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