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:

June 27, 2016 - Adam's Letter

Adam's new companion, Elder Libby. 

Elder Williams with our ward mission leader, Francois.

Hey Mom! 

I looked at all the pictures and listened to the recording.
Thanks! Liked it. Hope you're having fun at the gym. Haha how you
spell check your emails while running on the treadmill I will never
know but you do a really good job at it!!

This week has been kind of hard, been fighting off loneliness and
stuff. It's hard to feel like you're doing a lot of good in towns like
this. It requires a very big picture viewpoint to keep your head and
stay happy and motivated. Like REALLY big picture, bigger than i've
ever had to have for any of my other towns.

We still did see some really big miracles this week though. We
contacted a referral named Valerie who apparently has already been
contacted by missionaries in the past, she is from Guadalupe and her
family there is partly members. They're strong members, baptized since
ten years, I think she said. We gave her the Book of Mormon as she
requested, she was super interested, she most of all wants to know how
to restart a relationship with God, because she was Catholic and
active in her belief as a child, and now she's kind of gotten away
from that, she explained, so she was really curious about how to get
back on a good relationship with God. So we talked about the Book of
Mormon and repentance that first rendez-vous, that went well.

Other miracle: the last night me and Elder Williams were together, we
went to contact another online referral whose name is Mackey, he's
super legit lives in a distant town and he was very open and accepting
of our message. Gotta love believing African people (he's from the
Congo). Love it. Love it.

We also were able to visit Karine with our ward mission leader,
Francois (yes that was him in the last photo with Elder WIlliams) and
that went ok. We definitely noticed a lack of motivation to act on her
part but hopefully that gets better soon. if not, we're going to let
her go for a while.

You were right in your voice letter that I've been really blessed by
the Lord. Can't deny that. Also can't say I'm saddened right now at
the thought of coming home. It's pretty hard here so it doesn't sound
that bad :) haha. It's not always you know it's just the days or long
hours when all you do is sit inside, or just walking around. It's
brutal you need a heck of a mind to deal with it. It's all a mental
battle. So lonely. So alone and quiet and there's times when you want
to talk to your companion but--you just don't know what to say. There
are really good moments, but they're rare. So you've gotta keep your
head in the long interims, that's the real hard part, you know?

Hope you have a good day mom! :) don't worry I'm fine. Just--yeah.
Tired. And alone. But it's ok. My comp is really good, happy and
talkative so he's a really good guy to be with right now. I just
honestly hope I don't stay much longer in this area after he goes.
Since I'll only have two transfers after he finishes, it is fairly
likely I'll finish here unless they take us both out when he finishes.

So apparently you're going to have lunch with Elder LIbby's mom? We
were cracking up this week talking about how our moms probably spend a
couple hours a day on the mission facebook page, talking about their
sons and trying to meet up for lunch :) hahaha!! We love you too don't
worry. Even if it's funny how much you moms do that :D

So theres my week love you guys! Have a great day.

Talk to ya soon mom! Sorry I talked about so much negative stuff--hope
you didn't get sad at all. :) love ya talk to ya soon

Adam Letter on June 20, 2016. Beginning Transfer 14 -- Williams transferred, Libby coming -- 2 Major finding days.

Me in Coulommiers on Friday

Bread and cheese guys (this transfer's Pday tradition)

Me and Fonua brotha :)

My dear parents, family, and friends, 

Hello! I'm happy to write to you and tell you about my week. Some pretty big things happened this week, including: my 13th transfer is over, Elder Williams is getting transferred out of Compiegne, and Elder Libby, who is from Kaysville, and who only has 6 weeks left, is going to come to finish or "die" here! Also we had some real cool contacting experiences and some dope finding days. 

You know the plot. Now it's time for the whole story. 

