The End of Summer Break

It was brought to my attention that these past few months have been like a summer break for me, right before school starts up again. It seems like 2 seconds after that was mentioned to me, the "break" ended all of a sudden--I think it would've lasted longer had I not compared my time off to a stereotypically-short summer break!

I've been keeping up most of the same activities that I mentioned in my previous post. The only real changes have been the various end-of-semester activities our ward participated in. One of the highlights was our trip to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Check out the pics!

 It's been a few years since I've seen these lights, so that was definitely nice to be back again.

But yeah, not too much else is going on. I'm still cooking every once in a while...

The trip home for Christmas break was rather interesting. I got to the airport on Saturday about an hour and a half before my afternoon flight to Spokane, and was waiting at the departure gate for about an hour, when all of a sudden, our flight got cancelled due to bad fog in Spokane! So I started making phone calls and getting my flight rescheduled. The first offer the guy at the Delta desk gave me was the following morning at 10:00 to Minneapolis, and then layover for a few hours there until a 5:00 flight back to Spokane. I was rather skeptical of his ability to book a reasonable flight! His next offer was the following night at 10:00 (more than 24 hour wait).......I didn't know what to say, so he confirmed me on both flights, that way I could just show up at either one. Luckily, my Grandma lives about 20 minutes from the airport, so I called her up and got a free bed for the night. As I was reclaiming my checked baggage, I got a hold of my Dad, who was skiing without me (grrr), and he remembered he had a funeral to go to tomorrow, so he suggested I go to Delta's front desk (a different one than I was originally at), and nicely beg them for a better flight to get home in time for this funeral I wasn't planning on going to! After the gal called over 3 other coworkers to fix a fairly trivial-seeming technical difficulty, they got me checked in on the 8:42 AM direct flight to Spokane!!! What was that other guy trying to do in hiding that flight?! The following morning, I checked out the departure board, and noticed that there was another direct flight at 11--what gives?! So the second flight worked out fine, and I got home. Can't wait to see what the last few remaining days of the year have in store for me!

The first 2 months back

So I have had lots of time to reflect and review over stuff in general these last couple of weeks, and the thought crossed my head: "I still have that blog, maybe I should actually update it again!" I think lots of my friends with blogs have had similar thoughts--I've seen your last posts ;)
I decided to celebrate the occasion by changing up the blog's look a little bit. Let me know if it's too annoying--this is so that others can enjoy seeing it after all.
The first 2 months being back have been nice and relaxing, more than anything. I haven't gotten back into my picture-taking frenzy yet, so I don't really have that many pictures to show what's been happening. I don't know if my poor Sony camera that I bought in Argentina could take it! But I still have just enough to give you an idea:

The homecoming was nice and simple, which is just fine for me.

...and where did I end up first?

I couldn't help but give in to the magnetic pull that our piano has on me! Drew and I had some nice rock-out sessions on it. During my mission, I actually had ideas come to my head for an arrangement of "Where can I turn for peace?" (listen to the basic melody of the original here). I wanna try and write flute and cello parts so that Jason, Drew, and I can pull a trio on it! I think it's going to be pretty cool!

We had lots of family members come up to celebrate my homecoming and Drew's farewell to Manaus, Brazil. It was so great being able to go to the temple with all of them.

About a week after Drew left, I packed up my bags, room, and everything else, and made the big drive down to Provo, Utah. I'm pretty sure that's the first roadtrip I've ever been on without having mom or dad there--I must be pretty grown up for doing that, right?! It was pretty scary crossing from Idaho to Utah though because I had to do it at roughly midnight while it was raining, and with a bunch of construction all around! Good thing mom thought ahead and got me Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol on audiobook to listen to--definitely effective at keeping you awake! It was nice stopping at friends' and family's places on the way down too.
I'm rooming in a 4-person apartment with 3 buddies of mine from freshman year. They were excited to see me because they had already been going to school for a month. I've slowly been catching up with old friends and acquaintances over the past few weeks now, but I still have lots to go.
I was fortunate enough to be here right in time for a mission reunion that President Northcutt decided to hold in Draper a few weeks ago, so I got to see a bunch of old friends there. Again, I didn't really get any pictures of the event, so you don't really see the fact that there were about 150 people at the event, and that I knew roughly half of them!

Alex Young was my trainer in the field. That was great seeing him again!

So yeah, it's been great catching up with everyone.

I've been doing some light job searching in my spare time here. Among other places, I applied at the MTC both as a Spanish teacher as well as a Spanish investigator actor. I'm kinda waiting to see what they say before I start going for other ideas. I've also been volunteering there, doing some familysearch indexing, having fun at ward events, carving a sweet pumpking...

...practicing my cooking skills...

...playing more piano, strolling down memory lane on campus, registering for winter semester classes, reading the scriptures, going over old calculus and programming notes (man, I forgot practically everything!!! It's coming back though, so there's hope), and just feeling surreal!!! The weather is finally starting to turn, threatening snow every once in awhile.

I feel like things are going pretty great though! Hope this next month will be an exciting one too! I love you all! Thanks for all your love and support.

Semana 104 - Villa Muñecas

Hola Todos!

Well, this is a really late letter, but for those that have been reading my blog, you might be curious as to what happened my final week in the mission field. Well, let me tell you!

We played more soccer on p-day--I'll miss being able to play with just about anyone down there!

I was pretty busy fitting in goodbye-visits with the members throughout the week. I got pictures and contact info from pretty much all of them though, so we're doing good!

The real highlight of the week was Daniel's baptism! We got him baptized on Saturday and confirmed him on Sunday, which also happened to be my last day!!! He's doing really great and has lots of friends in the ward, so I know he'll do just fine.

I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting, which was rather bittersweet. And then we had lunch with the Argañaraz family. What did they do? They showered me with eggs, flour, and this thing called polenta--it's basically like corn meal, or shredded corn seed! I tried to protect myself with a tshirt, but it didn't work, I was SOOO dirty! You'll have to see the photos (picasaweb.google.com/cpu3140).

