(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
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