Hola a todoooooos!!!!
This week has honestly been one of, if not the best in my mission, so lets get right into it 😎😎
Fotos:https://photos.app.goo.gl/QGLdKGupnd7e96sb7
Also, I apologize if i dont get to your emails today, we are very busy looking at some roman ruins, soon to come to my google fotos 🙏🙏
Monday: Had a wonderful p-day with the Élderes en Badajoz. Had an amazing noche de hogar w/ Ronald and Yeimi as well.
Tuesday: Had a wonderful time speaking english w/ Gaby and Ronald 🙏
Wednesday: Went to Plasencia to teach our friend Guillermo and his wife. We got there a little early so we started doing our daily contacting and messaging our friends, and we got a reference from Jazmin. We called her and she is from Argentina and moved here 2 months ago, and is doing BYU pathway. She was taught everything by the missionaries multiple times in Argentina, and has a great desire to be baptized. More on her Saturday. Went back to Cáceres to take a train to Sevilla. Listened to President Alliuad talk for a little, which was so amazing, he is such an amazing guy, full of the Spirit, and a wonderful disciple of Christ and son of God. We also were able to get five guys for dinner which was so good. I love five guys.
Thursday: Had a conference w/ President Alliuad and his wife and President and Hermana Obando, which was so amazing. It helped me to focus on helping others feel the Spirit and have a true conversion to Christ. Also got to see a bunch of my good mission friends, including Elder Reidhead and Kailiponi, and that was sadly the last time that I saw Elder Reidhead before he goes home, and possibly the last time that I see Elder Kailiponi before he goes homes as well.
Friday: Went to Angel Zurdo's house and he made us some burgers which were delicious. Then we headed over to Plasencia to teach Celia and her son who isnt a member yet. We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ, and she had such a great desire to take the sacrament every week, and told her son that he needs to get baptized so that he can take the sacrament every week. That stood out a lot to me. Non-members can still take the sacrament, but for those who are baptized, as we take the sacrament we renew that covenant that we make at baptism. I hope we all understand and have that great same desire to take the sacrament as Celia.
Saturday: Went and ate w/ Gricelda and taught her how the top and most important etiquetas that we have as people are:
1. Child of God
2. Child of the Covenant
3. Disciple of Christ
No other etiqueta should be above these 3. You are all children of God, with divine attributes and a divine potential. The potential to return to Him, to live with God and your families forever in felicidad sempiterna, y gozo sempiterno.
We had our first lesson w/ Jazmin, and went over the baptismal interview questions, and she already knows everything and was studying the restoration before the lesson. She has been doing BYU Pathway for about 2-3 years now. She is so ready to be baptized, and we set a date for the 14th of June for her to be baptized!!! We are so excited for her, and it makes us so happy to see her joy and desire to be baptized and follow Jesus Christ, more fully than she could without being baptized and making that essential covenant with her Heavenly Father. Please all pray for her to be able to come to church and continue progressing in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sunday: Had another lesson w/ Jazmin, and she told us that she had also worked for family search for 1 year, and wants to go to the temple as soon as possible. It makes me so happy to see her righteous desires, and the work that she puts in the be able to achieve those desires. We had church, which taking the santa cena is always the best part of every week. Sundays are always the best days. We had a few videocalls, but id like to talk about the one that we had with our friend María. It was our second lesson w/ María and it had been a few weeks since we last met with her. We received her number from a reference, that she filled out from facebook. In our first lesson she told us that she filled it out because she was looking at pictures of a funeral of someone that had died, and then the add came up. She said when we first called her and asked to do a videocall, that she honestly didn't want to, but she told us yes to be nice. We taught her the atonement of Jesus Christ and how to pray, she cried throughout about the entirety of the lesson. She was going through the hardest time ever, with problems with going in debt, losing her job and business, and losing her husband. But she told us at the end of the lesson that she felt a peace and a joy that she knows man cannot fabricate, and that she knew we were sent from God. On Sunday, we videocalled her, and she answered and had the biggest smile on her face. Possibly the biggest smile that I have ever seen on the face of a human being. She is still going through hard times, dealing with debt, and got a new job but her boss is very hard on her and she has to travel very far. However, just like President Nelson said, that our joy doesn't matter on the circumstances of our life, but on the focus of our lives. María had always believed in God, as some supreme being, but never new who He, nor Jesus Christ, really are. Now that she really knows who Jesus Christ is, and who God, her Loving Heavenly Father is, and has taken the steps to get to know them and build her relationship with them, praying every day to her Heavenly Father, she said her life has flipped like a pancake, or as they say here in Spain, flipped like a tortilla. She now has more peace than she can describe, even in the tempestades of her life. She told us that she is willing to do anything to follow Jesus Christ. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and she said she is willing to do anything to follow the next 3 steps, of Baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. So, we set a baptismal date for María as well. So i would ask each of you to pray for María as well, as well as Liset, and Jazmin, that they might be able to get baptized and continue to be faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Hoje: I just want to tell you all that I love you. I promise that each and every one of you will find so much joy as you follow Jesus Christ. Joy and peace that cannot be compared to anything that comes from this world. In the name of Jesus Christ, amén.
Os quiero ❤️
- Élder Powell