Cruisin

Written July 3, 2017

Hey. It's me, elder edwards. Hope yall are doing well. Soo... yeah. This week has been pretty good. Last p day we just cruised around with elder Rodriguez and elder Morgan having some good times. It was fun. Then we did a family home evening with the district and some investigators. We had to make food out of all sorts of crazy ingredients. It was pretty gross. Well, really gross. But a good time. 

Me and elder Charles went on exchange with the zone leaders Tuesday/Wednesday. It was a good time. I went with ya boy elder carling! From kaysville! Yes boy. 😎 kaysville dads cruisin around Oldham. It was a real good time. He's a great man and we had a lot of fun. We mostly just tracted so yeah. ''Twas fun though. Elder carling leaves back for the homeland in a week. Must be crazy. 😳

Wednesday night we felt like we should go to an area called Ridgehill to try by some of our investigators there. None of them was in. But then we thought we would try by a former investigator named Mathew. He let us in and we had a super good and super spiritual conversation. He is really spiritual and we talked a lot about light v darkness and the light of Christ and the darkness of the devil. Sounds kinda deep but it was def what he needed, cuz he ate it all up. He loved everything we told him. He was like I love talking to yous, you know what your talking about, I can't get good answers like this from anywhere but talking to you. Haha so that was pretty great. I think he could def be baptised, but he keeps flaking out on the appointments we've set up since then. Hopefully we will be seeing him soon. 

We had the last district meeting of the transfer and I really enjoyed it. It was most excellent of a time. We've been working with a bunch of less actives as well. One particularly named Shaun. We met Shaun a week ago and he was really struggling. We've been seeing him everyday and he's been improving fast. It's amazing to see. Also not sure if I mentioned this before but remember how me and Elder Godfrey were teaching Sergio in Chester? Well he got baptised like 2 weeks ago! I was so pumped when I heard it. Good lad. (:

That's pretty much it! We're working hard trying to find more people to teach, and we having some good times while we're at it. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and what he does for people. He can bring us from our lowest of lows and help us out in our hardest times. I know he lives. Thanks for tuning in, hope you all are well. Have a great week! Love yous!

- Elder edwards

Weeks I think

(Laurel here. I knew I was behind on Dallen's blog... but I didn't realize I was THIS behind!!)

Written June 19, 2017

Hey all! This week was a goodun. Not sure I'll have much to report but I'll try my best. (: last Monday we had a zone p day! It was pretty killer. We played loads of football (soccer) and it was a real good time. We've been playing football every morning with the other elders and it's been ultimately solid. Been ages since Ive played football so it's way fun to get back into it. 😎

This week we did a lot of finding. We were able to find a couple new people, but they all bailed on their appointments except one. We had a great lesson on prayer with him, he's not a fan of organized religion so we took it easy haha, and it went really good. His name is Ian, and he's happy to have us back soon. We had a lot of lessons with recent converts and less actives this week which went really good. There's really not any investigators to report on haha, but we working on it
so hopefully soon. (:

The sisters are working with this amazing girl named Morgan! She referred herself online on Tuesday, and they've been meeting with her everyday. She is going to be baptised, has already been to youth and everything, been to church. She is so solid. She's been playing football with us in the mornings as well which has been fun. She wanted a blessing so we met up with her and the sisters at the chapel last night. She asked me if I could give the blessing and it was an incredible experience. I felt the spirit so strong, and Heavenly Father had so much that he wanted to tell Morgan. She really felt the spirit as well, and was amazed that it came straight from Heavenly Father. So that was a great experience. (:

Today the whole district went on the dankest hike. It was the best of all the times. Will include pics. We've got the solidest district eva. 

Ive been thinking a lot about prayer this week. How everyone should truly search for God, where he is and who he is, and they can do that through prayer. Our will really needs to be in line with Gods will, and those wills can be brought together through prayer. We're never alone, and we can always turn to God in prayer. And he will always answer us. It might not be right away, but he will. Sometimes we might be praying for weeks for something, but get absolutely nothing. Maybe even just some help, and it might feel like your not getting it. But it will come. He won't leave us in the dark forever. I know God is there. That's fo sho. I love you all! Have a great week!

