July 21, 2025
"me quedo flipao" - Presidente Obando
Google fotos 🤑:
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Hola a todoooos!!!
Im super sorry if this email is short and if i dont get to respond to your email this week, i love you all so much and am so grateful for all that you do for me and for God and for everyone 🫶❤️
Monday: Had a super good lesson with some less active members, the Enamorado family!! We had a super long talk about the commandments and repentance. Please pray for them to help them get back to church. 🙏 Also had a really good lesson w/ Nieves!! Please pray for her as well to be able to truly understand the doctrine of Jesus Christ 🙏 Ended off the day with a super good lesson w/ Georgina, we taught her the restoration and she said that she has a lot of doubts, so please pray for her as well to continue reading the Book of Mormon and praying so that she can receive answers to her questions!! And then we made some brownies (shout out to Elder Palmer for the best recipe in the world 🙏)
Tuesday: Super good day!! Went to Sevilla for zone conference and had interviews w/ Presidente Obando!! He is such a great and inspired guy, I love him so much.
Wednesday: Had zone conference, which was so amazing. We talked about what we need to do to have a "celestial mission" which I loved. We should always be thinking celestial. We also talked about how a lot of people had fear of mentioning baptism, and that we cant have fear of mentioning it because it is part of our purpose as missionaries. Super super good zone conference. Presidente Obando was talking about how we have the authority of God to do this, and he started to tear up, and it impacted me a lot, the Spirit was very strong.
Thursday: Had another super good lesson w/ Goergina about the plan of salvation which was wonderful.
Friday: Had a super good lesson w/ Raphael!! 🇧🇷 Please also pray for him to be able to choose a date to get baptized and that he might be able to understand how baptism will help him through his current trials. Then we got kebab for dinner 🤑
Saturday: Had a super good lesson w/ a guy we found on the street, named Sergio, and he understood so well the need for the Book of Mormon which was so cool to see. Also had a super fun noche de hogar with the rama.
Sunday: Always the best day of the week. It always feels so good to be able to renew my covenants every week. I invite you all to repent and to do the same, because I know of the change that it will have in your life. Im a living witness and example of that, along with every other person in this church that has done so sincerely.
Hoje: Today marks 1 year since ive been set apart as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and as I have reflected and looked past on this past year, my heart and soul have been filled with joy. Every single person that I have met holds such a dear and deep place in my heart. I love this people so much, and I am so extremely and eteranlly grateful for this opportunity which I have to serve the Lord every day. Jesus Christ is joy. This is the church of Jesus Christ; this is the church of joy. Ever since I have put an effort to come closer to the Lord, my soul has been filled with a joy that goes beyond description, because it comes from beyond this world. Being on my mission my whole being has changed. My desires, wishes, and dreams, are all so much more deeply rooted in Jesus Christ's doctrine and the plan that God has for me. I have felt a joy that is beyond anything I had ever though was imagineable. I know that it is God that has worked this change inside of me.
As Jesus Christ speaks in John 15: 8-21, He says:
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
I testify that we as His servants are His friends. If we keep His commandment we will abide in His love. Not feel it once and a while, but abide in it. He is the Christ, and through baptism and the laying on of hands to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by someone who has the authority and power from God, we can have the Holy Ghost, even the Comforter, abide with us, as we abide in His love.
As Jesus Christ prayed for the nephites in 3 Nephi 19: 29, he says:
29 Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me out of the world, because of their faith, that they may be purified in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one, that I may be glorified in them.
Jesus Christ wants us to be one with Him. He wants us to be purified and receive the same degree of glory which He has received, which glory is greater than all things.
I testify to all of you that the gathering of Israel is the greatest and most important work happening on the earth today. I invite you all to join in, that you may "bear much fruit" for therein "is [our] Father glorified." I promise you all that you will have a joy that surpasses all understand, along with a peace that touches the core of the soul, you will have protection from tempation, the forgiveness of sins, and the sustaining power of God. I so testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amén.
And HAPPY YEAR TO ALL OF THE ABSOLUTE DAWGS OF MISSIONARIES THAT CAME IN W/ AND AROUND ME!!
Os quiero muchísimo 🫶❤️
- Élder Powell