It was absolutely wonderful to talk to you all on Christmas! A lot has happened since than and it has been a jam packed 4 days. Let me start of by telling you this crazy story about The * family (FLDS lady with inactive husband) so on saturday night she cancelled an appointment with us because she said that her husband needed to go take care of a problem with family or something so my companion Elder Dill and I (Elder Dill is from Oklahoma, he is the best, he loves country music and pick up trucks and working hard, classic country bred boy haha) decided to take a 2 liter of soda over to the sister at like 8:30 because she said that helps her not miss her coffee so much. So we go over and just stand at the door talking to her for about 10 minutes and she was really happy we came by and than all of a sudden a police car shows up and shines a spot light on us and we are like, what the heck!?! and than Elder Dill goes, as a joke, "I hope thats not your husband" turns out he was in the back seat and he gets out and stumbles his way into the house totally drunk and the police man said they picked him up in a backyard and he couldn't even remember his address. His wife, who wants him to baptize her, was so upset, it was the worst feeling in the world. So we basically just said "we are so sorry" and than left...after walking about 100 yards away from the house Elder Dill and I turned to each other at the same time and realized and felt strongly prompted to go back to the house. We went back and knocked on the door and she came to the door sobbing, and all I could think to say was, do you need a blessing?? and she was like, DEFINITELY. So I gave her a blessing. I was a little nervous but as I laid my hands on her head the words just came to my mind and I spoke them. After the blessing she was so much more calm and the Spirit was really strong. After we left we realized about 20 seconds before we had gotten there that she had texted us and said that she couldn't do this alone and needed our help. So amazing. The spirit is real! I gotta go I'm about to get kicked off. I love you so much !!!!!!

Hey again! haha I found out I actaully have a few more minutes so I will continue where I left off! the experience with Sister * was so awesome! After we gave her a blessing she took us to the back where all of her husband's liquor was and she gave it to us and than we went home and dumped it all down our toilet...hahah it was awesome. But than on Sunday we saw him at church and he was like "I want my box back" and we were like....ehhh sorry its gone...hahaha he's a little mad at us but we took him a 24 pack of soda yesterday to cheer him up! and we wrote him a note telling him we weren't that sorry for dumping his alcohol but that we loved him and knew he would be better for it. I actually have to go now! but quick thing....Elder dill and I are teaching this less active lady and her two kids that are 12 and 10. They are the greatest and she wants us to baptize them and she's coming back to church!
I love you,

Elder P

President & Sister Olson enjoyed meeting your missionary this week, and Sister Olson thought you might enjoy these attached digital photos. Elder Powers gave us your email address so we could email them to you. The small picture will be placed on the transfer board in President Olson’s office. The group picture is of all the missionaries who arrived in our mission December 21. I will be mailing you a printed copy of the group picture soon. We are so pleased to have the opportunity to meet and work with your missionaries. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Mission Secretary

4 Days Til the Real Work Begins!!!!

First off I would just like to say that I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family. Mom and Grandma, because of your efforts in sending packages I have received the most packages of any missionary in my district and it makes me want to live with you for eternity even more. haha! Hadley, you are slacking...you have not written me yet and i miss you alot!! I hope you are doing well. Mom thanks so much for all the delicious treats my district LOVES the pumpkin bread and you are basically the coolest mom inthe district! Grandma, your cinnamon rolls were awesome, thank you so much! If this is getting forwarded to the Robinson's, thank you so much for the Krispy Kreme donuts, my district also loved those! And thank you so much Aunt Mims for the Christmas package. I was so happy to hear from you and so grateful! Mom, you asked where my companion is from and where he is going, he is going to Ogden with me! He is from Alaska, and like I said we are super different but we get along well for sure! A lot of the time he likes to tell me what to do, and I guess it's punishment for my struggles with authority in high school and so I needed to be humbled. haha - I really do love him though.

Some crazy things happened this week though that truly opened my eyes to how aware HeavenlyFather is of each one of us. This week Elder Copans moved in about 3 doors down from me and it has been great! He is in my branch and I love getting to see him around, but that's just the beginning! Last Sunday we each had to come to Church with a 5 minute talk prepared and than the Branch President would call on two of us out of the branch of about 50-60 people to give their two talks. I went to church really not wanting to give my talk basically because I was just nervous to do it but that's beside the point. The branch president waited until after the sacrament to announce who would be giving talks, and he said "First, we will have the privilege of hearing from Elder Copans, and following him we will hear from Elder Powers" I was so shocked! The Branch President definitely didn't know we were best friends and that that would be a really cool experience and a memory for me, but The Lord did, and so that's why he inspired the Branch President to have us both speak. At first I was a little nervous about giving the talk when I heard my name called but than, as always, Heavenly Father is there, and the Spirit took over and I felt so at peace. When I got to the pulpit after Elder Copans I felt inspired to speak about something different than I prepared my talk on, so I did. I opened my mouth and its like the words were just put there. It was SO AWESOME. It turned out to be such a blessing to speak, and afterwards I just thought about how much Heavenly Father knows what we need,and how he can stretch us to help us become the missionaries we need to become. I have like a minute left - shoooot! But read Alma Chapter 5!! I got so much out of it this week! I love you all to death and will try and write individual letters before I leave the MTC! Also randomly, I talked toElizabeth Smart (girl that got abducted) she is now Sister Smart. Kindacrazy! I love you all so much!
Elder Powers

Sorry it took so long to hear from me! Last Thursday was our first p day but we didn't have p-day for some reason because it was the day after we got here and we didn't need it. But for the next two weeks my p-day will be on Thursday. So today is my 8th day in the MTC as you know and time seriously has flown by! I can't believe how much I have learned in such a short time, its amazing! Also, this place is probably the most humbling place of all time, because like the second day here you have to try and teach the first lesson and you have no idea what you are doing! But even though it has stretched me more than I have ever been stretched in my life I can see how much the Lord is blessing me for coming on a mission! One of my greatest desires is to be able to teach with power and I have been praying for that gift and yesterday I started to see the answer to those prayers. My companion Elder Smith and I were at the TRC, which is a place where you go and teach fake investigators and than they give you feed back on how you did. It's pretty intense because the fake investigators are teachers here and all went on missions and stuff and so it can be intimidating. But yesterday we were teaching this guy at the TRC and his name was Jeffrey and we were teaching him the first lesson and it was going pretty well and I started teaching about the Restoration and about Joseph Smith's first vision, and than it just seemed like The Spirit literally took over and I wasn't even really speaking the words were just coming out of my mouth. And I was looking right into the investigators eyes and he started crying and it was SO SWEET. We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about Joseph Smith and he said he definitely would! So we said a closing prayer afterwards, and then our fake investigator broke character and was like, what are you Elder's doing!? You should have challenged me to be baptized! I would have definitely said yes! haha It was pretty funny but awesome! Also I have been blessed with a great district, it's a great group of dedicated Elders. One of the Elders is a Samoan from Australia and he's absolutely hilarious, he reminds me of Uncle Ovala so much because he can eat more food than most large animals. Yesterday I challenged him to an apple eating contest to see who could eat it in the fewest bites. He ate his apple in literally two bites, core and everything! hahahah it was insane! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!! I LOVE YOU Elder Powers