SDOHS Pride

Dang, I am really glad for the Eagles this season, it definitely has been a lot better for them than in the past. Hopefully they can win region and gain a seat
in the play offs. What other schools are contending for the championship this season? I really miss football, they take football serious down here being in the SEC and all. There's a field just down the street where our apartment is were they play Pop-Warner so every Saturday its crazy to see such a huge crowd all for the little pee-wee players. Griffin High School is ranked #1 in the state in their division so Friday nights are tough for us around the Griffin area.

Well we certainly have another powerhouse Stake Presidency. It will be weird to come home and see all the changes at the ward and stake levels, but it will be
good.

We had a pretty rough start to our week but picked up a lot of slack towards the end of it. We had some really good team ups with people in the ward and were able to find two new investigators, one of which made it to church which was awesome. I was pretty nervous because when we got into priesthood the lesson was on eternal marriage and exaltation and then the gospel principles class threw down on the law of chastity, so I was kind of nervous at first and
didn't want him to get scared away, especially when we didn't even teach him a full first lesson when we met him two days prior. We also had another investigator at church, "R", whose wife is a member and we've been working with him off and on. He's been suffering from cancer in the recent past so we haven't been able to see him a whole lot because he's been pretty sick, but after church you could tell he had been touched by the spirit, and when I went up to ask him how he enjoyed the service he told us it really hit home for him. It is weird how fast things seem to change even from one week to then next let alone one transfer to another, but Bro. 'R' has definitely come a long way. Sister 'R' is such a good support for him and is definitely gung ho on teaching him about the restored gospel.

As far as anything else, we had zone conference this week which was super good, we didn't have any general authorities but President 'S' is definitely an inspired man. He gave us some good trainings about obedience and then at the end taught us one of his "life lessons" about finance and all I can say is that it was pretty sweet.

Well that's the report for this week, Thank you for all of your emails and
support, I love all y'all!

Transfers!

Well, it has been a busy week with transfers and everything and then yesterday being a holiday the library was closed so that's why we haven't had a chance to email yet. But being it was transfers last week, the final verdict is, I remain in Griffin and am now serving with Elder "B". I think we are going to have a lot of fun this transfer, not that I haven't any other transfer but it should be really good.

Elder "B" is from Utah, so I now officially have my first companion from Utah, well Elder 'P' was from Utah, but the MTC really doesn't count. But ya Elder 'B' is a diabetic which will be different for me, especially when he was telling me how to use his glucogon shot if he isn't acting right or if he falls asleep and isn't waking up, but no other missionaries hes served with have had to use it, in fact I don't think he's used it in the last 10 years. But ya, I guess its just kinda different because I have to pay attention to it, but I don't think anything will go that bad to have to use it ( knock on wood). But sadly I don't know how much we'll be able to go work out at the gym with 'JS', so I'll have to ask Elder "B" about it. He really isn't too much of a sports person in general, but he does like music a lot. He found a small keyboard at a thrift store so we have fun dinkin' around on it when we have time. He also is learning the harmonica and the recorder. He's definitely an interesting character but I have loved every minute of serving with him.

So I should be sending my pictures home shortly I really didn't take many this last transfer and I forgot to get a couple off Elder M's camera that I wanted, but there are definitely some good ones that y'all will like. Well that's about all the news as of right now sound like y'all are having a lot of fun back home! I'll Talk to ya next week!

Hear me now, believe me later

Well, not too much new info for this week, we did get two of our most promising investigators to attend conference with us which was awesome, pretty much they will be baptized when they get married and stop smoking, which they are working on both right now, so hopefully next transfer they should go down!

Well I hope everyone enjoyed conference because it was sweet. I liked the Saturday session the best because it seemed like I got a lot more personal revelation than Sunday, not that it was bad, but I just liked Saturday better, I think Dallin H. Oaks was one of my favorite talks, about how the love of God does not supersede his commandments and love doesn't give us the right or excuse to not obey. But pretty much all of them were really good.

Well, since you asked, Elder Meacham is from Boise Idaho which I thought I said, but ya as far as his bench stats lets just say he should stick to cross country. He loves to run which is good for me to go out and jog in the mornings, however, speaking of bench, our ward mission leader has a son in law that is a huge time lifter, and is seriously just an ox. hes about my size but 100% solid, and you can tell he lifts weights but not that he lifts as much as he does, I mean he squats about 600, and benches like 400 and is seriously just a tank. But, aside from that he is a nonmember and our ward mission leader wants us (meaning me because I am about the only missionary that can hang with him lifting wise) to kind of make him a special project, so we have been able to go lift at the gym with him which has been sweet, and also painful. Last Saturday we worked biceps and triceps and we could feel the burn in our arms for the next several days, even just talking on the phone hurt just to put the phone up to our ear. And then this past Saturday we got to go do a leg workout with him before the first session of conference, and now it feels like I can barely walk! Luckily it's p-day and we're going to play basketball today so we should get some of that lactic acid out. But ya our ward mission leader wants us to go lift with him at least once or twice a week, which I have no complaints about, I just wish I didn't feel like a wussy. He goes to a super hardcore gym where pretty much only serious lifters go, and actually he got kicked out of his old gym for lifting too much is what he said. So ya he's the real deal.

But with transfers, more than likely Elder Meacham is going to be leaving because he has been here for 6 months, so regardless I hope whoever my companion is next transfer likes to lift! Well as well I forgot to tell you all about a pretty funny experience I had last week at church, so I will tell you now, but for the past couple of transfers, I have been trying to learn some hymns on the piano and just practicing when I can when we are at the church for meetings and whatnot, and so recently I've been playing before church starts just some pre-prelude music before the real people that do it get there, and so our church schedule is kinda flip flopped with priesthood first and then ending with sacrament, so there's a couple times in the griffin ward I've been able to play the song for priesthood, even though its Brother Lackey's calling I suppose, but he hasn't minded every once in a while letting me play because I'm already up there, which has kind of put me on the spot several times because I haven't really wanted to do it, but its not that bad because there's not nearly that many people there for priesthood that often, so I can suck it up. But I've been getting to the point I can play about four or five hymns comfortably. So on Sunday we were leaving the gospel principles class and on our way to get a seat for sacrament and just about as soon as I walk in the chapel the chorister comes and asks me to play piano for sacrament because the pianist wasn't there, so I pretty much just got suckered into playing for sacrament because I couldn't really say no, and so ya I actually had to play piano for Sacrament! it was pretty rough, especially the introduction to the first song because I don't practice intro's and then I haven't practiced just about any sacrament songs so I had to pick one that looked easy to me and then pretty much sight read it and there were a couple really rough spots but I got through it. But ya it was pretty intense and I kinda dont want to get called on for it again, at least not until I can play more hymns better! So ya that was my funny story for the week, so I hope y'all have a super week and I'll let you know about transfers on Wednesday!
love,

The weather report

Well I know y'all have been hearing about the rain, and well, pretty much everything got dominated. I think the flood got as high as one of the schools, and I heard that when they were cleaning up that there was a refrigerator that somehow managed to land in the top of a tree. Luckily, that didn't happen in our area. We had a good amount of rain, but no floods here. I guess it was really bad just a hour or two north of here and a bunch of the priesthood holders in our ward went up Sunday morning to help people out up there.

As far as missionary work this week, we had another solid week numbers wise, but it was the first week that no investigators came to church which was a bummer. The two girls, L and S have fallen off the radar lately, and haven't kept appointments or come to church in several weeks, so we have dropped them for the time being, but more than likely we will refer them to the A.P.s because they cover the singles ward and I think that that is hands down the best place for them anyways. R and J have been almost impossible to get a hold of as well, but they have both just started jobs and have been getting things together, but as well havent been able to come to church yet, but once their schedules straighten out things should be fine.

We are excited for General Conference this week. Elder Condie (I don't think that's how you spell it but it sounds right) was a stud at zone conference. He was super funny and had a super good impression of President Hinckley. He focused on a lot of different ways to find investigators and definitely emphasized retention. It was a different zone conference because usually the a.p.'s zone leaders, and a few other random missionaries give trainings on different aspects of missionary work and then the Mission President hits it home. But this time we heard from the a.p's and zone leaders just a brief summary of how our zones and mission as a whole were doing, then we heard from two Stake Presidents, President S and his wife, and then Elder Condie and his wife. So it was a super spiritual zone conference at that! Well thats about all for this week, next week is transfers, which will be weird because we'll have P-day two days before, but I bet we'll be able to email families and whatnot when we find out on Wednesday, so until then, Adios!

Good Week in Griffin

Well as usual it has been a good week. It was kind of a slow start, I got to go to the other side of Griffin on Tuesday for exchanges with the district leader, but when I got back we got right to work.

Right now all of our dates our investigators have to be baptized are kind of in limbo, we have one super awesome couple but they have some legal issues they have to work but before they can be married, and then baptized, so we're going to see them tonight and see what we can come up with. They are really solid though, so I'm not too worried, it just kinda stinks it wont be until next transfer. But R and J are referrals from our bishop's brother in the ward right above us. We were kind of unsure at first, but they are really excited about coming to church and being baptized.

The two other girls we had baptismal dates with are kind of dwindling in unbelief. They missed stake conference yesterday which they said they were going to come to, and haven't been keeping many other commitments lately, but we are going to shake them a little and see how much they are really interested tomorrow.

