8 months!

Hey everybody! It has been one crazy and solid week. And today is my 8 month mark so that's pretty solid! Sorry this email is so late, we've been traveling back from the history tour all day. 

Yooooooo a bunch of my group for the 8 month squad on the history tour.
True homies. (:

Monday! Monday we visited Chester cathedral, it was pretty fun to go back, I went there on a p day during my second transfer while in Rhyl. It was good times hanging with the boys. After that we just chilled at the chapel, playing some ping pong and emailing and what not. Good times. (: that night we had a couple appointments that fell through, but we were able to set up a couple appointments with investigators so that will hopefully go well. (:

Tuesday! We had a zone meeting in my birthplace of Rhyl. 😎 it was so great to see a bunch of homies. Particularly elder Jensen and elder Humphries. Legends them 2. (: so much fun, and we had such a great and spirit filled zone meeting as well. Good to catch up with everybody. We traveled for ages on buses after that and cruised on over to the bus depot, because we lost our phone on a bus the day before. 😶 luckily they had it. (: we did some stuff that night... I can't remember what...

It's ya Bois.

Wednesday! We had 3 appointments scattered throughout the day that all fell through. One of them was with that man I talked about last week mike. Half hour bus ride then half hour walk out to his house. His Book of Mormon was on his porch with a note saying never come back. Gotta love that. 😜 So we did a lot of finding that day, and were able to meet one super solid lady named Rita. She had problems with religion mostly because a lot of people just treat it as a Sunday only thing. She loved what we said about it being a lifestyle and a commitment. She then asked a beautiful question, "if there's only one Jesus why is there so many churches?". We were like ahhhhh yeah well tell you that. 😎 haha. (: she was great. That night we were trying by some people and finished up a bit early before ward coordination. We were like let's go try by this former investigator named Dee. We rocked up to her house and there was the sisters teaching her on her doorstep. Stealing our investigators. 😜 haha it was pretty funny, and I wasn't bothered. It's all the Lords work. (:

Thursday we planned some weekly planneringers. After that we tracted a bunch of this area called upper Aston. Our good friend Dave told us he's felt for years that missionaries should tract up there. So we've been smashing out some streets for the past little while. We finally met these 2 super nice dudes, Sebi and Selee from Romania! They were hilarious and super nice and interested. One of them spoke better English than the other so we gave him a Book of Mormon, and have been trying to find a Hungarian Book of Mormon for the other. (Not sure why he is Romanian but speaks Hungarian) they were great. We will be seeing them tomorrow. (: we saw Dave for a bit and then had tea with the Quick family. It was real good. (: we tracted some more that night with no luck.

Yep.

Friday! We quickly helped out some members that morning out in a pretty faraway town. They came and picked us up cause it's out in the middle of nowhere. They were dropping us off after in a city named Mold and I noticed a mans house who we hadn't taught anything but he had told us we could come back. So me and elder Stiff bumped on over there and ended up having a super great lesson with him. It was perfect timing because he expressed he's been feeling like he wants religion to have more presence in his life so he doesn't get blown about by the adversary. So that was great. (: His name is Vince and we will see him next week sometime I think. The rest of the day was pretty slow. We traveled really far to Upton, to try by a media referral from Luanda. We just caught him in and he told us to come back on an evening. So hopefully we'll be able to see him soon as well. (:

Saturday morning we had a lesson a former investigator, who isn't interested in anything really, so he will stay a former investigator. Good man though. (: The traffic was crazy on Saturday because it was a super nice day, so buses took ages. I met a super nice dude on the bus named Dave. We just talked for a while then before he had to get off quick talked about the Book of Mormon. He took one and gave me his number so hopefully we'll be able to meet up with him sometime this week. (: We had a really good lesson with a man named John that night. We had this really great lesson planned for him, but when we got in there we were just not feeling that lesson at all. It was weird because the spirit said not to teach that, but didn't tell us what to teach haha. I opened the Book of Mormon to one of my favorite chapters Alma 7 and so we used that. It ended up with a really strong spirit so that was some real good stuff. (: It seemed to resonate with him. Interesting how the spirit works sometimes. (:

Sunday we had church then traveled down to Chorley for a sleepover. We had to go because we had a big meeting thing this morning. We got to see the temple for a moment which was pretty dope. There was 10 elders in this tiny little flat. One bathroom. It was madness to say the least. It was a good time. (:

History tour.

Today has been so solid! We had the mission history tour. It was south zones today and tomorrow is the north zones. It was so much stinking fun! South zones has loads of people from my group and it was a blast. It was our 8 month mark so we took a quality picture of all the people in our group in the south zones. It was so fun all day just hanging out with loads of good friends visiting the quality history of our mission. (:

Well the work has been super slow lately. Basically since I got here. It can be frustrating at times, but we are trying to keep a positive attitude about it, and know that the lord is trying to help us become better missionaries. So there's not a lot going on, but I got a couple tender mercies this week which were most enjoyable. I learned that a couple people I had tracted into in Rhyl have been tracted into again and are being taught. Elder Jensen told me that my boy Rob from the spar in Rhyl is doing great and has a lot of real intent, progressing well. (: still a true homie as well. So it was really nice for me to see some of my work in Rhyl continuing on. Missionaries don't often get to see the results from their efforts. 99% of the time we don't, so that was really nice for me. (: I also talked to the true dad elder Korth on the phone. Then got to talk to my main man elder Cepeda on the phone as well. So good to talk to them, nice and uplifting. (: so it's been great! 

We keep on pressing on! I love this work, and I love my savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to be called to declare his word. Love you all! Have a great week! (:

-Elder Edwards

Mish

Hey everybody! So there's not a lot to report for this email, the work is really slow right now. I'll try my best to get a halfway email tho. 😜

Monday we had the campfire chillin, and chillin some more with pingin and a pongin. It was a great and really refreshing p day. Always so good to get a little bit of chillin in. (: that night we had an appointment fall through, and I can't remember what we did instead. We did some missionary work stuffs though I'm sure of that. 😜

How to ride a zipline like a hoopdy.

Tuesday we did some tracting and visited some people in a town called Blacon. It was good but nobody was really interested. We enjoyed it though. We had a reach in activity thing at the church that night. It was fun I hung out with this little kid Jeremy there who's mom is less active and we played some connect 4. Then the illest member ever drove us home and tossed a couple drifts into the ride home. 😂 he's hilarious.

Wednesday was the first beautiful day we've had in a while so we were out rocking the short sleeve shirts. 😎 We had an appointment with our investigator John that morning. It was really good we just talked about Alma 32 the seed of faith and he seemed to really like it. So that was good stuff. We had a couple of appointments fall through in Blacon that afternoon so we did some stuff and yeah. Not a lot to say about it. Nobody was interested so we just had a good time getting rejected. 😎😜

Thursday we took a bus out to Flint because we are really feeling that area. We tracted king Edward drive. 😎 The entire street nobody listened but then the last house this lady was really kind. She has been struggling with depression and stuff and we were able to testify about the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ and the atonement and it really seemed to help. Hopefully we will be able to see her soon. (: We had an appointment fall through that night so we did some tracting. Talked to some nice people. (:

Friday we had an appointment fall through, then we walked like 45 minutes out to a little town that the buses don't go to. We tracted for like 2 hours in the pouring rain with nothing until we finally met a man who was really interested and invited us into his home. He is super family orientated and gladly took a Book of Mormon. We will be seeing him this week, he's a pilot as well which is pretty sick. (:

Cathedral stuffs with tha boys.

Saturday morning all the Chester missionaries blitzed an area in Ewloe. It was enjoyable we were able to talk to a lot of nice people, not so many interested people though but that's all good. Haha so here in England/Wales the teenagers who cause a ruckus and be hooligans are called chavs. There was this lady we were talking to for a while about the gospel. She wasn't interested so we said have a great day and well see you later. She said "see ya later chavs!" Haha me and Elder Stiff were laughing pretty hard about that. It was an honour. ☺️ We had a couple great lessons with some members that night which was good. (:

Well there's not really much else to report. It's been a good week, but it's been slow. We just keep working and looking forward with faith to what God has in store for us and for this area. (: I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I'm so grateful for the atonement it has absolutely changed my life. The peace it brings is incredible and I am so lucky to be able to be a missionary and share that with people. 

