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