Greased-up

Dear Mom and everyone else,

This week has been really exciting as always. We were pretty disappointed though that Brandon wasn't able to make it to church this past Sunday so we are going to have to push the baptism back for next week, so hopefully I'll still be able to go to it, because transfers are next Wednesday and the odds of Elder Cooper and I staying together again are pretty slim, so we'll see how that pans out. We are teaching Brandon this afternoon and then he will be interviewed for baptism right after so we should be able to square things away with him.

I hope everyone had a good Memorial day, because ours was really good as well. We got to get up an hour earlier because the Dallas Ward was in charge of putting up flags along one of the bigger freeways not too far from the church. It was a really neat experience. They had 80 or so flags, each one to represent a soldier from Paulding County who passed away while in the service, and put them all along the highway. We got to ride on a flatbed trailer with the flags and was a lot like a hay-ride down the highway. It was awesome to be part of something that meant a lot to the community, and we definitely felt that as people would drive by waving and honking. It was quite a sight, sadly I didn't bring my camera but hopefully I painted the picture for y'all. There were two groups I was on the flatbed while the other group was pretty lucky and got to ride an old firetruck from about the 40's but the service rendered was all the same.

Afterward Brother Crew, who is super awesome, took us to the traditional Martin's breakfast where we "greased up" as he would say. It was a super good southern food breakfast type place and I got a chicken biscuit, some hash-browns, and of course grits. Brother Crew made us all get grits as part of the deal and they weren't all that bad, they didn't really have any flavor to them but it was a lot like a cream of wheat type deal. I think I was full from that breakfast the whole day.

Then we had district meeting and afterward we went on exchange with the district leader and Elder Cooper went with him to Acworth while Elder Wood came here to Dallas with me. I was pretty nervous because Elder Wood has only been out 1 transfer more than me and I would pretty much be the senior companion for the time but things ended up really good. Monday we had members come on team ups in the afternoon and in the evening as well so we didn't do any driving after 12pm or so which helped a lot with our miles and all in all it was a really really good for both finding and teaching. Then usually we would have exchanged the next Tuesday but we decided to stay put because we were going back to Acworth for P-day with Elder Anderson who is leaving next week and didn't want to use all of our miles, so I ended up having to plan the whole day on my own which I have never done because Elder Cooper takes the lead almost all of the time because he's senior but things worked out pretty good.

I really like Elder Wood, mostly because he reminds me so much of Andrew. He is a stud volleyball player, loves pretty much all motorsports, wakeboards and really has the same interests as Andrew and even kind of looks like him and definitely has the same sort of attitude, so that was pretty cool, him and I got a long really well. This exchange has definitely helped me grow a lot and feel a lot more confident and more independent because I have relied quite a bit on Elder Cooper being he is the one who has trained me and the only real companion I have had (no offense to Elder Peterson, but neither of us knew anything).

Well, that has been about it for this week, hopefully I'll hear from you guys soon but until then have a good week!

Dear Y'all

Thank you for sending those addresses to me I will write some of the guys today for sure. I can't believe everyone is getting their papers in and getting their calls already! It will only get better to see everyone else get out on their missions pretty soon. As well I can't believe it is already summer! I feel robbed that the graduation was at Cardinals stadium this year.

You have to wish Christin a happy birthday for me, the 18 as well was my 3 month mark. I can't believe that this transfer is already coming to a close!

I now have a suit that I can thrash, and I didn't even have to go to the thrift store to find it. I picked it up from the Acworth Elder's apartment with a couple of ties that people left behind, and actually I kinda like the suit. It's nothing fancy but it is a brown which I like because I have a bunch of brown ties that go better with that suit.

Well as always it has been a fantastic week. We were able to get our investigator Brandon to church which he really liked. Everybody thought he was a missionary which was kinda funny but I really think it was good for him to hear. We went over after church and taught him the second lesson and he accepted everything with an open heart, and moved his baptismal date up to May 30! We are incredibly excited for him and know that we have been blessed with God's mercy in allowing us to teach him. There have been a couple sticky situations with him and we weren't sure how to handle some things but every issue we thought we might have had has been diffused so far with no problem whatsoever. It really seems like its something that is just going to happen and Elder Cooper and I were blessed to be the ones to teach him. After this Sunday he will be taught all of the lessons and the following week he will be baptized!

On Monday we had interviews with President Mathusek and our district was the last to go, so we where there pretty much all day. My interview with President wasn't much longer than the last but I know he is a super awesome priesthood holder and would not be surprised to see him be a seventy one day. We also got to write our first President letters to President Satterfield who will be taking Mathusek's place in the middle of next transfer. I am really looking forward to getting to know him and build a good relationship throughout my mission.

