Mission Address

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Luke A. Powell
Hawaii Honolulu Mission
1500 South Beretania St. Suite #416
Honolulu, Hawaii 96826

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Pearl Harbor, Obedience, the Big Picture

9/2/14
Dear family!!

Sorry for the late response! I promise I didn't forget you all! But as you know yesterday was a holiday so the library was closed, but we did get special permission from the Zone Leaders to e-mail today, so... yeah! Here is it!

As for this week, it's been, not surprisingly, another very long, very hot, and very exhausting week! But of course it was also another amazing week being in the service of the Lord! :) I don't have too much new stuff to report on (which is good cause I don't have too much time to report on it either! :P sorry!) But, one highlight was we got a new investigator!! Whoo! His name is D. and while he has some issues and he's not sure he really wants to change yet, he's still very interested in learning AND he walked for almost an hour to come to church on Sunday!! It was awesome!! Anyway, I also gave a talk on Sunday which went great! :)

Sorry! I totally miss judged and I'm like completely out of time!! But I guess if there was one thing I really gained a testimony of this week it was the power of prayer! It is more strong than any of us I think could ever imagine!! NEVER under estimate the power of a sincere and heartfelt prayer! He hears you and he loves you and wants to bless you as you do what he asks.

Anyway, I love you all! Thank you again for all you do! I promise next week I will write a little more! Keep on doing what you do and of course don't forget to be awesome!! :)

-Elder Powell


9/8/14
Aloha Ohana!!

Howzit!? Sorry, as always I'm a little short on time to e-mail, but it was great to hear from you all and especially great to hear your mad ramblings dad, in case you haven't noticed that is how I tend to talk as well so it's always wonderful to hear from someone who speaks my own language! :) 
As for my week down here it has been equally crazy! As you might have guessed we did a lot of..... (dramatic pause for effect) WALKING! WHOO!! It's actually not as bad as I make it sound, but since so much of our time is devoted to that I kind of feel obligated to include it in the weekly e-mail. But we did do quite a few other things which were almost as equally exciting as walking! :) For starters on Wednesday we got to go and do service at the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor! It was SO COOL!! September 2nd there was a HUGE celebration and presentation on board because it marked the 69th anniversary of the official end of WWII which took place ON the USS Missouri in Tokyo bay. So yeah we were helping clean it all up and it was fun! :)

Also another quick highlight of the week... WE GOT S. BACK!! :D :D :D So our dinner on Saturday was with the family that gave us his referral in the first place and so we were talking to the dad and he agreed that we should go check up on him and while he still has a lot of trails and challenges he's facing he's still just as amazing and kind and loving and open to hearing the Gospel as ever before! And his family is HUGE to him (as it should be to any father) and so Bro. C. agreed to take him and his kids out to see the Families display at the Laie Visitors Center which I am REALLY excited about!!! Speaking of which we get to go to the Temple this transfer and I'm SOOOO EXCITED!!!!!! :D :D Anyway, yeah, so we're moving a lot slower this time but we are meeting with him again and I have faith that he'll be pretty much ready to be baptized by the end of the year so hopefully I'll still be in the area, but if not I'm sure whoever is will be just as happy for him as we are! :) haha

Anyway, yeah that was probably the biggest highlight of the week, but as always I just wanted to bear a short testimony about Obedience this week. There tends to be an attitude in this mission about the overall rules and council given to us by President, the AP's and Zone Leaders (which I will admit can get a little ridiculous at times) which I honestly got a tiny bit caught up in this last week, not to the point of being disobedient but just where I was getting really frustrated with them and with everything, but as always I was reading in my scriptures and praying and I kind of realized something that I knew before but just had to be reminded of. I think a lot of time as missionaries (and sometimes as member missionaries even) we get caught up little nit-picky things and we want to do things our way and well frankly sometimes our way might actually make a whole lot more sense and be a lot easier or nicer or whatever, but, that is not what we have been asked to do. We have been asked and covenanted to be obedient in ALL THINGS!! That is the first law ever given to man and that is the law upon which all other laws AND BLESSINGS have been predicated!!!

We can't see the big picture, we don't know what he has planned for us and a lot of times we have no clue why we're asked to do what we're asked to do and frankly IT DOES NOT MATTER!! The only reason God has spelled out his promised blessings for many of his commandments is because he loves us, but he doesn't have to. He is God. He could say, Pay tithing, go to church, keep the WoW, 10 Commandments, LoC, and everything else and just do it, and we would still be obligated and under the same oath a covenant to do it. But he loves us soo much that he has told us the reward. He has promised us ETERNAL LIFE!! And really that's what we are all working towards and that, as missionaries, is what we are helping others work towards. Surely we cannot be so selfish as to Jeopardize someone’s ETERNAL SALVATION because we don't want have a full hour of comp study, or we want to hang out at our members houses for a little longer than we should or because we just don't feel like talking to the people (our own brothers and sisters I might add) that we pass on the street.

Anyway, sorry that was a little bit of venting mixed in with my testimony but well that's something that I've really been trying hard to follow and well it has been really hard!!  :P But yeah, overall all is well, all is well! :) I hope you all have a wonderful week! Remember you are always in my prayers and thoughts! I love you all and will talk to you in a week! :) Don't forget to be awesome! :D

-Elder Powell


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