Basketball playing potato farmer

5/25/15

HELLOOOOHAA FAMILY!!!!! :)

 Man, sounds like all of you are getting ready for another crazy, exciting, and hot summer back in Arizona! I guess as the weather heats up so does everyone's lives out there! As for Hawaii the temperature and work and everything is staying just as calm and pleasant as ever! :) haha! As I'm sure you've pieced together by now Elder Griffin is gone. He's back in Waipahu (where he just came from) as a Zone Leader! And I now am with Elder Baker. It's been super fun cause for the third time now I have a companion I came out with but for the first time it is one of the guys from my district in the MTC even! So we already got to know each other pretty well there and now we are getting to know each other even better out here! :) It's cool too cause he's actually NOT from Utah believe it or not! And he came out at 19 also! So now everyone who tries to sarcastically ask "what part of Utah are you from?" we can both respond with "we're not!" :) haha Anyway, other random information about him.... he's a potato farmer from Moses Lake, Washington, he's SUPER good at basketball (which is good cause I'm not so the ward can enjoy having at least one good elder at basketball night! haha), and he's played and beaten The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ALMOST as many times as I have!! (but I think I still have him beat at that one! ;) haha) Anyway, we're getting along well. :)

As for the area, it's still just pluggin' along. So very soon after C. decided to get baptized he actually procured and gave a copy of the Book of Mormon to his Dad and apparently his Dad has been reading it and praying and such and told C. that he wants to convert!!! WHOOHOO!!!! Anyway, they technically live outside of our area but I'm assuming they want to be able to all go to church together as a family so I think we might still be able to teach him :) Anyway, I'll definitely let you know how all of that goes! :) I guess God knows best. It's still hard though watching things not really work out all bright and happy like you planned it... but again, I guess that's just life sometimes... Anyway, we got a couple of new investigators.... kind of... they’re not the most solid of investigators and we're worried with both of them that we won't get far beyond the first or maybe the second lesson, but hey, that's exactly what miracles are for! :D haha! So yeah, trying to keep hopeful and optimistic while always trying to find more people to teach! :)

Sorry I'm sure you probably have more questions and I know I definitely have a lot more I would like to say about everything that is happening in your folks lives but I'm just about out of time for this week so I'll have to leave it there. Definitely though never forget that I love you and I am praying for you!! This memorial day I am so grateful for all the memories I have with each and every one of you as well as the many more I hope to make in the future! Truly the memory of all those great men and women who lived before us lives on in each of us and I just hope I can live up to the memories I will always cherish of them and leave similar memories with other to come! :) (how's that for memorial day line? haha I'm not even sure if it makes any sense but it almost sounds profound so I'll just leave it! haha!) Anyway, have a fantastic week! I love you all! Stay strong, carry on and don't forget to be awesome!! :D

Ofa lahi atu and Aloha nui loa!! :)

-Elder Powell

A Bumpy Ride

5/18/15

AALLOOOOHHAAAAA OHANA!!!!!! :D :D

Hey!!! Thank you everyone so much for your birthday wishes but beyond that for just being so loving and supportive of me through everything all year round! Truly charity never faileth and your love and charity is felt and has been felt all these years. Really I feel I have almost more reason to celebrate you guys and everything you have done for me these last 20 years than I have to celebrate anything I have done because in comparison I really haven't done much for myself :P haha! So anyway, here is to the last 20 years and everyone who has loved, helped and supported me through them and made me into the person I am! I really do owe it all to you. However I also owe it to my God who has shaped me more than anyone else! That is why, while I love and miss all of you greatly, I have chosen to spend this time in service to Him and to my fellow being! And yet there is still so much more I have to do! Thankfully this last week has been still filled with many things to do and so transitioning a bit over to that now, here's kinda a run down of what all has happened in the last week. Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

A random photo of a Panda driving a Van - No wonder it's a bumpy ride.

So this week we had a few different exciting things happen that have just left me with a lot of mixed emotions. For starters we had a great lesson with one of, if not the hardest investigator I have ever taught! He is a great guy and the lessons are good but he just has a lot of doubts and questions almost everything and has been having a lot of concerns with stuff he's reading in the Book of Mormon that we try to clear up but it's hard cause it's not always the most spiritual stuff (like the logistics of the Jaredites boat, or the geographic location of all the different events and wars and such on the American Continent or the exact motives and logistics of all the war chapters) BUT he finished the entire Book of Mormon!!! He read through the whole thing in a matter of about 2 months!!! Anyway, so we have been talking a lot about faith and acting on faith and having a true and sincere desire to know and all of that stuff and he has really been struggling for a long time with all of that BUT this week we got him to finally commit to come to church!!!! (and when he makes a commitment he doesn't go back on it!) BUT.... after we got him to commit he informed us that he would be on the mainland visiting family for a little over a month so he wouldn't be at church or continuing the lessons until he got back... so anyway, long story short be sure to keep him in your prayers please.

 Anyway, we also got to have a short lesson with C.and he is still just as solid as ever! He is actually thinking about postponing basic training until after his mission so that's pretty exciting! :D Also he blessed the sacrament for the first time this week and of course he did a great job! As for other investigators, J & J are still kind of struggling/doing great. J. is just as solid as ever and seriously feel and talks like he is already a member of the church! So that's super awesome!! However, things with J. are still pretty rough and tender but we're just trying to show how much we love her no matter what... but again any prayers you could offer on her behalf I'm sure would be greatly appreciated!

