SBM (Southern Baptist Minister)

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