Hola Todos,
Congratulations to Sierra Alcazar and her call to Korea! She'll have tons of fun out there. And Happy Birthday to Dad! The amount of fun you have is often consistent with the attitude going into it ;) Just remember when things are getting rough, especially with your 9 HOURS of church, I've been going through just short of 1848 hours of living the life of a church representative, and I still have roughly 15624 more hours to go! I was quite proud of Nick and Jason's grocery shopping trip--I definitely know mom didn't trust me like that when I was 8 and 11 so good job at being the youngest children ;) Thanks for the early X-mas package mom!
Well, 2 district changes, 5 companions, and 11 weeks later, I'm finally leaving tomorrow!!! Everyone here's been really supportive and I've found plenty to keep me busy, learning, and helping out others. I got my wish the other day: it snowed!!! It mostly melted pretty quick though, but it wasn't anything too puny, so I'm happy and ready to head down to Argentina. I'll try to call home during my layover in Georgia.
My new mailing addresses are:
Elder Powell
Argentina Salta Mission
Los Eucaliptus 75
4400 Salta, Salta,
Argentina
(that's my mission home)or if you recall the pouch mail system rules, you can use
Elder Powell
Argentina Salta Mission
PO Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
(or http://www.dearelder.com/ works perfectly great as well, especially because it's FREE!)
I'm not sure what the rules are about emailing yet, but if you'd like to try, my email is: jeff.r.powell.MAS@myldsmail.net
I'll definitely be able to read your emails, but I don't know if I can respond to them (only a 10%-15% chance that I will) I'll still be trying to email home often so hopefully things will still get out to everyone.Not too much more to say though. I'll be flying down with at least 2 other elders on my flights, but I've been talking with other elders that I know were delayed and it seems like we have the same travel plans, so I may be with more--we'll see!Well, I love you all. Thanks for the love, support, and prayers in my behalf. I hope all is well with everything back at home.
Con Amor-Elder Powell-
November 17, 2009
November 10, 2009
Semana 10
¡Hola Todos!>
Here go responses to family letters: Nick, what do you mean nobody is here?! I have tons of friends here at the MTC :P I letters everyone once in a while, I got a lot more at the beginning, but now I don't get as much, but it's ok, I'm always really busy so I'm never really bored. Jason, you asked about how I pass the time at the MTC. Well, I'm either in class, studying Spanish, reading scriptures or Preach My Gospel, eating, at the gym, sometimes at a meeting, or sleeping--that's pretty much it! I actually didn't have a Halloween party here. We definitely have enough candy to eat though. Thanks for sending the photo compression info--I knew for the most part how to do it already, but it's nice having the specifics, especially in Spanish. The only thing about what you gave me is that you need to insure that you'll be able to open a .rar file. It's similar to a .zip file, but I forget if Vista/XP is able to extract from a .rar file by itself. You might consider getting WinRAR, but just the trial version. It will still work for you even after the trial period expires (at least when I was still using it). I can't view any email-attached pictures now because of the MTC computers locking everything up, but I'm guessing I'll be able to in the field. You mentioned Pres. Lee's brothers (?) that got delayed from Brazil--there's about 130+ Brazilian missionaries overflowing this MTC because of visa issues! Not sure on the exact problem, but it's getting pretty big. I only know as much as what you found out in your email to the travel office, nothing more. If I call next week, wanna test out calling the payphone back? Dad, you're actually backwards: you've been using the pouch system the entire time because that's what dearelder uses. You'll probably want to switch to just emailing this email address because it'll probably be more reliable in the field. I laughed when I read that you're headed to Big White! Nerds......:P All these people that are asking about me, you definitely should tell them to write me: I CAN talk to people after all ;) Good luck with the Creche and the swing dance, you definitely have quite the load Mom! Thanks for the pics too! Happy Birthday Dad!!! Hope it will be a wonderful day for you! I'm glad I could help you out.>
Well, because Elder Jones, my 2nd companion, was recovering from his ankle surgery, I got to travel out of mission boundaries to go to therapy with him! It wasn't as weird as I expected it to be, but it gave us a nice atmosphere to have study time in. I couldn't really contact anyone there either because it's Provo--everyone is a member of the church! Elder Jones got his medical release though so he left yesterday morning, I moved rooms for the 3rd time, and I'm on my 3rd companion now! Elder Robison is in the district that was below my original one. He leaves on the 16th as well to Nicaragua, so I'm hoping that this times out nicely.>
Well, hopefully this will be the last email home from the MTC! I'm planning on sending one more packet home with letters and such. If there's anything you want for 40% cheaper (from school supplies to all kinds of church materials) let me know!>
Os Amo,>
Elder Powell
