Week 5

Hey everyone! This week was actually pretty uneventful. Tuesday and Wednesday were full of meetings and trainings. Tuesday was a new missionary training that I'll have one more time. They basically just trained us on extending invitations and it actually helped a lot. The investigator whom I mentioned last week who let us in hasn't really been reading so I tried asking him boldly and told him the exact day we were going to check in with him and he actually has been reading since then. He still doesn't know if it's true but he is reading at least. On Wednesday I was honored to hear Elder Renlund of the 70 speak to us, he said that he was sent to stress how great fun the Presidency is for our willingness to do the Lords work. He also spoke a lot about the atonement and if you read my Facebook post you would know that I really liked how he emphasized the fact that the Atonement leaves no scars. Sister Renlund taught us how to teach which is, Teach, Testify, Invite, Promise Blessings, and Follow Up. We've been trying to use that pattern and have seen some better results with investigators. Thursday was weekly planning, like always, which is the day of the week that we plan for the next week. Then on Friday and Saturday my companion and I did exchanges, he went to another Elders area and his companion came to our area, his name was Elder Fia. He is from Tonga and is a spiritual giant. Sadly not much happened while he was here, we tried to stop by a lot of potential investigators but nothing turned up. That seems to be the pattern so far though, so it wasn't surprising. I did learn something really important from Elder Fia though. As we were doing our companionship study he brought up a really good point in my mind, he told how he had been praying to know whether the Book of Mormon is true so that he could know for a certainty. I realized that I had yet to do that and I keep asking my investigators to do something I haven't even done. I have decided that I am going to do it for myself, starting tomorrow. I can't wait and I can't believe I never thought of doing it. Sunday was awesome again, like always, the talks were about the difference between having faith and being converted. Which is funny because me praying about the Book of Mormon at this time ties in those talks personally to me. Anyways, that's pretty much it for this week. Oh yeah! We also dry walled a room for a few hours, so I can do that now. Love you all!

Week 4!

This week was pretty freaking sweet. On Tuesday we had a Zone Conference that lasted for like 5 hours. There were a lot of amazing things taught but the really spectacular part was at the very end. Our Mission President, President Griffin, told us all that he received revelation for our Mission. A number was revealed to him, this number was 1000. He then came to the knowledge that this number is how many baptisms we will receive this year. That's 1 baptism a month per companionship. The most number of baptisms a year in the past 5 years was a little over 400. Clearly we need to step up our game. And that's why this week has been pretty awesome. The day after this meeting we had our day go on as normal until we had time to proselyte. During our hour of proselyting that we had that day we taught 5 people on the street and every single one was interested! I know that doesn't sound like a lot but in our area and with past experiences that number is huge, in fact 2 of those people have already had other lessons with us and are still growing. Clearly Presidents number was inspired. One problem that we seem to be having is that whenever we teach less-active members we just can't seem to get them to understand why church attendance is so important, they all just make excuses. I definitely wouldn't know anything about excuses so I don't get it at all... A few days ago we met a man that has had a pretty rough life, the worse part is the fact that he used to believe in Christ and that he doesn't anymore. We tried to talk to him but he just kept arguing about how historians have found this and said that and he just didn't want to listen. I hope the best for him but if he doesn't change we know what will happen...I hope he changes. We also met a man who, when we knocked on his door, immediately let us into his home, he is super awesome. He has strong faith in Christ but doesn't believe in changing churches, he says that church is a cultural thing. It makes sense but we need to help him understand why it actually matters and I know that once he understands he will start to grow. We've really been putting an emphasis on getting members to go out with us and that has been amazing. Through our efforts I have gotten to know many of the members fairly well and they are all awesome. Not as awesome as our ward but probably a close second. Through the members we have had much more success than previously. I've had a lot of opportunities to give blessings these past few weeks that have led me to gain a greater testimony of the priesthood. I know that the priesthood is here to help bless the lives of others but it also blesses the holder of that priesthood, as it has blessed me. I hope everyone has a great week and makes the most of their time! I wish everyone the best! Elder Eddenfield

