Feb. 23, 2015 Adam's full letter

(Note from Becky: I didn't edit this email so here's the whole thing.) 


MOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heyyyyyy what's up? Holy cow how is life? 

I'm doing really good! Wow thanks I printed off that little bit of Elder Holland's talk last weeek and I'll print off the rest here! That's really cool, I'm so glad you found it. I may not be able to make those recordings work with this computer today but I will for sure listen to them during the week on my little voice recorder. 

Hey it's okay, I'm really excited for the music! Haha thanks so much for doing it! And the good news is, with a flash drive, it's pretty easy to just send me a song or two on email and I can just add it right on. That'll be sweet! Thanks so much! We had a great zone conference with president and Soeur Babin last Thursday and boy it was cool! WE GOT TO WATCH MEET THE MORMONS!!!!! woohoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was soooo sweet! For most of the missionaries out, that was the first time they'd seen it! We greenies were fortunate :) sometimes it pays to be a baby in the mission :D Me and Elder Harris and Elder Wells are still in the same apartment, by the way, don't know if I'd told you that. 

How has the week been? I think I'm going to try and get used to the mission a little more this week, not to make you guys sad, but just so I'm a little happier because if I spend too much time missing home it's not a good thing. So don't spend too much time missing me if it's not healthy. :) But don't worry, I'll always miss you guys at least a little bit. 

(Here is Adam's explanation of his pics playing piano at the Paris train station.)

Hahaha!!! Oh yeah, when we were at a train station in France, well in Paris, they just have a piano right there for anyone to play who wants to, so me, Elder Baldwin, and Elders Wells and Harris were all just standnig there watching other people play, and I wasn't going to go up, but then Elder Wells encouraged me to do so and promised he'd make me a chocolate sandwich (which he did two days later, complete with nutella, hot chocolate powder, and chocolate and bread, it was quite good), and so I did. I played a couple songs, I am a Child of God, and the Spirit of God. After I'd played the first song, a guy with a camera came up to me and asked me to play another one. Haha at first I thought he was with some news company, but he didn't have any logos, and he jsut had one guy helping him out, so I think it was more of a personal thing, maybe a little school project or something like that. But it was still cool! Haha he did all these little zoom-ins and zoom-outs of my hands and tried to get all these different angles. Haha it was really cool! No sadly I didn't sing. But every Sunday with the Primary I play the piano still and I sing to help them learn their newest song. I'm pretty missed there now by the teachers if I'm late, haha. But yeah it was fun! I improvised on the hymns, and it was good. I got a couple modest little claps at the end of the second one. But boy it's fun, when we sang at the same train station at Christmas time, there were tons of people who just stopped and listened to us. It was sweet! Elder Harris said I had a pretty good little audience for a while, too. It's hard to tell, because that's right by the big sign that has all the departing times, but we'll give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and say some people enjoyed it. :) Sometimes when people thank me for playing the piano (I played a littler interlude last week in sacrament), I think, "Thank my Mom, she's the one who always reminded me!" And thank Dad, too, because he's the one who funded all the lessons! But I thank the Lord too. 

(I asked Adam what he would like us to pray for.) 

Well, would you maybe mind praying for Marie-Thérése and Thibault? They are our two closest amis to baptism. Marie-Thérése needs to get a testimony of Joseph Smith, and Thibault is doing pretty well, he needs to feel ready and understand a few last things before he gets baptized. But if you cuold pray that they'll be prepared by the Lord and His angels, or however you want to put that, that'd be great. Also if you could pray that I could stop focusing so much on home and just more on the work, that'd be awesome too! Don't worry, I'm healthy and happy over here. I weighed myself in at 82 kilos last night! Please don't calculate that into pounds, haha. Nor put it on the blog. :D hahaha but no I'm okay I just need to get lost a little bit more in the work over here. 

About the package--I am SOOOO looking forward to it! Yes I would love anything at all from home! I hope you guys get the package I sent too! Hint, it includes quite a bit of Belgian and Swiss chocolate. :D Haha my apologies, the Belgian post is kind of infamous for being slow, but they should get it there eventually. I sent it last Monday. 