- elder edwards

Elder Edwards update

Laurel here. Dallen didn't write a group email this week. He ran out of time--but said they were working hard, it had been a rough week, and there wasn't a lot to report.

Last Wednesday (June 7) our nephew, Jaron Idso, received a facebook message from a woman in England. (Jaron served in the London England mission a couple of years ago.) They had the missionaries over for dinner that night--Dallen being one of them. Somehow they made the connection that Dallen and Jaron were cousins. So she snapped a picture and messaged Jaron at that very moment. Awesome!

Thank you for all your love and support. And especially your prayers for our missionaries serving out there!

Ashton

(written June 5, 2017)

Throwback to ya boy!

Hey all! It's been a great week! Said peace out to Chester. Chester was real good. It was sad to say bye to the people there. Especially my boys elder Godfrey and Dave. Elder Godfrey is a flippin legend, it was so good serving with him. Good lad. 

So. Ashton. It's small. Haha it's weird coming from such a big area. I'm used to like 45 minute bus rides all the time and now it's like 5 minute bus rides. It's pretty great. (: soooo we have like 0 investigators so there's not a lot to report about... but we've been working super hard and trying to find new investigators and contacting a lot of former investigators. So it's been good! 

Our flat is kinda ghetto haha, the other day I walked downstairs from showering and my desk was covered in water. I was wondering what the heck elder Charles had been getting up to haha. 😂 but. Our ceiling was peeing. So no big deal. Not even slightly a problem. 

The new comp is elder Charles! This kid is literally the best. Haha he is so funny, were just laughing all day long. This is his 3rd transfer, and he is one solid missionary. He kills the game, super warm and friendly, hard working and knows his stuff. Takes the gospel and his mission so seriously and so not seriously at the same time haha that is the way to do it. 😜 also he's black. Which is the best part. He cooks dang good Caribbean style food as well which I'm lovin. 

What the heck was Elder Godfrey doing with his eggs?

The district here is great! There is 8 of us, and they are all the best. (: I'm excited to do exchanges! Also this is the last transfer with president Ulrich, then we will be getting the new president. (: should be weird haha but also good. Also. I got to see my boys at our transfer meeting. Good good stuff. 😎 cepooda. Alright since this email was crap I'll type out a little spiritual thought to try to redeem it. 😜 

Ive been thinking about the sacrament and how special it truly is. Ive been trying to keep it from becoming mundane and routine because it has been for quite a while. But! The sacrament is so important! We get to renew our baptismal convenants every single week! Washed clean every single week! Just like our bodies need food, we need the spiritual food that comes from taking the sacrament every week! The sacrament is such a blessing. Pay attention to the prayers, they are amazing and full of meaning. So yeah! Good stuff! Well I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

-Elder Edwards

Transfer upper doo

(written May 29, 2017)

Yo! Wazzup. So this week there's not a lot to report... it was pretty stinkin slow. I'll try my best though. 😜

Album cover.

Update on Sergio! Nothing to update. He moved his home stay and dropped off the face of the planet. So he's moved, and won't answer his phone. Sad day. ): hopefully we'll be able to find him on the street somewhere. We've def been keeping him in our prayers. Someday. (:

Haha we had a hilarious experience! We were cruisin down the street and I saw this very old man who couldn't walk super well sitting at a bus stop. I just said hello as we were walking by and he called us over. He was asking us if there was any shops nearby because he couldn't walk much further cause his arthritis. We were like no the shops are quite a ways away. I offered to go to the shops for him, so he just pulled his wallet out, handed it to us, and sent us away! 😂 haha quite the trusting man. So we went and got him some bread and tarts and brought it back to him. He was very grateful. Haha funniest man as well. We were talking to him and he told us a bit about his arthritis. He pulled up his pantlegs to show us his knees and he said "good job nobody's looking!" Then we all busted up for a little while. Haha it was great.

C for Chesta Crew. My c looked a bit funny though, not sure why.

