Just do it

This last week was a lot better than last week haha.  I didn't wake up at 5 every day!  Maybe only 2 or 3 times haha, and the sickness is gone.  I've gotten even skinnier and but I'll work on getting my rice pouch back and put at least a tiny bit of meat on my bones :)

Elder Montemayor and Vincent

We baptized Vincent! :D  It was great because we've been working with and teaching him since all the way back in the middle of January.  His Mom and sister got baptized last December but for some reason he was never taught by the missionaries and it's hard for his mom to bring more than one of her kids to church.  He's super funny and is just a little fun loving kid.  We asked him who he wanted to baptize him and he thought about it and was like ummmm.... for 3 or 4 minutes.  He ended up choosing Elder Montemayor so he ended up getting his first baptism of the mission.  Woot! :)

The 2 baptisms that we were hoping to have on the 28th are getting pushed back to May 5.  We still have a couple things to teach them so we had to push it back a week so that we could help them be ready for it.  Pretty excited, they're both great people and already have strong testimonies of the church.

So yup, the focus of the mission is still rescuing the one.  Going out there and helping Less-Actives return to church is our job at this point and boy is it tough haha.  I don't know how to relate with people a lot of the time because I'm the goodie-good Utah Mormon boy that's never experienced anything in his life.  I don't regret that one bit :)  Love and miss my Utah bubble home a bunch.  The other missionaries tease me about it a lot but it's definitely the place for me :)  But yeah, it's kinda different trying to put myself in someone else's shoes sometimes but it's all good.  With basically everything I'm still trying to get the hang of it but even though it's hard by pushing through things will work out in the end :)  The leadership and organization in our ward is actually pretty good.  The Bishop is always SUPER busy, and it seems like not very many people have been given callings but the active members are VERY strong and all have a desire to help out.

Pretty funny actually.  When people think of missionaries or when a lot of people remember their missions they'll think of tracting.  Going up to houses like door to door salesmen for salvation.  Sounds like a pretty cool title actually... Who needs superheroes when you've got... duh duh duh... SALVATION SALESMEN!! haha :o)  But yeah... back to the point :)  I haven't ever tracted in my entire mission.  Elder Sidillo didn't believe in it.  Elder Mika didn't believe in it.  And now I don't know what to think about it haha :)  With the focus on returning Less-Active families the church is hoping that we'll find investigators through the Less-Actives we teach.  Like maybe they'll have a kid that isn't baptized and we'll teach everyone the discussions.  But yup, no tracting adventures yet.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience of having to take leadership mom.  I like what you said about not really ever getting used to it or becoming completely comfortable with it.  It sounds like being a leader isn't something where you sit back and wait for it to become easier or wait to be comfortable with it.  It sounds like something where you've gotta just go out there and do it.  Like President Kimball right? :)  "JUST DO IT"  I'll try to stop worrying about things and get out there and do the best I know how.  I also like what you said about delegating.  I need to stop feeling overwhelmed and that everything depends on me and start helping Elder Montemayor take charge as well.  Haha, I can totally see that I handle things the same way you do :)  Like mother like son eh? :o)  Thanks a bunch for your love and advice, I'll try and apply it better this week and let ya know how it goes :)

Haha, sounds like you're LOVING your job. I'm super happy for ya :)  Haha I wonder why you like hearing about missionaries so much?  It's like you've got one or something :o)  Hope things keep going fantiddlyastic for ya at work. Maybe by the time I get back you'll hafta fingerprint me haha.

Wow you're SO awesome mom!  Still running crazy to make sure your kids are SUPER happy.  That's a pretty intense Soccer/Baseball schedule you got.  And it sounds like Hunter's still shaping up to be our sports superstar :)  We'll just work on him until he becomes a professional something and we'll all live off his paycheck haha :)  Thanks for the stories and pics.  LOVE them :)  And now that you said Zach Williams' name and I can't place him it's going to drive me crazy the WHOLE week haha :)

Wow, tell Gma and Gpa thank you SOOOOOOO much.  Tell em sorry I ran out of time to email them but let em know I love them and appreciate all they continue to do for me.  Me and E. Sidillo split on utilities but I totally spaced that we had them when I left Panghulo.  So it's added up.  I'll make sure that Elder Montemayor forks up and pays half of it haha :)

Haha, nothing TOO epic happens on P-day.  Just Bball in the morning, e-mail :D, and finding random stuff to do until FHE at the Aro Family's house.  They're so cool :)  I'll try and get better at picture taking for ya... kinda slacked off... :o)  I'll let you know on the Mother's Day plan when it gets a bit closer and I know what's going on.  No Easter package yet but it should be here on Wednesday when we have.... Mission Tour again!  Elder Ardern of the 70 will be coming.  I'll let ya know how it goes.  No worries on SD's things are still great.  Nothin yet on walmart.com sorry, I'll try and get it on track for ya.

