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

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