Monday. PDay. Pretty sure I had a good day. Whole 7 days ago though, it's like the inverse coefficient in the laws of magnets or of gravity--this is for you Kog--the farther in the rearview the day is, the less I care about it. Nah just kidding. It was a good day. Contacted a cool referral from a city called Soissons which is also in our area (yeah it's just huge). We'll be visiting him Tuesday. (If you're wondering why all the referrals don't worry I am too I really like it though I guess the Lord is preparing people here :) )

Tuesday. We had our correlation meeting with our ward mission leader, Francois. He's not retired, he's only like 27, but he's looking for a job, he doesn't work yet, so it's kind of nice he has a lot of time to work with us. And here in France people get money from the government even when they don't work so he's not in any trouble. He's a real cool guy. Really peaceful and funny. Loves soccer which is cool. The Euro Cup is going on right now, the last one in 2012 Spain won and this one well they're hoping France can take it. Anyways, had that meeting with Francois and then cleaned the apartment a bit because we had apartment inspection that night. We passed with flying colors, apparently, although I don't know if they inspected as deeply as they could have--hey it's ok though! Haha max they can make me stay here is 6 months! < classic missionary/apartment attitude  But anyways, that was fun to see Elder and Sister Sillito from the office (it's always senior couples who inspect in our mission) and they gave us some banana bread and installed some nice fancy little beeping toys by our room. Those beeping toys happen to sense smoke and carbon monoxide. So yeah we're now safe. 

Wednesday we had some nice full studies, took some cookies to Ariel and Monica's family, just dropped them off (brownie points man people in France looove American cookies they can't do them as well as we can because they always skimp on butter and sugar ha). Then we contacted some. Which also means we talked some, just us two, because you know, contacting means you talk some with your comp as well in the lull moments, between people or when you're on a deserted road. We then taught Stephane, the real legit guy we were introduced to last Sunday, for the first time at his house. His story: his mother is a member since 30+ years, and she is pretty sick so her husband takes care of her. When he was a child, up to teenage years, he came to church and participated fairly often and his little brother was baptized, but he never was. 

Come his earlier teenage years, he stops going to church and goes less active. Hadn't been to church since then, or at least not for a real long time. But now, lately, has been feeling the need to come back closer to God. A LOT of the teachings of the Church, actually, have stuck with him. He's very honest and up-front about things. He hesitates to commit to a certainty for baptism right now, but he wants to. He wants to come back to church and be a more faithful member. It's really cool because he actually has already considered himself Mormon for a very long time, even though he wasn't baptized. So there you go. Really cool to be there and he made us some really good food too. Seeing him and hearing the way he talked reminded me about Thibeault in Charleroi. And I said to myself and to Elder Williams, "I've only EVER seen one guy, one other investigator, that prepared before in my life." It is remarkable. The Lord is great. I'm so lucky to have him take contact with us now, his American friend I think may have made him come to Stake Conference, because they were there together last Sunday. Anyways he's been seeing missionaries walk on the street of Margny, a neighboring town, for years, and he said often to himself, "man, I've got to go see them, I've got to go talk to them soon," but he was always too busy. So you can imagine what a magnificent blessing that is for me. Please pray for him guys! As of right now he's awesome. He's in the USA for three weeks with his American friend, who was a missionary here in Compiegne when Stephane was 11, 30+ years ago, and it is so cool to see what great friends they are, what great love they have for each other, two good bros. We also met a cool African guy named Sylvain and taught him a lesson on the road and talked with him a bit, taught him a lesson. That's my new investigator guys. So proud of him. That was sweet. Also received another online referral. That was our Wednesday. 

Thursday we had a slower day, all right though. We were going to go to Soissons but that was delayed until tomorrow. So we pretty much had some good studies, contacted, and made some cookies for district meeting once we'd gotten home for the night. Good day, even if slow. 

Friday we left the apartment about 8 to catch the train to Paris. We had a good finding day in Meaux with the other six elders of our district. I went out with Elder Fonua. We actually went to the second biggest town in their area, called Coulommiers, it was the first time Elder Fonua had been there, and we got to contact some cool, really nice people there, some even SUPER PREPARED people, met one lady whose father died recently, we were able to talk with her for a while and she was just SO nice! So kind. Mayber in her 50s. ALso got to meet and talk with a couple other really cool people who stopped and talked to us for a bit. It was nice because the missionaries in Meaux live really far from Coulommiers, so many of the people there stopped to listen to us, and we had a much better good contact per try rate than most towns where missionaries live and work daily. It was cool. Went back home to sleep and prepare again for Paris, this time Paris itself, the next day. 