We had a great district meeting on Tuesday. I love district meetings. Def my fav part of being a district leader. It had a great spirit there. Also! It was elder Godfrey's six month mark! So we burned some ties! Good times. (:

Elder Godfrey killin the game

We had a super solid experience with James this week! So things have been super hard with him because his parents have been showing 0 interest. But we were teaching him on Friday and his mom came in. She had been showing 0 interest because she thought we were jehovahs witnesses! Hahawhen she learned that we aren't, she warmed up real quick. We taught her the restoration and she asked loads of great questions! She loved the restoration, then the whole family came out to church on Sunday! It was great! Somebody in front of us ripped one in sacrament, so they kind of lost their focus for the rest of the meeting because they were trying not to laugh haha. 😂 funny family. (: they are super great. 

Also... transfer news! We found out yesterday that I... will be leaving! I will be going to Ashton to be the district dad there! Should be good! There's some pretty sick kids in my district so it will be fun. My new companion will be elder Charles. He's been out for 2 transfers and I know absolutely nothing about him. Should be good! (: also king Cossa, my old district leader in Rhyl will be in my district for his last transfer. So excited! (: the man is a legend. I love this gospel! I love how it encourages individuality, and I love Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for him and the perfect example He set. Sometimes we get our priorities messed up. We just need to focus on Jesus Christ, and everything else will fall into place. 

Love you all, have a great week!

-elder edwards

Zooin

(written May 22, 2017)

Perfect length.

Wazzzup. This has been a pretty solid week. I'll tell ya some highlights. (: We had exchanges with the zone leaders! I went with ya boy elder chicken (Kitchen). He's a true homie. We had a good time cruisin around preachin them gospels. We met one kid who was pretty solid, but gave us the wrong address for our appointment the next day. So that was lame. We tried by this former investigator of theirs. Oh. My. Days. She talked for 30 minutes without taking a breath. We literally didn't get a single opportunity to say a word. So that was a fun time.

Cruisin

😂 That night we had a lil campfire again and cooked hot dogs and smores. It was a real good time. (: good stuff. Here's a little tale for yous. I was walking out of the zone lords flat over to the fire when all a sudden a wild e Kitch jumped outta nowhere and sprayed me with a fire extinguisher. Haha it was hilarious except for the fact that he sprayed it in my mouth. It was gross. So then I chased him down and we wrestled for a bit, me trying to get the fire extinguisher from him. I finally got him and sprayed the heck outta him. It was the best of times. Elder kitchen regretted it afterwards. I didn't. 😇

Me and Elder Kitchen had a standoff of intimidation.

We were finally able to teach Sergio this week! And it was amazing! Sergios heart has been softened so much since the last time we taught him. We taught the restoration and he loved it. We invited him to be baptised for the second time, and this time he accepted. So that was major solid. (: we have him on date for the 3rd of June. Such a good kid. We met with him later in the week and taught the plan of salvation. Smooth sailing. It's different teaching him, because he's the first person I've taught who isn't so good with their English. I really enjoy it though! Forces us to keep it simple which is muchas good. Great lad that Sergio. (:

Most intimidating.

We found a couple of solid potential investigators this week, and found a super great girl named Sophie! We had a really great conversation about how God really does love us, and the atonement of Jesus Christ, on her doorstep and she loved it. She said we could come back the next day and unfortunately wasn't there, but it's all good. We will hopefully be able to see her again soon. We met loads of solid people last night! It was amazing, we got let in and talked loads about the Book of Mormon to a family, we got approached by a dude who wants to study with us about our church, and I talked to the bus driver while on the bus home haha and he was so great. I was telling him about the Book of Mormon and he was like, I've got one. What people don't understand is that the Book of Mormon doesn't replace the bible but goes parallel with it. I was like yoooo exactly that. He was the best. Killer night! (:

How to giraffe.

We hit up the zoo today! It was killer. This week Ive been thinking a lot about me, in the scheme of eternity. I know there's a lot of pressure sometimes to not be yourself. I was thinking about how all of us are the literal spirit children of our heavenly parents. And we existed before we came here, and had the same personalities. I've been me, a stinkin long time before I came here to earth. Ive been learning and growing and improving, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm still me. And that I love to have a laugh. It just really hit home for me this week that I'm a son of God, and he loves me for who I am. And that goes for all of us. 

