Elder Edholm -- Week 64

 This week pretty well, the two biggest things that happened this week was that we found two really awesome people. The first was Arnaldo, he is the brother of a family in the church, and he lives with them. We had passed by a couple of times to see how this family was doing, and this week we ran into him for the first time and we were able to share something with him from the scriptures. He said he'd never really been involved in religion but that he is really interested now, seeing how it has affected his family positively. The second person we found this week is Daniel. He was born in Columbia but then moved to China. We met him at the beginning of last week, after him only being in the US for 2 to 3 days. We taught him some things from the scriptures and he went to the English class that we have. He he loves learning, so we are exciting to teach him some more. 

I'd like to share two scriptures that really jumped out to me this week. They both talk about faith, how we use it, and how it grows. I like sports so I'm going to relate the scriptures to that. The first scripture is in Helaman 15:7-8, 

"as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth...and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them. Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free."

I think this verse is talking about what I would call "faith practice", how we live and what we can do to make our faith stronger and firmer. The next scripture is in 1 Peter 1:6-7, and this scripture made more sense to me in Spanish, so here's it in Spanish and also the translation. 

"...por un poco de tiempo tengáis que ser afligidos con diversas tentaciones, para que la prueba de vuestra fe... sea hallada digna de alabanza, gloria y honra, cuando Jesucristo sea manifestado;" (translation)"...for a little while you have to be afflicted with various temptations, so that the test of your faith... may be found worthy of praise, glory, and honor, when Jesus Christ is manifested"

To me this verse sounds like game day, that we have to play in, that everyone has in their lives. I want to be able to perform well, I want to have practiced, used, and acted on my faith enough, hopefully more than enough, to get through the temptations and trials that come my way. 

Sorry this email was so long! I really hope you guys read it! See you next week.

Elder Edholm

Elder Edholm -- week 63

 At the beginning of this week we were able to do a huge service project that helped us get to know a part of our area where we had never been before. One of the English wards in the south part of our area made some flyers that said the missionaries are looking for service projects. We were able to get a map of all the English members in that ward and we handed out flyers for a couple hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. We were able to ask all the English members if they knew where any Spanish speakers lived! Also this week we got to teach Andres. On Sunday night he texted us saying that he got back from his trip from Idaho and that he wanted us to teach him! He works a lot so it has been pretty hard to find him, but he loves listening to us. We got to start teaching two people this week that are really interested also, Delia and Ruby. Delia lives alone but her daughter and grandson live close by so Delia is always really busy with work and taking care of her grandson when her daughter is working. We taught her about Christ and his teachings, and also about Joseph Smith and she enjoyed the message a lot! We're going by this week to share more with her. Ruby is the wife of a member, they have one kid and she is pregnant with her second. They came to church a few months ago, but we could never get in contact with them to teach and share something. We called the husband this last week, he answered and said we could come by so we did, and we were able to teach her about the prophets in the bible and also about the experience that Joseph that had too. She really liked everything! We also shared some scriptures in the Book of Mormon and invited her to get baptized and she said she would! We asked her to pray about it to make sure it is the right decision. They also came to church yesterday! 

This week I've set the goal to finish the New Testament and also finish the Book of Mormon by the end of October, I only have 65 pages left in the New Testament, but I have 170 pages left in the Book of Mormon. Two scriptures have really jumped out to me, the first is in the Book of Mormon, in Helaman 3:35:

 "35 Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God."

In Spanish, the word that they use for yield is Entregar, which means to deliver or hand over. So that made me think, it what ways can I deliver or give my heart to God so that I can be more humble and have a firmer faith in Christ. Then I read in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22: 

"16 Rejoice evermore.

17 Pray without ceasing.

18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

19 Quench not the Spirit.

20 Despise not prophesyings.

21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

22 Abstain from all appearance of evil."

I was thinking that these things are the ways I can give my heart to God. I can pray more, and give Him thanks for the things he has blessed me with. I can live in a way that I can feel more of the Spirit. I can hold on to the things in this life that are good and that make me happy and bring me joy, and I can do my best to stay away from anything evil. 

Small blessing that I saw this week, or smelled this week. Yesterday we had an teaching appointment with a family that we are teaching, but they weren't there, so we just started walking around the apartment complex. In the complex there happened to be a huge walnut tree, like the one my family used to have in our front yard when we lived in Utah. So I picked up one of the walnuts and the smell of it reminded me of playing in the leaves in during the fall. Brought back a lot of good memories. So I took some of the walnuts with me and put them on my desk!

Also this last week I've really been hitting Spanish vocab hard, and I was able to recognize quite a bit of those new words while talking to the Spanish speakers here(like jornada and pretexto). Very slowly my Spanish is improving!

Me crossing my eyes in Elder Anderson's picture of the mountains

Robot sculpture in a part of our area

Picture of the flag and mountains while hanging out flyers

Video I made with gummy worms

Elder Edholm -- week 62

 Andy said it was a pretty normal week. Transfers were this week and he and his companion are staying where they are. They are teaching a guy named Nester and he wants to get baptized in a couple weeks so he's hoping that happens. The wind storms that hit Utah hard weren't bad where he is in Sandy. Not a lot more to tell this week!  

Elder Edholm -- week 61

 This week went well, we were able to find quite a bit of people this week. We were finally able to get into contact and teach a younger family, the Martinez family, which include the parents and three little kids, they had been going through a pretty rough time because they had their car stolen and their rent was increased, so they really liked the message that we shared. We were also able to find another family, the Ricardo family and the grandparents, and teach them about God's plan for us. They were very enthusiastic the whole lesson which made me feel so much more comfortable there. My companion and I are really excited about these two families and we hope we can help them! The mother of the Gonzalez family, that got baptized 3 weeks ago, was able to say the closing prayer in church today and the dad plus the two oldest sons are going to be getting the priesthood next week, which is even more awesome!

Books by Kasie West

 Maybe This Time.  By Your Side. Teen romance. 

On a long road trip to Utah my daughter, Lucy, and I spent an enjoyable time listening to two of Kasie West's books. Her teen romances have likable characters, not too much cheese, and just enough teenage angst to make things interesting. 

We started with Maybe This Time at the beginning of our trip. Sophie works at a flower shop in small town Alabama and dreams of being a design student after high school in New York City. Her best friend's father runs the only catering business in town. He is being mentored by a famous chef to help him grow his business and the chef comes with a son named Andrew. Sophie and Andrew don't get off to a good start with each other, but over the course of a year with many events, i.e. weddings, funerals, barbecues, parties, they start to see eye to eye. 

On our way home from Utah Lucy wanted to listened to another one of West's books. I let her choose and she chose By Your Side. I had already listened to this one and didn't mind listening a second time. Mostly because it centers around a girl and a boy locked in a library over Martin Luther King weekend. I mean, for a librarian, what better way to start a story!!  I especially liked the direction the plot led us. Autumn is a senior in high school and has a great group of friends. She doesn't always feel comfortable hanging out with them all the time because she suffers from anxiety. She hasn't told her friends about her condition because she wants them to treat her normally. The boy she spends a weekend in the library with, Dax, is the local "bad boy". At least that's the reputation he has. Autumn learns differently. Both Dax and Autumn learn to look at people in a more accepting way and to communicate their feelings with their friends and each other which leads them to see how much happier they can be. Great lesson!