Home Stretch.

Elder Edwards is officially 3/4 of the way done with serving his mission. It is hard to believe that in 6 short months we will have him home. We are all very excited! I am mailing a package his way later in the week. Please let me know if there is anything anyone would like included and i'll ship it with my stuff to save on your costs. Here is the update from this week:

Hello my dear family,

Well this last week was for sure a roller coaster week. I had four different comps until on Friday I finally received my new greenie straight from the MTC. He is a pretty quiet person but I can truly see a lot of good coming from him and pretty soon he's gonna be a boss missionary. We have found a couple families and it looks like we're going to be having a couple marriages and baptisms! WORK WORK WORK. There's no replace for good hard work. Especially when it comes to mission work. 

  Also like I said last week I am back into my old area and yesterday at church was way interesting. While I was there I got to see my fruits that were left from the last time I was here. One of my recent converts is almost not a recent convert and is turning in his papers to serve a mission! I really hope that I am here to see him leave for the mission field! We also baptized a lady who is now the first councilor in the Relief Society. Also a family of 5 we baptized are all still really strong and all have callings! This work truly is amazing and we definitely are always making a huge difference everywhere we go!

That was pretty crazy to hear about scout camp and about that man. I almost feel like I am anti scouts.. It sounds more dangerous than being in Africa!

I hope all is well and that you all are taking care of yourselves. Just 6 months til we can party!! ha just kidding.

Love,

 Elder Edwards

June 2nd.

Dear family,

 Well this week was... Good? Everything seemed to go pretty good this week up until yesterday. Our baptism for this week had to be baptized on Sunday instead of Saturday. We did the baptism and then right at the end a drunk showed up and hugged all of the Elders. We finished with a prayer and then all of our investigators then and recent converts went home. While we were cleaning up the drunk guy, who said his name was jesus, starting chasing the short little english guy around the church and then out side screaming "I wanna kiss you!"

  We finish cleaning up and then Jesus decided that wanted to kiss us all and started running around in circles after us trying to get us. Finally after getting chased and chased around he took off running down the street. He was sprinting right behind.. From a half a block away I flagged down a taxi. We all ran into it and took off with the drunk still right behind us. There are literally crazy people here from years and years and years and drinking grog and killing their brain cells. Man theyre all really fun to mess with and play tricks on.

  So that was the okay part of our day... Then came the "Mal". Last night we went to visit Isabel who was the one that got baptized yesterday and when we got there her childs father was there making a whole bunch of noise. She had a problem with him before and in order for him to get baptized President Oliveira said he was not allowed to go to her house anymore or she would be un church punishment. When he went there she told him he had to leave and that he was not allowed to come back. He Freaked out and on his way out he took a swing at our recent convert and tried to hit her in the face. I ran at him so quick he shut the door real quick and ran away. That was the first time I hated being a missionary. I didnt chase after him because of this name tag and I sat all night regretting not running him down and beating him. Guys who attack girls are souless and to me have no value. Its so sad to see broken families that arent being blessed in the way that they should be.

Hopefully this next week will continue alright. I am buying a hand made guitar today those that has cape verde on it and all of the islands on the back.

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!

To All Who Are "Perdidos".

Well yesterday was my last ever Easter in Cape Verde... Not actually a bad thing. Holidays here, I sadly have discovered, are backwards. In America even the people that don't believe in Christ go to church on Easter. Here even the members use the family party or even just a regular party excuse as a reason to skip out on church. 
 
As for new news... Last night President made the Transfer Calls early. my mini missionary is heading back home and I am going to get a fresh new america greenie!
I am pretty excited for this experience but its going to kinda stink for the new few weeks basically doing everything myself. Also this week we are fighting with all of us strength for our baptisms this week. We have 4 people planned and it is going to be a lot of work to get them all there. Tomorrow we are going to do a fast for them... I know you all have a desire to help this work go on not only in word but in deed. If y'all want you can fast with us too!! Their names are Taty, yanike, Yuri and Antonia! 
Things this week have gotten a little bit trunky. The mission is always kind of a drag when you're stuck with a mini missionary.
 
Well I love you and thank you a lot for sending me pants! I will try and send you some photos today! 
 
Love Elder Eduardo

March 24, 2013

Dear President,

 Once again we are starting to see the fruits of our labors. When I first showed up to this area there weren't very many investigators and things were just passing along without a real excitement here. I remeber in the first week of this transfer you basically told me to just focus on families. We made plans to find, teach and baptize families and yesterday I truly saw a miracle! Yesterday we had a family of 7 show up to church and for the first time ever in Cape Verde I saw a family fill an entire row during sacrament meeting.

 So far in this new area we have been finding a lot of families and as of right now we have 3 of them that are progressing towards baptism! It is truly amazing to be a part of this work and to see first hand that the field really is white and ready for the harvest!

 

We need lots of help them please pray for these families!!!

This last monday... wow we had a crazy experience. Two weeks ago our neighbor called us over and said she wanted us to come to her house. We maked with her for last monday and went over there. When we showed up she told us she wasn't ready yet and had her son take us on a tour of her house. After waiting like an hour we finally went back up stairs to see that she had prepared a huge dinner for us! She said she had already eaten so we served ourselves and eat a good amount... then she came to the table telling us that she could see in our eyes that we haven't eaten well in a while and that our moms are for sure very worried about us. She grabbed our plates and filled them up FULL! I battled with all of my might to eat it all and got just about everything. I was ready to explode.. then she brought us out a fruit salad desert and filled up a bowl full.. I left her house the most full I have been probably since the last time I ate at chuck a rama. I am scared to go back there..

 

Well I hope all is well with you guys! I will try to keep writing more each week. 

 Love,

 Elder Edwards

Sorry Matt.

A few weeks ago (February 4th) Elder Edwards emailed home an incredible story. He asked for it not to be posted on the blog because he didn't want others thinking he was here for any kind of recognition. I emailed back asking for him to reconsider allowing me to post it but got no reply. I have had the nagging feeling that someone out there really needs to hear this story and in the past month 191 people have read this blog...so I am going against Matt's wishes and posting it anyway for whom ever it is out there that needs this today. Sorry Matty, Love you!

This week Lots of things happen. Breaking news in Relva! Due to excessive wind a power line was knocked over and forced to the ground nearly landing on a cinder block house! Luckily nobody was hurt and even more luckily they were able to just leave in like that the whole day live and full of power so everybody could watch the soccer game.

 This week was also zone conference. I was lucky enough to be called on to give a training which went by pretty good but the highlight of the conference wasn't there. The zone leaders came up with this idea that included every missionary there leaving and going out to try our faith. The activity was that we would all go out, find a member, teach them and receive a reference. Then we were to go and find that reference, teach them and mark a baptismal date with them. I know it sounds crazy. Because we weren't close to my area I was assigned to go out with my last companion Elder Christensen. We headed out of there a little confused by this difficult activity but we were ready to accept the challenge. We headed to the nearest memebers house. We talk to her and she gave us the sad story of all her friends live in a different city. There was a pause for a couple seconds... The member finally said ''oh actually I do have one friend that lives just up the street''. We knew that this person was inspired and we needed to go contact them. We ask her if she would come with us to contact her friend. She didn't really want to but then after a little bit of convincing power she agreed. She said she was going to go change cloths and then she'd be right back... 5 minutes later she came back shouting ''I brought a surprise!''..  she had left to change her cloths but she also slipped out the back door, pick up her friend, convinced her to talk to us, and then showed back up with her friend bright and ready to accept the gospel. We talked to the friend for a little bit, read with her joao 14. 1-6 and then invited her to be baptized... She seemed a little surprised by the invite but the spirit was s strong there she had to say yes. In the end it was a great experience and I thought that would be the highlight of my week.... 

