Adam's letter - Jan 26, 2015. He asked for ideas of instant convincing.

​A Catholic cathedral it is SO pretty

The other elders all bought Batman costumes last week, boy it's so funny haha! I thought it would be better to not spend money on something like that I'm trying to not be too spendy. Thanks for your work and sacrifices Dad!

Hey Mom!!!

Love you tons!! 

About Brussels--actually, that's a good question! It's an interesting situation here with Belgium. Ten or twenty years ago, it was actually its own little mission, but now the bottom half is in the French mission (it speaks French) and the top half is in the Dutch mission (they speak Flendement there, which is a lot like Dutch). So Brussels is actually half in our mission and half in the other mission, if I remember right. So yes, we actually have gone into the Dutch mission twice so far, because you need to in order to go to one of the Brussels churches where we had District meeting our first couple weeks here. Haha that's kind of cool. 

About historic places--yeah, I have been able to see some cool stuff! Actually the second time we were in Belgium, I got to see a special statue (it's weird it's like a naked little baby if I remember right haha) that is apparently a really special emblem for Belgium. It's called the Mannequanne-Pees, because it's actually peeing too. Haha. Apparently it's a big deal, I don't really understand it, but whatever floats their boat. :D Also, yesterday, this is really cool, especially for you Dad, we got to be in the ACTUAL SITE of a WWI battle! It is just by Charleroi, the Germans came across the River Sambre against Europe and we got to see a German bunker from the trail, boy it was cool! Brother Cockx loves history too and he was really nice, he took lots of time on our little walk yesterday to tell me about the history of the battle and Charleroi. Anyway, I'm sure Dad would've loved to been there and evaluate the lay of the land and what he would have done as commander of the Germans and then as the commander of the Allies. Haha! Am I right, Dad? Boy, it's cool, you can just feel the history, it's almost like you can feel that people, some of our people, have given their lives here in this land of Belgium! It's so cool. Man and it is so pretty! That walk! Oh man I hope your eyes can see it someday, Mom and Dad! We don't have anything like it in Utah! Not that it's better than Utah. Just it's super pretty. I will kick myself because I didn't bring my camera from the car! But I bet you can look up the pictures on line, it was a little trail just outside of Charleroi Belgium. It goes right along the river and the Germans had their bunker set up so they could see people coming from a little ways from both directions on the river, but that the people on the river couldn't see them. Ohhh you'd love it Dad. Next time I'll have my camera. Also Charleroi is very, very old--King Charles (of France, I think) established a village and it eventually became a big fortress in the shape of a star with big big walls ("murailles" in French) and eventually it's like it is today. Man it's so cool. We passed by buildings made around 1900 and they're still being lived in! I would totally believe it if there are ruins and walls and buildings here much older than our whole country! Man it's sweet. Yes I love history. Also Belgium was apparently made to be a barrier between French and Germany, which have never really been friends. It was originally part of France and part of Germany. Man the spirit of the people here, in Charleroi, at least, is so chill and peace-loving, fairly "white" you could say in the Color Code, it's sad to think of brutal wars happening right here in this beautiful green place. 

And Mom, how are you? How are your preparations going for the seminars? I pray for you every day! And I have become more convinced that I actually have the best woman in the world as my mom! You're so cool! :) I loved those pictures, thank you so very much. 

OUr investigators are cool. 

• Thibault, he went to Primary when he was younger, but he never got baptized. Now he's in his late 20s and he wants to get baptized so that's sweet. 
• Marie-Thérése has always been Catholic, so she has some different understandings of some things, but she's really pretty open to the truth when we insist on it. And she's always nice, she's never rude to us. haha she'd probably be baptized tomorrow if we asked her to! 
• Frere Cockx, he was a Jehovah's Witness before he was a Mormon, and now he's probably the boldest person I know in setting people straight if they get a doctrine wrong in his Sunday School class, haha! I want to be like that, too. His story is that he was working at a restaurant and someone gave him a little pass-along card and he was curious so I think he actually sought out the Church on-line or called the missionaries or something (wouldn't that be a sweet call haha) and then he got baptized. Pretty sweet, right? Also the other Ward Mission Leader for Charleroi 2 is a convert, too. He's really nice too. 

Yeah, Europe is good. Whew sometimes I feel like there's a dark cloud hanging over everything over here, but it's okay. I'll get used to it. Oh no, the language thing happened to me too! Holy cow the first or second lesson I went to I felt like i understood very little.  There are lots of things to be grateful for, thanks Mom! You're right, it's so fun to have these baptismal dates! I like Charleroi. It's sweet. 

Dad, I love you tons! I hope it's not been too hard to start work with the Army. Boy that's some big news, next week it is! I hope you're coping all right with it. I'm sure you are, tough old Dad. :D Man you're so cool, Dad. I hope I can be a good dad too. We met a young family yesterday, family of members, and they had their first little baby son who is four weeks old. It reminded me of you how the dad held his son and was so proud. Haha thanks for holding me, for supporting me out here! Thanks a lot! Sorry I hope it's okay I put you and Mom together in this one, I'll respond to the questions in your email too. Is the family doing okay? What's it like to be back in the ARmy? I felt a great lvoe for the missionary spirit and some of the missionary rules today, it was cool. Do you have any advice for keeping a good, strict budget? I love you soooo much and hope you have a great week! You're really so cool!

My week:

Okay so this week was good. It's been a little hard to come to grips with a few things, such as personal weaknesses and just little facts that come with missionary life--such as we're expected to pretty much dedicate all our time out here to the Lord--I know that may sound kind of stupid, but it takes getting used to! Haha. I have really been noticing how shy I am, or how much I don't talk to people. That's hard, too, because that would be pretty easy to change in English. Not so easy in French. :D But it's a blessing to be here. It's so green here, you wouldn't believe it Mom! 

This week we had a ton of mangez-vous (that means that we ate a lot at peoples' houses). Elder Amico has been trying to get me to lots of dinner appointments with the members so that I can know them once he gets transferred out. That's actually a question I think we both have--whether or not he'll stay another transfer. He's already been in this area for six months, so normally he'd get the boot, but he's also training me, so President and the Assistants might have him stay here, I don't know. But either way, it'll be good. I'm grateful, he's helped me have lots of fun and has been patient with me as I learn to teach. Boy there is a big difference between learning and knowing the gospel yourself and then teaching it in a presentable, organized way so that others can understand it! Whoohoo boy there is a difference. Because when I talk like I think--in other words, someone asks a question and I just start saying all the stuff in my head related to the subject--that gets really bad really fast! Haha. So maybe I should practice making little outlines and presentations, like I did all the time for Williamsburg. I never really thought of that, cool. Anyway, life is good. :D Me and Elder Harris are two blues (greenies) in an apartment, and both our companions are really experienced, Elder Amico is just barely under six months from home now, and Elder Wells goes home after next transfer. So when we do Practice Teaching, which is a little thing for companionship study where one or two elders teach other elder(s), me and Elder Harris teach something to our really experienced companions, and it's always really hard because we need to do it in French--hey maybe we should just do it in English for a while. Anyway, I always bounce around on different appendages to the topic, and sometimes Elder Wells and Elder Amico get confused about why we say something. 

Haha but man, the real-life questions that people pose are hard! Seriously. I mean, who without practice can explain to someone who is only mildly interested in the Church why they should pay tithing in 1 or 2 sentences, and make it convincing? Whew it's hard! 

In fact, I've had a question with that on my mind--does anyone have any suggestions for how to convince people, especially people on the street or at the door, why they should listen to us, what reasons we can give them? Because I  know why, but I don't know how to transfer that knowledge to them simply and yet convincingly! 

I mean, it's a valid question. If someone is being honest, and we come to their door, we really need to know how to communicate that, I think. If anyone has any suggestions with that, please please please let me know, because I would love enlightenment there. So yeah, I certainly have some things to work on. 

Also, I've felt some comfort recently with the fact that I ain't really up to speed yet in the mission--in other words, I'm not the firey-bold, Spirit-carrying, great teacher, light-in-the-eyes, talk to people lots missionary that I'd like to be just yet. But I guess that's why they call us "blues." Haha we're kind of just babies in the mission right now, in the two years we get to "live" here. Haha but it's interesting because naturally, when Heavenly Father knows we need to change, He's not just going to give us comfort, he's going to give us some direction, too! So if you feel comfort and yet feelings that you need to change or things of that nature, I think that means you're on the right track! Because life ain't always meant to be comfortable. :) Mais voilà. So that's good. 

We have two baptismal dates now!!! Whoohoo! 

Our investigator, Marie-Thérése ( you say it "Mary-Tay-rez") asked me to baptize her last week, which is super nice of her because I haven't been here all that long, and I think she wanted me to partly because I'm struggling a little bit because I'm new and learning the language and all that. :) So that's definitely something to look forward to! Her baptism is set for the 21 of February, but that can change, we'll see if she's all set by that time. She's always really nice to me. Her son, Thibault, is another one of our super-ready investigators. He's really cool. He works out and stuff, half of his living room is full of gym stuff, haha I thought Austin could appreciate that. :D Marie-Thérése is in her 50s and always gives us hot chocolate and cookies when we come over. It may prove to be difficult for her after her baptism because she technically lives in Charleroi 2 Ward, but she knows the people here in the Charleroi 1 Ward. Dad, do you have any recommendations on what to do there? I think technically she's supposed to be baptized in the 2 Ward but also, I can really see the difficulty there of going to church the first week after and not knowing anyone. But yeah she is super duper excited, haha she wanted to do it in January when we talked to her last week! Hahaha. All in good time. 

Here is a little picture of people in our ward. On the left is Brother Cocksx, my Ward Mission Leader (we are with each other a lot because there are only two missionaries per ward normally over here), and his daughter Rachelle, I think, and then Michel, our recent baptism, who feeds us like every day, then Elder Amico, then Thibault, the son of Marie-Thérése. I don't think I have a picture with Marie-Thérése really, but I will take one with her at our next lesson. 

Other than that, life is going really really well! Nobody worry about us because of the terrorist stuff that's been going on, we're fine. In fact I've gained a little bit of weight, I'm a little bit too fine. :) But there it is. We also have the baptismal date for Laisse, Michel's 8-year-old daughter, set for the 28 of February, and she's been wanting to be baptized for a long time, so that's cool, too. We got to go to a little concert put on by her music school my first week here, and she sang a solo, she's really good at singing. Grace, you would love her for that, I think. She's really nice and probably one of the most patient teachers of French to me when I ask. 

Thanks everyone! Please love and support the missionaries where you live, whether it's just a friendly honk and wave (haha, I bet the Utah missionaries get that a lot :D) or inviting them and a friend over for FHE, give them something to smile about. Because nothing is cool like great members. (Especially if they give you food. :) ) God bless you all and please remember to pray today. God loves to hear from you, honest, even if you think He doesn't. 

God bless and keep you all this week!

Love

Elder Edwards

Adam's email - January 19, 2015. An investigator asked Adam to baptize her...exciting!