Here go responses to family letters: Nick, what do you mean nobody is here?! I have tons of friends here at the MTC :P I letters everyone once in a while, I got a lot more at the beginning, but now I don't get as much, but it's ok, I'm always really busy so I'm never really bored. Jason, you asked about how I pass the time at the MTC. Well, I'm either in class, studying Spanish, reading scriptures or Preach My Gospel, eating, at the gym, sometimes at a meeting, or sleeping--that's pretty much it! I actually didn't have a Halloween party here. We definitely have enough candy to eat though. Thanks for sending the photo compression info--I knew for the most part how to do it already, but it's nice having the specifics, especially in Spanish. The only thing about what you gave me is that you need to insure that you'll be able to open a .rar file. It's similar to a .zip file, but I forget if Vista/XP is able to extract from a .rar file by itself. You might consider getting WinRAR, but just the trial version. It will still work for you even after the trial period expires (at least when I was still using it). I can't view any email-attached pictures now because of the MTC computers locking everything up, but I'm guessing I'll be able to in the field. You mentioned Pres. Lee's brothers (?) that got delayed from Brazil--there's about 130+ Brazilian missionaries overflowing this MTC because of visa issues! Not sure on the exact problem, but it's getting pretty big. I only know as much as what you found out in your email to the travel office, nothing more. If I call next week, wanna test out calling the payphone back? Dad, you're actually backwards: you've been using the pouch system the entire time because that's what dearelder uses. You'll probably want to switch to just emailing this email address because it'll probably be more reliable in the field. I laughed when I read that you're headed to Big White! Nerds......:P All these people that are asking about me, you definitely should tell them to write me: I CAN talk to people after all ;) Good luck with the Creche and the swing dance, you definitely have quite the load Mom! Thanks for the pics too! Happy Birthday Dad!!! Hope it will be a wonderful day for you! I'm glad I could help you out.>
Well, because Elder Jones, my 2nd companion, was recovering from his ankle surgery, I got to travel out of mission boundaries to go to therapy with him! It wasn't as weird as I expected it to be, but it gave us a nice atmosphere to have study time in. I couldn't really contact anyone there either because it's Provo--everyone is a member of the church! Elder Jones got his medical release though so he left yesterday morning, I moved rooms for the 3rd time, and I'm on my 3rd companion now! Elder Robison is in the district that was below my original one. He leaves on the 16th as well to Nicaragua, so I'm hoping that this times out nicely.>
Well, hopefully this will be the last email home from the MTC! I'm planning on sending one more packet home with letters and such. If there's anything you want for 40% cheaper (from school supplies to all kinds of church materials) let me know!>
Os Amo,>
Elder Powell
November 3, 2009
Semana 9
Hola del MTC
Well, the biggest thing is that I watched my district all leave yesterday morning while I moved my things into a different room...I'm sad that they're gone, but I've gotta keep busy here--there's definitely plenty to do. My new companion has actually been here a week longer than me because he had surgery on his foot and is still going through recovery. This has kinda turned us into the example/ameritus companionship of our zone :P We're in the oldest district right now and I'm just working on adjusting for the next couple days. Everyone's supportive though, things are going well. I'll get to Argentina eventually.Thank you for the pumpkin bread! I devoured the whole thing this morning for breakfast ;) Nothing really happened here for Halloween, just that we enjoyed the extra hour of sleep, oh yeah, and that the outside world LOADED us with candy, so we've just been munching and passing around handfuls of candy to everyone. You asked about the teachers giving us treats--they're not even allowed to bring in copies of conference talks, let alone treats. They really are not allowed to bring anything to us.You also asked about Jace: he left like 3 weeks ago :P It was just the 30ish November 2nd missionaries having issues. I did know about the swine flu issue with their government--found that out like week 2. I knew about the consol going to Salt Lake on the 14th, but I wasn't specifically told he comes every 6 weeks, nor that I would fly on the 16th, but thanks for the info.It was so weird calling home. I froze when the phone started ringing because I started to think "Umm, how do I start this conversation." and then Mom answered the phone, but it's been awhile so I couldn't tell if it was her, so then I started to wonder "Did I dial the right number?!" so I had to check :P I'll be a little more confident next time.We were visited by Elder L. Tom Perry last Tuesday. He gave a nice talk on how to be better teachers. It kinda surprised me that he didn't really come out with anything groundbreaking, totally unique, or incredibly spiritual. It was rather a good reminder of the basic things we should be doing to better our teaching skills.I got my 2nd Hep A shot, so immunizations should be good to go.Well, I've gotta run. I'll get 1 more email in before I SHOULD be flying out. Here's to hoping I will.
