Tornados and Teaching

Hey everyone, Elder Edgell here.

My first week in Columbia was a good one. Last Tuesday we had interviews. They went well. Our mission is starting to focus on scripture mastery. The assistants see what we knew 1st week, because we were supposed to have them all memorized by then...I only had a few...so they challenged my companion and I to memorize two from lesson 3 and 4. Proud to say that I have a accomplished that! yay! So I can call the assistants with confidence and recite the scriptures.. The ones I memorized were, Eth. 12:6, 3 Nephi 27:19, and Aof F #12.

So things here are good. District meeting last week went well. I like it now alot better than before, because instead of assigned trainings from the assistants we can choose our own trainings. It's very spiritually oriented which is good :D. I like it alot.

My district only consists of another set of Elders, who cover Lawrenceburg. Elder Walker and Elder Clouse. They are good missionaries. District meeting was there in Lburg last week, and it's here in Columbia this week. I trained on setting baptismal dates last week, and plan on training on using the BofM more in our finding efforts...its going to be a good training hopefully.

Oh also last week we set a baptismal date!!!! WOOT WOOT! His name is Clint. We set it for the 26th of November. He wasn't able to come to church though yesterday :(. But the lesson was really good. We taught the 1st lesson(the restoration). He said that he had already been baptized but we told him that he needed to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood, and he willingly accepted the date for the 26th, day after Thanksgiving...one more month till then :D yay.

So we are excited about that. But last week overall was a good week. I am surprisingly learning the area very quickly. Its not that hard of an area to learn though.
(mom addition: here's a map of where Elder Edgell is. It's south of Nashville)

This area reminds me of Columbia,KY. a town I covered when I was in Sulphur Well. It's a nice town though :D. Lots of nice people. The ward here is full of old people. It's weird coming from a college town, that is go go go all the time, and then coming to a town that people are really laid back and "chill" here. But its been good to me so far.

Story Time: So last night we had a bunch of storms come through. We went over with the Spanish Elders to a members home because the member was a single lady and she was by herself with her children, so we went with them so they could be there. We weren't there but for about 5 minutes when the phone rang, Elder Hamblin answered the phone, and it was President. I heard him say...Whats the weather like out there? We told him it had been lighting and thundering for a while. He told us that there was a tornado warning out, and it was heading our direction..directly for Columbia. AHH! He said be careful and get inside somewhere, luckily we were already at a members home. No sooner after I got done talking to him on the phone the sirens went off...I called him back immediately and told him...he said get in cover NOW! and call me back in 10-20 minutes. So we all sat in the middle of the hallway. The sirens went off about 15 minutes later, called pres. back and told him and he said that the storm had passed. Later we heard there was a tornado that hit right outside of Columbia. So last night was a pretty intense moment. But we are safe and accounted for.

Are y'all getting the storms now? The ones that came through here last night?

Settled in finally. Not sure what we are going to do today...laundry and letter writtting...the usual pday stuff. Well I think that's all for this week, hope everyone is doing well...love yall :D

HOPE YOUR WEEK IS A GOOD ONE

love,

Elder Edgell

District of Columbia - New District Leader

Hey hey everyone!
Got some news! So on Saturday President called us and told me I am being transferred...It was very unexpected :(.

I am right now in Columbia TN. I am "Greenie Busting". My new companion is Elder Hamblin, and he is from Boise Idaho.

I really miss Murfreesboro, but for some reason the Lord needs me else where.

I am District Leader again as well. Good things are happening here. I really like Elder Hamblin, he is a really good kid. He has only been out for about 1 month.
Things were going well in Stones River. Elder Lawrence is going to keep me updated on everyone,as much as he can.
I am excited to be able to be a district leader again. I learned a lot from the 3 and a half month break of not being a district leader..

Not sure what my new address is but once I figure it out I will send you a letter, and it will have my new address on it. (He's referring to his new apartment, his mission address remains the same)

We are going to be VERY busy the next couple of days. Especially when I am trying to figure out my new district, and how to do things, because ALOT of things have changed since I have been a DL. But I am excited to learn how to do everything.

Glad to hear everyone has had a good week.

