Hello everyone!
So this week has been one of the biggest up and down weeks of my mission! We had the best 2 days at the beginning of the week and then some of the slowest and hardest days for me at the end of the week. Weird how that happens huh? I won't talk too much about the last couple of days...there isn't too much to write about. but Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday were great!! We got 2 new investigators this week! And we had a lesson with Elena (remember her?) who said she wants to be baptized! She has several concerns but I don't doubt that we will be able to overcome them! Do you remember Nataša our English class student who doesn't believe in God? Listen to this. So when transfers were coming up we told her that one of us might be leaving...she didn't like that. ( I probably already told the basic story but here are some more details)
I said " Hey can we take a picture just in case one of us leaves next week?"
Nataša: "No"
Sister staheli: " yeah just it case?"
Me: Please just in case?
Nataša: " I don't like this 'case'!!"
It made us laugh:)
the next week we told her we would both be staying and she said that she had prayed that we would stay. (thank you inspired mission president!)We said "We thought you didn't believe in God" she said "Well you believe in God and I thought if I prayed to your God he would probably listen". yeah God hears all of our prayers! Last week we asked her to read Alma 32. This week she came back and said she really connected to that chapter. She said that she doesn't believe in God...but she is willing to take the challenge in Alma 32 and make a place in her heart to plant a seed to see if it grows. To find out if God exists and if she is his daughter. Sister Staheli and I were so excited we were practically jumping out of our chairs!! nataša just laughed. I love her so much and I really hope we can be in tune with the spirit to teach her to her needs. She is amazing!
Our other new investigator is the friend of a less active...I may have written about her last week. Marjanca ( her daughter has epilepsy). We asked her if she wanted to learn more this week and she said " Well I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to find out what this was!" She is a very blunt woman but has a great desire to know Christ better. I am so excited for her!
So this week I had a talk in Sacrament meeting...and as those things always go for missionaries here I had about 2 hours to prepare, 1 the evening before and 1 hour the morning of. I can't tell you how many times I have been grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and that was definitely one of those times!¨ Scriptures kept coming to mind and quotes that I wanted to use and it was amazing. Last time I gave a talk I had it all written out, exactly what I wanted to say and then I had Monika correct it for me. This time....just a couple of notes, no Monika, just me and the Holy Ghost and God's word. It was a neat experience for me if for no one else. But sister Staheli said that she got an answer to a prayer during it so I know it was inspired. I love it when that happens! I am so grateful for how much the Lord loves his missionaries and blesses us!
Ok enough for now I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Monday, November 21, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
11-7-11
Whew!! Hey everyone!
This week has been a whirlwind! So many good things happened and I went through so many different emotions that I am not sure quite what to think! Sister Black was here in Ljubljana all this week and we are switching back companions today. I am really excited to switch back, but I am sad to see her go. I have learned so much from her! She is a newby... only 2 months in country. So it was really interesting for me because I have always had someone to rely on to help me when I didn't understand something...not this week. It was a HUGE gowing experience for me. But the Lord truly blessed me! I can honestly say that this entire week I had the gift of tongues. I have improved a ton this transfer and understand basically everything and can finally feel confident in expressing the things that I want to in Slovene....but this week was miraculous. I found phrases coming to mind and found myself speaking more confidently and by the Spirit more and more. Wow the Holy Ghost is amazing! At the same time I failed at being a good leader and giving Sister Black adequate opportunities to teach and take the lead. She was truly amazing though. I was so inspired with her vision of missionary work and will use a lot of the things that she taught me in this upcoming transfer!
Speaking of which guess what!? Ljubljana just can't let me go! Or I have a lesson that I have to learn here and I am just to stubborn to learn it....I'm hoping it is the former. Nothing is going to change for this upcoming transfer! I am really excited. This last transfer I have grown so much and been so impacted by the people I have been working with and am excited for it to continue! We have so many good things going on and I would have been really sad to leave in the middle of such great progress! I still have a lot to learn though!
That is another thing that happened this week. I got spiritually slapped several times this week and severely chastened by the Spirit...mainly during district meeting. Once again hooray for an amazing district leader! (even if it did hurt my pride a little...or a lot). I realized a lot of things that I need to be doing better and realized that a lot of times my motivation for doing missionary work is not what it should be. I need to love the people more and focus so much more on looking outside of my self and relying on the Lord! It is so stinking easy to lose track of what is really important and focus on yourself!!! whew. I have a long way to go....but the first step to repentance is recognition right? now i just have to find the courage to do it. That is one of the talents that Pres. Topham said would be uncovered on my mission...and I bet it has to do with me being willing to change for that to actually happen. Darn that agency! except not really. It truly is a blessing and the only way we can grow!
So a quick little story and then I should go. So we are teaching an absolutely amazing woman named Tončka. I am so excited for her! She asks amazing questions and truly has a desire to understand. We were talking about faith and reading through parts of Alma 32 this week. She said that she has a hard time reading the book of mormon and she says she thinks one of the reasons is she doesn't have enough faith. As we were closing the lesson I committed her to read 2 Nephi 31 (we are going to commit her to baptism this week!) and when she said she would I started to promise her blessings because of it...as i started I got a prompting to promise her something a little more specific than what I was planning on. I promised her that as she read the Book of Mormon her faith would grow. Really simple right? but different from what I was planning on saying. but as soon as I said it I felt the Spirit testify that this simple promise was exactly what she needed to hear. Once again I love revelation and the Holy Ghost!
I love you all and I love this gospel. I am learning so much and am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord and the People in Slovenia! More next week!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This week has been a whirlwind! So many good things happened and I went through so many different emotions that I am not sure quite what to think! Sister Black was here in Ljubljana all this week and we are switching back companions today. I am really excited to switch back, but I am sad to see her go. I have learned so much from her! She is a newby... only 2 months in country. So it was really interesting for me because I have always had someone to rely on to help me when I didn't understand something...not this week. It was a HUGE gowing experience for me. But the Lord truly blessed me! I can honestly say that this entire week I had the gift of tongues. I have improved a ton this transfer and understand basically everything and can finally feel confident in expressing the things that I want to in Slovene....but this week was miraculous. I found phrases coming to mind and found myself speaking more confidently and by the Spirit more and more. Wow the Holy Ghost is amazing! At the same time I failed at being a good leader and giving Sister Black adequate opportunities to teach and take the lead. She was truly amazing though. I was so inspired with her vision of missionary work and will use a lot of the things that she taught me in this upcoming transfer!
Speaking of which guess what!? Ljubljana just can't let me go! Or I have a lesson that I have to learn here and I am just to stubborn to learn it....I'm hoping it is the former. Nothing is going to change for this upcoming transfer! I am really excited. This last transfer I have grown so much and been so impacted by the people I have been working with and am excited for it to continue! We have so many good things going on and I would have been really sad to leave in the middle of such great progress! I still have a lot to learn though!
That is another thing that happened this week. I got spiritually slapped several times this week and severely chastened by the Spirit...mainly during district meeting. Once again hooray for an amazing district leader! (even if it did hurt my pride a little...or a lot). I realized a lot of things that I need to be doing better and realized that a lot of times my motivation for doing missionary work is not what it should be. I need to love the people more and focus so much more on looking outside of my self and relying on the Lord! It is so stinking easy to lose track of what is really important and focus on yourself!!! whew. I have a long way to go....but the first step to repentance is recognition right? now i just have to find the courage to do it. That is one of the talents that Pres. Topham said would be uncovered on my mission...and I bet it has to do with me being willing to change for that to actually happen. Darn that agency! except not really. It truly is a blessing and the only way we can grow!
So a quick little story and then I should go. So we are teaching an absolutely amazing woman named Tončka. I am so excited for her! She asks amazing questions and truly has a desire to understand. We were talking about faith and reading through parts of Alma 32 this week. She said that she has a hard time reading the book of mormon and she says she thinks one of the reasons is she doesn't have enough faith. As we were closing the lesson I committed her to read 2 Nephi 31 (we are going to commit her to baptism this week!) and when she said she would I started to promise her blessings because of it...as i started I got a prompting to promise her something a little more specific than what I was planning on. I promised her that as she read the Book of Mormon her faith would grow. Really simple right? but different from what I was planning on saying. but as soon as I said it I felt the Spirit testify that this simple promise was exactly what she needed to hear. Once again I love revelation and the Holy Ghost!
I love you all and I love this gospel. I am learning so much and am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord and the People in Slovenia! More next week!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tadeja is getting baptized!
Hey errybody!
So...This week is Tadeja's baptism!! It is really looking like she is finally going to make it into the water this time! We are so excited. She had her interview and passed with flying colors. Her boyfriend is coming in on Thursday and the baptism is on Saturday. GOOD STUFF!!!!!!(see all those exclamation marks mom? Now THAT is freaking out..baha!) This Saturday our mission is having a total of 4 baptisms! WOOOHOOOOO!!!!!! So cool.
This week has been the week of me being grateful for inspired missionaries! I am so grateful for my companion and our elders here! Sister Staheli and I have had several experiences where I have been at a loss for what to say or do and she (following the Spirit) has come up with the perfect action or answer. I am really trying to follow her example! Also our district leader Elder Shillabeer had a whole district meeting planned but the day of he told us that he was told to change it...and as he told us what topic he had changed it to I felt the spirit so strongly and knew that it had been changed for me. The whole meeting was an answer to my prayers and I was so grateful! The Spirit was so strong and i truly felt the Lord's love for me. He is aware of us and knows our needs and will never forsake us! That is amazing and that is the message i have for the world! So good:)
So we had several interesting strike outs this week. We have been trying to visit a less active member for awhile and there is a random guy living with her. Every time he answers the phone or the door he says she isn't home. We went to visit and again he said she wasn't there...we got in the blok and he said we could even search the apartment. We looked around and there was one door that was locked...it just happened to be her room... we'll see what happens with that. We had a couple of other fruitless efforts as well but I won't waste my time telling about the frustrations. How about an amazing English class student! her name is Nataša and we love her! She says that she isn't interested in the gospel but she feels the spirit every time and says that we just have a good energy. At the beginning she claimed she didn't even believe in God...now she is saying she believes in something and sometimes even prays! It is a slow process but she is coming closer to God without even knowing it and it is so neat! I love the way the Lord works. This week she came and told us some minor problems she is having in life and we asked if we could come to her house and teach her family about having FHE. She said she would think about it! That was a big step for her:)
I am so excited about this week and looking forward to more miracles! Thank you for your prayers and love!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Hi all! Annie's story confused me a bit (why would a missionary take somebody up on an offer to search their apartment for somebody who doesn't want them to be there?) So, I've included an excerpt from Sestra Staheli's letter (Annie's companion). It helps clarify...just in case you want to know! (LP)
Here it is:
One of our members, Lucija, is deaf, and has this guy living with her. And he HATES us. We called her, and finally she answered instead of him, and we set up the next day. We got there, he answered the buzz, and said she wasn't there. I was just like, Georgie, JE doma, VRATA PROSIM. (She IS home, DOOR PLEASE) He buzzed us in, and let us search the house. Only problem, one door was mysteriously locked, and the door, her bedroom... so we knocked, but she is deaf, so probably didn't hear. It is insane.
So...This week is Tadeja's baptism!! It is really looking like she is finally going to make it into the water this time! We are so excited. She had her interview and passed with flying colors. Her boyfriend is coming in on Thursday and the baptism is on Saturday. GOOD STUFF!!!!!!(see all those exclamation marks mom? Now THAT is freaking out..baha!) This Saturday our mission is having a total of 4 baptisms! WOOOHOOOOO!!!!!! So cool.
This week has been the week of me being grateful for inspired missionaries! I am so grateful for my companion and our elders here! Sister Staheli and I have had several experiences where I have been at a loss for what to say or do and she (following the Spirit) has come up with the perfect action or answer. I am really trying to follow her example! Also our district leader Elder Shillabeer had a whole district meeting planned but the day of he told us that he was told to change it...and as he told us what topic he had changed it to I felt the spirit so strongly and knew that it had been changed for me. The whole meeting was an answer to my prayers and I was so grateful! The Spirit was so strong and i truly felt the Lord's love for me. He is aware of us and knows our needs and will never forsake us! That is amazing and that is the message i have for the world! So good:)
So we had several interesting strike outs this week. We have been trying to visit a less active member for awhile and there is a random guy living with her. Every time he answers the phone or the door he says she isn't home. We went to visit and again he said she wasn't there...we got in the blok and he said we could even search the apartment. We looked around and there was one door that was locked...it just happened to be her room... we'll see what happens with that. We had a couple of other fruitless efforts as well but I won't waste my time telling about the frustrations. How about an amazing English class student! her name is Nataša and we love her! She says that she isn't interested in the gospel but she feels the spirit every time and says that we just have a good energy. At the beginning she claimed she didn't even believe in God...now she is saying she believes in something and sometimes even prays! It is a slow process but she is coming closer to God without even knowing it and it is so neat! I love the way the Lord works. This week she came and told us some minor problems she is having in life and we asked if we could come to her house and teach her family about having FHE. She said she would think about it! That was a big step for her:)
I am so excited about this week and looking forward to more miracles! Thank you for your prayers and love!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Hi all! Annie's story confused me a bit (why would a missionary take somebody up on an offer to search their apartment for somebody who doesn't want them to be there?) So, I've included an excerpt from Sestra Staheli's letter (Annie's companion). It helps clarify...just in case you want to know! (LP)
Here it is:
One of our members, Lucija, is deaf, and has this guy living with her. And he HATES us. We called her, and finally she answered instead of him, and we set up the next day. We got there, he answered the buzz, and said she wasn't there. I was just like, Georgie, JE doma, VRATA PROSIM. (She IS home, DOOR PLEASE) He buzzed us in, and let us search the house. Only problem, one door was mysteriously locked, and the door, her bedroom... so we knocked, but she is deaf, so probably didn't hear. It is insane.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
10-10-11
Dobro Jutro!!!
Actually it is more like dober dan now ...almost 12...anyway. So I am glad that you all got a kick out of sister staheli's story last week:) The elders tried calling him this week and he didn't answer...so his "elect"ness is yet to be determined. I'll keep you updated!
This week has gone pretty well....other than the temperature drop from 24 C to 9 in one day....not fun. Mom soon I'm going to have to get a better winter wardrobe...new boots and a warmer coat...and stuff... so if there are some large purchases from my cards just know that that it is for my sanity and safety. I've already been warned that as a St. Georgian I am going to freeze. Joj. We spent a lot of time handing out English flyers in the rain...and my new umbrella broke because it was so windy! The rain was pretty though:)
Ok so for some of the miracles this week!
Tadeja has a baptismal date!....again:) but this time I really think it is going to go through. Her boyfriend in coming in on october 21 and she is getting baptized on the 22! She is so ready and has been preparing and investigating for a long time. I think almost all of the missionaries here have taught her atleast once:) So it is a whole mission baptism:) That is one thing I love about this mission. There are so few missionaries that when we have baptism everyone has had a part in the investigator's conversion in some way or the other. I'm not sure how it is in other missions but it is really neat! We had another baptism on Saturday. A woman the kranj elder's have been teaching finally got baptized. She was dropped a couple of times but they never gave up on her. She is such a sweet woman! her name is Antonija and she really wants the sisters to go up to Kranj for a visit atleast once:) So fun!
We had a really good lesson with Helena this week!...well it was really good for us. It was a really neat experience for me because I honestly have never prayed so hard for the spirit to be on a lesson as I did on that one. My prayers were definitely answered and the spirit was so strong. We taught about our relationship with christ and how the Book of Mormon testifies of him. We all got down and prayed for her to find out if it was true. Helena said that she didn't really feel anything …I guess that is just evidence of the scripture that says that we can only bring the spirit unto the hearts of the children of men. I really hope we can break down her shell. She truly does want to do the right thing, she is reading from the Book of Mormon every day, but I'm afraid she has put up some walls and she will have to let them down before she will be able to truly feel the spirit and receive answers to her prayers. It was a huge testimony builder for me and I am grateful for the spirit and it's guidance!
Well we are going to go have a picnic with the elders so I'd better get going:)
Rada vas imam!
Sestra Powell
Actually it is more like dober dan now ...almost 12...anyway. So I am glad that you all got a kick out of sister staheli's story last week:) The elders tried calling him this week and he didn't answer...so his "elect"ness is yet to be determined. I'll keep you updated!
This week has gone pretty well....other than the temperature drop from 24 C to 9 in one day....not fun. Mom soon I'm going to have to get a better winter wardrobe...new boots and a warmer coat...and stuff... so if there are some large purchases from my cards just know that that it is for my sanity and safety. I've already been warned that as a St. Georgian I am going to freeze. Joj. We spent a lot of time handing out English flyers in the rain...and my new umbrella broke because it was so windy! The rain was pretty though:)
Ok so for some of the miracles this week!