Saturday we embarked on a special mission. A HUGE zone finding day, with every single missionary in our zone (that's a lot--probably like 20 or 22) all in the east side of Paris. Again it is always really fun when I have We had three blocks of time--the morning, I went out and contacted with Elder Fogg, who was also born in the Charleroi 1 ward (only guy born there since me :) ) and we were able to talk about Michel and Thibeault and that was really good. We contacted some cool people, got one or two really good lessons. Then we had lunch, then we went out to Place de la Republique or Republic Plaza, a really big square in Paris, where the artsy fartsy missionaries side walk chalked the Plan of Salvation, and where the less womanly men like myself went out and contacted like beasts. :D nah I'm kidding. We did get a REAL good new ami and lesson though, me and Elder Asato, the newer missionary in Reims. Just finished training actually. Really cool African guy who was really interested in the Book of Mormon. Can I just say--people who will kindly stop and sincerely listen on the street--nothing better. Nothing at all. Then we came back after about 40 minutes because well we wanted to stand and talk to people who had gathered around the big sidewalk chalk, that sounded easier right, plus there had been a really aggressive guy who was swearing at the missionaries before, and I wanted to make sure everyone was ok. We came back everyone was fine. (Paris I guess.) haha it was pretty chill for the most part, couple of people were mean/didn't want to hear from us, which whatever, but most of the people were really nice and cool. Got to talk to a really cool guy from New York City. He was really chill, liked him a lot. Explained the PoS drawing to him. Also got to meet a really nice, kind Iranian man who was here in Paris to work and get papers until he could send for his family to come too. He said it's really dangerous in his country now, and he was just so kind. So happy to speak English with someone. It touched me, you know, how barriers and walls you think would be there just weren't in that moment. It made me realize how people can really get past those barriers and see the kind, human people there are behind them. Anyways, finished off by doing a split at Place des Fetes, still in Paris on the metro 11 line, with my old ward mission leader of Nogent XAVIER yeaaahhhhh STUD he was super cool. Haha he really pushed himself to talk to people and we got to do 3 contacts or so together--real cool. Liked it a lot. Wasted like 45 minutes talking to a lady who in the end didn't even take a card XD. Haha not wasted though because she got a good vision of the church, never know where that could go. Said she'd look for us on the Internet which can be good if she goes to the source. So there you go. Ended the day with a sweet French contest, testing prepositions, verbs, and scripture mastery in French and our companionship tied for first. :D OH YEAH that's what happens when you get a 13 and 14th transfer team together :D it was fun. Of course the Lord gives us the gift of learning the language. 

Sunday we went to church, no investigators came, but it was still really good. We both spoke, I spoke on the Priesthood and its sacred power, and how to be worthy of it, and I also played piano, and we also translated for Sheye, our Nigerian brother, so we were busy haha. Needless to say Elder Williams did most of the translating. We then visited Chantal last night with Francois. And that is our week. 

I love you all! I know that the Gospel is true. It was so cool to feel the Spirit testify of the words I said at sacrament meeting yesterday. I know that, on a mission, or in any challenging calling in life, when we throw ourselves into it every day, not with an attitude of "when will this be over," but rather "wow cool--let's do some good with this time" the Lord sanctifies that work and makes it cleanse our hearts. Feels a lot better, too ,FYI. I know, through personal experience, that the Lord can do a heck of a lot more through a willing, obedient, motivated missionary than he can through someone who just doesn't want to be there. So love where you are, my family and friends!! I do. :) Love you all so much, have a good week! 

Hey guess what just 3 transfers left O.O

Btw as you all like to have transfer information on my comp: 

(I'm staying in Compiegne and my new comp's info is as follows:)

Elder Tanner Libby

From Kaysville, Utah

He'll be in his 16th transfer 

I've met him a couple times before, he's a really sweet character and apparently is pretty funny too. He just did 6 months in Namur, Belgium, he's really sad to be leaving, so we'll make this last transfer for him really special. Ie I'll fatten him with cookies :D

Also I've really grown to love and appreciate Elder Williams so much more just this past day or two, this past week. I realized how much sincere love the guy has for me as his comp, it was cool. We had good times here in Compiegne. My goal for this upcoming transfer is to continue working hard, to eliminate more extra time, for example, longer breaks, etc. and to keep throwing myself into the pattern of every day, every week, every transfer. It'll be over, I think, before I know it at this point. 

Love you guys. 

Sincerely

Elder Edwards

June 13, 2016 - Starting Week 6 in Compiegne

This is the big cathedral in Noyon. Pretty cool huh?