Yesterday we were again blessed greatly and were able to go on a team up and teach one of our potential investigators, and will be able to go back to help her paint her patio deck next week. She has had a fair amount of contact with the church and has been able to do some of her geneology and we had a really good lesson. I can't say how solid she is but it is my hope and faith that we will gain her trust as we do service for her and help her around her home. She had some really interesting tomato plants that all the soil was contained in a can sort of thing and then the plant grew from the bottom of the can in a sort of upside down fashion which I had never seen before but I guess was supposed to help keep the bugs away or something, but I thought that was pretty cool.

Then after lunch we had only a half hour or so until our next appointment with a team up so we went down the road to a street we had planned to tract and at the first house we pulled up to there was a younger lady and her mom washing the car. After a couple minutes of introducing ourselves the young lady was visiting her mom and her husband was actually LDS and less active from the sounds of it. She had been raised Catholic, converted baptist not too long ago and then now is married to a Mormon and has a child that she wants to get to church but is pretty confused with what religion to go to. She said that she had met with the missionaries a couple of months earlier but didn't remember much, so we taught her the first lesson, committed her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and she is supposed to come to church with us on Sunday. It was a pretty big miracle to us because we could have just stayed and waited to be picked up for our next appointment but we left and must have been led by the liahona or something to this lady and even though we won't be able to continue teaching her she can go back home and look further into the church.

After that we had another really good appointment with an inactive member and taught her children about Joseph Smith as well. It's kind of hard right now because her husband isn't too fond of the church and she doesn't have much interested in coming back but wants her kids to learn, but If it is Heavenly Father's will we will be able to see them come to church and hopefully be baptized. It was a miracle meeting them as well. We were tracting in that neighborhood a while back and just walking down the street and her and her children were out for a walk, and before we could even introduce ourselves the kids were asking their mom who we were and told them we were the missionaries and then told us they had some questions and wanted to learn more about the church. It also turned out that Sister Ipson, who we've been working with here and there, was her visiting teacher and it didn't seem as though there was much coincidence in meeting her. It is pretty funny when we meet these people that the members know and associate with and more often then not its just to perfect to be a coincidence.

That evening we went to visit some members but the address for one didn't exist so we knocked a few houses trying to find them when we ran into a group of people having a bible study. We were invited inside and got to talking and then they asked about us and what we did and got to teach them a first lesson, which was pretty interesting. By the end I could feel that they felt the spirit but when we asked if they wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon it went downhill from there. The leader woman of the group said she wanted to stick to the King James Version of the Bible even though they said that they knew Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Then they had some jokes and questions about polygamy and then asked us about women being prophets which is always kind of weird , but what took the cake was the prayer we had before we left. We all held hands in a circle and everyone was prayer talking, just saying thank yous and whatever, while one woman was I guess the voice of the prayer was praying. Elder Cooper and I had no idea what to do and it was kinda just messed up really, I can not say that I felt the spirit at that time. But ya that was a story for the journal!

Thanks again for everything and tell the guys how excited I am for them next time you see them, do you know how soon they leave? Ok well have a fantastic week!

Over the Fence and Through the Woods

Well it was super good to talk to everyone on Mothers day! I'm glad to hear that the new ward is starting out well, and I'm glad to hear about all those boys who finally got their Eagle done. Has anyone else received their mission calls yet? I bet they are all getting really excited.

This past Monday we had companion exchanges and I got to go to Acworth and spend a day with the district leader. I was pretty nervous at first but felt really comfortable when I got out there. I really like the district leader we have right now. This is his last transfer before he goes home and he is a really sharp guy, I definitely learned a lot from him. They are on bikes in his area so I would have ridden his companions bike but his chain broke the day before exchanges so we were blessed to walk the whole day. It wasn't that bad, Elder Cooper and I have been doing a lot more walking but I could definitely feel it in my legs by the end of the day. It was a lot different because we could really talk to everybody we passed which I liked a lot. We ran into one guy from West Africa over in the Ivory Coast is what he said and taught him a first lesson and committed him to be baptized which was amazing! It will be cool to hear how the Acworth Elders do with him. After we were done teaching he said the closing prayer with the biggest smile I have ever seen, he was ecstatic!

At night we went to try to visit a member but they drove by us as we were on our way over. She told us about a shortcut we could take if we hopped her fence and decided to take her word for it because apparently a lot of missionaries used to do it. So we hopped her fence and walked across to what we thought were the apartments but it was a neighborhood that was even further away than the one we came from. So we went back to the sort of clearing in her back yard and went down a ways until we could see the apartments and started walking towards them until we ran into a creek. We ended up having to hop two more backyards until we got to a spot where a tree had fallen across to the other way and walked across the creek and had to trail-blaze our way through the poison ivy and trees and bushes. Well, maybe we didn't run into poison ivy, but we were still trailblazing our way through the woods to get home. It definitely made me appreciate being a missionary today, instead of when they didn't even have paved roads.

alrighty, you'll have to send me the addresses for Zach and Jacob and all the other guys and I'll see if I can't write to them and everyone before they head out. I love you guys a lot!
-Elder Alex Edwards

Feliz Cinco de Mayo

Hola, feliz Cinco de Mayo! well, I guess today is actually the seis de mayo, but anyways, I hope you at least got to celebrate by eating mexican food or something for me because there are only a few mexican restaurants around and none are as good as back home ;) Thank you for sending me that package hopefully I should have it soon in the next couple days.

And I am for sure looking forward to this Sunday as well! I am not really sure when we'll be able to call y'all, but our church is from 11-1 as well, so after converting that to arizona time it would be pretty early in the morning out there, So I really don't know, I would assume we'd call sometime after church but if you are in church when we get out it probably wouldn't be until later in the evening for us, meaning afternoon in Arizona.

This week has been pretty good so far. We were able to see a couple of miracles happen. For one we have a baptismal date set for an investigator who's wife is a member. The two of them are separated right now from what I understand but a couple of weeks ago she said that he was interested in learning about our church, and he took the lessons a couple of years ago but wasn't all receptive, so she said she wasn't quite sure about it. Then last week we decided to go tracting in this one neighborhood and when we got there it was completely dead. After a couple of hours or so we came across her house and didn't even realize that she lived in that neighborhood. When we went up to the door she was waiting for us and gave us some water and told us that her husband was coming to drop off the kids and would be there pretty soon and we could probably set something up to start teaching him. So we waited for a little while and then went down the street to knock on a few more doors. when we started to head back we saw the van she described and he pulled in right as we were walking by the house and started talking to him. By the time we left we had a dinner appointment set up for Sunday with the family and when we went back we taught him a really good lesson and he said that he would be baptized! It was just awesome to see that he really wanted to know if this was true and was just so much more prepared this time around. It will also be really good for the family and hopefully bring them together and both Elder Cooper and I are really excited to continue teaching him!
well It is really good to hear from you, and I cant wait to talk to the family on Sunday!

Love always,

Elder Alex Harrison Edwards

Exciting Times!

Well, I am pretty shocked to hear that the Ward split! Actually I was thinking about Dad being in the Bishopric for whatever reason a couple days ago, but I had no idea that the ward was going to split, let alone Dad would be in the Bishopric! It will definitely be a change coming home.

This week has been very good for finding. We found and taught several investigators, and were even able to get a baptismal date out of one, but we havent been able to get in contact with her since we've met her. But our teaching pool is definitely picking up. We still dont have anyone to come to sacrament but I know that as out numbers continue to increase we will find the ones that are ready right now. We are continuing to see less actives make it to sacrament meeting which has been awesome.

We are continuing to progress here in Dallas. The investigators we've found are a lot better quality than those in the past, and though we are losing a lot we have been able to find even better people to teach, and I know that if this continues we will be able to baptize pretty soon. We also have a couple of 9 year olds in our area who are from less active families that want their children to be taught so I really think that working with them will be really effective. Last week the sister missionaries had a baptism like that who was a 9 year old that was part of a family that was less active, but just got to be baptized by her grandfather, and Elder Cooper and I were able to participate in the confirmation which was really cool as well.

I cant remeber if I told you or not but last wednesday on transfers we lost one of the sister missionaries in the ward and gained two more, sister Krall from L.A. and sister Roden from Jamaica. They are really good. It seems like the sisters get all of the refferals from the ward or something because all of the recent baptisms have been people they taught, so hopefully they dont take our refferals in this area. Its kind of hard working in the same ward because of the way our areas are divided and we started working with several members in their area before we realized it, so we'll se how things go this transfer.

I am glad to hear that everything is going good, you'll have to tell me what the new ward is like, it sounds like there are several activities coming up shortly and whatnot, and you'll have to let me know how everyone else is handling everything, but it sounds like its all good right now. Alright, well I will hear from y'all soon!

Stormin' Mormons

Well, there were a couple of big storms this past weekend, Elder Cooper and I were not affected by any of them however. But I guess on either Friday or Saturday or something there was a huge hail storm and people said that there were golf ball sized hail raining down and it sounded like the roof was going to give way, but we were at a members house when that happened and they live a ways a way from our neighborhood so we didnt even hear much. On Monday there was a lot of wind and a pretty big storm that came through and the power was out for a little while but again nothing serious. It did however blown down a coupletrees in the neighborhood and some landed on houses but not ours. You could tell because everyone who did get hit had tarps covering the holes, but we're still alive.