Elder Adam Edwards with his first companion Elder Amico, a native French speaker from Switzerland. This is the day Adam arrived in Paris and got his first companion assignment in mid-December, 2014. 

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(Note from Becky: I was too tired to write to Adam last night so I just got a short response this time.) 

Merci Momma!

Plus you and the family can expect a small little surprise coming in the mail!!!! ....Love you so much! thank you so much for being such a great mom! I loved that picture with you and Zia and hearing about how musical she's becoming! She's really really your granddaughter, your little petite fille! Love you Mom. The Lord will watch out for you, I'm praying for you. Don't worry about me, we're okay here in Charleroi, don't be afraid of the news and stuff. It's all right. :) Love you and have a great week. 

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Dad!!! I love you!

It is great to hear from my old man! I really hope that your Sunday was good! Wow thank you sooooo much for writing to me even though it was really late! Whew I did the math there and it must have been pretty late when you were writing this, so thank you!

I'm glad that things have been going well with work. It sounds like you've been really busy with work and with family and finishing up as a bishop! I've been praying for you that you can finish up well with being a bishop. In fact I thought it would be yesterday when you would be released, and I didn't really think about it until it would have been past time, so I'm glad you still have a week. Although I understand if you are a little antsy to go. I imagine it's a lot of mixed feelings. I really appreciate what you said about I don't need to be perfect, and thanks for telling me that it took you a little while to get warmed up and really fully invested. Thanks, Dad. 

You know, I've been learning lots of things lately. Or maybe not a great number of things but big important things. It's been impressed upon me lately that, as much as we love our houses or places where we live, eventually, people leave, we move to another home, things change and the Lord calls us another way. Boy, it was fun to serve in Syracuse for a long time but it's good to be transferred here for just a couple years. Haha I can live with the concept of two years now. Anyway, the Spirit has been teaching me that I can't be sure where God will want me to live next transfer (which is coming up--the first week of February), or after my mission is over, or after I'm done with college. So really, the consistency in life shouldn't come from the house or the place itself. It should come from me. It should come from the family and the gospel. That way, I can talk and smile and laugh with the members and the investigators and the people even when I'm in a different place with a different language. That way, people can remember me with a smile in a couple years when they remember Elder Edwards who served in their ward or branch for a while. That way, it's not so hard :) when the Lord has us transfer. 

Yay for the family party! Thanks for serving the Lord so faithfully in the Church. I watched "Legacy" this week and it made me think of how you and Mom were always so dedicated to us and to the Lord and the family, so I want to be that kind of parent, too. Thanks so much for your example, Dad. Seriously. Out of the four guys in our apartment, I'm the only one whose dad went on a mission too, so I really am glad to have that example. Personally, for me, it's a miracle that I'm out here, and I've felt the joy I think you and Mom and everyone at home feel and the people on the other side of the veil who have prepared me, too, just the fact that I'm here and wearing the badge, haha. So I have no idea how I ever would have had the courage without you to lead the way. Thanks, Dad. :) I love you more deeply than I can say. 

That's funny that you could hear my voice when you were praying with the family last night! I actually had a dream that I was talking to Mom at home and I was eating pizza and she said Malia was going to come over and it was funny. Haha so I totally know what you mean! But life goes on even though we aren't right next to each other. Like you said, we can be close through the Spirit and that's enough! I love you so much Dad. Today we went shopping and I had a really really great Belgian waffle. The word for it is "gaufre," or we say it "go-fruh." MAN it was good. But I didn't buy too much because I know you're sacrificing for me back there. Thank you so much. Please know I love you all so much. 

Also, we got another baptismal date with one of our investigators! And she asked me if I would baptize her! Haha she said she figured that I was the youngest and probably hadn't baptized anybody yet so she asked me. I thought that was really nice and of course said yes! So that will be really cool. The date is February 14 but it will probably be a while after that that she's actually ready. But it's still really exciting. 

Love you so much, Dad, Mom, and family! Have a great day all! We got to go to Brussels for the third or fourth time today and it's really cool! Very narrow streets, lots of stores, and lots of really cool buildings! Okay I got to go now but God bless you all!

Love love love

Elder Edwards

son and brother :)

Adam's email, Jan 12, 2015 - Food, glorious food

Note from Becky:  Thank goodness Adam completely missed the whole Paris terrorist events last week, even though he's in the Paris mission. Thank you to all who have reached out with such big hearts caring for his safety last week. I was comforted that he is living in Belgium. I didn't edit anything out of Adam's email to me or Mike this week.

Here is a 3 minute voice recording from Adam wishing us happy new year.

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Hey Mom!!! 

I loooove you! Balderrean style salutation. :D Haha so how is life? I hope well. Life is great over here in Belgium. I'm still not perfect and still have a long ways to go, but I feel much, more at home here and the Lord is helping me just take it a day at a time. Plus, I just ate rice with spaghetti sauce and cheese. Hard to be grumpy after that. :D Also, it helps to have little recordings in my head of what you and dad would say. Haha we're so close, us three, that I actually subconsciously think of what you or Dad would say at a certain moment and say it to myself, just in my head, because it makes me feel better. Like how you always help me feel like I'm doing okay, and help me be patient with myself. Thanks Mom! Wow I loved that awesome prayer that you typed for me! Holy cow, do you pray that much for me every day? I have an awesome mom for sure! No two ways about it! 

Haha, along with that, Mom, just so you know, no matter where I'm called to go to serve the Lord or go to school or live in the rest of my life, or no matter where you and Dad and the family are, I'll always, always remember your good example and your very sweet, dear heart. I don't know if there's a day goes by when I don't think about my dear, sweet mom and how great she was to me and how she taught me everything and worked so hard with Dad right there by their side, how they are always both such a good team. I always think about the solid guy Dad is and his great example, too. Funny you should mention the cole slaw--I actually FINALLY made Kid's Favorite Salad but WITH MAYO today, and it was good :) Haha so trust me I would have helped with eating it if it was possible! Sadly it's not. But life goes on. :) Actually I think it's funny now that I whined because you made me cook lots of my own meals, or feed myself lots of the time, because back then, I didn't have to shop, I didn't really have to cook or do anything, and salads and sandwiches and leftovers just appeared magically in the fridge without any work from me! So turns out this is good for me! Haha. I think I'll learn to like taking care of myself like this. 

I very very much love your recipe book and I have already used it a couple times for eggs, rice, and the salad. Don't worry, it will be used more! :) Also, rice is the best creation ever, not doctrinally but just in matters of food, because it's so genius...you can cook it in several minutes...and then add cheese and spaghetti sauce and it is the best-tasting thing in the world. Haha anyway! Also I loved your blog post! Read it after emails last week and it was sweet! Thank you, Mom! I highlighted it up nice because I am my mother's son in the way I like to mark mah books :D. Hey thanks for the pictures and teaching me how to meal plan, too! When I eat I can think of how good Mom is because yes. I don't really know why, I guess because you kind of fed me for 19 years and continue to do so through sacrifices so I can be here!! Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

I like that blog post, Mom! Way to be supporting the prophets. That's cool with the quote for amy and Tom, too. I have faith they'll come back with time. 

Go Mom and family with all those awesome New Year's Goals! Woohooo! Yeah! Mom that's so great that the family or the kids have been getting to bed on time! That's an accomplishment for any Edwardian for sure! (Except maybe Dad but no even for him because he still loves to talk to us and serve us and other people :D). And great job eating healthier! In fact I am also working on that, too! Love you tons, Mom! 

Okay, in answer to your questions:

-Thank you for wanting to pray for our investigators, that's so nice! Our most consistent ones right now are Michel (the recent convert), Laisse ("La-ees"), Carine ("Ka-reen"), which are all one family, Michel and Carine are husband and wife; Thibault ("Tih-boat") and his mom, Marie-Thérèse ("Mary-Teh-rez"). Also, there is the Won family and Phillipe. Thanks Mom! There are lots of others but others are less consistent so that's good. Could you also pray that I can remember peoples' names? Haha it's a bit of an extra challenge in French so yeah. 

-Cool, Elder Johnson sent a letter! Oh shoot, I need to send a letter to his family for the Christmas stuff too! Whoops! Okay the letters just got here barely today, January the 12th, and they were in Salt Lake on the 6th. So probably seven days, if I figure correctly. Wow I can't believe my letters aren't there yet! Holy holy cow. I sent them five days before Christmas, if I remember right! At least a couple! Well it's okay it'll probably be better now that the holidays are over. 

-No, we don't get fed every night, but we always get to visit and teach someone, and for sure most of the time we go to someone's house, they give us some sort of food, so it's actually quite nice. Haha. People are so good to us here. Some of the common desserts or little treats are cookies, biscuits (not like we call them, they're basically little snack cookies or crackers), chocolate (people just bring out a bar to eat while we talk, it's awesome), gaufres (aka belgian waffles :D :D they eat them cold here and with sugar it's really good you can get them hot too), and that covers it. We also had a TON of crêpes with Michel and his family a few days ago, holy cow it was so hard to stop eating them... he has this amazing machine that can cook six little ones at a time and there was just this big pile and I kind of felt obligated to keep going...wow it was good. Haha! Dinners vary. Lots of the time it's much like the food we'd have at home. When people want to have a little lunch, it seems normal to have some bread and cheese and maybe a little sausage, but I've only had that once with members so I think it's more of a nice thing, for formal occasions, at least in Belgium. Also, we've had carrot potatoes, which wasn't bad, soup, which is always good, fries which are really good here in Belgium, even fried sandwiches, so in short we are well fed so I am happy :D Also we're going to try some really good meat sandwiches with Michel later this week, I'm excited!  

Thanks so much for sending that Facebook post from Kogan, Mom! That means so much to me because he's already becoming a missionary and I never would have seen it otherwise! THanks! He actually sent me a package this week with Nutella and 5 gum, I was soooo excited! Haha! That was so nice, he's such a good friend. Have you heard from Kate Powell how Tali is doing at all? Just curious. Sounds like Jayson is doing well. Wow you have been in touch with some super dee-duper people lately! Go Mom! Love you! Holy cow that's so cool. Good for you. 

Yes absolutely keep doing things to protect family, friends, and neighbors against pornography! It's really really bad! Thanks for the blog post about President Benson, too. 

Wow! Clarissa, in response to her, I'm not sure if my church is the old church or not. I have been to both current churches in Charleroi because there are two wards, I will send a picture of mine if I can and see if it's the same one. 

Mom, I love you soooo very much! Just to let you know, we're meeting with members a lot this week, so I know them and can work with them once Elder Amico is gone. He might leave after this transfer because people are normally in an area for six months, maybe 7, and he'll have been here for 6 once the next transfer day rolls around. Also, our teaching is going well, I bet we'll have a baptismal date with Thibault soon. Thanks so much for your blog post in the mail, I am always happy to read those! Please send me more if you have the time! :) But don't worry all is well here. We're taken care of, the Lord blesses us, I'm grateful for His blessings in our lives, including the blessing of eternal families, I know they're real. Hey also read Elder Ballard's section on Eternal Families and a little later on our premortal and post-mortal lives in "Our Search for Happiness," if you have a copy. It really is so good. Especially the second one, I read that last night and was just blown away. I left the appartment feeling very at peace, knowing things would be okay, with that great perspective. It makes sense that days and weeks and even months and years go by quickly if our little life on this earth is just a thread! Thanks for praying for me with opening up to people! I know I will, it just takes a little bit of patience and the Lord's help and humility. 

God bless you Mom! I'll pray for you with the preparation for your General Women's talk and the family new year goals. 

I'll send some pictures, too. Shoutout to GABE my LITTLE BROTHER who got his Patriarchal Blessing this week!! Whoo! And Michael from my ward who has been ordained an Elder this week! Gooo Cherry Village! 

Rock the missionary work, folks! Don't hesitate to study the scriptures every day! You are missing out on so much if you don't! Seriously, no lie! God bless you everyone. 

Love you Mom!!

Elder Edwards

​Also, Mom and Dad, sorry if I seem needy I don't mean to. I just love all these things from home and all these letters and blog posts. :D Love you! 

 Remember our awesome vacation, all that family time and reading Pres. Monson's biography together? We have an awesome family and an awesome prophet!! :)

Note from Becky: This is our family temple vacation in October, seeing 14 temples from Payson to Rexburg. This is the Provo City Center temple. Adam was trying out his new mission camera. We were all dressed up for baptisms except Gabe, who kinda can't stand church clothes any longer than necessary. 

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Hey Dad!! 

I got your letter and Mom's blog post today!! WOOHOOOO!!  Thanks for always showing love for me dad, and being so consistent with your emails! I always look forward to reading your email! :) Also any letter, stamp, hair, or other molecule from home is always appreciated, too, so when I get two letters today, it was like YES! Haha. Thank you so much for teh pictures, Dad! They did make me smile. I loved seeing that family picture, and it'll be good to have that photo of us in South Carolina. 

I have been doing great, Dad, how have you been? Yeah, it's cloudy and rainy a lot here, but it's not so bad. I'm just glad it's not as cold as it is in Utah :D Sorry. :D You're right, the Lord sustains us no matter the weather. 

Woohooo! Go Dad and ward in missionary work! That's so great, I can tell you've put more effort there, Dad! Haha that makes me happy that you would up the anty with missionary work because I'm out here! That sounds great with the Garveys and Deckers. Boy I'm glad you have some good missionaries there, too. That's actually a line in Preach My Gospel... it's something like, "Ask yourself, am I being a blessing or a burden to the bishop?" Haha we're actually going to eat with our bishop, Bishop Coudeville. That will be awesome! Sorry but yes, keep up the efforts there! I know that every less-active person who becomes strong and active again sort of counts as a baptism, too--not that they necessarily are re-baptized, but just because it's someone who was somewhat lost and they're back again! So if it helps to think of it that way, that's very true, I think. 

Woooooooohooo! Go Gaber and the Patriarchal Blessing! I can't wait to hear about it, I'll send him an email if he hasn't sent me one this week. I hope it was cool. And good for Mike Usle, will you tell him I'm excited for him? Wow there are going to be lots of those ordinations going on in the next few months, I expect! Haha yayyy! Go Dad getting the missionaries ready! There's actually one member who's my age here, Isaak, he's really really cool and reminds me a lot of Zack Stanger because he's a very laid-back, accepting guy. He's thinking of going on a mission, and Elder Amico and I are working with him to help him want to go. :D I talked to him about it last time we stopped by and it's lots of fun to do that, because you know if you helped someone else go on a mission, you helped a bunch of other people, too! So think how cool it is that you've helped at least, what, 8 or 9 people go just as a bishop! No, probably more like 12 to 14! Wow! Go Dad! Not that you need to get proud because of that, and I know you won't, but that's really a great thing! I Hope you know that. And I'll be honest, it would have been very, very much harder for me to get out here if you hadn't gone before me first, because I knew that if you could do it, I could too. 

Thanks for serving our blessed USA, our country, Dad! You know, people kind of make fun of America here, which is okay, it's not really anything much, but I will always hold our country dear in my heart! Thank you for telling me about the insurance, too! Do you have any idea what things are covered internationally, just so I can know, in case I need new glasses or a doctor's appointment? Thank you Dad! You're awesome! Haha, it's funny, one of the things I've been thinking about lately is just that I miss home, but really, the things that I miss the most are things like family. But also, I was reading Elder Ballard's "Our Search for Happiness," (which is an amazing read, by the way) and he talked about eternal families and how people who have the gospel and a testimony of it, and the blessings of its ordinances, really are the richest people already, even if we sacrifice for the Church or for families, like you and Mom always do! So thanks. You might also be interested to know, we talked a little bit, Elder Harris and Elder Wells and I, about being a dad and how cool it'll be. Haha I'm kind of worried I'll be a boring dad, but I'm trying to have fun when it's a good time, like dancing around in the kitchen to music or whatever. Haha! I hope my mission makes me a really good dad for my wife and kids when I get them. Which, in case you were wondering, I'm not planning on waiting more than a year or two! Let me say that again, if it's all right with the Lord, it will be within a year or two of when  I get home, I think. Haha, wouldn't want to delay you playing with more and more grandkids, right, Dad? Haha I guess I shouldn't make promises, but that's the plan right now, just so ya know. :)

I hope that continues to go great with the food storage! I will pray for miracles for your work this week too! 

Cool, it's good to do scripture study by topics sometimes! Yeah, we can always endure to the end! I listened to a little of Pres. Uchtdorf's "The INfinite Power of Hope" from the November 2008 Ensign, it was really good. I know God lives, too. He shows it to me by His promptings and the love and happiness I feel every day. And I'll get there, I'll open up to people, I know I will, because I know with him, I can do it. Thank you sooo much for your prayers, and please know that I pray for you every day! Lots of times when me and Elder Amico say prayers together we pray for each others' families, too, so there's also a Swiss missionary who prays for you guys! Elder Amico said thanks and smiled when you thanked him. Haha he has actually covered some of my costs until I could pay him back when people haven't taken my card here, or when I didn't have enough money. So he's great. I love you Dad! I know angels are taking care of you! Probably especially the dear angels like Grandpa Bush, how close you were with him! I feel close to him, too. 

If it's not too much to ask, would you send me a little recording with one or two of stories from his life he told you? I'd love that. 

God bless and keep you, Dad! I will send some more details from the week in my letter with Mom. Until next time! 

Sincerely,

Elder ADam Edwards

​:D Elder Harris bought some escargot at the Marche de Noel (Christmas Walk) in Brussels, where we were three weeks ago for P-Day. I had a couple, too. Not bad. A little weird, but not bad. 

​

On a walk with our ward mission leader, Frère Cockx, left, his daughter Charlotte, recent convert Michel, Elder Amico, and Thibault, investigator. :DI actually had a really good, just down-to-earth conversation with Thibault at church yesterday. It was really good because it was one of the first I've had in French (okay and some English because he speaks some English and I speak some French and we kind of have to work to understand each other haha). But there it is, it was just really fun. 

Also THANK YOU KOGAN FOR YOUR NUTELLA YOU ARE THE MAN. The end. 

Adam's letter Jan. 5, 2015

Hey Mom!!! I'm so glad to hear about you and how life is going. That was a great email. 

I'm so happy you are all working on genealogy! Isn't it fun? I think it's a good thing for your "Type-3-ness" too because I bet you like to see that progress and feel like you did something, like 5 initiatories, for example. I showed Elder Amico the cool picture with you, Dad, and the twins (or "jumos" as you call them here), and he thought it was cool! So there it is. 

Yay for the New Year! Wow isn't that fun. Haha! Yes it's always a great goal to set to go to bed on time. Oh yay! Start reading books aloud as a family! That is such a good one. I like that. Haha. I think there are a couple moments of my childhood that I will always remember with you working away at your desk or Dad reading to me. I always like to remember those little bonding moments. Haha! Hey your Type 3 is good. Speaking of types, my Type 2 is rather rampant. Poor Elder Wells cleaned my desk himself last week because it was driving him a little crazy. I tried to convince him I'm really organized when I want to be, but I don't think he was very convinced. But oh well. :) Oh I loved the pictures of Zia, thanks a bunch!! Of the Christmas tree, too, that was fun to see. 

I'm really glad that Grandpa and Dad were able to give Grandma B. a blessing. I'm sorry to hear about her back. I hope that the news is good tomorrow. But no matter what, don't lose hope, okay Mom? It's all going to be okay somehow. I feel a lot of the Lord's comfort every day, probably thanks a lot to the prayers of you and Dad, and I know that comfort is available to you, too. It really is a blessing to have the gospel and such a great family. Eternal families are so awesome! Hey and look, miracles DO happen, Edwardians made it to bed on time! Haha. Actually the mission has been really good for me that way. I'm far from perfect with bedtime but it definitely helps to have these rules and obligations!

:D I love the little Zia story with the dog treats. And "Daw, daw!" One thing the little one certainly does not lack is personality. It will be interesting to see how her little personality develops with time. Holy cow, she really is going to be talking like crazy before long! How are Malia and Austin doing? I hope they're doing well. Also, how is little Brielle? Is the pregnancy still going well?

Also, did you get my letters yet? I wrote them to everyone living at our home right now. Haha wow it was before Christmas that I sent them I hope it doesn't take that long! But if so, it's okay. :)

That's so cool what you said about the journey and the process of revelation. I think it's interesting, because another thing that delay, or that gradual change requires is self-control. You can't, for example, just go break a commandment while you're waiting for revelation on why it's important in your life. You need to be faithful and obey it. So that's really good. 

Thanks a bunch for the recording and pictures! I will be sure to listen to it, that sounds awesome! Yes bishops for sure can bear powerful testimonies. In fact, we had a little lunch with our new bishop and his wife and our old bishop and his wife in the Charleroi 1 Ward, and it was really good, by the way, we had lots of nice yummy cheese which is very addicting haha, Wow there is one kind in particular that is really, really good. It takes some adjusting to, but yes it is scrumptious. :D Also cheese stinks a lot if you let a lot of good cheese sit in a bag for hours, in case anyone had any questions about that. 

This week, we had a great New Year's, we got to hang out with Sister Beauvois, who is from Mexico (you say her name "Boe-vwah"), and her family, and we had a lot of Mexican food, and the dad of the house, who was Sister Beauvois' son-in-law, I believe, reminded me a lot of Tony, he was a really cool guy. 

Also, thanks soooo much to Grandma and Grandpa Edwards, Grandpa and Grandma Balderree, the Jimenez, and any and all other ornaments I received for the Christmas tree! I loved it sooo much, it helped me stay close to my family and remember what I am here for, so thank you Mom and everyone! Shout-out to Aunt Megan too, there is a really funny member here who reminds me a lot of you, haha! Her name is Gabriella. 

Besides that, it's been a cool week because we've received a lot of referrals, when people give us someone to talk to about the gospel. And I've been learning about self-control a lot, including about how much to eat, especially when cheese is involved! Haha Dad, you and me and Mom have got to spend a couple days in Europe sometime because you would just love all this cheese and chocolate. And it's normal to eat a pretty good dessert after every dinner, too! Holy cow the members are so good to us. 

We have some good work to do this week because our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Cockx, and our Bishop have some people for us to visit. It'll be sweet. It's cool to receive guidance from the Preach My Gospel videos and Preach My Gospel about how missionary work is supposed to roll. The application is the harder part. But I know that with the Lord, we can work through the members as much as possible to find people to teach. So to everyone reading this, if the missionaries don't have anything to do in your little town or stake or ward, maybe try and help them out! They will love you. Invite a friend to a FHE, or things like that. Here, it's a common idea to just invite them to a sports night or things like that that are really fun and non-threatening to help them see that we're good, normal people and that the church actually isn't a cult and all that. :) 

I love you all so much! I thank you all for your prayers and thoughtful emails and letters. I hope the Lord blesses you for the great way you support me. I know He looks after the people who help and bless the missionaries. 

Love you all!!!! Have a great and Spirit-filled week! Also, go to the Book of Mormon when you have spiritual questions! And don't go to the Internet! Haha go where the truth can be found!

I'm far from perfect, I really need to talk to more people here, but I know the Lord will bless us when we ask, pray, study the scriptures and words of the prophets, and act in faith. I know the gospel is true!

Until next time!

--Elder Adam Edwards

P.S. Sorry there are no pictures this week, I will remember next week!

Also, please tell Grandma B that I love her, thanks to her and Grandpa for all the support, love, and help for my whole life, and I'm praying for her, and the Lord will look out for her? Thanks, love you!

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Hey Dad! I love you tons! I'm glad to hear about your life, thank you so much!

I'm glad that you were able to have a simple, low-key Christmas. That was probably very enjoyable for you, I hope. Hey that's cool! Thanks for thinking of me. I've thought about you during the holidays here too, don't you worry. But you know, Dad, it's really cool to feel the Lord turning my heart away from home so much and turning it more toward here and the people here. And you're right, New Year's is a great time to reflect and be thankful. 

Haha! Go Zia and her little kicking instinct! She is certainly my niece. I will always claim her as such. :) Although I must give credit to the fact that Malia is a soccer player, too. But yes she is still my niece. :)

That sounds like it was a great meeting, Dad! I hope that you really enjoy the last month of your bishop-hood! I know it must be painful for you to let go of such a dear calling, or of the close relationship you have with the people in the ward. Not the relationship, but the way the relationship works, I guess. You've really sacrificed so much, it amazed me many times to hear you get up in the morning to go to meetings while I could still sleep for two more hours. I hope I can be that kind of example to my sons one day. 

I loved your testimony a lot, thank you so much for sharing it. Beyond that, thanks for sharing it all the time at home and being the kind of dad I could look up to and emulate. I don't know what I would have done without that! 

Yay I will look forward to those articles and pictures! Thank you sooo much! Also Dad, just so you know, I hear things you would say all the time in mymind. Haha you were such a good role model always for me that I think I have an automatic "What Dad would say" program in my head. Haha!

The P-day has been good, thanks! I hope you have a good sleep tonight, Dad! And a good day of work, I hope Court was good. Be strong! I love you all so much!

I feel like the Lord really does have a lot of power to work with imperfect people. That's the funny part--if he wanted to, he could send angels to teach everyone on the earth the gospel, but then that wouldn't give us the privilege of learning and growing as we serve and teach. What a big blessing, then, it is to be out here serving as a missionary. And Charleroi, Belgium really is awesome. I look forward to the changes I'll get from the mission. I want to be a little less soft, a little more willful, to speak up when something is wrong, or when something needs to be done. I also want to automatically forget about myself and help others when necessary. I love you, Dad. I'm so grateful to be in this beautiful country. Even just since last week I feel much more at home here. Heck, I even understood the flow of a French conversation today! Haha! It's awesome to have you as a sort of running partner as I do this mission thing. Love you, Dad. Have a great week. Next time you see Nate McClure, would you thank him for me for working with my imperfections and the mistakes I made? I think the job with ServiceMaster was a good preparation for the mission out here. 

Love you tons!!

Until next week, I close mine epistle to my beloved father Michaelonhi,

Elder Adam Grant Edwards :)

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[In response to the recording of Dad's possibly last testimony as a bishop]

Yes it worked! that was awesome, thank you sooo much Mom! That testimony was great, Dad. Yayy it was so cool to hear your voice again! Woohoo! Hey Mom, would you send me a little voice recording about when you were a new mom and all the adjustments you had to go through? For some reason I think that would be akin to the adjustments I'm going through--not exactly the same but somewhat. :) Love you so much. I'm just starting now to realize what a great blessing my good parents were to teach me to love the Lord, follow the gospel, keep the standards of the church with media and music, to eat healthy, even to keep a budget. I'm so grateful. Nothing else could have given me so much. Thank you, Mom and Dad. Thank you. 

I love you so much. Have a great week, okay?

Love,

Elder Edwards

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[In response to my email telling him Grandpa Jim got going on family history and temple work thanks to Adam's example.] 

Wow that's so cool! THanks for sending that to me Mom! I'm happy that other people in the family are doing so well with Family History Work! In fact, they train us to use it here to strengthen investigators and recent converts. Also great for strengthening members! Woohoo! Go Grandpa! 

Dec 29, 2014 - Adam's post-Christmas Email - maybe two baptisms soon

Hi Mom!!!

