Christmas!

Well it has definitely been a good Christmas season for us this year! Last week we were able to teach a bunch of people and the work is really moving along here in Cassville.

Yesterday we had our mission Christmas party which was a lot of fun. They had to break up the mission into two parties, which kinda stunk because most of my mission buddies were in different zones so their party was on a different day, but we still had fun. There was a talent show and Elder J and I were the first act, he sang hymn 284 'If You Could Hie to Kolob' while I played the piano and several acts later our fourman apartment performed an interpretative Christmas dance to a song titled "the Happiest Christmas Tree" Elder J and I were elfs, Elder R was Santa, and Elder C was the christmas tree. Needless to say that it definitely stole the show.

My camera has been super glitch-y lately and hasn't let me take pictures or anything but we have it recorded on some other missionaries cameras so I'm definitely going to get a copy of it because it was awesome! Hopefully y'all will be able to see it soon. . . .

We have some pretty sweet plans going for christmas so far. We are going to the J's for a little bit in the morning, Elder J and I have gotten them some pretty sweet gifts that I'm sure they'll enjoy, and then we have a family having us over for lunch/ party time in the afternoon and a part member family has invited us over for dinner that night, so we will be pretty darn busy.

I got the packages from dad, the protien and the sweet shirt! thanks! but I didn't get the other package :( or at least not yet so I'll keep an eye out for it, and hopefully the goods are still edible :O

Thanks again, I'll talk to y'all soon!

Sweet Chrismas Cards on the Way

(Dec 13)
It has been another exciting week here in Cassville. Not the best numbers, but success isn't based on numbers, and I would definitely say we had a successful week. We had 3 investigators to church, S, J and Sister G. We set up to have FHE with the J (Family) every Monday at least until the end of this transfer. S is still coming along slowly but surely. She called out R for not fulfilling his role as patriarch, which was kind of funny, and we are, as always, happy to see them continuing to grow. J has been investigating for about two years, has been super close to being baptized but just never sealed the deal. He comes every week and is more faithful than most anyone than I could think of. He has some mental challenges, but that doesnt stop him at all. I think he could quote the entire bible for you if you asked! We have an appointment with him tenatively for tomorrow night, We have backed off teaching him as we were focusing on the J(family) boys being baptized but now I think we can get things rolling again.

The G's are another part member family. Sister G was super close to being baptized, but I think that they have just been overloaded with life as of lately. They have a newborn (6 months old) and I could only imagine that alone has kept them rather preoccupied. They also have a 22 month old, and 4 and 8 year old children. I had not been able to meet them before this Sunday but I have known about them from the area book and whatnot, so it was way good to see them at church. Elder J and I taught the gospel principles class this Sunday and it was a really good lesson. sister G, J nd S were all able to make it, except that M as being a little bit of a stink so S had to take her out to calm her down.

We also had a super district meeting of sorts. I'm pretty sure I told you but there was a world wide change in district meetings and some of the way that missionaries are trained now, or rather not that it is anything new or different but the church has come out with 8 fundamental points of missionary work to focus on. So each week for the past 6 months or so we have had a lesson at district meeting on one of the 8 focus points, but leadership gets training directly from President and is supposed to pass it on, but this time president gave a training on the lessons to everybody, so needless to say it was a really great meeting. I was glad that I could be there with Elder Jmenez because I think it helped us for sure get a better start and better teaching skills.

I am really excited for christmas to come around. Our 4 man appartment has some pretty sweet christmas costumes and we will be sending some pretty darn good looking christmas cards soon, so until then keep your eyes peeled for that! Well that's about if for this week, y'all be blessed!
-Elder Alex Edwards

Exploding with Pure Knowledge!

Fast Sunday was amazing yesterday, probably one of my favorite times at church and one of my best fast's ever! I'm stoked for the Eagles football, who is #1? I have mad props for Sarah and her mish, experiences. I wish I had some more experiences like that in school. I am missin y'all lots but things are goin sooooo good right now its crazy.

