Elder Edholm -- week 25 = 6 months! Wow!

Well I had a pretty awesome week this week. First of all we had a small thanksgiving as a district, we had a chicken, potatoes, and my district leader actually made a pie!!! Which is very rare here!

But I think this week we worked harder than I've worked my whole mission, we had amazing numbers, and to help out, our zone leaders did splits with us!

Another great thing is that I bought stuff for this guy to make me pants this week which are really cheap here and look really good, I should have them in about two weeks, I'll try to send a pic.

It wasn't as weird as I thought it would be not having thanksgiving with you guys, I think that's because I was just focused on getting to work, but don't worry I still missed you guys!!

Sorry I'm really short on time this week, but I'm glad everything is going well!!!

Christmas Tree hunting and Lucy sings

Lucy is part of the Worland Youth Choir that consists of 4th and 5th graders.  They practice twice a week after school and they had their first concert this week.  They sounded really good.

Lucy is on the front row second from left

Since Lauren and Matt were here we decided to get our Christmas tree today.  The snow wasn't nearly as deep as it was last year and it wasn't quite so cold, though our toes were freezing by the end!  We chopped two trees down, plus two tiny ones that Lucy and Peter chose to put in their room.  (And by tiny I mean TINY!)

In the van on the way up!

Matt, Peter, and Lauren in the pink coat

Lauren (pink coat),Lucy, Emma's back, and Brian

Lauren, Matt, Emma, and Lucy

Peter and his tree!

Lucy making her way back to the van

We had a great time and our trees are fresh and pretty!  (No, I didn't get a picture of the trees, I will post more later!)

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning was crisp and cold and snowy!  Everyone slept in, which was the first blessing of the day!

Our good friends, the Durrant's, had their daughter Ellie's baptism this morning.  I was lucky enough to play the piano for her oldest daughter to sing and it was beautiful and sweet.  Peter and Ellie are good friends and like to hang out with each other.  Naomi, Ellie's mom, snapped a few pictures:

Our dinner turned out really nice and yummy!  Lauren and Matt made the pumpkin pies and we had all the traditional stuff minus the green bean casserole.  I've never done the entire dinner by myself so that was a first.  Here are a few pictures:

Lauren, Matt, Peter, Eric

Peter, Eric, Lucy, Andy, Emma

We missed Audrey and Palmer today!  After dinner it was on to pie and a movie and then the wonderful post Thanksgiving dinner nap!  A very satisfying day!

Elder Edholm -- week 24

Well transfers went well, I safely arrived in the nice town of Villa Altagracia. It's pretty secluded from the capital, it's about a thirty minute drive away from the capital, and it's surrounded by mountains, it's really cool. The area is really nice, and there aren't too many motorcycles.

My companion Elder Solis is from Mexico and we mostly speak Spanish together. He is trying to learn English so sometimes I help him practice his English. The good thing is, is that we're both really young and want to work really hard. We have some good baptismal dates that I'm pretty confident will actually happen.

We are currently teaching someone without a hand, another person without a leg, and another person without legs at all! But something I've really noticed is that when I'm teaching, and the investigator is saying something, I've gotten in the bad habit of thinking of something to say, but I've found out if I just really listen and really pay attention to what the person is saying then I can be better guided by the spirit as of what to say.

In the last zone meeting we had, the zone leaders related our zone to the story of captain Moroni and the title of liberty. It was really cool because basically we should have the same motives as captain Moroni. He wrote the verses that have the words of the title of liberty on them on a white shirt, but put our zone in there. It really goes to show that the mission isn't about you, it's about the people you came out here to serve.

Harp Playing

Here in Worland the Museum has many social events.  I've been asked to play the harp at some of them.  Last Friday night the musician they had scheduled, a fiddler, canceled on them because of bad weather (she was driving up from Lander).  So the museum director, Sherryl, texted me at 4:30 and asked if I could be there ready to play at 5:30.  I said yes.  It was the annual "Quick Draw Auction".  Artists from Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming come and they have one hour to complete a work of art and then it's auctioned off.  It was a HUGE event with all the tables sold out.  They offered a complete Italian meal, which was quite good, and had an open bar. They said the more the patrons drink the higher they bid!  I played for 2+ hours and they paid me $500!  Wow, apparently I need to up my price!  There was a photographer there and he managed to snap a couple of pictures of me.  I don't think they are the greatest, but then I guess you always think/hope you look better than you actually do!

Snow, it came at last and is here to stay!

Winter is finally rearing it's head up here.  Last year we were already at negative degrees, so I'm not sad it's taking it's time arriving.  Here is a few pictures of what I woke up to:

Snow on the pumpkin!

It's plenty cold and should hit below zero just in time for Thanksgiving!  Gobble gobble brrrrrr.

Villa Altagracia -- Palmer's new area

Palmer has been transferred to the Los Alcarrizos zone to the city of Villa Alragracia.  It is about 40 minutes north of his first area.  It;s population is 169,655 and it's currently 88 degrees with 62% humidity.  Here is where it sits in the country:





Here are some pictures from Google Images, since I don't think I will be getting a lot from Palmer!

Edholm Elder -- week 23

Well a lot of things happened this week. First of all I forgot to talk about this investigator we have named Frank. He is an awesome investigator and he actually comes to church. I can tell he actually wants to change his life. He has his girlfriend that he lives with and he has asked the bishop for doctrine on marriage to talk to his girlfriend with. He said if his wife doesn´t want to get married than he´s going to leave her because that´s how much he wants to follow the commandments.

