Alive and Working

1/27/19
So My trainer left, I stayed here in Gattaran, and... our one Filipino here, Is... still the only Filipino missionary. But that's okay. he is amazing for sure. He is learning so much English from us because usually when you have 2 Americans who don't know Tagalog and 1 American that knows both Tagalog and Ilocano but kinda refuses to speak it outside of with other Filipinos in the area, You learn a lot of English. 

Either way, I'm alive! And working again and it is amazing to be able to go out and teach again :) Teaching and serving is some of the best things in the world. Same thing over and over every day but that is okay. Every lesson is different, every lesson brings a spirit like no other. A feeling like no other. Never in my life would I think that teaching someone about the Gospel of Jesus Christ would bring so much joy into their lives and literally change them for the better. It has lead to a time like no other the past few days. Along with that, I've seen so many lives happy, loved by our heavenly father, and both physically and emotionally and spiritually seen people change. Issa GLORIOUS DAY WOO AND I"M A HAPPY ELDER.

I don't have many Pictures sorry because again, I was still sick.  

To say anything else about the week, I'm still surprised I don't have a Filipino or Poly Companion. Maybe next cycle. Who knows 

Buttttt. Here's some notes for the day which represented how I was feeling that day....

So don't ask how but yeah These were left at the apartment.

The new DL with the new bois and me looking a little dead because I had like just woken up.

One family we are teaching has a Dog with two eyes of different Kulay (I forgot how to spell color freak what the how do you spell that oh that's how. Oo.... 

I got to hold a puppy in my lap but as soon as I took a picture it ran away and this was the result. 

Nothing else to say. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is True. 

Love,

-Elder Powell 

P.S. Love all of your support and love! 

P.P.S. Yeah I'm just waiting for my Photos to upload. 

P.P.P.S. I'mma go eat so much food today (especially because I haven't eaten any in 4ish  days now. 

P.P.P.P.S. we got a big spider in our bathroom the other day so we caught it, covered it in alcohol and burned it because none of us like spiders dang. 

P.P.P.P.P.S. https://photos.app.goo.gl/9Z6SmrcGH4MYKwQX8

This is what is going to happen every time my camera is taken now... I'll make  a special P.S. for it every time :) Especially you elder Santillian.

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.S. Kapag gawain nyo yung mga gawain wainnnss, Paki-stawapin ng boogie nopin. 

I'm getting a new companion

1/20/19

Not much to update you guys on. I'm getting a new Companion, I'm still sick and doctors don't know what the heck is wrong with me so they just give me pain meds and tell me to like drop warm oil in my ears, and so on saying it will go away after a while. 

It's still around though. We're giving it 3 more days and then I'm supposed to go to yet another hospital. 

I haven't been able to work much but we actually found out a family we were teaching tried to attend church but couldn't as we were all in aparri that day. kinda funny. but they came the next week and the youth became best friends with the kids (even though one is straight up a bakla) and the wife just made like 230542045 new best friends with the strongest freaking relief society in the world. 

Like seriously why is this place still a branch I've never seen a more active branch in my life in serving the Lord, Following Jesus Christ's example and loving their neighbors, inviting them along with us to come unto Christ, feel of his love and especially in bearing testimony of the Gospel, the Book of Mormon, and so on. 

Alam ko na yung work na ito ay totoo. Sobra masay na ako dahil alam ko ng pagmamahal ng dios sa akin at sa inyong lahat. Press Forwards Saints with a steadfastness in Christ. Kaya mo na! 

Pag-Ibig,

-Elder Powell 

P.S. Mag-grrrrrrrrrr 

P.P.S. a Iloco, Ag-Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

P.P.P.S I'll send pics later. I'll be back on at 2pm here to check transfer boards to see who the heck my companion is. 

:) 

................

Fun fact. I'm doing better today. Hopefully this trend keeps up. So I finally got pictures, Found out who my new companion is, and I'm excited. 