Last week was a pretty successful week. We taught 27 lessons! Courtney wasn't at church and others weren't either.

Haven't meet any investigators yet here in Columbia, but looking forward to.

Today has been a very very busy hectic day with coming to my new area. From what I have seen of Columbia, it actually is not a bad area.

The Ward Mission Leader picked us up...We went from Murfreesboro, to Madison to Spring Hill to here now in Columbia. Well, its back to no washer or dryer. But luckily I can do it for free because the spanish elders let us do laundry....good thing I did it before I left :D. Everything is going well. Like I said its going to be a hectic week, trying to figure everything out, but looking forward to the new challenges that lay ahead of me.

Can you believe that I will have 6 months left in a couple weeks! And now I'm with someone who is just came out...he makes me feel really old.

Our apartment, isn't too bad, no desks :(. So it will be interesting to see how I can study effectively, see if the mission doesn't have one or something :D.

Things are going to be interesting this next week...oh and this library won't allow me to be able to send pics...so looks like you may not be getting any pictures for a while :(...I'll have to print some off or something.
Well hope everyone is doing well.
Love you all :)

PS....Please keep me updated on the top 10 :D

-Elder Edgell :D

Live From Murfreesboro TN

KEY:

SR=Stones River I ward...T3=Transfer 3 :D

Hello, and welcome to the SR1 Channell T3 weekly news report from Murfreesboro TN!

Welcome to another weekly news report live from Murfreesboro TN. We have confirmation that Elder Lawrence and I will be staying another transfer. Reports have it that this is will be the 2nd time EVER that a companionship in the Tennessee Nashville Mission has stayed for 4 1/2 months together. I am excited and ready to go.

Lets head over to the Missionary Report desk for this past week's top stories......

This just in: Mario Evans accepted a baptismal date for October 23rd! But due to lack of church attendance we have to push it back to Halloween weekend.

It was a excellent week. Our numbers were low, but that is expected for General Conference week. Still trying to get a hold of all of our other investigators, but things are looking up for us. Taught a total of 17 lessons :/, low, but this week will be better.

We had a Special meeting in McMinville last Tuesday. It was really good, got a chance to see Elder Dean again before he goes home this week :(...but oh well. It was about accountability/obedience, and how to set baptismal dates..lots of role play.. We also took a test, because the zone has been working on becoming CH.3 missionary masters...Ch. 3 for those of you who don't know is where the lessons that we teach can be found :D. Not sure how we all did yet, but hopefully we will find out soon. I'm curious to see how we did. When I was taking the test it reminded me of school again :D.

General Conference Report:

General Conference was awesome..I really like Hollands talk on the Saturday morning session. All of Uchtdorf's talks were also good, and he is a pretty funny guy :D. I really enjoyed priesthood session as well. It was weird when they asked for all the full time missionaries to stand. At least it was for me, still for some reason getting used to it even though I should be used to it by now. I guess it's just cool whenever people recognize you as one in a meeting like that. Yesterday's sessions were really good. I enjoyed Ballards talk most I think.

If you remember a while ago..last october Elder Arnold (who spoke yesterday) came to our mission, and I got to meet him, his talk was alright, very spiritual. I forgot how funny President Monson is, and Uchtdorf. I am glad that they have a good sense of humor. So yeah I really enjoyed conference, after the priesthood session a member took us out for some ice cream :D A place called Marble Slab...almost exactly like Cold Stone, but Cold Stone is ALOT better.

We had dinner at the Helle's on Friday night (part member family). We are getting to know them very well, which is good. We also found out some of Bro. Helle's hold ups. Iced Tea...doesn't suprise me about that one, but that will be easy to overcome. They are doing well. I hope they watched conference. He had drill SAT/SUNDAY...he is in the Army. So I'm not sure if he had a chance to listen to it, but hopefully he was able to.

Yes I was able to get my camera..and yes it works...I actually like it alot better than my last one, its really nice. THANKS! :D. Overall we have had a good week...Lots to catch up this week. Yeah I heard about the Gator game :/..maybe we can meet them in the SEC Championship game this year and actually win. I hope everyone has had a great week, and thanks for your prayers and support. They are greatly appreciated :D

Love yall.

Elder Edgell