Jan 11, 2016 - We are the Only Church That Would Do this!!!

This week was insanely windy and rainy! And I get a call from the AP asking us about something and I say how windy it is and he says how one day he was with his comp out on a terrible day and his comp just yells "WE ARE THE ONLY CHURCH THAT WOULD DO THIS!" Haha its so true! So I am proud to be part of the church and part of the missionary force that would voluntarily walk in the street for 9 hours a day in the wind and the rain trying to serve and help other people! :D

Anyway I am still here in the beautiful city of Póvoa de Varzim and I have received my first native comp! Elder Gomes was born in Lisbon but his parents were born in Cape Verde. So hes a Portuguese Cabo-Verdiano! Haha We've been working super hard this week and have already seen so many miracles. We are updating the ward list by visiting every member and marking if they still live there, still alive or dont want anything more with us. Its been a good way to find people to reactivate! We also found an awesome family from Mozambique! A mom and a daughter and they're so elect! We talked about family history and prophets and the spirit was definitely there! 

Afonso came to church...Finally! Its been about 9 weeks since he last showed up but he finally came and loved it and the members love him! We're working with him to be baptized on the 24th! 

Have an awesome week!

--

Elder Powell

Jan 4, 2016 - More Pictures

Pictures. 1. I attempted to make cookies again for christmas and i think I used the wrong type of butter... I was sad.

2. then this is the aftermath of christmas morning:D

I dont know if you remember how all my friends called me peter. But my comp got me this sweet saint peter idol hahaha its so cool!!

and this is me at the sweet chapel from last week!

this is me at the baptism on my birthday:D

this is our super fly district!

and this was a moment one night that i couldnt let go by without capturing it. perfection 

this is the view form the top of the chapel

Jan 4, 2016 - 2016!

Well happy 2016 everyone! This week has been a pretty average week. Really rainy but not too cold! On New Year's eve we went over to a member's house and we ate a ton of really yummy food! She made a Brazilian lasagna which was amazing then we had a bunch of shrimp. Shrimp as in we had to tear off the head and the legs and everything! Too good. Then just a bunch of cakes and puddings and fruit! Then at about 11 they all started packing up and putting on there coats and everything and I was really confused. Turns out they were on their way to Porto for the party at the stake center. So they dropped us off at our house at about 11:15 which was... unexpected haha but we made the most of it and stayed up till 12 and watched the fireworks out our window! It was insane! It was like an instantaneous explosion of the cit! 15 or 20 minutes of straight fireworks all around us! I think New Years is bigger than Christmas here. It was awesome! Then New years day we headed over to David's house and ate lunch and dinner with him with even more shrimp and octopus and cakes haha the Portuguese know how to eat!

So I dont know if I've already talked about our other David. Hes 12 years old and hes the grandson of a member. And hes been coming to church every week for about a month and hes incredible. Ever week we teach him during the 3rd our with a sweet RM in our ward and he has been progressing so much! He said hes been praying and reading every day and he feels like this is the right church and its true! Then we had a really good lesson about the plan of salvation and he totally understood it! He asked "So people who go to the spirit prison without knowing about the gospel can still make it to the celestial kingdom?" YES! Yes they can! But we told him to just go to paradise and you wont have to worry about all that haha but the thing is his mom is not very cooperative with us and hasnt let us come to their house to teach him. Hes been coming to church with his grandparents and we only get to teach him once a week. BUT we're way excited and hes so ready to be baptized this month!

Thats it for this week! Transfer calls are coming tonight so we're anxiously waiting for that. Have an awesome week and I hope all of you start this year on the right foot! Its never too late to start over and make a change!

Dec 28, 2015 - NO TIME!

So Christmas was awesome! We hung out with our favorite people ever, David and his family! We ate a ton and it was awesome! We had a huge Mission conference with like half the mission and President was there and it was so fun! Today we had District Pday so we are in Vianna do Castelo and we went to see a huge catholic church and we came back to our chapel and played ping pong and ate crepes and all that good stuff! BUT unfortunately I only have like 15 minutes because we are watching a movie and I dont wanna miss too much of it! Haha 

But we also had a little spiritual thought with our P day and we talked about temples. the catholic church we went ot was on the top of this huge mountain that we had to hike up. And we parelled that with our journey to the temple. Its not easy to get there! Its hard and cold and tiring but the view at the top or in other words the blessings are so worth it! So yeah. Make the temple your goal and get there!!!!

Ill send pictures next week! Love ya and have a great new year!

Dec 21, 2015 - Feliz Natal! (:

We got some cool stuff happening over here! So on Tuesday the zone leaders came to my District meeting and then we went on a division after! I went with elder Wilkes who actually served here about 8 months ago! So we went to visit some members and old friends. And we taught Francisco again and it was awesome having Wilkes there with me. We had a super powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon and he kept saying that first he has to read the bible then he'll read the Book of Mormon. Haha no it doesn't work like that. You can read both without reading the other! Haha but it was awesome! Wilkes said that he like s to get his investigators a really string testimony of the Book of Mormon first because those who do have a way higher chance of staying firm. and its so true! The Book of Mormon is so Powerful and I've come to know that so much more on my mission!

Then on Thursday we went to do a baptismal interview for the sisters Baptism, Rute! Shes 18 and was so excited and it was one of the smoothest most powerful interviews I've done! So on Saturday they came down to our chapel to have the baptism because they don't have a font. About 5 minutes before it started we realized the baptizer hadn't showed up! So they call him and turns out hes not going to make it in time! Of course. (Remember how Satan works really hard on baptisms?) So they turn to me and say I have to do it. The only problem is I don't have white clothes! So the program starts and I have less than 10 minutes to run a km home grab my clothes and a km back! I show up at the church exhausted, change my clothes and I'm only 2 minutes late! We get in the water and after bringing her up I felt the strongest spirit ever! It was funny because Rute turned to me and said "Can I go back under again?! (: " hahah so I turned to the 2 witnesses and they said sure go ahead! So she just kinda plops back under and comes back up and it was hilarious! She loved it. It was so cool to be a part of it! And on my birthday too:D

Well that's about it for this week! I hope all you have a fantastic Christmas and remember the reason for the season! Feliz Natal!

Pic: This is me following the traditions of my forefathers:D

Dec 14, 2015 - 20 Down. 1 To Go.

Very cool week this week! We helped our favorite members, Zulmira and Antonio move a lot this week. Basically all day Tuesday and all day Saturday we were over there helping. They are moving to another house basically around the block so it was pretty fast but its crazy how deceiving Portuguese houses are! They have SO much stuff! But it was fun to help and she was so thankful! It was sweet!

We found some cool new investigators this week, finally! We knocked into this guy Francisco who let us explain everything we wanted to. Haha it was funny, he answered the door and all we asked was if we could have 5 minutes of his time and he looked at his watch and said "OK. 5 minutes. The game is on but I'll listen. Go" Hahah so we left a super simple first lesson and we ended up talking there at the door or about 15 minutes or so. It was awesome and we know hes elect because he left the Chelsea game to talk with us!

Also we had our ward Christmas Party on Saturday and it was a great turnout! We had 3 investigators there and 2 of them were some boys 12 and 14 who are sons of a less active but came for the party and these kids David and Diogo are elect! They came up to us and said "we want to learn more about the church. Do you have something we can read?" Talk about inspired question! We gave them each a pamphlet to read and said we'll talk with them more this week. Then just Diogo came to church the next day but we're super excited. We got there mom's number and are going to visit them I think tomorrow on our division with the ZLs.

We watched the Christmas Devotional and it was so good! I especially like the part by L Whitney Clayton where he said that when the angel came to the shepherds and said"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." And how that phrase Fear Not is ever more relevant today! And how he could be talking to us as well and is telling us that the joy of the news of Christ's birth and life should and will replace all fear that we have. Really cool aspect and view of that phrase. So I guess my 5 cents this week is to FEAR NOT! Christ is born and he lives! Remember him. Look to him and FEAR NOT!

Pics: this is Zulmira and Antonio!

And this is David! He is not a member but his son and daughter are members and he feeds us every Sunday and we are going to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with him and his family! It was his birthday on Thursday and we got him these sunglasses! 

--

Elder Powell

Dec 7, 2015 - For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things

So I guess just to start our dear brother Afonso didn't feel certain about the Baptism and didn't feel 100% ready to be baptized. On Saturday night he told us he hadn't felt that "feeling" he needed.We tried our best to testify and tell him that we know hes ready. He explained that he doesn't have that 100% certainty that this is the only true church. We tried our best to explain to him that that is what Faith is! He already has that desire to believe. That mustard seed is all he needs! But unfortunately God gave him his agency(; But don't worry! We obviously wont give up on him! One day he'll be wearing that white.

Other than that we had a sweet Zone Meeting about how we can be better and bolder at testifying and challenging while we teach. We came up with some really good ideas to truly use our calling as representatives of Christ to be like Apostles and Prophets of old and Be Bold! Be Fearless! Testify! Really pumped me up!

We did a lot of service this week and helped a member move and another member at her store and we got 3 meals out of it! Haha that's not the reason why I wanted to serve but it was a nice perk! But service is one of the best things we can do as members of the church.  It felt so good to really help someone who needed us. "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words." Especially during this Christmas season giving of ourselves is the best way to show that we really do love our neighbor and love our Father In Heaven. "...When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."  So everyday try to find an opportunity to serve! Love you guys! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Powell