Elder Edgels wisdom:

Elder Edgel's wisdom: I knew God was a Heavenly Father who loved me beyond anything I could ever imagine and was going to do His best to help me along.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

If you want to grow, be happy.

Oh man I love my mommy. I love that you tell me the quotes. I love my past comp, Elder Buhecker a ton. We got along fantastic. I am younger in both mission age and actual age so their were a lot of things that I would ask him that were pretty obvious and so I do understand his frustration at some times. But I loved that kid. I've started saying "two shakes of a fist" and winking at people because of him haha.

My training is going well actually. I was very excited and maybe even a little prideful that I was so young and also training. It was very very humbling. The stress and hardship of a mission has hit me smack in the face. It's all on me. I don't have a companion to lean on. It's time to be my own man and be responsible. I love the learning. Even the hardships. I won't be negative or detailed but so you know this past week was the darkest time of my mission and maybe even my life. Not normal hardship. A whole new level. But my companion is such an example and help. I would not be surviving if it weren't for him.

The amazing thing about our loving Heavenly Father is how perfectly patient He is. That's what I've learned this past week. Every attribute revolves around His love for us. One thing that He does is let us figure things out for ourselves. He doesn't give us the answers right away ever. He doesn't take away our problems ever without us accomplishing things. In my darkest days, in my most sincere prayers, the only help and answer that I get from Him is, "Patience, learn to be a man, be strong, learn." It's frustrating sometimes when you're in real pain. The most real pain you've ever felt before. But He needs us to learn. He needs us to experience things otherwise it's in vain.

Everyone and especially missionaries and even more especially myself, want the answer right away. They want to know how to do things right away. I would absolutely LOVE to have one of the three Nephites as a companion and just learn everything from him that I need to in order to be a perfect missionary. But it's so crucially important that we learn in order to our pace, and God will answer our questions according to how ready we are. One tip I've learned is, in order to be more ready for the answers, inspiration and revelation; be happy. Focus on what the Atonement has done for you. Focus on what the good things God has done for us. Remember. Then you will be filled with such greater desire than ever before. Don't look at the things as a checklist and a bother to have to learn how to do them all. Look at them as a great way to learn and grow and be happy, to do your best to accomplish them. That's what I've learned. So I do love that you've learned that the Spirit will teach us even though nobody does. That's the best teaching ever that we could receive. That's another reason why we can't take it upon ourselves to correct people and tell them how it's down. All we can do is encourage them to have the desire and trust in them to learn for themselves. That's the best way that they can learn. Just love and trust.

My companion Elder Dean is awesome. He's 19 from Tennessee. He's a timid guy and asks a lot of obvious questions but I wasn't too far from that myself. He's extremely sincere. I was so excited to have a greenie because they always are excited and extremely sincere. He will talk to ANYBODY. It may be extremely awkward most of the time but he will do it. And that's all anyone can ask. He's going to learn lot and be a great teacher. He has a great desire to learn.

Me encanta las mexicans! I'm so glad to hear you feeding a ton of missionaries and doing temple service. My parents are the best. Keep that up.

Also, I'm uh, district leader too apparently for my district here. I'm the youngest in actual age (only 18 year old) and the leader. That was stressful. I didn't find out till the day of transfers. In the packet it said, "thank you for accepting the call to be a district leader." Too often people think leadership is a sign of being all that. I'm nobody, lemme tell ya. Our first district meeting was good though. I had everyone introduce themselves with their name, POO (place of origin) biggest thing learned on a mission and biggest thing they want to learn. They were all kinda, "what? that's too deep! Can't we just say our favorite color or something?" But it brought the Spirit in strong and helped me to love them all even more. We have 6 elders & 4 sisters.

I love you so much. Each and everyone of you are in my prayers. Take care, be happy, be teachable.

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