Tadeja has a baptismal date!....again:) but this time I really think it is going to go through. Her boyfriend in coming in on october 21 and she is getting baptized on the 22! She is so ready and has been preparing and investigating for a long time. I think almost all of the missionaries here have taught her atleast once:) So it is a whole mission baptism:) That is one thing I love about this mission. There are so few missionaries that when we have baptism everyone has had a part in the investigator's conversion in some way or the other. I'm not sure how it is in other missions but it is really neat! We had another baptism on Saturday. A woman the kranj elder's have been teaching finally got baptized. She was dropped a couple of times but they never gave up on her. She is such a sweet woman! her name is Antonija and she really wants the sisters to go up to Kranj for a visit atleast once:) So fun!
We had a really good lesson with Helena this week!...well it was really good for us. It was a really neat experience for me because I honestly have never prayed so hard for the spirit to be on a lesson as I did on that one. My prayers were definitely answered and the spirit was so strong. We taught about our relationship with christ and how the Book of Mormon testifies of him. We all got down and prayed for her to find out if it was true. Helena said that she didn't really feel anything …I guess that is just evidence of the scripture that says that we can only bring the spirit unto the hearts of the children of men. I really hope we can break down her shell. She truly does want to do the right thing, she is reading from the Book of Mormon every day, but I'm afraid she has put up some walls and she will have to let them down before she will be able to truly feel the spirit and receive answers to her prayers. It was a huge testimony builder for me and I am grateful for the spirit and it's guidance!
Well we are going to go have a picnic with the elders so I'd better get going:)
Rada vas imam!
Sestra Powell
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
10/4/11
Hey everyone!
So this week has been a rough week. Only one of our investigators was able to even set up! We had about 13 lessons cancel, most of them the day of the lesson and it was just a slow week. What happened to last week!? I guess that just proves the ups and downs of the life of a missionary doesn't it? lets hope this week goes back up!
The one lesson we had with our investigator was really good! Her name is Cvetka and she is the friend of the district president. She is a sweet lady and made us some really good soup that made sister staheli sick afterwards because it had peppers...not so good. anyway. We asked her to be baptized and she...kind of in a round about way said yes!! She said that she wasn't prepared, but she asked a TON of questions about baptism. I'm really excited about her. Pres. Juhart said last week that she will be baptized but she nees some time and a little bit of pushing...I'm getting a little better with the boldness so we'll see how it goes:)
So want to hear some good news? Sister Staheli thinks I'm funny Really, I have never had someone laugh so much at random things that I do, haha it makes me laugh and so it makes for some good times.
So the highlight of the week! GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!! It felt like my Birthday or Christmas or something. I got to watch 3 1/2 sessions and I was so spiritually fed and I can't wait to reread more than half of them! I don't even know what insights to share I had so many....most of them about things I need to improve as a missionary. There are so many and It is a little bit overwhelming because I have so many ways I need to improve. I'm still working on a love for the Slovene people... and how many talks were on Charity? I love the members here sooooo much and also our investigators...but I'm still working on the love for the complete strangers (especially creepy guys who give us there phone number...yeah sorry I left that out last week family It was one of the things I meant to put in but just didn't have time! we have come in contact with several strange...homeless...drunk...men here and sometimes it's funny, sometimes a little nerveracking, in učasih just plain bizarre). The slovene people are very closed people. For example we ask people on the street how God helps them in their lives and they respond " yeah, he helps". thinking that that is a completely adequate answer. They aren't willing to give away much. and then if they do open up most of them are completely content with where they are in life and don't think we have anything different to offer...that is probably a pretty universal mind set though in the world right now. Lukewarm people. JOJ. Well I just got off on a tangent....sorry about that. So general conference. One of my favorite talks was Deiter F. Uchtdorfs...and also Carl B. Cooks. I loved the story he told about president Monson " It is better to look up"! I thought that was really profound and helped me receive a little bit of revelation about how I need to be someone constantly who can help people redirect thier wordly perspectives to the lord. If that makes any sense. I'm no prophet...obviously, but I am a servant of the Lord who is here to help others do just that.
O.K I'd better go. I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
So this week has been a rough week. Only one of our investigators was able to even set up! We had about 13 lessons cancel, most of them the day of the lesson and it was just a slow week. What happened to last week!? I guess that just proves the ups and downs of the life of a missionary doesn't it? lets hope this week goes back up!
The one lesson we had with our investigator was really good! Her name is Cvetka and she is the friend of the district president. She is a sweet lady and made us some really good soup that made sister staheli sick afterwards because it had peppers...not so good. anyway. We asked her to be baptized and she...kind of in a round about way said yes!! She said that she wasn't prepared, but she asked a TON of questions about baptism. I'm really excited about her. Pres. Juhart said last week that she will be baptized but she nees some time and a little bit of pushing...I'm getting a little better with the boldness so we'll see how it goes:)
So want to hear some good news? Sister Staheli thinks I'm funny Really, I have never had someone laugh so much at random things that I do, haha it makes me laugh and so it makes for some good times.
So the highlight of the week! GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!! It felt like my Birthday or Christmas or something. I got to watch 3 1/2 sessions and I was so spiritually fed and I can't wait to reread more than half of them! I don't even know what insights to share I had so many....most of them about things I need to improve as a missionary. There are so many and It is a little bit overwhelming because I have so many ways I need to improve. I'm still working on a love for the Slovene people... and how many talks were on Charity? I love the members here sooooo much and also our investigators...but I'm still working on the love for the complete strangers (especially creepy guys who give us there phone number...yeah sorry I left that out last week family It was one of the things I meant to put in but just didn't have time! we have come in contact with several strange...homeless...drunk...men here and sometimes it's funny, sometimes a little nerveracking, in učasih just plain bizarre). The slovene people are very closed people. For example we ask people on the street how God helps them in their lives and they respond " yeah, he helps". thinking that that is a completely adequate answer. They aren't willing to give away much. and then if they do open up most of them are completely content with where they are in life and don't think we have anything different to offer...that is probably a pretty universal mind set though in the world right now. Lukewarm people. JOJ. Well I just got off on a tangent....sorry about that. So general conference. One of my favorite talks was Deiter F. Uchtdorfs...and also Carl B. Cooks. I loved the story he told about president Monson " It is better to look up"! I thought that was really profound and helped me receive a little bit of revelation about how I need to be someone constantly who can help people redirect thier wordly perspectives to the lord. If that makes any sense. I'm no prophet...obviously, but I am a servant of the Lord who is here to help others do just that.
O.K I'd better go. I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Annie has been out 9 months!! Halfway!
Hello everyone!
This week was absolutely amazing! We had so many good things happen!
first of all Urša wasn't able to come to Družinski Večer this week...sounds like a bad thing right? Well guess what she did? She had a 2 hour family home evening at home with her mom and sister! Her mom was asking her about God...I can't remember exactly what...but she pulled out Alma 30:44! (I'll let you look it up and be amazed:))! She is such a great missionary!
Also this week I feel like I have gotten more bold and more confident in sharing the gospel. We went contacting one morning and it just felt good! I was able to say things that I would never have dreamed of saying a couple weeks before. I am understanding more and more each day and have found that, although my slovene is ages away from being perfect(or even good;)) I can communicate with people the same way I do in English...maybe just not as smoothly. We also committed a few of our English class students to baptism, with no yeses, but we combined it with a lesson on how we find truth and we really got them to open up and really think about the source of all truth and how we can tap into it. It was really neat for me and I have realized that it is time for me to "Get Out of the Boat" and exercise more faith As pres. Rowe has been emphasizing! Two cheers for an amazing inspired mission president!
We had a first english lesson with one woman who is amazing! We talked basically the whole time about life and which led wonderfully into gospel topics. We ended talking about families and gave her a Family Proclamation to the world. Guess what? She agreed with every word of it!!! In Slovenia? NO WAY!!!!!! I have so much hope for her excepting the gospel and am sooo excited to teach her more. When she read the part about eternal families and that we can live together forever she said Really? now that I didn't know! ...this week we will teach the plan of salvation:)
Also another little miracle of the week. We have a less active member who has recently been coming back to church. She didn't come last week and we found we didn't have her correct number... so we decided to go visit her. We knew which blok she lived in but not the floor and the entry door and all of the hallway doors are locked so...we didn't know what we were going to do once we got there...but we figured we would give it a try. We got there and rang her doorbell (there is a panel of all of the doorbells on the outside of the main door.) and there was no answer. We had something that we wanted to leave her so we still wanted to get in. Luckily some people unlocked the door for us....then we had the hall doors to take into account and which side of the hall did she live on? We went up to her floor and the one door was magically unlocked! We found her door and were about to knock when we heard the keys turning and she came out. perfect timing. We had an amazing lesson about the atonement and got her new number! Yeah all the doors and locks probably don't make much sense...but to put it simply the Lord intervened and we experienced a little miracle!
We also had a branch picnic this week and Magdalena came. We also made contact with a couple of members friends who are now potentials! We are excited about that.
Ok I have a couple of other little things I wanted to share but I have already written too much! Once again this week has been great and the Lord is blessing this mission! I am so grateful for this gospel and for the opportunity I have to share it!
I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This week was absolutely amazing! We had so many good things happen!
first of all Urša wasn't able to come to Družinski Večer this week...sounds like a bad thing right? Well guess what she did? She had a 2 hour family home evening at home with her mom and sister! Her mom was asking her about God...I can't remember exactly what...but she pulled out Alma 30:44! (I'll let you look it up and be amazed:))! She is such a great missionary!
Also this week I feel like I have gotten more bold and more confident in sharing the gospel. We went contacting one morning and it just felt good! I was able to say things that I would never have dreamed of saying a couple weeks before. I am understanding more and more each day and have found that, although my slovene is ages away from being perfect(or even good;)) I can communicate with people the same way I do in English...maybe just not as smoothly. We also committed a few of our English class students to baptism, with no yeses, but we combined it with a lesson on how we find truth and we really got them to open up and really think about the source of all truth and how we can tap into it. It was really neat for me and I have realized that it is time for me to "Get Out of the Boat" and exercise more faith As pres. Rowe has been emphasizing! Two cheers for an amazing inspired mission president!
We had a first english lesson with one woman who is amazing! We talked basically the whole time about life and which led wonderfully into gospel topics. We ended talking about families and gave her a Family Proclamation to the world. Guess what? She agreed with every word of it!!! In Slovenia? NO WAY!!!!!! I have so much hope for her excepting the gospel and am sooo excited to teach her more. When she read the part about eternal families and that we can live together forever she said Really? now that I didn't know! ...this week we will teach the plan of salvation:)
Also another little miracle of the week. We have a less active member who has recently been coming back to church. She didn't come last week and we found we didn't have her correct number... so we decided to go visit her. We knew which blok she lived in but not the floor and the entry door and all of the hallway doors are locked so...we didn't know what we were going to do once we got there...but we figured we would give it a try. We got there and rang her doorbell (there is a panel of all of the doorbells on the outside of the main door.) and there was no answer. We had something that we wanted to leave her so we still wanted to get in. Luckily some people unlocked the door for us....then we had the hall doors to take into account and which side of the hall did she live on? We went up to her floor and the one door was magically unlocked! We found her door and were about to knock when we heard the keys turning and she came out. perfect timing. We had an amazing lesson about the atonement and got her new number! Yeah all the doors and locks probably don't make much sense...but to put it simply the Lord intervened and we experienced a little miracle!
We also had a branch picnic this week and Magdalena came. We also made contact with a couple of members friends who are now potentials! We are excited about that.
Ok I have a couple of other little things I wanted to share but I have already written too much! Once again this week has been great and the Lord is blessing this mission! I am so grateful for this gospel and for the opportunity I have to share it!
I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
letter 9/18/11
Pozdravljeni dragi brati in sestre!
haha that is how everyone here opens their talks on Sundays so I thought I'd start my letter like that:) So. This week was a lot faster than last week! I can hardly believe its Monday again already! We had a lot of really good things happen. Emy our little friend from the Philippines is quite the missionary! On Sunday she brought one of her Slovene friends to church and set up a lesson with us! She called during the week and said Katja couldn't come but she would bring one of her friends Margie who is also from the Philippines! The lesson was pretty ok. We spoke in English...and It was really hard!! I never thought I would say that but it was true! I kept on throwing in Slovene words. Kind of a bitter sweet experience because that means I'm learning Slovene but we were also trying to teach the gospel and it was a little rough. The Spirit was there though so that is all that matters:)
Our investigator Helena read from the Book of Mormon every day this week!! We are so excited she seems to be doing well...now we just have to get her to stop going to mass and come to church! (she has paid for a bunch of masses to be held in her mothers honor and won't miss them...every sunday...*sigh*).
And 2 huge pieces of news!!!
KSENIJA WAS BAPTISED!!! I was sooooooo happy. The Elders have been teaching her and from what we heard and what I have seen she has made leaps and bounds from where she was before. She was so happy and I am so glad that she continued to learn. We were going to have a musical number at the baptism...but Pres. Majc thought it would be better for the members to do it... we agreed, although it would have been fun:) The baptism was really neat and I felt the Spirit so strongly. I felt the Lord's love for her and his joy that she was making this big step in her life. It was a neat experience for me.
Second piece of news,
Tadeja is back from Switzerland!! She has been gone all summer and just got back. She came to church and we are going to have a lesson with her on Wednesday. I am so excited for her because now that she is back I'm sure her baptism won't be far away. Good stuff!
We also had a really good training meeting with Pres. Rowe this week. We talked alot about being agents...those who act not those who are acted upon. I took so much from it and Sister Staheli and I had a really good goal setting session afterwards. I have never been more excited about missionary work than when we got done with that companionship inventory and I hope that excitement continues to grow! Anyway it has been a good week and I am excited to see what the next weeks bring! sorry once again a scattered letter. I never feel like I can adequately describe all that is going on so it sounds insincere...it's not, I promiseOk well I'd better get going.
I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
haha that is how everyone here opens their talks on Sundays so I thought I'd start my letter like that:) So. This week was a lot faster than last week! I can hardly believe its Monday again already! We had a lot of really good things happen. Emy our little friend from the Philippines is quite the missionary! On Sunday she brought one of her Slovene friends to church and set up a lesson with us! She called during the week and said Katja couldn't come but she would bring one of her friends Margie who is also from the Philippines! The lesson was pretty ok. We spoke in English...and It was really hard!! I never thought I would say that but it was true! I kept on throwing in Slovene words. Kind of a bitter sweet experience because that means I'm learning Slovene but we were also trying to teach the gospel and it was a little rough. The Spirit was there though so that is all that matters:)
Our investigator Helena read from the Book of Mormon every day this week!! We are so excited she seems to be doing well...now we just have to get her to stop going to mass and come to church! (she has paid for a bunch of masses to be held in her mothers honor and won't miss them...every sunday...*sigh*).
And 2 huge pieces of news!!!
KSENIJA WAS BAPTISED!!! I was sooooooo happy. The Elders have been teaching her and from what we heard and what I have seen she has made leaps and bounds from where she was before. She was so happy and I am so glad that she continued to learn. We were going to have a musical number at the baptism...but Pres. Majc thought it would be better for the members to do it... we agreed, although it would have been fun:) The baptism was really neat and I felt the Spirit so strongly. I felt the Lord's love for her and his joy that she was making this big step in her life. It was a neat experience for me.
Second piece of news,
Tadeja is back from Switzerland!! She has been gone all summer and just got back. She came to church and we are going to have a lesson with her on Wednesday. I am so excited for her because now that she is back I'm sure her baptism won't be far away. Good stuff!
We also had a really good training meeting with Pres. Rowe this week. We talked alot about being agents...those who act not those who are acted upon. I took so much from it and Sister Staheli and I had a really good goal setting session afterwards. I have never been more excited about missionary work than when we got done with that companionship inventory and I hope that excitement continues to grow! Anyway it has been a good week and I am excited to see what the next weeks bring! sorry once again a scattered letter. I never feel like I can adequately describe all that is going on so it sounds insincere...it's not, I promiseOk well I'd better get going.
I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Letter 9/12/11
Hello everyone!
So this week has been a little slow as far as numbers go...but there are so many good things going on at the same time! It is interesting to see the different ways you can view success as a missionary. We only had 2 member present lessons this week but one of them was the best thing that could have happened for our investigator helena. We invited Radmil ( one of our most incredible members here! He is one of the most receptive people to the spirit it is amazing! He's been a member for less than a year!) on the lesson and had a great lesson about what sister staheli calls the magic 4 Prayer, reading, coming to church, and obedience. Radmil was amazing and our investigator, Helena, committed to read the book of Mormon each day and she ended her prayer in the name of Jesus Christ for the very first time! It seems like something so simple but it gave us hope that through very small steps this sweet woman will eventually accept the gospel and be willing to sacrifice her traditional catholic background for the best!
