Hello Parents,
Dad, you need to write me in the middle of the week! I don't know what questions you have for me when you write me on Sunday because I don't get your letter until Wednesday. Upon rereading Mom's letter, I'm really proud of you and what you have been doing with Brian. Utilize Preach My Gospel as much as you can. That thing is AWESOME! How does it feel to be a missionary? It is always a bit nerve racking to challenge people to do something. But I have gotten pretty bold and direct with it. You have to be harder with some people and I have experienced that. But keep up the good work! It 's also good to hear about Jeff! That's awesome! Is he scared for dad's class with all the "deep" doctrine? Dad, are you using analogies about me being on a mission or me in general? You need to let me know about those so I can approve them! Oh, on the Tanner and Faith deal -- Tanner made a good choice. I won't say any more than that but it is for the better. He'll realize that soon enough. To answer your question on the car stuff. The "Hybrid" program isn't really anything too intense. We just only have 600 miles a month. So we still bike a lot and walk a lot. We just can't be using the car for every day and for everything.
Dad, I do thank you for your letters. Shelley has done a VERY good job of writing me! I get a letter from her every week. I have gotten a few from cousin Sara, so it's been good! I haven't heard much about what is going on the world. Lat thing I heard was that we and France were bombing Libya. Are we in ANOTHER war? What the heck! Oh well, the Lord has a reason for everything and we'll find out what it is sooner or later. So, about my week!
The week started off a bit rough. Elder Bacon and I have had our rough spots. He is a VERY rule oriented guy. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing. But it can get very annoying when he is just like, "We can't do that, in Preach My Gospel is says ...." or "The white handbook specifically says..." and we have had a few arguments. But that was earlier in the week. We have worked things out and we're doing pretty well actually. I was surprised. He is old too - 22! Anyway, to give you an overview of what happened this week:
We taught 19 total lessons, set 5 baptismal dates for investigators and found a Southern Baptist Minister (SBM). So, all in all, a VERY good week! Since Elder Bacon has no idea what's going on here in Napa, I kinda took over the area this week because I know the investigators and I know the area. He is still the Senior Companion and whatnot, but it was good to see what it feels like to take over an area and not just follow behind someone all the time like I did with Elder Marsh (who is now in Vacaville with the missionary I sat next to on the plane).
Jen and Justin, our "goldens" are doing fantastic! They come to church every week and Jen (the mom) stopped drinking coffee because she heard in church that we don't do that. We didn't even teach her the Word of Wisdom either! Man, that was an awesome experience! She has been really studying the gospel too. She reads True to the Faith, the Gospel Principles book and the Book of Mormon. She will get baptized, as will Justin (the son), it's just about when. We set a "goal" date for them for April 16. I think they can make that easily! But, they don't live in our ward boundaries. I can't tell you much about that situation yet, because I'm still clueless on what to do. We're working with the Bishop and with Adam (the one that told us about her, they are real good friends and maybe have a relationship). So I'll let you know what happens with them but they are super awesome.
Jessica (24 year old super sweet girl) is doing well too. We brought the Elders Quorum president with us to teach her and he invited her to be baptized! It was a great experience. The thing with her is that she works every Sunday so she hasn't been to church yet AND she isn't married to the guy that she is living with and has 3 kids with also. So, that is our next obstacle. We are going to read the Family Proclamation with her pretty soon and teach her the Law of Chastity. Should be interesting. I have taught the Word of Wisdom to a few people and I have taught the Law of Chastity to an 80-something year old lady. That was a funny/awkward experience.
That lady happens to be Loti, another investigator with a baptismal date. She is SUPER old but she is really nice and funny. She always says I'm so handsome and young ... kinda creepy and weird. But, it's funny. She says that she believes the Book of Mormon and she believes everything we teach her so we gave her a date of April 19 for baptism. The first time me and Elder Marsh gave her a date, she tried to drop us. She didn't so that this time, so we'll see what happens. She knows everything we teach is true and she believes it and she comes to church on occasion (apparently 80 year olds sleep a lot?), so she needs to be baptized.
We got a media referral from the church headquarters and this lady wanted a BOM. We went over to see her and she is even MORE golden than Jen and Justin. We haven't taught her officially yet so that's why she isn't an investigator. But she is SUPER excited about reading the BOM and coming to church. Later we found out that she is a lady that our Bishop has been talking to! He is SO awesome! He is truly a full-time missionary. He works so hard. He has a goal to give out 1 BOM a month. This referral that we got because of him, she will get baptized too. She has searched all of mormon.org (you guys should make a profile by the way) and lds.org. We're going to see her this week to see what she likes and to answer questions.
