Thursday, June 27, 2013

SENT ON MONDAY, JUNE 24th, 2013

Family! so much to write about. so many miracles have taken place this week and I am so, so blessed to be serving a mission right now.
 
First off, that broadcast--wow! I am excited but nervous to use technology. It's nice not to have Facebook or any of those distractions. We'll see how it goes.. if it's what the Lord wants then I'll do it. It felt soooo cool to sit there as a part of the team. what a blessing to know that every time they said "full time missionaries" they meant ME! I am a missionary. sometimes it just hits me and I'm like "whoa. I can't believe I'm here, doing this." I remember all the times the missionaries came to our home, ate dinner with us, left us a message, etc. And now that's me!! I'm the missionary in someone's home, teaching them, helping people, etc. It's just insanely amazing. What a blessing. I love, love, love being a missionary. I almost never want it to end, haha.
 
This Bessemer ward is amazing. They have shown us so much love and taken such good care of us. Sister Wilson and I have visited pretty much every member individually in their home and gotten to know them all. We leave cards and cookies and make sure we can help them however we can. Everyone is so excited to have sisters and I love being in this ward. We greet every member every Sunday at the doors and it's nice to know everyone's faces already. I love our ward mission leader and his family. Their little girls are the cutest and always give us the biggest hugs and hold our hands wherever we go. They're so happy to have girls so they can hug us! haha. Sister Wilson and I are singing in Sacrament meeting next week. We'll sing in our apartment and record it so you can hear the song. I have been trying to take lots of good videos to send! Sometimes I wish you could just see me being a missionary, Mom. I wish I could video tape everything I do so you can see I'm actually doing this!! It's so cool. I'm so glad to be here.
 
One of the members in our ward is this amazing 86 year old and she is just the classiest lady! She is always dressed to the nines and wears makeup, nice clothes, earrings, jewelry, etc. Her house is decorated so fancy too. She has the biggest personality though and makes me laugh so much. She was in commercials and did film all throughout her life. Apparently she won an award for being in the most commercials at one time or something? We visited her last week and had the best time. She's the funniest and loves to squish everyone's faces and kiss us on the cheek. We are now her "precious angel baby missionaries" and she's Grandma. ha ha. She can't let us leave her house without giving us food, so we left with a bag full of Vienna sausages, graham crackers, saltine crackers, soup, peanut butter and homemade fudge/almond joy chocolates! ha ha. Her and her husband banter back and forth and are just really funny. He had one of those long claw-like grabby things for things on the top shelf, and well... he may or may not have used it to grab her bottom. Lol. Sister Wilson and I just looked at each other in shock and died laughing. He said "She can't go anywhere when I've got one of these!" lol. Funniest people. We just didn't know how to respond to that. 

The culture in Alabama is really fun. Everyone likes to talk for a very long time. There's no such thing as a "stop by" visit. You sit down, talk, talk and talk and they like to give you all the details about their life and their uncle's life, and their grandma's life, and their best friend's nephew's life, etc. It took some adjusting at first but now I'm a little more used to it and am loving it.  

One of the cities in our ward is McCalla and we LOVE it!! It's more like what I thought Alabama would be. A lot of people are farmers there and have gardens like you wouldn't believe. We ate dinner with a family this last week that has chickens, cows, emus, ducks, and goats. Our dinner was fresh green beans, squash and carrots from their garden, along with homemade rolls and fried chicken from their own chicken. lol. They also had butter made from their own cow's milk! He said we can come over in the morning sometime and help him milk the cow. We'll probably do that next week or the week after. Not eating meat has worked out just fine here. Everyone is very understanding and always has something else besides meat available! it's been a huge blessing. You should let Nick Van Why know that, because he promised it would work out, and he was right. :) It's nice that so many members have gardens and farms, because we've been given some fresh produce! We got zucchini and peaches last week, and there will probably be more as the season goes on. It's a huge blessing to me!
 
Sister Wilson and I are still doing so well together. This companionship was inspired for sure. She understands my need for a clear, distinct answer and a pattern or method to doing something. She thinks just like me and has been able to help me a lot. The hardest part about missionary work for me, as a type 4, is that there is no right/wrong answer! There's no set method or procedure that needs to be done in order to teach the lesson and there's no perfect, step-by-step process to teaching a lesson. It's all very guided by the spirit, and you can't really pin it down. so that's been a hard adjustment for me to just feel and be okay with not having all the answers. I'm working and praying for confidence in trusting myself and trusting the spirit to guide me. I'm getting better. But yeah, we have so much in common. We like all the same things and don't like all the same things, We're going to be friends forever and I can't wait. We've been really blessed with each other and it will be hard to say goodbye. 
Has anyone received mission calls lately? I know Elise Carambela's papers were in.. she worked at Jamba with me. What about Kayla? Or anyone else? Has anyone gotten engaged/married?

We have been SOO busy here in Bessemer. This field is white (or green in my case) already to harvest. We haven't even been here for two weeks and have been so so busy. We always have people to visit, teach, and help. We haven't had to go knocking once. I told you last week about a woman who could progress if she would actually be home for our appointments. It's hard to see someone recognize truth, and then not care enough to do anything about it. We'll see how that goes. Now we also have one whose fiance is the less-active brother of our ward mission leader. She's had several lessons and already knows she wants to be baptized and sealed to her future husband. They are both very promising and like I said,she knows it's true. We've met with her once and I already adore her. she's the sweetest southern woman! she has a farm too, and owns a stable and works with horses. Her property is like 60 acres and it's just the most beautiful, green, lush sights. I'm sending some pictures. We have two appointments with her this week, Wednesday and SundayOn Sunday we're making homemade vanilla ice cream with fresh home-grown peaches!! haha. She told us she does that and we got so excited. So yeah, that will be awesome. :D I love her and am really excited. I hope we get to see her baptized.

We're teaching a girl next Sunday. Remember how our ward has a lot of people from Utah here for the summer to sell security systems? She is with that group with her boyfriend. She lives in Bountiful, has had discussions in Utah but never got baptized. She really prefers sister missionaries and hasn't been taught since getting here, so hopefully that'll work out.

Some sisters are also giving us their investigator who has a baptismal date because they didn't realize he's actually in our area. We're meeting him tomorrow and he's getting baptized in July. So cool!! I'm way excited. Our elders also had a baptism this week, which was cool.

We have 8 referrals we received from some people and some missionaries, so we're going to contact them all this week. The work is moving forward. Lastly, a few stories about a few more investigators.Yesterday we taught a guy named xxxxx and his cute family yesterday. These security sales guys are awesome, because they go door-to-door selling security systems, but they also share the gospel! So one of them called us up with a referral for xxxxx and his family who are Catholic, but very interested in the gospel. Only thing is that they all speak Spanish and very little English. Luckily the sales guy served his mission in Peru and he brought a couple where the husband served in Mexico. So yesterday we taught the first lesson and they translated for us as we went. So so cool. The spirit was so strong and I was so grateful to them for helping us. There are no Spanish missionaries in our area, but we're going to see about having some from another area come teach them. They were very touched and accepted the Book of Mormon and will pray about it. We have another appointment next week... I can see real intent in them. It was cool because afterwards, their friend said "Wow. That was so powerful. I asked him how he felt when you sisters were teaching, even though he can't understand English. He said 'It feels good. It feels powerful, I feel peace."" That was such a testament to me that the spirit can reach across all language and cultural barriers and touch the hearts of any person. So cool.