We had a zone conference on Thursday, and Elder Zivic from the seventy was there. Zone conferences always just give me a fire to work harder, especially this one because that was a huge topic at the conference. After the conference I got my birthday package finally!!! I just got to say, you guys really know me really well because everything was just perfect for what I needed, thank you everybody for everything in there! It was like Christmas getting it! Tell Peter that I tried mixing a poptart with that koolaid drink stuff and it actually tasted pretty good!

On Saturday we received the transfers, and this was the biggest shock. They told us that they were whiting out our area and they were going to put two sisters here. I was devastated at first because I couldn´t help but feeling that I could´ve worked a lot harder and prevented this from happening because from the first day I got here I was afraid that they would white out the area, but there is nothing I can do about it now. It´s really hard to say goodbye to this area. The people here in Canastica are such good and amazing people, and it seemed like way too short of a time that I was here, we´ve spent this whole day saying goodbye to people and taking pictures, it´s definitely not easy. There are so many people I wish I would´ve gotten to know better, and I really wish I would´ve taken better advantage of this amazing ward that we have. But I am getting transferred to the zone Los Alcarrizos on the capital, the area is called Villa Altagracia, and If I´m not wrong that is the last area that Alex Wassum was in before he went home, which is pretty cool, but his last companion just finished training somebody there and I´m going to be with him. His name is Elder Solis and he is from Mexico. It´s kinda scary to think about because he just finished being trained and I only have five months so neither of us really know anything, but that´s good because we will learn a lot together.

CLARIFICATION (mom asked him about "whiting out the area" and if he would be the senior companion)
Yes I will be the senior companion, but for example Canastica right now has to sets of elders and they are whiting it out so they are taking out both sets of elders, that´s what whiting out an area means, when you take out all of the missionaries in that area

Elder Edholm -- week 22

Well, I had another good week this week, filled with great opportunities and lots more learning experiences.

We had a ¨harvest¨ or a ¨Mormon Batallion¨ as we like to call them this last Saturday in Cambita which is pretty far away. It´s a pretty rural area, I really like it, it´s right next to the mountains, and it´s just a really calm place. It was my second time going there, the first time I went there we went hiking, and I sent a picture of that I think. But anyway, these Mormon Batallions that we do, we have like one a month or something, and every time they´re in a different area in San Cristóbal. Well what we do is we visit less actives, and share with them, and then invite them to the branch conference or open house or whatever is going that Sunday. I split up and went with Elder Tejada, who lives in my house, and we taught this less active, I really learned a lot.

We first started out by just listening to the guy, and he really opened up to us, he told us about his life, who God is to him, and why he knows the LDS church is true. After that he started crying because he knew that he hadn´t been following the path he should´ve been. We said a prayer after that. But first of all Cambita is this other elder´s area, and he told us to talk about the Sabbath day with him, but after really listening to him Elder Tejada leaned over to me and told me we were gonna change the subject. I really felt the same way. We shared Moroni chapter 10 verse 32. That really testified to me that we teach people, missionary work is all about people. And if you really listen and discern the people´s needs, with the spirit you can teach straight to their heart. That was a great experience for me. 

Teaching with the spirit isn´t hard. You just need to really listen to the person, and with the spirit´s help you can discern their needs.

Well I hope everything is going well with all of you guys. I really hope Eric is doing well too. Tell him that I believe in him, and that he is the smartest 12 year old I know.

I love you guys!

Orem Library Blog Post: Chicken Spaghetti

OPL Just Browsing Blog

My sweet Emma!

Elder Edholm -- week 21 = 5 months

Well this week I went on another companionship exchange with Elder Mejia, I´m not really sure why, but it was another great experience. I really learned that it´s important to use the bible a lot with the people here, especially in first lessons. Because it can be a misbelief that mormons don´t use the bible, but if you share a scripture from the bible in your first visit, that solves that problem. I also learned that as a missionary people can get stuck just flowing down the current, and that could work, but it could also not work. And as a missionary, and also in life, if the way you´re doing something isn´t working, you can´t just stick to that path because it will just continue not to work. I learned that change is one big factor that brings miracles.

Mom asked what I do on P-days. We´ve gone to caves, gone on hikes, gone to the beach, we play basketball a lot. We try to do a lot of zone activites. And also yes, baseball is all people talk about here. I can´t believe the Cubs made it to the playoffs though, isn´t that the first time in literally over 100 years?!?!?!

I can´t believe tomorrow I will have five months on my mission! Time really does fly out here. It´s good to here that Eric dressed up as Green Arrow for Halloween, that´s really awesome!

Well I hope winter doesn´t hit you guys too hard, try to servive!

-Palmer

Happy Halloween, a day late

We had a calm uneventful Halloween yesterday.  Our ward had a big trunk or treat with all three wards at the church on Friday night, which was great!  The weather was warmish and the kids were done quickly.  I took a picture of Eric and Peter.  Lucy was a vampire.

Green Arrow

Ho Ho Ho Santa Claus

Andy didn't dress up and Emma taped smarties to her pants and called them "smarty pants".  Last night we had a few people trick or treat our house, but we turned the lights off and it was pretty quiet.  Eric went to the haunted house with his friend Tanner and Lucy went with the neighbor kids and did some trick or treating.  That was it for us this Halloween!

This is a side note.  My sister gave us a giant jar of jelly bellies.  All the good kinds get picked out and eaten and we had some left over that no one would eat.  So Andy decided to make a work of art out of them: