August 15, 2016 - Upbeat letter from Adam

Hey family!! :D love you! How are you guys doing?! How is Hawaii, is
it beautiful? Sunny down there? Did you get any fresh pineapple like
old times, Dad?

Me, I'm doing well. Thought I would just tell you a little bit about
my week, so I'll do that. In a nutshell, we saw Chantilly castle last
Monday; we made brownies and ate with the Joly Sr. Family; Elder
Burgoyne did his tablet safety course; we had our first district
meeting on Wednesday, our district has changed a lot. It was one of
the most inspired district trainings I've had in a long time, it was
really straight-up about what we needed to hear and it was refreshing.
We taught Elizabeth briefly, did less-active finding with the bishop,
then Frere Hitoto with Bishop as well; we taught Karine, a cool older
Catholic couple, the Gambarts; Bro. And Sis. Trouillet, less-actives;
got E. Burgoyne his first kebab (:D it was good); taught Chantal; did
service for Sister Joly Sr. And her mom who is not a member; and we
had church! And Sunday, today, we saw a couple cool miracles in
following the Spirit a little bit, the Lord blessed us with several
more appointments than we had before, people called us back and stuff,
it was cool, and He provided us with a nice experience contacting and
porting a bit. This week, I enjoyed a spirit of a bit more focus on my
mission, and on preparation for our lessons. So it was a good week. :)
can't complain.

By the way, what have you guys done in Hawaii? Did you go to any
amusement parks or to Polynesian Cultural Center? What did you eat?
Who enjoyed what? Tell me all about it! That's such a big vacation,
that's so cool.

Okay, so to back up a little bit, my district changed quite a bit,
these are the guys who left: Elder Kaonohi has been sent to Nantes,
he's training out there in my dream ville; Elder Cisneros is way up
north to Cherbourg; Elder Libby is dead. In Utah. Haha. Speaking of
which, mom, have you met his mom or anything? Seems like you were
going to meet him or his family or something. Haha you don't have to
but that'd be fun, I thought. He's a fun kid, I'm sure his mom is too.
Anyways, now it's me and Elder Burgoyne in Compiegne, Elder Sutherland
and Elder Asato (new in district, but mentioned him before, he's the
guy who reminds me of Kogan) in Auxerre; Elder Trotter and Elder
Oldham (new to district, district leader) in Troyes. So there you go,
three left, three new guys in. That's a lot of change for just a
little 6-man district! :) haha

We had a fairly intense lesson with Chantal, talking about suffering
in life, trying to make sense of it, and that kind of thing. We were
well prepared compared to other recent times when we've gone over, so
that was good. We wre able to share a couple points, with Francois,
that helped her a little I think. She's learning more patience and
becoming used to the fact that she won't learn everything at once.
She's doing well. :) proud of her.

Elizabeth was really sad when we taught her, she was sitting on a
bench by the train station of Noyon, where she lives. We talked to her
a little bit, just tried to comfort her, and we hope things are going
better now. 

We talked to the bishop in the car on our little Wednesday Bishop
Adventure Day and he gave us a little tip on building friendships with
members: whenever they give you food in a container to take home,
never return the container empty. Always put a few cookies or brownies
or something back in it. Write them a card, you know. It helps them
know they care. So that's good. We've taken that to heart and we're
putting it into practice. Several lives have already been blessed by
Mom's brownie recipe. :) haha Chantal even said they were really good
and that her old boss really liked them too. That was fun.

You know, we had a couple good finding moments this week. Our district
leader, Elder Oldham (I really like him by the way, he's spot-on) has
been pushing finding new amis. We didn't find any this week, but we
were still able to set appointments for next week with a couple people
we hadn't seen in a while, and we still had some good finding
experiences.

We even had this crazy contact with this teenager or 20s dude--I swear
this guy was high--and we contact him by the side of a road, by a
pretty big sidewalk for bikes in Compiegne--and right away, he's like,
"Do you have time to talk about our Lord?" And I'm like, "Yeah, for
sure!" Haha. Duh that's what I'm doing. He's like, "Do you know about
our Lord *something something I don't understand* (don't worry not a
swear word) " I'm like, "yeaaahh.. What?" He's like, "oh good, you
mean you've heard about Raptor Jesus who lives in space and who eats
people?" *nodding with his head towards the street. i was just like
,,"what? No." Haha. So he's like, "well, I think you can keep going
then, sirs." I'm like, "Whatever man. You have a good day." Haha. And
then he crosses the street and lets out this "WHOOO!" We're just like,
what the heck just happened. So there you go, you meet some nice funny
crazy people sometimes. One of the biggest skills for missionaries to
have is to take funny or weird stuff and just go with it, laugh at it.
Haha that guy was so weird. Whatever man hahaha

