My Tour of the Eureka Zone

Moms and Pops,

 

Well, it has been quite a hectic week for you both it sounds like! I bet Max's little adventure was a bit stressful. On Saturday we were walking around and this puppy German Shepherd was playing with another puppy in a yard, of course I went over and started talking to them.... I love little German Shepherd puppies! I'm glad that you upgraded to the iPhone, mom. How do you like it? Whatever happened to my phone? There are so many new little phones and electronic things out these days, I feel so lost... Dad, you'll have to catch me up when I get home on all these new gadgets. Oh! Well, first things first I suppose... My "favorite" scripture... At this point, I'm not sure if I can choose one! Uhhh... I like a lot of them... I'll choose Philippians 3:13-14. I really do love that one though.

 

So, about my "tour." We went on 2 exchanges this week, back-to-back. We went up to McKinleyville on Tuesday for District Meeting and right after that we went on an exchange with the Eureka 2nd Ward elders. I went to Eureka with Elder McQueen (we were in the same district in Farfield for 2 transfers and have been on exchanges before). It was so cool to see how he has grown in the past 6 months. In Fairfield, he was just a greenie, now he's solid! It was good. Elder Carter took the car keys with him down to Fortuna so we were without wheels. We could have biked, but we decided to just walk. We walked all day Tuesday and all day Wednesday until we ended that exchange up in McKinleyville (President came up for interviews to the stake center) at 7:00pm. There are SO many crazies in Eureka. I've never seen so many homeless people in my life either. It's a pretty similar "weird" to Clearlake. We talked to a lady that called us over to "preach" to her. We got over to her and she was for sure on some kind of drug, meth I think. She gave us a "gypsie blessing," which involves her holding the back of her hand out to us and saying, "meditate" and then turning her hand and saying, "be blessed." That was a pretty weird experience.... She kept trying to get us to sit down too... Another guy came out of the house to talk with us, he was on something too. He talked to us about watching the big battleships go by, and how about he wasn't sure if they were Swedish or American. The whole time this man was talking to us, this lady kept saying that we were cute, handsome, that she liked our haircuts, she liked our suits, and she liked our ears. She said something about a cat and started making cat noises... When we finally left, after she gave McQueen a little bag of Taco Bell donut holes (did you know Taco Bell had those?), we just were dumbfounded at how crazy that experience was. It was nuts. Whew, people are weird! But, then again, drugs will do that. Then on Wednesday, we went up to McKinleyville for our interviews, I went last out of everyone. Since I barely just had an interview with Pres, it was pretty short. We didn't really talk about anything important, just chatted for a few minutes and I reported on my exchange with Elder McQueen, then we left. Right after that interview, we then started our exchange with the McKinleyville elders. I stayed up in McKinleyville with Elder Ellsworth (it can be a tongue-twister saying "Edwards" and "Ellsworth" together). Elder Ellsworth has been out not even 3 months yet, he's from Payson, UT. He is such a good kid, I like him a lot. He's a huge snowboarder and skateboarder, and we talked about the stereotype about "sk8ers." He doesn't fit that profile at all (obviously, since he's on a mission). We taught a crazy old guy that loves to talk. He has a bunch of 'stories" that he claims to be real, but I'm not too sure. He said he used to own a bunch of restaurants down in the bay area, and how Richard Nixon kept trying to come and eat at his restaurants and how he wouldn't let him come. Interesting guy. He was a football player back in the day too. He played against Woody Hayes team at OSU. He said that Woody would do anything to win. Funny old man. I finally got back to Fortuna on Friday morning... It was a long time spent away from my area. Although I didn't go up to Crescent City (not yet, that's next week!), or Arcata, I still consider it a "tour." It was good fun. It was good to be back with Elder Christensen. Things are going good.

