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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