ATM's and Peace - Bagyos and work

11/18/19
We are working really hard out here in pagudpud :) We have two tropical storms hitting us though in the next few days so that will be fun :) 

We had our two friends that were baptized finally confirmed as members today :) They received the gift of the Holy Ghost and are doing amazing things already! They are truly converted to the Gospel and it was wonderful working with them in teaching about Jesus, His Plan for us all, and about how we have Modern day Prophets and Apostles today just like in the past. They love it, I love it, We all happy!!!  We are working really hard on getting new people to teach and invite to church. We ran into a weird situation because we have some people we are teaching and when we invited them to church, We had some kids in the lessons as well and the adults said "mga bata muna" or "the Kids first" so all the parents literally just sent all their kids to church. It wasn't our plan but it was a start :P 

Like we are here with a goal to do this cool thing called 

#BFF 

Building 

Forever

Families 

One of the great things about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that through it, a family can become a forever family in these really cool places that are super holy and wonderful that come in all shapes and sizes!!! 

T E M P L E S 

Katulad 'to (like this) but there is a lot

It's a cool place right? Did you know that faithful members who strive to follow the commandments and the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ can literally become a family that lives forever in the presence of God? All thanks to Jesus Christ and what he taught back in the day (R.I.P. Church of Jesus Christ AD 33-~99), the calling of new Prophets and Apostles to bring back the Church of Jesus Christ that was once on the earth back in the good ol' days (The Church of Jesus Christ 1830-Millenium pala) and having PRIESTHOOD POWER WOOO!!! 

I'm not much of a convincing or motivational speaker but if you have any desire to learn more, Talk to the two guys wearing white shirts and ties with name tags and fresh haircuts with side bags who say they are representatives of Jesus Christ in your local neighborhood or call 1800-Missionaries and we will give you a 10% discount on your tithing! (or to save all the hassle, you can talk to one of us online at Comeuntochrist.org and request for a visit)

I would suggest you invite us like this though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=87&v=SMh3_uNRlVo&feature=emb_logo

Please and thanks.

 Also if you are feeling like a wonderful friend to me here, I would not mind to have some cookies sent to me here in the Philippines... Thank you :) 

That's about it. I'll come up with a better way to describe our upcoming week of work next week than saying "we worked" 

and I will remember to take pictures. 

--

-Elder Powell

For those wondering about the ATM in the heading, My companion's ATM card got eaten by the local ATM here in good ol Laoag City so that was fun... forgot to add that since it just happened earlier

11/25/19
We had two bagyos hit pagudpud and so on. We still worked a lot and then nothing happened with new people that came to church. So we are looking for new people to invite to come unto Christ, repent, and follow his gospel and receive his ordinances from proper authority. It's hard I'll be honest and I lost a few pants from all the walking, filipino squatting, and criss cross sitting on cement ground and dirt but it's all worth it really. We are working hard here and working to have the spirit in all of our lessons. making our teaching better, making all better in our doings. But of course, with the atonement of Jesus Christ. Like a simple phrase that this one sister missionary said that I really enjoyed from a Zone Conference, (not exact words but what I kinda heard from it)

"In missionary work it is a lot of trial and error. It's a lot of goal setting and goal failing and re-setting and over and over and sometimes it can seem overwhelming and overbearing to do such every day of the week for 2 years or 18 months straight. However, that's why the atonement of Jesus Christ is so important and why we need it every day. because the comfort that you feel from the Holy Ghost at the end of every day as you work hard and put your best, our Heavenly Father can then share his love for you and it makes it as if there is nothing wrong. Everything that you did was right and so on and his love just overwhelms you with such a good feeling that you know you are loved by him. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is what makes it all connect. the hard work, the hard times, homesickness, and so on. When you have the Atonement play in effect, you will understand and be able to do literally everything" 

That's about it. I'll send pictures and stuff in two weeks :) We have Christmas Conference next week so we won't be emailing or stuff. And I will work on an early new year goal to take pictures every week and to share them all every week too since that's what it seems that people miss the most about me doing every week hahahaah. Thank you for everything! Love you all back at home! Take Care! Ingat! Spliengat! 