Elder Burgoyne's training is going well. We honestly haven't had much
time for 12 week studies this week because we've often had service or
lessons or other things like that to get to. When you consider that
Sundays, Pdays, and District Meeting days all eliminate the extra
study hours, you don't have many days left over afterwards haha. He
really is so gifted though. He's such a chill guy. Very little
actually bothers him. He doesn't really let my stressful moments get
to him. He's just a good little guy. Sweet heart, good testimony,
always knows what to say. And he's already so good at expressing his
ideas in French. In short, he's a perfect blue for an imperfect
trainer. :D haha. We get along so well, too. It's been such a relief
so see how well we get along. I've tried to just embrace who he is,
just accept him, and we've had fun, you know, we really have! Haha
we've had some fun jokes and stories, talking about what makes an
attractive girl, that kind of stuff.  It's just real chill in general.
So I'd say he's adjusting very  well. He's already, as a newborn
blue,, more obedient than me,  has his head on straight, knows it's
important to teach, and work, but knows he still needs to be a
person, so he's just about perfect for me. Has got it all figured out
haha.  I  just need to  step back so he can participate more  in
lessons and  finding activities because he's always got good things to
say.

Anyways, that''s pretty much our week in a  nut-shell. I've also been
reading out loud    Spanish and French a little bit.  That's kind of
fun.

Also in church today, me, Elder Burgoyne, and Frere Joly Sr. Likecarried everybody. The whole bishopric was gone on vacation, so Frere
Joly conducted the entire three hours as the senior high priest, I
played piano for sacrament and Sunday School, Elder Burgoyne SPOKE in
sacrament meeting (yes, only has been 10 days since he got here haha
he did a heck of a job). I gave the whole freaking lesson in the third
hour. It was just comical. We did like everything.

Don't love the French vacation attitude, like, "I''m leaving for three
weeks and won't work and won't be at church.  Sorry bye." Haha just
not  cool.  Whatever. People  are still great I just don't like their
vacation philosophy here..

Okay  that's about all. Love you guys!   Hope you''re doing well!!!
Talk  to ya soon.

Love,

Elder Edwards

P.S... Mom, today, a cool little thought came to me today during
sacrament meeting. I wrote it down because I thought it was sacred. It
was, if I want to be a good, sweet husband to my sweet future wife, I
should treat my mother like a queen too. So that was a sweet thought
to have. Love you mom.

Love you too dad.

I don't want to die with my music still in me. So I'm going to finish
strong, I'll keep working hard. It wouldn't mean the same to me if I
didn't.

Got to see a cool miracle today: going door to door, we rang the
doorbell of one house, a little girl and little boy answered, both
cute, maybe 11 and 6, respectively, and we smiled at them, and they
smiled back, and the looked so happy, they looked so happy to see us.
I talked to the mom afterward, she said nicely that they weren't
interested, and it's all right, that was all, we went on our way, a
pretty normal experience to the untrained eye. But that really stuck
out to me. Even as I was smiling and turning away, I noticed that the
daughter or son was still smiling and looking happily at me, and I
think they had maybe felt the spirit we had, or the happiness we had.
And I hoped it left an impression on them. Sometimes we don't know how
far it goes, you know, a little card, a smile to someone in a hard,
grey day, a laugh to brighten someone's morning. The fact we treat
people, in a Christlike manner, is almost as important, if not more
important, than what we actually say or how many lessons or people we
teach. People need to see that, it needs to make an impression on
them. A positive one. They ought to say to themselves, shortly after
talking to us, or even after seeing us, "Wow. I don't know why, but
they just had this angelic countenance. I wonder why they smiled so
well like that, or why they laughed so freely. I wonder what makes
them happy. What am I missing?" Because that's what makes people open
to talking to us after. We were able to kindly guide a guy on his bike
toward the center of town shortly before this. You never know the full
impact a Christlike-lived mission can have on people. I like to think
hundreds or thousands will appreciate, without words but in their
minds, the works and smiles and words we've said, in our two short
little years, that we will never know or appreciate or even remember
in our mortal lives. These are our little personal ministries, like
Christ had His, only we are just following Him. But still, this is our
time to really minister to the people and give our best to them. Even
if they often reject us, we still love them anyway. That's the
attitude we ought to have.

There you go. Love you guys. Some thoughts for the week. Bye!

August 8, 2016 - Adam's Letter - Hey Mom and Dad! Love ya, enjoy Hawaii!

Elder Burgoyne -- the trio 

 Chantilly Castle

Arch by Chantilly Stables (Chantilly is a pretty town by the way. It was cool because the castle and park was very big, very very big, you could have walked around forever)

Hey family!! :D love you! How are you guys doing?! How is Hawaii, is
it beautiful? Sunny down there? Did you get any fresh pineapple like
old times, Dad?

Me, I'm doing well. Thought I would just tell you a little bit about
my week, so I'll do that. In a nutshell, we saw Chantilly castle last
Monday; we made brownies and ate with the Joly Sr. Family; Elder
Burgoyne did his tablet safety course; we had our first district
meeting on Wednesday, our district has changed a lot. It was one of
the most inspired district trainings I've had in a long time, it was
really straight-up about what we needed to hear and it was refreshing.
We taught Elizabeth briefly, did less-active finding with the bishop,
then Frere Hitoto with Bishop as well; we taught Karine, a cool older
Catholic couple, the Gambarts; Bro. And Sis. Trouillet, less-actives;
got E. Burgoyne his first kebab (:D it was good); taught Chantal; did
service for Sister Joly Sr. And her mom who is not a member; and we
had church! And Sunday, today, we saw a couple cool miracles in
following the Spirit a little bit, the Lord blessed us with several
more appointments than we had before, people called us back and stuff,
it was cool, and He provided us with a nice experience contacting and
porting a bit. This week, I enjoyed a spirit of a bit more focus on my
mission, and on preparation for our lessons. So it was a good week. :)
can't complain.

By the way, what have you guys done in Hawaii? Did you go to any
amusement parks or to Polynesian Cultural Center? What did you eat?
Who enjoyed what? Tell me all about it! That's such a big vacation,
that's so cool.

Okay, so to back up a little bit, my district changed quite a bit,
these are the guys who left: Elder Kaonohi has been sent to Nantes,
he's training out there in my dream ville; Elder Cisneros is way up
north to Cherbourg; Elder Libby is dead. In Utah. Haha. Speaking of
which, mom, have you met his mom or anything? Seems like you were
going to meet him or his family or something. Haha you don't have to
but that'd be fun, I thought. He's a fun kid, I'm sure his mom is too.
Anyways, now it's me and Elder Burgoyne in Compiegne, Elder Sutherland
and Elder Asato (new in district, but mentioned him before, he's the
guy who reminds me of Kogan) in Auxerre; Elder Trotter and Elder
Oldham (new to district, district leader) in Troyes. So there you go,
three left, three new guys in. That's a lot of change for just a
little 6-man district! :) haha

We had a fairly intense lesson with Chantal, talking about suffering
in life, trying to make sense of it, and that kind of thing. We were
well prepared compared to other recent times when we've gone over, so
that was good. We wre able to share a couple points, with Francois,
that helped her a little I think. She's learning more patience and
becoming used to the fact that she won't learn everything at once.
She's doing well. :) proud of her.

Elizabeth was really sad when we taught her, she was sitting on a
bench by the train station of Noyon, where she lives. We talked to her
a little bit, just tried to comfort her, and we hope things are going
better now.

We talked to the bishop in the car on our little Wednesday Bishop
Adventure Day and he gave us a little tip on building friendships with
members: whenever they give you food in a container to take home,
never return the container empty. Always put a few cookies or brownies
or something back in it. Write them a card, you know. It helps them
know they care. So that's good. We've taken that to heart and we're
putting it into practice. Several lives have already been blessed by
Mom's brownie recipe. :) haha Chantal even said they were really good
and that her old boss really liked them too. That was fun.

You know, we had a couple good finding moments this week. Our district
leader, Elder Oldham (I really like him by the way, he's spot-on) has
been pushing finding new amis. We didn't find any this week, but we
were still able to set appointments for next week with a couple people
we hadn't seen in a while, and we still had some good finding
experiences.

We even had this crazy contact with this teenager or 20s dude--I swear
this guy was high--and we contact him by the side of a road, by a
pretty big sidewalk for bikes in Compiegne--and right away, he's like,
"Do you have time to talk about our Lord?" And I'm like, "Yeah, for
sure!" Haha. Duh that's what I'm doing. He's like, "Do you know about
our Lord *something something I don't understand* (don't worry not a
swear word) " I'm like, "yeaaahh.. What?" He's like, "oh good, you
mean you've heard about Raptor Jesus who lives in space and who eats
people?" *nodding with his head towards the street. i was just like
,,"what? No." Haha. So he's like, "well, I think you can keep going
then, sirs." I'm like, "Whatever man. You have a good day." Haha. And
then he crosses the street and lets out this "WHOOO!" We're just like,
what the heck just happened. So there you go, you meet some nice funny
crazy people sometimes. One of the biggest skills for missionaries to
have is to take funny or weird stuff and just go with it, laugh at it.
Haha that guy was so weird. Whatever man hahaha

