A sleep deprived juggling clown and "light refreshments"

2/10/15

Taloha e lei mon amigos

(all the languages I have to learn are going great obviously.. I'm not mixing them up at all! I've also stopped using sarcasm almost entirely!)

It's SO great to hear from you all!! Man, I was reading your e-mail and Jim and Christie's and a few from some friends and after all of that over load of new information I couldn't help but turn to my companion and tell him that "apparently the world has blown up in the matter of a week back home!" haha! It sure feels that way at least! I know that happens all the time out here in the mission field! One week you're wandering the same two mile radius of Kane'ohe and the next your rushing to get from one end of the island to the other for a lesson and a meeting and a dinner and the 80 other things we have to try and juggle while covering three wards and three languages! Anyway, that being said while I may look like a sleep deprived clown juggling all of this, the results events of the juggling have never been quite so beautiful! One of those results being R's baptism!!!!

WHOOOHOO!! That's right! After 7 months of sweating and trying everything to even just get people committed to baptism for more than a week we finally had one pull through and I got to participate in my first real baptism since I came out!! :D :D Although even then it's sort of a shallow victory with how golden she already was and how incredibly little we did for her! I mean she literally had her entire baptismal program already planned out down to who would conduct the music and even who would be her witnesses! (although one of those fell through so I got to be one of the witnesses which was awesome!) :)

Anyway, regardless of how little we actually did it was overall just an amazing experience to get to be a part of and one of three highly significant and spiritual moments in this last week. The other two being zone conference and some personal experiences there that I would prefer to keep to myself and being able to give a blessing to a 90 year old lady in a care home who has been recently faced with many trials and hard times and depression and so forth and just feeling an incredibly overwhelming spirit of love for her that came from her Heavenly Father and other loved ones on the other side of the veil! It really is amazing the power love has to transcend all other seeming limitations and reach those that most need it when they need it! Anyway, So those were sort of the main highlights of my week!

Hopefully you all have had and will continue to have an amazing time back home!! I love each and everyone of you and pray for you always!!  Have an amazing week, stay strong, carry on, and don't forget to be awesome!! :)

Ofa atu!

-Elder Powell

This is what Samoan's mean when they say that there will be "light refreshments! haha!