March 3, 2013

Hello All!

This week was pretty good. We were able to teach Tyler and Bryan twice this week. Things are going really well with them except they were not able to make it to church because their car had no gas in it. Since they have to come to church at least twice in the ABM in order to get baptized we had to move their date down to March 30th. They have 3 chances to come to church twice. The lesson we had on Thursday was great! We could feel the spirit strongly with the two of them there. We just aren't too sure if their less active mum is making excuses for travel to church. 2 weeks ago she wasn't feeling well, last week they lost the keys to the car and this week the car was our of petrol (gas). So hopefully there is no more problems with the car and we can get them to come to church so they can be baptized on the 30th. As a mission we are trying to break a record and have 75 baptisms as a mission for the month of march. The first week there were 21 baptisms which is the most the ABM has ever had in one week. So this month will be a month of record breaking and I hope we will be able to contribute to that record breaking at the end of the month. I have faith that they will be able to make it to church and we hope and pray that we will be able to baptize them. Their testimonies are strong and they are ready to make the commitment, it is just hard for the to come to church because they live about a 30 minute drive away. 

As for the rest of our investigators. none of them are progressing. They say that they will come to church, but they never show up on a Sunday morning. Australians have a really kick back type attitude, and waking up to come to church on a Sunday morning is apparently a really hard task to complete. None of them seem too promising, but we will keep going over and trying to share things with them and maybe they will come to church someday. We are working hard and we hope the blessings will come soon. 

The other two missionaries here in Townsville (Elder Tukukino and Field) are going to have an amazing baptism this weekend. And it is going to be really good to witness it. They have an investigator who is a partner (not married to but living together) with a member. She really wants to get baptized, but they have to be married first. So on Saturday morning they are going to have the branch president perform the marriage and then she is getting baptized Saturday night. So that will definitely be a good experience to witness. It is going to be awesome. It is both of their first baptisms after being on a mission for almost a year, so it is definitely going to be a great experience for them and I am excited for it. 

On Saturday we celebrated my birthday. It was Clean Up Australia Day, so we went to a park and picked up rubbish for a couple of hours and then we went to a less active members house Sister Starkey and we mowed her lawn that was taller than I am. I took a video of it and not a picture so I wont be able to send it to you. Then at night we celebrated my birthday at the chapel. Some members came along and we ate dinner and it was all organized by our Relief Society President Sister Tapaitau. I took a video of me blowing out the candles, so I wont be able to sent that picture.

The picture attached is a picture of us missionaries in Townsville From left to right it is Elder Sio (My companion), Elder Tukukino, Elder Miles, Sister Miles, Elder Field, and me. 

That was all the exciting things that happened to me this week. We did lots of tracting. We are trying to find new people and make the investigators we have progress. I miss you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kyler Powelson