Hey family and friends! I'm doing well and I hope you all are having a
fantastic June.

We heard about the shooting in Florida, so sad. Please keep those
people in your prayers. God bless America and the people and land I
love.

This week we had a lot of fun. Lots of good things happened. Also a
few hard moments. But nothing a bit of grit and a Spirit-driven
missionary can't handle, right? :) Christian, our investigator we met
a couple weeks ago, dropped us; haha I'm almost wondering if he was
drunk when he answered...? Anyways made fun of us when we called him
and then hung up hahaha. We were just like "okay.." HAha. So we're
apparently not going to be teaching him anymore. BUT Anthony is still
a boss. Dropped us for a while, until the end of the school year, but
hopefully will be able to pick it back up once that happens. :) really
nice kid, good dude, just like 19 or 20 so it'd be really cool to see
him start investgating seriously with regular appointments and stuff.
Real good guy.

Well, let's take it from the top, shall we?

Monday was pretty chill. Francois, our ward mission leader, drove us
to the store like he usually does (such a boss), because we live kind
of far away from big shopping stores. And I got to send Dr. Kerr, the
head of the organ department at BYU-I, a video of me playing the
organ! So that was really sweet.

Tuesday, we had like three appointments fall through. Hhaha at the end
of that day I was just kind of like, "Today just was terrible." But
hey experience right? DC 121 it'll all be for our good. So yeah. Also
had district meeting, that was pretty cool. Liked that. Decded there
to work on diligence and patience for the week. After district meeting
we were just chilling in the Paris chapel because our train was at
like 5:30 PM (thanks strikes love you a bunch) and district meeting
finished not too long after 12, so we were just chilling there, then a
few of our missionaries said they wanted to go out contacting. And I
was like, "Nah..." But then after a while I was persuaded. So me and
Elder Fonua, my district leader, went out contacting in the heart of
Paris. (Met like a solid two or three American members/families so you
should have gotten a couple pictures sent to you Mom and Dad) and man
it was fun. Talked to several really cool, realy nice people, even
found one former investigator, and one LEGIT LADY who was in her
forties or fifties, really really cool, and she was interested, stayed
and talked to us for a solid ten or fifteen minutes (that's really
good in any big town, don't care where you are), and there you go!
Took her address AND phone number (that's pretty rare) and passed her
to the Paris LIlas missionaries whose area it was. It was a really
good experience. Also got to talk to a couple pretty sick American
people who weren' tmembers. REally cool. I learned a big lesson--when
a loss of motivation is felt, I should respond with MOTIVATING
ACTIONS, not just give in. It is actually in ACTING that we find
motivation and energy, not sitting around. Real good life lesson I
feel like I'm maturing and growing up every day. We also got to go
over to the bishop's house, that was super sick, loved that. Made us
some good food and their family is very numerous. Gotta count the good
moments, you know? Looking back that was a quality day. :)

[Mom comment: This next paragraph is every missionary's dream!] 

Wednesday we had a bit of contacting and went on a Francois Field Trip
(#ilovecars) and went wwayyyyy west in our area (we have a BIG area if
I didn't say that already) to a big town called BEAUVAIS. Pronounced
"BO-vay." Cool place. Really pretty and green and even pretty decent
sized. Even bigger than Compiegne. We were there to do some referral
hunting. In the last couple weeks we'd received like three referrals
from Church headquarters (usually meaning these people either found
the church online or went to a visitor's center) who lived in
Beauvais. So we went to go cash in on some serious spiritual
preparation. :D We came. We saw. We taught (-quered? What) PRETTY SICK
chance to teach a bunch of Haitian and African people, all neighbors
or family, in this one lesson, in this one house. So get this. Meet
Orvlyne "Orve-leen". African woman. Really believing and Christian.
Puts her name and info online to get a missionary visit. RDVs for the
last while haven't worked out because either we or her had to cancel
every time (they've been trying to see her since before I got here).
But guess what? We finally get there, we thought she wasn't home, we
were about to turn our backs to the door, and then we hear something
inside. What is it? Well it's Orvlyne of course. She proceeds to
invite us in, offers us drinks, and proceeds to call SEVERAL friends
and neighbors, saying, "hey, how are you doing? Are you home? I've got
the missionaries over right now, do you want to come over?" Hahaha :D
It was the most classic believing African sort of "party" lesson ever,
if I may. We started the lesson with her, Restoration of course, and a
few people come to her back door. It's her neighbors, a mom and
daughter. Orvlyne's son was then brought down from upstairs
(interrupted his nap sorry bro :D) We're now teaching four people.
Then another group comes, her sister this time. Maybe her daughter?
So we end up, visiting one single referral, teaching FIVE Christian
people around a dinner table about the Restoration of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. We finished with our testimonies and telling them that
if they read the Book of Mormon, they would know for themselves that
it is true. I felt kind of shaken up during the lesson because of the
apparent doubts of one of the people present, but then I was also very
hopeful for the neighbor and her daughter. Very believing, open
people, the daughter especially was excited to receive and read the
Book of Mormon. We're going to try and go back and see them in the
next week or two. I know that things can seem awkward sometimes, but
they don't need to be. Nicest people in the world. Loved it. Great
experience.