Anything American or with red, white, and blue on it is amazing. Haha no but really, even little things like snickers or--do you really want to make my day?--a bag of gummy worms :D :D :D They have those here I think too but that would be so great. I've actually talked with Elder Baldwin for a while about how to adjust to things out on the mision, and he said a good thing to do is to make the apartment mine, to have family pictures or little decorations that I'd have at home, so maybe could you send me:

1. My BYU-I banner in my room
2. Gummy worms, if ok
3. pictures of the family in fun, happy times, like on vacations
4. any food from home at all, even a little bit of peanut butter (they have it here but it's still not quite as good)

I don't want to ask too much, but I love you all tons!! Thank you so much! Also Mom if you don't want to take the time ever to put a whole package together by yourself, it's okay! You can just go on the little website owned by the Poznanskis, the last mission president and his wife. I'm pretty suer you can just find it on their Facebook site, France Paris Mission Poznanski. I think that would be lots less work and maybe even less money for you! Haha sorry we just love packages so much here. Don't worry life is good either way. 

This week has been good, we had Samedi Sports on Saturday but no one really came because we'd forgotten to send the text out to everybody hahaha! Whoooops. Anyway this Saturday we're going to have a little activity into the woods. It'll be fun. I hope you all have a great week! 

Holy cow we found this amazing salad dressing that is so good. Note to Dad: Gouda cheese, especially the old kind, is very very nice on lettuce with a good dressing. :D There it is. Love you guys! 

Mom, how are the preparations going? Anything I can pray for for you? 

Also, Mom, could you please send the package to the mission home? Haha I think it would be better and safer if you actually sent it there, it might get to me faster that way. The address is 

La Mission Françoise de Paris

23, Rue du Onze Novembre

78110 Le Vesinet

FRANCE

Merci beacoup maman!

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Voice recording to Mom 1 here.

Recording 2 here.

Recording 3 here.  This is maybe an accidental recording of another missionary speaking at a meeting. I liked hearing Adam's laughing at the funny parts. 

Recording 4 here. Adam and his companion sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace" 

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DAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey how are you Dad?!?! I'm SOO SORRY I forgot it was your birthday last week! I couldn't believe it, and I sent you a teeny little email, I'm so sorry! I hope your birthday was the greatest! You look great in uniform! Wow is that a new car? Holy cow that's sweet! Wow that is a sweet car, too! Haha! Living up the old-bishop life, I can see! No, just kidding. :D Haha I hope your spirit is good Dad! I hope you are happy and well. Love you lots. Families are forever. I love, love, love the gospel. Don't worry, I'll send ya more, this is just the first little round of pictures.

Adam's voice recording to Dad 1 here. Birthday tribute to Dad.

Adam's voice recording to Dad 2 here.  

Adam's recording to Dad 3 here. 

Adam's recording to Dad 4 here. 

Feb 20, 2015 - Pics from Adam's zone conference

I love that Adam's mission has a Facebook page!  It is a thrill to suddenly see a picture of my son out of the blue! 

Elder Baldwin, Adam's new companion, and Elder Adam Edwards.

Adam's two other roommates - Elder Wells and Elder Harris.

I love thinking about each of these valiant young people in the Lord's army!  Hurrah for Israel! 

Feb. 16, 2015 Adam's full letter

MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!8!!!!!!

I love you sooooooOOOOOOOOoooOOOUUUU much. Thank you so much for the recordings! I love you so much thank you for telling me about the family and how things are going. Thank you for that amazing Elder Holland quote you found for me, I think that will help me a lot! I'm learning a lot about keeping my mind centered on the work--I finally figured out today that it's actually harder to be a half-way missionary--to have my heart half-way in the work--than be all-out in our missinary efforts, to really give it 100 percent. So that's been really cool! Actually me and Elder Wells, my district leader, who is for sure one of the best missionaries around, we did an exchange on Saturday and it was cool. Today we finally had a "review," which is when you look back on what happened on the exchange. He was really bold with me and he helped me realize that I have a lot of good I can do if I'll just give it my best and give it 100 percent, especially with going to bed on time 10:30 and being at my desk on time in the mornings, no food, focused at 8 AM, as well as just giving the work and my companions my heart, keep on helping them have a fun and happy time. As well as keeping a clean desk. He said it's hard to feel the Spirit when I have a dirty desk. So I'm changing all those thigns because he spoke with the spirit of truth! Elder Wells is such a great guy. I'll attach a picture of him so you can know what he looks like. He's really big, strong, classic example here of a great, hard-working missionary. He's going home after this transfer, but he's already done a lot of good to help me do the right things. Elder Harris helps me, too. He's going to be a great missionary, too. I really really hope I can train--even maybe kind of soon. I feel like the added responsibility would help me give my all. But I'll let that happen as it will. 