Guess what?! We can start english class again! we have gone back and forth a couple of timesbetween not being able to and being able to.... but I'm really excited to start it up again:)
We also got the opportunity to go to the Kralj family's home... I think I may have written about it a little while ago. It was a lot of fun. They live in a little village about an hour outside of ljubljana and it is beautiful! We helped them pick plums to make marmalade they made us stuffed peppers and streudel....sp? for lunch. It was so good!
We also had a lesson with Marjetka the Vidras friend. We met her husband for the first time and it was pretty interesting. He is a really fun guy but a skeptic and states his opinion readily. Once again it struck me how much people rely on their own wisdom to explain things they don't understand. I have realized just how much we as a human race don't understand...and there is reason for it. That way we have to rely on faith and realize we don't know much and understand even less. We have to rely on the knowledge that God gives us through scriptures, prophets and personal revelation. I have realized that we can't reason away all of the different views people have about life...because some of them make sense. We have to rely on the witnesses we recieve from the spirit and go forward with faith knowing that God is in control. ... that doesn't sound as clear as it did in my head..joj. Anyway. it's been an overall pretty good week and today we're going to try to find the zoo! Živalski Vrt (animal garden baha!):)
I love you all and thank you for the love prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
So this week has been a little slow as far as numbers go...but there are so many good things going on at the same time! It is interesting to see the different ways you can view success as a missionary. We only had 2 member present lessons this week but one of them was the best thing that could have happened for our investigator helena. We invited Radmil ( one of our most incredible members here! He is one of the most receptive people to the spirit it is amazing! He's been a member for less than a year!) on the lesson and had a great lesson about what sister staheli calls the magic 4 Prayer, reading, coming to church, and obedience. Radmil was amazing and our investigator, Helena, committed to read the book of Mormon each day and she ended her prayer in the name of Jesus Christ for the very first time! It seems like something so simple but it gave us hope that through very small steps this sweet woman will eventually accept the gospel and be willing to sacrifice her traditional catholic background for the best!
Guess what?! We can start english class again! we have gone back and forth a couple of timesbetween not being able to and being able to.... but I'm really excited to start it up again:)
We also got the opportunity to go to the Kralj family's home... I think I may have written about it a little while ago. It was a lot of fun. They live in a little village about an hour outside of ljubljana and it is beautiful! We helped them pick plums to make marmalade they made us stuffed peppers and streudel....sp? for lunch. It was so good!
We also had a lesson with Marjetka the Vidras friend. We met her husband for the first time and it was pretty interesting. He is a really fun guy but a skeptic and states his opinion readily. Once again it struck me how much people rely on their own wisdom to explain things they don't understand. I have realized just how much we as a human race don't understand...and there is reason for it. That way we have to rely on faith and realize we don't know much and understand even less. We have to rely on the knowledge that God gives us through scriptures, prophets and personal revelation. I have realized that we can't reason away all of the different views people have about life...because some of them make sense. We have to rely on the witnesses we recieve from the spirit and go forward with faith knowing that God is in control. ... that doesn't sound as clear as it did in my head..joj. Anyway. it's been an overall pretty good week and today we're going to try to find the zoo! Živalski Vrt (animal garden baha!):)
I love you all and thank you for the love prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Monday, September 5, 2011
9/5/11
Hello Family and Friends!
This week has been a little bit slow....probably because last week was so exciting in contrast anything would be a little slow:) I am really enjoying working with Sister Staheli! Her teaching style is similar to mine and so we have both found ourselves doing more talking on lessons than we are used to so we are both growing a lot! I personally think we are going to work really well together and am very excited to see what we can accomplish! She is a great missionary:) We did a lot of contacting and tracting the first couple of days this week with absolutely no success and tried tracking down some referals and less actives with even less succes...haha yeah it's possible. We had some good lessons with some members and with Zdenka and Helena! Sister Staheli has brought some great new perspectives and ideas for our investigators and I really hope we can get them progressing faster. We have also been helping a couple women clean their houses. I don't know if I told you about Duša...she is a woman we are helping to quit smoking and as part of that process she wanted to clean out her apartment...which was an excellent idea...but may take several years. She would qualify for clean sweep in an instant and unfortunately Sister Staheli and I can't spend more than a couple hours with her each week so...we'll let you know how that goes:)
One thing this week that has been really neat for me this week is revelation!! Pres. Rowe has really been emphasizing that we need to have more revelation in this work and as I have prayed for more and that I would understand that which was given to me I have been flooded with amazing insights for myself and for our investigators. I am so grateful to the Lord and the fact that he communicates with us. We tracted into a muslim man this week and he was trying to get us to read the Koran and said that when we had read it then he would talk to us. We talked to him for awhile and as I was thinking about it later and compared my experience with him to our investigators and all the people we talk to on the street. it struck me that so many people don't know these things for themselves. They believe it because that is what makes sense to them in their minds. They don't seek it out from God. They don't rely on revelation which is the rock of the gospel as Jesus says in the new testament. We can know the truth of all things by the Holy Ghost and too many people don't know that! Our prophet receives revelation from God and he is the only religous leader who can receive revelation for the world! That is incredible! I am so grateful we have God's word. I am grateful we can find out it's truth for ourselves and I can say that I have! I'm afraid that is kind of scattered...but take it for what it's worth:)
Thank you for all your prayers and support! I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This week has been a little bit slow....probably because last week was so exciting in contrast anything would be a little slow:) I am really enjoying working with Sister Staheli! Her teaching style is similar to mine and so we have both found ourselves doing more talking on lessons than we are used to so we are both growing a lot! I personally think we are going to work really well together and am very excited to see what we can accomplish! She is a great missionary:) We did a lot of contacting and tracting the first couple of days this week with absolutely no success and tried tracking down some referals and less actives with even less succes...haha yeah it's possible. We had some good lessons with some members and with Zdenka and Helena! Sister Staheli has brought some great new perspectives and ideas for our investigators and I really hope we can get them progressing faster. We have also been helping a couple women clean their houses. I don't know if I told you about Duša...she is a woman we are helping to quit smoking and as part of that process she wanted to clean out her apartment...which was an excellent idea...but may take several years. She would qualify for clean sweep in an instant and unfortunately Sister Staheli and I can't spend more than a couple hours with her each week so...we'll let you know how that goes:)
One thing this week that has been really neat for me this week is revelation!! Pres. Rowe has really been emphasizing that we need to have more revelation in this work and as I have prayed for more and that I would understand that which was given to me I have been flooded with amazing insights for myself and for our investigators. I am so grateful to the Lord and the fact that he communicates with us. We tracted into a muslim man this week and he was trying to get us to read the Koran and said that when we had read it then he would talk to us. We talked to him for awhile and as I was thinking about it later and compared my experience with him to our investigators and all the people we talk to on the street. it struck me that so many people don't know these things for themselves. They believe it because that is what makes sense to them in their minds. They don't seek it out from God. They don't rely on revelation which is the rock of the gospel as Jesus says in the new testament. We can know the truth of all things by the Holy Ghost and too many people don't know that! Our prophet receives revelation from God and he is the only religous leader who can receive revelation for the world! That is incredible! I am so grateful we have God's word. I am grateful we can find out it's truth for ourselves and I can say that I have! I'm afraid that is kind of scattered...but take it for what it's worth:)
Thank you for all your prayers and support! I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
8/29/11 She has been out 8 months!
Hey everybody!
This week was Urša's baptism and it was amazing!!! I have so much love and respect for that young woman. her humility amazes me. We had 44 people come to her baptism and according to the elders count 25 of them were non members. That is unheard of!...I don't know how accurate that count is but we're trusting the elders on that:) Urša had to be baptized twice because she was sitting in a chair and when the chair got tipped back her legs came up. I thought she didn't go under the second time but the witnesses oked it. That was a little stressful but it all worked out! When sister Oakley went back to help her change she said Urša was just beaming. She invited 5 of her family members and we had a bunch of investigators come as well! I can guarantee that we will be seeing the affects of this baptism years down the road. Urša is already a great missionary and the spirit she brings touches the hearts of all those she comes in contact with. I am so excited for her and grateful for the opportunity I had to teach her. She has and will bless many peoples lives!
Second big piece of news for the week. Transfers.....are you ready for this?.....I am still in Ljubljana......with Sister Staheli!!! I am so excited! I was really strange for me to say goodbye to sister Oakley though. We have been together for 6 months and I have learned so much from her. I have known nothing but ljubljana with her and now I am here without her...it is a little disorienting and I am sure it will be the cause of much growth. I haven't had to do a lot leading and so it will really make me stretch. So many of the members love her so much and we have developed some amazing relationships with the members and our investigators so it will be interesting for me to learn how to work with someone different. I am really excited to experience something new though!
I'd better go. I love you all and thank you for your love, prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
8/22/11
Hello Everyone!
So this week was a little rough...but went by very fast!! We had a ton of our lessons cancel and most of our investigators are on vacations...but guess what!!! Urša is back! It was so good to see her. She is so sweet and dedicated to being obedient and doing what is right. She did all of the "Homework" We gave her and shared insights with her mom for FHE. She has her interview this week and she is so nervous about it! I feel so bad because that is not what the interview should be like. We've tried explaining that it is ok if we have to push her baptism back but it didn't help that they announced it in sacrament meeting and everyone was congratulating her. I'm not worried though:) We went through the baptismal interview questions and she was pulling out scriptures to back up her testimony or to expain how she knew that God is real and that the book of mormon is the word of God. She is truly an incredible example to me and I have learned so much about humility and love from her. At the same time she has such a fun personality even though she has been placed in difficult circumstances. I love her!
We also had a good lesson with Zdenka and her daughter Sara. I think i wrote about them last week. Zdenka is a faithful woman and her daughter is struggling right now. We haven't ever gotten with Sara before but we asked Zdenka if we could meet at her house. We didn't think we would be able to meet sara because she was at work but we were really late to the lesson and about halfway through sara came home. It was really neat because Sara would ask a question and Zdenka would answer perfectly! Sara asked about if the book of Mormon was another bible. Zdenka answered and basically taught Sara about Joseph Smith and what the book of Mormon is. It was sooo cool!
Guess what!! I gave a ten minute talk in church on Sunday! JOJ. It was a little nerve racking because Pres. Majc asked me the day before so I had to pull ten minutes of material together in about 2 hours...in Slovene! Let's just say I took advantage of quoting a lot of scriptures and talks:) I talked about love and how important it is to realize our relationship with heavenly Father, and when we do our perspective of life changes. Wordly things don't matter anymore:)
So it's kinda crazy because one more transfer is almost over! We find out probably this week where we will be...and we are pretty sure it won't stay the same like it has the past 2 transfers. I am excited but sad at the same time. I love sister Oakley and have learned a lot from her. I guess we'll see! There is a small chance that nothing will change and I would love to work with her in Ljubljana one more transfer!
Well I'd better get going. I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
So this week was a little rough...but went by very fast!! We had a ton of our lessons cancel and most of our investigators are on vacations...but guess what!!! Urša is back! It was so good to see her. She is so sweet and dedicated to being obedient and doing what is right. She did all of the "Homework" We gave her and shared insights with her mom for FHE. She has her interview this week and she is so nervous about it! I feel so bad because that is not what the interview should be like. We've tried explaining that it is ok if we have to push her baptism back but it didn't help that they announced it in sacrament meeting and everyone was congratulating her. I'm not worried though:) We went through the baptismal interview questions and she was pulling out scriptures to back up her testimony or to expain how she knew that God is real and that the book of mormon is the word of God. She is truly an incredible example to me and I have learned so much about humility and love from her. At the same time she has such a fun personality even though she has been placed in difficult circumstances. I love her!
We also had a good lesson with Zdenka and her daughter Sara. I think i wrote about them last week. Zdenka is a faithful woman and her daughter is struggling right now. We haven't ever gotten with Sara before but we asked Zdenka if we could meet at her house. We didn't think we would be able to meet sara because she was at work but we were really late to the lesson and about halfway through sara came home. It was really neat because Sara would ask a question and Zdenka would answer perfectly! Sara asked about if the book of Mormon was another bible. Zdenka answered and basically taught Sara about Joseph Smith and what the book of Mormon is. It was sooo cool!
Guess what!! I gave a ten minute talk in church on Sunday! JOJ. It was a little nerve racking because Pres. Majc asked me the day before so I had to pull ten minutes of material together in about 2 hours...in Slovene! Let's just say I took advantage of quoting a lot of scriptures and talks:) I talked about love and how important it is to realize our relationship with heavenly Father, and when we do our perspective of life changes. Wordly things don't matter anymore:)
So it's kinda crazy because one more transfer is almost over! We find out probably this week where we will be...and we are pretty sure it won't stay the same like it has the past 2 transfers. I am excited but sad at the same time. I love sister Oakley and have learned a lot from her. I guess we'll see! There is a small chance that nothing will change and I would love to work with her in Ljubljana one more transfer!
Well I'd better get going. I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
8/8/11
Hello Everyone!
Thank you for all of the letters and good wishes! This week had been a very good one... and kind of bizarre as well. We have had some strange things happen, but not necessarily bad:) To start off a cross dresser listened in on one of our lessons with a member! (blue eyeshadow pink lipstick and all:)) he was very respectful and we were able to have a good religious discussion. Afterwards sister Oakley and I had a good conversation about trials, how we all have different trials...(and that I am grateful that is not one of mine) and how all of God's children need to understand their relationship with him to overcome their trials.
Anyway, our investigators are doing well. We have heard from Urša several times this week and she is doing great on vacation! She fasted even though she couldn't go to church and is doing everything we have asked her to. She asked us again to let her know what we learned in church this week. She is just too good!
We have a couple of new investigators. Magdalena is one of them. She is a 37 yo women and she is very receptive to basically everything we teach her. She is sweet and read all of first nephi in 5 days and then gave us a chapter by chapter summary at our next lesson! Marjetka is another one and she is so great! She is a very bubbly woman who is always giving and thinking of others. She is a friend of the Vidras and we met her when we were both visiting Ram (the Vidras son who has cerebral palsy). We are excited about both of them!
So I have truly come to better understand the power of the word of God this week. As we have taught some of our less active/inactive members it has been really neat to see them change and start to understand the myseries of God. One in specific is a member named Lucija. She has been going to several different churches at the same time and she is a little confused. As we have been getting with her and teaching her out of PMG we have seen her turn to pure doctrine more and more. Just the other week a catholic priest confronted her about coming to the "Mormon Church" and told her she should stop. She stood up for our religion and said that she would keep on coming. The priest didn't have much else to say and walked away. She connected that with what it says in the Book of Mormon about how people will reject the true church in the last days. We were so proud of her for her courage to stand up for truth and for the connection she made with her experience and the Book of Mormon! I have also made it a goal to more effectively study out of Preach My Gospel and it is amazing how it has affected my desire to share the gospel. The pure basic principles of the Gospel are so important and i am so grateful for the knowledge I have if them and the opportunity to share them with others!
I'd better get going. I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Thank you for all of the letters and good wishes! This week had been a very good one... and kind of bizarre as well. We have had some strange things happen, but not necessarily bad:) To start off a cross dresser listened in on one of our lessons with a member! (blue eyeshadow pink lipstick and all:)) he was very respectful and we were able to have a good religious discussion. Afterwards sister Oakley and I had a good conversation about trials, how we all have different trials...(and that I am grateful that is not one of mine) and how all of God's children need to understand their relationship with him to overcome their trials.
Anyway, our investigators are doing well. We have heard from Urša several times this week and she is doing great on vacation! She fasted even though she couldn't go to church and is doing everything we have asked her to. She asked us again to let her know what we learned in church this week. She is just too good!
We have a couple of new investigators. Magdalena is one of them. She is a 37 yo women and she is very receptive to basically everything we teach her. She is sweet and read all of first nephi in 5 days and then gave us a chapter by chapter summary at our next lesson! Marjetka is another one and she is so great! She is a very bubbly woman who is always giving and thinking of others. She is a friend of the Vidras and we met her when we were both visiting Ram (the Vidras son who has cerebral palsy). We are excited about both of them!
So I have truly come to better understand the power of the word of God this week. As we have taught some of our less active/inactive members it has been really neat to see them change and start to understand the myseries of God. One in specific is a member named Lucija. She has been going to several different churches at the same time and she is a little confused. As we have been getting with her and teaching her out of PMG we have seen her turn to pure doctrine more and more. Just the other week a catholic priest confronted her about coming to the "Mormon Church" and told her she should stop. She stood up for our religion and said that she would keep on coming. The priest didn't have much else to say and walked away. She connected that with what it says in the Book of Mormon about how people will reject the true church in the last days. We were so proud of her for her courage to stand up for truth and for the connection she made with her experience and the Book of Mormon! I have also made it a goal to more effectively study out of Preach My Gospel and it is amazing how it has affected my desire to share the gospel. The pure basic principles of the Gospel are so important and i am so grateful for the knowledge I have if them and the opportunity to share them with others!
