Mid-Life Crisis

Hello everyone! 

   It's another beautiful day in Saint Charles! The weather is a little humid with clouds in the sky but the spirit is strong, so I guess I can handle the humidity. Last night we saw the coolest storm pass right by us. We stood on our balcony and watched a ginormous cloud go right by us. It was really cool because it was right under the moon and every once in a while a bit of the cloud would cover the moon and it gave off the coolest light. Lightning was striking nonstop throughout the clouds. Mom would have loved it. I tried to take a video but it didn't do it justice at all.

   Anyways! This week was great. Elder Atkinson is a stud and I am super excited to be serving with him. He's got it all down to a T. Next assistant maybe? Hahaha, I'm just kidding. We aren't supposed to speculate that sort of stuff anyways. He's awesome though. He works hard and is always thinking of ways to improve and that's just what I like so I can tell this transfer is going to be a great one.

  We basically dropped all of our investigators in the time that I've been here, no one they were teaching is anywhere near ready, and they all have been taught for months now with no sign of progression. One guy wouldn't even commit to pray, at all. We weren't even committing him to ask God if the Book of Mormon is true (it is by the way) we were just asking him to pray in general and he said no. It's just how the work goes I guess. We are now down to one investigator who has a little more potential to progress. I'm excited to try to help him in the coming weeks. I haven't met him yet but when I do I'm going to try to get everything about him so I can study according to his needs and figure out, with Elder Atkinson, on what to do. I'm pretty pumped. We have a bunch of potentials as well but have slowly been dropping them as well. 

   We met a nice lady who was walking her dog and did the whole "can I pet your dog" approach to contact her. That one always works, unless they're grumpy. She let us pet her dog and then we got into some good conversation and eventually gave her a Book of Mormon. She wouldn't give us any information except for her email, which is really all that we need, so we'll see where it goes.

   Met a lot of the members of the Ward at church yesterday. It's a really good sized Ward, probably the biggest one I've served in out here. The members are all nice (like always) and they seem to be pretty pumped for the Work. They have had some great missionaries in the past serving here so we have some big shoes to fill. As long as we keep being ourselves and working hard we can't go wrong (I hope.) The awesome thing is that most of the members here have already given us the names of their friends and neighbors they would eventually like to share the gospel with so that makes it a lot easier on us. 

   We actually had dinner with a family last night and they invited one of their non-member friends to it and it was a great dinner with wonderful gospel conversations. We were unable to share a message because of time constraints (I've repented, don't worry) but it was still good overall. She texted us later that night saying she gave that friend a Book of Mormon after we left and that was super exciting to hear. We hope she realizes how awesome that is. 

   After that Dinner we went to an assisted living home and sang for them. We tried to get lots of members there but only the young women and like two dads came so it was a little weird but we all sounded good. The people loved us being there. They kept asking if we were going to be coming back in the future so I guess the answer is yes. I love doing things like that. Most of the people had tears in their eyes after we left and I know most of them don't get visited by people very often and it just really makes me appreciate the good things in life. I'm glad we were able to make a difference in someone's day yesterday. I hope all the members that came felt the same spirit I felt because it sure felt good. 

   So a little bit more about the area (because this email isn't already long enough.) We are in a car share with the other Elders in the Ward, their names are Elder Barnes and Elder Noble. Just kidding his name is Elder Moore not Noble. I can't take credit for that one, it was Bishops idea. Elder Barnes came out with Elder Atkinson and Elder Moore came out a transfer before me so there are no old Missionaries around me anymore. I guess I'm going to be pretty old in a few days. I can't believe it's almost been a year, but I'll talk more about that once I actually hit it. When we don't have the car we ride bikes, so I guess I'm going to start getting thin here pretty soon. Hahaha, probably not. It is really hilly though so its rough. But it's what we have to do to hasten the work so so be it. Also, a large sort of our area is very wealthy so not much different than my last area on that since. At least we have a little ghetto here.

  Well, I think that's probably long enough. It sufficeth me to say that I'm excited to be serving here. I see big things in the future. I'll keep working hard and I expect no less from all of you. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

-Elder Cody Eddenfield

Choose the Right

New companion, Elder Atkinson: