Elder Kyler Powelson: 2013

December 17, 2013

Hello All,

Time flies by really fast. I come home in exactly 6 months from today. I can’t believe how fast these 18 months have been. We went to the temple today and it was great! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas with the extreme heat and humidity. I won’t be seeing much snow this year. It is very interesting having Christmas and it being this hot. It is sad that Australians don’t really know what a real Christmas looks like.

Anyway, this week was pretty good! We started teaching Christopher with his wife as well now. They are reading the Book of Mormon together and things are going well we are hoping to commit them to baptism this week before the Christmas season.

Most of our work lately has been working with the fewer inactives in the ward. Nephi is progressing really well. He has started reading the scriptures and praying on a regular basis and he is seeing the difference it makes in his life. He said, "It keeps me G'ed up with the spirit I feel on Sunday" So it makes him feel good and feel the spirit. He really wants his wife to believe, but right now she is an atheist, but we taught that if he continues to life righteously, she will see the difference the gospel makes in his life, and will want to make that change as well. It may take time, but it will happen. He is really good. Helping him come back to the church makes me feel just as good as baptizing someone because he is making a lot of the same changes a convert would in order to come into the church. It has definitely been a testimony builder!
The mission is having a mission Christmas party on Christmas Eve, and I am looking forward to it because I will get to see many missionaries I haven’t seen in a while. There will be about 240 missionaries there. About 20 missionaries will miss out since they are in Northern Queensland like I was last year, so this will be my first and last Christmas party as a missionary.
I can’t wait to talk to my family on Christmas. I love being a missionary and I hope you all have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

December 9, 2013

Hello All,

This week was great! In the 2 months I have been in Kenmore we found our first solid investigator! It feels great! His name is Christopher and he is from Fiji. I found him last week when I was on a trade off with one of the zone leaders Elder Ladd, and we had just finished seeing a less active member and as we were walking back to the car I felt like going and talking to him. He told us to come back the following week and we did. I was with one of the YSA in the ward on splits and we taught him about the Restoration. He had many questions and he told us that no other religious person he had talked to had been able to answer his questions, and that we answered them all and he liked the answers we gave him. He told us he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We are going to meet with him again on Wednesday and I am really looking forward to it!

We did some finding and we were able to teach 15 lessons to less active members which is a lot. We are hoping that some of them will be wanting to come back to church here pretty soon!
Now for a funny story. I went on tradeoffs with another missionary in my district, Elder Farr. and we went to go teach one of their investigators who is on date for January. We had the lesson outside in their yard, and as we were about to start this man came into the yard and started talking to us. A lot of people in Australia drink a lot of Alcohol (Australia has the 2nd most Alcohol consumption in the world per capita) so we come across quite a few people who have been drinking especially on the weekends. So this guy who had some drinks came and talked to us. He grabbed Elder Farrs hand to shake it and held onto it for the whole conversation. He commented that Elder Farr looked nice and he guessed his age that he was 19, and he was right. He then looked at me and said "Well, You look like you are about...............Fat... and you have a lot of pimples. I have this cream that God gave me and you put it on like this.. (He is rubbing his hands all over his head in a very aggressive manner) Praise the Lord!!" Then he walks off. It was pretty funny. It’s kind of one of those things where you had to be there for it. The lesson was then very spiritual and I really enjoyed seeing the way other missionaries do things.

My week was great and I am really looking forward to this next week. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

December 3, 2013

Hello All,

This week was pretty good. We tracted and contacted a lot. We found some good potentials that I am really looking forward to following up with this week. Nephi is still doing great! We will hopefully have some new investigators this week! Our teaching pool wasn't really progressing, so we decided to start fresh, and find some new souls to teach that will progress in the gospel!

Yesterday I got to go tracting with the Mission President! It was an amazing experience. It was only for about 30 minutes, but I tried my best to work him hard. We met up with him and the AP's and my companion went with the AP's while I went with President. I made him run with me to the street we were tracting and we were sprinting from door to door talking to as many people as possible. President Henderson is big into staying fit. He has come up with a fitness program for us to use in the mornings and he calls it "Snap Gravity" because in the morning if we wake up and get a very effective exercise period in where we sweat, it sets the tone for our day. And it really does. It wakes you up and gives you way more motivation to work during the day. But with tracting it was great because even when people would say they were not interested he would make sure they felt the spirit and made sure that God sent us there to talk to them. He gave them the most solid chance to accept the gospel. Everyone we talked to felt the spirit and still rejected it. It is sad to see, but he was telling me that if we do our best and have the feel of the spirit, that is all we can do. It was a great experience and I hope that I can do it again someday.

There are many challenges in my mission at this time, but they are definitely making me a way better person. Our mission president tells us that our missions are the MTC for the rest of our life. They are there to shape us and make us the best person possible. I have learned so much these last couple months. I have had experiences that I know will help me become a better person in the
future, and make me more like our Savior. Earlier this year Elder Pearson from the Area Presidency told us that the mission is here to save the rising generation.

I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

November 15, 2013

Hello All!

My week was pretty good! We tracted a lot. We are also working a lot with our less active members. Nephi came to church again and is having us meet his non-member wife, so hopefully we will be able to start to build trust with her. He is the best and he is really wanting to return to church which is a great thing!

We did see a miracle this week as well! On Friday we were tracting for a really long time and we were really praying for a miracle. After finding no success tracting we decided to go see a less active that lived nearby. As we were about to knock on her door this man yelled down to us from another unit and told us that he really needed someone to talk to, so he let us up into his unit and we talked with him for quite a while. He had some terrible things happen to him and he said he was praying for God's help and then he noticed that we were the answer to his prayers. It is a great miracle that occurred because of we exercised our faith and hoped that something would happen.

While tracting this week we went to the door of some persons house, and the a lizard the same size as the one in the picture was just chilling on the door. We thought it was fake because there was no way that a massive lizard would just be chilling on someones front door. My companion decided to touch it and lets just say it wasn't fake. It fell down and hit my companion with its tail and ran off. The picture of the lizard I am sending is actually a really small lizard compared to other ones I have seen. I also put a picture of me with my companion Elder Kumar from Fiji.

I love being a missionary! I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

Elder Kumar and Elder Powelson

November 19, 2013

Hello All,

This week was pretty uneventful as far as missionary work goes. Every lesson cancelled or they weren't home when we went by. It was the last week of the transfer, and I am going to be staying as the District Leader and I am going to stay with Elder Kumar. It should be good. I'm learning a lot, even though we have been going through some struggles. But the best new ever. The miracle I talked about last week with that guy named Nephi, He came to Church! It was great. He was talking about how he has been living the worldly life for too long and that it was time for him to come back to church and become active again after being away for over 10 years. He has a 5 year old daughter and his partner is not a member. She isn't too interested, but another family that has recently come back to church knows her, so we are going to have her work with them, and hopefully we can start working with him and his family! It was a great accomplishment after not having very much success at all. He is a great man, and I am looking forward to working with him some more!