I'd better get going. I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
8/1/11
Hello Everyone!
So there are so many things that I want to write about but once again we had a packed p-day! I'll try to make it fast and give you all the information that i know you are just dying to know.
So as far as investigators go. Ksenija told us this past week that she no longer wanted to get with us and that baptism was no longer a priority because she has everything that she was looking for already (good company etc). It made us really sad and so we gave her number to the elders to see if they could make some progress with her that we couldn't. They called her and she was very excited to start having lessons with them. Another stab to the heart for us. But at least she is keeping in contact with missionaries and hopefully really does still want to be baptized...we'll see where it goes. Elena also said that she wanted to take a break for a little while. Tadeja contacted us finally and said she isn't going to be back in Slovenia until September...so once again her baptismal date is being moved back. Urša is on vacation for 3 weeks! We miss her sooo much already but we gave her some good talks and activities to do each week to keep her spiritually strong. it was so cute she sent us a text message on Sunday asking us to tell everybody hi for her at church and also asked us to text her what we learned! She is just too good! Also this week we got 3 new investigators! one from what was supposed to be English class, one as a member referral, and another from a friend of one of our English class students! It is pretty amazing! I'm sure I'll have more about them this next week.
We also had a companion exchange this week. I was with Sister Hagemeister in Ljubljana. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from her. She really knows the language well even though she has only been here for 1 transfer more than me and it helped me a lot to be with her!
Sister Oakley and I visited 2 inactive members and they both came to church on Sunday! it was so great and we really hope they will keep coming. They are both from Serbia and live in a little community about an hour bus ride from our house. It was such a cute little area and they are both very welcoming. We had a little miracle happen too. We were trying to find Aiša's house and were really struggling. We had never met Aiša before but we had met Dragica and had been trying to call her for a long time with no success. AS we were trying to find Aiša's house Dragica came out and saw us. She helped us find the right place and we found out that we had had the wrong number the whole time! It was so good and we were able to get together with her the next day as well. The Lord is so good to us!
Anyway, today we went to škocjanske jame, these really cool caves with one of our English class students/investigators and her daughter and it was really fun! But i don't have a ton of time...I think I got everything that I wanted to in though!
I love you all and hope life is going well for you!
Love,
Sestra Powell
So there are so many things that I want to write about but once again we had a packed p-day! I'll try to make it fast and give you all the information that i know you are just dying to know.
So as far as investigators go. Ksenija told us this past week that she no longer wanted to get with us and that baptism was no longer a priority because she has everything that she was looking for already (good company etc). It made us really sad and so we gave her number to the elders to see if they could make some progress with her that we couldn't. They called her and she was very excited to start having lessons with them. Another stab to the heart for us. But at least she is keeping in contact with missionaries and hopefully really does still want to be baptized...we'll see where it goes. Elena also said that she wanted to take a break for a little while. Tadeja contacted us finally and said she isn't going to be back in Slovenia until September...so once again her baptismal date is being moved back. Urša is on vacation for 3 weeks! We miss her sooo much already but we gave her some good talks and activities to do each week to keep her spiritually strong. it was so cute she sent us a text message on Sunday asking us to tell everybody hi for her at church and also asked us to text her what we learned! She is just too good! Also this week we got 3 new investigators! one from what was supposed to be English class, one as a member referral, and another from a friend of one of our English class students! It is pretty amazing! I'm sure I'll have more about them this next week.
We also had a companion exchange this week. I was with Sister Hagemeister in Ljubljana. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from her. She really knows the language well even though she has only been here for 1 transfer more than me and it helped me a lot to be with her!
Sister Oakley and I visited 2 inactive members and they both came to church on Sunday! it was so great and we really hope they will keep coming. They are both from Serbia and live in a little community about an hour bus ride from our house. It was such a cute little area and they are both very welcoming. We had a little miracle happen too. We were trying to find Aiša's house and were really struggling. We had never met Aiša before but we had met Dragica and had been trying to call her for a long time with no success. AS we were trying to find Aiša's house Dragica came out and saw us. She helped us find the right place and we found out that we had had the wrong number the whole time! It was so good and we were able to get together with her the next day as well. The Lord is so good to us!
Anyway, today we went to škocjanske jame, these really cool caves with one of our English class students/investigators and her daughter and it was really fun! But i don't have a ton of time...I think I got everything that I wanted to in though!
I love you all and hope life is going well for you!
Love,
Sestra Powell
7/25/11
Pozdravljeni Prijatelji moji!
This week has been a little bit of a weird week. We have had so many ups and downs and it has been crazy. We have had some of the weirdest lessons and some of the best lessons. We have some great investigators who are progressing and some who are giving us a really hard time.
Urša is amazing. She is strengthening her testimony one step at a time and is also willing to make sacrifices and test her faith. Because of it she is receiving answers to her prayers and we are seeing miracles with her. She paid tithing and fast offerings for the first time. We had Pres. and Stanka Majc on one of our lessons with her and she handed Pres. Majc her envelope all filled out! She has stopped drinking coffee and does it without complaint or question. She trusts everything we tell her and does it with faith! We read through the baptismal interview questions after church on Sunday and it was amazing because she said that everything during church was amazing. Pres. Majc gave an amazing talk about the atonement and that Christ suffered for all of our sins and it hit her pretty hard. Afterwards we went through all of the baptismal interview questions. She felt guilty for some things that she had done in the past and it was an amazing opportunity for sister Oakley and I to explain that that is why the atonement is so incredible and that is why baptism is so important as well. We all make mistakes and especially if we didn't know something was wrong in the first place. The Atonement covers it all and when we are baptized we become completely clean! She is truly amazing and i love her!
Elena is kind of struggling right now. We invited a member on her lesson and It went really badly and she was very rude to the member and wouldn't really respond to anything we said in slovene and completely shut us out. It was completely opposite of how she normally reacts to anything we teach so we don't really know what to do. We have another lesson with her this week on exchanges so we'll see if she responds differently to another sister missionary.
Things are also a little weird with Ksenija. She came to church and stayed for all 3 hours! but after when we asked her if we could get together this week she said no. We are afraid that she is upset with us for moving her baptismal date back. She loves the company at church and still takes notes but she ignores our phone calls. We are hoping that she still wants to be baptized even if it means her getting together with other missionaries.
we heard from Tadeja in Switzerland She is doing well but won't be back in time to be baptized in August. She is going to wait until September.
This week has been a little rough for me, I have been kind of sick but I'm getting better and it is amazing how the Lord has sustained me through this week. I have truly felt His love and power helping me so that I was still able to do everything that was necessary!
Thank you for all of your love and prayers!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This week has been a little bit of a weird week. We have had so many ups and downs and it has been crazy. We have had some of the weirdest lessons and some of the best lessons. We have some great investigators who are progressing and some who are giving us a really hard time.
Urša is amazing. She is strengthening her testimony one step at a time and is also willing to make sacrifices and test her faith. Because of it she is receiving answers to her prayers and we are seeing miracles with her. She paid tithing and fast offerings for the first time. We had Pres. and Stanka Majc on one of our lessons with her and she handed Pres. Majc her envelope all filled out! She has stopped drinking coffee and does it without complaint or question. She trusts everything we tell her and does it with faith! We read through the baptismal interview questions after church on Sunday and it was amazing because she said that everything during church was amazing. Pres. Majc gave an amazing talk about the atonement and that Christ suffered for all of our sins and it hit her pretty hard. Afterwards we went through all of the baptismal interview questions. She felt guilty for some things that she had done in the past and it was an amazing opportunity for sister Oakley and I to explain that that is why the atonement is so incredible and that is why baptism is so important as well. We all make mistakes and especially if we didn't know something was wrong in the first place. The Atonement covers it all and when we are baptized we become completely clean! She is truly amazing and i love her!
Elena is kind of struggling right now. We invited a member on her lesson and It went really badly and she was very rude to the member and wouldn't really respond to anything we said in slovene and completely shut us out. It was completely opposite of how she normally reacts to anything we teach so we don't really know what to do. We have another lesson with her this week on exchanges so we'll see if she responds differently to another sister missionary.
Things are also a little weird with Ksenija. She came to church and stayed for all 3 hours! but after when we asked her if we could get together this week she said no. We are afraid that she is upset with us for moving her baptismal date back. She loves the company at church and still takes notes but she ignores our phone calls. We are hoping that she still wants to be baptized even if it means her getting together with other missionaries.
we heard from Tadeja in Switzerland She is doing well but won't be back in time to be baptized in August. She is going to wait until September.
This week has been a little rough for me, I have been kind of sick but I'm getting better and it is amazing how the Lord has sustained me through this week. I have truly felt His love and power helping me so that I was still able to do everything that was necessary!
Thank you for all of your love and prayers!
Love,
Sestra Powell
7/18/11
Hey Everybody!
Ali veš kaj? Urša se bo krstila!!!!!! in a veš kaj to pomeni? Urša is going to be baptized!!! THAT's what that means!...well I hope... my Slovene is still on the slow upward slope. Anyway Urša chose a baptismal date for Aug. 27! She truly is an amazing young woman and I am so excited for her. She is so eager to learn and to obey. She has a good beginning to a testimony and has good questions that will help her learn quickly. To show you how obedient she really is I'll tell you about our lesson with her this week. It was a neat lesson and we talked about the commandments. Last Monday we had Family night at the Taylor's and we taught about prophets. Elder Taylor brought up how Pres. Hinckley said only to wear one pair of earrings. During our lesson with Urša she brought it up and we were afraid it was going to be a little problem that she would have to overcome (she has 4 piercings i think) but she basically said of course she wouldn't wear more than one pair anymore she just wondered if it was a sin that she had done it without knowing it was wrong! She truly is golden and we are really looking forward to her baptism!
Elena is doing well. We have spent several hours now (over several lessons) teaching the Plan of Salvation. She just has so many questions! some that we have to divert and others that just keep going and going. She also believes hard core in reincarnation...it's been a little bit of a bump in the road...and we are not sure if she is going to be able to completely let go of it for awhile...but we are making progress! It is so good because she has these light bulbs that go off in her head that just make sense. After we finally got to the end of one lesson she saw some pictures of the temple that were hanging in the room and said " I don't know why...but I just have this feeling that this (meaning the plan of salvation) and those buildings are connected somehow". Pretty amazing huh! She is a tough cookie to crumble but she is another one who is eager to learn!
Ksenija just back from vacation so I'll let you know more next week about her progress. Tadeja is still is Switzerland but we are sending her lessons through the mail. We hope she is getting them... we haven't heard anything from her for awhile but we'll see!
Even though we don't have English class we are still keeping pretty busy with lessons and stuff. Pres. Rowe really wants us to focus on reactivation, part member families, and getting in investigators homes so we can teach their families. It is going well!
We have some great things going on here and we are excited to see more success! overall it has been a great week!
More next week!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Ali veš kaj? Urša se bo krstila!!!!!! in a veš kaj to pomeni? Urša is going to be baptized!!! THAT's what that means!...well I hope... my Slovene is still on the slow upward slope. Anyway Urša chose a baptismal date for Aug. 27! She truly is an amazing young woman and I am so excited for her. She is so eager to learn and to obey. She has a good beginning to a testimony and has good questions that will help her learn quickly. To show you how obedient she really is I'll tell you about our lesson with her this week. It was a neat lesson and we talked about the commandments. Last Monday we had Family night at the Taylor's and we taught about prophets. Elder Taylor brought up how Pres. Hinckley said only to wear one pair of earrings. During our lesson with Urša she brought it up and we were afraid it was going to be a little problem that she would have to overcome (she has 4 piercings i think) but she basically said of course she wouldn't wear more than one pair anymore she just wondered if it was a sin that she had done it without knowing it was wrong! She truly is golden and we are really looking forward to her baptism!
Elena is doing well. We have spent several hours now (over several lessons) teaching the Plan of Salvation. She just has so many questions! some that we have to divert and others that just keep going and going. She also believes hard core in reincarnation...it's been a little bit of a bump in the road...and we are not sure if she is going to be able to completely let go of it for awhile...but we are making progress! It is so good because she has these light bulbs that go off in her head that just make sense. After we finally got to the end of one lesson she saw some pictures of the temple that were hanging in the room and said " I don't know why...but I just have this feeling that this (meaning the plan of salvation) and those buildings are connected somehow". Pretty amazing huh! She is a tough cookie to crumble but she is another one who is eager to learn!
Ksenija just back from vacation so I'll let you know more next week about her progress. Tadeja is still is Switzerland but we are sending her lessons through the mail. We hope she is getting them... we haven't heard anything from her for awhile but we'll see!
Even though we don't have English class we are still keeping pretty busy with lessons and stuff. Pres. Rowe really wants us to focus on reactivation, part member families, and getting in investigators homes so we can teach their families. It is going well!
We have some great things going on here and we are excited to see more success! overall it has been a great week!
More next week!
Love,
Sestra Powell
7/11/11
Greetings from Slovenia!
It is so interesting to think that I am actually in Slovenia.... yeah you are probably all thinking "Really sister powell? You've been there for how long and are just now having that realization?" and the answer is no. I haven't just realized it...but I have been thinking about it a lot lately. and how weird it is that I am meeting people everyday who have always existed but I had no clue about...and still how many people are out there who I don't know, and never will, who are all God's children, and how many of them don't have the gospel? It puts things into perspective a little bit... and helps me realize just how miniscule my existence really is. But God still knows and loves me and helps me everyday, and also all of those other billions of people...whew.
Alright enough of the philosophical stuff...sorry my spelling and grammar is going down the drain so bear with me. This week has been a kind of long one. We had an amazing meeting with Pres. Rowe on tuesday with our whole mission! Pres. Rowe asked me to sing I Need Thee Every Hour for the meeting and I was so happy that I just happened to have a great arrangement of it that I sang in the MTC! Elder Lee from Cedar City played it for me. We only had 15 minutes to put it all together but it went pretty well:) it was also really fun to see my MTC elders and also get to meet other missionaries I haven't ever seen before but have heard good things about:) Pres. and Sister Rowe are absolutely amazing. They are very different from Pres. and Sister Hill, but i am excited to get to know them and learn from them!
Some interesting news this week. We can't do English class anymore...or at least for a little while. there was a newspaper article saying that we were teaching english class illegally and so there has been some stuff going on with that...somebody got upset about our Free english classes because it was taking away money from people who get paid to do it... Or something like that...don't quote me on the details because I'm not sure...It makes sense...but it gets rid of a good successful finding technique for us. But we still have our investigators from last English Class!
Urša and Elena are both doing well and we are getting together with a couple other English class students for lessons. But this week has been a hard one. We had 7 lessons cancel on us and when our standard of excellence is 12 that is saying a lot! We had a lot of contacting time and the weather is hot and humid! And plus the streets are barren on the weekend during the summer because EVERYONE goes to the seaside! ...really it's crazy. we had some good conversations with tourists in center though! We met a woman from Salt lake City! it's fun to pick out the American accents every now and then and talk to them. it has happened a couple of times and it's always great!
Ok. Well I'd better get going.
I love you all!
love,
Sestra Powell
It is so interesting to think that I am actually in Slovenia.... yeah you are probably all thinking "Really sister powell? You've been there for how long and are just now having that realization?" and the answer is no. I haven't just realized it...but I have been thinking about it a lot lately. and how weird it is that I am meeting people everyday who have always existed but I had no clue about...and still how many people are out there who I don't know, and never will, who are all God's children, and how many of them don't have the gospel? It puts things into perspective a little bit... and helps me realize just how miniscule my existence really is. But God still knows and loves me and helps me everyday, and also all of those other billions of people...whew.
Alright enough of the philosophical stuff...sorry my spelling and grammar is going down the drain so bear with me. This week has been a kind of long one. We had an amazing meeting with Pres. Rowe on tuesday with our whole mission! Pres. Rowe asked me to sing I Need Thee Every Hour for the meeting and I was so happy that I just happened to have a great arrangement of it that I sang in the MTC! Elder Lee from Cedar City played it for me. We only had 15 minutes to put it all together but it went pretty well:) it was also really fun to see my MTC elders and also get to meet other missionaries I haven't ever seen before but have heard good things about:) Pres. and Sister Rowe are absolutely amazing. They are very different from Pres. and Sister Hill, but i am excited to get to know them and learn from them!
Some interesting news this week. We can't do English class anymore...or at least for a little while. there was a newspaper article saying that we were teaching english class illegally and so there has been some stuff going on with that...somebody got upset about our Free english classes because it was taking away money from people who get paid to do it... Or something like that...don't quote me on the details because I'm not sure...It makes sense...but it gets rid of a good successful finding technique for us. But we still have our investigators from last English Class!
