Hello One and All

12/16/18

Hello One and all! I'm back heheh. It's been short but I'm alive and still taking medicine lol.  

P.P.P.S. Update me on how your life is! I love hearing from all of you and I will always respond! Love you all :)  

Either way, Lots going on I'll make it simple and do my list thing again. 

1. Sorry about the lack of translations. I'm learning 2 languages and as a result I've kinda just stopped English and my thoughts and actions are not in English. So translating in my head is hard coming back at minsan lang (sometimes just) I forget. Keep reminding me please. Agyaman na!

2. My Friend Conner sent me this in his email to me and it made me laugh a lot. so I'm going to share it here:

  “Jesus said to John, ‘Come fourth and you shall receive eternal life.’  Instead John came fifth and won a toaster.”

3. Here is another thing he said that I couldn't stop laughing about.

And experience he had while waiting for his French Oral exam: 

"""Well one guy comes by and he says, in that kind of southern drawl that lets you know that he’s really gay, “Excuse me, gotta part the Red Sea.”  And as he passed by I said “Congratulations, Moses.”  He stopped.  Turned.  Looked straight at me.  Then he said “You ain’t right…I like that.”  Then walked away.  Honestly I’m proud that I said the right name and didn’t say something stupid like “Congratulations Abraham.”"""

4. In terms of things happening here, I am still sick but working strong. I had a checkup appointment and I'm still infected in my ear but it has been doing better and I'm doing a lot better myself. So that's good 

5. It's been a rough week I will be honest. but every day comes with  a smile and ends with an even bigger one that we are trying our hardest as missionaries to help strengthen and support the people of Gattaran both spiritually and Physically! (but mostly spiritually tbh) 

6. I'm finally getting this language down and having conversations with people in straight Tagalog. I'll be honest, it's easier to speak it when you think it in you mind at all time. English still comes out every once and a while but It's my goal by next week to only be speaking Tagalog outside of the apartment by next transfer :) It's a lovely language here. 

7. So there are 4 missionaries in our apartment* and elder Egana got a new missionary trainee. from America..... so that's 2 terrible Tagalog speakers, a good Tagalog speaker but doesn't speak Tagalog in the house, and a Filipino that is already fluent in English........ we need more Filipinos in the house tbh. 

8. We still have no investigators coming to church which kinda bumb us out (especially going 5 weeks without one) but at the same time I'm not upset. We are doing our job in inviting people to make commitments and Come unto Christ :) 

9. BTW it's Christmas next week :) 

Tapos ko

-Elder Powell

P.S. Serving this mission has been the best decision in my life so far :) Every moment moving forward is

P.P.S. I ran into 5 Filipinos wearing BYU shirts and 3 wearing NAU shirts this week. (they don't even know what those letters mean lol) 

P.P.P.P.S. May internet ka ba? Wala? Sige *mag-fb siya* (do you have internet? No? okay. *he gets on facebook*) 

P.P.P.P.P.S. For every mango leaf that falls off of a coconut tree, I get 100000000000 pisos. Physics is everywhere. 

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.PICTURE.S. 

So my camera is still somehow working so I got some pictures out. I also have pictures from my Companion's camera so that works. So lots of Pics from the last 2 weeks! you can view all here! -> https://photos.app.goo.gl/cAM48nhHvM6ifkKp8

We got christmas lights up in our apartment. Something to remind me of home lol. (joke heheh pero sobra astig diyan!) (but super cool) 

CHRISTMAS CON Sorry po. wala mga video galing sa christmas con. picture lang.... (sorry. No videos from christmas con. just picture) 

(Elder Wells, Si Elder Egana, ako!) 

Thank you Connor for the Tie! I wore it at Christmas Con. (also pasko na!!) 

Fort Ilocandria (or however spell) is very pretty. 

INSERT VIDEO I"M STILL WAITING ON 

So our bus stopped to talk pictures of the ocean so we did too. In the middle of the road..... 

NEXT UP! 

We decided to work in a new area today and found out that no one really lives there and it's kinda a waste of time because its a freaking 1+ hr. drive. 

there was a lot of cool murals along the side of the road though so we walked around and took pictures of it all. It's all about this project they have going on to keep the place clean and economically friendly. It's actually working. this place here is very clean and efficient :) 

(some candid shots of elder wells din) 

One of the mascots for the project is mr bean.

Fun fact! We got a free ride out to our area by some nice people. ( we rode in the back of their truck the whole way ) and then on the way walking back we ran into this sign and realized that it was THE FREAKING MAYOR AND A CONGRESMEN OF GATTARAN AND CAGAYAN RESPECTIVELY.

IT WAS cool. 

Those are the highlights of it all. you can view the rest on the Photo album! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cAM48nhHvM6ifkKp8

Note from Editor:

In a second email Joe said, "Apparently I am re-sharing pictures! Ops. Sorry :) But still a great reminder from a great day" :)