Week 79 - Quail Creek, Oklahoma - January 6, 2014

Mi querida familia, Feliz Nuevo Ano! It's been a little slow around here in the city since Donna got baptized. Our teaching pool is shrinking, and many of the people we teach aren't progressing too much. But these aren't unique problems, and it will take the same solutions I've been taught my whole mission: pray for miracles, work hard and prepare spiritually. This last week, I was listening to a talk by Elder Douglas Callister of the 70. He talked about a lady that he met in Russia who apporached him and shared a concern "I served a mission and expierienced wonderful growth. Now that I'm off the mission, I do everything I'm supposed to but I feel like I'm not growing spiritually." Elder Callister then talked about how he was not the solution to her problem, but that the solution was rather "You need to take control of your life." Take control of your prayer life instead of aimlessely praying about everything. Take time to talk to HEavenly Father and mention just a few things. Take control of the conversation you have, take control of your fasting and he went on to talk about more things. Ultimately what I got out of it was to pay more attention to your spiritual growth. Recently I've felt like I've been plateauing in my spiritual growth and I've started trying to take more control of my life and specifically take control of my mission. Its so easy to fall into temptation and only want to endure through life. I remember talking with a less active and asking him how God has blessed his life. He responded that he was grateful that God was just helping him keep his head above water. Think about that for a sec. Does God want us to just be at the point of drowning just trying to keep our head above water? Or does he want us to walk on water? Or even find refuge in a boat of some sort? It is so easy to just want to endure ,that we forget that the Lord wants us to do more. He wants us to grow and find joy in growing, seeing miracles, helping souls come unto Christ and so forth. So take the time to set so goals and develop new habits. I'm going to try and do so and hopefully I can see some real growth in myself spiriually and physically these next few months. The biggest ray of sunshine this week I would have to say is the progress Donna is making. She took us out to dinner on New Year's Eve and she mentioned how her dreams were different after baptism. Instead of dreaming about Josh Groban :) she had been dreaming about keeping the standards of the church. She has finished the Doctrine and Convenants and Pearl of Great Price! The members are fellowshipping her, she participates in class...this is real growth! I love it! I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us this week. We need some miracles if the work is going to progress, which means that if we're faithful, we'll see some things happen. I look forward to this Saturday since I get to go back to Clinton to see an past investigator get baptized. It's gonna be great. Have a great week everyone! Que Dios le bendiga, y fijen metas dignas con planes especificas para que puedan tener crecimiento espiritual mas eficaz. Dios les ama y queire que nosotros lleguemos a ser semejante a el; y si es el deseo de nuestros corazones, El puede ayudarnos a obtener nuestros metas! Con Amor, Elder Powley