Urša and Elena are both doing well and we are getting together with a couple other English class students for lessons. But this week has been a hard one. We had 7 lessons cancel on us and when our standard of excellence is 12 that is saying a lot! We had a lot of contacting time and the weather is hot and humid! And plus the streets are barren on the weekend during the summer because EVERYONE goes to the seaside! ...really it's crazy. we had some good conversations with tourists in center though! We met a woman from Salt lake City! it's fun to pick out the American accents every now and then and talk to them. it has happened a couple of times and it's always great!
Ok. Well I'd better get going.
I love you all!
love,
Sestra Powell
7/4/11
Hey everyone!
This week has been a lot better! So Pres. and Sister Hill are now in the States! Our new mission president is Pres. Rowe and they are in Croatia with our Slovene assistants! We get to go down to Croatia tomorrow to meet them and i am really excited!. Pres. Rowe called yesterday and asked if I would sing I need Thee every hour for the meeting! I was really excited:) it will be a neat experience! it is so weird because I am already 1/3 of the way into my mission! it is crazy and I am excited to see where the next year will take me!
Now for updates on the work!
We had a really good lesson with Ksenija and Pres. Majc came along. We talked a lot about testimony and so we are shooting for the 16th September. We are having some other problems with a member who is involved but we are hoping it will all work out!¨
Urša, the young woman in the wheelchair is doing so good! She told us in our last lesson that she received a confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true!! She was reading the Uvod...I mean Introduction, and read the quote from Joseph Smith and said she felt the spirit so strongly and started crying! She is such a neat woman and even though she has some other concerns we are excited for her to progress even further.
We had a neat service project at one of our member family's homes. We went with Barbi Majc and helped the Kralj family in there garden and painted a little too. They live in an absolutely beautiful part of Slovenia pretty far ouside of Ljubljana. I felt like I was in fairy land! I have been inside of Ljubljana my whole mission and feel like I have missed out seeing all of what Slovenia holds! it was sooo pretty with huge rich gardens, green trees and fields and little houses and churches on the hillside. I have seen those things from far away but never really been within those picturesque scenes. it was so neat! The Kralj family is so neat. Dragica and Bogdan are the cutest couple and they are such a strong member family. it was a good day!
We also had a fun day yesterday! We got to go to the Taylors (other couple missionaries) for dinner and we invited Emy the little Filipino girl to come. She is the cutest little woman ever! I'll send some pictures if I have time. She taught me a couple of Tagolog phrases...that i have already forgotten. She is really homesick so we felt it would be a good idea to give her some good company for a couple of hours:)
Anyway those are some highlights of my week! I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This week has been a lot better! So Pres. and Sister Hill are now in the States! Our new mission president is Pres. Rowe and they are in Croatia with our Slovene assistants! We get to go down to Croatia tomorrow to meet them and i am really excited!. Pres. Rowe called yesterday and asked if I would sing I need Thee every hour for the meeting! I was really excited:) it will be a neat experience! it is so weird because I am already 1/3 of the way into my mission! it is crazy and I am excited to see where the next year will take me!
Now for updates on the work!
We had a really good lesson with Ksenija and Pres. Majc came along. We talked a lot about testimony and so we are shooting for the 16th September. We are having some other problems with a member who is involved but we are hoping it will all work out!¨
Urša, the young woman in the wheelchair is doing so good! She told us in our last lesson that she received a confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true!! She was reading the Uvod...I mean Introduction, and read the quote from Joseph Smith and said she felt the spirit so strongly and started crying! She is such a neat woman and even though she has some other concerns we are excited for her to progress even further.
We had a neat service project at one of our member family's homes. We went with Barbi Majc and helped the Kralj family in there garden and painted a little too. They live in an absolutely beautiful part of Slovenia pretty far ouside of Ljubljana. I felt like I was in fairy land! I have been inside of Ljubljana my whole mission and feel like I have missed out seeing all of what Slovenia holds! it was sooo pretty with huge rich gardens, green trees and fields and little houses and churches on the hillside. I have seen those things from far away but never really been within those picturesque scenes. it was so neat! The Kralj family is so neat. Dragica and Bogdan are the cutest couple and they are such a strong member family. it was a good day!
We also had a fun day yesterday! We got to go to the Taylors (other couple missionaries) for dinner and we invited Emy the little Filipino girl to come. She is the cutest little woman ever! I'll send some pictures if I have time. She taught me a couple of Tagolog phrases...that i have already forgotten. She is really homesick so we felt it would be a good idea to give her some good company for a couple of hours:)
Anyway those are some highlights of my week! I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
6/28/11
Hello everyone!
This week has been a little bit of a rough one. but a lot of great things happened as well!
We had some problems come up with Ksenija that will move her baptismal date even further back. but we are praying for help to know how to handle the situation. She got really upset that we tried to move her baptismal date back and now says that if she isn't baptized this week she won't get with us anymore. We see this as proof that she doesn't fully understand the meaning of baptism and doesn't have a firm testimony of the gospel. We will have a lesson with her on Wednesday and will express our love for her and explain as best we can what baptism really means and the promises we make to God when we are baptized and the consequences of not keeping those promises. She is a great lady and we hope that the spirit can help her understand! Oh and guess what! Julie the cat came home after 14 days!! I thought I'd share:)
Last Monday was great! We went to Vintgar and it was such a beautiful hike! you could see rainbows in the mist of the waterfalls and It was soo green and beautiful! One more stop for the family when we all come back;)
I had my first and last interview with Pres. Hill this week and I am amazed at how he spoke about things that were specified directly to my needs. He is truly and inspired man and the spirit was truly teaching me during the interview. I am really going to miss him and sister Hill!
This week has been kind of sad because so many great missionaries are leaving us and we will only have 12 left in Slovenia and 1 senior couple instead of 16 plus 2 senior couples and the mission President and his wife. Wow. But I am also really excited to see what we can accomplish with our small little group! It reminds me of the scripture in 1 Nephi 14:12-14. It talks about how there will only be a few members of the church in the last days, but that we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth and we will have God's power with us. Just like the church in general the missionaries in Slovenia are few but we have the Lord on our side! We have a lot of potential and some great people that we are working with!
Urša came to church and family night this week and loved it! She is such an amazing girl and I am so excited to see how she progresses. We also have a couple of new investigators with promise that I will write more about next week. Elena is on vacation this week so we will see her in about a week. We are starting up English class again soon so we are doing a lot with that as well!
Well I'd better go!
I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This week has been a little bit of a rough one. but a lot of great things happened as well!
We had some problems come up with Ksenija that will move her baptismal date even further back. but we are praying for help to know how to handle the situation. She got really upset that we tried to move her baptismal date back and now says that if she isn't baptized this week she won't get with us anymore. We see this as proof that she doesn't fully understand the meaning of baptism and doesn't have a firm testimony of the gospel. We will have a lesson with her on Wednesday and will express our love for her and explain as best we can what baptism really means and the promises we make to God when we are baptized and the consequences of not keeping those promises. She is a great lady and we hope that the spirit can help her understand! Oh and guess what! Julie the cat came home after 14 days!! I thought I'd share:)
Last Monday was great! We went to Vintgar and it was such a beautiful hike! you could see rainbows in the mist of the waterfalls and It was soo green and beautiful! One more stop for the family when we all come back;)
I had my first and last interview with Pres. Hill this week and I am amazed at how he spoke about things that were specified directly to my needs. He is truly and inspired man and the spirit was truly teaching me during the interview. I am really going to miss him and sister Hill!
This week has been kind of sad because so many great missionaries are leaving us and we will only have 12 left in Slovenia and 1 senior couple instead of 16 plus 2 senior couples and the mission President and his wife. Wow. But I am also really excited to see what we can accomplish with our small little group! It reminds me of the scripture in 1 Nephi 14:12-14. It talks about how there will only be a few members of the church in the last days, but that we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth and we will have God's power with us. Just like the church in general the missionaries in Slovenia are few but we have the Lord on our side! We have a lot of potential and some great people that we are working with!
Urša came to church and family night this week and loved it! She is such an amazing girl and I am so excited to see how she progresses. We also have a couple of new investigators with promise that I will write more about next week. Elena is on vacation this week so we will see her in about a week. We are starting up English class again soon so we are doing a lot with that as well!
Well I'd better go!
I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
6/20/11
Hello everyone!
Wow what a week! Another crazy one! it seems to get busier as time goes on... So time for bullet points again!
* Investigators! This week 6 of our English class students said that "yes" when we invited them to learn more!!! Woohoo! I'm excited to see how many of them are really serious or if they just really like us;) We have had to move ksenija's bastismal date back...and we are thinking we may have to move it again. We really want to make sure she understands the commitment she will be making when she is baptized!
* Tadeja has a tentative baptismal date for aug. 13! before it was just sometime it August but now it is more real and we are excited!
* We had another baptism this saturday!¨Ljubo was baptized and Elena and Urša came! Urša asked sister Oakley afterwards if she could be baptized if we kept getting together and of course sister oakley said yes! We have been talking to her about baptism and she has had a lot of questions because she is in a wheelchair..but I think we have resolved most of them!
* Olga dropped us...:(
* Hey all of you look on pg. 130 of the Ensign! There are some cute girls from Slovenia and I know them! Maja, Maja, Rebeka, and Sarah! They are great!
* So we had an amazing zone conference and we found out about transfers. Guess what!! I'm going to be in Ljubljana again with Sister Oakley! We are really excited to be able to continue to see the growth that we have been a part of. I'm not going to lie, a change would have been fun but I'm not complaining about staying where I am! The bad part is that the assistants are going to move to croatia and some elders are going home and we don't have anyone to replace them!! We are going to be a lonely but powerful 12 here in Slovenia! We get 2 new sisters in November and then another 2 in January!! We are really excited:)
OK. I think that is going to be good for this week!"
I love you all
Love,
Sestra Powell
Wow what a week! Another crazy one! it seems to get busier as time goes on... So time for bullet points again!
* Investigators! This week 6 of our English class students said that "yes" when we invited them to learn more!!! Woohoo! I'm excited to see how many of them are really serious or if they just really like us;) We have had to move ksenija's bastismal date back...and we are thinking we may have to move it again. We really want to make sure she understands the commitment she will be making when she is baptized!
* Tadeja has a tentative baptismal date for aug. 13! before it was just sometime it August but now it is more real and we are excited!
* We had another baptism this saturday!¨Ljubo was baptized and Elena and Urša came! Urša asked sister Oakley afterwards if she could be baptized if we kept getting together and of course sister oakley said yes! We have been talking to her about baptism and she has had a lot of questions because she is in a wheelchair..but I think we have resolved most of them!
* Olga dropped us...:(
* Hey all of you look on pg. 130 of the Ensign! There are some cute girls from Slovenia and I know them! Maja, Maja, Rebeka, and Sarah! They are great!
* So we had an amazing zone conference and we found out about transfers. Guess what!! I'm going to be in Ljubljana again with Sister Oakley! We are really excited to be able to continue to see the growth that we have been a part of. I'm not going to lie, a change would have been fun but I'm not complaining about staying where I am! The bad part is that the assistants are going to move to croatia and some elders are going home and we don't have anyone to replace them!! We are going to be a lonely but powerful 12 here in Slovenia! We get 2 new sisters in November and then another 2 in January!! We are really excited:)
OK. I think that is going to be good for this week!"
I love you all
Love,
Sestra Powell
Annie's Testimony of the Atonement
So pres. Hill asked us to write our testimony about the atonement and I thought I would share with you what I wrote!
I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and the Redeemer of the world. One aspect of the Atonement that has come to mean a lot to me is the enabling power of the Atonement. It is amazing to me that the Savior is the only one who can completely understand what I am going through and He also knows exactly how to succor me. He has sent some amazing people to me in my time of need and has also given me strength and courage to overcome difficulties. Some of my favorite scriptures are Phillipians 4:11-13, 1 Nephi 3:7 and 2 Nephi ch.4. Each of these scriptures touches on the atonement and how we can have strength in the Lord. Because of these scriptures I know that no matter where I am in life or what my circumstances are I can be content because I know that I have trusted in the Lord and he will prepare a way for me to accomplish the things he has commanded me to do. These are some of my foundation scriptures that I have built my testimony on through different phases of my life. 1 nephi 3:7 has been my favorite scripture since I can remember...it might have little bit to do with my love of the primary song...,but that scripture and it's meaning early on in my life is a large part of my testimony of how, because of the atonement of Jesus Christ we can accomplish whatever we are asked to do. My dad shared Phillipians 4:11-13 with me about when I was starting middle school. It has meant a lot to me and truly helped me to understand the Power of the Atonement better. I found 2 nephi Ch. 4 here in Slovenia. I have read it many times but it hit me with great force when I read it at the beginning of my mission and has also given me a better understanding of how, when I trust in the atonement and it's power in every aspect of my soul I can rejoice- I know that the source of power in which I have trusted is stronger than any temptation, any trial, and any sorrow I will experience here on this earth. I love my Savior and am eternally grateful for his love, his power, and his sacrifice for me.
Love,
Sestra Powell
I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and the Redeemer of the world. One aspect of the Atonement that has come to mean a lot to me is the enabling power of the Atonement. It is amazing to me that the Savior is the only one who can completely understand what I am going through and He also knows exactly how to succor me. He has sent some amazing people to me in my time of need and has also given me strength and courage to overcome difficulties. Some of my favorite scriptures are Phillipians 4:11-13, 1 Nephi 3:7 and 2 Nephi ch.4. Each of these scriptures touches on the atonement and how we can have strength in the Lord. Because of these scriptures I know that no matter where I am in life or what my circumstances are I can be content because I know that I have trusted in the Lord and he will prepare a way for me to accomplish the things he has commanded me to do. These are some of my foundation scriptures that I have built my testimony on through different phases of my life. 1 nephi 3:7 has been my favorite scripture since I can remember...it might have little bit to do with my love of the primary song...,but that scripture and it's meaning early on in my life is a large part of my testimony of how, because of the atonement of Jesus Christ we can accomplish whatever we are asked to do. My dad shared Phillipians 4:11-13 with me about when I was starting middle school. It has meant a lot to me and truly helped me to understand the Power of the Atonement better. I found 2 nephi Ch. 4 here in Slovenia. I have read it many times but it hit me with great force when I read it at the beginning of my mission and has also given me a better understanding of how, when I trust in the atonement and it's power in every aspect of my soul I can rejoice- I know that the source of power in which I have trusted is stronger than any temptation, any trial, and any sorrow I will experience here on this earth. I love my Savior and am eternally grateful for his love, his power, and his sacrifice for me.
Love,
Sestra Powell
6/13/11
Hey Everyone!
Wow what a week! This week was another one that feels like one day was a whole week! Guess what! I got to go up to Maribor on an exchange with Sister Hagemeister! It is absolutely beautiful up there! I almost felt like I was on vacation!....ok not really, but walking up the river every day to get to the church space was amazing with swans and ducks and old buildings on a pretty day. And then walking through a park to get to a lesson that we had. It was amazing! Sister Hagemeister is great as well. She is so good at the language already and I learned a lot from her. Some highlights of the exchange:
* Picking Cherries at Rdenko's with the Elders (he is the elder's English class student)
* Lesson with Jelka Fidler (mother of Pres. Fidler who is isn't a member but comes to church, institute, activities etc...but won't join the church...it was a good lesson)
* We had a TON of cherries from Rdenko's so we asked our English class students if they had any recipes for cherry pie etc. and Rosika invited us to her house because she had just made a cherry pie/cake thing and gave us the recipe! Way awseome lady:)
* So the cherries that we picked? yeah almost every single one of them had worms in them...we found that out when we tried to make the cake...I don't even want to think about how many I ate while I was picking them...
* Apricot cake/pie thing! It was way yummy!
It was so great to get back to Ljubljana though. I never thought I would feel like this, but I seriously felt like I was coming home. I didn't realize how much I have grown to love Ljubljana and the members and people here until I had to leave and then come back. It was amazing and something I have wanted to feel for awhile now. Sometimes we can't see growth because it is so gradual but I know I have grown to love these people and this city a lot!
We had a baptism on Saturday in Ljub! Alež is a 17-18 year old kid and he is amazing! I felt the spirit so strongly when he was baptized. and what added to that was the fact that we had 3 investigators come to the baptism and also all three of them came to church the next day as well! We also got a new investigator this week! She is one of our English class students and she is amazing! Her name is Urša and she is in a wheel chair. We think she might have a mild form of Cerebral palsy? or something like that. She is such a sweet girl and we are way excited to start teaching her!
