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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