Last Email From Elder Edwards.

Dear family,

This will be the last ever mission email I will write... That's crazy! Things here are definitely starting  to get all wrapped up and it's starting to almost feel real that the mission will end. Don't worry though we are still working hard and I have one last Baptism for this Saturday.

I can't wait to get home and tell you all about everything. I have so many stories but I don't think I'll ever be able to tell it all. 

  The highlight of this last week though was almost as a dream come true. I got a call last night from a recent convert of mine from Fogo (João and Natalia) informing me that yesterday they were interviewed and it was approved for them to go to the temple. Now, according to their visas, they will be getting sealed in Brazil this February or August! I am stoked for them and when I get home I will be able to talk with them on Skype!

Love you all. Hope all is well

TALK TO Y'ALL SOON!

3 Weeks To Go...

Dear family..

You're telling me that time goes by fast.. I only have three weeks left and days are passing by like hours..

As for mission work.. Things here are blowing up.. We had 84 people in church Sunday (when I got here it averaged 48-53), this week we have 2 baptisms and to be honest we have stopped focusing on baptizing. Here in Sal there are enough people for us to be a stake but there are over 300 inactives so we are all working our hardest to bring them all back and then we will baptize their friends and family ha. It is amazing to be a leader in this zone there seriously is soo much going on. President told me last week.. "Elder Edwards... You have a lot of responibility out there, in your hands there is a stake."  So we have all been working like crazy to "git r done"

Love you all. Talk to you soooon

Elder Edwards

October 13.

GOOO Utes!!! Man it's good to hear about a strong win.. About time.. So things here are going really good. Elder Haile has come here ready to work and to turn this place into a branch. Yesterday in Church we had 10 men there who can all potentially hold the preisthood. As of now we have baptized and reactivated enough people to be a branch we just need to help all of them progress a little bit more and help them to be ready and strong members... Also we will for sure keep baptizing and reactivating! 

The wedding this week went good... The baptism was a different story though.. Their family threw a wedding after party for them and they decided at 1:00 am after the spirit had gone to bed to drink a little bit of wine..Hopefully here in the next couple weeks they'll repent and get there. 

Also this week I wanted to share a story with you all about the book of mormon and the power that it contains. Back in the day when I was a young man I never read the book of mormon and I never wanted to.. I don't know why but that was how I felt and during family reading I usually was half asleep.. When people asked me where I was in my BOM reading I always said "in the middle of Alma" and then everyone always responded "oh yeah alma sure is a long book" I knew nothing about alma I just heard everyone else say that they were in the middle of alma..

  I promise that I have repented for that and I have had a huge change of heart. The Book of Mormon is for our days and if we aren't reading it we are only effecting ourselves. Our mission has started working a lot with in-actives and what I have noticed with just about every case is that none of them were reading the book of mormon.. This usually resulted in them not praying, not going to church and eventually giving up completely..   Please read the book of mormon everyday.. preferably 30 minutes.. This is eternal life. It starts here and I know that if we are all ready we will be stronger in the church, we will be happier people and we will have the strength to endure to the end.. In lehi's vision only those who held firmely to the iron rod made it the tree of life. Lets all hold a little bit firmer and be a little bit stronger each day! 

(to the mission pres)As for Santa Maria things here are truly being blessed. This week during my division with Elder Christensen my faith was strengthened about the importance of inviting. We ended up running into an inactive member named João who has been away from the church for a couple of months now. We sat down with him, got to know him a little bit and realized that the reason he fell away was because of problems with commandments and he was having problems with repentance. He decided he wanted to come back to church and fell that sweet spirit that he used to feel.. We were getting ready to finish when I got the impression to ask him if he had priesthood... He said he had the aaronic and really wanted to receive the melquisedeque but he wasn't ready and didn't feel like he could get there. I invite him as simple and I could, "João, voce irá se preparar para receber o sacerdócio de melquisedeque?" In that moment I felt the spirit testify very strongly about what was said.. He sat there for a minute and that said "vou...... vou.... vou vou vou vou vou vou" It was amazing to see that change happen in his heart in basically the blink of an eye.

Love you all,

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

Last Transfer!

Dear Family,

   I'm glad you guys liked the d&c count down. Wow this week came with lots of changes! Saturday night I got a phone that informed me I was being transfer. I left Elder Dos Santos and now I am serving in Sal with Elder Camargo (also from south Brazil) and we are the zone leaders on this island. I was way surprised when I got the call because it was the middle of the transfer but it was for sure inspired and me and Elder Camargo are going to be the dream team out here. Our area is call Santa Maria and is the newest area in the mission. Our plan here is to baptize enough people to officially become a branch. This area is the nicest part of all of Cape Verde and our area is set up way legit. On the side is a huge beach with tons of Europeans then right inside is a kinda like a tourist mall with surf shops, ice cream stands, Hawaii inspired restaurants and then the city part where the Cape Verdians live is set up and looks and feels just like St. George. This place does not feel or look like Cape Verde at all!! I am way stoked with the change and they made it sound like I am suppose to finish my mission here and go out with a boom leaving my legacy forever! I accept. It's gonna be awesome. 

  Also this Friday we have zone leaders council so I am going to fly all the way to Praia, go to a conference and then fly back the next day. Because I'm on this island and zone leader I am going to fly at least one sometimes twice a month! 

  The only problem here is that everything is way expense! Everything costs about double from the rest of Cape Verde. Also the mission president told me I need to invest in some new shirts because they are all yellow and really gross.

Marriage, Baptism and Birthdays and Pictures.

