Our teaching pool is a "bad bar joke"....

Hey mom,

This week was...long. The work hasn’t changed in regards to not having that many people to teach. We spent a butt ton of time trying to find new people and only found someone for the sisters to teach. So here is the update on the following. In the recent letters I have written I refer to our teaching pool as a “bad bar joke” that starts like this: An Atheist, a Jew and a Hindu.

Scott Begab the Jew. He is still as arrogant as ever. The family that we had dinner with when you received the picture of me on Wednesday was the Brionez family. Their daughter married one of the guys in our ward and his younger brother, Todd, came out with us to teach Scott that night. We didn’t have anyone to come with us and Sister Brionez just calls up the kid and tells him that’s what he is doing. So at the lesson Scott was talking about church and how he didn’t like the fact that there were a lot of little kids crying and Todd was like "oh then you probably herd my brothers kid crying right behind you" as a joke. Well Scott went on to start to mimic the kid crying. It was just really rude. He is still reading the book of Mormon, but really doesn’t have the right intent.

We had an awesome lesson with Ray and Pres Riggs on Tuesday. Ray really wanted to meet Pres Riggs so we set up this lesson. Ray really knows his stuff we will put it that way. The whole time just Pres Riggs and Ray spoke. But it got down to the bottom of Rays concern. He can't except the Atonement because he doesn’t think it is moral for Jesus who was perfect to have been punished for our sins and beaten the way he was. He has been reading "Mormon Doctrine" and was reading the section on sin and wanted to talk about that when we went over on Friday to do service and was like "This sin thing is right up my ally, we could talk all day about it". Ray is such a great guy but he too concerned on the specific little details.

Mr Soni had a good experience this week. He went to the Temple Visitor center with the Mormon family that are his neighbors. He was so fascinated by the temple and wanted to go in so badly. He says that he wants to be taught how to become a Latter Day Saint so that he can enter the temple. But as he told our WML "he has never allowed anyone to tell him what to believe. Not even the Prime minister of  India". He continues to come to church and loves to talk in Gospel Principles but no one can understand him so half of us are just laughing and trying not to make it obvious. It’s one of those you need to be here kind of things.

We had a lesson with the lady that we tracted into and taught at Wendy's. We taught her this time at a members home. But it was pretty funny because Elder Timmons was pretty nervous (he is getting a lot better) and he just started to teach and took off and blew through the whole lesson and start talking about how we are going to be Gods. That was definitely one of the " Holy crap what am I supposed to do to cover that up" situations. Gotta love greenies! After when we talked about it he was like "Oh I said that???" hahahaha. But it turned out being a good lesson, but this is her last week in Virginia and then she is going to be living in Baltimore, so we have to refer her over.

Last night we went over and taught a member family. The husband came up to us at church and he asked us to teach his family the lessons because there is a lot going on with a recent devorce and the oldest son is completely rebelling. It was definitely a learning experience. Growing up without little siblings I am not that good at teaching children. But the kids last night were not really participating so it was a a hard lesson. But at the end we were talking with the older boys about sports and things and they really opened up. They both played lacrosse so we are going to go shoot with Elder Yates the BYU player and them 2 when the oldest son gets off house arrest hahaha, gotta love that. But they also love to hunt so they were talking about guns and knives with Elder Timmons (that what he is all about).

We are not nearly as busy as we would like to be so we are really going to focus on finding new investigators this week.

Love you! 

Elder Powell

Next week should be really good, we have a lot of plans!

Hey Mom!

 

This week was pretty interesting. The 2 biggest things were that we are working with 2 people that are not ready to accept the gospel but still want to heare from us.

 

The first thing is Scott the Jew. He actually came to church! It was a pretty big shock. Pretty much everytime we invite him to church he says that he will try if he isn'y busy. So you know thats not that comittable, but he actually came. A couple of weeks ago on the 4th our ward mission leader had a party at his house and they invited Scott and his son. Well Scott showed up and had a great time. Our Ward mission leader wants Scott to have experiences outside of our teaching appoinments so that he can see that we are not after the numbers to be able to just have our numbers get better but that the ward actually wants to be his friend and that hthey actually care about him. He stayed all 3 hours and really liked it. His son, Elijah (9 yearls old) really like primary and is really good friends with our WML's daughter so that will be our "hook,line,and sinker" to getting Scott, is Elijah wanting to continue to come to church.

 

Then we had a really good week an Atheist named Ray. So he has know missionaries since 1981. He has been through a lot. He when he starts to learn about something he wants to know both sides so he has a ton of anti mormon things but also a ton of mormon books. Like for example he had 3 whole copies of the Journal of Discourses. He knows a lot about our religion and more about the history of our Religion and about the Bible. So when we do service for him we try to avoid talking about the Church but he always brings up really deep and techinical questions. Its not that he is trying to be difficult or anything but he really wants to know what our church thinks about certain things and he is looking for consitancy. So we have lesson with him and our Mission Pres on Tuesday night. That will be really interesting for sure. So next week will be a really good update on that. We had a pancake breakfast on Saturday for Pioneer day and he came and had like a 2 hour long conversation with our Bishop and another member about Jesus Christ. So for Ray we are actually seeing a lot of improvement, there is some HOPE! hahaha

 

Then we had a funny lesson with the Hindu Mr. Soni. we brought Brandon Nieman with us and Mr. Soni told him that he needs to speak better english and that he could not understand his accent. It was so dang funny. Brandons face was shocked and it took a lot of effort to not laugh at him in the lesson but of course we did afterwards.