So this week was pretty much amazing, we committed a part member family to prepare for baptism on the 27th of this month and they are pretty much good to go! I was disappointed they didn't make it to church but they have been working with the missionaries for the past several years and for them to finally say yes and commit I can tell is a huge step in their progress and I'm very optimistic about their progress in the gospel. For sure the two boys R and S are going to be baptized, and when we taught we focused on them. The mom has a testimony and is amazing but is afraid that she wont be able to fully be committed and so doesn't want to do it unless she can go all the way. As we taught we didnt really commit her to baptism either, but the husband (a less active member) asked, "what about S(mom)?" and we opened the invitation for her if that was her desire and she said yes that she thinks she's ready for it. She was still a little reluctant, but every time before she would be flat out no way not yet, so just seeing her faith grow enough that she realizes she needs to step up was the most incredible blessing as it really opened my eyes and increased my faith just by her example. I can not get them out of my mind it is soo crazy! It definitely brings back my favorite memories and experiences from Newnan working with the P boys and the C family and it definitely gave me the experience and preparation for this family here in Cassville. My mind has seriously just been exploding with pure knowledge and intelligence from the Holy Ghost especially this fast Sunday seeing how the church truly is the only true and living church and seeing the church and its members grow, combined with all of my studies coming alive and linking together and our gospel principles class I seriously feel like Moroni when he interjects in Ether 12 and feels like his writing is inadequate and doesn't truly express all that he's experienced even though its one of my personal favorite chapters because the revelation and inspiration from those verses is priceless. I wish I had been given that strength in expressing myself and my feelings, and I almost feel like I'm rambling on and on but its because I know how true the gospel is and how it blesses people.

My time is up but tell grammy and grandpa how much I miss them and nanny and pappa too! Love y'all!

Transferred!

Well, I got transferred to Cassville this week. It is the farthest north I have been in the mission. My new companion is Elder W who is from Farmington Utah, he has been out about 9 months and is a way cool kid.

Last Saturday we got to skin a deer that one of the members in our ward shot hunting that morning, it was pretty sweet!

There is a ton of missionary work to be done here in Cassville, there are several part member families that are on the verge of being baptized, and we found three new investigators who have some serious potential, one of them met with missionaries in the past so when we asked if she knew anything about Joseph Smith she pretty much relayed the first vision to us, which was awesome. Unfortunately the couldnt make it to church like the said they would but we are meeting with them tonight so things are looking really swell. We live in a 4 man apartment with 2 spanish missionaries, Elder R and Elder N, which is a lot of fun. I don't really know what else to say, so later!

Kennesaw district

So neither of us got transferred, I'm still with Elder S in Kennesaw. We had a pretty awesome church service yesterday. Our ward had a "Friends and Family Sunday" and there were quite a few non members that the Kennesaw Mountain members were able to bring. We have an appointment with one of them on Wednesday, a guy who is interested in the stop smoking program, so it should be an awesome refferal.

This week I have another meeting about the simplified missionary training system stuff on tuesday and wednesday and I'll be on exchanges with two other missionaries from our zone. Our district is pretty darn young, I have been out twice as long as anyone else and there are two greenies, so hopefully I get some good notes so that I can pass down as much of the training in our district meetings this transfer.

The weather has been cooling down for us pretty nicely, and some of the leaves are starting to change colors. Fall is probably the best time here, or at least my favorite. Its just too bad I'll miss football, but its the last one so it doesn't really matter at this point :D I'm not gonna lie but Im getting a little trunky but we're gonna work super hard this transfer so it will take my mind off it. Well I love y'all and I'll talk to ya later!

Good Happenings...

So it has certainly been an excellent week for us here, I got to go on excanges with Elder O. in the beginning of the week so it was kinda weird serving with him again but it was fun. On Friday we had a zone conference and got to hear from Elder Richard Hinckley who is the executive director of the missionary dept. and it was great to hear from him and his wife.

Yesterday J.R. got baptized and it was awesome! He is a really great kid and I was glad to be there for that.

This is our last full work week before transfers wedesday week, and things are rolling. Our investigator L was able to come to church and as well attended the baptism, she now has Sundays off of work. Her and Brother W have been talking about marriage and want to tie the knot but haven't set any dates yet, but we're going over tomorrow night so hopefully we can get them moving along!

Good things are happening and its good to be here! hope y'all are still doin well and I'll talk to ya next week!

Transferred!

Soooo,we got the call last night and I'm being transferred : / I guess thats just my luck, but I should be able to go to the baptism on Saturday, as long as I can find a ride. I will still be a district leader in my new area, but it is going to be my first area that is on bike! so hopefully this giant sauna called Georgia can sweat a few pounds off me. I'll find out exactly what area I'll be in tomorrow at transfer meeting. hopefully I get a really sweet district.

I like being a district leader, I mean it's nothing special, but I'd rather just be a normal missionary and not have to deal with drama from other missionaries and have the zone leaders try to suck my blood like vampires. Missionaries world wide will be switching to a new system for the way meetings and trainings work and it begins this transfer so I will have a lot of info to pass on. One of these weeks there is going to be a 3 day meeting about all of the changes and I just want to take a tape recorder to it cuz if zone conferences already seem long and it doesnt even take a full day then I can't imagine what a 3 day meeting will be like. . . but ya just thought I'd give y'all a heads up, and I'll let you know more as I go! Love ya!

Awesome Transformations

SOOOO, sorry I missed writing y'all last week, honestly I didnt have much to write cuz that week pretty much stunk, BUT, this week was really good! We went over twice to the 'C' family home and they have a baptismal date for this saturday! all that is left on our end is to teach 2 more lessons and have the interview, everything else is pretty much taken care of already by the ward which is awesome and is really the way it should be. And, just as the icing on the cake, daddy 'C' had an interview with the Bishop and will be the one performing the baptism and confirmation It is pretty awesome to see those kind of changes and transformations in the lives of people and families that can only be brought by living the gospel. We have also received some pretty amazing referrals recently that would definitely be considered elect so there should be further baptisms coming up for Newnan in the pursuing transfers.

Speaking of transfers, tonight is transfer calls, tomorrow is packing day, and Wednesday is transfer meeting, so as much as I'd like to stay I dunno I'll let y'all know as soon as I can. That's about it, hope summer is still goin' great, have fun in the sun for me!

Member Referrals are the Best!

Alrighty ,well we had another exciting week here in Newnan. Of course Zone Conference was good, President and Sister Satterfield spoke to us and we had trainings from President and Sister Satterfield, the assistants and the zone leaders. Nothing new was talked about just getting us back to fundamentals, so it was ok, good to see a bunch of my buddies.

We had an appointment with a part member family afterwards and it was pretty sweet: So the 'C' family consists of the mom, dad, son(15yr old) who are all members, and the 2 girls (12 & 13) who are not members. Basically everyone but the dad is active in the church, the two girls have been wanting to be baptized for a while now but basically haven't been because the dad wants them to make sure they know what they're doing. They went to girls camp a couple of weeks ago and had a blast! The whole young women's group in our ward fasted for them that their dad's heart would be softened and that they would be able to be baptized. So we had dinner with the Cox's about 2 weeks ago and talked to them about taking the missionary lessons but their dad wasn't in the room and not much came of it until Thursday when we went over. We had a
good chat with the dad, he said that they could be baptized if they came to him and talked about baptism and what Christ means to them, so we didn't have a whole lot of commitment when we left but it was still really good. I was kind of worried because even though the dad is a member he is definitely not practicing and has some differing beliefs in doctrine, the big one being he has the "once saved always saved" idea and thinks baptism is important but not necessarily essential to salvation. So we didn't really know what to do next, because it pretty much felt like they'd be in limbo until the girls had their talk with the dad, and we had no idea when that would be happening. BUT Friday morning we get a call from one of the girls and she said that she talked to her dad and she could get baptized! We are super excited for them, I'm not 100% sure that he said yes to both of the girls, but for sure both will be able to take the lessons and once we teach them there will really be no reason at all that they shouldn't both be baptized at the same
time. When we reported what happened at PEC we got most of the room to cry. We definitely know that the ward has been working hard, especially with the young women, and that this is one super miracle for us here in Newnan! Our next step is to set a date for the baptism and crank out the lessons. So ya I'd say we have definitely been blessed.

