Random Pictures

Sister Mendoza and I on exchanges! Love her.

Uhhh..

That's concerning.

PHS! Gotta love the Bulldog pride.

Elder Weight! Finally got to see him!

President and Sister Hanks. They are wonderful.

Sister Wilson's favorite holiday: 4th of July.

M---- got baptized :)

We looove to bake for people.

I bleed blue--BYU blue!

Filled my frame with pics of my lovely family. :)

We Need the Book of Mormon. 7/29/13

I have so much to say, but I will try not to bore you all with mindless details. :) haha. This week has been awesome.

A sign we saw in a store... a little extreme, I think.

First things first, C---- is being baptized this Friday! We are so excited for her. She quit smoking, drinking iced tea and drinking coffee cold turkey, in a matter of 24 hours. We gave her the church's 15 step stop smoking program and she is amazing. We love her so much.

Also, we met another golden investigator this week named Z----. Z----- is almost 19 and was referred to us by her boyfriend who lives in New Jersey. They met online and when he told her about the church, she was immediately interested. She's one of those investigators that the Lord has prepared from the very beginning. Everything we taught her just seemed like a reminder of what she already knew--even though she'd never heard any of it before. She truly is golden, and she's being baptized on August 10th. Her boyfriend will be in town that week, so we're excited. She's coming over to Sister A--'s house tonight for dinner and games, and we're also going shopping at Charming Charlie and stuff a little later on today.

Z--- is amazing!! Seriously GOLDEN.

Another miracle from this week: On Thursday night, the ward hosted a cute thing called GRITS - Girls Raised in the South. A lot of the young moms in our ward are here from Utah with the security sales team, so the ladies wanted to give them a good taste of the south. They had cooking demonstrations, recipes, and Sister N---- even taught us how to be southern ladies. :) haha. So fun. After everyone had left the church, Sister Wilson and I stayed behind to open the church for a ward mission leader from another ward. He was proposing to his girlfriend in the chapel that night and needed to get into the church. So we let him in, and while he was proposing, someone started banging on the back church door, so I ran to check it out. It was two girls, M--- El-- and C---, who had been baptized a year ago but were completely inactive. for the last week or so they'd been talking about church and wanting to go back, then they drove by the church building at 8:30 at night and saw our cars there. They decided to go and see if they could find the missionaries, and voila! There we were! Seriously, it was a miracle. We would've never been at the church that late if that WML hadn't asked us to stay there, and we would've never met the girls. They told us how much they missed church and that they really wanted to come back, but needed the missionary's help. Also, one of them has a non-member sister who we are now teaching. We've been over to visit them several times now and they all came to church on Sunday. C---- had to work, but hopefully she can come next week. Seriously, a true miracle!

GRITS cooking demonstrations.

I'm in love with the South.

In total we had 4 investigators attend church and one less-active. So awesome. Another thing I learned this week was how much we NEED the Book of Mormon. It's not just a cool book that we're lucky to have. Pres Holzapfel said it perfectly when he said "Look at how many religions there are! Look at how people interpret one book in so many different ways. That alone is proof that the Bible is not enough on its own. We need a second witness of Jesus Christ, to clarify and testify of his doctrine." The Book of Mormon does not add to or take away from the Bible. It's simply a record of prophets, teachings, and believers, just like the Bible! The Bible takes place in Jerusalem and Israel, and the Book of Mormon takes place in the Americas. God loves all His children, so He wanted all parts of the world to have his gospel. Between the two books, they testify plainly and clearly of what He wants us to believe. The Bible lost many of its plain and precious parts after being translated so many times, so it's missing some pieces. But the Book of Mormon was translated ONCE. It's the missing part of the puzzle that answers so many questions, and I am so, so grateful for it. I'm grateful that between the Bible and the Book of Mormon, we have the fulness of Christ's gospel. It's been restored to the earth today, and we have it! We have prophets (Amos 3:7), we have apostles (Ephesians 4:11-14), we have Priesthood (Mark 3:14-15), and we have the Book of Mormon, the record of Christ's other sheep (John 10:16) which comes together with the Bible to testify of Jesus Christ (Ezekiel 37:15-17).

It's just such a cool testament to me. I already knew that this was Christ's true church on the earth, but seeing the scriptures in the Bible confirm it is so powerful. I love this gospel and I love being a missionary.

Please pray for C---- and Z----!

Sister Edwards

A Rainy Week in Alabama - 7/22/13

Hello hello!

This week has been great, since Sister Wilson and I are staying together in Bessemer!! We get to be in this awesome area with this awesome ward with these awesome investigators for at least 6 more weeks. I'm so stoked. Plus it rains all the time in Alabama, which makes me happy. :D

We had a ton of cancellations this week... people calling 10 minutes before the appointment saying they can't do it, and us being like "Awesome, what now?" lol. That happened soooo much this last week... it's a part of a missionary work. But that's why you have a back-up plan. I also think I've been hung up on more times in the last week than I have in my whole life! haha. I'll be in the middle of saying something like "When can we come and see you again?" and they'll just hang up. That's happened a few times with K---- this week sadly.

how we look when we get canceled or stood up on.

New planners for the transfer!

Yeahhh buddy. Tree of Life.

It was National Vanilla Ice Cream day. Naturally we had to get some.

In other good news, C---- has a baptismal date!! We love her so much. She is an amazing person. She is being baptized in less than two weeks on August 2nd. We talked to her about the importance of being sealed as a family, which has a lot of meaning to her since her husband passed away in February. Then asked her to be baptized! She is a beautiful person and I can't wait to see her be a part of this gospel. She is so solid. Her daughter B----- will hopefully be baptized soon too, but we have more to teach her.

it's been raining a lot in Alabama!

Also, her daughter has a friend named Br----- who we started teaching this week! He sat in some of our lessons at C----'s and wanted to learn more. He is an awesome guy with a heart of gold. Seriously, they don't come any nicer than Br-----. We taught him the first lesson and it was awesome. When we started talking about Old Testament prophets like Isaiah, Noah, Abraham and Moses and how awesome they are, he said "Man, why don't we have a prophet today? I wish we did; that would be so awesome. Someone that God called to lead his people." When we told him we DO have a prophet today, named Thomas S. Monson, he was like "What?? Are you kidding me right now? Why isn't this on the news?! Everyone needs to know this!" We told him that's why there are more than 60,000 missionaries out spreading the gospel right now. :) he is awesome and when he looked up a picture of Pres. Monson, he said "He is a prophet. I can tell. He glows." So cool.

Our awesome district. Left to right: me, Elder Banks, Elder Lealiiee, Elder Dalo, Sister Wilson, Elder Galorath, Elder Losi, Elder Snelgrove.

He came to church with us on Sunday, along with C---- and B-----. He had an awesome experience at church, because the last speaker talked about how we will receive an answer about the truthfulness of the church if we have the right INTENT. If you don't intend to do anything about it, you likely won't get an answer. But if you intend to change your life and become a member of Christ's church, you will receive an answer that this IS the church of Jesus Christ, on the earth today. Awesome.

Some cute puppies we saw. Reminded me of Schatzie.

We also had dinner with Bishop K-----'s family this week, and C----- came too. Sister K----- is an incredible gourmet chef and makes us the most amazing meals. She even wrote a cookbook and gave us a copy of it on a flash drive, along with the most amazing cake in the world and some other awesome stuff. We love their family. It's awesome because they were Baptists their whole life, and Bishop K---- has only been a member of the church for 4 years. But he is amazing, and so is his wife.

Us with Brother T----.

last but not least, we visited an awesome guy named Brother T-----! he is a recent convert with the most amazing conversion story. he is paralyzed from the waist down and has been for over 20 years from a gun shot to his back. In his neighborhood they have a calling tree that goes on when the missionaries enter the neighborhood to go inside and make it look like you're not home. lol. So he went in off his porch and laid down and stuff, but he heard a voice that said "Go outside. Someone is coming to see you." He looked around, then heard the voice again. "Go outside. Someone is coming to see you." So he goes outside, looks around for 15 minutes, and there were the missionaries, walking up the street. The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ changed his life and he went from smoking crack and cocaine to being the amazing member he is today. He needs a Mormon.org video made about him, because it seriously is amazing. He is so solid and has so much faith, despite being paralyzed. He studies his scriptures every day and is such a faithful member of the church. That is a true convert. I admire him so much and am so grateful for his example.

The church is true! I'm so glad to be a missionary. I read 1 Corinthians 15 this week and was amazed at how much pure doctrine is in that chapter! Verse 10 talks about laboring and grace (faith without works is dead, James 2:26), 20-22 all men shall be resurrected through Christ, verse 28 God and Jesus are separate beings; verse 29 baptism for the dead; 40-41 three degrees of glory/three heavens (2 cor 12:2), 44,46-49 we lived with God again and we will live with him again; etc. It's awesome!! I love this chapter and have been studying it a lot.

