Missionary scoop

Hey everyone hope you all had a great fourth of July. We ate good on the 4th I tell you what I ate enough hot dogs and hamburgers to last a month haha. But It was a good week we were able to meet President and Sister Summerhays and to be honest it wasnt as hard to me as I thought it would be. They seem like great people although they dont seem that they will have as lively personalities as the Pugh's you could tell they have the spirit with them and they will lead us well. I feel for President Summerhays he has so much to do the next couple weeks. He basically has interviews straight for the next two weeks. Well a few changes will occur first of all this is the LAST time that you will hear from me on monday's starting next week our P-Days will change to Thursdays. They had been doing that and their reasoning for us doing it that way is so that we can get rested up right before the really effective days of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That way we will have more in the tank to hit it hard at the end of the week. I personally think its a good idea although it will take some getting used too. Also there will be no more departing missionary firesides which is kind of a bummer. For transfers we will go to Pittsburgh and some of us may need to catch a greyhound to get there for me im not too far away. Also our standard of excellence for tracting was 10 hrs now it is 12 hrs but im happy to say that we got it this week as well as every week of this transfer. Also pretty sure this will be my last transfer here he said he was going to mix things up unless there was a real need to keep a companionship together. So most likely in 3 weeks ill be headed Pittsburgh way which will be fun but Bedford is really growing on me. Im starting to become real close to the members. I loved fast and testimony meeting yeterday the spirit was strong. Its just neat to hear the strength of these members and the great things they must do to keep their testimonies strong. They are so appreciative of their membership in the church even if it means they have less friends and family members that lose respect for them. I really appreciated Bro. Clappers testimony he shared his love for missionary work and how he enjoys coming out with us and learning and growing in the gospel. If only all members could have his attitude that hey I love missionary work and I love voluntering my time. He being a recent convert is a great strength to the branch. I truly do love the members in this branch. I think the coolest missionary expierence we had this week is when we were tracting we found a man named C D. His wife had just left him the pevious night and he was really struggling. It was so neat for me to be able to teach him and watch how our message was able to give him peace and greater hope. He acknowledges that he needs to get more religious and we just testified to him that Christ's Atonement was meant for our trials. To help us get through and to help us overcome and rise to new heights. I felt the Lord led us to him to give him strength in a dark time in his life. Also we set J with a baptismal date for the 25th of July. We know he still has a ways to go and we need to help him gain a testimony but he is reading from the B.O.M. Hes in 2 Nephi 20 so thats pretty good. I think more then anything we wanted to set something he could push for. Pray that he will be able to come to a witness that Joseph was a prophet of God. He needs to know that so he can have the conviction to obey the word of wisdom and to make the neccesary changes in his life. But im doing great it was a good week me and Elder Winters are working hard and we are trying to find those whom the Lord has prepared. To close I want to leave you with a quote. Its from C.S Lewis quoted in Dale E Millers talk entitled Bringing peace and Healing to your soul in the November 2004 conference. "God has an infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as if you had been the only man or women in the world." What a touching quote as we have in our minds the idea of our freedom. Let us remeber the ultimate source of freedom comes from ou savior Jesus Christ. It is he that can free us from any undesirable circumstance whether we bring it upon ourselves or not. It is made possible through his Atoning Sacrafice I love the Savior and I know it would all do us good to draw closer to him. I love you all and hope you have a great week.With Love Elder Powell