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

Fall Weather and the Work Moves Forward

Howdy everyone!


Our week was awesome!

Today is a beautiful day. I was expecting it to be Hot and Humid like it usually is, and walked out and was cold! YAY! I think it was 63 this morning when we left around 10:5...I think fall is finally here...well so people say its supposed to be cooler this week..yay :D.

We finally have gotten a hold of some of our investigators this past week! We saw Mario last night for the first time in forever....he is going through alot right now. :/, keep him in your prayers for us :D We have an appointment with him tommorow evening at 600 at the church. We are excited.We plan on setting a date with him for baptism!

We have a new way of counting lessons, we no longer count lessons with members in our total lessons. So this week we taught a total of 34 including with members and 21 minus the members visits. So it's going to be interesting this next week. We have a goal of around 30 I think minus member visits. 43 with.

President said that our MV's (member visits) were up way too high, so that's why is he is doing this. We are now only counting lessons with a member present, other lessons, and Recent Convert/Less actives..aka RCLA's. So things are looking good though for us.

The ward loves us, which is good, because they haven't had two missioanries they have both liked in a while. :D So thats a good thing. And exchanges/splits are going very very good. We have one every day but Friday...Friday is stake temple day, so everyone will be at the temple. Which I would have them be there.

This week is going to be a good week..We have a "Special meeting" tommorow in McMinville, it pretty much is a "mini zone conference". It will be a follow up of things that we did in our last meeting.
Our zone hit our goal for dates set this month! In an amazing miracle weekend. Woot woot! No DM(district meeting) this next week due to the meeting, so that will allow is a chance to get more lessons and more finding in.

Oh, last week we helped a LA (less active) member get his restaurant open. It's called 3Brothers Deli..It is really good food. We plan on going to eat there on Wed. We helped put up pictures, cleaned things etc. etc... But yeah, the food is awesome! So if anyone is in the M'Boro area go there. It's right off the square. We also met alot of cool people while we were there.

This Saturday night we find out if either of us get transferred...One of us most likely will be, since we have been together for 3 months, I am hoping I stay, but whatever the Lord wants and wherever he wants me to go I will go.

GENERAL CONFERENCE WEEK!!!! I hope other people are as excited as I am to listen to Gen Con.

I am excited to hear from E.Ballard and Holland, only because I have heard Ballard in person. I am pretty excited to see him speak.

Oh....almost forgot to tell you about an investigator we got on Saturday. His name is Lawrence. He has been taught by missionaries previously when he lived in Jackson, TN. We have been trying to meet with him since the end of August...he has been busy with school. But we were trying to figure out what to do on Saturday. We started calling a bunch of our investigators, and no one was answering their phone. But Lawerence answered! WOOO WHOOO! So we finally got to meet with him this past Saturday.We met him at MTSU's Libraray...Starbucks of all places. blah...anyways we just got to know him, asked him what he knew, and what he had been taught in the past by past missionaries where he was. We have a return appointment with him this coming Saturday in between sessions. We are also hoping to set a date with him, and possibly with a PM family!

So October is going to be a good month...I can't believe its Oct. Already! AHH! oh well..gotta move forward.

Our mission I think only got 24 baptisms this month..for the month of September, our zone goal for October is 40!

Wow! It will be awesome if I am able to be here when we get our goal. But I will let yall know next monday what happend to me in transfers.

Other than that things are going well...hope every one is doing well, and loving and living life to the fullest! love yall :D

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

I love each and every one of you :D

E.T.D.E

PS. ITS GREAT TO BE A FLOOORIDA GATTOOOR!

Answers to Prayers and Miracles

Hey everyone!


How has everyone's week been? Hope its been a good one!

Ours was AMAZING! Lots of miracles, and lots of new investigators, and lots and lots of lessons. I have definitely seen the power of prayer work this past week. We had a goal of 40 total lessons. Through hard work and diligence we achieved our goal..we actually got 1 over our goal...we taught 41 lessons this week, found 8 new investigators and had a wonderful week! We taught 9 lessons yesterday in one day! We doubled our lessons Saturday and Sunday! We are going for 40 again this week, in hopes to reach 45. I know its possible after the amazing week we had this past week. We are working hard, and seeing direct blessings from being obedient and being diligent in the work.

With reaching our goal of over 40 lessons I have learned alot this past week. Overall it has been a really good week. There were really no down days, well except Saturday, E.Lawrence got sick, and we had to be in all afternoon. Luckily he felt better the last hour, so we were able to work hard that last hour, finding 3 new investigators and teaching 3 lessons.

This ward also is really stepping up to the plate. They have been really helpful. We have had splits almost every day for the past two weeks, and it has been a definite help in our efforts to finding people and baptizing.

Our Zone goal for baptisms next month is 40, and I think that we are going to do it in October.

We are teaching alot of PM families. We are working with one who just came back from Iraq. We had dinner with them last Friday. We offered him to take the lessons, and he said he will think about it. So please pray for Jack Helle. We are hoping that we will be able to baptize him if not this month then next month in October. But we are looking good and improving a whole TON!

Its week 5 of transfers so it should be interesting to see if any of us leave. We have both been here for 3 months. I wouldn't mind staying with E.Lawrence another transfer. The only thing that bugs me is his snoring! ugh, so loud. :D But I handle it.

This next week should be a really good week, nothing out of the normal. No meetings, other then the normal district meeting on Wednesday. So it should be a really good week, looking forward to it.

