The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever

Moms and Pops,

Well, although my b-day is this week, I still feel the same as I did yesterday. I still feel like a kid actually. But alas, time moves on. You both know that, you're 600 years old! That made me laugh what dad said... classic.

To answer dad: Elder Windholz hasn't been out very long, he's only been out barely over a year, maybe 14 months. He goes home next September. And now for crazy news........ I'm not serving with him anymore. We had an emergency transfer. A missionary in Kelseyville is going home, his mission is over mid-transfer and he was a ZL and so Elder Windholz had to go there to fill in. So that means that I need someone here with me, so they brought down an Elder Blowers from Alabama to be with me. But, here is the crazy thing, he isn't a zone leader. I'm the lone ZL for the biggest zone in the mission. Crazy. Elder Blowers goes home with me in January, so I know him, but not very well. We'll only serve together for 2 weeks, until the transfer is over. Weird stuff, huh? I'm really sad, I loved Elder Windholz!!!! I miss him already, and he's only been gone for 3 hours... He will be a lifelong friend for sure.

Anyways, the week was great! Our teaching pool is increasing and we found an AWESOME investigator the other day. He has a young family, and he's from Mexico but speaks perfect English. His parents used to meet with missionaries in Mexico when he was real young, so he remembers that. He is a pretty humble guy and wants the gospel for him and his family. He has 2 young daughters and his wife. Awesome. It has also began to rain a bit this week, it rained a few days.. I got soaked! I didn't buy a raincoat, because I'm coming home soon and I don't want to buy it and then just keep it in my closet at home forever. I'll just tough it out for a month. I still can't wrap my head around that... It still feels fake.

Hello g-ma!!! I'm afraid to say that I didn't get her package... I hope she doesn't go nuts! We have a SWEET family that signed up for Thanksgiving, so no worries... their son plays lacrosse and they have a puppy german shepherd (who is pretty dang big), so I'll be in heaven! Thank you for the package by the way!! Those oatmeal cookies with whatever the heck is in them are dang delicious! The nice black sweater fits me, but the other one is only a large... You know that doesn't fit me! It is pretty tight... I guess I could wear it under a long sleeve shirt or something. The other nice sweater works perfectly fine, in fact, I wore it last night.

Other than that... Go OSU! BYU isn't doing too well... they need to shape up before I get there, or I'll be ticked! And dad, I know, I worry about all that stuff too! But, it'll all work out somehow. I'm jealous of your trip to Dublin... that place was cool! I really want to go back and visit Europe, especially Belgium. Looking back, those were great days, and I am constantly reminded of the opportunity that I let slip through my fingers to learn French and make the most of my experience there... I hate that... But, live and learn I guess...

I love you both very much! I hope your week goes well! Is Colin going home for Thanksgiving?

Love,

Elder Edwards

November 12 - Holey Moley

Moms and Pops,

Crazy week! So... I was really surprised that neither of you talked about the elections! I was on exchanges with Elder Buchan on Tuesday and we had no idea what was going on with who was leading and who wasn't... then we got online at night to do facebook work and we just saw TONS and TONS of status saying things like ''we're screwed!!'' and ''well, let's pack up and move to Canada.'' I thought it was pretty humorous. Too bad that I have to be back for all 4 years of his administration... I enjoyed being a missionary and not knowing what the heck was going on... Let's sure hope that the country holds together for the next 4 years of having a communist regime... Let's look on the bright side, the first thing people say to us isn't ''are you going to vote for your guy?'' That's a good change of pace...

Anyway, today is my 22 month mark... That is so hard to imagine... I feel stuck in this missionary realm that time doesn't change. I still feel like that when January rolls around that I'm still going to be a missionary here in Novato, and I feel like I'll be doing that in February and on into the year... I can't comprehend going home. It doesn't really even phase me because it just doesn't feel real. I don't think that it'll hit me until we have our departing dinner at President's home, or even until I'm on the plane. It is a weird sensation.

Work here in Novato is really slow... and it's not for lack of effort. We are talking to everyone and we're tracting and going through every one of our former investigators... but we haven't gotten anything super solid. We were blessed this week with 3 new investigators that were found through former 'gators. Outside of that, nothing. It's hard. But, I also know that trials precede the miracle. I'm working on just being patient and trusting that the miracles will come.

So for our P-day's, we don't do anything super crazy. We have a very spread out zone, so it's hard to get together as a big body and do something fun... so, we've been coming up to Petaluma and hanging out here playing basketball or something... We usually email at the library, but because today is Veteran's day (Elder W is a veteran!) and it's closed.