We taught a girl on Saturday and have another appointment tonight. She has had all the lessons and was almost baptized a year ago, but was living with someone so she didn't get baptized. Now she's single and I think she'll be baptized. She remembers how good the church felt and how it brought her peace and joy. We taught her the first lesson again, since she'd forgotten most of it. She really felt the spirit and is going to read and pray about the Book of Mormon again, since she wasn't sure how she felt about it anymore. I have high hopes for her and hope we can see her baptized. She's a sweet girl who lives in The Projects, so Sister Wilson and I were a bit nervous to go over there for a 7 o'clock appointment, knowing that by the time we left it would be dark. We prayed for safety and walked with a purpose as we walked to our car. Sure enough, a large group of large men were standing at their house across the street from our car. They called out to us and at first we were really nervous, but then we realized they had 5 or 6 little children with them, running around and playing games together. They asked us what church we're from, so.. we talked to them. The one guy has two children and the other kids were his nieces and nephews. They are really important to him. We bore a quick testimony about how families can be together forever, and asked if that's something he would want. He had a sincere look in his eye when he said "I would want that more than anything else." We took down his number and will most likely give him over to the elders, but what a cool experience it was. I could feel protection and safety as we talked to them. There was no fear or concern, and I just felt angels protecting us. And then, turns out, he was interested in the gospel. Pretty cool.
Last but not least, last night was awesome! Sister Wilson, the elders, a couple in our ward and myself were invited to the mission home for Family Home Evening with Pres. and Sister Holzapfel on their LAST Sunday in Alabama. What a blessing that was! And what a privilege. President asked us to come up with a lesson, so we planned and taught a lesson on the Atonement and how it can apply in our family. We took the attribute of humility and applied it to family relationships and really broke it down. At some point I'd like to share it with you, because it went really well I think. The spirit was there and we left several commitments to bring them closer to the Savior. I think they all liked it and it was again, such an honor to be asked to come teach. We planned a musical number as well, but a sister in another area got injured during our lesson, so President needed to leave earlier and go make sure everything was okay. Still, what a blessing! I love them and am grateful for them. I can't wait for you to meet them!! Sister Holzapfel is a doll. President is so powerful and so good at connecting to people. You will love his talk. 

I'm gonna send my pictures now!
Love you all!

Sister Edwards
SENT ON MONDAY JUNE 17th
Wow, wow, wow. So much has happened this week and I have so much to say.
 
So this week has been intense. On Friday we went and met a referral. We knocked and she let us in, and we ended up giving her the whole first lesson right there. It went so well and the spirit was so strong. She believes in Jesus but knows she needs to do more. She's a sweet black woman, single mom, and has 5 kids. She's pretty young and was so so touched by the message of the gospel. She had a lot of questions and wanted to know more, and she couldn't stop thanking us for coming. She said that just before we knocked, she was in her room praying and telling God that she just couldn't take it anymore. She was handing it over to Him and just said that she needed some help. And then we knocked on the door. So cool, huh? We helped her recognize how that was an answer to her prayer and that the message of the gospel could change her life. We're going back to see her tomorrow. Pray that everything goes well with her, please!!
 
We've met up with a few other investigators the elders left us. We're seeing several of them this week, as well as some referrals we got from ward members. Our ward mission leader and his family are soo awesome! His future sister-in-law has had all three lessons already and is so ready to meet with us. She wants to be baptized and sealed to her future husband, so we're teaching her on Wednesday. Our warm mission leader's kids are so cute!! His wife is adorable too.  The girls, ust love us! the first time they saw us they ran up and gave us a big hug, because they haven't been able to hug missionaries in 6 years. So cute.
 
This weekend was fun! Remember how I said the whole ward is related? They really are!! Two families started the ward as a branch, and then it grew and grew.  Almost everyone is related to one or the other. This last weekend they had a big family reunion for one family, which is basically just a ward party. Haha. 70% of the people there were in our ward. So we went and met a ton of people! It was at this big park area where the two families used to live, and half the ward members were baptized in the little creek at the park (picture posted of the creek). It was typical Southern food potluck, and I think that's when it really hit me--I really am in Alabama. Haha. Next month is the other family reunion, and we're invited to that too!! haha.
 