Holy cow, I loved being able to Skype with you too! Wasn't that so great? Such a great opportunity. I told a couple members it was the best day of my life. I met a really nice member, Brother Wery, yesterday, and he asked, "Are you sad that you'll miss a call at the end of your mission in two years?" And I was like, "NO!" Haha I am really glad I got to Skype in these first three months here. 

Mom, I love you sooo much!! Wow thanks for being so kind and letting me talk a lot on the call. Sorry, I could tell there were lots of other things you wanted to say. It really was so good to see everyone. I just missed you all SOO bad when I saw you all at home and I wasn't there! Haha. It's okay though, like you said, the Lord is helping us get through it. For that I am very grateful. 

This week, we had a few lessons with members and less-actives, and we also had maybe a couple lessons with investigators. Normally we have more, it's just kind of hard on Christmas week. But we also took a walk in the woods of Belgium, and it made me think of the muddy roads and things that soldiers had to traverse in WWII, made me think Dad would be interested in that! But it was so pretty. It's weird, because here, at least before it snowed a couple days ago, everything was still green! The grass wasn't even yellow! I think it's because it's so wet, rainy, and probably generally not as cold as Utah, not quite. It was very pretty! I'll send some pictures. Also, this week, we are hoping to have Thibault commit to a baptism date, and his mom, who has been coming to church activities very faithfully this week, apparently is going to talk to the bishop about being baptized, too! How cool is that? So we're hoping to have two baptisms next month, which is really good for Europe. We're really really blessed by the Lord. 

As far as a little gift for Frere Cockx [the ward mission leader who had Adam over for Christmas dinner and Skyping] I think he would be grateful for anything, even just a card. By the way, I used two of your cards already! You could send him a little bit of American candy, if you want! He'd probably think that was kind of fun. He said thanks for raising me. 

And hey, yes, mail me that post! Yeah I can't go on blogger or non Church-approved sites, so I would loooove that! (About the most _____ scripture studies). I loved that Elder Scott quote, too, thanks Mom! You're really good at supporting me out here. Just please don't forget about me, okay? I really really love your emails and stuff. So I'm putting you and Dad first today! Haha there it is, please don't forget me! 

And wow Mom, that awesome opportunity to speak at BYU! Isn't that cool? I'll have to brag about that to Elder Wells and Elder Harris. My mom is so cool. Hey and you can tell me all about it when we get to call again on Mother's Day! I really hope the Lord helps you with the preparation for all that! Will you let me know how all that is going?

Thanks for reminding me to be grateful. Thanks for reminding me that I have great strengths, too! I really appreciate that, Mom! You know what, I bet you can get gifts of languages and music in the next life! it's probably lots easier there too with a perfect body and stuff, I imagine. In fact I'd be happy to teach you some there if the Lord permits! That would be awesome. Haha I've read a lot about eternal families lately because suddenly now that I'm away from you all, that eternal truth is much more important to me! I believe that it is true!

Loved the email, don't apologize, I love the long ones! Haha every time you want to do it! 

Also, I did think of something I would really like to have from home. Mom, would you send me one of those little angels from your room, the little 8" ones, so I can look at it and remember that I have my angel mom back at home, that I'm being loved and supported? And I would just thank you and Dad so much for all the gifts and food and treats you sent me, they are soooo good!! I love them. I love those ties. If it's not too much to ask, would you ask Dad for me, so I don't forget, to send me the little picture of us walking toward the pool in South Carolina, or maybe one of his favorite quotes or stories from his mission? I believe that picture should still be in my room above my mirror. 

I love you all sooooo much! I will work on being grateful! 

Have a wonderful and truly amawing week! 

Love,

Elder Edwards

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Hey Dad!! 

Holy cow, I love you soo much!! Thanks soooooo much for the awesome Skype call on Christmas, it was really so great! For some reason it was especially good I think to talk to you and Mom. It was so good to see your face and hear your voice. Maybe it's because I miss being able to hear your voice and ask you for advice and things. But it's okay. Sorry I'm so sentimental. :) I just love you a lot! 

Wow, that sounds like a good sacrament meeting and church in general!  And that's so cool that you're still studying in preach my gospel, I really enjoy the concentrated truth, too. It's interesting, some missionaries don't really take it all that seriously, or they think it's just for the United States, but I still really love it. 

Dad, I'm so glad you've been able to have that great family time. I really am.  You really have been great Dad! I really enjoy looking back on those times together in the Priest's Quorum, too. We did some good service together, didn't we? :D It doesn't really seem all that long ago when I was enjoying it right there with you! But I learned today in study that it's not healthy to look back on the past and want to live in it when that just can't be done. So I'm going to try and stay busy doing good things, like you do, and helping other people, like you do and like the Savior does perfectly. I think that will help the time go faster and also make my mission enjoyable! I miss those family parties, and those sledding family trips, but you know, I guess it's just a testimony that we should love the things life brings every moment, because in a few months or a few years, things will be a little different, and we'll miss it! But also, we don't need to be sad. Boy did we make some great memories over the years, Dad! Like all those great talks we had, things like that. Also for all the awesome advice you gave me, all those camping trips, when we went shooting, everything I learned from you, when we read together. It's funny, when life changes in a big way, you look back on the things that seemed mundane and unimportant like FHE, but then you realize that was really the core, the most i,portant things you were doing! 

Thank you soooo much for the Christmas presents, I loved them! I love you soo much Dad! May the Lord bless your work and your week and you for all the good things you do! 

Love,

elder Edwards

your good and faithful son!