Elder Powell: Happy Baptism!!

Hey all y’all!

We are on the final countdown until the month of…. April!! I am so excited. It is officially the Easter Season. Time is honestly flying by entirely too quickly. We are well into Spring and the weather has sure shown it’s sunny side up face this past week with beautiful weather. Of course, even better, the Utah Jazz are in a crazy Playoff race for the second consecutive season! I’m already excited for the NBA Playoffs to begin next month!

First things first, Thursday evening we had John Roney’s Baptism! My companion, Elder Grimes, was able to perform the Ordinance for the first time on his mission. It was so exciting. John has come a long ways and more than prepared to enter into this sacred Covenant. After the Baptism, we went to Denny’s with a few other members of the Hugo Branch for #FridayEve. It was a blast!

We continue to find numerous young families between the ages of 18-30 that have small children and are curious to know our beliefs. There is a neighborhood that we found that has never been touched my missionaries and out of 17 doors we knocked and opened, 15 of them have requested a return appointment. All under the age of 30. It’s a miracle neighborhood.

Wednesday was a full day of service. We continued to help some members burn the piles of trees we have been taking down. We made a huge bonfire and had the flames shooting up 12 feet. It was so exciting! We definitely heated up their property a bit and almost saw the lake they live right next to starting to bubble. Hahaha. Then we went to another families home to help the dad work on the garage we have been building and trying to reactivate his wife and children. Lots of projects we have been working on with the members in the Branch and lots of missionary work to do. Hugo has definitely been a hopping place. Oklahoma is insane!

Story: Saturday afternoon we were up in the Northern part of our area in a city called Antlers. We were driving by the Hospital and saw a helicopter about ready to takeoff! Of course, I stopped on the side of the road and had to watch everything. I was so happy! We watched for about five minutes and the helicopter shut down his engine and aborted the takeoff and/or emergency. Low and behold, I look in my review mirror and saw a police car right behind our car with his lights on. I was like “what the heck??? The pilots called the cops on me or something!??” I was like panicking and told Elder Grimes to quickly get the registration out of the glovebox. He then walked up to the car and and asked how we are doing and what are we up to. I gave him a handshake and said “I am a pilot and love helicopters and just wanted to see him takeoff.” He said that was the most awesome thing he’s heard in a long time and said he was out searching for a black car with people in it. Our car is white and he just wanted to make sure it wasn’t us just in case. He was a really nice officer and just said to have a wonderful afternoon and no problems at all! He sure got my heart rate going! What even is my luck. Haha.

Grab a peanut butter cookie and Sprite and get ready for…… ❤️ #FridayNightDateNight!! ❤️

Last #DateNight coming up this week! We had a roller coaster of an evening.

If you know we are in Hugo, Oklahoma, you can kind of guess where we went………keep guessing……Subway!!! Still it never gets old. Hahaha. Anyway, I got myself a 6 inch sub, a chicken salad, potato soup, and my favorite peanut butter cookies. It was a very delicious meal I’ll say. We are eating and some of my favorite Subway workers came to sit down next to us. They said they have some friends that are interested and wondering what we do as missionaries and our beliefs. The Subway workers were able to do a little missionary work themselves and give a quick brief overview to their friends. In fact, they video called their friends up and we had a discussion over a video conference of 6 other people! It was tight! One of the friends was at a restaurant with her boyfriend in Paris at Chili’s and we talked about the Plan of Salvation to them. I was expressing my joy of such a fun date for them!! Haha. They were so cute. Anyway, we got them on Facebook and staring to teach them a little over technology. We were teaching our friends at Subway while teaching 6 others on a video conference at the same time. There was even a customer that popped in for a second to listen in and ask a few questions about Eternal marriage. 9 people were being taught in under 30 minutes. It was awesome! All at SUBWAY. It was an exciting evening.

I know my Savior lives and loves each of us. I am excited for General Conference and the special occasion it will be to listen and hear from our living Prophets and Apostles. They are here to guide and lead us. They love us. I am grateful I have this opportunity to be a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ for 17 more weeks. I have been blessed tremendously these past several months. I can’t wait to see what’s in store ahead. Life is too precious.

I love you all! Happy Easter and April! Thanks for your continued love and support.

Bye