Tuesday adventures

Lucy, Peter, and I drove to Thermopolis right after school today to watch Eric wrestle.  Eric wrestled twice and got pinned in the second period both times but had some good moves. 

While we were there we were sitting next to a lady who brought her puppy who was just weeks old.  We got to hold him the whole time and loved him!

On the way home we were lucky enough to blow a tire on our car!  We pulled over and I gave a valiant attempt to change it.  Thankfully it was only 22 degrees and not below zero.  I spent a good 30 minutes giving it my best.  I found the jack, got the spare tire which was mounted under the car, out and got the jack placed in the right place.  All in the dark and as it was starting to snow.  I could not get the lug nuts off.  I was so frustrated because I wanted to do it myself!  Eventually the Sheriff stopped and kindly got the lug nuts off.  I wasn't going to call Brian, but he called midway through and gave me some hints and drove out to meet me.  It was all done by the time he came.  Lucy said it was so scary, she thought we were going to have to walk home and we would get lost and die!  She's a little dramatic!

Elder Edholm -- week 85

So... the baptism happened, we'll just leave it at that. But Lisandro was really happy, I could notice that, which was good because even when not very many people showed up and it started an hour and a half late, the power of God came in to save the day. Even though all that stuff happened to make one seem like their baptism isn't important, I know that Lisandro still felt the huge step that he made in his life that day.

Besides that everything is going great here. Yes I'm sure that you all heard about the schedule change, there was a broadcast for all of the missionaries around the world that announced that. For me, the schedule isn't that different than what we're already doing because in this mission the days that you can, you leave at 10 in the morning, and we never eat dinner, so the change isn't really that big of a thing for us. The bigger change is the change of the key indicators, which I like a lot better, but I won't go into that.

One thing I've noticed on my mission is that success comes from diligence. Like yesterday we did a division with some members in our ward and York and I went to a town really far away, and after a mediocre day with a lot of people failing us, we found a really great family, which really brightened up my hopes and gave me a new fire to keep working, I love this work more everyday!

That's interesting that Chase and Wade are companions, I remember wondering if they were in the same mission.

Lisandro and Palmer and his companion.  As Palmer's mother I have one thing to say to this photo, Oh. My. Word. Palmer is wearing flip flops.  If you know him well you will know what an accomplishment that is!

More basketball and wrestling

Both Eric and Andy had two sports events this week.  Eric wrestled against Cody and in a tournament.  Unfortunately he got pinned in each one, but he's learning more all the time.  Andy played Buffalo and Powell in basketball and the varsity beat them both.  Andy has been seeing more and more playing time in varsity which has been great.  He gets quite a few rebounds and is a great free throw shooter. 

Eric is in the green singlet

Andy, #40

Elder Edholm -- week 84

So, Lisandro had his baptismal interview on Saturday and he's getting baptized this Saturday! The good thing is that he's got a lot of family members that are strong members of the church, so he's got a lot of support all around him. He's a great kid and I've really enjoyed teaching him, he's really learned a lot, he's just got a small problem, he doesn't read that well, but he's been reading his Book of Mormon a lot, and I know that if he keeps reading it diligently that his reading skills will get a lot better.

So a couple weeks ago this lady named Oliva just randomly came to church with a couple older sisters. We started talking to her and she started talking about how much she liked the church and how different it is from all the other churches she's gone to. She says that it's the first church where she feels the spirit, she really likes how she feels when she goes. After telling us all that we were all excited to start teaching her when she said, ¨but I don't want you guys to visit me yet, I want to keep going to church first.¨ We were kind of discouraged but we had to respect her agency. Next Sunday came around, and she went again! She came up to my companion and said ¨Okay, I'm ready, I want you guys to visit me.¨ She's awesome, she's doing great so far, the only thing is that she doesn't want to accept a baptismal date yet, but we're going to keep working with her.

But that's been my week, it's going great out here in Don Gregorio, I'm really enjoying these last months of my mission. I want these last months to be the months I worked the hardest on my mission.

Love you all!

Worland Warrior Basketball

The Warriors have now improved their record to 6 wins and 5 losses, but most importantly they are 2-0 in conference play.  Andy has seen some significant time on the Varsity team.  They beat Thermopolis handily the other night and the Coach had some nice things to say about Andy and Elijah, the other sophomore who plays Varsity:

"(Elijah Leyva) usually plays the last few minutes of the game because of his ability to handle the ball, he makes smart decisions within the offense and is still a good defender despite his size. We told him to deny their (Hudson) Roling all over the floor because once Schwalbe went out he was their biggest threat offensively," said WHS boys basketball coach Aaron Abel. "I thought Andrew Edholm was another kid that stepped up for us defensively. He got that five count where we was switching on to the screens and did a great job. He seems to get it that that kind of effort is needed to play this game. He can guard every position on the floor. I'm very proud of those two sophomores."

Last night they played in Rawlins and we didn't drive the 3 and a half hours to watch them, but listened to the game on the radio.  Andy was awesome and came away with 6 points and 5 rebounds and shut their 3 point shooter down.  He is the best 3 point shooter in the region and he didn't score once when Andy was guarding him.  They beat Rawlins by 3 points.  It sounded like an amazing game and both Brian and I wished we would have been there.

Today we were going to be in Thermopolis for a wrestling tournament for Eric, but he is sick today and so am I with the hacking coughs and running noses, and feeling nasty.  Hopefully he'll be well by next week so he can wrestle.

Elder Edholm -- week 83

Well this week was pretty great. We got this reference from our branch mission leader for this policeman guy. His step-daughter is a member. He looked like a good investigator from the beginning, but after we gave him the Book of Mormon on the second visit he read 3 Nephi 11 like we invited him to do. He did everything he said he would, he even prayed afterword. I asked him if he felt like he received an answer and he told me he did. He described as a peaceful and a calming feeling and the best part is that he recognized it as an answer. Right there we put a baptismal date with him for the 18th of February. He's a golden investigator.

Besides that we're still working hard here. Transfers came and we're staying the same, but we will be getting a new missionary in the house, he's a ginormous Jamaican, so that should be interesting. We also changed Lisandro's baptismal date to January 28th just because we haven't been able to teach him everything yet.

So yesterday we did splits with our branch mission leader and another youth. York (the branch mission leader) and I went to a town really far away called Juan Varon, like 45 minutes away walking. That place is like Utah for the Evangelists. But we found some pretty good people up there and were able to teach a less-active, so it was worth the walk.

So that's about all there is to report this week, love you guys!

And wrestling begins...

Eric waiting for his turn at the wrestling season opener in Lovell

Eric had a bye in the first round of the tournament.  He lost his first match, got pinned in the second period.

Eric looked so much more aggressive than he has in the past.

He scored some points against his opponent.

In his second match he also got pinned with 1 second left in the second period.

He improved in this second match and was ahead for most of the match.

He's on top in the green singlet.

It was a frigid -23 degrees early this morning as I dropped Eric off at the middle school to board the bus.  It didn't get much warmer as Brian and I drove to Lovell later in the morning. Despite that kudos go to Eric today.  He fought hard and learned lots.  He has grown so much and reminded me and Brian of Palmer out there wrestling.  Here's to a great season!

Elder Edholm -- week 82

I'm really sorry that I didn't send a letter last week, I don't even know what happened to me. But the baptism went super well. Francisco asked me to baptize him and I just love seeing the huge smiles they have on their face after getting baptized. Now he's a strong member, he's even left with us and he bore his testimony in church on Sunday. But New Years went alright, so much noise and drinking on the street though.

Anyway besides that I've been trying to start to do more activities in the branch because right now we aren't doing any activities and that's what the members say they miss the most is the activities. A couple weeks ago I tried to do like a movie night and almost nobody showed up. I tried it again on Saturday and we had like thirty people! It was a huge success and it motivated me a lot to keep on doing activities to keep motivating the members.

Our investigator Lisandro, I don't know if I've already talked about him, but he is our district president's nephew, he's always hanging out with his son. We were teaching him and we've really been trying to focus on him getting his answer about the Book of Mormon. But finally last week he told us how he did it, he read and then prayed after, which has been really hard for him to do. But he explained to us that while he was praying he felt feelings of happiness and he could recognize that as his answer to his prayer. Now I feel a lot better about his baptismal date on January 21st. I'm glad we could focus on that though because I feel like before I didn't care about them actually being converted, I just wanted a baptism. Now I'm starting to realize more that they're more important, that their conversion is more important. I realized I couldn't keep working like that and then complain later that they were less active if I didn't help them to actually get that conversion.

Oh and yes, I got a new companion, his name is Elder Aguilar, he's from Mexico.

Palmer and Elder Alyk

Francicso's baptism

Elder Aguilar and Francisco and Palmer

2016 books read

I'm one of those people who keeps lists of things.  Books I've read mostly.  I read exactly 41 books this year from start to finish.  That does not count the books I started, but put down never to finish, or my textbooks for my grad school classes (those I definitely didn't read from start to finish).  I did not include picture books, save for one exception. It also does not include magazine articles or the scriptures which are not read to put on a list, but to live by.

I’ve grouped them into likes and dislikes and from there into loose reading levels.  So, farewell 2016 books, you've brought much enjoyment to the year!

Mild dislike—I didn’t hate them, but didn’t like them either.

Half a King by Joe Abercrombie.  This fantasy fiction book for adults was well written and had a plot that moved along nicely with good character development.  It was, however, very violent.  It takes place in a fictional fantasy world and deals with revenge and war.  It had a too much gore for my liking.  

Hannah by Kathryn Laskey.  A younger fiction book that was written poorly.  Poor character development, resolved issues much too quickly.  It has mermaids in it, so if you like mermaids there is that.  It seemed formulaic and in need of a good editor.

I would still recommend these, but I wouldn’t read them again or continue the series for various reasons.

General Fiction:

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card.  I've tried to read Card before and have never been able to get through any of his books and I’m not sure why, they just did not catch my attention.  I’ve wanted to get over this inability and so I tried this one and listened to the audiobook, which worked well.  I quite enjoyed it, just not enough to try the next dozen books.  

Southern Peach Pie and a Dead Guy by A. Gardner. A Poppy Peter's Mystery that takes place at a cooking school.  I picked this one up trying to find another mystery series to get into. It didn’t quite hit the spot and I didn’t want to continue to read about Poppy’s adventures.  

Young Adult Fiction:

The Siren by Kiera Cass.  Another mermaid book (I read many mermaid books this year, not on purpose).  It was a typical teen fantasy book with a little bit of romance.  

Chasing Power by Sarah Beth Durst. I've read Durst before and enjoyed her book, Ice, quite a lot.  In this book her characters weren’t quite as likable and the story didn’t resonate with me, I had a hard time connecting with the plot.  Fantasy.

Discern by Andrea Pearson. Mosaic Chronicles, book #1.  Another magic school book, but this time the school is a university. Involves some romance and mythology.  There are 8 books in the series and I was not drawn in enough to wade through all of them.

Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble.  A young girl is held captive by Baba Yaga and she happens to be the daughter of the Romanov's.  This is mostly fantasy and a little bit historical, but not much. It seemed to resolve rather quickly. 

The Curse of the Thirteenth Fey by Jane Yolen.  Very loosely based on Sleeping Beauty. I love Jane Yolen, but this book was just average.  

Merrow by Amanda Braxton-Smith.  Here is another mermaid book.  It's not technically fantasy, however, but fits in this genre better than any other genre.  How is it not fantasy if it's about mermaids?  Well if I told you that I'd give away the ending!

Until We Meet Again by Renee Collins.  Time travel romance.  Enough said.

All Fall Down by Ally Carter.  Embassy Row, book #1.  I enjoy Ally Carter, but this espionage series wasn’t enough to compel me to continue reading the sequels. 

That Summer by Sarah Dessen.  Realistic fiction dealing with family issues.  More angst than I normally like to read.

Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn.  A young girl can be the key to communicating with the dragons who have long been thought violent.  Little romance is thrown in, not a bad choice really, just didn't like it enough.

Junior Fiction:

A Nearer Moon by Melanie Crowder.  A fantasy novel about two sets of sisters--twin sprites & two human girls, trapped in different worlds.  Interesting connections, just not as interesting as I wanted it to be.

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle by Janet Fox.  This book could be in historical fiction as well as fantasy.  Set in World War II, a witch is taking the souls of children and the Nazi's are trying to steal the power. 

I liked these, I enjoyed my time with the characters and will continue to read these authors and series.