I'm getting assigned all the crazy companions apparently :) My new companion is going to be Elder Drake (who is again not Filipino?!? You would think by now I would have a Filipino companion ahahahah Jokes like 80% ng mission namin ay mga forigner) (love I si elder wells. I will miss him) 

Either way just from sitting next to Elder Wells, I've been told that he is absolutely wild and a lot of fun to be with. So I'm honestly excited to be with him. The other scary thing about all of this... I'm the only one that knows the area now. Which means, I get to lead for the next 2 weeks or so until he gets associated with the area more. However still kinda scary, I've also worked in very minimal areas of literally the 2nd largest area in all of the mission (it literally takes 3 hours to go to the end of the mission in Baggao and also requires crossing a Zone and an entire are of another mission to get there because it's faster to get there through Santa Ana apparently than from where we are staying ( we need new elders there ah ) 

Jokes. Pictures Tayo! 

If they will load.... 

Soo everyone. Kamusta po kayo? 

I found out that a new spider man movie is coming out. I cant wait to watch it when i get home. 

these computer shops have bad internet. lol .

ayon! It's here :) 

Here you have Pancit Batil Patong. Masarap talaga!!! made by a member of the branch too. pretty awesome she is. 

We went to a billiards hall walking back to say hi to an investigator there and there's just this 11 year old girl that walked in, took a table and freaking wowed everyone that was in there including the owner. She was straight up blowing everyone's mind with how good she was. 

I got to leave my mission to see another doctor one day to Tugue :) Not often you get permission from your mission president to leave the mission for the day but when the next closest hospital in the mission is an 8 hour drive away, it's a little more logical to just take the 2 hour drive instead. 

But one thing this city has that they don't have anywhere else is Greenwich pizza which is... don't laugh too much.... Real Pizza. 

Pizza they sell here for the most part is sweet (like their spaghetti) but this place does real pizza with their cheese imported from a place that actually does dairy. It's like about Little Ceasers quality but it was right across the street from the doctors office so we stopped by it and got it to go. That was fantastic for me :) 

A picture of me and wells (I'm kinda a mess because yeah a two hour drive in a zooming van while sick is hard but that is okay :) Still loving life and being a missionary :) 

It's a city woah.

Also I found a giant spider but I didn't include that picture obviously... It's in my photo album if you want to bother seeing it. it was about the size of my hand just dangling off of the roof of some persons house. 

However in our area we noticed this complex completed being built and I was like (oh that would be a nice mission house) 

Also we totally love the Rice growing here. ITS SO GREEN AHH

While talking to a Less Active, she said that we needed to feed  Si Monkey... so we did before the bagio hit and rained out the rest of the day....

The other elders had a Baptism which was cool but we didn't. that's okay though. It's still awesome. He had been attending church for 3 months now and wanted to be a member but just needed the lessons. So he took them, received it well and truly gained a testimony. Beautiful talaga. 

For those wondering how they do drinks to go, Here soda and other drinks are still done with glass bottles that are reused and refilled by the companies here to save on waste (ish) so to return the bottles, they just dump the soda in bags and give you a straw. 

A recent convert family of Elder Wells (who is transferring to become ZL in Batoc) this family (and Nay for the most part) is like an amazing gal who after being baptized, became the 1st councilor in the Relief Society Presidency here. She has a strong love for the gospel and the rest of the family followed her example after seeing the changes in her life in following the example of Jesus Christ and his Gospel and Church. We are teaching her daughter (on the left) and her kids love being apart of Youth and Primary. It all is apart of how happy I am to be in such a strong branch with wonderful members with a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ himself, and the happiness of it all. 

To finish it all of. We went back to araw araw cave which was super awesome even though I couldn't do the whole trail (because ya know. I'm still sick lol) and stayed behind with our Branch President and Clerk who took us (and my companion duh). But that's okay it's still awesome there.

