That was terrible... enough said.

Hey mom,

This week was a pretty average week. We did a ton of tracting in freezing cold weather. The thing is the wind, it makes it hard to tract it is so cold. But ya, one night we knock on this ladies door and she walks up (doesnt answer it) and after we said that we were missionaries from the church..thats all we got to and she says she doesn't feel comfortable opening the door so we were like what ever and walked away. Well she ended up calling the cops on us and as we were walking back to the car he came up to us and said that there was a call from a lady who said that there were guys walking around causing mischief and that she didnt feel safe so he just asked us for out ID's to check and see if we were wanted for anything. Well everything was fine, surprise surprise, and he was like. "you guys here for school" and we told him no that we were serving missions and he was like "so do you do school when you serve your missions" and we were like no and tried to retell him again about serving missions. He said he was just confused with a ID from California and Utah hahaha. Other than that we did service at this retirememnt and recovery hospital. That was terrible... enough said.

We had 2 lessons set up with some ladies. So our Bishop came to one lesson and a new Ward Missionary came to the other. Both fell through though. I always feel really bad for them when that happens. But it was a good experience for the new Ward Missionary. She was really nervous. But when that lesson fell through we went and tried talking with her old neighbor because she used to live in this neighborhood. The lady wasn't home but it was worth the shot. We did however have 2 really good lessons with Becky and Eleanor. They are still on date and doing really good. We taught them some of the commandments. We taugh the Law of Chastity, Tithing and Fast offerings, and the Word of Wisdom. The only thing they struggle with is coffee. But they say they haven't drank any in like a week. i asked Eleanor when she was ever going to drink a cup again and she said never and I told her thats right. They really are making big changes to prepare for their Baptisms. These are all really good experiences for Elder Cannon. To be able to teach all the lessons and to be able to see investigators be Baptized at the beginning of his Mission. He is doing great and I am enjoying training him.  So not the greatest week but hey things are still going along in the right direction.

OH!  Josh left for his mission, so I was able to get a picture with him before he went.  I know he will be an awesome missionary.

Love ya,

Elder Powell

Oh ya, a pretty cool miracle!

Hey Mom,

 

This week was a pretty cool week. It started off with an average Pday and not that much happened that night. Then we had a really good Zone Training on Obedience. It was a great meeting really. It got us all excited to make sure that we aren't just being Obedient but Exactly Obedient. There is a big difference there. I really have seen a big difference between the two. Elder Cannon and I left feeling really confident about being 100% obedient. Its what Pres Riggs is really big on so its not like its going anywhere and as missionaries its what we are supposed to do.

 

We then had a lot of appointments that we had set up with people that we had tracted into. Unfortunately they all through. So we had a really fun day of trying to find hahaha. Wednesday was pretty identical. We were only able to see Kegan. He is doing great. We retaught him lesson 3 which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He remembered a lot and still has his testimony. On Thursday was interviews with Pres Riggs. That man is so awesome. He loves all of us so much and he is so willing to help us all out in any way. He talked with us about a way to help the members receive revelation, since that is what he has been asking us to work with the members of our ward on this and some missionaries are seeing many blessing from it while some are not. So he gave us a quote from Pres Eyring and some other stuff to go and talk with the members about. It is helping out a lot already. We are really excited for the revelation to start pouring out. On Friday we had a great lesson with Becky and Eleanor. They are finally on date for Baptism! they set the date for March 23rd but it had to get moved up a week because our Bishop will be out of town so they are now on date for March 16th. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ as well. Becky of course understood and loved everything and Eleanor had some questions but not to many. They both are doing really well and progressing really well.

 

On Saturday there was 2 childhood Baptisms and we took Becky and Eleanor to them. Eleanor had never seen a Baptism before so this was a great experience for her. She was really really surprised at how fast the actual ordinance was. Then we had a great lesson with Emmanuel that night. He still "loves how juicy the word of God is". We read Alma 32 with him. He talked about how he has that hunger for knowledge and then at the end of the chapter it talks about how you won't hunger anymore and he had us reread that a couple of times hahaha. On Sunday both Becky and Eleanor were at church and a new part member family. The wife is a member originally from Peru and after moving to America when she was a teenager she joined the Military and she met her husband online and they were just married in October. They knew that they were going to be moving up here so they waited until they got here for the husband to start taking the lessons. So that was a pretty cool situation and we cannot wait to be able to teach him. When he introduced himself in Preisthood opening excercises he said that he was what we call an investigator hahaha. Sunday night we had a really intense lesson with this man named Tim Havrilla who the missionaries have been working with for a long time. What it broke down to was he stated that he "was good where he was at" and we explained that that was why he was not recieving an answer to his prayers. Elder Cannon asked him what he would  do if he recieved and answer and he said that it wouldn't change anything. That was a good learning experience.

 

Oh ya, pretty cool miracle. So we have this former investigator who we stopped by and she had just had foot surgery and so Josh and us gave her a blessing. Well we stopped by this week and she is walking with a boot. She said that it took her sister 4 weeks to get to this point and its only been one for her. So ya crazy piresthood miracle. She said we can come back next week and start teaching the lessons!!

 

This week was really good but there is a lot more to be done.

 

Love Ya

Elder Powell

 

FINALLY a new investigator!!

Hey Mom!

This week was pretty decent. We tracted a ton and that got us nowhere hahaha. On Monday and Tuesday nothing happened. On Wednesday the greenies had a meeting at the mission home because President had like barley any time to do anything with trying to interview 25 missionaries. So i went on an exchange with a spanish missionary. That was pretty fun. The lessons he had planned fell through but we were having lunch with their branch President at this awesome little mexican restaurant. So he's speaking to them in spanish for their meeting and then says to me how he just got done being a Mission President and I asked where and just guess where. Fresno! So i was asked him if he knew Cody Anderson and he said he did. So it was pretty funny i had lunch with Codys mission president, President Gonzalez. He said to tell Cody hello and thought it was funny he was one of my good friends. 

Next we had were going to help this lady move some stuff from a storage unit into her moving van and when she showed up she realized that she lost the key to the storage unit. So we went back to her car and tried to look for it and it was not there. So that fell through. Then our companions came back and we made switched back and went back to our area. Thats really all that happened on Wednesday. On Thursday we had a lesson with Eleanor and Becky. It was a pretty good lesson until we invited Eleanor to baptism and the date that we said was Feb 23rd and Becky had a cow. She did not think that Eleanor was ready. Becky and I had a pretty tense quick conversation where I explained that we were inviting her to prepare to be baptized and that she would be ready by then. Becky wanted it to be like at the end of March and Eleanor even told her that she was ready and the end of March was way to far away hahaha. Becky's face was priceless when Eleanor said that hahaha. After the lesson we told Becky that Eleanor is a lot more prepared than Becky thinks she is. That night we got a text from Becky explaining how Eleanor made a grocery list for what she needs to bake the cookies she is going to have for refreshments after her Baptism and Becky was like "you guys are right she is a lot more prepared than I thought". So the next lesson we are going to have another lesson at the same members home (who Becky and Eleanor love) they are going to have a date for us that they have prayed for. The only other problem in the lesson was that the husband is really passionate about the Gospel and he was trying to teach the lesson hahaha. Thats always kind of awkward when you have to tell members to choke their motors. Remember, the missionaries are the called and set apart teachers. Members should not be doing the teaching. They can makes comments and explain stuff, thats what we need them for, plus fellow-shipping  But its doesnt matter if you have the 2 worst teaching missionaries in the world you let them teach.

We were also able to meet with the 17 year old Shelby. He isnt doing to good. He struggles a lot with drugs and he rebels against his parents a lot. His parents told him that if he cant act mormon than he has to wait until he is 18 to get baptized. Some weeks he is doing really good and others not so much. Then we got a call from his mom on Saturday explaining that Shelby ran away and if we see him to help him get on the "strait and narrow".

We had 2 other cool experiences. On Thursday we stopped by this part member family that we have been trying for so long to get and see. The mom and her oldest son is a member. When we stopped by just the oldest son, Adrian and his brother Chris were home. So we taught his younger brother Chris. It was a pretty good lesson and Chris said the closing prayer. So that was pretty cool. We will see how that goes but FINALLY a new investigator. The other cool experience was on Saturday we stopped by this former investigator. She came to the door on crutches and told us how she had foot surgery and was in a ton of pain, so we offered to give her a blessing. She said that would be great so we went and got Josh and we came back and gave her a blessing. Before we gave it to her, we explained about the priesthood and blessings. After we asked if we could come back and teach her family and he said that would be awesome. So we were able to find 2 new!!!!!! So it wasnt an amazing week but we were able to find some prepared people so it was a waste. Looking forward to this week!

Love ya

Elder Powell

We got transfer calls and I'm training!

MOO HAIR!

 

This week was great. It started with us saying Elder McAbees goodbyes. Then we got transfer calls and I'm training. So that leads to the next great thing. Elder McAbee is know in Idaho hahaha. The kid Im training is awesome. His name is Elder Jake Cannon from Morgan Utah. He is such a funny kid. He's outgoing so he isnt even nervous to teach or tract or really do anything.

 

Holy cow it has been a wierd week when it comes to weather. On monday and Tuesday it was in the 70's. Then it started snowing. Greaaaaat. The first night we went tracting it was 19 degrees and the wind was blowing like crazy. Elder Cannon was like " I never get cold in Utah and Im freezing!" hahaha. 2 people let us in out of pity, but the second we said Joseph Smith at the first house we were kicked out hahaha and called a cult. Then the second house the man just wanted to talk and when we started to share beliefs. He said that there was some stuff we had in common but he didnt believe all that we did. He has met with missionaries before and wasnt interested. But it was a nice break from the cold weather. It was funny because that was only like my 2nd and 3rd time ever being let in while tracting and I told Elder Cannon that that usaully doesnt happen. The fact that you get let in and then told you belong to a Cult and kicked out hahahaha. Hes a great kid and just laughed it off.

 

We had an interesting lesson with Becky this week. We were teaching the Plan of Salvation and she wanted to know like deep doctrinal stuff and we were like "No because we only teach what is necessary for you to be Baptized" and she didnt really like that. So that was really wierd. But people dont realize that if its not in Preach My Gospel or any of the Paphlets we use we aren'y going to teach it. Becky keeps calling me a used car salesman because I wont let up on asking her about Baptism. She says she still has something to work on but what she doesnt understand is its our Job to continually invite. She knows we are supposed to invite but she thinks that having the lessons for a year and coming to Church is good enough. She keeps all other commitments without asking. So the only thing we have to do is invite her to be Baptized. If we aren't inviting we aren't we aren't doing our job. Jesus wants us to invite her so Im not going to stop.Thats one of the frustrating things about missionary work. Our whole purpse is to invite. Some people love that because they dont feel pressured and others don't like it all. Opposittion in all things right. But things are going really slow with her. But her daughter is a diffrent situation. She loves church now and is progressing really well. I honestly think that Eleanor is going to be the example for Becky and be Baptized before her mom. But we shall see where all this goes. You, as the missionary, can only do so much. But everyone has their agency. That is one of the biggest factors in missionary work. You can't make people do anything and when they chose to go against what they feel to be true, it hurts. It really is a sad feeling. But she'll come around soon. Everything else is going pretty good. Still trying to find new investigatiors.

 

Love YA!!!!!!

 

Elder Boy