This week ended on a sad note though. We went to visit Lucija who put herself in a psychiatric hospital to overcome her addiction with alcohol? Well when we got there her face was bright red and she was smoking outside, when she saw us she started crying. She had left the hospital to go get some of her things and she broke down. She was completely drunk when we got to the hospital and we think drugs might have been a part of it as well. We were all devastated because she had made it so far!
...ok I ended on a sad note... but I have to go! We are going to Vintgar with the Robinson's today!
Love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
6/6/11
Hello everyone!!
This week has been one of the craziest of my mission so far. So many things happened good and bad that one day would cover what normally happens in a week! I have witnessed miracles this week and it has been amazing, but we have also had some disheartening setbacks. We had an absolutely miraculous lesson with Ksenija this week! We had been trying to get a member on a lesson with her for quite some time and finally Maja kaplan said she could come. Then the day of the lesson Ksenija called us and said that she had a meeting she had to go to so she wasn't going to be able to make it and rescheduled for the next day. At first Maja said she was going to be able to change as well but then had to back out. We called everyone else we could and nobody was able to come. Then the day of the lesson Pres. and sister Hill came to the church and sister Hill helped us out with our English class lessons (she was amazing and the whole lesson turned into a discussion about the gospel!) After Sister Oakley was inspired to ask her to come on the lesson with Ksenija. It was amazing how it all worked out because when the time of the lesson came Ksenija said the opening prayer and immediately started crying. After the prayer she brought up a concern about tithing. We had planned a completely different lesson but it was amazing the way the spirit guided all 3 of us in what we should say. Sister Hill has such an incredible testimony of tithing. Her father died when she was about 14 and left the family in a lot of debt. Her family went without a lot of things like electricity and new clothing for a long time. But through it all her mother always paid tithing. Because of her childhood experiences it was perfect the way she was able to tell the story of her mother's strength and faith paying tithing in such financial difficulty. It was amazing and the spirit was so strong! The downside is that Sister Oakely and I went over the next day to explain a little about fast Sunday offerings and Ksenija said that Brita would probably not be baptized...atleast not on the same day as Ksenija because Brita is so busy with school and Ksenija doesn't want her to sacrifice school to get all the lessons in before the 25th. We can definitely see the wisdom in this...but it is a little disheartening especially when neither of them came to church yesterday. Ksenija said she would come FHE tonight though!
Anyway that was a huge update on Ksenija and Brita but we have been having a lot of other successes as well! Lucija Krajnik put herself in the psyciatric hospital which is a huge step for her in overcoming her alcoholism! We visited her yesterday and she is doing great! It was a little difficult trying to find it though! We had to take the bus clear the the end of its route and when we got there there is a huge field of tall grass with a little dirt path leading to the hospital. It was beautiful and made for a fun adventure!
We also had one of our English class students come to sacrament meeting! Her name is Elena and when we first met her our first impression of her was "epic hippy". But as we talked to her and prayed with her we found out that she believes in Jesus Christ and she loved the way we prayed and how we don't have crosses everywhere. We wrote a testimony of one of the members inside the Book of Mormon we gave her and she said the only thing she didn't like was how it said " I know that this is true" she said that she thinks it should say " I feel that this is true" When she came to church she told Sister Oakley that she felt like something had pulled her there. She absolutely loved church and said she understood how we could know truth through our feelings (it was fast and testimony meeting). We are excited to see where it goes!
This sunday I had another fun thing happen! There was a girl who was a music major at SUU at Church! Weird right? Her name is Bethany and her mom studied with a Slovene girl(Urška) in Utah. Urška just got back and they came to visit! I didn't know her very well before but it was so fun to see a familiar face and talk a little about home!
Ok there is so much more I could write but you'll have to wait until you can read my journal because I've already written way to much!
I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This week has been one of the craziest of my mission so far. So many things happened good and bad that one day would cover what normally happens in a week! I have witnessed miracles this week and it has been amazing, but we have also had some disheartening setbacks. We had an absolutely miraculous lesson with Ksenija this week! We had been trying to get a member on a lesson with her for quite some time and finally Maja kaplan said she could come. Then the day of the lesson Ksenija called us and said that she had a meeting she had to go to so she wasn't going to be able to make it and rescheduled for the next day. At first Maja said she was going to be able to change as well but then had to back out. We called everyone else we could and nobody was able to come. Then the day of the lesson Pres. and sister Hill came to the church and sister Hill helped us out with our English class lessons (she was amazing and the whole lesson turned into a discussion about the gospel!) After Sister Oakley was inspired to ask her to come on the lesson with Ksenija. It was amazing how it all worked out because when the time of the lesson came Ksenija said the opening prayer and immediately started crying. After the prayer she brought up a concern about tithing. We had planned a completely different lesson but it was amazing the way the spirit guided all 3 of us in what we should say. Sister Hill has such an incredible testimony of tithing. Her father died when she was about 14 and left the family in a lot of debt. Her family went without a lot of things like electricity and new clothing for a long time. But through it all her mother always paid tithing. Because of her childhood experiences it was perfect the way she was able to tell the story of her mother's strength and faith paying tithing in such financial difficulty. It was amazing and the spirit was so strong! The downside is that Sister Oakely and I went over the next day to explain a little about fast Sunday offerings and Ksenija said that Brita would probably not be baptized...atleast not on the same day as Ksenija because Brita is so busy with school and Ksenija doesn't want her to sacrifice school to get all the lessons in before the 25th. We can definitely see the wisdom in this...but it is a little disheartening especially when neither of them came to church yesterday. Ksenija said she would come FHE tonight though!
Anyway that was a huge update on Ksenija and Brita but we have been having a lot of other successes as well! Lucija Krajnik put herself in the psyciatric hospital which is a huge step for her in overcoming her alcoholism! We visited her yesterday and she is doing great! It was a little difficult trying to find it though! We had to take the bus clear the the end of its route and when we got there there is a huge field of tall grass with a little dirt path leading to the hospital. It was beautiful and made for a fun adventure!
We also had one of our English class students come to sacrament meeting! Her name is Elena and when we first met her our first impression of her was "epic hippy". But as we talked to her and prayed with her we found out that she believes in Jesus Christ and she loved the way we prayed and how we don't have crosses everywhere. We wrote a testimony of one of the members inside the Book of Mormon we gave her and she said the only thing she didn't like was how it said " I know that this is true" she said that she thinks it should say " I feel that this is true" When she came to church she told Sister Oakley that she felt like something had pulled her there. She absolutely loved church and said she understood how we could know truth through our feelings (it was fast and testimony meeting). We are excited to see where it goes!
This sunday I had another fun thing happen! There was a girl who was a music major at SUU at Church! Weird right? Her name is Bethany and her mom studied with a Slovene girl(Urška) in Utah. Urška just got back and they came to visit! I didn't know her very well before but it was so fun to see a familiar face and talk a little about home!
Ok there is so much more I could write but you'll have to wait until you can read my journal because I've already written way to much!
I love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
5/30/11
Hello Everyone and Anyone!
This week has been crazy!!! It feels like it just started but during the actual week it felt like it dragged on forever! We started English class and it is exhausting! I have been more tired after a long day of teaching than walking on the streets all day. It has been pretty successful though! We taught about 30 English classes and 25 of them turned into lessons about the Gospel! We teach English for the first half hour and then teach a 15 minute spiritual thought that usually turns into about a half an hour and it is great! Most of our students have been asking questions and are receptive to the gospel. I am really excited to see what comes of this because we can gain their trust so much faster and teach to their needs so much better than in a large group situation. It is pretty great!
Hey guess what!! Brita and Ksenija have a baptismal date!!!!!!! The date is for June 25! They wanted to be baptized on Sister Oakley's birthday:) We thought that was pretty cute. but we told them that we might not be in Ljubljana and they were OK to move it up a couple of days....we are thinking we actually might have to move it back though because the lessons are going pretty slowly because we haven't been able to get with them a ton. Brita has been sick and she lost her cat a couple days ago and has been crying basically all day for 3 days. She was pretty devastated and we think she may have worried herself sick:( She is so sweet...but a little stinker at the same time. haha she kind of reminds me of MaryKate Maybe that is why I love her so much!!! We went and helped her look for her cat a couple of days ago with no success...it fell from a 3 story window so....anyway, we prayed with them and sang some songs to help cheer Brita up. They are planning on coming to Družinski Večer tonight and we are going to teach the end of the Plan of Salvation! We are pretty excited!.
Well I'd better get going! I hope all is well and thank you for all of your prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This week has been crazy!!! It feels like it just started but during the actual week it felt like it dragged on forever! We started English class and it is exhausting! I have been more tired after a long day of teaching than walking on the streets all day. It has been pretty successful though! We taught about 30 English classes and 25 of them turned into lessons about the Gospel! We teach English for the first half hour and then teach a 15 minute spiritual thought that usually turns into about a half an hour and it is great! Most of our students have been asking questions and are receptive to the gospel. I am really excited to see what comes of this because we can gain their trust so much faster and teach to their needs so much better than in a large group situation. It is pretty great!
Hey guess what!! Brita and Ksenija have a baptismal date!!!!!!! The date is for June 25! They wanted to be baptized on Sister Oakley's birthday:) We thought that was pretty cute. but we told them that we might not be in Ljubljana and they were OK to move it up a couple of days....we are thinking we actually might have to move it back though because the lessons are going pretty slowly because we haven't been able to get with them a ton. Brita has been sick and she lost her cat a couple days ago and has been crying basically all day for 3 days. She was pretty devastated and we think she may have worried herself sick:( She is so sweet...but a little stinker at the same time. haha she kind of reminds me of MaryKate Maybe that is why I love her so much!!! We went and helped her look for her cat a couple of days ago with no success...it fell from a 3 story window so....anyway, we prayed with them and sang some songs to help cheer Brita up. They are planning on coming to Družinski Večer tonight and we are going to teach the end of the Plan of Salvation! We are pretty excited!.
Well I'd better get going! I hope all is well and thank you for all of your prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Letter 5/23/11 (sorry I've been slacking)
Hey Everybody!
It has been another week of ups and downs! Our mission is doing great! We set a goal to get 28 baptisms before the beginning of July when Pres. Hill goes home and we are on our way! We already have had 11 baptisms since January and have 11 baptismal dates as of right now and about 4 of those happened in the past week!...I don't know the exact numbers but we are doing well! There is a baptismal date in Serbia and I heard it is the first one in about a year! Pretty amazing! The Lord is moving the work along in the Slovenia/Croatia mission!
We had our sign up night for English class and had TONS of women show up! 42 in all and about 8 men. 50 people for English class. That's not bad! We are doing personal classes so we had to double some people up or we would have had absolutely no time for food or investigator and member lessons. It's going to be a crazy 4-6 weeks but i am really excited! As it is we still don't have a ton of time for either. We are hoping that those who aren't interested in the gospel will drop themselves so we will be able to focus more on those who show potential. Bomo videli!
Speaking of investigators we actually tried having a lesson with Brita and Ksenija...We had an interesting experience with them this week and it was a little disheartening. We went to have a lesson with them and their father came home. As soon as he opened the door they hid their books of mormon and told us to pretend we were working on English. Sister Oakley and I were confused and didn't quite know what to do. Apparently the dad knows they are going to church but not that they are thinking of joining it. We did have a good discussion about missionary work though once we were introduced and started talking. We are hoping it was a good opportunity to open the door for Ksenija and Brita. They didn't come to church yesterday either so that also makes us a little nervous. We called and we have a lesson on for today so we are praying that it goes well and we can really encourage them to talk to their dad about the church and pray for help.
I had a really neat experience with prayer this week. I have always known the purpose of prayer and that it is our opportunity to talk to our Heavenly Father but this week Heavenly Father has become more real to me and it has been a neat experience to realize on a deeper level that prayer is more than just a formality but an actual conversation we can have with our Father in Heaven. I know that this will help me as I receive more personal revelation and revelation regarding missionary work. This gospel is an amazing thing!
We also had the opportunity to go to a Catholic Youth Activity. We met some young Catholic missionaries and it was neat to see their faith and relationship with God. They all had neat experiences of how they came to know God and their purpose in life. It is so good to see others who have firm faith in God!
I think thats about as much as I have time for this week!
Thank you for all the prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Monday, May 16, 2011
Annie's Letter 5/16/11
Greetings from Slovenia!
Wow this week has been interesting! It started out a little slow and a little difficult for me. Homesickness kind crept in a little bit again for a couple days but luckily the Lord always gives me a way to push through those rough spots! Wow did he help me out this time! So....guess what!!! Tadeja is getting baptized in August!!! We are so excited for her. She went to Switzerland to visit her boyfriend and they decided together. It was kind of interesting because Sister Oakley and I had decided to commit her to be baptized the next time Andre was in Slovenia and then she told us that is what they had already decided to do! So cool! She doesn't have an exact date yet because Andre doesn't know what week he will come but she has a more solid goal. We asked her about what her parents would think and she said basically that it doesn't matter:) yeah it was great!
Now for the second thing. So the branch had a picnic this past Saturday and Sister Oakley and I were worried that we weren't going to be able to go because we didn't have an investigator coming along (trust me we basically called everyone possible- former investigators, inactive members, our few investigators we have now, people from english class... and yes even our landlords:)) We went to meet at the church anyway because we said we would bring some banana bread (which was a huge hit by the way) and met a mom and her daughter that a member had brought a long. We also got permission to go and it is a really good thing we did! The mom's name is Ksenija and her daughter's name is Brita. Brita is 11 and we spent quite a bit of time together playing basketball and talking. She is such a sweet girl! They came to church yesterday and before sacrament meeting Brita came up and asked me " will you learn me za krst?" (basically will you teach me for baptism!!) Wow! probably the highlight of my mission so far! They both have already decided that they want to be baptized they just need to learn more first! Ksenija agreed with all the talks in sacrament meeting and was taking diligent notes in Sunday school. They are both great and a member referral to boot! We are really excited to start teaching them!! the only downside is that Ksenija can't get together with us until next Monday because she is watching a lot of kids this week. But she did say that after that we could get together every day if we can! Amazing. The Lord truly does prepare people for us to teach! It also is evidence that if we work hard the Lord will bless us even if it is not directly related to the work we have been doing:)
Olga is doing ok. We have gotten together with her once and then she didn't have time. She didn't come to church yesterday but we have a lesson with her tomorrow. we'll see how it goes!
We are also starting English class this week....well the sign up date is on Wednesday. We found a family on the street that was interested and we really hope they come. we could tell that they really loved each other and the Light of Christ was very evident in their eyes...that sounds kind of cheesy especially written in an e-mail but it is true and I don't know how to make it sound truly sincere...soooo yeah.
Anyway it has been a good week and we are really looking forward to the upcoming weeks!
Thanks for the love and support as always!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Wow this week has been interesting! It started out a little slow and a little difficult for me. Homesickness kind crept in a little bit again for a couple days but luckily the Lord always gives me a way to push through those rough spots! Wow did he help me out this time! So....guess what!!! Tadeja is getting baptized in August!!! We are so excited for her. She went to Switzerland to visit her boyfriend and they decided together. It was kind of interesting because Sister Oakley and I had decided to commit her to be baptized the next time Andre was in Slovenia and then she told us that is what they had already decided to do! So cool! She doesn't have an exact date yet because Andre doesn't know what week he will come but she has a more solid goal. We asked her about what her parents would think and she said basically that it doesn't matter:) yeah it was great!
Now for the second thing. So the branch had a picnic this past Saturday and Sister Oakley and I were worried that we weren't going to be able to go because we didn't have an investigator coming along (trust me we basically called everyone possible- former investigators, inactive members, our few investigators we have now, people from english class... and yes even our landlords:)) We went to meet at the church anyway because we said we would bring some banana bread (which was a huge hit by the way) and met a mom and her daughter that a member had brought a long. We also got permission to go and it is a really good thing we did! The mom's name is Ksenija and her daughter's name is Brita. Brita is 11 and we spent quite a bit of time together playing basketball and talking. She is such a sweet girl! They came to church yesterday and before sacrament meeting Brita came up and asked me " will you learn me za krst?" (basically will you teach me for baptism!!) Wow! probably the highlight of my mission so far! They both have already decided that they want to be baptized they just need to learn more first! Ksenija agreed with all the talks in sacrament meeting and was taking diligent notes in Sunday school. They are both great and a member referral to boot! We are really excited to start teaching them!! the only downside is that Ksenija can't get together with us until next Monday because she is watching a lot of kids this week. But she did say that after that we could get together every day if we can! Amazing. The Lord truly does prepare people for us to teach! It also is evidence that if we work hard the Lord will bless us even if it is not directly related to the work we have been doing:)
Olga is doing ok. We have gotten together with her once and then she didn't have time. She didn't come to church yesterday but we have a lesson with her tomorrow. we'll see how it goes!