Well, that's about it! Weird to think that I'll be 21 a week from Thursday, crazy... I hope all is going well! I just found out that the white shirt I am wearing is falling apart... Seems to be a common theme with my old white shirts... There is a hole in the back shoulder. Oh well... I'll be okay for another 2 months. I love you both!!! Give loves to my puppy!

Love,
Elder Edwards

Camp Zion and a Baptism

Moms and Pops,

Hello again! We just got back from our 4 day camping trip! Holy cow, it was crazy!!! Because we're zone leaders, we were running all over the place the whole 4 days. We were so super busy. We had to "own our zone" and considering we have the largest zone in the mission: 24 missionaries, it made it a bit difficult. This camp is in the mountains by the coast, so in the camp itself, there is a very steep hill that has steps built into it, and we literally ran up and down that thing about 30 times in 4 days... My legs were so burned out and tired, but Winholz (Sarge is his nickname) was loving it! It was a lot of fun. We did a ton of workshops and the best part was that we didn't have to wear our normal missionary clothes! We got to wear "civis!" When I asked for long-sleeve shirts, I was thinking more of thermals so I would be warm... Not long-sleeve dress up shirts, but it's okay, I survived! I was only cold once, really... And even then it wasn't all that bad. I got to see a lot of loved ones as well: Bishop Kastner (from Napa 2nd ward), he picked up his missionaries, President Bell (he is the new 2nd counsilor to the mission president), and a few others that I haven't ever mentioned. One of the best parts of the week was when we returned on Saturday, we had a baptism to prepare for the next day! A lady named Liza was baptized after 2 years of investigating the church. This was her 3rd attempt to get baptized, and she ran into road blocks the first 2 times. But it worked out this time! We had a huge turnout at the baptism, the whole ward knows her. That is when Sister Barella got my picture, so that was only yesterday! She brought down Elder Weisenburger and Elder Felix because they both have served here in Novato and have both worked with her so they came to the baptism. It was great! We had one of our 'gators there. This particular 'gator would be baptized if she wasn't an alcoholic. Her daughter was murdered a few years ago and it she has struggled ever since. We're working with her though. She actually might end up going to a rehab facility in Vallejo because it's so bad, she's been hospitalized a few times because of it. It's pretty sad to watch...

Go OSU! I like bye weeks sometimes, because then you can't lose! Go Colts! And Go Browns (even if they lost...)! I loved the pictured of Max that you sent. I could only really cut 1 of them to a size that I could put it in my wallet, but that's fine. As for my birthday/christmas... like I said, I'd rather you just save money and send me some super sweet ties, than spend a lot of money on me. For ties, like I said, I like bright colors! Remember to not be too crazy with it though... Other than that, just save the money and we'll go shopping for whatever I need when I get home. I'm going to need some things, so just hold on to it. Can you believe that I'm coming home in 2 months... I can't. It is so surreal to me, it can't really be happening. I don't really believe that it is, so it's all okay. Weird thing though, Elder Buchan is going home in 1 month, that is crazy...

Anyways, Elder Windholz is keepin me in shape. I feel like my belly has gone down a bit and that my face has slimmed down a bit as well. But I'll let you be the judge. Also, send me back my memory card! I took a ton of pictures on the one that I have right now, it has around 125 on it or something. Or I can just use this one for the remainder of my mission, I don't really care either way. Also, I would send you pictures, but I lost my cord, so I can't... Sorry!

I love you both very much, thank you for everything!! I hope that you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Edwards

Marin County

Moms and Pops,

Novato is great! This area is so beautiful! There are a lot of trees and there are a lot of hills. There is also a TON of money... Holy Cow! I have seen some massive homes, some sweet cars, and a lot of other super duper fancy things. Whew... The ward here is awesome though! We have about 150-170 active members, and the grand majority are young couples with a few kids. It is a very young ward (referring to people, not how long the ward has been around). There are people in the ward that are old and retired and rich... But, yeah. I was surprised yesterday when there wasn't as much screaming by the little kids as I expected because of all the little munchkins.

Elder Windholz is a monster! He can run for days, and days, and days, and days... I feel like I'm in conditioning every morning. Like I told you, he spent 4 years in the Army before he came out on his mission and he spent 12 months in Afghanistan. He is just a super solid and fit guy. He is a bit older, 24 years old, but luckily we were already good friends so it wasn't weird or anything. We are getting along great and we have lots of laughs during the day. He calls me Major and I call him Sarge, and we end up talking in military jargon a lot too... it's fun! He is sure whipping me into good physical shape... I'm still sore from running all last week. We go about 2-3 miles a day, plus up at least 1 really big hill (Novato is full of hills). I'm dying while we run, but he is just loving it! Every morning, he'll roll out of bed and do 100 push ups right in a row... I love the guy though, he is probably one of my best friends on the mission. Oh, he is from Woodward, Oklahoma and loves to workout and shoot guns. He has a bunch of guns... I've seen pictures. I guess when you live in a town of 12,000 in Oklahoma, there isn't anything better to do than shoot guns and work out.

Anyway, the work here in Novato is pretty slow at the moment. We only have 4 investigators, and one of them is getting baptized this coming Sunday! So that is awesome! But, other than that, it's tough! We are also ZL's (forgot to mention that last week), and our zone is pretty dang large, our zone covers 4 cities, and we have 11 companionship's which is 23 missionaries (one of the companionship's is a trio). Our zone is the biggest in the mission, so it'll be fun going around and visiting all the different cities. Elder Buchan and Elder Ramiah (former companions) are both in Rohnert Park, so that is fun too!

I can't believe you got my travel itinerary! I wasn't told anything about it. I won't get mine until next transfer. That makes sense though, so you guys can start planning on whatever, and I won't get mine so I don't get trunked out. I think I'm doing well with that though, because I still feel like I'm pretty focused and it doesn't feel real that I'm going home soon. There are times when I'm not busy that my mind wanders to things like music and movies and football, but that isn't too often. Last night we had dinner at a PM's house, and they didn't turn off the tv (we also didn't ask......) and they have pre-game football on... That was awesome because I love football, but it sucked because it just made me trunky for football... I got over it pretty fast though.

We go to our all-mission conference this week on Wednesday up in the redwoods on the coast off of HWY 1. I'm super excited! I hope I get my package before I go... I have been assigned to give a little devotional in front of the mission, so that should be interesting as well. Anyways! Time for me to go... Because we have this 3 day all-mission conference, we have a short as possible P-day today, so we gotta go shop and clean our apartment and car. I love you both very much! Thank you for all your prayers and words of encouragement. Also, any news on the priesthood lineage??

Love,

Elder Edwards

October 23 - Transfers

Moms and Pops,

 

First off, on transfer weeks, our P-day is on Tuesday. So I couldn't email either of your on Monday if I wanted to. I know Mom had a question about that, it's not that I'm too busy on Monday, it's that Monday isn't our P-day on transfers. So, first off, I have been transferred. I am going to Novato to be with Elder Windholz. That name may look familiar, I may have talked about him before. But he is one of my best friends on the mission! I have served around him for 5 transfers previous to this, so we already know each other quite well. This transfer is such a blessing for me! I have wanted to serve in Novato for a very long time and Elder Windholz and I always talked about serving together. He is the one that is from Woodard, OK and served in the Army for 4 years before his mission. He spent 12 months in Afghanistan as well. He is awesome! We are going to do great together! Also, Elder Ramiah is in my zone, a previous companion, and so is Elder Buchan. So, I already know a lot of the missionaries! It is hard to believe that I only have 1 transfer after this... Boy, time sure does fly...

 

Anyway, the Swank family is getting baptized this Saturday! I am so excited for them! President is going to allow me to come back for their baptism, Novato is only about 45 minutes south of Santa Rosa. It is a very wealthy area as well, so it should be interesting. One of the girls that was going to get baptized, her legal guardian (her mother) isn't going to allow her to be baptized... so that is a big stink, but the other girl and then the grandma are still doing it though. How exciting!

 

This is a very short email, and I would write more, but I am very pressed for time right now. Sorry! I hope everything worked out with the Cards. Go Bucks, Go Cougars, Go Colts, Go Browns! Also, please send Kendra a text with my new address. And you can send me the package asap now. Here is my new address:

 

904 Lark Ct.

Novato, CA 94947

 

I love you both very much! I hope that you have a great week.

 

Love,

Elder Edwards

 

P.S. There is a Chipotle in Novato!!!!! There are only 2 in our mission, and 1 of them is in Novato. That is one of the places that we eat at. Yum!

Giants Country

Moms and Pops,

This week we got to go to the temple! It was awesome! The weather was
incredible and I loved it so much! It was overcast, a bit windy, and a
bit chilly... I haven't had that kind of weather in forever! It is
such a nice change of pace from being in Vacaville where it never
rained, there were never any clouds, and it was always in the 100s...
Also, this is unusual, but I was able to drive one of the vans down
from Santa Rosa to the temple! That was fun. I also had 3 sisters in
the van, which is also very unusual. But, we got permission to do it
because it was a temple trip. I haven't given any girls a ride in a
car since I was at BYU almost 2 years ago! How crazy is that? Also,
the day that we were down in the bay area was the saem time as the
Giants game. It was CRAZY! We stopped at a food court for lunch and
the game was on and it was like the 10th inning and the Giants came
and won. People were going so crazy. Now, it's the Cardinals and the
Giants. Man, the Cardinals better win! One of my recent converts,
Tony, is a huge Giants fan... so, we gotta win!!!

