Oct. 24, 2016 - Adam's LAST LETTER! "Final Episle"

Well, folks, looks like this is it.

It's been a glorious ride, complete with highs and lows. I've met tons of great people on the way.

Never could have imagined it would have been like this two years ago.

I want you all to know that God is aware of your moments of suffering and hardship. Nothing can help more than a prayer.

I updated my icloud account Mom and Dad. :)

I hope you guys love the Lord with allyour heart. The whole law and all the prophets amd commandments are given so we coild do this. Any sacrifice the Lord asks us to make will help us ultimately do that more and more perfectly.

I testify this gospel is true.
The peophet and apostles are called of God.
Never doubt what you know.
Be temple worthy.
Obey the commandments.
Never let go.
Never let yourself thing you're not worth another effort, or that you've sinned beyond Christ's reach, because that's not true.

God bless and protect and teach the French and the Belgians to love and obey Him.

Come unto Christ, who "[stands] with open arms to receive you."

Love you all.

See you Thursday family. See you soon friends.


Drop mic

Edwards out fellas :)

 #forever

Oct. 17, 2016 - Adam's short letter - He'll be home in 10 Days! l

Hey guys! 

This week, we went to Soissons, Beauvais, Creil, and of course were also in Compiegne. Frere Touzet came the second time in a row to church, we will also see him tomorrow. We were able to go to a sweet cathedral in Noyon today, it was absolutely beatiful, I loved it. We also did service with Sister Mendoza and her husband, Sony; taught Chantal; met a woman named Alex and gave her a Book of Mormon; and visited the LeBras family. There you go, the condensed history of this week! I love you all and think of you a lot. love you tons. :) :) can't wait to see you guys again. If you want to learn about being a righteous man, read the books of Samuel and kings. Good stuff. First and great commandment. All the other ones are made to bring to to pass. 

Love you guys and talk to you soon!

Elder Edwards' Letter (He Returns in 17 Days!)

Hey family!

Well this was a great week. We were able to have a really good
appointment with two less actives in Soissons this week. They both
went well and both brothers expressed a desire to do more to come
closer to their Heavenly Father. One of them even came to church
yesterday!! WHOOHOO home run that is what I'm talking about!
#lessactiveworkdoit

The rest of the week, from Thursday on, we had interviews with
President. That went well. Was pretty short, which was a bummer, but
it's okay. Haha I'll bring more questions for him next time. Then we
took the train to Troyes for exchanges, where we ate with the Faria
family. 

The next day, Friday, we taught Denise, a lady that I taught
and who was baptized later, with Frere Rochette!!!love that guy! And
then we ate at Sister sopi's house, did a bit of service for her, too.
Then we were took the train to Paris, and me and Burgoyne went to the
St. Ouen elders' apartment to stay the night. Elders Rollins and
Dickson, cool guys. 

Saturday, we went to a finding day in Charleville-Mezieres, way up in France right next to Belgium. We did  that, and I just realized that's the closest I've been to Charleroi or Brussels since I left there in June 2015. Haha wow that's weird.

The Lord trusts us, fellow missionaries, with the sacred calling of
bringing his children home. Don't ever abuse that trust. It's so
important.

Eery moment, evey second you're doing missionary work, contacting,
porting, well, it's just a moment of hardship or of building strength.
If that person doesn't accept you, it's okay. Just move on to the next
field ready to harvest. At worst, you are, as the farmer who prayed
God with faith, preparing for rain in your area. Do it!! They can't
resist, or disbelieve your words, if they feel your love and God's
love for them.

Okay love you guys a ton! Hope you're doing well.

Had a great miracle yesterday contacted two sweet potential ladies.
Really cool. Both French too!!

P.S. Gabe--maybe we can pillow fight with the old pillows. Excited to
wrestle. :) love you Grace, Hyrum, and Gabe, and everyone! Loved the
pictures mom. Thanks. Keep me up to date on plans or things you want
to do when I get home.

Love,

Elder Edwards

October 3, 2016 - Adam's Letter

Hey family!

This week I will be brief, but I would just like to thank you for

writing me and I love you all and I am excited to see you soon.

Sounds like you guys are busy at home!

This week, a lot of fun and exciting things happened. Among them:

- Ate at the Joly family's house Monday night to celebrate Elder

Burgoyne's 19th birthday

- Taught Karine twice and she came to conference (PROGRESSING

INVESTIGATOR WHOOO)

- Went to Chantal's house Tuesday night, the night of Elder Burgoyne's

birthday, and her non-member daughter came, too! That was pretty

great. We were able to talk about the Restoration a bit with her. We

are so proud of the great member-missionary work Chantal is doing.

- Wednesday, went to district meeting and went to Creil afterwards.