 

So, Jeff, he should be getting baptized on Saturday. He's been interviewed (again) and he isn't smoking, so let's hope it goes through this time! Both Elder Christensen and myself will be in the font to baptize him since he can't stand or walk on his own. It should be pretty interesting. We're still working with our 14 year-old... She's coming along though! We also just picked up another SOLID 'gator on Saturday. We went to see a LA member and he pulled in right as we did, so timing was perfect. We planned on seeing him about 30 minutes earlier, but we got held up, so the Lord was holding us up so that we could have this experience. We had our lesson with Kalani, and it was a very spiritual lesson. Kalani said that we would come to church the next day for sure. We left and felt prompted by the Spirit, after we prayed thanking Heavenly Father for the great lesson, to go and try this guy named Al. We found him at home, with his BoM in hand and the pamphlet saying that he wanted to meet with us! But, his place was really messy and he didn't want to meet there, so we thought about Kalani! We went over and asked if it was alright to bring Al over and teach him, and it was all gravy. So, we brought Al over to Kalani's trailer and taught him about the Restoration. Al read what we gave him when we found him 3 weeks ago, it was great! We got Kalani to bring Al to church yesterday, which was awesome! Hopefully this will help Kalani be active by fellowshipping Al. We invited Al to be baptized and he said he wants to learn more, and then I extended a baptismal date for him to work for and he said "yes!" His date is for February 25th right now. It was awesome! We left that lesson and knocked on a potential 'gator's door and we picked her up as a 'gator too! Just a great day! We went over to see my favorite family, the Scotts for dinner. Sister Scott is recovering from a severe case of pneumonia that almost killed her; they caught it right as her lung was being filled with fluid and pus and gross stuff. She's doing well.

 

I have started trying to invite people to be baptized every day. It's awesome! That is what I am called to do, ya know? I've invited a ton of people to be baptized, of course most of them say no, but there is a spirit in inviting someone to come unto Christ. It's starting to be apart of my normal missionary work! It's great. I've definitely developed the skill of bein bold in inviting people to do things and especially be baptized.

 

 Well, I think that I've rambled enough on here.  I hope ya'll have a great week! I love you both very much!!

 

Love,

Elder Brennan

WHOA

Mom and Dad,

 

I feel like I just barely wrote you both... It's been a crazy week. We've had 2 exchanges this week, one with the assistants, and one with some missionaries in our zone. I went down to Sebastapol Tuesday night and came back Thursday morning on my exchange with the AP's. I went with Elder McBride. He was my zone leader in Fairfield, and he was my ZL here in Eureka for a few weeks, so I already knew him and we're friends. It was a really fun exchange, I loved it! Elder Gardner came up here with Elder Christensen, and got to sleep in my bed. He left me a not on my pillow that said, "I love you Effort." Effort was the nickname that I somehow got while in Clearlake. It was awesome... Then, after a day and a half of being back with Elder Christensen, we went on another exchange with our DL. He came down with me in Fortuna and Elder Christensen went up to Arcata. It was another great exchange. We did a lot of biking. We talked to a bunch of atheists that day... more than usual. Lots of interesting things happened... we gave a blessing to a member (Bro. Scott, he's one of my favorite people ever) because his wife (Sis. Scott is our mission mom in Fortuna) is deathly ill... There is no exaggeration with that description either. One of her lungs is full of pus and fluid, she's coughing blood, and it's just all a big mess. They didn't know what to do with here at the hospital here, so they flew her to the hospital in Redding. She's stable now and recovering very slowly. She's being pumped full of antibiotics. We had a lady yell at us because she couldn't get out of her recliner. She kept yelling at us to wait... whatever we said to her, she'd just yell back to wait. She eventually opened the door on the ground... apparently she couldn't get the recliner to go regular so she could get up, so she slid off on her butt and slid to the door... it was weird. That was a weird day.

