Hurricane number 3 - New Companion - Always Remember

10/20/14

Aloha Ohana!!!

Sounds like an extra odd week on your end and to be honest it has been no less odd for us over here! This last week has actually had quite a few odd highlights so yeah, I guess I'll just get started and hope the whole e-mail makes some sort of sense.

So first off probably the biggest news on the actual News is that of our third "Hurricane" in the last three months... but as you might imagine, this one was also rather disappointing. not that not being hit by a giant hurricane is a bad thing, it just was another big scare over something that wasn't that big of a deal, the storm blew just below Oahu I guess so really we just got all the outskirts of the storm which still had it's own little bit of excitement. No crazy winds or anything, just a gentle breeze, and also no heavy down poor and  flooding, but it did rain quite a bit... and by quite a bit I mean A LOT!! As a matter of fact it rained for about 34ish hours strait! It was kind of incredible!! I just kept thinking "man it's gotta run out at some point but it wasn't until just before we were going to bed last night that it actually did!! So yeah, we had multiple "flash flood" warnings go off on everyone's phone during church yesterday which made for an interesting sacrament meeting (at least it kept everyone awake! haha) but despite the warnings no actual flash floods, just the river running and little higher. :) Anyway, rain never stopped the work of Salvation! Sure enough despite all the rain we still got plenty of walking and working done! :)

So we had transfers this week and I'm still here in the "Faithful Fighting Kaneohe 4th ward!" (as our Bishop likes to call it) but Elder Basag got transferred! He's over in Wahiwa in the Mililani stake kind of north shore area of the island and actually is companions with Elder Shalvis, a missionary that was in our district my first transfer here so they're doing great and he's enjoying being in an area where he can teach more Filipino people. :) As for me, my new companion is Elder Manning (no dad, no relation to Eli or Peyton as he has to reassure EVERYONE that we talk to! :P haha!) anyway, yeah he's a cool guy! He's from Utah, he's been out 6 months now so we're both pretty young in mission age, but he's a great missionary! He actually just got transferred over here from Lanai (that tiny little island under Maui with only two Elders on the whole island!) so that's pretty awesome! there's only a small town about 1 square mile long on the whole island so yeah it's a bit of a change for him to be back here on Oahu but we're both adjusting to the change and just doing our best to lose ourselves in the work! :)

Anyway, running a little short of time here, but real quick one thing that really stuck out to me first (and I won't give any names or details for privacy sake) but one of our members after coming to a lesson with us told us some of his life story and well the main thing I got from it is when we're faced with trials I think part of why we are allowed to suffer through them is because when we do over come them we can then in turn help others through theirs! Anyway, it's just a REALLY incredible story but again I just am gonna hold off on details. Anyway, also something that really stuck out from church and throughout the week is that we need to ALWAYS remember both who we are and our potential, BUT also ALWAYS remember that everyone around you... EVERYONE no matter the circumstances of their lives or their choices is entitled to the same royal and celestial inheritance that we have been promised!! NEVER assume that because we are members makes us "choice people" or "greater than those around us" because while we may be closer to achieving our divine inheritance, everyone is entitled to it and God is no respecter of men! He see everyone as his children and his sons and daughters and he loves them ALL, EQUALLY! If you want a perfect BoM example of this I'd suggest Alma 31 - 32 (the story continues through chapter 35 but those are the main two)

well hey I'm about to get kicked off the computer so I've gotta wrap this up but anyway, I love you all so much and pray for you every day and night! keep on doing what you do and as always don't forget to be awesome AND don't forget who you are!! :)

-Elder Powell

p.s. I went to send a picture of me and Elder Manning and realized I don't have one yet!! hahaha! So I just took a picture of him standing next to me e-mailing his family... so yeah, that's my new companion! :) hahaha! Also a picture of saying goodbye to Elder Basag at transfers.

Magniloquent language

10/13/14

Well as far as this week goes for us over here on the islands, it's been a rather interesting week.  I spent most of the beginning of the week inside being sick and then most of the middle of the week inside with a terrible headache. Anyway, I just concluded that Voldemort was somewhere close by so I destroyed a couple lockets and Diadems, stabbed my companions journal with a basilisk fang and called it good and we went back to work! :) And as far as that work goes we're still just rather trudging along, BUT I did find out yesterday that we'll be getting a fresh pair of feet here in Kaneohe soon!! Transfers are this Wednesday and Elder Basag is leaving!! It's bittersweet for both of us as it always is but also exciting to get a new set of eyes in the area and see what work needs to get done and then DO IT! :)

 ...as part of my continuing effort to gain that testimony (and also because there was a challenge issued by Sister Warner) I started reading Jesus the Christ just this week and WOW it's amazing! :) It's super hard to read and has an abundance of rather magniloquent language (I don't even think I used that right) but it's super awesome! :)

Well I've gotta run, but I love you all! Happy Birthday Mom!! You have done more for me than I could ever put into words! No matter how magniloquent those words are! :) haha Keep doing what you do and don't forget to be awesome! :)

-Elder Powell

SotW: JESUS THE CHRIST!! :D haha 

get the book for free HERE 

and check out this cool website too Because of Him

Climbing trees - WE NEED YOUR HELP - Be Prepared!

10/6/14

Dear family!

IT'S CONFERENCE WEEKEND!! WHOOHOO!!!! well... I guess it WAS at least... so maybe I should be cheering in reverse. !!!OOHOOHW Anyway, sorry I’m being so weird but well... I'm pretty sure I can blame most of that on the family I was raised in! :) haha! Love you all! ANYWAY, back on topic! Conference was AMAZING! :) I especially appreciated all the talks in Priesthood session as always as well as Elder Bednar's talk Sunday afternoon! Anyway, speaking of this week, it's the last week of the transfer!! which means two things! I've almost been out for three months already!! (not including my mini-mission!!) And I will probably be getting a new companion if not a new area very soon!! Crazy how time flies by! One femto-second at a time. :) So yeah, that's pretty crazy.

We also had a crazy awesome experience with ever more service this week! First going back to Pearl Harbor and the USS Missouri to wipe down all the hand rails on the entire ship! And then also doing this huge service project for a member in our Zone Leaders ward. It was crazy how much they trusted us because the project was cutting down GIANT tree's! which I've done before but... on flat land, in the middle of a forest! This was on a steep hill right next to two houses!! IT was CRAZY! Although I really did appreciate the chance to climb the trees and use my knot tying skills (thank you Brother Bang!) to get the rope and everything so it fell the way we wanted it too! :) Anyway, it was SUPER physically demanding but also super fun! 

So yeah, that's most of our missionary news, aside from that we're still just doing everything we can to find people to teach (which not too much success as of now) and also working with a lot of the members trying to get them a little more excited about names as well! I hope you all back home are doing everything you can to help find the missionaries people to teach! WE NEED YOUR HELP! It's SO hard without the members! I've heard from some of my missionary friends back home that the Awatukee Zone (the zone we're in in the Tempe Mission) is actually the hardest and slowest zone in the mission!! And mostly for the same reason it's slow here in our area, we simply cannot find people to teach!! SO I'd hope all the members back home are doing everything they can to help in that finding effort!! because us missionaries need all the help we can get! As one of our members in Yuma once wisely told me after giving us a referral, "I found them now you teach them!" haha! and it works! We are MORE than happy to teach anyone but we need your help finding!

Well I would be remiss if I didn't include a quick message regarding conference in this e-mail as well. While there were MANY highlights (people giving talks in their native language, Elder Bednar addressing his entire talk exclusively to non-members, the missionary choir, etc.) I think one of my favorite parts in any conference is listening to how different themes sort of unintentionally form and one that definitely formed in this last conference was that of being PREPARED!!  Scout motto! BE PREPARED!! and not just temporally (food storage, reserve funds, fast offerings, etc.) but also spiritually! I really liked how probably the most quoted scripture at this conference was Hel. 5:12. It's always been a good one but ESPECIALLY with the way things are going in the world we NEED to be built on the foundation of Christ! If you don't have a testimony of him and his Atonement, GET ONE!!! For some reason as I reflected on all of this a song came to mind that we've sung multiple times in ward choir and one that's always been my favorite, I testify of Jesus Christ. Specifically one line that REALLY stuck out, "When with all flesh mine eyes shall see, my God my unseen comforter, my witness than shall not exceed the truth I know this day." Or something along those lines. But I just LOVE how firm a statement that is! I know that is definitely the kind of testimony I am striving for that I can be prepared to one day see him again and when I do I can say that "my witness then shall not exceed the truth I know this day!" :) 

Well yeah, anyway, I've gotta get going, but I love you all! Keep on doing what you do! Send my love to the ward and to all the family! Have a great week and don't forget to be awesome! :)

-Elder Powell

SotW: HEL. 5:12! duhh! haha

Missed some of General Conference or wondering what it's all about? 

YOU CAN WATCH CONFERENCE HERE

Theory of Relativity, Sunrise Hike, Smiles and Laughs

9/29/14

Dear Family!

