Baptism time

My youngest child got baptized today!  We did it in Utah because we were here for a family reunion.  Peter got baptized in the same font that I was baptized in and to make it even better he was baptized exactly 41 years to the day after I was! All of us participated in the program.  Audrey played the piano, I led the music, Eric gave the opening prayer, Andrew gave the closing prayer, Matt (Lauren's husband) gave a talk on baptism, Brian gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, Susie (my sister) and Emma played a flute musical number and I accompanied them and Lucy passed out the programs.  Here are some pics:

All who attended the baptism

In the above picture there are starting from the front row from left to right: Peter, Max Horne (cousin), and Lucy.  Second row: Delores Jorgensen (my mom), Audrey, Eric, me, Emma, Connie (Brian's mom), Lauren, and Matt Tanner (my son-in-law).  Back row: Lynette McCoy (my cousin), Bryan Morris (my brother-in-law), my sister Susan Morris, Andrew (standing on his tip toes so he looks taller than Brian), Brian, Mike Horne (cousin), and Emily Horne (cousin).

Elder Edholm --- week 51

So a couple weeks ago we started doing this thing called the purification process. It basically starts with a fast and then you write down all of the disobedient things you are doing and you promise not to do them for 40 days. At first I didn't really think much about it, but now I'm really understanding how important it is. I've even put things down like tap my hands to drum beats. I know it doesn't seem like much, but really that time could be used receiving promptings from the Holy Ghost or thinking about ways that I can help my investigators. I've realized that if I really want to be a good missionary I have to give up absolutely every worldly thing so that the Holy Ghost can do his job better.

But besides that we have 1 for sure baptism coming up on June 18th. There are two other possible baptisms that could happen that day. We were gonna go to a really cool beach today, but I wasn't feeling very good so I couldn't go, but that doesn't matter, I'll definitely go another day.

It was also my companion's birthday on the 27th and we had a really cool surprise party for him in Jeison's house. But Jeison is really great and keeps giving us references. One of which was his cousin. She's really cool and she went to church the first time we invited her. While she was there she straight up told us that she wanted to get baptized. We went to their house after church and gave her a Book of Mormon. The only bad thing is, is that she left yesterday to Santo Domingo to study, but I gave the reference to the missionaries to whose area she moved to.

I also found a really cool scripture that I shared the other day with a less active, Ether 4:7. I understood that The Lord wants to reveal stuff to us and give us lots of blessings, but he can't unless we exercise our faith first. 

Well that's all for today, and I completely forgot, happy brithday Mom, Lucy, and Peter!! I hope the baptism goes well!

Elder Edholm -- week 50

So, fun fact, 1 year from today I will be home!!! It's kind of cool but at the same time that went by so fast, and I hope that I do a lot better and improve a lot before I go home.

But anyway we had a conference on Thursday, and our whole zone went into the conference fasting to be able to learn a lot from Elder Cornish. He is the area presidency. But the conference was great. I learned that I always need to be finding new investigators instead of just working with the few I have. Because it's more likely to find those investigators that are waiting for you by always finding new ones and by quickly moving on from the ones that aren't ready to progress yet.

But I also learned that the talks, lessons, and everything from the prophets and apostles aren't just given to be able to listen to good talks that they put together. But they are actual inspiration given to them straight from God to us to be able to be put in practice, applied in our lives. I finally understand that now, that that's the purpose of the scriptures, prophets, callings, the church, everything!

Worland High School Graduation 2016

My Emma graduated from high school today.  It's been a fun weekend full of graduation parties and good food and great people.  Here in Worland each graduate's family gives a party for their graduate and invites people to an open house type thing with lots of food.  It's hard to get to all of them, but Emma is trying really hard!  As a family we went to four parties yesterday and four today.  Emma's  party will be tomorrow night.  It's nice to see lots of people and chat and there is a great sense of community.

The weather cooperated and was just a little windy and not too hot.  Here are some pics:

Emma is walking onto the field, the second couple and she is on the outside.

Audrey and Emma--nice crossed eyes Em!

Six of the eight siblings!

The happy parents! (Really we are happy even if we look a little demonic!)

Second try, not much better!

This is an Emma face and I love it!

Emma and her friend Sariah Durrant

Emma and her friend Emrie Jolley

Windy Wyoming

Emma is wearing gold cords which represent national honor society

Entire class of 87 graduates

Here is Emma as she is receiving her diploma:

Treasure Hunt

Emma has wanted to see Big Horn Sheep every since we moved here from Utah.  So today, with no school for her, we took off to find some!  We heard that between Wapiti and the entrance to Yellowstone there were a lot of Big Horn Sheep.  It took us about 2 and a half hours to get there and we were not disappointed!

The sheep are shedding their wool and looked very clumpy.  Emma was hoping she would see one with really large horns, but they all had medium sized horns.  

SHEEP!

On our way back, before we got to Cody we came upon this elk herd.  We couldn't figure out what they were doing, they were all in a circle facing outwards like they were protecting something.  We stopped to see if we could tell what was in the center of the circle and couldn't see anything.  When we first saw them we thought they were horses, but quickly realized they were not.  

ELK HERD

ELK

It was a quick road trip and we had a great time!

Elder Edholm -- week 49

So anyway I didn't really say anything about the baptism we had. So Jeison is a super awesome guy. Before the baptism he was super nervous. I asked him if he hadn't repented and he said he had, and so I told him not to be nervous than, and he shook it off and did fine. After he was baptized he had the biggest smile on his face. Afterwards he bore his testimony and said how he felt clean.

But hopefully we will have a bunch more baptisms like we have planned on June 18th. But sorry about the short email, not too much time today.

Love you all, see you guys next week!

Jeison's baptism

Lucy is 10!

Lucy turned 10 on the 12th.  Emma decorated her door while she was asleep so she could wake up to decorations in the morning.

Eric made the little sign on the door that says happy birthday

It seems a long time ago she was my little sweet baby girl.

Lauren took this picture of her when she was around 4 or 5

Attitude

10 year old Lucy at the park.

Lucy is part of a small auditioned elementary choir that sang in Thermopolis this morning.  They sounded great!  Of the 18 members 6 are members of the church.  Standing right next to her is Joey Durrant.  We tease her about him being her boyfriend and she did have a little crush on him.  They are pretty good friends.

Lucy is 4th from the right.

The music teacher is standing to the right.  She did an amazing job with them this year.

Elder Edholm -- week 48

We got to talk with Palmer for Mother's Day yesterday and it was wonderful!  It took about 30 minutes of trying to finally get connected, the internet connection there is never good.  He looked great and talked about the baptism he had on Saturday.  Right before he had to leave he said him and his companion were going to choir practice.  The church takes them 30 minutes to walk to and they rarely get rides since most of the members don't own cars and they don't have bikes or access to public transportation.  Palmer also said that everything starts late-on Dominican Republic time-which is about 30 minutes late!  I was just impressed he was going to choir practice!  He also told me that every hymn that is played is at half speed-VERY slow!  They don't have pianos or organs, just electric keyboards.  He says he leads the music a lot because no one apparently knows how to lead music.  I'm glad his music training is paying off!  It was great to talk with him!

Here is Palmer and his companion and the guy that got baptized on Saturday.  I stole this photo from Facebook!

We got Audrey connected easily, but had to wait for Palmer to join us.

He looks blurry here, but it did clear up eventually.

Thank goodness for technology!  Lauren was teaching primary and couldn't join us. 

Weekend happenings

Emma was honored at the last FCCLA (Future Community and Civic Leaders of American, formally FHA-Future Homemakers of America) meeting as an officer this past year.  This picture is of her and Bryanna Mickelson who was the president.

Emma and Bryanna are holding their towels and smiling in the background.

 
Andy had his last home soccer game on Friday against #1 Jackson.  They did much better this time playing them than they did last time, but still lost 2-1. We got some good action shots of Andy.

Andy is diving for the ball with the yellow shoes.

Crouched as he recovered the ball.

Going for the ball in the blue keeper jersey.

Caught it!

Andy in action

The varsity girls beat Jackson, which was an awesome last home game for them since Jackson girls are ranked #1 in the state.  It was senior night for the varsity players and Emma is the manager for the varsity girls and so she got flowers and a balloon and got to walk out on the field with the senior girl players.  Here she is during the game taking turns filming.  The guy on the left is the radio announcer.  It was REALLY windy on Friday during the game and she froze since she had to wear a dress as the manager. 

Today, Saturday, was Eric's last track meet and it was here in Worland which is something to rejoice about!  He ran the 1600 meter and wanted to break 7 minutes and he did, he got a personal best with a time of 6:55!  Go Eric!

Eric running with his friend, Tradon. 

Brian and I have been out walking since the weather is a little better (even though it rained for the track meet today).  There is a path that goes around the sugar beat fields and the canal by our house.  Brian got home from a walk the other day and said he hit the wildlife jackpot.  He saw a muskrat in the canal, a pheasant, a snake in the path, and a deer!  Awesome!

I would have turned around and left if I would have seen this guy!

Here is his deer friend.

I went on the same path the next day with my friend and we saw nothing!  I would have liked to see the deer, pheasant and muskrat, but definitely not the snake!

Elder Edholm -- week 47

So we really worked with Jeison this past week to help him really be ready for his baptismal interview. We really focused on repentance to be sure he was fully repented to be able to get baptized. He joyfully exclaimed to us that he was clean, and he seemed very confident, and happy that he was repented and ready for the May 7th. He had his interview and he told the same thing to the district leader. It was really wonderful to see. His family even admitted that they had seen a huge change in him over the past month. He may have had problems, but now I am sure that he's repented and ready for baptism.

So there is also this Haitian in our ward named Jeanberson. He's 25 years old, he's always wanted to serve a mission, but complications have always gotten in the way. He's pretty much had to raise his brothers and sisters as his parents were never really there. His parents tried everything they could to stop him and his brother from being members of the church after they left the church because they couldn't get what they wanted from the it (money, house, etc.) But even though he's 25 years old, he finally has an opportunity to go on a mission, and he didn't even hesitate. He's leaving June 22nd to the Santiago mission.

It was just really inspiring to see a 25 year old who could be focusing on getting married and stuff like that to just really know his duty as a member of the church.

Well I can't wait to talk to you guys on Sunday, and I'll tell you all about the baptism too.