Me and Elder Baldwin are getting along lots better, we've talked a lot about American things and restaurants and stuff. 

Oh yeah, I'm warm enough. Yes I like the sweater, thaaaaannnkkk you!!! I have a picture with it just below. As far as the music I have, please give me everything!!! Haha I was pretty strict when I chose the music so I only have a fraction of what I can have now. Especially MoTab songs and Nashville Tribute songs. Boy, I would just love whatever you could give me that invites the Spirit (I trust you Mom and Dad with that) and that is relatively calm, it shouldn't bring in a spirit of pride, contention, too much volume or energy anything that distracts from the work. So really it's not that complicated, just think missionary-apartment worthy. Thank you so much Mom! And I would LOVE a package from you when you have the time! 

YES THINGS TAKE COURAGE on a mission haha!! I'm so glad you got to sit in on the [missionary discussion]. Oh yeah Dad would've been an old pro in a lesson like that. :) I'm sure you were, too Mom. Boy I love you too Mom. Haha sometimes I'm hard on myself but I'm learning to be happy every day in life, too. Thank you so much Mom! I'm so glad life is going well!!

I'm so sorry to hear about the recordings being deleted! I wouldn't worry about it too much, though. One day our memories will come back to us, I think--it's right there in the scriptures that we'll remember perfectly every sin that we didn't repent of, I think that would be all the precious family moments and good acts, too. And if that's not automatic when you get to heaven, let me know, because I know people up there, I can pull strings!! :) :) But actually yes me and Elder Baldwin did a little recording for you with "Souviens-Toi," our special mother-son hymn, so I'll attach that. 

Elder Baldwin is a great guy. He's got a great heart and his heart is really in the work. [Adam myriad gifts has not included a good internal GPS so far, so he has had a tendency to get lost, and he's now the greenie who is trying to teach his new senior companion the area.] This past week we've have been "learning by experience," as the scriptures say, in how to get around town. Boy it's been frustrating! Haha I kind of got thrown under the bus a little bit, not by any particular person, but it's harder to learn how to get around as a blue (greenie) than as a more experienced missinoary, and Elder Amico left after just one transfer with me, so I don't really know a whole lot! Or I guess I do, but not a whole lot of how to get around! But boy it's a good opportunity to learn, I don't take it hard. Had to come to grips with my right side-heavy brain at some point right!! Haha "il faut faire des navigations!" You must navigate!

But yeah, we've talked a lot about things back home, we started buying food together today, which feels lots more natrual because we're brothers, we're always together. And I just feel a lot more friends with him now. I feel like it takes a minimum of one and a half to two weeks for two missionaries to really start to jive together. 

I FINALLY SENT YOU ALL A PACKAGE. LIKE ACTUALLY. IT's DONE. WOOOHOOOO I hope you like it!! It's not huge things but I hope you all like your birthday presents or late or early birthday presents as it may be. 

I really don't have much time, but our investigators are doing well. Marie-Thérése explained to me yesterday at church that, more or less, she felt I was a special person to her when I got here in Belgium, and that she wanted to hurry up with the baptism so that I didn't leave before it happened! I thought that was really sweet. One of teh lies that Satan tries to sell on me sometimes is that I'm not making a difference. It's good to know that's completely false. I may not be as functional or as able to help people as I will in a month or two, with French and obedience a little more solid, but I'm still helping people, even if I'm starting with my companion and the elders in my apartment! I try to make their days happier. Haha that's something that I'm happy to do. Elder Amico last transfer said I was one of the happiest elders he'd ever been with. So yes life is good. :D that smile to the left is the classic ear-to-ear Adam grin as displayed since age 5 :D

Love you so much Mom! Marie-Thérése is still working toward baptism, we'll need to bump her date back but still working, and Thibault is reading and praying every night! Like 2 or 3 chapters from the BoM every day!!! I was like, "Thibault, there are members who don't do that, you aredoing great!" So there you go. He's very prepared, we'll just have to convince the two of them to go to Charleroi 2 after baptism. They only know people from Charleroi 1 so that is difficult but the Lord will provide. 