Thanks all, have a great week! Love yous! (:

Flake

Hey all! So I'm going to apologize rn (rn means "right now") this email prolly isn't going to be super exciting. Lots of investigators being flaky and stuffs like that. But it's been great! No worries! 😁

Monday we went to the trampoline park and it was amazing and ended up getting Pizza Hut all you can eat again, with a bunch of missionaries. That was a good time. It feels quite unpleasant after eating all you can eat pizza. But so good. 😜

Last p day.

Tuesday we had a great last district meeting of the transfer. It was so good, the spirit was so strong and it was nice to end off the transfer with such a great meeting. (: that whole afternoon slash evening me and Elder Stiff tracted and tried by loads of people but nothing really happened. That is until that evening. 😂 we knocked on a less active mans door. He opens door and says "I'm on crack cocaine and heroin come on in!" Then he turned around and walked back into his house. So obviously we went in. 😜 haha he was a funny man, has a thousand old records, talked about music and stuff. He was nice. (:

We found a homie.

Wednesday we did some service with the zone leaders for a man named Abdul. It was a good time. He's restoring this old restaurant that's super crazy mingin. Abdul is a funny funny man, it was fun. 😜 me and Elder Stiff traveled ages out to Holywell for tea with a less active family. It was great they are super nice. Long bus ride though. We then had ward coordination that night. Haha so we got back that night and tried by an investigator of ours. We had a great quick little lesson with her on her doorstep and we were heading back to our flat and got back at about 9:15. Our apartment complex has this electric keypad thing to get into the building. And it was broke. 😐 we tried for like 10 minutes to get in but to no avail. We decided to go buy some chips cause we were starving and hope it would be working by the time we got back. Chippy was closed and it wasn't working when we got back. So we snagged a bus and went and slept over with the zone leaders. So that was a good time. 😜 Quite the adventure.

When Elder Van Dyken's sweater holds your cereal for you.

Thursday we cruised on back to our flat and luckily somebody had propped open the front door. So that was good. We weekly planned, then tracted and tried by with no luck. Can't really remember what else. 

Friday we did some tracting which was no good. We tracted Laurels drive. 😜 shout out to me mum. We had tea with the Sinclair family that night which was great. They are super nice. We met a super great lady that night! Her name is Julie and she really needs some help in her life. She's been struggling with life's stuff lately, and gladly took a Book of Mormon. We will see her again this week. (:

Derek's baptism.

Saturday was Dereks baptism! It was so great. Derek is such a good man, and will make a great member. He is so stinking solid. (: 2 people told me and Elder Stiff that they would come to the baptism and even had lifts sorted but didn't show. That was lame. But it was a great service. (: we saw Dave again that night. He's always such a homie. (:

4 people told us they were going to be coming to church on Sunday and nobody showed up. But then right before the sacrament started Martin and Camilla showed up! So that was great. Super good to have them there. (: We saw Chris again that evening. He is a great man and believes strongly in Jesus Christ. But we're probably going to give him a month or two because for some reason he keeps saying he will be baptized when is health is back. So he's just putting it off. Our area Book told us that it's been going like that for the past 5 years. So we will give it a little break and see how that goes. (: 

Zone leaders told us what's up for transfers! We staying. (: the whole district is staying except for Sister Carle who is leaving. also shout out to elders Korth and Cepeda who are gonna be training.  Legends. 😎

Chillaxin.

Today has been great so far. It's been super chill. We had a fire with some food at the zone leaders flat on their back patio. It was way fun. Elder Van Dyken is the most qualitiest singer and guitar player I've ever heard in my entire life, so for a while we just chilled listening to him. (: that's my week! Love you all and have a great week. (:

Weeks of stuff

Hey all! Its been a pretty solid week. Doing some stuff... yeah I don't even know how the flip to start out these emails. Whatever.

Monday was pretty good. I can't really remember what we did tbh... we played some mad solid ping pong I'm pretty sure. Going real hard against Elder Van Dyken. That was a good time. Then we just chillaxed around and got some all you can eat pizza from the Pizza Hut. Good stuff.

I tried to ring this doorbell.