Elder Burgoyne's training is going well. We honestly haven't had much
time for 12 week studies this week because we've often had service or
lessons or other things like that to get to. When you consider that
Sundays, Pdays, and District Meeting days all eliminate the extra
study hours, you don't have many days left over afterwards haha. He
really is so gifted though. He's such a chill guy. Very little
actually bothers him. He doesn't really let my stressful moments get
to him. He's just a good little guy. Sweet heart, good testimony,
always knows what to say. And he's already so good at expressing his
ideas in French. In short, he's a perfect blue for an imperfect
trainer. :D haha. We get along so well, too. It's been such a relief
so see how well we get along. I've tried to just embrace who he is,
just accept him, and we've had fun, you know, we really have! Haha
we've had some fun jokes and stories, talking about what makes an
attractive girl, that kind of stuff.  It's just real chill in general.
So I'd say he's adjusting very  well. He's already, as a newborn
blue,, more obedient than me,  has his head on straight, knows it's
important to teach, and work, but knows he still needs to be a
person, so he's just about perfect for me. Has got it all figured out
haha.  I  just need to  step back so he can participate more  in
lessons and  finding activities because he's always got good things to
say.

Anyways, that''s pretty much our week in a  nut-shell. I've also been
reading out loud    Spanish and French a little bit.  That's kind of
fun.


Also in church today, me, Elder Burgoyne, and Frere Joly Sr. Like
carried everybody. The whole bishopric was gone on vacation, so Frere
Joly conducted the entire three hours as the senior high priest, I
played piano for sacrament and Sunday School, Elder Burgoyne SPOKE in
sacrament meeting (yes, only has been 10 days since he got here haha
he did a heck of a job), I gave the whole freaking lesson in the third
hour. It was just comical. We did like everything.

Don't love the French vacation attitude, like, "I''m leaving for three
weeks and won't work and won't be at church.  Sorry bye." Haha just
not  cool.  Whatever. People  are still great I just don't like their
vacation philosophy here..

Okay  that's about all. Love you guys!   Hope you''re doing well!!!
Talk  to ya soon.

Love,

Elder Edwards

P.S... Mom, today, a cool little thought came to me today during
sacrament meeting. I wrote it down because I thought it was sacred. It
was, if I want to be a good, sweet husband to my sweet future wife, I
should treat my mother like a queen too. So that was a sweet thought
to have. Love you mom.

Love you too dad.

I don't want to die with my music still in me. So I'm going to finish
strong, I'll keep working hard. It wouldn't mean the same to me if I
didn't.

Got to see a cool miracle today: going door to door, we rang the
doorbell of one house, a little girl and little boy answered, both
cute, maybe 11 and 6, respectively, and we smiled at them, and they
smiled back, and the looked so happy, they looked so happy to see us.
I talked to the mom afterward, she said nicely that they weren't
interested, and it's all right, that was all, we went on our way, a
pretty normal experience to the untrained eye. But that really stuck
out to me. Even as I was smiling and turning away, I noticed that the
daughter or son was still smiling and looking happily at me, and I
think they had maybe felt the spirit we had, or the happiness we had.
And I hoped it left an impression on them. Sometimes we don't know how
far it goes, you know, a little card, a smile to someone in a hard,
grey day, a laugh to brighten someone's morning. The fact we treat
people, in a Christlike manner, is almost as important, if not more
important, than what we actually say or how many lessons or people we
teach. People need to see that, it needs to make an impression on
them. A positive one. They ought to say to themselves, shortly after
talking to us, or even after seeing us, "Wow. I don't know why, but
they just had this angelic countenance. I wonder why they smiled so
well like that, or why they laughed so freely. I wonder what makes
them happy. What am I missing?" Because that's what makes people open
to talking to us after. We were able to kindly guide a guy on his bike
toward the center of town shortly before this. You never know the full
impact a Christlike-lived mission can have on people. I like to think
hundreds or thousands will appreciate, without words but in their
minds, the works and smiles and words we've said, in our two short
little years, that we will never know or appreciate or even remember
in our mortal lives. These are our little personal ministries, like
Christ had His, only we are just following Him. But still, this is our
time to really minister to the people and give our best to them. Even
if they often reject us, we still love them anyway. That's the
attitude we ought to have.

There you go. Love you guys. Some thoughts for the week. Bye!

------------------------------------

Thanks so much for your emails, loved them! 