Non-Fiction

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. This is a business fable about how to manage a team.  I quite liked it.

An American Plague by Jim Murphy.  This children's non-fiction title is quite good.  The secondary title sums it up: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793.  Truly interesting, just don’t read it at night.  Alone. And think about your son in mosquito ridden Dominican Republic.  

General Fiction:

The Night Circus by Erin Mogenstern. Two people, fated to magically fight each other, fall in love.  What a perfect tag line!  

Her Good Name by Josi Kilpack.  This is a LDS mystery novel, different than many others of the same type.  A bit unbelievable, but enjoyable. 

Young Adult Fiction:

The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. First in the fantasy Red Queen Trilogy. War between silver bloods and red bloods, quite intriguing.  

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page.  Yes, this is that Dorothy of Wizard of Oz fame.  A nice dark twist on the Oz story. First book in the series.

A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman. Takes place in India.  A lovely look into Indian culture and the beauty of dance and the human spirit. 

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner. Realistic fiction with strong characters.  The son of a Pentecostal preacher in small town Tennessee must deal with a multitude of issues.

Junior Fiction:

Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley.  A lovely fantasy book that follows a young man searching for the magical circus his grandfather has been telling him about for years.

The Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke. This author never fails to disappoint me.  I listened to the audiobook as I exercised.  A wonderful tale of ghosts and family connections. 

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson.  This graphic novel about a young girl who joins a roller derby team was a joy to read.  The pictures pushed along the story and added an additional dimension to the narration.  A winner!

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.  Historical fiction that takes place in England during World War II.  A handicapped girl and her brother are taken into the county side for safety and they and the lady they live with enrich each others lives.

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan. Another author that does not disappoint.  This is a collection of stories that seem unrelated but come together beautifully in the end. 

Summerlost by Ally Condie. Realistic fiction that takes place in Cedar City Utah at the Shakespeare Festival (although if you weren’t from Utah you probably wouldn’t catch on to that bit of information).  Fun story of two young kids and their summer adventures.  

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown.  I love Peter Brown’s picture books, Children Make Terrible Pets is wonderful.  His foray into fiction is successful with this truly unique book about a robot and the animals it helps.  

Saving Lucas Biggs by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague. Another audiobook success.  This story follows two story lines years apart.  They come together in a very satisfying way. I love a good ending! 

Picture Book:

The Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña.  I had to include this award winning picture book. It won the Newbery Medal for 2016 (unique for a picture book) and received a Caldecott Honor along with a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor.  A bus ride that you will want to take again and again.

Loved—this list is longer than in years past.  I liked different things about each one.  Some of these I loved because they will be on my list of rereads and some of them I loved because I read them very quickly, excited to turn the next page.

General Fiction:

Murder on Wheels and Tea Cups and Carnage by Lyn Cahoon.  These are my guilty pleasure.  Tourist Trap mystery series with a bit of romance thrown in.  Cahoon comes out with a couple new titles a year and I have them on automatic order on my kindle. 

Prudence by Gail Carriger.  Custard Protocol #1.  I have loved Carriger’s other steampunk series.  This one is another wonderfully read audiobook, but unlike the other series she has written for young adults, this one is for adults.  Because of this the second book in the series that I started to listen to got a little racy, so I stopped with the first one, which I loved. 

Young Adult Fiction:

Lady Thief by A.C. Gaughen. Scarlett series #2. This Robin Hood series is delightful to read, moves quickly and has endearing characters. 

Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger. Finishing School, book 4. Loved this series.  Vampires, werewolves, flying air machines, espionage.  What’s not to love?  A must listen to audiobook.

Junior Fiction:

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo.  I watched a webinar with Kate DiCamillo as she talked about this new book.  She is delightful.  I listened to this audiobook and the three main characters really came alive for me.  A realistic fiction book set in the south. 

The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands. The first book in a series (the second book has just come out and I haven’t had a chance to read it yet).  I read this book aloud to my kids and they were hanging on every word!  A fast paced fantasy novel where the only negative thing is waiting for the rest of the series to be published!

Mark of the Thief (Mark of the Thief, book 1) and Rise of the Wolf (Mark of the Thief, book 2) by Jennifer Nielson. These Roman mythology books rival Percy Jackson in my opinion!