I'm glad you liked the tie I had been saving it! As far as Spanish, President said that there was a chance for me to flip over but I don't think its going to happen because he also said that they need good English speaking missionaries as well, so if its meant to be it will happen. Actually Elder Peterson, my companion from the MTC is now a spanish elder along with a couple others I came out with.
Well, Elder Warwood and I are in our own apartment right now and its pretty cool. The other Elders left some good work out equipment and we just found out the code to the work out room which has a treadmill that doesn't work so great, but they do have a bunch of dumbells, enough weight to keep me busy, and one of those pulley system workout gyms so we are going to get pumped in the next couple of weeks!
It's been a lot different this transfer because I have been on exchanges every week with different Elders so we still haven't been able to do a whole lot here in our area because we only have half of a week to work with most of the time, and then Sundays take up all of the day because we dont have sacrament until 2, which means meetings all morning and then the ward feeds us really well, so by the time we get back from dinner appointments its time to plan for the next day, but as a mission everyone is working really hard. As it turns out, the big 680 "Beast" that we have been working on as a mission for the last year was actually a 634 teddy bear, so we only needed 634 baptisms to double the amount, and it is definitely down to the wire. It all depends on this weekend. We are about 20 or so baptisms away and we have either 25 or 30ish commitments for this week, so if everything goes right we will have doubled our baptisms as a mission from the time president Hinckley told us to do so, which is Huge! President Mathusek leaves next week which is pretty crazy to believe, but the new President will be awesome I'm sure. If we reach our goal president Mathusek is going to get us all ice cream sundays on Monday and then have a missionary picture.
Well it has been heating up pretty nice, its been in the 90's all this week and with the humidity it is pretty warm, still not all that miserable, but then again I'm not on bike so I couldn't quite tell ya. We haven't had rain since I've been in Dallas, but we're entering into Hurricane season so we'll see about that.
Well, thats about all I have for this week, but I love y'all and I hope you have a super week!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Alex comes through for Father's day
Alex sent me a nice package for Father's day. He had purchased me a very fine 'Chik-Fil-A' necktie (25 cents) and a sweet Napoleon Dynamite Card that talks. He also sent some nice pictures that were posted earlier. Best of all was a hand-written letter - Thanks Alex - you rock!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The New Area
Ok, so I am in Sharpsburg which also covers a part of Newnan, GA. My new address is 22 Forest Circle #909, its in Newnan GA but I couldn't tell you the zip code off the top of my head.
My new companion is Elder Warwood. Hes a pretty cool guy, likes to race dirtbikes and just do a lot of fun stuff. He's from Battlemountain, Nevada which is about 700 miles north of Las Vegas. We are whitewashing here and we haven't done a whole lot except eat dinner with some members and visit a couple of people here. He is definitely a lot more laid back than Elder Cooper which Im trying to decide if I like. Right now I feel kinda lazy because we haven't done a whole lot but then again we didn't do too much the first little while in Dallas whitewashing. He has been out about 16 months and is a little bit trunky if you ask me but we have some huge potential for baptisms this month.
The Elders before us baptized three people in the same family but they weren't confirmed so the records haven't been sent in and don't count towards the mission goal of 680 baptisms before President Mathusek leaves, and right now we are pretty close to reaching that goal. We need 93 for this month to make it, which will set a record for the mission, and it averages out to a little more than 1 baptism per companionship so we should hopefully be able to contribute to that goal.
My new area is a lot different from Dallas. We don't have to drive so far to get what we need done because everything is a lot closer together and not nearly so spread out. There are also a lot more clearings than in Dallas so not quite so many trees. We are also pretty close to the mission home and about 30 minutes from Atlanta, or so I am told. The members here are really great. Of course you got to talk to Sister Vaughn who is really awesome, as well another figure getting his name around is Brother Morris. He is a recent convert of about 1 year but you would never know it. He is 82 years old and just one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet. He loves to take the missionaries out to dinner and it usually ends up being a steak dinner. He travels all over the mission it seems like to be at other missionaries baptisms, so when he came to Dallas for a baptism that the sister missionaries had, he took about 6 of us out for a pretty excellent steak dinner and then to Coldstone afterwards. He is just a really great guy, and loves to take the missionaries to transfers or the temple or anywhere else that they need to get a ride to.
I am looking forward to getting to know the ward/ area better and get to work here. Sacrament meeting was really good, the youth in the ward just got back from their trek and we got to hear about it in fast and testimony meeting. As far as peach season, I've kinda heard it is a myth :( I really don't think its much different than anywhere else but I'll keep asking.
That's about it for now, hopefully you got my letter I sent last week, but until then have a wonderful week!
My new companion is Elder Warwood. Hes a pretty cool guy, likes to race dirtbikes and just do a lot of fun stuff. He's from Battlemountain, Nevada which is about 700 miles north of Las Vegas. We are whitewashing here and we haven't done a whole lot except eat dinner with some members and visit a couple of people here. He is definitely a lot more laid back than Elder Cooper which Im trying to decide if I like. Right now I feel kinda lazy because we haven't done a whole lot but then again we didn't do too much the first little while in Dallas whitewashing. He has been out about 16 months and is a little bit trunky if you ask me but we have some huge potential for baptisms this month.
The Elders before us baptized three people in the same family but they weren't confirmed so the records haven't been sent in and don't count towards the mission goal of 680 baptisms before President Mathusek leaves, and right now we are pretty close to reaching that goal. We need 93 for this month to make it, which will set a record for the mission, and it averages out to a little more than 1 baptism per companionship so we should hopefully be able to contribute to that goal.
My new area is a lot different from Dallas. We don't have to drive so far to get what we need done because everything is a lot closer together and not nearly so spread out. There are also a lot more clearings than in Dallas so not quite so many trees. We are also pretty close to the mission home and about 30 minutes from Atlanta, or so I am told. The members here are really great. Of course you got to talk to Sister Vaughn who is really awesome, as well another figure getting his name around is Brother Morris. He is a recent convert of about 1 year but you would never know it. He is 82 years old and just one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet. He loves to take the missionaries out to dinner and it usually ends up being a steak dinner. He travels all over the mission it seems like to be at other missionaries baptisms, so when he came to Dallas for a baptism that the sister missionaries had, he took about 6 of us out for a pretty excellent steak dinner and then to Coldstone afterwards. He is just a really great guy, and loves to take the missionaries to transfers or the temple or anywhere else that they need to get a ride to.
I am looking forward to getting to know the ward/ area better and get to work here. Sacrament meeting was really good, the youth in the ward just got back from their trek and we got to hear about it in fast and testimony meeting. As far as peach season, I've kinda heard it is a myth :( I really don't think its much different than anywhere else but I'll keep asking.That's about it for now, hopefully you got my letter I sent last week, but until then have a wonderful week!
Monday, June 8, 2009
An act of kindess that snowballed
On Saturday, Dana got a really nice phone call from Georgia. Sister Debbie Vaughn phoned to say that she had fed the missionaries that night and wanted us to know that Alex's tummy was full and he is happy. As a parent, you hope and pray that there are kind people who will look out for your child, but to have one of them take the time to call and let you know he is well just meant the world to us! She had some very nice things to say about Alex and we are sure he will live up to them.
So when we had the chance to have some great elders come to our house for Sunday dinner, we knew what to do. Elder Cox and Elder Baker are both fine young men and we are happy to have them serving in our ward. When they were getting ready to leave I asked them to write down their parents' names and phone numbers so I could call them. My first call was answered by a machine so I left a message for Brother and Sister Cox telling them about our dinner and thanked them for raising a good young man. Next I spoke with Brother Baker who said "Oh! you don't know how much this means to us." Actually, yes I do. How nice to be able to tell this father that his son is well and healthy and happily serving an honorable mission. We had a really nice visit and he said that my call was "just the vitamin he needed," and it would last him the rest of Elder Baker's mission. About an hour later the phone rang, and it was Brother Cox calling from Idaho. They had been out of town and got my message when they got home. His son had previously been serving on the Reservation up in Chinle and was a little sad about leaving that area and the people he had grown to love. I was so glad to tell him about our brand new ward and our gratitude for having good elders to help move the work forward here. It was another lovely visit with a proud and grateful father. It was a good reminder to never let a kind word go unsaid.
So when we had the chance to have some great elders come to our house for Sunday dinner, we knew what to do. Elder Cox and Elder Baker are both fine young men and we are happy to have them serving in our ward. When they were getting ready to leave I asked them to write down their parents' names and phone numbers so I could call them. My first call was answered by a machine so I left a message for Brother and Sister Cox telling them about our dinner and thanked them for raising a good young man. Next I spoke with Brother Baker who said "Oh! you don't know how much this means to us." Actually, yes I do. How nice to be able to tell this father that his son is well and healthy and happily serving an honorable mission. We had a really nice visit and he said that my call was "just the vitamin he needed," and it would last him the rest of Elder Baker's mission. About an hour later the phone rang, and it was Brother Cox calling from Idaho. They had been out of town and got my message when they got home. His son had previously been serving on the Reservation up in Chinle and was a little sad about leaving that area and the people he had grown to love. I was so glad to tell him about our brand new ward and our gratitude for having good elders to help move the work forward here. It was another lovely visit with a proud and grateful father. It was a good reminder to never let a kind word go unsaid.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Baptism and Move
Dear family,
thank you all so much for the emails for this week, its always good to hear how things are going!
Well I have some pretty huge news for all y'all. First and foremost I apologize for lying last week. As it turned out Brandon has been to church numerous times before we ever taught him and after talking to the Zone Leader, District Leader and clearing it through President Mathusek, Brandon McCarthy was baptized on the 5/30/09 and confirmed a member the following Sunday! It was sooo incredible! Everything worked out so flawlessly with him that it was just meant to be and the purposes of God could not be frustrated and it truly was a miracle. I was able to baptize him and Elder cooper Confirmed him and it was one of the best experiences I have yet had on my mission and look forward to baptizing more.
Secondly, as we all know transfers were this week and. . . I am now serving in the Sharpsburg area with Elder Warwood! He is really awesome and I think that this area will be great as well. I don't know our exact address at this time but if you plan on mailing anything this week it can just go to the mission office because I will receive it about a day later than I normally would so it all works out good. Well I will hand write a letter today or tomorrow with further information on everything here but I love you all and I'll hear from ya soon!
-Elder Alex Edwards
thank you all so much for the emails for this week, its always good to hear how things are going!
Well I have some pretty huge news for all y'all. First and foremost I apologize for lying last week. As it turned out Brandon has been to church numerous times before we ever taught him and after talking to the Zone Leader, District Leader and clearing it through President Mathusek, Brandon McCarthy was baptized on the 5/30/09 and confirmed a member the following Sunday! It was sooo incredible! Everything worked out so flawlessly with him that it was just meant to be and the purposes of God could not be frustrated and it truly was a miracle. I was able to baptize him and Elder cooper Confirmed him and it was one of the best experiences I have yet had on my mission and look forward to baptizing more.
Secondly, as we all know transfers were this week and. . . I am now serving in the Sharpsburg area with Elder Warwood! He is really awesome and I think that this area will be great as well. I don't know our exact address at this time but if you plan on mailing anything this week it can just go to the mission office because I will receive it about a day later than I normally would so it all works out good. Well I will hand write a letter today or tomorrow with further information on everything here but I love you all and I'll hear from ya soon!-Elder Alex Edwards
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