7/11/16
Aloha ohana!!
In Eisenstein's well
quoted (but generally misunderstood) theory of relativity, he postulated among
many other things that the faster an object travels, the slower its
surroundings appear to move. So it has been over the course of this past week.
As I seem to fall head first into the final days of my mission, accelerating
faster and faster towards the 22nd, everything surrounding me has appeared to
slow down drastically and even stopped all together at times.
Of course that is both a
good thing and a bad thing. As days and lessons and even just conversations
drag out, it gives you the opportunity to savor them and enjoy them for what
they are and forget for a moment that they need to eventually come to an end.
Things slowing down also gives you more time to reflect and make adjustments in
your life as needed before having to face other challenges that may arise.
However, as things around you slow down it also brings negative side effects
with it. One of those being, that it drags out the pain/stress/sorrow brought
in difficult situations. Saying goodbye to people over this past week has been
harder than anticipated and has left me wishing time would speed back up so I
could get through all the hard 'goodbyes' and eventually get to the much
anticipated 'welcomes' which I know lie ahead. It also makes the realization of
future goals and events feel almost infinitely farther away. But anyway, all of
this poetic phish-posh out of the way, this really has been a rather
interesting week, so I guess I'll jump into my regular report before I waist
all of my time editing my ridiculous rhetoric!
Monday was full of
excitement as we spent the majority of the day first playing basketball with
other missionaries and then with our YM! It's always fun to pretend like I know
what I'm doing and then watch people's faces change as they slowly figure out I
really have no clue how to play good basketball! :P haha!
Tuesday was spent mostly
in doing service for this Auntie who has been investigating the church for
quite a while. She's the one who I mentioned before that is obsessed with
musical theater and is CONSTANTLY trying to get me to sing different numbers
from all sorts of Broadway shows since I mentioned I was a musical geek as
well! :) haha! Anyway, we actually ended up doing service for her twice this
week and it took up a lot of our time, but it was worth it because we invited
her to come to church after our last service project with her and she actually
came!!! This was the first church service she had EVER attended at our church,
despite having TONS of member friends/neighbors her entire life, so yeah that
was super cool! :) If I'm being completely honest though, she kind of came for
more than just church itself. So our bishop asked me last minute to do the same
musical number I did for the youth a few weeks ago for the whole ward this past
Sunday in sacrament meeting. So since the auntie is CONSTANTLY asking me to
sing for her anyway I thought I would invite her to church to hear me sing
there and SHE CAME! :) haha! Hey, whatever it takes! Hopefully she will come
again this next week because I think I might be talking in church since it's my
last week here. haha.
Anyway, Wednesday was
fun, we went on exchanges with our zone leaders. It was extra cool because they
live in the place where I use to live when I was serving in the 4th ward so it
was kind of like being home! :) Anyway, they actually cover the 2nd ward though
so I didn't really recognize any of the people we went and saw. But I did meet
plenty of people who knew Elder Stanger (who I believe is still serving in the
Lakeshore ward back home right?) anyway, that was cool! :)
Sunday however, was
definitely the most eventful day as we had a few of our investigators show up
to sacrament!! We also had one of our returning less-actives come to church
again for the third week in a row which is extra exciting! He seems to be doing
great and we're hoping to start helping him work towards getting his
Melchizedek Priesthood as soon as possible! :)
Well, anyway, I gotta get
going pretty soon. But I love you all again SO much and I'm grateful for all
that you do! I'm excited to hear all of your adventures you had in Ireland Joe!
I also look forward to seeing and playing with all of the nieces and nephews
and of course just being able to see all of your bright eyed faces again soon
enough. But until that time comes, remember to just make the most out of
whatever life brings you this coming week! If whatever you can make out of it
appears to be less than what it was before, be grateful for that, and be happy
that there is always still something else good to come! :) I love you guys and
will keep on praying for you every day and night! Mahalo nui loa and
ALOOHHAAAA!!! :)
A hui hou aku!
-Elder Powell
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