Russ Parker advice: spend part of your time in the scriptures each day reading aloud in your language. See, hear, and say at same time helps it anchor. You'll start to dream in the language, even to stop translating in your head. I'll definitely have that same threshold with French and Spanish too. 

Adam with his new companion, Elder Baldwin from Georgia. 

Me and my "dad" from Georgia, Elder Bryan Baldwin! :D Great guy. Boy he makes a lot of food, he's made cookies, made some sandwiches, made me omelettes a couple times, he is great! Not just for that sorry. He's a great guy. 

Elder Wells is on the right. I'll send another piture of him in the next email.
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​MTC wave reunion! We were all in Paris Friday for Visas. 

Elder Martinez! He's from Layton! He's dying this transfer too like Elder Wells.

Feb 16, 2015 - Elder Adam playing piano on a reality TV show??

Adam playing piano in a busy Paris train station with a TV crew filming it -- WHAT?  

Adam sent these pics with no explanation! That created some curiosity around here! We Googled the title on the piano and it looks like some kind of reality show where the crew moves the piano to random public places and then films people playing. Of course I asked Adam for more details about it. 

Here is Adam's explanation that he sent the next week.

Hahaha!!! Oh yeah, when we were at a train station in France, well in Paris, they just have a piano right there for anyone to play who wants to, so me, Elder Baldwin, and Elders Wells and Harris were all just standnig there watching other people play, and I wasn't going to go up, but then Elder Wells encouraged me to do so and promised he'd make me a chocolate sandwich (which he did two days later, complete with nutella, hot chocolate powder, and chocolate and bread, it was quite good), and so I did. I played a couple songs, I am a Child of God, and the Spirit of God. After I'd played the first song, a guy with a camera came up to me and asked me to play another one. 

Haha at first I thought he was with some news company, but he didn't have any logos, and he just had one guy helping him out, so I think it was more of a personal thing, maybe a little school project or something like that. But it was still cool! Haha he did all these little zoom-ins and zoom-outs of my hands and tried to get all these different angles. Haha it was really cool! No sadly I didn't sing. But every Sunday with the Primary I play the piano still and I sing to help them learn their newest song. I'm pretty missed there now by the teachers if I'm late, haha. 

But yeah it was fun! I improvised on the hymns, and it was good. I got a couple modest little claps at the end of the second one. But boy it's fun, when we sang at the same train station at Christmas time, there were tons of people who just stopped and listened to us. It was sweet! Elder Harris said I had a pretty good little audience for a while, too. It's hard to tell, because that's right by the big sign that has all the departing times, but we'll give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and say some people enjoyed it. :) Sometimes when people thank me for playing the piano (I played a littler interlude last week in sacrament), I think, "Thank my Mom, she's the one who always reminded me!" And thank Dad, too, because he's the one who funded all the lessons! But I thank the Lord too. 

One of Adam's dreams is to use his music gifts to share the gospel. He has been the primary pianist in his Charleroi Belgium ward since day one. He has played special numbers in sacrament meeting. This was fun to see that he had the chance to play a primary song and a hymn in a busy train station in Paris, France!

Feb 9, 2015 Adam's full letter - got a new companion

(Note from Becky: I didn't edit this email so here's the whole thing.)

Dadziller!!! WHOOHOOO DADZILLER!!!!!!!!!!

I love you SOOOO much Dad! 

Hey I'm so pumped for you that you are getting into family History! I'm sorry you are sad about being released from being the Bishop. I've been praying for ya that that will be smoother. I'm sure you're happy to see Bishop Parker do a great job, but also I'm sure you're sad to miss that responsibility, that mantle you wore for so long. But hey, the Lord will call you where you're needed! I hope that life is good in the Army! I bet it's good to see your old friends and stuff. Plus, that's a uniform I can easily picture you in and be proud of my Dad! You're awesome Dad! Whoohoo way to be a missionary! 

About Family History work--it may seem slow and tedious, but just don't try to hard to be perfect. Learn to love little things you find, like pictures or stories. It can make it fun.

Man I'm sad you missed the Keegster's homecoming too! But I'm glad we can listen to the recorded version, that's good, huh? I bet it's awesome, I'll listen to it back at the apartment. 

Thanks for taking care of my tax return, Dad! I really appreciate it! How is work? Listened to any good music lately? Haha I listened to a country song or two from Elder Baldwin that really reminded me of you, "Don't Blink" and "Letters from Home". Love and am proud of my Army, loving, Mormon, dedicated, lawyer Dad! You wear a lot of hats. You wear 'em well, though. :)

I wish you a VERY VERY HAPPY BIIIIIRTHDAY coming up on the 17th, I hope that is as joyful an occasion as possible. I believe that is a week from tomorrow, right? A Tuesday? Go Dad go! 

Oh Elder Baldwin is super. He tries really hard to bring the Spirit with him. He's a really sweet guy from Georgia, got a good heart. I can tell it's hard on him sometimes when he has to wait for me or when I tell him about some of the weaknesses I had last trasnfer--like when we went to the soccer game--but hey I'm trying to take advantage of the opportunity to become a more successful missionary. 

I'm so grateful for technology so we can communicate so quickly every week like this! Boy it's super! 

But yeah, Elder Baldwin tries pretty hard to keep the rules, which I think is good for us, so I'm glad to have him as my trainer now. I think the Lord will bless us with success as we work, because we both have faith the Lord can guide us to people. Haha--out here for two years, you kind of have to beileve that! 

I know you're already praying for lots of people, Dad, but just know you're in my prayers, too. Thanks for your prayers for me. I know we are an eternal family, and we can hang out and have joy together after this life! To some people, religion and relationship with God seem hard to comprehend, but to me, it's just something that makes life awesome! Life would be really really sad without my God and my family and the gospel. So I'm pretty grateful to have all those things!

We're working with Marie-Thérése and she committed to keep the word of Wisdom yesterday in our lesson with her. That was super. I hope she can keep doing well with that. We're going to give her a call tonight and see how that's going. 

I love you so much Dad! Please know I love and appreciate your example and remembering how you acted on your imssion from the stories you told us kids and from watching your example my whole life! Boy it's amazing, we've met a couple really really good dads just in the past five days or so, one on the metro and one on the street. It's amazing what taking the dad responsibility seriously can do! Guys are kind of wild without a responsibility like that, I think :D In fact, I can testify of that because I know it!! Our apartment is nuts!! We have all these crazy little battles with nerf guns and towels and squirt bottles. Haha! It's fun. 

Dad, just a quick question--when you served as bishop or as a missionary, what did you do to make sure you helped respond to peoples' questions sufficiently well? I've found it can be hard sometimes to know whether or not someone completely understands, or it can be hard to answer it completely. Anyway, just curious on what your answer to that might be. 

Love you tons Dad! 

Have a GREEEAEAEAEAEAT WEEK!µ

LoveElder Adam Edwards

Feb 1, 2015 - Adam's full letter

(I sent Adam two voice recordings and included the stories about my BOM page being found on Google images, then an anti site, then my post and pic being promoted by a huge blogger, then a brand new friend helping me feel okay about the pic being on the anti site because it's still emanating truth and love and light.)

Hey Mom!! Thanks soooo much for the awesome voice recording! I showed your picture to Soeur Beauvois, a member here in the Charleroi 2 Ward. She said you need to come visit her when we take the trip after my mission. Whenever that will be. :) Wow cool ! I loved hearing about your story! I will write longer on the next one. 
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I'm sorry that you had to go through that, people putting pictures of your Book of Mormon on bad, Anti-Mormon sites! That is really dumb! But it's so cool that you were able to see that on the really great blog. That's really good. 

Wow--we all have our own frequency that radiates to others and we're also radiated on. That is really really cool. Thanks for that; Could you send me those David O. McKay quotes? :) By the way thank you for the quote book, I've looked at lots of those. Don't worry, I will use it more. 

Mom, you're the best. We tried some French food, Kieche de Lorraine, kieche, and man it was good. :D Love you so much!

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(I sent Adam my blog post with pictures about Mike being released as a bishop and Russ Parker being called as the new bishop.)

That's a great post, Mom! Good for Bishop Parker! I love him, he is such a great guy. Haha he even looks at home there at the Bishop's desk. It's good for him that he'll still be working with the Priests. I'm glad there. I hope Brother Barney can still keep working with them too. 

Thanks, Mom. Something you said in your voice recording reminded me that the truth is the truth, it's there, we can find it and know it for ourselves, and we don't need to be apologetic or scared about sharing the gospel, because it's right. We're doing the best thing we can. So thanks. Thanks for that, too, that we can call on the Atonement and on the angels, esp. that the Atonement is already done, it doesn't hurt the Savior more to use it. 

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(I sent my blog post of Hugh Nibley's Book of Mormon challenge, and the other testimonies that fall into place once you gain a testimony of the BOM)

Wow that is awesome! Mom is it okay with you if I send you my MP3 player and maybe you can put some more Spirit-inviting, high-energy music on there, similar to David Archuleta's Glorious or Handel's Messiah? Turns out President Babin's rule is simply that it has to invite the Spirit and it has to help us think of God. So that's way more than I was thinking!! Haha. Is that okay with you? Do you think that would be honest? I'll send it with the gift I'm sending home. If you think it's not honest, just let me know right now or just send it back. :) Love you Mom! Wow I loved loved loved hearing your voice again. It's totally okay you didn't get to a letter today Mom, I totally understand. I'm glad you send me this awesome thing on the Book of Mormon. Here in Europe, it seems that people are often a little bit skeptical when we talk about the Book of Mormon or even just about believing in God. That doesn't mean we're wrong, of course, we just need things like this to help convince people. Of course the Book of Mormon is true. I'm grateful for it. I loved the part especially when it said that you must have 52,000 missionaries go out and distribute the book to the world. That's closer to 85 or 90,000 now! And I'm one of them, hang it all! :D So there! 

I'm so glad that Russ Parker is the new bishop. THat's so cool. I hope you and Dad have adjusted to the change okay. I hope it hasn't been too much. I'm sure all the kids are happy as it means more time with Dad. Good for you all, I hope it means you can spend more time together. :) Love you all tons! How has it been in general to prepare for the conferences? Man the General Women's Conference at BYU is really coming up, January went pretty fast! 

And the family, how is everyone? Is Grace doing okay? How about Hyrum and Gabe? It's Malia's pregnancy going all right? How are Malia an d Austin's testimonies? 

Love you, Mom. We went to a pro soccer game on Saturday, it was a choice I shouldn't have made. I'm sorry. Mom, will you pray for me that I can stop stressing out and just obey the rules and do the right thing and let that be enough? Haha or maybe do just a little more energy work for me? Thanks Mom!!

I love that we have our own vibrations and frequencise that we give off. Also, I think there are connections that stretch across time and space. I don't know if I told you about this, but there was at least at couple moemnts in the MTC when I actually felt a spiritual umbilical cord connecting me to you! I thought you might like to hear that. I kind of felt it again for a minute again there today. No matter how far away we are, we're still mother and son! Don't forget that, okay? Love you sooo much Mom! Is there anything you want me to pray for you for? 

Hey--do you have any advice on just relaxing and learning the language rather than overanaylzing things? I would love that. Sorry my typing is really bad today. :) 

A couple stories--Michel, our recent convert, had a pretty invasive surgery this last week and had a big part of his intestine taken oout for an infection or something. Anyway, the night before he went in, we went over to his house and he eenie-meenie-minie-mowed me to give him a blessing of comfort before the surgery. The blessing of the Lord at the time was to be strong and that it would work out. At first, after the surgery, they thought things were kind of bad, he went to ICU, but then we found out he was okay, that he was just there for monitoring. That was really cool, it was a witness to me that the Lord lives by what he says in blessings. 

Also, we got to go to a SWEET Asian buffet here in Charleroi with Frere Cockx on Saturday or Friday and MAN IT was good. :) 

There's another story in Dad's email you can read, that was cool. 

When I listened to Dad's voice recording from last week about Grandpa Bush, I felt really close to Grandpa Bush. This morning, we talked about babies and how I think (this is NOT DOCTRINE) that maybe babies can see beyond the veil for the first couple years, and I bet that Grandpa Bush and other great-grandparents were there to visit me those first couple years. I think I was especially good friends with Grandpa Bush. It makes sense, we're kindred spirits! Warrior spirits, history buffs, music lovers, we're two peas in a pod. :) So angels are here helping us out. 

Sometimes it just takes a little courage to talk to people about the gospel. This week, I'm going to forget about what I look like to other people and just talk to them, to find people who are interested in the gospel. Don't be afraid to do that with your friends and family, too! Don't be weird. If you love the gospel, it's a natural thing. Invite them to family home evening (if there's food, they can't whine that it was a bad activity :D). People are simple. I think that when people grow up without the gospel, they assume over and over that it's not true, or that certain things aren't true, until it's just something they scoff at because, to them, it can't be true. But really, when they take the time to listen and feel the Spirit, they start to feel something, and they realize it's something they can't live without. So if people think you're weird, don't worry. They just don't get it yet. 

Love you all soooo much! Life is good here in Belgium. Everyone send me some chill vibes--that work hard...haha thanks! It's easy to stress out a bit much but hey life goes on. My companion, Elder Amico, is getting transferred clear to the other side of the mission so I'll be with Elder Baldwin starting Wednesday. I will miss Elder Amico but I'm excited to work with Elder Baldwin, too. 

God bless with your daily efforts! Don't forget to give the Lord the first few minutes every day in prayer and scripture study, even if it's just a little heartfelt prayer and five minutes! He's there, even if you like to think he's not or that he doesn't care. Oh no, he's there. He loves you lots. I feel that love right now. So stop being silly and listen up: this gospel is true, Christ is King, "and He shall reign for ever and ever." Revelation 21, I think. 

GREAT WEEK EVERYBODY

Sincerely and with God's love,

Elder Edwards


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HEEEYYYY DADDDD!!!! 

WOOHOOOOO!! I am glad to get your emails! I got two from Dad today! Woohoohoohoohohooo! Yeah! :D I always love getting your emails, Dad. Wow that is so cool that Brother Parker is the new bishop! So he's Bishop Parker now! Haha! Oh man that is exciting. I love him, he was a great great young men's leader. I can imagine he probably felt surprised when he got the call. Or maybe not, maybe he felt it was coming as you and Mom did. Yeah, I was thinking about that this week, too, how you've been my bishop for five years and even a little more! Wow I totally remember that winter, too, how Mom bought the movie "One Good Man," about when the dad gets called to be a bishop. Wow that's really cool. 

Also, I did not get transferred, but Elder Amico did. He is going to a little town outside of Rennes, France, which is in Britannia, the very northwest corner of France. Man, the people are all sad here that he's going. I'm a little sad too. But it sounds like my second trainer, Elder Baldwin, is a solid missionary too, so that will be good. 

Today in the apartment, I was loooking out over the landscape of Charleroi from our window, and listening to some sweet MoTab music like "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," and I thought, "You know, I need to go get life, I can't let it pass me by, I'd really like to be a concert level pianist and organist, and I'd like to be a trained singer, and I want to be a really great fun dad like you! You were always willing to chase us little kids around or swing us in the blankets or things like that! Boy and I loved it! Dad, that's one of the things I really admire about you--in life, you've always just seen what you wanted, or seen what needed to be done, and just gone for it. Man, that's so cool. Like how you really liked Mom in high school--haha--you went for it!! You were a super duper convincing guy for her to marry you! And you knew for a long time you wanted to go to Law School, and man, after mid-sophomore year (I think all teenage boys can be cut some slack in school performance due to the innate struggle between testosterone and intelligence :D) you seriously went for that law school! And Mom is a lot that way too. Man, my parents are the coolest. :D I tell lots of people that, "I wish you could meet my parents, they're so cool!" Haha. So I decided to make go-get-em attitude part of me too today. Because I don't want to be 80 years old and look back and say, "Wow, I really just went with the flow and didn't accomplish anything!" Lame! So yeah I want to be a MoTab organist. I thought that would especially make Mom really proud, if she could see some good from all those days of reminding me to practice. You too Dad for funding all my lessons, from 8 to now! I don't know if I can ever thank you enough! 

I had a bit of a low moment on Saturday--we went to a soccer game with some members, yeah it was really fun, but we really shouldn't have been there. So I decided to make that the last time. I'm repenting and I had a really good scripture study on keeping the rules today, so I'm hanging in there, not to worry. 

By the way, one of the members around lets us use her little electric piano in our apartment for when we sing every morning. And I get to play! So I'm playing the piano a little bit every day. I really need to take more time to practice, but that's good.  

Also, please don't apologize for giving lots of email to read! Don't worry it wasn't a bad thing! :D 

Thanks a bunch for telling me about what Brother Arnell said. That's really interesting to me that we're actually similar in the way we think. I totally know what he was talking about, I try to make it perfect, too. I would imagine you can relate to that too, Dad. That's really good advice, though, I can totally feel that I'm stressed all the time. I really need to just let the stress fall, keep the rules, do the right things, and let that be enough. That's the cool thing, like you say, the Lord is the Head of the Church, and He watches out for us, families and missionaries. 

We had a cool experience today while in a store--Elder Amico needed some shirts and some members took us over to the store, and while we were there, a store employee, standing just next to us, said "Bonjour," which is normal, and then he started asking us questions, like which Church we're from, and apparently some missionaries had talked with him ten years ago. We talked for a while about the Bible and Adam and Eve and tried to convince him that God lives and that He's actually good and he lets us do bad things because we have free agency "libre arbitre." And anyway, nothing really came of it except he said we can come back and talk with him another time, but yeah it was just cool because somebody actually approached us. That's only happened a few times to me, so that's pretty sweet when it occurs! 

Hmm what else can I say--oh yeah, thanks for reminding me not to be stressed about money. Thanks Mom and Dad, I really appreciate it. I'll remember to enjoy it here but not to be crazy. You're right, there is certainly a blanace there. And GOOD! I'm glad you want to go to Europe together with Mom and take a tour! Man that means I need to make some good friends here who can let us stay with them. Haha I will work on that! Oh man I can't wait to take you both on that river, it was SOO pretty! I don't want to talk it up too much but man it was sweet. Still haven't made it to a WWI or WWII site but hopefully soon. 

Oh and Dad, thank you so much for sending me "Glorious!" I loved that. I have a question: I'm sending the family a little something in the mail (sorry I haven't actually put it in yet), and I realized here that the music rules are actually much more relaxed than I thought they were, I guess President Babin's rule is that it just needs to invite the Spirit and help you think about God. So do you think it would be honest if I send my MP3 player home and maybe Mom could put some more good Spirit-inviting music on just for a little more variety, maybe even conference talks from October? I mean, is that breaking copyright laws? If so, it's all right, I can keep it here. Just thought I'd ask, I only have four or five artists on there right now. :) Love you Dad! 

I have prayed for you a lot that you will be able to adjust and not be too sad with this change of not being the bishop anymore! I really hope that its not too sad for you. I'm sure it's somewhat a relief, as you're taking on so much work with the Army (thank you soo much for taking care of us, Dad!), but I imagine it's got to be something to miss a lot, too. I love you Dad, the Lord will take care of you, I know that. I would love to hear about Elder Bowman's stories. I remember the last time he testified in Sacrament Meeting before he left. 

How has the Army been? Has it been cool to see your old friends? I'm sure they love having you back. You're a great guy and a great worker. Thanks for holding out for me always. I hope that it is nice and warm for you in California! 

Keep strong, Dad. I wish that I could say more but I will keep you in my prayers. Have you been taking all this change okay? I know you're good old tough Dad and you won't let it ruffle you, but just thought I'd ask. Love you, Dad. Have a great week!!

Loooooove you toonnnns! You're the best Dad ever!!

Loooooooooove you family!!! Loooooooooooove you Dad!

Elder Adam Edwards