We also had a Zone Conference which was awesome! President Henderson talked a lot about making the Book of Mormon the Keystone of our mission. He put a challenge out to read the whole book of Mormon in 2 transfers (3 months) and highlight in a fresh Book of Mormon any word, phrase or anything that talks about Jesus Christ. As I have been doing so I didn't realize how much the book of Mormon talks about our Savior. As it should because the True church of Jesus Christ should be centered around Jesus Christ! It was a really good day of training and I learned a lot of things. I also got to see Elder Grayson (the missionary I trained) He is doing really well, and it was great to see him because I miss him heaps.

I love being a missionary. There are struggles, but I love them because they will only make me stronger. I miss you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Love
Elder Kyler Powelson

November 11, 2013

Hello All,

My week was pretty good! We did a lot of finding, and we have been visiting a lot of less actives. The Lord keeps giving us less active miracles, so I have decided that we are going to focus a lot more on working with the less actives than finding. Because most the time there are non members behind the doors of less active members. I will share one really great less active miracle though.

On Saturday we went on splits with the YSA, and I was with this boy named Lance who got baptized in June. He is 18 and is looking to serve a mission next year. He is really good, and is the man! We went out tracting and we said a prayer. As we were walking down the street, we decided to turn left at this street, which was the direction we did not want to go it the first place, but we followed the prompting and went. About 30 seconds later a car turned back around and the man in the car said "Hey, my name is Nephi which is the church around here, I am a member who has been less active for over 10 years and I am looking to get back into it" He isn't on the records and he didn't know where the church was, so we got his information and we went back to his house on Sunday. We had a really good lesson with him, and he will be at church next Sunday. His partner is not a member, so we will try and build her trust as well! I am excited to work with them!

We are helping out lots of less actives. We taught about 15 less active lessons this week which is a lot, but we are hoping that we will be able to find investigators through the less active members! I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!
Love
Elder Kyler Powelson

November 6, 2013

Hello All,

We went to the temple this morning and it was great! I love going to the temple. So many of my prayers get answered. I received so much revelation! It was great!

This week was pretty good! We were not able to meet with many of our investigators this week unfortunately, so we did heaps of finding! I never thought I could get such big calluses on my knuckles from knocking on doors. The ward isn't too keen on helping with missionary work, so we have had to do lots of finding. We still meet with Reza, but it is hard to teach him because he doesn't understand anything, so we decided to start teaching him a bit of English, and then when he can understand us, we will teach him a bit more.

Most of the success we have been having is from reactivating less active members. I don't know if I have talked about them before, but we have been working a lot with a couple named Vera and Sefo. They just started coming back to church and are planning on getting married in January. They are the best! They are also fellowshipping and finding more less active members for us to teach. Two doors down from where they live, they found a less active lady and her kids who weren't on the record, but want to come back to church. Her name is Jazz. We have been teaching her, and she will be coming back to church next week!

We have also been working with part-member families. We are just trying to build their trust, because a lot of the time you have to have their trust before the non member will listen to the message. A couple we are working with are Tania and Andrew. They have started coming back to church. Andrew has been taught by missionaries for 2 years, but has never committed to anything. So I decided to teach him a lesson about receiving an answer from the Holy Ghost. For 2 years no one ever taught him how to feel the holy ghost. We committed him to Read and Pray about the Book of Mormon. He said if he got an answer, then he would be baptized. Which is great! He has been busy with University study, but we are hoping to meet with him this week to set a date!

I love being a missionary. I know that there is no better work than missionary work. You don't have to be a missionary to do missionary work. Member missionary work is the most effective type of missionary work. Members are the finders, and Missionaries are the teachers. That is the ideal situation anyway. If a non member is taught in a members home the conversion rate goes up to 80 percent. So I challenge you all to follow the counsel given to us by Apostles of God at this last General Conference, and pray for opportunities to share the gospel with you friends. It is time for the work of the Lord to Hasten.

I Love you all and I miss you and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

October 28, 2013

Hello All,

My week was really good this week. We worked really hard. The Zone Leaders challenged us to see who could get the most proselyting hours and whoever lost has to buy the others Lunch. Unfortunately though we tied with 51 proselyting hours. We accomplished this by going on splits with the members a lot. We taught heaps of lessons and we also tracted and contacted heaps. We definitely saw many miracles, but we don't know how we are going to work out lunch with the zone leaders. We were able to visit and share messages to 14 Less Active families and we hope that we will be able to teach them some more to help them come back to church, and we are also working with a couple of part member families, and we are hoping to set a couple of baptismal dates soon. I will talk about a couple miracles we saw this week.

We started teaching this man named Reza. He is from Iran and barely understands English. It has been pretty hard teaching him, but we used pamphlets and the Book of Mormon in Arabic and Persian. He is starting to understand what we are teaching him. He is looking to join Christianity because in Iran he owned oil and had lots of money, and the Muslim people would take his oil and his money and then throw him in jail. So he found a way to get out of the middle east and come to Australia. We invited him to pray about the things we taught him, and he agreed, so we are hoping that the spirit can touch him and we will be able to help him and his wife progress.

We also taught Chris this week. ( The man I contacted on the bench) and he is really good! He and his partner are both interested and we taught him the plan of salvation and I felt promised to focus on the Atonement and tell him how he can repent and return to live with God and Jesus Christ. So I briefly taught Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. He said that we wanted to be baptized, which made me happy and was a great surprise, but the only problem is we cant set a date with him until he either separates from his partner, or if they get married. But I am really looking forward to teaching them and helping them progress.

Finding wasn't too fruitful this week, but we will keep at it. We are hoping to bring some less actives back to church. We have been working with a less active family that came back to church a couple of months ago, and they helped us find another less active family who also wants to come back to church.

The work is progressing in Kenmore and it is going really well! I love being a missionary! I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

October 21, 2013

Hello All!

I am doing really well and I learned so many lessons this week! The Kenmore Area was dead before I came to the area, and the Zone Leaders challenged me to get 32 hours proselyting with lessons and finding hours. It is a hard feat, but I knew if I got it then the Lord would bless us and the work would progress. We ended up getting 34 hours proselyting and the miracles followed. We are leading the Brisbane zone for the number of hours proselyting and we lead the mission this week in the number of people contacted. We talked to 506 people this week, and it was more than any other area in the mission.

Now for one of the big miracles this week. On Saturday we were leaving our flat to go street contacting, and I saw this islander sitting on a bench, so I decided to go sit next to him and talk with him. He was happy to see us. He said he was just praying for someone to talk to because he was going through a lot of trials at that time in his life. He told us all the drama he was going through, and so we shared a message with him about faith and how trials are a test of our faith. We shared Ether 12:6 with him, we gave him a Book of Mormon and set a return appointment for Tuesday. After talking with him for about an hour he said he felt so much better, and is really looking forward to seeing us on Tuesday. His name is Chris and I am really looking forward to teaching him.