Had tons of adventures there. :) haha. Had a less-active appointment

scheduled, but walked like a solid half-hour from the train station to

get to a rather interesting area :) liked it though and see this huge,

big bat. Oh yeah. Bat means building by the way. And we went all the

way up to the 16th floor and he wasn't there. And now you're asking

why I'm doing this whole narrative. Well I don't know either hope it

was an enjoyable journey. :)

- Wednesday night we ate at the bishop's house for no apparent reason.

THat's great as always!

- Thursday, went to Soissons for several hours. Made friends with some

hood teenagers and they were actually pretty cool. :) haha they took a

selfie with us, they thought we were cool because we were American.

- Friday, we taught Alexandre, who became a progressing investigator

as well!! And Karine for the second time. We also ate at the Gaydu

family's house for no reason. That was fun. Frere Gaydu is a chill

guy.

- Saturday, we did weekly planning and watched conference.

- Sunday, we watched conference. And that's all. :D haha it was great.

This week, we are going to be out of town a lot. We have district

meeting and interviews with President on Thursday, an exchange with

Troyes on Friday, and a zone-wide finding day on Saturday. Plus we'll

be visiting several of the other big towns in our area.

It's going well folks! Thanks again for the package mom and dad. I

love the protein and the protein bars are really good. :)

Love you guys a ton! Have a good week!

P.S. If any of you guys had any letters or packages to send...better

get it done quick or no guarantees I'll get it haha.

Ok love ya bye!

Elder Edwards

September 26, 2016 -- Week 2 Already over?! Napoleon's palace, and 2 New Investigators In

Hey guys!! :) 

Thanks for your letters, Mom and Dad! I love you and hope you are doing well. 

A spirit of dedication to member work, and to our members has pervaded this week for me. I have also felt pushed to call and contact many people we haven't seen in a while. I finished the week in a spirit of love and happiness. It was a good week. Let me tell you the main events and how it went. 

Monday: We were able to see the Duvin family, and that visit went well. 

Tuesday: We went to District Meeting

Wednesday: We went to Paris again. Elder Burgoyne did his first year legality with the other greenies, and I contacted in several hours with Elder Hone! It was a pretty positive experience. Then went to eat at a random invitation to the Joly's house. That was great! 

Thursday: Went to see Sister Mendoza, a Peruvian sister I've mentioned before, for the first time with Francois. Also met with Chantal. Then ate at KFC and Francois paid! Haha that was spectacular! 

Friday: Had a great member present lesson and second lesson with Laure! Mentioned her before with Elder Libby. She stopped us on the street a few weeks back. We managed to have a second appointment with her, which was great! Francois was kind enough to be present. We talked about faith in God, how she shouldn't doubt, etc. She has a lot of faith, especially for someone who grew up without any exposure to it at all. She's making some  good efforts in the right direction. Thanks to that second appointment, and the Good Lord, she is now a new investigator.

Saturday: We met with Alexandre, an investigator, and his girlfriend,  a member of the Church in the Versailles  ward. We talked about the  three most important things he needs to do in order to  know the Gospel is true: pray, read the Book of Mormon, and come to church. He has taken a few lessons a year ago in a different ward, but as it's the first time he met with us, we counted him as a new investigator as well. The best part is, he called us! He reached out! We didn't contact him in any way. So that was a big miracle. We'll be meeting with him again this week. 

Sunday: Had a great day at church, weekly planning, and making a list of less-active members whose addresses are up-to-date. 

There you are, family! 

Another couple cool things I started doing this week: 

- Made a little "Member Missionary Work Experience" sheet for the missionaries in our ward. On it, we write all the things and people our members are working to share the gospel with. That way, we have these members and these people in mind, so we know what to share with them in order to help them help their friends. Neat, huh? The idea came to me last night, I really recommend it to other missionaries, I think it's a worthwhile thing. 

- Soissons. We met with the only active member in this town far east in our area, and just had a good ol' sit-down about all the less-active members of Soissons. Lately, we have been seeing some success with less-active and member visits, and he was able to give us five more names to work with, less-active members in Soissons! Consider us the powerful less-active "net-workers" in the ward. Haha. We pull on all the people we visit and see (which include, thankfully, several investigators now, and many less-actives), and we were able to write all those names down on one sheet of paper last night, which felt great to have it all down on one piece of paper. It feels like the culmination of five months of work for me. 

There you go guys! Also just for laughs, here's some other stuff...:) 

Love you and have a good week!

Love

Elder Edwards

Adam's Letter, Sept, 19, 2016 - Less active lessons and pumping up members

Hey mom and dad and family!

Love you guys!

So yes, I am staying in Compiegne, sorry for some reason that email
didn't make it or something, maybe I was just pressed for time, but I
am staying, I finish here, and Elder Burgoyne is still with me. It has
been good. We're starting off this transfer pretty strong. :)

Man today a lot of people contacted me telling me about home, how much
time left it was and all, and I was just like, "WHOA." Haha it was
weird. And the mission sent me my airplane information. So it kind of
makes me sad. I'm a little bit in denial. But, actually, I take that
back--i'm not. No reason to be. Just a lot of mixed feelings, you
know? I am, of course, happy I get to see you guys soon. It'll be
great. Haha. I'm keeping my focus on, though.