I washed my head off while I was at their house, and then we took a taxi home. By the time we finished cleaning ourselves off, it was time to be back in the pension so that I could pack and Elder Rasmussen could clean. It was a crazy sensation, but it had to happen that way I guess. I left the following morning at 10:00, and got to the offices around 2:00. We hung around there with all the other missionaries until 7:30, and then we headed to President Levrino's house for a special dinner with his family. It was a special evening for sure!
We all piled into a van, and then piled into the office elders' pension to sleep. There were roughly 20 in total in that pension, but there was space--it's a pretty big place. And then we started our flights Tuesday morning at about 11:00. And then Buenos Aires, and then Miami, Florida, and then I saw the family in Texas!!!!!!!!! We flew into Spokane late night at 10:30, and then I was released the following afternoon! What an abrupt ending, but it's definitely time to move on. I'm glad I had this wonderful experience, and definitely don't regret it.

I love you all--thank you for your support and love through these two years of missionary service. Hope to be in closer contact with you now!

Love,

(as they would say in Spanish) ex-Elder Powell

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Semana 103 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

Well, time is quickly slipping by, just like they all say. I finished the Book of Mormon again this last week. What can I say, it's the best book that will ever be written in all history! ¡Hay que leerlo!

It's been a little tough balancing between all the last-minute things I've been wanting to get done, and this last week will be a little tough still, but I'll make it.

We had a good visit by Elder Aidukaitis, 1st counselor in the South America South area presidency. He invited us to come to a double-stake leadership meeting to talk about how the wards need to better apply the 1st presidency's rescue-less-actives plan in our units. He finished off the meeting with a nice talk about miracles and the doctrine behind them. I hope our bishop gets to work on the things that were mentioned there because I can tell what Elder Aidukaitis said was the truth.

Argentina's provincial elections happened yesterday. Voting is obligatory, and lots of people are needed to help carry out the voting process (it's not as nice and easy as it is in the states). So unfortunately, we experienced a 30% decrease in our average sacrament meeting attendance. No one was home afterwards to visit either, so it was an interesting challenge for the week. Things should be a little more normal this week, so it'll be a little easier to finish out good!

Hope to see you all soon!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 101 y 102 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!
Sorry about not getting last weeks letter out. I totally spaced out and didn't realize that I didn't send it until it was too late. 2 Sundays ago, our recent baptism was ordained to the office of priest in the Aaronic Priesthood! That was a little surprise because I didn't even know about the interview he had with the bishop. I gave him a white shirt and a couple ties to start working on the sacrament next week!
We were going to have another baptism this last week, but because of unforseen conflicts in our schedules, we have to wait 2 weeks to do it. That's alright though, because that puts his confirmation on my last day--going out in white! ;)
We had interviews with President Levrino 2 weeks ago. Mine was pretty quick, nothing too special.
Elder Aidukaitis, 1st counselor in the area presidency is coming this week to give a couple firesides to the priesthood leaders and the youth and young adults. The missionaries got invited to the leadership meeting, so we'll be heading there Friday night :)
Not too much different though, just starting little by little to get things ready for my departure in two weeks! I got rid of a lot of stuff in my suitcases that I won't be bringing home, and I've started getting the members to write in my (what's it called?) farewell book...where they leave their names, contact info, and a little goodbye-note. I know that the last 2 weeks will be a little hectic, trying to say goodbye and keeping up with the work, so I'm doing the little stuff early.
Love you all!
-Elder Powell-

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Semana 100 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

...I can't believe I just hit the 100-week mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Break out the soda, slap on the steaks, get the fireworks ready--let's party! :P Not really, but wow, that's quite the incredible landmark.

What better way to celebrate than another baptism!!! He's a 19-year-old that is a member of a part-member family and he's so awesome! He invited lots of friends to the baptism, and even got up this last Sunday during testimony meeting and gave a very spiritual testimony! I was amazed. It felt just like 2 Nephi 31:13.

President Levrino changed around the mission key indicators this last week. It's sooo much better for us now, because he's having us look for a few less investigators to be able to see the investigators we already have more times during the week to be able to help them better in their progress. Unfortunately, I won't have too much time to put it into practice, but at least I can get the foundation ready for a "great and marvelous work" going here in the Villa. We're also now commanded to dedicate some of our time to help the recent converts and the less-active members. I think it was a good change for us.

I tried out this local wild fruit that's called a "níspero" (nee-spehroe). It tasted just like a lemon warhead candy in fruit-form!!! I loved it ;)

I was also pretty floored this week. I feel like Heavenly Father proved me wrong a couple times this week. In two different cases (one right before lunchtime, the big meal of the day, and one bright and early in the morning), we were looking for new investigators by knocking on doors. I specifically told my comp that we probably weren't going to find anyone because that's been the trend my whole mission, but we knocked during those times anyways. Sure enough, in both cases we entered into a door! So when something doesn't seem probable, if it's convenient for the Lord, He'll get you inside.

Gotta run--love you all!!!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 99 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

The weather has taken a colder turn, especially with the rain we had yesterday. I still can't believe that I'm needing to use my under armour, and a huge coat right now, when just a short 9 months ago, I was dieing under 130 degree weather!

We had a pretty good week as far as the work is concerned. We have lots of good investigators from a while back that are really close to getting baptized this week, and we're also finding some interesting new investigators as well. It's kinda funky getting close to the end, because the work is pretty much the same, but at the same time, you realize that you have fairly little time left to get things done! Hope we can pull this transfer off well, especially since we're through the first of 6 weeks!

Love,

Elder Powell

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Semana 98 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

It's been an interesting last week of the transfer. We were walking home on Tuesday night and thought it was weird that there were large groups of people scattered around our block just kindof staring off in the distance. We asked our neighbors what was going on, and they told us that a lady was assaulted and killed about 2 blocks down the street! We didn't really feel a threat, but we made sure we locked up good :P

We have 3 investigators that are SO close to baptism. The hardest part is just that we can't see them that often during the week because they either work or go to school. We'll get there though!

President Levrino changed up the transfer system a little bit. We didn't get our transfer call until last night at about 8:30--talk about anxiety attack! It's official though, I die here in Villa Muñecas with Elder Rasmussen! I'm actually really excited, along with a few members that were calling me to find out how the transfers turned out. We'll have to rock this transfer, cuz it's my last! ...that's so weird!

Love,

Elder Powell

 

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Semana 97 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

Well, the big highlight was our zone conference this last week. The picture that's posted up on the internet of President Levrino looks nothing like him. Get a couple more wrinkles on him, slap on these extremely 80's glasses on, and make him a little taller looking, and then you're closer :P

You can tell he's pretty prepared for the job. He didn't show any timidness when he taught us the importance of focusing on our purpose when we're working. He didn't really change anything, but it was a nice reminder on the perspective I need to have about mission work. His wife is really nice too. We got to know 3 of their 5 children. One is at the Buenos Aires EFY activity (first time ever that it's here !!!), and the other stayed at a friends house the night before. The youngest has a type of epilepsy, so he just kindof wanders around, doing whatever he wants without paying much attention to us. I had an interview with the president as well. It turns out I'm still cursed with being close to the last interview, which made me wait until 6:00 before I could leave! He gave me a couple of good pointers, and we said goodbye until the next time I'd see him...in the offices before I go home :P

Other than that, nothing super different happened this week. I could tell you all about different investigators and their lives and situations, but I just have too many to choose from, and not enough time to talk about them. You'll just have to remind me after the mish.

I love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 96 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

Happy Independance week! We had USA's on July 4th, and Argentina's on July 9th. The kids here have started their 2-week winter vacation, so we hope to be able to see our younger investigators a little more frequently this week. President Levrino planned out a combined zone conference-interview session this week on Thursday. We're really excited to get to know him and see what he's got.

We continue in the good fight. It seems like all our investigators are slacking off and getting replaced by new investigators that we're starting to find. I was having some struggles in finding some new investigators to teach, which worried my leaders a little bit. We're starting to enter into the more humble and slightly more dangerous neighborhoods because everyone else is just a little too prideful to listen to what we have to share. It's going pretty good so far. We hope to find someone that will make the effort to get to church!

Don't really have much else. Kind of a normal week if you ask me.

I love you all, all the same ;)

Love,

Elder Powell

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Semana 95 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

Well, at first glance, this wasn't that fun of a week. There were tons of fodged appointments, a few investigators dropped, lots of walking around, and out of the 10ish that we were expecting in church, not a single one made it...

But then again, looking at our numbers, we actually had a really good week! It's really weird how it all worked out. The biggest struggle right now is weeding out our investigator list, giving a main focus on just a select few and leaving the rest as backup options. The idea is that if we give a lot of focus on just a few people, those few people will be baptized and clear space for others to step up to the font. There's a lot of potential here, it's just trying to get everything just right in the process.

We had the official mission president switch this last week. No idea when I'll hear from or see President Levrino, but we'll see.

I did some souvenir shopping today. I'm starting to get a nice little collection. If anyone has anything specific they'd like, let me know--I'll see what I can do.

I love you all!!!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 94 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

This was a really funky week. We didn't start out the week too well, but then I had divisions on Wednesday. My district leader and I found all of the new investigators and set all the baptismal dates we needed in the week in just that one day!!! I expected to have similar success the following days, but it was quite the opposite: we just found 1 new investigator and set 1 baptismal date with that same investigator. Not sure what happened, but I can't complain too much, the numbers show we had a good week :)

The cold is really setting in. The killer part is that it's humid here, so no matter how many layers you have on, the cold still penetrates everything. It's keeping a lot of people from making it to church because the shock of getting out from under the covers is just too much...it doesn't help that we've had rain for a couple days too, so things are just freezing down here :P

We took a district trip up this hill today to see one of the world's largest statues of Jesus Christ. It was really pretty being up on top of everything. Too bad the cyber lady just prohibitted me from plugging in my camera to upload the pictures..."I don't have a virus, I swear!"

President Northcutt and his wife leave for home on Friday, bringing in the new president--President Levrino--and his family from Santa Fe, Argentina. Hope the switch goes smoothly!

I love you all! Keep reading those scriptures!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 93 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

It's been a rollercoaster ride this week! Still having the same difficulties with finding new investigators and keeping the current ones progressing. I was surprised with President Northcutt's last zone conference this week! It was a very very spiritual one--dead silence after the closing prayer :P It was really good though and we learned a lot, yet again. There's a certain kid from the ward that got his mission call to Chile. He was supposed to leave 2 weeks ago, but a volcano in Chile caused a ton of ash to cover the two airports in Buenos Aires, making travel impossible through there. He got set apart all the same last Sunday, so he actually accompanied us for a couple days, which was a great help! He finally had to take a bus down to Buenos Aires to go to the MTC there until he can fly out to Chile. The missionaries that had to leave last transfer got jipped as well, seeing as they couldn't fly out to the US again! 3 poor elders from Chile had to make the 36-hour bus trip to Santiago to be able to go home! And then supposedly 2-3 incoming elders from the states got stuck in Texas, so the mission pres had to go and pick them up and keep them there until they can travel! Such a nagging issue!

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers seeing this! Unfortunately the holiday coupled with really cold weather made mission work impossible yesterday, but happy holidays anyways :) I had to give an emergency talk yesterday because none of the speakers showed up. I talked about how fathers should be like Heavenly FATHER, using lots of scriptures that explain who he is, and the blessings that come from being like him. I also showed examples of good fathers in the Book of Mormon, showing how their knowledge of God helped define their character. It turned out really nice :)

Love you all!!!

-Elder Powell-

 

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Semana 92 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

This was a rather rough week, but we made do with what we got. The hardest part has been finding new investigators to teach, as usual. We're still managing though because we have a rather large list of people to be visiting anyways, so we keep busy. The big highlight of the week was an area conference that we had on Sunday. President Packer, Elder Anderson, President Wixom, and Elder Zivic gave a broadcast conference from Salt Lake to every stake and district center in Argentina yesterday!!! It was so great! The talked about a good variety of topics, from family scripture study and prayer, to tithing, serving a mission, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Elder Zivic is from Buenos Aires and showed a little bit of worry in his talk because he says statistics are showing that a great majority of Argentina will go less-active in 20 years if we don't take care and spiritually mature. It was a funky conference too because Elder Zivic spoke Spanish, President Wixom didn't (live translation), Elder Anderson spoke sorta-badly-pronounced-Spanish, and Elder Packer took the English option as well. Watch out though, Elder Packer gave a subtle farewell during his testimony, saying that "perhaps" he might not return to Argentina...It was a nice conference though.