J .... he'll probably be moving into New Town which is just outside of our zone so I won't get to be a part of or even witness for that matter his baptism/confirmation/activity in the church at least while I am still here in Mililani. :/ But I say "I" and not "us" because if J does decide to be baptized in the New Town Ward Elder Griffin will be following him over into that zone as the new Waipahu Zone Leader!! That's right! We found out transfer news already and unfortunately Elder Griffin will be leaving me, however, he's going to be a Zone Leader in Waipahu in the Honouliuli ward which is kind of funny too because he just came here from Waipahu Zone in the Pearl City ward so he'll be right back where he came from (cue Mike Wazowski singing "put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!") haha just kidding! Anyway, so while I am sad to lose Elder Griffin I did find out my new companion is going to be Elder Baker who I actually came out with also! haha! so this will be my third companion already from the group I came out with! Anyway, I'm really excited about him because I got to know him pretty well in the MTC (he was our MTC district leader) and I know that he is a great missionary! :) As for our ward, I am still unsure as to whether we will be getting another ward to work with, or if we will be losing our car and going back to the good old fashion foot-mobile (just in time for summer too! haha) but whatever happens I'm sure it will be for the best of the ward and the area in general! :)

Anyway, so yeah, as you can see it has been a bit of a roller-coaster of a week for us! And it's looking like things are going to just keep getting crazier! haha! But that's a good thing I guess! Well, thank you again for everything you guys do. I love you all so much and am seriously more grateful for you than I could ever express in any e-mail or skype conversation. Keep on spreading the light of Christ everywhere you go, do good and be good wherever you are and in whomever's company you find yourself and know that I am striving to do the same! You are in my prayers always! Mahalo nui loa and Aloha nui loa!!! :D

Ofa lahi atu! :)

-Elder Powell

Mother's Day Skype call

5/11/15

Aloha family!!!

Hey! so obviously I don't have a ton to update you on being as we just spoke yesterday. But, we still have time to e-mail today and therefor you are receiving an e-mail! :) So anyway, not a lot has happened since we last spoke, we had a rather interesting Mother's day with just parking our car and wandering around trying to talk to people on the street because we felt bad bothering active families who were almost definitely having mother's day dinners and didn't want to go tracting for the same reason, but nevertheless the Lord was merciful and we made contact with a less-active/part member family we've been hoping to start teaching and talked with a young man who is getting ready to graduate high-school and as such has had a lot of questions about his life and life in general that hopefully the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we left him will help answer! And all of that timed out perfectly so that we were in a cross walk right just in time for a car to drive by that happened to be carrying Elder Kauhi whom I met and got to serve around in Yuma while I was there and have been hoping to meet ever since I got here! Anyway, he was very excited to see me as I was him although our reunion was brief being that he was in a moving car :P haha! But anyway, that's kind of been my.... well... day since I saw you guys! :) Hope everything is going well for you, as always you are in my prayers! I love you and miss you and am doing everything I can to make you and the Lord proud! Stay strong, carry on, and don't forget to be awesome!! :D

-Elder Powell

Yoda, BAPTISM and Rainbows

5/4/15

Aloha ohana and HAPPY MAY THE FOURTH!!! :D :D May the Fourth be with you, always! :)

Man, sounds like you all had a pretty eventful week! What are you doing to celebrate this amazing intergalactic holiday today?! :) I know I will be enjoying some Yoda sodas and just admiring my lego Darth Vader alarm clock and Yoda plush doll because that's about as much Star Wars as I can get out here on the mission :P haha! Anyway, I am going to have to have you guys buy that movie for me and get out my Jedi cloak and light sabers out so that I can watch it first thing I get home and get released! haha! But anyway, on to not so secular news! :P haha

 So, I will attach a picture from this last weekend at C’s BAPTISM!!! :D That's right! It pulled through!! My first real baptism!!!! :D He is just the most solid kid ever! We already have plans to start going out on splits with him and he's preparing for a mission himself!! Honestly thinking back he reminds me a TON of Ben Lopez! Just found the gospel right about the same time as Ben did and just instantly was touched by the spirit and progressed faster than I've ever seen anyone! He is so dedicated he's already given his dad and Book of Mormon and is working on getting the rest of his family back to church, also he quit his job just because they wouldn't give him Sundays off! Anyway, that was really exciting!

We also got a new investigators this week! His name is S.  He's the #1 golfer in Hawaii (well for high school at least) and he's about to graduate and has a full-ride to BYU so naturally him and his family are all a little curious about the church at this time. We just started teaching him and his mom this week and we will hopefully start teaching his whole family next week! :D They're all really awesome and already have quite a bit of fellowship in the ward so we're looking to get them baptized by the end of this month! :)

I hope you have a fantastic week!! :D Thank you again for all that you guys do and all that you are! I love you so much and am praying for you always! Have a great week, stay strong, carry on, don't forget to be awesome and MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU, ALWAYS!! :D Ofa lahi atu!!

-Jedi Master Powell :) 

 

p.s. Elder Griffin got to do the baptism for C and then I did the confirmation on Sunday. And yes, I promise he's 17! almost 18 actually! He's just part Filipino so he's well... small :P hahaha! also, they don't call it the Rainbow state for nothing! There was actually a double rainbow but the second was too faint to be picked up by my camera :P (also I just realized that is a pretty good picture to give you an idea of just how rich the area we are serving in is! That is like an average house, which, while it may look fairly normal for mainland standards is well over a million dollars out here! :P haha)