Another Transfer, Tree Tunnels and Giant Pancakes

4/6/15

My dear family!!

This last week has been pretty crazy out here! Minus the obvious excitements of Easter and General Conference it has been a rather eventful week in Pahoa! First and foremost with the awesome experiences we got to have with the O. family! The one who I told you about last week with the baptism I stole from Elder Reinhold, haha! Anyway, so following the baptism the day after my emergency transfer we talked with and set an appointment to keep meeting with the family and now the girl's mother, is taking the lessons and wants to get baptized! And aside from just her they just had a TON of other family members move in to their little house (or at least in the near vicinity of it) from Guam and they are almost all members although most are only semi-active so we're gonna keep going over and teaching the kids and teaching the mom and teaching the family and if things keep going as great as they have been over there then really soon they will all be baptized and active and we will have a new GIANT and active Chuukese family in our ward! :D

This is what happens to shoes that haven't been polished in months! 

 Anyway, whatever happens though unfortunately I won't be here to see it. It truly is part of God's eternal plan that there is opposition in all things and so, just as all the excitement of the O. family as well as many other families and people I have already come to know and love in a matter of two weeks here in Pahoa sets in, I found out for sure that I will be getting uprooted yet again and transferred back to Oahu to be in the Mililani stake in the Mililani 1st ward with Elder Griffen (I actually came out with him so that will be cool!) Anyway, It's really not that bad, I mean I am very excited to go to Mililani and know many missionaries who have served there and heard a lot of great things about it so I am happy for that reason! I am just saddened that I will have to leave what has already come to feel like home here in Pahoa and all the amazing people that inhabit it! If any of them happen to be reading this, I love you and really do appreciate the time I got to spend with you even if it was short.

Anyway, it will also be quite the culture shock going from areas like Pahoa and even more so Ka'u to Mililani. After a month or so in quite literally the most spread out, country places in all of Hawaii with many of the people living in some of the most impoverished circumstances imaginable, I will be heading over to one of the busiest, crowded and wealthy communities in the entire mission!! Mililani is supposed to be filled with mainland military families and long time snowbirds or vacationers who almost all have more money than they know what to do with and who almost all will come and go and come and go, which again will be a stark contrast to the many long time locals here in Big island some of them being literal keiki o ka aina (children of the land). So I am sure come next Monday after spending half the week in Hilo and half on Oahu I will have many more exciting stories to tell!

But anyway, one thing is for sure, I have learned from these last three months with their four different areas and companions that no matter where I go or what is happening around me that the Lord is still there! I am so grateful for the knowledge that he lives and that he loves each and every one of his children! It has been a major challenge these last few months but definitely looking back I can see the Lord's hand in all of it and if nothing else was accomplished from it at least he has taught me a major lesson on patience and endurance and faith. Also over these last few weeks especially I have come to appreciate even more the words of the Prophets found both in the Scriptures and through Latter-day Prophets!

I loved all the sessions of conference and have already downloaded many to my flash drive to listen and review in the coming months until we hear from them again! I hope you all had spiritual experiences listening to the inspired messages this conference weekend! I know I am eternally grateful for it!! Just as I am eternally grateful for all of you!! I love you all so much and thank you again for everything you do and everything you are! I am praying for you always and wish you the best in the coming week!! Stay strong and don't forget to be awesome!!! :D

Aloha nui loa!!

-Elder Powell

p.s. CONGRATS ABBI!!!!! And also congrats to Regan!! that is so awesome to hear about both of them and about all the exciting news with all the family!! Be sure to send my love and Aloha to all! :)

p.p.s. I'm not sure if you noticed but I just remembered hearing that Kim B. Clark got called as a 70?! That's so awesome!! I knew the second they released him from BYU-I that he was going to be a GA! He pretty much already was there! haha!

p.p.p.s. Sorry if this weeks is a little all over the place or incoherent. As you might imagine it's been rather tolling on my mind especially to have to keep bouncing around and try and learn new areas and people and companions and so forth. 

p.p.p.p.s. I love how much joy there is here in Hawaii in all the little things, like cool tree tunnel roads and gigantic pancakes!! :) hahaha!