We also had some random guy show up to church all on his own yesterday, and I think he had a pretty good time at church. I don't know if he is all there, he was super twitchy like he was on drugs or has been getting off drugs or something and it was pretty hard to understand him when he talked, but we have his contact info so we will hopefully get over to his place this week and teach him.

And, if that wasn't enough for us, we got a call from one of the priests in our ward and he wants us to come with him to give a Book of Mormon to his friend, which will be awesome because
that's like the only member referral we've gotten here in Newnan, and I think I could count on one had the number of referrals that I've received from members since I've been a missionary. So ya we' have definitely be
en super blessed.


Thanks for all of your prayers and everything y'all do, I definitely know it has been helping us! Well that's about it I suppose I'll talk to y'all later!

Baptism!

So stinkin' last week was probably the most amazing week of my mission, specifically Monday because I got to see S get Baptized! WOohoo! It was seriously one of the most spiritual experiences of my mish so far! Plus we got to go to chipotle for dinner that night so it was like icing on the cake, hahah just kidding, kind of. . . .

Well freak, that's awesome for Jacob and Justin, I got an email from jacob and I am definitely stoked for him! and for Justin and Jager, remind me where Jager is going? I feel soooo out of the loop! which is sometimes a good thing, but just promise me y'all will enjoy iron man 2 for me and let me watch it when I get home ;)

Well, We also had Interviews with our mish president on Tuesday, and then Zone conference Thursday, and we still managed to pull some really good numbers for our week. There were 11 less actives at church and 3 investigators, not too shabby! I really love my new area, I will be going on exchanges with the Zone leaders next tuesday, and I think it will be with Elder M who I served with for my first transfer in Griffin. Well I gotta go but I love y'all and I'll write ya next week!

Excitement and Miracles

Well it was a pretty exciting week for us. we had quite a few miracles happen. First of all, I think I beat my old record of 12 new investigators, with being able to find 13 new investigators to teach!

Plus, we are getting very close to baptism with a couple of our investigators, namely 'SC'. He just turned 9 years old, and we've been teaching him for a couple of weeks now. he is one of the smartest kids I have ever met! It is amazing how much he understands what we teach him. His parents are both members, but neither have come to church for a really long time, despite the fact that theifamilies are active, or at least mostly active. I dont know what is holding them back, but SC's stepdad has been sitting in on the lessons and has been really helpful as we've been teaching SC, his mom on the otherhand generally hasnt been around, which is sad to see, but I think that if y'all could pray for that family it would help a lot. SC has told us that he wants to be baptized, and we committed their family to talk all together about it, so we'll see come Thursday when we go back.

Everything else has been going really well, we were very close to getting a lot of people out to church but SC was the only one that was able to make it because he came with his grandma who is very active in our ward. We were really hoping for a couple of others to make it, and called them right before church and they were excited to come, so then the meeting had started and they weren't there, so we called again and their family said they had left already but we didn't see them. So we were almost nervous that they might have gone to the church right next door to us, and after sacrament Elder O and I went next door to do some reconaissance to see if we could see them, and when we got there we were pretty much the only white people in that building.

They had their welcome where you go around and greet everybody and it felt like everyone was flocking to come say hello to us. We hid our tags on the inside of our jackets because we didn't want to cause contention or anything, but it was just kinda funny because everyone was coming up to us and welcoming us, which was pretty cool. But sadly we didnt find our investigators so we tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. It was pretty interesting to see just how inviting and aesthetically pleasing it was but it was just not the same spirit.