Dear Family,

This last week went by really good. That family that couldn't get married because of their window... They're getting married next month and then baptized! That problem didn't last at all ha. 

The only new things that happened this week were 1, I am now playing piano in sacrament meeting which was pretty sweet  but a little bit weird at first and not completely perfect but better than nothing. And 2 is our investigator Samir. Samir is a golden investigator that reads everyday in the book of mormon, prays a ton and is going to church now with my old white shirt and tie. He's a boss and can't wait to get baptized. The miracle though is what he has overcome to get to this point. I met him three weeks ago and he had problems with cocaine, weed, beer, tabbaco, coffee and sometime black tea... He has huged desires to change and live a new life and it has been amazing to see the diferences in him.

Well time is out! Today is my companions 19th birthday and we have a surprise party to go to at a members house! Love you all,

Elder Edwards

Mother's Day.

Elder Edwards called home on Mother's Day to talk to us all. He actually surprised us and called a few days prior to Mother's Day to test the phone. It made my whole day. Nora and Stella are still talking about it. Stella actually cried for almost and hour after he hung up because she didn't want him to go. He is doing wonderful. He says it is hotter than he can stand but is loving the work. For some reason in the area they are in only women are accepting their lessons right now and have only had one male be baptized and six females.  Matt says he has forgotten what American food tastes likes and craves Gatorade. I'm going to send him a package this week with some American treats if anyone has anything they want to add I am happy to add it to the box. He is still on track to return home shortly before Christmas. We can't wait. Love you Matty!

A Name Tag Lost At Sea.

This was supposed to post prior to the next one, sorry. This one was the week prior. Here's the update for our Elder.

Hello my familia. 

  Things here are..  The same. Today is the first day of the transfer and I'm staying in Relva one more with Elder Nhafé. I am excited to keep on working here in Relva. 

As far as my nametag.... Ya that was a fun day.. Its was about 3 months ago that I lost my original. We usually always do our baptisms in Cova Figueira because they have a fonte or we will go to Mosteiros becuase they have a nice calm spot to do it in the ocean with low waves and sand... To go to either of those places we have to pay with our own mission money to get a car to take everyone there. Life here is expensive.. If we baptize a lot we end up out of money. Being wise and creative as me and my companion were we decided to save money and do it our own way. We met with everyone in the afternoon and just walk straight down from our house to the ocean. The waves are large and lots of them are white on top... Sand is nowhere to be found.. Just baseball to soccer ball sized rocks..  It was decided that my companion would be the one to perform the baptism.. he's the junior comp and it's his first time doing it in the ocean.. I am in my baptismal cloths because I have to be the witness. I'm standing off to the side of my companion where it is more shallow. This spot and day was for experienced baptists only. He tries a couple times to say the prayer and dunk him in but he is having trouble timing it with the waves. He tries it about 3 times but everytime he finishes the prayer a big wave comes and they can't stay up on the slippery rocks. Finally try number four.. I give a faca to my comp and tell him that he has to say the prayer a little faster... He doesnt listen.. A huge wave comes!!! it throws my companion to the side and lifts up our baptism onto me! He is a weak swimmer... He grabs me screaming and tries to use me to stay a float! next thing I know I'm out in the ocean and I can't touch the bottom.. I see three big waves out the distance.. I was in hawaii I know what has to be done, I'm forced to take full action and dive head first through he waves. It's awesome of coarse. I love the ocean. Finally things settle back down and I make it back to shore. We do the baptism real quick and get out of the water! As I'm leaving I look down and realize that my nametag is MIA..  In the end it turned out to make for a good story... My new nametag should be here soon..

   I hope you like my story! Make sure you save this email I never actually wrote that in my journal... Love you all! 

  Elder Edwards

January 14, 2013

Busy Boy.

Elder Edwards has been working his butt of lately (10 baptisms this week!) so he hasn't had time to email everyone who emails him. Don't feel bad if you haven't heard from him in a while. Each week he is required to email his Mission President so Matt has decided to just copy and paste those emails for us to keep up on his work. Here is this weeks update:

Buenos tardes. I have been working on my spanish lately. I plan to speak it fluently before I make it home. I was planning on calling you guys about the same time as last year, maybe an hour earlier. This year I realized how awesome Thanksgiving is and how when you dont know what day it was until it passes its kind of a sad holiday. We didnt have our phone that day so the next day when we got it back we had recieved a bunch of Happy thanksgivings texts. Looks like everyone else knew what day it was. 

   This week is going to be CRAZY!!! This whole transfer we have been working with all of our people and planning their baptisms for the last week of the Transfer. Also our wedding, due to a poorly organized government, was delayed until tomorrow. As of right now we have 10 baptism that are all pretty solid for the end of this week. One baptism is kinda stressful trying to do everything, 2 is really stressful and exhausting, 3 is a killer. 10 is going to be a nightmare. Pray for us please... we are going to need it!

    Why do you have to get a cancer screenning? that sounds kinda scary.. It was good to hear that Katie got her letter I was hoping she was gonna like it. Thanks for saving my emails. You shouldve told me that. I wouldve been in more effort. I will email janet right now. Also I got the bank info finally i will send that back soon. 

        This week I took your challenge and I have been working to improve my morning and night time prayers. I have started praying for each investigator by name and taking each of their problems one at a time. I have really seen that the Holy Ghost will direct our prayers and also he will inlighted us about problems or doubts they have that we dont know about. This has been a valuable lesson to learn and I will definitely continue to improve on this. (to mission pres)