First Time Ever Driving in the Snow

Hey everyone!

   This week was pretty good. It went by really fast and I'm not entirely sure what happened. I do know that Saturday was my first time ever driving in the snow, it was pretty fun. We didn't crash so that's good. We taught a few in-actives this week, one of them served a mission and loved it but came back home and got into some anti stuff and it made him lose his testimony. Don't get into anti, it's bad stuff. We also had a couple of lessons with Brett that went fairly well. Right now we just need to help him learn to recognize the Spirit because he does not know how to do that at all. We gave his Member friend, Sister Keller a blessing and the Spirit was really strong and afterwards we asked how he felt during the blessing and he said something along the lines of how he was just glad that it would give her peace thinking it will help. Definitely going to take some time and work. 

   We went on exchanges on Friday through Saturday. I went with Elder Hughes, he's a Spanish Elder. He is also going home this Friday along with one of our Zone Leaders Elder Boulton. They go home a few weeks early so they can be home for Christmas. It was a good exchange and we set up a lesson with some lady that we met, hopefully they get to teach her.  Stake Conference was this weekend and I guess the new Chicago Temple President is related to me somehow through Nanny I think? It was pretty cool. He came up and hugged me out of the blue after the conference and then he explained why. It was pretty cool and he was really excited to meet an Eddenfield out here. I tried to write this in 15 minutes so it's very sporadic but I don't have much time so it'll have to do. Preparation Day next week is on Tuesday because our Christmas party is on Monday. By Tuesday I will most likely be in a trio because our other Zone Leader will be with us. It should be lots of fun. Have a great week everyone!

- Elder Eddenfield

Mom Found Pics

P-day Pics From Stake Member

The Field is White

Happy winter everyone!

   It may not feel much like winter for those of you in a California but it's definitely winter here. We had a good snow storm yesterday and now the field is literally "white already to harvest" (see picture that makes this joke even dumber.) Luckily when it snows its warmer so I can't complain too much...and it looks kind of nice. This week was a really good week. We saw some cool miracles and had some good fun.

   We did a lot of service this week, and I mean a lot. We saw some cool things from it though. One service we had for a less-active was just some hard stuff but during the two hours that we were there all his neighbors came by at some point. One of the neighbors loves missionaries because of how much we serve and likes the church, and lucky for us they have a history of changing churches from the stories he told. We invited them to a big Nativity that the Stake was holding and he said he would try and make it. One neighbor has some children and one of the kids sat in on the lesson that we taught. We taught about service and showed the #LIGHTtheWORLD video and he really liked the initiative and will hopefully get his parents to go to Mormon.org to get started. 

   The next cool story is that we got a call from a former that we have been trying to find for a few weeks. He asked if we could come over and help him with hard work as well. We weren't able to finish the job the first time so we went back a few days later and he had a friend there to help as well. After we worked Fred, the former, fed us lunch. During the lunch he asked a lot of good questions about the Book of Mormon and about the plates. We answered them all and then his friend, Davon, who was on the phone during the conversation heard bits and pieces of what we were talking about and asked questions of his own. When we explained how Moroni took the plates back once Joseph was done translating he said that was the coolest thing and explained how it makes since that he would take them back because if we had the proof right in front of us it wouldn't require faith....pretty solid guy if you ask me. We gave them both a copy of the Book of Mormon and Davon is pumped to read it and Fred said he would if he has time. Davon gave us all of his info and hopefully we will be meeting with him this week.

   So, those are the cool miracles that happened. Now for the fun. As I mentioned earlier, the Stake put on a huge Nativity where the whole Stake Center is filled with everything Christmas. One of those things is a play depicting the Saviors birth. We were in that play and it was super fun. We were Shepard's that proclaimed the birth of Christ to the audience but because of my expertise and history with theatre I moved up to a role with more lines. Actually the reason I did that was because they needed someone to play it and I was the only one who offered, I'm not that good. It was cool though because I had to memorize the lines in a few minutes and did pretty good. My favorite role was playing as the Sheppard though because as we went up to the audience to proclaim the message of Christ's birth it gave me the chance to bear my testimony with the people with whom I was speaking to. Never thought I'd act on my mission, but there you go.

   Well, that's about it. I didn't get bit by a dog again, which is good, and we saw some good success and had some fun. A pretty good week altogether. 

   I know that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. I know that over two thousand years ago he was born, to save us all. As I proclaimed that message to others this past weekend it strengthened my testimony of Him and I can truly say that I know that He was born, that He died for us, and most importantly, that He lives! I love you all, have a great week!

When Dogs Attack

Hey everyone,

   This was probably my most interesting week so far on the mission. If you couldn't tell by the subject title we got attacked by a dog, but more on that later. Sad news, we found out we will not be going to a meeting for new missionaries this Tuesday. I'm sad because that's always the best meeting. President decided that only missionaries on their first transfer need to go to the meeting. Too bad. Thanksgiving was pretty good. I was a little sad for Elder Nelson because it was his first Thanksgiving away from home and no one signed up to have us over. Luckily the Ward had a Thanksgiving dinner at the church for everyone who doesn't have families, I guess that includes us, and so we went. We had some investigators there so it was effective and yummy. They had so much leftover food that they sent us home with a whole tray full. Still living off of that.

   So, the dog story. On Tuesday at around 3ish we were walking down the street to go to a former's house and a man opened his door to walk outside and a dog ran out from behind him right up to me. He yells that the dog is friendly and that we don't need to worry. I let my hand stay down so he could sniff me, which he did, but the next part was exciting. He then proceeded to growl and have his eyes turned black and then...he bit on to my arm! That scared me a little bit so I kicked him a couple times and the owner ran over and tried to catch him, which took about five minutes of us running around in circles while the dog tried to kill us. Eventually he got the dog and threw him inside. He asked to see if it was bad so I flashed it at him quickly and then we proceeded to contact this man. He felt really sorry for what happened and I made sure he understood that it was fine. We invited him to church and he said he wouldn't be able to yesterday but hopefully he comes to church this Sunday! So, we walked away after that and I really got to look at it and realized that it was a pretty good bite. We called President Griffin and he said that the mission nurse would most likely have me go to the ER. So, that's where we went and stayed for almost 4 hours. It was fun. The bite wasn't too bad but they had me get some antibiotics just in case. The plus side is that the dog had its rabies shots so I'm good. Quite the fun day.

   Not much else exciting happened except for Noreen dropped us, we dropped a few other people, and we had another set of dogs chase us a few days later. I'm afraid to admit that I am pretty scared of dogs now. We had a dinner and they had a dog and I couldn't keep my eyes shut during the prayer because I had to watch it. It'll pass, I hope. 

   Well, that's pretty much it for this week. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! In preparation for Christmas I invite everyone to go to Mormon.org and watch the new Christmas video. It's pretty sweet and I'm excited to use this new initiative.

Have a great week!

- Elder Eddenfield