So this week, we were able to enjoy a lot of member meal appointments with Elder Libby's depart. We ate at probably another two or three members' houses just to tell him goodbye. Then, with the arrival of Elder Burgoyne, we had a ward mission leader meeting Wednesday, then dinner with the bishop and his family that night. We then taught Karine the next day. We did some weekly planning. And saturday and Sunday  we worked like fools.  :D  it was awesome. We've talked to so many people in  the last few days  I don't even know  if I could remember them all. But it's  been great. We've had  a couple cool miracles and honestly, like  Elder Burgoyne pointed out, people  have actually been nice or at least decently polite for the most part with him around. Made me appreciate people more, count my blessings. And today we were able to see Chantilly Castle, a pretty well-known and fancy castle, really more like a palace, 45 minutes southeast of Compiegne. And that's our week. 

When we taught Karine, we went away really feeling happy about it. Normally, I go out of those rendez-vous feeling pretty meh, you know, feeling like I could have been more bold, or wishing she would be more willing, but that time went well. We were able to establish something important: her biggest obstacle in reading the Book of Mormon is simply desire. She doesn't like to read normally, and she has even less motivation to read this because it's hard, old language and stuff. So that was great. We decided we would take several rendez-vous in the future to read the Book of Mormon with her. We're going to call her sometimes and read over the phone with her. We're really hoping this added exposure to the book will help her feel the Spirit and accept the truths we're teaching her. She is a really nice person. It was good to just kind of relax a little bit more wth her this time, kind of laugh a bit more, and see how that helped her be more relaxed as well. I guess sometimes I can be too stressed or robotic. 

Yesterday, at church, an old missionary came! His name was Elder Tarbet. He just finished his mission last Thursday, and he and his parents were doing a little tour of France. They made a rule to eat three pastries a day haha. It was fun to see him, since I'd kind of known him a little bit, and since his last comopanion was my MTC comp, Elder Johnson. Members made a lunch to welcome them all, and invited us, so we got to eat a nice lunch. It was fun. 

Today, we saw the castle, it was super cool!!! You would have loved it, Mom, Dad, Malia, Grace, Hyrum, Gabe! It was awesome. So historical. This one was very lavishly decorated, it wasn't just empty, you konw, they still had lots of furniture and most of all, a bunch of PAINTINGS. Holy cow those were everywhere!!! Okay I am sending you a few picutres. I bought a couple souvenirs for you guys for when I get back. 

Also--you guys asked about my blue, how he's doing! Well--he's doing pretty great i think! I have definitely been impressed with how well he held up with the hours of walking around and contacting the last couple days. He has a very obedient outlook, which I like. Haha I've noticed I've become less straight-laced over the months of my mission, since Nantes. Which I needed. But it's good to have a good, obedient comp who's starting out. He's a good influence for sure. He's also very patient and takes things as they come. I can kind of tend to get firey and angry inside when people are rude with us, it's good to have someone who's just really nice and chill. 

Okay that's enough about me! Loved your guys' updates. Happy your week wasn't as crazy as you thought, Dad! THanks for your compliments, I appreciate it a lot. That's really nice of you to say, Dad, thanks! :) happy to hear all is well in the ward over there. So weird that Jasmine is back. Sounds good! I'm happy to tell you lots of stories. I bought you a little fleur-de-lis tie today at the castle, it's pretty classy-looking and it just had your style so I hope you like it. :) love ya dad! Hope you're having a great flight right now, or I assume that's where you are. 

Hey Mom! Love ya! :D don't say sorry, go enjoy yourselves. Haha I'm bummed sure but you don't need to say sorry, it's a great fun little trip go have fun. Wow that sounds pretty brutal, broken A/C! You guys must be on the plane right now. Hey, you were at Mom's Retreat--Cedar Jones wrote me about that and said she was there, she said she helps with her mom's class and that this year she was a participant, did you see her there by chance? 

Holy cow, you are SO busy!! I can't believe how busy you are! Haha I'm coming home pretty soon, are you going to have time for me?! I mean your classes are great and all but please don't miss coming to the airport because you're teaching something! I mean I know you'll be there, that's not what I mean, but I hope we'll have time to hang out still! I'm happy for ya though that you've had so much business and success in teaching. Sounds great, sounds like you helped lots of people and enjoyed it. You know what, yeah, Elder Burgoyne is a good kid, really like him, he's got a good sense of humor and he's a good-hearted kid. One thing I've been kind of struggling with is that he doesn't talk too much unless I try and get some talk out of him, but then again, I'm sure I'll fix that in no time, I think he'll understand before too long it's better to talk than not to. :) And it'snot that he doesn't talk. We're just working on it. But we've had some good, funny conversations already. :) it's been fun. 

You know, I have no idea about Stephane's son. Thank you for thinking about him. But we've tried many times and without success to get in touch with him since the last call with Elder LIbby a week and a half ago, and to no avail. He hasn't picked up since that call. So..I hope things are okay. Thanks for fasting for him! Keep praying for him, he needs it. 

Sure, maybe a shell or two or some shirt or Hawaiian music? Haha I don't know take your pick. I'm easy I'll take anything. 

Okay I'll see what I can do to get you a little Eiffel tower. I've noticed, looking at pictures, how the piano is all decorated, haha that's kiind of fun! :) love you guys. 

Hey, Mom, I don't really know how to say this, but this last week, I felt bad for how I've kind of put you at a distance, and I think it's time to make amends. I don't want anything bitter between you and me when I get back, and I'd be foolish to do so, so I hope you can forgive me for anything rude or hurtful that I've said against you. I think it's time to start making amends. :) love you mom. The Lord and the Spirit have kind of been working with me, my comps some too, to kind of come back closer to you. So yeah. I don't know if I've fully voiced all the concerns I've had, but it doesn't matter. You're my mom, I love you, I want to be close to you again, so is that ok with you? I'd really like that. Sorry for all this foolishness and anger. I won't let the bitterness stay. I'm ready to start over. 

Love you and hope you have a great week!

Adam's Video and Letter - Aug 1, 2016

Hey Dad! Man thanks for your great email, loved it. Glad you survived
scout camp well and have fun on vacation! Sounds great you guys will
be gone for a while! Where are you going?

Guess what?! IM TRAINING!!! :D I'm going to get another blue! Whoohoo
I'm so excited!

Is there any small thing souvenir wise you,d like me to look for my
last while here? They have cool little shops in Paris I'm sure I could
find a little something.

Hope life is going good dad. Libby and I had a great last full week
together, we have several meal appointments between now and Wednesday
morning when I will take him to Paris so he pretty much made it! Haha
it's over for him.

Super excited to train again.

Thanks for your prayers for us and our amis! This week, we were not
able to see Stephane, which was a real bummer because we had it worked
out, he was coming to the soccer activity on Saturday and church and
everything, but he has not been answering our calls. His 18 to 20 year
old son suffered a pretty serious car accident this week and almost
died, which was pretty hard for him I think, he is in stable condition
now but please pray for him, he needs it I think, and his dad too. I
hope he will be all right and that this will bring Stephane and his
family closer not farther to the Lord.

You know other than that, we had a pretty good week. We saw many many
members, Elder Libby was very loved by them, he is a likeable guy. We
went to the Duvin family, had a good appointment with them, and the
Trouillets, both less active families, and also saw the Jolys,
Elizabeth, the Gaydus from Guadalupe, did service for the Bourgeois
and ate barbecue with them and their nice extended family, saw Frere
Hitoto and Frere Ikongo with the bishop, and Frer Hitoto came to
church (very sweet, older man); and saw the Malca family ! All of
those members who are active fed us :D frere hitoto gave us some
drinks and snacks too which was nice, always a plus right? Plus we
were able to go to a fun unofficial ward picnic/soccer activity, and I
had a lot of fun.

Love ya dad! Tell me about your week, have you had any good new
clients cone to you lately? How is the deacon's quorum? Boy you're
right, my mission age group is coming home.

I want to make these last three months exciting, I want to give him
discipline, hard work, and a good example, but I also want to be more
chill and let him learn for himself. Excited.

Ok well i love you guys, that's a little bit of my week! Chat me if
you want, love you and am excited for the changes ahead. I'm staying
in Compiegne as well, by the way.

Love you guys!!!

Have a good one!

Love

Elder Adam Edwards

July 18, 2016 - Adam's letter - lotsa good teaching going on!

Weekly email--sorry it's fast!
Copied off a friend's email, sorry time is short! Thanks for your emails guys!

Two weeks ago, we were able to visit the Duvin family, they are slowly
coming back and we're visiting them as often as we reasonably can. We
talked about good habits, getting their 8-year-old daughter baptized,
and being worthy to go to the temple. Just 1 1/2 years ago, the mom
and oldest daughter were baptized, now there is the 8 year old and her
little brother. The dad was already a member since his birth. So wish
us luck there, we're going to see them again. The dad is from La
Reunion, a couple islands off the coast of Madagascar, and the mom is
French. Their kids are really cute.

We were also able to drive all the way out to the biggest town in our
area and teach a referral there, that was fun! Bernard, he was a cool
guy, agnostic but interested in what we believe and the organization
of the Church. Very fun. Very respectful guy. We also visited ANOTHER
referral (we're catching up and they're just pouring in), Anicet, a 40
year old guy from Congo, and taught him the REstoration, he was very
cool. We then had an exchange and took four hours of trains to Paris,
then to Auxerre, where our district leader is, and we then had a
finding day with the zone leaders. Also had the great news that one of
my old investigators from Troyes, my last area, got baptized that sameday, July 9th. So that was great news, huh? :D Denise took a great
step for the better.

