a nice tender mercy to have people to talk to that didn't reject us and respected what we were doing and just let us talk to them.

That was pretty much our week. A ton of knocking doors and walking around and trying to talk with everyone. Elder Westover and I are getting along really well though. We are practically brothers. He loves sports as well and so we are able to keep each other positive and not let the other get discouraged. But we are so dang excited for the Nationals game on Friday!!!!!! I'll have some awesome pictures next week!!!!!!

Love you!!!!!

Elder Powell

M.A.V. (Mormon Assault Vehicle)

Hey
Mom!!!!! So this week was......really long. Basically we were spending like the whole time trying
to find people to teach because were opening up a new area and have like no one right? Well ya we didn't find anyone this week and it was a really hard week. We got a lot of negative responses and I felt bad for Elder Westover because its his first week and there has been a lot of negativity. We have been trying everything but just have not had anyone accept our invites.

But the ward is awesome. They loaded us up with all the things for our apartment. On Wednesday I had my medicine but Elder Westover had this new missionary meeting so one of the AP's came with me and it was a pretty fun experience. He has a lot of health issues so we were talking about that a lot. But before I got my medicine we were helping move a ton of stuff from a Senior Couples Town House to a storage unit. The office Elders let me drive the big rig that they drive its a MAV (Mormon Assault Vehicle. The 15 seater huge Ford Vans) THat was a fun day.  Other than that, yesterday our Ward Mission leader took us to DC so I uploaded a ton of the pictures.  We went to Union Station, The Vietnam Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, The Library of Congress, The National Archives (which didn't let us take any pictures), The National Gallery of Art, and then we ended it all in Georgetown at the National Cathedral. It was such a long day. But we were so lucky to be able to see all of that in one day. Surprisingly there were not that many people in DC. So it wasn't that bad. It was nice to have members drive us all around. My favorite stops were the National Cathedral, Library of Congress, National Archives and the Vietnam Memorial.

Our ward mission leader is great. He does a lot for the Missionaries and practically spoils us. We are going to be trying so hard to find people this week! Oh ya a cool little Miracle. We were stopping by a Burger King so I could use the restroom while we were out and there were members in there from the ward that my nurse who was baptized is in. She is able to go through the Temple this month so I gave them our card and asked him to follow up with her and let me know how she is doing and if she had gone through the temple or not yet. I really hope she is doing good! Well there is a lot that we have to do and we are going to go and find it all this week!!!

Love you!!

Elder Powell

Training again and opening up a new area!!

Hey Mom!!!
 This week was way interesting.Here is the big news........I'm training again and opening up a new area!!! It caught me way off guard. I was just training Elder Timmons and we totally thought I was staying to finish train him and then we got the call and we were both really shocked. So this is #4 . His name is Elder Westover and he is from Glendale Arizona so naturally we get along great because he isn't from Utah. The funny thing is, he turned 18 last month! It is so weird. He seems so young. But he is really energetic and we are getting along great. There were 42 missionaries that came into the mission on Wednesday!!!!!!! They opened up 13 new areas, and its cool because my Trainer Elder Holfeltz is training again and is our District Leader, and the first kid I trained Elder Cannon is training as well.

We are opening up the Centreville 2nd ward. They had a set of Sisters and now they us as well. So
I am know in the same Zone as Haymarket but that was on the West side and I am now on the East Side. But I am still on the West side of the mission. That's where I have served my whole mission was on the west side. My last area was the closest to DC and it was in the Center of the mission. But if you remember the email you got during Christmas where It had the Picture of the Stake President and his wife, Pres Riggs and then Elder McAbee and I. We are know in the Stake Presidents ward. He is a great man. But he was released like 3 months ago, so he isn't the stake Pres. But anyways, ya I'm so excited to be back in the Centreville stake! We go to church where we have transfer meetings and other meetings so it's cool to attend church at that building.

The ward is awesome. All the leadership and the whole ward is excited to have Elders and are really into missionary work. We have been going around and introducing ourselves and thanking the different members for all the things they donated to our apartment. The ward was sent a letter from the mission and was in charge of getting our whole apartment furnished. They did a great job and its an awesome apartment.

We are starting from Scratch on the work, but the sisters had a referral for us and we went and taught
him. He is a man from Vietnam. His name is Tommy Phan. He grew up Buddhist. He really wants to learn a lot more about Christianity and about Jesus Christ. He seemed really golden until the end when he was like "Ill call you when I finish reading the Book of Mormon" and we were like ".....uh we were actually wanting me more often then that",it was pretty funny. But we are doing a lot of finding right now and trying to get to know the members.  We are really excited to work!!
 
Love Elder Powell

What is he saying??? STOP!!

Holla Moohair,
This week was pretty dang good. All the lessons we had were only with members and we were able to teach that Family of 5. Turns out the Wife, Miriam, is the one really interested. The Husband, Les, is a
Comparative Religion teacher at the University in our area and isn't as interested but he isn't against in so
that's good. They have 2 daughters ages 12 and 10 and then a 6 year old son. But we were so crammed on time that we weren't able to have that long of a lesson with them so that will have to happen this weekend. Miriam is from Tanzania. She grew up Muslim but her family wasn't practicing. Les is Methodist and his dad is a Methodist Preacher. The member we brought with us was Brother Nieman and he stayed afterwards to talk with Les and he said that Les ended up sounding a lot more open than he thought. So we are really excited to work with them!

We had a lesson with the old Hindu man, Mr. Soni and then also took him to the New Member Fireside
that our mission does. He really enjoys church and wants to become Mormon he says. So we talked with him about Baptism and about the Baptismal interview questions and he said that he agrees with almost all of it except he does not want to pay tithing and he doesn't know if Jesus in the Christ. Now we know where to work with him!

We had a pretty good lesson with Scott. His mom just passed away so it was a perfect time for us to
talk about the Plan of Salvation. The lesson was going great but the member we had with us started teaching
some non doctrinal stuff that made even Elder Timmons and I look at each other and be like "WHAT IS HE
SAYING...STOP!!!!!" hahaha. Scotts face was priceless during those points. So ya that was....interesting.

We did some more service for Ray. We went crazy with his Weed Eater and so we worked around the areas that he had cut down. All the bees were dead this week though so there was no trouble there.

We had to pass of Silvia and Nicole to the Hermanas because when we came back over for the lesson, she
just wanted to talk in Spanish the whole time and not really in English. We had the Stake President with us and he spoke some Spanish so every time she had some questions or when she talked really at all it was to him in Spanish so at the end we asked which she would prefer to continue in English or Spanish and she said Spanish hahaha.

Alfredo called and said that he his going back to Honduras for a month or 2. He said he did good on
his test he felt but won't know until September 25th. But he had a lot of nice things to say and was thankful for all that we had done. He has friends in Honduras that want him to talk to the Missionaries so he might even come back from Honduras Baptized hahaha.   It was a pretty good week. Unfortunately we think Im being transferred. Basically because the thousand of Sisters that are coming in they are always the ones that get priority over the cars so they have to take ours away so I'm going to get put into a car area. So we get the call on Tuesday and we will see what happens.

Love You!!!!!

Man, I have made a change!!!

Hi Mom,
This week was decent. We were able to teach Scott with a Jewish Convert named Brother Cohn. It was a good lesson because Brother Cohn practically has the Old Testament memorized hahaha. Scott tried to say
some stuff that was out there but Brother Cohn kept it under control.

We had received a referral from Salt Lake saying that a lady went to the DC Temple Visitor Center and
wanted a visit. Usually all the referrals we get are bogus but this one was legit! We only had time to stop by and introduce ourselves and set up a return appointment. They were really excited to meet us and we prayed with them before we left. They unfortunately went out of town the next and are going to be gone until this Sunday. But we have an appointment with them for Sunday night so it should be awesome. They are a family of 5!

