Time flys when...

From this past week we had some good news too! Our teaching interviews went really well first of all. We ended up coming up with some really cool ideas about helping people understand making commitments. We did this cool little demo where we brought a bunch of ingredients for an "anti-mormon" smoothie. We put a little ketchup in because people hear we have tons of wives, we put in some lime juice because they say we worship joseph smith instead of Christ, and all these nasty ingredients for things that missionaries have heard from talking to people, all of the which are not true! But we had a nasty smoothie and while we were making it, one of the sister missionaries was outside not watching. Then we had another sister missionary leave the room and brought the first one back in. But when the first one came back in, we had a nice strawberry banana smoothie sitting right there on the table and so she thinks we just made a nice tasty smoothie which represented the misconceptions of the people we teach. (the nasty one was hidden). Then we blindfolded the second sister and brought her back in. The first sister had to invite the second one to drink the smoothie. It was soo funny because the one that had to drink it, only saw that we made a nasty one, while the inviter sister only thought we had a good one. And so it was really interesting to see the way she got her to drink it. It was cool because the one trying to get her to drink it took a sip and said "oh man this is the best thing ever etc...." and it was from her personal experience or TESTIMONY that the second sister began to believe that somehow that nasty smoothie was a good one. what helped even more was when the rest of the missionaries were like yeah it's soo goood! and that represented the testimony of members that assist us in our teaching. It was a simple little idea but actually covered missionary work pretty in depth and was pretty funny! Everyone was into it too, even those that were just watching. And in the end, of course the sister drank it and partook of the sweetness of the "gospel smoothie". it was soo much fun and the whole meeting was just a spiritual haven. Oh i meant to ask you, did you even read D and C section 135? We went over it with our whole zone and watcched part of the prophet the restoration and it wasreally touching and spiritually uplifting. If you haven't read it, please do it as a family, and you will see the sacrifices taht have been made to bring us the blessings of the gospel.

Other than that, the week went pretty good too. We taught a whole bunch this week and had members out with us almost everyday! The only problem is that nearly all of the people we are teaching, aren't progressing. It has been so hard for us to get people to church and i can't help but wonder if it is my teaching. I feeli like ive fallen a little bit into a routine and am not teaching enough by the spirit. I got to go on splits with this Return missionary that just came back 4 days ago from nicaragua and it was so much fun. his spanish was sooo bomb! haha i was a little jealous but he helped a lot and i think he helped me remember to really love these people first, before we can teach them. I would always rush into a lesson when we talked with someone but he was content in just knowing evreything about them and it really opened people up. It was pretty cool and i was so glad i got to go out on splits with him and learn from him.

We did have one major miracle this week which was soo relieving. We took a less active out with us on splits, he is 17 and his whole family is inactive. his name is ruben and he is in the family where the girlfriend doesn't want to get married but doesn't want the bf to move out either so now the bf can't get married. Yeah...so ruben comes out with us and has been loving it lately. So we went to white city and then came back after a mediocre night. I went to go OYM some people while Elder K went to go play with this kid named cesar in the parking lot with ruben. Cesar is not a member but lives with his stepbrother who is really active and is 15. the 15 year old step brother is Luis and he is soo money! but anyway. Cesar is not a member and we were just playing soccer with him for a little bit at the end of the night, and Elder K started talking to him about church and stuff and he was kind of like ehh i don't know if i want to go, this and that, and then ruben starts talking with him and says, "listen man, i haven't been to church in like 3 years...What if...what if i go, then you come with me, and we'll do this whole thing together. Like a pact that well make and well both go this sunday." And Cesar just stares at him for a second and is like, oKAY! hahah it was sooo amazing and just such a blessing/miracle whatever it was, it was awesome! But they were down and sealed it with a handshake.
hahah so on saturday we went and see these two kids ben and alex that we haven't seen in a while. They live like 20 minutes away so its kind of far too. But we saw them and they were glad to see us and everything it was cool. We talked for a bit and finally got them to commit to come to church and they got excited about it too. So we said okay guys we are gonna come at 9:30 tomorrow to get you okay? they say yeah its all cool and everything. so sunday morning, we make the trip out there to get them. we knock on their windows and their door and all we got was alex peeking up from his bed through the blinds and then going back to his pillow. We knocked there for a little bit until we got a text from their dad, who is completely inactive, "ben doesn't want to go to church. Please don't come back to our house unless he or i invites you" Oh man it nearly broke my heart. i love this ben and alex kids they are soo awesome. Theyre little skater boys and i just clicked soo good with them. I seriously was about to start crying and then we just left. It was odd and i think satan was really working on me because in the car ride i was just thinking "man i'm soo tired of this happening every week. I'm so tired of getting my hopes up and let down week after week." i felt so ineffective as a missionary. I don't just want to be a "planter" i want to be a "sower". The scriptures say the field is whiteready to harvest, not brown ready to plant, and while i knoew we can't convert everybody, sometimes i wonder why we can't convert anybody. We went on our way thoguh to get ruben and cesar. We texted them and found out that they were both ready and waiting for us, so that was a major boost and a testimony to me that Heavenly Father gives us a little dose of miracle right when we need it. They both came, the inactive kid ruben and the nonmember cesar. We were worried he wouldn't enjoy church because for the youth, all the classes are in english cause we overlap with an english ward. So he goes through and we are trying to give him a good time even in sacrament meeting but it's tough while maintaining a spiritual experience too so we were worried that at the end he would be like, yeah that was fun...LATEr! haha but it was clearly just lack of faith. At the end of church we walked him out with ruben and luis his stepbrother, and he says, "we'll see you elders next sunday..." hahah and we're like wait...next sunday?! Yess haha and so we talked to him more and he had a good timea nd we are gonna try and see him on tuesday. in the past, Elder K taught him with puertas or rather, tried to teach him and Cesar's mom wasn't really having it and didn't let them make to much progress but this time she was totally fine with him going to church and stuff. So he was the only one we had at church but it was worth it.


I love this work, i love you, i'm really happy, and i Love the Lord. What else matters :) Hope you have a great week!
Elder Edwards