Thursday we were able to visit with our investigator Emmanuel, who is
a really nice guy in his 40s, and we talked about a lot of n'importe
quoi (whatever/everything) BUT we actually got to share a significant
part of the REstoration with him, which was a success because normally
you can't get a word in edgewise with that guy. So that was cool.
CHallenged him to keep reading the Book of Mormon, he's in Mosiah or
so, and we also decided to stop teaching him for a while, as he
believes there cannot be one true church, and he's kind of got a weird
mix of many religions in his belief system. So it's kind of hard to
teach him. You know what though, maybe second thought I shouldn't let
that stop us. He's still an important son of God. Maybe we oughtta
give him another chance. Any thoughts anyone?

-Later that day, we were pleased to go by Noyon "Nwai-ohn" and visit
Elizabeth, the recent convert lady from Nigeria, for the first time in
her new home. She just moved because assocations giving her money told
her the place in Compiegne was too expensive and that she had to move
there. So we got to go see her and contacted one or two people there
too. Got to talk to a really young-looking couple with their little
baby boy, they were really nice, and I think a little weirded out, but
we took their phone number and hopefully we can see them again. Then
spent 40 minutes that night waiting with Francois for a less active
sister to pick us up so we could teach her at her home, but to no
avail. She never showed. So we just had a good ol' time hanging out
with Francois and talking about whatever. Haha. I love hanging out
with Francois.

Friday was a pretty hard day, probably the hardest of the week. Three
out of four rendez-vous (apointments) fell through. In the early
afternoon, we went to a city in our area called "Creil," south towards
Paris, and we were supposed to have two quick appointments with less
active members there, and both of them fell through. Haha. But a
member driving by saw us and said, "Hey elders! Where are you from?"
And we're like, "Compiegne!" Was really cool because it's not every
day you get a member drive by you, especially not in a town that's far
from the city where your church is. So still had a couple cool
moments. Also got to help a lady in a car with directions. Got a great
rendez-vous about the Priesthood with Seye (pronounced "Shay - yay")
our other more recent convert from Nigeria, and that was to prepare
him to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood, which is pretty cool! We
were pretty happy to do that. I was impressed by Elder William's
knowledge of the Priesthood, too, that was cool to see. Also went to
go and see Chantal, our French recent convert, she's doing really
good, it seems, I worry for her a little bit sometimes, but you know,
I think she's doing all right. Really doing well on the outside
anyway. And she doesn't hide her feelings (French people say it like
it is man) haha. So she's doing well. We visited her with her home
teacher, Frere Judas, who also was kind enough to be our chauffeur to
her house and back, and we talked about missionary work and also a
bunch of other questions she had. Pretty cool. And get this SHE MADE
US CREPES ohhhhhh yeaahhhh wahahat now And then it did came to passeth
that we did eat a great many of them. And now behold, I, Elder
Edwards, said unto my companion, "Behold, I  will go and eat the
crepes as she hath commanded." And we did partake of the fruit of the
crepes of life. And we beheld that its fruit was sweet, beyond all
goodness that we had ever before chewed. And we did not finish for a
long time. And on the seventh hour we rested and said, "it is good."
Sorry if that was too far---I mean I guess you use the scriptures for
humor on your  mission so plesae know that is with no disrespect for
the prophets or for the Lord or for scriptures. :D