We are also starting English class this week....well the sign up date is on Wednesday. We found a family on the street that was interested and we really hope they come. we could tell that they really loved each other and the Light of Christ was very evident in their eyes...that sounds kind of cheesy especially written in an e-mail but it is true and I don't know how to make it sound truly sincere...soooo yeah.
Anyway it has been a good week and we are really looking forward to the upcoming weeks!
Thanks for the love and support as always!
Love,
Sestra Powell
letter 5/8/11
Hello everyone!!
So this week has been a blur! It feels like it went by so quickly but I look back at the beginning of the week and it feels like a month ago! There goes time and it's weirdness again! So at the beginning of this week we got to welcome 2 new sisters in from the MTC. They are going to Croatia but since the mission home is here they come here, spend the night, and then move on. Their names were Sister Milius and Sister Creagor. They were really sweet girls! We took them contacting in center and it was a new experience for me because I have never really contacted without sister oakley! So sister milius and I tried a couple of contacts in Slovene/Croatian...but most of them turned into English contacts:) It was a lot of fun!...WOW yeah I just called contacting fun...that is a first for sister powell! These Sister's visit really taught me how true the principle of "Forget yourself and go to work" truly is. As I was trying to make sure they were doing ok during their first evening of missionary work I completely forgot about myself, my fears, and my desires and it is the best I have felt doing missionary work so far. It is so interesting how often that happens to me. I have known that principle all of my life and it makes complete sense and I know it is true... but until I experience something (or re-experience it) it is not as real to me and not a part of my being. We had zone conference this week (My first one! it was great!) and that is something that we talked about a lot. Being a "be-er" not just a "do-er". Becoming a better missionary instead of just going through the motions of being a missionary. It was really good and, as so often happens, exactly what I needed to hear!
English Class is going to start up again soon and we have been handing out flyers like crazy! On Saturday we went to center and there was a huge celebration going on and we handed out a ton of flyers! We had quite a few people say they were really interested as well. We are trying out something new with English class this time...We are doing personal lessons...It sounds a little crazy I know, but it will give us an opportunity to teach english and the gospel one on one and to get to know the people and find out who would like to learn more....I'll let you know how it goes!
So we got an investigator from the elders this past week. Her name is Olga and she was investigating a while back so Elder Schnieder called her and we had a lesson with her. She came to church yesterday but said that she didn't know why we come to church every week because they say the same thing every week....yeah we've got a little ways to go:) I'll keep you updated!
Thank you family for the skyping yesterday! It was so good to see and hear you!! It was hard for me to have to say goodbye (again) and have to dig right back in to missionary work...but probably for the best! I love you all so much! Thank you for your love, prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
So this week has been a blur! It feels like it went by so quickly but I look back at the beginning of the week and it feels like a month ago! There goes time and it's weirdness again! So at the beginning of this week we got to welcome 2 new sisters in from the MTC. They are going to Croatia but since the mission home is here they come here, spend the night, and then move on. Their names were Sister Milius and Sister Creagor. They were really sweet girls! We took them contacting in center and it was a new experience for me because I have never really contacted without sister oakley! So sister milius and I tried a couple of contacts in Slovene/Croatian...but most of them turned into English contacts:) It was a lot of fun!...WOW yeah I just called contacting fun...that is a first for sister powell! These Sister's visit really taught me how true the principle of "Forget yourself and go to work" truly is. As I was trying to make sure they were doing ok during their first evening of missionary work I completely forgot about myself, my fears, and my desires and it is the best I have felt doing missionary work so far. It is so interesting how often that happens to me. I have known that principle all of my life and it makes complete sense and I know it is true... but until I experience something (or re-experience it) it is not as real to me and not a part of my being. We had zone conference this week (My first one! it was great!) and that is something that we talked about a lot. Being a "be-er" not just a "do-er". Becoming a better missionary instead of just going through the motions of being a missionary. It was really good and, as so often happens, exactly what I needed to hear!
English Class is going to start up again soon and we have been handing out flyers like crazy! On Saturday we went to center and there was a huge celebration going on and we handed out a ton of flyers! We had quite a few people say they were really interested as well. We are trying out something new with English class this time...We are doing personal lessons...It sounds a little crazy I know, but it will give us an opportunity to teach english and the gospel one on one and to get to know the people and find out who would like to learn more....I'll let you know how it goes!
So we got an investigator from the elders this past week. Her name is Olga and she was investigating a while back so Elder Schnieder called her and we had a lesson with her. She came to church yesterday but said that she didn't know why we come to church every week because they say the same thing every week....yeah we've got a little ways to go:) I'll keep you updated!
Thank you family for the skyping yesterday! It was so good to see and hear you!! It was hard for me to have to say goodbye (again) and have to dig right back in to missionary work...but probably for the best! I love you all so much! Thank you for your love, prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
letter and pictures! 5/2
Beautiful Slovenia!
Lucija and I
Slovene Easter eggs!
The only man in tvoli who ever listens to us *sigh*
Hello Everyone!
My first transfer is over can you believe it!!! It is really weird to think about. Not much is going to change for the sisters here is Slovenia for the second transfer:) We are all staying with our same companions and in our same cities. I am excited because Sister Oakley and I are starting to see more success from our slow start in a new area for sisters and we are excited to see it grow even more!
The highlight of my week had to be a lesson we had with one of the newer members here. Her name is Darya. She has been struggling because she comes to church and sees all of these happy families and it makes her sad because she knows her family can't be like that until they accept the gospel as well. Her daughter was going to be baptized the same time as her but something happened and she stopped taking the lessons. Anyway, Darja is a really sweet and soft spoken woman. She admitted that she hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon because she wasn't finding answers when she read, so she turned to the books about God that she read before and said she got answers immediately. We talked to her about the purpose of the Book of Mormon and that it is supposed to be a source for answers. We discussed about why it wasn't for her and what we could do to help. We read the introduction because the quote by Joseph Smith is pretty powerful and also read parts of ch. 5 from PMG. The Spirit was really strong and I truly feel like the spirit was helping me say the things I needed to in Slovene! It was the most I have said in a lesson so far and it was really neat. The next day we talked to Darja and she said that she had read the night of the lesson and also that day! We really hope she keeps it up. I know that her family will be blessed as she continues to read!
English class ended this week and I had another "Gift of tongues" moment. We watched the Restoration video for our last class and afterward I got up and bore my testimony. I hadn't planned anything to say but, once again, I felt the words coming to my mind and also felt the spirit very strongly. It was a very simple testimony-- and I know I made several mistakes, but it is a good feeling to know the Spirit will help me when I open my mouth!
Anyway, once again it was a holiday so i don't have a ton of time. Sorry for any typos I tried to be fast!
Love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
My first transfer is over can you believe it!!! It is really weird to think about. Not much is going to change for the sisters here is Slovenia for the second transfer:) We are all staying with our same companions and in our same cities. I am excited because Sister Oakley and I are starting to see more success from our slow start in a new area for sisters and we are excited to see it grow even more!
The highlight of my week had to be a lesson we had with one of the newer members here. Her name is Darya. She has been struggling because she comes to church and sees all of these happy families and it makes her sad because she knows her family can't be like that until they accept the gospel as well. Her daughter was going to be baptized the same time as her but something happened and she stopped taking the lessons. Anyway, Darja is a really sweet and soft spoken woman. She admitted that she hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon because she wasn't finding answers when she read, so she turned to the books about God that she read before and said she got answers immediately. We talked to her about the purpose of the Book of Mormon and that it is supposed to be a source for answers. We discussed about why it wasn't for her and what we could do to help. We read the introduction because the quote by Joseph Smith is pretty powerful and also read parts of ch. 5 from PMG. The Spirit was really strong and I truly feel like the spirit was helping me say the things I needed to in Slovene! It was the most I have said in a lesson so far and it was really neat. The next day we talked to Darja and she said that she had read the night of the lesson and also that day! We really hope she keeps it up. I know that her family will be blessed as she continues to read!
English class ended this week and I had another "Gift of tongues" moment. We watched the Restoration video for our last class and afterward I got up and bore my testimony. I hadn't planned anything to say but, once again, I felt the words coming to my mind and also felt the spirit very strongly. It was a very simple testimony-- and I know I made several mistakes, but it is a good feeling to know the Spirit will help me when I open my mouth!
Anyway, once again it was a holiday so i don't have a ton of time. Sorry for any typos I tried to be fast!
Love you all!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
4-26-11
Hello Everyone!
This week is going to have to be a short one! Yesterday everything was closed so today we only have an hour and a half to email and go shopping for the week! I'm really sorry if I don't get to email some of the family back, know that I love you and truly appreciate your emails!
This week we had our concert in Croatia! I felt the spirit even more strongly during this concert than the last time we sang even though my voice didn't make it through the last song! It was very powerful:)
For easter we had a fun little activity with Lucija and the Taylors. We had dinner and then dyed easter eggs and guess what I found out!? Brown Eggs dye really cool-- or the dye in Slovenia is way darker than the stuff in America! The were pretty cool looking! I'll attach a picture if I have time! After that we had a really neat thought with Lucija about Christ's atonement and resurrection. She is really struggling and is starting to have a lot of health problems because of her problem with alcohol. It really makes me nervous and we pray for her every day to be able to pull out of this rut. She is such a sweet woman and we want her to be O.K!
Yesterday for P-day we went to a lake here called Lake Bohinj. It was really pretty but it rained on us pretty hard and I didn't even have my rain jacket! Joj. But that was a big part of the fun! Guess what!? This is the last week of my 1st transfer! We don't know what is going to happen yet but i hope we will find out wednesday. I have already learned so much and it is amazing to me how the Lord has helped me along in this first 2 months. I know that He hears and answers my prayers and that He loves all of us very much.
I Love you all! Thank you for everything!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This week is going to have to be a short one! Yesterday everything was closed so today we only have an hour and a half to email and go shopping for the week! I'm really sorry if I don't get to email some of the family back, know that I love you and truly appreciate your emails!
This week we had our concert in Croatia! I felt the spirit even more strongly during this concert than the last time we sang even though my voice didn't make it through the last song! It was very powerful:)
For easter we had a fun little activity with Lucija and the Taylors. We had dinner and then dyed easter eggs and guess what I found out!? Brown Eggs dye really cool-- or the dye in Slovenia is way darker than the stuff in America! The were pretty cool looking! I'll attach a picture if I have time! After that we had a really neat thought with Lucija about Christ's atonement and resurrection. She is really struggling and is starting to have a lot of health problems because of her problem with alcohol. It really makes me nervous and we pray for her every day to be able to pull out of this rut. She is such a sweet woman and we want her to be O.K!
Yesterday for P-day we went to a lake here called Lake Bohinj. It was really pretty but it rained on us pretty hard and I didn't even have my rain jacket! Joj. But that was a big part of the fun! Guess what!? This is the last week of my 1st transfer! We don't know what is going to happen yet but i hope we will find out wednesday. I have already learned so much and it is amazing to me how the Lord has helped me along in this first 2 months. I know that He hears and answers my prayers and that He loves all of us very much.
I Love you all! Thank you for everything!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Monday, April 25, 2011
4-18-11 sorry its a week late
Zivijo!!
Another week gone! A lot of good things have happened this week! Last Monday for Družinski Večer we watched the Joseph Smith movie at the church. It was really neat for Sister Oakley and me because we actually had a girl come who we met on the bus!! Her name is Kaja and she is a really neat girl but I don't think she is very interested. She is not very religious but thought the movie was interesting. We have tried a couple of times to get together with her to teach her more but she always has an excuse...whether they are real or not we don 't know....We will keep trying! We had another 1st lesson and have a new investigator!! Her name is Andreja and she is great! We met her on the street a couple of days ago and she talked to us for a good half an hour or more about her life and we got some good things in about the gospel as well:) her boyfriend is somewhere for 2 years and told her that God has told him that he should probably stay.(We say yeah, you stay away so she doesn't have anything to hold her back from being baptized!!) She has been waiting for him but now that he is saying he might not come back she is devastated and is really struggling. She is not sure if she believes in God but is interested in learning about religions. Our first lesson with her was pretty good. She didn't say much but afterward there was a relief society activity and she stayed...and then she stayed and talked to us after that as well....and then she lingered a little more! We have great hopes for her!
We are helping one of our member's friends with English. She is going to America in about a week and wants to improve her speaking skills. Her name is Violeta and she is the sweetest woman! We are really trying to bring gospel topics into our English conversations and find out how much she already knows. She came to Sacrament meeting to meet us so I think she is pretty familiar with the church already. We really want to teach her!
So Pres. Majc called us this week and he set up for a primary school class to come and take a tour of the church and wanted some missionaries to be there. It was amazing to see him at work and also the Elders. They are all such good conversationalists and share the doctrine so well and so boldly. Sister Oakley and I were asked to give the first lesson in about 5 minutes and it was a little bit of a struggle...but we did alright. the Elders came in and patched up a couple of important parts that we missed....but overall it was a really good experience. Growth doesn't come without struggle! Well more next week! Thank you for all the prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This is part of my letter to president Hill and I just wanted to share some of my thoughts with you as well!
This week I have been noticing a theme in my studies and experiences. Most good things don't come without sacrifice and growth doesn't come without struggle. It is a gradual process and a lot of the time we don't realize that we are making progress! I have been thinking a lot about Joseph Smith and his life and sacrifices and how he was persecuted and then killed because of his work to build the Lord's kingdom on the earth. He had to suffer so much but brought so much good into the world! Because of him we have the restored gospel on the earth again!
I have also been thinking about the Savior and how so many people didn't listen to Him even though her was the perfect teacher. He gave his life and suffered for the benefit of all mankind who have and will ever live on this earth. And then there are the struggles and trials of all the rest of us as mortal beings. I think of my struggles now in missionary work and they seem miniscule in comparison although they feel very real to me now. They are probably the basic struggles of a missionary I am sure. Struggling with the language and homesickness, Learning to work with a new companion, dealing with rejection and working hard daily with little or nothing to show for it.
But it is such a comfort to know that with struggle growth does come. I was looking back through my conference notes and I was amazed to see how many talks touched on this subject- or at least how much the Holy Ghost taught me on the subject while listening to conference:)
Some examples:
"Slow small accumulation of Gold flecks will give us nuggets" M. Russel Ballard
"All things will work together for our good if we keep our covenants" Walter F Gonzalez
" Pain teaches us patience and brings you to humility to ponder." Kent F Richards
"Those who seek to know Christ will come to know him but most often it comes as a puzzle, one piece at a time." Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Paul V. Johnson's entire talk was amazing! about trials that make us stronger
David A. Bednar's talk about gradual discernment of light.
I don't know if this makes sense at all...but because of my mindset when I watched conference it all connected in my mind:) It is truly amazing to recognize how the Holy Ghost works! Anyway I hope my rambling all makes sense!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Another week gone! A lot of good things have happened this week! Last Monday for Družinski Večer we watched the Joseph Smith movie at the church. It was really neat for Sister Oakley and me because we actually had a girl come who we met on the bus!! Her name is Kaja and she is a really neat girl but I don't think she is very interested. She is not very religious but thought the movie was interesting. We have tried a couple of times to get together with her to teach her more but she always has an excuse...whether they are real or not we don 't know....We will keep trying! We had another 1st lesson and have a new investigator!! Her name is Andreja and she is great! We met her on the street a couple of days ago and she talked to us for a good half an hour or more about her life and we got some good things in about the gospel as well:) her boyfriend is somewhere for 2 years and told her that God has told him that he should probably stay.(We say yeah, you stay away so she doesn't have anything to hold her back from being baptized!!) She has been waiting for him but now that he is saying he might not come back she is devastated and is really struggling. She is not sure if she believes in God but is interested in learning about religions. Our first lesson with her was pretty good. She didn't say much but afterward there was a relief society activity and she stayed...and then she stayed and talked to us after that as well....and then she lingered a little more! We have great hopes for her!
We are helping one of our member's friends with English. She is going to America in about a week and wants to improve her speaking skills. Her name is Violeta and she is the sweetest woman! We are really trying to bring gospel topics into our English conversations and find out how much she already knows. She came to Sacrament meeting to meet us so I think she is pretty familiar with the church already. We really want to teach her!
So Pres. Majc called us this week and he set up for a primary school class to come and take a tour of the church and wanted some missionaries to be there. It was amazing to see him at work and also the Elders. They are all such good conversationalists and share the doctrine so well and so boldly. Sister Oakley and I were asked to give the first lesson in about 5 minutes and it was a little bit of a struggle...but we did alright. the Elders came in and patched up a couple of important parts that we missed....but overall it was a really good experience. Growth doesn't come without struggle! Well more next week! Thank you for all the prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This is part of my letter to president Hill and I just wanted to share some of my thoughts with you as well!