Elder Brown had his last day in the area and is now in Santiago del Estero. My new comp actually comes from his MTC group. His name is Elder Rasmussen, from Pocatello, Idaho. He a really nice, smiley guy, and excited to get going in his 2nd area of the mission. He'll probably be the elder that's going to kill me off, seeing as I only have 2 transfers left! We'll see......

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 91 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

This was a rather gloomy last week. The cold weather has been coming on now--practically every day was cloudy. Lots of plans failed this last week, with door knocking being at its worst! 

I hit my 21-month mark this last week. Tomorrow, I hit 21 years old! That seems just a little weird :P I'll be celebrating tomorrow during lunch with a family that has 2 members of their family that have the same birthday!

Schools are ending all over in the States...the schools are still going in full force down here, setting sights on their 2-week winter vacation, and then ending in the beginning of December. We're going into week 6 of 6 in the transfer as well, so we could be seeing a change in companionship next week. The fun never ends!

I just got my travel plans home today! The secretary wrote me a note saying, "Just FYI......don't get too trunky!" I couldn't help but laugh :D I should be getting home late on September 7th, just so y'all know ;)

I love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 90 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

My shoes hit their last straw and are just destroyed X) I took pictures, but due to the bad USB connections in the cyber that we're using here, I don't think I'll be able to upload photos any time soon. Just imagine really terrible shoes :P I made the official switch to my last pair this week. I think they'll last the 3 months that are left!

We had to switch last weeks baptism to this week. It should be a good one!

We also had divisions with our district leader today. It killed me that all 4 of our morning appointments failed us!!! We need to be narrowing down our investigator list though, it's still just a little too big for us to be working completely effective.

Cold weather is starting to kick in. We went out and bought a space heater, so we should be set for the winter coming up. Yesterday was just a little colder than usual, complete with a nightly sprinkling, so not too many made it to church.

Just the normal work though, not too crazy in comparison to other weeks.

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 89 - Villa Muñecas

Hola Todos,

Well, we didn't quite have the other baptisms like we were planning. It was just due to a couple small complications, so we're still looking forward to their baptisms in the near future. We had a ton of investigators at church though, so that was nice at least.

This week was a little better than last week with respect to our teaching goals. We found a few more people to add to our already-large list of investigators and recent converts. A few of them are looking like good baptismal candidates for June as well!

We did have to experience the "opposition in everything" though, complete with family members of investigators dying, investigators going in for surgury, and a whole day of just walking all over the place, trying to find people that weren't home. I was wiped out that day! I hope this is paying off on my cardiovascular health!!!

But in all seriousness, things are going well here and I'm happy with the progress. I just got a letter from President Northcutt today responding to a weekly letter I sent to him a couple weeks ago, when we had 2 baptisms and 10 investigators at church. He congratulated me for the great work and the new attentance record! :P I don't think it's a mission record that he's referring to, but still, it feel pretty nice!

Keep working hard everyone!

Love,

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 88 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

We were blessed this week with 2 baptisms: Teresa Perea and her daughter, Clara Luna! They've progressed the fastest out of any of the investigators I've ever seen in my mission. We first spoke to them about a month ago, and through the help of a member that always gave them rides to our lessons and to church, they were baptized this last weekend. Teresa has gone through some crazy family situations, leaving her with her mom, 23-year-old son, and 12-year-old Clara, and really wants to get things set straight in her life. Clara also has noticed that if she hadn't decided to become a member of the church, she'd be going down a path that would lead her to be doing very bad things. It's been quite the experience seeing the change in their lives and the happiness that they're feeling that comes from living the gospel. Clara used to not get along very well with her mom, but now she's quite attached to her! It's going to be a pleasure continuing to teach them in the coming months.

The good news continues: there's a possibility of 2 more baptisms this week! Can't wait to see if it happens!

Of course, like it says in 2 Nephi 2:11, there's an opposition in everything. The challenge with these baptisms is finding new investigators to replace the ones that are getting baptized. We've had a pretty hard struggle finding people this week, with lots of rejection. The mission is just one big roller coaster!

We had our interviews with President Northcutt this week. It turns out this was the last that I'll have with him, because he's leaving for home July 1st, leaving just enough time to have one more zone conference with him! It was a quick interview--a good sign, because he didn't have any problems to discuss.

Hope things are going well at home!

Love,

Elder Powell 

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Semana 87 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!
Happy Mother's Day to everyone! Calling home was a nice treat, as
always. Weird to think that this is the last one I'm getting!
This happened to be a rather tough week for finding new people to
teach. Not sure what happened, just no one filtered through the system
well. We still have lots of good progressing investigators though, and
hope to see a few more baptisms this upcoming month!
I started reading the Book of Mormon again! If anyone wants to race,
I'm already almost done with 1 Nephi, and I'm going to try and finish
the book before I go home in September ;)
Love,
Elder Powell

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Semana 86 - Villa Muñecas

Hola Todos!

We finished off the transfer pretty well. Lots of promising baptisms coming up in a couple weeks! Elder Brown and I will be staying together for another transfer, but a different elder will be district leader again.

I got some interesting paperwork this last week. I knew that they were coming because I've seen other elders get them. They're called Trunky Papers :P It's the paperwork that talks about preparations for my departure, including suitcase information, as well as a little piece asking for a couple quick pieces of information. I just completed 20 months in the mission today......It's going a little too fast. I'm celebrating though because I was walking around WalMart for the first time today, and on their "World Flavors" rack, I found Teriyaki sauce!!! Definitely taking advantage and testing out some teriyaki meatballs :P

I got to witness two baby blessings this last week. They were different blessings though. One was to a 2-week year old baby that was a little sick with pneumonia. I didn't get to participate in the blessing because of hospital regulations, but I was able to watch. The brother's reaction afterward was of gladness and surprise because he'd never given a blessing to a child that tiny before! The other blessing was the naming and blessing of the grandchild of a recent convert in sacrament meeting. I got to stand in on this one. The family is made up of a ton of converts and their testimonies are growing well in the gospel. It was a neat experience.

Last week I all-of-a-sudden realized that I'll be calling home in a week!!! I can't believe that snuck up on me so fast! We'll take full advantage of the opportunity!

