Work and service makes life better

Good news! Our missionary has recovered and is doing much better. Unfortunately the truck hasn't faired so well.
Here's the latest from Elder Edgell. By the way, who said it wasn't a foreign language mission? :-)

"30 November 2009
Hey yall!
Hows it goin? Glad to hear ya'll had a good Thanksgiving. We also had a good one here. LOTS of food, and LOTS of left overs too, best part I think. Played some football, and basketball as well, so we had a good time, and hung out with members all day since it was an all day p-day.

Gosh I can't believe it's pretty much December, I'll be calling home in three weeks!

I'm doing better than I was last week. Just losing myself in the work, and it truly does help when you do that.

We have had some really nice days the past couple, but now its rainy and cold. Probably will be like that the rest of the week.

The branch here has been taking GOOD care of us, in giving us rides and dinners.

The adjuster is coming out today to look at the truck to decide if they will trash it or fix it. We think they're going to trash it probably because it's 15grand worth of damage :/.

Two more weeks left of the transfer and I will most likely be getting transfered because I have been here for 5 months, but I guess we will find out in two weeks.

Hows the ward doing? Hope they are doing good.

Juanita, well we haven't had contact with her in over a week :/ Not sure what is going on with her, I think its because of her health and she starts chemo this week, so she will be in and out of hospitals all week, so hopefully we will be able to catch her at home tommorow when we go.

We had a really good week last week, much better than past weeks. Our district met our goals for the month! whoot!
Thanks to the senior couple. They have been rippin it up in Thompkinsville.

We have Zone Conference again this week down in Bowling Green. It should be good, and hopefully we will have our new car brought to us. We are also getting a new Zone Leader today! The Zone kinda was in a somewhat open rebellion against one of them, and no one really liked him   (sad I know) so he is getting ETed ( emergency transferred) today and we have a new ZL. Ahhh the life of a missionary, what can ya do?

Glad to hear the Gators finished what they set out to do, I just realized they haven't lost since the Ole Miss game last year, wow! Tebow is really determined. The SEC championship game is this weekend right?
If they win, I will be expecting a shirt come Christmas time :)

Speaking of Christmas, just tell people I need, ties, belt, socks etc...the norm of missionary clothes. I heard that there was a missionary calendar...I would like one if you could find it. It's pretty cool, I've seen it before.

I've lost about 10lbs since we have been walking all the time :). so that's good news.

Oh I got your box you sent. THANKS! Well I recon that's all for this week.

Love yall

Elder Edgell "

p.s. 6 month tie burning, looks like more than ties being burnt.

Bumps on the Head and Growing Experiences

We had just received Elder Edgell's email on the 16th of November and all was well. Then on Tuesday evening, Nov. 17th, I received a phone call from Mission President - my first thought when I saw Tennessee Mission on caller ID was "Oh no, what happened to his knee since yesterday".
Well, it wasn't his knee this time - Elder Edgell had his first accident - and as he put it "My first car accident had to be on my mission". He was knocked out for a moment. Thankfully he only suffered a mild concussion and is sore and his companion had no injuries at all. Also, no other cars were on the road at that time. Blessings, blessings!

What happened? Elder Edgell and Elder Tanner were heading out for the day and roads were wet. They came to a curve and when Tim slowed for it - the truck didn't  - it slid into the right guardrail and then back over to the left guard rail. Here's the damage to truck - ouch!

Tim doesn't remember the accident. Only leaving the apartment then being in the ambulance.

He has continued to have headaches but that is normal with a concussion.

So November 17th will be a memorable day for those Elders.

As for the mission work - it continues albeit slower lately. Hopefully by our next update, he'll be back to normal. This shook him up quite a bit and has knocked him down. I am confident he will be blessed to heal quickly and move "Onward, ever onward".

They had a lunch/dinner appointment for Thanksgiving Day so I'm sure they enjoyed the day.

It is a blessing to know that the folks down there in Kentucky are taking good care of the missionaries.

Until next time...

Happy Hunting

 Latest news from Elder Edgell:

Nov. 16, 2009


" Howdy!

Hey ya'll! Phew, what a busy past week. Zone Conference, and some other meetings.
First of all , Zone Conference was AMAZING! Elder Arnold, quorum of the seventy member taught us. It was really spiritual and inspiring. He is such a powerful teacher. We learned how to be better missionaries, and how we can improve, and what we can work on, and better contacting skills, which has worked a lot this past week in our mission.

We have a new skill that our mission has worked on that our zone is calling the "Jackhammer". You invite someone to be baptized right on the door step. We have yet to try it, but we have tried it in our lessons with our investigators this past week. And so far one accepted a baptismal date for the 29th!!!!!

When me and my comp were looking through past teaching records we flipped through this one, and felt very strongly that we needed to go see her. We saw her last Thursday and she was so excited to see us. She told us that she had been taught by missionaries about a year ago and had been praying and wondering when we were going to come back. She also told us that she had been kicking herself for not getting baptized when the missionaries had taught her a year ago. We didn't set the date on Thursday but went back on Saturday.

We got there on Saturday and she told us that she was begining to think that we forgot about her, but right when she thought that we knocked on the door. She was super excited about it. We talked with her awhile, and she started to break down and cry and started saying," I can't believe I have put this off for this long. I need to change." Then she asked us what can she do...well of course we read with her part of Mosiah 18, the part about baptism...and she said I know I need to do that. So we set the date right then and there, and she was more then willing to accept. It was such an amazing experience, the spirit was super strong. We committed her to attend church and she wanted to go. Well she didn't go to church :( so we went by her house after church and tried to see her, but she wasn't there...well she was but not answering the door. We feel that something is wrong with her, because she has been really, really sick for a long time, so if ya’ll could remember Juanita Janes in your prayers that would be great.

We have had a ton of experiences like that this past week. Found 8 new people to teach, including two families, which I'm excited about.

It actually was BEAUTIFUL all week long, not a drop of rain. :) I heard that there was some flooding going on from Ida. I heard it was supposed to rain here tomorrow and Wednesday.

Oh speaking of hunting, it was the official start of deer hunting this past weekend! So we will most likely be getting some deer meat, which I love. It is really good.

Well, I reckon that's all for this week. Hope everyone has a fantastic week this week. Thanks for ya’lls support and keep doin what your doin

Love yall

Elder Edgell "

Baptism, Ants and Sulphur Well Pie Eating Champion

Enjoy Elder Edgell's real Kentucky accent. Decided to just copy and paste his latest update.

"Hey ya’ll,


First things first....WE SET A BAPTISM DATE! Whoo Hooo!!!! with Martha Poynter...again(for the 22nd of November). We decided to drop (missionary terms for not teaching anymore) her for a couple weeks, to let her take her time, and think things over, and see how it went. Amazingly it went well, the Lord has humbled her. She noticed something different when we stopped coming over to teach her, she told us she missed having the spirit with her, and that she wants it with her all the time, but she is still "depressed" in her words, and asked us if being baptized would help. Of course we let her answer that question herself and let the spirit work on her. Satan being the jerk that he is threw everything at us, from the dog from hell, the cops coming over, and just a ton of other distractions, but thanks to the power of prayer we were still able to have a really spiritual lesson. We went over last night to teach her with a member, and they pretty much taught everything. We just lead the discussion and they took over.

Members being involved is really the only way we can convert other people. Being able to teach people is an amazing thing, and also watching them progress in the gospel is really cool. I love it! That’s really the only person we are working with legitly. We have had to sadly drop all our other investigators, either they weren't answering the doors, dropped off the face of the planet or just not keeping commitments.

I kinda hit a wall on Friday when we were in Columbia. Wanting more people to teach. Elder Tanner helped me with that cuz he was in a situation like that in another area, He said to either hit the break, or keep on moving. So I chose to keep on moving and have had a BETTER week this week. Not saying that last week wasn’t good because it was. I just wanted MORE people to teach.

Thanks for all yalls prayers. They do work. We need them so keep em coming! Especially if we want to reach our mission goal of 100. Our mission is praying daily at 12noon, so if ya’ll would like to join us in that unifying as missionaries and families that would help TONS!

Hmmm...OH! Guess what!? I am the Sulphur Well Pie Eating Champ! Whoo Hoo! We had a fall festival this past weekend at our church for the community and had different contests...it was only one pie, but I still won! :D. Elder Tanner and I worked a booth where people threw whip cream at us all day...fun!

Oh, speaking of ants as my subject, we have ants, and they are everywhere! Like when we had ants at our house for a while. It's kinda annoying, but we learn to live with it. Hopefully that will be taken care of this week, along with a crack in our shower that has spread a lot and causing leaking in our closet. Ahh, the life of a missionary. Couldn’t ask for anything better :).

We actually had our meeting last Wednesday, but no Elder Arnold. He gets here tomorrow. But he will be here for Zone Conference on Wednesday.

Once again this week will be filled with fun ole meetings for me. I have one tomorrow night down in Madison and one before Zone Conference with Elder Arnold about reporting our numbers and trends for the past six weeks for my district.

Holy Cow! I just realized that we are pretty much in the middle of November. Crazy! That’s so weird. Time really does fly when you’re in the service of the Lord.

The work here continues, slowly but surely. Our Zone Leaders are coming up for exchanges this week. We should be finding more people to teach. Especially since we are going to be working in an area that is not yet open. We are technically working, so we shall see how that goes.

I’m doing fine, knee is pretty much 100% now :), no problems. Thank goodness for prayers!

Sounds like everyone is working hard back home, keep up the good work!

Hope everyone has a GREAT week/day.

Love yall

Elder Edgell"

Happy November - Grateful for Service

Elder Edgell had another busy week. Once again filled with service. And again fencing. This time they worked on building an electric barbed wire fence. "Barbed wire is still not my friend" he says.

His knee is doing great. Almost back to 100%. Won't be coming home with a Granpappy Amos limp. :-)

No transfers for Elder Edgell and his companion, Elder Tanner this time. They will stay in Sulpher Well for another six weeks. He was surprised but decided that since his knee is doing well President Hutchings would keep him there. He also felt like they were kept there because the branch finally has two good solid missionaries from what the branch tells them. After hearing this Elder Edgell and Tanner feel like their time is being well spent.

Upcoming week will be pretty busy. Elder Arnold and another Elder of the Church's Quorum of Seventy will be touring the mission this month and will attend the Zone/District Leaders Committee meeting. They will also be at the Zone Conference next week.

The missions goal for baptisms this month is again 100. Elder Edgell believes "miracles will happen" and asks that we keep them in our prayers as they go forth and teach about the Savior.

Elder Edgell interviewed someone for baptism on Sunday evening. He says" It was amazing sitting there listening to his testimony and the spirit that he brought".

That's it for this week. Next update will be November 9th and maybe we will have some photos.