 

We have this awesome family in the ward that we are working with that has a lot of people that they want to introduce to us and have us work with. As we were leaving their house a lot of their neighbors came outside and we got an appointment with on of them to do some service for them!

 

We had another public resteraunt lesson! We tracted into this lady that said that she is in the middle of painting her appartment so we could meet but not at her appartment. So we met at Wendy's. It was a day of situation so thats why we did the lesson somewhere like that. It was a great lesson though. She said that she is looking for the truth. When we shared the first vision she said the feels somewhat like Joseph Smith, why are there so many religions and which one is right. She said she isn't lost but is confused and is totally willing to have is teach her. Her name is Lilly Scott. But she is moving soon to Baltimore so we will be able to work with her for a little bit and then the missionaries in Baltimore can do the rest, no big deal!

 

next week should be really good we have a lot of plans!!!

 

Love ya!

 

If it all works out, we will have 3 converts!!

Hey Mom!

This week was pretty good! First things first. Driving by myslef was soooooooooo awesome. Then I had that trainging and transfers meeting from 8:30-4. It took forever. My new companion is Elder Tyler Timmons from (drum role) St George, Utah. He is 20 and is a big kid. We get along really well. We have a lot in common so we laugh a ton. But he has asked at least 10,000 questions hahaha. Its way funny. But ya we get along really well.

We were able to have couple of lessons this week. The biggest one was with Melissa. We taught her the plan of Salvation. It was a really good lesson because pretty much from Death on she has always wondered what happens. She says that she has always wondered certain things and when we taught the plan of Slavation, she said it all makes sence and she wasnts to believe it, but she has a lot of doubts about the Joseph Smith experinece. It was really good to be able to hear her concern and see what was really bothering her. She was not at church on Sunday but her brother, Douglas, is recieving the Melchezidek Priesthood on Sunday so she will be at that.

We did a lot of tracting because Elder Timmons really wanted to do that so I wasnt going to say no hahaha. We were able to have a pretty fun experience. We got let in and taught a Coptic Orthidox Christian. His family just moved here from Egypt. The lesson started off pretty good and then went completely south. He knew the Bible  really well and would say things that we had no idea how to answer hahaha. Afterwards Elder Timmons kept talking about how he should of said this that and the other hahaha.

There was a new family of investigators that just moved into our ward. They are from Sierra Leone. The fathers name is Edward and the wifes name is Esther. They have 3 kids. A 9 year old, a 6 year old, and a 11 month year old. So if it all works out, we will 3 converts!

We are really trying to find a lot more investigators right now. Seeing how Elder Timmons has that Greenie fire to go tract we will do a lot of that in this heat and humidity. Yay!

Love

Elder Powell

This Moohair has a name!

Hey Mom,

This week was awesome. First things first. I'm training....again! Its insane! We had a recent convert fireside last night and at it Pres Riggs came up to Elder Cannon and I and told us we were training and when to be at the Transfer meeting. We have 2 cars so we asked him about that he said that we can drive separately but stay right behind the other. So we are really excited about that hahahaha.

On Wednesday we had splits with some Priests in our ward and we had a great time. I went with one of the Nieman’s boys and we went tracting in the Fairfax area. Nothing really happened but we got rejected a couple of times so it was good experience for him. Then on Wednesday we had 2 lessons that were pretty interesting. One was with Scott (the Jew). he is almost done with the book of Mosiah. He is starting to become more interested in the Book of Mormon. He had once again a ton of deep questions. The funny part was the member that came with us is from Korea and is like 70 and can barely speak English. Earlier that day we also had a lesson with a Hindu named Mr Soni. He is 85 and rambles on like crazy! He has the HEAVIEST accent which its always hard to not laugh during the lesson. We went over the Plan of Salvation and it took a long time but we were able to teach it and he was able to ask some questions. His neighbors are members so we had the lesson at their house and they did a great job at explaining things.