So, the SBM. He was a referral given to us by the Sister Missionaries. They just said that he studied religion in school and that was about it. So I was like sweet, let's do this! We knock on his door, and he looks like the old guy in West Coast Choppers with the handle bar mustache and pretty big. He also had a huge thing of tobacco in his lip. Turned out he was a certified Southern Baptist Minister. Before I knew that, I gave him a Restoration pamphlet. And he just went OFF! He said everything that we believe is WRONG and he just kept going and going. He said that he will be saved because he believes in Jesus Christ and that's it. I said we needed works as well, and that set him off too. I wanted to day SO many things, but he never gave us the light of day. So eventually I took my pamplet back and we left. So that is my story of the week for you.
The incident made me think about the gospel and how grateful I am to be a part of it. My testimony didn't shake or quiver in the slightest because of that guy. I've gone through too much to throw it away. I KNOW with a surety that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ. I KNOW without a doubt that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon is TRUE. I'm so grateful to be where I am today and I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world. Thank you, mom and dad, for the example that I needed. I could always count on you guys to help me out.
Not much else to report on, time for me to go ball it up! I hope you all have a good week. I love you all.
Elder Edwards
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Transfers
Hola Parents!
So transfers happened. What did you think was going to happen? Well I'll tell you what happened. Napa got pretty much turned upside down. Fortunately I'm staying in Napa, but Elder Marsh got transferred to Vacaville. I've only been with my new companion a few hours, but from what I can tell he seems pretty good. He's pretty serious and strict with rules (which isn't a bad thing). If we were living in Harry Potter world, he would be put into Slytherin. No, I think we'll work good together. Almost everyone lost a companion. We only had 2 companionships stay the same in Napa out of the 8 or 9. So big changes. Elder Blake (my MTC companion) is here in Napa now and he will be in my district! That's going to be fun. We also got a car! We got an ugly purple 2011 Ford Fusion. I don't care, it's a car. The mission is trying a new program called "Hybrid." Although we have a car, we only have 600 miles a month. So, we will still be biking pretty much every day. But having a car makes things a lot easier so I'm happy. I also get to drive. I haven't driven in forever!
So this week of transfers was decent. Not as good as other weeks. we found out transfer information Saturday morning and Elder Marsh was ticked he was leaving because we have a TON of really good things about to happen here. He got really trunky and lazy the last few days. I made him get up and go see people though so we still got out. We finished the week with only 11 lessons though ... That's not good, but it's not bad either considering when I came here to Napa we were only having like 6-8 lessons a week. But me and Elder Marsh have set things up way nice. Well, I can't say that because it's not true, the Lord has set everything up.
I told you about Jen and Justin and how they were an answer to my prayers Well I prayed for another person who is ready and guess what? We found another person who is AWESOME. We only talked to her at the door for a bit to set up an appointment but word on the street (some of the auxillaries know her) is that she wants to get baptized. So we have her (Kara), Jen and Justin. The all should get baptized by either the end of the month or by the end of April. I'm super excited. It's such a testimony builder when you pray for miracles and then they happen. I love it so much! We are going to see Jen and Justin tonight. We asked them last time that if they felt that these things were true if they'd get baptized and they said they would. They've been reading the Book of Mormon but we forgot to ask if they prayed about it. But we're going to go over that tonight and also the Plan of Salvation. They came to church yesterday and Justin goes to the activities every Tuesday night. Jen's friends said that she has seemed a lot happier the past few weeks also. The church is true! So yeah, lots of very good things should be happening this transfer. We're going to be working a lot and I'm pretty excited for it.
Another one of our investigators, Greg, has been reading the BOM! That's a huge step for him. He doesn't accept it as scripture yet, but he just needs to read it and pray about it. He said that if he knows that his church is true, hell get baptized and he'll do what he needs to do it. He is way solid. He has a puppy Bernese Mountain Dog (have I told you this?) that reminds me SO much of Max! It's torture going there! But it's awesome at the same time. He name is Zoe and her paws are huge, just like Max's were.
I don't really have much else to report on, Nothing too exciting happened this last week. Not much has happened today either. We drove down to Santa Rosa for transfers and everything and now I'm back in Napa and nothing much else if going to happen today except going to the store to shop and unpacking. Then we're eating dinner/teaching a lesson, meeting with Jen and Justin and that'll be the night.