We are going over to a less actives home tonight for FHE, and we are going to teach them a first lesson. The wife is active, but her husband is less active, and we are going to start teaching him in hopes to help him get active again. We are working with alot of less actives in this area, probably the most I have ever worked with on my mission. It is hard, but hopefully people will start turning to the Lord, and realizing what they are missing out on.

Oh, update on Mario Evans...nothing too much is going on there, we have an appointment with him at 5:30 this evening so please pray that he will be there and that we will be able to teach him and get him to church.

Other than that we are still trying to get a hold of all of our investigators. Well...hmmm that's the update on the work here. Going up very fast. :D

I am doing good...working hard, and praying/teaching lots :D.

Hope everyone has a FANTASTIC WEEK! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

LOVE YA'LL!!!!!

E.T.D.E

-Elder Tim

Teaching, Teaching, Teaching

Hope everyone has had a great week like we had.

We taught 36 lessons! Found a pretty solid investigator too. We are hoping to get to see her sometime this week. Her name is Kristin, please remember her in your prayers. She seems way excited and she was way happy to see us.

Church was good yesterday, all about rescuing others, and bringing them back to the fold.

Our members are stepping up big time, ever since the stake presidency has been SUPER Missionary minded, they have kinda kick started a good month for our zone.

Our goal this month is 15 baptisms, next month I believe is 40! We got this! Anywho, another person that we plan on baptizing this month is someone who is a part member family that we actually have dinner with tonight, so we plan on setting a baptismal date with him. His name is Brother Helle.

Other than teaching 36 lessons this past week, it was really good. Nothing out of the ordinary, except being in Blackman on exchanges with the DL. It was fun. It was a nice break from my area, because I didn't have to worry about too much.

This week is going to be a really good week. We have a goal of 40! lessons, and I know we can do it. We were one lesson over our goal of 35 this past week, so we are teching lots over here. And doing good.

This week we have apartment inspections. President and Sister Hutchings are coming over to look and inspect them, so we spent this morning cleaning, and getting them ready, since they are this Wednesday. I think we will pass, Elder Lawrence and I keep the apartment pretty clean all week, and it helps that it is a new apartment, so it's not to bad from previous missionaries, etc.
This week is going to be a big week. It will determine if we baptize this month or not, which I hope to be baptizing Brother Helle, either this weekend or next weekend. We will see how tonight goes. We talked to him a little bit at church yesterday.

I love M'Boro alot, and I love the people here, it is an amazing place.

We still have not heard from Kennedy yet, but we keep on trying. I know he is busy with school and with football but hopefully he will give us a call.

I got your letter, and thanks for sending everything :D. Hopefully we hear about my camera before the transfers end, in case I get sent up to middle of no where Kentucky, because transfers are in two weeks. Not sure if I will stay, hopefully I will.

But I am doing good over here in good ole TN.
Speaking of TN, big game for the Gators this weekend. A few of the members are going to the game...sadly not rooting for Florida.

So yeah, everything is going good. I'm surviving the heat. It's actually pretty nice today, almost fall like. I can't wait for the cooler weather. I am excited! :D, It's getting closer to that time of year.

Hope everyone has a good week, and had a good past week. Oh mom before I forget, can you send me Doug and Dana's address...I lost it again. I need to write it down so i don't lose it.

Thanks a bunch for everything :D. Love yall

Your favorite missionary serving in TN

-Elder Edgell :D

PS GO GATORS!

All is well in the Boro

Hey ya'll!
How is everyone doin? This past week was a really good week. With it being Labor day yesterday we had to wait a day to email :(. Hope no one missed my emails too much yesterday :).

We taught 30 lessons this past week! and look to exceed over 30 this week. The members are really picking up the slack here, after our stake presidency kind of nicely rebuked everyone for not doing missionary work.

Great things are happening in the Macminnvile(also known as Macminnvulle,or so the people here call it that) zone. We have splits every night this week..well Tues-Sunday, which that will put our lessons up a TON...I expect around 35-40 lessons this week.

Our goal for this week is to teach 35, and we WILL reach our goal. Everything is going good here in the BORO.

Lets see..Oh we found a way sweet solid investigator on Saturday. He is actually a referral that we got from the Smyrna Elders on Friday and went and saw him Saturday afternoon. It went good. We read 3Nephi chapter 11, and he loved it. Particularly verses 5 &11. We plan on setting a baptismal date with him on Wednesday night, hope it goes well. I won't be there because I am going on exchanges with the District Leader in Blackman from Wed-Fri morning.

His name is Mario Evans. Father of 5 children, trying to provide for his family and his wife. He was going to come to church this Sunday, but his wife got sick and he had to stay home and take care of her and the 5 kids. Hopefully his wife is doing better so that they all can come to church this next Sunday.

Church was really good on Sunday. Long day being fast Sunday, and having church at 1:00. But I survived, it made everything better when we went to the Kailiponi's on Sunday evening for dinner. You will be proud of me...I ate fish! a really good Hawaiian dish that they made. OH, and something I have come to love since being on my mission...tomatoes! They are sooo good :D. You can now say I told ya so :D.

I also taught part of FHE on Sunday night, since Sis. Kailiponi asked me too. It went really good. I can now say I am not afraid of speaking to large groups of people. I still get nervous, but not as nervous as I used to get. :D.

Things are going well here. Hope things are going well back home for everyone!

Oh, I had the chance to watch a little bit of Tebow play against the vikings...he looked pretty good(we were in a store yesterday that was replaying the game :D) He looks weird with his beard, but looked like a pro. It was good to watch him play again. :D

Hope everyone has a good week.

Love you bunches :D

Love yall

-E.T.D.E