This upcomming week is starting to look really promising, we already have a lot of appointments with a lot of people and our dinner callendar is looking pretty good as well. We are super short on miles at the moment, so we will be doing a lot more walking until May comes, and possibly even some bike riding. So transfers are also next week, so y'all know how that is. With my history I'll probably be leaving seeing as how I've been in each of my areas for two transfers. I really hope I get to stay but ya never know. Also, We've heard from the mission that USPS is going to charge for mail to be forwarded and the mission doesnt have the money to cover that cost so mail will have to be sent to me directly otherwise I have to wait until transfers or interviews to receive anything that gets sent to the mission office. Soooo, I will let you know next week what my address will be for the next six weeks. Well, hope all is well, I'll talk to y'all soon!

Happy Easter!

Hola!
So who loved conferece? I did! It was really good, I think the general theme I got from it was self reliance in the home. The Sunday sessions had a lot to do with the Christ and His Atonement which was fitting for an Easter Sunday.

This week was fairly excellent for us here in the Brockett Ward. I think this was the most tiring week of my mission. I
have amped up my workouts lately, with running a mile or two almost every morning and trying to do some upper body circuits every other night before bed. This week we worked our bunns off and so I slacked a little when it came to running this week, but I am determined to lay down the law and go for a run at least 4 times a week. My companion isn' too much of a work out freak like I am trying to get myself back into from being a lazy bum, but he's willing to go running with me so
that's good.

We also had zone conference this week and it was really great. We have been issued the challenge to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover this transfer and it is pretty sweet! It is easy to get behind though! I'm about a day and a half off but I should be able to catch up pretty quickly. We were able to commit a new investigator we found this week to baptism so we are pretty excited to see how that goes. We've been trying to go through our roster and visit every person on there and build their trust and we went to the appartment of one family who had moved apparently without any notice to much of anyone, but we asked the new resident if she wanted to learn about the church and she accepted and if it be according to the will of the Lord she will be baptized. She is going through a lot in her life right now with family and other situations and we havent seen her since our first visit but she should be back this week so we'll see. On Friday we have a dinner appointment with a part memeber family. The husband, Brother H., is not a member but is really close to becoming one, or so we've felt. He's made tremendous amounts of progress over the past while from what we here. Elder C. of the Seventy is his home teacher and he said that he basically gave a soft commitment to baptism in one of his recent visists. When we saw brother H. last we had a really good lesson with him just trying to get him to recognize the spirit's influence in his life. We almost had him backed into a corner
where we could have potentially committed him to baptism if the spirit allowed, but then he pulled a fast one on us and asked if we were hungry and heated up some pizza for us. After leaving both Elder O. and I were somewhat perplexed becasue the last time we visited it seemed like he was one tought cookie but this time he really opened up and I think we might really work towards giving him a baptismal date when we go over this Friday. Well, we have interviews this Thursday and I'm kind of looking forward to that and almost not at the same time but I know it
will be really good, it always is.

I have not received any package yet but I would not be suprised to see one in a couple of days, if you have already sent it. I will definitely write a letter to Nanny and Papa this week. I need to do better on writing, I just get lazy and then distracted with other things and before I know it it;'s been a month or two since I've hand written anyone. I wish y'all a wonderful week and
can't wait to hear from ya next week!