WOW this week went by fast! but at the same time it feels like it's been forever since I've written you! Haha! I honestly don't understand time anymore. I've always assumed it was a constant but then again I suppose Einstein's Theory of Relativity has something to say about that! Basically to make it really simple and object moving SUPER fast (like speed of light fast) would pass through time faster relative to those resting objects around it (if you want a good example watch the beginning of the original Planet of the Apes) but it works on a smaller scale as well so when you're up and walking you're actually moving through time just a couple femtoseconds faster than those that are lying around. So moral of the story? if you're ever feeling like life is just dragging along slowly GET UP AND WORK!!! You will literally make time pass faster!! :) hahaha!

Anyway, so yeah it's been a great week! As you might guess, a lot of walking (whoo! We've gotta be at LEAST 0.0000000000000002 seconds (2 femtoseconds) ahead of all you sitting at home watching TV!!) haha! Anyway, but in between the walking we've also done some awesome things! So we did some more service throughout the week. Building clean-up, yard work, that kine stuff. But we also have been getting some of the members really excited and thinking about names and people to refer to us and so forth! so that's SUPER EXCITING! :D Not quite as exciting we did find out that we WON'T be getting iPads for a while, probably late December early January, BUT we did get to have interviews with President Warner (which was GREAT and we just finished Zone P-day which involved a sunrise hike (although the sunrise was slightly disappointing because of the cloud cover :P haha) and then ice-skating, and sports. I really love our Zone! We actually spend a LOT of time with the Zone leaders since they both came out with Elder Basag so they're all really close friends and close to heading home!! crazy!

One more SUPER exciting thing about this week... actually it hasn't happened yet, but, we just found out that tomorrow we get to go to the Laie VC and watch Meet the Mormons!! :D I'm WAY excited! I know nothing about it but it sounds cool! :D haha! So yeah, if you haven't heard about it, look it up! and also you can go online I believe and request to have it show in theaters around you guys too and then you can bring other people to see it and they'll love it and get baptized and go on missions and it will all just be awesome! :D haha!

Sorry I've still got a lot of adrenaline pumping from Basket Ball and everything else we were doing today so this e-mail is rather all over the place and full of smiles and laughs... then again.. I suppose they pretty much always are :P BUT then again I suppose they always should be. I'm on a mission for the Lord.. in HAWAII!!! All I can do is smile and when times get rough I just remember the words of the Apostle Luke in the Bible (one of my favorites I might add) in Luke 6:22-23. Which by the way is my SotW! :) haha! anyway, yeah, I hope all is well and that you all find your own things to smile and laugh about this week! I know one thing FOR SURE that I will be smiling about most all the week love is the opportunity to hear from our Beloved Prophet and the Apostles and other General Authorities this weekend!! :D Well I gotta get going, but I love you all and hope that all is well in Az!! Keep on doing what you do and as always Don't forget to be awesome! :)

-Elder Powell

Oh, I forgot to tell you one of the Greenies that came in last transfer is named Elder Luke so it makes zone meetings VERY confusing! But it also made for a pretty cool picture! :) haha! 

SERVICE - "Forget yourself and go to work"

9/22/14
Dear Family,

It has indeed been quite the exciting week! First off I am very glad to hear that all is well back in Arizona. As well I cannot even come close to expressing how incredibly happy I am for Ben!! I seriously could have never imagined something as tiny as humming a primary song in our hotel room in Texas would lead to well, all of this! But I guess it just goes to show you how important it is to "stand as a witness of Christ AT ALL TIMES!!"

At the Family History Fair by our display

I guess that was kind of the theme of this week. Over all this week was honestly pretty terrible when it comes to things like lessons and numbers, but when it comes to Missionary work it was GREAT!! We're still making an effort to visit as many active members as we can and get them a little more excited and involved in the work. We had MANY service projects this week. One especially was great.

At the USS Missouri after doing service there a couple weeks ago

As you might imagine being such a small chain of islands there's not really any "extra space" to just throw trash, so recycling here is a BIG thing!! So our whole Zone got together on Saturday and helped with this community non-profit group (founded by singer Jack Johnson) that gathered literally TONS of scrap metal, paper, bottles, glass, plastic, old-computers, printers, ect. and sorted them all out so they could then be taken to the different recycling companies and taken care of! :) It was fun having all of us there because with the whole 20+ missionaries we made up well more than 3/4th of the work force and a good part of the other 1/4th were members in the area as well! haha! It was great! I especially just felt amazing knowing that I could do something to help take care of this BEAUTIFUL world the Lord has given us and especially the beauty of the islands out here! :) 

Kolipoki's grandson meets Feki's grandson

Anyway, we also had another service the other day at one of our Part Members houses toiling in their tea leave garden :) And of course there was the other service we were doing at Kanoa Kanahele's house just before going to lunch with Feki and then service right after at a Tongan families house in the Zone Leaders ward (hence the raggedy service cloths in the picture instead of the normal pros clothing). So yeah overall a lot of AMAZING opportunities to get out and literally GET TO WORK!

Which was a huge deal especially for me this week because I made the mistake of thinking I could give myself one night this week to just relax and think about home and all the games and friends and music and whatever else I left behind. I was pretty stressed and thought maybe if I just let my mind wander to all the things of the past that I would find comfort but well... as you might imagine it was quite the opposite. While they are all good things and I still do think of you all and you are always in my prayers I allowed myself to lose sight a bit of what I was there for and what I was doing and the result was a very slow and groggy day the next day. Anyway, so I guess the biggest lesson I learned this week (and one I've learned in the past but keep getting re-taught through experience) is simple as Pres. Hinckley's father said to "Forget yourself and go to work!" Anyway, of course the result of all the work and sun exposure is that my brain in completely fried which is why this e-mail is rather void of any wit or continuity at all. So I do apologize for that but hopefully there is something you can take from it. :P haha

Sister Kahea Tani is a missionary mom whose son is serving with Luke's second cousin, Jennison Smith, in Tacoma Washington. She set up the get together with Luke and Feki, the grandson of Luke's grandpa Groberg's mission companion (also named Feki) in Tonga many years ago.

Well thank you again for all you do! I love you all so much and miss you! keep on doing what you do and as always don't forget to be awesome!! :D

-Elder Powell

Laie Temple & Primary Program

9/16/14

Dear family,

Sorry I know I'm always running short on time but I am especially short this week but for a very good reason. Most of our p-day today was spent AT THE LAIE TEMPLE!!! WHOOO!! :D It was so incredible!! It truly is such a beautiful Temple and it was great to get to go through with the whole zone of missionaries and just wow! It was incredible! I could tell you countless things about it and go off on multiple spiritual tangents bearing testimony of it, but due to time I think it will suffice to say two things; 1. If you are not yet able to get a Temple recommend for whatever reason DO NOT DO ANYTHING THAT WILL JEOPARDIZE THAT IN THE FUTURE!!! Your eye should ALWAYS be on going to the Temple and everything you do every single minute of every single day should bring you closer to that eventual goal of entering in it! 2. If you are able to get but do not currently hold a temple recommend GET ONE!!! and that goes into 3. If you do hold a current Temple recommend GO!!!! Go as much as possible!! Overall just remember that The Temple is the House of God on this earth and so if we are always aiming for it and living worthily to enter it than eventually when we pass on from this life we can be almost assured that we will be returning to our Heavenly Father!! :) 

  

Anyway, really tight on time, but other exiting news, we had the primary program this Sunday which was AWESOME! It’s always amazing to feel the spirit that comes from such innocent and loving (if not sometimes rowdy) little children. I actually got pretty teary eyed when they sang "I hope they call me on a mission" because I remembered when I was up there singing it and well... now I've grown a foot or two and here I am! :) Anyway, about to get kicked off. Love you all! Much Mahalo!!

Don't forget to be awesome! :)

-Elder Powell

SotW D&C 6:33-37 (I found this one in the Celestial room and it just really stuck out to me for some reason. The whole section did actually.) :)

p.s. I forgot to mention but I also had the GREAT privilege of participating in the Kaneohe Stake Family History fair this weekend!! Granted our display was just a general missionary table with pamphlets and pass-along cards and BoM's and such and the only people that really looked at or talked to us at the display were all members BUT I did make sure to put out as well my pedigree chart, my priesthood authority lines and the two mission pictures of Grandpa Powell I have in my wallet theoretically so I could talk to people about why Family history is important in the church and missionary work and such and maybe share the story of the Wimmers or others... but nobody asked or talked about it at all so I just enjoyed it myself :) anyway, yeah it was great! :)

Pearl Harbor, Obedience, the Big Picture

9/2/14

Dear family!!

Sorry for the late response! I promise I didn't forget you all! But as you know yesterday was a holiday so the library was closed, but we did get special permission from the Zone Leaders to e-mail today, so... yeah! Here is it!

As for this week, it's been, not surprisingly, another very long, very hot, and very exhausting week! But of course it was also another amazing week being in the service of the Lord! :) I don't have too much new stuff to report on (which is good cause I don't have too much time to report on it either! :P sorry!) But, one highlight was we got a new investigator!! Whoo! His name is D. and while he has some issues and he's not sure he really wants to change yet, he's still very interested in learning AND he walked for almost an hour to come to church on Sunday!! It was awesome!! Anyway, I also gave a talk on Sunday which went great! :)

Sorry! I totally miss judged and I'm like completely out of time!! But I guess if there was one thing I really gained a testimony of this week it was the power of prayer! It is more strong than any of us I think could ever imagine!! NEVER under estimate the power of a sincere and heartfelt prayer! He hears you and he loves you and wants to bless you as you do what he asks.

Anyway, I love you all! Thank you again for all you do! I promise next week I will write a little more! Keep on doing what you do and of course don't forget to be awesome!! :)

-Elder Powell

9/8/14

Aloha Ohana!!

Howzit!? Sorry, as always I'm a little short on time to e-mail, but it was great to hear from you all and especially great to hear your mad ramblings dad, in case you haven't noticed that is how I tend to talk as well so it's always wonderful to hear from someone who speaks my own language! :) 

As for my week down here it has been equally crazy! As you might have guessed we did a lot of..... (dramatic pause for effect) WALKING! WHOO!! It's actually not as bad as I make it sound, but since so much of our time is devoted to that I kind of feel obligated to include it in the weekly e-mail. But we did do quite a few other things which were almost as equally exciting as walking! :) For starters on Wednesday we got to go and do service at the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor! It was SO COOL!! September 2nd there was a HUGE celebration and presentation on board because it marked the 69th anniversary of the official end of WWII which took place ON the USS Missouri in Tokyo bay. So yeah we were helping clean it all up and it was fun! :)

Also another quick highlight of the week... WE GOT S. BACK!! :D :D :D So our dinner on Saturday was with the family that gave us his referral in the first place and so we were talking to the dad and he agreed that we should go check up on him and while he still has a lot of trails and challenges he's facing he's still just as amazing and kind and loving and open to hearing the Gospel as ever before! And his family is HUGE to him (as it should be to any father) and so Bro. C. agreed to take him and his kids out to see the Families display at the Laie Visitors Center which I am REALLY excited about!!! Speaking of which we get to go to the Temple this transfer and I'm SOOOO EXCITED!!!!!! :D :D Anyway, yeah, so we're moving a lot slower this time but we are meeting with him again and I have faith that he'll be pretty much ready to be baptized by the end of the year so hopefully I'll still be in the area, but if not I'm sure whoever is will be just as happy for him as we are! :) haha

Anyway, yeah that was probably the biggest highlight of the week, but as always I just wanted to bear a short testimony about Obedience this week. There tends to be an attitude in this mission about the overall rules and council given to us by President, the AP's and Zone Leaders (which I will admit can get a little ridiculous at times) which I honestly got a tiny bit caught up in this last week, not to the point of being disobedient but just where I was getting really frustrated with them and with everything, but as always I was reading in my scriptures and praying and I kind of realized something that I knew before but just had to be reminded of. I think a lot of time as missionaries (and sometimes as member missionaries even) we get caught up little nit-picky things and we want to do things our way and well frankly sometimes our way might actually make a whole lot more sense and be a lot easier or nicer or whatever, but, that is not what we have been asked to do. We have been asked and covenanted to be obedient in ALL THINGS!! That is the first law ever given to man and that is the law upon which all other laws AND BLESSINGS have been predicated!!!

We can't see the big picture, we don't know what he has planned for us and a lot of times we have no clue why we're asked to do what we're asked to do and frankly IT DOES NOT MATTER!! The only reason God has spelled out his promised blessings for many of his commandments is because he loves us, but he doesn't have to. He is God. He could say, Pay tithing, go to church, keep the WoW, 10 Commandments, LoC, and everything else and just do it, and we would still be obligated and under the same oath a covenant to do it. But he loves us soo much that he has told us the reward. He has promised us ETERNAL LIFE!! And really that's what we are all working towards and that, as missionaries, is what we are helping others work towards. Surely we cannot be so selfish as to Jeopardize someone’s ETERNAL SALVATION because we don't want have a full hour of comp study, or we want to hang out at our members houses for a little longer than we should or because we just don't feel like talking to the people (our own brothers and sisters I might add) that we pass on the street.

Anyway, sorry that was a little bit of venting mixed in with my testimony but well that's something that I've really been trying hard to follow and well it has been really hard!!  :P But yeah, overall all is well, all is well! :) I hope you all have a wonderful week! Remember you are always in my prayers and thoughts! I love you all and will talk to you in a week! :) Don't forget to be awesome! :D

-Elder Powell