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 85 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

This was a pretty crazy week for us. Easter celebrations are a lot bigger here than in other places, because the Catholics here dedicate the whole week as Holy Week "Semana Santa". It was a little crazy for us because they don't eat beef--just chicken and fish--and it just so happened that we had to cook ourselves lunch on Friday. We headed to the meat shop and were surprised that it was closed, and then it hit us that it was semana santa :P There were lots of large groups of people roaming around in the street participating in religious activities in remembrance of Christ and his death over the weekend.

We had a nice remembrance of Christ's resurrection in church yesterday. We were blessed with a whopping 10 investigators in church! Right in time because the talks and lessons were great, including humility, being a covenant people, faith in action, the resurrected Christ, and preparing to go to the temple.

Unfortunately, it was a little difficult to find a lot of our investigators and other new investigators to teach, but we're looking to recover this next week. Hopefully I won't be surprised with a transfer!

Love,

Elder Powell

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Semana 84 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

This week went by fast, but was pretty difficult. Lots of people weren't home for some reason, and lots of members surprised us with hard schedules, so they couldn't accompany us as much. We're still working well though, so we're hopeful of another upswing. I got a random phone call this morning from the zone leaders. They said that a couple changes were happening in the district, the biggest being that I'm the new district leader for the rest of the transfer (2 weeks)!!!!!! I was stunned, because that never happens, especially mid-transfer, unless something super good or super bad happens. I called the current district leader to see if I could see what's up, and he said he knew why, but he couldn't really tell me. I'm a little worried about what's going on, but I won't have too much time to dwell on it, seeing as I have to catch hold of the district and have a good lesson with them in a few days! The mission never ceases to be exciting and crazy!

A special congrats to my brother, Drew, for his mission call to Manaus, Brazil!!!!!! Woot, woot! :)

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 83 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

Well, we were blessed this last week with another baptism!!! Nadia Diaz is the niece of a good member of the church and has been investigating the church for awhile now. She finally made her way to the font...8 months pregnant! :P Everything went well during the service. Pre-service arrangements were a little hectic though. We had to go around telling all the members it was going to happen because we didn't have the Sunday before to announce it in sacrament meeting. We had to figure out who was in charge of the baptismal clothing, and had to borrow some keys to get it identified and ready. We then realized that the draining system in the font was broken, so it still had the same water as the last baptism that they had, which was about a month ago! Unfortunately we couldn't wait until next week to fix the system because we had already had the interview and we just had to do it. So, a few of the members and us got together and we bucket-brigaded the water out into a nearby toilet! We cleaned it up a little bit (it all really wasn't that dirty), and then refilled it (luckily the warm water was working)! Nadia was content and happy, and we were too :)

The city has been a little crazy in the last week. A main water valve broke, leaving lots of homes without water. We walked by a street where water was just shooting out a river of water. The police also went on strike for a couple days because of salary issues! The situation was resolved though, so we're back to mild safety now :P We have a member that is a police officer, and he was completely worn out from almost no sleep and from his first protest ever! What an event, right? :P

We had a special training from President Northcutt this last week. He taught a lot of stuff that I've already heard from him, but it was a nice reminder for me and a good helper for my newer comp.

We're finding an ironic trial in the midst of a great blessing: we have too many people to visit! We made a list the other day, and found that we had about 30-40 individual homes that we need to be visiting, and it's getting pretty hard to get it all done! Hopefully things will lighten up a little so that we can focus a little more specifically on our good investigators and recent converts.

Love you guys!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 82 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

We had a fairly successful week :) There wasn't anything too crazy that happened, we've just been trying to stay on top of the many visits that we have pending with investigators, recent converts, and less-active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (follow Elder Packer's orders, right? ;) ).

General Conference was basically THE big highlight of the week, as usual. We were provided an English room, like normal, so it was a pleasant experience for us. The recurring themes that I noticed in this conference were varied (my comments in parenthesis): marriage (all the missionaries were groaning at the multiple commands to get married; we agree that it's necessary, but we're grasping on to whatever protection time of badge-bearing that we can......I just have 5 months of it...), church welfare (appropriate, considering the recent need of the program and the 75th anniversary), the New Testament (it's interesting to note that the majority of the speakers mentioned or talked about a topic that comes from the New Testament (especially the Saturday morning session)), children (both taking care of them as well as their example for us), and receiving personal revelation and spiritual power (related because both come from the Holy Ghost). My personal favorite talks were Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk during priesthood session about using priesthood power, Kent F. Richards' talk on pain (creative and informative), Dallin H. Oaks talk on desires, and Lynn G. Robbin's talk on the similarities and differences between 'being' and 'doing'. Definitely take a look at the talks when they get published!

Today was a good p-day. We headed to one of the semi-professional soccer fields to have a double-zone soccer match! We played from 9:30 - 11:00 straight, and I loved it!!! The sun was beaming somewhat strong though, so I'll be sleeping well from tiredness tonight!

I love all of you!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 81 - Villa Muñecas

¡Hola Todos!

Well, my first week here has gone well. I'm actually extremely busy trying to organize a lot of people to visit. The last elder left a bunch of investigators and members to visit, and in the course of last week, I also discovered a bunch of recent converts, less-active members, and references that need to be visited as well! It's going to be an interesting next week!

Random thing that identifies me as Argentine--I'm using the bottom of our iron as a mirror so that I can shave :P

I've had a couple opportunties to improve my cooking skills this week, and the food is coming out good ;) I can't wait to host Argentine food week at home!

I'm having to get used to being around a lot of missionaries again, the Tucumán Oeste zone meets together often to have meetings and to see each other on p-days. It's a nice feeling though. It's kinda nice being in the big city again, but it also kills on the door knocking. Oh well, just gotta go get it done!

Sorry, I'm a little short on time today. I love you all though!

-Elder Powell-

P.S. Make sure you make it to GENERAL CONFERENCE this weekend!!!!!! It's going to be awesome!

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Semana 80 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This last week was pretty nice, especially because we never saw the sun last week (yay cooler temps!), and because we baptized a mom of 2 recent converts to the branch as well as another son of her's! She's been investigating the church for about a year now, but hasn't really been too involved in the process until recently. They're doing great now :)

The only bad news is that I'm now writing this email from a different city now: I've been transferred!!! President Northcutt actually sent both Elder Macias and I out of our area and is putting a former-zone leader in with a kid to white-wash the area! So I've been stressing out the last 2 days over making sure that all of our teaching records are up to date, and organizing all of the necessary information (map, schedule of week one, and other random stuff) so that he can work from square 1! I hope everything turns out alright for everyone there. Elder Macias got sent to Santiago del Estero (from Tartagal, about 12 hours in the bus!), and I'm in Tucumán again in an area called Villa Muñecas (Doll-Ville). My new comp is Elder Brown from Rockhill, South Carolina. He's a cool kid that just came to Argentina a transfer ago (so I'm his step-dad). He's actually looking to get into the animation program at BYU-Provo, so we're able to find stuff in common easily ;). We're looking forward to having a great time in the area, especially because everything is bigger and nicer in Tucumán, compared to the north! I'm also hoping to actually be able to stay here for a time, unlike my last spree in Tucumán, when I got yanked out of Villa Alem a month into the transfer......I still grumble a little about it because they've had an incredible amount of success in that ward--it's huge and functioning! No worries though, Villa Muñecas will get up there too ;)

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 79 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This was a great week, as far as mission progress goes. We had our zone conference this last week. It's always a wonderful opportunity to see other missionary friends and learn a ton from the leaders of the mission. It was kinda sad though because I realized that the sister missionaries from my MTC district are going home next week--way too fast! Elder Anderson, who was in my MTC district, is another district leader in the zone, so both he and I said goodbye to Hermana Hanson, who was there as well and was in our district. Crazy to think we're on the home stretch now! But we'll keep focused for sure ;)

The district members were a little sick this last week, but we're managing alright. The weather isn't really cooperating: all last week, it was scorching hot, until Sunday morning when it just dumped and incredible load of water along with a cold wind blowing! It's still a little 'fresco' (chilly) outside, and I love it!

I too heard about the disaster in Japan. What a crazy thing! Everyone keeps asking us what we think about the events that have been going on there: everyone here is scared about the end of the world. Just like when "2012" came out and everyone checked with us to see if the world really would end that year, everyone's checking our opinion on Japan, Haiti, Chili, and every other major disaster that happens. Just listen to the latter-day prophets, they know exactly what you need to do to be ready physically and spiritually for the upcoming events.

I got a chance to weigh myself again......I'm still stuck at the same weight that I've been at for the past few years now...man, not even Argentine weight-gain diet does the trick!

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 78 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

The big pension-move happened this last week! We got everything in one of these special moving-truck taxis and moved in in about 2 hours! Now it's just my comp and I in a little apartment. I like how peaceful it is though. I just so happened to move right on my year and a half mark......man I feel old!

We also carried out what we call a white storm in a little area nearby called Aguaray because the elders there are getting a little discouraged about the low success they're having. All 10 of us from the district got together there, and under the organization of the 2 elders there, we split up in 5 regions of the area and just worked craziness--looking for less-actives, asking for references, knocking on doors, and visiting investigators--and we worked for about 3 hours doing all of that. It worked out pretty well for them.

I got through the Pearl of Great Price this week for the first time in my life. Lots of cool little pieces of doctrine in there!

Not much else happened this week, just lots of attempts that didn't quite work like we had hoped......oh well, here another try!

We're getting excited because we have zone conference tomorrow! Can't wait to just get blown away again by President Northcutt!

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 77 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

Well, rumors are spreading around about the new mission president coming our way! President Northcutt is out of here the first week of July, and rumor has it that the new president is from Santa Fe, Argentina; in his 40s (young!!!); and 4 kids coming with him to live in the mission! Nothing guaranteed yet, but it's enough to get one extremely curious as to how things will turn out.

This last week was full of downers as well as a few pretty good things too. I usually like to start with the bad news so that I can end on a happy note. All of the recent converts here are going through various trials now--a never-ending battle! A couple are fighting off temptations to break the word of wisdom, a couple are hitting economic struggles, and one depends on her less-active mom to take her to church. We're doing what we can though and that's all that Heavenly Father asks for.

I did divisions with companionship that's pretty discouraged. I went over to their area for a day and was glad to be able to help with a few things in how the senior comp is working. I hope things turn out good for them in the end. They're just getting tired of knocking the same doors multiple times in the transfer (it's a small area).

Our week was chock-full of appointments this week, we were practically running a couple times! Unfortunately, the members were pretty busy all this week for various things, especially the fact that school starts tomorrow for them!

(Now the couple good things ;) )

Last week we did a zone fast to find those that are prepared to accept the gospel as well as to be able to help the investigators we already have to get baptized. I think that fast is starting to pay off. Saturday we were walking pretty quickly to our next appointment, when we here this guy yell out "Elders!" We looked over and saw this guy that we've never seen in our lives before. We started talking with him, and his dad who came up behind him, and found out he's a higher-up of the border patrol here and he just got to Tartagal about a month ago. He and his dad are members and wanted to know when church was so that they could come on Sunday. Yesterday he introduced us to his wife, who isn't a member ;) 2 random investigators that we had dropped found us this last week, and showed complete interest in continuing where we left off! To top it off, we were knocking doors yesterday late at night. We were going to go home in 15 minutes or after someone let us in, whichever came first. As we were walking around, I saw this front porch that had 3 chairs situated around a little table with the outside light turned on. I could practically imagine us just sitting in those chairs, and found the opportunity irresistable. Turns out the lady that let us in was great! She had lots of great questions and recognized that what we had to share was true. We're now waiting to get the baptism half of the fast to kick into gear ;)

We'll be moving into our new apartment this week! The guy's leaving two sofa chairs and a love seat in the apartment!!! Can't wait for study time ;)

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 76 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This was a fairly crazy week, but it turned out good for me in the end. I had divisions scheduled with the zone leaders starting on Tuesday night. My comp made the 3-hour trip down to the zl's area and one of the zone leaders came up here. We got lots done Tuesday afternoon, but when he woke up Wednesday morning, he started feeling headaches and a little bit of stomach-achyness. He felt pretty bad all day long too--good thing we didn't have an intense day planned. He had planned to stay until my district meeting on Thursday morning, and then return to his area, but all Wednesday night/Thursday morning, he had diarrhea and was vomitting! So I cancelled the 2 appointments I had in the morning to let him rest. He almost didn't make it to the meeting, but he was there and gave a quick little lesson with mine, followed by a rush to the bathroom again (just diarrhea at that point). After analyzing the situation, he knew he wouldn't be able to make it to his area without needing a bathroom again (he was given antibiotic that didn't allow him to take diarrhea meds), so we let him rest all day Thursday, meaning that we had to work crazy switch-offs with the other 4 Tartagal elders to get to all the appointments in our 3 areas! We got it to work though. He felt a little better Friday morning, so we gave the trip back a try, so I finally got my comp back Friday afternoon. He's feeling a whole lot better now, but man, that was a crazy midweek event!

I can't remember the last time that Sunday felt like a Day of Rest--this last Sunday was definitely not an exception. I worry too much about the investigators, but at the same time, the members here are sometimes pretty crazy in comparison to how things should be in the church! Unfortunately I can't really make comments, it's just up to the leaders to figure things out.

I had a cool inspirational moment the other day. I was thinking about the gospel of Jesus Christ with my comp and reading a little section in Preach my Gospel, when a cool way to explain the gospel popped into my head. It's kinda long, but I liked it a lot. The main points of the gospel are faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and persevering (I like the Spanish "persevering" better than the English "enduring") to the end (see Article of Faith #4). We normally picture the 5 points in a timeline, but in reality, it's also like a circle. We start out by showing faith in Jesus Christ and his teachings (faith is a trust in something isn't seen, but is true). Our faith makes us feel the need to change our lives so that we live in harmony with his teachings--that change is called repentance. When we repent, we make a covenant with Heavenly Father that we won't digress after repentance, rather progress afterward. Covenants are made through sacred acts called ordinances (a few examples are baptism, partaking of the sacrament, receiving the Priesthood, as well as the ordinances in the temple). After making a covenant with Heavenly Father, He always promises that the Holy Ghost will be with us to guide us. Well, the first time we enter the circle, the covenant we make is baptism. Once we're baptized, we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. If we follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, we will realize that we need to prepare ourselves to renew that covenant by taking the sacrament every week, therefore entering into the circle again: exercise faith, repent, covenant (sacrament in this case), and we receive more guidance from the Spirit. We continue going around and around and around in this circle until one day, we're prepared to make other covenants, which gives us even more momentum in this gospel circle. As we hit more times going around the circle, we get closer and closer to Heavenly Father, kindof like a tornado going upward. You can try and disprove it, but it's so logical: you can't have the Holy Ghost unless you make covenants, you can't make covenants unless you repent first, you can't repent unless you believe and trust that it's possible (faith), and you can't have faith in something that the spirit doesn't testify of. So, in a sense, the gospel is eternal, because you can always make another turn around the track and come closer to Heavenly Father--that's how enduring to the end comes into play.

There might be flaws in how it's worded, but I think it's totally true. If it's confusing, I'm sorry. President Northcutt has us exposed to pretty deep stuff every once in awhile. Just study the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon--the principles are all over the place.

Well, I've gotta run.

Love you guys!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 75 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This week was a little crazy, but not too bad. I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish--absolutely LOVED it! Everyone needs to read it for sure because there are plenty of life-lessons that are taught in there.

President Northcutt raised the mission's weekly goals a little bit, we're feeling the pressure! I dunno, personally, I was still working on getting better at meeting the old goals, now it's really starting to push...I know I can do it, just gotta figure out how to get it all done.

District meeting went well. There are 10 of us in the district here in Tartagal. It interesting to see the diverse situations that are in each area and each companionship. It'll be a fun little transfer, for sure.

Yeah...can't think of much else to write...I'm sure lots of crazy and funny things happened this last week, but I'm getting so used to the culture here, it all just seems kindof normal to me. You'll all just have to ask me about more specific things down here so that I can unfold the craziness that is northern Argentina!

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 74 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This week alright. I was really happy with the baptism that we had this weekend again! Roberto Cortez was a tricky one to find sometimes. He is the father of a member here in Tartagal, but before, he was living in a little nearby town called Mosconi. He had a big drinking problem there, but his family started bringing him here about 6 months ago to listen to the missionaries. I ran into him toward the beginning of my time here when he was leaving for Mosconi again. He came back and he all of a sudden set his own baptismal date for the 6th of January (a Thursday)! We gratefully helped him prepare for that day, but then he disappeared right before the New Year again to Mosconi. It turns out right on the 6th, because of his drinking done there, he had a case of headaches that led to what seemed to me to be a stroke! He couldn't use his left arm and leg for about a week. The doctor got on his case about drinking and it kindof scared him and made him realize the importance of making good decisions always, so he switched his address to his son's house and we baptized him two weeks later :) He's doing great now and loves reading the scriptures with the family and really helps out around the house! A great way to kick off 17 months in the mission!

We had interviews with President Northcutt this week. My interview was short and simple--a good sign usually. We didn't talk about too much really, just about these study guides that he's having us look at, how my area's going, and how my comp is, that's about it! He bumped me up to district leader again though, so we'll see if life will be as challenging as when I was district leader the last time!

We got a phone from the pension office elder: I'm going to have to move pensions AGAIN!.....We're splitting the 4 Tartagal elders away from us two in Villa Saavedra, so I have to go look for something smaller. I think it'll be easier than it was in Jujuy though, so that'll be nice.

We were blasted with a crazy rainstorm again on Sunday morning, so our two branches were forced to combine sacrament meetings again, due to low attendance. At least the 3 newly baptized members showed up for their confirmations, so that was a nice addition to fast and testimony meeting!

Everyone down here is hearing lots about crazy snowy weather all over the U.S. Hope everyone is surviving up there ;)

Well, I've gotta run, but I love you all!!!

-Elder Powell-

 

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Semana 73 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!
This week was better than what I've had for the past little bit. We
got lots of work done, including getting the over-grown weeds and
grass cut in front of our pension :P
We were blessed this week with a great baptism! Osvaldo Naranjo is the
dad of a part-member family, so it's a big step for them. I didn't
realize how big of a baptism this would be for the people here, until
this week I started hearing things like "Osvaldo's getting baptized?!
No way! He's been investigating for about 4-5 years! He was my old
professor/my son's professor. He's my mechanic. I never would've
thought this day would come!", and a bunch of stuff like that! He's a
really great guy that has found a love of reading the scriptures. He
was especially surprised and excited when we presented to the family a
Bible and a Book of Mormon in an extra-large size because they have
trouble seeing things! He's been excited too to get right to work in
the church, so we're planning on using him well ;) The baptismal
service was actually one of the smoothest services I've ever had on
the mission--normally there's something crazy that happens! But no,
everything was just nice and pleasant :)
We were also blessed with various new investigators, so we have people
to teach and prepare in Osvaldo's place, as well as the other
investigator we're planning on baptizing this next weekend!
Can't wait for interviews tomorrow, and receiving transfer calls this
week (I'm always curious to see the changes in the mission)! Gollee
time is flying by!
Love you all!
-Elder Powell-

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Semana 72 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

Well, this was a rather miraculous week! To start, we were protected during crazy weather conditions. On Tuesday, it was super-rainy in the morning, but as the afternoon hit, the sun came out and blasted the clouds out of the way, making it extremely humid. And then all that evaporated rain hit us again, but even harder this time, on Thursday morning, right at the point where we needed to get back to the pension. I didn't have any raingear on, so I just gave in and let myself get completely drenched in the middle of the street. I felt rather special as I just sang in the rain and as the rest of the Argentines just stared at us, probably thinking we were going crazy! I was just loving the fact that it wasn't hot! The next day, I kid you not, I saw in total about a few hundred thousand of butterflies heading in a southern direction! We're guessing that they were migrating, or something, but for a few hours, butterflies just kept appearing out of nowhere from the north! And then Sunday, all the rain hit hard again early in the morning. If there's anything that spooks Tartagal citizens, it's lots of rain and water. Last year, a huge landslide ('alud' in Spanish, I tell you because there are youtube videos of the news footage) came through and just destroyed Tartagal. The people almost never leave now if there are heavy rains. The rain alone killed assistance at church, bringing a total of 40 people between our two branches and the entire city of Tartagal! We just held a combined sacrament meeting and called it good because there really weren't enough people to hold the other classes! As we were waiting about an hour for the decision to be made to combine the two branches, I decided that the silence in the chapel was a little awkward, so I just decided to start playing prelude music until something happened. Well, it turns out I never left the bench for that hour, right up until we started the meeting. It was a little hard finding enough hymns to play for an hour, but I managed! The miracle came halfway through that meeting: 4 investigators showed up!!!!!!! 2 of which are getting baptized within the next 2 weeks--talk about faithful ;) 3 of them are actually the dad and nephews of a member-family and were brought by them, so I was glad they were able to get to church.

We're having some success with our investigators. We're hoping to have a baptism this week. It's this older guy that has been investigating the church for a really long time, but he was finally able to get over his chewing-coca-leaves addiction! We're hoping for the best.

We're looking forward to another good week. Good luck during your last week of January (time flies, doesn't it? :P )

-Elder Powell

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Semana 71 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

We had a fun little p-day last Monday. We went to the church and made Chilean hot dogs (regular hot dog with tomato, lettuce, lemon, mayonaise, ketchup) and sugar cookies (thanks Mom!), and we watched church movies for a couple hours! Super great on the projector screen!

We did our zone meeting in Orán on Thursday, where we make the 3-hour trip down to chat with other missionaries, listen to a quick lesson from the zone leaders (one of them is actually from my MTC group), wait a couple hours for our bus to get there, and make the 3-hour trip back home! It's nice seeing everyone, but the trip almost isn't worth the time it takes...

As for the missionary work, we're getting a lot of support from the members here, it really helps a lot. We're working on a new method of knocking on doors, basically leaving a pamphlet with the people that tell us to come back another time so that we have something to talk about the next time we come back. It's rather simple, but I think it's making a difference. We'll see!

It got hot again this week...Everyone should be grateful that they don't live--let alone work--in such hot conditons! I'm surviving though--enjoying my nice farmer's tan ;)

Have a good week everyone!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 70 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This has been a pretty nice week. We had lots of people to visit. Sorry if it seems a little boring, but you just have to have served a mission to know how a regular week feels.

Our whole district of 10 was invited by the district president on Thursday for a big lunch--way fun! I was surprised that he did it, but it turned out great!

We had a nice surprise training from President Northcutt and his wife on Saturday. He's trying to get us on the new teaching patterns that the church has come out with, so he came straight to Tartagal to work with our district! I'm working on making the changes that I need to, but it's a little tough being a good enough teacher to help these people change their way of life to something better! President Northcutt also made an appearance at church as well! It just so happened that our Gospel Principles teacher didn't come to church, so I had to improvise a lesson with President Northcutt sitting in on the lesson! I was a little nervous, but it turned out good. He also spoke in sacrament meeting and gave a powerful talk about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon often. He gave us a ride home afterward--I felt privileged ;) I also forgot to note that our pension got a bad cleanliness rating from our district leader, so President and Sister Northcutt came and checked out the pension after the training on Saturday. It's a good thing we had already suspected that they would do it, so we were able to get a deep-cleaning of the pension done before they came! It was really weird seeing President Northcutt walk into my bedroom--just seemed a little frightening! :P They were content though, so we're relieved!

That's about all I have though, hope this week goes well for everyone!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 69 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This week was super-funky. Every single day was cloudy and/or rainy!!! I didn't need to take my hat out at all!!! Too bad today heated up again, I would've loved a couple weeks of "fresco" as they say here, basically meaning just a little cool!

It was rough doing missionary work this week because everyone had plans for the New Year. We found lots of old investigators though that we could teach and help out, so that was good.

We celebrated the New Year at our pension again. It was almost a perfect repeat of Christmas, except that the zone leaders didn't come, and we made tacos at the church! It was nice though. Really weird thinking that I'm entering into the same year that I'll be going home in! It just makes me feel really old, especially because yesterday I hit my 16-month birthday, leaving only 8 to go!

Once again, we had low attendance in church. I don't know what the people are thinking, but I'd picture the first Sunday of the year to be a good opportunity to make good habits. Oh well, I enjoyed it at least.

My new comp is really nice. Elder Macias is from La Plata, Buenos Aires, and has a really quiet personality, which is completely opposite from your stereotypical "porteño" (resident of Buenos Aires). He just has three months in the mission, but I'm already his 3rd comp in the field!

Don't really have anything else for this week. Hope the New Year's celebration went well for everyone!

Love,

Elder Powell

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