We also contacted this guy named Reza from Iran and he didn't speak very well English, but he wants to know more about Jesus Christ and we are going to give him Arabic Pamphlet and Book of Mormon to teach him. It should be a good experience trying to teach him through a different language, but I am looking forward to it!

With our 23 hours of finding we also found 6 potential investigators. The work is going good! I love being a missionary and I hope you all have a great week!]

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

October 14, 2013

Hello All,

After my unexpected transfer it has been pretty good to be put into the Kenmore 1 area. It hasn't seen any success in a while, so it will be a nice challenge. It seems like there is a pattern to when I get transferred from areas. From my other areas I got transferred right after I had some people lined up for baptism. We had 2 people lined up for baptism in Redcliffe and then I get transferred to an area where people need to be found. I guess some are called to plant seeds, some are called the nurture the seeds, and some are called to harvest the seeds. I don't know why they ended the training with Elder Grayson, but I guess the Kenmore district needed me. I will most likely train again on my mission. There have been many challenges so far this week.

We are teaching this boy named TJ, who really wants to be baptized, but his Dad isn't a member and we have to get his Dad's permission to baptize him, so we are hoping and praying that his Dad's heart will be softened and let him be baptized. It should be good!

We also taught this guy from Iran It name sounds like Farrad (I don't know how to spell it), but he was baptized in Adelaide, but he moved away before he could receive the Holy Ghost, so we will most likely have to re baptize him, but the only problem is he is strongly against being rebaptized, so we will have to solve that concern. I don't know why the missionaries in Adelaide told him it was alright for him to move without receiving the Holy Ghost. We will have to work with what we have though.

We also tracted heaps and watched General Conference. Which was really great! The goal is to make the Missionaries and the Members in alignment, so that the work can progress because it is time for hastening the work of Salvation. It is the members job to find and the missionaries job to teach, so continue to pray for opportunities to share the gospel with you friends. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

October 8, 2013

Hello All,

This week was interesting! Everything was going well and then on Sunday I got a call from our Zone Leaders telling me that I was getting transferred. It was unexpected because Elder Grayson was only half way done with his training. I am now in a place called Kenmore which is in the Brisbane Zone, so it is pretty much in the city. My companion is Elder Kumar from Fiji. He seems good. I am looking forward to working in the area, and seeing what I can do because there is a purpose to why I am here.

It was hard to leave Redcliffe, but I am looking forward to what is going to happen.

That is about it for the news that I have. Hopefully I will have more to talk about next week. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson

September 30, 2013

Hello All,

This week was really good! We focused a lot on the Baptism of Alex! There is a picture attached! It was a great experience to see Alex change and grow so much. Two months ago Alex came into church really depressed and has changed a lot after the two months. He is a super happy person now, and he is pretty much the man! I felt the spirit really strong at his baptism and as I was baptizing him. He felt the spirit and he knows that he is now clean of all his past transgressions, and he feels really good! He is really converted and it is great to see! The whole experience I had with him will be remembered my whole life! It best part of being a missionary is watching someone like Alex change so much because of the gospel! It makes me love being a missionary! All the hard times we have are made up by a baptism of someone as great as Alex!

As for the rest of the week, we tracted. We are hoping to find some good success. We have a new bishop and a new ward mission leader, so things should really start to take off with missionary work! We found this man named Garth and he is really interested and open in learning about the gospel. His beliefs match ours really well, so it should be good once we can meet with him more.

I love missionary work. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson

Elder Powelson Alex Elder Grayson

September 24, 2013

Hello All,

This week was really good! Elder Grayson and I have been doing really well! Our investigator Alex is completely ready for baptism this Saturday and there is nothing holding him back anymore. I am really excited for it. In the last two months Alex has gone from have shaggy hair, a full beard, showing up to church in jeans and tee shirt to now having a nice haircut, no beard and wearing a suit that one of our members gave him. He is fully ready to be baptized and I am way excited. I would say that out of all the investigators I have had, he has changed the most so he could be baptized. It has been a great experience to see. It makes me LOVE missionary work!

Another person we found last week is a guy named Garth. He is really good! We tracted into him, and as we have been teaching him he says what he believes and it is always something we believe as well! We have another lesson with him this week and we hope everything will go well!

We have been tracting a lot this week. Not as much success as usual, but it has been really enjoyable! This week was the first time in 15 months of being a missionary where someone physically chased us out of his yard. It was pretty crazy. We gave his daughter a pass a long card and the next thing we knew as we were walking away this guy was yelling and swearing and he ended up throwing the card back at us. It was more funny than anything. I think we ruined his day just because we knocked on his door. We have also met some really nice people.

I love being a missionary. It is the greatest work ever! I am excited for this weekend as well! It is going to be great! I miss you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

September 15, 2013

Hello All,

This week was pretty good! Alex is now set for baptism on the 28th of September. I am really excited with helping him make that goal. He is ready, there are just a few things that he needs to get over. He is probably one of the most ready investigators I have had my whole mission. He is really good and it is a great testimony builder.

We were also able to set a baptismal date with our investigator Stuart. He is really good. He wants to change and we set a goal for him to be baptized on Oct 19th. So I am excited for that! He has some Word of Wisdom issues, but we will help him overcome those things. I am excited for it!

We also had a lot of success tracting this week! We found some really good potentials that I am excited to work with! I will hopefully be able to tell you some good stories about them next week!

With Elder Grayson as my companion, and with his great faith, and having the strong desire to work, we are finding heaps of success and the work in Redcliffe is going to be moving forward! We got a new bishop, who is way missionary minded, so all the efforts we have been using with the ward will happen really well!

It was a great week! I love being a missionary! and I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson

September 8, 2013

Hello All,

This week went really well! Alex has come a long way, we did have to move his date back to the 21st of September, but he has come a long way and just need a little extra time getting over some things. He is one of the best investigators I have had. He has become a completely new person over the last 6 weeks! He has gone from being depressed to being one of the happiest people I know. I am really looking forward to his baptism in a couple of weeks!

We also had a few miracles this week! Elder Grayson has so much faith and combined with my faith great things are happening! We went tracting and Elder Grayson knocked on the door and the lady asked for a book of Mormon. Elder Grayson's reaction reminded me of The Best Two years movie. He was so shocked he couldn't say anything, so I had to take over because he was super shocked that someone asked for a book of Mormon. It is definitely not a common thing, but it does happen. The Lady turned out to be an in active member who left the church 8 years ago, and want to get back into it. She also has 3 kids who could potentially be baptized. Her name is Nikki and I am really looking forward to working with her and her family!

We also had an experience with a Bogan (Australians version of a Redneck) So they have cut up shorts, cut up shirts and they always have a beer and a cigarette in each hand. We tracted into him and he let us in. So we taught him and he was not very drunk, so he understood everything we were saying. He was super enthusiastic and he said YES! to everything. We have another lesson with him today, so we will see if he has read the Book of Mormon at all. It would be cool to see him change and transform his life. His name is Stuart.