To me that is a really nice thought. (: I hope you all have an amazing week! Love you all! (:

-Elder Edwards

There's a red panda but I'm more interested in my fidget spinner.

A week in the life

Hey! This week included, all sorts o stuff... so yeah. I'm getting tired of these day by day thingy emails so imma try to just do some highlights. (:

Tuesday we had a multi zone conference! It was ultimately good. Got a lot of spiritual insight on how we can move the work along. It was super good I loved it, something that really stood out to me, was how our faith as missionaries can affect other people being converted. Obviously they still have agency, but in a talk we watched, Neil Anderson was speaking. There was a super good quote that went something like "there is a power that can cause things to happen that need to happen. There is a power that can stir something in people's souls. My faith can cause somebody's soul, that is dormant but good, to awaken unto God." That really stood out to me. I realized while it may not always be the case, my faith can enable the spirit to stir somebody's soul. So I have really been working on increasing my faith. Good stuff. (: I love missionary work. At the multizone I also got to see all the homies, which was super fun. 

One day we were out tracting this slightly countryside road, it was a beautiful day but it was just a kind of boring day haha. Nobody was answering and the couple people who were answering weren't interested. We knocked and street contacted for ages. We finally met this man who was acting really funny, he seemed like he wanted to rage at us or give us a hug at the same time. Maybe both. Anyways We just started saying something, can't remember what, and he invited us in. He is a major gospel scholar. He's got like a finity bibles and such. We talked for ages about Christ and the Book of Mormon stuff. He's definitely got some potential. We're going to have to show him through the bible though that the trinity is not true doctrine. Haha should be fun. All you gotta do is read your bible, it tells us that god and Jesus Christ are separate being. Anyways he's a great man and I'm looking forward to seeing him again. (: 

This dude was so nice. Crazy good at guitar as well.
Met him today in Chester. So sick.

We met loads of new people this week and it was really great. We also met some people who were trying to wreck us. Haha we had a born again man come up to us and start tryna tear us apart. He pulled a DVD out of his bag to give to me. "Out of the kindness of my heart I will give this to your for no price." Cheers buddy. 😂 haha it was an anti DVD and I was like nah mate. Then his buddy came up and was filming us. He was asking me why I was a Mormon. I was like I'm not going to talk to you while your filming me just trying to attack me and my faith, if you actually want to talk you can put away the video camera and we can talk. He didn't know what to say but he put away the camera. 😂 we peaced outta there. They definitely weren't interested. Good times though. (:

Also, that's Elder Godfrey if there's any confusion as to who is my new companion. 😂
We got some haircuts as well today. (:

Also we met with a girl named Bianca! We taught her the restoration and she seemed to really like it, she promised to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so that's good stuff.

I had a great experience for me this week! A couple weeks into being here in Chester I got on a bus and felt like I should talk to this man. I sat in front of him cause it was the only seat. Satan was really working on me to get me to not talk to this man, so I put it off and put it off. When I was about to turn around and talk to him he got off the bus. I felt absolutely terrible that I hadn't talked to him. The prompting had kept getting stronger and stronger while I was on the bus as well. To say the least I felt bad. So this week! We got on a bus and there was this man! I was like no way I gotta talk to him. The only seat available was behind him. So I sat behind him. Satan must've really not wanted me to talk to him because all the doubts and fears came back. (Sharing the gospel can still be scary sometimes 😜) he had headphones in. The prompting kept getting stronger and stronger as well. So finally I just tapped his shoulder and we started talking. So nice and super funny. We didn't have much time but we had a good chat about god. Got his number and he peaced out. Happy to have gotten that second chance. (: it must have been really important for me to talk to him, because Satan was trying as hard as he could to get me to not talk to this man. So yeah, good stuff. (:

Me and Stiff.

Also the delivery dads Elders Stiff and Cowdrey were in the area on Friday so they came over and had tea with us. So good to see them. Legends. (: me and elder Stiff were rockin some wheelies.

That's some of my week! It's been a good one! Me and elder Godfrey are loving it here in Chester and working hard! Love you all! Thanks for the support! Have a great week!

-Elder Edwards

Stiff popping them wheelys in the flat like a legend.