Thanks for all the emails and letters. I just found out we are only allowed to write letters on P-Day (monday) so it will take some time to write back, but I will definitely do my best!

Love you all!

Sister Edwards

Funny Stories - 7/15/13

Well I have a time limit today which is stressing me out, but i'll try to tell you about this week and what all went down.

I had some interesting adventures this week. We had zone training on Tuesday and Sister Wilson and I sang There is A green Hill far away. It was cool. Then we got pulled out of the meting and this lady named K had walked in, looking for a church and for some gas money. We thought she wouldn't really be interested, but we've visited her several times and she is a promising investigator. She told us some crazy stories about herself like she woke up in a coffin and pushed it open and said "I don't mean to scare nobody, but I'm alive." She can't read, and she and her husband live in a camper trailer in a rundown trailer park. Not a trailer house, a literal camper trailer.We visited her and taught her, then she asked us to come to the sketchy Laundromat and meet her husband who just got out of prison. So we did, and we answered a lot of his questions like "do you really believe that black people are the devil?" no, no we do not. lol. We taught them the first lesson and about the Atonement and he was touched when we told him he could hold the Priesthood power. It was a great lesson.

Lame panorama of Super Bessemer Highway, the main road in Bessemer.

We had another awesome lesson yesterday with the AP security guys who served Spanish speaking missions. They translated for us, and the two guys we were teaching were ready to be baptized in the first lesson. So that was cool. We found out that one of them, G, is getting baptized this week!

Some funny stories from this week... the churches here are named some weird stuff. One we've seen is called "Love Conquers All Ministry" and another one down the street is "The World Overcomers Christian Church." Then another one we saw is "The Peoples Church--Let's Just Praise the Lord." That's literally the title of the church. Kinda made me think of when Jesus is speaking to the people in 3 Nephi 27:7-8 "Therefore, whatsoever ye shall do, ye shall do it in my name; therefore ye shall call the church in my name; and ye shall call upon the Father in my name that he will bless the church for my sake.

 8 And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel."

Technically we aren't supposed to take pictures of the signs... but there was no one around.. and this one was too good to pass up!

Another funny story: a few weeks ago, Sister Wilson and I were in Wal-Mart getting some stuff. This 15-year-old boy with a shaved head and crocs comes up to us and says, pointing to our nametags, "So I see you work for Jesus." We're like "Yes, yes we do." then he's like "Okay, tell me who the first people on the earth were." I said "Adam and Eve." And he's like "actually no, you're wrong." he proceeded to tell us how the Bible says that other people were on the earth before Adam and Eve, so we asked him to show us where in the Bible, and he's like "I'll come to your church one day and show you." Okay... lol. Some people just want to prove you wrong! We still laugh about that one.

pretty pictures of the ghetto in Bessemer :)

Another weird moment from this week: while out teaching some lessons, we saw a boy pointing his gun up into a tree. He shot it, and out falls a little squirrel!! We wanted to cry. It was squirming on the ground, he put his gun directly onto its stomach and shot again. Can I just say gross? We freaked out. Yes, we are in Alabama where every little boy has a gun and shoots squirrels out of a tree for fun.

We taught a less-active member about family history work this week, too. the spirit was strong as we taught about it, and a lady who had come with us said "well sometimes you don't want to do family history work!! I found out that my grandma divorced her husband and married her step-son! I was like 'Grandma, what were you doing?!'" Spirit gone. But sooo funny.

Milking a cow!

Anyway, there's one other one but I'll tell ya next week. Today was fun! We went over to the D-----'s and milked the cow! So fun. They gave us fresh raw milk and eggs again, and then we've been hanging out with Sister W. She taught us how to make biscuits, cornbread, etc, and then we went to a quilting club with some of the older ladies in the ward. Boy, did we have a southern spread. lol. I AM in Alabama, and when in Alabama, do as the Alabamians do. It's been an interesting experience.

Brother D----- and his cows.

his farm.

Quilting club with the girls :)

These ladies know how to cook!

Sorry I didn't have time to write back to your email mom. Today was cut a little short, so I'll write you a letter soon.

Love you all!

Sister Edwards