Back to Work

We got to talk to our missionary on Mother's Day. It was wonderful. He sounded great. Growing and learning so much.
The week after the floods they spent helping the community with clean up. He loved the opportunity to work side by side so many wonderful people from all walks of life and religions. He met the mayor of Nashville, watched Anderson Cooper of CNN do a report from the flood area, cleaned out houses, tore down walls and crawled around in mud. He discovered his body could endure more than he ever thought possible as they spent many long hours in service. He was amazed at the kindness and gratefulness of the folks there - resturants handing out food to all the workers, many words of thanks given. It was a great opportunity for missionary work in word and deed. Hearts were softened and the Lord's tender love could be felt.
Photos will be coming soon.

Here's this week's update:


"I didn't get a chance to email last Monday, we got really busy and I had a meeting at the mission office.


This past week was a good one. We did normal missionary work this week...finally! :) It was nice to do service for a week, but it is good to start teaching people again. Speaking of teaching people, we found two new investigators on last Wednesday, and we were able to set baptismal dates with both of them! The dates are for June 12th. Their names are Andrea and Glenn. They were not able to come to church yesterday but they will be there this Sunday. We have another appointment with them Wednesday evening.


Zone Conference last week was really really good. We talked alot about faith. Thanks mom for your letter...I forgot about dad's quote, but I have it hanging up near my desk in my apartment...it really does help reading it every morning now.


We only did service on Saturday morning-afternoon. There is still much to be done, but the bulk of the work was done the first week. Now all the houses are drying out and waiting to be rebuilt. Most people are living in trailers in front of their houses now, or living in hotels, or with family, for those who have family here. But things are slowly but surely moving forward. We saw that this past week when we were blessed to teach 20 lessons. We have been teaching only about 16 every week that I have been here, and last week we really wanted to reach 20. We worked hard this past weekend to achieve our goal.


I have been a bit under the weather for the past couple of days, but am feeling much better today. Now all I have to do is get my voice back...it seems like I've lost my voice more on my mission than I have my entire life. It is definitely a challenge but I am persevering.


Other than that we are doing well in Bellevue, just a few thunderstorms this past weekend, but nothing too major...thank goodness. We got more rain yesterday :(, but not enough to do what it did two weeks ago. Bellevue is being put back together...I guess the foundation was a sandy one :). "

Rains came down and the floods came up

Here's today's update. They are coming in little chunks as I quickly email back to ask questions.I am thankful he was able to let us know they are safe. He just sent another little update and said they did not drive through any water. :-)


"Hey mom just a quick email today, I am actually emailing from best buy
since all the libraries are closed....anyways all missionaries are
accounted for. We are safe. We have had a lot of flooding, and that
road you saw on the news is in our area...we drove on it today...it's
a mess...I have pictures but probably won't get them to you till tmrw.
But I am safe. I will get to email more tmrw, just thought we would
send a quick email to you and let you know that we are safe....
I will email more tomorrow hopefully
But if not I will talk with y'all Sunday.
Love,
Elder Edgell"

"We live next to i40 and it was stand still till this morning and
all the truck drivers are parked on it resting. I have some amazing
pics.....walmart is basically a truck stop now....but yeah we do have
some flooding down the road from our apt...we had to stay in all
yesterday and church was cancelled....it's good to get out of the
house...
This new ipad thing is cool...that's how I'm emailing...thank
goodness for Best Buy and wifi."

" We will most likely be helping people out today and tomorrow because a lot of people in our ward had to evacuate and someone actually called us today for help because their apartment is flooded."