April 30 2012

Hello how are you all doing? I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while. Last Monday was crazy and I didn’t have any time to do anything that I wanted. And I had no time to write a good email, we were kind of kicked out abruptly because the member had to leave and so we left and I didn’t have time to send this email off. So this is a continuation of the email of last week. Well I am doing well, its pretty dang hot in Mexico... But we are working hard with the heat. Everyone one of you will probably think that I am gaining weight on the mission, but believe it or not, I am losing a ton. I put my suit coat on yesterday and wow it’s big on me... It’s probably because we walk like 10 miles a day (no joke). But it is all good. Well this week just flew right by and I can´t believe I’m here in front of the monitor again. Well on Tuesday of two weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to the Monterrey Temple to the chapel right beside it to listen to Elder Bednar of the twelve and Elder Johnson of the seventy. It was such a great talk that he gave and he seriously is such a powerful speaker. He doesn´t really just gives us the answer, he gives us the knowledge of what we can do to receive the answer, how we can improve our answer getting ability. So that when we find the answer, it touches our heart intensely and that way we can follow through with what we learned. He really makes you think. So for 3 hours, we were thinking very hard. But I learned something so valuable that will change how I will serve this mission and what will happen for the rest of my life. For example, if you pray like this "Please bless that I may get more money to help my family" while you are sitting at home doing nothing, God will very very rarely have this incidents where there´s $1000 on the porch the next moment. Yeah that is some hope, but with that type of prayer, nothing will happen. Now, if you pray like: "God, while I am out looking for better work, while I am working hard and doing my part, please help me with the energy to find great work, please help me have money for my family." Do you see the difference? God will do his part if we do ours. Plain and simple. If we pray with the intent of acting right after the prayer, god will act. So I learned a ton and I love listening to Elder Bednar.

Well we are trying to have a fun time on the mission as well because we work hard, but the thing is that it gets pretty boring at times. Or we get kind of bored with just working and not taking some time to relax, because a typical day with my companion and I is 7 lessons a day (when its only necessary to do 5), talk with 50 people on the street (when its only necessary to talk to 20), and we just work and try harder than what is expected. So with that, I kind of get tired of the mission or bored. And there are so many frustrations here in Mexico; I know why God sent me to Mexico, to become more patient because that is an attribute that I need to work very hard on. But I keep pushing through, what I heard is that after the year mark, that’s when you find true happiness with the mission or that’s the point where you don’t want to go home. Haha.

Well don’t worry about me here in Mexico, everything is fine. If you watch the news and all you hear about is all the danger here in Monterrey, well yes there are bad news, but for everything bad thing here, there are 1000 good things. And that`s how it is everywhere! So don`t trust the news too much because the truth is that Monterrey is a place with a lot of good people and 99% of the people here want good and peace. And the food is excellent, the only thing is that I am losing weight and not gaining. hahahah

Well I love you all, send me letters and tell me how is everything! I haven`t heard from a lot of my friends and I am in dire need of hearing from you all! Haha

Love,

Elder Justin Powell