June Letters

June 13

This past week we had zone conference which was soo cool. It was our mission president's last one and was pretty epic haha. It wasn't necessarily the most "instructional" but it was very spiritually edifying and man we all left feeling soo good but also a little sad. It's kind of strange how close you feel to a mission president and his wife, how the instant you arrive in the field you respect them so much and they become a little mission mom and dad. I really love them soo much and will miss them a ton. It's gonna be weird to get used to a new president who does things differently but i guess i will get the best of both so, it's actually a blessing. It was sad though, right at the beginning of zone conference, we sang our OEM mission song and i could just see tears flowing down my president's face. It made me think, as my year mark is coming up quick, how many more times will i get to sing that song ya know? I had a horrible dream last night that i got really sick on my mission and had to get sent home, even in my dream i remember calling president checketts and talking about being released and taking off my tag. I remember just crying in my dream and then i woke up. It's weird to think how time picks up and just goes!!! It doesn't slow down man even when the area is slow, there is just so much going on and so much to worry about, it just goes. Day after day i think i get more and more gratitude for this awesome responsibility we have as missionaries.

We went on three splits last week to get those all finished up which was pretty fun. It's always a little rush to switch companions and mix things up for the day. We saw some cool miracles. There was a lady we taught last week who said she was going to move to utah but ended up staying so now we can continue teaching her. We also gave a blessing to a less active who was having a baby and they are committed to coming to church. We taught a couple that just showed up at church a few weeks ago and it looks like they will be pretty solid too. We are gonna teach them tomorrow with our branch president. And then we are still teaching Berta, Cesar, and Jaydi. They are step-family with Luis who is the active teenager and his dad who is less active. We are seeing some problems now with Cesar who didn't come to church this past week. He has been avoiding us this past week which is really frustrating but his mom is way open and same with the little sister jaydi. They both came to church along with luis and the inactive dad, Efrain. They all came and enjoyed church too. We tried to see them last night but they ended up cancelling which was a bummer. I saw a cool miracle at church though which to me was evidence of the small scale things that Heavenly Father does to bring about greater things. Efrain and his wife Berta came to church like i said, but a little background information is that Efrain was married before and they were very active, but then his wife had an affair with another member of the church and they divorced and he went inactive since then. So in church they stayed the whole time up till the end when there was about 15 minutes left. I'm thinking,"oh great theyre probably bored and don't want to stay" but they said they had to go call mexico because berta's daughter was coming from mexico the next day. So we said ok and they left. Then we go sit back down in sacrament meeting, and the speaker right away starts talking about this guy that had the affair with Efrain's ex-wife, the reason he left the church in the first place. It was just a click moment that my companion pointed out to me and i was like "OH MY GOSH!" what a blessing that was. If he had stayed i don't know what he would've thought or said, but it wou'dnt have been good! What a blessing.

Then later that day we go visit a part member family and meet with this girl alejandra. She is in her low 20's and has two kids and her husbands name is javier. We are talking and we don't know th em too well so we asked, "wait alejandra, are you a member too?" And she says "no...but i want to be" . HA Elder K and i look at each other and try our best not to freak out and go crazy cause we were so happy haha but we then look back and talked about how that's what we do is help people become members of the church. And we ended up setting baptismal date with her for the 25th of this month. It was such a miracle and kind of a "duh" moment because we have visited them a few times before and it just never was brought up. I think it was just our bad like we had lost focus or something on how importnatn or rather, essential, baptism is. So that was an amazing blessing and we are gonna work with her husband too but he is hardly ever around and its hard for him to come to church but he has been before a while ago and alejandra said that he really liked it so well see what we can do with him too. We ended up giving her little boy a blessing cause he wasn't eating anything. He would only drink water or food they blended up. It was strange but a cool opportunity for her to feel the spirit and witness the power of the preisthood. I don't know why but this weekend we gave more blessings than i think have in the whole 3 months i've been here. It was just a reminded to me that the Priesthood power of God really is on the earth, and what an awesome responsibility we have to serve others with that same priesthood power.