Yall are probs asleep but that's okay. Love you all. Sleep well. Enjoy me telling how my week went in pictures. Sorry I take a lot. It's fun here and I want to capture every moment of it even if a majority of it is just me lying in a bed trying to get better. Love the Gospel. Love you guys. 

-Elder Powell

Life is Interesting

1/13/19

Life is interesting, I love being here though. Every day I just love the people, make new friends, and share the good news to them all! Except this past week I was basically bed ridden with something that honestly no one knows what is going on. But my ears are literally trying to kill me apparently and it's not even some cold virus or some nasty bacteria in my ear or parasite. But yeah I lost half of my hearing in my left ear and have an unbearable pain in both with some nasty ringing in both ears that are now raised in pitch a bit more before. Also.... At a major 3rd that has the 3rd 28c sharp... so ya, painful regardless of actual pain.

But I'm still alive, happy, and filled with the love of Christ in everything that I try, do, and share. Also, I found out that I have permission to use Facebook messenger to contact and message those of family and friends who don't use email. I don't know how to tell them that though because they don't use/ really have an email tapos, hindi ako na makasign in at kapag sinusubukin ako, sinabi siya, "YOUR GONNA HACK THIS POOR BOI STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE" or something like that. It was honestly kinda interesting but yeah never in my life would I think we would be given permission to share the gospel on Facebook and Messenger in a mission that uses little Samsung brick phone. 

But either way, I thought this email I would describe some of the cultural things I experience here along with some comedy, love, adventure, drama, and the awesome experience to hear from Elder Jeffery R Holland who came all the way to the Philippines to do a groundbreaking in Urdaneta for the 3rd temple in the Philippines (which they keep announcing temples here and there and like heck I wouldn't be surprised if next conference one is announced in like Tuge or Laoag. The spirit of the Philippines is honestly a miracle beyond means for me and to be honest, this place is a promised land of Asia. A blessing to the saints here, and an example to the rest. 

PICTURE INTERLUDE OF THE WEEK:

So to start this week off, There isn't much to share talaga. I have a new camera that works great. that's awesome.

We went to aparri 3 times because of Zone Con, a need to find the hospital there, and also they have a savemore which is like as close as you can get to a normal grocery store in America including Doritos and apricot jelly and normal peanut butter. It's super expensive but ya know what, I don't really care because it's worth every penny. 

To add to the adventures, I found out my camera can do this with passing cars and stuff. We were Gabi Nad pretty hard one day and waited for an hour before we got a sasakian back to our house. It was wild indeed. But I found out that my camera can do this and it made my day. 

So in walking to our Branch President's house for dinner we were walking across the dirt road and the corn field next to us was rustling. It was scary but turned out to be a frog that our branch president then ran over with his motorcycle....

So this is my favorite kid in the world. he has like super long locs and such because when he has short hair he looks like a girl. So he has long hair. But also he is super happy all the time and would not stop playing with their aso. 

They kept trying to climb on top of their dog and ride him. 

and every time he just would sit down like "boy no"

After dinner we wen't back to get our bags in the other room and we found these too asleep. it was cute. I love kids here so much. 

On the way back we fit 6 people on a motorcycle and (little side cart that was literally just a metal grate with some wooden planks and a wheel attached to the other side, got a ride back to our apartment, and then I checked my temperature and had a fever.  

Also funky frog at our front door.

In being sick all week (and like 3 trips to the hospital which will conclude with me leaving my mission to go to a better hospital tomorrow that might be able to help) my trainer who has had a lot of time, built a temple out of all of the Legos he bought with his Christmas money.

Here's some pictures I got of people sleeping on the Jeepney ride to our Special broadcast on Sunday. 

YESTERDAY!!!!! 

So yesterday besides still having a fever we got to hear from Elder Holland for some time. 

Okay now for some funny stuff and more pictures :)

We created this really cool background of Bible and Book of Mormon Pictures. It's really cool :) we also bought candles for some reason. 

In getting our water this morning, our neighbor (and land lord)'s dog had puppers and they made my day :)

Also for those wondering, we don't have running water in our house because yeah. We have a tiny hole in our bathroom and sometimes from 5am to 6am water flows out of it. But this entire past week it hasn't.... So we get to pump the water from the ground and use that through the day. lol :) 

I'm alive, never been happier, and love you all and would love to hear from you guys!!!! 

I will try to get some more pictures of the true and beautiful culture here next time. 

Love 

-Elder Powell 

P.S. how many elders does it take to go to Burger King. 

P.P.S........ 2 duh. 

P.P.P.S. Send Memes 

P.P.P.P.S. I had a really really funny PS to share but then I forgot it. lol .

New Years War Zone

1/6/19
Yello Po. This week has been interesting. So new years happened, It was a legit war zone out in Gattaran that lasted from 10pm till 10pm the next 3 days.... we didn't get much work done. 

My ears literally started to bleed from the noise :_ tapos Naka-sakit sa tenge ko ULIT :( 

I'm going to yet another hospital later today to see if they can figure out why my ears are literally dying. If they can't figure that out or I don't get better then I get to go to Tugegaro and try a third hospital. I'm not excited for it all because it's been preventing me from really being able to go out a lot and I miss the opportunity to get to meet, Teach and know the people here sharing a wonderful message of change, happiness, the joy of families, and the love of God and Jesus Christ has for us. 

I'll admit it's been hard to overcome such pain. but I'm doing it :) It hasn't stopped me from learning the culture, language better (both of them that is) and growing every day spiritually and physically. 

I'm also eating a lot of food. 

I also got a new camera! it does weird stuff when I try to do low light pictures. 

So to update the week for you guys: 

This is what my camera did when I tried to take pictures of Christmas lights that are still up :) 

I got new sandals. (and yes austin cilone, I still wear those socks I politely stole from you with permission over 1 year ago) 

They are starting to plant rice here finally because for the past 11 days straight (literally with no stop) it has been raining.... It finally stopped on sunday and the streets weren't flooded anymore so we got out and took a pretty picture before heading to our first teaching appointment :) 

This country is so beautiful beyond all means ngl. 

I took a picture of me and Elder wells to try out my new camera. it works fantastic :) He also was caught off guard because he didn't realize that the flash would work. 

Jumping picture, Copyright © Elder Powell

I had mentioned in another email that I had bought a lot of legos. this is my favorite one :) 

We had a Zone Con which was super awesome and the whole drive back to Gattaran (which is an hour+ drive) was once again on top of a milticab as we ate Jollebee which is the only one in all of our zone and for the most part all of Cagayan (our area that is of the mission). We are a very sparse part of the Philippines here, but it's okay because everyone here is absolutely amazing :) 

A lil blurry, but this is us in our multicab ride up to Apari today :) We're livid and the only white people that people can see in a long distance.

Tapos ko. 

-Elder Powell 

P.S. we asked around and found out in gattaran there are only 5 white people. 3 americans, some person from California that moved here for work and a wife, and this one dude that is attending Cagayan state university out here and lives all the way out in nassiping which is very far away. He drives almost 2 hours to get to his college town on weekdays. 

P.P.S. A spiritual moment and testimony for those reading to the end, 

I know that Scattered Israel is out here. Yesterday in teaching a recent convert of ours, She bore her testimony of how she felt the love of God and Jesus Christ for her and her family as she was going through some trials. and then went on to talk about how she knows of the truthfulness and fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that it was restored to the earth once again to bring joy and happiness to her family and others around. When we ended, I had a witness right before my eyes that she is a chosen one of God. She is of the Scattered Israel being gathered as stated in the Bible to build and bring forth the greatest blessing that our Heavenly Father can give us. I love this gospel, this church, at alam ko na lahat na ito ay totoo. Mahal na Mahal tayo ng Dios talaga. Nagpapapsalamat talaga po ako para sa yung pagmamahal galing sa kanya. 

Better pictures to come later :) Also My album is updated :) 

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