So BYU... they got KILLED the other day I heard. Got beat like 72-52 or something like that. But Jimmer still had like 30 points? Jimmer Fredette is absolutely incredible. I heard about the night that he had 52 points. That is INCREDIBLE. It's hard to believe. BYU is going to go down the drain when Fredette leaves. He scores just about half of their points every game. Goodness! I hope they get to the Elite 8 at least in the tournament. I also heard that OSU won the Big 10 Tournament. That's AWESOME! I haven't heard much else about the basketball program there, but I hope they take it all the way and WIN for once. I also heard the bad news about Jim Tressel... apparently he knew everything that the players were doing? I'm disappointed that he knew about it all and tried to cover himself up. Ridiculous. The football team isn't going to be very good next year I don't believe. Or in the years to come. I wish it wasn't so, but I guess that's how the world goes round. Anyway, keep me updated with anything interesting you hear and whatnot. Why is Colin moving back to Ohio again? Does he have a job lined up? How is Max liking the kitties? You didn't give me very many details Ma! Give him my best, and Tanner too (how is he doing?). I love you.
Have a great week!
Elder Edwards
So transfers happened. What did you think was going to happen? Well I'll tell you what happened. Napa got pretty much turned upside down. Fortunately I'm staying in Napa, but Elder Marsh got transferred to Vacaville. I've only been with my new companion a few hours, but from what I can tell he seems pretty good. He's pretty serious and strict with rules (which isn't a bad thing). If we were living in Harry Potter world, he would be put into Slytherin. No, I think we'll work good together. Almost everyone lost a companion. We only had 2 companionships stay the same in Napa out of the 8 or 9. So big changes. Elder Blake (my MTC companion) is here in Napa now and he will be in my district! That's going to be fun. We also got a car! We got an ugly purple 2011 Ford Fusion. I don't care, it's a car. The mission is trying a new program called "Hybrid." Although we have a car, we only have 600 miles a month. So, we will still be biking pretty much every day. But having a car makes things a lot easier so I'm happy. I also get to drive. I haven't driven in forever!
So this week of transfers was decent. Not as good as other weeks. we found out transfer information Saturday morning and Elder Marsh was ticked he was leaving because we have a TON of really good things about to happen here. He got really trunky and lazy the last few days. I made him get up and go see people though so we still got out. We finished the week with only 11 lessons though ... That's not good, but it's not bad either considering when I came here to Napa we were only having like 6-8 lessons a week. But me and Elder Marsh have set things up way nice. Well, I can't say that because it's not true, the Lord has set everything up.
I told you about Jen and Justin and how they were an answer to my prayers Well I prayed for another person who is ready and guess what? We found another person who is AWESOME. We only talked to her at the door for a bit to set up an appointment but word on the street (some of the auxillaries know her) is that she wants to get baptized. So we have her (Kara), Jen and Justin. The all should get baptized by either the end of the month or by the end of April. I'm super excited. It's such a testimony builder when you pray for miracles and then they happen. I love it so much! We are going to see Jen and Justin tonight. We asked them last time that if they felt that these things were true if they'd get baptized and they said they would. They've been reading the Book of Mormon but we forgot to ask if they prayed about it. But we're going to go over that tonight and also the Plan of Salvation. They came to church yesterday and Justin goes to the activities every Tuesday night. Jen's friends said that she has seemed a lot happier the past few weeks also. The church is true! So yeah, lots of very good things should be happening this transfer. We're going to be working a lot and I'm pretty excited for it.
Another one of our investigators, Greg, has been reading the BOM! That's a huge step for him. He doesn't accept it as scripture yet, but he just needs to read it and pray about it. He said that if he knows that his church is true, hell get baptized and he'll do what he needs to do it. He is way solid. He has a puppy Bernese Mountain Dog (have I told you this?) that reminds me SO much of Max! It's torture going there! But it's awesome at the same time. He name is Zoe and her paws are huge, just like Max's were.
I don't really have much else to report on, Nothing too exciting happened this last week. Not much has happened today either. We drove down to Santa Rosa for transfers and everything and now I'm back in Napa and nothing much else if going to happen today except going to the store to shop and unpacking. Then we're eating dinner/teaching a lesson, meeting with Jen and Justin and that'll be the night.
So BYU... they got KILLED the other day I heard. Got beat like 72-52 or something like that. But Jimmer still had like 30 points? Jimmer Fredette is absolutely incredible. I heard about the night that he had 52 points. That is INCREDIBLE. It's hard to believe. BYU is going to go down the drain when Fredette leaves. He scores just about half of their points every game. Goodness! I hope they get to the Elite 8 at least in the tournament. I also heard that OSU won the Big 10 Tournament. That's AWESOME! I haven't heard much else about the basketball program there, but I hope they take it all the way and WIN for once. I also heard the bad news about Jim Tressel... apparently he knew everything that the players were doing? I'm disappointed that he knew about it all and tried to cover himself up. Ridiculous. The football team isn't going to be very good next year I don't believe. Or in the years to come. I wish it wasn't so, but I guess that's how the world goes round. Anyway, keep me updated with anything interesting you hear and whatnot. Why is Colin moving back to Ohio again? Does he have a job lined up? How is Max liking the kitties? You didn't give me very many details Ma! Give him my best, and Tanner too (how is he doing?). I love you.
Have a great week!
Elder Edwards
Monday, March 14, 2011
March 7
Hello Parents!
I got Dad's letter on Tuesday. He sent it Sunday, so it takes 2 days to get here if it left Monday. So if you want me to remember what you write in your letters so I can respond to them, send them Tuesday or Wednesday. All I really remember from Dad's letter was something about capitalizing my I's. It's too annoying to do that and usually I'm in a rush, but I'll try. Anyway, on to my week!
This is the last week of the transfer. It's hard to believe that I'm coming up on 2 months on my mission! Doesn't really even seem like a lot because I still have 22 months, but it's gone by super fast. Last week I told you about that golden family. Well... they really are golden. We had a fantastic lesson with them about the Book of Mormon and the restoration. They look like deer in headlights because they've never been a part of religion before so we took it slow and explained a lot of things. But they just soaked it up and loved it. The boy is 12 going on 13 this month and he really wants to get baptized and he wants the priesthood too. He is awesome. He has never said a prayer before but we asked him to say a prayer at the end of our lesson and he did it. The Spirit was so strong. He even went to mutual on Tuesday and they came to Church yesterday and they loved it. We will be seeing them tonight and we'll be asking them to get baptized. Im super super excited. They don't live in our ward boundaries so we're poaching them a little bit, but they are good friends with a family in our ward so it's alright. They ARE going to get baptized in the next month. The boy has already said he wants to . Anyway, they are really awesome.
We also have a few other really exciting potential investigators as well. This next week should be a really exciting one! These last 2 weeks have been awesome. 2 weeks ago we taught 15 lessons -- which is our goal for every week and this last week we got 16 lessons! We were shooting for 20 this week but a few people fell through, but that's bound to happen.
In other exciting news, my bike SUCKS! The peddle crank thing keeps falling off and I've taken it in to get it fixed 2 or 3 times and then it fell off again and I bought a new part and they installed it and said it wouldn't break again and then it fell off again...So someone in our ward has a friend at the bike shop I bought it at and I have a year warranty on it so he is going to go there and throw down on some people and either get me a new bike or get it fixe for good. So that ha kinda sucked this week, lots of walking but it's all good.
We also went on exchanges again this week and I stayed in Napa and took over for 24 hours. It was a pretty good time and I did decently I think. I was with Elder Olsen; he is hilarious. We had a lot of fun! This next week I'm staying in Napa again to take over while Elder Sharples comes down to me to that'll be fun as well. It rained again this week. We had to walk in it because me bike broke. So today, it's been a sweet day! I bought a butt load of groceries so if I get transferred I'm going to be upset because I"ll have to leave all my goodies. Also I want to stay with Elder Marsh because we're getting to be pretty good friends and we're having fun. Not only that but like I said earlier we have a ton of good things going on right now and I want that to keep going like that and I don't want anyone to mess it up. But we'll see I suppose.
Yesterday was fast Sunday -- as you know -- and it's so much harder to go through as a missionary! I'll tell you why... I've gotten used to eating 3 meals a day, so missing breakfast and lunch is rough. Another reason is because I am exerting energy by biking, but Elder Blake (I saw him at Zone Conference on Tuesday) said I looked a lot skinnier! That made me happy because we are very well fed out here.
That reminds me -- Zone Conference! That feels like it was SO long ago, but it was just this last week. It was really good. It lasted from 10-4. In the morning we were taught by the APs. We have 4 of them so we had 30 minute stations at each. They all taught different things; finding people, teaching with the Spirit, baptism and humility. Then in the afternoon President Bunker and Sister Bunker taught us. They're super awesome. Pres is way intense but I love him. It sucks that he won't be here throughout my whole mission. I'm going to miss him. Sister Bunker is super super sweet too and I like her a lot. She is cancer free too!
Also, like I said earlier, I was able to see Elder Blake again. It was really good for me to meet other missionaries too so I made some new friends and whatnot. I found a missionary who I would really like to serve with, but I think he'll end up as an AP in a few months if not next transfer (one of the APs is leaving). He's from Columbus, which is awesome, I also want to serve with another missionary I met from New Zealand - I just want to hear him talk. All I know is that he has a sweet accent, but I've never actually met him. Anyway, today for P-day we drove up a mountain and hiked to a super sweet waterfall out in the wilderness. It was super awesome! It looks small from far away but when you get up close it's pretty big. It was a ton of fun climbing on rocks and just hangin out. Plus, we were up on a mountain so we had a sweet view and it was super windy. We ran into a baby rattle snake so that was pretty scary - because I was the one that found it because I almost stepped on him. I got a good picture of him. I actually got a ton of pictures from our waterfall hike so you'll get that in a few weeks, or when I get up to 200 pictures. I decided that I'm going to send back my memory cards every 200 pictures. After a wonderful waterfall experience we came back to the church and we played some basketball and such.
