7/4/16
ALOHA OHANA!!!!!
Thank you SO much for
your e-mail this week! Even if it may have seemed uneventful and slow! But if
there is one lesson I have learned out here, it is that often God will allow us
to pass through suffering and trials or even just "slow weeks" right
before he pours out upon us blessings without measure! And then when those
blessings and high times in our lives finally do come (as they always will!)
They will be that much greater because of the contrast with the suffering we
had to pass through to get there! SO yeah, if these next few weeks seem long
and hard, just remember that God must have something REALLY incredible and
exciting in store to follow!! :) Anyway, I can definitely sympathize with you
about having slow weeks. This past week has kind of been that way for some
reason or another... which looking back at it now is kind of funny
because this week has also been FULL of exciting events that kept us on our
toes, but still it was a really long week! I guess I will explain what I mean.
So the week started out
well enough. P-day, district meeting, and so forth. Nothing to really report
on. We had a lot of empty spaces in our day that we tried to fill but found in
those hours only empty doors or empty faces as we talked to people on the
streets. But still we kept working and Wednesday we actually found some
exciting success! So a couple of weeks ago we had our "finding fasting
Friday" where we tracted all day long in different areas, and there was
one lady that the Sister's had tracted into named C, who, coincidentally lives
two doors down from our active member who is also named C! haha! (The
conversation we've had with the two proved to be very confusing!) Anyway, so we
followed up with her this past week on Wednesday and as we were talking with C
(the investigator), C (the member) pulled up in her car and got out, saw us
talking and walked over to join us! It was exciting! :) haha! Anyway, so long
story short, while we didn't really have anything come from it right away, we
did have a nice conversation about the gospel, got a return appointment, AND
invited her to the Ward Independence Day Picnic on Saturday and SHE CAME!! :)
Anyway, so yeah that was just extra exciting because we've been trying REALLY
hard recently to find new people to teach and so far this is the first real
success or lead we've had in well over a month on anyone new to teach!
She is definitely not
however, the only new person we met over this past week! So the ward has REALLY
stepped up their game this past week, which is saying something because this
ward has ALWAYS been on their A-game when it comes to missionary work! But this
last week we had two back to back activities which brought out two different
crowds but both proved to be VERY successful and led us to talk to lots of new
people! Which of course is always exciting as a missionary to do! :)
So first, we had on
Friday our first "ward movie night!" (Of which we are planning to do
MANY more in the future). Basically we just all got together and had popcorn
and hot dogs and watched a movie. We couldn't actually stay for the whole movie
(upon request from our new mission president) which was a little disappointing
seeing as it was our idea in the first place to do a movie night and the ward
council were the ones who later decided on the movie, but we did catch the
first part as well as the tail end of it and more importantly, we were able to
talk to and fellowship with TONS of our members (both active and less-active)
as well as meet a few neighbors and cousins that different members brought with
them for the movie! :) It was awesome!
So then the next day we
had our annual Ward Independence Day Picnic out at Kualoa beach park which was
a BLAST!!! We got there early to help with set up and ended up helping set up
not only ours but another group's picnic they were having at the same park. So
you know how Mormons are pretty use to setting up and taking down stuff and it
all goes pretty fast and systematically (like when the men take down chairs
after a session of Stake Conference and within ten minutes we have over a
thousand chairs put away on racks, the floor swept and garbage bags emptied...
yeah.) well this other group didn't seem to have that same experience or the
same number of people to help set up that we would normally have and what made
it MORE exciting was the ez-corner tent they were setting up was TWICE as big
as a regular one AND that whole day proved to be one of the windiest days we've
had in a long time and therefore the 20x60 foot tent they were trying to set up
turning more into a 20x60 foot kite, literally lifting a few of the
younger/smaller participants off the ground a few inches as they tried to hold
it down! haha! It was kind of fun actually! :) Anyway, so yeah, long story
short, we were able to all run over to the rescue and help them set up, and
secure down their tent and in the process of course my companion and I were
able to talk to quite a few of them about who we were and what we were doing
and everything which is always a plus! ;) haha!
Anyway, so from set-up to
break-down we were at the ward picnic from pretty much 6:30 in the morning to
4:30 in the afternoon, the majority of which was spent out in the sun, playing
volleyball or climbing trees and having light saber battles with some of the
primary kids or, of course, eating a VERY large amount of food! haha! Now
before you all start accusing me of being "on vacation" out here I
want to remind you all that we still cannot and were not able to set a single
foot in the water or even on the sand for that matter! AND our primary purpose
for being there (which really took the majority of our time) was to talk to and
meet new people and hopefully set up lessons or find service opportunities,
which we did!! As mentioned before our new investigator C, came with her
neighbor C, and they seemed to enjoy it a lot and she was able to meet and talk
with MANY other members of the ward!
We also had one of our
more recent converts here in the ward that we visit with regularly, F, bring
one of his good fishing friends who happily volunteered to do almost all of the
grilling for the whole barbecue!! Our bishop personally thanked him and asked
to visit with him after church the following Sunday, so we are excited about
that and sure more opportunities will arise with him in the future! :) We also
had another member bring one of their co-workers and while we were talking and
answering some of his questions our member offered to set up a time when we
could all meet together in a more formal setting at his house and answer more
questions and share a bit more about what we believe, so that was exciting too
and we're looking forward to hear more from the member on that soon! :) Anyway,
so needless to say a lot of fun was had, but more importantly a LOT of
missionary work was done between those two days and two different activities.
