Dec. 30, 2014 - Feliz Natal!

Merry Christmas everyone and a happy New Year!

First of all happy 2 year anniversary tori and Jared! Happy 10th birthday adam! and happy 26th anniversary mom and dad! love you all!

When people say that the CTM during christmas is the best they really mean it! I have a ton to say so hopefully i dont sound to rambly and forgive my typos. But Last Tuesday on the 23rd the presiding bishop spoke to us and it was super cool! he talked about the armor of god and had this massive lamanite sword! then on Christmas eve we had a live nativity and watched the nativity story (like the motion picture) and let me stand on my soap box about the nativity for just a second. yes i love Christ and the nativity story is amazing but JOSEPH doesn't get the credit he deserves! he had to watch Mary be bullied because she was pregnant, had to trek like 100 miles to Bethlehem and he had to walk the whole time, not just sit on a donkey, he had to im sure hold off thieves and what not, then he had to watch as his wife give birth in a stable. what a man! Joseph is sweet! then after he was born he had to go to Egypt in the sand and heat and still kept the faith and loved Mary. Man I love Joseph. Then on Christmas day it snowed!! Christmas miracles everywhere! it was hilarious to see the missionaries who had never seen snow before and watch as a surprisingly large amount of people not realize that ice and snow is indeed slippery and you do fall on the ground if you're not careful hahah then elder Nelson came and spoke to us! They treat us right here at the ctm. it was so cool and he talked about the doctrine of Christ and finished with a personal Apostolic blessing over all the missionaries here. He really has a special presence about him and he truly is a man of god. then the choir sang "precious savior, dear redeemer" and i can officially say i sang for an apostle haha then we had the Christmas talent show and it was hilarious! so fun! Then that night we watched the movie Ephraim's rescue! it was quite the day and im sure there's more that i forgot. 

Sunday me and my comp were asked to usher for the devo and so we go early to train or whatever and theres this little short guy singing at the piano practicing for his piece and oh look its david archuleta haha so I'm typing with the hand that shook david archuleta's hand. yeah im famous. haha but no really he did come and sing for us and he is so good! The spirit was so strong and he's amazing!(Side note. that song he sang for meet the mormons he actually recorded that WHILE he was a missionary! in Chile! weird but true) also the MOTAB organist, richard elliot, was there and played a bunch of sweet songs on the organ, one just with his feet! Music is some powerful stuff. well that's all the devotionals and what not and the spirit has been so strong here!

I've realized that watches are like the most convenient things ever. like bam. the time is just right there on your wrist. within seconds you know what the time is! its so quick! also, tie trades on the daily are essential. 12 ties get used pretty quick and tie trading is a must. also, 4 square is the most intense sport here at the CTM and it is insane the amount of strategy thats involved. yes. 4 square. Its been SO cold here. Like 15 degrees at most. and the snow just keeps coming. Its beautiful but its crazy how cold it is. A bunch of elders in our zone left yesterday originally to brazil but got reassigned to California and it was cool to see how excited they were. We got a second teacher this week too, Irma smith, and shes way nice and a really good bringer of the spirit in the class. She served in portugal and shes going to be great. the Portuguese is coming along and the key truly is to SYL especially out of the classroom. 

well thats about it. happy new year! Love you all! oh yeah i was told i leave Feb 3rd from the CTM sooo. yeah. and sorry i havent sent any pictures, i keep forgetting my camera when i come to write so next week be expecting some pictures! Talk to ya next week!

Elder Powell

Dec. 22, 2014 - First e-mail Home!!

Hey Family and friends and Tudo Bem!

I've read so many of these letters from missionaries I don't even know what to say. It's weird being on the other side finally. First of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS! I can already tell that Christmas in the CTM is going to be awesome and all the Elders and sisters get to call home which was an awesome surprise but I guess you'll find out next week exactly how it was. So its been 6 days and the expression is really true about how the days go slow and the weeks go fast, but it's been so awesome! Finally getting that name tag was seriously so powerful and it was the culmination of everything I've been working for and it was so great! 

Well my first companion was probably my twin in heaven because we are seriously the same person in every way! He's from American fork and he went to BYU for a semester and he's the coolest guy. We clicked so fast and are always on the same page about everything. Its bizarre. We have the best chemistry when it comes to bouncing jokes off each other and we are going to be the funniest duo in the CTM haha we even have the same clothes from Mr. Mac. Like same size too. Haha too weird but we're best friends already. He's so funny and we are always laughing but we always find a way to feel the spirit so strongly. It's been so fun. He works super hard and loves the mission which really pushes me to be my best!

Portuguese is awesome and the language is actually easier than i thought. I'm obviously not fluent but the gift of tongues is real! It's crazy to think about how much i knew on Wednesday morning and I can already speak so much its amazing. My spanish helps so much and I know I'll be able to learn it quickly through hard work. That's what Irmao Workman tells us everyday. To work hard, focus more on the purpose of being a missionary and the language will come. And that really helped me. I need to focus on the work, the spirit and the scriptures and the language will come if I do my best. 

For all of you who will be serving a mission soon just a heads up that you teach your first lesson on Friday. In your LANGUAGE. And thats exactly what we did. We taught Adriana on Friday and the Portuguese was terrible haha but the spirit was there and it was so cool. We taught her two more times and we progressively got better and better which was really great to see and Rich and I really tried to focus on the positives and there were a lot even though we butchered the language. 

Our district is awesome and our DL is from Australia and he looks like superman. NO JOKE! hes so awesome and his Aussie slang is hilarious I reckon. Haha I'm already using it its so funny! I'm probably a little too sarcastic sometimes for my district but me and Rich have a chuckle everytime and I love it. It's been so fun! We're singing in the choir as a district for the Christmas night devo and the song "Where Shepherds Lately Knelt" is amazing. It was mindblowing how the choir director explained the words to us. You gotta go look it up because i dont have time to tell you but its gonna be a sweet song. Also, on sunday we watched a talk given by Elder Bednar at the CTM a couple years ago about how we always need to be turning outward especially during our time of need. He explained how Christ suffered in the Garden, was betrayed, crucified, mocked, and STILL was doing missionary work to the two other men on the cross next to him. It hit me hard. I've learned so much about Christ these past 6 days. tI've have never even thought about some stuff before and I've realized we will never be able to fathom how much of a solid guy he is. I Love Him and I cant wait to learn more these next 5 weeks! 

Well Feliz Natal talk to ya next week!

Elder Powell