I've got to go write some other letters now. Have a good week and whatnot and I look forward to hearing from you both. I love you!
Love, Elder Edwards
I got Dad's letter on Tuesday. He sent it Sunday, so it takes 2 days to get here if it left Monday. So if you want me to remember what you write in your letters so I can respond to them, send them Tuesday or Wednesday. All I really remember from Dad's letter was something about capitalizing my I's. It's too annoying to do that and usually I'm in a rush, but I'll try. Anyway, on to my week!
This is the last week of the transfer. It's hard to believe that I'm coming up on 2 months on my mission! Doesn't really even seem like a lot because I still have 22 months, but it's gone by super fast. Last week I told you about that golden family. Well... they really are golden. We had a fantastic lesson with them about the Book of Mormon and the restoration. They look like deer in headlights because they've never been a part of religion before so we took it slow and explained a lot of things. But they just soaked it up and loved it. The boy is 12 going on 13 this month and he really wants to get baptized and he wants the priesthood too. He is awesome. He has never said a prayer before but we asked him to say a prayer at the end of our lesson and he did it. The Spirit was so strong. He even went to mutual on Tuesday and they came to Church yesterday and they loved it. We will be seeing them tonight and we'll be asking them to get baptized. Im super super excited. They don't live in our ward boundaries so we're poaching them a little bit, but they are good friends with a family in our ward so it's alright. They ARE going to get baptized in the next month. The boy has already said he wants to . Anyway, they are really awesome.
We also have a few other really exciting potential investigators as well. This next week should be a really exciting one! These last 2 weeks have been awesome. 2 weeks ago we taught 15 lessons -- which is our goal for every week and this last week we got 16 lessons! We were shooting for 20 this week but a few people fell through, but that's bound to happen.
In other exciting news, my bike SUCKS! The peddle crank thing keeps falling off and I've taken it in to get it fixed 2 or 3 times and then it fell off again and I bought a new part and they installed it and said it wouldn't break again and then it fell off again...So someone in our ward has a friend at the bike shop I bought it at and I have a year warranty on it so he is going to go there and throw down on some people and either get me a new bike or get it fixe for good. So that ha kinda sucked this week, lots of walking but it's all good.
We also went on exchanges again this week and I stayed in Napa and took over for 24 hours. It was a pretty good time and I did decently I think. I was with Elder Olsen; he is hilarious. We had a lot of fun! This next week I'm staying in Napa again to take over while Elder Sharples comes down to me to that'll be fun as well. It rained again this week. We had to walk in it because me bike broke. So today, it's been a sweet day! I bought a butt load of groceries so if I get transferred I'm going to be upset because I"ll have to leave all my goodies. Also I want to stay with Elder Marsh because we're getting to be pretty good friends and we're having fun. Not only that but like I said earlier we have a ton of good things going on right now and I want that to keep going like that and I don't want anyone to mess it up. But we'll see I suppose.
Yesterday was fast Sunday -- as you know -- and it's so much harder to go through as a missionary! I'll tell you why... I've gotten used to eating 3 meals a day, so missing breakfast and lunch is rough. Another reason is because I am exerting energy by biking, but Elder Blake (I saw him at Zone Conference on Tuesday) said I looked a lot skinnier! That made me happy because we are very well fed out here.
That reminds me -- Zone Conference! That feels like it was SO long ago, but it was just this last week. It was really good. It lasted from 10-4. In the morning we were taught by the APs. We have 4 of them so we had 30 minute stations at each. They all taught different things; finding people, teaching with the Spirit, baptism and humility. Then in the afternoon President Bunker and Sister Bunker taught us. They're super awesome. Pres is way intense but I love him. It sucks that he won't be here throughout my whole mission. I'm going to miss him. Sister Bunker is super super sweet too and I like her a lot. She is cancer free too!
Also, like I said earlier, I was able to see Elder Blake again. It was really good for me to meet other missionaries too so I made some new friends and whatnot. I found a missionary who I would really like to serve with, but I think he'll end up as an AP in a few months if not next transfer (one of the APs is leaving). He's from Columbus, which is awesome, I also want to serve with another missionary I met from New Zealand - I just want to hear him talk. All I know is that he has a sweet accent, but I've never actually met him. Anyway, today for P-day we drove up a mountain and hiked to a super sweet waterfall out in the wilderness. It was super awesome! It looks small from far away but when you get up close it's pretty big. It was a ton of fun climbing on rocks and just hangin out. Plus, we were up on a mountain so we had a sweet view and it was super windy. We ran into a baby rattle snake so that was pretty scary - because I was the one that found it because I almost stepped on him. I got a good picture of him. I actually got a ton of pictures from our waterfall hike so you'll get that in a few weeks, or when I get up to 200 pictures. I decided that I'm going to send back my memory cards every 200 pictures. After a wonderful waterfall experience we came back to the church and we played some basketball and such.
