Monday, August 30, 2016........What a wild week........

Today Nick and I wrote back many, many times via email. I just love days like this but man I sure miss this boy so much!! Here is the adventures and I would say he has had some ADVENTURES........

So baseball bat guy

 So a couple weeks ago we were going to see a referral and we got to the house and it was set up like super weird so we walk through this gate by their mailbox and walk up to their door and knock but the yard looked kinda weird. So this guy comes from around the house with a baseball bat and starts cussing at us and going Ballistic and he ends up yelling and saying "Why are you in my backyard?!?!?!" So we found out that the door we knocked on was his back door and he just went super crazy about it. But he liked chased us out with the bat while yelling and cussing soooooo yeah...

Yesterday

So yesterday we got out from church and saw a huge pile of smoke and we heard there was a fire less than a mile from our house and it was super crazy. We had to pack up and we were almost evacuated. Luckily, the wind was moving opposite of our house which caused the fire to move away from us. The fire ended up burning 500 acres of land and one of our less actives house was almost burnt. It had a ring of fire around it that they were fighting off. However, in the end we were all okay and we ended up helping with the American Red Cross for most of the day after we packed up. 

Monday, August 22, 2016

Today at 3:55 PM

I'm so sorry to hear about Logan but hopefully it will heal quickly! It is so awesome to hear that you were able to attend the temple with them. I really wished we had the opportunity to go to the temple here but sadly we don't. 

Let me know how everything goes with the business. 

Thanks mom, I had a mini anxiety attack but it all worked out and everybody said it was a super good talk. 

I got the shaver yesterday, But i haven't really used it yet but Thank you so much for it!! 

It's a thrift shop that we volunteer a couple days a week! 

I don't know when zone conference will be but I will let you know when I know.

Here's my stories for the week! 

So, 2 Sundays ago a member named brother Windle brought a homeless man to church named Scottie. Scottie is a very outspoken man and has a lot of integrity. We were able to talk to him and we have provided lessons for him. Our first meeting with him we committed him ti baptism. Scotties is very normal except for the fact that he has Bipolar. He has a wife and a kid back in Oregon. He was sent to California so that he could get his head right. Scottie is super awesome and absorbs all the info we throw at him! However, He has a smoking addiction and a little bit of a chastity problem which we are currently trying to help him with. We are hoping to have him baptized within the next few weeks. 

Now, for the story of my talk. So yesterday I gave a talk on maintaining and growing testimonies. The talk had to be 15 minutes long and i was so nervous. My anxiety started to flare up and I thought that my talk wasn't good enough and I was just freaking out. Right before I was going to give my talk I said a prayer and asked for comfort. As soon as I got up to talk I just started getting super shaky and it was so hard to talk. However, as I went throughout my talk it became easier and easier and I know that my prayer had been answered. I was then able to bear my testimony and the spirit that was there was just incredible. Yesterday, I know I saw god's hand in my life and he truly blessed me. Following Sacrament I was then thanked close to 30 times for my talk and for my testimony. Multiple people came to me with tears in their eyes and thank me for sharing the experience with my dad and the testimony that came with it. I know that my prayer wasn't just answered but that god blessed me even more as I followed the spirit in my talk. I know that god answers prayers and that the Gospel is true. I love the plan that has been set here on Earth for us that allows us to learn and to experience joy and misery. I know that as we experience misery there is an equal and opposite reaction (The refiner's fire) I have felt that opposite reaction in my life as I have come closer to the gospel and have wanted to grow. I love this gospel and I love my mission!!!!!!!

Love,

Nicholas

Monday, August 8, 2016........

This week has been super good but We have been struggling a lot when it came to our most progressed investigator Tracy. She has been cancelling on us a lot lately. We haven't been able to have another sit down lesson and invite her to baptism. Hopefully, this week we can. However, yesterday we had an investigator named Judy Jaeger come to church yesterday with her brother Jeff from Seattle. Jeff bore a quick testimony in 2nd hour about his conversion and about church and you could see Judy's eyes fill with tears. She knows it's true. She just lost her husband a couple months ago and it has been super hard for her. She investigated the church 20 years ago and almost got baptized but it didn't work out. However, we feel that the timing is right and within this week we are hoping to sit down with her and get a baptismal date. Hopefully by the end of this week we can have 5 baptismal datesTracy, Dave (tracys husband), Lady named Jeanine who is Tracys best friend, Judy and a guy named Chris. There is so much potential here and I'm so stoked for what is to come within the next couple of weeks. 

