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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