Luke climbs a coconut tree

3/23/15

Aloha ohana!

Man sounds like things are still just plugging away as normal as can be back in good old Az!! That's cool to hear about Hannah and Ben's missions!! How much longer does Hannah have?? And I don't know if I mentioned but I just watched my last ward send off one of their missionaries to the South Dakota Rapid City mission so I'm curious if he's going to get re-assigned to Nebraska as well. That would be cool! I'll have to ask around! Anyway, apparently we all have a lot of connections to that part of the US! haha! And you should ask the Elders and find out if they know where Elder Mahlandt, Elder Reaves and Elder Francis are or what happened to them!! I think Elder Francis might actually be home?! Man, that's crazy that it's almost been a year since my mini-mission!!

Anyway, as for us out here in good old Ka'u things are just about at normal as always! .....so in other words not normal at all! haha! But hey what better place for me to be than somewhere for not normal people because well... I'm not too normal myself! hahaha! But in all honesty this really has been a great week. Just doing what we always do, a couple lessons with our "investigators" (families that happen to have a non-member in the home) and then our normal 12-15 home teaching visits :P haha! but it is great! For the most part the people here in Ka'u are just like the people around the entire rest of the Hawaii, super warm and friendly and welcoming! We actually have this little swap meet we've been going to with like 9-10 tents set up each week and just kind of getting to know some of the community (it honestly is a good chunk of them there which just goes to show you how small it is! haha) And the best part of that is there is this really nice Mexican Lady (who most recently came from Arizona but was born and raised in Mexico) that makes SUPER good Tacos!! So that is always a highlight of the week! :) hahaha! Also we are seeing at least a little bit of excitement on the ward level. We just got a new Bishopric when I got here and because the church doesn't want Bishop's wives being RS presidents at the same time they just called a new RS presidency too! It's funny cause our whole bishopric are all former bishops and the bishop himself is on his third time as bishop.. when your activity pool is about 30-40 people on a good week I guess your choices are limited :P haha! But they are all great men and I'm sure will do great things! 

The ocean down at south point and all around the island is seriously SO incredibly clear and blue it's just beautiful!!

Anyway, I am sincerely praying that this new ward set up works well because we also found out that after this transfer President will probably be closing down this area or at least merge it with the neighboring area (which would make those poor missionaries area over 120miles long!) But long story short it looks like I will be doing yet another one transfer area which kind of really stinks because you don't have nearly enough time to get to know the ward or the area or anything but it's ok, President is in desperate need of missionaries in other places because with the age-change swell going down we will be dropping from over 200missionaries to only about 170 in the coming months! So that will be crazy!!!

But again no matter what, I am sure that the work will keep on hastening and everything will work out just like it's supposed to! (or at least very close to that! haha) Just keep praying for the amazing saints of Hawaii, I know I will be! Anyway, I hope you all have a great week and remember that I am praying for you constantly and I love you all so much! Mahalo nui loa for all that you do!! Stay strong, carry on and don't forget to be awesome!!! :D :D :D

Ofa atu!

-Elder Powell

p.s. just thought I'd include some pictures of me getting into my Polynesian side climbing a coconut tree (which is MUCH harder than a pine tree on the mainland! :P haha!) and enjoying the view from the south tip of Big Island which also happens to be the furthest south point of Hawaii AND the United States! (Alabama ain't got nuttin' on Ka'u!)