I made it 23 years

Well what a week. Let me start out with a story. So a year ago, Thanksgiving day to be exact, we brought Thadius to a ward activity. I told myself before hand that I would only watch the soccer game, even though I very much wanted to show off what little soccer talent I have left, so when I got there I went directly to the bench. While sitting thinking back to the good old days of sitting on the bench with dear kallie jade and megan stone, I noticed some kids joking around on another field. I decided that there would be nothing wrong with kicking the ball a bit with them so I went on over. They were very quickly amazed by the little talent I had, and were then asking me to start kicking the ball in the goal. I thought about it, saw no harm in it, and shot the ball in the goal. And although I made the goal, here is where I went wrong...I pivoted. I heard the familiar pop and felt a very similar pain. Unfortunately, it was the kind of pain that you can´t ignore, and my companion had to carry me to the car and give me a piggy back up the stairs of our house. She wanted to call President, but I knew something was wrong so I just told her that we would wait it out and then call him. haha. (I havent changed all that much it seems). I said a prayer that I would be able to finish what i needed to finish and the next day I started working. My knee hurt, but I just ignored it, and in a few weeks it seemed to be normal. I think I wore my brace up to Christmas just to be sure. I told myself that there was nothing wrong, but whenever I ran I could feel something was very much loose. But as you all can tell from my pictures, I just avoided that by not running. haha. The good part of the story is that Thadius was intergrated into the ward. Nothing like a good game of football to create lasting friendships. But here I am a year later, and for some reason my knee just wants to decide to start complaining. It was a hard week. I didn´t want to tell anyone, but one day while walking past President´s appartment I felt like I should talk to him. So I talk to Sister and we went to the doctors. It doesn´t take a brain surgeon to see that it is very much loose, but I will be getting an MRI this week. That should be fun. I sure do love MRIs. Anyway needless to say this week was tough. Not just because everyone and their mom didn´t want to talk to us, but because it has been a constant fight with me and myself. I am so annoyed with myself. I have become so tired talking to myself in my mind that i look for whatever opportunity I can to talk to anyone else. haha. Needless to say, our number of contacts are going up very fast. I also have been doing a great amount of talking to my heavenly Father, and as a result have learned quite a few lessons. First and most importantly, this is not my mission. It is the Lord´s. Whatever happens, it will be his will. So for all of you that are asking about my knee. That is the story. Dont worry. I am fine. It only hurts when I stop. I got a blessing from the goofiest elder in the world, and learned another lesson- a worthy priesthood leader giving a blessing, speaks the words of God. I heard exactly what I needed to hear. The ligament most likely is broken again. And that means I will need surgery, but God will help me do what I need to do before that happens. So I will just keep working until I can´t. And don´t worry I will really stop when I can´t. I am hoping that will be March 8th. But my mission has been one of so many unexpected events that who knows....Only God. But I will be sure to let ya´ll know when I do. OH and keep senhor Pedro in your prayers. This week is his baptism! Ah. I can´t believe it. No I take it back...I can. The best part of the week was finding him reading the Book of Mormon. What a great thing it is to be a missionary. Thanks for everything that yall do. I will be seeing you..sooner or later :) lets hope on later. phah LOVE YOU, Sister Powell

A week to be thankful for

From: McKenzie Powell [mailto:mckenzie.powell@myldsmail.net] Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 7:23 AM To: Kevin Powell; Mom; Sydney; Alex Subject: A week to be thankful for. Last week was amazing. Senhor Pedro came to church, and while there he told me that he knew this is what he needed to become better. That made me so happy. Oh it is raining cats and dogs. Seriously. I changed three times yesterday. Each and every single time, I got soaked to the bone. It is still raining. We will be wading home after I finish this email. haha. Thanksgiving was weird seeing that nobody celebrates it here, but I made sure that we did something. I called my leaders to tell them that that night we would not be talking on the phone (they call EVERY NIGHT) because we were going to be having a circle of gratefulness. We then sat in a circle and spent about an hour about everything we were thankful for. It made me happy. I just have so much to be thankful for. Even Sister Neyla seemed to like it by the end. We started working in a new area- It is forever away but it is worth it. We found so many great people. One woman stood out more than them all. We we knocked on her door she answered crying. She told us that she had to leave for work, but that she really wanted to talk to us and asked us to come back a few days later. We did. That morning I felt like we should practice the plan of salvation, even though the logical thing would have been to practice the restoration, but it just felt right, and I am learning to go with my feelings. Turns out it was a smart move. Adriana lost her brother two months ago. Someone shot him for no apparent reason. Adriana was raised catholic, but has always felt like something was missing. She has been going from to church to church since she was 16 and stopped when she found the 7th days. Since her brother has died she has really been struggling, and she said that when we called that she was praying that GOd would send her something to help her get over this pain. I asked her a lot about her background, and found out that she believed that when we die we sleep until the resurrection. I then asked her a bit about her brother and the faith that he had. She told me that he never was one to believe in things that he couldnt see, and that was one of her biggest fears that he didnt accept christ in this life. That was the perfect set up for the plan of salvation. I LOVE THE PLAN OF SALVATION. Most missionaries, I have found, do not like teaching it. But I think it is the best to teach. It answers those questions we all have. ANd sure it is hard to teach, because it just prompts a hundred more questions, but I have found that as we teach it by sharing what each principle means to us, we are able to invite the spirit in a way that anyone can feel of it truthfulness. We will recognize it as Gods plan. And Adriana felt it. I think it is amazing how prepared some people are for the gospel. We just have to go out there and look for them. Another thing that we are doing, that I am just loving, is inviting the members to give Book of Mormons to their friends and neighbors. The cool thing is, that everyone is doing it! It will do miracles. I just know it. Maybe I wont see it on my mission, but I know that it is going to help the next missionaries out a lot. The help of the members is so important. I sure do love you all. Give a Book of Mormon to someone that you feel would need it. I dont know why we are so hesitant to share something so important. I dont understand why I didnt. I can walk up to anyone now and talk about anything, but when it comes to walking up to my friends and giving them something that means the world to me, I just never did. I am going to change that. Lets all change that. Lets be a little better. That is what life is all about anyways. I love you. Sister POwell