So the family that we've been working with is all set to get baptized!
There is 3 of them, an older lady in her 50s or so, and then 2 young
kids that are 9 and 11. They're getting baptized on the 27th of
October. Also, we're working with a 12 year old girl who has come to
church with her grandparents the past year, and she as well is going
to get baptized on the 27th of October. So, that will be a huge day! 4
baptisms on that day. The Stony Point Ward's baptismal goal for this
year was 6, and so far there has been 10 or 11 baptisms, and we're
about to have 4 more. That goal was blown out of the water! So awesome
to see something like that happen. The work is on fire! Also, this is
the last week of the transfer (is it already that time?) so I may get
transferred... only time will tell.

Remember our Lao family? We had dinner with them this week and I ate
another extremely hot pepper... I didn't think it would be as hot as
it was. I was sweatin the whole time. Also, their food was SO good!!!
Holy cow! It was just delicious. I had a yellow Thai Pepper, and
apparently those are about as hot as a habenero. I didn't know that at
the time... I have eaten a habenero on my mission too, and that too
was an interesting experience, one that I don't want to have again.

Last week was General Conference, and this week we had Stake
Conference. How crazy is that? We haven't had normal church for 2
weeks. It is really weird... Everyone is all confused and it just
feels weird. On Saturday, the area seventy and the stake president
went out with the missionaries. So, we taught a lesson to the Swank's
with our stake president and a general authority! How cool is that?
His name is Elder Frank Trythol (not sure of the spelling). It was
pretty awesome. He slapped my leg, haha it was funny. It's not every
day that you get to have a lesson with a general authority. I've met
him before in Vacaville, him and president Bell were good friends.
President Bell is also really good friends with Elder Cornish of the
Seventy, they worked together for a long time. There is a quote that I
heard once that says "there are 3 main 'tions' to which people are
called to leadership in the church; Revelation, Inspiration, and
Relation!" I thought that that was pretty clever.

The works moves forward here. Me and my companion are doing okay. We
are very different. He is kinda like a little brother to me who just
talks and asks questions just to hear himself. I can kind of see how
Colin and Tanner may have viewed me! But I am learning patience. It's
been tough, but it's been okay. It hasn't been terrible. Other than
that, I don't have much else to report on! I'm
impressed with dad's involvement with the YM. That is awesome! I know
that you are making a huge impact on them. They need a good role model
like you to help them right now in their lives. I've heard countless
missionaries say that one of their biggest "heros" was their YM
leader. So rememer that, you are changing lives, even if you don't see
it. Do you remember my YM leader from Ohio? I can't quite remember his
name, it was like Brother Nye or something like that (that could also
be completely wrong)? Anyway, he lives in Fairfield, and he was in a
different ward when I was there, but we met in the same building. I
heard from the missionaries in his ward that he found out that I was
serving a mission and he said "really?! I never thought that he would
do it!" I wonder how many people would say that who knew me from Ohio
and even Belgium. Just an interesting thing that he lives in Fairfield
next to the airbase.

Anyway, I hope that the Colts and Browns did well. I'm glad to hear
that OSU won! I saw that BYU was playing "OSU" somewhere, and I was a
bit nervous that it was Ohio, but now I know that it was Oregon... Go
Bucks! Go Cougars! Go Cardinals!

Love,
Elder Edwards

Third Times a Charm

Moms and Pops,

So, as the title suggests, what can you think of that I've been "plagued" with at least two times before now on my mission? Well, if you guessed Poison Oak, you are correct!! We did some service in some one's backyard that was very wooded, we were clearing underbrush and whatnot, and the lady said that she had all the Poison Oak removed... well, that's not true. Once again, I have it everywhere. IT IS ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE! When I found out that I had it (on Friday morning) I immediately went and bought bleach and 2 tubes of cortisone (which are all empty now, I bought a few more and they are empty too, 4 bottles in total). That morning I have myself a bleach sponge bath, that sucker BURNED like crazy! Of course I didn't do straight bleach, I blended it with water, and the rest of that day was just miserable... It is on my face, my neck/jaw line, both arms, both legs, and behind both knees... fun times, huh? Funny note though, I have permission to not shave! So, I've been growing out my beard for the first time since I had something to grow! It is pretty gross... haha I've been growing it out since Friday. It is very patchy... but I got some good stuff on my chin! Other than that, it isn't too pretty... On Friday though, i called the mission nurse and she got me hooked up with some prescription prednisone which helps a lot... so, I got hooked up immediately. Like you, pops, because of my infirmities, I couldn't enjoy General Conference as much as I would have liked.