But ya, yesterday we had Stake conference which was sweet because 1, I got to see several people from Sharpsburg and all the other missionaries in the zone, and as well it was a sweet meeting to be at. There were kind of two themes to the meeting, one being there was a lot to do with I guess along the lines of unity and how the church is a melting pot of different people and cultures, and then it got into quite a bit into African americans and the priesthood and how God has always chosen who he gives the priesthood to, like the Levites for example. But ya that was pretty interesting I thought. And then the stake president has been emphasizing emergency preparedness and being self reliant and he had some super cool stuff to say that just made the stake conference different from any other I've been to, but this is going to be a big week for us.

Today we have zone p-day which is going to be awesome to see all the missionaries in the zone and play basketball, which is pretty much all most of the missionaries do on zone p-day is b-ball, so that is always a plus. Then, tomorrow is our Zone conference which is going to be amazing as always, but even more special because we have a general authority coming, plus it will be a combined zone conference so one of the other zones should be at that meeting with us as well. But ya I will definitely tell y'all about it next week, so until then, have a great week!

Weekend update...

Well we had another really good week. We have been able to find and teach people pretty easily here in Griffin. WE didn't have the baptisms we thought we would, in fact the two girls, L and S are having trouble keep commitments lately. They visited L's mom in Athens Georgia, and she didn't like them going to the church, and their friends are telling them all the word vomit and rumors that they hear so right now they aren't sure what they're doing. They were supposed to come watch a baptism for another branch on Saturday but didn't show, and then missed church on Sunday, so we are going to have to drop a spiritual bomb on them tonight when we go to teach them.

Our other lady N, who called the church last week has shown tremendous promise, except that she is leaving back to Detroit sometime this week she said, but she has been to church twice already and if we taught her the rest of the lessons she could potentially be baptized this Saturday, but we'll see, its all in the Lord's hands right now. We have a couple of other investigators we're working with but nobody that is too serious at this point, but I would definitely be surprised if we didn't baptize by the end of this transfer. Next week we are having our zone conference and I guess we are having a General Authority come and visit which is going to be really cool, we are also having Stake Conference this weekend so we'll get to go to that as well on Sunday. Well that's about all for now, talk to y'all next week!
Elder Edwards

Lots of Investigators

(this is from the week of Sept 7)

Well We had a super good week this week, Elder Meacham and I were able to teach a whole bunch and put up some super good numbers, in fact the highest numbers of my mission! Not that its all about numbers, but we found 13 new people to teach and were able to get a lot of the members come out with us to teach, and we have a baptism scheduled for Saturday! woo hoo! We are praying that it holds through, its two 20-ish year old girls that order a bible from the church, and we've been able to get them to commit to baptism which has been a miracle to see them prepare and change their lives so much in only a few short weeks. All that is left to teach them is 4 of the commandments, and they have already committed to live the word of wisdom and law of chastity which are the two big ones, so hopefully its just a matter of time now.

The Griffin Ward is super good, although I think Sharpsburg fed us more, but the ward is super missionary minded, and even though we have two sets of elders, both of us are able to have team ups just about every single day which helps sooooo much. On Sunday a nonmember lady called the church to see if she could get a ride to church so she was talking to Elder Smith for a couple of minutes and before he even asked anyone one of the Members said she could do it and had her there in no time. The lady had moved from Detroit not too long ago and never really went to church there because she couldn't understand any of the preachers, but she came here and loved church. She brought along her 9- year old son and her two year old daughter and it really seemed like they had a good time. The members were super friendly and introduced themselves and did a super job of fellow-shipping. I was able to talk to her and she had been layed off from her job several months ago and had been in the hospital since. Yesterday was the first time she was able to get out of the house in a long time. Elder Meacham and I were able to schedule a time to go over and teach her this week which is going to be really good, because anybody that is asking to come to church without knowing anybody and not having ever had a super strong background in any church must be elect, and this lady definitely seemed elect. She has a lot going on in her life right now, but the church here has definitely been able to help more than I would have ever imagined, especially for anybody that has walked in for the first time. apparently when she was in the hospital one of the nurses that attended to her was a member and one way or another was able to talk to her about the church, and now I really think there is soo much potential for this lady to receive the help that she is desperately in need of. I couldn't understand all of her situation, but she has been going through a divorce, and is suffering both physically with sickness and is on her own without any sort of financial assistance from what it sounded like. But I can definitely see her progressing in the gospel and shee seemed so grateful just being at church. Elder meacham and I are really looking forward to going over to teach her because we know that the gospel will bless her family. I am super grateful for that nurse that was able to be a member missionary because the members are our biggest support, and its really though the members that missionaries find the greatest success. well that is about the extent of my news this week, hoefully I'll hear from y'all soon!- -Elder Edwards