Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Week 22



Hello dearest family and friends! This past week was one full of miracles and excitement. Wednesday we had three lessons that actually went through. Two of them were with less-active members. It's kind of funny to me how many of the less-active members have stronger testimonies than some of the members who are active, they just don't come to church. Some of these members talked about how they read the scriptures all of the time and about how their prayers have been going and sometimes I have to take a second glance at the teaching record to make sure they actually are less-active. Thursday was Christmas Eve and we basically spent the whole day at the Roby's home and played some games with them. On Christmas I got to see the family for the first time in six months and it was super awesome! For those of you who don't know, missionaries only get to see their families twice a year through Skype. I was so happy to see their beautiful faces and hear their voices. Afterwards we had dinner at the Williams and it was a really nice dinner. On Saturday we pretty much only did service. We started clearing a members decline of all of the overgrown trees and shrubs, it was actually really fun. It was also raining while we were doing it which made it even more fun. On Sunday President and Sister Griffin spoke at Sacrament meeting and it was really cool and it got the members pumped, I think. After church we had a lesson with Sekagesh again and we had Sister Binene come so she could translate for us. I've never had to teach a lesson with a translator before so it was interesting but good, we're figuring it out.
That's pretty much all that happened last week! Have a great week everyone.

Love you all,

-Elder Eddenfield

Choose the Right



Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Week 21! Merry Christmas!



Merry Christmas everyone! This past week was pretty good, we were sick for a few days but now we're back on our feet. We got tons of referrals last week, mostly due to the Christmas initiative. I think we got 6 last week which I think is a lot, from what I've seen we're lucky if we get that many in a month. We contacted a good number of them and I'm pretty excited to teach them all but there's two that I'm really excited to teach. One of them used to meet with Missionaries in the past and when she saw us she said "Come in Elders." Usually if someone actually calls the missionaries by that title that means that they at least got a little something out of the visits, and she only requested a Bible but said that she'd love to have us come teach her.
The other one was accidentally sent to the other Elders (all of them were actually) and she has been texting them off and on telling them how she's been doing and all about her life and she has a member friend as well, so I'm excited.  We also got a member referral at a dinner appointment, the guy was actually at the dinner and we were able to address some of his concerns and he said he would come back over next week to meet again! We're seeing now tons of miracles happening right now and President Griffin is speaking at church this Sunday so the Ward is going to get pumped and we're going to see even more miracles. We had a Christmas party yesterday for the Missionaries in Rockford and it was so much fun, we got testimonies from the Ward and from the fan and they were all awesome, thank you so much if you had the chance to write me one they meant a lot and strengthened my testimony. Jesus is our Lord and Savior and he was and is the only one who could pay the price for sin, that's the whole reason we celebrate Christmas, it's because of Him. I really encourage everyone to visit Christmas.mormon.org to find out why we need a Savior. This isn't some phony invitation that I'm giving because I'm some Missionary who's been brainwashed, I'm giving it from the bottom of my heart because I know it will bless everyone and if there's anything you take out of this email and out of anything I do here I hope it's that I know that Jesus Christ is my and your Savior. I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

Love you all!

Choose the Right


His companion ran over his bag and the only thing that broke was his inhaler...


Monday, December 14, 2015

Week 20



Hello all!

Man this week was pretty great! I got my new companion, Elder Williford, he is so much fun and he wants to work hard as well so it's the best of both worlds. He's from Arizona, that's two companions from Arizona now so I guess it's the new Utah? He's super into cars which brings me to the car situation. We share a Ward with another companionship, but this time it's Elders so we can actually have some fun. Their names are Elder Johnson and Elder Royce. Elder Royce is new but he's breaking in pretty well. Elder Johnson is just a fun loving goofball. We get the car during the week and they get it on the weekends but this week we're putting the car in the shop so we won't have it at all. We play some weird game whenever we're in the car together. It's just a bunch of the car name games like slug bug and coop scoop all put together and we tally points and whoever loses has to do something. It's pretty fun and the car share is already awesome.
On Tuesday, the day of transfers, we had a very interesting day. First of all, after we left we had a lunch appointment with a member Elder Williford and Elder Johnson had served around and we went to the right address, just not the right city. So we ended up in Chicago which so happens to be outside of the mission...so that was exciting. Leaving the mission boundaries is a big deal but luckily President understood.
Then we went to the lunch, at the right place this time. Lunch was at Chipotle, my favorite, but apparently Elder Johnson's body doesn't agree with that because afterwards Elder Johnson got a super fat lip, turns out he was allergic to something there but we aren't sure what.
Then on Wednesday nothing super exciting happened I just got to meet a few members and we tried to contact some referrals and had pretty good success with that.
On Thursday we had Zone Training and it was awesome! Normally we would have zone focuses which is a focus each group of missionaries make but now President decided that we should have mission focuses instead and I sustain that idea wholly. The focus for this month is perfect mornings which was definitely given through divine inspiration due to the fact that I personally struggle with that and I know that most missionaries struggle with it as well. The main focus is that as we perfect our mornings everything else will follow and it's the mornings that make or break our obedience and diligence.
On Friday we did weekly planning which went okay. We definitely need to find a different way to plan effectively and I have a few ideas.
On Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference. My second in three months...but I don't mind because it was soooo good. The entire conference was pretty much focused on the members trying to work with us to become one, I definitely feel pumped from it so I hope everyone else does as well.
On Saturday before the conference we went to a baptism for someone Elder Williford taught and it was awesome. He'd been taught for so long that basically a quarter of the mission was there to support him, President and Sister Griffin even showed up. We had some YSA members take us to the baptism and they are so much fun, I definitely hope I get to serve in the YSA at some point. For dinner before conference we went to Wendy's and out of the blue some lady put 20 dollars towards our meal! We had so much food that we couldn't even finish it all. It was super awesome and I'm kind of upset because she left before we could really say anything to her but I know she will be blessed for it.

That's pretty much all that happened. And to answer some questions.
Rockford is very ghetto, a large majority of the area we aren't supposed to go to past 6 pm. Luckily God protects his Missionaries so I'm not worried at all, in fact I'm excited!

Love,
Elder Eddenfield

Choose the Right