I HATE POISON OAK! I hate being so stinkin allergic to it! Ughh!

Anyway, how about general conference! Despite my plague, I received a lot of good inspiration and revelation on my life! I had 4 major questions that I had prepared. They were pretty general though, they were: 1. What direction should I take my life (career wise) after my mission? 2. What should my priorities be? 3. and 4. How can I continue to glorify God more fully. The talk that provided me with the most revelation to my questions that I had was Elder Christofferson. It was great! I loved that talk. Also, other favorites of mine were Elder Holland (as usual), Elder Bednar (as usual), and President Monson's Sunday morning. Of course many many of them stood out, but those ones come to mind first. It was awesome! Now that I'm older and can understand what is being taught, I am so much more involved, and time passes by SO fast! These past 2 days have gone by in the blink of an eye. I remember when I was younger and watching G.C, it was just drudgery, but I didn't fully understand at the time. I'm grateful for the added knowledge that I have now that helps me learn. Weird to think that the next G.C. that I will be at home... crazy! My mind is continually blown that I only have about 3 months left, that is way too weird. Oh, what are your thoughts on the age change for missionaries? That blew my mind! Holy cow! There are going to be a TON of freshman girls at BYU in the next year, should be interesting! :) This is God's way of taking away my competition! haha! Either that or He is giving me a great opportunity to find a RM wife... either works for me. Not that I think about that a lot anyway.............................................

The new shirts that you're trying, the Gold Bond ones or something like that? I think Gold Bond is some kind of baby powder, but it's something like that. It's a good shirt to use, they'll be good for the winter when it's colder, because these shirts are a bit thicker. As for my birthday, don't go crazy... ties, and some snacks would make me perfectly happy! As for Christmas, with only 2 weeks after that, I would say just save the money. I mean yeah, send me some snacks or something, maybe a tie or two, but save the money. I don't want to receive a bunch of things and have to haul them home with me. When it is time for me to come home, I'm going to give away a lot of things, like my bike, ties, shirts, etc... I want to come home with light luggage. When I get home, then maybe we can have our own little Christmas in January or something... give me $75 to the Nike outlet or something, I'd have a blast!

As for the work, we just dropped 7 investigators the other day... they were people that we haven't seen in weeks, and people that are avoiding us. The one referral from the MTC who was super solid dropped us as well, so... that, along with the plague has made for a very trying week. It has been tough. But, through the trials, we learn patience, faith, and trust. There is not really anything more I can do about my skin disease, but just wait it out and endure... good thing a lot of talks focused on trials and whatnot, huh?

So, we received some sad news yesterday... Elder W's grandfather passed away. He took it pretty well actually. He had about 15 minutes of just crying it out, but after that he shifted his mind and was good to go. He has a lot of faith. It made me think of if Gma passed away while I was out here... I would be devastated... I love that "sassy old pup!" I've been telling her, in about every letter, that she needs to take care of herself so I can see her when I come home! So, that was some sad news that we received this week...

Sounds like sports is doing great! Except the Browns... sometimes I wonder if they like to think. I guess not... frustrating! But the Colts won! Who is their head coach?? So good to hear about OSU KILLING Nebraska in the conference opener... So excited for them! And BYU... their offense has been pathetic the past year or so, that score 6-3, was like a baseball game score... Sorry to hear about the Cardinals... They can come back! at least it's not single-game elimination.

Can't believe that there is only 2 weeks left in this transfer. Where does all this dang time go! I'm up and going 16 hours a day, every day, you think that it would seem like the days are super long! But, they aren't... time just gets faster and faster. It is also increasingly easier and easier to get unfocused... If I hear a good song in a restaurant or see a glimpse of an interesting movie, it is hard to bring my mind back from thinking about how much longer I have until I can do those things again... But, that internal battle continues. My comp says that I seem to be doing very well with controlling my "trunkiness."

Anyway, I love you both very much. I hope that you were both uplifted and enlightened from General Conference and that you received some great guidance. Remember, it isn't enough to just think of ways to change, we need to ACT! Hugs and Kisses XOXO Also!!!! This is probably the first letter in MONTHS that neither of you mentioned my pup!!!!!!! I need an update on that furry little critter! Please and thank you!

Love,
Elder Edwards