Things are really looking up in our area. We finally have a decent sized teaching pool and i'm glad so that Elder Alderman will get here and right away see success. Our spirits are high and we are trying to rely more on the miracles of the Lord to bless our area because we know without them, we are uncapable of truly finding His prepared children and showing them the waters of baptism as they try and make it back to their Heavenly Dad. This week was a blast and the following one will be as well. We have transfers tomorrow, then next monday we are goign to eugene for Zone leaders council AGAIN! (i can't believe i've already going to three of these things, time is moving too fast!) so my email will probably come at a different time but we'll make it all work out. That is always a fun trip and it'll be president Macdonalds last one so we know it will be incredible! I'm feeling pretty good with my spanish these days too. I know i haven't been freaking out about it as much, but i realize the greater need to rely on the Lord for my speaking and understanding. I tried so hard before to just learn it like i would in school but that is probably the least effective way i could go about it. I have been praying the I might be and instrument in the Lord's hands and say what he would have me say and understand what i need to in order to be able to teach what His children need to hear. I find that i have been blessed more with better teaching, speaking, and listening abilities. I love this work, and i love the Lord.

I love you too everybody and thank you soo much for your letters and prayers and support. They mean more to me than anything i could ask for.

Elder Edwards

June 13

This past week we had zone conference which was soo cool. It was our mission president's last one and was pretty epic haha. It wasn't necessarily the most "instructional" but it was very spiritually edifying and man we all left feeling soo good but also a little sad. It's kind of strange how close you feel to a mission president and his wife, how the instant you arrive in the field you respect them so much and they become a little mission mom and dad. I really love them soo much and will miss them a ton. It's gonna be weird to get used to a new president who does things differently but i guess i will get the best of both so, it's actually a blessing. It was sad though, right at the beginning of zone conference, we sang our OEM mission song and i could just see tears flowing down my president's face. It made me think, as my year mark is coming up quick, how many more times will i get to sing that song ya know? I had a horrible dream last night that i got really sick on my mission and had to get sent home, even in my dream i remember calling president checketts and talking about being released and taking off my tag. I remember just crying in my dream and then i woke up. It's weird to think how time picks up and just goes!!! It doesn't slow down man even when the area is slow, there is just so much going on and so much to worry about, it just goes. Day after day i think i get more and more gratitude for this awesome responsibility we have as missionaries.

We went on three splits last week to get those all finished up which was pretty fun. It's always a little rush to switch companions and mix things up for the day. We saw some cool miracles. There was a lady we taught last week who said she was going to move to utah but ended up staying so now we can continue teaching her. We also gave a blessing to a less active who was having a baby and they are committed to coming to church. We taught a couple that just showed up at church a few weeks ago and it looks like they will be pretty solid too. We are gonna teach them tomorrow with our branch president. And then we are still teaching Berta, Cesar, and Jaydi. They are step-family with Luis who is the active teenager and his dad who is less active. We are seeing some problems now with Cesar who didn't come to church this past week. He has been avoiding us this past week which is really frustrating but his mom is way open and same with the little sister jaydi. They both came to church along with luis and the inactive dad, Efrain. They all came and enjoyed church too. We tried to see them last night but they ended up cancelling which was a bummer. I saw a cool miracle at church though which to me was evidence of the small scale things that Heavenly Father does to bring about greater things. Efrain and his wife Berta came to church like i said, but a little background information is that Efrain was married before and they were very active, but then his wife had an affair with another member of the church and they divorced and he went inactive since then. So in church they stayed the whole time up till the end when there was about 15 minutes left. I'm thinking,"oh great theyre probably bored and don't want to stay" but they said they had to go call mexico because berta's daughter was coming from mexico the next day. So we said ok and they left. Then we go sit back down in sacrament meeting, and the speaker right away starts talking about this guy that had the affair with Efrain's ex-wife, the reason he left the church in the first place. It was just a click moment that my companion pointed out to me and i was like "OH MY GOSH!" what a blessing that was. If he had stayed i don't know what he would've thought or said, but it wou'dnt have been good! What a blessing.