One of the funniest things ever happened this week. We were doing service for Ray. He had bought a
new weed eater and Elder Timmons put it together and we went into his backyard to cut some grass so we could get to the spot where Ray wanted us to work. Well apparently there was a Bee Hive there and we disrupted them. They are the big black bumble bees that nest in the ground. Last year I did the same thing at Mrs. Kelsey's out in Culpeper and got stung by one hahaha. But basically after we pissed the hive off we then spent the whole time killing bees. Ray kept giving us fly swatters and spray and it was just so dang
funny. Then Ray went in to kill some and one flew onto his lip and I kid you not he took off so fast. I have never seen a 71 year old man move so quick. After that whole fiasco he took us to lunch and we went to get more bee killer spray and he was like "Hey I have a new Credit card get what ever you want" so he bought us our groceries hahaha. He was loving it. So that was a really fun day.

We found a new little family!! They were a referral from a recent convert. It is a man named Frank and
his Daughter Stephanie. They just moved here from Chicago (go Bears!!). The mom is still in Chicago until they sell their house. But they were really open and we had a great lesson with them.

We had a 7 hour move that was brutal. After the wife of the family gave me all sorts of trash for being from California and wanting to stay there after my mission. This was the same lady that pulled out some book
that some Mormon wrote and said he had a near death experience and saw all these prophecies and showed me how he said that California was going to break off into little pieces due to all these Earthquakes. Well she took that as doctrine and it was so annoying. Learn from this lady. That indeed was a trial of patience. I held my tongue and did not say anything mean hahaha I have made a change!!!!!

That was our week nice and slow hahaha. But we are hopefully going to see that family on Sunday and
have some other good news!!!

Love you!
Elder Powell

We are going to a Washington Nationals Game!!!

Hey
Mom, This week was really up and down. But first things first. Pres Riggs got the approval
and we are going as a Mission to a Washington Nationals game on September 13th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now to the serious stuff, this week started off really slow. We had a lot of cancelations and
were constantly trying to figure out what to do and things like that. Then we had a great exchange with the High Priest Group leader in our ward. We had a great lesson with a referral from someone in our ward. Her name is Silvia and her Daughter is Nicole. They are from Bolivia. Nicole and a younger girl from our ward play soccer together. Well the member is freaking awesome little missionary. They are both 9. This is how Mia, the member did her part as a ward missionary! She started off by talking to her about church and if she went to a church. Then she started bringing a "Friend" magazine to school to read and showed it to Nicole and got her interested in it. Well Nicole really liked it and took one home and was showing it to her mom and
they started reading it together. Then Mia and her family had Silvia and Nicole over for dinner and they also had us there. We talked a lot about religion and Silvia really opened up. She said that she doesn't really open up like that with people she doesn't know but she felt there was something different about us. She accepted a return appointment and we stopped by on Wednesday to teach her with the HP group leader, Brother Staton. He served his mission in Rosario Argentina so he knew Spanish. He had to translate some parts of the lesson but it went great. On Sunday he went up to bear his testimony and was just talking about how
being able to be apart of a lesson again meant so much to him. His son, Cori, also comes out with us to teach with us. He is a priest. Then we had a lesson with Melissa that went pretty well but after her and her family who are not members ganged up on Douglas who is a member and was giving him all this crap about the church so we are on hold with Melissa. Scott was not available this week but we are hoping to have a lesson with him and with Brother Cohn who is a Jewish Convert. Brother Cohn is a really smart man and
especially in the Old Testament so we are hoping that he will be able to help. We did our service for Ray and he took us out to lunch and we had a great time with him. He is so funny and always has some great jokes. We also were able to find a new investigator this week when we were checking up on a Less Active member. A man who is not the member answers the door so of course we just asked if we would give us time to teach him about Jesus Christ. So he did. His name is Albarr Ali. He is from LA. He has had a really hard life with addictions to different things, but is doing a lot better now. We met with him twice and it was really good. He is really open and is really humble. We are continuing to try and find!!!!!!!!!! Elder Timmons and I are doing really well together. Other than that it was an average week. The weather was really nice this week but is getting hotter (yay).

Love Elder Powell