Sunday, November 24, 2013

November 18, 2013

Hello Everyone,
How have you been? I am doing great. The mission is doing very swell and I am loving every moment of it. Well this week looks like it will be a lot of work and things to do. I hope there is enough time to take in the Mexican culture and all before I leave. But I am excited for this week and it should be a great one. 
This past week went by very quickly and I am literally shocked to be in front of the computer screen again writing to you all about the past week. 
Well on Tuesday it was fun. We went on an interchange with the Zone leaders in Reynosa West, and it was funny because the Elders are called Elder Jensen and Elder Powell (yes another elder Powell) and the funny thing is is that we are both from Spokane, Washington as well and I am like 3 months older than him. Oh that day while we were contacting and working, it was funny because everyone thought that it was a joke or that we were in some ranking system in the church and that the name "Elder Powell" is like a rank like a bishop or father or priest in the church. Haha Yeah it was funny. But he is a good friend of mine; maybe he is a family member of mine. Who knows? But it was a good day with Elder Powell. 
Bowling...Mexican style
On Wednesday, it was a lot of business in the offices and then we had a pretty good moment in the lunch. Well it was my last lunch with Sister Alma Ochoa and it was kind of sad because she cooks soo well and she is a great sister and always pumped. She is a high spirited person and it has been a joy to work with her this time I have had here in San Jose. But we have been teaching this sister named Arizeli and Alma has been helping her out with giving testimony and stuff like that, and Arizeli has had this super hard decision to make at the end of this month. What happened is that she left her boyfriend in this other state when the whole family came. The family got to know the church here in Reynosa and got baptized just a little bit ago and she was the only one that didn’t because she has this super difficult work schedule and all. But returning to the time with Alma Ochoa in the food, we decided to do a fast with the sister to see if she would open her heart and stuff, it was definitely needed because we are on the clock because she is leaving November 28th. Ugh... 
Well the next day we had a lesson with Arizeli and it was pretty powerful. In the morning Elder Capiz and I had a good study session and learned about the charity. While we were reading about charity, something came to my mind about what to do. So at the lesson, we read Moroni7:44-47 with the family and afterward did this dynamic where we all gave a compliment to Arizeli. I started and told her that she is a great person and trying to do the best, and that she is a great example and all that. My companion was next and then after it was the family. Oh it was super spiritual! All the family members were just sharing how much they loved her and wanted her to stay with the family. They were all crying pretty much and it even got me teary eyed as well. But it didn’t end as well as we planned because she has a hard heart and pretty much told her family that they will be ok with her being away from home and family while she is looking for fake love. Well I stepped in because I have gotten a firm testimony of where the true love is. I told her that her boyfriend probably loves her, but the only people that love her the most and unconditionally is the family and that she is about to abandon the family for one that loves her conditionally. By the sounds of it, the guy doesn’t sound very great and she is a typical 19 year old girl. But I shared with her that I was exactly the same way. I told her that I have come to realize and I also regret that I didn’t spend that much time with the people that love me the most- my family. And that instead of playing baseball with my little brothers, I was better off going to the movies. Yes I love my friends, but I spent far too much time with them rather than with my family that loves me unconditionally. Arizeli was kind of pricked but still was hard in the heart, but I pray that she finally realizes that before it’s too late, like in my case where I finally realized that lesson in the mission and not before. Well I hope it’s not too late right ;) But maybe she will realize that before she lives, pray for her please! :)
I am very excited to see my family and be with them and I am grateful for them. I say family as well to all who are my dear friends and that have helped me to be here. I have an enormous family and I love you all very much. It’s going to be difficult balancing my American-Puerto Rican-Mexican family :) haha
Well that was the experience of the week and there were more, but better to tell you when I am home. 
Here´s to the last week of pure work, well it’s a lot of planning and meetings with the transfers coming up, but it should be a great one. A lot of activities and farewells. I am mixed up with the feelings but ever so pumped to serve. I love you all so much and have an amazing week! :)



Elder Justin Powell  


Leia Mais…

November 11, 2013

Hola Everybody,
How are you all doing? I am doing really well. This past week was a pretty good week especially yesterday with the events that we had. There have been a lot of good things going on and I love the mission. I cannot believe that this will be my third to last letter to my home. A lot of my companions from the MTC and stuff are already home or are going home this week, but I will be the last one. But I will be home the day before thanksgiving haha. I am excited to see all the family and friends! I am not excited for the snow and cold though. Now that I am Mexican, who knows if I will be able to handle the cold over there, haha. Believe it or not, it’s still hot over here. Not like that much but you can still work up a sweat. And in the nights it gets pretty cold, so a lot of people are getting sick. It’s just a bad time to get sick and all...that’s all. I don’t know why I get sick, I always wonder if I am normal or no because the other day it’s cold, it was raining and we are dripping wet. I didn’t get sick, haha. Not like I want to get sick, but who knows why I am not. 
Soaking wet in the rain
Today is going to be interesting because all the office missionaries and us are going bowling! It should be fun, I have never gone bowling on the mission and I have always wanted to with my buddies in the offices so it should be fun. I am excited; we are going to leave at like 4.
Well this week was very good; on Tuesday was a normal day. Nothing too special, just that this sister in our ward has been struggling with life and she is very good at putting on a mask because she is very happy always. Well on Tuesday we felt this impression in going to this sister´s house for some reason. Well we went and we sat down with her and her 2 kids, we winged a lesson because we didn’t know what to really say due to not planning much, but we confided in the spirit and taught a good lesson. At the end, after her being happy and all, she starts crying and the kids got serious as well. I kind of started worrying a bit and then she said that we came at the precise moment because she was thinking about doing something drastic and life changing in those very moments. She shared that if we wouldn’t have gone to her house in time, something could have happened. Wow big testimony builder again for me!! We gave her a blessing and she felt better, every day we have been going by to see how she is doing and she is doing a lot better. The family is a great family and pray for them please. 
Teachers and missionaries at an Open House
On Wednesday, we had interchanges with the missionaries in Rio Bravo. It was interesting in the morning because this one elder had his birthday and President wanted to take him to breakfast, so we had a really good American breakfast on Wednesday morning. Afterward was one of the weirdest experiences that I have ever experienced in the mission with the weather. It started raining and then it rained hard for like 4 hours straight. And we were outside for all of it. We helped this guy get his truck out of a hole in the road because the roads were like rivers, oh we were all wet! We were just walking through rivers and floods. It was quite the experience. We got to the church for the ward counsel and went to the bathroom to dry off; we used the electric hand dryer to dry a bit. It was pretty funny, Elder Gonzalez, Javier and I had a funny time drying off. 
On Thursday I had another surgery on an ingrown toe nail again. Due to walking a ton, we can get several so I was due in again. Well going in, I was nervous because the last time I fainted while I watched my toenail get ripped out and everything without any feeling or pain. So this time I had my eyes closed. I swear I can handle blood and stuff, but not my own. I guess I just get super nervous, but it was an experience that my companion even took video. Haha
Yesterday was an awesome day. Cielo got baptized yesterday and she was very excited. The primary organization has been helping this girl in a part family get active in the church and we taught her and she got baptized. It was very neat because in her baptismal service she sang a hymn and it touched her mom´s heart. Now her mom is getting active and her brothers as well. It was a pretty neat experience. I am happy for that family. And yesterday was the open house; I will send you all a picture of us with the teachers in the open house activity.
Cielo and her family
Well everything is good, I love you all very much and I hope you all have an excellent week-

Elder Powell 


Leia Mais…

October 28, 2013

Hola to everybody,
How have you all been?  I have been doing super good; just busy with a lot of things this past week. Let’s see where we begin haha
On Tuesday we had this sister training meeting. Well it’s to train the sisters in the mission to learn English and to work harder in the mission. So we came to the offices like at 630 AM to finish the training PowerPoint. What was funny is that now with Elder Ropp gone, I was the only American that was going to participate in the training meeting. So yeah it was pretty interesting because my English is seriously close to awful and I was battling a bit with talking and teaching the sisters their English. But it was fun, and then we taught about how we can be better missionaries with more success. We gave each of the sisters a little planner cover that reminds the sisters of their purpose here in the mission. 
Visiting a quarantined Elder
Well my mind is on another planet right now because we have so many things to do but I will tell you all of one thing that happened yesterday. We had a mission devotional last night where we invited all of the x missionaries to share their experiences and it was super good! There were like 80 people that showed up. This one sister had her tape player and put on a recording of a day in the mission. She held it up to the microphone and it was very spiritual! She was crying while it was playing and she shared a great testimony. Afterward, many other brothers and sisters that are dear friends of mine shared their testimonies and it was very neat because there were PowerPoints and stuff like that. I almost cried because of how much I am going to miss the mission. I will definitely miss it because it is a great experience. Afterward we showed a video and it’s the new hasten the work of salvation videos and it’s called "I´ll go where you want me to go". I invite you all to watch it because it is super good and it can help a lot to sharing the gospel with people. But we asked for referrals last night from everyone and we received 50!! So we have a ton of work to do!!!!! :)
Well I love the mission, even though it is quickly coming to an end, I hope that you all that are able to serve, go because it is the best experience and you can definitely receive much life guidance. It will help you to be a better you. 
Eating American food at Carl's Jr.
I love you all and see you soon, I will write more next week because we will have more times :)

