Miracle Filled Week

6/23/14

Hey there family!
Sounds like a pretty exciting week! as far as the exhausting part, well I can definitely empathize with you on that. I'm so incredibly exhausted and brain dead this week is probably gonna be more of a check list of events then telling any stories.

First off, if you ever have a TON of energy and just don't know what to do with yourself because you're so incredibly overflowing with energy, come down to Yuma and bike a couple dozen miles in the summer. It drains you... INCREDIBLY fast! haha!

But enough complaining, aside from the very long and hot bike rides that fill our days overall this week has been another incredibly miracle filled week! But there are three specific ones I want to focus on and I'll try to be quick.

First. One of the Elders (who I will keep anonymous for his sake) has been having some SUPER rough trials with family back at home and has also been just completely overwhelmed with non-stop anti-mormon propaganda and such and it got REALLY bad...none of us knew what to do so we all just kept praying for him a TON and long story short, despite all the adversity he's faced HE'S STILL HERE! It was truly amazing to see the power of prayer work in his life and also the strength of basic truths because he is a REALLY smart guy and knows a lot of very deep doctrine, but in the end all that extra stuff failed him and the only thing that kept him (and all of us) strong was the testimonies of basic, simple truths. :)

Second, I don't know if you remember my friend R, but she messaged me on facebook the other day and long story short she's been meeting with the missionaries and is going to get baptized but she said she wants me to do it because I was such an example in her life of what the gospel can do! So yeah, we're still working out the logistics but that will be SUPER exciting! :D Remember you never know who's watching so always stand as a witness of Christ and let your light so shine! :)

Anyway, running out of time, on to the last miracle!

So we have been teaching this less active member...her mom pulls us aside at church yesterday to talk to us and she says that one of the daughter's friends just showed up at their house the other day in need of help and specifically wanting to take the lessons and such because our church is the only place in her life she's ever felt comfort. So at first we're like "ok that seems doable" but then she gives us a bit of this girls background and well, to put it bluntly, she is an addict and well a LOT of other stuff but we'll just leave it at that. So of course now we were a little worried. Basically we were being faced with the impossible! But nevertheless we went over to visit them.

So we started out just asking questions, getting to know her and such, and then we decided we would teach the lesson the Restoration. So Elder Mahlandt starts on the first point which is "God is our Loving Heavenly Father" and as a part of this we shared with her a song. The song is called "His Daughter" by Molly Kate Kesner and if you haven't heard it I would DEFINITELY suggest looking it up! anyway, so there's of course a spirit there when we started the lesson but the second that song starts it just gets stronger and then by about the third line in the first verse, out of nowhere, BOOM!! the spirit in that room literally just exploded and was so incredibly overwhelming that all five of us were in tears! (although if you ask Elder Mahlandt he will deny the crying part. haha!) anyway, but it was seriously SO POWERFUL and as we continued on talking it just stayed so incredibly strong! We never even got past that first point but we didn't need to because all five of us in that room (especially the less active and investigator) learned what we needed to learn and felt what we needed to feel, which is that God truly does love us, more than you could ever imagine. And it's not just those who seek him out, or go to church, every Sunday or do everything right, he loves even those who make mistakes no matter what the mistakes or how big they might be he loves them just as much if not even more! It will definitely be a long journey for this investigator, probably one I won't be a part of for much longer but I know, without a doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father loves her and I know that she knows that and she knows that we love her and this family she came to loves her and that love was so strong in that room that I have no doubt in my mind that eventually she will have her life in order and will be baptized and will be able to fully partake of Christ Atonement, because his Atoning power is SO incredible and strong that is nothing it cannot do!! again, I want to emphasize THERE IS NOTHING THAT CHRIST'S ATONEMENT CANNOT DO!!!!!

Anyway, well I guess that's about it for this week. Know that I love you all and pray for you every day! :) Keep on working hard, reading your scriptures and always remember how much your Heavenly Father loves you! :)

Don't forget to be awesome! :)

-Elder Powell