-Alex

Brockett Update

Howdy y'all,
So we had transfers this past week as I told you last time, and I am still in Brockett and am now serving with Elder O. Elder B. went to Smyrna, which is still in the ATL Stake but just on the West side, so he's not too far away. But, Elder O. is from L.A., he went to BUYI for a little while before he came out to the GAM, he's been in the mission field only one transfer ahead of me so he's at about 15 months right now. It is going to be a super good transfer, he likes to work hard and with the Brockett ward behind us we are going to continue to see miracles. This week we found 6 new investigators, had a handfull of lessons with less active and part member families and are going to have a super awesome week ahead of us. On this tuesday alone we have 5 appointments set, at least one team up for sure, and a possibility of having three team ups that day! So I'll have to let you know how that goes. Well I hope that everything is going great back home. I love y'all, miss y'all and will talk to y'all later!
-Alex

Ralph and Denton Bender

Hey sorry I missed y'all last week, we had a very interesting week with a couple of disappointments but it ended out alright so I really can't complain. I guess I'll go with the not so good news first.

We were really looking forward to a dinner appointment we had scheduled with a part member family because we got a tip from Elder Cornish of the 70, who is the home teacher for this family, that the husband was really coming around and felt like he might be ready for baptism. So we went there, us, and the Vietnamese elders who are good friends with this nonmember, or at least Elder L. is, considering Elder L. has been in this same area for the past 15 months. As we begin to eat my companion wasn't feeling to good and had to go lay on the couch. We finished dinner and were getting to the lesson/ spiritual thought and asking him questions trying to feel out if he would be interested in going through the lessons again, when my companion got up from the couch, walked into the kitchen and tossed all his cookies into the sink. It was pretty bad. I really didn't know what to do, but we got home pretty much as fast as we could. I felt pretty bad for him, especially after that sort of thing happened twice while I was in the Atlanta ward.

But ya we spent the next day or so recovering from that, and then Friday we had to drop our car off to the body shop for a fender bender that happened at the beginning of this transfer, and so we are on foot for this week until we get the car back. On the bright side we were able to get a lot of people to help sign up for team ups/splits so it is kind of a blessing in disguise. I think we have more team ups this week than we know how to handle. We really don't have many investigators right now, but we have been able to see a lot of success with less active members, in fact our two dinner appointments this week are with sisters who have recently been starting to come back to church, and I think we might even have an opportunity to teach some nonmember roommates at one of those appointments, which is going to be awesome! Well I love y'all and have a blessed week!
-Alex

Happy Valentine's day

Hey I got the Valentines package and it was Awesome! Thank you soooo much!

We had Zone conference this week and it was really good. It was pretty much all about extending commitments and following up, so it was really good. We have some really good things going on in the ward, we have a very missionary minded ward and a lot of member missionary work going on which is awesome! now we just have to get to the next level and help them turn their friends and aquaintences into investigators!

Actually, one member has already done exactly that and we were able to teach one of their nonmember friends at his home which was awesome! Their friend comes from a Catholic background and took several missionary lessons about a year ago but didn't really progress, but we'll see about this time around. He's kind of non-committal but he has huge support from other members which is awesome and we couldn't as for a better circumstances to teach him at. Well that's about it right now, sorry its short this week but I'll talk to y'all later!

Happy Lunar New Year

So this week was pretty cool, except for being a little sick in the first couple days. We were able to teach several people and I think we have some really good potential to work with. Yesterday there was a huge Vietnamese cultural event in celebration of the Lunar New Year, and so we got to help set up for that on Sunday and then help with the actual event yesterday. It wasn't a church event, and I don't actually know who put it on, but there were over 1,000 people at the event, and there was food, a beauty contest, a Karaoke talent something, games, and just a whole bunch of stuff. Of course everything was in Vietnamese so Elder B and I couldn't understand it, but it was good for the Vietnamese Elders and sisters. There are only two sets of Vietnamese missionaries in the GAM, one set of Elders and one set of Sisters, and one of the Sisters doesn't even speak Vietnamese she is pretty much helping out with primary in for the Vietnamese branch. It was pretty cool to help them out, sure beats tracting. So we had a table with a display and free materials in Vietnamese and a game for the kids with some candy to pass out.

But ya transfers are this Wednesday and I'll get a call tonight if one of us is moving, but I'd bet we're staying together for next transfer. Well, see ya later.