Elder Justin Powell


Leia Mais…

October 18, 2013

Hello Family and Friends,
How are you all? I am sooo sorry that I couldn’t write a letter to you last week. I was super busy and there was literally no time to write and just enough time to tell the family that everything was all good and safe. But this week was a great one and I have a lot to share in this letter. So brace yourselves for a lot of experiences that happened this past week.
Well last Monday it was super crazy the whole transfer and everything. We had already planned the travels and everything for all the missionaries getting transferred. Reynosa is the center of the mission, but there are several zones that are hours away, and we always travel on charter bus when we get transferred and have exchanges. So Nuevo Laredo is like 6 hours away on bus, and the highway to Monterrey from Nuevo Laredo was flooded... And so we had to cancel the whole trip of that group of missionaries and readjust a lot of trips, because missionaries can’t travel alone in transfers. Oh what fun that was, but it came out fine. Just some pulled hairs from my head, but all good. Well the two missionaries arrived at like 3 pm Monday, and President and Sister Morales took Elder Capiz and I with them to meet the new missionaries. The two new missionaries are called Elder Andersen and Elder Ricks. They were actually pretty excited and fine when they got off the plane. I was expecting to be a stress counselor for the new American missionaries due to all the gossip of Reynosa and how super dangerous it is, but no they already knew about Reynosa due to several former missionaries that were here before and that I knew from this mission. Indeed it is a small world. Afterward we went to Carl's Jr. (classic American missionary choice), and it was pretty good, I have kind of lost the sense of how good fast food is. Pretty crazy, maybe my homecoming dinner will be at McDonalds (hahaha just kidding). 
Elders Capiz and Powell
On Tuesday was the transfer-training new assistant-trainer training-new missionary training-interviews with the finished missionaries-dinner with finished missionaries-entertaining missionaries waiting for their companions- day. Haha Oh Tuesday night was the best sleep I had ever had in my life. But it was pretty good, a lot of familiar faces of former companions and friends. Elder Berrios (my former companion and friend) finished his mission and he left on Thursday to Texas. Good missionary and will be missed. I just feel old now, it’s very strange because I don’t feel like I have 23 months in the mission, but everything is telling me that I do. I have mixed feelings about the whole finishing. It’s just weird, but I am very excited to see all of my family and friends.
Well on Wednesday we had a great day with it being the first work day, well it went alright because I still don’t know the area super well, so yeah it was a bit of a struggle. But Elder Capiz is a great missionary, super humble and kind. He is seriously this little kid in a tall man´s body. Haha. Everyone calls him Niño (kid), it’s pretty funny.
Thursday we had a really good experience in teaching. We are teaching this family, and the mom is named Monica and her kids Alejandra and Miguel. Well Monica has been in a deep struggle lately due to family issues. It’s been really hard for her because her husband lives all the way in New York and she lives all alone with her kids here. She feels sad a lot of the times it’s a struggle for her. But we talked about how confiding in God will bless lives and help people feel confident and peace. She said that she learned some things about confiding in God more and I am glad that she feels peace. We gave her a blessing and it was super helpful. She said that after the blessing, all of her pain was gone and she was fine. Very neat experience, very spiritual. It was a testimony builder for me to see how depressed she was to finally now gaining self confidence and good self esteem.
Friday was my companion´s birthday. We got a cake and pushed his face into it. Pretty funny moment. Elder Barlow had the cake in his hands and shoved the cake into his face. Super funny! Haha. 
Elder Capiz's birthday
We then went to go teach and had a lot of great experiences as well. We taught the importance of reading, praying and attending church using the demonstration with the 3 cups and 3 spoons. It was pretty cool; it’s a great example of how the 3 activities of reading, praying and attending church are all supported by the other. I learned that if you do the three frequently, than you will have much spiritual power. You will be able to overcome your challenges and difficulties. I know it’s true because it’s happened in my life. On the mission, it hasn’t been the easiest with a perfect life and no trials. I have had many trials on the mission, but I have received much guidance and peace when there has been times of much frustration. But there have been days where I haven’t read the scriptures, and the day kind of goes by like whatever. When I have been obedient to applying the 3 principles, those weeks are the best and miracles happen. It can and will happen to all of us who give it their best to doing the 3 activities. You cannot just pray without reading, because how would God be able to specifically answer your prayers with guidance. We can’t just not go to church because where will we be able to apply what we have received from God in serving actively in the gospel of Christ. We can just apply one principle or another, but it’s not or near the same as applying the 3. I invite you all to apply the 3 by praying, reading your scriptures and attending church, and God will bless you. And if you have doubts, read President Uchtdorf´s talk this past conference. Everyone will have doubts, I still have some doubts because that is part of this life and I am willing to accept that I cannot know everything, but we should give it our best shot with what we already have from God and run with it. It was very interesting teaching that lesson to the 2 families because I really just realized all this recently, it’s like connecting all the puzzle pieces together. Haha. But it was a good teaching day Friday. 
Saturday was even more interesting and fun. Well we went to the offices and walking out of the door at like 11 AM, passes this new Toyota corolla into the parking lot. Elder Capiz and I just stood there like "who is this?" And we see hopping out of the car was Elder Gonzalez (Area 70) and Elder Johnson (70 and Pres of Area Mexico), our faces changed just pure shock and we went to go help them with their luggage. Oh that was a nerve racking hand shake because Elder Johnson is like our head boss here. Haha. After helping Elder Johnson a little, we had to go help the sisters move into another house and it was a sketchy experience. They live on this 3rd floor apartment, and we had to move all the furniture down these steep stairs. It was pretty freaky but we did it. And then we returned to the offices at like 2. After we went to our food with this family, they took us to one of the fanciest restaurants here haha. I was surprised, but I had Chile Relleno. Oh it was delicious!!!!! I will miss the Mexican food a ton!

Well this week was great, there were many other things that happened, but I have no time to tell all the experiences. But I love you all and I hope everything goes well for you all.
Love,
Elder Justin Powell  


Leia Mais…