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)

Testimony.

I´d like to share the story of one of our investigator with you. Last week we marked her with a wedding and baptism date and the whole family was excited. Two days latter we returned to talk to them again but her spouse wasn't there. We gave her a family proclamation and then she started to tell us about how she found out about the church.  She use to be a strong member of the Adventist church until one day she felt like it wasn't completely true. She said that everyday after that she prayed to God to find a true church that was right for her and her husband. After a while missionaries showed up in Relva and she felt like she needed to talk to them. She was too shy to stop them in the street so she just continued to pray and pray that they would show up at her house. One day she saw them walking behind her house and they were on the trail to pass by her front door. She waited but they never knocked. After that she was heart broken. The next day her husband was contacted by two Elders in the street and they showed up at her house, finally, and taught the message of the restored gospel.

When I heard this story my testimony that God is preparing people and putting them in our paths everyday grew and I know that we truly can find these people.

Love you all and hope all is well! Elder Edwards

Long Overdue Updates.

See additional post below. Sorry for the infrequent updates. Elder Edwards has been so busy that emails are shorter and less frequent. He is doing great and we couldn't be more proud of him. Can't believe it's already been 9 months!!!

 "Hello meus pais. This week was another good one. I took that one day plane flight to Praia because the President wanted me to attend a specialized leadership training. It was way good and made me feel like some sort of business man flying around like that. My companion bleeds blacks! My new companion is a fellow highland high rammer and we have been representing for the SLC and getting work done! This week Elder Ensign showed up and he is in my district. He is in the city right next to mine (Cova figuera) and he seemed to be in culture shock at district meeting. He is strugglying with the language but he has a huge testimony so he´ll be fine. And the area that we´re in nobody speaks portuguese. It is crazy to hear about all the new missionaries and changes in the mission work. I´m glad that I am going to be here to help them lead all out. Its not too good to hear the utes are sucking it up. Hope all is well with you. With love, Elder Edwards Oct. 28th"

October 21.

Hello my family. Its good to hear that halloween is here again. Im not gonna lie I forgot about that holiday, it doesnt actually exist here.. The bad news for the week is that I am in Sao filipe again so I cant send pictures this week. This week was the end of the transfer and once again, I am getting a new companion but luckily I am going to stay here in Relva another transfer. There is an active volcano and I do live at thew bottom of it. I really hope it explodes that would be awesome see. This mission is super weird though. Tomorrow I am going to take a plane flight to Praia, Santiago to pick up my new companion and then the next day Im gonna take another plane to make it back to fogo. This will be the first time in my life having a back to back plane trip in just 2 days.It was good to hear from you and about how life is going. I hope all stays well. Love Elder. PS GO UTES!

To Assomada And Back Again.

Ola. This week was a little bit crazy, a little bit bumpy and a lot a bit rainy but when it was all said and done we finished off this week with three baptisms. One of them was definitely the biggest successes I have all all of my mission. In my first transfer of my mission we meet an awesome college student who was close to finishing his senoir year. We was really converted and knew that this church was true but he would never take the next step to being baptized because his girl friend would break up with him and he needed her computer for college. We didnt know what to do with him and he basically was at a stand still. After 5 months of missionaries working with him and 7 different missionaries we finally helped him to take that next step and to be baptized and he asked for me to baptize him. Me going back to Assomada was a very rare thing to have happen in the mission. Now that all is said and done I know that he was the reason I had to go back there and it was great to have that experience! 
Love Elder Edwards

Picture Post.

Late.

This email was from two weeks ago and I forgot to post it. Sorry!

 I did get a new companion this transfer. I actually got two. Their names are Elder Parkinson from Layton and Elder Olsen from Boise. They both are pretty cool guys but they're sticks in the mud... anyways..  This next week is going to be CRAZY! Tomorrow morning I'm going back to my old area (assomada) to help out a missionary whose companion has to come have an interview with the President. Then Wednesday we have Zone conference in Praia and then Thursday I'm going back up to Assomada for Zone conference there and then on Friday our investigators are getting married!!! On saturday they, with two other people, are going to get baptized. I don't actually think that we are going to have a lot of time to teach this week but none the less it should be awesome!!  I hope that all is going well. Love you tons. Elder Edwards.

PS go to the Church website, LDS.org and watch the Cape Verde movie I think it's called terra de luz. Land of light in english but most of the movie is filmed in the area I am in right now and it shows where we baptized in the ocean its way sweet

Naming Babies.