Tuesday was also some pretty good. We had a great district meeting, with some good uplifting stuff bout the atonement and missionary work. After district meeting we headed to Chester and then walked ages to an appointment with a former investigator Luke. It was great we talked for quite a while, just about the world and God and stuff. Talking about like deep stuff, he's a really philosophical man. It was great. Also he reminded me of Bob Marley so that was some good. We're going to see him sometime this week so that'll be good. (: then Marcel didn't show for his appointment so that was lame. That night for pancake day we got waffles as a district. They were some pretty tasty waffles. 

After the trampoline park.

Afterwards us and the sisters were walking to the bus stop and we popped into Macky's to grab some cheeseburgers for a pound cause we were still hungry. I was the last one to order and I was standing there waiting to order and I noticed this lady walk in and stand kinda close to me. I noticed she was staring at my face, so I said hello and asked how she was doing. She started talking and scooted closer to me. I scooted away. We made some small talk as ya do, then she like starting patting my arm. I was like what the flip is even going on. She got more comfortable with the arm touching and was like full on rubbing my arm, I'm just scooting away petrified with fear with no idea what to do. Finally it was my turn to order so I bolted away from her and ordered my food. I turned around after ordering to go where the other missionaries were standing and the lady tried to grab my arm as I walked by.

But I cruised. I went up to them and told them this lady was rubbing up my arm. They were like what the heck. When the lady finished ordering she bee lined over to me. I had my hands in my pockets and she was like grabbing my wrist trying to pull my hand out so she could hold it. Then she proceeded to rub my arm again. Sister Taumalolo started talking to her trying to distract her. Then the lady got really bold and all a sudden went tried to put her arm around me and zoomin in her face for the kiss. Sister Taumalolo jumped in there and saved my life, grabbing that arm and saving me from what would have been sudden doom. You may ask why I didn't: 

1. Tell her to stop
2. Run away
3. Scream at the top of my lungs
4. Some other option. 

And the answer is I don't know why I didn't do those things. I was terrified and didn't even know what to do. So I just scooted I guess haha. 😂 so yeah. Sister Taumalolo distracted the lady until we got our food and could bounce outta there. When we left McDonald's we couldn't hold it in anymore and everyone just died laughing. It took a while before we could stop laughing. So yeah that was quite the experience. Gotta love drunk people. (:

(Elder Stiff)
What is even going on here? 

Wednesday! In the afternoon we finished tracting the street we had planned for super early so we were like what should we do. We looked on our map to see, and there was this former investigator like a 45 minute walk away out into the middle of nowhere. So we were like what the heck. Walked all the way out there and the address was fake. So that was lame. We had to bump away as soon as we got there to get back in time for our bus. We started walking then I was like what the flip I'm not walking all the way out here for nothing. So we decided to knock some doors and forget the bus haha. On the fourth door we knocked we met this super solid dude Adam. He was super interested and invited us to come back. So that was solid. He snowboards so we talked about skiing and snowboarding for like 20 minutes haha. After we left we walked and the bus came perfect timing. Good stuff indeed. (: That night we went and saw this young couple who have two young kids. We had such a great lesson with them. They live like 2 minute walk from the chapel and have been wanting to go in for years. It was great. (:

It snowed here!!

Thursday we had a billion appointments fall through.

Friday we had a billion appointments fall through.

We did some other stuff on those days but I don't feel like typing it out. 😁 Saturday we had a good lesson with Bruce, then did some service in the afternoon with the zone leaders. 

After our service. ha ha

Sunday was good as well. We met with Chris again and as soon as he gets the go ahead from his dr to travel because he broke his wrist really bad he can come to church. He's committed to come to church and be baptised once he's got the all clear from his doctor. So that's real good stuff. (:

Today was killer! We went to the trampoline park again. 😁 the best of times. Well that's my week! Lessons falling through and a 40 year old drunk lady trying to kiss me! Big ole shoutout to my bro Spencer and Hailey for getting married this weekend! Legends. 😁 love yous all and have a great week!

-Elder Edwards

Anotha one

Hey all! It has been quite the killer week! Um yeah I'll tell you about it I guess... 