Monday, August 1, 2016

Here is today's exciting adventures......

So story time.... I almost died. But I didn't which is good. We were out proselyting and driving around and so we were in a city named Glencoe and wanted to go see a guy named Terry. Terry is a less active member but he is really awesome and really fun to talk to! So we wanted to get from Glencoe to his house but his house was a good drive away.  So we wanted to see if there was a faster route. So this route Ponderosa way popped up and it was so much quicker. Instead of going around the mountain we would take this road and go through it. So we start heading down this road. It starts out as dirt and rocks and then turns into a road (I don't even know if I would call it a road.) with 1-2 foot holes and it was super narrow. Elder Wood and I were super sketched out and we thought we may get stuck in the 108 degree weather in the middle of nowhere with no water. But we still continued to head down this road because why not. We finally get to the halfway point of the road after 40-50 minutes of driving. Keep in mind this road was only 6 miles long. So we get down to the bottom and noticed the bridge we were supposed to cross was burnt down by the Butte fire. Then we see the Trucks gas tank light is on.... We are in this valley surrounded by huge hills and its probably a 3-4  hour hike (that maybe a little of a hyperbole) with everything we would have to get through. We didn't have any water or anything. So we started the truck and tried heading back. Luckily we were able to make it out with the very little gas we had and i'm definitely very thankful for that. But that was fun. Lol. 

I want to also look at the spiritual side of this "adventure." Before we left the bottom of the valley Elder Wood and I had a prompting to pray. We prayed that we may be able to make it out. It was very scary on the way out but when we made it out I immediately thanked god. I know that god truly answers prayers. I know that this church is true. I know that God knows and loves us each individually. I know Joseph Smith truly restored the gospel and priesthood here on the Earth. I love this Church and this mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, July 25, 2016.......

Here is the email from Elder Powell for Monday, July 25, 2016........

 We currently live in a modified garage with a family named the Merricks (pics to come) they are so amazing and so nice. I am serving in the San Andreas ward and I will most likely be able to go to Yosemite at the end of the month! It's so beautiful here! I am hoping I get to stay here for a good amount of time because I just love it! The area is kind of a low income city but everybody is super humble and sweet. It is rather safe but I have met some people that are very interesting such as people who think they are good to people who looks at the sun through a Candy Jar. There is also a lot of herb here. But at least everyone is nice lol. I am doing super good here! My companion is Elder Wood. I will most likely be his last companion. He has 2 transfers left. He is truly an amazing guy. This week I got to know a lot of people including the ward missionary leader Brother Zahnizer who is 65 years old and still lives on the same street that he did when he was a kid. Our ward is sort of small with only 120 active members but we have about 300 total members including less actives. This area has had a sort of rough past when it comes to missionaries. The missionaries here used to be very disobedient. Which caused a lot of members to go less actives. However, we are here to help!!! I love being a missionary here. This week I had an amazing experience with an investigator named Tracy. One experience that I remember specifically from this week is a lesson we had with an investigator named Tracy. As we arrived at her house we quickly found out she had a friend over who decided to stay as we taught the restoration. We were able to teach Tracy and her friend Jeanine the restoration. As we were teaching the spirit was so strong and you could tell that both Tracy and Jeanine's faith was growing very rapidly. Tracy started out by kind of joking about all the lessons but then as we ended the lesson she was just wanting to learn more and more. That was the same case for Jeanine. We were able to give a Book Of Mormon to both of them! It was truly an amazing experience. I love this!!!!! 

A couple things I especially love about this area is the hills. Especially when riding a bike. Oh the rush of hitting 40 miles per hour on a downhill slope is just breathtaking.( I promise i'm being safe) That's usually how I start out my day. The only thing bad about that is the walk back up the hill. Yep, It stinks but it is so worth it. I love being here!