Week 3

Hey everyone! This week was actually pretty unexciting. We made a lot of street contacts and met a lot of really cool people. But almost every person we talked to either gave us false information or have been ignoring us, but such is the work. We did our job by planting the seed. Now it's up to them. We did meet one person who is super prepared to hear the Gospel. We've had two lessons with him and we actually got him on date! He might just be my first baptism. He asks all the right questions and recognizes that other churches only have some truth. I'm honestly really excited for him and know that as long as he has a strong desire to know the truth he will find it. We've had some pretty awesome clouds here, a little bit of rain and a lot of lightning on the distance. Apparently sometimes at night if you look at thunderclouds they'll glow bright orange because of the constant lightning. I hope I get to see that pretty soon! A lot of this week has been service based, on multiple occasions a member has asked us to come over and fix his computer problems, surprisingly I've actually been fixing his problems. Crazy huh? Saturday consisted of us fixing up a members rental property he took us to a buffet for lunch that was pretty good and then for dinner he took is to Monicalls Pizza, they have this sweet tasting Italian sauce that you dip your pizza in and it's actually pretty good. Then we went to DQ. The Dairy Queens out here don't sell food, only ice cream. It's really weird how many different things go on out here. And for being a flat state there are a whole lot of hilly roads. When we don't have the car we either take the bus or bike. The bus is faster but the bikes give us more teaching opportunities. When we have the car I've been the one driving so I can actually get to know my way around town. Something that my companion and I are planning on doing is putting together a fireside. We already put something in the local paper for it and we're going to invite everyone we come in contact with to it. It's not going to be easy putting it together but it will be worth it if we can get people to show up. Other than that not a whole lot has been going on. Talk to you all next week! -Elder Eddenfield

1st week in the field!

Hey everyone! I've been getting a lot of questions so I'll answer them here. Illinois is very beautiful and flat...very flat. The humidity actually hasn't been very bad at all, it's usually it's worse in July so I just barely missed it. My companions name is Elder Freitas, he turned 23 yesterday. And we're actually getting a long quite well, we bicker a little bit about driving but that's pretty much it. He's the district leader so both of my companions now have been district leaders. God better not be telling me something...haha. The Ward here is great, they love us and try to do anything they can for us. Some member gave us bags full of food Sunday, so it turns out I won't starve here, I'm kidding of course. I think it's impossible to starve in Illinois. One of the members who went out with us to see some people took us to a really good taco place, turns out he ordered tongue on our tacos, I'm glad he didn't tell us till afterwards because I probably would have puked a little. It was actually really good though. The first few days were crazy, due to some complications we moved from the Northern part of our area to the Southern part. We had literally just unpacked and then we were informed that we would be moving again, so we packed up again and moved. I actually like this apartment better, so I'm not disappointed at all. The apartment is located in Kankakee. The other days were sort of just filled with us stopping by a lot of less active members houses and trying to get better acquainted with them and then sharing a spiritual thought. We've mostly gone out with members which is super helpful and nice. On Sunday there were two baptisms, they both just turned 8. One of the fathers asked us to step in on the confirmation so we did! My first mission confirmation maybe? Obviously I can't count it as my own but it was still really cool. My Mission is an iPad mission, they're actually super helpful and nice to have. My specific area is in a car share with the sisters in our area, we get it half of the week, they get it the other half. We do have bikes but we mostly walk and take the bus everywhere. The bus has actually given us lots of opportunities to meet new people and share quick lessons. Oh, yeah! It rained yesterday, well it rained in my opinion, everyone else said that it was nothing. Thanks for ruining my rain senses California...it's actually supppppper foggy this morning. We can barely see in front of us. And about the Facebook, anyone can add me as a friend but you're not supposed to comment on anything or like any of my posts. But you'll still be able to see my posts and I can see yours.

~Cody is still trying to figure out how to get pictures to us, the one of him and Elder Frietas was sent from his iPad this morning. Hopefully we get more pictures soon!