Well that is pretty insane what happened to T-Nut. I can't believe that one (other) guy was so stupid. It seems like there's always one person to ruin it for everyone.

Well the work has definitely been improving a lot, especially over this past weekend. We were definitely blessed with a lot of sucess in finding and teaching. I think we ended with double the amount of lessons taught for last week than in the previous ones. Saturday we taught six just from tracting, and it seemed like everyone was letting us in. We met one guy who invited us in
without a word, before we could even tell him who we were. So we taught him the first lesson and committed him to read and pray, and set up an appointment for thursday this week to see how he did on his committment. So on sunday we had an appointment with one of his neighbors and taught her, and pretty much the same thing. It was a good lesson but not quite that golden contact, and promised to read and pray which is always awesome. So after that appointment we
thought we would go downt the street and just say hello to the people we taught the day before because there was two other families we taught. So we get back to Chris' house , and again he just invites us right in to meet his wife and family. They were all super friendly, probably the nicest people we've met so far, just that real southern hospitality. So we get to talking and Chris' wife Karen said she watched the show "Big Love" about the fdls so Elder Cooper and I
kind of looked at each other and were like oh man, not the best start, but she said she knew Mormons weren't all like that and it was different from the tv show, so we set her straight on polygamy which was good, and then she asked about Joseph Smith. At that point I got pretty excited and was about to just jump right into the first vision but Elder Cooper in his infinite wisdom stopped me and started from the beginning of Lesson 1 and just set everything up
perfectly. It was kind of funny because at first the grandma was there and told us how she was raised Pentacostal and believed in tongues and whatnot and seemed to attempt to put up that sort of guard but definitely agreed with everything Elder Cooper was teaching. So finally we get to Joseph Smith, and I remember the overwhelming calm that came in the room at that time. And so I told them about the first vision and how Joseph Smith was called to be the next prophet, and I can't even begin to describe the spirit that was there, never have I felt it so strong. By the end of it both the grandma and the mom were just in tears. So I invited them to be baptized and they werent all too sure at first and said that they still liked their church, but we reminded them of the sprit they felt, and began teaching them about the book of Mormon. It had turned out that Chris had been laid off and that they hadn't been to church since because they felt like Heavenly Father took that away from them. We reminded them that sometimes we
have to be tested, and that if we put our trust in Him we will be blessed for our trials. Elder Cooper went on to talk about tithing and the blessings that come from it. They were so happy we stopped by and I knew it was no coincidence. In the car ride back I was trying to figure out why at that particular time the Spirit was so strong, because we didnt do anything different
than what we've been doing, and I realized that it was because Heavenly Father had prepared them to hear that message, and that they needed it without ever knowing it. We are going to visit them again tomorrow and they offered to feed us as well. I am so overcome with joy we were able to meet them. I am almost positive that they will be baptized by the power and authority of the priesthood in almost no time. That one experience was the best I have had yet since I've been in Georgia, and I know that as long as I am working hard I will have more
like it. I cant wait to continue to see them progress and enter into the covenant of baptism.

Thank you so much for all of your help and support and for writing to me, I appreciate it so much. I hope you have a wonderful week!

-Elder Alex Edwards

p.s. I sent a letter yesterday to everyone at home so hopefully you get it soon, I asked if it were possible if you could send me a couple of things but forgot to ask if there would be any way you could send my black leather fossil watch, and maybe a pair of shoes as well? the only ones I have that arent dress shoes are my basketball ones so if you could send me another one of my pairs perhaps my black and red osiris shoes I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

Every Member a Missionary

Hey there, its really good to hear about how things are going back home, I miss all y'all. I hope everyone enjoyed conference, I know I did! This week we are kindof rethinking our strategy on how to do missionary work and starting to do a lot of work with the members and getting them excited for missionary work. I loved Elder L. Tom Perry's talk and how he said that is so much more effective when we teach investigators in the members homes. Tracting has definitely not been very effective here. We have dropped all of our investigators we've had in the almost 4 weeks we've been here and we haven't even been able to contact the one investigator that was golden for quite some time. But member work definitely seems to be the way to go right now. We just need to make sure that we follow up with the commitments we've given the members and I know we will see a lot of success.

Well, everything else has been really good so far, we haven't been able to teach a whole lot this last week but we're plowing the fiild so to say right now. Hopefully things really pick up before the transfers. Part of me would really like to stay here and work with Elder Cooper but the other half wants to see more of Georgia, and from the sounds of things its pretty much a 50/50 chance either way. But I will definitely do my best where ever I am needed and am just having a really good time. I cant wait to get your letters this week!