#SanaAll

P.S. I'm going to be performing the Haka at Christmas Conference with my Companion. I'm excited :) 

P.P.S. IF you have had a chance to survey 9 lemurs, Would you do it? I could guarantee you that you will only get about 4 to say yes to taking the survey while the other 5 will refuse to. My dad told me so. 

P.P.P.S. that's all falks 

--

-Elder Powell

Weekliing Tonsillitis, Bagyo Landsliding adventures of a lifetime :)

11/11/19
Well as a start, my sister wanted me to work the word "pumpernickel" in an account of how my week went as a representative of Jesus Christ here in the Philippines. So I bothered to take the time to look up what a Pumpernickel was. 

Maddy I can tell you right now that this week was a pretty heavy, dark, and lightly bittersweet week that in the end tasted good. 

But the blessing of the Gospel is just sweet, sweeter, and can give you tonsillitis apparently :) hahahah CHARROT 

But yeah so our area got flooded, a few landslides that caused a bit of problems with our investigators who were hoping to come to church today, and so on. To add to it all, We couldn't go out much because of the endless rain and storming here as well as me getting 

1st: Tonsillitis

2nd: Pink Eye

3rd: 

It all ended with two of our friends being baptized this last Sunday (or today for those of you still back at home) but it was amazing to see these two have their lives forever changed as they started on their path on the Gospel of Jesus Christ to eventually make it to the Celestial Kingdoms with their families :) (we still need to teach the tatays but they're still too scared to really talk to us or anything so we'll just keep on loving and loving them all)

but outside of that, I was super super happy to receive some happy and fun news that 

1. Some people I was able to teach in Laoag finally got Married and baptized! 

2. An RC of mine along with her grandma (who was baptized just a few weeks before I got here in the Philippines) back in Gattaran got to go through the temple for the first time!!!! I was low key kind of shocked but and may or may not have almost cried a bit hahahaha :') 

 

That's all :) here's pictures!!

--Elder Powell

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JsCs2FYakyy5iycH6

Zone Conference, Still forgetting my SD card reader, and so on

10/28/19

Hello one and all! 

We had Zone Conference! It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot from our AP's who gave a wonderful training about the gift of discernment, and a lot of wonderful spiritual uplifting elements that came from the teachings of our wonderful Mission President and his wife! They are good at fulfilling their individual priesthood callings!

Also the OG office was reunited :) 

And there was Pizza Hut (which is as close as you can get to real pizza here) and Bananas which only made everything just that much better. 

This is a wonderful work and I'm thankful that the Lord trusts me with such a wonderful calling as this one here in Pagudpud :) I'll update you all next week on our friends here and so on and will work on taking pictures with them all as well so you can get to know them!!! 

11/4/19

Hey so I just wanted to let you know, That I have many great and wonderful blessings being assigned here in Pagudpud. However one of the things that is not so much of a blessing is the lack of computers that accept USB and SD cards without giving them viruses, so yeah that's a bit of a harder one :/ 

Outside of that, I will work hard on sending actual pictures next week ;) And getting these companions and members of my district to send pictures to me to send to you guys.

But just wanted to let you all know that we are loving life, alive, and have been sooooo blessed to just be here in one of the most beautiful areas in the whole mission with some of the most beautiful people (in spirit more than in looks if I am to be honest haha) ever! I will forever be grateful for the blessing's I've had here and will be looking forward to another week and the anxiety of Transfers coming up this week. 

Also we have someone who is accepting and going to be baptized this next Sunday so we are super happy. 

That's about it hahaha sorry so little. I'm getting worse and worse at this whole emailing thing (as well as the whole English thing. 

-Elder Powell

Aha! Got two photos :) this is from earlier :) We're both dealing with being sick but it's alright. we got to spend today in Laoag which was fun :) district activity for our last week here as a district before transfers :)