I've got to go write some other letters now. Have a good week and whatnot and I look forward to hearing from you both. I love you!
Love, Elder Edwards
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Rain Rain Rain
First order of business, congratulations are in order! Congrats go out to Chase Quinn (Ukraine) and David Jaramillo (Guatamala) for receiving their mission calls! If there are others, sorry I missed you. But that's crazy! Going to be tough for sure.
So this week... We went to the Oakland Temple. Is is BEAUTIFUL! Don't worry, I took pictures. I will be sending home my memory card this week and I have like 150-170 pictures on it I believe ranging from the MTC up until week 5 of being in Napa.
My first transfer is over in 2 weeks! That is so crazy to think I've been out almost 6 weeks! Week 5 is apparently the week everyone starts making predictions on who is being transferred and who is staying and whatnot. This will be Elder Marsh's 2nd transfer in Napa, so he is up in the air. It's a good possibility that he could leave, he could also stay though for a 3rd transfer. If that happened, he will have what is known as a "trunky" transfer. So much cool lingo here in the field. But what that means is that he'll be in a new area for his last transfer and "trunky" means like anxious to get home. So, if he got transferred to a new area in his last 6 weeks he'll get super trunky because he won't want to learn the area all over again. He goes home in June. But for me, I'll stay in Napa most likely. But anything can happen, so who knows. It'll be pretty intense if I get transferred though.
Okay, so this week...I get sidetracked a lot. But the area is starting to open up. We actually met like 3 of our goals for the week! We taught 15 lessons throughout the week, we have 3 or 4 progressing investigators, I think like 5 investigators and a lot of potential investigators. But this week was a good one -- people were home and we got to teach! We actually got a referral this morning from a family in our ward (finally!) and these people they gave us sound golden! There is a little 12 year old boy that says he knows that this church is true because of the way that he felt when he was talking about it to the members in our ward and he wants the priesthood! This is after I've been praying 2-4 days for a miracle too! God listens to us, it's true. However, this family doesn't live within our ward bounderies so technically we're supposed to hand them over to the missionaries in Napa 3rd ward (I'm in 2nd). But they're friends with members in our ward so we're going to teach them/baptize them. I'm really excited to teach them! We're seeing them later tonight so I'm anxious to see what happens! We've been teaching a whole lot of less actives as well which is always good. Trying to get them to come back to church.
But the weather has kinda sucked... and biking in it sucks worse. It has been cold all week plus super rainy. Friday is just rained ALL day. I was SOAKED! I was avoiding puddles and then I just thought to myself, "why am I avoiding puddles? I'm already soaked to the bone and I'm freezing." It was then I proceeded to go through the middle of puddles. It was a fun time. It was not fun taking off the super wet clothes. Think of church clothes and how not comfortable they are. Now take that and add a TON of water and soaked-ness. Yeah, that was Friday for me. It rained throughout the week and I was pretty wet, but not as wet as I was on Friday.
I don't really remember anything else significant that happened this week as goes to teaching and what not. Jessica is awesome (can't remember if I told you about her or not) but we continue teaching her. She has a ton of potential, she just needs to be taught the basics because she has no previous knowledge of Christ and His gospel. Then we have Greg who is also awesome and he was an investigator who dropped the missionaries before because they pushed him too hard but we're teaching him and just going super slow and reading out of the Book of Mormon and Bible. He'll get baptized eventually. He said that if he finds out that this is true he'll do whatever it takes. He has trouble accepting the Book of Mormon as scripture though, but the ONLY way to find out is if you read it and pray about it. It's pretty simple to find out actually...
So, today is P-day! We have a member that works up at a winery at the top of the mountains. The winery is called Antica, or something like that. But we went up there today and took a tour of the winery. It was BEAUTIFUL. We were at the top of the mountains and there was a small little valley at the top where they had all their vines and such and you would just look out and there are just acres and acres of lines of vines for grapes. This wine company as been owned by the same family for 26 generations!!!! CRAZY! We got to go into some caves where they have line after line of barrels for aging the wine. It was super neat and I have pictures, don't you worry. But we went up with 2/3 of our district. It was me, Elders Marsh, Olsen and Sharples and then we had 2 sister with us - Sisters Gorder and Tuifua. Olsen, Sharples and Gorder are from Utah and Sister Tuifua is from Tonga. Elder Marsh is from Maryland and I'm from either Ohio, Belgium, St. Louis or Provo. I tend to change it up a lot. I think Ohio is going to be my default from now on. Se we went on that tour today which was awesome and I got a ton of good pictures. Well, they're good from my perspective, it's up for interpretation.
