Elder Edholm -- week 51

So now I'm in Sandy. Elder Anderson(from Manan Idaho) and I are whitewashing this area so we don't know anything about the area and have been trying to get to know as many as the members as possible. And this is a Spanish area, but I've realized that my Spanish is still pretty terrible, so I'm glad I get to practice it more. 

Something kinda weird is that most of our area is outside the mission, and the building we meet at for church is the salt lake city south mission's offices. The area is really cool, but we live at the bottom of a huge hill and this is a biking area, so it gets pretty tiring to go anywhere. We've got in contact with a couple of people and have set up teaching appointments with them so we're pretty excited about this transfer. 

Also, the missionaries that were here were living with some members, and the members are moving, so now we are in a hotel for probably the whole transfer, which is super cool.


*In our phone call to Andrew today, he told us that his companion was originally called to the Dominican Republic Santiago Mission, but before he could get there COVID hit and he was reassigned to the Salt Lake Mission. He currently lives in the Fort Union area and his area includes parts of Sandy and Midvale. 

Elder Edholm -- week 50

This week was good, it wasn't super eventful though. Elder Fajardo was supposed to fly back to the Philippines on Thursday, but it got canceled again for the fourth time, and we just found out yesterday that he will be transferred to another area and that I will be staying here with Elder Naag. We started making short videos to post on Facebook, the first one that we did is based on a Geico ad, and the one we are working on right now is based off of a Direct TV commercial. The first one should be out soon. And we get like 30 more missionaries on Wednesday, I'll see if I can find out how many missionaries there will be in the mission when they get here. 

We have a car and other elders in our district don't, so they needed us to drive up to the capital building because they were making a video with the rocky music and everything. And the way home we saw that Utah Jazz wall and took pictures in front of it. Also, some Filipino members cooked us some Filipino food, and if was super good!! Especially the meet tube thing, it's call lechon and it's pork belly with herbs inside, probably one of the best things I've ever tasted.

State Capitol with Elder Perez

Utah State Capitol Building

Utah Jazz Mural

Filipino Food

Magic Shop Books by Bruce Coville

Jennifer Murdley's Toad. Junior Fantasy. I have loved all of the Magic Shop books by Coville. On a quick trip to Utah and back I downloaded a few of them to pass the time for my two kids stuck in the car for hours. We listened to this one first. These books are a quick read or listen and the audio version has a full cast of people voicing the different parts, which I always love. Coville's Magic Shop books start with a child who has a problem and they "accidentally" run into a shop that they've never seen before. Inside is an old man who offers to sell them any item they desire. This item, a toad in Jennifer Murdley's case, turns out to be magic and helps them solve their problem, although things seem to get worse before they get better and they always learn something about themselves along the way.

Jennifer has felt self conscious about her plain looks and has a great desire to be beautiful. The talking toad she buys from the Magic Shop shows her what's really important and in the end she has to make a difficult decision that will change her life and those she loves.

Recommend: Yes




Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. Junior Fantasy. Jeremy is a typical 6th grade boy, he has friends, loves to draw, thinks one of his teachers hates him, and has that group of kids that love to tease him. Through a dragon's egg that he buys at the Magic Shop he comes to see the people around him in a different light and makes friends with a wonderful dragon as well.

Recommend: Yes




I recommend the rest of the Magic Shop Books series. They do not need to be read in any particular order:

Juliet Dove, Queen of Love
The Skull of Truth
The Monster Ring

Elder Edholm -- week 49

Week 2 is done here in salt lake, I'm still not fully adjusted but I'm doing a ton better. We've continued to meet with the leaders of the two stakes and 12 wards that we cover. Other than the members, we're actually teaching quite a few people, around 6 or 7 that we have contact with every week or twice a week and a couple others that are more sporadic. This last Sunday was the first Sunday back in the church buildings. We went to two different meetings, everyone had masks on, and people sat in every other row. It was great being back. We had zone conference this week, which is a meeting for a large portion of the missionaries, and it was really good too, learned a lot from my mission President and his wife. We also had a zoom meeting on Sunday night with one of the current 12 apostles, Elder Gong. He and his wife talked about prayer and being of good during this time. 

Community Art Gallery

We went to a church building it had an original 1971 ensign and inside was a vinyl record

Cool stained glass windows

Service Project

Dangerous by Shannon Hale

Teen Science Fiction. Recently I tagged along with my daughter and son-in-law to Barnes and Noble. As we were walking into the store the friendly sales clerk informed us that the store was closing in 3 minutes!  It had been ages since I have had the freedom to browse a bookstore, so I was a bit disappointed. I walked around the teen fiction area and saw this book, grabbed it just as the announcer informed us that the store was closed.

I have enjoyed reading many of Shannon Hale's books, Book of a Thousand Days, being my favorite of hers. As I started this book and realized it was more science fiction than fantasy I was a little disappointed and actually put it down a third of the way through. Science fiction can become too technical for me and the science part of it can disrupt the flow of the plot at times (in my humble opinion). But I liked the main character's determination and her resolve not to let her hormones take over her decisions when it came to boys and so I decided I would finish the book. I'm very glad I did, the last half is action packed and I really liked where she took the story down to the ending.

Maisie Danger Brown was born without a right hand. She has been homeschooled her entire life and has dreams of becoming an astronaut. She wins a contest that gives her admittance to an astronaut boot camp. This starts her on an adventure involving a boy, a megalomaniac, and an alien plot to take over the world.

Recommend: Yes.

Elder Edholm -- week 48

First week out. First off I'm in a trio with the tech elders who are both from the Philippines! Elder Naag and Elder Fajardo. They are both really awesome, Naag is the district leader right now and he was originally assigned to this mission. Elder Fajardk was originally assigned to Japan but didn't get his visa, and then covid happened, so he's been here since December. First week was a little hard just because everything is different, and when I say everything I mean everything, but I'm super glad to be a missionary again. My first day here we were able to set a baptismal date with someone we are teaching, Brad. We set it for the 4th of July and he really liked that idea. Oh yeah, and I'm the guy that drives in the companionship so I'm slowly getting used to that also.

Andrew told us that his companionship covers 12 wards in 2 stakes!  He is learning the art of sharing the gospel via technology. He can get out of his apartment, but cannot go into other people's homes. He can teach people at the church, however. 

Elder Edholm -- week 47

Elder Edholm is officially serving in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission! He was set apart as a missionary on Friday, May 29th. We left for Utah on Saturday to see family before he went to the mission home on Tuesday. He was able to help Brian work on a roof on Monday.

We got to spend a lot of time with family.

Lauren's house. Eric, Andy, Lauren with Jake and Van, Lucy, Peter

Jake hanging out with Uncle Andy

Our entire family together!

My boys

Eric, John (Audrey's husband), Palmer, Brian holding Van, Andrew, Matt (Lauren's husband) holding Jake, Peter

We drove from Orem to Salt Lake and dropped Andrew off.

I'll miss him, but I'm so proud of him and happy he is serving the Lord. 

Elder Edholm will be serving among the Spanish speaking people who live in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City.