Jan. 27, 2015 - We're Going to Paris!!

Hello people

So we got our flight plans this week! We fly to detroit then to paris then to portugal. we leave tuesday morning at 4:30 i think. It's going to be about 20 hours of travel which will be...fun haha but yeah Paris is kinda freaky with all the Isis stuff so the airport will probably be intense but oh well! 

Edler Ballard came and spoke on tuesday and it was so good! He talked about being a better missionary (classic) and it was way good! Then on sunday a member of the 70 spoke about not letting satan push your buttons and it was really motivational! He said to just ignore satan and become the best missionary ever. He was a good talker too which made it really entertaining

On friday we skyped another member in brazil and it was fun. she mumbled all her words and talked really fast and the connection was horrible so we couldnt understand one thing she said haha BUT we taught a good lesson about the book or Mormon and challenged her to give one to someone this week and i think she said yes which was good! But it was cool to talk to a native and it got me excited for portugal! 

K 2 quick stories. one funny one spiritual. So we're teaching our teacher as an investigator and he has soccer playing on his iPad so that its like a real person or whatever haha and so we start to talk about soccer and messi and ronaldo and stuff making small talk and Elder rich says in portuguese "Oh i like messi better because hes more beautiful" hahaha too funny. Probably not as funny for you people but we were all busting up laughing.

So this week i was reading in 3 Nephi chapter 18 verse 11. it's basically the sacrament prayer but Christ is saying in first person. He says the blood I have shed for you and always remember ME and have MY spirit to be with you. It was really cool and i Never thought about it that way how he's speaking directly to us. I don't know just something different. 

Well this time next week I'll be flying to Portugal! My P day will probably be on monday and for the next 2 years. We're all pumped and super excited! Talk to ya next week!

Elder Powell

Jan. 20, 2015 - 1 Month already!

It's crazy how fast the first month went by! It's been so fun!

So last tuesday night elder nelson came again along with 7 other members of the seventy! it was pretty cool. I guess they were all here to set apart the new mtc presidency and also train like 34 new mission presidents or something. Elder nelson gave an awesome talk about how the phrase "Enduring to the End" really means Enduring to the End-owment. Our job isnt over just with baptism we need to make sure we get everyone to the temple! It changed my perspective of my mission.

We got ANOTHER district in our zone! they have 10 elders and 4 sisters and in case you didnt know thats a ton to all be crammed into one little classroom. They're really excited and really enthusiastic and now our zone has 55 missionaries. And thats pretty big too for the CTM. 

On friday we skyped some members in brazil! We taught them a little lesson and it was...interesting. haha first we couldnt really connect for about 20 minutes then when we finally did it was really hard to hear them but it was really cool! their brazillian portugues was a lot different then portugal portuguese but I think they still got the jist of it. But I definitely still need to work on the language. 

The new mtc presidency is super cool and they all served their missions in either portugal or brazil so they all speak portuguese! They gave the devo on sunday and them and their wives are all great. Then that night we watched another talk by Elder bednar about "becoming a missionary." It was so good. He ended it with saying "You Can Do This!" it was so simple but so comforting. It's just a mission. Yes its going to be hard but I can do this! really inspiring. 

So one of our teachers, Irma Smith, has been really sick lately and we've had a lot of subs. She says she gets a lot of migraines and her muscles in her spine are like pulling her neck back and stuff and shes a mess. But one day when we were supposed to teach her as our investigator we were preparing our lesson and we couldnt think of anything to teach. We both were having like a mind block. She wanted to be baptized but she kept saying not yet and we were both just confused and had no idea what to do to. But it came our time to teach and we knocked on 'the door" with nothing prepared. But  then "irma smith" had another migraine and had to go home early but "our Investigator"  said that she really wanted to be baptized but her family was really against it and if she did her ex husband would take custody of her kids. It was amazing. we found out exactly what we needed to know and comforted her in just the 2 minutes we had at the door about it being the right choice to be baptized and it was crazy. I dont know if it was a tender mercy but i think we couldnt think of anything to teach because we werent supposed to. I didnt see it as a coincidence. I hope that story made sense.

Well other than that our week has been pretty much the same as every other week. Just class and meals all day every day. I'm super excited to get out of her and finally start helping real people and its so close I can nearly taste it! just about 15 days or so and I'll be in portugal! 

Elder Powell

oh i have pictures too! this is me juggling with a sick tie that someone in our zone gave me. (he has 75 ties HERE AT THE MTC!) also one of me and elder rich eating some awesome chips and salsa that his family sent us. 

Jan. 13, 2015 - PORTUGAL IS SPLITTING!

Hello people outside the walls

Yes as you probably heard the portugal mission is splitting into 2 missions. The Porto and the lisbon mission! its super exciting! It doesnt officially happen until july 1st but im excited! They said that the area I'm in when it splits is the mission I'll get changed to so if I'm north on july 1st ill get my call changed to Porto and if I'm in the south i'll just stay in Lisbon. I hope that makes sense. 