Then later that day we go visit a part member family and meet with this girl alejandra. She is in her low 20's and has two kids and her husbands name is javier. We are talking and we don't know th em too well so we asked, "wait alejandra, are you a member too?" And she says "no...but i want to be" . HA Elder K and i look at each other and try our best not to freak out and go crazy cause we were so happy haha but we then look back and talked about how that's what we do is help people become members of the church. And we ended up setting baptismal date with her for the 25th of this month. It was such a miracle and kind of a "duh" moment because we have visited them a few times before and it just never was brought up. I think it was just our bad like we had lost focus or something on how importnatn or rather, essential, baptism is. So that was an amazing blessing and we are gonna work with her husband too but he is hardly ever around and its hard for him to come to church but he has been before a while ago and alejandra said that he really liked it so well see what we can do with him too. We ended up giving her little boy a blessing cause he wasn't eating anything. He would only drink water or food they blended up. It was strange but a cool opportunity for her to feel the spirit and witness the power of the preisthood. I don't know why but this weekend we gave more blessings than i think have in the whole 3 months i've been here. It was just a reminded to me that the Priesthood power of God really is on the earth, and what an awesome responsibility we have to serve others with that same priesthood power.

Things are really looking up in our area. We finally have a decent sized teaching pool and i'm glad so that Elder Alderman will get here and right away see success. Our spirits are high and we are trying to rely more on the miracles of the Lord to bless our area because we know without them, we are uncapable of truly finding His prepared children and showing them the waters of baptism as they try and make it back to their Heavenly Dad. This week was a blast and the following one will be as well. We have transfers tomorrow, then next monday we are goign to eugene for Zone leaders council AGAIN! (i can't believe i've already going to three of these things, time is moving too fast!) so my email will probably come at a different time but we'll make it all work out. That is always a fun trip and it'll be president Macdonalds last one so we know it will be incredible! I'm feeling pretty good with my spanish these days too. I know i haven't been freaking out about it as much, but i realize the greater need to rely on the Lord for my speaking and understanding. I tried so hard before to just learn it like i would in school but that is probably the least effective way i could go about it. I have been praying the I might be and instrument in the Lord's hands and say what he would have me say and understand what i need to in order to be able to teach what His children need to hear. I find that i have been blessed more with better teaching, speaking, and listening abilities. I love this work, and i love the Lord.

I love you too everybody and thank you soo much for your letters and prayers and support. They mean more to me than anything i could ask for.

Elder Edwards

June 27

But that is the last thing on our minds. Holy smokes sometimes i feel like my head might explode! We met our new mission president last week and he is amazing! He just has the mantle upon him too. The first time we saw him, there was no doubt in my mind that he had the keys and authority to receive revelation and guide this mission. It was a pretty cool spiritual confirmation. He is truly awesome and you can really feel his love when you are around him. His wife seems to be really kind and sweet, you could tell they are both a little nervous haha but who wouldn't be?! I had butterflies before meeting him and i'm sitting somewhere comfortable haha. He is great though and there are little things here and there that are changing. The first being that we are going to eugene tomorrow early morning for zone leader council and actually driving over to klamath falls tonight which is like a 1 1/2 hour drive. We will be busy all day tomorrow and might not even have any time to proselyte in the evening cause we will have to travael about 4 hours in total one way. We are so excited and the A.P.s are really talking up the zone leader council so it should be a good one. The new president has a ton of faith and is all about hands on practicing and then applying. I think i will become a lot more "sharp" as a missionary and get out of my comfort zone haha. Well let you know next week what happens. And then wednesday, we have interviews again with him and wil be gone from 8-4 and that will be another long day away from our area but we know that Heavenly Father will help us make up for that time lost.

This past week we made a huge push to get members with us at our lessons. It was like pulling teeth just cause people are so dang busy! A lot of these dads are just working long days and come home exhausted. It was kind of frustrating too because we don't have the biggest branch and so when we'd get a return appointment we would literally go through the whole branch and not be able to bring somebody with us. But we ended up the week with over 50% of our lessons with members and this week we set 2 baptismal dates which was the real relief. It was so nice to finally see some fruits of our efforts. I mean it, i am soo exhausted. We get lights out by 10:30 and we are OUT! It was so funny the other night, me and elder alderman were getting ready for bed and i was like man i have so much energy, let's stay up and talk for a bit, and we got all excited but after our prayers we layed down and boom...wer'e out cold haha. That's just how it is. There's a lot to stress about with our area, new president, zone, 4th of july bbqs and just lots of stuff. So i think it's more of a mental drain than anything, but i really am just tired! It's getting super hot too haha and honestly we did a ton of finding this past week! Which i really do enjoy when we are talking to a lot of people because we've gotten really good at just teaching as we find and getting people to trust us. The only catch again, is that its scorching. But then i feel humbled when i think of my buddies in mexico or ellen or katie and how it must've been in ecuador and the d.r. We are really working diligently though. I love elder Alderman soo much. We get along so well and while he is a really good teacher and leader, he is realyl humble and is always asking how he can be better and teach better and speak better and stuff, it's pretty awesome and we are having a blast together. For real, inside of missionary work and outside, we are clicking really well, he is a really talented missionary. We saw a ton of miracles this week too.