We also did lot of finding this week! It was great! Found some good potentials and we are looking forward to following up this week! I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson

September 1, 2013

Hello All!

This week was really good! After working in the city with Elder Wilson for 2 days I received my Golden (what the ABM calls Greenies..) He is the man! His name is Elder Grayson from Alberta Canada! He is fresh out of the MTC, 18 years old and just got out of High School a few months ago. The few days we have worked together so far have been really good! He has the greatest energy and spirit! He has great faith and things are going to really start happening here in Redcliffe! I can just feel it! We tracted and found way more potential investigators than we usually do! We taught a great lesson to Alex!

We did have to push back Alex's Baptism to the 14th because there is a small Word of Wisdom issue, but it will be solved by the 14th! I am really excited! Alex's faith has grown a lot and you can tell that he is so much happier than he was when we met him 4 week ago! Missionary work is just so awesome!

Training a new missionary is awesome, I feel the spirit so strong as I teach him things. I definitely feel inspiration come and I know that it is from God! I love being a missionary and I know that the church is true and that this is where I need to be! I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

President Henderson Elder Powelson Elder Grayson
Sister Henderson

Elder Powelson and Elder Grayson

August 27, 2013

Hello All,

Today was transfer meeting. Elder Lao got the Ultimate Transfer Home and I am going to be receiving a trainee. I have been called to be a District Leader Trainer. I am excited for the new challenges that lay ahead of me. I get my trainee on Thursday, but for the meantime I am
serving in the city with another missionary who will be getting a new missionary as well!

Alex is going really well and he is set to be baptized on the 7th of September. I am really excited for it and I am really looking forward to it. He is everything that I have been praying for on my mission!

This week is going to be really busy. I don't have much to talk about, but I am sure I am going to have a lot of great experiences to share next week! I love being a missionary! Sorry this is a short email, but I don't have much to say. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson

August 19, 2013

Hello All,

This week was great! We went to the zoo today for our P-Day and I got to feed some more kangaroos and get some more good pictures! It was a lot of fun! I will send some pictures next week!

As for the work, Alex is going really well! We taught him a few times and he was having a struggle with knowing that the Book of Mormon is true and we shared a whole lesson about the book of Mormon and asking about its truthfulness and it was the greatest thing ever when he came to church and told us that he had received a confirmation that the book of Mormon is true and that everything we have shared with him to be true. So he is set solid for a baptism on the 7th of September, transfers are next week and Elder Lao is going home, so I will most likely be staying, so I am really excited!

The new mission presidents wife has put together a website and everyone should check it out. It is australiabrisbanemission.com There are some good things on there. She is putting on the mission baptism miracles and all the things that happen in the mission.

We taught a few people this week and we will hopefully be getting some new investigators this week as well. the work is great! I love being a missionary! I will let you all know next week of what happens at transfers. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

August 13, 2013

Hello All,

My week was really good this week! The best thing that happened this week was when we taught Alex. 2 weeks ago Alex showed up at church, and we started to teach him. He wants to be baptized and he is going to be baptized on the 7th of September. It is a very exciting time. It was definitely a miracle finding him. After our first lesson with him he quit smoking and he keeps changing more and more every day. The gospel has made him happy. The first day I met him he was not smiling and he was not satisfied with his life. In just the week we have been teaching him he is way more happy and knows that the gospel is making him happy and changing his life! The greatest thing about being on a mission is being able to watch the gospel change peoples lives. He is happy and he will be baptized, we just have to finish teaching him everything. It is a major miracle and it has strengthened me in so many ways. I have a strong testimony in fasting and prayer and watching the miracles happen! It is so great!

Elder Pearson a member of the Pacific Area Presidency came and visited us yesterday and I was able to learn so much from him. He is really good and I definitely heard things I needed to and the spirit was also helping me know how I can improve as a missionary.

We also starting teaching this man named Shane who is a friend of one of the members. We shared the Restoration with him and he thinks that it makes sense and he said that he would read and pray about the book of Mormon before we could even commit him to do so. It was great. We are going to teach him again this week and hopefully everything will go well!

I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

August 7, 2013

Hello All,

Before Sunday this last week was really rough, not gonna lie, almost all the investigators we had weren't interested anymore and our tracting and other finding had no fruits, but this hard week led us to have 2 miracles on Sunday!!

I have gained a strong testimony of fasting! On Saturday night as I was thinking about what to fast for and I asked for 2 specific things. I asked that a non member would come to church, so we could teach them, and then I also prayed that we would find someone to baptize on the 24th of August. And Both of those things happened!!!!!

Soon after we arrived at church a man named Alex showed up at church and said he was interested in learning about the gospel. This made me way excited!!! He stayed at church for the 3 hours and he loved it. He told us that he felt the spirit and that he felt that this was what he needed in his life. We taught him a lesson on Monday and the spirit was way strong as we taught him about the Atonement of Christ and how he can be forgiven of all the things he had done in his past. He loved it and we have another lesson with him tomorrow!

The second miracle was when we saw a former investigator who has investigated the church for 2 years show up to church with her husband who is a member. We saw them and after church we decided to go to their house for a visit and as we talked to them Tia said that she really wanted to be baptized and the only thing she is waiting for is for her husband to become worthy enough to baptize her, he committed to talk to the bishop and we set a baptismal date for the 24th of August!

I was really happy closing my fast that day and I continue to hope and pray that everything goes well with them.

Yesterday night we took one of our YSA's our to a lesson with us, and the person we were going to see cancelled the lesson, so we went and visited someone he knew who might be interested in the gospel. To our surprise, Shane let us in and we taught him the Restoration. He started to cry during the first vision and he asked us if he could have a Book of Mormon, and he told us he would read and pray about it before we could even commit him to do so. It was GREAT!! We are going to teach him again on Saturday!

Today we got to go to the temple, and it was great as it always is!!!

I love being a missionary! Things are really starting to pick up and I am really excited to see what is going to be happening in the next couple of weeks. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

July 29, 2013

Hello All!

My week was good! Not too many interesting things happened. After Thea moved away it left us with no progressing investigators, so Elder Lao and I set a goal to find someone to baptize on the 24th of August because it will be Elder Lao's last Saturday on his mission, so we are working really hard to find a miracle!

We tracted and contacted heaps this week trying to find people, we were able to find a few potentials which I am excited to follow up with. We have been working a lot this week with a few part member families.

The most exciting part is that Our Ward mission team is great. there are 15 newly called ward missionaries which makes a massive ward mission team. We are visiting a lot of less active members with them every week. A less active we have been working with name Aiesha came to sacrament meeting this week, which I was really excited about! The Pacific Area authorities have been telling us to focus a lot on less active members, so the Redcliffe ward is ahead of the game and soon there will be lots of people to teach, they just have to be found through the less actives of the church. We are also starting that new program I talked about a few weeks ago, so it will definitely bring people to teach in the future.

