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