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

Emails And A Reading Challenge.

August 4th:
Well once again another transfer has come and gone. For the next transfer I am going to be staying in my same area with my companion. I'm pretty excited to stay. This last transfer we were basically just getting everything set up and now we just need to baptize! This week here should be awesome. This week is Elder Hutber's (my friend from England) last week. In the last 12 transfers of my mission I have spend 10 and a half transfers with him on the same island, most of the time in the district and 2 different times in the same house. Our plan for this week is to have a wedding for Branco and Rosa (translation white and pink) on thursday, birthday/ going home/ early thanksgiving dinner for Elder Hutber on Friday, And then Baptisms on Saturday! It's gonna be a way good week. 


August 9th:
family I also forgot to tell you about the updates with Relva. I talked to one of my recent converts today and I learned that things there are still really good. All of my converts are still really strong and they are all working really hard to grow the branch there. Also in my last few weeks there I taught the branch president what branch missionaries are and told him to call some and I'd train them all. Well he called them all and we trained them and then today I heard that they are all still really strong and they are helping out with the recent converts and they are bringing investigators to church.  It's crazy how much of a snow ball effect this work has. I also met up with the couple we married before I went to Relva. He is now a high priest in the stake and is doing work. The missionaries there said he's the strongest member in the whole ward! It's crazy how this work never stops and ours fruits  seem to just keep going and going


August 19th:
Dear Everybody,
This week went by pretty good. We have started doing divisions everyday with a bunch of young men that are preparing to serve missions so we have been teaching like 40 lessons a week. We should be baptizing a bunch this transfer. Also I have an invitation for the whole family. I meant to tell y'all last week but I forgot. So when everyone gets to 138 days left in the mission they start on d&c 138 and read one section a day until they go home. I started this last friday and want to invite all of you to read one section a day with me and then you can count how many days I have left! TRUNKY!... Dont worry I'm still working my hardest! Today read 135 and tomorrow 134 etc etc..

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)