 

Up here, we're having progress with our 14 year old investigator. Have I told you about her? She lives with her grandparents (they're active members) because something happened that I'm not sure of. We don't have a reason to know. But, she is now reading and praying on her own, she asks her grandparents questions and everything. She wants to learn. It's incredible. She will be baptized soon... not sure how soon, but soon. The rest of our new 'gators are pretty weak sauce... Although, one of them actually calls us to reschedule, so that's promising.

 

I saw that the Super Bowl would be the Giants and the Pats... a rematch of that CRAZY game in like 2007 or something... I REALLY hope that Eli does work once again... I hate the Pats... It should be a really good game... this will be the last Super Bowl that I'll have to miss on my mission! Woo!!!! I can't wait to start watching football again...... But, it can wait.

 

We had Stake Conference this week in Eureka. It was great, we went to the Saturday night session and the Sunday one (of course). Saturday night, we had some members take us out to Applebees for dinner up in Eureka. We sat in a booth in the corner, me and my companion at the time (Elder Clark) were facing the wall so we couldn't see the ESPN that was playing... luckily, or I would have been zone in on that. Guess who walks into Applebees? Sister Bunker... She walks in and I saw her and we waved and whatnot. I forgot that President and Sister Bunker go to all the Stake Conferences. President Bunker walked in shortly after and gave us a smile and a wave... I was so grateful that I was being obedient haha! He didn't catch me staring at a tv or anything... it was awesome. I still felt super nervous for some reason... Not sure why. After we were done eating, we went to say hi and he had us sit down with him and Sister Bunker and we just chatted for a bit. It was lovely. I love that man, he is an inspiration to me. Do ya'll have a picture of me with him and Sister Bunker? I'm going to be really sad when he leaves in July. That's right around the corner! Holy cow! Time flies.......

 

Anywho, I'm not really sure what else to talk about.... keep on keepin on! I love you both, and have a great week! Give Max my love... Still, every time I see a German Shepherd, I'm reminded of my pup.

 

Love,

Elder Brennan

Whoa

Parental units,

 

So, I'd like to start off addressing mom's statement about me not ever talking about me being tired. That statement is FALSE. I just don't ever say anything about it because it's not going to make me un-tired. I am exhausted every second of every day... I am working out pretty good though. Elder Christensen makes me get up and run, although when I was on exchanges I still got up and ran without him here. We've been running about a mile and 1/4 a day. It's not fast by any means. I started out going a really short distance, and now we're going longer and longer. We also have a set of 30 lb dumbbells in our bathroom, so whenever we go in we'll do a set of curls or something. So, I am exercising really good. I am getting up on time, and I go to bed at the first chance I get. We're supposed to be in bed by 10:30, but if we're done planning and I don't have anything to do, I'll just go to bed, even if it's 9:40.

 

I'm glad that the Pack lost, especially to the Giants. If it ends up the Giants and the Patriots again, boy, that'll be a good game. Next year, the Browns will be in the Super Bowl, mark my words!

 

 An "LA" member is a Less-Active member. They don't want us to call them inactive anymore...

 

Isn't 3rd Nephi the greatest!? I'm back in Alma right now. I just finished reading about Aaron teaching the king of the Lamanites. Such an amazing story! I love it. I am also almost finished with the New Testament! WOO! My first time haha I don't think I'll be reading the Old Testament while I'm on my mission... too gnarly.

 

There is wood that needs splitting? Well, count me in! I got 4 blisters from doing it last week... They're still not fully healed. I've decided that I'm a manly man, but I'm also a little girl at the same time. I look and act tough, but I have really sensitive skin... I can't handle hot things and I get blisters easy. I've been meaning to send my card... I'll do it at some point hopefully...

 

So me and the companion are doing really good actually. He was and is a tough cookie to figure out. He'll be all goofy and joking one second, and the next he'll be super quiet. We've had some good talks. He definitely is a "go-getter" though. He worries that people look at him and think that he's "fake." He isn't, he really is THAT driven. It is nice for me, it pushed me to do better. We've had a great week too. We picked up 9 new investigators (that's a lot!) and taught 18 lessons. Things are moving forward in this area.