I have prayed and I found out that my work here is going to be planting seeds more than anything. Some missionaries are called to Plant, some are called to Sow, and some are called to Harvest. Right now I am called to plant some seeds, so I am working really hard to do that and hopefully those seeds will be harvested in the future. I love being a missionary! and I love the work that I am doing! I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson

July 22, 2013

Hello All,

This week was pretty good! Our investigator Thea ended up moving to Logan, so the missionaries down there are going to be baptizing her in the next couple weeks.

We set a goal this week to find someone to baptized on the 24th of August. It is the last Saturday of the transfer and the last Saturday of Elder Lao's mission, so we are praying and working super hard so we may accomplish that goal. Our Bishop and Ward Mission Leader are praying for us and we have great faith that we will be able to find someone. They are out there, we just have to find them!

We taught a few people this week, they aren't progressing at all, but on Sunday we taught these two 20 year old girls who are born again christian, and we politely proved their doctrine wrong, in a very nice manner and we committed them to Read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and we read the promise in Moroni 10:3-5 and they said they will do that, and they said if they did receive and answer then they would continue to meet with us. So I hope that they keep that commitment because I know if they do it, then they will receive an answer. It was a good lesson and I hope some great things come from it.

We tracted heaps this week and talked to a few good people and got some potentials, so I am really looking forward to this next week! I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson

July 16, 2013

Hello All,

I am going to be with Elder Lao for one more transfer. He goes home after this one, so they decided to keep him here with me for another one. I am still the District Leader, thing are going to be great, every other companionship is the district is going to have a different missionary.

The week was pretty good. Thea, our investigator is doing really well. We taught her the plan of salvation and we had to change her baptismal date to the 10th of August. Because she needs to attend church more often before she makes the commitment. She knows what we share is true and is really looking forward to being baptized. I am excited for her and she might move but I hope that she stays in Redcliffe. I am really excited to see her change and make the commitment to be baptized.

Eddy is going well. We are continuing to teach him. We haven't been able to set a baptismal date yet, but it will be coming soon. He has to overcome some Word of Wisdom things but once he does I believe that he will be ready for baptism. It will be cool to see him change. It will take time but he is willing to change his whole lifestyle to become a member. I am excited to see the change he is going to make because one of the greatest parts of being a missionary is seeing someone change.

We contacted and tracted into heaps of people this week, it was great! We had our first meeting with the new mission president and it was great. I really like him. They told us that the new online proselyting and IPads will hopefully happen soon. He isn't too sure of when exactly it will start, but it will be cool to see. Missionary work has been great I love it. Time is going super fast. It will only be 11 months until I am home, so I am really trying to enjoy it while it lasts. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

July 8, 2013

Hello All,

This week was great! A miracle occurred, Our new mission president is awesome, and the Australia Brisbane Mission is going to be starting the online proselyting, and we are going to be getting IPads soon sometime within the next month! It was announced in a Worldwide Broadcast that all missionaries within the next year will start online proselyting in Church Building and receive things like IPads and other things. And our mission is going to be starting that soon. Missionary work is evolving and definitely being improved for the modern devices we have today. More people are on the computers and electronic devices it makes it ideal for missionary work to occur online. It is pretty exciting and I guess I will see how cool it is.

As far as the real miracle, On Thursday I had another missionary in my district with me on a trade off. His name is Elder Lutui from Tonga. Since I am the district leader I have to go on at least one trade off with everyone in my district. It is good to learn from everyone else. But a month ago we tracting into a less active lady and have been visiting her. A couple weeks ago we taught her niece who lives in a place called Logan which is South of the City. We taught her and referred her to the missionaries here. But when we felt prompted to visit them on Thursday the niece, Thea was there and we set an appointment to see her again on Saturday. When we went there on Saturday while we taught her the Restoration she told us that right before we knocked on the door on Thursday, she was praying for a sign that she needed in her life, and when we knocked on the door right after her prayer, she took that as the sign she was looking for and that she needed to join our church. We set a goal for her to be baptized on July 27th. She might be moving back to Logan but we are hoping that she stays here to live with her aunt. That experience definitely strengthened my testimony that missionaries are definitely inspired. Sometimes you don't notice that you touched someones life/answered their prayers just by a simple thought that led to an action. It was awesome and we are going to be teaching her. It is great! I makes me love missionary work. It makes all the hard times worth it! I love being a missionary. It is the greatest work that can be done on the earth today!

Yesterday I participated in my first group prayer when we taught some Born again Christians. One of them offered to say the prayer and then they took turns and did what they called a "popcorn prayer." It was very interesting. It came to my turn and they started nodding their heads and muttering under their breath saying things like yeah, and other things agreeing to the things I said like "Praise the Lord" It was an odd experience. I think I will stick to just having one person say a prayer in a group and for everyone else to be quiet while it happens.

We tracted a lot this week and found some good people. I love being a missionary. I miss you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson

July 1, 2013

Hello All,

I have been finally able to email some pictures again. The first one is with Elder O'Connor and I with Valerie Powell at her baptism on May 11th 2013. The other one is of Elder Lao and I with President and Sister Langeland at their farewell training. President and Sister Langeland have gone home to Utah and we have received President and Sister Henderson as our new mission president and wife from St. George Utah. I have not met them yet because they just arrived today. They might come to our Zone Meeting next week but if they don't I will get to meet them next week. The last picture is of my first encounter with a kangaroo when driving. I wish I could have got out to ride on it. It was massive. It was about 8-9 feet tall. and massive. It was pretty cool.

As for the week. We found people to teach!!! A few weeks ago we tracted into a less active member who had been looking at coming back to church and she has a partner who is a non member. We started teaching him. He is not too interested, but he said he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and he said if he received an answer that it was true, then he would be baptized!

About 2 weeks ago we street contacted this guy. We had a talk with him and he ended up not being interested then, but this last week we saw the same guy again when we went to visit a less active member who lived in a caravan park. We started teaching him, he came to church on sunday and he is excited to learn more about the gospel!!! It is pretty exciting. We are going to commit him and his daughter who came to church as well to baptism this week! It is really exciting. It was revelation that we were able to meet him multiple times because he did want to hear the message, it just took a couple of times for him to open up enough to accept the message. His name is Eddy and he is pretty solid.

Like always we did a lot of tracting, and we got a new ward mission leader who is keen, so missionary work is going to really pick up in Redcliffe in the next couple of months! I love being a missionary, I love you all, and miss you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

Elder Powelso Valerie Powell Elder O'Connor

Sister Langeland Elder Powelson Elder Lao President Langeland

June 24, 2013

Hello All,

It seems like I just wrote a few days ago. I guess I sort of did though. Not too much has happened in this last half week. We have been working hard in order to find people to teach. We decided that we needed to start from scratch because none of the investigators we had were progressing towards anything. So last week we tracted and put our efforts into finding people to teach. And it worked out pretty well. We were able to find and set return appointments with a lot of people. I am really looking forward to teaching some of these new people this week! We are hoping to build up a new teaching pool and have some success!