So after that we went to our church building (the Stake Center) and the 4 elders played hide-and-seek. Haha, it was super fun. I enjoyed playing little kid games. I was surprised we were able to drive up that mountain. I'm still surprised we did that in a corolla. Let me tell you why. It was us - the 4 elders in the car. Marsh only weighs like 150, I weigh 225 and for the big boys - Sharples and Olsen are HUGE. Both of them are like 6'4" and Sharples weighs 250ish and Olsen about 290. BIG BIG missionaries. When we get into the car, it sinks down like 5 inches. It was funny to get out before them and then see how much the car lifted up when they got out. They're awseome though, super funny and whatnot.
So that was basically my week. If you have any questions and such tell my parents over fb or whatevs and they'll tell me through letters. I love letters. Or you could just send me a letter yourself.
This next week is going to fly by. We have Zone Conference tomorrow which takes about all day and the District Meeting Wednesday and then right after that meeting we are going on exchanges again. DL's have to go on exchanges every week with the elders in their district. Since Elders Sharples and Olsen are the only other elders in our District we go on exchanges with them every week. Last week I went up to St. Helena with Elder Sharples. It was a good experience. I got to be in a car again! =)
OH THAT REMINDS ME! I'm reading the New Testament now because I finished the Book of Mormon this last week. SWEET! So I'm gonna read the NT and read the Book of Mormon again in there as well, but not every day.
Things are great and I'm still loving it! This week should be a really good one and I'm looking forward to it! I love ya mom and dad! You can update Colin and Tanner for me because I don't wanna type all this stuff out again... Thanks! Have a super week and I can't wait to hear from you guys! Thanks for the short sleeve shirts too! You really have saved me from dying of sweating and making my clothes gross and melting in the heat that is sure to come. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Edwards
So this week... We went to the Oakland Temple. Is is BEAUTIFUL! Don't worry, I took pictures. I will be sending home my memory card this week and I have like 150-170 pictures on it I believe ranging from the MTC up until week 5 of being in Napa.
My first transfer is over in 2 weeks! That is so crazy to think I've been out almost 6 weeks! Week 5 is apparently the week everyone starts making predictions on who is being transferred and who is staying and whatnot. This will be Elder Marsh's 2nd transfer in Napa, so he is up in the air. It's a good possibility that he could leave, he could also stay though for a 3rd transfer. If that happened, he will have what is known as a "trunky" transfer. So much cool lingo here in the field. But what that means is that he'll be in a new area for his last transfer and "trunky" means like anxious to get home. So, if he got transferred to a new area in his last 6 weeks he'll get super trunky because he won't want to learn the area all over again. He goes home in June. But for me, I'll stay in Napa most likely. But anything can happen, so who knows. It'll be pretty intense if I get transferred though.
Okay, so this week...I get sidetracked a lot. But the area is starting to open up. We actually met like 3 of our goals for the week! We taught 15 lessons throughout the week, we have 3 or 4 progressing investigators, I think like 5 investigators and a lot of potential investigators. But this week was a good one -- people were home and we got to teach! We actually got a referral this morning from a family in our ward (finally!) and these people they gave us sound golden! There is a little 12 year old boy that says he knows that this church is true because of the way that he felt when he was talking about it to the members in our ward and he wants the priesthood! This is after I've been praying 2-4 days for a miracle too! God listens to us, it's true. However, this family doesn't live within our ward bounderies so technically we're supposed to hand them over to the missionaries in Napa 3rd ward (I'm in 2nd). But they're friends with members in our ward so we're going to teach them/baptize them. I'm really excited to teach them! We're seeing them later tonight so I'm anxious to see what happens! We've been teaching a whole lot of less actives as well which is always good. Trying to get them to come back to church.
But the weather has kinda sucked... and biking in it sucks worse. It has been cold all week plus super rainy. Friday is just rained ALL day. I was SOAKED! I was avoiding puddles and then I just thought to myself, "why am I avoiding puddles? I'm already soaked to the bone and I'm freezing." It was then I proceeded to go through the middle of puddles. It was a fun time. It was not fun taking off the super wet clothes. Think of church clothes and how not comfortable they are. Now take that and add a TON of water and soaked-ness. Yeah, that was Friday for me. It rained throughout the week and I was pretty wet, but not as wet as I was on Friday.
