6/13/16
ALOHA MY OHANA!!!!
WOW! This week was just
FANTASTIC!! It's funny because it started out super rough but then ended with
probably some of the highest and strongest spiritual experiences I have ever
had in my life! In fact it was so great that I see absolutely no point for any
extra aimless rhetoric, I figure I'm gonna just jump right into this week’s
report!!
So, like I mentioned
above, the week started out pretty rough…Unfortunately I did not get 100%
better overnight like I was hoping to from the stomach flu thingy I had. The
major symptoms of not being able to hold anything down passed pretty quickly,
but the lingering effects of just nausea and heartburn and lack of energy and
all that other fun stuff dragged on for quite a few days and pretty majorly
affected our ability to really get out and proselyte. We did our best however
and got a few lessons in but the REALLY awesome stuff didn't happen until
Friday!
So Friday was our zone
conference (this huge meeting with trainings from the Mission President, his
wife, the assistants to the President, and the zone leaders for two zones worth
of missionaries) and what makes it even crazier is that THIS WAS MY LAST
ONE!!!!! We have them about every three months and I've only ever missed one
(because my companion was sick and we were therefore quarantined to our house
for a week) and this one was finally the LAST ONE OF MY MISSION! Which means a
few things.
First it means that you
are frantically scribbling down any and all last words of wisdom and council
and just pure-awesomeness that you can from your mission president and his
wife!! Over the course of these two years I have come to truly love and cherish
any opportunity I have to learn from and receive council from President and
Sister Warner! They are both FANTASTIC and truly have given their lives to this
work and this mission and most of all to loving and supporting all of us!
Second, being my last
zone conference that means that I, along with all the other finishing
missionaries, got to give my "dying testimony". Basically just my
last few words of wisdom and experience to all of my fellow missionaries before
leaving the mission. It was super weird! haha! As you might imagine my few
"words of wisdom" were exactly that... few! I probably have less
wisdom in me than the average African wildebeest (all though if I'm being
completely fair, there are some very intelligent African wildebeests out
there!) But still I did the best I could to convey to everyone else there my
love and appreciation for them and reminded them over and over that when they
stand for what's right they are never truly standing alone, because there are
legions before and there will be legions after who would stand up with them and
whether they are seen or unseen, they are there standing up with you and
willing to fight the fight as well, not the least of which of course, is the
Savior himself!
Anyway, it was also kind
of odd because I gave this sort of autobiographical eulogy of my mission and it
all seems to wrap up nicely at the end of the day.... but then I still have
like five weeks left!! I mean June just barely started! We're not even close to
July yet and I don't finish until the end of July anyway! So I don't know what
everyone else is talking about but I still have forever and a day out here!!
haha! Finally to finish off the meetings all of the "dying
missionaries" came up to the front and they sang Aloha 'Oe to us all and
it was extra touching because I got to stand shoulder to shoulder with
President and Sister Warner who will also be concluding their mission after
three years of service out here in Hawaii at the end of this month.
So anyway, that was Friday,
but then SATURDAY was even MORE SPIRITUALLY AWESOME because we got to go and receive
a personal training for all of the full-time missionaries from Elder Dale G.
Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! And WOW!!! It was SO powerful!!
He truly is called of God and the spirit and power of testimony that he brought
with him was just astounding! I won't bore you with all of the dozens and dozens
of spiritual promptings I received during his trainings about how I personally
can improve and change and be a better missionary and a better person all
around, but I will just say that by the end of the meeting, as he started to
wrap up his personally testimony I cannot imagine that there was a dry eye in
the entire room, at least I know I speak for myself when I say that his
sincerity and the spirit he carried with him and the power of his apostolic
keys to bear witness to the whole world of the reality of the Savior were made
manifest in that small room that day and I will NEVER forget it!!
I know I will not be
perfect, but I sure am determined to keep trying! As I was writing in my
journal last night and sort of reflecting on the spiritual experiences of the
previous days I remember the spirit putting words in my mind that simply enough
said "an optimist is someone who dreams of the impossible and then works
until he reaches it!" And that is exactly what we are doing down here in
this life. Truly perfection is IMPOSSIBLE!! We could NEVER reach it, it simply
cannot be done! However, we keep on working at it and working at it until
eventually, someday in the next life, we are finally perfected through the Savior
and his atoning sacrifice for all of us!
Anyway, so needless to
say, Saturday was fantastic! Likewise Sunday was an awesome day full of
incredible opportunities to pretty much put into action all of the new found
wisdom and insights gained over the previous two days and MAN it works!!! How
often do we go to meetings or watch general conference or something of the sort
and go "man... that is SO true and so awesome! I sure am glad I heard all
of that stuff!" and then we leave and go back to doing exactly the same
thing we were doing before! The day after may be scary because you may feel
like you don't want to have to face all of your daily challenges again and you
want to remain in this state of sort of spiritual bliss, but it shouldn't be
like that! Instead look at tomorrow as the PERFECT opportunity to take
everything you learned today and put it to the test! And that's exactly what we
did with some new things learned on Friday and Saturday. We simply put it to
the test, just in small and simple ways first, and sure enough, Sunday just
about QUADRUPLED the productivity of the entire rest of our week!!!! (Although
to be completely fair the rest of the week was hard to be productive because of
the whole sickness thing :P haha!) So yeah, definitely, if your priesthood
leaders or an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, tells you to do something and
that it will help you... DO IT! haha! You can trust them! :P
Anyway, so one of the
super productive and cool things that happened on Sunday was we finally met
these two different less-active families we've been trying to contact forever
to no avail! So we hadn't actually planned for either of them, but right when
we got to the fork in the road where we had planned to turn right, I got the
feeling we should see this other fellow and following the prompting we turned
left instead and guess what? HE WAS HOME!!! Turns out his work schedule is
crazy (surprise surprise) and so he's not normally home and he wasn't really
that interested in talking to us anyway, but he was still very nice and it was
VERY nice to be able to finally meet him and find out his story from his own
mouth.
So then we started
walking back towards the originally planned houses, and again the feeling comes
like "hey since you're already heading this direction why don't you take
this slight detour and try that other less active member you always try to go
see.... so we do! and... you guessed it... he was home!! He actually had moved
out and was living with his friend for a couple of weeks which is why we never
caught him home before, but he just moved back home and after an actually
pretty short conversation about life and how he had gotten invited to go with a
lot of his different friends to their churches my companion basically said
something along the lines of "well hey are you ready for another invite
back to your own church?" and while my companion was being slightly
facetious, he looked at us totally seriously for a second with a sort of smile
on his face and said, "yeah, I don't see why not!" And after a tiny
bit more conversation we arranged for a member to pick him up Sunday morning to
come to church! :) So yeah! Miracles galore!!! And that's not even all of them
from the day!! But that is about all the time I have to share with you guys...
sorry.
This is probably going to
end pretty abruptly, but I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO much and will be praying for you
as always! I cannot begin to express the excitement I feel when I think about
being able to talk with you all again face to face soon enough, but that day
will come in its own due time and for now I still have a TON of work to do out
here in Kane'ohe and so I must press on!! Mahalo nui loa for your love, your
prayers, your faith, and your faithful examples of Christ like love towards me
and so many others around you! Aloha au ia oe!!
-Elder Powell
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