Week 78 - Quail Creek, Oklahoma - Dec 30, 2013

Mi querida familia, Oh we had a great Christmas week! It was great to hear everyone's voices. Matthew and Thomas sounded like they had the same voice...wow they've grown up so fast. Our baptism with Donna was a great experience! It went smoothly without any problems and it was a beautiful service. Many ward members came and supported her, we had two recent converts give the opening and closing prayer, and we had a less active who hasn't come to church in 3 years come to the baptism as well. Our mission experienced a miracle this past month with 57 baptized for the remission of sins. This is the highest number of baptisms in a month that this mission has ever seen. the Lord is definitely hastening his work even in Oklahoma. We've seen so many miracles in this area. A lot of times I forget how prevalent the miracles in my life, but every time I take the time to reflect and remember how merciful the Lord has been, I am filled with the Spirit and those doubts seem to melt away. Christmas Eve was rather miraculous in the fact that we met D'Quan's mom for the first time! And she was super friendly and out-going, she tole us that she wanted to start learning about the Church. Apparently D'Quan has been telling her all about it and she is excited to learn more. Please pray that her work schedule will permit her to meet with us more often so that we can help her enter the waters of baptism. We also took a less active lady in our area to dinner with us at a member's home. It was good to get her out of the house since she doesn't have any family nearby, and the family she does have don't really want to associate with her as much. Other miracles: we found a new investigator! Shawn was someone we met a month ago and we just finally got back in contact with him. He let us in and we got to share the Restoration. It was short and simple and the Spirit testified very strongly. We invited him to pray at the end and he did so. It was one of the most simple, yet sincere prayers I've ever heard. Afterwards he mentioned how that was the first time he'd ever prayed and it felt good! The Spirit does all the hard work! I love it! Also, Cindy (one of my investigators from Clinton) is officially getting Baptized on Jan. 11th! WAHOO! Miracle! I remember praying for a miracle with her and the Lord has finally opened up the way for her to be baptized. She has sacrificed so much and suffered so much. Please keep her in your prayers so that no unexpected road blocks come in the way! I love this Church. We visited with someone who was expressing skepticism about some of the Doctrines of the Church particularly the Book of Mormon. It's interesting how people always try to find ways to discredit the Book of Mormon, its because if they can then everything else about the Church falls with it. But here's the thing, no one can ever fully deny the Book of Mormon. It is true and invites men to come unto Christ. It helps me personally stay on the straight and narrow. I love Jesus Christ! If you really think about every blessing we receive comes because of the hope we gain from his Atonement! I hope everyone had a merry christmas! I look forward to our baptism in January (we don't have one planned yet, but we are confident that it will happen and the Lord will provide:) Con Amor, Elder Powley