I don't really remember anything else significant that happened this week as goes to teaching and what not. Jessica is awesome (can't remember if I told you about her or not) but we continue teaching her. She has a ton of potential, she just needs to be taught the basics because she has no previous knowledge of Christ and His gospel. Then we have Greg who is also awesome and he was an investigator who dropped the missionaries before because they pushed him too hard but we're teaching him and just going super slow and reading out of the Book of Mormon and Bible. He'll get baptized eventually. He said that if he finds out that this is true he'll do whatever it takes. He has trouble accepting the Book of Mormon as scripture though, but the ONLY way to find out is if you read it and pray about it. It's pretty simple to find out actually...
So, today is P-day! We have a member that works up at a winery at the top of the mountains. The winery is called Antica, or something like that. But we went up there today and took a tour of the winery. It was BEAUTIFUL. We were at the top of the mountains and there was a small little valley at the top where they had all their vines and such and you would just look out and there are just acres and acres of lines of vines for grapes. This wine company as been owned by the same family for 26 generations!!!! CRAZY! We got to go into some caves where they have line after line of barrels for aging the wine. It was super neat and I have pictures, don't you worry. But we went up with 2/3 of our district. It was me, Elders Marsh, Olsen and Sharples and then we had 2 sister with us - Sisters Gorder and Tuifua. Olsen, Sharples and Gorder are from Utah and Sister Tuifua is from Tonga. Elder Marsh is from Maryland and I'm from either Ohio, Belgium, St. Louis or Provo. I tend to change it up a lot. I think Ohio is going to be my default from now on. Se we went on that tour today which was awesome and I got a ton of good pictures. Well, they're good from my perspective, it's up for interpretation.
So after that we went to our church building (the Stake Center) and the 4 elders played hide-and-seek. Haha, it was super fun. I enjoyed playing little kid games. I was surprised we were able to drive up that mountain. I'm still surprised we did that in a corolla. Let me tell you why. It was us - the 4 elders in the car. Marsh only weighs like 150, I weigh 225 and for the big boys - Sharples and Olsen are HUGE. Both of them are like 6'4" and Sharples weighs 250ish and Olsen about 290. BIG BIG missionaries. When we get into the car, it sinks down like 5 inches. It was funny to get out before them and then see how much the car lifted up when they got out. They're awseome though, super funny and whatnot.
So that was basically my week. If you have any questions and such tell my parents over fb or whatevs and they'll tell me through letters. I love letters. Or you could just send me a letter yourself.
This next week is going to fly by. We have Zone Conference tomorrow which takes about all day and the District Meeting Wednesday and then right after that meeting we are going on exchanges again. DL's have to go on exchanges every week with the elders in their district. Since Elders Sharples and Olsen are the only other elders in our District we go on exchanges with them every week. Last week I went up to St. Helena with Elder Sharples. It was a good experience. I got to be in a car again! =)
OH THAT REMINDS ME! I'm reading the New Testament now because I finished the Book of Mormon this last week. SWEET! So I'm gonna read the NT and read the Book of Mormon again in there as well, but not every day.
Things are great and I'm still loving it! This week should be a really good one and I'm looking forward to it! I love ya mom and dad! You can update Colin and Tanner for me because I don't wanna type all this stuff out again... Thanks! Have a super week and I can't wait to hear from you guys! Thanks for the short sleeve shirts too! You really have saved me from dying of sweating and making my clothes gross and melting in the heat that is sure to come. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Edwards
What P-Day is like
Dearest Parents,
To answer your questions about P-day: we get up at the normal time - 6:30, and then exercise for 30 minutes, shower, clean and eat breakfast until 8:00. Then we have Personal Study for an hour and then Companion Study for an hour. Then a member does our laundry, which is awesome! So we drop it off and start it. Then we shop for groceries and e-mail. Then we go to the Stake Center (5 minutes away by car) and play basketball/write letters/hang out. We snag a ride from other Elders that have a car. P-Day is over at 5:00 and we get back to work. This week is different because we're going to the Oakland Temple on Thursday so we only get to shop, do laundry and e-mail on weeks where you go to the temple. You can go to the temple every 3 months. The Oakland Temple is gorgeous. It's amazing!
Love You Again,
Elder Edwards
To answer your questions about P-day: we get up at the normal time - 6:30, and then exercise for 30 minutes, shower, clean and eat breakfast until 8:00. Then we have Personal Study for an hour and then Companion Study for an hour. Then a member does our laundry, which is awesome! So we drop it off and start it. Then we shop for groceries and e-mail. Then we go to the Stake Center (5 minutes away by car) and play basketball/write letters/hang out. We snag a ride from other Elders that have a car. P-Day is over at 5:00 and we get back to work. This week is different because we're going to the Oakland Temple on Thursday so we only get to shop, do laundry and e-mail on weeks where you go to the temple. You can go to the temple every 3 months. The Oakland Temple is gorgeous. It's amazing!
Love You Again,
Elder Edwards
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