This week has been pretty good. First I would update you all on all the
crazy things that have happened to me here in Townsville in my first transfer
here. The transfer is almost over and have been an eventful 6 weeks. First, We
had a baptism and we had to empty out the font with buckets because the pump was
broken and the water would not drain. Then the next week our apartment was
broken into while we were asleep, they realized we were poor and just took my
wallet. I would of rather had them take anything else because they took my
drivers license and my companion doesn't have a drivers license so we had to go
on bikes until I could get something figured out. The same day I was able to
get a drivers license, the other missionaries crashed the car because the other
driver didn't yield in a roundabout. So we are on bikes for another 3 weeks
waiting for the car to get fixed. But after all one of the cops that came to the
crash was a lost in active member and we are going to try and get him to come
back to church. I believe all of this happened for a reason because we had many
opportunities to share the gospel with people while we were on bikes instead of
a car. We got to talk to more people on the streets and I was able to become a
better missionary because some pretty terrible things happened. Everything
happens for a reason. I learned great lessons not having a car, and we found
people we wouldn't have be able to find if we were in the car. None of the
people are progressing, but we hope to make them progressing sometime in the
future. I am kind of thankful that it happened because it has helped me grow
as a person. We are going to be on bikes for another 2 weeks, so I am going to
continue to lose some weight I gained from being stuffed by Samoans for 4.5
months. And we can share the gospel with people on the streets. So lots of
crazy things happened in the last 6 weeks and I am learning from them greatly.
Blessings can always be disguised in terrible things happening.
Anyways, This week has been a pretty slow week. We did a lot of tracting
with not too much success, but we were able to teach a couple of people. We
started teaching an African Girl. She is 15 and her parents told us we could
start teaching her. We have only taught her the first lesson, but she said she
would come to church next week, so we will see what happens with her. Her name
is Mira. We also taught Qayyum one last lesson before he left. All that need
to get done is his baptismal interview and then he can be baptized when he gets
back in January. I am really
excited for him. He already has plans on serving a mission and he isn't even
baptized yet. So he is going to be a really strong convert, and it is all
because A member invited his friend to come to church. I think sometimes
members are afraid to share the gospel with their friends because it might ruin
friendships, but we have to share is the greatest news that we have in this
lifetime. Many people don't know what the purpose in life and that the same
church that was on the earth in Jesus Christ's time is on the earth again today. I would love to encourage all of
you to at least invite your friends to come to church with you because Qayyum
just had to feel the spirit once in order to learn more. He knew he had to join
right when he felt the spirit in the meeting. So it is easy to just invite your
friend to church, because it makes missionary work a lot faster because
missionaries don't know anyone and they rely on the members to share the gospel
because conversions are so much greater when the members are involved.
I also had a miracle occur this
Saturday when we were tracting. We came to a door where this guy was
smoking on his front porch, He told us he had a lot of problems, we gave him
a pamphlet and gave the regular sh peel about the restoration. We gave him the
pamphlet and went on our way. As we got to the end of the street I felt like we
needed to go back and talk to this guy. So we went back and talked with him and
he said he just needed someone to talk to, So we talked with him for about an
hour while sharing the restoration message. We all got along really well and
formed a friendship fast. He said that he wanted to continue taking the lessons
and he said that we came just at the right time and he recognized that God had
sent us to him and that he needed to come to church. The only thing was that
the next day he was flying and moving to Sydney. So we referred him to the
missionaries down there. So if I ignored that prompting to go back and talk to
him, he would have moved away being in a terrible mood about life, and since I
followed it and went back to talk to him, he wants to learn more about the
church and I hope that the missionaries down in Sydney will do a good job with
that. I will never know if he gets baptized, but I hope that even though he
moved he can still learn more about the gospel. This strengthened my testimony
that the God does give missionaries promptings. And it is important that we
stay worthy to receive those promptings. I love being a missionary and doing to
work. That experience is just what I needed after a very long unsuccessful
week.
Yesterday I had to chance to
go to a small town named Ingham which is about 1.5 hours north of townsville.
They hold a sacrament meeting up there once a month, so once a month a member
of our bishopric and the missionaries go up there. I gave a talk in the
sacrament meeting and the spirit was really strong. There was a total of 6
people at the sacrament meeting and there are 2 investigators up there the other
missionaries are teaching. And they are great people. Some people who live in
small towns are pretty crazy though. I guess this is good but one of the crazy
old ladies said that she saw angels as I was giving my talk... so I guess I did
a good job. It was a good experience to help out in the places where the church
is just lingering, and growing slowly. North Queensland really struggles with
the church, but with the influx of missionaries coming in, more missionaries
will be able to go to North Queensland and some of the small places will be able
to grow. I am excited to see what is going to be happening up here in the next
couple years because there are going to be so many missionaries up here soon
because of the age changes.
That was my week. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week. I
attached some pictures of me on Mt. Stuart overlooking Townsville, a picture of
me on Santa's lap at our branch Christmas party, and a picture of the tree we
made out of wood, chicken wire, and garland.
Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson
