New Pics!

September 16, 2013

Hey family this week I was thinking about personal revelation and I wanted to share something interesting with you guys that I Iearned.

     Lots of times in our lives we come to the point where we have to make really important decision, for me it was whether or not I should extend my mission and delay school or if I should get back to school as soon as possible, for you guys I know that the decisions are different but for sure you have them and want to make the right decision. As I was studying about prayer and seeking the will of the Lord and how we can know how to always make the right choices I learned some pretty valuable things. 

     First off, more than rarely we get so stuck up on choices that are between right and right. In D&C 58:26-28 I learned that a righteous and obedient servant should not have to be shown and forced into doing every single thing. It is our responsibility to seek for righteousness and do what we feel and know is right. 

      The second part that I really liked and that explains perfectly about spiritual guidance was a short clip by David Bednar called "Patterns of light: Spirit of Revelation" ( I advice you all to look it up on YouTube) It shows three ways that we can receive revelation in our lives and what we need to do to follow those promptings by the spirit. And then last but not least we always have the scriptures. In Nephi 32:3 we learn that the words of Christ will show us all things that we must do. 

       Through these 3 things I learned that it is the right choice for me to stay. I started off first with a desire to do good and to finish my mission off in the way that the Lord would want me to finish my mission. I wasn't sure at first and then like in that clip by David Bednar I was basically in the fog. I couldn't see the end but I had faith and could fell that God was guiding me and then for all of the doubts or fears or questions that I had, the Book of Mormon was there just like a compass to keep me heading towards the right path. 

       I know that God is watching out for all of us and through the simple and little things in our lives the Lord works miracles and brings to pass his work. I pray that you will always remember these things and apply them to yourselves in your day to day lives. Don't be afraid to act and do what feels right. I Love you all and hope all is well!

 Elder Edwards

30 Minutes A Day Challenge.

September 2nd, 2013

Wow this week was full of adventures and full of new experiences. First off on Tuesday and Wednesday we had to do everything for the week because we were going to Praia so we ended up marking 12 lessons just on Tuesday and 9 for Wednesday with 3 baptismal interviews. It was crazy and we were running around like mad men trying to get to all of our lessons. We ended up getting everything set up and then Thursday afternoon we got to Praia and I did a division all day with my best friend ever Elder Christensen. 

Friday morning we had zone leaders council which went really good. The first part we just talked about health and basic info that we needed to pass over to our missionaries and then we played the dreaded ´´scripture game´´. A couple months ago our mission president decided that we all need to know the scriptures better so he asked us all to memorize one scripture for each segment in the missionary lessons. That means in total we should all have at least 42 scriptures memorized. I had them all but a couple weeks ago I decided I wanted to have better scriptures for each one instead of just the basic really short ones. At the council we decided to play the game and when it was my turn I completely killed it. I quoted the best scripture that was full of life and super long.. The mission president stood up and gave me a standing ovation which was not like him because he is really serious. Then we made our goals for this month and reviewed with everyone what they thought and how we were going to make it happen. We also we all challenged to take a book of mormon, write in the front cover what we want to change in our lives or who we want to be and then read the book 30 minutes every day and watch for this change come to pass. It was a really cool idea and I am stoked to get started ( The same challenge works for all of you guys as well).

Then Saturday we woke up at 5 to get to the airport for our flight that was suppose to leave at 7... That sure didn't happen though. The plane got delayed and we ended up flying out of Praia at 1 instead which really messed stuff up. We didn't get back to our house until 3 and we were suppose to have 3 baptisms at 3:30 on the other side of the island.. We ended up just cancelling the baptism we planned with everyone else and we just our baptisms here in Santa Maria in the ocean at 6:30. It was actually a really sweet baptism and I got to go into the ocean to do one of them so I can't complain. 

Then it was my first Sunday here in Santa Maria which turned out legit! Even though we were out of area we still had 10 investigators show up and 2 of them went up and bore there testimonies about how they read the book of mormon and prayed about it all and they know that it's true and are anxious to get baptized... SOOOO sweet to see and to know that God is working to help all of our investigators. We are seriously being soo blessed here and we are seeing miracles all day everyday. Also I realized that the mission President sent me here with a giant task to accomplish. He told us that where we are and what we are doing is not just for any missionary and in itself is a blessing and a privilege. We are suppose to lead and help our zone to be able to have enough worthy priesthood holders to seperate from the mindelo stake and become its own district. Then in our area we are suppose to find and baptize enough people for Santa Maria to become a branch instead of just a group. Man there is a lot of pressure on our heads right now... We don't really sleep anymore because we have soo much to do.. But I am 100% confident that through obedience, diligence and scripture study we are going to be able to accomplish all of these things and the Lord will use us in his hands. 

Elder Edwards

BIG News...

September 4th, 2013

Hey so I called the mission president today and told him that I am extending.... I have been praying and thinking about it a lot these past couple weeks and I know its the right decision

September 8th, 2013

Dear family,

 So it's all official and I am going to be staying until the end of February.. I'm not going to lie at the start was was really unsure of the decision but I kept reading the Book of Mormon 30 minutes a day and all of the doubts or excuses I had went away and now I am sure that it is the right choice and God will bless my efforts. And the mission President didn't ask me to I just felt like it was necessary because the mission is really young right now and there are a lot of greenies that can use my help.

 As for this week things were pretty crazy. First it started with ''the baptism of john''. Joao our investigator is deathly afraid of water and before his baptism his only doubt was so deep the water would in the ocean because he was scared he was going to die. The morning of his baptism we went to work out right next to the beach and saw that the waves were HUGE probably the biggest waves I have ever seen in my life. I just kinda brushed it off and hoped that things would settle down by the time the baptism came. When we got to the beach with our 7 investigators and joao the beach was completely full of surfers and tourists which is really rare for where we went but joao had to get baptized so we went ahead and did it there. The first second and third time we tried the baptism waves came and messed it all up. I told the member that was baptizing him to just say the prayer, let the wave pass and then dunk him. The prayer was said and then the wave came... But this time it came bigger than normal picking up joao and pushing him into the sand. My first thought is ''oh crap joao is dying of fear right'' and I would have thought he was drowning but he was just floating in the water on his back looking confused. I told him to stand up when he says to me ''Am I baptized yet''? Apparently joaoheard the prayer and figured he could just dunk himself in the water once or twice and call it baptism. The member, my comp and I couldn't help but just start freaking out and laughing almost to the point of dying. He said it so seriously and was actually convinced that he was baptized.

And my comp by the way is super cool. He both work together perfectly and are teaching and baptizing like bosses. We call ourselves the dream team and our secret weapon is the book of mormon and acts 22:16. This week we ended up being in a room full of people and taught them all about faith and repentance and baptisms and then we marked 8 of them with baptismal dates. It was super cool. God is blessing us a lot right now!

Well I hope all is well with you guys! Love you all tons.

Elder Edwards