The ward has been so awesome. They are ecstatic to have sisters and have welcomed us so warmly. Because we moved in after elders, our apartment needs a LOT of work. Sister Wilson and I had to buy a TON of stuff to make it liveable. We had like two forks, two spoons, two plates, that's it. No rugs, no pans, nothing nice, and it was just nasty and gross and stinky. So it's taken a lot of work to fix it up and make it sister friendly. So many of the ward members have asked us what we need, how they can help and what they can do to make it better. They're so sweet. People are bringing us swiffers, plug in air fresheners (our apartment smells like smoke... but that's because of the complex), kitchen towels, pans, a blender, etc. It's been a huge help and they are so sweet. Our relief society pres. has taken good care of us, but we've spent a lot of money on this apartment lol. It's getting better!!
 
Church was great. They asked all the missionaries to get up and bear their testimonies, which was way cool for me. We share the area with two other missionaries. We see them most days and they are great. They're our zone leaders so we do a lot of things with them. They are fantastic missionaries and it's an honor to serve with them. Relief Society was wonderful and we had lunch with a really nice family afterwards.
 
Sister Wilson and I made cookies the night before (you're allowed to do that as a sister missionary!!) and packaged them up to take to members on Sunday. There's a huge amount of people in town for the summer doing security sales, and they're here for a while. They're mostly from Utah, and they're all younger couples with young kids. They live in some really nice apartment complexes down in Hoover, so we drove up there and visited with them! We introduced ourselves and we also got a lot of referrals from the members. We're teaching a few referrals this week! It was funny because it just felt like Utah Valley up there, in these nice apartment complexes with all these nice Utah families. Haha. It was surreal and felt like I was in Utah again. 
 
Also, EVERYONE tailgates you. Seriously. I can't tell you how many people ride our bumper every single day. Also, everyone has an accent here. Even little two-year-olds!! It's really cute.
 
Sister Wilson and I are doing so well together. I'm happy so many people liked the post on facebook! I'd LOVE to know what people are saying!! We are having so much fun together. We basically feel like we're having a 6-week sleepover with our best friend--while working super hard and getting blessings from the Lord. haha. We do work hard, but it doesn't feel like it because we are having a great time.
 
So I have a beautiful photo album I got at the MTC that I would LOVE  to be filled with pictures!!! Can you put out an announcement to people that I would love pictures of all of my friends? So if a friend wants to send me a picture of them (printed, 4x6) I can stick it in my photo album! We don't have time to print pictures and I don't have any pictures here anyway, so it would be great if people could send me pictures. I keep some picture frames on my desk too that just need to be filled. :)
 
So excited for all my friends going in the MTC this week! The only ones I can remember for sure are Emily Lewis and Landon, but I know there are others too. Good luck to all of them!! I'm so proud of you all. Email me your addresses so I can write you! You will love the MTC. :)
 
Sending pictures! Love you!!
 
Sister Edwards

Wave 2 of pics

This is what I'm talking about, but don't worry, I'm safe




 Dinner at a member's house!
 They have the coolest backyard!
They have chickens!
 We looooooove duckies




 Saw these colors together- reminded me of Dakota
 Everyone here is OBSESSED with roll tide
 Beautiful McCalla! Right by Stephanie's house.
This is an old conference Ensign, but I was flipping through it and look who I saw!

 A lady in our ward, Sister Bonham, has her own sewing shop in her house. We love it! she fixed some of our skirts for us. We took a picture in her shop
This is in Pleasant Grove, AL. A nasty tornado wiped out the trees two years ago

We have a ton of cockroaches in our apartment. :( We don't have roach spray so this is how we deal with them... putting a cup over them till they die, then spraying them with cleaner just in case. We're picking up some roach spray today. We have three roaches under cups like this, all over our front room. lol. It's kinda funny but nasty at the same time. We hate them!!



Yayyy for our companionship!