This new calling has been crazy! I have gone to the airport at 3 to 5 in the morning 3 times this week and have been running all around town in the chruchs car. It has been way legit! Also I named one of our investigators newborn baby haha I gave it the name bear at first and she kind of liked it and then I decided that bearinho was more fitting and she loved it (inho at the end of almost any Portuguese word means little) and this week she got baptized and her child's name legally on her baptism sheet was bearinho ha. Life here in Cape Verde is awesome. I always am praying for you guys. Fique suave. With love, Matthew

AP

This week was crazy! This last week was the last week of the Transfer and to finish it up we went and baptized in the ocean. It was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had! Now that all is said and done we finished the transfer with 10 baptisms and have 4 set up for next week... Sadly though I have been transferred. Last night I got a call from the Mission president and I am going to serve as AP (presidents assistant) I was pretty bummed to leave this area but this next transfer should be sweet. I found out that I get to drive the Church's Hiace ( Type of car) That is brand new and cost 70K! I get the feeling like the president is really pushing me. He told me this transfer I have to work my can off and get ready to become a trainer.  Hope all is well. With much love, Elder Edwards.

6 Months Tomorrow!

We have been having tons of problems with the power lately its really annoying. This week was way sweet. This week I baptized an investigator personally for the first time ever! It was way cool but he way a pretty big kid so it was kind of hard. Also this week at church we had a member of the seventy come to give a talk during sacrament meeting which was really interesting. The best part about it too was that we had 15 investigators show up to church! My comp and I were actually asked to give a training now this week at district meeting on getting investigators to church haha. This Sunday is the end of the transfer, Wednesday is my 6 month mark and we have 4 baptisms planned for Saturday... This week is going to be good and exhausting! I hope all is well in Salt Lake. WIth love, Elder Edwards

Cleaning The Beach And Climbing Mountains.

Hello everyone! This week has been really weird and really different! It started out with zone conference in the main city Praia. It was really good, we learned a ton. according to my companion zone conference is like half time and is to prepare us to 创win创 the battle. On Wednesday I went on a division to a city called Calheta. It was way sweet! The mission house there is right on the beach. Calheta is actually a brand new area that just opened up last week and it was awesome to be there and to see how excited the people were there to finally hav.e 创the church of the Elders创 in their city. We had a huge lesson at the end of the day, we taught 20 people at one time and they all were anxious as to when we could teach them more. On saturday we all went back to Calheta with a ton of members and Elders and cleaned up the beach to prepare a spot to do baptisms. That was my first time so far going to the beach and I was pretty excited. Finally to finish off the week this morning we went out and hope in the first taxi-truck thing here and drove until we found a cool moutain to climb. We picked a mountain and then spent a good amount of time trying to find a way to get to it.The mountain that we climbed was inhabited by monkeys and we actually found some monkey traps which was pretty cool. It has been crazy how fast time has been flying by here it is hard to believe I've already been here over two months. Gotta run but love you all. stay classy

Update From Across The World.

Things this week have been a little crazy. The other Elders here left to open a new area so right now we have to watch over our area and the other elders area. It has been a lot of walking but for the most part it has been pretty good. I eat fish and rice and beans for the first time here as a complete meal. The fish here is good but I think I need to improve my fish cooking skills. A cape verdian is going to teach me this week. Íve eaten with memebers a couple times. I actually ate soup for breakfast today with some members cuz we couldnt last night and I have to say that might have been the best soup that I have ever eaten. I ran out of money this week so Im actaully gonna have to sick with tuna and banannas and cereal for this week. I bought a cord to send pictures but the internet is being lame so you might have to wait until next week... Love ya. Tchau 

Transfer And New Companion.

Bom dia! Today is the first day of my second transfer! Its crazy to think that I have already been in Africa for more than 6 weeks! I was suppose to be with my first companion for the first few weeks but because of "technical missionary difficulties" my companion ended up getting transferred and I´m already moving onto my second companion. I´m a little nervous for this change because I am left to take charge of this area and I´m going to have a lot more responsibility but I know this change is the will of the Lord and I´m completely confident things will work out. Yesterday I had my second baptism. It was soo sweet! That was my fisrt baptism where I started working with the person from the first lesson and walked them all the way to the waters of baptism. This person had problems with all sorts of things and commandments but he worked through all of them and seeing his face when he came out of the water with the biggest smile on his face was definitely something else, the spirit was so strong. I have a lot of hope for this next transfer and I am ready to work twice as hard. One of our areas only has 3 members and they want to open up a new branch there so we´re going to be have a lot of work to do! " I hope everything is going well. PS Talk to next week. Ill be calling around 6 our time which I think should be one your time.. Eu te amo. Tchau

