Monday, October 31, 2016

Elder Edholm -- week 72

Saturday, October 29, 2016

The Goblin Gallop

4th Annual Goblin Gallop @ Rodeo Grounds @ 6 pm Proceeds go to food banks!!

The Goblin Gallop happened today in Ten Sleep.  It was a 5K fundraiser run. Andrew and Lucy ran in it. Andy came in 4th overall and 3rd in his age group and Lucy was the only one in her age group to finish the race, pretty good for a 10 year old. They both came home with t-shirts and Lucy won a pie for coming in first in her age group.  Wish I had pics to post, but it was very last minute and Brian and I didn't go.  Now we wish we had!

Monday, October 24, 2016

Elder Edholm -- week 71

So we had the baptism of Jeffrey on Saturday! Sonia ended up not being able to get baptized on Saturday because she got sick, so she will get baptized this Saturday. But transfer calls came on Saturday and I'm finally leaving Barahona after having been here for 5 transfers (7 months). It's kind of a bitter-sweet moment because I love Barahona, it's definitely my favorite area so far. I've grown so close to the members, converts, and just my friends from the street. It's going to be really hard leaving to tomorrow. But the good thing is that I will be experiencing a brand new area! I hope it will give me more motivation to work harder. I finally get to see new streets, go to church in a new chapel, work with a new branch, and all of that fun stuff. But I will be going to Don Gregorio which is in the BanĂ­ zone.

Thank you all so much for all of the birthday wishes and for the video, that made me so happy! I didn't think that everybody would care so much about my birthday, but thank you guys all so much! But besides all that the work is going great, I've tried to keep working hard so that my son has people to prepare for baptism after I leave. I've been scrambling around all today and yesterday trying to say goodbye to everybody.

But thank you all again for everything you guys have done for me, it means so much! I love you all so much!
 
 
 
 Palmer's new area with the red marker.  It's quite a ways from Barahona which is on the very far left. 

Monday, October 17, 2016

Elder Edholm -- week 70

Sunday, October 16, 2016

This Grandma is a Van Fan!

Let me think about that comment for a minute!

Favorite place to nap

Just wait till I'm mobile!


Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow






Snail Mail from Elder Edholm

We received a handwritten letter today from Palmer!  This is only the second one of these and it was great!  We also received a picture of him as well.

Dear Family,

So tomorrow we are going to the temple so I thought I would take advantage of this opportunity to write you guys a letter and send you the last two mission newsletters we got.  I know you probably can't understand too much of what they say, but I thought you'd like to look at them and I know that Mom keeps them for scrap-booking purposes.

Well anyway, what is there to say?  I imagine Mom is probably reading this letter to you guys in Family Home Evening or something right now.  (Thanks Mom for your awesome story-telling skills!)  But I just love to hear everything that goes on week back at home (Peter destroying people in wrestling, Lucy dong awesome in all sports, Eric becoming slender man and doing great in cross country, Andy lighting people up in football, Emma going off to college, of course, I love seeing my favorite nephew with Lauren and Matt.  Audrey off living the good life in Cali, Mom off to school again, and of course Dad becoming a millionaire.)  I miss you guys a lot, but thanks to the Lord I can focus on the work a lot and not suffer from homesickness.

But anyway if I could convey an important message to you guys right now that I've learned recently it would be about judging.  There are two converts in this area: Jeison and Geraldo.  Before Jeison met the Gospel all he wanted to do was be with girls, out n the street, and doing concerts sometimes.  I was able to come into this area right when he was meeting the Gospel.  Even his family has noticed the huge change in his life.  he's told me that his desires to go live his past life have completely gone.  But sadly enough after Jeison got baptized various people came up to me with concerns about why we baptized Jeison.  They told me their judgemental comments about how they knew Jeison before and how we should not have baptized him.  It almost seemed as if they didn't believe in the Power of the Atonement.

Geraldo had a similar life before the Gospel, just that he's only fifteen years-old so he didn't have problems with girls or alcohol.  HE was just kind of a punk.  When I got to the area had had about a month being baptized.  He still kind of wanted to live his old life.  But instead of judging him for what he was doing I decided to love him.  I found that as I really cared about his salvation instead of a number that he started going to church consistently.  There was a temple trip coming up and he didn't really want to go.  But instead of gossiping about him for not wanting to go to the temple, we spent more time explaining the blessings we receive from the temple.  He went and he loved it.  He can't wait to go again.  Now he shows up early to church with a white shirt and tie and passes the sacrament every Sunday.

If one looks at the world's view of these two people before their life in the Gospel you might say, "Oh he's a street guy, he doesn't care about God" or "Oh that kids' a  punk, he won't listen to you guys."  If Jeison and Geraldo were looked at like that, they would've been two precious souls that lost their opportunities to receive the blessings that they now have because of damaging judgemental comments.

Judging is a sin and if we use to hold someone back from the Atonement of Jesus Christ it's an even more serious sin. We should completely avoid looking at people how the world looks at them, and instead look at how they can become or how the Lord wants them to be.

I love you guys so much.  Thanks everybody for being such great examples for me and helping me come on this mission.

There's also a picture of me in there at a river in San Rafael.


Monday, October 10, 2016

Elder Edholm -- week 69

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Sport filled weekend

Lucy has been working hard on her volleyball skills.  Her team played two games back to back on Thursday and won them both.  She is one of the smallest on the team, but packs a big punch...or serve I should say.

Lucy in her ready stance--getting ready for the serve.

The Worland Warriors played the Powell Panthers on Friday.  Powell has been doing pretty well and we fought well against them, but lost 21-14. 

It was a slightly chilling evening, but the littles had fun sitting by their friends.


Me and Lucy selfie

Me, Ellie, Lucy


Monday, October 3, 2016

Elder Edholm -- week 68

Before Palmer wrote his "official" letter to us he emailed me some questions about a picture that I sent him of his nephew Van watching General Conference.  He asked where it was taken.  I told him it was in Lauren and Matt's apartment.  This is his reaction to that news:
" I love that carpet! And that TV! And just everything! It's been a long time since I've seen anything that nice!    Wow, I don't think I'll ever complain ever again about my living circumstances after my mission. And much less about doing laundry. And dishes. And cleaning in general."  It's nice to see his change in perspective!  Hurricane Matthew is going to pass close by Palmer, but it looks like he will be safe!


LETTER:
So conference was pretty awesome! I loved the missionary work based themes. It talked a lot about the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, the Atonement, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the importance of members and being united, among various other similar topics about missionary work.

So my convert Sonia, her daughter, Sonia as well, has been studying with us for sometime now. Now she is really starting to progress. When I first started teaching here she was: living with her abusive ex-husband, had lots of debts, and was definitely not happy in her life. Now she has finally left her abusive husband, has paid off half of her debts, and she says that for the first time in ten years she finally feels peace, and is truly happy. The other good thing is that she knows that those blessings have come from the gospel. Now she and her son have committed to get baptized on the 22nd of October!

The temple also went really well! I really love going to the temple. I've learned that it is a lot similar to the sacrament. That if one goes prepared and repented that they can receive revelation. Anyway, I think we'll be safe from the Hurricane. 

Talk to you guys next week!

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Conference Weekend Happenings

This General Conference weekend started off with a trip to Cody to watch Andy and the Worland Warriors play football.  Unfortunately they lost by quite a lot!  Andy got in a good block that resulted in a touchdown for us, but it wasn't quite enough. It was a beautiful night in Cody, however.



On Saturday Eric had a cross country meet in Thermopolis, only 30 minutes away from Worland.  Brian went to see him run and he was looking great!  He got to run amid the beautiful red cliffs of Thermop at the very hilly golf course.

Here he comes rounding the corner!

Thermopolis Golf Course

Meanwhile back at home I watched the first sessions of General Conference with Peter and Lucy and Macy and Fiona.  Brian and Eric made it back from Thermop in time to catch the second half of the session.  Andy stayed at the cross country meet to watch his friends run varsity.

Lauren shared this sweet photo of Van watching his first conference:


And here are a few more Van pics, because I'm a Van Fan!

My Fav one!




Daddy and baby are TIRED!

Accomplishment of the day, everyone stayed awake during both sessions of conference!!

Peter and Myles Trombley

Macy Trombley, Lucy, Fiona Trombley and Andy on the couch

Looking forward to tomorrow's sessions.  Lucy is going to leave with the Trombley's after the first session tomorrow to go to the Star Valley Temple Open House.  She is soooo excited!  She gets to stay overnight in a hotel and everything!!  Star Valley is about 5 hours away from us and so we have not found a time to go that wouldn't interfere with football and cross country.  We are happy Lucy will get to go!