Week 76 - Quail Creek, Oklahoma - Dec 16, 2013

Mi querida familia, I have so many insights to talk about this week and I wish I had time to explain all of them. We've had some great experiences and miracles this past week. We hadn't seen D'Quan for the past two weeks and this Sunday he came to church! (Sigh of Relief!) He's doing well and he has a story to tell us tonight during our lesson. Can't wait, he always has the most interesting stories. Transfer calls were yesterday, I am staying here a third transfer with Elder Kennedy (which is going to be his last). I'm excited, Elder Kennedy is one of those missionaries that is not going to let up and I can't wait the see all the miracles the Lord has in store for us. This could possibly be my last area the more I think about it. We had an awesome finding experience last wednesday! It was 8:45 (the best finding miracles always happen at 8:45 I don't know why). We stopped by a less-active house and then we felt prompted to try a few doors. We came up to this one house with a sign that said "Beware of Dog1 He eats whoever I shoot!" So my companion knocks and an old grizzly- looking man opens the door and my companion says "Hi we're representatives of Jesus Christ hoping we don't get shot or eaten' the man laughed and asked what church we were from. WE said "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints" and then the man answered "Come on in!!" We then had some great lessons with him this week. He gets very emotional about his wife that passed away and he asked us the quesiton "Will my wife recognize me in heaven?" What a wonerful opportunity we had to bear testiomony of the restored priesthood authority. During one of our lessons with Gordon (this man we met) we invited him to be baptized. He said he already had. And then we explained the authority a little more in detail. He then changed and said, I'll have to think about it. The Spirit has such great power when we teach true doctrine! When we teach pure doctrine with confidence and love, we can see the Holy Ghost work his wonders! I'm learning so much about having to rely on the Lord. There is no way you can preach the gospel of the Restoration with just your own knoweldge and understanding. The Sprit has to be there. We had another experience with Donna (who has a baptismal date for the end of this month keep praying for her bytheway). Earlier last week we taught the Law of Tithing and she had some issues with paying it. She understood the principles but simply lacked faith. We had a priest with us and he bore a powerful testimony on tithing with his family (let me invite all you holders of the Aaronic Preisthood to go out with the missionaries, the Lord will use you in miraculous that you can't even believe, you don't have to wait til you're called and set apart as a full-time missionary). Even after that lesson she still had issues, until yesterday. We were teaching her yesterday and she brought up all her concerns. We used scriptures, conferance talks, everything we could to teach the correct principles, but it didn't seem to do much. Then we just bore testimony about how the Lord was going to change Donna into a better person. Promised her that the Lord has so much in store for her if she will keep the commandments. And she started to cry. We asked what she was feeling and she felt that everything was going to be ok. She felt the Holy Ghost! We then got a more solid commitment from her. The Spirit converts, the spirit converts! It's a miracle that we don't have to rely solely on our own abilites to do this work! The Lord will change us according to our obediance and faith. Other great experience: we were teaching a young couple last night in our ward mission leader's home. The lesson was the very picture of how missionary work can happen. The missionaries can either find random people to teach (which I love because the Lord leads us to them) or the members can prepare people to be taught. The latter yields more spiritual experiences. The Lord must be teaching me something about what I need to do after the mission. Anyways have a great week everyone! Thanks for the package! The sweater fits nicely and is perfect for this brisk Oklahoma weather! To my mom and all my sisters you look beautiful, and to dad and my brothers, you look very "large in stature" due to the priesthood, keep up the good work. Con Amor, Elder Powley