Hello All,
This week has been spectacular in Townsville! Elder Kay and I
have been getting lots of work done. Work hasn't been done in this area for a
long time. There hasn't been any baptisms for 2 years and the last thing that
has been done was over a year ago according to the area book. Lots of people
have the conception that they can come up north and since they are so far away
from the mission president they can just be lazy. Which is dumb. But we have
started working hard and have set 2 baptismal dates. One which is this
Saturday. The one for this Saturday
is a philipino lady named Sarah. As we taught her she said she has never felt
happier in her life. She grew up as a Jehovah's Witness and she told us that
they worry about how everything is logically. I don't understand this because I
have learned of many scriptures in the Bible that prove their doctrine wrong.
We tracted into a Jehovah's Witness and all they ever want to do is try and prove
us wrong. So what I do is try to prove them wrong. Which I did really well.
There are so many scriptures in the bible that they just seem to ignore just
because it proves them wrong. Whenever I brought a scripture up, they would
forget what I just said and try another thing that would prove us wrong. They
could never prove any of our doctrine wrong. But we could prove almost
everything they said wrong. It was a big waste of time, but it was just so much
fun proving them wrong over and over again. I was telling them the truth and
telling them in a really nice way that their doctrine is incorrect, and at the
end of being proved wrong many times they just told us to have a nice day and we
left. They just don't make any sense. That what I like about our church. It
makes complete sense. Now going back to Sarah, the Jehovah's witness went to
visit her to try and get her to not get baptized, and she said that our church
made more sense and that she felt in her heart that it was the truth. So, they
left and she is getting baptized on Saturday
which I am way excited for. You can tell that she has a strong testimony and is
ready to become closer to God! It will be Elder Kay's first baptism. I have
been really privileged to get as many baptisms as I have because most
missionaries get less that 5 baptisms their whole mission. So I am glad I have
had the experiences I have had. He has been out for almost a year. He is
excited beyond belief because he has been working for a baptism for 10 months
and now he is going to have one. I am really excited for the baptism. The
branch is really excited and it is going to be a really good one.
As for
our other investigator that we set a baptism date with. His name is Qayyum. He
is a 17 year old boy. He friend is a member in our branch. And he is a really
strong person. We have taught him 3 of the lessons so far, and he is really
strong. The spirit is really strong in the lessons we have taught with him.
When we committed him to baptism the spirit was really strong. Another time the
spirit was strong was when we asked if he prayed to know if the book of Mormon
was true. He then said something that most missionaries would not expect. He
said that there was no need for him to pray to know if the Book of Mormon was
true because he knew it was all true the first time he prayed with the
missionaries. He said it was really calm when that happened and he knew he
needed to join the church because he knew it was true. He is getting baptized
on January 4th because he is going on vacation for Christmas, but he is really
excited to be baptized afterward. I am really excited for that to
happen!
As for everything else that happened. We tracted a lot. We
found a couple potentials. And I am loving it up here. Even thought I am far
away from other missionaries the members here are amazing. I feel right at home
here. On P-Day last week while we were at our branch presidents house playing
some board games with him and his family I just had the feeling of home and it
was a great feeling. President and Sister Ferguson remind me a lot of my Uncle
Delbert and Aunt Roxanne. They treat us like their own children and they are
great people and I am so happy to be here. I love it in Townsville and I am
looking forward to the 6 months I am going to have here. I miss you all and I
hope you have a great week!
Love
Elder Kyler Powelson
November 5, 2012
Hello All,
I have been transferred. I am both happy and sad about this. It is always good be able to see new things and have good experiences. My new area is nothing like my last one. I am in a town of 200,000 people called Townsville. It is in Northern Queensland. And I am far away from everything. To start off last Wednesday I got a call telling me that I was going to serve in Northern Queensland and that my plane will be leaving the next morning at 6 am. So I had barely any time to say good byes to the people in Raceview and I had to wake up really early in order to catch my flight to Townsville. Yes, I was transferred by airplane. That tells you how far away I am from the city, the mission president and most the missionaries in the mission. There are 4 of us missionaries in Townsville and the closes missionaries to us is a 4 hour drive away in Cairns. Basically its the four of us missionaries in a city that is in the middle of nowhere and you have to drive 4 hours to get to the next city.
