Peoria Bound!

Hello everyone!

  This past week was pretty great. We weren't able to meet with Sister R this week but hopefully the Elders will be able to this upcoming week. I'm assuming that because of the incident that took place last week she doesn't really want to talk to too many people at the moment so hopefully she'll be fine next week. Other than that pretty much everyone has been dropped at this point. We're very grateful for the new focus on finding new investigators because that's definitely what we need at the moment. I know that God is preparing people both through us and others and through means that we can't see but I truly know that he's doing so. Each of you has a specific role to play in life and as you follow the plan that God has prepared for you, you will truly be able to do his work and find joy in this life and eternity. I know that is true.
  We had a couple cool miracles happen this week. The first one had to do with the teenage girl that referred herself a few weeks ago, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned her. We're not able to meet with her this week on the day that we had planned. So we texted her and asked her if there's another time we can meet and she said no. But the cool part was that we texted her and said that it was fine and then told her that if she is ever interested to contact us again and we asked her if she knew of anyone else who might benefit from this message and she texted back saying that she would be interested in coming to church! I truly believe that was God blessing us because after she sent the text saying that she wasn't interested we did weekly planning and set some really great goals for improvement and really committed ourselves to work and then after we finished planning she ended up texting us that she would be interested in coming to church, truly a blessing from God.
  The other cool miracle is that one night we came back and our plans fell through and so we had to find something to do and so we just went out we just started driving around and following the Spirit as to what we should do and were able to stop by a less active house and found out that it was a part-member family. She wasn't home but her husband was and he answered the door and was super nice and super friendly and said we could come back on Monday night to meet her so we will be going there tonight. Hopefully something happens!
  I think that's about it for miracles this week. On another note transfer calls came in I am being transferred to Normal, IL. It seems that I'll be spending the majority of my mission in Rockford and the Bloomington Normal area. I'm really excited because some of the best work that I did was in the Bloomington area so I hope that I will be able to continue to be successful in Normal. My companions name is Elder Thornock and he was trained by Elder Atkinson so I know that he's a great missionary. Elder Barnes is going to stay here and train a brand-new missionary. Tomorrow's going to be very long day because he will be attending the trainers meeting which means we have to drive all the way to Naperville by 9 o'clock which means that we have to be leaving our apartment by 7 o'clock. I know he'll do great though. Back to Bloomington here I come!

Love you all!

-Elder Eddenfield

Only Through His Atonement Can We Be Saved

Hi everyone!

  This week was fantastic! We had a great missionary broadcast on Wednesday where we learned a little more about the new missionary schedule and where they condensed our key indicators. Instead of reporting on nine key indicators we only report on four. The indicators we report on are baptisms and confirmations, people on date, people at sacrament meeting, and new investigators. I'm really excited for this new focus as it will focus our minds on the things that are most important which are finding people to teach and helping them work towards baptism and confirmation. I’m specifically excited to focus on finding new investigators is that is something that seems to be difficult for many missionaries including myself. I'm excited to focus on that and to see success as we do so.
  Monday night was a really cool night. We called the Assistants to find out an answer to question and at the end of our call they invited us to take a Book of Mormon and stop by a former investigator or less active and to give it to them and they promised that we would see success. Elder Barnes felt like stopping by a former investigator and I felt a less active part-member family. We stop by both of them and they both were home. The former investigator gave us a referral and accepted the book of Mormon and the less active part of her family asked us to come by later today could set up a time with us to have us come over. It was pretty awesome because both of those people have not had contact with missionaries in quite a long time so the Assistants were definitely inspired with that. Tuesday we had a great day as well. We, I mean Elder Barnes found $41 on the side of the road. Lucky him. It was pretty cool and quite an interesting miracle.
  The rest of our week was pretty good as well. We did some good work and talk to some people. We taught a former investigator, he still isn't interested but were able to answer some of his questions and help them understand the restoration better. It's been a long time since I've taught the restoration to someone without it being a planned lesson, I definitely need to start role-playing more so I can get better at teaching that. Elder Barnes and I both gave talks on Sunday. I spoke on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement and Elder Barnes talked about faith, hope, charity, and missionary work. After we gave our talks there were quite a few members that came up to us and asked us to set up times when we could come visit them and we had a lot more people sign up to feed us on the dinner calendar, so that's pretty awesome.
  I think that's about it for this week. Overall it was a fantastic week. As I was preparing for my talk I came to understand more the importance of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I truly know that Christ suffered all things for us and that is only, and only through His Atonement that we can be saved. I know that, and can never deny that.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Eddenfield