June 30, 2012

Hello all,

I have my P-day today because I am leaving on Monday! I am really excited and really nervous to be halfway across the world. Not much has happened in the last few days. We have been having lots of classes and workshops to prepare us to enter the field. I have learned a lot from them. On Tuesday we had a special devotional. President Monson was supposed to be there but he couldn't because of something he had to do. But the devotional was done by L. Tom Perry and was really good. He talked a lot about the different statistics in the church and it was really interesting. He related all the statistics back to missionary work at it was really good. Also sitting on the stand in that meeting was 10 of the 12 apostles. All of them were there except Boyd K. Packer and Robert D. Hales. When they walked into the room it was really awesome. They brought a strong spirit with them when they entered the room. It was way cool. That was to coolest thing that happened this week. I leave on Monday and I'm really excited to get the the field but i will miss the spirit and all the good experiences here at the MTC. I will probably not get anymore mail while I am here after today and maybe Monday morning so all the people who want to write me letter will have to start sending the letters to my Australia Address. So if you send a letter to the MTC within then next couple days I probably wont ever get it, so if you do that, you will need to send them again, all the way to Australia. The best way to send letters to me while I am in Australia is my USPS mail. The postage is only $1.05, and it only takes less than 2 weeks for mail to get there or that's what I have been told. Once I get there they might tell us a better way to have people send me mail, but that way will probably be your best bet for mail. I am having good experiences here and the MTC is a great place. I am Australia bound in just 2 days!!
 

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

June 25, 2012

This week flew by. I leave for Australia in exactly a week!! I am way excited! I got my travel plans on Thursday and the flight is going to be super long. It starts with a flight from Salt Lake City to LA. In LA we have a 6 hour layover. Then we get onto a flight to Melbourne Australia which will take 14 hours and then after that we will get on a flight to Brisbane which will take only an hour. My MTC experience is going great. Everyday is basically the same. Our days are all planned out for us and we have stuff planned for 16 hours of our day. The MTC is great but I am definitely ready to get to the mission field. The mission president seminar where they train all the mission presidents is this week, so there have been apostles in the MTC. I have not seen any of them yet. The security is super high when they are here. On Tuesday there is a special devotional where President Monson, President Uctdorf, and Elder Bednar are going to be speaking, so I am really excited for that to happen! It is always excited to go to the temple as a missionary. We go every morning before our P-day and it is always such a good experience. I have been in the MTC for less than 2 weeks but I have learned so much about the gospel. It is crazy how much you can learn in such a little time. I really like the teachers I have and they have taught me so much. There really is not much to say about this week. I go to lots of classes and devotionals. The spirit is so strong here I love it. It is so cool to talk to all the missionaries here because all the people in this place go all over the world. In my district there are 8 of us. There are 3 of us going to Australia and the other 5 are going to Tampa Florida. There are also 2 districts in our zone who are going to Hong Kong and they like to practice their Chinese on us. In sacrament meetings they give their talks and prayers in Chinese and it is cool how you can feel the spirit even though the rest of us have no idea what they are saying. Some of the best spiritual experiences I have had are when I am studying and teaching lessons. When I got set apart as a full time missionary I started to feel a lot different. The difference was the spirit giving me more power. They tell us that missionaries are entitled to receive revelation on an hourly basis about they people they teach and the things we need to learn about. I have experience this. It is crazy how much revelation I have received about the investigators that i teach. Even as I have read through my scriptures the spirit has told me lots of things I have needed to know. It has been an amazing experience in my life!! I am really looking forward to teaching real investigators and receiving revelation for them and changing real peoples lives. All the people you teach at the MTC are volunteers to help us out, but I am way excited to teach real people and touch real peoples lives. I have a testimony that this church is the true Church and that I am called of god to serve a mission. I encourage all that are thinking about serving a mission to definitely do so. I have not even been on my mission for 2 weeks and I have already learned so much and had some of the coolest experiences, and I am excited to get even more amazing experiences in the next 2 years. So the people that read this, If you thinking about not going on a mission, go on one. I testify that it will be one of the best experiences of you life and you will be blessed. I love and miss you all, and I hope all is well with you.
 

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

PS. Missionaries love letters, so while I am still in the MTC it is free through dear elder.com. and It isn't too expensive to send me a real letter when I get to the mission field. I want to hear from everyone while I am on my mission.

June 18,2012

Hello all,

I have been in the MTC for less than 5 days and I have already learned so many things. It is a great learning experience and I am very glad that I made the decision to serve a full time mission. Just so everybody knows I am only limited to 30 minutes a week for email while I am in the MTC, but there is a free service that is offered that is called dearelder.com. All you have to do to do that is to go to dearelder.com and make an account. Then all you need to have is my name, My mission code (AST-BRI) My departure date (0702) and my mailbox number which is #126. This is a free service and I will get the letter the same day if you submit it before noon. And make sure to be sending it to the Provo MTC. I leave in July 2nd so don't send me anything after that time. I have more time to write letters on my P-day then I do to do email, so using this service would be best for everyone. I am sorry if I don't email any of you back. It is because my time is very limited.

On Wed: I enter the MTC in the afternoon and was quickly taken through the process of getting all of the stuff I need. We then had a welcome fireside where all the missionaries that day all met together and talked to the MTC presidency. It was a very spiritual meeting and it was so cool to sing with all of the missionaries in one room. We then had our first teaching experience where we all went into different rooms where there were investigators. There were about 30 missionaries in the room teaching the investigator. This experience was great. It was so awesome seeing the investigators and seeing the spiritual progress we would make with them in only 45ish minutes. The spirit was so strong and I can't wait to be able to do it everyday of my life in the mission field.

On Thursday: This was the longest day of my life. It was also very spiritual. We basically had class all day and had different workshops. All of our days are planned our for us so 16 hours of our day is planned out for us and the only 8 we are sleeping. We also had opportunities to make up an investigator and then other missionaries taught us. The spirit is always so strong during all of these experiences. I love it here. The spirit is so strong everywhere you go. It is a really great feeling. Everyone who is 19 years old and eligible need to go on a mission. The spirit is so strong as a missionary. I have never felt the spirit stronger

Friday and Saturday were basically the same as Thursday

Sunday: we had church with our branch and other meetings all through the day. If you think 3 hours of church is bad imagine 15 hours of church stuff in one day. It was all really good and spiritual.

Monday: Today we went to the Temple and went through an endowment session in the Provo temple. It was a good experience and I cant wait to go again next week.

I am just about out of time. I do have a testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I know that I have been called of god to serve a mission and that I am going to Australia for a reason. My time is about up so I love and miss all of you and I hope you all have a great week. 

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

Entering MTC