I'm sorry I've been writing short emails. The longer I've been out the more use to being away from home I am and the less I care about being there and just want to be where I am. Get everything done that I need. I've been a bit selfish with my time. I should know that it's not my time. For one and ultimately it's God's time and I do what He wants. And 2 it's yours, dads, and everyone else that has helped pay for me for my mission. I will write better emails. Thank you momma.
I LOOOOVEEEEE MY MISSION!!!!!
We are seeing A TON of miracles in the 11th ward. My companions are amazing. They've taught me so much and we get along so great. Trios are a ton of fun and you get ton of work done if you're all focused and I'm grateful we all are. Elder Penuelas has taught me a lot about being effective and getting things DONE. He's focused, knows how to work, loves to work, and knows how to help people get baptized. Elder Welck keeps the work fun and is a light hearted guy. He's very easy to get a long with. Loves to laugh and finds joy in just about anything.
The 10th elders gave us this referral that we all thought was going to be very unsolid. It turned out to be a great lesson and she's already come to church twice! It's hard for her to come to church because she gets claustrophobic from being inside without windows for so long so we're working on getting her to stay for the rest of church. Our ward isn't very excited so she hasn't liked it too much unfortunately. But she's on date for November 29!
We picked Lee Holt back up. He's been pushing back because he doesn't understand prophets and doesn't allow us to teach him about it and gets so caught up in what he doesn't know. We're seeing him tonight and going to lay down the law and teach very simply.
The first week here we street contacted a lady that was telling us that the LDS faith was a bunch of bogus. It ended with her being excited to talk to us again and for us to teach her. She's super elect and has just been blinded by the world. Her daughter is just as solid! She's loved everything that we've taught her. We've only taught twice though since she's out of town and is hard to catch.
We're really sad to hand off another really solid investigator named Victor. He's 18 so he needs to go to the single's ward. He felt the Spirit strong in our lesson with him. He was really really excited for us to teach him again. He doesn't have a social life since he works so much. He's a really excitable guy and will be a great missionary!
We haven't been able to teach Loni all that much. We've only taught her twice and we haven't been able to make it inside her house yet. She likes it all but is flakey and works a lot. Hopefully we can teach her again soon other wise we need to drop her.
John Merritt is really amazing! He got really down after his baptismal interview when he found out that it might be awhile for his baptism. He left the church for a little but came back and is in church whenver he's in town. He's more active than his wife that's a member. Well he'll be baptized within the next 4 weeks!
Holden is 22 but married so we have a great relationship with him. He's open but busy but we should be able to start teaching him twice a week and then set him on date soon.
We had one of the most intense lessons of my mission. Dusty and his son Garrett. We taught Dusty a long time ago but he's been busy for a long time. He's so ready for baptism though. He loves everything we teach him. And not the way normal people love what we teach. Him and his son cracked out their Bible and were asking the whole time where what we said was found. The funny thing is they accepted the Book of Mormon as scripture without much explanation so if it was found in the Book of Mormon that was good enough for them. They had such a thirst and wanted to learn everything we had to teach and know all the details. Dusty is in his late 40's and his son is in 20's. Some of the nicest people I've ever met. Dusty divorced very early after being married but he is extremely respectful towards women and very friendly and polite to everyone. His son is the same. Both very knowledgeable, wise and humble. Deeply spiritual. Very open and loving to everyone. And very very interested. They're some of the most elect people I've ever met. They're also very hard working so it's hard to teach them often enough.
We haven't been able to teach Justin Quinton yet. He's very busy. He's also a charitable guy but hard working so we're trying to nail him down to a time.
We're going to teach Annie again and start teaching her son on Wednesday. He's very interested.
The Rivera's are moving but have been reading the Book of Mormon here and then.
We had a deep lesson with Joe the New Yorka. Things have been really hard on him through his divorce. He opened up a lot and told us a lot about it. He said that we've helped him a lot through it. All we've ever done though is smile and teach him doctrine. He's always been really busy but we've promised to just take 10 minutes of his time so we just teach one or two principles and then pick up the next we see him. But every time we've taught him doctrine. It's crazy how much just teaching him has helped. There's a quote that says the study of doctrine will help behavior more than the study of behavior. We've helped Joe more by teaching him about the Restoration than talking to him about his problems.
They Gray's have been out of town in Panama for 2 weeks but get back on the 5th. They've fallen behind a little and gotten a little lax so as soon they get back in town we're going to fearlessly jump on it. I was too intimidated and afraid of loosing them the last few times we've taught them but that's only slowed them down. There's no reason to be afraid when you have the truth so when they get back we're going to boldly testify to them!
Eddie the body builder dropped us unfortunately. It's crazy how uncomfortable people will feel around us for no reason at all. All we've ever done was smile and ask about them and be so happy about the message we share but for whatever reason the next time we see them they're really uncomfortable. Dustin Jackson is an example of that. He had a baptismal date and was ready to go. Then he fell away and last we saw him at the Halloween party he barley would look me in the eye let alone acknowledge my existence. It's unfortunate that people are afraid of the truth. Why?
We had a great zone conference. Sister Murdock has two kids on missions as well. She told some missionaries once about how jealous their moms are of her right now. That she gets to be in their presence. How she and their mothers would give anything to be able to watch their children be missionaries for at least 5 minutes. We took a member out with us and she loved watching us teach. She said it reminded her so much of her son that's on a mission. So go out with the missionaries momma! It'll almost be like watching me!
I feel like the beginning part of my mission was for me. I needed to be converted first. I had no idea what I was doing but tried my best. I at least had one conversion being myself. Now I feel like I actually know what I'm doing and know how to baptize and help people get there. I'm really really excited now to work as hard as I can with these last few months I have left and bless as many people as I can and then continue being a missionary forever!
I might leave this area in 2 weeks so that's really unfortunate. There's always the chance that I could stay one more. I love this area for the people that I've been able to teach. Some of the most elect people I've ever met.
I love you all!
-Elder Edgel
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