Elder Edholm -- week 42

Well everything was going just great up here in Villa Altagracia until we got the transfer calls on Saturday night. Sadly enough I'm leaving Villa Altagracia and saying goodbye to all the awesome members and my converts. It was kind of hard to take at first because the Espinosa family was progressing so well, and now I won't be able to see them get baptized, but I'm not worried because they are an awesome family and they are gonna do just great without me.

But I'm getting transferred way in the heck out there. The zone is called Barahona. It's pretty close to Haiti and it's really rural. They are a ton of people out there who don't know how to read, lots of uneducated people. I think I'm gonna be having to do a lot of hand washing my clothes, but that doesn't matter, I'm excited to experience the deep south of the DR. Up to now I've only been in wards and stakes, but after San Cristobal they are all branches and districts.

Tonight I'm gonna have a family home evening with the Espinosa Family and two other families in the ward that I've grown really close to, it'll be hard to say goodbye, but that's the mission, I'm sure I'll meet lots of great people in Barahona.

But anyway, sorry I don't have much to report today besides that things are going pretty good, and I'll let you guys know next week how everything's going in my new area.

Washington DC and soccer

Emma has been having a wonderful time with her US history class in Washington DC this week.  She really wanted to go on this trip and earned nearly all of the money herself.  She gets back on Sunday and I've really missed her!  She'll get to see Brady on Sunday and go to church with him as well.  Here are some pictures that her friends have been taking, she doesn't take a lot!

Emma and Emrie on the subway.  They have been together all week--the two Em's!

Pretty sad when you have to travel thousands of miles to get Krispy Kreme!

The cherry blossoms are out and she says they are beautiful.

This was the thing she wanted to see the most as you can tell by her face!

WWII memorial, of course she found her home!

Meanwhile back in old Worland Andy started soccer.  He's never played before, but the coach convinced him to try it instead of track.  They needed a goalie since the varsity goalie is graduating this year.  His first game was yesterday and the JV boys lost 4-1.  He said he did horribly, but the coaches are happy with him and he did pretty well for his first game.  I'm sure he'll improve as the season continues.

Elder Edholm -- week 41

Well not much to report this week. Just another normal week on the mission.

One cool thing that happened is I was able to really actual help out my companion with a problem he was having. It's really cool the ways that you can help people out if you pray and fast about it first.

One cool thing is that this is easter week, and Habichuelas con dulce or sweet beans I guess would be the translation is really popular during this week. It's pretty much just like beans, sweeten condensed milk, sweet potato, coconut milk, and a lot of other things, but it's way good, and I'm gonna be eating a lot of it this week!

But also it's a good time just to remember our Savior and what he went through this week, as a mission each day we are reading about what happened on each one of these days two thousand years ago on the last week of our Savior's mortal ministry. It's a really cool thing to do, I would suggest it to you guys, but I'm also ponderizing an easter scripture.

In the past Easter really only meant chocolate, candy eggs, and stuff like that. But Easter actually has a much deeper meaning as I'm just now realizing. It means something we probably just take for granted everyday, that Jesus Christ lives, and because of what He did we can all live with Him again.

I love you guys, and hope you have a great Easter Week!

Here is a picture, it's the last standing place where Christopher Columbus slept

Palmer's zone at the temple, he's in the very back

Elder Edholm -- week 40

*This letter was well worth the wait!  I finally got pictures!  They are from his trip to see where Christopher Columbus landed when he came in 1492*

 

Well as you can already tell, I had an awesome week this week.

First off, that family that I have been telling you guys about, the Espinosa Family, they're amazing, they're just the family that every missionary wishes for. We had a family home evening with them and a member shared Alma chapter 32. And the husband shared an experience about how the gospel is really changing his life. They always tell us how grateful they are for teaching them, it's just moments like that that really make the mission worth it.

We got a reference from a member from a guy that he always plays basketball with and we had our first lesson with him. I felt inspired to ask him what he like most about the church when he visited it before. He told us how he loved the union and the families. He then shared how he has been feeling so alone lately, but just being inside the chaple makes him feel so much better. He told us that when he's playing basketball outside the church and he comes in for a drink of water he can feel so much peace. He told us how is wife is in Panama and his situation with his kids aren't the best but that he really wants his family on the right path. We then invited him to be baptized and without hesitation he accepted.

Here is a picture of me at the colonial zone. We also went to the temple today and that is always great.

Palmer in front of the statue of Christopher Columbus

The first cathedral in the Americas

The first street in the Americas

The name of the first street in the Americas

Outside the first cathedral in the Americas

Feeding birds out of his hand

Worland Warrior Basketball State Champions!

LATEST NEWS!

Worland boys and girls won state last night!  The girls have never won state and the last time the boys won it was 1921!  This is big news for our little town and they are planning on a big celebration for the teams on Tuesday.  They estimated that 25% of the town was in Casper to cheer everyone on!  Emma was there to cheer them on with the cheerleaders and Andy was also able to go-his awesome seminary teacher took a bunch of them and spent Thursday through Saturday in Casper.  Here is a picture of both of the winning teams:

State Cheer

Brian, Andrew, and I drove to Casper today to watch Emma compete in the state cheerleading event.  Their team did really well, especially since many of the other teams had twice and three times the number of cheerleaders.  I took some pictures, but my camera is not the best!

Waiting to start.  You can't see Emma, she's on the far left behind the front girl.

Emma is second from the left.

Emma is on the left

Walking off after the competition. 

Most of the girls, there are four missing from this picture.  Emma's on the far right. 

The drive to Casper is not my favorite.  It's long and really boring.  Long stretches with not even a town to break it up and it's pretty barren.  But on the way home the skies were killer.  I snapped a few shots.

Andrew, Brian, and I came home, but Emma stays in Casper until Saturday to cheer for both our boys and girls teams in the state basketball tournament. 

Elder Edholm week 39 part II

I was wrong about no letter, I just received this:

Sorry I don't have time to write many people back today because our P-day was changed to today because we went to this place called the Colonial Zone, it was the coolest place I've ever seen. It shows where Christoper Colombus arrived in the Dominican Republic because that was the first place that he landed. It shows the first street, cathedral, university in the Americas. It also has the French Embassy and the last place that is still standing where Colombus slept. It was really fun, but I don't have time to send pictures right now so I will send them next week.

But I'm glad everything's going well and I'll talk more next week!

Elder Edholm -- week 39

No letter this week.  I'm a member of a facebook page for Dominican Republic missionaries and I did get to see a couple of pictures of Palmer at a zone conference.  He must not have time to write when he travels for these. 

It's blurry, but he's on the 2nd row on the far left. 

I'm thankful for those moms who post pictures so I get to see him!

Peter the wrestler

Yesterday was the beginning of the USA wrestling program for Peter.  He is a member of the Ten Sleep/Hyattville Scrappers.  It's a group of mostly younger boys from age 4-10 with a few older ones as well.  They practice in Ten Sleep twice a week and their coach is really good.  He's an old grizzled rancher whose kids are all grown, but he loves the sport and works so well with the boys.  If you can imagine wrestling practice with 15 or so little boys all running around tackling each other-it's like a cub scout pack meeting gone awry!  But it doesn't ruffle him at all and he spends time with each boy and really encourages them.

Peter's first meet was in Lovell.  He wrestled three times and lost 2 and won 1.  He gets pretty upset when he loses and there are tears involved, but he really likes it.  His first match he got pinned with a headlock and he did not like that at all!  He told me that when we got home he was going to look up on YouTube ways to get out of a headlock so it wouldn't happen to him again!  His determination reminds me of Palmer's when he would wrestle.

Here are some pictures of the meet:

This is the gym at the beginning of the meet, they had 8 matches going on at the same time.

Here is Peter with his back toward the camera.  His coach is in the red shirt with the baseball cap.

Pete hates his picture taken so he wasn't amused that I took this while we waiting for him to wrestle.  Wrestling meets involve A LOT of waiting!

His first match where the kid pinned him with a head lock.  This kid placed first in the competition.

Here is another picture of the same match as it's getting started.

This is before his second match as he waits for his turn.

This is his third match.  He almost won-lost by only two points.  His coach is in the background with the red shirt.

The third match again.

Third match

Peter really improved between the first and third match.  We're pretty proud of him for trying his best.  We spent nearly the entire day in Lovell-left at 6:30am and got back around 3:00pm.  It was just Brian, Eric, Lucy, Peter and me since Andrew was snowmobiling at a friends cabin and Emma was at region basketball in Glenrock. 

Basketball basketball basketball

Andy's freshman basketball season ended on Saturday.  His team only had 4 losses for the season, but got seeded in the tournament really badly with a play off game just to get into the tournament.  Other teams they had beat did not have to do that and since we had the home court advantage we were pretty upset.  We played Pinedale and lost to them in overtime by 2 points.  Dang.  That meant we couldn't place at all in the tournament.  They gave us 2 more games to play but they didn't mean anything.  We played Powell and beat them by 30 points!  And we played Glenrock who we also beat.  A little disappointing to a pretty great season.  Andy did play nearly the entire game against Pinedale and it was because of his basket that it went into overtime in the first place. 

Emma is off to the regional basketball tournament in Glenrock today.  Glenrock is a VERY tiny town about 20 minutes passed Casper.  It takes a little over 3 hours to get there from Worland.  She will be there from today until late Saturday assuming our teams go to the finals, which they should.  Our girls only have one loss and our boys made it to state last year. 

The varsity cheerleaders off to Glenrock this morning.  Emma is third from the right.

Next week basketball continues as the state tournament is in Casper from Thursday through Saturday.  Plus the state cheerleading tournament is the Wednesday before state basketball so Emma will be gone again for most of the week.  I miss seeing my Emma!