Adam's Letter - July 20, 2015.

Hey Mom!!

Thanks a bunch for your great email! Oh thanks a bunch for those packages! I liked them so much. Okay, I will take the supplements consistently. I'll try and do that idea that you said, breakfast and lunch, I think that'll be best. I love you so, so much. I feel bad because I realized, not for the first time, that I've been kind of leaving you and Dad out of the loop of life over here, and I got the impression that you don't really understand how missionary life works and all that stuff, what happens every day. So i'll try and fill you in a little on that every week from now on.

Glad that life is going well! Absolutely, goals are better late than never. Thanks for that cool spiritual thought! Cool with the Scout camp and all those Merit badges! Tell Hyrum and Gabe I'm super proud of them!

Well, this week is transfers, and I'm now in my 6th transfer, about 9 months out, life is good, I'm happy. Elder Young is leaving, which makes me pretty sad, but I'm also happy to see him leave his first area and move on in serving the Lord in Aulnay, north of Paris, a little town north of there. He should be able to see Paris on P-days, so that's super cool for him! He's been one of my favorite comps, a real dear guy, and we're going to hang out and play soccer together for sure after the mission. He's also pretty ticklish (yeah I tickle the other missionaries in the apartment--figured I missed doing it to everyone in the family, so I kind of just adopted Elder Young, McBride, and Carson into the family, you see. :D So yes i've been tickling them lots, pretty funny.) I leave that to your disgression to leave or take off the group email. haha!!

It's always fun to get lots of emails from people, I feel blessed because I try and make an effort to reach out to other missionaries and stuff, and it's good, it's fun. I email Elder Briton Wright, my red-haired friend who went to Syracuse Junior with me, and also Elder Zach Griffin a bit, other people like that, anyway, it's cool. Thank you SO MUCH for your emails, yours and dad's definitely matter the most. There's not much I can say to be more grateful for it.

So yeah, I'll tell you a bit about our P-Day: we played soccer with Terrence, did our laundry and studied in the morning (yeah, some at the same time, we'll have to work on that--kind of hard because our washer is broken), and now we're here doing emails. I also got "contacted" or talked to by a guy from Algeria, the north of Africa, who was really nice and spoke some decent English, and he was really cool. He worked construction, twas fun. anyway tried to invite him to a lesson but didn't fly. I'm not always good at inviting, but figured I'd give it a shot, I'll try and be better. But it was still really good, really fun. We're now about to head over home, eat a bit, and then head out to work! God blesses us a lot on P-Day. It's kind of in remembrance of our old life. Haha but it's also good, to prepare for full-time, single-heartedness for the rest of the week. Missioinary life is so weird! But I love you Mom. Yeah the baptism went really well, I got to confirm Terrence. I love you tons. I'll be comps with Elder McBride, he's a gerat guy; Love you. See you MOm! Have a great week. Talk to you later! 

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Thank you so much, Dad! 

I appreciate so much your love and support. i'm sorry that I'm brief when I talk to you, but I'm grateful we can still have direct, loving communication. I love you dad. You're awesome. Really, if I ever become half the man you are, I'll be pretty proud of myself. But I guess really I just have to give all of myself to the Lord and see what He can make out of me. You always taught me not to compare, I should remember that. But I'm grateful to you, father, you're a great man. 

I'm sorry that I don't have pictures of the packages, but please know I appreciated and loved them fully! It was so great to get them, thank you for sending that "To from Us" package, haha it was really good. I hope you know God helps us, He's working with us in our lives. You know, up to this point, one of the major setbacks I've had in my mission is just feeling like I didn't want to be here, wishing I was back home, but I realized, I'm realizing, I guess, that it's a lot harder to do a mission with my face behind me than looking straight ahead. So there you go. I love you, Dad. 

Glad that the scout camp went well. I'm sorry it rained there, but sounds like Gabe and hyrum did great! Super proud of them. I hope you know I love you. I'm going to try and make an effort not to reread and dwell on news from home too much, I've been guilty of that a lot, but don't worry, I love the emails, I'll just try and be more focused this week. Please let me know if there's any other spiritual advice you want to give me or any cool talks you see for the week, I think spiritual stuff like that would be okay for me to see and look at, I can't respond but just in case you ever want to. But if that's too much, weekly is okay. Well I just love you dad. 

This week is transfers and I'm losing a great comp, Elder Young, he's a great guy, he's really cool, relaxed, and we've had lots of good times together. We got to baptize Terrence, and it was a member who got to baptize him! Super cool, right? It was really fun too because he asked me to confirm him! I was a little surprised but I was happy to and I did. It was great. I love you dad. I want you to know that the mission is hard but i'm grateful for it, and I trust willingly that it'll be worth it, all-in-all. These people we baptize, they'll know all their lives that the gospel is true, just because we were willing to lay aside worldly things and a couple years. 

But anyway, I love you and I wanted to express that. Your voice almost still communicates peace to me sometimes. haha, it's funny, I'm still afraid sometimes that you or someone in the family will die, just because I'm scared of it I guess, I don't know, but I'm grateful because I know the Lord is there. I want to become a very powerful, mighty missionary for him, thank you for all the help and success you've shown me, how to live a good life. I hope that you and Mom don't feel too out of the loop. I realize you know more or less what it's like for me, but I just hope Mom doesn't wonder too much what we do every day and what's it like and all that. Would you let me know if she does? I'd just like to try and answer her questions better, I realized that my communication has been kind of one-sided. I just love you so much. 

Also, my companion will be district leader, it's Elder McBride, he was there my first night in Belgium and he's here now, we've been in the same apartment for the last transfer, he's a really good guy, I'm excited to learn from him and grow from his example. He's about a year out and I'm out now about 9 months. Whoa, that's enough time for a baby to be born! That's crazy! So yeah, that's a bit about me, I'm really sad to lose Elder Young, but Elder McBride is going to teach me how to contact people on transportation and stuff like that, he's a good teacher, too, so I'm excited. I'm making goals to not be a push-over this transfer, to be able to stand up to disobedience, either in myself or others' suggestions, and really push for the Lord and carry on His work. I want to work so hard that the transfer catches me by surprise! I'll let you know how that goes. But I love you, have a great week, god bless in your work, and till next time! I'll try and forget a little and give myself! It's good, it's happy. :D Love you dad!

Can't really express it great in text, but love you tons!!

Have a great week, dad.

Talk to you later,

your son,

Elder Adam grant Edwards