Little did I know God had been preparing a miracle for us to find back in our area upon our return, 

Dear President,

      I appreciate your letter and I will keep working to help out where I can. This week I saw and felt God's love and I truly saw and felt that God always hears and answers our prayers. 

     Last week Elder Nhafé and I decided that we were running with a shortage of investigators in Relva and felt it would be effective to start working in the next zone over as well as in Relva. In the next zone, Achada Grande, there are only 3 active members in the whole zone! A couple months back Elder Schillimat had been working there everyday and after having no success the zone leaders told them he couldn't work there because it's was too catholic. It's a decent sized zone and with only 3 active memebers, to me the catholic church didn't seem like a good enough reason to avoid the area.. We trained the 3 members one day after church and had received 21 references, that seemed like enough for a full day of work there. This last Thursday we headed out with high hopes and with a spirit of urgency to find these people and to share the restored gospel with them. To make a long story short, we didn't find the success we were looking for. I literally witnessed a 70 year old lady run away from us screaming out ''no no no I'm catholic''. We walked back home that night with broken hearts and with a little bit less faith for the work in the area. The next day we had a division planned with the district leaders and I was suppose to go back there with Elder Guy. I truly felt that there was at least one person there who was ready to hear our message. I prayed, a true prayer, with all the energy of my heart and with all the faith that I had this work that on this, the second day in Achada Grande, I would find at least one person who would accept and feel our message. God heard my prayer, and he definitly answered it. 

     We found a lady in the streets who, after talking a little bit with her, she invited us to come talk to her at her house.  She told us all about how she had been searching for a church that was just right for her family. She explained how she had talked to several different pastors and preacher and had a mountain of pamplets, books and bibles to prove it. I felt in my heart, in that exact moment, that she was the person ready to receive us. I told her about the day before and how I had prayed to find a prepared person, then I spoke a little bit of the restoration and bore my testimony of its truthfulness. When I finished there was a short pause between us and then she started to cry a little bit.. then she tried to talk but it just turned into a lot more crying... After a couple minutes she regained her bearings and told us that she has been praying for this for a very long time. 

     I know that during that day I truly was instrument in the Lords hand and He truly guided us to that person to recieve his message. I pray that I will always remeber this and that I will always pray and search for his elects.

To finish off this week of miracles, I saw the fruits of my labors yesterday in Elders Quorum. Yesterday there were only 11 people in Elders Quorum. 2 were me and my companion, 5 were my recent converts and 2 were investigators we brought to chruch... I know that I have and am still making a difference here in Relva and I'm glad glad to be a part of this work..... And to just add to this pill we baptized and confirmed the mom of a bunch of members this week... She was the first investigator I have baptized that I had to teach in Creole because she doesn't understand or speak a word of Portuguese. 

I love you all and hope you enjoy this, the longest email I have ever written during my mission and probably during my whole life.

  Elder Edwards

God is watchin out for us. (See Alma 26:1-12ish... I think)

A Kiss For A Missionary.

These are excerpts from two different emails home. One to the Edwards' and one to the Wagstaff's. Both sent on March 3, 2013.

Bom dia,

   Well I have officially finished my first week here in Mindelo. It has definitely been a weird transition. I came Relva, the most third world part of all of Cape Verde to São Vicente, which may be the most developed and modernized part of all Cape Verde. The work here is definitely different than Relva but things are already starting to pick up. This area was supposed to turn into a stake this next week but the church decided that it's not quite ready yet. Our goal now is to work our butts off and hopefully in the next couple months we will be able to make the change. 

  A weird thing that happened this week was that a full grown man walked past me very slow and creepy like and then kissed me on the shoulder... I think he had been drinking.. I was for sure a little bit weirded out.

I love the mission and the work here is on fire! I don't have time to think about everything else. These last couple weeks on top off normal mission work I have been teaching relief society, a mission prep class, training the 4 new ward missionaries and yesterday I gave a 10 minute talk in sacrament meeting! I don't have time to even think about what's going on! ha. Well I hope all is well with you. Love you all. Elder Edwards