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