MAHAL KITA RIN! :)  Maraming salamat sa inyong pag-ibig at tulong sa akin.  Namimiss ko kayo LAHAT!  Lalo kayo inay, itay, mga minamahal kong kapatid, mga lolo at lola, at kamag-anak!

Can't wait to talk to ya on Momma's Day!

DA BEEJ

P.S.

The other 2 are a baptism for the other Elder's in our ward

P.P.S.

The other Elder's had a MONSTER pet spider for about a week.  They learned that spiders poop and don't eat dead cockroaches haha.

Love ya!

Time Goes Sooo Fast And Sooo Slow (4/16/2012)

Hiya! :D Sorry my email was so short last week, I was SICK and in a bad mood haha.  I'll try and let ya in on a little more this week :)

Feeling MUCH better than I was last week, I've still got the sniffles with a runny nose but no big deal, I'm used to it now.  What I had last week was REALLY bad.  I think it was some kind of Strep infection mixed with the flu.  My body was just in SO much pain AND I couldn't sleep cuz I was thinking about our missionary work here haha.  Things are definitely better now.
One problem hasn't gone away though... and it's driving me CRAZY!  As a missionary one of your most precious and valued assets is the time you have to sleep. Staying up late and waking up early are 2 dislikes of a missionary.  In the Philippines the sun begins to rise at 5:30.  For the  past week in a row Elder Powell has rised at 5AM!!!!  And then I start thinking about our work and can't get back to sleep haha, it's terrible!  No worries though, buhay pa ako (I'm still alive:o)

WOW!!  Hearing about mission calls is always fun :)  Those are some pretty cool missions!  Barcelona Spain?  Whoa! :)  Time goes by SOOOO fast and SOOOO slow with missions.  When I tell people that I've been in the Philippines for 6 months it blows my mind!  But then when I think that I've only been in the Pines for 6 months it feels like it's been forever. haha,  REALLY weird feeling :)  Pretty excited to talk to y'all on Mother's Day. (May 13 right?  I'm terrible with Holidays here haha:)  It's pretty weird thinking about friends that have already been out for longer than a year.  It's almost been a whole year since Marcelo came to visit and hit the MTC??  Pretty weird :)

Can't believe JT 's already 12!  Tell him way to go on getting the Priesthood and let him know I'm proud of him.  Same with Jason!  He can drive??  He can DATE?!??  Weird!!! haha, time flies eh?

Yay for tax breaks! :D  Sounds like a game of Monopoly and you landed on the Chance space and got lucky haha, Heavenly Father will continue to take care of us as we continue to do what's right :)  Woah!  Sheetrock in the basement?! :D  You'll have to try and set it up to someday have a projector screen theater down there, that would be epic :)

Wow sounds like things are going pretty crazy for Chels huh?  Has she had much of a chance to visit Gma and Gpa Powell down there?  Bet they've enjoyed having her close even though it's been tough on y'all having her so far away haha.  Glad she stuck it through on her first year.  Even though it sounds like it was really tough for her she's done some pretty amazing stuff down there huh? :)  WAY TO GO SIS! :D

Haha, that's pretty cool that you saw the McArthurs :)  Hope they're doing well.  Pretty crazy that Hunter's already going into 4th grade huh? :)  How's Little League going for him?  Which positions do he play?  Is he pitching?  Haha, definitely miss that time of playing sports with friends in city leagues :)

So things here are going pretty good :)  It's really tough being in charge and I'm really not used to it.  I've found that I work best when I'm given a list of things to do and then do them instead of being the one that has to come up with the list of what we'll do haha.  So I'm having big growing pains with learning how to take charge and how to lead but Heavenly Father's helping us out a ton.

We've got a baptism coming up this week!!! :D  His name is Vincent Gomboc, he's 9 years old and we've been teaching him since me and Elder Mika got here back in January.  He's really smart and remembers everything we teach him.  He's also SUPER funny haha :)  Every time we ask him to pray he'll mess around for a minute with his siblings or us.  Then when he's ready to pray he'll open his eyes real big, look at us, clap his hands and say, "Game na?" (Like, you ready now?  We doing this?)  HAHAHA :)  EPIC!  Me and Elder Montemayor have started doing it in our Companionship Prayers haha :)  We're hoping to baptize him this upcoming Sunday, should be great :)

We've also got a 64 year-old sister and a 15 year-old brother that are hoping to be baptized next Saturday! :D (April 28)  They just randomly showed up to church one Sunday with a neighbor and said they wanted to listen to us and join the church..... WOOT! :)  Heavenly Father definitely prepares people :)

So has The Avengers come out yet?  Have Hunter Dad and all of you seen it yet?  Haha, it looks EPIC!!!  We saw a commercial for it when we went to the mall one P-day.  The 4 of us in Meycauayan decided we're all gonna hafta get Avengers T-shirts for an epic picture :)

Love and miss y'all TONS!!! :)  Hope things are going well for ya, thanks for all the love and support! :)

Sana ko na napakasaya ng darating linggo ninyo! :) (Hope your next week is a BLAST!:)

Da Beej

Not Feeling So Swell (Recieved 04/09/2012)

Hiya!
Hahaha, of course you get hardly any snow at all in the winter and then get a blizzard in April.  Good ol' Utah :)
Can't believe it's only been a year since I opened that call!!  So crazy!  So much has happened and so much has changed since then!  Haha I remember everyone's shock too, it was pretty wild!

So Philippines Easter?  Lame. Sooo lame. :)  We were on our way to our last appointment, I had a headache, was really hot, and really tired.  We absolutely packed into this jeepney cuz it was the last trip.  The ride usually takes about 15 minutes.  We had been driving for about 3 minutes when we just stopped.  I looked out the window and what did I see?  Not popcorn popping on the apricot tree(ok that was sooo cheesy) They were doing a freaking 300 person parade with candles and statues on the main road!!  We had to drive at walking speed all the way to our appointment!  The normal 15 minute trip took 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Like I said... Lame :)

The other lame part of Easter?  I was sick through the whole thing! But not sick like a couple weeks ago, it was way worse.  I started feeling sick Thursday afternoon and then we did a Service Project in the hot sun for 4 hours, then we went straight to work.  I don't let my body rest haha.  I was feeling too sick to go to General Conference on Saturday but I really wanted to go so we did anyway.  I couldn't pay attention well though cuz I was so sick.  I woke up Sunday morning and just couldn't do it... LAME SAUCE. :P

Sorry to end on a sad note but I'm outta time.

LOVE YOU!!!! :)
P.S.
Don't worry about me ;)

As people come and go! (recieved 04/04/2012)

Things are FREAKING HOT here in the Philippines! haha, here Summer starts a whole lot earlier than it did back home.  It was supposed to start at the beginning of March but it was kinda cloudy and rainy then.  This last week the heat and the sun REALLY picked up and being outside in the middle of the day is not on my favorite things to do haha.  No worries, still having fun out here :)



Elder Febbo Zone Leader







Elder Mika taught me to loosen up

So this last week has been pretty wild.  A bunch of the missionaries that I've been around for the last couple transfers go home tomorrow.  Weird how fast people come and go in your life, especially as a missionary.  My last companion Elder Mika is heading home for Samoa.  Man, even though I was a little frustrated when we were companions I learned a lot of really important things from him.  Before I was companions with Elder Mika and while we were companions I was always VERY uptight and trying to be a perfect missionary.  Having fun for me was not an option if the work we were doing wasn't great haha.  From him I learned to loosen up, have fun, connect with other people, and enjoy the mission.  I'm still working on not worrying about not being perfect but I am having a lot more fun than I was :)
2 other missionaries that had a big impact on me that are headed home this week are Elder Febbo and Elder Latu.  E. Febbo was our Zone leader here and Elder Latu was our District Leader.  Elder Mika is good friends with them and we slept over at their apartment a couple times last transfer (Yes even missionaries like sleepovers:)  Elder Febbo is freaking amazing at Tagalog, teaching, leading, and helping other missionaries.  I learned a TON about Tagalog from him.  I learned a TON about connecting with people from him.  And I learned a TON about being a missionary from him.  We went exchanges a couple times and I learned a ton from his example and his advice.  Same sorta deal with Elder Latu. :)  I'll miss em, like I said it's weird watching people come and go in your life so fast.



Haha, glad to hear Hunter's following in the footsteps of GREATness :o)  Make sure he keeps practicing and growing haha, has he gotten his hollow leg yet? :)
Pretty stoked for General Conference this weekend.  We'll all be going to the Stake Center about 30 minutes away to watch it.  Hopefully we'll have some investigators come with us too! :D  It's really cool to be able to offer people the chance to listen to a LIVING Prophet.  I'm pretty sure that we'll just be watching it in English.  Hopefully I can learn a TON like I did in the MTC but I dunno, the Spirit was pretty freaking amazing there :)  I don't think we'll be having any Easter Party or anything.  No worries :)

That's a pretty scary story about the trailer!  Pretty sure that was MTC time for me.  Pretty ironic that it happened in Tyson's yard haha.  I met a member this week from Bicol (the place Bud served)  and he said that he thinks he might remember him! :)  His last name was Atanante from Ligaw Ward.  He said he's close to the volcano.  Lemme know if Bud recognizes that or served in Ligaw.



Valenzuela Zone



So things slowed down with the work a couple weeks ago but they're picking up again.  We went to church last Sunday and got introduced to 2 people that came with a member and are really interested in the church! :D  One of them is a 15 yr.-old named Jerald and he committed to being baptized in his first lesson.... WOOT! :)  The other is a 60+ lady named Tess who was once taught by missionaries, reads the Book of Mormon a lot, and wants to listen again.... WOOOOT! :D  Haha, so Heavenly Father is placing the people that are prepared in our path :)
Ya know what?  Last Sunday was just great all-around :)  We have another investigator who wants to get baptized but can't because he and his girlfriend (who is a member) are living together and aren't married.  They wanna get married but there's a superstition in the Philippines where if a family member dies or gets married you can't get married in the same year.... LAME.  So that was a problem.  They came to church this week and a member told them that he would take care of ALL of the expenses of their wedding.  Dress, makeup, the works :)  So hopefully they'll change their minds and he can get baptized.  We go to them tomorrow so we'll find out then :)

So this is long and I gotta get outta here :o)  Carl's Gpa wasn't in the pics cuz he was late.  We ran out of support money last week so I pulled out some from my account, haven't used all of it yet.  Clothes and shoes are great.  I LOVE the Merrel's I chose and use them almost every day haha.  They're starting to wear down a bit but they're still good :)

LOVE ya TONS!!!!  Hope y'all have a fantiddlyastic Easter! :)

PS
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!!!  Can't believe you're already driving!  A member here had the same birthday as you so I was thinkin of ya yesterday.  Hope all's well!  Love ya bro! :)

P.P.S
Don't worry about late packages!  A late package and lots of love is better than none! :)
MAHAL KITA!

Being idle makes you tired

Hahaha, looks like you all had a BLAST at Gpa's birthday party.  The food looked REALLY good haha :)  Thanks for all the pictures this week they were great!  I've got some pictures for you too this week from..... Carl's baptism!  WooHoo! :D haha
So this last week?  Freaking lame haha :)  We were really excited to get to work and have a couple new investigators that we're really excited for.  We were gonna stop stressing and start having fun and kick butt in the work.... Then Elder Montemayor got sick haha.  Lame sauce!

He got the flu while we worked on Tuesday and it got worse on Wednesday and we didn't get to work.  That was ok with me, I was excited to get a little rest :o) and I (careful when you read this Mom:) even cleaned the house real good.  I mean I CLEANED that thing :)  I thought, ok that was a good rest day, can't wait to go teach tomorrow.  We woke up the next morning....

and Elder Montemayor was feeling even worse haha.  Awww man! :P  We didn't get to work Thursday.  So I took care of him and tried to help him get feeling better all of Thursday....

and that got me sick hahaha :)  We didn't get to work Friday cuz I was sick and he was still getting better.  I've always thought that taking a bit of a break would be nice, get some rest and stop worrying right?  Well it was nice the first day but after that I was just bored and wanted to work haha :)

Saturday and Sunday we were able to work but we were still sick and WAY tired.  No fun. haha :)  Before my mission I sat around and did nothing a lot of the time and I was really tired a lot of the time because of it.  That's the way I feel again haha, I'm glad that my mission's already changed that about me, I wanna do stuff rather than just sit around now, pretty weird and awesome :)

So yeah... we're still a little sick and mostly REALLY tired, can't wait to get back to work and get rid of this headache though :)  Sorry if I sound crazy, I'm too tired to think.

Those pictures of Hunter were AWESOME!  He's HUGE!!!  Super jealous that you guys get to watch his first Little League games.  Make sure he knows his big bro's cheering for him :)  How tall IS that kid?? and what's his shoe size? His feet are as big as Elder Montemayor's!! :)

I didn't know Gma and Gpa's trailer crashed, that must've been after I hit the MTC.  What happened?  Glad they got a new one, we're all going camping when I get back :)  P.S.  Just in case you're wondering I decided a while ago (maybe before the mission) that I'm gonna work at Yellowstone for a Summer after I get back from the mish.  Just thought you should know :)  P.P.S. Blood vessels: Scary! and no fun :o)

I'm glad you're loving work!  You're becoming a computer genius?  haha, go Mom!  *Kaya mo iyan!* (You can do it!:)

Yup, got the Valentine's stuff back around Valentine's Day, thanks a bunch! :)  Not quite sure what all we're doing with Easter but I know one thing. I am avoiding other churches and their "celebrations" on that day.  The world's pretty different outside the Utah bubble huh? haha.  I don't mean to sound rude about others beliefs but pretty sad stuff.  I'll let you know what happens haha.

I have to wait a whole extra week for General Conference!  Awww man! :)  We watch it at the Stake Center a week after it happens.  Hopefully we'll be able to get some investigators to it, pretty cool to listen to a living Prophet :)

MAHAL KITA!!!! :D

Can't believe I've almost finished a whole transfer with Elder Montemayor!  Time's SO fast and SO slow haha... weird :)

Elder Powell

P.S. Here are some photos from Carl's Baptism