The night before, we decided to go tracting one day. We show up at the trailer park and for some reason just didn't have a good feeling about it and so we left to do our back up plans and while we are driving, Elder Alderman says "stop". So we pull over and go knock on this random house that we were driving by. The lady opens up and is soo nice. She told us how she was really interested in mormonism because of the family values and how she wanted her husband to learn more about it and her kids. We were dumbstruck! haha it was soo awesome and so inspired, and so we are gonna go on exchanges and visit them this week when they come back from vacation. Then another day we came home at the end of the night and two guys contact us, and say they want to meet with us. haha we handed them off to the guys we are living with. Another day we did a quick tour of an apartment to move into, and as we leave i asked this lady if we could help her move things from her car, and she says "oh my goodness just my luck, i've been interested in converting and here are 4 missionaries to help me move my stuff". Once again i am struck dumb in shock haha. We handed her off to the sisters. It was cool because as we were working diligently and beginning to see success in our own area, we were able to help in little ways, the rest of the zone and it was just awesome. We felt very spirit led this week and i think it shows in the miracles we saw.

Another cool experience we had was with this kid named german. He's like 15 and way cool from guatemala. We taught him the first lesson the other day and he was pretty skeptical but at the end we talked about how if for some reason, all this really was true, wouldn't you really want to find out? And he was like yeah how could i say no. So we invited him to be baptized and he said yes and that he would read the book of mormon and pray about it. We left him a little question to answer after reading 3 nefi 11 too. So he goes out of town to work and in the middle of the week. we get a text from him saying, "hey guys i have to give your book back. My step dad found out that i accepted it from you and he got mad at me and doesn't want you to come over anymore"....My heart sank. I was soo bummed and just frustrated at how good things were going and then to see them drop. So he comes home on friday and says hey guys i'm home can you come over for a few minutes. So we went and saw him and he comes out to talk with us. we just kind of kicked it for a sec and then we asked about the book and if he had read and prayed. He said he read it all, and he answered the question we left him and he said how he loved when the Savior came down and talked to Nephi. He loved how when Nephi bent down to kiss his feet, the Savior told him to stand and spoke with him and then gave him the authority that he had to baptize and do miracles like He had done. It was soo cool how excited he was about it and how much he knew in detail and everything! Then we asked about his prayer. He said it didn't go great but then after he said amen, right away, images of his grandparents came to his mind and thye had played a huge role in what he believed before. His grandpa whispered to him "hijo mio" meaning my son, and then he said i couldn't hear what he said after that. His grandparents are past away too.But he said it couldn't have been a coincidence and that he really felt the book of mormon was the word of God. It was funny cause he was like,"yeah i would even consider it like the bible" and then he kind of surprised himself when he said that haha. But he said here, i can't have it. We declined of course to take it back and told him that that book meant more to us than anything and that it can bring him so much happiness, that it would be unfair for us to take it back. He said he would keep it and hide it, and that he would keep reading it, even if he had to read the same chapter over and over. It was soo sweet! But soo sad. Man we left there and i was soo mad and frustrated at his step dad. Man i wanted to scream and cry and throw stuff haha i felt like a little kid and yet at the same time, i felt really good inside knowing that the spirit had truly touched german and that one day, he will choose to accept the gospel. It was really reassuring and comforting and allowed us to keep working to have more experiences like that. I don't think we have used the book of mormon nearly enough in our teaching. In preach my gospel it says over and over that the Book of mormon combined with the spirit is our most powerful teaching tool. It was a really cool experience though and i hope good things happen with german even though we can't see him and he is going out of town to work till september.