Thursday, August 16, 2012

August 13--one more stint in Rio Bravo with Elder Pierce


Once again, I have been less than prompt in posting the last two letters and I’m very sorry. Life takes over and before I know it, too much time has passed.
Justin sounds great! Every Monday, I wait for his e-mail to arrive—always before noon-ish.  This week, it didn’t come and at 4 pm, I was still anxiously waiting.  The second it hit my phone, at a little after 4, I immediately replied and this began an impromptu chat that lasted about a half hour.  It was sooooo good to be able to get a live update and he was in such great spirits. He thanks everyone for their love and support and sends his very best wishes to all.  He also said that he loves getting letters and loves hearing news from home about all the things he misses—sports, friends, family events, etc. So, with that in mind, let’s all keep up the great work. If you haven’t written lately, he’s already almost half way finished—don’t wait too long.
As always, I remain grateful and indebted to you all for the support and love that you give to my son. You are all amazing and, as always, love and peace in your lives.

Justin and Elder Pierce

















Hellos to all!

Well transfers came in and I get to stay with Elder Pierce for more time! I am sooo glad because this area is awesome! We have had soo much success! They sent us here with much expectations and everyone said it was bad here... But it is not bad at all! The branch members are awesome and we just keep working together to help the others come to the church. Well this week was pretty good! Alvaro and Claide got married on Friday and Alvaro was baptized this Sunday. And then the Branch is throwing this wedding party tomorrow for them! It will be fun and I am soo glad for them! Alvaro was pretty happy and he is shy and all, but he is getting to be more open. He shows us magic tricks and all. Photos on the way. 
Well Elder Pierce is a pretty awesome, companion that loves to be happy. He and I work great together! He is senior comp, but he is not demanding or anything like that. He lets me lead too which is awesome because I do love to lead! Haha. You all probably know that. But I am probably gone from here in six weeks, again! I don’t think a missionary has ever had 4 areas, more than 4 comps before he reached the year mark! But the President really likes to change things up just to keep everyone working hard, because areas do die because of the same missionary for a while, and so I am glad I get to have those changes to keep me going hard in the mission. Well this week is the baptism of Natalie, she is an 18 year old with a baby and her husband is a member but less active. They came to church yesterday; he came for the first time in 6 years! He got advanced to priest in the priesthood to be able to baptize his wife this Saturday! That made me super thrilled! I was glad for them. And this week we have an activity directed at the families of the youth in the ward. There are a TON of youth that come to church without their families; a lot of them aren’t members. But we want them to come to an activity where they learn what their kids are doing in the church and what they are learning. So they are going to come and learn from their own kids in 5 stations or rooms about a theme in the strength of youth pamphlet. Because there are a ton of parents that think the church is bad for their kids, but it is indeed a refuge for them from all the bad in this world, especially the bad influence here for the youth. So I am glad to be a help for these youth in the branch and the youth that are investigating the church, it is a joy to help them with a better future.
Well I am up on time; I hope I get the package today! Maybe I will... I love you and take care! Be safe as well! 

Love 
Elder Justin Powell

Leia Mais…

August 6, 2012

Here is Justin’s letter from the 6th—it sounds like he’s doing so well! I couldn’t be more proud of him.

Hola familia y amigos! How are you all doing?? I am doing pretty good! How is everyone enjoying the Olympics? Well obviously it has been hard to not be able to watch them, but we always hear the news about them and I heard that it is a tight race for the states huh? And Usain Bolt broke the record again?? Wow!! Well good luck United States and always Puerto Rico! Haha Well this week was very good! We worked super dang hard in the heat this week. We found a lot of people this week to teach and all. Hopefully they progress more and more. But we planned this activity for families of the youth to come and see what their kids learn and all. It will be pretty cool; tomorrow we will have a video shoot to put the video on DVDs so that they can take them to their parents as invites to this activity. The problem is that there are a lot of youth that come to church by themselves and don’t want much with the church. Well now we want to do an activity directly for these families where it is meant for them and the video invites are going to be like those ¨¨I am a Mormon¨¨ videos. It should be pretty fun, the Gutierrez family is helping us a ton with this activity. And once again, I am a wedding planner with my comp Elder Pierce. One of our investigators is not married, he was supposed to get baptized with his 2 kids, but didn’t because we found out that he wasn’t married to his wife (that is a member). SO they will be getting married this week, and then Saturday the baptism, and then the wedding party afterward. Well it should be an adventure this week, a lot to do! And transfers are coming up once again. I hope they don’t ship me off again because I wanna stay here! We will see what happens. I have loved my last 2 areas; maybe my 4th area will be neat as well, who knows? And today, we will be playing soccer like every Monday at 4. We went and washed clothes, shopped for food. I promise I am eating! It’s just we eat once a day. In the morning is cereal or eggs, at 2 PM is like a dinner or big lunch. And then that’s it. But we are eating!   Well I have lost weight, quite a bit, but I will try to eat more! Haha Well I love you all! This week will be Natalie´s and Alvaro´s baptism. Natalie is this 18 year old that is married to an inactive member. She loves the church! And Alvaro is the unmarried man who will be baptized this Saturday. It will be good! 

Alvaro Jr., Julissa, and Elder Pierce


Baptism Pictures of Alvaro Jr. and Julissa (the kids of Alvaro Sr.). Julissa was super scared and didn’t want to be baptized but her mom got her to do it. And she did very well, just isn´t that into pictures. Well that is about it for last week, but this week will be crazy! I love you all and be safe! Take care and write lots! Now I get letters in 3 days! Send them to the PO Box in Texas! 
                       
Love,                                                       
Elder Justin Powell

Leia Mais…