Monday! Was killer! Flippin trampoline park was amazing. Most enjoyable hour in the entirety of my entire life. We had a solid barbecue at a recent converts house, Tara, and some other missionaries and stuff. It was a real good time. Me and elder stiff tried by some investigators that night who have started ignoring us. So that's always a good time. 😜

Barbeque

Tuesday! Had a quality district meeting. I'm enjoying the district meetings it's fun being able to plan them and give a training each week. We had a great district meeting and the spirit was super strong so that was great. I definitely felt uplifted after hearing some testimonies from the members of the district. The rest of our day was good, we traveled to a town called Blacon where our investigator bailed on us, we got a pretty solid new potential investigator though, she loved everything we told her about the restoration so that's good stuff. 😁 the rest of the day was pretty average. Not a lot of interest.

Wednesday! We went to Blacon again, got a nice new investigator named Marcel, he's a Christian and really liked what we told him about the Book of Mormon as another testament of Christ. Good stuff and we will be seeing him tomorrow. We tried by this kid Bruce Lee (funny right? KARATE MASTA) who was a former investigator. He didn't have time right then but said we could come back on Saturday. Good stuff. (: we tried by more investigators that night who are ignoring us. All in the day in the life of a missionary. 😁

Thursday was like a flippin hurricane. Madness to the maximum potential. Luckily we weekly planned for part of it, but when we left the flat we got drenched in like 10 minutes. So we went to our appointment 45 minutes early haha. So we met with Martin! Martin is the husband of a less active member, she has 2 kids who aren't members. They've been married for almost 2 years. They are so nice! Both kids want to be baptised, and Martin wants to find out if it's true. He wants to be sealed in the temple to camilla. So it's super good stuff! Excited to be working with them! The rest of the day was pretty rubbish. Lots of coldness, rejection, cancelled appointments. All good though, you can still have fun if you've got a positive attitude about it. (:

Friday! We met this former investigator John. He was great! We talked for a while getting to know him and his girlfriend then had a really great lesson on the Book of Mormon and faith in Christ. John ate it up. We will be seeing him again on Thursday so that'll be good. 😁 My absolute favorite part of being a missionary is teaching. I love being in someone's home and being able to see the lesson unfold by the guidance of the spirit. I love it. There's no place that I feel the spirit more than in somebody's home, sharing the joy that the atonement of Jesus Christ has brought me. (: we had tea with big Dave that night. Big Dave is the illest member around. Such a nice dude. True homie.

Saturday we went to Blacon to meet with Bruce. We had a good lesson on the Book of Mormon and he agreed to come to church! So good stuff. We had a street display which was fun. I met a fellow American! He was from New York and is a catholic. He's here for like a week or something visiting his parents. I love meeting people who are devout in their faith but don't be a big bottom about it and will actually talk. We had a really great conversation just talking about the differences and similarities in our religions, and kinda just sharing testimonies of Jesus Christ. It was really really nice. I talked about how the biggest difference in our religions is that they believe the apostolic authority was passed down since Christ, but we believe it was lost after the apostles. I then talked about the first vision and Book of Mormon, and it really seemed to hit home to him. He gladly took a Book of Mormon. It was such a refreshing conversation. It really just made me feel good. I'll never see him again or find out what happened, but I hope he reads the Book of Mormon and feels the truth of it. He is a really good man. Wish I remembered his name. 😜 That night I got to do my first baptismal interview as a district leader! I interviewed the zone leaders investigator Derek. He knows everything already and there was no problems. He will be getting baptised in two weeks time. Good stuff. (:

Sunday Bruce came to church! He really enjoyed it as well, he was pretty shy but warmed up to the other young men near the end. Good stuff. After church me and Elder Stiff went and saw this former investigator Chris. He is one heck of a good man. Everything he said is just so in line with the gospel. I felt inspired to read some of Alma 7 with him. So we took turns reading it. The spirit was so strong while we read! The verse we finished on ends by inviting the reader to be baptised. After that I invited him to be baptised and he said of course! So that was the best. He's not ready to commit to a specific date, and can only meet on Sundays, but I can't wait to see him next Sunday. Like I said before, I love being in somebody's home, sharing the great message of Jesus Christ's atonement.This transfer is flying by! Only 2 weeks left! Me and Elder Stiff are loving the work and getting along really good and are really hoping for another transfer together. (:

Thanks for tuning in! Love you all and hope you have a great week!
-Elder Edwards

Hahaha this sign is amazing!