We were able to correspond with our families Monday, and also do some
good finding. We had some great interviews with President Babin on
Wednesday, followed by a cool district meeting about motivation and
how we can keep going strong to the end of our missions. And that was
fun because President was there the whole time. Haha we do a little
practice teaching after district meeting, we break up into little
groups and practice teaching scenarios, so me and my comp were put
with President :D hahaha! He was a GREAT investigator, lemme tell ya.Golden. That was fun, we practiced inviting members to pick our "ami"
or investigator up for church Sunday. And we even ate cheap little
Chinese meat-filled rolls with President. Haha that was fun. #cheap
they're pretty good though. Then we came home and missed a train.
Shoot.. :D


Another cool thing that happened this week--we were able to meet with
Jose Luyeye, a really cool African guy from the Congo, who found the
Church online, and we talked about the Restoration with him. It's
interesting how people of other faiths think man can't see God, or
that God and Jesus are the same person. Really makes a lot more sense
with the Book of Mormon, modern revelation, and modern prophets the
way we see it but like-whatever. :D haha. It ended positively enough,
it stayed on a fairly positive note, we didn't get too far off topic.
Thankfully my companion, Elder Libby stepped in (he's an angel) and
just said, "Look, we're not here to convince you or Bible bash, we're
just here to teach you what we believe to be true." That helped him bea little bit more humble. So that was cool. If you ever serve a
mission, don't Bible bash. Explain to your amis that they need to
build their own faith, they need to search for themselves if it's
true. They shouldn't sit there idle while missionaries try and
convince them it's true, because then it'll never happen. (It's like
when Alma explains to the poor people that it's better when people
humble themselves on their own, without external forced humility.) So
that was good. It went well for the most part, we gave him the Book of
Mormon as he'd requested, and he said he'd read it, and then call us.
So we were happy with that. Hopefully he reads it and well understands
a bit more than he did. :D

Oh boy--member visits this week, Star, they were awesome. We were
again blessed/spoiled (not sure which to say exactly, some of both).
We were able to go to the Gaydu family's house (they are from
Guadalupe, they make super good food--they had to wheel me out ofthere, almost got life-flighted for a stomach explosion), then we were
also able to go to the Joly's house (that was good, less full that
time, lots of cool exotic ice cream flavors--who thought of caramel
salt and pear ice cream?). We were also privileged to pass by the
Pessas' house. They are pretty old and very sweet. Sister Pessa
especially was happy to have us over, because she'd been pretty sick
for the last year and a half or so, and so hadn't been able to have
the missionaries over for a while, so we were lucky enough to restart
that for them, and they just--oh man--they just absolutely stuffed us.
STUFFED. I cried for mom. I felt as though my stomach had exceeded its
given space capacity and that it would very soon start crushing vital
organs nearby. Had a collapsed lung from that, pretty serious.
However, miraculously, I lived. You know, I'm exaggerating, but we
were pretty full. :D and THEN they sent us home with more food. :D
hahaha they just can't stop. They gave us a whole bag of food just
last Sunday. So I mean the last couple days our fridge has been morefull than it has been in a while. :D it's been nice. Really I
appreciated them, I felt so grateful and blessed. If you ever serve a
mission, you'll know what it's like.

The other noteworthy event from this week was the lesson with
Stephane! Stephane is a SUPER cool ami we have (in French we just say
ami for investigator which is cool, huh?) and he is a boss. His family
first came in contact with the Church when he was five or six years
old, and he was an investigator from that time until about 14 years of
age, when he stopped attending church for a while. However, about four
years ago, 2012, he came in contact with his favorite missionary ever,
that he'd known when he was about 11, and they started visiting each
other, one flying to Idaho to visit, the other flying to France
afterwards. Then, several weeks ago, he showed up at stake conference
with this American guy, who turned out to be his old missionary, and a
member walked up to us, telling us there was a guy who was ready to be
taught by us. WOW when does that happen right?!? So we were like, COOL
and we taught him once, a few weeks ago, now he's back from his
vacation to the U.S. And we visited him again and taught him just
about the full Restoration. Really fun. He is super straight-up,
blunt, won't make a promise he can't keep, which I really like about
him. He has some word of wisdom problems, but he wants to be baptized,
and he understands it's for him and God, not just to make us happy. So
we're really happy about that. Anyway, there you go. Just love this
guy. He's 42 or so and coming back to the fold. Gave him the
commitment to read a page from the Book of Mormon a day, and he was
like, "Oh, ha, like that's hard, I already like to read and I
understand that's like spiritual food, so yeah no problem I'll do it."
And we were like, "we love you, Stephane." Haha no one does that. I
can count three other amis I've known in my time who were on the same
level of legitimacy as Stephane, you know, who were as honest and
straight-up and took it as seriously as him. Wish us luck, ok? Any
prayers for him would be super appreciated.

July 11, 2016 - Hey guys! Weekly update

Love you mom, dad, and family. Thank you for the great email mom. Way
to rise above the challenges with your class. Keep it up I'm sure
it'll go a lot more smoothly this week.

This week was fun for me. Complete with a Duvin visit; meeting Anicet,
an online referral from Congo, for the first time; teaching Chantal;
district meeting; a great big Beauvais day on Wednesday, complete with
a visit to Bernard, another new online referral, and Manuel, a
less-active member. We were also privileged to do door to door in an
outer village of Compiegne called Clairoix; we attended ward council
and our meeting with our ward mission leader; had a big exchange and
finding day Friday and Saturday with Elders Cisneros and Sutherland;
and a great day of church and a member visit with the Malcas
yesterday, topped off with a visit at the Ocampos that finally went
through.

We were able to leave a good impression with the Ocampos. Since they
haven't been keeping commitments, we decided not to drop them but we
put the ball in their court, told them that they could call us when
they had more time and they wanted the gospel more, and we borught the
Spirit in, reading from Alma 18 and that was great. Told them we're
here as missionaries so they could ask the same questions and have the
same feelings as King Lamoni. I hope they really thought about that.

France lost to Portugal so please send positive vibes this way. (Good
thing I'm not portuguese haha)

We are super excited for this week because we'll have a couple good
member visits, we have some other appointments lined up, and we'll
just have a fine and dandy week .already going into week 4 of the
transfer, goes by fast.

Shoutout to Wesleigh, Star, and Kogan who wrote me recently, you guys
are the best!

All right that's all for this week, it's brief but I think it's better
this way and don' t have lots of time. Love you guys! Hope my emails
uplift you and help you feel the Spirit.

Invitation for this week--in a quiet moment of study and reflection,
take a step back from your life, and look at it as God sees it. What
positive things does He see that you don't see? What positive
direction does he want you to take that you'd rather not for the
moment? Take that direction and go with it. You have the ball. Run
with it. The Lord will get you to that first down line. Keep running
with him and he will get you to the end zone, which is paradise in the
Celestial Kingdom. Don't lose faith. Don't lose hope. Life is good.
This is the time to work. Don't lose the chance to work while it is
still yours.

God bless everyone! I love you lots!

Love, love, love

Elder Edwards

-------------------------------------

 

Thanks for your email Mom! Boy thanks for all the pictures too! It looks like you really enjoyed your 4th huh? Did you have a fun time?

Haha I had to giggle when I heard about that, you hanging out with

Edler Libby's mom. Have fun with that when you can, he's a great guy,

I'm sure his mom is a lot of fun like him.

I wish yo the best of luck for this week's presentation and I will

keep you in my prayers! God bless Mom and Dad!

Love you lots!

Sincerely,

Adam

July 4, 2016 -- Adam's letter. 4th of July, Duvin Family, and great DMP meeting :)

Hey guys! Happy 4th of July to you all!

I may be far but I still love my country!!! WHOO GO AMERICA

All right well just to tell you guys about my week a little bit, we
walked a lot in Compiegne, we ate some good food at members' houses
(were privileged to be fed or at least given yummy snacks at several
peoples' houses), and we had a great time. We also got to help a
really cool member, Frere Judas, put up his swingset, which was cool.
Good Sunday to finish it up. Also we picked up a new family to work
with, called the Duvin family. But I can't reveal all the details now
can I...

The weekly whallop.

Monday:
I ate. I drank. Shopped. Life was good. Went to Burger King with
Francois (yes that's growing here in France, there are a few in our
area now). We contacted and I bought my new "Carte de Jeune" or youth
discount card for trains. It was a real good Pday, I'm sure.

Tuesday: We had a fun district meeting,  it was different because the
ZLs   Were there and because Cisneros was leading it this time, he's
the new DL, but it was fun. He said that he would correct us on stuff
where needed, so he'll be a good leader. We had a good lunch, complete
with tartiflette that Elder Libby made, basically like potato circles
and sour cream and bacon bits with a lot and lot of cheese on top.
Pretty good. We then went to Creil, and very hurriedly stopped by a
less-active sister's house, who seemed pretty happy to see us (that
was good), but we had to run after to catch our train back to
Compiegne. Then we went on down to Noyon, farther north than Compiegne
(south to north is Paris, Creil, Compiegne, Noyon) and got to visit
Virgil and Karen there for the last time, the French/Panamanian
couple. They're so cool. They were just sealed a week or two ago, so
fun to see. They're moving on the 13th and we'll be really sad to se
them go. They made us a REAL good rizotto (if you don't know what it
is eat it you'll like it) behold: