My Twelve Year old Boy Eric

Eric's birthday passed without any of us around since he was at scout camp on his birthday.  We are planning a friend party for him next weekend to celebrate #12.

Being 12 brings some perks.  The first thing that he has fully taken advantage of is riding shotgun in the car.  He yells it out first nearly every time we go anywhere!  (With the airbag, I'm kind of militant in having no one under 12 sitting in the front seat.)

If I can say one thing about Eric it is that he is a great brother.  I was looking through pictures of him and he is always with a sibling.  He plays with them and just likes being with them, especially his buddy Peter.

A few years ago at The Homestead in Midway.  He is ready to be on the Love Boat with his shuffleboard skills.

Sipping sodas at the BYU Creamery 2 years ago while dropping Lauren off at Heritage Halls

Outside the Richards Building at BYU before Lucy's dance recital

Home school field trip to the fire station

Field trips are always the best when there is cotton candy at the end.

Picking pumpkins at the pumpkin patch

Eating at Rumbi's Island Grill for a reward for summer reading

Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum, I love these faces so much!

Hot Springs in Thermopolis

Our first trip to Billings Montana-Emma, Eric and Abe

Happy Birthday Eric!  I love you!

Elder Edholm -- week 7

Well I wish I could´ve gone to Flaming Gorge with you guys, I´ve only ever driven past it. But for P-day today we went on a hike in Cambitas which is like 15 minutes away. But it was pretty fun. 

Anyway the mission is coming great, along with the Spanish I think, it never really seems like I´m progressing, but my companion always tells me how much I´m progressing. We don´t really have any of our investigators coming to church right now, mostly because the church in Canastica has been closed for a long time, they´re rennovating it. But I think it should be open soon, and then we´ll hopefully see investigators at church. For now we´re going to church in Lavapies which is like five minutes away, but our investigators are pretty poor and don´t have cars, so it´s hard for them to make it that far away. 

But I forgot to tell you, these people make juices out of everything! I had cherry juice yesterday! It was interesting. But I´ve had Papaya, Star fruit, tamarind, passion fruit, pear, and lot´s of other juices, my favorite is either Tamarind juice or passion friut juice, they´re amazing, way better than any juices I´ve had before. 

Elder Edholm

Elder Edholm's first area

I did a little research on the place Palmer is serving and thought I would share it.

San Cristobal is the capital of the San Cristobal province.  It's about 20 miles from Santo Domingo where Palmer was in the MTC.  It has a population of 275, 232 people.  It is hilly and near the coast of the Caribbean Sea.  It is home to many major league baseball players (9 that I found so far).  There are baseball academies here that produce these talented players.

He is serving in the Canastica ward which is part of the San Cristobal Stake.  The stake has 5 wards and 3 branches and was created in 1997.

Here is where it is in relation to the country

Palmer's camera is having issues, so he hasn't sent me any pictures yet.  I don't know if he is by the coast or further north.  

Currently it's about 90 degrees and about 62% humidity.  

As I looked at the boundaries of his mission this is definitely one of the most populated areas, most of his mission looks rural.  

Flaming Gorge

Emma, Lucy, Peter, and I went on a quick trip to Utah.  Emma had her annual check up with her doctor at Primary Children's Hospital (she has hypo thyroid--Hashimoto's disease.  She is doing really well).  On the way back we decided to take a detour and visit my relatives in Leota Utah.  My dad is from there and his oldest sister, Iova, and youngest brother Don still live there.  Iova was just diagnosed with cancer, she is 89.  Leota is in between Vernal and Roosevelt in Eastern Utah.  It's a VERY VERY small town, if you can even call it a town.  My sister went with us and our GPS led us a little bit astray--like an hour astray!  We took the scenic route amid farms and ranches and two phone calls later to my Uncle made it to his house!  It has been a long time since I've been out there and my childhood memories didn't serve me well!  It was a very good visit, I love my relatives and I'm glad we made the extra trip to see them.  Susie turned around and went back to Orem and we went north to Wyoming.  I had never been this direction before.  It took us through Ashley National Forest and Flaming Gorge Dam.  We stopped at the Dam and got out because it's beautiful and because my dad worked on the dam before he was married, he was one of the electrical engineers.  Here are some of the pictures while we were there.

Flaming Gorge Reservoir

Emma and Pete attempting Lion King pose try #1

Try #2 is a bit more successful!

Trying to skip rocks

Outside Uncle Don and Aunt Jane's house

This trip added a number of hours to our trip home, but was worth it!  The kids were amazingly good, no complaining or whining!

Elder Edholm--week 6

Hey everybody this is my first email from the mission field. I´m in San Cristóbal in the Canastica ward. My trainer´s name is Elder Campbell from Page, Arizona and I really like him a lot. I´ll see if I can send some pictures next week. But I´ve seen some really crazy stuff just in my first week here. First of all I saw this guy ¨speaking in tongues¨ which is what the Dominican´s interpretation of speaking in tongues is. It´s basically just a guy standing on a huge pedestle yelling in Arabic, kind of scared me. Then this legit crazy guy almost attacked me. We were teaching this one old lady who literally thought we were angels from God. She wouldn´t really let us teach because the whole time she was just telling us how great we were, and how much love and peace we brought. She started crying when we left, and kissed our hands. All of the kids here call us Chinese, one kid called me a Zombie. At our house we can´t flush the toilet paper or else it all backs up into ourn house.

Well we were teaching this one girl named Jesel who is a less active. She was actually sealed in the temple, but she separated from her husband about a year ago, and her husband refused to divorce her. So she started living with another guy, and she got pregnant. She was looking to fix the whole situation. She went through disciplinary actions, and she got excommunicated. It was a huge shock for me, I´ve only heard of that happening. Elder Campbell was really sad because he´s been working with her for a while.

Well I got to go
Till next week
Elder Edholm

Girls Camp

Emma and I got back from girls camp yesterday.  I got to go because I am on the stake girls camp board.  I was in charge of certification at camp and I taught a class to all the ward leaders during camp while the stake young women presidency had all the girls.  Both things turned out better than I thought they would, especially the certification.  Our YCL's (5th and 6th year girls-Youth Camp Leaders) led all the certification and did a great job.

We camped in Shell canyon at a private ranch.  It's owned by the Cody Stake Young Men's President and he generously let us camp there free of charge.  It's beautiful and has a resident moose and her calf that wander around.  We had about 70 young women from the 7 wards attend.  The weather was really nice, not too hot.  Our last night it really rained and hailed, so the hike that was planned for Thursday morning had to be cancelled because the mud was just too thick.

Emma and Sariah Durrant

Me and my Emma and our camp shirts

View

The ranch

Our theme was Doctrine and Covenants 6:36, "Look unto the Lord in every thought with all your heart".  We combined that with the Wizard of Oz and Glinda the good witch's statement, "you've always had the power within you."  Our YCL's were the Dorothy's of camp and the leaders were the Glinda's.  The stake leaders had to do a skit and I was elected to be Toto!  

The stake leaders, I'm the dog in the blue sweatshirt.  

All the YCL's in their Dorothy aprons.  Emma is second from the right.

It was a successful camp and I'm glad I got to go and participate.

On another note, Palmer left the MTC on Tuesday, so we won't hear from him until Monday because the P-Days in the mission field are Monday and not Thursday like they were in the MTC.  

Nebraska

Last Monday Brian was going to Torrington to spend the night.  He had a meeting at his company's headquarters first thing Tuesday morning, so they were putting him up in a hotel since it's a 5 hour drive on the other side of the state.  I decided to go along for the ride, since I hadn't had enough of the car from our trip home from Utah on Sunday.

We stopped in the big city of Casper for a late dinner--Sonic hamburger and strawberry slushie.  We arrived in Torrington around 8:30.  The next morning I dropped Brian off at his meeting and decided to drive to Nebraska.  Torrington is a small town about the same size as Worland.  Because it's on the other side of the mountains it's a lot greener, especially as you head into Nebraska.  The state line is about 10 miles away and the city of Scott's Bluff is just about a 30 minute drive.  I explored the city, which is about three times the size of Worland.  I happily stopped at Target.  I also explored a store called Menards, which is like a combination of Wal-Mart and Lowe's.   It was strange to see washer and dryers sold next to grocery items.

On the way back I stopped at the historical markers and read about the peace treaty that was signed between the Indian tribes and the white men on the banks of the Platte River.  I picked up Brian and on the way back we also stopped at Fort Laramie, which was the first settlement in Wyoming.  The original fort is still there, but was closed so we couldn't go in.

We also saw an eagle's nest and stopped to take a picture, There was an eagle in it which flew out as we were stopped!

We again stopped in Casper and went to the mall and walked around for awhile to stretch our legs. We took advantage of the frozen yogurt shop while we were there, it's been forever since I've had frozen yogurt!

It was a great itty bitty vacation!  

Elder Edholm--week 5

Hey everybody, hope you all had an amazing fourth of July because mine was pretty good. We actually celebrated the fourth of July on the third because there's always a ton of people going to the temple on Saturdays. But they went all out, they decorated like crazy and we had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and stuff like that because that's what the Dominican chefs think American food is, haha.

Proselyting with the actual missionaries for like eight hours was amazing!!! The time went by so fast. I was the only one who went with a missionary who only knew Spanish. The only English he knew was "what the freak." His name is Elder Sanchez and he was awesome. We taught a whole bunch of people. There's a bunch of really sketchy allyways that are really tiny. There's also really small winding stairways, I never could've imagined one that small. But I understood some of what was happening, but a couple times I thought I knew what was going on and then all of a sudden everybody was looking at me, and I was like "Well I guess it's my time to talk." So usually I just testified on what I thought was going on, haha. One really good experience that happened during proselyting. We were teaching this lady and I was almost falling asleep. Then I opened my mouth to say something and I was wide awake. This really told me that you can not convert someone without opening your mouth! The spirit works through your words. Lecture Sixth in Lectures on Faith says "When a man works by faith, he works by words." You can not convert somebody without faith, and you can not use your faith unless you open your mouth. But I'm way excited to do that again tomorrow, and then get out of here on Tuesday!!!

Well we heard from Elder J. Devn Cornish of the Seventy, he's the president over the Carribbean missions, and I was really excited to hear from him because he gave one of my favorite talks at general conference a couple years ago, and I was finally able to thank him for it, he gave an amazing talk. He talked about how you need to be all the way in the church or else you'll fall out. We also heard a talk last Sunday that Elder Bednar gave four years ago. I'm really beginning to like Elder Bednar a lot. He gave probably one of the best talks I've ever heard. He talked about what exactly the character of Christ is. He gave just one example. The example he gave is when Christ suffered at Gethsemane. After he was done suffering he came back to find his apostles asleep. Then Judas came and betrayed him with a kiss. That's when Peter chopped off the ear of the Roman Soldier. Now the character of Christ that Elder Bednar explains is the next part. Jesus has just gone through more pain than anyone else ever. It would've easily killed any human in seconds. Then he comes back and his apostles are asleep, and then another one of his apostles betrays him. Then the ear gets chopped off. Compared to what Jesus just went through a chopped off ear is like getting pricked by a thorn. In that moment when the natural man would turn in towards themselves and say, "Who cares what happened to him, look at what happened to me" Jesus turns out and heals the guard's ear. The character of Christ is turning out when the natural man would turn in. I found it a very powerful talk.

Anyway, I hope the van is okay, and I had no clue that Grandpa was moving into Treeo! Also I haven't gotten any letters, did you possibly send them to the mission home? Anyway, tell Emma to be a good captain in Flags, tell Andy that he needs to work harder than anybody else in football if he wants to play varsity, keep me updated on how Eric is doing in golf and stuff, tell Lucy to keep practicing hard at Gymnastics, or whatever Ms. athletic, do everything is doing right now, and tell Peter that I miss wrestling and watching Justice League with him.

Have a good week!

-Elder Edholm

4th of July

We've been in Utah for the holiday weekend. It's been hot and fun!  We were able to do our fourth traditions-watch the hot air balloons that is part of Provo's Freedom Festival.  They inflates the balloons, but didn't lift off this year because of less than ideal weather conditions. After our early morning balloon watch we went to my mom's house for breakfast.

Yoda peeking out

Look, a Wyoming balloon in Utah!

Elder Edholm--week 4

Hey everybody! Time is really flying fast out here, I can't believe that I've already been out here for a month!

So in answer to your question mom, yes I saw Elder Wassum last week, and he's a pretty nice guy, he's going home in like two months though I think, so I might see him a bit when I get out into the field.

Well we went contacting at the University again last Friday and it was the best experience ever. We were out for a little over an hour and over half the time we were just talking to this one guy and his girlfriend, his name was Luis. They were super interested in everything we had to say. The guy actually said that he went to Logan, UT not too long ago, and some people there told him about the church. He basically told us that he thought it was stupid how people say that the Book of Mormon is false without even reading it. We gave him and his girlfriend a Book of Mormon, and got his number. I don't want to jump to conclusions or anything, but I could see him getting baptized just because I know that if you read the Book of Mormon you'll know it's true like Moroni promises. But we're going proselyting tomorrow for like seven hours with the missionaries, and I'm pretty excited because it'll give me a taste for what the mission field will be like.

So a Latino group came in two weeks ago and they just left on Tuesday, but I got pretty close with two of them, their names were Elder Chinchilla and Elder Corales. But right before they left Elder Chinchilla told me he wanted to trade me for one of my ties. I let him, and he took one of my favorite ones, but I don't really care because people are more important than ties, and he was always complementing me on my ties, along with everyone else, Dad and I really know how to pick out ties! But it was sad to see them go and this other group of North American missionaries that have been here the whole time I have. Because this MTC is really small, you get really close with everybody, but they all went to Puerto Rico.

So after they left Elder Beach and I actually were made Assistants to the President, which doesn't mean as much here in the MTC as it does in the field, but basically we are just in charge of conducting prayer meetings at night, setting a good example, shutting off the lights and closing the doors at night, and other little things. But 46 new missionaries came in the past two days, which is a lot for this small MTC. The Romneys said they have never had this many missionaries here before. It's a huge change, and it made conducting prayer meeting really nerve-racking. And since that happened we have to share our room with two other missionaries from our district now, Elder Frogley and Elder Koerper, and I've always really liked both of them. Elder Koerper actually is a pitcher for New Mexico State University, and they're D1.

Well I love hearing everything that you guys are doing, like Andy and Emma going on Trek. I wish I could've gone to Yellowstone with you guys, tell the little kids that I miss their smiling faces and the funny things that Peter, Lucy, and Eric say. Telly Andy to keep working hard in football, and Emma in Color Guard. Also it would be nice to hear from Lauren too.

'Till next week

-Elder Edholm

Elder Beach, Elder Corales, Elder Edholm, Elder Chinchilla