The Monday Morning Report

This week was way sweet! We had my first ever zone conference! Elder Kopischke from the 70 came and gave us like a 6 hour lesson. It was way good that is a guy with a lot of power. Then on Sunday we had District Conference with the whole island of santiago. It was soo sweet!!! They set up the first stake ever in the country of Cape Verde! We all went to Praia and the conference was held in one of the biggest buildings in all of Cape Verde. I got to see my companion from the MTC there which was way cool. He might actaully be getting transferred up to my area next week. Speaking of Transfers after this week I'll have already finished my first one! I hope all is well. Love you tons. Elder Edwards

A Dog Named Bunion.

Word from Cape Verde is short and sweet:

 "Everything here is good. We had our first baptism this week! that was way sweet. We also have a pet dog! hes somewhere in Cape Verde I dont know exactly where right now but we gave him a cookie and he followed us to two lessons and then back home. We named him Bunion. I hope eveything is going well. Hang in there and keep on keepin on. Love ya."

Mail takes four weeks. You can mail letters/packages to the mission home in Cape Verde. (I will get the mailbox slot address soon) Then when transfers happen they get their mail and such...which is even less frequent than the four weeks it takes to get there. Also, if you are going to mail a package the cheapest route is through USPS flat rate shipping boxes which have a flat rate of about $50. Not cheap, but worth it right?!? If you do mail a package it has been recommended that we put religious pictures all over the outside to prevent the package from getting stolen. (The people are superstitious of stealing religious material).

"They dont actually have address here. People just buy a mailbox slot so that is what the church does. And then they just get delivered as people get transferred or when the mission pres comes to visit. This actaully makes it really hard to get references. People will just tell you its by that tree past the big rock or something along those lines."

Elder Edwards is doing great. Thanks for the prayers and support.

Papaya, Baptisms And More.

We heard from E.E yesterday and he is doing great! There is no snail mail address yet so emails are the only contact. Here is the email and our first pics from Cape Verde.

"That first picture is a picture of a papaya! My first time ever eating it. It was totally delicious. The other two are pictures I took out of our appartment window. So Awesome! thats what I get to see every morning.  Easter was way good! we taught 3 families and committed 6 people to baptism. When I showed up we only had three people set for baptism now we have like 8 single people and 3 families!! It has been sweet teaching people! They all are really open to hear about the gospel and even if people dont want to theyre soo nice theyll always let us into their houses right at that moment to talk with them. Creole is good. Im not really trying to learn it. Its a total caveman language. The thing I learned to say this week was "corpo, modi que sta" literal translation being body, how it is. My companion is good. Hes way nice and super cool. Weve been getting a lot of work done together. hows is everything going for you? is life good? Love ya. Fica fixe"

News From Cape Verde.

Ola everyone! First week in Africa! Crazy! When I first showed up I did not know what to think. Everyone and everything looked a lot different. When I first showed up I got to go and eat with the Mission President and have a "welcome to Cape Verde" meeting and I found out where my first assignment would be. For the first part of my mission I am serving in a place called Assomada on the main Island Santiago. This place is awesome! The first couple days it was really weird... Everyone was screaming at me out of cars, not one person besides the missionaries were speaking Portuguese and the whole culture is completely the opposite to what I'm used to. Luckily things got better, a lot better. I discovered that everyone was yelling at us out of their cars because basically everyone that has a car is a taxi so they all just yell out the city that they're going to. Unfortunately everyone still is speaking Creole. I guess after 3 transfers (according to everyone) you can understand creole even though you don't speak it because it is super close to Portuguese. Its rather annoying though. We speak Portuguese, they respond in Creole, even though almost everyone can speak Portuguese. The food here is actually super good! At least in the place I'm at there is a grocery store that has basically everything America has its just a Chinese or Cape Verde knock-off. My appartment is sweet. Its gotta be one of the nicest places in Assomada. There used to be 4 Elders there but now it is just us so we actually have a lot of room. A full sized kitchen, two bathrooms with nice cold water, a small laundry room two bedrooms. I hope everything is going well in the good old US of A. Enjoy your grass, carpet and pavement. I dont plan on seeing any of those for the next 22 months haha. Fica fixe.