 

I love Lehi's dream... that's what my last blog was about! If you haven't read it, DO IT! I taught Gospel Principles yesterday. I taught it with about an hours notice. Our WML (he's awesome) told me a few weeks ago, but I forgot of course. So, I taught about the gathering of Israel. It's so cool how it is happening now, all over the world; both physically and spiritually. It's sweet! I love having the skill to teach at a moments notice for about 45 minutes, it's nice.

 

The weather here has been beautiful! It has been sunny and around the upper 50s in the afternoon. In the morning (when we wake up) it's in the low 30's. It's supposed to rain all the time up here, but it hasn't hardly rained at all in the past 2 months that I've been here. The rains are coming apparently. I hope it doesn't, it's too beautiful! I'm really excited to bring ya'll up here... I've picked that phrase "ya'll" up since I've been out... Good to hear that Sporty Spice is still going good. People in Fortuna drive trucks, especially diesel trucks. They are EVERYWHERE. I like them a lot actually, although I would never buy one. BUT, I have grown to like the Toyota Tacoma's a lot... they're super nice! Anywho...

 

 It's really weird to think that I'm half way done with my mission... where did the last 12 months go? Was it fast or slow for you both? It's flown by for me... It's crazy to think that I could go home THIS year. Weird. Elder Gardner goes home in June... just 5 months away, and Elder Bacon goes home in July, only 6 months away. That really blows my mind! Elder Gardner wants me to get a place with him in Orem when I get home... so that's an idea. Elder Bacon lives in Provo, so I'll see him all the time too. Man, I love these guys! Gardner is still an AP, so I get to see him a lot. We're going on exchanges this week with the AP's (ZL's go with AP's) but I won't go with him, I'm going with Elder McBride, who I LOVE. McBride has been my ZL before, when i was in Fairfield, and last transfer up here. So, I know them both really well. I'm excited.

 

Anyway, I love you guys. Have a great week, and don't get too cold!

Love,

Elder Brennan

WOW

Dear parents,

 

You may be thinking 2 things because of the subject of this email. You might be thinking, "oh crap, let's see what happened this week...." Well, I assure you, things have happened this week. Let me start off by saying that it has been one of the most spiritual weeks of my mission, and my life thus far. I don't even know where to begin... Well, I'll start with Zone Leader Council on Friday. We talked about 3 Nephi 17 and 18. You should read those and study them. Christ said that His time was at hand, meaning that it was time for Him to go back to the Father. Well, as we read on, the Nephites want Him to stay a little longer, so He does. And what does He do with His limited time? He does 3 things: 1. shows them how to pray, 2. institutes the sacrament, and 3. gives them (the apostles) the power to give the Gift of the Holy Ghost. That should give us an idea of what is important to Christ and God. So, Elder Christensen and I have been doing all that we possibly can this week to rely on the Lord and we have prayed SO much. It's been incredible. We are now seeing miracles...

 