I might also add as a
passing note that the Barbecue on Friday helped me tremendously with showing my
patriotism this weekend! I was looking this morning for anything Red, White,
and Blue to wear as well as on Sunday, but could only find Blue and White
shorts/shirts. Thankfully however, having spent just shy of 10 consecutive hours
out in the sun on Saturday, my face, neck, arms, and even legs are SO red that
it more than compensates for the lack of that color in the rest of my wardrobe!
:) haha!
Well anywhere, there was
definitely more of note that happened this week but I've probably gone on long
enough and I don't want to use up what little energy to you may have left with
trying to decipher my discordant stream of consciousness so I'll wrap this
letter up. Thank you SO much for your continued letters and support through
these final weeks of my mission! I think I mentioned this before, but I feel
like the Lord is putting me through my "final exam" before returning
home and testing me in every way shape and form to see if I will be true and
faithful to the lessons I have learned over the last two years and so all of
the prayers and good thoughts and love that you send my way is very needed and
very appreciated and I am trying my best to put that combined faith and love
which you have given me to good use and I serve the Lord out here in Hawaii. I
hope that you all know, as always, that those prayers and that faith and love
is returned from me right back to you and that I will continue to pray for all
of you that heaven will shower out blessings upon you even after I return home!
I love you and look forward to hearing from all of you again next week! Thank
you for everything! Mahalo nui loa and ALOOHHHAAAA!!!
A hui hou aku,
-Elder Powell
p.s. I almost forgot to
mention!!! So another HUGE highlight from this past week was getting to meet
and visit briefly with our NEW Mission President! His name is President Bekker
and he is from Salt Lake City, Utah! (Surprise surprise... haha!) Really
though, he is SUPER cool and super excited to be here and I am sure that he and
his wife will do AMAZING things for these wonderful islands that I love! The
spirit has absolutely confirmed to me that he is the rightful successor to the
Hawaii Honolulu Mission President calling and I am excited to get to know him
and work with him more, even if it's just for a few weeks! :) haha! Still,
nothing feels like it's really changed yet, because... well it hasn't really
haha! So since he just barely got here he said that until he has more time to
look over some of the rules and structures and everything (such as the list of
approved music, and proselyting schedules/emphasis and so forth) that
everything from President Warner still applies. I can't really imagine things
changing much anyway seeing as President Bekker and Warner practically the same
person, or at least have lived very similar lives. They both were born and
raised and lived in SLC their whole lives, they both served missions in Japan,
both married music majors, both worked in the medical industry, both served at
stake presidents in SLC (at the same time in fact) and they even have the same
number of kids I believe! haha! So anyway, things are really looking up for us
here in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission and I hope to see the work continue to grow
in miraculous ways! :)
p.p.s. Mom, when you
mentioned how frustrating it is and can be to not be able to do all the things
you want to be able to do, a quote popped into my head from Elder Robert D.
Hales that I thought I would share with you. He counselled Elder David A.
Bednar on one occasion saying, "When you cannot do what you have always
done, then you only do what matters most." I thought it was a very cool
statement and one I think we could all apply, even though we might not all be
limited by our age or ability, we are definitely all limited in what we can do
by our time and heaven knows that time only seems to speed up on us so there's
no sense in wasting any of it! :)
p.p.p.s. I totally forgot
to take a picture of the ward picnic which I sad about... but I DID get
something kind of exciting in the mail... well... sort of exciting. :P haha!
It's called a "trunky packet" and basically it's just a bunch of
stuff all about going home! So yeah... that was weird. It has all my flight
info and itinerary and stuff. Also we got to do some "wood turning"
with one of our members this past week which as super cool!! :) It honestly
looks like a hobby I would LOVE to get into someday.... but like most hobbies I
do not have the money to do right now. haha! That's ok though! It was fun to
try even just a little bit and reminded me a lot of Grandpa Powell and all the
awesome stuff he made out of wood with his talented hands! :)
With that backdrop to my
e-mail, one that is hard to write, I find myself (ironically enough) out of
time, in every way. I feel a bit like the prophets in the Book of Omni who have
much they would like to say but simply did not have the room (or in this case
the time) to say it. There are countless testimonies I would like to bear,
stories I would like to share and I'm sure a lot of aimless ramblings about
this or that, but seeing that this situation will not allow for any such
banter, I simply want to conclude my e-mail and my record here as a full-time
missionary in Hawaii by saying, Thank you!
Above all else however I
would like to pay a special devotion to my Father in Heaven for His justice,
love and mercy, as well as to my Savior Jesus Christ, who I now have come to
know and love perhaps more than any other person on this earth, and who I now
know, knows me better than does anyone else on this earth as well. I love them
and praise and worship them for their greatness and their goodness and the
support which they have given me over these past two years. Truly, this task,
even the work of Salvation, but more specifically my own personal mission here
in Hawaii, would have been absolutely IMPOSSIBLE were it not for the grace and
love and tender mercies, which have flown freely from the windows of Heaven. I
have changed perhaps more than I feel any missionary ever could change and
while there can and are and will be missionaries who are much MUCH better than
I was, there will perhaps never be one, who loves their mission and especially
these beautiful islands, as much as I do. I am going to miss it here more than
words can describe, however I feel confident and ready to face this next phase
of my life and know that I will be all the stronger for it.