There are two parts to the Australia Brisbane mission. There are all the areas by the city, and then there are some areas spread out in the north. Most missionaries who serve down south including myself think that it is a terrible thing to go up north. So I was not too excited at first when I got the call. But now that I'm up here I am enjoying it a lot. We wont have as much interaction with many of the other missionaries, but that is all good. The Branch here is pretty amazing. I love all the members here. The branch has about 100 people attending and is part of a district. There are not any stakes here. We might be travelling a lot because there are small branches we will be visiting that are 2 + hours away. There are some good sights and we might go look at the great barrier reef of a P-Day sometime now that I am up here. I am really excited to be here. The branch hasn't had any baptisms for 2 years, so lots of our work will be re activation except a miracle came to us my 2nd day here. A lady just moved up here to townsville from a small place called Mackay and wanted a lesson from us. We committed her to baptism and she really wants to get baptized on the 17th of November. So I am really excited for that. I am excited to work in the smaller branches. They treat the missionaries the best. The members are amazing and treat us like their own children. I feel right at home when I am here because the members always have us in their homes and are always so nice to us. So don't worry mom. The members are taking good care of me. I know I am going to love it up here. I know I am going to have a good time and working hard to find people who want to hear the gospel. The missionary work is a lot harder up here in the north, so they send the missionaries they trust and the missionaries they know will work up here. So the mission president decided to send me up here because he trusts me. Also, mail will take longer to get to me because the office will have to send it up here to me. The weather here is really hot and really humid. I think I am going to be losing lots of weight now because here it is tropical hot and humid. It gets over 100 degrees F without the humidity. So the Humidity in Iowa will be nothing compared to what it will be here. I am excited about everything though!
My new companion is Elder Kay. He is from England. And he is cool. We are going to have a good time. I will try and send some pictures home. I don't know how soon it will be because the computers here don't have the slot to put the memory card in,
I am going to have some fun up here doing the work. I know it is going to be harder than it was before, but I am looking forward to the challenge ahead of me. My companion is really willing to work hard with me. So everything is going to be good! They keep the missionaries up here for a minimum of 6 months, so I am going to be here for a while. I am probably going to have some pretty good experiences while I am here. I am just excited to work as hard as I can. I think that the success I have up here will be more meaningful because I have to work a lot harder to have it. I am looking forward to everything that I am going to be doing here.
On Thursday I went Cane Toad Hunting. Cane Toads are a pest that gets into peoples lawns here and kills the grass and they are poisonous. So what we did to hunt them was we had to hit them with a bat to stun them and then we grabbed them by their back legs and threw them over the fence to the street, so the cars will run over them. We did this in one of the members backyards and was lots of fun. I will try and have the member email my mom some pictures of it.
Anyways, that was a little summary of my new area, I love it so far and I think things are only going to be getting better. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!
Love
Elder Kyler Powelson
I have been transferred. I am both happy and sad about this. It is always good be able to see new things and have good experiences. My new area is nothing like my last one. I am in a town of 200,000 people called Townsville. It is in Northern Queensland. And I am far away from everything. To start off last Wednesday I got a call telling me that I was going to serve in Northern Queensland and that my plane will be leaving the next morning at 6 am. So I had barely any time to say good byes to the people in Raceview and I had to wake up really early in order to catch my flight to Townsville. Yes, I was transferred by airplane. That tells you how far away I am from the city, the mission president and most the missionaries in the mission. There are 4 of us missionaries in Townsville and the closes missionaries to us is a 4 hour drive away in Cairns. Basically its the four of us missionaries in a city that is in the middle of nowhere and you have to drive 4 hours to get to the next city.
There are two parts to the Australia Brisbane mission. There are all the areas by the city, and then there are some areas spread out in the north. Most missionaries who serve down south including myself think that it is a terrible thing to go up north. So I was not too excited at first when I got the call. But now that I'm up here I am enjoying it a lot. We wont have as much interaction with many of the other missionaries, but that is all good. The Branch here is pretty amazing. I love all the members here. The branch has about 100 people attending and is part of a district. There are not any stakes here. We might be travelling a lot because there are small branches we will be visiting that are 2 + hours away. There are some good sights and we might go look at the great barrier reef of a P-Day sometime now that I am up here. I am really excited to be here. The branch hasn't had any baptisms for 2 years, so lots of our work will be re activation except a miracle came to us my 2nd day here. A lady just moved up here to townsville from a small place called Mackay and wanted a lesson from us. We committed her to baptism and she really wants to get baptized on the 17th of November. So I am really excited for that. I am excited to work in the smaller branches. They treat the missionaries the best. The members are amazing and treat us like their own children. I feel right at home when I am here because the members always have us in their homes and are always so nice to us. So don't worry mom. The members are taking good care of me. I know I am going to love it up here. I know I am going to have a good time and working hard to find people who want to hear the gospel. The missionary work is a lot harder up here in the north, so they send the missionaries they trust and the missionaries they know will work up here. So the mission president decided to send me up here because he trusts me. Also, mail will take longer to get to me because the office will have to send it up here to me. The weather here is really hot and really humid. I think I am going to be losing lots of weight now because here it is tropical hot and humid. It gets over 100 degrees F without the humidity. So the Humidity in Iowa will be nothing compared to what it will be here. I am excited about everything though!