We also had another lesson with Melissa. She said that when she came to church that she felt that she really missed her church and didn't feel like she received an answer. But we committed her to come to church and to fast for an answer to her prayers. So I will have an update next week on how it went. She was at church and she did fast and stayed for all 3 hours so that's a good sign. The 4th of July was awesome. We had a pancake breakfast for the Fairfax ward. We have this man that isn't investigating but he lets us do service and he will take us out to lunch. He is really patriotic and served in the military for 2 years, so he called us up on Tuesday to see if the Church was doing anything for the 4th of July so we invited him to the Breakfast. He came and really enjoyed it. While we were talking with other families he had a 45 minute talk with the Fairfax Bishop about the Atonement. He has basically been talking with his neighbors for many years about Christian theology and none of them are Mormon (probably) all different religions. So he was really confused and said that he didn't agree with the fact that we could essentially cheat on the test of life and do whatever and then at Judgment turn around and receive the grace of Jesus Christ and be forgiven and all is well. Bishop Howell told him that's not we agree with either. So that was a cool situation. We had the lesson with Melissa after that. Then around the late afternoon we went and saw a lot of people. It was a perfect time to get let in to see less active members. We were able to see the Sanchez family that we met at the Hospital and had a great visit with them. Then our ward mission leader had Veronique and her son, a new family that moved in to the ward, and Scott and his son over at their house to celebrate. We stopped by and had a great visit and it was a great opportunity to see that the people from the ward genuinely cares about him and isn't focused on just getting a Baptism as a number. He really enjoyed it so that was great. Then we went to the Guzmans. They are a family that speak Spanish and sometimes attend the Spanish ward but have recently been attending the English ward. They have been feeding us with the Spanish elders a lot. It was supposed to just be us 4 missionaries but there was also an additional set of Elders and Hermans so a total of 8. It was really fun. We had a water balloon fight. One of the Spanish Elders is a greenie and he was really pissed because his comp drenched him with water and then we told the Guzmans littlest daughter to get him with a balloon and then the Hermanas did as well and at the end he went and got a bucket of water to poor on the Hermanas and all us Elders were like "dont do that there girls" and he did so ya that was pretty funny how pissed he got hahaha. But we also played soccer and then watched the family set off Fireworks. We were taking pictures and we gave our cameras to 2 of the older daughters to take our pictures as a group and they weren't paying attention and so i yelled "Moohair! Take the pictures please!" The mom start laughing like crazy and then the daughter was laughing but said "This Moohair has a name!" hahaha. I had told them last dinner that Courtney taught me how to say “ woman” so they all knew it was joke. Then I gave like 4 baptismal interviews this week. 3 of them were these kids of a part member family and they were so nervous! When the oldest was done I told her that was it and she looks up in such shock and was like "Really??" It was so dang funny. Then we had the normal like 7 hours of church plus a fireside so ya it will be great to go back to our perspective wards.  It has been a great week!!!!

Love Elder Powell

There is no way I am ever buying a treadmill!

Hey Mom and Courtney!

That’s is so weird how Courtney is home! Im so happy for her though, you both look really happy in the pictures. That is way funny about the “glad you aint fat sign” Kyle made.

This week was really good! We were way busy with both the areas. We were able to have a great lesson with the man Alfredo from Honduras. He is the one who we taught the first lesson with the Stake Pres who was all excited about missionary work afterwards. He came with us again to a lesson with Alfredo and it went great. Then Pres Bush provided the ride and everything for him to come to church and he was finally able to come to church!!! Melissa (the sister of a member who converted years ago but went less active and was recently reactivated) came to church. Douglas said that she was even ready before him hahaha. Then the Hindu investigator Mr Soni was at church again. I always have to really try not to laugh out loud because in Gospel Principles he gets really animated and his accent is SO HEAVY that it’s just way funny to listen to him talk. Last P-Day we went to the Dulles Air and Space Museum again. We went with the Office Elders and the Chinese Elders. Man we had a great time. So I have some good pics of that. On Tuesday we had another lesson with Scott. He is still difficult but he is currently reading about Abinadi and loves him. So as long as he keeps reading its all good. Wednesday was awesome. We had a FULL mission conference in Centreville. We took a huge picture and had a catered Cafe Rio lunch so ya that was obviously awesome!!!! After we were asked to go to a Hospital and give a blessing to a member, after we were walking to our car and saw a man that Elder Cannon met somewhere else and he told us to go to another room where his Son and Daughter in law were. She had just given birth 2 days ago and he asked us to go give her a blessing. The cool part is the Son and Daughter in Law are a less active family in my ward! It was crazy we were able to talk with them about the church and they really want to come back but they have been "busy". But they are both converts and they both have testimonies and it was just a great experience. being in the right place at the right time.

Thursday was a PACKED day. We had some much stuff going on. It just feels so great to be busy!!!! We stopped by a potential and the man was in his garage welding so we helped out and took some pics and were able to get to talk about his life and his religious background. Friday night Brother Mortensen took us to get wings so that was awesome. Then Saturday was insane. We played basketball with the Chinese Elders for morning workout and then went to help a family move. i hopped right in the truck and packed. That’s something that JC Penny job did, taught me how to pack a truck pretty well hahaha. Then after like 2 hours of packing, all the elders quorom bailed so we went and spent the next 2 hours unloading. Let me just tell you, there is no way I am ever buying a treadmill. Those things stink so much to move and we had to get it up into a Town House and then down into a basement. Ugh, I’m still sore from that move. Church was great. Had investigators there and everything. As a zone we set a goal to have 110 investigators at sacrament for the whole month and we had 127! My District had 83 of them. It was insane. Everyone has been working really hard and the work has been great. We had an awesome week and have just this next one covering 2 wards. Next week are transfers!

Love Elder Powell