So, on Saturday, we went to see a part-member family. The ladies name is Jane (not her real name) and she isn't a member but her husband is a less active member. As we pulled up to the house, no car was there. Everytime that I've knocked on their door and they weren't home, their car wasn't there. We were about to drive away when Christensen asked me what I wanted to do, I felt that we needed to knock, so we did. Joe (not his name), the LA member, was home. We went in and sat down with him, his wife was gone. We found out that their marriage is struggling a lot. We talked a lot about how the gospel will bless familes and bring them closer and whatnot, but somehow we ended up on prayer. We read from 3 Nephi 18 where Christ tells us to pray in our families that our wives and our children may be blessed. He talked about how much prayer means to him, and he shared a spiritual experience that he had with prayer. We talked about why it was important. At the end, we invited him to offer a kneeling prayer with us. Joe is kind of a squirrley guy, he used to be homeless and an addict (he's sober now), but he accepted. We kneeled on the ground in his humble single-wide trailer. We knelt there in silence and we waited, and waited, and waited... I was praying so hard within my heart for Heavenly Father to grant him the strength to call upon his Father's name. Finally, after at least 10 minutes of kneeling in silence, Joe said he couldn't do it. His eyes were tearing up, he said he didn't feel worthy. We comforted him and told him that his Father loves him, and that he is a precious son of His. He gave it another try. We knelt there in silence once again; we waited, and waited, and waited. Again, we waited for about 10 minutes. Finally, after much prayer in our hearts by Elder Christensen and myself, he managed to utter the word "God." You could not believe the spirit that flowed into my heart at that very moment. I can't describe it. The joy and love that I felt for this man, my brother, swept over me. I could hear Elder Christensen sniffling because of his joy and the tears running down his face. I sat there smiling as I witnessed this broken down man, pray to his Father in Heaven. It was the most sincere and heartfelt prayer that I think that I've ever heard. I can't really describe the spirit that I felt, I felt as if I had a heating pad on my chest. I was hot, but I wasn't, my heart was full. After he closed, we embraced and we shed tears of joy. He felt his Father's love, and he knew it. It was amazing.

 

That is my first story, and my second one happened right before we came to email. I guess to give a background on this, we have been praying our hearts out to find a family to teach. We had an appointment at 6:30 to see this lady named Lana (not her real name) and she's married to a VERY LA member as well. We went over and sat down with her and her husband. Lana's 15 year old daughter was home that I haven't met before, and apparently she has very serious emotional problems, specifically with very negative thoughts, and she doesn't have a very good relationship with her mom. We invtied her in and Lana said that we could help her. They told us all that has been going on and such. Lana eventually left because of some words that were said, the daughter who we will call Carly, said that she (the mom) doesn't ever listen to her when she needs to talk. Carly feels that Lana doesn't really care about how she feels and doesn't want to help. Lana left crying, and we were left with the husband, and Carly. Carly almost left, but we got her to stay and we, again, talked about prayer and her relationship with God. We read Alma 37:23-25 (I think). We explained it. As we went on, her countance changed, and she felt the Spirit. She told us that she wants to be forgiven of all that she's done in her past (she is very cute and has a bf and all that good fun high school stuff). We talked about how she can have that, so we talked about repentance, faith, the Atonement, and baptism. As we talked about Christ, she just changed, I've never seen a 15 year old girl change like that. We then talked about baptism and invited her to be baptized this month on the 28th. Her eyes lit up, and a smile flashed across her face, and she accepted. After that moment right there, I took a moment to talk about the Spirit and about how she felt. She couldn't stop smiling, her eyes were so bright and had a twinkle in them. I, again, was filled with the spirit. My joy is full, I can't express how happy I am and how grateful I am that God loves me, and that he does listen to my prayers and answer them. It's incredible. The church is true, without a doubt. I can never deny these feelings, ever. I'm so grateful to be here! I wouldn't change these experiences for the world.

 

Well, that was a great start to an email, huh? Let me finish with boring stuff. Elder Christensen is from Monroe, UT. He's a huge wrestler, he wrestled in States. He has a weird southern accent, apparently it's common to southern Utah. He is an EXTREMELY self-motivated person. He will get things done with or without me. He is the most obedient missionary that I've seen so far. It's crazy. It pushes me for sure. He is a sweetheart though, he has a great heart. What else do ya wanna know?

 

I'm glad you liked my blog, pops. How do I sound all grown up? I'm not the best at writing. Oh, today was P-day, and we spent all day with my some of my favorite members, who I plan on visitng a lot throughout my life. We cut and split wood all day. Man, I love splitting wood! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It was awesome. Good day.

 

I love you both, have a great week! I look forward to hearing from ya'll again. 12 months, crazy... Don't forget to study 3 Nephi 17 and 18! And, there is a difference between studying and reading, think about it! :)

 

Love,

Elder Edwards