My new companion is Elder Kay. He is from England. And he is cool. We are going to have a good time. I will try and send some pictures home. I don't know how soon it will be because the computers here don't have the slot to put the memory card in,
I am going to have some fun up here doing the work. I know it is going to be harder than it was before, but I am looking forward to the challenge ahead of me. My companion is really willing to work hard with me. So everything is going to be good! They keep the missionaries up here for a minimum of 6 months, so I am going to be here for a while. I am probably going to have some pretty good experiences while I am here. I am just excited to work as hard as I can. I think that the success I have up here will be more meaningful because I have to work a lot harder to have it. I am looking forward to everything that I am going to be doing here.
On Thursday I went Cane Toad Hunting. Cane Toads are a pest that gets into peoples lawns here and kills the grass and they are poisonous. So what we did to hunt them was we had to hit them with a bat to stun them and then we grabbed them by their back legs and threw them over the fence to the street, so the cars will run over them. We did this in one of the members backyards and was lots of fun. I will try and have the member email my mom some pictures of it.
Anyways, that was a little summary of my new area, I love it so far and I think things are only going to be getting better. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!
Love
Elder Kyler Powelson
October 29, 2012
Hello All,
Anyway, that was my week. It was really good. I will let you all know what is happening with me this week next Monday to see if I am transferred or not. I miss you all and hope you have a great week
Love,
My week has gone pretty well. It was also a really busy week with other
things that wasn't missionary work. But I will just let you know of some of the
cool things that happened this week. On Friday we went as a zone to our temple trip. It is always
good to be able to go to the temple. I love going to the temple. We continued
to teach Braxton. She is getting baptized on the 17th of November. I don't know if I will be here for that or
not. Transfers are going to be this week. I will find out if I am leaving or
staying on Wednesday, and then I
will find out where I go on Friday. So this week will be a week of mysteries. I hope I
can stay, but I also want to see what the rest of the mission is like in
different areas. There were also 2 miracles that happened in the work this
week.
The first miracle of the week was a testimony builder that the priesthood
can heal people. Sandy, one of our recent converts was really sick and had a
low blood count. The next day she was going to be going to the doctor
to receive a blood transfusion. So that night she called us and told us she was
really sick and that she wanted to have a priesthood blessing. I was on
tradeoffs at the time and Elder Sio was with me, so we went right away to her
house and gave her a blessing. Elder Sio did the anointing and I did the
blessing. The miracle occurred the next day when she went to the doctor. The
doctor said that he had no idea how it happened and was in amazement. The
doctor told her that something he could not figure out happened and that she
didn't need the blood transfusion anymore. So priesthood blessings work! The
priesthood is so powerful the doctors cant even figure out how it heals people.
So that was a great experience for me and definitely strengthened my testimony of
how the priesthood can heal people!
The next one happened when we went to visit one of our investigators, Navy.
He wants to get baptized, but he isn't married to his partner, so that has been
a struggle for us. He lives with members in our ward. And Sister Le Pau the
member's mom was visiting from Samoa. We shared a spiritual thought and had a
prayer and afterwards Her mom said that she wanted to get baptized. Sister Le
Pau said that she opposed the church when she joined and that it is a miracle
now that she wants to join the church. We were going to try and teach her and
baptize her, but she goes back to Samoa on Friday. In order for her to be baptized she has to attend
church twice. So we sent a notice to the mission office to send missionaries to
her moms house in Samoa. But it was a really good experience for me.
Anyway, that was my week. It was really good. I will let you all know what is happening with me this week next Monday to see if I am transferred or not. I miss you all and hope you have a great week
Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson
October 22,2012
Hello All,
Love,
This week hasn't been too exciting. But there was one really good thing
that happened. We found out that there was a girl coming to church for 4 weeks
and had been asking about the church and things to the Young Women Leaders. So
the 4 weeks we were at church we thought she was a member who was visiting. So
after 4 hard weeks of hard work and tracting and having to drop some of our
investigators, we were able to start teaching this girl. And we set
a baptismal date with her for the 3rd of
November. I don't know if I will still be in the area, but there is a
high chance that I am going to be transferred on the 2nd of November. I guess we will just have to wait and see
what happens. The girls name is Braxton. (Braxton is a girls name in
Australia) I thought it was kind of weird at first, but then I accepted the
fact that it was a girls name. I really love it here in Raceview. I have been
able to get lots of things done while I was here. But it seems like it is time
for me to leave and have a new adventure.