This week we started a new program off for the Redcliffe ward that will make the missionary work in the ward blossom. One of our members shared it with me and I decided to show it to the bishop and he loved it. As a ward we are going to set a goal for each family in the ward to find 1 person for the missionaries to teach by the end of the year. The point is to get the whole ward excited for it and then to share the process to do so with them. There are 6 steps to go through. The first step is to pray for inspiration on who you should work with, or someone who might be interested it the gospel. The second step is to build trust with that person and help them become comfortable with you. The 3rd step is to bring them to church activities and help them be acquainted with the church. The 4th step is to ask them to question Do you want to meet with the missionaries? If they say yes we meet with them. Step 5 is to fellowship them in your home as we teach and then the 6th step is to lead them to Baptism. The statistics tell us that if someone is taught by missionaries in a members home there is an 80% chance that they will join the church. It a lot better than just getting referrals and contacting them because the chance of conversion that way is less than 1%. I am going to kick the program off this week and within the next couple of months there will be some success from it. I know it will work because missionary work is more about working with members than tracting. The only reason we need to tract is because people are found that way as well which I have done on my mission.

I am working hard to make the Redcliffe area flourish. It is known for being an unsuccessful place, but I am going to change that and help the members to love missionary work! I love missionary work, and I love being a missionary. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

June 19, 2013

Hello All,

I am writing on Wednesday this week because we had our temple P-Day. The temple is only open Wed-Sat, so when we go to the temple they change our P-Day to Wednesdays. I love going to the temple. It takes a little big of travel, but it is definitely worth it! Today I received some good revelation and prayed for some things. I have felt the spirit strong today!

As for the work. It is going really well. We are in a stage right now where our investigators are moving away, or becoming not interested, so now we are in the stage of building up our teaching pool. We have some really good potentials from tracting this week, and have some good appointments.

Valerie Powell, Our recent convert should put on a name badge and become a missionary. She is the best at sharing the gospel with her friend and family! She is inviting one of her friends over for a herbal tea tomorrow and we are going to go over and teach her about our church. Valerie says that she is very interested and that she has some good questions to ask us. I am really looking forward to it. Valerie has been sharing her testimony with almost everyone that she meets. Its great! She is starting to receive persecution from some of her friends, but she said that she knows the church is true and that her friends cant do anything to persuade her otherwise. I am looking forward to having a herbal tea party with some 75 and 80 year old ladies though! It will be great and I feel really good about it!

We tracted into some good potentials and have some return appointments. You never really know how interested they are until the follow up appointment. The mission here is growing rapidly, which I'm sure is happening all over the world as well. It is exciting! I love missionary work! It is the best work in the world today! I did hit my year mark last Thursday. Time goes by so fast and everyone says the the last year goes the fastest. I love it and I hope time doesn't go too fast. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love
Elder Kyler Powelson

June 11, 2013

Hello All,

My week was pretty good. We did a lot of tracting. And we did find a few potentials. We were tracting a street and we ran into an in active member who said that she was praying for an excuse to come back to church, and she said that us knocking on her door was a big enough excuse for her to come back to church. She is living with a partner who is not a member, and he is open to have us teach him and come around. We are hoping that we will be able to have them get married eventually to where he can be baptized as well and so they can have a chance at becoming an eternal family. I was happy to be able to knock on their door and have an opportunity to teach them.

We got a media referral as well this week, to a family. We set an appointment to teach them this week and it will be great if things go well. It is always great teaching families because you can help them see the eternal aspect of it, and make them want to join the church as a family. I am really looking forward to teaching them!

We had our zone meeting yesterday where I gave my first training as a newly assigned leader and it went really well. It was a great experience because I know for a fact that the Spirit put words into my mouth that I never even planned to say, and it was great because one of the sister missionaries in the Zone came up to me afterwards and she said that some of the things I said touched her and made her want to become a better missionary. I love being a missionary and doing these things because I have never felt the influence of the Holy Ghost as strong as I have as a missionary than I have in my entire life. I love receiving revelation. I know that I am an inspired servant of God as a missionary. I hit my year mark this week, I know that the 2nd half of my mission is going to go by really fast and I am going to try my hardest to enjoy my mission because I know I am going to miss it greatly when I am done. My testimony has been strengthened so much as a missionary and to anyone that reads this who is thinking about going on a mission, Do it. You will never regret it, You feel Gods Influence stronger than ever, and you come to know without a doubt that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church on the earth today along with helping others receive the same testimony. I know with no doubt that this is the true church and that missionary work is the work that needs to come forth in these last days. The blessings are great! It brings me great joy and I love it!

I love being a missionary, there is no greater work. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

June 4, 2013

Hello All,

My week was really good! Today was transfer meeting and I received a new companion. His name is Elder Lao and he is from Sacramento California. I was also called to my first leadership position. I have been called to be a District Leader! I am way excited! There are 4 companionship's in my District. It feels good to know that the mission president trusts me too! This is President Langland's last month and next month we will be getting a new mission president.

For the area this week was good. Leah moved, so she is going to be baptized in a different area, but it is great to know that she is going to get baptized! And when I was with Elder O'Connor we had another miracle. Since he was leaving we were going around saying his good byes to members and one of them worked at the coffee shop and we went to say bye to her. As we were talking to the member outside a guy from Taiwan walked by and he look at us with a very shocked face. It was weird to see how shocked we was to see us and then he yelled out "Are you the religious people?" "I want you to come visit me and teach me" Both of us were greatly surprised. Turns out he had family and friends in Taiwan who had joined the church. We have an appointment with him on Thursday and I am pretty excited to see what happens.

Besides that it was a pretty slow week. We tracted heaps. Hopefully we will be able to set a date with the Taiwan guy. I am excited to see how everything goes with him. I love being a missionary! I know the church is true and I love you all. I miss you all, and I hope you all have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

May 27, 2013

Hello All,

This week was really good. We didn't have many crazy miracles like last week. This week we have been working a lot with those people though. On Tuesday we had a lesson with Matt and Saphirra, the 2 non members that showed up to church last week. It went really well and I felt the spirit really strongly as we taught them the Restoration. They are really interested and they want to take their time with everything, so we are going to let them do that and get baptized when they are ready to make that commitment. I love being a missionary when I have the spiritual experiences I had in the lesson with them.

We also taught Candice, Rachelle and Leah. They were the people we met because I crashed my bike. It went really well and Leah will be baptized in June. It is exciting and we are teaching them again this Wednesday to set a specific date for that. She seems really excited and I can't wait to help her achieve what she wants to achieve to enter the waters of baptism. It was a miracle meeting them and it is going to be really great to continue working with them.

A few weeks ago we visited a less active member and his non member wife. They were going through a struggle at the time and I shared a few scriptures at the time. Yesterday they showed up to church which surprised us greatly because it seemed like they weren't going to be coming back, but we then saw them again yesterday afternoon and he said that the scripture I shared with him changed his life, and after we left all he did was pray and read the Book of Mormon. He said that he found his answer and that he want to come back to church, to progress in his priesthood and to baptize his wife when the time comes. It is exciting to know that Me just sharing one scripture with them changed them so much after I left. I didn't think it was going to make that big of an impact on them, but it did. It strengthens my testimony and I cant wait to continue working with Tia and Paboy.

This week was good and there will hopefully be many more good things this week. I love being a missionary serving the Redcliffe Ward. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

May 20, 2013

Hello All,

I didn't email out last week because I skyped my family instead, and I didn't have time to send out an email. But for last week I had a baptism of a 75 year old lady named Valerie Powell. It went really well and she is a very strong member and she is already sharing the gospel with all of her friends and family, so hopefully we will have some more people to teach because of her willingness.

For this week the start of the week was pretty rough, but we had some cool miracles near the end of the week. On Saturday we were biking to our dinner appointment for the night and my companion was riding right in front of me. He decided to stop and GQ these people walking on the sidewalk and me not really paying attention and not expecting him to stop, I lost my balance, my chain fell off and I flew off the bike into a pile of bushes. The two people he street contacted were a middle aged lady and a 13 year old girl, and the first thing I heard was "I want to be baptized" by the 13 year old girl. Her mom is an in active member and the girl has already started reading the Book of Mormon. We are going to start teaching them this week and hopefully set a baptismal date for June. The bike incident was an instant ice breaker, so it was easy to talk to them and start a good friendship. I am so excited to start working with them this week! The girls name is Leah and her mom is Candice. Candice told us where her sister lived who was also inactive, and since we had no records for them it was pretty cool. So on Sunday we went and visited the sister and turns out she was in real need for a priesthood blessing because she was diagnosed with a blood disease that might kill her. We gave her a blessing and she felt so much better right afterwards. We are working with the whole family now and it is going to be a great experience! All of this big miracle happened because we were willing to talk to people on the path. This strengthened my testimony in that people who are prepared and need us are put in our path so we can do good!

On Sunday 2 non members showed up to church, and we are teaching them on Tuesday. They seemed really interested and we hope that we will be able to teach them and show them how the gospel can bless their lives.

The work is moving forward in Redcliffe and I am really excited to see what will be happening the next few weeks here. I love being a missionary and doing missionary work. I can't put my memory card into the computers here, so I won't be able to send pictures via email. I wish I could, but we will have to go without it for a little while.

I miss you and and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

May 8, 2013

Hello All,

The reason I am emailing so late in the week is because our P-day got switched to Wednesday so we could attend a temple session. And since the temple is only open Wed-Sat, they moved our P-day. We took the train to the city to go to the temple and then after we were done we take the train back to our areas to continue our P-day activities. The temple today was marvelous! It has been over 6 months since I have gone since I was 1100 kms away in my last area. It was great to go again and feel the special spirit of the temple. I loved it so much.

This Saturday our investigator Valerie Powell is getting baptized which is really exciting. She is 75 years old and is progressing really well. You would think that it would be hard for her to learn everything since she is so old, but she is actually learning and remembering things a lot faster than most of the other people I have taught on my mission. Her testimony is really strong and she loves everything about the church and she said that it is one of the best decisions of her life. Her husband passed away a few years back, so we decided to talk about the temple and how she can be sealed for time and all eternity with her husband, and now she can't wait to go to the temple in a year! It is going to be really exciting. The baptism is going to be great. I am super excited especially since it has been 6 months since I've baptized someone, so I am really looking forward to it!!!

Another investigator we have is named Chrissy. We weren't able to teach her this week though because she is busy with University study all week. We are hoping to meet with her soon and help her to start to progress for her baptismal date in July. Her and her partner are really cool people, we are hoping that they will work together to progress towards baptism and make the choice to be married in order to be baptized. I am really looking forward to see how things go with them!

We went out tracting a street this week and it felt like it was the street we needed to tract. We were tracting this street for about 2 hours total and every door was getting slammed in our face. Australians sometimes are rude when people come knocking on their door. After this was happening we saw this guy cleaning out his car at the end of the street. So we went and talked to him. He asked us for a pamphlet and asked us if we could come back and teach him. That pretty much never happens. But it did! We went and taught him and we shared with him The Plan of Salvation, and after we were done he said that he believed everything we said and then he set the return appointment. We are going back to see him this Friday and we hope things go really well. He has a few problems with Word of Wisdom things, but we will work on that another time. We just want to build up his testimony, and when we bring up the word of wisdom he will hopefully have no problems giving those things up because of his testimony.

We have been working hard and I love working with Elder O'Connor. He is definitely my favorite companion so far. Time has been going so fast! We are already half way through the transfer. Things are going well with me, I love being a missionary and I hope you all have a great week!!!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

April 29, 2013

Hello All!

I have been transferred. My new area is a place called Redcliffe. It is about 30 kms north of Brisbane city. I love it here. It is great. It is on a pennisula, so the whole area is surrounded by the ocean. It is pretty darn cool! The weather is always really good because of the breeze. It is a perfect 25 degrees Celsius daily. I think that is somewhere in the 70's for Fahrenheit. My new companion is Elder O'Connor and he is from Idaho Falls Idaho! It is a great area. I am in a Zone again and have missionaries all around. I like being around more missionaries again. Its better than just being around only 3 other missionaries the whole time. We live in a flat with two other missionaries and their names are Elder Malifa and Elder Sualefai. Elder Malifa is from Samoa and Elder Sualevai is from American Samoa. They are pretty cool and we all get along great!

ELDER DALLIN H. OAKS CAME TO BRISBANE AUSTRALIA.

Elder Oaks on Friday came to talk to all the missionaries and we all got to shake his hand. So it was really cool. He gave a really good talk to us and it was very inspiring. On Sunday he also came to speak at our Stake Conference! We were waiting outside and a van pulled up and Elder Oaks came out. He came up to us missionaries, shook our hands and had a conversation with us. It was really darn awesome! I can now say that I have had a conversation with an apostle! He acts just like a normal person and is really humble. He is pretty much the man! He is really funny as well. I didn't expect him to have as many jokes as he did because he usually seems pretty serious when he speaks at General Conference. It was a really good experience and it was really cool to feel of his spirit!

We have a couple of investigators who are progressing and are going really well. One of them is a 75 year old Lady and her name is Valerie Powell. It is really close to my last name, but it is even crazier because I also have a sister named Valerie. I thought it was pretty cool to see that my investigator has a really similar name to one of my sisters. She has a baptismal date for the 11th of May and she has a really good testimony. She knows it all is true and I am really looking forward to that day.

Chrissy is also another investigator we have. She came to the stake conference with Dallin H. Oaks and she really enjoyed it. She also got to shake his hand as well. She said that she knows it is true. She doesn't want to be rushed into baptism and she set a goal for herself to be baptized in July. She has a partner names Yohanne who we are also working with. Our goal is for them to get married and then to be baptized.

This week we also did a lot of tracting to find some new people. We had some success, but we don't really know until we follow up with them.

The ward is very missionary minded, and the work is just awesome in this area. I am really looking forward to what is going to be happening here, and to see what I can do here. We are working really hard, and I love being a missionary. The work is going great and I am having a really good time. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love
Elder Kyler Powelson

April 22, 2013

Hello All,

Today is my last day in Townsville. I am flying back down to Brisbane this evening and I will be finding out my new area tomorrow. I am going to miss Townsville a lot. I have worked hard and the fruits of my labor are starting to pay off. I am leaving after setting 6 baptismal dates for people to be baptized in May. 2 of them are still Bryan and Tyler, but this time I am certain that they will be baptized. We worked with them a bit more and they really are excited to be baptized. the other four are from a family where the mother is a member, but her husband and children are not members. Joeseph Sagigi who I talked a little bit about last week is getting baptized on the 11th of May and receive the priesthood and then he will be baptizing his 3 kids on the 18th of May. It is really exciting to see that family grow. They are already planning their temple sealing as a family for next May. I will still be on the mission and I will be able to see them be sealed as a family in the temple. That will be really exciting!

I have worked with a lot of people in the 6 months I have been here. I baptized 1 person in Townsville and brought many less active members back into the gospel. This work is truly great! I am going to miss these people and families very much. I really am grateful for my chance to be a missionary. It has been a great experience, and it is something that I encourage everyone else to do. I will let you all know how my new area is next week. A mission is worth it. The mission field is growing. When I first became a missionary here there were less than 150 missionaries in the ABM and now there is over 200 and there is estimated to be over 250 within the next 6-9 months. Sister Missionaries are coming in at bigger numbers than Elders. Missionary Work is moving forward all over the world. It is really cool to see the increase in people willing to serve and the increase in Sister Missionaries. It is cool to be a missionary during this change and to see everything that is happening. The Church is growing a lot here, and it is most likely growing all over the world!

My week was good and I am looking forward to new challenges that I will be receiving these next couple days. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

April 15,2013

Hello All,

Above are a few of the photos of me at the zoo. I got pictures with many other animals but I decided to put a few with kangaroos and Koalas. It is pretty cool!

My week went really well! We were able to set a baptismal date for a part member family! The wife is a member but her husband and kids are not and they are really keen to be baptized. They are the Sagigi family. Joe Sagigi, the father stood up in Elders Quorum and told everyone that he is going to be baptized, and he did this before we even started to teach him. This week we taught the Restoration Lesson and the spirit was really strong! He knows it is true and they will be baptized on the 11th of May. I might be leaving here, but it has been really exciting to see them progress!

Bryan and Tyler came to church again and their baptismal dates have been reset for the end of the month. This time they are 100 percent sure that they want to be baptized and they are really excited and it will be a great day for them. They are getting baptized at the end of this month!

Those are the most exciting things that happened this week! I will find out if i am staying or going on Friday. We tracted for over 20 hours this week as well, and were able to find a few good potentials, but we will be following up with them this week to see how interested they really are. Things are going really well with me! I love being a missionary and doing his work. I have had some hard times the last 6 months, but the work I have done is starting to pay off. I might not be here for the baptisms, but it is great to have helped change these peoples lives and truly make them happy knowing the truth of all things.

I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love
Elder Kyler Powelson

April 8, 2013

Hello All,

I have not been on a computer where I can send the photos of me at the zoo, but I will try and get those to you as soon as possible. You will see pictures of Elder Powelson and Kangaroos soon enough.

My week in the new area of Townsville West has gone really well. Elder Pickett has been a good short term companion. He is my 5th companion. Every one of my companions have been from a different country, so it is kind of cool. I wonder where my next companion is going to be from. I was told by the mission president that I will most likely be transferred back to the Brisbane area in 2 weeks. Missionaries only stay in North Queensland for 6 months so it will be my time to go. I love this area and it will be sad when I have to leave. The week has been good though

A less active member I had been working with since December finally came to church this Sunday and she said that she is going to keep coming back. She loved it. She has been less active for 20 years and she loved coming back to church. We found Cassandra tracting back in December and she told us that she was a member, but less active since she was a teenager. So it was exciting to see her at church! Its good to see that some of my hard worked payed off.

We tracted for over 20 hours this week and we were able to get quite a few potential investigators. Good things are going to be happening in this area in the next month of so. Elder Pickett is excited to see what happens. We have been visiting less active members and part member families this week and we are hoping to progress with some of them soon.

The week hasn't been too interesting, but I have loved it. I love being a missionary and helping people grow. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

April 2, 2013

Hello All,

This week has been pretty interesting. On Sunday there was a conflict with some missionaries so I was involved in an ET (Emergency Transfer) My area didn't change too much. I was transferred from the Townsville East area to the Townsville West Area. So now I am working on the other side of Townsville. It is pretty interesting to change, but I will by going back to Brisbane Area in 3 weeks. The Mission President told me that much. So I will only be in Townsville for 3 more weeks. I love it here. My new companion is Elder Pickett. He is from Idaho Falls, Idaho and we will be together for the next 3 weeks. He has only been in the area for 3 weeks so the West area pretty much has gotten whitewashed. He is a newer missionary. It is going to be an interesting experience. We get along really well, so things wont be too bad.

Our P-Day was made a day later because of Easter, Monday was a holiday because the library was closed.

Today we went to a zoo where I pet and fed kangaroos, koalas, and all other types of animals. I don't have time to send the pictures this week, so I will make sure to do so next week.

That is basically how interesting my week was. I have some new things I have to do.

I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

March 24, 2013

Hello All,

My week was great! Bryan and Tyler are progressing really well! They are ready to be baptized on the 30th of March. We just have to visit them and wait for that day to come. Everything is going well with them and I am excited for the day they are baptized!!

We were able to teach a lot of people this week, but none of them are progressing. The hardest part is to get these people to come to church. We are going to keep working with them and hope that things will change soon!

Yesterday we drove 2.5 hours South of Townsville to attend a branch down in a small town called Bowen. There were 15 members at church and it is a very strong close branch. Most of the people there are Tongans, so there was a massive delicious feed afterwards. It was great because I have been missing Island food since I finished serving in Raceview Ward.

A miracle happened today. We received a referral and it was from a member of our District Presidency and when he was visiting a Branch 1 hour west of Townsville he met a guy who is ready to receive the gospel and lives in our area of Townsville. We gave him a call and he wants us to come by later this week. It is pretty cool and it is great to know that we will be able to start teaching another person who is ready to receive the gospel.

We all set a goal to tract for 14 hours this week. And we achieved it. We were able to find some good potentials, but we never know how solid they are until we follow up with them.

Everything is going well with me. That was all the exciting things that happened this week. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson

March 17, 2013

Hello All,

We all set a goal to tract for 14 hours this week. And we achieved it. We were able to find some good potentials, but we never know how solid they are until we follow up with them.

Everything is going well with me. That was all the exciting things that happened this week. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Kyler Powelson