So as I said last week we got to host the new missionaries on wednesday and it was so fun! we got to get their luggage and take them to their room and watch as they were all nervous it was the best. It was good to finally not be the greenies because of christmas and new years it was the first new group of missionaries since we had gotten here. With the new missionaries we got a new district in our zone and it has 2 elders and 4 sisters. It's really small but they're awesome and confused and scared and its great. Oh and we get to host tomorrow too!

Being District Leader on Sunday especially is pretty crazy. Theres like 4 extra meetings and I have to give a lesson and interview all the elders and its a lot. BUT it's a privilege to be able to serve and help out our district and the church and it's organization is incredible.

We had our TRC with volunteer members and there was this one guy we taught who like didnt say anything...it was weird. he was really awkward and looked actually mad to be there but he was a volunteer... haha weird but it was probably our best lesson so it was good! 

Oh so we had a sub on saturday and he was from brazil and moved to united states like 6 months ago and he was the FIRST 18 year old missionary! THE FIRST! He said that he had a ton of interviews with apostles and seventies and he is the reason for all this. Pretty crazy. Oh and speaking of famous people david archuleta was back at the mtc dropping off his cousin! and a sister in our district hosted her and she said it was so weird to see him again. ok that is all. 

It's been raining a lot too which is nice because its not so cold! But tonight the MTC presiednt is being released and its rumored that memberS of the first presidency are coming! It should be pretty cool!

Well it's so awesome to be a missionary and it's amazing how much my testimony has grown. The book of Mormon is SO true and we were challenged to read it int he 6 weeks we're here and It's so amazing how much I've learned. I know that missionaries truly are called of god and there is no place I would rather be. I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!

Elder Powell

Jan. 6, 2015 - We're not human doings we're human beings

Happy new year family and friends!

This week finally got back to normal after Christmas and everything. And no we didnt get to stay up till midnight haha but nobody wants to lose sleep so its all good. Hopefully I dont ramble too much but  feel like i could write a page for everyday so I'll try my best

Last tuesday we got to clean the temple! it was way cool. we cleaned the chapel and a sealing room that was huge. it had like 50 chairs. But it was interesting to see like the inner workings of it all.  then we were told we get to host new greenies tomorrow! i'm so excited! we get to yank them from their families! muahaha no but really it should be fun! Oh and if you don't think miracles happen everyday then youre wrong. my comp is like just as good as me at ping pong!! we played on that mini table set i got fro Christmas and we played for like an hour! i still think we were brothers before this life. 

Saturday was our last day for our teacher Irmao Workman. It got promoted to zone president or something but it was actually really sad to have him leave. He was the very first person we met when we got to the CTM who genuinely cared about us and helped us through the hardest weeks of our lives and it was really hard to just have him leave half way through our 6 weeks. It was so cool because he gave our last district prayer and he blessed everyone individually by name and it was the most powerful prayer! it was almost a priesthood blessing for each of us and even though it was all in Portuguese i still understand all of it! miracles. Our new teacher, Irmao Lefevre is great too! he served in brazil and hes so awesome! we were all skeptical of him and having him live up to workman but he did! he taught yesterday for the first time and hes a genius! he won $100,000 on who wants to be millionaire!! He is always laughing and smiling and makes us all feel relaxed and i already love him! (he walked away from the question, "what color are the middle two feathers of the NBC logo?" crazy right? but yeah hes a 23 year old with almost 65 grand)

On friday we taught our first member. It was so nice to finally just teach a lesson that they could understand! we taught about prayer and it was awesome to see how far we've come in our portuguese! The spirit was really strong and his feedback said that we taught him very personally which was amazing! 

ON sunday the old Zone Leaders left to the field so our DL Elder baptista and his comp were made Zone leaders! They're super obedient and they're going to do awesome! but since they got assigned to a new position they assigned me to replace him as District Leader. I was honored but I'm a little stressd because District Leader is in charge of making sure everybody is emotionally stable and are doing alright. So it'll be a change but I'll try my best

Also on sunday was the CTM presidency's last fireside. they gave a great mission conference and they get replaced on the 17th of jan. So thats exciting i guess haha  Then that night we had a devotional from the Chief Media president of missionaries. It was so interesting. he talked about all the videos the church puts out and the tens of millions of views they've received and how the church bought out the largest space in times square for the He Is The Gift poster and on new years eve when ever ryan seacrest was on tv the poster was RIGHT behind him in the shot haha they showed us a picture and it was so cool! look it up. then after we watched meet the mormons and it was hard to relive the missionary leaving but it was still really good! 

I guess I'll end with a little spiritual thought. In class we were talking about the Book of Mormon and all the sacrifices that were made so that we could have it today and obviously we all thought about Nephi going back for the plates and moroni and joseph but then our teacher Irma Smith mentioned Emma smith! She was a trooper. She had to live in fear of wondering if joesph was going to live to see the next day, Everyday! she had to watch as most of her kids died at a very young age, she never even saw the plates, she had to watch as joseph suffered in liberty jail then live as a young widow, all for the restoring this church and the printing of the Book of Mormon. Amazing. I hope to have even a little of that much faith. Well the mission is great and I love it it! Its hard but worth it! Love you all!

Elder Powell

haha me on my birthday and then irmao workman with his mozambique pose but elder rich couldnt hold a straight face. and yes thats my first time wearing paisley ever.

haha heres us playing ping pong