Another miracle happened with my Recent Convert Sandy. She was going
through a hard time and was trying to leave the church. She was saying that she
wanted us to delete her phone number and never visit her again. Hearing this
made me pretty sad and it made me want to do anything I could to bring her back
and change her mind. So me and my companion did not give up with her. We kept
calling her and visiting her. She let us in her house and she let us show her
one of the Mormon message videos. And the one we showed her applied to what she
was going through at the time. So she decided to not leave the church. She
started coming back to church again. At a later appointment we taught about
temples and we are trying our hardest to make it so she has the ability to get
her limited use temple recommend and go to the temple to do baptisms for the
dead. She said she really wanted to go. And she started telling all her
friends that she was going to go to the temple. So she is really excited for
her chance to do that. She watched the conference talks and loved it. And
everything is going really well with her again. It makes me happy to see that
everything is going well with her again. It is crazy to see the growth of
someone from the time we knock on their door, to the time they get baptized, to
the time that they are going to go to the temple for the first time. In a year
she is going to be able to be sealed to her family, and I hope that she makes it
that far. That experience made my week really good!
As for the rest of the week. We did lots of tracting and lessons for
potential investigators. We didn't have much success with that. We have a busy
week this week. We only have 3 days to work because on Thursday we have a training all day. On
Friday we have our temple trip
that will take most the day and then the things we do to prep for transfers
is next week, and transfers are also next week. So I'm keeping busy and I am
really enjoying my time in the Australia Brisbane Mission. I miss you all and
hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson
October 15, 2012
Hello All,
Love,
This week was pretty good. Nothing too exciting happened this week, but
that's part of missionary work. Hopefully things will start to get moving again
this week. On Monday, We had our
P-Day with all the missionaries in the district. We had a district lunch and
then played sports at the chapel. On Tuesday, We had trade offs with the Zone Leaders. So Elder
Marshall who is from Arizona came to Raceview and worked with me. We had a
pretty good day. We had a lesson with a New Investigator named Sam. I cant
tell how interested she is because we were only able to teach her a short lesson
at her doorstep. We are going to go back sometime this week to see how
interested she is. We then went and saw our other investigators named Pa'i and
Ntarewa. He is a Cook Islander and she is Moadi. They really want to get
baptized, but they aren't married, so this week we are going to try to set a
wedding date with them and then a baptism date soon after that. We then had an
odd experience when we went to visit a less active who is on our less active
list. This man answered the door and he is a non member, his daughter was the
less active member. But he invited us in and he said that we were not allowed
to be in his house if we were going to discuss religion. They are still in
contact with missionaries from over 15 years ago, but I guess they don't want to
join the church. Soon realizing it was a waste of our time to visit them
because we are missionaries and it is a waste of time to talk non religion
stuff. That was our lessons for the day and it all ended good.
On Wednesday, We had a Zone
Conference all day, so 5 zones in the mission got together and had trainings
from missionaries and the mission president and stuff. It was good.
On Thursday, We went on
splits with a couple of the YSA's preparing to go on their mission. We had
earlier received a referral to a lady who lives at a mental disability
institution. I was scared to go inside, but went in and tried to find the lady
we had the referral for and found out that she no longer lived there. We
talked to a guy who was interested in the gospel. He said he had short term
memory loss, but we still decided to set an appointment for this week, he said
he was going to call us later that night to talk about the gospel. I guess he
forgot about it though because we never got a call from him. So i guess we will
see what happens this week when we go back to visit him. We then went to visit
one of the potentials we tracted into ages ago and he let us in and we taught
him the restoration. It went really well. He said he was happy with the church
he was going to now, but we set a return appointment after committing him to read
and pray about the book of Mormon. So we will see how that goes this week.
On Friday, all of our
lessons fell through, so we did some tracting and stuff. We were able to find a
couple of potentials.
On Saturday and Sunday, we watch general conference and
it was really good. I enjoyed it a lot.
That was my week. I miss you all and I hope you all have a good
week!
Elder Kyler Powelson
October 8, 2012
Hello All,
Love
Kyler and Elder Paia'aua
Elder Powelson, Sandy, Tijnara, Floyd, Elder Paia'aua
This week was a pretty good week. It was the 2nd week with my new
companion and we worked really hard. We have some new investigators we are
working with and are hoping to set some more baptismal dates. On Sunday we had another Baptism. One of
Sandy's kids turned 8 last month, and she was really excited to be baptized.
Sandy is doing really great! She is active and she is going to be going to the
temple to do baptisms for the dead in a couple of weeks. Her kids really like
the youth program in our ward and really enjoy being with all the other members
of the church. Her daughter Tijnara got baptized and she was nervous at first
but we helped her build up the confidence to get into the water, and she did a
really good job getting baptized. I was the one that confirmed her. A member
in our ward baptized her. His name is Floyd and he leaves on his mission to
Adelaide next month. Most of the people that go on missions here stay in
Australia for their mission, or they go to New Zealand. Not many people go
anywhere else around the world. He has been coming out with us all day
everyday, and has been a really good help for us and being able to get a lot of
things done.
This week we also had a mini missionary. A mini missionary is someone who
lives nearby in a different stake and they come and spend a week with the
missionaries to see how it is. Floyd's brother Brandon also came out with us a
lot and we went on splits almost all week. Most weeks we only get 5-8 lessons
in, but this week we had 16 lessons between the two of us going on splits, so
lots of things got done. The members are starting to like the missionaries here
more and we have started to get lots of referrals from the members. We got
a referral for a Samoan family, who doesn't speak English. In a nearby area we
have a missionary from Samoa and he is going to teach the family the lessons and
then we will have someone translate for them at church. Another big thing this
week is we received a Media referral which means that someone went to mormon.org and requested the missionaries to come and
teach him. We were able to teach him one lessons and we are going back to see
him tomorrow and try to commit him
to be baptized. He was really receptive to everything that we taught him and
hopefully he will start to progress. I am really excited to see where he goes.
His name is Nick.
Another good experience that happened this week is when I went tracting
with the mini missionary. I didn't know where to go to tract, so I gave him the
map and told him to pick a street to tract. So he picked a street and so I
drove to that street and we started to tract. Across the street from where we
were tracted there was a house with screaming kids running around, and something
kept telling me to go across the street and tract into that house. So a lady
answered that door and listened to everything we had to tell her and we set a
return appointment for tomorrow,
so I hope all goes well with her because it was a good experience.
We are also working with two couples who aren't married, but want to get
baptized. So we are trying our hardest to have them set a marriage date or
start to try and get married, so they can be baptized. I hope they start to
think about getting married soon. A big problem with people in Australia is
that they think it is OK to start a family and live together without getting
married, but they have to be married if they want to get baptized, and some
people don't understand why. We will keep working with them and we hope good
things start to happen with them soon.
As for conference, it isn't shown in Australia until next week, so we cant
watch it until then. We did hear about the missionary age lowering. That is
pretty crazy. I would have gone on a mission a year ago if I was able to. I
like how women now have a chance to go when they are younger. So go on missions
everyone! It is a good experience and you can feel all the blessings that come
from it. On my mission is the only time I will receive blessings for waking up
at 6:30 every morning. The blessings are felt by yourself and you family at
home. Since the age requirements were changed I would like to see more of the
women going on missions.
So those are the good experiences I have had this week and hopefully I will
have some more experiences soon. I miss you all and I hope you all have a great
week!
Love
Elder Kyler Powelson
October 2, 2012
Hello All,
Love,
The reason I am writing today
instead of yesterday is because
yesterday was the Queens Birthday,
since it is a holiday the library was closed, so we had to wait another day to
do our emails. My week was really good though. I received a new companion.
His name is Elder Paia'aua. He is from New Zealand and is Samoan. His Samoan
isn't the greatest though, so he won't be teaching me much more of it. It doesn't
matter though. All the people we teach speak English anyways. So its all good.
He is a really good companion. We get along really well, and are becoming
really close friends. I get along with him a lot better than my last companion,
so I am really excited for the next 5 or more weeks. We will just have to see
what happens with next transfer. Anyways this week went alright. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we just went around the area having my new companion
meet some of the members and our investigators and just helping him become
familiar with the area and everything in the area. Then on Saturday we did a service project at the
chapel. We whacked the bush weeds out of the grounds of the chapel. It took a
couple of hours to do, but it was not too bad. Then on Saturday afternoon we went to a Joesph
Smith Musical fireside and took one of our investigators. It was really good.
It was people playing music and singing and telling the story of Joseph Smith.
I really enjoyed it. Then that night we got a mini missionary. He is
spending this week with us and he is pretty cool and we are having a good time
with him. Then on Sunday we had
church and taught some lessons. This week we are hoping to turn some of our
potential investigators into progressing investigators. This next Sunday we have another baptism with
another one of Sandy's kids which really exciting. She is really excited and I
am really excited for her. I will make sure to send a picture of it next week
with my email. Nothing too exciting happened this week, but we are hoping for
some exciting things to happen this next week. I miss you all and I hope you
all have a great week
Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson
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