May 25, 2015 Adam's letter - Asking inspired questions while tracting

Hey Mom! Hey Dad! Hey family and friends and loved ones! 

Guess what? I HAVE THE BEST FAMILY EVEEEERRRRRRRRRRR

Literally. Plus, we all have the gospel, we know where we're headed, Christ is leading the Church, and though rough times come in life, with a little grit; a consistent direction, and a lot of faith, the Savior will guide us through. 

Had a few cool experiences this week. Elder Williams, who is in his 6th transfer, has been feelign to push people a little more to be interested by asking more inspired questions, even if they're not comfortable sometimes. After all, picture this: two white-shirt, tie-wearing guys show up at your door and all of a sudden ask you if you believe in Jesus Christ. Not really something that happens every day! :D People kind of get uncomfortable sometimes in such situations. But the Lord knows how to reach them. My former idea of street contacting and porting or going door-to-door was more about asking, "Hello, Monsieur or Madame, are you interested?" Rather than, "Hello, Monsieur or Madame, are you a child of God?" or some similar inspired question like that, and then having a conversation like that. You see, I'm starting to realize, the key is to get the people talking. You get them talking, good things start happening. So there you go, the Lord is teaching me and Elder Williams how to ask inspired questions. Went porting yesterday in a cute little neighborhood in a town called Châtelet, pronounced "Chat-lay." Fun times. Other than that, the work is going good. The week went by pretty fast. I'm happy to say that the Lord is taking good care of us, we have lots of people to see this week that just ended and the week that we're just about to start. Everyone back home love your great America. But I love Belgium very, very much, too. BOY it is so green!!!! It's SO pretty. We had a nice ride to and from a sweet little fort today in the town of Dinant, Belgium. BOY sweet little citadel, it stands 100 meters above the river level and it is pretty sweet. Will put a couple pictures.

Beyond that, it's been a good week. We now have two progressing investigators, Marc, who is a very solid, Christian, believing guy, and Nancy, who is the adult daughter of a solid member we have in our ward. We didn't really have any a few weeks ago, so we feel blessed. 

I love you all so much! Thanks for the great support, Mom and Dad, that you give me on not being too hard on myself. I guess sometimes it's easy to get wrapped up in that. We'll have interviews with President this Wednesday by the way at Zone Conference in Brussels so that'll be cool. Will let you know how that goes next week. 

 

Fail :D

Beautiful Catholic cathedral

Ready, aim...

Dad, ho^pe you like this one! 

In World War I, Belgium, or actually France, had the fort, and then Germany came with a lot of soldiers and took it. The U.S.A. then came and took the fort back. It's impressive to me that it can be taken much at all. I think it's by virtue of the fact that, though there are 100 meters down to the town and river below, there is a plateau on the other side of it that makes it accessible to enemy troops. Really interesting tour of it. Wish you could've been there Mom and Dad! 

I love you all so much. I think that's awesome that you're doing missionary work ofy ou're own. God bless you in everything you do and say that's good. People aren't perfect; but Christ is perfect, and the way He guides and leads his church today through living, modern-day prophets is amazing. Never doubt it. We're part of this great, marvelous latter-day work. I'm learning how to give my best out here. I'm noticing that it helps to do a couple things:

1. Gratitude, focusing on the things that are good, true, and going well
2. Realizing my weaknesses but not letting them take from my strenghts and the bounteous good things in life
3. Whenever I start to feel really sad or depressed or low, I tell myself, "You know, I think this is just my stomach telling me that I need some protein, not a true feeling of despair or soemthing I need to let get in the way." That really helps keep life in order. Naturalyl, we have ups and downs, but we can be happy through both of them, or relatively so. We'll also be sad sometimes, but the joy of the gospel should always be present, I think. 

We were able to visit at the home of two great, elderly members, a  brother and sister, who are in their 80s or maybe even 90s. They remember the days of WWII, which is amazing to me. We talked to them a little about it on our last visit when Elder Baldwin was here. They said it was very hard, very hungry times, nobody could eat a whole much. But the missionaries came knocking on their door in the 1960s, when they already had a nice, burgeoning family, and they accepted the gospel message. From that, and also others of their relatives who were baptized, we now have several strong members of our ward, many of whom make up a very key part of the youth in our Charleroi 1 Ward! So never be afraid to beileve that a little missinoary work can't change the wordl. I know it can. 

Also, we have a couple family home evenings tonight we'll be going to, we have members to go with us to one ni particular, and then to a less-active family's house called the Mangunza family. Woohoo! Will be lots of fun. 

Love you lots my family! I hope this was a good weekly email. You are the bright joy of my life, along with the gospel! Don't know what I'd do without you and your support! It's a living thing, the love that exists in our family. God loves you, too, the gospel is true, never doubt it. God bless you each and every day this week, even through the hard moments. 

I bear testimony the gospel is true. It was great to read Grandpa Bush's Patriarchal Blessing. Also, Mom, thanks for reminding me to do that, thatt's a great thing to do. God bless you, I love you, haev a great week. 

Till next time! 

Sincerely, Elder Adam grant Edwards

May 4, 2015 - Adam's letter - getting Ipads, excited to call on Mother's Day

I included a little US flag in Adam's Easter package, so I'm assuming these boys are doing the Pledge of Allegiance. 

This is when our Easter package arrived a few days AFTER Easter!  Darn it, I better get on the ball sooner next time! 

Hey Dad! Hey Mom! 

It's great to hear from you, thanks for your letters, it's always a joy to see your emails right there on the little email inbox! 

[Note from Becky: We are all excited about Adam calling us on Mother's Day!] 

Yes, so I will probably be calling you about 4:30 or 5, as Elder Williams will be doing his call around 3:30. Does that work all right for you? We still need to make sure that's okay with Michel, so if that changes, I'll let you know in an email, but it should work. I'm really excited to talk to you all too! I'll try and keep it together this time, haha! Weird, I just passed my 6-month mark this last Wednesday on Transfer Day! Crazy, huh? 

Haha, I CANT BELIEVE I'm still here!! [Adam stayed in his first area for one more transfer.] I'm really glad you and Mom were happy I'm still here, it's cool in some ways, but it's weird too. Every single time I've looked at the paper to see if I'd be living the town, I thought I would be! And I still haven't! Haha! Actualyl Elder Baldwin left, he's now a Zone Leader in the far-away city of Rennes in France, which includes Normandy, the site of D-Day. Man, it's just weird, you know, Dad? Because I guess I expected my mission to be more like yours, and you only stayed this long in one of your areas, and that was your last one, if I remember right, as a zone leader! Pretty crazy, right? Haha thanks for encouraging me, though, I appreciate it. It just feels like a long time! 

Wow, glad to hear about such great news from you and Mom! Mom, you realyl rocked that women's conference, didn't you? I k now you must have felt realyl stressed and nervous when you got up there to speak, but I hope it wasn't too bad. You looked pretty at home up there to me, I guess I've always seen you up there like that in big speaking arrangements, though. I understand though, this was especially big, congratulations Mom! And Happy early Mother's Day! Haha we've talked to a couple people abuot how we only get to call home a couple times a year, and sometimes, they're like, "what?!" But it's okay, I'm glad it's not more, not to offend you, I'd just be a mess all the time. I'm going to try and keep it together for this next video call. 

Also, I'll be getting an iPad in a few weeks, but the rules for emails stay the same, I can only email on Monday. You can send me news or whatever if you like during the week, but I can't respond until Monday. So you can just keep it at one email per week, that's good. 

This week has been kind of weird starting up another trasnfer in Charleroi, but also it's been pretty good, we had Samedi Sports and a couple raelly cool members came, Kevin and Sébastien, and that was really fun. Plus, it's the birthday of one of the only active young men in the ward today, it's Ezéchiel's birthday, so that'll be cool for him.

Today, we went into a big cathedral in the center of town, it's actually just a few hundred yards from where we do our emails. 

I feel like the Lord always has things in mind for us. Grateful for the lessons he teaches us. Missionary work sure always isn't easy, but then, life isn't either. And it's all about attitude, if we have a good attitude, the Lord will help us keep going. God bless all you, my wonderful family! Wow I wish I coudl talk to you and stuff like normal like we could before, but it's okay, it's about time I grow up and learn to take my place in the world! 

WOOHOOO for Malia! What a GREAT day to graduate from college with a bachelor's and a gerat degree, too! What cute nieces I have! Haha and what a cool brother in Austin! 

Love you guys, I better go, but I'll include a few pictures here. Till next time!