Saturday we just had a bunch of cool stuff happen in our Auxerre
finding day. Got to talk to a really cool chef guy on the way there,
he gave me some good cooking tips (heaven knows I need them), and we
pretty much just had to eat and contact for like 20 minutes and then
go, it was said but we would have gotten home kind of late if we'd
taken a later train. So there you go. Got to hang out with members
from Auxerre. Shout out to Elder Wells man, people still remember you
there.
Sunday was a jolly old saint Nicol-- Sunday day. Got to go to Torcy
for a great big stake conference. Was pretty cool. Got a ride with
Virgil and Karen, a great member couple who have been married for a
short while. Virgil is French, and Karen is from Panama. Cool people.
Got to chill with a lot of my Nogent buds, including "Peach," or Frere
Doumbia, the Letuaire family, and Xavier my old ward mission leader
all from Nogent. and missionary buds (I know like everyone in the
stake now I swear) and it was a good time. Even got to hang out in the
Torcy chapel afterward while Virgil and Karen were getting their
interview to be sealed in the temple!! (Got to even eat members' food
and had a jolly old time joking with other missionaries waiting there
too stories galore) So there you go guys. That's my Sunday. ALso got
to go to Karen and Virgil's house afterward, that's the kind of
saintly people they are, just invited us after the meetings even
though they were both already super tired. Virgil is a professional
cook and he has to work Sundays so he has been really tired and worn
out lately, really good hard working Dad, just like you dad, and out
of the goodness of his heart, went to work on a little meal and
dessert for us right away when we got to their home. Was so great. We
joked a lot and it was fun. Got to help Virgil practice his English
(30 percent of members like oding that with us here in France--the
rest prefer to help us speak French which is fine, we need it). And of
course got to hear them speak Spanish. Virgil speaks legit Spanish.

Monday is PDAY. Right up there with Christmas. Tomorrow is flag day.
God bless America!!!!!!!! And remember everyone thank your blessed
father and your Heavenly Father this week and this Sunday, father's
day is coming up.

Love you all, family! MIss you and you too, my friends! Love thinking
sometimes about good memories and good times with all of you, also all
my good leaders, mentors, teachers, all they taught me. So much joy so
much fun. Also motivates me to stay strong and stay a good strong
missionary. I think it's impossible for any missionary to mess up big
time as long as he keeps the Lord and those people in his memory, the
people who worked to hard to prepare him for his mission. So thanks to
all of you. Can't wait to make some great memories with all of you
once again once I get back! I'm going to go CRAZY on temple visits.
Can't wait. :D It's going fast. All you can do is make the most of it.

Alma 34 do not forget to make the most of this precious, short time
that God has given us. If you don't use it, it'll pass you by guys.
Don't ever forget how important it is to repent and stay on the right
track.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Edwards

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Hey Mom! Love you tons. THank you so much for your kind and thoughtful
voice recordings. I'm pretty impressed you could do that while you
were working out! Nice! I will definitely think about studying Nephi
and doing things like letters to God, I wrote those down as goals for
this week, as well as gratitude journaling. I know that's a habit the
Lord really wants me to work on.

Thanks for all your faith! It inspires me. Love you so much mom.

So cool to hear about the class you taught and the big one you're
going to teach! Good luck with all the preparations.

Also I forgot to tell you and Dad that we had a really cool experience
yesterady. A French man, who is a non member, was introduced to me by
a member of the ward. We came to find out he lives in our ward
boundaries, not far from Compiegne, in a town called La Croix St Ouen.
He was really excited to meet with us-an American member friend is
staying with him this week, apparently this guy has known the Church
for a while and has gone to church before in America, as he travels
there often, but has never come here in France. So we are really
excited to teach him this week, prayers for Stephane would be really
appreciated!

You should put Gabe on the Elevation waiting list. The first time I
went, lots of people who at first were put on the list got to go in
the end, because a lot of people didn't end up going, so you should
definitely do that. I hope they have fun! That's such a cool fun
experience for them.

Thanks for telling me about your awesome temple experience and date.
Please tell me about  the spiritual experience you had sometime. By
the way, do you know of any books or files that have ancestor
conversion or mission stories on them? I'd really like to get one or
two of those if you have a moment. I know you're really busy but
that'd be really nice, maybe Grandpa Budge who served for 9 years or
something.

Congrats to Grace for Sim week! And have fun Hyrum and Gabe with
Grandma! Love you lots mom hope you have a good week. Bye!