Love you tons!
Elder Powell
Well, the biggest thing is that I watched my district all leave yesterday morning while I moved my things into a different room...I'm sad that they're gone, but I've gotta keep busy here--there's definitely plenty to do. My new companion has actually been here a week longer than me because he had surgery on his foot and is still going through recovery. This has kinda turned us into the example/ameritus companionship of our zone :P We're in the oldest district right now and I'm just working on adjusting for the next couple days. Everyone's supportive though, things are going well. I'll get to Argentina eventually.Thank you for the pumpkin bread! I devoured the whole thing this morning for breakfast ;) Nothing really happened here for Halloween, just that we enjoyed the extra hour of sleep, oh yeah, and that the outside world LOADED us with candy, so we've just been munching and passing around handfuls of candy to everyone. You asked about the teachers giving us treats--they're not even allowed to bring in copies of conference talks, let alone treats. They really are not allowed to bring anything to us.You also asked about Jace: he left like 3 weeks ago :P It was just the 30ish November 2nd missionaries having issues. I did know about the swine flu issue with their government--found that out like week 2. I knew about the consol going to Salt Lake on the 14th, but I wasn't specifically told he comes every 6 weeks, nor that I would fly on the 16th, but thanks for the info.It was so weird calling home. I froze when the phone started ringing because I started to think "Umm, how do I start this conversation." and then Mom answered the phone, but it's been awhile so I couldn't tell if it was her, so then I started to wonder "Did I dial the right number?!" so I had to check :P I'll be a little more confident next time.We were visited by Elder L. Tom Perry last Tuesday. He gave a nice talk on how to be better teachers. It kinda surprised me that he didn't really come out with anything groundbreaking, totally unique, or incredibly spiritual. It was rather a good reminder of the basic things we should be doing to better our teaching skills.I got my 2nd Hep A shot, so immunizations should be good to go.Well, I've gotta run. I'll get 1 more email in before I SHOULD be flying out. Here's to hoping I will.
Love you tons!
Elder Powell
October 28, 2009
Semana 8
Hola Todos,
I got my flight plans on Friday......too bad I don't have a visa yet. Our whole district went to the travel office today to see what was up. Apparently 6 out of the 9 have their visas, 2 elders are going to a temporary reassignment until their visa comes in, and I alone am stuck on hold, which I'm guessing means I'm here at the MTC for a little bit longer. To be honest though, I'm more sad that our district is being split up than the fact that I'm not headed to Argentina just yet. The Lord has his purposes for everything though and I'm definitely keeping my eyes and ears open to find it. I'll tell you my flight plans just because I feel like telling you anyways: 8:30AM SLC -> 12:10PM DF (Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX), 2:10PM DF -> 6:00PM MIA (Miami, FL), 9:00PM MIA -> 9:00AM EZE (Buenos Aires, Argentina). I'm not sure if the itinerary takes into account the time zone switches (even though that seems awkward), but yeah, all the US flights are American Airlines. I got a calling card for the US and I'll be able to call from the airports, but the international cards will be purchased in Argentina. I'm told that they have them there for cheap. I'm guessing I won't really need stamps too much either. Again, I'll keep you posted as best as I can as things happen around here.I couldn't believe what I was reading about Rockwood! Good luck with working things out--I hope that things do work out in the end. Definitely keep me posted!Speaking of hard to believe: Drew had a vocal solo?!?! I never thought I'd see the day!!! :P
Dad asked about what church is like here. We are divided into branches here, so obviously headed by a Branch President. The branch consists of my zone of 4-5 districts. The callings that we have are more like assignments that are included in our callings as missionaries--in other words, I didn't receive a sustaining nor was I set apart when I became the District Leader. Priesthood is at 9:10AM. The Relief Society meets at an MTC-wide level (10:00) and has their own little devotional-type meeting. Lunch is right before Sacrament at 12:30 and we have a little chapel room in the main building that our branch meets in. One cool thing here is that our Branch President served his mission in Chile, so he knows Spanish. This is important because we get the opportunity to bless the sacrament in Spanish ;) We'll then have our own little district meeting where we take care of announcements and have a lesson, similar to Sunday School. After that is Missionary Directed Time where you can study or head to the temple for pictures out front. Choir practices at 4:15, dinner afterwards, MTC Fireside at 8:00, and then you can watch your choice of 1 out of 4 church films. They rotate every week between "The Testaments", "Legacy", "Joseph Smith", "Mountain of the Lord", and various talks given here at the MTC by general authorities.The Line of Authority works great, Dad, thanks!I haven't heard of an N1H1 vaccine here yet, but I'll keep my ears peeled.Everyone is back and completely healthy from quarantine. We actually got 2 of them back a day or 2 early! It's been nice having everyone together again--our district is so awesome!!!Thanks again for all your love and support. I hope all is well at home. It definitely got cold really fast here, which reminded me of home and how you sent the cold to us ;) I will probably send out my package on Thursday, which I hope I will know a few more traveling/sticking around details by then so that I can inform you.
¡Os amo muchísimo!
-Elder Powell-
I got my flight plans on Friday......too bad I don't have a visa yet. Our whole district went to the travel office today to see what was up. Apparently 6 out of the 9 have their visas, 2 elders are going to a temporary reassignment until their visa comes in, and I alone am stuck on hold, which I'm guessing means I'm here at the MTC for a little bit longer. To be honest though, I'm more sad that our district is being split up than the fact that I'm not headed to Argentina just yet. The Lord has his purposes for everything though and I'm definitely keeping my eyes and ears open to find it. I'll tell you my flight plans just because I feel like telling you anyways: 8:30AM SLC -> 12:10PM DF (Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX), 2:10PM DF -> 6:00PM MIA (Miami, FL), 9:00PM MIA -> 9:00AM EZE (Buenos Aires, Argentina). I'm not sure if the itinerary takes into account the time zone switches (even though that seems awkward), but yeah, all the US flights are American Airlines. I got a calling card for the US and I'll be able to call from the airports, but the international cards will be purchased in Argentina. I'm told that they have them there for cheap. I'm guessing I won't really need stamps too much either. Again, I'll keep you posted as best as I can as things happen around here.I couldn't believe what I was reading about Rockwood! Good luck with working things out--I hope that things do work out in the end. Definitely keep me posted!Speaking of hard to believe: Drew had a vocal solo?!?! I never thought I'd see the day!!! :P
Dad asked about what church is like here. We are divided into branches here, so obviously headed by a Branch President. The branch consists of my zone of 4-5 districts. The callings that we have are more like assignments that are included in our callings as missionaries--in other words, I didn't receive a sustaining nor was I set apart when I became the District Leader. Priesthood is at 9:10AM. The Relief Society meets at an MTC-wide level (10:00) and has their own little devotional-type meeting. Lunch is right before Sacrament at 12:30 and we have a little chapel room in the main building that our branch meets in. One cool thing here is that our Branch President served his mission in Chile, so he knows Spanish. This is important because we get the opportunity to bless the sacrament in Spanish ;) We'll then have our own little district meeting where we take care of announcements and have a lesson, similar to Sunday School. After that is Missionary Directed Time where you can study or head to the temple for pictures out front. Choir practices at 4:15, dinner afterwards, MTC Fireside at 8:00, and then you can watch your choice of 1 out of 4 church films. They rotate every week between "The Testaments", "Legacy", "Joseph Smith", "Mountain of the Lord", and various talks given here at the MTC by general authorities.The Line of Authority works great, Dad, thanks!I haven't heard of an N1H1 vaccine here yet, but I'll keep my ears peeled.Everyone is back and completely healthy from quarantine. We actually got 2 of them back a day or 2 early! It's been nice having everyone together again--our district is so awesome!!!Thanks again for all your love and support. I hope all is well at home. It definitely got cold really fast here, which reminded me of home and how you sent the cold to us ;) I will probably send out my package on Thursday, which I hope I will know a few more traveling/sticking around details by then so that I can inform you.
¡Os amo muchísimo!
-Elder Powell-
October 21, 2009
Semana 6
Hola Familia!This is draft 2 of my email home, the email client bugged and lost my draft to you and now I only have 21 minutes instead!!!I laughed when mom mentioned the MTC parody of Hey There Delilah! Yeah, I filmed that one and it went viral quite a few months ago actually. It's cold here as well, but nowhere close to freezing yet! I'm not sure about sending home one of my suitcoats yet, I'll think on it. Felicitaciones con su miembro nuevo! If you're so worried about mental stability, maybe you should be talking to your friends more so that the missionaries can teach some referrals ;) Madre, comeré lo que me envia. Si quiere enviar manzanas, go for it. It doesn't matter to me. Dad, neither I nor any of my district could decipher what you were trying to say when you said ¿Cuál es hasta? Were you trying to say something like "How is it going?" Or were you asking for the meaning of hasta (it's "until" btw)? No visa yet...I'm a little surprised actually, but I'm patient...we'll see what happens. Teaching in Spanish has been going really well! Y sí, he estado ayudando otras personas con español, mas o menos. Jason and Nick, you have an assignment to come up with at least 1 question you have for me about anything you want. I know exactly how curious boys your ages are about everything ;)I finally got to play the piano a bunch this past week for various reasons. It's amazing how out-of-practice I feel after 5 short weeks!I'm not the district leader anymore. Elder Anderson reigns over the district now. It's a little funky only being in charge of my companionship now, but I'm doing fine. Since my district is on a pilot program here at the MTC, we actually lost Hermano McCoy as a teacher and gained a brand-new teacher yesterday. His name is Hermano Chojolan--a little shy and timid, but I think he has a lot to teach us. Our other teacher, Hermano Jackson, will stay with us all the way to the end.I got to thinking the other day: My last name is actually somewhat difficult to say with Spanish pronunciation! :P So I took a couple minutes today and came up with the Spanish way of spelling my last name so that a native would pronounce it as close to an American as possible: Páuel! I thought it was pretty funny looking!That's pretty much it for this week. I'll be starting up teaching lesson 2 in Spanish this week, so a fresh new batch of vocab is coming my way! ¡Tengan una semana buena!Mucho Amor,Elder Powell
Semana 7
Hola Todos,
Thanks for the apples and the pie--super delicioso!
You were curious about a missionary having swine flu............well........3 missionaries were quarantined this past weekend--one Saturday, Sunday, and Monday!!!! Not sure what they had, but it started with a chest cough and led to vomiting. Our whole district is taking 75 mg of Tamiflu a day for 10 days (this morning was pill 2). The church offers (and practically forces upon missionaries close to exposure) the dosage for free through tithing money. The 6 of us that remain are feeling healthy so I think we won't suffer any more losses. We'll start getting people back starting this Thursday, but until then it's going to be quite the unique experience. 2 of the sisters were quarantined so the one remaining sister is a "solo" sister, meaning that her companion is our district, unless she's with a sister from our zone, so her schedule has been pretty interesting. The quarantined elder was in my bedroom so his companion (the district leader) joined my companionship to make it a trio. We're doing fine, no huge struggles going on, it's just a little weird having so few in the district. Hopefully we'll all be over sicknesses by November 2nd!
I've started teaching lesson 2 in Spanish. It's been a little interesting because I have to incorporate the Word of Wisdom into the lesson, which adds even more vocab to learn, but it's been going pretty well. Only 1 more week and I'm in the oldest district!!!Last Tuesday, I attended a devotional with David F. Evans. My love for the Book of Mormon just grew like no other. He made some interesting points, including "How is an investigator going to feel the Spirit and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon when you give them a 10-minute reading assignment (such as 3 Nephi 11) for a 4+ day waiting period?!" He stressed the importance of using the Book of Mormon in our teachings, to give bigger reading assignments out, and to use the beginning of the Book of Mormon. Your challenge this week: in Preach My Gospel, Chapter 3, Lessons 1-3, there are a bunch of red-lettering headers. Within 1 Nephi, and preferrably in the first like 10 chapters, find a verse/some verses for as many headings as you can. Brother Evans alone pointed out quite a chunk of them in just the first 3 chapters! It seems the Lord intended to place the fundamental basics of the gospel in the beginning of the Book of Mormon, which makes sense, doesn't it?
Speaking of challenges, Nick and Jason still have to meet their challenge from last week ;)My last P-day is next week, so only one more email/letter-writing day from the MTC!!! I guess I should start posting my address down in Argentina:
Argentina Salta Mission
Los Eucaliptus 75
4400 Salta
Salta
Argentina
Double check that for me please. Correct it and me if there's differences. And again, Dearelder.com is going to be a lot better for everyone while I'm in Argentina. I'm not sure what the email situation is going to be like down there (because that would be better than dearelder), but I'll keep everyone posted once I know.Alright, my time is about up.
¡Os amo!-Elder Powell-
Thanks for the apples and the pie--super delicioso!
You were curious about a missionary having swine flu............well........3 missionaries were quarantined this past weekend--one Saturday, Sunday, and Monday!!!! Not sure what they had, but it started with a chest cough and led to vomiting. Our whole district is taking 75 mg of Tamiflu a day for 10 days (this morning was pill 2). The church offers (and practically forces upon missionaries close to exposure) the dosage for free through tithing money. The 6 of us that remain are feeling healthy so I think we won't suffer any more losses. We'll start getting people back starting this Thursday, but until then it's going to be quite the unique experience. 2 of the sisters were quarantined so the one remaining sister is a "solo" sister, meaning that her companion is our district, unless she's with a sister from our zone, so her schedule has been pretty interesting. The quarantined elder was in my bedroom so his companion (the district leader) joined my companionship to make it a trio. We're doing fine, no huge struggles going on, it's just a little weird having so few in the district. Hopefully we'll all be over sicknesses by November 2nd!
I've started teaching lesson 2 in Spanish. It's been a little interesting because I have to incorporate the Word of Wisdom into the lesson, which adds even more vocab to learn, but it's been going pretty well. Only 1 more week and I'm in the oldest district!!!Last Tuesday, I attended a devotional with David F. Evans. My love for the Book of Mormon just grew like no other. He made some interesting points, including "How is an investigator going to feel the Spirit and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon when you give them a 10-minute reading assignment (such as 3 Nephi 11) for a 4+ day waiting period?!" He stressed the importance of using the Book of Mormon in our teachings, to give bigger reading assignments out, and to use the beginning of the Book of Mormon. Your challenge this week: in Preach My Gospel, Chapter 3, Lessons 1-3, there are a bunch of red-lettering headers. Within 1 Nephi, and preferrably in the first like 10 chapters, find a verse/some verses for as many headings as you can. Brother Evans alone pointed out quite a chunk of them in just the first 3 chapters! It seems the Lord intended to place the fundamental basics of the gospel in the beginning of the Book of Mormon, which makes sense, doesn't it?
Speaking of challenges, Nick and Jason still have to meet their challenge from last week ;)My last P-day is next week, so only one more email/letter-writing day from the MTC!!! I guess I should start posting my address down in Argentina:
Argentina Salta Mission
Los Eucaliptus 75
4400 Salta
Salta
Argentina
Double check that for me please. Correct it and me if there's differences. And again, Dearelder.com is going to be a lot better for everyone while I'm in Argentina. I'm not sure what the email situation is going to be like down there (because that would be better than dearelder), but I'll keep everyone posted once I know.Alright, my time is about up.
¡Os amo!-Elder Powell-
October 6, 2009
MTC week 5
Everyone got a kick out of Nick's shiner! Don't worry, Nick, I showed up to the first day of school with a black eye so I know how it feels.
Conference......wow...I loved it this time around! There were times throughout the whole thing that I thought of you guys. Felicitaciones con el templo en Brigham City! Elder Ballard's talk made me think of Dad. I think I did pretty well in asking all sorts of questions to Dad. I didn't make him pull out the journal though! The whole priesthood session started up a discussion with some from my zone about traditions after priesthood session and I definitely missed having the opportunity to hit the BBQ! I'm sure I'll make up for it in Argentina though! Jeffrey R. Holland is quite the beast at the pulpit. That makes 2 fiery testimonies I've heard from him in the past 2 weeks! Don't forget Elder Robert D. Hales' testimony of God though--He is the one we're aiming for after all, the Book of Mormon is the rod that gets us to the tree ;) I picked out 3 main themes that swam throughout all of the talks: Many of the talks discussed our relationships--more specifically with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and families. We need to have faith and keep the commandments of Heavenly Father. They love us more than we can comprehend. We also need to have a loving bond between our family members. The family is, after all, the central unit of Heavenly Father's plan for us to gain eternal life. Another theme was that trials and challenges will come, but they are meant to be growing opportunities. President Uchtdorf said in Priesthood Session that (paraphrase) "The cold winter will turn into a beautiful spring; I'm optimistic about the future." So obviously, the trials will lighten, just keeping enduring through it with an optimistic attitude and allow Heavenly Father to mold you. A third theme I find is that we need to take care of ourselves the best that we can by forsaking anger, laziness, and temptation while being completely obedient, performing service, keeping virtue, and loving EVERYONE. I know that there were tons more themes throughout conference. What were some of your thoughts?Puedo enseñar en español bien. Sé la doctrina muy bien, pero necesito aprender cómo to address the needs del investigador. It can only get better from here!
It's official, Dad beat me at racquetball :P
Well, it turns out I'm district leader for 1 more week than normal because conference messed with the regular schedule. I'm the senior companion now and I won't be DL after this coming Sunday. It's crazy to think that I'm in the 2nd oldest district now!!!¡Sólomente 3 más semanas!It's definitely getting colder here. There's snow on the tops of the mountains!In other news, I finally played the piano for a solid half hour for the first time on Sunday! Wish I could have more time, but I'm sure I'll get that wish in Argentina.Drew, escribí una carta para contestar su Dearelder. ¡Está en el buzón ahorita!Not much else happened this past week. Just looking forward to a full helping of Spanish this week!¡
Os Amo!-Elder Powell-
Conference......wow...I loved it this time around! There were times throughout the whole thing that I thought of you guys. Felicitaciones con el templo en Brigham City! Elder Ballard's talk made me think of Dad. I think I did pretty well in asking all sorts of questions to Dad. I didn't make him pull out the journal though! The whole priesthood session started up a discussion with some from my zone about traditions after priesthood session and I definitely missed having the opportunity to hit the BBQ! I'm sure I'll make up for it in Argentina though! Jeffrey R. Holland is quite the beast at the pulpit. That makes 2 fiery testimonies I've heard from him in the past 2 weeks! Don't forget Elder Robert D. Hales' testimony of God though--He is the one we're aiming for after all, the Book of Mormon is the rod that gets us to the tree ;) I picked out 3 main themes that swam throughout all of the talks: Many of the talks discussed our relationships--more specifically with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and families. We need to have faith and keep the commandments of Heavenly Father. They love us more than we can comprehend. We also need to have a loving bond between our family members. The family is, after all, the central unit of Heavenly Father's plan for us to gain eternal life. Another theme was that trials and challenges will come, but they are meant to be growing opportunities. President Uchtdorf said in Priesthood Session that (paraphrase) "The cold winter will turn into a beautiful spring; I'm optimistic about the future." So obviously, the trials will lighten, just keeping enduring through it with an optimistic attitude and allow Heavenly Father to mold you. A third theme I find is that we need to take care of ourselves the best that we can by forsaking anger, laziness, and temptation while being completely obedient, performing service, keeping virtue, and loving EVERYONE. I know that there were tons more themes throughout conference. What were some of your thoughts?Puedo enseñar en español bien. Sé la doctrina muy bien, pero necesito aprender cómo to address the needs del investigador. It can only get better from here!
It's official, Dad beat me at racquetball :P
Well, it turns out I'm district leader for 1 more week than normal because conference messed with the regular schedule. I'm the senior companion now and I won't be DL after this coming Sunday. It's crazy to think that I'm in the 2nd oldest district now!!!¡Sólomente 3 más semanas!It's definitely getting colder here. There's snow on the tops of the mountains!In other news, I finally played the piano for a solid half hour for the first time on Sunday! Wish I could have more time, but I'm sure I'll get that wish in Argentina.Drew, escribí una carta para contestar su Dearelder. ¡Está en el buzón ahorita!Not much else happened this past week. Just looking forward to a full helping of Spanish this week!¡
Os Amo!-Elder Powell-
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