ET, Lava flows and green sand

3/30/15

 I figured this week I'd just send you guys a picture of me and my new companion at our baptism we had this last week without any explanation and just let you sit in suspense and wonder "what the heck is going on over there!?!" Enjoy! :) haha

Just kidding!!! Haha! I guess I'll write you guys a full letter with a little more explanation as to what all happened this last week but be warned this was yet another pretty INSANE week!!!! So it started out normal enough, just more "home teaching visits" to the 90% of our ward that is less-active in Ka'u, some service at people's houses, and a LOT of driving around, when right in the middle of this huge service projects mowing down these GIANT weeds that took over a one of our member's yard, I noticed we had a missed call from our zone leaders and from the mission president. So of course we stop what we are doing and call them back only to find out that the next morning I would be emergency transferred to Pahoa (still in our zone, actually in our district too!) because the Elder there needed to go to Oahu and they needed someone who could drive around the Elder staying since he's from Samoa and doesn't have an American License... soo.. long story short, I am now in the Pahoa ward with Elder Young Yen (a 3/4th full blooded Samoan that just happens to have a Chinese last name) and while his companion is in Honolulu and my old companion is now with the Elder that came from Honolulu because he is also Samoan and can't drive here. Anyway, the craziness doesn't stop there!! So I got ET-ed over here on Friday and Saturday the Pahoa Elders had a baptism set up for two little girls (Deserae and Jaylisao Otokichy.... I'm sorry I might have spelled their names wrong but you get the idea.) So technically I got my 2nd and 3rd baptism here on the mission but I also kind of cheated yet again! :P My first baptism (Rainbow) was already active for two years and I just happened to be there for her 18th birthday and my next two I transferred into literally a day before their baptism!! I didn't even teach them ANYTHING!! hahaha!! But either way it was great to get to see them be baptized and I actually got to do the confirmation for one of them yesterday at church so that was extra special! I guess I did participate at least that much so I don't feel too bad taking at least a tiny bit of credit for it! haha! So there's a little bit of explanation behind that picture I sent! :) (the girls that got baptized are the two in the middle with the Lei's on.)

 

So yeah, this too has been an odd week for us in Hawaii! haha! And what makes it even odder is now that I have settled into a new house with a new companion and new ward and had a baptism in the matter of three days... I will almost definitely still be getting transferred back to Oahu next week on the actual transfer day! haha! So you don't have to worry too much about past problems with the hurricane or the lava flow that is going straight through our area, (that's a real thing, I'll send a picture! haha) soon enough I'll be back in a big city, crowed with people from all over the world, sharing the Gospel and hopefully setting in this time for more than a month and a half!! (suddenly six months in one area like I had in Kane'ohe doesn't sound too bad!) So yeah, that's kind of my update out here! hopefully everything is continuing to go well for you folks back in Az!!! I sure miss it out there but I'm learning to love it even more than I already do out here which I thought would be impossible and yet it keeps happening every day! :)

Be sure to send my love and aloha to all the Groberg family living in our house, hopefully there is nothing too rancid or embarrassing left in my room! haha! And also huge congrats to Joe and Dad on tour! I know how hard that "little birds" song is both on the piano and vocally. Eric Whitacre is one crazy guy but he sure does write some incredible stuff! haha Also be sure to tell the guy who did our new pantry thank you for all that he did and mom I will be happy to re-do it when I get back if it hasn't driven you crazy after a year or so! hahaha! Anyway, I guess it's just like having a little bit of country right there in our little city house! hahaha! It would definitely fit in with most of the houses out here on Big Island! Well I gotta go but thank you again so much guys for all that you do. I really do love you so much and pray for you always! Send all of my aloha to everyone back there as well as an apology for all the people who have written or e-mailed me that I haven't gotten back too... I am still just about as scatterbrained as I was back home if not more so finding free time that happens to overlap with and the mental capacity to respond to letter back home is just about non-existent for me! :P haha! but I do appreciate them and will get back to each of you as soon as possible!!! :) Mahalo nui loa!! I love you all! Have a great week! Stay strong, carry on and don't forget to be awesome!!!!

Ofa lahi atu!!

-Elder (Luke) Powell

p.s. the beaches out here come in all sorts of different colors! haha Black sand, green sand, white sand, but they all have one thing in common! ...............we're not allowed to walk on any of them.... :P BUT we are allowed to go close enough to them to take some cool pictures of them! hahaha!! So yeah, that's just one of the many exciting scenic things we did this last week! :)

Also this is what the Lava flow looks like after it's wiped out everything in its path and cooled down a bit (don't worry, none of this stuff is still flowing it's all solid.... but the flow is still going about 200 yards further down the road! haha! Also what a real profession HAM radio operator looks like doing his thing! I'm definitely going to hang out with Bro. Rachiel if the lava burns down all other forms of communication cause this guy knows what he's doing with his HAM! :) haha