Dear family, it stinkin snowed yesterday! haha what is wrong with this place!? Its June tomorrow! Im gonna be honest I'm a little jealous about the beach trip that sounded way fun for the whole family to be there. Also I bet it will be a little different next time! I'm guessing Sam will be there. Anyways it has been good times this past week! Elder Rwankuba and I have started teaching a couple new people who are absolutely awesome! This one guy is named Ray Vega. His wife is a less active member and he is a non member. He is like 6 5 and a trucker with a beard and tattoos. He smokes and drinks. BUT his son got a blessing about 2 weeks ago and he was touched by the Spirit so he decided to let us teach him. He now has a desire to be baptized. We have taught him twice and we asked him why he wants to and he says "it just feels right" He is like my idol though haha he has so many crazy stories from his 30 years of truck driving and its making me seriously consider a career in truck driving. Ray was born as a result of his Grandpa molesting his mom and so his mom hated him growing up. He said that all the kids were allowed to go to church but him and when he would sneak to church his mom would go get him and take him home and beat him. He decided he was done with that when he was 10 and he ran away to about 50 miles north in Far West Utah and he found a farmer and worked for him as a 10 YEAR OLD! And did that forever growing up until he was about 20 and then he decided to become a truck driver and he did that for 30 years. What a life huh? It's just incredible to see the different cards people are dealt in life. At first when you see Ray you would say, wow this guy is kind of scary. But you just have no idea where he has come from and how much he has had to overcome in his life. He has a heart of gold now and he wants to have his past totally behind him. Its amazing to see the Atonement apply in his life. Please pray for him! Also I have told you a little about Angie(lady who sits in chair all day and can't move) I think i forgot to tell you but last week by a complete miracle she made it out to church. It was incredible. She didn't think she could do it. She was afraid she was going to wet herself during sacrament meeting and than she just decided nothing was going to stop her and she made it. During sacrament I couldn't help but cry to have her sitting next to me in her wheel chair just soakin in the Spirit. She knows the church is true and wants to be baptized so badly but she is just having such a hard time quitting smoking. She has smoked 3 packs a day for 50 years! since she was 12! Please pray for her. Also PLEASE FAST FOR HER THIS SUNDAY. She needs the prayers. Please! I will send you a picture of me with her soon :) I love the work so much! I can't even express my gratitude for this Gospel and for Jesus Christ. Oh yeah! On Sunday Elder Carl Cook of the seventy sat next to me on the stand at sacrament meeting in the Riverdale 1st ward. We spoke in that ward and he followed me. haha a little nerve wracking!? Yes! But the lord helped me through. Anyways I gotta get running but I love you all so much. I can't believe I have been out 18 months now. I already served a sisters mission I can't believe it...Pray that these last 6 months will change me! hahah I need to come home feeling like I'm the person the Lord wants and needs me to be. I love you!

Elder Powers

Hey family!

Things are going amazing out here. I cant even believe how awesome our area is doing. We have 6 people preparing to be baptized in April and still 2 weeks to find people who want to get baptized. I love this mission! haha It snowed out here today. Its kind of nippy, and I already packed away my coat so I think I will be freezing for these last few days of winter. This past Saturday Robert got baptized and it was pretty amazing. His wife and his son and his grandma came and it was a great service. He is such an amazing man with his faith. He reminds me so much of the Brunells that dad baptized on his mission. The wife just giving tons of opposition and Robert just going through with it anyway. I hope so badly that Candice will decide that this is right for her too because I have definitely seen the changes in Roberts life as he has made changes and has decided to be baptized. ALSO Brandon is doing amazing! He is seriously the man. This past week we went over on Friday and had an awesome lesson about faith repentance and baptism(first principles of the Gospel) and he just loved it. He loved the idea of repentance. Also we asked him how he has felt the past three weeks and what changes he has scene in his life. He said "my son loves me more, I care more about my family, I just feel so much more love and meaning in my life" He has read the Book of Mormon and prayed everyday for 3-4 weeks and he is truly seeing the changes in his life. He still hasn't committed to be baptized but he is recognizing the blessings and he has said baptism will come. He is such an amazing man. My testimony of the Book of Mormon is exploding right now! I haven't always had enough faith on my mission in the converting power of the Book of Mormon but now I KNOW it is such a powerful tool in the conversion process. Heavenly Father knew what He was doing with this amazing book. Also Pam Garner is doing really really great. She is so amazing. We had a lesson with her after 1 and a half weeks of not meeting with her and you can just see the changes that have taken place in her. We had a lesson with her on Friday and it was amazing. We asked her why she seemed so much happier and she said "I just feel so much more motivated and I feel so much better about myself. I finally have the strength to get out of the rut I am in. I KNOW it is because I have been reading the Book of Mormon and praying" It was so sweet to hear that. Just pure music to our ears. Elder Kreiberg is amazing as well. We teach so well together and we can feel that we are teaching with authority and power from on high because of the effects it is having on our investigators. I have been begging President to let me stay with him for one more transfer because we have been together for 3 months now already and usually they don't keep you together for longer than that. ANYWAYS, that was a ton of info about everything going on out here so sorry about that haha but I am finding increased happiness every single day in this work. I'm not coming home ever, SORRY haha just kiddin. But I really just love the work. Crazy that you met Elder Thelin mom! haha he is a STUDDDDDD. He was one of my first District Leaders in the field and he was a super hardworking and spiritual missionary. I love him. If you see him again tell him I love him and to get married. Oh by the way, I'm thinking about becoming a professional bowler. I have bowled every p day for the past 5 months and I'm getting pretty good, not to toot my own horn. I bowled a 204 two weeks ago and a 198 last week. I'm going to try and go bowl a 300 now with Kreiberg and Conover and Owens. I love you guys! GO COUGS! The Book of Mormon is true! I know it is! I love the Gospel!

Love, Elder Powers

A Renewed Effort at Elder Powers' Blog

Hey, All you fans of Elder Powers! I know it has been a while since this has been in order but the Powers sisters have resolved to be better. You can expect a weekly post as long as Elder Powers writes us. Enjoy!


Hey family! Thanks mom and dad for your emails they were really uplifting and inspiring :) I love the work so so much. A few days ago Elder Kreiberg and I were teaching a lesson to this girl on her front porch(there wasnt a male home and we didnt have anyone with us) and it was sunny and beautiful outside and it just felt so good to teach the gospel. It wasn't anything overwhelming but just so peaceful. As we were teaching I realized that eventually I won't be able to do this full time anymore and I almost started crying haha there are definitely things that are way hard about being out here ie tiredness, trials and stuff but just being able to share the Gospel and bare my testimony many times throughout the day is something I don't want to end. I have thought recently about going into Gospel teaching and maybe becoming a professor at BYU teaching the Gospel or something like that but I'm not sure! haha I have time to think about that! ANYWAYS, I will write grandma p today for sure. Thats pretty sad that she doesn't remember what I look like but I will send her some pictures!

Awesome to hear that the mulch was so great! I wish I could have been there to help!(sort of) In reality I actually loved those days, they were always such a great experience for the ward to grow and get closer.

A few days ago we walked into a house and they were watching the Utah state game and I looked at the tv to see if I could see Brian Green on the court and he was making a layup in the WAC Championship. Who would have thought one of my best buddies growing up would have been playing for Utah State haha Maybe I'll walk on and replace Jimmer when I get home.

Things are going amazing out here for Elder Kreiberg and I! On Friday we had an amazing lesson with Brandon when we taught him the plan of salvation and he started crying in the lesson. We were teaching him about repentance and how everything he has ever done that he regrets can be totally washed away through Jesus Christ. As we talked about that I asked him how he thought it would feel to be totally clean, and he started to cry and choke up and he just said " That would be amazing" as tears streamed down his cheeks. Way powerful lesson. He's starting to feel the power of the Atonement in his life. As well towards the end Elder Kreiberg and I asked his wife Jenna to bear her testimony about being an eternal family and she started to cry and just said that she wanted it so badly for them and that she knew they could be a forever family. As she said that he was feeling it big time and the Spirit was just exploding in the room. Elder Kreiberg and I walked out of that lesson on cloud nine. Also we picked up a new investigator this week named Kolbe. She is 18 years old and is looking for the truth. We found her as a referral from the Bishop in the ward. he told us that this lady needed a visit and we visited her and than we talked to her granddaughter Kolbe who was interested. We taught her on the porch the next day the Restoration and she felt like it was true. ALSO yesterday we taught her at a members house the Hiltons(where we have the youth nights) about the plan of salvation and it was amazing. Her mom passed away a few years ago and so it was a really sensitive but faith building lesson. She is praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true! Also Aubrey bailed on our lesson on Saturday but we will still try and work with her. ANYWAYS I gotta get running but I love you very much! The Gospel is so true!

Love, Elder powers

Hello family!

It sounds like ya'll had a great week! I'm happy to hear Hadley is stepping it up in the athletics! That is so awesome that you guys get to all go to Youth Conference this year up in Kirtland. Man I absolutely LOVED that youth conference so much. The Spirit is really strong up there. Hadley you are way lucky to be going there for your first youth conference!

So Elder Hernandez and I just got done fishing up in Mantua(town of 700 people). This is our second time going and today I caught a good sized bass. Last time I caught about an 18 inch rainbow trout haha. We go with this awesome guy named K. B. who lives up in the sticks in Mantua and he's a less active guy who we are trying to help come back to church. I'm learning a ton about fishing and hunting and big trucks because that's what a lot of the people up here like to talk about so I'm learning as much as I can about it. haha. The other day we were up in Mantua, and we were walking down this dirt road by this house and Elder Hernandez saw a rooster in this guys yard and started just chasing it around jokingly. All of a sudden though these two gigantic bull dogs started chasing after him and he barely got away before the dogs hit their electric fence - haha! It was pretty epic. We found out later that the people who lived in the house are pretty anti-mormon and so we are pretty sure they sicked the dogs on us. Haha!

On Sunday we also had the chance to speak in Mantua for sacrament meeting. I haven't spoken in church for about 2 months so the butterflies came back a little bit before I spoke. Especially because I accidentally left about half my talk at home and realized it when we were on the stand in sacrament meeting. haha. Kind of scary but The Lord took care of me and I realized that the part I left at home wasn't something the ward really needed to hear. But anyways, things are still going great up here in Brigham City! Sunday in church we also taught in a primary where Laura Theuson's mom was a teacher, haha.

This Saturday J.G. is going to be baptized which Elder Hernandez and I are super excited about! Also, there is a kid we are teaching whose girlfriend is a member. Last week in our first lesson with him we committed him to be baptized on the 6th and he accepted! He came to church on Sunday and this lady that teaches at his high school came up to Elder H and I, and she was like "How did you get that kid to church! He is probably one of the worst kids at our school, always in to drugs and stuff." That made me think alot. A lot of the time, the Lord's elect and prepared are not the people who we think are prepared to receive the Gospel. People who do drugs, and have tattoos and have children out of wedlock could be just as much elect or prepared as someone who goes to church every Sunday. Only The Lord knows, and He is preparing people all the time. Christ did not dwell with the so called "religious leaders" of His day, but with the publicans and the sinners. And just as much as this lady thought this young man wasn't someone who would receive the Gospel, he is! We never know when the Spirit will touch someone's heart and change them! Anyway, I have to get going! But Thanks again for everything and for all the support, I love you all! Have a great week! Love, Elder Powers

Hey fam! Thanks for the emails, you guys are the best. Mom it sounds like the Book of Mormon activity went really well! Bishop Forsyth really knew what was up when he called you guys to be the activities chair people! I'm sure Brother Lindorf was hilarious too, haha. Could you get me his address? I would love to write him and hear more about how he is doing. Also, I'm happy to hear that Grandma continues to get better and that the Philly party was fun! So things up here are still going great! People are coming out of the wood work who are ready to be baptized and it's exciting! To answer your question Mom, we cover 2 stakes now with a total of 18 wards. We get fed pretty much every single night and so I'm eating WAY better than last transfer, that's for sure, which is part of the 15 pounds I've put on, haha. We haven't spoken in church yet up here but next week starts a long line of speaking in wards, which should be fun! The girl S that we found last week is 10 years old and we set a baptismal date with her for the 22nd but the Bishop wants to hold off a little while because he thinks it's too soon but she really wants to be baptized so that will be coming up! Also we are going to baptize this awesome kid named J who is 13 on the 29th! There are a few families who aren't members who have been coming to church so Elder Hernandez and I are super excited about them and their potential!

The coolest thing ever happened this week. We had Zone Conference, and we had a sweet special guest. His name is Alex Boye, and he is one of the 2 black men in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He came and spoke to us and sang to us for about an hour and a half and I felt like I had died and gone to Heaven. It was epic! When he was 16 he got kicked out of his house in London because he refused to go buy liquor for his uncle anymore after he converted. The day he got kicked out he had no idea what to do and so he turned to the scriptures. He read D and C 122 where the Lord talks to Joseph Smith about how his trials will be for his gain. Alex Boye said that made him mad to read that because of the situation he was in but than he read the verse after that which says" The Son of Man hath descended below them all, art thou greater than He" After that he said he knew he had no reason to complain. That scripture is so true and powerful. Who are we to complain?? The Savior went through everything and he never complained. That hit me really hard. Also he said the works without faith is dead. We can go around as much as we want doing things and trying to find people but nothing will ever happen unless we have faith that our works will produce. There was so much he said that was really inspiring. He also talked about blacks in the priesthood and how Joseph Smith when he ran for president, one of his main platforms that was he would abolish slavery if he became president and that was one of the main reasons the saints got driven from Missouri. Also every reference in the Book of Mormon that refers to "cursed with a skin of blackness" really means spiritual darkness. All the footnotes to those scriptures talk about spiritual darkness. Very profound and something I had never thought about. Also he talked about Proverbs 23:7, which says " As a man thinketh, so is he" If we think greatness, than we will be great and greatness will follow us. Thinking great is so key! Never settle for mediocrity, the Lord requires more than mediocrity out of us as Saints. I have to get going but I love you all very much!
Love, Elder Powers

Sounds like it was another busy week in Connecticut, New York and Virginia! I'm happy to hear Grandma Z and Grandma P are doing well! I'm sorry this email is going to be crazy short but someone is coming to pick us up right now and it took me most of the time to read all your emails which I was very grateful for! Know that I am doing great and loving life! Elder Hernandez is THE MAN. His motto which I have taken upon myself is, "Work Hard, Play Hard, Keep The Rules". I have already learned so much from him. I'll let you know everything that's going on up here in Brigham on Sunday though because I have to get running! Love you guys! Elder Powers

Hello family! Thank you all for the emails as always! So I have a lot to tell everyone! So today is the last day of my 3rd transfer and yesterday Elder Kozak was released and went and hung out with some friends and a recent convert we had. Wow, this transfer was NUTS. Did you know a pack of 30 Ramen's is only 4 bucks? Anyway, we still were able to baptize A. J.! This kid is THE MAN. I love him so much and feel like I have made a best friend with him. Also, M. is still a little nervous about being baptized because of what his family is going to think but he says he knows he needs to be baptized because it's right for him. I love how faithful he is! I think he is going to be baptized on Friday. The Lord blesses us with baptisms when He trusts us to take care of His children and as we work hard. I love that.

So there are some big changes happening at Weber State. Because most people are going home for the summer, the work there goes down a ton and so they are combining Weber State with another area...Sadly this means I am being transferred and some other missionaries are picking up Weber State, BUT I am so excited about where I am going next! I am moving up to Brigham City tomorrow and will be serving with another awesome guy named Elder Hernandez. He is my trainer's trainer (aka Elder Dill's trainer) and so I'm way excited to serve with him! Elder Hernandez just got released from being an AP on Wednesday and is going to Brigham with me to finish his mission. We are white washing the area (two new missionaries) up in Brigham City and so we will basically be starting from scratch. I talked to Elder Hernandez on the phone this morning and I told him I wanted to work my guts out this transfer and he was like, "That's just what I was going to say!" Haha, I'm so excited! He is an awesome missionary and I am excited to learn from another really seasoned, hard working missionary! We are going back to riding bikes up there and so it's going to be great to put some miles on my bike! Well, I gotta get going because I'm running behind but I know the Lord is blessing me so much. I love the Gospel so much and I'm learning a ton! ALMA 26:22 is my motto for this transfer! If we are diligent we can bring thousands of souls unto repentance! Our sphere of influence is huge don't forget that! I love you all and thanks for all the support! Love, Elder Powers