2/8/16
Baamle yokwe in raelep! Or I suppose it would
be "yokwe in jota" for all of you back in Arizona... but anyway!
Family and friends, Yokwe
and ALOHA!!!
I am so happy to hear
that everyone is still so involved in so many worthwhile endeavors! I was just
listening to a talk by President Gordon B. Hinckley this morning and he quoted
someone else's talk about how you can tell what a person is really like by how
they spend their free time, if they like the hog, spend it rolling in filth, or
like the eagle, soaring to new and lofty heights! Anyway, I am satisfied to
know that all of you are most definitely "eagles" in this sense as
you always have such wonderful things to update me about because you do spend
so much time not only at work but even in your leisure hours, doing good and
being good and "rid[ing] upon the high places of the earth" like
Isaiah promised for all of those who keep the Sabbath-day Holy!
So Thursday and Friday were rather routine
with just some of our more regular visits and usual lessons. We did have a kind
of sad and scary moment when we found out that two of the investigators we had
set with a baptismal date for this upcoming weekend were having second thoughts
about it because "they were already baptized back in the Marshall
Islands" but into a different church and long before they were even
accountable. But either way, we're still hopeful that with a little more
reading, a little more praying and a few more lessons that we can get them
right back on track towards baptism by immersion by someone holding the
priesthood authority of God! :)
Wednesday however was a
little less routine, as we got to go and do the bi-monthly Pearl Harbor service
aboard the USS Missouri. It was fun as always and a great chance to fellowship
with each other as well as those in our community and many other tourists and
visitors who are also aboard that great ship! :) It also makes for some good
pictures to send home!
Tuesday we had a new and
very interesting sort of experience... To put it as simple as possible, the
story of the Good Samaritan has taken on a whole new meaning to me as we were
driving back to our house after a district meeting for some lunch and saw an
old uncle walking down the sidewalk grab onto a chain-link fence and slowly
lower himself down until he was quite literally sprawled out across the
pavement. Sadly, I must say that I ALMOST fell under the category of "the
Levite" in the Savior parable as some of my thoughts after the initial
shock of seeing that all happen was "he is probably just another one of
the many MANY kind of crazy homeless people that roam the streets around this
area and will be ok, besides we have work to do and not much time to do
it...", but THANKFULLY my companion had the sense of mind to tell me to
turn around and go check on him and so, repenting as fast as I could for even
letting that thought of "pass[ing] him by" pass through my own mind,
I turned around, we parked the car and went to go help him up.
In an unfolding of events
that neither of us had expected or planned for, we ended up helping this uncle
to stand up, walk to the bus stop, traveled with him on the bus over to Pearl
City, walked him over to his doctor’s office and then stayed there until the
doctors had called and got a hold of his care taker and it was obvious that
they had the situation under control. While the similarities were striking and
seemed to be almost perfectly in line with the Savior parable, there were a few
variations that made it all the more interesting, (such as the uncle being a
little... or a lot... under the influence of alcohol or some other form of mood
changing substance which led him to try to literally run away from his doctors
when they asked him to just sit down and also contributed majorly to his
inability to walk.. or even sit...) as well as a few different characters that
added a little bit of a contemporary twist on the more commonly known New
Testament version of the story. But regardless it was definitely a great
learning opportunity for us as a companionship as well as for me personally.
I now know more fully
what the Savior meant when he said "and whosoever shall compel thee to go
a mile, go with him twain." We were blessed to be able to do that in quite
the literal sense as we helped this man to "return safely home" to
his house in Waipahu, and I hope and pray that we can all have that opportunity
to do that very same thing in the spiritual sense and help those who stand in
need of help to "return safely home" to their Father and family in
Heaven.
Well, we gotta get going,
thank you again so much though for all of your prayers and your love and
support on our behalf! Be sure to send my love and best wishes to everyone back
home, especially for the newly wed couples you were able to go and celebrate
with!! I was thrilled when I got the invitation the other week to Eric and
Maryssa's wedding and sealing at the Gilbert Temple!!! How exciting it is to
see families come together in the holiest and highest of ceremonies known to
man here on earth! :)) I love you all and again I wish you the best in
everything you have before you this week! Kommol tata im bar lo eok!!!! :)
Aloha nui loa!
-Elder Powell
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