This week was really good. We didn't get a ton of rendez-vous with
investigators, but we did with members and less actives. We are
working on pumping up the ward about missionary work. And that is
going pretty well! Slowly but surely! And fairly quickly even,
sometimes! Last week, Sister Gaydu testified about the lesson where
she was there with us. This week, yesterday, Bishop testified about
the power  of missionary work, and how it's an act of faith,  and
things like that. And so that was nice to hear. He even directly
invited the members, saying, "I want you to  spend more time with the
missionaries." :) So that was  awesome. We hope to  keep this momentum
going.  I love the Lord and am grateful for Him.

A couple highlights from the week:

1.Tuesday -- We went to Soissons and visited a member who lives in
soissons, the only active one, and he talked to us about some tips for
how to teach our Muslim investigator. That was cool. Then we were able
to visit with a less-active, elderly sister in the same building. She
seemed to really open up. We tried to express to her how much love the
Savior had for her, and how He wanted her back. And so she said,
"Yeah, okay, I'll talk to that member," and accepted to come to
church. We also left her with a Book of Mormon. She'd been bitter for
so long about the branch in Soissons being closed 7 or 8 years ago,
and so we explained that maybe it was time to forgive.

2. Noyon Night -- Wednesday -- we went to visit Elizabeth in Noyon
with the bishop, and there, we were able to do some less-active
finding, and also the visit with Elizabeth went great! Turns out she
was able to get everything she needed for her visa, so thanks for the
prayers guys! Non-member friends helped her out so pretty cool stuff.
She's doing great, which was a huge relief, because for two or three
weeks, we couldn't get ahold of her by phone. We then went to the
bishop's house afterward, and so enjoyed a good hour or more of
driving time with him round trip. That was fun. :)

3. We visited with Seye about he Priesthood. He's great, warm guy,
that's always fun.

4. Visited with the Requillard family, at last!! Went to their house,
had a good dinner, got to eat some salmon, that was good. And taught a
little lesson to their little 8 year old boy. Was a sweet moment,
looking back, because I seem to recall a French elder with a very
strong accent coming to visit me when I was 7 or 8 and preparing fo
rmy baptism inUtah. So it was a sweet little reversal of roles there.
Also got to see some horses and kick a soccer ball around with them a
little bit. :)

5. Saturdayy--Beauvais day! Had a great experience being guided
directly to one door by the Spirit. He said he was Catholic and not
active in his church, but  he still took a card, and I really just let
it loose and testified about how we're here to open the doors of the
Atonement to people. Man it was awesome. Read something called the
Donaldson papers which is really good, recommend it for all other
missionaries serving.

6. Visited the Gaydu family. Great as always. The ward just seems to
be drowning us in food and member love. :D they sent us home with a
bag of food.

7. Sunday--had a great, spiritual sacrament meeting. It was one of
those times when the Spirit just tells you volumes, and you're just
soaking it up, and it's answering a lot of your personal questions. Icried several times during it. It was a beautiful experience. I
testify that efforts in being more spiritual are worth it, guys.
Heavenly Father wants to hear from you.

Plus, at the end of church, for the last hour, Ariel and Monica came,
and that was AMAZING! I hadn't expected that at all!! We weren't even
sure our appointment was going to be good for that night! But they
came, it had been MONTHS, boy it was just beautiful! And I want to
testify to you that Heavenly Father sees every little family that
exists, who is in contact with this church, and He wants them to go to
the temple. We were able to visit them last night and set a baptismal
date for Ariel.  Please pray for him folks!  We set it for the
weekend  after conference, so we really need him to progress.

Anyways, that's our week... Full of miracles and spiritual
impressions. I loved it. I'm going to finish out well, going to keep
my presence here. That is important, because the Lord and the people
need me here. But I will adjust mentally enough as well so that when
I come home, I will be present there, too.

Let it be a glorious end. :)
"If we fail, we fail with glory..."

God speed the right!
God speed the right.

Elder Edwards

P.S. Mom and dad, when do I need to start registering for classes?
Sorry to ask so many questions. Thanks for everything guys. Love you!

Sept. 12, 2016 - Loved my birthday and your emails guys :D last transfer here goes :D

Hey Mom and Dad! Holy cow, love you guys so much. Thank you for your
GREAT emails last week, and then I so enjoyed reading even MORE emails
on my birthday. Boy that was just great. The package got here the day
before the 8th, it was perfect timing. That day we were in Auxerre and
in trains all day, so it was pretty good, miraculous timing. I was
very grateful. In fact just to show my gratitude I waited all the way
until that night to open it and took lots of selfie pictures at like
11 PM. :) it was too good to pass up.

Blueberry bread (#thanksfriends)

Beautiful night shot--not too far from our apartment, maybe an 8 minute walk