Happy Birthday Mom!!!

March 11, 2012


The Elders with a bunch of cute Filipino kids.



I'm SUPER happy and PROUD of you! :)  Thank you SOOOOO much for all the sacrifices that you have made for me, I don't even know how to explain it but I know that I am where I'm at because of yours and other family members examples to me.  So every time you think about how proud you are of your missionary remember where it came from and how much he loves you and is proud of you.  All the time in lessons with less-actives and members I am telling them that their examples are what decide their children's lives.  You are freaking AMAZING mom :)  This is super cheesy and I'm gonna cry but yup :)

Sorry this is SUPER short, ran out of time and I'm kinda tired :)

Way Cute!!

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOU ALL!!! :D

Your Son,

BJ :)

P.S. Happy Birthday

P.P.S. March 10 was National BUNTIS (pregnant:o) Day here..... Wow :)

I guess we all celebrate a little differently?! :)

Hey Hey Hey! Somebody's Got A Birthday! :o)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!  I love and miss your face off!!!! :-)

Being a tatay is pretty freaking intense but luckily I survived the first week haha :)  Part of that is because my anak is already a great missionary, part is because I'm a lot better at being a missionary than I thought I was, and the biggest part is that we've got Heavenly Father on our side and helping us a ton :)

So my magaling anak?  He is an absolute stud! :)  He's a lot of fun, isn't too scared to take charge or give parts of lessons or spiritual thoughts when I give him an opportunity, and is really good at the language even though Tagalog isn't his true language.  He's from Cebu City and lives about a block away from the temple there. (Sound familiar?  Man we are so lucky and blessed to live so close to one!:)  The language they speak there is Cebuano and he keeps saying he's not fluent in Tagalog but that's just because he's humble haha.  He's fluent in English so no prob on communication.  One problem is he's got a flash drive with a bunch of GOOD music on it haha.  I told him it's up to him on P-day but during the week no Babylonian songs haha.  Pretty tempting for me too :P  This morning we listened to Don't Worry (Bob Marley) and my new favorite song Today My Life Begins (Bruno Mars) :o)  Don't worry, not losing focus just trying not to be a ridiculously strict missionary haha, we still follow the rules :)  I've only got one picture of him (here in the computer shop, just got batteries hehe) sorry, I'll get some epic ones this week :)  I've got some epic leftovers to send you from time with Elder Mika :o)

Elder Montemayor

We've also got 2 other missionaries in our ward now! :D  Elder Wilson is one transfer ahead of me (He went to the MTC on my birthday:) and is from Meridian, Idaho.  He's training Elder Hurt from Orange County, California.  It's always a blast messing around with other missionaries and our ward is HUGE so I'm glad we got 'em :)  Sadly we live in 2 different apartments. (Awwww man!:o)  Which might actually be a good thing because we might not get as much work done otherwise haha.  We've slept over at their house the last 2 Sunday nights so we can party together on P-days. (Woot!:)  They're in an apartment that's new to missionaries so they've been killing TONS of roaches haha.  And they caught a HUGE spider and they're keeping it in a bucket with a lid on top as a pet :o)  It's almost as big as my..... ok maybe a Filipino's hand... :o)  I thought those didn't exist in the city, hope there's none at my house :)

So one thing that I've learned is a little tough on missionaries this week..... AGENCY!  Aww man, why can't we just force people to make the right decisions?!?  haha :P  I know why agency is important but man sometimes people don't know how to use it right haha.  Last Saturday night we visited a Less-Active family, it was our last appointment of a long day.  Before we got there I wasn't sure what we would teach them and I asked Elder Montemayor what he thought we should do.  He said let the Holy Spirit guide haha. So we got there and I'm trying to think of what we could teach them so I asked them, "Bago nagsimula tayo, meron po ba kayong katanungan sa amin?" (Yeah. That's right. Tagalog's AWESOME:o)  "Before we start do you have any questions for us?" (For all you Joe's out there:o)  The mother asked us why life is so hard and we have so many trials.  BOOM!  Ideas and answers just started absolutely flowing into my head.  Super cool :)  We explained about Ang Plano ng Kaligtasan (Plan of Salvation), which tells us the reason we're here on earth is to learn and grow.  Analogies that I had never used before flew into my head, I was able to use scriptures from the Book of Mormon.  After that Elder Montemayor shared 3Nephi 13:31 which says that God knows our needs and if we put the Kingdom of God first things will work out.

The Spirit was SUPER strong in there, the best I've felt in a long time.  Elder Montemayor promised them that if they went to church on Sunday that they would begin to see blessings poured into their lives.  After the lesson he was stressed out haha :)  He said, "Aww man why did I do that??  I promised them!"  I told him not to worry about it.  In D&C 68:4 it says that when God's servants are moved to say something by the spirit it becomes scripture.  It becomes the word of the Lord, the will of the Lord, and the voice of the Lord.  I was super excited to see how his promise would get fulfilled when they went to church the next day............. but they have Agency :/  Awww man!!! haha, they didn't show up!  I'm bummed out but we'll keep trying to help them help themselves haha :)  Either way it was an AWESOME experience :)

Glad to hear things are still goin well at home! :)  Hunter, Kylee, and Ashlyn are gonna be absolute STARS on their teams this year and I am kinda sorta SUPER jealous that Chelsey get's to watch Swamp People the 2nd with you mom haha.  I'll definitely watch the exciting life of Cow-herders with you when I get home Mom :o)  Tell all the fam I love them and miss em!

MAHAL KITA MGA KAPATID, MAGULANG, KAIBIGAN, AT IBANG MIYEMBRO NG PAMILYA NATIN! :)
All of you take good care of yourselves and remember that okey dokey? :)

Elder Bryan Powell.... the 2nd

P.S.  Buffalo meat??  SO jealous!  That's nothing to be scared of ma, it's like a cow!  Elder Hurt ate pig toes at FHE last night hahaha :)

P.P.S.  I'm starting to LOVE the people in our ward, we had 3 FHE's this past week and probably will have at least 2 every week haha, fun stuff.  I'll write a bit more about them next week.
LOVE YA!

Just playing dress up with the Elders:)

P.S..... again  The pics are old zone, Halloween mask at Carl Baquiran's:), and Elder Montemayor.  I'll try and get pic from Carl's baptism for ya this week.

MADE A TATAY ALREADY!!!​!!! :)

(Received 02-26-12)
Hey howdy hey Friends and Fam! :)

So things are going absolutely CRAZY here in the Philippines haha.  I'm training, we got 3 new missionaries in Meycauayan Ward and..... we had a little event here that missionaries, members, and family and friends like to hear about.  BAPTISM! :D

I've got a TON to tell y'all about and not much time to do it so I'm sorry if I don't get to tell you all the exciting stuff I want to and answer all your questions.  I'll try and do better next week.

So training.... I can do this :)  My unang anak is Elder Erastus Montemayor from Cebu City, Philippines.  He's awesome! :)  Even though he's brand new he's already pretty good at teaching and speaking Tagalog.  Even though he's Filipino he says he's better at speaking English than Tagalog.  In area they speak a dialect called Cebuano.  But he's great at speaking Tagalog too so I don't have to worry too much about that.  The scary thing is being in charge of EVERYTHING here.

Speaking of which we've got 2 other missionaries here in Meycauayan.  Elder Wilson is from Idaho, in his 5th trainer and is also training.  His anak is Elder Hurt for LA, California.  They're both awesome and it's been a blast already with the 3 new guys.  Even though we're in the same ward we're in separate houses. (Awww man!:o)  Since all 3 of them are new I've been in charge of coordinating with ward members, helping them learn about their area and basically everything. Phew!  Running like a chicken with it's head cut-off here but it's all been working out.  I'm starting to relate with how you must feel all the time mom, haha :)

Aaaaand....... BAPTISM! :D  We baptized Carl Baquiran this last Saturday.  It was great but super stressful haha.  I thought that Elder Mika had prepared for it and all but NOTHING had been done yet haha.  It was my first day as a trainer and I coordinated with the DL to come interview him and then had to invite members, bishopric, and prepare the entire program for it.  It was INSANE!  Since it was only my 2nd baptism I wasn't sure how things were supposed to run at all so it was a bit stressful haha.  I prayed a lot for help with it and it turned out well because of it.  Carl's Gpa did the baptizing so I still haven't had my first personal baptism here in the 'Pines but hope it'll come soon :)  We also gave one of our investigators a Baptismal Date for March 24 on Saturday.  Things are crazy but going well :)  I didn't get pictures cuz my camera died :P  I'll try and get some from Carl's dad though.  I'm not sure yet about Battery Chargers but I'll try and figure it out this week.

I love and miss y'all tons and hope things are goin well for ya! :)  Say your prayers, read your scriptures and go to church and things work out :)

MAHAL KITA!!!!
Elder Da Beej Powell

P.S.
I'm glad you chose the right name for Morty ;) (Our new cuddly Moose) Thanks a bunch for the talk mom, excited to read it :)

P.P.S.
Elder Mika got transferred to Montalban Zone... the one I wanna go to haha. I'll be in Meycauayan another 3 months for training so maybe after that :)

Oh My!!! Six Months Already!!!

(Received 02-21-12)
BUNTIS NA AKO??????

So..... yeah I'm Buntis.... which means pregnant..... which is A LOT different in Missionary Lingo than it is in real English haha :)  Buntis na ako means....... I'm becoming a father...... and..... training a brand new missionary?!?  Yikes!  haha, pretty intense stuff!  On Sunday night our Zone Leader told me but I thought he was joking and told him it wasn't funny haha, turns out he's serious :P

Being a Trainer means that I will be in charge of our area, have a HUGE influence on a new missionary, and the responsibility for our area will be on me.  Yikes!  Pretty scary and exciting at the same time.  I don't feel ready teaching wise, Tagalog wise, or missionary wise but luckily Heavenly Father's in charge and not me haha.  He knows what is best for me.  He knows how I can become the best missionary and person I can be even if it will be hard.

I haven't found out who my anak(child) is yet but will find out tomorrow at Transfer Meeting.  I'm hoping he's a Filipino because it would make things even harder if neither of us was a fluent speaker haha.  I would love to train and help an American start his mission but I want to be more comfortable speaking Tagalog before that happens.  But like I said, it's up to Heavenly Father and he knows what's best :)

Since I'm going to be training it means I'll be splitting with Elder Mika.  He was a blast to be around and I learned a lot from him, hopefully I can connect with the members and investigators like he did.  Even though we're splitting I won't be transferring, I'm gonna raise my first child(haha) here in MEYCAUAYAN.  Woot! :)  We're also going to get 2 more Elders in our ward so there's 2 companionships because this ward is HUGE haha :)

Even though I'm scared to train since I'm so new I'm way excited.  It turns out that almost all of the Elders from my MTC district are training too (Woot!:)  It was fun seeing them all and talking with them at the mission home for Trainer's Training hopefully one of them will transfer to my zone, that would be fun :)

One of the biggest things that I've learned so far on my mission is the reason Heavenly Father gives us trials and big responsibilities even if we don't feel like we can handle them.  I use Ether 12:27 in our lessons all the time.  Before this verse Moroni was saying that he felt inadequate to the task the Lord had given him of writing in the scriptures and being a prophet.  Even though he was amazing he was humble and felt and knew his weaknesses.  Moroni says that when he prayed to Heavenly Father he was comforted by Him.  He was told the reason that we have weaknesses (or trials) in our lives.  He was told that we are given trials so that we will humble ourselves and turn to the Lord.  When we turn to the Lord he will make our weaknesses become strengths.

I've learned that through our trials and responsibilities that are given to us, we grow.  I've felt this BIG time on my mission and have a deep testimony of it.  The times when I have felt that I was pushed farther than I could go are the times I have grown the most.

So...... yeah :)   I'm a bit nervous to become a father (haha:P)  but I'm SUPER excited to see how much I'll grow.  Should be pretty intense stuff, I'll let y'all know how it goes :)

MAHAL KITA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
I know you'll have a billion questions next week Mom, Gma, everyone haha.  Don't be shy, send them! :)

Also, thank you SOOOOO much to those of you who have taken the time to write me letters!  You're the best! :)  I miss you all TONS even though I'm taking forever to write you back.  Sorry, we missionaries get a bit busy sometimes....  well.. all the time hehe :P  I'll try and get letter to y'all soon :)

MAHAL KITA ULIT!!!!!!!! :)
Elder Da Beej

P.S. Kinda jealous you saw Darius Rucker, Hootie and the Blowfish was one of my favorites haha, glad you had fun even though your ol......... i mean... it was loud ;)

Valentine's Day happened but like other holidays, didn't notice too much cuz I'm a missionary haha :P  Haven't tried chicken recipes yet cuz we don't use the fridge so the electric bill will stay low haha.  I was so bummed out when I saw I couldn't make Ritz chicken cuz we don't have an oven haha.  Sayang... :)  Guess I'll just wait a couple years :P  6 MONTHS ALREADY???? Yikes! :)

MAHAL KITA

Splits & Temple Tour with Elder Sidillo

(Received 02-13-12)
Hey hey hey!!! :)  How's everybuddy doin?  Kinda tired here in the Philippines but for once it's not too hot haha.  We played basketball in pouring rain for about an hour earlier haha, fun stuff :)

So we went on splits for the 2nd time yesterday.  Exchanges is when you go with a different missionary.  Splits means that you go with one ward missionary (usually 16-18 yrs old) and your companion goes with the another.  HOLY FREAKING STRESSFUL!!! haha :)  The first time we did it was terrible haha.  I didn't understand hardly any of the Tagalog and we walked around for between 3 and 4 hours and only got 1 lesson in because noone was home.  Blech haha :)

This time went A LOT better.  It wasn't easier.  I was DEAD tired afterwards because I had been stressed out all day.  But things worked out pretty well :)  We ended up teaching 4 lessons.  I got lost a bit sometimes in the Tagalog and teaching is still hard for me but Heavenly Father definitely helped us out.

I've received a TON of help from our Heavenly Father with Tagalog.  In my first area I didn't understand hardly anything that people said and had to ask my companion what was going on a lot of the time.  But now I understand A LOT that people say.  My brain has to be 100% concentrated and it's really tiring but I'm getting it :)  So Heavenly Father's definitely blessed me with the Gift of Interpretation of Tongues, the Gift of Speaking in Tongues is still a work in progress but I know what I do have is definitely coming from him :)



Santa Ana Family with Elder Powell

 So this last weekend we had a Temple Tour and I saw.....  Tatay ko!  haha, Elder Sidillo and his new companion.  They brought an AWESOME recently baptized family.  The Sta. Ana family :)  (Sis. Santa Ana's name is Jenny, just in case you wanna know :))  They were AWESOME investigators.  Every time we taught them they would feed us a HUGE meal haha :)  They had been searching for the right church for quite a while and had some deep questions and through the Spirit we were able to answer them and they gained STRONG testimonies.  They got baptized 2 weeks after I left Panghulo (Awwwww man!  I missed it! :P) and it was great to see them again.  They were super excited when they saw me haha. Good times :)

Kenneth Mendoza with Elder Powell

The other picture is another convert from Panghulo.  Her name is Kenneth Mendoza.  SUPER cool! :)  I know that God answers prayers because of her.  She was friends with the Bishop's daughter and came to live with them because her home was FAR away from her job and she needed a place to stay.  We taught her twice and then weren't able to teach her for a while.  The 2nd time we committed her to pray for an answer as to whether Joseph Smith was a True Prophet and if the First Vision really happened.  We came back about a week later not expecting much to happen because a lot of the time our investigators didn't keep their commitments.  When we asked her if she had prayed she said yes.  When we asked her if she felt she had received an answer......... she started crying....... WOOT! :D  haha, that's a GREAT sign for a missionary! :)  She really had received an answer and a strong testimony from simply asking.  I know now that anyone who asks for any answer or anything will receive it if they ask with a sincere heart :)

Kenneth got baptized the week after I left Panghulo (Awwwwwww man!!!!! I missed that one too! haha :P)

Oh yeah, Happy Valentine's Day and stuff haha :)  I was looking at the calendar yesterday and realized that I completely forgot THE MOST important holiday of the year!!!  Groundhog Day was a whole 2 weeks ago and I didn't even notice?! haha :o)  Time flies when you're havin fun eh? :)

That's awesome that Michael's hitting the MTC on Wednesday! :D  Tell him he's gonna be great for me :)  Just have fun and work hard..... at the same time..... maybe that only makes sense to missionaries haha :)  Tell Cousin Bruce and everyone hi for me :)  Tell him I miss him, hope he's doing well and we'll hafta go bowling sometime when I get back :)

Tell Elder Sanford congrats for me :)  I've heard Florida's weather is a lot like the Philippines.  Tell him to drink LOTS of water now cuz he won't stop sweating for the next 2 years haha

I love you all TONS!!!!!!!!!  Sorry I can't respond to all the emails but know that I read them, laughed my head off, love and miss you, and can't wait to get back and party as a family again :)

MAHAL KITA!!!!!

Da Beej

Journal Entries

(Received 02-05-12)
Here's a couple sobrang ASTIG entries from my journal.  (P.S. Just finished my first journal, 367 pages!  Am I winning mom? :)

No. 1
Phew!  What a day!  Zone Interviews were great!  First, President Sperry gave a workshop on Scripture Marking.  Then Sister Sperry gave one on Personal Hygeine.  (Did you know it only takes 20 seconds to make a first impression?  I didn't :P)  After that we played the Book of Mormon Scripture Chase game.  I love that game.  Maybe mostly cuz I'm good at it haha :P

After that we played Jeopardy: Philippines Quezon City North Mission style :)  It was a blast.  The Filipino Elders are AWESOME :)  They're always smiling, joking around and laughing.  In my first area there were only 2 Filipinos out of 16 Elders but it's mostly Filipinos here.  WOOT :)

After that I had my interview with President Sperry.  It went great :)  He told me that he really appreciates me and that I'm a real asset to the mission.  He said he loves my positive attitude and that I'm a great example to the other missionaries.  He said "You're going to become a great leader in this mission."  Ahhh!  I got butterflies in my stomach haha.  SUPER scary but pretty cool at the same time :)

Victim, before incident

No. 2 (Kalaban Ko:  Ang IPIS) :)

I got in a fight today...... with a COCKROACH!  No not a cockroach.  a COCKROACH haha He was HUGE and decided to show up at the perfectly wrong time.  So I was taking a shower when he decided to run out from under the toilet!  "Yikes!"  I thought, "I can't fight a COCKROACH naked!"  But I didn't have a choice.  He started running towards me..... but then he got close to the door, I opened it and he ran out.  PHEW!  haha :)

I finished my shower in peace, got dressed, and went to WAR. :)  This world wasn't big enough for the 2 of us.  Either he had to go or I did.  And so I set out for revenge.  My weapon of choice?  Size 12 Nike's.  He didn't stand a chance :)  I found him on the curtains and sprayed him with my squirt gun (ok ok.... spray bottle but squirt gun's more fun. Savvy?:)  That got his attention.  All of a sudden I had 2 whole ounces of COCKROACH fury barreling towards me at...... well the speed of a cockroach :P  My life flashed before my eyes!  I thought it was all over!  Then he got within leg's reach...... and..... I STOMPED him :)  GAME OVER my friend :o)  The only problem with being the victor?  You have to clean up the loser's guts haha :P

Haha, pretty exciting stuff goin on in the life of DA BEEJ :)

Sorry it's short.  LOVE Y'ALL!

MAHAL KITA

THE Elder Powell

Zone P-day





Get that corn outa your face!



3 Seconds in the key!

Sorry!!!!

February 02, 2012

Sorry I didn't email earlier this week. We had a crazy Temple/P-day and didn't get a chance to so this'll be super short :(

Things are still going pretty good. So Jan. 21 one of my investigators from Panghulo got baptized and tomorrow a family we taught there will get baptized. WOOT!!!! :D They invited me and Elder Mika to come since we're still close, (only 3 miles away,) so hopefully we can go tomorrow. We might baptize a 10 year-old named Carl Baquiran next week :) I'll have to give you more detail and tell you more on P-day. Just know I love you all TONS!!! :)

P.S.

Don't worry , I stomped the roach :o) I'll tell ya the story next time :)



Elder Mika,  AJ Urrutia 



"Say hello, to my little friends!" :)

MAHAL KITA!! 

Elder Powell