This week I have been noticing a theme in my studies and experiences. Most good things don't come without sacrifice and growth doesn't come without struggle. It is a gradual process and a lot of the time we don't realize that we are making progress! I have been thinking a lot about Joseph Smith and his life and sacrifices and how he was persecuted and then killed because of his work to build the Lord's kingdom on the earth. He had to suffer so much but brought so much good into the world! Because of him we have the restored gospel on the earth again!
I have also been thinking about the Savior and how so many people didn't listen to Him even though her was the perfect teacher. He gave his life and suffered for the benefit of all mankind who have and will ever live on this earth. And then there are the struggles and trials of all the rest of us as mortal beings. I think of my struggles now in missionary work and they seem miniscule in comparison although they feel very real to me now. They are probably the basic struggles of a missionary I am sure. Struggling with the language and homesickness, Learning to work with a new companion, dealing with rejection and working hard daily with little or nothing to show for it.
But it is such a comfort to know that with struggle growth does come. I was looking back through my conference notes and I was amazed to see how many talks touched on this subject- or at least how much the Holy Ghost taught me on the subject while listening to conference:)
Some examples:
"Slow small accumulation of Gold flecks will give us nuggets" M. Russel Ballard
"All things will work together for our good if we keep our covenants" Walter F Gonzalez
" Pain teaches us patience and brings you to humility to ponder." Kent F Richards
"Those who seek to know Christ will come to know him but most often it comes as a puzzle, one piece at a time." Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Paul V. Johnson's entire talk was amazing! about trials that make us stronger
David A. Bednar's talk about gradual discernment of light.
I don't know if this makes sense at all...but because of my mindset when I watched conference it all connected in my mind:) It is truly amazing to recognize how the Holy Ghost works! Anyway I hope my rambling all makes sense!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Monday, April 4, 2011
April 4 Letter
Zivijo Družina in Prijatelje!
This week has been amazing! We had our Easter Concert on Saturday and it went really well! We were all fasting for our mission because we Pres. Hill set a goal for the mission to double the number of baptisms for this year. We had 28 last year so we are shooting for 56 this year. That means we need to have 28 by June 1st! It is a big goal but I know the Lord will provide a way! We already have 8 for the mission but we need to pick up the speed if we are going to reach it. anyway. The concert was a neat experience for me because as I sang I truly wanted everyone in the room to understand the words of each song and to realize how important the Atonement of Jesus Christ is and what it can do for them. I felt the spirit so strongly and my desire to share the gospel with these people grew. We also had some of the members and missionaries bear their testimonies which was also very neat. We had one of our English class students come. her name is Urša, she is in a wheelchair and doesn't have a lot of control over her body but she speaks well. She is beautiful and has such a sweet spirit! I really would love to teach her the gospel. For English class we teach English for about 50 min and then we close with a spiritual thought. This past week our spiritual thought was on the great apostasy and the need for a restoration. It went really well and all of our students took an Obnova Pamphlet! I really hope we can get some investigators from the class because they are all soooo cool and I want them to have the gospel in their lives! Not to mention the fact that because of their personalities they would help the church grow so much! anyway I'm thinking way ahead here... but that is a good thing right? Anyway we had a lesson with Tadeja this week and she told us that her dad had asked her if she would still get married in the Catholic church (her boyfriend is a member of the church) and she said no, becaue of the truths she has found she is going to marry Andrej in the temple!!!!! She said she and her parents had a good discussion about the church and they weren't thrilled but they weren't furious either! So basically Tadeja will get baptized...at this point it is just when. She hasn't talked any more to them about the baptism though so we will see!
Pops I think I may have miscommunicated about the lessons we had last week. the 12 lessons we had were a combination of member lessons and lessons we had on the street. We also count our spiritual thought in English class as a lesson. We still have only taught 1 actual 1st lesson out of preach my gospel to a potential investigator (Gospa Mili) and she is not interested. Tadeja (as our only investigator at this point) has had all of the lessons out of preach my gospel and so we have been reviewing some and doing spiritual thoughts with her. Anyway We hope that with our fast and determination to work harder we will get some more 1st lessons and some new progressing investigators soon!
We tried a new tactic this week while contacting. We contacted everyone we saw who looked 30 or younger in English! We had a ton of success!... Well more than we have had before:) We got 3 phone numbers and an e-mail address and taught some principles from the 1st lesson to several people. unfortunately 2 of those 3 numbers were fake... but we are making progress! Everyone here younger than 30 knows atleast a little bit of English. It isn't great way for me to learn the language but it is a great way to get their attention!
Ok. Now for General Conference! Wasn't it amazing!!! I got to watch 3 sessions which I hear is not common at all. I was so grateful because there were so many things said that I needed to hear. it is truly amazing how the Lord speaks through his servants to help all of his children! it was also really neat for me to watch Conference as a missionary. It gives it a completely different perspective. I kept on thinking of different members who could be helped with a certain talk and how I could apply everything that was said to missionary work. It is pretty cool how a change in your circumstances can change the meaning of conference! Anyway I have to go. I love you all, thank you for your prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
This week has been amazing! We had our Easter Concert on Saturday and it went really well! We were all fasting for our mission because we Pres. Hill set a goal for the mission to double the number of baptisms for this year. We had 28 last year so we are shooting for 56 this year. That means we need to have 28 by June 1st! It is a big goal but I know the Lord will provide a way! We already have 8 for the mission but we need to pick up the speed if we are going to reach it. anyway. The concert was a neat experience for me because as I sang I truly wanted everyone in the room to understand the words of each song and to realize how important the Atonement of Jesus Christ is and what it can do for them. I felt the spirit so strongly and my desire to share the gospel with these people grew. We also had some of the members and missionaries bear their testimonies which was also very neat. We had one of our English class students come. her name is Urša, she is in a wheelchair and doesn't have a lot of control over her body but she speaks well. She is beautiful and has such a sweet spirit! I really would love to teach her the gospel. For English class we teach English for about 50 min and then we close with a spiritual thought. This past week our spiritual thought was on the great apostasy and the need for a restoration. It went really well and all of our students took an Obnova Pamphlet! I really hope we can get some investigators from the class because they are all soooo cool and I want them to have the gospel in their lives! Not to mention the fact that because of their personalities they would help the church grow so much! anyway I'm thinking way ahead here... but that is a good thing right? Anyway we had a lesson with Tadeja this week and she told us that her dad had asked her if she would still get married in the Catholic church (her boyfriend is a member of the church) and she said no, becaue of the truths she has found she is going to marry Andrej in the temple!!!!! She said she and her parents had a good discussion about the church and they weren't thrilled but they weren't furious either! So basically Tadeja will get baptized...at this point it is just when. She hasn't talked any more to them about the baptism though so we will see!
Pops I think I may have miscommunicated about the lessons we had last week. the 12 lessons we had were a combination of member lessons and lessons we had on the street. We also count our spiritual thought in English class as a lesson. We still have only taught 1 actual 1st lesson out of preach my gospel to a potential investigator (Gospa Mili) and she is not interested. Tadeja (as our only investigator at this point) has had all of the lessons out of preach my gospel and so we have been reviewing some and doing spiritual thoughts with her. Anyway We hope that with our fast and determination to work harder we will get some more 1st lessons and some new progressing investigators soon!
We tried a new tactic this week while contacting. We contacted everyone we saw who looked 30 or younger in English! We had a ton of success!... Well more than we have had before:) We got 3 phone numbers and an e-mail address and taught some principles from the 1st lesson to several people. unfortunately 2 of those 3 numbers were fake... but we are making progress! Everyone here younger than 30 knows atleast a little bit of English. It isn't great way for me to learn the language but it is a great way to get their attention!
Ok. Now for General Conference! Wasn't it amazing!!! I got to watch 3 sessions which I hear is not common at all. I was so grateful because there were so many things said that I needed to hear. it is truly amazing how the Lord speaks through his servants to help all of his children! it was also really neat for me to watch Conference as a missionary. It gives it a completely different perspective. I kept on thinking of different members who could be helped with a certain talk and how I could apply everything that was said to missionary work. It is pretty cool how a change in your circumstances can change the meaning of conference! Anyway I have to go. I love you all, thank you for your prayers and support!
Love,
Sestra Powell
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Annie's Address
If you want to write Annie in Slovenia her address is: Sister Annie Powell Molekova Ulcia 3 1211 Ljubljana- Smartno Slovenia
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Letter from 3/21
Hello everone!
Wow! I cannot believe how fast time goes. I am already a third through my first transfer here in SLovenia! joj!!! I am slowly understanding more and more of the language each day. It is really interesting because I can hear a sentence and know every single word they are saying but still have absolutely no idea what it means! That probably sounds crazy but it is true! It just takes too long for me to work through the words so my the time I have filed through my brain to figure out one word they are five words further in the sentence. also Sentence structure is funky and they have some strange phrases. They always "walk on" places. Like to say we are going to church we say "Hodimo na Cerkev" which means literally we are walking on church. anyway fun little language fact for the day!Ok. I forgot to tell you last week that we had our first non member lesson! There was a woman who came to the church and Predsednik Juhart was there (district President). She asked him about our church and he testified to her and then called us and asked us to teach her. She asked to be called Gospa Mili and seems like a neat lady. We taught her the first lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she needed some time to read it and then she would call us. We asked if we could get together to teach her more but she just said she didn't want to rush into anything so she would call us when she had read it. We asked if we could call in a couple weeks and she said that would be fine. I'll let you know what happens! we are going to call her this week:) This past week we taught Tadeja who has been investigating the church for a while and has a really strong testimony of the gospel. When we taught her it felt like we were teaching another member lesson. She would get baptized in an instant if she could but she is living with her parents who are Catholic and very against the idea of her joining the church. They are supporting her through school and Tadeja is afraid they will kick her out if she gets baptized. We brainstormed some ideas of how we could familiarize her parents with the church so they would be more open and so the Lord could soften their hearts. She is such a sweet person and I'm praying that her parents will be open to efforts.We have so many amazing members in the Ljubljana ward and I wish I had time to tell stories about all of them but I don't really have time. We go for one a week! Monika is a younger woman who is getting ready to send in he mission papers!!! she has a boyfriend who is also getting ready to go on a mission. She has so much faith her desire to serve a mission is so strong! Our first lesson with her was right after she had gone to the doctors and the doctor wouldn't sign her papers for some reason. She was absolutely devastated and came to us crying. We talked to her about how the Lord knows her desire to serve a mission and that he will provide a way for her to fulfill that desire and that timing is everything, and only the Lord knows what timing is right. She has gotten in figured out since then and will send in her papers within the next couple of weeks! So exciting!Ok. last monday we went to lake Bled with the Taylor's (the cutest couple ever! they are so sweet!) and family guess what?! we have to come back when I get off my mission and go there. I kept on thinking of you and thinking that the little trip there was totally something we would do together! It was beautiful. we walked around the lake and then toured the old castle up on the hill. it was a lot of fun. This past week I also got to go to Croatia! We had a Golden Training meeting and it was fun to meet some of the missionaries in Croatia!Ok I've written way too much already. I love you all!
Love,Sestra Powell
Wow! I cannot believe how fast time goes. I am already a third through my first transfer here in SLovenia! joj!!! I am slowly understanding more and more of the language each day. It is really interesting because I can hear a sentence and know every single word they are saying but still have absolutely no idea what it means! That probably sounds crazy but it is true! It just takes too long for me to work through the words so my the time I have filed through my brain to figure out one word they are five words further in the sentence. also Sentence structure is funky and they have some strange phrases. They always "walk on" places. Like to say we are going to church we say "Hodimo na Cerkev" which means literally we are walking on church. anyway fun little language fact for the day!Ok. I forgot to tell you last week that we had our first non member lesson! There was a woman who came to the church and Predsednik Juhart was there (district President). She asked him about our church and he testified to her and then called us and asked us to teach her. She asked to be called Gospa Mili and seems like a neat lady. We taught her the first lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she needed some time to read it and then she would call us. We asked if we could get together to teach her more but she just said she didn't want to rush into anything so she would call us when she had read it. We asked if we could call in a couple weeks and she said that would be fine. I'll let you know what happens! we are going to call her this week:) This past week we taught Tadeja who has been investigating the church for a while and has a really strong testimony of the gospel. When we taught her it felt like we were teaching another member lesson. She would get baptized in an instant if she could but she is living with her parents who are Catholic and very against the idea of her joining the church. They are supporting her through school and Tadeja is afraid they will kick her out if she gets baptized. We brainstormed some ideas of how we could familiarize her parents with the church so they would be more open and so the Lord could soften their hearts. She is such a sweet person and I'm praying that her parents will be open to efforts.We have so many amazing members in the Ljubljana ward and I wish I had time to tell stories about all of them but I don't really have time. We go for one a week! Monika is a younger woman who is getting ready to send in he mission papers!!! she has a boyfriend who is also getting ready to go on a mission. She has so much faith her desire to serve a mission is so strong! Our first lesson with her was right after she had gone to the doctors and the doctor wouldn't sign her papers for some reason. She was absolutely devastated and came to us crying. We talked to her about how the Lord knows her desire to serve a mission and that he will provide a way for her to fulfill that desire and that timing is everything, and only the Lord knows what timing is right. She has gotten in figured out since then and will send in her papers within the next couple of weeks! So exciting!Ok. last monday we went to lake Bled with the Taylor's (the cutest couple ever! they are so sweet!) and family guess what?! we have to come back when I get off my mission and go there. I kept on thinking of you and thinking that the little trip there was totally something we would do together! It was beautiful. we walked around the lake and then toured the old castle up on the hill. it was a lot of fun. This past week I also got to go to Croatia! We had a Golden Training meeting and it was fun to meet some of the missionaries in Croatia!Ok I've written way too much already. I love you all!
Love,Sestra Powell
Monday, March 7, 2011
First week in SLOVENIA and pictures!
Annie calling the domophone for one of the bloks the stuffed. (do I know what this means? No but that is what she said she was doing in this picture.) reference paragraph 3 of the letter
Annie's companion Sister Oak
ley
Annie and her comp
leyAnnie and her comp
Hello Everyone!!!
Wow! Where do I even begin! There is so much to say but I honestly don'nt know where to start....ok usually na začetku is a good place . I am in Ljubljana with Sister Oakley!!!! When we arrived we went to the mission home and had interviews and dinner with Pres. Hill and his wife. They are so amazing! I am so excited to get to know them better because they are amazing people. Sister Oakley came down from Maribor and met us at the mission home. She is such a fun person and I am so grateful for her! After that the Assistents took us to our apartment in Šiška (our new area). The apartment used to be the elders so I'm not going to lie I was a little bit nervous....but they cleaned it up really well and left us all kinds of notes about how things worked and how to get places and sisters in the ward and little bios about them and...wow ...I was impressed! So the apartment is pretty nice. The bedroom is a little strange though....it is a closed off balcony with no heating system ...so it is basically outside... so we moved the bed inside to the living room. Ingenuitive ali ne? it is quite a nice little arrangement and a cozy little place! Anyway. So the first full day we tracted to the church (Sister Oakley did most of the talking but I stopped a couple of people!....I hardly understand anything the native speakers say...but I understand most of the missionaries:) and just kind of tried to get to know Šiška because Sister Oakley has been in Maribor her whole 6 months here! Later that night we had a practice because we are going to have a "concert" here in Ljubljana! We are singing in English and I am so excited that music will be a part of my mission so soon! The elders are great and I am so excited to work with them! They have all helped us out so much already.
We had a lesson with one of the members this week. Her name is Jelka and is possibly the sweetest woman ever. She made us lunch and it was amazing! We shared a spiritual thought with her and yes I did contribute! I can use words I know to make an understandable thought! She doesn't understand English and I still only understand a word to about every 10-20 words so most of my time during the visit was spent picking out familiar sounds (in my head it went something like this "OH! I know that word! I have no idea what she was talking about but I know she said garden!"). It was a reallz fun visit:)
We have been doing a lot of handing out flyers because we are going to have an English class! If I have time I will send a couple of pictures of me stuffing bloks! Good stuff! I even started pushing the call button and telling people what we needed to door opened for....yeah I'lll explain later I don't have a lot of time left. Yesterday was my first Sundayand church was great! it is truly amazing how i can feel something so familiar in a place on the other side of the world! Guess what everyone? The Gospel is True! I thought I'd tell you that just in case you didn't already know:) and guess whatelse? Predsenik Majc asked us to bear our testimonies!!! joj! It was a really neat experience though because I just picked a couple of truths I new and made sentences out of them and when I got up I wasn't even really nervous. I know the Lord was helping me. It is amazing the whole time I have been here I have felt that same sustaining power I felt in the MTC. Not much has been easy but I know the Lord has been helping me by giving me strength and energy while I am adjusting. Ok I feel like I am leaving so much out but I have taken too much time already. I love you all so much. Thank you for your prayers and support!
Love, Sestra Powell
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